After first reading the blurb for Goodbye Days, I was happy that an author was finally going to write about the dangers of texting and driving. It’s such a dangerous thing to do and so many people die because of it. So to have a young adult book address this is amazing. …
I cried. I actually cried at this book. This is going to sound really cheesy, but this spoke to me on so many levels… Letters to the Lost is about confronting your own demons, about facing loss, dealing with family problems, friendship, and love. It is a beautiful young adult contemporary that deals with so many issues. …
Upon receiving this book, and after reading the synopsis, this was the kind of book that sounded like something I would absolutely love: magic, family, and adventures. It seemed like the perfect read and I couldn’t wait to delve into it. …
When I was sent this book, I didn’t really know what to expect because of it being categorised as a middle-grade novel. I haven’t actually read that much middle-grade (maybe 2 or 3), so I never know what I’m going to get. See You in the Cosmos in Jack Cheng’s debut middle-grade book and whenI heard it was about space, I couldn’t wait to start reading as – when I was younger – I used to be obsessed with all things to do with the universe! …
Knowing that A Curious Tale of the In-Between was a middle-grade book, I went into this book knowing I may not get the same supernatural effect as a YA book would give off. The concept of the book seems fantastic: a girl who can talk to ghosts. I love reading about kids with supernatural abilities and there’s even a hypothesis floating around that says children are more susceptible to seeing ghosts. Hmmmm… How fascinating… …
One of the brilliant things about studying English at university is that I come across stories that I would never normally pick up in my spare time. In one of my modules, I am studying the short story and whilst they are very quick to read, most of them have huge underlying depth and meaning.
Whilst I enjoyed reading The Fishing-boat Picture and I knew that there must be some underlying meaning, I couldn’t quite put my finger on what Shillitoe meant by this short story. …
After reading Beautiful Broken Things by Sara Barnard, which told the story of friendships, love and hurt, A Quiet Kind of Thunder explores the world of a girl who is a selective mute and boy who is deaf and follows their journey of self-discovery. …
This one of my most anticipated releases for the entirety of 2017. After reading Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley, I was eager to get my hands on her new book: Our Own Private Universe. I was excited because I read that this book was about a bisexual, POC, fifteen-year-old, who goes to Mexico with the church. So already, there’s a lot going on here: we have a black girl, a bisexual protagonist who wants to explore her sexuality and it’s set in Mexico where there are religious aspects to it. After finishing it, I realised that I was slightly disappointed. *lengthy review ahead* …
This is a very dark, disturbing yet philosophical book that will stay in your brain for a very very long time. This is the first time that I have read anything by Shusterman and after reading Unwind, I am interested to see whether his other books are as good as this.
This was a book that I had heard very mixed reviews on; people either loved it or hated it – and of course, I just had to be the person that thought it was in between. I didn’t dislike it, I didn’t love it. It just took forever to get into and I nearly DNF’d (did not finish) it. But luckily the last quarter of the book saved it from being dumped in the DNF pile!