More Than This by Patrick Ness

This is my first encounter with one of Patrick Ness' books and I really enjoyed it, hence I will be picking up The Knife of Never Letting Go next. 

This book is about a boy, who actually drowns and dies. But, he wakes up in a house in which he lived in as a child in England (which is strange, because he lived in America now), kind of battered and bruised, but somehow alive. 

That is basically all you need to know about it, and all I knew going into it. And I think that is the best way to read this book, and just let it unfold on itself, which will be surprising and unexpected. 

I really liked this book. It was more than it seemed to be at first. To me, it felt almost layered. As the book went one, it got deeper and deeper, uncovering more and more of its so-called layers. This seems as though it's one thing, but then kind of changes and reveals something unexpected. Throughout the story, you never know what is real and what is actually going on. You are left guessing and kind of choosing for yourself, because there are different options, so to speak.  I really liked that, I generally enjoy that kind of setting. This book was very thought provoking and when I finished it, I ended up thinking about it for days. It kind of lingered with me. 

With all that being said, it took me ages to finish this book. I can't even remember when I started it. I just took me a lot of time to get into it, and when I finally did I found it a bit slow. For me, this meant that at times, I felt completely detached from it. So that kind of ruined the experience for me and I even thought of putting down. I ended up sticking through it, because I did in fact like it, but it just took a lot of effort to finish it. 

Anyways, this was all in all, a really good book, and I gave it 4/5 stars on Goodreads. Definitely recommend this one if you like slow, thought-provoking books.

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

This book was really, really good. So glad I ended picking it up and I was so excited when I started reading it. It didn't disappoint!
So the jist of the book: Amy's dad had recently died and she has been having quite a rough time. To top it all off, her mother decides that it's time for them to move across the country. Amy is supposed to drive their car from California to Connecticut. But since her father's accident, Amy doesn't really drive anymore. So her mother arranges for Roger, an old childhood friend of Amy's, to drive her there and she plans out the whole trip to them. But it turns out that that trip is kind of boring, so Amy and Roger decide to take the more "scenic" route and end up taking quite a detour.
I really thought this book was great. It felt authentic and real. Amy's voice and narration were quite consistent throughout the book. Her and Roger's relationship seemed quite genuine. At first they were quite awkward around each other, and they didn't know what to talk about, but as the trip went on. they got used to each other and were kind of able to read each other's body language, even though they didn't necessarily talk too much. It was gradual, and so it felt real and honest.
They were both quite likable characters and I thought the whole character building, like learning about them, was really nicely written.
Now, what sets this book apart, for me at least, is that there are pictures and receipts and doodles all over this book. Amy's mother gets her a sort of travel scrapbook, so we have excerpts from in the book. This added so much to the story. I've always loved roadtrips, even just the idea of them excites me. So seeing pictures from their stops, or receipts from diners really made me get into the story and be there. There were also playlists that they made for the trip, and each one was named differently, according to what they were experiencing at that moment. And the music was actually good and when you listen to it, you kind of get the mood of each one which then correlates to the specific part of the book. And to me that was amazing and it was what ultimately made me love this book.
I also felt like Amy and Roger's relationship wasn't blown out of proportions. It started out awkwardly and slowly they got used to each other and became friends. And even though they liked each other, like romantically, it wasn't made to be this huge epic love story. It felt possible and real, not like they were instant lovers. I really liked the way it ended. They kind of said "Okay, yes, we like each other, we like how things are, but we don't necessarily know where we're headed".  And that was great because that's how it is in life. You meet someone and you like them and you see where it's going in time. And also, we got a receipt from a diner which is dated to after the ending, so we know that they end up together. So I really appreciated not having that huge, epic love story after just five days they spent together.
All in all, this is the perfect feel good book. It's a sparkly, fluffy, warm and fuzzy read. But it's not just that. It made me really want to go on a roadtrip. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads  and if you're looking for a quick read that's gonna make you feel good, this book is perfect for it.

*There's a playlist I found on 8tracks which has some of the songs from the book, and it's really good so I thought I'd put it in:
http://8tracks.com/padfootandprongs/amy-roger-s-epic-detour-1

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: 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 Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco

Firstly, I will point out that I did not finish this book. But I will also point out that I really, really wanted to, but just couldn't. 

So, the one (and only) book I was going to read from Eco was The Name of the Rose. But as it happens, someone recommended this book and said it was really good and "psychological" so I figured I should give it a go. It started out quite good actually. It tells the story of a sixty year old man, who wakes up one day and can't remember anything about his own life. He remembers all automatic processes that his mind knew before, like how to drive a bicycle, but he has no recollection of his family and friends. He also remembers books and poems he read. At the beginning, he often uses quotes from literary works to describe something he can't really remember. 

Anyway, it seemed really interesting at first. But then he goes to the house where he grew up, to see if that surrounding will trigger his memory. And at this book just becomes plain, flat-out boring. It starts going into tiny tinsy detail in describing books, movies, magazines, comic books, even freakin' radio shows. I went through more than a third of the book, in hopes that something will get better, but it didn't and I just couldn't go through it any more, it was just so dull. 

And the worst thing is, it wasn't written badly. It was really nice in that department. But it just wasn't planned and thought out well, in my opinion. And I couldn't finish it, and that is saying something, because I went through some pretty bad books. 

In the end, I didn't finish it, so I might be wrong about this book, but I don't think it gets better. I flipped through it and there were more and more pictures of popular publications from the 30's and 40's which means that it goes in even more details.

I am sure that in between all that, there are slivers of the main characters life, different events of his life and I am sorry I won't get to that. But for me, it just isn't worth it.

Review: The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

With all the hype around this book, I finally picked it up and read it. I actually got the audiobook version, which I really didn't like, and I don't think I'll be listening to another book anytime soon, because it's just weird for me. Anyway, I didn't like this book. I know that a lot of people did, but to me, it's just so overrated. It was so stereotypical. You have this golden boy, Ezra Faulkner, whose athletic future gets destroyed in a car accident. After that, all of a sudden, he starts questioning his life and his friends and sees the error of his ways and realizes how meaningless it all was. He finds that his jock group of friends and his popular girlfriend don't really care for him and how they are leading such profoundly pointless lives. Obviously, in light of this devastating realization, he joins the so called "nerd" group, and sees how they are all awesome people and friends. And of course, add a new, mysterious, quirky, beautiful girl and there you have it, a perfect YA story.

I expected more from this story, really. I found that I only liked the ending, which was realistic enough, but I also found that it was to show how things aren't always perfect in life, which I find a given.
Also, this book seemed to be trying too hard at times. For example, Cassidy quoting Foucault, talking about escaping the Panopticon, and how she had this secret, a tragedy that explained all of that, that damaged side of her. Like she needed a reason to think about such profound things, and like she needed a reason to be moody and just feel down sometimes.
I thought this book was going to be better when it started, and not fall under such stereotypical categories, but in the end, it did, and I just didn't liked it, even though I really wanted to. 

Review: The Staff of Serapis by Rick Riordan

There are two things I want to point out. The first one is that I am a huge fan of Riordan's books, I adore both series about Percy Jackson and I also really liked the Kane chronicles. When I first read the Percy Jackson series, I was blown away with it, because I found it to be different than anything I read before and also really funny and quite interesting. But, with all that, the second thing is that I did not like The Staff of Serapis. I wanted to like it, but I just didn't.

This is a short story in which Annabeth Chase and Sadie Kane meet, so it's a crossover between the Percy Jackson series and the Kane Chronicles. Now, I am not saying this is terrible, but I just didn't do anything to me. I read it quickly, because it was a short story, but I wasn't the least bit intrigued with it. It kind of seemed that the only reason it was written was to please fans who were crazy about a crossover happening, so the whole thing didn't really seem thought through. 

I liked the idea of a crossover, but it all seem a bit strained, like the two girls bonding instantly, and becoming fast friends. It just didn't feel very natural. And the whole story behind it, the god of Alexandria, Serapis, awakening and trying to reclaim his position as the ultimate deity was boring to me.

I wasn't even sure if I should write anything about this, since it's a short story, but I was kind of disappointed in it, and wanted to share that. I found that a lot of people did like it, but to me is just wasn't good and it was really a letdown. 

Review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This was once again a book recommended on Goodreads. I did hear great things about it even before that, so I picked it up to see what it was like. It did not disappoint.

I really, really loved it. First of all, this is not an easy, happy book. It's not something that you can breeze through, without really thinking about it and it's not a book that you can relax to. I mean, that goes even without saying because it is about World War II. Still, it's an amazing book. It's about a girl called Leisel Meminger, who is traveling with her mother and brother to a foster home when her brother dies. That's the moment she steals her first book. After that, she arrives at Himmel Street, where she meets her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. As Leisel learns how to live with them, and as she starts to learn to read and starts loving books, she is also slowly getting to know people on Himmel Street, amongst whom she finds her future best friend Rudy.

And after a while, her parents start hiding a Jew in their basement, Max, and he and Leisel soon become very good friends.

I should've mentioned this before, this book is narrated by Death. I thought this brought so much to the book, and really elevated it to the next level. Because, one thing that really dominated the WW II (or any war for that matter) was Death. So, who better yo translate the feeling than the Angel of Death himself? I also liked that the book wasn't consistent chronologically. It sort of jumped through time as... well, Death tried to reconstruct the life of Liesel Meminger, the Book Thief. I really enjoyed that.

I really liked the way this book was written. It was honest and the story ran smoothly. Also, the characterization was really nicely done, because there was this wide range of characters that you hated at one moment, but liked and understood at other. 

I really loved this book and would recommend it to anyone. I think that branding this book as YA doesn't make much sense because I don't think this is age specified. I think adults can read it and enjoy it, which goes for some other YA books obviously. So, in conclusion, great read and I really thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

I think I discovered this book on Goodreads, it was one of the recommended books for me. The minute I saw the title I wanted to read it. I mean, who wouldn't? It's amazing. I also read a couple of reviews and they were all brilliant and the book seemed to have gotten a lot of awards. And it was described like a "lyrical" novel. So reading it was a no-brainer. 

It totally lived up to my expectations. It was so good. I just loved how this was written. This is a story about a boy named Ari (short of Aristotle) who is this angry kid. Really, really angry. He's mad at the world and also, he's mad at himself. He is constantly trying to find himself, to understand the world and the people around him. He lives with his dad, who fought in the Vietnam war and is dealing with the ghosts of the war which never really left him. And his mom, who is dealing with the ghost of his brother, Bernardo, who was incarcerated. Ari's parents never really talk about him which (like everything) makes Ari angry. Ari is also a loner, who doesn't really have friends, until one day he goes to the pool and meets Dante. 

And right there starts this stunning and beautiful story about a friendship. 

I really liked this book. I ended up reading it in a day because I was really enjoying it. I love books like these, where nothing actually happens and everything happens at the same time. There's not any real plot here, but everything goes kind of slowly, which gives it this realistic feel and makes it relatable. I've never read anything by this author, but I thought this was so nicely
written. I have most of the book highlighted on my Kindle, because it's just so beautiful and sad and true. I really loved it and would recommend it, especially to teenagers, because I feel that it captures that loneliness, the feeling of being out of place and not knowing who you truly are really well.

All time favorites: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

 I thought I'd share another one of my absolute favorites. I read this book quite recently really, maybe just over a year ago. And I loved it since the first page. Some books you need a couple of chapters to really get into, but this one wasn't one of them. It became a favorite from the very first sentence.

I am not going to get into the plot (I never really do), but the main character is Charlie and he is a freshman. He's a shy and introspective person and kind of sits on the outskirts of life. This is a story of his coming-of-age, getting to know people, getting out of his comfort zone and trying to navigate through the new experiences of high school.

Charlie is the most honest, real and believable character ever written. He has this sort of naive innocent aura around him, but at the same time he is so intelligent and perceptive. There isn't really an intense, engaging plot here, but the book is still a page-turner. You get sucked in and you don't want to get out. I think that's the most important quality of good books, making the form more important than the content. This book touches so many different topics and it deals with all of the problems a teenager could ever face, like drugs and death, or gay friends and even sexual assault.

I just loved this book. Charlie's fears and feelings are my own. I am a huge introvert who has dabbled into the problems of social anxiety, so I can totally relate and feel for him. This book is also really funny, at times even laugh-out-loud funny, because Charlie is awkward, but also kind of cute in his awkwardness.

Huge part of this book is music. I think it really adds to the feel of the book. For me personally, music is very important and it defines a lot of points in my life, so I really appreciated how music was incorporated into the book and how important it was for the characters. It was always in the background, adding to the atmosphere. And it was all great music, great artists and songs. 

Also, every sentence in this book is so on point and nothing feels too much, it's all so well written.

This book got a lot of publicity when the movie came out, which was really good I think. Whatever makes people read this book is good enough. I think the movie was really great. I loved the actors, I think they did an amazing job. Obviously, the book is better, because some things had to be cut out of it for the movie, and for me really, there will never be a movie that is better than the book. And the movie seemed to have a more optimistic end to it, where as the book kind of left in on a melancholic note (that's the way I saw it, but some people who read the book and have seen the movie didn't agree with me).

Anyway, I think every teenager, boy or girl, should read this book. Charlie isn't this perfect character that you can look up to, but that's just the thing. No one ever is. And Charlie, even though he faced all kinds of problems, was still trying to make everything right and to make sense out of things. Which is all you can really hope for. I think this book is a MUST read.