Sunday 14 June 2015

How To Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski

Honestly... average.

I won't say that there weren't good points, there were, but out of the books I've read How To Be Bad fits into the lower (not lowest!) category of quality.

Okay so the story centres around a badly planned roadtrip undertaken by three friends; Mel, Jesse and Vicks. Jesse is the group's highly religious and level-headed thinker who is quick to jump to conclusions and can be hot-headed when she wants to be. Out of all three of them I found her the last person I could relate to and honestly she became a slight annoyance over the course of the story.

Vicks, Jesse's best friend, managed to make her snarky quips a little more bearable and her snappy humor and easygoing nature towards Mel (the outsider) makes her a likeable character. Unfortunately that's where it stops because after she breaks up with her boyfriend after two weeks of separation for no absolute rational reason AT ALL, her character also becomes a little tiresome.

Mel = the only character I could partially relate to. Aside from being rich and a middle child, Mel is the awkward duck stuck in the middle of Jesse and Vicks and she is sort of the middle ground between Vicks' badassery (new word!) and Jesse's saint-like personality. Mel actually reminded me of myself.

The story takes place over the course of a weekend and each character undergoes their own arc of sorts. Jesse reveals a secret that she had kept close to the chest, Vicks both breaks up and makes progress with her boyfriend and Mel claims the one thing she's wanted since she became the new girl: friends.

It pains me to say it but the romances were also very unrealistic, especially for a story that sets up the premise of being semi-possible. Falling in love with a hitchhiker you meet after breaking into a museum and then getting cutesy with him at a party with all his drunk friends is not only highly impossible but also could be considered VERY DANGEROUS. Like seriously, do not try that in real life.

How To Be Bad is quite a free-spirited and quaint novel but it paints a picture of dull and poorly developed characters in an unrealistic and all-too-convenient world of sexy strangers and zero felonies.

All in all not a complete waste of time, but not a ground-breaking one either. Like I said- average.

Also, footnote!

Some of my viewers have requested a rating system so I'm introducing a 5 star system for future books.

In case you're wondering, this book receives 2 out of 5 stars : )

How To Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski

Honestly... average.

I won't say that there weren't good points, there were, but out of the books I've read How To Be Bad fits into the lower (not lowest!) category of quality.

Okay so the story centres around a badly planned roadtrip undertaken by three friends; Mel, Jesse and Vicks. Jesse is the group's highly religious and level-headed thinker who is quick to jump to conclusions and can be hot-headed when she wants to be. Out of all three of them I found her the last person I could relate to and honestly she became a slight annoyance over the course of the story.

Vicks, Jesse's best friend, managed to make her snarky quips a little more bearable and her snappy humor and easygoing nature towards Mel (the outsider) makes her a likeable character. Unfortunately that's where it stops because after she breaks up with her boyfriend after two weeks of separation for no absolute rational reason AT ALL, her character also becomes a little tiresome.

Mel = the only character I could partially relate to. Aside from being rich and a middle child, Mel is the awkward duck stuck in the middle of Jesse and Vicks and she is sort of the middle ground between Vicks' badassery (new word!) and Jesse's saint-like personality. Mel actually reminded me of myself.

The story takes place over the course of a weekend and each character undergoes their own arc of sorts. Jesse reveals a secret that she had kept close to the chest, Vicks both breaks up and makes progress with her boyfriend and Mel claims the one thing she's wanted since she became the new girl: friends.

It pains me to say it but the romances were also very unrealistic, especially for a story that sets up the premise of being semi-possible. Falling in love with a hitchhiker you meet after breaking into a museum and then getting cutesy with him at a party with all his drunk friends is not only highly impossible but also could be considered VERY DANGEROUS. Like seriously, do not try that in real life.

How To Be Bad is quite a free-spirited and quaint novel but it paints a picture of dull and poorly developed characters in an unrealistic and all-too-convenient world of sexy strangers and zero felonies.

All in all not a complete waste of time, but not a ground-breaking one either. Like I said- average.

Also, footnote!

Some of my viewers have requested a rating system so I'm introducing a 5 star system for future books.

In case you're wondering, this book receives 2 out of 5 stars : )

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Being a Girl by Hayley Long

An exciting morning for this blogger today as I awoke to the delightful sound of books being delivered to my doorstep. Thanks a heap to Hot Key Books and The Five Mile Press for adding me to the reading list for their monthly books. Not only is being a book blogger a wonderful experience but it means that I get real, addressed-only-to-me, mail! It's more exciting than it sounds.

So my first book to review is Being a Girl by Hayley Long.

I read this non-fiction beauty in under an hour cover to cover. Why you ask? Because it was just so lovely! Not only is Long able to connect with her readers, teenagers, but she is able to grasp the appropriate humor and feeling that I have found is quite unique.

Being a Girl is a ten chapter non-fiction novel about, well, being a girl and the hardships of puberty. What was superb about it was that not only was it able to communicate these ideas with humor but the heavy stuff was not taken as lightly and that supplied a realistic feel to the information.

The strength of this story: it's comedy. Not often do I find myself so taken with a book that it makes me laugh out loud and this one did. Funnily enough, when the author writes that you should say something out loud to yourself, you actually do it. No matter how weird the looks are that you get from the people on the bus, or in the library, or your dog.

Long covered many serious and awkward topics from bullying to sex and I found that I could relate to her advice and reasoning. It's obvious that she has a unique understanding into the teen mind mixed with the maturity that comes from someone who has experienced the changes girls go through first-hand.

The only nit I will pick about it though was that sometimes the advice didn't seem as fitting or realistic as it could've been. For example; applying confidence to a situation does not solve it. It makes it better, sure, but it's not the key to life's problems. In that area only, the book lost some realism points.

Aside from that, Being a Girl was an effortless and energetic book that made me smile on multiple occasions. If you're a struggling teen girl out there who needs to know what the hell is happening inside her body and outside of it then this is the book for you. A worthwhile read for all girls, I guarantee.

Being a Girl by Hayley Long

An exciting morning for this blogger today as I awoke to the delightful sound of books being delivered to my doorstep. Thanks a heap to Hot Key Books and The Five Mile Press for adding me to the reading list for their monthly books. Not only is being a book blogger a wonderful experience but it means that I get real, addressed-only-to-me, mail! It's more exciting than it sounds.

So my first book to review is Being a Girl by Hayley Long.

I read this non-fiction beauty in under an hour cover to cover. Why you ask? Because it was just so lovely! Not only is Long able to connect with her readers, teenagers, but she is able to grasp the appropriate humor and feeling that I have found is quite unique.

Being a Girl is a ten chapter non-fiction novel about, well, being a girl and the hardships of puberty. What was superb about it was that not only was it able to communicate these ideas with humor but the heavy stuff was not taken as lightly and that supplied a realistic feel to the information.

The strength of this story: it's comedy. Not often do I find myself so taken with a book that it makes me laugh out loud and this one did. Funnily enough, when the author writes that you should say something out loud to yourself, you actually do it. No matter how weird the looks are that you get from the people on the bus, or in the library, or your dog.

Long covered many serious and awkward topics from bullying to sex and I found that I could relate to her advice and reasoning. It's obvious that she has a unique understanding into the teen mind mixed with the maturity that comes from someone who has experienced the changes girls go through first-hand.

The only nit I will pick about it though was that sometimes the advice didn't seem as fitting or realistic as it could've been. For example; applying confidence to a situation does not solve it. It makes it better, sure, but it's not the key to life's problems. In that area only, the book lost some realism points.

Aside from that, Being a Girl was an effortless and energetic book that made me smile on multiple occasions. If you're a struggling teen girl out there who needs to know what the hell is happening inside her body and outside of it then this is the book for you. A worthwhile read for all girls, I guarantee.

Monday 1 June 2015

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

So *stretches fingers and applies badass expression to face* let's review!

Over the weekend I had my nose stuck in this book The Impossible Knife of Memory which I was able to grab at the Reading Matters excursion in Melbourne. I was lucky enough to meet the fabulous Laurie Halse Anderson in the flesh and she was one of the nicest ladies I had ever met. From reading her book I could tell that she had put a lot of herself in it and it was a very personal experience which made it all the more enjoyable to read.

Center in on our main character, Hayley Kincain as she struggles with a highly traumatized post-war veteran father. Sounds tragic right? Throw in a love story and it starts to give you the fuzzies in the tummy.

Hayley meets adorkably sweet Finnegan Ramos, nicknamed Finn, who eventually falls for her (after being a obstinate jerk at the beginning) and she for him. After her dad threatens to sabotage the relationship with his constant requirement of being looked after, Hayley realises that there is only one thing she can do to ensure that Finn sticks around: let him in.

What I particularly liked about this book was the layers to it. Each character, no matter how small, is dealing with something major and that's what makes it an enjoyable (?) slap in the face by reality. Hayley's dad's substance and alcohol abuse remind us that even those strongest can also be affected by trauma. The book had a lovely, real feel to it and that's what made it enjoyable to read.

Finn's sarcastic and witty nature made me wish that guys were like those in books and I ended up falling in love with him every time I turned a page.

Anderson's strength is definitely in the layers of her story. The shortness of her chapters were really the strength of the chronology of the story as it tended to mix between length of time jumps which was interesting in the fact that it kept me going. At some points the story was even written from the nightmarish point of view of the father's flashbacks and that made for an extra flavour.

I also found it surprisingly easy to relate to Hayley. Her struggles with school are realistic as is her attitude towards it. I could imagine myself in her position just as easily as one might slip into a different pair of trousers.

All in all, a pleasant read. The theme behind it was heavy but the romance just made for two conflicting worlds that co-exist in a really interesting way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to all young readers.

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

So *stretches fingers and applies badass expression to face* let's review!

Over the weekend I had my nose stuck in this book The Impossible Knife of Memory which I was able to grab at the Reading Matters excursion in Melbourne. I was lucky enough to meet the fabulous Laurie Halse Anderson in the flesh and she was one of the nicest ladies I had ever met. From reading her book I could tell that she had put a lot of herself in it and it was a very personal experience which made it all the more enjoyable to read.

Center in on our main character, Hayley Kincain as she struggles with a highly traumatized post-war veteran father. Sounds tragic right? Throw in a love story and it starts to give you the fuzzies in the tummy.

Hayley meets adorkably sweet Finnegan Ramos, nicknamed Finn, who eventually falls for her (after being a obstinate jerk at the beginning) and she for him. After her dad threatens to sabotage the relationship with his constant requirement of being looked after, Hayley realises that there is only one thing she can do to ensure that Finn sticks around: let him in.

What I particularly liked about this book was the layers to it. Each character, no matter how small, is dealing with something major and that's what makes it an enjoyable (?) slap in the face by reality. Hayley's dad's substance and alcohol abuse remind us that even those strongest can also be affected by trauma. The book had a lovely, real feel to it and that's what made it enjoyable to read.

Finn's sarcastic and witty nature made me wish that guys were like those in books and I ended up falling in love with him every time I turned a page.

Anderson's strength is definitely in the layers of her story. The shortness of her chapters were really the strength of the chronology of the story as it tended to mix between length of time jumps which was interesting in the fact that it kept me going. At some points the story was even written from the nightmarish point of view of the father's flashbacks and that made for an extra flavour.

I also found it surprisingly easy to relate to Hayley. Her struggles with school are realistic as is her attitude towards it. I could imagine myself in her position just as easily as one might slip into a different pair of trousers.

All in all, a pleasant read. The theme behind it was heavy but the romance just made for two conflicting worlds that co-exist in a really interesting way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to all young readers.