Review: Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill

Read: Aug. 15-Sept. 11, 2017
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Format: hardcover, 406 pages
Publication: May 2015 by Quercus
Genres: dystopia, sci-fi
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl. In Louise O'Neill's world of Only Every Yours women are no longer born naturally, girls (called "eves") are raised in Schools and trained in the arts of pleasing men until they come of age. Freida and Isabel are best friends. Now, aged sixteen and in their final year, they expect to be selected as companions--wives to powerful men. All they have to do is ensure they stay in the top ten beautiful girls in their year. The alternatives--life as a concubine, or a chastity (teaching endless generations of girls)--are too horrible to contemplate.

But as the intensity of final year takes hold, the pressure to be perfect mounts. Isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty--her only asset--in peril. And then into this sealed female environment, the boys arrive, eager to choose a bride. Freida must fight for her future--even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known."

I gotta say, the blurb at the back of the book really interested me.....but the actual reading of the book.....not so exciting. This was one of those books for me.....where nothing was particularly wrong, but nothing was exciting enough to really keep my attention.

Review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Wow...can we all just point at me and sigh (or mock and laugh at me derisively) because my reviews are so behind?  Like...months behind?  Heart of Darkness....I read this last year!  

 

Actually, scratch that...my reviews aren't behind.  Well, they are...but the only reason why they're behind is because I've been procrastinating on the other posts?  And I like to alternate them?  The posts just take so much time....ugh.  Well, summer is here!  I've got time!  Plenty of time!

Review: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Read: November 8-17, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Format: hardcover, 172 pages

Publication: June 1996 by Scribner Classics

Genres: classics, historical, romance

Blurb from Goodreads:

"The story of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when, The New York Times remarked, "gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession," it is an exquisitely crafted tale America in the 1920s that resonates with the power of myth. A novel of lyrical beauty yet brutal realism, of magic, romance, and mysticism, The Great Gatsby is one of the great classics of twentieth century literature."

I had....super duper high hopes for this one.....and maybe that's why my rating is so low. I had friends who never read books read it, and tell me that it's a beautiful book. And the romance in this book was lovely. I. Got. None. Of. That.

Two Really Short Reviews

Peoples, I have here, two very short reviews.  Why am I choosing to combine two reviews, you ask?

Because they are very short.  That's why.  Don't think too much of it.

This first one was a classic, and kinda short....not that interesting...so...short review.  The next one....I really only thouroughly read a few pages of, so...also, short review.

Let's begin.

Review: Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

Read: October 31-November 1, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Format: Paperback, 154 pages
Publication: May 2011 by University of Wisconsin Press
Genres: tragedy, classic, play, poetry

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Oedipus Rex is the greatest of the Greek tragedies, a profound meditation on the human condition. The story of the mythological king, who is doomed to kill his father and marry his mother, has resonated in world culture for almost 2,500 years. But Sophocles’ drama as originally performed was much more than a great story—it was a superb poetic script and exciting theatrical experience. The actors spoke in pulsing rhythms with hypnotic forward momentum, making it hard for audiences to look away. Interspersed among the verbal rants and duels were energetic songs performed by the chorus."

Guys! This is the first classic novel...wait, no...this isn't quite a novel....it's a play!  I've given 4 stars to!

Celebrate with me!

I finally found a classic novel....that I appreciated!

Review: Equus by Peter Shaffer

Read: October 24-29, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Format: paperback, 106 pages
Publication: October 1984 by Penguin Books
Genres: play, classics

Blurb from Goodreads:

"An explosive play that took critics and audiences by storm, Equus is Peter Shaffer's exploration of the way modern society has destroyed our ability to feel passion. Alan Strang is a disturbed youth whose dangerous obsession with horses leads him to commit an unspeakable act of violence. As psychiatrist Martin Dysart struggles to understand the motivation for Alan's brutality, he is increasingly drawn into Alan's web and eventually forced to question his own sanity. Equus is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of contemporary drama that delves into the darkest recesses of human existence."

Hm.

This is actually the first play I've read....that isn't Shakespeare. And....surprisingly, it went pretty smoothly.

Review: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

Read: Sept. 23-Oct. 13, 2016
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
Publication: December 1992 by Everyman's Library
Genres: Classic, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.

Aside from its unusually frank treatment of a then-controversial subject, the novel is widely admired today for its literary qualities. Edmund Wilson characterized it as a work "quite uninhibited and beautifully written, which anticipates D. H. Lawrence in its treatment of infidelity." Although the theme of marital infidelity no longer shocks, few novels have plumbed the psychology of a woman involved in an illicit relationship with the perception, artistry, and honesty that Kate Chopin brought to The Awakening."

Review: The Truth About Alice by Jennifer Mathieu

Read: Aug. 23-28, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Format: paperback, 224 pages
Publisher: Square Fish, June 2015
Genres: contemporary, realistic fiction, romance

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Everyone knows Alice slept with two guys at one party. When Healy High star quarterback Brandon Fitzsimmons dies in a car crash, it was because he was sexting with Alice. Ask anybody.

Rumor has it Alice Franklin is a slut. It's written all over the "slut stall" in the girls' bathroom: "Alice had sex in exchange for math test answers" and "Alice got an abortion last semester." After Brandon dies, the rumors start to spiral out of control. In this remarkable debut novel, four Healy High students tell all they "know" about Alice-and in doing so reveal their own secrets and motivations, painting a raw look at the realities of teen life. But in this novel from Jennifer Mathieu, exactly what is the truth about Alice? In the end there's only one person to ask: Alice herself."

Hmm.

Review: Fifteen Lanes by S.J. Laidlaw

Read: Aug. 6-15, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Format: hardcover, 304 pages
Publisher: Tundra Books, April 2016
Genres: realistic fiction, cultural (India)

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Noor has lived all of her fourteen years in the fifteen lanes of Mumbai’s red light district. Born into a brothel, she is destined for the same fate as her mother: a desperate life trapped in the city’s sex trade. She must act soon to have any chance of escaping this grim future.
Across the sprawling city, fifteen-year-old Grace enjoys a life of privilege. Her father, the CEO of one of India’s largest international banks, has brought his family to Mumbai where they live in unparalleled luxury. But Grace’s seemingly perfect life is shattered when she becomes a victim of a cruel online attack.
When their paths intersect, Noor and Grace will be changed forever. Can two girls living in vastly different worlds find a common path?Award-winning author S.J. Laidlaw masterfully weaves together their stories in a way that resonates across class and culture.Fifteen Lanes boldly explores the ties that bind us to places and people, and shows us that the strongest of bonds can be forged when hope is all but lost."

Review: Perfect: The Call by Scarlet D'Vore

Read: June 30-July 14, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 248
Genres: fantasy

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Lauren, Riley and Apple are outcasts in their high school in Grand Blanc, Michigan when Victoria, a unique species known as ‘Perfects’, enters the human realm and befriends them with her enticing gifts of being superhuman. The three are blown away by the possibilities and are unable to ignore the addictive beauty of Victoria’s colourful realm. 
They sacrifice their old existence and accept her traumatic touch in order to become Hybrid Perfects. Yet soon after their reality is transformed by the unexplainable, not even travelling across the globe through doorway portals is worth the consequences from the white lies told, stealing innocent people’s free will, or the act of cold-blooded murder. Can Lauren, Riley and Apple endure the dark brutality of their new world long enough to take back what they were willing to forfeit just to be superhuman? Can earth survive the Perfect invasion?"

I won this book through Library Thing, and I admit, it took me forever to finish reading it, oh well. I finished it, and that's what matters, right? Right. Okay, good.

Review: Liars, Inc. by Paula Stokes

Read: May 5-13, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 362
Genres: realistic fiction, mystery, romance, thriller, contemporary

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Max Cantrell has never been a big fan of the truth, so when the opportunity arises to sell forged permission slips and cover stories to his classmates, it sounds like a good way to make a little money and liven up a boring senior year. With the help of his friends Preston and Parvati, Max starts Liars, Inc. Suddenly everybody needs something and the cash starts pouring in. Who knew lying could be so lucrative?

When Preston wants his own cover story to go visit a girl he met online, Max doesn’t think twice about hooking him up. Until Preston never comes home. Then the evidence starts to pile up—terrifying clues that lead the cops to Preston’s body. Terrifying clues that point to Max as the murderer.Can Max find the real killer before he goes to prison for a crime he didn’t commit? In a story that Kirkus Reviews called "Captivating to the very end," Paula Stokes starts with one single white lie and weaves a twisted tale that will have readers guessing until the explosive final chapters."

The blurb is what initially attracted me to this book. The idea of selling lies as a business venture? Cool!

And then you sell a lie to a friend to go meet this girl online...and he goes missing?
Uh oh!

Review: Disappearing Moon Cafe: A Novel by Sky Lee

Read: March 8-19, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 288
Genres: Canada, historical fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Sometimes funny, sometimes scandalous, always compelling, this extraordinary first novel chronicles the women of the Wong family from frontier railroad camps to modern-day Vancouver. As past sins and inborn strengths are passed on from mother to daughter to granddaughter, each generation confronts, in its own way, the same problems — isolation, racism, and the clash of cultures. Moving effortlessly between past and present, between North America and China, Sky Lee weaves fiction and historical fact into a memorable and moving picture of a people’s struggle for identity."

Ah.  English novels.  What fun.

This was an interesting kind of book.  Although...I can't say for sure if it was the good kind or the bad.  Anyhoo.

This book was set in Vancouver* and written in chunks...or, unchronologically.  And this just made reading the book plain weird.  Or, confusing.

*yes, my English teacher has this strange obsession with Canadian literature...

Review: Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo

Read: March 26-April 2, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 272
Genres: Realistic fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie's picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways."

Review: Epic Game by William Kowalski

 

Read: March 24-26, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 144
Genres: realistic fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Kat is a tough, independent woman who makes her living as a professional poker player. She is single, childless and happy about it. But when her best friend, Josie, commits suicide, she names Kat as the temporary guardian of her ten-year-old son, David, until his father can come for him. In the few weeks that David is with her, Kat finds herself changed in ways she had never thought imaginable. With the old poker adage "bet with your head, not your heart" ringing in her head like a warning bell, Kat nevertheless finds that all the money and success in the world don't mean a thing unless you have someone to share it with...and that maybe there is more to life than winning after all."


This...was surprisingly good.

Review: Seven Ways We Lie by Riey Redgate

Read: Jan. 13-March 24, 2016
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Pages: 352
Genres: contemporary, realistic fiction

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—whether it’s Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage; or Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.

When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change."

Confession: I procrastinated the reading of this book. BAD.

Review: The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith

Read: Feb.19-26, 2016
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 384
Genres: contemporary, realistic fiction (abuse)

Blurb from Goodreads:

"Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes.

What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

Told in four parts—freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior year."

Review: Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese

Read: Dec. 7-17, 2015
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
Pages: 221
Genres: historical, Canada

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with all its joys and sorrows.

With compassion and insight, author Richard Wagamese traces through his fictional characters the decline of a culture and a cultural way. For Saul, taken forcibly from the land and his family when he’s sent to residential school, salvation comes for a while through his incredible gifts as a hockey player. But in the harsh realities of 1960s Canada, he battles obdurate racism and the spirit-destroying effects of cultural alienation and displacement.

Indian Horse unfolds against the bleak loveliness of northern Ontario, all rock, marsh, bog and cedar. Wagamese writes with a spare beauty, penetrating the heart of a remarkable Ojibway man. Drawing on his great-grandfather’s mystical gift of vision, Saul Indian Horse comes to recognize the influence of everyday magic on his own life. In this wise and moving novel, Richard Wagamese shares that gift of magic with readers as well."

Review: House Arrest by K.A. Holt

Read: Nov. 24-30, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 304
Genres: Realistic fiction, poetry, health, family

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Stealing is bad.
Yeah.
I know.
But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive.

I didn’t think anyone would notice,
if I took that credit card,
if, in one stolen second,
I bought Levi’s medicine.

But someone did notice.
Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead.

That one quick second turned into
juvie
a judge
a year of house arrest,
a year of this court-ordered journal,
a year to avoid messing up
and being sent back to juvie
so fast my head will spin.

It’s only 1 year.
Only 52 weeks.
Only 365 days.
Only 8,760 hours.
Only 525,600 minutes.

What could go wrong?"

Review: Attachments Rainbow Rowell

Read: Oct. 27-Nov. 2, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pages: 323
Genres: Romance, contemporary

Synopsis from Goodreads:

""Hi, I'm the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you ..."

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It's company policy.) But they can't quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O'Neill can't believe this is his job now- reading other people's e-mail. When he applied to be "internet security officer," he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth's and Jennifer's messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can't help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he's falling for Beth, it's way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ? "

Review: The Glass Arrow by Kristen Simmons

Read: Oct. 22-27, 2015
Rating: 2 of 5 stars
Pages: 336
Genres: Dystopia, romance

Synopsis from Goodreads:

"The Handmaid’s Tale meets Blood Red Road in Glass Arrow, the story of Aya, who lives with a small group of women on the run from the men who hunt them, men who want to auction off breeding rights to the highest bidder.

In a world where females are scarce and are hunted, then bought and sold at market for their breeding rights, 15-year old Aya has learned how to hide. With a ragtag bunch of other women and girls, she has successfully avoided capture and eked out a nomadic but free existence in the mountains. But when Aya’s luck runs out and she’s caught by a group of businessmen on a hunting expedition, fighting to survive takes on a whole new meaning."