DB

Technically it's 3-and-a-half but they don't give half stars *cue sobbing and rage and angry emails.

Received this book in exchange for an honest review. I actually read it a few days after I received the finished book, wrote a review for it and promised myself I would put it on Goodreads. Obviously that did not happen. But here is the review.

IT'S SET IN SOUTH AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Sorry, it's just that there are heaps and heaps of books set in America and wherever else in the world and then you get South Africa with it's extremely stupid stereotypes. Like please come and tell me your stereotypes and let me laugh at them and tell you why you are wrong and why that stereotype was created. Anyway, so I went and read everyone else's reviews to see if they said anything about SA. One reviewer said she went and YouTubed our accents to hear how it sounded and then she said that it takes a while getting used to. Which is kinda calling the kettle black. And also a Durbanite's accent is miles different from a Cape Tonian's and everything.

So I was trying to figure out what year the novel is set in – as they don't really give a specific year or any indication. So I went and looked at the whole slang and tried to figure out from there. And so I was thinking that this has to be set a few years back because we don't use those swear words anymore. But then I remembered that I live in a different part of South Africa than the book and thus my regional dialect is different than the book's. Though it is interesting to see that the author made the characters use many Afrikaans slang. Now I'm all for that because representation and all that but Durban and Toti are more known for being English. But I'd still like to know what time this book is set in.

I love the different relationships between Wayne and Travis and Jess. Obviously the two relationships are different but the both are equally important and Wayne knows that they are both important – which he does.

The narration of the book is very good. It makes the reader want to carry on reading.

I love how Wayne's anxiety and depression or whatever is shown. It shows that teenagers feel very deeply and it shows a side of him that many readers could probably identify with.

I expected the ending to be different and to have an actual ending and then the ending just kind of made me confused but I suppose I'll have to wait for the next book to read it.

A copy of this book was sent to me in exchange of an honest review.

That cover, though, that cover is wonderful.

Ok, so this book is about two very unlikely characters who have to help save the world (Evident by the title). There's cases of mistaken identity, mishaps and a humouristic way to see the world.

The plot develops quite nicely for an apocalyptic novel. There's everything that's usually in an apocalyptic novel. There's the start-up, then where the main characters team up with other survivors, begin to develop and the big war. This novel has all of this, and more - the humour, the interesting characters, the captivating dialogue.

The dialogue's an important part of the novel. Dialogue (and characters) are a big determinator in deciding in what kind of genre the novel is and who would be more likely to pick the book up. In this novel, the novel is more directed to guys (snarky humour and typical ‘guy' jokes and the characters and their personality is more directed at guys). And it works. Some girls are able to read these types of novels and enjoy them. And I do. I enjoy these types of novels because they show that humour in life and that shitty things happen to everyone.

Characters are another thing. Characters sell a novel. They make the readers want to turn the page. They make them invest in their lives and root for them. They make a novel better because the characters try to save the world, or themselves. Dan and Frankie are most definitely not the typical characters you'll find in an apocalyptic novel. They are more the characters you'll find wasting their lives in the bar – but they find themselves in the middle of this intergalactic war or something and they develop enough to begin a journey that only the jocks have taken up before.

And it's interesting, because Dan and Frankie aren't the typical heroes. They aren't physically and they'll probably never be regarded as the perfect heroes, but it works because they represent the average American and shows the readers they can be heroes even if they're ordinary.

All in all, it was a great read. It had a sense of humour you'd only see rarely (mostly because no one seems to care for it). Yes, this type of novel is written with a remotely specific audience in mind, but the great thing is that it can be for any audience (if you just read with enough interest- and this novel definitely made me do this).

Review coming soon.

I chose this book because it seemed interesting. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to and was a bit disappointed by the book. I didn't connect with the story or the readers.

First of all, the name they give themselves is ‘The Essential Five'. It sounds pretentious and when reading the novel, I had the feeling that they thought too much of themselves, which is a trait I dislike in a character.

I did not connect with Rebecca. To me she was annoying, pretentious and thinks she can only be good at one thing. Truthfully, I did not connect with nearly any of the characters. Expect maybe Liane and Mary. The characters didn't mature during the novel and they weren't relatable.

Does Rebecca not have any other friends than ‘The Essential Five'? I had my small group of personal friends that I hung out with most of the times, but I sat with other friends from time to time. Even if she only has one extracurricular (like, hello, I also took Drama as a subject in high school. It doesn't take up that much time). I'm sure with her sparkling personality she could have made a few other friends who actually treat her better than her ‘supposed' friends do.

So, Tess doesn't acknowledge that she was friends with Rebecca before meeting the others, but feels free to make jokes relating to Rebecca's past? That makes Tess seem like a crap friend (which she turns out to be in the end-totally called that).

What makes me annoyed is that Rebecca and her friends might be the best in the Drama Club, but the teacher/director ought to give the main roles to others. It's seriously annoying if five people have the best parts all the time. The teacher is playing favourites and someone could report him for that.

Charlie and Rebecca's relationship does not seem real. They only kiss in secluded areas and don't talk about their relationship or go out on dates. I'm not the greatest with relationships, but I think a relationship might need more than this.

All in all, this novel was annoying, boring and difficult to get through. It had its good parts, but most of the novel was bad parts.

I encountered this book by extreme chance. I was in the library looking for something to read and I saw this. I read the first few pages, and just knew I had to get my hands on it.

This is a book that changes lives. It changes your way of thinking about daily things as well as how you view children. Children are amazing individuals who have the ability to imagine many things and so many people take them for granted.

The diction in the book is absolutely exquisite. Budo, the narrator, speaks likes he's way beyond his years, but his language and phrasing is that of a child. Somehow it works, it's beautiful and you wish you could write even a smidge as well as Matthew Green.

The characters are so well-written that sometimes you forget the main characters are actually children. They are well-rounded and mature wonderfully over the novel that you can't help but love them. Each character has a personality and story to tell.

It was interesting to see that Max has Asperger's Syndrome (if I read the symptoms correctly.). These kinds of disorders are rarely found in novels, and if they are, it's not approached in the right manner. In Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend, it's approached in a personal manner, which is always pleasant to read as I can relate to the autistic spectrum.

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend is not just a story about a boy and his imaginary friend. It's a story about sacrifice and commitment and friendship and bravery. It's all the little things that shine through moments that make you wipe your eyes and thrust your fist in the air and everything in between.

This book is filled with good and bad parts. It's filled with parts that touch your heart and parts that make you shiver when you realise how smart kids actually are. This book is not about a child. It's about how a person can be brave.

Review coming soon

The book was confusing. Things didn't make sense to me. If she's supposed to forget her past, then how does she remember her mother and best friend?

PLOT TWIST!!!!

I won't say anything about the plot twist, but it was a huge enough one that had me staring into the distance for a few seconds, pick up my e-reader, put it down, stare into the distance, repeat the process a few times.

I won't write any spoilers, but I would just like to say that I nearly cried in this book, which I never do. Thank you, Cassie, for writing this series. I have been with this series ever since a friend of mine introduced it to me, and I am forever in her debt.

I can honestly say that is Cassie decided to write a hundred books about Clace, I would be one step behind Cassie, supporting her.

This book deserves to be on everybody's beside table.

Loved the ending. I just wish Kelsey could have made her mind up earlier. Don't know how Houck is going to write the next book, as everything is finalised in this one.

She has an unusual gift: she can communicate with bugs and plants, and then later on, use that gift. Normally, the protagonists would have some mundane power, or their power would be over-exaggerated, Alyssa's power (if she used it properly) is extremely lethal (which is to say: I want her power!).

Jeb annoyed me a bit, as he does treat her like a child sometimes, even though he does it to keep her safe. I wish the ending of the book was different, and that Jeb's ending was different (SPOILER ALERT: Jeb does not die. Just in case you are confused) It would have been nice to have more knowledge of his background, or maybe have a scene where he is painting Alyssa and they share their life's dreams. Something akin to that.

Morpheus is an amazing character. From the first word I read about him, until the last the book sees of him, I was in love with him. Firstly: who can resist a British accent? Secondly: He has blue hair, is that cool or not? Thirdly: He cares about Alyssa, and in my opinion, actually wants her to live her dream. Howard should have elaborated on Morpheus' relationship with her (not Alyssa, another female character mentioned in the book-hint: she resides in Wonderland).

Last words from my side? I wanted more scenes with Jen, or even better, to go tumbling down the rabbit-hole with Jen. And, is anybody wanting to have a sword fight between Jeb and Morpheus?

Splintered is a wonderful read for those who love Alice in Wonderland. It is also for those who love the fantasy element and the odd characters that ought to appear in books.

http://www.katyasmind.blogspot.com/2014/03/14.html

I loved the book. Although she could have changed the ending a bit.

I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to everyone. It had me smiling the entire way through.

I really did enjoy this book. I loved the idea behind it. A deaf girl, managing a band? What can go wrong?

This book is amazing! Can't wait to read the others. I read this book in one night. If you are looking for a faerie/gothic novel, read this novel and suggest it to your friends.

To Liv From The Ruin is one of those books that you have to stop every once in a while to think about the paragraph you have just read. While, I'm not going to give the plot away, (for you can read the summary and then read the book yourself) I will say that I enjoyed the book; albeit it took me about 80 pages to really enjoy the book.

All in all, the book is well-written and I would like to read more from Adrienne.

You laugh. You cry. You shove the book at your friends. You imagine if there will be a sequel, but know that it can't happen. The Fault in Our Stars written by John Green is a young adult novel that touches the hearts of millions of fans worldwide.

Let me just clarify something: I do not cry in books. I can count the number of movies I have cried in on one hand, and I have never cried in a book (ok, well, a tear slipped out onto my cheek when I finished Les Mis) and I have just finished reading it for the third time, and I must admit, I started to tear up when Isaac said he would send the doctors away (if you know what I mean, then you rock), but I did not cry. I will, however, bring a tissue packet when I watch the movie.

Hazel is nothing like any other character I've read about before. First off, she has cancer, but this is not a cancer book. She's merely trying to live her life before it expires, by reading the same book a number of times (don't we all!) She's funny and smart, she's in college ahead of the rest of her peers. Maybe what I really love about her is that she isn't model-beautiful and she has flaws like the rest of us. What's brilliant is that she's depressed about things that matter, and not about trivial things that the other characters are normally stressing about.

Augustus ‘Gus' Waters. How can I describe him? If I ever find a boy like the one John Green created, I'll be sure to tie him and never let him go. He's funny, and charming. He knows the right things to say and at the right moments. He nearly made me cry when he sat down next to Hazel and told her something akin to the festive season. I believe that John Green never really meant to make Gus the best book boyfriend in the YA universe, but he (Gus) turned out to be something amazing.

Isaac is a challenging character to analyse, as, when we meet him, he'll soon be blind, and I can understand why he'll be annoyed at the world. I would have liked Green to have added him in more scenes, but I wouldn't like a sequel to be made, otherwise they're will be more funerals in the book.

The Fault In Our Stars is a book meant for all ages. It's the sort of book that makes you want to start reading. Filled with quotes that only John Green can deliver, you'll read this book over and over again.

http://www.katyasmind.blogspot.com/2014/03/monday-1.html

I gave up on this graphic novel pretty quickly after I started. I'd say about 10 pages if not less? I don't have a clear answer as to why I chose to not finish the graphic novel because to me, everything about it just didn't work out for me.

I didn't like the art. I don't know if one would call it quirky or anything but I didn't care for it. I felt the writing was juvenile and the dialogue to be subpar. I disliked both main characters – in fact Kim was a big reason for my dnf.

Look, I really wanted to finish and like this book. But I kept reading a few pages of it and then putting it down to read something else. It was when I used the text-to-speech function on my kindle and realized nearly a chapter had gone by with me not paying a lick of attention – I had to dnf this, otherwise I was very likely to get into another reading slump. It stayed on my Currently Reading shelf for about a YEAR because I kept trying to get myself into this book.

So yes, I dnfed this at 25%. The cause? I guess not being interested enough? The characters were interesting and I liked the whole plot – rebellions are always fun to read about. It's not that it was high sci-fi – I liked that bit. I think it was largely due to the characters – though they were interesting from time to time – it wasn't enough to keep my reading.

Maybe I'll pick it up in audio some time.

I didn't finish this book. I really wanted to, as I've heard good things about the representation, but I honestly couldn't get past how Adam sees Dez - yeah, sorry, not into that.

I was so so excited for this book because the premise of it sounded so fascinating. Modern Labyrinth, reality TV show, super cool, right? I did, however, completely forget about this book for a while. That wasn't the reason I didn't finish it, though.

I did really really like how they blended the modernity with the mythology. It was a cool idea, just not well thought out re characters. But just like the previous dnf, it was the characters that annoyed me to no end. I managed to get to a whole 30% before I realised that even though I liked reading it, I wasn't enjoying it.

There's also some instalove and I'm not much of a fan of that. I do think instaloves can be written well, but I didn't feel like this for this romance. Ariadne also seemed to be a ‘not like other girls' girl and I'm not so interested in that. And I know I didn't read much of Theseus, but I really felt like he was boring, as was Ariadne for me.

There was also the problem of them trying to blend the modernity with the mythology just too much. Like swapping the iconic the face that launched a thousand ships line for a wink that will launch a million GIFs. I think it was by the ...his emptiness stowed away like he's closing a pop-up window on his browser that I knew I had to leave before I went into another reading slump.

There were so many unnecessary sentences and details and I wasn't a fan of them. For me when writers use them they're trying to show how good of a writer they are but it rarely works. I also didn't like any of the characters, their personalities, their dialogue – all played a part in my reason to dnf.

I dnfed this very early on - didn't think I even reached 20%
I didn't like any of the main characters - couldn't connect with them - which I think is a very important thing in a book.
I also didn't like the narration or how the characters spoke with each other - which is another reason why I didn't choose to carry on with the book.

Wasn't the good, but wasn't too bad. Thumbs up for the interesting take on Medusa, but the book could have been better.

I sort of expected Lovelace to narrate the audiobook and she did a really good job! The audio actually had a little bit of extra in it – sometimes Lovelace would expand on a poem, or explain why she wrote the poem. I like how simple the poems were and at the same time meant a lot. As always I could see the passion she had for writing in her poems – both for poetry and for the topics in general.
Persephone is a big part of this poetry collection. Some people see the (Hades and Persephone) myth as a happy one – where Hades and Persephone are in love; others as more of a horror story – where Hades kidnaps Persephone and tricks her into eating the pomegranate seeds. This collection focuses mostly on Persephone and her knowing that she's more than just a love interest, that she's powerful and she knows it.