Review #66 - Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly

Deep Blue was always going to be a book I would find difficult to review. On the one hand, I did enjoy it but then on the other hand this book has so many flaws and things I have issues with. So bear that in mind.

Deep Blue is a mermaid book about prophecies, underwater genocide and a force that spends his life chasing mermaids round the seas so quickly it means none of the supporting characters can grow in the slightest.

This is a book with a primarily female set of characters. I love love love books with female characters because I often find that women create more complex characters in books. I struggled with the girls in this because they were extremely simplistic. As a result I didn't really care. I didn't care about their relationships and I didn't care about how tired they were from all that singing and swimming . I also found towards the end all the characters were introduced too quickly as if the author got bored while writing.

The first setting was introduced wonderfully. You have to credit Ms Donnelly, she did do some great world building. It felt a lot like Triton's castle from The Little Mermaid (is this something to do with the fact it's published by Disney Hyperion?). There was also a large emphasis on singing as it is the way the mermaids do magic spells.  I really enjoyed that bit. There were "cliffhangers" at the end of each chapter but they were mostly shockingly bad.

I felt a lot of the book that I was in PSHE or in a Greenpeace seminar as there was a lot of anti-commercial-fishing-propeganda. I do believe that it is important to educate about environmental issues but when it's being presented as statements that you just have to accept I become a little annoyed. I felt like the book was treating me like an idiot. The worst thing is this is marketed at 9-12 year olds and I don't like that this is trying to influence them. 

This book is, of course, the first book in the series. In classic publisher style, there is no hint of this on the cover. This is also your classic "first book in a series" as it is just a set up book and doesn't feel like a book in it's own right. It left me feeling really, really frustrated.

I would recommend this to you if:
You want to read a mermaid book that isn't as adult as September Girls
You want an undersea adventure
You believe passionately in both fantasy fiction and the environment

I gave this three stars

Buy it here

Inactivity

I am really aware I haven't been that active throughout September and I kind of want to explain why and what's happening in my life.

I've started my final year of full time education which I'm both really happy about and really sad about. I truly adore my school (sixth form college) and I'll be gutted to leave but I am excited to go to uni.

I turned 18 this weekend which was amazing and so much fun. I'm now an adult.

I am also involved in the UCAS process. I'm applying for biomedical sciences which I love the sound of and I truly have found my perfect degree. However, I am taking the BMAT so my workload is huge. I don't do many interviews so my personal statement is really important. I'm taking A2s in Maths, Biology and Chemistry.

I will try to keep writing but I'm sorry if I don't keep up. Last academic year I was pretty housebound as I was ill a lot so I did spend a lot more time writing and now I don't so much because I'm going out more. I do keep trying to write all the time even if it's not always on here. And I'm not sad with this change.

Sophie xox

Review #65 - Vivian vs the Apocalypse by Katie Coyle

Vivian vs the Apocalypse is about a girl who lives in America when it is gripped by a religious cult. On a certain day, "the rapture", the church believes that all of it's members will leave earth before the apocalypse. And on the day of the rapture her believing parents are gone, leaving her, two holes in the ceiling and the apocalypse.

This book is a little bit of everything. Primarily, it's apocalyptic and a lot of it is quite bleak which I find a little difficult to engage in as apocalyptic fiction isn't very fun to read. But then it's got this emphasis on friendship and I loved how it wasn't dismissive on friendships you form as a teenager. Then it also has this slightly odd road trip element which did try to inject some "fun" into what otherwise would have been a fairly depressing book. The only problem with that is they are travelling through an emotional apocalypse so it isn't very "let's go to a motel and eat fries and go to Yosemite" or cute.

The main reason to read this book is the plot. It twists and turns even though some bits do feel like the author was padding to get to a decent page number. It's just a very intruiging book.

The characters were very well done as they were strong and interesting and different. Their relationships were set up well. What really shines in this book are the relationships.

I will kind of give this book a trigger warning. It is fairly dark and I won't put an age on it but you do have to be fairly emotionally mature to really read it as it is really dark. I will also put a "trigger warning" as it's pretty anti religious. I did like the way it mocked modern culture (I did laugh out loud at some bits) but it does sort of mock the Bible. If this could upset you or you work for one of those US corporations that bans books I wouldn't recommend it.

I would recommend this if:

You love dystopias

You want a black comedy

You want a book with interesting relationships

I gave this four stars.

Buy it here 

Review #64 - Adorkable by Sarra Manning

Adorkable is about a girl who is internet famous and your preppy senior school guy. And they find out their boy/girlfriend is cheating on them. It's a romance with internet culture and self identity.

The plot was well done and the pace was maintained well throughout the book. I found the style was a little too simplistic and wasn't really "literature". It was more of the type of book people read at the beach. I would recommend it to younger readers because of the simplicity of the style but the romance is pretty intense and I can't guarantee it is suitable for all younger teens.

I really enjoyed the fact the book is about self worth and individuality and accepting yourself. I don't think this is really emphasised enough in teen fiction and it needs to be because so many people suffer with a lack of confidence. And again, I think it's a shame the romance is quite adult because this would have been a godsend to me in year 7/year 8/year 9.

I did find the main female character really really annoying, especially at the beginning. I did struggle to feel empathy at first. Also the two leads hate each other at the beginning which I felt lacked subtlety. However, the dialouge was done really well.

I did feel at times that Sara Manning was a little out of touch with internet culture which was a shame because there is a lot of emphasis on blogging. I just couldn't relate to it at all and I should have because I spend far too much time on social media.

I say all of this, it was an enjoyable book to read in the same way Honey Boo Boo is fun to watch. 

I would recommend this if:

You want something light

You want a book about self worth

You want a slightly different romance

I gave this four stars

Buy it here

Review #63 - The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

The Bone Season is a fantasy novel about Paige, a girl who is a dreamwalker in an undergroud crime circle in Scion London. However, following an event, most of this book is set in Oxford in Magdalen College.

I adored this book. A large part of my love for it comes from the setting of Oxford because it's my home town but also the way the fantasy world and the Oxford architecture are mixed is really well done. There's something very majestic about it. There's also a map at the beginning of the book which I always love.

The dialouge between two specific characters was so strong it physically gave me stomach ache while reading it. I didn't "ship it" so much as this certain male character filled a hole left in my soul by a very strong male character in Heir of Fire. I really disliked Paige as a character but it was fun to read as her. The dialouge was just very believable and sweet. 

The plot starts slowly so you learn to understand the large range of foreign terminology (it is very confusing at the beginning) but it speeds up and is maintained at a really good speed throughout until the end where it's going so fast you won't be able to stop reading.

I normally am not a large fan of books in series but this was a very complete book in its own right but I don't feel like it was too complete to have a sequel. I have preordered the sequel which will be released in January.

I would recommend this if:

You love Oxford

You want great dialouge

You want a good fantasy series 

I gave this five stars 

Buy the paperback here
Buy the hardback here

Review #62 - Popular by Maya Van Wagenen

Popular is the story of a girl in the USA on the border of Mexico who is really unpopular. She finds a book on popularity from the 50s and follows the advice to the word as a social experiment. This is her memoir.

Firstly, I wouldn't recommend this to you if you don't want to feel like you have achieved nothing in your life. Maya is a very young author, still in her teens and she writes really well. The pace was good, the story was told well and you really believe in the story. Non-fiction often doesn't make me feel any emotion, even biographies, but this was heart wrenching. You feel sorry for this girl, you cringe when you find out what the book tells her to wear and most of all you feel such compassion for a girl just trying to navigate high school. 

It's a really different take on non fiction and is really interesting to read. For one thing it depicts American High School in a way that isn't really documented in a non-fictional sense. It was also a really interesting concept. I did find her conclusions a bit twee and American dreamy which I didn't love. I felt like I was back at a Shamu show. It was just a bit over-sickly. That being said certain conclusions where she interviewed everyone were really really interesting and gave such a different take on popularity.

I would recommend this if:

You are starting senior school or high school

You want a biography that is accessible to teens

You want an intro into non fiction

I gave this four stars

But it here