One day I swear I’ll post stuff on this blog in a timely manner.
Courtesy of Amazon
This book came to me in the form of a Penguins Classic set, two stories, one book – couldn’t be more convenient! I didn’t really know too much about the story of “The Marriage of Figaro” other than that it was an opera, but “The Barber of Seville” is what “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is based on, so that’s what drew me to the first story since “Sweeney Todd…” is one of my favorite movies.
“The Barber of Seville”, hereafter known as The Barber, was really easy to get into. The similarities popped off the page for anyone who’s ever seen “Sweeney Todd…” It was pretty much like following along with the movie. Nasty old man wants to marry his beautiful young ward – she loves someone more age appropriate. Through elaborate schemes and plots the two young people get together and live happily ever after. Imagine that. There’s humor and some weirdness throughout the story, I can see why it makes a good, albeit, elaborate!, opera. See the movie as well if you really want to connect to this. Overall rating – C.
“The Marriage of Figaro”, a different story altogether. While I mean that literally, I also mean, it just simply wasn’t as entertaining as The Barber. The basic plot revolves around more schemes from Figaro and his impending marriage. I sped read through this just because I wanted to get it over with and move on to the next book on my book list.
Overall rating – D.
All in all, pick up this combo if you 1) have seen the stage shows of either of these stories or 2) are interested in classic literature. Otherwise, there’s really no value here for you.
Hi everyone,
Sorry I’ve been gone for so long, I was just in the process of moving from the Bay Area down to Southern California & I’m still somewhat adjusting & settling down so I’ve been REALLY busy. It’s taken me over four days to get this post up because I keep stopping & starting. I’m not sure I want to reveal exactly why I moved down to SoCal for privacy reasons, but I’m sure as time passes I’ll end up talking about some stuff.
Anyways, I’m a HUGE fan of Beauty & the Beast, so any type of re-telling or story that’s vaguely associated with it, is going to grab my attention. That’s exactly what Beastly is! Also, they’ve made this book into a movie that’s yet to be released, although from the previews, it looks a LOT different from the book so that’s going to be annoying. I’ll still probably see the movie anyway just for comparisons sake.
Available for $8.99 at Borders. Pic Credit goes to: lafemmereaders.blogspot.com
Beastly is a modern day re-telling of Beauty & the Beast told from the Beast’s point of view. This book is a Young Adult novel so it’s geared mostly towards pre-teens and teenagers. Despite the fact that, in my opinion, it’s not really meant for someone my age to read – I’m 20 – for the most part I enjoyed this book for a bit of light reading. Haha, saying that makes me feel like Hermione, & if you understand what I’m talking about you totally ROCK! I’m not going to talk about the plot because probably everyone knows the story of Beauty & the Beast & if I get too detailed about the way the book retells the events of the stories then we’ll get into spoiler territory!
Pros/Cons: I liked the way Flinn wrote Kyle (the Beast). I felt like his voice was really honest & typical of a teenage boy. Unfortunately, I felt the complete opposite about the way Linda (Beauty…I liked the use of this symbolic name. Linda in Spanish means beautiful!) was written. Her voice felt very fake & forced. This is ironic to me because the book was written by a woman & usually women are better at tapping into their own gender. I liked how the story was sort of a mix of the original tale, plus the Disney version, & many other aspects from transformation stories. I feel like the author really did her homework when researching fairy tales. Another thing I really liked was the chat room sessions. I thought they were SO clever and a great way to incorporate other transformation tales & subtly encourage readers to read those other stories. I did think the ending of the book was kind of just thrown together/rushed. The rest of the book is paced very well so you aren’t getting too much information all at one time, but for some reason the ending felt like WHAM! BAM! LET’S TIE THIS ALL UP, GOTTA GET THIS BOOK FINISHED!! & yes, the twists are somewhat predictable, but that’s kind of hard to escape with a book that’s retelling an already popular story.
Rating: B+. For me, this book was just okay. You can’t really mess with the perfection that is the original story, so I didn’t anticipate this book being outstanding, but it was fairly decent. I can appreciate the author’s version of the story & the obvious hard work she put into it, but this book isn’t making it on my bookshelf. My bookshelf is home to the “A” grade books such as Wicked by Gregory Maguire, Home, a memoir of Julie Andrews’ early years & Spencerville by Nelson DeMille, just to name a few. I’m glad I read it & I may even go pick up some other books by Flinn, she has several other fairy tale remakes, just to see how she interprets/modernizes those stories. Also, at the end of the book there’s a little author’s note in which she talks about some of the books she read to help research for Beastly & they all sounded pretty interesting, so I’ll probably add those to my list of books to read. All in all, if you’re into fairy tales, go pick up this book & give it a try. It never hurts to read more literature, unless it’s Twilight. In all seriousness, it never hurts to add more literature into your life & we’re all entitled to our likes & dislikes 🙂
Let me know if you’ve read this book, plan on reading it, plan on NEVER reading it & your opinions. Tell me if there’s other books you’d think I’d like based on this review. Thanks for reading, stick around!
I’ll generally try to keep these posts short & to the point but seeing as how this is my first one, I’ll do some extra explaining. I’m going to start out with only reviewing movies I see in theaters, but if people start asking for it, I’ll review any movie I watch – I’m a big movie buff & my family watches at least one movie every night so you guys could end up with a movie review post every night! We’ll see..but for now..here’s Gulliver’s Travels 3D!
The movie: Gulliver’s Travels 3D
Movie rating: PG
Date released: 12/25/10
Date seen: 1/1/11
Audience: My mom, my boyfriend, myself & literally one other couple.
My rating system: I give this movie a B. I’ll explain my rating system in this post so you guys can kinda understand my point of view, but from here on out I’ll just give a rating. Of course this is just my preference & some movies, I can understand how OTHERS would like it, but it’s just not for me & that’s what my rating is based on. For example, my boyfriend LOVES Star Wars as do millions of others, but I’m just not drawn to them, so for me they’re a C movie. Yes, I understand it’s a good story, & the technology behind it is impressive especially for when the first set was made, but they’re just not for me.
A = AMAZING! Favorite movie that I MUST own so I can watch it over & over! (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Goonies)
B = Pretty good! I’d recommend this, but not sure if I’d run right out & buy it. (TRON:Legacy, Bandslam)
C = Average, typical. Meh. Not really a movie I care about. Don’t necessarily have to own it. (Megamind, What Happens in Vegas)
D/F = NOT excellent. I generally would not want to see this movie again..ever. (Valentine’s Day, The Love Guru)
Notable Cast: Jack Black (School of Rock, Kung Fu Panda), Amanda Peet (A Lot Like Love, 2012), Jason Segel (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I Love You, Man), Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Sunshine Cleaning) & Billy Connolly (Known mostly for his comedy routines, but can be seen in The Last Samurai & The Boondock Saints).
Trailer: *This movie is based off the book by Jonathan Swift written in 1726. The book is divided into four parts, & the movie only deals with two sections, & one of the two only VERY briefly. I haven’t read the children’s version in a really long time, but I’m going to go out on a limb & say it’s VERY different, other than the general basic story line. The trailer does give a lot of the story away, but there’s still some key plot points it doesn’t talk about.
My opinion: I thought this was a really cute funny feel good movie – I’m happy I went to see it. Obviously this is not a serious art film, it’s a kid’s movie, so it’s supposed to be a little ridiculous. There’s a few musical numbers, good music, a good message (although I’m not sure young kids will really understand it), & just enough mix of robots & princesses to appeal to boys AND girls. One thing I didn’t think was done very well sometimes was the mix of adult & kid humor. For example in Shrek, the humor is more layered. There’s one situation, & the adults see a couple things that make it funny, but kids only see the G-rated thing. In Gulliver’s Travels I felt like the humor was more transitional. There would be a scene of adult humor, not TOO adult, but just like, certain pop culture references that a child might not understand & then there would be a scene of kid humor, like stupid wedgie jokes. So it was like a tug of war between the different types of jokes. Also, keep in mind that the Lilliputians are supposed to be a parody/satire of the British government in 1726 so the acting is supposed to be hyper-pompous/dramatic with elevated speaking. At first I was surprised & thought the acting was just really bad, but then I thought about it in context with the book and it made more sense lol. All in all, I say, if you can/want to stop taking yourself so seriously for a few hours, you’re a child at heart, or you have some kids to entertain, go see this movie!
Leave a comment & let me know what you thought of this movie or if there are any other movies you’d like me to review – even older ones that have already come out on DVD/VHS (VHS..what’s that!?! lol)
I’m not sure I want to reveal exactly why I moved down to SoCal for privacy reasons, but I’m sure as time passes I’ll end up talking about some stuff.
Miss Al-Leigh 