Dracula by Bram Stoker

Today's review will be about:

THE SUMMARY

Beware The Deadly Count Dracula
Jonathan Harker is travelling to Castle Dracula to see the Transylanian noble Count Dracula. He is begged by locals not to go there, because of the eve of St George's Day, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will come full sway. But business must be done, so Jonathan makes his way to the castle - and then his nightmare begins. His beloved wife, Mina, and other lost souls have fallen under the Count's horrifying spell. Dracula must be destroyed...

MY REVIEW

For the longest time, I have been obsessed with reading books that feature vampires. Although it had always been a dream of mine to read the book that has since inspired many others, I had never given it much thought other than it was something that I would get to someday. Thankfully, I took a class that had this book as a required reading, so I was able to achieve one of my dreams earlier than I thought. I'm very glad that I did.

"I bid you welcome."

This book is separated by the journal entries of the main characters; Johnathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, Dr. Seward, and Dr. Van Helsing, along with newspaper clippings and other logs that give us a full view of what is happening in the world surrounding Dracula.

Nosferatu

However, we don't get a log entry from any of the vampires in the book, including Dracula himself.  This doesn't diminish the book in any way, however, because instead of getting the personal account of Dracula or his wives, we get to see them, interact with them, see the carnage that they leave in their wake, but we never truly understand them at the deepest level. We get plenty of information on what he or his wives do, but we never get why any of those things are done. This covers these characters in a shroud of mystery so that you can never really know what drives them to do the things that they do and say the things that they say.
Despite the old language that the book was written  in, I found myself reading a lot of it durng my free time, wanting to know what Dracula was going to do next and what the rest of the main characters were going to do about it. Like a Shakespearean play, after a while you get so used to the language that they use in the journal entries that you hardly notice how different it is.

Van Helsing "fighting" Dracula with sunlight

One of the things that threw me off at first was the fact that Van Helsing wasn't the young Hugh Jackman-like monster hunter that I had been used to. Instead, he was more of the wise advisor. I did like him as the Gandalf of the group after a while though, being able to research the creature that they were dealing with and how to kill it was very useful.

Dracula dancing with Anna (Van Helsing)

Instead, the role of hero was passed along to what I think is the story's main protagonist; Johnathan Harker. He is pulled into this entire mess when he is hired by the Count to help him find a suitable house in England for the Count to settle into as a second home. Johnathan is faced with a danger that he wasn't expecting, and so he decides to write home to his fiancée, Mina, but the Count is blocking his every move to escape. During his time in castle Dracula, we get a pretty good description of the Count's home, his abilities, and most of all his strange habits. But once again, this only gives us a glimpse of who he actually is, the rest is shrouded in mystery. Many times Van Helsing and their other companions praise Johnathan for his bravery in coming back to fight the thing that he ran away from at castle Dracula, and I often found myself cheering him on.

Renfield and Dracula (Dracula: Dead and Loving It)

Something that was super interesting about the book was Dr. Seward's tortured patient: Renfield. Apparently, he used to be a servant to Dracula, a service that drove him absolutely insane. During one part of the book, he is obsessing about  cats and how much he wants one, and then he starts a never-ending collection of bugs that he traps and then feeds to their predators. I haven't read a lot of books that include the mentally insane (maybe that should change), so the fact that a book as old as this one when they probably didn't talk about such things in "civilized" culture, is pretty cool.

"If ever a look meant death - if looks could kill - we saw it at that moment." -Dracula, Chapter XVI

There is so much more that I could talk about concerning this book, but I afraid that if I do this will start to look and sound like an essay, which is not what I want this to be. This book met all of my expectations as a wonderful depiction of the vampire myth, and it is very deserving to have lasted so long, well-loved by many. So go ahead, go grab it from a nearby shelf and devour its pages and the story that lies in wait inside.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Dublin, Ireland, on November 8, 1847, Bram Stoker published his first literary work, The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland, a handbook in legal administration, in 1879. Turning to fiction later in life, Stoker published his masterpiece, Dracula, in 1897. Deemed a classic horror novel not long after its release, Dracula has continued to garner acclaim for more than a century, inspiring the creation of hundreds of film, theatrical and literary adaptations. In addition to Dracula, Stoker published more than a dozen novels before his death in 1912.
(Read more about Bram Stoker)

A LITTLE EXCERPT

"I only slept a few hours when I went to bed, and feeling that I could not sleep any more, got up. I had hung my shaving-glass by the window, and was just beginning to shave. Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder, and heard the Count's voice saying to me, 'Good morning.' I started, for it amazed me that I had not seen him, since the reflection of the glass covered the whole room behind me. In starting I had cut myself slightly, but did not notice it at the moment. Having answered the Count's salutation, I turned to the glass again to see how I had been mistaken. This time there could be no error, for the man was close to me, and I could see him over my shoulder. But there was no reflection of him in the mirror! The whole room behind me was displayed; but there was no sign of a man in it, except myself. This was startling, and, coming on the top of so many strange things, was beginning to increase that vague feeling of uneasiness which I always have when the Count is near; but in that instant I saw that the cut had bled a little, and the blood was trickling over my chin. I laid down the razor, turning as I did so half-round to look for some sticking-plaster. When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demonaic fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat. I drew away, and his had touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there."

pages 40-41

(In a bad Transylvanian accent)
Vell, that's all for now.

'Til we meet again.

~Sea-Solo

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Here are some clips of my favorite depictions of Dracula!:

Dracula Untold (2014)

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

Van Helsing (2004)

Hotel Transylvania (2012)

Supernatural S4E5 (2008)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer S5E1 (2000)

Twilight Sucks by Barely Political

{A Blast from the Past} Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Today's review will be about:

THE SUMMARY

Indiana, 1818. In a one-room cabin nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his mother's bedside.
"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying. Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire. Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, young Lincoln sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.
While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving the Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for almost two hundred years - until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln. Now, using the journal as a guide, Seth reconstructs the true life story of America's greatest president. For the first time ever, he reveals the hidden history behind the Civil War - and uncovers the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of the nation.

MY REVIEW

I read this book first a long while ago in High School, just before the movie graced the screen. I'm sure that I don't need to explain the allure of this book to me, but I will for those of you who haven't read my reviews before. It is a re-written view of the Civil War, one of the most important moments in America's history, has my personal favorite President as the main character, and as I'm sure you'll find when you read the excerpt, beautiful language.

Young Abe (from the movie)

Seth Grahame-Smith created a world like ours in almost every aspect except the fact that this world, and this President Lincoln, is plagued with vampires. And no, I'm not talking about sparkly vampires that would rather date you than eat you alive. There is no vegetarian menu available, so they basically run around drinking from whoever they wish. Abe's own mother was poisoned by vampire's blood, which drove his never-ending hunting and hating of the monsters themselves. I was amazed very often at what this Abraham Lincoln would do to get the job done, how bloody his life was from the day that he killed his first until he was assassinated himself (no, that isn't a spoiler at all, trust me).

Abe and his trusty axe (from the movie)

I really enjoyed the amount of thought that Seth put into the book. When the passages were taken directly from Abe's "secret journal", it felt like an older way of speaking, like someone from the 19th century had taken a time machine to the 21st and written all of it down. I found a hard time pulling myself away from the book, the scenes were filled with so much beautiful/horrible detail that when I pulled myself out to do something else, I was thinking about it instead, and wondering what would happen next. He makes this book so real, from adding in pictures of "vampires" from around that time, to adding his own little twist to supernatural legends of America's past. It feels as if you are living when he was, breathing in the 19th century air, watching America, and Abe, become what they became.

South lawn of the White House under heavy guard, circa 1862. The man on the portico is believed to be a member of Abe's trinity (bodyguards)

Not only did it do all that I mentioned above, it also introduced me to a side of my favorite president that I wasn't aware of; the side that enjoyed writing poetry and reading stacks upon stacks of books, beginning of course with the Christian Bible. I am ashamed to admit that despite him being my favorite president, I knew almost nothing about him other than his famous hat, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the fact that he was assassinated in a theater, so this book taught me a lot about his life. For example, it gave me a pretty accurate look at his life before becoming president; the places he lived, what he did when he wasn't hunting vampires or becoming involved in politics, where he came from, etc. And yes, I checked the facts after reading this book and it is very accurate about who he was. (Without the vamp killing, of course.)

This is a gif of Abe training in the woods with his trusty ax (from the movie).

All in all, if you like supernatural tales filled with action and history, gore and peace, horror and beauty, then what are you waiting for? Pick this up and start on page 1, you won't regret it a bit.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SETH GRAHAME-SMITH is the New York Times bestselling author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. In addition to adapting the screenplay for ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER, Seth also wrote Tim Burton's latest film, Dark Shadows. He lives in Los Angeles.

A LITTLE EXCERPT

"I have no memory of driving it in - I only remember that I did. His laughter ceased and he took an awkward step. His eyes turned black in the space of a single blink, as if inkwells in his pupils had suddenly shattered - the spill contained behind glass. His fangs descended, and I could presently make out a faint blue web beneath his skin. It was true. Until that moment there had been room for doubt. But now I saw it with my own eyes. Now I knew.
Vampires were real.
His arm rose, and his stout little hand instinctively grabbed
the stake. There was no fear in his face yet. Merely a puzzlement,
as if he was attempting to sort out just how such an
object could be attached to his body. He presently lost his
footing and collapsed into a seated position, where he remained
for a moment before falling the rest of the way onto his back. His
hand lost its grip on the stake, and the arm fell to his side.
I walked around him, wondering when he would strike. Wondering when he would laugh at the futility of what I had done and cut me down. As I did, his eyes followed me. They were the only things that moved now. There was fear in them. He was dying... and he was afraid. What little color he had left him now - and rich, dark blood began to run from his nostrils; out the sides of his mouth. A trickle at first... then a flood - running over his cheeks and pooling over his eyes. More blood than I ever thought possible. I could see his soul (if indeed he had such a thing) departing. Bidding an unexpected, frightening farewell to such a long, long life - one undoubtedly filled with happiness, and agony, and struggle, and success. Filled with moments too beautiful to share. Too painful to recall. It was all ending now, and he was so afraid. Afraid of what nothingness awaited him. Or worse, what punishment.
And then he was gone. I expected my eyes to fill with tears. To feel remorse at the sight of what I had done. I admit that I felt nothing. I only wish he had suffered more.
Thomas stood aghast. "Look what you've done," he said after a sickened silence. "You've killed us."
"On the contrary...I've killed him."
"More will come."
Abe had already begun to walk away.
"Then I shall need more stakes.""

pages 59-60

Well, that's all for now!

Have a Happy Halloween!

~Sea-Solo

EXTRA! EXTRA!

 

Watch the trailer for the movie that came out in 2012! (the one on the bottom is more gorey, keep that in mind)

Listen to some tracks from the movie!:

What Do You Hate? by Henry Jackman

Mary Todd by Henry Jackman

Powerless by Linkin Park

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

Today's review will be about:

THE SUMMARY

SHE WON'T REST UNTIL SHE'S SENT EVERY WALKING CORPSE BACK TO ITS GRAVE.
FOREVER.
Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. But that's all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.
Her father was right. The monsters are real.
To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn  to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn't careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies.

This is apparel from threadless that I found! Cool, huh? :)

MY REVIEW

I actually found this series at Wal-Mart (I know, I know, how American of me. Har-de-har-har.), but they didn't have the first one. I waited until the next time I went to Barnes & Noble and this book was the first thing that I picked up.
I didn't regret my decision.
I'm obsessed with Alice in Wonderland in the first place, but when you make Alice a bada** and then put her against tons of zombies that she takes out with special powers, I simply can't resist loving it.
As you can imagine, this book has a lot of really fast-paced fighting, a little bit of romance, and a whole lot of scary imagery. I'm seriously surprised that I didn't have nightmares about this stuff.
One thing that I didn't expect is the fact that this book is set in the real world (more or less). I was thinking it was going to be a little bit like the original Alice in Wonderland where she went down a rabbit hole and was transported to a place completely different from the world she had come from, but instead she just ends up in the same world that she has always been in- it's just that she can actually see the zombies now.
I really got a kick out of how Gena Showalter put in little elements of the original story in order to keep tying it back into the classic. Ali has a friend named Kat, there's a rabbit cloud constantly reappearing, and then there's Cole, who I have a raising suspicion is the mad hatter. This really made me enjoy the book, and it kept reminding me that it was an adaptation.
All in all, I liked this book, and if you like strong, kick-a** female leads, you will too

A LITTLE EXCERPT

"We went airborne, flipping over, crashing into the road upside down, then flipping over again. The sound of crunching metal, shattering glass and pained screams filled my ears. I was thrown back and forth in my seat, my brain becoming a cherry slushie in my head as different impacts jarred me and stole my breath.
When we finally landed, I was so dazed, so fogged, I felt like I was still in motion. The screams had stopped, at least. All I heard was a slight ringing in my ears.
"Mom? Dad?" A pause. No response. "Em?" Again, nothing.
I frowned, looked around. My eyesight was hazy, something warm and wet in my lashes, but I could see well enough.
And what I saw utterly destroyed me."

Well, that's all for now!

See you next time!

~Sea-Solo

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Listen to Alice's iPod!:

Furious by Jeremy Riddle

How He Loves by Flyleaf

Fallen by John Waller

Monster by Skillet

Fading by Decyfer Down

Things Left Unsaid by Disciple

All In by Lifehouse

Beautiful Disaster by Jon McLaughlin

How to Save a Life by The Fray


P.S. So sorry that this was late, I had a lot of things to do on Friday and couldn't get it done on time. Cinder will be on time, however, so come back this Saturday for that.
Thank you in advance for your kind consideration! :)

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

Today's review will be about:

THE SUMMARY

IF YOU AIN'T SCARED, YOU AIN'T HUMAN
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He's surrounded by strangers - boys whose memories are also gone.
NICE TO MEET YA, SHANK. WELCOME TO THE GLADE.
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It's the only way out - and no one's ever made it through alive.
EVERYTHING IS GOING TO CHANGE
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever.
And the message she delivers is terrifying.
REMEMBER. SURVIVE. RUN.

MY REVIEW

I've got to be honest, I went into this book with A LOT of skepticism. I'd heard about The Maze Runner from some of my friends, but I didn't think it was all that interesting, or that I would even be interested...
I've never been so wrong.
True, I didn't like the book in the beginning (it was a little slow to start), but as soon as Thomas entered the Maze the first time, I knew I was hooked. I was hooked BAD. What started as "Oh, I'm just going to read this so that I will know if I want to see the movie" quickly turned to "I NEED THE SECOND BOOK."
The Grievers were the thing that shocked and interested me the most about the Maze. I've got this thing about monsters and bad guys, and these ones were good! I'm dead positive that I would be like everyone's favorite character, Chuck, and I would just avoid the Maze and Grievers altogether. NO WAY I would go inside that thing without an extreme need to.

A glimpse of a Griever... wicked little fella!

Not only that, but the book was filled with (what I consider) clever curse words, and clever names for things in general. Poo is klunk, the sleeping/farming/eating area is the Glade, and shuck is commonly used to describe someone (Ex: you shuck-face!). The characters were well-written, they had some dark pasts and you could tell (even if they sometimes didn't know it themselves). Added to that is the mystery of the Maze and the boys that live in it. Why these boys? Why the maze? Who made all of this? Who would be sick enough to do this? The questions, I'm pleased to say, are mostly answered with only a couple left unanswered to continue the story. (Oh how I love the complexity of series plot lines!)
All in all, I liked this book very much, and I cannot wait to see the movie that comes out today (September 19th)!

A LITTLE EXCERPT

"He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air.
Metal ground against metal; a lurching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He fell down at the movement and shuffled backward on his hands and feet, drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool air. His back struck a hard metal wall; he slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping his eyes would soon adjust to the darkness.
With another jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft.
Harsh sounds of chains and pulleys, like the workings of an ancient steel factory, echoed through the room, bouncing off the walls with a hollow, tinny whine. The lightless elevator swayed back and forth as it ascended, turning the boy's stomach sour with nausea; a smell like burnt oil invaded his senses, making him feel worse. He wanted to cry, but no tears came; he could only sit there, alone, waiting.
My name is Thomas, he thought.
That... that was the only thing he could remember about his life."

Well, that's all for now!

See you next time!

~Sea-Solo

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Watch the official trailer for the movie that just came out! :)

Visit The Maze Runner website to get some WICKED goodies!:
http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/mazerunner/index.php

{A Blast from the Past} Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Today's review is on:

THE SUMMARY

Amy is a cryogenically frozen passenger aboard the spaceship Godspeed. She has left her boyfriend, friends - and planet - behind to join her parents as a member of Project Ark Ship. Amy and her parents believe that they will wake on a new planet, Centauri-Earth, three hundred years in the future. But fifty years before Godspeed's scheduled landing, cryo chamber 42 is mysteriously unplugged, and Amy is violently woken from her frozen slumber.

Someone tried to murder her.

Now, Amy is caught inside a tiny world where nothing makes sense. Godspeed's 2,312 passengers have forfeited all control to Eldest, a tyrannical and frightening leader. And Elder, Eldest's rebellious teenage heir, is both fascinated with Amy and eager to discover whether he has what it takes to lead.

Amy desperately wants to trust Elder. But should she put her faith in a boy who has never seen life outside the ship's cold metal walls? All Amy knows is that she and Elder must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets before whoever woke her tries to kill again.

A map of the interior of Godspeed.

MY REVIEW
I had already read this book once before and loved it, and the second time around was no different. I was once again swept away into the world of Godspeed with Amy, Elder, and Harley. This book will take you on a wild chase, making you think about who could've done something so horrible as unplug a frozen person when they have no way to get out, to survive. The answer will shock you, just as it shocked me, even the second time around.
There are a lot of things that are shocking about the "utopia" that is created on Godspeed. The most shocking thing about it, however, is the amount of lies that the leader, Eldest, spins to keep the ship "running". It seems that he has absolutely no qualms about murder or even allowing a person to think that they are crazy, when they are the sanest person on the ship. The web of lies never ended, even when the book ends. I'm really glad there are two other books that will probably go deeper into the deception on the ship.
The scene in the beginning with Amy's parents makes me dead sure that I never want to get cryogenically frozen. It's terrifying what happens during the procedure and after. The entire time I was thinking about how it would sort of be like a coma, but instead of growing older, you just stay in the same state you are when you are frozen, and the world goes on without you. That's a frightening thing to think about. Everyone you loved that wasn't frozen with you would be gone, and there are only two ways to look at that; you could cry about it for a while, or you could do what Fry did in Futurama: WOOHOO!
When reading, I started to think about what would happen if I was in Amy's spot and had to live on a ship after being violently waken up and shoved into its crazy society. I realized that I would fit in more than Amy would. True, I do have a very light complexion, but I also have very dark brown hair and brown eyes, so I wouldn't stick out as much as Amy did. I'm not saying that I would want to live on Godspeed, but  at least I would fit in better with the dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyed world that is Godspeed. Amy, however, with her red hair, fair skin, and green eyes, sticks out from the very beginning as a freak, and you can't help but feel sorry for her.
I also loved the importance of art in this book! Harley, one of the main characters, is a fantastic painter who specializes in pretty much anything. He loves painting koi the most because of his past, which is shown in more detail later. Elder said that in one of Harley's paintings, he "used these amazing colors - colors no one else would think of". In a world inside a metal bubble, art is important.
WARNING: This book has some mature content such as rape and suicide. I wouldn't recommend this for people who are too young to understand such concepts, because even for someone as old as me, it was shocking.
This is a book that I would definitely recommend! Though perhaps you should read it when you don't have schoolwork to do...

This is what I imagined one of Harley's paintings to be like.

A LITTLE EXCERPT
Something's happening.
No, no, no. Nothing's happening. Nothing ever happens. It's that nightmare again, that same nightmare. Ed/Hassan will unfreeze me, and I will be like now, and they'll throw me back in. Or the ship will crash, and I'll be stuck here, forever, never unfrozen. Or maybe this is the nightmare where-
Thunk.
-where they forget to unfreeze me at all, the ship lands and everyone's so excited they just leave me behind, and-
Something is happening.
No. The nightmares are getting more real, and they'll be so much worse because of it. I think I hear something. I can't hear anything. It's all in my mind. It's not real. Think about something better. Think about Jason. Think about Mom, about Daddy, think about-
Click.
No. I did not hear a click. A click did not vibrate through the ice. That did not happen. It's just the nightmares... it's another nightmare. It's as simple as that.
If I could, I would squeeze my eyes shut. Instead, I try to focus my mind, like I used to be able to focus my eyes in and out when I looked at something really close. Memories. Memories always kill nightmares.
My mind's eye flashes images, a slide show of memories. Hiking the Grand Canyon. The middle school trip to the beach. Gymnastics when I was a kid. The first time I drove. The first time I scratched the car (same day) and Daddy yelled at me, but got me ice cream afterward anyway, and we pinky- promised not to tell Mom. Baking Christmas cookies with Mom and Grandma the year before she went to the nursing home. Cross-country meets. Marathon training.
I feel something. I feel something. Warmth in my stomach. And I hear... the hum of electricity. I realize I hear it because it is coming from the tubes down my throat.
My body slips. Just a fraction of a millimeter, but it slips.
The ice is melting.
Oh, God.
Thump.
My heart.
Thump-thump.
Water leaks onto my left eye's lash-line. I twitch involuntarily. The yellow crust that has sealed my eyes for who knows how long cracks as - for the first time since I was frozen - I move.
OhGodohGodohGod.
(pages 68-70)

Thanks so much for reading!
See you in the next one!
~Sea-Solo

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Take a tour of Godspeed and more on the trilogy's website!:
http://www.acrosstheuniversebook.com

{A Blast from the Past} The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod: Eighth Grade Bites by Heather Brewer

Today's review is on:

THE SUMMARY

Vladimir Tod

NORMAL EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENT?

OR POWERFUL VAMPIRE?

Junior high really stinks for thirteen-year-old Vladimir Tod. Bullies harass him, the principal is dogging him, and the girl he likes prefers his best friend. Oh, and Vlad has a secret: His mother was human, but his father was a vampire. With no idea of the extent of his powers and no one to teach him, Vlad struggles daily with his blood cravings and his enlarged fangs.When a strange substitute teacher begins to question him a little too closely, Vlad worries that his cover is about to be blown. But then he realizes he has a much bigger problem: He's being hunted by a vampire killer who is closing in - fast! This first book in this ghoulishly funny series leads readers on a nail-biting adventure that is filled with dark characters and mystical glyphs, secret identities and hidden agendas, unearthly powers and teenage angst.

MY REVIEW
I started these books when I was in middle school myself, so reading this one was truly a blast from the past. I loved coming back to the world of Vladimir Tod, a character that I understand now more than 5 years ago. The constant vampire jokes and references made me laugh, and the serious moments filled me with dread.
The characters Otis Otis scared me once again as I was swept into the mind of a young male vampire. Unlike the Twilight saga, love isn't the focus. He has a crush on a girl named Meredith, yes, but Vlad focuses more on the vampire world and his parents. Just like Vlad, you learn things about his parents, their pasts, and also about vampires and how they are.
I am also sympathetic toward Vlad because of the bullying that he receives in the book. I'm sure that many of us know how it is to be in that situation.
Basically, this book is a rollercoaster ride of emotion that I would recommend to anyone. I've really loved re-reading this book. :)

A LITTLE EXCERPT
He was spooning a big, sweet glob of half-frozen blood into his mouth when the doorbell rang. With a hurried swallow, he dropped the empty container into the biohazard box beneath the sink and popped the plastic fangs over his shrinking canines. With careful steps, he snuck over to the wall just to the right of the archway and peeked over at the front door, where his aunt was greeting Henry with a hug.
Vlad jumped out from behind the separating wall and held his cheap cape out with both arms. "I vant to suck your blood!"
Henry doubled over, roaring with laughter. When he straightened he slapped Vlad on the shoulder. "That's a sweet costume. Check me out. You'll just die." Henry placed his fists on his hips in a pseudo-Superman pose, and when he turned his head, Vlad's jaw dropped at the sight of two small holes on Henry's neck.
"No way." He stepped closer to inspect Henry's bite marks. They were flawless. Vlad had only seen one actual vampire bite on a human before, and Henry's handiwork was very close to the real thing. "What did you use?"
"Silly Putty and raspberry jam."
"Seedless?"
"Well, duh. Can't have seeds in my wound. Might get infected."

See you next Saturday!
~Sea-Solo out! :)

To learn more about Vladimir Tod, go here:
http://www.vladtod.com/

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Today's review is on:

The back reads:

R is having a no-life crisis - he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he'd rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 (plane) he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then as his reluctant house guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R's gray landscape, and then something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn't want to eat this girl - although she looks delicious - he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can't imagine, and their hopeless world won't change without a fight.

I really loved this book! Stepping into R's world was fun yet scary, romantic yet bloody! It had enough fighting to keep the tomboy in me content, yet enough romance to bring out that fangirl squeal.

I was relieved to figure out that R wasn't anything like Edward from the Twilight series, other than the fact that he was dead and fell in love with a human girl. The humor in this book was very good, it had me giggling all the way to the movie theatre!

After reading around 75% of the book, I went to go see the movie and loved seeing Isaac Marion's world come to life! No, it wasn't exactly like the book (they left most of the cursing out - yay!) but it had the same story of zombie meets girl and turns into something the world has never seen. Plus, the guy who played R was a total hottie!

Another thing I liked about this book was that every chapter was highlighted with not a chapter number, but a drawing of the insides of the human body. It really gave the book a new type of charm. :)

NOTE: If you don't like a lot of cursing and potty mouths, this might not be a good match for you. Although this book is a good read, I would recommend that only those in High School read this one. It's very teenage mature! That was the only thing that really bothered me about this book.

My favorite part:

"I am dead, but it's not so bad. I've learned to live with it. I'm sorry I can't properly introduce myself, but I don't have a name anymore. Hardly any of us do. We lose them like car keys, forget them like anniversaries. Mine might have started with an "R", but that's all I have now. It's funny because back when I was alive, I was always forgetting other people's names. My friend "M" says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can't smile, because your lips have rotted off."

Well, that's all for this book! I'll see you in the next one!

~Sea-Solo out!

Other Zombie things:

Turn your bf into a sexy zombie!:

Watch this seriously funny parody by the Hillywood Show!: