Book Review: Fattypuffs and Thinifers by André Maurois

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book, book review, France, political satire, politics, review, satire, YA, young adult

Fattypuffs And Thinifers

by André Maurois

genre: young adult, political satire

Summary from Goodreads

‘If you go on eating like that you’ll turn into a real Fattypuff,’ thin Mr Double said to his plump son Edmund. He was right, for when Edmund and Terry found the secret staircase in the wood which led to the underground countries, Edmund had to go with the Fattypuffs to their city, where people were huge and happy and ate all day long, while Terry went off with the Thinifers, who were as spiky and prickly as their city. And it took a war as well as a lot of argument before the boys could teach them to agree about anything.

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Book Review: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

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book, book review, books, dragons, fantasy, fiction, Guards! Guards! Discworld, Pitch Perfect, review, reviews, Terry Pratchett, YA, young adult

Guards! Guards!
Discworld #8

by Terry Pratchett

genre: fantasy, young adult

Summary from Goodreads

Here there be dragons . . . and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork wish one huge firebreather would return from whence it came. Long believed extinct, a superb specimen of draco nobilis (“noble dragon” for those who don’t understand italics) has appeared in Discworld’s greatest city. Not only does this unwelcome visitor have a nasty habit of charbroiling everything in its path, in rather short order it is crowned King (it is a noble dragon, after all . . .).

Meanwhile, back at Unseen University, an ancient and long-forgotten volume–The Summoning of Dragons–is missing from the Library’s shelves. To the rescue come Captain Vimes, Constable Carrot, and the rest of the Night Watch who, along with other brave citizens, risk everything, including a good roasting, to dethrone the flying monarch and restore order to Ankh-Morpork (before it’s burned to a crisp). A rare tale, well done as only Terry Pratchett can.

Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

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book, book review, books, fiction, review, reviews, Stephen Chbosky, Ther Perks of Being a Wallflower, YA, young adult

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky

genre: young adult

Summary

Charlie is a freshman.
And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his year yet socially awkward,he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can’t stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

Book Review: The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

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adventure, book, book review, books, fiction, patrick ness, review, reviews, science fiction, The Knife of Never Letting Go, young adult

The Knife of Never Letting Go

by Patrick Ness

genre: adventure, science fiction, young adult

Summary from Goodreads

 

Prentisstown isn’t like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee — whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not — stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden — a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

Book Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

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book, book review, books, dystopian, fiction, Lauren DeStefano, pregnancy, review, reviews, Wither, YA, young adult

Wither
(The Chemical Garden #1)

by Lauren DeStefano

genre: dystopian, YA

Synopsis from Goodreads

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape–before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden’s servants-Gabriel-Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

Movie Review: The Maze Runner

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movie, review, reviews, science fiction, The Maze Runner, YA, young adult

The Maze Runner
Movie 1

genre: science fiction, dystopian, young adult

Usually, I tell people to read the book before the movie. Don’t read the book. Wait for the movie to hit NetFlix. If you’ve read the book, wait a week or two from when you finished reading until you go see the movie. The movie changed 70-80% of the book. I finished the book the same day I went to see the movie, so I sat there the entire time shaking my head with my brows creased thinking, “That’s not how that happened. That didn’t happen. That’s out of order. That didn’t happen. You skipped that. What the…? Why did you change that detail? What did that accomplish? What??? How? That didn’t… How are you going to finish the movie if you changed… you changed the ending…”

Book Review: The Maze Runner by James Dashner

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book, book review, book reviews, books, dystopian, James Dashner, review, reviews, science fiction, The Maze Runner, YA, young adult

The Maze Runner
Book 1

by James Dashner

genre: science fiction, dystopian, young adult

Completely by coincidence, Ermisenda and I have both been reading The Maze Runner. We didn’t realize it until she beat me to posting her review by three days. Though I could wait to post mine, she and I came away with very different opinions, so I hope you enjoy reading my take on the book as well. I’m going to see the movie this evening, so I will be posting that review on Friday.

Ermi, don’t you dare post yours on Wednesday. 😉

Synopsis from Goodreads

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.

Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.

Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.

Everything is going to change.

Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.

Remember. Survive. Run.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

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blue hair protagonist, book review, chimaera, daughter of smoke and bone, fallen angels, fantasy, forced romances, karou, laini taylor, novels with saggy middles, paranormal, romance, young adult

Daughter of Smoke & Bone

by Laini Taylor

genre: fantasy, young adult, paranormal, romance

An urban fantasy story with a few twists up its sleeve. Find out why I gave it 4 out of 5 stars!

Summary

(Taken from Goodreads)

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Review

This book inspired the post ‘When promising books go blegh‘, terrible drawing and all. So why on earth am I giving it a 4? I’ll tell you why.

The first third of the book was great. Then some crappy excuse for a romantic interest was forced into the equation. Literally, forced. I pushed myself through… I pushed… I tried to hold on. Others who had read it encouraged me that the book improved once Madrigal’s story started (and took over the deteriorating Karou one) and they were right. The last 100 pages had me so enthralled that when I finished, I was ready to buy the next book. I was ready to shove my money in the bookseller’s face. Take it! Take it!

Book Review: Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

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Becca Fitzpatrick, dystopian, fallen angels, Hush Hush, paranormal, romance, trilogy, YA, young adult

Hush, Hush
Hush, Hush #1

by Becca Fitzpatrick

genre: YA, romance, dystopian, paranormal

Synopsis from Goodreads

Romance was not part of Nora Grey’s plan. She’s never been particularly attracted to the boys at her school, no matter how hard her best friend, Vee, pushes them at her. Not until Patch comes along. With his easy smile and eyes that seem to see inside her, Patch draws Nora to him against her better judgment.

But after a series of terrifying encounters, Nora’s not sure whom to trust. Patch seems to be everywhere she is and seems to know more about her than her closest friends. She can’t decide whether she should fall into his arms or run and hide. And when she tries to seek some answers, she finds herself near a truth that is way more unsettling than anything Patch makes her feel.

For she is right in the middle of an ancient battle between the immortal and those that have fallen – and, when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost Nora her life.

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

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book, book review, books, Delirium, dystopian, Lauren Oliver, review, reviews, YA, young adult

Delirium
(Delirium #1)

by Lauren Oliver

genre: dystopian, YA

Delirium had everything that should have made it a five star book: amazing writing style, interesting plot. So why did I give it 2 stars? I finished 4 or 5 books since starting Delirium and at the romantic high point, I didn’t cry (the end of the world is near).

Synopsis from Goodreads

Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe.
I wonder whether the procedure will hurt.
I want to get it over with.
It’s hard to be patient.
It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet.
Still, I worry.
They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness.
The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t.