Book Review: Famous Last Words

TITLE: Famous Last Words
AUTHOR: Katie Alender
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: 2014
GENRE: Paranormal/Mystery
PREMISE: A girl moves to Hollywood as there's a serial killer on the loose and she's haunted by visions...
MY REVIEW: I read this pretty much right after reading Dead Girls of Hysteria Hall. As always with Alender: it's a fun and entertaining romp. This would make a great by the pool book (there's even a scene in it with a pool!). Quality wise...it's just okay.
The plot was decent. It kind of slowed in the middle. There was stuff going on with a female friend that I found incredibly unnecessary (and fed more into that whole "girl can't be real friends!" nonsense that seems to plague YA). The romance was...a little blah and felt forced. But the stuff with the ghosts and the mystery was pretty good. A little slow, but good.
This book just scratched my itch to read more ghost books. If you also have such a need, it's a good one to look into. Though if you're going to try Alender, I recommend starting with her Bad Girls trilogy first. After reading all her books now, I can safely say that's her best one.
WHO SHOULD READ: Katie Alender fans, those who just want fun ghost stories
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five ghosts bothering humans

Book Review: Annihilation

TITLE: Annihilation
Book 1 in the Southern Beach Trilogy
AUTHOR: Jeff Vandermeer
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction
PREMISE: A group of scientists get sent on a mission to a mysterious wilderness that society is still trying to explain...
MY REVIEW: This was...an interesting book. I'm not sure how good it is (opinion on that seems to be wide and varied). But it is definitely interesting. If you're into battles and whatnot, then this is not going to be your book. It's a  very slow moving and more psychological and atmospheric sort of sci-fi book.
I personally kind of liked it. I think it ended very abruptly. So you basically have to have the second one right away. It does read very quickly. My favorite part of it was how atmospheric it was. There's this building sense of dread throughout it that is used very well. So it's kind of like a sci-fi A Quiet Place.
This is one of those things that I suspect is not for everyone. You either like this sort of book, or you just get bored with it. I have not seen the movie at all, but from what I understand they kind of butchered it. So I probably never will see it. But I will be picking up the next two books in the future sometime.
WHO SHOULD READ: fans of Bird Box, fans of A Quiet Place, those who like more psychological sci-fi
MY RATING: Four out of Five wtf plants

Author Review: Rebecca Solnit

TITLES OF BOOKS: Hope in the Dark
Men Explain Things To Me
The Mother of All Questions
AUTHOR: Rebecca Solnit
PUBLISHED: 2004, 2014, 2017
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Essays, Articles, Feminism
PREMISE: In three of her books, Solnit discusses various issues surrounding politics, feminism, and activism.
MY REVIEW: Over the past few months I've been reading through these three books by Rebecca Solnit. For those who have no idea who Solnit is, you probably know or have used a term she coined: Mansplaining. That term is credited to her essay Men Explain Things to Me. She's also a frequent columnist on many websites, including LitHub.
I specifically want to talk about Men Explain Things to Me though, because mansplaining has been a thing getting a lot of flack lately around the internet. Mostly from men, but not always. First, I'd like to point out, Solnit herself is not altogether pleased by how much the term has been overused. She says as much in some endnotes after the Men Explain Things to Me essay. So maybe put your misandry claims away, okay? Second, I think people frankly deliberately misunderstand what the term means. No, it does not mean men can't explain stuff ever. If a woman actually asks for your opinion and you are actually educated and know a thing or two about the subject, go ahead and talk about it! We won't care. Because that's not mansplaining.
Mansplaining is a man making the assumption that a woman can't possibly know this one brilliant thing they know and so proceed to condescendingly explain the thing to us. Yes, sometimes females do this to people too (geeks of all shapes and forms tend to do this to new fans I've discovered and guys, seriously, cut it out). But it is not quite at the same rate as men do it to women. I see you men going "well wait, then how do I know if I'm mansplaining or not?" It's very simple: did the woman ask for your opinion and do you actually know a thing or two about the subject? No to both or one of those questions? You are probably mansplaining. Stop.
Men Explain Things to Me is probably the best of all the essays. But there are a whole lot of really good ones. Hope in the Dark is also incredibly interesting to read at times because it features essays written during the Bush years and it's like a peek back in time to what was going on then. I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that it's been over a decade since some of the early Bush years.
WHO SHOULD READ: feminists, those interested in social justice issues or politics
MY RATING FOR ALL OF THE BOOKS: Four out of Five satisfied nods

Series Review: Flavia de Luce

SERIES: Flavia de Luce
ORDER OF BOOKS IN SERIES:
1) The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
2) The Weed That Strings the Handman's Bag
3) A Red Herring Without Mustard
4) I Am Half Sick of Shadows
5) Speaking From Among the Bones
6) The Dead and Their Vaulted Arches
7) As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
8) Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
AUTHOR: Alan Bradley
PUBLISHED: between 2009-present
CATEGORY: Packaged and sold as adult fiction, I say it's middle-grade but what can you do?
PREMISE: In 1950s England, in a small town, a precocious girl solves mysteries using logic and a love of science.
MY REVIEW: So last year I finally sat down and read the first book of this series and promptly fell in love. Since then I've been playing catch up and after getting to the eighth book last month, I finally am caught up. I'm still very much in love with it too.
Flavia de Luce is sort of a combination of Sherlock Holmes and Miss Fisher pushed into the body of a tween. The result is a delightful main character. On top of Flavia is a colorful cast of family members, and small town characters, who are all very entertaining. Basically, it's like one of those BBC mystery shows in book form, starring a awesome little girl.
The last book left off at quite a place so I'm very eager to get my hands on the next book which is coming out in September.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sherlock Holmes fans, BBC mystery show fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five awesome main characters

Book Review: The Bane Chronicles

TITLE: The Bane Chronicles
Part of the Mortal Instruments series
AUTHOR: Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, and Maureen Johnson
CATEGORY: YA
PUBLISHED: 2014
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: A bunch of short stories written by Clare and others that deal with some of the history of Magnus Bane.
MY REVIEW: I know what you all are thinking: hey, didn't she say she was done with this series after the last Mortal Instruments book? Yes. Yes, I did say that. But come on, we all knew it was a lie. We knew I'd come crawling back to this series because I just can't seem to resist it despite my many many many issues with it. I blame all the gushing on YouTube about the new series. It's made me curious again.
So I figured I'd just dive in again like the weak person I am with The Bane Chronicles, because Magnus Bane is basically my favorite thing about this series. As usual with story collections, some are better then others. Most didn't really reveal anything new to me. It was kind of fun seeing what the MI world was like during history, but other then that....not much to these stories. I think my favorite bit in this was when all the characters called Magnus' phone to bug him about the break-up in...I don't remember which book. But this story was hilarious.
So yeah...expect a review of Lady Midnight soon. Because I just can't quit this damn series.
WHO SHOULD READ: Mortal Instruments fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five favorite characters being awesome

Graphic Novel Review: This One Summer

TITLE: This One Summer
AUTHOR: Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: Graphic Novels
GENRE: Contemporary/Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: Two girls have a memorable/drama-filled summer at their annual family vacation spot.
MY REVIEW: Every family has that one vacation spot they probably went to frequently, at least when they were kids. My family always went to a lake in West Virginia where my grandmother had a house. To this day, I'm still not sure how that house came in our family's possession (it's since been sold) but I have very fond memories of spending Forth of July there. This graphic novel reminds me a lot of those summers.
In that way, it's a perfect summer read. The art style is very interesting. At first I didn't like it much, but as the story progressed, I realized it actually suits the story very well. There are lot of topics covered in this as Rose and Windy spend their summer lazing about. Some of it was dealt with kind of vaguely, but for the most part...this was a pretty well-done one-shot story.
If you're looking for some graphic novels to take on a trip, I highly recommend this one.
WHO SHOULD READ: YA contemporary fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five summer lakes

Book Review: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet

TITLE: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Book 1 in the Wayfarers series
AUTHOR: Becky Chambers
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Science Fiction
PREMISE: A woman joins a crew and their first mission becomes more then expected...
MY REVIEW: So this book has been around a bit. It just took me awhile to get to it. First, my library didn't get a copy of it until much later. Then there was a long reserve wait, and then...I just have to be in the mood for sci-fi. It's a weird thing with me. I can read fantasy any time, any where, but sci-fi? Have to be talked into it.
Now I personally really enjoyed this one. The characters are wonderfully developed, the world-building is fabulous, and the writing is great. My major complaint is that it's just...really slow paced. If you're into sci-fi for tons of space battles a la Star Wars....this probably won't be your thing.
So this is good. I hope the pace picks up in the next one. The pay off is worth it...it just took too long to get to said pay off and not every reader has the patience for that. I'll definitely be looking into the next one at some point in time.
WHO SHOULD READ: N.K. Jemisin fans, Star Trek fans?, those who like more character focused sci-fi
MY RATING: Four out of Five wormholes in space

The DNF Club: January 2017

So while I do manage to get a lot of reading done, there are also just as many books I don't finish. These books, I don't rate or write reviews for because I feel one should read completely before one rates something. However, one person's bad book is another person's best book ever. So I thought this year, I'd switch it up and show you the books I started but wound up ditching.

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson
Category: Adult fiction (some say it's true crime....I'm...not so sure about that)
Genre: Horror
Published: 1977

I picked this up because there's yet another Amityville movie out and I'm trying to read some of the book to movie adaptations this year. I hated the writing style with the power of a thousand burning suns. I quit after five chapters.

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Category: YA
Genre: Magical Realism
Published: 2006

This was very much a case of it's not you, it's me. I'm sure this is a perfectly fine book. For people who actually like magical realism.

Love, Lies, and Spies by Cindy Anstay
Category: YA
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2016

I wanted to like this one so bad, but it kept infantilizing its so-called super smart main character, demonizing everything feminine to show us how super special she was and so on and so forth. By her third damsel in distress moment, I was done.

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett by Chelsea Sedoti
Category: YA
Genre: Mystery
Published: January 2017

The mystery game was strong in 2016 for YA. I read a lot of great twisty thrillers. A lot of them, this past week. I was hoping this debut this year would be a continuation of that. Alas...it was not. The main character sounded much younger then someone old enough to go off to college soon. The mystery part took forever to get too and the conclusion the MC makes about what could have happened to Lizzie was so out of left field, I just had to reread that part five times to make sure I was reading it right. I gave up ten chapters in when I realized I just didn't care anymore.

#Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso
Category: Non-Fiction
Genre: Memoir/Self-Help
Published: 2014

Dear people who put this on feminist recommendation lists: you should have read that introduction first. You know, the one where she insists she's not a feminist and this like isn't a feminist memoir and like feminism isn't bad but like we don't need it, but like like...basically I kept wanting to belt out the Sorry Babe, You're a Feminist song from Broad Comedy at her. When I saw there was a chapter titled you are not a special snowflake, I knew right away this book wouldn't be for me.

For those wondering about the song I'm talking about, here:

Book Review: Kate Daniels series books 7-9

TITLE: Kate Daniels series
Book 7: Magic Breaks
Book 8: Magic Shifts
Book 9: Magic Binds
AUTHOR: Ilona Andrews
CATEGORY: Adult
PUBLISHED: 2014, 2015, 2016
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: Kate continues her relationship with Curran despite things such as the return of her father.
MY REVIEW: So the past year or so, I've been playing catch up with the Kate Daniels series. There was no particular reason I stopped keeping up with it. Things just sort of happened that way. Too many books on the TBR list.
But this past year, I've been catching up on series, and this is one of the series I was determined to catch up on and I'm so happy I did. Because, wow, have things gone down in these past few books. I can't help but compare this series to Mercy Thompson, where after her getting together with Adam, things have gotten boring. That is not so in the Kate Daniels series. Things are still happening, and Kate's character continues to develop beautifully. Thank you authors for remembering that character development doesn't just magically stop when people get together. So many long series tend to forget that little detail.
If you have read the first few Kate Daniels books, absolutely continue the series. Even if you've gotten to Curran and Kate getting together. I promise, the fun doesn't just stop because they're together now. The chemistry is still there, and plot is still there. I can't wait for the next book as always.
WHO SHOULD READ: Those that have read the rest of the Kate Daniels books, Mercy Thompson series fans, Urban Fantasy series fans
MY RATING (for series): Four out of Five bad-ass women leads

Series Review: The Others

SERIES: The Others
Books in Order: Written in Red
Murder of Crows
Vision in Silver
Marked in Flesh
AUTHOR: Anne Bishop
PUBLISHED: 2013-2016
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Urban Fantasy
PREMISE: A seer escapes from her prison and finds a new life among The Others, beings like shape-shifters, vampires, and so on.
MY REVIEW: Last year I read the first book in this series and basically fell in love. This year, I've been going through all the available books and am now fully caught up. I am still very much in love. The world-building in this series is phenomenal. I love the complicated dynamics going on between the characters. I love the slow burn of the conflict between The Others and humans. It's just so well done.
My only complaint is honestly, as much as I love all the detail...these books are really slow. I'm not kidding about this being a slow burn of a series. It's not totally boring or anything. There are things happening and they're important. But if you're someone who likes fast-paced plots...this might not be your thing.
Overall however, this series is great. It's one of my top urban fantasy series out there. I can't wait to read the next book next year now that I'm all caught up.
WHO SHOULD READ: Sookie Stackhouse fans, urban fantasy fans
MY RATING FOR SERIES: Four out of Five seers

Book Review: The Secret History of Wonder Woman

TITLE: The Secret History of Wonder Woman
AUTHOR: Jill Lepore
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Biography/Pop-Culture commentary
PUBLISHED: 2014
PREMISE: A researcher goes into detailed history about the creation of Wonder Woman by looking into the life of her creator.
MY REVIEW: I kind of suspect this book might not be for everyone. If you're looking for a book that is strictly about Wonder Woman herself...this probably isn't for you. It does go into Wonder Woman and the history behind her creation. But first and foremost it is about her creator, William Marsten and his life and how that life heavily influenced her story.
I personally, loved this book. It is detailed. Possibly more then it needs to be, but it gives you all the necessary info to help you understand how exactly Wonder Woman came to be. As a bonus, you even get some suffragist history because Marsten himself was greatly influenced by the suffragist movement. When fanboys inevitably try to tell you Wonder Woman isn't supposed to be feminist when the movie comes out, hand them this book. Highlight the parts where it says that was actually Marsten's entire intention with her.
As a non-fiction book, this is well written, detailed, and well organized. Some people apparently think all the detail is a bad thing, but I think it added to the book. But to each their own I guess. If you are interested in feminism history, like seeing how pop culture figures got created, then this book is for you.
WHO SHOULD READ: Wonder Woman fans, history fans, biography fans
MY RATING: Four and a half out of Five fingers crossed in the hopes that the Wonder Woman movie is good

Book Review: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

TITLE: To All The Boys I've Loved Before
Book 1 in the To All the Boys I've Loved Before Trilogy
AUTHOR: Jenny Han
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Romance, Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: Lara Jean hardly ever talks to her actual crushes. Instead, she writes letters to them, puts the letters away and moves on. But in a time when things are changing, her letters accidentally get sent to all the boys. And they come looking for answers...
MY REVIEW: Okay, NOW I get why Jenny Han has become a thing. I've never read her Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy, but now, I'm thinking I'm going to have too. Especially now while I seem to be in a cute realistic fiction romance mood. This book was just a delight.
Lara Jean is just fun. I adore her relationships with her sisters. The relationship shenanigans are straight out of a rom-com, but ten times better handled then most rom-coms. There are some things at the end I wasn't expecting, and now I'm definitely going to be reading PS I Still Love You.
If you're in the mood for a cute romance book for the summer, definitely give this one a shot. For once, the hype machine and I are in agreement. That doesn't happen often.
WHO SHOULD READ: romance fans, fans of the Summer I Turned Pretty
MY RATING: Four out of Five letters

Book Review: The Empathy Exams

TITLE: The Empathy Exams
AUTHOR: Leslie Jamison
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
GENRE: Essays
PREMISE: A collection of essays by the author talking about empathy.
MY REVIEW: I'll be honest with you: I have no clue how to rate essay collections. I am very new to the genre. This is only my second book of essays. The first book of essays I read was Bad Feminist last year. I said I was going to get to more essay collections and then...never did.
So is this a good essay collection? I don't have the faintest idea. I'm not a essay grader. I don't know what makes a good essay. I can tell you how I felt about this book though. For the most part I liked it. I liked it more for the ideas it presented then anything else. It does do what it sets out to do, which is challenge your way of thinking. However, like with some short story collections, some things here I liked better then others. I felt like a lot of the essays wandered a bit. They all had a point to them, it just...took awhile to get to the point.
I didn't relate as much to this one as I did with Bad Feminist, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I do hope to get to more essay collections in the future.
WHO SHOULD READ: Essay fans, fans of books that make you think about things
MY RATING: Four out of Five essays

Book Review: Brown Girl Dreaming

TITLE: Brown Girl Dreaming
AUTHOR: Jacqueline Woodson
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade
GENRE: Historical Fiction, Verse
PREMISE: An author recalls her childhood in the sixties through verse poems.
MY REVIEW: When it comes to verse books or honestly any sort of poetry, I'm more then a little out of my depth. I've never taken any sort of poetry class so I'm just really not familiar with poetry or verse at all. So when it comes to telling you if the verse stuff in here is superior or not...I've got nothing, sorry. But I'm assuming that the people who award things, know much more about these things then I do. Since it won a whole bunch of awards, I'm going to say the verse stuff is probably brilliant.
I can give you thoughts on the historical part of it and how it made me feel though. The historical stuff was top notch. There were also several bits in it that impacted me emotionally a lot. Which, I'm again assuming is a sign that the verse she's writing is good.
So I personally really liked this book. But this should probably be taken with a grain of salt, because I know pretty much nothing about what makes a good verse book.
WHO SHOULD READ: verse fiction fans, Jacqueline Woodson fans, historical fiction fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five verses

Book Series Review: The Heroes of Olympus

SERIES: The Heroes of Olympus
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
PUBLISHED between 2010 and 2014
CATEGORY: Middle-Grade/YAish
GENRE: Fantasy/Adventure, Mythology Tie-in
PREMISE: The demi-gods of Greece and the demi-gods of Rome's worlds collide as a force threatens to tear the world apart.
MY REVIEW: So, once upon a time, back when I first started this blog actually. I read The Lost Hero. I had just devoured the Percy Jackson series and I honestly, really liked it. But then.,,I forgot to read the rest? It's not a reflection on Mr. Riordan at all. These books are great. I just got into the Kane Chronicles, and then I had so many other books to read, that keeping up on this series sort of fell by the wayside. Especially after he started publishing two books a year.
But Magnus Chase came out and that reminded me that I have not read the rest of these and I started to feel guilty. So I went on a two month binge of the books. I enjoyed every minute of it. Reading these reminded me of why I loved the Percy Jackson series, way back when. I love that Riordan paid attention to the criticisms of the lack of diversity and instead of throwing a temper tantrum or crying PC police conspiracy, he went "you know...good point" and actually put diversity in the next books. Whether or not the diversity was good representation, is probably debatable, but I appreciate that he did it.
If you are familiar with Percy Jackson or the Kane Chronicles, this series follows the same sort of pattern. It's still immensely enjoyable. I love the spins on mythology that Riordan puts in it. I now am super pumped for the Apollo series and I'm reading Magnus Chase as we speak.
WHO SHOULD READ: Percy Jackson fans, Greek mythology fans
RATING FOR SERIES: Four and a half out of Five demi-gods getting stuff done

Book Review: The Paris Mysteries

TITLE: The Paris Mysteries
Book 3 in the Confessions series
AUTHOR: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: Tandy and her family are now in Paris and Tandy finds more skeletons in the family closet.
MY REVIEW: Wow. That is not a good wow. I don't think I've ever had a series belly flop so hard on me like this. I never kidded myself. This series was never great reading. But its good points tended to overshadow the bad ones. This time however....there was more bad then good.
For starters, everyone was out of character. These characters were virtually unrecognizable from the characters I had come to adore from the first two books. Especially C. P. Don't get me started on how they ruined C. P. What happened with her is textbook character assassination. Character assassination that made no sense.
There is just one more book left, but honestly? I'm done. This series jumped the shark for me.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read the first two but tread lightly
MY RATING: Two out of Five bad what the hells

Book Review: Yes, Please

TITLE: Yes, Please
AUTHOR: Amy Poehler
CATEGORY: Non-Fiction
PUBLISHED: 2014
GENRE: Memoirs
PREMISE: Amy Poehler writes about some of her experiences in her career and the things she has learned from these experiences.
MY REVIEW: I'm not going to lie to you, this review comes with much bias. I adore Amy Poehler. She's one of my favorite SNL stars, I tend to like basically everything she does. This memoir is no exception.
If you are familiar with celebrity memoirs, this follows much of the same pattern. There's a brief history of her career, that is full of some funny and pretty on point commentary about growing up. There's some talk about her rise in SNL and then she briefly goes into motherhood and her other projects. Some people guest write parts, such as her parents talking about when she was born. I found that kind of clever.
If you picked this one up, you are probably an Amy Poehler fan as well. Therefore, I doubt you'll be disappointed. I do wish there were some more details. Like, I would have liked stories about her time working on Mean Girls. But, perhaps she's saving those for a future biography. Her career certainly isn't over any time soon, Considering the success of this book, I suspect we may see her write another.
WHO SHOULD READ: Amy Poehler fans, Bossypants fans, those into celebrity memoirs
MY RATING: Four out of Five awesome celebrities

Book Review: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line

TITLE: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line
Veronica Mars Book 1
AUTHOR: Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Mystery
PREMISE: Taking place after the Veronica Mars movie, this new series starts as Veronica gets her first major case as an adult PI.
MY REVIEW: As a rule...I don't tend to do tie-in novels. Usually, I don't see the need for them. Especially if the series it ties into is still going on or ended in a satisfactory way. There are some exceptions to this. I have been known to pick up some Star Trek books now and then. I also plan on picking up some of the new Star Wars expanded universe books. There are also the new YA books that DC and Marvel are doing (FYI Marvel, I would not be adverse to a Ms Marvel YA series). Then there's this series that started last year.
I am a big Veronica Mars fan. I loved the movie and I'm sad that it looks like that may be the last we see of it for awhile. But we're getting iZombie from him at least and that show is awesome (seriously, check it out, even if you're not into zombies). This series picks up where the film left off and we get to see adult PI Veronica in action and it's wonderful. There is a bit of a lack of Logan as he's still doing his thing, but we do get Keith Mars, Veronica's awesome friends, and Weevil even makes a brief appearance. It's a almost as good as getting a sequel to the movie/series.
The writing itself is average for tie-in novels. But when picking up books like this, I don't tend to really judge the writing. I tend to judge if it feels like the series and in this case, is a natural continuation of it. It is. The writer gets these characters and doesn't ruin Veronica in any way. I say, job well done. I'm definitely picking up the next book. If we can't have more Veronica Mars, this series is at least a good stand in.
WHO SHOULD READ: Veronica Mars fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five camaras

Book Review: Pointe

Title: Pointe
Author: Brandy Colbert
Published: 2014
Category: YA
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Premise: A girl's life spirals as a friend who disappeared comes back and secrets from back when he disappeared come to light.
My Review: I picked this one up on a whim because I recall it being talked about a lot last year. It's a heavy book that is pretty frank about things like teenagers having sex and swearing and doing drugs/drinking. So if that's not your thing...you probably won't get into it. Personally, I felt some of it was over-the-top, but that's what I tend to feel like a lot when authors try to pile that on in YA books. It literally feels like the author going "look how hip and in the know I am!" at you. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should sugar coat things either. But there should be a balance, you know?
Other then that minor issue, it is a good book mostly. It's heavy book mostly due to the subject matter. This is one of the few times where I feel the story would have benefited more from actually having two points of view. The story stalls a lot in the middle because we don't know what's going on with Donovan. I kind of wish we had gotten his view of things. As it is, we don't. While it still answers a lot of things in the end...it felt a little incomplete and ended quite abruptly. But that's kind of how most of these contemporary books tend to end so there you go.
Whether you like this book or not will probably just come down to a matter of taste and whether or not you're in the mood for such a story or if you like books that tackle serious issues.
WHO SHOULD READ: those in the mood for serious issue books, realistic fiction fans, Speak fans
MY RATING: Four out of Five ballet shoes

Book Review: We Were Liars

TITLE: We Were Liars
AUTHOR: E. Lockhart
PUBLISHED: 2014
CATEGORY: YA
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A group of privileged teens lead a comfortable life until a tragedy happens...
MY REVIEW: So, you've likely heard about this book already. Heck, you've probably read it already. It was a pretty huge book around the blogosphere last year. Normally, I wouldn't have bothered because of the genre, but when a book gets that big I at least give it a shot. Plus, I'd read Lockhart's work before and she's a damn good writer.
Unfortunately...I don't think this is one of her better books. It's not bad...it's just not the mind blowing book that everyone made it out to be last year. The first and main problem I have with it is....it's boring. Until you get to the last fifty or so pages, it's just dull. It focuses on privileged children and goes the whole poor little rich kid route and sorry, I have little sympathy. Then the big thing happens at the end and honestly...I don't think it was the shock of a ending that the summary promised. There were some good things in it that were discussed. There is a character who actually calls out how privileged they all are. But...good discussion does not always mean good book.
Basically, there wasn't anything wrong with this, other then being boring, it was just not nearly as mind blowing as everyone kept telling me. Once again, I was a victim of overhype. This is why I want the overhype machine to stop. Or at least not get as ridiculous as it has been in recent years.
WHO SHOULD READ: E. Lockhart fans, realistic fiction fans, family drama fans
MY RATING: Three out of Five sighs