This a self-contained prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps” book series
WISHES ARE IN THE DETAI wished to read a good book and I got it!
This a self-contained prose novel which is part of the “Goosebumps” book series
WISHES ARE IN THE DETAILS
Usually are good the stories about granting wishes since people never really got what they thought since they didn’t think carefully how to express their wishes.
This book wasn’t the exception since it’s quite good and I enjoyed a lot to read it.
I won’t spoil anything, therefore I won’t get into details about what exactly were the wishes but I can say that my only complain was about the second wish since the outcome was spooky enough but the main character didn’t commit any mistake about how she expressed her wish (of course, she didn’t meant to wish it) and even there is a dialogue of the wish granter explaining that magic is complicated and she granted the wish in the most accurate possible way but I didn’t buy it, there wasn’t anything wrong in the syntaxis of how the main character expressed her wish, so I think that R.L. Stine could take a little more time to re-write that scene and still show the planned outcome of the wish.
The other wishes definitely are what we want to read, since they are wishes that initially you think that they should work but they turned to the worst and if you read how the wish was expressed, you know why the wishes are becoming those results.
POOR SAM
I am quite impressed with this book since the main character, Samantha “Sam” Byrd doesn’t deserve all the troubles resulting from the wishes, even she got the wishes for being a nice person, she helped a strange lady, Clarissa (maybe an inside joke since she is a witch but instead of using “Sabrina”, R.L. Stine used a name of another character played by Melissa Joan Hart), and this witch as a reward, she granted three wishes to Samantha…
…and even more impressed since not matter she is a good person, the book will have a very dark ending (no, I won’t spoil it), but you will end with sad feelings for poor Sam since she, not only, doesn’t deserve all the troubles related to wishes, but also she doesn’t deserve her final outcome. Samantha Byrd is a 12 years-old kid, part of her school’s basketballl team, but not matter that she is quite tall for her age, she is a real klutz in the court, and also she is the target of a mean fellow player in the team, Judith Bellwood, that she is always trying to mess with poor Sam.
While Samantha at first doesn’t believe that the witch would be really able to grant her wishes, she tries to improve her situation at school, but you can guess that everything will turn to even worse scenarios with each wish.
Definitely, this is a Goosebumps book that I highly recommend, quite entertaining, quick to read, with spooky moments, and a very dark ending.
This a self-contained prose novel which is part of the “Fear Street Relaunch” book series
BACK TO CHEER AGAIN AT Gimme a R-E-A-D! Go R.L. Stine!
This a self-contained prose novel which is part of the “Fear Street Relaunch” book series
BACK TO CHEER AGAIN AT SHADYSIDE HIGH
I was reading since last year the book series of Fear Street Cheerleaders and after five novels I thought that that was it, no more cheerleaders at Shadyside High, but I was amazed when I found out that there was a sixth book, of course this novel isn’t part of the original Fear Street Cheerleaders but actually a solo book set in Shadyside High with cheearleaders as main characters, so it was close enough for me and I decided to read it too.
This is a totally different book, since there isn’t any paranormal elements and there isn’t any mention to previous characters (which I’d find cool to mention at least the main character from the Cheerleaders in some casual conversation stating her as a former cheerleader in the past).
While I enjoyed a lot the Fear Street Cheerleaders book series, I think that this novel resulted in a more robust product with better prose and engaging narrative, therefore at the end I enjoyed a lot more this novel, even more than I’d expected when I started to read it.
Gretchen Page is a transfer student at Shadyside High and since she is a top cheerleader, she decides to try out there, but that decision put her in direct clash with Debra Dalby, a rich girl used to get anything she wants and right now, she wants to be cheerleader too, with only one spot in the squad, you can expect some tension but…
…what Gretchen finds is serious injuries and murder around her!
HOLY DOUBLE TWIST, STINE!
I enjoyed a lot trying to find out the culprit, since there were several suspects.
And while I had several theories, I didn’t expect that more than one theory would resulted kinda true!
The book has an awesome double twist which convinced me to give 5 stars to the novel instead of 4 stars that I was considering before reading about the impacting double twist.
I'd prefer not having some scenes where you can read about the prime suspect without the protagonist around, therefore is quite evident that the prime suspect isn't that suspicious at all.
The book has a final sentence as a manner of the typical impacting ending once you think that everything is over, it was so awesome that final sentence that I even investigate just in case, the novel would have a sequel, but so far I didn’t find anything about it.
What I found out quite odd, iy was that in some internet wikias and even here in Goodreads editions, this book has a different name to the protagonist, however at least in Amazon has the same name than in my book. Even I had to choose an edition here on GR where the name of the protagonist is different than in my book since I didn't find any edition matching the character's name in my book. I guess that some editions changed the name of the protagonist for some unknown reason.
Anyway…
…if you are fan of R.L. Stine and horror cheerleaders’ tales, I highly recommend this wonderful novel. ...more
I didn't know what to expect about this book written by the magical J.K. Rowling about the "history" of the magic sport of QGame On!!!
GO TEAM!
I didn't know what to expect about this book written by the magical J.K. Rowling about the "history" of the magic sport of Quidditch.
However, I was happily surprised that while some chapters explaining the rules of the "sport" are kinda tiresome, they were the few, since other chapters were really amusing and entertaining.
You "learn" why the decission of using brooms to fly.
Also, you "learn" about the official Quidditch teams on the British league, but even also you will learn about how popular or not is this sport in other countries and continents.
It's a book written with the heart of Rowling allowing to appreciate an important element of the magical world of Harry Potter beyond of what you may knew about on the book series.
An interesting short story that it's one of the most famous works by the writer Stefan Zweig that even sadly was published after hie4 e5 2. Nf3 d6
An interesting short story that it's one of the most famous works by the writer Stefan Zweig that even sadly was published after his suicide.
d4 Bg4
When a story is presented in another language, some elements are lost in the translation, and I think that while Chess Story is a pretty good title, its original title was "The Royal Game" that I think it gives to the story an air of refinement, class and elegance.
dxe5 Bxf3
Besides my interest to try this author, I was intrigued about this short story that evidently was about the game of kings, chess. I am not a good player of chess and I remember how an uncle of mine that he was the one who taught me, he always beat me, every single game, and only once I was able to beat him, I was still a little kid but I clearly remember still how I ran around the house celebrating my victory over my "teacher".
Qxf3 dxe5 6. Bc4 Nf6
And interesting enough, I remember (this time not so many long ago) when I was on vacations in a jungle lodge along with my then girlfriend and meanwhile we were waiting for a lodge's boat for a river tour, quite early in the morning, we were on the lodge's game room and there was a chessboard. She asked me if I was interested to play meanwhile the boat would be ready. We play, she lost, and we never play chess anymore in the trip.
Qb3 Qe7
There is an odd effect when we lose on a chess game. I think that anybody thinks that the victor is smarter than the loser. Even, there is the odd custom to think that any chessplayer, and even more a grandmaster must be a really intelligent person. If someone is really good at poker, people can consider him/her like a "wiseguy" and/or a "street smart", but in chess? Oh, they must be intelligent!
Nc3
I remember a trivia about the movies of "X-Men" that the production team had to look for a chess teacher for Sir Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen, since they needed to do some scenes playing chess,... adn they didn't know how to play chess!!! I couldn't believe it! Two old BRITISH actors whom seemed so wise that didn't know how to play chess. Again, the common preconception of society that intelligent people should know how to play chess. Curiously enough, they didn't need to do any complicated moves and nevertheless they looked for a Chess Grandmaster to teach them!
c6
It was amusing how this short story reminded me about three TV episodes from the Star Trek franchise: "Let that be your Last Battlefield" (The Original Series, 1969), where you have the last two surviving aliens after a terrible war between two races of a planet where ones had "black" on the left side of the body and "white" on the right side, and the others just the opposite positions of the same colors. "Peak Performance" (The Next Generation, 1989), where a Federation strategist master, who is quite arrogant, sure of himself on his tactics' knowledge, puts on test in war games to the Enterprise-D's crew. And finally "Chain of Command" Parts 1 & 2 (The Next Generation, 1992), where Captain Picard is captured and submitted to a cruel interrogation.
Since Chess Story was originally published on 1942, I wouldn't be surprised that the writers of those episodes took inspiration from several elements of this short story to develop their own scripts.
Bg5 b5
It's quite interesting that the narrator of this story, while he is present and even he interacts with the main characters, one doesn't know what is his name and even he is not really pivotal on the evolution of the events.
Nxb5
And commenting about that, it's quite odd to pick "protagonist" and "antagonist" in this story. Sure, you can hasten on calling Czentovic as the "antagonist" and Dr. B as the "protagonist". However, is that simple? Both has complicated issues, both has conflictive personalities depending the situation. Surely, you can sympathize easier with Dr. B's past but... is Czentovic really guilty of how he is now? Or his own past is also kinda exculpatory of his current personality?
cxb5
Maybe Czentovic and Dr. B are playing in "black & white" boards but hardly they can be seen in so pragmatic absolutes, instead they have a lot of shades of gray.
Bxb5+ Nbd7. 0-0-0
Something that impacted me on the reading of this crafty short story is that both main characters, Czentovic and Dr. B, they share an equal sad trait... both lost the joy of playing chess. Sure, both are masters on the royal game, but honestly, neither of them are enjoying to play it anymore.
Rd8. Rxd7 Rxd7
I couldn't dare to know for real what Stefan Zweig wanted to tell to his readers but at least to me, I got an important lesson: You shouldn't never to get so obsessive while doing what you do for love, reaching a level where you don't enjoy anymore of doing it.
Rd1
Everybody has passions but when you get obssesed about it, you lose the joy of doing it. The most important thing is to keep enjoying whatever you do for the fun of doing it.
Qe6
Life is too short. Enjoy whatever you do. And even something that it's considered as a hobby, an activity of relaxation, can be perverted if you don't enjoy anymore while doing it.
Bxd7+ Nxd7
Commenting about something else, I can't avoid to tell how much amusent provoked me when the priest, who took care of Czentovic, exclaimed: "Balaam's ass!" Honestly, I don't what a priest usually says when he is shocked or when he needs to curse, but reading that exclamation was priceless. So funny!
Qb8+
I am truly glad of having read this short story and I hope to read some more material by this author in the future.
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