august wrap-up

hi guys! today i have my august wrap-up for you! so, let's get right into it:

'the tooth' by shirley jackson (goodreads) - this is a collection of short sinister stories by the queen of creepy. it's part of the penguin mini modern classics collection which i adore, they're very short reads and a great way to take a break in the middle of a monster 800-pager or something. the stories were about having a tooth pulled, a creepy man on a coach, a bad child at nursey, a village lottery, and a young girl at an adults party. the first and last stories didn't have any real effect on me, but i found the three in the middle to be really unsettling and creepy. they're too short to give any kind of explanation of the events so you're just left going, "oh my god, what?! what?! what was that about?!", and i LOVED that reaction.

'peter pan' by j.m. barrie (goodreads) - 'peter pan' is my favourite disney film and i adore the characters, and felt it was about time that i read the book. we're all very familiar with the beautiful story, so i won't explain the plot. it was so charming and wonderful, and it was such a pleasure for me to read. i feel like j.m. barrie knows and understands both children and adults really well, and he appealed to both the young and old in me.

'scott pilgrim' #4, #5, and #6 by bryan lee o'malley (goodreads 4, 5, 6) - as i said in my last wrap-up, this was a re-read for me, and i adored getting back into this world. it was like putting on a lovely warm blanket in winter. we all know what 'scott pilgrim' is about so i won't say much about it other than it is pretty much the original graphic novel series and i really enjoyed reading it again.

'so long, and thanks for all the fish' by douglas adams (goodreads) - this is the fourth book in the 'hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' series that i've been reading for quite a while know. it's a widely celebrated sci-fi story most well known for it's PERFECT british humour. this book is kind of a bit of a love story as the protagonist, arthur, returns to earth and meets fenchurch, who is an adorable character, and it's essentially about their relationship and how they spend their time together. fenchurch really made this book for me, i thought she was excellent.

'mostly harmless' by douglas adams (goodreads) - this is the final book in the 'hitchhiker's series. sadly fenchurch was absent in this book, which i was really sad about, but it did feature a lot of hilarious ford/arthur dialogue, which i adore. overall i feel like the ending was a bit sudden and kind of underwhelming but, having thought about it, it did resolve the series nicely. i'm actually really sad that the series is over; i've been reading it so gradually over the past year that it's become a part of my life and i don't really know what to do with myself now, haha!

'four: a divergent collection' by veronica roth (goodreads) - earlier this year i read and loved the 'divergent' series (i wrote about it here, here, and here) so of course i had to pick this up. it is a bind-up of four novellas from four/tobias' point of view, and also a few extra scenes from 'divergent' from his point of view as well. i have mixed feelings about this book, really. i really enjoyed learning about four's initiation and his transfers to dauntless, but getting his perspective on scenes i had already read from tris' point of view just didn't add anything for me at all, and i found them quite boring. i felt the same about the extra scenes at the end. overall, i liked getting back into the world, and i love veronica roth's style and i can't wait to read more from her, but this book just didn't excite me. if she were to write some stuff about eric, however, THAT would excite me.

'the disenchantments' by nina lacour (goodreads) - this book is about a group of friends who go on tour with their band the summer after they finish high school. the protagonist colby thinks that he and his friend bev are skipping college and going to europe after the tour, but it turns out that bev has other plans, which she breaks to him just after they set off, and the story unfolds from there. i ADORED this book! it's the perfect road-trip story and made me so eager to go travelling. i loved the approach to life that was shown through their adventures as well - starting a band and playing shows even if you suck, travelling across states just to talk to a guy with a tattoo you're interested in, drawing and creating things all the time, making friends and coming together to collaborate on artwork, just DOING STUFF. it's exactly the kind of life i want to lead and i actually found this book so inspiring. other than that, the story was excellent and i loved the characters, but it just really spoke to me.

'the bermudez triangle' by maureen johnson (goodreads) - i was in the mood for the some contemporary this month so of course i turned to the queen of contemporary, maureen johnson! i've adored every maureen johnson book that i've read so far and this one was no exception. it's about 3 girls who are all best friends, and during the summer one girl goes away to a summer school, and when she returns she finds the other two friends have started seeing each other. i adored the characters in this book, and it approached the issues of exploring your sexuality as a teenager and dating a close friend really really intelligently. i loved it!

'horrorstor' by grady hendrix (goodreads) - i wrote a whole review on this incredible book so you can click through to read that here, but let me tell you: it is FANTASTIC. i loved it. it is incredible. go read it right away.

thanks for reading guys! hope you had a great reading month, and please link me to your wrap-ups in the comments below! x

horrorstör by grady hendrix

hi guys! today i have a review of the absolutely fantastic 'horrorstör' by grady hendrix (goodreads) for you! a big shoutout to the wonderful people at quirk books who were kind enough to send me this beautiful copy - thank you, you're so awesome! you guys spoil me so much! and just as a side note, i used my new compact canon camera to take the photos for this post, so let me know what you think in the comments!

obviously we have to talk about the production - it is fantastic. the book is about a horror/ghost story set in an ikea-like store called 'orsk', and the book itself is designed to look like an ikea catalogue. it goes the extra mile and has a bunch of cool stuff inside it, including an order form, a map of the shop, their store policies, and so on. plus, at the beginning of each chapter is a diagram and description of a different piece of furniture that orsk sell, and the furniture gets more and more sinister as the story goes on. it really is the most perfect production of a book i've ever seen. some books that have production gimmicks like this just tend to fall back on it and forget about the story, but that really didn't happen here. the story itself is fantastic and the production just compliments it, which is exactly what you want from a book like this.

the story centres around amy (the protagonist), her colleague ruth anne, and their manager basil as they spend the night in orsk to find out who keeps breaking in and damaging their displays while the store is closed, and, as you can expect, it all gets a bit strange and they find themselves in the middle of a ghost story.

i really liked the setting of the book. obviously, everyone loves ikea, so that aspect made it fun to read, but it also makes it so much more relatable for me. we all know the torture of the shop maze, we all like to play in the room displays, we all understand how the shop is run, and that really helped me get on board with the plot. yeah, it's fun, it's unique, but that choice was used really wisely here.

for me, i didn't find it very scary, but personally i define 'scary' as something that makes me jump and makes my heart race, and this isn't really that kind of book. it's more the kind of book that gets in your head and makes you question things, and it definitely delivered in that aspect. it was very sinister and creepy, and reminded me a lot of stephen king's 'the shining', in the sense that things keep happening and neither the reader nor the characters are sure if they're real or not.

this ghost story had that perfect thing that every ghost story should have: it made me question everything. were matt and trinity ever really there? did they just make it all up? was it just a hallucination? i've thought about this book a lot since i finished reading it and i still can't quite decide what i believe happened, which i really love.

the use of exhaustion was something i really adored and i felt it was used perfectly in this book. as a retail worker myself i'm all too familiar with the exhaustion of serving people, of dragging myself out of bed in the morning, of doing ridiculous things for customers, and because this is a book set in a retail store, i think using exhaustion as the key method of torture was absolutely perfect. it's used quite a lot; amy having to pull herself out of that chair, amy having to fight against submission to the ghosts, amy having to go back to save the others. the monotony of it all as well - how they keep almost escaping and then getting drawn back in. it mirrors amy's everyday life perfectly, and really, you could even interpret the whole thing as being just a massively over-exaggerated surrealist story about the horrors of retail life.

speaking of amy, i found her to be a very relatable character and i really felt for her. i think lots of people are going to understand her situation because we've all worked jobs that we hated, and it was so easy for me to root for her. i also loved the character of ruth anne, and i thought basil was fantastic; his dedication to his job in even the most ridiculous and frightening circumstances really warmed my heart and actually made me tear up at one point. i'm laughing thinking about it now but i really cared about these people! i wanted them to get out safe!

overall i absolutely adored this book. i gave it 5 stars on my goodreads page - it was so fantastic! it delivered on every level and it was just as exciting as the cover makes it seem; i can't fault it all. i cannot recommend it enough! x

p.s. i just want to add how amusing i found the word 'liripip'. a liripip is like a basic budget wardrobe sold at orsk, and it's referred to in the book quite often, and everytime a character said 'liripip' i had a little chortle to myself. it is truly an excellent word.

the 'across the universe' series by beth revis - spoiler-free review

hi guys! today i have my long-overdue review of beth revis' 'across the universe' series! so let's get right into it:

the premise is what really sucks you into this series - you arrive into the story on a spaceship called 'godspeed', which was sent off from earth almost 300 years ago to transport a big portion of america's population to a newly-discovered habitable planet. personally, that's the most exciting bit for me, but i found the marketing of this series to be really odd, and blurbs/reviews/etc. always focused on the character of amy. amy is a girl from earth who was frozen on this ship (among many others) to be awoken when they land, but for some reason is woken up early and nobody knows why. it comes about that this was an attempted murder and they have to find the killer, and that storyline is actually very interesting, but the focus on amy is ALL WRONG. she is boring, she is bland, she is whiny, and i really didn't like her. she's quite unimportant to the story itself, initially, and i feel that if she had died at the beginning instead of living then the story could have continued quite unchanged.
what was really interesting though is how the politics of the ship changed as new characters were introduced and things began to happen. it gave a really interesting perspective on what it's like to run a country or to be in charge, and i really enjoyed that aspect of the story. you also get an insight into how the ship might run, both politically and mechanically, and i really enjoyed looking at the environmental aspects of it, and considering how they would grow food, how they would get vitamins, how they would create a simulated living environment for livestock, and so on.
the series has a double narrative between elder, a teenage boy who is learning how to be the leader (or 'eldest') of the ship, and amy. i found the double narrative to actually be really useful because you get to see the situation from the perspective of someone that has lived on the ship his whole life and also from a perspective of someone who finds it all alien and strange. i have no issues with amy and elder being the main characters but there was a totally unnecessary romance element added which i really didn't care for and i felt that it added nothing to the story.

so those are some comments i have on the series in general, and now i'm going to talk about a few things i thought about each individual book:

• the characters in 'across the universe' were bland and flat. i had no connection to them at all and they really didn't excite me.
• some of the twists were pretty obvious in this book; in the first few chapters elder muses about something (no spoilers here!) that is a TOTAL GIVEAWAY to the big twist! it was so obvious! i understand that as an author you have to lay down clues to your twists but it was so sloppy. 
• however, some of the other twists were really interesting and unexpected. they really built upon the premise that i found so interesting to begin with, which got me more involved in the story and were really the only thing that pushed me on to read the second book. 
• although the characters were quite basic, at some points it seemed like beth revis really didn't understand them at all. amy calling her dad 'daddy' seemed overly childish for an otherwise strong character, and eldest calling amy a 'freak' seemed overly childish for such an authority figure. these are minor points but it really struck me as odd and it affected the flow of the dialogue.
• i'm not sure if this was an attempt to seem ~futuristic~ or something, but constantly using words like 'frex', 'brilly', and 'uni' (to replace 'fuck', 'brilliant', and 'universe', i assume) were just annoying. 

• the premise of the series is excellent in general but i feel like it really kicked it up a gear for 'a million suns'. i loved the idea of a revolution and it was such a simple way to change the social dynamic so that this book didn't feel like just an extension of 'across the universe' even though the situation hadn't changed. very smart move!
• some absolutely incredible characters came out in this book, particularly some really strong women. i absolutely adored second shipper shelby and victria. i also loved how the character of orion developed in this book.
• the split narrative really worked for me in this book - this is a perfect example of how to use a split narrative to build tension. switching to elder when something exciting was happening with amy really helped get me interested in the story line and really motivated me to keep reading. 
• to say that i really didn't care about the characters in the first book, at all, i loved some of the new characters so much that i actually CRIED. TWICE. beth revis really stepped up her game in 'a million suns'. 

• there were some more great characters introduced in 'shades of earth'. i really liked amy's parents; i think they split her personality traits perfectly - her dad getting her fighting side and her mum getting her explorative side. i also really liked how bartie developed in this book.
• more badass women were also introduced! emma blesdoe was a fantastic character.
• in this book we learn a lot more about the new habitable planet (known as centauri-earth), and i was quite underwhelmed by it. it was mostly described as being a rainforest type landscape, and the only animals that were encountered were pretty much just pterodactyls. it could have been so much more unique than that, i was really disappointed. 
• the ending, however, was fantastic. it broke my heart.

overall, i did end up really enjoying the series, and it definitely improved over time. the main flaws are obviously the initial characters but i think the development of the side characters really made up for this. the premise managed somehow to get increasingly interesting and it was incredible that beth managed to keep the suspense going and to create new twists that were exciting and shocking even when the conditions of the story didn't change that much. i recommend picking it up and persevering through into 'a million suns' if 'across the universe' doesn't interest you very much - it does get better!

so that is it! thanks for reading guys, and i'll have my august wrap-up up on here for you very soon! hope you're having a great day. :-) x

july wrap-up

hi guys! sorry that i've been gone a little while but i'm back now with my july wrap-up for you! let's get right into it!

'fly on the wall' by e. lockhart (goodreads) - 'fly on the wall' is about a girl who goes unnoticed in school and wishes she could be a fly in the boys locker room, and the next day she wakes up and she is one. there's lots of observing and reflecting going on but nothing really happens, you just get some interesting insights into various people who go to her school. i didn't find the book particularly exciting but i do love e. lockhart's writing style so it was a pleasure to read.

'say her name' by james dawson (goodreads) - 'say her name' is about the classic 'bloody mary'/'say the name in the mirror' story line that we've all heard several times before, so it's not exactly an original premise, but it doesn't pretend to be, which i liked. it accepts it's been done before and doesn't try to pretend that it's unique, which really worked in its favour. i really enjoyed this book and it definitely succeeded in scaring me a few times. james' writing style is also really refreshing and very honest to how teenagers actually talk and act nowadays. my only issue with the book is that i felt like the last chapter/epilogue could have been fleshed out a bit more to give a bit more of an explanation, but that's my only bad point.

'scott pilgrim' #1, #2, and #3 by bryan lee o'malley (goodreads 1, 2, 3) - i've been re-reading the 'scott pilgrim' series in anticipation of bryan's new book 'seconds', and i've absolutely adored getting back into this world. i first read it many, many years ago and i really think it is the best graphic novel series out there. i'm sure you all know the premise but if you don't, it's about a guy called scott who has to defeat all the ex-boyfriends of his new girlfriend. i forgot just how much more you learn about the characters in the books than in the film (which is excellent in itself, by the way), like i loved reminding myself all about kim - i love kim!

'life, the universe and everything' by douglas adams (goodreads) - another episode in the fabulous 'hitchikers' series that i am loving! the characters, the setting, the writing, the brilliant british humour! there's really no way i could ever sum it up and do it justice (although i did try here). i love it, go check it out!

'shades of earth' by beth revis (goodreads) - obviously this is the last book in a series so i can't really tell you what happens. the basis for the series is a portion of the world's population which has been sent up in a spaceship to reach a new-found habitable planet in 300 years time, and about how that situation works socially, environmentally, politically, and so on. the premise is excellent and i found this series so interesting. i have mixed thoughts about 'shades of earth' but i love the series as a whole, and i'll be writing a full series review for you guys soon.

'lola and the boy next door' by stephanie perkins (goodreads) - this book follows lola, a costume designer, and cricket, an inventor, as the main couple. i really liked it but it is just a fluffy romance story - nothing too exciting. although a book about a costume designer seems right up my street i found lola to be really annoying, and stephanie perkins used to whole overdone 'wears a new costume everyday' quirky character profile that i hate. when you push the quirky, eccentric character to the extremes like stephanie did it just becomes an unrealistic joke. also, has anyone seen 'the confessions of a teenage drama queen'? lindsay lohan's character also demands to be called 'lola' and is exactly the same. SO OVERDONE. (lindsay is great though) despite that, i really did learn to like lola, and oh wow, did i love cricket! he's my ideal man and i want him to be real so bad haha. i love the name 'cricket' too. plus, there were lots of themes in this book that i adored - it was like it was tailored specifically for me. costumes and figure skating?! yes please! overall, i have mixed feelings, but i recommend giving it a go and making up your own mind. i definitely did prefer it to 'anna and the french kiss' though, and i'm very exciting to read 'isla and the happily ever after' soon!

'landline' by rainbow rowell (goodreads) - i wrote a whole review on this book (linked here) so i won't say too much, but i LOVED it. it's essentially about a woman who has a fight with her husband and she tries to contact him through her old phone at her parents house, only to find that he answers from the past, back when they had their first big argument as a couple. i gave it 5/5 stars! everything rainbow writes is perfect!

'rookie yearbook two' edited by tavi gevinson (goodreads) - i also wrote a review on this book (linked here), a physical yearly publication of the absolutely perfect rookie mag online website for teenage girls. go check it out!

thanks for reading guys! again, sorry for leaving this blog for a little while, i've been so busy with work, but i've still been reading and i've got a lot of reviews lined up for you in the next few weeks, so keep checking back. hope you're having a lovely day. xx

landline by rainbow rowell - spoiler free!

hi guys! today i have a review of 'landline' by rainbow rowell (goodreads) for you! i'd just like to take a quick moment to thank michelle and the lovely people at st. martin's press for sending me this beautiful review copy - thanks so much guys, it was so lovely of you to send me this, you made my whole week! now, let's get to the review:

first things first, rainbow rowell writes the most perfect characters ever. oh man, did i love these characters! i loved georgie, i understood her straight away, and i was so in love with neal it was ridiculous. i absolutely loved heather as well - i'd really like to read a book from heather's point of view, maybe this whole incident from her perspective? or anything really, she was just great, and i can totally see her being a protagonist.

i couldn't even believe how well-formed these characters were, though. particularly georgie's mum; i knew exactly how she would say something without ever being told about her accent, and i could picture what she would be wearing without needing a description. it's not like they were stock characters that everyone knows either (such as, the all-american high-school cheerleader, or the bored housewife, and so on), they were SO UNIQUE. it didn't take me any time at all to get into the book, it was instantaneous, and i made a note in my book journal when i was on page 20 saying how i felt like i'd known these people for years.

because of how in-depth her characters were, rainbow managed to do something which i think a lot of authors can't, which is create real emotion between characters that the reader can feel. she did this a lot in 'eleanor & park' (remember the really steamy hand-holding scene on the school bus? when i read that i was 100% back to my 15-y/o self, holding hands with a guy for the first time) and she did it again in 'landline' - just the suggestion of phone sex in a conversation sparked up so much passion in the scene; one sentence and she changed the whole tone of the chapter. rainbow is a truly phenomenal writer, she has such great control over the story and the reader.

other than characters she's also excellent at dialogue - you know those chapters in books where it's just back-and-forth conversation in speech marks but with no indication of who's talking and you get so confused? there's a lot of that in 'landline' but it totally worked. this might be because i knew the characters so well (i could tell who was speaking) but i was never confused, and i loved those chapters. the conversation flowed really well and it always felt really natural and organic, and so REAL. i don't know how she managed to make a story about a magic phone seem so real but she pulled it off.

speaking of knowing the characters really well, i found myself reading something neal said and thinking, "that is so neal!" or "that's totally something neal would say!" how did i know this guy so well?! he wasn't even present through most of the book! and that's the crazy thing - i only knew neal through georgie's perspective and yet i knew him so completely and so honestly that i could probably point out his dialogue even if you removed all the names.

another thing is that i was so amazed by how the whole time-travel thing was handled as well. it was so crazy to be totally in love with 1998 neal and to be so convinced that he and georgie were perfect for each other, and then to simultaneously be hating 2013 neal and thinking he was being a total idiot. like, this is how you tackle relationships and time travel, people!! i also thought georgie's little internal monologue and her discussing whether or not she thought she was crazy was completely spot-on; again it felt so realistic, so natural.

i absolutely loved the plot and i think it was really well-balanced, but i did think that the ending was quite rushed. well, perhaps 'rushed' is the wrong word - it had a steady build-up, but it just ended too soon! i was crying happy tears but then i turned the page and that was it! i wanted MORE. that's not really much of a criticism though - in my eyes, the book is still perfect.

my absolute favourite thing about this book though, was that it was just such a pleasure to read. from the very first page i was so involved in the story and the writing was so smooth and lovely. it's one of those books were i was just sub-consciously savouring it - i would be full-up on this book after 30 pages and could live off those 30 pages for a whole day, which i love. i love being able to mix my life with a book, and looking forward to getting back into a world when you next get the chance to read, and this book really lends itself to that. i adore rainbow's writing style and i made a bunch of notes of really great sentences and phrases that i loved, so i'm gonna just leave a few here:
"he kissed like he was drawing a perfect straight line. he kissed in indian ink." 
"seth never talked about the saturday-morning girls now, but georgie assumed the parade marched on." 
plus little things like saying that neal fed the pugs "table food."
it was just so wonderful to read. the only real thing that determines my enjoyment of a book is simply that - how much i enjoy the experience of reading a book - that's really the only thing i ever want and in that sense, this book had it all.

obviously i give this book 5 STARS - it was so perfect and i just enjoyed it so much. i'm actually kind of sad now that i only have 'attachments' left to read and then i've exhausted the rainbow rowell back catalogue - i hope she writes more soon! haha, so that is it! thank you guys for reading, let me know what you think of 'landline' in the comments! have a nice day! xx

♥ rookie yearbook two ♥

hi guys! today i have a review of the absolutely perfect 'rookie yearbook two' (goodreads), edited by the lovely tavi gevinson (click through for her twitter, blog, instagram), today! i've been so excited to write this post and tell you guys just how much i adored this book.

the rookie yearbook is a series that showcases some of the best artwork/writing/photography/diy's/general creative genius from rookie mag, an online publication for teenage girls that's been going for just over 3 years and was initially created by tavi when she was just 15 (and OH GOD do i wish i had done something that cool when i was 15). i'm gonna put this right out there and say that i think rookie is the coolest project to have ever existed; i regularly submit really bad writing for them to turn down (one day i will write something good enough to be published! one day!) and i desperately wish that there had been something like this for me when i was in high school. it's just a positive place for girls, and my favourite thing is that they don't take that attitude of "we have all the answers, listen to what we tell you," it's more like, "let's just muddle through and figure it out together!" IT IS AWESOME. it's just a big wealth of knowledge and cool art and fun stuff and great advice, and articles can go from how to do an ice cream manicure to a complete guide to kissing.

as much as i love rookie, though, i find it really difficult to read off my computer/phone for long periods of time, so i rarely get to see as much as i want to, so having all the best bits printed in a physical publication made all my dreams come true. now i get to hold tonnes of amazing work IN MY HANDS and i can carry it around with me and i don't have to worry about wifi connection (i'm taking all my rookie yearbooks to uni with me - unlimited inspiration? yes please!!!).

visually the book is STUNNING. like each page is a collage masterpiece, and every month has a theme (starting with a cute editor's letter) which is continued into the aesthetics, and it's so clear how much time and energy went into producing this thing. i took loads and loads of photos of the artwork and of my favourite articles and stuff whilst i was reading so i'm just going to put a few here, so you can see what the pages actually look like:

there is so much cool stuff in this book, like a letter to readers from mindy kaling, super cute tarot cards, interviews with people like emma watson and molly ringwald and morrissey , stickers, amazing playlists, a guide to journalling, some of the best photography i've ever seen (and i went to art college), a guide to being less self-conscious, how to make diy stencils, really insightful articles about things like racism and being trans* and your relationship with your parents and falling in love and sex, and SO MUCH MORE. i could list every single page but obviously i'm not going to. 

my favourite article was probably 'the year i learned everything' by roxane, it was INCREDIBLE. it was a short story in diary format about a girl and her interactions with the men in her life. not only was i so invested in the characters after only 6 pages that i CRIED at the end, but it was so wonderfully written that i read it like 7 times in the same night just so i could properly absorb it. i would read anything this girl writes. i hope one day she publishes a book, or several books, because i just want to read everything she has to say.

another article that i want to briefly mention is 'nobody's perfect' by rachael; this spoke to me on such a deep level that i felt like she was talking about my own personal experiences. this article gave me some of the best advice of my life. (i'd also like to mention here that i've seen professional psychiatrists and therapists before, none of whom could help me or understand me, so that goes to show how smart and wonderful the people who write for rookie are.)

i just adored this book; i want to be surrounded in this dreamy atmosphere forever. i gave it 5 STARS on my goodreads but would've given it over a thousand if i could have. if you only ever pay attention to one thing i say, let it be this: READ ROOKIE. truly it's the best thing i've ever discovered and i want to share it with the world.

obviously, before 'rookie yearbook two' (goodreads), there was 'rookie yearbook one' (goodreads), which i read over christmas 2012 and also gave 5 stars to, and in october there will be 'rookie yearbook three' (goodreads), which i am SO EXCITED to get my hands on and read. 

okay, okay, i'm going to stop rambling now; you all get the idea. so, i hope you enjoyed this post and thank you for reading! (and go read rookie!!!) xx

june wrap-up

hey guys! today i have my june wrap-up for you!

'is everyone hanging out without me? and other concerns' by mindy kaling (goodreads) - this is a hilarious memoir/autobiography/thing about mindy kaling's life, mostly focusing on how she became successful as an actress and writer. i want to put this straight out there and say i have never seen anything written by/staring/involving mindy kaling, i pretty much have no idea who she is, and i still loved this book. if you like the humour of tina fey/kristen wiig/amy poehler then you're gonna enjoy it. to me mindy is just this super cool girl who's really funny and it was like i was reading something that a friend had written for me. the only downside for me was that i've never seen the US version of the office so some chapters went kind of over my head but it didn't matter because they were still funny! i loved it!

'poison study' by maria v. snyder (goodreads) - i bought this book a long long time ago from the works after seeing sarah churchill haul it, and i have only just got round to picking it up. the synopsis sounded really exciting - it's about a girl who, instead of being executed for murder, is given the opportunity to live and work as the commander's official food taster - but i was put off by the fact that it's a 6 part series and i've never heard anyone talk about it. for the first 200 pages or so i was so uninterested in this book, i just could not have cared less, but after the halfway point it just got SO GOOD. i love the side characters, especially valek, but that might just be because i have a big crush on him. i loved the writing style as well and i'm so excited to get back into the world and can't wait to get the next book in the series. however, having said all this, i will say that i don't care for the magic element at all. i feel like the main selling point of this book (for me, anyway) is the poison tasting and the murder and the dangers that come with that - i feel like the magic element isn't really needed and kind of feels like something that's been put in to create a ~deeper~ story to lead onto a sequel or something. kind of unnecessary. but i still liked it! 4/5 stars!

'ready player one' by ernest cline (goodreads) - i wrote a whole review on this book so to read a synopsis and to find out what i thought you can read that here!

'across the universe' and 'a million suns' by beth revis (goodreads 1 and 2) - for most of 'across the universe' i completely disliked all of the characters, i felt like the writing was average, i thought some of the dialogue was unrealistic for her characters, but the thing that got me through was how amazing the plot is. the series revolves around this spaceship that has been sent off with a portion of america's population on board to land on a new habitable planet 300 years into the future, and it's all about how that ship would work socially and technically and environmentally and all that jazz - it is EXCELLENT. the marketing for this series is all wrong though - the blurb focuses on a girl called amy on board the ship but she is so unimportant to the story and not in any way an interesting character. the premise alone was enough to drive me on to buy the next in the series and oh wow was i glad i did! 'a million suns' is so much better - it really upped the game and i can't even BELIEVE how beth revis managed to create such good twists two books in a row (although i did guess some of the smaller twists in both books). not only was the plot incredible, but the new characters were FANTASTIC. i CRIED, TWICE, during this book, which is crazy if you think about how little i cared in the first one. it just completely surpassed all my expectations! i LOVE this series and cannot wait for my copy of 'shades of earth' to arrive so i can find out how it ends!

'anna and the french kiss' by stephanie perkins (goodreads) - this book is exactly what you'd expect it to be - a fluffy contemporary that's super cute but makes you want to visit france so badly that you start googling city breaks between chapters. i loved it, but i found anna to be a bit annoying, and it had that thing that i hate in books/tv/anything aimed at teenage girls where it's like, "you can totally look a mess and fall over all the time and constantly embarrass yourself but it's okay because the hot guy will just think you're quirky and fall for you anyway!!" because yeah, that doesn't happen. plus, one thing i couldn't get over was, even though the romance was great and stuff, it was all happening while st. clair was still with ellie, and that just put me off the characters so much. i mean, right up until the very last moment he was still her boyfriend! even in fiction that's such a silly disrespectful thing to do and it ruined the book a little for me. i loved stephanie's writing style though, and it was such a pleasure to read, so i'll definitely be picking up the rest in the series - 'lola and the boy next door' seems right up my street!

'hollow city' by ransom riggs (goodreads) - i wrote a whole review on this book so to read a synopsis and to find out what i thought you can read that here!

'tiger lily' by jodi lynn anderson (goodreads) - this is a re-telling of peter pan, set before wendy and co. show up in neverland, focusing on tiger lily and narrated by tinkerbell. now, does that not sound like the BEST BOOK EVER? well, yes and no. for one thing, i didn't really feel anything for tiger lily. one of the plot lines is her impending forced marriage, but i felt no sadness for her in that situation at all. also, she seemed so different than who i thought she was - she was stubborn, silent, stocky, antisocial, whilst i always knew her as cheerful and friendly and strong. another thing is that i really disliked how wendy and peter were portrayed. wendy came across as an annoying selfish rich girl who was actively pursuing peter and always got what she wanted, while peter was a grumpy whiny baby who stormed off a lot. peter pan is one of my absolute favourite stories and i just wasn't happy with how jody lynn anderson altered it. however, it was a real treat to be able to explore more into a world that i loved so much and i only read a few chapters at a time so i could keep living in the story; it was a pleasure to read. so, i have mixed feelings about this book, but if you like peter pan then you should definitely give it a go.

so those are all the books i read in june! please let me know what you guys read in the comments below! thanks for reading! xx

hollow city by ransom riggs - spoiler-free!

 

hi wonderful readers! today i have a review of 'hollow city' by ransom riggs for you! i would just like to say a huge thank you to the lovely folks at quirk books for sending me out a copy to review - you guys are the best!

i can't speak too much about the actual plot because this is a sequel and i wouldn't want to ruin the first book for anyone, so i'll just speak about the general premise. 'hollow city' is the sequel to 'miss peregrine's home for peculiar children' (which i wrote about here, over two years ago), which is the story of jacob, a boy who travels to an island near wales to search for the oprhanage where his grandfather grew up after he witnesses his murder. his grandfather's dying words had been a cryptic clue to find the 'peculiars' on the island - children with unusual abilities, like hands that spark flames or being able to see the future in your dreams. once jacob finds them and becomes convinced that they aren't and never were the delusions of an old man, a much darker side of the peculiars' life is revealed and he becomes entangled in the horrors of their world. 'hollow city' follows on from that story as jacob and the children seek help in new lands.

PRO'S:

• the tension and suspense in this book was spot on. i was so gripped right from the first page and i couldn't wait to see what happened next. the chapters in this book are quite long, often longer than 30 pages, which i usually hate in books, but i was so involved in the plot that i barely noticed it and could flow through like 100 pages just by accident. there is no shortage of action and there are very little rest points, so there were no points in the book where i was bored or it felt like i was waiting for something to happen; there was always something going on. along with this, the story was really rich and full and i never felt like anything was missing. it's very rare to see this kind of great writing and story-telling and plot continuously throughout a whole book, especially in YA, so a big thumbs up for that from me. 
• as with the first book, the production on 'hollow city' is absolutely stunning. the pages are thick and glossy, with beautifully printed photographs and coloured pages. clearly so much effort has been made to make this just a beautiful book - it seems they considered everything, every detail is incredible; even the font seems to fit the style of the story perfectly. it must have cost so much to make but it added so much to the reading experience for me. 
• 'hollow city' is beautifully written and was such a pleasure to read, but also, it was so funny! i wasn't expecting there to be any humour but the dialogue between characters was excellent and i think ransom riggs got it completely spot on. the use of sarcasm was also perfect, and i never felt like the jokes were forced (which can happen a lot with sarcasm in books); the conversations flowed really easily and it always felt natural. 
• we get very familiar with the main cast of characters in the book (which are excellent in themselves anyway), but in 'hollow city' i particularly loved the side characters. we meet a lot of new people on our travels in this book, some peculiar, some not, but all of them were incredible. there were lots of really badass feisty young women as well which is always a good thing, and i think my favourite's were melina and the two sisters, sam and esme. 
• obviously i can't go into details here, but the twist at the end was AWESOME. i wasn't as shocked as i wanted to be at the 'big reveal' but it was still incredible and i'm really excited to see where this goes in the next book. 

CON'S:

• i'm not a fan of the romance aspect of this book and i find the relationship between emma and jacob a little weird. i believe jacob is at least 16 (he has a job in a store so i'm guessing 16-19) and, even though emma's been alive many years, she's still aesthetically a 12 year old girl, which just makes it odd for me. plus, in this story, the characters interacted a lot with 'normals' - what did they think of a grown adult kissing a little girl?! however, that being said, i found that in 'hollow city' the relationship was much less romantic and a lot more about caring for someone, which made it a lot more realistic and a lot less bizarre, and that approach pretty much fixed this issue for me completely.
• occasionally i felt like the story took quite a forced turn to try to link in another photo. because of the found-photo aspect though, i feel like the reader is going to be more likely to analyse whether the story is leading the visuals or vice versa, so i was probably more conscious and critical of it than i should have been. the main offender for me was addison discussing the story of a dead dog called 'pompey' because that name was visible on a grave in a photo of a pet graveyard - that made me cringe slightly. that was the only time that it really bothered me, though. 

overall, i find it very difficult to pinpoint any fault with this book; it far surpassed the first book and fixed all the issues i had had with it (such as the romantic element), but it was missing something for me. perhaps it was hard for me to connect with the characters because of their peculiarity or because it was set mostly in the 1940's, which i have no knowledge of? or, from my personal reading experience, could it be that i read this book in 3 days and on all of those days i was tired from a long day at work, so wasn't fully engaged? at the moment i'm still unsure what it is i wanted from this book that i didn't get, but there definitely was something. because i can't really find fault with the story at all, i gave it 5 STARS on goodreads, but really i'd say it was more of a 4.9 STARS, with just a 0.1 knocked off for that little something missing.

so thank you for reading guys, i hope you enjoyed my review! please let me know if you've read 'hollow city' and what you thought of it in the comments! x

ensnared by a.g. howard cover reveal!

OH MY GOD! okay, so you guys know how much i love the 'splintered' series by a.g. howard, right? it's a re-telling of 'alice in wonderland', i wrote about it here and here, and i have not been able to stop thinking about the world and the characters since i finished 'unhinged' in march. this month we got the extremely exciting cover reveal for the final book in the trilogy, 'ENSNARED', which is due to be published in january 2015, which is far too long to wait for me. anyway: THE COVER! oh my god it's so beautiful! i didn't think they could top the beauty of the previous two but WOW. i want to hire the artist to illustrate my whole life. also, is that jeb?! because whoa. i was so not attracted to jeb at all when i was reading the books (team morpheus all the way) but hello! he's pretty hot. i'm thinking that a.g. howard is really going to up the intensity of the love triangle in 'ensnared' and making jeb this gorgeous is definitely going to make it a lot more interesting to read, because otherwise i would've just been rooting for morpheus the whole time.

the colour choice is so perfect as well, red was completely the right direction to go in. plus jeb tends to get quite aggressive in defending alyssa and things so making him look all fiery and angry is PERFECT. also it's quite a dark, sinister cover too, isn't it? maybe red symbolises danger here? is that an exciting hint to the plot of the book?! eeeep! i love the venus fly traps too, and the green heart eyes, and ahhh I JUST LOVE IT. it's completely re-ignited my excitement for the series. okay i'm going to stop now, because i'm getting rambly and i'll just go on and on for hours.

are you guys as excited as i am?! i can't wait! x

may wrap-up

hi guys, today i have my may wrap-up for you! i didn't read as much as i wanted to in may considering i finished college on the 6th and had LOADS of free time, but i really enjoyed the books i did end up reading!

'mercury and me' by jim hutton (goodreads) - this is not a book you ever really see reviews of; it's an autobiography by jim hutton about his time being freddie mercury's lover. it's definitely the kind of thing you'd only enjoy if you love freddie and queen (although the other boys from queen were very rarely mentioned). although i loved reading about freddie, i felt like the book was focusing on all the wrong things. some chapters were just 20 pages of things they bought on shopping trips, just kind of showing how extravagant they all were, and i think it focused more on the luxury lifestyle freddie brought to jim than anything else. it kind of made it feel like the book was written for the wrong reasons; freddie was a really private guy and he would've hated some of the stuff jim put into that book, but i can see why jim wanted to share it. i didn't love it but, as a queen fan, it's just one of those books you have to read.

'the restaurant at the end of the universe' by douglas adams (goodreads) - this is the second book in the 'hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy' series; i read the first one in february and absolutely loved it so i bought the rest of the series to read. i can't really say anything about the actual plot because it is one of a series and i don't want to ruin it for any of you, but i will say that it is a scifi series about a group of people travelling around space after they come together by chance when earth is destroyed to build a highway. the main thing i love about this series is that the books are so funny. it reminds me of all the classic british tv shows like fawlty towers and monty python, i love it. to be honest though, i found this book a lot harder to read than the first book and it put me in a bit of a reading slump actually, i just wasn't interested in picking it up at all, which made me quite sad as i had loved the first book so much. because of that i'm not very excited about reading the next books in the series but i am very interested to see what my reading experience will be like and if getting back into the world we re-ignite my interest in the story.

'the bell jar' by sylvia plath (goodreads) - this is such a huge famous book and loved by so many of my friends that i can't believe it took me so long to read it! it's about a girls experience with her declining mental health and a stay in hospital to overcome it, and i found it to be very honest and realistic on that aspect. i did get slightly confused because i thought it was autobiographical and then a character called the narrator 'esther', but i think it is very heavily based on sylvia plath's own experiences. i loved the story and i particularly loved the first section of the book which is set in new york - i LOVE books about people travelling in new york! (if any of you have any recommendations of books that involve people studying in new york or travelling to new york then please comment them below!) i found it very easy to read and to follow for a book that might be considered a classic and i really loved her writing style, i'm very interested in reading some more of her work! i know she's written a lot of poetry so maybe it's a good excuse to delve into some poems.

'the turn of the screw' by henry james (goodreads) - 'the turn of the screw' is a really short horror story (very much like 'the woman in black') about a woman who gets a job teaching and caring for two children, but she starts to notice weird things going on in the house and seeing what she thinks might be ghosts stalking them. it's a classic, and you guys know how i feel about classics, so i did struggle through it a lot, especially for the first 50 or so pages. henry james didn't help me out at all though; i kind of felt like the book was more an exercise in long complicated sentences than an actual story, so a lot of the details were lost on me. i read a review on goodreads that said something like the book was like "words words words words plot point words words words ghosts words words words words is she crazy? words words words are they all crazy?" are so on, it was just so much language, i couldn't process it at all. when i finished the book and thought about the story in itself, it literally could've been told in about 10 pages if they'd just cut out all the nonsense. plus, i wasn't scared at all! for a horror story i think it's important not to confuse your reader so that they can experience the same fear as the narrator, but the narrator just rambled on about the apparently 'shocking' appearance of the ghosts, but they didn't get the shock across to me at all. so all in all, i didn't enjoy it that much.

'we were liars' by e. lockhart (goodreads) - i read 'we were liars' as part of the #liarsliveread with hot key books on twitter, which was actually really fun! i don't usually participate in readalongs or anything like that so it was a nice change. i don't want to say too much about this book because anything i say is going to give something important away, but i will say that i found that the story wasn't as exciting as i wanted it to be (i was amazed at the revelation in the last chapter though) but the manipulation and the untrustworthy narrator made the reading experience so unique and wonderful, i couldn't stop thinking about the book for days and days.

'the DUFF' by kody keplinger (goodreads) - 'the DUFF' is about a girl, and one day a guy comes up to her and tells her she's the 'DUFF/designated ugly fat friend' of her friendship group and it kind of revolves around how that effects her, but there's also lots of stuff going on with her family and her friends and school and crushes and so on. it's a totally fluffy contemporary but the protagonist is not at all what you'd expect - bianca's cynical, she's strong-headed, she doesn't believe in high-school romances, she's everything i've ever wanted in a contemporary female protagonist! it is a very easy, light read, and i could get through 100+ pages in less than an hour, but i enjoyed it so much. at the time, as well, i was in a bit of a reading slump so 'the DUFF' was exactly what i needed. also, one thing i really appreciated about this book is how frank and straight-forward it was about sex and relationships; it didn't gloss over the subject at all, which is always the right approach for YA.

'the program' by suzanne young (goodreads) - i won't say too much about this book because i wrote a full review on it which you can read here - but i LOVED IT! can't wait to read the next in the series!

thanks for reading guys! lots of exciting posts coming up soon so keep checking back! and please let me know what you read this month (or link your blog!) in the comments! x

friday reads - 30th may 2014

hey guys! i have a super quick friday reads for you today!

at the moment i'm about 100 pages into 'tiger lily' by jodi lynn anderson and absolutely LOVING IT! it is essentially a retelling-ish of peter pan but centered around tiger lily and it is set before peter met wendy. peter pan is my favourite disney film and i love all things relating to it so of course this book was right up my street. it's also told from the perspective of tinkerbell which i love! it's really interesting to have the narrator fall in love with the 'love interest' but the protagonist to be completely indifferent. (we all know tink is in love with peter right? that's not a spoiler, is it?)

i'm working 8am-9pm tomorrow (yikes, but i love my job, so it's okay) and then starting my new exciting summer job on sunday by working a 7am-1pm shift, so i won't have much time to read, but i do plan on reading around 100+ pages of 'tiger lily' tonight and then hopefully finishing it on sunday afternoon. and, if by some miracle, i have time left over after that, i'm going to pick up 'across the universe' by beth revis, which i'm so excited to finally own! i've been hearing so much about this book for months and i can't wait to read it - i don't know much about it other than all the characters are put to sleep to be awoken for an event in the future, but the protagonist is woken up early when she is almost murdered. it sounds a lot like 'more than this' by patrick ness what with the whole 'hibernation' thing, and you guys know how much i loved that book (i included it in my 'top books of 2013' post).

so yep! thanks for reading guys, and please do let me know what you'll be reading this weekend in the comments! x

the program by suzanne young - warning: spoilers!

hi guys! today i'm reviewing 'the program' by suzanne young! 'the program' is set in the near future where teenage suicide has become a massive epidemic, so much so that the government has introduced 'the program' which is a kind of therapy/medication treatment for depressed teenagers that removes suicidal thoughts and is essentially robbing teenagers of their memories. it's centered around this group of friends - sloane, james, miller, and lacey - as they try to fight the program and keep their identities. 

before i get into the review, can i just say how BEAUTIFUL the covers are?! both on the dust jacket and on the hardcover itself- i love it! it makes so much difference when a publisher goes the extra mile to make the actual hardcover stunning too. anyway, let's get started!

*WARNING! there will be spoilers from this point on! not huge spoilers that ruin a massive plot twist or anything, but they're still spoilers!*

other than the introduction of the program, and this really incredible medication (one pill acting as a truth serum, another pill wiping the discussed memories), i found the book to be very, very realistic. obviously it's set several years in the future with a strong sci-fi element but the whole setting was completely plausible to me, and i have no trouble believing that this epidemic is something that could easily happen. other than the general scenario, the things that the characters do were very similar to what we know now; the school scenes, what the characters did to hang out with their friends, and so on, it was all very REAL.

one thing i absolutely adored about this book is that, unlike most YA i've read, it didn't gloss over the issue of sex. it wasn't overly graphic or anything, but it was very honest, which is definitely a huge step in the right direction. i felt like the topic of sex was addressed in a way that teenagers would address it themselves in a real conversation - not giving explicit details but not being shy about it either, which i think is the PERFECT approach for YA. it really helped in making the characters relationships, especially that of james and sloane, seem so much more realistic and believable.

however, one thing that i felt was a bit far-fetched was how easily sloane developed relationships with her previous friends almost immediately after coming out of the program. the very first 'returner' that sloane met was her old friend lacey, and then she didn't really meet or speak to anybody other than her?! plus, sloane was considered to be a troublemaker whilst in the program, and so was james, so i doubt that the government, or whoever invented the program, would've put sloane and james in the same maths class, never mind letting them sit together. it just seemed like a massive coincidence that the only 2 returners sloane would speak to would end up being her best friend and her boyfriend. other than that though, i felt that, again, the relationships seemed very genuine and i really felt for the characters.

i felt that the approach to therapy and the characters reaction to the program was very realistic, and was very similar to things i've read in fiction about mental illness (such as 'the bell jar' and 'it's kind of a funny story') but also it was very similar to my own personal experiences with that kind of situation, which again added to the realism of the plot. i also felt like seeing sloane (the narrator) transition from 'infected' to 'cured' was very interesting, and it was done so subtly and slowly that it really felt gradual, like an actual recovery would be, instead of the dramatic change you can often see in characters in YA. however, one thing i felt that was kind of weird to include was this new drug, 'quikdeath', which essentially is a suicide pill. like i said, other than the program and the suicide epidemic, the setting seemed very true to modern-day america, and then there was just this single random new item shoved in, which seemed kind of odd. plus, not only was it just shoved in there, it also made NO SENSE for the whole plot. okay, so maybe it's not that far-fetched to consider that one day we might create a suicide drug, but for that drug to be readily available to teenagers during a SUICIDE EPIDEMIC which they're trying so hard to overcome?! it would just not happen.

i went into this book thinking it was just a stand-alone, and for the whole book i was like, "yeah this doesn't need to be a series, sloane got sick, she recovered, she'll get back with james, great!" but the story wasn't resolved by the ending, and instead we got a crazy amazing epilogue that totally changed the whole book for me! i mean, that epilogue! like WHAT?! i then quickly did some crazy searching on goodreads and found that there is a sequel, 'the treatment' which i need to get my hands on immediately! i need to know what happens!

i feel really bad when i write reviews because i tend to ALWAYS enjoy the books i read, and then, when considering what i could say in a review, i usually just mention negative points, when really i LOVED reading 'the program'. i thought it was great and i gave it 5 stars on goodreads! so i hope you'll take that into consideration when you read this review, and when you read 'the program', which you should, because it was amazing. i can't wait to read 'the treatment' and let you guys know what i thought of that too!

thanks for reading! :)

the divergent series by veronica roth - warning: spoilers!

hello! this is a review of the 'divergent' series by veronica roth, but there will be a particular focus on 'allegiant' just because i have so much to say about it. *THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON so please don't continue if you haven't read the book/s - i was very thankful that nobody spoilt the ending for me and i would hate to spoil any of you guys!*

SO. let's get into it! this is going to be long because i just have so much to say!

personally, i loved allegiant. i know some people didn't like it because of the ending, or because the characters were just waiting around a lot, but i LOVED it. i usually base my opinion of a book on how much i enjoyed reading it, and i enjoyed reading every second of it.

my main complaint about this book is that the introduction of the dual narrative was a HUGE giveaway on how the series was going to end! if your only narrator is constantly facing up with death, and then you add a second narrator, it's completely obvious what's going to happen to the original narrator. it seems so sloppy to just change the whole structure of the book at the last minute, especially since it means i was spoiled BY THE AUTHOR just by looking at the first page. i was slightly annoyed about it. in veronica roth's defence though, she did manage to leave all options open, and i was doubting my prediction right up until the very last second, so maybe it wasn't as sloppy as i had originally though.
another issue i had with the dual narrative was that it often got very confusing trying to distinguish between tris and tobias. they had very similar voices, and it was easy to slip back into the mindset that tris was the only one telling the story since that's how we had gotten to know the series. plus, since tris and tobias had various solo adventures/experiences, i found it difficult to keep track of who did what, who knew what, etc.
however, i really enjoyed reading more about tobias and learning about his feelings/thoughts on the whole situation. i think that that allowed us to care more about tobias once the inevitable happens at the end of the book - i think i wouldn't have cared about him at all if the story had just continued through tris' point of view, and it wouldn't have been as emotional or as heartbreaking as it was.

there were some serious low blows in this book, veronica roth had no hesitations about tearing out her readers hearts! when she introduced tori's brother as being alive and well outside of the factions, i actually had to put the book down for a few hours. i was speechless, i couldn't believe it. not only was he alive but she had killed tori off only a few chapters before! how could she do that to me?!
that wasn't even the worst part - all i need to say is URIAH. oh my god. he was one of my favourite characters, one of the good guys, so funny and kind. at that point in the book i was already crying over tris and then i was just a complete wreck when i read about his death, i was GONE. could not function. was making ugly-crying moose noises into the pages of that book. still not over it.

oh, yeah, THE ENDING. i was a mess. i couldn't believe it. just all the feels, man.
i think the ending was exactly the right way to end it. if tris had survived, then i feel like it would have been overly celebratory and way too mushy/lovey-dovey/happy, and i would've hated it. i feel like if tobias died instead then it wouldn't have been as bad as that, but i do feel like we needed to be as distraught and heartbroken as tobias was; we had lived with tris through the whole thing, from before she even chose dauntless we had been at her side, and i think that's what made it so painful as a reader. if tobias had died it would've been sad but we wouldn't have cared as much.

as a whole, this series was fantastic. it had everything, it was so well thought-out; i tried for HOURS to think of what important personality trait might veronica roth had missed out for a faction, but i couldn't do it; she covered all bases.

one complaint i had with the series as a whole was the number of characters. there was a lot of deaths, in each book, and a lot of new characters introduced in each book, which meant that the number of living characters to interact with stayed roughly the same, but obviously, the characters kept discussing their dead friends, which meant there were a lot of names to keep track of. it took me maybe half of allegiant to figure out who cara was, i think? plus, tris kept referring to beatrice prior by her real name, which i just did not retain at all, so parts of the story kept getting lost on me.

i think the approach to the series was absolutely perfect; i imagine it as circles inside larger circles. divergent was the smallest circle, showing us mostly dauntless, then insurgent was a slightly larger circle, taking a step back from dauntless to show us all of the other factions, and then allegiant was the largest circle, taking a step back from the factions to show us the world outside. i think that's exactly how this kind of series should be approached. plus, i loved that we got to take little tours of all the factions and learn about all their clothes and their mannerisms and their architecture! that was one of the things that i didn't like about the hunger games; you only really get to see the capitol and district 12.

one thing i really want to know is - did they face their fears?! this is a little theory i have that both tris and tobias faced all their fears before the end of the book but i don't know for sure and i think i need somebody to do a bit of back-reading and tell me if this happened or not. so: tobias definitely faced most of his; he faced heights by doing the zip wire, he faced losing tris by actually losing her, i think he faced his fear of becoming his father by giving his mother the choice of taking the memory serum (i think marcus would have just slipped her it rather than be honest), but i can't think of any time when he faced his claustrophobia? i can't really remember all of tris' fears but i know she definitely faced her fear of intimacy. maybe i'm just being hopeful here but i think it would've been a really nice way to round off the series if they had faced all their fears.

okay, i think i've rambled quite a bit, sorry about that, but i just loved this series SO MUCH. i think i might even like it more than i liked the hunger games, and you guys know how much i loved the hunger games. it's gonna take something huge to top this series!
let me know what you guys thought of the series, and the ending, in the comments! thanks for reading! :)

april wrap-up

hello! i'm so bad at this blogging thing; every time i decide to start blogging seriously i do a week of commitment and then forget it for a month. i'm so sorry! i've been crazy busy working on my final deadline for college, which i finished and handed in on tuesday, so from now on i've got as much free time as i want to spend writing here!

'allegiant' by veronica roth (not pictured) (goodreads) - i finished this INCREDIBLE series this month and absolutely loved it. maybe i even loved it more than the hunger games? the jury is still out. i don't have it to show at the moment because i lent it to a friend. i will be speaking a lot more in depth about the series and the final book in my series review which should be up soon (i know you've been waiting, sorry again!).

'the key to the golden firebird' by maureen johnson (goodreads) - it took me a while to get into this book just because i was really too busy to be reading, but once i actually put aside the time to read i loved it. i'm not sure why but i love books with sports involved (maybe not a play-by-play of a game - the quidditch world cup scene in the harry potter books made me want to cry), like in 'the silver linings playbook' i absolutely loved reading about the football fans and things, so, being centred around softball, this was right up my street. this book is centred around a family whose father has recently passed away, and it focuses on the 3 daughters as they cope with that, and other things, in their own way. it was just exactly what i needed to read at the time and i just enjoyed reading it so much. plus - this book was published by hot key books in the uk, but it's a floppy paperback?! i love floppy paperbacks!

'a monster calls' by patrick ness (goodreads) - this book was so not what i was expecting! it's about a boy whose mother is suffering with cancer, and one day a huge monster appears in his garden calling his name. i was expecting it to be very creepy and dark, like something neil gaiman would've written, but it was actually so heartfelt and touching; i was crying at the end! i think every child should read this book, it teaches so much about coping in difficult situations and dealing with anger and things. i personally didn't read the illustrated version and i didn't feel like i was missing anything, but i'm told that the illustrations are incredible in themselves.

'2001: a space odyssey' by arthur c. clarke (goodreads) - a while back i was on a huge sci-fi kick and started reading this book, but got stuck after 30 pages. then, this month i saw it had been sitting in my 'currently reading' on goodreads for so long and i decided i had to power through it and get it out of the way. you all know how much i struggle with classics, and i definitely struggled with this. there were some sections that i loved - i especially enjoyed the dialogue between characters, but, because most of the book was based on a spaceship with a 2-man-crew, the conversation was limited, and there were some 50-odd-page sections that were pure description, which were very hard to get through - especially because those descriptions involved a lot of space-jargon that was hard to follow. the book is split into about 5 sections which jump backwards and forwards in time, which didn't help either. if you're struggling to get through a book, and you've just started getting the hang of what's happening, and then suddenly you're a few million years into the past, it made it really hard to want to keep going and try to get a hang of the new scenario. the story in itself was excellent and very interesting (a lot of the 'incredible' technology seemed normal to me because space travel is something we can already do, but when you think about how this book was written before the moon landing, then it becomes incredible) but i just did not enjoy reading it at all.

so those are all the books i read in april! sorry again for the long absence guys, i promise you i'll have a lot of new posts up soon! thanks for reading!

a very late 'books of 2013' post

hello! so, this post is very very late. i've had this post written up since the new year but kept forgetting to photograph the books! BUT i will not waste your time with apologies, and just get straight to the story: at the start of 2013, i was not planning on reading anything more than maybe 15 books, but in the summer i got my first job and suddenly had loads of money to spend. i ended up reading a total of 57, but because it all happened so quickly, i never got the chance to really write about it. i'm not going to write about all 57 books i read, but here is the definitive list: (you can check out what i rated these books on my goodreads if you wish).

unnaturally green by felicia ricci. zombicorns #2 by john green. the great gatsby by f. scott fitzgerald. rookie yearbook one by tavi gevinson. lolita by vladimir nabokov. the hunger games by suzanne collins. catching fire by suzanne collins. mockingjay by suzanne collins. 50 fashion designers you should know by simone werle. the umbrella academy volume one by gerard way and gabriel ba. miranda hart: is it just me? by miranda hart. the hobbit by j. r. r. tolkien. a midsummer tights dream by louise rennison. the red house by mark haddon. harry potter and the chamber of secrets by j. k. rowling. twilight by stephanie meyer. the bling ring by nancy jo sales. uglies by scott westerfeld. pretties by scott westerfeld. specials by scott westerfeld. extras by scott westerfeld. the taming of the tights by louise rennison. who could that be at this hour? by lemony snicket. the mist by stephen king. the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugenides. 13 little blue envelopes by maureen johnson. the princess diaries by meg cabot. the princess diaries #2 by meg cabot. the princess diaries #3 by meg cabot. the princess diaries #4 by meg cabot. chess by stefan zweig. the princess diaries #5 by meg cabot. red tears by joanna kenrick. the princess diaries #6 by meg cabot. girl, interrupted by susanna keysen. the princess diaries #7 by meg cabot. the princess diaries #8 by meg cabot. a little bit wicked by kristin chenoweth. what they did for love: the untold story of the making of 'a chorus line' by denny martin flinn. vivian versus the apocalypse by katie coyle. paper towns by john green. doctor sleep by stephen king. the crucible by arthur miller. without you: a memoir of love, loss, and the musical 'rent' by anthony rapp. the last little blue envelope by maureen johnson. the carrie diaries by candace bushnell. please don't come back from the moon by dean bakopoulos. naomi and ely's no kiss list by rachel cohn and david levithan. ghost world by daniel clowes. submarine by joe dunthorne. more than this by patrick ness. summer and the city by candace bushnell. coraline by neil gaiman. warm bodies by isaac marion. dash & lily's book of dares by rachel cohn and david levithan. fear & loathing in las vegas by hunter s. thompson. let it snow by john green, maureen johnson, and lauren myracle.

SO that's the definitive list of all the books i read in 2013, but these are my favourites:

'chess' by stefan zweig (goodreads): this was such a charming little story about chess players on a boat, which sounds quite quaint but it was SO GOOD. essentially, the characters come across an excellent chess player who refuses to play, and he tells the story of why he cannot ever play chess. is that not so intriguing?! what situation would make a man fear playing chess?! i absolutely loved it. plus, it's very cheap to buy on amazon (currently £2.55) and is only 90-ish pages, so it's perfect if you need to bump up your goodreads challenge.

'paper towns' by john green (goodreads): this is my favourite john green book by far! it had everything that john green writes so well; a road trip, a quirky girl, midnight adventures, hilarious side-characters. if you aren't aware, 'paper towns' essentially follows the story of quentin in his encounters with his mysterious neighbour margo, and how he tries to track her down after she goes missing. i just enjoyed reading it so much; it was everything i loved about 'the fault in our stars' but without the heartbreak and the crying and the never-ending pain.

'vivian versus the apocalypse' by katie coyle (goodreads): this was purely a cover buy for me but i ended up absolutely loving it! i'd maybe even go as far to say that it's one of my favourite books? i loved the basis for the plot because it just seems so plausible; there's been another predicted apocalypse and nobody's taking it very seriously, but on the day of the rapture all the believers have disappeared from their homes and everyone left behind on earth is facing a few months left to live before the end of the world. the plot follows vivian and some people she gathers along the way as she travels to try and find her parents who disappeared in the rapture, and there are some pretty incredible twists and some serious jaw-dropping revelations thrown in that i did not see coming at all. i absolutely love religious elements in books and this is based around the fictional 'church of america', which is a very corporate modern take on christianity, and i think one of the great successes of this book was how believable this religion was; i could actually imagine people following it in real life.

'the hunger games' series by suzanne collins (goodreads): i read 'the hunger games' just because it was hyped so much and i wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and it is so so worth the hype! i couldn't believe how much i loved it. i won't go into the story; you've probably all heard enough about it by now, but AHHHH it was so good! 'catching fire' and 'mockingjay' were not as great as 'the hunger games' but i still enjoyed the series so much. (i'm team peeta, by the way - peeniss forever haha!)

the 'uglies' series by scott westerfeld (goodreads): i picked this series up because it is compared so much to the hunger games, and after loving the hunger games, i knew i was bound to like it. it's pretty much about this society where, at the age of 16, you get sent off to be made 'pretty' and you go to live in this fancy city and spend your life going to parties and having fun, and the idea is that because everyone looks the same then there's no discrimination. i find that such an interesting concept because it could apply very well to the society we live in now; people DO actually get discriminated because of their appearance. but is this new society as great as it seems? of course notttttt! the story is centred around tally as she finds out why. i did really enjoy the series, but it wasn't perfect; 'pretties' had essentially the same plot as 'uglies', it felt at times a little preachy, and it would drag quite a lot in the middle of the books.

'13 little blue envelopes' by maureen johnson (goodreads): this book follows ginny as she travels round europe following a kind of treasure hunt set by her aunt before she died, and it was so good!! i would love for someone to do that for me! this book made me want to travel so badly; maureen johnson made every country ginny visited seem so appealing and so lovely, and literally i would just start looking at holidays online as each chapter progressed - like, "i want to go to london!... okay no i need to scotland!" etc., haha! with such an incredible premise and all those stunning places to read about, how was i ever not going to love this book?!

'a little bit wicked' by kristin chenoweth (goodreads): this is an autobiography written by kristin about her stage career, with a focus on her time as the original glinda in 'wicked' on broadway. this is definitely one of those books that, if you don't like wicked, or you don't like kristin, that you won't enjoy, but i love both! this book was SO funny and kristin is such a positive, cheery person that it was actually contagious. i had such fun reading this; it definitely is more of a light read but who says there's anything wrong with that?!

'more than this' by patrick ness (goodreads): this is the first patrick ness book i read and i picked it up completely on impulse; i was browsing waterstones and had a lot of time to kill that day so i picked this up purely based on the cover, started reading the first few pages, and before i knew it i had read half the book. patrick ness' writing style is so easy and calming and it was such a treat to read. the story begins as a boy drowns in the sea near his house, but then he wakes up, in a place he can't remember, and it continues with him figuring out where he is and what's going on. this book is definitely more about asking questions than giving answers and really, you never actually find out what's going on - only a partial reason is given - but that's just a testament to how incredible patrick ness is, because even though i had no idea what was happening or why it was happening, and a lot of it is quite still and calm, i was SO GRIPPED and could not put it down. very interesting and unique read, you should all definitely give this a go.

'doctor sleep' by stephen king (goodreads): this book was such a wonderful gift to read. i really cannot say any more than that; it was just pure happiness being able to read about danny torrance again after enjoying 'the shining' so much. it wasn't scary in the same way as stephen king's other books, but the story was excellent and it was so interesting. the character of abra is brilliant as well - such an awesome little girl, i had a huge grin on my face whenever she was in the scene. if i could i'd give it a million out of five!

so there we go! i'm so embarrassed about how long it's taken me to get this post up haha, but i suppose better late than never? let me know if you guys have read any of the books i talked about and what you thought of them in the comments!

most anticipated releases

i don't think i've anticipated the release of a book since the harry potter series ended! oh, actually no - i was very excited for 'doctor sleep' by stephen king to come out for a LONG time. however: this is pretty much the first time i've ever found myself waiting on release dates for more than one book. it's such an usual occurance for me but i just CANNOT wait to get my hands on these!

'we were liars' by e. lockhart, published by hot key books - release date 15th may 2014 (goodreads): i absolutely adore e. lockhart and 'the boyfriend list' is one of my all-time favourite books, so i am so so so excited for the release of 'we were liars'. i've heard that there's a pretty astonishing twist and it gets nothing but good reveiws, and i just need to read it! and just look at that cover! it is so beautiful.

'say her name' by james dawson, published by hot key books - release date 5th june 2014 (goodreads): i know pretty much nothing about this book or about james dawson, but when i saw this cover on hot key's tumblr, i knew i had to read it. you guys know horror is one of my favourite genres and this looks right up my street.

'ensnared' by a.g. howard, published by amulet books - release date 6th january 2015 (goodreads): i like to marathon my series so i usually wait til all the books are released before i dive in, but with 'splintered' i was too curious to hold off reading it (kind of appropriate for an 'alice in wonderland' retelling...) and now i'm paying for it with an agonising wait of almost a year for the final book. i just can't seem to get the story out of my head and i cannot wait to delve back into the world. i'm so excited to see where they go with the cover as well - the first two are so incredible and so detailed, and i really want to know which character they decide to use, since they've already used alyssa and morpheus (maybe we'll finally get to see jeb?).

'authority' (goodreads) - release date 8th may 2014 - and 'acceptance' (goodreads) - release date 11th september 2014 - by jeff vandermeer, published by fourth estate: why do i never hear anyone talk about this series?! i found the first book 'annihilation' so interesting and, although i didn't think much of it at the time, i can't seem to stop thinking about it, and i need to find out what happens next. lookily there isn't that much of a wait!