Review: Shatter Me, by Tahereh Mafi

Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Pub. Date: November 15, 2011
Genre: Dystopia, Romance

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.-Goodreads

Warning: This review will be filled with spoilers and and a lot of ranting about Shatter Me

2 Stars

Is it bad that I hated this book that everyone else seems to love? Everything about it annoyed me; the characters, the badly executed storyline (that could have had potential), the million love interests and the writing style... don't even get me started on the writing style. and what was with all this?

Summer and I have agreed that Shatter Me is just one of those books that we love to hate. Sure, I will admit that both the storyline and the writing had huge potential and from just the blurb I thought that it would be a book I would enjoy, but then why did I finish Shatter Me feeling frustrated and angry and here's a short(ish) list why.

Mini-Reviews: Trouble and Delirium

Title: Trouble

Author: Non Pratt

Genre: Contemporary

Publication Date: March 6, 2014

In this dazzling debut novel, a pregnant teen learns the meaning of friendship—from the boy who pretends to be her baby’s father.

When the entire high school finds out that Hannah Shepard is pregnant via her ex-best friend, she has a full-on meltdown in her backyard. The one witness (besides the rest of the world): Aaron Tyler, a transfer student and the only boy who doesn’t seem to want to get into Hannah’s pants. Confused and scared, Hannah needs someone to be on her side. Wishing to make up for his own past mistakes, Aaron does the unthinkable and offers to pretend to be the father of Hannah’s unborn baby. Even more unbelievable, Hannah hears herself saying “yes.”

Told in alternating perspectives between Hannah and Aaron, Trouble is the story of two teenagers helping each other to move forward in the wake of tragedy and devastating choices. As you read about their year of loss, regret, and hope, you’ll remember your first, real best friend—and how they were like a first love. -Goodreads

Meh. That's what I thought of this book. It wasn't amazing and it wasn't terrible, just meh.

3.5 Stars

The first half of Trouble I loved! The storyline was interesting, the characters were realistic and so were their problems and then suddenly all of that seemed to change. The storyline got sort of boring, the characters started to really annoy me and the whole book seemed to be exactly like the sort of gossip you read on bathroom walls.

How to Tame Your TBR Pile

Some days I find myself scrolling through my recommended books Goodreads and adding an endless amount of books to my To Be Read pile. Today happened to be one of those days and I was left with a TBR list of 104 books. As a rule I try to stay below 100 so I think it's time that I clear it all up a bit and at the same time teach you all my three easy steps so that you can also tame your TBR list!

The Official Guide to Taming Your TBR List (as told by Tierra)

Step One. Move books that you have already read or are currently reading. This one may sound simple, but there's always a chance that you accidentally put a book on the wrong place. I always find at least one book that shouldn't be where it is and today was no exception.

Was: 104 | Now: 103

Flowchart: The Years of my Life (in books)

I really liked Summer"s flowchart and it looked like something fun to do so I created one of my own with all my favourite books over the years. I really had to narrow down all the books I wanted to put on there because there's only so much room on a flowchart and I think I've managed to include only my nine ultimate favourites.

If the ages don't seem right then they probably aren't. My memory really isn't that exact so I sort of had to just guestimate it all a bit.

So without further ado here's my flowchart. (click to enlarge)

I'm curious, did anyone else share the same favourites as me or were yours different? I'd love to know!

Review: Eleanor and Park, by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Eleanor and Park
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Pub. Date: February 26, 2013
Genre: YA Romance, Contemporary

Two misfits.
One extraordinary love.

Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Standing behind him until he turns his head. Lying beside him until he wakes up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough...Eleanor.

Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. He laughs at her jokes before she ever gets to the punch line. There's a place on his chest, just below his throat, that makes her want to keep promises...Park.

Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. -Goodreads

5 Stars

There are certain books out there that you just put your entire life on hold to finish; you don't socialise, you get very little sleep and any other work you were supposed to do is left undone. If you suffer from these symptoms then you are most likely reading a very good book and I can assure you all that Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is most definitely a good book!

Review: Cruel Summer, by James Dawson

Title: Cruel Summer
Author: James Dawson
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pub. date: August 1, 2013

A year after Janey’s suicide, her friends reunite at a remote Spanish villa, desperate to put the past behind them. However, an unwelcome guest arrives claiming to have evidence that Jane was murdered. When she is found floating in the pool, it becomes clear one of them is a killer. Only one thing is for certain, surviving this holiday is going to be murder…

A compelling and psychological thriller - with a dash of romance. -Goodreads

3.5 - 4 Stars

This is the first book I have read by James Dawson, but now that I have finished reading it I feel as though I have to read his début novel Hollow Pike because I enjoyed Cruel Summer so much. For those of you who skipped reading the summary this book is essentially a murder mystery, but with a twist and told in a very unique way.

Snarkfest: Character Tropes in YA

I'm already in a bad mood so I thought I'd put all my negativity towards something productive and trying out Summer's newest feature, Snarkfest. Right now it seems like the best way to channel my annoyance. Also in advance I'd actually like to say that I love some of these books and this is just my opinion so don't take it personally.

Today's topic is about just general overused character types in young adult. There are so many, more than I can count, so for the sake of not boring everyone I'll just include the first five that I can think of.

1. Mysterious Males

Examples: Fallen (Daniel), Evermore (Damen), Twilight (Edward) etc.

The MM (mysterious male) is usually either new to town or the not-so-mysterious female (let's call her BellaLuceEver, BLE for short) is the newbie. Either way the girl has never seen MM before making him extra mysterious. There is often a lack of family members and no way to find out anything more about MM. Tall, dark haired with tortured (or piercing) eyes and often found brooding in the corner this MM knows exactly how to pull in BLE. When MM's tortured past is finally revealed it will be made clear that he suffers everyday for whatever happened and to make it even better worse BLE is in some random way a constant reminder of what happened.

2. The New Girl

Examples: Twilight (Bella), Beautiful Creatures (Lena), Glass Houses (Claire) etc.

Out of all the character types I have just talked about I would have to say that this one occurs the most. I swear there was a period of time when every single book I picked up was about a new girl. This character type is just so overused, but also pretty unrealistic. Let me paint you a little picture. There's a new girl at your school. As she walks down the hall peoples heads do not turn to look at her because most students don't even realise that she's new. There are most likely more that a thousand other students at your school and the only people who will notice the new addition to that thousand are the people who are in her classes. Even then there will be the first initial curiosity, but then she'll be old news and everyone will go on with their life. The harsh reality is that yes, she will probably make a few friends (or not), but the whole school is not going to bow down at her feet. She will be shoved around by the seniors just like the rest of the juniors are. Get it into your head that new girls will NOT be the most sought after person in the school from the second the step through the gates!

3. Weak and Whiny Girls

Examples: Marked (Zoey), Twilight (Bella), Evernight (Bianca) etc.

For some very strange reason there seems to be an influx of female characters in YA that are completely unable to protect themselves and always have to rely on a big strong man to swoop in and save them. I don't expect them to wrestle crocodiles or climb mount Everest. No, I just want them to be able to stand up for themselves. At the first sign of conflict this weak and whiny girls will either cry, faint or go running back to their significant other so they can hide behind them. Weak and whiny females are often paired with the dangerous "bad boys". In the eyes of this weak and whiny girl the "bad boy" is really the only thing important to her and spoiler alert, after a lot of complications they will live together happily ever after. Please authors, just write about some strong female characters who don't need a male to complete the plot.

4. The Quirky BFF

Examples: Beautiful Creatures (Wesley "Link"), Hush Hush (Vee), City of Bones (Simon) etc.

I think that the idea of quirky characters actually has a lot of potential, but it's never the main character who has the weird quirks. No, we can't have the main characters fabulousness compromised by giving them a strange hobby so it's always gotta be the best friend. And it's always waaay overdone. A lot of the time there's actually no link between the quirkyness and the plot, it's just there so that the readers don't die of boredom. And although the quirky BFF's are often overdone and unrealistic, I am actually rather thankful towards these quirky BFF's. They are the comic relief in boring serious situations. Without them I know that I never would have even been able to finish certain books. *cough* beautiful creatures *cough*

5. Non-Existent Parents

Examples: The Harry Potter Series (Hermione's parents), Let the Sky Fall (Vane's parents), Delirium (Lena's parents) etc.

Having non-existent parents doesn't necessarily mean that the MC (main character) is an orphan (even though that is sometimes the case) it just means that the parents are there, but they are literally never mentioned. In books where the parents are never mentioned I just always think that the parents (since they never talk to their child) hav e absolutely zero interest in what's actually going on in their kids life. The MC could probably go join a nudist group and the parents would say nothing. Who knows, maybe there are actually no parents and for some strange reason the MC lives at home alone. That's the feeling I get sometimes when I read books where the parents never utter a word or make a single appearance. It's actually really strange now that I think about it. A caring parent would not let their child walk in and out of the house in the very early hours of the morning without some sort of excuse. Parents are such a normal part of everyday life that just not mentioning them and hoping nobody will notice is not going to work, please just think of a justifiable reason why the parents are never there.

I know I've missed some so what other overused character types annoy you? And apologies to Twilight and Beautiful Creatures for using them as an example more than once... that was completely unintentional.

Top Ten Tuesday #9: Top Ten Characters We'd Never Want To Trade Places With

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I (Tierra) noticed that there hasn't been a Top Ten Tuesday for a while on this blog, so I thought it would be fun if this week Summer and I did it together!

1. Penryn (Angelfall) - One thing I know for sure, I'd NEVER want to live in Penryn's post-apocalyptic-dystopian world where angels are taking over. Add that to having a psychotic mother and a lost sister, and you've got a very screwed-up world.

2. Puck (Iron Fey series) - I adore Puck. He will always be one of my favorite characters. But, throughout the series he's forced to do Meghan's dirty work, and is easily discarded once she meets Ash. He's treated like nothing, and he definitely doesn't deserve this unfair treatment.

3. Anyone from Of Poseidon aside from the main characters - Mostly because I feel bad for anyone who has to endure through the "ohmysweetgoodness!" exclamations and witness the barf-inducing relationship of Anna and Galen.

4. Mal (Shadow & Bone) - Poor Mal. I'm not his biggest fan, but he's always being made fun of by readers, just because he's "wimpy" or "boring". His presence is ignored once The Darkling is around, and he's just never good enough, no matter how hard he tries.

5. Gemma (Stolen) - Being drugged, kidnapped, and forced to live in the Australian outback is not exactly an ideal life. I would never, ever want to be in her situation. 

6. Any student at Hogwarts in the same year as Harry Potter (The Harry Potter Series) - Imagine how much stuff they had to go through because "The Chosen One" was battling something different every single year. I very much doubt that they got a substantial education.

7. A Katherine (An Abundance of Katherines) - I don't have anything against Colin, but all the way through the book the extent of each Katherines personality (apart from maybe K19) is just a number. I don't want to be just known as Katherine number 5 who was part of a mathematical equation.

8. Jacob Black (The Twilight Saga) - Always having to come second? No thanks. I almost felt sorry for him until he fell in love with Bella's daughter... Seriously, who does that?

9. Hazel Grace (The Fault in our Stars) - I admire Hazel so much, but I would not be able, nor would I want to deal with so much heartbreak and loss at such a young age. Having the knowledge that death is inevitably close would not be a nice way to live.

10. Anna (My Sister's Keeper) - She lives her life to keep someone else alive. She was literally only conceived so that she would be a bone marrow match for her sister. That sucks! And then to make it even worse she has to make the decision to stop helping her sister so that she can finally live her own life.

WHICH CHARACTERS WOULD YOU NEVER WANT TO TRADE PLACES WITH?