October 2014: Current Reads/To Reads

CURRENTLY READING 

 

Beautiful Creatures               by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Is falling in love the beginning . . . or the end?

In Ethan Wate's hometown there lies the darkest of secrets . . .

There is a girl. Slowly, she pulled the hood from her head . . . Green eyes, black hair. Lena Duchannes.

There is a curse. On the Sixteenth Moon, the Sixteenth Year, the Book will take what it's been promised. And no one can stop it.

In the end, there is a grave.

Lena and Ethan become bound together by a deep, powerful love. But Lena is cursed and on her sixteenth birthday, her fate will be decided. Ethan never even saw it coming.

 Fallen
by Lauren Kate
 
What if the person you were meant to be with could never be yours?

17-year-old Lucinda falls in love with a gorgeous, intelligent boy, Daniel, at her new school, the grim, foreboding Sword & Cross . . . only to find out that Daniel is a fallen angel, and that they have spent lifetimes finding and losing one another as good & evil forces plot to keep them apart.

Get ready to fall . . . 



This Star Won't Go Out
by Esther Earl, Lori Earl, & Wayne Earle

A collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Photographs and essays by family and friends will help to tell Esther’s story along with an introduction by award-winning author John Green who dedicated his #1 bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars to her.

 TO READ

The Kiss of Deception
by Mary E. Pearson

A princess must find her place in a reborn world.

She flees on her wedding day.

She steals ancient documents from the Chancellor's secret collection.

She is pursued by bounty hunters sent by her own father.

She is Princess Lia, seventeen, First Daughter of the House of Morrighan.

The Kingdom of Morrighan is steeped in tradition and the stories of a bygone world, but some traditions Lia can't abide. Like having to marry someone she's never met to secure a political alliance.

Fed up and ready for a new life, Lia flees to a distant village on the morning of her wedding. She settles in among the common folk, intrigued when two mysterious and handsome strangers arrive—and unaware that one is the jilted prince and the other an assassin sent to kill her. Deceptions swirl and Lia finds herself on the brink of unlocking perilous secrets—secrets that may unravel her world—even as she feels herself falling in love.

 

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
by Michelle Hodkin

 Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.

She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.
There is.

She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love.
She's wrong.

If I Stay, by Gayle Forman (If I Stay #1)

"Just listen," Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel.

I open my eyes wide now.
I sit up as much as I can.
And I listen.

"Stay," he says.

Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.

Rating: 3.9 four stars... almost a four, not quite XD
Few spoilers throughout review. Be aware.

Where to begin?

I generally do not read books of this genre, due to the fact that a majority of their relatives have majorly disappointed me. Divergent, Shatter Me, Matched... Or perhaps I haven't been opened to ACTUAL romance books that aren't tied with dystopia or anything like that? Really, the only romance book that I've read AND liked is The Fault in Our Stars , and even so, I'm beginning to dislike it.

Both The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay are contemporary romances that are said to pull at the reader's heartstrings. Hell yes, they were right.

I began this book with slight skepticism over whether I would like it, mostly, as I said before, because of my horrid experience with romance YA novels. They always turn out bad. I actually was very surprised when I finished this book in a couple hours and found that I actually enjoyed and liked it despite my mutual disliking for romance novels. (Same went for The Fault in Our Stars)

1) The writing

Gayle Forman really has a way with words. His writing is just absolutely beautiful in every aspect possible. He tells Mia's stories in such a beautiful and emotional way that gripped me from the very beginning. However, I do have to admit that although I was very engrossed in this book, this would not be the type of book for readers who want quick paced action like The Hunger Games or Divergent. Unless you're the type of reader--like me--who likes to read books that are brilliantly crafted and put together, then you'd be better off reading books with more action, whether or not you're a fan of romance.

Gayle's words literally transported me back into Mia's past and all her memories--whether from her moments with Adam, her cello recitals, moments with her family, etc. I guarantee you that if you're one for beautiful writing prose, then you'll love this book. BUT, to be honest, some parts of the book are a little bit draggy and stretched out longer than I would have liked.

2) The characters

Right from the start, I fell in love with Mia. Although she comes off as shy and a bit insecure sometimes, she's a very honest character and I really love that about her.

Her parents are a bit strange, with all the punk rocky stuff. I couldn't help but notice their level of profanity around Teddy, either. Especially with Teddy being at such a young age during most of Mia's flashbacks/memories.

We didn't get to see much of Adam or Kim in this book (but I heard that the next one is told from Adam's POV) but I can tell that they're pretty decent characters, and would've shown a lot more potential to me if we knew more about them.

3) The plot
**A few spoilers here, beware**

Mia's been in a violent car accident when she and her family were going on a short trip on a snow day. After her parents and little brother die and she's in the hospital under a grave condition, she has to make a choice: Whether or not she should let go and join the rest of her family, or stay. Thus the name, "If I Stay"... xD

I actually really liked that story line and the events that led up to Mia's final decision, although I didn't really feel that the memories and flashbacks that Mia transported us to contributed to her decision that much. Some of them may have changed her perspective on her decisions, but on the whole, not all of them.

Overview: Enjoyable book. Draggy moments/scenes. Few negative points that I won't list. Heartfelt story of Mia's touching journey following the tragedy that left her family-less. I would recommend this to a lot of people, and if you do read it, you WILL enjoy it. I admit, I cried a couple times reading this book XD

Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #1)

 

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. 

 RATING: ★✰✰✰✰

This book is just a huge....



Shatter Me is by far the greatest personification of "don't judge a book by its cover."
Honestly, before I even knew what this book was about, I was attracted by it... Because of the cover. I don't even know what I was expecting from Shatter Me . Of course, what I did not expect was atrocious writing, gross metaphors and similes, horrible protagonists, and an extremely stupid plot.

And, if I'm to be honest again , the synopsis actually drew me in after I got it. You know, the one that's like " I am a monster. I'm more than human. "

Before I start on this book, I just want to say that I really, really wanted to like this book. I'm sorry. It just couldn't happen. I actually reread it to see if I could reevaluate my opinion on this book, especially since a majority of my Goodreads friend liked this atrocity. Couldn't happen.

1) The writing



Aww hell no, don't even get me started on the writing.

For one, it's shit:

"I blush."
"He looks at me. Stops."
"He touches me. Stops."



Please please please please please please please please stop!! Oh yeah, did I mention Tahereh does that crossing out thingy every three sentences?? I thought it was original, but it just got plain annoying.

And it makes no sense

"I catch the rose petals as they fall from my cheeks, as they float around the frame of my body, as they cover me in something that feels like the absence of courage."

"Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles. Until it spins around and lies with lips and teeth carved into semblance of something too passive to punch."

Jesus fucking Christ, THIS IS NOT A POETRY BOOK. AND IF IT WERE A POEM, IT'D MAKE NO SENSE.




This is something I would rather not imagine right now

"Every organ in my body falls to the ground"
"My stomach drops onto my knees."
"My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps."
"My spine is conducting enough electricity to power a city."
"My jaw is dangling from my shoelace."
"There are 400 cotton balls caught in my windpipe."


These similes and metaphors appear numerously throughout the entire book

I just can't even can't even can't even can't even can't even with Tahereh's writing style.

2) The characters

Let me start off with Juliette. She's supposed to be a kick-ass dystopian female protagonist, but NOPE.

I'll just break down the characters:

Juliette - I'm a bad ass character in a bad ass dystopian world and I'm going to fucking kill Warner because he messed with--wait, OH MY GOD ADAM'S SO FUCKING HOT.

I can't even with her description of Adam's eyes
"Midnight moment filled with memories, the only windows into my world.”
"2 buckets of rainwater; deep, fresh, clear.”
And trust me, she goes on and on with ridiculous descriptions of his eyes... and like the metaphors and similes in this book, THEY MAKE NO FUCKING SENSE WHATSOEVER. "His eyes are blue like the ocean/sky" would have sufficed. Two buckets of rainwater... wtf?

Seriously? Half of this book is just:

Yes, it's a good idea to make out every five minutes while we're on the run from crazy-ass idiots who are trying to kill us.

Oh - I'm surprised Juliette supposedly looks like a runway model when she's been locked up with little resource for 200+ days???
I forgot to mention HOW CONSISTENTLY JULIETTE WHINES AND CRIES ABOUT HER LIFE. All she EVER does throughout Shatter Me is complain, cry, whine, make out with Adam, think about Adam, thinks about Warner, thinks about the other hot males in the story, AND WHINE.

Adam - I swear I will protect Juliette to my dying breath; I will never let harm come to her--God, she looks so sexy when she cries and I have to kiss her



Kenji - *stares* Juliette... you sexy little lady :O

Yes, let's make every male character in this book fall in love with Juliette, the sexy girl who's been locked up for 200 days without much food or water. Of course, she would look like a fucking Victoria Secret model after getting out.

Warner - Worst. Villain. Ever. Oh, and he thinks Juliette is hot, too.


3) The plot

I've watched enough of X-Men (even if I never finished any of the movies) to see that Shatter Me is just a rip off from X-Men's plot. With a shit ton load of romance mixed in the middle. No, wait, Shatter Me IS a romance, not a dystopian. I don't even think it's a dystopian. Yeah, it's set in the future and everyone's dead and shit, but like I said, the entire book consisted of Juliette and Adam making out with each other while Warner--the pathetic villain--chases after them so HE can make out with Juliette.


Overview: Juliette is lost until she meets Adam, the bird in her dreams and now she can fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly



Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

I read Shatter Me on May 10, 2014, and reread it in October 2014 to write this review.