Book Review: Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck

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What I liked:

• I liked the adventure part of the book. The places were great as was the pacing of the narrative;
• I loved the mythology in the book. I thought it was very interesting how the book mixed reality and fantasy, and how the mythological aspect seemed to link both of these aspects;
• I liked how the book moved forward, not pausing to talk about the past too much. Everything we needed to know about the characters' past was explaining through dialogue and recollection. But it was very bried and it didn't take much space. The story was there to give us the perspective we needed to understand the story not to relive it. 

What I didn't like:

• No, Romeo and Juliet is not a love story. Romeo is not a good example of a romantic interest. No one will make me change my mind when it comes to him: I am absolutely sure that, even he hadn't died, he would have found another woman to be 'in love' with in the very next day. Romeo and Juliet were not in love, they were in lust. It is completely different. Stop using Shakespeare to make everything seem more fantastical or romantic when it is not;
• Some dialogues, especially in the beginning, were pretty terrible and rushed;
• The main character didn't freak out nearly enough in my opinion. She accepted everything too easily;
• The whole 'I'm not like the other girls and I am not as pretty as you say I am therefore we cannot be together because you will change your mind and hurt me' trope. I absolutely loathe it.  Don't. Just don't. Girls are much more than their looks. This makes it seem like it is the only thing that matters;
• Is it only me or there were too Rens in this story? One kind, intelligent, concerned about people, and the other egotistical, stupid, and pushy? It was like: one was there, then he turns tiger, then the other shows up, then he turns tiger.... and so on. 

I liked the story and I want to know what will happen to the brothers and how their curse will be broken. I'm just not sure if I want to read the other books to find out. 

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Book Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

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2014 Book Genre Challenge

Insurgent picks up from where Divergent ends. 
What I liked:
• The pacing of the book was good, it didn't slow down for a second;
• Some plot twists were really good, and I really did not see some things coming;
• I like Tris as a character: she is annoying, reckless, and sometimes, she is really stupid. She talks about cunning and wants to give moral lessons to others when she herself does not do what she says. She also wants to play the hero every time. I don't see it as her fault. It is part of her divergent personality. I listed a lot of bad things, but she has great characteristics: she thinks a lot about the others and about what she thinks is right, she is willing to die for others, she is loyal, capable of immense love and forgiveness. Those things only show she is a very well developed character. She has her flaws, which makes her a very strong -judging by character development and how she is constructed - character;
• I liked the cliffhanger a lot. I like how the author stopped at a important and crucial point of the story. It makes the reader crazy to read the other book;
• The general story was really good.

What I didn't like:
• Tris and Four's relationship. It felt forced and weird at times;
• I didn't like how Tris kept commenting on other women's appearances. This is something I did not like in Divergent and I didn't like here as well, mainly because it is completely unnecessary and it doesn't feel like something the character would do, in my opinion;
• People miraculously survive certain situations only to create an angst-y mood;
• The secondary characters. Most of the times I did not know who was who because they don't have any distinguishable characteristics;
• The world building was really week in the first book and now we get a glimpse of the truth. And I sure hope it is not what I'm thinking of. 

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Book Review: The Maze Runner by james Dashner

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2014 Book Genre Challenge

Thomas wakes up on a lift with no memory of who he is and how he got there. When the lift opens, he finds himself in the Glade, a mysterious place with no way out and with a maze to explore. Not long after he gets there, a girl, the only girl to ever appear in the Glade, arrives with shocking news. Thomas and the others need to find a way out of there and fast. Before it is too late.
I was very excited to read this book: I had heard so many good things about it. I believe I got into it wanting too much, that's why I was disappointed. 
I really liked the world. I liked the mystery that surrounded the Glade and the Maze and everything else there. I was sucked into the story and wanted to know all the answers to my questions and learn more about the characters and the world the author created. However, most of the time everything just felt... flat. I was expecting a lot more from it, especially from the Maze. In my opinion, it was way underused. The name of the book is 'The Maze Runner', but I saw too little maze running. Yes, Thomas had his moments in the Maze, but they were very few. In the end, the Maze wasn't all that. The mystery in the beginning made me expect a lot more from it. 
The characters felt too much alike for me. Thomas was a normal character following the ever-present trope of a guy who gets somewhere and then suddenly everything changes. He has all the answers, he is able to solve all the mysteries and problems. Something the other boys were trying to do for a long time and failing. 
Let me explain this, I wouldn't have problems with that if I liked the way the situation was handled. But I didn't. Thomas did mostly everything the others had done before him, but, of course, he was successful whereas they failed. And, of course, he was different.
My problem is not only with the characters, but as well when it comes to how we go to know everything. We didn't have enough clues to understand the situation by ourselves. We didn't solve the mystery along with the characters or had any chance of understanding what was going on before it was explained. Everything was given to us rather abruptly.
I liked the story, the world, but I didn't like how the story was handled. Too many of the plots and devices in the book were underused. The Maze could have been better explored and we should have had the opportunity of trying to solve the problem along with the characters. That said, I am still looking forward to the other book. 

Rating: 3/5 stars

Book Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

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2014 Book Genre Challenge. This review contains SPOILERS. Amy is frozen for hundreds of years, together with her mother and father, to participate in a space mission. However, she is unplugged before the time is due. Now she has to survive on a spaceship, with people she has never seen and who are very different from the humanity she is used to. She meets Elder, who is training with Eldest to be the next leader of the ship. In the meantime, strange things start to happen. Let me tell you, Amy is very brave. Imagine being used to everything we have here and have it taken away from you. And I'm not talking about internet or things like that. I'm talking about free space and nature, every beautiful natural thing we have. Now imagine living inside a spaceship, knowing that, no matter how far you run, there is no way out. You are still stuck inside a metal box travelling through space. I think I would go mad if it happened to me. I would like to have had more answers about the project and why they were moving to this other planet. We have some information, but nothing really concrete. I would like to have more answers about it, about how was Earth when she left and so on. I liked how people, even if different, were kind of the same. Yes, most workers were like cattle, no individual thought or opinions, no emotions or wishes. But still thinking differences were the main cause of disorder, still not knowing how to deal with difference and accept difference. I liked how the book showed we can turn History to our own purposes. We can take something that happen and make people believe it happened differently. Like how Elder and Eldest believed Hitler was a good and fair leader to his people. I liked the POV change, how it always switched between Amy and Elder. It gave us a wider perspective and also gave us two different points of view: one that is more similar to ours (Amy), and one totally different, to show us the cultural differences between us and the people in the ship (Elder). There are two main things that I really didn't like: I was not surprised in the slightest when it comes to whom was unplugging the people and who had unplugged her. It was no surprise for me. It annoyed me how long it took them to realize and all the misleading clues the author tried to put into the book. No, it couldn't have been anyone else. However, the thing that annoyed me most, was the Luthe thing. C'mon! What was that for? Nothing, and I mean NOTHING was done about it. He was forgotten. She had a small crisis and then it passed. No. Just no. No, it wasn't the Season. He was not affected by the season. It annoyed me to no end that it was simply forgotten, as if nothing had happened, or that it had meant nothing. I wanted a better closure for this scene. And I wanted to see its purpose to the story. It led to no character development, and it played no big role in the story. Overall, it was a very interesting read, very compelling, it left me wondering what will happen next. Rating: 4/5 stars

Book Review: Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

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I read this book for the 2014 Book Genre Challenge!

What to say about this book? I feel like if I had read this book before reading 'The Mortal Instruments' I would like it better than I do now (and if I read TMI later, I would prefer 'The Infernal Devices').

I liked the overall story, I thought the whole setting was fascinating, the whole steampunk vibe to it is great, I like the period (which was not very well explored in the book), and the whole mystery around what Tessa really is. It is a fascinating tale, set in a fascinating universe. I love the Shadowhunting world, the Nephilim, the vampires and warlocks, the whole thing.

However, this story did not manage to hold my attention for too long. I guess it was because it kept reminding me of The Mortal Instruments.

Tessa. I liked her at first, but then I didn't. Her blind devotion to her brother was annoying, she had only one thought in her mind: rescue her brother. It didn't matter things were far more serious and important than she thought they were, she wanted her brother. Other people were being selfish by 'getting in the way' of her finding her brother.

Will Herondale. Will Herondale is Jace Herondale. Jace Herondale is Will Herondale. Again, if I had read this book before TMI I could like Will. But I didn't. Not only he is exactly like Jace is, he is also a very selfish character who says the most hurtful things to people only because he himself doesn't want to be hurt. He is reckless, letting the people who love him worried, he jumps head first into danger, and sometimes (most of the times) treats people really badly. His only redeeming feature, in my opinion, is how he cares for Jem.

Jem. I liked Jem. He was cute, calm, and he cared about others. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but feel he was only there to give Will someone to care about (other than Tessa) and to be part of the forever present love triangle.

And, as usual, I really liked Magnus Bane. He is a great and sparkly character.

I don't know if I will read the other books. I got curious to know Tessa's background story and how it will come into play in the second book. Also, I want to know what will happen to Jem (even though I know what will happen by the end of the books and SPOILERS his role in The Mortal Instruments series SPOILERS).

Rating: 3/5

Book Review: The Diviners by Libba Bray

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I read this book for the 2014 Book Genre Challenge!

I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I liked the narrative, the writing style, the characters, the setting, and the overall story.

What I didn't like:

The hint at love triangle. I think love triangles are completely unnecessary and are getting cliché nowadays. Almost every single YA book has a love triangle. I want to see how the Mabel situation will be solved in the next book.

What I liked:

I loved the way the book was written, I really liked the prose, the description, how we get to know things. I liked how things were explained to us, how the narrative made certain aspects of the book feel so real and how the suspense was kept throughout the book.

I liked the characters, they were well develop, all of them with their special stories and mysteries surrounding them, how some of them were explained, and how some were carefully not explained so we were left wanting and waiting for answers.

Overall, a great read!

Rating: 5/5

Book Review: The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket

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This will be more of a collection of quotes I liked than a proper review. 
I love 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'. All the books follow more or less the same pattern and they are very easy and quick to read. These characteristics do not make the books less enjoyable. It is so nice to re-read books from your childhood and notice all the little things I didn't notice the first time or was too young to understand. 
I've always had a particular liking for this one, I don't exactly know why. I believe it might be because of the small murder mystery it presents and its lovely twist. 
Here are some quotes that I really enjoyed:
• "Their adventure would be exciting and memorable like being chased by a werewolf through a field of thorny bushes at midnight with nobody around to help you."
• You can see at once why keeping things in perspective rarely works very well, because it is hard to concentrate on somebody being eaten by a bear when you are staring at your own ugly pimple."
• If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats."
• "Stealing, of course, is a crime, and a very impolite thing to do. But like most impolite things, it is excusable under certain circumstances. Stealing is not excusable if, for instance, you are in a museum and you decide that a certain painting would look better in your house, and you simply grab the painting and take it there. But if you were very, very hungry, and you had no way of obtaining money, it might be excusable to grab the painting, take it to your house, and eat it."

Rating: 4/5