Replica | Lauren Oliver | Published October 6th, 2016
Rating:
Source: I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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Having only read Lauren Oliver’s contemporary novels up until now (I have yet to read the Delirium series) I was really intrigued to see how her style would work in a dystopian novel. Dystopia is a genre that is extremely popular at the moment and I think it would have been easy for Replica to blend in but its unique format and intriguing plot line help it to stand out in a busy crowd.

First, the format: you can read this book in three different ways. Some might say this is a bit of a gimmick, and I guess it is in a way as it does its job of making the book memorable and gets people talking, but I liked it. It's something different and I found it quite fun to read a book in a different way from normal. You can choose to either 1) read Gemma’s story first, 2) read Lyra’s story first or 3) read them both with alternating chapters. I opted for option 3 and I liked this method as it meant I wasn't going into a “second” story where I already know what happens. (Just make sure your bookmark doesn't fall out when you're flipping the book around!)

Gemma is from a wealthy family and spends her days going to school and worrying about being overweight whilst dealing with her overprotective parents. Lyra, on the other hand, is living in a cloning facility where her days are full of repetitive testing and the island the facility is on is surrounded by armed guards so there is no way to leave. An explosion at the facility results in the two girls coming face to face.

The pace is strong but Gemma’s side of the story definitely feels more fleshed out. I guess this makes sense as Gemma knows more of the world whereas Lyra has only ever known the facility which she’s just left and is having to readjust. We get more information from Gemma’s perspective though so her half was more enjoyable to read. I do like the way the story intertwines between narratives and the fact the writing style switches to accommodate the differences in the characters. I would have liked more detail of the world and the romances weren't really all that necessary (although Pete was cute) but there were enough plot twists to keep me invested.

Overall, I thought Replica was pretty good. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of Oliver’s contemporaries but I like the idea and I'm sure I'll be back for the sequel.


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18 Thoughts I Had Whilst Reading 'Flawed' by Cecelia Ahern

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern
Publishing Date: April 5th, 2016
Rating:
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads | Book Depository
The Scarlet Letter meets Divergent in this thoughtful and thrilling novel by bestselling author Cecelia Ahern.

Celestine North lives a perfect life. She's a model daughter and sister, she's well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she's dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan.

But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule. And now faces life-changing repercussions.

She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found FLAWED.

In her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society where obedience is paramount and rebellion is punished. And where one young woman decides to take a stand that could cost her-everything.

Before reading:
I haven't read anything by Cecelia Ahern before but this is her first foray into YA fiction and the synopsis sounds really intriguing! It likens the story to Divergent which I loved so I'm hoping to fall in love with this story too.

1. Interesting introduction to the world. A little bit of infodumping but not too bad and at least relevant and helpful information. I'm enjoying the dystopian elements so far and I'm intrigued to learn more about The Guild and its impact on society.
2. The setting is one that's easy to follow. Whilst it's a dystopian society, it's still very familiar and feels like a city we could be living in now.
3. Our main character is a firm believer in the rules and hasn't questioned them up until now. It's only now that The Guild has struck close to home that she is beginning to realise how not everything is black and white. She's coming across as a little naive. I hope she improves.
4. I don't get why she didn't think she would get in trouble for what she's done when she just spent so long telling us about the rules..
5. More infodumping... I really hope it doesn't start to get bogged down in too much detail. 
6. Is this the beginning of a love triangle that I sense?
7. This girl has been totally brainwashed and it's annoying. She's just going to follow every wrong path and follow every wrong piece of advice so she can then miraculously uncover something by herself.
8. Finally a good decision. I'm intrigued to see how she'll handle what's to come next and I hope to see her become stronger and more independent.
9. The snowglobe must have some kind of significance. (How ominous, I know!)
10. It's interesting to see how she is being ostracised from society and how she realises that this is how she treated the Flawed before she was one. A taste of her own medicine if you like.
11. I'm liking this new side to her where she's not acting like a naive and scared little girl.
12. Rolling my eyes at the party invitation. Surely she MUST be wondering if it's a set up? Come on. Why wouldn't you?
13. It's utterly horrible to see this side of human nature. As soon as someone is branded as being Flawed, everyone else behaves disgustingly towards them. They have no ounce of sympathy or decency and it's scary to think that humans can behave in this way.
14. Pia reminds me of Effie Trinkett from The Hunger Games. (I like her!)
15. Nice to know there's already a little resistance formed in this society and that they are fighting to take control away from Crevan and The Guild.
16. I like the mystery elements to this book. It's unraveling nicely and whilst some parts have been fairly obvious, I have a feeling there might just be something good still to happen. It's annoying how long it takes Celestine to catch up and work it out though. It's quite frustrating to know the answers when she doesn't.
17. A good ending! Fast pace, a few twists and we're left with a cliffhanger. I'm definitely intrigued to see where the story goes next.
18. The love triangle I thought was coming didn't happen but really there wasn't much romance at all. Her boyfriend Art is in hiding but Carrick is a very intriguing character and despite only speaking twice, I made more of a connection with him than with Art. I suspect a love triangle may still be to come. It's a little insta-lovey that she's so excited and infatuated by Carrick but there is something about him. 

To sum up:
Flawed has a lot of elements that are similar to other dystopian books (a main character who hasn't questioned the rules up until now, a villainous government figure, a resistance) but there are some twists which keep it interesting. There is a tendency for over-description and the main character, Celestine, takes a long time to figure things out sometimes. There isn't much romance, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but with a boyfriend already in place and another potential boy friend it was a little odd that they were barely in the story. I would love to see more of them in the next book. The writing was fast paced most of the time and I'm definitely interested in reading the sequel. Especially after that cliffhanger ending!

Do you like dystopian books? What are some of your favourites?
What do you think about a society that visibly brands someone as being flawed?

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Friendships & Mental Illness: A Review of 'Beautiful Broken Things' by Sara Barnard

Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard
Publishing Date: February 11, 2016
Rating:
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads | Book Depository
I was brave
She was reckless
We were trouble
Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own.

The main character isn't relatable.
Caddy was difficult to connect with. She's determined to have some "Significant Life Events" because she thinks her life is boring as nothing sad or difficult has happened to her. I can't understand the teenage need to not be boring and to have some cool stories to tell that make you stand out, but her real craving for them wasn't always easy to understand. Especially when she's comparing herself to her sister with bipolar and her best friend whose younger sibling died and whose dad walked out. It's hard to sympathise with someone who wants to have something like that in their life.

An exploration of friendship in teenage girls.
The highlight of the story is the friendships. Unlike a lot of other contemporaries, the focus isn't on romantic relationships but on the friendship between teenage girls. These friendships are often intense and complicated with threads of jealousy and I think this was explored very well in Beautiful Broken Things. 

The effect that mental illness can have in a friendship.
I think the mental illness aspect was handled well. Suzanne has a tragic background which has remained with her and has a real detrimental effect on her health. I liked that we follow Suzanne as she is away from those circumstances but still coming to terms with what happened. It was interesting to see how her demons also affect Caddy and Rosie. Caddy is pulled into Suzanne's wreckless behaviour and begins to lose control herself whilst Rosie grows tired of Suzanne's behaviour and Caddy's willingness to go along with it.

Overall, I liked the portrayal of Suzanne's mental illness and I also liked the writing. However, Caddy being so unlikable a lot of the time (e.g. purposefully triggering someone's traumatic past) and some iffy adult figures made it difficult to enjoy the story as a whole.


What are your favourite YA books dealing with friendship? What about mental illness?
Also, do you agree that the cover for this book is utterly gorgeous? I love it!
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ARC Review: A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Title: A Thousand Nights
Author: E.K. Johnston
Publication Date: October 6th, 2015 (October 22nd in UK)
Rating:
Goodreads | Book Depository
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, looking for a wife. When she sees the dust cloud on the horizon, she knows he has arrived. She knows he will want the loveliest girl: her sister. She vows she will not let her be next.

And so she is taken in her sister's place, and she believes death will soon follow. Lo-Melkhiin's court is a dangerous palace filled with pretty things: intricate statues with wretched eyes, exquisite threads to weave the most beautiful garments. She sees everything as if for the last time.But the first sun rises and sets, and she is not dead. Night after night, Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, and day after day she is awoken by the sunrise. Exploring the palace, she begins to unlock years of fear that have tormented and silenced a kingdom. Lo-Melkhiin was not always a cruel ruler. Something went wrong.

Far away, in their village, her sister is mourning. Through her pain, she calls upon the desert winds, conjuring a subtle unseen magic, and something besides death stirs the air.

Back at the palace, the words she speaks to Lo-Melkhiin every night are given a strange life of their own. Little things, at first: a dress from home, a vision of her sister. With each tale she spins, her power grows. Soon she dreams of bigger, more terrible magic: power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to the rule of a monster.

A Thousand Nights is a magical and vivid retelling of the Arabian Nights story. I was captured in the story from the first few pages due to the immersive world-building and lyrical writing but it is also quite vague in places which lets it down somewhat.

Our narrator of the story (who remains nameless throughout) lives a quiet and happy life in the desert with her family. There is a dark cloud hovering, however, in the form of Lo-Melkiin; the ruler of the kingdom who marries girls from every village and murders them before taking another. One day he visits our narrator's tribe and she offers herself to protect her sister.

I really enjoyed the world-building in this book; it's definitely the strongest part. I could picture the desert and the surrounding landscape, the palace where she lived with her captor and I understood the way the world works. I loved being immersed in it.

The writing takes a little getting used to. It's lyrical and doesn't make for a fast read but I think it ultimately works for this kind of story. An issue with it though is that we aren't given a lot of details. As I've already mentioned, all characters other than Lo-Melkiin are nameless and it can become a little bit tiresome to continuously read "father's father's father".

I also struggled to completely follow the magical components. Our narrator has a power that somehow protects her from being murdered and she can also use her power to think things and make them come true. On their meetings together, Lo-Melkiin and she hold hands and a golden light transfers between them. I didn't really get the point of this. I think she was becoming a smallgod but this transference must have been somehow connected to the demon inside Lo-Melkiin too. At these points I was eager for there to be more details but I guess that would have been difficult to do when the narrator wasn't entirely sure herself.

The main action is reserved for the final 10-15% of the story and whilst it was a satisfying conclusion, I wasn't as excited or as on the edge of my seat as I was supposed to be as I didn't feel emotionally connected to the main character enough. With that being said, the impressive writing and world-building did keep me invested in the story throughout, and I can appreciate the overall theme of the unexpected, nameless, having more bravery and power than first meets the eye.

ARC Review: The One Thing by Marci Lyn Curtis

Title: The One Thing
Author: Marci Lyn Curtis
Release Date: September 8th, 2015
Rating:
Goodreads | Book Depository
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Disney-Hyperion.

Maggie Sanders might be blind, but she won't invite anyone to her pity party. Ever since losing her sight six months ago, Maggie's rebellious streak has taken on a life of its own, culminating with an elaborate school prank. Maggie called it genius. The judge called it illegal.

Now Maggie has a probation officer. But she isn't interested in rehabilitation, not when she's still mourning the loss of her professional-soccer dreams, and furious at her so-called friends, who lost interest in her as soon as she could no longer lead the team to victory.

Then Maggie's whole world is turned upside down. Somehow, incredibly, she can see again. But only one person: Ben, a precocious ten-year-old unlike anyone she's ever met.Ben's life isn't easy, but he doesn't see limits, only possibilities. After awhile, Maggie starts to realize that losing her sight doesn't have to mean losing everything she dreamed of. Even if what she's currently dreaming of is Mason Milton, the infuriatingly attractive lead singer of Maggie's new favorite band, who just happens to be Ben's brother.

But when she learns the real reason she can see Ben, Maggie must find the courage to face a once-unimaginable future... before she loses everything she has grown to love.

The One Thing tells us the story of teenager Maggie who has been blind for six months due to a complication with meningitis. She is struggling to come to terms with her blindness and to adapt to her new way of living. Maggie soon meets ten year old Ben who has spina bifida but is so full of life that she is quickly drawn to his infectious personality. But there is also the small matter of her being able to see him and a small area surrounding him. She doesn't know if she's somehow getting her sight back or if she's just going crazy but either way she loves spending time with Ben. She is also surprised to learn that his brother, Mason, is the lead singer of her favourite band.

I really liked Maggie. She has a very sarcastic humour which I related to well. She has spent her life working towards her dream of being a professional soccer player, following in her mother's footsteps, and having to give up on that has left her feeling a bit lost. She's lost her friends and her college ambitions and doesn't quite know what to do with herself. I liked that she didn't let people get away with being asses and told them exactly what she thought of them. It was easy to respect her in those situations.

Ben was undoubtedly the highlight of the book. He is so adorable! He doesn't let his disability get the better of him and is just so nice to everyone. He's a little bit quirky but has a good heart and tries to make everyone around him happy. Everyone should have a friend like Ben!

Mason is a bit of a love/hate character for me. He was incredibly moody at the beginning and was so quick to judge Maggie without taking the time to listen or talk to her. I found it annoying that she was still so infatuated by him at those times when he was just being an idiot. I did love his protectiveness over Ben though. It was really sweet how he looked out for his brother.

Despite the fact Mason is the love interest, the romance isn't an overbearing element of the story which I liked. It was slow and often in the background to allow other things to take precedence. I'm glad about that as it was much more interesting to see Maggie's friendships with Ben and Clarissa develop as well as see her begin to embrace her blindness.

I didn't really get the point of Maggie being able to see Ben. I won't spoil the reasons for it but I did guess it very early on. We find out why she can see him but it's not really explained in great detail. I think the book would have worked perfectly without this element as Maggie and her relationships with the other characters were so great. I don't think she needed to have seen anybody at any point; I think she could just have easily made those relationships and come to terms with her blindness without the added element of her being able to see Ben.

Overall, I did enjoy reading this book but a couple of elements did bother me. Ben and Maggie are both interesting characters to read about but the added, almost supernatural, element didn't really work for me. I did enjoy Maggie's development throughout the book and I was pleased with the way things ended.

Review: Landline by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Landline

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Release Date: July 3rd, 2014

Standalone

Rating:



Review:

Georgie McCool is a TV writer and is married to Neal with two small children. Whilst Georgie works crazy hours, Neal stays at home to look after their children. Two days before Christmas, Georgie finds out she has to work over the festive period and won't be able to visit Neal's family in Omaha. When Neal takes the kids away anyway, and Georgie is left to ponder the future of her marriage, she discovers a way to communicate with Neal in the past.

The synopsis of this struck me as being very.. odd. A way to communicate with your husband in the past? In a contemporary? Via a magic phone? It's a quirky idea and if you just let yourself go with it and don't question it too much then it totally works.

There is something about Rainbow Rowell's writing that I just love. She writes in a way that hooks me in right away and I lose hours in her books without realising it. This was no exception.

I enjoyed getting to know about young Georgie and Neal getting together as well as the aspects of their relationship in the present day. It was intriguing to see how their relationship has evolved over time from them starting to date, getting married and having kids.

“I love you more than I hate everything else.”

Neal is never quite painted in a perfect picture and I found it quite frustrating at times that he wouldn't just talk to Georgie but I guess that's just his way of expressing his anger (we already know he's not the best communicator). I also would have liked to have had a conversation between them at the end about the magic phone.

Whilst this isn't my favourite Rainbow Rowell book, I still have a thing for her writing and she's still on my "immediately buy" list.

Aftermath by Tom Lewis

Title: Aftermath

Author: Tom Lewis

Release Date: March 28th, 2015

Book one of the After the Fall series

Rating:


Review:

Aftermath begins with the destruction of civilisation by an alien race. Paige survives the initial invasion and has to fight hard to continue to survive the violent aliens now controlling the earth.

I think the characters would have benefited from more development. The story is quite short and I definitely think there's room for more depth to be added. I think Paige could definitely be fleshed out a bit more. I didn't really connect with her as I didn't feel a lot of emotion from her. Saying that, I did appreciate the effort to make her a strong character. She wasn't reliant on the boys around her to save her and in fact came up with most of the plans herself. She was smart, resilient and not afraid to fight back.

I really enjoyed the plot. It's fast paced and has good twists and turns to keep you engaged. There are similarities to some other dystopian novels (such as force fields and disguising yourself in mud à la The Hunger Games and an entire population being controlled via an implant à la Divergent) but as a huge fan of dystopia, this just added to my enjoyment of the story as I like those kinds of elements.

Overall I think it's a well executed story that could probably benefit from a bit of an extension but it reads well and kept me engrossed. I'll definitely be checking out the sequel.

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver

Title: Vanishing Girls

Author: Lauren Oliver

Release Date: March 10th, 2015

Standalone

Rating:


Review:

Vanishing Girls tells the story of two sisters, Nick and Dara, who have become estranged after a terrible car accident. A young girl, Madeline Snow, has disappeared and when Dara also disappears, Nick is convinced that there is a link. She is determined to figure out what is going on and save her sister before it is too late.

I really enjoyed this story to begin with. I find Lauren Oliver's writing to be very compelling and easy to follow. I was gripped to the story and eager to know what was going to happen. For the first 60% I was following events well and even had a few theories as to what was going on. That's when the weirdness and the confusion hit.

Once the twist is revealed, things become quite confusing for a while. It's one of those twists that mean you have to rethink everything you have previously read and try to figure out what's real and what's not. I don't think it's necessarily a bad ending (and my theories weren't right) but there are a few things that aren't cleared up and so you have to just guess/figure it out for yourself.

Despite the confusion surrounding the twist, I did really enjoy this book. I do think I would probably have related to the two main characters more if I had a sister but overall it's a convincing thriller that will keep you guessing. Just be prepared for a lot of questions!