Mini Reviews | July '16 Edition

Paper Butterflies | Half Lost | Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | Lying About Last Summer

It's been a while since I did a mini reviews post but I'm lacking the motivation for longer reviews at the moment. I've still managed to avoid a reading slump (yay!) but my reviews have been building up so this is my solution! Sometimes it's nice to just read a lot and not worry about having a lot of things to say about it afterwards, you know?

I really enjoyed two of these books and the other too were just a bit meh. I'll start with a positive!

Paper Butterflies | Lisa Heathfield

This book was utterly heartbreaking but so captivating and I devoured it really quickly. It's one of those stories where the character is enduring something so awful but you can't tear yourself away from knowing what happens next. June's father remarried after her mother died and her stepmother has been abusing her ever since. She is truly evil but this isn't a fairy tale and her wickedness is truly vile. The abuse isn't easy to see from an outside perspective and a perfect example of not knowing what happens behind closed doors; behind the facade that people portray. We follow June as she grows up through her teens and makes a friend in the utterly wonderful Blister and his family (who is now one of my favourite fictional characters!) and we also have an "After" perspective from when June is older. Beautiful writing, heartbreaking, unpredictable and unforgettable. 

Half Lost | Sally Green

This was so disappointing. I have been a big fan of the Half Bad trilogy and had been really looking forward to the conclusion but it just lacked an exciting spark for me. The majority of the plot is Nathan looking for Analise with the intention of killing her. There isn't really a lot of other action so Nathan's inner monologue just becomes very boring and repetitive. There were no real twists or surprises (except for the ending which I'll come to) so it was hard to care about where the story was heading. As for the ending.. completely unbelievable. In the literal sense. I actually cannot understand why it ended this way (except for a shock value, I guess, a bit like Allegiant) but seriously.. *SPOILER*

Gabriel is killed off and Nathan decides to turn himself into a tree? A tree?! What. The. Hell.

If you haven't started this series then I would struggle to recommend it after this finale.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda | Becky Albertalli

I've been meaning to read this book forever and I wish I hadn't waited so long! It's the perfect cute and funny read to lift your spirits. I smiled pretty much the entire time that I was flying through the pages. Simon is a great character who has some pretty hilarious one-liners and I adored his relationship with Blue. I did figure out who Blue was pretty early on but it didn't make the story or the reveal any less enjoyable. There's always a risk for romances to be too cheesy but this one was sweet, heart-warming and had me rooting for their relationship to work out from the beginning. I would have happily followed this story for even longer.

Lying About Last Summer | Sue Wallman

There's nothing particularly bad about this story; I think it's mostly just a case of it's me not you. Skye is at a camp for teens who are grieving a lost one but soon starts to receive texts from her dead sister. I found the setting pretty interesting as we have all of these grieving teens in one place and it was a good way of exploring the different ways in which people deal with their grief. The mystery side of the plot is where it didn't work as well for me. The reveal of Skye's texter was a surprise (a positive) but there was an additional mysterious plot which I didn't find surprising. I saw it coming and the way it was executed felt a bit like one of this horror films where you just know what's going to happen. I would recommend for the portrayal of grief which was interestingly done.

Have you read any of these books? I'd love to know what you think!

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