DNF Review: After by Anna Todd

Title: After (After #1)
Author: Anna Todd
Publication Date: October 21, 2014
Publisher: Gallery Books
Pages: 582
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Tessa is a good girl with a sweet, reliable boyfriend back home. She’s got direction, ambition, and a mother who’s intent on keeping her that way.

But she’s barely moved into her freshman dorm when she runs into Hardin. With his tousled brown hair, cocky British accent, tattoos, and lip ring, Hardin is cute and different from what she’s used to.

But he’s also rude—to the point of cruelty, even. For all his attitude, Tessa should hate Hardin. And she does—until she finds herself alone with him in his room. Something about his dark mood grabs her, and when they kiss it ignites within her a passion she’s never known before.

He’ll call her beautiful, then insist he isn't the one for her and disappear again and again. Despite the reckless way he treats her, Tessa is compelled to dig deeper and find the real Hardin beneath all his lies. He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.

Tessa already has the perfect boyfriend. So why is she trying so hard to overcome her own hurt pride and Hardin’s prejudice about nice girls like her?

Unless…could this be love?

I didn't know much about After going in. All I knew was that it had originated on Wattpad and was being turned into a movie, so it fit as the "2019 movie adaptation" category for one of the reading challenges I'm participating in. I went in with no expectations, but I still managed to be extremely disappointed with this book.

Long after I turned the first page of After, I found out that it had started out as Harry Styles fanfiction. Honestly, I didn't really know who Harry Styles was (One Direction was a bit after my time), but I do know that I've never loved a fanfiction turned novel in my life and this is no different. I made it 83% through before I finally gave up.

Tessa and Hardin are the main characters of this romantic story. They start off well enough - Hardin is the Bad Boy and Tessa the Good Girl. They're polar opposites who end up being drawn to each other. Of course, Hardin acts like a complete jerk, but I was fine with that at first. Angst can be fantastic, especially in hate to love romance! Unfortunately, this reads about how you'd expect from an average hate to love fanfic. It's bad. The writing is bad and the story is bad.

He pushes her away again and again, yet every time she pushes back, he only pulls her in deeper.  

If this line doesn't completely sum up the entire book... About half the page count could have been removed from After had the angst been cut to a reasonable level. There is more back and forth than in a Colleen Hoover novel, which is saying something. Not only that, but Hardin's jerk attitude only gets worse. This is absolutely one of the most toxic relationships I've ever read.

After is a book I might (MIGHT) have enjoyed as an angsty teenager, but I absolutely can't as an adult. I have a difficult time understanding how this series has such a huge following. I also have a hard time understanding how this story could possibly drag on for four more books. But I'm having the hardest time understanding how this ever got turned into a movie!

I hated Fifty Shades of Gray, but I'd rather read that fifty times than be subjected to the last 15% of After.

Mini Reviews: Out of the Easy & A Wrinkle In Time

Title: Out of the Easy
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Publication Date: February 12, 2013
Publisher: Philomel Books
Pages: 348
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It's 1950, and as the French Quarter of New Orleans simmers with secrets, seventeen-year-old Josie Moraine is silently stirring a pot of her own. Known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

Josie is caught between the dream of an elite college and a clandestine underworld. New Orleans lures her in her quest for truth, dangling temptation at every turn, and escalating to the ultimate test.

With characters as captivating as those in her internationally bestselling novel Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys skillfully creates a rich story of secrets, lies, and the haunting reminder that decisions can shape our destiny. 

Before Out of the Easy I had read two other Ruta Sepetys books and loved them both! I knew I had to get my hands on this one and had every intention of loving it. Unfortunately, this one just was not for me.

Josie's story is set in New Orleans in the 1950s. Josie wants to go to college, but her life does not seem to be going in that direction. Her mother is a prostitute and she has been raised in the brothel, but she is determined to make her own path. On the way to her goals, she finds herself caught up in a murder mystery.

I found the relationships in this book to be really well written. I liked the strained dynamic between Josie and her mother and Willie was really my favorite! I also really liked getting to know Josie's friends and acquaintances, but that's where my enjoyment ended. As good as the synopsis sounded, I just was not intrigued by the plot at all. I was so bored reading this that I eventually just gave up.

Sepetys novels are character driven and this is no different, but I've always been intrigued by the stories as well and that wasn't the case here. If you can enjoy a painfully slow book with great characters, you may love this historical fiction novel! I just need a little more to keep me hooked.

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Title: A Wrinkle in Time (Time Quintet #1)
Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Publication Date: January 1, 1962
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Pages: 288
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It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me be on my way. Speaking of way, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract".

Meg's father had been experimenting with this fifth dimension of time travel when he mysteriously disappeared. Now the time has come for Meg, her friend Calvin, and Charles Wallace to rescue him. But can they outwit the forces of evil they will encounter on their heart-stopping journey through space?

I distinctly remember reading A Wrinkle in Time for the first time in the fourth grade and loving it. I didn't continue the series, but the first book made a huge impression at the time. This year, a very long time later, I needed to read a childhood classic for a reading challenge and decided to visit this again. Sadly, it just didn't hold up.

A Wrinkle in Time is about a girl named Meg whose father has been missing for years. She gets the chance to rescue him along with her brother and friend after meeting a strange woman named Mrs. Whatsit. The three find themselves catapulted through time and space and end up on fantastic adventures while on their mission.

This book has a message and it hits you over the head with it from beginning to end. As a child, I suppose things being spelled out could be beneficial. It was too much as an adult and I quickly became annoyed with the preachiness. I also found that, even as a lover of fantasy books, this one was just too ridiculous and cartoony.

I can appreciate that I am not the target audience and I obviously did love this when I was, but man. A Wrinkle in Time managed to be over the top while also being extremely dull. The characters were terribly annoying and I didn't care for the way the plot jumped from one thing to another. This is a hard review to write because, like I said, I adored this as a fourth grader! Sadly, the nostalgia was not enough to keep this on my favorites shelf.

Audiobook Review: The Grownup by Gillian Flynn

Title: The Grownup
Author: Gillian Flynn
Publication Date: November 5, 2015
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Pages: 79
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A young woman is making a living, faking it as a cut-price psychic working at Spiritual Palms (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage - mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke. Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor, built in 1893. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home, and taking possession of the stepson. She has even found trickles of blood on the wall. The young woman doesn't believe in exorcism or the supernatural, but she does see an opportunity to make a lot of money. However when she enters the house for the first time, and meets Miles, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time.... 

I have only read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and it was a book I really enjoyed, so I was hopeful walking into The Grownup. I have heard that her other works aren't as good as Gone Girl, but I still thought I would enjoy this short story. I was wrong. I didn't enjoy a single thing about this book and I really only finished it because it was so short.

This is completely a matter of personal opinion, but I found the story to be unnecessarily crude. Our main character works in a psychic shop that also offers hand job services in the back room. And it felt like the entire first half of the book was just talking about servicing men. This is a subject I tend to avoid in general, but when I am reading a book that is this short, I really don't want to spend half of it talking about sexual acts. I want to get into the story.

Once the story actually started picking up, it was definitely interesting...until the end. You know how in The Return of the King movie it fades to black about five times before the movie is actually over? So you keep thinking it's done, until BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! That's exactly what happened in this story. There was a twist at the end that was simple, nothing outlandish, but a solid end to the story. BUT WAIT! Another twist. Ok, fine, I liked the other one better, but sure, that works. BUT WAIT! There's a twist on the twist! Or is there? Or isn't there? Or....wait, I'm so confused. (In case it wasn't already obvious, the ending completely ruined this book for me.)

Honestly, I wouldn't waste my time picking this up. Yes, you could get through it quickly, but you could also spend that time reading a super awesome book that might become a new favorite. Apologies for the short review, but there is not much to elaborate on with such a short book. It was crude, underwhelming, confusing, and ultimately a big flop.

Audiobook Review: And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich

Title: And the Trees Crept In
Author: Dawn Kurtagich
Publication Date: September 6, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Pages: 352
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Stay away from the woods…

When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt’s home, it’s immediately clear that the manor is cursed. The endless creaking of the house at night and the eerie stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too—questions that Silla can’t ignore: Why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer? Who is the beautiful boy who’s appeared from the woods? And who is the tall man with no eyes who Nori plays with in the basement at night… a man no one else can see?

It has been quite awhile since a book let me down quite as much as And the Trees Crept In. In fact, this book has caused me to break a long-standing tradition of not rating books I don't finish. Having completed 70% of this never ending audiobook (and reading spoilers for the rest), I feel that I know enough to confidently rate this one disappointing star.

And the Trees Crept in is a horror story that follows Silla and Nori to they're aunt's house in the woods. Silla has led them there seeking shelter from their abusive father and an impending war(?). The house is immediately creepy - blood red and creaky - but Silla and Nori enjoy their time there at first. They get to know their aunt and spend their days gardening and reading in the library.

Let me go ahead and say that none of these characters are likable. Silla grated on my nerves with her annoying, repetitive internal dialogue. Nori wasn't awful, but I just didn't find myself caring too much about her, maybe because Silla didn't and it was told from her perspective? And Crazy Aunt Cath was literally the worst, leaving her nieces all alone in her creepy manor. The only redeeming character in this entire book was the (sort of?) romantic interest, but he's not there enough to save it.

Back to the story, things take a turn for the worse when Silla and Nori go against their aunt's rules by going near the woods. This is when the story really started to get weird (and slow). I really, really thought that this book was going to be terrifying. There were moments in the audiobook when there was background whispering, which was really unsettling at first. Then everything started dragging and the rules started getting muddled (can you go into the woods or not??). The trees are creeping closer, but at the point where they completely cover the house, the book is only halfway over! I couldn't believe it when I realized there was so much more to go. It could've ended with a bang there and I would've been happy, so why did this book continue to drag for hours longer?

As much as I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened, I just couldn't force myself to keep reading. I spoiled the ending for myself, although I won't do it in my review, but suffice it to say, it was ridiculous. There was no reason for this book to go on for so, so long. It could've just been what it started as - a horror book with Slenderman and some creepy, creeping trees - but instead the author chose to flesh it out as much as humanly possible and then some.

Was the setting creepy? Yes, absolutely! I was completely entranced by the moving trees and the creepy town beyond them. There were things that the author did right, for sure. The atmosphere is definitely one of those things. I just don't understand why she took it in this direction.

I wanted to love this book SO MUCH! If you want to read a slightly creepy, pretentious book that tries to do more than it ever could have needed to, this is is the book for you! But if you're looking for a horror story that will haunt your nightmares, this is not the one.

Audiobook Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Title: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Narrator: Kate Simses
Publication Date: November 15, 2011
Publisher: Harper Collins
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Review for book 2

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Warning: This review might be slightly spoilery, but I think pretty much everyone but me has read it by now anyway.

Shatter Me was recommended to me by approximately 17820183 people when I asked for a series where the bad guy gets the girl in the end. I went into this one knowing the ultimate romantic outcome, which I'm totally fine with. I didn't know a whole lot about this series other than that though, except apparently every person on the planet loves it. I didn't have super high expectations, I just wanted a good love story. Coming out on the other side, I'm thinking it's a good thing I wasn't expecting much.

This story is about Juliette, a girl who has super scary powers and hasn't seen another person in 264 days. Her entire life has been terrible up until the point when she suddenly gets a roommate (which never happens) at the mental institution she's currently locked up. Her roommate, Adam, happens to be a guy she knows and she immediately starts swooning over him. Juliette is a little messed up in the head after having such an awful life, which is understandable to an extent, but this book takes it to a ridiculous level and Juliette ends up being the kind of speshul sneauxflake character I wish I could just put out of her misery. She is weak and pathetic and is almost constantly crying, shaking, or gasping. The declaration in the synopsis that Juliette has to make a choice to be a weapon or a warrior is totally misleading.

Adam, the love interest, is a Gary Stu who is super swoony because... why? I never quite figured it out. I know he apparently has super amazing blue eyes. Other than that, I don't get it. Of course, he wouldn't be a true sneauxflake if he couldn't do something extra amazing which, in this case, happens to be touching Juliette. He is the only person who can touch her without dying. Awfully convenient, eh? I'm going to jump immediately into one of my main issues with this book here. The descriptions that Juliette used for everything were so ridiculous, even when they weren't completely insane metaphors. She used the term "small smile" to describe Adam's smile at least 278 times. I swear to you, this --------> is how I started seeing him after the 10th time she said it. (Go ahead and bow down to my mad photo editing skills. I laughed so hard, I cried.)

And then there was Warner. He's about the only character in this story with any real depth and honestly the only one I had any real interest in getting to know. IF I continue with this series, he'll be the only reason. I'm not really clear on how Warner is going to become a love interest, but he HAS to be better than Adam.

The world building in Shatter Me is almost non-existent. This book markets itself as dystopian, but it honestly isn't. It's a romance novel barely, barely passing itself off as something more. But hey, I wanted romance, right? I definitely got it!

As I've already mentioned a little bit, the writing was really my main issue here. It tried really hard to be unique but came off as really, REALLY annoying instead. Part of the problem is that I listened to it rather than reading a hard copy. If I had a copy in my hands, I would've skimmed a lot of the repetition, but I couldn't really skip past it. The absolute WORST was when Juliette repeated "I am not insane" at least a hundred times. I was ready to put my fist through a wall. Several other people have already listed some of the cringe-worthy metaphors, so I won't go into much detail there. Here are some of my personal favorite quotes, though:

"My mouth is sitting on my kneecaps."

"I am an old creaky staircase when I wake up."

"I'd like to cry into his eyes."

"My jaw is dangling from my shoelace."

I just literally cannot deal with this writing. At first it was unique, but by the end of the book I was rolling my eyes at least once every 5 seconds. I actually have a headache.

Tahereh Mafi tried so hard through the writing style to make this book unique that I was honestly shocked when, near the end, this became an actual ripoff of X-Men. Seriously. The whole gang was there. Rogue, Professor X, (male) Storm, and others. They had Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Omega Point. They even had the suits! The only difference was that Rogue's Juliette's suit was purple. I swear to you, Adam actually told Juliette that she looked like a superhero at the end.

I didn't completely hate it. I just didn't like it and probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone over the age of 15. It's November 2017 and I'm back to tell you that I actually did hate this book. I will probably did still read the next book just because I know how the romance ends and I was interested to see how it gets there, but that's honestly the only reason. Morbid curiosity.