Book Review | Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Series: Unwind #1
Published: November 2007
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Format: Kindle
Pages: 335
Rating: ★★

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

REVIEW: Upon reading the synopsis of this book I was thoroughly excited to read something different; a YA dystopian novel with a bit of depth and meaning to it, something dark and haunting. I genuinely thought the whole premise of the idea of 'unwinding' teens was incredibly imaginative and looked forward to seeing how the story developed and if there were any dark truths behind everything. To say I was extremely disappointed would be an understatement.

The story is told from the view points of quite a few people, including people who had nothing to do with the storyline (which was pointless), but primarily from the eyes of Connor, Risa and Lev. At the beginning, the way the three view points stories interlaced made me think that perhaps seeing things from three different angles wouldn't be so bad just because it was really nicely choreographed, if only the rest of the book went along like that in the same fashion. The angles made it confusing, and it wasn't as if they were long chapters each either, some characters only had a page at a time sometimes and I don't feel that that is enough to attach with their particular story. The idea of lesser characters getting chapters really frustrated me as well as you as a reader shouldn't care for these characters as they haven't been created as the main three have - I don't want to read a chapter from the eyes of the pawn broker, why is that even necessary? Why couldn't it have been told from the angle of one of the three? It just all seemed a bit haphazard and more hassle than it was worth.

The plot (or lack of it) was what I was most disappointed about - I felt as though Shusterman had a brilliant idea and just wasted it. Everything seemed either a bit too pre-meditated or really stereotypical, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot and thinking "oh, how convenient" for a lot of the book. The way the story moved just didn't excite me or keep me reading the book, and in the end I was more excited to finish the book than I was to see how the book was concluded. The majority of Unwind didn't actually feature anything to do with the 'unwinding' at all and there were points where I completely forgot what the book was primarily about - it just, to me, ended up like any normal YA book with teen angst and rivalry, which bored me immensely as that is exactly what I was trying to get away from.

Every single character annoyed the hell out of me; they were all so self righteous in their own ways and were completely unbelievable. I didn't feel anything for anyone and I didn't believe for an instant any of the emotions that they claimed to have felt - it all seemed fake. They all changed so quickly, followed easily and changed sides easily. It just didn't seem as though they were real people living in the real world, and the fact that everyone seemed to be the same, except the four main people, made it seem a little weird and unrealistic.

The one thing I did like about it however, when it did appear, was the depth of the idea of the 'bill of life' that was introduced after the second civil war when the pro choice and pro life armies came to an understanding and opted for the unwinding. The laws around this premise were very well thought out and the ideas behind everything from the 'storking' to the 'unwinding' and what happens when other people get unwound body parts was just so touching and fascinating at the same time. When the subject was touched it always seemed to move me and make me think about the life as we know it now, and what we take for granted. Another thing was at the beginning of each section there was either a famous quote or an extract of an article relating to the issues at hand, and I felt as though this gave you an insight as to how Shusterman came up with these chilling ideas and it portrays how his imagination works in putting his opinions across in the form of a published book. It's just a shame that these ideas, as great as they were, weren't included a great deal in my eyes.

I feel as though this book got too much hype over the idea, rather than the story itself which isn't what it should be about.

"The Fault In Our Stars" by John Green

The Fault In Our Stars marked a couple of firsts in my life; one being that I have never read a 300 page book in an afternoon, and the other being that I have never before this book even shed a single tear, let alone been a full on emotional wreck from reading a book.

I would also like to point out, before you continue reading further, that I am still quite an emotional wreck at the present time of writing as I wanted the feelings to be raw and at the point of being - so please excuse any poor review on my part as I am clearly just writing from the heart.

Despite the timor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, he final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

A book has never tapped into my emotions quite like this one did upon reading it, the emotions are so raw and pure that you can't help but feel attachment from the off. These are emotions that any healthy person wouldn't ever dream of being able to feel as they are a thing that is somewhat taken for granted - I can honestly say that this book made me think about my life and how much I'm not grateful for in the grand scheme of things.

Everything in the life of these two teenagers is taken one day at a time just because of the fact that they don't know how long they have together - The little things in life get blown to huge proportions, you realise the true necessities in life and the world just seems that much more of a beautiful place. You go through all of this through the eyes of Hazel Grace Lancaster; you hear her thoughts, doubts and worries as well as the laughs, fun and flirting that has to go hand in hand with the pain. This book has taught me that through all the negative you must see the positive in order to go on. Life isn't just an unless torment out to get you, but something to be treasured. Yes, we all go through bad times, but in order to get to the good times you must first survive the bad and that is what these cancer patients have to go through every single day of their lives.

The characters were the most wonderful I have read in a long time, they were charming and realistic and just so down to earth. I felt the emotions of every single character in the book and related and sympathised with them immensely, (even though that is something that they would have hated) I believed in them so much that they actually felt as though they real people and that they were in real life my friends. I felt as much there for them as they did and were for each other and it's not every day that an author can create that kind of realistic relatable world that you feel so engrossed in.

John Green is definitely the master of amazing quotes. I normally don't take note of page numbers or quotes in books, but in this one in particular I found myself sticking little bits of post-it-notes on a lot of the pages just so I would remember a quote or two. They are so wonderfully profound and well written that they pulled on every single one of my heart strings each and every time. Some people might say that the quotes that characters came up with were 'unrealistic' or 'not something a normal teenager would say', and to that I say to you that they are not normal teenagers; they are cancer patients with not long to live, feel or love. They make every day their last and if that means expressing their feelings in such a profound way, then why on earth shouldn't they, and who are we to judge how somebody expresses themselves - it is also known in the book that they read an awful lot of literature as well.

To sum this up I have been hysterically crying from about the 260th page through to the end, and that is a mean feat for an author to have that affect on me - I am normally one hard-faced reader that barely sheds a tear for anything with regards to book. To have me watering up behind my eyes is one thing, but to have me in fits of sadness and tears is a totally different thing and I applaud Mr Green for proving me wrong.

"What book has changed your life?" I always hear that phrase being chucked around on booktube and in reviews, and I always thought that it was such a stupid question; How could a book change your life? How could a fictional piece of writing change the way in which you think? The Fault In Our Stars has answered that question for me and I feel like a different person for reading it. It has most definitely made me think about my life and how much I take for granted in this world and overall, I feel I will be haunted and changed by this book for the rest of my life.

★★★★★

"Pushing The Limits" by Katie McGarry

Pushing The Limits is a contemporary novel, and my first novel of this genre was something of a disappointment so with this book I didn't have very high hopes of liking it even though I'd heard so many good things about this book.

It centres around Echo and Noah - Echo was one of the popular girls at school with the jock boyfriend until one night when she totally changed and came back to school as the freaky girl with the scars on her arms. Unfortunately for Echo, she cannot remember what happened on that night and is on the search for answers. Noah is known as the bad boy of the school, he does drugs, smokes, and has a reputation for sleeping around with girls - but he also has a dark past and his brothers have been taken away from him and put into a different foster care home than he is currently in, he is on the road to try and gain custody of them once and for all. These two stories intertwine throughout the book as they meet each other upon chance and start, little by little, to get to know each other and fall in love, but with the pasts that the two have had would love be enough?

The story is told in the two perspectives of the two characters, Echo and Noah, in interchanging chapters, this I found gave depth to the book as you can see how each character is developing individually than from just one persons outlook on the whole situation. There is no wondering if somebody feels a certain way or is thinking a certain thing because it will always be addressed in the next chapter and because of the fact you're seeing both sides you tend to want to push people into doing things and start getting interactive with the book itself.

I found myself not wanting to put the book down a lot of the time because I was so in tune with the story and wanting to find out what had actually happened to Echo and the resolve of Noah and his brothers. Nothing was predictable in the slightest, and everything came as a shock to me in the development of the actual storyline and the characters' issues. At the beginning of the story you think one thing and by the end you're thinking the exact opposite, I absolutely love that in a book when they can almost convince you of something at the beginning, but at the end you realise that it's not as bad as you first thought and you get all the reasonings alongside the twists as to what exactly happened in the meantime - (I hope that made sense).

The writing in this book was so emotive and descriptive and that in itself is what drew me in - McGarry definitely knows how to pull on my heart strings and the emotions that she conjured up throughout the book are beyond compare in my eyes. From the reactions of other people, the characters own emotions and the way they are with their parents and around each other, you definitely felt all of their pain, angst and plain raw emotion. The only bad thing about the writing was the repetitive use of certain words to describe Echo in Noahs mind; 'nymph' and 'siren' started to get on my nerves by the end of the book but at least it wasn't all 'flirty wink' or 'fine ass' but that alone was just a minor thing and is the only negative aspect I have.

I thought I would be disappointed by this book because it sounded as though it would be a very deep book with some meaningful topics being raised - I was afraid that it would forget all of that and just focus on the 'love' aspect of the story. This book totally blew my mind as it was totally and utterly the opposite. Pushing the Limits focussed on the depth of topical issues and growing emotions in an unstable person throughout the entirety of the book. The topics of peoples troubled pasts took precedence and it was presented in a very informative way and the characters never lost that part of them that would always make them quite vulnerable - obviously people put on facades, but that's a normal part of life sometimes, but I felt that the development of characters was very realistic. I felt that the development of love or emotion was very realistic as well, especially in the circumstances, it wasn't rushed, gushy or over powering to the story line. The love was beautifully gradual with as many ups and downs and doubts as there would be in any normal relationship. I have found that generally when there's a love aspect in a book, that characters, especially girls, will change their values around a boy they like, but Echo never did that and nothing was ever rushed - I found that to be quite refreshing as it wasn't a hypocritical story with hypocritical characters that change as soon as a prospective boyfriend starts to 'swoon' them.

The emotions in this book, and not just the love for each other, was so powerful - the love for family, the emotions of not knowing and wondering, the idea of feeling lost in the world. These were just some of the feelings that I got from the story and at times it was so touching that I almost cried, (I don't normally cry in books and it takes a lot for me to get all teary eyed) I felt so much sympathy with Echo and Noah in both of their personal situations that it made me think about my life and how much I take for granted in the world. This kind of thought makes me feel as though I've really connected with the characters, and when that happens it is the making of a brilliant book - one that really makes you think.

I am ridiculously surprised with this book and I am so glad that I picked this one up after much hesitancy on my part. This has definitely marked contemporary novels up a level on my spectrum and I can honestly say that I absolutely loved it and it has changed the way I think. Amazing.

★★★★★

30 Day Book Challenge [5/30]

Day 5 - A book that you’ve read the most times

I'm not really, like the last challenge, the type of person to read a book more than once. I normally stand by the idea that there are so many wonderful books out there to read, so why would you waste your time reading one more than once. 

I probably read books when I was a child more than once; children's picture books and such but I'm pretty sure those won't count - not that I would be able to remember anyways.

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

This is probably the only book I can think of off hand that I know for a fact I've read more than once. As I think I've stated before, I have a thing where I can't read a series of books in a row one after the other. I like to read the first book, read a few other books then go back to the second in the series - this causes me to forget about the series generally and this is what happened with the His Dark Materials series. 

I read it ages ago and forgot to read the second one, so by the time I wanted to read the second one I had completely forgotten what had happened in the first one (I didn't want to watch the film to remind myself as the film is NOTHING LIKE THE BOOK AT ALL) so I re-read it to reacquaint myself with the surroundings of everything. To my enjoyment it was just as good second time around.

"The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And DIsappeared" by Jonas Jonasson

I picked up The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared from the Amazon kindle store for a mere 20p. This is just like borrowing a book from a library for me because what's 20p, if I like it I've got another book to treasure, but if I find it awful, I've only spent a tiny bit of money on it. That's my stance on the whole thing anyways.

The book was originally a Swedish novel and centres around Allan Karlsson who is living in an old peoples home - and as simply as the title of the book puts it, he escapes out of his window and disappears on his hundredth birthday. When he first escapes, he happens upon a suitcase filled with money (that he is unaware of) and makes his way on a bus journey to as far as his fifty crown note will take him whereupon a mass of crazy adventures and people ensue.

This book was absolutely hilarious, combining history with dark comedy with just plain stupidity. The adventures that follow Allan in the present day are ridiculous but this just makes it pure genius. I've found that a lot of authors tend to try and over complicate things within a story, but I thought that Jonasson created a story from the simplest of ideas - an old man escaping from an old peoples home - it's so simple that you wonder why nobody had thought of it before, and I think that a lot of people would think it sounds too obvious and everyone's always after the more intriguing, complicated, imaginative stories out there when in fact the best ones are made of the simplest ingredients. Saying that, I'm not implying that this book was simple in the least, in fact it was far from simple. It followed the life of Allan from the escape as well as following Allan's life as a whole from the day he was born up until the present day itself. In fact Allan's past was just as hilarious and coincidental as his escape was.

The story had a nice balance between the past Allan and the present day Allan and at the beginning I didn't want either side of the story to end when it came to the end of that particular chapter. Halfway through the book, however, the balance became a little too one sided in favour of past Allan and the present day Allan was a little neglected, it was as if Jonasson had come to the end of his tether with regards to the crazy adventures Allan could get himself into on the run from the police and the old peoples home. It started to get a little lacklustre and the historical element, as brilliant as they were to read as they were based upon real events in actuality, started to become a little tiresome for my likings. A lot of the historical issues that were presented in the past Allan scenes were on the topic of politics, and as much as I was trying to keep up and understand, I'm just generally not interested and am admittedly quite ignorant on that particular subject so found myself to (not entirely) be skimming the pages about communists, socialists, etc as it started to get a little bit boring for me. On the other hand, if you understand, then I'm sure this wouldn't be a problem but for me it's just a personal preference.

The thing that really stood out to me was the characters, each character along Allan's journey has an amazing story behind them and for once the description of each and every characters main life story did not detract from the whole books story as a whole - in fact it added to the hilarity and plain ludicrous nature of it. This was spread out across almost every character from past to present and there wasn't anybody I hated in the slightest as everyone had their own little unique twist on the story and sometimes their little tales were so unbelievable that you just had to sit back and laugh. This meant that you got to know the characters, not on a personal emotional level, but on a factual level which was a refreshing change to the books I have been known to read revolving around peoples emotions and love stories which I have started to grow sick of.

This was just a simple book with an enormous amount of crazy surrounding it. In fact it's the most ridiculous unbelievable book I have ever read, but that's just what makes it pure genius.

★★★★

Friday Reads | 4th January 2013

In this section I will be going over what I plan on reading over the weekend - I work 8.30-5 every week day so the weekend is where I get a large chunk of my reading done so I hope to get a couple of books finished this weekend.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I'm currently about 75% of the way through this book and actually plan on finishing it tonight. I'm absolutely adoring this book so far though; it's imaginative, funny, quirky and is actually ridiculous, but that much that it's actually a literary genius.

It's about a man who on his hundredth birthday decided he's had enough so escapes through the window of his care home room and goes on an unplanned adventure that consists of many a mishap and journey. It's such a simple idea that it's so original - a lot of people try to come up with amazingly complicated stories and fail but it's the simple ones that always comes out on top sometimes. This is a prime example of that.

Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry

This is classed as a contemporary romance - or so I've been told - and I've heard that this book is exceptionally good so I'm really excited to start reading this one. 

The last 'contemporary romance' book I read was The Boy Who Sneaked In My Bedroom and I wasn't particularly impressed by that book and to be honest, from the experience of contemporary novels as a whole that I've had, I'm not entirely keen on the genre full stop.

I'm not entirely sure what this one's about really, I just want to read it and see where it takes me.

December 2012 | Wrap up and Resolutions 2013

In addition to my resolution post, this is my resolutions video alongside my wrap up of all the books I have read in the month of December. 

Books mentioned:

Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld

Hush Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick

Pandemonium - Lauren Oliver

The Boy Who Sneaked In My Bedroom Window - Kirsty Moseley 

Pretties - Scott Westerfeld

Wishlist Wednesday (1)

Originally created by Pen To Paper

Wishlist Wednesday is a book blog hop where we will post about one book per week that has been on our wishlist for some time, or just added (it’s entirely up to you), that we can’t wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

I really don't like seeing films before I've read the book it's based upon, I find that if I do that I imagine the characters in the book as the actors that play them - this also happens when I see trailers before or half way through books, it ruins the whole experience of reading a book for me. 

However much I want to read this book before the film comes out, I doubt that it's actually going to happen because I'm currently on a book buying ban which I plan to stick to until I've read at least twenty books that are currently on my shelves.

But I digress, I'm really eager to read this book as it sounds wonderful and I've heard so many good things about it, it just sounds really interesting. The cover, I admit, was the thing that drew me to the book originally; it's absolutely beautiful and I love any cover with gorgeous typography. Ergh, so lovely, and the contrast between the purple and the black - it reminds me of the gone series by Michael Grant cover wise and that series was one of my favourite cover sets. 

New Years Resolutions 2013

So, it's a new year, and with new years comes the new years resolutions. The dreaded new years resolutions which are made every year with the sole intention of keeping them throughout the entirety of the year until the end of the first week of January - well that's how it happens every year in my life. 

This year, however, I want to make a positive change with my life and start doing things that I enjoy and want to do. I'm fed up of procrastinating and not doing anything productive 90% of the time, I want to actually do something with my life and say to myself at the end of the year, 'I've achieved something' or 'I've kept to something'. That in itself would make my year, period.

So here we have it. Below I've listed my new years resolutions and I will look back at this at the end of the year and see how it's come along or not as it may be. 

1. Read 100 books. On Goodreads I have challenged myself to read 100 books. Now, I'm not sure if this is me being a little bit too ambitious but I'm going to try my hardest to complete this by the end of the year and if I don't make it, fair enough but I'm not going to decrease the number to compensate for what I haven't done.
2. Read a variety of genres. I am participating in the 2013 Genre Variety Reading Challenge on A Daydreamer's Thoughts blog. I have a tendency to read YA all of the time and I've decided that it's time to broaden my horizons and read a lot more genres as I might be pleasantly surprised with what I find. I plan to read 24 different genres.
3. Finish book series. Any series of books that I have started in the past I plan to finish. I always read book 1, not want to read the second one straight away, read something else and then forget that I'm meant to read the other books in the series. A few examples of this are The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, His Dark Materials, Percy Jackson and the Olympians. 
4. Blog every day. I need to write something every day on this blog and keep to it for once. If I'm away for a week I will create posts that will be posted on the particular days that I am not around.  I'm going to be creating a sort of schedule in a little while as well.
5. Draw every day. I love art and design and I want to get back into drawing and sketching for fun, so I want to draw something, anything at least once a day - these will be posted on my tumblr if anyone's interested as well.
6. Read books I have. I have a load of books on my bookshelves at home that I have had since I was little but I haven't read, alongside a load of books that I've read but really want to reread as I haven't completed the series and have forgotten everything about them and where I left off. I need to stop buying as many books and just read what I have for a little bit. I'm not setting myself a goal of how many books off my shelf I want to be read but I want to read quite a few is all I will say. Funnily enough I've got about £40 worth of book vouchers to spend this year from christmas presents I received - whoops.

Do you have any new years resolutions? 

Book Haul | Christmas 2012

"Pretties" by Scott Westerfeld (Spoilers)

Pretties is the sequel to the amazing book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld and I wasn't too sure if I wanted to read this book or not but I decided to give it a go anyways because if you're going to start a series, you may as well carry on from where you left off - doomed words that will haunt me, I fear.

*This will have spoilers from Uglies and Pretties in it so stop here if you haven't read the first book*

Tally has now given herself up and has officially had the operation to make herself a 'Pretty' a perfect specimen of a human being - she is good looking, popular and is having the time of her life in this high-tech drunken world that she has been thrust into. The only thing tugging at the back of her mind is the real reason she came to New Pretty Town in the first place - to test the cure, and now she is in a struggle to release the grips of this pretty world from herself and to find out the horrible truths about everything around her.

In New Pretty Town they had a language or a slang that they used amongst each other that wasn't used in the first book at all, words like 'dizzy-making', 'bubbly' and 'bogus' were used constantly throughout this book without a proper introduction into the lingo. I felt as though I was thrown into the deep end of this book with this and was just expected to know exactly what everything was and what everything meant which I most certainly did not. Due to this, I found myself not really understanding half of what was going on until I'd read about three quarters of the book and that was when things started to get a little bit more interesting.

Tally was part of a clique who called themselves the Crims - this was made up of people who were trouble makers, or 'tricky', in their ugly life - they would go around trying to do the most rebellious things that were possible to do to impress one another and it seemed a little pathetic for my likings. It just seemed as though they were trying to fit in, and when it came to light about three quarters of the way in that the reason that they were set up in the first place was so they could escape and find a cure came as a big surprise as it seemed totally out of character for them and was slightly random. It was as if Westerfeld thought things were getting a little too boring so added something to liven it up a little, but it didn't really have the intended effect in my eyes, it just made me think it wasn't really thought out and if this was made clear near the beginning, everything would have made a whole lot more sense than it did.

The characters were bland as well - each individual person seemed to blend into another one and other than Tally, Zane, Shay and Peris (who barely made it into the book) I couldn't really name anyone else. There was no real development, and if there was it was only to make them more pathetic and boring. I didn't like Tally and Zane's relationship one bit, there was no growth, no emotion, no realistic qualities, it was as if two actors were set to act a romance scene in a play but didn't connect and have chemistry at all - it just read like a bad screen play. One minute they're silent, the next they're in love with eachother, it just doesn't make any sense.

There was something about this book that I just didn't like but for once I just can't put my finger on it, it definitely wasn't as good as the first book and now I'm not even sure I will read the third instalment. I was thoroughly disappointed with this book.

★★

"The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window" by Kirsty Moseley

Amber Walker and her older brother, Jake, have an abusive father. One night her brother's best friend, Liam, sees her crying and climbs through her bedroom window to comfort her. That one action sparks a love/hate relationship that spans over the next eight years.

Liam is now a confident, flirty player who has never had a girlfriend before. Amber is still emotionally scarred from the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father. Together they make an unlikely pair.

Their relationship has always been a rocky one, but what happens when Amber starts to view her brother's best friend a little differently? And how will her brother, who has always been a little overprotective, react when he finds out that the pair are growing closer?

When I first read the synopsis, I thought this could be an interesting book - abused child, unlikely romance blooming - I was wrong. The abuse is just a sub sub sub plot to the 'romance' that happened towards the beginning of the book, in fact, the abuse only just manages to peak it's head through the shallow dating talk that takes up the majority of the book. This book had so much potential to be a gradual love but it just jumped in at the deep end and took one predictable turn after another to the extent that I already knew the ending of the book and what was going to happen.

This book didn't even have a storyline, I can't even describe what actually happened to be quite honest. It was just a mess of all the usual 'love' stereotypes. Nothing of real importance happened and when it did happen it was only minor to the everlasting love that was blossoming before our very eyes - cue the fingers down throat.

The characters were the most shallow I have ever read about - you can't make every single girl in the school ridiculously slutty just so the main character doesn't look that bad. All they kept doing was flirting with every single guy, talking about sex and even the guys were exactly the same, it was just one big sex orientated school with no life or personality. Everyone in this world seemed to be living in cloud cuckoo land with enough hypocrisy to share around as well - as well as being shallow they were also quite stupid characters and even the adults didn't have an ounce of sense in them between all of them, it was just a mass palaver of idiocy.

Dreadful is the only way I can describe the writing - if I ever read 'fine ass', 's/he purred' or 'flirty wink' again in my life I think I might rip my hair out. I don't even think Moseley has even heard of a thesaurus because if she had she probably could have come up with about a dozen other words to use in replacement for these, or maybe she should just write the book again because it was one of the worst books I have read all year and I have no idea how it got so many stars on goodreads - maybe all the hormonal teens were reading this one, and if they were this is the most horrible influence any young girl could read in their most vulnerable years when surrounded by sex in their everyday life. 

I can't even go on...

★

30 Day Book Challenge [4/30]

Day 4 - A book you lent out once, never got back and miss

I don't think I have ever lent out a book. A lot of my friends don't actually read and I don't think I've ever actually wanted them to borrow any of my books anyways - I'd be too afraid that they'd ruin them. I like my books to be perfect, not bent, not dog eared etc. and I don't believe that if I lent them out to a lot of my friends that they'd come back in the same condition I lent them out. 

I'm just a little bit too over protective over my books is all.

"Pandemonium" by Lauren Oliver

PANDEMONIUM 
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Published: 2012

SYNOPSIS

Lena's been to the very edge. She's questioned love and the life-changing and agonising choices that come with it. She's made her decision. But can she survive the consequences?

REVIEW

I think this is the very first time that I've loved a second book more than the first one - it was absolutely stunning and the development was amazing. In the first book you were just getting to know Lena and she was growing but in Pandemonium you felt as though she'd got a lot stronger than she was and she became the kick-ass character that she was always bound to be. In fact all of the characters were amazing I thought and they all had a lot of depth to them as they weren't all obviously stereotypical people who you could guess what they would be like.

The plot was rather predictable at times, but this is one of those times where predictability is a good thing. Although you knew what was going to happen to a certain extent it was still quite shocking to read and kept the tension up all the way through the book. In Delirium I found Oliver's writing to be too descriptive and I felt as though if she'd toned down the wordiness of the novel it would have been better - this was the main thing I noticed that had changed in Pandemonium; it got to the point without being too vague, it got enough description but not the ridiculous amount like in the first book.

As stated before, the twists were quite predictable but the end, oh my goodness, the end. I was not expecting what I was reading for the first time throughout the book and when it was getting to the climax of the book I can honestly say that I was shocked at what happened. I was so excited reading this book, that for the first time I wanted to read the third one straight away - but to my dismay I have to wait until March 2013 which well and truly is awful.

Lauren Oliver, you are evil and yet amazingly talented to leave me hanging like that!

★★★★★

"Hush Hush" by Becca Fitzpatrick

HUSH HUSH
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Simon And Schuster
Published: 2009

SYNOPSIS

Nora Grey is a normal sixteen year old girl attending school, and when the seating plan changes in her biology lessons and she ends up next to the mysterious Patch, things start to change for her.

After a series of terrifying encounters, Nora isn't sure if she can trust him. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and to know more about her than her closest friends.



REVIEW

This book was almost as bad as Twilight, and Nora had a severe dose of what I like to call "Bella Syndrome" - making stupid rash decisions due to a crush and also having no description whatsoever making it easy for girls to imagine being her and being in the situation that she's in with Patch with all the flirtatious nature about to make all the teen girls jealous.

It was just boring and repetitive throughout the first three quarters of the book with Nora constantly being indecisive and annoying; and not forgetting her ridiculously shallow and gullible friend Vee who bugged me to the core.

If you are a teen girl then you will love this book, even if it's just for Patch's remarks, expressions and actions throughout it. It's written in a way that would make any teen girl fantasise about having a boyfriend just like Patch which is quite unoriginal and this whole concept has been written a million and one times before.

When the (obvious - due to the blurb on the back) twist came out about Patch being a fallen angel, then and only then, did it start to get a bit more interesting. There was more action and development after about the 275 page mark I found due to this and I found myself on the edge of my seat reading it, half wondering (half predicting the obvious) what would happen in the end. I was pleasantly surprised by the writing and description towards the end of the book in the climax. That alone was enough to, not make me rate this book higher, but to chance reading the next book in the slim hope that something can be rescued from it so it doesn't die a tragic obvious Twilight death that I most certainly do not want.

★★

"Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld

LEVIATHAN
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Illustrator: Heith Thompson
Publisher: Simon And Schuster
Published: 2009

SYNOPSIS

The Clankers and the Darwinists are going to war - the Clankers with their heavy machinery weapons and the Darwinists with their airshops made of living fabricated animals.

Prince Aleksandar, a Clanker, is running from his own people as he ends up in the middle of this feud. Deryn, a Darwinist, is working on for the British Air Service disguised as a boy - when their ships crash lands, Deryn and Aleks' lives collide.




REVIEW

This book takes you on a fun and exciting adventure through an alternative 1914; it is a bubbly and easy read for anyone. It's aimed at a young adult audience, but I would say it veers towards the younger side of the young adult spectrum with books like the Percy Jackson series, which holds the same amount of fun adventure that makes you not want to put it down.

I found myself whizzing through this book, not only because of the spaced writing and illustrations, but just because it was a good read and kept me wanting more. It's just one of those books that (although I didn't due to work commitments) makes you want to stay up all night to finish it - everything about this book is audience pleasing, but in a simple way.

This alternate universe was a marvel to read about, I wanted to know more about the machinery, the animals, and how everything worked. The Clankers added a more steampunk element to it, and although I'm loving that vibe in books as of late, I was drawn in to the Darwinist ideas more. The Darwinist fabricated creatures to do things as machinery would - the airship that Deryn travels in is in fact a fabricated whale - I found this to be totally and utterly fascinating, and part of me wished that that it was delved a little deeper into than it was. This book always seemed to give you the gist of things rather than a full explanation, which is good for a quick and easy read, but I believe that if Westerfeld had explored the two concepts a bit more it would have created a more interesting read.

I am definitely going to read the sequel to this as a light exciting book but I don't think it will be anything more than that.

★★★

Top Ten Tuesday | New to me authors 2012

Top Ten New To Me Authors I Read In 2012

 -- Originally created by The Broke and Bookish

Cassandra Clare

Compelling. Gripping. Love love love the characters in her books (especially the infernal devices series) 

Marissa Meyer

One of the most imaginative authors I have read all year, am so excited (if you hadn't gathered) for more books by her.

Michael Grant

His work with characters was amazing. Such a full cast of characters and you knew so much about them all - not everyone can do that. The gone series is ridiculously gripping so far, brilliant concepts.

Stieg Larsson

I'm not normally into crime fiction but his work is to die for and is everything you would want in a novel of that description.

George R. R. Martin

Epic. Do I need to say any more?

I would put Veronica Roth and Suzanne Collins on the list for Divergent and The Hunger Games respectively but I thought their sequels lacked so much of the first books that I didn't think they deserved a top mention for me. 

A lot of other authors have really impressed me but they haven't blown me away like the ones I have listed above!

30 Day Book Challenge [3/30]

Day 3 - Your favourite book to recommend to friends


'Clockwork Angel' By Cassandra Clare

This was a delicious array of wonder for me and I would recommend this to every single one of my friends whether or not they liked it - I cannot speakly highly enough of this delight.

It draws you in from the off in a story that's just so wonderfully captivating and original in my eyes. It is the prequel series to the mortal instruments series with the same themes and although they may be similar apart from the time period, I believe they definitely do vary. I found this series to be more enthralling than the mortal instruments and was blown away by the characters charm and personality in a way that made me feel as though these fictional characters could in fact be real. 

It's just a book that I feel a lot of people would love, and they do, so therefore this is my favourite book to recommend to a friend. 

2013 Genre Variety Reading Challenge

This challenge was created by A Daydreamer's Thoughts. So if you were interested in signing up you can head on over there.

I've read a lot of young adult over the past few months and I am starting to get a little tired of it - I always read the same kind of books, and although I love them all to pieces it's starting to get a little boring and I need a little bit of variety and to broaden my book horizon. There are some genres that I have never even attempted to read because I thought I most definitely wouldn't like anything to do with it. So here I am giving it a go.

The challenge is to read books from different genres throughout the year. I have found that blogging has opened my eyes to so many genres that I would never have tried before, simply from recommendations, and the idea of this challenge is to keep that going. The challenge is to read a large variety of genres within one year.

Other Important Info;

• Runs from January 1st 2013 until December 31st 2013. Sign ups will be open until December 1st 2013.
• There are five levels to challenge yourself too. You may move up a level but not go down a level. These are all outlined below. Please mention in your sign up post which level you will aim for.
• The genres you choose to read are up to you. As long as every book is different, whichever genre you wish to read you can.
• Every month there will be a post on this blog to link up to your update post / review(s)
• There will be a giveaway at the end of the challenge, and maybe a few within the year but these are TBD.
• To sign up, you will need to write a post saying which level you are challenging yourself too and then use the linky list. Non-Bloggers may post in the comments of this post.
• Any book formats are accepted.
• Novellas and Novels are all accepted for this challenge.
• YA, NA and Adult books all count towards this challenge.
• New sub-genres are accepted. (for example, paranormal-romance, or historical-romance)

Levels;

• Careful; 6 different genres, 6 books
• Cautious; 12 different genres, 12 books
• Branching; 18 different genres, 18 books
• Avid Reader; 24 different genres, 24 books
• Champion; 30 different genres, 30 books

I am going to go with Avid Reader and read 24 books with 24 different genres with a possibility/probability of going up to the next level.

Contemporary --
Historical --
Paranormal --
Fantasy --
Romance --
Sci-Fi --
Crime --
Thriller --
Adventure --
Chick-Lit --
Dystopian --
Epic Fantasy --
Western --
Comedy --
Horror --
Fairy Tales --
Classics --
Erotica --
Short Stories --
Mystery --
Suspence --

Futuristic --

Military --

Biography --

I will update this with each new book I have read in a different genre.

"Throne of Glass" by Sarah J. Maas

Meet Celaena Sardothien. Beautiful. Deadly. Destined for greatness.

I came across Throne of Glass when I was in WHSmiths on my lunchbreak at work, I didn't think too much about picking it up as I hadn't heard anything about it or even heard of it before. I picked it up because it sounded quite interesting and that was that.

Celaena Sardothien is an assassin, she is the best of her kind, but she was caught. We start the story off in the Endovier salt mines were Celaena is serving a life sentence, someone had betrayed the eighteen year old assassin and that is why she ended up in this mess. She thought all looked dismal until the Captain of the Guard offers her a deal; to fight for the crown Prince Dorian in a battle for the title of 'Kings Champion' - an assassin to the King to do what he pleases. She, however, has to fight against a lot of other criminals like herself to earn this right.

When I first started reading this book I thought the idea behind the book was brilliant - other than Graceling (I'd say) I've never read an 'assassin' type book before and the thought of fight scenes and troubles really got me excited - if that's what you were expecting, please don't read this book. The most interesting fight scenes come towards the end of the book, and even those were quite confusing to read about.

When you think of an assassin, you think of someone hard as steel, no emotion, out to kill, hides everything under a facade - well not in this book. It really disappointed me when Celaena started thinking about the fact that she liked the way that the prince looked, it was ridiculously predictable after that notion that they were going to end up falling in love or such like. Why would an assassin fall in love or at least be so willing to fall into emotion so easily, surely her training and kills in general would have taught her to feel nothing for anyone. It wasn't even over a lengthy amount of time either I found, she found him attractive and then she wouldn't stop thinking about him.

I loved the Crown Prince Dorian in this book - I found his character to be quite charming and endearing and he had a lot of development throughout the book. I didn't love him in a fan girly way but more in a characterisation way, as he was just a brilliant character throughout the book. The other characters were quite stereotypical, you had the jealous lady, evil king, brutish thug and it just seemed all a little too planned like a fairytale throughout it all - I even found myself thinking of cinderella half way through as well.

If the love story that found its way into the book wasn't bad enough, they had to bring a magical element into the book in the middle as well - now this was the tipping point for me and that was when I decided that I didn't like this book a whole lot. It was alright up until that point and then it just went to pot and it was as if Maas decided that she couldn't be bothered to come up with an original plot twist and just went with the most obvious thing she could think of.

Through all of this negative there was an ounce of positive. It was a thrilling story even though it was predictable, it wasn't boring and it made me want to keep reading to finish the book and not give up half way through. It was fast paced and there was a little bit of suspicious but never too much. The emotions that it bought up, however, were one of a kind - the fact that although Celaena had endured tortures in the salt mines she was still strong and coule still smile. It made me think that although things may get tough, you've got to stay positive and that was such a wonderful thing to portray.

Overall, I was disappointed with this book and the potential it had to be great. It was ruined by stereotypical plot lines and the characters were as shallow as anything. Still an okay book, but I wouldn't be recommending this anytime soon.

★★★