Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Author: John Green
Pages: 308
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Book Description:
One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

Hilarious, poignant, and deeply insightful, John Green and David Levithan’s collaborative novel is brimming with a double helping of the heart and humor that have won both of them legions of faithful fans.

Get it here | Good reads 

My Opinion: 
Another fabulous novel from John Green. It was humorous and lighthearted and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After reading The Fault in out Stars and Looking for Alaska, I was expecting this to be another amazing but sad novel. This was not the case! Will Grayson X2 was funny and relatable and showed the life of teenagers clearly and accurately. The novel was filled with passionate and true quotes and I was very sad to finish it.

My favourite part had the be the ending. It was so caring and I felt like everything added up. I liked the second Will Grayson the best just because I could relate to him more and I see myself in him a lot! Tiny was another really lovely character and I felt them come alive in the pages (wow how cheesy...)

The only thing I didn't like, was the grammar for the second Will Grayson. There were no capital letters (it was meant to be that way!) and I understand it defined the two Will's but that is just something that gets on my nerves a lot. There was nothing wrong with the plot or the characters, they were all really well written, it was just the punctuation hahaa :)

Altogether this was another amazing book by one of my favourite authors. He never fails to let me down :) I would recommend this is anyone, whatever age, because it puts you in the mind of boys which is funny (if you'e a girl) and shows the true struggle and happiness of teenagers. Anyone can relate to this.
The last book I have to read by him is an Abundance of Katherine's so I'll definitely be picking that up soon.


Favourite Quotes: 

why is it upset? shouldn't it be downset?

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His problems are so huge that your can hide behind them

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i am constantly torn between killing myself and killing everyone around me.

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Some people have lives. Some people have music.

And some people have neither

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If you don't say the honest thing, it never becomes true

 Rating ★★★★ 

 4 out of 5 stars 

 Next book I'm going to review:
Perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Title: Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Pages: 115
Genre: Political, History, Classic
Book Description: 
Tired of their servitude to man, a group of farm animals revolt and establish their own society, only to be betrayed into worse servitude by their leaders, the pigs, whose slogan becomes: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." This 1945 satire addresses the socialist/ communist philosophy of Stalin in the Soviet Union.

 Get it here | Good reads

My Opinion:

I really really enjoyed this book. I've been wanting to read it for such a long time now and I'm so pleased I've finally got round to it. It was actually quite a short novel so I read it in less than a week!
I think this book was really well written. I loved the story line and seeing how everything began to change and crumble. The characters were really creative and funny and I enjoyed finding out what happened to them as the story continued.

The only problem I had with this book was the amount of characters addressed on the second page. Only a few of them were really important and I found it difficult to keep up with which animal had which name etc. However this could just be me...

I knew the background of this novel before reading it; about how it was like a metaphor for the politics in Russia. I don't find politics very interested and I don't know much about it so I tried to keep this in mind as I was reading but didn't get that aspect until the end.

Linking to this, I really enjoyed the ending. It was so well written and the last quote was really powerful! A wonderful end to a wonderful book.

Overall I would recommend this to anyone. Preferably older people just because you might not understand some of the language and terms but generally it's great for all ages. I felt like I learned a lot by reading this book and everyone should read this classic at least once :)
I'm certainly going to be picking up 1984 and reading that soon!


Favourite Quotes:

All men are enemies. All animals are comrades

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Four legs good, two legs bad

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The only good human being is a dead one

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All men are enemies. All animals are comrades

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others

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The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which

Rating ★★★★

4 out of 5 stars

Next book I'm going to review:
Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Title: Orphan Train
Author: Christina Baker Kline
Pages: 273
Genre: Contemporary, Historical
Book Description:
The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.
Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.
Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.

Get it here | Good reads 

My Opinion: 
Before I start can we all take a moment to appreciate how lovely this cover is?! I love the bars on the left side because it gives the effect of a train door and it just looks amazing! Plus the copy I have is hardback so it actually feels like I'm opening a train door omg it's beautiful >.<
Anyway...

I have a love-hate relationship with this book. I enjoyed the story-line and how each chapter switched between Molly and Vivian. I felt like this book was a real eye-opener and I feel like I've learned a lot. This book made me realise how lucky I am and how cruel the world can be sometimes... But it does have a lovely ending! There's a lot of history weaved in these pages and I enjoyed that since I like history anyway.

However the book was a little heavy and overall, not much happened. I didn't want to put the book down however there was not much to the story. I found this book quite slow... although a lot happened and I did read it quickly. The chapters were long but not a lot happened in them.
I liked how the narrator changed between the characters, but I didn't like how the tense changed between third person and first person. (See what I am... Love-hate relationship here!)

This novel started off really well. The beginning was powerful and upsetting but made me want to read on. But as I got nearer the middle of the book I felt that curiousness disappear and I didn't really want to read on... But I also didn't want to stop reading...

Overall I think this book had its ups and downs. The writing didn't keep me intrigued yet the story was powerful. I think the idea of this book was probably better than it is written down. I wouldn't recommend it but if you're just looking for a new and unique book to read, this is it :)


Favourite Quotes: 

My entire life has felt like chance. Random moments of loss and connection. This is the first one that feels, instead, like fate

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Sitting in the empty classroom after school one day, Molly stares at that face for a long time, looking for answers to questions she doesn't know how to ask

~~~~

So I am learning to pretend, to smile and nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I feel broken inside

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I feel abandoned and forgotten, dropped into misery worse than my own

~~~~

They're the ones who haunt us. The ones who have left us behind

 Rating ★★★ 

3 out of 5 stars 

 Next book I'm going to review:
Animal Farm by George Orwell

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

Title: The Bloody Chamber
Author: Angela Carter
Pages: 126
Genre: Gothic, Fantasy, Fairytale, Dark, Short Stories
Book Description: 
The Bloody Chamber (or The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories) is an anthology of short fiction by Angela Carter. All of the stories share a common theme of being closely based upon fairy tales or folk tales. From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.

Get it here | Good reads 

My Opinion: 

So I was lent this collection of short stories by my English teacher as further reading for my college course and I have mixed feelings about it... There was a selection of 10 short stories, all under the genre of gothic fiction.

To make this easier, I'm going to write a short paragraph about each story (like a mini review)

1) The Bloody Chamber
34 Pages (longest story in the book)
I found this story really intriguing but quite creepy. It was about a woman who had recently married a man, she didn't even really like, to find out he was hiding a gruesome secret. The descriptions provided were really gothic and I enjoyed that factor but it took me a while to get into this story... I had to keep coming back to it but I persevered and found the ending wonderfully unexpected!

2) The Courtship of Mr Lyon
11 Pages
This was probably my favourite story from the collection! It was about a father who got caught in a snow storm and found a house when he was seeking for shelter. His daughter had asked for a pure white rose, one he found in the garden of this mysterious house. The father stole the rose but there were serious consequences that followed. I loved the Beauty and the Beast aspect hidden inside the story and the characters were lovely!

3) The Tiger's Bride
17 Pages
This was about a man who took the form of a tiger. He hated his appearance so acted like a man by wearing mens clothes and a mask which only exposed his eyes. The father of a beautiful girl places a bet against the tiger, but loses and similarly has to face the following consequences. I found this very similar to the story before but it was still a nice read. I thought the ending was quite ambiguous but I still liked it.

4) Puss-In-Boots
17 Pages
I didn't really enjoy this fairy tale. It included a cat called Puss, who became a young man's valet. He did many chores for him and they got on well until Puss's master fell in love. Puss hates this and plots against his master. The events after this were gothic and strange. I found this story quite hard to keep up with and didn't like it as much as some of the previous stories.

5) The Erl-King
8 Pages
This was another one of the few stories from the collection that I enjoyed. It was about a king who lived in a hut in the middle of a forest. He eats plants and sometimes animals. The narrator visits the Erl King to learn about his life and have sex with him. One day the girl realises the King's plans for her and a troubling turn of events occur... What I loved was how Red Riding Hood was weaved into this story. It was nice to come across symbolic quotes from the story like 'what big eyes you have.'

6) The Snow Child
2 Pages (Maybe not even that...)
Another one of my favourite stories! It was short and sweet and involved aspects of 'The Snow Child' from the Grimm Brothers fairy tale (which is one of my favourites!) It's about a Count and Countess who are travelling on hours through the winter when they come across a naked girl. The Count has an attraction to the girl and takes her on his horse but the Countess becomes jealous and tries to trick the girl so she can kill her. I really enjoyed the ending too.

7) The Lady of the House of Love
15 Pages
This story was about Vampires and I liked that aspect of it. However I didn't really understand what was happening, and I had to keep coming back to it because I got bored so I didn't find this addition very interesting... I also liked how Jack and the Beanstalk was incorporated into it including quotes like 'fee fie fo fum!'

8) The Werewolf
2 Pages (The shortest story in the collection)
I really enjoyed this very short story. I was gothic and unexpected and had features of Little Red Riding Hood. I think it had a good moral to the story even if it was quite twisted... The main thing I liked was it's uniqueness

9) The Company of Wolves
9 Pages
This story also involved Red Riding Hood but it wasn't as good as the previous one. It's about how ruthless wolves are and talks about a blond girl visiting her grandmother. She is armed with a knife but is not afraid. She meets a man on her journey and they become trusting friends. He challenges the girl to see who can get to her grandmother's house first, however when the girl arrives (after the man) she is caught in a rather awkward situation... I liked the idea of the story, but it wasn't as well written as some of the others.

10) Wolf-Alice
8 Pages
This was about a female child who is raised by wolves. One day humans find her sleeping with her mother and take her to be treated like a human with the nuns. They cannot break her from her animalistic habits however she begins to notice how different she is compared to other people. I liked the idea of the wolf-human but I found the story line quite odd and confusing.


Overall
I felt like if I didn't have to read the book and if I wasn't going to be questioned on it, I would have put it down relatively early on... It's also a quick read, I read this in a matter of days, which was probably another reason why I continued reading... I think this is a good book to just pick up at random times are the stories are all short and easy to read, so you could just read one every once in a while. However if I was to recommend the book, I'd advise 16+ because there was some strong language and many sex scenes. There were some really lovely chapter but I personally found that there was more bad chapters than good.


Favourite Quotes: 

A lily. Possessed of strange, ominous calm of a sentient vegetable, like one of those cobra-headed, funereal lilies whose white sheaths are curled out of a flesh as thick and tensely yielding to the touch as vellum

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There is not much in the autumn wood to make you smile but it is not yet, not quite yet the saddest time of the year.

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A young girl would go into the wood as trustingly as Red Riding Hood to her granny's house but this light admits no ambiguities and, here, she will be trapped in her own illusion because everything in the wood is exactly as it seems

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The beautiful queen of vampires sits all alone in her dark, high house under the eyes of the portraits of her demented and atrocious ancestors

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She is so beautiful and unnatural; her beauty is an abnormality, a deformity
Her beauty is a symptom of her disorder, of her soullessness.

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Be he alive or be he dead
I'll grind his bones to make my bread

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She herself is a haunted house

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Fear and flee the wold; for, worst of all, the wolf may be more than he seems

 Rating ★★

 2 out of 5 stars 

 Next book I'm going to review:
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Pages: 265 
Genre: Classic, Gothic, Horror, Fantasy
Book Description: 
At once a Gothic thriller, a passionate romance, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of science, Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein.

 Get it here | Good reads 

 My Opinion: 
This is another novel I was advised to read for English but I also wanted to read this myself and boy am I glad I did! When I was reading this I really wasn't expecting what I got from this novel - in a good way!

People who think the monster is called
Frankenstein get on my nerves!

The main thing that surprised me was the storyline. Before reading this, all I knew was that a scientist created a monster which he lost control of and went round killing everyone. But after reading this I am really surprised at how much more there was to this book than I thought; it's so underestimated! The copy I read was split into 3 volumes, one of which was under the point of view of the monster himself! (The monster isn't called Frankenstein. (Victor) Frankenstein is the name of the man that creates the monster... ) I had no idea this was even in the book so it was really interesting to hear his background and side of the story - as I said, totally unexpected!

Linking to this, I really enjoyed the sub-stories within the main story. For example, the monster's background and his story as well as the sailor's story and his letters at the beginning and end of the novel. And then there's Victor's story which is mainly what the novel is about. This was a lovely touch that I didn't know existed until I read the book...

Another thing I liked about the book was that the English is easier to read than other classics. Because this book wasn't published as late as other classics, the language is relatively modern (there's still a few words I had to look up the definition of) meaning it's a good book for those people that want to get into classics but want an easier novel to start with.

I was recommend this book to literally anyone. If you like gothic/horror genres, read it. If you want to try somethign new, read it. If you're interested in starting classic novels, read it. This is such a well known novel that should be read because it is so underestimated!
There are many film versions of the novel... I've seen the oldest film version and that was a very accurate interpretation but there's a few more modern films too...

If you decide to read this, or have read it, please let me know what you thought! I'd love to hear your opinion :)


 Favourite Quotes: 

Thus ended a day memorable to me: it decided my future destiny.

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'Now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart'

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Darkness had no effect upon my fancy and a churchyard was to me merely the receptacle of bodies deprived of life, which, from being the seat of beauty and strength, had become food for the worm.

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When you read their writings, life appears to consist in a warm sun and a garden of roses, in the smiles and frowns of a fair enemy, and the fire that consumes your own heart

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I do not fear to die

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Nothing is more painful to a human mind than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty, which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear

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Our house was the house of mourning

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A dream has power to poison sleep

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Am I thought to be the only criminal, when all human kind sinned against me?

 Rating ★★★★ 

4 out of 5 stars 

 Next book I'm going to review:
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter