Diary of a Wimpy Kid : The Last Straw

Every once in a while you need a break from wizard boys, sparkling vampires, conspiracy theories, go-nowhere love stories, end-of-the-world page turners and the never ending stream of parallel worlds.

Every once in a while you need to forget that you are a full-blown adult whose literary tastes are mature and discerning and who, to put it mildly is a bit up-yourself.

Every once in a while, you need to escape into the world of a Wimpy middle-school Kid who is high on smarts and low on luck.

It’s time to hold your breath over the unwashed clothes and dodge the well-meaning parents and stumble over the boogers as you venture into the world of Greg Heffley.

Greg Heffley’s astounding schemes and equally mind-boggling failures continue. His chief bête noire in this book is his long-suffering dad. Greg’s father wants to make a man out of his dandelion-blowing son. To achieve this admirable goal, he is intent on sending Greg off to a military academy. This doesn’t sit well with Mr.Wimpy, who was looking forward to a summer of playing video-games and sleeping....snarfing down junk-food and sleeping....hooking up with the pretty Holly Hills and yep, catching up on some more sleep.

The Wimpy Kid series may be considered juvenile and trite. But it’s entertaining and you read it with a constant smile playing on your lips. Sometimes you even snort with glee (well, I did). I say, regardless of your age....pick it up for some instant laughs, dry humour and a cast of characters that is so unbelievably well put together that you can’t help but stay hooked.

Five Flavors of DUMB

An obscure school-band wins the local *Battle-of-the-Bands* and struts about like it’s the next great thing since sliced bread. An equally obscure but diligent student disses the band’s shenanigans in front of it’s groupies and finds herself at the receiving end of an unexpected challenge : Get the band a paying gig within a month and she’ll be it’s official manager with a sizeable share in the band’s future profits.

How does a complete musical-heathen manage a band that’s a worrying mix of:

1) A manipulative, self-absorbed lead singer.

2) A completely gorgeous but utterly talentless piece of eye-candy.

3) An angry girl-rocker with spiky green hair and a barbed wire attitude.

4) A silent guitarist who hides from the world and possibly the other band members too, behind the curtains of his overlong hair.

5) A nerd-boy drummer who plays like a dream but doesn’t fit the hard rock image.

More importantly, how does the aforementioned musical-heathen manage a musical group when she’s DEAF?

THAT single, sole premise had me ordering the book in a flash. Tons of repetitive YA Lit with the same tired, clichéd plot lines later....this book resonated with originality.

Piper Vaughn makes an endearing main lead. She’s deaf but never down. Through a blend of sign-language and efficient lip-reading she gets by just fine. But managing a rock band seems like an improbable challenge. How does an eighteen year old (burdened with enough baggage of her own) pull together a bursting-at-the-seams band and make it work?

The book could have gone wrong in so many ways. It could have been preachy or self-deprecating. It could have started off on a promising note and then ended up in the YA Lit pit of teen angst, unrequited love and peer pressure.

Thankfully, the author stuck to his guns. Sure there’s angst. There’s love. And betrayal. And parents who don’t understand. But the author never veers from the main subject. It’s about a girl. A girl with a condition that she doesn’t consider as a disability. And said girl has to manage a band. CASE CLOSED.

Five Flavours of Dumb holds equal appeal for the ones who know their discerning genres of rock as well as for those who wouldn’t blink an eyelid if Cobain materialized before their eyes.

A minty fresh idea handled with humour, sparkling dialogue and the ability to give you food for thought.

Skunk Girl

Skunk Girl is the emotional journey of a teenager called Nina.

Nina Khan

Nina lives in small-town Deer Hook, population 11,250. In her school, with it’s expected coterie of snobbish cheerleaders, handsome jocks and loving (but sometimes clueless) friends, brown-skinned Nina feels like the odd-one out.

The fact that she is a Pakistani-Muslim and comes from a conservative household means that she’s often envious of the freedom that her friends take for granted. While being a fairly intelligent student herself, she has to constantly face comparisons with her super nerd, Harvard attending sister : Sonia. Nina suffers the secret pangs of being a fairly-hairy teenager and the added shock of discovering a thick strip of soft hair running down the center of her back (ergo, the title). She isn’t allowed out on weekends and is constantly under her parents’ radar, lest she becomes ‘Americanized’ or as her aunt would scathingly put it,”umreecanized”.

So what happens when you throw in an handsome Italian boy called Asher Richelli who despite being wooed by the most popular girl (and Nina’s nemesis), appears to be interested in the go-nowhere Nina?

I liked the book. I really did. Far more than I had anticipated. Coming from a fairly conservative South-Indian family myself, I associated with Nina’s teenage frustrations. And maybe I enjoyed it more for the trips down memory-lane that it took me. I read out snarky sections to my mum and she gave me the cheeky smile cum weary resignation, as we remembered similar incidents.

Many might complain that Nina whined. A Lot. Let me just tell you that it’s NOT an exaggeration. I whined and whinged. An embarrassing LOT! Maybe now, as an adult, I understand where my parents were coming from. Evolved thought-processes have taken their time to settle in. But yep, teendom was an angry canvas of red-faced me, bawling out at the unfairness of it all.

Nina Khan’s story is believable and entertaining. It has a nice vein of self-deprecating humour running through it. The ending could either be termed as realistic or a bit surprising, consider your outlook. Either which way, it’s a story by an author who has immersed herself into her plot and used it to maximum effect.

Girl, 15, Charming But Insane

You can read a multitude of truly bad books and wonder whether your ability to pick a decent read has become non-existent

OR

You can delve deep into your cupboard and unearth an old and reliable favourite and make up for reams of bad plot/prose/characters.

Girl 15, Charming but Insane belongs to the latter category.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways:

~ The title: It immediately grabs eyeballs. It is quirky, hints at a teen who will rant but in a way that promises to be hilarious and engaging.

~ Main character : Jess. Jess is a dark-haired, slightly (ever-so slightly) overweight Brit teen . She displays typical teen behaviour and rants and rave as one, who is young and mad at the world and it’s uncle, would. But she is also supremely talented and hopes to become a stand-up comedian someday. She’s clumsy, goofy, up for a well-executed prank and has a good heart (outlined by a thin layer of the sarcastic-devil). She hankers after the school’s boy-wonder (Ben Jones); is jealous and proud in equal parts of her beautiful best friend (Flora) and to top it all, comes from a broken family.

~ Aforementioned Broken Family: Jess’s mum is a throwback to the seventies. She is a hare-brained , fighting-for-a-cause librarian. Despite her “men-are-ruthless-manipulative-degenerate-scum-of the-earth” rants, she has a fairly decent relationship with her ex-husband (Jess’ dad). Jess’ dad is an artist living in St.Ives. Although he is wary of expressing sappy-love for his estranged daughter, he shoots a daily horrorscope sms to her. (For e.g. “You will open your wardrobe and find Marilyn Manson roosting there”). It’s an oddly healthy arrangement which seems to work for the trio.

~ Jess’ maternal grandmother: Granny is a blend of old-world fuzziness and homicide-happy bloodthirst. Pulp Fiction is one of her favourite flicks and she routinely scours the papers for grisly murders. She carries her dear departed husband’s ashes around in an urn and it wouldn’t be an odd sight to see said-urn accompanying the rest of the family members at the breakfast table.

~Love Interest: The apple of Jess’s forbidden lust is Ben Jones --- Blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful in a Beckham look-alike way. Luckily, the author has not typecast Ben as a love ‘em and chuck’ em type. He displays a refreshing sensitivity for a high school jock and is a likeable character.

~Best mate (and potential love interest): You have to love Fred Parsons. He is tall, gangly and smart-mouthed. Bearing a resemblance to the humble owl, Fred is Jess’ partner in comedic-crime. He’s witty, prone to mouthing exaggerated dialogue and is Jess’ true port in a storm.

There are several other factors that work together to make this a truly enjoyable read. The droll British humour combined with Jess’ fantastical imagination and over-the-top musings make you smile.

This is a book that makes it to my list of *must-haves* + *must-travel-with* + *must-store-with-ardent-adoration-in-silk-lined-trunk* + *must-possess-in-new-land-after-surviving-the-apocalypse*.

City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, Book #3)

Okay, first of all...I am a certified wuss. I can’t read a book that has paranormal over (and under)tones in the latter half of the day. All vamp/werewolf/faerie/demon lit. is reserved for daylight hours.

CITY OF GLASS however, was the happy exception. I was ensnared so deeply into the politics of the ShadowWorld, that I could ignore the big yellow streak that runs down my back and devoured the book well into the wee hours of the night.

I believe that when a series progresses from *ho-hum* in the first instalment to *HELL’S BELLS-I-NEVER-ANTICIPATED-THAT!!!* in the last instalment; it’s a winner. When you actually begin to care about the characters and their emotional health; when you hope and pray that there’s a happy ending; when you already start plotting fan-fiction in your head; when you think that it would be kinda cool to run into a particular character in everyday life....then.....then you know that the author has done a slap-up job of creating a parallel world that is utterly believable.

The third instalment of The Mortal Instruments series was all that and much more. The city here, refers to Alicante; the home city of The Nephilim. Jace, Clary and Simon are placed in the eye of the approaching storm and battle out their individual demons as hell LITERALLY breaks loose. There is panic, chaos, unveiling of dark secrets, the breaking of hope and it’s resurrection and some cool (and a tad graphic) action. The worlds of The ShadowHunters and The DownWorlders collide in an explosion that keeps you hooked till the very end.

Clary blossoms into a likeable get-it-sorted heroine. Her amazing rune-etching abilities reach their hilt and she plays her role with aplomb. The author remembers to maintain Clary’s inherent vulnerability. As the battle between good and evil boils over, Clary still frets over her forbidden love for Jace in a manner that never makes you snort with disgust.

Jace is the ultimate emo pinup warrior. The sarcastic, loaded-with-quips-galore hero reveals a more humane and weary side. For all those delusional fans who slaver over the pathetic Mr.Cullen; here’s a hero who is actually worth drooling over. He’s readable and not stuck in a *I-Me-Bella-Me-Bella* bubble that Edward Cullen was floating inside.

Simon remains my favourite character. I am extremely glad about the fact that he wasn’t sidelined and given an unbelievable (and extremely bile-inducing) ending a la Jacob Black.

In conclusion, CITY OF GLASS justifies all the 5-star ratings that peppered it’s GoodReads page. It was sublime, emotional, filled with grisly bits and had an ending which was extremely satisfying and yet paved the way for a sequel/prequel if the author so desires.

City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, Book #2)

CITY OF BONES ended with arch-villain, Valentine vanishing with *The Mortal Cup* (The first of the Mortal Instruments) in his clutches. In his destructive wake, he left behind:

a) His son, Jace. Jace Wayland has to deal with whether he wants to follow in his father’s bigoted footsteps or stay behind with his supportive foster family. He also has to control his less-thn-brotherly feelings towards his supposed sister, Clary.

b) His daughter, Clary. While Clary Fray has no qualms about hating her rotten dad, she’s a tad confused over her feelings for Jace and best-friend Simon. She has brotherly feelings for someone who is NOT her brother and amorous feelings for someone who IS her brother. (It’s confusing, but true). She also has to deal with the fact that her mother Jocelyn (Valentine’s estranged wife and also a ShadowHunter) is deep in the throes of a coma.

Patriarch Valentine however, is hardly concerned about his seriously dysfunctional family. He has more pressing issues. After The Mortal Cup, he now wants to lay his hands on the second Mortal Instrument : *The sword Maellartach*. Once he has his grubby paws around it, Valentine will be able to summon the vilest of demons and use them as an essential tool in his dastardly plans.

~

CITY OF ASHES was a vast improvement on the first instalment. Jace Wayland, the fearless ShadowHunter, displays a vulnerability which makes you empathize which his troubled teenage mind. Clary is more certain in her role as a vigilant warrior who is slowly discovering her special abilities. Simon, the quintessential best friend and closet lover is given a new, slightly bizarre and yet readable twist. Together, the trio play a cool game of thrust and parry as they battle with their changing worlds and burgeoning emotions.

New characters (Maia, The Inquisitor) lay promising groundwork for the next instalment. Old favourites like Magnus Bane, Luke and Alec show depth and add multiple layers to their fixed roles.

In all, engrossing and page-turnable (I don’t even know if that is a word!!!). Definitely worth the decision of buying books 2 and 3 together.

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, Book #1)

15-year-old Clary Fray is a resident of New York City. The people who matter to her are: her single artist mum, Jocelyn; her mum’s friend and father-figure, Luke Garroway and her best friend, Simon. Life is happy trip of pursuing her own art and visiting the nightspots of Manhattan with Simon.

But everything changes one night at Club Pandemonium. She witnesses a murder. A murder committed by three teenagers who have weird symbols on their bodies and who apparently cannot be seen by anyone except her. Oddly enough, the victim isn’t visible to anyone besides her either. Suddenly matters take a grave turn when her mother goes missing without a clue.

Clary’s world is suddenly no longer a simplistic routine existence. She learns that her mother’s disappearance is no ordinary kidnapping. It is intricately linked with the presence of a group of supernatural warriors called “The ShadowHunters”. The ShadowHunters hunt demons and do their best to maintain peace amongst humans. And there is a possibility that Clary Fray could very well be one such warrior.

Fighting her growing attraction to fellow ShadowHunter, Jace Wayland....searching for her missing mother.....being thrown headlong into an ongoing battle with a resurrected villain, Valentine.....dealing with the fantastical new world flowering up before her eyes....and trying to make sense of her mixed feeling about Simon; Clary has her work cut out.

~

Okay first up, Harry Potter still RULES! The world of Clary Fray, while intriguing is a bit crowded. The author displays her love for all things paranormal by stuffing the pages with vampires, werewolves, elves, faeries, angels, ancient demons, new evils and what-have-you. After some time...you just want to sift through the carnival of slitted-eyes and bared-fangs and unkempt-fur and concentrate on the main issues.

Secondly, Valentine is a poor villain. Besides channelling ol’Voldy’s rant of keeping things “pure-blood” he lacks the sheer presence which Voldemort created especially in his absence. All Valentine does is come across as a dysfunctional father who should be pouring out his woes to Dr.Phil as soon as possible.

The only concept I truly liked was that of The Runes. The crucial part that they play in the world of The ShadowHunters is enchanting. They were cleverly woven in to provide a fresh twist to an otherwise standard fantasy-read.

I think I’ll most probably be following this series to find out where the *Clary-Jace-Simon* triangle is heading. Lots of drama there to keep me hooked for a couple of lack-lustre summer afternoons.

In all, an okay read. Clary is a competent heroine who promises to rev things up in the forthcoming instalments. Jace, despite his sarcastic quips and Golden-Boy act has enough issues to make him a tragic main-lead. And Simon has the necessary mix of stability and simmering resentment to provide adequate angst to keep turning the pages.

AWAKENED (House of Night, #8)

The House of Night series is a guilty pleasure. It is not exactly evolved literature which leaves you with a sense of wonderment. Then again, unlike The Twilight Saga (which makes me cringe and wince and want to hurl myself at the closest wooden stake), this series is strangely addictive and in certain places, even redeemable.

AWAKENED is the eighth book in the series. Zoey Redbird and her Warrior/Guardian/Conveniently super-hot boyfriend; Stark have returned from the Otherworld. Heart-almost-whole, the sappy duo have defeated the mighty Kalona yet again. They now plan to spend some quality time recuperating on the magical island of Skye, under the benevolent eye of the mystical, supremely powerful and infinitely cool Queen Sgiach. In the midst of all this relaxation, they finally do the “deed” and are as happy as a pair of proverbial lovebirds.

But the real world (or as real as a world populated by vampyres, monsters and immortal Gods can be) beckons.

Kalona’s failure to swipe out Zoey means that the poor immortal now owes an oath-sworn debt to Ms.Nefariously Noxious Neferet. She doesn’t much care for the fact that Zoey is sitting pretty on the impenetrable island of Skye. She wants her back....back in Tulsa, where she can annihiliate the young Priestess. And if killing an innocent will achieve this end, then so be it.

And then there’s good ol’Stevie Rae. The powerful Red One is stuck in a Catch-22 situation over her love for the Raven Mocker, Rephaim. She can’t tell anybody about falling for the enemy and she can’t keep it hidden much longer. Teen-angst at it’s volatile best.
---------------------------------------------------------

Like most followers of the House of Night series, I am really hooked on the *Stevie Rae-Rephaim* connection. Zoey may be the main character, but apart from whining and whingeing and sucking face with Stark she makes for a dodgy main-lead. I frankly don’t have much patience for her. Stevie Rae on the other hand, is facing all the trials and tribulations that a protagonist gets bludgeoned with. In the absence of Zoey for a sizeable portion of the action; she has to deal with Neferet’s manic plots, the loss of a close friend, the need to be a responsible High Priestess AND the secrecy of her relationship with Rephaim. I liked AWAKENED for giving the vampyre-monster relationship it’s due.

See also : Marked (House of Night, #1)
See also : Betrayed (House of Night, #2)
See also : Chosen (House of Night, #3)
See also : Untamed (House of Night, #4)
See also : Hunted (House of Night, #5)
See also : Tempted (House of Night, #6)
See also : Burned (House of Night, #7)

See also : Destined (House of Night, #9)

The Illustrated Mum

First up, I loved the title. I was tickled pink by this fresh badge for a heavily-tattooed individual. It immediately flooded my mind with images of a lean young woman whose pale skin was totally blanketed by inked crosses, cryptic motifs and a host of Celtic symbols.

And the story itself floods you with a bucket load of emotion.
It’s a tale of Marigold; a free-spirited, auburn-haired, rocker-vibe infused, covered-with-tattoos mother. She has two young daughters Star and Dolphin, both from different fathers. Marigold sounds like a free-thinker’s dream. You expect the story to be about a fiercely independent heroine who fights against a disapproving society so that she can raise her daughters in the way that she wants them to be raised. You expect the pages to be bursting with flower-power and righteous indignation.

Sadly, life is rarely a walk down a garden path.

Marigold suffers from Manic-Depression. She refuses to believe that she has a problem and the possibility of taking treatment is a non-existent option. Star and Dolphin have become accustomed to their mother’s weird spells. But getting used to something does not necessarily mean that you are resigned to it and willing to accept it with a weary roll of your eyes. Marigold parties hard, gets herself inked at regular intervals, pulls all-nighters with random men, drinks indiscriminately and leaves behind a sorry train-wreck for her daughters.

Star, the elder daughter, used to love her mother’s uniqueness but as she grows up, she seeks the safety of conformity. She cannot excuse Marigold’s "episodes" anymore and just wants a normal life. Dolphin, on the other hand, still loves her mother to distraction. She adores her brightly coloured, covered-like-a-comic-strip parent. She cherishes the little gestures Marigold does in her brief moments of sanity. Dolphin loves Star too and though the affection is reciprocated from both corners, she knows that things will soon come to an ugly head. ‘The Illustrated Mum’ is a book that explains Dolphin’s journey of trying to be an adult in a world that is unpredictable and at times downright scary.

Jacqueline Wilson is a children’s author who has always been credited with taking up serious issues in a child’s life and handling it with a winning combination of sensitivity and humour. In ’The Illustrated Mum’, she tackles a grave issue and leaves you with a little knot in your throat. The comical quips were few, but she makes you ache for Dolphin and her earnestness. Wilson’s preteen heroines are usually full-of-beans and ready to take on the world amidst their own private hells. Dolphin is no different. She raises all your dormant maternal instincts and makes you want to crush her in a big, squishy comforting hug. My only grouse was with the abrupt ending. I didn’t particular appreciate the convenient tying up of odd ends. It felt like a cop-out.

And yet, you clamber till the end since you want a happy-ending for Dolphin.

The Beauty Of Pixar