Review #31 - The Boy in the Smoke by Maureen Johnson

This will be a short review as this is a very short book. In fact it's a World Book Day (not to be confused with World Book Night) novella. It is a prequel to The Name of the Star, the only book that made me scared to go to sleep in a room full of people.

World Book Day is a day where primary school children dress up and every student in full time education gets a £1 book token, which you may think is not much as every book is £7 rrp, but they release several books for £1 each, and this was one of them. It is YA because it is quite haunting (it's not Children's).

This was much less tense than The Name of the Star as The Name of the Star had this big build up, from the least scary thing you've ever read to the scariest. This wasn't as scary but that could be to do with it's limited page number. I did find the bit in the house pretty haunting though.

I love the British elements of culture and I adore the fact it's set in London. It just talks about A Levels and places that I know. Out of all the books I've read, this is the one that captures my British upbringing the most.

This had a good backstory and it was fast moving but a good pace, even for the short length of the book. The emotions were captured really well.

I would recommend this if:
You want more Name of the Star
You want a lighter ghost story
You need a book for your goodreads reading challenge

Despite it's short length I enjoyed it. I gave it three stars.

Review #30 - Struck By Lightning: The Carson Phillips Journal by Chris Colfer

I found this book in Waterstones, read the blurb and loved the sound of it. Blackmail? In a high school? To benefit the chances of one guy getting into uni? It sounds amazing. And it's just been made into a film. It must be good.

When I read the words "now a major motion picture" that suggests to me that this book has been made into a movie. This is not the case with Struck by Lightning. It is a movie that had been made into a book. I don't understand how publicists thought this was a "good strategy". People who have watched the movie will be bored by the book and everyone else will just want to watch the film. The book had a lot of flaws due to it originally being a movie.

It was a very visual book and used a lot of description which normally I love, but this didn't really pull it off. I think because it is a film it tried to recreate visual "gags" that just didn't translate to prose (I had no idea what was happening during the pencil scene).

The writing wasn't that great. It was too factual and overly-clear and lacked the subtlety I know and love. I think this is because it is a screenplay written by an actor. Where you would use your body language as an actor, Chris Colfer wrote it out clearly. It wasn't that fun to read.

The plot though was so good I kept reading. It has intrigue and it is thought provoking.

I would recommend this if:
You are a huge gleek who's entire life in glee
If you want some "brainless" reading

Honestly, I'd just watch the movie.

I gave this two stars

A Brief Medical Wrap Up

This week's medical wrap up is much briefer because they take a long time and I've had mocks all week.

Trastuzumab Emtansine is the new cancer drug developed by Roche. Unfortunately it costs £90,000 for an extra six months of life per patient and the NHS have decided that it's too expensive. Pressure is being put on Roche to lower prices.

26% of Doctors are non-British in NHS hospitals. This causes some concern as they may not be as highly qualified or as able as people who get turned away at interview in the UK (cough can we have more places for Med School, seriously, please let me in).

Imperial have done several statistical health maps. It's pretty interesting to look at:

Full posts shall resume shortly

World Book Night 2014

World Book Night is an annual event where the reading agency gives away 1000's of books to people to start a love of reading. It has a set of volunteers that must prove they have the same values as WBN and give away 18 copies of their chosen book (out of 20 that they can choose).

I was picked as a donor which I was so happy about to give 18 copies of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. I was so happy because I love this book so much ever since I read it age 11.

I made all the labels myself. I'm pretty proud.


These are the parcels that are going out:

Where did my books go?
3 books went to people I knew.
2 books went to postmen by posting them in the letterboxes.

2 books went to my local station

3 books went to my station I travel to

1 book was left on a west city bus by a friend of mine

The remaining 7 books were distributed down the roads near my college, in bus shelters and letter boxes, in the baskets of bikes and in the oranges in Sainsburys. We left one on a car.

There was one in particular Nithya and I left on a table outside a pub. We looked behind us and a man started walking past it while looking at it. He then turned back and picked it up. It felt absolutely amazing.

Thank you so much World Book Night for the amazing opportunity. I hope I can do it next year. 

If you did find a WBN book today, I hope it starts a love of reading in you.

Review #28 - Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini

Be More Chill is a book about Jeremy Heere who is at the bottom of the social ladder (side note - there are so many books and films about people at the bottom of the social ladder - what about people in the middle?). He gets a mini supercomputer implanted in his brain so he can become cool and get the girl.

Be More Chill is written by the same author who wrote It's Kind of a Funny Story. I expected this to be a book on depression as I know Ned Vizzini struggled with depression all his life and killed himself last year. It wasn't at all. It was about social status and getting through High School and it was very different to what I was expecting which I really enjoyed. It was funny and observational and just fun to read.

Be More Chill was pretty hard to put down. It really is everything that is wonderful about Ned Vizzini in one book and that was wonderful. It just had a great plot idea and the squip had wonderful dialogue. There was a lot of social commentary hidden beneath the surface: how hard it is to be popular in high school, what computers and modern society are doing to us, and why popularity isn't the be all and end all.

I did feel it was quite gender specific which I did find a shame because of this infatuation with a girl and getting a guy to like you is so different for getting a girl to like you that it locked me out a bit. The rest was really accessible though, so sorry for my criticisms. I found it accessible even though senior school sounds really different to High School.

I would recommend this if:
You loved It's Kind of a Funny Story
You want a book about High School popularity with a twist
You want a book that's funny and accessible.

I gave this four stars.


P.S. My friend Nina did an amazing book haul which you should totally check out.

Review #27 - Half Bad by Sally Green

Half Bad is the first in a new series of UKYA books about a boy who is half white witch, half black witch. The white witches are known to be good and the black witches are known to be evil. The black witch who is the father is the most dangerous witch of all time. 

The first part of the book is in second person which is a really interesting stylistic choice so the book does feel really raw. The rest of the book is in first person which changed the tone quite drastically but it was still pretty good. It wasn't quite as powerful.

The book is really exciting and that is it's main reason you should read this. It is really gripping and I think that's why it is sold on such a wide scale (I mean WH Smiths is selling it as one of the 10 YA books it sell). I could not put it down. I would say this was an adventure book. I often feel adventure books have to be in the 9-12 section of a bookshop and this was wonderful because it was an age appropriate adventure book. Sally Green did wonderful things.

The book does have a part of it that is in the past and most that is in the present. The bit in the past is relatively on and explains why he is in a cage and why his family dynamic is what it is. I felt like the family dynamic was very similar to the one from Ender's Game.

The style was quite different from that usual UKYA style which I really enjoyed as the author just felt really confident with her voice and that was really refreshing. It's different.

I would recommend this if:

You want to read a fantasy YA book
You feel like something a bit different
You want a book you just can't put down

I wouldn't recommend this if: you actually want to revise

I gave this four stars 

Review #26 - Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake is the story of Snowman and his past life as Jimmy and the Children of Crake.

Miranda lent me her copy of Oryx and Crake as I'd never read any Margaret Atwood before. She's often heralded as this superb author - Margaret Atwood, not Miranda though I'm sure Miranda is good at writing - (to quote one of my sister's friend's mum: "she's a seminal author") and I did really enjoy her style. I found it different which is what I really loved because so many adult books have the same style and plot: "let's discuss family issues". The sentences were just constructed well and differently and creatively and I loved that.

I really liked the way that the story flicked from past to present a lot. At first the present is super confusing but then it becomes understandable as more of the past is revealed to us chronologically.

The ending is really ambiguous and I'm not sure if I'm ok with that yet. I know there are sequels but Miranda said they're really unsatisfying. I just like it when books finish neatly and wholly and this book didn't do anything like that. I think it's a shame.

I found it at first hard to get in to as the style is quite heavy. There are books that are more "academic" and require more concentration, for example anything by Jeffrey Eugenides. This book was fairly academic. It's not a light read. That being said I did really get into it when it started to become a little less confusing and it did really gain momentum.

I feel like this is the next natural step for someone who wants a dystopia which is a little more adult and serious because it is a dystopia and the human race has died out. It's quite political, in a science way, without being a corrupt government killing you if you're rebelling/different.

I would recommend this to you if you wanted to read:

A dystopia which isn't YA

A fat, home-alone-day book

A book with a social commentary

I gave this four stars.

P.S. I'm writing quite creatively today which sounds really artsy but really it's 11pm and I've spent the last four hours travelling and I can't be bothered to grammar.

Review #25 - The Demigod Diaries by Rick Riordan

One of my Babysitting kids lent me this because she knows how much I love Percy Jackson. It's a Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus companion novel with a set of short stories: A Luke and pre-tree Thalia, a Percibeth story just after the final Percy Jackson book, a Leo novel and one written by Rick Riordans son based on a demigod who fought on Kronos' side. If I've forgotten any it means they were boring.

I've seriously missed Percy Jackson during the Heroes of Olympus series because the first series was witty and smart and had fantastic characters (I miss Clarisse so badly) and the Heroes of Olympus has some serious flaws. This companion novel takes the stuff I've missed from Percy Jackson and puts it all into one book. It's glorious. 

For one thing, Hermes is back. Have we not missed the Greek, non messed up gods? Yes, we have. I miss Poseidon and Zeus and Hades and Apollo and Artemis and Mr D and Ares (punk) and Hermes and who can forget George and Martha. That's right, the rats are back. It was just so good to have more God action.

I liked the fact some was in first person. Luke's narrative was, kind of, super unsubtle but Percy was back and narrating and it was wonderful for that Percy Jackson nostalgia. We've missed you, well I certainly have.

Leo's story was more Percy Jackson like than the Heroes of Olympus series but I don't like Jason Grace (and I write this in Zeus' domain which is worrying me a bit but Dear Zeus, as you are polishing up your lightening bolt ready to zap me, I still totally respect you as a God). I just thought it was smarter than I expected.

The dark horse of this book is definitely Rick Riordan's son's book. He's a very similar age to me and his story is so darn inventive and smart. It is so perspective and wonderful while still maintaining all that action that we love Percy Jackson for. It was wonderful. Can he become a published author please?

(We have turbulence. Zeus is taking his revenge.)

I would recommend you read this if:

You want another Percy Jackson book without being filled with Jason Grace

You want to add information to the story

You want a Percibeth moment

You want more George and Martha

This book is really great. I give it four stars.

Review #33 - Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss

I got Year of the Rat as an ARC by Simon and Schuster (and I would like to thank them profusely for that). It's a YA novel about a girl, Pearl, who loses her mother through childbirth of her new sister "the rat". It covers Pearl's grief and hatred of her new little sister because she believes The Rat killed her mother.

What is different about this book on grief is that the mother comes back every so often to talk to Pearl. You don't know if it's a figment of Pearl's grieving imagination or if it really is her mother from the afterlife. I really liked that psychological twist.

The writing style was very clearly British Contemporary YA. There's a very specific style that is pulled off really well by some authors, and most authors make it tedious. I loved the style at first but it did start to grate on me after a while but that could be to do with my exposure to UKYA and most of my books are UKYA. I just sometimes wish that maybe we could adopt a different voice.

There were a lot of plot lines all happening at once which I really liked because often books only focus on one thing and this had lots of aspects: her grief for her mother, her relationship with her father, how she deals with a new sibling, her relationship with her best friend and her love interest. It made the book become much more real.

If I had a criticism it would be that the characters did change very quickly and that was a little unrealistic. I also felt that Pearl was an extreme antihero up to the point where she became annoying. I understand that grief is hard but she hated The Rat so much that it just made me dislike her. Otherwise the book was really good.

I wouldn't say this was a "summer book" but it's great for Spring. It's quite serious but the style is light enough so this isn't a chore to read.

I would recommend this if you feel like: 

Contemporary YA

A book that talks eloquently about grief

A book that focuses on all aspects of family and identity

 It comes out April 24th.

Review #24 - The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

I'm thinking about how to write this review without gushing. This will inevitably be hard.

The Assassin's Blade is the prequel to Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. I saw her speak in October and I love the TOG series *breathes deeply*. This is a set of five novellas which are amazing. I can't write this review and quite justify how good it is because I don't have thoughts I just have heaps of emotions.

Ok. Here we go.

The Throne of Glass series is about a female teenage Assassin, Celaena Sardothien, who was captured and worked in a mine as a slave until she is made to compete in a challenge to become the king's royal assassin. This book is set before she gets sent to the mine.

Each novella is well developed and adds to the original series. I would read the books in the order in which they came out as I believe it adds more to the plot. I think you need sufficient backstory knowledge from the existing series to fully appreciate these fantastic prequels.

Out of all the novellas I liked the Assassin and the Desert the best because I know, I know everyone loves Sam but I loved the mute master as a sort of badass-dumbledore character. Celaena continues to be one of my all time favourite female characters and Arobynn is King of the Douches. I believe that Celaena should be regarded as the best female YA character of all time and I applaud Sarah J Maas for her ability to create such a strong female who  he readers can aspire to be.

The Assassin's Blade was a gripping as the other two books and is wonderful. The pace is fantastic, as ever.

Sarah J Maas does things with words that Shakespeare could be a little jealous of.

Five stars for you Glenn Coco you go Glenn Coco.