Sunday, December 10, 2017
BIG NEWS: MOVING WEBSITES
As of December 10th, 2017, I have moved my reviews & other book-related posts over to my new website. All new reviews and content will be posted there. I am leaving this site up until I transfer all of my old posts over, and at that point it may or may not remain active. Thanks for understanding!
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Book Review: Renegades
Title: Renegades
Author: Marissa Meyer
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Renegades (Book 1)
Why?: Loved Heartless and The Lunar Chronicles
I went into this book slightly worried, because I had read less-than stellar comments/reviews from other people and this is the first book I have read from Marissa Meyer that wasn't a retelling. So this was slightly outside my comfort zone, and I didn't want any negative feelings I had towards this book to affect how I see her other books.
Luckily, that wasn't a problem.
There is no denying that this book is insanely different from her other ones. Her other books are retellings and more fantasy-ish, while this one is (kinda still a retelling but I'll get there) and definitely falls more on the science-fiction side of the fence. But I didn't have to walk to the "scary side" of the library to get it so that was a plus. Also I almost felt like the writing style was different, although not necessarily bad.
Before I talk about all the stuff that I liked (or maybe didn't like) about the book, I feel the urge to discuss a comment that I saw floating around a lot. YES, a lot of the characters do resemble figures in X-MEN quite heavily. X-MEN is mentioned in the acknowledgments. Did it bother me? Not necessarily a ton, but there were a couple of characters (but one in particular) where I felt like the character was no longer inspired by a character in the X-MEN universe, they WERE that character. I know that it can be really hard to create an original character based off of a different character without retaining some characteristics, but I felt like some more work could have been done to make it so that the characters weren't nearly so similar.
Moving on.
So here's what I loved: there was little to no romance, there was plenty of action, and there was enough of a cliffhanger thingy at the end to keep me interested in the next one.
The whole little to no romance thing was GREAT for me. The novel was all about the action and the conflict, and while there were hints at a potential romance it didn't completely derail the entire story line.
There was a ton of action in this book, and it just moved from one conflict to the next. Generally this bugs me because I like to be walked through every single step, but I actually didn't mind! I was never bored while reading, and it was quite enjoyable.
I was quite confused while reading this book because I didn't remember if it was part of a series or not, and didn't muster up the energy to Google it until halfway through the book. Once I figured out it was a series though, the structure started to make a ton more sense. At the end of the book it was clear that it wasn't a stand-alone, and now I can't wait to read the next one.
Here's what I didn't like: the whole X-MEN thing, the conflicts were slightly confusing, and the backstory wasn't that well explained.
The conflicts were pretty confusing just because the story seemed to slide from one conflict to the next without having a clearly defined resolution to the one before it. A lot of times this left me feeling like I was holding a ton of loose ends, which I hate. There were a bunch of questions that were left unanswered, which bugged me a lot.
The backstory was sporadically mixed in throughout the novel, which made it super difficult because previous battles were always being referenced and I wouldn't figure out what had happened in that battle until chapters later. I wish it would have been more clearly explained, since it would have made reading it a ton easier.
Overall this was a super good book, and I didn't mind the couple of things that bothered me too much. If you liked Meyer's previous books, I would definitely check this one out!
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Book Review: We Were Liars
Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: N/A
Why: Recommended
I feel like I should start with a disclaimer that I did not include the writing style as a factor when rating this book. I'm not a huge fan of the fragmented writing style just because of how my brain works and what it needs in order to connect the dots, and I didn't feel like it was fair to give this book 2 or 3 stars because I loved everything about it but the writing style. I'm trying to separate my feelings about the writing style and my feelings about the story, since I know that some people love the whole fragments thing.
Review disclaimed. (Not even sure that's how you use that word but whatever I'm going with it)
So this book required me to go out of my comfort zone a little bit. I mean first of all I had to walk to the OTHER SIDE of the library (Fun fact: I walked to the science fiction/fantasy side out of habit and had to be pointed in the other direction. That's how frequently I venture away from "my side" of the library) And secondly I read a book that was NOT science fiction or fantasy. Putting sci-fi/fantasy aside, my next favorite genres are mystery, crime, and horror (can't watch scary movies by Stephen King books are okay for some reason?) so it wasn't like I was reading romance or anything, but it was still abnormal for me. Also it was like 200 pages shorter than my normal read. My books are normally 400-1000 pages, and this was a whopping like 220 pages. That said... I really liked it!
The first part of the book is confusing as heck. I had no idea where I was, who was speaking, what was going on, any of that. And what I didn't know when reading this part (it makes sense in the middle/end of the book but it's not a spoiler so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) is that there is an actual purpose behind how the beginning of this book is structured. The fragments have a purpose, it's just really hard to know/understand that until later in the book. Once you get past the first part of the book the writing becomes more "normal" and it was a lot easier to understand. And then the end gets all fragmenty again but, like I said before, there's a purpose to it and by that point in the book I realized what was going on and why the writing style was like that.
Basically this book is about this huge mystery surrounding Cadence's (the narrator) accident, but it also touches on some really important issues surrounding family dynamics and how the families on the island treat other people (and their own children). There were two things that I really liked about this book, but they are so different from each other that it's almost hard to imagine that they come from the same book.
So I made a list-ish thing because lists.
1. The plot. Specifically the ending. I pride myself in being able to tell when plot twists are coming pretty easily (except in A Song of Ice and Fire because the plot twists are insane in that thing) but when the ending came I just sat there in shock for a good minute or so. The book was like "turn left here" and I was like nope I'm gonna turn right because I'm SO SMART but the book predicted that ahead of time and I'm having a meltdown as I type this because I still feel so betrayed/shocked. Basically if you think you know what's going on in the book YOU DON'T.
2. The issues it talked about. The whole thing about Gat, the double speak that everyone on that entire island used, how the parents treated the Liars (which was just so messed up)... during some of these scenes I was honestly disgusted at the behavior of the adults. I really don't want to say anything more than I already have because it would get really spoiler-y but it was messed up.
This book was a really quick read, and I would definitely recommend it! The fragment writing wasn't my favorite thing, but it was a price I was willing to pay for the story.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: E. Lockhart
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: N/A
Why: Recommended
I feel like I should start with a disclaimer that I did not include the writing style as a factor when rating this book. I'm not a huge fan of the fragmented writing style just because of how my brain works and what it needs in order to connect the dots, and I didn't feel like it was fair to give this book 2 or 3 stars because I loved everything about it but the writing style. I'm trying to separate my feelings about the writing style and my feelings about the story, since I know that some people love the whole fragments thing.
Review disclaimed. (Not even sure that's how you use that word but whatever I'm going with it)
So this book required me to go out of my comfort zone a little bit. I mean first of all I had to walk to the OTHER SIDE of the library (Fun fact: I walked to the science fiction/fantasy side out of habit and had to be pointed in the other direction. That's how frequently I venture away from "my side" of the library) And secondly I read a book that was NOT science fiction or fantasy. Putting sci-fi/fantasy aside, my next favorite genres are mystery, crime, and horror (can't watch scary movies by Stephen King books are okay for some reason?) so it wasn't like I was reading romance or anything, but it was still abnormal for me. Also it was like 200 pages shorter than my normal read. My books are normally 400-1000 pages, and this was a whopping like 220 pages. That said... I really liked it!
The first part of the book is confusing as heck. I had no idea where I was, who was speaking, what was going on, any of that. And what I didn't know when reading this part (it makes sense in the middle/end of the book but it's not a spoiler so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) is that there is an actual purpose behind how the beginning of this book is structured. The fragments have a purpose, it's just really hard to know/understand that until later in the book. Once you get past the first part of the book the writing becomes more "normal" and it was a lot easier to understand. And then the end gets all fragmenty again but, like I said before, there's a purpose to it and by that point in the book I realized what was going on and why the writing style was like that.
Basically this book is about this huge mystery surrounding Cadence's (the narrator) accident, but it also touches on some really important issues surrounding family dynamics and how the families on the island treat other people (and their own children). There were two things that I really liked about this book, but they are so different from each other that it's almost hard to imagine that they come from the same book.
So I made a list-ish thing because lists.
1. The plot. Specifically the ending. I pride myself in being able to tell when plot twists are coming pretty easily (except in A Song of Ice and Fire because the plot twists are insane in that thing) but when the ending came I just sat there in shock for a good minute or so. The book was like "turn left here" and I was like nope I'm gonna turn right because I'm SO SMART but the book predicted that ahead of time and I'm having a meltdown as I type this because I still feel so betrayed/shocked. Basically if you think you know what's going on in the book YOU DON'T.
2. The issues it talked about. The whole thing about Gat, the double speak that everyone on that entire island used, how the parents treated the Liars (which was just so messed up)... during some of these scenes I was honestly disgusted at the behavior of the adults. I really don't want to say anything more than I already have because it would get really spoiler-y but it was messed up.
This book was a really quick read, and I would definitely recommend it! The fragment writing wasn't my favorite thing, but it was a price I was willing to pay for the story.
See this review on Goodreads.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Book Review: Tower of Dawn
Title: Tower of Dawn
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
Series: Throne of Glass (Book 6)
Why?: Series
My expectations for this book were a bit of a roller-coaster. At when after reading the first four books, my expectations were pretty high. After reading the fifth book, they went down a little. And after the first 20 pages of this book, they went down a lot. Until about halfway through the book, I wasn't sure I was going to finish and was basically dragging myself through.
Here was my main problem: the plot twists were not twisty in the least. Within the first 30 pages I had successfully predicted 2 out of the 4 main plot twists. That's not a good thing. The characters were pretty predicable too, considering they followed the same track that a lot of this series has followed... Introduce pretty girl to handsome guy whom she originally hates, then make him take off his shirt and boom, they are in love. There isn't even a question if that will happen or not, it's basically a given.
So, main grievances: plot twists were not twisty, and characters were kinda generic/flat. Also, really slow beginning.
But the ending. This deserves a special little moment of pause because I actually kinda liked it. Like somewhere in my cold, stone heart there was a little bit of this weird happy feeling before I found something else to angrily fixate on. Basically because it seemed like a compromise so that the stone-hearted people such as myself would grudgingly admit that yes, that was a good ending. It is SO hard to talk about this without spoiling anything... But I liked it and I don't normally like the endings of these types of books so A+ for effort.
Am I glad that I finished this book? Definitely. And not only because it would have driven me nuts for days if I hadn't (giving up on books is SO hard for me). I feel like the ending was worth the first half of this book, just because it was so shocking for me that that is how it would end. Again, so hard to talk about it without spoiling anything but it was so atypical for this type of book that I couldn't help but applaud the deviation from the track.
The reason why my rating is so low is because while it was a quick read and besides the grievances listed above I didn't really have too many other problems, there was nothing (besides the ending) that jumped out at me and was like WHOA. It was just like... okay, I guess.
This book was supposed to help me determine if I was done following the series or not, but now I have no clue. Because it wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't completely awful.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Rating: 2.5/5 Stars
Series: Throne of Glass (Book 6)
Why?: Series
My expectations for this book were a bit of a roller-coaster. At when after reading the first four books, my expectations were pretty high. After reading the fifth book, they went down a little. And after the first 20 pages of this book, they went down a lot. Until about halfway through the book, I wasn't sure I was going to finish and was basically dragging myself through.
Here was my main problem: the plot twists were not twisty in the least. Within the first 30 pages I had successfully predicted 2 out of the 4 main plot twists. That's not a good thing. The characters were pretty predicable too, considering they followed the same track that a lot of this series has followed... Introduce pretty girl to handsome guy whom she originally hates, then make him take off his shirt and boom, they are in love. There isn't even a question if that will happen or not, it's basically a given.
So, main grievances: plot twists were not twisty, and characters were kinda generic/flat. Also, really slow beginning.
But the ending. This deserves a special little moment of pause because I actually kinda liked it. Like somewhere in my cold, stone heart there was a little bit of this weird happy feeling before I found something else to angrily fixate on. Basically because it seemed like a compromise so that the stone-hearted people such as myself would grudgingly admit that yes, that was a good ending. It is SO hard to talk about this without spoiling anything... But I liked it and I don't normally like the endings of these types of books so A+ for effort.
Am I glad that I finished this book? Definitely. And not only because it would have driven me nuts for days if I hadn't (giving up on books is SO hard for me). I feel like the ending was worth the first half of this book, just because it was so shocking for me that that is how it would end. Again, so hard to talk about it without spoiling anything but it was so atypical for this type of book that I couldn't help but applaud the deviation from the track.
The reason why my rating is so low is because while it was a quick read and besides the grievances listed above I didn't really have too many other problems, there was nothing (besides the ending) that jumped out at me and was like WHOA. It was just like... okay, I guess.
This book was supposed to help me determine if I was done following the series or not, but now I have no clue. Because it wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't completely awful.
See this review on Goodreads.
Book Review: Song of the Current
Title: Song of the Current
Author: Sarah Tolcser
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: Song of the Current (Book 1)
Why?: On TBR
I would like to apologize in advance for any sentences or paragraphs that do not make sense. I tried to give myself a pep talk before writing this review because I've been having trouble with words lately and all my brain could come up with was "I can has words." So it's been a rough couple of weeks.
Okay so I went into this book knowing that it was highly rated on Goodreads and that was about it. I didn't read the little summary on Goodreads or even the front cover flap because the cover was just so pretty and I am a hard-core cover judger. Not gonna lie. Over 75% of the books I read it's because I thought the cover looked interesting (and I should qualify this statement by saying that I'm standing in the science fiction/fantasy section when I do this cover-judging because... reasons). So just know that my expectations for this book were only based on it's rating on Goodreads when I added it to my TBR.
So I guess I'll start off with the negatives and then go into the positives, just to switch it up a bit.
What did I not like? The plot twist predictability. Granted, it's become a lot easier in recent years for me to figure out plot twists just because once you read a certain number of books you can start seeing these patterns in the storylines. However, with this book I felt like it was grabbing you by the hand and dragging you to the "big reveal," which wound up not being that big of a reveal because it was so dang obvious. I felt like you were supposed to be shocked when you discover *things* but for me it was kind of a "well DUH" moment. So, plot twists were not twisty.
Except the one at the end.
That one was cool.
My other main complaint was that there were romance teasings throughout the entire novel (which was okay, I mean romance isn't my things but as long as it's small I'll just pretend it doesn't exist) but then at the very end it was like romance to the MAX. There was all the romance was going on, and it felt like the last 50-100 pages belonged to a completely different book. I felt like it was just romance overload at the end... I know that in the blurb it's called a "romantic fantasy" (see I read it now...) but I felt like that only described the first 3/4ths of the book. The last 25% was just like pure romance. REALLY not my thing.
What did I like?
[Teeny tiny spoiler ahead. Like teeny tiny.]
I loved the setting. I think it's fairly obvious by now that my favorite time period to read about is when they have swords and minimal to no guns, and that the modern time period just isn't my thing. And this book had PIRATES. Caro wasn't Lila Bard, but she was still awesome! (Side note: super awesome to have a protagonist that isn't a fan of blood. Most protagonists are all cool and chill about it and Caro and I will be over there trying not to look at it.) And water gods... water is by far my favorite element to read about, and this just made me a little puddle of happiness (get it, puddle? because water? I'm so funny.)
Also the whole not-fitting-in motif/theme/thingy was so prevalent throughout this story and it made me so happy. Sometimes it can be so hard to feel like you belong somewhere, especially when certain things come naturally to everybody else, but not you. So the fact that Caro was in that situation and was able to work through it like a normal person would, she didn't just like wake up one day and all of her problems were solved. So the fact that this was a fun, action-packed story yet it was still so relatable (as relatable as a story can be with pirates, river gods, and shadow people) just made it so much easier to read and enjoy.
This is a really quick read. I read the last 200ish+ pages in like 50ish minutes? My math is bad so that could be wrong but anyway the book didn't drag at all (excluding that annoying romance part) and I didn't feel like I was dragging myself through the entire thing. Even all of the sailing stuff couldn't slow me down mostly because I just skipped over it and figured out what had happened from context clues (one of the most useful things I've ever learned from English classes in school).
I would definitely recommend this book to other people. It's fun, it's quick, and there are PIRATES.
Just maybe read the blurb first. It might help.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Sarah Tolcser
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: Song of the Current (Book 1)
Why?: On TBR
I would like to apologize in advance for any sentences or paragraphs that do not make sense. I tried to give myself a pep talk before writing this review because I've been having trouble with words lately and all my brain could come up with was "I can has words." So it's been a rough couple of weeks.
Okay so I went into this book knowing that it was highly rated on Goodreads and that was about it. I didn't read the little summary on Goodreads or even the front cover flap because the cover was just so pretty and I am a hard-core cover judger. Not gonna lie. Over 75% of the books I read it's because I thought the cover looked interesting (and I should qualify this statement by saying that I'm standing in the science fiction/fantasy section when I do this cover-judging because... reasons). So just know that my expectations for this book were only based on it's rating on Goodreads when I added it to my TBR.
So I guess I'll start off with the negatives and then go into the positives, just to switch it up a bit.
What did I not like? The plot twist predictability. Granted, it's become a lot easier in recent years for me to figure out plot twists just because once you read a certain number of books you can start seeing these patterns in the storylines. However, with this book I felt like it was grabbing you by the hand and dragging you to the "big reveal," which wound up not being that big of a reveal because it was so dang obvious. I felt like you were supposed to be shocked when you discover *things* but for me it was kind of a "well DUH" moment. So, plot twists were not twisty.
Except the one at the end.
That one was cool.
My other main complaint was that there were romance teasings throughout the entire novel (which was okay, I mean romance isn't my things but as long as it's small I'll just pretend it doesn't exist) but then at the very end it was like romance to the MAX. There was all the romance was going on, and it felt like the last 50-100 pages belonged to a completely different book. I felt like it was just romance overload at the end... I know that in the blurb it's called a "romantic fantasy" (see I read it now...) but I felt like that only described the first 3/4ths of the book. The last 25% was just like pure romance. REALLY not my thing.
What did I like?
[Teeny tiny spoiler ahead. Like teeny tiny.]
I loved the setting. I think it's fairly obvious by now that my favorite time period to read about is when they have swords and minimal to no guns, and that the modern time period just isn't my thing. And this book had PIRATES. Caro wasn't Lila Bard, but she was still awesome! (Side note: super awesome to have a protagonist that isn't a fan of blood. Most protagonists are all cool and chill about it and Caro and I will be over there trying not to look at it.) And water gods... water is by far my favorite element to read about, and this just made me a little puddle of happiness (get it, puddle? because water? I'm so funny.)
Also the whole not-fitting-in motif/theme/thingy was so prevalent throughout this story and it made me so happy. Sometimes it can be so hard to feel like you belong somewhere, especially when certain things come naturally to everybody else, but not you. So the fact that Caro was in that situation and was able to work through it like a normal person would, she didn't just like wake up one day and all of her problems were solved. So the fact that this was a fun, action-packed story yet it was still so relatable (as relatable as a story can be with pirates, river gods, and shadow people) just made it so much easier to read and enjoy.
This is a really quick read. I read the last 200ish+ pages in like 50ish minutes? My math is bad so that could be wrong but anyway the book didn't drag at all (excluding that annoying romance part) and I didn't feel like I was dragging myself through the entire thing. Even all of the sailing stuff couldn't slow me down mostly because I just skipped over it and figured out what had happened from context clues (one of the most useful things I've ever learned from English classes in school).
I would definitely recommend this book to other people. It's fun, it's quick, and there are PIRATES.
Just maybe read the blurb first. It might help.
See this review on Goodreads.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Book Review: The Dazzling Heights
Title: The Dazzling Heights
Author: Katharine McGee
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: The Thousandth Floor (Book 2)
Reason: On TBR
So, in my Instagram post I compared this book to Thor: The Dark World. I feel like I should explain that a little. Basically a ton of people hated the 2nd Thor movie because its plot resembled the first one quite closely. Personally, I didn't mind. The same goes for this book. The structure is the same as the first one (introduce dead person in the first chapter, now try and figure it out throughout the rest of the book), and normally that would bother the heck out of me. We all know my patience is about the size of a shot glass, maybe even smaller. But I was too wrapped up in all of the drama and the twists and the turns to give it a second thought. Like I thought about it at the very beginning, and then forgot about it until the very end. Basically what I'm saying is that while normally that type of structure would bother me, it didn't in this book because the story was so good.
So this basically takes up the story where the first book left off, and one of the things that made me really happy was the fact that what the characters had experienced wasn't trivialized. A lot of times in books the characters will wake up the day after the big crashing event only to realize that life is perfect and the sun is shining with happy flowers and all that jazz. Not here. The characters are (rightfully) struggling to come to terms with what happened on the roof, and how it will affect the rest of their lives (along with all of the dirt Leda has on them). There are still all of these misconceptions that the main characters have about that night on the roof, and the events leading up to it. Man and the dramatic irony... sometimes I just wanted to scream at the characters that they were wrong but I couldn't because... you know... it wouldn't do anything.
Calliope became my official new favorite character in this series. I can't really talk about why without spoiling it (dang it) but let's just say her character development was wonderful, and I really liked it at the end when [can't say what happens because it's a spoiler!]. It took me a second to remember who the old characters were from the first book, but they were so distinctive that eventually my brain decided to actually, you know, be useful, and it was a lot easier to follow the story after that. I loved learning how the characters were living their lives after everything that had happened, and watching them figure out new power dynamics and all of that.
This book had a great plot, great characters, and a great story. My only minor complaint is that I predicted basically all of the twists ahead of time, but it was so twisty that I began doubting myself anyway so I'm not sure that I can really complain. And the DRAMA. So. Much. DRAMA.
I would like the next one now. Please.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Katharine McGee
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: The Thousandth Floor (Book 2)
Reason: On TBR
So, in my Instagram post I compared this book to Thor: The Dark World. I feel like I should explain that a little. Basically a ton of people hated the 2nd Thor movie because its plot resembled the first one quite closely. Personally, I didn't mind. The same goes for this book. The structure is the same as the first one (introduce dead person in the first chapter, now try and figure it out throughout the rest of the book), and normally that would bother the heck out of me. We all know my patience is about the size of a shot glass, maybe even smaller. But I was too wrapped up in all of the drama and the twists and the turns to give it a second thought. Like I thought about it at the very beginning, and then forgot about it until the very end. Basically what I'm saying is that while normally that type of structure would bother me, it didn't in this book because the story was so good.
So this basically takes up the story where the first book left off, and one of the things that made me really happy was the fact that what the characters had experienced wasn't trivialized. A lot of times in books the characters will wake up the day after the big crashing event only to realize that life is perfect and the sun is shining with happy flowers and all that jazz. Not here. The characters are (rightfully) struggling to come to terms with what happened on the roof, and how it will affect the rest of their lives (along with all of the dirt Leda has on them). There are still all of these misconceptions that the main characters have about that night on the roof, and the events leading up to it. Man and the dramatic irony... sometimes I just wanted to scream at the characters that they were wrong but I couldn't because... you know... it wouldn't do anything.
Calliope became my official new favorite character in this series. I can't really talk about why without spoiling it (dang it) but let's just say her character development was wonderful, and I really liked it at the end when [can't say what happens because it's a spoiler!]. It took me a second to remember who the old characters were from the first book, but they were so distinctive that eventually my brain decided to actually, you know, be useful, and it was a lot easier to follow the story after that. I loved learning how the characters were living their lives after everything that had happened, and watching them figure out new power dynamics and all of that.
This book had a great plot, great characters, and a great story. My only minor complaint is that I predicted basically all of the twists ahead of time, but it was so twisty that I began doubting myself anyway so I'm not sure that I can really complain. And the DRAMA. So. Much. DRAMA.
I would like the next one now. Please.
See this review on Goodreads.
Monday, October 2, 2017
Book Review: Ready Player One
Title: Ready Player One
Author: Ernest Cline
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: N/A
Reason for Reading: On TBR
Before I begin with the review, I want to add a disclaimer to my 3 star rating. It's more of a grudging 3-star rating. Based on the content of the novel alone (i.e. story, plot, premise, characters, writing, etc.) I would have given it more of a 2-2.5 for reasons I will explain later. But I was just so drawn into this book that I didn't even like that much that I had to up the rating. I wasn't a huge fan of the characters, or of the story. But it was just so addictive that once I picked it up I HAD to keep reading.
This reminds me kinda of the Eye of Minds series, but better. Basically it's set in a futuristic world, where everyone has gotten sucked into this virtual reality called OASIS (btw I love the name, for reasons I will also explain down there VVVV) because real life is kinda awful since the entire planet has really deteriorated. OASIS reminded me of the Wizards 101 game that used to have ads everywhere probably like 8ish years ago? I had to Google to confirm that this game was actually a thing but whenever wizards were mentioned in Ready Player One I thought of the wizard from the Wizards 101 ad and yeah it was weird. Our main character is Wade Watts, who spends most of his time in OASIS looking for the key to the fortune of OASIS' creator. There's also your standard evil company, IOI, which is trying to charge everyone huge amounts of money to use the (mostly) free game.
Ready Player One is full of video game references that, if you are not a gamer, you probably won't get. Just putting that out there. I got the Oingo Boingo "Dead Man's Party" reference, since I grew up listening to it, but half of the games listed my brother probably knows, but I don't. He's the gamer, I've had my nose stuck up a book for years and have decided to never take it out. While other reviews have said that you can still enjoy the book without understanding the references, I feel like it would have been a lot more enjoyable had I actually known what he was talking about half of the time. Also tying into the fact that I'm not a gamer: I could never spend as much time was Wade does in this virtual world. I just really dislike video games, they have never really been my thing. So it was hard to connect to this desire to escape from the world by playing a video game, because when I want to escape I decide to read about King Henry VIII's 6 wives. Which is totally more relatable than video games.
So for my next little "this is what irritated me" segment, I feel like I need to explain how friggin GENIUS the name OASIS is for this simulation. So, normally when you are in the desert and you are dehydrated and struggling, you will see an oasis--you know, the palm trees and pond of water and all that jazz. You know it's a mirage, but you are still drawn to it because what if this time it's real? Now this is how OASIS fits so well. Real life stinks in this book. Wade lives in what is basically a city made out of trailers stacked on top of each other, pollution is a thing, there's a global energy crisis, it's awful. AKA it's our metaphorical desert. What is OASIS? An escape from the real world, where everything is awesome and you have the ability to become anyone that you wish to be. It's not real, but you wish that it was. AKA OASIS is our mirage.
Mini analytical freakout over.
Here is what bugs me about the characters though. I can't go too into detail without giving a bunch of stuff a way, so I am going to try and keep it as generic as possible. Basically all of the main characters in this novel, Wade included, have parts of themselves that either they are uncomfortable with, or they feel like society would be more accepting of them without said part/attribute. And they use OASIS to hide this. Yet throughout the entire book, despite the touted "self-acceptance" parts, these characters either a) get rid of said attributes, b) fail to be more comfortable with their attributes, or c) forget about their insecurities because INSTALOVE. Cline brings up these issues, some of which are actually really big in today's society, and then instead of addressing them either glosses over them, ignores them, or casually "fixes" the character. I feel like he should have used character development to address the issue, not just gloss over it.
So basically this was a really fast read that I couldn't put down, even though I really didn't love it and felt like it could have used some work on addressing some of the issues it brought up. I think a gamer would appreciate this book 100x more than I did, but it wasn't necessarily a bad book. It just wasn't really for me.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Ernest Cline
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: N/A
Reason for Reading: On TBR
Before I begin with the review, I want to add a disclaimer to my 3 star rating. It's more of a grudging 3-star rating. Based on the content of the novel alone (i.e. story, plot, premise, characters, writing, etc.) I would have given it more of a 2-2.5 for reasons I will explain later. But I was just so drawn into this book that I didn't even like that much that I had to up the rating. I wasn't a huge fan of the characters, or of the story. But it was just so addictive that once I picked it up I HAD to keep reading.
This reminds me kinda of the Eye of Minds series, but better. Basically it's set in a futuristic world, where everyone has gotten sucked into this virtual reality called OASIS (btw I love the name, for reasons I will also explain down there VVVV) because real life is kinda awful since the entire planet has really deteriorated. OASIS reminded me of the Wizards 101 game that used to have ads everywhere probably like 8ish years ago? I had to Google to confirm that this game was actually a thing but whenever wizards were mentioned in Ready Player One I thought of the wizard from the Wizards 101 ad and yeah it was weird. Our main character is Wade Watts, who spends most of his time in OASIS looking for the key to the fortune of OASIS' creator. There's also your standard evil company, IOI, which is trying to charge everyone huge amounts of money to use the (mostly) free game.
Ready Player One is full of video game references that, if you are not a gamer, you probably won't get. Just putting that out there. I got the Oingo Boingo "Dead Man's Party" reference, since I grew up listening to it, but half of the games listed my brother probably knows, but I don't. He's the gamer, I've had my nose stuck up a book for years and have decided to never take it out. While other reviews have said that you can still enjoy the book without understanding the references, I feel like it would have been a lot more enjoyable had I actually known what he was talking about half of the time. Also tying into the fact that I'm not a gamer: I could never spend as much time was Wade does in this virtual world. I just really dislike video games, they have never really been my thing. So it was hard to connect to this desire to escape from the world by playing a video game, because when I want to escape I decide to read about King Henry VIII's 6 wives. Which is totally more relatable than video games.
So for my next little "this is what irritated me" segment, I feel like I need to explain how friggin GENIUS the name OASIS is for this simulation. So, normally when you are in the desert and you are dehydrated and struggling, you will see an oasis--you know, the palm trees and pond of water and all that jazz. You know it's a mirage, but you are still drawn to it because what if this time it's real? Now this is how OASIS fits so well. Real life stinks in this book. Wade lives in what is basically a city made out of trailers stacked on top of each other, pollution is a thing, there's a global energy crisis, it's awful. AKA it's our metaphorical desert. What is OASIS? An escape from the real world, where everything is awesome and you have the ability to become anyone that you wish to be. It's not real, but you wish that it was. AKA OASIS is our mirage.
Mini analytical freakout over.
Here is what bugs me about the characters though. I can't go too into detail without giving a bunch of stuff a way, so I am going to try and keep it as generic as possible. Basically all of the main characters in this novel, Wade included, have parts of themselves that either they are uncomfortable with, or they feel like society would be more accepting of them without said part/attribute. And they use OASIS to hide this. Yet throughout the entire book, despite the touted "self-acceptance" parts, these characters either a) get rid of said attributes, b) fail to be more comfortable with their attributes, or c) forget about their insecurities because INSTALOVE. Cline brings up these issues, some of which are actually really big in today's society, and then instead of addressing them either glosses over them, ignores them, or casually "fixes" the character. I feel like he should have used character development to address the issue, not just gloss over it.
So basically this was a really fast read that I couldn't put down, even though I really didn't love it and felt like it could have used some work on addressing some of the issues it brought up. I think a gamer would appreciate this book 100x more than I did, but it wasn't necessarily a bad book. It just wasn't really for me.
See this review on Goodreads.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Book Review: A Clash of Kings
Title: A Clash of Kings
Author: George R.R. Martin
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 2)
I am in love with this series. The first book was amazing, and the whole second-book pitfall was avoided! I generally do not have good luck with sequels because they always seem repetitive to me... but this seemed fresh, original, and it advanced the plot!
I'm finding it so hard to review this series, mostly because a) it's insanely complicated and b) I can't just point at one thing and go "I LOVED IT" like I love the book as a whole, and so trying to find the little itty-bitty details are hard.
But I'm going to try anyway.
SUPER-LOVES:
+ No one magically gets healed. One of my pet peeves is when someone is dying of an obviously fatal wound but somehow magically are like "I'm okay!" and then go off to win some gigantic battle when 30 seconds ago they were struggling to breathe. Like I get that it's fantasy but let's have some realistic elements please.
+ Also, no one is safe. NO ONE. Martin kills/harms/destroys anyone and anything that he pleases. Who cares if you've had 20 million chapters, when your time has come you're dead! I'm on the edge of my seat the whole time just because the character deaths aren't predictable like in most books. It doesn't matter if it's a main character or some random person who has two lines of text in the whole book and never talks, they could die at any moment. Suspense much?
+ The plot twists are A+. Like one second I think I have everything figured out and the next second someone is giving birth to a shadow on a boat. (Seriously though, what the heck even was this? Like... Just... Help.) You can never settle into this comfortable rut because Martin is continuously throwing bombshells at you, yet it's not so rushed that I have to leave the book and go calm down in a corner because the overload is real. There's like this super tiny line between too much and too little action, and this book walks it PERFECTLY.
+ Betrayal is a major thing, which I guess ties in with plot twists but man you can't trust ANYONE in this book. Like ever. Because if you do you'll wind up with no head. Literally.
Teeny-Tiny List of Dislikes (In tiny font because I'M SO CREATIVE)
- Why did Daenerys have like two chapters in this book and that was it. This was something that bothered me in the last book and instead of getting more chapters I got less! Also literally everybody just wants her for her dragons. Like all of her conversations with people go like:
Person: Hey I like you--
Daenerys: Awww thank you!
Person: --r dragons let's get married so that I can have them.
Seriously I mean I get it it's DRAGONS but still.
- The battle at the end went on WAAAAYYY too long for my tastes. Fire death boom ship ahhhh I GOT IT.
- The whole birthing-shadows scene I just don't understand...
This was still an awesome book, and I still stand by my statement that everyone should read this awesome series. And by everyone I mean everyone in appropriate audiences like not a 10 year-old or anything that would probably not end well.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: George R.R. Martin
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 2)
I am in love with this series. The first book was amazing, and the whole second-book pitfall was avoided! I generally do not have good luck with sequels because they always seem repetitive to me... but this seemed fresh, original, and it advanced the plot!
I'm finding it so hard to review this series, mostly because a) it's insanely complicated and b) I can't just point at one thing and go "I LOVED IT" like I love the book as a whole, and so trying to find the little itty-bitty details are hard.
But I'm going to try anyway.
SUPER-LOVES:
+ No one magically gets healed. One of my pet peeves is when someone is dying of an obviously fatal wound but somehow magically are like "I'm okay!" and then go off to win some gigantic battle when 30 seconds ago they were struggling to breathe. Like I get that it's fantasy but let's have some realistic elements please.
+ Also, no one is safe. NO ONE. Martin kills/harms/destroys anyone and anything that he pleases. Who cares if you've had 20 million chapters, when your time has come you're dead! I'm on the edge of my seat the whole time just because the character deaths aren't predictable like in most books. It doesn't matter if it's a main character or some random person who has two lines of text in the whole book and never talks, they could die at any moment. Suspense much?
+ The plot twists are A+. Like one second I think I have everything figured out and the next second someone is giving birth to a shadow on a boat. (Seriously though, what the heck even was this? Like... Just... Help.) You can never settle into this comfortable rut because Martin is continuously throwing bombshells at you, yet it's not so rushed that I have to leave the book and go calm down in a corner because the overload is real. There's like this super tiny line between too much and too little action, and this book walks it PERFECTLY.
+ Betrayal is a major thing, which I guess ties in with plot twists but man you can't trust ANYONE in this book. Like ever. Because if you do you'll wind up with no head. Literally.
Teeny-Tiny List of Dislikes (In tiny font because I'M SO CREATIVE)
- Why did Daenerys have like two chapters in this book and that was it. This was something that bothered me in the last book and instead of getting more chapters I got less! Also literally everybody just wants her for her dragons. Like all of her conversations with people go like:
Person: Hey I like you--
Daenerys: Awww thank you!
Person: --r dragons let's get married so that I can have them.
Seriously I mean I get it it's DRAGONS but still.
- The battle at the end went on WAAAAYYY too long for my tastes. Fire death boom ship ahhhh I GOT IT.
- The whole birthing-shadows scene I just don't understand...
This was still an awesome book, and I still stand by my statement that everyone should read this awesome series. And by everyone I mean everyone in appropriate audiences like not a 10 year-old or anything that would probably not end well.
See this review on Goodreads.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Book Review: A Game of Thrones
Title: A Game of Thrones
Author: George R.R. Martin
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 1)
Why is there not an option for more than 5 stars? Like if I could I would rate this book 224 stars without hesitation (224 is one of my favorite numbers because 2+2 =4 and 2x2=4 and 4/2 = 2 and a bunch of other math calculations that make my slightly number/pattern-obsessed self happy).
So, I have major problems writing review for books that I love this much for a couple of reasons:
I am going to list a small list of like super-loves and a teeny-tiny list of no-likes and then pat myself on the back for being able to review a book that I love this much.
SUPER-LOVES:
+ One of my pet-peeves is authors refusing to kill their characters even when they are CLEARLY dead. Mission Impossible? Dude's dead. James Bond? Dead. You get my drift. So the fact that Martin can clearly see when a character is coming to the end of their time/arc/whatever and not only kills them off but kills them off in a manner that still fits the storyline? Happy me. I realize this sounds like I'm wishing people/characters dead and I'm not, I'm just tired of movie franchises/books/TV shows allowing characters that clearly should not have survived just magically pop up and be like "I'm good!" like no you just hit your head on a doorframe going like a million miles per hour I'm sorry but you are not okay. So basically, yay for realistic elements! Even though it's a fantasy!
+ The length. I love love love bigger books (but only if they are good because otherwise tears) and Martin managed to create like 800+ pages of pure awesomeness and I was obsessed. Still am obsessed. This allowed for plenty of character development, world-building, etc. It didn't feel rushed at all, yet it didn't drag, and when I reached the end I was desperate for more. And there are 4 (and, hopefully, eventually 6) more books to go through!
+ The characters. The characters that you should hate were just so despicable that you had no choice, and you loved the characters that you should love. The others you were left to decide for yourself, but they were just so well-written that by the end you had a firm opinion on them, there weren't any characters where I was just like "meh"
+ Daenerys is officially my new favorite character in all of ever (sorry Kell). I'm not exactly sure why I liked her so much, but it was just one of those things where I kept looking forward to her chapters and her story and I was like "Hurry up and shush Ned I wanna know what happens with Daenerys."
+ Dragons. If this needs an explanation I just... don't know what to do with you. Sorry.
Teeny-Tiny List of Dislikes:
- So. Many. Characters. So. Many. Names. (internal meltdown)
- Ned = Lord Stark. Didn't know that.
- Ned like dominated this book I wanted more Daenerys!!!
I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved this book. If you can only read one book this year, read this one.
Note on the illustrated version versus regular: I did not pick this for the pictures, it was just available sooner than the normal version and I'm impatient. I mean the pictures are cool but they don't make or break the book.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: George R.R. Martin
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: A Song of Ice and Fire (Book 1)
Why is there not an option for more than 5 stars? Like if I could I would rate this book 224 stars without hesitation (224 is one of my favorite numbers because 2+2 =4 and 2x2=4 and 4/2 = 2 and a bunch of other math calculations that make my slightly number/pattern-obsessed self happy).
So, I have major problems writing review for books that I love this much for a couple of reasons:
- My brain doesn't function normally because I am so obsessed
- I don't want to super-analyze it because I LOVE IT and I don't want to ruin it
I am going to list a small list of like super-loves and a teeny-tiny list of no-likes and then pat myself on the back for being able to review a book that I love this much.
SUPER-LOVES:
+ One of my pet-peeves is authors refusing to kill their characters even when they are CLEARLY dead. Mission Impossible? Dude's dead. James Bond? Dead. You get my drift. So the fact that Martin can clearly see when a character is coming to the end of their time/arc/whatever and not only kills them off but kills them off in a manner that still fits the storyline? Happy me. I realize this sounds like I'm wishing people/characters dead and I'm not, I'm just tired of movie franchises/books/TV shows allowing characters that clearly should not have survived just magically pop up and be like "I'm good!" like no you just hit your head on a doorframe going like a million miles per hour I'm sorry but you are not okay. So basically, yay for realistic elements! Even though it's a fantasy!
+ The length. I love love love bigger books (but only if they are good because otherwise tears) and Martin managed to create like 800+ pages of pure awesomeness and I was obsessed. Still am obsessed. This allowed for plenty of character development, world-building, etc. It didn't feel rushed at all, yet it didn't drag, and when I reached the end I was desperate for more. And there are 4 (and, hopefully, eventually 6) more books to go through!
+ The characters. The characters that you should hate were just so despicable that you had no choice, and you loved the characters that you should love. The others you were left to decide for yourself, but they were just so well-written that by the end you had a firm opinion on them, there weren't any characters where I was just like "meh"
+ Daenerys is officially my new favorite character in all of ever (sorry Kell). I'm not exactly sure why I liked her so much, but it was just one of those things where I kept looking forward to her chapters and her story and I was like "Hurry up and shush Ned I wanna know what happens with Daenerys."
+ Dragons. If this needs an explanation I just... don't know what to do with you. Sorry.
Teeny-Tiny List of Dislikes:
- So. Many. Characters. So. Many. Names. (internal meltdown)
- Ned = Lord Stark. Didn't know that.
- Ned like dominated this book I wanted more Daenerys!!!
I cannot emphasize enough how much I loved this book. If you can only read one book this year, read this one.
Note on the illustrated version versus regular: I did not pick this for the pictures, it was just available sooner than the normal version and I'm impatient. I mean the pictures are cool but they don't make or break the book.
See this review on Goodreads.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
"How Do You Have Time to Read So Much?" (The Answer!)
So the number one question I always get when I talk to other people about reading is:
"How do you have time to read so much?"
(or one of 128473662 different variations of this question)
And the short answer that I normally give people is that I don't necessarily have all this time to read whenever I want and never go to work or to school or do homework or any of that. Although that really isn't a short answer. It's not easy (at least for me) to study for all these tests and write all these essays and still have time to read and take pictures and write reviews. So, I decided I would compile the long version of my answer to my most frequently received question.
How I Read So Much:
- I multitask. And by "multitask" I mean I walk into a lot of walls (hang on, I'll get there). I read when I'm eating, I read when I'm brushing my teeth, I read while I'm watching TV, and I read while walking up and down the stairs (don't do this, seriously. I've almost killed myself a couple times because a) I've missed a step or b) my puppy decided that HE wanted the step and then I have 60+ pounds of I'M-NOT-MOVING that I have to sneak around). Some people like to aimlessly stare at the ceiling while in the waiting room, I have my book. If there is ever a break, I'm reading. There are tons of minutes wasted throughout the day that could be spent reading, they are just so small that you don't think about them.
- I weave it into my schedule. I have a running to-do list that, like my TBR, will never be quite completed or conquered. I try to get in at least half a book to a book per day (depends on the size of the book) and so I make that a box that I need to check off. I HATE leaving boxes unchecked, and so that nasty little voice living inside my head that flips out when boxes are unchecked will remind me throughout the day that I need to keep reading.
- eBooks. For some reason bringing your phone to an information session is normal but books? Now people are looking at you funny. So I have a tendency to download eBooks from my TBR and keep them on hand just in case I need to go somewhere where it would be weird to have a book but perfectly acceptable to be on my phone. Plus they are much more convenient so that's another plus (but not nearly as fun to read...)
- I use it as a reward system. Wrote an essay? Have 5 chapters! Studied for that test? Another 5 chapters! By using reading as a reward for completing specific tasks, not only do I get a break in-between mind-numbing boredom and headaches, but I also get to read! The only downside to this tactic is that sometimes I'll get to a super good part and it will have been 8 chapters before everything dies down and at that point I gotta go to 10 chapters because multiples of 10 are important and oh look it's exciting again and this cycle just goes on and on forever...
- I've learned to be efficient(ish). I have a tendency to work on essays and do to homework at the weirdest times and in the weirdest places so that I can read when I get home. I try and set goals like "I will be done with this essay by 6 pm" so that I don't dawdle on certain tasks and get my stuff done so that I can read. Basically I make reading a priority like writing essays or studying for tests.
- I put stuff off. 😅 Let's not talk about this one it's embarrassing.
- I read fast. I've always been a naturally fast reader, but when I get super into something the pages just fly by. This really helps because it takes me a day to read the same book that would take someone else a week, and so I can squish more books in (I'm giving my parents credit for this one for starting me on books before kindergarten.)
- I can read anywhere. Except maybe the car because motion sickness is a thing. I don't have problems reading in large crowds or in noisy areas because I just tune everybody out... which is great when you want to get reading done but bad when you miss your bus stop or someone has to yell your name 5000 times to get your attention. Also, I miss a lot of conversations because people will have like full-on discussions with me but not get my attention first and then they'll be like "what do you think?" and that's the first clue I've gotten that they were talking to me.
I think a huge part of my reading so much is that I make it a priority. It's something that is important to me, something that I love, and I try and juggle it as best I can with everything else in life. Do I get to read every day, or as much as I would like to? No, but I do my best.
How do you guys fit reading into your schedules?
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Book Review: Our Dark Duet
Title: Our Dark Duet
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Monsters of Verity (Book 2)
Reread Count: 2
I am a pile of mush. I loved (almost) everything about this book. The story, the irony, the Lord of the Flies parallels... I loved the fact that the humans were just as bad as the monsters, that it was super clear that everyone was dealing with the consequences of the previous book (they didn't just magically pop up and be a-okay after what happened), and Ilsa became like this super computer-whiz so that was icing on the cake!
So because I could go on and on about how awesome this book is, I'm gonna break it down and make 2 small lists of likes and dislikes...
LIKES:
+ "Even monsters have weak hearts"
+ Soro's character, and their insight. Each Sunai sees the world through a different lens, and for me Soro' was one of the more objective ones. I really liked the no-nonsence approach that they took to their job and to their expectations, but I also loved their character development.
+ This book really addresses the problem of black-and-white judgement (i.e. there are no grey areas) because there will always be some times where what the punishment should be according to the rules isn't necessarily the right course of action
+ I loved the Wardens. Computer hackers for the win!
+ The irony of a monster who won't face his own monsters
+ Allegro, because he reflects which side August is on
+ The whole story just pulled me in and I couldn't stop reading!
DISLIKES:
- The fragment chapters were not my thing. My brain just can't handle fragments and short sentences and this was driving it nuts.
- August does a lot of flinching. Like the phrase "August flinched" and all of its variations showed up a lot...
- Wasn't a huge fan of the Kate/Wardens relationship, it seemed a little stereotypical?
- The Alice/Sloan relationship was just...weird
- As someone who is a long-distance runner, the fact that Kate took months off of running and then ran like 7 miles and THEN was tired and decided to stop running... I mean adrenaline does wonders but I'm not sure it can do that...
- Also did Kate never learn the whole stranger-danger thing?!
- And my big, overarching question: How does Ilsa reap?! I can't see her doing it like Leo but idk I was confused.
I love this book. I love this series. If you haven't already--read it!
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Monsters of Verity (Book 2)
Reread Count: 2
I am a pile of mush. I loved (almost) everything about this book. The story, the irony, the Lord of the Flies parallels... I loved the fact that the humans were just as bad as the monsters, that it was super clear that everyone was dealing with the consequences of the previous book (they didn't just magically pop up and be a-okay after what happened), and Ilsa became like this super computer-whiz so that was icing on the cake!
So because I could go on and on about how awesome this book is, I'm gonna break it down and make 2 small lists of likes and dislikes...
LIKES:
+ "Even monsters have weak hearts"
+ Soro's character, and their insight. Each Sunai sees the world through a different lens, and for me Soro' was one of the more objective ones. I really liked the no-nonsence approach that they took to their job and to their expectations, but I also loved their character development.
+ This book really addresses the problem of black-and-white judgement (i.e. there are no grey areas) because there will always be some times where what the punishment should be according to the rules isn't necessarily the right course of action
+ I loved the Wardens. Computer hackers for the win!
+ The irony of a monster who won't face his own monsters
+ Allegro, because he reflects which side August is on
+ The whole story just pulled me in and I couldn't stop reading!
DISLIKES:
- The fragment chapters were not my thing. My brain just can't handle fragments and short sentences and this was driving it nuts.
- August does a lot of flinching. Like the phrase "August flinched" and all of its variations showed up a lot...
- Wasn't a huge fan of the Kate/Wardens relationship, it seemed a little stereotypical?
- The Alice/Sloan relationship was just...weird
- As someone who is a long-distance runner, the fact that Kate took months off of running and then ran like 7 miles and THEN was tired and decided to stop running... I mean adrenaline does wonders but I'm not sure it can do that...
- Also did Kate never learn the whole stranger-danger thing?!
- And my big, overarching question: How does Ilsa reap?! I can't see her doing it like Leo but idk I was confused.
I love this book. I love this series. If you haven't already--read it!
See this review on Goodreads.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Things I Wish I Had Known Before Starting a Bookstagram (and a blog)
When I first decided to start a Bookstagram, I thought it would be super easy. Take pictures of pretty books, post, and *boom* hundreds of followers instantly and all that jazz. I've only had mine for a month or two, and now I've realized that it's actually a heck of a lot harder. And then I started a website, with the same idea in mind. Also got a swift reality check. So, without further ado, what I wish I had known before I decided to become a bookstagrammer and review books.
I'm sure that in a couple more months I will have even more to add to this list. Although my dreams of becoming some awesome professional photographer have definitely been shattered, I would say that I've (hopefully) improved! And one day I will have photos waiting just in case. One day. Just... not today.
For fellow bookstagrammers/bloggers out there, what were some things that you wish you had known when you started? Anything that you've learned that would be helpful for someone who is awful at taking photographs?
- Light matters. You can't just stick your book down in any random place, take a picture, and have it look like the best thing in all of ever. Outside? Might get washed out. Inside, but not by windows? Too dark. Artificial light? Now all my pictures are yellow. So you have to find the best spot for pictures (which, for me, happens to be my desk. Or my stairs, if the lighting on my desk is bad at that time), and then the best time. Because pictures taken on my desk at 5:00 at night look great, but at 8:00 pm they look awful. Or at 7 am because lighting.
- Take pictures ahead of time. Because when it decides to rain for 7 days straight you aren't getting any pretty lighting or outdoor shots, and there's only so many different ways you can rotate that book so it won't reflect the light straight back into the camera. So when it's 8 pm at night and you don't have the lighting to do anything, you will have backups and can post away!
- It will take a while to find a theme. I've seen all of these super pretty pictures with tons of color and flowers (a really good example is @paperfury because her pictures are AMAZING) and I so wanted to do that but I've figured out that, because I have like no props, I'm more of a minimalist-desky person (when the lighting is good. Stupid lighting.). You just have to figure out what works for you with what you have.
- Library books are a PAIN to photograph. Because I can't afford to buy a new book basically every other day I get A LOT of my books from the library. But those shiny jackets are so hard to take pictures of because GLARE! This has played a large role in the time that I chose to take photos because if the lighting is juuuussst right then you won't get glare.
- Taking notes helps A LOT for reviews. Instead of just trying to remember everything that you want to say and all of the things that you want to point out, write them down, cry because you can't understand your own writing, and start over! I'm kidding about this (kind of), it really does help, a lot! I just recently started taking notes and I've realized that it makes my life much easier, although a little sad because my notes are ugly.
- It gets hard when you get busy. Duh, right, but all of a sudden you are trying to read books and write reviews and post every day and sometimes my brain just wants to go *boom* because why are there only 24 hours in a day? Also sleep. I need sleep but I also need to write a review or read a book and priorities get screwed up.
- Interact with people. I didn't know this when I started and I am SO SORRY to all those nice people who reached out to me in the comments and I didn't respond. I had no clue what I was doing and my life was a little bit of a mess (just a little *laugh/sobs quietly*). If you interact with others it's a heck of a lot more fun and who knows, you may just find some people who like a random book just as much as you do!
- Don't type your blog post in Pages and then paste it into your blog because then the font gets all funky.
- Links don't work in Instagram posts 😕. I mean I still post links there because maybe it's helpful (?) but it took someone pointing it out to me for me to realize what was going on. Whoopsies.
I'm sure that in a couple more months I will have even more to add to this list. Although my dreams of becoming some awesome professional photographer have definitely been shattered, I would say that I've (hopefully) improved! And one day I will have photos waiting just in case. One day. Just... not today.
For fellow bookstagrammers/bloggers out there, what were some things that you wish you had known when you started? Anything that you've learned that would be helpful for someone who is awful at taking photographs?
Monday, September 11, 2017
Book Review: The Passenger
Title: The Passenger
Author: Lisa Lutz
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: N/A
...My head hurts. There was just so much going on in this book that I'm not even sure where to begin. Not to mention that I did not take notes when reading this about stuff I liked/didn't like (BIG mistake) and so now I'm not even sure what time zone I am in. And this, fellow readers, is why you do not decide to read an entire book between information sessions. Because the brain just cannot handle that type of commitment.
We are introduced to Tanya Dubois at the same time we are introduced to her now-dead husband, Frank. Who she definitely didn't kill, as she repeatedly assures us (I just met you, I don't trust you. We aren't there yet), but she's going to go on the run anyway because she doesn't want the police to look too closely into her background. What follows next is a whirlwind of action complete with murder, sneaking around, breaking-and-entering, and a possible bomb plot (?). Holy crud there was a TON crammed into this little book. I know on Goodreads it says 320 pages but I make the writing super tiny on my phone because my vision is awful anyway why not just ruin it completely, so it was only like 250 for me? And there was a ton going on.
If you've read any of my other reviews you probably know that I tend to like slower, longer books. I just need more processing time than the average reader, even though I read super fast IDK it's weird just ignore me. Anyway, this book was a little hard for me just because it was so fast, but that's kind of the point of the thriller-type genre so putting my obvious bias aside this book was really good! I was interested in the characters (and confused as heck because I can barely keep one name straight for one person much less like 20), I was super shocked by the ending (like what the heck that is so messed up) and Blue was obviously my favorite character in all of ever in this book. She was like some kick-ass guardian angel/vengeful angel/manipulator person and man I liked her more than I liked the main character!
As someone who is not super into the whole thriller thing because I like sleep and being able to have a brain process without inadvertently missing a million things in a book, this was a pretty good read! Obviously I read it really fast, and every time I had to put it down for the next session I was really sad because I wanted to know what happened! The only major complaint I had besides the whole confusion-factor was kinda the plot twist at the end, I have a hard time believing that [insert character here] was able to manipulate THAT many people in order to cover something like that up and then one day everyone just decides to be like "actually..." because let's be real that's stretching it jussstt a little bit. I did, however, really like the whole identity-shopping thing, not necessarily the act because stalking funeral homes is creepy but just because the process of doing it was so elaborate and so complex that it really made you realize what great lengths Tanya was going to in order to hide. Like that's dedication.
Side/late note: the emails were a pretty cool break from the action although it took me AGES to figure out who Jo was like man I REALLY should have taken notes.
In short: I would definitely recommend this. There's a ton of action, it's interesting, and the plot never stops twisting! The only reason it got 3 stars instead of 4 was just because of how confused I got but let's be honest here I get confused easily. Ask me what day and month it is randomly and unless it's a major holiday or a special day will I have any idea? Nooope.
Read this review on Goodreads.
Author: Lisa Lutz
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: N/A
...My head hurts. There was just so much going on in this book that I'm not even sure where to begin. Not to mention that I did not take notes when reading this about stuff I liked/didn't like (BIG mistake) and so now I'm not even sure what time zone I am in. And this, fellow readers, is why you do not decide to read an entire book between information sessions. Because the brain just cannot handle that type of commitment.
We are introduced to Tanya Dubois at the same time we are introduced to her now-dead husband, Frank. Who she definitely didn't kill, as she repeatedly assures us (I just met you, I don't trust you. We aren't there yet), but she's going to go on the run anyway because she doesn't want the police to look too closely into her background. What follows next is a whirlwind of action complete with murder, sneaking around, breaking-and-entering, and a possible bomb plot (?). Holy crud there was a TON crammed into this little book. I know on Goodreads it says 320 pages but I make the writing super tiny on my phone because my vision is awful anyway why not just ruin it completely, so it was only like 250 for me? And there was a ton going on.
If you've read any of my other reviews you probably know that I tend to like slower, longer books. I just need more processing time than the average reader, even though I read super fast IDK it's weird just ignore me. Anyway, this book was a little hard for me just because it was so fast, but that's kind of the point of the thriller-type genre so putting my obvious bias aside this book was really good! I was interested in the characters (and confused as heck because I can barely keep one name straight for one person much less like 20), I was super shocked by the ending (like what the heck that is so messed up) and Blue was obviously my favorite character in all of ever in this book. She was like some kick-ass guardian angel/vengeful angel/manipulator person and man I liked her more than I liked the main character!
As someone who is not super into the whole thriller thing because I like sleep and being able to have a brain process without inadvertently missing a million things in a book, this was a pretty good read! Obviously I read it really fast, and every time I had to put it down for the next session I was really sad because I wanted to know what happened! The only major complaint I had besides the whole confusion-factor was kinda the plot twist at the end, I have a hard time believing that [insert character here] was able to manipulate THAT many people in order to cover something like that up and then one day everyone just decides to be like "actually..." because let's be real that's stretching it jussstt a little bit. I did, however, really like the whole identity-shopping thing, not necessarily the act because stalking funeral homes is creepy but just because the process of doing it was so elaborate and so complex that it really made you realize what great lengths Tanya was going to in order to hide. Like that's dedication.
Side/late note: the emails were a pretty cool break from the action although it took me AGES to figure out who Jo was like man I REALLY should have taken notes.
In short: I would definitely recommend this. There's a ton of action, it's interesting, and the plot never stops twisting! The only reason it got 3 stars instead of 4 was just because of how confused I got but let's be honest here I get confused easily. Ask me what day and month it is randomly and unless it's a major holiday or a special day will I have any idea? Nooope.
Read this review on Goodreads.
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Book Review: This Savage Song
Title: This Savage Song
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Monsters of Verity (Book 1)
Reread Count: 2
Hehehe I love Victoria Schwab and her books so much I can't even deal right now.
I am a very happy bookworm.
I am going to attempt to make an organized list of All the Reasons Why This Book Is Awesome:
Author: Victoria Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Monsters of Verity (Book 1)
Reread Count: 2
Hehehe I love Victoria Schwab and her books so much I can't even deal right now.
I am a very happy bookworm.
I am going to attempt to make an organized list of All the Reasons Why This Book Is Awesome:
- First off, monsters. Who are not like the boogyman monsters or those monsters that show up in every other YA fantasy novel, and not those awful things in The Twelve that made me scared of the dark for weeks, but almost like (going out on a limb here) physical representations of the monsters present within the human race? The bigger the act of violence, the more you lose (like when you create a Sunai, you give up your soul because the act was that bad). No idea if that is actually what Schwab meant for them to represent but that's what I thought about when I though monsters so... anyway I just really liked the depths of the monsters, and how, excluding the hive-mind Corsai, were super intelligent and knew exactly what they wanted and it was a nice change from the usual brainless and violent monster. Who most of the time happens to have no face do you know how creepy that is?
- I loved the dual storyline/narration. On one hand you have Kate, a human who is determined to make herself a monster so she can please her extremely violent and nasty father. It honestly made me sad to read some of her parts because the lengths that she goes to to try and impress her father are pretty extreme and I think that it's just sad that she has to prove to her father that she's "worthy" instead of being loved for who she is. And then you have August, a monster who desperately wants to be human. And he's trying to escape this stereotype that everyone has and that his nasty brother who I HATE is trying to enforce. Even with the whole "you always want to be what you can't" narrative yet the characters never stop trying...
- Ilsa deserves her own special bullet point. I just loved the air of mystery around her in the beginning and then the explanations that come at the end. She is, hands down, my favorite character, and she doesn't even appear that often. And the cat. The cat is awesome too.
- Plot twists and evil characters GALORE. I obviously knew what was going to happen already because I already read the book but I still loved the twists, most of them aren't predictable (there are one or two that are pretty obvious but idk if it was because I've read too many fantasy books or if its because I've read this book before or if they were just predictable in general but this was minority of the twists).
- The message behind this book. The monsters were only created because of the violent acts of humans, and honestly the humans in this book were also way worse than the monsters to be honest. Also, greed and money was a huge part of this book. Probably my favorite message though was that you can't control the lot you get in life, but you can choose how you react to it. I feel like these all apply to human nature and life/society in general so it was not only an entertaining read but an educational one as well.
Do I still like the Shades of Magic series better? Definitely, I feel like it is much more complex with a bit more development and more surprising plot twists. But hey, an enjoyable read is an enjoyable read!
See this review on Goodreads.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Review: Zeros
Title: Zeros
Author: Chuck Wendig
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: N/A
This was actually a pleasant surprise! After reading Wendig's other series I was kinda hesitant to pick this book up because what if I had to drag myself through it like I did Miriam Black... I'm not sure I would have made it! But this book, even though it was kinda confusing, was actually pretty interesting! I blew through it, I didn't even have that much time to read today but I managed to finish the entire thing!
But first, my favorite quote of the entire book:
"'You want media access?' Hollis says. 'Read a book. Books: the original TV shows.'"
(Yes Hollis, yes. I agree. Yes.)
LIKES:
+ Computers and hacking. I've always had a tiny secret dream of being some super hacker for the government or something (so a good-guy hacker I guess) but I stink at programming for one and also my eyesight is bad enough without staring at computers 24/7. Anyway it was really fun reading about all of the hacking and all of the skills and ooo I was a very happy bookworm. (This explanation makes no sense but I don't care)
+ Mystery and suspense and crazy stuff like that which I normally hate because it's totally predictable half of the time but this was actually awesome and I was surprised and it was cool!
+ I liked how every character had a fully-explained backstory that made it easier to understand why they all acted the way that they did, instead of it just being like they act like that because it's "just who they are" like reasons are wonderful things...
+ The main plot twist was predictable yet so unpredictable... Like I guessed what Typhon was but I also didn't guess how it was. If that makes any sense at all...
DISLIKES:
- Reagan was a really well-written character, but her actions were just despicable, especially at the beginning of the book. I just hated her so much which might have been the point but ugh I wanted to throw the book against a wall while reading some of her parts...
- I'm still confused how we got from the whole end scene (at the end of the book) to the scene at the beginning of the book I feel like I missed some crucial detail and so there was no pretty bow for me at the end just a bunch of loose strings and a confused me
- People don't ever seem to die in this book. Ever.
- The plot seemed to move a little too quickly at parts, which meant that I was left behind. Again.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, I definitely don't regret reading it. As a warning, there are some pretty gory descriptions in this book, a decent amount of vulgar language, and some *stuff* that younger readers shouldn't be exposed to (also a reminder as to why I should actually read the reviews of books I pick up to read because here I am all shocked that this is in there and it's an answered question on Goodreads...) but for appropriate audiences it really is a fast-paced, action-packed read.
Just wish the ending had been a ton clearer...
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Chuck Wendig
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: N/A
This was actually a pleasant surprise! After reading Wendig's other series I was kinda hesitant to pick this book up because what if I had to drag myself through it like I did Miriam Black... I'm not sure I would have made it! But this book, even though it was kinda confusing, was actually pretty interesting! I blew through it, I didn't even have that much time to read today but I managed to finish the entire thing!
But first, my favorite quote of the entire book:
"'You want media access?' Hollis says. 'Read a book. Books: the original TV shows.'"
(Yes Hollis, yes. I agree. Yes.)
LIKES:
+ Computers and hacking. I've always had a tiny secret dream of being some super hacker for the government or something (so a good-guy hacker I guess) but I stink at programming for one and also my eyesight is bad enough without staring at computers 24/7. Anyway it was really fun reading about all of the hacking and all of the skills and ooo I was a very happy bookworm. (This explanation makes no sense but I don't care)
+ Mystery and suspense and crazy stuff like that which I normally hate because it's totally predictable half of the time but this was actually awesome and I was surprised and it was cool!
+ I liked how every character had a fully-explained backstory that made it easier to understand why they all acted the way that they did, instead of it just being like they act like that because it's "just who they are" like reasons are wonderful things...
+ The main plot twist was predictable yet so unpredictable... Like I guessed what Typhon was but I also didn't guess how it was. If that makes any sense at all...
DISLIKES:
- Reagan was a really well-written character, but her actions were just despicable, especially at the beginning of the book. I just hated her so much which might have been the point but ugh I wanted to throw the book against a wall while reading some of her parts...
- I'm still confused how we got from the whole end scene (at the end of the book) to the scene at the beginning of the book I feel like I missed some crucial detail and so there was no pretty bow for me at the end just a bunch of loose strings and a confused me
- People don't ever seem to die in this book. Ever.
- The plot seemed to move a little too quickly at parts, which meant that I was left behind. Again.
I was pleasantly surprised by this book, I definitely don't regret reading it. As a warning, there are some pretty gory descriptions in this book, a decent amount of vulgar language, and some *stuff* that younger readers shouldn't be exposed to (also a reminder as to why I should actually read the reviews of books I pick up to read because here I am all shocked that this is in there and it's an answered question on Goodreads...) but for appropriate audiences it really is a fast-paced, action-packed read.
Just wish the ending had been a ton clearer...
See this review on Goodreads.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
Mini Review: The Kennedy Detail
Title: The Kennedy Detail
Authors: Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin
Rating: 5/5 Stars
So the reason this is a "mini review" is because this blog is mainly focused on YA fantasy/fiction, and this book was more of a "me" read, if that makes any sense whatsoever. So this won't be a long review like it normally would, and I'm just going to do a little blurb with my thoughts on the book and its content.
I really enjoyed reading this book, as much as one can enjoy reading a book about the events leading up to someone's death. To read about it from the perspective of the Secret Service agents who were responsible for protecting him and who obviously were very attached to him was just heartbreaking.
The first part of the book was extremely interesting and informative at least for me, since I've always admired the Secret Service agents. I knew their jobs were hard, but I didn't know that they were this hard. The amount of planning that goes into everything is insane.
The second part of the book, during/after the assassination, was really hard for me to read just because of how much agony everyone was in. Everyone was blaming themselves, people were throwing accusations left and right... It was sad, but I think it truly encompassed how everyone felt after the assassination.
I would definitely recommend reading this, it provides a unique perspective and is an informative and interesting read.
This review is on Goodreads.
Authors: Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin
Rating: 5/5 Stars
So the reason this is a "mini review" is because this blog is mainly focused on YA fantasy/fiction, and this book was more of a "me" read, if that makes any sense whatsoever. So this won't be a long review like it normally would, and I'm just going to do a little blurb with my thoughts on the book and its content.
I really enjoyed reading this book, as much as one can enjoy reading a book about the events leading up to someone's death. To read about it from the perspective of the Secret Service agents who were responsible for protecting him and who obviously were very attached to him was just heartbreaking.
The first part of the book was extremely interesting and informative at least for me, since I've always admired the Secret Service agents. I knew their jobs were hard, but I didn't know that they were this hard. The amount of planning that goes into everything is insane.
The second part of the book, during/after the assassination, was really hard for me to read just because of how much agony everyone was in. Everyone was blaming themselves, people were throwing accusations left and right... It was sad, but I think it truly encompassed how everyone felt after the assassination.
I would definitely recommend reading this, it provides a unique perspective and is an informative and interesting read.
This review is on Goodreads.
Book Review: The Girl of Fire and Thorns
Title: The Girl of Fire and Thorns
Author: Rae Carson
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Fire and Thorns (Book 1)
* Means there is a spoiler at the bottom. Don't want to see the spoiler? Don't scroll to the very bottom.
Color me confused.
This book was 423 pages long. I understood maybe 210 pages? If I was lucky. There just seemed to be so many twists and turns and plot holes and, most of all, just this general sense of meh. It wasn't necessarily a bad book, but there was nothing about it that screamed "good book" either. It was just...okay. Which normally would earn it 3 stars, except for the ending which was, in my opinion, a little ridiculous. Like I read it a couple times and it still seemed kinda weird to me but I was scrolling through other reviews on Goodreads and maybe it's just me because so far I've only found one other person who has mentioned it... I just thought it was really strange and one of those things that people would mention but...
Anyway, Elisa is the bearer of the Godstone, which (little iffy on this because I didn't quite get how this worked but I read this after a run, I was a little tired so could have just been my mush brain) she received when a shaft of sunlight shined on her navel (?) and she is now responsible for a "great act of service" in which she might (and probably will, if past records are any indication) die. But first, she gets married to a king who promptly asks her to pretend that they are... not married? So that he can use it to his political advantage? And then gets kidnapped and that's about where I a) became officially confused and b) lost interest and wandered off to write essays. Me deciding to write essays instead of reading is a bad sign. I hate essays. Because once she gets kidnapped her personality kinda changes and not necessarily in a good way?
I think the hard part for me was that (and other people have mentioned this too) as soon as she started losing weight all of a sudden her Godstone had all these new properties, and she turned into this completely different person, which (I think) sent the opposite message that Carson might have been going for when she introduced Elisa as someone who loved to eat and was overweight. The message that seemed to come across was if you lose weight all of your problems would be magically solved, and I think it should have been more along the lines of acceptance and empowerment and stuff like that.*
LIKES:
+ I didn't necessarily have to drag myself through this book, I just didn't necessarily like it.
+ Elisa was actually a pretty strong character. There were some moments that seemed out-of-character for her where she seemed to complain more but other than that...
+ My favorite character was the prince, who showed up for like .5 seconds. I wish he had been in there more.
DISLIKES:
- The ending.**
- The message it sent about weight and losing weight.
- The title takes a second to figure out. Like it doesn't make any sense until you think about the whole thorn ritual that she goes through and then it kinda makes sense.
- There was way less magic than I thought. Like way less (as in almost none).
I'm not finishing the series... I just don't like it enough to make the time worth it.
See this review on Goodreads.
SPOILER SECTION:
* Also, the fact that her own husband all of a sudden didn't recognize her when she weighed less and acted more attracted to her really bothered me. His son recognized her right away, but he treated her like he'd never met her.
** I'm imagining this as like a pinwheel/fidgit-spinner thing on her bellybutton. She saved the day with a pinwheel on her bellybutton?! I'm... not convinced.
Author: Rae Carson
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Fire and Thorns (Book 1)
* Means there is a spoiler at the bottom. Don't want to see the spoiler? Don't scroll to the very bottom.
Color me confused.
This book was 423 pages long. I understood maybe 210 pages? If I was lucky. There just seemed to be so many twists and turns and plot holes and, most of all, just this general sense of meh. It wasn't necessarily a bad book, but there was nothing about it that screamed "good book" either. It was just...okay. Which normally would earn it 3 stars, except for the ending which was, in my opinion, a little ridiculous. Like I read it a couple times and it still seemed kinda weird to me but I was scrolling through other reviews on Goodreads and maybe it's just me because so far I've only found one other person who has mentioned it... I just thought it was really strange and one of those things that people would mention but...
Anyway, Elisa is the bearer of the Godstone, which (little iffy on this because I didn't quite get how this worked but I read this after a run, I was a little tired so could have just been my mush brain) she received when a shaft of sunlight shined on her navel (?) and she is now responsible for a "great act of service" in which she might (and probably will, if past records are any indication) die. But first, she gets married to a king who promptly asks her to pretend that they are... not married? So that he can use it to his political advantage? And then gets kidnapped and that's about where I a) became officially confused and b) lost interest and wandered off to write essays. Me deciding to write essays instead of reading is a bad sign. I hate essays. Because once she gets kidnapped her personality kinda changes and not necessarily in a good way?
I think the hard part for me was that (and other people have mentioned this too) as soon as she started losing weight all of a sudden her Godstone had all these new properties, and she turned into this completely different person, which (I think) sent the opposite message that Carson might have been going for when she introduced Elisa as someone who loved to eat and was overweight. The message that seemed to come across was if you lose weight all of your problems would be magically solved, and I think it should have been more along the lines of acceptance and empowerment and stuff like that.*
LIKES:
+ I didn't necessarily have to drag myself through this book, I just didn't necessarily like it.
+ Elisa was actually a pretty strong character. There were some moments that seemed out-of-character for her where she seemed to complain more but other than that...
+ My favorite character was the prince, who showed up for like .5 seconds. I wish he had been in there more.
DISLIKES:
- The ending.**
- The message it sent about weight and losing weight.
- The title takes a second to figure out. Like it doesn't make any sense until you think about the whole thorn ritual that she goes through and then it kinda makes sense.
- There was way less magic than I thought. Like way less (as in almost none).
I'm not finishing the series... I just don't like it enough to make the time worth it.
See this review on Goodreads.
SPOILER SECTION:
* Also, the fact that her own husband all of a sudden didn't recognize her when she weighed less and acted more attracted to her really bothered me. His son recognized her right away, but he treated her like he'd never met her.
** I'm imagining this as like a pinwheel/fidgit-spinner thing on her bellybutton. She saved the day with a pinwheel on her bellybutton?! I'm... not convinced.
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Book Review: Here Lies Daniel Tate
Title: Here Lies Daniel Tate
Author: Cristin Terrill
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: N/A
Wow. My brain needs a couple seconds to catch up... it's already been like a half hour so maybe I need more than just a couple seconds. Maybe like a couple million seconds. *deep breath*
Here we go.
This book had so many twists and turns and surprises and man did I feel left behind. I feel like it would have been like riding a rollercoaster except I've never been on one because I am super afraid of heights and sharp drops and falling and yeah tangent whoops. Back on track. (Get it, rollercoaster? Track? Never mind.)
So we basically start off following this boy who is NOT Daniel Tate. And then IS Daniel Tate (for like 20 pages). And then he is NOT Daniel Tate again. And I WAS confused. But no honestly this was so confusing. I didn't figure out what was going on until like 100 pages into the book and that's 25% OF THE BOOK! But once I kinda-sorta figured out what was going on it was actually really good!
So "Daniel" basically gets wrapped up into this super big con where he winds up pretending to be "Daniel Tate," who mysteriously disappeared six years ago. At first he figures he will just use it as a helpful delay so that he can slip away, but everything moves much faster than he thought and he winds up being brought "home" to California.
Enter one of the most twisted, confusing, and secretive literary families that I have ever met. The Tate are just... wow. The only one I liked was Mia because she was the only one that made any sense. But basically everyone in this family has a secret to hide, and wow is it hard to figure everything out.
There were a ton of plot twists, some that were really predictable and some that blew my mind. But the ending? That was like an entirely different level.
LIKES:
+ The title (Here Lies Daniel Tate) can be connected in so many different ways throughout the book. Because "lies" can have so many different meanings, and I felt almost like it was a treasure hunt or whatever to connect "lies" to what was going on in the book and I felt so smart when I figured it out 😂
+ The ending was so unexpected yet I feel like it fit perfectly with the book. I almost feel like if it had ended any other way that it would have seemed "wrong" and would have been disappointing but for once I loved the ending! (I normally hate the endings of books but this was awesome)
+ All of the twists and turns were so confusing yet it kept me on the edge of my seat. (Although I will have to admit that this book was really not good for my health because I am a very anxious/stressed out person normally and this book just made it worse) I was constantly freaking out that "Daniel" would get discovered and trying to figure out how he would keep up this con and how the book would end...
+The story just really captured my attention, and once I started I couldn't stop because...
DISLIKES:
- THERE ARE NO CHAPTERS! Just little section break things so if you are like me and you need to stop at a chapter that is a multiple of either 5 or 10 (preferably 10) this book just wreaks havoc on your brain, which can't figure out where to stop and then you wind up forgetting to have dinner (true story) because how do you just stop in the middle of a random page?!
- There was one plot twist that was SUPER predictable, and it was supposed to be like the main plot twist but I called it on like page 50 or something so it wasn't a surprise. At all.
- The first 100 pages or so were really confusing it took a while for my brain to catch up.
This book was really good. The only reason that I'm not giving it 5 stars is because of the fact that it took me so long to figure out what was going on, and for the super predictable plot twist. But I would seriously recommend reading this book, it was awesome!
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Cristin Terrill
Rating: 4/5 Stars
Series: N/A
Wow. My brain needs a couple seconds to catch up... it's already been like a half hour so maybe I need more than just a couple seconds. Maybe like a couple million seconds. *deep breath*
Here we go.
This book had so many twists and turns and surprises and man did I feel left behind. I feel like it would have been like riding a rollercoaster except I've never been on one because I am super afraid of heights and sharp drops and falling and yeah tangent whoops. Back on track. (Get it, rollercoaster? Track? Never mind.)
So we basically start off following this boy who is NOT Daniel Tate. And then IS Daniel Tate (for like 20 pages). And then he is NOT Daniel Tate again. And I WAS confused. But no honestly this was so confusing. I didn't figure out what was going on until like 100 pages into the book and that's 25% OF THE BOOK! But once I kinda-sorta figured out what was going on it was actually really good!
So "Daniel" basically gets wrapped up into this super big con where he winds up pretending to be "Daniel Tate," who mysteriously disappeared six years ago. At first he figures he will just use it as a helpful delay so that he can slip away, but everything moves much faster than he thought and he winds up being brought "home" to California.
Enter one of the most twisted, confusing, and secretive literary families that I have ever met. The Tate are just... wow. The only one I liked was Mia because she was the only one that made any sense. But basically everyone in this family has a secret to hide, and wow is it hard to figure everything out.
There were a ton of plot twists, some that were really predictable and some that blew my mind. But the ending? That was like an entirely different level.
LIKES:
+ The title (Here Lies Daniel Tate) can be connected in so many different ways throughout the book. Because "lies" can have so many different meanings, and I felt almost like it was a treasure hunt or whatever to connect "lies" to what was going on in the book and I felt so smart when I figured it out 😂
+ The ending was so unexpected yet I feel like it fit perfectly with the book. I almost feel like if it had ended any other way that it would have seemed "wrong" and would have been disappointing but for once I loved the ending! (I normally hate the endings of books but this was awesome)
+ All of the twists and turns were so confusing yet it kept me on the edge of my seat. (Although I will have to admit that this book was really not good for my health because I am a very anxious/stressed out person normally and this book just made it worse) I was constantly freaking out that "Daniel" would get discovered and trying to figure out how he would keep up this con and how the book would end...
+The story just really captured my attention, and once I started I couldn't stop because...
DISLIKES:
- THERE ARE NO CHAPTERS! Just little section break things so if you are like me and you need to stop at a chapter that is a multiple of either 5 or 10 (preferably 10) this book just wreaks havoc on your brain, which can't figure out where to stop and then you wind up forgetting to have dinner (true story) because how do you just stop in the middle of a random page?!
- There was one plot twist that was SUPER predictable, and it was supposed to be like the main plot twist but I called it on like page 50 or something so it wasn't a surprise. At all.
- The first 100 pages or so were really confusing it took a while for my brain to catch up.
This book was really good. The only reason that I'm not giving it 5 stars is because of the fact that it took me so long to figure out what was going on, and for the super predictable plot twist. But I would seriously recommend reading this book, it was awesome!
See this review on Goodreads.
Saturday, September 2, 2017
Book Review: A Conjuring of Light
Title: A Conjuring of Light
Author: V. E. Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Shades of Magic (Book 3)
Reread Count: 2
So why did I still cry? (I actually did cry. Granted, it was the tearless, sob/heave kind because there were people near me and I didn't want to have the whole conversation like yes, I cry when I read books,yes I do it all the time no, it doesn't happen that often, etc. But I was this close to bawling and I didn't so now I am proud.)
Anyway.
I'm just not sure how much I can say about this book that I haven't already said about the other two books! I can only find one thing that I don't like about this series, and it's that it ended! I want to know what happens! And it's going to be YEARS before we get any answers in the form of the Threads of Power series... Why...😭😭
I just... I love this book. There's so much action, so much other stuff that I can't talk about here because I can't figure out how to do spoilers on this website...
So I'm just going to link you to Goodreads here for the spoiler review, and if you want a spoiler-free review/list/random thing (for this book, I mean there are spoilers for the previous books but...) that will be down there ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
So yeah that was my pathetic blob of feelings that did not turn out to be a review at all. I'm sorry but at the same time I'm too busy being a blubbering mess that I just can't function...
Author: V. E. Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Shades of Magic (Book 3)
Reread Count: 2
(Look it's a picture! Go me.)
This was the second time I've read this book, which means I know every plot twist, every character action and reveal, everything.So why did I still cry? (I actually did cry. Granted, it was the tearless, sob/heave kind because there were people near me and I didn't want to have the whole conversation like yes, I cry when I read books,
Anyway.
I'm just not sure how much I can say about this book that I haven't already said about the other two books! I can only find one thing that I don't like about this series, and it's that it ended! I want to know what happens! And it's going to be YEARS before we get any answers in the form of the Threads of Power series... Why...😭😭
I just... I love this book. There's so much action, so much other stuff that I can't talk about here because I can't figure out how to do spoilers on this website...
So I'm just going to link you to Goodreads here for the spoiler review, and if you want a spoiler-free review/list/random thing (for this book, I mean there are spoilers for the previous books but...) that will be down there ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
- All of the characters just got like 10000x better. Like take Lila's best quality and Kell's best quality and Rhy's best quality and multiply them by 10000 and that's how awesome it was
- It made me cry, and not because I was bored to tears but because I get to emotionally attached to characters and when they hurt, I hurt...
- Kell & Alucard because Alucard is (still) one of my favorite characters but his relationship with Kell was just perfection and it made me laugh
- The whole parent issues thing
- I still like Holland. I will probably never stop liking Holland I get that he's supposed to be evil and all that but all he wanted was his world to be all pretty again 🌅 can you really blame him for that?
- The ending killed me. I want mooooorrrreeeeee.
So yeah that was my pathetic blob of feelings that did not turn out to be a review at all. I'm sorry but at the same time I'm too busy being a blubbering mess that I just can't function...
Friday, September 1, 2017
August Book Roundup
It is officially September.
And I read less than half of the books on my August TBR.
I'm never going to finish.
My August TBR was about 30 books long, which would have been fine except I didn't take one major factor into account... mainly the fact that summer was ending and my free time along with it...
So, I thought I would do a little roundup of all the books I read in August
2 Stars:
1 Star:
And I read less than half of the books on my August TBR.
I'm never going to finish.
My August TBR was about 30 books long, which would have been fine except I didn't take one major factor into account... mainly the fact that summer was ending and my free time along with it...
So, I thought I would do a little roundup of all the books I read in August
~My August Books~
Total: 15 books New: 12 Rereads: 3
5 Stars:
- A Gathering of Shadows
- A Darker Shade of Magic
- The End of the Day
- This Monstrous Thing
- The Crimson Crown
- None
- None (thank goodness)
Biggest Surprise: The End of the Day. I never thought I would love it as much as I did, it's now one of my new favorite books.
Favorite New Series: The Seven Realms series. I randomly downloaded the eBook thinking it would be a decent way to pass the time and wound up loving it. Now I have 7+ more books to read by the same author.
Favorite Reread: Shades of Magic series, because they are some of the best books ever. I'm still rereading the third one but I'm counting it in this anyway.
Best Book News: 3 new books in the same world as the Shades of Magic series. And then a fourth, new book. What's not to like?
Now time to write out a September TBR that I will promptly ignore because new books are just too tempting.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Book Review: Captive Rebel
Title: Captive Rebel
Author: Erin McDermott
Rating: 3/5
Series: The Allegiance (Book 1)
Captive Rebel is a mix between dystopian and action with some romance sprinkled in, and it was pretty good! The main character, Marylyn O'Conner, starts of with this this go-with-the-flow personality that gets her into a few spots of trouble, but turns into this tough, strong character after she is captured. I love protagonists with spines (it's a pet peeve of mine when they don't), and every time she reminded her captors that she had a name I did an internal backflip. I also loved the fact that she was honest and didn't let people try and sugar-coat the situation, since it made me like her a lot more.
Honestly, my biggest complaint is that I wanted more. I would have loved to hear the backstory behind the division between the rebels and the Allegiant, what the wars were, and where the United States went. What was Ian's deal, how did they pick Charles, Ian, and Marylyn for the mission, I just have questions. One of the things that I look for in a book is for it to make me want more answers, to know more, and Captive Rebel definitely achieved that.
LIKES:
+ Marylyn's transformation, because she went from "whatever you say" to "I'll do it myself." I really liked how she figured out that some things she just had to take into her own hands, and I definitely liked captured Marylyn better than pre-capture Marylyn.
+ Marylyn's spine, as explained above
+ The Greek mythology ties, because I was interested enough that I had to go Google some stuff, and that means I have to find some books on Greek mythology and start reading
+ Marylyn's constant worrying actually made it easier to relate to her, because she was worrying about everything and I was worrying about everything, and we were able to worry together!
+ The character of Fanny was really well written. 3 words into her dialogue and I already hated her, which I'm pretty sure was the intent. Charles was really well written as well, I felt like his actions and the writing really fit with his character.
DISLIKES:
- I really would have liked to see more backstory, and some explanations regarding the wars, temples, Ian, the mission, etc. That was my main complaint, I just felt like I needed more of the story.
- There were a couple grammatical errors (I say this as my computer spell-checks grammatical for me because I can't spell, nor can I use commas) that didn't necessarily detract from the story but interrupted my flow a little. Also, as a fan of longer (and, as others describe them, flowery) sentences, I would have liked to see more of those.
- I felt like the pacing was a little too fast, but I think this relates back to the wanting-more-backstory thing. That would help slow the pacing, draw the story out, and make it not feel as rushed.
- Overprotective Ariston because I have issues with overprotective romance but that's probably just me.
I can honestly say that this was one of the few romance-type novels that I actually approved of the amount of romance included. Normally the romance overpowers the rest of the book, but this was actually more action and then a few romance scenes sprinkled in, but nothing that made me want to skip 5 pages ahead like I've had to do in some books. I liked this book, but I feel like I could have liked it more had it been more fleshed out.
Disclaimer: I was contacted by the author and asked to read and review this book. This has in no way impacted or altered my review, which is solely based on my feelings toward this book and its content. I did not receive any compensation (monetary or material) for this review and procured a copy of the book on my own.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Erin McDermott
Rating: 3/5
Series: The Allegiance (Book 1)
Captive Rebel is a mix between dystopian and action with some romance sprinkled in, and it was pretty good! The main character, Marylyn O'Conner, starts of with this this go-with-the-flow personality that gets her into a few spots of trouble, but turns into this tough, strong character after she is captured. I love protagonists with spines (it's a pet peeve of mine when they don't), and every time she reminded her captors that she had a name I did an internal backflip. I also loved the fact that she was honest and didn't let people try and sugar-coat the situation, since it made me like her a lot more.
Honestly, my biggest complaint is that I wanted more. I would have loved to hear the backstory behind the division between the rebels and the Allegiant, what the wars were, and where the United States went. What was Ian's deal, how did they pick Charles, Ian, and Marylyn for the mission, I just have questions. One of the things that I look for in a book is for it to make me want more answers, to know more, and Captive Rebel definitely achieved that.
LIKES:
+ Marylyn's transformation, because she went from "whatever you say" to "I'll do it myself." I really liked how she figured out that some things she just had to take into her own hands, and I definitely liked captured Marylyn better than pre-capture Marylyn.
+ Marylyn's spine, as explained above
+ The Greek mythology ties, because I was interested enough that I had to go Google some stuff, and that means I have to find some books on Greek mythology and start reading
+ Marylyn's constant worrying actually made it easier to relate to her, because she was worrying about everything and I was worrying about everything, and we were able to worry together!
+ The character of Fanny was really well written. 3 words into her dialogue and I already hated her, which I'm pretty sure was the intent. Charles was really well written as well, I felt like his actions and the writing really fit with his character.
DISLIKES:
- I really would have liked to see more backstory, and some explanations regarding the wars, temples, Ian, the mission, etc. That was my main complaint, I just felt like I needed more of the story.
- There were a couple grammatical errors (I say this as my computer spell-checks grammatical for me because I can't spell, nor can I use commas) that didn't necessarily detract from the story but interrupted my flow a little. Also, as a fan of longer (and, as others describe them, flowery) sentences, I would have liked to see more of those.
- I felt like the pacing was a little too fast, but I think this relates back to the wanting-more-backstory thing. That would help slow the pacing, draw the story out, and make it not feel as rushed.
- Overprotective Ariston because I have issues with overprotective romance but that's probably just me.
I can honestly say that this was one of the few romance-type novels that I actually approved of the amount of romance included. Normally the romance overpowers the rest of the book, but this was actually more action and then a few romance scenes sprinkled in, but nothing that made me want to skip 5 pages ahead like I've had to do in some books. I liked this book, but I feel like I could have liked it more had it been more fleshed out.
Disclaimer: I was contacted by the author and asked to read and review this book. This has in no way impacted or altered my review, which is solely based on my feelings toward this book and its content. I did not receive any compensation (monetary or material) for this review and procured a copy of the book on my own.
See this review on Goodreads.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Book Review: A Gathering of Shadows
Title: A Gathering of Shadows
Author: V. E. Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Shades of Magic (Book 2)
Reread Count: 3
This is, once again, one of the most perfect piles of magic and pirates and thieves and MAGIC that I have ever read. It's like Schwab took the best of the best and squished them together and called it the Shades of Magic series because I'm in LOVE. I didn't think it was possible to love a book this much on your third reread but I was wrooonnggg. And it's the second book of a series which is normally my least favorite but not this one because my heart.
Lilia has gotten more kick-ass, Rhy has gotten more wild, Kill has gotten more overprotective, and Alucard is like the best captain/boss/privateer (not pirate, mind you, privateer) ever because he's so sneaky and sly and just *insert flailing motions here*. Words cannot describe him. He's probably one of my favorite characters in this series, if not my favorite. And 10/10 would have picked the Night Spire too because those sails... ugh <3.
Probably one of my favorite things is that the Essen Tasch is like the Hunger Games but on steroids, with magic, and like a gazillion times better because magic. I also really liked the symbolism behind it, like on one hand it's this excuse to party (not that I'd party because... parties) and have a good time watching people whack each other with colored air and water and fire and jazz but on the other it's soooooo much a political power play/display thingamabob that it's just *boom* mind blown.
On an unrelated note, I've decided that the king and queen are inconsiderate little balls of [insert something you dislike here, I'm gonna go with broccoli because I hate broccoli] broccoli because if there is one lesson I've learned from books it's the harder you hold on to somebody the less likely it is that they will stay because boom deep life lessons from books but seriously you put all these rules into effect and are all icy and stuff and then you're like "why is he unhappy?" like there's a mirror go look in it. Seriously.
If you haven't read this book or this series or whatever just do it it's so totally worth it and it's just... *happy sigh*
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: V. E. Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Shades of Magic (Book 2)
Reread Count: 3
This is, once again, one of the most perfect piles of magic and pirates and thieves and MAGIC that I have ever read. It's like Schwab took the best of the best and squished them together and called it the Shades of Magic series because I'm in LOVE. I didn't think it was possible to love a book this much on your third reread but I was wrooonnggg. And it's the second book of a series which is normally my least favorite but not this one because my heart.
Lilia has gotten more kick-ass, Rhy has gotten more wild, Kill has gotten more overprotective, and Alucard is like the best captain/boss/privateer (not pirate, mind you, privateer) ever because he's so sneaky and sly and just *insert flailing motions here*. Words cannot describe him. He's probably one of my favorite characters in this series, if not my favorite. And 10/10 would have picked the Night Spire too because those sails... ugh <3.
Probably one of my favorite things is that the Essen Tasch is like the Hunger Games but on steroids, with magic, and like a gazillion times better because magic. I also really liked the symbolism behind it, like on one hand it's this excuse to party (not that I'd party because... parties) and have a good time watching people whack each other with colored air and water and fire and jazz but on the other it's soooooo much a political power play/display thingamabob that it's just *boom* mind blown.
On an unrelated note, I've decided that the king and queen are inconsiderate little balls of [insert something you dislike here, I'm gonna go with broccoli because I hate broccoli] broccoli because if there is one lesson I've learned from books it's the harder you hold on to somebody the less likely it is that they will stay because boom deep life lessons from books but seriously you put all these rules into effect and are all icy and stuff and then you're like "why is he unhappy?" like there's a mirror go look in it. Seriously.
If you haven't read this book or this series or whatever just do it it's so totally worth it and it's just... *happy sigh*
See this review on Goodreads.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Book Review: A Darker Shade of Magic
Title: A Darker Shade of Magic
Author: V. E. Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Shades of Magic (Book 1)
Reread Count: 4
So, as you can tell by the fact that I have read this book four times and have given it 5 stars each time even though I normally lower the ratings of books that I reread, I LOVE this series. And this book. But especially this book. My cousin, who introduced me to the Red Queen series and the Lunar Chronicles, is actually the one who got me into this series as well. Basically, she is the reason why I have no money any more (jk but seriously books are expensive). But this book is just perfection in 400 pages. It makes my heart happy 💙
This is basically kingdoms mixed with magic mixed with beached pirates mixed with thieves and it is WONDERFUL. Rhy and Kell together just have this awesome brother relationship that I wished I had with my sibling who I am currently trying to butter up because he who holds the Tolkien books must be convinced to let me borrow them. Or I can just casually sneak in and take them I'm sure he won't notice. Anyway, I just loved their banter and the fact that they know (almost) everything about each other and can tell all their moods and complement each other and I just love reading about their interactions...
And Lilia. This cut-throat thief who is actually really sensitive but tries to hide it with all her spikes she's like a pineapple... She's also so impossibly stubborn which speaks to me because when everyone tells you to go right you go left, obviously. Also, she has single-handedly validated my theory that large books can be used as weapons which is good because if someone breaks into my house all I have are large hardcovers to defend myself with... I mean I have a puppy but he will just lick the intruder to death so now I just have to decide if Harry Potter or Lady Midnight would be the best weapon...
I know Holland is supposed to be this evil dude that you are meant to hate and I did hate him the first two times I read this book but honestly I'm starting to like him more because if you think about it the poor guy is forced to serve these creepy evil twins and cut himself so they can drink his blood and who can blame him for being all angry and frustrated and all that jazz. I certainly would be if some pysco siblings bound me to them for all of eternity to serve as their evil minion.
I'm not going to make a likes/dislikes chart for this book because it is just so awesome and I can't handle it. Plus there isn't anything for me to hate. I mean I'm sure I could think of something if I focused hard enough because I'm a grumpy, crabby individual but I don't want to because I'm going to hold on to that happiness.
Read this. Just do yourself a favor and read it.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: V. E. Schwab
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: Shades of Magic (Book 1)
Reread Count: 4
So, as you can tell by the fact that I have read this book four times and have given it 5 stars each time even though I normally lower the ratings of books that I reread, I LOVE this series. And this book. But especially this book. My cousin, who introduced me to the Red Queen series and the Lunar Chronicles, is actually the one who got me into this series as well. Basically, she is the reason why I have no money any more (jk but seriously books are expensive). But this book is just perfection in 400 pages. It makes my heart happy 💙
This is basically kingdoms mixed with magic mixed with beached pirates mixed with thieves and it is WONDERFUL. Rhy and Kell together just have this awesome brother relationship that I wished I had with my sibling who I am currently trying to butter up because he who holds the Tolkien books must be convinced to let me borrow them. Or I can just casually sneak in and take them I'm sure he won't notice. Anyway, I just loved their banter and the fact that they know (almost) everything about each other and can tell all their moods and complement each other and I just love reading about their interactions...
And Lilia. This cut-throat thief who is actually really sensitive but tries to hide it with all her spikes she's like a pineapple... She's also so impossibly stubborn which speaks to me because when everyone tells you to go right you go left, obviously. Also, she has single-handedly validated my theory that large books can be used as weapons which is good because if someone breaks into my house all I have are large hardcovers to defend myself with... I mean I have a puppy but he will just lick the intruder to death so now I just have to decide if Harry Potter or Lady Midnight would be the best weapon...
I know Holland is supposed to be this evil dude that you are meant to hate and I did hate him the first two times I read this book but honestly I'm starting to like him more because if you think about it the poor guy is forced to serve these creepy evil twins and cut himself so they can drink his blood and who can blame him for being all angry and frustrated and all that jazz. I certainly would be if some pysco siblings bound me to them for all of eternity to serve as their evil minion.
I'm not going to make a likes/dislikes chart for this book because it is just so awesome and I can't handle it. Plus there isn't anything for me to hate. I mean I'm sure I could think of something if I focused hard enough because I'm a grumpy, crabby individual but I don't want to because I'm going to hold on to that happiness.
Read this. Just do yourself a favor and read it.
See this review on Goodreads.
Monday, August 28, 2017
Book Review: Blackbirds
Title: Blackbirds
Author: Chuck Wendig
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Miriam Black (Book 1)
I think I'm just on a disappointing-book reading spree right now. I saw this book on the "new arrivals" shelf that I have begun stalking at my library, and I thought that it looked like an awesome series. Protagonist with the ability to tell when people are going to die? It sounded like a nice action/thriller, and then I read it and it... wasn't.
First things first, Miriam was one of the most irritating protagonists that I have read in a long time. I understand the angle that Wendig was going for, but it just seemed extremely overdone, like he was intentionally trying to make her the most irritating, irrational, annoying character that he possibly could. And I'm not sure that he meant her character to be like that. Also, her entire character can be summed up in like 5 words, which is really frustrating. When I talk about a character I want to be able to go into an in-depth analysis of their personality and not just be like "yeah she smokes and cusses and..." because I've just summarized 40% of her personality.
Also this book is just really gross. Like really gross. I don't normally have a problem with descriptions that other people cannot handle but this was way over the top. Just reading it made me feel ill. There were brains getting blown everywhere, people getting shoved down garbage disposals, knives going through eyes, it was just disgusting. And there were other details about more... romantic... things that were just yuck as well. Seriously, I don't want to read about that.
And linear plot that makes sense? Nonexistent. It was like jumping around on a trampoline half the time, I couldn't tell what the heck was going on. One second we are in X location, the next we are some random place that I don't know. And names. I am so bad with names but Wendig kept throwing names out there that I was supposed to know but didn't.
LIKES:
+ The snippets where we get to find out how people will die were actually pretty interesting and, in my opinion, some of the better-written parts of the book. They were still pretty gruesome and over-the-top, but at least they weren't pogo-sticking all over the place.
+ There were certainly plenty of plot twists, and I was surprised by a ton of the twists and turns. In this way, the confusing plot actually helped with the suspense because I was so lost that I couldn't predict anything.
DISLIKES:
- Miriam, because of all the reasons listed above
- Confusing plot that made no sense at all
- Miriam's relationships with other people, because she seemed to gravitate towards the people who would treat her horribly. And then when there was someone who would actually treat her in a decent manner she realized what a bad influence she would be, ran away, and changed nothing about her life.
- Gross details. Over-the-top gross details.
- Ending that made zero sense considering all the stuff that Miriam spews during the book about fate.
I just can't finish this series. I mean I could, but I would just be dragging myself through 3 more books of yuck, and I've decided by TBR is too big for that. I will, however, be trying Wendig's other book Zer0s, because maybe it's better?
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Chuck Wendig
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Miriam Black (Book 1)
I think I'm just on a disappointing-book reading spree right now. I saw this book on the "new arrivals" shelf that I have begun stalking at my library, and I thought that it looked like an awesome series. Protagonist with the ability to tell when people are going to die? It sounded like a nice action/thriller, and then I read it and it... wasn't.
First things first, Miriam was one of the most irritating protagonists that I have read in a long time. I understand the angle that Wendig was going for, but it just seemed extremely overdone, like he was intentionally trying to make her the most irritating, irrational, annoying character that he possibly could. And I'm not sure that he meant her character to be like that. Also, her entire character can be summed up in like 5 words, which is really frustrating. When I talk about a character I want to be able to go into an in-depth analysis of their personality and not just be like "yeah she smokes and cusses and..." because I've just summarized 40% of her personality.
Also this book is just really gross. Like really gross. I don't normally have a problem with descriptions that other people cannot handle but this was way over the top. Just reading it made me feel ill. There were brains getting blown everywhere, people getting shoved down garbage disposals, knives going through eyes, it was just disgusting. And there were other details about more... romantic... things that were just yuck as well. Seriously, I don't want to read about that.
And linear plot that makes sense? Nonexistent. It was like jumping around on a trampoline half the time, I couldn't tell what the heck was going on. One second we are in X location, the next we are some random place that I don't know. And names. I am so bad with names but Wendig kept throwing names out there that I was supposed to know but didn't.
LIKES:
+ The snippets where we get to find out how people will die were actually pretty interesting and, in my opinion, some of the better-written parts of the book. They were still pretty gruesome and over-the-top, but at least they weren't pogo-sticking all over the place.
+ There were certainly plenty of plot twists, and I was surprised by a ton of the twists and turns. In this way, the confusing plot actually helped with the suspense because I was so lost that I couldn't predict anything.
DISLIKES:
- Miriam, because of all the reasons listed above
- Confusing plot that made no sense at all
- Miriam's relationships with other people, because she seemed to gravitate towards the people who would treat her horribly. And then when there was someone who would actually treat her in a decent manner she realized what a bad influence she would be, ran away, and changed nothing about her life.
- Gross details. Over-the-top gross details.
- Ending that made zero sense considering all the stuff that Miriam spews during the book about fate.
I just can't finish this series. I mean I could, but I would just be dragging myself through 3 more books of yuck, and I've decided by TBR is too big for that. I will, however, be trying Wendig's other book Zer0s, because maybe it's better?
See this review on Goodreads.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Book Review: Flame in the Mist
Title: Flame in the Mist
Author: Renée Ahdieh
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Flame in the Mist (Book 1)
Well that was disappointing. I honestly should have given up after the first 20 pages but I had been waiting so long to read this book that I figured I would give it another shot... and another one... until I finished the book and just felt let down.
This was probably one of the most boring books that I've read in a while, and a lot of other people really liked it so I'm not sure what went wrong with me when I was reading it... I just couldn't make myself be interested in Mariko's story at all. I felt like I was dragging myself through the book, I wasn't excited to read it at all, and actually decided to edit my essays instead of reading (which I guess I needed to do since I had put them off while reading The End of the Day but still). I also spent way more time on my phone than I normally do, just to avoid picking the book up.
It basically follows Mariko, the future bride of the son of the emperor, as she gets attacked, joins a group of bandits called the Black Clan, and realizes that her life has been wonderful at the expense of others. She also learns how to fend for herself, and just how sheltered she has been. We also get some glimpses into the lives of her brother and the emperor/his wife/his consort, but those were really rare. My issue isn't necessarily with the plot, but just the execution. It seemed to drag on and on and I just lost interest 20 pages in.
Besides the whole instalove thing and slow plot there wasn't really anything I could put my finger on and go "this is why I didn't like the book," I just can't find a reason to like it, if that makes sense.
LIKES:
+ The premise of the book was quite interesting, and with the blurb I really wanted to read it. I almost felt like the blurb was more exciting than the actual book though...
+ When Mariko wasn't complaining she could actually be kinda tough. And she was super inventive, which was nice!
+ Semi-suprising plot twist at the end
DISLIKES:
- Mariko complained A LOT. About everything.
- Instalove
- Really slow plot, and Mariko was really hard to connect to/care about
- It was impossible (for me) to keep track of the characters. I didn't know who was who half of the time.
Now I just have to decide if I am reading Ahdieh's other series... It is supposed to be good, but then again so was this book.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Renée Ahdieh
Rating: 2/5 Stars
Series: Flame in the Mist (Book 1)
Well that was disappointing. I honestly should have given up after the first 20 pages but I had been waiting so long to read this book that I figured I would give it another shot... and another one... until I finished the book and just felt let down.
This was probably one of the most boring books that I've read in a while, and a lot of other people really liked it so I'm not sure what went wrong with me when I was reading it... I just couldn't make myself be interested in Mariko's story at all. I felt like I was dragging myself through the book, I wasn't excited to read it at all, and actually decided to edit my essays instead of reading (which I guess I needed to do since I had put them off while reading The End of the Day but still). I also spent way more time on my phone than I normally do, just to avoid picking the book up.
It basically follows Mariko, the future bride of the son of the emperor, as she gets attacked, joins a group of bandits called the Black Clan, and realizes that her life has been wonderful at the expense of others. She also learns how to fend for herself, and just how sheltered she has been. We also get some glimpses into the lives of her brother and the emperor/his wife/his consort, but those were really rare. My issue isn't necessarily with the plot, but just the execution. It seemed to drag on and on and I just lost interest 20 pages in.
Besides the whole instalove thing and slow plot there wasn't really anything I could put my finger on and go "this is why I didn't like the book," I just can't find a reason to like it, if that makes sense.
LIKES:
+ The premise of the book was quite interesting, and with the blurb I really wanted to read it. I almost felt like the blurb was more exciting than the actual book though...
+ When Mariko wasn't complaining she could actually be kinda tough. And she was super inventive, which was nice!
+ Semi-suprising plot twist at the end
DISLIKES:
- Mariko complained A LOT. About everything.
- Instalove
- Really slow plot, and Mariko was really hard to connect to/care about
- It was impossible (for me) to keep track of the characters. I didn't know who was who half of the time.
Now I just have to decide if I am reading Ahdieh's other series... It is supposed to be good, but then again so was this book.
See this review on Goodreads.
Saturday, August 26, 2017
Book Review: The End of the Day
Title: The End of the Day
Author: Claire North
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: N/A
All I can say about this book is...wow. I will admit that I didn't have super high expectations for this book. I had read about the whole lack-of-linear-plot and the fragmented-ish style of writing which is normally a huge warning sign for me because if there's one thing I need in my life it's structure (I don't do well with spontaneous. I hate spontaneous. And change.). So I picked up this book with the expectations that I a) would probably not like it and b) would probably not retain any of the story because for these past two days I haven't even been able to tell you what time it is or what day of the week it is but this book blew my metaphorical socks off! I loved the plot (or lack there of), Charlie was amazing, and I do love myself an apocalypse story. Hence why I liked X-MEN: Apocalypse so much.
There really is no organized plot. It kinda follows a linear progression, but there are also some random loops that you aren't exactly sure when it happened. However, you can generally tell when these are coming because either a) considerate Charlie gives you a heads up or b) it takes place in a totally different location so it's fairly obvious that it's a tangent-type escapade. I think this was part of the reason that I could handle the non-plot, because unlike some books that are just like "whoooo TANGENT!" (that darn beltway...) this one was like "btw tangent coming up" so you could prepare yourself.
Also, there were a ton of random fragments and snippets of conversations which would normally drive me NUTSO but I didn't care and I cannot figure out why. I need to find this insanely calm human being and ask them their secrets because I stress about everything and yet this didn't stress me out. At all. How. Why. Teach me your secrets calm reader. They actually gave you this little insight into current events/happenings and some of them also addressed social issues? Like that random conversation in the drugstore would be talking about people feeling pressured by others to change their bodies but you wouldn't realize it if you skimmed the dialogue?
And now I'm really disappointed because I wish that North had written a book like this for each Harbinger but she didn't and now I get to sob in a little puddle of disappointment as I casually add 6+ of her books to my monstrous TBR.
LIKES:
+ THE BELTWAY. Because 99.99% of highways that I have ever been on are like this. Please, put the exit signs farther back. It would be extremely helpful, especially when that monstrous SUV is blocking the sign. And I also loved how EVERY SINGLE PERSON had to deal with it it was wonderful and I was smiling and (almost) laughed but didn't because I didn't want to have to explain it to other people who were around and yeah...
+ Charlie. Charlie was just the best. He was sufficiently awkward enough that I could connect with him yet also kind and hardworking enough that it just made me really happy inside. He was just so patient (what is patience?) and could give the same speech 20 million times and was completely cool with that.
+ Getting to know snippets/stories for all of these minor characters that you got to see a million of and it just made me the happiest puddle of stress ever because everyone knows I love secondary character development
+ The non-plot was a non-issue. I didn't care, and that was awesome because this book was a HUGE step outside my tiny comfort zone and I loved it!
+ The beltway. I still love the beltway.
+ Also, you got to see all the objects given to the people Charlie visited and sometimes it was explained and sometimes it wasn't and life was OKAY!
DISLIKES:
- Obligatory romance complaints here. (But being honest there wasn't that much romance so I REALLY DIDN'T CARE)
This book makes me want to do happy cartwheels up and down the from lawn but with the current weather I would probably either get soaked or hit with a flying tree branch or something so I'll settle for doing internal cartwheels. My heart is very happy right now. I would recommend this to literally anyone (except maybe small children) it was so far out of my comfort zone but it was SO AWESOME. One of my new favorite books.
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Claire North
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Series: N/A
All I can say about this book is...wow. I will admit that I didn't have super high expectations for this book. I had read about the whole lack-of-linear-plot and the fragmented-ish style of writing which is normally a huge warning sign for me because if there's one thing I need in my life it's structure (I don't do well with spontaneous. I hate spontaneous. And change.). So I picked up this book with the expectations that I a) would probably not like it and b) would probably not retain any of the story because for these past two days I haven't even been able to tell you what time it is or what day of the week it is but this book blew my metaphorical socks off! I loved the plot (or lack there of), Charlie was amazing, and I do love myself an apocalypse story. Hence why I liked X-MEN: Apocalypse so much.
There really is no organized plot. It kinda follows a linear progression, but there are also some random loops that you aren't exactly sure when it happened. However, you can generally tell when these are coming because either a) considerate Charlie gives you a heads up or b) it takes place in a totally different location so it's fairly obvious that it's a tangent-type escapade. I think this was part of the reason that I could handle the non-plot, because unlike some books that are just like "whoooo TANGENT!" (that darn beltway...) this one was like "btw tangent coming up" so you could prepare yourself.
Also, there were a ton of random fragments and snippets of conversations which would normally drive me NUTSO but I didn't care and I cannot figure out why. I need to find this insanely calm human being and ask them their secrets because I stress about everything and yet this didn't stress me out. At all. How. Why. Teach me your secrets calm reader. They actually gave you this little insight into current events/happenings and some of them also addressed social issues? Like that random conversation in the drugstore would be talking about people feeling pressured by others to change their bodies but you wouldn't realize it if you skimmed the dialogue?
And now I'm really disappointed because I wish that North had written a book like this for each Harbinger but she didn't and now I get to sob in a little puddle of disappointment as I casually add 6+ of her books to my monstrous TBR.
LIKES:
+ THE BELTWAY. Because 99.99% of highways that I have ever been on are like this. Please, put the exit signs farther back. It would be extremely helpful, especially when that monstrous SUV is blocking the sign. And I also loved how EVERY SINGLE PERSON had to deal with it it was wonderful and I was smiling and (almost) laughed but didn't because I didn't want to have to explain it to other people who were around and yeah...
+ Charlie. Charlie was just the best. He was sufficiently awkward enough that I could connect with him yet also kind and hardworking enough that it just made me really happy inside. He was just so patient (what is patience?) and could give the same speech 20 million times and was completely cool with that.
+ Getting to know snippets/stories for all of these minor characters that you got to see a million of and it just made me the happiest puddle of stress ever because everyone knows I love secondary character development
+ The non-plot was a non-issue. I didn't care, and that was awesome because this book was a HUGE step outside my tiny comfort zone and I loved it!
+ The beltway. I still love the beltway.
+ Also, you got to see all the objects given to the people Charlie visited and sometimes it was explained and sometimes it wasn't and life was OKAY!
DISLIKES:
- Obligatory romance complaints here. (But being honest there wasn't that much romance so I REALLY DIDN'T CARE)
This book makes me want to do happy cartwheels up and down the from lawn but with the current weather I would probably either get soaked or hit with a flying tree branch or something so I'll settle for doing internal cartwheels. My heart is very happy right now. I would recommend this to literally anyone (except maybe small children) it was so far out of my comfort zone but it was SO AWESOME. One of my new favorite books.
See this review on Goodreads.
Book Review: The Song Rising
Title: The Song Rising
Author: Samantha Shannon
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: The Bone Season (Book 3)
Spoilers for the Divergent Trilogy ahead!!
While this book was slightly more interesting than the previous installment, it didn't really necessarily speak to me or capture my attention or anything like that. I almost felt like the story got stuck in a rut, or like that movie with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt that I can't remember the name of... (Edge of Tomorrow. It's Edge of Tomorrow. Thanks Google.) You had this really interesting series of events that just kept getting repeated over and over again until, news flash, it wasn't interesting anymore. Plus, as I've mentioned in my past two reviews, my brain is a bag of mush right now so I kept getting confused, like hasn't this happened already...?
I feel like the second half was much more interesting than the first half, but both were pretty repetitive. In the first half it was all "Paige is Underqueen, now here are a million reasons why she might not be Underqueen for very long..." and that just didn't work for me. You can have a protagonist be interesting without constantly reinforcing how hard the journey ahead of her is going to be, her struggles, etc. I understood it the first couple times it was said! And then the second half of the book went all Mission Impossible on me, and if anyone has EVER talked to me about the Mission Impossible movies then they know that I have a grudge against those. A very big one. Also James Bond. Those guys are dead! You can't wack your head against the side of a building that hard and be totally okay afterwards. Sorry. And some of the stuff Paige did reminded me of that. Which made me really mad.
I'm going to be completely honest here--you really gotta know your orders for the last half of this book. And if you have, say, no idea as to what order is what then the whole suspense part of it is ruined because you are too lost to understand what is going on. And that's not kinda-sorta lost, it's majorly lost. And there's a chart and all in the back of the book but flipping back and forth all the time is just a pain. Major pain.
LIKES:
+ Yay for backstories! Nothing makes me happier than secondary character backstories, and you've got that here! Even though I had no clue as to who some of these people were (still iffy on who Tom was. I feel like I should know him and where he was from but again, brain = mush) I still got to learn their stories and that was cool
+ Jaxon backstory and story reveal and HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT COMING?!? Paige is putting it all together and I'm like pshhh how did she not know that and then I'm sitting there like aiflfdujhsf well you didn't either.... (as you can see, did not see that coming. At all. Good job me.
+ Paige is finally using her gift more and although there was still a large amount of can'tdoitcan'tdoit that went on I feel like we actually got to see the dreamwalker, ya know, dreamwalk a decent amount.
+ The fact that she kinda pulled a Tris, but in a good way. You'll see.
DISLIKES:
- You know the outcome of her pulling a Tris, because there are 4 MORE BOOKS in the series.
- There seemed to be a lot of her acting like she was dying/dead but then she's not every time and just repetition...
- See rant about repetition above ^^
- I was really lost at certain points during this story. Like really lost, and I don't think I ever found my way again.
It wasn't awful, I just wasn't in love... I'm not sure if it was the repetition or slow build or what was going on, but it just didn't click for me, which was really disappointing. I still haven't decided if I'm reading the rest of the series when it comes out...
See this review on Goodreads.
Author: Samantha Shannon
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Series: The Bone Season (Book 3)
Spoilers for the Divergent Trilogy ahead!!
While this book was slightly more interesting than the previous installment, it didn't really necessarily speak to me or capture my attention or anything like that. I almost felt like the story got stuck in a rut, or like that movie with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt that I can't remember the name of... (Edge of Tomorrow. It's Edge of Tomorrow. Thanks Google.) You had this really interesting series of events that just kept getting repeated over and over again until, news flash, it wasn't interesting anymore. Plus, as I've mentioned in my past two reviews, my brain is a bag of mush right now so I kept getting confused, like hasn't this happened already...?
I feel like the second half was much more interesting than the first half, but both were pretty repetitive. In the first half it was all "Paige is Underqueen, now here are a million reasons why she might not be Underqueen for very long..." and that just didn't work for me. You can have a protagonist be interesting without constantly reinforcing how hard the journey ahead of her is going to be, her struggles, etc. I understood it the first couple times it was said! And then the second half of the book went all Mission Impossible on me, and if anyone has EVER talked to me about the Mission Impossible movies then they know that I have a grudge against those. A very big one. Also James Bond. Those guys are dead! You can't wack your head against the side of a building that hard and be totally okay afterwards. Sorry. And some of the stuff Paige did reminded me of that. Which made me really mad.
I'm going to be completely honest here--you really gotta know your orders for the last half of this book. And if you have, say, no idea as to what order is what then the whole suspense part of it is ruined because you are too lost to understand what is going on. And that's not kinda-sorta lost, it's majorly lost. And there's a chart and all in the back of the book but flipping back and forth all the time is just a pain. Major pain.
LIKES:
+ Yay for backstories! Nothing makes me happier than secondary character backstories, and you've got that here! Even though I had no clue as to who some of these people were (still iffy on who Tom was. I feel like I should know him and where he was from but again, brain = mush) I still got to learn their stories and that was cool
+ Jaxon backstory and story reveal and HOW DID I NOT SEE THAT COMING?!? Paige is putting it all together and I'm like pshhh how did she not know that and then I'm sitting there like aiflfdujhsf well you didn't either.... (as you can see, did not see that coming. At all. Good job me.
+ Paige is finally using her gift more and although there was still a large amount of can'tdoitcan'tdoit that went on I feel like we actually got to see the dreamwalker, ya know, dreamwalk a decent amount.
+ The fact that she kinda pulled a Tris, but in a good way. You'll see.
DISLIKES:
- You know the outcome of her pulling a Tris, because there are 4 MORE BOOKS in the series.
- There seemed to be a lot of her acting like she was dying/dead but then she's not every time and just repetition...
- See rant about repetition above ^^
- I was really lost at certain points during this story. Like really lost, and I don't think I ever found my way again.
It wasn't awful, I just wasn't in love... I'm not sure if it was the repetition or slow build or what was going on, but it just didn't click for me, which was really disappointing. I still haven't decided if I'm reading the rest of the series when it comes out...
See this review on Goodreads.
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