Elijah David

I recently tracked down a copy of the original Beauty and the Beast  by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Previously, I'd only read Beaumont's abridged adaptation of this story, as it's much shorter and easier to anthologize. Since this was my first time encountering the original of my favorite fairy tale, I thought I'd talk about what this version has that I've not seen in other adaptations. Brothers: Beauty has brothers as well as sisters, and true to fairy tale form, her brothers are kind and understanding people while her sisters (in contrast to Beauty) are vain and materialistic. I had seen or read adaptations that included the sisters before (Robin McKinley's Beauty , the French film  La Belle et la Bete ) but I hadn't seen brothers before, and their presence reminded me of the relationship between the heroine and her brothers in "The Wild Swans" (or "The Seven Ravens" or "The Six Swans"). I wish more retellings...

It's Memorial Day, so everyone is gearing up for summer. And that means summer reading lists. I didn't really do summer reading lists when I was in school, not do I have a good gauge of what a friend called "summer books" (i.e. books that have a summery tone or setting). To be honest, I was constantly reading whatever I could get my hands on no matter the season. (And when I tried to think of "summer" books, I found I tended to place books in either autumn or fall categories if I could categorize them at all; not surprising, since I am an autumnal soul.) So instead of sharing a suggested reading list for this summer, I thought I'd share what's on my own list for this summer. * means it's a reread. # means I'm already reading it. @ means it's an audio book. Innocents Aboard by Gene Wolfe * # Uprooted by Naomi Novik # The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich # Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams * # To Green Angel To...

Just like last month, I've got snippets from Albion Apparent  and "Paper and (T)horns". From Albion Apparent : Aaron Faust sat in his SUV outside the perimeter emergency services had erected around Buckley High School. He wasn’t the only parent who’d conducted an impromptu stakeout in the last few weeks, but he was the most persistent. The police and fire officials appointed to patrol the perimeter knew him on sight. Though they ought to have kept him under careful observation to prevent his sneaking into the cube of darkness, Aaron knew they would slip eventually. He tapped out a text message on his phone. A call would be faster—if she answered—but he couldn’t bring himself to hear her voice. Not even with Gabriel trapped behind a wall of darkness with a bunch of— *** “Are you ready?” I asked Corrine. She stared at the unbroken surface of the water. Her breaths were shallow, controlled. “What if it doesn’t work?” I shrugged. “Then at least we t...

Welcome to the second half of my look at the film adaptation of Z for Zachariah . This time, I'm going to look at the differences between the book and the film and talk about how those differences affect the story. I knew going into the film that there were going to be differences -- primarily that there was a third character introduced into the main conflict, giving the film a love triangle of sorts. This is, quite possibly, the largest departure from the story in the book. I say possibly because I think there is something that better qualifies -- but more on that momentarily. The addition of Caleb (everyone has Biblical names here; even Ann is derived from Hannah) actually could have served to emphasize the book's themes very well. His appearance would have been a major concern to the paranoid John from the book, and the potential romantic tension between Ann and Caleb would definitely have rankled the possessive and outright predatory man O'Brien depicts in his ...

I've finally returned to the Robert C. O'Brien Read/Watch Marathon with the 2015 film adaptation of Z for Zachariah . As I did with The Secret of NIMH , this post will be a running commentary from my viewing of the film. I'll follow up next time with a comparison of the book and the film. So. Many. Logos. (There were probably over a full minute of studio and distributor logos.) Nice establishing shots of the empty and run-down buildings. This dystopia town looks like Rossville (a city near where I live). Books! They have Ann going for books like she said she wanted to in the book! But why does she have a suit? It's not the  suit, is it? Is this a flash forward? The HD version of this is very intense. (I am not usually a fan of the way HD feels, like I'm actually in the room where the movie/show is happening. It's too real for me.) The dog is here! :) :( Ok. Now we seem to be back to the book. The valley, the church, etc. all looks right. It almost...

Thick as Thieves , the fifth book in Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief series (sometimes called the Attolia series by fans), came out earlier this week. I haven't plunged into it yet because I promised myself I would finish rereading the series (or at least the first three, which are my favorites) first. But, in the spirit of the series, I thought I'd take a quick look back at the second book, The Queen of Attolia . (I did a mini review of the first book, The Thief , a couple weeks ago .) Spoilers ahead! The Queen of Attolia  is a gripping sequel to The Thief  and it lets you know right away that the stakes are higher than before. The opening sequence reintroduces Gen, his skills as a thief, and the rivalry between him and the titular queen. Their encounter breaks a common trope of fiction that says a main character cannot be killed or seriously injured. My first time reading this book, I remember thinking that Gen was clever and resourceful. He'd man...

Before we get started, let me warn you that there are SPOILERS AHEAD for the season six finale and past seasons, so read at your own risk if you're not caught up on this show. Last night was the season finale for Once Upon a Time , and it ended with a wonderful twist to set up the next season (which they didn't even know for sure they were getting till after they finished filming). My history with this show has been a bit rocky. We watched season one on Netflix while season two was airing and we loved every minute of it. When season two hit, we binged it in order to be caught up for season three, and we've watched every season since as it airs (not as much fun as binge-watching, let me tell you). Season two was almost as good as season one, but the Greg/Tamara arc in the last third just didn't sit well with me. I liked the idea  of it (especially Greg's backstory) but having Neal with someone who's obviously not going to last the season was not a good ...