Hey there, friends!
It has finally cooled down a bit and I am no longer full-on boiling in my apartment. How are you all surviving the heat?
Let’s get reviewing! :)
Basics
Title: Beauty Queens
Author: Libba Bray
Release Date: May 24th 2011
Publisher: Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439895972
Number of Pages: 396
Summary
The 50 contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras.
But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.
What’s a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program – or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan – or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?
Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness.
My Opinion
“They’re a bunch of girls. How dangerous can they be?”
This book just casually blew my mind.
At the beginning, it took me a bit to get into it because I wasn’t really sure where to place it, but as soon as we got to the first “commercial break”, I was absolutely hooked.
I guess Beauty Queens is not exactly your usual YA novel in which you can lose yourself for a while; one of the main pillars of this book is its scathing social commentary & criticism. I found this to be an extremely brave & smart book to write! It unravels and ridicules beliefs and beauty standards that have been so deeply ingrained in our society that no one really questions them anymore: It addresses femininity and society’s gender expectations for women especially, but also deals a lot with transphobia, racism, capitalism, and just so much more.
The heart of this book, though, is definitely the group of girls, and their slowly budding camaraderie and friendship. I honestly came to love every single one of them so much, even characters I couldn’t really stand at the beginning, like Tiara or Taylor. Each of them had value and such a complex personality and background, and a lot of growth over the course of this book. Bray managed to turn stereotypes on their heads & did something that I especially enjoyed: She showed that being a bit of a stereotype isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Also, please, do yourself a favour and listen to the audio version of this book! Libba Bray does an absolutely stellar job at narrating her story – be it intonation, the accents (I loved Bray’s southern drawl and Valley girl imitation), or the hilariously terrifying commercial breaks.
Favourite Quotes:
“There was something about the island that made the girls forget who they had been. All those rules and shalt nots. They were no longer waiting for some arbitrary grade. They were no longer performing. Waiting. Hoping.
They were becoming.
They were.”
“I love you for who you are, not who the world thinks you should be.”
“Why do girls always fells like they have to apologize for giving an opinion or taking up space in the world? Have you ever noticed that?” Nicole asked. “You go on websites and some girl leaves a post and if it’s longer than three sentences or she’s expressing her thoughts about some topic, she usually ends with, ‘Sorry for the rant’ or ‘That may be dumb, but that’s what I think.’
My Rating
5 out of 5 stars
There’s a reason Jemisin has now won the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row – and that each time with a new installment of the Broken Earth trilogy. Jemisin’s writing is brilliant and so unique (I loved that in one of the three POVs the narrator is actually unknown and constantly addresses the main character as ‘you’ – such a daring decision but it just works) and her story telling is intricate and full of twists & turns. I know there are still a few months left of 2018 but I’m quite confident when I say that this. is. it. The Fifth Season is and will be my absolute favourite read of the year.
I find it really difficult to put my feelings about this book into words. The Dark Days Club was by no means a bad book – I gave it a solid three stars on goodreads. There’s just…not much for me to say either way. There was nothing that really stood out to me, good or bad, and by now I hardly remember a thing that happened in the story. The fact that it takes place during the 19th century and features a girl getting mixed up in some strange and dangerous business reminded me a lot of books like These Shallow Graves and Stalking Jack The Ripper. And I’m sorry to say that, in comparison, The Dark Days Club pales besides them.
What an emotional roller coaster!! This was like the book version of one of those rides that take you to the highest point reeeally slowly and suddenly you reach the tipping point and all hell breaks loose. It had a really slow start which made me question why everybody was hyping it up so much. Like, I was definitely enjoying it but I didn’t love it. But then things suddenly went bad and took a turn for the worse and Jude really Did That, huh?! I absolutely adored how dark and cruel Black painted the world of the fairies – and what she did to Jude’s character? I am in awe. Honestly, the meaner she got, the more I liked her.
If you have been following me for a while, you might be surprised to see yet another book by Sarah J. Maas on this list. I’ve expressed my dislike for her Throne of Glass series 
After the (though somewhat expected) disappointment of ACOTAR, my reading luck picked up again when a friend let me borrow her copy of A Quiet Kind of Thunder! :) It recounts the love story of Steffi, a selective mute, and the new student Rhys, who is deaf. It was such a cute and heartfelt romance – and just look at that stunner of a cover! I absolutely love that everything from children’s books over middle grade and Young Adult is finally becoming as diverse as our reality is! Representation matters so much, and so does learning about the experiences of others! :) I also really liked that they decided to go the extra mile and depicted the chapter numbers with sign language symbols!
I’m pretty sure I have already praised McGuire’s writing to the skies in my 
After finishing Down among the Sticks and Bones and learning more about Jack and Jill’s background, I just had to reread Every Heart a Doorway! I’m pretty sure I’ve read this book about three times by now and each time I come to love it a little more! The book is absolutely wonderful and also a little bit of an emotional punch in the gut. As far as I know there are currently two more books in the series & I can’t wait to get my hands on them!
Before Killing Sarai, I had never read a New Adult novel (as far as I can remember), so this was me tipping my toes into the waters of a new genre. And I don’t think it is for me. Maybe picking a novel about drug and human trafficking in America wasn’t the smartest move but generally, too, I really could do without the extremely explicitly-narrated sexual scenes.
In April, I discovered a pretty cool feature of Sparknotes called “
Just like Killing Sarai, this was another foray into relatively uncharted territory for me. Usually I’m quite content with staying in my little Middle Grade/Young Adult bubble but this book sounded simply too intriguing to miss it!
Staying true to my obsession with Shakespeare, how could I say no to a book that has one of his most iconic stage directions as a title?! The story is very loosely based on A Winter’s Tale (which I haven’t yet read) or more specifically the story of Hermione. Be aware that, despite the funny title, it deals with a quite heavy topic: rape.
After having such a successful reading month in April, I kind of fell into a little slump during May and June – at least reading-wise. But then a good friend of mine recommended me Oseman’s little comic Heartstopper! I had already read one of her other novels: Radio Silence, and I absolutely adored it! Alice Oseman managed to capture the teenage experience so well and I can’t believe she’s just a few years older than me but has already published three books! :)
This was the second book I read for my aforementioned class on Politics of Hope! At that point I had decided the topic of my term paper to be Harvey Milk, the United States’ first openly gay elected official, and his hopeful rhetoric in one of his speeches – which was appropriately called The Hope Speech. Shilts’s biography served as a great basis for my further research and was so well-written that I could hardly put it down! Sadly, part of Milk’s fame as well as his legendary status in the gay community is due to his violent death: Milk was shot to death only eleven months after his election into office. Still, he had a great impact on US society & I’m really glad that I chose him as my subject of analysis!
I still remember quite well how I first came across this trilogy. Everyone on tumblr seemed to be obsessed with it back then – and it’s quite telling if a book about sports manages to excite a bunch of teenagers online. So of course I had to give it a try! The strange mixture of fictional sports, teen drama, the Japanese mafia and unhealthy coping mechanisms shouldn’t work, but it does. It’s like the bumblebee of books, if you excuse my horrible simile. The Foxhole Court includes some of the most complex and fascinating characters that I’ve ever read about and I can promise you for sure: their story won’t let you go.
I don’t think this book series, these characters, will ever let me go. I have spent so much time thinking about it/them ever since I first read The Foxhole Court back in March 2016. Thank god for the Kindle app’s feature to mark lines in various colours. I’ve highlighted so much while reading and go through my bookmarks whenever I start missing the Foxes.
I’m sure we all know the feeling when we finally get to the last book of our favourite series (or the last episode of our favourite show). It’s a strange mixture of anxiety, anticipation and misery. That’s what I had felt when I had been about to start The King’s Men for the first time. I had binge read the previous books and was just so deeply involved into the story. And it definitely, definitely, definitely lived up to my expectations! And reading it a third time around made it even better as I had more time to read between the lines and discover everything that the dozens of meta posts on tumblr always talked about. This book series is definitely one of my all-time favourites!
If I had to describe this novel in one word? PAINFUL
Wow! This book definitely took me by surprise! I’m not quite sure what I expected but such a heartbreaking and raw depiction of mental illness and especially OCD! It was eye-opening and educational without ever appearing as “preachy” about mental health. Can’t recommend it enough!
Oh, I’m feeling quite conflicted about this book. There were moments where I quite enjoyed the story, but for the most part reading Longbourn felt more like a chore. And as it is a spin-off of the famous Pride and Prejudice, I couldn’t help but compare Longbourn with it. I had hoped to feel the same magic as while reading P&P. Unfortunately, my expectations weren’t reached. In 350 pages I didn’t come to care about a single character, and especially not about any love story. The one good thing that came out of reading Longbourn is that it reignited my love for the world of Pride and Prejudice.
I don’t think I would have picked this book up, had I not been working at my local book store last winter! The synopsis of this novel (especially the one printed on the back) made it sound a lot like the protagonist would fall in love with Jack the Ripper – which I really didn’t need in my life. But while I was working as a cashier, loads of girls purchased this book & I couldn’t help but get curious myself.
One of my undefeated all-time favourite books! Like I said, Longbourn (despite being rather mediocre) reignited my love for the world of Pride and Prejudice. In the last few weeks, I not only reread this book and slowly but surely made my way through the tag on ao3 but also watched the movie (2005) for at least five times (go big or go home I guess). It seems like I simply cannot get enough of this story!
I can’t believe I never read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn before! It has been sitting on my shelf for years. Luckily, Huck Finn found its way onto the mandatory reading list of my literature & linguistics class at university this semester, otherwise it would still be sitting there, unread.
As I’ve said numerous times before: This book came to me as a belated surprise! The first time I read it, I was really underwhelmed. I had seen amazing reviews for it and felt like I had read a completely different book. I ended up giving it another chance when I came across raving reviews that promised its sequel, The Queen of Attolia, would be much better.
Thank god I gave this book another chance!
This book might not be the most action-packed or suspenseful novel there is out there but it definitely makes up for it with its complex political ploys and plots and Gen’s extraordinary cunningness! Books about politics (fictional or not) can always be a hit or miss. A little further down you’ll find The Well of Ascension, which was unfortunately but definitely a miss. Other series like A Song of Ice and Fire, The Conqueror’s Saga and now The Queen’s Thief are definitely hits.
Bardugo’s unique style of writing is absolutely perfect for this little book: She takes stories we all know well, like the Nutknacker and Hänsel & Gretel, and turns them into her own dark, grim and utterly heart-wrenching fairy tales with surprising twists and turns. The beautiful illustrations are just the icing on top!
If I had to summarize this book in one word, it would be ‘disappointment’. Its predecessor, 
I can’t believe I almost did not pick this book up! Back in November, I had just finished an almost 800-page long fantasy novel that had turned out to be quite disappointing. I debated with myself for a while whether picking up the next 500+ page fantasy book would be a smart idea. Now I can say: yes, it definitely was! I fell absolutely in love with Tavi and his story! I loved that this was the story of an underdog who could only rely on his own wit and cleverness.
I’m a little conflicted about my rating of this book. I really enjoyed it while reading & the days after but the more time passes, the more forgettable I find the characters and the more indifferent I become towards the whole story. (I can’t even remember most of the story or names anymore) In that light, Warcross doesn’t really deserve its four stars after all, does it?
Apart from The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn we also had to read this short play by Glaspell for my class at university! I wasn’t really sold on it the first time I read it, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to appreciate it!
This book definitely took me by surprise!
One of the most meaningful books I’ve read this year!
I’ve never been much of a fan for Chick-Lit (not that I have read many that I could judge from in the first place) but after hearing 
I have such mixed feelings about this book. On one side, I really wanted to enjoy it because I’ve seen so much love for it on Tumblr and Goodreads, but then again, I can’t deny that there were BIG parts of the story that really dragged on.
It’s been quite a few years since I’ve watched (and fell in love with) the movie Howl’s Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki. But only a few weeks ago did I learn that it was actually based on this book! Of course, I had to read it as soon as I could! I absolutely adored Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle when I was younger and I was ready to feel some good old nostalgia while reading this book. To my surprise, the movie’s and the book’s second halves were quite different from another – but that did not take away from my reading experience! I had so much fun while reading and loved that Jones worked in so many links between characters and events that are always hinted at but only revealed bit by bit!
The very last book I read in 2017, finished just a few hours before midnight!
Leigh Bardugo is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of fantasy novels and the creator of the Grishaverse. With over one million copies sold, her Grishaverse spans the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, the Six of Crows Duology, and The Language of Thorns— with more to come. Her short stories can be found in multiple anthologies, including The Best of 
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