Book Review: The Fault in our Stars

The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
Contemporary YA
Published: January 10th, 2012
4/5

                Diagnosed with stage IV thyroid cancer at 12, Hazel was prepared to die until, at 14, a medical miracle shrunk the tumour in her lungs… for now. Two years post-miracle, sixteen-year-old Hazel is post-everything else, too post-high school, post-friends, and post-normalcy. Even though she could live for a long time (whatever that means) Hazel lives tethered to an oxygen tank, the tumours tenuously kept at bay with a constant chemical assault. Enter Agustus Waters. A match made at cancer kid support group, Augustus is gorgeous, in remission, and shockingly, to her interested in Hazel. Being with Agustus is both an unexpected destination and a long needed journey, pushing Hazel to re-examine how sickness and healthy, life and death, will define her and the legacy that everyone leaves behind.

                The Fault in our Stars by John Green has been raved about for what seems like eons now. As I’ve grown a bit older from when looking for Alaska was originally released (and that’s the year I first read it) I’ve found some of his other work has left me wanting. I find his characters have been replayed over again. The soft spoken geeky boy just trying to fall in love with the girl of his dreams. What I enjoyed in terms of fiction then and what I enjoy now has greatly changed, HOWEVER, the fault in our stars re-sparked my joy in reading John Green’s work.
                The Fault in our Stars is funny, honest, brutally harsh, and brilliantly heartbreaking. It wasn’t a cliché love story, it wasn’t a cliché anything really. It just was. I could spend time telling you what I’ve liked about the book, however if you’re reading this and you’ve already read it, stop here this review isn’t for you.
                This book review is for all the people who too scared to take the leap, this review is for the people who scoff at the very idea of reading something so trendy and so young. The Fault in our stars is a great work because it can be read by everyone and most everyone will be touched. It’s not a happy story, it will rip out your heartstrings and then stomp on them. This is a story about second chances, appreciating the time you do have and the people that are around you.
               I am a strong believer that people are put into our lives to shape and mold it, to change who we are and to help us grow and see our own potential by pushing us through all the battles of heartbreak, love, sorrow and joy.
                The Fault in our stars isn’t just a story about cancer, or just a story about a boy and a girl. The Fault in our Stars is about accepting what we cannot change, and how we move on from tragedy and grow.

Book Review: Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell
Young adult Contemporary
Published: 2013
5/5

                Two Misfits.
                One extraordinary love.

Eleanor… Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough… Eleanor.

Park… He know she’ll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs as her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There’s a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises…Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-old – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

                It’s not often that a book touches me in the way that Eleanor & Park has. The simplest and realistic nature of their relationship was both heartwarming and beautiful. Rainbow Rowell has managed to deliver a love story that is timeless in its content and in its tenderness. Despite not having been born when this book took place, it easily reminded me of my first love, and all the heartbreak and confusion that came with it when I was sixteen.
                Rowell has delivered realistic characters with realistic obstacles. The beginning middle and end made perfect sense and I personally wouldn’t have wanted to see it written any differently. I liked the open ending, because life is open ended. Just because something happens or someone leaves or comes back doesn’t mean that’s how it’s always going to be. Even if someone has hurt you in the past that doesn’t mean that person won’t be your best friend someday or maybe even the person you marry of course the story won’t always end perfectly either. I’ve seen this story happen so many times in my life with my friends and of course, with my own life. This story is truly heartwarming and heartbreaking.
                Worth all the hype, completely and with honesty.    

BOOK REVIEW: Insurgent

Insurgent (Divergent #2)
Veronica Roth
Dystopian YA
Publisher: Harper Collins
Published: May 1^st 2012
4/5

 

One Choice can transform you… Or destroy you

                Every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves – and herself – while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
                Tris’ initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grow. And in the times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable – and even more powerful.
                Transformed by her own decisions but also by her haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so

                Divergent ended with such a fantastic bang, that I knew despite already having purchased Insurgent I was going to be waiting to read it until Allegiant come out.  I was really excited when I could escape back into the fictional world that Veronica Roth created.  The world building and back story that she has created came through flawlessly in Insurgent, a book that was considerably more action packed than Divergent.
                Insurgent runs high on emotions as politics, family loyalties and friendships are called into question and tough choices have to made. The overall emotional intensity of this books sets it apart from other Young Adult fiction novels that I’ve read and I found that refreshing.  Veronica Roth has a way of exploring more mature themes but in a way that regardless of your age you’re able to identify and relate too.
                The relationship between Four and Tris is constantly tested throughout this book, and despite their differences, personal issues and their young age they deal with them maturely, with unconditional love and compassionate understanding once they allow each other in. They’re both hurting for different reasons and together they are stronger than they ever would be apart. Together, they are an unbreakable force, they are a team and one that I certainly wouldn’t want to tangle with.
                Four’s family background and beliefs are called into attention quite a few times in this book and we learn a lot more about him, mostly why he is the way he is today.  He had very strong character development through out this novel. His loyalty to Tris is unwavering, he is heartwarming to read.
                Over all Insurgent was a good read. It left you waiting for the next and final installment in the series.
                I will be posting the review for Allegiant tomorrow and then will be posting a discussion piece on the series as a whole.
                Let me know what you thought of this book! I’m interested in knowing.

Book Review: Anna Dressed in Blood (Just go buy it)

Anna Dressed in Blood
Kendare Blake

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.  So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life

                This is one fantastic, dark and edgy book! I loved it; I thought it was charming and absolutely brilliant.
I have never read a Young-Adult horror novel before and I am so glad that my morbid curiosity got the better of me and that I picked it up despite the rather creepy title name.  It was as much fun as it was creepy and disturbing.
I loved the main characters personalities and how they all came together, I loved watching Cas grow as he opens his heart and world to ‘outsiders’. I love his focus and determination to fight for what he believes in not what he is told.  He is a fairly open book, I think if he was a real person and you hung around him for a few hours one on one he’d be very easy to read, also easy on the eyes? The book has led me to believe so… 😉
I thought Anna was a little strange… however she is a ghost should she be normal? No… probably not. Her story was pretty sad and it was interesting to learn about how she ended up becoming a ghost that ripped people in half. Anna is disturbing in her beauty.
I thought the plot was well thought out, it had many little surprise twists and turns, I did NOT see the ending happen the way that it did that’s for sure! I didn’t even think that this books ending was a possiability… but alas in order to find out what I’m talking about you’re going to have to go out and purchase this book and while you’re at it you might as well purchase the second book because I am positive once you’ve read Anna Dressed in Blood you’re going to want to read the second one a.s.a.p. which makes me wish I had bought both of them this month!
I cannot recommend this book enough! It was fantastic, amazing, beautiful, amusing…so highly amusing! Though there were a couple `weird things`(But hey this is a ghost story) I`m going to give this book 5 out of 5 stars!
(I am also going to be at the nearest book store as soon as possible…so much for trying to slow down my book buying this month!)

Book Review: Ash

Ash
Malinda Lo

      In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. In her dreams, someday the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted.
The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love—and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.
Entrancing, empowering, and romantic, Ash is about the connection between life and love, and solitude and death, where transformation can come from even the deepest grief

 

I read this book super-fast… considering I just finished Black City yesterday… I thought the way the book was written was beautiful. It was indeed written to be a fairy tale and also loosely followed the story of Cinderella…without actually following it at all aside step sisters and a father that has died … oh and  a blue dress near the end (is this a spoiler? I don’t know…)
I was not aware that this was a lesbian re-telling of Cinderella however… I managed to not pick that up at all when I read the inside cover (I have the hard cover addition) so that was a huge surprise to me… I was actually really hoping for some human/fairy love because that’s what I thought I was getting myself into but I wasn’t getting myself into it… I was getting myself into something completely different.
The love that exists between Kaisa and Ash really isn’t that detailed… I think they kiss twice in the whole novel and Ash does not even realize she’s in love with Kaisa for what seems like forever… It was an interesting triangle with Sidhean thrown in but I thought his part of the story was cut short considering all the amazingly wonderfully things he had done for Ash over the years… how he guarded her and kept her safe and did so many things to try and make her happy.
I thought Sidhean’s curse was super interesting and I didn’t see that part of the novel coming at all! Yay for twisty turns that I don’t actually see coming (Has anyone else noticed if they read a lot and there is no such thing as a movie with a surprise?)
Over all loved the book, it was beautifully written… very poetic in its descriptions… very elegant in style and taste.  I loved it despite the surprise of Ash not getting with the character I had assumed from the beginning was the main love interest. So I’m actually going to give this 4.5 stars out of 5. It was almost perfect was just hoping for a different love interest or more interest in the love interest I thought was the love interest?

Book Review: Black City (#1)

Black City (Black City #1)
Elizabeth Richards

 

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

 

This book was interesting, I somehow completely missed what this book was about when I looked into it or perhaps I got this book confused with another book?  I am actually not sure how this happened.   I don’t often read books involving anything like Vampires which is was a darkling is essentially, they drink blood are stronger than humans so that’s kind of part of the reason why I was confused about it..
The book over all wasn’t bad, I probably would have enjoyed it more if ‘Darklings’ had been a little more original. If there had been more background to them, if their story was a little more in the for front. This novel is a love story and that’s the main plot, everything else seemed secondary to me and at times forgotten about? I wish there had been more world building, more details.
The conflict between Darklings, half-blood Darklings and Humans reminded me a lot of Hitler and his conflict with the Jews. The segregation of the darklings, their treatment and living conditions were absolutely terrible and I totally would have been on team “Humans for Unity” if I lived in the Black City. I wish they had gone a little more into detail as to what the ‘wrath’ does, how it actually started.
This was not my favorite book and at times I felt I had to push myself to keep moving forward through it and I don’t know if I wasn’t just feeling it because I was so busy with holidays or if I really just wasn’t feeling it. The love story was pretty lack luster to me and moved too fast, or at least I felt it moved extremely fast, there were a couple details involved that I was kind of not sure how I felt about.
The story was pretty simple to understand and follow however, though the time line was not clear, I am not sure how much timed passed from the beginning of the novel to the end of the novel. I am pretty sure my lack of enjoyment was my own fault as I have admitted before I do not care for vampireish books (Unless you count Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice and the Historian by Elizabeth Kostova)
If you enjoyed Twilight or books similar you would probably enjoy this book (and I would assume the series) Though Natalie is more independent than Bella Swan and Ash is less…creepy (Sorry but watching someone sleep all night is more than a little weird) Anyways it wasn’t terrible! So give it a shot if you’re interested in books like this (There are some science fiction elements that were interesting, they just didn’t go into enough detail for me otherwise this would have most likely gotten a higher rating from me )