It's all Fun and Games Until Somebody's #NotAskingForIt

Asking For It
Author: Louise O'Neill
Publication Date: September 3rd 2015
Publisher: Quercus Children's
 ~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

FROM THE WINNER OF THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR AWARD.

It's the beginning of the summer in a small town in Ireland. Emma O'Donovan is eighteen years old, beautiful, happy, confident. One night, there's a party. Everyone is there. All eyes are on Emma.

The next morning, she wakes on the front porch of her house. She can't remember what happened, she doesn't know how she got there. She doesn't know why she's in pain. But everyone else does.

Photographs taken at the party show, in explicit detail, what happened to Emma that night. But sometimes people don't want to believe what is right in front of them, especially when the truth concerns the town's heroes...

Last year, Louise O’Neill’s debut, Only Ever Yours was a much needed book in YA, and I loved Only Ever Yours, it was honest, and It was easily one of my favourite releases from last year, and just easily one of my favourites. Now, Louise O’Neill has written another much needed story that everyone should read. Upon finishing reading Asking For It, I wanted to cry, and hug Louise O’Neill for writing that much needed book and hit a wall. And eat my feelings in gelato, and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to give it justice while talking about it at all, because there are just no words.

Waiting on Wednesday (#104)

"Waiting on" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights upcoming releases.

The Killing Jar by Jennifer Bosworth

Expected publication: January 12th 2016 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

“I try not to think about it, what I did to that boy.”

Seventeen-year-old Kenna Marsden has a secret.

She’s haunted by a violent tragedy she can’t explain. Kenna’s past has kept people—even her own mother—at a distance for years. Just when she finds a friend who loves her and life begins to improve, she’s plunged into a new nightmare. Her mom and twin sister are attacked, and the dark powers Kenna has struggled to suppress awaken with a vengeance.

On the heels of the assault, Kenna is exiled to a nearby commune, known as Eclipse, to live with a relative she never knew she had. There, she discovers an extraordinary new way of life as she learns who she really is, and the wonders she’s capable of. For the first time, she starts to feel like she belongs somewhere. That her terrible secret makes her beautiful and strong, not dangerous. But the longer she stays at Eclipse, the more she senses there is something malignant lurking underneath it all. And she begins to suspect that her new family has sinister plans for her

It's calling me.

What're you waiting on? 

One

One
Author: Sarah Crossan
Publication Date: August 26th 2015
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Grace and Tippi are twins – conjoined twins.

And their lives are about to change.

No longer able to afford homeschooling, they must venture into the world – a world of stares, sneers and cruelty. Will they find more than that at school? Can they find real friends? And what about love?

But what neither Grace or Tippi realises is that a heart-wrenching decision lies ahead. A decision that could tear them apart. One that will change their lives even more than they ever imagined…

From Carnegie Medal shortlisted author Sarah Crossan, this moving and beautifully crafted novel about identity, sisterhood and love ultimately asks one question: what does it mean to want and have a soulmate?

One is my first book of Sarah Crossan's, and by that standard, it won't be my last, I'm going to go more into depth of why I liked it in a minute, in a way that I don't usually format my reviews, so I'll go into what I wasn't that keen on now. My issue with One isn't the format, that was great, and surprised me, but the problem was that I couldn't connect to the characters, at all. I mean, I felt for them, and I got into it, but there was just no attachment for me, and while I think the format is great and it works better than I thought it would, maybe that's why it felt like a lost connection.

Beyond Clueless (Seriously, totally clueless.)

Beyond Clueless
Author: Linas Alsenas
Publication Date: August 18th 2015
Publisher: Amulet Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

Marty Sullivan’s life ends, basically, when her parents enroll her in a private high school. A private, Catholic, girls-only high school. Meanwhile, at their local public school, her best friend, Jimmy, comes out of the closet and finds himself a boyfriend and a new group of friends. Marty feels left out and alone, until she gets a part in the school musical, Into the Woods, and Jimmy and his new crew are in it, too! Things start looking even better when Marty falls for foxy fellow cast member Felix Peroni. And Felix seems to like her back. But the drama is just beginning. Can Marty and Jimmy keep up their friendship? And is Marty’s new beau everything he appears to be? Or is Marty too clueless to figure it all out before it’s too late?

Beyond Clueless is very appropriately named. Seriously. Very. Appropriately. Named. Why? Because our main character, Marty is very, well, clueless. (Oh, don't look at me like that, you knew that was coming.)  And she's clueless in a lot of ways, and naivety is definitely one of them, one where somebody can take advantage of that. But the two main ways, the misunderstanding is understandable, I mean, you would just assume, but the other way? I kind of wanted to shake her and get her to open her eyes.

DNF Review: 13 Days of Midnight

13 Days of Midnight
Author: Leo Hunt
Publication Date: July 2nd 2015
Publisher: Orchard Books
~A copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review~

 When Luke Manchett's estranged father dies suddenly, he leaves his son a dark inheritance. Luke has been left in charge of his father's ghost collection: eight restless spirits. They want revenge for their long enslavement, and in the absence of the father, they're more than happy to take his son. It isn't fair, but you try and reason with the vengeful dead.

Halloween, the night when the ghosts reach the height of their power, is fast approaching. With the help of school witchlet Elza Moss, and his cowardly dog Ham, Luke has just thirteen days to uncover the closely guarded secrets of black magic, and send the unquiet spirits to their eternal rest. The alternative doesn't bear thinking about.

This is going to be a short review, because I don't have much to say about Thirteen Days to Midnight, bar the last 25%, it was boring me to death, pun not intended. Okay, I'm being a little mean, it wasn't that bad, but it seemed like a first in a series, which is not, I don't think, and it felt more like a spoof of a mixture of things of sorts.

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.