The Darkest Minds – Heart Full of Books

Review: Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Published on March 11, 2016 by Heart Full Of Books2 Comments

Passenger by Alexandra Bracken
Genre: Time Travel, Romance
Published by: Disney-Hyperion
Pages: 486
Format: ARC e-book
Rating: ★★
Note: We received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Passenger was one of Sarah‘s most anticipated releases. We couldn’t really say the same, as it’s no secret we didn’t enjoy The Darkest Minds. Nevertheless, this book had a lot of hype in the BookTube community (it’s been floating round on the internet since BEA 2015!) and the premise sounded super fun. Unfortunately, we weren’t too impressed with the execution of the idea, so let’s talk about it!

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Last Chance TBR

Published on December 1, 2015March 7, 2016 by Heart Full Of Books1 Comment

As December is upon us, this is our last chance to read any books that have been dangling on the end of our to-be-read list, hoping to be finished before the end of the year. In order to wipe the slate clean, and begin a new in 2016, above and below are the books we want to read this month! Some acclaimed stand alones, some series endings, beginnings and middles, contemporary, fantasy, dystopian. Fingers crossed we finish them all!

T5W: Most Frustrating Characters

Published on April 15, 2015March 7, 2016 by Heart Full Of Books2 Comments

This week, we discuss the characters that make us want to jump inside books and shake their shoulders! There are quite a few (unfortunately) so let’s get to it!

1. Tris Prior

Tris, overall, is an excellent character. She’s strong, she’s determined and she’s practically capable of anything. But, there’s one thing she’s not capable of: communication! Actually talking things out with Tobias is her downfall. They’re so willing to sacrifice themselves for each other, which is endearing, but frustrating when they won’t tell each other what’s going on!

2. Prince Kai

It seemed like the lovely prince was the only one out of the loop in The Lunar Chronicles. Scarlet knew about Cinder. Cress knew about Cinder, Levana knew about Cinder…everyone on Earth and the moon knew her identity. Having to read Kai’s chapters in the books was frustrating because I just wanted to dive into the council room and catch him up on all the action. Thank goodness he’s part of the team at the end of ‘Cress’, otherwise I don’t know how I would have coped.

3. Sydney Sage

Don’t get me wrong I love Sydney! She’s intelligent and sticks to her morals no matter what other people tell her. She’s also really good at evaluating right from wrong, but how she handles the Adrian situation had me ripping my hair out! I know you come from a background that pretty much hates vampires, but you shouldn’t care about that if you love one! Sometimes she just needed to listen to her heart instead of her head.

4. America Singer

Girl’s got two really sweet guys wanting to be her boyfriend/husband/prince. She spends most of the books in regretful turmoil over each, and struggles to come to a conclusion until the final book. America needed to accept her fate much sooner, and to stop comparing herself to the other contestants for Maxon’s heart! He was looking at her all along!

5. Wells Jaha/ Ruby / Juliette

All three of these characters are classified as juvenile delinquents. All three of these characters share the same weakness: they’ll classify themselves as monsters. Whether it’s because they’re keeping a secret or hiding their powers, Wells from ‘The 100’, Ruby from ‘The Darkest Minds’ and Juliette from ‘Shatter Me’ all have what I like to call ‘The Monster Complex’. If they only realised the potential they held, I would be much less frustrated with them. Embrace the power, guys. Please.

Review: The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Published on October 28, 2014January 26, 2015 by Heart Full Of BooksLeave a comment

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
Genre: Supernatural, Apocalyptic
Published by: Disney Hyperion
Pages: 488
Format: Paperback
Rating: ★.5
Where to Find: Goodreads | Amazon

So, we had two copies of this book, and this normally means that we love the book so much, we just can’t share it. Let me tell you now that the fate of the second book is not looking good and does not at all parallel that of the second copy of ‘Fangirl’ by Rainbow Rowell and ‘Anna and the French Kiss’ by Stephanie Perkins.

We’ve had the first book on the shelves for a while. There was a lot of hype surrounding this book a while ago, but we let it die down before we decided to read it. Then, the third and final book in the series, Into the Afterlight, came out a few days ago, and suddenly everyone’s ravenously reading this series like a slice of fresh cake.

I was not impressed.

The premise sounded good. The title was intriguing. I thought it was going to be so much more than it was, when really all the book amounted to was a waste of 488 pages. The journey the main character goes through is circular and ridiculous, leading me to question why I invested the time into reading something I didn’t enjoy.

Ruby, as a main character, held all of the tropes of a protagonist I do not like. Number One being that she was adamant she was a ‘monster’ because of her powers. Number Two being that she was victim of an instant romance that hit you in the face like a bus (and was just as unwelcome.) She had a case of I-only-develop-a-personality-200-pages-in syndrome that did nothing but demotivate me from finishing this book.

How did I do it, you ask? I don’t know.

I had a number of problems with this book, like the irrational pacing and the insta-love but nothing annoyed me more than the dimensions of the Black Betty van. From the description (which is lengthly to say the least) this van is at least the size of a bungalow. Somehow the people in the front seat couldn’t see Ruby hidden in the back seat, because the back seat acted as a living-room-bedroom that was six metres long.

I didn’t understand what was happening a lot of the time because the important and fast paced scenes were so short and underdeveloped. I didn’t understand the use of the ‘fade-to-black’ technique that left the reader guessing whether Ruby was sexually harassed by this jerky expletive guy. I certainly didn’t understand why Zu, one of the main characters, had to leave, or the fate of Chubs, another of the main four.

And, talking of the jerky expletive guy, I completely saw his plot twist a mile off. DO NOT TRUST anyone but yourself is the advice I would give to any dystopian novel participant.

As I can’t think of anything I particularly liked about this book, I’m going to leave the review there, because my hate fire is too stoked to continue. HOWEVER, part of me wants to know how this series could possibly progress, so if I subject myself to that, I’ll be sure to let you know of my opinion. Overall, I give this book 1.5 stars, redeemed by the shopping sequence and the traumatising back story that was the only event in the book that made me feel any emotion but irritation.