Greetings Rad Readers! Here's my take on the Harry Potter Spells Tag! I had a lot to say about each of them, so enjoy!
1. Flagrate (Writing Charm)- A book you found interesting but would like to rewrite:
If you've read my Vampire Diaries review, you know the level of disappointment and dispair I had to endure for 400 pages or so reading such a poorly written and developed story with such great potential. I watched the TV show and honestly it was 100x better. With some more realistic rewriting and a little bit more depth in the plot this book would have been wayyyy better (as demonstrated by the success of the TV show)! Extremely promising ideas, and mostly poor execution. It's biggest fault was the lack of depth in plot, the awkwardness of dialogue, and unrealistic-ness of teenagers and school.
2. Alohomora (Unlocking Charm)- A first book in a series that got you hooked:
Wicked Lovely had me hooked from the very first chapter let alone the rest of the series! I have just begun reading the second book in its series, Ink Exchange and while still good, there was just something so gripping and exciting in Wicked Lovely about Aislinn, Keenan, and Seth that made me want to finish the entire series that day! Perhaps its the fact that it offered something so new that I'd never really read about before. We've tackled vampires, werewolf, witches and wizards one thousand times over but I think this is the first book that I've read a story strictly about faeries, and we know here on Rad Reads how much I love the fantasy genre, so I am absolutely obsessed with a new fantastical world!
3. Accio (Summoning Spell)- A book that you wish you could have right now:
The Reckoning of Noah Shaw... Don't even get me started about the Mara Dyer series because I could go on for honestly probably hours. I've read The Becoming of Noah Shaw, the first book in it's companion series and there are only two words to properly analyze it... absolute. banger. I NEED to read its sequel right. now.
4. Avada Kedavra (Killing Curse)- A killer book:
I could give you a list with a five paragraph essay and footnotes for each, but I will just stick with a killer book that I read pretty recently. Restore Me, the fourth book in the Shatter Me series was just great! I felt that there was some redeeming to do with a lack luster third book (Ignite Me), and BIG redeeming was indeed done! I gave it 4/5 stars on GoodReads and will be reading the final book soon!
5. Confundo (Confusion Charm)- A book you found confusing:
I cannot do justice explaining to you how confusing Cruel Beauty was in only a small paragraph, so you better just read my rant review on it ;). Long story short, I don't know why so many people died in the end or if they actually did even die and I couldn't ever get attached to the characters or the story because everything was so bizarre. It seemed that the author was trying to avoid information dumps but by doing so gave the reader no information at all, so everything was just overwhelmingly confusing and impossible to follow.
6. Expecto Patronum (The Guarding Spell)- Your Spirit Animal book:
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. That is almost all that needs to be said if you are a frequent Rad Reads viewer. I would recommend this book to anybody. So thrilling, characters are so lovable, writing is incredible, MUST be guarded and protected at all costs!!
7. Sectumsempra (Dark Curse)- A dark, twisted book:
Wither by Lauren DeStefano was a little too dark for me to even enjoy. It is essentially about a dystopian society where women are frequently kidnapped and married off to super rich men with multiple wives. This happens to the main character, she continuously tries and fails to escape, she befriends her sister wives and the staff that works for her "husband," and the plot thickens... kind of... I really just found the premise so disturbing I could never look at the book for the writing or anything else but the really disturbing circumstances at hand. I disliked a lot about the characters and I'm not sure wether or not the author intended it to be that way. I feel like there were a lot of themes that were extremely problematic and a touch of romanticism of Sockholm Syndrome here and there. Overall a dark and twisted book that I gave one star on GoodReads... :(
8. Expecto Patronum... again? (The Patronus Charm)- A childhood book connected to good memories:
On The Run!! Wow! I totally forgot about these books until a couple days ago so it's really weird that I'm writing a post about it now! But anyways, On The Run by Gordon Korman takes me wayyyy back to the elementary school I went to. This is a series of books about a brother and sister who escape from a juvenile detention center to try to clear their parents name while also being hunted by the authorities. I remember being completely obsessed with these books and then reading the companion series Kidnapped in a matter of days which is pretty impressive for probably an 8 year old. Super funky series, I would almost like to reread it again to see what I might have liked so much about it back then and if there are any consistent themes in my book lover life!
9. Expelliarmus (Disarming Spell)- A book that took you by surprise:
I hate to repeat answers, but the proper answer to this is doubtlessly The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer. I often book shop at the GoodWill Bookstore because I live very close to one and one of my first trips there when I started serial reading and marathoning books to combat the stresses of life and school (lol) I found The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and The Evolution of Mara Dyer. I was devouring books left and right so the only real reason why I bought it was because it had the sequel there as well. I picked up the first book and couldn't put it down! One of my favorite books of all time to this day!
Because of the repetition of book usage, I will also give you this one: Carve the Mark. I got this book for Christmas last year after I finished the Divergent series also by Veronica Roth. I was almost reluctant to read it because I had such a perfect impression of Veronica Roth's writing in my head and didn't want that to change. Also I was young and naive and therefore not very into science fiction. I picked it up though, and like The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, Carve the Mark is one of my favorite books of all time as well!
10. Prior Incantatum (Reverse Spell)- The last book you read:
Fallen by Lauren Kate. It wasn't my favorite, wasn't my least favorite. Honestly a little boring but a quick read. I'm a little indifferent... :(
11. Riddikulus (Boggart Banishing Spell)- A funny book you’ve read:
City of Bones has hilarious dialogue, really all of Cassandra Clare's books do! Simon and Jace are hilarious. I don't read that many comical books, the majority are rather intense consisting of deeply problematic dystopian worlds, complex universes, government uprisings, and wizards, so this is about as good of an answer as I can give you!
12. Sonorus (Amplifying Charm)- A book you think everyone should know about:
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr was a beautiful and eye opening book. It's takes place during the time of Nazi Germany and the main characters are a blind French girl and a German boy. The girl needs to flee when the Nazis invade and the boy is recruited for a Nazi training school. They both go through unimaginably difficult times but the main message of the story is to find light in difficult times, even when it's not completely apparent... Hence the title :)
13. Obliviate (Memory Charm)- A book you would like to forget having read:
Matched by Ally Condie has been the only book the I DNFed (did not finish) because I got to around page 200 and I felt like it kept on getting worse. Think the review I wrote on The Vampire Diaries and then multiply that by ten... ya not very good. However I am going to read it completely through, I've decided, because I recently have had a new outlook on DNFing books and I will give this story a fair shot at proving itself to me. However, it still deserves its place here as a book I wish I could forget.
14. Imperio (Controlling Curse)- A book you had to read for school:
Ugh, unfortunately taking AP Lang and AP Lit leads me to read a plethora of kind of lame books. My least favorite by far was A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. It is literally about a man hiking the Appalachian Trail... literally that is all. I was crying because of how lame I found this book. However, there are books that I have read for school that I've liked a lot. For example, for my creative writing class I got to chose a fictional book on my own to read and I read Heartless by Marissa Myer and the ending to that book is one of the best constructed conclusions I have ever read! I got to read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand which was a truly phenomenal story! I do have to read a couple rather lame books but every now and then I get the pleasure of a good one!
15. Diffindo (Severing Charm)- A book you wish you could separate from its series:
The last two books in the Selection series, The Heir and The Crown are abonibable, trying too hard to grasp at a difficult theme, and should have just been left at The One. I liked reading far more about America and Maxton than Eadelyn... The story line kind of just dropped off after The One. :( The Selection series is still one of my favs though because I refuse to acknowledge the last two in the series and rather look to them as companion novels for my own rad reader benefit. :)
Hope you all enjoyed, this was a fun tag to do and happy November! This year has gone by so quick and we are almost coming up on a full year of being a book blogger! Woah!
Read on homies, read on
- C8 ;)