Nemesis

Greetings, bookworms of the council of SON.
We have many matters to discuss in the council today (the grand total of two), so I would ask you to bear with me as I outline the subjects of discussion, then you may contribute (in other words, comment).
Firstly, we come to the matter of the Harry Potter review. To begin, I would like to say to Nerd Till the Very End not to worry about causing me trouble in their request, as I it is a topic I can rant on about when before I had nothing to talk about. As I see it, I now have two options:

1. I can get someone I know to do a Harry Potter review for me
2. I can get Nerd Till the Very End to do the review, if they would like to (all in favour of this comment 'I' at the end of the post).

I don't mind if people are biased towards the book more than the movie, I mean, you have to be biased to write an opinionated review. So if anyone out there is busting to write a review of a book-to-movie, just ask me! I would prefer it if you wrote it according to this site's structure (i.e. Overall position of the film, plot, characters, themes, messages, props/scenery, Special FX, music, things you didn't like, things you did like, altogether), but if I think it is good enough without that structure, you may find yourself lucky. ;) Of course, your review would have to go past me first, just so I can check it's appropriate.
Now that I've got that off my chest, on to the second topic of our discussion. There is an amazing series of books all bookworms need to know about, and it is called Nemesis. I picked up the first book, Into the Shadows, at random from the local library, and almost didn't read it because the blurb made it sound really dark and morbid. However, as I could find nothing else that looked decent, I borrowed it and began to read.
The first thing I noticed was that I was pleasantly surprised it wasn't nearly as dark as the blurb made it seem. The second thing I noticed was that the book was completely addictive.
The story is told by a boy, who I assume is between the ages of twelve and fifteen (I think it's twelve, but he acts older than that throughout the series) who one morning wakes up in a derelict stairwell with no memory whatsoever, apart from cryptic dreams he can't make head or tail of. He can't even remember his name, but the word 'Ram' comes to mind.
When he finds a dying man in a lift and is seen next to him, Ram is a murder suspect and goes into hiding.
Why can't Ram remember anything? Who is tracking him down? What can the cryptic last words of the dying man in the elevator possibly mean? These are some of the mysteries that keep you on the edge of your seat when reading this fantastic book.
As I am a person who really enjoys the 'character' aspect of books, I really loved this. The characters were so believable, yet so loyal and steadfast, a rare occurrence in teen novels today. Their desire to stick to what they knew was right restored my faith in books for young adults not to shy down from condoning what is right. Ram was a character who especially stood out to me for his high moral standards. There were so many instances throughout every book where it would have been so much easier for Ram to ignore someone in danger, or to let someone chasing him die, yet he would always do whatever he could to help someone in trouble, even if it meant putting himself in an unsafe situation. For some reason that is not apparent until the last (fourth) book, Ram's motto is "No-one's expendable." To this hero, everyone matters.
Going off on a tangent here, I'm a person who can't get into a book if I don't like the characters. At the moment I'm reading 'The Bourne Identity', by Robert Ludlum, and I admit I'm struggling a bit to get into it. Anyone who has seen the movie (which is absolutely edge-of-your-seat awesomeness, I highly recommend it) would know that in the film, Jason Bourne is someone who does not like to cause innocent people harm. Unfortunately, in the book, he is far more self-centred, and will hurt, even kill, innocent people if it means he will survive. From what it's looking like so far, I'd just say watch the movie.
Anyway, that's another comparative analysis review to look forward to in the future.
Back to Nemesis now. As I was saying, Ram is awesome. On top of this, all the mysteries, chases, escapes, fights, friendships and most of all, nail-biting suspense make it a series you'd be crazy not to read. I posted a review of Conspiracy 365 a while ago (see review here). This is ten times better than that (apart from the fact there is only four books - I want more!). Oh, and by the way, you should definitely borrow all the books at once if you get the chance. They are so suspenseful that they put you in agony if you can't get the next one soon enough! It will surprise you how fast you'll get through them- they're about 250-300 pages long (from memory, correct me if I'm wrong), and I finished each one in about two days, even though I had classes.
In conclusion, in case you didn't get the vibe of what I was saying, READ NEMESIS! (By Catherine MacPhail) You won't regret it!