'To All the Boys I've Loved Before' by Jenny Han (Review #4)

'To All the Boys I've Loved Before (To All the Boys I've Loved Before, #1)' by Jenny Han, published in August 2014 by Scholastic.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Are you looking for a cute contemporary book? Maybe one that has loveable characters? A fast read? With an extra layer of 'cute-ness' added on top?
If you are, then this is certainly the book for you!

To All the Boys I've Loved Before is a contemporary romance novel that explores the troubles and enjoyments of young love. It follows the life of cute and quirky, Lara Jean Song, a girl with a simple and quiet life.
Lara Jean has a habit of writing letters to boys she has loved, but no longer loves. These letters are written as more of a goodbye letter than a love letter.
One day, Lara Jean finds out that these private letters have been sent out to the boys they were addressed to.
One of these boys happens to be Lara Jean's next door neighbour and her sister's ex-boyfriend, Josh. When this realisation comes, it causes great distress for Lara Jean, causing her to make irrational decisions.
She finds herself caught up in something messier that she would have imagined with a boy she never would have thought to speak to again.

This novel will send you on an emotional roller coaster. You will find yourself falling deeply in love with so many of the characters, feel hatred for those who are hurtful towards others, and you will also get very hungry as the characters seem to have endless conversations about food!
There is an enjoyable humour to the story that makes even the serious scenes feel light and fluffy. It is a great achievement that Han has made, to be able to include so many aspects into the same novel while still making it feel light and not too 'full on.'

Yes, this is a romance novel, but inside of this love story, there is a deep family relationship story that unfolds, taking this novel to a new level.
We see Lara Jean attempt to tackle many obstacles as she takes on the new position as 'head of the house,' as her older sister has left and her father is incapable of completing simple tasks.
Their relationship as a family stays strong throughout the novel as they support, encourage, and joke around with one another, which is something that I am able to relate to as my family is much the same.
I believe that this family relationship is just as important as other relationships in novels, so it was great to see this being represented in a romantic story.

I loved every one of the characters in this story! Every one of them seemed to have so much thought put into them which made them all feel so much more real!
I especially loved Lara Jean as she was just the right amount of cute and quirky that made reading about her adventures so enjoyable. She had so many levels to her and learning about every one of them was like a new story in itself.

I found that there was a slow story line progression, but this didn't make a huge impact on me because this isn't actually a slow book. I found it to be a very fast read, where all of the short chapters had something eventful happening in them. This made it feel like there was a lot of story progression where there wasn't.

One thing that did let me down in this book was the writing. I found that it was just too simple to the point where it was more telling the story than showing. The moments when there was great description of the scene were made too obvious because they came out randomly, make it clearly obvious compared to the rest of the novel's writing style.
I do believe that Han has the ability to be a sophisticated writer from these little moments that were shown throughout the book. I hope that the author has improved and that we'll get to see it in her novels to come.

Apart from the writing, I really did love absolutely everything about this book! It did not disappoint me at all!
I will definitely be reading more of Jenny Han's books in the future and I can't wait to see where this story goes in the second instalment, P. S. I Still Love You!

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'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll (Review #3)

'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1)' by Lewis Carroll, published by Penguin Classics in August 2012 (first published in 1871).

Rating: 2.5 Stars

I first picked up this book in 2012 when I thought it'd be a good idea to start reading classics, even though I had only been reading books for a couple of months.
I ended up borrowing a stack load of books from the library, Alice in Wonderland being one of them, and was eager to dive into the books as soon as possible. I started by reading Alice in Wonderland thinking that it would be an easy read to start off with, with it being a children's book and all, but after a couple of chapters, I gave up. I felt that the language was just too hard to understand and the story was hard to follow. Because of this, I ended up becoming greatly afraid of all classic books and ended up returning all of the books back to the library the next day.

Recently, in January, I thought it was time to try reading what people believe is a beautiful classic. I purchased it and was fairly eager to start reading. With it being such a short book, I was expecting to finish it all in a day or two, but to my surprise, that did not happen.

Alice in Wonderland is an adventure story about a girl named Alice who finds herself stumbling upon a talking rabbit wearing a waist-coat. She follows this peculiar rabbit down a rabbit hole, where she suddenly finds herself in a fantasy land of talking animals and all sorts of different creatures that Alice has never seen before.
It is a story I am sure everyone is aware of. There have been many movie adaptions of this classic novel, one of them being a Disney animation film.
I grew up knowing the story of Alice in Wonderland off by heart. If someone had asked me everything that happened in the story, I would know, even though I wasnt even particularly fond of the movie. Nevertheless, because it was part of my growing up as a child, I wanted to read the book, to give myself a new perspective on the well-known children's novel.

I was deeply disappointed when I read this book. I was hoping that my views on it from three years ago would have been because I was not used to reading at that time, but as soon as I started reading this book again, I found myself feeling the exact same way about it as I did before.
The writing was hard to get used to, there were times when I fully understood what was happening, but there were other times when things would be described that didn't need describing. To be completely honest with you, it bored me. In fact, it bored me so much in the first few pages that I ended up falling asleep after not even 15 minutes of reading.
I did enjoy the story, as I did when I was a child, but I only started linking it from when Alice went to the Duchess's house onwards. I thoroughly enjoyed the Mad Hatter's Tea Party and the Cheshire Cat, but before all that, I felt that all of Alice's misadventures were all a bit random and all over the place. Nothing from that first half of the story made me want to stay, but the second half -- while also being slightly boring at times -- was more of what I was expecting from this story. Some humor, some conflict, and something to keep you going.

Most of the characters featured in this novel are very memorable. They each have their own little quirky personalities that could possibly only exist in marvellous Wonderland.
I quickly was able to fall in love with most of the characters, but one that I was surprisingly disappointed with was the main character, Alice.
With her being the main character I expected to love, but that did not happen. I found that her personality was rude and thoughtless. I understand that she is only a child, but it would get tiring when she would repeatedly insult some of the animals and interrupt others when they were telling a story.
The fact that this occurred multiple times didn't make read  ing this book any more enjoyable. If anything, it made it harder for me to keep picking up again.

I do not completely regret reading this because it gave me more of an insight into what people would read in the past, but at the same time, I feel that reading this didn't have any significant impact on me. I think I will eventually read Through the Looking Glass because it would be interesting to see where else this story could go, but I don't think I am prepared for it right now.
 

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Books I Started But Never Finished

This year has been a bit hectic for me, especially with this being my last year at school, so that means I haven't had as much time to read as I have hoped.
Over the past few months I have fallen into many reading slumps. There have been numerous weeks where I haven't read anything at all. During some of the months this year I have started many books, but because of my lack of enthusiasm for reading that I have experienced, I have never finished any of these books. Whenever I have felt like reading again, I would not have the energy to keep reading books I have started and then read a different book instead.
Over time I have accumulated a 'started but never finished' list of 20 books.
Now that I have a break from school for two weeks and a not-so-hectic term ahead of me, I am making my goal for this month to read every one of these books. Some of them I have read half of, others I have only read the first couple of chapters, but I am still determined to finish every one of these books and also read the books that I had hoped to read this month in addition to these 20.
This is the most ambitious reading goal I've made for myself for a month, but now that I don't have so much going on in July and my last day of school is approaching quickly, I am starting to think that this goal is accomplishable (but at the same time I'm thinking that it is completely un-accomplishable!).

The books featuring in the photo are all the books on my 'started but never finished' list. I have made sure to put them next to my bed so that I can be reminded constantly that I need this list to shrink drastically before it grows bigger.

These books are:

• 'The Lost Files: Hidden Enemy (Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files, #7-9)' by Pittacus Lore
• 'Unnatural Creatures' by Neil Gaiman
• 'Jessica' by Bryce Courtenay
• 'The Time Traveller's Wife' by Audrey Niffenegger
• 'Attachments' by Rainbow Rowell
• 'Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, #1)' by Sarah J. Maas
• 'Popular' by Maya Van Wagenen
• 'The 5th Wave (The 5th Wave, #1)' by Rick Yancey
• 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Lord of the Rings, #1)' by J. R. R. Tolkien
• 'The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Curse, #1)' by Marie Rutkoski
• 'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven 
• 'Through the Looking Glass (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)' by Lewis Carroll 
• 'Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2)' by Laini Taylor
• 'Forever (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #3)' by Maggie Stiefvater
• 'Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe' by Benjamin Alire Saenz
• 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen
• 'A Treasury of Kate Greenaway'
• (not pictured) 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens
• (not pictures) 'Flipped' by Wendelin Van Draanen
• (not pictured) 'Ready Player One' by Ernest Cline

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'Jackaby' by William Ritter (Review #2)

'Jackaby (Jackaby, #1)' by William Ritter, published by Algonquin Young Readers in September 2014.

Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Jackaby follows the journey of Abigail Rook, a British traveller, who finds herself in New England, America. She goes seeking for a job and almost instantly finds one working for a strange detective who seems to have a supernatural talent to see the paranormal.

I really looked forward to reading this book when I heard that it was a mix between BBC's Sherlock and Doctor Who. It is also set in the 1800's which happens to be one of my favourite time zones. After finishing this novel, I was deeply disappointed. The writing was lovely and the story line was okay, but there were quite a few things that got under my skin.
You see, while this novel is set in 1892, I constantly found myself forgetting that I was even in that time zone because of the use of modern-day language. There were also objects that appear that would not have existed in that time. This made reading this novel confusing as hell because I was constantly trying to remember which time zone this novel is actually set in. The fact that this was done was very disappointing and it helped me to more appreciate other novels that have been written in this time zone.
Luckily, all of this confusion was temporarily cured by upbeat detective, R. F. Jackaby, who happens to live a pretty interesting life. He has an eye for details and is able to see supernatural things that most other people look over. He is disliked by many people, but you will fall in love with him for his humour, wittiness and his sophisticated character.
Mr. Jackaby is one of the main characters, so where you might expect him to be the sole focus of this novel (with his name being the title and all), he isn't. Instead, we spend a lot of the time prancing around with Miss Rook as she has meaningless conversations with a ghost, experiences emotions for the cute but dull policeman, talks to a duck, and complains about what her parents might think of her.
Throughout the story, I constantly found myself wishing I was watching paint dry instead of reading such dull and pointless moments in a book that had so much potential. The inconsistency of the story line, as it constantly changes from being dull to being intense, added to my confusion and make me wish I could just find out who the killer is already so I could just be done with the book.
The main protagonist, Abigail Rook, is a boyish girl who has travelled from England into a strange land where everything is new. She finds herself a job working as an assistant for a strange man, she then proceeds to follow the man she has only known for 5 minutes to a crime scene. It is likely that this would be the first time she has ever seen a dead body considering her age, the class she grew up in, and the time zone in which she lives, but this is all forgotten as she is able to rattle off her obsevations on the dead man's surroundings. Not once does she stop and realise that this is not the life a young girl from the 1800's should be living, but instead she goes on with it like this is everyday life for her.
After about 15 chapters of the book, you will suddenly realise the characters have only been living for a day. This adds to the inaccuracy of the novel as it seems impossible that the characters could have done the amount of things they did in that amount of time. Even the great Sherlock Holmes would have struggled to complete such tasks in a day.
We should also not miss the fact that after one day of knowing each other, Miss Rook was more than happy to move into strange Mr. Jackaby's home with him and then continue to solve crimes with him.
There was just something about all this that really didn't add up to me.
Throughout the novel, I was introduced to characters that mattered so little to me that I actually forgot their names after a couple of days. While they do give the story a little more depth, they become pointless and I started to wonder why they were even added into the story when it is so obvious that Abigail is trying to be the star of the show.

This novel is one that was full of great potential, but has sadly fallen flat. The storyline was one that only kept me on the edge of my seat a few times where the rest of the time I was sitting back, bored, wondering when they would finally find the killer.
I found that most of the characters were dull and I couldn't really care less about them half the time. The only character I felt some love towards was Jackaby and it saddens me that I didn't get to know him well enough because Abigail was always stealing the spotlight away from him.
At this point, I am not sure if I will ever read the next book in the series. To be honest, I don't see the point in there needing to be a second book in the first place. There was nothing that happened at the end of this book that made me want to reach for the second book, except maybe the fact that I might see Mr. Jackaby again. Unless the storyline is made more accurate in the second book and Jackaby is actually more of an important character, then I might consider reading it.
I feel greatly let down by this novel as it was one that I was really looking forward to reading. There were many aspects that I did enjoy, but, sadly, the negatives over rule the positives in this one.

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'The Sleeper and the Spindle' by Neil Gaiman (Review #1)

'The Sleeper and the Spindle' by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell, published by Bloomsbury in October 2014 (5/5) 

This piece of work is probably the most uniquely collaborated novel I have read. Both Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have brought their incredible talents together and created this phenomenal piece of art. 

I'm sure many people are aware that Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, so as soon as I saw his name on this book, I was immediately interested. 

This novel is the third Neil Gaiman book I have read and I think it's safe to say that this was the most enjoyable for me. While I did thoroughly enjoy reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane, I just felt more intrigued by the way this novel was put together.

Gaiman's writing has always mesmerised me ever since I read Coraline last year. There is a certain sophistication to the way he puts words together that creates the ability to pull the readers in and keep them interested until the very end.

The way events and character are described leaves an extremely vivid image in the readers head. This didn't occur as much in this novel as I found it did in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, but this novel was more heavily reliant upon the magical illustrations that Chris Riddell provided to give the reader more of a visual image. 

I had never seen or heard of Chris Riddell before, so I was a bit skeptical about what to expect from his half of this book, but I quickly fell in love with each page and was not even slightly disappointed. 

Every single aspect of the illustrations was sone so thoughtfully it was inspiring to me as a reader and an aspiring artist. The way Riddell used line, shape, form and tone on each page fit together in a magical way. It felt like every page was a masterpiece in itself!

Of course I should not forget to mention the presentation of this beautiful novel. From the dust jacket to the gold ink incorporated into the illustrations, I feel that Bloomsbury have truly outdone themselves for trying to make this book looks as magical as possible, and I must say, they've done a fantastic job at achieving just that! 

After reading the 71 pages of this novel, I very quickly became obsessed with this book. It was a quick read for me, but an adventurous one full of twists in the story that you may not expect. 

It is a very unique take on the original fairytale stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, with a twist that differs it from the original stories. 

This novel follows the journey of a young queen and three dwarfs as they cross the kingdom in search of the princess who was the start of a terrible sickness that is sweeping over across the kingdom and putting all of its victims into an eternal sleep. 

They intend to rescue the princess from the slumber that was cast upon her so that the kingdom may also awaken once again, but they aren't prepared for what they find when they finally reach the princess's tower... 

I would recommend this novel to everybody. I truly feel that this is one that many people would enjoy, especially fans of fairytale re-telling a with a twist, like myself! 

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