Fever Series review





The fever series was written by Karen Marie Moning. There are five novels in the supernatural suspense series. They are a continuation of Moning's previous novels, the Highlander series. The fever series is also continued by the Dani O'Malley series. The series has a total of five novels- Darkfever, Bloodfever, Dreamfever, Faefever, and Shadowfever.

These novels are highly entertaining and wicked fun. The first novel was a little slow until the ending, which picked up the pace tremendously. The other four novels, in the series, are all fast paced. I finished the series in five day, one novel per day. I just could not put them down. The novels are intriguing and thought provoking. I was always thinking about what could happen next, and about the questions that the author presents but does not reveal the answer to. These questions include: what is Barrons (love interest), can Mac (main character) trust Barrons, and who killed Mac's sister. Moning continually reveals answers, throughout the series, leading up to the biggest question of who is the ultimate bad guy. Moning does not reveal what Barrons is, but by the end of the series it almost did not seem to matter at all.

I love the development of the characters, their relationships, and the plot. Mac is definitely one of those characters that changes a lot through the course of the series. She went from way out of her league, helpless, and a person that wears a lot of bright colors, to a person that wears a lot of darker colors, that creates the plan to save everyone, and to someone who can fight with the best of them. She is a relatable character, one that is into the supernatural world and into impossible situations. It is interesting how much she changes and I liked reading the development her character made.
 

Barrons is just wow. Barrons is Mac’s love interest throughout the series and they always seem to have a love- hate relationship. I love their differences and the many conversations that they have without saying a word. Barrons is aggressive, smart, handsome, and wicked. I personally grew to love this character, because at first he was just a jerk, and while he continued to be a jerk I found there to be several redeemable qualities.
 

I love this series. It is a wild ride and extraordinary read. I would highly recommend these novels to anyone who has not read the series. Moning wrote a excellent series.

The Moon- a poem

 --inspired by Mirror by Sylvia Plath

I am circular and imperfect.

 

Watching over the deafening silence of the night, I see all.

 

I am the light in the darkness,

 

the eye of the night.

 

I am like the sun

 

stuck in a continuous cycle of day and night.

 

I am everlasting and immortal,

 

nothing can stop my appearance.

 

I am like a lamp

 

illuminating the night sky.

 

I am revered

 

by wolves, witches, and magic.

 

I am part of the mystery,

 

the mystery of life.   

 

It is bitter sweet to watch me leave.

 

 

Lines 11 and 12 are an allusion. Stereotypically witches are depicted as flying on a broomstick, under the moonlit sky and their magic is also typically done at night. Wolves are also associated the moon, because they are often found in pictures howling at the moon.   

 

Lines 9 and 10 are a simile. I compared the moon to a lamp, because lamps only give off so much light, much like the moon.

 

Line 2 is personification. The moon can not see, but I gave it the ability of sight. I used this to help better describe the immortal feel of the moon.

 

Line 6 is diction. I used the word 'stuck' to show the continuous nature and predictability of the moon. It goes through the same cycle every day, rising and falling. It also goes through the same cycle of moon phases every month. Line 11 is also diction. I used the word 'revered' to show the importance of the moon on stereotypical ideas involving the supernatural and with wolves.

 

I used anaphora to start my next idea and description. Every other line, I repeated the words 'I am' to further describe the moon and to keep the poem congruent and organized.

 

Lines 2 and 15 both have an oxymoron. With line 15, I wanted to describe how people feel when the night is over, but the day is just beginning. I feel like the words 'bitter sweet' communicate the right feeling that I wanted. In line 2, I used 'deafening silence' as again more description of the night.  

 

 I use several metaphors and line 4 is an example. I call the moon the 'eye of the night.' In line 2, I wrote that the moon can see and that it watches everything that happens. This metaphor just extends on line 2.  





One for the Money Review

One for the Money was written by Janet Evanovich, a #1 New York Time Bestselling author. I absolutely love this series. The Stephanie Plum series is in the mystery genre. Published in 1994, One for the Money is the first novel in the series.

The Stephanie Plum series is hilariously funny and it is the first novel of so far nineteen novels. I can not wait for the next book to come out in November of 2013. One for the Money has recently been made into a movie in 2012.  I devoured this series in a couple of weeks, after seeing the movie, for the first novel. I like the movie and I love the novels. One for the Money is a great beginning to the amazing series.

These novels are fun, fast- paced and a wild adventure. The characters are highly entertaining. Stephanie Plum, the main character, is adventurous, down on her luck, and lively.  Her luck changes in this novel- she finds a job, finds a mentor, and manages not to die while making some money.

Joe Morelli embodies the romance in this novel. There is not much progress in this novel, but it starts the flirtation between Stephanie and Morelli. Ranger, on the other hand, is this novel, Stephanie’s mentor and helper for bounty hunting. Whenever something happens, Ranger is very calm and collected, while Morelli is quick to explode. Morelli and Ranger, especially Ranger, are both very intriguing characters. Lula, a secondary character, is hilarious and turns into almost a sidekick for Stephanie.  These characters and others are extraordinary supporting characters for Stephanie.

It has the beginnings of a romance, mystery, laughs, and drama. It was laugh out loud funny. I would highly recommend that everyone should give this series a try. I love this novel and the series. One for the Money is a winner.

Guilty Pleasures Review

Guilty Pleasures is a crime supernatural novel, written by Laurell K. Hamilton. Published in the year 1993, Guilty Pleasures is the first novel of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series. This series has twenty novels so far.  I reviewed the third novel, Circus of the Damned, in January of 2013. This novel immediately drew me in once I started it.

I started this novel, because of how many references there were to the Anita Blake series, in the reviews of the novels that I had read. It was unreal the number of comparisons to the Anita Blake series. So, I decided to give it a shot. I have not regretted it. I love the plot, the characters, and the dark aspects that appear in all parts of the novel. I only just recently started the fourth novel in the series and Hamilton continues to stay true to the characters and the overall feel of this series.

Anita Blake is a kick- ass tough woman. She is the main character of the series and everyone seems to want something from her. In this novel, two vampires want something from her. Jean- Claude, one of the vampires, wants to use her to survive, to gain power, and he even has a love- interest in her. There is not much interaction between these two characters in this novel, but Jean- Claude seems relentless in his pursuit of Anita. Jean- Claude is a rather interesting character, and I hope that in the future novels there will be more about him.  The other vampire is the reigning master vampire in the city. He wants her to solve the cases of the vampires that were murdered. Anita is very much a take action kind of character. She rebels against being told what to do, especially by vampires.  Anita is prejudice against vampires, and it was very interesting reading about her interaction with the vampires.

The novel is a thriller. Guilty Pleasures is a well written novel. Hamilton created such a dark intriguing world and series. It has action, violence, friendship, the beginnings of a romance and a murder mystery.  I would definitely recommend this novel.

Nightseer Review

Nightseer is Laurell K. Hamilton's debut novel. 1992 was the year it was first released.  Nightseer was originally supposed to be a series, but it never obtained much public interest. It is a supernatural alternate- reality novel.

I decided to give this novel a try, because I liked the first few novels of Anita Blake series, that I had already read  by Hamilton.  I did not like this novel. It really surprised me how much I did not like it. It was confusing. The beginning was confusing, the plot was confusing, and over half the time I kept thinking, "when is this going to get good." The funny thing was that the ending was the best part of the whole novel. It had humor, showed a different side of the characters, and it had something that I felt was missing in the rest of the novel.

Nightseer threw me into this world, with what felt like no preparation, no background. For some novels that works, with others not so much, and Nightseer was just one of those novels that it did not work for me. I would have liked more background and more information on the characters and the setting.

Romance, where to begin? The whole process that the 'romance'  developed was just not enough for me. I was confounded; by the fact that at the beginning, Keleios, the main character, hates Lothor, then in the middle, they are working together and slowly becoming friends, and finally, at the end, somehow they become more than friends. What? All of this happens in 303 pages. It was too much, with not a whole lot actually happening.

Nightseer, "her spellbinding debut novel," maybe not. Her debut novel, definitely. As for spellbinding, it could have been better. I can not say that I would particularly recommend this novel. I did not really enjoy reading this novel. It was confusing and bland. I do not know what it is, but there was just missing something for me.  I would recommend reading some of Hamilton's other novels. This was not her best.  

Should We "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood"

The essay, Let Teenagers Try Adulthood, was written by Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College. The essay states that we should send teenagers out into the world earlier to get jobs and/or continue their college education. This would allow the students to learn to contribute to and join the  society.  Botstein also wrote that the current education system is outdated, both culturally and biologically, and that is why he suggests that students instead graduate at the age of sixteen. I do agree that the education system is desperately outdated and needs reform, but I do not completely agree on his new education system setup.

Is sixteen too early for students to be sent out into the world? Maybe. Some students need the two extra years to mature. Others are ready to start their lives separate from their parents. Would changing the graduation date, two years earlier, change how we, as a society, look at who is an adult? Would a teenager, at sixteen, be legally an adult? Changing our education system, so that students graduate at sixteen, would be a huge change to our society and even to some of our laws. I believe that we should keep the graduation at eighteen, but allow for more freedom and exploration into the future. It would allow for the teenagers to have more time to mature and prepare for their future.

In the essay, From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Horace Mann wrote that the people with the higher education get the majority of the wealth. Botstein wanted to forgo middle school, add 6th grade to the elementary schools, and lesson the amount of time spent in school by two years. I do agree that middle school was rather like a place holder and not worth the time and may be eliminated. Would our students, with less time in school, still get the same knowledge, will they leave high school with a better education, or will they leave with less than those who are using the current education system? I would worry that with a decreased time limit, the students would obtain a lesser education. This could also effect our wealth, with so many people obsessed with their own wealth, it would be something to address.

Both Botstein and Todd Gitlin, author of the essay The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info- Glut, complain that the education system is outdated. Gitlin wrote that it is because of the thousands of images that a person sees a day, by television or otherwise, that the majority is garbage and it causes a disregard for the liberal arts. Both also addressed that the world is different and our education should resemble that fact. This is something that I completely agree with. The times have changed and so have we.

While Botstein's idea of students graduating at sixteen is not the most appealing, his thoughts on modernizing the education system is ideal. Also allowing teenagers to 'try' adulthood is a great way to create a brighter and better future. Reforms are necessary, but more thought should be put into our ideas before we make any changes.

 

Literary works are teaching values?

In the essay, I Know why the Caged Bird Cannnot Read, Francine Prose criticized the use of literary works to teach students values. She wrote that focusing on one aspect of the challenging and extraordinary literature, takes away from the actual writing piece. I have to agree that Prose is correct in her allegation.

Most teachers focus on the values: good vs. evil, right vs. wrong, racism, sexism, and it continues to include everything wrong or right in this world.  We push these novels on students, not because of their ability to challenge our students on a more literary standpoint or to increase the students' reading ability, but to teach them our values. Teachers have students read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird to teach students about racism. To Kill a Mockingbird also has the ever present good vs. evil with its simplified characters. Why are they talking about ethics, when the point of reading these novels is to learn to appreciate the writing?

When did reading a novel in Language Arts class become less about the language, the style, the characters, and all of its complexity, to become more about teaching lessons that most students at the high school level should have already learned. Teachers have to show what is beneath the surface and what is above it. In the novel Gone with the Wind, Scarlett's character has much more depth than being just a selfish woman. Her character was a modern woman placed in a time that being a business woman and a woman that fought for what she wanted was not something that was accepted in the late 1800s. Teachers should not simplify novels, just because they are a harder novel to read and understand.

Teachers should have students read classic novels and intricate modern novels. They should show the students the elaborate plots and complex characters. The Style and the language are also important elements, that should have more time dedicated to them. If these aspects are not addressed, are we really surprised that many students do not like to read? The reading lists of the Language Arts classes should be changed and the lower number of students that like to read should also be addressed. What happens in Language Arts classes can and will influence some students' future reading comprehension or if they read at all. Language Art teachers, especially in high school, should leave teaching values to the students' parents or elementary teachers and start focusing on the writing itself.