val

called the ~twist~ way early, which meant lots of skimming afterwards to get to the point of realisation and lots of “ugh FIGURE IT OUT ALREADY” but at the same time, such a cool book that i've been waiting for ever since its query win on queryshark.

also aww, claire's voice in IMs was spot-on.

This whole series was a bundle of questionable logic, but Veronica Roth's talent is still in crafting action scenes that actually feel tense.

One flaw with the YA trend of trilogies is the pacing of their release dates, and yeah, it was really hard to feel emotion for the deaths in the book because I don't even remember what role they played in the previous one despite the book's constant reminders.

In general, the Divergent series has always been one that leaves me hot and cold regarding the books, with their uneven plotting but swooping endings. This book was no different, but major, major props to Veronica Roth for doing something most young adult authors don't dare to.

murica

Mary needs to resolve her issues instead of projecting all her blame on Reeve. I feel zero sympathy for her at this point, because she so clearly deflects any help that isn't directed on her ~vengeance~ and giving Reeve any happiness at all just won't satisfy her wow.

The one weird thing about this book for me was that Harry Potter, actual Harry Potter, was given a mention in it when I was under the impression Simon Snow was AU Harry Potter.

Like, if Harry Potter actually existed I'm not sure if Simon Snow would be the ~#1 obsession~ it is in Cath's world? The world of Harry Potter is way more open-ended and provides so much more fodder to work off, so that mention really threw me off because I started overanalysing it.

it's really weird how an ending can change your perspective of a book, but seeing as i spent the majority of this book not being able to stand either brie (and the overuse of italicised thoughts when the book's already in her pov) or patrick (pet names... i get it) or the cheese quotes or the way brie was dealing with life (the conclusions she jumped to were way harsh and over the top imo)... it's weird how my mental rating of it zoomed up from a 1 to at least a 3. i suppose my ratings have always been incredibly reliant on how coming out of the book makes me feel.

i liked the revelation of what was actually going on with jacob and sadie; loved it, actually, because this book didn't go down the whole ‘ex-boyfriend is a total douchebag who deserves everything that's coming to him' route. instead, jess rothenberg made her characters human. brie did bad things, but a big part of the story was that it wasn't always about her.

so yeah. some of the bad: a) i couldn't get into brie's voice. b) the romance didn't really speak to me as much as it was thrust upon me from the start, and i didn't feel much for it.

i did feel a lot for the characters, though, and i'm glad i didn't rage-quit because there were a few times i wanted to so bad.

i really do like lauren destefano's writing. i just don't think the massive task that is dystopian worldbuilding is something she was meant to do.

that being said, what i'd REALLY like to see from her is a non-dystopian STANDALONE. something in which she can focus on the characters and not on the high! stakes!

also series may have a $$$ factor behind them, but that every single freakin thing has to be part of a trilogy these days bugs me so much. they're paced too far apart that by the time i crack open the next instalment i've already lost any interest i had in the characters.

idk, the ending seemed too rushed and thus it detracted from the whole love interest issue. i still love parallel universes though so major points to this book just for approaching it in a way that i enjoyed.

THIS BOOK.

UGH.

I thought the Dessen magic would finally wear off on me and I'd find this book average. Based on the synopsis, I wasn't very enthusiastic, that's for sure.

However, now that I've finished it, I honestly think this is one of her best. Sarah Dessen is royalty in the YA chicklit world.

I just want to stretch that ending out over and over and play all the possibilities from then on.

Fascinating and thought-provoking concept, but the tell-don't-show style of writing gets tedious.

1.5

I wanted to like this. I really did.

With a title like Click to Subscribe, I honestly thought there would be more of an emphasis on the vlogging aspect, but it just seemed too forced and unnecessary. I skimmed every time he got into a camera ‘confession'. I think Sam and Cat have an abundance of personality (sometimes to the point where they become nothing but personifications of every teen on tumblr), but this book frustrated me so much and not in a good way. Too much build-up and too hasty a resolution as everything just fixes up. Actually, everything after the first part of the book felt hasty even when he kept beating around the bush of blatant obviousness.

Format-wise, waaay too much caps-lock yelling and some other stuff that I thought made it obvious that this was a self-pub. I don't think I've ever seen kthxbye in a passage before.

Tl;dr needed more utilisation of the vlogging. Had there been scripts of vlogs rather than emails, the title would have been a better fit. Right now it's just another novel about a penpal who isn't who they seem, which the synopsis prepares you for but geez.

Also not enough romance to warrant a reread for fluff. Bummer.

One star for the beginning. The rest of the book bumps it up a bit.

Nothing particularly groundbreaking about this. After reading too many dystopians I was hoping the concept would make this one more interesting, but it's just about breaking rebelling against the system. In series form. Again.

This book suffers from that whole ‘adults are useless' trope. All the parents just willingly go with it and the kids aren't even allowed to mourn anything because it's immediately assumed they're depressed? Like, is this actually America today? If so, I am concerned.

I love memory-wiping and brainwashing books, but the execution of this one made my eyes roll. Is this futuristic or alternate universe? I can't remember, and typing on my phone means I can't scroll up and check. The concept of what they're doing in the book, with the rehabilitation, seems very backwards and hard to believe. Maybe I would have liked the story better if it was told in a less linear way? That may be cliche, but it works in making you want more.

Also, from a scientific point of view, how does drugging and ‘fixing' one generation ensure the safety of the next when the ‘disease' is genetic?

i borrowed this from the library and encountered it at a book sale for cheap around the same time. passed on it at the sale because i had borrowed but not read it yet, which i immediately regretted once i finished the book. i think this was the book that really kickstarted my love for quiet, contemporary short story collections with female-driven narratives.

It's OVER? And now I have to wait ANOTHER YEAR?!?!?!

No. Ugh. No.

This book takes the cake when it comes to unsatisfactory conclusions.

Seriously.

Sometimes it's really nice to be able to dive into a book that you can clasp your hand to your mouth about and go, “oh my god, I understand what you mean.” Culture-wise, anyway. The Hokkien references made me go !!! as did a lot of the other stuff, really. ALSO LOGAN AND STACEY MADE ME THINK OF SOME ALTERNATE BABY-SITTER'S CLUB TIMELINE.

It's such an adorable read uuuuughhh.

I finished it. And I didn't hate it.

The key to enjoying this novel is simple: turn your brain off. Reasoning has no place here. After a certain point your mind just adjusts to the weirdness and you shrug it off because the next page is definitely going to spiral down even more.

It's not even a spiral. It's just a steady decline.

A few chapters in, I realised that if I continued on with the mental state I was reading the book with, I'd give up. So my mind began to gloss over. La dee da, yes that is ridiculous and I know you want to snark but ignore those minor things, just carry on. Wow, stereotypes. Oh, the cliches. And all the whipped cream and oral fixations?

Probably the grossest part of the book. Let us put those things behind us. But I persevered. And I ended up getting absorbed into it. I enjoyed it. I thought, ‘hey, props to you, Tyra, for your stand in what you believe in in the fashion world. Props to you for trying to fit it in.' I thought, ‘All weirdness aside, Bravo and Tookie could actually be a cute couple.'

I am ashamed.

The redeeming qualities are not found in the writing of the story. It is not in the names. Ci~L makes me wonder if I'll ever truly enjoy using tildes again. Somehow, though, Tyra Banks has managed to weave a compelling tale by crafting a world so unbelievable it could only be one you wander in a dream.

Because that's how I view this book. It makes a perfect dream world, really. One I would revisit and long to see again years after, just snippets. And the dark parts are pretty much akin to nightmare days. If Tyra had dreamt up the location first, I could see why she'd want to write about it. What I don't see is why she wanted to publish it.

Alas, the world ultimately also falls to the flaw of dream worlds: a lack of logic. What was this book about? Don't ask me. I don't know. I don't want to talk about it. The list of acknowledgments begins with rivers and restaurants rather than people.

That's right. Tyra managed to make even the acknowledgments weird.

To put it simply, this book was a mindfuck. And I don't use that word often.

I approached this trilogy with such trepidation, because I love Melina Marchetta's writing but despite the glowing praise I've heard for it, I wasn't sure I would adore it as much as her contemporary novels.

Now I'm stuck clinging onto a world and a cast of characters I just really don't want to leave.

Might have flailed a bit and squealed while rolling around my bed when I finished.

Um.

No. I don't have problems.

Is it bad that the one thing–or rather, person–who stuck to mind during the entire ordeal that was occurring in the book was Neil? Right from the get-go, when he was first introduced, I knew he was probably already dead.

And I was right.

And that makes me sad, because I think I liked him best.

Didn't really engage me, but I think it may be my fault for placing too high hopes in it.

~fabulous~

maybe it's my 2am brain talking, but i dove into this book expecting a few laughs (thanks, ontd) and ended up genuinely enjoying it. Definitely better than her other series, too - the hidden gem one. An easy read you can devour like cotton candy, yet something i couldn't stop flipping the pages of when i should have.