Cheap Reader

Shiver Written by Maggie Stiefvater I've had this book on my to-read list since it first came out with rave reviews. I never really picked up on the fact that it was about (were)wolves. That right there should have been my first hint of distaste. Everything in the YA literary world now seems to be compared to Twilight , which did seem to relaunch the "paranormal romance" genre, and I hate to go back to that old trope, but let me just say that while the writing was arguably better than Stephenie Meyer's, Maggie Stiefvater's Grace and Sam made Bella and Edward's relationship seem safe. Other reviewers have pointed out that the writing was overly descriptive, and I do agree with them on that point. The story took a very long time to get to a point (this seems to be a Thing nowadays. Why are so many authors gravitating towards writing trilogies and unnecessarily stretching stories thin?) and once it did, the explanations were lacking. Like I'd mentioned...

The Ghosts of Ashbury High written by Jaclyn Moriarty I had read and enjoyed Jaclyn Moriarty's The Year of Secret Assignments many years ago, and, since then, had also read all of her other books. In preparation for The Ghosts of Ashbury High , I decided to reread her previous books, all set in Ashbury High. The thing you have to love about Moriarty's books is her ability to interweave plots but still have each story definitely hold its own. Characters from one story will unexpectedly cameo (or even play a large role) in the next. Bindy Mackenzie, annoying transcriber from The Year of Secret Assignments suddenly has her own books, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie. This book goes back to featuring some of our favorite characters from The Year of Secret Assignments , but throws two new characters in the mix, Amelia and Riley. Amelia and Riley have a strange air of mystery around them, throwing the school into mass speculation and rumors of ghosts in their midst. This is the...

Sweet Valley Confidential written by Francine Pascal So. Hah. Yeah, I read it. I grew up reading all the Sweet Valley books, so I've actually been waiting to see the girls again for a while. I expected a hilariously bad return, and, well, the badness exceeded expectations. I'm probably in the minority about this, but I enjoyed the SVU books more than the others, and found the SVH books to be horribly dry. So I was disappointed that this mostly followed SVH canon (which makes very little sense. I guess I should be relieved that moments from SVU were mentioned to begin with, but seriously, she must be extremely ashamed of that series or something since plotwise it held almost no relevance). The pairings in this book were absurd, as were the characters Pascal chose to focus on. While I'm glad the main story was between Jess and Liz, I did not like the huge role Todd played (never was a fan of his. What a bore). I enjoyed seeing a lot of Bruce, but awesome characters ...

Anna and the French Kiss written by Stephanie Perkins I picked this book up after many mentions by John Green in his popular vlogbrothers videos. I figured, hey, a new YA novel, highly recommended by an awesome author? Sure, I'll give it a try. The writing in this novel is spectacular, I'll give it that. As John Green said, it is like his and Maureen Johnson's writing had a baby, and that baby was this book. However, when it comes to the story itself, I wasn't thrilled. Don't get me wrong, it was a cute story, but good? Meh. Anna and the French Kiss falls back on typical YA tropes, and maybe I just read too much YA lit, but really? A French boarding school with a hot guy who just happens to have a British accent? It's starting to sound plot-wise like the very Nicholas Sparks (I'm assuming it was Nicholas Sparks, although I could be wrong) novels Anna makes fun of. I felt like too much of the focus was on the love trianglequadranglepolygonthing,...

It's not Thursday and I don't care. Sorry for like, abandoning this blog. I'm taking 19 credits this semester (and only one of those credits is a class that doesn't give massive amounts of homework), so life's become one huge pile of readings (not the fun kind!) and papers. I figured I should go ahead and give you all *something*, so here, have a BTT post =) You’ve just dropped your favorite, out-of-print book into a bathtub, ruining it completely … What do you do now? Okay, well, this just doesn't apply to me on so many levels. I don't read in the bathtub. The very idea of reading in a bathtub just makes no logical sense to me. Why? How? WHAT? Also, I don't think I've ever read an out-of-print book for enjoyment, and if I have, it was one of those out of print ones that are like, a cent on Amazon, so no big deal.

Mockingjay written by Suzanne Collins As with my other immediate reaction posts, this will probably not be the most organized, coherent blog I write. This is because I literally just finished reading Mockingjay , and it was sufficiently mindblowing. Congratulations, Suzanne Collins, for successfully making my brain explode. Obviously, my thoughts were all over the place while reading, and are in no better state at this moment. The suspense of this book kept up throughout the entire read, down to the very final pages. I found myself sitting here, grasping the last few pages in hand, completely clueless as to how Collins could successfully wrap everything up so quickly. She did. She freaking DID. The book starts with a one month time jump since the events of Catching Fire . Everything that happened there is explained, which, by the way, put Catching Fire in a new (and better) light in my mind. There's a lot of preparation and build up for all the big battles, and trust me, ...

currently reading: Dragon Rider -Cornelia Funke want to read: What else, Mockingjay ! reading next: Probably going to reread the first two Hunger Games books Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie written by David Lubar As always, it's really great to see realistic YA geared towards high school boys, about a high school boy who doesn't quite fit in and is just learning his way around the ways of his new high school and in a way, his new life. If you're a reader in high school, or about to enter high school, it's a neat look at a little bit of what high school life might be like, and if you're out of high school, well, it's a good reminder of a place you are probably really glad to be rid of. I've read books about awkward girls and popular girls in high school, but other than John Green's books, it's a rarity to read about a regular, albeit slightly-awkward, young boy maneuvering through high school. To me, this was a boy-version of The Princess Diaries , wi...