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.