Title: Try Not to Breathe
Author: Jennifer R. Hubbard
Book #: Standalone
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Publish Date: January 19th 2012
Pages: 272
Format: Hardcover
Date Read (Throwback): October 18th 2012
Rating: ★★★★★ / out of 5
Sometimes, almost getting what you want is worse than never coming close.
Summary:Ryan spends most of his time alone at the local waterfall because it’s the only thing that makes him feel alive. He’s sixteen, post-suicidal, and trying to figure out what to do with himself after a stint in a mental hospital. Then Nicki barges into his world, brimming with life and energy, and asking questions about Ryan’s depression that no one else has ever been brave enough—or cared enough—to ask. Ryan isn’t sure why he trusts Nicki with his darkest secrets, but that trust turns out to be the catalyst that he desperately needs to start living again. (Synopsis taken from Goodreads)Review:I loved this book. I usually don't read books from a male's perspective mainly because.. well, I am female and we tend to have different perspectives on certain situations. However, I felt myself form an attachment to the narrator.Not only was the story moving, it was realistic. I am so glad that I read this book, and now I only wish that it could have been longer. Besides this, I don't really know what else to say that could possible explain my gratitude towards this writer for creating such a novel. One more thing I will say is that I laughed many times while reading this. Ryan is so sarcastic! I loved it. The hands down, funniest moment in this book was on page 86, when Ryan was telling us how Val used to paint a lot of abstract portraits of himself and Jake, while at Patterson. He stated that, when had seen his, he said "I think of myself more as a green triangle."I laughed, so hard.Overall, this book should be on everyone's to-read list! And if it isn't... It should be! Or else.
On My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/429559050
Title: This Song Will Save Your Life
Author: Leila Sales
Book #: Standalone
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publish Date: September 17th 2013
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: September 29th 2013
Rating: ★ / out of 5
But can you put a price on happiness? Really, if that's what it costs to make you glad to be yourself, then isn't it worth it?
Summary:
Making friends has never been Elise Dembowski’s strong suit. All throughout her life, she’s been the butt of every joke and the outsider in every conversation. When a final attempt at popularity fails, Elise nearly gives up. Then she stumbles upon a warehouse party where she meets Vicky, a girl in a band who accepts her; Char, a cute, yet mysterious disc jockey; Pippa, a carefree spirit from England; and most importantly, a love for DJing.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
This book was such a huge disappointment for me. Even before this book came out, all I heard and saw were non-stop rave reviews. Now, I'm not saying that this was a particularly bad book, but it obviously just wasn't for me.
__________
I am not going to tell you that the struggles Elise faces and the emotions and actions that come from it are unjustified. I have never been bullied at all, so I don't have any experience to draw on as far as that is concerned. I will say, though, that I have shared some of Elise's feelings due to other reasons.
However, I just didn't like her character. I couldn't connect to her at all, really, for a couple of reasons. First off, for someone who has been "bullied", I found her to be very harshly judgmental.
My friends are named Sally and Chava. They are both less popular than me, and I don't know why, but I hope it's because they are unbelievable boring.
Okay... ? What gives her the right to deem them "less popular" than her when she's battling her own popularity. Can't she just relish the fact that they are human beings who don't seem to hate her like everyone else apparently does for a reason that I still don't understand? She also gives us this little piece of... "advice" on how to make friends:
Making friends is actually not that hard when you drop every single one of your standards.
I can almost see the humor in this, but I refuse to acknowledge it. It makes sense, yes, but I just don't agree. I don't think you should ever drop every single one of your standards on anything. Yes, you can't always get everything you want in a person and you will have to make exceptions, but settling for anything? No. Also, just another example of how inconsiderate she is being to the two girls who seem to be the the only two living human beings in school who will actually stand her company.
There is also this statement that she makes about herself:
"Come here!" she called.
I obey direct orders... that's why I was crossing the street now. Because someone told me to."
Okay...
What really made me not like her the most, though, was the moment she thought she could "save her sister" from being teased because she was exceptional and good at something, by tearing to shreds the project she worked so hard on. Really just way too dramatic and not something I agreed with at all.
As far as the rest of the characters go, there weren't any that really stood out to me. I didn't like the love interest at all, and I only kinda-sorta liked Vicky and her band.
The story, is anything, showed the only point of redemption. I really like self-discoveries and while this wasn't the best one I have ever read, I did enjoy seeing how Elise changed at the end. I also liked how the author mixed in some mystery as to who was writing the blog, which I did not pick up on at all.
Overall, I would still recommend this book if you are interested in it. It just wasn't what I was hoping it would be.
Quotes:
"Yes," I said, and did not want to elaborate that I always had my headphones on so I wouldn't always have to hear the world around me.
That's the problem with life. You never get enough time to stare at your ceiling and try to figure out what's going on.
On My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/610214808#comment_form
Title: Mothership
Author: Martin Leicht & Isla Neal
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster books for Young Readers
Publish Date: June 10th 2012
Pages: 308
Format: Hardcover
Date Read : September 10th 2013
Rating: ★★★½ / out of 5
The Goober is still kicking me like the kid's trying to place in the Olympic freestyle, so I wrap my right arm as tight around my belly as I can, until I'm, like, choke-holding my own stomach, and I tell the thing, "When you get out of there, bub, the two of us are going to have words."
Summary:
Elvie Nara was doing just fine in the year 2074. She had a great best friend, a dad she adored, and bright future working on the Ares Project on Mars. But then she had to get involved with sweet, gorgeous, dumb-as-a-brick Cole—and now she’s pregnant.
Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship—and one of them turns out to be Cole. She hasn’t seen him since she told him she’s pregnant, and now he’s bursting into her new home to tell her that her teachers are aliens and want to use her unborn baby to repopulate their species? Nice try, buddy. You could have just called.
So fine, finding a way off this ship is priority number one, but first Elvie has to figure out how Cole ended up as a commando, work together with her arch-nemesis, and figure out if she even wants to be a mother—assuming they get back to Earth in one piece.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
This book is a super fun, light read about the future, pregnancy and aliens. It has the concept of a contemporary with the feel of a science-fiction adventure. While this is definitely not something I would normally read, I am glad I did. This book is hilarious. Elvie is sassy and super smart, and I knew that I would want her by my side during an alien invasion! I also really liked the side characters Ducky and Ramona. I thought they were good friends for Elvie.
What is up with that love interest, though? Elvie literally states multiple times that he is dumb as a bag of bricks. Even dumber than that, actually. But, of course, his super good looks are utterly irresistible and he "loves Elvie" so she loves him and forgives him, too. I wasn't really a big fan of him or the romance, but I don't hold it against the book too much.
Unfortunately, what I do hold against the book is the plot. It started off very fun and not too uncomplicated, and then soon became way too messed up for what it started out to be. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but basically there are two different races of aliens, one "good" and the other "bad", and they both want these pregnant teenage girls. Honestly, though, I had a hard time seeing the one as good:
"So you're saying we'd be hunkered down in caves, counting on our fingers and toes, without you guys? Scratching pictures on walls and humming to ourselves, is that it? That justifies selective sterilization?"
"Humankind has flourished with us."
"Maybe the species has flourished. But not the poor girls you rob of any choice of what to do with their bodies. What to do with their lives. They're just incubators to you."
This is basically my argument. Enough said. And, at this point, I was expecting the girls to revolt and refuse the "good" aliens' help. Unfortunately, they did not, but they were also in a very sticky situation as they were stranded on a spaceship. Who knows what will happen in the second book!
Then, and this I will talk about even less, there is quite the discussion of abortion/termination of these weeks away from being due babies. I am not going to state my opinion on the matter, but I will say that I admire the protagonist for choice, and the message she sent:
I don't know anything about the Goober, not really. I don't know what he'll look like, act like, want to eat. He'll be a completely foreign creature to me, without a single strand of my DNA.
What I do know, though, is that he could grow up to be someone amazing. Important. How could I deny the world a child who may one day grow up to cure CMS? Or compose the next great symphony? Or develop a brave new political philosophy?
And if I raise the baby, I can make it more than simply the sum of the great genes it was born with. I can teach it the things that make human beings so wonderful- the joy of blowing bubbles on a sunny day, the oppotunity to go to school, to have a family. The unconditional love of a real, true parent who already knows that great things lie in store for him, and can help prepare him for them. If I raise this baby, it will be mine, DNA or not. When it comes to caring for the species or caring for the individual, sometimes you don't have to choose.
My mind made up at last, I wrestle my phone out of my pocket and open a new message box.
keeping it
Overall, even though Elvie had so many plans for her life and worried that having a baby would ruin them, she learns that she can still do those things. She doesn't have to let having a baby hold her back. I really found her to be a strong and easily admirable character. I would totally recommend this book!
Quotes:
I wanted to ask her if when her baby's born she's going to cut the horns off right away, or wait until the kid is older. But I'm a civil sort of gal, and civil sorts of gals don't say things like that.
I'm really hoping he'll go and get E. coli soon so I can donate my kidney and make it up to him, but so far he seems totally healthy. Which if you ask me is just being selfish.
But it turns out that the kind of guy you want to raise a baby with isn't always the kind you want to make one with in the first place.
"Watching soap operas without female company shrivels my man parts."
"You can make it!" I shout at her.
Ramona is less encouraging. "Bitch, drop the beach ball!"
"Conjugate this, asshole," she tells him, then socks him square in the jaw.
"Cole is the Picasso of Lower Merion High School," I tell Ramona. I point to my baby bump. "Behold, Guernica."
"Aaahhh," she says, nodding in Cole's direction. "Well, it's nice to meet the artist in his prime."
Which is more important to save- the individual or the group?
"Come on. That's it. Hoo-hoo-hooo, hee-hee,hee, hoo-hoo-hoo..."
"Keep that up, and I'm going to hit you right in your 'hoo-hoo.'"
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/716761577
Title: Along for the Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Book #: Standalone
Publisher: Speak
Publish Date: June 2012
Pages: 383
Format: Paperback, Reissue
Date Read: August 22nd 2013
Rating: ★★★ / out of 5
There were endless ways to spend your days, I knew that, none of them right or wrong. But given the chance for a real do-over, another way around, who would say no? Not me. Not then. Call it crazy, or just chicken salad. But within reason, or even without it, I was in, too.
Summary:
Up all night.
Nights have always been Auden's time, her chance to escape everything that's going on around her.
Then she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, and he becomes her nocturnal tour guide.
Now, with an endless supply of summer nights between them, almost anything can happen...
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
This is my first Sarah Dessen book. There, I said it. Honestly, contemporary romance just isn't my thing. I did, however, need lighter read to have with me while I was on vacation at the beach because the book I was currently reading was a 500+ page long horror story. So, yes. I needed a contemporary romance for the time being.
While the first page of this book boasts that you will "Read her once. Fall in love." This was sadly not the case for me.
__________
I liked most of the characters, to a degree. The only character I really managed to connect with was Auden, though I did have problems with her character. I did like the love interest, Eli, but honestly there was nothing overly swoon worthy about him to me, especially compared to some other love interests I am still in love with. The friends that Auden makes are pretty cool. Her parents, though... Those people were a trip. I just could not.
The only characters I am going to go into detail about are Auden, her mother and her father. They were the ones I had the most thoughts built up on by the end of the story. All the other characters were enjoyable to read about, but not extremely memorable in my opinion.
-----
Auden's main goal has always been to gain her parent's praise. She works hard in school to achieve the highest grades. Unfortunately, all her focus on school work has left her with a lacking (or nonexistent) social life. While I am not a brainiac like she is, I was able to connect to Auden for this reason because I, too, didn't really have much of a social life. While I do love hanging out with friends and going places, I mostly like to keep to myself. I never went to any of the school dances, including my senior prom, and spent most of my time nerding it up in the library (a.k.a. "media center").
However, I found her to be a bit of a hypocrite and, despite the fact that later on in the book we definitely see a split between who her mother is and who Auden is, it is apparent that her mother has rubbed her fudgemental ways off onto her. I say she seemed to be a hypocrite because multiple times she complains that Heidi talks way to much, going on and on and on. Yet, she does the same thing. At least two times in this book, when she is talking to Eli, she starts running her mouth off so much that you just want to yell at her to shut up.
As far as being like her mother, Auden makes this comment about Maggie which I found to be totally shallow and inappropriate:
Here you had the capability to know so much about so many things, and you chose shoes and clothes. Leah at least seemed smart, while Esther, who clearly followed her own beat, was an individual. But Maggie was just... well, she was just like Heidi. A girl's girl, all the way, all pink and fluff and frivolity. Even worse, she was happy about it.
Bitch, please. Who do you think you are?
But then, she also pulls a moment like this were she comes off as being strong and agreeable:
"Says who? Society. The same society, I might add, that dictates that little girls should always be sugar and spice and everything nice, which encourages them to not be assertive. And that, in turn, then leads to low self-esteem, which can lead to eating disorders and increased tolerance and acceptance of domestic, sexual and substance abuse."
My final verdict on her is that she is still very judgmental and I didn't like the comments she made about certain people. However, I still did like some of her opinions and enjoyed watching her change some opinions she had over the course of the novel.
Her father is a egotistical, sexist pig head who is just so obviously self-centered that is is laughable. He has a newborn baby and contributes absolutely nothing to helping with the care-giving. He assumes that his wife is happily taking care of the baby, cleaning the house and making dinner for him. He also has no problem dumping all his baby duties off to his daughter who is supposed to be spending her time there vacationing and not babysitting. He makes this statement which was really the final straw for me so much that, despite how much he might have "changed" by the end, I am glad I don't have to ever deal with him again:
"If you were an Ashley or a Lisa, not an Auden, do you think you'd be so special?"
Excuse me?
I'm not even really sure what to label her mother. She is just a piece of work. She gives her daughter the bitchiest pieces of advice, such as things like: "Oh, darling, don't be bitter. It's the first instinct of the weak" and "A smart woman knows a fling is always best."... She, too, is a big fat hypocrite who openly shows her distaste for women who are "feminine" and not "assertive" "enough" or "smart" "enough", but then complains about her son's fiance being too smart and serious for him. She raises Auden to be smart and sensible, but hates the idea of her son settling down and becoming a bank teller when she would rather him go back to partying around Europe and living off her money. No. Just no.
-----
The story just didn't wow me. Maybe there is not supposed to be a major, main plot line in these sorts of books, but I found myself reading without any idea what I was supposed to be looking forward to in the end.
Was the story supposed to revolving around Auden learning how to ride a bike? Or learning to give second chances? Or discovering herself? Or learning to like Heidi? Finding a name for the bike shop? Learning to balance school and a social life? Completing her quest? Getting a second chance at prom? It is mostly a mix of all of these things and I don't know why this bothered me, but it did. A major plot with a beginning, middle and end felt non-existent to me.
Overall, for something I was expecting to be a light, summer read, a lot more thought and analysis came out of this book than I really hoped for. It was okay, but nothing as wonderful as I heard all Sarah Dessen's books were supposed to be. I may or may not read more of them, but I would still recommend.
Quotes:
But I still kind of wondered, that night and so many others, what I was missing.
"People don't change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less."
So I took the checkbook, nodded, and walked out the door, leaving them- as I had so many other groups- to say whatever they would about me once I was gone.
"That first love. And the first one who breaks your heart. For me, they just happen to be the same person. At least I'm efficient, right?"
"Who says there has to be a point? Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do."
"Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that."
"Failing sucks. But it's better than the alternative."
"Which is?"
"Not even trying." Now he looked at me, straight on. "Life's short, you know?"
"People change."
"Or they don't. Sometimes, they don't."
When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder- if not impossible- to lose.
I had these experiences, these tales, more of this life. So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.
"So you don't want me to take you," he said.
"No," I replied. "But I'll meet you there."
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/701288123
Title: The Age of Miracles
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Book #: Standalone
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publish Date: June 1st 2012
Pages: 369
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: August 18th 2013
Rating: ★★★★★ / out of 5
But among the artifacts that will never be found- among the objects that will disintegrate long before anyone from elsewhere arrives- is a certain patch of sidewalk on a California street where once, on a dark afternoon in summer at the waning end of the year of the slowing, two kids knelt down together on the cold ground. We dipped our fingers in the wet cement, and we wrote the truest, simplest things we knew- our names, the date and these words:We were here.
Summary:
What if our 24-hour day grew longer, first in minutes, then in hours, until day becomes night and night becomes day? What effect would this slowing have on the world? On the birds in the sky, the whales in the sea, the astronauts in space, and on an eleven-year-old girl, grappling with emotional changes in her own life..?
One morning, Julia and her parents wake up in their suburban home in California to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth is noticeably slowing. The enormity of this is almost beyond comprehension. And yet, even if the world is, in fact, coming to an end, as some assert, day-to-day life must go on. Julia, facing the loneliness and despair of an awkward adolescence, witnesses the impact of this phenomenon on the world, on the community, on her family and on herself.
(synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
While I did have a problem with this book, I cannot stand to give it anything less than 5 stars because I found the writing to be absolutely beautiful.
It didn't really hit me at first, and I almost stopped reading because the story wasn't going in exactly the direction I thought it would. However, as I kept on reading I just fell in love with the certain words that the author chose and how she crafted sentences and placed them at the ends of chapters so that you sat back and really pondered the deeper meanings.
I know not everyone will see it this way, and I do have to say that, if I didn't, I probably would have found the story a bit boring. And it was for me, in the beginning. I was so bored that I almost decided to put this book down. I didn't see myself connecting to Julia or her family from the start, and the story wasn't providing any solid science-fiction explanations as to why the slowing was happen.
While, by the end of the book, we still don't have answers as to why all this happened, I was able to connect to Julia. She is shy and feels alone a lot, and has a fleeting, first romance with the boy at the bus stop.
Overall, The Age of Miracles is definitely more contemporary than sci-fi, but I did enjoy the uncertainty and unusual-ness that the slowing created. It brought up a whole new world in which everyone was trying to adjust to and, at the end, left me wondering what we would do if this happened to us.
Quotes:
But, of course, there was nowhere on earth to go.
It was, at the beginning, a quite invisible catastrophe.
"Que será, será. That's what I always say. Whatever will be, will be."
The real catastrophes are always different- unimagined, unprepared for, unknown.
"The only thing you have to do in this life is die. Everything else is a choice."
I think we lost something when we lost that crisp rhythm, some general shared belief that we could count on certain things.
So much that seemed harmless in daylight turns imposing in the dark. What else, you had to wonder, was only a trick of light?
We were like wanderers in a desert, blessed with a rare downpour but unable to store the rain.
"Things change," she said. "But not everything has to."
Still the slowing went on and on. The days stretched. One by one, the minutes poured in- and even a trickle, as we have come to understand, can eventually add up to a flood.
"The thing about an explosion," he said, "is that it only takes a second."
"I hate things that aren't fair."
I nodded. "Me, too."
We were young and we were hungry. We were strong and growing stronger, so healthy we were bursting.
I should have known by then that it's never the disasters you see coming that finally come to pass; it's the ones you don't expect at all.
I remembered shivering in my parka and wondering about the difference between coincidence and fate.
"We're seeing something here," said one researcher, "that undermines our entire understanding of physics."
Sometimes the saddest stories take the fewest words.
& All of page 267
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/404710444
Title: The Ruining
Author: Anna Collomore
Book #: Standalone
Publisher: Razorbill
Publish Date: February 7th 2013
Pages: 313
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: August 13th 2013
Rating: ★★½ / out of 5
"I already had my chance," She whispered close to my ear. "This is yours. Get out of here and don't come back."
Summary:
Annie has struggled in life, traumatized by her little sister's death, and wants nothing more than to pack up and leave for college to start a new life. And then, she gets the opportunity, takes it, and begins again in California.
At first, her new life seems perfect- her employers are great, her job is enjoyable and she is even falling in love with the boy next door. Suddenly, though, cracks begin appearing in the perfect scenery and Annie begins to question her grip on reality as it all comes crashing down.
Review:
I love these types of stories. Mental illnesses are my favorite part of studying psychology, and I hope to one day write a book that blurs the lines between reality and imaginary, sane and insane.
Unfortunately, this book doesn't pull the insane concept off as well as I thought The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and Insanitydid. Those stories were complete mind-f***s. This story, however, was not.
__________
First off, the story. Like I said, I really enjoy books that deal with this concept of mental illness. However, in The Ruining it felt all too obvious that something was off and that the main character was not right in the head. The one major twist, (view spoiler), was something that I was able to predict though I could see how some people might find it surprising. It definitely was a good twist, I felt.
I just didn't like how obvious so early on it was that something was up. And, in the end, the fix wasn't really there. I guess besides some medication and a little treatment, I was expecting some sort of big breakthrough (besides the twist). I had hoped for more, really, and the story just fell too flat for me and fizzled out instead of going out with a bang.
Annie, the protagonist, wasn't really like-able to me. I actually found her to be rude and self-centered. And, even though what happened to her was horrible and all, I never really felt it emotionally. We are told she believes she is responsible for her sister's death, but I never really felt it in the feels. She had some moments when I liked her, but she never ascended to the level of connection or even admiration. As far as she is concerned, she wanted to live the "college life" of drinking and partying. That made it hard for me to connect with her at all to begin with.
The love interest was good, I thought. Not great. Definitely not great. But I loved his interactions with Annie (when they weren't being all melodramatic, which was another downfall of this story). You can really sense the connection between them and I thought their relationship was paced well.
Libby.. well, Libby was pretty messed up. No need to sugar coat that at all.
Overall, I felt this story had a great premise but didn't live up to my expectations of it. Like Wendy says in her review of this book, it just became way too obvious and overly dramatic instead of mysterious mind-fuckery.
Quotes:
"The smartest lady doesn't carry and baggage. She knows how to leave it in the past."
"Sometimes when things are broken, baby, you just can't fix them, no matter how hard you try."
I spent the rest of the night in my room, crying. But not amount of crying made it any better. The pain was deep and aching, worse that anything I'd ever felt. Worse than any amount of physical I could imagine. I felt sick inside, and incredibly alone.
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/683446920
