Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

I have mixed feelings about this book. I saw it all over Youtube and people seemed to be loooving it. So I had high expectations for it. But as soon as I picked it up, it became pretty obvious that it's going to be another stereotypical YA novel. And somehow I was under the impression that that wasn't the case.

This book is about a girl name Anna whose father sends her from Atlanta to study abroad in Paris, in an American school. So she has to leave her life in Atlanta, her best friend and a potential boyfriend and move to Europe. There she meets a girl name Meredith who (kind of) introduces her to this boy named Étienne St. Clair. He is this gorgeous, smart boy, and Anna instantly likes him even though he has a girlfriend. 

Draaama. As I said, it's a pretty typical teenage book. I had a couple of problems with it. First of all, Anna. I know. The main character. But I hated her. She really bugged me. A lot. She is just plain... ignorant. Yup, that's the word. For example, she is this self-proclaimed film addict and expert, but she is completely stunned that there are cinemas in Paris. Um, hello, it's frickin' Paris?!

Also, she couldn't talk to the chef in the cafeteria because she can't speak French. Boohoo. I mean, it's an American school, chances are he speaks English and isn't completely IGNORANT.

The male lead, Étienne St. Clair, is completely dreamy, yes. I mean he is beautiful, smart, funny, speaks French AND has a British accent. I mean what more can you ask for? But he is so generic. Cute, but nothing that hasn't been seen before.
The whole book they obviously like each other, but they are so awkward around each other and just dance around the subject. Sometimes they said and did things and I was just like...

Another thing that I want to address is the writing style. People keep saying that they love the way she writes, but I didn't get that. It wasn't bad, far from it. I even thought it was pretty good. But there isn't anything special or ground-breaking about it. It was nice, but again, nothing that hasn't been seen before. And I hated the title. It's so... girly and bad. Makes it seem like the whole time this girl is chasing a kiss. Which she isn't really. She doesn't mind it, but that's not her whole preoccupation. Not really.
But all that aside, I gave 4 stars to this book on Goodreads. And why? Because it's just CUTE. Yes. They are stupid teenagers and they can't grasp basic things but it's still cute. And fuzzy. This is such a feel-good book. The one you can read without really thinking about it a lot, or at all for that matter. And who doesn't need that? I know I do. I want to read about a stupid girl who chases love and catches it. Because it's nice. And it makes me feel nice. It's not going to change your life. It's not going to make you think. It's not even an epic love story. But Perkins shows us how they fell in love, it's not like instant, like in most books these days. It's gradual. They actually talk and become friends and all that stuff. And once again, it's CUTE. But Anna is still quite annoying. And Étienne is adorable, even though he is every other YA book boy. But sometimes that's fine. Sometimes it's okay, because sometimes we need it. Anyways, it's a quick, easy, fluffy read, and I give it 4/5 stars and if you're into this kind of stuff you should check it out, because it's one of the better ones in that particular genre. 

***I actually started reading the next book in the companion series, Lola and the Boy Next Door, in which there are appearances by Anna and Étienne and I actually like them much more in this book. Because I don't have Anna's annoying point of view and also, there isn't any drama, they are just this cute couple. So I enjoyed that a lot more. ***

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

I picked up this book solely on the fact that there is a lot of reference to it, in books, movies and etc. 

But nonetheless, I loved it. It was really good. 

It's a story about a boy named Ponyboy (real name, not a nickname) who lives in a world where everyone is, according to him, divided into two groups- Socs (sort for Socials) and Greasers. He belongs to the latter group. Socs are rich, preppy kids, who have it easy in life, and can get a way with anything. Greasers are kids with slick, greased hair, who are kind of thug-ish, and they always have to watch their backs. Pony lives with his two brothers (their parents passed away) and spends his days with a group of his friends believing that Socs are bad, Greasers are good and that's just the way life is. Until one night, he and his friend Johnny get jumped by Socs and Johnny ends up stabbing one of them and actually killing him. From this moment on, Ponyboy starts seeing the world a little differently and learns that not everything is so black-and-white.

I really liked this book, did I say that? I think the story has an honest voice. It flows vividly and kind of... consistently, I would say. Nothing feels to much or to little, it's kind of just right. The characters were amazing, they had dimension and they were complex. And that's not such a common thing, especially in a short book like this one, where there isn't a lot of room for pulling off characterization. But it was indeed pulled off here. I thought the author did an amazing job in transferring the thoughts and feelings of these boys, who have to grow up in such harsh environment and conditions. And this is a coming-of-age story, the realization that not everything is always as it seems and that actually there is so much more to people than we see, or believe. It's a book that makes you think, I feel that that is always nice. 

I liked the whole premise of Greasers and Socs. I think these kind of things are quite often. Kids do tend to divide themselves in these sort of groups and they end up not understanding anyone outside their little bubble. I feel like that aspect is covered nicely here, and the story shows how flawed and wrong it is. 

Anyways, really great book, I would recommend it to anyone and I give it 5/5 stars.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

I've been wanting to read this book for so long, but I just couldn't get around to it, but I finally picked it up and I am so glad that I did.

This book is about a fifteen year old boy Craig who is having certain mental difficulties. He lives in New York and he got into this really important, hard, acclaimed business high school, but since the day he started it, he sort of got "bad". He started feeling really depressed and he couldn't deal with school and just general everyday life really. He spends most of his time with his friends chillin' (aka smoking pot), and just doesn't deal with life really. He stops eating, he can't sleep and just gets into this dark place. He eventually starts to think about killing himself, but instead of going through with it, he calls a suicide hotline, which refers him to a hospital. He goes there and checks himself in, and actually spends five days in a adult psychiatric ward. This is the story of him coming to turns with his problems and also about his time in the hospital. 

I really, really, REALLY loved this book. It was pretty amazing. I really liked the main character, Craig. He felt real. And I thought that it was great that he was a person who struggled with depression and other difficulties, but still managed to come off as a no-fuss guy really. And he was a smart and witty guy and just a relatable and likable character. He made a great narrator. 

I really liked the secondary characters. They were genuine, vivid and contributed so much to the story. And I really appreciated that they didn't become just a representation of their illness, there was more depth to them.

I also loved how this was written, it was strong, on point, and really showed what goes on through a person's head when they are struggling with these kinds of problems. 

The only thing that slightly annoyed me was that the first third of the book was quite slow in pace, but after that it picked up and became really amazing, so it's all good. 

This was a great read, really enjoyed it, gave it five stars on Goodreads and I would recommend it to everyone because it was amazing. 

Review: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

This is a pretty popular book. People seem to talk about it a lot. So, I decided to see if it was any good. Honestly, not so much.

Just to give a sort of a rundown, this book is about Tally Youngblood, who lives in a (future) world in which every person, upon reaching the age of sixteen, has to undergo a cosmetic procedure which makes them "pretty". So "uglies" can't wait to finally turn 16, so they can become beautiful like everybody else and join the New Pretty World where life is an endless party. All is fine and well, until Tally meets a girl named Shay, who, get this, doesn't want to have the surgery and would rather remain herself. Very controversial. Right before their "shared" birthday, Shay tells Tally she is running away to live in a secret community outside of town called the Smoke, and Tally is recruited by special forces to find the community. She is faced with the choice of either being ugly forever or betraying her friend.

I kind of formed a sort of love-hate relationship with this one. More of a like-hate relationship, but still.

On one hand, I think that the whole universe in which the story is set is quite interesting. I find it believable. People are very preoccupied with their looks, especially young ones. We tend to judge each other based solely on how someone looks, and these differences between people had had catastrophic consequences in the past. So this sort of a dystopian future felt real and believable to me. Whenever someone branded themselves or others as an "ugly" and truly believed it, I got this weird, unpleasant feeling. So I feel that that whole aspect was well written and imagined.

But, on the other hand I hated the character in these books. Detested them really.

I didn't feel for them at all. They could've been plummeting to their deaths, and I just thought meh. I couldn't care less. They had no depth to them whatsoever. They were just dull, plain and one-dimensional. I honestly can't point at one characteristic of the heroine and say "there's something that defines her" because there isn't any. At all. Except maybe her shallowness, but that's more due to the society she lives in than anything else. Her character just doesn't offer anything. For me, it was completely unrelatable. And when she met David, her "love", she really started getting on my nerves. One moment they didn't even acknowledge each other, but the next they were in love. I could've gone past it, if I just felt it, but I didn't. I was reading about their shared moments and again I was just like meh. Oh, and David? Even worse than Tally, even more plain and uninteresting. Obviously, the secondary characters are non-existent. They are there, for the sake of the story, but they don't bring anything to it. 

This book was a letdown for me, because I feel like people love it so much, and I just didn't. It was okay, but there were things (as stated above) that really irritated me. I am not even sure I want to keep reading these series. I might get back to it, when I am bored, but the first book didn't really make me want to keep reading. Which is too bad, because there were things I thought were good. 

Review: We Were Liars by E.Lockhart

I didn't expect to be writing a new post so soon, but I started reading We Were Liars and I finished it in one night. I just flew through it. I couldn't stop. It's not a long book, it has about 250 pages, but still. 

Cadence's family are the Sinclairs. They are a beautiful, distinguished, well-known and of course a rich family. They seem to be perfect. Or they are at least trying to be. Cadence Sinclair's grandfather owns a private island where the family spend their summers. So when Candence's dad leaves her and her mother, when she is fifteen, she can't wait to get to the island, where the outside world doesn't quite exist. She spends her days with her two cousins Johnny and Mirren, and Johnny's best friend Gat. They are the Liars, as they call themselves. Cadence loves it, and she even falls in love with Gat. But at the end of the summer, she goes out into the sea and has an accident, after which she has terrible headaches and has to take a lot of medication. She loses touch with her Liars and goes from doctor to doctor, trying to resolve what caused her severe head injury. Two years later, Cadence can't remember anything surrounding the accident and she can't remember most of that summer. She goes back to the island and as she reconnects with her friends, she tries to find out what happened to her.

I just loved this book so much. It was great. I found that a lot of people didn't like the style of the writing, but I honestly thought it was good, with it's short sentences.  It was sort of eerie, and sometimes gave me the chills. I feel like the writer managed to create a sort of cold atmosphere, the feeling of something bad happening, that flows through the whole book. And you want to know why. You want to see what is behind the perfect cover of the Sinclairs. I really liked the story, and I think that the ending will be so unexpected to anyone who reads it, but still I think that you can actually guess it. I know that doesn't make much sense, but I can only put it that way, without revealing and spoiling the ending.

I think that the book was really nicely conceptualized and executed. I think that it's very smart and clever and a really good book when it comes to young adult fiction. This is totally a book worth reading and I would recommend it to absolutely anyone, because it was amazing. 

Review: The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

So I'm pretty sure everyone knows by now that Robert Galbraith is actually the pseudonym of J.K.Rowling.

The Silkworm is the second installment of the Cormoran Strike series, but I don't think that you would have to read the first one (The Cuckoo's Calling) in order to read this book. Sure, you may miss some of the characterization and the development of the relationships between characters, but for the mystery itself, which is the main point of the book, The Silkworm on its own is enough.

This is a story about a private detective who is hired by a writer's wife after he goes missing. When searching for the writer Owen Quine, Strike actually finds his body and discovers that he was murdered in the exact way that the main character in his new book was.

The book itself is called The Bombyx Mori (aka Silkworm) and it's actually quite controversial, because it tells the secrets of a lot of people in Quine's publishing house. A lot of them read the manuscript, so it's up to Strike to find out who of those people is the killer.

I really liked this book. I liked the first one also, but I feel that this one is even better. I think that J.K.Rowling's experience in the publishing world really contributed to the atmosphere in this book, all the petty arguments and games that the publishers and writers have and play. I also quite liked that there were some subtle hints towards the actual end and the revelation of the killer. There were signs of some of the components to the solving to the murder, which I guessed somewhere in the middle. I really liked that because I feel that in some mystery novels you don't actually get any hints, and you're kind of in the dark the whole book until the very end, when everything resolves itself in a deus ex machina kind of way, like it resolved on its own, with the appearance of some new evidence or character.
Also, I feel that the crisp, honest writing that celebrated Rowling is still very much there and I love it. The writing doesn't drag on, but still it isn't very fast and unreadable, it's just right, totally on point.
The story is really intriguing and I just wanted to know more at all times. It was also quite eerie at times, kind of ominous, which I quite enjoyed. The characters are really likable and you can feel for them.
I really loved this book, and even though I picked the first one up just because it was J.K.Rowling, I kept reading just because it was good.  

Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

So, here we are again with another cult classic, Fahrenheit 451. I feel like everyone has read this book and I think that a lot of people loved it. I didn't.

This is a dystopian novel which follows Guy Montag, who is a fireman. But in this post-literate future, firemen don't put out fires, they start them. More specifically, they burn books. Books are not allowed as they are thought to be the source of everything bad that has ever happened. But, Guy isn't happy. He finds himself questioning his life with his wife and the whole prospect of burning books. As always, there are people who defy the law, and they hide books and try to sustain the fashion of reading. Guy slowly becomes that guy (ha) and finds himself on the run from the fire departments Mechanical Hound which hunts those who try to preserve books.

There are several reasons why I didn't like this book. Firstly, I don't share Bradbury's concerns. In his futuristic society, people are engulfed in technology (Guy's wife is a huge fan of these soap-opera thingys which are broadcasted on huge screens in their house) and they don't really care about each other and generally have short attention spans. I just don't think that technology does that to people and that it will do that. When it comes to it, I am all for moving forward. I think that the Internet and computers have made possible to connect with people more. I find that a lot of people have made lasting friendships because of it. Also, it enabled to sustain friendships in spite of distance. (This is in my own experience, since my two best friends moved away and we keep in contact thanks to the Internet). Even writing this, and some people (very few, but still) being able to read it, it's because of the Internet and technology. I feel that the whole premise of people losing touch and becoming unsociable is misplaced.

So I think that the focal point here is that technology made people unsociable and led to their short attention spans which then led to them not being able to concentrate on books. But what I found is that people choose to view that burning books is about censorship. This makes it so much more relatable to today's reader. And in that view it is. So in terms of viewing this whole book in that way, I could've surpassed the main source (i.e. technology), and still liked the book.

But we come to the second problem which was the writing. I just didn't like it. I felt that it had so many unnecessary metaphors and I just think that it was sometimes going in to such detail which didn't bring anything to the plot. Furthermore, I feel like there really wasn't a plot there. I felt that the book wasn't going anywhere and wasn't explaining anything. I felt that it kinda went in circles.

I believe, that this book is overrated. And yes, I do believe that there isn't any real plot here, but maybe this is just about the message and not so much about the writing itself. Still, I can't say that I enjoyed it. I am glad that I read, since it's considered such a classic, but I just don't think that this book is good. I know that a lot of people will disagree but for me it was almost unreadable. Almost.