Review: The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is both shocking and super powerful and tragically all too relevant today.

The story follows Starr through a really rough time in her life after she is witness to an officer shooting and killing her unarmed young black male friend. The story shows that Starr has already witnessed a lot of death in her life after having her other best friend shot down in a drive-by shooting when she was only 10. The book looks at racism and prejudice and the issues faced with being in an interracial relationship and what life is like living in a poor community where drugs and gangs and violence are sadly all too common.

The book doesn’t show Starr’s family as being perfect they have their own bias and history and there are many times in the story that you can completely disagree with how they are dealing with certain situations. Especially Starr’s treatment of her boyfriend for example.

The characters are so real and raw and relatable though that you care about them and you want their lives to be better. You want the community to band together and succeed. You want them to stand up to the gangs and you want them to speak out and get justice for Khalil. It’s an emotional journey but definitely worth the read. Brilliant story, couldn’t put it down.

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Review: The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book did a great job of shining a light of a truly horrific story. What the Radium company put it's workers through, especially when they realized what working with the radium was doing them was an absolute disgrace. They have the blood of so many innocent women on their hands and for what some extra profit it's disgusting.

This book had me in tears. The strength and the courage showed by these women who stood strong when not only was the company killing them but the legal system basically letting it happen. That's the sign of some tough women right there. How they handled being given a death sentence and still tried to make it better for future women is strength at it's finest.

A brilliant book and a truly amazing story.


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Review: You

You by Caroline Kepnes
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book so much. It is terrifying how easy stalking someone is in this day and age with everyone posting their entire lives online. It was definitely very eye-opening. The way it was written from the stalkers POV was perfection it made it so much more dark and sinister. I read this book so quickly I literally couldn't put it down. A brilliant read for anyone that loves a good psychological thriller.

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Review: Adulthood Is a Myth

Adulthood Is a Myth by Sarah Andersen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book I spent most of my time taking pictures and sending it to my friends with comments like "oh my god this is so me!"Sarah got me and was hilarious in a very not offensive way. I loved the bit about the true horror when someone calls instead of doing the decent thing and putting it into a text or email instead. Surely everyone can relate to this? A brilliant read for everyone in their 20's or anyone trying and failing to adult.

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Review: The Enormous Crocodile

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Cute, very short little story. Teaches that eating children will mostly be frowned upon by everyone you tell your plans too. Also, an important message to villains, don't tell people your evil plans before you do them.

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Review: The Magic Finger

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An important lesson about the dangers of hunting for fun and not food. You never know when someone might turn you into a duck. Short clever and brilliantly weird. Not the best read for kids that you don't want to be turned in to vegetarians though.

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Review: The Little Prince

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pretty meaningful in a teaching what really matters in life kind of way. Very French in its whimsical very artsy style. Not for me.

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Review: A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Such a quick read I finished it in an afternoon. It was truly emotional and heartwarming at the same time. It follows the lives of two women who eventually become friends against great odds when they have the same abusive husband and the same horrible lives for the most part in Afghanistan. It is definitely a story of sisterhood and women standing together against extreme oppression and yes I cried like a baby. A great read for anyone.

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Review: Red Queen

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’m still not really sure what I thought of this book to be honest. I just felt like I had read this story so many times before.
Mare the main character isn’t exactly likeable she is just so miserable. I mean I get it the world she lives in sort of ‘Hunger Games’ level sucks but dude even being made in to a princess doesn’t stop the angst for like a day. The romance here was just unrealistic since it was quite obvious that Mare hates and doesn’t trust anyone. I don’t know if I want to read the sequels to this might give it a go in the hopes it gets better.


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Review: Reached

Reached by Ally Condie
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Matched was definitely the best book of this series. The second one I really didn't think much of but this one was at least better than that. It did tie up the story nicely in a kind of predictable but what we all thought would happen anyway kind of way.

I think the fight between the rising and society could have been done better. It seemed like the book missed out on a lot of what should have been an epic war between the two.

I did enjoy the whole plague part and the different POV's of Ky, Cassia and Xander. I kind of thought Cassia and Xander were better suited, to be honest. Also thought the whole pilot thing turned out kind of pointless.

I mean a decent read to finish off the series but I just thought it could have been better basically.

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Review: The Crossover

The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not normally a book I would read as I have literally no interest in sport but for the reading challenge i was doing a sports book was required. That being said I really enjoyed this book. It was a quick read and the poetry was clever and witty and told a great story that had me totally crying through the sad parts with his dad. Definitely worth a read for someone that likes poetry, has an interest in sport or just likes a good family story.

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Review: Carve the Mark

Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I will start by saying I loved the Divergent series so assumed I would love this. A pretty good read but not super memorable book to me.

I think the problem this book faced was too much world building. The reader basically gets thrown into 100 pages of this fictional world description, which makes the book much too slow, and it was too much for me and left me mostly confused for a good portion of the book.

I wish they had introduced us slowly into the world. The story was a pretty good one when it finally all started to come together with lots of twists and turns. One thing I did enjoy about the story was Cyra the female lead wasn’t completely good and honorable. She had killed people, whether willingly or not she put her survival above others which is unusual for this type of book where the female lead is always some selfless heroine. I enjoyed the romance and I liked the unique situation that brought them both together.

Still, I’m excited to read the sequel to this so it was pretty good.


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Review: Fallen

Fallen by Lauren Kate
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book. There is no denying it's very similar to Twilight. Girl meets two hot guys who fight over her straight away. The difference being this one grows wings instead of gets all sparkly. That being said though I loved the idea of always falling in love with the same person throughout all your lifetimes and the tragedy of having that torn away every time. Honestly, the basic plot is why I'm so interested to read book two.

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Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book so much I honestly never wanted it to end and was kind of devastated there wasn’t a sequel. There is literally no slow and dull parts in this book, every page seems to have its own story which is impressive for a book that’s as long as this one. I loved the stories of the old gods and the original coming to America stories. Some parts are very strange like the swallowing up of a person during sex or the agreeing to let a stranger cave in your head over a game of checkers but it all added to this brilliant dreamlike quality that the whole book had. I loved all the characters from Mad Sweeney and Wednesday and I really loved Shadow’s relationship with his dead wife. Which actually is as strange as it sounds. Five stars and definitely one of my favorite books ever.

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Review: The Mist

The Mist by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have never read a Stephen King before and honestly, I had super high expectations and well this book didn't meet them. Firstly I wonder if this is just me but I spent the whole book drowning in too much description. Also, I've gotta say I thought the affair bit was silly. Sure the world is coming to an end my wife probably already got eaten and my kid and I might get eaten by a giant octopus or pterodactyl any minute now but sure I'm looking for someone to cheat on my newly (Probably) deceased wife with. Seemed pretty out of place to me. I also really hate an ending that isn't really an ending and wraps up nothing but that's what we have here.

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Review: How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You

How to Tell If Your Cat Is Plotting to Kill You by Matthew Inman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. I think all cat owners can relate to questions like how and why is my cat trying to kill me. It was silly but funny all the same with some laugh out loud moments that I could relate too a little bit too well with my own little fur babies. I loved the days in the life of office working cats. In general a quick and funny read for all pet owners.

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