Tag: book review

Review: Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry

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Push10194514ing the Limits by Katie McGarry
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published by: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 392
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

This book has an incredibly clichéd blurb that doesn’t do the story justice. The blurb on the edition I own seems like it was created to attract the Twilight audience, so I was a little apprehensive to pick it up. I bought Pushing the Limits almost a year ago, and decided that it had been gathering dust for long enough, and it was time to give it a chance.

The story alternates between the perspectives of Echo and Noah. Echo had a troubled past, because her mother is mentally ill and her dad has replaced her mum with Echo’s old babysitter who is expecting a baby. Echo’s brother Ares dies in Afghanistan, leaving Echo with no one. Her boyfriend tried to pressure her into sex, and her friends seem too obsessed with ‘normal’ to care about Echo’s problems. Noah is a rebel, with a reputation that speaks for itself. He’s a foster kid who is trying to gain custody of his brothers after his parents died. He, like Echo, has a problem with loving others – except for his two younger brothers. The two meet because of their counsellor, who asks Echo to tutor Noah.

The first thing that I loved about this novel is how hard hitting it is. It deals with incredibly serious topics in an engaging way. I was also surprised at the shear amount of swearing, drug and sexual content considering it’s written for a primarily young adult audience. However, I think that is exactly why I enjoyed this book so much, because it was just so different from everything else I have read before.

Throughout the novel Echo is trying to work out her past, because she has supressed the memory of the night that she got her scars and this was extremely intriguing to read. As Echo learnt more and more about her past so did we. The same went for Noah and his life. Both reveals were quite slow, but not slow enough that you would get bored and put the book down. In fact, once I actually got started I found it hard to stop! I just wished that there was a bit more closure, an development on Echo’s side of the story, because I feel like her family have a lot left to work for, but I do believe that there is a sequel novella that I will have to get my hands on to fill in some of the gaps. I wanted Echo to be more forgiving; I felt like she changed a lot when she got together with Noah, I’m not necessarily saying that this was a bad thing, but I feel that we’ve only just scratched the surface of Echo’s personality and I would definitely be interested in reading more about what happens to her in the future. Noah, on the other hand, had quite a lot of closure, but again there was a shocking reveal at the end of the novel that could change everything, so I need more more more.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried at least three times whilst reading, and it was always Noah’s adorable brothers, and his relationship with them, that got the tears streaming down my face. It’s supposed to be a light contemporary, but oh no! It’s so much more than that, and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading something a little bit different.

Another main point is the fact that all of the secondary characters seemed relevant to the story. They weren’t forgotten. Granted, we don’t know everything about their lives, but it was still satisfying enough to make me want to read the sequel which is from Beth’s point of view – one of Noah’s best friends – and I do believe that the third book is Isaiah’s story. Heck, I’d probably even read Pushing the Limits from Mrs Collins’ perspective and still love it. I’m invested in these characters, I’ll miss Echo and Noah, but they’ve had their sort of happy ending now, so I want to know what happens to the other misfits who deserve as much love as anyone else.

Overall, I have decided never to judge a book by its cover again, otherwise I never would have read this amazing story! I would rate Pushing the Limits four out of five stars.

 

Review: Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

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Since You’ve18189606 Been Gone by Morgan Matson
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Adventure
Published by: Simon & Schuster
Pages: 449
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

If you are a frequent watcher of mine and Maddie’s videos, then you may already know that Morgan Matson is probably my favourite standalone author. Although, I would not complain if Amy and Roger got a sequel. In fact, it might be my greatest wish. Therefore, I was extremely happy when Amy and ‘her boyfriend’ – pause for cuteness overload – got a small mention. (Apparently Amy and her boyfriend are backpacking around Europe! So I would like Amy and Roger’s Epic Hike to be a thing. Please.) However, the fact that my OTP got a mention in Since You’ve Been Gone was not the only thing I likes, and it certainly wasn’t the only reason why this book was awarded five stars and made it to my favourites shelf.

Once again, Matson delivered on character development. I went from sighing at the beginning of the novel thinking ‘oh no. It’s going to be another one of those stories.’ You know the ones. The ones where our protagonist is super weak and can’t do anything on her own and so seeks out a dark, moody and protective boyfriend. I could not have been more wrong. Okay, so Emily is very weak at the beginning, but thanks to some extremely high quality character development and planning she ends up as this super awesome girl who can do anything she sets her mind to. Although, this revelation is helped by her beautifully charming love interest, it is not – I repeat, it is not – as a result of him. It’s partly to do with her, but partly to do with Sloane, who I will talk about more later.

I loved the premise of Since You’ve Been Gone, the mystery is so engaging, and the chapters with elusive titles mean you won’t be able to put this book down. If you are unaware of the premise for Since You’ve Been Gone, then I will sum it up by saying girl’s best friend abandons her leaving only a list of things that she has to complete over the summer. Some of these things are easy, some extremely difficult, and some illegal. Every chapter is dedicated to one of these things, which is quirky, but also means that you know what’s going to happen OR DO YOU? There were some items on the list such as ‘ride a dang horse, ya cowpoke’ and multiple times throughout the book Emily tries to do this but I was thinking ‘Em, ride a horse isn’t the name of the chapter, you’re not doing it yet.’ Some of the items were deliciously woven in, because they were figurative rather than literal, which I will admit led to some happy exclamations on my part when everything clicked.

There was no way that I would be able to get through this review without talking about Frank. Frank, Frank, Frank. He was wonderful, extremely nice, and extremely wonderful – twice for emphasis. Emily picks up a few friends along the go to help her with the quest, Frank being one of them. Frank is someone that Emily’s seen around school, and thinks she knows, but like most people, he is completely different outside the school environment. Emily is the sort of girl who is invisible at school and is known solely as ‘Sloane’s friend’ but would you believe it, Frank knows her name! Their relationship develops slowly, but surely, at just the right pace for a novel of its size. There was no insta-love, and their ending is as ambiguous as Amy and Roger’s, which although I really don’t like as soon as I finish the book, I love in hindsight, because you can come up with your own happy ending. Sometimes it’s nice not to have everything spelled out for you, I like to piece these things together myself.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly worried, and maybe even a little bit unnerved, by Sloane and Emily’s friendship. At first I thought that Sloane was a bad influence, and that she was just using Emily. I think it’s hard, even with best friends, to know if that person likes you and depends on you as much as you like and depend on them. That was my favourite relationship that was explored in Since You’ve Been Gone, because it showed a realistic friendship dynamic.

Although there were certain plot points that made me want to give the characters a stern talking to, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The ups and the downs, the slow and the fast paced bits; when Emily was on her own, when Emily was with Frank, when Emily was with her family and when Emily was with Frank, Collins, and Dawn. I liked the flashback elements, which was where we got to find out more about Sloane before she left, even though I’m not really partial to that kind of layout. In Since You’ve Been Gone, it worked well, and helped the flow of the story, and didn’t interrupt the pacing, every flashback was relevant.

Overall, I loved every second of it and would highly recommend Since You’ve Been Gone. I just can’t wait to see what Morgan Matson does next!

Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

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Under the NeveUnder the Never Skyr Sky by Veronica Rossi
Genre: Fantasy, Supernatural, Romance
Published by: Atom
Pages: 374
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★★★
Series: Through The Ever Night (#2) | Into the Still Blue (#3)
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

This book has definitely made its way on to my favourite shelf (the hypothetical one on GoodReads because this is actually Bee’s book!) ‘Under the Never Sky’ definitely fulfilled the expectations I had for it after seeing that people were labelling this series as addictive as a class B drug.

Continue reading “Review: Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi” →

Review: Blood Wars by Brenda Pandos

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BloBlood Warsod Wars by Brenda Pandos
Genre: Supernatural
Published by: Obsidian Mountain Publishing
Pages: 96
Format: E-Book
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I didn’t actually realise that ‘Blood Wars’ was a continuation of a series that Brenda Pandos had already written called ‘The Talisman Series’, so in that respect, I can’t write a lot about this book because it wasn’t the first time readers were supposed to have met the characters or the situation.

However, the events of the series were explained throughout in bite sized chunks that didn’t make the continued series feel to laboured. I was able to grasp what was going on fairly quickly and didn’t have too many questions. Good.

The plot unfolded quickly, with motives behind each character’s actions easy to understand. The relationships between the characters, especially Julia, Phil and Nicholas were obvious, which was definitely a great thing, as I hadn’t read the series. Personalities were simple to read as well, which made this book an effective short story.

I’d definitely call this book a short story, as it was under one hundred pages, but no less enjoyable than a three hundred page book. If anything, I enjoyed it more because it was too the point. With a short story, there’s not a lot that you, as the reader, feel needs to be cut out because of irrelevance. Everything was relevant, everything was explained: the perfect package.

The book completed one of its functions in making me want to read the original series, although I’m pretty spoiled on what happens! 🙂 One of my only complaints, as an unqualified reader, was the lack of vampires. More vampires. (Of course, that was the plot for there to be no vampires in a previous vampire world, but more subtle hints of their continuous existence would have been nice!)

Overall, I’d give this book 2 stars, because it did have substance, but having not read the original series, I could not become as attached to the characters and the romances as I’d have liked to. Also props for the dramatic cover. Blood red was a nice touch.

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

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me earl and the dying girlMe and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Genre: Contemporary, Humor
Published by: Allen & Unwin
Pages: 295
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

To like this book, I think you have to really enjoy certain types of humour:
a.) Self-depreciating – the main character, Greg, cannot accept a compliment and loves to make comments along the lines of ‘goodness, I hate myself”
b.) Gross – was it Jesse Andrews mission to reference stomach bile as many times as possible
c.) Sexual – ew.

Unfortunately, I’m not a fan of these, at all. I found the things that Greg said, that were meant to be funny, not hilarious at all. However, I did enjoy the blunt way Greg had no self belief about ‘his’ book. It made me keep reading, just to prove to him (and myself) that I could.

As far as characters go, Greg, Earl and Rachel were fairly two dimensional. Greg makes a point at the end how he didn’t really get to know either of his friends, but was this just a cover up for plot-holed writing? I didn’t connect with any of the trio and I especially think Rachel should have played a bigger part in the novel. But, I guess she’s just labelled ‘the dying girl’, so at least she serves a purpose.

The minor characters within the book felt very forced to fit certain stereotyped groups (though I have a feeling that was Andrews’ intention.) My favourite character was probably Greg’s mother but only because she reminded me of my mum occasionally.

Did I just stick it out with this book because it was under 300 pages? Maybe.

One advantage to this book is that it does what it says on the tin…or cover. You get Greg (me), Earl and a dying girl but literally not much else. Greg struck me as someone I would not like to be friends with, but also gave me an epiphany. I usually describe myself, as does Bee, as ‘the funny one’ in social situations. We’re a witty duo that thrive from laughter. However, Greg made me realise that there’s so much more to me than that. Greg doesn’t have any true friends because he relies to much on his humour and social invisibility. I have a lot of friends, but not just because I can crack a joke or two. There are other, better, qualities that people admire about me (hopefully) that make them want to be my friend and Greg’s depreciation made me appreciate that my personality doesn’t rely on one trait to be well liked.

Woah, that was a tangent. Normally I’d try and write more about a book that 400 words, but I’m going to leave it there. I’d give this book somewhere between 2.5-3 stars. (2.75 stars?) because it just really wasn’t my cup of tea (although I don’t drink tea, so the phrase should be ‘this wasn’t my flavour of water’ and if you say water has no flavour, go to Cornwall.)

Review: Don’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski

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Do21074867n’t Even Think About It by Sarah Mlynowski
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Paranormal
Published by: Orchard Books
Pages: 304
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

Don’t Even Think About It is about a group of students, from the same tutor group, that all develop telepathy and subsequently have to deal with that. They all have secrets that they don’t want shared, and they all have things they’d rather not hear. Lies can’t go unnoticed, and opinions can’t be hidden.

It’s hard to explain the narrative, because although it was third person, it was also collective. In the beginning of the book I found this strange because I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, however once it had been explained as ‘if you can read each others thoughts it’s hard to know the boundaries of your own mind, and where your thoughts end and the next person’s start, it worked extremely well. I liked the majority of the characters, but would have liked to have read about some of the lesser characters too who also had telepathy. One of  my favourite story lines was Tess’ and Olivia’s because they both really grew as characters and their development was enjoyable to read. I also had a fondness for Pi’s story, because suddenly her intelligence doesn’t mean as much when everybody can just read her mind and copy her answers, and I really liked to read about how she dealt with the situation.

I loved how everyone’s thoughts were believable for their age group. The teenagers’ thoughts were pretty much along the lines of what I imagine other teens thinking, the adult’s thought, maybe not so much, but I think there needed to be that distinction between the age groups so the adults generally thought of more explicit things. Each of the main character’s thoughts were an extension of their personality as well, which might sound like a weird comment to make, but considering the majority of the conversations happened in listed italics the thoughts needed to be easily connected to the characters who were speaking.

Mackenzie’s was probably one of my least favourite story lines, which was a shame, because she had quite a significant role in the novel, but I just couldn’t connect to her attitude or character. I was intrigued by characters like Brinn and would definitely like to hear more about her, and others like Nike, in the sequels.

The pacing was quite slow, but everyone had to come to terms with their new super powers, so that’s understandable, but the drama was what made me keep reading! So much drama! At literally every corner something is happening to at least five of the characters that you can’t help but want to read. It was like reading one big book of gossip, rumours and opinions. Amazing.

Overall, I enjoyed Don’t Even Think About It, but I would’ve liked even more action from the sort of government agency and even more teamwork from class 10B.

Review: Half Bad by Sally Green

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Half B71STxe1DUVL._SL1500_ad by Sally Green
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Published by: Penguin
Pages: 395
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I think everyone has already made this joke, but Half Bad wasn’t half bad. I bought this book because I’d seen a few people haul it on booktube, but mainly because it was being sold for £3. I’m not the kind of person to give up a bargain, and for such a hyped book, it seemed like a great price. However, I was surprised with the tone of the novel – it was a heck of a lot darker than I was expecting, and a lot more graphic. I’m using the term graphic loosely as there isn’t any nudity or violent gore, but quite a large helping a torture, which, surprisingly, isn’t all that fun to read, even if I did only buy the book for £3.

I struggled to finish Half Bad, but was intrigued enough to continue to the end. I don’t think the cliff-hanger was enough to make me want to continue the series, because I really didn’t connect with the characters, or the world, particularly. I doubt that I will be picking up Half Wild, but if it’s only £3 then you never know.

I very much enjoyed the first section, due to the fact that it was written in second person. Granted, it did make it that bit more gruesome considering the fact we were locked in a cage, but I was excited by the prospect of reading in this perspective. My enjoyment soon dwindled when I discovered that the world I was reading happened to be a particularly ruthless one. Just because I didn’t enjoy Half Bad is not to say that anyone else will dislike it, in fact, before writing this review I read many five star reviews, and agreed with the majority of their points. It just transpired that Half Bad wasn’t for me.

Nathan Byrne is our main character, and he is the son of a Witch and Black Witch, which is unheard of, so the Council are extremely cautious and keep a close eyes on Nathan. The problem is, they’re prejudiced and don’t think that Nathan, even though he’s living with his family of Whites, is going to end up being a Witch Witch himself. An important quote to remember at this time would be “The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.” Everyone around Nathan tells him that he’s going to be a White witch, he can fight the evil darkness and he won’t turn out like his father, and to be quite honest I’m surprised that no one else saw Nathan’s true identity sooner.

My favourite character was probably Annalise and I liked much prefered the story when Nathan was younger, except for the fact that he kept getting beaten up, of course. There was a lot of family history to do with the Black Witches that was slightly confusing, and I did get lost at some points and had to refer back. On the other hand, I liked characters like Ellen and Gabriel who were introduced later on in the plotline, and would probably only read Half Wild just to read more about them.

What I wasn’t expecting, that made me keep reading, was just how much adventure there was. Towards the end, it became very much about trying to survive, and the back alley streets and apartment were reminiscent of one of my favourite books ever, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. Suffice to say I enjoyed these bits best.

I do love a good short chapter and there are plenty of those in Half Bad. They make the action seem quicker and the slow parts seems quicker too. I find that when I’m not really in the mood to read it’s always nice to have short chapters so I can get that sense of achievement a lot quicker. Overall, I’m glad that I read it and gave it a chance, because the build-up and suspense was excellent – perhaps a bit long winded, but it got to the exciting bits eventually – but it just wasn’t the type of witch book that I enjoy. Not enough magic in my opinion! I think I’ll just wait for the rest of the series to be released so that I can gauge other peoples opinions on whether or not I should continue.

Review: The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare

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The Iron Trial by Holly Black and Cassandra Clare
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Published by: Scholastic
Pages: 295
Format: ebook
Rating: ★★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

A lot of people seem to be comparing The Iron Trial to Harry Potter, and I can see the obvious correlation: two guys, one girl. Girl is super smart. Protagonist is clueless about magical world. It’s a school. There is magic. But apart from that…it couldn’t be more different. Essentially it’s still about a boy who is pulled into the magical world and expected to fight an enemy, whilst also making a bunch of friends and befriending some animals, but we all know that’s a winning formula, so why can’t it be successful again?

One of my favourite things about this book is how misleading the cover is. On the cover we have the trio; Call, Aaron and Tamara – Aaron being in the middle – but he’s not the protagonist! How great is that? I won’t draw on Harry Potter too much for comparisons – only a few more I promise – but it’s like reading HP from Ron’s perspective. Don’t get me wrong Callum is still super important to the plot line too, he’s the one that knows nothing, so we need to follow his journey specifically so that we can learn about the Magisterium as he does. Also, there is quite a twist at the end that I was not expecting at all, but I suppose if I’d been putting two and two together from the beginning I might have been able to figure it out. However, that’s why it’s so impressive, because you’re too distracted by all this new magic and a new school to learn the rules of, that you forget to read between the lines.

Let’s just take a minute to appreciate the fact that Call is hindered by his mangled leg. This book dealt with prejudice extremely well, and I really enjoyed having a character that wasn’t emotionally scarred, but physically scarred. (A bit of emotional scarring was thrown in for good measure) He has to deal with the idea of holding his friends back because he can’t do everything as well as they can. Obviously he can do that and much more, and I’m seriously interested to see how he deals with his leg as the series continues and the adventure becomes more strenuous. The trio isn’t you’re average rag-tag group of three, they are apprentices of the Magisterium and they are awesome.

At some points it seemed as though the authors were really trying to differentiate The Iron Trial from Harry Potter by making the school system so very different. Even going as far as to say that instead of being called first years they are Iron Years and the prefix to the ‘years’ will change to other precious metals as they progress through the school. The whole idea of the bracelets to indicate which year the pupils are in was ingenious. I can totally see future The Iron Trial cosplayers brandishing their cool bracelets. You’ve got a wand? Well look at my bracelet. I would like one, please.

I loved how different the school system was, the ‘classes’ are really small, so I feel that we’ll get to know every secondary character equally. My favourite character is probably Celia, because although she was part of the secondary group she was still adorable, and I’m really looking forward to her developing relationship with a certain someone. On that note, I thought that everything was perfect for a twelve year old perspective, Cal still made some silly mistakes, and the characters didn’t really have strong romantic relationships with each other yet, and that’s possibly the most exciting aspect to this series. We’re going to get to watch a whole new set of characters grow up and see how their relationships change.

Some parts of the plot were slow, but as seems to be the way with Cassandra Clare’s writing especially, the last ten per cent was a rapid adventure of shock and mystery. I’m not too disappointed by the pacing, on the other hand, because we needed that world building, especially considering our characters live underground. The description of the underground caves was so beautiful, and enchanting. I’m looking forward to more areas of the caves as the characters progress.

I’m not entirely sure how the rest of the series will continue, because I feel like we’ve already been given the biggest plot twist and surprise. Yet, this does make me even more excited to get my hands on the next book, because what could possibly come next after a wonderful first book?

(Spoiler) Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

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My Life Nex12294652t Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Speak
Pages: 394
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I can’t believe I was so disappointed with this book after seeing all of the four and five star reviews, and although I wasn’t sure whether or not I was actually going to review this book, I guess I better explain myself.

First of all, I don’t think there was any character development. She didn’t really make up with her best friend, and she doesn’t resolve her bad relationship with her Mum, but hey, at least she got into the family she’d been spying on for the past ten years, right? No! She moves house at the end of the novel, so she doesn’t even get to stay near the Garretts anymore! And will their relationship stand up after the move? I don’t know, but her mum’s partner did almost kill Jase’s dad and tried to keep it a secret from him. Who wouldn’t want to stay together if that was their relationship?

But I’m getting ahead of myself- I know, let’s turn this into a bullet point list.

  • The first 250 pages approximately are all about Samantha and Jase building up to having sex. This is one hundred per cent not the focus that I wanted this novel to have. I’m not complaining about the fact that there was sexual content in this novel, because it’s about teenagers, and teenagers have sex. It’s gotten to the point in the contemporary genre that if sex isn’t mention or there isn’t some kind of sexual content then it’s regarded as ‘not realistic.’ Whether you believe in that or not, is for you to decide yourself. To conclude this point, although I thought it was realistic, it was completely unnecessary. I bought this book to read about family, not about two teenagers and their intense hormonal desires.

I will pause the list to include this disclaimer: I did not hate this book. I might have some pretty strong opinions on it that other reader’s may not agree with. I was reading this book with my friend Holly and I always find that when I read a book with the specific intention of reviewing it, I tend to pick up more points and dislike more things. On with the bullet points.

  • The relationship with her mother. I just wanted to shake Samantha and Grace and tell them that some simple communication skills would have solved all of their problems. This is the part where I really felt sympathetic to Sam, because she had a Mum who just wouldn’t sit down and actually listen to her. I was seriously expecting them to have a big heart to heart like the characters in Just One Day, but they didn’t – leaving this big gaping hole in their relationship and as a reader I want that hole sewn up!
  • More communications issues: the best friend. If they talked to each other, calmly explained what was going on, and made sure to tell the truth then absolutely everything would’ve been fine. I thought Nan had a massive over-reaction to Samantha not saying anything about Jase. I mean, come on. He was forbidden, she didn’t want the secret to get back to her Mum, and surely her friend could understand that. I also thought the cheating subplot could have been explored a lot more, it was one of the first inclinations that this book was going to be about more than sex. Sidenote, I really want to know what Nan is short for!
  • Considering this book was sold to me on the basis that it centered on a family, I was disappointed with actually how little time we spent with them. Sam babysat for the Garretts which was the only real time where we got to see all the kids, and I loved how each of them interacted differently with Samantha, but personality wise I with Fitzpatrick tried to make them as individual as possible. It was very reminiscent of Cheaper By The Dozen. I think I would like to read a YA book where the main character is part of a big family, because I felt we lost some of the family dynamic seeing it from Sam’s point of view.
  • Finally, I hate to say it but Clay might have been my favourite character because I hated him sosososo much. Why does this make him my favourite, you ask? Because he was probably the only character that I had any strong feelings about at all, even if they were negative, and he was the villain! I just didn’t connect with any of the other main characters.

 This has been a bitterly honest review, but I just felt like I needed to express my opinion. I’ve read some other reviews and I think that My Life Next Door may well be a Marmite book. You either love it or you hate it, and I’m afraid to say that I’m leaning closer to dislike. Not hate, but just some healthy dislike.

Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

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16143347-e1397585781962We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Published By: Hot Key Books
Pages: 227
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★★★
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

I feel like this is going to be a hard book to explain and review without giving away intense spoilers. If you haven’t heard of We Were Liars, then I would like to ask you where’ve you been? Because this book is possibly one of the most hyped young adult books since The Fault in Our Stars. First of all, I’d like to point out, that although I do love how excited the audiences of these novels have greatly improved the promotion of both the authors and the books, hype can lead to disappointment.

We Were Liars is a book that you have to read to understand the hype, and even then, because you’ve been expecting the thrills and mysteries of this heavily hyped book, you can’t help but feel slightly underwhelmed when you actually finish the book. Or, at least, that’s what happened to me.

We Were Liars centers on the Sinclair family, who are heavily explained in an almost confusing way at the very beginning of the book. I think I would have preferred to be introduced to the characters slowly rather than all at once, but for the purpose of the retelling, and the fact that it felt almost like a diary, it worked pretty well. I don’t think we’re supposed to like the main character, Cady, particularly. All of the characters, on a certain level, are very hard to connect to because they are so isolated from any other characters I’ve read. This is a problem, because I couldn’t feel sympathy for Cady when it came to the big reveal, all I could do was nod my head and think, “okay, then. Well…what did I expect?”

I did love the slow reveal, and how everything was tantalizingly brought out. The way in which the variations of different fairytales were woven into the story was also very rewarding for the reader. They could piece together what was going to happen, thanks to the foreshadowing, before they got to that part in the plot. Cady had selective amnesia, so as we learn about her past – even before she does in some cases – she also remembers.

I think I’m going to have to read this book again at a later date after knowing what happens in the ending, just to make sure that everything pieces together how I wanted it to. The relevance of the beginning isn’t really something you can understand or appreciate until the end. At first I was quite bored with the story, because I didn’t get the relevance of the past summers or Cady’s feelings and withdrawal, but by the very end, well, I’ll let you read it for yourself.

Another thing I am very thankful for is the short chapters. It made it such a deliciously quick read, and really added to the pacing of the story. In the slower parts it gave the illusion of a fast read and in the fast parts I was practically tearing through the pages. I’m surprised that such a layered mystery was executed in less than three hundred pages. It certainly wasn’t a mystery where the reader was left pondering for weeks after reading the book, but for such a short book, my my my was is good.

I would like to give We Were Liars, three stars, because although I did enjoy it, I think I probably should have read it when it was first released. The hype sort of spoiled the story. Not the plot, because I hadn’t seen any spoilers, but it definitely left me wanting more and thinking that it wasn’t what I expected.