We Need To Talk About Kevin

We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Paperback, 468 pages

Published May 9th 2006 by Serpent's Tail

(First published April 14th 2003)

Shelves: abuse, adult-fiction, books-i-own, classics, contemporary, crime-thriller-mystery, desperate-to-read, mental-health, read, read-in-2020, realistic-fiction, too-much-hype, serpents tail

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Shortly before his sixteenth birthday, Kevin Khatchadourian kills seven of his fellow high-school students, a cafeteria worker and a teacher. He is visited in prison by his mother, Eva, who narrates in a series of letters to her estranged husband, Franklin, the story of Kevin's upbringing. For this powerful, shocking novel, Lionel Shriver was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction. 

We need to talk about Kevin is yet another one of those books that I have been wanting to read for a long time, and I'm only half pleased that I've finally gotten around to reading it. Again, this is one of those books that , dramatically hyped up in my head, mainly due to my own intrigue over the subject manner, but also due to the multitudes of positive reaction land awards) that the book has received. 

I  have very mixed feelings after reading this book, which makes it quite difficult to both rate and review! The truth is, it took me more than one hundred pages to really get into the story and that is due to the author's writing style. The book consists entirely of letters, written from Kevin's mother, Eva, to his father, Franklin, following the event of a school shooting that was committed by their son. I usually enjoy the epistolary style of writing but despite the honesty of the content of the letters, they didn't seem 'real' and so I found it difficult to connect with the writer. For me, the writing was just too much - it felt as though most sentences were unnecessarily prolonged with adjectives, long-winded and made reading seem laborious.  I couldn't help but feel as though the author was often just trying to make use of as much of her vocabulary as possible. There is somewhat of a 'twist’ at the end of the book, but the writing style itself allowed me to figure it out within only a short amount of reading.

The actual substance of the book was undoubtedly impressive. The story explores a lot of issues, the main one being motherhood and the trials and tribulations that it can entail. Granted, the main event of this book is a horrific crime that, thankfully, most parents won't have to experience, but there are so many concepts and ideas shared by Eva that are accessible to all - this book is very philosophical at points and certainly gives you a lot to think about. I can't deny that I kept thinking about this book long after I closed it.

I found this book very uncomfortable to read and, as strange as it sounds, this was its star quality. Despite my obsession with all things true-crime, this book - mostly the final section - is probably one of the most disturbing pieces of writing that I've read. The unease that the story conjures really emphasises the complexity of the whole situation. It is very effective.

Overall, this book was a bit hit-and-miss. Whilst I was sorely disappointed by the beginning of the book, I am glad that I stuck with it. I really did struggle through the arduous first portion of the book, but by the midway point I felt much more compelled to pick it up. By the end of the book I even (slightly!) began to regret that the book was ending. The philosophical aspect of this book is very well thought out. I haven't read many fictional books that have been able to make me think quite so much and I am thankful for that, I've now considered things about motherhood and parent-child relationships that I most likely wouldn't have if it wasn't for this book. Despite my issues with the waiting style, I would recommend reading this book simply for the experience - I can see why the book gained awards and it's reputation as a modern book of significance.

Salvage

Salvage by Keren David

Hardback, 320 pages

Published 16th January 2014 by Atom

Shelves: abuse, arc-or-review, books-i-own, read, read-in-2014, realistic-fiction, too-much-hype, young-adult

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Aidan Jones was my brother. But I couldn't really remember his face. I couldn't remember talking to him or playing with him. He was just a gap, an absence, a missing person.

Before she was adopted by a loving family and raised in a leafy Home Counties town, Cass Montgomery was Cass Jones. Her memories of her birth family disappeared with her name. But when her adopted family starts to break down, a way out comes in the form of a message from her lost brother, Aidan. Having Aidan back in her life is both everything she needs and nothing she expected. Who is this boy who calls himself her brother? And why is he so haunted?

I glance at the paper. There's a big picture on the front page. A girl with dark red hair. A girl with eyes that might have been green or they might have been grey. I sit down and stare at Cass, and it is her, it is. My stolen sister.

Aidan's a survivor. He's survived an abusive step-father and an uncaring mother. He's survived crowded foster homes and empty bedsits. His survived to find Cass. If only he can make her understand what it means to be part of his family. . .

Salvage is a book that has had many positive comments and quite a bit of excitement revolving around it, especially here in the United Kingdom, so I was very excited to receive a copy for review. Salvage is a young adult book with interesting subject matter, exploring an interesting story. I usually really enjoy books about real life issues, so I was really hoping that I'd love this one.

I really liked the idea behind this book. We are introduced to Cass, our female narrative, as her adopted family has started to break up. As her father is a well known politician, the story hits the newspapers, one including a photograph of Cass. This is when we're introduced to our male narrative, Aidan, who despite having not seen her for years, almost instantly recognises his long lost sister. As Aidan contacts her, a lot of his history unravels and we read through the complexities of both Cass and Aidan's lives and learn a bit more about their past. In Aidan's eyes, Cass received the best adoptive middle-class parents possible, whereas he himself had more problems, partially due to issues with his birth mother's partners and also with his own emotional/anger problems. 

Cass was a reasonably likeable character, she wasn't anything special which worked to the novel's advantage, it's easy to imagine her as someone you know and it was great to see her as a regular daughter to her adoptive parents, rather than simply seeing her as an adopted child - it just seemed like a 'normal' family dynamic. I can't say that I loved Cass, because there wasn't anything about her that particularly enamoured me, but I found her simplicity to work well, especially when paired with perhaps the quirkiest member of her school, the desirable and individual Will. I really liked Will ask he did seem to have an edge to him - he didn't go out of his way to be different, he simply was and he was also a very loveable character and if he was real, I would definitely like to have a friend like him.

Aidan was a much more interesting character to me and he certainly had, or at least remembered, a much more unstable beginning, living with some abuse and also, understandably, going through periods of time where he found it difficult to control his own emotions. Aidan is now living with his girlfriend and her son, a family relationship which is explored in the story and possibly the most interesting exploration, in my opinion. It was interesting to see how Aidan coped when bringing his past and current life together, and seeing how he and Cass both differed yet bonded.

Overall, Salvage was a well written and easily to read book that I would recommend to teenagers and fans of realistic YA. I think that the book was written simply and modestly enough to attract young teens, but perhaps it's a little too simplistic or modest for those older young adult fans who prefer a little more complexity. The story is interesting enough to hold your attention throughout, though I admit that I did find it a little too predictable to enjoy the 'big reveals' towards the end. Nevertheless, I can see why this book has been given great praise as it is exactly what it offers, a page turner which will attract young adults who enjoy reading about gritty real life issues.

Boy Meets Boy

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Paperback, 256 pages

Published 1st August  by Harper Collins
Shelves: books-i-own, contemporary, desperate-to-read, lgbt-maintheme, read-in-2013, realistic-fiction, to-read, too-much-hype, young-adult

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance. 

When Paul meets Noah, he thinks he’s found the one his heart is made for. Until he blows it. The school bookie says the odds are 12-to-1 against him getting Noah back, but Paul’s not giving up without playing his love really loud. His best friend Joni might be drifting away, his other best friend Tony might be dealing with ultra-religious parents, and his ex-boyfriend Kyle might not be going away anytime soon, but sometimes everything needs to fall apart before it can really fit together right.

This is a happy-meaningful romantic comedy about finding love, losing love, and doing what it takes to get love back in a crazy-wonderful world.

Boy Meets Boy has been sitting on my to-read list for years now and it has always been one of those books that I felt like every one had read, apart from me. I have read and enjoyed several books written by Levithan, and as this book, his first novel, has been re-released in the UK with bright new colours, I thought that it was finally time to read the book that brought David Levithan his fame.

Boy Meets Boy is the story of Paul, an openly gay teenager, and of the people around him. As expected by Levithan, there is  colourful host of different characters in this book, many of which dealing with LGBT issues. Our protagonist is openly gay (he came out aged 5) and very much accepted in the community. Paul's best friend, Tony, is struggling to be accepted by his very religious parents. Infinite Darlene, a six-foot drag queen and the star quarterback (though that's definitely no problem). Kyle is Paul's ex-boyfriend who frankly has no idea what he wants. Then there is also Noah - the new guy and Paul's romantic interest.

In the other books I have read, I have always admired Levithan's ability to portray LGBT characters as plainly as most people write about more commonly written heterosexual characters, not having to emphasise that they are different in any way, but rather simply just accepting them as who they are. I have to admit that I was a little torn in how I felt about acceptance in this book. At some points, I just didn't really feel as though these characters, or their situations were very real. Levithan has created a realistic setting of a school and a town, but for the most part, things seem a little utopian for the LGBT community - it was perhaps a world that many of us, myself included, dream of existing in the future.  I don't want to sound pessimistic, but I feel as though in the real world, this wouldn't be the case. Perhaps this Utopia was deliberately created as a positive place, a happy place, and if I knew this before reading the book, I would have been in a different mind-set, not expecting complete realism. 

There were two things that really stood out in this book. One of these things was the relationship between Paul and Noah. A lot of this book was about relationships and friendships, about people interacting, and the chemistry between these two really built up as the book progressed. I really loved getting to know about Noah through Paul. I also found Tony's parent's denial or fear of his sexuality to be something that stood out to me as there weren't really many huge issues or problems in this book apart from this one. Tony's household seemed like the anomaly of the book - Tony was the one character that hadn't been accepted. Tony was possibly the character that I liked most in this book and I felt a real sense of pride for his courage. There most likely could be a link made between Tony's struggle and this other utopian world, if you want to look more deeply into this novel.

As aforementioned, I have read several of Levithan's other books and have really enjoyed them. The book that I read before this book was his latest UK release, Every Day which I absolutely loved and rated very highly. Due to this and the large popularity surrounding Boy Meets Boy, I had very high expectations for this book. Unfortunately, I think that because of these very high expectations, I was a little less enthusiastic about this book than many others have been. That's not to say that the book was in any way poor, but rather it was nothing that struck me as amazing. I would not discourage anybody to pick up this books, as there are so many people who have loved it. Personally, I'd definitely recommend the author, but perhaps not this specific title.

The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1)

The 5th Wave (The Fifth Wave #1) by Rick Yancey

Paperback, 460 pages

Published 7th May 2013 by Puffin

Shelves:  arc-or-review, books-i-own, dystopian, read-in-2013, series-or-companions, sci-fi, supernatural, to-read, too-much-hype, young-adult

My rating:  3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

The Passage meets The Hunger Games in a gripping new series from Carnegie-shortlisted Rick Yancey. After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it's the dawn of the 5th wave. On a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth's last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, until Cassie meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan may be her only hope for rescuing her brother and even saving herself. Now she must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. Cassie Sullivan gets up.

The 5th Wave has undoubtedly been one of the most eagerly anticipated young adult books of 2013. There has been a lot of superb reviews for this book and it's not surprising, it is certainly sure to please a lot of fans of popular books such as The Hunger Games and Divergent. I have true belief that this will become one of the next successful series, as it seems to have everything that a young adult novel needs.

The first thing that I noted about this book when I picked it up was that it was science-fiction, a genre that has certainly surprised me in the past, it's a genre that I usually enjoy more than I expect. Thankfully, this book was still very realistic and the sci-fi element was at a very understandable level. Yancey clearly has a good idea about the science in his world, how each wave happened and what is coming next, but thankfully he doesn't overindulge in descriptions and technicalities and we learn about it all at a natural pace. Even if you're not particularly confident with this genre, this would probably be a good starting place.

A main element of this book is aliens, so I was very curious to see how they were portrayed. The aliens in this book are called the Others and they're so very different from your stereotypical bug-eyed green men - they aren't all that different from your average human, in fact some of them are human and they can be very difficult to detect. I fully admit that I didn't have a clue as to who could be trusted in this book - as soon as you start to connect with one character, something happens which could totally turn you the other way from them.

The narrators are the book are very well written. I particularly liked reading about the relationship between Cassie, her younger brother and her father. As individual characters, they all stood as firm unique people but their relationship was, for me, the real strength of the book, even when they were separated. I was also very intrigued by Evan, a boy that we're not sure that we can trust. I found one of our narrators, Ben Parish, to be a little more difficult to connect with and would hope to find out more from him in the next book(s). The characters are the  most important thing for me in any book and I was very pleased with the ones that Yancey conjured up for this series - they definitely have a lot of potential.

The reason why I didn't give this more stars is simply because I felt it was dragging out at points. I also find action scenes a bit tiring to keep up with and with the mixed narration, it was difficult to pick back up and remember who was narrating towards the end. Of course, as aforementioned, there were definitely a lot of positive aspects to the book and for the most part it was enjoyable. I'd definitely not hesitate to recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the YA genre and will most likely check out the next instalment in this series.

The Hit

The Hit by Melvin Burgess

Paperback, 303 pages

Expected Publication: 4th April 2013 by Chicken House

Shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, if-i-were-a-boy, let-down, read, read-in-2013, realistic-fiction, suicide, too-much-hype, young-adult

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Take it. Live it. F*** it.
A new drug is out. Everyone is talking about it. The Hit. Take it, and you have one amazing week to live. It's the ultimate high. At the ultimate price.
Adam is tempted. Life is rubbish, his girlfriend's over him, his brother's gone. So what's he got to lose? Everything, as it turns out. It's up to his girlfriend, Lizzie, to show him...

I absolutely loved reading when I was very young, but when I went to high school things changed and I found myself rarely reading until the age of 18! However, there was one book during that period that I did read, one that was recommended to me by a teacher and it was a book that quickly became a favourite. That book was Junk by Melvin Burgess, a young adult story based around drugs. When I heard about The Hit, another book with a storyline based around drugs, I was full of excitement - could it possibly be better than Junk? 

I absolutely loved the idea of this book. Burgess has created a fictional drug called, quite simply, Death. If you take Death, you will have a euphoric week, everything feels great, but at the end of this week, you will die. There is no antidote to the drug, so once you take it, there is no going back. The Hit is set in the future in the UK, it's not an unrealistic future but it is a dark and difficult time with people struggling to live well. After a very popular singer takes Death, the drug becomes popularised and is handed out to rioting crowds of people. Death is the most interesting concept in this book, making you ask yourself, would you take it? I wanted some morality, some gritty issues, something that could draw me in and make me want to know everything about this drug, but unfortunately, I didn't really get that. 

This book isn't really about Death, it actually takes a bit of a back seat. Mostly, this is a book about Adam and Lizzie getting in trouble with a (Death) drug dealer - cue lots of chasing and violence. I'm sure there will be some suspense for some people, but frankly I didn't care enough about the characters to be sitting on the edge of my seat. The slightly more political side of this book, the group of protestors named The Zealots was slightly more interesting - I liked reading about them, but again, I'd have liked to have learned more about them.

The story revolves around our protagonist, Adam, who decides to take Death. I didn't particularly like Adam, I didn't like his 'bucket list' and found him to be somewhat selfish and superficial - lets just say that if he was a real person, I wouldn't want to be friends with him.  His girlfriend, Lizzie, fell just as flat as Adam, I just found them both uninteresting. The story itself would've felt a lot stronger if the characters had stronger personalities. The only character that I felt vaguely interested in was Christian, a very powerful, but also very ill man. Christian was a brilliant villain, he was psychotic and fixated on damaging people's spinal cords, attempting to paralyse them if they don't do what he wants - it sounds extremely vicious and it was, but for me it was good to actually feel something (even this repulsion!) when reading this book. 

Overall, The Hit was unfortunately a big disappointment for me. I did read the whole thing as I hoped for more information regarding Death and yes, I did want to find out the outcome. Mostly though, I read the whole book because I refuse to not finish a book I've started. I can't say that it was enjoyable, but it certainly wasn't the worst book I've read. The concept was brilliant and I just wish that the execution had been better. If you do want to read a good book by Burgess, just pick up a copy of Junk which is, in my opinion, far superior to The Hit.

The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

Hardback, 503 pages

Published 27th September 2012 by Little, Brown

My shelves: abuse, adult-fiction, awful-cover, books-i-own, death, drink-and-drugs, let-down, lgbt-characters, medical-conditions, mental-health, rape, read, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, self-harm, suicide, too-much-hype

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.

Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.

Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.

And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?

The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

Buy this book:

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

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

I don't really know where to begin with this book. Very rarely, I avoid reviewing certain books - I haven't reviewed a few of the big names in books (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games) as I find it very difficult to try and review such widely read and highly acclaimed books. I didn't know whether or not I'd review this one - J.K. Rowling is probably the biggest author out there at the moment and there will already be a lot of reviews for The Casual Vacancy. However, as a dedicated book blogger, I decided that I'd give reviewing this a go! 

Despite the excitement surrounding The Casual Vacancy, I must admit that I wasn't really that excited about it. Sure, I love Harry Potter, but I knew that it would be something entirely different. On the release of the blurb of the book, I was underwhelmed - I thought that the story sounded quite dull and uninteresting. However, the fact that this was written by the Queen of today's literature, I still wanted to try it, at least. All that aside, when it was release day I had the need to get out and buy the book - I just had to have it (I actually ended up with two copies, one bought and one for review)!

Onto the book and the story itself... it's difficult to describe it, really, as I still have no idea how I feel about it - in one way I liked it, but at the same time I hated a lot of things about it. The thing about this book is that the main, interesting events happened in the first ten or so pages and the last fifty or so - this meant that the four hundred plus pages in between became tedious. The story revolves around around the fact that there is a Casual Vacancy in Pagford's council. I have to be honest and before reading this, I had no idea what a casual vacancy was and even after finding out, I don't know anyone who would care if there was a casual vacancy in our area. However, there was plenty of substance and the characters were certainly well developed, as expected. There was a definite history behind the village of Pagford and of the characters who lived there. 

Before I read this book, I read that some people were criticising it due to the adult themes and the amount of swearing in the book - I thought that was ridiculous - why should a book aimed at adults be criticised for such things? After reading, I can understand why it bothered people. I still stand by my thoughts that an adult book should have adult themes - it's not exactly wrong. I can understand why people were uncomfortable by this book. All of us associate Rowling with Harry Potter and a lot of people see her as a gentle figure to look up to. I didn't think I'd be affected, but yes - I did feel weird reading some of the sexual references at first. Thankfully, it was easy to get over after a while and I got used to it. 

However, I do feel as though Rowling was trying to put too many adult issues into the book. I enjoy reading about taboo subjects and serious issues, but I don't like to be overwhelmed by them. Amongst other things, abuse, death, substance abuse, mental health issues, self harm and suicide were all explored in this book. Although very emotive subjects, they didn't weigh me down and I didn't find them hard to read about - but sometimes that difficulty of reading about them is what makes them so effective. I was taken by one of the main characters, Krystal Weedon's case, but she was the only character I could really feel for - though the others were reasonably developed, I found it difficult to empathise with so many characters at once and the rest of them never seemed to grab me or strike me as someone important to listen to or to read about. 

The Casual Vacancy is a very political books, but to be honest, 1. I don't want to get into politics in one of my book reviews and really and 2. this book didn't have a massive impact on me nor my thoughts. Actually, I am not entirely sure what the message of this book was as I battled through most of it. I do think that Rowling made a superb job of putting across the fact that some people are like Krystal and have to live her difficult life, but I don't think the book was very balanced. The Weedon's issues were interesting to read about, but I felt that they overshadowed some of the serious problems that the other characters also faced. 

Overall, I don't think that this is a poorly written book but, for the most part, it bored me. There is so much thrown into this book, but for me, it was certainly not exciting nor particularly memorable. If someone told me that they wanted to read it, I wouldn't discourage them - I realise that there will be people who are into the deeper political messages of this book, but unfortunately I'm not one of those people. J.K. Rowling still stays in my mind as a phenomenal writer with a fantastic imagination and despite my difficulties with this book, I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another of her books.

Listen to the song that features most in The Casual Vacancy - I have to admit that I think that every time I hear this in the future, I'll think of Krystal Weedon.

The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle #1)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Paperback, 496 pages

Expected publication: 19th September 2012 by Scholastic

My shelves: arc-or-review, better-than-expected, books-i-own, fantasy, ghosts, magic, magical-realism, mythology, read-in-2012, series-or-companions, supernatural, title-appeal, to-read, too-much-hype

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Blue has spent the majority of her sixteen years being told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. When Blue meets Gansey’s spirit on the corpse road she knows there is only one reason why – either he is her true love or she has killed him.

Determined to find out the truth, Blue becomes involved with the Raven Boys, four boys from the local private school (lead by Gansey) who are on a quest to discover Glendower – a lost ancient Welsh King who is buried somewhere along the Virginia ley line. Whoever finds him will be granted a supernatural favour.

Never before has Blue felt such magic around her. But is Gansey her true love? She can’t imagine a time she would feel like that, and she is adamant not to be the reason for his death. Where will fate lead them?

Buy this book:

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

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

The Raven Boys has probably been one of the most hyped up books this year. As it is being released this week, I thought I had better pick it up and see what the fuss was about! I must admit that I wasn't a fan of Shiver or Linger, though I haven't yet enjoyed any shapeshifter book. Due to the different storyline of this book, I decided to give it a go, despite my reservations.

The Raven Boys tells a story of Blue who lives with her psychic mother and aunts. Blue visits a graveyard on a special night where she can see all of the people who are going to pass over to the spirit world during the next year. There, Blue sees a boy, named Gansey and seems to have a special connection with him. She is told it is because she either murdered him, or he was her true love - she has been told that if she kisses her true love, he will die. The story sounded interesting enough - I am very interested in the paranormal and once I got into the book there was also a lot of talk about ley lines, something that I find fascinating.

I really liked the characters in this book. Our main character, Blue had just the right amount of sass about her - despite living in a psychic-dominated house, Blue knows who she is - she is certainly an individual, with her own thoughts and beliefs. She isn't close-minded which was great. The family around her are interesting and definitely individual too, with quite vibrant personalities. After seeing Gansey, a Raven Boy, at the graveyard, Blue wants to discover more about them.

The Raven Boys are a group of boys who attend Aglionby, a private school. In the beginning, I think that they were made out to be your stereotypical rich and somewhat snobby private school kids - to me, that didn't come across very well but then again I was a private school kid myself. As the book went on, it turned out that the Raven Boys aren't really that stereotypical which I was thankful for. I really come to love Gansey and Adam, I felt I understood them well. Actually, I really enjoyed reading about all of The Raven Boys - the group of boys were certainly likeable and all so very different. They absolutely made the story for me, I could read about them all day. They had history behind them and each had an interesting one at that, particularly Adam and Noah. 

Even a few days after finishing this book, I'm still not completely sure how I feel about it. I certainly enjoyed it more than I enjoyed Shiver and Linger. The storyline is quite complex and it was vastly more impressive than The Wolves of Mercy Falls books. I enjoyed the idea, the twists and turns, but for me, Stiefvater's writing was not completely enjoyable. The book dragged on quite a lot and it was a bit confusing at points - though a lot of the detail was understandably necessary to contribute information to the story. Truly, I found things to be a little disjointed and distracting - it wasn't a book that I was eager to keep returning to and it did take me quite a while to read. 

I think a lot of people will certainly enjoy this book - it does have positive points and I would like to read more of the series just to find out more about our Raven Boys. I am glad that I picked this one up as I've certainly seen a different, more impressive side to Stiefvater than I previously saw in her earlier books. Even if you haven't been pleased by her previous work, I would urge you to try this one out.

Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades #2)

Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James

Paperback, 532 pages

Published 26th April 2012 by Arrow 

(First published 5th September 2011)

My shelves: abuse, books-i-own, currently-reading, erotica, read-in-2012, realistic-fiction, series-or-companions, too-much-hype

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

Daunted by the singular tastes and dark secrets of the beautiful, tormented young entrepreneur Christian Grey, Anastasia Steele has broken off their relationship to start a new career with a Seattle publishing house.
But desire for Christian still dominates her every waking thought, and when he proposes a new arrangement, Anastasia cannot resist. They rekindle their searing sensual affair, and Anastasia learns more about the harrowing past of her damaged, driven and demanding Fifty Shades.
While Christian wrestles with his inner demons, Anastasia must confront the anger and envy of the women who came before her, and make the most important decision of her life.

Buy this book:

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Okay... I wasn't going to read this. After reading the first few chapters of the first book, Fifty Shades of Grey, I told myself that I wouldn't continue the trilogy.  Obviously I lied to myself - I went out and bought the second and third book only days after finishing the first. I'm not sure why, but I can't help but want more - maybe it's because I've never read anything like this before - it is something new.

At the beginning of this book, I was absolutely cringing. Not because of the sex scenes, but because of the writing. Some of the phrases used in this book are seriously cringe-inducing and I found myself grimacing when our main character, Ana, was talking about her 'inner goddess'. However, once I had adjusted to the writing and just concentrated on what was actually going on, I did find myself getting lost in the story again, flicking through pages at top speed. This book certainly had more of a plot than the first one - rather than just sex scene upon sex scene, there was actually an alright story behind it too. We get to learn a lot more about Christian's past in this book which was all quite predictable but still quite interesting. There were certainly more serious issues addressed in this book. There is actually so much packed into this one that it'd be hard to mention everything. I do think that some of the issues/situations should have been explored more as I felt a few felt casually dismissed.

I think that although the relationships and actions of the characters aren't entirely realistic, they are somewhat interesting. Once again, both Ana and Christian had their faults and certainly weren't totally likeable characters. Like many others, I do find Ana to be quite pathetic at points, her actions sometimes childish. To be honest, I can live with her though - she may be a pushover, but I'd imagine that a lot of people in her situation would react the same way. Christian is ...Christian. He's still charming, mysterious, seductive and attractive despite his sometimes scary attitude. He doesn't seem to be as controlled by his 'sadist' feelings, but they are clearly still there. I thought it was good to see him work through his psychological problems - it was nice to actually have more of a focus in this book rather than just all of the sex scenes. Of course there was plenty of steamy sex scenes again and more visits to Christian's playroom.

I am giving this two and a half stars because that's simply what I feel that it deserves overall. The writing is certainly not great and I'm not a fan of the whiny main character. Despite that, it has still managed to get me hooked. Some people will be charmed by Christian and some will find him simply abusive. Some people will find reading about a BDSM relationship uncomfortable. Like all books, some people will like it and some people just won't. I have mixed feelings yet I still want to read more...