REVIEW: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

The Summary : When Cath’s twin sister, Wren, tells her that she doesn’t want to room with her in college, Cath freaks out. Suddenly, she is thrown into a new situation, all by herself, with a roommate that she has never met. To cope, she throws herself into her fiction writing course, and writing her Simon Snow (read : harry Potter) Fanfiction. Keeping up her secret life as a famous fanfiction author becomes really hard when her roommate, Raegan, forces her to be social, and a cute boy named Levi, falls for her.

The Characters:

Cath : Cath is a phenomenal character. She is awkward, and quirky, and funny. She is a perfect portrait of an introvert being forced into a social situation, which is something that I can totally relate to. She has an incredibly relatable voice, and all of her problems feel very real. She worries abut the things that every college freshman would worry about, such as what to do when she’s late to class, and should she let this random boy into her dorm. She is forced out of her comfort zone, and boy does she come out of it.

Wren : In the very beginning, I wanted to hate Wren for abandoning Cath. As far as character development goes, I feel like Wren didn’t change all that much. Instead, Wren’s storyline just goes on, as anyones life would, and she grows up from it, but not any more than any regular human being. You really grow to understand her, which is amazing.

Raegan : Raegan is so sassy and I love it. Literally, if I could have any roommate from any book ever, It would be Raegan. Cath describes her as “bigger on the inside” and “forceful,” And that is exactly what she is. She lives her life like she owns the world. On the other hand, she ends up being an amazing friend to Cath, which i didn’t expect at all.

Cath and Wren’s Dad : FINALLY A YA NOVEL WHERE THE PARENTS EXIST. I don’t think I have ever read a young adult novel where the parents aren’t just side characters. Their father played a large role in this book, and he added so much to the story. He gets to be the “cool dad,” and be there for Cath in everything she deals with, but manages to be the bad cop when Wren needs it.

Levi : Literally, just insert the heart eyes emoji here. That’s all I have to say. Levi is perfect. He is the perfect guy friend, and becomes the perfect boyfriend, but the best part is, is that he isn’t perfect at all. He is the genuinely good guy that every girl wants to meet in college. If I ever re read this book, it would be solely for Levi.

The Plot : Rainbow Rowell is amazing. She created this world that is incredibly real, a world that completely sucks you in, so that you can’t put the book down. The story moves at a great pace, not too fast, not too slow, and the story isn’t typical or cliche at all. The most unique part of this story is the fanfiction. Rowell has created a story within a story, and throws in some excerpts from  the “Simon Snow” series, which is along the lines of the Harry Potter series in our world. These excerpts, along with some excerpts from the fanfictions that Cath and Wren have written really add to the story. I didn’t expect to like those parts, but some o them ended up being my favorites.

The Overall : 5 out of 5. Fangirl is an amazing book. I very rarely read a book and wish that there was a sequel. I love how this book wraps up nicely in the end, I just wish there was more. I would recommend this to everybody. Literally, I have no specifications. Everyone should be reading this book.

 

Book Review – Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

The Summary : Vera is in love with her best friend, Charlie, and he loves her back. Only, She doesn’t know that. She does, however know, all of his secrets, and all of the details surrounding his untimely death. Vera now has to decide whether or not to share these secrets and clear his name, or to keep them to himself, all the while being haunted by Charlie’s ghosts.

 

The Characters :

Vera : I fully understand where Vera is coming from. Her best friend completely screwed her over, and then he died before they could fix their friendship. She is coping with Charlie’s death as best as she can. She starts drinking, which is a normal teenager thing to do to cope with tragedy, And that whole thing with James was also really normal and real, as well. All in all she is just a good depiction of a teenage girl who has been through hell and back, and has come out the other side.

Charlie : Charlie read very attractive to me. Like damn. Charlie was a typical “bad boy” YA character. He drove a motorcycle, smoked cigarettes, smoked pot and sold his underwear to an old man. Wait what? Yeah, that happens too. Charlie was right all along, Vera is too good for him. He spends most of their friendship fighting his feelings for her, to save her from him, which, while really depressing, it is very honorable.

Jenny Flick : Jenny Flick can go fuck herself for all I care. 

Vera’s Dad : Vera’s dad is a pretty cool guy. I liked all of his Zen Buddhist sayings that were thrown in around the book.

 

The Plot : I liked how the book flipped around from past to present, and between different perspectives. I think my favorite part was either “a brief word from the dead kid” from Charlie’s perspective, or “a brief word from the pagoda,” which is literally from the perspective of a pagoda. Please Ignore Vera Dietz has an amazing concept. The fact that Vera is being haunted by not one, but thousands of Charlie ghosts is really interesting to me. I liked the fact that the story wasn’t obvious, especially the end. I actually wasn’t expecting Vera to forgive Charlie in the end, or to make peace with her dad. I thought that was a great ending.

 

The Overall :  This book gets 5 out of 5 stars. This is extremely rare. I literally have zero complaints about this book. I loved the concept, I loved the characters, I loved the pacing, and I just definitely loved everything. I would recommend this for fans of contemporary YA fiction, who wouldn’t mind reading something a little bit on the darker side, without being too dark.

 

SUMMER BLOG OVERHAUL

Ok, I should really start by apologizing for disappearing for two whole months. There is really no excuse, but guess I just couldn’t find the motivation to write anything. Like literally, I wanted to have the novel that I’m working on finished by the end of the year, and if I keep going the way that April and May went, then I will never get it done.

But any way We aren’t going to talk about the past, and how I completely screwed up in March and April. Instead, we are going to look to the future, and focus on what is to come in the summer. Starting in June, I will be bringing back Fearless Literacy. I’ll be back on my two posts a week schedule, but I will be switching from Tuesdays and Fridays, to Mondays and Thursdays to accommodate my new work schedule.

I will be posting a ton of reviews for the books I’ve been reading in the past few months, and I also have a bunch of other posts on different topics. But, here is where you guys come in. I am going to need some requests for topics to write about. 

Thank you guys for sticking with me for the past few crappy months. I hope that y’all stick with me and enjoy this upcoming summer.

 

Review : Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

SPOILERS EXIST

The Summary : Told in verse, this story follows 16 year old Liz, known as the “Photogirl,” and her “forever best” Kate, The dancer. Liz and Kate have been best friends for as long as they can remember, and until one night, nothing has ever come between them. One night, all of that changes. A fight at their monthly sleepover separates them for long enough for the unthinkable to happen to Kate. Liz now has to decide what she believes whether or not her own brother would hurt her best friend. Their friendship can’t and wont survive this.

The Characters :

Liz : Liz sort of reminded me of myself. I used to be knows as the “photography girl” when I was in high school and college. She came off to me as a regular girl, who was just torn between being a good friend, and a good sister. She has to decide who’s side she’s truly on, all while being forced to pick the side of her family. The only thing that I didn’t like about her, is that she sort of just lashed out at Kate, before she knew the whole story of what happened.

Kate : Kate has every right to be bitchy, but I don’t like how she refused to talk to Liz about it. She just pushes her away, and then lies about it. Had Kate just told Liz what happened that night, then she could have had Liz more on her side during the trial.

The Plot : This was an interesting story, but it lacked something to make it stand out as a novel. The plot was there, and It was a good story, but nothing was too exciting. I did like that the author didn’t put Kate and Liz back to being best friends at the end, and showing that there are actually some things that you can’t come back from.

The Overall : I know that this was a short review, but Exposed was a short book. I read this in about 3 hours, so It was a really quick read, which was perfect for what I wanted at that time. I would give this book a 3, because I liked the characters, but the plot just wasn’t there for me. It was a little shallow, compared to the verse books that I’m used to. I would recommend this for younger readers of Ellen Hopkins, and Laurie Halse Anderson. I would have really liked this book when I was about 13 or 14.

 

Reflecting on 21

So, My birthday is tomorrow, April 2nd. Somehow I can’t really believe that I will be 22 in less than 24 hours. This sounds really cliche, but 21 was really an amazing year. It’s really awesome how much a person can change in a year. 365 days. I remember most of my 21st birthday really vividly. I was in beauty school, and I had my Advanced level final that day. A few of my friends went to this pub after school for dinner, and I had my first legal drink, called a loopy lemonade, which was amazing. The rest of the year was full of absolutely amazing memories, and not memories. 

I wanted to take 21 and focus on having a fun life. I wanted to worry less about what other people thought about me, and whether or not they liked me. I’ve struggled my entire life with being a “people pleaser,” and needing other people to like me. I wanted 21 to be MY year. My year to do me, and not worry about other people. While I still worry a lot more than I should about other peoples feelings, and putting people first, I have definitely gotten a lot better about treating myself like an actual human being.

Now, I’m officially 12 hours from turning 22, almost a completely different person than I was when I turned 21. I’m thinking that’s a good thing. It’s a beautiful, human thing to evolve, and grow with each passing year. I changed my hair this year, I changed my style up a lot this year, in terms of clothing, and most importantly I have changed my way of life. I have started to throw myself more into the “Hug Life,” (Shouts to Mod Sun) which just means living more positively, and more fully. 

I am really looking forward to celebrating this year. I actually went to a concert on Sunday, March 30th, and celebrated my birthday with the time of my life. I had no idea who any of the three openers were, but they were all amazing. The first was Kid Riz and Sven, who were phenomenal. Next was Mason IV Real with W.E.S. and He was awesome, and a super cool guy when I met him. Then there was Black Bear who brought Mike Posner (my Bae) out on stage to do a song. Then Mod Sun performed, and legitimately changed my life. He had hyperextended his knee a few days back and was still jumping around like hell on stage. So much energy for one guy. Also he pointed at me during “Happy As Fuck,” which is arguably the best song ever written. And T Mills was awesome, even though I didn’t get pulled up on stage, and only knew about two of his songs. But all in all it was the best night of my whole life. I met Pat Brown, who plays with Mod Sun on all of his songs, and he was super nice. I didn’t get to meet Mod, but I will one day. Back on topic.

What do I plan on doing this year? I really want to go to Disney World, and a lot of concerts. Also I want to buy a car this year. Those are my three goals for the year.

I certainly hope that 22 can be just as good, and even better. I’ll leave you with the first selfie that I took when I turned 21, to the last selfie that I took as a 21 year old.

March Wrap Up and Progress Report.

March was a long month, and I read a lot of things. I finished four books, as of the 24th. First I finished Cracked by K.M. Walton, in all of two days, Then came Crossed by Ally Condie, which as you can see by my review that it took a bit longer. Recently I finished Exposed by Kimberly Marcus in one day, and that review will be up in a few days. I also finished Free Four by Veronica Roth, which is one of the Divergent series Novellas.

As far as goals go, I did accomplish some things. I have been working on getting my room clean, which is great, and I have been saving a bunch of money, and have managed to save up a couple hundred more dollars towards a car. I didn’t finish Starters or Insurgent, but I am so close to finishing Insurgent I can taste it. I’ll focus more on Starters next month and force myself to get more into it. I definitely didn’t post twice a week, but I tried and did post at least once a week. I also didn’t get my eyebrows done, whoops. I’ve been drinking smoothies nearly every day, and have managed to find my favorite. Basically, I put spinach, strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, vanilla yogurt, honey and cranberry juice in my Nutribullet and blend it on the thicker side, and it is absolutely amazing.

I’m really proud that I finished four books this month, and only bought one. I bought Pawn by Aimee Carter, which I have been wanting for a while. Essentially it is about a girl who has to join some sort of revolution, and pose as the Prime Minister’s daughter, or something like that. It seemed really interesting, so I’ll let you know how it goes. I wont be reading that for a while, though, because I will be trying to get through more of my initial TBR from January.

My Original List : 

(Bold = finished, Italics = currently reading)

 

1. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.

2. Eve by Anna Carey

3. Crossed by Ally Condie

4. Reached by Ally Condie

5. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green.

6. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

7. The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

8. The Death Cure by James Dashner

9. The Kill Order by James Dashner

10. The Uglies by Scott Westerfield

11. Pretties by Scott Westerfield

12. Specials by Scott Westerfield

13. Extras by Scott Westerfield

14. Stolen by Lucy Christopher

15. Feeling for Bones by Bethany Pierce

16. Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

17. Exit Here by Jason Myers

18. Thin by Grace Bowman

19. The Bling Ring by Nancy Jo Sales

20. Paper Towns by John Green

21. The Handmaidens Tale by Margret Atwood

22. Tricks by Ellen Hopkins

23. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

24. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

25. Starters by Lisa Price

26. A Year With Aslan by C.S. Lewis

 

My New List :

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Free Four by Veronica Roth

Fireworks over Suburbia by J. Merridew

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

Sprout by Dale Peck

Dare Me by Eric Devine

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Ash by Malinda Lo

Cracked by K.M. Walton

Exposed by Kimberly Marcus

The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd

This Star Wont Go Out by Esther Earl

Pawn by Aimee Carter

So, I’d say that I did pretty well this month. I’ll post some goals for April when I have them, also April 2nd is my birthday, so be sure to tweet me a happy birthday, because I’m an asshole.

twitter.com/princessmyers

 

Book Review : Crossed by Ally Condie.

I’d like to start by saying that I know this post is late. I’m only doing one post this week because I’ve been super busy with work. But The fact that it’s a book review makes up for it. Also SPOILER ALERT, for both Crossed and Matched, because it’s a sequel.

The Summary : In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky – taken by the Society to his certain death – only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake. Cassia’s quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander – who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia’s heart – change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Characters :

Cassia – Cassia really wants to join The Rising. Did you know that Cassia wants to join The Rising? Maybe you should read the book again, she’ll tell you about a hundred times. This in tire book is about how much Cassia wants to find Ky and join The Rising with him, completely disregarding the possibility that Ky might not want this. Cassia is a typical girl who can’t decide who she wants. Scratch that, she knows who she wants, she wants Ky, but she wants Xander to keep wanting her. The phase “Xander is mine” is used at least once.

Ky – Ky only cares about two things. Himself, and finding Cassia. He plans to find her and get the hell out of the Society. He wants nothing to do with The Rising, and he will tell you that. Constantly. I do give Ky points for saving Eli, though. I also quite enjoyed finding out more of Ky’s back story.

Xander – Wow, so interesting, for all two pages that he is featured on. His secret isn’t all that interesting. So he’s in the Rising, huge deal. I wish we saw more of him in Crossed, so I’m hoping for more in Reached.

Indie – Indie is strong, and a little bit annoying. She will do anything to find The Rising, and lead it to victory. She is an excellent friend to Cassia. The one thing that really did bother me was the whole “being in love with Xander” thing. How does one fall in love with someone that they haven’t met?

Vick and Eli – Wallpaper. Vick was kind of interesting until he died way too soon. Eli was a little bit on the whiney side, but that’s mostly because of his age.

Hunter – One of the few characters that I had no problem with. He knew what he wanted, had an interesting back story, and didn’t take up too much space. He was helpful to the characters, as well as the plot. 

The Enemy – Who the hell is The Enemy?

The Plot : Crossed picks up shortly after where Matched leaves off, which is great, because you don’t miss much, but the greatness pretty much stops there. Crossed is definitely more of a transitional novel, rather than it’s more plot driven predecessor, Matched. It starts with Cassia at a work camp searching for Ky. When she realizes that he has escaped to the Canyons, She takes her friend Indie and runs away to follow him. Ky has escaped his work camp with two confidants, Vick and Eli, to find Cassia and the Rising. When they find each other, we find out that Ky doesn’t want to join the Rising, and only wants to be with Cassia. He agrees to help her find the Rising, with the help of Hunter, an outsider who lives in a development in one of the canyons. Basically, This book is the equivalent of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One movie. It’s a lot of walking, a lot of back story, and very little plot. Throughout the whole book, they keep alluding to these big secrets that Xander and Ky are keeping, and it takes until the very end to find out. While Xander’s secret is a very big shock, I figured it out long before they revealed it.

The Overall : Crossed got 3 hearts from me. Barely. I usually find myself more into novels that are more plot driven, which is normal. This book just moved way too slow for me, and it took me way longer to read it than it should have. I wasn’t excited to pick up Reached, It felt more like I was reading it to get the series over with, rather than to enjoy it.

If you read it, what did you think?

Recent Book Haul Part Two.

Because I’m an asshole and bought way to many books, I am going to just jump right in.

I am incredibly excited because I bought Unwind by Neal Shusterman, which I have been dying to read. Basically, somewhere in the future, America has been involved in the Second Civil War, over reproductive rights. A compromise has been reached, and they have decided that between the moment of conception to the age of 13, life can’t be touched. After a child turns 13, their parents can decide to have the “unwound,” a process in which they will remove all of their organs and give them to people who need them, so their life doesn’t technically end. Unwind follows three different people who are about to become unwound. 

Fun fact, I am super into fairytale retellings, so I bought Ash by Malinda Lo. Ash is about a young girl who loses her father, and is forced to live with her evil stepmother. Sound familiar? Well, she spends all of her time reading fairy tales, and when she meets a (dark) fairy, she starts to think the stories might be true. Then she meets one of the Kings royal huntresses and starts to see what real life and love might be. So I’m thinking a possible lady loving Cinderella? Seemed interesting.

I bought, and I am currently reading Cracked by K.M. Walton. Told in alternating perspectives, Cracked follows a boy who tries to kill himself, because he has been bullied his entire life, and ends up in a mental hospital. In a bizarre twist, he ends up rooming with the boy who has bullied him his whole life, who has been admitted for attempting to kill his grandfather. I’m already loving it.

Also fun fact, I love it when stories are told in verse. I have no idea what Exposed by Kimberly Marcus is about, but it’s been on my Amazon Wish List for over a year now. From what I gather, It involves photography, and friends who are no longer friends. I’ll let you guys know.

The next book I got was The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd. I’ve been getting into LGBT+ fiction lately, so I continued this trend here. This follows a boy named Dade, who is spending his last summer at home before college with a crappy job, fighting parents, and a boyfriend who treats him like shit. He, of course, meets a new boy, and I’m guessing there might be some love triangle-y type things in here. It seemed interesting.

I got Demi Lovato’s Staying Strong 365 Days a Year. This is actually a day to day book with little writing passages and goals for each day. 

The last book that I got was This Star Wont Go Out by Esther Earl. We know that Esther Earl inspired parts of The Fault In Our Stars story by John Green, but TSWGO isn’t about that. TSWGO is Esther’s story. I cried reading the introduction, so I can’t imagine how I’ll be throughout the rest of the book.

Thank you guys for not judging me for breaking my resolution to buy less books, but I promise I wont buy more until I finish at least five books on THIS list, and I’ll be mixing them in with my initial list from January. Basically, I’m sorry, and I hate myself for doing this. Well, not really, but still. Thanks for reading, let me know what books you’ve bought recently.

Recent Book Haul.

Hey guys, so I know I said that I was going to buy less books this year, and I tried, I really did. But, I’m clearly not perfect, so I bought a bunch of books. But I really am done this time, I promise.

So, for the next two posts, I am going to go through the books that I’ve purchased since February.

I am going to start with the books that I have purchased on my Kindle.

I downloaded the Insurgent by Veronica Roth on audible.com. I am not going to go into detail describing what this book is about, because it is a sequel, but I will say that it picks up exactly where Divergent leaves off, and it is very good so far.

The next book that I downloaded for my Kindle was Free Four by Veronica Roth. Free Four is actually a novella that ties in with the Divergent trilogy. This is actually the knife throwing scene from Divergent, but retold in Four’s perspective. This sounds excellent, so I will definitely let you know how it goes.

The next book that I got was Fireworks Over Suburbia by J. Merridew. J. Merridew is actually a blogger on youtube, who is actually one of my favorites these days. He sits in his dorm and recounts his time as a gay high schooler in Pennsylvania of all places, and random stories about his life. Fireworks Over Suburbia is a few short stories that he has written, and I am incredibly excited to read it.

Now onto the physical books that I bought. I have this obsession with buying used books on amazon. Even though I have a Prime membership, so I can get free two day shipping on most books, a lot of times, It’s cheaper to buy a book for $.01 and just pay $3.99 for shipping, because I’m still only paying $4 for a book, instead of the Prime price.

The first book that I bought was The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green by Joshua Braff. I was recommended this by John Green, in his “15 Best Books That You Haven’t Read” video on his youtube channel. This is a coming of age story about a young Jewish boy who can’t stop thinking “unthinkable” thoughts, about such things as leaving his home, leaving jewish school, and absolutely anything sexual. This book sounds phenomenal so I can’t wait to read this.

The next book is Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Dash & Lily’s follows the tradition of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, another novel by the same authors, and it is about a young girl who has created a book of clues and dares, and left them on a shelf in a bookstore for the right guy to find them. I am super excited to read this, and to find out if Dash is actually the right guy.

Next I bought Sprout by Dale Peck. Now, I have no idea really what this novel is about. It seems to me like a middle grade to young adult novel about a young gay boy in a Kansas City high school with some sort of secret. But I am really excited to see what this book is about.

The last book that I’m going to talk about today is Dare Me by Eric Devine. I thought this book seemed really interesting, as a youtube creator, and someone who enjoys watching youtube videos. This novel is about a group of boys who somehow stumble into internet fame by creating a video that goes viral. Suddenly this group of boys are internet stars and now they have to consistently one up themselves, and have to decide how far they are willing to go for fame and money.

I’ll finish this haul in the next post on Friday. Thanks for listening, I’m going to try to stop being lazy and post every Tuesday and Friday.

Writing Prompt : Where were you on Sept. 11th. Everyone has their story. What’s yours?

It’s strange how vivid some moments look in our memory. One memory that nearly everyone can remember perfectly, is where they were during the attack on September 11, 2001. Where were you?

I was in fourth grade, in Mrs. Henstchel’s class. We had just taken a spelling test, when one of the fifth grade teachers came and pulled my teacher out of class. We did what most fourth graders would do, we started talking loudly, and laughing about the fact that we were left alone. When the teacher comes in, she tells us to be quiet, and to wait for an announcement. A few minutes later, the principal comes on the P.A. system announcing the students who’s parents were coming to get them. Among those students were me and my brother. At that point I knew something must have happened because my mom NEVER took us out of school early. The only other time was for the flood of Hurricane Floyd in 2nd grade, and even then, she didn’t come get us. Our neighbors decided that we should go home. Someone asked what was going on, She just said that we were all going home early, and that our parents would explain. I guess the school thought we were too young to understand. 

When my we got home, she explained to us that when she was in school, and Kennedy was assassinated, schools were closed and students were told to not watch TV, and just to pray. She told me that I didn’t have to watch the news with her if I didn’t want to. But I desperately wanted to know what was going on. So, I sat and I watched. I watched the video footage of the second plane hitting the tower. And then A local news story of a man kicking down grave stones came on, because he was so angry. 

I don’t think I will ever forget that. My father tells this story some times, about the next summer, we were driving down to Florida for vacation. When we stopped in North Carolina, we were parked next to a group of guys who were playing music out of their truck, and seemed to be having a damn good time. My dad went to them and asked what they were celebrating. One of the guys referred to the other guys as his brothers. My dad asked what fraternity they were in, and the guy told us that they were New York Firemen, and they were delivering a piece of the South Tower to the firemen in South Carolina, because they were the first out of state firemen to volunteer to come and help out on 9/11. The only time I ever seen my father cry is when he tells that story. I will never forget that day either.

Where were you? 

((Writing prompt from http://www.kludgymom.com/idea-bank/ ))