I'm a bit disappointed. Since 50 Shades was based off of Twilight, I was expecting E.L. James to write a new series involving aliens. You kPre-review:
I'm a bit disappointed. Since 50 Shades was based off of Twilight, I was expecting E.L. James to write a new series involving aliens. You know, the 50 Shades of Host type of thing.
Review:
The Mister is about a man named Maxim who is the part of some rich family in Britain. He lives a life devoid of anything, but things change once his brother dies. His brother was the Earl of something or another and now Maxim has to step up to the plate. While this is going on, his old an unattractive cleaning lady, a daily if you will, leaves to Poland and a new one arrives from Albania. She’s hot. Maxim is instantly attracted to the young woman who doesn’t drop her clothing at the sight of him. It’s so attractive, that he gets turned on while she’s dusting his piano. (Yes, that does happen and yes, we learn that he has to strategically cover up his erection because of this. While she dusts, he wonders about the other places she can dust on his body.)
His new daily had a rough time. She has an overbearing father, an abusive fiancé, was kidnapped into a sex trafficking ring, escaped and spent many days without food as she fought for survival. More importantly, she’s a virgin who just wants love and can play the piano. She’s also attracted to her new boss, so every night she masturbates while thinking of him.
They fall in love, things happen due to her trauma, he saves her each time and they live happily ever after. If you think I’m going to knock the plot, I won’t. I don’t read a lot of romance novels, but a rich guy saving a poor girl is a trope that has happened since the dawn of stories. So from a romance standpoint, I don’t really have an issue with the plot. Even though the romance has more instalove than any YA novel I've read, I did kind of get it. Let me explain:
When we’re first introduced to Maxim, he’s having sex with his sister-in-law who also happens to be his best friend. They’re both lonely and sad because his brother, and her husband, has just passed away. Whether it was an accident or a suicide, I honestly can’t tell you because the story never tells us. Maxim is a frivolous guy who is essentially a brat. Due to his status, he’s never really had to worry or do anything in his life. He leaves his clothes on the floor and his daily picks them up. He can walk into his house with muddy shoes and his daily will clean it up while he sleeps. He doesn’t need to worry about food, clothing and shelter. The only real thing he gets to decide is whom he’s going to sleep with. I kind of feel like he’s willing to go with anyone who shows a bit of interest, but I digress.
We see him go through live where he basically just eats, sleeps and has sex with random women. He does mention that he’s also a model/photographer/DJ, but he doesn’t really do any of that during the story. Then this girl arrives who can play the piano and is innocent and his loins can’t stop itself from harden every time she says something. She doesn’t view him as an Earl or as a screw up. She just looks at him like he’s her boss and he feels wanted for the first time in his life. It’s like she’s the sun and his penis is a flower that just shoots up whenever she’s runs to the laundry room, or picks up his dirty clothes or dusts his piano. Oh and that time when she ordered him to go to sleep. Mmmm, that was the moment of his climax when he finally solidified that he needs this girl in his life.
He feels cared for by Alessia and needed by her too. Considering how Maxim has mommy issues, which doesn’t get solved in the novel, so I guess you can say that he finds in Alessia what he’s missed in his mother.
What about Alessia? Well, she’s an illegal immigrant who comes from a poor desolate village in Albania. Her traditional father promised to marry her off to a man who is cruel and violent, but is rich. Since he doesn’t have mommy issues and a BDSM kink, he’s a villain. Her mom tries to save her by sending her to men who end up being sex traffickers. She escapes and ends up in London where she works as a daily for multiple people including Maxim. What happens to those other people who count on her cleaning services…..? Hahaha, let’s not think about that. What matters is that she sees Maxim naked for the first time and she is shooked. He’s hot, but she has issues with men and is a virgin so all she can do is fantasize about him while masturbating at night.
He is nice to her, which makes him feel like he’s unlike any guy who she’s seen with before. She falls in love with him and then he saves her from the gangsters who tried to sell her. Did I mention that Maxim has a piano? Because she is in love with his piano so I feel like that helped make her choice of love mates easier.
I should mention that Alessia’s father is super traditional and overbearing. With the way she constantly talks and worries about his views on her, you can tell that she has daddy issues. So when it comes to Maxim, she feels protected and safe with him. Maxim loves her for her.
At its core, The Mister is a romance between a guy with Mommy issues and a girl with Daddy issues. I mean, it’s also a rich guy poor girl story, but it’s really a mommy issues man falling in love with a girl with daddy issues.
Outside of the romance, the plot has a lot of issues. Alessia’s back-story and story does get solved by the end, but we don’t really get any conclusion with Maxim outside of his love life. What’s the deal with Caroline? I don’t know. Did his brother kill himself? I don’t know. Will he get closer to his mom? I don’t know. How will he deal with being an Earl? I don’t know. Will he find a real job? I don’t know. Will he learn to pick up his own clothing and do the laundry? I don’t know.
Maxim’s entire storyline is falling in love with the first girl who seems broken and solving her issues with his constant erection and his wealth. This is a problem, because Maxim is incredibly bland. I think after the backlash that Christian got in 50 Shades; E.L. James decided to create a male lead that seeks consent and wants to make the girl feel good and Maxim does that. It’s just that he doesn’t have a life outside of growing penis. He helps Alessia, because he wants to have sex with her. This isn’t me just saying this, it’s what Maxim and his not so secret erection mentioned numerous times. After he does the sex, he falls in love with her. Teaching a virgin does that to men in this world….
This is a story about a virgin who teaches a rich playboy that his penis and life can be saved by her pure and innocent vagina.
It’s shocking to say this, but I could understand Christian was loved. He was a creep, but at least he made me feel something before I stopped reading 50 Shades of Grey. It wasn’t a good feeling, but he made me feel something. Maxim is just there. This is especially bad because Alessia’s fiancé has more depth that anyone else in the book.
He’s a horrible man, but you can see moments where his culture or his upbringing messed him up. He came across like he was trying to save Alessia and didn’t understand why she hated him. Even when he slapped her he was like “Why don’t you love me?” And I could feel that. He tries to rape her and I could still understand his motivations and get a sense of who he was.
I don’t even have words for this, because that is what this book did. It made the rapist a fully fleshed out nuanced character and it made our hero a bland sack of flour with a permanent hard on. That’s not a good thing. We spend most of the book in Maxim’s head and I honestly hated it. All he did was think about his penis, swear, think about his growing penis, swear again, think of Alessia, discovers that he’s fully erect and swears. 90% of the novel is done right there.
Outside of that, I do wish that an Albanian male character was shown in a good light. There’s a translator, but outside of him there’s no one. They’re brutish men who view women as objects. Since they’re not rich or attractive, outside of our rapist, they’re all depicted as villains or out of touch men. This also means that the women are all shown as victims.
The women in Maxim’s life, outside of his sister and those who serve him, are all depicted as vapid and shallow. Caroline, for example, is there to show Maxim’s guilt but she hardly plays a vital role in the story. She deserved more and more could have been done there, but all we know about her is that she’s clingy and needy for sex.
Ahhhh! What’s frustrating is that there’s potential for a good novel here but it feels like James didn’t know what she wanted to do here. Maxim and Alessia’s romance does make sense, but the way the book goes about it feels rushed and corny. They spend maybe three days together sexing it up at one of Maxim’s manors and that’s all it takes for them to love each other.
Alessia finds out how old Maxim is after this…The two lovebirds don’t know anything about each other, but because of their situation and their parental issues, they throw themselves into a relationship when neither of them have experience. (view spoiler)[In the end of the novel, Alessia’s father tells Maxim that in a week they’ll get married. (hide spoiler)]
James doesn’t do herself any favours with Alessia’s back-story too. Sex trafficking and abuse is a huge thing, but the moment Maxim kisses our Albanian cleaning lady, she knows that he’s the one.
This is a story of a man mourning the death of his brother who uses the power of sex to save himself and a simple girl who is fleeing an abusive engagement and a sex trafficking ring.
I think my disappointment with The Mister stems from the fact that I understand what James was trying to convey with this story. She laid enough groundwork for me to see what this novel could have been. It’s just that the writing and pacing needed more editing. The characters needed more life too. Maxim has no life outside of his penis and Alessia is so pure that it almost feels like Maxim is taking advantage of her. And many of the plot points that were brought up are dropped, especially if they pertained to Maxim.
More should and could have been done to make The Mister a good novel, but it’s not. It had potential, which is why I'm giving it two stars.
But...ugh, Even the romance part annoys me when I think about it, even though it makes sense. I mean, I don see Alessia and Maxim working as a couple, at first, I don’t see Maxim staying faithful to her. I also see Alessia finding out and staying with him, because that’s what good Albanian women do. They’ll continue having sex, but they’ll never get that level of spark that they had during those three days in his manor. They’ll grow old, she’ll become resentful of his nightly activities and he’ll start to wonder why she’s distant. Alessia’s old fiancé will show up telling her and end up having sex with him. He’ll laugh about it after and tell Maxim what happened while calling Alessia a whore. Maxim will be stunned and Alessia will beg him to forgive her, but now she’s become his mother so he can’t stand to look at her. She’ll mention that he slept around and he’ll say those meant nothing, but what she did was a betrayal. She leaves. He drinks and has sex with even more women. Caroline tells him to grow up, while in bed with him. Maybe one of his kids will see the two together and Maxim will feel like a failure. Later on, he gets a call that Alessia has been kidnapped by traffickers and he rushes out to save her. He finds her and they spend three days hiding out while rekindling their love. When they come back home, Caroline gets the cold shoulder until he yells her again. Alessia finds happiness with Maxim and him with her. They grow old together after they realize that the only way to keep their love strong is if Alessia is kidnapped every 3-5 years. Maxim creates a wife escape room for other husbands who are facing trouble in their marriages. It makes him even more money and he’s praised by Time magazine as the man who saved couples.
Meanwhile his kids are like, “What is this life?” And they go off into the world with mommy and daddy issues.
This is a story of two people who know nothing about love or each other, but find solace in each other's arms because the outside world is just too scary. Scary, because of gangsters and grown up responsibilities.
The end.
Sorry about the constantly remarks about Maxim's penis, but it happened a lot in this novel so......more
A lot better than You May Now Kill the Bride. It's still a campy fun book and while the ending just happens again, the build up made more sense this tA lot better than You May Now Kill the Bride. It's still a campy fun book and while the ending just happens again, the build up made more sense this time around. I also liked the twist at the end.
(view spoiler)[I thought we'd see a Goode character save the day, but instead we got what we got and I couldn't be happier (hide spoiler)]
VOICE-OVER Calling all brave girls. Your castle awaits.
The Kingdom. The future is Fantasist™. (Screen fades to black.)
The Kingdom was a book that I w
VOICE-OVER Calling all brave girls. Your castle awaits.
The Kingdom. The future is Fantasist™. (Screen fades to black.)
The Kingdom was a book that I was actively looking forward to reading. When it popped up in the EBook catalogue of my library, I immediately placed a hold on the title. I love the idea of a robot going against their programming and ends up being on trial for killing someone she cares for. Also, the cover is gorgeous. It’s really stunning to look at.
I think my hype for this book kind of hurt me in the long run. I enjoyed the first half of the book and the world that Jess Rothenberg created. The chapters that Ana, our robot MC, narrates helps give us a better picture of the world that she and her sisters live in at The Kingdom. She starts as cold and detached, which makes sense since she’s a service robot, but her curiousity slowly gives her life and seeing that change was nice to see. The chapters alternate between Ana’s chapters and the trial/post trial interviews and news articles. This switch happens whenever a chapter ends.
At first, I liked this because it added to the suspense to the story. Ana starts off as a normal service robot, but then we see her on trial for murder. This made me want to see why she did what she did and how this change happened. It’s a great method to leave you on the edge of your seat.
Unfortunately, after about 60-ish% of the story I got bored by this and just wanted to see some action and some stabbing. Instead, the trial scripts and post trial interviews seem like they are rehashing the same point over and over again. It didn’t help that Ana’s chapters moved too slowly for me to continue my excitement for what’s to come. It’s like being on a roller coaster that goes up and up and up and up and you’re anticipating the massive drop that is about to knock your socks off, only there is no drop. You just go up and then the ride ends.
The setting of The Kingdom is one that has tons of promise, but there aren’t enough details to give you a true sense of this theme park. There’s also this plot point involving Ana and her Fantasists sisters being used as sex robots for investors, but I feel like Rothenberg never fully committed to this idea or the idea that hybrids are slowly dying due to diseases and malfunctions.
Despite all this, I felt comfortable giving this a solid three rating. It has a good idea, Ana and her sisters are interesting enough, and the trial scenes were fine. Then the twist happened and I just felt disappointed. Why? WHHYYYY?!@!
(view spoiler)[After everything, it turns out that Owen is actually alive. Ana never killed him; she concocted a plan with him so that she could be free and go outside. Yay! That’s great….but the problem with this is that it hurts the story more than helps it.
Owen being paid to test Ana’s programming made their relationship made sense. They talked a lot and I get why Ana was drawn to him, but I never felt that way from Owen. Why would he risk his life to save Ana? He had to change his name, he’s legally dead right now and his family is in mourning. His family lost one child and he made them lose another for the sake of a robot that he knew on a purely shallow level.
It just doesn’t make sense to me. But even outside of that, having Owen alive shows just how lifeless Ana is. If Ana is meant to be seen as someone who went against her commands and became her own person, then having Owen alive hurts this since it felt like she was going through the motions that Owen set forth. She just traded one command for another.
With Nia and Eve, we saw them fully go against the mold and do something unexpected, but not with Ana and she is rewarded with a happy ending. She is already found not guilty, which makes sense, but giving her Owen as well doesn’t feel well earned. Then again, ‘Happily Ever After’ isn’t just a promise, but a rule.(hide spoiler)]
*sigh*
Overall, I think this would be a 2-2.5 book. I like the idea here, but it felt longer than it was and the twist…ugh. I’d probably read a sequel to this though. ...more
I feel horrible about my feelings towards Internment and for the one star. From a reader's standpoint, this is probably the worst book that I've read I feel horrible about my feelings towards Internment and for the one star. From a reader's standpoint, this is probably the worst book that I've read all year. I didn't care about the writing, I don't think any of the characters felt real or were fleshed out and the premise, while having tons of potential, felt more like an after school special than anything else. It just felt shallow.
And this hurts. It hurts because Internment is about Muslims and I’m a Muslim. The rise of Islamophobia is steadily getting worse and worse with each day that passes. The way people look at you, the micro-aggression that you face on a daily basis and the policies that governments place in an effort to oppress you – I get all that and understand it.
But this book was not the way to go about it.
Samira Ahmed mentions that she ‘feels a lot of anger’ over what is happening in the States today. Things like the concentration camps at the border, the rise of hate and fascism, the Muslim ban, anti-Semitism, police brutality, etc… The world is getting scary, especially if you’re a person of colour, so I have tons of respect for Ahmed for writing Internment.
The Pros:
○ Layla isn’t a practicing Muslim
I like that this book dealt with Muslims who weren’t practicing. This sounds like a weird plus, since I usually hate that Muslims marketed as Muslims don’t really have much Islam in it, but I think it works here from a storytelling perspective. If Muslims were rounded up and placed into camps, then it wouldn’t matter if you prayed all five prayers a day or didn’t. As long as you said you were Muslim, you’d be taken away. In that sense, it made perfect sense that Layla, our MC, wasn’t practicing. She may say some du’as every so often, but she doesn’t pray and has a non-Muslim boyfriend.
Usually this is a turn off, but it worked here.
○ The premise is important
All you have to do is turn on the news to see what is happening. It’s disgusting, it’s horrible and it feels like there’s no hope for change. I do like that Ahmed’s message is to resist and continue to have hope. That is important.
…and that’s it.
I feel like if I mention the cons I’ll end up ranting, so I’ll just briefly mention them here:
The characters are all flat - every single one of them including Layla, which is weird since we’re in her head for the entire book. At times Layla didn’t feel like a teenager, but an older person who was trying to sound like one of the kids. At other times, her naïve nature felt like a child.
For example, in the Muslim internment camp, Layla sneaks around without a care in the world. She says that she knows it’s dangerous, but she doesn’t really understand just how dangerous it could be. In one scene Jake, the guard with a conscious, speaks to Layla in her room. She questions why he’s talking to her there since it would look suspicious and he says,
“A guard going into a woman’s bedroom—let’s say it’s probably happening, and the Director doesn’t care.”
Layla then responds with, “Gross. That’s. Just. Wrong. It’s a guard and a prisoner. A prisoner can’t consent. It’s—“
By this point, my eyes were tired of rolling so they just glazed over and stared off into the distance.
Did she not think rape was going on in these camps? That no one was being abused in this way? Layla does say that she was sheltered when it came to real violence, but come on now. Come on now.
This brings us to my biggest problem in the book; the internment camp didn’t seem that bad. Every family had their own trailer, they were provided with food, clean water, soap and toothpaste. They were allowed to work at the camp and read books. Sure, sometimes people got beat up, but no one was really killed. There were only two major deaths in the book and both of them came near the end.
Layla was thinking about the concentration camps that happened throughout history, while relating her own situation to it and I kept side eyeing her. This and this alone is why I feel bad about hating the book. Taking someone and placing them in a camp is always a bad thing, but Layla kept complaining when she didn’t have it that bad. “Oh gosh, I miss David! I just want to kiss him for no reason. Why do I have to be stuck here with little to no supervision while I talk to my friends? This place sucks.”
I started thinking about Guantanamo Bay and the torture that happened there. I thought of the Japanese internment camps and the death camps of Auschwitz and the atrocities that happened. I thought of the black people who are forced into solitary confinement, when they haven’t been charged with a crime. I thought of the Indigenous children who were raped and beaten while the Canadian government tried to wipe away their identity. I thought of the children separated from their parents at the border and the people who are raped, beaten and laughed at there. I thought of the kids in Syria and Palestine who only know war.
I thought of so many horrible things that have happened and are currently happening in the world and then looked at what Layla went through and got incredibly annoyed by her privilege. It made me feel like the only reason the author gave Layla a Jewish boyfriend was to equate the Jewish pain to what Layla went through and I wasn’t buying it. Their relationship was a non-entity too.
If Ahmed made this internment camp worse and made the guards worse, I think I wouldn’t be so angry by what we got. I mean, they weren’t even fed pork! This place was a pork free zone. I wanted nothing more than to feel Layla’s desperation and hopelessness, but she sounded like a brat 99.9% of the time and I don’t want to feel this way about someone who went to an internment camp. The Director of the camp even said something to the affect of, “I want everyone to go back to working and flirting.”
Flirting. He wants the Muslims there to sex it up and wants them to eat their own cultural food. The food. OMG! The only complaint about the food was the lack of seasoning. The torture! They are giving us food but it doesn’t taste authentic.
*deep breath*
Internment has a lot of good ideas, but the heavy handed nature fell flat. If the writing was better and the world was developed more, this would have been okay, but since it wasn’t I was left feeling short changed here. Everything Layla went through felt shallow and her anger at her situation was steeped in privilege that it took me out of the narrative presented.
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful was an ambitious tale weaving; genetic engineering, religion, politics, identity and philosophy in a futuristic sStronger, Faster, and More Beautiful was an ambitious tale weaving; genetic engineering, religion, politics, identity and philosophy in a futuristic sci-fi world. There's also teen drama just to top things off.
For the most part, I feel like Dayton knocked this out of the park. The detail and world building is exceptional here and even though there are some parts of the overall world that we don't get to see, I feel like each vignette showed enough for me to get a sense of the world that we were in.
The book takes us through six stories, each at a certain point in time with the first being the near future while the sixth is far in the future. It sounds redundant, but this did remind me of Black Mirror in showing how technology can be used for good, but have terrifying consequences. And as we get further and further into the consequences, the stories start getting longer and more bleak.
So, the book is great...but it's also kind of dry at parts and as the stories got longer, the harder it was for me to pay attention to the text. It's not because the stories weren't interesting as a whole, it was because every story has the same feel and tone. From story one to six, the same cold and detached voice is used to relate these stories. Despite the many characters that appear, everything sounded the same.
By the time we get the last story, which spends more time on the teen romance during an armageddon, I mentally checked out.
It's a shame, because the earlier stories were engaging and I do like what Dayton did here....more
I struggled with this retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, not because it's not good (it is!) but because this was the last eBook that my library has I struggled with this retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, not because it's not good (it is!) but because this was the last eBook that my library has on this series and I'm on hold for the physical copy of next book in the series.
There are undoubtedly princesses out there with beautiful singing voices. Harriet was not one of them. She was good at hitting monsters with swordsThere are undoubtedly princesses out there with beautiful singing voices. Harriet was not one of them. She was good at hitting monsters with swords. Hitting notes was a little beyond her.
Oh Harriet, never change! As you can tell from the title, Harriet is off to save Ratpunzel (Rapunzel) alongside her battle quail Mumfrey (who had to suffer twenty tuneless minutes of Harriet singing in the beginning of the novel) and her best friend Prince Wilbur, who is still doing odd jobs since his castle is in need of some major repairs.
Like the previous entries, Ursula Vernon took a classic fairy tale and weaved it into something truly unique and her own. The artwork and humour are still top notch and once again, we see two different princesses here (Harriet and Ratpunzel) and neither are shamed for how they are.
Of Mice and Magic takes place right where Harriet the Invincible leaves us off. Harriet is still a fraction loving princess who is more inclined to slOf Mice and Magic takes place right where Harriet the Invincible leaves us off. Harriet is still a fraction loving princess who is more inclined to slay a monster than do traditional princessy tasks. Unfortunately, Harriet was a bit too strong in the last book and most of the monsters and ogres have decided to become vegetarian for fear of being killed. It's all very understandable on their part and Harriet is glad that no one is being eaten anymore, but gosh golly is she bored. Not just bored, but frustrated because she can't partake in her hobbies anymore.
"She was also a bit cross because she had to give up cliff-diving. Cliff-diving is a marvelous sport if you are invincible, but not so marvelous if you can actually break every bone in your body doing it."
The horror.
So Harriet goes off to find adventure and ends up learning about a curse in a certain mouse kingdom. There are twelve princesses who somehow disappear and dance the night away. You know the story. Many princes have failed, so Harriet, who is extremely bored by this point, is up for anything including saving twelve princesses from a curse.
Like before, Ursula Vernon uses well known fairy tales and changes them up into something magical. While the plot is more linear compared to Harriet the Invincible, the writing, the characters and the general story is still just as sharp.
My library has the next two books in the series and I was lucky enough to grab the ebooks as soon as I saw them. Can't wait to see what Harriet gets up to next....more
Princess Harriet Hamsterbone has just found out a terrible secret. It seems like on her 12th birthday, she’ll be forced to prick her finger on a hamstPrincess Harriet Hamsterbone has just found out a terrible secret. It seems like on her 12th birthday, she’ll be forced to prick her finger on a hamster wheel and…well, you know the story. Princess Harriet is our Sleeping Beauty and after her parents didn’t invite the evil fairy Ratshade to her christening, this curse ended up happening. The other three fairies also provide blessings to counteract it, practical things like making sure that the Princess doesn’t have to eat, drink or use the washroom while she’s in a sleep like death. Nevertheless, just like the original tale, the only way to save the princess is through the kiss of a prince.
Unlike the original tale, Princess Harriet’s parents end up telling her about the curse when she’s ten. Instead of wallowing in self-pity or doing other princess things like looking pale and melancholy while walking, Princess Harriet is ecstatic. Why? Because until the curse happens, our fraction loving princess is practically invincible. So off she goes adventuring until the day of her pricking. It doesn’t go according to plan and there’s more to the story after this, but I won’t spoil it for you.
All I can say is that everyone should read this book. The drawings are lovely, the story had me laughing with its wit and humour and it did something that no other book has done before. It actually made me wish I had a kid so I could read this to them. My mom would be shooketh if she heard that.
I also liked that Princess Harriett isn’t like the other princesses, but instead of focusing on this point and making it seem like all of the other princesses are horrible creatures compared to our special MC. We’re constantly told that if a princess decides to do something different then she’s still a princess regardless.
When Princess Harriet’s mother says, “It’s too dangerous, dear. And slaying dragons isn’t very princessly.”
The princess retorts with, “But I’m a princess! If I do it, it’s got to be something princesses do! Who makes these rules!?”
I really liked this message. A princess can wear frilly clothing and enjoy dinner parties and a princess can slay dragons while doing fractions. Both are still princesses at the end of the day and there’s no right or wrong way to view them.
Obviously, Harriet is going to be different but she never really bashes other princesses or views herself better. She’s different, she embraces these differences, but also acknowledges that there’s merit in having other qualities.
It was a joy to read! The entire book had me smiling from beginning to end. I can’t wait to read the other books in this series and check out more books from Ursula Vernon....more
When you look at the genres for The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, you’ll notice that Mystery is a part of it. When you read the synopsis and it startWhen you look at the genres for The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, you’ll notice that Mystery is a part of it. When you read the synopsis and it start with: “A teenage misfit named Hawthorn Creely inserts herself in the investigation of missing person Lizzie Lovett, who disappeared mysteriously while camping with her boyfriend.” You’ll assume that this is a mystery novel.
Well, I’m here to tell you that you’d be wrong. There’s actually no mystery in this book. It’s so devoid of mystery that it might give you whiplash. I mean, the biggest “Eh? What? Are you serious right now?” part of the book comes from Hawthorn’s theory over what happened to Lizzie. I don’t know if this really counts as a spoiler, but I’ll be frank. Her crazy theory is pure hogwash. The cover says, “Everyone has their own version of the truth.” Which screams mystery or maybe even a psychological thriller of some sort, but you’d be wrong.
There’s no mystery here and the theories that Hawthorn has regarding the disappearance of Lizzie are stupid. I honestly don’t get what the author and publishers were thinking when they billed the book in this manner, because it just doesn’t make sense.
However, the last part of the synopsis is what the story is kind of about: “In order to prove it, she decides to immerse herself in Lizzie's life. That includes taking her job... and her boyfriend. It's a huge risk — but it's just what Hawthorn needs to find her own place in the world.”
This isn’t a mystery; it’s a contemporary tale of a sad self centered, immature, annoying little girl who idolized her school’s idol, Lizzie Lovett, to the point of hatred. Hawthorn Creely use to have friends, but after a falling out she only has one. So when Lizzie Lovett spoke to her during her freshman year Hawthorn thought she might be happy. Only, life doesn’t work out the way you want it to. Their second and last encounter is insignificant at best, but since Hawthorn already has a massive victim complex she starts hating Lizzie when the one she hates is herself.
When Lizzie ends up missing three years later, Hawthorn doesn’t care. But when she sees a picture of Lizzie and finds that she looks completely different to how she was in high school Hawthorn becomes obsessed. She concocts a childish theory then infiltrates Lizzie’s life by taking Lizzie’s old job and getting close to Lizzie’s boyfriend. I should add that the boyfriend, Enzo, is 25 while Hawthorn is 17. (Lizzie is 21)
If this sounds crazy to you, then congrats because it is crazy and it’s definitely meant to be crazy. Hawthorn’s actions are not meant to be seen as healthy or even normal. And even though her friend and brother try to steer her back to the proper path, Hawthorn is obsessed. She can’t understand why the head cheerleader, the school idol, the girl everyone loved and admired would change so much. How could someone who has it all just disappear?
This is what the book is about and once you start realizing this, the book becomes enjoyable. It takes a bit of time though. When I first picked it up I wanted to immediately dnf it right then and there. I didn’t really like the writing and Hawthorn’s victim complex was too much to take. She’s not a nice person, which I’m 100% okay with, but all of her misfortune is caused by her own hands. Whenever someone tried to help her or just talk to her, she went for the jugular and then worried if her words would cause the other person to slap her. They don’t, but it’s clear that this is what Hawthorn wants. She wants someone to slap her, so she can truly complete her victim complex and blame the world for her unhappiness. However, since no one takes this mission, she’s left stuck.
It’s frustrating to read. And from what I’ve read from other reviews, I’m not alone with this feeling. Hawthorn isn’t a nice person or even a kind one, but she does show growth so that was nice to see.
I know it seems like I’m bashing the book, but I did actually enjoy it. I don’t think the writing is great, but I liked seeing Hawthorn grow during the duration of the novel. She made stupid mistake after stupid mistake and her obsession over Lizzie Lovett was a little crazy. But I think it’s through Lizzie’s disappearance and through entering Lizzie’s life that Hawthorn was able to understand that not everything is as it seems.
It’s not a bad book, just don’t expect a mystery from the Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett and don’t hold your breath that Hawthorn’s theory over the disappearance will be one that a sane person makes. But if you view this novel as a depressed girl who changes because of the disappearance of her school’s former idol, then you might enjoy this.
Maybe…it all depends on whether you can handle Hawthorn and she’s hard to take….She’s really hard to take.
I guess, just don’t have much expectations and you’ll be fine. ...more
I was trying to decide which book to read next and instead of picking an eBook that I already checked out from the library, I went to my library's webI was trying to decide which book to read next and instead of picking an eBook that I already checked out from the library, I went to my library's website and decided to find something else. I call this sneaky procrastination, because I should be reading what I have already, but instead, I decided to find something else in the same vein to distract myself.
During this search, I saw this book and immediately checked it out. Who wouldn't?
I know that I'm not a mom and have no kids in my life, but as I read the lovely rhymes from a desperate parent who just wants their kid to Go the F**k to Sleep I couldn't help but laugh. Each page is filled with such desperation, such agony, such emotion that it's hard not to sympathize with the poor parent.
Along with each beautiful page of rhyme, we get to see an adorable baby who isn't sleeping at all. In fact, they're doing the most to not sleep while everyone else is trying to. Not all of the illustrations worked for me, there's one involving a tiger where the baby doesn't look human (sorry to the parents and the baby), but it kind of adds to the overall vibe of the book.
Fantastic book. Now I just need to listen to the audiobook featuring Samuel L. Jackson....more
Trigger warning: this book deals with rape and does have some graphic depictions of the photos that are taken on that night. There's another rape and Trigger warning: this book deals with rape and does have some graphic depictions of the photos that are taken on that night. There's another rape and a couple of suicide attempts that are mentioned in passing as well.
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Initially, I wanted to check out The Surface Breaks from my library; but unfortunately, it wasn’t there. The only Louise O’Neil books that were at my library were Only Ever Yours and Asking For It. If I were to be completely honest, neither books really stood out to me. Asking for It sounded like a normal YA book about rape in a small town and at this point, while Only Ever Yours sounded like a mixture of The Handmaid’s Tale and Gossip Girl.
Despite my misgivings, I thought I’d give the author a try, so I grabbed the eBook for Asking for It and started to read. Now that I’m done, I have to say that I’m blown away. This book wasn’t what I thought it would be like. It’s depressing, it’s disturbing, and our main character Emma isn’t likeable.
And I think that’s why I like this book so much, because Emma isn’t really a nice person.
I imagine them whispering to themselves once I’m out of earshot about how nice I am, how genuine, how I always seem to have time for everybody, how it’s amazing that I can still be so down to earth when I look the way I do.
Emma knows that she’s attractive. She has the body and looks that everyone envies and she is willing to put in the effort to make sure that this feeling never leaves them. Sure, it’s exhausting to be so nice and pretty, but Emma herself remarks that she has to do this less she is called a bitch.
I have to smile and be nice and look like I care about other people’s problems or else I’ll get called a bitch.
The only problem, is that while Emma seems super nice and wants everything to be the same (have people worshiping her) she is kind of a douchebag. She purposely sleeps with guys who have girlfriends because she knows that they won’t talk. Even though her best friend has a guy and she would totally never sleep with him, she still tries to get his attention whenever she can. She makes snide comments to her friends about their looks. Her best friend’s car was wrecked due to Emma and instead of properly apologizing, Emma treated it like a joke. She steals from her rich friend and justifies it by saying, “They’re rich so they can easily buy a new one.”
Emma only cares about one person. Emma.
She’s a mean girl who tries to act nice to everyone else, but the more you know her the more you’re just turned off by her childish behaviour. However, that isn’t what makes her a jerkwad to me. It’s that her friend, one her best friends, was raped and Emma’s solution is to act as if nothing happened so no one has to deal with it. Meanwhile, she’ll joke around with the same guy who hurt her friend while watching her friend visibly look uncomfortable.
At one point, she even says this to her friend. (It might come off as triggering, so it's under the spoiler tag) (view spoiler)[
”It’s happened to loads of people. It happens all the time. You wake up the next morning and you regret it or you don’t remember what happened exactly, but it’s easier to not make a fuss–“(hide spoiler)]
This all happens right in the beginning of the book. The quote above by Emma is around the 27% mark of the eBook. I’m mentioning all of this because if you don’t like Emma and find her to be an insufferable git by this point, then you probably will not like the novel. Asking for It is told in first person present tense, so you’re pretty much stuck in Emma’s head throughout the story. So if you can’t stand her now, then you may hate the book.
However, I loved that O’Neill made Emma this unlikeable, because when the rape eventually happens O’Neill is asking the reader, “Was Emma asking for it, even though she’s a horrible person?”
The answer is obviously no. Emma is a lot of things, but no one deserves to be violated like that. It’s clear that Emma has some misogynistic views and sees herself as a piece of meat, both before and after the rape. Only, before the rape she viewed this as a positive. She loved the attention and tried her best to make everyone’s eyes on her. But after, she can’t stand it and doesn’t view her body as her own. She doesn’t want to hurt the guys, especially since they are her friends, and places herself in a secondary position to them.
She’s hoping all of this can just blow by and things can return to normal, but since the pictures are out there on Face book and she looks unresponsive then it’s out of her hands. Everyone turns on her at that moment, but the worse is how she turns on herself.
It's been a year, Emma. It's time to get over it, Emma. Don't you think it'd be best to just put it all behind you, Emma?
While the first half of the novel is introducing us to the world Emma finely crafted for herself, the second half is just depressingly bleak. Each time you hope for something to happen, only to be let down because nothing does.
The ending will also be another thing people hate, because it can give off a bad message. (view spoiler)[In the end, Emma withdraws her accusation and doesn’t want to stand trial against the guys who raped her. Her desperation for things to go back to normal fuels this, but it can also be seen as her giving up and running away. As for the trial? We don’t know what happens since the book ends before we even reach that point. Her friends? Well, we don’t see them ever again. Her family issues? That isn’t resolved too. In fact, nothing really is solved by the end other than Emma withdrawing her complaint. The book is left open ended, so you can either believe that Emma got justice or that nothing happened.
Asking for It is a bleak outlook of what it means to be a rape victim. Not everyone can be strong or have a love interest that saves them, sometimes bad stuff happens and you try to deal with it in the best way that you can.
This may not work for everyone, but I liked how O’Neill played this. However, I do have a bit of a complaint. In the second half of the novel, I wanted more scenes with Emma and Jamie. (Jamie is the friend who was angry due to Emma’s nonchalant behaviour after Jamie explained what happened to her.) Would they be friends again? Does Jamie view Emma’s rape as karma? Did they ever talk about what happened? Does Jamie provide tips on how to deal with being raped?
Nope. Nada. Zilch.
Jamie never shows up in the second half of the novel and I kind of hated that. Emma makes a passing remark about how Jamie should feel grateful that her rape wasn’t known to the world, but that wasn’t enough for me. I don’t want to tell rape victims how they should behaviour, especially since rape affects everyone differently. But I wanted Emma to reach out to her friends instead of running away from them.
There’s no real resolution and that sucked.
Overall: I don’t think this book will be for everyone. The ending is too open ended and can be seen as not sending a good message to teens. The sad thing is that there are no real resolutions to any of the plot points presented here and our main character is a massive douchie jerkwad. For a reading experience, this is tough to deal with because you want your books to have a beginning middle and end and this book has a beginning middle and nothing after that. I also wanted more from the female friends and they practically disappear in the second half.
But at the same time, Asking for It kind of grips on to you refusing to let go. I don’t know if this means that O’Neill is a great writer or not, but she did create a page turner that was easy to read. I also like that she created such an unlikeable character all the while asking the reader, “Was she asking for it?”
You don’t really see that in YA novels, so I appreciated that. The thing I loved the most is that there’s no romance in this novel. That was a huge plus, even though there was potential for there to be one here. Emma isn’t saved by a knight in shining armour. The closest one who tries to be her knight is her brother, which is something I also appreciated.
Asking for It is a weird little book that leans more to a real life rape story than one found in a book. ...more
As the tag line says, Ayesha At Last is a Muslim retelling of Pride and Prejudice with a modern twist and while there are some sI feel so conflicted.
As the tag line says, Ayesha At Last is a Muslim retelling of Pride and Prejudice with a modern twist and while there are some similarities between the two books, Uzma Jalaluddin does her best in making Ayesha At Last it’s own story. Taking a page from Pride and Prejudice was a genius idea, because Muslims are obsessed with marriage. And I mean obsessed.
I know that there are a lot of Muslim books that deal with marriage, but there’s a good reason for that. Muslims don’t date, we get married. It’s something that I’m sure every Muslim household has said at least once or twenty hundred times. If we’re not meant to date, marriage is the only option for companionship and intimacy. And since marriage is the only option, you need to make sure that stability along with compatibility is at the forefront when it comes to finding a partner. Meanwhile, parents want their kids to get married young, early twenties, because delaying the process opens them up to pre-marital sex, which is a sin in Islam. Therefore, to protect their kids and keep their hormones in check, parents like to get things done in a timely manner. This usually means that people come into things with unrealistic expectations, the parents want their kids to have the best and the kids want the best as well. Along with unrealistic expectations, some do view women over 25 as weird since they didn’t get married. It’s not right or even Islamic, but there are some who feel this way.
Even though I’m not Desi, South Asian, I do have friends who are from that area and marriage was definitely in the top five things that they spoke about when they were single. If you go to Muslim forums, which are usually made of mostly Desis, marriage is usually the number one thing talked about.
I’m mentioning all this so you guys can understand why taking Pride and Prejudice and infusing it with an Islamic Desi flare makes perfect sense. Plus it’s set in Canada, so that’s a win for me too.
When I picked up the book and first going into it, I was thoroughly impressed. Despite being a book about adults, it did read a bit younger but that was okay to me. I also liked our main characters, Khalid and Ayseha. Ayesha is a hijab wearing Muslimah who is brash, outspoken, but also loyal and creative. Even though she’s 26, marriage is the last thing on her mind. She just wants to find her passion while making sure that the kids that she’s teaching don’t eat her alive.
Meanwhile, Khalid is a religious man who rocks a full beard, a skullcap (kufi) and a thobe…before I continue; let that sink in for a bit. Khalid is our hero and looks super conservative and instead of being a crazy fundy, he’s kind, honest and simple. He’s also the one who blossoms the most throughout the book and we see real growth from him. His main story deals with him standing up to his mom, challenging his views with it comes to arranged marriages and being honest with his feelings. He’s also faced with religious discrimination at work and never once wavers, even when his new boss assigns him to design a plus size lingerie site.
Khalid was great and Ayesha had her moments. I also liked Masood, a life coach for wrestlers, and Clara, Ayesha’s best friend who hails from Newfoundland. I also liked that the masjid (mosque) played a vital role in this story. There are also many kinds of Muslims showcased here; from the conservative Khalid to the partying sex obsessed Amir, who doesn’t really care about religion. Clara’s subplot was cute too.
……And yet, I’m feeling so conflicted because while I like the premise of the book and liked that someone like Khalid was our main hero, I found the second half of the book (maybe 60-65% if I’m being honest here) too be a bit too much.
Too many plot points, too many over the top situations, too predictable, too shallow and too much.
It pains me to say that, because I really wanted to like Ayesha at Last and I do like the general idea of what Jalaluddin did here. But there were some problems.
For example, Khalid is facing religious discrimination at work. Due to how he looks, his new boss instantly hates him and it doesn’t help that he doesn’t shake her hand when they first meet. This is actually a very real issue that I enjoyed seeing. As someone who also doesn’t shake hands with the opposite sex, I get how this can be hard in the work place. But I’m also female, so people don’t generally try to push it and give me space. With a man, it’s a lot different and it’s perceived differently even though his reasons and mine are the same. So seeing Khalid deal with this fall back was interesting to see, except his boss is too much.
She’s horribly Islamophobic, xenophobic, sexist and hates larger women. She fires people on the spot for sniffling to loud and got rid of multiple assistants because they looked at her wrong. She was just the worst, but there was no depth or reason for it. She’s antagonistic for the sake of it and that didn’t really jive with me. There are people like this, sure, but she never felt like a real person. Just someone who says disgusting stuff and then goes home, I just didn’t get it.
Our other antagonist is Farzana, who is Khalid’s mom. She’s your typical horrible mother-in-law who wants an obedient son and a daughter-in-law that falls in line. I’ve heard of horror stories involving mother in laws, I’ve read an article recently about one who spoke about how she ruined her son’s life by her meddling and regrets everything and if you’ve seen any Indian drama or Bollywood movie you’ll know that these themes always show up. But like Khalid’s boss, Farzana is unnecessarily cruel and obnoxious. People call her conservative, but she doesn’t even know Islam all that well. For example, at the masjid she complains that a project that Khalid and Ayesha are working on will involve free mixing. This means that men and women will be intermingling and not segregated. She says this is a disgrace.
But later on in the story, Khalid tells his mom that Khadija (May Allah be pleased with her) proposed to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), even though she’s female, previously married, and was significantly older than him (she was 40 and he was 25). His mom says,
“I’m sure her father arranged it all beforehand.”
Which is weird, since this bit of Islamic history is common knowledge. This was probably meant to show that Farzana doesn’t really know what she’s talking about and just likes to be in control of everything, but like before it came across as shallow because she should know this.
There were plot points that didn’t really work for me either, like Amir’s subplot, the AA meeting and Tarek’s entire life. I should mention that Tarek is our Wickham here, but again like most of the second half of the novel, he’s a bit over the top for me to take seriously. As I mentioned before, I liked Clara’s subplot, but she did feel like an afterthought for most of the book. And Ayesha, while a fun character in her own right, doesn't really grow in the novel. We saw real change in Khalid, but not so much from Ayesha so I was a bit disappointed about that.
I also hated that everyone was so against Khalid’s beard and thobe. (view spoiler)[At the end, he puts on a suit and trims his big beard and the whole thing just made me sad. The idea was to show that Khalid was donning these items as a security blanket, but it was still sad to see someone who was so secure give into peer pressure. He does go back to his old style, but still… (hide spoiler)]
I wrote too much, so I’m going to end it here lol. I do like the idea of the novel and the first half was a lot of fun to read, plus Khalid is a fantastic character that you don’t really see in fiction. I just wish that the strength of the first half continued into the second.
Hopefully, Uzma Jalaluddin continues writing in the future, as I'll probably still pick up her books. I just wanted a bit more from this one....more
The book is fairly linear in nature. Kin is stuck in one timeline, gets found and goes back to his own timeline and now he has to save his daughter frThe book is fairly linear in nature. Kin is stuck in one timeline, gets found and goes back to his own timeline and now he has to save his daughter from the timeline he was stuck in. It sounds complicated and maybe even convoluted, but Mike Chen weaves both timelines seamlessly so it never feels too much. As I said before, everything feels linear and that's mainly because the story is mostly about Kin Stewart and his emotions throughout this ordeal.
We do get some word building for both timelines, but the story at it's heart, is about a father trying to save his daughter. The emotions he feels, the confusion over being in two different places, everything felt real and it helped make me ignore some of the weaker parts of the novel because I just wanted to see where Chen would take me.
There are some weak points. Some of the characters are not as fully fleshed out as I'd like and I would have liked more world building for the future timeline, but it overall I enjoyed this....more
"I mean, I would rather be a librarian, but I worry about the job security. Books may be temporary; dicks are forever."
Well alright then.
When I fi"I mean, I would rather be a librarian, but I worry about the job security. Books may be temporary; dicks are forever."
Well alright then.
When I first checked out this ebook from my library, I actually had no idea what it was about. I was procrastinating from another book and when I saw that The Grownup by Gillian Flynn was available, I checked it out without a moment's notice. Flynn is great at creating very flawed and very damaged female characters. They are unlikeable at times, but still engaging and almost charismatic too. That being said, her books are hit and miss for me. I loved Sharp Objects (the show is great too!) but I found Gone Girl to be a boring mess. It started off strong and then fell apart. Dark Places was just okay, but I don't really remember it.
So even though my relationship with Flynn's novels are all over the place, I do admire how she writes her characters and gets the reader in their heads. It's that reason and that reason alone that I picked up this ebook.
The Grownup is a short story that won't take you that long to read. We're introduced to our narrator who has had a rough life of sorts. She doesn't let it keep her down or acts shameful of her past and current sex work. She does what she does and you either accept it or you don't. She doesn't care either way. It then turns into a thriller with a bit of supernatural undertones, which is still great and I liked how the story progressed to this point.
And then it all falls apart at the end. Does it make sense to the story? I suppose it does, but at the same time it felt way too rushed and lacked the same substance as the rest of the story.
Our main character is still great, but I just wanted more from the story....more
Not as good as Shadow Weaver, but still just as great. Comet Rising takes place right where Shadow Weaver left us before taking us on a wild journey tNot as good as Shadow Weaver, but still just as great. Comet Rising takes place right where Shadow Weaver left us before taking us on a wild journey to the end.
While the ending left me wanting more, I still felt myself loving every moment of this. The characters, both old and new, we're engaging and dynamic. The plot continues being crisp and fast paced, without losing the itself to the story. And our villain was pretty great too. Scary, without feeling over the top. She felt human, which added to her horror because there are definitely real people like her out there.
Another great book by MarcyKate Connolly! Can't wait to read more from you....more
After finishing Monstrous, I was nervous about reading Shadow Weaver. While there was a lot of things that I liked in Monstrous, the book did have a lAfter finishing Monstrous, I was nervous about reading Shadow Weaver. While there was a lot of things that I liked in Monstrous, the book did have a lot of problems as well which left me liking the book but also feeling disappointed that it didn’t live up to the hype that I had for it.
But I already got Shadow Weaver from the library, so I was going to read it regardless and now that I’m done, I’m glad I did. This book was fantastic! It does follow a similar plot to Monstrous, in that there’s a girl who has to deal with betrayal, new friends, and fighting a powerful adult who has powers, but while Monstrous failed in fully engaging you into the story. Shadow Weaver pulls you in and doesn’t let go. Just read the opening paragraph(s) of the story:
The first time my shadow spoke to me, I was a mere infant in the cradle. They say the on the night I was born, even the stars fled the sky and the moon hid under a dark cloak. That I was a quiet thing, with a shock of black hair and eyes like glittering onyx. I did not scream like the other newborn children. And I didn’t not reach for my mother like instinct should have instructed me.
Instead, I held out my tiny arms and smiled at the shadow in the corner of the room.
And it smiled back.
After I read that I knew that this would be a winner, which is probably why I finished this book in one sitting instead it taking a few days, ala Monstrous.
I know that I shouldn’t compare the two, but it’s hard for me to do so when I read the books back to back. Plus, they do follow a similar plot, only it’s done so much better here. One thing that I liked seeing is just how much MarcyKate Connolly improved as a writer here. She was good before, but there were no moments where the story dragged on and on or lost momentum. The plotting was a lot crisper and the characters, outside of the main ones, had more life in them and didn’t feel like cardboard cutouts with only one defining trait to them.
I liked the story. I liked the characters. And I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. After I was done with Shadow Weaver, I immediately went to my library’s website to see if they had an eBook for Comet Rising so I could find out what happens next. Unfortunately, they don’t, but when they do, I’m definitely going to read it!
(view spoiler)[I liked that Dar wasn’t just an evil character and still cared for Emmeline. They’ve been together for so long and even though Dar has her own plans, she still showed loyalty to her friend. I’m really excited to see how their friendship changes in the next book. Will they work things out, or will it get worse? I don’t know, but I want to find out. (hide spoiler)] ...more
