Review: Look At Me by Jennifer Egan

E.F. Sunland

Jennifer Egan is exceptionally talented. As much carping as I’ve done about poorly written books, you’d think I’d curl up with the words of a brilliant author in a ball of contentment. But this book fails in execution. The best example is to compare it to the movie 300: the slow-mo battle sequences are bad@$$ and necessary (how else would you discern every nuance of Leonidas’s awesomeness?), but too many lesser scenes in slo-mo dilute the overall effect. By the time the viewer sees the Queen walking in slo-mo (again) and dipping her hands in a fountain, they cease to be transfixed and begin to ponder that eternal question of the modern cinematic age: How long would 300 be without slo-mo? read more

Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

E.F. Sunland

This is a tricky review to write because Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games is a solid book; it’s engaging and a quick read. The trouble with reading it, though, is that you’ll want to read the second (Catching Fire) and you’ll be so intrigued by its cliffhanger that you’ll pick up the final book in the trilogy The Mockingjay, which is a tremendous let down.

This book is more than an Americanized Battle Royale (a Japanese manga/movie about kids forced to fight to the death.) Collins’s fictional and futuristic Panem is divided into 12 districts and an oppressive Capitol. The districts are walled and separated from one another. Each year, all districts are required to send two tributes (a boy and girl) to the Capitol to compete in the Hunger Games and the victor’s district receives a year’s supply of food. As the Games are required viewing for all the people of Panem, the Capitol uses them as propaganda to showcase its domination. read more

Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

E.F. Sunland
book cover: the perks of being a wallflower

Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is oddly shaped and a slender 213 pages. It fit so nicely in my hand that I couldn’t think of returning it to the shelf. I know this makes me superficial, but the back promised it was “unique, hilarious and devastating” in the tradition of The Catcher in the Rye or A Separate Peace. How could I not read it?

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is written as a series of letters by a fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie. They’re conversational, intimate letters, though the person receiving them doesn’t know Charlie. He begins each letter “Dear friend” and closes with “Love always.” It would be easy to dismiss his style as simplistic, but he’s so earnest and honest I found his voice endearing. His writing isn’t forced, but it may take a few pages before you get the flow of it. The plot meanders as Charlie narrates his freshman year of high school, but it gets credit for not building up to an overhyped prom and prom-related activities for its conclusion. read more