Sunday, 30 December 2012
Saturday, 29 December 2012
"Pretties" by Scott Westerfeld (Spoilers)
*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.
★★
Thursday, 27 December 2012
"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...
★
Monday, 24 December 2012
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!
★★★★★
Friday, 14 December 2012
"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.
★★
Wednesday, 12 December 2012
"Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld
LEVIATHANAuthor: 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.
★★★
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"Pretties" by Scott Westerfeld (Spoilers)
*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
LEVIATHANAuthor: 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.
★★★
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