Reviews and Comments

Many film adaptations have been made to this story, and for good reason: It's a flagship piece of literature that never fails to invigorate our Christmas spirit. Religion takes a back seat in spite of it being a Christmas novel as we examine the misguided morals of the most infamous moneylender and witness his transformation into a philanthropist to rival Santa Claus himself. Through Scrooge, we are reminded how, in an increasingly selfish world, the true meaning of Christmas is the joy of sharing in our abundance, just like our ancestors did at the end of every harvest.

There's a little too much emphasis on "this is how you should do things" for my taste, but if you can get past that by pretending that the entire book is a collection of suggestions, it's not that much of a bother as long as you don't make the mistake I did of trying to adapt to any cookie-cutter system. With that in mind, this book does do a fantastic job of pointing out the inadequacies of note-taking as I was taught it in school, and how better to approach the activity.
(Although, the way I was taught to take notes was the vague advice to "always have a pen and paper handy," and that was about it.)
If I'd read this book while I was at school, I might have left with more than two highers (Scottish qualifications). The ADHD I didn't know I had made it hard for …

 While I loved the author as a teen due to her influx of female heroines in the male-dominated fantasy adventure genre, I have grown out of this series due to the types of relationships the author encourages in teenage girls, which played a part in my unrealistic expectations regarding romance and my underperformance at school. <spoiler>Numair and Daine have implied mutual attraction throughout the series, culminating in an established relationship by the final book when Daine is conveniently legal (where I live) at sixteen but still too young to be snogging her thirty-year-old teacher, who doesn't, to my mind, have nearly enough guilt about allowing it. This is not the kind of relationship impressionable teens should be encouraged to pursue.</spoiler>

  While I loved the author as a teen due to her influx of female heroines in the male-dominated fantasy adventure genre, I have grown out of this series due to the types of relationships the author encourages in teenage girls, which played a part in my unrealistic expectations regarding romance and my underperformance at school. <spoiler>Numair and Daine have implied mutual attraction throughout the series, culminating in an established relationship by the final book when Daine is conveniently legal (where I live) at sixteen but still too young to be snogging her thirty-year-old teacher, who doesn't, to my mind, have nearly enough guilt about allowing it. This is not the kind of relationship impressionable teens should be encouraged to pursue.</spoiler> Other than that, Daine is a model of bravery and being unapologetically herself in a classist society.

Be warned that much is missing in this modern take on James Campbell's flawed but semi-valid Monomyth theory. I disagree strongly with the proposed genres in this book - you only have to try and fit stories to them to show how incorrect they are. The knowledge in this book can help you gain a wonky understanding of plot structure, but please read more books on storytelling, because either version of Save the Cat is not the last book on storytelling you'll ever need. 

If I return to my five-star reads and find that I have forgotten the story, I drop it down to a four and add it to my re-read shelf. This is one of those five-star reads.

Okay, but productivity methods are not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, so I'd advise taking what works for you and leaving the rest.