Book Review: Coraline

Neil Gaiman really has a way with words. Coraline is such a very short audiobook but nonetheless, Gaiman’s words and how he narrated the whole story still made me shivered with wonder as I listened to it. Just like The Graveyard Book, Coraline is brimming with a creeptastic vibe that will immediately pull you in into the world. Coraline’s setting seemed simplistic at first since the house where Caroline and her parents moved was somewhat normal… the next door neighbours seemed normal, too. But as the story progressed, everything is not what it seems to be as there’s a lurking…

Book Review: Kindling

Kindling has a lot of promise that made me pick it out of the the numerous ARCs offered in Edelweiss. It promised to give me an epic fantasy read condensed into one book instead of a crazy 10-book epic fantasy series, I mean who would not pick it up? Unfortunately, that is the main weakness of the book. There were so many leading characters, seven of them, to know but so little page time. It just wasn’t enough to build the angst and the pain to make me hurt for these Kindlings. I could neither relate to their journey nor…

Mini-Reviews: The Wacky Families

I’m going to bonk anyone in the head who says that MG books are boring. My Uncle Gus, The Garden Gnome is a heartwarming tale about a boy, Leo, who has a crush on a ghost named Fra.  And he’s really trying his best to make Fra’s ghostly life interesting.  But the trouble is, Grizella, a beautiful witch and Leo’s classmate, is sort of crazy about him.  So when Leo turned down her dance invitation, Leo’s life has suddenly gone to the dogs.  See? Middle grade books are even crazier than YA and Adult books. So with Leo’s life going…

Book Review: Villain Keeper

Villain Keeper is one of those books that I really wanted to shove down people’s faces and rave about.  But sadly, it didn’t just reach that I-am-gonna-build-a-hype-train-around-this-book status.  Villain Keeper is about a young eighth-born prince, Prince Caden, of the magical Kingdom of Razzon who got transported to modern day America (North Carolina) due to some mysterious circumstance. He has two sidekicks, a prodigy sorceress who’s also a childhood friend and a boy whom Caden met after arriving in modern day America.  These two sidekicks are called Brynne and Tito, respectively. Villain Keeper’s story starts rolling upon Caden’s and Brynne’s…