2017 - sprinkled pages » a book and baking blog

Hey friends!

Today I’m here to bring you mini reviews of Moonrise by Sarah Crossan and Because You Love To Hate Me, an anthology by various YA authors and booktubers! I’m going to keep the intro short because I’ve got lot’s to say so let’s do it!

MOONRISE by Sarah Crossan

I had read only one other verse novel before this one and it was We Come Apart, which I hadn’t ended up loving so I was a little reluctant to read this. And I’m so glad I did. The verse aspect of it made it such a unique read (even though I still don’t understand the point of verse, it feels quite unnecessary to me?) and it dealt with such an important topic with such grace and care.

I didn’t know much about death penalty before reading this book and I didn’t have an opinion on whether it should be legal or not – the only thing I knew was that Australia didn’t have a death penalty.

This story is very well written and hearing breaking, with the uncanny ability to pull at your heartstrings and have you sobbing for 10 minutes straight after finishing the book (pretty much like I was at the end). The verse aspect of this means it’s a super short read and easy to fly through, like I did. The characters aren’t that well developed due to the length, unfortunately, but they were at the same time likeable and the use of flashback added a much-needed depth and layered quality to the story. Seeing Joe’s memories of his siblings, mostly Ed though, made the characters feel so real and three dimensional. The plot was mainly focused on the characters, but I found the story to be unpredictable at times and kept me hopeful but at the same time, hopeless.

I really applaud Sarah Crossan for writing about such a controversial issue and it really stood out to me from the other YA I had read. I highly suggest you all pick this book up if you have the chance!

OVERALL RATING:

★★★★

BECAUSE YOU LOVE TO HATE ME edited by Ameriie

Because You Love To Hate Me is a YA anthology featuring works from many different and popular authors such as Victoria Schwab, Adam Silvera, Nicola Yoon, Renee Ahdieh, Cindy Pon and many more as well as short little commentaries from booktubers!

I was quite excited for this, having heard about it for the first time, because a lot of my favourite authors were going to have their work included in there and it showed me that there are other people outside of the book community that consider bloggers and booktubers as legitimate ‘jobs’ and that they are taken seriously enough to be asked to contribute in an anthology, which just makes me SO happy!

The idea of this was so great because the book was about short stories about villains and I am such a fan of villains because they are so interesting and complex when well written so I was excited to see what my favourite authors and booktubers could spin out of them.

However, I was left a little disappointed, probably because I’m not a short story person as I struggled to get into the stories and connect with the characters and feel engaged with the plot. They were quite dry here and there, although the booktuber commentaries were quite entertaining. Overall though, it meant I just skim read the stories and didn’t feel all that engaged.

There were a few I liked though. I liked Christine’s commentary on Renee’s story and Zoe’s little multiple-choice quiz too. I enjoyed Susan Dennard’s story (Sherlock Homes for the win! I adore than Dennard had a little Sherlock retelling because I am such a fan!) and Marissa Meyer’s spin on The Little Mermaid (she will forever be the queen of retellings) but I wasn’t AS huge of a fan as I had hoped.

I can understand though, that this is probably a more personal choice because short stories are not for everyone but I do still encourage you to borrow a copy from your library or buy one to support these YA authors and more importantly, the booktubers!

OVERALL RATING:

★★½

Thank you for reading friends!

Have you read either of these books? What did you think? Do you plan to?

Thank you to Bloomsbury Australia for providing me review copies of these books however all thoughts and opinions are my own and this is an honest review.

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A Semi Definite List Of Worst Nightmares | sprinkledpages

Hey friends!

Welcome back to my blog (or if you’re new, hello, welcome, I ramble a lot about books!) and I hope you’re all having a lovely day. Today I’m going to be sharing with you mini reviews for Our Chemical Hearts and A Semi Definite List Of Worst Nightmares, both by Krystal Sutherland.

If you didn’t know anything about Krystal Sutherland, she is an Australian author whose first novel, Our Chemical Hearts was published last year. I had been meaning to read her work for a really long time but for some reason, I kept putting it off until recently, I read both of her books!

OUR CHEMICAL HEARTS

I was super excited for Our Chemical Hearts. All my Australian bookish friends had been raving about this book and I was super pumped to read it after having heard such good things. But sadly, I was disappointed.

I liked how unique it was as most YA tends to focus on the romantics of first-love, rather than the realistic nuances of the emotion and I feel like Krystal was able to capture the heart of the emotion (aha no pun intended) really well. Henry and Grace had distinct personalities and they didn’t fall into the clichéd boy-meets-girl tropes common in YA. The side characters were also quite fleshed out and didn’t fade into the background, thankfully. The humour was well done and I feel as a writer, Sutherland has a lot of potential because her exploration of love and loss and first times was so well done. The ending was really great and managed to wrap up the book extremely well and get across the message.

But the problem comes in the middle portions. The book felt like it was trying too hard at times (and it reminded me a lot (and not in a good way!) of John Green) with the characterisation of Grace and Henry. It was so hard to connect with and root for them and often, their choices throughout the novel made me dislike them even more. They were so bland and often, cringe too. I didn’t like Grace, and I could understand she had been through a lot, but the hot-and-cold happening between the two of them frustrated me to no ends. Plot wise, the book dragged and didn’t have much happening, which was quite unfortunate.

Overall, it wasn’t the worst, but not the best either. A sadly ‘meh’ read for me.

OVERALL RATING:

★★★

A SEMI DEFINITE LIST OF WORST NIGHTMARES

I was more reluctant to read this after having read Our Chemical Hearts first because after reading the synopsis, it sounded much like the first one where the book ‘tried too hard’. But glad to say that this was an improvement and that Krystal Sutherland was able to improve as a writer since her first book.

This was well written and tackled the issue of mental health in an unexpected but absolutely terrific way that totally surprised and simultaneously pleased me. The dialogue was the perfect balance between touching and understated to deadpan humour (which, let’s be real, is the best kind of humour!). I liked the characters A LOT more in this one because despite their wackiness, they really spring of the page and seem life like. Esther was so loving and funny and a great main character and Jonah was such a sweet heart. Bonus points to Sutherland for having POC representation in this book! Once again, the side characters didn’t feel like side characters in this because they had such distinct personalities and an important role to play in the book.

But now to the downs. I found this got quite confusing at some points. The flashbacks irritated me because I wasn’t really interested in them, but they were vital to the story so I couldn’t skip them. Usually, I’m not that picky but I don’t think the supernatural elements worked very well for this book. I liked it up to a point, but when it began to become more detailed and a bigger part of the story, I was a little discouraged. The ending was also unclear and quite rushed as suddenly after the climax, the falling action happened in the matter of pages. It also took me a while to figure out that it wasn’t actually me who had missed something but the ending had been left that way and up to the readers own interpretation, which, once again, I usually don’t mind, but I felt like I needed closure in this one.

However, this was a solid read and a definite (ha, see what I did there? I am just full of jokes today!) improvement from the first one.

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Wonder Woman Warbringer Book Review | sprinkledpages

It’s been a while, my friends, sorry I haven’t been that consistent with blogging, but school has been super crazy and life has been very busy and all my time spent in the community has been dedicated to my YouTube channel so I kinda forgot about my blog there in between!

But fear not, because I am back and ready to share with you my thoughts about Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo!

I am into superheroes, after having watched (and having loved!) all the DC and Marvel superhero movies. But I’m not that invested in their stories that I read the original comics – partially because they are hard to track down and read and partially because I’m not that much of a comic book reader.

However, I didn’t know much (read: anything) about Wonder Woman before watching the movie and reading the book. I knew she had super powers, I knew she was a superhero, I knew she was a woman. That’s it.

I was however excited when I heard DC was releasing their adaptation of Wonder Woman because a) SUPER HEROES! b) girl power and c) a girl superhero in a movie created by a huge franchise focused on girl power. So yeah, I was excited. I was also excited when I heard the lovely Leigh Bardugo would be releasing her adaptation of the story of Diana Prince, especially after having read and loved her Six Of Crows duology (read more: Six Of Crowsand Crooked Kingdom no spoiler mini reviews) and Grisha trilogy!

I watched and movie in the cinemas when it came out, because it was released before the book, and I found I enjoyed it. The acting was very well done (YES CHRIS PINE!) and I think it stayed true to the message of ‘girls run the world’ because Diana remains in the main focus the ENTIRE time, which I thought was important. However, similar with most DC productions, the fighting sequences weren’t the best due to being ridiculously long and the ending was a mish-mash. It’s story line also seemed to be dangerously similar to some of the Marvel storylines *cough* Captain America *cough*.

I still ended up enjoying the movie.

And then I read the book.

First thing to note is: no, it does not have the same storyline as the movie. Yes, that means the book is different from the movie. Second thing to note is: yes, the movie is good. But also yes, the book is better. The five reasons why are below! Third thing to note is: in saying everything that I say before, it is HARD to compare a book and a movie because they are different mediums.

Hi friends!

Today I’m going to be sharing with you my TBR for #TheReadingQuest, a reading challenge hosted by one of my favourite bloggers and a friend Antee @ Read At Midnight! This read-a-thon runs from 13th of August to 10 of September!

You can find out everything you need to know about the read-a-thon here! Also, the stunning graphics used in this post were created by Antee, once again, and the drawings were created by the wonderful CW @ Read, Think, Ponder. (Also huge thank you to Glaiza @ Paper Wanderer for making my character ID card because I suck at photoshop SO BAD)

I absolutely suck at TBRs and read-a-thons stress me out a lot a lot but I wanted to try this out because it seemed fun and I wanted to motivate myself to read. The likely chance is by the end of the read-a-thon I will have changed the book I am reading for the challenges practically a billion times so this is a very rough indication of what I may read during that time.

I’m going to picking the MAGE out of the four characters. Here is the board:

1. A book with a one word title. For this I am choosing ALLEGEDLY by Tiffany D Jackson which I’d bought at the start of the year and have yet to read oops. It’s about a lady who has been accused of killing a child and I’ve heard it’s very thrilling and exciting. It’s also by an author of colour and was recommended by Angie Thomas, author of New York Times Bestseller THE HATE U GIVE so it’s one that I am very excited to read!

2. A book that contains magic. For this I am choosing any book from THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS by Cassandra Clare because I have no idea what one I’ll be up to at this point but they all have magic in them thanks to my favourite Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn so that’s exciting.

3. A book based on mythology. I’m not 100% set on this one yet and it could change but I want to read FIRE BOY by Sami Shah which sounds super cool and I’ve heard fantastic things about. It’s also not too long meaning it’s perfect for read-a-thons!

4. A book set in a different world. I’m planning to read EMPRESS OF A THOUSAND SKIES by Rhoda Belleza which is a sci-fi and set on different planets so I’m sure that counts! Plus, it’s got a fantastic diverse cast of main characters and written by an author of colour so I am P U M P E D!

5. First book in the series. I want to read THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE by Heidi Heilig for this one because I’ve heard such amazing things about it but every time I go to read it, I keep putting it off but I really want to finally get to this and hopefully this readathon gives me the push I need!

Now to the EXTRA challenges Antee has designed! I don’t know if I’ll be able to read all the books in here but fingers crossed and once again, this is a very tentative TBR!

Potions – a book concocted by two or more authors. For this one I am going to go with either GEMINA by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman, a #loveozya sci-fi told in a super cool multi-media format or THE SHADOWHUNTERS CODEX by Cassandra Clare and Joshua Lewis

Time warp – a book set in the past or in the future: I think I’m going to read CINDER by Marissa Meyer for this because I’ve been meaning to read it for a while and it’s set in futuristic Beijing

Expansion – read companion novel or short story: I may read either the BEGIN END BEGIN: #LOVEOZYA ANTHOLOGY edited by Danielle Binks or FINDING CINDERELLA by Colleen Hoover I shall have to decide depending on my mood

Mini game – read a graphic novel, poem collection or novella. For this I’m going to be reading SAGA by Brian K Vaughan which is a graphic novel. I am super excited to read this because I have heard nothing but rave reviews for it

Animal companion – book referencing an animal in the title: I am planning to read WE ARE THE ANTS by Shaun David Hutchinson which I’ve had on my TBR for two months now but I always keep putting off reading it

Respawn – read a book you previously DNFed: And for this I choose STILL LIFE WITH TORNADO by A.S King which I got about 30 pages through before I decided to put it down last month. But I did want to get back to it so hopefully I do soon

Grind – read a book with 500+ pages: For this, I think I’m going to read GEMINA by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman unless I find another book with over 500 pages that I am interested in reading soon. I was considering THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss but I’m not quite sure yet

Multiplayer – buddy read a book: I’m going to be buddy reading THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE by Katherine Arden for this one with Steph @ Igniting Pages and I’m super excited because the cover is so pretty and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about it!

Open world – read any book of your choice: I’m not sure yet for this but we shall see!

So that is my TBR! I am pretty sure I’ll be able to get through the MAGE’s portion of the read-a-thon but I’m not sure how many extra challenges I’ll be able to do or how many points I’ll gain by the end but all in all, I’m super excited to read some books on my TBR.

I’ll be sharing my progress on Twitter and you can follow me there to chat and see how I’m doing!

Are you participating in this read-a-thon? What character class are you doing? And do you like to participate in read-a-thons? Let me know below!