Book Review: ELEANOR & PARK

Last Monday I finished reading the novel ELEANOR & PARK by Rainbow Rowell. Here's a photo of the lovely cover:

(I love how all that white space really makes Eleanor and Park pop. But I digress.)

The story centers around two teenagers named--you guessed it--Eleanor and Park. It's 1986, and Eleanor has just returned to her family after a tumultous year away. For the sake of not giving too much away, I'll just say that Eleanor's home life isn't the best. The kids at her new school don't make it any better: Eleanor isn't the prettiest girl, and her peers are sure to let her know of it. Everyone except Park, that is. He lets her sit next to him on the bus that first day of school, and you can probably guess where it goes from there.

I know what most of you are thinking: Great, another teen romance that ends in tragedy. Who woulda thunk it? And to a degree you may be right; this book is heavy on the romance, but unlike other YA novels in the game, the relationship between Eleanor and Park feels refreshingly authentic. It's a simple love story structured over one school year, with some very traditional tropes added in. We get the first hand-hold, the first kiss, the meeting of the parents (for one side of the relationship, anyway), and the first date. But the way Rowell presents these events livens what some may go into thinking is a story "just like the rest of them." The alternating points of view allows the reader to get into the head of both Eleanor and Park, which could easily make this appeal to guys reluctant to pick up a book they may think is some measly romance novel. The 1980s setting also brings something fresh to the table. Without Internet and cell phones and all the problems that come with all these modern techonologies in terms of relationships, Eleanor and Park must bond and communicate over different things, such as listening to the Smiths on cassette tapes or reading the latest issue of Watchmen during their morning bus rides. While I appreciated Rowell mixing it up in terms of time period, something in me as a reader almost wanted the book to have more of an 80s feel. Maybe something like a scene at a heavy metal/rock concert could've been a great way for Rowell to play a bit more with her chosen time period, but then again that's just me. She kept it simple, which isn't a bad thing when it's done this well.

Like I said above, the book hinges on the romance between the two leads, and while some may find the relationship between Eleanor and Park to be oversentimental or cliched, I thought Rowell pulled it very well. Eleanor and Park's courtship is approached in a slow, almost timid way that is perfect for the kind of story being told. This is a story of one's first true love, and getting the feeling that Eleanor and Park have no idea what they're doing not only makes perfect sense, but adds even more authenticity to this story. I found myself having flashbacks of my own first crush and first kiss.

I can see the ending being very polarizing; at first I wasn't sure what to make of it myself. But I feel like after having some time to think about it, what transpires makes a lot of sense. I'm also a sucker for non-traditional endings, which is definitely what we get here.

Overall, I really enjoyed ELEANOR & PARK. It's a great, quick read for anyone--young or old--who enjoys a refreshing take on an otherwise traditional plot. A book that will make you feel warm and fuzzy inside on one page, and wildly nostalgic to the days of innocent first love on another, this is one I'll be recommending for quite some time. A-

Mortal Instruments: City of Bones Movie REVIEW

Hey there, Interfase!

So when I rebooted this blogging machine (come to think of it, that was exactly a month ago today!), I floated around the possibility of posting reviews. And now here I am, tired of talking about myself in these posts and ready to dive into this blog's first ever review!

Our lucky item of review is...THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES

(Is it bad that I prefer this poster over the one with all the characters on it? It is? Ah, well.)

I've been a fan of Cassandra Clare's MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series for a long time; I read the first book in 7th grade, and loyally followed her when she wrote the INFERNAL DEVICES trilogy (boy, do I LOVE that trilogy! I'm using a lot of parentheses in this post, aren't I?). I was excited when a movie adaptation was announced, and though some of the casting had me skeptical at first, I wasn't going to let it stop me from seeing the movie.

I went into the theater with medium expectations; I saw it this past Saturday, meaning it had been out for a few weeks and I'd had a chance of reading most of the unforunate reviews coming out about the film. SN: If you want a thorough and hilarious review of this film, check out the one by Christine Riccio here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFvp9Vcv-1w

Actually, just check out as many videos of hers as possible; they're great watches if you're an avid book/book-to-movie nerd like me!

For me, the movie suffered from two very major problems, most notably how underdeveloped the world presented to us was. Anyone who has read Clare's novels knows how intricate the world she's created is, with Nephilim, fae, and Mortal Cups galore! However, the film either glazes over important information or leaves it out entirely. It was almost like the filmakers expected everyone in the audience to have read the books and had a clear understanding of how the rules in this world work. Like seriously, it's not that hard to dedicate a few moments to properly explain who the Silent Brothers are! And also, how are we gonna leave out Idris?!?

Some of you probably have no idea what I'm talking about here. This is my first warning to read the book before you see this movie.

And here's my second: The movie, in my opinion, fails to give us a firm grasp on any of these characters. Characters with prominent roles in the book, particularly Alec (played by Kevin Zegers), have their roles diminished in place of fight scenes that, while necessary, go on for way too long. Instead of getting to know these characters--who they are, why we as the audience should care for them--we're watching attractive people we barely know, with funky tattoos whose meaning are never explicitly explained, throw themselves at demons and vampires. Because of this, I couldn't connect with these characters as easily as I could with their book counterparts. This has nothing to do with the acting; despite initial reservations, I thought most of the actors did very well in the roles they were given, with the exception of one or two (I'm looking at you, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine. Seriously, who thought that hair-piece was a good idea?)

One of the most important jobs of this first movie was not only to develop the world and characters inhabiting it, but the relationship between protagonist Clary Fray (Lily Collins) and spit-fire Shadowhunter Jace Wayland (Jamie Campbell Bower). Even if you've never a word of this book, you know from the previews that the story between these two is quite important. Collins and Campbell-Bower admirably attempt to pull this off, but the script and direction is hammered down with so many unfortunate cliches that the romance comes across as corny and inauthentic. What should've been moments of romance and tension turned out to be unfortunately laughable. One scene involving a Portal and petting hand made me burst out laughing, despite my best efforts to keep it in.

Though there were some unfortunate (and big) mistakes this film made, the acting did redeem it somewhat. Like I said before, most of the actors owned their roles, even with limited screentime. Most of the visual effects translated well, too. So...there's that.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES had great potential to be a great book-to-film adaptation and a successful start to a great franchise. Unfortunately, with the problems mentioned above, I feel like the direction the film took hurts its chances of becoming the respected franchise it deserved to be. With the second film, CITY OF ASHES, apparently still happening, I guess we can hope that the filmakers will learn from their mistakes and make a film that is consistent, entertaining, and free of terrible romance cliches.

What did YOU think of the movie? If you were a fan of the books going into the film, how did seeing it effect your viewing of the series, if at all? And if you'd never heard of the books before, did seeing the movie make you want to read them? Let me know in the comments or via my Twitter @DustinVann, and be sure to check out Christine's video review of the movie (Beware of spoilers, however!)

Until next time,

Dustin

My Writing Journey So Far - Part 2

Okay, guys. So...it's been a bit.

Let me start off by apologizing about the delay! I recently started my sophomore year of college, and that combined with other personal shenanagins in my life prevented me from posting this sooner.

Ah, excuses, excuses! I've said I wanted to stay on top of this blog when I first revamped it, and hopefully I can do just that. And hopefully the latter part of my story will have been worth the wait for you all. Because, apart from the stories I've created from my own imagination, I feel that this is one of the most important stories I have to tell.

If any of you need a refresher on where we left off, here's a mini-recap: After completing my first manuscript at 14, I sent queries off to agents, not really knowing a thing about agents or what to expect. I received a positive response from an associate agent who kindly helped me edit my manuscript. Though I thought this would lead to an offer of representation and all my dreams would come true just like that, the agent ultimately couldn't do so. I was disappointed, but eventually came to accept that this was the best possible thing to happen to me. I was able to grow, to go on to write stories that would further change me as both a writer and person.

And now, we have finally reached the "Part 2" of this post! Hold on tight....

I was in the midst of completing the second installment of my five-book fantasy series when I received that fateful email from Associate Agent. Like I said before, I was crushed, but continued working on the sequel while simultaneously editing the first manuscript. Then my sophomore year came, and that's when The Idea came.

No, I did not accidently capitalize The Idea; it was definitely for dramatic effect. Because this Idea was the one that changed everything for me. A writing assignment for my 10th grade Honors English class that would start as a trickle and quickly pool over into an idea that would become the piece of work I'm most proud of, the piece of work I love the most and sincerely hope I can share with you all one day.

This is the part of my journey where I introduce you to LOVECHILD.

I won't say much about the plot of LOVECHILD here (look for that in a future post!); I'll reserve talk of it here to how I was inspired to write and my crazy, whirlwind journey with it the past 3 years and counting. As mentioned above, LOVECHILD was born out of a writing assignment in my sophomore Honors English class. My teacher, Mrs. Lynn Butler, had my class of 10 rifle through various copies of PostSecret confession books. For those of you unfamiliar with what PostSecret is, I recommend checking it out --it's quite the fascinating site that some of you may have posted on already.

I went into the assignment with the intent to have finished and turn it in. Don't get me wrong, the assignment did excite me to a degree, especially when I settled on the secret I would write my short story over--a secret that simply read "I'm the product of adultery"--but this was when I was still heavily invested in my fantasy series. It wasn't until after I'd turned the assignment in that the idea came roaring back to life into my head and transforming into The Idea. I soon made the decision to put aside my fantasy series to work full-time on LOVECHILD, a decision that wasn't as agonizing as one would think. Without diving much into the story of my shelved fantasy series, it was basically Charmed with fraternal twins instead of three sisters. Plus, once the thought of turning my school assignment into a novel came to fruition, I couldn't think of writing anything else. The idea of LOVECHILD excited me more than any of my previous writing efforts, and I soon began a feverish writing-spree that reached its climax in mid-June 2010, when I completed the first draft of LOVECHILD.

Of course I wanted to submit right away (this was when I was still naiive about a little thing called Editing), but I believed the manuscript was good enough to catch the eye of one agent in particular--that's right, Associate Agent. Only now Associate Agent was an Agent herself, and I felt that since she already knew my work, perhaps she would like LOVECHILD enough to give it a read. I whipped up a fashionable query letter and sent it her way, anxiously awaiting a response.

I didn't have to wait long: The next day, Agent asked to read the first 50 pages, which I promptly sent. Then, two days later, she seemed to be impressed enough to want to read the remainder of the manuscript. I was ecstatic over her zealous response, and in my glee sent the rest of my little passion project. This was it, I told myself and no one else. I was convinced this would be the last query letter I'd ever have to send; Agent would take me on as a client, help me revise my manuscript, and we would be submitting to editors before I started my junior year of high school.

Obviously, this did not happen. Sometime later, Agent got back to me, informing me that she'd shared LOVECHILD with her assistant, and that Assistant wanted to send me some notes on the manuscript. It was an unexpected response--clearly not the one I'd manically devised in my head--but I was excited nonetheless. LOVECHILD had to have struck their attention in a positive way if they wanted to give me notes on it. So I took the nice, detailed notes I got from Assistant and set to work on incorporating them into the manuscripte, hoping that when I returned my new-and-impoved book their way, it would finally be good enough to warrant the "Yes" that had evaded me for so long.

I returned the improved manuscript, and though Assistant told me she loved the changes and that her and Agent agreed that I was very talented, my work wasn't ready to represented just yet. She introduced me to the lovely thing known as line-editing, and encouraged me to submit to other agents.

Initially, I was crushed. I'd been so convinced that this time was it. I'd yearned to have someone on my team, to make it known that someone important in the literary world respected my work enough to become its advocate. The fact that I was back to square one once more was devastating.

But you know what? Once I dove back into revising, began to mingle with the characters and story I'd created that summer, I developed a further appreciation for the opportunities I'd been given. Though I would've loved for Agent to have taken me on as a client, I can't help but feel that she was right not to. I needed more time. Time to grow as a writer and person with a story that would, over time, become so much more meaningful to me.

And I did. My junior year I took AP Language as my English class, taught by the always awesome Katie Pearson. Her class, with its compelling readings that spurred interesting discussions and creatively fulfilling writing assignments, delivered a new sense of clarity to me and how I look at writing. Taking that class changed me into the type of writer I now aspire to be, a writer I never thought I could be. As I continued to revise LOVECHILD and submit query letters to numerous agents, I began writing another project, JESSE McQUEEN, that I felt was one of my most ambitious works yet. It took me nearly 2 years to complete a first draft, and it wasn't an easy manuscript to write, but I'm fully convinced I couldn't have written it the way I did if it weren't for my experiences not only in AP Lang, but my brief brush with the publishing world months before. Like LOVECHILD, it's another project I sincerely hope to share with the world one day.

To this day I continue to work on LOVECHILD, and Agent isn't the only agent I've received a positive response from. In the 3-plus years I've been submitting and the steady flow of rejections I've received, five other agents have requested to read LOVECHILD in its entireity, mostly at different stages of its evolution. I even had 2 agents reading it at the same time once, about a year or so back! Unfortunately, none of those stories ended in an offer of representation; with some I didn't even get a clear reason as to why they didn't wish to pursue LOVECHILD further. But with each disappointment, I've learned. I've grown more resilient, and I've grown to love this manuscript so much more than I ever thought possible. I like to refer to LOVECHILD as my "Little Book That Could"; it started out as a simple idea that has branched out into an Idea that I believe can be. Through the numerous drafts and occasional nitpicking I still do to the manuscript, I never grow tired or reentering this world I've created. I've come close way too many times to abandon it; call me Corny McCornster, but I feel in my heart that one day the right agent will read LOVECHILD. And one day, LOVECHILD will be published.

Of course, my journey still continues; I'm still submitting LOVECHILD to agents, but I'm also working on other projects. This past summer I spontaneously set to work on a manuscript for a story that had been dormant in my head for years. And that, my readers, my friends, whatever you fancy yourself to be called, is the beauty of this thing called Writing: Like the characters us writers create on the page, we ourselves have the opportunity to grow and evolve. Our personal stories can move in unexpected twists, just as we sometimes move our own characters in their destined paths. We develop and flesh out (hopefully in a positive way), and we find ourselves a different person than we were at the beginning, just as we hope we've achieved with our own imaginary characters. Unlike these characters, though, our story doesn't have to end. We can keep going, moving forward toward our ultimate goal no matter what seemingly impossible obstacles lay ahead. If you're anything like me, that sounds like a story I'd not only like to live--ups and downs and everything in between--but live as well.

I hope you all enjoyed the rest of my Story So Far. Feel free to comment/share your story with me too, if you have one. And if I haven't bored you to tears yet, you can follow me on Twitter (@DustinVann) if you'd prefer to chat there!

Until next time,

Dustin