Discovering Pig Magic

Well,this time I had time to read a little of the book to do first impressions. It is about three girls Ariel Niki and Margaret . It keeps on referring to some sort of ritual, I guess I will have to find out later. So far it is very suspenseful and good. Happy reading everyone!

I have now finished the book, here is the plot summary. But first, an explanation about the ritual. Apparently, the three girls found this old book of magic in a thrift store. The ritual was a ritual for change, and they had to go somewhere and bury these "objects" and think of what change they wanted to occur. Now for the plot summary. Once again, Margaret gets a pig for her birthday (it started a long time ago, and now she hates pigs). But now she is going into middle school and does not want to be known for pigs. Everything starts out fine, and the ritual appears to be working. But then weird things start happening. Margaret had wished for James, a boy she had a crush on, to notice her. But he starts noticing her, as pig girl, not what she wanted. Niki, one of her friends, had a brother with down syndrome, and she had wished for him to go away, meaning for him to go away to sort of special needs home so her mom could have more time. But instead, he starts going away as in dying, because his heart turns out to be bad. Ariel wished to become a proffesional chef. And she is on her way, because she won a cooking contest and now has a scholarship to a cooking college (or something like that). But the recipie she entered was from a cooking show, with only the flour altered, and now she is afraid she'll get in big trouble, or be sued. So they all decide to reverse the spell. They go to a forest near a bay where they burried the objects and mark the spot where they burried them so they can come back after they have a sign that tommorow is they night they should reverse the magic. But then their next door neighbor dies of stroke, maragret's mom is revealed to be an agoraphobic and is now on some sort of anti-agoraphobic drugs, and Niki's little brother is in the hospital. Ariel and Niki both agree those are signs not to do they ritual but margaret doesn't agree. They all have a fight and kind of stop being friends. Margaret goes out to reverse the magic herself but gets delayed so much that she gives up and goes home. Then when they all meet and make up, they begin to believe that even undoing the ritual won't stop all of this and stop believing in magic. Ariel refuses the scholarship and fixes her problem, Maragret smashes all her pigs, and I forget what Niki does. Maragret's aunt discovers the pig massacre and when M tells her that they didn't have any real memories to go with them, she says they did, and then M agrees. Niki's brother is now better, but not perfect. And so is M's mom. Then in the epilogue M digs up her object, her very first pig, sells the magic book and buys one last pig.

What I liked, it kept the theme hidden until the end. Can anyone guess the theme, all right, here it is: Be careful what you wish for! It was also a very cleverly done coming of age story, middle school and all that. But what I didn't like is how it did not explain how the unstoppable destructive power of the ritual was averted and everyone lived happily ever after. I suppose it has to do with "Pig Magic" which probably isn't really magic but some sort of pseudo magic type thing which I still do not understand. But other than that it was a good book.

House of Many Ways

The house of many ways book, is a sequel of Howl's Moving Castle. However, you don't really need to know anything about that book, except that Howl is a wizard and his wife's name is Sophie. Now for the plot.

Charmain is sent to look after her great great uncle's by marriage house. When she gets there, she realizes that everything has to be operated by magic, and she knows none. While she is there, a bunch of magic creatures get mad at her, she floods the house with soap bubbles, and creates a larger pile of dishes because she broke the magic faucet. Then someone called Peter, an apprentice to her great great uncle, comes and with her, explores the house more and messes it up more. Then Charmain's application to be a royal librarian is approved. When she goes to the royal mansion, she meets Sophie and Wizard Howl disguised as a kid. He says that the king needs help to find where his gold has all gone. But cannot say it to her directly because of spies and conspiracies. Then after lots of exploring, Peter and Charmain realize that the cause of everything was of a Lubbock that Charmain met earlier. It had bribed some magical creatures to create trouble between the rest of their kind and Charmain Peter. Then double crossed them by laying its eggs in them, which when the hatched, would eat them from the inside. The eggs are removed once they confessed. Also, it is revealed that Charmain's uncle is sick from the Lubbock eggs, which are also removed. Then finally, Howl and Sophie reveal that the reason why the gold is missing is because a child of the same Lubbock, is now going to be heir. He was hiding it so no one would notice that he was paying his disguised Lubbock henchmen to kill off other heirs. Then after an intense series of scenes, they manage to kill all the Lubbocks and find the gold.

What I liked, is that magic didn't come in as often in the Harry Potter way, where you have to understand every little bit in order to make sense of the plot. Here, you just needed to know what the magic was supposed to do, and what it did do. What I didn't like was that is was all very complicated. I had to stop occasionally while reading the book so the information could sink in.

Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

This is a book in a series. I will give a little background. In underland (a land under the ground) humans live in a sort of medieval society but with certain breaks from that. Everything down there is magnified, spiders, rats, cockroaches, ants, bats, frogs, they even have some sort of preserved plesiosaur species. Anyway, that is it for the background.


So Gregor had previously gotten a prophecy and a note that one of his "friends", a rat, would send escorts. The escorts turn out to be millions of little rats dragging them out of the apartment. Finally Gregor decides to go with his sister Boots, but his mom wants to go as well because she wants to know what happens to him if anything at all does. So Gregor brings her along. It turns out that The Curse Of The Warmbloods has struck and is some sort of the Black Plague. On a mission to dispense some anti-flea powder to the rats to stop the plague from spreading, Gregor's mom gets bitten, and gets the plague. This gives Gregor the incentive to go off of a mission to find a plant called starshade which is the cure. On the way members of the party die off from huge carnivorous plants, quicksand, giant poison dart frogs, and other things. Finally when they get to the one and only field starshade, an army of giant ants come marching in to destroy the starshade and kill off the party. They succeed in eradicating the starshade, but don't kill off the party. They all sit around thinking that underland will be doomed and the plague will spread to overland (our world). Then one of the rats who came (one died in quicksand, the other by a plant) points out the importance of one puzzling stanza in the prophecy.
Turn and turn and turn again. 
You see the what but not the when. 
Remedy and wrong entwine, 
and so they form a single vine.
The turning part, if facing the field of starshade, makes you end up looking back at the city. From what they had seen, they realize that the doctors at the hospital were probably very nervous as they were because they had started a plague. The rat left says that it was probably created as a biological weapon to kill the rats with. A missing in action person they met in the forest agrees with him, so they all set off back home. It turns out to be true and that the doctors and nurses (before they were all executed for their crimes, harsh, I know) were hoarding a whole cave of antidotes. Then everyone is cured and Gregor goes back up. And then, because there was no logical explanation for where he got his weird shoes/socks made of lizard skin, he spills the beans to his neighbor who had originally suspected something strange was going on in his first trip.


What I liked is the prophecy. I always find prophecies really interesting, because they have a sort of aura of "Well, it could be this, or it could be that." and always when coming true, are sure to be surprising. What I didn't like was that the book came only in large print, which drives me crazy. And that even though it was clearly told in third person, I kept on thinking it was first from Gregor's point of view.

Daredevil, comic book.

This was a comic book. About a superhero named Daredevil. It was very confusing and I apologize if my plot summary doesn't make sense.

It was made of 3 parts, one was something about nazis which I tried to read but I could not follow the plot, the second one is the one I will put in the plot summary, and the third one was extremely confusing like the first one but worse. (Small note: Daredevil does not have any superpowers. He is blind but has his other senses enhanced to a point where its crazy)

It starts off with Daredevil being constantly followed by the press because now they know who he really is. But in the past he had been somehow viewed as a criminal, which even with extensive hours of research, I still don't get.  Then later on, Daredevil escapes and Melvin apologizes. Then an FBI agent comes up to him, she says that she has to make a case against him. But she doesn't want to. She just wants to know why he dresses up and beats people up. Then she says that she came to ask him what to do, because she had been given an amulet which gave a previous hero his powers. And she wants to know what to do. He asks her to meet her the next day on top of a roof. When she meets him the have a mock fight, and after the mock fight, he says that that is what she should do with her powers, fight. While he is going home, one of his other "super"friends named Melvin meets him. Daredevil asks him what he was doing there, and Melvin (previously a villain I think) said "You should have killed me when you could. I'm sorry."or something like that, and then knocks him out. A crime boss is now going to kill Daredevil, but the FBI agent jumps down and saves him and drags Melvin along. Then as DD helps the FBI agent to prevent a store robbery, he tells her why he wears the costume and delivers some thematic advice.

What I liked, is that it was very thematic. And surprisingly so, which made it worth reading. What I didn't like, is how I couldn't understand most of the book. Although, when I paid close attention, the seemingly different story lines were actually one big one.

Flora's Dare

This book comes after Flora Segunda, and also deserves a blog entry.

It starts off with Flora being stuck in her room, grounded, because she danced with the birdie (the bloodthirsty god country) ambassador, which was sort of treason. She then goes to a theatre where a sudden ant-government rally breaks out while she is in the toilet. She manages to escape, because her sister Idden pulls her out of the crowd to tell her that she has deserted the army and to make Flora swear not to tell. Then they all get into a horse carriage to get away, although Idden jumps off and disappears into the city. Udo, who came with Flora has obtained a zombified Springheel Jack (infamous outlaw) who he stores in Flora's house when they realize that he got killed in the rally as they were escaping and now is an undead zombie. He stores him at Flora's house so the zombie powder can wear off, then he can drag him to the police station and get the bounty.
Then Valefor, in desperate need of Life force, eats Springheel Jack, but left the boots so Udo can still get the bounty. They were proof he was dead because he would never take them off, alive. Udo gets mad, so instead of getting the bounty, he wears the boots. Which begin to influence his attitude until they inject a full blown Springheel Jack sentience into Udo's body. The boots turn out to be simply the storehouse for his soul.
Then the birdie ambassador tells Flora that he needs her help to free a giant magical squid under the city. The squid is actually a magical entity trapped in the form of a squid in order to threaten the city for someones evil purposes. It worked. But now the squid is having a baby and is going into labor and causing city endangering earthquakes. Now Flora sets off on a mission to gain a diary that will tell how to release the squid. While doing so, she accidentally travels into the past but eventually gets back while she and the person she met are teleporting away from a ghoul.
Then the big magician says that the only way to release the squid by deactivating the imprisoning sigils, is for the last descendant of the person who trapped the squid to die. Then he says that she is the last descendant, and proceeds to use his birdie police force to try and kill her. Flora comes back to him at the Blinskir baths and says that the only way for the sigils to be broken is for the last descendant to die by drowning. She then zombifies him, and leaves Udo (back to normal) to keep him zombified or knocked out until she comes back. She then dives into the baths which are actually not filled with water, but with breathable liquid magic. This happens only once in a while when the baths connect with the magic ocean. Flora uses this to access the squid's prison, then she uses a key obtained from the past to unlock the sigils. Then everything is happily ever after with Flora dancing with ghosts of her dead relatives at her real rightful house (weird happy ending) But one thing is strange, the person she met in the past, Tiny Doom, her mother, is not there. And this is because she had tried the Ultimate Ranger Dare, to escape death. Small note: from knowledge gained from the book, you do this somehow by drowning yourself in the magic ocean and jump over the abyss where all souls go, unless they come back out as ghosts. The second to last ranger, (missing in action) had almost done this, but only attained a sort of time travel into the future where she met Flora. Then it just leaves me hanging off a cliff, cliff hanger.

The only thing I could say about that book was, that it was intense, and very well thought out. And also, I can't wait for the next book to come out.

Flora Segunda

This book isn't necessarily on my reading list, but it deserved a blog entry.

It has a simple magic system in which you recite a word or phrase in another language, Grammatica, and a sigil comes out of your mouth and does the magic work. It was a nice simple system, which I liked. Whereas Harry Potter's system is incredibly confusing. It is about a girl named Flora who comes from a long line of soldiers. However, Flora wants to be a Ranger, practically the opposite of a soldier, and learn Grammatica which is forbidden due to family policies.
When Flora leaves a book behind, she takes a shortcut and uses The Elevator. (small note, the whole house's rooms are constantly shifting around and require a little bit of will power to make sure you go in the right room. With the lack of a magical butler who keep houses in order, the elevator is incredibly dangerous) When she uses the elevator, it does not take her to her room so she can get her book. Instead it lets her off high up in a big sealed off library. There she meets Valefor their banished magic butler. She gives him some of her life force so he can regain strength, then leaves.
Later, Flora and her friend Udo, find out that the very last Ranger (missing in action) is going to be hanged. This was not due to governors wanting him to be hanged, but because of a peace treaty made with a bloodthirsty country that made human sacrifices to their gods. He and Flora go off to rescue the last ranger under disguise. Udo under magical disguise and Flora under makeup. They manage to rescue him, by releasing a curse put on him stopping him from using magic, and letting him ride away.
But before he left, he mentioned that Flora was suffering from life force deprivation (because she gave some to Valefor). When she came home, Valefor said that they now had a unbreakable connection, and that when he faded away because of being banished, so would she.
After that Flora goes on a solo adventure to regain her Life force. Although, she gets it back because the greatest magician says he won't help her. Because her plight was the cause of her own selfishness. Then she gets really mad and breaks the link between her and Valefor.

I liked this story because it had an interesting sort of double plot that flowed into each other, and that even though if I tried to explain the magic system now, you would get confused. But in the book, it makes it very clear. I would recommend this book.

Soon I Will Be Invincible

The book is told from two perspectives. Villain, Doctor impossible, a evil genius. Hero, Fatale, a cyborg.
I read up to page 37, two chapters, for first impression. So far DI (Doctor Impossible) is still in jail. Wondering how he'll get out and why he deserves to be stuck with a bunch of petty criminals. And talking about how it is to be a villain. Fatale has just joined the Champions and is going on about how she hated her cyborg body, her not knowing what happened, or who made her. So far, strangely, the villain is more liked by me. He seems to be more of an interesting character.

Basically DI escapes and begins to take over the world. He makes many visits to other villains and has so many flashbacks I had to pause to absorb all the information. But in a way, the flashbacks were helpful, because there were so many mysteries. With so many villains and all the escapades coming at you all at once, it was nice to have a break and review the backstory of DI and Corefire.
Fatale is one of the superheroes and is trying to find DI and still has internal monologues about topics mentioned in the first paragraph. She also has flashbacks, but in a different way because she forgot everything about her past. Her flashbacks are about other heroes explaining what it used to be like and an especially boring, but helpful, scene with Elfin/Damsel (I can't remember) and Fatale watching a documentary about the Champion's group history.
DI eventually gains a hammer which makes people invincible although broke and not very effective. He begins to gather his materials and shifts the world's position and create an ice age and he would be the source of all heat and light. Although he said he wasn't going to be a jerk about it and have a couple of sunny days once in a while. As he is moving the moon, Corefire comes back from the dead, or I should say: state of Missing in Action, and invades DI's fortress. DI activates the hammer and then knocks him out and ties him to a pillar.
Then it gets confusing. DI's girlfriend, now a hero, Lily, comes and defeats him. She says that she is not from a far distant alternate future. But was DI's other girlfriend Erica whose love was stolen away by CoreFire who saved her from a beam of energy by taking the beam (like taking the bullet) and got superpowers. She said that she fell into a lot of chemicals and became all transparent and strong. She then built a time machine and went to the future and found out that nearly everything was wiped out by "The Blight" caused by the broken hammer that granted invincibility not being moved. She then came back and lied about being from the future. And then revealed the irony that DI had saved the world by moving the hammer. It ends by DI starting to take over the world again.


What I didn't like is that it was all very confusing. And that the Champions didn't save the day. What I did like is how they built up all the suspense and let out the backstory information slowly and carefully. One thing that was interesting was that DI didn't know who "killed" Corefire, but you forgot that when it switched to Fatale's perspective. I liked the book very much and recommend it.

What My summer reading posts will be like.

This is going to be a quick guide to what my posts will be like. So people will know what is talking about what.

1. The Blurb, if any.
2. I will read the first few chapters and then post about my first impressions.
3. I will edit the post and put in a sort of plot summary.
4. I will write what I did and didn't like about the book.

And there is the guide to my 3 part blogs. Enjoy your own reading.