Fangirl

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Yes, another Rainbow Rowell masterpiece! I just ordered a copy of Attachments, and I cannot wait to sink my teeth into it. I've heard it's every bit as good as the rest of her work.

Fangirl is a story about Cath. She is a twin, a Simon Snow fan, and an incoming college freshman. Cath has never been apart from her sister Wren, but when Wren decides to room with someone other than Cath, her whole view on the upcoming semester begins to tailspin. Cath has always been safely ensconced between the world of Simon Snow, the world she's made with her fanfiction, and her twin. How is she going to navigate becoming an "adult" when she can't even converse with her roommate, her roommate's possible boyfriend (Cath hasn't worked up the guts to ask who he really is), or even find the dining hall?

There was so much perfect to this novel, that it feels almost impossible to write a coherent review. I guess I'll go by sections:

Cath: I had the best love hate relationship with this girl. Love, because she was funny and a geek and very much like me, with her insecurities as well as her good qualities. However, I thought at times she went too far. I despised going to the dining hall my freshman year, but Cath borders on literally starving herself to avoid the situation. She also goes in circles with her reasoning sometimes; however, these problems don't decline from the character. In fact, it made her more real to me.

College: Dear. God. Rainbow Rowell hit college on its head and drove it into the ground! The opening chapter made me get anxious and stressed out and literally have a flashback to how I felt on move-in day (hint: It wasn't fun. Seriously, I love being in college, but you couldn't pay me to relive my orientation or my move-in week). That's what first solidified my sympathy to Cath, because she felt exactly as I did.

There were a bunch of little things that someone who hasn't been in college gets, like when Levi introduces the concept of "freshman time." I constantly think back on certain sections of time from my freshman year, and the amount of memories I have from one month of that year are the equivalent of six months at any other time.

Fangirling: The very heart of this book is the fact that Cath is a die-hard fangirl, writing fanfiction for the Simon Snow saga. When I read the piece on midnight premieres and the fear of getting the last story, I started bawling like a child, because I remembered feeling that way with Harry Potter. What's more is that, though she may not bring it up with strangers, Cath is absolutely unashamed in her love for her stories, something I loved and identified with. College is terrifying on its own, not to mention the biggest period of change you'll experience in your life (or at least, that I've experienced so far), and Cath was meant to evolve over the year, but she also grew and strengthened herself by holding onto what she knew was such a large part of her, even when the whole world seemed to oppose it.

Other parts of the book I loved: the way the story ends with Cath and her mother's relationship. The fact that nobody in this story is perfect. The way Cath takes care of Nick. And Levi. LeviLeviLevi. Dear God, I want to have his pseudo-fictional babies.

READ THIS BOOK NOW.

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Untold

Untold by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Untold is a fantasy novel by Sarah Rees Brennan. This picks up right after the first installment, Unspoken. In this, Kami Glass must deal with the repercussions of her actions at the end of Unspoken, as well as work to uncover more of Sorry-in-the-Vale's secrets, that go down to the roots of the town itself. Meanwhile, she must try to untangle her complicated relationships with Jared Lynburn, Ash Lynburn, and her own family. This is the second in the Lynburn Legacy, the first being Unspoken, and the third novel Unmade set to release later this year.

Ugh.

If you've read this, you know exactly what the above ugh sounds like. It sounds like despair, sadness, emotional exhaustion, and the overwhelming remains of giddy happiness. In short, this book is Unspoken on crack in terms of emotions.

Okay, so let's start at the beginning, rather than ping-ponging my thoughts onto the Internet. Spoilers if you haven't read Unspoken.

Kami: Lovely as always. She has a lot to deal with in this installment, least of which re-finding herself. With the bond broken, she has to redefine herself around the empty spot where Jared used to always be. Without his indefatigable support in her odd ways, she now experiences feeling of insecurity and loneliness, something she was lucky enough not to have to deal with essentially her entire life.

Jared: Dear god, this boy will be the death of me. He has plenty of silent, sulky, infuriating brooding occurring here, but you're able to see that there is plenty of thinking going on behind that furrowed brow of his, as well as a metric ton of vulnerability he's willing to reveal to no one. Almost no one.

At one point, possibly one of my favorite parts of the book, he even shows CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! Praise God, and Sarah Rees Brennan! (Note: his inability to get over himself is not something I disliked about the writing itself, it was merely my own frustration at his personality. I had no problem with it taking this long in terms of the story, merely in terms of Jared standing in the way of his own happiness.)

And then he goes and f***s it up again, per his own tragic prerogative.

Lynburns: Further development on them. Some people disagree with me, but I happen to love Lillian. She's a class-A elitist pompous snob, but she has reasons, and she's undeniably strong in her convictions, which I respect. Ash still isn't my favorite person, but that's due to my own personal preferences with character traits. We get to see reasoning behind some of his actions and thoughts, and realize that he's got just as much going on as everybody else; he just doesn't let it show as easily.

Glass Family: Claire is impossible for me to deal with. Ten and Tomo made me squeal and nearly sob. Jon is perfect.

The story itself is a lot darker; there's less of a mystery aspect, and more of a ticking time bomb. Brennan is not afraid to break a few eggs for this omelet.

And of course, we finally get to see what Brennan means by book two in a trilogy being the "Make Out" book. Fans who endured snippets, you will be rewarded.

This book is utterly fantastic, I finished it in less than three days, and I will now return into hibernation until the final book comes out.

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Grave Mercy

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Grave Mercy is about a girl named Ismae, who's had a hard life in fifteenth-century Brittany. At fourteen, she is adopted into the convent of Saint Mortain, otherwise known as the God of Death. It's there that she learns the skills to be an assassin, in order to serve her god and country. Once she finishes her training, her debut mission takes her all the way up to the seat of Brittany's power, where she learns that court intrigue is far more deadly than idle gossip, and entire kingdoms hang in the balance. This is the first in the His Fair Assassin trilogy.

I was so glad to finally sit down and take in Grave Mercy. I was a little confused by the presence of a fictional country (I think) in the real world, but Robin LaFevers' world building skill ensured that I didn't get lost. I loved the mythology, especially since polytheism had all but does out in Europe by this time. The fact that they were drawn parallel to the devotion given to saints in Catholicism made my analyzing academic heart go all aflutter.

But enough about practicalities. Ismae was a fantastically wrought character, dynamic and complicated. She has assassin's confidence, yet is self conscious about her body. She also knows how strong she is, and refuses to let the male dictated society she has to work with cast her aside. As Duval says, she is in a "class of her own."

I loved Duval's devotion to his sister and family, even with its complexities. His sense of honor drew me in, and the romantic in me loved his and Ismae's relationship. LaFevers took courtly love, a trope nearly a thousand years old, and breathed life and originality into it.

Her characters were amazingly written, from the housemaids to Beast and De Lornay. I can't wait to read Sybella's story next.

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The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Darkest Minds is a dystopian novel by Alexandra Bracken. In the future, a deadly disease has gone through and damaged the population of children considerably. Those that survived have begun to manifest unique abilities, and no one knows how to handle it. The government finally decides to round up the children and place them in institutions in order to research and possibly find a cure. What those not in the loop don't know is that these institutions are little better than concentration camps, where life is miserable at best, and short-lived at worst. The protagonist Ruby has a past even darker and more twisted than her inmates, and when a possibility of escape arrives, she soon realizes that life on the outside is stranger and more complicated than even she could expect.

This book snuck up on me with how attached I got to it. I was reading along, not thinking I was too invested in it yet, and the next day, it was all I could think about. All I wanted to do was get back to my room so I could sit there and find out what would happen next to Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and Suzume. Something I found interesting was that, at least in the beginning, Ruby is not some strong, brave, defiant heroine whose goal is to take down the system. She's the character you typically scoff at, that you yell at your pages to because they won't stand up and DO something. Because that's realistic. Ruby has been living in what could be considered a concentration camp for six years, told on a daily basis that she's worthless, better off dead, with no forseeable escape. Keeping your head down would be what I would do, at least, and it drew me to Ruby because it made her seem more real. And it doesn't stop the second the plot shifts, but it's a continuing issue with her that she has to overcome throughout the novel.

However, once she grows and begins to realize her self worth, she becomes one of the strongest characters in this book, which I loved. Nothing makes me smile more than visible character development.

I also thought the world building in this was incredibly well done. In Shatter Me, for example, everything is spot on, but the world it takes place in seems a bit randomized, and not entirely developed (though we've been told that will be resolved in the upcoming sequel). The Darkest Minds is one of the better set up dystopians I've read, not simply because it's detailed, but because it is realistic (that word again) to the point where if something like this were to happen, I'd imagine it would go down in a similar way. Alexandra Bracken knows how to spin an amazing impossible tale, and give it a thread of reality strong enough to make it incredible.

And that ending? FOR REAL?!?!?! I can't simply wait around for a sequel with an ending like that! Give me Never Fade, NOW!!!

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Eleanor & Park

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Slight spoilers ahead. You've been warned.

Eleanor and Park can be summed up in one word: unexpected. I didn't expect it to be set in the eighties. I didn't expect Eleanor to be overweight, or for Park to be Korean. And I didn't expect to fall in love with this book as hopelessly as Eleanor and Park fell in love with each other.

I loved the dual perspective from the two main characters. It allowed me to see how uniquely they thought, and at the same time showed me that the two of them often thought so alike (for instance, they both describe each other at one point as looking like art).

The ending was described by Rainbow Rowell as "like a truck hitting a brick wall," and rightly so. I had to reread the last paragraph before I understood what had happened, but once I did, I wanted to cry for happiness and sadness all at once. The ending is so hopeful, and while it stands perfectly on its own, I would inhale a sequel if it were to happen.

Some favorite parts:
-Park's reaction after the gym scene (you know if you've read)
-Park's evolution into punk
-Eleanor finally giving herself permission to love
-School at midnight
-How subtly they fall for each other. They don't realize it until it's too late.

Read it. Read it read it read it.

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Batten Down the Hatches

So, I finally figured out how to post my Goodreads reviews to my blog, something I've wanted to do for a really long time. I've always enjoyed giving detailed reviews when I finish a book, but I knew that not many people had access to them unless they either were friends with me on Facebook or Goodreads. As a result of that, and because it's a Thursday and I don't feel like writing my essay until later (like, midnight later), I may or may not be flooding this page with a bunch of my older reviews. Not all of them; just the good ones, and just what I feel is worth reading. So prepare to get flooded!

Vampire Academy

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll be honest, I started this book only because my friend (a fan) wanted to see the movie and wanted me to read it before. I didn't finish the book in time, though I did see the film (and was pleasantly surprised by it). But that's beside the point, being that I've read this book, and this is my opinion on it.

I felt that there was a lot of set up in this book. We have to orient ourselves to a whole other world of varying races of vampires, social hierarchy and government, the dynamics of the magical element, all while keeping up with the fact that there's something going on that the characters themselves aren't fully aware of.

I had a few issues with the book, but I recognized that some of the issues had to do with when the book itself came out. This first released in 2007, when both vampire stories and high school/boarding school dramas were in very high demand. At times, Rose or Lissa or whomever would act extremely catty and mean, resorting to tactics with their rivals/enemies in ways that could now be easily identified as bullying. There was also a lot of using words like slut/bitch/fuck/etc. really casually that, as a whole, felt really unnecessary. I wasn't overly offended, it just felt like the text would have gotten its point across without it just as easily. However, I was able to compartmentalize that part of the story and still absorb the plots and conflicts easily.

And once you get down to it, you realize that this story is very compelling. The worldbuilding is strong and fleshed out; nothing feels flimsy or there only in terms of words on a page, instead of feeling like an inherent part of the place I was immersing myself in. Rose is snarky and fun, but she also has a love for her best friend that grounds her and allows her to see past her seventeen years and react accordingly to the bigger picture. Lissa was gentle and kind without coming across as weak or annoying, which I often find characters like her to be. I also loved Dimitri, and not just because I watched him portrayed by "Russia's sexiest actor." All in all, once the main plot got going and not as much focus was put on the "high school" element, it made for an addictive story that is sure to lead to equally as addictive sequels. Now if I can just get my hands on a copy of Frostbite!

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