Welcome to the Creative Corner!

Hi! Welcome to the Creative Corner! This is going to be a site devoted to book-lovers like me who are always looking for a good read. I am going to do book reviews, recommendations, list off short stories and post some of my own. If you are looking for a good, reliable source for all things book, you've found it. So, again, welcome! Hope you visit my site again soon!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

The Map to Everywhere

* * * * */ Five Stars

Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Humor, Suspense, Mystery, Danger, Fiction

Marrill was walking her cat when a stream sprouted out in the middle of Arizona and brought a pirate ship to Earth. She climbs aboard and meets a wizard and his crew of sailors who are trying to put together the legendary Map to Everywhere, a magical map that can take the user anywhere and bring out anything. The ship is sailing the Pirate Stream, an endless river made of magical water that connects to every world in existence, in hopes of finding the rest of the map before other not-so-pure-intentioned people complete it. As the Stream floats the ship away from Earth before Marrill can get off, she finds herself joining the quest to recover the map. Meanwhile, in another place called Khaznot Quay, lives orphaned Fin. He has a terrible affliction; he is forgettable. Not 'didn't see you there' forgettable, but 'I forgot you existed' forgettable. Whenever Fin leaves someone's range of sight, they forget he ever existed. However, when the wizard's ship makes port in Khaznot and Fin saves Marrill's life, she remembers him even after he is out of her direct eyesight. This leads him to tag along on their adventure as well. But these aren't the only turns in events. A man called the Oracle is hoping to use the map to destroy the entire fabric of the universe and the Stream, and if he gets it, every world will be at his mercy. Which party will rebuild the map first? Who is the Oracle? Why is Fin so forgettable? And, most importantly, will Marrill ever get home?
I absolutely loved this book by Carrie Ryan and John P. Davis. Humorous, clever, and brimming with danger, 'The Map to Everywhere' is a novel that belongs in every household.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Gravity Falls: Because Why Not

     Back in February, I wrote a post telling everyone to watch Wierdmageddon Part 3, the conclusion to an amazing TV series called Gravity Falls. What is Gravity Falls? you may ask. Allow me to explain the entire show in the following paragraph . . .
     Gravity Falls is a TV series aired on Disney XD. It was created by Alex Hirsch and has 2 seasons, the second season ending with Wierdmageddon Parts 1-3. Although the show doesn't reveal this at the beginning, the story itself starts several decades ago when two almost identical twin boys were born. They were named Stanley and Stanford Pines. Stanley was a normal boy who wasn't very book-smart, but was clever in other ways and was fiercely loyal to his twin. Stanford was incredibly intelligent and very scholarly, but was born with a genetic mutation that caused his hands to have one additional finger each. This made him the target of harassment at a young age, but since Stanley always stood up for him, he never felt entirely alone. When the two were still rather young, they stumbled across an old rowboat-like ship, and they made a pact to sail around the world and live lives of adventure together when they were older. However, as they grew up, it became obvious that genius Stanford was going to be moving on to bigger and better things than his twin. He was offered a scholarship, provided he could impress some officials with a project he had made. Stanley, devastated that his twin might be leaving him behind, tried to sabotage his brother's project, thus forth ruining his chances of getting into his dream college. When their father found out about it, he threw Stanley out of the house, separating him from his parents, his twin, and his little sister. Stanley spent years and years of his life trying to make something of himself, but his attempts at being a famous businessman all ended in failure. Meanwhile, Stanford graduated from a different school with several PhDs and decided to investigate anomalies, like his six fingers. He moved to a small town in Oregon called Gravity Falls, where anomalies were strangely abundant. He built himself a house and lab and recorded his many findings in a series of journals. Stanford deduced that the strange creatures and weird occurrences were all trickling in from rifts in another dimension, a place where these unnatural things originated from. With the help of a college friend, he built a portal that led to it. Before he left, however, he hid two of his three journals that held his research and called up Stanley. Stanford entrusted the last journal to his brother and left our dimension. Stanley spent years trying to locate the other journals and figure out how to bring his twin back, but with little progress. He converted his brother's house into the Mystery Shack, a tourist attraction, to pay the bills and to buy supplies with which to rebuild the portal. Now, as an old man, Stanley takes in his great niece and nephew, the grandchildren of his little sister, for the summer. This is where the first episode of season 1 begins. Dipper and Mabel Pines, 12 year old twins, are being forced to stay in Gravity Falls with their 'Gruncle' (great-uncle) Stan. But when Dipper comes across one of Stanford's journals in the woods and Mabel meets a group of dwarves, the summer proves to become anything but ordinary. The two have been drawn into the weirdness that their Great Uncle spent most of his life researching, and it turns their stay in Gravity Falls into a chronicle of danger, mystery, and adventure that spans over the episodes. Whether freezing evil shape-shifters, returning mermaids to the ocean, encountering time-travelers, defeating zombies, or stealing unicorn hair, the Pines twins are there to uncover the mysteries of Gravity Falls and to save the day.
     So, to wrap this all up, Gravity Falls is a very interesting and inventive series with a great story. Although it has its silly and childish moments, its overarching plot is intriguing, funny, clever, and entirely satisfying. Gravity Falls is an adventure that you don't want to miss out on.
     Although I usually review books exclusively, some people (hey, mom) thought that the premise was stupid and don't like the show. I disagree, and I hope I proved some of those individuals wrong right now. Anyways, go watch Gravity Falls; you'll be glad you did.

Spring Break

Sorry I haven't been posting any book reviews lately. It's Spring Break vacation, and I've been making the most of my time off. Which is to say that I have been eating a bunch of chocolate and other assorted junk foods, sleeping in almost 3 hours late, reading (A LOT), watching way too much TV than I probably should have watched in a month (let alone a couple of days), and generally being lazy. The lack of work is making me far too unproductive. I don't know how I am ever going to be able to wake up at 6:30 in the morning again after this. Spring Break is a curse in disguise, I swear . . . Anyways, I just wanted to apologize for that and to tell you that I will be back to blogging regularly again by next week. Sorry for the delay!