Elzburg Reviews

Bird Box by Josh Malerman My rating: 5 of 5 stars I watched the movie and then read the book a few hours later, and it was a fantastic decision. They felt fresh and distinct in how they each show different possibilities and angles on the same basic story which acts as a unifier between the two halves, resulting in a magnificent whole. I suspect the order in which I consumed these played a big role in my enjoyment, since, yes, the book was better. I’ll use this opportunity to compare the book to the movie as a way to illustrate what this book did really well, and then what the movie was able to improve on. I’ll start with the former. Bird Box is a horror. Plain and simple. Its concept is deeply rooted in exploiting the character’s and reader/viewer’s fear of the unknown. Specifically: What we cannot see. Therein lies the simple problem with making a film adaptation: How does one portray an inherently unseeable horror through an inherently visual medi...

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Vol. 1 by Hideyuki Furuhashi My rating: 2 of 5 stars ( Read right to left. Mouse-over images to view sources ) My Hero Academia: Vigilantes is a fanfiction spin-off manga of the fantastic My Hero Academia series, and I'd say it was a pretty bold move to try something like this since it has such an amazing behemoth to live up to. So? How does Vigilantes compare to its predecessor? Well, if you noticed my rating you might have guessed that I didn't think it did a great job. Vigilantes was a mixed bag for me. There were certain parts that I liked, but then other parts that just soured the whole experience. The concept is a plus, for me. It takes a look into a new aspect of this hero society that the main series doesn't show: The underground heros who act illegally without a license, who help out with slightly smaller crime like street fights and whatnot, and who help tackle bigger busts like drugs from dif...

Your book is bad, and you should feel bad. I do not recommend these books. Novels Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin My rating: 1 of 5 stars My first thoughts upon finishing this: This was the dumbest freaking book ever. The whole book was showing Naomi in bullshit romantic relationships and then right when she finally gets to being with "the one" the book frickin' ends. (Read full review) Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi My rating: 2 of 5 stars This book had the worst start out of anything I've ever read, with chapter after chapter of girl-on-girl hate. The terribly clichéd main character acts as a secondary blow, and the high school level writing as a third just for those who remain barely hanging on.  (Read full review) Comic Princess Princess by Katie O'Neill My rating: 1 of 5 stars This comic has absolutely zero value both as a story and in its failed attempt at trying to make some import...

2017 on Goodreads by Various My rating: 4 of 5 stars 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 Here we are again, my third annual Reading Wrap-Up and Book Awards! Last we saw each other I had just finished up the most stressful year of my life. What first comes to my mind is, “Ha! You had no idea what you had coming, past Elizabeth! This year has been even worse!!!”, but that’s only actually partially true. In this context we can assume that I’m talking about “worse” with regards to the amount of stress, which is wrong. This year was slightly more chill. However, with regards to the entire year, it was worse indeed. But we’ll get to that at the end of the wrap-up. This year I knew I was going to be busy because of finishing high school and starting university, so instead of the goal to read 75 books like the last couple years, I lowered it to a more modest 50. Well, as we can see, I barely even managed that! Fantastic. For the first time I can remember I had a wh...