Kyle
4.5 stars
Compulsively readable, extremely well written, an awesome antagonist (although not wholly original), and a main character who I could relate to on many levels (superficial and personal) such as
-Same name
-Same age (well, we will this Friday xD)
-Same thoughts and feelings about school around same time in lives (although we made different choices)
Honestly, You is like the flip side of what would've happened to me had I not just recently accepted into the high school that I was. If I end up writing a longer review, I'll probably get more into this. The only flaws I'd attribute to this is some of the side characters were on the flat side, although I don't think that hurts the book too much, and I wouldn't say there's a solid plot going on here.
And for anybody wondering, the second person POV actually works surprisingly well, at least for me, since sharing the same name as the MC (or “You”) made it easier to feel pulled in.
Possible longer review to come.
Read this for the first time in 2011, and found it to be okay, and my opinion doesn't change 3 years later when I had to read it for school. Some of my problems with this book is the slow pacing, tameness of the plot, lack of logic (people have forgotten how to love?), lack of a connection with any and all characters present, etc.
However, this is a pretty interesting book nonetheless. In theory, this could've been a really great book, however the execution is just greatly lacking, probably because of the book's seemingly juvenile target audience (although there is content that seems like it could've been for an older audience but has been written down, like the process of the Stirrings as well as what it means to be Released). Some of the questions raised in it as well are also very intriguing, and the last 35-40 pages of the book do pick up significantly in terms of pacing and overall quality.
4.5 starsI absolutely loved this book. Since for a book report I have due in several weeks, my school district demands that it be on a non-fiction book, I chose a biography done for Robert Cormier, and it includes chapters that discuss some of his more well-known works ([b:I Am the Cheese 48974 I Am the Cheese Robert Cormier https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1170356988s/48974.jpg 958210], [b:We All Fall Down 869906 We All Fall Down Robert Cormier https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1361863966s/869906.jpg 2319900], [b:Beyond the Chocolate War 588723 Beyond the Chocolate War (Chocolate War, #2) Robert Cormier https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388271025s/588723.jpg 6512285], etc.) I decided it best that I read as many as I can to avoid spoilers for the books that have premises that intrigue me. While this doesn't quite reach the standards set before by [b:Tenderness 51944 Tenderness Robert Cormier https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388458639s/51944.jpg 3091121], which I highly recommend in case you were wondering, it's an extremely well-written story about defiance and our place in society. While the characters do come across as very distant, which I have found to be true in the two previous novels I've read by Cormier, it's his plots and characterization (not the same as personal connection IMO) that make his books, and the action in this is so perfectly timed, as well as the psychological agony brought onto our MC. As you can tell, I'm very rough in my review writing since I haven't written one in so long, but a highly enjoyed book. So excited to read more of his works (which will be consuming me over the next several weeks).
Read this review and others over at Book Probe Reviews!
I'll admit, at the beginning of Faking Normal, I was bored. Really, really bored. I couldn't possibly picture myself getting through over 300 pages of this boredom. Well, color me surprised to say that not only did I get through the book in its entirety, but I found myself completely enthralled with it by the end. It's simply so unconventional in its romance, characters, and progression of plot.
One of the most terrifying things for me in this world is the power of the human mind - the power that we simply could never understand. The lengths that it can go to hide what we believe that we cannot handle, or don't want to handle. That's exactly what this book is about, in a nutshell. I've read books superior to this one about this topic, and I'm sure that there will be more books even better than this one in the future.
Aside from a few issues with extremely randomly thrown in slut shaming, and uneven pacing at the beginning of this book, it's a pretty solid debut, with interesting characters, who have actual, genuine relationships, and do things that sometimes we don't fully understand, who make mistakes, who have pain and anger, and who feel like real people.
Although this book seems like it's going to be very predictable, and you think you have everything figured out very early on in the novel, you don't. I know you think you do, but you're so wrong. When the big reveal was finally made (and it was a very big reveal) my jaw literally dropped. I had so many emotions running through me, and it was in that moment that I finally realized how much I'd grown to care about these characters and everything that they were going through in their lives.
I felt like screaming, sobbing, throwing my Kindle across the room (well, maybe I wasn't seriously considering that my Kindle is my favorite technological device), and was left pondering why the world could possibly be so cruel to people so young.
The romantic element that is weaved into the plot never feels overpowering, nor insta-love-y, nor poorly executed. It all feels very authentic and slow-burning, and never overtakes the central focus of the plot, which is what is happening to Alexi. Bodee, her love interest, is an interesting individual on his own, and Stevens never misses an opportunity to delve into his character. The friendship and bond forged between the two is definitely one of the highlights of the book, and I enjoyed reading those parts more than the romantic ones.
The ending is extremely satisfying and ends all loose ends, which is always a positive thing, considering, for me anyway, many contemporary books seem to lose their steam towards the end, and can often rush towards the end with the wrapping up of storylines sloppy (although I normally try to be forgiving of this).
Courtney C. Stevens, the only thing that I have left to say is: please write another book soon!
2.5 starsThis is one of those instances where I'm left wondering if most people read a completely different book then I did. I'm seriously trying right now to see why so many people seemed to love this one. Normally I can fathom some type of reason, but I'm left at a loss here. Perhaps most people just loved all the psychological aspects more then I did. Or maybe my assumption was right that I just don't like books about aliens. To be completely frank, this book is a poorer version of [b:Blood Red Road 9917938 Blood Red Road (Dust Lands, #1) Moira Young https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1293651959s/9917938.jpg 14692536] and [b:Angelfall 11500217 Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days #1) Susan Ee https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1319887835s/11500217.jpg 16435765]. It also has some aspects of [b:The Host 1656001 The Host (The Host, #1) Stephenie Meyer https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1318009171s/1656001.jpg 3328799] thrown in there, but I can't speak for the quality of this novel since I haven't read it, but I know enough to say that they have very close similarities. I might've been able to really enjoy this book if a) There were actually some surprising twists in there. I literally predicted just about every single major plot twist - and some of which I'm genuinely left wondering if they were meant to be twists since they were so damn obvious. I really, really hope for Yancey's sake that we were supposed to know that Evan was the Silencer because that was so poorly handled, it practically screamed that that's what was going onb) It didn't take over 300 pages for Cassie to actually start the real search for her brother. Sure she's kinda wandering around looking, but she doesn't have a solid plan until over 325 pages in, and by that point, I've already been bored out of my mindc)The book didn't divide the POV's up as much. We have our main POV's from Cassie and Zombie, then we have two mini POV's to Sammy and The Silencer, and both of these were completely unnecessary. It just gave the book this really disjointed feel to itd) The romance wasn't as laughable and snooze-worthy. And one very serious question I have is why Cassie actually stayed with Evan when she thought he might be the Silencer. She spends the whole book talking about how you can't trust anybody, but then when she has perfect reason to believe that Evan can't be trusted . . . she stays in his house with him, making out with him. Whut? Honestly, if A and B were taken care of, I would've gladly rated this book higher, and been able to overlook some of these other things. However, I guess it isn't all that bad.-The first-person POV distinction between Zombie and Cassie is actually pretty well done, and I never found myself confused between the two-The last 100 pages are actually reasonably entertaining, as is the first 100 pages (well, parts of it are)-Some of the psychological aspects are entertaining . . . at times-I'm intrigued enough by the ending to read the next book (which is a pretty high compliment in my opinion)
3.5 starsOne brutal, shell shock of a book. I would gladly rate this one higher if there wasn't 80 pages of excess, which was part of a larger 120-page spot of boredom for me. Although I can 100% see where all of the negative reviews are coming from, this is just one of those books that just worked for me. Brutal sequences of horror, complex and multi-layered characterization, and definitely not something that you find everyday in YA, even though books like [b:Under the Dome 6320534 Under the Dome Stephen King https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1268982908s/6320534.jpg 6760952] and the [b:Gone 2536134 Gone (Gone, #1) Michael Grant https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1357796831s/2536134.jpg 2543657] series have somewhat similar concepts in terms of towns being cut off from the rest of the world.
4.5 stars
In reality this falls somewhere between a 4 and a 4.5, but I'm feeling nice and I'm willing to round up. I was actually expecting this book to be a lot more confusing than it actually was. I didn't start to really wonder what was going on until the second half when the plot got more complex. I figured out 90% of the twists, but the way how they were incorporated into all of the plot elements was so well-handled that I'm still marveled at how it was all done!
This review and more can also be found at Book Probe Reviews!
3.5 stars
What if the person you loved most in the world was crumbling right before your very eyes, and you were essentially helpless to do anything to save them?
That is the dilemma we are presented as our main character, Zoe, a former dancer kicked out of her dance program several months before the start of the novel, is told that her best friend Olivia has been diagnosed with leukemia.
I know some of you, if you're anything like me, are done with the oversaturated “cancer story” genre that seems to have been given a revival ever since the release of The Fault in Our Stars (and then further revived with the movie release in a few months). I simply do not find cancer books all that interesting to read about. My great-grandmother, aunt and two uncles have died from cancer, and the topic just isn't something I like to read exploited in my literature, which I feel as though many books tend to do.
I think if I had to pinpoint my biggest issue with these books, is the discussions about life, which, if you've read TFiOS, you know is basically the entire plot. I find that the use of cancer to spark these discussions is highly pretentious, emotionally manipulative, and whatever else you want to add in there. You obviously should include something about life in these books, since it's such a precarious situation, whether or not the person lives, but I don't need it constantly shoved down my throat to show how “deep” and “philosophical” these people are.
I can't say Melissa Kantor's Maybe One Day is an original book. Because, to be honest, it's not. You could probably read several books quite similar to it, and maybe even of greater quality. But I love that this book flips the idea that a cancer book has to be all about cancer or some end-all relationship about infinities (sorry, but I could take jabs at TFiOS for days). It's about friendship, and how everyday life is altered, and how even the most mundane of things can be missed, such as not having to wear a surgical mask before you go near a person for fear that they could be carrying a germ that could end your life.
Zoe is hardly a likeable character, and many readers have already complained about her personality, and I expect many other readers probably won't even finish the book because of her. I won't lie, I seriously considered it myself around the 40-45% mark. She's extremely judgmental of other people, particularly the cheerleaders at her school. It's not that these people weren't annoying at times, but that's only because Kantor felt this need to characterize them as flimsy stereotypes, and only occasionally treaded on the idea that they could be something more. However, during the latter act of the novel, her judging is kept to a minimum and focuses more so on the story at hand.
And does Kantor really expect me to believe that sixteen year old girl doesn't know that leukemia is cancer? I've known this information since before I was ten.
This is also a reasonably long novel, and I don't know if enough happens to justify a 400-page length. Easily 50 pages probably could be eliminated to trim this down to a much more reasonable length, but I was able to get through it quickly enough considering life was pretty hectic during my reading.
At the core of this novel though, is the friendship between Zoe and Olivia. Don't let this novel mislead you into thinking that it's about Zoe and her attraction to Calvin, who is Olivia's crush. Such a small portion of the book is actually about that, and the resolution of it all is with so little drama that I can't believe the marketing for this book even tried to build off of it.
No, this is about a girl and the person who has always been by their side, who was there through heartbreak, the highs and the lows, who she has shared everything with, no matter how painful or embarrassing. This is about how one day you have to look into that person's face and contemplate the fact that this person could very well be gone in a few months time. How you'll have to watch them slowly disintegrate before your eyes, altered physically and emotionally then the person they once were. Zoe isn't always the best friend to Olivia, and she does things that I personally would never do to my own friends, but the relationship between the two is so poignant, it's essentially the thing that makes this particular novel stand out in my mind.
I won't say that if you read this book, your life will be changed. I'm not even saying that you'll like it. All I'm saying is that I personally found something unique in a genre of beaten-to-death cliches, and that's all I ever really ask for with books like this.
Going into Heartbeat, I had no expectations whatsoever. I couldn't say for certain whether or not I'd enjoy it or not, and with a premise as dramatic as this one, it could've very easily fallen apart if a lesser writer had tried to tackle it. Many books about grief tend to bore me, since they all seem to follow a very similar formula, especially those that try to tie in a romantic element to add into this (Just Like Fate comes to mind in terms of some more recent examples).
First off, we have our wonderfully flawed heroine, Emma. Emma is rude, stubborn, angry, and so, so sad. Reading in her voice was a very addictive time, and I found myself having devoured almost 20% of the book in a little under an hour, yet it felt like no time at all had passed. It's rare that an author can write such an unconventional heroine, where everybody seems to have this set mold for what female characters should be: virgins, smart, insecure, and every guy surprisingly wants her even though “she isn't pretty.” Aside from Dan, her stepfather, the majority of the other secondary characters could've been more fleshed out, but hey, we can't get everything we want.
Sexuality in this book is treated in a relaxed manner, where hooking up with somebody doesn't equate to somebody being a “slut” or a “whore.” Honestly, it's extremely refreshing. There is a romantic sub-plot in this book, with a love interest who has enough interesting qualities that he isn't a cardboard cut-out, yet I wouldn't say he's the most developed character. Thankfully though, Scott knows to keep the focus of the book on Emma and her grief, and while there are a few slip-ups in the latter half of the novel, she mainly stays on point in that regard.
Speaking of that second half, I found it to drag in certain areas, and that is where the romance did seem to pick up significantly, but nonetheless, I found myself engaged to the end, and I cannot praise Scott's prose enough. She has an incredible way with words that really bring Emma and her emotions to life in a way that you don't see quite that often in some of these contemporary novels.
Definitely one of the more interesting takes on grief and romance in YA, and I'm very happy to say that this one exceeded my expectations greatly!
I'm not sure if it's as strong as [b:Prodigy 13414446 Prodigy (Legend, #2) Marie Lu https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1336254717s/13414446.jpg 18712554], but that epilogue sure ripped my heart out and then some. It's an incredible finale, and I'm so glad that I spent the past week finally finishing up this series that I started over two years ago! Wholly satisfying, emotionally engaging, action, plot twists, political maneuvering and drama, and with plenty of suspense, this trilogy is the perfect blend of pulse-pounding action as well as being something so much deeper and intellectual, and actually daring to look at those hard questions of morality, grief, and sacrifice. It's a shame not all YA can be written like this.
This series was amazing, and this was a great conclusion, even if it isn't as strong as the first book, since I found Allyson's character and the story to be more gripping, while Willem's seem to drag on in the middle at times (which is strange, since this one is about 40 pages shorter).
Still, amazing writing and character development, and incredible themes.
It's an ok read. I can see why it's considered a classic. I'm glad though that I was put in the only class in my grade that read [b:Lord of the Flies 7624 Lord of the Flies William Golding https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327869409s/7624.jpg 2766512] instead, since that is a better written, more compelling novel than this. Although since I have read [b:That Was Then, This is Now 33569 That Was Then, This is Now S.E. Hinton https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1386927512s/33569.jpg 3200846], it appears that her writing improves tremendously.I just didn't find the male POV realistic at times, and I wasn't overly impressed by the characters. Story and themes were pretty good, and it's a quick read, with pretty average pacing. Although I wish that the plot could've been more exciting, since not a whole lot happens in my opinion.
