One of the best books you'll ever read

The Fault in Our Stars

by John Green

Rating: 5+++/5

Goodreads ⎪ Author Website ⎪ Author Youtube ⎪ Author Twitter ⎪ Book Trailer

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.”

“My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.”

“That's the thing about pain...it demands to be felt.”

I've been waiting for this book for so long, just like a lot of other people. When I found it in my mailbox after school this wednesday, I instantly started it, and the next few hours had me on an emotional roller-coaster. I laughed, I got really happy, I got irritated and angry and I cried like crazy. I knew that the book was going to be sad, but honestly I thought that I would cry in an a-few-tears-rolling-down-the-cheek way, not loud sobbing, throat hurting, nose running, crying. No other book has had such a big impact on me. It was horrible.

But this is one of the best books I've read in my whole life.

I've read books about cancer before. I've read books about dying teenagers, teenagers who fall in love, teenagers who have a big dream. Although John writes about common topics, he does it in an extraordinary way. He has the most amazing writing, he gets you to see different perspectives on things, he makes you really care and he makes you feel all the things.

A John Green book can't be a John Green book without a great set of characters. They are always so alive, have the weirdest hobbies and passions. They (Augustus) are people I would just love to have as (boy)friends in real life. The conversations feel natural and not forced at all, and Hazel and Augustus really fits perfectly together.

The only good way I can describe John's writing is everyday-ish, but wonderfully different. He doesn't use some poetic language, it is more like "he did this and she did that". But his brilliant vocabulary, remarks on deep questions and just different comments on usual things make it something so different from other books. It has this kind of philosophical feel without getting too dry or heavy to read. It feels like every page has at least one good quote that I just want to write down somewhere.

The Fault in Our Stars is a book that is going to be in my mind for a very long time. This is one of those few books that I really want to keep in my bookshelf forever, one of the books I would keep if I in some point in my life have to life with a limited number of books. 

Just read it, you'll understand what I'm talking about.

A lovely love story

The Gargoyle
by Andrew Davidson 
Rating: 5 / 5

Goodreads ⎪ Wikipedia
“You are mine, I am yours; you may be sure of this. You've been locked inside my heart, the key has been thrown away; within it, you must always stay. ”

Before I started reading this book, I had no idea what it was about. The back of the book only gives us a vague explanation of what it is about, and after some research I only knew that it was either fantasy, contemporary or historical fiction. When I'd finished the book, I understood that it was a brilliant mix of them all.

It tells the story about a man, who hasn't had the best life. He gets really bad burn injuries in a car accident, and has to stay in the hospital for months. There he meets the mysterious Marianne Engel, who tells him that they were lovers in the 14th century, and that she has been waiting to meet him again for 700 years.

The plot was very original. We follow the unnamed main character as he recovers from his injuries, but we get to hear many fantastic stories along the way. Marianne has many tales to tell about her friends from different time periods. Including the story about her and the main character in their first life together. I really liked reading these beautiful love stories, and loved Marianne as a character. You really have to decide for yourself whether you think she really tells the truth about her long life or if she's just some psychotic woman with schizophrenia.

The Gargoyle isn't a book for everyone though. It was more of a very slow paced feel-good love story than an action filled fantasy. Some people might not like it, and will only find it weird and boring. But I loved it, and felt like the pace, the stories and the characters made it a interesting, and almost magical, read.

Wither - Review

Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
by Lauren DeStefano
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | Book Website | Book Trailer | Author Website | Author Twitter


Thanks to modern science, every newborn has become a ticking genetic time bomb - males only live to the age of twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 


When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape - to find her twin brother and go home.


I feel like I'm one of the last people to read this book, even though it was only published in March! It's one of the most reviewed and talked about books in the blogosphere this year. Everybody seems to love it, and now I can add my name to the long list of Wither fans.

The writing in Wither was absolutely fantastic. It's exactly the kind of writing that I'm striving for when I write stories myself. Lauren DeStefano is now my number one role model and inspiration for my writing. I'll have to write down quotes from Wither onto post it notes and stick them to my wall. Every time I get frustrated and don't want to write anymore, I'll take a glance at the notes and think to myself that if I don't write, I'll never get as good as Lauren.

The fact that all three sister wives had different ways of dealing with the new life they'd been thrown into made the story really realistic;

The youngest wife loved everything about it and couldn't understand why the others didn't. The oldest wife hated it all, and wasn't afraid to show it. And then we have the main character Rhine, who hated it but would do anything to get away from there. So she tried to gain her captators' trust by pretending to like her new life.

I read a lot of dystopian novels and have created different categories for all of the many dystopians out there. Wither fits into the "The Declaration by Gemma Malley" category. There's no obvious "fighting and struggling for survival in a destroyed world". It's set in a world like ours but where a small science discovery has changed our way of living, a lot. And both of them are really, really thought provoking.

Enclave - Review

Enclave (Razorland #1)
by Ann Aguirre
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | Author Website | Author Twitter | Book Trailer

In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.

As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.

Wow, this book is amazing. I love it! It's one of the best dystropians I've ever read, it's at the same level as the Hunger Games and the Gone series. Yes, it's that good.

The world that this novel tells us about is really something special. Deuce, the heroine, lives in tunnels, under the ground, in a small enclave and has a simple task to follow. She has to get out of the safety zone and hunt for food in the tunnels, where the bloodthirsty "freaks" are. Her life is ruled by the elderel's rules and she's okay with that. This life is her reality.

One thing that really hit me is how well written all the action and fighting scenes were. The were detailed, heart racing and so real. I really love well written action scenes, and these drew me into the story really fast.

This book made me think about how easily people can be manipulated and how only the things you know about becomes your reality. How everything that you don't know about, doesn't exist. Deuce's reality was her enclave and the hard life she was living. That was all she knew about. But there was so much more to the world that she was amazed to find out about. You know what your reality is like, but I wonder what's for us to find out about?

Anna and the French Kiss - review

Anna and the French Kiss

by Stephanie Perkins

Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | Author website | Author Twitter

Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris—until she meets Étienne St. Claire: perfect, Parisian (and English and American, which makes for a swoon-worthy accent), and utterly irresistible. The only problem is that he's taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her almost-relationship back home.

As winter melts into spring, will a year of romantic near-misses end with the French kiss Anna—and readers—have long awaited?

The night after I finished Anna and the French Kiss, I dreamt about it. I don't dream very often about books, believe it or not. But I dreamt that I was Anna, walking around in lovely Paris, together with my wonderful friends and to die for boyfriend Étienne. We just walked around the city, drank coffee, ate crepes, talked, went to the movies. It was so frickin awesome.

I wish my dream could come true.

I wish I could be friends with all those amazing characters in real life. I wish I could live in France, at some fancy boarding school. I wish I could have a boyfriend like Étienne. (Actually, I wish I could have any boyfriend at all. This book has turned me from a person who loves being single into a person who hates being single.)

This novel was perfect. Every page was fun, awesome, cute and wonderful. Perfection.

This story was really character driven. And all the characters were just as every author wants their characters to be. Alive. They had flaws, they had problems. The had something they were passionate about, something they loved. They all had these tiny details in the way they acted or in their personalities that were irrelevant to the story, but you got to know anyway. To show that these people weren't boring cardboard characters, but more like real life persons.

Stephanie Perkins, I admire you. Thanks for writing this awesome book.

Beautiful Creatures - review

Beautiful Creatures (Caster Chronicles #1)

by Cami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Rating: 5/5

Goodreads 

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 Website 

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 Cami Garcia's blog 

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 Margaret Stohl's blog 

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 Book trailer

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

Yeah, this was a paranormal type book about a boy and a girl who has seen each other in their dreams, meet each other, instantly fall in love and learn that their relationship is impossible. A book that I usually wouldn't like that much. But I loved Beautiful Creatues! It has so much more than "typical paranormal romances" that made this novel one of a kind. That made it magical. 

The small town Gatlin was a perfect setting for the story, a place that Stohl and Garcia described perfectly. All the residents of the town were crazy about the Civil War, and the plot had a lot of important connections to some incidents that happened during the Civil War. The setting and all the references to the war were perfect for the story and added on to the eerie and mysterious feeling this novel had.

The writing was beautiful and I loved all the poems and song text that were woven into the story. The characters were three dimensional and a lot of them had deep secrets that were revealed throughout the book. And god, all the magic! Wow!

This novel is so dark, eerie and sad. But still so beautiful, magical and amazing! I has hooked from the first page and loved every single one after that.

Lies - Review

Lies (Gone #3)
by Michael Grant
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | Twitter | Author website 


It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness—or so they thought.

As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?

STOP! If you haven't read Lies yet, stop reading this and drag yourself out and read it instead! This review contains spoilers for the book. This is not an ordinary review, this is a timeline of my reactions while I was reading the book, even for the ending. So if you don't turn back, what you're about to read might ruin the book for you and make you really angry at yourself for not taking my warning seriously.

Okay, I hope you've read Lies if you're reading this. I decided to do this timeline thingie because I thought it would be funnier than writing a review that would sound almost like my reviews for Gone and Hunger. You know that I love the writing, the characters, the dialogue, the concept, the plot .. I love everything. And nothing of that have changed. The reactions are my reactions after I read the mentioned chapter.

Chapter 1

Such a powerful beginning! It feels good to be back in these series.

Chapter 6

Finally they've set up a money system and started having businesses and work! I've been waiting on this since I first started Gone.

Chapter 9

Oh God No. Please don't tell me that Sam and Astrid just broke up! This is not good at all ..

Chapter 11

Aargh, stupid Gaiaphage controlling Orsay's dreams! Because that can't be reality, no matter how much I wish it was.

Chapter 18

I hate Zil! And the Human Crew!!!

Chapter 29

This is what I love about the Gone series. They're so fricking fast paced! I love the action!

Chapter 36

Wohoo Astrid, you've written laws! I fricking love you.

Chapter 39

This is fucked up. Everything is really fucked up, I'm telling you.

Ending:

To quote my tweet: Oh. My. God. I just finished Lies, and my mind is totally blown. These books are epic. I need Plague, like, now.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson - Review

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
by John Green and David Levithan
Rating: 5/5

Goodreads | David's website | John's website | John's Twitter | David's Facebook page | John's Youtube channel  <-- most important of all the links!

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both them legions of faithful fans.

This book is fricking awesome. It's really hard for me to hold back and not write "OMG, lovelovelove !!!11!!!!11!, <333 YOU HAVE TO READ! best book evaaaaaah!11!!! <3333" over and over again. But I'll try to write a review that makes sense. Not that you don't get the message from my crazy rambling, but I want to do this properly. 

The story is told in double narratives by two Will Graysons (John Green writes the straight Will Grayson's, properly written, odd numbered chapters. David Levithan writes the gay Will Grayson's, without any capital letters, even numbered chapters.) with very different lives. The straight Will Grayson tries to live his life without drawing any attention to him. He's friends with Tiny Cooper, who's not the world's largest person nor the world's gayest person, but "the world's largest person who is really, really gay" and "the world's gayest person who is really, really large". And he does not want to live his life without being unnoticed. In fact, he's putting up an big autobiographical high school musical. The other Will Grayson lives together with his single mom and has only one good thing in his life, the online friendship with the stranger Isaac. 

One night the two Will Graysons meet in a porn shop, a place where no one of them thought they would ever find themselves being. And after that meeting, their life takes unexpected turns.

One thing that not many books make me do is laugh. Like really laugh out loud. But this book, oh God. Reading on my lessons was really hard since I could any minute possible burst out in a non controllable laugh and get caught for reading. And on the metro on my way home people stared at me like I was some kind of psyco. This book is hilarious.

 I read this 300 paged book in one (school!) day, which is really unusual. But I just couldn't stop reading. It's an amazingly hilarious book about finding yourself and accepting what you find. I highly recommend this for everyone, girls, boys, teens, adults. Just read it, please. 

DFTBA!

If you're confused by these five little letters that make an awesome combination, you should watch John and his brother Hank's youtube videos. Or go to this link. And now while we're here in this non official review spot, I would just want to remind you that when you read this book, don't skip the acknowledgments in the end. Just as the rest of the book, they're awesome.

Awakened - Review

Awakened (House of Night #8)
by P.C. and Kristin Cast
Rating: 5/5
www.houseofnightseries.co.uk 

This review might include spoilers if you haven't read the first books in the House of Night series. Read at your own risk.

"Zoey lives."
Neferet's voice was flat, cold, lifeless.
"She does. What will happen next?"
"It's quite simple. I will ensure Zoey is drawn back to Oklahoma. There, on my own terms, I will complete the task you failed."


Exonerated by the Vampyre High Council and returned to her position of High Priestess at Tulsa's House of Night, Neferet has sworn vengeance on Zoey. But Zoey has found sanctuary on the Isle of Skye and is being groomed by Queen Sgiach to take over for her there. Being queen would be cool, wouldn't it?


And what about Stevie Rae and Rephaim? The Raven Mocker refuses to be used against Stevie Rea, but what choice does he have when no one in the entire world, including Zoey, would be okay with their relationship? Does he betray his father or his heart?


It was a long time ago that I cried this much wile reading a book. Which is weird, because Awakened isn't a very sad book. Or, it's sad, but no depressed, horrible book about a person who's struggling with her miserable life and just wants to kill herself. So why did I cry so much? Because one of my favorite characters died in the first part of the book. It was awful! I started cry in the middle of the school cafeteria and couldn't concentrate on reading after that. Every time they mentioned the death in the rest of the book, I started weeping. I'm happy I read the major part of it at home.

So you obviously become attached to the characters. They're incredibly well developed (I know that that's a really worn out word in book reviews, but it describes it so well!) and everybody are so different! They have strong personalities and are just awesome. I love everyone of them and wouldn't want anything bad happen to them (except for Neferet, she's an evil bitch who can go to hell.)

The writing in Awakened isn't some beautiful poem like word magic, but something that really goes on in a teenagers head. It's really "teen like". It's good that P.C. took her daughter Kristin to help her to write the House of Night series. And OMG they mentioned True Blood and Glee in it!! (Which are to of my favorite tv-shows). Just had to tell you that.

Angel - Review

Angel (Angel Trilogy #1
by L.A. Weatherly
Rating: 5/5


Willow knows she's different from other girls. And not just because she loves tinkering around with cars. Willow has a gift. She can look into people's futures, know their dreams, their hopes and their regrets, just by touching them. She has no idea where she gets this power from ..


But Alex does. Gorgeous, mysterious Alex knows Willow's secret and is on a mission to stop her. The dark forces within Willow make her dangerous - and irresistible. In spite of himself, Alex finds he is falling in love with his sworn enemy.

Even though last year was the year of the angels, this was my first angel novel. I just haven't had the interest to read a book about a magical creature and a human who's love is impossible and blah blah blah. So when my mom returned from her trip to London and gave me Angel, I wasn't very excited. It has now been in my to be read pile quite a while, so I thought why not give it a go? I started reading and I read and read. I loved it!

Since I've never read a story about angels before, I barely have anything to compare Angel with. But angels have started moving to our planet and taking it over. They feed on humans' energy auras and leave the human with an Angel Burn. The human is weak and ill, but believing that he has experienced the most incredible moment in his life. People around the world are starting to grow major illnesses, caused by the angels, and worshiping the horrible creatures.

In the middle of all of this we find Willow. She loves cars and lives with her sick mother at her aunt's place. By one touch she can see your memories, dreams and future. But she has no idea why. The assassin Alex has been ordered to kill her, but obviously, they fall in love. And more than that I won't tell you. Because one of the thing I like about Angel is that you don't get to know everything in the beginning. You get a clue at the time and have to wait and see.

Even though this was a pretty huge book, I read it fast and didn't grow tired of it. I was flipping pages and always was eager to read more. I enjoyed Angel much more that I had expected. I thought it would be okay, but it was amazing! A deep love story with a lot of emotions and action. It is a good introduction to a, hopefully, amazing trilogy. Everybody should read this and I can't believe that I have to wait until june to read the sequel, Angel Fire!

Hunger - Review

Hunger (Gone #2)
by Michael Grant
Rating: 5/5


This review may include spoilers if you haven't read Gone by Michael Grant. Read my review of Gone here.


106 Hours 29 Minutes


Suddenly it's a world without adults and normal has crashed and burned. When life as you know it ends at 15, everything changes.


An uneasy calm has settled over Perdido Beach. But soon fear explodes into desperation as starvation sets in. More and more kids are developing strange powers and, just as frighteningly, so are the animals in the FAYS. And in the background, in an abandoned mineshaft, lies the greatest danger of all - and he too needs to be fed ...


Review:


Hunger picks up three months after (as they call it) the big Thanksgiving Fight. Sam is president of Peredido Beach, a title which he's not so happy about. He's fearing an attack from Caine and trying to provide the starving kids with food, a kind of hard task now that the fields have been invaded by mutated killer worms ..

The Gone series feels very realistic to me. Not that I think that anything like the FAYZ would ever happen, but if it did, I think that thinks would be like in these books. People panicking, fighting, doing illegal stuff, ruining the city. Just going crazy and out of control.

Because of all the amazing subplots and side characters, we get a little of everything. Love, bullying, hate and all of the common (and uncommon) teenage problems. I would really love to read a whole book just about Mary's struggle with her eating disorders, Jack's not knowing where to fit in or Lana's story about being sent to her granddad in the wilderness. Michael Grant has smashed all of these (plus a lot more) good plots into one epic, awesome story. And it's not confusing or hard to keep up with at all.

You get to hear one persons backstory before they become a part of the main story. So you don't have to sit through lots of pages with a person talking about where he came from, who he is, what have happened to him .. You already know him. And I feel that I can relate to the new characters stories much easier if I "was there" when it happened.

And all of these cliffhangers Grant leaves us with when he changes the story teller! I just wanted to read, read and read to see what they would do next, how they would solve this and that. And all the questions I wanted an answer to! What is the darkness? What happens if you fall for the temptation and poof? And how the hell are they going to get out of this FAYZ mess?!

I ran to my computer and bought the third book, lies, the minute after I finished Hunger. I'm really looking forwards to reading the rest of the series and recommend it to everyone. This are a bunch of books you can't miss. It's a shame that they haven't gotten more attention.