This was not a bad novel. In fact, the concept was interesting. Humans finally found a way to fly to Mars and attempt to colonize it. Yet problems arise and of course everything is not as simple as it may seem at first.

This took me a while to read because I kept getting distracted. That's the thing with this book; I found it hard to pick it back up after putting it down. It was all right once you start reading, but there is that feeling you get when you look at it sitting there. You just feel like you don't want to read it.

Each chapter tells a different story about different characters, and some of them come back in later chapters, but not many. I feel like there is a crowd of people that came out of the novel, all of them pretty much faceless, but there is an abundance of them. It's like Ray Bradbury recycles personalities, if you know what I mean. Different characters talk and act too similar for me to think of them as distinct people. The only character I actually liked was Mr. Stendahl. He was insane, creepy, obsessed with Poe's works. He really stood out.

The chapters are not interlocked besides the setting and major events. They simply tell about people living their lives on Mars, what happens to them, from the earliest astronauts to the last people left on the red planet. I was expecting more action, and there was little to none. I was expecting the different stories to connect in some brilliant way in the end, but that never happened. Oh well.

Ray Bradbury's writing style and I did not get along. It's not something I usually read, but I was prepared to be surprised. Nevertheless, his way of writing failed to hook me and make me keep reading constantly. The only reason I sped up the reading towards the end was because I basically said "Oh fuck this" and rushed to finally finish it.

Overall, the novel was okay. The plot was interesting, some individual stories were nice, the fact that the book covered a large span of time was cool so you could see how the whole colonization of Mars went. The writing style did not float my boat, and most characters were quite boring.

I cannot understand why so many people loved this and have been recommending this to me. I am not going to lie, I read 338 pages of this and I still have no idea what was supposed to be so amazing or captivating about it.


Here we have a summary. Juliette's touch is fatal to other living things. Thus she has been locked up in an asylum and did not touch anyone for exactly 264 days. That is until she gets a cellmate who is — surprise surprise — a male about her age and is incredibly handsome and gorgeous and perfect and he will become her bird so she she can fly fly fly away! What the fuck.


Let's start with the positives. I like the idea of an insane girl being locked up for having a power that kills. I like the concept of a crumbling world, and things changing and all that. The whole deal with The Reestablishment sounds interesting. 


Now. 


The only reason this book is called a "dystopia" is because it is set in a supposedly crumbling world, yet there was no word-building whatsoever. I really found it hard to care that the clouds are the wrong colour, or that birds don't fly, or that they are trying to get rid of languages, or that there will be a war. I can keep going.


This belongs in the romance section. The instalove in this novel is evident, and I do not buy the whole "childhood friends" thing. It seems like it was added in as an excuse so the author did not have to build up a relationship gradually and could just start writing scenes of Juliette and Adam swapping saliva. They're making out in the shower 100 pages in, for Christ's sake. What is going on.


Everything is just so terribly convenient it's not even funny. Adam just happens to like Juliette since childhood and she liked him back. He just happens to be among the people who wanted to find Juliette. He just happens to have immunity to radiation. He just happens to be immune to Juliette's touch.


Adam is a completely flat character. The only thing I remember about his personality is the fact that he is in love with Juliette. That is completely it. He has no little habits I can recall, nothing that makes him his own person. His purpose is to be a pair of lips Juliette can suck on once in a while. It is quite disgusting. 


Warner was a cheesy villian. The only character I actually liked was Kenji, who actually seemed to be more intelligent that Juliette and Adam combined. Winston was cool too, until he gave Juliette that leotard at the end. What the hell was that. 


Where did the ending come from anyway. It appeared out of nowhere, with no buildup or foreshadowing or anything. Just — bam. And it is suspiciously similar to another fandom, which makes me a sad panda, because I like those movies. 


Juliette just seemed weak to me. I understand that this book was supposed to be from the point of view of an unstable, insane girl who spent more than 200 days in isolation. Yet throughout the book she is either whining, petrified in fear, wishing to die, et cetera. 


Also, um, Juliette, if you can apparently crush concrete with your bare goddamn hands then why 
Why didn't you 
The writing was dreadful. The metaphors were painful, like the author was trying way too hard to be creative and poetic. I know that the writing is the reason most people liked it, but it just made my head hurt. I head to reread some sentences a few times before they actually made any sense. 


"I'm an old creaky staircase when I wake up." 


"I catch the rose petals as they fall from my cheeks, as they float around the frame of my body, as they cover me in something that feels like the absence of courage." 


"Every organ in my body falls to the ground."

"There are 400 cotton balls caught in my windpipe."


"Warner thinks Adam is a cardboard cutout of vanilla regurgitations." 


And I'm probably going to read Unravel Me, too.

Here we have the second novel in the Maximum Ride series. Max and her flock are found by an FBI agent and start to live with her because apparently it is totally okay to trust complete strangers in their situation. They are also going to a completely normal school, talk to completely normal children, and of course that does not last for long.

Some time passed in between me reading the book and writing the review, but I can surely say that this book was better than the first. This actually deserves 3.5 stars instead of just three. The writing style seemed to mature a little, if you know what I mean, to the point that it was much more enjoyable to read.

Max proved herself as a strong character, someone capable of making decisions and supporting children younger than her when she is not even an adult yet. Still, she has her flaws and weak moments, and that makes me like her. She is not the damsel in distress type of character most YA authors nowadays make their heroines. No one had to save Max, she saved herself.

There is more information about what Max is supposed to save the world from. However, there are still questions unanswered, such as Jeb's odd talks of the whole thing being a test. Also Max's parents are nowhere to be found, not even the slightest hint. Is she a test tube baby? I kind of hope so, I want to see how Max would react to that.

Yet this book does not reach the four stars. It is not a masterpiece, and not something I would pick up again and again just because I liked it so much. It was enjoyable, but it is just another book. Plus, the writing is still slightly childish.

This book just made me extremely angry. Not only was it incredibly boring, but poorly written, and it is not even the translation that made it so. Hitler's writing skills are appalling, he contradicts himself at times, and I could not bring myself to agree with his views even after reading his reasons.

It is always someone else responsible for the wrongs in the world, apparently. That, and many others of Hitler's thoughts were listed in this poor excuse for a book, not even written clearly enough so that the reader can at least understand a quarter of the content.

For Christ's sake.

This shit was 694 fucking pages.

Damn.

Been a while since I last reviewed a book. Hm.

The story follows Prince Florizel of Bohemia and his friend Colonel Geraldine, who encounter a young man giving away cream tarts. They soon learn that he has completely lost the will to live, but cannot end it himself. So he joined the Suicide Club, which is literally what it sounds like. It is a club where its participants get a chance to have an "accident" staged that will kill them. The role of the executor is given to one of the participants as well. Florizel and the Colonel join the ranks to figure out what the deal is, and of course things like that never go well.

The novel is divided into three parts — "Story of the Young Man with the Cream Tarts", "Story of the Physician and the Saratoga Trunk", and "The Adventure of the Hansom Cab". The part I enjoyed most is the first one. It was truly captivating and interesting. The whole idea of a Suicide Club is amazing and could have been taken even further. But Stevenson did a great job nevertheless.

The second story was quite boring and the protagonist appeared very weak. The third was better, but not as good as the first one.

I somewhat wish that Stevenson worked more with the first part of the book and made it into a whole novel of the Suicide Club and its activities. I did not feel like I would have missed out on anything by not reading the last two parts.

Zoey Redbird is most possibly the most irritating teenage protagonist ever in the history of young adult fiction. I sincerely hope she gets hit with a bus at some point in her useless existance.

The Casts open up with Zoey complaining about her birthday being right before Christmas, December 24th, and whining about how she constantly gets holidays-themed presents every year. Thus, everything goes downhill when her friends give her snowman-themed gifts. Since Zoey never bothered to tell her friends about dislike for such things, even though her birthday was coming up, it was her fault. She certainly had no excuse to be a brat about the whole thing, and just storm out of the room when she did not seem to like anything.

Our protagonist is then off to Starbucks to meet her grandmother, who will actually get her a cool present that is so much better than the Christmas-like things from her best friends. Once again we are reminded that the Cherokee word for "daughter" is "u-we-tsi-a-ge-ya" and how it "wrapped around" her. Then her mother shows up, and everything is once again going downhill for our poor Zoey who has never done a wrong thing in her life. Because she is so nice and pure and always does good, damn it.

Her mother makes an attempt to let her know she is still part of the family, which Zoey turns away without a second thought. She even returns the book in which it is scribbled. Of course her step-father shows up and poor Zoey and yadda yadda.

Throughout the whole novel it is stuffed down the reader's throat how Christianity is bad and how Nyx's religion is much better, and how Christians ( more specifically, the People of Faith ) are loud-mouthed, close-minded, psychotic people that do not tolerate other beliefs and believe that those that do not believe in their God go to Hell. Now they are the ones blamed for the murders of vampyres that began going on. The whole topic just irked me. Maybe it is because I am a Christian, maybe that is why it offended me personally. Well, okay then, Casts.

The plot is . . . wait what plot. Literally, most of the book is devoted to Zoey and her love life, exclusively. She still has three guys going after her, Heath, Erik, and Loran. She imprinted on Heath and keeps wanting his blood, and can never get through with breaking up with him. She needs to grow a damn backbone. Erik is her official boyfriend, whom she only thinks about once in a while and feels guilty about liking other guys. Loran is the sexy grown vampyre that she is sure loves her. Of course everyone wants her, since she is so amazing and lovely and perfect. Bah.

We did have little snippets of other things, however. Aphrodite I actually grew to tolerate, since she is her own character and actually has her own personality and a backbone. The Twins became annoying after a while with the dialogue, and constantly talking together. Can't Shaunee or Erin say something without having the other butt in? Jesus.

The ceremonies got a little boring after a while. The scenes did not hold a magical feeling for me, just words that I had to read through to get closer to the end of the book. The one star I gave this waste of trees was for the murders going on, because that did spice things up a bit. Other than that, nothing eventful really happened. Eh.

I have to think hard to come up with words that can accurately describe The Silence of the Lambs. Nothing comes to mind, really. This book is simply amazing.

Clarice Starling starts out simple. She is in college, she is going to be an FBI agent soon enough. A task is given to her to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter to fill up his file since he refuses to talk to anyone who has been talking to him recently. Dr. Hannibal is a psychopath, nicknamed Hannibal the Cannibal. He has been a known doctor for a while, until his insanity was discovered as well as his appetite for human flesh and organs.

Things start to get complicated as Clarice becomes involved in another criminal case. They call him Buffalo Bill, a peculiar criminal that has been committing murders for a while without ever getting caught. As we soon find out, he kidnaps large women, starves them, and carves their skin off. Quite the romantic, really.

Dr. Lecter has information on him, and it is Clarice's job to figure out what the hell he actually knows, while getting around his jokes and riddles.

Billy Pilgrim is a man who does quite a lot of time-traveling. He gets to see his hospital stays, near-death experiences, death, his time of being a prisoner of war, and such. He was once kidnapped by an alien species called Tralfamadorians from Tralfamadore and put in a zoo. So it goes.

This is a deep novel. At first it seems very simplistic and comical, with humour being used often. It is the good kind too, one that made me actually laugh out loud in a room full of people that immediately wanted to know what the hell I was reading.

Some moments are just splendid. Such as the hospital scene where Billy lies with Rumfoord, and the older man tells him to pity the men who had to bomb Dresden. It appeared meaningful and logical. A look at the other side, I suppose.

Vonnegut's writing style was very original, and I really enjoyed it. I have seen complaints of "so it goes" being constantly repeated, but quite frankly, it did not bother me at all. I actually think it made the story flow better and seem more complete. I don't know.

I also enjoyed the time-traveling, and it was actually easy to keep up with Billy as he went from his nice home to planet Tralfamadore to World War II again. Also something very original, yet also made me ponder on whether or not Billy was actually sane.

This has been an amazing read. I am glad I picked up this book.

The first book in a triology by Dave Pelzer, A Child Called It describes the hardships and abuse the child ( apparently the author himself ) encountered in his youth. His life seemed perfect until suddenly, his mother began to abuse him in awful ways that made my jaw hit the floor. This novel describes what may be happening to a child right this second somewhere in the world. Hell.

The first star this book receives was for giving abused children some kind of voice. It makes people aware of such problems, and encourages some action to be taken whenever they encounter a child that might be having a horrific time at home.

The second star is for, well, vivid imagination. I am sure as hell the author exaggerated the abuse for effect, and the fact that he had enough to dream up something like this is disturbing and fairly hard to do. For effort.

The third is for the added information after the book. Not the plot ( what plot ), not the writing style. The emergency phone numbers in the back of the book deserve one whole another star. I suppose.

Now for the cons. The writing style seemed very choppy to me. The book seemed more like a collection of little situations of abuse rather than a real novel. It was like the author wrote down the ideas as they came into his head without bothering to check if it would flow with the rest of the novel.

He never describes his mother. He claims he cannot remember her, but the fact that he remembers the abuse so clearly and not the abuser strikes me as a little odd. Well, screw that. Why is he the only one abused? Why are his brothers treated fairly while he is treated like hell-knows-what? Also, the fact that his mother just, one day, turned cold and unforgiving does not sound realistic. Where did the abusive side come from?

It is powerful. Somewhat inspirational. Yet with the whole controversy surrounding the novel, there is much debate on whether it is a real account or a fictional story.

The book seems very adorable at first. A tree really loves a little boy and plays with him, gives him anything he needs, and tries to be of service to him throughout his life. It gives him apples, branches, even its trunk until it decreases to nothing but a stump.

The underlying message that I picked up while I read along was what ruined it. The little boy uses the tree constantly for his needs without doing anything in return. He makes the tree happy, but this happiness is always short-lived, because he always leaves again. Branches and apples, tree body parts, is a large price to pay for happiness.

The boy grows up throughout the book, and the tree never ceases to love him. Our protagonist, however, does not return it. He always needs something and expects the tree to aid him one way or another. Until the end, he does nothing for it except play in it, only when he was young.

What a selfish little boy.

 ( I am reading too much into this, aren't I. )

I meant to read this because I saw the movie advert, and it looked good. Thus, since I prefer to read books before movies, I picked this up.

Susie Salmon is raped and brutally murdered by a neighbour, her body cut up into pieces, stuffed into a safe, and thrown into a sinkhole. Here we learn the story of her life and her family, and how humans on Earth cope with loss of such a bright young girl.

Susie is an incredibly dull narrator. I could not feel any of her emotion at all, and that caused the novel to have no specific mood or atmosphere. Just monotone paragraphs, one after the other.

The writing style is really something. It appears that Miss Sebold tries to be creative and play around with words, and it is nice that she experiments, but results are quite bizzare at times. We have Susie's mother buttering toast with her tears, which I am not certain how she does. During most long paragraphs of descriptions I zone out, only to realize I read three pages and do not remember anything about them.

It moved along very slowly. The only "action" we get is at the beginning, when the man rapes Susie. That is all. It is upsetting that the author had such an amazing idea, and did not execute it in a fascinating manner. It is only a novel about people, their lives, and pages upon pages of description.

Now, the beginning was interesting, as well as the ending. Some characters were very likeable, however, there were also those that were not. Also, what Susie did at the end disgusted me completely, when she took over Ruth's body. Just no.

Would I recommend this? It really depends if you are willing to read about peoples' lives. The whole topic of overcoming grief is foreign to me, and maybe that is why I just could not find the charm in this novel.

Another book I took from my reading list and actually finished. I feel so damn accomplished, good Jesus.

The novel accurately covers the brutality of humans when it comes to it, making completely regular, everyday people turning into savages with no basic rules or morals. I applaud Mr. Golding's choice on using children for his novel instead of adults. The fact that such young lives are subjected to the events in the novel makes it stand out even more.

A group of boys is stranded on an island after a plane crashes, and they become trapped there without any grown-ups. At first it seems as though everything will work out. They choose a chief, they set a list of goals to accomplish, and distribute tasks to different people. They also make up a few rules to keep everyone in check. Soon, however, it proves to be of no use as fear and anger takes control and brings out the darker side in the boys.

Some of the descriptions of scenery were long and seemed like a chore to read. However, when it came down to suspense and anticipation, the writer did a fantastic job. The detail, especially the descriptions of children's deaths, were minimalistic, yet still gave an unsettling mental image so you can wrap your mind around it.

Fantastic. I would definitely recommend this.

Sweet Jesus, this was even worse than Marked. Well, serves me right for picking it up because it had a nice cover.

The writing style still seemed horrific to me. It still seems like the authors are trying too hard to sound young, modern, and teenager-like, and it just refuses to work out for them. In the end, it is a mess.

So, in this continuation of House of Night, we are reminded once again what a special brat Zoe Redbird is, and what a joy and blessing it is to have her. The book opens up with a parent visiting night, and her mother and stepfather actually show up, only to embarrass her. The stepfather insults Neferet, apparently, and they just storm out. Later, Zoe overhears Aphrodite's parents chewing her out for losing her powerful leadership spot and force her to try and get rid of Zoe. Now, I felt more sympathy towards Aphrodite than Zoe. Even as a bully, she is more likeable. At least she has a reason to be the way she is.

The whole novel is one huge soap opera where Zoe just cannot choose one guy and keeps flirting with three — Erik, the typically hot, dreamy teenager whom everyone loves; Heath, her former love interest whose blood she keeps wanting; and Loran, an almost-teacher and a vampyre at the school who she thinks is flirting with her. I cannot describe my frustration with the whole thing.

Interestingly enough, the novels still continue to do tons of slut-shaming, going as far as hinting that losing your virginity makes you one. Maybe I am reading too far into it, I am not certain. But I wonder what having three men going after her and her trying to go further with each of them makes her. Hm.

The climax was not even exciting. Actually, it bored me, and I kept counting the pages until the book ended. And the sad thing is, I am probably going to pick up Chosen anyways, because of my OCD-like obsession with finishing every single series I begin. Ah, well.

This Book is Not Good For You starts out with our main protagonist, Cass, and the revelation that her mother is not her actually Mom, and that she was left on the doorstep of her step-grandfathers' antique shop. Adopted, if you will. That leads us to all sort of trouble, since it was the reason her mother ( or is she her mother? Quite confusing, really ) took a cooking class with Cass to help them bond better. They come across Senor Hugo, a man known for his amazing cooking skills, even though he is blind. When Cass mentions the Tuning Fork ( an item that becomes quite important ) Hugo asks them to come to his fancy restaurant, which is completely dark so your senses sharpen, as he says.

Long story short, Cass's mother is kidnapped, and Cass wants to save her. Much simpler.

This book is all about chocolate. And since I am a huge chocolate lover, I enjoyed this novel, and trust me, it is better to read it while eating chocolate yourself. The copy I read has a few chocolate stains to prove it. The Appendix was a nice touch on all things chocolate, so I saved a few recipes from there for future reference.

The plot of the novel itself was cool. How the author worked with it was also very nice, and it was definitely an interesting read. Our new character, Simone, was a very charming lass. I would love to see more of her in future books, somehow. Although I have a gut feeling this is the only time we are going to see her.

The only part of the novel that slightly peeved me was Cass. Her whole personality is just, somehow, not the same. And that change is not a great one. I cannot even back myself up here, it is just her overall attitude, and the feeling that tells me, if I met such a girl somewhere on the street I probably would not start a conversation with her. Maybe I am being unfair. Perhaps I am.

I always thought of Pseudonymous Bosch as not just an author, but also a character and part of the story. I feel that his character also grew, and he matured with Cass, Max-Ernest, and Yo-Yoji, if that is even possible. I actually like him better now.

rating: ★★★★☆

All right, now that this is out of my system.

We have our lovely protagonist, Zoey Redbird, get marked and she is now a vampyre-in-training. Yet she is blessed by the night Goddess, Nyx, and now she is different from everyone else. She is special. There are great things ahead of her, some of which may include a high position in the school, named The House of Night.

I always feel bad whenever my friends love a novel and I end up disliking it. So I seriously tried to enjoy this one. And yet, no such luck. I have a vague feeling that the Casts attempted too hard to sound like a teenager. The result is a main character that sounds really cliche at times, and whose opinions come off as just offensive. The People of Faith comments can be taken as an offense to Christianity. The eating disorder comment leads to believing that a young lady with a life-threatening eating disorder is a freak. Things like that.

I do like the new and quite refreshing plot of having vampyres a sort of mutation, where not everyone makes the Change and they need to go to a special school in order to survive. It is a very interesting concept, and I do wish that this series will get better just for that. I do not even mind the cliche romance stuck in the middle, just the concept itself is something I would continue reading for, and keep tolerating Zoe until she dies at some point. ( Or at least I am hoping. )

rating: ★★☆☆☆

Now, this is the last novel in the fourth series The Omen of the Stars. It is the grande finale, where the Dark Forest rises to its full power and the true battle begins. Where warriors' loyalties are constantly tested and sides must be chosen. Clanmates might have to fight among each other in the final battle to survive.

I truly enjoyed this conclusion to the series. It was powerful and left a lasting impression on me. Most of the time I truly despise how series end, and how authors do not seem to know how to wrap up their final novel. The Erins, on the other hand, are above that. They make use of this opportunity to create a truly memorable ending.

The Final Battle between the Clans and the Dark Forest is as exciting as I believe it is meant to be. You feel the characters' fear, pain, shock, even the adrenaline as they fight for their lives. Just like Harry Potter, the Warriors series became darker and darker as it went along, and it ended up adding charm to the final novel.

I believe the Erins did a splendid job with this one. I was truly wary of picking it up, because conclusions to series, as I mentioned, are usually disappointing. Here, the authors built up a truly powerful conclusion that keeps the reader guessing whether it will continue or not.

rating: ★★★★★

We have forty-two junior high students who are in the same class whisked away to a deserted island on a fight to the death. Each student has a collar around their neck, and they each get a backpack with a weapon, which does not always have to be useful. ( damn Yutaka, a fork. ) Announcements are made on the island every six hours, announcing the dead and the zones on the island that will become forbidden. If you walk into a forbidden zone, the collar blows your head off. The Program continues until only one student is left.

Quite simple, really.

I absolutely loved Battle Royale. The fact that the players are classmates, some knowing each other their whole lives, only added to it. The characters were all different and unique, and somehow it was simple to keep track of them all. You really feel the emotion of each student, and the battle scenes are very realistic.

The violence is graphic, but it adds to the novel. It makes a point. In most books I read, it is usually meant to entertain, while here it really reached out and grabbed you. It makes you realize how hopeless and awful the situation of the students' is. How easily some people can play the game and how fast lives can end. About ten people are dead already in a couple of chapters.

I do believe Suzanne Collins heard of this book and used it as a basis for The Hunger Games. There are just too many similarities, yet the stories are different. I actually prefer Battle Royale. The characters have more depth, there is more to the plot, and all of them are regular kids with some never even holding a weapon in their hands before. As I mentioned before, in this novel, the violence makes more of a point.

The ending was completely brilliant. I absolutely loved it. It was completely unexpected, and very well executed.

I would not recommend this novel to anyone with a weak stomach. For example, if you found The Hunger Games disturbing, the violence in this would probably distract you from the whole book and just make you nauseous.

rating: ★★★★★

Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment introduces us to our cast of characters. Max and her whole flock of kids with wings are results of horrible experiments taking place in at The School, which is basically a laboratory for evil scientists. They take regular people, usually very young children, and inject animal DNA into them. Thus, I expected a chilling science fiction that focused on its horrors.

It only focuses on the School a few times. Max only ever says that it is an awful place, but we only get a glimpse of it when Angel is captured and forced back. Yet even then I did not feel angry with it, or scared of it, or anything. I felt nothing. They did not describe it enough for me to agree with the characters.

The writing style was what bothered me most. It was a bit too young for me, first of all. Second, it caused me not to take Max seriously, at all. At any point in the story. I am curious enough to read the second book, yet it is not a masterpiece.

rating: ★★★☆☆

The whole story is quite entertaining. We follow Charlie as he and the four other lucky ticket finders are given a tour around the factory by Mr. Wonka himself, along with their guardians. ( Every child apparently brought both of their parents while Charlie only brought his grandpa. )

I like the fact that the novel has the underlying lesson of not being selfish, spoiled, and a brat. However some moments are just plain bizzare. For example, the songs the little Oompa-Loompas sing once in a while are a little absurd to me. Yet nevertheless, it adds to the novel. So that is okay.

rating: ★★★★☆