Tidbits: There YA go again, Hollywood

• Remember how excited I was about The Perks of Being a Wallflower being adapted?  WELL.  I finally saw it.  Guys, I am pleased, delighted, relieved, and melancholy.  It was great.  You should all see it!
•  Divergent shops for Four; I feel old because I know who none of those actors are. 
• SO many YAdaptations dropped this week.  Okay, two.  Here are my deep, deep thoughts:
• The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones


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• First and only complete thought: this looks like it'll be better than I thought the book was.
• File this under: potential for really bad British accents, courtesy of American actors. 
• Why are all YA dark magical movie adaptations exclusively lit by LED through dying ivy?  (I'm sending a meaningful glance your way, Beautiful Creatures trailer).
• No matter how hard Jace's hair tries, it will never not ever be Tim Riggins.  
• The Host


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• So...this is Gattaca, but younger?
• I firmly believe there needs to be a men of YA charity calendar.  Possibly a related movie, avec Calendars girls.  Luckily, I'm not alone...I double dog dare you not the snicker at The Dudes of YA: a "Lit-Erotic" Photospread.  

Tidbits

• Did you do a little "I smell drama!' gasp upon finding out the Pulitzer Committee choose not to award the Fiction prize this year?  Juror Michael Cunningham wrote about the selection process and his thoughts on the maybesortapossible snub of the three finalists. 
• If you read other book blogs, or perhaps have gone to professional conferences in the past year, you've probably heard about the beef between the librarians and the bloggers in attendance over slightly greedy snatching of ARCs.  My two cents?  Everyone calm down and join NetGalley. 
• Quite an interesting take on the lack of parents/horrible parents/dead parents/parents in need of parenting trend in YA, and in some children's books.  I'd personally extend it to reliable, trustworthy adult role models, but that's just me, liking to see reliable, trustworthy adults in teenagers lives, even if they just happen to be background chatter in the story.  I think my authorgirlcrush, Melina Marchetta, deserves some snaps here.  
• Which is probably why I'm going to interrupt my beach vacation, and head to NYC on July 17th, to bask Melina Marchetta's glory.  Melina, brace yourself! I'm really, really excited to share oxygen with you in a totally non-creepy way.  Okay, maybe that is creepy.  Ima play it cool, and hope I am not suddenly struck mute, as I was in 1992 when meeting Ann M. Martin. 
• Remember when I reviewed City of Bones yesterday and told you it was going to be a movie, which you probably already knew about because I'm light years behind these days?  Well, friend.  WELL.  Now there is a sort of unexciting teaser poster you can feast your eyes on, and more information about the movie. 
• The lovely Arianna at Wandering Librarians is not just lovely; she also went to ALA and met my other other Australian author crush, the babely Craig Silvey.  Swoon! (PS. Way to take my cute-author advice, Printz committee.  Well played!) Also?  SHE SAW THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.  Arianna, just stop making me so swoony jealous over he-yah! 
• Remember last year when I reviewed The Name of the Star, and pretty much dug everything about it except for the lame-o cover?  WELL, my friends, WELL.  Thank GAWD books, like people, can change jackets.  Although this one just kind of says Scandanavian Mystery to me...but I'll just shut up because SO MUCH BETTER. 

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, by Cassandra Clare - Come the Eff On, Clary

That is not the jaw of a teenager.
Just sayin'...

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
Margaret K. McElderry Books: New York, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4169-5507-8

When Clary interrupts what she thinks is a nightclub fight, she finds herself instead in a closet, with one demon and three tattoo-covered, gorgeous teenagers trying to kill it.  Clary has discovered the world of the Shadowhunters, human warriors fighting to rid the earth of demons, and they have discovered that she is not just a regular non-magical mundane human; she can see them and the demon.  In the course of the next day, Clary’s world is turned upside down and she is swept into the company of the cute and flirtatious Shadowhunter, Jace, when her mother is abducted, and she is attacked by a demon.  Clary begins to discover that she, and her mother, are not the ordinary people she thought; Clary has been a part of the Shadowhunter world for longer than she can remember.  Though the writing and plot of this book, the first in the Mortal Instruments series, is often overwrought, it is fast-paced, engaging, and fun to read.  It is recommended for grades 6-9.  Libraries will be advised to keep a copy of this popular title on hand; there is potential for this to be adapted into a movie.

In the interest of not being a huge jerk, I’m including this disclaimer: this book drove me a bit insane.  There are a number of reasons, which I will get into in a minute (the vast majority caused me to work a “come the [EFF] on, Bridget,” face, so I think you too will delight in a Monday eye roll).  However, I will say this about this series.  I totally get why kids (mostly girls, but definitely some boys) of a certain age (middle/lower high school grades) go bananas for these books and why they are on the New York Time Bestseller list, like permanently.  Frankly, it’s probably the reason I go gaga for Diana Gabaldon, or am eagerly awaiting the sequel to A Discovery of Witches.  The story is action packed, the twists are twisty, the OH-SNAPS are snappy, the boys are all hawt, the girls are all gorgeous, crazy supernatural things occur, and it takes place in a high-stakes cool parallel world, one that you kind of want to visit.  It’s a roller-coaster movie ride, and it’s a really fun book (series).  If you are an adult like me, you are excited for this book to be adapted as a movie (rights have been optioned, actors cast), because you see there is a lot of potential for an awesome movie-drinking game.  And honestly, while it is $0.99 on an e-Reader of your choice, why not?  It's a light read for summer. 

For me though…the book wasn’t quite enough.  It’s possible that I judged it more harshly than I would have otherwise, coming off of a book that also has fantasy, romance, excitement, and supernatural weird angels – Daughter of Smoke and Bone.  But where DSB soars, City of Bones is still learning to crawl.   This is not a well written, edited, nor entirely original book.  Again, it is fun, imaginative, and dramatic.  But hot snap, it is ALL over the place.  I probably won’t read the other ones, but I do want to know what happens, other than the likeliness that good is restored to power, Clary discovers that she’s just super and somehow is the key to all this awesome goodness restoration.  (SPOILER) Mostly, I’m just interested in finding out how this whole Luke and Leia grossness between Clary and Jace undoes itself, because, COME THE EFF ON, BRIDGET, obviously it will.  Can someone just tell me?  Seriously. 

Anyways, on with my not-so-kind thoughts about this book.  I’d give a spoiler alert, but I kind of get the feeling if you haven’t already read it, you’re probably too old to want to do this to yourself, or too young to be reading reviews on the Internet; you have been duly warned!