Wither

Sorry I've been gone for like 10 years I've been super super busy! I'm going to take a longer break from the male models I think because I'm reading so many awesome books and they all absolutely must be reviewed! Plus I might start this new thing about places I know and love...might be a top ten, maybe not though. I'll see what happens.

1. I was introduced to Wither by my friend Rebecca who was sitting next to me in the school library one day reading it and all of a sudden starts laughing and says, "This girl just said she's going to set the sitting room on fire! So random!" So, I knew I had to read it.

2. Wither by Lauren DeStefano is set in the futuristic United States of America where all boys live to the age of 25 and all girls live to the age of 20 because of this virus that was the result of genetic testing gone wrong. Wither tells the story of Rhine, a sixteen year old girl who has been kidnapped and given to a man named Linden to be one of his three wives, because as scientists are trying to find a cure for the terrible virus, people are trying to keep the population going so the human race doesn't die out. Rhine doesn't want to be the wife of a stranger, but she has to keep the trust of her evil father in law and her new husband so she can figure out a way to get free and find her brother.

3. I liked being in Rhine's head. She's really strong, especially considering the fact that she's going to die in four years. I don't know any teenager that could be that cool about dying in four years. She is also incredibly smart, and a pretty good actress. There's just something about her, this inner strength that tells you she's NOT going to let anyone push her around, but at the same time, that she isn't going to be impulsive or stupid.

4. I thought the whole sister-wife thing was awesome. No, I'm not pro-polygamy. But I liked the real sisterhood between Rhine and her sister-wives, Jenna and Cecily. Yeah, Cecily was annoying, and Jenna used to be a hooker, but still. They were all in it together, even if they all had different goals. I also kind of loved Linden. Which I really shouldn't. Good job Lauren DeStefano making this technically despicable character so freaking LOVABLE.

It's a trilogy, so I can't WAIT until the next one comes out.

hush

1. I just randomly picked up Hush because I thought it looked interesting...And when I skimmed the inside cover, for some reason I thought it'd be something like Delirium. But it wasn't. Not even close.

2. Hush is the story of Gittel, an Orthodox Jewish girl who lives in a modern day Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York. When Gittel was 9, her friend Devory died under less than pleasant circumstances. Actually, the circumstances were downright TERRIBLE but I won't give it away. Gittel has to learn to cope with Devory's death, even so many years later (she's 17), especially since she isn't supposed to talk about it.

3. I really liked Gittel. She was very strong under the circumstances and SO SO SOOOOOOOOO cute as a nine year old. I did find it very hard to relate to her, however. I honestly had no idea how different it is to leave in an Orthodox Jewish community. I mean, I knew it was different, but this was really intense. Obviously I found it a little hard to relate to a girl who lives in a community that think I'm going to hell because I'm not one of them. With that said though, she was pretty cool and much more open minded than some of the characters in the book.

4. I loveddddd Devory. She was just as cute as Gittel, if not more. But my heart did break for her. It really did. I would rant about that whole thing, but again, I don't want to give anything away. I also loved Yankel, after a while. At first he was EH but he got much better. He did some really CUTE things, though Gittel freaked out because she didn't know better. But I won't say anything more on THAT subject. The book was EXTREMELY well written and really fascinating too, which also made it great.

So I just thought I should say now that I was really amazed at how life is for the Orthodox Jewish people. Especially that it's THIS COUNTRY in PRESENT DAY. It was just so confining. I mean, they have arranged marriage! And I won't even get into details about married life! It was just really mind blowing. That's all I have to say. But definitely read this book, because it was awesome.

please ignore vera dietz

1. I got Please Ignore Vera Dietz from my school librarian who told me she was reading it on the subway and crying hysterically. So of course I knew I had to read it.

2. Please Ignore Vera Dietz is about a girl named Vera who works as a pizza delivery girl and lives with her ex-alcoholic and "parsimonious" father. Vera's best friend Charlie, also the boy she has been in love with since she was a child, has just died, and she is trying to deal with this, as well as how much she hated him because of the terrible things he did to her the year before he died. The book goes back and forth from her past memories of Charlie to what is happening in the present, and also goes between the point of views of Vera, her father, dead Charlie, and the Pagoda, which is a building in the town that I still cannot seem to understand the significance of. Yes, the inanimate object has a point of view.

3. I really really love Vera and respect her. Charlie is right: she's classy. And I give her a lot of credit, considering her father was an alcoholic, and her mother was a stripper who had her at the age of seventeen, and then ran off with a podiatrist when Vera was twelve. So considering all of this, Vera is pretty cool. Plus her love for Charlie melts my heart. The only thing I don't like is all of the alcohol she consumes throughout the book. Not that I have a problem with alcohol, its just that it makes me super nervous when she drinks as she delivers her pizzas...especially since her father and grandfather were alcoholics! But even with that, Vera is still pretty great!

4. I loved Vera, and I loved Charlie. And I loved them together. Honestly, by the end of the book I was so in love with Charlie, despite everything he did. Charlie was NOT a bad person, no matter what he did. And it KILLED ME because the whole book I was getting that VERA AND CHARLIE MUST BE TOGETHER feeling but then I would remember that Charlie is dead. So sometimes I would get the VERA AND JAMES MUST BE TOGETHER feeling instead. But anyway I loved the intensity, especially around part five. And dead Charlie was pretty cool. And oh so sweet. Dead Charlie narration plus Vera narration equaled a really awesome book.

delirium

1. I got Delirium from my school library (I was the first one to take it out!). It is the second book written by Lauren Oliver, the first of which was Before I Fall, one of my favorite books.

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2. Delirium is set in the future, where love is considered a disease, and everyone is given the "cure" to it at the age of eighteen. Lena Haloway Tiddle has been counting down the days until she gets cured, until she meets Alex, who teaches her that love is not a disease, it is something wonderful and beautiful, something that she will not be able to live without.

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3. In the beginning, I didn't like Lena much. I mean, I guess it's not her fault that she's brainwashed, but still, it got a little annoying how she agreed with everything the government said and couldn't WAIT to get cured, even though it was so obvious to her that the so called "cure" completely gets rid of personality. Also, I hated every time she tried pushing Alex away when it was so obvious they belonged together!! At the end though, I did like her. I think it was the second she realized that she and Alex are made for each other and that love is GOOD that I finally changed my mind about her!

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4. Alex was amazing. Just as a person he was great. He was just such a cutie, and what he did for Lena...! I also lovedddddd Lena's best friend Hana. I want to be best friends with her! She kind of reminded me of myself, just a tad. And how they both loved running, and went running everywhere...it was the one thing that actually showed that Lena had some spirit in the beginning.

Mockingjay

1. I found out about the final Hunger Games book because I read the other two. Funny story about that, though I didn't think it was funny at the time, was that at the time I was reading the series, so were all of my friends for book club. One of my friends, Hayley, hadn't read any of them yet, and obviously she really wanted to, so she kept asking if me or our other friend Becca would let her read it since we were done. But the problem with that was that Becca and I really felt we needed more time with the book. I mean I know for me, I had read it SO fast that I needed to read it again, just to let it all sink in. (Plus I didn't actually have the book with me, it was at home). Anyway, there were only 2 copies of the book in the library, and Becca had the first, so I asked Hayley if she could get the second for me, because I was afraid someone else was going to grab it, and I had class. So she got it for me, but when I meet up with her she's like "I'm not giving it to you unless you give me the Hunger Games." Which was totally unfair because I didn't even have it with me! So I was all "You're evil" and she was all "Whatever" so I went to the library, told our awesome-cool librarian the story and she was like "well we actually have a copy of the Hunger Games right now!" So I took it out! And then Hayley and I made this big trade. Yeah so that's the crazy reactions people have when they don't have their copy of the Hunger Games! And you know, I'm not entirely sure I have forgiven Hayley yet. I mean that was pretty cold.

2. Just like Catching Fire was the aftermath of HG, Mockingjay is the aftermath of Catching Fire. Do you remember the last sentence of Catching Fire? Yeah so it's about that. And I'm gonna give you a little spoiler but its not really a spoiler because you find out about it within a few pages of Mockingjay. District 13 does exist. And they have plans. Plans of rebellion. No more Hunger Games events anymore. This book is about rebellion, and what part Katniss plays in that rebellion.

3. Katniss is of course, amazing as usual. She's kind of conflicted through the book though about what to do and who to trust. But she's still the same Katniss to me, and I still love her for it all!

4. This book was depressing, I gotta be honest, so its hard to say what's really amazing about it. Lotsa heartbreaking things happened. The one thing I did love though, was the epilogue. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the epilogue was perfect. It was very fitting. I know lotsa people don't like the epilogue, just like they didn't like the epilogue to Harry Potter 7, but again I disagree. It fit. It made sense. And come on, cut the author some slack. Sometimes you just gotta do it. Sometimes you just need to give that one thing to your characters. You need to show their future. And that's what Suzanne Collins did. Even though it wasn't a very happy future, per se, it was a future.

catching fire

1. I found out about this book because its the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy, and I already reviewed Hunger Games, so you know all about that. Actually though, what I failed to mention last time because I forgot, that I REALLY first heard about it because my brother read it, but I didn't think of reading it, I don't know why. And then for Christmas or his birthday he got the second one, which is THIS ONE. So then I wanted to read it but I realized it was the second one. So YEAH.

2. Catching Fire is the sequel to Hunger Games, so it is basically the aftermath of what happened there. AKA this post has spoilers regarding Hunger Games, but not Catching Fire, just saying. So since its the aftermath, obviously if you read Hunger Games, you know that Katniss and Peeta are the winners. The winners have to travel around the districts to basically rub it in everyones faces that they won. Plus, Peeta and Kat didn't exactly leave it off so well. So there's that. And finally, you know that at the end Katniss was told that the government isn't too happy with the "stunt" she pulled with the berries. So they want revenge. And that is NOT a good thing.

3. Do I have to go over how much I loooooove Katniss again? Well she's completely awesome. And in this book it is just really shown over and over again how much she and Peeta BELONG TOGETHER no matter WHAT happens with Gale! What? Did I just say that? You must have imagined it.

4. Katniss+Peeta forever. That's the top most awesome thing. Plus all the tricks they pull. Well one specific trick right before the Quarter Quell. And the Quarter Quell, lemme tell ya, it was pretty awesome. But I'm not gonna tell you what it is. Only that it made this book. Which you will see. I also love how many new characters are introduced.

So I guess this book review kinda sucked in comparison to my normal ones. But that's because its very difficult to talk about a sequel without spoiling it, because even though I can freely spoil the one before it, you already know the whole premise of the story, so what can I say without spoiling? So I did my best. Hopefully my review of Mockingjay (the third HG book) is better.

Revolution

1. So I was introduced to this book through my school librarian because she is AWESOME. I went up to her one day in the library to FINALLY give back my copy of the Hunger Games, which had been sitting in my locker for weeks, and well, I needed something new to read, so this is what she suggested.

2. Revolution is the story of this girl Andi, who is having some serious issues ever since the death of her little brother, Truman. When her mother gets put into a mental hospital, her father, a famous geneticist, whisks her away to Paris, where she finds the diary of a girl named Alexandrine, who lived during the French revolution. Andi gets very caught up in the story of this girl, as well as with this cute French guy she meets, Virgil, and lots of stuff happens!

3. Andi is pretty messed up. The entire book I was afraid she was going to take too many of her antidepressants and overdose or something, because she already takes more than she's supposed to. Despite this, I really like her, because she has a lot of passion. Her thing is music, and the energy and love she puts into music is pretty cool. I also loved her "voice" since the book was first person so she was its narrator. She's pretty funny and entertaining when she wants to be.

4. The main thing that makes this book so awesome is PARIS. Even though it starts out in Brooklyn, it ends up in PARIS and in case my profile layout hasn't tipped you off, I LOVE PARIS! So that was a super plus plus plus for me! I also loved the narration, and Virgil, even though I was skeptical at first by his physical despcription, ends up being a total cutie. And finally, the whole history thing was cool. I always loved studying the French Revolution, don't know why. This book made it seem so real. Which makes me less inclined to like it (I mean the revolution itself, not the book), but that's a good thing, I think.

THEREFORE...this was a good book. You should read it. Especially if you love Paris and/or music, especially rock or classical, because there were a lot of references to artists in both of these genres.

THE HUNGER GAMES

So I've decided to start reviewing books, and I'm starting with THE HUNGER GAMES which, if you don't already know, is one of the most awesome books of ALL TIME! I am so addicted it is ridiculous. RIDICULOUS. It is so awesome words cannot possibly describe it.

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So this is how my book reviews are gonna go. First I'm going to explain how I was introduced to the book. Actually no, first comes the picture of the book. THEN goes how I was introduced to it. After this will be a quick synopsis (spoiler free of course), whether or not I liked the main character, and what makes it so AWESOME. Oh, and depending on the book, I may or may not throw stuff about the awesome romance, if there is awesome romance. And for the Hunger Games, there IS awesome romance. So yeah.

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1. To begin: The reason I read this book was because it was a book club book. Yes I am part of my school's book club. It is awesome. HOWEVER, the reason we were reading it in the first place was because I occasionally go on this cute little site called.....FOREVER YOUNG ADULT which is this amazing website dedicated to people who love YA literature and well, they're OBSESSED with the Hunger Games, so I had been dying to read it, just to see what the fuss was about. (By the way, here is the link: http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/)

2. Basically the Hunger Games is about a girl in the post-apocalyptic country of Panem, which is where the U.S. is now. In Panem, every year this event called the Hunger Games happens. Basically they throw two teenagers from each of their twelve districts into some crazy place and they all have to fight to survive. Last one standing is the winner. Our main character, Katniss, is from District 12, and she is one of the kids that goes to the Hunger Games.

3. The main character, Katniss, is awesome. She is like the epitome of BADASS. Every girl should want to be like Katniss, because she's just that cool. She's a little rough around the edges, but rightfully so, because she's basically had to feed/take care of her mother and little sister for years, ever since her father passed away. Katniss is strong, spirited, and smart (omigod alliteration!) and you know she's not gonna let ANYONE push her around. She's also really selfless.

4. The Hunger Games is so great I think because of three things. 1. The Suspense. Is Katniss going to make it out alive? What about Peeta? How can they both make it out alive? 2. The Main Character. Katniss is awesome, but you can just see above for my explanation of why. and 3. The Romance. Katniss + Peeta FOREVER! Peeta is the other tribute that was chosen to enter the Hunger Games, and they make me want to MELT!!!!!!

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All in all, the Hunger Games was amazing, and you should read it, though be warned, it is VERY ADDICTING. You shoulda seen how fast I moved to get the second one, and the insanity that took place trying to get the third. But that my friends is a story for another time!!!!