"Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.
It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with. Day in, day out, day after day."
Hi Guys, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been off on summer holidays and have been lazing about.
The concept of this book was very alluring. For me, what I enjoyed the most was the many small stories scattered throughout about the different lives A enters. They are fleeting, varied, but often quite interesting and touching.
Beyond this, though, it was slightly disappointing. This same story written by many other authors would be called out for its "instalove". However, I suppose Levithan writes poetically enough that A's relationship with Rhiannon seems deeper, when in reality A falls in "love" with her instantly.
Secondly, there is no explanation at all for the paranormal aspect. No attempt to address it, no consideration given to why A always wakes up in a body 4 hours or less away from Rhiannon and is always the same age. I can suspend a lot of disbelief, however this was an issue for me.
By far a bigger issue for me was something that many people have praised the book for - the unique perspective from the point of view of someone who is genderless and without a life of their own. Wow, what an interesting idea, right? Indeed it is, and yet it is not explored at all. There is very little discussion of what it means to be male, female, both or neither. It is taken for granted that these things are meaningless and shrugged off. What a wasted opportunity to look at a fascinating subject!
There isn't an age rating for this. It is just a soft romance with nothing physical happening. It shows that what you look like doesn't have to define your life. However waking up in a different body everyday does put a crimp in it!
"After three years in juvie, Angela Davis is just a few months shy of release, and she'll finally be free from the hole that is Brunesfield Correctional Facility. Then Jessica arrives. Only ten years old and under the highest security possible, this girl has to be dangerous, even if no one knows what she did to land in juvie. As strange things begin happening to Angela and her friends that can only be traced to the new girl's arrival, it becomes clear that Brunesfield is no longer safe. They must find a way to get out, but how can they save themselves when the world has forgotten them?"
Okay so this book is a crimey-paranormal-horror-thriller-sci-fi...I think. A book with an identity crisis? It's just WOAH, we were cramming all the genres in here! It's set in Juvenile detention, with sci-fi/government conspiracy theories and paranormal superpowers. For me, it was too much without enough detail to anything specific.
The story is of Angela who is in juvie and gets manipulated into taking care of this creepy 10-year-old girl Jessica who may or may not be setting things on fire. WITH HER MIND. As you do. Does Angela freak out over this? A little. Does she accept it pretty fast? Definitely. (ANGELA. WUT ARE YOU THINKING.)
The biggest problem I had was that it's super slow. I mean, it's a thriller, right?!?? With all the mundane details about kitchen duties and the clichés with the crabby guards and the evil scientist lady....I was pretty bored. Even creepy little Jessica couldn't save it for me because WE DIDN'T GET ENOUGH OF HER.
Also I was really disappointed with Angela's backstory. She narrates in 1st person and is lumped in with the "dangerous/high security girls" and is all "I'M NOT TELLING YOU WHAT I DID TO END UP IN JUVIE AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME." Well obviously the truth does come out and it's incredibly tame.[She did some robberies and accidentally pushed a woman down the stairs. Ah...huh. (hide spoiler)] She ended up as the sort of "misunderstood and well intentioned" heroine all the while CLAIMING to be a monster. I just...no. Sit down. Plus we won't even talk about the random romance with the guard that made no sense, with no chemistry, and just...yep. Moving forward.
"Okay, grumpy guts, is there anything you liked?" you say.
Well yes, yes there is. I'm glad you asked.
L I K E S:
• Despite not being creepy enough, Jessica (the 10yo burning girl) still had some creeptastic moments!
• There is a cool friendship dynamic between Angela and her two roomies: Issie and Cara. Go awesome friendship.
• Plenty of characters of colour.
• Angela had dyslexia! I don't often read about that!
• Juvie is always an interesting setting. Reminds me why I'm a super good person and always keep on the right side of the law. (Except for that library fine that one time...)
• I just wish I'd liked the book more though....
All in all it's not a bad book by any means! I just wish the book had been creepier and faster paced. It also would've been nice if more stuff burned down, justsayin'. But Angela was still an interesting narrator and the epilogue was really thought-provoking.
Age rating I would say 13+. Quite abit of swearing, burning bodies and a few mentally unwell people hurt themselves in small ways.
"Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm."
Okay firstly I am about to start ranting about all the reasons I really disliked this book. However,I did enjoy it more than the first book as it had more world building and you are introduced to new characters.(my favourites, the twins.)Alina is more powerful in this book and there are some truly badass scenes!!
I will not be reading the 3rd book but I would suggest people who have read the first to try the second as it might just draw you back in.
There are going to be spoilers ahead for this book. You have been warned.
1:CAN MAL JUST LEAVE
What an annoying little #@;!!@. There are pages of Alina commenting on how good he is at everything and I just don’t care.All he does is comment on how he doesn’t want Alina to change and how frustrated he is because things are different and it’s boring. I'm not even sure what Mal does for most of this book aside from standing by and being jealous of every man that Alina talks to.
All the girls fall for him and no one can resist his handsomeness. We get it you're handsome. Alina and other girls can't resist you, his handsomeness was mentioned in the first book and now again several times here. I GET IT, HE'S HANDSOME, NO NEED TO REPEAT IT AGAIN IN THE SECOND BOOK.
2: The love square
Well, I have officially read a book where not one, not two, but three guys have a thing for the same girl. Mal, The Darkling and now Nikolai. Are you kidding me? At this point, someone's grandpa is probably going to have the hots for Alina.
3:Mal and Alina's relationship problems
Listen up, I do. not. give. a. single. flying. continental. about. Mal. and. Alina's. relationship. and more than half this book was them having relationship problems, fighting and confessing their love.
I was so bored by their relationship that I couldn't even summon the energy for my standard eye roll reserved for fictional couples that are annoying.
4:No Darkling
But my biggest complaint has to be that there is a distinct lack of the Darkling, who we all know was the best part of Shadow and Bone. Seriously, he's missing from 80% of this book. There's something extremely compelling about his character, and his connection with Alina. I fear that this book shuttled his character straight off into "irredeemable bad guy" territory permanently, when I'm hoping for something a bit more unconventional as an ending for his story.
Age rating 12/13+. Nothing overly gruesome and light kissing.
"Apparently I'm boring. A nobody. But that's all about to change. Because I am starting a project. Here. Now. For myself. And if you want to come along for the ride then you're very welcome.
Bree is a loser, a wannabe author who hides behind words. Most of the time she hates her life, her school, her never-there parents. So she writes.
But when she’s told she needs to start living a life worth writing about, The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting is born. Six steps on how to be interesting. Six steps that will see her infiltrate the popular set, fall in love with someone forbidden and make the biggest mistake of her life."
Doesn't it have a gorgeous cover!!
Firstly I have to say I really enjoy the way Holly Bourne writes. Her books are such comfortable reads. They flow brilliantly and read so quickly. I pretty much zoomed through and finished this in one sitting. Holly somehow manages to tackle difficult topics in a way that makes them 'easy' to read. The snarky humour and comebacks where great in this book, so my sense of humour.
With that being said, I didn't love this book. I enjoyed it but there's something making it hard for me to work out how I feel about it. The whole book gave me a huge 'Mean Girls' movie vibe, it was similar in so many ways that I couldn't stop comparing the two. It's like a parody of every cliché teen movie you've ever watched.
I found myself struggling to warm to Bree's character which is odd considering we're somewhat similar in things we've felt. I just think in the ways that we're not similar, we're such polar opposites I found it hard to connect with her and her actions, especially towards others.
BUT I couldn't stop reading, I was drawn into the book and the lives of these characters despite pretty accurately predicting what would happen. It makes you think and revaluate how important somethings are. I enjoyed it just not as much as I had expected too. I think I possibly put my expectations on this book too high after loving Holly's other book 'Am I Normal Yet?' so much.
I will 100% continue to read whatever Holly Bourne writes because, as I said, I LOVE the way she writes.
Maybe a bit of a spoiler: this book incorporates self-harm. So be aware of that. Age Rating I would say 15, maybe mature 14.
"The frost king will burn.
Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has concealed her powers of heat and flame from the cruel Frostblood ruling class her entire life. But when her mother is killed trying to protect her, and rebel Frostbloods demand her help to overthrow their bloodthirsty king, she agrees to come out of hiding, desperate to have her revenge."
Have you read any mainstream YA fantasy book over the past few years? If so, it is likely you have already experienced this book with different character names. Frostblood is just so... unremarkable. Everything about it is familiar and predictable, leading to a read that offered up no excitement, no need to keep turning the pages. It often feels as if YA fantasy publishers deliberately go looking for new authors to retell the same old recycled plots. Stick an attractive cover on the front and lets see if we can fool people into buying the same book over and over again.
This book follows the heroine - Ruby - who is a Fireblood in a world where Frostbloods are the ruling class. Once again, this world is split evenly into two societal groups - an overdone technique that I find particularly lazy. If only the world were that simple! If only there were just two groups of people with differences. There is just no depth or complexity to a "this vs. this" world.
Also, Ruby was uninteresting and bland. I feel like I have nothing to remember her by and it was really difficult to become invested in her story and troubles. The book opens with her mother being murdered and Ruby being captured by Frostblood soldiers; There's nothing here I haven't read before.
Then, of course, the plot takes a completely mindblowing turn when our standard heroine with elemental powers (easy way of adding some magic without having to think too much about a magic system) teams up with a hot guy (Arcus) to get revenge on the royals who wronged her. Is it just me or are you getting déjà vu as well?
I don't know why so many authors think there is anything interesting about pages and pages of training. It's mind-numbing.
But wait! Just when you thought this was all looking familiar, Arcus reveals his... dum, dum, dum, DARK PAST! Yes, that's right. Arcus is a very boring, very typical love interest, with very unoriginal secrets.
A lot of YA fantasy is tropey and contains all the same elements, that's true, so maybe you could say I'm being harsh, but this book's problem is not just a series of components that make it derivative - it also has a very lackluster style. The writing did nothing to draw me in; dramatic events came and went without being engaging. There can be slow parts in any book, but even the most dynamic chapters didn’t hold any fire for me.
To add a tiny bit of credit where it's due: by far the most interesting aspect of this book was the exploration of how one can be blamed for the actions of others they are grouped with. For example, the actions of a few radicals, whether they be Firebloods, Muslims or Feminists, can be used to make sweeping (and false) generalizations about all the others in said group. This is interesting and rather appropriate right now. Too bad it got lost under everything else.
Age Rating about 13+. Nothing inappropriate, a few tame kisses and a creepy king.
"The first things to shift were the doll's eyes, the beautiful grey-green glass eyes. Slowly they swivelled, until their gaze was resting on Triss's face. Then the tiny mouth moved, opened to speak.
'What are you doing here?' It was uttered in tones of outrage and surprise, and in a voice as cold and musical as the clinking of cups. 'Who do you think you are? This is my family.'
When Triss wakes up after an accident, she knows that something is very wrong. She is insatiably hungry; her sister seems scared of her and her parents whisper behind closed doors. She looks through her diary to try to remember, but the pages have been ripped out.
Soon Triss discovers that what happened to her is more strange and terrible than she could ever have imagined, and that she is quite literally not herself. In a quest find the truth she must travel into the terrifying Underbelly of the city to meet a twisted architect who has dark designs on her family - before it's too late..."
Cuckoo Song is best described as a dark fairy tale. The main characters are young and there is nothing unsuitable for children, and yet this is far from your typical middle grade book. It is inventive and clever. The story is full of metaphor, genuinely creepy scenes and an underlying tale about family and war.
It's like a paranormal historical horror mystery and it is fantastic. The writing is gorgeous, full of lush but scary descriptions and the plot is so layered and thought-provoking. I would recommend this for children, teens and adults alike.
The story opens with Triss awakening after a mysterious accident. There are things she can't quite remember, and things that just don't seem right. Her sister refuses to believe she is really Triss. She begins to see and hear things that she shouldn't and she is unable to quench her insatiable hunger.
As Triss "recovers", she discovers more about her life, her family, and its secrets. Soon, it's unclear whether Triss is losing her mind or whether her accident triggered something horrific. It's a frightening supernatural tale on the surface, and a quiet, moving story about grief underneath.
This is my first Hardinge book because her books always sounded weird and oh, her books are weird, but in the best possible creative, original way. Sometimes I guess "I have never read anything like this" is the best kind of compliment.
Age rating as I said before nothing really unsuitable but creepy, so you really have to know how much it will effect you and how sensitive you are. I am usually sensitive to this kind of book but I had no problems with it at all.
"The first kidnappings happened two hundred years before. Some years it was two boys taken, some years two girls, sometimes one of each. But if at first the choices seemed random, soon the pattern became clear. One was always beautiful and good, the child every parent wanted as their own. The other was homely and odd, an outcast from birth. An opposing pair, plucked from youth and spirited away.
This year, best friends Sophie and Agatha are about to discover where all the lost children go: the fabled School for Good & Evil, where ordinary boys and girls are trained to be fairy tale heroes and villains. As the most beautiful girl in Gavaldon, Sophie has dreamed of being kidnapped into an enchanted world her whole life. With her pink dresses, glass slippers, and devotion to good deeds, she knows she’ll earn top marks at the School for Good and graduate a storybook princess. Meanwhile Agatha, with her shapeless black frocks, wicked pet cat, and dislike of nearly everyone, seems a natural fit for the School for Evil."
This book is a middle grade "alternative" fairy tale which parodies and utilizes fairy tale tropes to excellent effect, and I constantly sniggered with laughter at its tongue-in-cheek hilarity.
It is a light book, a Harry Potter-style boarding school novel based around fairy tales. It was just adorable at points, let me tell you, but it is not too sweet at all. For a book aimed at primary school children, this story had a surprising amount of darkness and depth.
What makes someone good? what makes someone evil? - which is why I saw a lot of promise with Chainani’s premise, with the beautiful but vain Sophie ending up in the School for Evil while the ugly and loathed Agatha's in the School for Good. Made me wonder, why is Sophie evil? Her vanity? Is everyone wrong about Agatha because, besides Sophie, they don’t really know her? For a while actually, Chainani did seem to be going in that direction, with self professed goodie Sophie confronted with situations that brought out the evil inside her, and Agatha doubting whether she truly is a witch as everyone says. As an exploration of good and evil, not the subtlest thing ever, but for a younger audience, pretty good.
Unfortunately, it seems to me like Chainani really didn’t know where he was going after those initial few chapters, because even before the story of good and evil totally falls off a cliff, The School for Good and Evil is just horribly inconsistent. Sophie is, one moment, an incompetent villain, and the next, the most powerful and feared witch in both schools. Agatha spends most of the book holding Sophie’s hand as Sophie struggles as a villain, then all of a sudden discovers her inner princess and now can’t go toe to toe with Sophie even though she’s been better with magic through the entire book. Sophie’s fellow witches Hester and Anadil are one moment Sophie’s evil tormenters, the next her evil co-conspirators, and finally on Team Good. Things about the School Master and his mysterious agenda are revealed, but then they don’t go anywhere. There’s some talk of why Good succeeds in fairy tales while Evil doesn’t, but that doesn’t go anywhere either. After reading through all these twists and turns trying to figure out the point of the reveals, I’m sorry, but the plot just didn’t make any sense, none of the characters behaved with any rhyme or reason, and if there’s supposed to be a coherent message about good and evil, it’s completely lost to me.
However the mangled tropes did go a way to save this book. We have hideously warty creatures, we have snouty, socially awkward, innately evil villains in the School of Evil. We have gloriously charming and handsome boys and girls in the School of Good (who are just so full of themselves). I actually started to feel sorry for the villains when it was revealed they could never love.
Age rating 10+. Nothing to put of children but a few guard wolves and the disgustingness of the school of Evil.
"Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
