Book Review (#5) - Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Title: Fangirl 

Author: Rainbow Rowell

Published: St. Martin's Press, 2013

433 pages

Goodreads synopsis:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Eleanor & Park.

A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

I love the presentation of this book. The font and the colours of the book are eye catching and the cartoon picture is extremely adorable. At the beginning of every chapter there is a little excerpt from the Simon Snow novels or Cath's fan fiction which is a really nice added detail.

I have never had a book feel more real to me. The struggles and challenges that Cath faces are so believable and I'm sure have happened to lots of people. College and family are issues that people have issues with all the time and I think this book could really help people know that they are not alone. It is a bit of a long book, but it is so fast paced that it doesn't take long to read at all. 

The originality of this book is so fresh and was so needed, it was nice to meet new characters that I know will stay with me.

As main characters we have:

Cather and Wren Avery: 18 year old twins who are in their first year of college. Both are major Simon Snow fans, though Wren is slowly drifting away from it. 

Art Avery: The girls dad.

Reagan: Cath's roommate who loves to go out and party and loves being mean to Cath, even though they are great friends.

Levi: One of Reagan's best guy friends, who is always over at Reagan and Cath's room. 21 years old and works at Starbucks. Happiest and nicest boy in the world. 

After reading this book, I feel like these characters are my friends, as if they actually exist and I am just waiting to receive a text from them. The thing I loved most was that all the characters had imperfections, their lives were nowhere near perfect. They all had challenges to overcome and fought their way through. Which brings to character development. Every one of our characters showed development by the end of the book which was very surprising, and so very nice. I really wish there was more to the book to see what happens to all of them. Levi was hands down my favourite character. He was so compassionate and caring, and an amazing friend who was always there when needed. He was so cheery and smiled so much, I kept catching myself smiling because of him. 

Rowell's writing style is impeccable, flawless. When I read Eleanor & Park, while I did not like Eleanor, I could not deny the fabulous writing. Everything flows and falls perfectly into place. I didn't write down any of my favourite quotes, but if I had I'm sure it would have been about 3/4 of the book. 

I rated this book an easy 5/5. A new favorite of mine for sure. I would easily recommend this book to everyone, I think everyone could get enjoyment out of it. 

Now I cannot wait to read Attachments, which is her adult novel. And I plan to read anything that Rowell writes in the future.

Let me know what you thought if you have read this book. 

Wednesday Wishlist (#6)

Title: Half World
Author: Hiromi Goto
Published: January 30th 2009 by Puffin Canada
233 pages 

Goodreads synopsis:
Melanie Tamaki is human—but her parents aren’t. They are from Half World, a Limbo between our world and the afterlife, and her father is still there. When her mother disappears, Melanie must follow her to Half World—and neither of them may return alive. Imagine Coraline as filmed by the Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki (Howl’s Moving Castle), or Neil Gaiman collaborating with Charles de Lint. Half World is vivid, visceral, unforgettable, a combination of prose and images that will haunt you.

I heard about this book through Jason at theheavyblanks and Colleen at littleghostcreations (both on YouTube). I have been wanting to check this one out for a while now, as I have been wanting to check out more Asian authors. I have heard amazing things about this one. I already bought the second book but I cannot seem to find the first one anywhere!

Have you read this book? If you have, what did you think of it?

Tag (#2) - Genres Tag

I’m not entirely sure who this tag was created by, but basically they give you genres and you just say your favorite books or series in that genre. So here we go!

Young Adult:
1. The Grisha series by Leigh Bardugo. Book number one being Shadow and Bone and book number two being Siege And Storm. This series is absolutely amazing. Every little aspect of it is so well put together and all of the characters are phenomenal!
2. The Tigers Curse series by Colleen Houck. This series gives me ALL the feels. Plays with my heart strings. Again I am in love with all of the characters, although sometimes I want to smack the main character, Kelsey, over the head.
Honourable mention to The Selection series by Kiera Cass which I also really enjoy.

Fantasy:
1. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. This is the first in the series of A Song of Ice and Fire. It is the only one that I’ve read but I cannot wait to continue on with this series.
2. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I am only currently reading this and am about halfway through but it is blowing my mind so far. No doubt about it it’s going to be in my top favourites.

Science Fiction:
1. The Across the Universe series by Beth Revis. I have yet to read the final instalment in the series but I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
2. The Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. I’ve been in love with this series since I’ve been in high school! I still have to read the last two in the series.

Romance:
1. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Come on, who doesn’t like this one.
2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I wasn’t sure if I should add this in romance, but why not. Heart wrenching novel.

Dystopian:
1. The Delirium series by Lauren Oliver. Still need to get my hands on the final book.
2. The Matched series by Ally Condie. I wasn’t overly happy with the turnout of this series, but it was still alright nonetheless.

Children’s:
1. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. I loved reading these in junior high.
2. The 39 Clues series by various authors. This is such a fun series and it really transports you all over the world. Quick, light and fun reads.

Classic:
1. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Absolutely adored this one.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I don’t know if most people would classify this as a classic, but I am.

Play:
I’ve only read Shakespeare.
1. The Tempest.
2. Macbeth.

Horror:
1. The Devouring by Simon Holt. This scared me, a lot. I can’t wait to read the sequel this October.
2. Ten by Gretchen McNeil. A retelling of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

Paranormal:
1. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. The first in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I’ve only read the first and am planning to continue in October.
2. Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. I’ve read the first two and really really need to continue on.

Crime:
1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I need to finish this series.
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. If you have read this book, then you’ll know what I mean when I say THAT ENDING, what even.

Manga:
1. Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya. I’ve only read 6/23 but they are so adorable. I just love them.
2. Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino. A really cool storyline. I’ve only read volume 1 but can’t wait to continue on.

Have you read any of these? What are some of your favorites within these genres? If you do this tag post your link so I can see yours answers as well!

Book Review (#4) - The Palace Of Curiosities by Rosie Garland

Title: The Palace of Curiosities
Author: Rosie Garland
Published: March 28th 2013 by Harper Collins
316 pages
Goodreads  blurb:
A luminous and bewitching debut novel that is perfect for fans of Angela Carter. Set in Victorian London, it follows the fortunes of Eve, the Lion-Faced Girl and Abel, the Flayed Man. A magical realism delight. Before Eve is born, her mother goes to the circus. She buys a penny twist of coloured sugar and settles down to watch the heart-stopping main attraction: a lion, billed as a monster from the savage heart of Africa, forged in the heat of a merciless sun. Mama swears she hears the lion sigh, just before it leaps…and when Eve is born, the story goes, she didn’t cry – she meowed and licked her paws. When Abel is pulled from the stinking Thames, the mudlarks are sure he is long dead. As they search his pockets to divvy up the treasure, his eyes crack open and he coughs up a stream of black water. But how has he survived a week in that thick stew of human waste? Cast out by Victorian society, Eve and Abel find succour from an unlikely source. They will become The Lion Faced Girl and The Flayed Man, star performers in Professor Josiah Arroner’s Palace of Curiosities. And there begins a journey that will entwine their fates forever.

This novel was extremely slow paced for me. At times I just felt that nothing was even happening at all. A lot of parts were quite boring and pointless. In my opinion the story line was well put together but it dragged out way too much. And then at the end it felt like everything was being crammed in.
I have never read anything like this before. I picked this book up thinking it was about a circus, but it is not. So please don’t make the same assumption that I did. Although my mind was set on a circus, I was still pleased with the palace of curiosities. I thought it was a neat idea.

The author did a really good job creating the setting and atmosphere of the book. Her style was really well done for the era the book was set in. I also really liked that the chapters are alternating points of view. I tend to get annoyed with characters easily so I like switching back and forth and being able to get into multiple characters heads. One downfall about the writing was that it was extremely repetitive. Abel has short term memory loss so every chapter with him we are told the same things over and over and over. That was extremely annoying.

The characters were all a little dull to me. I didn’t really end up loving any of them. The two main characters did have a bit of development throughout the book which is always a positive thing. In all honesty, I didn’t connect with any of the characters, I got bored with them, and I really didn’t end up caring what happened to them.

If you are looking for a fast paced page turner, this is not the book you want. If you want something to just relax with and take slowly, maybe you should pick this one up.

I gave this a 3/5 stars on goodreads.

Have you read this ? Were your thoughts similar or do you disagree with me? Let me know in the comments.

Wednesday Wishlist (#5)

Title: The Secret History
Author: Donna Tartt
Published: 1992
559 pages

Goodreads blurb:
Richard Papen arrived at Hampden College in New England and was quickly seduced by an elite group of five students, all Greek scholars, all worldly, self-assured, and, at first glance, all highly unapproachable. As Richard is drawn into their inner circle, he learns a terrifying secret that binds them to one another...a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life...and led to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning....

Well how intriguing does that sound? I heard about this book from Mercedes at MercysBookishMusings on YouTube. This was in her list of her favorite books and the way she described it made it sound really good. I also saw that LukeLaneReads, also on YouTube, gave this a 5/5 star review and I usually trust his judgment. I have this one on hold at the library right now and I don't know if I can wait that much longer. I am tempted to go out and buy it so I can start it right now! 

Book Review (#3) - The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd

Title: The Madman's Daughter
Author: Megan Shepherd
Published: January 29th 2013 by Balzer + Bray
First in The Madman's Daughter series
432 pages 

Sixteen year old Juliet is frowned upon in the town of London, and it is all because of her father. She is making a living for herself by working as a maid and keeping low. Her mom passed away soon after her father left so she's all alone in the town. But when she finds out her father is alive, and continuing the work he was kicked out of London for, everything changes. She travels to the island where he has been hiding. When she arrives she finds that her dad has created an island full of animals that he has performed on to turn them almost human-like. This is the work that got him banned from London. Now the question is, can she make her father cease this horrible and disturbing work?

This book is based off of the book The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells. I have never read that book before and I don't think it is necessary to do so before reading this one. In my opinion it was probably better because then you don't know the outcome. There were tons of twists and the ending was a complete shock to me, even though I feel like I should have seen it coming. I really loved the writing style that Shepherd gave in this book. It really reminded me of Kenneth Oppel's This Dark Endeavor (which I really enjoyed even though it was very creepy, disturbing and eerie). The way settings and characters are described and portrayed, it feels like you are just thrown onto a creepy island with strange vivisected animal/human creatures. As a debut novel, I think Shepherd did a beautiful job and I feel like this is the beginning to a great series.

I'm really hoping in the next book we will learn more about Montgomery, who was my favorite character. He was definitely the most interesting of the bunch, along with Jaguar. Juliet's father really makes the perfect villain; he is insane and heartless, and as the title suggests, he is quite the madman.

I cannot wait to see where she takes this series. The sequel Her Dark Curiosity is coming out in 2014 and it is inspired from the Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Book Haul (#2) - 37 Books (Part 2)