Review: Tiny Pretty Things

 
Tiny Pretty Things
Author: Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton
Publication Date: July 2nd 2015
Publisher: HarperTeen
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars in this soapy, drama-packed novel featuring diverse characters who will do anything to be the prima at their elite ballet school.

Gigi, Bette, and June, three top students at an exclusive Manhattan ballet school, have seen their fair share of drama. Free-spirited new girl Gigi just wants to dance—but the very act might kill her. Privileged New Yorker Bette's desire to escape the shadow of her ballet star sister brings out a dangerous edge in her. And perfectionist June needs to land a lead role this year or her controlling mother will put an end to her dancing dreams forever. When every dancer is both friend and foe, the girls will sacrifice, manipulate, and backstab to be the best of the best.

Well, Tiny Pretty Things is not pretty, and not in the way you think. Tiny Pretty Things is a dark, twisted and honestly, completely cutthroat. I avoided all reviews of Tiny Pretty Things going in, I think I only read one a week before it, which made me worry about the drama, because you know me and unnecessary drama, so I was surprised by how much I actually loved the drama, and I think that is mainly because the drama in Tiny Pretty Things isn't unnecessary and is completely realistic in its setting, because Tiny Pretty Things shows the dark side of ballet, how competitive and ruthless it is.

Review: Of Monsters and Madness

Of Monsters and Madness
Author: Jessica Verday
Publication Date: September 9th 2014        
Publisher: EgmontUSA
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

A romantic, historical retelling of classic Gothic horror featuring Edgar Allan Poe and his character Annabel Lee, from a New York Times best-selling author.Summoned to her father's home in 1820's Philadelphia, a girl finds herself in the midst of a rash of gruesome murders in which he might be implicated. She is torn romantically between her father's assistants-one kind and proper, one mysterious and brooding-who share a dark secret and may have more to do with the violent events than they're letting on.

 

I'm not going to pretend I know anything about the poem of Annabel Lee. I know it, of course, but I've never studied it, and although I do like poetry, it's not exactly my favourite thing in the world. I've seen Mary Lindsey's Ashes on Waves that made me want to read it, so when I saw Of Monsters and Madness I couldn't resist (I mean, have you read that title? Of. Monsters. and. Madness. It practically screams read me!) Besides, In the land of Gods and Monsters...I had Lana Del Rey's Gods & Monsters in my head the whole time (don't ask why, my brain doesn't know. And we're not talking about my love for Lana Del Rey, we're talking about the book, right? No more music talk.)