Wednesday Write-Up

Book Review: Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock

I randomly picked this book up while killing time perusing the book section of my local Walmart. The back-cover summary peaked my interest and, with a sale price of $4.99, I figured I could afford to take the gamble on a book and author I had never heard of before.

I bought the book on a Tuesday afternoon and had its 400 pages devoured by Saturday evening (it helped that it was an easy read). The story was compelling, full of surprises and beautiful imagery to counter the desperate scenarios within. Me & Emma is a disturbing tale of surviving childhood through horrific circumstances; i.e. witnessing the murder of a parent, physical and sexual abuse. I would definitely recommend this powerful and emotionally riveting book.

Movie Review: Twilight

Having read all four books of the series, I simply *had* to see Twilight the movie in all of its horrible glory. I expected the movie to be terribly cheezy and destroy all of the value and character of the original book. I was surprised to find that the movie was not nearly as bad as I had anticipated. Minus, of course, the absolutely ridiculous "sparkle scene". If nothing else, that stupid scene was worth the hours of laughter and mocking afterward.

The casting of some of the characters was 'off' in my opinion. The actor playing Carlisle was entirely to young, his blonde dye-job and pasty make-up were simply atrocious. Esme didn't feel right to me either, but that might have been due to her pairing with the awkwardly cast Carlisle. I also found the portrayal of Emmet odd, though, I cannot put my finger on exactly why. I think this was more a character flaw than anything with the actual actor. Likewise, I found the character of Jasper weird but, again, I don't think this was due to the actor's being physically wrong for the part. Instead, I think it might be a reflection of his acting abilities. Rosalie, no offense to the beautiful Nikki Reed, was not nearly as breath-taking as the book had conjured her to be.

At first, I was put off by the casting of Robert Pattinson as Edward for the same reason Rosalie didn't work for me... He is simply not gorgeous enough for what the book (and my mind) conjured Edward Cullen to be. The actor's talent served him well as I quickly found myself believing this man to be Edward Cullen, putting aside my earlier perceptions.

For as many characters as I thought were poorly cast, there were just as many that I thought brilliantly played. Bella and Alice were simply perfect and everything that I had ever imagined them to be. The actors playing Charlie and Jacob were also a good fit for their roles. Overall, my opinion of Twilight the movie is that it was decent. I think the average adult can save their $$$ and wait for its release on DVD. Perhaps the theater viewings can be left to those of us adults who have invested our time reading the books along with the rest of the twelve year old girls.