Category: Books

Read With Me // 5th November

3pm 5th November

Initial thoughts on this book are what the fuck was I thinking?! It’s huge. How am I supposed to carry this mammoth book around with me?

For anyone reading this that doesn’t know, Illumine is a book that’s essentially a story told in documents. So when you’re reading it, you’re reading hacked files that feature top secret documents, interviews and emails. & there isn’t actually any traditional dialogue or following of the main character in their head if that makes sense?

I’ve started reading and managed to get to page 26 before passing out because I was super tired last night but so far I love it! It’s original but I feel like it reminds me of S by Doug Durst & JJ Abrams. Except for the production value of S seem’s so much better because the pages are printed in colour with any notes made in different colours ink so you can tell who’s talking. In Illuminae you can see from the way the documents are shaded there is meant to be the illusion of colour but it just makes me really aware that it’s reprinted black and white so takes away from the experience just a smidge.

It does give you blueprints and maps which really helps add to the visualisation of the world as like I said, there’s no descriptive passages or world-building outside of the documents!

So it’s like, 4 days later!! It turned out to be a busy week and I still havent got past page 26. Does this happen to anyone else? You finally get a week of quiet that you can really get into your books and boom, family end up sick, you need to work and then general chores just take priority?

I think, I’m going to have to just leave this and post a review if I ever actually manage to finish the book!
In the mean time though, has anyone reading this read it already? I mean that’s a stupid question, everyone in the world has probably read it by now? It’s been out for a while and the hype around this series is immense!
So, how did you like it? Does it get easier to get into the way the story is told? Does it get easier to carry around on the train? These are the questions I need answers to!

 

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Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart // Review & Discussion

If anything, Genuine Fraud is unique. It moves backwards in time so at the start, we’re reading what would be the end? And work towards what would be the start but is actually the end. Confused yet? Don’t worry, I’ll explain why I loved and hated this.

We follow Jule, a social butterfly (kinda) and Imogen a rich girl running away from her problems & parents. We get two perspectives into their friendship, the one Jule perceived and the one Imogen actually experienced.
Both different, both a bit confusing if I’m totally honest. As we move through the book it becomes more and more obvious what’s happening, but I was still invested and managed to read this in 3 days.

Genuine Fraud is branded as a mystery/ thriller but I don’t think I’d really use those words to describe it? It’s really interesting and I was hooked from the get-go but once I reached the midpoint I was pretty sure what was happening and the suspense died a bit.

The end (actually the start) was a bit of a let down for me, I was underwhelmed and disappointed that everything happened because Jule needed rent. I was annoyed because the entire plot is written like there is a bigger purpose to Jule’s story, but if there was I failed to miss it.

The last thing I really have to say about it is that I loved the layout, and I liked the back in time thing we had going on, but I paid no attention to the time-stamp at the top of each chapter. So if you’re like me & skip on details, maybe try and pay a tad more attention to the chapter heads of this one!

I’m super interested to see if you have read this book if you want to read it & what you thought!

If you wan to purchase Genuine Fraud you can here!

October Book Haul

I don’t know what got into me this month, but I was like lets buy some books. & it started off with me just downloading one book onto my Kindle. Which was Warcross by Marie Lu and I loved it! So once I had finished that, I was on a YA kick. More specifically a Marie Lu kick! I downloaded Legend, read it in like 2 days then downloaded Prodigy which I’m currently reading.

Prodigy is a bit slower for me than Legend for some reason. I have read half of Prodigy before and just never really got into it. This time I’m a bit more invested in the characters and I’m following the plot a bit better so I’m making more progress but it’s still slow. I keep thinking I’ve read over half of it but then look at the percentage I’ve read and it’s only 28%.

Since I had bought all Kindle books, I went to Dymocks and decided to pick up Illuminae by Jay Kristoff & Amie Kaufman. Which is fucking HUGE. But I’m excited to read it because I completely missed all the hype around it last year. Along with Illuminae I bought Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart. I read We Were Liars by Lockhart a good few years ago but I remember loving it so much I recommended it to everyone that would listen. So I’ve been eyeing it up for a while and decided to finally buy it!

Because I bought Illuminae and Genuine Fraud before I’m finished Prodigy I really, really just want to start one of them! But because this happened with Prodigy before I’m trying to push through and just get past the boring formalities that come along with the second book in a trilogy. Especially dystopian series, you know that world building part where we see how the dystopia came to be? But in an unusually drawn out way? Yeah. You know what I mean.

Annnnyway! They’re they books I purchased in October! & the ones I’m planning on reading into the start of November! I had wanted to focus on some Halloween inspired reads but I got distracted by Marie Lu and her amazing worlds. & Dymocks and their amazing sales.

What will you be reading to finish off October?

Warcross, Marie Lu // Review & Spoilers

I’m not one for doing plot recaps and book introductions, so if you don’t know what Warcross is about, here’s the brief rundown.
Set in the future, a virtual reality ‘game’ has taken over the world and is so popular it’s essentially a way of life. The creator Hideo is a billionaire and enlists the help of Emika, a young hacker/ bounty hunter to help him find a hacker that’s glitching out the VR world of Warcross and trying to sabotage the final games.

The hackers online name is Zero & that’s what we’ll call them for now! Zero is elusive; from the very start we are lead to question everyone that Emika meets because she’s suspicious at everyone. Until she narrows it down a bit and eliminates some options I was convinced it was the wrong person. Which was great because it kept me guessing and I didn’t get bored! (I’ll talk more about the people later)

The world that Lu created was AMAZING to me because it’s just scary that that’s where we are heading! When I stop and think of all the companies fighting to bring out the next big move in virtual reality, how long will it take for us to actually live in a virtual world?Where we sit at home and can work in a virtual office with virtual people from all over the world? It kinda fascinates me & Warcross just captured the world perfectly.

Hideo the billionaire, he’s strange. This is where the spoilers kick in guys so if you don’t want to be ruined. Turn away!
He’s strange because he’s build up to be this restrained but lovely person. Like you can tell he has issues and it’s almost like..  So, you know when you find out a villain had a redeeming quality? It’s that but in reverse! You find out that Hideo’s brother disappeared while they played together one day & he takes it hard (obviously, I mean.. he lost his brother. I’d be messed up too) BUT that’s the reason why Hideo thinks he can roll out a new technology that will stop people from committing crime. A good gesture, but takes away people’s free will! A thing Emika has a problem with because she committed a crime, but it was in defence of a friend.

I should say, Hideo and Emika get it on a bit which isnt a surprise! BUT I’m calling it now, that Emika actually falls in love with Zero in the next books. & it will be a love triangle-ish. Oh yeah, it will be an awkward triangle because Zero is actually Hideo’s missing brother! & hacked the game to try and stop the mind control techniques that Hideo was planning!

& with that my friends, I’m off to download Legend. A book I read years ago but didn’t finish. Because a little bird told me that Warcross and Legend is set in the same world! & now I need to catch up.

Let’s Try This Reading Thing Again

It’s not that I ever fell out of love with reading, it’s just that I always found an excuse. I had no time, I was too tired.. Blah, blah blah. I always managed to put it off which looking back on it makes me quite sad because I love reading. It’s always brought me such joy!

It’s been a while since I bought a book that got me excited to dive into it! The last book I really got into was A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas. & I loved it! If my memory is right, it was the 3rd book in the series & I was loving it! But that was ages ago, and I have to admit I have yet to finish it. It’s not that it’s not a fantastic series! Because it’s amazing and let’s be honest, Sarah J. Maas could write about a potato wedge & I’d read it.

Because it’s been so long since I started to read that, I feel like I can’t just pick it up and finish it off. So, I went shopping!
I managed to find my kindle, it’s pretty old at this stage it’s about 4? But works well & I always forget how amazing it is! Especially because I have a longer commute to work now since moving I can use the extra time to read, & I don’t have room in my bad for a big book.

Anyway, I bought Marie Lu’s Warcross! & I’m SUPER excited for it because I remember reading Marie Lu when I was younger and she had a trilogy called Legend & I couldn’t get into it at all. I wasn’t big into trilogies when I was a teen, what can I say.. I loved the first one though, & remember thinking I wanted to read more of her stuff.

FUN FACT: Up until this point I didn’t realise that I had downloaded The Young Elites! I think I read it on holiday, while on a 14 hour flight to Vietnam! & after googling, realised also that Lu wrote that too. Jesus. Does anyone remember when I was an actual good book blogger? Because I sure don’t.

Back to the matter at hand though, I’m even more excited to read Warcross now because I enjoyed The Young Elites.

Because it’s October I’m also pretty excited to read some horror! First on the list is IT by Stephen King, for obvious reasons. But I’m in need of more recommendations! So if you have any favourite books to read at this time of year, please, please let me know!

Until then, happy reading!

Buying Books

I mentioned in my last post that I was failing at being positive, but one of the ways I cheer myself up is to read.
Simple right? Just pick up a book and read! Oh the joy!

But no friends, it’s not that simple. I have bookshelves FULL of books that I have yet to crack open. (not a metaphor, I actually crack the spines)
I have a lot of excuses as to why I haven’t started to read them, like some of them I started but they didn’t grab my attention so I didn’t bother to give it a chance (I’m a terrible human, I know.) others I just liked the idea of.. You know the ones, the one that you want people to see you reading on the train or to spark an interest from someone looking at your bookshelf. Yeah, I have a log of these ones. /

Right now, I’m about to get ready to go to work, but have an urge, or maybe more of a duty to myself to go and browse the new fiction shelves in Dymocks. Ya know just to make sure they’re all alphabetised correctly?…

& if I happen to come out with some new bestsellers…
Fuck it, life’s short.

Carve the Mark // Review

Oooookay. Let’s start by saying that Veronica Roth is one of my favourite authors and & I love her writing. Which is why I was super excited for Carve the Mark!

I wouldn’t say I was disappointed, but I was a bit lost.
In theory, this book had everything I wanted. It’s set in a different time & place as a dystopian fantasy & had hints at a lesbian romance without it being in your face, but just.. Normal. Which was so refreshing!

Basically everyone has a current gift, some have fates and the fated have been protected until now when there fates have been released to the public so they are in serious danger. Just go with it trust me, it will make sense soon.
Some people can also see into the future. Which is helpful but also not.

Through this story we swap chapters between Akos and Cyra. Yeah I have no idea how to say half of these names so the the sake of this review you should know how I read them in my head. Aa-cos & Ceri-ia, probably wring but hey my head read it and now thats how they will forever be known to me.
Doe anyone else do that? Like a book will say the character has brown hair and blue eyes but you think of them with blonde hair and a glass eye and it’s just how it is. No point in changing it 4 chapters in!

Anyway! Akos and Cyra are jumping through chapters, which I hate. Mainly because if I don’t pay attention I wonder why Akos is doing things Cyra shouldn’t,Processed with VSCO with t1 preset but then realise it’s her chapter not his.
The whole way through this book I struggled. Struggled to understand what was happening, struggling to see the point in things that were happening. Struggling to finish it at times. But I stuck with it because I had nothing else to read and paid 12.99 ON KINDLE for this book. Yeah, I know..

I couldn’t keep track of where they were, what plant was where, and was exhausted trying to keep up!

I guess the last thing to do is address the elephant in the room and talk about the controversy in this book. There were many many issues with book bloggers all over the world (except a choice few, who seemed to have been paid to love it). I don’t want to discuss too much about it because at this point it’s been a while since I read the book, and I’ve read more reviews since writing this one in my notebook where I think I’d be bias in talking about certain issues.
The issues raised won’t affect some people at all, and those people are lucky & will probably enjoy the book in it’s entirety.

 

& that’s all I have to say about this unless anyone wants to continue the discussion in the comments! I’ve had too much coffee today so need some friends to talk about this with!