Summertime and the living is...EPIC

Hello hello! So, I'm certain you're all wondering why the freakin' hell I haven't blogged in--what is it now--eleven days? Shame on me...or not, when I recap what's been going down since July 13th.

For starters: Harry Potter. Yes. I won't bore everyone with my analysis on what they could've done better or where the special effects felt unrealistic or how I would've cast someone with BLUE EYES THANKYOUVERYMUCH as the younger Lily Potter--but what I will say is that I cried. Hard.

~SPOILERS~

I cried at all the usual parts, of course--Fred Weasley, Snape, Tonks and Lupin, Harry's walk into the forest--but somehow it was so much different from reading the seventh book, because none of the deaths--no, not even Snape's--made me cry when I read it. Somehow, I think, there's just something about seeing it. Seeing Fred and George take one last moment before the battle, saying "I'm all right, are you all right?" and ready to die defending their school and their friends. Seeing Tonks and Lupin stretching their hands towards one another, going in for the kill together, ready to protect each other. Seeing Voldemort's total lack of regret for killing who he thinks to be his best servant, unaware that he is killing a man who spent most of his life working against him.

I remember reading Deathly Hallows and crying when Harry walks into the forest, ready to face Voldemort alone. In the movie--forget it. I was drying my eyes on my cloak the entire damn time. (Yes, of course I dressed up...I'll explain that later.) Seeing it--seeing his determination, his willingness--seeing that he will do absolutely anything to protect those he loves--made me love Harry Potter more than ever. Remember what I said in the last blog post, about how these people seem real to me? In the movie this is so much more pronounced; everyone doesn't just seem real, they are real.

You can't possibly understand the intense fervor surrounding the release of this movie unless you are a Harry Potter fan. I don't care how many fans you know--you will only understand this if you are a fan; just knowing one simply will not cut it.

Rewind the clock about nine and a half years, back to December 2001.

Picture a shrimp of a girl (or perhaps "leprechaun" would be more appropriate in describing her size) with the wildest, curliest dark-blonde hair you've ever seen, clinging to her parents for all she's worth. She has never seen the inside of a movie theater. She has only just finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In one hand she clutches a Hermione Granger action figure; her father is holding her other hand. She has never been this excited in her whole life. Not when she had her first dance recital. Not when she went to an ice show for the first time. Not even when she unwrapped that Hermione Granger action figure on the morning of her ninth birthday. Never, ever, ever.

She loves Hermione Granger more than she loves the Harry Potter series itself. She sees herself in this frizzy-haired bookworm, the girl who covers up her insecurities by being smart, the girl who has isolated herself (for different reasons, of course; while Hermione has chosen not to "run with the crowd," her real-life counterpart has been kept out of the loop by others, protected from the dangers of a conventional school). Now she is going to see her new heroine on-screen for the first time--and she can't wait.

She covers her eyes during the scariest parts--the troll on Halloween, the first appearance of Fluffy, the moment with the dead unicorn in the Forbidden Forest--and even has to briefly leave the theater when Voldemort shows himself for the first time. But when the movie is over she is still so, so excited, absolutely ecstatic, because of her new favorite movie characters--Harry, Ron, and most of all, Hermione.

(And I think it goes without saying that she is, at this point, part of the small, naive group who really thought that Hermione and Harry would make a good couple.)

Fast-forward to July 14th, 2011.

That same girl is now eighteen years old and has sat through movies much, much more frightening than Harry Potter. But she still holds her father's hand as they get in line at ten-thirty PM, waiting for the midnight showing of the very last film.

She has dressed up, too--one of the few who bothered--as, who else, Hermione Granger, wearing her Interlochen uniform, a wizard's cape, and her father's red-and-gold tie. The Hermione action figure is long gone, but the enthusiasm is still there.

Along with Hermione, there is Severus Snape, a handful of generic Gryffindors, multiple Harry Potters, one brave Dobby doppelganger, quite a few generic "wizards" or "Hogwarts teachers" and a few hipster Slytherins...and, for some strange reason, Transformers. Well over a hundred people are in line for the midnight premiere. These people are for real, and you don't want to mess with them--and yes, that does include saying, "You know Harry Potter isn't a REAL PERSON, right?" These fans are impatient--they can't wait to see if the movie is true to their beloved books--but at the same time they relish the experience of waiting in line. It is, after all, the very last time they will get to see a midnight premiere of a Harry Potter movie.

But when it's time to go in, and everyone--costumed, uncostumed, or just wearing their Harry Potter t-shirt--finally takes their seats, the girl dressed as Hermione almost begins to cry. Not yet, she tells herself; there is, after all, still two hours of movie that she has to get through. But it's a little like the feeling she had on her graduation day--that sense that she is moving on, that she is about to leave childhood behind forever.

And she watches her favorite scenes as intensely as she watches those she hates, cheering when Molly Weasley makes toast out of Bellatrix Lestrange, whistling when Ron FINALLY kisses Hermione (needless to say, she has switched to the legions of fans supporting Ron and Hermione as a couple now), roaring in approval when Neville beheads Nagini, crying her eyes out when Snape dies. These people are not just actors. They are her heroes. They are not just characters. They are her friends.

And when the final shot rolls around, and the score from the very first movie is playing, she cannot help but cry one final time. Again she begins to feel the way she did on graduation day--bittersweet but satisfied, sad but so proud, so happy that everything is wrapped up, knowing that while she and her (oh, all right, fictional) friends are finally grown up, they will never leave each other behind.

--------

Yes, that insane girl is me. And I mean it, too--once an obsessed Harry Potter fan, always an obsessed Harry Potter fan. You are talking to a girl who still has her photo of a thirteen-year-old Dan Radcliffe dressed as Harry Potter tacked to her bedroom wall. I still talk about the HP characters as if they're real people. You know how some people talk to themselves? I talk to Hermione, Ron, Harry, Hagrid, or Snape. (Yes, I really do.) I don't care how old I get--when I am fifty years old, I will still have my imaginary talks with my favorite Harry Potter characters, and I dream of the day that I will be able to read these books to my kids, show them the pictures and videos of Potter fans lining up outside bookstores, libraries, or movie theaters, and say to them, "Guess what? Your crazy mommy did that."

This song is my favorite at the moment, because it pretty much expresses everything I feel about Harry Potter, without the sappiness that I've invariably drenched my latest Potter rants in.

So long, Hermione. Maybe we'll hang out sometime, yeah? Keep Ron in line, would you? And keep an eye on Harry for me. Tell him I'll miss him. Tell him to hug Ginny for me. And no matter what, please, please, PLEASE keep inspiring silly, optimistic nine-year-old girls around the world--it's what you do best.

~Cue new section of blog~

So I've been writing a lot this summer. (Cue massive "DUH!" here.) I've also been doing a lot of editing and a lot of college shopping, but for the most part I've been holed up in my room, the car, or a hotel room writing my pants off. (Please do not picture that.) So, since my best friend has responded so positively to one of my stories, I thought that maybe I would post a bit of it on here, just for fun:

~~~

"Loving Cooper Finnegan" (excerpt)

December

Snow covers the ground. It’s as cold here during the winter as it is hot in D.C. during the summer. Sam and Maggie and I grab each other’s hands and run and slide, run and slide, until we collapse in a heap on the thin layer of ice that has formed on the ground.

We find Cooper near the auditorium and bring him in with us. We run around the auditorium and shout lines from our favorite movies, and sing songs from RENT and Hairspray and Sweeney Todd that we only know half the words to, and we skip and play and dance until a security guard kicks us out.

On the way back, Maggie comes up with the idea of naming our favorite constellations. The night is clear, and we look up and see every star through the tops of the trees. “Mine is Seven Sisters,” Maggie tells us, reaching up to point out the shape in the sky.

Sam thinks about it for awhile. “I think Orion is mine.”

I stop and look up, staring around until I find my favorite—the Big Dipper. “Such a cliché,” Sam teases me when I voice this opinion.

But Cooper takes my hand, and points up to the very same constellation I just named. His breath makes a perfect little cloud in the crisp night air as he says, “My favorite is the Big Dipper, too.”

~~~

There's more, but the story is still in the "revise like crazy" stage, so I don't think I'll post the rest of it just yet. But trust me. If Mishka is to be believed (and all past experience tells me that she is), this is a good story. So consider this a teaser.

On to the insanity that was the North Carolina trip! I tell you what, you have not lived until you've seen a southern small town. It is picturesque in its awkwardness. You know the stereotype of a small town? It is motherfluffing TRUE. Tiny secondhand treasure shops, neat little brick houses with tidy lawns, everything five minutes away from everything else...the works. You see, my mother now works in a hospital down there. So last week, I got to take a road trip with her and my dad, stay in a semi-unclean hotel with dodgy internet (hence, no blog post), drive twelve hours in one day, and eat Froot Loops for breakfast every single morning.

(Yes...I do consider this exciting. How pathetic is that?)

Here's the thing about road trips: they are templates. There is a Road Trip Template for each family. For some families, like Jake Johannsen's (go to 2:10), you MUST get up before the sun and drive to as many states as humanly possible and see the lamest roadside attractions known to mankind. For our family, here are the Rules of the Road Trip:

1. We MUST leave at least half an hour later than we originally planned to.

2. We MUST forget something/forget to do something and have to either go back or buy whatever we left at home once we get there.

3. While it's not required to use a rental car, we MUST drive the most uncomfortable car available. (The winner of this award would have to go to the Subaru Outback we drove last year--it was UNBEARABLE.)

4. One of us MUST need to use the bathroom every hour.

5. We MUST stop at McDonald's and/or Bob Evans at least twice per trip, despite the fact that we have a cooler full of food in the backseat.

6. We MUST take at least twice the amount of luggage we need. Bonus points if this happens in a car half the size of the one we'd usually drive.

7. We MUST have at least one argument over the following: a) what radio station we listen to, b) what restaurant we eat dinner at on the way there or on the way home, c) where we stop to use the bathroom, d) which hotel we'll stay at once we get there, or e) whether we should stop on the way home or "just drive straight through."

8. There MUST be at least one instance of uncooperative weather on the way there or back, whether it be rain, blinding sunlight, excessive wind, rain that turns to snow, snow that turns to sleet, or excessive cloud coverage that renders it impossibly dark once the sun goes down.

9. We MUST drive on a turnpike. Bonus points if it's the impossibly-f***ed-up Pennsylvania Turnpike.

10. We MUST stay in the hotel with the least-comfortable beds imaginable. (Worst Award for this one: hotel that I can't remember the name of in Ohio, 2006. SO. FREAKING. BAD. It was like sleeping on a rock.)

Yes. These things invariably happen on the Beatnik Belle Family Road Trips. (If that hasn't been copyrighted yet, it should--I might just make a movie about this someday.)

Speaking of movies, I have a new master plan: Instead of waiting until I graduate from college, I will write an adaptation of Twisted in the remaining weeks of summer, send this screenplay to Laurie Halse Anderson along with my portfolio of shorts, and beg her to let me make her book into a movie. Sound like a plan?

ANYWAY. Back to the road trip. So we get there--FINALLY--and check into our hotel, only to discover that while it may not have bedbugs (and that's debatable), there is always the classic problem of the sheets not staying on the freaking beds, no matter what you do. (Unless you use duct tape, which we didn't happen to have on hand--see Road Trip Rule #2.) Then we found out that while they had a (reasonably) clean pool, the carpet was about as grungy as you can imagine. Think the carpet in the Runaways' first dressing room. And on top of all this, we had a mini-fridge the size of a baby bathtub--and enough groceries to fit a regular-sized fridge.

Welcome to summer vacation.

On my first night of the vacation I saw something on TV that I found appalling and somewhat intriguing. I was watching a show called Bridezillas, a reality show that exposes the rude behavior of some brides-to-be. There was one woman who was a victim of the worst kind: Nothing was her fault, everyone was out to get her, the best man was an asshole, her bridesmaids were unreliable, her mother was a freak, the whole thing was going to pieces and it was all someone else’s fault. There was another who had such an attitude that I wondered why her friends and family were putting up with it. And then there was a girl, nineteen years old, who was about to get married to a twenty-one-year-old man who seemed to have no self-respect. How else to explain the fact that he was marrying a girl who, quite literally, had him by the balls?

This girl had no business getting married. She was a year older than me, with about one-third of my maturity level. To people who read this and know me personally: You think I’m sarcastic? You ought to see this girl in action. She was bratty, arrogant, immature, aggressive, lazy, and obnoxious. She made the Kardashian girls look like good-will ambassadors.

During the course of the show, she slapped her fiancé, called him a dick, threatened him, whined at him, called him stupid, called him retarded, told him she was much better than him and he was lucky she liked him, said she was hotter than him, demanded money from him, and when all else failed, grabbed him between the legs when she didn’t get her way.

I looked up the episode online and was disappointed with what I read in the comments. The worst insult that anyone had for her was “waste of skin.” In my opinion that was not nearly good enough to describe her. There was one point when she was in the car with her best friend and fiancé, and when beating up on her fiancé didn’t get her anywhere she started in on her best friend—now, if I were in that car with her, I can assure you I would not have put up with her crap. In fact, I can’t imagine for the life of me why anyone would want to marry her or be her best friend in the first place.

If this girl had been a guy, and the show had depicted a guy smacking his fiancée in the back of the head while she was driving, grabbing her by the breasts so he could get her to hold still, and backing over the cake topper she bought because it wasn’t exactly the one he wanted, you can bet that every comment box in the interwebs would be flooded with “What a bastard!” and “OMG he’s such a jerk!” and “Why the [censored] is she marrying that [censored]?!”—all of it well-deserved. Where was the criticism and judgment for this girl? Where was all the “That girl is a bitch!” and “What does he see in her?” and “If I were her mother I’d smack her!” Even my mom remarked, “If I were her mother, I wouldn’t let her go on TV—I wouldn’t want the world to see what a selfish, violent daughter I raised.”

And what did her fiancé do? Nothing. He let her control him. He made one or two half-hearted attempts to stand up to her, and after that, he gave in. He didn’t fight back when she hit him or grabbed him. He didn’t say a word when she backed over the cake topper. If he’d hit her back, he probably would have been attacked again, not just by her, but by her friends and anyone else who was shocked that he’d “hit a girl,” even if it was in self-defense.

I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this. I just know that I found this little incident extremely interesting. It made me think: why is it, in our culture, that everything has to be taken to epic extremes? Why is it that either a man is a total wimp or an abusive pig? Why is it that people seem to think if a woman stands up for herself she is "badass" and "feminist," but if a man dares to stand up for himself he is labelled "controlling" or, heaven forbid it, "abusive?" I'm telling you, she was abusing him--had he firmly taken her hand and pulled it away from his private parts, I would not have labelled him "abusive." I would have labelled him "reasonable."

Now I know this stereotype had to start somewhere, and believe me, I am not trying to belittle all women or minimize domestic violence. It's just that this episode of Bridezillas made me think--and I'm hoping that it will make you guys think too.

One more thing before I sign off...I am not going to make fun of Amy Winehouse, however tempting it might be. (Keep in mind, I never really listened to her music, but the little bit of it that I heard I didn't really like. It's not that I don't think she had talent, because she obviously did--her stuff just wasn't my cup of tea.) What I am going to say, though, is that I find it kind of absurd that, what with everything that happened over the weekend, particularly the tragedies in Norway, all everyone can talk about is her death. Not saying that she isn't news; she clearly is. But I think it says something about our culture that we freak out when a celebrity dies, but when a true tragedy happens, few people--at least from my generation--take notice.

On that note, a shout-out to my former roommate, the wild and wonderful Elizabeth V., for making this very point on Facebook the day of Winehouse's death. YOU GO GIRL.

And now...I think you all know what comes next...

STOLEN DIALOGUE

Person one: We should go get some of "da dip."

Person two: If we do that we'll get "da s**ts."

"Harry, your panties are showing."

Person one: This is one of those places where you get everything on a paper plate with a piece of white bread.

Person two: So in other words, it's real southern cooking.

"This guy is a big d**k...but his penis is really small."

"Hey, buddy, if you don't get off my ass, I'm staying right here! I know you're in a hurry to get to Waffle House, but back off!"

"He's an old man from New Mexico, therefore he MUST have to pee."

"This guy must have Alzheimer's...he can't remember which lane he's supposed to be in."

"'Speed limit enforced by aircraft'..so, what do I do, leave my sunroof open so they can just drop the speeding ticket right into my car?"

"What's the difference between a long-ass and a short-ass? I must be a short-ass--I'm only 5'4."

"Your phone can't take one more 'f**k you,' okay, honey?"

"Hey! That bird is making fun of the Big Man!"

Person one: Hey, can we go to the China Super Buffet?

Person two: Not unless you want China Super Diarrhea.

Person one: There's Cafe Acropolis.

Person two: Cafe WHAT?

"There's a wide gulf of difference between Taco Bell and Waffle House. With Waffle House, there's only a 50-50 chance that you MIGHT throw up."

Thank You, Professor Rowling

I had a loooong, technical-speak-filled post about what I loved and hated about the Harry Potter movies...but I just watched the interviews at the final HP premiere and couldn't stop crying, and I thought, you know what, as much as I love critiquing the films (just ask my dad!), I can't do that this time.

So instead of ranting about how Alfonso Cuaron f-ed up the dementors (which he DID, by the way), or giving David Yates and Steve Kloves a long, virtual talking-to about putting in scenes that were DEFINITELY not in the books (why, boys, why?!), or gushing about Chris Columbus's incredible casting and Stuart Craig's breathtaking production design, I'm going to do something a little more special.

I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when I was nine years old, after receiving a Hermione action figure for my birthday and reading an article about Emma Watson inAmerican Girl magazine. I'd heard things about this "Hermione Granger," and I wanted to know more. She was cited as a strong female character, and I was constantly on the lookout for those.

We read the books as a family, with a strict "no reading ahead" rule (which my dad and I constantly broke, especially on Goblet of Fire), and each book release was a celebration. I remember 4th of July, 2003, just after the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, had come out--we read until it got dark, almost finishing the book (we got to chapter thirty, when Grawp is first introduced), and then went out and lit sparklers and Roman candles, cheering the entire time and shouting "Dumbledore's Army" and other such silly Pottermaniac phrases.

The first time I ever went to a book release party was in 2007, when Deathly Hallows was release. I will confess I didn't exactly have the best time--the best part was when we read the first chapter at midnight, and even that felt slightly wrong because I was reading it before my dad had the chance. Still, it was an experience and I was happy about it, because it had something to do with Harry Potter. I still have the "wand" I made that night, and that was four years ago.

It almost seems fitting, in a way, that the last film in the series comes out the year that I graduate high school. I grew up with these books. They were the perfect gateway for me. Yes, I know that some of my close friends (yes, my dearest friend Miss Dean Moriarty, I AM LOOKING AT YOU) were probably reading books much darker than Harry Potter when they were the age that I was when I started reading Harry Potter (nine, for the record). But I was a sheltered little scaredy-cat (yes, I was!), and these books came to my attention at the perfect time to ease me into the adult world.

When first began reading the books, I found the Harry Potter series so good because it was so exciting. The early books--Sorcerer's Stone to Azkaban--plunge the reader into a world of colorful characters and intoxicatingly magical settings (come on, who WOULDN'T want a teacher who shot chewing gum up a poltergeist's nose, or to eat in a dining hall with a ceiling enchanted to mimic the sky?). The mid-way books, Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix, start lacing the books with danger and adventures that don't resemble Scooby Doo mysteries. (Not that there's anything wrong with Scooby Doo mysteries, it's just that you can only use the man-in-a-mask or bait-and-switch so many times before it gets old.) And then by the final books you're ready--you understand that some heavy stuff is going to go down and you'd better brace yourself. But the magic is still there. The magical inventions get more and more dangerous--an object that houses a piece of your soul? Jeez!--but they're still as inventive and interesting as they were in the earlier books. The new characters are wild, the old characters equally compelling. They get darker as they go--but somehow never any less enjoyable.

I was born at exactly the right time to enjoy the Harry Potter series. I am a proud member of the Potter Generation (no joke, that actually is what some Potter fans my age call themselves). Sometimes, it felt as if the books were written just for me (which is, I think, one of the marks of a book written by a truly talented author). I started reading them just after Goblet of Fire was released, and every time a new book came out it brought a new experience, including that silly release party.

Until I read Harry Potter I did not understand that it was perfectly okay to kill off main characters in your books. (This was why I threw a minor tantrum at the end of A Separate Peace, if anyone knows what I'm talking about.) Characters in books always felt real to me--but when I read Harry Potter, that was just multiplied tenfold. I cried hysterically when Dumbledore died--hated Snape for awhile after that--but fell in love with Snape (a longtime favorite character of mine) all over again at the climax of Deathly Hallows--called Bellatrix my "favorite death eater" until she killed Dobby--shouted at the book in frustration when Harry fell in love with Ginny instead of Luna Lovegood--groaned and shook my head every time Ron said something stupid, as if he could hear me.

Here is the final nail in the coffin, if you will, the last and greatest notification of just how powerful these books are, just how incredibly attached to these characters I had become: At the end of the seventh book, there is a moment when it is revealed that Harry will have to die to truly defeat Voldemort. I read this sentence, burst into tears, ran to my room, and slammed the door. My thoughts were not along the lines of "Oh God, J.K.'s done it, she's really done it, well I guess she's happy, she'll never have to write another Potter book again, but that means I'll never get to READ a new Potter book again!"

No. Not even close.

This is what I was thinking as I cried in my closet (I was a strange fourteen-year-old):

Holy crap, that is so unfair! Unfair doesn't even begin to cover it! Oh God, he's going to die at seventeen...he's only three years older than I am! He's only seventeen, God, please don't do this to him, please don't let him die...what will Ron and Hermione do without him? What will Ginny do without him? I take it back, God, I take it all back, everything I said about how she's not his type and he'd be so much better off with Luna, if it's what makes him happy, he can have her, but please, let him have her, let him live, he needs to live...if he dies, if he lets this bastard kill him, he'll never get to have a family, he's always wanted a family...he won't have a child or get married or become an Auror or do anything...please, God, it's so unfair.

It was only after I had hidden in the closet for about twenty minutes, crying and praying for someone who didn't technically exist, that my father came upstairs to remind me that the book wasn't over yet, and that there may just be a surprise or two around the corner. Looking back I think he might've read ahead a bit, and seen that all hope was not yet lost--I don't know. I never asked him; I should do that. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time; he did the very same thing when we read Goblet of Fire, so he could ascertain there was nothing that would keep me up at night in the coming chapters.

But I'm digressing, again. Point is, the character of Harry Potter had become so real to me that when I found out he would have to die at the hands of Voldemort, I felt as if I were about to lose a best friend.

That, my friends, is powerful writing.

Now please understand me, this is not my typical reaction to a book. Yes, I know that from what you all know of me, it's not that improbable that when I read Twilight for the first time I cried at Edward's sappy declarations of love and Bella's willingness to sacrifice her life for her mother's, but trust me, I didn't. This is because, as Stephen King so perfectly phrased it, Stephanie Meyer can't write worth a darn, and anyone who has read Twilight knows it. J.K. Rowling, on the other hand, can. And that is why I fell in love with this series, to the point where I mourned a character who hadn't even died yet, to the point where I still read the series obsessively nine years after I first picked up Sorcerer's Stone.

I've said it before, and I will say it again: Story is everything. And on the surface, Harry Potter is a simple, told-to-death story of Good vs. Evil Wherein the World in the Hands of a Plucky Orphan. And broken down to the bare bones story spine, it might be just that. But the magic is in the way Rowling tells this simple story--with great narrative, subtle humor, compelling characters, and solid, classic themes. That is the real way to tell a perfect story. That is the secret to truly powerful writing. That is why I look up to Jo Rowling.

I'm heading off to college this fall. (This is where Gustavo is allowed to smack me and/or say "Duh, Beatnik Belle!") When I leave, I hope to take with me all of the lessons--good, bad, and just plain funny--that Rowling has taught me, via Harry Potter, over the years.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE HARRY POTTER BOOKS...

1. Story truly is everything. A lot of my fellow filmmakers seem to have forgotten this.

2. Beverly Cleary is not the only admirable author in the world.

3. It is possible for an platonic relationship to develop between a straight girl and a straight guy.

4. On the flip side, it is also entirely possible to fall in love with your best friend.

5. There is more to everyone--yes, even Dudley Dursley--than meets the eye.

6. Adding onto the list of Things It's Okay To Do, it is absolutely okay to develop a crush on a fictional, greasy-haired, black-clad, sharp-tongued, anti-hero who teaches how to make magic potions...especially if that anti-hero is physically represented by Alan Rickman.

7. There is a Badass inside every Neville Longbottom--you just need to know how to let it out.

8. We all have our Luna Lovegood moments. Some of us are just better at admitting it than others.

9. There is always another side to the story.

10. Good things happen on trains.

11. Robert Pattinson is actually a fairly decent actor.

12. Right from the pages of the book: "Voldemort created his own worst enemy, as tyrants everywhere do!" (Half-Blood Prince, chapter 23)

13. People feel threatened by success. This is how people can justify calling a brilliant author a Satanist just because her book happens to be set in a fantasy world that, yes, involves magic.

14. There is a little bit of lovability inside every fictional character, even the evil ones. (Didn't I tell you Bellatrix was my "favorite Death Eater"?)

15. "Kill or be killed" is never black and white.

16. Going off #15, it is never, ever okay to betray your friends. Ever. Even if it involves spitting in the face of a known murdurer.

17. Even the best of us can royally screw the pooch--the Dumbledores and Mad-Eye Moodys of the world are not infallible.

18. Love is infinite. You can make as much as you want. You can use as much as you want. It just keeps regenerating itself, even when you think it's impossible.

19. House-elves don't exist in the "Muggle" world, but they should, because they are amazing.

20. There is no excuse for giving up hope, giving up on your friends, or giving up on yourself.

Let's Review, Class...

...and by review, I mean book reviews. Obviously.

Since it's summertime, I've spent roughly 50% of my time with my nose stuck in a book. I've read some good, some bad, and two that I think deserve a bit of special attention.

THE GOOD: The True Colors series by Melody Carlson, the Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Something Rotten by Alan Gratz, Benny and Omar by Eoin Colfer, Luna by Julie Anne Peters, A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton, ANYTHING by Laurie Halse Anderson (more on her later)

THE BAD: The Day I Killed James by Catherine Ryan Hyde (good idea, bad execution), The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer (sorry, Eoin...I tried to get into this one...I really did...just couldn't make it happen), The Host by Stephanie Meyer (to the person who told me this was a good book: YOU LIED, MADAM. YOU LIED.), and perhaps most disappointingly of all...

Larry and the Meaning of Life by Janet Tashjian.

*dies a little inside*

I am absolutely in love with Janet Tashjian's work. I mean, I will read anything that she has written. Put it in front of me, and I guarantee I will have it finished within a couple of hours. There aren't many authors I trust this absolutely--even my childhood heroine Beverly Cleary has had some definite hit-and-miss moments--but she is definitely one of them. I read The Gospel According to Larry and that was it, I was addicted. I went through everything of hers in my library. And when I found out that the third book in the Larry series, Larry and the Meaning of Life, had FINALLY gotten to my library, I squeed like a fangirl and snatched it up.

And promptly spent two hours wondering who in the hell had written this book and what she had done with Janet Tashjian, because this simply could NOT have been written by the same woman.

To recap, for those of you who don't know the story (POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD): Josh Swensen is your average teenage philosopher, with one secret: He is the head of a popular website called The Gospel According to Larry. One fan, betagold, decides to make discovering Larry's true identity her life's mission. Of course she succeeds, and all hell breaks loose. But that doesn't stop Josh from running for President in book two, Vote for Larry. But of course it's not that easy; someone is sabotaging him--and he thinks he might have a pretty good idea who it is. But in the heat of the moment he blames it on someone close to him, someone who would cut off her arm for him, with disastrous consequences.

Now, in Larry and the Meaning of Life, Josh/Larry is attempting to piece together his life after the insane events of the first two books, with minimal success. Without a project to work on, he begins to get depressed. His failed search for his ex-girlfriend Janine (the girl he wrongly accused of sabotaging him in Vote For Larry) hasn't exactly made things any better, so it's up to Josh's childhood best friend Beth to help him get off the couch and back into the game...but she has a bit of a strange way of accomplishing this.

(WARNING: INSANE SPOILERS AHEAD. READ WITH CAUTION, UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY READ THE SERIES.)

From the beginning things were screwy. In book one, Josh is a firecracker, willing to put everything he has on the line to get his message out and make the world a better place. In book two, he willingly comes out of hiding to run for president, event though he knows going in that he's going to get his ass kicked. And then here we are in book three, where our rebellious hero can't get his ass off his living-room couch.

*facepalm*

I'm not going to lie--it didn't seem like a great opening for the book. But I had faith in JT, and I kept reading, because so far I've never been let down by one of her books. Within the first couple of chapters, things started to pick up. Josh meets a sketchy guru named Gus, and starts to try to pick up the pieces--and I started thinking, "YES! Now THERE is the Josh that I know and love!" or, more accurately, "Now THERE is the Janet I know and love!" I was excited, especially when Janine, who was one of my favorite characters from the past two books, showed up at the end of one of the first chapters--I thought, "Okay, I see where this is going. He'll try to win her back, she'll be cold at first, but when she sees how sincere he is, she'll come back to him and everything will be fine and they'll save the world together."

Oh, how wrong I was.

Now, let me just say, I understand what the author was trying to do, because I've seen her pull off this very trick before: She was trying to create a direct path to WTF Land and drag Josh straight down it, but at the same time leave clues for the readers, indications that something bigger was going on. Theoretically, if this is done correctly (as it was in the first two books), you should either reach a crucial twist and smack yourself, saying, "WHY DIDN'T I SEE THAT BEFORE?" or you should come to a crucial twist, gasp, throw the book in the air, and cry, "I SURE AS HELL DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING!" and then realize later that she cleverly foreshadowed it.

That's what I thought was going on, and I eagerly began searching for those "plants." I thought that Gus would turn out to be a father-figure, or that he would be in league with betagold, or that he would be the catalyst for something that had happened in one of the first two books. As it turns out, I was two-thirds right--but in ways that were so incredibly wrong that I actually cried in disappointment after I finished the book.

~MAJOR SPOILER COMING UP~

Every single person in the book was breathtakingly out-of-character, most of all Josh's nemesis betagold. I'm sorry, but WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? You don't just say, "Hmm, I chased this kid for two years, hell-bent on revealing his identity and hell-bent on destroying his campaign, but you know what, when his best friend comes to me and asks me to help him, I'm just going to say, 'Ooh, okay!' and then, after that's done, I think maybe I'll just attempt suicide to round off the novel as confusingly as possible..." NO! THAT IS NOT HOW IT HAPPENS!

As for Beth, what in the blue hell happened there? She's a college student with no time on her hands, and yet she has the means to create an entire alternate reality just to get Josh up off the couch? You know what my friends do to get me off the couch? They call me and say, "Hey, idiot, quit sulking. Come play hide-and-seek with us." Or if it's because I'm down, like Josh was in this book, "Do you want to talk about it? Let me help." They don't say, "Oh, I HAVE AN IDEA, I'm going to create a PARALLEL REALITY just so that my best friend snaps out of it!" Sorry, but this was waaay too unrealistic, even for the Larry universe.

Normally I would excuse things like that. No, really, I would. Despite the enormous OOC moments in the Harry Potter books, I still manage to enjoy those...BECAUSE THOSE BOOKS DON'T HAVE COP-OUT ENDINGS. According to Junior Library Guild, "What begins as a harmless Thoreau-esque search for meaning soon turns into Josh's most chaotic and profound adventure yet." I'm sorry, did I miss something? There is nothing profound--except maybe profoundly ridiculous--about your best friend creating an alternate reality for you. What kept me turning the pages was the incredible, fast-paced nature that carried over from the last two books (this is one of the few things that didn't disappoint me), but at the end, I was more than just disappointed. I was pissed off.

Here's the crux: The plot kept me on the edge of my seat. The moral conundrums--for instance, Josh having to donate a kidney to betagold because it might save her life even though they have been enemies in the past--were pure, classic Tashjian, all the way. Oh, there were moments of WTF-Land-Inc--like when Brady is euthanized after allegedly biting a policeman's son, and Janine blames Josh for the whole incident--but again, that's just the author's style, and even though it was more exaggerated than usual, I went with it. Some of the moments were downright nail-biting--the uncovering of the conspiracy to fill Walden Pond with landmines, featuring betagold as a potential suicide bomber was even more tense than the three-way presidential race in Vote For Larry.

But the ending was, as I said, a cop-out. You go through the whole book with a sense of detached danger, a feeling that everything is about to blow up (literally and figuratively) in front of Josh, a feeling that everything is spiraling out of control. But in the end you discover, along with Josh, that everything was a hoax. Not a single event after chapter two was real. It's part Claire Voyant and part Punk'd. Beth engineered the whole thing, just to shake Josh up.

Now, if I were Josh and I found out that my friend had done this to me, I would probably not forgive her instantly. But guess what Josh does? Yup, that's right, forgives her instantly. No problem, honey, I don't mind that you scared me half to death multiple times, put me under anesthesia for no reason, joined forces with a woman who once nearly killed me, caused unnecessary tension between me and my stepfather, and gave me reason to think that the girl I love is involved in a terrorist conspiracy...because, hey, IT WAS ALL FOR A GOOD CAUSE.

That's just it, though--there is no good cause in this book. The Gospel According to Larryhooked me because it was about a young kid trying and continually failing to make the world a better place. Vote For Larry won me over because it was about an eighteen-year-old kid running for President of the United Staes against astronomical odds, again so that he could change things for the better. But Larry and the Meaning of Life takes the Josh Swensen that we all fell in love with and completely throws him under the bus.

And it all could have been so much better! Instead of creating a huge hoax, why couldn't Beth have found a way to help Josh get re-involved in what he does best--trying, in his own quirky way, to save the world? Now that is something I could have enjoyed reading about.

Oh, and as if that's not enough? betagold's random suicide attempt at the end just made me throw the book across the room in frustration. Ms. Tashjian, I'm sorry to say that if you were trying to make me feel sympathy for this woman, you failed. But if you were trying to confuse me, frustrate me, and make me wonder why on earth you had to include THIS PARTICULAR SCENE, hey, congrats, you succeeded!

One last thing...that whole Beth/Josh/Janine love triangle that started last time? Yeah...it STILL remains unresolved. I could buy it at the end of Vote For Larry. I really could. But this time, it's just plain annoying. The "I loved you once but now you're different and I don't know if I still can" horse has been beaten to death so many times, both in this series and in literature in general. Part of the reason that I love Tashjian's books is because they avoid the clichés of common teen lit. But the end of this book, as far as Josh and the Beth/Janine debate is concerned, is so full of cliché that I wanted to scream.

Janet Tashjian, I absolutely love your work. I really do. But I was painfully disappointed byLarry and the Meaning of Life. I could read and re-read most of your books over and over again, but I think this one is destined to fall squarely into the category of checked-out-once-and-never-bothered-with-again. And that is a real shame, because like I said...you are at the top of my list of favorites. Please, please, please win me back over...write another Larry book and prove that somewhere in there, the characters that charmed me in The Gospel According To Larry still exist.

Love,

your concerned (but still hopeful) fan, Beatnik Belle.

~SPOILERS (and melodrama) END HERE!~

Now, as it happens, in the very same week that I read the disappointment that was Larry and the Meaning of Life, I snagged another book from the library called Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson.

...

...

...

Holy freaking crap.

Can you say "really flipping awesome?" Because that's what this book is, in a nutshell.

I can't describe this book. I really can't. But I'm going to try, because hopefully this will convince you to read the book, and EVERYONE needs to read this book--ESPECIALLY my generation. Class of 2011--hell, class of 2015--READ THIS BOOK.

Why?

Because this book is proof that there ARE adults who understand. There is a forty-nine-year-old woman who is not only a hard-core EXPERT on high-school girls (understandable, seeing as she was one once), but gets into the head of a teenage boy so well that you'd swear the book was actually written by a teenage boy. This is not an everyday occurrence. Believe me, I know plenty of fortysomething women who can't even get into the head of a teenage girl (I speak from personal experience on that one!), let alone a teenage boy. (coughcoughHIGHSCHOOLFAIRYTALESTEACHERcoughcough)

Basically, in Twisted, high school senior Tyler finds his reputation completely changed after he commits a "foul deed" that earns him a probation officer and mandatory community service. His crush Bethany, the popular daughter of his father's boss, decides that he is officially date-worthy, only to wind up getting him in a load of trouble when nude pictures of her at a boozed-up party surface on the internet.

Now, just from the summary, you wouldn't think this would be anything out of the ordinary. But that's just it--I didn't read the summary. I picked up this book in the library because the cover caught my eye. I opened it up to read the inside flap, and all it said was, "Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how." The reviews on the back also gave away very little about the plot--but they raved about the book itself. Intrigued, I took it home and read the first three pages, and by the end of the second chapter (about the eighth page of the book), that was it--I was officially hooked.

What draws me to Twisted so much is that I feel like I know Tyler, after only reading a few pages. Not every author can take a character like this and, within ten pages, make the reader feel as if they've known this person since grade school. Now make no mistake, I do know a few "real-life" Tylers--in fact, as soon as I read his description, one of my friends popped into my head and stayed there for the rest of the book--but that's not the real reason why it takes such a short time for him to become familiar.

No, that is because Tyler has a brilliant knack for putting into words every single thought that every teenager in a situation like his has ever had, every feeling that a teenager has ever felt, good, bad, or indifferent. Submitted for your consideration:

"My alarm went off at five the next morning. My first thought: It was a bad dream. My second thought: No, it wasn't. My third thought: Crap." (p. 22)

"A lot of kids would tell you that being taken away in a squad car was the coolest thing I'd ever done." (p. 45)

"Meet my father: Corporate Tool." (p. 5)

"The girls kept getting pissed. An almost-naked hottie would strut down the hall, butt swaying side to side, top of her underwear peeking out of her shorts, hair flowing down her back, jewelry in her belly button, boobs spilling out of her top, big smile, and what would happen? Every guy she'd walk by would say something crude. Or whistle. Or pant or moan or follow her. And she'd get pissed. Well, duh." (p. 62-63)

"Again with the clean-nose thing. Authority figures ha a pathological fear of boogers, that's how I saw it." (p. 83)

"I cried like maybe it might help something. It didn't." (p. 133)

"Breathe. Just keep breathing. And kill the first thing you can get your hands on." (p. 69)

"She was an innocent, a freshman, one of the sad believers who thought high school was where they would be popular and smart and happy--above all, happy....The enlightened ones--the wounded sophomores, jaded juniors, and wise seniors--we trudged to the door, a prison gang so beaten-down we didn't need ankle shackles." (p. 44)

I swear to God. This woman is a genius.

This is not teen lit. This is not chick lit (God forbid). This is something that I can relate to, that I'm willing to bet about 95% of my friends could relate to, that I'm willing to bet almost every teenager on the planet could relate to. You don't have to have Tyler's situation to understand how he's feeling. As adolescents, we have ALL felt that hopelessness, that irritation, that joy, that desire. (Even if we don't always want to admit it.) If there is someone who can't relate to at least something in this book...then his name is probably either Joe Jonas or Justin Bieber. (Kidding, of course...sort of, anyway...)

Since getting this book from the library about three weeks ago, I have read it so many times I'm surprised the spine hasn't fallen apart yet. I have memorized my favorite passages, right down to the page numbers. If they make this book into a movie, I want to be the one to direct it. I have the perfect cast in mind, comprised of both people I know personally and the actors from my favorite movies. I would have Laurie Halse Anderson herself write the script.

Now, I know that won't happen, because a) I haven't even been to college yet, and by the time I get out it'll probably already have been made, and b) I'm not that lucky. BUT. Someday I will make a movie that will have something in common with this book. Maybe it will have a leading male character like Tyler--someone who, in spite of the fact that he has the worst luck in the world, still contrives to be a good kid. Maybe it will have the same sort of storyline--a down-on-their-luck teenager trying to hack it in the real world. Maybe it'll just have that same tone, that Louis Sachar-esque black-comedy-meets-total-realism sort of feel.

Whatever it is, you can bet that if (BIG IF *crosses fingers*) I ever have the chance to give an acceptance speech after winning an award for that movie, the first person I thank will be the woman who wrote this incredible, honest, raw, all-kinds-of-inspiring novel.

I think I have a new obsession.

Last one guys, I swear

I know I'm committing the repeat offense of posting already-written works because I don't have enough to say, but I promise, this is the LAST ONE. There WILL be a proper post, with stolen dialogue and everything, next time. And besides, wouldn't you rather I post short stories and whatnot than not blog at all? ;)

Happy 4th of July, everyone! :)

~4^th of July weekend 2011~

It’s nearly ten o’clock but the sky isn’t quite dark yet,

the sunset obscured by dark-purple clouds

like sinister cotton candy.

I sit on the front porch with my father,

both of us barefoot,

breathing in the humid post-storm air

as we watch the fireworks.

It’s cooled considerably since noon,

when we went into the backyard

and threw ourselves into the pool headfirst,

ignoring the cloudy water and slimy bottom.

“It’s not making chlorine,” my mother warned us.

But she came in too, because it was so

unbearably, ridiculously, incredibly

almost surprisingly hot.

We laid on pool loungers that wouldn’t inflate properly,

sweating through our sunscreen,

until we couldn’t bear it any longer and flipped into the water.

After a dinner of leftovers, my parents went for a walk

while I sat in the kitchen

and watched the sunset

and read books, lots of books,

the smell of my mother’s homemade pound cake filling the house.

Now I sit on the porch with Dad

watching, waiting, but not knowing what I’m waiting for.

“Let’s go for a walk,” I say, and stand up.

He takes my hand and we walk across the wet grass

and into the street.

Fireworks burst all around us,

some of them smaller ones that shoot straight into the sky like comets,

others bigger and more explosive,

bursting on impact and letting loose showers of sparks and stars.

Other than the fireworks, this could be any other night.

But on any other night I would hate my neighborhood,

I would be embarrassed to bring my friends here,

to this deceptively perfect place, this Camazotz of sorts,

this place where we pretend bad things don’t exist.

Tonight I don’t care.

Tonight, I walk through the streets

holding my father’s hand

and wondering if maybe, just maybe,

I should have given this town a chance.