Book Review: Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

Title: Nevermore (Nevermore #1)
Author: Kelly Creagh
Publication Date: August 31, 2010
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Pages: 543
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Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.

Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.

As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.

His life depends on it.

Okay, so here's the truth: I've never read much Poe. Do I own the complete works? You bet I do. Have I ever cracked it open? Nope. But the public school system didn't completely fail me. I read The Tell-Tale Heart... about a million years ago. What I'm getting at is I didn't know much about Edgar Allan Poe's actual works going into this. Still, I think I get the gist of it and even without that, have you seen the cover?? I knew I had to read this Poe retelling!

Nevermore begins as your classic goth guy meets good girl unlikely romance story. Isobel and Varen are paired up randomly for an English project and neither of them seems very happy about the prospect of working together outside of school. Obviously, they slowly begin to find out more about each other and realize that they're more than their stereotypes (no shocker there). What was kind of a shocker was how incredible this book turned out to be!

Isobel is a cheerleader, thus making her the kind of YA character I wasn't sure I could tolerate. Imagine my surprise when I actually ended up kind of *gasp* liking her. Isobel does initially come off as an annoying, full of herself cheerleader. You remember the ones from high school, don't you? At the beginning of the book she totally fits every stereotype you might imagine but as events progress, it becomes clear that she's really down to earth, despite the group of mean girls (and guys) she spends her time with.

Then there was Varen... Varen Nethers is the dark, tortured guy who sits in the back of the classroom wearing all black clothes, chains, and eyeliner. He carries a black journal that he writes mysteriously in, never talks to anyone outside of his own crew, and drives a 1967 black Cougar. I mean, come on. What girl WOULDN'T at least admire that guy from afar? I know I definitely would have when I was in high school. Not only is Varen super mysterious and kind of gorgeous, he's also obsessed with the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Perhaps a little too much.

I loved, loved, LOVED watching Isobel and Varen learn more about each other. I loved seeing Isobel becoming more comfortable around Varen and in his world, despite the looks and gossip from the snotty high school kids around them. One of the things I cannot stand in a lot of YA fiction is the insta-love relationships that just don't make sense. The relationship between Isobel and Varen was slow and immensely satisfying, but also torturous by the end!

Not knowing a whole lot about Poe's works going into this book, I feel like I was able to follow along without getting lost and actually ended up learning quite a bit. Nevermore combines several of Poe's stories with an entirely original plot. Varen has (accidentally?) created a link to a dream world that is somehow connected to Poe's stories and, as Isobel becomes more involved and enamored with Varen, she finds herself pulled in as well.

The writing was beautiful and descriptive and pulled me through this book at an alarming pace. Every single time I picked Nevermore up I was shocked at how much I was sucked into reading. The dream world Kelly Creagh created for Nevermore was incredibly well done. I felt like I was watching the events happen on a screen and, for me, that is a sign of an amazing book. I felt myself becoming totally unnerved by everything in the dream world and everything that seeped out of it. The horror here is definitely more of an uncomfortable creepy than jump scares.

Nevermore does have a cliffhanger of an ending - you've been warned. This is definitely a binge-read series for me! I've already picked up a copy of Enshadowed from the library and purchased the last two books from Book Outlet. I definitely recommend Nevermore if you're looking for a creepy YA horror/romance and are a fan of Poe (or even if you don't know much about him).

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.

Waiting on Wednesday #89: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Happy Wednesday, fellow book lovers! This week's "can't wait to read" is:

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton Publication Date: March 8, 2016

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is. 

I'll admit, I'm not super sure what to expect for this one, but I definitely can't wait to read it! I haven't read many books with a Middle Eastern setting, but Rebel of the Sands sounds like it's going to be a really great adventure!

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"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine.

Top Ten Tuesday #83: Bookish playlists

Today's Topic: 

Top Ten Nine Bookish Playlists

Officially this week was supposed to be about books that need theme songs or songs that should be books. However... I am not a musically inclined person in that I don't really pay attention. At all. I could not tell you what music was popular right now if you paid me. 99% of the time I'm listening to an audiobook or Disney music. But something I do enjoy are the book playlists I find online! I love the music even though I don't really pay attention to the words because I'm usually doing something else. Today I'm sharing my top 9 book playlists from some of my favorite books and series! Click on the playlist title to go to the music, or on the book title to go to Goodreads. 

    

Loving You Is a Bloodsport  : :  A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

An Ember in the Ashes Fanmix  : :  An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Angelfall Fanmix  : :  Penryn & The End of Days by Susan Ee

    

Cress Lunar Chronicles Fanmix  : :  Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cruel Beauty Soundtrack  : :  Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

☽ The Darkling ☾  : :  The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

    

The Retribution of Mara Dyer Fanmix  : :  The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

Trust the Madness  : :  Splintered Series by A.G. Howard

I'm Crazy  : :  Starbound Trilogy by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

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Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish.

Book Review: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publication Date: June 17, 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Pages: 422
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Reviews for book 1 & book 2

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

Well. I have taken some time before writing this review to attempt to form coherent thoughts so I wouldn't just be flailing all over the place because I know how annoying those reviews can be. It has been days. DAYS. And my emotions are still all over the place. But, hey, I'm a book blogger, so I'll try to pull myself together and make this work for all of you fine people who may still be missing out on this masterpiece!

Ruin and Rising is the last book in the Grisha trilogy. (Hold on, I'm trying not to cry.) This story begins soon after the events of Siege and Storm, with Alina, Mal, and Co. deep underground with the Apparat and his army. Although Alina certainly finds herself in a predicament in the caves, she never gives up hope and manages to escape with her friends to pick up the search for the firebird and (obviously) Nikolai. Once the gang is united, plans are made to finally defeat the Darkling and save Ravka, but of course things don't go quite as planned and all hell breaks loose.

Alina is still one of my favorite characters ever in Ruin and Rising. She is determined and fierce and honestly takes to leadership well. It's interesting to me that a character as power-hungry as Alina could be someone that I loved so much. I think one of the things I most enjoyed about her is that she's usually blatantly honest about it. She never tries to hide what her goals are from the people she cares about and she's never afraid to go for it.

My feelings on Mal did not really change with this book either. In my review of Siege and Storm I called him Dan Humphrey. He's still Dan. Sure, he tries to make up for his crappiness in the last two books (kind of), but he still never seems to be fully supportive of Alina, always wanting her to be someone she just isn't. Sturmhond/Nikolai remained one of my favorites also. He reminded me so much of Captain Jack Harkness or even Carswell Thorne! I loved his wittiness and upbeat attitude in the face of utter darkness.

And then there was the Darkling. My beautiful, wonderful, tragic Darkling, who I will refuse to believe is truly evil until the bitter end. I must have a thing for tortured villains because Anakin Skywalker will also forever hold a place in my heart. He and the Darkling can just hang out together, I guess. Although the Darkling did some undeniably evil things, I truly think that he wanted to be good. I wish that we could go way back to Shadow and Bone and have Alina talk to him before running away to see if things would turn out differently. I think he was more human than he wanted people to think and my heart is still breaking for him days later!

Despite my anguish at how the Darkling was treated in this book, I still loved almost everything about it! I loved watching Alina chase after the third amplifier and attempt to restore power to the people of Ravka. I loved the absolutely insane events that Nikolai encountered. I loved getting to know all of the other Grisha better and I loved, loved, LOVED the cat!

The one thing I completely hated (although obviously not enough to take the rating down a notch) was the way Alina's story ended. Don't get me wrong, I was totally okay with the events that followed the location of the third amplifier. What I hated was what happened after the big final battle was over. I don't know how to say this without spoilers, so highlight at your own risk!

The fact that Dan Mal got exactly what he wanted in the end really pisses me off. Don't get me wrong! I was happy that Alina was able to free Ravka from tyranny and I was even okay with her power being divided up between the soldiers (sort of). I hated that she ended up leaving Ravka and becoming a normal girl again - exactly what Dan Mal wanted from the very first time he saw that she was more of a badass than she was. Okay, so I couldn't have her end up with the Darkling. I can accept that. But it would've been perfectly acceptable for Alina and Nikolai to rule Ravka together. He was perfect! I don't have anything else constructive to add without going on a rampage, so I guess that's all I have to say about that. I am definitely going to need to locate some fanfiction.

Even though there was one thing I didn't really like about the way Ruin and Rising ended, this book is basically perfect. Don't worry about whether or not that makes sense. Just go with it. The Grisha trilogy has surpassed everything else and has taken it's spot on my shelf as my favorite series ever. Never before have I literally lost sleep over the ending of a book (in a good way). If you haven't read the Grisha trilogy yet, I don't understand what you're waiting for! This is definitely a series I'll read again and again!

Weekly Recap: 2/7 - 2/13

My Super Exciting Life 

It's actually very (extremely) rare, but this week was incredibly busy! The puppy business has been picking up big time and this week consisted of multiple dog walks every day. I am definitely not complaining! I'm just not used to actually being busy! I also started rewatching The Tudors complete series this week and I may or may not already be in the middle of season two. We aren't getting into my TV binging habits right now. But I haven't JUST been watching TV - it has been an incredible reading week too! Reviews are coming soon for all the books I finished, some good and some not so good...

Something really interesting that I came across this week was the lawsuit between Sherrilyn Kenyon (one of my all-time favorite authors) and Cassandra Clare (not a favorite). In case you haven't read about it yet, here's the original article. Apparently, Sherrilyn is suing Cassandra for ripping off her Dark-Hunter series and even symbols! Having read most of the Dark-Hunters series and a couple books from the Shadowhunters universe, I can definitely see the similarities and Cassandra Clare doesn't have the cleanest past when it comes to plagiarism, from what I understand. It will be interesting to see what comes of it, in any case!

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In Case You Missed It

Monday book review of The Heart of Betrayal
The topic was bookish Valentines for Top Ten Tuesday
I featured Bright Smoke, Cold Fire for Waiting on Wednesday
Thursday audiobook review of Siege and Storm
On Friday I discussed whether YA characters act their age

This Week I Read

        

Upcoming Reviews

    

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I'm linking up to Stacking the Shelves & The Sunday Post!