Mary Jane

Rating:
Summary: Spider-Man from Mary-Jane's Point-of-View
Review: Fifteen-year-old Mary-Jane Watson - MJ to her friends - lived a life of privilege for her first nine-years, until her alcoholic father walked out on her and her mother, forcing the mother-daughter twosome to leave Park Avenue and move into a dumpy apartment in Queens. The only thing Mary-Jane really has to concentrate on other than their move and her mother's drunk, abusive new boyfriend, is ballet. Unfortunately, she is unable to attend the Manhattan School of Ballet anymore due to the fact that her mother has run out of money. But when MJ meets up with Peter Parker, a friend from fourth grade, she's ecstatic. Peter is still the class nerd, but there's something about him that's incredibly attractive to MJ. When Peter gets bitten by a spider on a class trip, suddenly the geek disappears, and in his place is the most popular guy in school, who just happens to be on the recruit list of every extracurricular activity known to man. Now it's up to MJ and Peter to figure out what's going on with Peter's genes, and why every girl at school is starting to look and sound like a guy.

I am a HUGE fan of SPIDER-MAN, and Mary-Jane has always been one of my favorite characters from the movies, cartoons, comics, etc. So I was in utter disbelief when I saw the release of MARY-JANE written by Judith O'Brien, as O'Brien has written books in the past that I adored. Her effort with MARY-JANE was not shoddy. As portrayed in the movies, Mary-Jane is a sweet, kind-hearted teenager, who treats Peter kindly, unlike everyone else. However, instead of an actress - like in the movies - she's a dancer. Girls will relate to this book whether they are a fan of SPIDER-MAN or not, as Mary-Jane deals with weight issues, and anorexia, which many of the teenage girls in today's society deal with as well.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: i read it all it one day, i thought it rocked! i fell in love with both Harry and Peter. go read it u wont regret it

Rating:
Summary: A little bit childish, but a good read.
Review: Mary Jane, by Judith O'Brien, immediately caught my eye in the bookstore. Being a teenage female Spiderman fanatic, I bought this book right away. All in all, I enjoyed the book, and am hoping towards reading the next one soon.

My first impression once I started reading was that the prologue of this book seemed to be a little bit childish, and immature. Thankfully, by the time Mary Jane started high school, it seemed to have redeemed itself. It didn't exactly follow what some fans would precede as the proper Spiderman storyline, but it was entertaining none the less. Mary Jane, who wants to be a ballet dancer, struggles with an eating disorder as she moves to a new place. To her surprise, Peter Parker, a child she knew from fourth grade is once again in her class. As she remembers their close relationship in the fourth grade, her feelings overwhelm her.

The one part I loved about this book was the in-depth detail of Mary Jane and Peter's relationship, which isn't exactly shown in comics and movies. Although some of their dialogue was cheesy and made me laugh out loud, don't most things? I have to admit that after reading the prologue I wasn't suspecting to enjoy this novel as much as I did...I guess it comes from being a Spiderman freak.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a day off and enjoys a good sappy romance, especially involving the man in spandex we all love.


Rating:
Summary: embarrassingly bad
Review: my mom got me this book because i loved the spider-man movie with kirsten dunst, but this book reads like one of my grandmother's old romance novels. the writer doesn't seem to know anything about grrrl power or teenagers and the way we talk. mary jane is not a strong role model and even uses her body instead of her brain to get what she wants. shame on the author!

Rating:
Summary: MJ is Intriguing, but far from Amazing ...
Review: O'Briens 'Mary Jane' immediately caught my attention. As a female Spider-Man comics and film fan, I was ultimatley intrigued by this spin-off, plus I had some time to kill. I crawled my way through this novel, in one 3 hour sitting. It was interesting and ultimately entertaining, reading the early origin events of Peter Parker's alter ego, Spider-Man, through her eyes. Yes, Spider-Man is a rarity in 'Mary Jane,' but her focus is on the mysterious, and ever adorable Peter. I'll be honest, I am all about Peter ...

O'Brien's, 'Mary Jane,' was good, but not great. Some of the "teen-to-teen" dialouge was stale (I am a teen, I would know) and just plain laughable. The subplot of MJ's eating disorder, I felt was unnecessary. I understand the desire to humanize the character, so the reader will be able to identify with her, but it only seemed to drag the plot rather than 'grip' (Me) the reader. Throughout the read, I steadily grew more and more annoyed of her misconceptions of her body and weight. Overall, I thought it was enjoyable and it left me hanging ... in a very good way.

Rating:
Summary: My review
Review: OH my goodness. This was one if the best books i have ever read. I have never been into comic books or anything like that.This book is about Mary Jane and Peter Parker. When Peter is bitten and becomes the school heartthrob, Mary Jane finds herself thinking about him all the time. But she finds herself with a eating disorter she struggles to see herself for the person she is. With her love of ballet and her disorter she finds herself in events that help her grow as a person and grow into a relationship with Peter. But wheni picked up this book i didnt put it down until i was finished! I am really excited to read the second one. And if im right i am hoping that the second book is as good as the first one. And i am also looking foward to the next movie.As a girl i like romance books with a little bit of action. This book brings both of those features and many more good ones. If the series is like the movies, I am excited to c the sequal to this great book.

Rating:
Summary: not that bad
Review: So maybe the writing is not mindblowing, but I did enjoy this book while reading it. I finished it in two days and don`t regret buying it at all, though that`s partially because probably no one will buy it since the amount of female comic book fans out there is very slim, and I kind of feel sorry for the author because of that.
I will get the bad out of the way before I give this book some of the praise it`s starved for. Admittedly the writing style is kind of primitive. O`Brien is not very good at "small talk" writing as I guess you could call it, and what I mean by that is the writing of less significant scenes that serve as transitions between the exciting parts. The important parts, however, are written fine. There are even a few very funny parts and smart descriptions.
There are some parts of the story that are a little too predictable if you`re too familiar with the original story, especially if you`re like me and have read Ultimate Spider-Man, the comic that this is based on, and seen the movie which is based mostly on Ultimate. But there are plenty of original storylines to help the unpredicatbility as well.
One thing I did like about this book was the cleverness in the adaptation. All of the characters that have always been in this story are here: Peter, Mary Jane, Uncle Ben and Aunt May, Harry and Norman Osborn, and Flash Thompson. The way Flash`s character was handled in this version was very amusing and hilarious. But I especially like the way the author did Peter. Peter Parker in this book is very quiet and awkward at school but is a nice and funny guy if you catch him in his spare time at home. This is exactly what Peter should be like. O`Brien also puts an interesting twist on things by having her Peter Parker swear a lot and do certain rebellious things after he goes through his spider-bite changes.
This book also has very nice illustrations throughout the whole book, and for the nice cover art and everything this is really not a bad price for the book you`re getting.
Overall, I thought this story was just cute. Don`t look too far into it and what it says about females and it`s just a nice story about two high school kids and what they`re going through.

Rating:
Summary: Exelent.
Review: This book is so good. I don't regret one single penny I spent.
it keeps you wanting more. Mary jane and Peter have a total huge conection. If you don't read it then you will never feel so good. Its on Task And teens can relate. Theres not alot of spiderman but there is alot of Peter. just look your self and check it out.

Rating:
Summary: MAry Jane
Review: This book, I think, was very good. I couldn't put it down. I used my imagination throughout the entire book. It kept me in suspense. I would reccomend this to any teenage girl or Spider-Man fan!