Review: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Grade: 4 Butterflies
Series: Stand Alone
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Goodreads Summary

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

So, I've heard nothing but praise for this book. Everyone, it seemed, loves this book. I was always very curious about this book, but me and contemporaries have a very tipsy and unbalanced relationship and I really wasn't in the mood to be disappointed by a book.  However, a few days ago I bought this one on impulse and started it right as soon as I got home. I am so glad that I did! This book was such a great read and it leaves you with a bubbly and giddy feeling. This was just a great book!

This book is about Cath and her coming out of her shell and greeting life. Cath is a very shy and nerdy girl (book nerds unite!!), she is so shy she sometimes gets panic attacks. Cath and her twin sister Wren are just going off to collage and Wren basically abandons her so she could expand her wings so to speak. One of the main reasons that I loved this book was that it wasn't this coming of age story where the main character thinks about her life and what she wants from it and hates herself and doesn't like her life or herself. This book does have some of those aspects, but they were balanced with other aspects. It wasn't just one serious thought train of the MCs life, it was about Cath's life in her freshman year in collage and she is adjusting and she does have great character development, but it felt natural and normal. It didn't feel like anything monumental was happening, it just felt like she was living her life and she gradually grew throughout, which made the book so much more realistic and relateable!! What I am trying to say is that it wasn't all seriousness, most of the book was dripping with cuteness even while it dealt with serious aspects of Cath's life.

The flow of the book was just so naturally and never felt forced or choppy. The author did a really good job balancing the growth of the characters, Cath's life, Cath's love life, and her relationship with Levi, balancing cuteness and seriousness. Speaking of their relationship, this romance was the cutest thing ever!! It doesn't really come into play until the second half, but their relationship before they got romantic was cute and their relationship after they got romantic was cuter, it was all just so cute!! And very well done. Their relationship was beautifully written that  it felt like a real life relationship and Cath and Levi seemed so right for each other.

I just really loved this book! I really loved that even though it wasn't just a huge block of seriousness it still had it's drama and character development. I really like the mom aspect it had and the fight between Wren and Cath. It was very well done and added to the plot without dominating the plot.

However, there was one thing that I didn't like about this book. It felt incomplete. I wish there was 20 or so more pages because the ending felt choppy and didn't feel like an ending. While Cath's character development felt like it finished and her relationship with her and Levi was on a good track the rest of it was kind of unexplained. We didn't get a resolution between the mom thing, we don't know if she finished Carry On, we don't know how they made it through the summer. I wish there were more pages that told us these things because it just didn't feel like an ending. Heck the book ended with a Simon Snow exert instead of a scene of Cath and Levi or just a normal scene in its own world.

Even with the unfinished feeling to the ending I really loved this book. In my mind this was a contemporary done right! It was the perfect balance between seriousness and cuteness, drama and normality, it was just written so well!! I loved the characters, the plot, the drama, the romance, almost everything but the ending. I would recommend to anyone who even slightly likes contemporaries, heck if you don't like contemporary I would still recommend this book.

This book got...

 4 Butterflies

Beloved, This is a really good book!

Recommended if you like:
Gayle Forman books, contemporaries, love stories, and coming to age stories. 

Happy reading

Review: The Knife Of Never Letting Go

Grade: 4.5 Butterflies

Series: Chaos Walking #1
Author: Patrick Ness
Publisher: Walker

Goodreads Summary


Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.

But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

So, this book series has some....or rather a lot of hype surrounding it. So many people have read this series and love it! I don't think I've encountered anyone who has read it that didn't end up loving it.
So, naturally I was curious and just now got to reading it (I know you're not suppose to judge a book by its cover, but besides the hype, I bought this book because of its beautiful new covers). I am so glad I started this series! This book was pure genius! I was just so freaking amazing!!

If you don't know, this book is about the life of Todd who lives in a town where people can hear the Noise. The Noise is basically people's thoughts. So, everyone can hear each other thoughts, but they can never shout it out of stop their own Noise and the Noise just isn't people's rational thoughts, but also the nonsense. So people hear the constant stream of conscience from other people and it gets overpowering sometimes. One day Todd hears, or rather doesn't hear, a pocket of quietness in the outskirts of town. This creates a landslide of events that makes Todd have to leave the town, which is bad because he has been told his whole life that Prentisstown is the last town on the planet.

That disruption is really vague on what actually happens in this book, but that is how you should go into this book. There are so many twists and turns in this book, and most are about the world. Its just better to go into this one knowing as little as possible about the world.

Speaking of the world, the world building in this book was great!! Patrick Ness did a fantastic job on building this world, both visually and socially. While sometimes he wouldn't describe how something visually looks, but he was great at describing the tone of a place. If a path through the woods was dark and creepy he would make sure you would be as terrified as the characters to go down that path.

This book is a lot darker and more emotional than I thought going into it. I thought that this was going to be an action packed book and while it was full of action it was beautifully balanced with the emotional troubles of the characters. The author wrote how much the Noise affect Todd and the other characters and it was just so heartbreaking to read!! Added on to that, I love how many themes the author put into this book! The theme of killing and how that effects people, racism, dealing with pain, and many more. These themes made this book just so beautiful to read.

The one thing I had a slight issue with in this book was while the plot had a good pace and never had a boring part I wasn't really immersed in this book until the last half. I don't know why thing is, maybe because even with all the character development I didn't really connect with them until closer towards the end. I think this is because the issues they were having I have never felt before. I don't know what's it like to always hear people's thought or what it's like to live on that planet. However, towards the end the other themes, the ones I mentioned before, came more into play and I completely got into this book!

Overall, I am so thankful that I finally read this book and I can't wait to continue this series!! This world was so captivating to read about, the plot never faltered in it's pace, so many great themes were beautifully woven into the story, I loved it!! I would recommend to anyone who hasn't read this one yet.

This book got.....

4.5 Butterflies

Beautiful, this is a great book. 

Recommended if you like: Fantasy, contemporary, dystopian.

Happy reading!

I'm Back!!

I'm Back!!

I"m back guys!! School has been.......hectic to say the least. It took me a while to get into a rhythm and then even longer to get into one that gives me time to read. So, that;s why I'm not posting or even looking at your guy's posts, but I am back now. I am determined to force myself to get into a rhythm that involves blogging. I will do this! I'm going to start posting regularly next Monday with a review for Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 

So, how have you guys been? I haven't visited any blogs in the last few weeks at all and I feel really sad and sorry about that. I'll let Cas speak for me

I wish that I at least kept up with my favorite blogs and blogger friends. But how have you guys been? Was September a good month for you? A bad month? A busy month? Tell me in the comments :)

Happy reading