Book Wrap Up and Reviews for July
You guys! Once again I have dropped the ball on maintaining my blog and posting regularly, but that is because I have been reading like CRAZY! I wrapped up my internship two weeks ago (which I promise I will blog about later this week!) then I left for vacation on this past Thursday (which I will also post about soon) and like I said before, I have read a TON this month. Life is about to get really busy with school approaching insanely fast, so I'm afraid that I won't be able to read much in August. However, I managed to read 11 books this month! Overall, this month's books were fairly mediocre, but I pushed myself to read more in a single month then I think I ever have before! This brings my summer total to 21 books so far! Considering my previous best was 14, I am ecstatic about this! My goal is to read at least 9 books in the month of August so that I can bring my total up to 30 books this summer, which would be epic! So without anymore dilly-dallying, lets get to reviewing!
The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle
So with this book, it was not one of the books that I got when Hastings went out of business, I have gotten quite a few books from thriftbooks.com recently, because I cannot control myself when it comes to buying books, even though I have about 30 books on my shelf that I haven't read. I got this books because it was incredibly hyped on BookTube (which is YouTube channels for people who read and love books.) In this book, every October, the Morris family enters "The Accident Season" where they become incredibly prone to cuts, bruises, broken bones, and even death. The family doesn't really understand why these things happen to them and they have to do their best to survive until November 1st. I can't really say much more without spoiling the story and mystery of the book. I was kind of disappointed by this book honestly. It was a pretty slow read at first, it was kind of confusing at parts, and it involves a very strange romance between the main character and her ex-step brother. My copy of this book is an Advanced Reading Copy, which I didn't know that it was when I ordered it from thriftbooks. I don't know how different the final copy of this book is from the ARC but I was overall just weirded out by this book. Rating: 5/10
A Surrey State of Affairs by Ceri Radford
This book is not a Young Adult novel like the others I have read this month, so it was very different from my usual reads. This book revolves around a 53-year-old Englishwoman named Constance whose kids are growing up and moving out of the house and so she needs something to occupy her time with, so she starts a blog. The blog follows everyday struggles and wild adventures that Constance endures throughout her usually mundane life experience. I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I read it when I was older, however, reading it as a 20 year old, it just wasn't relatable. Also, many of the references to English (as in UK) culture flew over my head and so the read was more difficult than it should have been. Rating: 5/10
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Speak is another highly acclaimed book that I purchased off of thriftbooks and as you can see from the picture, my copy is not in the best condition, but that doesn't change the quality of the story inside. This book does have a trigger for rape, so if that is something that you can't handle, I wouldn't suggest this, however this story is super important. The main character is a girl named Melinda and she is starting high school tragically. The summer before she started high school, Melinda went to a big party and she was raped there. She called the police but was too afraid to say what happened so she just left and the party ended up getting busted, so the party-goers blamed the busted party on her. Melinda has to find her voice so that the whole school will no longer see her as a freak. The ending was unexpected but powerful and I really enjoyed this book! It was well written and the question/answer session with the author in the back of my copy is important for everyone to read as well. Rating: 9/10
Trouble by Non Pratt
Hannah is fifteen and pregnant and it seems like everyone is turning against her. That is everyone except Aaron, who is new to school and promises to stick by her side. This story has themes of loss, heartbreak, anger, and much more. This is another book that was set in the UK so some of it was hard to follow, but overall I enjoyed this book. I can't say a lot about this book because it will give away some of the key points that should surprise the reader throughout the story. The biggest problem I had with this book was the romance between Hannah and the baby's father, which I won't say who it is so I don't spoil it. I loved Aaron's character throughout the book and it was a very cute read. Rating: 8/10
Misfit by Jon Skovron
I don't know if you guys know this but I am not a huge fan of fantasy books. I like some magic/magical-mythical creatures and I don't know if you can really consider this book even fantasy, it is more of a paranormal book, but I enjoyed this book a ton! On Jael's 16th birthday she is given a necklace from her father that used to belong to her, now deceased, mother who, by the way, was a succubus. She learns that she is a half-demon who is being hunted by the Grand Dukes of Hell and must learn how to survive. I loved the concept of this book and enjoyed reading about demons, since I haven't read much about them before. I believe that the only problem I had with this book was how unrealistic it was. I know that it is fiction, but the whole process of Jael developing powers was unrealistic for me. She learns that she has demon powers and then two days later she has to fight some of the Grand Dukes of Hell and kicks their butts, which just doesn't seem possible. Besides that, this book was probably one of my favorite reads of the month! Rating: 8/10
Loser/Queen by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Cammy is a loser quite frankly and she wants that to change. One day she begins receiving text messages from someone only known to her as White Rabbit. Her life turns around when she begins doing the things that the White Rabbit tells her to do and she suddenly becomes popular. This was a pretty cute coming-of-age contemporary story as it reveals the truth about what comes with popularity and about being true to yourself. I don't remember if I had any problems with this story but I just didn't connect with/like the main character very much. Rating: 6/10
Rumble by Ellen Hopkins
In the case of this book, I own almost all of Ellen Hopkins books. I read the majority of them in junior high/high school when I think the topics were honestly a little too heavy for me to be reading at the time. I don't usually reread books because I have SO MANY other books that I want to read that I haven't read before, but I think it would benefit me to reread Ellen Hopkins books now that I understand the topics better. If you don't know, Ellen Hopkins books are written in verse and delve into pretty heavy topics such as substance abuse, physical and sexual abuse, self-deprecation, and more tough topics. I came to the realization that I didn't have all of the books that Ellen has put out and I had a BAM! gift card so I got this one with that. In this book, Matt can't help but think that his younger brother's suicide was partly his fault and it is ruining his life. Matt's family is in shambles, his girlfriend (who is the only person keeping him together) is becoming distant, and expectations for him are incredibly high. Throughout the book, Matt is just trying to figure out how to get through life without feeling more guilty about his brother's death, when he uncovers some dark secrets about his brother's death. This book was dark, real, and kind of vulgar, but it was a great read. Rating: 7/10
Amplified by Tara Kelly
Jasmine has just graduated high school and has been kicked out of her house for deferring acceptance into college. She has to figure out a plan to get on her feet and she just wants to focus on making music. Through lies and manipulation, Jasmine gets into a band and gets to stay at the house with her band mates, but at their first performance, the band members find out that Jasmine lied to them and has never played for an audience before. She has to gain their trust back in order to keep her life on track. I liked this book for how hard reality hits Jasmine but I thought that it was kind of unrealistic about how she got into the band, because the first day that she is kicked out of her house she goes to look for apartments and sees the add for the band, auditions that same day, and then the next day they decide that she is in the band. It just seemed to happen too quickly. Overall I liked this book and am planning on reading the sequel. Rating: 8/10
Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
This book really surprised me. I'm not really certain if this is YA or not and this book is tiny. It only has 116 pages but holy cow did this author get a good story packed into this book. Green, the main character, has a knack for gardening but that is about the only thing she has going for her. One day, her family goes into town without her and the city is attacked with fire. Green cannot accept the loss of her family and becomes a completely different version of herself. If I say much more about this book it won't be as special, since it is so short. I loved how Green deals with the loss of her family and it was raw and beautiful and I read through this super quick. Rating: 9/10
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
I am honestly conflicted on how to feel about this book. I made a big no-no and watched the movie before I read the book because frankly I did not know that there was a series of books that the movie was based on when I saw it. I really really liked the movie. After the movie, I learned that they switched some of the powers of the characters from the book. So I was really glad going into the book that I knew that some of the characters were altered from how the movie depicted them. In this book, Jacob's grandfather has always told him stories of great adventures and bizarre people. As Jacob got older her stopped believing these stories, until his grandfather is killed by a creature out of Jacob's nightmares. On Jacob's birthday he receives a book that his grandfather had left for him and it has some clues toward his past. Jacob makes it his mission to find out more about his grandfather's adventures and discovers that the stories were true all along. The beginning of this book was very slow and then when it got into the adventure part, I found that I didn't enjoy the adventuring as much as I did in the movie. I also quickly realized that the movie was a combination of all three of the books so it definitely spoiled me for a lot of the information. I did not like the romance between Jacob and Emma because Emma was previously in love with Jacob's grandfather. I will definitely continue the series to see how it turns out, but I am skeptical. Overall, I enjoyed the read and am excited to continue on. Rating: 8/10
It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
This is another hyped book that I got off of thriftbooks because of BookTube. My copy that I purchased from thriftbooks is honestly in terrible condition, so I might repurchase a nicer copy. This book is about a 15-year-old boy named Craig who worked his butt off during his last year of junior high to get into Executive Pre-Professional which is a special, advanced high school. He gets accepted but after that his life starts to go downhill. He wants to be with his best friend's girlfriend, he can't keep up with his schoolwork, and he just feels like he doesn't want to continue on anymore. After Craig decides to try to kill himself, he ends up in a psychiatric hospital for 5 days and he has an epiphany on life. Though I do not suffer from depression, I think the author (who does suffer from depression and was also in a psychiatric hospital for 5 days) handles the topic very well and does an excellent job at describing depression. I had a hard time following the main character at points and the relationships that he had with other people was hard to understand at times. I did not like Nia's character at all. A lot of people see this book as extremely problematic yet I didn't have too many problems with it. I did not get the hype for this book though and didn't think it was as good as it was claimed to be. Rating: 6/10
Pages read this month: 3,512
~Em
