"Jurassic Park" by Michael Crichton (Review)

         Jurassic Park Book Review

Basic Info:

Originally published: November 1990

Author: Michael Crichton

Adaptations: Jurassic Park (1993)

Page count: 448

Characters: John Hammond, Ian Malcolm, Alan Grant, Lex Murphy, Tim Murphy

Genres: Techno-thriller, Horror fiction

Jurassic Park is a 1990 science fiction novel written by Michael Crichton, divided into seven sections (iterations). A cautionary taleabout genetic engineering, it presents the collapse of an amusement park showcasing genetically recreated dinosaurs to illustrate the mathematical concept of chaos theory and its real world implications. A sequel titled The Lost World, also written by Crichton, was published in 1995. (Wikipedia)

Review:

This book received a lot of criticism when published, mostly positive, which I don't really agree with. I mean, the book is a great thriller, but not to be taken seriously. 

I personally think that the whole dinosaur thing has been totally blown out of proportion, and I just think that kids are way too excited about dinosaurs in general: For instance, they're dead, and will never come again, doesn't matter what effort humans will pour into it; what's extinct is extinct. Instead, worry about the very real problem of people dying, not some dead dinosaur.

Then the two children are very annoying and totally cliche characters: the know all, rebellious nerd who's mean to his sister, the little annoying sister with no respect for her elders, and their broken family. Ugh!

The good points are that this is a really good thriller, with nearly no plot holes, which will be hard to put down once you've started it. The mood and the tone of the book are well created, with minor flaws. 

Overall, Jurassic Park is a good book, if not great. My RATING: 6/10

Amazon UK link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jurassic-Park-Michael-Crichton/dp/1784752223/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1467117972&sr=8-6&keywords=jurassic+park

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" (Review)

        'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' Review

“I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” - Malcolm X

Basic Info:

Originally published: 1965

Authors: Alex Haley, Malcolm X

Adaptations: Malcolm X (1992)

Genre: Autobiography

Country: United States of America

Awards: Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

Review:

First off, let me start with a quotation from CommonSenseMedia's Review of the movie, which also applies to the book:

    Lee is honest in giving us a flawed hero, a man blinded by his cause, a leader unafraid to publicly denounce his own philosophies as he awakens to new and more hopeful ones. 

  The movie does an excellent job, too, of stressing the importance of education, reminding us that we each have the power not just to change our own life, but the lives of many. That's a terrific seed to plant in the heads of high school students looking toward college and a future career.

This book is a milestone in anyone's reading career, whether you're black or white, this book will inspire, educate, change, influence and strengthen you. It's written so easily and vocally, that you can hear Malcolm's voice inside your head, which isn't surprising, as the book is basically a written interview, and that Alex Haley wrote that which Malcolm spoke.

When you see "Glorious" America through a young, black, disenfranchised man who saw the worst of the white man, and before he was 20, had been a drug addict, pusher, burglar, and many other things besides. You start with the murder of his father: laid on a railway track, nearly cut in half, hanged, shot. Then come the experiences of Malcolm as a child and his siblings; so hungry that they cooked grass, so poor, that the state took the children away, so discriminated that Malcolm, although he was the smartest student in his class, was looked down upon, and thought to be less worthy than the stupidest kid in class.

Then Malcolm comes to Boston, Detroit, and Harlem, becomes a drug addict, drug pusher, steerer, and burglar, and before he's 21, he's in prison.

Now comes the most inspiring and amazing part of the whole book: his redemption and absolute cleansing in his education: barely able to read a newspaper, he starts copying the dictionary from page 1, word for word, definition for definition. He starts borrowing books from the prison library. Books on philiology, psychology, philosophy, religion, history, anotomy, genetics and many other topics. He reads far into the night, when he is supposed to be sleeping. He completely changes himself, from being an un-educated, addicted, animalistic criminal, to a intelligent, far-seeing, educated, just human being.

This book is an absolute must-read, if you're 16 or 17 and over, as this book is definetely not for kids. For further information, read my parent guide. My rating for this book is for sure 10/10. 

"The Revenant" by Michael Punke (Parent Guide)

                 The Revenant Parent Guide

18+! Contains Extreme Gore, several explicit sexual references, and infrequent heavy Profanity!

Spoilers in Red!

Positive Messages: 1/10

None really, though it does show the will of one man to survive and receive justice, and the extreme lengths he will go to to survive. The entire novel is about his quest for revenge, although he does show mercy to Bridger at the end and does not kill him. 

Positive Role Models: 3/10

While Hugh Glass is a sympathetic and good man who appreciates nature, and knows what it takes to survive in the wild, and the lenths he has to go to, he is unforgiving to his enemies, which isn't necessarily bad, but nonetheless, this is not for kids.

Profanity: 6/10

Heavy, but neither pervasive or infrequent. A couple of uses of S**t, and a few sexual references.

Sex & Nudity: 5/10

Multiple explicit references.

Drinking: 4/10 

A few scenes are while the rough frontiersmen are drinking.

Smoking/Drugs: 1/10 

Very infrequent and short.

Violence/Gore: 10/10

Extreme Gore. Aside form all the battles with Indians and so on, Glass gets brutally maules by a Grizzly bear, which is described in a couple of pages, before his wounds are talked about. His throat is nearly severed, his scalp is hanging form his head, deep cuts all over his body, and later, maggots infest his wounds. He is attacked by a rattlesnake, although it's only a nightmare, it will still make you flinch. Brutal, bloody beatings, stabbings,  etc, make this book absuloutely not for anyone under 18. I've read some horrific books, but this one has to be one of the worst novels, made all the more harder to bear as it's based on a true story.

Frightening/Intense: 6/10

Extremely intense.

18+ only!

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott (Review)

               Little Women Review

Basic Info:

Originally published: 1868

Author: Louisa May Alcott

Followed by: Little Men

Characters: Jo March, Amy March, Mrs. March, Beth March, Meg March

Adaptations: Little Women (1994), Tales of Little Women (1988), more

Genres: Coming-of-age story, Bildungsroman

Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888), which was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher.^[1][2] The novel follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March—detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood, and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters.

Review:

(Take a deep breath, rub your jaw, and start typing)

This book is quite good, obviously open to further improvement, but it's written with true feeling and heart with believable and deep characters we can all somehow relate to, and that's what makes it great. The time which is needed to read the book is on average 6 hours and 30 minutes, so yeah, it's very long; but that doesn't really bother me, and I'm always suprised when people complain about the length of books and movies, because if we haven't even got enough patience to watch a movie or read a book, then what's happened to us?

This is one of those books which is based on a true story not in the sense of some historical happening or something but in the sense that the experiences and feelings are real, and experiences we've all had, such as anger, writing, lust for revenge, love, hate, being anti-social, despair, and so on. The events may not be exactly true (although they're all things which many people grow through, and it was loosely based on Alcott's past life), but the FEELINGS are true, and remain personal without becoming sentimental.

So overall Rating: 8/10