Review--- WINTERGIRLS by Laurie Halse Anderson

Summary: “Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.

“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.

I am that girl. I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.

I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie were best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies. But now Cassie is dead. Lia's mother is busy saving other people's lives. Her father is away on business. Her step-mother is clueless. And the voice inside Lia's head keeps telling her to remain in control, stay strong, lose more, weigh less. If she keeps on going this way—thin, thinner, thinnest—maybe she'll disappear altogether.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the National Book Award finalist Speak, best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson explores one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia.

Summary Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5152478-wintergirls

A little rant...

My good friend Emma told me to read this. My librarian told me to read this. A random girl who walked into the library told me to read this.

I had no idea what I was getting into.

When I took it out from the library, I was getting ready to go on a long trip. Whilst in the car, I decided to open this book and give it a try...

Less than an hour later, I was half-way through the book and was beside myself in tears.

The Good: The narration. Or the writing depending on how you want to look at it. Oh my lord, it's amazing. Every. Single. Phrase. They are so pretty and tell in truth, what it's like to have an eating disorder. I loved how after each time she mentioned a food she would put in brackets how many calories was in it. I loved the crossed out phrases, making it look like it was her body versus her mind. I had entered the mind of an anorexic and props to Halse Anderson for it.

The characters. Each was so alive and so vivid, I could feel them inside the book, just waiting for me to discover their secrets. I was in tears as I read each of their struggles. And I almost never cry in books. Never. Not unless it hits some part of me. Which it totally did.

The plot. It was perfect. It was a different then the normal mental illness plot thing that most people enjoy writing. It was what really sticks with you when you have a mental illness... It's not when you first get it that it effects you... It's the aftermath that nearly kills you. You feel like you should still be watching your weight, cutting yourself, or still be covered in sadness. This book told that amazingly.

The ending. It was so freaking beautiful. I want a copy of the last chapter on my wall. I was in tears when I first read it, and even now when I read it, it can still bring a tear to my eye. Not very many other books can really do that to me. So when they can, that means they are really good.

The Bad: BAD? You want me to say bad things about this book? What kind of monster are you? Just kidding...

I guess the way it's written can be a little annoying when you first start reading it, but you get used to it just like any book. And after about two chapters, you are to wrapped in the story to even care anymore.

Overall: I read so many fictional books about mental illness, and none have any sort of idea of what's it's like to be mentally ill, save for this one. So far, this is one of best and one of my favourite books overall.

10 out of 10

Some new stuff...

Okay so I've been working on some reviews, only without the summaries. I will post them from my own computer. THEN I will go on one that will let me cut and paste, and put the summaries up.

Thanks for your patience as I try and figure out this new computer.

Why the world sucks...

My fucking laptop got all screwy. Then I got a temporary replacement, and it sucks so badly. Until I can figure out how to make it work, (I can't even get onto YouTube, it sucks so badly), there won't be any reviews. Hopefully I'll be up and running by Monday.

*Hugs all*

Sorry for all this.

Today

Due to stuff that I cannot control, I cannot post a book review today...

I will be back tomorrow with two reviews to make up for it though

*HUGS*

Review-- ATLANTIS AND OTHER LOST CIVILIZATIONS by Herbie Brennan

Summary: I never believed in Atlantis. It didn't fit anything I'd been taught about pre-history.









Then I started looking at the facts. And discovered everything I'd been taught about prehistory was just plain wrong.









If you suspect they're selling you a crock of bilge as well, it's time you read this book. It'll open your eyes about what really happened 11,000 years ago.









Summary Credit: http://www.bookadda.com/product/atlantis-other-lost-herbie-brennan/p-9780571223138-571223133









A little rant...

Go ahead and call me a nerd, but I love history.

So when I saw this book, I jumped up and down and picked it up and started reading immediately.

Not only did it captivate me, it also convinced me of some awesome (but forbidden) facts. It's too bad that I took it out of the library though because I really wanna read it. AGAIN AND AGAIN.

Gah evil history. Why must you be made of such awesomeness?

The Good: Since this is a non-fiction book, there isn't really much of a plot to it, nor is there an main characters, so quite often if you are planning on writing a non-fiction book, the writing must be pretty darn good. And this book's writing is both captivating, and interesting. It grabs you in the first page, and never lets go.

I also how Brennan informs you of information. He tells you, proves it, and then leaves it. No fillers nor boring rants that just put you to sleep.

The subject that he decided to write on was really interesting. Not a lot of authors acknowledge Atlantis or challenge history in the children's books.

Unlike Eric Walters, this didn't feel like a children's book. It felt like I had picked up a YA or dare I say it, ADULT book? But Brennan has written quite a variety of books so therefore, it defiantly shows.

The Bad: Nothing really. It was just that awesome. Some parts, you had to be careful about when you read, just to make sure that you didn't miss anything, but every book is like that so yeah...

Overall: If you like history, then you will love this book. I must get my little paws on another by him.

10 out of 10

Review-- UNITED WE STAND by Eric Walters

Summary: Dramatic, gripping, and moving, this sequel to the award-winning We All Fall Down will captivate readers.It’s September 12th, 2001, and New York City is at a standstill: somber, bleak and shocked in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks.

Will knows he and his father are lucky to have escaped; others, like his best friend James’ father are still missing . . . and soon presumed to be dead.

Poignant and dramatic, United We Stand is a young adult novel about heartache, self-discovery, and the power of friendship.

Summary Credit: http://www.flipkart.com/united-stand-eric-walters-book-0385666403

A little rant...

I loved We All Fall Down. It gave a unique perspective to the 9/11 and Eric Walters did a pretty decent job talking about 9/11 from a Canadian's perspective.

So when I saw this book, I was literally jumping up and almost screaming but since I was in the library, I decided against it.

So when I opened the book, I had some freakin' high expectations for it. But did it live up to those expectations?

Yes. And no at the same time.

The Good: This IS a children's book so looking at it from a child's point of view, it is not censored THAT much. But if this was an YA novel, it would have been so much better without the censoring.

The writing. Walters can write like no one's business. Unfortunately, he writes those children chapter books so I had to adjust from YA and adult writing into children's which is a MUCH harder adjustment then most people would think.

Although the plot moved a little fast for my liking, it was still quite solid. It wasn't much to write home about but still a solid plot which is far better than no plot at all.

The Bad: The characters. I don't know if it was just me, but I felt as if the characters were acting much younger than the author claims they are. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, and a common mistake that most authors make. Plus the characters were a little to naive for my liking as well.

As I have stated before, the plot moved a little too fast for me. One minute they were in the hospital, the next they were going to visit a friend.

Overall: A decent book. Not as good as We All Fall Down but still okay

5 out of 10

Something I wanted to say

Thanks times a dozen to Emma from www.bookthrough365.blogspot.com for her awesome shout out to me!!! She is amazing in person and just as loveable as she is on her blog. She is one of the reasons why I began blogging in the first place.

*Hugs on you*

Okay now that I have done my fan-girling, we will be getting back to the reviews in the next posts.

Thanks Em!

Review-- THE LOST HERO by Rick Riorden

Summary: Jason has a problem. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up in a bus full of kids on a field trip. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper and a best friend named Leo. They’re all students at a boarding school for “bad kids.” What did Jason do to end up here? And where is here, exactly?

Piper has a secret. Her father has been missing for three days, ever since she had that terrifying nightmare. Piper doesn’t understand her dream, or why her boyfriend suddenly doesn’t recognize her. When a freak storm hits, unleashing strange creatures and whisking her, Jason, and Leo away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood, she has a feeling she’s going to find out.

Leo has a way with tools. When he sees his cabin at Camp Half-Blood, filled with power tools and machine parts, he feels right at home. But there’s weird stuff, too—like the curse everyone keeps talking about. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist that each of them—including Leo—is related to a god.

Join new and old friends from Camp Half-Blood in this thrilling first audio book in The Heroes of Olympus series.

Summary Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7624272-the-lost-hero

A quick rant...

Despite it's hideous inaccuracy, I like the Percy Jackson novels. They were a fun light-hearted version of traditional Greek mythology which I am obsessed with. The characters were filled with all the awkwardness of being a children's book character.

Did this book however have the same magic as the Percy Jackson novels had?

Sadly not for me anyways.

The Good: Leo. He was like the Grover from the movie version. Comic relief really. But he was amazing and I looked forward to each of his chapters with interest. Unfortunately, he seemed like a filler character and Riorden didn't use him to his full potential.

The meeting with the North Wind. That whole scene, however insignificant, was the best in the whole book.

Come to think of it, the filler scenes were the best in this whole novel.

The Bad: Roirden toying with whether or not the Roman versions of the gods were evil. I was like MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY!!! In fact the Roman gods in general annoy me. They could have been an interesting twist but he didn't expand on it any further much to my dismay. Plus the switching back and forth annoyed me.

Pipper. She annoyed me. I don't feel like explaining any further.

Jason. He annoyed me as well.

The fact that whenever the book got interesting, Riorden ran away from the subplot. I felt as if he was rushed for time and needed to get something out there.

Overall: There was so much there but the entire book felt so rushed. I will read the next book in the series though and hope that there is some sort of improvement.

Knowing Riorden, there will be.

4 out of 10

Review-- Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Adbel-Fattah

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab, the Muslim head scarf, full- time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else. Can she handle the taunts of "nappy head," the prejudice of her classmates, and still attract the cutest boy in school? Brilliantly funny and poignant, Randa Abdel-Fattah's debut novel will strike a chord in all teenage readers, no matter what their beliefs.

Summary Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/79876.Does_My_Head_Look_Big_In_This

A quick rant...

Okay among the morbid books that I tend to adore, there are some books known mostly to the world as chick-lit (kind of like chick flick only for books).

And yes, I do read them. *ducks to avoid the hardcover good books being thrown at head*

But you know there IS only a limited amount of death, people dying, and blood that I can take. Shut up okay because I know it's the same for you too.

Therefore, I am going to review a chick-lit book. Don't hate on me just yet.

The Good: I liked most of the characters in this novel. A lot of them acted quite a bit like REAL teenagers not some adults version of teenagers which was quite nice seeing as most YA authors can't seem to get that right.

I liked that she DID have some customs of Islam and addressed an issue that is not commonly addressed is YA books. It was a bit of a breath of fresh air seeing as now most people re-use an idea over and over an over again.

I also liked that not only was she dealing with defending her decision to wear the hijab, she was also dealing with some issues that most kids deal with like crushes, telling your friends they aren't fat, school, etc.

The Bad: At times I felt like this book was preaching to me. "Not all Muslims are terrorists! Islam is a great culture." etc. I already knew that seeing as I have a couple of Muslim friends. I also felt like I should be preaching right back at her, "Not all non-Muslims think you are terrorists! Only those who can't accept that others are different from themselves!"

Also like a good click lit book, I knew exactly how it was going to end.

Which is bad if you want to be kept entertained.

Overall: A little better than normal fluffly book.

6 out of 10

Review-- Peeps by Scott Westerfeld

Summary: A year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying than in attending biology class. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal’s life.
Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he’s infected the girlfriends he’s had since Morgan. All three have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls Peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. It’s Cal’s job to hunt them down before they can create more of their kind. . . .

Bursting with the sharp intelligence and sly humor that are fast becoming his trademark, Scott Westerfeld’s novel is an utterly original take on an archetype of horror.


Summary Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186103.Peeps


A quick rant...
Like I have mentioned before, there are very few decent "vampire" books out there nowadays. They've all been marked by the evil that's been sweeping our nation... Twilight. BUT we DO have a saviour from this forsaken wasteland of vampire books and it comes in the form of Scott Westerfeld.

Now I was never a Westerfeld fan. I did not like the Uglies series so I was nervous to try anything else by him. Let's just say I am so glad I did.

Scott Westerfeld, I salute you.

The Good: Let's just be bad blogger and talk about the variations of the cover shall we? Out of all of them, this is my favourite but they are all amazing. I like this one because the people on the front all remind me of Cal, Lace, and Morgan.

Okay now that I've gushed about the cover, let's talk about the plot. I happen to know a lot about parasites because of spending lots of time around people in the medical profession, and I think that Westerfeld did an amazing job describing different parasites in the even chapters. It added so much more to the story without being too much of a filler kind of story.

As for the characters, they were all pretty bad-ass. Cal wasn't that stupid spineless geek, in fact he was sometimes more bad-assed then Lace who was pretty bad-assed man. I loved Lace too because she wasn't so much of a typical YA female lead. She was pretty kick-ass and I could never picture her being an I-can't-live-without-you kind of girl. Morgan was a pretty good support although we heard more of her then we saw her. She was sexy and mysterious (what else could she be really?) but when you met her, good god, you would not want to run into her in a dark alley.

I also think that among the vampire apocalypse sort of novels, this idea was fresh and original. Like Cal says, "Okay let's clear up some myths about vampires. First off, you won't be seeing me using the v-word much. In the Night Watch, we prefer the term Parasite Positives, or Peeps for short."

Those phrases alone explains why I love this book so much.

The Bad: The only mild complaint I have about this book was that I did not like the way Lace's character was introduced. But that scene is just a small part in the overall book and it didn't take anything away from my overall enjoyment of the book.

Other than that it was pretty damn close to perfect.

Overall: 10 out of 10

Review Tithe by Holly Black

Summary: Sixteen-year-old Kaye is a modern nomad. Fierce and independent, she travels from city to city with her mother's rock band until an ominous attack forces the sixteen-year-old back to her childhood home. There, amid the industrial, blue-collar New Jersey backdrop, Kaye soon finds herself an unwilling pawn in an ancient power struggle between two rival faerie kingdoms -- a struggle that could very well mean her death.



Summary Credit: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46777.Tithe



A quick rant...
Okay so this is the second Holly Black book I have read. The first was the decent White Cat which I may review sometime after reading this one.

I'm glad that I read that one first.

If not I might not have read another Black novel.

The Good: Black's writing style. Not only is it gorgeous, she can pull you in with these amazing sentences that just rock my world. She almost reminds me of a female Edgar Allen Pole. Yeah I went there. And let's just say I would give my left arm to write like Pole. So yeah...

I also like the idea of evil faeries. I am a life-long believer that faeries are evil and Black does a decent job proving to me just that. In fact, her faeries are pretty kick-assed evil... Almost.

You see, I loved to hate her characters. I've been staring at this post for like the past two hours trying to think whether or not they belong in the Good or Bad category. Although I feel as if I know the characters well enough and they have pretty clear-cut personalities, they didn't do very much for me. They weren't really like any older teenager I know.

The Bad: The. Entire. Plot.

I don't even think there really was a plot to this book. Either that or I lost it about half-way through the novel.

Overall: AMAZING writing but the plot did nothing for me.

4 out of 10

***NOTE*** She DID get better. I liked White Cat a hell of a lot more.

Review- Last Sacrifice By Richelle Mead

Summary: Rose Hathaway has always played by her own rules.

She broke the law when she ran away from St. Vladimir’s Academy with her best friend and last surviving Dragomir Princess, Lissa. She broke the law when she fell in love with her gorgeous, off-limits instructor, Dimitri. And she dared to defy Queen Tatiana, leader of the Moroi world, risking her life and reputation to protect generations of dhampir guardian to come.

Now the law has finally caught up with Rose- for a crime she didn’t even commit. She’s in prison for the highest offense imaginable: the assassination of a monarch. She’ll need help from both Dimitri and Adrian to find the one living person who can stall her execution and force the Moroi elite to acknowledge a shocking new candidate for the royal throne: Vasilisa Dragomir.

But the clock on Rose’s life is running out. Rose knows in her heart the world of the dead wants her back… and this time she is truly out of second chances. The big question is, when your life is about saving others, who will save you?

Summary Credit:http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6527740-last-sacrifice

A little rant...

Okay so first off let me just say as much as I hate vampire books like Twilight, I am actually a big fan of Mead's writing style and her ability to bestow terrible burdens upon her characters without as much as a second thought. If you've read the books let me just say the endings of the last three books were good examples of just that.

So what was up with this book? Mead not only caused me to doubt her writing style as well as having Rose as my favourite character. At times, I felt sympathy for Rose and all she was going through in her life, but at other times I felt like giving her a good smack on her face.

Now I know there will be people going "What are you talking about? This is the best book EVA!" but those people will most likely have a username along the lines of "Beibersnumba1shawty" so therefore I feel just to expressing my own thoughts.

*Sigh*

The Good: I loved Adrian's last scene in the book. He really expressed how I felt about Rose and what she wound up choosing. I also loved Lissa's scenes. It was interesting to watch her grow without Rose there. Although at times Lissa seemed a little out of her usual sweet demur, it was sort of thrilling to see her that way. I also liked to see her and Christian's relationship grow and change over the period of the book.

It was interesting to witness Adrian in this book. Since Frostbite, I have always been supportive of Adrian, and I liked that he had a biggish role in this book.

The Bad: There were too many "filler" scenes and characters. The Dimitri/Rose/Adrian thing was already enough for me to handle. I did not need Joshua, a cute Keeper, who was also interested. Although it might have been necessary to include him and some other scenes for the spin-off series, I just found it cluttered and annoying.

And then the choice. I felt like I did at the end of Mockingjay, (For those of you who wish to know exactly how I feel, wait a couple of reviews on Emma's blog because I am going to guest-review it with her), like there was never really a choice involved. Like it was you are getting Rose and you-know-who (not Voldemort), and that's the end of it. Unlike Collins however, Mead did not do a cop-out and actually had Rose semi make a decision. I still felt like she should have given us more of a reason why but I prefer that over no reason at all.

Overall: A decent end to a good series. Like I mentioned before some fillers but they might stop being fillers after the spin off series comes out. My favourite VA books are still the first three though.

7 out of 10

Welcome

Hello to fellow readers!
I have been inspired by my fellow blogging friend, Emma from Booking Through 365 to start my own book-review blogging. I will try and post a review of at least three books per week and will announce reading goals in January.
In the meantime, there shall be blogness!
Mousie