emilyusuallyreading's reviews
746 reviews

I grew up reading Martha Finley's stories about Elsie and loved them as a child. Re-reading them in adulthood, I can't help but struggle with the moral perfection of Elsie, Travilla, and the majority of her children. They live a picturesque life in a setting that realistically would have been destroyed by the Civil War. The relationship Elsie has with the black people in these stories is too motherly and patronizing for my taste. I still love Elsie Dinsmore and all of the characters, but I see much more Mary Sue-ism than I did when I was a little girl.

This book was my favorite out of the Elsie Dinsmore series when I was growing up. Perhaps because Elsie has her own little streak of rebellion, turning her into a somewhat flawed individual instead of the perfect image of what a little girl to be, like she is in the first two stories.

I watched the Disney film of The Jungle Book and then attempted to read the book as a young child. At the time, Kipling's depth and style bored me and I put the book down. Re-reading now as an English student at university, I have become a fan of both Rudyard Kipling and his many stories of Mowgli and the other animals in the jungle.

I'm a huge fan of the Uglies series. Extras fell short for me. Perhaps I was simply unwilling to embrace a main character in this world that wasn't Tally, but the descriptions of gadgets and society and real life social media made me struggle to keep up.

What I Liked
These days, a young adult novel written in third person is difficult to find. And Lauren Oliver nailed this POV.

Panic is not a sci-fi, dystopian story. It's set in a real-world small town that is riddled with relative poverty and all the issues that come along with that. The characters living in Carp are realistic and tangible. Even the kindest characters

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Anne

have deeply-etched flaws. The character development in this novel is striking and intensely psychological.

I appreciated how Panic portrayed life in a poor, small town. Everyone is desperate and struggling, unable to get by and also unable to get away. $67,000 means everything to a teen who has no chance of a better future without some kind of stepping stone. Nat's story was perhaps the most compelling of the entire novel.

What I Didn't Like
Even though the intense depth of the characters in Panic was amazing, I never actually liked any of them very much. Instead of finding myself rooting for a winner of the games, I found myself distracted by the extreme selfishness and foolishness in every single character I encountered. There never seemed to be a pure motivation behind anyone's actions

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until Bishop announcing why he was judge, but even that caused extreme property damage and injury that the reader was basically supposed to ignore

. I found myself irritated with Heather, Nat, Bishop, and Dodge more than I found myself rooting for any of them.

At times, the challenges seemed a little too extreme to be real, especially if this is an annual thing that police had never stopped before.

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Burning a house down? Playing Russian Roulette? Really?

Lauren Oliver is one of my favorite YA authors. Delirium stuck with me long after I finished reading, and my enjoyment of this trilogy has grown over time.

What I didn't like
The first five chapters were a little slow and corny. I found two awkward metaphors about Alex's (the love interest's) eyes in a single sentence. His hair was constantly described as "the color of autumn," which distracted me a little, for some reason.

Perhaps the funniest phrasing I found in the entire book was that "his eyes were literally dancing," and I questioned if the protagonist/writer actually knew what the word literally meant.

What I liked
As the story progressed, I began to grow more attached to the characters. My favorite character was Hana, who

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initially came across as the hero of the story, someone Lena admired more than any other person, but she turned out to have an inability to act on her convictions, like so many do

. I enjoyed the fact that this story was set in a slightly alternate dimension of the United States, as if it was set in a 21st century, dystopian America. The symbolism and metaphors used by the author grew a little less forced and awkward after the initial attempt to describe everything about Alex's face diminished, and I began to really enjoy the style of Oliver's writing.

One of the biggest things I admired about Delirum is that it was not laden with teenage sex scenes. It realistically described Lena's innocence and timidity created by her guarded culture. The story focused on the bizarre laws of their world and the forbidden rebellion between Alex and Lena instead of on the physical details of their relationship.

I don't know why this book has gotten worse reviews than the previous two, because it was my favorite in the trilogy.

What I Liked
Lauren Oliver has this ability of knotting all my emotions up into a tight little ball and making me feel so anxious and tense over the fates of these beloved characters for the entire duration of the book... in a good way. I read Requiem in two sittings. I didn't have a choice. Even if it meant sleepily marching on until 4 in the morning, I had to keep turning pages until I knew what happened.

I hate love triangles. I truly, truly hate them. So I started Requiem thinking I would feel rage as long as there was a love triangle. But I didn't.

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I'm pretty sure it was clear to everyone from the very first chapter who Lena actually loved: Alex over Julian. While it occasionally made her seem a little childish and petty that she would lead Julian on in certain moments in order to make Alex jealous, I think it also showed how everyone wants to be loved. Everyone has insecurities about being unloved. And as soon as Lena thought, "Alex does not love me," she was desperate to find that love in another place.

Honestly, I hate love triangles where the main character is thinking, "Oh my gosh, who do I love more? I just can't decide!" because that must mean that she does not truly love either. Oliver's relationships aren't like that. It was always clear that in a heartbeat Lena would have chosen Alex over Julian, and I think even Julian realized this to the very end.

The idea of a world where love is outlawed may seem far-fetched, but that isn't the point. This is a love story about love. Not only romance, but the "I will die for you, I will live for you, I am a mother, a daughter, a friend, a sister, I am family" kind of love as well. "You can't be happy unless you are unhappy sometimes" is a perfect motto for this trilogy.

Perhaps my favorite quote in Requiem is on page 43: "With the cure, relationships are all the same, and rules and expectations are defined. Without the cure, relationships must be reinvented every day, languages constantly decoded and deciphered. Freedom is exhausting." So true.

I love the Biblical metaphors within the book.

Also, Lauren Oliver is just a beautiful wordsmith. She could write about gravel on the road and I would be happy to sit and read.

What I Didn't Like
Occasionally the POV switch between Hana and Lena felt forced. Particularly in one instance when

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cured

Hana is dreaming of velvety fingers and on the very next page, Lena is thinking,

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"I wonder what it's like for cureds to not have to dream about fingers reaching for them in their sleep."

I wasn't quite sure why the character of Coral existed. The reader never bonds with her or hears much of her side of the story.

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Her indifference to Alex after he runs away is a little confusing. Was she there only to complicate the love triangle even further? I'm not sure.

About the Ending
It was vague. It was abrupt. It didn't answer every question or heal every relationship. But I actually thought it was a perfect ending for each character.

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And the tearing down of the wall was so perfect.

I was left wishing more than anything for a Delirium #4.

I was left stunned after reading this book. Chills down my spine. Fast-beating heart. Shaking.

Before I Fall leaps far beyond the typical teenage drama. At first I found Sam's voice to be irritating and self-obsessed, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue reading the story. After finishing "Day One," I realized with surprise that Sam was purposely written that way. Lauren Oliver boldly looks through the eyes of a high school girl, through the eyes of a high school mean girl, no less. I saw my younger self in Sam, in ways I wasn't thrilled to admit. I also saw my younger self in Juliet Sykes.

Characterization in this novel is outstanding. Each character leaps off the page and feels vivid, real, as if I could drive to whatever town in which they live and shake Kent's hand or give Juliet a big embrace (or maybe punch Rob).

The story is in first person present tense, which makes certain scenes feel long and even overly-described by Sam, but there is more depth in this novel than I've seen in a while. Pieces snap together from the first chapter to the last.

I love Lauren Oliver's writing. She is a stunning wordsmith and is able to capture the YA heart in ways many authors cannot.

The ending, though...

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currently brokenhearted

This book is mesmerizing and difficult to put down. Jay Asher captures the teenage voice in a dual narration that is heartbreaking and compelling and sometimes even funny all at once.

The three stars I have given has nothing to do with the writing or the characterization or the unquenchable interest this book sparked in me. The reason I gave Thirteen Reasons Why only three stars is because of two problems I had, the second being bigger than the first.

One
Clay is too perfect. His spotless reputation. His tender relationship with his mother. His way of winning the hearts of all the high-school kids who make fun of absolutely everyone else. Yes, Clay has the minor flaw of apathy, but even this is remarkably and understandably transformed from the first page to the last.

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I just finished reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, which may have set a high standard for a tangibly flawed character, but it bothers me so much that the thirteen tapes are for twelve people who horribly used Hannah... and Clay. And the tapes weren't because he hurt her in any way whatsoever. In fact, he made Hannah feel special and wonderful, but she wanted him to know what happened to her and she wanted to say sorry. And yet Clay sat with Tony at the end as they said it was a little bit of everyone's fault. This left a bad taste in my mouth. In the back of the book, Jay Asher said that he wrote this book in part as a reminder of the impact of what we say and do to people. But Clay was perfect. Never unkind, not even when he would lie to his mother. Always nice.

I would have been extremely impacted if Clay had been some true source of the pain Hannah experienced. He didn't have to be as awful as Bryce. But he could have done something. Instead, because his guilt was not real, at all, the moral of the story fell a little flat for me. I found myself rolling my eyes at Clay's guilt and feeling confused as to why Hannah would set the burden of knowing everyone who hurt her on his shoulders when she admitted that Clay did not make her want to die. He was simply too late to help her.

Two
When I was 15, I lost a close friend to suicide. It was devastating, and one of the hardest things I've ever experienced to this day.

If you're a teenager and reading this, please do not be offended by my next words. I'm only a few years out of my teens, myself, and I dealt with a lot of depression and thoughts of suicide when I was younger. But the thing is, teenagers and young people often feel immortal. When you are young, it's hard to grasp the true impact of what it means to die and be gone forever, especially if you have never experienced the death of a loved one. Because of this, suicide can seem glamorous. Poetic. A little romantic. The perfect revenge for everyone who has done you a wrong turn.

Let me get something straight.

Suicide is not glamorous.

Your parents or your little sister or your grandmother will find your body, and it will only be traumatic and horrifying and devastating. People who love you (because there are people who love you) will be scarred. Forever. Suddenly their lives will be marked by a distinct "Before" and "After." And that line between how life was and how it is now will forever change them. You will damage everyone in your world who loved you and your life will be over. The people you hurt will have chances to grow and move on and do wonderful things, and you won't. Because you will be dead.

Thirteen Reasons Why gives suicide too much glamor, in my opinion. The beautiful girl with a tragic past, recording her secrets on old cassette tapes and blackmailing everyone who has ever hurt her. That perfect "screw you" moment to the bad guys, the gentle kiss and goodbye to her crush, everything unfolding exactly how she hoped. Falling asleep from sleeping pills because she just "couldn't bear" for her parents to find her hanging. And best of all, her death made a difference.

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Clay is going to rescue Skye from depression that stole Hannah.

Young adults are not stupid. It's not like reading this book will convince a bunch of angsty 16-year-olds to go and swallow a bunch of pills. But I'm afraid that Thirteen Reasons Why will continue to perpetuate this romantic idea of teenage suicide, when it isn't that way at all.

Suicide is only horrible. I promise you.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's conversion story is extremely powerful. I was silenced and convicted by some of her observations about Christians from the perspective of a woman who used to identify herself as homosexual, someone who felt completely shut out from the Christian church. The first couple of chapters of the book were so compelling that I could hardly put it down.

However, after those first few chapters, I found myself straying from the impact of Butterfield's story. Instead of giving more insight into the heart of an unlikely convert, she gave long theological explanations about her ultra-calvinism and her distaste for all Christian worship aside from singing the Psalms word-for-word. Perhaps that I simply could not agree Biblically with many of the points she was stating as fact was what put a bitter taste in my mouth.

I am so glad that Rosaria found the Lord and found true joy in family and faith, but I found myself shaking my head at too many parts of this book more than I could find it enjoyable.