Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska by John Green


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


When I began this book I didn't really know what to expect. This was my first book by John Green and I just went into it blindly. I hadn't watched or read any book reviews on this book... or any John Green books for that matter. So in saying that, I was a little on the "lost" side throughout the first part of this book. Mainly just because I was trying to figure out what direction it was going to take. Would it be supernatural, realistic, fantasy, drama,...????

Once I caught on to the gist of the storyline and was no longer investing a lot of my concentration on figuirng out where the story was going, I really started to like it. Basically, its a realistic fiction novel. Do not expect any supernatural or fanatical occurences to take place.
Its the story of a young guy, nicknamed Pudge early on in the book, who is in search for "The Great Perhaps". He's basically bored with his life, has no friends, and wants to go out into the world and see what else is out there. So he convinces his parents into sending him to a boarding school in Alabama for his senior year.
There he meets a whole crew of characters! He lives in a co-ed dorm. He quickly befriends the school's group of misfits and falls right in with them... the Colonel (his roommate), Alaska (the wild, pretty girl who lives down the hall), Takumi, and Lara. He finds himself falling for Alaska very soon after meeting her. She is the kind of girl who inspires people, brings them out of their comfort zone, and remains a mystery to all.

The book is divided up into two parts, "before" and "after". The majority of the book is made up of the "before" section. Then a pretty tragic event happens and the remaining of the book is about how the characters deal with it. I have to admit that by the time I got to the "after" section I was highly invested in the characters and was definitely upset and saddened by what happened.

I was surprised by how invested I became in the characters of this novel. I would definitely say that the majority of the book is character-driven. For the most part, there are no huge events that drive the plot forward... at least in my opinion. What you do have in this book is the day to day events of a group of misfit students who attend a private boarding school. But what makes the book so good is these characters! They are very interesting... and you find yourself wanting to continue to read, not to see what will happen next, but to see what is the "deal" with this character?!?! Why do they act like this? Why do they treat others in that way? Why are they making this decision or that decision?? This is one of the few books that I've read that is character-drive... and they always surprise me by how much I like them.

This is definitely one of those books where the characters will stick with you afterwards. I read this book while I was at the beach for vacation. I found myself dreaming about them at night. Thinking about them on the drive home. For this reason, I had to give the book 4 stars. I couldn't quite go to 5 stars because in my opinion that rating is saved for books that have it all... memorable characters and a plot that engages the reader totally. This book definitely wins with its characters.... so I suggest it for those of you who are looking for a break from the fantasy/supernatural books. This is realistic fiction at its finest!

Content Warning -

This book does contain the following:
Language
Minors drinking/smoking/drugs
Sexual content

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Book Review - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


LOVED IT! LOVED IT! LOVED IT! By the way... did I mention that I loved it?!?! Very "Tim Burton-esqe"! I can totally see Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter playing lead roles in the MOVIE that 20th Century Fox has already bought the rights to! I've also noticed several reviewers comparing it to Lemony Snicket's style of writing. I can certainly agree with those comparisons. I'm telling you... this is the next big book! It's refreshing, different, intriguing, interesting, funny, scary, innocent... I could keep going!

Ok... I think I've done enough gushing! =) Let's get on with the review.

The book starts off in present day with Jacob, who is around 16 years old. He is bored with his priveleged life. He is very close with his grandfather and has grown up listening to stories about his childhood. Jacob was amazed and in awe of his grandfather's exciting life and looked up to him for it. He hung on every word the man said. His grandfather's stories were on the "fairy story" side... full of tales about peculiar children with abnormal abilities living in a big house guarded over by a bird. As Jacob grew older, he began to accept them as being just that, fairy stories.

Then one day his grandfather dies unexpectedly after being attacked. Jacob is the one who finds his grandfather. Right before he passes away, he tells Jacob a cryptic message that causes him to want to learn more about the place where his grandfather grew up.

Jacob goes on a trip, along with his father, to a small island off England where his grandfather spent time in a children's home after we was exiled from Poland during the second World War. This is the place where many of the "fairy stories" Jacob grew up listening to occurred. Here, he hopes to learn more about his grandfather and hopefully the cause of his death.

Included in the book are old, vintage photographs that the author Ransom Riggs selected from the collections of muliple photograph collectors. These pictures are incorporated into the story and really add a lot to it! Don't worry... they don't make it seem like a picture book.

I really loved the way this book was written. I was able to visualize the story in my head so much so that I felt as if I was watching a movie! However, there was not so much descriptive writing to the point that it felt like the story line drug. Ransom Riggs did a great job of balancing out the descriptions while still keeping the plot moving along. There are tons of twists and turns. The plot goes to unexpected places that you never see coming. The cliffhangers are well done. I was not able to put this book down... and it has been quite a while since I've found a book that did that to me.

The ending leaves you with a small cliffhanger, suggesting that there may be a sequel. I feel like Ransom Riggs has done a great job with this book... it is especially impressive that this is his first novel. I hope everyone will check it out!

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Pride and Prejudice AND ZOMBIES! Bet you weren't expecting that last word were you? haha

I've been eyeing this book on the book shelf for quite a while. I love the original version, Pride and Prejudice. It's one of my favorites. So I was naturally curious to see how exactly someone could incorporate zombies into the formalness that was the Regency Period.

So basically this book closely follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice. But right away you will notice a few changes - 1.) There are zombies roaming around 2.) Elizabeth Bennet and her sisters are trained zombie killers 3.) Zombie attacks happen frequently

There are some surprising differences from the original that do add a bit of shock for the person who is so used to the original version of the novel. The fact that Elizabeth is a badass zombie killer does add a little bit of fun to the book... you don't want to make her mad... and what do we all know Darcy does to her? He makes her MAD! Interesting haha

I don't really see much point in recapping the storyline because most of you are probably familiar with it to begin with. And I don't want to talk about all the interesting, fun quirks and changes that the zombies bring to the story because that would do nothing but spoil all the fun for you!

Final thoughts... if you like Pride and Prejudice you will find that all of your favorite parts are still there for you to enjoy. If you like zombies, ninjas, bad-ass fighting scenes then this book is for you! If you're just curious about it like I was... give it a try!

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Book Review: Beastly by Alex Flinn

Beastly by Alex Flinn


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I really liked this book!

This book is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It is set in modern times. It has been made into a movie and I believe the movie was released this weekend!
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book. I mainly picked it up because I knew that I would want to go watch the movie and I always like to read the books before watching the movies. Beauty and the Beast is one of my all time favorite stories. I absolutely ADORE the Disney version that came out while I was a kid.

Basically this book gives you the story of Beauty and the Beast, but you experience it from the Beast's perspective. It goes back to before he was turned. The Beast in this version is a boy named Kyle Kingsbury. Kyle is the good-looking, popular, shallow, cruel type guy. He goes to a prestigous school in New York City (I think). He is definitely a superficial guy. He doesn't see past appearances and those who he deems unattractive are an open target for mockery.

One day Kyle messes with the wrong person. An unattractive girl who he decides to play a trick on by inviting to the school dance. He has no intentions of actually going with her though. This act of cruelty ends up costing him big time though... this is what causes him to become the Beast.

You get to experience how this transformation affected him, how he dealt with it, how his family dealt with it. I really liked that part of this book... because it is a part of the Beauty and the Beast story that is not included in the original. Eventually the story catches up to the point that we are familiar with... where the Beast lives in isolatoin and has a young girl come to live with him. Once you reach this point of the story... the plot line does not deviate much from what we are all familiar with.

I really thought the author did a great job of giving us a fresh take on this classic story. I liked it a lot more than I expected to! If you are a fan of Beauty and the Beast then I definitely suggest you give this book a try!

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Book Review - Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this for the debut author challenge. I was in the mood to read a contemperary realistic fiction novel. I've been going pretty heavy on the fantasy and dysotopian here lately. So I went onto The Story Siren's blog to see what new debut novels were coming out in the month of February in the YA genre. Most of the ones listed were fantasy... Rival was one of the few realistic novels on the list.

I was immediately turned off and intrigued (at the same time if that's possible) by the synopsis and I'll get into why a little later in this review.

So basically this novel is the story of two girls in their senior year... who happen to be arch rivals. They are both deeply involved in the school choir and are competitive with each other. Brooke is the school's "teen queen". She's the popular one who everyone wants to be in the graces of. Kathryn is more of the pretty, quite, shy type. So how is it that two girls on complete opposite spectrums of the high school world could become rivals? Well the storyline is full of flashbacks that take you back to their junior year when the girls first met and give you the entire back story... all while you are experiencing their current dilemas of their senior year.

So like I said before, the synopsis gave me conflicting feelings for this book. I was turned off by the choir, "Glee", type storyline. I was not involved in choir in highschool and my school did not have a big choir program. I was concerned that I would not be able to relate with that part of the storyline. Then I was also pretty sure that as a 28 year old woman, I would not be interested at all in the catty-ness of teenage girls being "rivals". But on the other hand, I at one time too was a teenage girl... and I've dealt with my share of catty-ness coming from other females. I've always kind of related myself to the "Kathryn" type of girl. So I was intrigued to see the inner workings and thoughts behind the actions of the Brooke character... the epitome of the "mean girl".

I was pleasantly suprised by this book. I always go into the debut author novels feeling like they are a crap shoot. I was very happy with this one. I didn't find myself rolling my eyes as the girls argued. I actually related to a lot of what they went through. I sympathized with the characters and found myself fully invested in the book very quickly. I highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of YA or realistic contemperary fiction!

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Book Review - Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater


My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Ok, well this book took me nearly a month to get through. It's not because the book is super long... because it's not. I'm not sure if I've just been in a reading funk or if I just was really not enjoying this book. Since it took me so long to get through it, I feel like I lost a lot of what the story was about. =( But I did persevere and finish reading it!

I really loved the way the book started out. I was extremely intrigued by the idea that Grace felt drawn to these wolves that lived in the woods behind her house. I liked that way that Sam talked about being in love with Grace for years.

But after that, I really can't think of any other major shining points. You basically know the entire plot by mid-way through the book. But you don't realize that you know everything... you keep thinking that there is more to come... more to be uncovered. But there's not! I was not miserably bored with this book, but I was not entertained for a lot of it either. So I give this book two stars and I really don't have much else that I can say about it. I'm sorry that this review is so short =( I do have the second book in the series, Linger, which I will probably read, but if I am bored with it as well then I don't think I'm going to force myself to finish it.

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Book Review - XVI by Julia Karr

XVI by Julia Karr


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Hmmm... ok. What to say about this book. As you can see, I have given it a three. I can't say that I was blown away by it - but I also can't say that I was ever miserably bored with it either.

I'm gonna start out with a description of what this book is all about:

You have Nina, who is fifteen years old. She's living in a suburb outside of Chicago. The year is 2150. The world is a much different place than what we have now. Nina is preparing for her 16th birthday that will be coming up in a few months.

When girls turn 16 they are tattooed with an XVI on their wrist. This tattoo basically announces to the world that the girl is 16 and therefore legal for sex. Sex has become a much less taboo thing than it is now. Girls are brought up believing that being "sexy" and having "sex" should be the ultimate goal for them... in this future these behaviors are encouraged and accepted.

The government basically controls EVERYTHING! They have the majority of people brainwashed by constantly stimulating their minds with "verts", advertisements and commercials. People are never given a moment of peace and quite to just be with their own thoughts. The government also has the capabilities to monitor conversations between people and anyone who seems to disagree with the government is taken in for "re-assimilation", which is basically just turbo-brainwashed to get rid of any defiant thoughts that person may have had. Of course, with this much government control, there are people who rebel against it. These people are called Non-Cons. Most people think of Non-cons as a dangerous rebel group.

Nina lives with her mother and younger sister. Nina's father died shortly after she was born. Years after his death, her mother began dating a government official named Ed, who is the father of Nina's younger sister Dee. Her mother raised Nina to not think like the typical "sex-teens". So Nina is not looking forward to turning 16 - unlike most other girls. As Nina begins to prepare for this milestone in her life, her mother is brutally attacked and killed. In her dying words, she tells Nina a secret that sends Nina on a hunt for the real truth about her life and family.

Nina and Dee go live with their grandparents in Chicago - there Nina meets new friends along with being able to spend more time with old friends. She opens up to them and fills them in on what her mother told her. Together they begin investigating the clues that lead to the truth about Nina and Dee's life.

So... what did I think??

First of all - I think that some people may be mislead by the synopsis. I was under the impression that this was going to be a story focused on what happens to these girls when they turn 16 and are legal for sex. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting... but it was definitely not the same thing that the book ended up focusing on. This book focuses on the story of Nina and unraveling the mysteries that surface from her mother's death.

The futuristic world that Julia Karr sets up is really amazing! I had no trouble at all understanding all of the new inventions and gadgets that they were using. I was also not left feeling confused about the futuristic world... what I mean is that there are lots of new terms and such that are introduced, and I never felt confused or compelled to go back and look up what something meant or what something is.

I liked the way the book started out. But once the death of Nina's mother occurs I felt like the storyline seriously dragged! I do not like a book that waits to resolve everything in the last few pages. I need a little bit of the mystery uncovered as you go along... otherwise I feel frustrated and resentful of the writing... I start to think of it as "filler" writing that is put in just to drag it out. I definitely started feeling like this at certain points of this book.

By the end of the book, I came back around to liking it a little more than I expected. I was prepared to give it a two star rating - the ending redeemed it.

This book really seemed to be more of a mystery/suspense novel, rather than what I think of as dystopian. I really think that this is the type of story that I would enjoy more as a movie, instead of a book.

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