Book Review: Girl of Nightmares

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book review, girl of nightmares, horror stories, kendare blake, na new adult, scary tales, stories, witchcraft books, ya novels

Girl of Nightmares

by Kendare Blake

genre: YA, horror, mystery

It follows well from the second and has a great end. Find out why I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

It’s been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can’t move on.

His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they’re right, but in Cas’s eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.

Now he’s seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he’s asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong…these aren’t just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.

Cas doesn’t know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn’t deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it’s time for him to return the favor.

Review

The book followed really well from the second novel. At the beginning I felt like the book gripped me. Some time later, even though action was happening, it was happening much slower. I felt like some relationship drama stuff wasn’t necessary and kind of felt like filler.

Even though it’s exciting to read about Anna, it doesn’t have the same power that the first book had. I really loved the intense description of the trapped but powerful girl who was a murderess in the first novel. But Anna was primarily a victim in this book. I liked that the formula wasn’t stay the same, but at the same time, I felt like that allure of Anna’s character in the first book was lost in this one. The creepiness and haunting nature of the first is also gone. The book reads more like an adventure tale with a creepy flavour.

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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abnegation, action, amity, book review, candor, dauntless, divergent, dystopian, erudite, romance, teenagers, veronica roth, ya novels

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

genre: dystopian, action, adventure, YA

A future where our world is split into five factions to stop future wars, what could possible go wrong? Find out why I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

Review

There is a lot of hype over Divergent on Goodreads and elsewhere. I listened to Divergent through an audiobook. I was very impressed with the first few chapters of this book. I felt like the story was grounded, I was able to immerse myself in this Faction-based world.

I wasn’t super in love with Beatrice but I liked her enough. As the story progresses, we see as she hardens. I liked this transformation and I thought that there were sufficiently significant events that occur to appropriately shape her personality and thoughts on the world. She learns about how dark and cruel this world can be, and she begins to internalise these features into her personality.