Tag: book review

Review: Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review3 Comments

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Book: Hollow City
By: Ransom Riggs
Edition Published: 2014
By: Quirk Books
Goodreads description: Ten peculiar children flee an army of deadly monsters.
And only one person can help them – but she’s trapped in the body of a bird.
The extraordinary journey that began in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children continues as Jacob Portman and his newfound friends journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. There, they hope to find a cure for their beloved headmistress, Miss Peregrine. But in this war-torn city, hideous surprises lurk around every corner. And before Jacob can deliver the peculiar children to safety, he must make an important decision about his love for Emma Bloom.
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I really am enjoying this series, but I am sorry to say I didn’t like Hollow City quite as much as Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children.

It took me a couple of chapters to get into the first book, but it took me almost half of the book to get into Hollow City.

Now, this could be due to me being too busy to really enjoy the first half, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. For a start, even when I’m busy, I manage to make time for books I enjoy.

Really, I’d been dreaming of such adventures since I was small. Back then I believed in destiny, and believed in it absolutely, with every inch and strand of my little kid heart. I’d felt it like an itch in my chest while listening to my grandfather’s extraordinary stories. One day that will be me. What felt like an obligation now had been a promise back then – that one day I would escape my little town and live an extraordinary life, as he had done; and that one day, like Grandpa Portman, I would do something that mattered. He used to say to me: “You’re going to be a great man, Yakob. A very great man.”

But I really do love a lot of things about this book. I’ve never read a book like it, and I’m not sure I ever will. It’s a completely unique series, and extremely imaginative.

The pictures really bring this book to life. They portray perfectly the story, and I was shocked to find out that the pictures are chosen to fit the novel, rather than the other way round as it was for Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children.

I love the characters, too. And (I’ve heard a few people say this) I love Emma. In the first book, I didn’t really take a fancy to her. I think it was the simple fact that she loved Jacob’s Grandpa, and now loves Jacob. It a) creeped me out and b) I felt like she was manipulating Jacob, like she loved him because of his Grandpa, not because of who Jacob is.

I’m not sure if it’s meant to come across like that, but it did (and still slightly does) to me. Other than that, I do like Emma as a character. I also love Olive, she’s just so sweet, like a little kid who isn’t so young (which is what she is, really).

But I don’t like any of the characters more than Jacob. He is right to be the main character, and I love seeing everything from his point of view. He’s sweet, but also has some interesting inner battles. I find his character amazingly caring, but his love for Emma is the cutest thing. Because he loves Emma for who she is. And above everything, he really cares about her. And I can tell he would do anything for her.

☽☽☽☽
4 out of 5 moons

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review2 Comments

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Book: Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

By: Ransom Riggs

Edition published: 2011

By: Quirk Books

Goodreads description: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of curious photographs.
A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

Purchase on Amazon UK: Link

Purchase on Amazon US: Link

My rating:☽☽☽☽☽/5

Jacob’s grandad has always told him stories. But he never thought those stories were real – just figments of his grandad’s imagination to amuse his young grandson. Now, only now, when a tragedy means Jacob is left alone, does he begin to unravel the mysteries behind the stories and photographs he hasn’t seen since he was little.

I didn’t go far, just around the perimeter of the neat yard in a slow shuffle, watching the sky, clear now, a billion stars spread across it. Stars, too, were time travelers. How many of those ancient points of light were the last echoes of suns now dead? How many had been born but their light not yet come this far? If all the suns but ours collapsed tonight, how many lifetimes would it take us to realize that we were alone? I had always known the sky was full of mysteries – but not until now had I realized how full of them the earth was.

Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is now proudly on my list of 5 star books.

I was lucky enough to pick up this book at a bargain £2, which made me read it a lot sooner than I had expected, as it was pretty far down my TBR list! I have to say, I’m extremely glad I got my hands on this book now, instead of next year or later. it was truly beautiful.

Not only is this book intriguing, spectacularly interesting and amazingly spooky, what I loved about it most is its peculiarity.

It is different in so many ways, different from the normal teen-fiction and YA novels. And it is possibly the first dark fantasy and horror book I’ve ever loved.

I don’t know how else to describe this book. It is mind-blowing, original and all round peculiar. And actually, it was a lot better than I expected it to be. I wasn’t really sure what to think of this one, but it was astonishing. Honestly, the perfect book for me. I can’t wait for the movie!

The paragraph italicised in this review is an expert from the book, hand-picked by me. I do this for every review, but this one is special. It is possibly one of the most poetic and beautiful paragraphs I have ever come across, and I’m pretty sure I’m not going to forget it very quickly.

As you can see, I’m a little shell-shocked at just how good this book was. Stars all around, guys.

-Beth

May your shelves forever overflow with books! ☽

Review: True Confessions of Adrian Mole etc. by Sue Townsend

On By Beth JonesIn Book ReviewLeave a comment

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Book: True Confessions of Adrian Mole etc.

By: Sue Townsend

Edition published: 1989

By: Methuen

Goodreads description: “Between the difficult ages of 16¾ and 21 and four months, Adrian Mole, diarist and intellectual, continues to confide his deepest thoughts and most moving experiences to the page. Against the background of a continuing but uneasy marriage between Mr and Mrs Mole, the young Adrian gets a job as a librarian, while LUSTING after Sharon Bott and pining for Pandora, who is studying Russian, Chinese and Serbo-Croat at Oxford. Later we find him installed at the Department of the Environment, helping to preserve the ozone layer.

Purchase on Amazon UK: Link

Purchase on Amazon US: Link

My rating: ☽☽☽/5

A diary of Adrian Mole’s experiences from the age of 16 3/4 – 21 1/3. Adrian is an undiscovered intellectual trying to make his mark on the world. This book follows his writing, love life, poetry, work and education, and his attempts to preserve the ozone layer.

Something dead strange has happened to Christmas. It’s just not the same as it used to be when I was a kid. In fact I’ve never really got over the trauma of finding out that my parents had been lying to me annually about the existence of Santa Claus.
To be, then, at the age of eleven, Santa Claus was a bit like God, all-seeing, all-knowing, but without the lousy things that God allows to happen: earthquakes, famines, motorway crashes. I would lie in bed under the blankets (how crude the word blankets sounds today when we are all conversant with the Tog rating of continental quilts), my heart pounding and palms sweating in anticipation of the virgin Beano album.

I’m not going to say I didn’t like this book, that would be a lie. There are parts of it that I in fact loved – Sue Townsend’s sense of humor is truly spectacular – but there was the fact that this book is slightly…medicore. I mean, not a lot really happens. It’s just a diary of a teenage boy from the 1980’s.

Aside from that, I did like the writing, and the diary entries. I just wish more had happened, as I have already forgotten some of the characters and events from this book.

I have to say, although at first I found Sue Townsend’s and Margaret Thatcher’s diaries a little pointless at first, I did also enjoy these. They both have some very interesting writing and points of views. I loved Sue’s page about England, and how what we Brit’s are like. Although it’s not necessarily praising our humble little country, it was insightful and, in fact, true.

Overall, this book was pretty good. Not a favorite of mine, nor a breakthrough in writing (for me, anyway), but certainly one I enjoyed.

-Beth

Review: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

On By Beth JonesIn Book Review5 Comments

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Book: The Sky is Everywhere

By: Jandy Nelson

Edition published: 2015

By: Walker Books

Goodreads description: Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to centre stage of her own life – and suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two boys. One boy takes Lennie out of her sorrow; the other comforts her in it. But the two can’t collide without Lennie’s world exploding…

Purchase on Amazon UK: Link

Purhcase on Amazon US: Link

My rating: ☽☽☽☽☽/5

There’s not much to say about Lennie Walker.

She’s 17.

Wuthering Heights obsessed.

Clarinet player.

Band geek.

Quel dork.

Hopeless romantic.

Poem writer.

And, as of four weeks ago,

Sisterless.

There were once two sisters,
Who were not afraid of the dark.
Because the dark was full of the others voice across the room,
Because even when the night was thick and starless,
They walked home together from the river,
Seeing who could last the longest without turning on her flashlight,
Not afraid.
Because sometimes in the pitch of the night,
They’d lie on their backs,
In the middle of the psth,
And look up until the stars came back.
And when they did,
They’d reach their arms up to touch them,
And did.

This book is beauty. There is no other way to describe it. It is pure beauty, written in words. Crammed between pages.

I am slightly like Lennie Walker, but mostly in the way that I am a hopeless romantic. So this book was absolute perfection for me. But even though I’m such a romantic that I even enjoy predictable boy meets girl novels, I’d much prefer an exciying, not always joyful rollercoaster of a journey. And that is exactly what this book gave me. A journey.

I got to follow Lennie in the perfect way, I could so easily see inside her mind, and she didn’t hold back with her thoughts. In this book it is is so easy to make a friend with Lennie, and simply because her experiences are so hard to convert into words without knowing Lennie as a person, it makes you feel so close to her.

Now I’ve shared my thoughts on this book, I think there is no better way to describe how special the writing is than sharing some quotes:

I’ve forgotten quite how luminous he is, like another species of human doesn’t have blood but light running through their veins.

I’m full on gawking, wondering what it would be like to be so cool and casual and fearless and passionate and so freaking alive.

That’s exactly it – I am crazy sad and, somewhere deep inside, all I want is to fly.

“That’s a misconception, Lennie, the sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.”

When he plays all the flowers swap colors and years and decades and centuries of rain pour back into the sky.

You can tell your story any way you dann please. It’s your solo.

As you can see, Jandy Nelson writes like no other human being on this earth. If we lost her, we really would lose a freaking library. Possibly one of the most beautiful libraries on earth.

-Beth