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alexcannotread's Reviews (224)
"...What is it dependent on? What is there beyond what we create and leave behind?"
★
Usually when I read a YA book, it's because I've been getting too freaked from the usual horror novels I get absorbed in to and need a light read, a nice break. This book, I picked up because I realized I lost my current precious horror novel and needed something that would bring up my spirits in a short amount of time.
I barely even looked around when trying to find one, and I grabbed this without even reading the blurb. I just thought "this is popular, it's gotta be at least a little bit entertaining, right?" Boy, what an understatement.
★
*REVIEW* (Contains spoilers)
4 Stars!
I'm pretty sure I say this about most YA novels I read, but this one seriously had me grinning like an idiot. A lot. I really love the way Eliza was written, because to me, she's accurately described as an anxious teenage girl who's constantly sucked into the internet would be - snappy, distracted, and antisocial when forced to interact with people.
Other things I loved about this book - how her secret got out. With her parents being so left out of her life and so unknowingly of everything going on, it makes sense that they'd give away her secret accidentally. I feel like it was a perfect way for it to happen, rather then the author deciding to write some other crappy climax, like "her account was hacked" or "she was betrayed" or something stupid like that.
The little conversations within all of the forum chats were also hilarious (I pretty much laughed out loud every time the "12 year old in college" joke was mentioned.) If I felt like quickly rereading something to get my spirits up, I'd read some of their forum messages and be right back up.
The only reasons why this wasn't a full 5 was this:
-I couldn't imagine what Wallace looked like at all. I mean, looks like a football player, but is super quiet and also likes writing fan fiction? I know that anyone can look like anything, but my imagination just couldn't correlate with this description.
-Wallace complains about how he has a pretty bad life near the end, but the way his home life is shown, it's really not that bad. So, him getting so pissed at Eliza kinda of annoyed me. It felt more like an "I'm getting told "No" and now I'm going to be a brat" kind of moment rather then a "a major event just occurred and now my future is in jeopardy because of you" moment.
-The ending felt a bit half assed and a bit boring. Just a little bit! Not too bad, still.
★
All in all, this was a really good read and I'd definitely recommend this to you if you're generally into YA, just looking for a light read, or want to read something that can allow you to relate to other people who like fan fiction (since moving on to primarily horror, I don't really read fan fiction anymore, but I use to love it and one series that actually got popular enough to be printed out into book form is one of my favorite series of all time)
★
Usually when I read a YA book, it's because I've been getting too freaked from the usual horror novels I get absorbed in to and need a light read, a nice break. This book, I picked up because I realized I lost my current precious horror novel and needed something that would bring up my spirits in a short amount of time.
I barely even looked around when trying to find one, and I grabbed this without even reading the blurb. I just thought "this is popular, it's gotta be at least a little bit entertaining, right?" Boy, what an understatement.
★
*REVIEW* (Contains spoilers)
4 Stars!
I'm pretty sure I say this about most YA novels I read, but this one seriously had me grinning like an idiot. A lot. I really love the way Eliza was written, because to me, she's accurately described as an anxious teenage girl who's constantly sucked into the internet would be - snappy, distracted, and antisocial when forced to interact with people.
Other things I loved about this book - how her secret got out. With her parents being so left out of her life and so unknowingly of everything going on, it makes sense that they'd give away her secret accidentally. I feel like it was a perfect way for it to happen, rather then the author deciding to write some other crappy climax, like "her account was hacked" or "she was betrayed" or something stupid like that.
The little conversations within all of the forum chats were also hilarious (I pretty much laughed out loud every time the "12 year old in college" joke was mentioned.) If I felt like quickly rereading something to get my spirits up, I'd read some of their forum messages and be right back up.
The only reasons why this wasn't a full 5 was this:
-I couldn't imagine what Wallace looked like at all. I mean, looks like a football player, but is super quiet and also likes writing fan fiction? I know that anyone can look like anything, but my imagination just couldn't correlate with this description.
-Wallace complains about how he has a pretty bad life near the end, but the way his home life is shown, it's really not that bad. So, him getting so pissed at Eliza kinda of annoyed me. It felt more like an "I'm getting told "No" and now I'm going to be a brat" kind of moment rather then a "a major event just occurred and now my future is in jeopardy because of you" moment.
-The ending felt a bit half assed and a bit boring. Just a little bit! Not too bad, still.
★
All in all, this was a really good read and I'd definitely recommend this to you if you're generally into YA, just looking for a light read, or want to read something that can allow you to relate to other people who like fan fiction (since moving on to primarily horror, I don't really read fan fiction anymore, but I use to love it and one series that actually got popular enough to be printed out into book form is one of my favorite series of all time)
"...a book with stories in it about an off-beat prison-break, an old man and a young boy locked up in a gruesome relationship based on a mutual parasitism, a quartet of country boys on a journey of discovery, and an off-the-wall horror story about a young woman determined to give birth to her child no matter what (or maybe the story is actually about an odd club that isn't a club.)" -From the Afterword)
This book was absolutely amazing, but I would like to start this off by saying that first-time readers should definitely read this book backwards (no, not the words backwards! I meant start with the last novella and end with the first) Once again, I thought every story was amazing, but I feel like it would have been a build up from alright - to good - to great - to WOW - had the order been reversed.
If read in that order, I would say that each story you read will be better then the last (although I'm still torn between whether my favorite was Shawshank or Apt Pupil - God, it's so hard to decide!)
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The reason why I picked up this book of collection in the first place, out of all S.K. to-be-reads I could have chosen, was because of this novella. I'm one of those people who feel a need to read the book before watching the movie, and when I saw the movie state in the opening credits that the Shawshank Redemption was an adaption from a novella, I couldn't have paused it faster.
The plot of a wrongly convicted man serving life in prison and surviving on his perpetual hope for freedom instantly hooked me and I was pretty much bouncing on the balls of my feet in excitement when I'd finally gotten my hands on this. This story was very light, but also clever. I also loved the fact that pretty much each character was written in a way that could be likable, or at least completely bearable. Even the characters you're suppose to hate didn't make you seethe in your seat - each one had some sort of likability to them.
Overall, I rate this novella ★★★★★
Apt Pupil
I'm still debating on whether I loved Shawshank or Apt Pupil Better. This is one of those dark, twisted stories that if you told it to your friend in public, they'd look at you like you might be as messed up as the characters in the story themselves.
This is a story of a boy and an ex-Nazi involved in an what was a dark obsession that became a parasitic relationship. As the story evolves, you'll fine yourself thinking "I hate HIM!" "No, now I hate HIM!" "You know what? I hate BOTH OF THEM!"
As awful as that sounds, it honestly just adds to the excitement of the story - hating both characters, hating what they're doing, but still itching to see them win in the end.
Overall, I rate this novella ★★★★★
The Body
Overall, I rate this novella ★★★★
The Breathing Method
Overall, I rate this novella ★★
Hurrah for me, If I ever decide to write the reviews for the remaining two novellas.
This book was absolutely amazing, but I would like to start this off by saying that first-time readers should definitely read this book backwards (no, not the words backwards! I meant start with the last novella and end with the first) Once again, I thought every story was amazing, but I feel like it would have been a build up from alright - to good - to great - to WOW - had the order been reversed.
If read in that order, I would say that each story you read will be better then the last (although I'm still torn between whether my favorite was Shawshank or Apt Pupil - God, it's so hard to decide!)
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
The reason why I picked up this book of collection in the first place, out of all S.K. to-be-reads I could have chosen, was because of this novella. I'm one of those people who feel a need to read the book before watching the movie, and when I saw the movie state in the opening credits that the Shawshank Redemption was an adaption from a novella, I couldn't have paused it faster.
The plot of a wrongly convicted man serving life in prison and surviving on his perpetual hope for freedom instantly hooked me and I was pretty much bouncing on the balls of my feet in excitement when I'd finally gotten my hands on this. This story was very light, but also clever. I also loved the fact that pretty much each character was written in a way that could be likable, or at least completely bearable. Even the characters you're suppose to hate didn't make you seethe in your seat - each one had some sort of likability to them.
Overall, I rate this novella ★★★★★
Apt Pupil
I'm still debating on whether I loved Shawshank or Apt Pupil Better. This is one of those dark, twisted stories that if you told it to your friend in public, they'd look at you like you might be as messed up as the characters in the story themselves.
This is a story of a boy and an ex-Nazi involved in an what was a dark obsession that became a parasitic relationship. As the story evolves, you'll fine yourself thinking "I hate HIM!" "No, now I hate HIM!" "You know what? I hate BOTH OF THEM!"
As awful as that sounds, it honestly just adds to the excitement of the story - hating both characters, hating what they're doing, but still itching to see them win in the end.
Overall, I rate this novella ★★★★★
The Body
Overall, I rate this novella ★★★★
The Breathing Method
Overall, I rate this novella ★★
Hurrah for me, If I ever decide to write the reviews for the remaining two novellas.
"When we think of the past it's the beautiful things we pick out. We want to believe it was all like that"
This novel is set in a future (since the novel was written in 1953 and takes place some time after the late 1980s at least) America where social classes have been created that most specifically segregate men and women after an abrupt, theonomic government take over.
This story started as as being very deep and dark (possibly too dark, for me at least) and quickly turned into boredom. Around probably around 80-100 pages I contemplated giving up on it, but at some point it peaked my interest again, enough for me to get comfortable.
I thought it might be able to completely turn around my opinions of the novel.
Then it ended.
When it did, I was very confused at first when it did not continue. It felt more or less like a transitional chapter and left many questions unanswered. Had the story ended in a different way or continued, I may have rated this higher. However, that is not the only reason why I disliked it.
For one thing, It’s not clear what many of the characters are doing or what is being worked for, other then the Handmaids whose sole purpose is for reproduction. The wives don’t do anything and it seems unclear what the commanders do or what their motives are as well.
Another reason why I disliked the novel is also because I do not sympathize with the narrator. Her character is boring and frankly her past (which is brought up in reminisces throughout the novel) is boring and somewhat annoying as well.
There’s never any information on what happened to her family, how any of the other characters in the novel really feel, and it’s never said what the “underground rebellion” that exists in the novel actually is, how they operate, what they’re doing, etc.
This book has a lot of blank spaces, missing information, and drab chapters. Overall, I rate this 2.5 stars.
This novel is set in a future (since the novel was written in 1953 and takes place some time after the late 1980s at least) America where social classes have been created that most specifically segregate men and women after an abrupt, theonomic government take over.
This story started as as being very deep and dark (possibly too dark, for me at least) and quickly turned into boredom. Around probably around 80-100 pages I contemplated giving up on it, but at some point it peaked my interest again, enough for me to get comfortable.
I thought it might be able to completely turn around my opinions of the novel.
Then it ended.
When it did, I was very confused at first when it did not continue. It felt more or less like a transitional chapter and left many questions unanswered. Had the story ended in a different way or continued, I may have rated this higher. However, that is not the only reason why I disliked it.
For one thing, It’s not clear what many of the characters are doing or what is being worked for, other then the Handmaids whose sole purpose is for reproduction. The wives don’t do anything and it seems unclear what the commanders do or what their motives are as well.
Another reason why I disliked the novel is also because I do not sympathize with the narrator. Her character is boring and frankly her past (which is brought up in reminisces throughout the novel) is boring and somewhat annoying as well.
There’s never any information on what happened to her family, how any of the other characters in the novel really feel, and it’s never said what the “underground rebellion” that exists in the novel actually is, how they operate, what they’re doing, etc.
This book has a lot of blank spaces, missing information, and drab chapters. Overall, I rate this 2.5 stars.
