We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars
Author: E. Lockhart
Pages: 227

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.

My Rating:✰✰✰✰✰

Before starting this book, I was getting a good vibe from it. I liked the title and the synopsis. I was really intrigued to read this book and was glad to have finally picked it up.

And it did not disappoint.

The writing was great. E. Lockhart has the kind of writing that is simple, yet enjoyable to read. It was very poetic and I loved how the chapters were short and broke off and started in the middle of a page. Also, the whole idea of this book was fantastic. It was different from anything else I've ever read and I really liked it. The use of personification was also great and how emotions were written out.

Right in the beginning, there is a map of the island and a family tree which I love. I wish more books did that because it really prepares you for an epic adventure. The setting of this book was very unique and I loved how it was on an island and everyone had their own houses.

The characters are what really make up the book. The main character Cadence really has this life that seems perfect although it is not. She has an accident where she looses her memory and has migraines which something I haven't read about before.
Then we have Johnny, Gat, and Mirren, who are different and very distinct from one another. They seemed like real people with real goals. Cadence and Gat's relationship wasn't the main point of this story and it didn't take away from the actual story.

I wasn't sure where the plot was heading. There was a lot of switching back and forth and remembering things that happened. I liked hearing each story and the small moments that make up these grand summers.
I liked the twists and how a lot things were mysteries and not yet answered. I really liked the element of realistic families and real crisis such as finical problems and ownership.

This book was not a fast read and even after reading it, I will need some time to digest it and think about it. It was so hauntingly beautiful and just great.
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I knew that there was something big that was going to happen towards the end of the book. At first I thought that it was just the fire. And that the Liars had burned down the house. But not only that, Gat, Mirren, and  Johnny died. I did not see that coming at all. It did leave me feeling empty and sad for Cadence and the lost of her best friends. I couldn't actually believe that this whole time they were hallucinations. It makes me even more sad to think about lonely she has been.

In the story, the families get a wake up call and  are not longer trying to fight each other for materialistic things. Cadence says that this is because of the burning of the house which I didn't really understand. But seeing how they lost three kids made sense. It is truly sad how it took something big as this to bring the family together.

This book was great and hopefully I'll be able to reread it sometime and catch all of the little hints.

Winger by Andrew Smith

“Joey told me nothing ever goes back exactly the way it was, that things expand and contract- like breathing, but you could never fill your lungs up with the same air twice.”  

 

Title: Winger
Author: Andrew Smith
Pages: 439

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

My Rating:✰✰✰3/4

I like to call books like this, books with things just happening. As in, there is no build up plot or anything like that. That doesn't mean that this book was bad, it just meant that it was too easy to put down. I do not think it was the book, but just because I haven't been able to read that much recently. And so, I was very disconnected with reading just in general.

I picked up this book because many people seemed to like it and it was compared to Looking for Alaska because of the boarding school elements. This book was much more different than anything I've read before.
I did like how there were illustrations in the book which helped me picture everything more. It added a more comical mood.

This is also a type of book that is hard to review because I do not have much to say about. Ryan Dean West was a very interesting character with very complicated thoughts. All of the characters in this book were weird, but not in a bad way. They all had their own thing which made them distinctive which was good although they were not my favorite group of people. It's hard to find a book realistic if you've haven't experienced it before. So to me, this book was not realistic because I've never been in a boarding school. But one thing I did like was how there were flaws and development present. Some of the development might not have been positive, but there was change.

This book was not very easy to read, but I am not sure why. I think there was just a lot of content going on and it was interesting, but I didn't have any connections with it. At some parts I felt like I wasn't really reading the book but looking at the words, but this book was not bad.

I do not have much to say about it, other than on what happened in the end:

SPOILERS ON ENDING:
Going into this book, I did know that the ending was going to be sad, so I was anticipating it. So when I was past half way through the book, I kept predicting what it was going to be and bracing myself for it which took away from the enjoyment slightly. To me, Joey was probably the best character in this book. He was kind, relaxed, and calm. When they mentioned his disappearance, I had a feeling he had died, but I thought he was going to commit suicide. Reading that short chapter description of him being stripped down, tied against a tree and beat, made me insanely sad, and angry at the two people who did it. I couldn't even think about how sad Ryan must've felt because they had such a great friendship.

There is a sequel coming out and I am planning on reading just to see how things change in his senior year.

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson

“Sometimes I think that maybe we are just stories. Like we may as well just be words on a page, because we're only what we've done and what we are going to do.”  

Title: Tiger Lily
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Pages: 292


Before Peter Pan belonged to Wendy, he belonged to the girl with the crow feather in her hair. . . .

Fifteen-year-old Tiger Lily doesn't believe in love stories or happy endings. Then she meets the alluring teenage Peter Pan in the forbidden woods of Neverland and immediately falls under his spell.

Peter is unlike anyone she's ever known. Impetuous and brave, he both scares and enthralls her. As the leader of the Lost Boys, the most fearsome of Neverland's inhabitants, Peter is an unthinkable match for Tiger Lily. Soon, she is risking everything—her family, her future—to be with him. When she is faced with marriage to a terrible man in her own tribe, she must choose between the life she's always known and running away to an uncertain future with Peter.

With enemies threatening to tear them apart, the lovers seem doomed. But it's the arrival of Wendy Darling, an English girl who's everything Tiger Lily is not, that leads Tiger Lily to discover that the most dangerous enemies can live inside even the most loyal and loving heart.

My Rating:✰✰✰✰
Listen to  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSyXcqvFXA because it very much relates to the book.

Before starting this book, I realized that I have never watched the full Peter Pan movie, so of course that is what I did. After watching it, I decided that I did not like Tinkerbell since she seemed so jealous and envious of Wendy who was innocent.
After reading this book, I've decided that it is Wendy that I do not like and Tinker bell that I do.

This book is not fast paced and very much character driven. It took me quite some time to read, but I overall did like the experience. It lacks action and was slow at some parts since it expanded over a course of months. I was not able to fly through this book although it is short compared to most other young adult books.

I really liked the idea of this book and how it was about a relationship that most people wouldn't notice from the classic tale . The concept was unique and the writing was great. I think it was really cool that it was written from the perspective of a Faerie who can't speak or do much, but listen and watch. Tinkerbell observed everything happening before her, and she was able to read the minds of other people. I loved how she watched out of Tiger Lily and stuck by her side and tried to help her when she can.

Tiger Lily's braveness makes me happy and I appreciate how she rebels against some of the expectations women are supposed to meet in her tribe. She is lonely and has internal conflicts that her herself can't really put into words, yet alone solve them.  She is forced into marrying Giant, my least favorite character, who is gross. But she does not want to of course, and seeks something else.
When Phillip arrives, she is kind enough to save him and watch out for him. She stands up for the people she loves. Phillip was an odd character, and as the story grew on, I started to dislike him and how everyone thought he was all knowing and right about everything. I especially did not like him because he did not approve of Tik Tok's ways.
Tick Tock is one of my favorite characters and I loved how he is different. His depression, and then death, made me so extremely sad.

Peter Pan was very much like how I expected him to be. Youthful, energetic, eager.
The love relationship between Tiger Lily and Peter Pan was written in a very blunt, clear way where we could see that there is a connection between the two. We are able to see Tiger Lily instant interest for this curious boy and his feelings return. I enjoyed reading the fun scenes with them and the Lost boys. Majority of this book was about the struggles and choices that Tiger Lily must make. She experiences a love that she will never have again.

Like I said, this book made me like Tinkerbell more. When Wendy arrives, and the struggles between Tiger Lily and Peter increase, things get worst. I do not like Wendy at all, and hate how all of the attention is gone to her. So when Tinkerbell tries to do bad things to Wendy, I am glad.

When Tiger Lily decided to team up with the pirates to get back at Wendy and Peter, I surprisingly was okay with it. I was on her side more than any of the other characters and saw what she was doing was going to help her. But saving them was a part of her nature.

Peter leaving Neverland left me conflicted. I truly believe that he does not belong to Wendy but with Tiger Lily. I question his character, and think that Tiger Lily and Pine Sap will be more happy together than Peter ever will be. His character was never clear to me.

One of the best things about this book was how it wasn't sugar coated or showed the happily ever after for everyone. I think that more fairytale retellings should have elements that this one does with some realism and true struggles and obstacles characters would go through. This new perspective of the fairytale definitely changed my thought on the overall classic story.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

Title: Just One Day
Author: Gayle Forman
Pages: 370


Allyson Healey's life is exactly like her suitcase—packed, planned, ordered. Then on the last day of her three-week post-graduation European tour, she meets Willem. A free-spirited, roving actor, Willem is everything she’s not, and when he invites her to abandon her plans and come to Paris with him, Allyson says yes. This uncharacteristic decision leads to a day of risk and romance, liberation and intimacy: 24 hours that will transform Allyson’s life.

My Rating:✰✰✰✰✰

 I loved this book so much! I had heard good things about this book, but did expect to love it as much as I did. It did took me a while to finish and read this book, but not because it was bad, but because I haven't been able to read much. But this book was brilliant.

The writing in the book was absolutely amazing and in my opinion, better than in If I Stay. I love the two parts of this book and how both of them had great pacing. The second half of the book stretched over the course of a year without being slow or boring. I definitely enjoyed reading about her college years and how she changed throughout it.

I have never so badly wanted my own opportunity to go to Europe and have my own adventure. Gayle Forman's writing about the setting was done was beautifully, I could imagine it and my longing for it was insane.

I don't think I have ever related so closely to a character, than I did with Allyson. So many thoughts and things she said/did, I would've done. I understood the way she was and how being Lulu was different from herself. But this book felt more than just coming of age, self discovery.

Willem was very charming and was a great character. I have not read Just One Year yet, but I plan on doing so and learning more about him. At some points he felt a little sketchy to me, but I was still hoping he would pull through because it seemed like he had a lot of depth to him.

The other characters in Allyson's life also felt very important to the story. Dee was a great friend and so many things wouldn't have happened if it weren't for him and her roommates. Babs and her worker friends were nice as well. (I was so impressed with how hard Allyson worked to get the money to go to Europe and I loved how it all came together. ) Celine wasn't my favorite character but I'm glad that she was able to help Allyson at some points. The evolution of Allyson's mother was definitely something and I'm glad things did get better. We did miss a lot of Melanie in the second portion of this book, but it made sense since the two were just drifting away from each other. She was a pretty complex character. I loved the connections she had with the people at the hostel and how they helped and how Wren was there for a lot of it.

The plot was so great and I praise Gayle Forman for being able to do it so well. I felt like the story has a lot of thought gone into it since one thing led to another. Accidents. I also liked how there was Shakespeare reoccurring with the Guerilla Will and when Allyson takes a class on it.

When she finally did decide to open that door again, and go to try find him, I was happy for her because I knew that that was what she had to do. The things she went through to get to this person she didn't really know didn't make total sense, but since in a way he had changed her, it did.

I loved how she stood in front of a map when she in Europe, closed her eyes and went to that spot that she landed on. Allyson was way more braver than she thought she was. Even the small things she did, like taking different classes, was so brave of her..

The different themes really stood out to me and will really stick with me from now on. I don't think I've ever read a book that taught me a lesson that I will actually learn from. Other than the obvious, which is to say yes and not be so contained into a small box, this book made me want to have faith in the good in people. Not that I don't, but that most times when a stranger speaks to you, you get the immediate reaction of "stranger danger!" but there was no case of that in this book.

I just loved this book and the adventures with Allyson and how many things changed in one day, and in one year. More people should read this book because it was absolutely brilliant.

Thoughts on the ending:

I was so worried how the book was going to end. Were we going to get to see Willem and get some answers? I was so happy of Allyson when she finally found him at the play after all of that work she went through to go find him. The mysterious girl who was presumably his girlfriend really made me upset but I was still glad that she went to go see him.

But then..

Then, I bought Just One Night...
and I read it...
and it was an amazing conclusion.