'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' Is the Best... Ever...

Hello Rad Readers!

SPOILER ALERTS ALL AROUND!

As I reread the entire Harry Potter series every summer I often come away with fresh takes each time. Having just finished The Order of the Phoenix, I must say I have a new appreciation for it. Yet, when I see that it is the second lowest rated book in the series according to GoodReads, it plagues me. (Oops-- perhaps poor phrasing amid an actual plague, but I couldn't help myself...) So, I present to you why Order of the Phoenix is indeed a masterpiece.

That ending is God Tier literature. Absolutely gut wrenchingly fantastic. It all just shows how well of a grip that J.K. Rowling had on that entire series. It is absolutely fantastic-- the consistencies throughout the series. The emotion as Harry deals with Serius' death is just so palpable. His anger and sadness and just plain exhaustion is raw and incredibly well written. You feel what he feels when you are reading it, and that is not only amazing to read for the sake of the story, but it is extremely impressive when you just look at the writing itself and the author's talent.

Harry is just such a complex character this time around. He is jealous of his friends when they get to play Quidditch and he doesn't, when they are chosen be Prefects and he isn't, when they get to be happy and he doesn't. He is angry at the unfairness of his life. He is tired of being pushed around by everyone. He is selfish, reckless, and far from always being right. I loved watching him grapple with that. He isn't completely the good guy. He is complex, and genuine.

Sure, Order of the Phoenix is not as fun as the preceding books. There is no great wonder in this new world, there is no Tri-Wizard Tournament or three headed dogs. It is not as fantastical and epic as the final two books, but it is surely a turning point in the series. It is exciting and action packed. I know a lot of people identify Goblet of Fire as the shift, but I would say that is really only true for the last little bit of Goblet of Fire. Sure, Goblet of Fire is much darker than the first three, but still filled with side plots of curiosity, happiness, and adventure. I found it more so to be a warning that things were about to get far more intense. That is not to say that Order of the Phoenix is all doom and gloom because that would not make a good book either, but things just feel more intense and real in this addition! Harry is dealing with trauma and more grief than he ever has had before.

There are singular moments that are absolutely incredible. I am thinking specifically of when we get to hear the prophecy for the first time. I get goose bumps every time I read the prophecy because it is so dope and insane. And of course, Dumbledore has some of the sickest moments in the entire series. If you look up 'baller' in the dictionary, a picture of Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic during Harry's trial comes up. Specifically that scene because when he hits us with: "By a happy mistake, I arrived at the Ministry three hours early," I laugh each time. Dumbledore, you savage! Ginny is now properly developed and she is the coolest, but here at Rad Reads we know all about my utmost respect for Ginny Weasley so I won't ramble.

This book is overwhelming in all the best ways. When Serius died it shows that J.K. Rowling 1: Meant business. We are not reading a children's book anymore! And 2: She was willing to take risks as an author to change the series up. Extremely bold and extremely respectable! Harry and Serius' relationship was a breath of fresh air for us and Harry for the past two books. We finally see Harry confide in someone completely. He was genuinely happy with family, and a could be a kid to a degree. Then that is ripped away almost as soon as it arrives. There was no happy ending. There was no more beating the bad guys.

When we see Harry finally let it all out to Dumbledore in the end, it is an extremely profound and heavily felt moment in the series. It will never not make me cry because of how true his suffering and strife has been. He is upset about putting his friends in danger, putting himself in danger, upset about having to deal with what he doesn't want to and shouldn't have to. We are no longer looking at Harry with sheer admiration and praise. We recognize the hardships and tragedies that his entire life has been. He is a sad sad kid and it is heartbreaking.

Of course, every single book in the Harry Potter series is absolutely incredible, so I don't think I could say a bad thing about a single one of them even if I was held at wand point!

Read on!

- C8 ;)

'Me and Earl and the Dying Girl' is Deceivingly Hilarious

Hello Rad Readers!

Greg Gaines is in his final year of high school, and he has managed to make it by chilling on the metaphorical sidelines of life-- exactly his goal. He has one best friend Earl, though he rather calls him a co-worker as they spend their time together making absurd remakes of classic movies. Greg has only ever needed Earl, until his mother forced him to hang out with his classmate who has just been diagnosed with Leukemia. Thus, we follow Greg, and Earl, and the dying girl as they learn-- well... not so much actually. Rachel's illness becomes a subplot to an otherwise hilarious coming of age story, because sometimes, things just go wrong and life still demands to move forward.

I think the best way to give you an idea of what this book is like, is through this quote:

"So again, if this was a touching, romantic story we'd obviously fall in love and she'd say all the wise, beautiful things that can only be learned in life's twilight or whatever. And then she'd die in my arms. But again, that's not what happened."

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews is deceivingly hilarious for its rather morbid title. I can say with full confidence that this book is a masterpiece in every right. It is like an anti-The-Fault-in-Our-Stars, and that is not to say that TFIOS is anything but extraordinary, but where John Green is poetic, profound, and heavy, Jesse Andrews is comedic, wrong, bold, and COLORFUL. I think that is the best way to describe this read. It was colorful and real. It was absurd and not intent on leaving the reader with a beautiful message or to get across a metaphor on life.

Here, you get a taste of everything. Blunt slapstick hilarity, whimsical and clever sarcasm, and just brute, crass, and absurd boyish humor. There is certainly no strain for a life lesson hidden in between the lines. However, I would still say that there is a lot to learn from Greg. There is a lot to be said for never allowing life to be taken too seriously, and recognizing that there are so many uncontrollables that we must simply continue to carry on with them.

A fast paced, easy to read, hilarious novel! What more could you ask for? An easy 5/5 stars from me!

- C8 ;)

Reading Update (2): Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Mass

Okay Rad Readers,

This may well contain very many spoilers so if you are not caught up in the Throne of Glass series up to Tower of Dawn (Book 7)... beware!!

I have just finished Tower of Dawn and 300+ pages after my last reading update (check out my first reading update), unfortunately a lot of my qualms still hold true. However, there were parts that I was pleasantly surprised with. Nonetheless, this is by far my least favorite book in the Throne of Glass series. Ultimately, I could only justly give it 3/5 stars, no matter how great the previous books were and how much I love SJM. I just did no think that this book was that great.

To use the words of my previous post, this is how things crumbled... "cookie wise."

My main problem with this book, as I said in my first reading update, was that it centered entirely around a side character when our main character was going through something far more intense and enticing. Empire of Storms ended in such an insane way, so for this book to diverge completely from the main plot was, in my opinion, a really poor decision. That isn't to say that I only care about the main character either. In fact, I would dare say that I wouldn't have this complaint if we had to read 600 pages of side plot on Elide or Locran.

I digress. Mainly the problem is that I wanted to read about Aelin... NOT Chaol. He is my least favorite character in the series by about a country mile. I didn't even like him in the first two books when I was supposed to like him. I certainly didn't like him when I wasn't supposed to like him. And I don't like him now, when I was being force fed his story line of redemption. Curse you Sarah J. Mass for not making this a novella when it most certainly should have been.

I have just begun reading Kingdom of Ash, and thus far I would say you do not have to read Tower of Dawn to understand what is happening. UGH! How unfair. I can only imagine the struggles that some readers were going through as these books were released in real time. I can only imagine the angst and strife of having to wait an entire year to find out what happens after Empire of Storms just to get absolutely PRANKED by being presented with Tower of Dawn and then having to wait YET ANOTHER entire year to get Kingdom of Ash. (By the way, as I said I just started reading Kingdom of Ash and OMG! Incredible already!! Don't let this less than stellar addition to the series deter you from finishing it!)

Let's talk about Chaol's character development. I will say this... It was kind of there. He is still the poster of toxic masculinity, ridiculous pride, absurd loyalty, and pretentiousness. However, the degree at which he is that is... well... a bit less? I will give him that. In the first books he is just boring. Then he was made to be this horrible stuck-in-his-ways dude, TOTAL jerk. THEN he is just boring again. Just straight up totally boring. THEN we have to read 650+ pages about him with SJM working in OVERTIME to try to undo the damage she made him do before. All of this before we are allowed to find out what happens to Aelin? NOT COOL! He is just so bland and... frankly sucks. I didn't care about the healing process of his legs. He was a total piece of trash to the healer and then it was romanticized!?!? NO WAY JOSÉ! I certainly didn't appreciate that.

So, Chaol and Nesryn go to Antica to try to get them to fight along side Aelin. In the process Chaol works with a healer to try to recover from his injuries in the previous books that end him up in a wheelechair. In the end he magically recovers and can move his legs again "but at a cost." BLEGH! This just in, they changes the spelling of 'predictable' to 'The-Ending-of-Tower-of-Dawn.' The whole 'link' mojo was cheesy at best. Cringey beyond belief. I also kind of had a problem with the fact that they kept on emphasizing how Chaol felt like a lesser man because of his disability. That is rather troubling and outdated thinking. Perhaps SJM wrote it that way on purpose so we get more examples of Chaol's 'stuck-in-his-ways' thinking, but honestly that was probably super offensive to some readers. It really just came off as insensitive and problematic because it was never really addressed that he was wrong in saying that "being in a wheelchair makes him lesser." He just recovers. That is kind of messed up.

Also! Half way through the book I forgot that Chaol and Nesryn were in Antica for more than just idle chit chat, hanging around, and trying to redeem Chaol. They were also there to appeal to the rulers there to get them to fight alongside Aelin and the gang while they are at war. That part was really glossed over and as a consequence we had just so little action. It honestly felt like the author felt bad for Chaol becuase we all hate him and was like... Let me just try my hand at a comeback story for this homie. Basically what I am trying to say is that this was 100% character driven and there was basically a negative percent of actual plot going on.

I will say though, I was pleasantly surprised by how I grew to like Nesryn and Sartaq. If we heard about them the same amount we heard about Chaol and Yrene I would have liked this book FAR more. Though, one mustn't dwell...

So yes, you get the idea. Wasn't my favorite read, but I realized I just had to get through it that way we could get to the real juice in Kingdom of Ash!

Read on!

- C8 ;)