REVIEW: THE DARKEST MINDS by ALEXANDRA BRACKEN
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Posted by Unknown at 10:03 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2014 reviews, action, adventure, alexandra bracken, book review, dark, debut, dystopian, fiction, mystery, review, scifi, series, teen, the darkest minds, ya, ya fiction, young adult
Checklist for Reviews
Friday, January 17, 2014
That's pretty much it--short and simple. Keeping my discussion restricted to two characters while hitting the high and low points should definitely shorten down/structure my reviews somewhat, right??
This is kind of for my own benefit, but if you're in need of a list-like structure thing or whatever, feel free to use mine. It's sort of a learning process, so I guess I'll modify this as I go.
Good night!
REVIEW: THE MYSTERIOUS BENEDICT SOCIETY by TRENTON LEE STEWART
I've put off this review for way too long, and I've already forgotten everything I was going to say, but overall, this is just a really freakin' cute book. It's fast, it's fun, the ending is happy-yet-bittersweet, and the characters are just utterly charming. Even if you simply buy it for the sake of having the adorable, whimsical illustrations displayed on your shelf, buy it. {Seriously, it just looks so good up there. All pretty next to my Steinbeck collection.}
This review probably seems kind of short and sad next to that MASSIVE Cassandra Clare tirade I went on for CITY OF BONES, but hey, there isn't much to say. Read this book with your kids, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Unless you're one of those people who thinks that A.A Milne was a Nazi. In which case, I cannot help you.
OVERALL RATING: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Posted by Unknown at 8:10 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2014 reviews, adventure, artsy covers, book review, children's, children's fiction, fiction, mystery, quirky, realistic fiction, review, the mysterious benedict society, trenton lee stewart
REVIEW: CITY OF BONES by CASSANDRA CLARE
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Posted by Unknown at 10:23 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2014 reviews, a, book review, cassandra clare, city of bones, fantasy, fiction, humor, magic, review, romance, series, teen, the mortal instruments, urban fantasy, ya fiction, ya paranormal romance, young adult
REVIEW: GONE by MICHAEL GRANT
Okay, now that I've stacked three other books on top of my copy of GONE, let's talk characters! We have the obvious flaws, of course–those being Sam Temple, Mr. Obnoxious, Boring White Bread Perfect; the dumb sidekick whose sole purpose in life is to make his
On the other side of that scale, though, we have characters like Edilio, the butt-kicking Hispanic kid who doesn't boast any superpowers but manages to be adorable and thoroughly likeable at the same time. Also, we get to see Sam redeem himself slightly by calling his weak-ass friend Quinn out on his racist bullshit. Fuck yeah, friendship. Plus there's Lana, the healer who has an adorable dog named after Patrick Star, and who manages to be pretty incredible even when faced with crazy mutant coyotes who want her to teach them how to kill humans and basically take over the world. And then, if the two of them couldn't get awesome enough, they totally start crushing on each other.
But then we have Astrid the Genius. I was really badly conflicted on this character when I first read about her–I mean, a super-smart girl who's also incredibly attractive and basically sounds kind of like a {sorry} flat Annabeth Chase rip-off? I kind of just sat there praying, hoping that she wouldn't let me down by being a jerk or an idiot, but nah. She turned out okay. I was pretty pleased when her little brother was introduced, and how Grant showed her caring for him even though she had conflicting feelings about doing so, etc. I just don't feel too passionately for her, you know? But respect for the lady, man. I'm ashamed to say that if I were put in that situation, with that kind of sibling, knowing what I knew, I would probably just ditch him or kill him. Yes, that makes me a terrible person, I know, we've established this already–but honestly speaking, wouldn't most of you? I doubt pity would serve you well in a place like the FAYZ.
OH GOD I JUST REMEMBERED. WHAT A STUPID NAME. What the hell did it even stand for in the first place? Fallout Alley Youth Zone? {I didn't look that up, so if it's wrong, whatever.} Who the hell comes up with shit like that. I bet one kid was just, like, super stoned, as was all 'ha ha fayz rhymes with blaze. blaze on. 420.' or whatever it is stoned teenagers say. {Or stoned authors, either way.}
Anyway, yeah, the whole plot twist with the little kid actually kind of caught me off-guard. In a pleasant way, actually. Even though it really didn't explain much of anything at all, I liked how that all sort of pieced together. Also, fuck avoiding spoilers, if you're bothering to read this review, you've probably read the book anyway. Astrid's autistic little brother created the FAYZ thing to stop a nuclear meltdown, and somehow accidentally managed to send all the adults packing and possibly create some mysterious giant monster thing with a dumb name. The Darkness. Man, what is it with this book and dumb names?
So I left this review sitting around for a while, and I don't remember my train of thought AT ALL, so I'm just gonna leave it off here.
I gave the damn thing three stars because I honestly have no idea where to stand on it. On one hand, it wasn't all that entertaining, which made it tedious, but on the other, it wasn't really terrible in a way that could make me hate it. And three stars is kind of my go-to thing for when I can't decide which way I lean with a book, so boom. Here ya go.
Posted by Unknown at 9:55 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2014 reviews, book review, dystopian, fantasy, gone, michael grant, mystery, reading, review, science fiction, scifi, teen, ya fiction, young adult
UPDATE: WOW PRETTY THINGS
Wow hey how prettiful!!
So yeah, if you haven't guessed already–New layout! I also made a new page with archiving and to-dos and stuff but for some reason there's no thing for pages on this template. And it won't let me add one.
OH WELL whatever. It's gorgeous and delicious and I love it so I can deal.
For those of you who were curious and wanted actual access to the goddamn thing I spent so long on, here it is! I'm currently powering my way through The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and I have so many mixed feelings. Also, everyone I know who's ever read it seems intent on spoiling every damn little detail, so there's that.
For now, that is all, my lovelies. Continue your bookishness!
Posted by Unknown at 9:46 PM 0 comments
REVIEW: A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by LIBBA BRAY
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
OVERALL RATING: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Posted by Unknown at 8:11 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2013 reviews, artsy covers, book review, drama, fantasy, feminism, fiction, gothic, historical fiction, libba bray, magic, reading, review, romance, teen, victorian, ya fiction, ya paranormal romance, young adult
REVIEW: HOUSE RULES by JODI PICOULT
Sunday, January 5, 2014
HOUSE RULES is about a teenager with Asperger's Syndrome who is accused of murder. It's one part feel-good family, one part murder mystery, and one part courthouse drama with a sprinkling of autism awareness and romance. And it also happens to be an incredibly interesting and a powerful read.
Thanks to the cover and title, when I first saw this book and knew nothing about it, I kind of assumed that it was about a dull suburban family doing dull things and ruining each others' lives in the process. I'm happy to report that this was the complete opposite. Our suburban family is interesting, realistic, and damaged, but close, and the plot keeps you going until one in the morning. {I say this from experience.}
It's clear that this book was really well-researched, but I do feel as if some parts were slightly over-exaggerated on the author's part–almost all of Jacob' symptoms, for example. I mean, seriously, it doesn't matter how bad you are at picking up the feel of a room, if you're arrested for murder, you're probably going to know that you're getting arrested for murder. Needless to say, having the main freakin' character not even understand how much shit he's in for more than half the book was endlessly frustrating. Eurgh, Jacob, you sound like a sweetheart, but sometimes I just wanted to smack your head. {Does this make me a terrible person? Possibly.}
Okay, but aside from that little nuance, Jacob was the kind of character that you couldn't help but root for. Although to be frank, I was probably really just rooting for Emma Hunt, who was honestly the most good-natured, caring, and likeable
I can already see that this is turning into a paragraph-by-paragraph essay on each of the characters, so I'm going to cut myself off here and follow with this before I delve into the real stuff: Oliver? Adorable. He's competing for the title of 'Most Adorable Character' with his poodle, in my mind. Theo? Strangely earnest and realistic. I was surprised that I wound up liking him quite a bit.
The police officer was really too minor a character to really analyze–of the five narrators, he was easily the least significant. This makes me sad, probably because I have a weakness for law enforcers, but mostly because he was introduced as a potential love interest/figure of romantic conflict to Emma and then was kind of just shucked aside and labeled as 'that bad man who arrested the autistic kid.' I mean, is it just me, or does it seem like everything that doesn't feature a cop as the main character has the police as a sort of unified force of evil and injustice? Obviously, American law enforcement isn't in its prime at the moment, but that certainly doesn't mean every police officer ever is a massive jerk when doing their job.
To be fair, Rich had some redeeming qualities, and really, my beef with this character is really minor and personal, so you shouldn't even take me seriously on this. I find that I usually have to have at least one thing to complain about in everything I read or watch, because otherwise, these reviews would all be very short, wouldn't they?
So, I suppose in the end, I simply don't know how to express how fascinating and riveting this book was for me, in my experience. Of course, like everything, it had its flaws, but like many good and enjoyable things, they didn't detain from the overall experience that the story, characters, and setting provide. It's a heartwarming tale about autism and those who live with it struggling against prejudice and misunderstanding in a white American suburbia–okay, I'm just going to cut myself off now, because apparently I can't formulate my words into actual, coherent thoughts at the moment. If I come up with a way to word my now-stale emotions towards this book, I'll get back to you guys.
Posted by Unknown at 7:44 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2014 reviews, adult, adult fiction, autism awareness, book review, contemporary, crime, drama, fiction, house rules, jodi picoult, murder mystery, mystery, realistic fiction, review
2013 Wrap-Up
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Well, happy New Years, you guys! Congrats on making it this far.
I didn't feel motivated at all to make an actual vlog to honor the turning of the year, so I guess I'll just be doing this instead. I'm not entirely sure what this is quite yet, but I'm sure it'll involve books somewhere.
It's kind of been a big year, book-wise, for me: I discovered the wide and glorious world of booktubers and book bloggers, for one, and I also found that lovely thrift book store that has now consumed all of the money I ever thought I had. To be quite honest, I'd fallen off the reading bandwagon in favor of other pursuits, so fall/winter of 2013 was more or less my rebirth as a reader. Like the second coming of Pages Christ, except not at all, because that was a terrible joke. I'm going to hide my head in a blanket now.
But in all seriousness, returning to reading, for me, was more or less a defense mechanism. 2013 was a problem year for me. An unyielding string of tragedies hit me really quickly in an extremely condensed point of time, and I was completely unequipped to deal with any of them, so I fell into a weird state of dazed angry-sadness and threw myself into physical training while I was overseas studying martial arts/weaponry. Then I came home, managed to patch some of my problems back together with an unsteady layer of duct tape, found a few unexpected allies, and learned to deal with the ideas of death and loss, in my own way. And in November, I found booktubing, and I honestly don't think I've ever felt better in my life. Seriously, even my attitude has markedly improved. Just ask my mother.
Sure, I don't expect life to be perfect from here on out just because I've rediscovered reading as an escape hatch–I've already hit a low point, seeing as the holiday season did not agree with me–but I think I'm at peace with myself. {There's a saying about this somewhere–with every darkness there is a dawn??? Something????}
So, here's me raising my glass of pomegranate juice to the sky and welcoming in 2014, because I now know it's completely within my scope of ability to overcome whatever challenges the new year may present.
{That was shorter than I expected it to be, but oh well. Happy New Year, folks.}
Posted by Unknown at 7:24 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2013, new year, ramble, resolutions