Review: "Looking for Alaska" by John Green

Before. Miles "Pudge" Halter's whole existence has been one big nonevent, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave the "Great Perhaps" (François Rabelais, poet) even more. Then he heads off to the sometimes crazy, possibly unstable, and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed-up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young, who is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart.After. Nothing is ever the same. (summary from goodreads)

I'd like to start of this review by saying that John Green is an amazing author, but sometimes I just wish he wasn't. Sometimes, John Green being an amazing author is so incredibly painful that I wish that he just worked in a grocery store or something. After a while, though, I realize that the pain is worth it.
I had only read one John Green book before, The Fault In Our Stars, and so when I realized that the chapters in Looking for Alaska were titled eighty-three days before, nineteen days before, ect, until it got to the last day and then started counting one day after, fifty-six days after, one hundred and twenty-two days after I got really scared. Obviously something big was going to happen, and having read TFIOS, I had an idea of what it might be and I did not like it. But let's get on with the review, shall we?
I love how John Green writes his characters, of course all good characters have flaws, or they wouldn't be very interesting, but I feel like John Green's characters are so much more raw than other's. I constantly felt torn between loving and hating "Pudge", Alaska, and "The Colonel" (Miles' best friend at Culver Creek). They had such high up's such low down's, and I think I'll have to work hard to find characters written by different authors to live up to them.
Green's take on boarding school was different from what I'm used to. Usually the dorm rooms are all in the same building with several floors, and you have long corridors between them. At Culver Creek the dorm rooms were more like a motel, all with doors leading outside instead of to a corridor.
I like how, when you get to the incident that the chapters counted down to, the book continues on for about a hundred pages. You get to see how the characters slowly start to move on. Even though everything has changed and it'll never really be the same, they do their best and you know that it'll be okay again.

Looking for Alaska is a very emotional book, do not read it if you can't handle pain, because unless you're made of stone you will hurt. It'll be worth it, though, because you'll laugh with and at the characters, you'll be embarrassed and excited, and you'll have a great time.

Book review: The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan

Be careful what you summon!
In ancient times, the magicians of Egypt were recognized as the best in the world. Each god’s temple had a branch called the House of Life, where magicians were trained to battle monsters, duel enemy sorcerers, and when necessary, even do combat with the gods themselves.
What if the House of Life still existed? 
When a magical accident unleashes the Egyptian gods into the modern world, Carter and Sadie Kane discover that they are descended from the most powerful Egyptian magicians, and only they have the power to set things right! 
Join their adventures against the mythical forces of Ancient Egypt in The Kane Chronicles.(Summary from Rick Riordan's website)

I just finished The Serpent's Shadow - the third and last instalment in The Kane Chronicles - and decided that instead of reviewing only that one book, I'd review that  whole trilogy.
Now, I love Rick Riordan, he's an amazing writer - probably one of my favourites. He did not disappoint with The Kane Chronicles. It was a great trilogy, and I'm quite sad that it's over. It's focused a lot on Egyptian mythology, just like Percy Jackson and the Olympians in on Greek mythology. But the two series are still totally different. That is something I was afraid of when I picked up The Red Pyramid, I'd been afraid it'd be just like PJO. It isn't. If you ask me, this trilogy is so much more complicated, and that's not because Rick has intentionally made it that way. Egyptian mythology just is more complicated that Greek. And I have learned so much from this series, all I know about Egyptian gods and believes I have learned from The Kane Chronicles, nothing is from school.
It isn't just my interest in mythology that makes me love The Kane Chronicles, but it's also the characters and the plot. Sadie and Carter Kane grow so much during the three books. In the beginning of The Red Pyramid they barely know each other, and they are both just two kids. Now, when I've finished to trilogy, I find it hard to think of them as a 13 and a 15 year old, because they seem so grown up. Rick also portrays that gods perfectly (not that I know much about their personalities from elsewhere). He even managed to make me fall in love with a short, loud, and ugly dwarf god in speedos. How many people can do that? There is also a love triangle in The Kane Chronicles, but don't let that prevent you from reading it, because Rick Riordan knows how to write love triangles. He doesn't let them take over to book, and he solves them in a way that makes all three parties happy. The triangle in The Kane Chronicles is between the god of death and funerals, Anubis, Sadie Kane, and the trainee Walt Stone. I - with the help of my bad luck - managed to get spoiled on how the triangle ended before I read it. I won't say what happened, but I will say that it was a brilliant way to solve the problem.
The Kane Chronicles in narrated be both Carter and Sadie, when they take turns retelling their story to a recorder, which they then mail to Rick and he writes it down. This is a great way of writing, because not only does it let us look into the minds of both siblings instead of only one, but I could use this fact to reassure myself that they were both going to be fine every time I was sure one of them was about to die. This happened a lot. Rick Riordan is such a great writer, though, that many times I was positive that the world would end and Carter and Sadie would die, even though I knew that they wouldn't.
I think that the only downside the The Kane Chronicles id the terrible character art (sorry, whoever designed them, but they're not pretty). That doesn't affect the actual books, though, so it's fine.

Book review: Of Poseidon by Anna Banks

Galen is the prince of the Syrena, sent to land to find a girl he's heard can communicate with fish. Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen — literally, ouch! — both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...

I'll start by saying: I did enjoy this book, but not as much as I'd thought I would. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I will continue. I think a big part of the reason I was a little disappointed in this book was because it was mainly set on land, and when I say mainly I mean that Emma - the female lead - only really "visited" the ocean two or three times, and never to the Syrena kingdom. I had expected for the book to take place in the water, that was what I had wanted to read. So it kind of ruined it a little for me when the characters always walked around on solid ground. Another big part that was negative to me was that no one even thought about the fact that Emma could be what she is until at least two thirds into the book. Personally, as soon as they started talking about how Emma was like Syrena in some aspects, but not in others, I kind of went "well, she's obviously half, then". Maybe I've just read to much YA fantasy involving different kinds of hybrids, but to me it was obvious.
I started reading this book on the bus on my way to school one morning. Big mistake. I obviously knew that there was going to be a shark attack, but I hadn't though about it enough to realise when in the book it was. I had just kind of though it'd be a bit into the book, and that it'd be one of those where a shark comes to a beach and everyone's freaking out but nothing really happens. Oh, was I wrong. You see, I hate sharks, they scare me to death, and I did not expect it to show up almost instantly. The shark attack wasn't necessarily a very scary scene, but when Emma and Chloe were out on that surfboard away from everyone else, and Chloe accuse Emma of kicking her, I got so scared. I almost had to put the book away, and all of a sudden I was sure there was a shark under my seat. It was terrifying. So, if you're afraid of sharks, I advice you to read the first three and a half chapters in the middle of your bed - with no arms or legs over the edge.
A thing that annoyed me was "ohmysweetgodness", which Emma said/though at least a dozen times in the first half of the book. I don't even get what it means, to me it sounds like she is excited, but most of the times she thought it she was angry. Luckily it got better and in the second half of the book it was only mentioned once or twice. Everyone - well, Emma, Galen, and Rayna - were unnecessarily aggressive. Somewhere it was mentioned that it was a Syrena trait, but it was still a little unsettling, considering Emma threatened to/though about murdering different people a bunch of times.
Even though all these not-so-positive-things were in the book, I still liked it. Emma and Galen were really cute together (even though they were both oblivious to each others feelings), Rayna was really entertaining (even though she was a bitch at the beginning), and Toraf was just amazing (even though he wanted to mate with Rayna without her consent). And that's not mentioning the huge cliffhanger. It was almost like a slap in the face, even though I'd though there was something fishy (hey, look how funny I am) about her for a while. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say this cliffhanger was in style with a Riordan Cliffhanger, but almost.
Out of five stars, I gave it three on goodreads, because even though I didn't really feel like that much was happening I still thought it was good. And I need to read Of Triton soon, because I need to know what happens.

Book review: Knife by R. J. Andersson

Bryony lives in the big Oak together with all the other fairies, but no one except for the Hunter and the Gatherers are allowed to go outside. When Bryony is assigned to become the Queen's Hunter, she changes her name to Knife, and one day when she is hurt fighting a crow, she flies right into the lap of a human boy - Paul. Paul takes care of Knife until she gets better, and they form a bond, but no one can know that Knife is friends with a human for interacting with humans is forbidden.
Knife starts to doubt everything she's learned growing up; humans aren't dangerous, and are they really what's behind the terrible illness that takes the fairies one by one? With the Queen keeping secrets, and Paul for help, Knife tries to find out what really happened back when the fairies lost their magic and the illness broke out.

Knife is the first book in the Faery Rebels series by R. J. Andersson. It can also be found under the name "Spell Hunter" in Canada and the US.
When I started reading this book, I was really confused, because the main character was called Bryony, but everywhere where I'd read about the book she was called Knife. I got to know why, though, after a few chapters when she changed her name. The plot was different, which was a nice change from the "life size fairies with weird appearances", and fairy courts and politics and stuff - but maybe I just think so because the only other real "faery-books" I've read is the Wicked Lovely series. But, anyway, these are the kind of fairies that I've always imagined living out in the woods. Small, with wings and pointy ears.
I loved how the faery world in the Oak was built, with the Queen, and everyone being assigned jobs as they grew up. The fact that there were no males surprised me, but I also kind of like the idea of the faeries leaving an egg behind as they die. It's sad - that they have to die for their daughter to be born - but an interesting idea.

The characters were great. I loved Knife, she was special, and I loved her reactions to the human things in Paul's house. How she thought Paul's wheelchair was a throne, and all the furniture was so beautiful compared to her own. The secondary characters were also lovely. Wink and Thorn, especially.
Overall I loved this book, I've wanted to read it for quite a while, so when I got it for my birthday a month ago I was really happy. I would strongly recommend it to everyone. And you can't say that looking at the book makes you not want to read it. The cover is beautiful, I really prefer the "Knife" cover over the "Spell Hunter" cover.

Book review: Torn by Amanda Hocking

Wendy Everly is finally starting to feel more at home in Förening, the home of the Trylle, but now she finds out that there's more than meets the eye. She shares a stronger connection with the Vittra than she knew of, and they will do anything to get her to their side.
With a war just around the corner, and her own coronation much closer than she'd originally thought, Wendy's only hope at saving Förening is to marry a royal Trylle. She is torn between feelings and duty, what she want's, and what she should.

I really enjoyed Switched, so I was excited to receive Torn for Christmas. This book goes deeper into the Trylle society, and there's a lot more Trylle and Vittra politics. We get to know who Wendy's father was - or rather is, and we get to know more about what the future will look like. The book is never boring, and it doesn't have any unnecessary parts where you're pretty much asleep for pages at a time. It starts off with a bang that draws you in, and even though the book gets much smoother after a few chapters, I found it hard to put it down. You can tell that the world of the Trylle is well thought about, it's written with much detail and an effort to make it believable.
We meet all of the great characters from Switched, as well as a few new ones. We have Loki, a handsome and cheeky Vittra royal whom Wendy feels a strong connection with. We, among others, also meet Oren and Sara - the king and queen of the Vittra, and Finn's family, if only briefly. Finn's eleven year old sister, Ember, made for some reason an impression on me even though we only met her once in Torn. I think it's because I have a weak spot for cute little siblings, though. Wendy has developed quite a bit in this book, as she is now more sure of herself, and isn't afraid to stand up for herself and others. Now she also has Matt, her brother, with her in Förening, and that's influenced her a lot. She needs someone who will always be there for her now that Finn is acting the way he is acting. I was also surprised to find that I liked Elora, Wendy's mother, much more in this book than I did in Switched, since you now got to see another side of her that was much more motherly and supportive.
The one thing that I missed in this book was Finn. Sure, he was there, but not like previously. I this book he argued with or ignored Wendy almost every time he was with her. None of that sweet romance from Switched was there, now he was just cold, reserved, and moody all the time. Loki made up for that though, as he was constantly flirting with Wendy whenever he was around.

Overall I really liked Torn. I give it four out of five stars, and encourage anyone who hasn't read it to do. Just read Switched first.