STACKED

books

Film v. Book: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

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At BEA, Kim and I managed to score copies of the first volume of Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Lies from one of the graphic novel vendors. They were giving them away as part of the promotions for the upcoming film. In my effort to keep atop of pop culture, I read the book…then the second and third…and needed to see the film, despite my adamant no-Michael-Cera-films stance.

I’m glad I did!

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World was more hilarious than the book let on, and in our group of four attendees, everyone got a number of hearty laughs out of this one, even though only half of us knew the story.

Scott Pilgrim is an unemployed, 23-year-old living with his gay roommate (and sharing his bed, his couch, his food, etc). He’s also dating a high schooler he met on the bus, Knives. Oh, and he’s in a band, The Sex Bob-ombs. He takes a lot of crap from his friends, naturally, but when he begins dreaming of a cute girl with wild colored hair, things are going to change.

Ramona Flowers skates into his life, quite literally: she’s just left New York for Toronto and is working as an Amazon.ca local delivery girl. Scott? He’s smitten. But everyone warns him not to get involved….he has a girlfriend, and she’s been known to be, well, weird. He ignores their advice to find out that in order to get with Ramona, he will need to battle her seven exes. It will be epic.

Scott Pilgrim on film differs quite a bit from the books, although the central storyline is similar. Having only read the first three books, I can’t speak too much, but some of the battle scenes are different, as are the encounters among characters (I had been looking so forward to the battle between Knives and Ramona in the downtown Toronto Public Library, but it didn’t happen there). Scott’s roommate differs a lot from what I thought he was, but perhaps it was good — he didn’t succumb in the film to the typical gay-guy-in-a-film stereotypes.

One thing to keep in mind, if you’re going to read the book or see the film, is that there is a lot of video gaming woven into the story line — so much so, that it would not be a stretch to consider the entirety of the book or the film as one giant video game. Scott needs to defeat evil to win the girl of his dreams, but the human element comes in quite strongly when he and Ramona realize what jerks they’ve been to other people in the quest of achieving their own goals. Even the most casual gamers will get a kick out of this aspect.

Although the movie had side splitting humorous moments (and I quite literally got a good laugh every couple of minutes), there was a lack of character development for most of the characters. And it was tough to believe that Scott never knew he had super powers, but this is something that I’ve been told is fleshed out a bit better later on in the comic series. But given the humorous situations, this is also easy to overlook.

My favorite part of the movie, though, was how well it incorporated a realistic setting with computer graphics and incorporation of the actual comic itself. A number of “flashback” or explanation scenes brought the comic onto screen and animated it slightly — the movie felt authentically comic. It is what you would expect of a loser kung fu ninja movie.

This is one worth checking out, whether you are familiar with the story or not. You will get the threads and a number of good laughs. Although there is a lot of violence (Scott DOES have to defeat 7 evil exes), there is no blood or gore. This is comic violence, reminiscent of your Saturday morning cartoon violence. It’s actually kind of refreshing. The movie will appeal to older teens through adults. And of course, it will spur readers into the comic book. I know I plan on finishing out the series to get even further into the story and to see what other differences existed in the transition from comic to big screen.

What’s Your St@tus by Katie Finn

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Last summer, one of the books I secretly loved was Katie Finn’s Top 8: a fluffy novel about a girl who’s Facebook-like account is hacked and thus loses a best friend and love interest in one fall swoop. This summer, I shared my not-so-secret love for Elizabeth Rudnick’s Tweet Heart, a romance based on Twitter. So, imagine my excitement to learn that Katie Finn had written a sequel to Top 8 based on a Twitter-like technology that causes havoc again in Madison McDonald’s friendship and love life.

What’s Your St@tus follows Madison and her friends as they use Status Q to share their daily lives, as well as the details in planning their upcoming junior prom. And boy, will this be a prom they will never forget.

What starts innocently spirals into a world of drama as Madison and the rest of the prom committee are charged with guarding the Hayes crown — the prom queen’s crown that has a legacy in their high school, as it was donated long ago and was made of valuable materials (which are never quite divulged and of which Madison herself is never convinced, either). But, lo and behold, the crown goes missing and it may have disappeared at the hands of her best friend who has been feuding with a rival high school’s prom committee. Naturally, their proms are in the same hotel in different rooms and they just so happen to be on the same Saturday. Say it with me now. . .

Madison is a likable character to me: she is funny, realistic, and she has both her highs and lows. I never find her whiny nor too dramatic, and she is never too good to do something. Her friends are well fleshed, as well, and the added bonus of the Twitter client is contemporary and fun. I think that this plot might be a little more developed than Top 8, and I found myself liking this one just a tad better.

It is not necessary to read Finn’s first title in order to read this one or enjoy it. In fact, there are only one or two references to events past (Madison losing her best friend, for one) but they are explained in such a manner that no real back story is necessary. However, I think if you read one, you will have liked the characters enough to dive into the other.

What’s Your St@tus also deals with a little bit of a trickier subject, that of prom night sex, and I think that Finn does this pretty well. We know each of our characters well enough to know they will make smart decisions, and it never came off as being didactic nor unreal. Not every character will remain chaste, but those who choose not to will do so under their own devices — this will make sense in context of why the conversation about prom night sex happens. Kudos, too, to Finn for writing a book with few questionable scenes (aside from the less-than-candid discussion of prom night sex) and virtually no bad language. This is a title that works for younger high school students, as well as older ones. It may work for mature middle school readers, too.

Hand either of Finn’s titles to fans of Elizabeth Rudnick’s Tweet Heart, Melissa Walker’s Lovestruck Summer, or fans of Suzanne Young’s The Naughty List series. I think this is also an easy sell to fans of Sarah Dessen, Morgan Matson, Elizabeth Scott, or Susane Colasanti. It’ll be less set in terms of family drama and much more in high school drama, but it will be fun and enjoyable none-the-less.

*Review copy received from Scholastic – what a great surprise!

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

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I was a psychology major in college which may explain a lot about my review tendencies. It also explains the utter fascination I have with books that delve into the psyche of people who have mental illnesses. Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things grabbed me immediately, as I’ve developed an interest in hoarding, thanks to C. J. Omololu’s Dirty Little Secrets.

Stuff is a non-fiction work that dives into the mindsets and experiences of compulsive hoarders. Frost and Steketee are university professors of psychology and social work respectively, and their backgrounds inform the story they tell. Little research has been done on hoarding until quite recently, as many believed that rather than being its own mental illness, hoarding was a component of obsessive compulsive disorder (and indeed, many with ocd do have hoarding tendencies, but not everyone who hoards has ocd).

Throughout the book, we are introduced to a variety of individuals and their hoarding experiences. We begin at the very beginning with the famous Collyer mansion case in New York City that happened in 1947: two brothers who lived together died in their own filth. The hoarding was so bad that their building was believed uninhabitable and eventually was destroyed to make way for a park. From there, we are introduced to modern hoarders and learn about what their obsessions are while Frost and Steketee offer insight into what may be triggering the illness.

The reasoning behind hoarding is well fleshed, but what I appreciated most in this title was that there was no “one size fits all” diagnosis: Frost and Steketee do a great job of offering the multitude of possible triggers for hoarding and I think they do so without making this one of those books that convinces readers that they, too, suffer. Of particular interest to me in this was a discussion of the difference between collecting and hoarding, and it made me realize that I don’t have a single collection. For their purposes, collections are something that people have and have an orderly, well-reasoned, and logical organization or methodology behind. Think, for example, people who collect baseball cards — they put them into binders or display units that are meant for organization and safe keeping. People collect baseball cards because they love the sport, they enjoy collecting signatures, or they are holding on to them for resale purposes (among other reasons, of course). Hoarding, on the other hand, is when there is just accumulation without logical methodology or reason beyond just needing to have things. This is displayed through their character studies in the book.

Stuff is a highly readable book that moves relatively fast and is conducive to skimming and skipping around — something that I know some non-fiction readers require of the books they choose. The personal stories and the reasoning are interspersed but repeated enough that picking up at any chapter will not leave a reader lost. There is a variety of ages and genders represented in the examples.

And like any good non-fiction book, readers are treated to a list of resources in the book, as well as a chapter on identifying problems and seeking help for yourself or loved ones.

As many other reviews have mentioned, the style and tone of this book is reminiscent of Oliver Sacks, who is most well known for his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. It is written with knowledge and without judgement, meant to be accessible to a wide audience. I read Sacks’s classic in my high school psychology class, so I would find it easy to hand this book over to teenagers, as well, despite it being published for an adult audience. Since hoarding has been in the spotlight recently, this is a title that will find a wide readership, and it is for good reason.

In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth

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A half an inch changed Eagan’s life, but a half an inch saved Amelia’s.

In a Heartbeat by Loretta Ellsworth tells us the interwoven stories of two girls whose lives change in a matter of microseconds. Told through alternating perspectives and time frames, we learn about the horrible heart condition that has impacted Amelia’s life forever and about the passion for ice skating that ultimately takes Eagan’s life.

Ellsworth’s prose is lovely and fluid, and she offers us unique insights into the lives of two very different characters. Eagan’s passion for ice skating is well-delivered, as is her rocky relationship with her mother. Postmortem, we see Eagan interact with her present self in the afterlife and her past life on Earth. The dual perspective helps push the plot forward, and I quite enjoyed the person that Eagan runs into while in the afterlife. I don’t think it’s ever made explicit who Miki is, but as a reader, I picked up on that quickly and found it a nice touch.

As for Amelia, her story is told entirely from the present perspective. I must admit to never feeling much connected to her, as I found she didn’t seem to have many interests or passions in the manner that Eagan did. She’d been sick for a long time, but that didn’t seem to me enough to make her a fully realized character. Near the end of the story, Amelia chooses to take a trip from Minneapolis to Milwaukee with a guy she met at the hospital, and for me, this entire sequence didn’t make sense to who I thought Amelia was. A little further growth in her would have helped me feel more attached to her.

This is a book for fans of medical stories. You know who you are, and you know exactly who you can sell this title to if you’re not a fan yourself. The pacing is well-done, though I did find the time shift a bit jarring the first time it happened in Eagan’s story, but once that hurdle is jumped, it moves smoothly. This is one you can hand as easily to a 13-year-old as to a 18-year-old, though some older readers might find some of the situations unrealistic. There are few, if any, language or situational concerns.

One comment I need to make: has anyone else noticed a trend in YA lit to tell the end of the story in the first chapter? I can’t seem to place titles this second, but it seems to me more and more stories are throwing out the ending from the beginning and then telling the story backwards. It irritates me as a reader, since it never allows me the chance to figure out what’s going to happen. I knew from page 2 how this would progress. This stylistic choice feels like I’m being talked down to, like I might not pick up the thrust of the story if it weren’t told to me from the beginning.

On the whole, In a Heartbeat is a good book, and it will have appeal. For me, though, I never quite engaged enough nor did I find myself feeling satisfied at the end.

Ripley’s Enter if you Dare

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I’m in Las Vegas this week — the second time I’ve been to the land of the unique and strange and downright fantastic. So, I thought I’d leave you with some field notes on Ripley’s newest addition to their family of books: Ripley’s Enter if You Dare. I was able to give a length review last year here, so check that out if you want a little more about the Ripley’s titles.

Full color photos are of stand out note in this book that is filled to the brim with facts and figures covering everything from the amazing human body to incredible feats to weather to animals. This is a book that begs you to browse and browse and browse again. But not only that, this is a book that will have some reading every word straight through, as it is that interesting and engaging.

Did you know the world’s heaviest cat weighs in at 22 pounds? I kind of find that lower that I’d imagine, seeing one of my cats is himself 15 pounds. Check out this photo:

Doesn’t he look a heck of a lot bigger than just 22 pounds? Yikes! Don’t worry, the book says he was told to be put on a kitty diet.

What I like about the Ripley’s books is that they celebrate, rather than lampoon, oddities. Back in the day, people with long fingernails, bigger girths, or very strange hairy spots were circus freaks. In these books, they’re celebrated: they are unique and interesting to learn about, choosing to put themselves out there (for the most part — some are nameless statistics, which I find as respectful since it provides anonymity). I quite enjoyed digging through the parts about the circus in this volume because I live in the 19th Century Circus Capital of the World (complete with buried elephant under one of our lakes). Readers will be enthralled with the double page spread, too, about vampires, the shortest teenager around, and more.

The use of the double page spread is effective and exciting. Again, can I emphasize that when I was a kid, these books weren’t in full color like this?

How cool is that?

Ripley’s Enter If You Dare has wide appeal, and it will have special appeal to tween and teen boys, who love non-fiction. These books fly off the shelf at my library, and I suspect that this addition will do the same. The facts are new and fresh, not rehashed information with new pictures. These are the sorts of books that are not only fascinating, but they are appealing across generations. This is the kind of book parents can sit down with their kids and browse through and talk about.

If you haven’t read one of these titles in a while, I urge you to pick one up. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how readable, browsable, and bright they have become. And yes, I totally have seen some of these people in my trip, thank you very much city of lights!