Eve: The Awakening

Eve: The Awakening is a 2015 young adult science fiction novel by Jenna Moreci. It was the author's debut novel. She self-published the novel and her follow-up was the acclaimed fantasy novel, The Savior's Champion. I became aware of this novel due to the author having a YouTube channel where she discusses writing and gives out writing advice.

The novel follows a teenager named Eve who is a chimera, meaning she has telekinetic abilities, along with a few other physical attributes, which separates her from the rest of humanity. After years of being an outcast and hated due to her abilities, Eve begins college at the esteemed Billington University, fully-prepared to reinvent herself and live as an ordinary human being. But things at Billington aren’t as they seem. In a school filled with prodigies, socialites, and the leaders of tomorrow, Eve finds that the complex social hierarchy makes passing as a human much harder than she had anticipated. Even worse, Billington is harboring a secret of its own: Interlopers have infiltrated the university, and their sinister plans are targeted at chimeras—like Eve. She must decide if she's going to stay in the shadows or rise up and fight.

I feel like I should start off this review by discussing the characters within the story. There is Eve, the title character and protagonist. I felt so-so about her to be honest. She had personality, and attitude, but at times, it just didn't make sense to me. She would easily brush off some things people said or did to her, but become enraged over other, less serious, events. Speaking of the way she was treated, all chimeras are feared by most of humanity because they aren't understood and because they have this innate power. Eve is no exception and, after her status as a chimera is revealed, people at the college start treating her poorly and for the most part she does nothing about it. She doesn't argue back, she doesn't fight back, she just lets it happen. While I can understand the "don't sink to their level" argument, it made me start to dislike her character. On her journey, Eve makes a number of quirky and interesting friends. The thing about them though, is that they have exactly one thing about them that makes them unique. Sancho is a pyromaniac. Percy is flamboyantly gay. JJ is a hacker extraordinaire. They're all quirky but one-dimensional. There are Madison, Heather and Hayden, the stereotypical mean girls who serve as Eve's "friends" early in the story, only to turn on her later. Lastly, there are the Interlopers, who serves as a faceless army of evil aliens and don't have much personality. They have an evil plan, details about that plan don't really seem to matter, but they're evil and they need to be stopped. 

I love science fiction. I especially love sci-fi that takes place on Earth rather than on some far-off planet. When I read the blurb for this book, I thought it would be right up my alley. It turned out that I was wrong. While the story had potential, it was bogged down by a number of problems. One issue I had was with the amount of filler within this book. There was a lot more filler than was needed, which led to side storylines never going anywhere or not having a real conclusion. In a story about people with superpowers being targeted by aliens, Eve dealing with a math teacher who hates her feels out of place. There's also a storyline that's problematic, for lack of a better term, because a character is nearly assaulted and nothing ever comes of it. There are no repercussions, no consequences, the assault is stopped and that's it. The fact that these plotlines are in the story and don't really have a purpose indicates that maybe, they should've been omitted entirely. Another issue that I had was with the way the plot progresses. This novel isn't a character-driven story, but I wouldn't say it's plot driven either. It kind of straddles both methods and it suffers because of it. It feels like Eve is being dragged through the story half the time and pulling it along the other half. I didn't hate the novel, but the filler and lack of clear direction made it difficult for me to fully enjoy.

Finally. let's discuss the plot itself. Due to some of the filler element, it does move rather slowly. Once the plot starts, important events come in fits and spurts. As with most novels, there's more action and activity in the second half of the story than in the first half, and once the plot starts moving, in earnest, it moves rather quickly. Some of the fight scenes I found engaging, while others didn't really excite me due to the pacing being a little inconsistent. There's a romantic subplot that takes place, which to be honest didn't interest me, but it also didn't detract from the story. It was just sort of there, kind of like Eve's love interest to be honest. Then, comes the plot twist, which I won't fully delve into but I do want to mention. Some stories have very obvious or heavy-handed plot twists; some have more subtle or "gotcha" ones. The plot twist in Eve:The Awakening is neither, but it's supposed to feel like the second one in an attempt to not be the first. The issue is that there isn't any kind of foreshadowing for the twist to make sense and the world's own internal rules are broken in order to make it work. There was a lot of potential here, but the potential wasn't met.

I don't want to make it sound like I completely hated this novel, because I didn't. The core idea Moreci had is fascinating. The detail she put into the world-building and explanation of chimeras was fantastic, it just got bogged down by the college drama and filler. This book does more showing than telling, which is good. I liked her writing style overall, and good for a first novel. She clearly has talent as a writer and some of the mistakes she made in this novel, she learned from and remembered while writing The Savior's Champion. She had a lot of talent, but fell into some of the pitfalls plenty of debut authors do. The only solution to that issue is to keep writing and improve her skills, which she has done. 

I wanted to like Eve: The Awakening, but to be honest, it just wasn't right for me. It's not a terrible book, but I didn't really enjoy very much of it. There were too many extra elements that weren't needed, too many side plots which took me out of the story. Considering this is Jenna Moreci's debut novel, I wouldn't say that it was bad, just a bit disappointing. Perhaps I set my expectations too high going into this novel.

Rating: 2.3 stars

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Five Worst Book to Film Adaptations

Last week, I discussed some of my favorite film adaptations. Today, I'm going to discuss the five worst adaptations I've seen. Some of these are bad altogether in my opinion, while others are good movies but bad adaptations of the books they're based on. In order to be fair, I'm limiting the list to books I've actually read and the subsequent film that was made adapting it that I've seen. 

I asked people on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook for their feedback, and there were a few honorable mentions: The Shining, the 1984 adaptation of Dune, The Magicians and assorted Harry Potter films after Prisoner of Azkaban.

With the honorable mentions out of the way, here's my list of the five worst book-to-film adaptations:



5)The Hobbit

Now, don’t get me wrong. I love the book The Hobbit and I love the The Hobbit films. However, as an adaptation of The Hobbit, the films aren’t great. The book itself is a very short story and there is no reason why a book that’s under 300 pages needed to be adapted into three 3-hour-long films. A trilogy made sense for Lord of the Rings, it didn’t make sense here. Padding the runtime led to introducing unnecessary subplots and dragging things out longer than they needed to be.



4) The Giver

I really can’t explain why happened here. I think this movie was only made because YA dystopias were so popular. Now, The Giver is a classic book and an adaptation done right could’ve been great, but that wasn’t allowed to happen here. instead of focusing on the Community and its dystopian elements, the film shuffled those ideas off to the side and instead went for set pieces and action sequences. A lot of the “magic” of the story was lost in translation and the film is worse for it. This is a story with a conflicted protagonist and a layered issue at its core, but none of that appears in the film.



3)My Sister’s Keeper

My Sister’s Keeper makes this list for one reason and one reason alone: they changed the ending. Unlike some films where the book ending doesn’t make sense for the way the film is telling the story (i.e. The Shining), it wasn’t a case of the book ending being a problem. One of the major themes of the novel is how fragile life is and the ending cements that. In the film’s case, changing the ending makes it much less poignant and reduces it to just another chick flick, made to make you cry.



2) Percy Jackson and the Olympians

A lot of the magic of this story was lost in adapting it. Some of it was due to unnecessary changes, like ages and the way the rules in this world work. Some might be due to having not enough runtime or some form of studio interference. The story has no depth. The characters aren’t 1/5 as interesting as they are in the books and after rewatching the film, it feels like no one seemed to care very much. It feels hollow, like the studio using the popularity of the series as an easy cash grab and not caring about how well they managed to adapt the story.



1) Eragon

This is the best (worst?) example of why studios shouldn’t adapt novels if they aren’t going to put the effort in to do it properly. This movie could’ve been Lord of the Rings, but for a younger audience. It could’ve spawned a franchise in the same way that Harry Potter and The Hunger Games did, but in order to do that, the film would need to actually be good. The film has the basic plot outline of the novel- a boy finds a dragon egg and goes on an adventure- but strips away everything else that made the story unique or even slightly interesting. There’s no emotion, no wonder and no depth. I loved this series, so I was excited when this film came out. This movie was a huge disappointment and to date, Eragon is the only film where I walked out of the movie theater halfway through. (I watched it on TV months later, just to be sure I didn’t miss some significant tonal shift or improvement. I didn’t.)

I don't blame the actors or the authors here. Some stories are naturally easier to adapt than others. The problem is that most of the movies I've listed failed to capture the magic and depth of the books they were based on. Or they created the right world, but missed the theme or purpose of the story. The book is always better, but if a film makes me stop liking the series its based on, because of how badly the adaptation was handled, I get really upset.

Those were my least favorite book-to-film adaptations. What are some of yours?

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Children of Dune

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Children of Dune is a 1976 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It's the sequel to Dune Messiah and is the third book in the Dune saga. It was the first hardcover science fiction book to become a bestseller. It was nominated for the 1977 Hugo Award. Dune Messiah and Children of Dune were adapted into a Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, titled Children of Dune, in 2003 and received positive reviews.  This novel was the last of Frank Herbert's novels to be serialized prior to publication. My reviews for Dune and Dune Messiah are linked here. Children of Dune can be purchased here from Bookshop.org or here from Amazon. 

Children of Dune takes place nine years after the ending of Dune Messiah and its story centers around twins Leto and Ghanima Atredies. They are the children of  the Emperor Paul Muad'Dib, who disappeared into the desert wastelands of Arrakis shortly after their birth. Like their father, the twins possess supernormal abilities—making them valuable to their manipulative aunt Alia, who rules the Empire in the name of House Atreides. Facing treason and rebellion on two fronts, Alia’s rule is not absolute. The displaced House Corrino is plotting to regain the throne while the fanatical Fremen are being provoked into open revolt by the enigmatic figure known only as The Preacher. Alia believes that by obtaining the secrets of the twins’ prophetic visions, she can maintain control over her dynasty. But Leto and Ghanima have their own plans for their visions—and their destinies.

I feel like I should start off by saying that I liked this novel a lot more than the book that preceded it. I found the twins, Leto and Ghanima, to be fascinating characters. With Muad'Dib dead, one of them will lead the Imperium when they reach adulthood. The enemies of House Atredies don't want this to happen. Alia doesn't want this to happen and the twins don't even want it to happen. Yet, they know that nothing they do can change the fact that one of them will become the next emperor; they can only change the circumstances of their ascension. A common question in the story revolves around whether or not they're completely human. They were "pre-born" as Alia was and can access the memories of past generations. The twins are also aware of the future, much as their father was, and know the outcome of events that haven't happened yet. This means that, much like with Paul in the first book, they know what's coming and have to wait for everyone else to catch up. This means that, rather than Children of Dune focusing on the twins' attempts to achieve a goal, it depicts them trying to create the ideal environment for the inevitable outcome to occur in. Neither child seems like a normal kid, but they aren't supposed to. Some readers might find it hard to connect with them, but I didn't and this is mostly because I've come to the conclusion that the Dune series should be read for the plot and world first and the characters second.

Not counting the twins, there are three characters that really shape the plot of this book: Alia, Jessica and the mysterious Preacher. In the nine years between Dune Messiah and Children of Dune, Alia has served as Regent for her niece and nephew, running the empire until they come of age. She has gotten used to the power she wields and feels threatened by anything that could interfere with her ruling. She also struggles with an addiction to the spice melange and her exposure to the Water of Life while in the womb and that giving her too much knowledge and memory for any person to reasonably handle. These factors all combine to create a brilliant spiral into insanity and devolution into the very thing she fears becoming. Jessica left Arrakis after the events of Dune and has returned at the behest of the Bene Gesserit to test if Paul's twins are human. Any sympathy I had for Jessica in Dune was erased over the course of this book. She's conceited, conniving and has this holier-than-thou attitude despite being responsible for numerous events that led to the events in this book happening. I'd be fine with that if she seemed to have a shred of self-awareness or guilt, but she doesn't and continues to act as if she's done nothing wrong. Lastly, there is The Preacher. By Dune Messiah, Muad-Dib was already seen as a god  and deified. He's the focal point of his own religion. The Preacher appears, walking out of the deep desert, and lectures the waiting pilgrims about all of the failings of Muad'Dib's religion. The meanings of Paul's teachings have been forgotten, the people he sought to protect and empower have lost their way. It seems like The Preacher's sole mission is to tear down the religion and empire Paul had built before his demise. The Preacher's character arc, and his connection to the overall story, is tied heavily with the themes about religion, mob mentality and loss of narrative control I mentioned when discussing Dune Messiah. The Preacher is by far the most nuanced character I've read in this series and once his motivations become clear, it's difficult not to agree with him.

One of my major complaints about Dune Messiah was that there isn't much plot for the length of the novel. I referred to it as being a very transitional book. The scope of the story is bigger in Children of Dune, Herbert was willing to take more risks and the plot is a lot more cohesive. Much like the original novel, all of the plotlines converge together towards the end of the book. There was also a much larger degree of world-building in Children of Dune although the aspects that are expanded upon appear to be about minutiae at first. With all of that being said, there were still some pacing issues. All three books in this series that I've read so far have the same problem: great beginnings, great endings, but middles where not a lot happens. This story did drag in the middle as events needed to happen to bring characters together that were separated and push the plot along. When I was discussing this book with my dad, the only person I know has read the whole series, he admitted that the middle of the book is somewhat of a bore. While I wanted to see more of the Dune universe, including other planets, most of what happened off of Arrakis was boring. People talking about events happening on Arrakis or scheming about future events to happen there. Pages of conversations and plotting with no action slowed the story down.

As I mentioned above, my dad is the only person I know who's read the entire series. When I told him I was about to start Children of Dune, he said he was jealous because I was about to experience the story for the first time. You can read a book several times, but you can only read it for the first time once. He told me, without giving anything away, that some of the events of the book are "completely insane". Obviously, this intrigued me and the story had a lot to live up to. It certainly fit his description, as anyone who's read Children of Dune knows. As a rule, I don't spoil books. I bring that up whenever there's a big plot twist or reveal I want to talk about, but can't. I'm not going to spoil what happens in this book and anyone who's thinking of reading it absolutely should fight the urge to search it on Wikipedia. All I will say is this: as I was reading, I was trying to figure out where the plot was going. (I feel like most readers do that, but just stick with me for a second.) There were a few plot elements that I guessed, or had an idea about. There was one that I didn't see coming at all. Never in a million years did I see that particular plot twist coming. I thought the relevant foreshadowing was moving in a completely different direction and I was wrong. The twist surprised me in a way no other twist has. Every other plot twist will be measured against this one. Now, I need to read the next book God Emperor of Dune, because the twist in Children of Dune makes me want to know where the story is going to go from there.

Children of Dune is overall a good book. It built upon its universe in a new and unique way. It had a number of surprises within its story and set up a sequel with nearly endless possibilities. There are some pacing issues and some characterization problems. As mentioned above, I've figured out that what I like about the Dune saga is the overarching plot and universe, not necessarily the characters. This book might not be for everyone, I know some people who claim the series is a little too "out there" for their tastes, but I think anyone who likes the original Dune should definitely read Children of Dune, even though it does mean having to push through the second book. I liked the book overall and because of how this one ended, and the plot twist that completely floored me, I'm definitely going to read the next book in the series.

Rating: 3.9 stars

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Five Best Book to Film Adaptations

Film adaptations of books have been around ever since the medium of film has been around. Prior to film adaptations, there were stage plays based off of books. In fact, there seems to be a belief that an author has only truly "made it" when one of their works is adapted into a film. In the last few decades, the number of film adaptations has increased exponentially, but just because more books have been made into films doesn't mean those films are entertaining or good adaptations of their source material.

Today, I'm going to discuss the five best adaptations I've seen. In order to be fair, I'm limiting the list to books I've actually read and the subsequent film that was made adapting it that I've seen. For example, I haven't read the series that The Golden Compass is based on, so I can't really talk about how bad of an adaptation the 2007 film is, but I've heard its not great.

I asked people on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook for their feedback, and there were a few honorable mentions: The Martian, Moby Dick, Fight Club, Get Shorty and No Country for Old Men

With the honorable mentions out of the way, here's my list of the five best book-to-film adaptations:




5) Sense and Sensibility

I know this might seem like a random first choice, but this movie got right what many other period pieces, especially adaptations of period novels, get wrong. The characterization, especially of Eleanor and Marianne Dashwood, is consistent. The relationship between the two sisters is captured and translated beautifully. The film works because it translates the story into a different medium without losing the atmosphere.

4)  To Kill A Mockingbird

This film is kind of the perfect storm of amazing screenwriting and phenomenal casting choices. Gregory Peck seemed to be almost born to play Atticus Finch. The key thing that makes this film so effective, and such a good adaptation, is that it doesn’t try to shy away from the subject matter. It doesn’t try to minimize the injustice and, given the period when the film was made, that very easily could have happened.



3) Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

I don’t really have a ton to say about this one. the book is an exciting spy thriller and the film is as well. There were some changes, but those changes were minimal and are more for clarity than anything else.



2) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

While later films caught flack for omitting characters and storylines, or changes in characterization, the book reads almost identical to the screenplay. Very little is changed between book and screen, very little is omitted. The production encompasses the wonder of the world of Harry Potter in a way that later films seemed to waver on.

1) Lord of the Rings

They said it couldn’t be done. For years, people believed Tolkien’s opus was unadaptable due to the sheer size and scale of the story. It wasn’t possible to do in one film, but three films were a much different story. Peter Jackson also managed to do this without making too many changes to the source material either. Some characters feature more in the films than in the book, simply to avoid introducing a character only to have them drop out of the story after doing one or two things. Yes, Tom Bombadil is absent from the story entirely and yes, the Scouring of the Shire is only seen as a vision, but for the most part, the story is exactly as Tolkien wrote it. Additionally, there’s a level of sincerity that other films, which were released after Lord of the Rings was so successful, lack. The people making these movies loved the source material and wanted to give it the best possible treatment for the silver screen.

This is my list for the best book-to-film adaptations. My list of the worst ones will be coming soon, but I wanted to start out positively. What are some of your favorite adaptations?

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Until All Curses Are Lifted

Until All Curses Are Lifted is a 2019 young adult epic fantasy novel by Tim Frankovich. It was released in August of 2019 and published by Warpsteel Press. The author provided me with a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The novel takes place in a fantasy world where the law is imposed by magic. If a person breaks the law, they’re cursed in one way or another. The only exception to this rule are the reigning six Lords of the world, Antises, who figured out a way centuries ago to bypass that particular rule. The story follows two protagonists: Marshal and Seri. Marshal was born cursed as punishment for the crimes of his father. He discovers that he’s heir to immense magical power and this leads him to flee for his life because his half-brother wants the power for himself and hires an assassin to pursue him. No one has ever escaped a curse, but Marshal, his mother Aelia and another boy from their village named Victor, journey to lift Marshal’s curse so that he can truly be safe. Seri, meanwhile, wants to become the first female mage and the most powerful mage in history. The magic that holds Antises together is failing and no one knows why. While the ground itself shakes, someone starts murdering mages. In danger from all directions, Seri must learn how to use her unique abilities before everything falls apart. As both Marshal and Seri go on their respective journeys, neither knows they’re being watched from another realm.

Marshal might be the first main character of his kind that I’ve read. As explained above, Marshal is cursed due to the actions of his father. His curse is that he’s unable to communicate. He can’t speak, or make any type of sound, he can’t use a form of sign language and the only way he can get any information across is by nodding or shaking his head, and that’s only if he remembers what each gesture means. This means that, while the reader sees things from Marshal’s perspective through his narration and thoughts, we’re the only ones who know what he’s thinking, the other characters do not. Since he can’t speak, many characters believe he isn’t aware of what’s going on or doesn’t fully understand things happening around him, but he does, he just can’t express that. At the beginning of the novel, Aelia, Marshal’s mother, is the only person who seems to care about him. Everyone in the village, and the world at large, loathe people who are cursed, even children who were born that way. Aelia is the driving force behind Marshal’s story and one of the strongest, most complex characters I’ve read in a while. She doesn’t care where she has to go or what she has to do, she’s going to get Marshal’s curse lifted. At the same time, she’s never willing to tell anyone much about her plans, keeping things very close to her chest. Seri is the other main character and she is committed to not only being the first female mage, but also the greatest mage of all time. She arrives at Zes Sivas, where mages are trained, to learn magic as magic is causing the world to fall apart. Seri and her fellow acolytes are the highlights of the chapters taking place at Zes Sivas. They’re dripping with personality and agency. One of my favorite traits of Seri’s is how curious she is about what’s going on around her and how tenacious she is about finding answers. Everyone else just wants to stop the world from falling apart, while she wants to understand why it’s falling apart to begin with. There’s a whole host of other characters, both good and bad, that I enjoyed in this story, and it would take me forever to run through all of them. Frankovich did an excellent job writing interesting and unique characters.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is the way the alternating POVs is used to tell the story. Marshal’s journey shows the reader the world in the way an average person would see it. His group travels to different lands, meets people of different cultures and gives a more down-to-earth perspective of things. Seri’s story, meanwhile, reveals information about Antises in a broader sense. Through her studying magic, the reader learns how magic works in this world. Through Zes Sivas preparing for an annual ritual, the six different lands are explained, including current tensions between the lands. Seri and Marshal’s stories do overlap, but not until close to the end of the novel, which I liked because it gave both storylines a chance to breathe and develop without the plots contriving to bring them together. The story ends exactly where it needs to, and concludes enough of the story to be satisfying while providing the framework for the sequel, which according to the excerpt at the end, is titled Until All Bonds Are Broken.

This book surprised me. I feel like a lot of young adult fantasy, including young adult epic fantasy, tends to shy away from some of the more nitty-gritty aspects of life.  While there isn’t gratuitous violence, Until All Curses Are Lifted doesn’t shy away from it either. There’s a fair amount of violence, bloodshed and death. The same is true for discussions of sex and other topics some books like to gloss over or pretend don’t exist. While I found those aspects of the story refreshing, what really surprised me was the themes of this story and how deep some of those themes run. One of the major themes is about power and how it corrupts those who wield it when left unchecked. That theme isn’t uncommon, but here it’s shown, both literally and figuratively, and runs through multiple storylines, not just one. There’s also something to be said for its message about fear of the unknown or unfamiliar. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by this book.

While I enjoyed Until All Curses Are Lifted, I do have some criticism to share. The pacing is a little strange. Obviously, a fight scene or scene with a lot of tension is going to feel more fast-paced than just two people talking, but there were parts of this story where the pacing of a scene didn’t make sense for what was happening within a scene. Likewise, the way the story is broken up into chapters felt weird to me. There were a few instances where two consecutive chapters could’ve been one single chapter instead. There are 430 pages in the book, and it’s 83 chapters when it could’ve been closer to around 50 if some of the chapters had been combined. I know it’s not a huge deal, but I did find that choice to be a little odd. While I enjoyed the story overall, and the ending, I do think there could’ve been a little bit more foreshadowing about some of the revelations at the end, but I can understand why Frankovich might be holding off until the sequel to delve into some of those things. I have some complaints about the novel, but they didn’t distract from my enjoyment of the book.

Until All Curses Are Lifted is a solid epic YA fantasy. The characters are well-written, the world is fascinating and the story is refreshing. I look forward to seeing more of it in the sequel when it’s released. I would recommend it to any epic fantasy fan, both teenagers and adults. It would be especially enjoyable for readers that like hybrid magic systems.

Rating: 3.9 stars

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