Today I am going to be reviewing the two Harry Potter novellas (I honestly don’t know what to call them – they’re like part of the Harry Potter world but don’t relate to the storyline??) which are Quidditch Through The Ages and The Tales Of Beedle The Bard!

Also these two beauties recently got a new edition with these stunning covers illustrated by Johnny Duddle and I am in love with these they are WAYYY too gorgeous! (Like half of this review I can already predict is going to be talking about the outside rather than the inside #sorrynotsorry)

Fun fact about these novellas! They were written by J.K Rowling (duh!) for charities which I thought was the loveliest thing ever. The charity being supported is Comic Relief who will give money from the sales of the book to people who are living tough lives in the UK and other parts of the world. Cool right?

Also, this is going to be particularly mini because I honestly don’t have a lot to say, but I still wanted to share these with you guys!

QUIDDITCH THROUGH THE AGES

So I’ve always really been fascinated by Quidditch. I’m not the hugest sports person but I found the game to seem really fun and honestly, if I could, I would totally try out to be part of the Hogwarts Quidditch team! 

I thought this was such an informative non-fiction (but really fiction?) book about Quidditch as a sport and went into so much more detail than the HP books did! It had the history of the sport and I loved the illustrations accompanying the text! All in all, it’s a short and very cute read for fans of the HP world who want to learn more about it! 

THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD 

I am a hugeee sucker for fairy tales so these were particularly cute (and kinda scary!). I loved the Dumbledore notes and it just made me feel so reminiscent about the series and it makes me really want to re-read it, at least once! 

The illustrations in this were also so stunning and well done and even though they’re black and white, they just come alive on the page! 

The stories themselves were very well written and I could have expected nothing less from the fabulous Rowling! It was such a lovely addition to the Harry Potter series and I’m trying not to regret not having read these earlier, especially since they’re so short! 

Thank you so much to Bloomsbury Australia for sending these my way! However, all thoughts and opinions are my own and this is an honest review!

And that’s it from me! What do you think of Harry Potter? Do you like it? And have you read these accompanying novellas? What did you think of them?

Hey friends! 

Guess who’s back with another book discussion! 

Let me just begin by saying that I am really loving having these structure free chats every now and then because it means I can just go absolutely crazy and type whatever I want so YAY! 

Also please do tell me if you like these kinds of posts or if you prefer more structure in the comments! I honestly don’t mind what your opinion is as long as you are being honest because I want to create content you lovelies enjoy! 

THIS IS SPOILER FREE!

I’m going to be reviewing This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills today. This is my second book of hers, the first being First And Then! I really love her style of writing and her cute and fluffy contemporaries are quite different from others! 

I didn’t know much about this book going into it other than it was by an author who I had previously read and enjoyed the work of and the cover was insanely gorgeous! (PS. I highly recommend going in for the hardcover of this bad boy, it is jaw droppingly gorgeous!)

Okay, I’m kidding! I like to think over the years we have gotten a lot better and broken through those gender barriers. 

But there is still a huge drought of strong female leads that are diverse such as being a person of colour, from the LGBTQI+ community, disabled and so much more! We need to include more of these groups into writing! 

Lucky for you, Wing Jones is exactly one of those books where you have a strong female lead who is ALSO a diverse main character (she’s biracial)!! 

Going into Wing Jones I didn’t know what to expect. There wasn’t much hype surrounding this book and I hadn’t heard much about it from other bloggers so I was going in pretty much blind!

And wow, I did not expect what I got!

So last time I posted I was determined I wouldn’t let there be a bigger than 3-4 day gap in between but because I got completely bogged down with school work, I have had basically no time to do anything other than that and my blogging has just flown out the window! 

But I’m trying to get back into the groove and I have the upcoming long weekend to do that too so hopefully the next few weeks are going to be better in terms of blog posts (ha! A girl can dream right?).

Today I am reviewing Ida by Alison Evans! So I was mostly drawn to this book because it is written by an Australian author – and more specifically a Melbournian author (whoop whoop!!) and I had heard some fantastic things about the diversity! 

The cover of this was also really cool and I try not to talk about covers too much in my review because I feel I don’t have very intelligent things to say about them (other than they’re pretty and I love them so much and I’m drooling – basically it’s 100% me fangirling) but I really wanted to chat about the cover of this because not only is it gorgeous, it was another major aspect of what drew me into the book! I loved the eeriness of it + the same figures on the book had me super hyped for what it was going to be about. 

I’ve decided to do a different style of book review today where I’m doing a book chat instead! So the structure I usually stick to is completely thrown out the window – enjoy ;)

Today I am bringing to you a review for one of my absolute most anticipated reads of 2017 which is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. The moment I heard about this book, I knew I was going to love it. The synopsis had me so intrigued and everyone in the book community was so so hyped about it. 

Those who had gotten ARCs were talking about how amazing it was, it had such fantastic and credible authors blurbing and talking about it and it was the basically the buzz of the community. 

And let me just say…I can see why it’s already been picked up to be created into a movie even before the release because DAMN.

Disclaimer: I am not an African-American reviewer so I can’t really say if this book had good representation or not because I wouldn’t know.

{ WRITING }

Okay, so can I just begin by saying that I loved how ‘Black’ this book was? The use of ebonics, the slang, the rapping – it just highlights the importance of #ownvoices because you can’t get any more authentic than that. 

I found myself absolutely immersed in the world that was Garden Heights from the good to the bad and in comparison, I found I couldn’t connect as much with Williamson. 

There was this realness to the writing that is too hard to describe. There was this realness to everything that is absolutely impossible to describe. The book is written in such a subtle and unsubtle and moving and terrifying and beautiful and emotional way that you feel absolutely swept away. 

{ IDEA }

So if you didn’t know, this book is based on the #blacklivesmatter movement to end police brutality happening in the USA. And I thought a book based on that was not only really amazing but also really necessary. 

Other than the idea being extremely unique, this book is important. This book is so very important because it taught me so much, it will teach you so much and it will teach anyone else who reads it SO DAMN MUCH. 

This book is everything from entertaining, to informative to educating. Thomas entertains us through the quick wit and sass of Starr and her amazing, close knit family and informs us of what injustices are being inflicted on her people. And finally, she educates us. She educates us on what must be done, she educates us on what we need to do – Americans or not, African Americans or not – she tells us that we need to stand up against police brutality and we cannot let this go on.

I love how Thomas wrote this incredibly moving and emotive piece of literary work but she also kept it light hearted, at times positive and enjoyable. She made it easy to get wrapped up in the story and harder to come out and that is what every good author should do and very few can. 

ALSO! The explanation of The Hate U Give title (THUG) is so amazing and GAHHH I cannot deal with how well Thomas linked that into the book. ALSO ALSO I’m not really into rap or basketball or shoes but damn this book makes me want to get into those things.

{ PLOT }

So the plot of this is not what I thought it’d be but I’d rather not say too much in the fear of spoiling it. However, what I can tell you is that this book focuses a lot on prejudice within society, stereotypes and racial bias many people seem to have. It touches a little on white supremacy. 

This book is mostly about Starr and her family and her community as they struggle to come to terms with not only the death of her best friend but the treatment of African Americans in the US. This book is about healing and learning to become strong and to stand up for what you believe in. 

I learnt a lot reading this book, maybe more than others as I don’t live in the US. I loved the sensitivity with which Thomas handled the topic and the way in which she explained possible solutions and better outcomes that we as a society have to work towards. 

This book is eye opening yet oddly gentle at the same time. 

{ CHARACTERS }

Starr is honestly such a fab protagonist. I loved how real she was – her sass, her pain, her kindness, her pettiness (at times). It just made for such an honest and realistic character. She was incredibly realistic and wonderful and every author needs to be able to write a character like her. 

I loved the family aspect in this. Big Mav and Lisa and Sekani and Seven were such amazing characters and they didn’t feel like side characters at all. They were all so involved and important and had such great personalities and attitudes. They all looked out for each other which I loved and you could see how much they loved each other in their actions rather than their words. 

I also want to talk about the friendships in this book. While I feel Starr did have some good friends, you don’t really explore the depth of friendships she has in this novel because I feel they were more superficial than the relationships she had with her family. However, there are some pretty positive female friendships in this novel and I felt I liked and enjoyed most of the characters.

{ FINALLY }

This was quite a difficult review to write because it was hard to put into words why exactly this book was amazing so I’ll end this off by saying READ THIS! IT’S AMAZING, IT’S IMPORTANT, IT WILL MAKE YOU A WHOLE NEW PERSON. 

I learnt so much from reading this and I hope this book will encourage more #ownvoices authors to write their own stories to share with the world. 

OVERALL RATING:

Have you read THUG? Did you enjoy it? What did you think? Or are you planning to and is it on your TBR? And what are some of your other #ownvoices recs? I’m looking for some new ones to read!