Review: "The Hundred" by Kass Morgan

The novel is told from the POV of four characters: Clarke, Wells, Bellamy and Glass. The first three are on a suicide expedition to earth, to see if it's still habitable, while the fourth remains on the ship where humanity has spent the last three-hundred years.

The members of the expedition are teenaged convicts, offered a second chance, since on the ship even perpetrators of petty crimes are put to death. If they survive the experiment, they will be pardoned and given a new life on earth. 

The only problem is that last time they checked, the level on radiation on earth meant a slow and painful death. None of the main character, at least one of whom knows this fact, seem particularly concerned about this.

Another problem might be how to survive in the wildness after having lived their whole lives in a place where there was exactly one tree and meat didn't exist. No problem, though. Bellamy's on the case, and he clearly has great learning skills, since he learns to hunt in a matter of days (never having held a bow before in his life, ladies and gentlemen), and the kids somehow manage to cook the deer he's caught without burning it or leaving it raw. 

Also, there seemingly are no predators in this forest where they have landed and the kids don't immediately catch a bunch of earthly viruses their immune systems are not shielded against. Lucky them!

So, you'll ask me, what is this book about, if none of the characters are trying to get off the earth/get lead suits to fight off radiations and all survival problems are either swept under the rug or resolved in annoyingly easy ways?

Well, my dears, it's all about love.

Everyone's constantly worrying about their love lives, and not about impending doom. And if only the love stories were actually interesting. There's no chemistry between these people, no reason why I should believe that they'd value this person's life more than they value the lives of innocent bystanders. Yeah, you heard me right. Not one, but two main characters (that's fifty percent, you guys), knowingly cause the death of other people in order to protect their loved ones. In one case, the survival of the human race is but in jeopardy. Why should I like these people, again?
And yet, despite all the terrible things they do, the point of view characters in "The Hundred" are not allowed to be flawed, not really. We are not meant to hate them, despite the fact that they are terrible human beings. There are always circumstances that are meant to make their actions excusable. I don't want that, not when the book takes on some really challenging issues. Simplifying things means doing things half-ways, and that never works.
The only character I thought was really interesting was Bellamy's sister and I wish she'd been explored more. I would have loved to have her as a POV character.
I also didn't hate Clarke. She was definitely the best out of the four main character, although that's not really saying much.
There are two good twists at the end of the book, but it's too little, too late. It definitely doesn't make me want to read the next one.
I am really conflicted about how to rate this book. Don't get me wrong, it's really bad, but I don't think it's terrible enough to deserve a one-star-rating. I usually do that for books that I found painful to read, and this wasn't the case. Also, Clarke's chapters are bearable, and Bellamy wasn't all that bad in the beginning.
So a star and a half it is.

 Rating: 

★1/2

I received this book as an eARC from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas

The main character of “Throne of Glass”, Celaena has become the world’s greatest assassin at the ripe old age of seventeen.

Wait, what?

That’s ridiculous. Seventeen is way too young to be the world’s best anything unless it’s something that specifically requires to be very young to be skilled. And since Celaena thinks this of one of her competitors, we can rest assured that that is not the case with assassins.

Assassin indeed. His voice hasn’t even deepened yet. How did he wind up here?

But way more importantly than that, how can anyone be the world’s greatest assassin? And that’s not a personal opinion of a couple of people, that’s common knowledge. First off, who measures these things? You would be hard-pressed today to have people give the same answer to the question “who is the world’s best fashion model?”, and the performances of fashion models is something anyone can access. A good assassin shouldn’t be someone everybody has information on. But in this world, apparently, being a good criminal means being really famous and having people know your name. I don’t think there are words to describe how idiotic this concept is.

Then, there’s the little matter of this fact: we wouldn’t be able to decide today who the best in the world at something is (world’s best lawyer? Does anybody know who that is?). Today, when we have the Internet, and you can circle around the world in a matter of days. Try establishing that in the world the story is set in, where they have medieval technology and magic has been outlawed (so they can’t use magic to communicate or travel any faster), where crossing a country takes weeks. There’s not enough communication possible to decide with any sort of accuracy who the best assassin in the world is.

For these reasons, Celaena’s character could only be more over-blown if her name actually were Badass McAwesome. She’s a Mary Sue at her finest: she’s beautiful, she’s physically strong, she’s intelligent, she’s musically gifted. Her abilities never, ever fail her.

Her arrogance might actually have been an interesting character trait, if it had been exploited more. If she’d made a huge mistake because she didn’t think anybody capable of beating her. But, nope. Infallible Celaena.

Also, she’s judgmental as hell. She thinks of the king of Adarlan as a murderer and a monster. Which I am sure he is, but so is Celaena. She kills people for money. She thinks of all the pretty dresses she could buy with her salary as the king’s personal assassin. And this is never portrayed as problematic. When I read a book about assassins, I expect them to be anti-heroes. Or, if they aren’t, if they do this to keep themselves or somebody they care about alive, to hate having been coerced into this line of work, to feel remorse for their killing. Celaena never feels remorse for what she’s done. No, she’s a good assassin. How do we know this? Well, she doesn’t kill children. That doesn’t make her good. It just makes her a little less of a monster. But she’s still a monster.

The romance was actually quite light, for the most part, and the love triangle didn’t bother me at first, until the she started flipping back and forth with her feelings for the two guys. Then it definitely started getting on my nerves.

 Also, while Celaena does not fall into insta-love, one of her two suitors does.

Still, the image haunted his dreams throughout the night: a lovely girl gazing at the stars, and the stars who gazed back.

He thinks this two weeks after their meeting. He knows she’s dangerous. He knows she resents him and his family for what happened to her and to her kingdom. He knows that her attempted suicide involved killing several people with a pickax. He doesn’t know her. He’s enamored of her anyways. What an idiot. 

He loved her, and no empire, no king, no earthly fear would keep him from her. No, if they tried to take her from him, he’d rip the world apart with his bare hands. And for some reason, that didn’t terrify him.

This is after knowing her for three months, and they really only start spending time with each other after two months have already passed.

The bad guys are utterly ridiculous. They practically prance about wearing sparkly signs with the words “I’m EVIL” around their necks. And Celaena, who is supposed to be smart, somehow manages to be surprised when the villain’s identity is relieved.

Also, there’s a castle made of glass. Of actual glass. What the hell? I suppose that it’s really thick glass, but it’s still not going to be as efficient as stone when it comes to defending it.  A couple of hits from a catapult and it’ll be smashed into little sparkly bits. And it’s the capital of a kingdom focused on warfare, too. Why would you build this really inefficient, expensive castle that’ll guarantee boiling summers and freezing winters? How do you manage a fireplace in a castle made of glass, a material that melts really easily when put in contact to flames?

The writing’s fine most of the time, but sometimes there are some rather weird phrases, like:

Her blood grew warm and glittering.

But maybe Kaltain is a Twilight vampire, that’s why her blood is glittering.

There are some sudden POV shifts, which is an amateur mistake (I tried to edit the spoilers out as much as I could, but if you want to avoid all spoilers, then skip this bit):

Carefully putting his arms around Celaena, Dorian glanced toward [Characters A and B] In doing so, he missed the look exchanged between [character C] and [character D]. [Character D] pulled out his dagger.
But Chaol saw.

However, despite all its flaws, this book managed to keep me entertained and intrigued. It’s not a good book, by any means, but it’s a fun book, and not of the so-bad-it’s-good variety. So it's still getting two stars. 

 Rating: 

★★

Review: City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

In the last installment of Cassandra Clare's bestselling series "The Mortal Instruments", Clary and her friends have to save the world (of course!). They still find the time to agonize over their love lives. go shopping for christmas presents... Even when they find themselves quite literally in hell, they still worry about their relationships, one of them even gets drunk. In real life, these guys wouldn't have lasted a day in that war.

The writing is not terrible, but it isn't exactly good, either. At one point, Clare compared stalactites to "electrified icicles". Ugh.

There's no shortage of corny moments, either. I don't want to spoil too much, but at one point a vampire dies because they were tricked into drinking holy water, and their skin peels back until only the bones are left and then those crumble to ash. That's freaking ridiculous, how on earth am I supposed to take that seriously?

Most of the kissing scenes were boring and read like something out of a fan-fiction.
There's a sex scene, about half-way through the book and I don't like it's handled. I can see why Clare tried to keep it vague, since it still is a YA novel, and you can't put a too explicit sex scene in there. This one's vague enough that it was hard to understand what was going on. I would have preferred it if Clare had made the scene fade to black, like she did in "Clockwork Princess". Also, who the hell packs up for Hell and brings condoms along?

Yet, in the words of immortal poets Icona Pop, "I don't care. I love it!"

For all the cheesy and trashy moments, for all the inconsistencies, for all the dumb things the main characters do, I still enjoyed this novel very much. It's a lot of fun, and it kept me hooked (any book that can keep me up until two o'clock twice in a row deserves an honorable mention).

The humor is great, as always, and I even caught myself laughing out loud several times.

I also don't mind all the relationship drama, despite the fact that it is unrealistic. The only couple I cared about in book five were Magnus and Alec, but this time around I found myself rooting for all of them - Jace and Clary, Izzy and Simon, Jocelyn and Luke…

I especially enjoyed the platonic relationships, which were well-developed in this novel. I was glad for the fact that Alec and Jace's friendship and their parabatai bond was expanded upon, since in the previous books almost no details were given about it.

Even tough they sometimes did some pretty dumb things, the characters were very likable. Even Alec, whom I have never liked all that much, became much more fun and interesting in this book, as he finally stood up for himself, instead of spending all his time scowling and wallowing in his insecurities. I am now glad that he and Magnus broke up in the last book, having to go through the pain of heart-break made Alec into a much stronger and interesting character. 

Clary, who in the previous books only had a couple of badass moments and had to be saved more often than not, had some time to train and became an actually skilled warrior. I had fun reading about her, something that didn't happen when I read the previous two books. She's not only powerful, strong and determined. Most of all. she's clever and scheming. I like that in a main character.  

Despite the fact that I know that this book has flaws, I enjoyed it very much, and I still recommend it, if you're in the mood for something fun and adventurous and you like YA and Urban Fantasy. 

  

 Rating: 

★★★★★

Review: The Chaos of Stars by Kiersten White

Oh, "Chaos of Stars" I wanted to love you so badly. You promised humor! And adventure! And Egyptian mythology! All the fun stuff!

What I got was instead an insufferable main character, a doormat of a love interest and a hole-filled plot that didn't rear its ugly head until the last 20% of the novel. 

Isadora, the female lead, is the human daughter of egyptian deities Isis and Osiris. She spends a blissful childhood, decorating, amongst other things, a special room her parents selected for her. This until she finds out that she is mortal and that the room she has been lovingly decorating is, in fact, her future tomb.

Osiris and and Isis have a human child every twenty years because the gods need worshippers in order to remain in physical form. When Isadora finds out about this, she thinks her parents see her only as a mean to an end and becomes determined to leave Egypt for good as soon as she can.

At sixteen, Isadora is bitter and frustrated, and the presence of her older, immortal brother Horus and his wife, Hathor, both of whom often call her by the wrong name doesn't help matters. 

So when Isis feels chaos rising and decides to get pregnant early, Isadora sizes the opportunity to convince her parents to let her stay for a couple of months with her older brother Sirus, in America.

From that moment on until the last 20%, the novel consists of Isadora sulking, eating, proving that she is better than anyone else, eating, being an ass, eating, somehow managing to make friends. Not to mention lots and lots of sexual tension with doormat boy. Yay!

I found Isadora to be sympathetic at first, because the situation she was in was truly awful. It didn't last long. She is an immature, selfish Mary Sue. She has a sense of humor only eight graders should be justified to get away with. She calls Horus "Whore-us" for the entire novel. Yep. That's her idea of a sophisticated joke, guys.

Her first reaction upon finding out that her brother is married and that he and his wife, Deena, are expecting a child is feeling betrayed. Understandable enough, right? Her brother kept an important part of his life from her, after all. But nope, the not telling her part comes as an afterthought. What makes her angry is the simple fact that he got married. How dare her brother try and be as happy as he can?

But see, Isadora heartily disapproves of romantic relationships. Why? Because there's no point, because they either end or one of the lovers die. She's the life of the party, this one. 

Oddly enough, she doesn't have the same problems with friendships, even though those have to end too, and friends have the potential to hurt you just as much as lovers can.

But I think we all know why Isadora is ok with friendship but not ok with romance: the author needed an excuse for Isadora to rebuff doormat boy (ok, his name is Ry, short for Orion. Guess who is obsessed with stars and has elected Orion as her favorite constellation? This book couldn't get cheesier if it tried), but still remain in contact with him throughout the novel, so as to give the reader the right amount of breathtaking (ha!) sexual tension.

Isadora and Ry are clearly meant for each other. Why? Because they are so breathtakingly gorgeous that they cannot go anywhere without being hit on!

Also, Isadora is talented! And artistic! She is an interior designer (mind you, do not call her an interior decorator, or she'll get testy) and an incredibly good one. So good that she gets to redesign a whole room in the museum she volunteers in all on her own. So good that Ry's mother immediately refurnishes one of the rooms of her house according to her instruction. 

Isadora is gifted not only with a beautiful face and statuesque figure, but also with the knowledge of every language ever spoken. 

Isadora is a dick. When she meets Ry, he talks to her in Arabic, to make her feel at home. Does Isadora appreciate the gesture? Nope! She gets offended because she assumes he thinks she doesn't speak English well. 

At one point, Ry takes her hand, even though she had made it clear she didn't want a relationship. She has a right to get upset. But there's understandably upset and then there's hyper-reacting. And then there's Isadora. She fucking bolts out of the door as she, Ry and their two friends are watching a movie and freaking turns her phone off because she doesn't want to give Ry the possibility to explain.

"I'm so tired of all these girls throwing themselves at me, I just want to sit in a corner and write epic poetry in peace." said (and meant) no teenage boy ever Ry (he didn't quite put it like that, but that was the gist of it). 

The romance is boring and unbelievable. Ry's reasons for loving Isadora are flimsy at best and downright unbelievable at worst, and Isadora might be in lust with him, but she is far to ready to put him in the line of danger for me to buy her supposed love for him. 

Tyler and Scott, Isadora's friends, are far more likable and interesting than the main couple. I can't help but wish that the book had been about them, even though there isn't a drop of godly blood in either of them. 

So yeah, this book was a huge disappointment. My advice for you is to spend you time and money on some worthier novel.  

Rating: 

★

Review: Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

 

I'm pleased to say that this year's reading is off on a great start with the novella  
"Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman. 
I've read this book before, a couple of years ago. I liked it then, but I loved it this time around. I thinks it's partly because I read this in English this time, while I read the Italian translation, which, while good, paled in comparison to the original version, and partly because I have become a huge Norse mythology nerds in the meantime.
This time around, I knew all the myths and I was laughing at all the in-jokes way before they were explained to the reader. And it's great to see the figures I love so much represented so flawlessly. 
The main character is Odd, a Norse boy who was crippled in an accident. He doesn't fit in with the rest of his village and decides to run away from home. He comes across a fox, a bear and an eagle, who are actually Norse gods. They have been turned into animals by a Frost Giant, who has invaded Asgard. If they don't defeat him, Odd's land will be frozen in a perpetual winter, and many humans and animals will die. To prevent this, Odd chooses to help the gods reclaim Asgard.  
Odd is a great main character: he's clever, he's optimistic, he's curious, he's determined, he's brave. He doesn't let his handicap get in the way of what he has to do. Also, he's a hero who relies on his wit and isn't an hot-heated idiot who loves to get himself into trouble. 
The gods were hilarious. Being blocked into animal forms, they were pretty much helpless and so they were constantly bickering and behaving like children. Which could have turned out really annoying or really enjoyable. In this case, it's really enjoyable:  

"We weren't arguing," said the bear. "Because we can't talk." Then it said, "Oops." 

The fox and the eagle looked at the bear, who put a paw over his eyes and looked ashamed of itself. 

Odd sighed. "Which one of you wants to explain what's going on?" 

"Nothing's going on," said the fox brightly. "Just a few talking animals. Nothing to worry about. Happens every day. We'll be out of your hair first thing in the morning." 

The eagle fixed Odd with its one good eye. Then it turned to the fox. "Tell!" 

The fox shifted uncomfortably. "Why me?" 

"Oh," said the bear, "I don't know. Possibly because it's all your fault?"

Yeah, the gods aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed, but that is justified by Freya.  
Oh, yeah, let's talk about Freya, guys. Freya is awesome. She is smart and wise and gentle and witty and powerful and she stands up for herself. 
Also, she says one of the best sentences in the whole book. 

"He doesn't learn" said Odd. 

He though he had said it to himself, in his head, but Freya, who was sitting beside him, said, "No. He doesn't learn. None of them do. And they don't change, either. They can't. It's all part of being a God."

I just love this quote, because the hidden meaning is that humans have a huge advantage on gods because of our ability to adapt and to learn from our experiences and to change.
Also, on the note of how much I like Freya's character, it's interesting that she says "they" and not "us", implying that she has the potential to learn from her experience and change. 
Odd's mother is an interesting character, too, though we don't see much of her. What she went through must have been really hard, but she always remained strong and made the best of what she had. 
This novella is less dark than Gaiman's other works, but I can't say I mind, because the tone fits the story flawlessly.
The writing is fantastic, the characters are great, the humor is good, the story is entertaining and there are some interesting reflections and lessons in there, too.

Rating: 

★★★★★ 

Review: The Twilight Swimmer by A.C. Kavich

*I received a free e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion*

I really enjoyed this book. I have read so many paranormal romances, I didn't think one would be able to surprise me that much, but this one definitely did. 
I love how Kavich worked around the typical paranormal romance tropes, for example when the Swimmer watches Brandy at night and she finds out. She reacts like pretty much any human being would in that situation: she freaks out and she yells at him, even though he didn't know that something like that was socially unacceptable. 
Also, I loved the way their love story unfolds: it felt quite natural and there were some really sweet moments that didn't get too cheesy. 
I also enjoyed the way the love square was handled and resolved. I usually hate love squares - I mean, I can take love triangles, but love squares is just pushing it. This one didn't bother me because it wasn't presented as though three guys suddenly felt some great and tragic love for the same girl. The human boys just seemed to have the hots for her and were trying to get a date, which is a lot more realistic. The way it was resolved was also great, but I won't give anything more away on that front.  
There were some things I didn't like that much, though. First off, I would have liked the see a bit more of exploration on the mystery angle, so as to create a bit more tension on that side.
Then, I don't really like the way Brandy's mother was handled: she felt really one-dimensional, I would be interested in seeing some development on her and her relationship with her children.
Thirdly, Brandy's anorexia wasn't handled that well - or at all. Anorexia is an important issue and it's also important to handle it well. It's not resolved (or at least, it didn't feel like it was), it's never explored and Brandy does not suffer any consequences from it. If she really ate so little she should be physically very weak and unable to do the sort of stuff she keeps doing throughout the book.
That being said, the good aspects outweighed the bad and I definitely recommend it, especially if you're tired paranormal romance novels that are all basically the same. 

Rating:

★★★ 1/2

Source for the cover image: Goodreads

Review: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

"Eleanor & Park" is a brilliant novel. It's cleverly put together and gorgeously written.  
The characters are very well developed. One of Rowell's greatest talents lies in creating understandable characters: the motive of pretty much everyone in the story is something the reader can relate to. Of course there are some characters whose actions are inexcusable, like Eleanor's stepfather. 
The main character's dynamic was also very well done. It did the thing I care the most about in a romance: it felt real. I can imagine these people being together in real life: they had things in common and they connected on a platonic level before they started being attracted to each other. 
By all accounts, this should have been 5-star read. And for a while, it was. What made me drop the rating were the last few chapters. In order to give the reader closure the novel kept going for several pages after the story itself had ended. I feel that in that it fell short. The things that happen in those last pages are mostly things I didn't care to know. I would have wanted more information on Tina's motives and how the situation with Eleanor's stepfather and the rest of her family is resolved. We do know (spoiler) that they are gone, but we don't really know what happened: did Sabrina rebel and leave her husband? Where did they go? (end of spoiler)
In spite of that, "Eleanor & Park" is an awesome book and I definitely recommend it. Though, be warned: it's a lot less lighthearted than Rowell's second YA book "Fangirl", so keep a box of tissues at hand if you choose to read it. 

Rating:

★★★★ 1/2

Source: Goodreads

Review: Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Beware. There be spoilers. 
Alright. Let's review this train-wreck.
How is this possible? How can the woman who wrote such a good debut novel fail to deliver so spectacularly in this book? I thought that writers were supposed to get better through experience, not worse.
Apparently, Veronica Roth is the exception to that rule. If Divergent was awesome and Insurgent was pretty good, this book continued the downwards spiral and ended up being terrible.
The book is told from both Tris's and Four's point of views, a choice I don't really understand, since this has always been Tris's story, right from the start. I get why she had to do it, but I think she should have come up with a different way to patch up the holes that using only Tris as a narrator left in her story. 
Especially since she is clearly not able to give Tobias's voice the same charm that she gave Tris's. Mostly because he sounds exactly like her. 
The book was full of plot holes. The whole genetic experiment thing didn't make a whole lot of sense. Scientists should know better than pick a large number of people from different backgrounds, tamper with their genes and then just send them out into the world.  
Couldn't they have started with a bunch of volunteers and put them in a facility like Tris's Chicago and see what came out of it, instead? It would have made a tad bit more sense. 
And then to the ending. Which I hated, and not because I wanted an happy ending. I mean, I wanted an happy ending, but I can enjoy endings that don't go the way I want them to if they feel natural.
Tris's death didn't feel natural. It didn't feel like the story was supposed to have that result, like there just wasn't any other way. It felt like it had been constructed in order to give Tris the possibility to sacrifice herself. 
The ending was rushed, and the epilogue was just a way to tell us through exposition what a bunch of characters I don't really care about did after Tris's death. It didn't have any real purpose in the story, it didn't serve to establish the message. If anything, it made it more confusing - since we went from "we can't be defined by our genes" to "life sucks, but some moments don't".  
This novel was a huge disappointment. I was really excited for it and it was just a mess. You're better off not reading it. It felt convoluted and rushed and it didn't give me a sense of closure at all. 

Rating:

★

Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

The main problem I have with this book is that it drags and drags and drags for the first half, before there's any semblance of plot.

Clara goes to school, pines for Christian, mopes, finds out some more about angels. Rinse and repeat.

It's a shame, because the concept is really interesting and original. Though paranormal romances with angels are popular lately, I've never seen anything quite like this.  
I enjoy the fact that there are various ranks of angel-bloods and I like the idea of different shades of gray, that angels aren't either completely good or bad.
The fact that Clara isn't a damsel in distress and that she actually has powers is great and (sadly) original, more novels should do that kind of thing.
Tucker is a likable character and a cute love interest. He's nice to her and he's quite charming. That's another thing that should happen in more YA.   

I hate that I haven't liked this novel all that much. There's so much potential in there, but the execution is poor. Since there was little to no action in a good chunk of he book I wasn't motivated to keep reading. I had to force myself not to put this book down and I ended up only reading it every couple of days, which is why it took me so long to read it in the first place. 
A lot of pages were spent setting up the events for the climax, which is tricky to pull off. The first few Harry Potter novels did the same thing, but there it was actually handled well. Here, it just makes for a boring novel. 
I rated this book two and a half stars on five for its potential. It's a shame that it was so slow, I probably would have loved it otherwise. 

Rating:

★★ 1/2

Review: Renegade by J.A. Souders

I could see all of it coming from miles away. The so-called "big reveal" was pretty clear early into the book. 

I don't really see why Souders chose to make her villain into Hitler 2.0: only blond-haired, blue-eyed, pale and beautiful people are allowed in her utopia. I don't really see why she'd coincidentally choose that. Why not make it based upon intelligence? Or upon a good immune system? I can't help but think that it would have been more compelling that way.

That being said, I enjoyed this novel. The main character, Evelyn, was likable and it was great to see a female lead kick some ass, instead of being constantly saved by the hero.

Speaking of the hero, he was kind of bland, but at least he had all the minimum requirements to be a decent human being. Sadly, that's not something I see very often in YA literature.

Their love story developed in a way that felt quite natural and not insta-lovish. Which is always a plus. 

I'm glad I read it, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, which will come out this fall. 

Rating:

★★★

Review: Stupid Perfect World by Scott Westerfeld

Maybe it's the fact that the blurb slaps you in the face with the message, maybe it's that the female protagonist just  has to repeat it every couple of pages just in case you forget it, or that the "intense" things they experience are just plain unrealistic, but I was constantly torn between irritation and disbelief whilst comparing the massage that the perfect world the characters live in leads to a bland life and the actual things that happen in the novella. 
Teenage hormones rarely lead to most of what Maria does, like walking into a storm just to feel the rain on her skin, or going to the South Pole in a wet dress and with wet hair to see a boy.  
And I've never written bad poetry, or any kind of poetry for that matter, from scraps of conversations.  
And I don't think I've ever dreamt every night for a week just because I had a crush. 
Maybe I wasn't a typical sixteen-years-old, and if it's exactly the kind of thing you did at that age let me know, but to me this looks like a grossly inaccurate portrayal of adolescence.
The message and the just story don't fit. I still liked the book, though. 
The characters are interesting. Maria, who apparently takes all her information on how to act like a teenager from ridiculous period romance novels, was particularly fun to read.
Her relationship with Kieran was cute and its development felt natural, which is always nice and sadly scarce, especially in YA literature.
There were also a couple of moments that made me snort, like when Kieran calls Hamlet "psycho prince guy" and Maria is begrudgingly impressed by the fact that he read Hamlet in the first place. 
I needed to relax and read something fun, quick and a bit silly and this was the perfect read for that. It's not deep, or imaginative or exceptional in any way, but I'm glad I read it. 

Rating:  

★★★

Review: Fallen by Lauren Kate

When I first read Fallen, when I was young and naive, I enjoyed it. I realized that it was bad, but I found the story to be pretty engrossing and as long as I didn't think about it, I liked it. 
The other day I was tidying up my room and what do I find? My old, battered and vaguely sand-smelling copy of Fallen. 
So I thought: "Let's take a trip down memory lane! It'll be fun!"
Yeah, right. 
This book isn't just bad. It's terrible, horrible, a catastrophe, a waste of paper. 
Why did I hate it so much, you say?
The writing would be alright, if the author didn't have issuses with descriptions. Sometimes she comes up with pearls like:

The walls here were the color of a dusty blackboard

Please, Kate, I'm begging you. Just say they're black. Or grey. I'm not even sure what color she means with that expression!
The characterization is poor and the story moves with the speed of a lethargic sloth, honoring the paranormal romance tradition of running in circles for hundreds of pages and then cramming what little actual plot there is in the last ten percent of the novel.
And don't even get me started on the love story. When I first read it, I thought that the insta-love wasn't that bad because it was justified. 
I was wrong. I can't think of one single reason why this two people should be together. And if he really loved her, he'd do something to stop the cycle of reincarnation and horrible, painful death at a young age. I mean, seeing your  One True Love ^TM burn to death time after time may be heartbreaking, but it's nothing compared to what she feels every single time. And what about the people she leaves behind? He seems to have no regard whatsoever for them and their feelings. 
Too sum it up, Fallen sucks and I don't wish it on my worst enemy.

Rating

★