Review: Life is But a Dream by Brian James

Title: Life is But a Dream
Author: Brian James
Publication date: March 27th 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic fiction
Cover rating: 5/5
Content rating: 3/5
Buy: Amazon

Description:

Sabrina, an artist, is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and her parents check her into the Wellness Center. There she meets Alec, who is convinced that it's the world that's crazy, not them. But when Alex starts to convince Sabrina that her treatment will wipe out everything that makes her creative, she worries she'll lose hold of her dreams and herself.

My thoughts: 
Reading Life is But a Dream was a very interesting experience for me. I was really intrigued by the description and was interested in seeing how it would be played out. The cover is also just lovely! It's so light and airy, much like the whole tone of this book. I had huge expectations for this one and while it didn't really live up to them, it was still a good read that I'd recommend to anyone with an interest in books dealing with mental health issues.

The writing in this was a bit hard for me to get used to. It's just such a different style and a bit hard to read fluidly, really! I do think it reflected Sabrina's character well but it made the book a bit slow for me. Another thing about the writing that I found hard to get into was the flashbacks. They were so random with no real break between sitting in the therapist's room and thinking back to last year. I suppose this can also reflect Sabrina's mental state but as a reader, I found it confusing.

Other than though, I genuinely did like this book and I'm so glad I read it. It is fascinating to step into a mind so different to a ''normal'' mind and it was really easy to see where Sabrina was coming from. Her world was beautiful and fascinating, all she knew, why on earth would she want medication to make it all dreary and normal? I can imagine how she must have felt and how scary it would be to have it all stripped away when it's all you've known. Alec was really well written and definitely believable. I loved their interactions with each other and their different ways of viewing the world. They understood each other yet at the same time had very different experiences.

There is definite character development throughout this book, with both Sabrina and Alec. It was great to watch them change and grow. They have lots of set backs along the way and the ending was not predictable to me at all. For the most part, I thought this was a good book. I just found it didn't really grip me like I thought it would and was a bit disappointed in that. I think there are a lot of people who will like this one and most people will find something to take from it.

Review: Austenland by Shannon Hale

Title: Austenland
Author: Shannon Hale
Publication date: January 1st 2007
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Age group: Adult
Genre: Romance
Series: Austenland #1
Cover rating: 3/5
Content rating: 4/5
Buy: Amazon

Description:

Jane Hayes is a seemingly normal young New Yorker, but she has a secret. Her obsession with Mr. Darcy, as played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, is ruining her love life: no real man can compare. But when a wealthy relative bequeaths her a trip to an English resort catering to Austen-crazed women, Jane's fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become realer than she ever could have imagined.

Decked out in empire-waist gowns, Jane struggles to master Regency etiquette and flirts with gardeners and gentlemen;or maybe even, she suspects, with the actors who are playing them. It's all a game, Jane knows. And yet the longer she stays, the more her insecurities seem to fall away, and the more she wonders: Is she about to kick the Austen obsession for good, or could all her dreams actually culminate in a Mr. Darcy of her own?

My thoughts:
I am a huge Austen fan. I haven't even gotten around to reading all of her work yet (I will very soon!) but she's one of my favourites. I will probably pick up anything with Austen's name on it and thankfully there are lots of spin offs out there! Some better than others, of course. I think Austenland was definitely one of the better ones. I think it managed to find its own unique style instead of trying to strive to be as Austen-like as possible.

Jane Hayes has a secret obsession: Pride and Prejudice. She is obsessed with it to the point of it hindering her life. For Jane, nothing in the real world ever lives up to what she sees as the idyllic life of Elizabeth Bennet. When her aunt dies, she leaves Jane something rather unusual in her will. Jane gets to visit a place that imitates Austen's time period and consists of actors roleplaying as various characters. I loved this idea and was interested to see where it would go. From the minute Jane steps in to this place, it's obvious that's it's not really her kind of thing and that she's not going to have such an easy time acting out the life she's been wishing for all these years.

I thought the idea was well executed and I really enjoyed Jane's stay at the resort. I found that even I was fooled several times over who was acting and who was real! I can't imagine how weird it would have felt to be Jane. She couldn't do the acting thing but kept forgetting that everybody else could. I found a lot of the interactions of the characters really entertaining and overall, the book was a pleasure to read. It did get a bit stale at parts with too much description and not enough talking or events but other than that, I really enjoyed it and I'm really looking forward to the second book, Midnight in Austenland!

Review: Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale

Title: Someone Else's Life
Author: Katie Dale
Publication date: February 14th 2012
Publisher: Delacorte Books For Young Readers
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Cover rating: 3/5
Content rating: 4/5
Buy: Amazon

Description:

When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her biological mother after all... Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles. 

But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all...

My thoughts:
Wow, Someone Else's Life completely blew me away. It was so good! The premise is really excellent- and sad! Rosie's mum has died from a disease called Huntington's. I'll be honest and say I knew nothing about Huntington's before I read this book. I'm sure I've heard the name before but I didn't know what it really was what it did to people and their families. This book was incredibly informative about the disorder and I definitely feel like I learned something from reading it. Besides losing her mum, Rosie is also dealing with the terrifying 50/50 chance of having inherited Huntington's herself.

As you can imagine, Rosie world is pretty crazy. But it doesn't stop there. At the beginning of this novel, she finds out that she does not, in fact, have Huntington's. Not because of luck- but because her mother was not actually her mother. Rosie was switched with another baby at birth. She is of course in shock and determined to find out the truth about her past. In the midst of her grief, she throws herself head first in to this task.

Rosie's journey is a scary one. She goes off with her ex-boyfriend Andy to the US because that's where her birth mother is. I was completely captivated by this story and gripped the whole way through! The writing is excellent and nice to read. There are a lot of twists thrown into this book. Some of them were predictable but some of them took me completely by surprise. I never knew what was going to happen next and was really worried for all the characters. Every step of the way, Rosie's situation becomes more complicated and I couldn't wait to see how it was going to end up.

My only problem with this book is its length. It's almost 500 pages and while this would be fine if the book warranted it, I really don't think it did. The two POVs probably made this book much longer than it really needed to be. Other than that though, Someone Else's Life is a beautiful and educational story about family, loss and ethics. I would certainly recommend it!

Review: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Title: Me, Earl and the Dying Girl
Author: Jesse Andrews
Publication date: March 1st 2012
Publisher: Abrams
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary, Humour
Cover rating: 3.5/5
Content rating: 4/5
Buy: Amazon

Description: 

Up until senior year, Greg has maintained total social invisibility. He only has one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time—when not playing video games and avoiding Earl’s terrifying brothers— making movies, their own versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics. Greg would be the first one to tell you his movies are f*@$ing terrible, but he and Earl don’t make them for other people. Until Rachel.

Rachel has leukemia, and Greg’s mom gets the genius idea that Greg should befriend her. Against his better judgment and despite his extreme awkwardness, he does. When Rachel decides to stop treatment, Greg and Earl make her a movie, and Greg must abandon invisibility and make a stand. It’s a hilarious, outrageous, and truthful look at death and high school by a prodigiously talented debut author.

My thoughts: 


Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a fantastic book that I read in about one sitting. I just did not want to put the book down and was so intrigued by how different it was. I'm really into YA Contemporary books right and this was incredibly enjoyable! I never would have thought a book about a teen dying from cancer could actually manage to be funny but... it did. Pretty dark humour at times but it certainly made me laugh out loud which is a serious accomplishment, I think! I love any book that can actually make me laugh.

I was drawn into this one from the first page. Greg's voice is so unique and I wanted to know more about him! What I loved most was how he was just honest. He doesn't sugar coat his thoughts. He just tells it like it is and I loved him for it. Greg is definitely not a popular kid and really only has his one friend, Earl, for company. He's pretty much just trying to get through high school without drawing any attention to himself.

Rachel has cancer. Greg's mom decides Rachel needs a friend so Greg is pushed into hanging out with her. He's reluctant and not afraid to say it. He's not really friends with Rachel but feels an obligation now since she's so sick. I liked that Greg was honest about how he just didn't want to do this (who would? it's a sad situation to put yourself in!) but he still went in open minded and definitely learned a thing or two.

Greg's just hilarious. He's honest and raw and tells his tale (and Rachel's) so well. Some parts were just so sad! Greg tried to stay detached from the situation but you could tell it was killing him too. He talks about how he just hates talking about this. Greg has a no-nonsense attitude towards life and makes some pretty funny observations. This isn't your regular YA book about dying kids and I liked that. It focused far more on Rachel as a person than on her disease. Most YA books seem to have female protagonists so this was a refreshing novel told through the eyes of a witty guy just trying to make a girl happy. I highly recommend it.

Review: Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Title: Touch of Power
Author: Maria V. Snyder
Publication date: December 27th 2011
Publisher: MiraBooks (an imprint of Harlequin)
Age group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Cover rating: 4/5
Content rating: 3/5
Buy: Amazon

Description:

Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan absorbs their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honored for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Fifteen Realms, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader, an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own, is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince—leader of a campaign against her people. As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for. Because the price of peace may well be her life...

My thoughts:

While I would not feel right giving this book more than three stars, I also don't really think there was much wrong with it. It's a pretty well written book with lots of detail. I personally thought it was too long, though. It just seemed to go on forever and really dragged at points. I would have liked it more had it been a hundred pages shorter. 

I was completely intrigued by the premise of this book. It is unlike anything I have read before so I was very excited! Plus I also think the cover is gorgeous. I really did love parts of this book. Sometimes I would be completely engrossed in the story for about thirty or so page, and then it would just slow down and I'd be yanked back out and it would take a while for it to get going again. I found that annoying. I would just starting to question why I had liked this book at any point and then it would get good again! 

I thought the characters were well developed. They felt very real to me and they all had very distinct personalities. I really enjoyed the idea of the healers and would have preferred if they had been explained more, instead of spending so much time on things which didn't hold my interest! The world itself I found a bit hard to picture and it didn't have a constant feel to it. 

Overall, this book was not amazing but it held my attention enough for me to want to read more. I am going to try out some more of Snyder's work but I'm not sure if I'll continue with this particular series.

The Midnight Zoo

Title: The Midnight Zoo
Author: Sonya Hartnett
Publisher: Walker Books
Publication date: November 1st 2010
Age group: Middle Grade
Genre: Historical Fiction
Cover rating: 2/5
Content rating: 4/5

Description via Goodreads:

World War II, Eastern Europe: Tomas and his younger brother, Andrej, have fled their Romany encampment which has been besieged by the Germans; they carry Wilma, their baby sister, in a sack. In an abandoned, bombed-out town, the children discover a zoo. In it are a wolf and an eagle, a monkey, bear, lioness, seal, chamois and llama. The animals tell their stories to the children as they try to begin to understand what has become of their lives and, when they try to figure out a way to release the animals, what it means to be free.

My thoughts:


I really enjoyed this. I thought it might be too short, but it turned out to be okay. It follows three gypsy kids on the run during WW2. It's very interesting to see the two boys take on the role of their parents and provide for their younger sister- despite how annoying they find her. Andrej and Tomas end up in a zoo in a ruined village, and try to piece together what's happening to the world. It was different than anything I've read before, and a very unique tale. I enjoyed it a lot, but I found the ending a bit flimsy.

Fallen Grace

 Title: Fallen Grace

Author: Mary Hooper

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing 

Publication date: June 7th 2010 

Age group: Young Adult 

Genre: Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Mystery 

Cover rating: 4/5

Overall rating: 4/5 

Description via Goodreads: 

Grace Parkes has just had to do a terrible thing. Having given birth to an illegitimate child, she has travelled to the famed Brookwood Cemetery to place her small infant's body in a rich lady's coffin. 

Following the advice of a kindly midwife, this is the only way that Grace can think of to give something at least to the little baby who died at birth, and to avoid the ignominy of a pauper's grave. Distraught and weeping, Grace meets two people at the cemetery: Mrs Emmeline Unwin and Mr James Solent. These two characters will have a profound affect upon Grace's life. But Grace doesn't know that yet. For now, she has to suppress her grief and get on with the business of living: scraping together enough pennies selling watercress for rent and food; looking after her older sister, who is incapable of caring for herself; thwarting the manipulative and conscience-free Unwin family, who are as capable of running a lucrative funeral business as they are of defrauding a young woman of her fortune. 

My thoughts:

I really enjoyed this one. I wasn't all that intrigued by the premise but the story actually turned out to be really good. I found Grace to be an incredibly lovable character and I found myself really caring about what was going to happen to her and her sister, Lily. The story is really interesting and the corrupt nature of London's rich added a shocking element to it. I was quite annoyed that Hooper put in that small chapter about the baby at the start... it took away any twist at the end when Grace found out the truth. It would have been nice to have been as surprised as Grace was, instead of knowing it all along. Overall though, it was a nice book, well written and full of excellently developed characters.

Jessie Hearts NYC

Jessie Hearts NYC by Keris Stainton 
Published July 7th 2011
255 pages
Genre: Young Adult Realistic Fiction
Stars: 5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

Jessie's just arrived in New York, hoping to forget about her awful ex.  

New Yorker Finn is in love with his best friend's girlfriend.  

They might be perfect together, but in a city of eight million people, will they ever find each other?

My thoughts:

 This was pretty good. A really light, mindless, quick and entertaining read. The story is told from the point of view of two people- English girl Jessie and New Yorker, Finn. They keep turning up everywhere together and eventually end up talking to each other properly. The writing was nice and easy and the characters pretty believable. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Jessie and Natalie as they felt quite real and a lot of it was really funny. I did think the coincidence thing was a bit overdone and far too convenient at times but it wasn't unbearably so. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and I would definitely read something else by Keris Stainton.

The Knife of Never Letting Go

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Published January 1st 2008
479 pages
Genre: Young Adult Dystopia, Fantasy 
Stars: 5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee - whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not - stumble upon an area of complete silence.

 They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden - a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. 

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

My thoughts:

The Knife of Never Letting Go is a really fantastic and gripping story. It's not often that the first line manages to pull me in completely but this is what happened with this book. I did love how the interesting information was held just out of our reach for most of the book- it was frustrating because I wanted to know but it also added a wonderful layer of suspense to the whole story.

Todd is a wonderful character. His narration fits perfectly with the world he is living in. A lot of the time his thoughts are really jumbled up and run into each other, like he's trying to catch them, which makes sense as he has grown up having to listen to the thoughts of 100+ men every hour of every day, which is bound to confuse your brain. His actions and thoughts felt real and believable; he was torn between doing the right thing and doing what he had to do to survive. His sheltered upbringing definitely seeps through when he's trying to make these decisions.

I liked Viola a lot. I liked that she was so withdrawn and quiet at the start because it made sense, given what she's been through. I did think she warmed up to Todd at little too fast in the end (going from not speaking to full paragraphs of speech) but I can also see why she would. I liked Viola's story and I loved that she was such an independent person and that Todd saw this and recognized this.

Animals in books usually annoy me but Manchee was just lovely!

The book certainly wasn't perfect... there were patches where it dragged; page after page of Viola and Todd just walking... but it always picked up pace and by the end I was totally captivated. It ended on a huge cliffhanger and I'm so glad I have the second book to dive into right away.

Breaking the Silence

Breaking the Silence by Diane Chamberlain
416 pages
Genre: Romance, Realistic Fiction, Women's Fiction 
Age group: Adult
Stars: 5/5

Description via Goodreads: 

Laura Brandon had promised her dying father she would visit Sarah Tolley, but her own agony is drowning out the old woman's ramblings. Her husband killed himself, and the only witness- her daughter, Emma- now refuses to speak. Desperate, Laura turns to a man she once met nine years ago: Emma's real father. Together they search frantically for the key to Emma's silence, only to find it in an old woman's fading memories of love, despair and unspeakable evil.

My thoughts:

Diane Chamberlain's writing is very distinctive and unique and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book.

Breaking the Silence was almost impossible to put down. It's full of fascinating characters and tons of mystery. The whole time I was just so eager to know what the truth was and there was plenty to keep me entertained until the final truth came out- which I was pretty satisfied with, in the end.

I'm not usually a fan of alternating narrators but I didn't mind it in this one- it worked and it was very easy to follow. Laura is a really likeable character though certainly not flawless or over the top. Emma was interesting, well developed, believable. Dylan was way more likeable than I expected him to be- and Ray and Stuart angered me a lot.

The ending was great. Some bits were a bit predictable, but the rest I certainly did not see coming. I loved how it all came together and made sense after so many pages of being confused and wondering how it could all work out. Overall, it was an excellent book and I'm looking forward to reading more of Chamberlain's work.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Published in 1818
273 pages
Genre: Horror
Stars: 5/5

Description via Puffin:

One of the best known horror stories ever. Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his first creature stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by its maker and shunned by everyone who sees it, dogs Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth....

My thoughts:

Frankenstein turned out to be way better than I expected. I went into it figuring I might like it and at the very worst at least could say I've read it. I loved it though, from start to finish!

I think Mary Shelley's writing is magnificent and she really succeeded in drawing me into the world of Victor and the monster. I loved that it was stories within stories within stories yet it was still incredibly easy to follow who was talking when. I really enjoyed every single tale we were told and found it very hard to set the book down at night.

I really liked the story and all the characters. I thought Frankenstein had some very interesting thoughts and I adored hearing about how the Monster adapted to the world around him. I thought it was really sad how he wasn't really a monster to begin with and really frustrating watching him trying to stay nice when nobody was being nice to him.

Overall, I adored it and could totally see myself reading it again!

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella 
Published February 12th 2009 
319 pages
Genre: Women's fiction
Stars: 5/5

Description:

On the face of it, Rebecca Bloomwood has it all. Confident, single and happily living in des-res Fulham with her best friend Suze, she's a financial journalist who spends her days writing articles advising other people on the importance of budgeting and prudent investing. Her private life is a different story though; Rebecca manages her own finances in a way that would make most of her readers' hair curl--for Rebecca is a woman on a mission--she just can't stop spending.

My thoughts: 


I really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I thought it might be a bit silly and boring. I loved it, though. The first half was especially good. It was really refreshing and light, and I found myself laughing out loud several times. I loved how Becky's mind worked- everything was so dramatic and blown out of proportion. It's not my usual kind of book, but I'm really glad I picked it up. I'd recommend it to anyone wishing for a fun, distracting read.