5 Stars Archives - Page 3 of 9

Book Review: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Mar 3, 2017

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Pages: 432
Publish date: April 6th, 2017
Publisher: Walker Books Australia
ISBN: 1406372153
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU – Dymocks

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

The Hate U Give:

I received a review copy of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas from Walker Books Australia in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

I don’t know how this review is going to go, I don’t know if I’ll be able to express my thoughts right. If what I am feeling is going to come across. I loved this book and I don’t even know how to start expressing how powerful, poignant and brilliant The Hate U Give is.

The Hate U Give follows sixteen-year-old protagonist Starr who lives in two worlds. The poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and the posh school that she attends. And she likes to keep them very apart. But, that balance is thrown when she is the only witness to a fatal shooting that kills her best friend, by a white police officer. When what she can say can cause chaos not only to her community but to her family Starr has to come to some decisions on what is wrong and what is right.

I loved Starr as the protagonist. She is raw and real and captured me from the get-go. I was thrown into her world and I was intrigued. Starr lives these two lives. The one with her family, in the place she has lived most of her life. But, then she goes to school in a totally different place. I don’t think Starr put on a persona in any of those lives, however, she did let certain traits come out in different ways. Throughout The Hate U Give, my heart broke for Starr, I just wanted to give her a massive hug. Being a teenager is already hell, but having such a burden, such an experience, just.

I loved this novel for many reasons, but something that stood out well and true was how real it was. How raw. I had to read The Hate U Give slowly. At first, I was flying through it, but when I reach the 80-page mark – I was a mess. The tears were flowing and they weren’t going to stop. So I read a couple chapters each day. But, it didn’t matter how many I read – I still cried.

The Hate U Give is so important not just for Americans, but everyone else in the world. It explores how injustice legal systems are. How people are prejudice, how they see someone just by the colour of the skin. By how they look. It’s not only heartbreaking in the book, but because it’s real. Because it’s happening, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

And even though I hated seeing Starr struggling with the decisions that she had to make, I also loved seeing it. Because like the whole book – it was real.

I’d ask him if he wished he shot me too

I loved the sense of family in The Hate U Give. While conventional at times, Starr’s family warmed my heart. They shared so much love between them, even if they didn’t always show it at times. They were there for each other when they need them most.

I also loved the romance, even though most of the foundation of the relationship has been built before the book, I adored seeing it grow. The Hate U Give explores the notion of interracial couples and how they are perceived. It was hard and heartbreaking, but gosh did it put a smile on my face.

Overall, if I could give this more stars I would. The Hate U Give is a brilliant and powerful story. It’s heartbreaking, poignant and so so true. It’s a book that everyone should read, and understand. The Hate U Give explores family, friendship and what is right. I wanted to cry, scream and hurt. So I beg you please pick up this book, read it, take it in and understand.

Have you read The Hate U Give? What did you think of it? Are you planning on reading it? Are there any other books that explore that matter that you have read or want to read? Let’s Chat!

Book Review: Magnus Chase and The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan

Dec 8, 2016

Magnus Chase and The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan

Pages: 512
Publish date: 4th October 2016
Publisher: Penguin Teen Australia
ISBN: 0141342552
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Thor’s hammer is missing again. The thunder god has a disturbing habit of misplacing his weapon – the mightiest force in the Nine Worlds. But this time the hammer isn’t just lost, it has fallen into enemy hands. If Magnus Chase and his friends can’t retrieve the hammer quickly, the mortal worlds will be defenceless against an onslaught of giants. Ragnarok will begin.

The Nine Worlds will burn. Unfortunately, the only person who can broker a deal for the hammer’s return is the gods’ worst enemy, Loki – and the price he wants is very high.

Magnus Chase and The Hammer of Thor:

This review will have spoilers from the previous book Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer.

I received a copy of Magnus Chase and the Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan from Penguin Teen Australia in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

When I pick up and Rick Riordan book I know that I am going to like it. It was just as hilarious, nail biting and adventurous as The Sword of Summer.

The Hammer of Thor continues to follow Magnus Chase son of Frey who is still coming to terms that he is an einherjar. Magnus’ life before these books was tough, and his life after death isn’t any better.

Someone has stolen Thor’s hammer…again. And who better to try and retrieve it than Magnus Chase and his squad. The hammer wasn’t just taken by anyone, it’s fallen into enemy hands. And if Magnus and his friends can’t retrieve it, well Ragnarok will begin and everything will be destroyed.

I don’t think there was anything that I didn’t like about The Hammer of Thor. It’s one of those books that makes you laugh at 1am, bit your nails and nearly bring you to tears. It’s everything that you want in a book, wrapped into one. The Hammer of Thor not only showcases the characters that we already know and love, but introduce us to more that you cannot help, but fall in love with.

Magnus is just as amazing as he was in The Sword of Summer. He is witty, fun and most of the time his a dork. But, that is why I love him. He has this compassion about him, and maybe that is also one of his faults. He cares, too much sometimes. And he will stop at nothing to help his friends.

Sam, oh my heart breaks for her. I liked her in the first book, but I grew to love her in The Hammer of Thor. I adored that she never wanted to give up on her beliefs, what she has grown up to believe – even when she is living in a world which goes against everything. Sam goes through some tough things in this book and I want everything to work out for her – because she totally deserves it.

Alex Fierro a shape-shifting child of Loki is introduced to the reader when Sam brings Alex to Valhalla. At first, Alex is hard to get along with, Alex is rude and simply doesn’t want to be there. But as the story goes on, we find out why and it’s totally understandable. Alex is also gender–fluid who identifies with he/she depending on the day. I love that Riordan was able to include someone who is gender-fluid, you don’t see it much in YA and it’s needed. It’s needed for those who want to understand who they are and might not know how. I love how Alex was so open and blunt about it. It was great to see.

The banter between the group was fantastic putting a massive smile on my face. Although Magnus, Sam and Alex all have different personalities, they all meshed together well.

Throughout The Hammer of Thor, we are going on a journey to find Thor’s hammer, but like most Riordan’s book, it’s not that simple. Our character sometimes are taken where we don’t expect. It might not work in other books, but the diversions work so well here.

Another thing that I loved about The Hammer of Thor was the diversity. I think it’s something that Riordan does so well. It’s nice to see different races, religions, sexualities and gender identifications and disabilities represented in a young adult novel. We are seeing it more and more, but we need it to be so that we don’t go looking for it.

Overall, The Hammer of Thor is an engaging hilarious novel that takes you on a journey that you never want to leave. It’s about friendship, family, and finding out who you are. It’s nail-biting, entertaining and one for everyone, plus with that last line – I am in need of the final book.

Have you read Magnus Chase the Hammer of Thor? Did you love it as much as me? Are you planning on reading it? Let’s Chat.

Book Review: The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Apr 18, 2016

The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

Pages: 496
Publish date: May 5th 2016
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471146146
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Andie has a plan. And she always sticks to her plan.

Future? A top-tier medical school.
Dad? Avoid him as much as possible (which isn’t that hard considering he’s a Congressman and he’s never around).
Friends? Palmer, Bri, and Toby—pretty much the most awesome people on the planet, who needs anyone else?
Relationships? No one’s worth more than three weeks.

So it’s no surprise that Andie’s got her summer all planned out too.

Until a political scandal costs Andie her summer pre-med internship, and lands both she and Dad back in the same house together for the first time in years. Suddenly she’s doing things that aren’t Andie at all—working as a dog walker, doing an epic scavenger hunt with her dad, and maybe, just maybe, letting the super cute Clark get closer than she expected. Palmer, Bri, and Toby tell her to embrace all the chaos, but can she really let go of her control?

The Unexpected Everything:

I received an arc of The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson from Simon and Schuster in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings about the book.

This was the first book that I read this year and silly me forgot to; 1. Take notes and 2. Write the review when I finished reading the book. So I had to re-read the book, so I don’t miss-lead anyone that is going to read the book.

The Unexpected Everything is the third Morgan Matson book that I’ve read and I am still surprised how she can interview so many different topics flawlessly. The Unexpected Everything deals with family, friendship, love and finding yourself.

The Unexpected Everything follows protagonist Andie Walker as her life turns into something that she cannot control. Andie likes to be in control and that has a lot to do with her father.

Andie is the daughter of a politician so her life has been filled with, do’s and don’ts, living by a timetable and being in the public eye and when this all nearly disappears; she is kind of left with nothing. She also likes to be in control of her relationships, she has never been a relationship for over 3 weeks. When he starts to want more from her, she runs.

She likes the idea of being free however, she is so used to having all these things that it is hard.

I like books about politicians’ children, I find them interesting. It gives something to the storyline that you don’t see often. Andie doesn’t have the best relationship with her father and that is mainly because of his job. We see at the start of the novel that their relationship is quite rocky, and the way that she speaks to him is quite…different and some people may not like it. However, I didn’t mind it given the circumstances.

I quite liked Andie as a protagonist. She has this innocence about her because of the way she grew up and now that a lot of that is gone, she needs to find herself and it was nice to see. At times I wanted to hit her on the head because of how closed off she was at times, but in true Morgan Matson style, it all worked out.

Even though she was hard headed at times, my heart did break for her.

Friendship was one of the major themes of The Unexpected Everything and it shone. The banter between Andie and her friends; Toby, Palmer and Bri was nice to see. They were a fun group and I giggled a lot when they were together. But, something The Unexpected Everything shows us that all friendships don’t work out and when you grow older, sometimes the person that you thought was your friend you don’t click with anymore.

The Unexpected Everything is full of fun moments, heartbreaking ones and overall very real, the problems that aroused in this book felt like they could very well happen and the way that Matson dealt with them felt real.

The romance was adorable and slow burning. It was enjoyable to see how they move forward in their relationship, from someone they bumped into, to friends and then into something more.

Clark is adorable, can he just be mine? What I loved about him is that he is an author and a pretty big one. It was truly nice to see an author writing a book, in a young adult novel. We do sometimes see it with protagonists, but I loved seeing it in a secondary character.

The only bad thing I would say about the book, is that I felt that it may have been too long for a contemporary. Some things did drag on and I felt that it could have been cut at parts.

Overall, I loved The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. It is a tale of friendship, family, love and unexpected adventures that all feels real. The Unexpected Everything is for every author, book lover and reader alike. It’s a beautiful story of friendship, heartbreak and family. Morgan Matson brings together a beautiful contemporary novel that makes you smile, laugh and cry.

Have you read The Unexpected Everything? Are you excited for The Unexpected Everything? Have you enjoyed Matson’s other books? Let’s Chat!