Adult, Home, Mystery & Thriller, Thriller

Review: You by Caroline Kepnes

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When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.
There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.
As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder

3 out of 5

 

 

Trigger warnings: extremely sexual content, violence and stalking

I gotta hand it to Caroline Kepnes–for a debut novel, You is very, very, well-written, especially when considering the subject matter. The narration is the best part about this book–despite the unbelievably and disturbingly sexual language that Joe uses, despite the way he blames everybody but himself for his actions and his choices, despite the cold and calculating way he makes his plans without any thought to who he is harming, there were many instances throughout the story when I forgot that he was the bad guy. I am not gonna say that I ever rooted for him or supported his thoughts, but there were times when I found myself reading the book and thinking of him as just another regular male protagonist who is madly in love with a woman who does not love him back. That is not the story here though, and Joe’s obsession with Beck was something that will probably haunt me for a long time. I also loved the unreliability of Joe’s narration. Because of the way he perceives others and the world itself, and because we are reading the story from his perspective, I often had to figure out myself what the reality really was because Joe’s reality is extremely deluded.

However, despite the strong narration, the plot was flimsy at best. Everything was too easy for Joe–from stalking Beck to being able to interfere in her life the way he did–he was able to do all of it because of the carelessness of both Beck and the other supportive characters. I truly do not mean to blame the victim, but there are certain things you know not to do no matter how screwed up you are or how safe you feel in your neighborhood, especially when you are a twenty-something adult living all by yourself. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I realize that it wasn’t really that much of a challenge for Joe to do the things that he does in this novel, because all the characters are so incredibly stupid and reckless about their own personal safety.

In fact, this book has a plot simply because the characters lack common sense and intelligence. If the characters here did not make the mistakes that they did, the plot really would not have progressed very far.

Speaking of the plot, although Joe’s narration made it really easy for me to fly through the book, halfway in to the story I became extremely bored because of how repetitive and predictable everything was. I feel like this book should have been shorter, and several chapters here should have been simply cut, because they just were not necessary. The predictability and repetitiveness of the story made it difficult for me to finish this book, because after the 50% mark, every time I picked up the book I put it down again thinking “meh I know what’s gonna happen.” And I did. There really was no element of surprise after the 50% mark.

All in all, this was a good read, but not good enough that I would recommend it to anyone.

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Have you ever read a book that gave you nightmares? Or haunted you for a long time? Which one was it and what made you want to read it?

Home, Other Bookish Stuff

Reading Challenges And Why I Love Them

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Most of you who are active in the book community–and by active I mean, you talk to other book lovers and participate in reading groups and what not–are already familiar with reading challenges. They are a fun way to read more books and to step out of your comfort zone and read more widely as well. But they can also be stressful and daunting, especially if you have a busy schedule (or if you have terrible time management skills like me).

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Home, Other Bookish Stuff, Stray Thoughts

October Resolutions

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I love the last day of a month and the first day of the month, because there is something about moving from one month to the next that makes me feel inspired and encouraged. New beginnings and all that jazz. September was a good month for me, and I look forward to whatever October is bringing.

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Home, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult

Review: The Bone Witch (The Bone Witch 1) by Rin Chupeco

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Ratings: ☕☕☕☕☕ (5/5)

Let me be clear: I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise. If there’s anything I’ve learned from him in the years since, it’s that the dead hide truths as well as the living.

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training.

In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha-one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice

I have so much to say about this book.

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco is the kind of book I describe with words like “enchanting” and “intriguing” instead of my most commonly used adjectives in my book reviews like “exciting” or “amazing”. There really is no better description for this book. This is not the kind of fantasy that will steal your heart away with a fast-paced, action-packed plot, badass heroines and swoon-worthy heroes.
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Home, Young Adult

Review: The Iron King (The Iron Fey#1) by Julie Kagawa

The Iron KingRatings: ☕☕☕☕☕

Meghan Chase has a secret destiny; one she could never have imagined.
Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school or at home.
When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.
But she could never have guessed the truth – that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil, no faery creature dare face; and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart

Oh where do I begin?

The last time I read The Iron King was back when I was thirteen and the only other YA book I had read before was the Twilight Saga (before then I mostly would read Bengali titles and Classics). Obviously, since thirteen is quite an impressionable age, lately I couldn’t help but wonder if this book is actually as good as I thought it was. Hence the reason why I decided to re-read this book after nearly eight years of first reading.

And boy oh boy did I love it!

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The Iron King is a wonderful fantasy novel that has an excellent world building, and incredible plot, and characters who not only develop and change in major ways

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Dystopia, Home, Young Adult

Review: Glass Sword (Red Queen#2) by Victoria Aveyard

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Ratings: ☕☕☕☕☕ (5/5)

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Trigger Warning: contains some scenes of graphic violence and torture. PG-13 

This is my review for the second book of the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. Do not read this review if you have not read the previous book, as this review contains spoilers from the previous book. To see my review of Red Queen, click here.

If I thought Red Queen was “sweet” torture–you know, the kind of book that is really bad for your emotional stability but so addictive that you can’t help but want to keep reading it–then Glass Sword was, simply put, pure devastation. This book wrecked me, left emotional scars that will take a long time to heal, and made me have trust issues. Victoria Aveyard does not pull any punches, so if you are planning on picking this book up, readers beware: you are in for abrasive, ruthless protagonists, a violent psychopathic antagonist, and of course let’s not forget the disastrous fates of some beloved characters from the previous book.

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Home, Top 10 Tuesday

Books I Wish Were Made Into TV Shows

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Happy Tuesday guys! I am here with September’s first Top Ten Tuesday post, a weekly original meme made by the lovelies at The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s post is a tv-themed topic, and so I am going to list a few books that I wish were made into TV shows.

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Dystopia, Home, Young Adult

Review: Ignite Me (Shatter Me#3) by Tahereh Mafi

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This is my review of the third and final installment of the Shatter Me series by Tahereh MafiTo see my review of the previous books, click here (book 1) and here (book 2).

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Review: ☕☕☕☕(4/5)

That awkward moment when you are supposed to review a book but it’s so incredibly, inexpressibly great that you really have no idea how to articulate your thoughts so you could explain the magic that this book is.

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Ignite Me by  Tahereh Mafi was everything I wanted it to be, which is to say a lot because my expectations for this book was probably as high as Mt. Everest. After the way Unravel Me ended, I couldn’t help but want to see how the writer ties it all up in the last and final book of the series. Safe to say, I was not disappointed at all.

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Home, Retellings, Young Adult

Review: A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston

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Rating: 4/5 ☕☕☕☕

Last week I reviewed The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdeih, a retelling of the classic One Thousand and One Nights story, and I found myself having a rather negative unpopular opinion about it. Deciding that it would be best if TWATD and I parted our ways before our relationship could become more toxic, I chose to try my luck with E.K. Johnston’s A Thousand Nights instead. And I have a lot to say about it.

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