From The Review Pile (85)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or if you don't receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

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This week, I'm going to showcase Grasshopper Jungle!

Whilst I've been drawn towards slightly older, adult fiction lately, this upcoming young adult book has really captured my attention. This sounds like it'll be a humorous, contemporary story and I look forward to reading it. 

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Paperback, 480 pages

Expected Publication: 27th February 2014 by Electric Monkey

Sixteen-year-old Austin Szerba interweaves the story of his Polish legacy with the storyof how he and his best friend , Robby, brought about the end of humanity and the rise of an army of unstoppable, six-foot tall praying mantises in small-town Iowa.

To make matters worse, Austin's hormones are totally oblivious; they don't care that the world is in utter chaos: Austin is in love with his girlfriend, Shann, but remains confused about his sexual orientation. He's stewing in a self-professed constant state of maximum horniness, directed at both Robby and Shann. Ultimately, it's up to Austin to save the world and propagate the species in this sci-fright journey of survival, sex, and the complex realities of the human condition.

From The Review Pile (83)

From the Review Pile is a meme hosted by Stepping Out of the Page every Thursday.

The aim of this meme is to showcase books that you've received for review (or if you don't receive review books, any book that you own and really want to read/review) but haven't yet got around to reading, in order to give the book some extra publicity.

I know that a lot of you have a huge pile of books that you want to read/review, but it understandably takes a while to get around to reading them all - here you can give a book (or two!) some of the publicity that it deserves, even if you haven't read it yet!

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This week, I'm going to showcase How They Met!

This is a book that I'm very excited to read. I would class myself as a fan of David Levithan and undoubtedly, his last book, Every Day, was one of my favourite reads of 2013. I really hope that I can get around to reading this soon and that it's as good as I expect it to be! 

How They Met And Other Stories by David Levithan

Paperback, 320 pages

Published January 2014 by Electric Monkey

Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes a confection from David Levithan that is sure to appeal to fans of Boy Meets Boy. Here are 18 stories, all about love, and about all kinds of love. From the aching for the one you pine for, to standing up and speaking up for the one you love, to pure joy and happiness, these love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down. What is love? With this original story collection David Levithan proves that love is a many splendored thing, a varied, complicated, addictive, wonderful thing.

Every Day

Every Day by David Levithan

Paperback, 372 pages

Expected publication: 2nd September 2013 by Electric Monkey

Shelves: better-than-expected, contemporary, favourites, if-i-were-a-boy, lasting-impression, lgbt-characters, magical-realism, mental-health, read, read-in-2013, realistic-fiction, really-good, supernatural, title-appeal, young-adult

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Each morning, A wakes up in a different body. There's never any warning about who it will be, but A is used to that. Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. And that's fine - until A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply.

Anybody interested in YA literature should be aware that, after the success of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, a lot of people decided to start reading more books by John Green and David Levithan, the two authors who worked together to write such a fantastic book. I was one of those people and have since read books by both Green and Levithan as individuals. Whilst Green is the author with a huge fan following, I  personally prefer Levithan's writing. I think and hope that with the release of Every Day (and the UK re-releases of his previous novels) we will see a  bigger following for him. I was so excited to be given this book to review and for a very good reason. Every Day really shows what Levithan can do as an author.

Every Day tells the story of A, a character who has no permanent body and awakes inside a different person each day. A has no constants in their life - I will refer to A is a male, but A actually has no gender, no permanent ethnicity or sexuality, no stable home or relationships. One day, A finds himself inhabiting the body of a boy called Justin, boyfriend to Rhiannon, a girl that A immediately connects with and feels something for. From this day onwards, A decides that he will do something that he's never done before and try to reach out to Rhiannon, revealing the soul, the personality behind the bodies that he inhabits. At points I did wonder what exactly had attracted A to Rhiannon, why he was risking himself by trying to reach out, but as they did start to communicate, I didn't have to wonder and saw how well they bonded together.

This story is told in days, each new day means that A is inside a new shell. I absolutely loved this idea, but I was a little worried that the story would feel a little 'jumpy'. In some ways, it was sort of like Levithan was writing lots of short stories with the bodies he used but, thankfully, no depth was lost at all as we were still given A within this body, a constant personality. I really enjoyed reading about the different bodies each day and getting an insight into the drastic changes between the lifestyles of people. Levithan covered a huge amount of ground with the people he portrayed - from drug addicts to suicidal girls to the struggle with obesity. A tries his best not to interfere with the bodies lives, but I was glad when he tried to push them towards positivity and help, if they needed it. Though some days only covered a few pages, no details or depth were lacking. As expected from Levithan, there were also a few LGBT issues raised, from both the lifestyles of the bodies that A inhabited and the issue of A being a genderless person. I have never read a book like this before and I think Levithan makes a clear point with it -  it should be the personality of someone, not their gender or aesthetics, that you fall in love with - something that I definitely agree with.

The main story is A forming this special relationship with Rhiannon and trying to get past the boundaries of not having a permanent body. I thought that this was well executed, I actually loved the points of awkwardness, the uncertainty between A and Rhiannon - the imperfections made the book work even better than expected. I don't think that this book is predictable, I actually didn't even feel as though the characters truly knew what they were thinking at points - which sounds a little bad, but definitely isn't. It felt real. I don't want to give anything  key away, but the end of the book was absolutely heart-shattering. I cried, then I raved about the amazing-ness of this book for days afterwards. 

There is a sub-plot in this book which features a boy called Nathan, a boy who A has inhabited, who realises he has lost a day of his life. It's not clear to him, but he suspects that the devil had taken over his body, goes public with his story and seeks help from a priest. Unfortunately, for me, it was also one of the weakest parts of the book - I just didn't find it interesting, the characters didn't react as I thought they should and by the end, my interest between the two waned. Though I didn't particularly like this part of the book, it wasn't something that deterred me from the book, I was still compelled to read it!

A book that can make me feel that way that this one does is something that really deserves to be shared. It was a book that kept me wondering, it was unputdownable, a real page turner, but at the same time I didn't want to finish the book - it was so good! Every Day is sitting firmly on my list of favourite books and I hope that it will be the same for a lot of other readers. Pick this book up and you won't regret it. For one reason or another, I think that the majority of people will at least enjoy one aspect of this book, if not all. Highly recommended!

Why We Broke Up Review & GIVEAWAY!

Scroll to the end of this review to enter my INTERNATIONAL giveaway of one paperback copy of this book!

Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler

Paperback, 354 pages

Expected publication: 6th August 2012 by Electric Monkey

(First Published 27th December 2011)

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, contemporary, cover-appeal, currently-reading, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, really-good, title-appeal, young-adult

Description via Goodreads:

This is the box, Ed. Inside is everything. Two bottle caps, a movie ticket from Greta in the Wind, a note from you, a box of matches, your protractor, Joan's book, the stolen sugar, a toy truck, those ugly earrings, a comb from the motel, and the rest of it. This is it Ed. The whole story of how we broke up.

Buy this book:

The Book Depository / Amazon (US/INT) / Amazon UK

My thanks go to Electric Monkey for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

As soon as I heard about this book from American book reviewers, I began wishing that it'd be released here in the UK. My prayers were answered by Electric Monkey and I was so unbelievably excited to start reading this book as soon as it came into my home! I didn't know all that much about the book - the short blurb doesn't give that much away, but I liked it that way - It was fantastic to discover more about Why We Broke Up as I worked my way through the book.

Sleeping is my favourite thing to do, yep - even more so than reading. However, this book stole my sleep from me. It takes quite a lot for me to stay up flicking through pages, but this one managed it. There was something  about this book that was just so compelling and made me want to keep reading just one more page. I wanted to know what happened next, what Min was feeling, just exactly why they broke up.

The book is written as a letter from Min to her ex-boyfriend, Ed, explaining why they broke up, using a variety of objects (illustrated by Kalman). It is a very simple concept, but I absolutely loved it. It really made for an interesting and heartfelt story. I did connect with Min, though I did have my reservations about Ed from the moment they entered a relationship. The reason why Min and Ed do break up is quite predictable but to be honest I don't think that matters because, in truth and as Min explains, there were several things that contributed to their eventual split.

The characters that were included in this book were very strong - even those who were only mentioned sporadically. I really liked Al and Lauren, Min's closest friends. It was interesting to see how her relationship with Ed affected her friendship group. I really loved the bond between Min and Al and I really felt for Al as he became distanced from Min. He is genuinely one of the nicest, kindest characters I have come across. I did like Min too - I thought she was quite easy to connect with - she was a generally likeable character. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the way you look at it!) I didn't really fall for Ed - although to a lot of people he may seem near perfect, he just didn't sit right with me and I found him to be a bit immature.

If you've gone through a break-up as a teenager, then I think you'll appreciate this book. It feels real and although it doesn't feel overly intense, there is definite feeling behind it that runs quite deep, the fact that it is written in epistolary form only adds to this feeling. I think that the emotion behind this book is very interesting, though hard to put into words. It is quite easy to relate to, in my opinion, though I think every reader will have a different experience with this one. 

I haven't read any of Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket)'s previous books, but if he does write more young adult contemporary reads like this one, I would definitely pick it up. I also really enjoyed the illustrations - they simply added some extra enjoyment to the reading experience. I have found this book difficult to review as I do think it's really quite personal - everyone has their own individual pasts and I think that will affect how you read this book. For me, this book was addictive, different and extremely enjoyable.

This is one of the most enjoyable books I've read for a while, so I thought that I should offer you the chance to read it too! 

One winner. 

One brand new paperback copy of Why We Broke Up. 

International.  

All you have to do is fill in the Rafflecopter form below!

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Dear Dylan

Dear Dylan by Siobhan Curham

Paperback, 288 pages

Published April 2nd 2012 by Electric Monkey

My shelves: arc-or-review, abuse, books-i-own, cover-appeal, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, title-appeal, young-adult

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

A first crush. An unexpected friendship. A dream come true. Dear Dylan! Thanks so much for your email and I'm sorry about my last one when I said I love you. I hope you don't think I'm a weirdo mentalist?!!! It's just that I was watching Oprah yesterday and she said we should all say we love each other a whole lot more. Not to everyone of course. There's no way I'd tell my scummy step-dad that I love him because that would be lying. But the thing is, sometimes when I watch you on TV, I feel as if you're talking just to me and it makes me feel less alone. I know you probably get loads and loads of fan mail but I wanted to ask you - could we be e-mates? Yours hopefully, Georgie xxx.

Click here to purchase the book with 

free worldwide shipping!

My thanks go to Electric Monkey/Egmont for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I picked this book up as I really like both the cover and the title - they're simple and fun. I also thought that this book would simply be a fun set of e-mails from a teenage girl to her crush, Dylan. It  turned out that this was a fun book thanks to our main character, Georgie, but it also had quite a serious undertone too.


When Georgie contacts Dylan, a gorgeous, popular young actor, she is surprised when she actually gets personal replies. As it turns out, it's not actually Dylan that is replying to Georgie, but instead it his his mother, a woman called Nan. I think that it could be quite a challenge for a writer to portray an online relationship between a young teenager and an adult, but Curham didn't do a bad job at all. This is fiction, but I think it was quite realistic, with both characters having their hesitations regarding an online friendship. It was interesting to see how Georgie and Nan's relationship flourished throughout the book. I found myself very glad that they had each other as they both helped each other to find some happiness and to improve their lives - it was really quite touching. I thought that the format that this book was written in was a very good idea. As well as being modern, the e-mails exchanged were frank, open and honest with the personality of both Georgie and Nan shining through.


Georgie was a wonderful, bright character. Though her actions could be a little cringe-inducing at times, she was quite humorous and this book will guarantee at least a couple of laughs! She is stumbling through her teenage years and gaining new experiences, sharing them with us on her way. Georgie does seem like a bubbly, quite confident girl from the outset, but she has a lot of problems at home, including an abusive step-father and trying to discover what her father was really like when he was alive. Though maybe not as complicated, Nan is also coming to terms with the loss of her husband and her grief. Though there was a big age gap between the two, there was a definite connection which was lovely to read about.


For all those who like a little bit of romance in there book, that is covered for you, with Georgie falling for a male friend - though there wasn't all that much detail on their emotional connection, you could still sense it and it was sweet. If you like drama, there's some childlike bitchiness between Georgia and her friends, which makes for quite funny reading and gave me some desire to shout out 'Go on, Georgie!'.   


If you like Georgia Nicolson, you'll most likely warm to Georgie (they even have similar names!) - Georgie and the whole tone of Dear Dylan definitely has the same vibe as The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (Angus, Thongs etc.) books so I  wouldn't hesitate to recommend this to any fans of Louise Rennison - this is probably the next best thing. This is a great book to pick up when you're in the mood for an easy read, with a little substance but not too much that it weighs story down. I'd quite like to pick up another of Curham's books. 

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick

Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick by Joe Schreiber
Paperback, 240 pages

Expected Publication: March 5th 2012 by Electric Monkey

(First Published October 25th 2011)

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, coming-up-next, contemporary, currently-reading, if-i-were-a-boy, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, young-adult

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Perry Stormaire is a normal high school senior– he is busy applying to college and rehearsing with his band –until he agrees to go to the prom with the Lithuanian exchange student who is staying with his family. It turns out that Gobi Zaksauskas is not the mousy teenager that she seems but rather an attractive, confident trained assassin. Instead of going to the prom, Perry finds himself on a wild ride through the streets of New York City as Gobi commandeers the Jaguar his father lent him for the prom in order to take out her targets. Perry learns a lot about himself – and ends up with some amazing material for his college application essays.

My thanks go to Egmont for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't really know what this book was about when I picked it up, I just knew that I loved the title! I am so glad that I did read this one as it was so action packed and fun. This book is told in a series of (rather short) college application essays - each chapter starts with an essay question which is answered (usually indirectly) with the part of the story that the chapter covers. I loved this idea as it was both quite unusual and clever. I also didn't expect it to be so funny!

Perry is your average high school guy whose family thought it'd be a good experience to allow an European exchange student to stay with them. Perry has spent months living with Gobi, the Lithuanian exchange student, who seems a bit dull and a bit strange, until he is forced to go to his school prom with her. Perry and Gobi don't spend the night at the prom though - Gobi transforms into a confident assassin and the night is spent driving around New York, taking care of Gobi's business - a.k.a. killing people!

This isn't a very long book which is probably a plus point - everything is quite direct and straight to the point (thanks to Perry and Gobi's personalities), although Gobi is somewhat mysterious - we learn more about that near the end. It would be very easy to devour this in one sitting and I had no problem finishing it in a day. This book is certainly more plot-driven than anything else, with it's murders, shoot-outs, bombing and torture, but that's not to say that the characters are poor. I thought that Perry's interfamilial relationships were interesting, and I instantly loved Gobi when she revealed her true self. They're not particularly complex characters - they are who they are. Perry could be any regular teenager and it's easy to put yourself in his place.

It's not a very realistic story (although it technically could happen), but that gives it a huge injection of comedy - Perry can't believe any of it is happening to him. Both Perry and Gobi have great, though slightly wicked, senses of humour and it really comes across well - I found myself bursting out with laughter at some of the one liners!  

This is an addictive, super fast paced, action packed young adult read that will appeal to girls and guys alike. I thoroughly enjoyed the plot, the characters and (maybe above all), the author's ability to make me laugh. I sincerely hope that this not the last we see of Perry and Gobi and I can't wait to see what Schreiber has planned for us next! 

Oliver Twisted

Oliver Twisted by J.D. Sharpe, Charles Dickens

Paperback, 274 pages

Published February 6th 2012 by Egmont Books

My shelves: arc-or-review, better-than-expected,
books-i-own, currently-reading, fantasy, horror, 
read-in-2012, shapeshifters,vampires, 
young-adult, zombies

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

“FLESH", the woe-begotten moaned at Oliver, baring teeth which were ragged and black.

“FLESH”, came another moan, and he turned to see two more woe-begottens behind. They began to shuffle towards him, barefoot – toes blue from cold, arms outstretched.

The world according to Oliver Twisted is simple. Vampyres feed on the defenceless. Orphans are sacrificed to hungry gods. And if a woe-begotten catches your scent it will hunt you for ever. When a talking corpse reveals that Oliver will find his destiny in London, he sets out to seek the truth. Even if it means losing his soul.

My thanks go to Egmont's new imprint, Electric Monkey, for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am not usually tempted by books of this type - an idea taken from a classic book, but changed by a new author, adding new ideas. However, I was glad to see that this wasn't the original work with some new parts stuck in, but instead it was reworked and retold in a very original manner by an author who obviously loved the original characters.

As many of you will know, it was the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens this week, and so I thought, although it's not a traditional work of his, but rather a modern reworking, I'd pick up Oliver Twisted and see how it was. With it's great foundation and it's modern ideas, this was a fun read. Ashamedly, I haven't read Oliver Twist, but of course I am aware of the basic aspects of the story from other media, like most. From the altered name of this novel and it's very apt tagline 'Please, I want some gore', I knew that this was going to be a bit different from the original!

Our new story follows Oliver who is, as a lone orphan, travelling to London where he befriends Dodge and subsequently gets drawn into a world where he is used by Fagin in order to try and gain power for his evil brotherhood. The story is well written, thanks to a good basis and good original characters. 

For our main character, Oliver Twisted, a new and very gory story including zombies, vampires, werewolves and soul stealers is created. Due to these creatures that are very popular at the moment in young adult literature, I think that this book will appeal a lot of young adult readers, especially those who enjoy the paranormal genre. 

Characters that appear and that you may recognise include Fagin, Dodge, Bill Sikes and Nancy. These all possess the characteristics of their original personalities, but Sharpe has also expanded and added a new lease of life to them, making them react realistically to their new situations. 

The writing was good - there was still reference to the old english writing style right at the beginning, but for the most part, the writing was modern and very easily accessible to middle grade children upwards. The book is extremely gruesome - the grotesque descriptions made me squirm several times but were very effective - I can imagine that a lot of children would love this aspect, but beware if you have a sensitive stomach! The pace of the story is very fluid and it does become quite action packed towards the end. This was easy to read and rather quick, too - so there's no excuse not to give this one a go.

I think that JD Sharpe does do justice to this book and is successful in achieving what she intended - a twist to Oliver Twist, turning it into a modern 'horror' story - something that  will certainly appeal to the majority of older children and young adults today. I would definitely recommend this and hopefully it will encourage more people to read the original work too - I know I certainly will, and I would love to read more from Sharpe, too!