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I love contemporaries and have read quite a large amount of them, that actually makes it pretty easy for me to pick titles this week. I have read some truly amazing contemporaries in my time, but I have read some god awful ones too. I know a couple of the ones I mention are ones that others have absolutely loved, but they just weren't for me.
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The hype surrounding this is absolutely ridiculous, it is out of this world. After seeing 5 star after 5 star after 5 star review, I have to admit that my expectations for Fangirl were pretty high. But, going into the book, I wasn't worried it would disappoint, I was absolutely certain I would love it. Turns out I was completely wrong and I kind of hated the blogosphere for all the nasty lies it told me. I just did not get this book, it was just me, totally and utterly meh. Cath was the most annoying main character ever, she treated Levi like shit a lot of the time and her complete lack of interest in anything other than Simon Snow fanfiction really got to me. Levi was the worlds most boring love interest and he made 0 sense, why was he attracted to Cath when she literally did nothing, was mean to him and had a limited personality. And then don't get me started on how Simon Snow came to be published in a book that openly talks about Harry Potter. THAT WOULDN'T HAPPEN! Gah, I was so nice to this book when I gave it 3 stars. You can read my full review here.
What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick is one of my favourite books, so when I saw she had a new book coming out I had to request it. I was so excited but tried not to get my hopes up too high, just in case it was disappointing. Sadly, it ended up being really disappointing for me. I didn't really like the characters at all, the romance was just a little weird in this as well. After reading this book I was very excited to get an email from Twitter letting me know that Huntley Fitzpatrick had followed me on Twitter. About 5 seconds later I had a total facepalm moment as I realised my last tweet was a link to my review of her book. I didn't tag her in it but clearly she saw it as she unfollowed me... OOOPS! You can read my full review here.
The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson
I know a lot of people loved this book but it just wasn't for me. The large amount of text talk in it was really offputting, especially since it was really extreme and I'm not sure anyone texts like that. I also didn't get the main character, it felt like the author was trying too hard to make her sound like a teen, but like she didn't really know how one would talk or act. The end was really melodramatic as well, like something off of a bad soap. You can read my full review here.
Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu
I only recently read and reviewed this one. It wasn't a terrible book and I quite enjoyed a lot of it, but I had my fair share of issues. I didn't like the way drug use was handled in this book, I just didn't think it was the best way to handle it in a young adult book. I didn't like how many times it reminded me of Mean Girls, I mean a sharing assembly... really? Tabs was also another character that I couldn't like, I kind of understood why her friends all abandoned her. Why would anyone want to be friends with a girl who constantly thinks about how plain and ugly you are? You can read my full review here.
Anything To Have You by Paige Harbison
I obviously really, really didn't like this book because it got a rare 1/5 review from me. This had the most ridiculous, yet totally predictable storyline that I have ever seen. The characters weren't very likeable, the main character made bad decision after bad decision and I couldn't sympathise with her at all. This book had the oppurtunity to highlight some really serious issues but completely fails at it. You can read my full review here. 
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My Weekly Book Haul: 10/05/2014
Boys Like You by Juliana Stone: Review
Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Wish I'd Put Down
Life by Committee by Corey Ann Haydu: Review - It's essentially Mean Girls
Films for Thoughts on Thursday: Now You See Me
Wow, I did not expect to find Fangirl at the top of your list haha, that book was without a doubt my favourite book of last year. Everything you disliked about the book I loved, Levi included haha. I think though, its very healthy for people of the blogging community to disagree from time to time, I also am sorry that you were let down. I've learnt to stay about from reviews of books before I read them, I go solely on the summaries now because I have been let to so much in the past and your right, this book was so hyped up that if you didn't feel what everyone else was feeling I cant begin to imagine how I would feel.
ReplyDeleteI have read of the others, but haven't got around to reading them yet. I cant believe that Huntley Fitzpatrick unfollowed you because you didn't like her book. I think thats a bit silly. I'm not for one second saying that receiving bad reviews is easy for an author, but surely to god you would look at it as something work on next time? not just completely ignore it. It's what I would do anyway. I've seen it happen so many times (not with twitter, but authors getting reviews on goodreads taking down or having a go at others through twitter) I just don't understand it.
Great list, and I've started fallowing you :)
I think I need to stay far away from reviews too. Book hype can be really, really bad because it does raise your expectations. I just expected so much more from that book. I had heard nothing but amazing, gushing things and then I was left feeling nothing for it, it was really disappointing.
DeleteI actually found it really silly too, I didn't even slate the book though, I gave it 3/5 which I thought was pretty generous. As an author I thought she would take criticism a bit better, it's not possible to write a book that EVERYONE will love.
I know what you mean. Sometimes when I don't feel what everyone else does I start to think that maybe I'm just too old for YA, but then I review the book and I understand even more that it's not that I'm too old or my expectations are too high, its just that for whatever reason I didn't feel the spark that everyone else did.
Deletesome do take it well, other's just get pissy about it. In all honesty, it probably shouldn't but it puts me off their books in the future because I don't see the need in it.
It does put me off a little too, I feel like you should expect that some people aren't going to absolutely love your book. Oh well! I sometimes think maybe I'm too old, but I adore so much other YA that I realise it's just that me and the book didn't work together for some reason.
DeleteOh man this made me laugh! I haven't read any of them, but I had a few on my TBR list! At least I know what to avoid now xD Lol. Let me just say my list has been updated :P
ReplyDeletehttp://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/05/a-thousand-splendid-suns-book-review.html
Well some of them are ones people absolutely loved but none of them worked for me unfortunately.
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