Book Review: Angels and Demons

So the movie came out the other day. Then I remembered- wait, I've read that book. I should probably do something about that.

THE BASICS: Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor and symbologist, is called to investigate a mysterious murder in which the victim was branded with a strange symbol. The symbol, he discovers, is that of an ancient, thought to be extinct group called the "Illuminati" who's greatest opposition was the Catholic church. With the help of Vittoria Vetra, a biology and physics major, and the daughter of the victim, he unravels a conspiracy that threatens the entire future of the Catholicism.

THE CHARACTERS: Robert Langdon is very intelligent, but not obnoxiously so, and, despite his somewhat humorous quirks, or perhaps because of them, he is actually really likable. As much as I liked Vittoria, she didn't feel necessary to the plot. *Spoilers* Her kidnapping later on added some drama sure, but was it completely necessary? *End Spoiler* However, if I were the author, I suppose I would have kept her in too. Like I said, I really did like her.

TECHNICAL STUFF: This is actually a rather easy read. That isn't a condemning factor however. There's some complex stuff packed in here, and it's nice that I don't have to be a Harvard graduate to figure it all out.

However, it's fatal flaw is the same flaw that many in the mystery genre posses- it's too predictable. I knew who the bad guy was. It wasn't obvious, but that's the point. It's never the obvious one. Once you figure out the guy who is least likely to have done it, you've found your villain.

THE THEME: Things are never the way they appear. (I suppose this is a rather cliched moral to a mystery story, but it really is a prevalent factor in this story.)

OVERALL: I liked this book quite a bit. Is it biased in some of it's beliefs? Perhaps. This holds true to all the Dan Brown books I've read. But it held the same opinion as I did. So I didn't especially care.

GRADE: B

A Brief Re-Cap of this Year

It's that time of year again! Namely, the end of it. The school part anyway.

This year has been memorable for many serious, funny, and just plain odd reasons. For example, I found out about a new talent I had. Turns out, I can act! Who new?

Just to recap, I was in the most advanced choir group this year, I was a lead in one play, a prominent side character in another (which, yes, I still need to put up pictures for), the object of many boy's affections (5 actually), read some amazing books, went to Disneyland, got a 103% in my English class, discovered a new love for biology, and a new hatred for geometry.

So honestly, I think Sophomore year has been my most memorable yet. I think I'll be sad to leave it.

Shauntel's List of Things She Hates that are Commonly Done in Books and Movies Much to her Endless Annoyance

Writing my review of "Thief of Lives" got me thinking about some of the things I hate in that are commonly done in stories. Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk about them quite as much as I might've liked to in the book review, so I thought I'd just give them their own post. So with much excitement, I present to you "Shauntel's List of Things She Hates that are Commonly Done in Books and Movies Much to her Endless Annoyance".

*Note* This is in no specific order. FYI

*Another Note* The books that are given as examples of something that didn't do whatever thing I was talking about are all ones that seemed to set up for it and then didn't. I didn't just go out and choose some books at random to use as fodder.

1. Predictable Endings
Almost every story you've ever heard of falls into this trap. I always try to guess the end of books and unfortunately, I usually get it right. I may not be able to tell you exactly what occurs and when, but I can usually give you a correct list of who falls in love with who, who dies, if and how the villain will be killed/defeated, etc. The obvious stuff. Now, you might be thinking, "But seriously Shauntel, that's just how stories are nowadays. There are no original ideas left! And it's okay if you can guess the end, it's still fun to read them." Yeah, maybe they're still fun to read. But there are still unused ideas! Originality is key people!

Example of something that did this: Almost everything
Example of something that didn't: Hannibal by Thomas Harris - the only book* in which the ending I predicted was completely wrong.

2. The whole "I love you but we can't be together because it's too dangerous"
That is one of the stupidest and overused plot devices ever invented. I hate it. I really hate it. Why? Because it's just a dumb way for the author to forcefully insert some angst and drama between their two love leads. And all that does is lead to some unnecessary tension and all that does is annoy the heck out of me.

Example of something that did this: Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer
Example of something that didn't: Noble Dead series by Barb & JC Hendee

3. Characters getting needlessly angry at other characters, usually done between love leads, and causing unnecessary plot drama
Oh, how I hate that. Seriously.
When I say "needlessly" I mean something along the lines of "I can't believe you did that 57 years ago! I can never love you the same way again!", or "How could you have lied to me about something as silly and unimportant as that! I can never love you the same way again!", or, by far the most stupid, "I totally saw you doing and you don't even have to explain because I insist upon blowing it needlessly out of proportion! I can never love you the same way again!"

Example of something that did this: Almost any romantic comedy
Example of something that didn't: Thief of Lives by Barb & JC Hendee

This list will undoubtedly be expanding over time. These are just the few I could think of at the moment.

*Although the book had a crazy plot twist at the end, the movie, which I haven't seen, only read the synopsis on the Internet, ended exactly as I had expected the story to.

Book Review: Thief of Lives

This is the second book in the Noble Dead series and I still continue to enjoy it. Anything that successfully holds my attention for this long definitely has something special about it.

THE BASICS: *Spoilers for the ending of the first book ahead* Word has gotten out about how Magiere and Leesil, a half-elf, which I had forgotten to previously mention, dispatched the vampires living in Miiska and Magiere is starting to accept, however grudgingly, that there's some truth in her possibly being a dhampir, a half-vampire, half-human who specialize in killing vampires, and that her role in the world might be more important than that of a tavern owner. *End Spoiler* Mysterious deaths start occurring in the capitol city of Bela and the duo are summoned to investigate.

THE CHARACTERS: Magiere and Leesil still continue to be some of my favorite characters ever. Their interaction, both humorous and occasionally sweet, is realistic, which is definitely unique on it's own. When mentioned in the wrong light, they sound like two love-interests in a really lame romantic comedy. And they very easily could have been. I'll get to why they're not in the next section.

The villains are improved somewhat, in the sense that I didn't want them to win quite as much. There was at least one I was actually voting for (his name is Chane, and I mention him because he becomes extremely important later) and the ones I wasn't especially fond of, namely Toret and Sapphire, were because if I met non-evil human equivalents of them in real life, I still wouldn't like them anyway simply because their personalities and mine are pretty much incompatible. Namely, Toret is a kind of a wimp and Sapphire is a total skank.

TECHNICAL STUFF: This entire story had a risky premise- meaning that it had the potential to get really stupid, really fast. Having read many books, I saw a variety of the usual, annoying cliches approaching, none of which actually occurred. *Spoilers* There was definite potential for the whole "I love you but we can't be together because it's just too dangerous" cliche and the whole "someone seeing something they probably shouldn't have seen and getting needlessly and stupidly angry at the person about it" indeed could have been an occurrence. *End Spoiler* But guess what? Neither of those things happened! And yes, this is a cause for celebration! Because I probably would have hated this book if either of those things had occurred.

THE THEME: Doing bad things for a good cause defeats the purpose. Also, the basic "trust your friends" message is in there somewhere also.

OVERALL: I forgot to mention one more thing I love about this book. It's funny. It's an honest to goodness "it's a good thing I didn't read this one during a quiet moment in class because I would have laughed out loud and embarrassed myself" type of book.

So basically, this book is amazing. The end.

GRADE: A

So hey! Do you have any suggestions for future reviews? I'd love to hear them.

It's been a while since my last life update. The reason? Well, nothing too out of the ordinary has really occurred. So, I'll just give you a list of some of the more mundane or semi-exciting things.

My choir concert was last Tuesday! Although we didn't get to sing some of the songs I was especially excited for, it still went really well.

More final projects for school were due this week than next week. Which I actually find rather odd but whatever. One of the more interesting projects was that we had to write some sort of book for my biology class. I wrote the "Children's Color and Activity Book of Disturbing Diseases and Conditions" in alphabetical order. I actually succeeded in grossing out my dad.

(Many might wonder: Why disturbing diseases and conditions? Why not just stick with diseases? Well the answer to that comes because of a good ol' pal I like to refer to as the letter "Q". He has nothing to add to the disease department. Even my generally useless friend "X" was more helpful than him. So quadriplegia was my only option.)

I've decided that although I'm fairly good at it, I will never be an architect. For my stupid geometry class, our final project is that we have to graph out a net design of a famous/historic building and then actually build it. My group chose the depressingly easy Washington Monument. It's easy, almost too easy, but seriously, I'm not enjoying it. This is why I'll grow up and write gross-out children's books.