Review: The Geography of You and Me

The Geography of You and Me
Author: Jennifer E. Smith

Publication Date:  April 15th 2014  

 

 

 

 

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For fans of John Green, Stephanie Perkins and Sarah Ockler, THE GEOGRAPHY OF YOU AND ME is a story for anyone who's ever longed to meet someone special, for anyone who's searched for home and found it where they least expected it.

Owen lives in the basement. Lucy lives on the 24th floor. But when the power goes out in the midst of a New York heatwave, they find themselves together for the first time: stuck in a lift between the 10th and 11th floors. As they await help, they start talking...

The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland they can't shake the memory of the time they shared. Postcards cross the globe when they themselves can't, as Owen and Lucy experience the joy - and pain - of first love.

And as they make their separate journeys in search of home, they discover that sometimes it is a person rather than a place that anchors you most in the world.

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In The Geography of You and Me,  for the first time ever Jennifer E Smith has made me dislike her characters. Or I should say, some of the choices they make.  It's also a different style than I was expecting, maybe more like the previous This is What Happy Looks Like,  which it wasn't, and it was so much better for it

The Geography of You and Me is different in a way that, in This is What Happy Looks Like, we had the emails between Ellie and Graham, whereas in here Lucy and Owen aren't so commutative, it's a more read between the lines kind of thing, which made it refreshing and a little more angsty than ever before, and not a repeat.

Review: Dear Killer

Dear Killer
Author: Katherine Ewell

Publication Date:  April 1st 2014        
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books

~An advance readers copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

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Rule One—Nothing is right, nothing is wrong.
Rule Two—Be careful.
Rule Three—Fight using your legs whenever possible, because they’re the strongest part of your body. Your arms are the weakest.
Rule Four—Hit to kill. The first blow should be the last, if at all possible.
Rule Five—The letters are the law.

Kit takes her role as London’s notorious “Perfect Killer” seriously. The letters and cash that come to her via a secret mailbox are not a game; choosing who to kill is not an impulse decision. Every letter she receives begins with “Dear Killer,” and every time Kit murders, she leaves a letter with the dead body. Her moral nihilism and thus her murders are a way of life—the only way of life she has ever known.

But when a letter appears in the mailbox that will have the power to topple Kit’s convictions as perfectly as she commits her murders, she must make a decision: follow the only rules she has ever known, or challenge Rule One, and go from there.

Katherine Ewell’s Dear Killer is a sinister psychological thriller that explores the thin line between good and evil, and the messiness of that inevitable moment when life contradicts everything you believe.

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Disclaimer: I always try to write a spoiler free review. In this case it's impossible to talk about it without some spoilers. Major spoilers and theories themselves, you have fair warning and are covered.

Dear Killer, where to I even start? Freaking hell. My head hurts.

I'll start by saying not everyone will love his book, i don't even know if I do love it, it's unethical, immoral and pushes a dozen of boundaries,  and most of the conversations seemed awkward and sometimes  unrealistic, but to put it simply.

It's fascinating.

ARC Review: Half Bad

Half Bad (Half Life Trilogy #1)
Author: Sally Green

Publication Date: March 3rd, 2014    

~A proof copy was provided by Penguin in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

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A stunning, magical debut. An international sensation.

In modern-day England, witches live alongside humans: White witches, who are good; Black witches, who are evil; and fifteen-year-old Nathan, who is both. Nathan’s father is the world’s most powerful and cruel Black witch, and his mother is dead. He is hunted from all sides. Trapped in a cage, beaten and handcuffed, Nathan must escape before his sixteenth birthday, at which point he will receive three gifts from his father and come into his own as a witch—or else he will die. But how can Nathan find his father when his every action is tracked, when there is no one safe to trust—not even family, not even the girl he loves?

In the tradition of Patrick Ness and Markus Zusak, Half Bad is a gripping tale of alienation and the indomitable will to survive, a story that will grab hold of you and not let go until the very last page.

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Oh, Half Bad, you were delightfully cruel. I may love you a little. A lot.

I read quite a few "witches" in the genre last year that really just didn't do it for me, even with the ones that were supposed to be to do with witch hunts,  but ended up being about love and love triangles and all that sappy stuff  that made them fall flat.

But this. This.