Interests of the Week (s)

Monster's Proof by Richard Lewis: This started off as a story about a boy genius working on a mathematical proof to conjure a monster that his insane grandmother had discovered decades ago. In the end, it turned out to be a story about his older teenage sister falling in love with some supernatural religious stereotype. I won't say it was a bad story, but I can't help but feel the sucker of a bait-and-switch on what should have been a solid geek novel. But, at least my favorite children's story based on mathematics is still Hans Magnus Enzensberger's The Number Devil.

Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman: After reading Unwind and Everlost, I pretty much determined that Shusterman was one of my favorite YA horror novelists. To put it in simple terms, Shusterman writes some pretty f'ed up tales, sparing no gruesome plot that could terrify a child or adult alike without being predictable or disgusting. Full Tilt isn't quite as inventive as Unwind, but it is still an interesting story and compelling read.

Gin Gwai (The Eye): I watched this Chinese movie a few years ago; while it took me a couple viewings to really appreciate it, I was taken in by how creepy the presentation was. It is a subtle story with fantastic imagery. When I heard an American remake was going to be released, I had a hard time imagining it could capture the grace of the original version. This isn't a foreign-film bias; there are many American remakes that, in themselves, may not be better than the original, but have some very strong points (The Ring being the first that comes to mind). When the remake of The Eye hit cable, I tried watching it for about fifteen minutes but didn't have the patience to give it a fair chance. I plopped the original in the DVD player and appreciated it once again.