Wednesday, July 27, 2016
A Darker Shade of Magic Review
This book is amazing. Victoria Schwab is a fantastic writer and her books are so captivating and spellbinding. I feel like I'm apart of the world I'm reading when it comes to her books. This book does have a few different perspectives, all in third person, but it works so amazingly well. You want to get inside all the character's heads. At least I did. I needed to know what was happening and why all those things were happening. Black London was extremely mysterious and it kept it's mystery which I loved. Some authors give a book a little mystery and lets it die away. It never did in this book, and it never gave us too much. This book did end on a good note so I'm kind of surprised it's getting a trilogy, but who wouldn't want to know what else these characters are getting into? Hopefully Black London will be explored.
All the characters were wonderfully written and felt realistic. I didn't think any of them were outrageous or crazy. Kell is such an easy protagonist to love and Lila is the badass heroine sidekick that spiced this book up. The characters remind me a lot of August and Kate (This Savage Song) and it almost seems like same characters just different plot, but if it works why change it? I was shocked by one characters betrayal. I figured he wasn't on Kell's side but I didn't expect him to turn his back on him. It added so much to this book though.
5/5 Stars
Thursday, July 21, 2016
This Is Where It Ends Review
I don't know how to write a review on a book like this because frankly I don't know what to say about it. I was left devastated by the events in this book. This will show you what some people have actually gone through. Not everyone agrees with the portrayal of the shooter, but most of the readers reading this have never been in an event like this and we will never get inside a shooters head. How do we know this is not how they are? How do we know this is? This is realistic fiction but fiction nonetheless and the author did this to how she felt the character may be. Personally, I think she did amazing. The shooter was not all evil. He had dimension to him. He was shown in good light and bad light. His ex-girlfriend defended him thinking that he could not do such a thing. His sister did everything in her power to prevent him from hurting more people. He was a person. He had is bad and his good sides like everyone else. His bad side just got the best of him in the end. These four perspectives may seem like it was too much for a book that is only 287 pages, but I thought it showed different connections that people may have had with the shooter. You had his sister, her girlfriend that he was jealous of, his ex, and a protective brother who had it out for him. How could you not form a connection with any of them? Especially seeing them in an event like this, it made me root for them and hope that they would all end up okay. They don't but that's the reality.
This is a hard book to review for. I can't even put stars on it because I don't think a book like that should be rated like that. This book needs to be read and absorbed and thought about. This is a book that will leave you uncomfortable but it should. This is what our world is going to. Everyone should be very worried.
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
More Happy Than Not Review
More Happy Than Not is the debut novel of Adam Silvera and follows a boy named Aaron who lives in a rough part of NYC. During the story, he meets a guy named Thomas and starts developing feelings for him. When he gets denied, he wants to have a memory altering surgery to help him forget about Thomas and being gay. This story is quite emotional and follows a young man who can't quite accept himself though others have.
This book got quite a lot of hype when it came out and I expected it to live up to it but for me it did not. I'm not really into the writing style of this book. There were certain phrases repeated 14-15 times and when it's a book that's only 200 and something pages, it get a little annoying. Now, I know that it is set in the Bronx and people talk kind of different since it's not the best part of town. I lived in New York for most of my life so I do know, but it was still annoying at how hard it seemed to be ghettoish. The plot twist that so many people were shocked about didn't shock me in the least. I guessed it long before it happened. It just seemed to obvious.
I thought the main character was extremely young sounding. For all the things he had been through, he didn't seem to mature at all. Instead, he decided to run from his problems and forget that it ever happened. I just didn't agree with the idea that someone could decide that they were going to forget something that happened in their lives. It left a bad taste in my mouth. None of the characters wowed me. They were your average kids that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and are a little messed up from it. Aaron's obsession with Thomas was a little weird. If the kid isn't gay, I don't know why you're trying to convince him that he just hasn't come out yet and you'll wait for him. You can't force your sexuality on someone else no matter how much you want that person. This was happening non-stop in the book: Gen with Aaron, Aaron with Thomas, and Aaron with Collin.
I'm the minority here with this book because it does have such amazing reviews and I'm sitting here wondering how on earth it got as many good reviews as it did. Maybe I'm picky and just looking for things not to like. Who knows. I wouldn't say it's a fantastic LGBTQ+ book. Don't listen to me though.
2/5 Stars
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Made You Up Review
Made You Up is an explosive novel about an unreliable narrator with schizophrenia. In the novel, you as the reader have to determine what you think is real and what you think isn't. It's crazy and there is some major curveballs that will knock the breath out of you.
I truly enjoyed this novel and all that it offered. This book does not focus strictly on the idea that she has this problem. Instead, it focuses on how she deals with it and her adventure through high school as being a normal teenage girl. It does not paint schizophrenia in a wonderful light. It does not show all the "good" (there are no good things with this disease. Believe me. I know someone who has it) aspects of this illness. Instead, it shows how scary it can be and how much it can affect the person. I did hear there was a psychology textbook studied to get the information to write this book and whether or not this is true, it was still wonderfully written.
The characters are wonderful. Alex is an amazing narrator with such an interesting and witty sense of humor that I don't think everyone will like it, but I did. She didn't wallow is self-pity or hide away from the people who teased her and made fun of her. She rised above that and came out stronger in the end. Miles was a fantastic love interest. He riled her up, made fun of her for silly things, tested her, and pushed her. Their romance was not instalove. It was not love at first sight. It took time and effort, and they fought a lot before they finally realized they liked each other and even then their relationship wasn't easy. They had to work at it like any normal relationship.
This story will have you guessing and crying and laughing and falling in love with this beautiful story.
5/5 Stars
Monday, July 18, 2016
Harry Potter - Update
Sunday, July 17, 2016
This Savage Song Review
This Savage Song is the newest novel by Victoria Schwab. It follows a human, Kate, whose father controls the northern part of Verity, and a monster, August, whose father controls the southern section. Verity is over run with monsters that are created by crimes. August and Kate will end up trying to prevent a war while each dealing with betrayals.
The story was extremely confusing at first; I almost put the book down because I was so confused. It takes about 20% for it all to start coming together. The writing itself, though, was very haunting yet beautiful which fit perfect with the story. The concept was unique and very enjoyable.
There is no romance between the characters which is extremely rare in YA. It was refreshing to see a guy and girl just be friends. The characters were also just realistic and lovable. They had such realistic qualities and I loved them both so much.
I would recommend this to fans of Cassandra Clare since both stories are urban fantasy and have a lot of similar elements.
4/5 Stars.
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Update
Friday, July 8, 2016
A Gathering of Shadows Review
Not a whole lot happens in this book to be quite honest with you. I was left very unimpressed with the plot because there was none. This book didn't advance the plot in anyway. Was it entertaining? Sure. Was it interesting? Sort of. After this book, I lost my love with this series. I wanted more. I wanted more with Black London and the magic and everything else. Instead, Lila is all the sudden a magician and may be an Antari at that and we're left with quite a cliffhanger. This story also had the games and only the last 3 pages finally had action at the meet up between Kell and Holland. By then it was too late to salvage my feelings towards this book. I sang high praise with V.E. Schwab, but I'm starting to wonder if she can truly write series or if she's better of writing standalones. I don't know. This is short because I don't have a lot to say. I'm just disappointed.
2/5 Stars
The Loose Ends List Review
This was one of my most anticipated books this year and I could not be more appalled and disappointed by this book. The family that this book is surrounding is rich and uptight minus the gram. The main character was insensitive calling the stocky family onboard "Ornaments", the new guy on board "Gollum", and calling other people rather rude nicknames. I guess that was supposed to be funny but I personally found it shocking that an author would write a main character like this. She also had IBS, but it was put into this "hilarious" light on how she "ruined another thong due to her IBS" or something along those lines. I know that there are people who have this and it's not funny or fun to deal with. Gram was a pretty good character, a little out there, but she managed to be an okay character. The rest of the family was either drunk or out there and I don't have anything good to say about any of them. I was more attached to the secondary characters than the main ones.
There's some serious insta-love in this book. Maddie lays eyes on Enzo and claims that she's in love with him. He was a bad character all by himself but them together was cry-worthy. He pressured her to smoke weed (even though she said she would never do it), he got her to drink, and have sex. Her virginity was a long joke through the whole book which was completely unnecessary. It was brought up so many times and it was as if her family was pushing her to have sex. I have no idea what realistic family does that. She mourned the loss of her boyfriend leaving more than the loss of her gram. It was all just really backwards.
I must say though, I did like the idea of a cruise travel book. I haven't read any books where the main character travels by cruise so this was new for me. Each stop was beautifully described and I had a clear picture of every destination that they landed on. I think this was probably the only thing I liked about the book.
I'm surprised so many people liked it, but maybe they read the main character's tone different than I did. 1.5/5 Stars.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
With Malice Review
I typically do not read thrillers after being disappointed by We Were Liars. I figured they were all probably similar and I wasn't missing out on much with this particular genre. That being said, I still decided to pick this book up for some reason. The idea of Jill not having her memory and being blamed for this kind of intrigued me and I saw some hype surrounding this book when it first came out. This is an enjoyable story if you don't expect too much of a shocker at the end.
Jill was a good protagonist. I was cheering for her and hoping that she was innocent and that there was more than what met the eye with the accident. I wasn't expecting a happy ending with her story though she got one and that left me extremely disappointed. There was also a character growth with her towards her feelings toward Simone, and while they were understandable the end still left me shocked and a little upset. I didn't expect her to go so cold towards her, but then again Simone was never a real friend so justice was served in a way. None of the other characters were super involved with the story except Anna. She was a fantastic friend to Jill and was what Jill needed at the time instead of everyone coddling her and pretending her life wasn't changing forever.
Honestly, I'm quite disappointed with this book and as I said before than ending was pretty cold, but I was intrigued with this story the whole time and while I did guess that it was who it ended up being, I still guessed a few other people in the process.
3.5 stars/5 Stars
Monday, July 4, 2016
City of Lost Souls {The Mortal Instruments Book Five}
Happy reading!
If I Was Your Girl Review
Characters
1. Amanda (main character)- Amanda was a good main character, but not one that will stick out in my mind for years to come. She's extremely brave for the things she has to go through and she never had self-pity for any of the troubles life put her through. She was a little young sounding for almost being 18 but that's no big deal. A very average character.
2. Bree- I don't know what happened with her. She was introduced as the chill girl who Amanda found a friend in. I never saw any hints that she ever felt affection for her, but all the sudden at the homecoming dance she outs her? I didn't truly understand that. It also seemed extremely out of character for her.
3. Chloe, Layla, and Anna- I'm combining these three because they're rarely seen without the others. They were fantastic female friends and how friends should be. They didn't leave Amanda when Bree did what she did to her. In fact, I think they only got closer and this is how girls should be. Instead of shaming each other, create a tight bond that can last forever.
4. Grant- I hated him since he was first introduced. One minute he was hot and the next minute he was cold for what reasons? I felt he was also bossy and kind of rude towards Amanda. He was just a bland love interest.
Plot
I didn't see where there was a plot in this book at all. I thought this was going to be more about Amanda transitioning, and it was more of the aftermath with some flashbacks of when she started the medicine (I forgot the word. I'm so sorry). I think the only time anything really happened was at the end which seems to be happening for a lot of the books I've been reading lately. I just don't think this was the story I was expecting and that's nothing against the author.
2/5 Stars.
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone {Harry Potter Series - Book One} Review
Friday, July 1, 2016
I Woke Up Dead at the Mall Review
This was a great novel that gave a more lighthearted look at death instead of grim reapers and deciding on whether you belong in Heaven or Hell. It's based in Mall of America, which I said above, and that type of setting was absolutely wonderful to see used as a death place. It only added to the lightheartedness of this novel. This book does hold a bit of mystery to it because there isn't a reason as to why the person killed Sarah for a good portion of the novel and you're just left with the question, "Why?" Granted, you will find out and it'll be sort of obvious as to who did it and why if you pick up the clues. It was a super predictable novel, but it was a fun one so I can't complain.
The main character Sarah was a fantastic narrator. She was witty (trying a bit too hard sometimes), funny, and actually cared about her family and the dead people around her. In all honesty, all the characters has such diverse personalities. It was absolutely refreshing to see. I think as a whole this novel did a fantastic job at being positive with relationships between characters and being relatively positive with the whole death scene. I would read another book by this author hands down.
4/5 stars.