Hey hi hello!
I've decided to do monthly book posts, Surprise! If you know me at all you'll know that I'm a bookworm, I read a lot. I travel on buses quite a lot and so that half an hour on the bus into town or on the way home is a perfect time to zone out and leave reality and step into another world, I love busrides, it's calming to me. Is that weird? Probably.
Anyhooo. I average a book and a hlaf a week probably, I tend not to read at home because the internet is a huge distraction. To the first book!
I've read quite a few books this month, six actually. Which I think is pretty impressive if I do say so myself. I have around 150 books in my house that belong to me alone and I'm always buying more. I have really been into futeristic or dystopian works recently, I like the idea of creating a whole new world and a new way of surviving, it really interests me. Following from the fascination is my first book!
Pretties by Scott Westerfield
Pretties is the second book in a four part series called 'Uglies', it's a dystopian young adult book which as I have said, really appeals to me. The premise of the book is that when you turn 16 you get surgery to become a 'Pretty'. Basically it means everything about you is now perfect. In the first book the characters find out that this perfect 'pretty' life is not what it seems and try to investigate, this book was how the main characters try to escape the pretty life.
Now, I really enjoyed the first book, although the writing was pretty simplistic I understood it was not meant for a twenty year old reader, hence being classed as YA, this book though, was a major let down. 'The Pretties' have a certain way of speaking, it's all very happy and I just found the phrases very repetitive. The terms 'bubbly-making' or 'pretty making' are used about ten times a page and it really annoyed me. The escape story was alright, not brilliant and I think I got my hopes up too high for a brilliant second book. This of course is just personal opinion.
Rating: 3/5
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
My mums workfriend knows how much I loved to read and gave me a few books to borrow, I wasn't really interested in a few of them but this one stood out to me. I like to be emotional and emotional books are sometimes my favourites. *cough* the fault in our stars *cough* The book is about a boy who gets raped and his mothers attempts to get revenge on whoever done it. There are lots of plot twists in this book as to how it happened and the mothers character is a lawyer, so she knows the law, but that doesn't mean she follows it. The writing style was amazing and really really impressed me. I've read a few books of hers in the past but this is up in my favourite books of all time now.
It was emotional but not in the sense that I cried for hours while I was reading it, it was more numbing to be honest. Some of it was fairly hard to follow because there were a few characters and the writingkept changing to focus to different ones, it also lept between different time periods but I got used to it. I really highly reccomend this book to anyone who likes a book with a deep meaning and has a story that really puts life in perspective and pulls at the heart strings.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Hobbit by J.r.r. Tolkien
I've never really been interested in Lord of the rings or the Hobbit but after being pestered to read it I finally picked it up. I adored this book! It was brilliantly written, action packed, had amazingly written characters and was an amazing fantasy world. I loved the riddles and the wit, the imagination of the author was brilliant! For some reason it made me very hobbit that Bilbo, for someone so small, was able to be the hero. I can relate to him quite a lot, I have dreams of adventure but shy away from it but could probably step up to the plate if I needed to, I'm shorter than everyone else, 5'1 if you were wondering, and people seem to think I can't cope with many things.
Even if you haven't had an interest before I highly reccomend picking this up, such a wonderful read! I'm glad I read it now rather than in my younger years, I think it would have confused me quite a lot I think. I really don't have much more to say, everything about it was just brilliant!
rating: 5/5
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
I really had mixed feelings about wanting to read this book, I really hoped it wasn't going to be a twilight-esque story that was totally cliche but I was pleasently surprised! The book is about a zombie boy who falls in love with a human girl and then tries to fix himself so he blends in with society. The story to me did have it's flaws, and some of the writing really annoyed me, if the rating was down to this alone the rating would be much lower than it is.
What was really intriguing to me was some of the description, how the zombies could retain human memories by eating their brains, they gained an insight into what it was like to be living, despite not remembering their own past. The details of how the living were living really made me interested because although I don't an apocolypse is coming any time soon, those living conditions could possibly be something of the future, possibly, not really likely.
Parts of this novel distracted from the story itself, but I feel asthough they were put there for no other purpose than to add more pages to the story, but that's probably not why, I'm maybe just being too judgemental. Overall it was a fairly decent quick read, I don't see it being a favourite, but it's fairly ligh-hearted and has a really ineresting ploit and ending.
Rating: 4/5
Bright young things by Scarlett Thomas
The blurb for this book really intrigued me, 6 twenty-somethings go to a suspicious interview and then wind up on a deserted Island in the middle of nowhere. My mind automatically went to "Ooooh Hunger Games style", wrong. Dead wrong. This plot could have been made so much better with a different author or with more imagination put into it. The book is around 340 pages long, so a decent length, but the first 200 pages are boring as anything, with too many things relating to drugs or sex, theres about 4 chapters focussing on a game of truth or dare. The main drama happens about 250 pages in and only lasts about 30 pages, more thought went into how often they smoked cigarettes. The ending was such a dissapointment, you don't even find out if they got away from the island!
The writing was ver 'he said she said' with no description, for me it was written as if it was for a yound person but contained adult themes, which by the way, I wasn't expecting. I managed to fly through this in two days but thats only because I didn't want to give up hope anf leave it, but I also really wanted to start a better book really quickly.
Rating: 1.5/5
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Let's just say I'm saving the best for last. This book has easily been my favourite of this year so far. It's about magic thats happening in London mixed with a story about a police officer who likes to solve crime. I really didn't sum that up very well. I don't know how the write this book without using internet lingo such as 'the feels' or 'dhsgfqaifhgqiget'. Now that, is one way to sum up this book.
Ben is such a genius when it comes to his writing style, the plot, the characters and the imagination that bursts through on every page. Basically the book follows a string of rather greusome murders, and trust me, I was cringing, and how the main character Peter Grant is researching the murders while learning magic. I would say that this is the perfect book for anyone who likes a combonation of crime, horror or fantasy books because it almost includes all three. I could talk about it for hours and not do it justice. Go buy it okay?!
A very interesting read and I will be buying the other books in the series once I make a dent in my current reading list, so that may take a while! There's around 400 pages to this book and each page is jammed with mystery and amazingness, you will be trasported into this new world and not want to stop reading. I was so intrigued by it I missed a bus and then once on said bus, missed my stop. True story.
hdgfgdsggsgdgsehgdhys
enough said.
What do you guys think of these posts? Have you read any of these?
I would love to see your comments!
Amy x
Pretties by Scott Westerfield
Pretties is the second book in a four part series called 'Uglies', it's a dystopian young adult book which as I have said, really appeals to me. The premise of the book is that when you turn 16 you get surgery to become a 'Pretty'. Basically it means everything about you is now perfect. In the first book the characters find out that this perfect 'pretty' life is not what it seems and try to investigate, this book was how the main characters try to escape the pretty life.
Now, I really enjoyed the first book, although the writing was pretty simplistic I understood it was not meant for a twenty year old reader, hence being classed as YA, this book though, was a major let down. 'The Pretties' have a certain way of speaking, it's all very happy and I just found the phrases very repetitive. The terms 'bubbly-making' or 'pretty making' are used about ten times a page and it really annoyed me. The escape story was alright, not brilliant and I think I got my hopes up too high for a brilliant second book. This of course is just personal opinion.
Rating: 3/5
Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
My mums workfriend knows how much I loved to read and gave me a few books to borrow, I wasn't really interested in a few of them but this one stood out to me. I like to be emotional and emotional books are sometimes my favourites. *cough* the fault in our stars *cough* The book is about a boy who gets raped and his mothers attempts to get revenge on whoever done it. There are lots of plot twists in this book as to how it happened and the mothers character is a lawyer, so she knows the law, but that doesn't mean she follows it. The writing style was amazing and really really impressed me. I've read a few books of hers in the past but this is up in my favourite books of all time now.
It was emotional but not in the sense that I cried for hours while I was reading it, it was more numbing to be honest. Some of it was fairly hard to follow because there were a few characters and the writingkept changing to focus to different ones, it also lept between different time periods but I got used to it. I really highly reccomend this book to anyone who likes a book with a deep meaning and has a story that really puts life in perspective and pulls at the heart strings.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Hobbit by J.r.r. Tolkien
I've never really been interested in Lord of the rings or the Hobbit but after being pestered to read it I finally picked it up. I adored this book! It was brilliantly written, action packed, had amazingly written characters and was an amazing fantasy world. I loved the riddles and the wit, the imagination of the author was brilliant! For some reason it made me very hobbit that Bilbo, for someone so small, was able to be the hero. I can relate to him quite a lot, I have dreams of adventure but shy away from it but could probably step up to the plate if I needed to, I'm shorter than everyone else, 5'1 if you were wondering, and people seem to think I can't cope with many things.
Even if you haven't had an interest before I highly reccomend picking this up, such a wonderful read! I'm glad I read it now rather than in my younger years, I think it would have confused me quite a lot I think. I really don't have much more to say, everything about it was just brilliant!
rating: 5/5
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
I really had mixed feelings about wanting to read this book, I really hoped it wasn't going to be a twilight-esque story that was totally cliche but I was pleasently surprised! The book is about a zombie boy who falls in love with a human girl and then tries to fix himself so he blends in with society. The story to me did have it's flaws, and some of the writing really annoyed me, if the rating was down to this alone the rating would be much lower than it is.
What was really intriguing to me was some of the description, how the zombies could retain human memories by eating their brains, they gained an insight into what it was like to be living, despite not remembering their own past. The details of how the living were living really made me interested because although I don't an apocolypse is coming any time soon, those living conditions could possibly be something of the future, possibly, not really likely.
Parts of this novel distracted from the story itself, but I feel asthough they were put there for no other purpose than to add more pages to the story, but that's probably not why, I'm maybe just being too judgemental. Overall it was a fairly decent quick read, I don't see it being a favourite, but it's fairly ligh-hearted and has a really ineresting ploit and ending.
Rating: 4/5
Bright young things by Scarlett Thomas
The blurb for this book really intrigued me, 6 twenty-somethings go to a suspicious interview and then wind up on a deserted Island in the middle of nowhere. My mind automatically went to "Ooooh Hunger Games style", wrong. Dead wrong. This plot could have been made so much better with a different author or with more imagination put into it. The book is around 340 pages long, so a decent length, but the first 200 pages are boring as anything, with too many things relating to drugs or sex, theres about 4 chapters focussing on a game of truth or dare. The main drama happens about 250 pages in and only lasts about 30 pages, more thought went into how often they smoked cigarettes. The ending was such a dissapointment, you don't even find out if they got away from the island!
The writing was ver 'he said she said' with no description, for me it was written as if it was for a yound person but contained adult themes, which by the way, I wasn't expecting. I managed to fly through this in two days but thats only because I didn't want to give up hope anf leave it, but I also really wanted to start a better book really quickly.
Rating: 1.5/5
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Let's just say I'm saving the best for last. This book has easily been my favourite of this year so far. It's about magic thats happening in London mixed with a story about a police officer who likes to solve crime. I really didn't sum that up very well. I don't know how the write this book without using internet lingo such as 'the feels' or 'dhsgfqaifhgqiget'. Now that, is one way to sum up this book.
Ben is such a genius when it comes to his writing style, the plot, the characters and the imagination that bursts through on every page. Basically the book follows a string of rather greusome murders, and trust me, I was cringing, and how the main character Peter Grant is researching the murders while learning magic. I would say that this is the perfect book for anyone who likes a combonation of crime, horror or fantasy books because it almost includes all three. I could talk about it for hours and not do it justice. Go buy it okay?!
A very interesting read and I will be buying the other books in the series once I make a dent in my current reading list, so that may take a while! There's around 400 pages to this book and each page is jammed with mystery and amazingness, you will be trasported into this new world and not want to stop reading. I was so intrigued by it I missed a bus and then once on said bus, missed my stop. True story.
hdgfgdsggsgdgsehgdhys
enough said.
What do you guys think of these posts? Have you read any of these?
I would love to see your comments!
Amy x
