The Fault in our Stars by John Green-- Book Review

For Hazel, there has never been any "getting better". She is going to die from cancer and there is no question about that. So she gave up. She didn't do anything and didn't make friends. That was until her mother made her go to a cancer support group and she accidentally became associated with Augustus Water, who has been in remission. Now she seems to have a life again, but it can't all be okay because somehow cancer always seems to get in the way. 










I actually already knew the end of this book before I got near it because I was reading on my kindle and it skipped all the way to the end and I literally read one line by mistake that gave away the whole ending. Don't be like me. Control your kindle. It had one of those endings that if you knew it was coming, it made the book less good because you just spent the whole time reading it being upset. Be careful. Don't accidentally read the end. I beg you.

So, back to the book. It was good. It was really good. I don't know why but I'm having a difficult time coming up with things to day about it (so this review may be really short--sorry!!). TFIOS is a really well written book. One thing I always notice about John Green books is that they have the cutest and best quotes. For example, "that's the thing about pain... it demands to be felt" (and yes, I have that memorized, sad I know). He writes in a beautiful way with quotations that just make you feel things. Sometimes sad, sometimes happy, and sometimes like you're going to cry because you just ship it so hard. I liked the writing.

The characters were really good too. I think I am literally in love with Gus. He was pretty cool. Isaac was just funny. Hazel was ehhhhhhh. They were creative characters. The one thing I didn't like about the way he wrote his characters was that Hazel and Gus didn't really sound like teenagers. They just said things that most teenagers don't say. Though, in defense, none of the other characters really talked like them so it is possible that it was just their thing.

OK. I hate to do this, because I loved this book soooo much, but I have one thing that really turned me off about TFIOS. It was very manipulative. We had this whole long story where Hazel was probably going to die but we knew everything was going to be fine because she had Gus and now she could die with closure and all that exciting stuff and we were going to be happy but cry because it was still going to be sad, and then BAM our hopes are ruined. It was so ridiculous like that. I felt like John Green wrote the ending wanting to make poor little 13 year old girls cry. It was annoying, and it was a stupid ending for that.

Nice book. I liked it. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Why was this review so hard to write? I don't know. Sorry, I feel like this was a rambling review. O_o

Looking For Alaska by John Green--Book Review

Mile "Pudge" is sick of his normal life. So he decides to go to a boarding school to try and find what is out there in the world. And as if his new school isn't interesting enough, it just got a whole lot more interesting because down the hall lives Alaska Young. Pretty, smart beautiful, screwed up Alaska Young. And Pudge can not seem to stop thinking about her. Alaska walks into his quiet world and changes it forever--but after her nothing will ever be the same. 










I would like to start by saying that these two gifs can perfectly describe my brain throughout most of the book:

So yeah. Sometimes, the characters in this book were making me cry and be sad, and then other times I did the whole "nobody cares" rainbow thing. LFA definitely gave me pretty conflicting emotions at times.

I read this book because it had really good reviews, and I had just finished The Fault in our Stars (review to come!!!) which is also by John Green. So I started reading and let me tell you, John Green is a very pretty writer. All of his lines are either very clever or very beautiful. I find that funny because he is also a Youtuber so he must be pretty silly along with being really deep. And another thing about this book is that it doesn't really fit well into one category of books. It isn't really a comedy because it's also sad and dramatic, but it also isn't really a drama type book because it's really funny. It's kind of difficult to explain what it is but really it is just sort of genius.

John Green writes very good characters. Pudge was well developed, and changed and grew into a better person through each experience in his life. He was messed up a little bit by everything that happened, but he was normal. He wasn't crazy. He wasn't over the top. He was normal. He did things that normal people do! He freaked out, he moved on, he was sad, etc. He was a really, really good protagonist. Now I wanna talk about Alaska. Oh, Alaska. She was interesting. I feel like John Green may have done a little bit of what I like to call the "Scarlet O'Hara Effect" (Scarlet O'Hara Effect: making a main character, who other people seem to like but we think are really not very nice) on Alaska, because she was just one of those characters who we liked, we just didn't think she was very nice.

Lastly, before I rate LFA, I wanna take one second to bring up Takumi and his fox hat. I just have to say that it was the funniest tiny little few lines of dialogue I have EVER seen in a YA book. It was soooooo funny. If you haven't read the book, when you do you will know what I'm talking about. If you have read the book, you know ;). I just had to say that. Back to the review.

This book rocked. It does have some not quite appropriate elements to it, so I would suggest that parents read it before letting their kid read it, especially if the kid is under the age of 15 or 16. I would recommend it for people who like to cry and to laugh and who love a good book! 5 out of 5 stars!

Top Ten Book Boyfriends!

Just thought this might be fun! As some of you may know, I have a little bit of an obsession with fictional boys. I would love to hear your top fictional guys (please comment your faves cuz I'm interested in seeing what fictional guys other obsessed fangirls are freaking about)!

Number 10: Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg: Levi           













Number 9: Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins: Cricket

         












Number 8: Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: St. Clair

  














Number 7: Gallagher Girls Series by Ally Carter: Zach

                  













Number 6: Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter: Lucas

Number 5: Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: Fred and George

Did you seriously think that they weren't coming as a package deal??

















Number 4: Waterfell by Amalie Howard: Lo

Number 3: The Fault in our Stars by John Green: Gus

Number 2: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: Peeta

Number 1 (My favorite!!!!!): Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: Ron

These guys are my total book boyfriends! 

Better off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg

Levi and Macallan are best friends, and they have been since Levi moved to Macallan's town in the 7th grade. And they are happy being best friends, not complicating their whole relationship. 
But recently it has gotten more complicated. Boys won't ask Macallan out because they always think she is dating Levi. And maybe Levi spends a little too much time joking around with Macallan and not enough time out with his date. But through it all they just keep reminding themselves: we are better off friends. But is it true? Are they really just best friends?











I got an ARC of this book from a friend of my mom, and I thought the title was kinda cool. I have a lot of guy friends, and people seriously like to tick me off by making those annoying, "You two are totally dating" type comments, so I thought that this book might be one of those it happened to me kinda things. So, I picked it up pretty quickly.
I must tell you, from the first page I was hooked. Macallan was a refreshing voice. She was damaged, but not to a point where I found her at all whiny or only letting her life revolve around the bad thing that happened to her (which I won't say because *imitate River song* SPOILERS!!). Levi was just downright adorable! He was funny and sweet, but not unrealistically. He is actually getting added to my list of best fictional males.
I would like to take a minute here to appreciate Elizabeth Eulberg's fabulous writing in this book. What I found soooooo amazing was that the book started when the characters were all in 7th grade and went all the way through high school, and the voices of all the character changed in realistic way as they grew up. When they were seventh graders, I seriously could have believed the dialogue was written by some seventh graders. Same thing as the book went on. When they were eighth graders, they sounded like a bunch of eighth graders. When they were in high school, they sounded like a bunch of high schoolers. I also thought it was nice the way the characters gained and lost friends in a way that really happens in school.
So, I liked this book! It was funny, and sweet. I genuinely enjoyed it, and I can't wait for it come out so that I can make my friends read it and then blab about it for hours (which I do actually do!!). When this book comes out in March, scoop it up immediately and be expecting a great read! 4.5 out of 5 stars!! Thanks for reading!

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

For Cath, being a fan of the popular book series Simon Snow is her life. She and her sister used to eat, sleep, and breath those books. But now her sister has left the fandom, the only thing is Cath does not want to let go. Now her sister refuses to be her roommate (or her friend, for that matter) at college. Cath finds herself lost in the confusion of family, friends, boys, and her fandom. 






        This book was amazing. For all of you have read any of my previous reviews, you can verify how much I like most books. I generally try not to read books if I don't think I will like it. But this book I really liked. In fact, this may be one of my favorite books of the year. Now, this book got to me through my mom. She read it, and because me and my sister usually act like crazy obsessed fangirls, she told us both to read it. I went into it already knowing I would probably like it because it was getting great reviews and sounded really funny, but I clearly didn't have a clue about how much I would like it. It was hilarious, adorable, and told in a real way what it was like to be crazy and obsessed with a book.
        I would like to talk about the writing here. It was a great and adorable story, but it was also just very well written. The characters were all pretty believable, and I felt reacted in a way that most people would. The writing was also just, in a way, beautiful. There were a few scenes that didn't really have that much drama or anything super exciting going on, but the way they were written made them seem amazing. A lot of the main character's problems weren't really that intense. She did have huge family issues, and some friend and boy confusion, but there were times where she was freaking out about her fanfiction. In scenes that were like that, if it was poorly written I would have been saying something along the lines of, "Oh who cares? Just grow up and deal with it!" but because of the way it was written, at times like that I often said things like, "Awww! Poor girl!". It actually made me feel something, and a lot of that is thanks to Rainbow Rowell's writing.
        As I almost always end up doing, I'm now going to do a whole long, boring paragraph about how much I loved the main couple. And I'm sorry to do this again, but i'm going to have to. I was in love with Levi and Cath! They were a great couple, and really worked well together. They had a well written relationship. Yes, they had their problems, but in the end, the way their relationship was created made me so happy. It just reminded me what it's like to be in love with anything (for me, it's all just books and movies).
        I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to have something to relate to, or something to love. It was just a happy book that even with it's sad parts, was still just mostly fun and happy. Another reason I liked it so much, was because the Simon Snow books they were all reading, reminded me of Harry Potter, which was just a nice thing to remember. You probably already saw this coming, but I give Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 5 out of 5 stars! Thank you for reading!

-Violet 

Waterfell by Amalie Howard

Nerissa is not your average teenage girl. She is from the underwater kingdom of Waterfell, where she would be queen, if an evil rival named Ehmora hadn't killed her father and left her stuck in the human world. Along with her friend (and protector) Speio, her BFF Jenna, Jenna's boyfriend Sawyer, and her crush Lo, she must find a way to seem normal but stay herself. But when the time comes, she must battle Ehmora and try to win back her throne--the only problem? Life keeps getting in the way.






I was a big fan of Amalie Howard's other book Bloodspell so when I received an arc of Waterfell, I immediately decided that I would read and review it. I am SO glad I got an arc of it, because it was AMAZING! I loved this story so much, I couldn't take my hands off of it. When I first saw it, I thought it was just going to be another mermaid book, but it totally wasn't. Not only was she not a mermaid, it was a totally different type of what an underwater city would look like. The story was totally unique and creative, and I don't think anyone could say it was copying anything.

I loved the way the story was structured. It had layers of how everything seemed to work, all building up to the final battle (which happened in the last couple of chapters). It started by introducing Nerissa's life on land with all of her friends and hobbies. Then, it began to talk about her life in Waterfell and how she would be queen. The giant chunk of the book was just her relationship with Speio and Lo and how she has conflict with her feelings for both of them. Let me just make on thing clear: there is not a love triangle in this book. There are little touches of the classic love problems that are often called love triangles, but there is not a dead-serious hardcore love triangle. 

The characters were one of my favorite parts of this book. I loved how likable the good guys were, and how much I despised the bad guys. Nerissa and Lo were super developed and deep. They both came as such clear pictures in my head and I knew so much about them.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for good read. It gets 5 out of 5 stars! Enjoy!

-Violet

Fahrenheit 451

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn the most illegal thing in their world: books. Kerosene is his perfume and burning is his entertainment. But all that changes on day when he meets the odd teenager from next door, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where books weren't illegal and the world didn't live in fear. Suddenly, Montag's whole perspective on his job, his family, and his entire life has changed, and Montag finds himself wrapped up in a world of problems, regrets, and lies. 




I had to read this book for school, and at first I was not going to write a review because it was not a YA book or popular at this moment. It came out in 1951 and is now known as a classic book often read in schools. I decided to write a review just because if you were like me and had to read this book for school, it would be nice to have a heads up about what you were in store for. 

Fahrenheit 451's plot was clearly amazing and unique. The whole idea of the book is that information and books are illegal because the government believes that they cause conflicts and problems. It was very complicated at points, but in general, I was almost always aware of what was happening in the actual story. Ray Bradbury is an amazing writer, and uses tools like similes, metaphors, and descriptions very well and very often. The only real problem with the story was the occasional weird plot twists and confusing moments. 

I am not going to really talk about the writing, because Ray Bradbury was an amazing and old fashioned writer, and I do not intend on discussing his writing style and abilities. 

I didn't particularly find this book enjoyable. It was more of a book I would recommend to somebody looking for a great literature read. If you are looking for a fun, entertaining read, steer clear of this book. It was definitely educational. 

I give it 3 out of 5 stars, because it was an amazingly clever plot and very well written,  it just wasn't very fun or enjoyable. 

-Violet