Review: Monsterland by Michael Phillip Cash

I was lucky enough to win a copy of this in a giveaway.  It was a very quick read, nothing really different from what I expected, basically exactly the type of story you'd expect from the title.  I feel there were some things that were missed that could have definitely added to the story, but it did feel just like a horror movie would be, the way the things were missing was like what might be missing from a movie compared to the book. 

There were parts of the story told from different viewpoints, but in a way, who I felt was the main character was Wyatt Baldwin.  He's a high school student, and he lives in the town where one of the new theme parks called Monsterland is getting ready to open.  The story takes place in a future when a disease has caused some people to become zombies.  It's pretty much contained, the zombies are being kept in detention types of camps.  And  now are being brought to be part of the different theme parks that are being set up all over the world.  But in this future world, they have also found out that vampires are real, and have been just kind of hiding out, on the sidelines of the human world.  And when the creator of the parks is out searching for a Sasquatch or Bigfoot, he finds that werewolves are real.  They capture the werewolves that they find, which is easier because they have really dwindled in numbers.  So this theme park has a section where people can see zombies walk around, from a safe distance/viewing area.  There is a jungle ride where they will be able to see the werewolves, again from a safe area, and the park uses artificial moonlight to get the wolves to change.  And the vampires, because they have been around humans all the time already, they just have caps put on their fangs, and then they have a little town where people can go mingle with the vampires and even watch them as part of a rock band. 

Wyatt and his friends get free VIP passes to the opening night of the park.  And, as you would expect from a story like this, something goes wrong, monsters will get loose, and chaos ensues.  As I mentioned at the beginning, it was really a lot like a movie would be. 

I do feel there could have been some more character development and explanations.  There was one of Wyatt's friends that everyone called by his full name, all the time.  I'm sorry, that's just weird.  It reminded me of the movie 21 and Over where they kept calling the one character by his full name, Jeff Chang, the whole movie.  Only, it could be something I missed as I read, but I'm not sure why they did that?  I do like what happened with his friend Melvin though.  We also had some drama with Wyatt's family, his mom and stepdad - who we also got some of his viewpoint, and then a surprising bit with Wyatt's dad even. 

While I get the point trying to be made about the detention camps, and that the big gate reminded them of the Auschwitz Concentration camp gate that said "Work will set you free", I feel like that may have stretched a little for the actual type of book this is.  To me the cover looked like the Jurassic Park gate, and yes, they did draw comparisons in the book to that, like they should have.  And really that fit the story much better, so they probably could have stuck with that.  Comparing zombies, werewolves, and vampires to real people who were in death camps seems a little bit in poor taste. But that's just me.  I could be overthinking it. 

All in all it was a quick, horror movie style read, interesting even while predictable for the most part.

A to Z Challenge: J Reviews - Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton/Joni by Joni Eareckson

Today I have another well known science fiction book to share, along with a memoir/biography from when I was in middle school I believe.

First is Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton.  I remember picking this up my Junior year in college when I was taking Historical Geology.  Probably why I really got into it as well as my other paleontology classes that I took in college.  I won't necessarily include the blurb here from Goodreads because I'm pretty sure everyone and their mother knows the story of Jurassic Park.  The movie was really pretty good, other than all the things that were left out.  The book, as always, is so much better than the movie was.  I loved how technical the science was in the book.  Probably the book, its sequel, and the movie, are a big part of the reason why when I graduated from college my parents gave me a trip to go be a part of a dinosaur dig in Montana.  I still think about that experience today.  I'd love to go do it again some day, but back in 1995 it cost like $1,000, so I'm guessing it would cost a lot more today.

Second is the memoir Joni, written by a girl who had a diving accident and became a quadriplegic.  While she was in recovery she learned how to paint with her teeth, and also really became a very faithfully religious person.  When I was in middle school I believe, the Lutheran school that I attended took us all on a field trip to see the movie.  I immediately had to get the book, I remember having my mom take me to the mall and buy it at one of the small bookstores.  It was a book I read a lot.  If you haven't heard of her story, here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:
The award-winning story of a young woman who triumphed over devastating odds to touch countless lives the world over with the healing message of Christ. Includes photos and illustrations by Joni.

In a split second on a hot July afternoon, a diving accident transformed the life of Joni Eareckson Tada forever. She went from being an active young woman to facing every day in a wheelchair. In this unforgettable autobiography, Joni reveals each step of her struggle to accept her disability and discover the meaning of her life. The hard-earned truths she discovers and the special ways God reveals his love are testimonies to faith’s triumph over hardship and suffering.

So those are my two reviews for today.  Also the last two till Monday.  Are you a fan of Jurassic Park?  If so, are you as excited as me for the movie this summer?  Part of my excitement has nothing to do with whether the plot is any good, but more to see how much technology has improved since the first movies, along with all the new stuff we know about dinosaurs and having it put up on the big screen of a movie theater.  Had you ever heard of Joni's story before today?

While you're here, be sure to enter my giveaway below!


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Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Places That Books Have Made Me Want To Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.  This was such a fun sounding idea when I saw it on the 7th, I started planning ahead!  And honestly, when I name the places, I will have to name several books.  So, I've decided instead of putting pictures of the books, I'll put a picture of the place (if I can find one), and then just list the books below it.  So here we go.


1.  New York City



 Okay, really I've wanted to see all of NYC, so many books talk about it, as well as movies and tv shows.  But I chose two specific spots to start.  The first picture is of Belvedere Castle, which is in Central Park.  I first learned of that by reading Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz.  Now, the 2nd building is not what I thought it was.  I thought it was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory building where they'd had the horrible fire in 1911.  And you have to give me a little break on that, the building is a triangle shape.  But I was informed by my friend Cara Lynn Shultz, that is not the building where the fire took place, this one is called the Flatiron Building.  I had read a few books on the fire though, most specifically one called Lost by Jacqueline Davies.  I did get to see both of these buildings the first time I went to NYC to visit my sister when she first moved there about 3 years ago.  But there are still so many other places to visit in NYC that I haven't yet.

2.  Paris

One specific place is the catacombs.  Up until recently, I never really cared if I got to visit France.  Sure I knew about the Eiffel Tower, but I didn't really care. Then I read Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly and was immediately intrigued.  Other books I've read that make me rethink my decision to go to Paris are Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins and Die for Me by Amy Plum.

3.  Poland/Germany



I don't know if it was from studying World War II and the Holocaust in school, or from reading The Diary of Anne Frank, but I really want to go visit those places and just see.  For one thing, in the pictures of Anne Frank's hiding place that I saw in Anne Frank:  Beyond the Diary, I am just completely shocked that they weren't found sooner. I know this is kind of a depressing place to want to visit, but it is something that I want to do one day before I die.  I feel it is something very important and worth seeing to commemorate those who died.

4.  New Orleans

Now, I have read a lot of books set in or around New Orleans.  And while of course I want to visit Bourbon street and that kind of stuff, one place in particular I'd like to go is the cemeteries, especially the one where the voodoo queen is supposed to be.  Books that have made me want to see the haunted side of New Orleans include Ruined and the other books in that series by Paula Morris,  as well as the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris (although to be honest I saw the first season of the tv series before I read the books.)

5. Maine

Because of probably every single book of Stephen King's, and how they're set in Maine, I want to visit the state some day.  And how cool would it be to go by his house as pictured above?

6.  Ireland

I don't know that it was a book that first made me want to go here, especially to see the Blarney stone, which is near the Blarney House pictured above.. I think it was probably a combination of movies, and just hearing and loving the Irish accent.  I kind of want to go just in hopes of finding and falling in love with a cute Irish guy.  One of my favorite authors, Sarah Rees Brennan, is from Ireland, and when I told her my hope of finding an Irish guy, she joked and said maybe she'd introduce me to one of her brothers.  I'd list two books that specifically make me want to go to Ireland.  First is Scarlett, by Alexandra Ripley, the unofficial sequel to Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  The 2nd one is Herself by Leslie Carroll.

7. London/England
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So the first picture is the Tower of London, where Anne Boleyn was held, and also where many beheadings took place.  There are several books that have made me want to visit this part of London:  Transcendence by CJ Omololu, The Missing Series by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory.  The 2nd picture is a make believe place from the book Austenland by Shannon Hale.  I think it would be so much fun to go somewhere where you had to dress and act and eat like people from that time period.  

8.  Laura Ingalls Wilder homes

 

I loved the tv show Little House on the Prairie, but never read the books.  By the time I "discovered" them, I was really too old to read them.  I tried to, they were just so simple that I was bored quickly.  But I still would love to take a summer and travel the country and see them.  I've visited the one in Missouri.  Above are the one in Kansas, Wisconsin, and finally Minnesota, Walnut Grove that I remember the town in the tv show was named.  Besides the tv show making me want to go there, I also read The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure.  

9.  Jurassic Park

Okay, I've always been fascinated by dinosaurs.  So if there was a real Jurassic Park, where they really had control of the dinosaurs, I'd be all over that!

10.  Area 51

Another thing I've been fascinated with is UFOs and aliens.  There are many, many books that talk about Area 51, as well as movies and tv shows, but there are two main books that sparked my interest, Strangers by Dean Koontz, and (obviously) the Area 51 series by Robert Doherty.

Those are my top ten places I want to visit.  Where would you go after reading some of your favorite books?

Book Review 53: How to Build a Dinosaur by Jack Horner

I first learned about Jack Horner when I was in college, then Central Missouri State University, now called University of Central Missouri. It was either my sophomore or junior year, I think the first time I took Invertebrate Paleontology. I say first time, because my first teacher was a horrible teacher. I had a C, he lost my final, which I felt like I'd done really well on, and told me I had a D. Since that was in my major, I had to re-take the class. I'm glad in a way that I did, because the my 2nd teacher was an awesome teacher and took me on my first "real" fossil expeditions. But I digress. It was about this time that the book Jurassic Park was a big hit, soon to be followed by the movie. My infatuation with dinosaurs was rediscovered. Around this time I asked for a book I'd heard about called "Digging Up Dinosaurs" by Dr. John Horner for a Christmas gift. Dr. John Horner is Jack Horner. I soon was to the point where I couldn't get enough nonfiction science books on dinosaurs and paleontology. My family of course noticed this, and the awesome college graduation gift I received was based on an article my step-dad found in the Kansas City Star my Senior year of college. In Montana, Jack Horner had a camp funded through the Montana State University where anyone who came up with the money and got signed up in time could come and work on an actual dinosaur dig. I got to go spend a week doing this the summer after I graduated. I still remember it all vividly, sleeping in a teepee. The pitch blackness at night, except for how bright the moon in the sky was. Being in a desert, yet wearing a sweatshirt on a July morning when we first went out to dig.

The money people pay for this, is one way they continue to fund their digs. And if I could, I would pay to go every year. I loved every minute of it. Except maybe for the bathrooms, and vegetarian dinner night. :-) A year ago, a new book came out called "How to Build a Dinosaur" by Jack Horner again. I asked for it last year as either a birthday or Christmas gift, but just wasn't quite in the mood to pick it up and read. I've kind of been in a nonfiction slump other than a few weight loss memoirs last spring. A couple weeks ago 60 Minutes did a story on Jack Horner, and basically what this book is about, and I remembered that book sitting on my shelf. I was also waiting for the final book on my Mark Twain nominee list to be available to check out at the library, and so was looking for what to read. And so I picked this up, and was again drawn right back in to this world I wish I was a part of every day of my life. Dr. Horner wants to create a Chickenosaur. Birds have been declared the descendents of dinosaurs, and so using a chicken and changing some things in its embryological development is where Dr. Horner sees us going.

Obviously there is much more to the book than I've laid out here, but I'll leave it open for others to read and enjoy. I will leave you with a quote Dr. Horner includes in this book by George Carlin. I'm not always a Carlin fan, due to some of his political comments, but this one sums up my views on global warming, and other environmental issues, as well as bringing to light the attitude that scientists in the geology field, which I equate myself with, have towards all these same things.

"Way over 90 percent of all the species that have ever lived on this planet - ever lived - are gone. They're extinct. We didn't kill them all. They just disappeared. That's what nature does. They disappear these days at the reate of twenty-five a day. And I mean regardless of our behavior. Irrespective of how we act on this planet, twenty-five species that are here today will be gone tomorrow. Let them go gracefully. Leave nature alone." - George Carlin

I actually have a few more reviews to do, but in the sense that I'm getting tired of typing, I'll come back and fill them in another day.