The Knife of Never Letting Go Review!

*cue trumpets* That's right! I finally finished The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness! The first book in the Chaos Walking series, and is I believe one of three books. What a read, ye gods this book was going to be the death of me! It took enough time to finish it let's not dawdle on the review.

Synopsis:
Todd lives in a town where woman don't exist anymore and he's the last boy in town. This means a lot of things for Todd, for the town. A boy growing up in a town of men in a world where thoughts ring out as clear as day. A town with a shady past cut off from the rest of the world and a boy who seems outside their normal. And then Todd finds the silence, slicing through the noise of men's thoughts like a razor and he's running, running, running.

Review:

4/5

I've never wanted to hate a book and love a book so much at once. Hence why it took so long to read. The first day I sat down with this book I wanted to burn it. This is one speshul, annoying,  frushtrating book. And yes, I know how I wrote it and I ain't fixing it! I cringe at it and have grown used to it. If you want to read this book it's words like that that you'll have to get used to. I highly, HIGHLY suggest you read the first couple of chapters in one sitting and then put it down. Rant to high heaven about it's spelling and it's weird fonts and everything that makes you think this is the first book you'll put down this year and scream at it and say 'I'm never picking this stupid book up again!'.

Then do one more thing- a favour to yourself really. Pick. Up. The. Book.

Say what?

PICK UP THE BOOK! *embodies the mom from the new karate kid movie. You know what I'm talking about. (and if for some reason you don't: watch this.)*

Then when you reach the end you can thank me. I swore I was going to hate this book and burn it, but I would read it because it's on my 2015 pop sugar list and I refuse to not read it if it's on my list. Then I read it and things changed. Manchee goes from unbearably annoying to a lovable, enjoyable character. Todd goes from not very enjoyable to that character you're rooting for through everything. And that ending, that ending Patrick Ness! OH THE FEELS! I need the next book, and if I didn't just buy eight more on top of the six I still have to read on my shelves I would finish work and go to the bookstore no stops in between.

STOP. Let's slow down and break it down.

1. That grammar and those words are painful, and at the start you think everyone's going to be talkin' speshul like and then you're so relieved when they don't! And there's weird font changes and random words... let me show you:

*These images are strictly for the intent of showing the uniqueness of the book, they are not intended to violate any copyrights. The writing and all it's glory belong to Patrick Ness and Candlewick Press. 

2. That ^ occurs a number of times. First thought when I saw it: what a waste of paper... You can read some of it, but it doesn't tell you anything important and it doesn't even make sense if you try to string it together, believe me I tried.

3. You quickly find out that all the quirky writing and fonts are to set the mood of the book. Different characters have different ways of talking and spelling and fonts. The pages of words tell you just how busy the world is, what it's like when you can hear everyone's thoughts.

Bottom line:

Let go of everything your brain is telling you is wrong and just read it, you will enjoy it.

WARNING:
If you have the same copy as above, when you get to the end and have read the short story and you see a 'read the next instalment in the Chaos Walking series... blah blah blah' and there's a picture and some blurbs beside it DON'T READ THEM because the third book description has a spoiler in it and now I'm mad.

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That's it for this series right now, at least until I get a few of my books out of my TBR pile. Be on the lookout for my next review for Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. I'm excited for this one, I've heard good things. So until then, my friends.

Afterworlds Review!

So after seeing it on my Goodreads currently reading list for what feels like ever, I finally got around to finishing this. Which means that I successfully have knocked another book off of my 2015 Reading Challenge list- the book I started but never finished.

I originally started this book in December and literally about half way through I put it down and didn't pick it up again until now. There's mixed feelings on this one and some definite ups and downs, points I like and points I really don't so this may be a long one folks, but here we go.

Synopsis:
18 year old Darcy writes a novel and finds herself travelling through her first big trip into the world of publication. Meanwhile her character Lizzie lives the life Darcy has wrote her. Darcy follows a path of personal ups and downs living a year of firsts: first time living on her own, first time publishing, first loves, first heartbreaks. Lizzie lives through a life changing terrorist attack that changes her life and death in a way she's never expected.

Review:

3/5

I gave these nearly 600 pages a 3/5 for lots of reasons, which was a little disappointing. I'll start by saying I became interested in this book after watching Benjaminoftomes talk about it in one of his videos on Youtube. The idea is really promising, really interesting and I had high hopes and if I was younger this might have done it for me, but at 22 it really didn't.

For the first half of the book Darcy's personal story is nothing short of boring. In some perfect world maybe everything happening to her would be possible, but it's all just a little too good to be true. She participates in what is obviously Nanowrimo and her 'wrote in 30 days novel' is sent to a publishing company. She gets a massive advance and they think she's going to be mega popular with her first book. Not realistic. If Westerfeld had toned it down a little bit then this could have been a believable story. 30 day novel, fixed up and sent to publishing, they take it on she gets some sort of advance and on and on. But it wouldn't have been as glamorous. 

Ultimately, I only wanted to read every other chapter in the first half - as in Lizzie's story. Then the second half happened and things picked up a little bit on Darcy's end. However, at that point I was getting over Lizzie's situation and was starting to find it a little repetitive. With about a quarter of the book left, both stories heated up for a decent finale. Overall I think I would have enjoyed the actual book Darcy was writing as a full, proper read on it's own. At times I feel like Darcy's stories muddied it up a bit. It almost would have been a better choice to sandwich large sections of each instead of chapter by chapter, I feel like I might have connected quicker and maybe not put this down. 

The characters I thought, were very contrasting. Darcy seemed to wait for things to be handed to her where Lizzie wanted to take action and solve things on her own. This did make it a little difficult for me to set into a 'deep read' and live in the story, which paired with the chapter situation I already mentioned made me want to move on from this book with no urge to pick it up.

This is a really frustrating book to rate as it is basically two drastically different novels binded together. 'Afterworlds' (Darcy's novel), is a story I would pick up and devour. 'Afterworlds' (Westerfeld's story of Darcy) would have made a cute contemporary that I probably would have looked past and never had a second thought about it. 

In the end, the writing was done well and it's a beautiful book and maybe one day I'll read it again. But because I'm so split, I'm giving this book a middle score of 3/5. Next time around I might just read all the black sections and then all of the white and see if that changes my opinion any. Until that time I'll be moving on to another. My next read will be The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. 

The Trouble With Goodbye Review!

So, I didn't really intend to read this book but for Nanowrimo I'm going to try and write in a genre I don't normally write in, and the best way to familiarize myself with it is to read it. Romance novels, contemporary novels in general are somewhat new to me, something I always shied away from in favour of sci-fi, fantasy really anything other than the 'real world'. I blame John Green for this new found love, but then I suppose I don't blame him I should thank him.

I picked this book out for a few reasons but honestly wasn't expecting much. I just finished a heavier book (The Silence of the Lambs, see my review here) and I needed something light, but I wasn't finding it on my shelf. So I searched through some e-books. I found this one for FREE in the Google Play store if anyone wants to give it a try.

Synopsis:

Since I had never heard of this book before today, I feel safe in assuming I'm probably not the only one, so here's the quick version:
 
After a life changing college event Leigh Ann Davis finds herself coming back to the town she thought she had left behind. Two years after leaving, she feels like a completely different person than the ambitious girl who left for school only the short time before. Leigh Ann struggles to come to terms with the events that caused her to leave Boston and the expectation of the family and friends she's returning to. When she meets and begins to fall for Knox Warner there's more than just expectations on the line, when she's faced with the biggest decision of her life.

Review:

3.5/5

I hadn't expected much out of this and was pleasantly surprised when I found myself wanting to get back to it whenever I stopped reading. I do plan to read the sequel, as this is the first in the Fairhope series. I believe the series currently consists of four novels which follow the happenings of various characters in the town of Fairhope. 

I liked that this wasn't the pure fluff I thought it was going to be, there was some substance to it, granted it wasn't nearly as packed as my usual reads. This novel was a quick read, squeezed it in during work. That being said, 3.5 certainly isn't a 5 of 5.

This story lost points from me as it seemed quick, there were places where things could have been explained more and places where I wished characters like the mother would just shut up. The mother and father grind on my nerves and I know they're put there for the sake of connection. Everyone at some point gets to the age where they struggle with their parents about making their own decisions about their life. I just wished Cannon has toned it down a bit, by the end I felt like her decisions were being shoved down my throat.

The other thing that made it lose points for me was the event in Boston. I know that part of the whole deal in this book was the hard time she was having with the events that happened, but I didn't really like the way the author avoided it for so long. I read it and almost instantly knew what had happened but rather than saying it and making the opening up about it and the reader knowing what happened two different things they were grouped together in a way that seemed almost anti-climatic to me.

But the writing wasn't bad and I found myself really liking the main characters and feeling their struggles. I liked the lightness of their interactions and the seriousness they have at points, it's simple and believable and I enjoyed it.

I haven't read much romance before so I have nothing to really judge this against but I am interested in seeing where this series goes, it won't be the first sequel I jump on to read but you can expect to see a review for the sequel at some point.

Book vs Movie: The Silence of the Lambs

If you've read through my profile you'll know that the Hannibal series is on my list of favourite movies and The Silence of the Lambs has been for many years. For some odd reason I hadn't bothered to read it, I had read one out of the Hannibal series - Hannibal Rising but never the others. Then while in college, living in a small apartment over a used book store for a short period I spotted The Silence of the Lambs out on their sidewalk table and I snapped it up - I had to read it. It sat on my shelves though, along with the other books I had got at the same time and never bothered to read. Then a few things happened:

1. Project TBR
2. 0x16
3. 2015 reading challenge

So I looked at the challenges and decided to mash them together, I would try and fill my challenge topics with mostly old books sitting on my shelf and so The Silence of the Lambs was lifted from the dust again.

If you don't know what this book is about then at this point I'm guessing that you probably don't want to, but here you are anyways.

Synopsis:
A young agent in training for the FBI named Clarice Starling yearns for acceptance to the FBI. Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the famous cannibal sits locked in an asylum after being caught for serial murder. Dead girls are found floating, pieces of skin taken from their bodies, and somewhere a man they call 'Buffalo Bill' is plotting his next strike. With the FBI overloaded and under pressure to solve the serial murders, Section Chief Jack Crawford calls on Starling to assist in some information gathering. Soon Starling finds herself face to face with none other than Hannibal Lecter and though terrible she's intrigued by the small bits of information he provides. It doesn't take long and she finds herself on the case, chasing down the notorious Buffalo Bill.

Review:
The book is just as brilliant as the movie, and at the same time a bit of a let down because of it. As someone who has read another of the Hannibal books, which was adapted much later to film (Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris) and was pleased to find some differences, I'm not pleased to say there wasn't much this time around. If you've watched the movie and are looking to read the book for those left out scenes and things that have been changed for the cinematic universe, you will be disppointed.

Though this book is well written and I'm sure would have been creepy, suspenseful and just the right amount of thrilling excitement, it was lost because of the movie. I wish I had had the sense at 14 to read the book before I ever let the movie play across the screen. The movie is <i>very</i> similar to the book, sure there are some differences, you learn more about Jack Crawford, you learn a little more about Buffalo Bill and how he goes about his plans, but mostly you get Clarice Starling and some slightly altered conversations with most of it being the same.

Though some may suggest otherwise, I wouldn't say that having the characters in your mind from the movie coming into this book is a bad thing. There really isn't much by the means of physical description given to the main character - Clarice, and minimal descriptors to the other characters. With things being so much the same it's very easy to picture <i>everything</i> in the book. Kudos to the directors and everyone behind the making of the movie, their adaptation was spot on, no one should have need to read the book.

The main differences you'll see between the two have mostly to do with the investigation. The book puts Starling as a bit more of a rule breaker, an agent willing to bend the rules a bit, willing to get kicked out of the academy in order to get the bad guy. Just like the movie, there is never something not happening within these 367 pages, things connecting, clues being left and leads to follow. I can totally understand why this book rose to the popularity that it did, especially in the year that it did. Today it's not as much the shocking thriller it was meant to be, in my own opinion anyways, with things like the Hunger Games - children murdering children classifying as a young adult novel.

Though the book was very well written and should have been a spectacular read, I wish I didn't take the time to read it - the movie did that for me.

The Last Hour...

So my first read-a-thon has come to an end and I have some mixed feelings about it. My day off was busier than anticipated and though I did get some reading in, I'm not all that sure it was more than I would have without the read-a-thon in place. That being said I'm interested in trying again maybe I'll challenge myself next weekend on our road trip to BC, plenty of time there!

In my previous read-a-thon post, I suggested that I may be done The Darkest Part of the Forest before the start of the read-a-thon, however I decided to save it. So I read almost two books in the 24 hours, not bad but I know I could do better. I'll be sure to write up a book vs. movie review for The Silence of the Lambs at some point today as I've always enjoyed the movie but this is my first time reading the book.

Did you participate in the challenge? How many books do you generally read in a read-a-thon?

Next time I think I'll do a couple things to improve my consumption of words.

1. Stay up for the night, or at least later than normal maximize on the opportunity. I definitely would have been about to get that third book in if I had.

2. Plan to be busy and prepare myself with an audiobook. I spent a couple hours out an about, if I had had an audiobook I could have gone along 'reading' while doing everything else.

3. Participate in the group activities to make endless hours of reading more fun than it already is!

4. Have snacks... lots of snacks.

That is everything I accomplished for this first read-a-thon, not too bad I don't think. I'll post the other review after breakfast.

PS. Yes, I love Doctor Who, amongst other things.

A Day of Firsts...

So today is a day of firsts. The first day I've ever blogged for real like, not Tumblr (they call them blogs but are they really?... I just look at the pretty pictures...) and for another first, my first blog post - if that wasn't obvious by that first first I posted. Today also marks the first day of the first read-a-thon I've participated in! It's also the first day of spring (not that you would know that here, at a toasty -17c) but that still means summer is coming so this kid is happy!

Alas, this is a reading blog, so I'll get onto the reading part - you know, that read-a-thon I was talking about? This is the 'First Term Read-a-thon' from the 2015 Reading Challenge group on Goodreads taking place from 8pm CST time (an hour ahead of myself) for 24hours. I don't know where to set my goals for this as I have never done a read-a-thon before so I'm going to set it to something I think may be attainable and I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

I hope to be able to hammer out a couple of books in the prescribed 24hrs and knock a couple more books off my personal 2015 challenge list. So I will be reading (or trying to read):

This is topic four in my challenge - a book published this year. I plan to finish this as I have already started it. Isn't the cover gorgeous?! When I saw it I knew that I had to have it and of course I've also heard amazing things about Holly Black. However, there are many hours between now and the start of the read-a-thon so this may be done or nearly done by then.

This is topic ten in my challenge - a mystery or thriller. I loved these movies, and I actually read Hannibal Rising already so when I saw this at the used book store I scooped it up. Despite being anxious to read it at the time, I never got past the first few pages - too carried away with life. This is the perfect opportunity.

And if time allows I'll finish this one up! This is topic 52 in my reading challenge - a book you started but never finished. I've already read almost half of this book and it was good, but for some reason I decided to put it down and read twenty other books first... I'll be happy to finish this one, another with a nice cover. Quick note: the downfall of this book is that the pages are white and I mean WHITE wash your hands and don't eat anything while you read this one because they pages are easily dirtied.

IN THE EVENT THAT BOOK ONE IS FINISHED BY THE START OF THIS SHINDIG:

I shall read...

Don't judge me... Ok judge all you want. This is week two for the challenge and I bent the exactness of this one a bit - a romance. Many will be up in arms over me calling it a 'romance' and I agree, I don't think there's much of a romance here, maybe a hint here and there. However, the story parts of the series draw me in a bit, even though it drips in it's former Twilight life. Plus there's a relationship there and regardless of if you agree or disagree with it's romance aspect - it's there. Mostly though, I just have a strong urge to finish the series.


So that's it! Call me crazy, and maybe I am, I'll post an update tomorrow night and we'll see where I stand!