Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Readalong post 3

Ok, so before I get into this section proper I have a new theory on an old discussion. We have talked endlessly about school fees and I have come to the conclusion that yes, they do have fees. My reasoning is that if they didn't, why would the Weasleys be so poor? Sure they have 7 kids, but they spend 9 months away from the family home being fed and housed, so aside from a lump sum at the start of each semester for new books and gear they should have a fair amount to spare while school's in. Surely a ministry wage is enough to support two people at home, with money leftover to save for the start of semester. But since they seem to be struggling with money all the time, there must be some other factor gobbling up their funds. Of course, Mr Weasley could have a secret gabbling addiction, or Mrs Weasley could be funnelling 100s of galleons a year into Lockhart books....

YUUUUUUUUUUULLLLLEEEEEEE BAAAAAALLLLLLLL!

Dancing at the Yule Ball

This section is awesome and terrible (poor Hagrid!) for a number of reasons but it's remarkable to me because it's when the lightbulb finally went off that Hermione and Ron were totally in love and the would-they-wouldn't-they thing would be going on between the two of them until they finally stopped being stubborn and just kissed each other on each other's mouth. I just wish they wouldn't be so nasty to each other in the meantime, come on guys, can't we all be friends?

But poor Hagrid, a wonderful night of dancing is soured when he comes clean to his tall lady love and she shuts him down (seriously woman, who are you kidding?) and then is made even worse when that bitch Skeeter (seriously, I hate her so much, and not in a gurl-you-so-bad kind of way) slams him in that "article". Not only is it further proof that wizards are dicks, but it's Hagrid. He's like a grown up Neville, YOU DO NOT HURT HIM OK! So it makes my heart swell when HRH finally force their way in and join forces with Dumbledore to convince Hagrid he's actually quite a lovely fellow and he shouldn't listen to mean ladies with lying quills. It makes me want to cry when he talks about his dad and why he thinks Harry will win. He's such an earnest character, I love him so, so much. And how great is it when he ends his self-imposed banishment and comes out all 'whatevs like I even care' and proves he's a kick ass Care of Magical Creatures teacher. He's like, unicorns? Screw you old lady, I'm going to catch some baby unicorns which by the law of the internet are 10,000 times cuter than old stinky adult ones. And then I'm going to show these stupid kids nifflers which are adorable AND like shiny things - so they're like two wins in one. Suck it fools.

And then we have the second task, which Harry only just manages to make it to, and it's perhaps my favourite task because it best shows Harry as Harry will come to be. Even when he's a little bit stupid (or a lot. I mean seriously dude, did you actually think Dumbledore would kill students to punish you for failing? Hogwarts safety precautions are lax but not that bad) first and foremost he is loyal, noble to a fault (there's that stupidity thing again) and brave. It's just as important to save a stranger as it is his best friend, and no competition is worth enough to leave people potentially in danger. It manages to show both his faults and his virtues, and paves the way for his often stupid but always well-meaning and brave decisions in the next three books. I also really love that the mer-people are creepy and that they're led by a woman. Those scaly folk know what's what.

Extra thoughts for your dollar

*Just to add to the house elf debate from last week, on p331  Dobby uses the term enslavement to describe the house elves situation.

*I'm really glad Fleur is brought back later, because I disliked her A LOT in this book, but I hated disliking her because I knew I was being told to feel that way about her. At least later she has a bit more substance to her character, so if you still hate her you're hating her on your terms.

*I like how responsible Sirius is in this book. He's the adult Harry needs in his life.

*Does anyone remember reading whether Skeeter was based on a real journo? I felt like that Hermione scene with the hate mail was probably based off mail she received (howlers excluded obvs) after some journo bashed her for dating Gordon Ramsay or something. (she didn't date Gordon Ramsay did she? I just make that up, and I think I'd die if she actually did)

*You become a prefect for the bathroom right?

*Why does Cedric have to be so cryptic with his help? It's not like Harry was like, "hey Cedric, to prepare for the first task maybe take a jump in a volcano - it'll be like that but mobile"

*For some reason I always imagine Ron's dress robes are really slim fitting, like Morticia from the Addam's family. No idea why, but it's hilarious and I recommend you all do the same.

*I can never decide how I feel about Hermione's 'transformation' at the ball- it's too close to the slew of 90s films   about the ugly girl becoming beautiful enough for the handsome guy, but was actually pretty all along and why does she need to take off painter's overalls to be considered beautiful huh? Although I respect Hermione being like, 'yeah dude too much work, I'll save that shit for my wedding or something' - because I know those feels lady.


Is everyone psyched for next week's final installment, also known as that-time-when-the-evil-dudes-got-real-chatty-and-talked-on-and-on-and-on-for-several-chapters?

My Whirlwind trip in Sydney: Harlequin, Kinokuniya and Anish Kapoor

Last week was pretty rocking. Or two days were anyway. On Wednesday I hopped on a plane and flew down to Sydney for the Harlequin blogger summit, and I extended my trip to spend Thursday with a friend checking out some of the galleries and museums.

I flew in early so that I'd have a chance to check out Sydney and man, I landed on the most gorgeous day possible. The sun was shining, and I had the best time walking from Central Station down to Darling Harbour, popping into book stores and clothing stores that Brisbane could only dream of having. Number one stop along the way was the most wonderful book store ever, Kinokuniya. I must have spent an hour and a half in there easy. Amazingly I made it out with only Ready Player One, but believe me when I tell you how hard it was not to spend several hundreds of my cashesh on all the amazing books, comics and toys they had.

At Darling Harbour I checked out the bridge and the Opera House, (it really was nice of the town planners to situate the two biggest tourist destinations next to one another) and even though I've seen each of them countless times before it's hard not to get caught up in the excitement of all the tourists hanging around the harbour.

Darling Harbour

A quick trip to my hotel to drop off all my stuff and then it was Summit time! Harlequin were nice enough to invite me, along with about 30 other bloggers to their offices in Chatswood for an afternoon of drinks, books and gossip. When I walked in I was met with a room of chairs covered with red bags. The Harlequin team had collected together a gift bag that excited us bloggers a whole bunch. Thanks to Harlequin I now am the owner of;

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa
With All My Souls by Rachel Vincent
Wicked Kiss by Michelle Rowen
Saving Grace by Fiona McCallum

and a flash drive filled with the romance e-book titles for the whole month of March. And not so bookish, but equally great, was an umbrella - because the weather in Sydney had been less that sunny for the week or two previous.

Harlequin gifts. 

But the afternoon wasn't just about gifts. The team took us through the titles that were being released over the next few months, and introduced us to the new Community page that they've started up. Then author Rachel Vincent regaled us with talk on her books series, her less than smooth trip in Australia and a few teasers about what we can expect from her in the near future. She was very talkative, personable and funny, and wonderfully honest about the difficulties and problems that writing entails. While Rachel signed books, answered questions and posed for photos the rest of us mingled and got to know the people behind the blogs. It was a little awkward at first, mostly because so many of us don't go by our actual names or use photos as our icons - but once the conversations started (thanks to some wine and tasty treats) it was great to talk blog designs, new books, awkward author interactions and a bunch of other blogger topics.

After the afternoon wrapped up, we continued the conversation up at the Chelsea Hotel over more drinks and dinner. Rachel Vincent joined us for a brief spell, and I had a great time speaking to Belle (Belle's Bookshelf), Michelle (Maree's Musings ), Bree (All the Books I Can Read ) and Shelleyrae (Book'd Out) amongst others. I don't know anyone in Brisbane who blogs (about books or anything) so it was nice to finally have people to talk to face to face about blog related issues, but it was nice to also discuss weddings, degrees, living in the city and all the other things that go on in the lives of 20/30 somethings girls.

After the evening it was back to the hotel for a good night's sleep before day 2 of my super-short adventure. It really was a darling hotel, there are a few pictures on my instagram account, but they don't really do it justice. It was a preserved house from the turn of the century filled with creature comforts, personal balconies and the warmest welcome I've received at a hotel for quite a while. If you like the white sterility of Hiltons and Co you'd probably hate it, but I love how much character it had. It was also situated in leafy Chatswood, so it was like leaving the city - while only being a 10 minute train ride away.

The view from the seat on my balcony

Thursday my friend Ollie came up from Newcastle and we spent the day wandering around the city, and visiting the Powerhouse Museum (a must visit if you're ever in Sydney, it was my FAVOURITE place as a kid) which is a science and design museum housed in a huge old warehouse, and the Museum of Contemporary Art to see the Anish Kapoor exhibit. If you haven't heard of Anish Kapoor, he's an artist that like to make your head hurt. Or that might not be his goal, but it's certainly the result! He creates amazing installations and pieces which play with your idea of perspective and make it impossible to know if what you're seeing is, in fact, what you're seeing. There is a lot of work with mirrors and I had a wonderful time snapping the weird reflections of Ollie and I in these pieces. Two of my favourites were a large round mirror that was fragmented and showed a fly's perspective of people around/in front of it. But when you found the sweet spot, you were roughly recreated with these fragments of yourself, and the ambient sounds around you were dampened while your voice was amplified.

My next favourite was a HUGE mirror outside the museum. And when I say huge I mean mind-bogglingly huge and I still can't process exactly how it would have been transported there. It both completely fit in its surroundings and completely at odds with it - I'd love to see it in even more of an odd location, like a park or nature reserve, I'm sure the effect would be amplified even more.

That's me reflected in the big mirror on the right.

And that just about wraps it up. I said goodbye to Ollie and to Sydney and trekked it out to the airport once again. And aside from a brief freak out at the airport when I tried to plug in the wrong code into the self-service desk and thought I'd accidentally booked for the wrong day it was a pretty smooth trip home.

It was super fun to spend two whirl wind days in Sydney, and I must thank Harlequin for giving me an excuse for taking the trip! The summit was amazing, and I'd be the first to put my hand up if they were to host another. Thanks Harlequin!

Book Review: The Children of Men by P.D. James

The Children of Men

Written by: P.D. James

Published: 1992

Synopsis: The human race has become infertile, and the last generation to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold the key to survival for the human race.

Challenges: Dystopian for Book'd Out's Eclectic Reader Challenge
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In place of the challenges I usually do (and fail) each year, I decided to set myself a few goals instead. I wanted to read a more diverse range of books and I wanted to make time to re-read books, something I haven't done much of since starting this blog. The Children of Men was a book I enjoyed a lot the first time around, and when I was looking for a short read to take down to Sydney with me this seemed like the perfect opportunity to see if I liked it as much second time around.

The short answer is yes, oh my god yes I enjoyed this the second time around. In a short book P.D James manages to create a dystopian future that is both horrifying and interesting while also filling it with characters that are at times jarring but always well developed and complex. I hesitate to hold it up against titles like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 but the future The Children of Men portrays is equally chilling. Our race, no longer able to reproduce, is slowly waiting to die. That in and of itself is fascinating, and a large part of the book is almost a character study of how the protagonist Theo and the people around him choose to handle this truth. How do you work when you know in 20 years 90% of the population will be gone. Why do you keep gardens kept or buildings maintained? Why do you bother with sex and marriage if there can be no children? Why should we be contained by laws if we're all going to die soon anyway, and there will be no one to inherit the mess? Adding to this conceit is the real world potential that James introduces to the narrative. Prior to the mass infertility there had been a noted slump in the amount of children born across Europe. Factor in women choosing career over family, the AIDS epidemic and the worldwide consideration that perhaps a slump would be welcome considering how polluted the world is with our numbers. Perhaps mass infertility will never happen (exactly how it occurred is never explained) but by adding those real world elements it's hard not to stop and think 'what if''.

While I found the world to be amazingly interesting, it was the people that made it most fascinating. There are the Omegas, the last people born before infertility spread across the world. How do you live when your whole life is spent in an unwanted spotlight, a constant reminder that the human race failed and have since given up on living? They're portrayed as surly, mysterious, pretentious, uninterested, beautiful, heart-breaking - the whole gamut of complex and unwanted characteristics, yet retaining a level of sympathy both to us, the readers, and the characters in the book. In a world that hasn't seen a child in 15 years, people have had to turn that attention elsewhere. Some turn to pets, who they baby and coddle and hold birthing parties for. Others, much more darkly effected by their lack of fertility, turn to porcelain dolls as their baby substitutes. They walk their 'children' around in prams and smile brightly as people look over the edge at their little darlings and tickle their fragile china chins. There's something so bleak and desperate in that image, and James manages to paint a ghastly picture of these 'mothers' in a scene that Theo witnesses one morning on his way to work. It's such a brief moment, but it says so much about the world, the psychological state of those left living, and of Theo as he (fails to) react to the situation. It's just one example of how James uses the people in the book to say what needs to be said, a perfect exemplar of the show don't tell rule of story telling.

The Children of Men is fascinating, thrilling and provocative. James has a real skill for crafting a suspenseful and compelling tale that's heavy with implications but not weighty with morality lessons. But above all it's the characters that make this book worth a read, both the secondary characters that appear briefly and the primary characters who dominate the narrative. It's short, sharp and takes a stab at Neighbours which makes it even more worthy of a read. Or a re-read. 

Monday Links

*I had an amazing whirlwind 2 days in Sydney last week. I was down for the Harlequin Blogger Summit and had the most wonderful time. It was insane to meet all the bloggers behind the blogs (especially those who use book covers as their blog/twitter/goodreads icons!) and I did not mind being spoiled by Harlequin one bit! If I get time I'll write up a full post about the event, but because I probably won't I'll direct you to the summary that Shelleyrae from Book'd Out wrote up (here), the one by Kat from Book Thingo (here) and the new community page at Harlequin Books, which was launched at the event and which will feature (soon?) a video of us all.

*At least one wall of books is my idea of the perfect room. These 30 spots (some you'll know, like the Shakespeare Company bookstore in Paris) are filled with books and the warm fuzzy feelings books give. (Via Buzzfeed)

*This link I found thanks to Belle over at Belle's Bookshelf, and too good not too share. It's a fascinating look into the life of a ghost writer, of SVH no less. (Via The Kenyon Review)

*Ermeghad, literary cakes. I need to make one of these, stat! Maybe the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea cake, it's insane. (Via Flavorwire)

*Hogwarts made of lego. This, my friends, is art. (Via Warming Glow)

*So as of tomorrow it'll be official, I am visiting the US and Canada in December. Woooo! I've already had a couple of amazingly helpful emails from lovely ladies filled with the best places to go/things to see/food stuff to put in my mouth - but I'm always open to more suggestions! We're going to be in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston and maybe Washington (D.C) and LA/San Francisco.  

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: Readalong post 2

I know I called Hermione out on being not so great when it came to pets but I feel like she's really grown up in this book and showing a lot more insight when it comes to people. Like with Neville and the Moody unforgivable curses class. She noticed his unease while everyone else, understandably, was staring shocked at the display in front of them. Then she brought Harry toast so he wouldn't have to face the masses, and she believed him instantly when he told her he hadn't put his name in the goblet. Sure she doesn't have Ron's baggage to get in the way, but she was so rational and understanding and I have even more respect for her. Team Hermione for always.

 So Harry is supposed to be an amazing Quidditch player, right? But Krum is 3 years older and playing for Bulgaria (which, by the way, is clearly where Durmstrang is right?) and it isn't like you get drafted to play for a country side and are immediately their star seeker. He would have worked his way up to that, probably on a B squad, or at least a training squad for a year (at least) before they trusted a teenager for the world cup. Anyway, what I'm getting at is that even if Harry is a great seeker by Hogwarts standards, he's clearly not by competition standards or England already would have tried to get him so they could groom him to be their star.

This section of the book is very Triwizard Tournament heavy (which I keep writing as Twiwizard for some reason) and I have some questions and problems with this whole thing.

First, it is really stupid to have the headmasters as judges in the competition. I mean, either you add more judges and go by the rule of taking off the highest and lowest score and averaging the rest, or you pick impartial judges who have no reason to vote someone up or down. I don't even care if that's what the tradition is, it's been 1000 years, you're allowed to change some things up.

Second, why do it by age, why not by year level? If you make it seventh years then no one gets left out just because they had the misfortune of being born at the end of the school year, especially when they clearly know the same stuff that the other people in their year know. I guess it could be a 17 = adult in the wizarding world, and therefore no parental allowance required, but considering their kids are constantly under the threat of death at Hogwarts I hardly see parents objecting to it.

Third, why can't they excuse Harry? Is entering your name akin to the unbreakable oath that comes up in book 6? And if he technically can't pull out, why doesn't anyone advise him to just sit on the sideline and do nothing. Surely after a while they'd just disqualify or mark him as 0 points right? And why doesn't he speak up and say "guys, I sorta daydreamed about how awesome this would be, but I've only had 3 years of wizarding education and to be honest I'm not great at it, so do you think you can do something to get me out of this hell hole?"

And finally, what do the other Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students do for the year? Do they all get taught by their headmaster during the day, or do they just get a year off? And is the education system the same over there? Do they all start at 11 and go for 7 years? Or do they start earlier/later or organise their semesters differently? Also, they're kidding themselves if they think there schools are truly hidden. Sure, we could never find them. But Beauxbatons? Come on, you'd have to be an absolute idiot to not guess that they're in France somewhere. So calm down Karkaroff, mentioning mountains is not the end of the world.

Le Notes: 

*I do feel kinda bad for Harry with the entire school turning against him, but at the same time it's probably good not to have everyone instantly worship him like usual.

*The badges are especially mean though.

*Mention of Gregorovitch the wandmaker on p271. JK I love you.

*If Moody had to demonstrate the unforgivable curses did he have to use spiders? I mean jesus dude, bringing spiders into class is terrifying enough.

*Seriously, Rita Skeeter is the WORST. I hate her acid green robes and her stupid face.

*I really enjoy the Fred and George side story. It's a little darker than their usual pranks and jokes routine.

*This is the one time Hagrid's inability to keep a secret was a good thing. Pretty sure Harry would have just collapsed and died if he hadn't had prior warning of the dragons.

*I think this is the first time I realised exactly how big the Forbidden Forest is. They manage to hide 4 cranky dragons in there, no wonder it's forbidden.

*I think it's hilarious that Hermione is so dismissive of Ron and his obsession with Krum, but she was so ridiculous over Lockhart. Girl, take a good hard look in the mirror.

*Bill's pretty good, but Charlie Weasley was always number 1 in my heart. I mean, dragons. Enough said.

*Question about Karkaroff. So he was a deatheater, but he's clearly from overseas. Was there a legion of overseas wizards on Voldey's side and/or was his terror international?

Next week, the Yule Ball!

Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Beautiful Creatures

Written by: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Published: 2009

Synopsis: Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything

Challenges: Urban Fantasy for Book'd Out's Eclectic Reader Challenge
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Ok, I'm going to put my biases where you can see them. I dislike A LOT of YA, mainly because YA seems to be full of fantasy romance books a la Twilight. 

Twilight ruined a lot of things for me, vampires, YA, romance...it's a bad series, and it spawned a bunch of imitators which made delving into YA even harder. I know this isn't fair - sure there are Twilight imitators, but I unfairly group any book that has ties to Twilight, fantasy elements, mythical creatures, romance plot, forbidden love etc, into the 'nah-uh no way' basket. I'm trying to break this habit because it isn't fair on the authors who work hard on their books to be ignored because of an author that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with them. Perhaps I'll find out that I'm not cut out for this genre anyway, but for now I'm trying really hard to push those judgements away and look at the book objectively.

Enter Beautiful Creatures. This is a series that shares some clear ties to Twilight, there's the boy and girl with the unavoidable bond, the character with the mythical secret, a family (or two) that forbids the relationship, and a sense of danger that surrounds the couple and the town. I really wanted this to be the book to change my mind of the genre, and while I enjoyed a great deal of it, today isn't the day.

So a lot of it is par for the course, our narrator Ethan feels out of place in his backwards Southern hick town. But he's not actually an outsider, he's firmly part of the cool crowd. He's a natural on the basketball team, he's dated the second hottest girl in school, and he seems to have a pretty decent group of friends. But he's desperate to get out of there and separate himself from this world as soon as he turns 18. On his first day back at school he hears talk of a new girl, and coincidentally he's been having dreams about a girl he's never met and shock,  be still my beating heart, he realises she's the girl from his dreams, literally. She's the opposite to everyone at his school. Where all the girls are cheerleader cookie cut-outs, Lena wears a lot of black, has a weird charm necklace and drive around in her Boo Radley-esque uncle's hearse (GET IT SHE'S DIFFERENT). Ethan desperately wants to get to know her, but she's not so eager to reciprocate, or so it seems anyway. Oh, and aside from dreaming about her, it turns out Ethan and Lena can speak to each other telepathically. Because they're made for each other. Clearly.

Having Ethan be our narrator is an interesting decision, and it does definitely separate the book from being a complete Twilight clone, but I'm not so sure the authors have met many teenage boys. Granted, I've never been one myself, but he's so sappy and flowery and dramatic and focuses way too much on describing what Lena is wearing that particular day. I did like hearing his story and seeing him deal with the loss of his mother and his shut-in father, but you could have changed the name to Ethania, the girlfriends to boyfriends, and basketball to softball and there wouldn't have been much more editing needed. His internal conflict is interesting in theory, but there's a weakness to how it actually plays out. The main conceit of their relationship is that she's different, the town dislikes different, if he sides with her he becomes different too. But he whines so much about how the people at school are shallow and not really people he wants to identify with, I don't really understand why it's a big deal if he can't spend lunch times with them any more. It seemed more like he was there because he had nowhere else to go, and now he does have somewhere else to go, so what's the problem?

Now, Lena's world and conflict is far more interesting, though still flawed. She's a caster (i.e. witch) and the construction of this world was an interesting one. Each caster has a unique form of power in addition with the general witchy ability to move objects and so forth. Some are healers, some are able to see through time, others can assimilate other powers and some, like Lena are 'naturals' which means they're quite powerful and uh, can do things to nature? I think? In the caster world you choose whether to be either light or dark, but in Lena's family a curse chooses it for you at 16. So regardless of how good and kind and thoughtful Lena may have been for 15 years, 11 months and 29 days, if fate decrees she's going to be evil, she's going to be evil. Understandably Lena gets pretty angsty about this, and much of the novel deals with Lena coming to terms/not really coming to terms with this at all.

I wish they'd made Lena and Ethan friends instead of a couple, because a lot of the plot choices made around the concept of their burgeoning love felt forced. What Lena needed was a friend, and much of the conflict in the book could still have existed if they were friends not lovers. Ethan still would have antagonised the town by choosing to be friends with the weirdo, their families could still try to keep them separated, and the stakes for her 16th birthday would have remained the same. It also would have eliminated a great deal of the length, which this book could have used, and that would have actually been rather revolutionary for a paranormal YA.

Outside of the two protagonists though, the quality of the characters go both ways. Lena's evil cousin sounds like Juliet from Lollipop Chainsaw, Ethan's dad was unfleshed out (but could have been fascinating) and the rabble-rousers in the town were conveniently one-dimensional. Ethan and Lena's guardians on the other hand, Amma and Macon respectively, were pretty great. Amma is the bossy Southern housekeeper that you always read in books set in the South, but that doesn't make her sassiness any less fabulous. If Ethan's father had been a little better developed, her role as Ethan's surrogate mum could have been even more dynamic. Macon, Lena's uncle, is basically the male equivalent of Amma in every sense, and the casting of Jeremy Irons in this role makes perfect sense. Again, the relationship could have used a little development, but there were a few moments between them that just shone.

It's those few glimpses that make me think that the series could perhaps go on to some pretty great heights, as long as the authors strive to challenge the genre and themselves, rather than just settling back into comfortable mediocrity. I had some issues with this book, clearly, but I was engaged most of the way through the 500+ pages. It didn't tick all the necessary boxes for me, but I could see how people could love this book, and if you've ever enjoyed books in the paranormal/fantasy/YA genres it's probably just the book you're looking for.