The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork Review

The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork

4.56 out of 5 Stars

***I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.***

In this retelling of The Nutcracker we get to see so much more of the story that Heather Dixon Wallwork has spun around the original. Clara Stahlbaum is a pianist that hopes to catch the attention of her famous male counterpart Johann Kahler through her performance at a Christmas concert. The night before however, on Christmas Eve, she is transported into the land of Imperia where she encounters magic, evil rats, and a prince-turned-toy Nutcracker. It was delightful fun to read and perfect for the holiday season.

SPOILERS BELOW

PLOT: 
I really enjoyed the plot. I knew going into it that it was essentially going to be like the original story/ballet, so it was already attention-grabbing to me. I really appreciated though the different twists that Dixon Wallwork took on this story. The added depth to the characters- understanding the backgrounds of why they are they way they are- really added to the connection to what was happening. Even knowing (sort of) what was coming, I was still curios and itching to keep turning the pages. The element that really did it for me though was the Pied-Piper-esque dynamic that Erik brought with him. It was super creepy in the best way to see him turn the children into toys and hear his rationale as to why it was okay. This retelling was a perfectly even balance of unique original story and classic elements from the first story.

CHARACTERS:
Clara-- Being completely honest, Clara annoyed me to no end for the longest time with her obsession with Johann. Maybe I'm a bit too much like Nikolai in personality, but I was on his [Nikolai's] side the whole time... what Clara had was painstakingly obviously not love and was actually completely made up. When she finally got it through her head that she was illuding herself it was one of the best moments of the book to me. Because that also gave room for her to realize how she felt about Nikolai so it was a win-win situation. Outside of her love life, it was slightly frustrating to she her doubt herself in her musical capabilities, but at the same time it made sense for her character and development.

Nikolai (Nutcracker)-- I felt so bad for Nikolai from the beginning. It took me awhile to catch on that the General really was just looking out for him, but I still just felt so bad for him. He was a little too doe-eyed toward everything, but it was made up though by his compassion for everything as well and his ability to lead.

Erik-- Of course the antagonist is the creepiest character, but as I mentioned earlier, it was really creepy to hear Erik's reasoning as to why what he was doing was okay. It helped a lot to have his back story in there, which I really appreciated. He was still super disconcerting but in a good literary way.

Zizi and Alexei-- These two were both really great side characters. I just wanted to quickly point out how cute I think they are and I love that there were there.

Johann-- I'm not even sure if Johann really is a character worth mentioning. He doesn't have many acting moments in the book and the ones that are there show that he is a bit awful and petty. Really, the only thing that I liked about this character is that it gave Clara's character depth.

WRITING:
I love this writing. There's something about it that's just so narrative if that makes any sense? I feel like this is a story you could read out loud to a child and be able to solidly hold their attention. By the way, while this is listed as young adult, I seriously think a middle-grade reader could read this as well. Back to the writing- the story just knits together so nicely without being overwhelming or confusing, yet is engaging at the same time. Lastly, I love the title of the book. I really think it's a great fit.

Dixon Wallwork is able to completely capture the story not just in words but the sensation of the music she describes. I have never before read a work where music is incorporated so seamlessly into the narrative. What's truly great about it is that it carries the essence of the music in the story inside the words of the plot and the descriptions of the music. You don't need to know music to feel the sensation she describes. The Enchanted Sonata is itself an enchanting piece of art.

Thanks for reading!

Spoiler Free Review: The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork

The Enchanted Sonata by Heather Dixon Wallwork

4.56 of 5 stars

Spoiler Free Review 

***I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!***

In this retelling of The Nutcracker we get to see so much more of the story that Heather Dixon Wallwork has spun around the original. Clara Stahlbaum is a pianist that hopes to catch the attention of her famous male counterpart Johann Kahler through her performance at a Christmas concert. The night before however, on Christmas Eve, she is transported into the land of Imperia where she encounters magic, evil rats, and a prince-turned-toy Nutcracker. It was delightful fun to read and perfect for the holiday season.

Dixon Wallwork is able to completely capture the story not just in words but the sensation of the music she describes. I have never before read a work where music is incorporated so seamlessly into the narrative. What's truly great about it is that it carries the essence of the music in the story inside the words of the plot and the descriptions of the music. You don't need to know music to feel the sensation she describes. The Enchanted Sonata is itself an enchanting piece of art.

Full review to come tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

View all my reviews

Popular (YA) Books I Haven't Read

Popular (YA) Books I Haven't Read

I read a great deal of books. I always have, I pray to God I always will. I especially read a lot of Young Adult books. Yet, there are so many books and series that are widely known across the bookish community- and outside of it- that I have not read yet. For whatever reason, interest wasn't piqued, not willing to spend money on it, just haven't gotten to it yet, there is a good chunk of popular books that I just haven't gotten to.

Here are just a few:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Anything Sarah Dessen has ever written

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Bloodlines by Richelle Mead

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli


THESE ARE JUST A FEW!!

I swear some of these have been on my TBR for so long it is literally a shame to myself that I have not read them yet. Of course, for many of them that will change one day. Hopefully. :)


Thanks for reading!

24 Hour Work-A-Thon

24 Hour Work-A-Thon

The last time I did something similar to this was a 12 Hour Reading Challenge where I read 540 pages read in 12 hours.

This was not quite the same and I am not too thrilled with how much "work" I actually got done.


Here are the totals:
Books read: 1.6
Pages read: 569ish (maybe closer to 600?)
Words written/edited: 3,112

I also managed to get a workout in, which I was really happy with, but that doesn't really count for bookish work getting done. I think I also did some blogging stuff, but nothing new was written, just published or promo-ed on social media, so again, doesn't count.

Starting off strong, I finished off Throne of Glass and went right into listening to the audiobook of The Call by Peadar Ó Guilín while I cleaned up in my room. Quick side note: this audiobook is why I'm not entirely sure about my pages read count. I was only able to finish around three chapters before my room was clean and I didn't want to just lie on my bed listening to a book. At this point, I picked up Crown of Midnight and started in on that one. If you're wondering why so much ToG, it's all part of my plan to prepare for Kingdom of Ash. I'm hoping to have the series reread by the time I go back to school. That's the plan, anyway. Who knows if it will actually happen.


Anyway, it was somewhere in the middle of CoM that I fell asleep for the first time. I woke up, completely foggy, and needed to like take a lap around my house to wake myself back up. It was after this that I sat down and wrote out and edited (rough edits) a short story. If it ever publishes, I'll link that here, but until then, I wrote it and I like it and if you think that doesn't count as work you can go eat a moldy pickle.


Seriously though, it took hours to write that little monster. Blogging and stream of conscious stuff I can crank out like nothing, but actually trying to communicate something with emotion and characters and fine-tuning it to get exactly what I want across if freaking hard. I applaud authors. Their job is hard.


After this was done though, I picked CoM back up. There's something about the second half of this book and all of the next book, Heir of Fire, that has a weird ability to really make me love reading but also fall into a really bad funk. It was after finishing CoM that I really fell asleep. It was like my mind quit and succumbed to a deep delusional fangirl slumber. I worked out when I woke back up and then by the time I got home the 24 hours were up and that was that!

Thanks for reading!

Prepping for Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

THERE ARE 87 DAYS UNTIL KINGDOM OF ASH COMES OUT!!!

We are less than three months away from the final Throne of Glass book! I don't know if my heart's going to make it, I really don't. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about... ohhhhh my God. Where have You BEEN AND WhaT ArE yOU DoiNG REadInG THiS?!?!?!! YES! Shouty capital and crazy letters! Here, I'll even link the first book's Goodreads page here so you can check it out. Stop reading this! You have more important things to be doing!

Here's also a quick little blurby thing from Goodreads:

Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas’s #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius’s journey from slave to king’s assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world. . . As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.

That out of the way, for those of us who have read the series, there's a lot of work to do to prepare. Emotionally, I think I'm going to be screwed no matter what. Oh my wryd, ROWAELIN IS MY LIFE. There are other ships too that I can't stop thinking about, but Rowaelin is bae. Let's be honest, the end of Empire of Storms essentially put me into a coma I was so distraught.

On Pinterest (soure) it said "Credits to @meabhusd"

I had to stop that paragraph to steer away from a rant. Looking at Kingdom of Ash, it is currently set on Goodreads to have 992 pages. Ah. HELL. Yeah. The last two books in the series were large as well, but Tower of Dawn had 664 pages and Empire of Storms had 693 pages. To date, the largest published Sarah J. Maas book is A Court of Wings and Ruin (go read this series too if you haven't) with 699 pages. THERE ARE TWO HUNDRED MORE PAGES TO THIS ONE.

I can't even begin to fathom the number of tears and laughs and epicness and smut and badassery and such that will be within these pages. My brain can't compute it. I actually don't even think I've ever read a book this long. ***I just checked. I technically have because Voyager by Diana Gabaldon is 1059 pages, but that's mass market paperback, so I don't think it really counts like this. The largest full-sized novel I have read is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 870 pages. So yeah, it's going to be the largest book I've ever read. (Swoons)***

From: Pinterest/Deviantart @mariana-vieira

To prepare for this finale to a much-loved series, there are a couple of things I need to do.

Firstly, I am rereading the series. Seems basic, but I'm going back to school in like a month, so I have to make sure to stay on top of this shit. It may not actually prove to be too hard though because I am obsessed with this series. But, it still needs to and will happen. I only have two posts reviewing this series. One is for Empire of Storms, and the other a modge-podge review of Assassin's Blade through Queen of Shadows. Feel free to skim through them though for reminders about what happened.

Second, I need to figure out how I am going to paint my nails. It may seem like it isn't important, but I love painting my nails and I have painted them for special releases in the past, so I need to do it again for this book now.

My defacement of "A Court of Mist and Fury"

Thirdly, and optionally, I'm going to draw out some defacement plans for the series. For those of you who do not follow me on Tumblr (@booksandtea12 in case you're curious), I have painted the hardcovers of books before. Gasp! What? Yes, I have painted on the covers underneath the jackets. But, it really is more like fan art because it is sort of like an alternative cover. As you can see in this image, it's just fun and I really like paying attention to the book and the series like this. Because I do it so carefully though, it takes a longggggg to finish. That's why this one is optional and may not even happen at all. At least, not before KoA comes out.

Also, I have this not-so-insane theory that Aelin is going to make the Cauldron for the A Court of Thorns and Roses series. You can check that out here. 

I hope you are all as excited for this book as I am and we can all experience this amazing book together when it comes out!! Also, I know I hyperlinked like a madwoman in this post, but I sincerely think these are only some of the posts that I have psychotically written about this series, so feel free to keep poking around the blog.

Thanks for reading!

Stranger Things Season 2 Thoughts and Feels

Stranger Things 

Season 2

Thoughts and Feels

4.81 out of 5 Stars

Wow. Just wow. I jumped on the Stranger Things bandwagon a little late in the game, but I am so glad that I did. I watched season one about half a year ago I believe, and I just got around to watching season two the other day. This is because while I like season 1, I didn't love it. However, I really loved season 2. I'm honestly going to rewatch the entire thing because I loved it that much and I can't imagine watching anything else at the moment.

Part of what I really love about the show is the "stranger" element of it and how while it is still odd and other, it also involves some legitimate basic-science-theory-stuff that is still unknown to this day. What I mean by that is this unknown aspect of our universe and if we are alone in it and/or if there are other universes out there, either parallel to ours (alternate endings sort of thing) or next to ours (more like Stranger Things and the Upside Down). I'm a huge nerd for physics, so anything even remotely related to it, I'm almost guaranteed to love.  But what is also fantastic about the show is the originality of the exploration of this other realm. We really get to see a lot more of this in this season too, which was nothing but incredible.


I'll talk about the main kiddos next, but before that, I love how the characters of Nancy, Steve, and Jonathan have all evolved, both individually and in their relationships with each other. I do ship Jancy, although it almost breaks my heart to say that because Steve ended up being a good guy and you can tell that he does love Nancy. It hurts to see him put to the side, even as I'm rejoicing about Nancy and Jonathan finally having their shot. They all were given enough screen time, and importantly, enough quality screen time, to grow and get insights into who they are and who they are becoming as they finish up their later years of high school.

The other kiddos are all just so fantastic as well. Mike was slightly annoying at the beginning of the season, but I think it also fits his character for him to be that way given that Eleven was gone and he was no longer playing hero.  What I really appreciated though was, again, more quality screen time with some of the other characters. We get to see their families for crying out loud! That was amazing! And of course, we get to see Will have actual lines and scenes in this season which was disorienting at first, but then it rounded out the foursome perfectly.


Looking at the show as a whole in terms of plot, clearly, the Mind Flayer is still an issue. Yes, all those other little creatures and minions are going to crop up too- and I hope there are new species that we see- but the Mind Flayer seems to be central to the Upside Down and in charge over there. From the bits and pieces of rumors floating around, I believe there are going to be four seasons in total? I think I read the Duffer brothers saying that somewhere? This means that season 3 may not be the best. Let me explain. Season 1 in the grand scheme of things is sort of like the prologue. What we saw in season 2 was really the beginning and discovery of the larger issue (the Mind Flayer). The fourth season will have to wrap everything up. What's left for season 3 then is pure development, of the characters too, but more importantly, the plot and motivation of the Mind Flayer. This doesn't mean it will be bad, but thinking of other series, either book, movie, or television, the middle ones tend not to reach the bar like the others do. However, a good middle step can establish a fantastic starting point for a phenomenal ending, so it all works out in the end.

This review would not be complete without bringing up the actors. My word, they are all great. From what I've heard on interviews and such, Millie Bobby Brown is some sort of natural with this stuff and you can tell when you watch the show. The role takes on a life of its own and it is a rare show that has the effect where you stop thinking about life in reality, oh-this-is-fake, how they made certain shots, or pretty much anything else that would ruin the suspension of disbelief. But it seems to me that all of the actors do this. There is not a single character on this show that seems to be acted out. Winona Ryder, Gaten Matarazzo, Natalia Dyer, Caleb McLoughlin, David Harbour... I could keep going. But the point is that they all do such a great job and they put together these scenes that have been brilliantly written by the Duffer brothers in a way that seals the deal on this being an incredible show and second season.


Last but not least, the music and scoring of this season creeped me out to no end. Not so much the eighties music, because those were just so perfectly timed with what was happening on screen, but the scoring and the title sequence. I'm not going to lie, I'm not a fan of this era of music, so I didn't really get thrilled by any of the normal songs, except for like "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and "Should I Stay or Should I Go." I like those two- the others, eh. But going back to the sound effects and instrumental stuff, I think that was what really made the show that next level of superb creepiness and a thriller for me. There are a lot of moments that are not scary, which is great for me. But they drop that feeling which is needed in other points of the show. The music ties it all back together though and it hits you in the gut. I started to get creeped out enough by the title sequence where I wasn't watching it toward the end of the season. I would hit the "Skip Intro" that Netflix offers.



There are probably dozens of other points that I could talk about, but these are the ones that I felt most driven to bring up. I would love to talk about Stranger Things even more though and I am extremely looking forward to the next season. I don't believe there is a release date out for it yet, but there is a teaser "advertisement" for Hawkins that shows Steve working at the mall and, if I'm remembering correctly, Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) is signed up for this next season as well. All of this is making completely psyched for the next season and I cannot wait for it to be here.

Thanks for reading!

POPSUGAR Reading Challenge Update 2018

2018 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge

Half-way (ish) Update

Looking at my Goodreads list of the books that I have read so far this year, I have now completely updated my POPSUGAR Reading Challenge and... I'm not thrilled by it, but I'm also not completely disappointed either. If there is a link on the book title, it will take you to the review I wrote of that book.

Here are the books that I have read for the Challenge so far and the categories they belong in:

1. Next book in a series you started: Restore Me by Tahereh Mafi
2. Novel based on a real person: #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso
3. Book about death or grief: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
4. Book that is also a stage play or musical: Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
5. Book by an author of a different ethnicity than you: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano
6. Book you borrowed or that was given to you as a gift: The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
7. Book by two authors: Zenith by Sasha Alsberg and Lindsay Cummings
8. Book with aliteration in teh title: Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austin
9. Book with a weather element in the title: Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young
10. Book with an animal in the title: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 
11. Childhood classic you've never read: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
12. Book that's published in 2018: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
13. Book you meant to read in 2017 but didn't get to: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
14. Cyberpunk book: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
15. Book by an author with the same first or last name as you: A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas

On the same note as challenges, I was doing really well with my Goodreads Challenge for this year, but within the last two weeks I have completely fallen off my mark and I'm woefully behind. It looks like I've got a lot of reading in my future.  

Hope all of your challenges are going well!
 
Thanks for reading!