Review: All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Title: All The Bright Places

Author: Jennifer Niven

Publisher: Knopf

Published: 6th January 2015

Goodreads Summary

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning! Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink.

This is my second attempt at reviewing this… I deleted my first draft as I didn’t think it did the book any justice. Why are the great books so hard to review!?

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, he keeps thinking of ways to kill himself, he even rates his ideas.

Violet Markey lives for the future, she is counting down days until her graduation and when she can escape her town and her aching grief about her sister’s death.

The unlikely pair meet at the unlikeliest place, a bell tower where suicide would be perfect.

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park- Yeah kinda… I still feel that it’s only referring to Eleanor and Park because it was narrated by both of the main characters, I don’t see any other resemblance to that book.

I have read bad reviews about this book, of course it’s impossible for everybody to fall in love with it. I do think that Jennifer reaches a certain young adult audience, and I do think that the responses to this book depend on the personal experience with depression and suicide. I cannot tell whether I would have found this book as great as I did if my personal experiences weren’t there. This book spoke to me on another level and made me feel incrediby mixed feelings. It made me feel alive for the first time in years in a way that I couldn’t possibly imagine.

“We are all alone, trapped in these bodies and our own minds, and whatever company we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial.” 

Of course suicide is a hard subject to tackle. I think it can go either way, a quirky funny way or go for the ugly truth. This book seemed to tackle both things. This indie relationship between the two characters was loveable but also fake. Of course I would love for there to be couples like Finch and Violet, and for couples like Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace from The Fault In Our Stars but the world doesn’t really work that way. Having these special relationship in books grounds us to reality but make us imagine the world these authors create.

“No more winter at all. Finch, you brought me spring.” 

The ending was hard for me, I cried and thought about it for so many days. I wanted to keep this world going; but the way that Violet handled the news and the realisation was annoying but beautiful. I think for the type of protagonist that Violet was her reaction was perfect. Everything that happened with the school and funeral linked back to reality.

I do recommend this book to everybody, whether or not you have personal experiences with suicide and depression. I think this is perfect for anybody that has enjoyed The Fault In Our Stars, Eleanor and Park, Anna and The French Kiss, ect…

“People rarely bring flowers to a suicide.”

Review: Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Title: Stolen

Author: Lucy Christopher 

Publisher: Chicken House

Published: May 4th 2009 

Paperback 301 pages.

Gooodreads summary; 

It happened like this. I was stolen from an airport. Taken from everything I knew, everything I was used to. Taken to sand and heat, dirt and danger. And he expected me to love him. This is my story. A letter from nowhere. Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don't exist - almost.

How can I review this book? Its 8.25pm on a cold December night, three days away from Christmas and all I can think about is the story that Lucy Christopher just shared with me. I feel like I was given this precious gift, a part of her soul really. It’s like this with every book I think, especially the very good ones. But this is different, this is a first for me.

Gemma is only sixteen when she is taken away from her family, from her friends and her entire life into the hands of a horrible monster. She is picked up from an airport and plucked into a hot desert where the land wants to kill you, with the fear of what her captor will do to her.

“How long will you keep me?" I asked.
You shrugged. "Forever, of course.” 

There is nothing out there like this story. Nothing. This book captures the true essence of what it’s like to fear somebody and to be scared for your life.

Gemma is a very strong protagonist, she was scared, even ready to die at the hands of her captor but she had hope.

Ty is a troubled man who had a hard life, he’s strong physically but emotionally he’s damaged.

I still can’t believe just how great Gemma’s character was! I can already imagine more than half of the female characters in young adult books now and how they could react in this situation. Gemma was different. She was scared but she willed herself to try and run away. She wanted to escape even if it killed her.

This is a letter from Gemma to her captor; written in detail of everything she experienced and felt throughout her time with Ty and honestly how much can you write about a month or so? How long can you make a letter out of this? I was incredibly sceptical of the format that it was written in, I mean it shows Gemma’s true feelings but how much can really happen in a sunny desert with nobody else around? Apparently a lot, this was a fantastic idea, especially for the beginning and the end of the novel.

My mind couldn’t keep up and my heart never settled on what I thought of Ty, just like Gemma. There was this character who has done wrong but is so hurt and is so delusional that you cannot help but forgive him for his wrong doings.

“and it’s hard to hate someone once you understand them.”

My heart was in my throat until the very last word on the page. What does Gemma think of this and what do I think of this. I was so conflicted because I wanted Gemma to love him. I wanted her to forgive him, to somehow be with him?! I think I was the one suffering through Stockholm syndrome. I was never nervous when Gemma was scared of Ty, I was never scared for her when she was trying to escape him. I always had hope.

Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Living Dead Girl Elizabeth Scott
Published: September 8th 2009
Publisher: Simon Pulse

Goodreads Summary

The thing is, you can get used to anything. You think you can't, you want to die, but you don't. You won't. You just are. This is Alice. She was taken by Ray five years ago. She thought she knew how her story would end. She was wrong.

Is it possible to write a poetic book about kidnapping and imprisonment of a child? I 

guess the answer here is yes. This is a really hauntingly, disturbingly beautiful short 

novel which features a horrific crime. 

“I have been smashed and put back together so many times nothing works right. 

Nothing is where it should be, heavy thumping in my shoulder where my heart now 

beats.”

15 year old “Alice” was lured into Ray’s car when she was ten, taken from a field trip into 

Shady Pines where she was conditioned to become another person. The horrific physical 

and emotional abuse was flowing through the book without having to be spelt out and 

shouted at the reader. Although the pain that is endured by the character isn’t explicit 

It’s still a hard story to read. The fact that there have been and are children that are 

being put through this right now is horrifying and this book shows you a slight insight. 

To say that Elizabeth Scott managed to capture the horror of the characters capture in a 

rather beautiful way is an understatement. I didn’t think that a story could leave scars, 

but this book certainly has. I haven’t stopped thinking about it for weeks. 

“She became a story, one I have mostly forgotten. One I can't end because she died a 

long time ago.”

Scott manages to draw you in with her unique writing, the fact that the chapters start 

with “Once Upon a Time” when reciting what happened to “Alice” when she was 

younger is unforgettable, it plays on the fact that it’s telling a atrocious thing that 

happened to a young girl while starting it off with a popular fairy tale opening. 

I wasn’t expecting this book to cover all the basics, the characters back stories were 

detailed in the small amount of words that this book required. For a second I felt sorry 

for the monster and for what Ray was doing, knowing his loveless upbringing and the 

abuse that he received from his mother was enough for me to know why he became the 

monster he is, it was enough for me to sympathise with him. I didn’t even think that I 

would have been able to image the horror and the experience of someone that was so 

much abused. I didn’t think it was possible for an author to even describe such a thing in 

a book; I felt as if I was right there with Alice throughout her torture, throughout the 

control he had over her. I felt trapped in this character and felt as if I was living her 

story. 


This was labelled as a young adult novel, I know so many bloggers have already 

mentioned the fact that it shouldn’t have but I disagree. This is exactly what mature 

teenagers need to read. Everyone should read this. I am now carrying this story around 

with me everywhere I go.

Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Published by: Pan Macmillian
First Publication: 10th September 2010

Goodreads summary

Cath and Wren are identical twins, and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they're off to university and Wren's decided she doesn't want to be one half of a pair any more - she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It's not so easy for Cath. She's horribly shy and has always buried herself in the fan fiction she writes, where she always knows exactly what to say and can write a romance far more intense than anything she's experienced in real life. Now Cath has to decide whether she's ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she's realizing that there's more to learn about love than she ever thought possible ... A tale of fanfiction, family, and first love

This seemed like the perfect book for a fellow fangirl, not only is the main character into reading and fanfiction she is also off to college. I thought this would have been the perfect read for me to prepare myself mentally for what I'm about to endure.

This book was a lot of hard work. I mean Cath was such a difficult character! There were specks of her personality that I could relate like wanting to stay in and read, or write a story, but other times I wanted Cath to jump in front of a bus.
Cath is really into writing her fanfiction about Simon and Baz; the characters are real to her and she wants nothing more than to write about them. I understand her obsession but it went a little bit too far I guess. I felt sorry for Cath sometimes. Her relationship with the fictional characters was rather getting out of hand and I really don't think it represented how us readers feel about certain characters.
I have no idea how her fanfiction ended. To tell you the truth I read only the first chapter in the book that Cath wrote. I had no desire to read a characters work. I wanted to, I mean it's such a great idea for Rainbow Rowell to do that! Writing a story about your own character writing a story? Perfect. However it ended up to be a disaster.

The dialog and the relationships in this book were okay. There is no other word to describe it. It was okay to read, there was no amazing chemistry between any of the characters there was nothing special about it. I did like how Cath and Levi interacted but it all seemed to incredibly childish. It was cute, but childish. I kept reading reviews of people falling in love for him, why?! He is like a puppy!

Back to Cath once again, I don't think I've come across a more needy character. I understand that her and her twin Wren did everything together even wrote some of the fanfiction together but as soon as Wren starts to have her own life Cath automatically starts to cling onto the past. It reminded me of 22 Jump Street when Schmit was clinging onto Jenko (yes I did recently rewatch the movie)  

I didn't really want to review this book. I really don't have much to say about this book, am I going to remember the story in a year? No. I had to freaking look up Levi's name because he was lost in my memory.
I am glad I read this book, it wasn't horrible but it wasn't great. It's just a book that is going to fade into the background.

Review:Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma
Published: 27th May 2010
Publisher: Definition 
Paperback Pages: 432

Goodreads Summary 

She is pretty and talented - sweet sixteen and never been kissed. He is seventeen; gorgeous and on the brink of a bright future. And now they have fallen in love. But... they are brother and sister. Seventeen-year-old Lochan and sixteen-year-old Maya have always felt more like friends than siblings. Together they have stepped in for their alcoholic, wayward mother to take care of their three younger siblings. As defacto parents to the little ones, Lochan and Maya have had to grow up fast. And the stress of their lives—and the way they understand each other so completely—has also also brought them closer than two siblings would ordinarily be. So close, in fact, that they have fallen in love. Their clandestine romance quickly blooms into deep, desperate love. They know their relationship is wrong and cannot possibly continue. And yet, they cannot stop what feels so incredibly right. As the novel careens toward an explosive and shocking finale, only one thing is certain: a love this devastating has no happy ending.

What a massive roller coaster. I mean. I have no idea what to think of this book and it has been months since I’ve read it! I am still not over what has happened in this book.

This is a story of two bestfriends who happen to fall in love. Maya and Logan just wanted to be together. They just wanted to be left alone and be able to love each other. But nothing is ever that simple. Their love is more than forbidden. It’s against the law. Maya and Logan are siblings who fall in love with each other and must deal with the wrongness.

I have always been baffled by incest. It’s the main reason why I wanted to read this book in the first place. I have a younger brother and I couldn’t even imagine nor that I want to imagine anything close as to what Maya and Logan went through. There is a line between brothers and sisters. You can be best friends, hate each other, sleep in the same bed or share a bedroom together but crossing that line to become lovers just doesn’t fit in. Maya and Logan have been pushed into a life where they have to grow up fast, where they are looking after their younger siblings, pay the bills and keep the whole house from falling apart. The line between brother and sister gets blurry for the pair and they start to feel things for each other that they know are wrong.

It’s far too easy for authors to create a book with taboo romances that focus on the breathing and the fast paced lives of the characters. What you find in this book is unlike any other book you might come across.  Here, you will find characters that are so deeply written with such compassion and such insight to their lives that they will break your heart.

In the first half of the book I have felt more than cheated. I have read reviews which talked about the relationship, and about the love and how close the characters were getting. But instead I was faced with half a book about Maya and Logan trying to keep their family lives together; while taking care of themselves and their younger siblings. This made me incredibly angry. Angry towards their mother, angry towards the state that they were living, angry by the fact that there are children who are taking care of children right now and I cannot stop that! I will never understand a mother that abandons their children because of a new man or a new drug or alcohol. This will baffle me until the day I die and I will never have sympathy for parents that leave their children to fend for themselves.

Once the first initial contact between the siblings started to play out I was enthusiastic to see how the author would handle this unthinkable relationship. I was, I guess excited to see what both of the characters were thinking and to see where this whole thing began. The fact that Tabitha wrote the book in both of the characters perceptions it was rather interesting to see how they were both dealing with this new relationship and their views.

I was open minded while reading this book. I knew exactly what I was going to read and I made sure that I wouldn’t judge this until I finished the last sentence written. For me I was absolutely torn. I have a brother so for me this absurd relationship was making me want to stop reading. To pretend that it didn’t exist and that it never happens in the real world. But on the other hand, my romantic hand, I felt heartbroken for the pair. I was rooting for the pair. Why should they be denied love just because they share the same DNA?

Of course I am not forgetting that they are brother and sister and that people were not okay with this story. The one thing I am certain that other readers will agree with me; is in fact the amazing writing, I am still dumbstruck as to how Tabitha was able to write this book! The emotion, the raw insight to the story of both of the main characters was purely amazing; and I don’t mean jumping around because you’re just so excited amazing. I mean staring blankly, unable to move because you can’t process what just happened amazing. What better way is there to feel after a book?

I have completely forgotten the ending for this book. Just now as I’m furiously trying to type all of my thoughts in this review that I was hit with the shock of the ending once again. I’m not going to lie and say that I cried. I don’t remember whether or not I did, but I do remember putting the book down while staring at it with my mouth wide open. I remember not being able to sleep because I kept thinking about this book. I was not able to shut my brain off because of that ending. I assume that tonight it’s also going to be the one thing I am thinking about. It was. Just. SO INCREDIBLY HEART BREAKINGLY AMAZINGLY HURTFUL!  

Review: Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Before I Die Jenny Downham
Published: May 2007
Publisher: Ember
Amazon

Goodreads Summary

For the many readers who love The Fault in Our Stars, this is the story of a girl who is determined to live, love, and to write her own ending before her time is finally up. Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time runs out.

Miracles don’t happen. Tess is going to die and there’s no way to stop it, the cancer is eating her up. But she can do all the things she wants before her time runs out.

The title basically gives away 80% of the story. Tess makes a list of things she wants to do before she dies; things like losing her virginity, trying drugs, saying yes to everything for the whole day.

I read reviews of this book and how everyone was sad and heartbroken. I expected this to be heart breaking and for me not to want to leave my house for about a week because I couldn’t deal with the story. But this did exactly the opposite. For those of you who are saying this is the saddest book ever, or how heart breaking the book is; yes it is. Yes it’s heart breaking, yes it makes you want to crawl into a hole and give up with life for a bit. But you’re all missing the point. This wasn’t intended to be a sad book that wants to make everyone depressed because Tess didn’t get to continue her life, and yes it’s super unfair that she had cancer since she was 12, and yes it’s sad that she just got a boyfriend who he loves her and she dies. But she didn’t give up. Hell she made a list of things that could possibly shorten her already short life, a list that her dying body could hardly keep up but she still did it. She did those things to make her feel alive for as long as she could and if this story doesn’t inspire you to get off your ass and grab the life by the throat then you’re missing the whole point of this book.

The characters are developed so well in this book I just want to hold them all and cry. Jenny Downham has a serious gift when it comes to creating life like characters. Her best friend Zoey doesn’t take crap even when it comes to Tess’ cancer. I do think that she takes her whole not caring about the illness too far. I wouldn’t treat my bestfriend any differently but I don’t know… I don’t really liked Zoey until the end. Tessa’s dad and brother were just right. I was so sympathetic towards her dad. I just wanted him to be happy and not have a dying daughter and for his wife to not have left him to deal with it all by myself.

The love story. As much as I like Adam and his also somewhat heart breaking family story I kind of wish that the focus wasn’t so much on the love story. Tessa’s life changed when she met her 18 year old new neighbour and they fell in love. I feel like her list and her life before she met Adam should have been more of a highlight of the novel. Although I did like Adam; he didn’t get scared and he stayed by Tessa’s side the whole time he took so much crap from her. She acted out of order a lot and I don’t think he had a backbone. He should have learned to stand up for himself. Even if it was to his dying girlfriend. 

Review: Bone Jack by Sara Crowe

Bone Jack by Sara Crowe
Published: April 3rd 2014
Publisher: Andersen

Goodreads Summary

Ash's dad has just returned from war, close to breakdown, far from the war hero Ash was expecting. Ash is going to be the stag boy in the annual Stag Chase. He's been waiting to tell his dad he's following in his footsteps, he'll make him proud. But Dad is stuck in a world of imaginary threats. When Ash's grieving best friend pushes him away too, his world suddenly seems lonely and threatening. So Ash retreats to the mountains, to his punishing training runs. But in the mountains dark things are stirring - the hound boys of old haunt his running steps and Ash hears the death cry of a stag boy. Ash starts to wonder how much of the sinister pagan stories about the Stag Chase are true, and what it all has to do with his friend's anger and grief. As death haunts his every step, Ash has to find a way to live again.

I wasn’t going to review this book originally as I didn’t think I had enough to say it to form a decent review. But as the book isn’t exactly popular and not many people know of its existence I feel like I should summaries my thoughts on it.

Ash’s dad returns from war broken. He isn’t leaving his room, gets scared at the slightest of sounds. Ash has been waiting to make his father proud of being the stag boy in the annual stag chase, following in his footsteps.

This book was slightly weird. I mean the fact that most of the teenagers in the town chase one chosen boy dressed in stag and hound costumes seemed ridiculous to me. Ash’s bestfriend Mark in his grieving madness tells Ash crazy things about the chase and where it really originated from.  Mark mentions that he land is sick and that “the old ways are back and things have to be put back” basically meaning that Ash will be killed when caught in the stag chase in the hopes that Bone Jack the mystical dark figure will take Ash’s life in order to bring Mark’s dad back from the dead.

Okay so I made a mess from the plot as there is quite a lot going on and my summary isn’t that great. But the book is really good. I didn’t think that Ash’s dad’s post-traumatic stress disorder would have been mentioned that much, but it was and I was rather glad. War is a horrible thing and I haven’t yet read a book that highlights the ugly bits of what it’s like to return home.

I don’t particularly like folklore and wouldn’t probably have picked up this book if it wasn’t for my friend. But I’m glad I did. It’s an interesting story with some great characters; but the book wasn’t anything special.

 

Review: Love Letters To The Dead by Ava Dellaira

Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
Published: April 1st 2014
Publisher: Farrar

Goodreads Summary

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to the dead—to people like Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, Amelia Earhart, and Amy Winehouse—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating the choppy waters of new friendships, learning to live with her splintering family, falling in love for the first time, and, most important, trying to grieve for May. But how do you mourn for someone you haven't forgiven? It's not until Laurel has written the truth about what happened to herself that she can finally accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she truly start to discover her own path.

I was so excited to read this book, it looked really promising and I wasn’t at all disappointed with this one!

Laurel’s sister May dies young and when her English teacher assigns her class to write a letter to a dead person Laurel choses Kurt Cobain as he died young just like her sister May. Quickly her notebook is filled with letters to other dead celebrities which she fails to turn in for her assignment, instead she begins to find herself in the words she writes to those that aren’t with us anymore.

“I know I wrote letters to people with no address on this earth, I know that you are dead. But I hear you. I hear all of you. We were here. Our lives matter.” 

The letters started out as a somewhat diary, Laurel talked about her everyday life, missing her sister and starting high school. Then the letters turn into confessions about what happened to Laurel when she was little, she wrote about the things that she couldn’t speak about to other people. Things that she believes caused her sister’s death.

It’s an amazingly beautiful novella and I was certain before even starting this book that I would love it. Now after finishing it and after writing this review I’m starting to doubt this. Don’t get me wrong it’s a beautiful piece and I can honestly say that I enjoyed every single word written by Ava in this book but I can’t help but compare this to The Perks of Being A Wallflower. I don’t think I would have noticed the similarities so much if I haven’t just finished TPOBAW before I started this but there are so many of these similarities I felt as if I was reading the same story just in a females point of view.

Laurel starts in a new high school where she doesn’t know anybody. Where nobody knows her name or what happened to her sister. (pointing out the obvious same thing with Charlie in TPOBAW) it must be hard, I mean I know how hard it is stating a brand new school and not knowing anybody and just feeling so alone!

The letters that Laurel writes, they capture the person that she’s writing about. I learned some things that I didn’t even know about them. In some of these letters I actually got goose bumps while reading; Ava Dellaira managed to bring the people back from the dead even in that short amount of time. But yet again I can’t help it but mention that is exactly what Charlie did; I mean the letters to his friend. This idea to write letters to dead people was clearly a somewhat original idea and I loved it.

“I feel like I am drowning in memories. Everything is too bright.” 

What happened to Laurel when she was younger, when her sister would take her to the cinema and leave her with a guy so she could sneak off with her boyfriend. This is what got me rather mad. At this point I hated May, I hated her character so much! How could she not see what would happen? How could she not even for a second think that something would happen to her younger vulnerable sister in the hands of a strange guy! It’s so unbelievably stupid! I don’t think this revelation caused May’s death, I don’t think that Laurel finally telling her bigger sister what happened in a strangers car when she would leave her there caused her to fall. But I have to bring this back to TPOBAW… Charlie was also molested, his auntie took advantage of him and he never told anyone, he as well managed to get his head around it in his letters. Just like Laurel.

I don’t think I’m the only one that found these similarities to Stephen Chbosky’s novel. They are both rather similar and I read in Ava’s acknowledgments that they are close friends so I’m puzzled as to why both books are alike. I love both Love Letters To The Dead and The Perks Of Being A Wallflower equally but I have to say that I did connect with Laurel’s story more; and I do think that it’s because she’s a female. 

Mini Reviews: Fault and Thinspo by Amy Ellis

Fault by Amy Ellis

This is a phenomenal, remarkable, amazing novel. I… I couldn’t think straight after I read this. It was so extraordinary; it was so moving and powerful!

The story follows a teenage girl called Liz and her bestfriend who can get her to a lot of parties. One night she gets roofied and raped. The story is told in haunting verses about how Liz loses her friends, how she is blamed for what happened to her and how she tries to get her life back on track.

I can’t describe how amazing this was, it was a very moving and beautiful short novel. It tackled the problem of rape victims being blamed and at fault for what happened to them in a very poetic and moving way. 

Thinspo by Amy Ellis

I don’t know why I expected this book to be something other than what the title suggests. This short written in blog format and text messages by the main character Jenni who is an average girl graduating high school keeping a blog about her teenage life. Jenni is a pro-ana / pro- mia blogger who documents her struggles with her eating disorder, she keeps track of her weight, calories and what her parents make her eat. When Jenni’s best friend Carly discovers her blog everything turns into chaos for Jenni. Until she discovers Dani another pro- ana blogger suffering from an eating disorder.

This was rather hard to read, for someone that actually went through something similar thank goodness it was never as serious as Jennis eating disorder it was a massive eye opener. At first it made me actually identify with the pro-ana/ pro-mia bloggers which scared me as it’s not something I wish to revisit but as the story unfolded I realised just how selfish Jenni was as a character, and just how stupid she was for what she was putting her family through; I wanted to shake her and scream at her.

I don’t want to really go into this as it’s a rather touchy subject, but the novel was superb and the way it was written was really  original. I’m falling more and more in love with Amy’s writing and her stories. 

Review: Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch

Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Date Published: 1st July 2014
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Amazon    Book Depository 

Goodreads Summary

Perfection comes at a price. As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury. Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating. But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death. For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

 A VERY HAPPY RELEASE DATE TO PERFECTED! And a massive thank you to Entangled Teen for providing me this book for a review!

A new legislation is passed where owning a pet is taken to another level. Instead of having a fluffy puppy or a kitten to cuddle you to bed you can own a teenage girl who was bred to be perfect in all physical aspects.

The idea for this book seemed really out of the box and original. I was pleasantly surprised how the idea developed but there was nothing shocking about the plot or where it leads. There were no cliff-hangers, no surprises, nothing that would have actually made this book outstanding.

Number 8 or Ella as she’s later is named is an engineered pet, raised in a kennel to be obedient to her new master. As soon as I read this description of the main character my first thought was obviously these beautiful girls will be used as sex play toys by middle aged guys. I suspect that most of them were brought just for that. However Ella was brought to be a playmate for a bubbly little girl and her family; which doesn’t seem so bad.

“I was bred to be the perfect pet”.

“I was bred to willingly put my owner’s happiness before my own.” 

Taken out of context these two sentences seriously look like the worst starts for a porno. I mean come on! Willingly putting my owners happiness before my own. I get that they were bred to be like that and to think like this but I don’t think I would be able to do that. Not in a million years. I wouldn’t care if my “owner” was happy and none of my pets flipping do! To be fair they are cats and just care about food and where to crap but that is beside the point…

Okay now back to the book.

Ella’s new family already had a pet, a pet that was given away for being “ill”. However it’s not hard to figure out what actually happened to the last pet, with the congressmen’s wife not being particularly happy with Ella being there and with how the congressman acts towards Ella.

After she is brought her world changes, she needs to learn more things and more importantly learn what it really is like to be a pet. But is this the life that Ella can live with?

I don’t think the ending and the love story is at all surprising. This book was a pleasant read but it’s not at all amazing.   

Review: Shatter Me By Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #1
Date Published: October 2nd 2011
Publisher: HarperCollin
Amazon Book Depository 

Goodreads Summary 

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

This book surprised me a lot. Shatter Me is a beautifully written novel about a dying dystopian society where humans didn’t take a good enough care of our world.

The story follows a young Juliette that has a curse gift where she can kill someone just by touching them. I have never heard of anything close to this idea and I think it’s absolutely amazing! A lot of books nowadays have a lot of contact in them; especially romance books where the first little feather like touch is important to any of the characters relationships. This gift that Juliette has rules it out almost; as the girl has never touched anybody without hurting them. She has never hugged her own mother or father, she never had a bestfriend that would hold her when she was upset and she never had a boyfriend because she would kill him. It’s so sad and beautiful at the same time. I mean imagine if that were you. I can’t even begin to imagine what would be like to never feel someone else’s skin.

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.” 

:’)

Juliette touched someone 264 days before the Reestablishment locked her up for murder. She hasn’t touched anyone, spoken to anyone in 264 days until a boy is thrown into her cell- a boy named Adam whom she has a history with already. After a few weeks Juliette is then taken to a facility where a highly disturbing guy named Warner wants to use her and her gift as a weapon and is strangely obsessed with her.

While I was reading this I was confused as to why these random events would lead to her meeting Warner, but as the book progresses you can see exactly what is happening and why.

I loved this book, the story was great, the dystopian world was great although somewhat confusing, and the writing was great- but it was annoying at times.

The reason for it being annoying.

1)     The repetition. At first I loved the emphasis of the white bird which meant freedom for Juliette. I loved the fact that it was repeated three times. But the random words halfway through the sentences sentences sentences. It was annoying annoying annoying. There was no use for it. Halfway through the book I thought that my book was faulty and that the words weren’t meant to be there!

2)     The strikethroughs I loved at the beginning. It was a way of Juliette to get her thoughts out and it would be crossed out like this.  What Mafi did was rather clever. But again it got rather boring and annoying at times. I loved hearing what Juliette thought but there were long sentences that were crossed out and it’s annoying to read.

Those are the only things that annoyed me the most about this book. There were certain metaphors that made absolutely no sense to me and I have a feeling Mafi only included them to sound sophisticated and poetic. But I’m going to let this slide.

“Killing time isn't as difficult as it sounds.

I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.” 

I mentioned already that the world that Mafi created was confusing but that I loved it nevertheless. The reason why it was so confusing was because MAFI FAILED TO EXPLAIN IT. I mostly guessed that all of their foods and resources run out and that the atmosphere and the weather fucked up but honestly I have no clue why; my educated guess would be that humans fucked up and let the world get ruined by using up everything and not caring enough for our planet. But I wish that Mafi explained this. It was almost not thought out.

Juliette’s power is great. She can touch someone and kill them. But again there was no explanation why she had the said power and why the hell she enjoyed using it. Warner the sick little puppy made her touch one of his soldiers as a way for her to show that she was powerful so they wouldn’t underestimate her. But when she touched the soldier she got a weird kick out of it. She liked it. Is this some weird sexual thing? Cause it sure seemed like it.

“Why are you touching me? 
Because I can.” 

There is an exception to Juliette’s gift, and that’s Adam. He can touch her and not die or scream out in pain and she doesn’t get a weird kick out of it. Well scratch the last bit because in some scenes she does. I actually rolled my eyes at this bit. I’m glad the two love birds can touch each other up but wouldn’t this be great if they couldn’t?! If Adam still loved Juliette even though she could kill him!!!? Am I the only person that thinks this would be a much better idea for their little romance?!!?!?!?!?!?1??!?!?!?1??!?!?!

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Series: If I Stay #1

Release Date: May 13th 2010
Publisher: Black Swan
Amazon Book Depository

Goodreads Summary 

Life can change in an instant. A cold February morning . . . a snowy road . . . and suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all. Gripping, heartrending and ultimately life-affirming, If I Stay will make you appreciate all that you have, all that you've lost - and all that might be.

17 year old Mia has enough choices in her life; college, music, boyfriend. While on the way to visit Mia’s grandparents her family car is hit by another driver and all her choices are put on hold while the only one matters. Whether or not she stays.  

I don’t really think I have an opinion on this book. The book was neither great nor terrible. It was just okay.

I read that the book was heart breaking, and beautifully powerful. I guess I can see where everyone was getting that from. I mean death was involved therefore a lot of depressing emotions were stirred up. But not for me. I’m a sucker for depressing books and I was really hoping that I would be moved by this book! Unfortunately I wasn’t moved at all, there were times when I thought that I might tear up but I didn’t. It’s not because my heart is made of ice or anything like that I just didn’t find this book as moving as a lot of other people did.

The idea for it is great, it made me realise how silly some of my choices where when it came down to the big choice in Mia’s life. One day she’s planning her future and the next she’s watching her family die and her lifeless body be brought into hospital as all her loved ones wait to find out whether or not she’ll make it.

I wasn’t at all surprised what happened in the book. For me everything was clear from the beginning I just didn’t know her family was going to die. I thought that this teenage girl who is a quiet geeky girl who likes classical music will be in a car accident one day and will then need to figure out if she stays or goes. I already figured out that there will be some form of out of body experience. I was actually shocked by her family’s death however and I was sad, I mean they seemed like a great bunch and it wasn’t fair they had to die. But apart from this I pretty much knew what was going to happen. The whole love story between her and Adam, the ending of the book was predictable as crap (mostly because I know there is a second book).

The characters in this book were good. I loved Mia although I didn’t click with her much. Her brother is super cute and I wanted to squeeze him, her parents are seriously amazing. Might be the fact that I like punk rock and not classical music. I didn’t feel like I had a connection with any of these characters which was a real shame.

The book itself was a really pleasant read, the way it was laid out was great. The flash backs to when Mia was a child and remembering all the great memories was super effective. I think that’s the part that I love the most about this book.

I wish that I got to enjoy this book more and that it wasn’t just an okay book for me. I probably won’t read the sequel but I hopefully will reread it again.