Bite Sized Review: Alice In Tumblr-Land

Published:  November 5th, 2013

Alice In Tumblr-Land

By: Tim Manley

Penguin Books

ISBN-13:  9780143124795

Disney meets Lena Dunham in this illustrated humor book featuring your favorite fairy tale characters dating and finding their way in the 21st century.

The Ugly Duckling still feels gross compared to everyone else, but now she's got Instagram, and there's this one filter that makes her look awesome.  Cinderella swaps her glass slippers for Crocs.  The Tortoise and the Hare Facebook stalk each other.  Goldilocks goes gluten free.  And Peter Pan finally has to grow up and get a job, or at least start paying rent.

Here are more than one hundred fairy tales, illustrated and re-imagined for today.  Instead of fairy godmothers, there's Siri.  And rather than big bad wolves, there are creepy dudes on OkCupid.  In our brave new world of social networking, YouTube, and texting, fairy tales can once again lead us to "happily ever after" - and have us laughing all the way.

Review

     This review is just going to be a quickie, because this book is mainly just drawings from the author's website.  I love anything to do with fairy tales, and I am always saying this - plus, it was a cool concept.  What would fairy tale characters be like if they had to live in a modern world, with all its conveniences?  But they also would have to deal with the pitfalls of a technology saturated world.  This was supposed to be a book of humorous (and I assume), somewhat fanciful drawings of fairy tale characters.  I honestly looked through it and smiled a few times, but for the most part I didn't really find its sense of humor all that amusing.  If anything, this book was pretty depressing.  I associate fairy tales (and their reimaginings) with magic and the high likelihood of love, or at the least a somewhat happy ending.  It wasn't very fun to see beloved characters as mostly miserable, average people.  Overall, this was a disappointment and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have an angsty, worry filled personality.  Or, if you want to look at the pictures.  Those were kind of fun, if you go in with low expectations.  Any sort of credit this gets from me is based on the quality of the drawings, and that's it.

VERDICT:  1/5 Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, Penguin, , via NetGalley.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book was published November 5th, 2013.*

The Best Of Both Worlds

 

Published:  August 29th, 2005
Disney After Dark (The Kingdom Keepers # 1)
By: Ridley Pearson
Disney Press
ISBN-13:  9780786854448

In this fantastical novel, Disney's Magic Kingdom suddenly becomes a bit eerie. Finn Whitman and four other teens have been hired as Disney World guides, but with an odd twist: With cutting-edge technology, they have been transformed into hologram projections capable of leading guests around the park. What begins as an exciting theme park job turns into a virtual nightmare as Finn and his pals attempt to thwart an uprising by a menacing group of Disney villains.

Review

 

     Finn Whitman was really excited to be part of an experimental program run at Disney's Magic Kingdom theme park.  He and four other kids his age are to be the basis for holographic hosts, to give tours to all the park's guests.  But what he and the others don't know is that they are secretly being used as an experiment and will have new abilities that Disney hopes will save the park - from its own characters.  With villains from various Disney tales banding together and calling themselves 'the Overtakers', they won't quit until they've busted loose from the park and started taking over the world.  It's up to Finn, with help from Willa, Philby, Maybeck and Charlene to put a stop to the overtakers.  But with the truly evil Maleficent leading them, will good lose this time?  Like other people, I went into this expecting a lot more recognizable Disney character cameos.  But I had read reviews beforehand from disappointed readers, and so I braced myself.  But it reminded me a lot of the old video game, Kingdom Hearts, for Playstation.   It has a Disney feeling to it with hints of the old, but original characters are the focus of the story.  Finn was not a very in-depth character, yet it didn't bother as much as something like that normally would.  Probably because the holographic host situation and the kids waking up in the park at night reminded me a lot of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books.  It felt like a book you could put yourself in and therefore the characters should be a little bit vague!  And they weren't even necessarily vague, they just ready pretty young and naïve to me.  The whole relationship with Wayne, the old guard of Disney's Imagineers, was funny but also mysterious and I'm interested to see the interactions later on in the series between him and the kids.  The 'battle' scenes with the dolls from It's a Small World, the pirates from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and the dinosaur from Thunder Mountain were something from the best part of being a kid - the kind that make you laugh and hang on to the edge of your seat, like watching your first action movie.  I have seen complaints about the characterization of Maleficent, but I thought she came across just as creepy and chilling as she does in the Disney film.  I was willing to suspend my disbelief and be terrified right along with Finn and his friends.  The revelation about seemingly evil new girl at school Jezebel and Finn's friend, Amanda, is not particularly surprising but does set up for future books quite nicely.  The majority of the plot was spent trying to solve Walt Disney's secret fable 'The Stonecutter's Quill' and use the answer to stop the Overtakers.  It was an interesting and original idea lacking depth of execution, but just as fun as deciding whether to turn to page 4 or 81 to find out who lives and dies.  Overall, a fun adventure read and one I would recommend for reluctant readers and middle school aged kids especially.  Only one noted, beware:  If you're looking for a character filled romp this is NOT IT.  This book is more behind the scenes, technology based.  One of the reasons I liked it a lot, but definitely not for everyone! :)

 

VERDICT:  3.75/5  Stars

 

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

You Better Apply Yourself Quickly

Expected Publication:  April 30th, 2013

The Boyfriend App

By: Katie Sise

Balzar + Bray

ISBN-13: 9780062195265

In The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, super-smart, somewhat geeky Audrey McCarthy can’t wait to get out of high school. Her father’s death and the transformation of her one-time BFF, Blake Dawkins, into her worst nightmare have her longing for the new start college will bring.

But college takes money. So Audrey decides she has to win the competition for the best app designed by a high schooler—and the $200,000 that comes with it. She develops something she calls the Boyfriend App, and suddenly she’s the talk of the school and getting kissed by the hottest boys around. But can the Boyfriend App bring Audrey true love?

Review

     Audrey just wants for her high school days to be a thing of the past.  Perfectly content with her geek status, Audrey is only envious of one thing - how easy it is for the popular girls to get a guy's attention.  So when a contest is announced by the biggest technology corporation Public, for a scholarship awarded to whoever creates the most popular/innovative app, Audrey gets an idea - the Boyfriend App.  It's like a cross between Match.com and instant love radar.  With the help of her cousin Lindsey, some really awesome friends and Aiden, the guy who might be something more, can she win the scholarship money?  Or will it even matter when Audrey finds out a very sinister thing happening under the surface of Public's company?  Will they be exposed or will they get away with corrupting the youth of the world through subliminal messages?  Audrey was an interesting heroine for me, because she was not AT ALL predictable for the first half of the book.  She had personality, her own sense of self and definite strength against all the bad stuff aimed at her by her former best friend.  The boy confusion was understandable at first, but got old when her confusion turned into super-unrealistic naivete.   The battle between Public and their rival, along with Public's sinister use of subliminal frequencies to extract certain behaviors from people reminded me surprisingly enough of the Josie and the Pussycats movie from 2001 with Rachel Leigh Cook.  It made me laugh inside my head for most of the book.  A lot of the plot was horribly contrived and nowhere near the realm of believability. but I absolutely adored the humor of this book and the fact that the heroine is using her smarts toward a goal other than a boy (but capitalizing on her classmates hormones at the same time).  It was hilarious to read about Lindsey (her fashion diva cousin) and nerdy friend Nigit's unexpected relationship, in which he begins dressing like Michael Jackson...WTF?  My main complaint would be the completely unbelievable, weird science type plot events, the resolution and the overall devolving of the characters.  It was a cute fluff read, but not much else and it tried too hard to be taken seriously.  The constant, obvious satire of Apple became too much even for me.

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. It will be available for purchase on April 30th, 2013.*