Wicked Lovely// A Review!

Oh hello there Rad Readers! If you could not tell by my exclamatory punctuation, I quite enjoyed this book... okay fine, I loved it! :)

QUICK SUMMARY: Aislinn is a mortal but is able to see the entire supernatural world of faeries, and these faeries are NOT good faeries. If they knew she could see them, it would be an almost guaranteed death sentence, or worse. Thus she has lived her life following the rules meant to keep her safe from them: Don't stare at invisible faeries. Don't speak to invisible faeries. Don't ever attract faeries' attention. She has gone all her life able to ignore them no matter how much they taunt her or the people around her as they so often do to mortals, but recently something has changed. The faeries are not treating her like some regular mortal anymore, they are following her, paying attention to her, and the rules that have kept her safe her whole life aren't working anymore.

Okay, this is an absolute banger of a book! I came across it at the Goodwill Bookstore, the best place in the world where all books are between $2-4 typically. I bought it simply because I thought the title was pretty cool and decided, hey, let's give it a shot. Let me tell you, this was certainly a shot worth taking! :)

I gave it 5 stars on good reads, and I have said before that I'm not a picky reader, my only real pet peeve is when a book is written poorly in my subjective opinion or when it genuinely does lack substance, but this definitely deserved every single bit of those stars. This is overall not a very highly reviewed book on good reads, the Mecca of book review content, but I feel it deserves higher acclaim.

This definitely falls under the oh so common fantasy/ paranormal genre but what I liked is that it's that genre but with a twist. It is kind of poking fun, criticizing itself in a way. Aislinn is a solid character, has her priorities straight, doesn't mess around. When she is told that she is basically the chosen one she just doesn't care, absolutely uninterested. All she has done in the world of the Fae is nothing, even going so far as to avoid them.

Something I did agree with in the more critical reviews of this book was that in other stories (ex. Harry Potter) when someone is "the chosen one" it is because of their skill, magical abilities, intellect, whatever. They prove themselves in a way through their skill. Aislinn is told she is the chosen one because this random faerie prince has just suddenly showed an interest in her, nothing by her own merit, and she is not having it. I liked this because it really does shed light on the weird not okay-ness of this trope. I am certainly tired of women being decided as the chosen one for none other than the interest of some random person (or paranormal) that she -in most cases- has only recently met, and apparently so is Aislinn because she essentially said no freaking way weirdo.

Aislinn is the exception in these weird tropes, she straight up calls out Keenan, the fairy that has been following her, on the fact that him using his fairy powers to get his was is just uncool, she doesn't want to be the chosen one, he's kind of evil, has been rude to her, and all he really cares about is his faerie rivalry and not her at all as they have literally only known each other for weeks. In summary, Aislinn knows what's up.

I liked that she felt a tie to the mortal world, took things into view the way most realistically would. The average teenager isn't looking to drop everything to become a faerie queen, most have passions, friends, are eager to pursue an education, at least something that should hold them back from dropping off the face of the earth. I enjoyed that this book recognized the unrealistic-ness of such a concept. It's fun to read about the actual logistics of such a bizarre concept.

There is a lot going on in this book. Things get boring if there isn't a lot going on and some of the good reads reviews complained that there wasn't much going on but I don't know how that could be seen. There is so much between Aislinn and the mortal world and then her and the Fae world. Then there is Keenan and this royalty whatevers and then his dram in the faerie world and also the mortal world with a dash his evil mother here and there. Then we have Seth... who knows what's going on with him. Finally Beira, and that mad lad is on a mission to killll let me tell you. (and can we just talk about that ending really quick) *SPOILERS* Okay, the ending... kind of confusing in my opinion. So, is Donia the new Ice Queen? This shouldn't be a big deal since the only real problem with there being the Ice Queen was that she hated Keenan and wanted power. With Donia as the queen who doesn't care about Keenan nor power I couldn't really grasp why everyone seemed to care so much about that. Next qualm: what exactly is going on with Seth, that just wasn't clarified at all. Is he dead or dying or is he just like kind of hurt and going to be okay? *END OF SPOILERS* I will say though that as confusing as the ending was, the final battle was pretty epic. Lots of suspense and magical weapon shooting.

So, what I learned: Keenan: kind of a bad person, self serving thus far, but has potential for character development. Aislinn: knows what's up, doesn't deal with mysogonistic wackiness right now and hopefully continues not to as the series progresses.

Something I definitely find I really appreciated was the lack of information dump. The rules of the faeries and the court and their magic was never explicitly said at all; the author let you figure it out along the way which built for some neat sneaky power wielding capabilities as the story progressed and then in the ultimate battle. From a class I take in school I learned that this is one of the best used writing tools to engage your reader in a story. Don't give it to them outright, people like to work for something. I definitely did find that method effective in this book.

So yes, Wicked Lovely amounted the ever prestigious 5 stars for a cool plot, feminism, good writing, and a fun read! Definitely check this book out!

-C8 :)

The TV Show is Better Than the Book// A Vampire Diaries Review

What's up Rad Readers? So I think the title says it all, but incase not, I did not like The Vampire Diaries at all. I read The Awakening and The Struggle in the edition where both were included, so I only bought one book but in contained both the first and second volume, and I can't imagine not reading them back to back because when the first volume (The Awakening) ended I was still unsure what the main plot was supposed to be. Like, we get it, Stefan is a vampire and Elena doesn't like Caroline and is kind of a sociopath, but where is the conflict and motivation for the story? The whole story line with Tyler felt so weirdly forced and the way the author describes high school and the way she envisions the way they interact cringed me out wayyyy too hard.

I know I've said before that I don't like when book reviewers say that a book "lacks substance," but oh boy -let me tell you- if there is one book that lacks substance that I have read thus far, my fellow book readers, this is it.

Where do I even begin?

I know that the TV show and the book weren't really intended to be very similar at all and I knew when I bought the book it would be not much like the show I'd watched, but I didn't know it would be SO different. By that I mean I thought the show was good and the book was bad. The clichés in this book are infinite, and I don't mean tropes. A trope is just something done commonly. Just because it's common doesn't mean it's bad. Some books really pull it off! One that immediately comes to mind is the Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. In the Mara Dyer series you get the "I have powers!?" trope, the semi-bad guy with a tragic back story trope, the dealing with a tragedy trope, and so so so much more. The difference is that it is done extremely well. A cliché lacks original thought, is overused, not spun in a more creative or different direction. That is what you get in The Awakening and The Struggle.

I almost didn't finish this one and I'm not a big supporter of DNFing books. I typically give them a chance, but this book just dragged on for so long, didn't have any serious content given the potential severity of the matter, and a lot of it was just so annoyingly unrealistic.

No social construct in the face of the world even parallels what was described in this story; this competition between Caroline and Elena to be the most self centered, shallow, "popular" (whatever that means in this book) is painful to read about because I just could not care less, and I cannot recognize this to be my fault for picking up a book about vampires because I have familiarized myself with all types of vampire based literature and have never found it as mind numbingly pointless as this.

Also! What is up with this new history teacher, like I don't care that some tragedy happened at this school, teachers don't invite students over their houses, let alone throw parties, let alone make it part of their grade! That is the kind of stuff I'm talking about when I say things in this book are annoyingly unrealistic, not the whole vampire super natural stuff.

The two main characters... I mean can we talk about brooding and dramatic for a second!? Elena has literally only seen this person walk by her in the hallway and suddenly she configures this whole game plan with half the school behind her back so she can "have him." WHAT? If this were written the other way around it would be more obvious how wack this is. It's so stalker-ish and weird. Then she hangs out with him for like half of a night and professes her love for him... ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHAT IS THIS? Also, Elena just found out that Vampires exist and all she cares about is that Caroline and Tyler stole her journal, and then she didn't even think to have her freaking vampire boyfriend use his powers to have them give it back?

Why do Caroline and Tyler care so much about Stefan to the point where they are trying to literally FRAME HIM FOR MURDER! Sure, you don't like the kid but this is definitely a little extreme, all he did was reject Caroline and get into a fight with Tyler. That is definitely not reason enough to commit a serious crime. High school students don't frame each other for murder, not even in the most extreme alternate bookish universes.

Enough of the complaining though, I will give this book credit where credit is due; I think Damon is a very interesting and intriguing character that L.J. Smith wrote very well. I like that he is unapologetically blatant about what he's out for and I like that he isn't your typical villain. That was one cliché that this book definitely avoided, that being the villain turned good guy because of the main girl. He was bad from the beginning and bad at the end and never really faltered and totally owned it. I recognize that L.J. Smith is a good author and I have other books of hers on my TBR list, perhaps it is because I read this book very long after its publication and likely long after this story line or plot/subplots were popular, but unless I am feeling particularly masochistic one day I do not plan on finishing this series... who knows.

I would still say read it though, because there have been books I've read that I've really loved despite consistently poor reviews, so, to each their own.

Form your own opinions dudes and check out this book if you don't mind some lame story lines.

Keep it cool readers,

-C8 ;)

Unravel Me// Book Talk!! (Shatter Me #2)

Ah, Rad Readers, should we even be surprised that the second book in the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi was so good? The first one was incredible, the second was phenomenal, and I already can't wait to read the third!

So, being that this is the second book in the series there really isn't any way to talk about it without spoiling things for you. Everything that happens is kind of a major spoiler, so I will leave you with this: this book is super twisty and exciting and not what you would expect. Juliette is a wayyyyy better character to read about in this one. Far less complain-y, starts taking matters actually into her own hands rather than just letting everyone boss her around, and we get a more in depth explanation of her powers, the other people's powers around her, and the dystopia that this is set in. It is so so so good and I definitely recommend you read it if you liked Shatter Me and even if you didn't like Shatter Me because it was even better!

Okay. Hello spoiler ready people, so let me begin by saying that I was both shocked and not shocked when we found out that Adam wasn't actually immune to Juliette's powers. That he actually had a power himself, that being to turn off other people's powers. Once he got more acquainted to Juliette he stopped subconsciously registering her as a threat, so now when he touched her he could feel the pain that she let off. I was surprised that that was how the author played things out, but I also felt like at the end of Shatter Me she was kind of hinting at the idea that he wasn't totally safe from her. I honestly predicted that a little. I was sad about it though because I liked Adam a lot and this was only the beginning of his downfall :(. When he started going downhill I was devastated to be honest. Him and Julliette had that really really bad fight and I was like... well... we lost a good one ladies and gentlemen. He was such a great character and the way he cared about his brother above all the Juliette/ Castle/ Omega Point stuff was something that other books don't really touch on. Adam has something to lose, his brother. In most books it seems like characters don't have families or they aren't attached to them or they aren't even brought up in the story. It is a cliche, kind of, that is made fun of in the bookish community that main characters just don't have families, but Adam did! He had a little brother that he knew he had to take care of and he knew he couldn't just be reckless like Kenji and Juliette. It is something that doesn't happen in most of these dystopian young adult books so I really liked Adam because of this. Thus, of course, when he started being just so mean and detached to everyone else at Omega Point I was devastated!! However, as much as I hated it, I did love it because it put a spin on things, everything was just so outright confrontational. This was also only the beginning of the twists in the great big twisty pretzel of the book this was going to be for us!

Staying on the same topic of Adam, but a different twist entirely... ADAM AND WARNER ARE BROTHERS!? Excuse me!! What!!-- That right there is a direct quote from my brain when I found this out. Absolutely insane. Where I could predict the previous twist we talked about I could have NEVER predicted that! As for Warner... I don't like him. I don't trust him. There is something fishy going on and mark my words, I have predicted it. There is no way that who he was in Shatter Me was all an act. Like noooo wayyyy at all do I believe that. I honestly think he is still a self serving, egotistical, power hungry, jerk. The way he is described? Nope, don't like it. The way he acts? Nope, don't like it. The way he is so condescending and manipulative towards Juliette's volatile and vulnerable state due to the fact that her entire life has been traumatic? Nope. No no no, cannot say that I am a fan. He was a bad guy before and he definitely still is now and I am not falling for it!! The sheer fact that when we find out that he also has a power and that power is conveniently that he can take away other people's powers and use them himself... COME ON!! This had bad guy written all over it!!!

Although, yes, Juliette has made leaps and bounds in character development by the end of the book, in the beginning I feel like she went right back to the annoying, complain-y, woe is me Juliette that I thought we had surpassed once she got to Omega Point in the first book, but then we open up Unravel Me and right again she is just sad and isolates herself and, you guessed it, still super crazy. What is annoying that she doesn't get is that she is now surrounded by a bunch of people that have abilities just like her! She isn't in the asylum anymore, it's not like all these people think she is insane, because all these people are just like her... Except, now they think she is insane because she doesn't say anything to them!! She is just sad and weird to them. I get it, she was locked in basically a government basement for two years and doesn't have the best social skills, but hey, there is this thing called effort... It goes a long way in post apocalyptic scenarios such as these. She is too codependent to Adam and Kenji in the beginning, but then we get a sliver of hope after we find out that Adam isn't immune to her. I wish that after Juliette and Adam broke up that she would just be... I don't know... independent and just figure things out without a boyfriend but I guess that is too much to ask for right now... ugh. I feel like I'm quoting everyone else's reviews, but it is true that it is extremely frustrating reading about a character that has the potential to be strong and independent, act so helpless and weak. Adding to that point I don't like how everything Juliette does to, ya know, save the world and such she feels like it's a betrayal to Adam or Warner. No girl, you are trying to save the world and take down the supreme dictator of the freaking universe, you don't need to think about your relationship drama right now. She wasn't all annoying though. She really showed Anderson what was up when she shot him in the legs, and it was really dope of her to go up and face him just like it was nothing to get the hostages back. I liked how towards the end she wasn't so stuck in a phase of just acceptance. She was starting to realize that she could have a say in where she takes her life, that she doesn't have to do what other people want her to do or tell her to do.

To digress a little bit, Anderson is just the worst person ever. Seriously so messed up, like Valentine from The Mortal Instruments series levels of messed up. At the end... he shoots Juliette... just shoots her... doesn't even bat an eye... two words for that: not. cool. Don't get me wrong though, I know she is going to be fine. We wouldn't have another book if she weren't so I wasn't all that concerned but the scene was pretty freaking crazy. It definitely got me excited to read Ignite Me!

So, as you can see there was a wholeeee lot to be said about specific events that went on in this book. It was a super cool, super quick read, and I gave it 5/5 stars on GoodReads because it was so entertaining and I think I read this book in a day or two because I just couldn't put it down. Cannot wait to read Ignite Me!!

Read on dudes! Read on!

- C8 ;)