All posts filed under: 3 stars

Book Review – And I Darken by Kiersten White

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This month I got my first YA chronicles box, and  in it came the YA new release, And I Darken by Kiersen White. What’s it about: It’s a Vlad the Impaler-based historical fiction if Vlad the Impaler was a teenage girl, who did no actual impaling, but a moderate amount of stabbing. Oh and EVERYONE has serious daddy issues. What I thought: I wanted to love it, but I just didn’t. I did like it though. Firstly, it was not fantasy, which is fine, but it just shouldn’t be marketed that way. Firstly, it was far too long, and by halfway through was getting a bit repetitive. This book clocks in at just under 500 pages, and just not that much happens, even when there is plenty of opportunity for some action. When something starts happening, it usually wraps up really quickly, and often even ‘off camera’ so to speak. This book probably could have ditched about 100 pages and been better for it. Secondly, I hated the romance. Lada, one of our two main …

Book Review: Paper Towns by John Green

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So, as I’m sure you all know, the movie for this book will soon be upon us. So I decided I should probably get a move on and read this book that I’ve had on my Kobo forever. What’s it about? After being friends as children, the sensible ‘boring’ Quentin and the wild ‘not boring’ Margo drift apart, and Quentin can therefore only admire her from afar. Until one night, Margo climbs in his window and takes him on a nighttime adventure of revenge and various youthful misdemeanors. But then the next morning, Margo is nowhere to be found and it seems she has left a list of clues for Quentin to decipher if he wants to track her down. “Margo always loved mysteries. And in everything that came afterward, I could never stop thinking that maybe she loved mysteries so much that she became one.” What did I think? It was alright. The book is composed of three parts. I thoroughly enjoyed part one and quite enjoyed part three, but part two seemed to just …

Book Review: Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

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“The beauty of this world where almost everyone was gone. If hell is other people, what is a world with almost no people in it?” This book graced many a Top books of 2014 list, but does it live up to the hype? In my opinion not really, but it is not without good moments. What’s it about: Well, many synopses claim it to be the story of a travelling symphony in a post-apocalyptic North America/Canada after the world is decimated by a flu pandemic, but I find that’s not really true. This is a book of many stories, and these travelling actors/musicians are only a small part of that. It is a book about how people are connected to one another. It switches between multiple POVs, telling the stories of a small number of characters over what adds up to be about 50 years. “First we only want to be seen, but once we’re seen, that’s not enough any more. After that, we want to be remembered.” What did I think: I found this book to be …