Summer Reading Tag

Today I decided to do a tag, specifically the 'Summer Reading Tag', which was originally created by Kitkatscanread on YouTube (click here to view her original video). Now, as this tag is YouTube driven and I haven't actually been tagged by anybody, I'm kind of cheating here, but oh well!

It's morning and there's a hint of sunshine in the sky. What book has a good start for you?

A lot of the books I've read have slow starts which create a lot of setup with a general lack in anything exciting occurring so I found this question rather difficult. However I ultimately decided on two books, the first being The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I adore this book, it's one of my favourites, and what I love about the start is that I managed to connect with and fall in love with Charlie's character instantly as Chbosky gives you a lot of insight into Charlie's life and his struggles and I believe that's difficult for an author to achieve in such a short space of time. Secondly I chose Heroes by Robert Cormier. Although overall I found it an average read, the opening sentence is easily the best I've ever come across: "My name is Joseph Cassavant and I have just returned to Frenchtown in Monument and the war is over and I have no face". Need I say more?!

You go outside with a good book in hand. What do you choose?

For those of you that know me this will be very much predictable; it has to be The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's no secret that the first book in the trilogy is my favourite. I love how despite being a YA novel it is a book that appeals to everyone, regardless of age and/or interest. Collins portrays a great sense of realism in the plot. The themes dealt with are a really interesting mix and I find the story an enormous eye opener to capitalism and the world we live in.

You decide to fetch an ice cream to cool down. Name a chilled out/cool read!

Those who have read Pushing The Limits by Katie McGarry may not perceive it as a relatively chilled/cool read as it's such an emotional and heartfelt book. However I picked this book up after completing The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, despite the fact my heart was still seeping from the trauma of that read. I found that McGarry's writing is pleasant and enjoyable to read and it genuinely chilled me, which surprised me as I'm not a massive romance fan, and therefore I was able to relax into the story and the characters effortlessly. So as I said, the actual story itself isn't particularly relaxed, but the writing style is.

The sun gets trapped behind a cloud. How annoying. What book has annoyed you recently?

This is probably the easiest of all the questions as I've never been more annoyed by a book than I have by The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of The Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. The title of this book gripped me straight away and I was so excited to read it, I mean it's such an unusual and interesting title. Nonetheless, I was incredibly let down. Although there were some humourous parts that I enjoyed, overall I was rather annoyed by this book as I found it too difficult to get into and found the political side of it (which may I add takes up about half of the book) incredibly tiresome and colourless.

It's later in the day and the sun has moved you. Time to relocate. What book has amazed you to the finish?

The most obvious choice for this one is The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, I mean do I even need to explain myself on this one? Hands down the most heart wrenching, shocking, stunning and amazing read I've ever come across; I just have no words.

The day is almost over and it's been fantastic til' the end. What book has amazed you to the finish?

Yet another book I don't think I need to explain, The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. This book is easily my favourite of the Harry Potter series, no question about it. In this book Rowling finally finds her voice as she delves into more adult themes and situations and I loved that. I also don't think I've ever been so gripped by a book in my life, the plot is just fantastic, it's humorous, action packed and the climax just blew me away. I'd happily read this book again and again and again.

Bridge to Terabithia - Katherine Paterson

Synopsis:"All summer, Jess pushed himself to be the fastest boy in the fifth grade, and when the year's first school-yard race was run, he was going to win. But his victory was stolen by a newcomer, by a girl, one who didn't even know enough to stay on the girls' side of the playground. Then, unexpectedly, Jess finds himself sticking up for Leslie, for the girl who breaks rules and wins races.

The friendship between the two grows as Jess guides the city girl through the pitfalls of life in their small, rural town, and Leslie draws him into the world of imaginations and a whole new world called Terabithia. There they rules as king and queen, until a terrible tragedy occurs that helps Jess understand just how much he has learned from Leslie"

Considering that the film adaption of this book is my all time favourite film, I'm quite ashamed that it has taken me this long to get round to reading the novel. Nevertheless I got through this book within a couple of hours spread over two nights.

I didn't think that it would be possible but Katerine Paterson has made me fall uncontrollably and irrevocably in love with Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke all over again. The character development and relationship between the two is so real and current that as a reader I felt as if I too was living the adventures Jess and Leslie faced on a daily basis; Paterson's writing takes you on an extraordinary adventure between three best friends.

Both Jess and Leslie were from opposite ends of the spectrum. Jess' family is poor and barely scrapes by every month yet they soldier on and stick together as a family, whereas Leslie is originally from a comfortable background in Washington and at first finds it difficult to fit into her new life in rural southwest Virginia, yet they unexpectedly become friends and momentarily change each other's lives, and that is expressed so beautifully in Paterson's writing, the treatment of the two characters and the illustrations provided.

Reading of Jess and Leslie's friendship pulled me back to my childhood and the games and worlds I'd too create with my best friend. It give me a great sense of nostalgia and longing to have my childhood back and live it all over again. Paterson successfully manages to portray adults themes such as abuse and hardship in a way that is both effective and suitable for a children's book as well as enlighten the beauty of a child's imagination and it's never ending possibilities.

Furthermore, the transition of Jess' character from just an ordinary lonely boy to an imaginative, cheerful and heartfelt preteen and how his friendship with Leslie got him there is fantastic to read and my heart broke when tragedy struck and changed everything.

From the end of chapter 10 onward my tears repeatedly fell onto the pages of this book and with the turning of each page my heart broke even more as Jess struggles to face and accept the tragedy he has experienced and how it changes everything for him from how he perceives the world all the way up to the living on of the world himself and Leslie created together, Terabithia.

Although I was disappointed by the lack of detail in regards to Terabithia itself and the adventures the two inevitably had within, I found this book an enchanting read and a touching tale of preteen companionship and loss that has most definitely become one of my favourite books.

I give Katherine Paterson and 'Bridge to Terabithia' ★★★★★

Book Haul #1

Despite being an avid reader, I've never been one to buy more than a couple of books at a time and even then they tend to be books which are part of series' that I've started and the odd stand alone book here and there.

However, over the last two weeks I've purchased a total of 12 books which is out of the norm for me, nevertheless I'm excited to read all of them. I got them all for bargains, most of which I paid £3.85 for at various UK supermarkets. Even the two books I picked up at Waterstones came to just £5 for them both and that never happens!

Originally this blog was going to be entirely text focused however I figured it'd be best to create a YouTube channel to share my book hauls on and the occasional review here and there. So be sure to click here and subscribe to my channel! Enjoy the video!

*video temporarily removed*

The Maze Runner Trilogy - James Dashner

As I'm currently reading The Kill Order by James Dashner I thought it would make sense for me to review The Maze Runner trilogy before finishing and reviewing The Kill Order. As I'm reviewing all three books in this one post it may turn out rather long, or not, we'll see how it goes.

The Maze Runner

Synopsis: "When the doors of the lift crank open, the only thing Thomas remembers is his first name. But he's not alone. He's surrounded by boys who welcome him to the Glade - a walled encampment at the centre of a bizarre and terrible stone maze. Like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they came to be there - or what's happened to the world outside. All they know is that every morning when the walls slide back, they will risk everything to try and find out."

What I love most about this novel is that you are instantly thrown into the world of the Maze with no explanation of what, why or how; you remain as clueless and dumbfounded as the protagonist, Thomas, allowing you to build a greater connection to the story and Thomas. James Dashner enables you to experience the world he so cleverly created first hand, keeping you on the edge of your seat and begging you to read on as the plot unfolds. This technique creates a sense of realism for the reader and enforces the belief that such an event could happen in the real world.

Although the book was at times quite menacing and terrifying to read, I felt as if the Maze itself lacked creativity. As you learn more about the Maze you expect it to be like another world out there filled with an array of horrors and beats, but it isn't. You've just got the Grievers, which are mechanical like bears, and the curiosity of who WICKED are, but after a while you lose interest in them both because they come up so often that you're almost expecting them to appear in every chapter. They lose their novelty and there isn't much else for the reader to look forward to, until the last few chapters.

I thought the epilogue however was so cleverly written. Whilst reading the ending I became quite disappointed because it was just so predictable and almost too straightforward to be true. As a matter of fact I hated the ending, until Dasher dove right in there and created a twist I was not expecting.

I give James Dashner and The Maze Runner ★★★★

The Scorch Trials

Synopsis: "Thomas was sure that escape from the maze meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one knew what sort of life they were going back to. The earth is a wasteland. Government and order have disintegrated and now Cranks, people driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim...and meal. Thomas can only wonder - does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?"

I found The Scorch Trials far more enticing, action packed and exciting to read than The Maze Runner. I simply could not put this book down. From the very first page to the very last you are without a dull moment. It's action from the word go that does no disappoint.

Again, Dashner cleverly maintains that level of confusion between Thomas and the reader for this novel and that remains an important aspect to the series as Thomas and his friends discover that they're far from being out of the trials.

Each twist within this novel provides a windowed opportunity for attempting to figure out what is really happening and what WICKED are really up to, yet every time you get close to having a hunch it's dashed by yet another plot twist. Now, some could argue that this novel is full of too many twists to keep track of but I personally have to disagree because they ultimately lead to the one thing you question as a reader, who created the Trials and why?

I found this such a well written story that keeps you hanging on the edge of a cliff by a fingernail with each chapter more terrifying than the latter.

I give James Dash and The Scorch Trials ★★★★★

The Death Cure

Synopsis: "The Trials are over. WICKED have collected all the information they can. Now it's up to the Gladers to complete the blueprint for the cure to the Flare with a final voluntary test. But something has happened that no-one at WICKED has foreseen: Thomas has remembered more than they think. And he knows WICKED can't be trusted. The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous than anyone could have imagined."

The Death Cure is the final book in this trilogy and I'll be honest, I was a little bit disappointed with it. I'd say that I enjoyed this as much as the first book, The Maze Runner, but nowhere near as much as The Scorch Trials.

Just like the two previous books, there is little space for a dull moment in this novel. The level of action and suspense leaves you anxious throughout the read and I found myself shaking through most of it as I was so eager to see what happens to Thomas, his friends, WICKED and the remainder of the human race, all of which have been effected by the destruction the sun flares brought to the Earth many years before the Trials began.

However what I didn't like about this book is that Dashner continued with keeping the reader as dumbfounded as Thomas. Although it worked well and was needed in the first two books, the third is where loose ends were supposed to be tied up, yet not all of them were which results in a slight struggle to understand some basic concepts such as what first happened when the flares hit the Earth and how WICKED found the most intelligent children and where they came from. There was such a lack in detail and I felt that the novel really needed that detail in order to stand out.

Another thing that I didn't like about this book was the end. I actually found it quite ridiculous and the story just lost it's sense of realism. Throughout the trilogy there's this sense that such events that Dasher portrays in these books are possible in real life, however the ending tarnished that. The whole world faced destruction and is still in it, even those areas that are quarantined are facing the effects of the flares, yet somehow and somewhere this 'paradise' had remained untarnished and undiscovered by so many, allowing Thomas and many others to escape the horrors of the real world to build a new life and restart civilization. I just couldn't process how that was even possible. Maybe if there was some explanation as to how it was located, survived etc it would have been slightly more realistic, but it wasn't.

I give James Dashner and The Death Cure ★★★★

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Synopsis: "Clay Jensen returns home to find a strange package with his name on it. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker - his classmate and first love - who committed suicide. Hannah's voice explains there are thirteen reasons why she killed herself and Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why. All through the night, Clay keeps listening - and what he discovers changes his life... Forever."

I picked this book up out of pure curiosity of the interesting mix of themes Jay Asher deals with, which include suicide, sex, violence, guilt and blame. I was also interested in seeing if I too had faced any of the scenarios Hannah Baker experiences in this novel and looking at how differently we both deal with them.

What appealed to me most about this book was Asher's use of a secondary character, Clay Jensen, and his experience with the 6 cassette tapes which contain Hannah's thirteen reasons for committing suicide. It allowed me to build a connection with Hannah's story and grow a greater understanding of how other's, particularly Clay, truly perceived her.

For the first half of the book however I struggled to emphasize with Hannah and found myself becoming bored of the petty reasons she was providing for her suicide. On the one hand you can see how everything lead to the snowball effect and understand how it effected Hannah, but on the other hand you wonder how she didn't manage to get over the scenarios she was facing because in reality I didn't consider them that much of a big deal.

However I think that's the point Asher was trying to make with this novel. I believe he wanted the reader to understand that whilst one person may perceive something one way, another may experience and respond to it in a totally different manner, therefore Asher was trying to create an understanding of how everyone deals with things differently. He's not trying to insult young people by suggesting that the worst thing a teenager can experience is typical teenage drama, like I've read in many reviews, but trying to highlight the difference between us all and the effect life has on an individual in general.

Although the concept of blaming others for a suicide bothers me and is something I don't agree with because ultimately it is the individual who commits the act, I found the entire book a truly beautiful read. The way in which it was written was fantastic and I loved how it was presented in the book and how Clay took the time to express his thoughts and feelings throughout so the reader can have a greater feel of the story.

I give Jay Asher and 'Thirteen Reasons Why'★★★★