An Abundance of Katherines Review

Book Review #15: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Overall Rating: 5.75/10
Plot: 2/10
Originality: 6/10
Characters: 6/10
Writing: 9/10 

Sample Passage: Colin thought about the dork mantra: sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.  What a dirty lie…  ”I love you so much and I just want you to love me like I love you,” he said as softly as he could.  ”You don’t need a girlfriend, Colin.  You need a robot who says nothing but ‘I love you.’”  And it felt like being stoned and sticked from the inside, a fluttering and then a sharp pain in his lower rib cage, and then he felt for the first time  that a piece of his gut had been wrenched out of him.  She tried to get out as quickly and painlessly as possible, but after she begged  curfew, he began to cry.  She held his head against her collarbone.  And even though he felt pitiful and ridiculous, he didn’t want it to end, because he knew the absence of her would hurt more than any breakup ever could. 

Genre: Chick Lit and Realistic Fiction
Ages: 14 and up

Published: 2006 by Dutton Books, a member of Penguin Group
Number of Pages: 215 | Hardcover Edition 

Summary: Child prodigy Colin Singleton has been dumped nineteen times, all by girls named Katherine, and K19 was the last straw for him.  Depressed and hurt, he takes a road trip with his best friend Hassan.  They aim to go nowhere in particular, but they end up in a small town called Gunshot where they find a job and lodging.  Not only is Colin out to find relief from his Katherine depression, he is also out to find a eureka moment, a moment of great discovery that defines his life.  With the help of a couple of new people and random situations, Colin might just get over K19 and all the girls before her and discover something amazing about relationships and how they work.

Review: I checked this book out from my school’s library on November 8th, and I just now finished it.  This has nothing to do with my inability to read fast, it has to do with the drive I had to actually finish this book.  You can imagine the motivation I had to start the book, with The Fault In Our Stars being so amazing and all, but all the John Green books I read are pretty awful in comparison to that.  The Fault in the Stars is hard to beat, so I’m not going to compare the two. Okay?  Here it goes.  …………………..yeah this book was still pretty bad. 

The plot wasn’t engaging from the start. The idea of a guy being dumped by nineteen girls, all with the same name, isn’t really appealing to me. I thought it was going to be one of those sob stories, and it definitely included those, but thankfully it isn’t the main idea of the book.  When Colin and Hassan go on their road trip, I expected things to pick up and move at a little bit faster pace, but unfortunately the boredom just increased.  There is no action, and there isn’t even the occasional semi-conflict Green sometimes throws in his stories until the climax.  An Abundance of Katherines was the definition of the Plateau Effect, where the whole plot line is almost completely flat.

Green usually has a bigger picture for all his plots, a big realization that a less-than-perfect character has at the end.  In An Abundance of Katherines, Colin was trying to figure out a way to predict relationships by developing a Theorem on a graph.  I won’t tell you what he realized at the end, but the build up of the big epiphany was more interesting than the actual Big Idea. I was quite disappointed with the ending.  It resolved most things, but I just expected a little more of a Wow factor, of which there was almost none.

The characters were somewhat annoying.  Don’t even get me started on Colin. He was such a weak character emotionally that it’s hard to even stand reading about him. He feels sorry for himself a lot, and he’s self-centered. He’s not a very good friend to Hassan either.  Throughout the novel, Colin irritated me, making the novel irritate me.  I also didn’t like Lindsay, one of the people they meet at Gunshot, a whole lot, but I would have liked to see more development in her character.  I would have liked to see a bigger variety of characters and different personalities, but I just didn’t.  

Hassan was the only character that I strongly liked.  Sometimes he even made me laugh out loud, and I think he’s a good comic relief for readers.  He’s a very good friend to Colin, and despite his laziness, I found him the most entertaining out of any character in the book.  He made the story better just by being around and sometimes setting Colin in his place.  He could have used a little less foul language, but I suppose it added to his personality.  He’s hilarious and amusing.

The plot wasn’t the most original thing I have ever read.  The only part of the plot that didn’t seem cliche was the nineteen Katherines, I had never read that in a book before.  The rest just seemed overused and overdone, and I was beginning to feel weary and bored just reading the book.  I wanted something fresh and original from Green: An Abundance of Katherines just wasn’t it.

If you read this book, read it for the writing.  Green’s writing has always been so elegant and flawless.  Though the writing in this book was a little jumbled and mixed up, it was still better than the writing I have seen in most young adult books.  The words may not have flown effortlessly across the pages and into the reader’s mind, but you could still connect with Colin, no matter how annoying he could get. The word choice Green uses is good too, it’s not too repetitive or irritating.  I like Green’s balance of description and dialogue.   

Overall: Coming from John Green, an author I highly respect, this book was not very good at all.  The combination of a seriously boring plot, a less-than-perfect Big Idea, lack of variety in the characters, and cliches throughout the book make this one to maybe pass by if you order or receive a John Green box set for Christmas.  The writing is probably the only thing that would make An Abundance of Katherines worthwhile.  

Coming Up Next: Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin on December 28th

Skinny Review

Book Review #14: Skinny by Donna Cooner

Overall Rating: 7.3/10
Plot: 8/10
Writing: 6.7/10
Characters: 6/10
Originality: 8.5/10

Sample Passage: I know what they think because she whispers their thoughts into my ear. I can hear them. Clearly.  Constantly.  ”If I ever look like that, just kill me.”  Her name is Skinny.  I don’t know how long she’s been sitting there on my shoulder, whispering her messages.  She popped up when I was about ten, when I started gaining weight after my mother died.  At first, her voice came infrequently…softly…but as I got bigger, she grew stronger.  She probably looks like a goth Tinker Bell, maybe a winged fairy kind of thing, but I’ve never actually seen her.  I only hear her.

Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Ages: 13 and up 

Published: 2012 by Scholastic
Number of Pages: 260 | Paperback Edition 

Summary: Ever Davies has a voice that talks to her in her head, telling here everything people think about her 24/7.  Her name is Skinny, and Skinny interferes with Ever’s lifestyle and relationships, but she’s right about Ever being fat.  Ever is fifteen and weighs three hundred and two pounds.  She decides to undergo gastric bypass surgery in order to save her life, but she might need to lose more than just weight to truly get her life back.

Review:  I got this book at my school’s book fair, and I’m not sure whether or not it was worth the money I paid for it.  I somewhat enjoyed reading the book, but it was such a quick read that it didn’t really leave anything for me to think about.  You guys know that I always like to close a book and say “wow,” and daydream about it for awhile, but that definitely did not happen with this book.

The plot was interesting enough. I don’t know that much about gastric bypass surgery and Cooner was definitely informed about it, having gotten the procedure done on herself.  I like reading about it and it’s effects; I think I actually learned something from this book.  However, this is not a non-fiction story.  Skinny is supposed to be about an overweight teenager finding her way back to her life before she was heavy, and Cooner stuck to the main conflict pretty well, but it wasn’t done exceptionally.  There wasn’t enough background information about the character, Ever.  She kept saying over and over again that she had tried to lose the pounds but she always gained them back, and I felt like there wasn’t enough background of her story so that I could understand and know why she kept packing on pounds.

I did like the fact that throughout the book, Ever realized that she’s been the one pushing everyone away, and I appreciated that theme.  It was very honest, and I believe Ever learns her lesson at the end.  However, I don’t think this book focused on getting rid of Skinny as much as it should have, and some of the conflicts thrown in there just aren’t necessary, especially with a book as short as this one was.  If Skinny had been longer and more detailed, the plot probably would be better.

Most of the characters are pretty annoying , especially the main character.  I don’t like the way that Ever is sort of selfish, and I think she judged other people way too quickly.  She also makes a lot of assumptions about what people think of her.  However, this was addressed, so it made it a little easier to bear.  I didn’t feel like some of the characters were in the story or developed enough. For instance, I couldn’t really tell if her dad was a good person or not, and same with the stepmother.  Lindsay is also barely mentioned throughout the whole novel.  I would have liked to see more connections between Ever and the other characters in this story. 

The writing wasn’t very good in Skinny.  I didn’t feel like I could connect or relate to Ever.  Maybe it’s because I have never had to go through anything like she had.  Most people haven’t, so I feel that Cooner should have made Ever a little more relatable.  I also felt like this book was, overall, entirely too rushed.  If Cooner had taken a little more time and pages to make Skinny more detailed, it would have been such a more pleasant read.  Description was okay, but Skinny lacked emotion and perspective.  Like I said before, it also lacked a final thought to take away from it. 

This plot isn’t the most original, because we’ve read young adult novels about overweight teenage girls with body image issues.  However, I don’t think I’ve ever read one about gastric bypass surgery, so that was pretty original.  The characters were pretty basic and they fell into stereotypes, which irritates me to no end in the story.

Overall: Skinny by Donna Cooner could have been a lot better.  I feel like it is too rushed.  It lacks the emotion readers need to connect and relate to the characters.  It is pretty forgettable, and there’s nothing to really ponder after you’ve closed the book.  ALl this makes for a pretty mediocre book.  I would say that Skinny is probably not worth your time or money, so you should probably spend it on knitting or crocheting or whatever it is that makes you happy. 

Coming up Next: Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead and Freshman Year & Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin 

Legend Review

Book Review #13: Legend by Marie Lu

Overall Rating: 8.6/10Plot: 8/10
Writing: 8.5/10
Characters: 9/10
Originality: 9/10

Sample Passage:  They always have a different photo running alongside the report. One time it was a boy with glasses and a head full of thick copper curls.  Another time it was a boy with black eyes and no hair at all. Sometimes I’m black, sometimes white, sometimes olive or brown or yellow or red or whatever else they can think of.  In other words, the Republic has no idea what I look like.  They don’t seem to know much of anything about me, except that I’m young and that when they run my fingerprints they don’t find a match in their databases.  That’s why they hate me, why I’m not the most dangerous criminal in the country, but the most wanted.  I make them look bad.

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
Ages: 12 and up

Published: 2011 by G. P. Putnam’s Sons
Number of Pages: 336 | Hardcover Edition 

Summary: Day is the most wanted criminal in the Republic, and he often spends his day-to-day life just trying not to get caught.  There’s more at stake for him now that his brother is sick with the plague, and he needs medicine quickly.  June is a top Republican agent who has all the luxuries in the world.  When June’s brother is murdered, Day is accused, and June goes off to hunt him down and end the Republic’s search for him once and for all.  However, nothing goes quite like they expect, and they find out the truth about the plagues and the government once and for all.

Review: I had heard this book spoken about a little bit, but it’s not anything super popular.  Nevertheless, I decided to check it out, and I got it at the library.  It took me forever to read, but I’m glad I did.  Though it didn’t have much of a WOW factor, it was still an enjoyable book.  The only main problem I had with this book was it’s easily forgettable.  I’m not sure how much I’ll remember of this book in 2 years, or even one.  It was basically in the higher part of the mediocre category.

The plot was simple enough.  I’m starting to wonder how many different dystopian government type of plots we can do without them all just running together, blending in with each other.  However, this was a little more of a romance than dystopian fiction.  It felt like it should be a story that takes place in the older days, one of those French stories where the beautiful maiden falls in love with the peasant. I liked how she made that relatable to today’s times.  Lu basically took a classic story and modernized it.   This might be a cause for failure in most cases, but in Lu’s case it turned out very beautifully.

When you pick up a book like this one, you probably expect a lot of action, but this book didn’t have that.  It mostly had plot development and character development, leading up to something seemingly big, but in reality very small.  The ending disappointed me because it was quite a cliffhanger and some things were a little under-explained, in my opinion.  Luckily, if you look below, one of my lovely followers told me that there was a sequel to this book coming out in January.  This made things a lot better, however the plot still has room for improvement with this book.  It has a lot of potential  so I’m excited to see where Lu takes in in this second installment.

The characters in this book were extremely detailed and likable   I liked the fact that there weren’t a whole lot of characters you had to keep track of.  It allowed Lu to spend more time talking about each and every one’s past and why they are who they are.  I felt that Day could have used a little more backstory, but I also could connect with him the most. This story goes back and forth from the point of view of June and Day, and they are both in first person.  Sometimes when I was reading a June chapter I forgot that it was in third person, but I always felt like I was Day when I was reading his chapter.  

Most of the Republic characters were not likable in this book, and I would have liked to see a lot more development on their part.  Also when Metias is killed (which is not a spoiler because you can see that on the back of the book) I felt like I didn’t know him well enough to be able to relate to June’s sorrow.  This aspect of the book probably would have been a lot more better with more detailed character development, but there’s always the sequel for that.

The writing was mostly good in this book.  There were a couple of places where I felt that the story could use more emotion and more description, but I could always tell what was going on, and I was mostly captivated by the plot.  It moved along a little slowly, and like I previously stated, there could have been more development.  There even could have been more subplots through all of this, and there are some things we never find out.  I’m sort of putting a lot of faith in this sequel, but who knows, maybe it will surprise me.  I liked the basic writing, I could follow it and I did feel the character’s emotions at times, especially Day’s.

The originality of this book was pretty strong. I hadn’t read anything like it before, though it was relatable to the plot of the Matched trilogy as far as government goes.  It might not have been the most original love story, but the fact that the romance isn’t the main focus of the story makes it a little more original than if the entire focus was the love story.

Overall: This book was not a waste of my time, though it did have a couple of faults.  I am excited for the sequel.  I would definitely recommend this to fans of the Hunger Games and Delirium, but possibly you should get it at the library instead of buying it. Save your money, but still read the book. That’s the beauty of libraries. 

(I told you not to do this, but if you must) Purchase: here, it’s actually on sale right now! 

Coming Up Next: The Fortunes of Indigo Sky by Deb Caletti

Before I Fall Review

Book Review #12: Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver 

Overall Rating: 8.8/10Plot: 8/10
Writing: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Originality: 7/10
Purpose (A.K.A. Theme): 10/10 

Sample Passage: I once saw this old movie with Lindsay; in it the main character was talking about how sad it is that the last time you have sex you don’t know it’s the last time.  Since I’ve never even had a first time, I’m not exactly an expert, but I’m guessing it’s like that for most things in life—the last kiss, the last laugh, the last cup of coffee, the last sunset, the last time you jump through a sprinkler or eat an ice-cream cone, or stick your tongue out to catch a snowflake.  You just don’t know.  But I think that’s a good thing, really, because if you did know it would be almost impossible to let go.  When you do know, it’s like being asked to step off the edge of a cliff: all you want to do is get down on your hands and knees and kiss the solid ground, smell it, hold on to it.  I guess that’s what saying good-bye is always like—like jumping off an edge.  The worst part is making the choice to do it.  Once you’re in the air, there’s nothing you can do but let go.

Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Ages: 16 and up

Number of Pages: 496 | Hardback Edition
Published: February 2010 by HarperCollins 

Summary: Samantha Kingston has it all, the cutest guy in school as her boyfriend, a great group of friends, and best of all, she’s mega popular and can get away with almost anything—like making fun of “psycho” Juliet Skyes.  One night she goes to a super cool senior party, and at first it’s like every other of the billion ones she’s been to this year: drugs, alcohol, and scandals that everyone will be talking about the next day.  But then Juliet Skyes shows up with one message for Samantha and each of her friends.  That night Samantha gets in a car accident but doesn’t die, instead she lives that same day over and over.  Samantha will have to find out how to change everything to save herself, but not in the way she expects.

Review: I love this book.  I actually first read it a long, long time ago right after I read Delirium.  I thought, “hey, this is by Lauren Oliver, I’ll give it a try!”  Even though the plot sounds completely cliche and unoriginal, especially from my poorly-written summary, it really stood out to me.  It also never fails to make me tear up at the end. Here’s why:

The plot is very simple, there’s basically one external conflict and a bunch of internal conflicts.  Me being very interested in psychology myself, I love that part about this book.  You get to see inside Sam’s head so much, it’s like you’re actually being her and living in her.  Also there are so many things in the story that interconnect, it’s like a web of possibilities that you can see happening.  Also it’s so wonderful and interesting to see things change over the course of just a week.

The bad thing about the plot is she lives the same day over and over again seven times.  That can get pretty boring, especially day 6, because you just want to see what happens on the last day.  If you’re not like me, and you’re not a fan of psychological aspects in books, then you might be disappointed.  There isn’t a lot of action.  Some find that a lot of unnecessary inappropriate things were put in there.  Some think it’s just been done before, too many times.  Also some say that a lot of the situations seemed to be just thrown in there, and they didn’t make a whole lot of sense.  But I think that it’s a great story about a teen realizing that her behavior is wrong, and she really truly grows up in the end.

For some reason I like the characters in this book.  The main character, Sam, can be annoying at first with the way that she carries herself.  She wasn’t popular at first, so she knows how the unpopular girls feel, yet she chooses to make fun of them anyways.  Also she doesn’t even seem to care about academics, and she doesn’t treat her family very well.  Starting at Day 5, however, she becomes a very likable person all the way to the very end.  

Character development is pretty good, especially for the main character and Juliet, but I wish there was a little more character development for Sam’s friends.  Elody and Ally, two of her friends, don’t really have any detailed parts or backstories, and I would have appreciated that a little more.  I also think that some of her friends should’ve learned their lesson too, because they were also making poor decisions like that.  

The writing in this book is absolutely amazing. Lauren Oliver can describe things so well, and like I said, I feel like I was in Sam’s mind for most of it.  Also she has a way of putting things we’ve all felt but didn’t know how to say in words.  Oliver has this fantastic way with words that makes part of the whole story just like a poem, and it just touches me.  You’ll know what’s happening throughout the entire story, which is really important for me.

Like I said before, some say the plot isn’t very original, and truth is, it isn’t.  However, with the characters and the writing, it becomes a lot more real.  The purpose of the book is basically people can change, and you’re life is short, so you have to make sure you do a lot of good things along the way.  I felt like I could reflect on this book for hours after I finished it.  It definitely had a sound purpose that was emphasized just the right amount throughout the whole book.

Overall: I really enjoyed this book, and for anyone who likes Dessen’s work, this would definitely be a book for you.  So go get it at your library or buy it before it’s too late and some other idiot who won’t appreciate it picks it up!

*New Feature!* Purchase here!

Coming Up Next: Legend by Marie Lu

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Review

Book Review #11: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Overall Rating: 9.5/10Plot: 9.3/10
Writing: 9.5/10
Characters: 9.5/10
Originality: 9/10
*New Feature* Theme: 10/10 

Sample Passage: I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won’t tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn’t change the fact that they were upset.  And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have.  Good and bad.  Just like what my sister said when I had been in the hospital for a while.  She said that she was really worried about going to college, and considering what I was going through, she felt really dumb about it.  But I don’t know why she would feel dumb.  I’d be worried, too. And really, I don’t think I have it any better or worse that she does. I don’t know.  It’s just different.  Maybe it’s good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there.  Like Sam said.  Because it’s okay to feel things.  And be who you are about them.

Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Ages: 16 and up 

Number of Pages: 213 | Movie Paperback Edition
Published: 1999 

Summary: After Charlie’s only friend, Michael, committed suicide, he knows his freshman year of high school isn’t going to be easy or fun.  His only friend at first is his English teacher who gives him books to read, all of which are his favorites.  Then he meets Sam and Patrick, who are both seniors, and they teach him that he is truly a wallflower, he sees things, he keeps quiet about them, and he understands.  With help from them and a few others, Charlie finally finds the perks of being a wallflower, and he attempts to uncover the mystery of his past and where he will finally fit in the terrifying world of high school.

Review:  My mom and my sister both read this book, and they really didn’t like it.  They thought that it was completely shallow and inappropriate, and they just didn’t get it.  My mom, I could kind of see her not getting it, she’s an English professor and not a teenager.  But my sister’s opinion really surprised me.  I had also heard a lot of great things about this book from my friends and critics.  I hate walking into a book with this many biases on it already!  Luckily, I was able to put those thoughts out of my head and take the book for what it was.  And I have to say, my mom and sister were wrong.  I thought this book had a very deep meaning behind it.  It was very well written and definitely worth the read.

The plot doesn’t seem very original at first, because it’s just about a freshman who doesn’t fit in trying to find his way to fit in and find friends in high school.  We’ve all heard that, and some of us have even lived it, but we have to keep in mind that it’s not always the plot that makes a story original.  In this book it was the characters, and the way the story was written.  It’s not exactly a diary form, but it’s basically Charlie writing letters to someone who is only named as “friend.”  You never find out who this person is, but the letter writing really shows how Charlie feels about the situations he finds himself in.

The plot of this story has been described as inappropriate, pointless, and cliche, and yes, I can see that if you just look at the plot.  There is a lot of inappropriate stuff, some of it unnecessary, but that problem is solved when you see it through Charlie’s eyes.  He’s so innocent that he really only describes these scenes as needed, not with unnecessary detail.  The plot is not pointless, there is a big message stated in the end, a deeper meaning behind all this.  That was one of the things I loved about this book: Charlie’s monologue about perspective at the end.  It would be cliche, but the telling of it and the situations are not.  I’d also like to point out that this is supposed to take place in 1991, but it doesn’t feel like it at all. It feels like it could take place in today’s time. I thought that was really cool.

Because this story is in first person and only from Charlie’s view, all we know is what he knows, and in some books this may be a reason for lack of character depth.  But throughout the story you start to learn things about the characters through Charlie’s innocent, unbiased eyes.  You end up being very attached to the characters at the end just like Charlie is.  All the characters are pretty much likable, and the stupid things they do just don’t seem as stupid as they would in the other books.  The way these seniors just take on a freshman with little to no ridicule makes up for it I guess. Charlie can be annoying at some times with his over emotional ways, but in his heart he is truly a good person, completely unselfish, and that’s what I like to see in a main character.

The writing was fantastic in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Chbosky did a wonderful job.  I feel like Charlie is just talking to me throughout the book, telling me all these experiences that happened to him.  There is not a whole lot description, but definitely enough so I can picture everything in my mind (and that’s really hard for me, so that should tell you guys something).  Sometimes it’s just really nice to see the world through a different pair of eyes, and Chbosky takes us to that level with Charlie.  Only very rarely did the writing confuse me.

The newest feature in my reviews is theme.  I added this because every good novel has to have a deeper purpose, something that you can take away from the novel, step back, and say “Oh. I get it. That was good,” instead of just throwing it down on your bed and walking away.  There should always be a reflecting period.  The only exception to this would be trilogies or series where the theme might not be in the first book, it might be at the end.  The theme of Perks was all about perspective, and how it’s okay to feel things. I feel like I definitely walked away with an idea planted in me, and I was able to reflect deeply on this book

Overall: If you are bothered by adolescent inappropriateness, then you may just want to get over that to read a fantastic book with a theme that will leave you breathless for a while.

Coming up Next: Legend by Marie Lu

Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Book Review #10: Blue Moon by Alyson Noel (book #2 in The Immortals series)

Overall Rating: 6.75/10
Plot: 4/10
Characters: 8/10
Writing: 8/10
Originality: 7/10

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book of this series, Evermore, you might want to think about not reading this review. However, this has not been a very good series so far, so you’re welcome to ruin it yourself, I won’t get mad. 

Sample Passage: I’m as anxious as [Damen].  But I’m also concerned.  Concerned about his inability to manifest, concerned about the fleeting cold look in his eyes—holding my breath as he takes a swig from his bottle, reminding myself of how quickly his wound healed, convincing myself it’s a good sign.  And knowing my concern will only make him feel worse, I clear my throat and say “Fine. You go get the car.  And I’ll meet you inside.” Unable to ignore the startling coolness of his cheek when I lean in to kiss it.

Genre: Teenage Paranormal Romance
Ages: 13 and up 

Number of Pages: 284
Published: 2009 by St. Martin’s Press 

Summary: Drina was finally killed, Ever became immortal, and now she and her soul mate, Damen, have forever to spend with each other. Or so Ever thinks, until a new guy shows up at school named Roman, where it seems like he has everyone under his spell. Once Roman makes his appearance, Damen also starts to fall ill, and for some reason starts to hate Ever.  When a once every 3-5 year opportunity comes along where Ever can go back in time and save her family, Ever realizes she has to take it and save her family from the car accident that wasn’t supposed to happen that took their lives, in order to save Damen.  Ever realizes however, she might be too late to save Damen and her family anyway.

Review: If you guys have read my review of the first book in the series, Evermore, you’ll know that I definitely wasn’t a fan of it.  I also predicted that I wouldn’t be a fan of Blue Moon. I was right.  This book was only a little bit of a step up from the trainwreck that was Evermore. 

In this book, the plot was a complete disaster.  I found it confusing, boring, and rushed.  I wasn’t captivated by it at all, there was barely any suspense in it, and I had little to no incentive to keep reading it.  It’s mostly about how Ever is trying to save Damen from this new guy Roman who just randomly shows up, which I thought was not explained very well.  Even at the end when you have his big monologue which explains his so brilliant-evil plan, it seemed very confusing, and just slapped together. You really don’t see much of Damen in this book, even in the scenes where he is really sick, he doesn’t say much at all.

There is a lot of backstory in this book, especially through the many visits Ever has to Summerland.  However, the backstory explains the things that I actually didn’t think much about.  There were also some obvious holes in Ever’s plan to save Damen, which wasn’t a very good plan after all, and you knew something was going to go wrong, which actually made it quite frustrating for the reader. The plot of this book was just extremely flat (there it is: The Plateau Effect) and focused on only one thing: saving Damen.  It lacked the intriguing mystery in Evermore.  

The only reason that this plot got the same rating as Evermore was because there was less of the Damen-Ever romance that I didn’t really like in the first place.  If you liked that romance, basically the plot should be a 2 or 3/10, because there really was none.  You also get to find more about Ever’s past life and what her character was like in the past before the accident, which I found to be the most interesting part of the whole book.  Luckily, what might have been the worst plot-line I’ve ever seen in a book was saved by an ending that actually kept me somewhat on the edge of my seat. 

Ever bugged me a little less in this book, and so did Damen.  First of all, it was nice to see Damen in a weak setting where Ever is actually the strong one, I could finally look back and see Damen as somewhat of a relatable person…you know, minus the immortality and that stuff.  Ever didn’t even really let herself go when Damen was sick and didn’t pay much attention to her anymore.  I felt that she was a lot stronger in this book than in Evermore, and she didn’t freak out about every little thing.

One thing that still bugs me about Ever is how she treats Sabine.  Ever will always say how guilty she is for how she treats Sabine, but she never really seems to do anything about it.  For example, Sabine gets on Ever in this book because she doesn’t really eat.  I thought immortals could eat, they just didn’t have to.  That part confused me.  Haven and Miles weren’t in this book very much! I was disappointed.  I like those two characters, they sort of add normality to the book.

SPOILER ALERT!

There’s only one thing that really got to me as far as the characters go.  Was Ava REALLY a traitor?  That didn’t make sense to me.  She was so genuine!  Was Roman just lying to Ever or is Ava really that bad of a person? If any of you followers can explain that to me, that would be very much appreciated.

UNSPOILER ALERT!

The originality of this book was just okay.  I mean, not a whole lot of teen paranormal romance novels are original.  Noel’s writing isn’t too bad, I can follow what little plot there is in this book well enough.  Her description is really good too, and I admire authors who can describe things well.

Overall: If you’ve read Evermore and are expecting something even better and so amazing that you’ll have to stay up all night reading this book, you are going to be sadly disappointed.

Coming up Next: Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen and Legend by Marie Lu

Someone Like You Review

Book Review #9: Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen

Overall Rating: 8.1/10

Plot: 8/10

Characters: 8.5/10

Writing: 9/10

Originality: 7/10

Sample Passage: The dam was groaning, opening, as I twisted in Macon’s arms, suddenly terrified, all the noise and light and the world so far below us.  ”Macon,” I said, trying to pull away, back toward the path.  ”I should-” But then he pulled me back in, kissing me hard, his hands smoothing my hair, and I closed my eyes to the light, the noise, the water so far below, and I felt it for the first time.  That exhilaration, the whooshing feeling of being on the edge and holding, the world spinning madly around me.  And I kissed him back hard, letting loose that girl from the early summer and the Grand Canyon. At that moment, suspended as free-falling, I could feel her leaving me.

Genre: Teenage Realistic Fiction
Ages: 14 and up 

Number of Pages: 281 | Hardcover Edition
Published: in 1998 by Viking, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc.

Summary: Ever since one hot, summer day, Halley has always had her best friend Scarlett to help her with her problems and look out for her, even while Scarlett was in a serious relationship with her first love, Michael. But Scarlett now needs Halley more than ever when Michael dies, and Scarlett finds out she’s carrying his baby.  Unfortunately, Halley has problems of her own, when she has a bad boy for a boyfriend and a famous teen psychologist for a mother.  Things are anything but perfect in Halley and Scarlett’s life, and with a baby on the way, things are about to get even crazier.

Review: Almost all of Sarah Dessen’s books are the same.  There’s a bad relationship between the main character and her parents, there’s some sort of a romance, the main character has always had to be strong for someone else, and everything turns out perfectly at the end, with a major cheesy realization for more than one of the main characters.  Since this was one of Dessen’s first novel. fortunately I found it a little more original than the others, even though it had the same plot idea.

Unlike some of Dessen’s other books that start with a flashback, this book starts right in on the action, which ended up being a good and bad thing. A good thing because it keeps you interested, and a bad thing because some things that might have had significance if you knew the characters better were instead just minor details that you could skim right by. At the beginning ofSomeone Like You, Scarlett’s boyfriend Michael dies, and right away you introduce what are supposed to be the two main relationships in the book: the relationship between Scarlett and Halley, and the relationship between Halley and her mom.  

One thing that I did not like about this book was Scarlett and Halley’s relationship.  I want to know more about their past.  Generally one of Dessen’s strong points is building fantastic relationships between characters, sometimes even being too detailed, but this time I just felt like Dessen explained how they met, and that’s about it. I wanted to know more about Scarlett, and why she is how she is. 

The mother-daughter relationships in Dessen’s books are very interesting, but often repetitive. Someone Like You contained the example of the controlling mother who wants her daughter to do exactly what she thinks is the right thing to do.  Finally, you have Halley and Mason’s (her boyfriend) relationship, which I hated.  You could tell that Mason just wasn’t a good person. He was at first, but then he tried to get Halley to go out in the night with him even after she was grounded. And then he pressured her to go beyond her comfort zone.    Most of the guys in Dessen’s books are very quirky, unusual, but nice; this guy was just a jerk. 

I also wasn’t a fan of the main character, Halley.  Sometimes throughout the book I felt a need to enter that world and shake her, because I’m tired of these sappy romance novels with extremely weak female characters who will risk it all for a guy.  Thankfully, Scarlett was a very strong female character, so she balanced it out a little bit. I could analyze this book all day, but I just wanted to give you guys some background on the characters.

The plot is intriguing, I find it interesting to read books on teen pregnancies, because each character is different in books, with the way they handle it and so forth. Also you wonder what’s going to happen with Halley and Mason.  It still kind of had the famous Plateau Effect, where there might have been one major hill or a bunch of little ones, but the rest had about as much interest as a wheat field in Kansas. A.K.A: Not that much. The ending was a little abrupt as well. I wanted to know more about what happened! I was pretty disappointed with that ending.

As far as originality goes, this book was pretty much your typical teen drama novel, and, if you know Dessen and her type of writing, your typical Sarah Dessen novel. I found this one to be a little more original than most, because the main character wasn’t the one with the biggest problem.  It was a side character. It’s just too bad that Dessen didn’t focus on that a little bit more. Dessen is always very good with her description in her writing. I always find her way of explaining how people feel so elegant.  I love the way she writes.

Overall: I often complain about Sarah Dessen’s books and their lack of originality, but if you like these types of books than this is one of the better ones, one of the ones worth reading.  And for those of you who like strong female characters and books with a lot of action, make room on your bookshelf (which we ALL need) and get another book instead.

Coming up Next: Blue Moon by Alyson Noel

Looking for Alaska Review

Book Review #8: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Overall Rating: 8.8/10

Plot: 7.5/10

Characters: 8.5/10

Writing: 9.5/10

Originality: 10/10

Sample Passage: Just like that.  From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase.  But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating.  So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane.

Genre: Teenager Realistic Fiction
Ages: 16 and up

Number of Pages: 221 | Hardcover Edition
Published: By Dutton Books, a member of the Penguin Group, in 2005

Summary: Miles is an average teenager with an average life that is definitely not to his liking. When he leaves for boarding school, it’s for a purpose: to seek what poet Francois Rabelais said he would seek in his famous last words: “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”  But does the Great Perhaps really involve the pranks, booze, sex, and cigarettes Miles’ new friends introduce him to? With Alaska, the Colonel, and others’ help, Miles might just find the meaning of life, the Great Perhaps, that he is looking for. 

Review: When I picked up this book, it really didn’t look appealing at all. I mean, who wants to read a book about teenagers acting stupid? The only reason I really started to read it in the first place was, yes, because it was written by John Green, the author of the fantastic book The Fault In Our Stars. And because that book was SO fantastic, I had extremely high expectations going into this book. 

Unfortunately, my expectations were not quite met.  Although I have to give John Green a break, this was his first novel.  I just didn’t have the WOW factor like I did with the Fault In Our Stars. And even if I hadn’t read his newest, fantastic novel, I most likely would have still been disappointed by this book.

This plot sort of had the plateau effect, where there aren’t many peaks, just one flat surface.  The only peak was in the transition between the “before” and “after” sections, which is how this book is split up, sort of into two parts: before and after.  For those of you who have read the book, you’ll know that this was a MAJOR peak, the saddest part of the whole story.  And it did make me want to cry a little.

Another good point about the Major Peak was, to be honest, I did not see it coming.  Really after you’ve read it and you know what it is, you think “why didn’t I see that coming?”  But it was a nice little bump in what was otherwise a very plain conflict.  To some, maybe the plot was a fantastic representation of this Great Perhaps that Miles is seeking throughout the whole book, but to me, the plot was drinking, cigarettes, sex, cigarettes, drinking, sex, pranks, over and over again. And it just got kind of old.

I do like the characters though, particularly the sarcasm in their voices and their blunt sense of humor and their outtake on life. The only character that bugged me a lot was Alaska, the main girl character in the story.  For some reason she just bugged me, because she was sort of cheating on her boyfriend, but just as Miles was ready to take it to the next level with her, she would stop and say “It’s too bad I love my boyfriend” or something like that. I feel like in the end she cheated Miles, and I felt bad for him. She also seemed to think that she was the world, and when her story was finally told I found it very hard to feel sympathetic toward her.

One fantastic aspect that was in The Fault In Our Stars is also in Looking for Alaska: the writing. I have always admired John Green’s vocabulary, and how he can make teenagers seem really smart, even if their not doing very smart things.  So in this book, the writing was mostly flawless, except for a couple of things that he improved on in The Fault in Our Stars that were mistakes in this book.  Originality was up to par, I’ve never really read anything like this book.

Overall, maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on this novel. But if you were someone who read The Fault In Our Stars and are completely obsessed with that book, then you might be a little disappointed by Looking For Alaska. Without any sort of comparison, however, it can be a mostly enjoyable read.

Coming up Next: Blue Moon by Alyson Noel and Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen

The Scorch Trials Review

Book Review #7: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner(Sequel to The Maze Runner)

Overall Rating: 9.6/10

Plot: 9/10

Characters: 9.7/10

Writing: 9.8/10

Originality: 10/10

SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE MAZE RUNNER, YOU SHOULDN’T READ THIS BECAUSE YOU WILL BE RUINING A FANTASTIC SERIES FOR YOURSELF.  AND IF YOU LIKE RUINING THINGS FOR YOURSELF, THEN YOU PROBABLY NEED SOME HELP.  CHECK IN WITH YOUR LOCAL PSYCHOLOGIST.  IMMEDIATELY.

Sample Passage: Thomas was just about to say something stupid when he stopped dead in his tracks.  Somebody almost ran into him from behind, tripped around to his side, but he couldn’t tell who—his eyes were glued in front of him, his heart completely frozen.  Thy sky had lightened considerably, and the leading edge of the mountains’ slope lay just a few hundred feet away.  Halfway between here and there, a girl had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, rising from the ground.  And she was walking toward them at a brisk pace.  In her hands she held a long shaft of wood with a large, nasty-looking blade lashed to one end.  It was Teresa.

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
*New Feature!* Ages: 13 and up 

Number of Pages: 360 | Paperback Edition
Published: 2010 by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books

Summary: Thomas and the other Gladers may have solved the mystery of the Maze, but WICKED has many more things in store for them.  Just when the Gladers think their safe, Teresa gets taken away and is replaced by a boy named Aris, who claims he came from a group of girls who he helped escape the Maze.  Things get even stranger when a man shows up telling the Gladers and Aris that they are all carriers of the Flare, a terrible disease that destroys your brain slowly, and the only cure is hundreds of miles away in a desert called the Scorch, where the sun is so hot that it can burn a person up when it’s highest in the sky.  They have to cross the deadly Scorch in two weeks to get the cure, or they will die a slow, painful death from the Flare. There are many questions on the Glader’s mind, but the biggest one is: how many of them will die in the Scorch Trials, and how many will live and get the cure to save their life?

Review:  Most sequels to books, especially if the book is fantastic, can be a complete let-down.  When I read the Scorch Trials, I was very relieved that it did not disappoint me in the slightest, though it definitely was not up to par with the Maze Runner. 

In The Maze Runner, the plot was very simple.  The only goal was for the Gladers to escape the Maze.  The plot gets a lot more complex in this book even though there is still only one single prominent goal: to cross the Scorch. You also have Thomas’s memories, which come back to him randomly in his dreams on some nights.  You also have Teresa, who goes missing at the beginning.  And then you have every single one of the Variables that WICKED throws at the Gladers and the others.  When you combine all these factors together, that’s a lot, and sometimes you see authors struggle trying to make sure that every aspect of the plot they have created is well-explained without making it too boring.  Writing is all about balance. And Dashner can totally pull it off.

So that’s not even why I took off a whole point for the plot.  Dashner’s balance with all of it was border-line perfect!  I took a point off because there was so much action that it became hard to create the heart-pounding suspense you got in the Maze Runner, for instance when Chuck was killed.  Even though that was very sudden, it definitely made my heart pound, and it was a major shock!  But since there is SO much action and SO much suspense that is supposed to be there, I found myself not being as surprised, if that makes any sense. 

Also, there was a little less of the dry humor you get in the Maze Runner with Minho and Newt.  And I thought there was a little less character development with the characters in the book.  You have a couple of new characters in the book, and the rest is pretty much Teresa and Thomas, obviously. This disappointed me a little because I LOVE Minho and Newt, and I totally wanted to know more about them!  But hey, no book can be completely perfect.

There were a lot of good points.  Action, first of all. I found it a little overwhelming but it still kept me interested in the story.  Also you know a lot about what Thomas is feeling! I love how some authors can do that, even though the book isn’t in first person.  It’s sort of like with J.K. Rowling’s work, sometimes you forget that you’re not reading any “I feel,” or “I felt,” you’re only reading it from the unknown narrator’s perspective.  I love it when a book does that.

The originality for this book is fantastic.  All of the things that happen to the characters and everything, it’s so fresh and new. I’ve never heard anything like it before! Like in the Maze Runner, the main character being a boy like Thomas instead of someone like Katniss in the Hunger Games still continues to be very refreshing.  It’s nice how guy main characters don’t let their feelings overwhelm them like girl main characters sometimes do. (Not all the time, just sometimes.)  It’s like guy characters just get what needs to be done done. And girls do that too, it’s just harder to find in young adult writing today.

Overall, this was a fantastic sequel. It was not as good as The Maze Runner, but it still kept me intrigued the whole way through. I am so excited to read the final book in this trilogy, the Death Cure.  If you’re a person who has read the Maze Runner, but not the sequel, then you should continue with the series. I promise it will be worth your time. And I keep promises. So go read it. Now. Seriously. Go.

Coming Up Next: Looking for Alaska by John Green and Blue Moon by Alyson Noel.