My Monthly Reads: August 2017
As we are reaching the end of
August, I’m going to be posting my monthly reads for this month. I found I had a lot more spare time to read
this month than I usually would as it’s summer holidays. I won’t be going into huge detail on each
book as I don’t want to give anything away but I have loved every book I have
read this month which I am very pleased about! Keep reading to find out my
thoughts on them
Matched by Ally Condie
This book is set in the future;
it’s the perfect society yet, it’s not. The
storyline keeps you hooked until the very end wondering what Cassia (the main
character) will do next. She faces quite
a few dilemmas during the book which are all artfully done and both choices are
made to appeal to the reader rather than there being one obvious choice which I
liked as it made the story less predictable.
The romance in the story was very well done and curiosity for the love
triangle was built throughout the whole book.
Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt
This is such a beautiful
book. It’s extremely well written and
teaches lessons throughout such as Don’t
judge a book by its cover and ugly
people have feelings too which was a recurring lesson throughout the book
as the main character, Jenna, considers herself ugly due to an accident that
occurs. When I found out the ages of the
Jenna and her love interest, Ryan, I was really surprised as they are only 14
and 16 respectively yet they are presented in a much more mature way but it also
makes you think about how much can change for them in the future with them
being so young. This book is inspiring,
emotional and funny all at once and it really makes you feel so much for Jenna
throughout such as empathy but also hope.
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
This book has been sitting on my
shelf for months because I just haven’t got around to reading it yet but with
the film coming out soon I thought now was the best chance to read it before I
saw the film. I was impressed with this
book. It was cute and funny but the way
it was written and the illustrations really made it unique and a much more
interesting read. Yoon was able to
carefully balance the light-heartedness and the seriousness of the book well
but there were some parts that we’re still extremely thought-provoking for the
reader. It’s funny, sad and romantic all
at once but it was done well. I do have
to say, I personally feel as though the ending was slightly abrupt and I would
have loved to know what happened after; I think the ending as a whole was
slightly rushed.
The Selection Trilogy by Kiera Cass
I was originally going to write
about these 3 books separately but since they are such an easy-to-read series
and I read them all so quickly one after another, I decided to write about them
all together so this will be a slightly longer review than those above.
The selection is a lottery-based,
reality TV event where 35 girls are chosen to live at the castle to ‘court’ Prince
Maxon so he can find a queen. America
(the main character), in love with Aspen (her nearly illegal boyfriend), has no
interest at all in the event but due to some specific circumstances she finds
herself not only entering the competition but being chosen as one of the 35
girls. Books 2 and 3 follow her journey
through the competition and although the ending is quite predictable, the read
is more about seeing how she got to
that outcome rather than what the outcome is.
As for characters, America makes a lot of stupid mistakes and is very
inconsistent with her feelings but she is still a teenager so she can’t really
be blamed. Aspen was dealt with very
well in terms of the doomed love triangle and managed to stay relevant without
being forced into the storyline. The
other girls in the completion were developed well as much as was necessary and
some really surprised me towards the end.
Despite the light-heartedness of the book there were also some pretty
intense things that happen through the books such as public whippings, fights,
gun wounds and blackmail and King Carlson’s character and dark nature really
helped add depth to the plot; He was a very interesting character (but a crappy
person!).
Kiera Class has also released 2
follow up books to this series but these books instead follow her daughter’s
own selection rather than America’s story so it was really interesting to read what
was essentially ‘The Selection’ with very few appearances from either America
or Maxon however a very big part of one of the 2 books is to do with
America. As well as these 5 books, Cass
has also released a few novellas; The Prince, The Guard and The Queen (or they
all come together in one book called Happily
Ever After. These short stories are
either chapters you’ve already read from a different characters point-of-view,
which makes a very interesting read as you already know what’s going on and
already know one side of it, or they are completely separate chapters all
together giving you more insight into the story.
Comments
Post a Comment