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: 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.

Updated: The Infernal Devices Series

Oh my god. I was wrong about these books. They really got to me in the end. I have now finished the whole series, having read the last book- Clockwork Princess. I was just a mess in the end. Don't get me wrong, the same things that I previously stated about (the rhythm of the book being off) still apply. The whole resolution of the plot was a total deus ex machina. These books are flawed. But nonetheless, the last book was so amazing. The ending was just heart-breakingly beautiful. There was just so much love and it was beautifully written. Sure, sometimes, there was a bit too much love (everyone found there one true soul mate). Still, even that was satisfying, I don't mind everyone having a happy ending. I generally hate reading about love triangles, they irritate me so much. This one was (to some extent) perfectly resolved. 

At this point, I think the whole series could be worth a read even just for Will and Jem, and the last few chapters of the Clockwork Princess. But those aren't the only good things in the series, there are plenty more. Because of those, I ended up loving these books, and would recommend them.

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. 

Review: The Maze Runner series by James Dashner

There's a lot of hype around these series and it's recommended to everyone who loves a good YA dystopian novel, which I totally do. So, I decided to give this one a try and I didn't quite like it.

In the first book, The Maze Runner, a boy named Thomas wakes up in this strange place, remembering only his name and nothing else. He is surrounded by a lot of boys who are in the same situation as him. They don't remember anything at all, except their names. They are located in the central part of a maze, which everyone calls the Glade. The maze outside is ever changing and the boys are trying to map it out so they can find a way out. They are organised by the type of job they do and the ones that go out in the maze to find a way out are called the Runners. But, there is a great danger lurking outside of the maze, hence the runners (because they have to run in order to avoid being caught). Also, right after Thomas appears in the lift of the Glade, a girl comes. The first girl ever. And she delivers this scary and weird message to the boys and they start to work together on getting out.

When I read the plot summary, I thought it was fascinating. And it was. But that is the only thing that's good about the book. I don't really like the style of writing in this book. There was zero characterization. I couldn't relate to Thomas at any point in the book. You can read that he is sad, or scared or confused, but you don't feel it. I thought that the secondary characters were a lot more interesting, like Minho, who is a fellow runner, or Newt who is kind of the leader of the group, but they were pushed aside as secondary characters even though they had a lot of potential. The female lead, Teresa, was awful. She is described as this smart and pretty girl, but you don't really see that, which is annoying, so she kind of becomes this stereotypical female character that hasn't got anything special about her. None of the characters are developed. 

The plot was interesting enough, and even when I didn't like the first one (which I found the best out of the three), it ended on such a cliff-hanger that I had to read the next one. 

The second one, The Scorch Trials, was really strange and jumbled and nothing really happened. There were a lot of new, confusing elements which were supposed to begin to explain the plot, but they were kind of bleak and didn't really tell anything new. I liked this one less than the first, but now I was deep into the story and again it ended on a cliff-hanger so I had to pick up the last one too.

The last one, The Death Cure, was just plain disappointing and annoying. I didn't get any satisfactory conclusion or explanation to the whole story. I don't even think there was one. Nothing was quite thoroughly explained. The ending was a total cliche, starting a new, better life and all. I was quite angry with it. I kept reading in order to get some kind of closure on the plot, but I was left empty handed.

All in all, I don't get the hype around it. It was enjoyable enough, but it can it even get close to the other YA dystopian novels that I read. The plot was intriguing, but don't expect the ending to be this huge revelation, because it's not. I wouldn't say that you can definitely skip this book, but I also don't think that you will be missing out on anything. Nevertheless, there is a movie coming out that is based on these books, so I am looking forward to seeing how well executed it is.