I don't know if anyone here enjoys doing book reviews, but it's one of my hobbies. So here's a place that people can just post the stuff they've done. I always like reading about what people think on the books they've read.



<center>~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Showdown by Ted Dekker</center>

Into the small town of Paradise, Colorado comes a stranger clothed in black. Calling himself Marsuvees Black, the man claims to be there to bring hope and love. But strange things are happening while Marsuvees in there. People are seeing things, acting different: as if everyone's attitude in the formerly quiet town has shifted toward anger, hatred, and paranoia. Johnny Drake, a boy in the town, knows that something is terribly wrong, but doesn't know how to stop it.

At a hidden monastery near Paradise, a secret school for children is disrupted as a young student named Billy explores the forbidden tunnels underneath. He has found a dangerous secret there, and through Billy, a number of the other students have also been lured down into the tunnels. While Billy doesn't truly understand what he discovered, he will change the lives of a whole town and begin an almost unimaginable series of events.. It will be a showdown between good and evil- as only Ted Dekker can write it.

One thing when reading a book by Ted Dekker is that you can never expect exactly what you'll read. He has a habit of making the unthinkable seem plausible, along with giving a totally new perspective As usual, I devoured this newest book in one evening, barely able to sleep after I'd finished. The book was great! Finally understanding the connection between Billy, the Blank Books, and what happened to Thomas Hunter in the Black Forest (from The Circle Trilogy) was an added bonus. Showdown is a must-read for everyone who has loved Ted Dekker's books.

_________________
<center>


</center>

I've done a bunch of reviews for another site I run...hmm, here we go:

<b>A Great and Terrible Beauty</b>

Don't be deceived by the majority of reviews for Libba Bray's <i>A Great and Terrible Beauty</i>. Although I agree with their conclusion--that the book is wonderfully imaginative and gripping--the reviews seem to purposely skirt the main theme of the story, and pass it off as a Victorian boarding school drama with just a hint of gothic mystery thrown in for kicks. The exact opposite is true: the tale is predominantly a classic gothic mystery, and just happens to take place mostly at a Victorian boarding school.

The book's heroine, Gemma Doyle, is a sixteen-year-old British young lady who has lived in India all her life. When her mother dies under extremely suspicious, supernatural circumstances, Gemma's family--now consisting of her self-centered older brother and heart-broken father--moves back to England. Gemma is sent to the strict Spence School, a girls' academy basically meant to prepare its students to enter the social scene and make themselves attractive to wealthy bachelors. The school is filled with cruel cliques of arrogant girls, and Gemma feels out of place, although she soon begins to associate with her roommate, the mousy, troubled scholarship-student Ann; and two of her other classmates, rebellious, willful, and sometimes-heartless Felicity; and beautiful but insensitive Pippa. Most of the school's students are not as innocent as Spence's outer facade portrays them; they hang around the men of a neighboring gypsy camp and are not shy about playing vicious tricks on each other.

Although the story revolves geographically around the school, and although Gemma develops relationships with these three girls, the real plot centers around Gemma's increasingly frequent visions and soon-discovered power to enter another world. She had experienced a vision of her mother's death before it happened; other visions continue in England. Her steps are haunted by a young man who followed her from India and continues to warn/threaten her about these visions. Then Gemma finds a diary detailing a young woman's experience with the Order, a group of women who could access other realms and become all-powerful in them. Gemma discovers how to access these realms herself, and bringing her companions with her, they realize the power they can hold--and bring back, if only for a short time, to their dull life at Spence. This excitement is mingled with spooky plot advances. As the girls read more of the diary, the fate of its author and the friend she describes becomes more and more troubling, as do the realms.

In some ways, the book lives up to its title. It has a great "beauty" to it: characters are extremely relatable and real, the plot never flags, and twists are never predictable. But in other ways, this "beauty" is terrible (not as in awful, but as in frightening and upsetting): these other realms at some points allow Gemma to communicate with the dead, the girls face unspeakable evil spirits, and the girls of the diary become extremely unsettling to the reader as the story progresses. Libba Bray proves to be an exceptional author--everything comes alive, from the beautiful to the terrible, and her constant use of the present tense seems so natural after a few pages that readers won't even notice it.

In addition to its horror and suspense elements, the book also has a level of sensuality perhaps natural among a quartet of repressed Victorian teen girls, but inappropriate for anyone under fourteen at least. For more mature readers, though, I highly recommend the book. It will grip you, maybe disturb you, and make you long for a sequel, but never through all 400+ pages does it disappoint.

---

The site is family-geared, so that's why there's a content warning in there.

_________________

Arwen, what is the name of your other site? I never knew you ran another site

_________________
"...that kind of music in general turns my stomach. It's nice that they do have fans, though." -Nienor

It's a site for homeschoolers in my state, but if I give the title then people will know where I live I'll tell you about it over MSN sometime!

_________________

I enjoy reviewing books but I do so over my blog >>> thevictorianvanity.blogspot.com

_________________
Married Dean Winchester 3/18/13 (est. 2005)

The CompTIA SY0-701 certification is an essential milestone for professionals aiming to establish themselves in the competitive field of cybersecurity. If you're preparing for this challenging exam, DumpsCafe offers the perfect solution with its SY0-701 practice dumps and SY0-701 braindumps. Plus, take advantage of their Amazing Discount in December 2024, making this the ideal time to invest in your success.

For more info: https://www.dumpscafe.com/Braindumps-SY0-701.html