Review Time: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer

by Brittany Geragotelis

Review Time: The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Story: Mara Dyer doesn't think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is. She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.

Why It's a Must-Read: It's been a long, long time since I read a book that gripped me in the way that The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer did. But let me start by saying: I LOVE scary movies. I throw whole parties dedicated to watching horror films. And this was the first book I've read that's been scarier than most of the horror films that are out on the market nowadays. But I wouldn't describe The Unbecoming as horror. We're not looking at a Stephen King book, here, where there's a deranged killer clown stalking kids. I would classify this as more of a psychological thriller...one of those stories where you're constantly wondering if she did what she thinks she might have done or whether it was all in her head. Either way, the book is addictive and nearly impossible to put down once you pick it up. It was terrifyingly beautiful.

Okay, how GORGE is Michelle?!?!

What a Character: I love, love, LOVE the sassiness of Mara Dyer. Despite what's going on in her life and in her head (she sometimes sees dead people and is suffering from PTSD), to the outside world she's quick-witted and isn't a fool. But even though she's tough on the outside, on the inside she's barely hanging on. I love a character who's damaged. Call me crazy, but I think they're more interesting. And it takes a lot of energy for someone to act as if her world isn't crumbling down around her, just to make others feel better.

And if I felt a kinship with Mara Dyer, I wanted to have a secret love affair with Noah Shaw. At first he appears to be the ultimate bad boy. Achingly beautiful with an ego to match. But as the story goes on, we find out there's so much more to him than we thought. And this is one of those stories where the bad boy IS attainable. Thank gosh, because he's H-O-T and the perfect match for Mara's razor-sharp wit.

A Little Something Extra: I picked up this book, after an author friend of mine, Amanda Havard, told me about it at BEA. She was saying how she couldn't wait for Michelle Hodkin's follow-up to The Unbecoming, called The Evolution of Mara Dyer. And now that I've read the first, I have to agree. Good thing we won't have to wait too long for it--The Evolution will begin on October 23rd. You can pre-order it here. I think I may have found one more person to add to my list of favorite authors....

Be sure to follow her on Twitter @MichelleHodkin and then go out and buy her books!

5x5,
B.

Up to mischief this Halloween

by Brittany Geragotelis

I've always loved Halloween. It's not my favorite holiday (That would be Christmas, followed by Friday the 13th), but it's definitely in my top five. The truth is, there are two things I like about it. One, it's a day devoted to scariness. The air seems more electric, you get startled a little easier at noises, you start to believe that ghosts, vampires, aliens, ghouls and things that go bump in the night might not be fiction. I love that on Halloween (or really any time that weekend), you can turn the TV to any channel and land on some slasher film starring some masked man chasing after young coeds, documentaries that manage to catch a murder on tape or ghosts haunting people, houses and families. In other words, it's AWESOME.

The other reason I love this holiday is because I revel in the idea of dressing up in a costume and being something else—someone else. A fantasy version of me, if you will.

And no, I don't mean a fantasy version in the slutty kind of way. In fact, I sort of feel like it's cheating the holiday when people dress up as slutty nurses, slutty bumblebees or slutty M&M's (Oh yeah, that's right..someone somewhere actually managed to make a chocolaty desert candy sexual. Now that takes some real skill...or just a drunk college girl who decided to wear the little kid's candy costume sans pants....). Take a look at a few of this year's gems:

























































































Come to think of it, I actually kind of like the Freddy Kreuger look....But back to the real costumes. I love becoming someone else....just for the day/night. Over the past 9 years since I moved to NYC, I've sported a variety of costumes: some really imaginative, some funny and others....a bit obscure. But all were fun! Here's what I've dressed up as in the past:
















A cheerleader























A punk rocker




















Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen






















Illyria from "Angel"
























Blair Waldorf from "Gossip Girl"


Today is my last day in the office before Halloween, so my staff and I decided it would be fun to dress up. My costume this year? Michael Jackson from his Thriller video. What do you think?























So what are you going to be this Sunday? Leave your comments above and then go have a treat for me! If you send me a picture of you in your Halloween costume, I'll post it on my blog! E-mail pics to thebookslayer@gmail.com

5x5,
B.

Majoring in "Evil"

by Brittany Geragotelis

photo credit: New Line/Austin Powers

I was talking to a friend of mine who recently headed to NYU for her freshman year and she was telling me how there's a school offered there that allows you to create your own major. The Gallatin School of Individualized Studies lets students really zero in on a specialty. And apparently, according to NYU admissions, one guy decided to major in EVIL. Yep, that's right. His degree was actually in EVIL and now he's become a pretty successful lawyer, who's considered an expert on the subject.

How cool is that?

I wish I'd gone to a school that had allowed me to really tailor my education to what I was actually interested in learning. I can honestly say all the math and science I use today, I learned in grade school. Imagine all the stuff I could've learned in school had I been given a little more freedom to choose. I mean, wouldn't students be more excited about learning if they were taking classes they were actually interested in? In fact, it would seem like it would take some major creativity to come up with an original major and then have to plan out all the courses you'd need to achieve it.

photo credit: Universal Studios/Heroes

But the idea of majoring in EVIL brings up a great question. What sort of major would you want if the sky was the limit? Me, I think I might have majored in something like "HEROES" and I'd take a look at the history of heroes in fiction, film, music and real life; the psychology behind what drives a person to want to do heroic things; the definition of a hero and what constitutes one. And that would just be to start.

Or maybe I'd major in "FEAR" and study the history of the horror film; the psychology behind people's attraction to fear; a deep look into the physical ramifications that fear can have on a person; delve into the most common fears and ways to overcome them.

Or maybe "SUPERNATURAL STUDIES" and then I could look into ghosts, demons, vampires, werewolves and other supernatural topics, discovering their origins and their impact on society.

Man....the prospect of coming up with my own degree is actually kind of making me want to go back to school (and I hated school). Maybe I could just start by taking one class: The History of Zombies, perhaps?

If you could create your own major, what would it be? Leave your comments above!

5x5,
B.
W

Piranha 3D: Sink or Swim?

by Brittany Geragotelis

photos courtesy of Dimension

Matt and I went out to celebrate on Friday night and we decided to go see a movie after having dinner at Peters Gourmet Diner. It was my turn to choose the film (we take turns picking the movies we see), and I insisted on going to see Piranha 3D. Now why, exactly, did I want to see this flick? Well, I knew before we went that the movie itself was going to be stupid, but I was convinced that the 3D effects in the movie would make up for the bad dialogue and horrible storyline.

I was wrong.

Ever since I heard people say how great My Bloody Valentine was because of the 3D, I've wanted to see a horror flick this way. So, when I decided we were going to see Piranha, it was because I was expecting things to be flying at the audience: spears, piranhas, body parts. You know....everything that makes a horror film great. However, there was none of this in Piranha 3D.

Well, I guess there were some body parts flopping around the screen...In fact, I think a Girls Gone Wild video probably has less nudity in it than this movie did. I thought at least the acting would be okay though, since it was starring Jerry O'Connell, Elisabeth Shue, Ving Rhames and Jessica Szohr, but the actors never really had a chance. The writing was that bad. Still, I loved seeing Elisabeth on the screen again (I adored Adventures in Babysitting growing up) and I have a total girl crush on Jessica (I'm trying to get an interview with her for AC!). I've been a fan of Jerry O'Connell in the past (even loved him in Scream 2; an actual scary movie I might add), but in Piranha 3D, he plays a jerk who produces nudie spring break videos—a real sleezeball.

So, if you're thinking Piranha 3D is going to be one of those films that's so bad it's good, think again. It's just bad. But hey, if you DO decide to go, and are forced to sit through the whole thing, you'll at least get to see Jerry's man parts bitten off by the toothy little creatures of the sea. And apparently he wasn't all too happy with the size of the prosthetic.

5x5,
B.