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

ready player one by ernest cline (spoiler-free!)

hello readers! today i'm reviewing 'ready player one' by ernest cline (goodreads), published by broadway books, and i'm mixing up my reviewing style a little so please let me know what you think in the comments!

'ready player one' is set in a time when the OASIS rules all; it's a virtual reality video game (think the sims or second life but on a much huger scale) that involves everything - you can go to school in the OASIS, go to work in the OASIS, it acts as a virtual library with every book, film, tv show, and so on instantly available, and it's replaced the regular lives of most people as conditions on earth have gradually deteriorated. the story starts as creator of the OASIS, james halliday, dies and releases a video stating that he's hidden 3 keys and 3 gates inside the OASIS, and whoever finds them all and completes all the challenges will be awarded his entire fortune and estate, including the OASIS network. the story then follows wade watts, or 'parzival' as he's known in the OASIS, as he searches for halliday's OASIS easter egg.

PRO'S:

• the world! the OASIS is such a rich environment and a place where anything goes is a fantastic place to set a book. the rules of the OASIS were explained really well (such as no PvP zones, where fighting and battle was banned) which made the whole setting so much more realistic, and i could definitely see this being an actual virtual reality game. 
• the depth of back-story! there are lots of sections in this book where we're told lots of things about the OASIS and the creators and the development of companies and things, and i loved reading about it. ernest cline had put so much detail and depth into the companies behind the story; at times it was like i was reading articles within the book, it was so realistic, and it really added to my understanding of the world. i loved reading about the OASIS, and james halliday (the creator) was one my favourite characters, even though he wasn't alive throughout any of the story (that's not a spoiler by the way!), because his story was told so well throughout the actual story (story-ception?). 
• the information! other than an excellent work of fiction, this book could be given a second purpose as a reference book of 80's pop culture. it was so interesting to read about, and i feel like it allowed readers to go behind the whole 'leg warmers and WHAM!' feel of the 80's to what living in that decade was actually like. 
• the references! i laughed out loud at so many points in this book when they referenced something that i love, like slipping, "answer the question, claire" into conversation (that's from the breakfast club, by the way) and parzival ordering a 'pan-galactic gargle blaster' (a drink from the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy) in a bar. 
• the characters! the story centres around the 5 characters who first find the first key - parzival, aech, art3mis, shoto, and daito, plus their rivalries, the IOI, who want to obtain the easter egg to gain control of the OASIS and make a fortune by charging people monthly to access the game. there are also some side characters, like james halliday, and ogden marrow, who was his partner in their gaming company. the characters were so well-formed and i LOVED how ernest cline tackled the 'virtual reality' aspect; exploring avatars, how you might perceive a person based on their avatars, and how they differ in real life. 
• the tension! i read the last 100 pages entirely with my mouth open in awe. i was so invested in this book and the characters that at points i had to put the book down to take a break and calm down, it was that tense! some horror/thriller authors need to take lessons from ernest cline, seriously.

CON'S:

• sometimes i felt like there was TOO much information in this book. when i started reading i was panicking a little that i wouldn't be able to remember all the pop culture info and back story that was just thrown at me in the first 50 pages and that that might affect my ability to understand the story. thankfully it didn't, so this isn't too big an issue.
• occasionally it was a little confusing differentiating between life in the OASIS and life in the 'real world'. my main issue was the ability to use OASIS credits as real-life currency, which seemed a bit odd, and sometimes figuring out whether he was referring to real purchases or virtual ones was quite difficult. again, though, this is quite an insignificant issue and didn't really affect my enjoyment of the book at all. really, i'm clutching at straws here - this book was too good for negative points. 

overall, this book blew my mind. it was incredible and not only did i love the story, reading the book itself was an absolute pleasure and i didn't want it to end. it was a good old Good V Evil storyline but with so much depth and development. i gave it 5 STARS and would recommend it to absolutely anyone - it was FANTASTIC! please let me know if you've read 'ready player one' and what you thought of it in the comments. thanks for reading guys! x