Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

Rating: ★★★.5

I used to be the biggest historical fiction fan - and then I discovered YA. Honestly, I had no clue there were books being written for young people until two or three years ago.

But my love for historical fiction is still there, so when I saw Red Queen on Netgalley, I had to request it, because the title (and cover) made me believe it was historical fiction. Turns out I was wrong - it is definitely YA and some mix between The Hunger Games and Divergent (but most YA novels are these days so that doesn't say much).

Plot

The world is divided in reds and silvers - reds have red blood and silvers have silver blood. Silvers are rich and have magical powers, while the reds are the slaves of the world (think district 12 if you read The Hunger Games). But then there is Mare Barrow who is red, but with silver powers (I know, it rings like 500 bells). She is discovered and forced to leave her childhood life behind to become a queen. But no one can know she is a red, because she would disturb the whole system. 

Then Mare finds out that there is a rise happening - reds want to take over and dethrone the silvers. Whose side will she pick? (I pose it like a question, because that is the main plot element of the book, but honestly you probably already know what she'll do.)

Mare - our very original YA narrator

Mare is the narrator of the book and I quite liked her. She is ripped away from her childhood and placed in a completely new environment with people she doesn't know nor understand. It's a lot for her, but she doesn't become whiney or annoying. She fights through it and she is smart, thank god that she is smart, so we don't have her making any blazingly obvious bad mistakes.

However, Mare is also just a mix between Katniss and Tris - like really really obviously. 

Tris and Mare

- don't follow the system of their worlds

- strong

- quick learner

- involved in a revolution

Katniss and Mare

- want to protect their family

- strong

- go-getter

- involved in a revolution

- love triangle

Now I must say that I haven't read The Hunger Games in years and I have finished Divergent just two months ago, so Mare reminded me more of Tris, but I think that is just biased. The point here is that similarity doesn't make it bad, but the fact that there is nothing new or inventive about the story line kinda does. 

I wish there was a plot twist or that Mare would do something Tris and Katniss would never do. I wish she gave me a reason as to why I should continue this series instead of just re-reading another one.

Love triangle

I know, love triangles in YA are like beating a dead horse. It is stupid and useless and it doesn't make any sense why it has to happen so often.

But, even though I think this love triangle was kind of unnecessary, I did like this one more than usual.

Mare is betrothed to the youngest prince, Maven, but she has met his older brother, Cal, earlier and she kinda liked him (read: he is really hot). Throughout the book there is a back and forth and at the end there is a good, though not completely unsurprisingly, plot twists regarding the princes.

What I liked about this love triangle is that it really isn't Mare's fault. She liked Cal and then she was forced to marry Maven. It was completely out of her control, so I can't slack her off for it. I kinda wish it wasn't on the forefront that much, but it was still okay.

So why did I really enjoy this book?

Nothing I've mentioned so far has been very positive, but for some reason, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't at all what I was expecting and it was cliché at times, but I think it actually kinda worked.

And that's mostly because of Victoria Aveyard's writing; it is quick paced, to the point and drags you into the red world. She doesn't write the novel like it is the newest and best idea someone ever discovered, but she just writes it like it is a simple YA novel, which it is.

She is also really good at building characters and giving them development throughout the story. Good is not always good and bad is not always bad, which made the book interesting to read.

Other than that, I just liked Mare. She is kinda cliché, but she is such a good-hearted person and you can't help but root for her. You want her to come out on top and find her happily ever after, whether that's with her family, a guy or in another society. You want her to win and that keeps you invested in the story.

Conclusion

This book is a difficult one to rate. On the one hand, I see all the flaws in the story with regards to originality. On the other hand, I actually still enjoyed the story regardless of those flaws. So it will have to be a three and a half out of five. It is not flawless, but there is definitely potential - if the writer breaks free from all the other already written YA books.

Tiger Lily - Jodi Lynn Anderson

RATING: ★

I was so very excited for Tiger Lily. I love the Peter Pan universe and anything related to Neverland. The whole world is so creative and unique that I just can't help falling in love with anything kinda, sorta related to Neverland.

Until I read Tiger Lily. This book honestly is the disappointment of my book year so far. It was recommended by so many people, but I didn't like the story line, felt like it needed another editor and was left frustrated by the missed opportunities..

Plot

The story is narrated by Tinkerbell and it starts prior to the events of Barrie's Peter Pan. Tinkerbell follows Tiger Lily, who is living in an Indian camp with her father Tik Tok. Both he and her don't fit in - he's too feminine for the Indians and Tiger Lily is too reserved. One night, Tiger Lily literally runs into Pan and their friendship / relationship begins.

The Indians hate Pan and Pan and the lost boys have never seen a girl. This means that the relationship is very weird, to say the least. Tiger Lily has to hide everything and the boys try to make Tiger Lily one of them. Until Wendy arrives and takes over Tiger's place. Wendy is a "real girl", with British beauty and ideas about a family. She quickly becomes a mother to the boys and Pan, who is notoriously unfamiliar with what a real relationship is, forgets all about Tiger Lily. Meanwhile, Tiger Lily's village has an English inhabitant who is changing things around there too, meaning that Tiger Lily has many things on her plate. And Captain Hook is also roaming around the island, looking for Peter Pan.

Tiger Lily

I have to give the author credit for attempting to tackle such a famous world with so many well-loved characters. It's always hard to please all the fans of a work and novels like these ones are very exposed to criticism.

However, that doesn't take away that I for one wasn't very happy about the personality of Tiger Lily. I expected her to be so much more. Because Tinkerbell is the narrator (another decision that I'll discuss later), we didn't really get to go inside Tiger Lily's head. We can only know what she does or what Tinkerbell thinks she's thinking. And Tinkerbell made her sound so very vanilla. 

Somehow, this native american girl on Neverland, the most fantastical island in the world, became a typical YA narrator. She defies her tribe by going to see Peter, she gets jealous when he gives attention to someone else, she tries to make him regret that, but starts regretting that decision and saves him anyway. I wish she would have really taken a stand - punched Peter when he became mean to her after Wendy arrived, showed Hook where to shove his plans once she figured out he wasn't sincere, told her whole tribe to go eff themselves... Something. Anything.

Because the reader doesn't know what she is thinking and doesn't real hear her doing anything special, she just became a pawn in a story. This was Tiger Lily's chance for agency ; to move from a story where she's a stereotypical Indian side-character to taking control of her own story. But this didn't happen at all.

Tinkerbell

I adore Tinkerbell - I always have and I always will. And not the cutesy modern Disney version, but the mean spirited fairy who goes after what she wants. My question is: where was this fairy in Tiger Lily?

This Tinkerbell was so annoyingly good. She becomes close to Tiger Lily and wants to be her friend. She even sacrifices her love for Peter, in like 5 seconds, so she can be happy for Tiger and Peter. What? Where is the jealous Tinkerbell? The original one can only feel one emotion at the time, because she is so small, and this Tink was just far too complicated for that. She read like she was a human being. Why chose her as a narrator if you're not going to use her fairy qualities?

The problem here probably was that Tink as in the Barrie version would be a highly untrustworthy narrator. But this Tink is too complicated and not true to the fairy idea. In this book, another narrator (I vote for Tiger Lily) would have helped so much.

Peter Pan

The only character I liked in this book (I'm not even going to discuss Wendy, because she sucks in the book, the movies and this book) was Peter Pan. This was the one character that was exactly like I imagined he would be. A tough guy who is a scared little boy deep down inside. He wasn't very original or creative, but he made completely sense as Peter Pan. Even his decision at the end (which was kinda heartbreaking) made sense for him. I really felt like the author understood Pan the same way I did.

The writing

I don't think Jodi Lynn is a bad author, but I think some parts of the book just didn't really work for me.

First off, I wasn't very impressed with the world building. I understand the difficulties with working with a world someone else already created, but that was the author's choice. There wasn't much added to Neverland and the stuff that was, about the Indians mostly, was so disappointing. Is it historically accurate with how we see Native Indians; as people in touch with nature and a strong believe in herbal medicine and superstition? Yes. But it's Neverland - the Indians didn't have to be at all similar to our ideas of 15th century Native Americans. This was such a HUGE opportunity of expansion on Neverland and it just wasn't used.

And then some of the sentences... I'll just leave the one that made me literally throw my book against the wall.

"His hair was caked in dirt and none of his features were visible, except his eyes glinted in the glow of the moonlight, and I got a yellow-lit glimpse of his features: a pale face, smooth and animate." (I thought you just said you couldn't see his features??)

Rating

Obviously, I didn't really enjoy this book - it has to be my first one out of five stars. I was SO excited to buy this book and almost nothing worked about it for me. Though it always pains me to give a bad rating (I know how hard authors work on their stories), I have to stay honest as a reviewer and I can't give this a higher rating. None of the characters, except for Peter who didn't have a very big role, matched the idea I had of them in my head. I guess this kind of book is always a hit-or-miss-thing. It was a miss for me.

This Song Will Save Your Life - Leila Sales

Generally, I write reviews in about 15 minutes. The words flow out of my head straight onto my computer screen.
Today, I’ve been staring at my computer for about 30 minutes and I have nothing. (Well now I have these two sentences.)

How do I write a review that does justice to a book that I loved so much? How do I convince EVERYONE to read this book, without resorting to violent means? I don’t know - but the best I can do is to start writing and hope that everyone who reads this (and likes YA books) will pick this one up. 

This Song Will Save Your Life by Leila Sales starts off as any other dramatic YA book does. 

It’s Elise’s story and Elise is a teenager who struggles with being “normal”. She is an overachiever, she is too intelligent for her classmates and she doesn’t dress in the latest fashion. Because she can’t be normal, she doesn’t have any friends and she becomes desperate. At the start of the book, she cuts herself and then calls a popular girl and tells her - the famous “attention attempt at suicide”. This girl panics and calls 911 - obviously Elise’s parents, who are divorced, go into panic mode.
They make sure that Elise is never alone again so that she has no opportunity to cut herself. But Elise needs alone time and finds it by sneaking out at night and walking around while listening to music.
Pretty bland, right? Until Elise finds Start - an underground club in a warehouse, filled with cool kids and banging music. Here Elise finds something she never knew she was looking for.
To find out what that is, you really need to read the book!

So the summary might not sound all too different from many other YA books, and I guess the plot line of the story isn’t, but the characterisation definitely is.

Elise is more than just a typical unpopular teenager - instead of being ruled by a million insecurities, she’s actually pretty confident in her own abilities and skills. She knows what she can and cannot do - she just doesn’t understand why no one likes her. This made me like Elise so much more than the many whiny female leads in YA books - she’s a girl with balls and not afraid to show them. Not a Bella waiting on Edward. 
Furthermore, all of Elise's Start friends, Charm, Pippa, Mel and especially Vicky, have real personalities. They are not just some characters on the sideline of Elise’s story: they read as real people with real issues and real problems. I can imagine a book about each of them, because I know enough about them, even though they are just “side-characters”.

Added to that, the story flows really well and the pace is good. It’s quick - something happens every chapter and you will not get bored reading this story.

To top it all of, there is a list with the most awesome songs at the end of the story. The perfect soundtrack if you want to enjoy the book a bit more after reading it. (I just checked 8tracks and no one made that playlist yet?! Someone who understands 8tracks, please get on that!)

After Wimbledon - Jennifer Gilby Roberts

I’m obsessed with chick lit. No matter what I do, no matter how many serious novels I’m reading (right now, I’m working my way through the 900 pages of Vanity Fair), a chick lit book always feels like coming home.

So when I found After Wimbledon by Jennifer Gilby Roberts, I was just dying to read it. And thank God I did.

Lucy Bennett, who is very much like Becky Bloomwood, is a tennis-pro who is prepping for Wimbledon, but really considering retirement. However, her one-night-stand-turned-boyfriend Joe does not want her to retire and most definitely does not want any of her post-retirement plans (house, marriage, babies,…). And then there’s Sam, one of the best tennis players in the world, the rival of Lucy’s boyfriend and the only person who thinks Lucy is not an idiot for wanting to retire.

So who does Lucy trust? And is retirement really a good option when she’s only 28? These are the main themes in the book, though there are a few small curveballs in the plot.

Lucy is funny and endearing and as a reader, you really want her to be happy. Joe is the perfect asshole boyfriend you want her to leave and Sam is a modern day Prince Charming.

It’s a chick lit, so the plot can be expected, but that’s what makes this book so good. There are no really unexpected turns (except maybe one towards the end), no big character developments, everything happens exactly as the reader wants it to happen.

However, unlike the many chick lits that have given me a headache, this book is actually written well. Jennifer clearly knows how to make the reader connect with Lucy and how to portray Lucy’s humor on page (and not just with saying “oh Lucy, you are so funny”). But don’t take my word for it, read a little passage from the beginning of the book – so completely spoiler free: “This isn’t the type of thing we normally talk about. Joe and I have what I think of as an emotionally open relationship. In a traditional open relationship (oxymoron?), you are emotionally intimate only with each other and sleep with anyone you want. In our case, we are sexually exclusive but have your deep and meaningful conversations with other people. That is, assuming Joe has any at all.”

That last sentence? That’s the kind of sentence that makes me laugh out loud in bed.

I was a bit worried that After Wimbledon would be too much about tennis for me, because I hate tennis and can’t stand watching it or hearing about it. But, even though tennis is a huge part of the plot, no knowledge of tennis is required nor are there any long reports about tennis matches. It’s about Lucy and her career and men – not the technicality of tennis.

After Wimbledon is not groundbreaking chick lit, such as a Bridget Jones’ Diary was, but it’s a fun read and I think it’s perfect for the summer that’s coming. Grab a drink, sit outside (preferably on a beach) and this book is your perfect companion.

Firefly - P.M. Pevato

If you have following my reviews for a while, you’ll have discovered that I’m not a fantasy fan. My bookshelves on Goodreads only really have the True Blood books on it (LOVED those btw – maybe a review is in order when the new season starts), and I recently finished Under The Skin (review here) due to my Scarlett obsession – but that’s about it.

However, I hope you also noticed that I like to review each book in its own genre and for its own worth. There is no point looking at a book like The Fault In Our Stars in the same way as Under The Skin. So when I was contacted by P.M. Pevato to review her book Firefly, I jumped at the chance. I love reading books that I normally wouldn’t pick up and I love the passion she had for her own story.

Firefly is about Tessa, or Bugs as her friends call her, and her witch coven. There are weird things happening in their small town and the witches have to figure out what is going on. The reader switches between Tessa’s point of view and that of William – a witch hunter. I don’t want to give any big plot points away, but I think about 80% of you can guess where this is going.

I appreciate fantasy for the creativity of the author and this book is proof of this creativity. I could never think of a whole structure of a witch coven and how they interact. However, besides the creativity, the book didn’t do too much for me.

The characters remained rather flat and I felt like I didn’t get enough insight information about Tessa and William. The book was very action-focused and I would have loved some more inner dialogue from the main characters. I have heard this book is the first in a series, so maybe there will be more character depth in the second book, but for now… It just wasn’t enough to get me really involved with any of the characters. This was further enhanced by the many short sentences in the book. There just wasn’t enough description and when there was, the short sentences made it feel rushed – like the reader doesn’t have the time to really take it in. But I guess this is a very personal preference of mine for medium to long sentences.

The ending left me slightly confused, but I guess that’s fair enough since it will urge people to want the second book of the series.

It was a decent read and I think that if you are into fantasy, this might be your quick-to-read beach book that leaves satisfied, but not completely blown away.

Under The Skin - Michel Faber

I’m absolutely obsessed with Scarlett Johansson. I think she’s the most gorgeous and talented woman to walk this earth right now (sorry, but Audrey Hepburn will always be my all-time favorite) and I adore every project she does.

So why am I writing this on a book blog, I hear you ask? Because my love (cough obsession) goes so deep that I even read the books that have been turned into films that have her in it. It has nothing to do with Scarlett anymore, but it’s a thing I do.

Usually I watch the film, absolutely love it and then grab the book. However, when I saw the trailer of Under The Skin, I decided to not even try to watch it. It looks too scary, too gorey, too not me. But I can’t give up on Scarlett completely, so I decided to read the book instead.

Under The Skin is written by Michel Faber and tells the story of Isserley, a woman slash outer world creature. She is send to this earth to collect humans for her home planet/world.

Of course, nothing goes to plan and Isserley has to figure out what it means to be human and what it means to be an animal, which is what they call what we would consider humans.

The book is a clear critical look at modern society and the way we treat not only animals, but people we consider less than us. How cruel we can be to each other and how we deal with that cruelty.

I’m very conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I enjoyed it. There is great characterization and you really grow with the narrator. The whole story is from Isserley’s point of view and, even though she has the most unusual job, her thoughts are just like ours. But still not the same, because she’s from a different world. This sounds contradictory, and I guess it is, but the author walks this fine line perfectly and really allows the reader to understand Isserley and thus understand the shocking things she does.

On the other hand, this whole “critical look at society” genre is not my thing. I understand the purpose and I think the critique is completely justified – however, it is not what I enjoy most about reading. When I read a book, I want to escape to a different world. With this book, I felt too connected to “the real world” through all the critique.

Is that a bad thing? No, not at all. I’m sure plenty of readers will really enjoy that. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.

But why would I tell my friends to definitely read it? The ending of the story. I reached the last 20 pages and didn’t get any sense of an ending. It got me curious and anxious (“please tell me this isn’t going to be another lame open ending for a story that so obviously needs a clear ending?!”). But the author gave a satisfying, shocking and amazingly written ending that suited the characters perfectly in just twenty pages. That’s some serious skill.

How They Met And Other Stories - David Levithan

Short stories are the quickest way to turn me off from reading. They lack depth, characterization and a proper ending – it’s always some vague “we’ll see” that leaves me completely unsatisfied.

So as expected, David Levithan’s How They Met and Other Stories was an uneducated buy. As a professional reader, I should really learn how to at least read the back covers of books, but as Emma… Well that will never happen.

The book is a collection of short stories about couples meeting, with a twist. All the couples are either homosexual or lesbians. I didn’t know about this twist either and that is probably the reason I loved the book so much.

When you start reading the first story, and you have not read anything about the book, it reads as a guy with a crush. There is no obvious “omg I’m gay” element in the story – it is just like every other kind of story about a crush and that is amazing. I feel so many books that portray homosexual relationships focus the whole book about how the characters are not straight and how they struggle with that.

Not Levithan – he describes the characters exactly like they should be – normal teens in love with someone.

However, that does not mean there was love story between me and the book. The stories definitely got my interest, but I wish I would know more about the characters. Where do they come from? What happened to Miles? Thom? The Starbucks guy?

If I had my way, the whole book would have been the story of Miles. He is a professional dancer near New York City who falls in love with his dance teacher Graham. He comes out to his family by saying that Graham is his boyfriend, which is a lie. Through a twist of events, Graham is invited to a family gather and Miles have to figure out how to either get Graham to go with him or find someone else. I adored this story – I thought Miles was the sweetest guy (and watch out for the aaww cameo by his brother) and I really felt like I knew him. Except that I still have all these questions about Miles’ future and Graham and the whole family and the dance rehearsals and and and and… You get the picture.

This book is amazing for anyone who loves short stories (amazing as in, buy it right now please), and it’s even a good read for someone who doesn’t like them – if you can live with the frustration of not getting a conclusive answer to most of your questions.