Review: The Amazing Book is Not in Fire

The Amazing Book is Not on Fire 
Dan Howell and Phil Lester
224 pages (Hardcover)
Random House
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 
Hello reader,

In this book is a world. A world created by two awkward guys who share their lives on the internet!

We are Dan and Phil and we invite you on a journey inside our minds! From the stories of our actual births, to exploring Phil's teenage diary and all the reasons why Dan's a fail.

Learn how to draw the perfect cat whiskers, get advice on what to do in an awkward situation and discover which of our dining chairs represents you emotionally. With everything from what we text each other, to the time we met One Direction and what really happened in Vegas...

Review:
To start this off, I've been and fan of Dan and Phil for six years now. I follow them on YouTube and when they announced that they were writing a book together I was ecstatic! It came out a week after my birthday and I bought it as a gift to myself. I finished it in a night. I've debated whether or not I should review it, and finally figured I should. 

The book itself is a jumble of their personalities. It starts with them saying hello in the only way they know how - awkwardly. They story is all about their lives: how they grew up, secondary school,university, living together, and their YouTube careers. 

I honestly enjoyed this book. Most times when people hear a YouTuber is writing a book they roll their eyes at the thought. Dan and Phil keep their writing real and interesting. They don;t try and hide themselves from readers, but rather welcome them, They embrace their own weirdness and I believe that is what makes them relatable. 

If you are looking for a funny read that may cause a little bit of secondhand embarrassment, then you'll enjoy this book. It helps you realize not everything you have done is the most cringe worth, as Dan normally has that covered. 

Overall, I give this book a level four hangover out of five. 

Interested in purchasing this book? Check the links above!

Review: Alice's Adventures Under Ground

Alice's Adventures Under Ground 
Lewis Carrol
128 pages (Hardcover)
Cider Mill Press
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 
In celebration of the story's 150th anniversary, this elegant new collectors edition of Alice's Adventures Underground features never-before-seen drawings from renowned artist Charles Santore, and an introduction by revered literary scholar, Michael Patrick Hearn.

When Lewis Carroll first put pen to paper and wrote what would become Alice in Wonderland, he provisionally titled the story Alice's Adventures Under Ground and accompanied the text with sketches to bring his story to life. Now, in honor of the 150th anniversary of the books first publication in 1865, we are publishing that original story, in a faithful and unabridged adaptation, under its original title. Like that first hand-written draft, this stunning new collectors edition features never-before-seen drawings throughout the story by celebrated New York Times bestselling artist Charles Santore (The Wizard of Oz, The Night Before Christmas), and an introduction from the premier authority on childrens literature, Michael Patrick Hearn.

Review:
I am going to start off by saying that I am a huge fan of anything relates to Alice in Wonderland. Books and music inspired by the story always holds a draw for me, and I'm rarely disappointed by the movies either. That being said, I adored this book.

Alice's Adventures Under Ground is the original story that was told to Alice Liddell l, far before it was expanded in order to make the book large enough to be successfully published. Here it has been revived. While the story lacks many of the signature characters, such as the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat, it still contains that same charm as the final Alice story.

What truly makes this book remarkable however is the sketches that go along with the story. Charles Santore's drawings are perfect to go with the story and I found myself studying them again and again. I cannot wait to the the fully finished paintings that these sketches were the precursors to.

I would recommend this especially to other fans of a Alice in Wonderland like myself, as well as anyone looking to read a short classic story with interesting artwork to go along with it.

Overall I am going to give it a level four out of five hangover.

 Interested in purchasing this book? Check out the links above!

Review: Project Cain

Project Cain
Geoffrey Girad
341 pages (Hardcover) 
Simon & Schuster BFYR
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble
 
Blurb:
Sixteen-year-old Jeff Jacobson had never heard of Jeffrey Dahmer, the infamous serial killer who brutally murdered seventeen people more than twenty years ago. But then Jeff discovers he was constructed in a laboratory only eight years ago, part of a top-secret government cloning experiment called Project CAIN. And scientists created him entirely from Jeffrey Dahmer's DNA.

Jeff isn't the only teenage serial-killer clone. Others have been genetically engineered using the DNA of the Son of Sam, the Boston Strangler, and Ted Bundy. Some clones were raised, like Jeff, in caring family environments; others within homes that mimicked the horrific early lives of the serial killers they were created from.

When the most dangerous of the boys are set free, the summer of killing begins. Worse, they hold a secret weapon even more deadly than the terrible evil they carry within.

Can Jeff help catch the "monsters" before becoming one himself?

Review:
This is one of those books that I had been anxiously awaiting a long time ago. It came out, I bought it in pure excitement, and then put it on my nightstand to be read after I finished the several that I was in the middle of.  Somehow, miracle of miracles, I am actively reading my way through my back-logged to-be-read pile this summer. Top of the list: Project Cain.

The premise of this story was one that interested me to no end. Serial killers? Sign me up! (As long as they stay in the pages.) And the added mixture of cloning to the plot sounded like it would add a unique twist. This also interested the Biology major in me. The question of how much nature and nurture each have to do with the way a person turns out is such an engaging question that I couldn't imagine not enjoying this book. For the most part I was correct.

The story was fast-paced and full of action toward the end. However, two things held me up a bit. Firstly, there was a lot of soul searching and inner monologue, especially in the beginning of the book. While it made sense, as the main character,  Jeff  (as in the clone of Jeffery Dahmer), found out he was not a normal boy but was in fact a clone. Unfortunately I was not really in an inner journey sort of mood. The second thing that I wasn't overly fond of was the way the dialogue was written. Girard wrote it in a style that was meant to hopefully be engaging to young readers, in particularly boys. While the style, full of short sentences and lists did contribute to the fast pace of the novel, I disliked that quotation marks weren't used. It threw me of a bit and I never really adjusted to it.
Another thing that I struggled a bit with was that the characters didn't excite me. Jeff struggled with his identity for the majority of the novel and some of the other characters fell flat due the journal-like format of the story. The growth of the other characters was lacking and there relationships to the main character were hard to understand.

However, one thing I loved about this was the amount of research that was clearly put into the novel. The number of facts and statistics were nearly overwhelming. It some other reviews I had seen that many people considered the book to much of an info-dump, but I enjoyed the conspiracies and theories, all born of fact. Besides, as the story is only written from the point of view of Jeff I can only imagine a bit of info-dump as the main character was thrown into this plot with all of the information flying at his

Overall, the story was a really intriguing concept that needed to be more finely tuned in some places in order to more emotionally involve the reader. (It is however possible that the adult version of this novel, Cain's Blood, would appeal to me more.)

I give this story a hangover level of 3 out of 5.

Interested in purchasing the book? Check out the links above!

Review: House of Purple Cedar

House of Purple Cedar 
Tim Tingle 
192 pages (Paperback)
Cinco Puntos Press
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble


Blurb: 

"The hour has come to speak of troubled times. It is time we spoke of Skullyville." Thus begins Rose Goode's story of her growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma. Skullyville, a once-thriving Choctaw community, was destroyed by land-grabbers, culminating in the arson on New Year's Eve, 1896, of New Hope Academy for Girls. Twenty Choctaw girls died, but Rose escaped. She is blessed by the presence of her grandmother Pokoni and her grandfather Amafo, both respected elders who understand the old ways. Soon after the fire, the white sheriff beats Amafo in front of the town's people, humiliating him. Instead of asking the Choctaw community to avenge the beating, her grandfather decides to follow the path of forgiveness. And so unwinds this tale of mystery, Indian-style magical realism, and deep wisdom. It's a world where backwoods spiritualism and Bible-thumping Christianity mix with bad guys; a one-legged woman shop-keeper, her oaf of a husband, herbal potions, and shape-shifting panthers rendering justice. Tim Tingle—a scholar of his nation's language, culture, and spirituality—tells Rose's story of good and evil with understanding and even laugh-out-loud Choctaw humor. 

Review:  

I was given House of Purple Cedar by my librarian, who asked if I would review the book for him, being that it had just arrived new to our library. Once I obtained the book I looked up reviews done by other to gauge if I would like the book. All the reviews I found rated the book highly and it seemed like it would be a page turner. It turned out to not be. 

In my own personal opinion, I did not enjoy House of Purple Cedar and find the ratings to be off.  When I first started reading the book I thought it was interesting, for about the first chapter. Afterwards, the chapters dragged on, not really coming to a point. Many of the stories told in the book, which contributed to the whole story, could have been smaller, which would help make the story a faster read. 

The book itself is to highlight the horrible discrimination PoC go through, especially Native Americans. The Choctaw people, in their small Oklahoma town, had to deal with a lot of discrimination towards Native Americans as a whole being. I am all for equal treatment for everyone, and there should be more books written about it, but there could have been a more interest sparking way to write the book. 

This is just my personal opinion on the writing and format of house of Purple Cedar, and it's not meant to offend others. 

Overall, I give House of Purple Cedar a level 1 hangover out of 5. But an A for effort. 

Interested in purchasing the book? Click the links at the top! 

Review: The Naturals

The Naturals 
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
308 pages (Hardcover)
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides—especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Sarcastic, privileged Michael has a knack for reading emotions, which he uses to get inside Cassie’s head—and under her skin. Brooding Dean shares Cassie’s gift for profiling, but keeps her at arm’s length.

Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms closer than Cassie could ever have imagined. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive. 

Review: 

I heard about The Naturals a few months before it came out and it sounded like it was going to be a really great book. I'm glad to say that it didn't disappoint me. In fact, I read it in a day because I wasn't able to put it down 

The novle was very fast paced, which I really liked. There weren't any parts in the middle of the story where it seemed to lag. 

I also really liked the cast of characters. Cassie was really interesting and I especially liked the mental processes she went through while profiling. I also very much enjoyed hoe realistic she was, even though she was "different." The rest of the characters, shane, Lia, Michael, Dean, and some of the rest, were also really fun and I liked there bickering and reactons to each other. Cassie's profiling training with the FBI agents was also extremely interesting. 

The other aspect of the novel that I loved was the mystery. Every few chapters there would be a snippet from the killer's point of view and they really added to the story. I didn't expect the ending at all, to be honest. 

The only small issue I had was the similarity between The Naturals and Kimbely Derting's The Body Finder series. However, there were enough differences that it was still enjoyable. 

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 5 out of 5. 

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top! 

Review: Geek High

Geek High 
Piper Banks
242 pages (paperback)
NAL Trade
Goodreads -  Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 

At this school, everyone's a geek. And Miranda Bloom still can't fit in...

Miranda is a math genius with divorced parents, an evil stepmother, and no boyfriend in sight. She can't even fit in with the other geeks at the Nottingham Independent School for high-IQ students, because they actually have useful talents. Miranda, on the other hand, is known as "The Human Calculator," which doesn't amount to much when people have, you know, their own calculators.

Then Miranda gets stuck planning the school's Snowflake Gala. And as she struggles to find a date and drum up some school spirit at Nottingham-aka "Geek High"-she finds that who you are means more than where you fit in. 

Review: 

Here I am again with another teen/YA book, this week it's Geek High. My mother bought me this book for my birthday back in 2012 and I enjoyed it quite a lot. Enough that I wrote a review for my English class that same year. It follows the first semester of her sophmore year in high school, hitting all the highs and lows hat come with it. 

I liked how realistic the story line is. Parents are divorced, mother moves for a job and daughter has to move in with her dad. Totally plausable in the real world. The main character, Miranda, had a very believable personality and many of the things that she does throughout the story follow what an actual teenage girl would do. Character development of the supporting characters is moderately high, and I mean that in a good way. 

I would say that Geek High would be an enjoyable read for anyone who likes reading YA stories, and teenage girls may be able to relate to many of the twist and turns that miranda goes through. it's a great weekend read, but I would say you may want to be on the mature side, like 13 or older, as mature content is mentioned. 

Overall, I would give Geek High a level 4 hangover out of 5. 

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: Everything Is Perfect When You're a Liar

Everything Is Perfect When You're a Liar 
Kelly Oxford
336 pages (paperback)
It Books
Goodreads  - Amazon  - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 

From her beginnings as a wunderkind producer of pirated stage productions for six-year-olds, through her spirited adventures watching self-satisfying monkeys, throwing up on Chinese food deliverymen, and stalking Leo DiCaprio, here are the goofy highs and horrifying lows of life as Kelly Oxford. 

Review: 

I didn't know what to expect when I first got Everything Is Perfect when You're a Liar. It sounded like an interesting book, but I was never one for memoirs or life stories. Once I got a couple chapters in I realized that this memoir wasn't like other memoirs out there. Kelly's story is basically multiple essays weaved together to create a story, starting in her childhood and end in her now adult life. 

I have seen many people give mild rated reviews of this book, now that I have personally read it myself, and on Goodreads it curentlly holds a 3.36 star rating. I, on the other hand, love this book. Throughtout the story she is literally telling readers just who ignorant she was as a child and teenager, while as growing as an adult she realizes that everything that she had done in highschool really came back and bit her in the ass. 

Many reviewers have called her narcissistic for complaining about her seemingly perfect life, but what they don't realize is that she not really complaining, but rather telling her life story the way she sees it with her emotions and her feelings. This is what kept my attention while I was reading. If I remember correctly, I finished this book within 3 or 4 hours, so rather quickly. I honestly believe that if you enjoy reading and maybe even laughing at other peolples failures you might like reading this book, and if not, check it out anyway.  

Overall, I give this a hangover level 4 out of 5. 

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave 
Rick Yancey 
457 page (Hardcover) 
Putman Juvenile
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble
 
Blurb: 

The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. 

Review:

The 5th Wave was even better than I was expecting it to be, and I was expecting a lot. I haven't read a whole lot of alien books in the past, but this one stood out compared to those that I have read. It was well-paced, fresh, and that was one badass alien invasion.

I really enjoyed the sheer amount of thought that must have been put into imagining  the post-invasion world. It was just so well-thought out, with so many details. There were a few things that I probably never would have consider, but that really added to the novel. I loved every detail that Rick Yancey deigned to give us readers, savoring absolutely everything even when it was an awful detail that killed me.

Which brings me to the fact that I would never want to live in this book. Ever. The end of the world wasn't coming. No, it had already come and gone and anyone left was still there because of pure bad luck. But I loved watching the characters fight to live and do what was right in that horrible messed up world. It really gave me something to cheer and hope for.

I also really loved seeing the characters grow throughout the story. Each of them got so much stronger as they kept trying to fight back And some of the twists in the plot had me understanding the hardships the characters were going through At points, I didn't know if I should cheer them on or shout out to warn them that they were being tricked (only to find out I was way off anyways).

So the book was pretty spectacular, aside from the fact that when the point of view switched the first few times, it left me feeling a bit lost. But once I understood what was going on, I saw how necessary the change was. It added to the story rather than detracting from it.

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 5 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: The Brightest Kind of Darkness

Brightest Kind of Darkness
P.T. Michelle
357 Kindle Edition
Patrice Michelle
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 

Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.  

Review: 

I've been waiting to read this book for such a long time, and I'm glad I finally got the chance. I'd heard a lot of good things about it, and I can say that I agree with most of them.

Brightest Kind of Darkness has such an original plot. I haven't read anything like it before. I really enjoyed the whole idea of Nara (love her name, by the way) dreaming her whole day the night before. But it didn't take long before things were changing. We didn't get a complete explanation as to why Nara started losing her dreams, although we did learn what happened to them. I can't wait to read the next book so I can learn more about what was going on. One of my favorite things was the repercussions that Nara caused by changing Fate. It was so logical that there something should happen when someone tries to mess with destiny. And it added a feeling of suspense while I wondered what was going to go wrong next.

I really loved all of the characters in this novel. They were all fresh and unique and I couldn't help but picture myself in Nara's position. And let me say, Nara was an amazing heroine. She tried so hard to help others, even though it could only affect her negatively some of the times. She was a very strong heroine and I loved her for that. Another character I really enjoyed was Nara's aunt Sage. Aunt Sage was that aunt that everybody wants. She was understanding, knew how to bake and make an awesome meal, and was willing to listen to Nara and support her when needed. The other character I feel I need to mention is Ethan. The love interest. Ethan was the perfect compliment to Nara's happiness and lightness, because he was all shadows and mental demons (with an interesting twist). But he wasn't sulky or gloomy. He was just trying to live his life as best as he could, which I loved.

The only complaint I have with this book is that it felt like Nara and Ethan started caring about each other very suddenly, but that might just be me. It didn't really bother me very much though because they progressed slowly and had a few obstacles along the way. There relationship was very sweet and I really liked that they had so much in common.

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 4 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: Tilt

Tilt
Ellen Hopkins
608 pages (Hardcover)
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb:

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing that his life, too, will be shortened?

Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Love, in all its forms, has crucial consequences in this standalone novel.

Review:

I've read a lot of Ellen Hopkins in the last few years, making my way through the majority of her works. I've loved most of it, rarely disliking her stories. Anyone who has read one of her books knows that she writes about issues and problems in society, showing darker aspects of life. I fully enjoy them, and Tilt wasn't really any different.

The first book I ever read by Ellen Hopkins was Impulse. I was kind of shocked by the content and how the content was portrayed. It took some adjusting for me, as I wasn't used to or originally a big fan of verse. I also had to adjust to the alternating point of views. Tilt was much like Impulse in those ways, containing verse writing and also multiple view points. But Hopkins is a master at telling stories like this. Her verse is elegant and I'm always very impressed at how well the stories flow. The multiple point-of-views only added to the effect of the story, letting the reader see connections we wouldn't know about otherwise. Because, while technically there are three stories being told, I only view it as one.

Speaking of the story . . . I can't explain how much this one spoke to me. It was all about how one lie can lead to another and how everything we do can affect those around us. It was about how people can change. I really loved reading the stories about Mikayla, Harley, and Shance. It was heartbreaking and inspiring all at once as I watched their lives spiral out of control and they tried to deal with it.

And, of course, the classic Ellen Hopkins ending. She left the story off, telling us what happened, but leaving it kind of open-ended, allowing readers to wonder what happened next. It shows readers that the characters' lives aren't finished yet. And I adored the ending.

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 5 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: The Night Circus

The Night Circus 
Erin Morgenstern 
387pages (Hardcover) 
Doubleday 
Goodreads - Amazon  - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 
  
The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­formers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart. 

Review: 

This book was fairly big a while back, but only recently did I realize that my library had a copy and I got it right away. And I'm so glad I did.

There are a few things that I really loved about this book. The first thing, the obvious thing, was the story. I didn't get exactly what I expected when I opened this book. I was expecting s story about two people who were performing with each other, trying to outdo the other with pretty displays of sparks and small illusions. I got so much more. The story was so deep. I didn't realize how many people would be involved, how the circus would actually work, or how much I would support both of the characters. It was heart-wrenching knowing that it couldn't end well, but still hoping it would anyway.

I also enjoyed Erin's writing insanely. Everything seemed so eloquent and the descriptions were beautiful. All I wanted through the whole book was to be able to really experience the circus, in real life. Every single tent, exhibit, or show that was described crept into my brain until I could almost feel it. They were all so real to me, and I could perfectly imagine every one. The descriptions were beautiful, the characters were perfectly written out, and every scene pulled me in.

I don't feel like I can gush a whole lot about this one without giving away details and ruining some of the surprises for readers, so I'll just let it be known that I think everyone should read this book, if only because of how gorgeous the writing was.

I'm giving this book a hangover level of 5 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls
Patrick Ness
215 pages (Hardcover)
Walker Books


Blurb:

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming...
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Conor.
It wants the truth.

Review:

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this book that had won both the Kate Greenway Medal and the Carnegie Medal, along with many others, but people had been talking about it and a few had recommended it to me, so when I came across a copy, I jumped at the chance to read it. As soon as I picked it up and briefly flipped through the pages, I loved the illustrations. They were dark and chillingly beautiful.

I didn't know how fitting they were until I started reading the story. This was the first book written by Patrick Ness that I've read and I've found that I absolutely love his writing. It was beautiful, and told the story perfectly. I loved the way that Conor's voice was written out and I enjoyed his thought process throughout the story.

I connected with the main character instantly. Conor was going through one of the worst situations I could imagine in life, although I'm sure it's a fairly real one for some people, and I felt so much towards him. He was doing his best to be hopeful about the whole thing and unwilling to even consider the idea of his mother not getting better, which was so realistic to me. I even cried towards the end of the book, which is really rare for me, but I was so upset by it.

However, my favorite character was the monster. I really enjoyed the stories he told Conor and how they paralleled with the people in Conor's real life. The monster was also so lyrical and I loved some of his thoughts. Plus, my whole perspective changed towards it at the end, although I could never truly hate it.

Anyways, I think everyone should go find a copy of this book and read it. But I'll leave a little quote below for those of you who can't do it immediately.

"Stories are wild creatures, the monster said. When you let them loose who knows what havoc they might wreak?" - A Monster Calls, page 51.

I give this book a hangover level of  5 out of 5.

Review: Slayers

Slayers
C.J. Hill
400 pages (Paperback)
Square Fish



Blurb:

Dragons exist. They’re ferocious. And they’re smart: Before they were killed off by slayer-knights, they rendered a select group of eggs dormant, so their offspring would survive. Only a handful of people know about this, let alone believe it – these “Slayers” are descended from the original knights, and are now a diverse group of teens that includes Tori, a smart but spoiled senator’s daughter who didn’t sign up to save the world.

The dragon eggs have fallen into the wrong hands. The Slayers must work together to stop the eggs from hatching. They will fight; they will fall in love. But will they survive?


Review:

I received a copy of Slayers through Goodreads First Reads.


I wasn't sure what to expect as Slayers was the first book I've ever read about dragons, so I didn't have anything to compare it to. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. I don't know if there are books a lot better or if dragons were finally done right in this book, but I can say that either way, I loved it.

I've heard of plenty of books about dragons of course. In most of which, they seem to be either glorified horses or poor misunderstood creatures that just want to be our friends. This, however, hasn't always made a whole lot of sense to me. I thought dragons were supposed to be merciless, killing monsters that caused all of the people from the village a few miles away to disappear. As Hill put it:

"Despite all the novels to the contrary, I'm pretty sure dragons wouldn't want to be our friends. Lions, tigers, and bears are all way cuter and cuddlier than dragons, and they don't think twice about eating people. Anything that is large and has fangs and claws - well, that's nature's way of telling you to run away quickly."

And I couldn't agree more. But since the dragons are out to get everyone in Slayers, that obviously means that someone's got to be out there stopping them, right? Right.

The Slayers were a unique cast of characters. They could be tough and ferocious when they needed to be, and they were always down with using their super cool powers, but they were also all semi-normal teenagers when they could be. I felt some of the secondary characters had awesome personalities, including Bess, Rosa, and Dr. B. Some of the things they did and the situations they got into were hilarious. The main character, Tori, also got herself shoved into a totally new world, but what I loved was that she didn't immediately accept it. She had the weight of the world dropped onto her shoulders and for a bit there, she actually reacted normally and tried to get away from it. I don't always see that as often as I'd expect to.

The story was told from two different view points, although they didn't alternate. Every time we got to see through the "villain's" eyes I kept hoping and hoping that I was wrong about who it was, but when I got to the end, I wasn't. However, there was a twist there, that changed things anyways.

My favorite part about the whole story was the camp, though. I only went to a few when I was younger before I got bored with them, but this one I would have stuck with. It was a really nice place for the whole thing to be based around and I loved that it seemed it was just that little secluded area in the whole world that knew the secrets kept there.

Overall, Slayers had a great world and some of the coolest characters. They were put into awesome situations and the ending of the book left me just waiting for the next one.

I give this book a hangover level of 5 out of 5.


This book is especially recommended to people who like Percy Jackson and books similar to it.

Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me
Tahereh Mafi
340 pages (Paperback)
HarperCollins


Blurb:

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.


Review:

I realize that I'm a little late to the party with this one, but I've been wanting to read it and I'd really like to voice my opinions on it now that I finally have. So here I go.

Tahereh Mafi's writing style is very unique. I haven't read a whole lot of reviews on this book, however I can imagine that the writing itself bothered some people. The strikethroughs are semi odd, although I think they really add something to Juliette's voice. She also uses a lot of metaphors, which is something most people don't do in real life. Some of them did sound pretty though, and while they weren't normal, I wouldn't expect Juliette to be normal. She's been locked up for the better part of a year and didn't have much positive human contact even before that.

Juliette is a heroine that I personally liked. She wasn't my favorite, but I liked her. She new what she wanted and she didn't take the easy way out, ever. She did whatever she could to make sure she wasn't hurting other people, even when that made life more difficult for her. She didn't trust people, but she still refused to hurt anyone as long as she had control over the situation. I respected that about her.

The love interests are varied. Adam is the only boy who has ever been kind to Juliette and I love that. He didn't hate her for what she could do, which was really rare. But I still think their romance happened too soon, escalating quickly. It didn't seem like they had a lot of time to build trust; it just happened. Warner was something, the "bad guy" in the story. (Yes. This is one of those characters with which I'll use the dreaded "He's just misunderstood!" defense. Forgive me.) I think he was just misunderstood. We didn't get to learn a lot about his past, but you can tell he's had some major issues. I think he honestly cares about Juliette, he just doesn't know how to show it correctly. At all. But he doesn't trust people easily, so I'd be surprised if he went about the whole thing correctly.

The last thing I'd like to touch on is the world in which Juliette lives. Mafi painted a rather depressing picture throughout the story. The world is basically failing and dying. People are going hungry. The government has been taken over by a group of people who aren't helping. Orphans and elderly are considered useless and pushed aside. I was really able to grasp how bleak the future for most people was. And while it's a future world that I've seen before, it was still working for the story and described differently.

Overall, I give this a hangover level of 4 out of 5.

Review: Every Day

Every Day
David Levithan
322 pages (Hardcover)
Knopf Books for Young Readers


Blurb:

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.


Review:

Every Day is a book that I read a while back and it took me a little bit to process. I thought the story was beautiful. I thought the story was horrible. I got freaking punched in the gut by this a few times also. I've finally decided that I need to explain how I feel about this one.

Since A lives his life in other peoples bodies, this obviously presented an issue that made normal life impossible. But A was getting along anyways, even if he was lonely and wanting for a lot of things that he couldn't have. He was even respectful to the bodies he took over and occupied by not changing things for them or by trying to help people out. He was a genuinely nice person and he wasn't even overly bitter about not having his own life most of the time.

After he fell in love with Rhiannon though, he started to really hate his life. He did things that go against his own rules to try and be with her. Throughout most of the book, I didn't really like Rhiannon. She didn't care about A very much, sometimes she was disgusted by him even when it wasn't his fault, and I just didn't get why A liked her so much. But A really did care about her.

I haven't read a lot of books with the body-switching element. In fact, this is the only book I've read that had that element. I thought it was really well executed. It added drama and problems that helped to keep the plot moving at a steady pace.

Now I've just got to quickly mention the ending, because this review can't be complete until I mention it. I'm not going to spoil anything, but I've got to say that it totally blew me out of the water. I didn't see it coming and it shocked and upset me. But at the same time, I really loved it. The friend who recommended Every Day to me told me she'd felt nearly the exact same way as me. So just be warned, the ending was pretty intense.

Overall, this book's hangover level is a 4 out of 5.

Review: True

True
Erin McCarthy
222 pages (Ebook)
Penguin Group (USA)


Blurb:

When Rory Macintosh’s roommates find out that their studious and shy friend has never been with a guy, they decide that, as an act of kindness they’ll help her lose her virginity by hiring confident, tattooed bad boy Tyler Mann to do the job…unbeknownst to Rory.

Tyler knows he’s not good enough for Rory. She’s smart, doctor smart, while he’s barely scraping by at his EMT program, hoping to pull his younger brothers out of the hell their druggy mother has left them in. But he can’t resist taking up her roommates on an opportunity to get to know her better. There’s something about her honesty that keeps him coming back when he knows he shouldn’t…

Torn between common sense and desire, the two find themselves caught up in a passionate relationship. But when Tyler’s broken family threatens to destroy his future, and hers, Rory will need to decide whether to cut her ties to his risky world or follow her heart, no matter what the cost…


Review:

True is a book I've been wanting to read for a while. I finally decided that I'd have to buy a copy, so that's what I did. I read it in a day and I enjoyed it thoroughly, however it was not my favorite book in the entire world.

At first, I had some problems with Rory. She was thinking so logically about everything and I didn't get it. Admittedly, I've always been the quiet nerdy girl at who does really well with math and science, so I connected with Rory on that level. But she was so analytical. I've never met a person who was that logical and literal. But after I got used to the way she thought, I really appreciated her honesty.

I've read a few other reviews on this book that said it just contained the same old New Adult plotline that so many other NA books have had. I would have to agree with those for the most part. The college girl virgin who falls for the bad boy. The plot did seem rather basic and there wouldn't have been a whole lot that made it different, except for Rory's honesty. I loved that Rory didn't take any crap from people. She went after Tyler when he tried to walk away, and she didn't give up on him, even through the issues they had. It was refreshing to see her commitment, which felt different than the way most heroines feel in other stories.

I grew to love Rory and I also really enjoyed Tyler and his brothers. They were real and had a very dysfunctional life, but they made the most of it. The only characters who seemed really predictable were Rory's friends and roommates, Kylie and Jessica, but I still liked that they were doing their best through the story to help Rory, albeit in a very untraditional way.

I couldn't decide if this book was a level three or level four.

I've given this book a hangover level of 3.5 out of 5.

Review: Beautiful Music For Ugly Children

Beautiful Music For Ugly Children
Kristen Cronn-Mills
262 pages (Paperback)
Flux Publishing

Blurb:

"This is Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, on community radio 90.3, KZUK. I'm Gabe. Welcome to my show."

My birth name is Elizabeth, but I'm a guy. Gabe. My parents think I've gone crazy and the rest of the world is happy to agree with them, but I know I'm right. I've been a boy my whole life.

When you think about it, I'm like a record. Elizabeth is my A side, the song everybody knows, and Gabe is my B side -- not heard as often, but just as good.

It's time to let my B side play.


Review:
 
Fair warning, if you're not fond of the Transgender community then you most likely won't enjoy this book. I enjoyed this book very much not only because I think that Kristin is a wonderful writer but I also support the LGBT Community. LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community, which is all about celebrating pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. 

Gabe is a teenage transgender female to male, who is still stuck in his female body. Elizabeth is his female side, his birth gender, and his A side. This is what most people know him by but he prefers his B side, Gabe. Gabe loves music and aspires to be a big time DJ. His neighbor, John, gets him a small DJing job at a local radio station at night and this is where Gabe comes to life. 

Throughout  his senior year Gabe faces many difficulties and emotional traumas, with trying to get his family to understand him to figuring out what he's gonna do with his life. I feel that many teenagers can relate to Gabe. Sure, not all of us are transgenders but we're trying to understand who we are and figure out what we are meant to do in this world. 

I had the pleasure to meet Kristin on April sixth of this year at a book festival here in Saint Peter, Minnesota. Jordyn and Michaela, the other admins on this blog, and I were able to talk to her. I do think this is a well written book and I'm glad I came across it while at the book festival. 

I give this book a level four hangover.