twiggreads
This review has taken me two days to write. I've brainstormed in the shower and on my drive to work what I wanted to cover and i've written, erased, and rewritten paragraphs multiple times. So short and sweet: This is a really good book. It easily got a spot on my Favorites shelf.I love that the government is well thought out and a major part of the plot. I'm not going to name any titles but so many ya dystopia books in the past few years uses the dystopia setting as just the setting, when it could be explored so much more.
Thera fascinates me. I'm terrified of it, but I also kind of want to live there. There's a lot of hints and foreshadowing that Theran government has a large part in Earth government and I can't wait to see that through.
I really liked the multiple perspectives. It adds to the story without slowing it down. I especially liked when individual scenes were done by multiple characters.
While I loved this book, it has flaws. The pacing is the one that sticks out the most to me. Some parts are too slow (notably any scene involving explaining the light/dark DNA) and some are too fast (I had to read the kitchen scene several times to fully grasp what happened).
Overall, daynight is incredible and I urge fans of the genre to give it a read.
Note: I won this books through Goodreads' First Reads.
My four stars is a rounding up of what I really want to give, which is 3.5. Great book, but I don't know if I'm interested in continuing the series.
Much like Shatter Me, Unravel Me is light on the sci fi but heavy on feeeeeeeeeelings.
There's two sides to this book. On one hand this is story of a woman who spent part of her childhood in luxury, another part of childhood in prison, and eventually came to America where she found success. On the other hand a lot of people believe that Ping Fu made this story up. I don't know enough about China's history to agree or disagree with any of these claims.
The accusations ruined the book for me. I couldn't get into the story without the thought that it was made up pulling at me.
Note: I won this book on Librarything.
Very, very interesting read. I went to public school in new jersey. I learned about our civil war a million times, but rarely touched on the history of the world around us. I recommend this to anyone who wants to expand their world view.Shin was given a life sentence the moment he was born. He was sentenced to live his life as a prisoner for crimes he did not commit. He spent his life in constant hunger and pain. When his mother and brother tried to escape, he turned them in (hoping for food) and ended up being tortured for months before he watched them executed in front of the camp.
Harden intertwines Shin's story with stories of other men who have fled North Korea, what an "average" North Korean's life might be like, and the lives of the leaders and their friends. Harden writes about North Korea as a country: The rise and death of Kim Kong Il, how they committed insurance fraud to collect money from other countries, and how they survived on aid from their neighbors.
Escape from Camp 14 is a challenging read, but it should be read.
The end is sort of clusterfuck of double crosses and betrayals. You never have time to figure out what really is going on before the next twist is introduced. And I'm sorry but Anna and Peter are supposed to be 16 or 17 and they're raising two children on their own and helping lead a revolution that a bunch of adults are struggling with?
Maybe it was just the copy I got from NetGalley, but I found Erebos to be very difficult to follow and eventually gave up. The author would change scenes with no transition at all. In one paragraph the main character would be in the locker room and in the next paragraph he would be at home talking to his mom. A few pages later he was in his room on his computer and in the next paragraph he was in chemistry class.
Surviving the Angel of Death is [b:Echoes From Auschwitz: Dr. Mengele's Twins: The Story Of Eva And Miriam Mozes|1389373|Echoes From Auschwitz Dr. Mengele's Twins The Story Of Eva And Miriam Mozes|Eva Mozes Kor|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1291411793s/1389373.jpg|1379457] adapted for young readers. I haven't read Echoes From Auschwitz (though I plan to) so I can't comment on the adaptation. The book's focus is on Romania and Dr. Mengele's experiments on twins. I studied the Holocaust several times during school, but I can't remember ever discussing Romania and Dr. Mengele was only ever briefly mentioned.
I think this is a great book that teachers should check out for their students.
Domenica has an interesting story to tell, but this book falls flat. Towards the end of the book, Nikki writes, "In sobriety, memories return slowly and in the wrong order". Nikki's stories come as a stream of conscience. She often gets ahead of herself. There's no structure or timeline. She'll go from talking about college to post college to elementary school and then back to high school.This memoir could be incredible, but a lack of editing and guidance really holds it back.
Note: I received this book as an ARC from Shelf Awareness and the publisher.
This is not a book I would usually read. But I'm a huge fan of Ruta and [b:Between Shades of Gray|7824322|Between Shades of Gray|Ruta Sepetys|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327873479s/7824322.jpg|10870318] Josie is the daughter of a whore and that has followed her around her entire life. At 17, she's done pretty well for herself. She's graduated high school and works at a bookstore in exchange for a place to live. But she wants out. She wants to escape the Quarter and start again. But with every step she takes forward, the city seems to pull her back.
Like Between Shades of Gray, Ruta excels at describing Josie's world and her friends so that you feel you are there with her but the pages aren't clogged with unnecessary explanations.
Out of The Easy grabs you from page one and keeps you entertained throughout.
Note: I received this book as an ARC from LibraryThing.
For those that don't know, in the real world, I'm a social worker. And hoarding fascinates me.This memoir follows Jessie through about two years of her life, with lots of stories about the past. Her mother develops colon cancer and so she goes back home to take care of her and to clean her house..again. Her mother wants to sign over the house to Jessie for financial reasons. Jessie can't go through with it. The house is a literal and figurative dump and she doesn't want that responsibility.
Jessie spends most of the book remembering what it was like growing up with the weird and often abusive mother (embarrassing) and how that translates to her adult life (she still embarrassed and she doesn't own a lot of stuff).
The book is a really interesting read. You learn about a family coming together and breaking apart over and over again over a mental illness.
