Recently Read #6

8 Jan 2015


"Oh, it's been a while since my last recently read": a sentence I seem to write at the start of everyone of these posts but I'm trying my best to improve on my reading speed as these are actually one of my favourite posts to write and they seem to be your favourites as well. I have been in a little bit of a reading slum for a while which seems to happen every few months but I've now read a sufficient amount to share with you and review for you.

I'm a sucker for a sequel and after reading If I Stay I had to pick up the story again even though If I Stay wasn't my favourite book. The only way I can review this book is to ruin the end of the story so skip the next book if you hate the spoilers. At the end of the last book Mia wakes up after being in a coma and if written in the perspective of Mia. This second book follows her boyfriend from the first book Adam. It picks up years after in New York where Adam is in an extremely well known member of a  band and Mia is a famous cello player. It takes place years after the accident and after Mia decided to leave Adam but it seems they both end up in New York City and it gives Adam the opportunity for Mia to answer his questions that have remained without answers for years. Just like the first book, it's a typical teen novel romance and so very predictable in my eyes and, while I'm a sucker for a sequel as I've said, I didn't really see the point of a sequel due to both books ended on a happy note so I'd rather just be left with the idea that they lived happily ever after of the first book.Having said that, I loved the rockstar aspect to the book. It would be a good book for an extreme fangirl to read as it would help them remember that famous people are humans too an there has to be boundaries. It also gives an idea of how fame can actually affect someone in a negative way- I'm sure a few celebrities could relate to this book. Overall it was a nice read but not one I'd recommend unless you absolutely looked the first book.

When this was released I was so excited because I didn't realise he was releasing a new one until it popped up on my twitter feed one day. John Corey Whaley is always so imaginative and it's the same in this book starting with a boy named Travis waking up five years after he had his head chopped off and frozen in a freezer until it was reattached to another boy's body. When he wakes up he's still sixteen (the same age he left) and he thinks everything will go back to how it was but he soon realises that everything has changed; his parents, friends and girlfriend. John's books seem to always carry a slight hidden meaning and from this one I get that it's about the fact that things change and a lot of the time it's out of our control. I am planning a post dedicated to John's two books in the next few months as I've been promising a review of his first and my favourite book "Where Things Come Back" for a year and so I will be including a more in depth review of Noggin' as well. But, for now, I'll just tell you how much I recommend this book to anyone. It has such a good message and one that you can fall in love with some of the characters and really invest yourself in the story.

Now, this book took me a while! It wasn't a hard book to read and the actual writing was as simple as any other book I would read but I just found this book a real chore. While the writing itself was in no way difficult the story line was hard to follow from the get go. It's about a boy named Matt whose brother Simon who had down syndrome dies (no spoiler, it's on the blurb and happen within the first few pages) and it's basically the brother writing an autobiography of his life when he's 19 and struggling with schizophrenia. It tackles bereavement as well as mental illness which is similar to some books I've read in the past but this was a hard read. I get that it was supposed to be written like a first draft but I felt it was a bit all over the place and inconsistent. For me, the concept didn't really work at telling the story as well as getting the message of the book across to the audience however it must just be me as it has been awarded Costa's Book of The Year in 2013 so people obviously like it! If you've read It's Kind Of A Funny Story I would suspect you may like this book yourself. I also will mention the English references it makes which is something I love in book as it's nice to have books set in England and be able to picture the scenes a lot easier. 

After coming across this when I was cleaning my book case and remembering giving up with in the first chapter, I thought I would give it another go. It's about a boy who's just split up with his girlfriend and a girl who happens to be said's girlfriends "friend" pretend to be in a relationship for five minutes before they end up spending the night together talking and going to concerts. It's a very short book and wasn't for me. In my opinion, it was just one big cliche of a book. I couldn't find much originality to it really and I didn't connect all that much to either of the characters. I've tried reading one of David Levithan's book before and having little success in finishing it as he seems to like the whole love-at-first-sight approach which can get very repetitive and isn't something I'm all that keen on. I'll say though that if you like David's other work than you'll probably love this and being only a short book I didn't feel I wasted too much of my life away but I know I will not be putting myself out there to recommend it. I think David's writing one last chance before accepting me and his books don't work so if you've read any of his other books and recommend them please let me know!

So that's all! Seeing as though it's been Christmas and is nearly my birthday, I have a shed load of books to get through so expect more frequent recently reads!
What books have you read recently? Have you got any recommendations?
Hope you're doing great,
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