In Which Trai Reviews 'Willow'

** This review is going to be rife with spoilers, as there is no other way to fully express just what I felt was wrong with this book. **

The Book: Willow

The Author: Julia Hoban

How I Found It: Initially, through browsing the YA section at Borders. This was another library read on my beloved Kobo TARDIS.

The Review: I think I have officially found the worst book I have ever read. This book was even worse than the dreadful Prescription for Romance. TARDIS should be grateful that I love her dearly and would never harm an expensive possession of mine, because if this had been a physical book, I would've been hurling it at the wall.

Now that I've officially raised (lowered?) expectations, let's get on to the actual review, shall we?

Willow is struggling to cope after the death of her parents in a horrible car accident. To make things worse, she is the one who was driving the car--it was the worst rainstorm of the year, Willow only had a permit, and her parents were tipsy and asked her to drive. Now she is living with her older brother, contributing to the family finances in order to make ends meet... and secretly cutting to deal with the pain.

Through her job at the local university library, Willow meets Guy, a boy her age who shares her and her late parents' interest in obscure anthropological texts. Though Willow can barely stand the thought of emotional connections these days, she and Guy begin to talk, but when Guy learns her secret, he becomes convinced that she needs saving. He makes every effort possible to draw Willow out of her depression and stop her self-harming, but in the end, it is Willow who will have to take the initiative to fix things.

This book is a real wall-banger, with two of the most annoying characters I have ever encountered. Guy in particular is someone I would never, ever want to meet in real life based on the actions I will ennumerate below, and since this is at least partially meant to be a romance, I am more than a little certain the author would not want me to feel that way.

First off, we've got Willow herself. She is at least characterized realistically, but that realism made her really annoying to read about in third person limited perspective. Willow does not cut anybody slack. She believes that her tragedy outweighs the mediocre problems in everyone else's lives, that it invalidates everyone else's right to feel. When a girl breaks some lab equipment and cries over it, Willow condemns her mentally, basically saying to herself, what right does this girl have to cry over something so minor? I could really understand that perspective, but geez, it made me lose a lot of sympathy for Willow regardless.

Later on in the novel, Willow has a huge blowup with her brother, where she accuses him of not letting her take care of her young niece because he's afraid that she'll kill her like she did their parents. Her brother makes no effort to smooth things over at first, but his wife leaves Willow an extraordinarily kind and understanding note the next morning. Willow brushes it off with the thought that clearly if Cathy is being that nice, she just doesn't get it. Ugh. Willow was incredibly selfish and even if it was realistic, she was not a person I particularly cared about or wanted to spend time with.

Then there's Guy. I'm pretty sure Guy is the worst hero I have ever encountered in YA or any other literature, and I'm counting Edward Cullen, for whom I have absolutely no warm feelings, in there. How does Guy offend me? Let me count the ways.

* First, there's how he finds out that Willow cuts. They're sitting in a park and Guy invites her to get a cappuccino. Willow believes she can't be making a connection at this point, only seven months after her parents died, declines, and gets up. Guy proceeds to grab her wrist and then try to pull her back down and get her to stay with him. It's a pretense so that he can brush a scabbed-over cut, see the blood, and realize she's a cutter, but no. Just no. You do not grab a girl you've only just met, someone who clearly isn't interested in staying in your company, and beg her to stay with you. That was so creepy and awful.

* Second, the incident that made me realize Guy is dumber than a sack of rocks. Willow has bought some boxes of razors on sale. When they fall from her bag in public, Guy claims she bought them for him to help her save face. Later on, they get into a fight, and he proceeds to throw the box of razors back at her. Even if the razors are safety-wrapped, what genius thinks that's okay?

* Third, the wonderful homophobia and sexism Guy exhibits. He's just sensitive enough to love Shakespeare and the same obscure book that Willow loves, Tristes Tropiques, but just manly enough to call a coffee shop Willow brings him to a "girly place" and say that he wants to get out of there. When Willow says all the guys at her old school used to love it, he says something like, "What kind of guys went to your school, anyway?" Awesome. So the only guys that can like a coffee shop are not masculine enough to be considered men, and probably, by extension, gay, which is apparently a bad thing in your eyes? Seriously, Guy, I'm loving you.

* Fourth, and most egregious, the absolute worst message I have ever seen in a young adult novel: a romance you're not ready for will clearly solve every problem you have! Willow kisses Guy and freaks out, realizing that she's not ready for a relationship. Guy gets mad at her for that, which is a pretty jerky thing to do, considering he knows how difficult and confused a time she's having. Willow kisses him a second time maybe a few days later and is magically ready for... some kind of relationship, I suppose. But then comes the real kicker.

Willow goes back to her old house with Guy. She finally has her first emotional breakdown over the situation, after she realizes she'll never be anyone's daughter again. And then... wait! She's suddenly ready to have sex with a guy she's known barely a month! We get passages like this: “But you’re so shy.” Guy’s voice is soft against her throat as he continues to slide her bra off her shoulders. “And you’re so vulnerable. Please tell me that you’re sure.” So basically, what Guy is saying here is, I don't think you're ready for sex at all, but hey, let me keep taking off your bra!

So they're in the midst of foreplay and Willow asks if he has protection. He has a condom in his wallet, and Willow asks how long it's been there (thankfully). And here's his explanation. Ready? He put it in there very shortly after he met her, because he wanted to be ready for if she needed "protecting" in this way. So ~sexual healing~ is the answer to emotional issues? Really? No. This was the most disgustingly unromantic passage I have ever read. He barely knew her and yet decided to be perfectly prepared to have sex with her. Ew, ew, ew.

After this, we do get resolution on the situation between Willow and her brother, something I actually cared about. The thing that really annoyed me is that, even though Willow's brother realizes she had sex, he doesn't seem in the least bothered by the fact that she's jumping into a relationship she doesn't seem to be emotionally ready for. Their relationship gets no real closure, which was, again, realistic, but not what I look for in a novel.

And then the very end, where Guy is again proven to be the worst hero I've ever read about. He says that now that he's Willow's lover (seriously, have you ever heard a 16- or 17-year-old boy use that term? I'm 20 and I haven't), she has to pick between him or her razor blades. She throws her razor blades into the lake when he basically forces her to, and the end sentence is something about how it's a "beautiful beginning." Um, no, I would consider this a terrifying beginning. She's entered into casual sex she isn't emotionally ready for with a guy who's a perfect mess of stupidity and an utter inability to handle her emotional issues in a mature way. Fantastic!

As you can probably tell by now, I absolutely loathed this book, and feel it sends the worst possible message to teenagers. At the very least, it showed me that professional help is necessary in a situation such as this, because as noble as his intentions were, Guy handled the situation in the worst way, and the ultimate resolution reeked of unfortunate implications (sex solves your emotional problems!). Avoid at all costs.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Before I Fall'

The Book: Before I Fall

The Author: Lauren Oliver

How I Found It: It was getting exceptional reviews for a YA book and I decided to make it the first library ebook I'd read on my wonderful Kobo TARDIS.

The Review: "The point is, we can do things like that. You know why? Because we're popular. And we're popular because we can get away with everything. So it's circular." (14)

Sam, Ally, Elody, and Lindsay are the best of friends... and the best of bullies at their high school. It's their senior year and their main concern on a Friday in February is Cupid Day, where students receive roses from their friends and admirers. Everybody knows that the ones who get the most roses are the most popular, and to Sam and her friends, popularity is paramount.

Everything comes to an end that night. Driving home from a party, Sam and her friends get into a hideous accident, and Sam is killed. No matter what kind of person she was, Sam tells us, surely we don't think she deserved to die that way? Maybe not, but it can't be denied that Sam has done some truly terrible things to people over the years.

Sam is dead... but then why is she waking up again, reliving the events of that Friday? It slowly becomes evident that Sam is in a Groundhog Day-style time loop, reliving that Friday seven times until she figures out why she has been given this last chance to right her wrongs. Is it so she can finally lose her virginity to her boyfriend Rob? Or is it because she's starting to realize that maybe she was wrong to ignore her childhood friend Kent McFuller? Is it because she has to mend her relationship with her family? And what part does a bullied girl named Juliet Sykes play in everything? Sam's seven final days will involve all these things, and in the end, she just might emerge from them a better person.

I've said before that I love ripple-effect stories: stories where we get to witness the effect one person's actions have on numerous other people. This was just what I wanted. Oliver does a great job with not being too repetitive as Sam repeats the day. Each day is almost completely different, and I loved those little variables that kept changing. For example, if Sam and her friends cut off a girl to get the last parking space, that girl is late to swim practice and not allowed to participate in a big competition, so the next time Sam lives that day, she purposely stalls her friend so that the girl can get the parking space. Or Sam and Lindsay's actions or inaction have the potential to expose a male classmate as a cheater to his girlfriend. I give Oliver credit for really keeping track of the characters and exploring different facets of their personalities on different days.

Of the four main girls, the two we get the most of are Sam and Lindsay. I think I remember reading something where Oliver said that she didn't expect, nor want, the reader to love Sam in the end, but to at least understand why Sam might've become a bully. As someone who was bullied myself in middle and high school, I didn't expect to like Sam, but I came to care about her redemption in the end, and I could at least see that it often wasn't Sam's actions that led to the bullying of others--it was her inaction, her refusal to do anything about her friends treating others poorly. It's not excusable, but the other three girls are so strong-willed that it's at least understandable that she wouldn't stand up to them, for fear of losing friends who were at least decent to her if nobody else.

Although the friendship between the four girls is admittedly based on some terrible things, I appreciated that Oliver showed how the girls genuinely did care for each other and protect each other's feelings. There are two sides to these girls: the intensely bitchy, bullying sides, and the vulnerable sides, the sides that hold the secrets they have promised to keep. Each girl has some kind of dark past, either with bullying or family issues, and it never felt overwrought, just realistic. These girls are all somehow damaged and, maybe because of that, seek to take their feelings out on others. As I said before, it doesn't excuse their actions in the least, but it at least made them seem human.

Sam's efforts to fix her actions and mend her relationships with both family and virtual strangers in her school were really well done. Of all the days, I think my favorite was when she skipped school to spend time with her little sister; as a little sister myself, I was really touched by that, and it made me admire Sam for showing enough growth to care about her family's feelings. Even so, Sam reaching out to her classmates showed how far her actions had reached, and how many people her and her friends' bullying had effected. Often, someone will ask Sam why she's talking to them when she bullied them in the past, and when they give her an example, Sam often won't remember it happening. Bullying is shown to be something thoughtless but pervasive, and I think this would be an important read for all teenagers. Though there is, of course, drinking and sexual content for the sake of realism, I think it would be a valuable addition to summer reading lists. A lot could be learned from Sam's path to redemption.

In the end, my main complaint with the book was that no explanation was given for how Sam was living the day over and over. We learn why--what the purpose for it was--but not how. I understand that this is not the type of book that would give the answer, that it would probably get too metaphysical with an explanation, but for a book that was otherwise entirely realistic, an unexplained fantastical element being the main premise left me a little confused.

I'd definitely recommend this one for both young adults and their parents. There is a lot of insight here into bullying and the high school experience, and I hope that others can take away some sort of lesson from Sam and her experiences.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Water for Elephants'

I haven't done this in a while, but I'm reviewing the book and movie in tandem given that I saw the movie barely a day after finishing the book and it seems silly to review them separately!

The Book: Water for Elephants

The Author: Sara Gruen

How I Found It: I decided to act on my longstanding interest in reading the book after seeing Christoph Waltz would star in the movie adaptation (I will follow this man's career to the end after seeing Inglourious Basterds!).

The Review: Jacob Jankowski has ended up on the wrong side of fate. Just as he is about to sit his final exams for his veterinary science degree at Cornell, he is informed that his parents have been killed in a car crash--and that his father defaulted on the second mortgage he took out to pay Jacob's education. Left with nowhere to go, Jacob is wandering along the railroad tracks when a train passes, and he hops on without knowing just what he'll find.

What he does find is the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus run by the tyrannical Uncle Al, who is hell-bent on outperforming the Ringling Brothers. Jacob is tasked with looking after an ill liberty horse, told to fix the problem when it is clear the horse won't last much longer. The performer in the liberty horses act is Marlena, who has such a way with the horses that Jacob is taken with her immediately.

As Jacob begins to perform his duties as the show's official vet, he is drawn closer and closer to Marlena... and Marlena's volatile husband August. The situation isn't helped by the addition of the elephant Rosie to the show; Rosie is allegedly stupid and unable to be taught. Jacob finds himself in love with both Marlena and Rosie--and has to figure out how to protect them both from August's violence.

I don't think I was quite as taken with this book as others were. It rates about three stars for me--I liked it, but I can't say I thought it was anything too amazing, writing-wise. There's an impressive amount of period accuracy and Gruen clearly did her homework many times over, but the writing itself was just basic, nothing too elegant or worth remembering. I wasn't so sure how well the framing device worked for me, either: we open the book with the elderly Jacob in a nursing home, and keep returning to him periodically as the story goes on. The thing is, I start wondering if I can read these sections without laughing when phrases like "my ticker" and "dagnabbit" are thrown around in all seriousness. Towards the end, I did like the elderly Jacob sections, as they gave us a sense of the full life he'd led, but in the beginning, I found myself rolling my eyes a bit at the cheesy language.

My other gripe was about Jacob and Marlena, who were far too flat and uninteresting for my tastes. Jacob is this utter paragon of goodness, to the point that it becomes so boring to read about him! He's the defender of animals and abused women, the type of person who feels immediate shame at guarding the "cooch tent." (All of this would be interesting if he only had flaws. I just wanted the kid to do something wrong once in a while just to prove that he was human.) Marlena comes off as little more than a caricature of a female character of the era, and even her backstory was cliched. I couldn't buy into their romance because I honestly didn't see much substance to it. Jacob seems to fall in love with her because of her prowess with horses and the fact that he (a) can't have her and (b) wants to protect her from abuse. Wanting to protect her is noble, but it just fell flat for me when I couldn't see any other reason to want them to be together. I'm also not a fan of characters falling in love far too quickly (as in, a few days to a few weeks), and that was what happened here.

However, that's not to say the characterizations were all bad. On the contrary, I loved reading about August and Rosie, as well as Jacob's friends Kinko/Walter and Camel. (I think it says something when your villain and an animal character are more interesting than your two leads.) Jacob's friendships with Kinko/Walter and Camel were nicely handled and became touching at the end. August was twisted and sadistic, but that was much more interesting than Jacob's flawlessness. Rosie was amusing and noble, and it was great to read about how she was trained and all the things elephants are capable of. I had no idea they were as smart as they apparently are. This book left me with a newfound appreciation for animals who perform, as long as they're treated well.

That brings me to the issue of appropriateness--I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone younger than 15 or so, or at the very least, a mature 14. I was meant to read this book for my high school book club a few years ago, until the teacher we ran it with read up to the part with the cooch tent and realized it was inappropriate for our younger members! I'm not normally one to object to sexual content in books, but I think this one would be a little too much for younger readers. And then there's something that would really bother sensitive readers and/or animal lovers: the animal abuse. Those were the only parts of the book that had me crying. August beats Rosie on more than one occasion, and it's just hideous to read about. (Not to mention the slightly unorthodox methods of keeping the animals fed and housed, which were cruel.) The animal abuse is certainly period-correct, but it was tough for me to stomach and would definitely bother younger readers.

Overall, I felt the book was a good read, but nothing truly special, due to the flatness of Jacob and Marlena's characterizations and the plain writing style. I think it's a good beach read, something a person could race through in a day or two, but it's not much more substantial than that. However, in one of the only times I will say this, I felt the movie was much better than the book.

Because the characters and story were so outrageous, it just seemed like a story that needed to be seen, not read. All the description in the world can't match the actual sight of the circus acts, or the elephant herself. It was great to actually see the liberty horses, to see the elephant who played Rosie, Tai, get to do the things I was amazed at when I read them in the book.

Jacob and Marlena were played well enough by Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, and their lack of flaws and bland personalities didn't seem to grate at me as much onscreen. I actually enjoyed watching them together and could buy into their physical chemistry. The final sequence of the film (which I won't spoil here) left me crying, and I realized that I felt more for the characters in the film than I did their novel counterparts, a sign that the movie was, in my eyes, better.

Christoph Waltz played August to skin-crawling perfection; the standout scene for me was when he directs Jacob and Marlena to touch each other in front of him under the pretense of dictating a circus act. There were times when I felt it was played a little too well--as I said before, the animal abuse is just too difficult to watch; I ended up crying so much before it even happened that I closed my eyes for the scene when he beats Rosie. Even the sounds of it were horrifying. Again, viewers sensitive to animal abuse should beware.

The movie is definitely worth seeing just for the sights and sounds of the circus, especially Tai the elephant. Towards the end, the film is touchingly handled, and I was able to connect with it emotionally in a way I hadn't for the book. I never thought I'd say this, but the movie was better than the book, in my opinion, and comes highly recommended from me!

In Which Trai Reviews 'Something Borrowed: The Movie'

This is so, so late and I apologize, but the good news is that I'm done with my semester! Summer break is here and I have invited a new member into my reading family: my new Kobo, who I have christened TARDIS. With TARDIS on hand, I have access to tons of library eBooks, to say the least! Now onto the movie review!

I reviewed the novel Something Borrowed last June, and have since become a great fan of Giffin's writing. She explores very complex emotional situations with depth and sincerity, and I could easily identify with Giffin's protagonist, Rachel. I was really looking forward to seeing the movie after seeing the trailer, and the movie definitely didn't disappoint.

A brief recap of the plot: Rachel White met Dex Thaler in law school, and while she always had a crush on him, she never admitted it to Dex, and came to regret it when her always-one-better best friend, Darcy Rhone, claimed him for her own, beginning a relationship with him almost as soon as Rachel introduces them.

Fast forward to Rachel's thirtieth birthday. Darcy and Dex's wedding is fast approaching, and Rachel is the maid of honor. After one too many drinks, Rachel and Dex end up in a cab together after everyone else has gone home, and they kiss... and then find themselves in bed together the next morning. They could both put the incident behind them as a drunken mistake, except that they realize they weren't that drunk, and that they might, in fact, have feelings for each other. They begin an affair even as the wedding date approaches, but therein lies the rub: is Dex really going to cancel the wedding, or will Rachel end up brokenhearted?

I think I did end up having one problem here--while Rachel and Dex are likable people and well-played by Ginnifer Goodwin and Colin Egglesfield, I couldn't help remembering that, well, I liked Something Blue better just because I found Ethan (John Krasinski, the absolute highlight of the movie) and Darcy (Kate Hudson, convincingly bitchy) to be a more compelling pair. As I watched the movie, I couldn't help but remember that Rachel and Dex just weren't as vibrant and fun to read about as Ethan and Darcy. Some of that comes through on the screen. We don't quite get the same sense of their personalities as we do from the book, where we become more intimately familiar with Rachel's thoughts and feelings, and get a better sense of the time she spends with Dex.

With that aside, though, I loved almost everything about how the movie turned out. As I said above, I adored how Ethan was portrayed. John Krasinski does an absolutely hilarious job and I approved the filmmakers' choice to condense Hillary and Ethan into one character. It always did feel a little too unbelievable to me to have two people in Rachel's life know about and encourage the affair. Krasinski really did make the viewer see Ethan's concern for Rachel, and their friendship was played beautifully, except for one big divergence from the book.

** Spoilers Ahoy! **

Ethan admits fairly late in the movie that he has feelings for Rachel, or did in the past. It's meant to be a parallel to Rachel always being second to Darcy in people's affections--that in Rachel's, Ethan is second to Dex--but it just felt too forced to me. I totally believed him as her best friend, but not as someone who'd always been secretly in love with her. Then again, his confession scene made my mother cry, so your mileage may vary!

** End Spoilers. **

Arguably, the most important dynamic in the movie is between Darcy and Rachel, and I think the movie nailed it. The sleepover and dance routine scene from the novel was kept, and worked really well. We get that same sense of Rachel's conflicted loyalties--her love for Dex as well as her friendship with Darcy, despite how badly Darcy has treated her over the years. Their friendship was shown so effectively that I was crying during the confrontation scene, and felt truly sad at seeing the friendship end, because even though the friendship was toxic, Darcy and Rachel had still been friends, period. Kudos to Goodwin and Hudson.

There was definitely some comedy thrown in, to fit in with the genre, but I really did laugh at it. I loved Rachel pulling a muscle "near her vagina" in the club, and Ethan's remarks ("Shit! Why am I in this?!" at the slideshow in the beginning, his explanation to Claire on why he can't be with her) often made the scenes he was in. Romantic comedies can be silly and even stupid at times, but I actually did enjoy the humor in this one.

Overall, I really think that fans of Giffin's novel will be well pleased at the result, just as I was. If anything, see it to raise the chance that Something Blue gets made (and stay for the credits; there's a teaser there!), because after seeing their performances in this movie, I'm truly eager to see Krasinski and Hudson reunite as a romantic pair! Very much recommended to fans of the book.

In Which Trai Reviews 'Feed'

** Spoilers ahoy: vague references to the ending and bleak tone overall. **

The Book: Feed

The Author: M.T. Anderson

How I Found It: It was always a title I heard bandied about in the world of YA scifi and fantasy, but I never picked it up until it was assigned to me this semester in Young Adult Lit.

The Review: I think Amazon.com knows a bit too much about me. It analyzes my trends and throws products at me that it thinks I'll like. I just clicked through to the site, and the front page is plastered with Doctor Who products for me to consider, as I'd been looking at the page for The Glamour Chase earlier as I composed my review.

Going over to the "My Amazon.com" section, I look at what's been recommended for me: a whole host of Disney movies (because I recently purchased Tangled), a reasonable chunk of Jane Austen paraliterature (because I've indicated that I own quite a few), more Doctor Who products (... I'm not in too deep; what're you talking about). They've pinned me and my current interests down fairly easily. I'm sure I'll be moseying on over to the page when I'm looking for something to read/watch, etc.

Then there's the slightly disconcerting emails I've been getting from Borders. As an example, two purchases I made there: Maggie Stiefvater's Linger and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. About a month after I made each purchase, I got an email inviting me to review the products. But not a generic email--oh, no. No, they included the exact editions I bought. I was a bit freaked out when I saw them. They're tracking my shopping habits? Why?

I give you this tangent because it's exactly what Feed is about. It's basically the precursor to the film Wall-E (which I've only seen once, because I consider it eminently depressing). It shows us a consumerist culture where everyone has a "feed" in their brains, putting everything at a person's fingertips. Shopping, TV and movies, a Wikipedia-esque access to facts and details, communications reminiscent of texting and instant messaging: all there inside your brain.

Titus and his friends are normal teenagers, almost slavishly obeying their feeds and never questioning. Everything changes when they take a trip to the moon, where they meet Violet--a girl who can write with pen and paper, who wants to resist the feed and the consumerism it promotes. While Titus, his friends, and Violet are partying at a club, their feeds are attacked by a politically active hacker who wants to spread his anti-feed message.

During a few days in the hospital where their feeds are offline, Titus and Violet find themselves growing closer. Once they emerge from the hospital with their feeds online, they decide to pursue a relationship--Violet wants to open Titus' eyes to the events in the outside world he chooses to ignore, whereas Titus' curiosity about Violet's ways rises. Even as disturbing events grip the two of them--Violet's feed begins to seriously malfunction, mysterious "lesions" cause citizens' skin to fall off--Titus and Violet push each other into unfamiliar territory, learning about each other all the while.

Feed paints a bleak, timely, and prescient look at our society, but one I didn't feel was original enough to interest me. As you can tell from my above tangent, I think Feed is an accurate representation of today's consumer culture. It also has some disturbing predictions about what might be on the horizon in the next couple decades: the President is hideously inarticulate and uses the word "thing" in lieu of the word he can't find. Titus' father tries to "chat" him (the equivalent of instant messaging) and is reluctant to talk to him face to face. A person can get a tattoo that forces them to say a company name in every sentence.

There is no happy ending here--how could there be? And sorry to say that I don't think I felt for any of the characters. Violet: her being educated and politically aware was revolutionary in itself, given the average level of knowledge among Titus and his friends (the scene where no one remembers the origins of the Kent State riots, among others--only that they're the namesake of an awesome "riot chic" clothing line... shudder!). But what else was she really doing to fight the feed? I wanted more rebellion, wanted her to be more like the hacker we see in the first part. Titus and his friends: ultimately, they're all jerks. You think Titus would be transformed by his experience, but he ricochets between that and that same old consumerism, so what the book leaves us with is the feeling that this can't be escaped. Cheery, ain't it?

Stylistically, the book is well put-together and well-written. Anderson intercuts his prose with jarring end-of-chapter blips from Titus' feed, never letting the reader ignore it, which is as it should be. The communication, and failure to do so, between the characters is accurately represented. All of this is wonderful, but what did the book really give us? A look at a terribly depressing society, with no chance of escape and no rebellion that's really succeeding all that much. I wanted there to be more rising up, and I didn't get that. It wasn't what I was expecting of a YA dystopian; I'll give it that much. So anyone who's looking for a real revolution-against-the-government dystopian story should look elsewhere, but anyone who's interested in an incredibly bleak but well-structured YA commentary on the consumer culture should look here. It's written well and comments on what it set out to comment on, but there's not much original about it and the characters aren't as sympathetic as they could have been. What it comes down to is that your mileage may vary!

In Which Trai Reviews 'Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase'

The Book: Doctor Who: The Glamour Chase

The Author: Gary Russell

How I Found It: As I stated in my last review, I've become a tad enamored with Doctor Who. Really, just a bit. (*cough*)

The Review: The Doctor, Amy, and Rory have landed on Earth in 1936--a far cry from Rio, which is what they were aiming for. The TARDIS has picked up some kind of distress signal, and of course they'd like to help.

Just as it always does, the situation becomes more complicated for the Doctor and his companions. Rory realizes that Oliver Marks, a local man, is suffering from PTSD, which is poorly understood in 1936 and more than likely related to whatever extraterrestrial threat is approaching. The Doctor is certain something off about their host, Nathaniel Porter, and his two wives: the first Mrs. Porter, dead from mysterious circumstances, and the current, an archaeologist named Enola who's going to dig up the remains of an alien ship, the Exalted, which crashed in the town over four thousand years before.

And Amy? Well, Amy's not acting like herself. She knows perfectly well the Doctor isn't from Mars, so why does she say he is? Why does she know of Enola Porter, while the Doctor and Rory don't? The Doctor and Rory are running out of time to figure out what's going on, and if they fail, the entire town might fall to the threats of the malevolent Tahnn.

In order to decide which Doctor Who novels to read, I looked at reviews from various outlets. Without fail, the reviewers were (of course) avid Whovians who could comment on characterization (the most important part, to me; I've read some dreadful tie-in novels), plotting, and if it actually feels like an episode of the show. The reviews for this one were almost overwhelmingly positive, and all of them complimented the characterization of Rory, my current favorite character on the show and one who doesn't get quite enough love. He's mainly been second fiddle to the Doctor and Amy so far, something I'm hoping will change this series, so it was really nice to see a writer give him the spotlight.

Amy's not much of a figure here, but she felt pretty in character to me (and had more of an appreciation for Rory than she does in the show proper, which was nice). The characterizations of the Doctor (Eleven, in Whovian parlance) and Rory, individually and together, are the real standout of this novel. Rory gets some backstory (a touching anecdote about nursing a childhood friend, some light shed on his motivations for becoming a nurse, and a glimpse into his feelings during the years Amy was waiting for the Doctor). He is portrayed as a competent and caring nurse, and the Doctor learns to value and appreciate his insight. A favorite exchange of mine: "Rory, you are more magnificent than I thought you were before... I've said that a lot lately, like I expected you to be a bit dim. I'm sorry, I had no right to treat you that way" (185). They get several touching moments and Russell gave them a great dynamic; I'd like to see him do another novel with these characters.

The Doctor is almost entirely spot on; Russell captured his manic energy, impatience with humans, and more-than-occasional ridiculousness quite well. I loved an early scene that just about summed him up:

"Doctor?"

"Quiet, Rory, I'm talking to a sheep."

Baaaaa.

"All right, strictly speaking, I'm talking at a sheep, but I'm pretty sure I'm getting through." The Doctor sniffed. "Blimey, Mr. Sheep, you smell bad. No... wait... nope, you're all right, I smell bad. Wow. That is bad. Sorry."

Baaaaa.

"Absolutely." (48)

Russell also sneaks in a reference or two to the Doctor's previous incarnation (Ten, as played by David Tennant), and those made me very happy, since the Doctor's other incarnations aren't referenced much at all in the show itself now. There was one weak moment that distracted me: the Doctor having trouble remembering the name of Nathaniel Porter's cook. Really? The Doctor, who makes it his duty to know everyone's name, so much so that it was a plot point and defining character moment in "The Vampires of Venice"? I couldn't see it and it made me knock a few points of the characterization tally, but other than that, everything was fantastic.

Okay, so some of the aliens were a little bit silly. We've got the good, woolly aliens--the crew of the Exalted, known as the Weave--and the bad aliens, the Tahnn. The woolly aliens were a little bit much for me to take, and overall their concept seemed just a bit to similar to the Autons. Same function--duplicating a human host--but with wool instead of plastic. Really? That was something I think should have been tweaked and changed. One of the opening scenes where we see the Tahnn's reign of destruction on the little village is pretty horrific, as is their effect on Oliver Marks (whose PTSD is touchingly portrayed), so I give them good marks.

I'm not quite sure I caught every nuance of the plot--the names of the Weave, which were solely numbers, kept throwing me off, so by the end I was slightly muddled but catching on. This is one, though, that I definitely wouldn't mind rereading a time or two--it did some things better than the show did and was a quick read to boot. If you're a Whovian looking for something to while away the wait between an episode or a Rory fan like myself, I definitely recommend this one! (Not for non-Who fans; I'm betting they'd be a bit lost.)

In Which Trai Reviews 'Growing Pains'

Again, as ever this year, my sincerest apologies for the lack of reviews lately. My time has been yet again monopolized by school, and things will slow down just a few weeks from now, so I'll hopefully be able to pick up my slack during the summer.

The Book: Growing Pains

The Author: Billie Piper

How I Found It: I'm now desperately in love with Doctor Who, and I loved Billie Piper's role on the show, Rose Tyler, and her acting in general.

The Review: Only my love for Billie Piper could have tempted me to read this. I don't normally go for nonfiction, but when I looked up Billie on Wikipedia, I was struck by how interesting and inspiring her early life sounded. She was only 23 when she released this book sometime in 2006 or so, and it sounds absurd--a 23-year-old having enough life experience to fill a book? But she had enough and more, and I was surprised at how much depth and relevance her story still has five or so years later.

At 15 years old, Billie was signed to Innocent Records, pushed to be an artist with the longevity of Madonna and the success of the Spice Girls. It was a pretty tall order for a 15-year-old, and you can't help but wonder what her team was thinking. Billie was more than game, looking forward to fame and money and with an endlessly positive attitude, but upon recording her first single, she started to feel like it wasn't what she wanted. She could sing, but not quite well enough to be a true performer, but she pushed on and decided to stay in the business for the sake of the people making their living off of her.

Billie had already been growing up far too young--she was an only child for the first seven years of her life, but then her mother had three children in three years, which lead to a nervous breakdown for Billie's mother and the responsibility of parenting her siblings for Billie. After loving acting classes as a child, Billie made it into the Sylvia Young Theatre School, and from there her singing career kicked off.

The pressures of her singing career and personal life ended up putting Billie into a destructive spiral. A television presenter's comment about her being fat sparked a two year battle with anorexia and laxative abuse, which led to many painful health problems. Her manager warned her not to date a member of a boy band, saying that it would make her core audience (young girls who would fantasize about dating that same boy band member) hate her. They dated anyway, and it quickly led to Billie receiving hate mail and being poorly received at her concerts.

All of that would change when she got married, at 18, to Chris Evans, a DJ and television host sixteen years her senior who literally saved her life. Billie left the music world in order to be a wife and, eventually, an actress, something she's kept doing ever since.

Just reading what I saw of her life story on Wikipedia had already endeared me to Billie, and I knew I'd probably really like the book, but I didn't expect to love her even more and find the book truly life-affirming. This one is a keeper and something I will be re-reading and recommending to friends of mine.

For one thing, I was stunned at how incredibly honest and candid Billie was about her struggles and mistakes. She is fully willing to talk about her struggles with anorexia and even an attempt at suicide, and admits freely that the way she treated her friends and family oftentimes was wrong. She was humble and totally honest about her shortcomings and feelings during what must have been incredibly turbulent times, and I was stunned at how much she'd had to go through.

What touched me the most were the details of her struggle with anorexia. Several people I knew in high school have struggled with eating disorders, and while I knew bits and pieces of what it was like for them, I'd never really read a true firsthand account until now. No detail is spared, and it's wrenching to read but painfully true. Billie doesn't divulge every detail, in order not to give anyone ideas, but she urges those who are struggling to get help, and the fact that she was able to recover from her eating disorder is ultimately hopeful. I certainly felt a little better about myself after reading it--she had the same insecurities about herself that I'd had when I was a bit younger, and it really made me realize that she's just a person, too.

The insight into the music industry was also interesting in a really twisted way. I liked that what Billie went through seems to have soured her team on putting another artist that young up to the rigors of the industry. It's truly sad how much she had to deal with on her own: "It had been eight months of non-stop work, I'd barely been home, I was tired, I'd split up with my boyfriend in Swindon and I'd had to deal with my first period with no one to confide in" (34). She was living in a hotel room on her own at 15, and I'm sure that this type of thing is still going on with the young Disney performers and such today. It was the lack of supervision that did her the most harm, something she admits. I'd never considered how quickly backlash could happen, either. Her manager's bit about not dating a boy band member and all the hate she received was really an eye-opener, considering the behavior of some of the tweenybopper fans that are around today.

Overall, I was truly surprised at how much I ended up loving this book. Billie went through a lot, but she managed to emerge from it a funny, kind, self-aware person who has a lot of love for the people she's worked for and a lot of advice to give. My favorite bit: "Then I thought, ‘You’ve got to sharpen up, girl, sort it out. Be more headstrong and believe in yourself more. Because if you don’t, why should anyone else?'" (286-7).

The story was emotional (I was crying when she recounted her almost attempt at suicide, and when she finally found happiness again on the set of Doctor Who) and I think that Doctor Who fans would enjoy it in particular, because it gives a ton of insight on what she has in common with Rose and why she was chosen for the role, which made me appreciate her work on the show all the more. It's a story of hope and figuring out what you love to do, and for that reason I'd recommend it to almost anyone, but in particular those who are struggling or have struggled with eating disorders, any young person thinking about going into a music career (there's some salty language and a bit of content, so perhaps no one younger than 15 or 16), or someone who loves Billie's work as an actress. This one's a keeper.