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Category: young adult

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow Rowell is slowly becoming one of my favourite authors. After searching for all of her books on Amazon, I came across Kindred Spirits. Since I am no longer in school, I miss out on all the World Book Days and I don’t get to see all of the amazing books that are written for it.

Following World Book Day tradition, this book is very very short. It’s 62 pages, so if you were expecting a Fangirl size book, then you’re going to be disappointed. It didn’t even take me an hour to finish this book but I loved every single second of it.

If you broke Elena’s heart, Star Wars would spill out. So when she decides to queue outside her local cinema to see the new movie, she’s expecting a celebration with crowds of people who love Han, Luke and Leia just as much as she does. What she’s not expecting is to be last in a line of only three people; to have to pee into a collectable Star Wars soda cup behind a dumpster or to meet that unlikely someone who just might truly understand the way she feels.

 This book is both cute, hilarious and real. I totally related to the character of Elena since I am also a huge Star Wars fan.

 The concept of the book was really good. I love the idea of a massive fan queuing outside a venue for days on end just so they can get good seats. I would love to do this myself as the longest I’ve queued was when my best friend and I went to a concert and went four hours before the doors opened so that we could get a good view. We were fifth in line. So I can relate to Elena on that front also.

“How could you possibly have a dark secret involving the Star Wars prequels? Are you responsible for Jar Jar Binks?”
– Rainbow Rowell, Kindred Spirits
 
 


 I also loved the argument that Rowell portrays through this book of geeks vs fake geeks (fake geeks being people who pretend to like ‘geeky’ things because they think it will make them ‘cool’). In no way am I agreeing or disagreeing with the argument that is conveyed to the readers, but I found it very interesting. 

 The ending too was absolutely amazing. It’s probably one of the best endings I’ve read in a long time! 

 The only part of this book that I didn’t get is that Elena is described as quiet, a person who finds it difficult to talk to other people but throughout this 62-page story, I didn’t see any of that. I saw a girl who was confident to talk to a complete stranger and pee in a cup whilst he was standing a few feet away.

 If you’re looking for a quick and easy read that is lighthearted and funny then this is the book for you. Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan – read this book! 

 Rainbow Rowell has done it again – another amazing story!


Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

This book has become my heart and soul. I devoured it, loved it, wanted to immerse myself into it; Fangirl was a brilliant read.
Cath and Wren are identical twins and until recently they did absolutely everything together. Now they’re off to university and Wren’s decided she doesn’t want to be one-half of a pair anymore – she wants to dance, meet boys, go to parties and let loose. It’s not so easy for Cath. She would rather bury herself in the fanfiction she writes where there’s romance far more intense than anythings she’s experienced in real life.
 
Now Cath has to decide whether she’s ready to open her heart to new people and new experiences, and she’s realising that there’s more to learn about love than she ever thought possible…
 


After reading the blurb whilst I was in Waterstones, I was thinking to myself: ‘great, not another teen fiction book about romance.’ But, oh how wrong was I?
 
This book has some romance in – obviously. And the book portrays how it feels to have your first love, but Fangirl is so much more than that. What I loved the most about this book was the portrayal of going to university. Of having to pack up your things from home and move to a strange place with weird people. I could relate so much and it made me feel all nostalgic of when I first moved into my new flat at Staffordshire University.
 
It’s obvious that Cath suffers from social anxiety as she doesn’t leave her room for weeks and tried to live off protein bars and a tub of peanut butter – she’s too scared to find the cafeteria. Even though she attends all of her lessons, the thought of going through the whole ‘new school, new cafeteria, new cliques = time to sit on my own and not socialise because no one wants me.’ She also has major anxiety about the way she looks, she sees herself as the ugly twin, the one that no one will love and the one that everyone will find boring because she loves fanfiction so much.
 
 
 
“In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can’t Google.)”
– Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl
 
 
 
I found Fangirl so much better than Eleanor & Park and Rowell’s style of writing seemed so much more concise in Fangirl. I found the characters to be more real (can we just talk about Reagan for about 100000 years please?!) and Cath was the most relatable character in the novel. Even though I can relate to Cath and Wren’s experiences of university, I’m more like Cath and that’s why I fell 100% in love with this book.
 
Even though Wren made me angry a few times with how oblivious she was to how bad her sister was coping with uni life, her character development towards the end of the book was extraordinary, it was so quick it nearly gave me whiplash. It wasn’t quick – however – in the sense that you had no idea what just happened, there is something that happens to Wren in the book and she suddenly realises she needs to change her ways.
 
There was also major character development for the Dad. I found him so cute and adorable and after the ‘thing’ that happens with Wren, he also figures it’s time for him to change his ways and start managing himself a bit better.
 
This book is a romance book, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a book about growing up, about finding your feet at university and about learning to do what you love. This book has become one of my favourites and is one that I would read over and over again. 
 
Fangirl is perfection.
 
 
The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan

A love affair story set in New York and written like a dictionary? Yes, please!

This sounded like such a good idea when I was recommended to read this book by a friend and since I’m a huge fan of David Levithan anyway, it didn’t take much convincing.

It turned out that we had both met people online before, and we had both slept with people on first dates before, and we had both found ourselves falling too fast before. But we comforted ourselves with what we really meant to say which was: “I don’t normally feel this good about what I’m doing.”
In 185 snapshot moments, The Lover’s Dictionary tells the story of a love affair between two people in New York. Moving, funny, heart-breaking and life-affirming, it is a story that anyone who has ever fallen in love will recognise.

Not once during reading this book did I feel moved, did I laugh or feel heartbroken. I felt confused and I felt bored. This story just felt so disjointed, there was actually no story. It felt like a patchwork book where everything is jumbled together and there is no meaning.

“‘It was a mistake,’ you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you.”
– David Levithan, The Lover’s Dictionary
 
 

There were a few moments where I thought this book had potential – those feelings were near the beginning of the book, but I still had them – but I just got let down. The book is very quotable and Levithan uses this book to portray the ups and downs of a relationship and even mentions how little pet hates make you feel frustrated like when your other half leaves the cap off of the toothpaste. However, a book being ‘quotable’ does not make it a good book.

The plot was so disjointed that I didn’t even know what going on. Once I had finished the book, I actually turned to my Mom and said ‘I don’t know what happened’. I genuinely had no idea what story I had just read. I know that there were two lovers, I know that they’re together for two years but in what ‘chapter’, the narrator exclaims about being cheated on but then in the next ‘chapter’, everything is happy and like no cheating has happened. One ‘chapter’ is about the first date and then the next is when they’ve been together for one year. It isn’t in chronological order and it makes no sense.

I do think it’s a clever way for a book layout and I even got to learn the meaning of some different words that I can add to my vocabulary, but as I said before: it had so much potential and I just got let down.

The only other time that I would read this book is to see if I could make any sense of it a second time around.

Sorry, David Levithan, but this book was not good at all.

 

We Are All Made Of Molecules by Susin Nielsen

We Are All Made Of Molecules by Susin Nielsen



This book was one of my quick-buys when I went into Waterstones one day. It wasn’t on my TBR (to-be-read) list; I just saw it on the shelves, read the blurb and bought it. 

There are two sides to every story.
Stewart is geeky, gifted but socially clueless. His mom has died and he misses her every day.
Ashley is popular, cool but her grades stink. Her dad has come out and moved out – but not far enough.
Their worlds are about to collide: Stewart and his dad are moving in with Ashley and her mom. Stewart is 89.9% happy about it even as he struggles to fit in at his new school. But Ashley is 110% horrified and can’t get used to her totally awkward home. And things are about to become a whole lot more mixed up when they attract the wrong kind of attention…



I started and finished this book on my four-hour train journey from Aachen to Berlin. 

What I loved about this book was that it had the fresh, young voices of young teenagers. Stewart is 13 and Ashley is 14. Normally with teen fiction books, the main character is about 16/17.

What I didn’t like about this book was that they were 13 and 14. Feeling confused? Bear with me.

Using younger characters was a brilliant idea, it showed the transition from being a ‘child’ to a teenager and the troubles that come with that. Unfortunately, how the characters spoke on paper made them seem like they were about ten.

The character of Stewart is supposed to be gifted for his age, but sometimes he comes across and talks as though he’s a little boy. It’s the same with the character of Ashley. She’s 14; she should sound 14 – not ten.

“The next day, Mom made an appointment with the doctor. But it wasn’t a baby growing inside her. It was cancer.”
– Susin Nielsen, We Are All Made Of Molecules



I also hated the character of Ashley. You know those characters that you get that you love to hate? Ashley wasn’t one of them. I couldn’t stand her. She was moaning all of the time and complaining about her life like it was the worst thing in the world – granted most 13/14 year old complain most of the time that their life is horrible – and when I reading her chapters, I just wanted to get them over with.

The book got slightly better as it progressed; we learned a few things about some of the characters and there was some character development, but not an awful lot and the development that did happen was towards the end. I think the character that I like the most was Stewart. Even though he spoke like a five-year-old, he was still a very caring person and always tried to do the right thing no matter what.

 There are a few mature moments in this book like dealing with death, drinking and attempted rape (although with the latter is described in very little detail and is stopped before anything happens. It happens for about a few lines.)

 I would recommend this book but to those who do want to read it, keep an open mind that the two point of views are very childlike. It’s good, but it’s not a book that I would read again.
Warning: contains references to physical abuse. May trigger. 


Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Perks of Being a Wallflower is Stephen Chbosky’s debut book and boy, is it a fantastic one to start off your writing career.

It was released in 1999 but it’s only been in the last five years that it’s been recognised for the brilliant novel that it is.



Charlie is a freshman. And while he’s not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But Charlie can’t stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
This is the most beautiful coming of age story that I have ever read and no, that isn’t an exaggeration; I remember being captivated after reading Charlie’s first letter to his “friend”.



“I just want you to know that you’re very special… and the only reason I’m telling you is that I don’t know if anyone else ever has.”
– Stephen Chbosky, Perks of Being a Wallflower


The format in which Chbosky’s written this books is in that of letters, the story is told through them in which Charlie writes letters about his day over the course of him being fifteen and sixteen. It’s like reading a diary. Chbosky makes Charlie such an open, heart-endearing character that when you read him spilling his feelings out in the letters, you can’t help but want to wrap your arms around him and give him the biggest hug in the world.
It’s also written like a fifteen/sixteen-year-old would write as well. Chbosky doesn’t use any ‘fancy’ words or make the characters sound older than they are; the written style is short and simple sentences most of the time unless Charlie is practising his writing skills – then Chbosky slightly changes the writing style to suit Charlie’s.

I also loved how well-rounded the secondary characters were like Sam, Patrick, Mary Elizabeth, Bill and even Aunt Helen. It just showed how much of an incredible writer Chbosky is and how well-thought-out his characters were; I felt like I could connect with most of them on a personal level too which is one of the things that I love as an avid reader.

I recommend for everyone to read this book because this is a beautiful piece of literature that I’ve now read four times. I just can’t get enough!
Warning: contains references to physical/emotional abuse 


I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson

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When I first read Jandy Nelson’s debut novel: The Sky is Everywhere back in 2010 when it came out, I was encapsulated by Nelson’s writing style and the characters that she creates. I’ll Give You The Sun is another magical novel from the mind of Jandy Nelson. A story that will bring you to tears and make you laugh, a story that has characters you will love until the end. …

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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I had read about much of the hype that surrounded this book. Nearly everybody who had read it had told me that it was amazing and that they couldn’t fault it, other people told me that this book was over-hyped and it wasn’t as good as everyone was exclaiming it to be.

 I decided to read it myself and have my own opinion.

…

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