Review: The Girl of Ink and Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargave

On February 9, 2017 By Beth JonesIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

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Forbidden to leave her island, Isabella Riosse dreams of the faraway lands her father once mapped.

When her closest friend disappears into the island’s Forgotten Territories, she volunteers to guide the search. As a cartographer’s daughter, she’s equipped with elaborate ink maps and knowledge of the stars, and is eager to navigate the island’s forgotten heart.

But the world beyond the walls is a monster-filled wasteland – and beneath the dry rivers and smoking mountains, a legendary fire demon is stirring from its sleep. Soon, following her map, her heart and an ancient myth, Isabella discovers the true end of her journey: to save the island itself.

This book surprised me for one reason, and one reason alone. It’s preteen! Ever since I started reading YA, I’ve never gone back to preteen. But I saw this book on sale as a card cover with beautiful maps inside and my heart just melted. I am a sucker for a good bookish map!

“Each of us carries the map of our lives on our skin,

Simply put, this book was beautiful. It wasn’t out of this world or extraordinary, I’ll admit, but I did really enjoy it! The plot followed a journey across an island, which made the story flow.

in the way we walk,

I liked the characters too, and I found Hargrave very clever in the way she presented them! The balance of good and evil, myths, legends and real life worked really well.

even in the way we grow.”

Overall, I would recommend this book to YA readers as well as preteen. It’s definitely still suited for preteen, but it also shared some lovely values about love, friendship and the importance of family.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽
3.5 out of 5 moons

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

The Future For Curious People. Book Review #7

On February 5, 2017 By paperbackpeteIn Book Review, PeteLeave a comment

Hi everyone,

I think that its really interesting how much we all change over such a short period of time. Looking back at who you were is always a shocking and embarrassingly hilarious thing to do but I think that its healthy as well. I encourage you, right now to log into Facebook and just scroll through your past profile pictures. You might cringe at yourself but you also might be even more proud of who you are in the present.

Forget about the present for a moment though, I want to talk to you all about a book that follows the future.

The Future For Curious People is a new adult contemporary that explores the challenges of being in love in your twenties and poses the question- If you could know your future with someone, would you want to?

This book was hilarious and that truly is saying something, coming from someone who rarely laughs (I know its awfully sad). I knew nothing about the story going into it- I got it at a discount book store in Liverpool for £1 but Gregory Sherl must’ve been sent to me from The Literature Gods. He manages to keep up a plot that could very easily become bland and directionless with a steady pace that hooks you right from the beginning. The characters were those rare kind that you can only find at discount bookstores in Liverpool- they gave a perspective that felt realistic and honest while maintaining this savoury witty tone. The story takes place in Baltimore which was quite honestly, very refreshing since for some reason every YA or New adult book I seem to read either takes place in New York or some distant, nameless state where our main character just can’t wait to break free from their life and then guess what- travel to New York (it’s a vicious circle). It was a swift three hundred pages that I would do again in a heartbeat. I could not recommend this book enough.

I give it a five out of five stars.

Keep on reading!

And thanks again Beth

Review: Seed by Lisa Heathfield

On January 19, 2017 By Beth JonesIn Book Review2 Comments

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Seed loves you. Seed will never let you go.

Fifteen-year-old Pearl has lived her whole life protected within the small community at Seed, where they worship Nature and idolise their leader, Papa S. When some outsiders arrive, everything changes. Pearl experiences feelings that she never knew existed and begins to realise that there is darkness at the heart of Seed. A darkness from which she must escape, before it’s too late.

I don’t even know where to start with this one. It’s one of those you have to digest after reading…just like all the best books force you to do.

To put it simply – this book is good. It’s really good. It’s 300+ pages, and I read it in 2 days. That would normally take me a week or more! I literally couldn’t put it down. I’ve been reading for hours, putting off schoolwork and doing my gaming blog and everything else just to read. When I wasn’t reading it, I was in a kind of Seed trance. Have you ever read a book so good you end up in a trance just thinking about it?

“It feels like I am underwater at the lake,”

The easiest way to describe Seed was that it turns the pages for you. It’s definitely a thriller, but not in a way like Gone Girl or The Girl on the Train. It definitely has dark undertones, and it’s definitely thrilling….but above all, it is strange. I mean this book is really messed up – but that’s what makes you want to read on. I just wanted to know what would happen.

“yet floating through the sky.”

I loved the characters in this book. I loved the setting. Both were complicated and confusing but also related highly to the ‘Outside’, or the real world. There were constant reminders that this was about people, even if they didn’t live conventionally.

“There a thousand butterflies dancing on my skin”

The plot was definitely fast paced, and I felt the constant twists and turns, wanting to follow the winding road to the end of the story. I did enjoy the first half of this book more than the second, though. I’m not sure why…but I have to say I thought the ending was a bit rushed. I found I blundered into it without even knowing where I was going. It all just felt a little hazy.

There was also a very big, unexpected event at the end of the book which I felt kind of eliminated some of the point of the book. It all built up to what would happen with a certain person and then another event means we’ll never even know.

But otherwise, the only other complaint I could possibly have is that I want more. I want to know about Pearl now. I want to know about her adventures and how she moves on from everything that happened in those last few pages.

I’m still giving this book top marks, though. I couldn’t possibly mark such a captivating page turner with any less.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽ ☽
5 out of 5 moons

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Gemina. Book Review #5

On January 15, 2017April 25, 2017 By paperbackpeteIn Book Review, PeteLeave a comment

Hey readers,

How have you been feeling with all this ‘January doom and gloom’ that everyone claims exists?
I always have actually loved the winter and the lack of daylight, it just feels more- cozy.

So for this weeks blog post I want to talk about a book I mentioned I was reading in last weeks Book Haul- Gemina.

Following Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman’s Iluminae, Gemina is the second book in the trilogy. The story follows Hannah, the captain’s ‘pampered’ daughter who loves to draw and punch things and Nik, a tattooed ex-con who has a really good heart. We follow them on an edge-of-your-seat journey as they race against an alien infestation, a ship wide invasion and the pulling and pushing of time and space.

Ok people, I feel a moral obligation to let it be known to the public that this book is AWESOME! It was very good, like very very good.

The Characters

Kaufman and Kristoff must be secret part time superheroes on the side when they are not writing books because only humans possessing extraordinary powers could create a cast of characters that felt so real and likeable. After hearing the premise of the book I didn’t think I would like Hannah Donnelly very much at all: ‘pampered’ just made me think of an annoying brat who would be a general inconvenience to the plot. But she was not. Hannah was kickass and she never apologised for who she was. I don’t think I have ever liked a fictional character as much as this one. Nik, her costar, I could write a thesis on. He was just SO fascinating and perfect. But I think I’ll let you see that for yourself when you read the book.

The Format

I said this in my review for Iluminae and I’ll say it again- I thought I was going to have a horrible time reading this book. You see, Gemina isn’t like normal stories, aside from it’s amazing-ness its also individual in the way its told: Through file reports and talk channels, doodles and radio comms, we learn of Hannah and Nik’s story through an interwoven dossier of memories. It makes it feel authentic. It makes it feel interesting. It makes me love this book even more.

The Plot

I will not say a lot because, well spoilers. But I will say if you are looking for a finely-crafted, intelligent and honest piece of sci-fi literature then this book is for you.

My Rating

I give this story a 10 out of 5 stars because I haven’t, in such a long long time, been so genuinely excited to sit down and read a book. I’ll recommend this to everyone, for all of time.

Keep on reading!

And thanks again Beth.

Mini Review: Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

On January 13, 2017 By Beth JonesIn Book Review2 Comments

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Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales.

Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. The origins of the first ymbryne. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar—known to hide information about the peculiar world—first introduced by Ransom Riggs in his Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series.

Riggs now invites you to share his secrets of peculiar history, with a collection of original stories, as collected and annotated by Millard Nullings, ward of Miss Peregrine and scholar of all things peculiar.

The best way I can describe this book is a weird kind of comforting. I adored the Miss Peregrine’s trilogy, and it still holds a special place in my heart. Reading this book made me kind of see the trilogy as a main meal, and Tales as the dessert. Because it is short and sweet, and it offers a perfect anecdote to the main series.

I love how this book is ‘written’ by Millard, but is a completely new thing. So you can read this book without reading the trilogy, although I would recommend reading the main series first! But for those who have read the series, it was a lovely reminder of the character we adore.

Another thing I adored was the length of the stories. They fit a lot in for only around 20 pages each! I like the variation of subjects, too. I felt I had found something completely new and refreshing with each story.

This book was a lovely collection of morals! It’s an enjoying read that will fit in around your busy life.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽
4 out of 5 moons

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland

On January 10, 2017 By Beth JonesIn Book Review10 Comments

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Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can’t-eat-can’t-sleep kind of love that he’s been hoping for just hasn’t been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he’s been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything’s about to change.
Grace isn’t who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys’ clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It’s obvious there’s something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn’t your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland’s brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.

The simplest way to put it is this book broke my heart in two. It’s up there with All the Bright Places – it is absolutely soul crushing.

It’s this old Japanese art form where they mend broken pottery with seams of gold.

I have no idea where to start with this book. I think I have a love/hate relationship right now, although I’m sure that will change as the whole thing seeps in. I just have to say this book completely enveloped me. My head was full of thoughts and sadness and heartbreak for the duration of this book – especially the second half. So let’s try and think about this logically. What about the characters?

Well, I liked them. They gave a relatable and real aspect to the story, one that I could find an easy emotional connection to (trust me, the tears flowed!). I can see a lot of people not liking them because of the amount of stuff they simply screw up, but to be honest that’s life. And it’s good that this isn’t a fairy-tale, because neither is life.

Like, they glue all the shattered pieces back together, and when it’s done it’s covered in these webs of gold veins.

To move on, I loved the plot. It kept me on my toes, guessing what was going to happen next. I did find it hard at times to keep track of everything – but I think that’s because this story simply made my head a little fuzzy. It overwhelmed me so I didn’t even know my left from my right…I was simply confused – just like the main character. And I love that Krystal made me feel that way – made me feel like I was living through just as much of a haze as

They do it because they believe that some things are more beautiful when they’ve been broken.

Overall, I still don’t know what the heck to say. I still don’t know how to describe such emotion. Which is ironic, considering this book is full of emotion written in words. But it does also explain how hard it is to write. How hard it is to say how we feel. This book is pure, real and honest. It’s not happy, not even close. But it’s still one of the best books I’ve ever read…simply because it made me feel something.

☽ ☽ ☽ ☽
4 out of 5 moons

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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The Diviners. Book Review #3

On January 2, 2017 By paperbackpeteIn Book Review, Pete1 Comment

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas and a generously satisfactory New Years.

Mine was great, thanks for asking.

So today I wanted to talk about a book I read very recently.

The Diviners is a young adult-historical fiction-romance-thriller-supernatural-horror set in America in the 1920s. New York is a bustling hive of excess. The newly rich and the young and beautiful are paving the way to a better, brighter future. Skyscrapers are climbing higher and Wall Street is booming louder than ever before. The morals are looser, the liquor is cheaper. Every girl dreams of moving to the Big Apple and becoming a famous flapper like one of the Ziegfeld girls.

Evie O’Neill is no exception. After accidental social suicide in her small Ohio town she is more than happy to pack her bags and move to New York to stay with her uncle as ‘punishment’.

Sadly for Evie she has unknowingly entered a dark world of diviners and death. With the clock ticking will she be able to use her own gifts to save New York from Naughty John?

This book was excellent. Like really good. Like so good that I would book-push it onto my friends (which I have already begun doing). There are actually so many great things about this book that I think the only way i’ll be able to express its greatness is through talking about individual great bits.

The Characters

Libba Bray is some sort of character arc goddess (yes, that is a thing). All of the characters in The Diviners were individual, genuinely interesting and realistic (bar some superpowers here and there). There were so many good ones that it would take me forever to talk about them all so i’ll just focus on our protagonist, Evie. She had all of the usual characteristics that YA female leads offer but she was given them in a tasteful and addictive way that never felt annoying or ridiculous. I actually enjoyed her selfish side because it made her seem more human and her sass and personality were hilarious. I think her attitude towards her role in the investigations was very head-on and sensible. She never listened when she was told no and she proved herself as a valuable member of the team in a group of men at a time of suffocating sexism. Yay to feminism!

The Language

This has to be one of the most technically accurate historical fiction books I’ve ever read, why you ask? Because of the language. Every sentence, every joke or proclamation was sprinkled with a dash of 20s slang. From ‘Jake’ to ‘Swell’ the dialogue in this book completely transported me to society in the 20s. It is truly a testament to Bray’s research and skill at the craft.

The Scare Factor

Ok, one thing I will say about this book is that it is not for the easily frightened. Never, in all the books I have read have I been genuinely terrified of words on a page. Through Naughty John’s atrocities and the murders that ensued Bray scared me to almost death. And I loved it! I believe it is one of the most impressive things when an author can get an emotion as deep as fear out of their reader simply with the words they choose. Bravo Bray!

My Rating

The Diviners truly was a phenomenal story that taught me about history, black culture, sexuality and women’s roles in society in the past. I rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars. Please read it!

Here is how I pictured Naughty John in my head who btw has actually given me nightmares?!? (I’m so terrified of going to bed)

Keep on reading!

And thanks again Beth

Review: You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

On December 30, 2016 By Beth JonesIn Book Review2 Comments

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Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed.
That is, until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with his best friend Ryan, who may or may not feel the same way.
When Kate and Mark meet up, little do they know how important they will become to each other—and how, in a very short time, they will know each other better than any of the people who are supposed to know them more.

I won’t lie, I was highly skeptical about this book. I’ve heard a lot of good things about David Levithan and his writing…but I’d also only read Naomi & Ely’s No Kiss List before this one! And it’s safe to say that I didn’t particularly enjoy Naomi & Ely – it’s actually one of the only books I preferred as a movie.

But I still picked up this book cheap as I liked the synopsis and knew I needed to give David Levithan a second chance. Let’s start by saying I’m really glad I did!

You can be naked with someone and remain unknowable.

I loved the characters in this book. They made so many mistakes, it was basically awesome. They showed a lot of things through our eyes – teenagers who are deciding how they’ll be living their life after college but not really sure about anything. That includes love. They were mixed up and emotional, wild and free. They were perfect.

You can be someone’s secret without ever knowing what the full secret is.

I liked a lot of other things about this book, too. I found the plot and time scale (a week) easy to read and enjoyable. It made for a quick but very full 200 pages, which seemed to fly by at the same time as being a big story!

You can know he’s even more scared than you are, but that doesn’t make you any less scared yourself.

I also enjoyed the setting and the ending! A small part of me wishes the ending was different, but at the same time I understand and accept why it ended like it did. And I’m kind of happy, too. It needed to end the way it did to show the full extent of the characters. Because even if the ending wasn’t 100% fairytale – it was real..and that makes me smile.

Have you read this book? What did you think?

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: The Patron Saint of Pigs by Lauren Myracle

On December 24, 2016 By Beth JonesIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

Hi everyone and welcome to the second of three posts for the next two days! Counting down to Christmas, Pete and I are posting our reviews for the three short stories that make up Let It Snow by John Green, Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson.

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Today’s review is for the third and last short story of Let It Snow, which follows Addie and her two best friends Dorrie and Tegan. Addie’s Christmas break is ruined by her recent breakup with her boyfriend Jeb. Will she be able to work out everything going on in her head and have a good Christmas?

Beth’s Review

Well if you thought yesterday’s review was bad, good luck reading today! Although I have to say, I did enjoy A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle…I just had a LOT of annoyances with it. And anger surrounding John Green. And a *tiny* bit of PMT that may have possibly made me a little bit more angry than usual. Oops.

But I didn’t like this story for a totally different reason – the main character. Addie annoyed me because of several things. For one, she cheated on her boyfriend. I know, I can practically hear ‘It was only a kiss’ playing in my head, but she still cheated. Maybe it’s just me, but there’s no excuse! It’s something you just don’t do.

And two, her personality really annoyed me. She goes throughout the story basically realising she’s a very self-centered person who needs to change. And then…doesn’t do anything to change herself. Sure, she thinks about it. But she doesn’t really change all that much. Instead, she has some strange kind of epiphany that was so impossible it just annoyed me even more. She still has this whiny voice going on throughout the book that I just…ugh. Couldn’t deal with.

I also didn’t like Dorrie and Tegan. I actually just found them downright rude. You don’t just tell your best friend that they’re self-centered, even if they are. Not randomly, bluntly on Christmas day. You have to release that slowly, right?

Saying all of this, is wasn’t all bad. There were some parts of this story that I liked. For example, the ending. This story was given the goal of wrapping everything up, and I felt it succeeded. I liked the quick mention of all of the characters, and how they all ended up in Starbucks. It was cute, and warmed my heart a little after all those niggles! I have to admit though, yet again I sped through this story. It was partly to get all the Addie stuff over with, but I did enjoy it. It was a compelling read, and I liked the ending overall too.

So even though I’d only rate it 3 stars overall, I’d still say it was a good read and recommend it to those who don’t mind cliche as usual!

Pete’s Review

The Patron Saint of Pigs is a cringe-tastic story about a girl who is just having a really hard time ok?

Addie takes centre stage as this books teen queen whose perfect pretty life is crumbling into pieces all around her. There were a strange amount of problems with this book. So many that I think I’m just going to curate a nice list so that you can all understand how very poor this story was.

Right from the beginning Addie moans and cries out in an annoying wave of self-pity despite her pain being directly caused by herself. There was hope that she would learn from her mistakes and she even got a new haircut and made friends with an old lady to prove it. But ultimately there just no changing her. All throughout this book I thought, no it can’t be this bad, there is going to be some moral message, some meaning to all of this. I was obviously wrong. Addie was meant to learn that Christmas is about being selfless not selfish. She kept hinting that she wanted to change, she had an instant epiphany within the last few pages that felt watery and left me thinking, wait what? Thats her big revelation? Her transition, her character growth all of it was so cheap and poorly done. It read like the author forgot to develop her lead and then thought oh crap I should probably actually give this book some purpose.

I can go on. The side characters were really quite awful. Addie’s cadre of fellow teen queens were polyester mockups of the main character minus the annoying selfishness. All of the characters felt like replicas of each other, there was no originality. I have nothing against the author but she fell to that ever present trap in YA: The troupes in this book! It felt like a pantomime. We have our innocent beautiful girl who made a bad decision and just feels really quite awful. We have her quirky sidekicks who are just enough on the outside to deem themselves cool and hipster but not too outlandish to appear as freakish or weird. We have the exotic sex god boyfriend. We have the charming hottie jerk. She even threw in absent parents for good measure. This book was a steaming hot pot of cliche and cheese seasoned with a splash of dullness.

There was a really weird timekeeping problem in this book where despite it being a short story we were constantly given useless information and shown irrelevant events. From prolonged bff gossip sessions to strange scenes of Addie working at Starbucks and giving us details about her working at Starbucks I was simply quite bored. This book was not fast paced, it was jumbled and perhaps the author was trying to make it seem more lifelike by including all of that random crap but no, trust me, it was just random crap. I constantly was asking the question: Yeah but what about the actual plot?

This was definitely the worst story out of the three in the Let It Snow bind-up but don’t let it fool you the other two are actually pretty good. It was a sad 2 out of 5 stars for me and should you read it? If your looking for unoriginal cheddar cheese cringe 100% yes!

I’ve really enjoyed reading the Let It Snow bind-up even if the tone of all my reviews is slightly negative with a side of sarcasm. I hope you have a fabulous, spectacular, dazzling and jaw dropping day tomorrow whether you celebrate Christmas or not!

Keep on reading

And thanks again Beth

-Pete

From me and Pete: Merry Christmas Eve everyone! Have a great day and thanks for reading these reviews. We hope you’ve enjoyed it 🙂

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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Review: A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green

On December 23, 2016December 23, 2016 By Beth JonesIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

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Today’s review is for the second story of Let It Snow, A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle by John Green. Would you rather be snowed in with your best friends watching movies? Or in a Waffle House with 14 cheerleaders practicing lifts? Tobin and JP prefer the cheerleaders right away, but the Duke (Angie, in other words) is all for watching James Bond. After an adventure in the snow, Tobin and JP get their wishes…but Tobin also gets the surprise of his life. A sweet story of love and hash browns, what will Tobin receive this Christmas?

Beth’s Review

I have to admit something before we start. I kind of hold grudges against John Green. It all started with The Fault in Our Stars, which I can’t help thinking was horribly overrated. My thoughts kind of picked up with Paper Towns, where I happened to be one of the only people who loved it. Looking For Alaska was similar – I couldn’t help being captivated. But it all went to rock-bottom when I got around to An Abundance of Katherine’s.

Since then, I have to admit I haven’t looked at this author in a great light. And unfortunately after this story, I’m now just thinking even worse. To put it pessimistically, this book could have been written by anyone else who has read (and studied the trends in) John Green books. It had a guy who would do absolutely anything for the girl he’s suddenly in love with (for no apparent reason). It had a girl who didn’t really do anything but suddenly has a guy after her (sorry, Angie). It even had the random Asian friend who always seems to be thrown in simply to be Politically Correct. The love is instant, with hardly any hesitation or excitement. Overall, to put it simply, it’s started pi**ing me off big time. With all that aside let’s get it over with, and discuss the things I really didn’t like about this story.

♥ Normal, relatable characters being glorified by exotic names and an adventure
♥ A cliche, easy-to-predict plot♥ A very simple love story with no guessing or surprise

So as you can see, I was pretty disappointed with this story overall. Did I like anything? It may not sound like it, but I did! I promise! So let’s go back to listing and discuss what I enjoyed.

♥ The setting! As with the first story, the setting suited the plot and made it kind of exciting. But at the same time, is this Christmas? Kinda, I guess. But it’s more winter than Christmas…I could have easily forgotten it was Christmas Eve as it was hardly mentioned at all!
♥ A lot of little quirks and creative tweaks I would never be able to think up. There was a lot of cool (no pun intended) moments in the snow…including sliding down a bank to race to a Waffle Jouse

With all John Green annoyances aside, I have to say I can’t help but admit this one is a cutesy, easy read. I still sped through it, even with the anger. I wouldn’t recommend it as much as the first story in Let It Snow, but I still enjoyed it in a very cheesy way.

Pete’s Review

A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle is John Green’s answer to the question: How can we make a group of normal teen’s lives interesting at Christmas and turn it into a book. Vague sexism and fast food of course!

So, the thing is me and Green have this weird dysfunctional relationship that he doesn’t actually know we’re in. I have read nearly all of his books and all of them have left me with a feeling of wait what was that? They aren’t shocking, they are just kind of incredibly ridiculous.

I did not hate A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle, I liked it in some ways much more than the Jubilee Express but it was just so randomly directionless that I will not be able to ever say that I loved it. The character’s mission is based upon a weirdly sexist idea that generally made me feel very uncomfortable. On top of that I couldn’t help thinking through the whole story: Why are they even doing this? Like seriously? What is the point? Green wove together multiple strands of seemingly random pieces of fiction and decided that it could maybe be a book. There was little explainable motive but the story was definitely fast paced.

Aside from the jumbled and very partially misogynistic plot the characters were definitely the stars of this story. Every single one them was unique and genuinely interesting. There is always a quite frankly terrifying danger with John Green’s books that I’ll hate the main character (I try to forget the dark days of An Abundance Of Katherine’s) but Tobin was actually quite brilliant. He did not moan, he felt like a real person and he wasn’t a massive dickhead. We can brush aside the constant misunderstandings between him and The Duke (again with these ridiculous names, The Duke, seriously?) and cast them off as a simple device used to prolong YA romances. If everyone understood exactly how everyone else was feeling in YA novels there would be no awkward teen affection or justifiable insta-love just like in this story. JP provided that refreshing American comical relief to the direness of their situation and the friends as a unit felt very life like in their incessant banter.

Despite the contemporary genre this book is placed in, there was a commendable amount of action in the story, which was more than welcomed and kept me on the edge of a hypothetical seat (I always read lying down). As I previously mentioned the romance did have under tones of insta love but it was definitely justifiable insta-love that wasn’t really that instant. A little let down was the lack of Christmas in this story. We were told at the start that Tobin’s parents wouldn’t be home for the holidays and we were reminded sporadically throughout that it was Christmas Eve going into Christmas day but there was little in the way of festive spirit. We all already know that John Green is a good writer so it was already a given that things like pacing and prose would be squeaky clean and the linking of settings to The Jubilee Express was well appreciated.

The book felt like I was sitting at the back of the cinema watching a film with only three other people one of whom was munching and slapping his lips together like a crazy person. It was quite enjoyable but also quite uncomfortable. I gave it a 3.6 out of 5 stars but you can decide yourself how much you like it when you read it because who can resist the lovable and beautiful pixie teens of John Green’s stories?

Keep on reading

And thanks again Beth

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P.S. Merry Christmas Eve Eve from us both!

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

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