Tag: young adult

Paper Towns Book Review

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Paper Towns by John Green

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GoodReads Summary:

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, ask Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

My Review:

When I first started reading John Green a few years ago, this was one of the first ones I had picked up. The first one I had read was An Abundance of Katherines, which still remains my favorite of his. Back then, Paper Towns didn’t impress me as much as his other works so I decided to give it another try.

I still found it kind of lacking. For me, in this particular book, it was really hard to get John Green out of my head. It didn’t feel like it was Quentin’s voice. It always felt like John’s voice and it was kind of frustrating. I watch a lot of Nerdfighters and Vlog Brothers and just John Green videos on YouTube, and I felt like it was John the whole time so it was hard to get into Quentin as a character. I know that authors put themselves into characters-I definitely do that-but it was highly distracting in this book.

I also just didn’t think it was that great of a story. I was kind of like Q’s friends, and sort of frustrated at his obsession with Margo. She seemed sort of…I don’t know. I just didn’t like her. She was so mysterious and she left these clues and everyone was fascinated by the idea of her but not actually her, you know? It was kind of “been there, done that.” I feel mean right now haha because I don’t tend to give less than positive reviews but I just wasn’t that impressed with this book. I felt like Margo was a one-dimensional character and I really wanted her to surprise me. The direction in which her story ended up just didn’t surprise me and I like a good book to surprise me. His other books have done that before, and this one just felt predictable from the beginning.

That being said, there is a lot of good about this book because John Green is a really great writer and he has a way of capturing teen voice in a way that not many authors can do (Andrew Smith!!!!!) and he definitely does that in Paper Towns as well. It always seems to me that John Green never really left his teen years behind, but in a good way. He remembers what its like and it comes across in the page. He gets the emotions and the hormones and the humor and all of it. Its great. And there were parts of the book that I really liked, like the after-prom party and the road trip and that sort of thing. There were parts that had me laughing like crazy. There were almost, like, short stories within the bigger story that I enjoyed more than the story as a whole. Not one of John Green’s strongest, not in my opinion.

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 Stars

Book of the Week-Panic by Lauren Oliver

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I am very very happy to bring you this week’s Book of the Week. It released this past Tuesday and I’m so excited to be finally reviewing it. I read it back in…like September or October so I’m glad to finally be sharing my thoughts on it!

Panic by Lauren Oliver  

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GoodReads / Barnes and Noble / Amazon / Book Depository

This review is based on an advanced reader’s copy given to me in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my review in the slightest, view and everything said here is my honest opinion. Thank you Edelweiss and HarperCollins for the ARC. 

Genre:

Young Adult, ambulance Contemporary

Part of a Series?:

Standalone Novel

You May Like if You Liked:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

Age Recommendation:

13+

Plot Summary:

From GoodReads:

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn’t know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

My Review: 

I am so glad this book is finally releasing this week! I got this ARC way back in the fall and I’ve been sitting on this review to post it closer to the actual release date of the book. Now, with it coming out in a few days, I’m excited to finally review it, and share it with you guys.

The thing that I’ve always loved about Lauren Oliver is that she has amazing ideas. She has a very creative and imaginative mind and I think that continues in this novel. In Before I Fall, you have a teenage girl reliving the last day of her life, seven times, trying to get it right. In the Delirium trilogy, you have our society, but twisted, convinced that love is a disease that needs to be cured. Now, in Panic, we have a small town and a game called Panic, where a bunch of graduated high school seniors compete in random, and often dangerous, tasks in order to get their hands on a very large amount of money.

Its an incredible idea and I remember when I met her last March, right after Requiem had been released, I was excited about this idea.

And I think she pulled it off. It wasn’t quite what I expected but I love the idea of it. I think maybe sometimes Lauren Oliver has these amazing ideas but has a hard time really getting them on paper. While I looked forward to the actual story, and the different tasks that were part of Panic, I had a hard time connecting to the characters. I just didn’t FEEL for them, if you know what I mean. Not the way I felt for Samantha in Before I Fall. I thought the game, and what it entailed and the drama that unfolded around it was much more exciting than the characters involved in the game.

I think my biggest beef with the novel is that Panic starts so fast, but the novel doesn’t seem to pick up its quickness with it. Everything in the story was already in motion but I didn’t feel like I was really into the story until about a third of the way in. It took some time for my brain to catch up with the story.

That being said, its a very fast paced book with a wonderful concept and I loved the idea of Panic. What a crazy idea. I don’t live in a small town, I live in the suburbs outside of Anaheim and Los Angeles so there’s really always stuff to do here (even if it can get expensive) and I can’t imagine anyone here coming up with this crazy, insane game. But I can imagine someone in a small town where there’s nothing to do coming up with it, and so that part seems real. Crazy but real. I do think that Lauren Oliver captured reality well, and even though it was a weird concept, she made it real. Sometimes I feel authors try to write something a bit out of the ordinary and it doesn’t feel authentic or that it could be real. This book definitely did.

The Last Word

 I would say, definitely read it. From what I’ve seen of other reviews, its sort of a hit or miss. I liked it but I didn’t love it. I thought it was a great idea, a very creative and imaginative concept. In my opinion, the characters fell a little flat and maybe needed a little bit more OOMF to make them more real to me, though there were moments when I did feel for them. All in all, I enjoyed it, and it was easy to get through but its not a re-read anytime soon.

*****

Have you read Panic? What did you think? Share in the comments!

Ask the Passengers Book Review

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Ask the Passengers by A.S. King    

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You Can Find the Books At:

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Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, approved but her mother’s pushiness and her father’s lack of interest tell her they’re the last people she can trust. Instead, viagra order Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn’t know the passengers inside, but they’re the only people who won’t judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she’s falling in love with a girl.

As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can’t share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don’t even know she’s there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers’ lives–and her own–for the better.

In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society’s definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything–and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love.

My Review:

In 2013, at the recommendation of Andrew Smith, I read A.S. King’s new release, Reality Boy, and was absolutely blown away  by it. When I received a ton of Barnes and Noble gift cards for Christmas like I always do, I was wondering the book store and saw this book. I knew that this book was going to be a good one, based on the amazingness that was Reality Boy.

What I really loved the most about the story is that while it follows the typical path of a coming-of-age story, especially that of someone struggling with their sexual identity, its also unique too. Astrid is really confused, in that she doesn’t really know if she’s gay. She knows she likes girls, one in particular. In fact, she’s in love with that girl. But she doesn’t know if that defines her as gay. Her reluctance to label herself is fantastic. She doesn’t want to feel constricted by labels, or by the idea that she has to choose a gender. This felt so incredibly close to my heart. The idea is that she’s in love with a girl, she finds other girls attractive but she can’t rule out that she wouldn’t fall in love with a boy. I think that’s a beautiful thing. I’m madly in love with my boyfriend who is, obviously, a boy but I could never rule out a girl. Its not about gender, its about people. I think AS King really tackles that in this novel.

I also like the relationships between child and parent that she writes about in her novels. The one in Reality Boy made me feel sick to my stomach, and the relationship between America and her mother was so visceral and so real and so heartbreaking to me. It wasn’t abusive, like the relationship between Gerald and his mother in Reality Boy, but its neglecting and its hard for me to deal with. That’s how well that she writes these kind of relationships. They feel SO incredibly real. Everything she writes is written with such honesty and realism and its the kind of writing that makes the story stick with her.

The thing that really gets me about this story is that you could write it off as just another  “gay story”, or whatever, but its not like that. Its so very real, and I think a lot of kids and teenagers and hell, even some adults go through this kind of confusion. The fact that Astrid doesn’t feel the need to define herself, and that she’s going to love who she loves, labels or not, is beautiful and its a truly wonderful story. I think so many people could relate to Astrid, not just because of her struggle with her sexual identity but her struggle just to figure herself and feel important in her own home.

This story is addicting and compelling and deserving of every accolade bestowed upon it. A.S. King is two for two for me, and I am truly impressed with her novels. She is an incredible writer and a great storyteller. She really gets contemporary young adult literature, and I think even adults that are wary of YA would love her novels. She writes SO well. Ask the Passengers is on its way of being one of my favorites that I’ve read this year…and its only the fourth day of the year. Keep that in mind :)

Happy Reading.

My Rating:

5 out of 5 stars

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Fan Art Book Review

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Fan Art by Sarah Tregay  

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This review is based on an ARC granted to me through the website Edelweiss, more about in exchange for an honest review. This is no way, more about shape or form had any impact on my actual review. This book is due to release in June of 2014. 

 

 

You Can Find the Books At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Book Depository

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Senior year is almost over, viagra 40mg and Jamie Peterson has a big problem. Not college—that’s all set. Not prom—he’ll find a date somehow. No, it’s the worst problem of all: he’s fallen for his best friend.
As much as Jamie tries to keep it under wraps, everyone seems to know where his affections lie, and the giggling girls in art class are determined to help Jamie get together with Mason. But Jamie isn’t sure if that’s what he wants—because as much as Jamie would like to come clean to Mason, what if the truth ruins everything? What if there are no more road trips, taco dinners, or movie nights? Does he dare risk a childhood friendship for romance?

This book is about what happens when a picture reveals what we can’t say, when art is truer than life, and how falling in love is easy, except when it’s not. Fan Art explores the joys and pains of friendship, of pressing boundaries, and how facing our worst fears can sometimes lead us to what we want most.

My Review:

After the absolute mental and emotional breakdown that I went through while reading the first four of the Bloodlines novels, I needed a break, and I wanted something that would hopefully be quick, easy and fun. I checked out my Edelweiss and this one popped up, and it sounded good so I read it all last night. I actually stayed up fairly late to finish it.

The thing that jumped out at me about this book is that it follows Jamie, a young boy struggling with his sexuality in high school. He knows he is gay, and he’s come out to his family, but he’s afraid to come out to his friends, especially his best friend, Mason, who he is in love with. But despite that, its not a “gay” book, if you know what I mean. The story is so familiar. How many of us have had a crush on a friend, especially a best friend, and have been scared to say something in fear of losing the friendship? I know I have. That was my relationship with my boyfriend. I was terrified to tell him that I was crazy about him because we were so close and I thought it would ruin our friendship. So this part in the story was familiar. It was more than just a boy struggling with his sexuality, but a boy struggling with his feelings for his friend. Its very comfortable. It made that connection between heterosexual and homosexual relationships; they are the same!

But what I also love about it too, was that it had the ability to address LGBT themes without making it an overly emotional, dramatic novel. Its fun, light, it made me laugh and I was rooting for Jamie and Mason the entire book. It was a bit predictable in its endings but I enjoyed that. I like reading books that don’t end in tragedy or me sobbing into my pillow for the rest of the night. It was a light, quick read and it was just fun. It reminded me of my own high school experiences, like prom and graduation and senior skip day and all that. The crushes, and all that fun stuff. Sarah has a way of addressing LGBT themes into her novel, with Jamie coming to terms with his sexuality and fighting to keep a homosexual relationship comic into his literary magazine, but in a way that its relatable to everyone, and its a fun and quick read. Sometimes I forgot that Jamie and Mason were two guys, I just wanted them to get together. I wanted them to figure it out and have an epic make out scene.

I definitely recommend this book. It was a really quick and easy read, it was funny and genuine and the characters are easy to like. I think its a good book for those who want to read books with LGBT themes but are wary about jumping in. Its a sweet story, a bit predictable but still fun. This book comes out this summer, and is one to watch for!

My Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

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Time Between Us Book Review

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Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone

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You Can Find the Book At:

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Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, price which brings him into Anna’s life, case and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.
As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

Fresh, exciting, and deeply romantic, Time Between Us is a stunning, spellbinding debut from an extraordinary new voice in YA fiction.

My Review:

It didn’t take long for me to get addicted to this story. Let me put it to you this way: at the beginning of November, I was 7 books ahead in my GoodReads challenge, and yesterday, I was a book behind. I’ve fallen behind because of NaNoWriMo and the Catching Fire fan camp, and because I’m just having a terrible time finding something to read. I have SO many books, all stacked up to read, and nothing is working.

I decided to go to the bookstore, even though like I said, I already have a TON of books to read. I have heard many good things about Tamara Ireland Stone and I’ve been itching to read more YA contemporary. The more sci-fi or dystopian I read, the more I find it bleeds into my novel, and I don’t want that. While there is a sort of twist to this book, with the time travel aspect, it is very contemporary and it is exactly what I needed to get back into the reading spirit.

I loved the book. It felt like it was such an easy and effortless story to fall into. Anna and Bennett were both such real characters, and it was also fun to read the way they sort of fall into each other. They are from two completely different times. Bennett is seventeen in 2012, and Anna is sixteen in 1995. But the way they are able to connect and work together is amazing.

Plus its just so sweet. Bennett is burdened with this ‘gift’, something that everyone wants something from. His dad uses him, his mother doesn’t quite like him, but Anna thinks its beautiful, and in turn, Bennett is able to give her something that she’s always wanted to have: freedom, exploration, adventure. I love that we get a fun, love story with Anna and Bennett but with that twist that Bennett has.

I did have a slight issue with the ending, only because I know there’s a sequel but I don’t know what the ending did that made me feel a sequel was necessary. Perhaps I need to read the sequel in order to find out? But I felt like it had an ending and it wrapped up, pretty neatly too. I think I would have liked it a whole lot more than I already did if it had ended perhaps a chapter earlier. Then the last chapter could have been the first chapter of the new book. That sort of agonizing wait makes a book so much worth it.

I love the sweetest to the story, and the genuine nature of it. There’s a beauty in how flawlessly it flows and how the two characters come together, fighting it but pushing towards each other as well. Sometimes we just need a good story wrapped around two people falling for each other, and this is definitely one that I liked it. I have an easy gag reflex when it comes to romance stories, and I find myself rolling my eyes. But this one didn’t. Each character is so sweet and genuine and real and I rooted for them the entire story.

I definitely cannot wait to read the next one, to read more of Anna and Bennett and how they work together, and how their 17 year distance in time works out for them. Its should be very interesting. Onward!

Rating:

3.75 out of 5 stars

Cinder Book Review

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Cinder by Marissa Meyer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This review was done based on a recommendation of Erin from That One Geek Girl. You can check out her list on why you should read the book here. 

You Can Find the Book At:

GoodReads

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Author Website

GoodReads Summary:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. 

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

My Review:

Cinder was one of those books that kept popping up on my radar, either on other blogs or just spotting the cover on shelves at bookstores. But I had never really thought to actually pick it up. I’m not really sure why. It just wasn’t on my radar that way. It wasn’t until Erin from That One Geek Girl asked me to read it, as a personal recommendation from her, for a contest, that I really took it seriously and read it.

And it took me a few days, being so wrapped up in NaNoWriMo and Catching Fire and Doctor Who that I was.

However, I just finished, not even twenty minutes ago, and I’m so glad I was finally able to get into it.

I’m not quite sure what I expected from this book, but it definitely defied my expectations. I’m not huge on fairy tale retellings, because I find that most of them just aren’t done very well at all but this is so definitely NOT the case in Cinder. Cinder builds its own world, a beautiful, scary, calculating and thrilling world that sometimes, for a moment, you’ll forget you’re even reading a book that’s based off of Cinderella.

I love Cinder as a character. She’s a cyborg, part human and part machine, and forced to work and live under the rule of her guardian/stepmother. She’s a lower class citizen, not just because her stepmother makes it so but because she’s a cyborg. But I think the strength and intelligence that she possesses throughout the novel, the courage and determination, really makes her so much better than any other Cinderella character I’ve ever met. She both accepts who she is, but fights it at the same time. And she doesn’t wait for someone to come and save her, she does everything she can to save herself. She’s incredibly unique. I also love the twist that comes at the end of the book for. I think it sets up so much for her growth and for her future. I can’t wait to dive into the next book.

I also think the mix of science fiction and classic fairy tale is truly inspired. It helps to carry the story along. The mix of the plague and the cyborgs and the mysterious Lunars and the sort of dystopian world that Earth has become. It is an incredible example of world building. You recognize the world but its been tugged and pulled into something else. There’s sort of elements from the past and then brand new elements from a future. Its brilliant. I love that we get these sort of old school markets, where Cinder is a mechanic and fixes things, and we have the future feel of hovercrafts, and then she finds a gasoline car in a junkyard and is determined to fix it. So many familiar things and yet things that we’ve only dreamed of. I like the idea that there is still a Europe, and an Africa and all that, but wars and other things have also made it kind of unrecognizable.

Also, the characters! We see those familiar characters/archetypes of the familiar story: Cinderella, the prince, the stepmother, the stepsisters, and so forth, but they are so different too. They are super deep and rich characters and so much better than any other characters I’ve seen in a story like this. You really get a sense of all of them. You understand all of them, even the ones you aren’t supposed to root for.

I think Marissa creates a compelling familiar story in a mixed up world, and creates enough mystery and romance and action and tension to keep anyone reading. The conflict between Earth and the Lunars, the relationship Cinder begins to build with Prince Kai, and the mystery of Cinder herself is really what holds this book together, and I can’t wait to read more about all of it in the second book, Scarlet.

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars

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