[Review] Bitterblue (#3) by Kristin Cashore

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(#3, Graceling Realm)

Graceling | Fire | Bitterblue

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 18/09/2013 (pb)

Publisher: Firebird
Pages: 608

Source: Bought
Genre: YA (14+) - Fantasy

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ Christina Aguilera - Castle Walls ♪

My Rating:

My thoughts

First, let me preface by saying that it's been a month and a half since I finished reading this book and I barely wrote any of my initial thoughts and feelings afterward, simply because I didn't even know what to say or think. This series, and author, has been a major influence on me as a reader. Graceling was my first venture into high fantasy young adult fiction. It was one of the longest books that I'd allowed myself to be engrossed in from start to finish. Kristin Cashore was also the first author I'd ever met in person and gotten signed personally. So you could say that my writing this review saddens me is entirely correct. Because after this, there is nothing more. It's like recovering from a really good TV show, something that has moved you in more ways than you can even begin to understand. The Graceling books will always hold a very special place in my heart, of that I can be sure. So for all the reasons mentioned above, I'm pretty sure this review is going to be sloppy and not really any good at all, but it's important for me that I write this.

[Review] Hold Still by Nina LaCour

[Goodreads]

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 25/09/2009

Publisher: Dutton
Pages: 230

Source: Won
Genre: YA (14+)

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ Passenger - Let Her Go ♪

My Rating: 

Powerful and moving.

My thoughts

In one word: engrossing. I kind of felt like, after the last page I wanted even more. I found that I wasn't finished with the characters, I wanted to stay with them for a while longer but LaCour had decided that their stories were done, and that made me kind of sad and want more. But that's kind of what happens when an author has just done something really right: when equal amounts of satisfaction and longing are felt by the reader when he/she reads that last page.

[Review] The Lucky Ones (#3) by Anna Godbersen

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(#3, Bright Young Things)

Bright Young Things | Beautiful Days | The Lucky Ones

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 27/11/2012

Publisher: Harper Teen
Pages: 375

Source: Bought
Genre: YA (14+) - Historical

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ x ♪

My Rating:

Entertaining to the very end.

My thoughts

Gee whiz, this series/trilogy was so delightfully fun and entertaining to read. I give it 4 stars simply because it didn't MOVE me (no tears, no big bouts of laughter) and there wasn't really much of a lesson to be learnt from reading these books. I enjoyed every page of this trilogy though; I guess I just love reading about horrible and vapid people (I mean, come on, I loved The Great Gatsby!).

[Review] The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

(#1, The Winner's Trilogy)

The Winner's Curse | The Winner's Crime | Untitled

Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 03/07/2014

Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Pages: 368

Source: Publisher
Genre: YA (14+) - Fantasy

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

Book Tunes
♪ Santigold - Shooting Arrows at the Sky ♪

My Rating:

Bittersweet and engaging

My thoughts

I love that overarching concept: even when you win, you lose. That is the main idea of this book, and you see it in everything that happens. I only really appreciated the brilliance of it all once I'd flipped to that last page and everything kind of clicked. It's not my favourite of 2014 by far, however I am still eagerly anticipating the next book in this exciting new fantasy trilogy.

[Reading the Classics] The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

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Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Publication Year: 1925

Pages: 177

Violence | Sexual Content | Profanity

My thoughts

The first (and second) time I read The Great Gatsby was for grade 11 English class (2009). It was one of the only books required for class that I actually read ahead of the deadline, and it was also one of the only ones that truly grabbed me and convinced me to love it. It was all so profound and felt somehow relevant to our times and just who I was as a person. I couldn't get enough of the story, the characters, the setting, the themes and ideas portrayed and explored by Fitzgerald, an author I've been itching to read more of since.

But in 2013, I dared to revisit this highly-revered modern classic: partly so that I'd be refreshed and ready to view the upcoming film adaptation (which I still have not watched!), but also because I was curious. Curious to see how I would react after a relatively significant amount of time had passed since my first reading it. It was like going to a reunion, a warm one, where everyone is the same as they were the last time you saw them, save for a few details here and there (that you may or may not notice).

Bottom line: I fell in love all over again.