Mini-Review: The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter

Title: The First Time She Drowned
Author: Kerry Kletter
Page Count:
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Rating: 4.5 Stars!
Source: The Library! <3
Links: Goodreads IndieBound Amazon Barnes & Noble The Book Depository
Synopsis: Cassie O’Malley has been trying to keep her head above water—literally and metaphorically—since birth. It’s been two and a half years since Cassie’s mother dumped her in a mental institution against her will, and now, at eighteen, Cassie is finally able to reclaim her life and enter the world on her own terms.

But freedom is a poor match against a lifetime of psychological damage. As Cassie plumbs the depths of her new surroundings, the startling truths she uncovers about her own family narrative make it impossible to cut the tethers of a tumultuous past. And when the unhealthy mother-daughter relationship that defined Cassie’s childhood and adolescence threatens to pull her under once again, Cassie must decide: whose version of history is real? And more important, whose life must she save?

A bold, literary story about the fragile complexities of mothers and daughters and learning to love oneself, The First Time She Drowned reminds us that we must dive deep into our pasts if we are ever to move forward.

REVIEW:

Me before reading this book:

Me while reading this book:

Me after finishing this book:

this book was like the scene in a movie where the water slowly rises as a character is trying to escape from a dangerou situation except that scene lasts an entire book.

This book follows Cassie O'Malley as she is leaving this psych ward and entering the everyday world once again. she is going to college at Dutton, the college her mother went to.

and this book tells a story of Cassie and her mother. and everything that entails.

it is heartbreaking.

it is hopeful.

it is a rush of water pulling you under the current.

it is finding oneself even in the darkest of times.

it is everything.

it is a slow, slow burn if soulcrushing beauty that I want everyone to read.

and it dragged a little in the middle, but it's so forgivable because these words are so heartbreaking. The relationship between Cassie and her mother reminded me of the relationship between Maddy and her mother in Everything, Everything... except to me, this is a much darker tale of a mother/daughter relationship.

Absolutely recommend!

Review: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Author: Benjamin Alire Saenz
Page Count: 359
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary, BLGT
Rating: A billion stars* *(for purposes of this rating system. 5 is the max, so 5, but I adore this book)
Source: My friend Destery!
Links: Amazon Goodreads Barnes & Noble The Book Depository
Synopsis: This Printz Honor Book is a “tender, honest exploration of identity” (Publishers Weekly) that distills lyrical truths about family and friendship.

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

Review:

“The problem with my life was that it was someone else’s idea.”

My review for this book on goodreads was simply one word... PERFECTION.

To expand upon this thought is actually a very difficult thing to do because how do you describe, and justly talk about a book you love as much as this? It's difficulties are infinite.

I'm going to warn you now that this really isn't much of a review and more of a rambling... But I'm sure you all are used to that from me at this point. ;)

Ari & Dante (I'm shortening the title) follows YOU GUESSED IT Ari(stotle) and Dante! These boys are unlike anybody I have ever met, yet they are the kind of boys I want to meet because not only are they the super relatable in so many freaking ways, they are just stand-up people and characters and their story continually breaks my heart.

Ari is much more self conscious than Dante and we get to see the world from his perspective (and it's a bleak world...) The way the author allows us to see Ari's inner-monologue yet still bring vivid yet simple descriptions to the world is beautiful. I teared up multiple times while reading this book as I think everyone really will.

These characters are unforgettably brilliant. I cannot tell you too much about them without spoiling pretty much everything. But if you have heard about this book, you know what it's about and you are probably assuming certain things. I was pleasantly surprised at how this book surprised me because I expected one thing and got something similar but not exactly the way I thought it would pan out. (sorry if that sentence made absolutely no sense)

Dante is unapologetic and strong. His certainty in himself is admirable and it makes me envious. He is as confident as I want to be. And Ari is as confident as I am most of the time. They are so different, yet so alike. And I get them.

I also love their weird quirks... But especially, and most importantly, Dante's hatred of shoes. It added an element of humor to this story that was so important...

AND OH MY GOD I ALMOST FORGOT TO TALK ABOUT....



THE PARENTS. (I just like this cute picture, okay?)

The Parents of BOTH Aristotle AND Dante are realistic and relatable and very much exactly what I want in a YA novel! They were present in their children's lives! (Well... uh...I mean. You'll understand.) But I adored them to pieces.

I also loved the relationship between Ari and his "friends". I love the instant bond between the boys. I love all of the relationships. I love all of this. I love this book so fucking much.

This book has skyrocketed itself onto my favorites list with ease. It's poetic, and gorgeous, and perfect and I loved it sooooo much.

Please read it, I beg you.

DNF eARC Mini-Review: Nirvana by J R Stewart

Title: Nirvana
Author: J. R. Stewart
Page Count: 186
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Rating: DNF, if I had read it all it may have been a 3 star?
Source: I received this from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. This has in no way affected my rating or my review.
Synopsis: When the real world is emptied of all that you love, how can you keep yourself from dependence on the virtual?

Animal activist and punk rock star Larissa Kenders lives in a dystopian world where the real and the virtual intermingle. After the disappearance of her soulmate, Andrew, Kenders finds solace by escaping to Nirvana, a virtual world controlled by Hexagon. In Nirvana, anyone’s deepest desires may be realized - even visits with Andrew.

Although Kenders knows that this version of Andrew is virtual, when he asks for her assistance revealing Hexagon’s dark secret, she cannot help but comply. Soon after, Kenders and her closest allies find themselves in a battle with Hexagon, the very institution they have been taught to trust. After uncovering much more than she expected, Kenders’ biggest challenge is determining what is real – and what is virtual.

Nirvana is a fast-paced, page-turning young adult novel combining elements of science fiction, mystery, and romance. Part of a trilogy, this book introduces readers to a young woman who refuses to give up on the man she loves, even if it means taking on an entire government to do so.

Review:

If I have anything to say about this book it's that it is definitely something unique. It began so beautifully and developed, and Larissa was an interesting character to read about.

I read 32% of this book before putting it aside in favor of some books that I would rather read... because this wasn't interesting me as much as I would have liked it too..

What I have read of this book was good, interesting, and for the most part, well written.

Update 3/24 It has been many months since I have touched this book. I'll probably get back to reading it soon... I remember most of what happened actually, which is odd.

Update 5/11: I have officially DNF'd the book, and while I really enjoyed the plotline and the writing style, I didn't really care for the characters and that was enough to make me disinterested in the final product, so I decided to put it away. This is a book that I may come back to in a few years... maybe?

Larissa, our main character... (or as other people call her, Kenders...) wasn't compelling in my opinion... Her love, Andrew was more interesting... and when he disappears EVERY CRAZY THING HAPPENS.

The government cannot be trusted, she cannot trust anyone.

In reality, I remember a bunch of vague, yet spoilery details of this book because I did make it to 60%.

I definitely feel like many people could enjoy this book, and I actually was (for the most part) but there are just other books I would like to read more, and it wasn't holding my interest.

This is a book with loads of potential (and it's really short... it's a wonder that I couldn't bring myself to complete it...

Love y'all!

-Cody @ Roecker Reviews <3

Mini-Review: The Haters by Jesse Andrews (Out April 2016)

Title: The Haters
Author: Jesse Andrews
Page Count: 352
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Bands
Rating: 2.5 Stars... maybe 3...
Source: NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, this has in no way impacted my rating of this book.
Synopsis: From Jesse Andrews, author of the New York Times bestselling Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and screenwriter of the Sundance award–winning motion picture of the same name, comes a groundbreaking young adult novel about music, love, friendship, and freedom as three young musicians follow a quest to escape the law long enough to play the amazing show they hope (but also doubt) they have in them.

Inspired by the years he spent playing bass in a band himself, The Haters is Jesse Andrews’s road trip adventure about a trio of jazz-camp escapees who, against every realistic expectation, become a band.

For Wes and his best friend, Corey, jazz camp turns out to be lame. It’s pretty much all dudes talking in Jazz Voice. But then they jam with Ash, a charismatic girl with an unusual sound, and the three just click. It’s three and a half hours of pure musical magic, and Ash makes a decision: They need to hit the road. Because the road, not summer camp, is where bands get good. Before Wes and Corey know it, they’re in Ash’s SUV heading south, and The Haters Summer of Hate Tour has begun.

In his second novel, Andrews again brings his brilliant and distinctive voice to YA, in the perfect book for music lovers, fans of The Commitments and High Fidelity, or anyone who has ever loved—and hated—a song or a band. This witty, funny coming-of-age novel is contemporary fiction at its best.

Review:

This review is almost impossible for me to write because I am just so utterly... disappointed. I actually quite enjoyed the vast majority of the book... but I don't feel it really went anywhere. It did go a many of places, but it felt like a jumbled mess.

Now, I love Jesse Andrews writing, and his humor. I think its phenomenal, and it's something we need in YA today, funny and enjoyable, yet realistic with deep undertones. I think he captured this essence perfectly. But I think part of this is, this book was not for me. I began to groan at the overuse of the immature humor that these characters have... it was funny... at first... and it continued and I would find myself chuckling along... but their comes a point where it no longer has the intended effect, and it just feels wrong.

I love his writing, but this just lacked in other areas for me.

The characters... our three main character, Ash, Corey, and Wes... are a diverse cast of unique characters and they were all very different. This follows the same formula as Me & Earl with the character dynamics, so as much as I liked it, it didn't feel quite right for these characters. The characters, on their own, had interesting backstories that I would have loved to delve into a little more. Ash was especially strong.

Corey reminded me of Earl, in his straightforward way of telling Wes how it is.

And Wes reminded me of Greg... but only in their voices, the way they talked felt so similar. That may be why I am disappointed in this book.

The storyline was interesting and I loved all the band names and how the story progressed until the 90% mark was intriguing then it fell flat... and I can't excuse that.

Anyways, I think this is a case of me and not the book... but it may be the book as well but I definitely still think people should check it out anyways!

I'll leave the linky links here:

Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

The Book Depository

Cody @ Roecker Reviews

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (mini-review) + Passenger by Alexandra Bracken (mini-review)

Title: Six of Crows
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Page Count: 465
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating: 5 Stars!
Source: My friend Annelise!
Blurb: Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Kaz's crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

REVIEW: Holy crap, this book is near perfect. I loved living in this world WAY more than I did in Shadow and Bone... but this gives me more motivation to read Siege and Storm finally after all this time of it being left at 60 pages... I'll probably go back to it in the next month or two.

Six of Crows follows Kaz, Nina, Wylan, Jesper, Inej, and Matthias as they go to the Ice Court in search of a man who can create jurda parem something extremely powerful, especially in relation to Grisha.

Not only is this book fast-paced and character driven, the plot is just as fantastic as the rest. The heist aspect is freaking bomb as hell. I loved learning about the Ice Court and the information that different characters knew, and how they helped each other out.

Kaz Brekker's backstory was the most heartbreaking thing... I loved it, I loved learning about him, and although he was not my favourite character of the book, he was definitely up there.

Inej' backstory involving Heleen was... it made me shudder... Inej, being the Wraith is badass and strong and I cannot wait to see more of her in the next book Crooked Kingdom.

Jesper and Wylan are my favourite ever, Jesper and his sarcasm and wit, Wylan with his innocence and also wit, with kindness. They are officially my OTP and I love them with all of my heart. If they do not get together by the end of Crooked Kingdom... I will cry. They are too adorable.

Nina and Matthias are just heartbreaking and I understand them. Matthias comes off as a hardass military type, and throughout the novel he stays that way but also grows, he learns how to understand, how to empathize. Nina is a Heartrender, and just ahh. She is a sweetheart, but also terrifying and she was really interesting to read in her POV.

The villains are fantastic and I loved learning about Pekka Rollins and Van Eck, they were intriguing and intricate and they had lots of interesting motivations.

Bardugo did a great job in tackling the different POVs in 3rd person and I really enjoyed her third person narrative waaaay better than Passenger which I also recently read (not that I didn't enjoy Passenger, because I did...)

This is one of the most intricate fantasy novels I have read in quite awhile and it rivals some of my last years favourites such as Queen of Shadows and An Ember In The Ashes in regards to the complexity and beauty.

Consensus: Six Of Crows shows Bardugo's improvements in writing and style since the Grisha trilogy. In the novel she allows us a glimpse into the heads of some of the darkest and also downright hilarious characters I have read in a long time. She makes it easy to care for each of them making you bite your nails at every turn wondering if your favourite character will survive. Bardugo's an impressive author and the way she tells this story is enamoring.

Title: Passenger
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Page Count: 496
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Time Travel
Rating: 4 Stars!
Source: Purchased
Blurb: passage, n.
i. A brief section of music composed of a series of notes and flourishes.
ii. A journey by water; a voyage.
iii. The transition from one place to another, across space and time.

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles but years from home. And she’s inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she’s never heard of. Until now.

Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods—a powerful family in the colonies—and the servitude he’s known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can’t escape and the family that won’t let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, Nicholas’ passenger, can find. In order to protect her, he must ensure she brings it back to them— whether she wants to or not.

Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods’ grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are play­ing, treacherous forces threaten to sep­arate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home . . . forever

REVIEW: I loved Etta, and I loved Nicholas, I loved the time travel, and I loved the other characters.
I loved the storyline. I loved almost everything from this book... Yet often times I found it lacking and I am not really sure what it was. It might have been the third person narrative, and that is the only thing that I can think of as I loved everything else about the story. I understand why it needed to be written this way, but I LOVED Bracken's first person in The Darkest Minds.

I think I expected a little too much here, and this book did not lessen my love for Alexandra Bracken in the slightest... As I said just a little bit ago, I think the third person really threw me off... It felt more empty than TDM. I know I shouldn't compare the two but, I just felt off about it.

I loved Etta's journey, and though I did think that she was almost a little to strong for what she knew about travelling, I can forgive that because it felt natural as Bracken explained it, the Linden lineage really made things click.

The villains were well written and I really enjoyed the fear that they created in our MCs.

Nicholas was everything I didn't know I wanted in a character. He's African American (YAY DIVERSITY) and he is indebted to the Ironwoods and this alone brings in a lot of backstory that unwinds itself throughout the novel.

Is this my favourite Alex Bracken book? No. Is this her best writing? Maturity wise, yes. Connection wise, no. Will I read this book again? Eventually. I had to with TDM to truly appreciate it. Will I read the sequel? Of course. And I will read anything that Bracken writes, and I will be honest in my opinions even if I love her writing and don't want to be mean.... That's not what reviewing's about.

Consensus: Passenger weaves an intricate storyline into the lives of two somewhat ordinary teens Etta and Nicholas. The time travelling is exquisitely written and we automatically care for these characters. Although the third person narrative made the story lack a little, it made up for it in all other areas.

Mini Review: How to Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster

Title: How to Read Literature Like a Professor
Author: Thomas C. Foster
Page Count: 314
Genre: Nonfiction, education
Rating: 3/5 Stars

Short Review below:

Foster has a comedic voice in his descriptions, and pulls from a wide variety of literature that spans across time proving he is well-versed as a professor. That being said, I felt very often that he was shoving his opinion of different poets down my throat. For the most part, I enjoyed reading this, and what he had to say, It made me laugh, and kept me entertained through a good 75% of this.

 Then, He had us read 'The Garden Party' and I was bored for the rest of this book... It's sad. There is so much that goes into this, and then it falls flat.

I like the addition of the list of novels, plays, short stories, poems, movies etc in the back because it gives us a cohesive,challenging literature list which I will read from eventually!

Thank you, Thomas Foster for showing me new things, and helping me learn. I forgive you for being a little forceful at times.

For once, not a completely horrid required read. I learned something, and it didn't take the entire book to get there!