Trouble is a Friend of Mine (Not so much if you live in Haven.)

Trouble is a Friend of Mine

Author: Stephanie Tromly
Publication Date: August 6th 2015 
Publisher: Hot Key Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Sherlock meets The Breakfast Club in this story of a wisecracking girl who meets a weird but brilliant boy and their roller-coaster of a semester that's one part awkward, three parts thrilling, and five parts awesome

After her parents get divorced, high school junior Zoe Webster moves with her mother from Brooklyn to upstate New York, determined to get back to the city and transfer to the elite private school her father insists on. But then she meets Philip Digby--the odd and brilliant and somehow attractive?--Digby, and soon finds herself in a series of hilarious and dangerous situations all centered on his search for the kidnapper of a local teenage girl who may know something about the tragic disappearance of his kid sister eight years ago. Before she knows it, Zoe has vandalized an office complex with fake snow, pretended to buy drugs alongside a handsome football star dressed like the Hulk, had a serious throw down with a possible religious cult, challenged her controlling father, and, oh yeah, saved her new hometown.For fans of John Green and David Levithan, this is a crime novel where catching the crook isn't the only hook, a romance where the leading man is decidedly unromantic, a friendship story where they aren't even sure they like each other, and a debut you won't soon forget.

I don’t know how to feel about Trouble is a Friend of Mine, and I don’t know what Trouble is a Friend of Mine is supposed to be, mainly because I don’t think the book knows what it’s supposed to be. A mystery? A coming of age with quirky characters and a mystery? A coming of age with quirky characters who investigate a missing person’s case with a side of what the actual fuck?  Don’t get me wrong, it was weird but fun and definitely quirky, but at the same time as being fun and weird and quirky, it annoyed the hell out of me because WHAT IS IT ABOUT REALLY? Because besides the mystery element, there are some weird and random scenes and some truly awful characters with nothing behind them and I had no idea where it was supposed to be going, and not in a what-the-hell-is-going-on in an endearing way and more a what-the-hell-is-going-on-side-you-make-no-sense-side-eye way.

Review: The Lie Tree

The Lie Tree
Author: Frances Hardinge
Publication Date: May 7th 2015
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~ 

The leaves were cold and slightly clammy. There was no mistaking them. She had seen their likeness painstakingly sketched in her father's journal. This was his greatest secret, his treasure and his undoing. The Tree of Lies. Now it was hers, and the journey he had never finished stretched out before her.

When Faith's father is found dead under mysterious circumstances, she is determined to untangle the truth from the lies. Searching through his belongings for clues she discovers a strange tree. A tree that feeds off whispered lies and bears fruit that reveals hidden secrets. The bigger the lie, and the more people who believe it, the bigger the truth that is uncovered.

But as Faith's untruths spread like wildfire across her small island community, she discovers that sometimes a single lie is more potent than any truth.

A beguiling tale of mystery and intrigue from the award-winning author of Fly By Night and Cuckoo Song

There are two words to describe The Lie Tree. Masterfully and Done. I don't say that lightly. What I loved about Cuckoo Song was how vivid the writing was, and how it was skilfully created, and even though the plot and pacing was slow, it's pay's off when subtle connections are made. The Lie Tree is no exception. It is completely different than Cuckoo Song, but at its core, the writing, the descriptions, the lyrical feel and flow, is exactly the same and it's brilliant.

Review: Feral

 

Title: Feral

Author: Holly Schindler

Release date:  August 26th 2014              

Publisher: HarperTeen 

The Lovely Bones meets Black Swan in this haunting psychological thriller with twists and turns that will make you question everything you think you know.
It’s too late for you. You’re dead. Those words continue to haunt Claire Cain months after she barely survived a brutal beating in Chicago. So when her father is offered a job in another state, Claire is hopeful that getting out will offer her a way to start anew.

But when she arrives in Peculiar, Missouri, Claire feels an overwhelming sense of danger, and her fears are confirmed when she discovers the body of a popular high school student in the icy woods behind the school, surrounded by the town’s feral cats. While everyone is quick to say it was an accident, Claire knows there’s more to it, and vows to learn the truth about what happened. But the closer she gets to uncovering the mystery, the closer she also gets to realizing a frightening reality about herself and the damage she truly sustained in that Chicago alley….

Holly Schindler’s gripping story is filled with heart-stopping twists and turns that will keep readers guessing until the very last page

Oh Feral, what am I going to do with you? On one hand you were crazy and weird and pretty much what I love about these types of books. But then on the other hand, it was not at all where I wanted or thought it would go. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing it just really had this big build up that kept you guessing what was going on that by the time it was revealed it deflated.

Review: Unwept

 

 

Unwept
Author:  Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman

Publication Date:  July 1st 2014    
Publisher: Tor Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Gamin, Maine, is a remote seaside town where everyone seems to know Ellis Harkington better than she knows herself—but she doesn’t remember any of them.

Unknown events have robbed Ellis of her memory. Concerned individuals, who purport to be her friends and loved ones, insist that she simply needs to recuperate, that her memories may return in time, but refuse to divulge what has brought her to this state. For her own sake, so they say.

Ellis finds herself adrift in a town of ominous mysteries, cryptic hints, and disturbingly familiar strangers. The Nightbirds, a clique of fashionable young men and women, claim her as one of their own, but who among them can she truly trust? And what of the phantom suitor who visits her in her dreams? Is he a memory, a figment of her imagination, or a living nightmare beyond rational explanation?

Only her lost past hold the answers she seeks—if she can uncover its secrets before she fall prey to an unearthly killer

 

 

 

 

 

I've certainly have been reading a few mindfuck books lately. But, they're the best kind, they keep you guessing, keep you reading, keep you wondering what the hell is going on and Unwept is no exception. I was so excited when I got approved for it because Tor Teen have published some of my favourite books *cough* Kendare Blake *cough*

Starting with a brutal introduction Unwept takes you on journey that has you following blindly, along with our main character Ellis, who wakes up on a train with no memory of how she got there. Or anything else. Or who she is. Or who anyone is. So when she arrived at this town called Gamin she is utterly confused. So was I.

Review: House of Ivy & Sorrow

House of Ivy & Sorrow
Author:  Natalie Whipple

Publication Date: April 15th 2014
~A copy was provided by HarperTeen and Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

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Josephine Hemlock has spent the last 10 years hiding from the Curse that killed her mother. But when a mysterious man arrives at her ivy-covered, magic-fortified home, it’s clear her mother’s killer has finally come to destroy the rest of the Hemlock bloodline. Before Jo can even think about fighting back, she must figure out who she’s fighting in the first place. The more truth Jo uncovers, the deeper she falls into witchcraft darker than she ever imagined. Trapped and running out of time, she begins to wonder if the very Curse that killed her mother is the only way to save everyone she loves.

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I was pleasantly surprised with The House of Ivy and Sorrow, after Transparency, which let's say, I hated didn't really like all that much. Probably since it was being compared to X-Men, and it didn't even come close, and I'm very protective of X-Men. It's serious, okay?  And since The House of Ivy and Sorrow had nothing to even remotely to do with that, what the hell?

And I enjoyed it. (I know.)

Review: Echo Boy

Echo Boy
Author: Matt Haig

Publication Date:  March 27th 2014
~A copy was provided by Random House Childrens via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

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Audrey's father taught her that to stay human in the modern world, she had to build a moat around herself; a moat of books and music, philosophy and dreams. A moat that makes Audrey different from the echoes: sophisticated, emotionless machines, built to resemble humans and to work for human masters.

Daniel is an echo - but he's not like the others. He feels a connection with Audrey; a feeling Daniel knows he was never designed to have, and cannot explain. And when Audrey is placed in terrible danger, he's determined to save her.

THE ECHO BOY is a powerful story about love, loss and what makes us truly human.



 

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Echo Boy was a complete surprise, but forget The Walking Dead, try my Walking Nightmare. It scared the crap out of me.

Have you seen Surrogates? If you have, I feel sorry for you, I mean, I feel sorry for myself. You haven't? Don't bother. Just read this, it's much better. It's not the same thing, since the "Echo's" are not you hooked up to a machine and mind controlling the robot body, and more Echo's are actual robots, created, made, signed, sealed and delivered all round technically human like advanced robots, but they are machines and nothing more.

Review: Perfect Lies

Perfect Lies
Author: Kiersten White

Publication Date: February 18th 2014                                 

~A copy was provided by HarperTeen via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Annie and Fia are ready to fight back.

The sisters have been manipulated and controlled by the Keane Foundation for years, trapped in a never ending battle for survival. Now they have found allies who can help them truly escape. After faking her own death, Annie has joined a group that is plotting to destroy the Foundation. And Fia is working with James Keane to bring his father down from the inside.

But Annie's visions of the future can't show her who to trust in the present. And though James is Fia's first love, Fia knows he's hiding something. The sisters can rely only on each other - but that may not be enough to save them.
 

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The first thing I said in my review about Mind Games was " Mind Games is either cleverly executed, or a damn right crazy mess with the most ironic and appropriate title."

Reading Perfect Lies made my mind up for me. Cleverly executed.

Perfect Lies was so much better than Mind Games, I still kind of think we got nowhere, not until the end, but I don't care because I loved it.

Review: White Space

White Space
Author:   Ilsa J. Bick

Publication Date:  February 11th 2014                           

~A copy was provided by Egmont USA via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

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 In the tradition of Memento and Inception comes a thrilling and scary young adult novel about blurred reality where characters in a story find that a deadly and horrifying world exists in the space between the written lines.

Seventeen-year-old Emma Lindsay has problems: a head full of metal, no parents, a crazy artist for a guardian whom a stroke has turned into a vegetable, and all those times when she blinks away, dropping into other lives so ghostly and surreal it's as if the story of her life bleeds into theirs. But one thing Emma has never doubted is that she's real.

Then she writes "White Space," a story about these kids stranded in a spooky house during a blizzard.

Unfortunately, "White Space" turns out to be a dead ringer for part of an unfinished novel by a long-dead writer. The manuscript, which she's never seen, is a loopy Matrix meets Inkheart story in which characters fall out of different books and jump off the page. Thing is, when Emma blinks, she might be doing the same and, before long, she's dropped into the very story she thought she'd written. Trapped in a weird, snow-choked valley, Emma meets other kids with dark secrets and strange abilities: Eric, Casey, Bode, Rima, and a very special little girl, Lizzie. What they discover is that they--and Emma--may be nothing more than characters written into being from an alternative universe for a very specific purpose.

Now what they must uncover is why they've been brought to this place--a world between the lines where parallel realities are created and destroyed and nightmares are written--before someone pens their end.

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It took me 8 hours over 6 days to finish this. Yes, it's longer than the usual, but I couldn't handle more than over an hour at a time because I literally couldn't take anymore of it.

So, who else thought this is going to be awesome when they heard The Matrix meets Inkheart?  I don't know whether to cry or go back to sleep. You know everybody who watched Lost from the beginning and towards the end though we're finally going to get it and then it ended like that and you wanted 6 years of your life back? I want my 6 days back. And then I realised it's only book one and of course I'm going to have to read book two because I want to know what's going on.

Review: The Drowned Forest

The Drowned Forest
Author:  Kristopher Reisz 

Publication Date:  February 8th 2014                 

~A copy was provided by Flux via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Losing Holly is the hardest thing Jane has ever had to endure ... until Holly comes back.

Best friends Jane and Holly have jumped off the bluff over their Alabama reservoir hundreds of times. But one day, Holly’s jump goes wrong. Her body never comes up, yet something else does—a sad creature of mud, full of confusion and sorrow. It’s Holly, somehow, trapped and mixed up with the river. And if Jane can’t do something to help, Holly will take everybody down with her—even the people they love the most.

Blending Looking for Alaska’s theme of lost friendship with Stephen King’s sense of small-town horror, The Drowned Forest is a Southern gothic tale of grief, redemption, and the mournful yearning of an anguished soul. .

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Right, I am just going to say it and get it out of the way.

I'm not religious.

When requesting The Drowned Forest, from the blurb I had no idea that it was even  A) Religious  and B) Focused on religion.

ARC Review: Gretel and the Dark

Gretel and the Dark
Author:  Eliza Granville

Publication Date:  February 6th 2014   

~An Advance Readers Copy was provided in exchange for an honest review~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Gretel and the Dark is Eliza Granville's dazzling novel of darkness, evil - and hope. Vienna, 1899.

Josef Breuer - celebrated psychoanalyst - is about to encounter his strangest case yet. Found by the lunatic asylum, thin, head shaved, she claims to have no name, no feelings - to be, in fact, not even human. Intrigued, Breuer determines to fathom the roots of her disturbance.

Years later, in Germany, we meet Krysta. Krysta's Papa is busy working in the infirmary with the 'animal people', so little Krysta plays alone, lost in the stories of Hansel and Gretel, the Pied Piper, and more. And when everything changes and the real world around her becomes as frightening as any fairy tale, Krysta finds that her imagination holds powers beyond what she could have ever guessed . . .

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Say hello to my little friend...

Joking.

I'm not friends with this book. So...

EARC Review: No One Else Can Have You.

No One Else Can Have You
Author: Kathleen Hale

Publication Date: January 7th 2014             

~A huge thank you to HarperTeen, and Edelweiss, who provided a copy in exchange for an honest review.~

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Small towns are nothing if not friendly. Friendship, Wisconsin (population: 688) is no different. Around here, everyone wears a smile. And no one ever locks their doors. Until, that is, high school sweetheart Ruth Fried is found murdered. Strung up like a scarecrow in the middle of a cornfield.

Unfortunately, Friendship’s police are more adept at looking for lost pets than catching killers. So Ruth’s best friend, Kippy Bushman, armed with only her tenacious Midwestern spirit and Ruth’s secret diary (which Ruth’s mother had asked her to read in order to redact any, you know, sex parts), sets out to find the murderer. But in a quiet town like Friendship—where no one is a suspect—anyone could be the killer.
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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

The first thing you need to know about No One Else Can Have You is that it's weird, and kind of like Humpty, you're immediately sucked in, you start on a creepy ladder climbing high, and then it starts to fall, and it never really gets put back together. 

The town Friendship, population 689 is a small closed knit town where everybody knows one another, everybody is too friendly and nice and sickly like cough syrup. They talk to one another with first and last names. Polite. Happy. Nothing-bad-happens-here-no-sirry-don'tcha know. Did I mention they're friendly? sociopathic. They don't like bad things, they sweep things under the rug and take a happy pill.

EARC-Review: Witch Finder

Witch Finder
Author: Ruth Warburton

Publication Date: January 2nd 2014        

~A huge thank you to Hodder Children's Books, and Netgalley, who provided a copy in exchange for an honest review.~  




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London. 1880. In the slums of Spitalfields apprentice blacksmith Luke is facing initiation into the Malleus Maleficorum, the fearsome brotherhood dedicated to hunting and killing witches.

Luke’s final test is to pick a name at random from the Book of Witches, a name he must track down and kill within a month, or face death himself. Luke knows that tonight will change his life forever. But when he picks out sixteen-year-old Rosa Greenwood, Luke has no idea that his task will be harder than he could ever imagine.

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I am very indecisive about Witch Finder. I would love to say I loved it. But I can't. I didn't. I would love to say I hated it. But I can't. I didn't. Though there are some aspects of both that I did love and did hate. Of which I'll discuss later on in detail, but one of the main thing Witch Finder has going for it is the fact it is very well done and authentic. Written in third person, and split into two perspectives you have two stories to contend with, that has to be seamlessly in sync with one another, which, for the most part, were. Needless to say, Witch Finder wasn't exactly what I was expecting. With historicals, it's all about the execution. Though it was executed well, there was something that didn't sit well.

Teaser Tuesday (20)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.

 

 

 

Title: White Space

Author: Ilsa J. Bick

Release date: February 11th 2014              

Publisher:  Egmont USA   

Place: 10%

 

 

 

 Ilsa Bick’s WHITE SPACE, pitched as The Matrix meets Inkheart, about a seventeen-year-old girl who jumps between the lines of books and into the white space where realities are created and destroyed – but who may herself be nothing more than a character written into being from an alternative universe.

 

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"The doctors said her migraines were to blame for these pesky litte episodes. Her symptoms even had a name: the Alice in Wonderland syndrome."

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I've been reading this for five days. Five freaking days because it hurts your brain if you read more than an hour of it at a time. Also, I have 36 highlights and this is the only one I could use. So who else thought this is going to be awesome when they heard The Matrix meets Inkheart? I don't know whether to cry or go back to sleep. You know everybody who watched Lost from the beginning and towards the end thought we're finally going to get it and then it ended like that and you wanted 6 years of your life back? I want my 6 hours back, please. And then I realised it's only book one.

 

 

What're you reading?

 

Review: Confessions: The Private School Murders

Confessions: The Private School Murders
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Publication Date: October 24th 2013

~A copy was provided by Arrow (Young) in exchange for an honest review.~



 Tandy Angel may have played the hero when she solved the case of her magnificently wealthy parents' mysterious deaths, but she isn't done yet. Her brother Matthew stands trial for homicide, young girls are found murdered all around New York's Upper West side, and Tandy is determined to use her piercing intellect to get to the bottom of both cases. But the biggest mystery of all may be what actually happened to James Rampling, the handsome son of a family enemy, whom Tandy fell in love and ran away with--though most of her memories of the affair are disturbingly absent...

The confessions keep coming as Tandy delves even deeper into her own tumultuous history and the skeletons in the Angel family closet.




Oh dear everything that's holy, my heart hurts. It freaking hurts.

Ugh, I don't know where to start.

The Private School Murders kicks off three months after Confessions of A Murder Suspect, Matthew's still in jail pending trial on a charge, the mystery of James Rampling is fracturing, and we get to know him and oh my fictional guy. This is the part where I could gush and fangirl, but you know what? James Rampling deserves more, so I'm saying I wish this guy was real. So damn real. Anyway, back to topic, where was I? Right...

Review: Confessions of A Murder Suspect

Confessions of A Murder Suspect
Author: James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Publication Date: September 27th 2012

~A copy was provided by Arrow (Young) in exchange for an honest review.~

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, their daughter, Tandy, knows just three things:

1. She was one of the last people to see her parents alive.

2. She and her brothers are the only suspects.

3. She can't trust anyone - maybe not even herself.

Having grown up under their parents' intense perfectionist demands, none of the Angel children have come away undamaged.

Tandy decides that she will have to solve the crime on her own, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous game. As she uncovers haunting secrets and slowly begins to remember flashes of disturbing past events buried in her memory, Tandy is forced to ask: What is the Angel family truly capable of?

The Angel household is about to be changed, for the worse or better, you pick. Matthew (the oldest) Tandoori "Tandy", her twin Harry, and Hugo (The youngest) are woken up to police threatening to break down their door, and find out that their parents are dead. Not only have their parents been murdered, but there was no break-in, nothing unlocked or out of normal, no sign of a struggle, and they are the main suspects.

Even our Narrator, Tandy, thinks it could be one of them, even herself, thanks to her little black-out tendency and holes in her memory. She even thinks it could be her twin. With little evidence of outside foul play, all evidence points to them, and since she's the most methodical and emotionless one, all fingers point to her. But being all of those things also make her the sharpest and intelligent of them.