Book Review #3

Unravel Me 

(Book 2 in Shatter Me series)

By Tahereh Mafi

Goodreads Summary: Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance. She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch. Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible. In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

What is it? A quick read with an interesting writing style and a dynamic plot. Romance, little bit of a love triangle (not the whiny kind, the fun kind). Supernatural powers. Us against society/government thing. 

My Rating: C+

       Okay okay okay so. Don't run away just because of my rating. The C+ was not a bad thing! It's just where it fell on my nifty little scale. I know I'm a little behind on this book train (like by a few years), but if you're a bit behind too you should jump on this train with me. Unravel Me was a fun book. There was passion and action and plot twists and fun characters. It was great. I was totally sucked in. And the writing style is very "crazy girl is kind of crazy so she thinks that way and the author writes it like she thinks." 

      It was good. Very fun. I liked it. I would definitely recommend it.

      But. It did have. A little bit. Of. Bella Swan Syndrome.

              Bella Swan Syndrome: The main character of the book does not appear to be able to independently live without her boyfriend as her back bone. And she's whiny. 

       Now. I'm not a Twihard, neither am I a Twilight hater. The Twilight series was very entertaining; that is just the way the main character was. She had a hard time living independently and was a tad bit whiny. Juliet, the main character of the Shatter Me series, had a little bit of that going on. 

       Which was a bit eye-rolly.

       But who knows, maybe she'll go through some well needed character development and patch that right up. Yeah? Let's hope.

       The only other little critique here is the Kenji situation. Kenji, a sarcastic comic relief side character who also plays a major role in the plot, really loved to just kind verbally vomit a hole bunch of "quit being a cry baby, Juliet, other people have problems too" come to Jesus speech. Most of the time I was grateful for it. Yay, someone is finally saying what we're all thinking! But after like. The fifth speech. It got a little tiresome. Tad bit overdone there. 

       Now. Onto the romance. Totally unexpected. I may or may not have freaked out a few times. Like a lot a few. So more than a few. I was totally fangirling all over this. The little love triangle in the making here is so great. And the author is doing a lovely job of making it a hard choice (just kidding, I'm totally team Warner.) 

       Alright, well that's my review on this one. It is definitely recommended. I've already gotten the next book in the series so I'll have a review on that one up here soon too. 

~Sarah Elisabeth                 

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.                     

       

Book Review #2

I'll Give You the Sun

By Jandy Nelson

Goodreads Summary: Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

What is it? Funny. And sad. With great characters and a good plot. Some dramatic irony. Dual POV. One point of view is in the past, the other is in the present. Really sweet romance. Sibling story. Written with a lot of metaphor (don't worry, it was done well). Contemporary teen artsy.

My Rating: A-       

Alright. Let me just start with: this book was great. I'd heard about it a lot. I saw people reading it a lot. I wasn't too sure about it from the summary, but then. I read the first page. The entire first chapter was like reading colors rather than words. I'm not really sure how to explain it. Look, here:

“His soul might be a sun. I’ve never met anyone who had the sun for a soul.” 

“We wish with our hands, that’s what we do as artists.”
You see what I mean? Oh oh, and this one:

“He floated into the air high above the sleeping forest, his green hat spinning a few feet above his head. In his hand was the open suitcase and out of it spilled a whole sky of stars.” 

Oh my gosh and this:

“When people fall in love, they burst into flames.” 

       See? What am I supposed to do with that? It's just so pretty. I got close to the end and I wasn't quite sure I  should keep going because I just wanted to read more words like that. Over and over. And then when I did finish, I wanted to have never read it, so I could randomly go to the book store one day and catch the cover in the corner of my eye and pick it up and hold it in my hands for the first time and read that first line, that first chapter, that amazing scene, those final words all over again. 

       The book is written with point of views from the past and the present. Or the present and the future. However you want to look at it. Twins, a brother and a sister, narrate the book. Thy were grat. All of the characters were really great. The book was intense in some scenes and light in others. It was a lovely balance of funny and strange and romantic and artsy and emotional. 

       I'm not even sure how to critique this one. The only thing I really have to say is that I thought the ending went by a little too fast, that it was just a little too rushed. The climax hit and it was great and it tied everything together and then there were like five pages and then that was it. I would have liked just a little more...ending. 

        I don't really have much else to say. Just read it. I loved it. So go read it. 

~Sarah Elisabeth                   

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.  

      

Book Review #1

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

By: Jesse Andrews

            Goodreads Summary: This is the funniest book you’ll ever read about death. It is universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out: the answer to the basic existential question, how is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: Remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl.

            This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who had cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life.

            What is it? Witty cancer story that isn’t actually a cancer story with no romance and no paranormal anything and a main mood of awkward sarcasm and blunt honesty written as if speaking to the audience (mainly second person) about events of the past.

My Rating: B-

            Review:

Okay, let me just start by addressing a common misconception as well as my own first impression of the story by simply reading the summary. My first thought was of The Fault in Our Stars, but I am here to tell you it’s just. Not that. At all. The only similarity was that there was a girl with cancer, and while that may seem like a big similarity, after reading the book it almost reminds me of comparing To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) and Mockingjay (third Hunger Games novel, Suzanne Collins) because hey, look at that, there’s a bird in both. So just, get that out of your head, because no. It’s not that. At all.

Now on to the actual book.

When I finished Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews, my first thought was honestly, “What…did I just read…?”

This book was weird. Wonderfully weird, but weird none the less. The narrator tells the story as if he were the one writing the book. I’m not usually a fan of that style of writing, but I think for this story it worked well and wasn’t too distracting from the actual plot. If anything, it allowed for more humor to be added to the story.

The plot itself seemed a bit problematic at times, but in an odd sort of way. This book was stylized as if it had been written by a teenage boy, so sometimes I couldn’t tell if the straying of the plot was on purpose due to that style… or if the plot really was just kind of loose and generally lacking a clear format. So whether I should be criticizing that part or applauding the author for a great sense of narrator and really sticking true to that voice is not really clear.

A few other sticky situations I found: The narrator himself is very…self-deprecating. A few times humor is poked at as the narrator says things such as “I’m not even sure why you’re still reading this book,” and “I’m positive you will have stopped reading this book by now.” The first couple times it was funny, but after a while it gets a bit much and it starts to feel less like a chuckle and more like an eye roll.

The only other not good was…this book had Hipster Syndrome.

         Hipster Syndrome: a condition had by books where the writing pays great attention to how unlike other books it is; the book focuses on its own uniqueness in multiple circumstances. 

Except this novel had undercover Hipster Syndrome, where it attempted to cover it up with its sarcasm and self-deprecation. But I caught it! I saw through that poorly masked disguise!

But alas, it did still have Hipster Syndrome. This book loved to play off of how unlike other stories it was. Honestly, if you’re not like any other stories, let your writing show that, don’t force it down the readers throats. There were multiple times attention was called to how in any other story a certain scene would have been a romantic scene or a meaningful scene or a scene where a great lesson is learned, but in this story it wasn’t that. I would have liked for this novel to have been less about what it wasn’t and more about what it was.

The best part about this book was the characters. The book had a way of not showing much deep, meaningful compassion through the protagonist, but making it up through the supporting characters. Crazy college professor dads and overtly hostile best friends and dying girls and teachers who care maybe a little too much. They were described in a unique, yet very life like way that really stole the story.

The Really Close to the Best Part but the Characters Were Just So Good This Other Best Part Had to Be Slightly Less Best Part Than the First Best Part aka The Second Best Part was the brutal honesty of the book. This book was like line after line of witty, sarcastic awkwardness that was only made better by the honesty of the witty sarcasm. The main characters of this book were teenagers and a lot of stories like to glorify that. They make the characters mature and smooth talking, while in reality teenagers just…aren’t that. This book was honest about teenagers. They don’t talk all smooth and cute nor do they look all smooth and cute or act all smooth and cute. It was refreshing in an odd way.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was a good read with solid writing and great characters. The beginning was easy to fall into and I actually liked the resolution to the story and all that led up to it, despite the little plot problem. The book was weird, but it was a funky good weird.

 

                                                                                    -Sarah Elisabeth

                      

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.

Book to Movie #12

The Hunger Games...and Catching Fire...and Mockingjay...Parts 1 & 2

                                                  

                                                                  My Rating: B+

Notes: Now, please remember this is an averaging of all four movies. Some of the movies were a little below a B, some were a bit above. Book wise, the first was the best and it just went down hill from there. Movie wise, the first was the worst, the second was the best, and the last two were...*whispers* almost better than the book (I'm sorry! I said it! Don't hurt me, please! It doesn't happen often but in this case the last book was slightly incoherent and borderline depressing, but the movie totally healed my bitter heart and really did what it could to make it not so...like the book was.) Overall, the movies were enjoyable and fun to watch, especially that second one. It was pretty fancy.

-Sarah Elisabeth

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.

Book to movie #11

The Vampire Diaries

                   

My Rating: B-

Notes: Okay. Unhealthy obsession. That's what this is. But it's extremely entertaining and so much fun to watch. This is one of those very few times I actually like the TV series better. The TV series makes me happy. The books just weren't that good. They weren't bad, but I could have sworn that I'd already read every single one of them. And by that I mean they were predictable and written exactly like all the other young adult series out there. And I really wanted to like them too.  

-Sarah Elisabeth

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.

Book to Movie #10

The Vampire Academy

                               

My Rating: D-

Notes: This did not make me happy. At. All. It cheapened the book. I wasn't even entertained. I was cringing throughout most of it. I really liked the Vampire Academy book series, it was entertaining with depth and whit. The movie was just cheesy. It made me sad. *big sigh of disappointment* What they should have done was make this into a TV series. It's a supernatural world with action and forbidden romance set in a high school. Is that not just screaming TV series? 

-Sarah Elisabeth

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.

Book to Movie #9

Twilight

                      

My Rating: D-

Notes: No. Just no. Edward Cullen may have been brooding, overprotective, and slightly annoying, but this was just creepy. The whole movie was a little creepy. The actors weren't my favorite, the iconic lines seemed kind of empty and... well... like I said, creepy. It just wasn't a very good adaptation of the book.

-Sarah Elisabeth

When the world stops spinning, we're still reading.