What I've Been Reading

Hello! I apologise for my absence but have had a very hectic couple of weeks, on Thursday (3rd March) I was hospitalised till Wednesday (9th March) and have spent ever since then still recovering. Long story short I had a lot of pressure in my head which was causing a lot of problems. I'll probably do a post telling you the full story another time but this is just a quick little post to talk about books because I have read a lot lately. I had the perfect picture ready for this post, however have not read one of the books in the picture so had to retake.

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

By M.R Carey

'Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh'

I have mixed feelings about this book. At the begininng I loved it and could not put it down, however as the novel progressed I found myself less and less interested in it. I actually gave up reading it 3/4 of the way in. It does have a good story line and a good plot twist, but I just got bored of it. My theory for this though is that I got bored because it's not that gripping. What I mean by this is that it is one of those books where you need breaks inbetween reading it to keep the suspense and at first this is what I was doing. Then when I went to hospital I was just reading it on end, with no breaks and I don't think the story line is intense enough for me to be able to do that. If I were to have read this whilst I still had to attend college thus giving me reading breaks I think I would have finished it much more easily but it's just not one of those 'can't put it down books' for me. 

But, I did really like the characters and there's a twist which I wasn't expecting at all although I'm sure other people did. I'm not even sure it's a twist but it left me going 'woah'. I also really liked the way the author voiced Melanie and the way she kept her childish dialect but it wasn't overdone to make the book irritating and I liked the swapping between characters.

3.5/10

THE ART OF BEING NORMAL

By Lisa Williamson

'Two boys. Two secrets. David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he's gay. The school bully thinks he's a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth - David wants to be a girl. On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal - to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year 11 is definitely not part of that plan. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long ...'

I like the idea of this book and I like the fact it has a transgender protagonist and how there is more to their lives than just their gender identity. It was enjoyable to read and was able to read this one continuously even though it wasn't that exciting and I feel like it is quite an important book for people because it's one of those books that brings to light issues about society, but isn't that deep that makes it complicated. However, I feel like the two main characters, Leo and David, are both quite obvious characters. I personally found there wasn't much depth to the characters even though there was an attempt to do so and the way they were written I feel like I've read books before or seen TV shows before with characters exactly the same as Leo and David. I don't really know how to explain and after looking at multiple other reviews I've seen a lot of people loved their characters and don't feel the same way, but each to their own! I did enjoy reading the book though and loved the story line and swapping between characters and I did feel and root for them, but I just didn't really like the way they were voiced.

4/5

THE LUNAR CHRONICLES
By Marissa Myer

'Each book entails a new take on an old fairy tale, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White. The story takes place in a futuristic world where humans, cyborgs, and androids all coexist.'

I got this series as eBooks because I prefer to buy series on my kindle because they are cheaper and easier to get hold of the next one straight away because no need to wait for shipping.

I love these books. I think the twist on classic day fairy tales is so smart and the story line, although does have the whole 'end of the world, good VS evil' thing, I feel like it's a story line I've never heard before and is so unique. The series is hard to explain to people because it sounds crap if you say 'oh it's like Cinderella but she's a cyborg and has to go against an evil queen' but it's anything but crap (and also there is a lot more than just that but I'm avoiding spoilers). The characters are all different and individuals and the story line constantly changes between who it's following (it's written in third person) so sometimes you know what's going to happen for another character and despite it not being a surprise it's good because it keeps you full of suspense and dread. I want to say dramatic irony but I don't know if that only applies to comedies. I could not put these books down in hospital, I have almost finished the third book but have taken a break since I've been back home to catch up on my work and stuff but oh my god it's incredible. There are four primary books; Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter  but eleven books in total It's gripping and intense and everything I look for in a book and is different to anything I've ever read before.

5/5