bookishrealm's reviews
3761 reviews

okay.....4.5 Stars

I have so much to say, but then again I don't feel like I have the words to describe how I feel. There has been a lot of hype surrounding this book and there has been a lot of talk about it simply because of the release of the movie on Netflix. I marked this book as "to be read" a while ago, but I will admit I didn't actually seek to pick it up until the buzz came out about the movie. See, I'm the type of person that usually wants to read a book before viewing the movie. Now that I've read this book, I HIGHLY doubt that I'll even invest time in watching the movie adaptation. So let's start with what this book did right or better yet what I enjoyed the most.

Please be warned that some of this could be spoilers so if you haven't read the book then I wouldn't recommend continue reading.

What I Enjoyed About This Book
*I absolutely loved that this book scared this shit out of me. I know that sounds weird; however, I really have a hard time finding books that actually make me feel creepy. This book constantly made me feel like I was being watched. I had to literally close the doors in my bedroom and the one leading to my bathroom just to feel safe. It was the most unsettling feeling a book has ever given me.

*Malerman gives our lead female character Malorie such a powerful role and when it's all said and done, I think that this book is a strong ode to motherhood and how a woman evolves into not only attempting to save her children, but also falling in love with her children. I didn't realize how powerful of a character Malorie was until she gave birth to her child and took ownership of the other child knowing how difficult it would be to raise them. I think that is a true testimony of any woman that has helped raise children in our very complex world. It is at this point that I realized that the actual identity of the monsters was unimportant. This book strongly was built around the development of our main character and her journey into motherhood. Everything from her perspective was built in reference to her child. It was beautiful. I also think that this book attests to the circle of life. Malorie spent time raising her children, teaching them right from wrong, and how to survive; yet, at the end of the novel she is forced to lean and depend upon of them, hoping that when it is all said and done she has given them enough strength and knowledge to survive. It's like that in real life. Our parents or guardians raise us with hopes of us becoming independent and successful; however, when they get to a certain age they begin to lean on us and depend on us for strength, knowledge, and the difference between right and wrong.

*The writing style was perfect for the atmosphere of the book. The short, choppy sentences and chapters just heightened my senses to what exactly was going. Shit, it made me feel like I was damn blindfolded and attempting to run away from some unseen force. Malerman knew and understood how to effectively play on our old childhood fears of what we can't see except in this situation it is what can be seen that leads to ultimate demise. It makes me wonder about the thought process Malerman went through to consider how being plunged into complete darkness and blindness would affect the human psyche.

What I didn't enjoy?
Honestly there wasn't a lot that I didn't enjoy. This book was phenomenal and I didn't need to know the origin of the monsters to enjoy the book. So with that being said you're probably wondering, why in the hell didn't I give it 5 stars. Well for one, I'm a complete asshole and it's hard to get me to rate a book 5 stars and secondly I just couldn't get behind the lack of explanation regarding Gary. So from my reading, and if you have any other theories please let me know, it appears that Gary was able to walk amongst the monsters because he was already mentally ill. And it makes me question whether Gary had previously dealt with suicidal thoughts which made him immune to the suicidal thoughts pushed on the other characters or I should say better equipped to deal with them. There has to be some link behind the people going mad and then committing suicide. I would have appreciated it if Malerman presented us with a situation in which it was a possibility that individuals who were already identified as having mental illnesses were somehow immune to the effects of the monsters. It would make a lot of sense, but alas we were provided no answers in that regard. It simply makes me wonder if those were his intentions.

With that being said, I really enjoyed the book and I hope that more people get the opportunity to read it. If you're into horror/psychological thrillers then I definitely recommend it.

Yea not my type of book

Update: Here's my full review! http://bookishrealmreviews.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-color-purple-by-alice-walker-book.html

Definitely just as good as I remember it. I can't even begin to write how I felt about the book here so I definitely will upload my full review in the next day or so.

I absolutely loved this book! At first I found it tedious to read, almost awful to finish. However, I think my interest picked up in which he began to describe his journey to practicing 3 religions. At first I didn't understand their purpose, but as I read more and more of the book I began to understand their context.

The heart of this book makes us question our sense of believability. One part of the book states, "if you stumble at mere believability, what are you living for." Through what extremities must we endure to understand the importance in believing in some things that seemingly don't exist. Pi put it best when he stated that when we understand something, believe in something, we ultimately bring something to it.

Sometimes we find truth in the most absurd stories, shedding light, understanding, and meaning to things we once thought could never happen or things that could never exist.

Ughhhh I have so many problems with this book.



I definitely expected it to be better, but unfortunately it wasn't. I really enjoyed the first book so I won't discourage anyone from trying the series, just know that this book was not a strong follow up to the first book.

Honestly, I was disgusted with the book. Keep reading to see what I thought about the plot, characters, and writing.

Plot
The plot was a tad bit forced. First of all, the character who causes so much trouble in the first book comes back in this follow up and begins to acts completely and totally crazy. Crazy to the point that I genuinely thought something was seriously wrong with him. I feel like the author to it too the extreme which was unnecessary for the context of the book. Another part of the plot that I didn't like was Romeo's journey to have a career in professional football. Clearly, the author didn't do any type of research because she stated things like "I just got signed to the NFL." First of all, no one gets signed to the NFL. You get signed to a team by entering the draft not by simply being given access to the NFL because someone thinks you're good. That's ridiculous. At another point in the book, the author indicates that the quarterback is tackled by the running back. First of all, these two positions are both offensive. There is no way in hell that you would catch a running back tackling the quarterback. It just showed things were added into the plot for the hell of it.

Characters
I still enjoyed Rimmel as a character. She's still cute and adorable, but I think in this book she's forced to be more dependent on Romeo because of the way that the plot is laid out and because of this Romeo becomes the strong, big guy that comes in and always saves the day. It's frustrating and annoying and I think that when she had the opportunity to defend herself she couldn't because Romeo became superman. It was ridiculous. And please don't get me started on Romeo's mother. She's an ass. I know parents need to protect their children, but that doesn't mean you have to treat someone like shit in the process especially a person that hasn't done anything wrong.

Writing
Honestly, this was the best part of the book. The writing was easy and I flew through the book. I do enjoy her writing style, I just don't think she has a good execution of characters and plot.

I think I need one more issue to make sure I like this graphic novel.

This is a hard book for me to rate. When I originally rated it in 2014 I gave it 4 stars; however, after listening to it on audiobook I realized that I wouldn't rate it as high and here's why. I found a few of the girls to be difficult to relate to and in turn found them quite annoying. I think this is due to the fact that I'm older and handle situations and my emotions differently. If I had to pick my two favorite characters I would definitely say Bridget and Tibby. They went through the most during the summer and truly dealt with some difficult topics. I'm not minimizing the experiences of Carmen and Lena; however, I found that their situations were more in relation to their maturity. Due to my age and my perspective of their situations, it was hard for me to relate to them as characters. What I did enjoy was the relationship between the girls. It was phenomenal to see four teenage girls bond so easily together as they experienced the ups and downs of life. Their varied personalities were a contributing factor to how they were able to balance each other out. This is something that I love about books like this. It's the power of illustrating positive female relationships. I know that teens that grow up now face a lot more complex issues than I've had to face as a teenager so positive images related to female relationships is always a great asset in any book.

I honestly loved figuring out the differences between the book and the movie because I love the movies. They are completely and totally different. I think I may even go back and watch the movie again to see if I can figure out more differences. I would recommend this books for teens ages 11-14.

Review on my blog: https://bookishrealmreviews.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-princess-fangirl.html

This was a cute addition to the series (it's more of a companion novel than a direct sequel to the first book). It focuses on a set of different characters with pop-ups from characters that were a part of the first book. I was surprised about the direction of the book especially in the big reveal. I thought that one character had more motive than others to leak the script. Quite frankly, I believe that Poston attempted to create a surprise reveal that both made sense and didn't make sense at the same time. While the writing was simplistic and easy to enjoy, I wanted a lot more in terms of character development.

Please be advised that the next part of this review contains spoilers

In reference to comment about the big reveal, I honestly thought that Jasper had more a motive to have the script than the director. The first time that readers meet him he tells Imogen that he has something big to reveal to her and then he sort of says the same thing when he meets Imogen as Jess. The "big thing" that he had to reveal to Imogen never came full circle which makes me believe that Poston may have either a) wanted him to appear to be capable of stealing the script b) he was originally intended to steal the script. I think that if she would have had Imogen and Jess think it was him and then it was revealed that it was actually the director the story would have been more believable. It was also never rectified or explained why the director leaked the script. What was his motive? And how did he know that Jess threw the script in the trash can? It bothered me that none of these questions were actively answered at the end of the book. However, I see that there is a book 3 in this series so we may possibly get some answers then.

As a stated above, I really enjoyed the characters and seeing the connections to the last book. I loved that there was a great representation among the characters whether in physical appearance or sexuality. Poston also touched greatly on the importance of recognizing societal roles that are imposed on women and how detrimental they can be to careers as well as mental health and self-esteem. Jess struggled a lot with how people judged her on her physical appearance and I know that it affected how she viewed herself and what she thought she was capable of in terms of the future development of her career as an actress. I would have liked to see Poston explore the sexual assault that occurred during the book. It was quickly glazed over and only partially addressed at the end of the book. I think that if an author wants to add such a complex and important narrative to a book then it should be thoroughly explored.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good and I will be picking up the next book.