After You Book Review

I have a theory that if you write a brilliant book, dealing with complex and interesting subjects, you should think rather carefully about the decision to write a sequel. And don't get me wrong, I would be a very unhappy creature if Harry Potter or the Hunger Games was a standalone book. Fact remains, if an author decides on a sequel, I often feel that their beautiful ideas are corrupted by the human greed and consumerism. This is the case with After You.

After You by Jojo Moyes

This review obviously contains spoilers for Me Before You.

A wise lady with pink hair once said,

"He (Alan Moore) says that the job of the artist is to give people what they need, not what they want." - Force Awakens Honest Review

And she's absolutely right. That's why I love authors who give their fans a book that's not what they asked for, but what they need. I admire that because that shows that you, as an artist, know your shit better than all those peasants you're writing for. That's what I loved in Allegiant and Mockingjay. Those ladies tell the story they feel is important, rather than what everyone will be okay with. That takes guts, and I love them for it.
Jojo Moyes wrote a sequel that didn't need to exist with characters that I didn't need to know about, which just makes the book feel like another unnecessary sequel that only exists for the sake of existence. I don't always want there to be more to a stand alone, because in the end, less is sometimes more. It's like sequels to Disney movies. You get in your seat and you just know that it will never even get close to the last one.

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse Book Review

I really love when a series starts to up its game. When a character death makes me tear up. When the plot becomes like my own car, rather than a chaotic joyride. But I don't have that much motivation to review this book since I'm well into After You, which got me into that tea-and-toast contemporary mood. But it's finally vacation over here, so I don't really have an excuse, have I? (Also, look at my pretty new blog background! It was time to replace that awful pink brawl of flowers and logos, right? After hours of frustration, rage, and tears, I have succeeded and it's so worth it.)

Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan

I'm really not in the mood for a long review because
A. I have discussed the last two books in my previous reviews (Lightning Thief & Sea of Monsters).
B. I am currently drowning in all the things I can't do during school and force myself to attend to during the holidays.
C. I'm lazy.
D. I'm preparing for the Banned Books Feature I will have this September-October, which is a lot more fun.

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters Book Review

I knew it. I knew this one would be better. It had to be. The action was awesome, I finally read until deep into the night again, and the plot felt way less predictable. Yes, there were some typical tropes that annoyed me, but overall, I was a lot more pleased with this one.

Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Pet peeve: when you Google the book and they give you the movie.

Guys, I'm so happy I liked it. I'm so happy I could just put on music and read for two hours straight in the middle of the night while my body was craving sleep. I'm so happy I stopped subconsciously comparing this to Harry Potter every other 5 pages (I think we reached 20 at least a couple times)! I feel like the key to reading this series is not demanding too much depth and metaphor. It's like eating strawberry ice cream. You should never go into strawberry ice cream hoping that you'll taste layers and multiple flavors. You should go into strawberry ice cream hoping for a bomb of slightly sour-ish sugar and a painful tongue.

Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief Book Review

Finally, after all this time, I am reading another one of the five most beloved and well-known children/teen/YA book series out there. I've been planning to read this series since the start of the year, but because it gave me a bit of a summer-y feeling, I decided to wait until the weather was good enough to read outside. And a couple of good backyard reading sessions later, I have finished Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. And it was pretty good.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Oh guys, don't make me do this. I have such conflicting emotions regarding this book. And it's a good book, it really is! I just had some grounded issues with it for multiple reasons, often not even caused by the book itself. It's just that all my associantions and mind-bridges make judging this book a little harder. And, discussing such an admired and hyped book is hard in itself. I feel like that conservative Republican politician speeching for a group of teen moms considering abortion.

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass Book Review

My father gave me this book as a gift I think two years ago, and I couldn't get into it. It was before I'd started reading as much as I do and this book did not work for me. The small pages, the fancy old language, the utter chaos. I got about 30 pages in and quit reading.
Then we moved, and right after that, I discovered reading. So this book popped into my head because shit, I had this beautiful edition of a beloved classic and it was just lying around. Issue: you know when you move to a house with less storage room, and in your attic will for a period of 1,5 years be situated, The Box Stash Of Doom? True story. But finally, my parents cleared out the book boxes and Alice in Wonderland appeared out of the rabbit hole.

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol

This edition is beautiful. The pages are gold, the pictures are wonderful, and the cover is just *swoons*. But after my fascinating back story and exaggerating about the extravagant looks of this book, let's talk a little about the interior of the collector's copy.

Stars Above Book Review

After the very much intense and fiery Fire-Breathing Bitch Queen that was Queen of Shadows, I needed some warm fluff. Warm fluff that I could read through the last days of Dutch winter and squeeze tightly to my chest while consuming hot chocolate. And I'd never read novellas before so why not?

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

(ever noticed how many authors' surnames start with Ms or Rs?)

This isn't going to be an overly detailed review because it was just a collection of short stories. I overall very much enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as I did the original tLC stories. (This abbreviation causes confusion to all Dutch fans of this series because there's a TV channel called TLC here. I happen to frequently marathon its bridal dresses and cakes with my mom.)

Books and Judgement

I had to do this. I'm pretty much on schedule with my reviews and this just caught my attention and refused to let me go. This discussion will be all about people hating on you or judging you because of your reading style or just the general fact that you read as much as you do. This is going to be a rather emotionally charged post so I'd like to warn in advance that I do not have the intention to hurt anyone. If this accidently happens, I very much regret that.

So, last week, I went to see my friends at one of their houses and somehow the subject of sleep and lack thereof came up. When I said I hadn't slept very much lately, my friends immediately asked me whether it was a book. I replied that this wasn't the case. (It was the Hamilton soundtrack. Judge me.) We were in the car, and her mom was driving us and we talked about my reading so much. Which is fine! I'm not happy that everyone knows how much of a book nerd I am, but I don't respect their privacy, either, so it's okay. But then one of my friends found it necessary to inform me that a girl in our year asked her whether I actually had any other hobbies than reading. When I asked how she got that idea, my friend said that she'd seen me reading on my phone during lunch break and in studying hours in a physical book. Okay. No. This is where it ends.

Queen of Shadows Book Review

This book, you guys. This is that point in a series where shit hits the fan and it's beautiful. It almost feels like the series could end here, except for some teensy tiny details that haven't been resolved yet. But wow, this is a perfect example of a book series that just keeps on getting better. I've also been able to get tons of reading and YouTube and blogging done thanks to my free days for Easter and my test week, so I was just so nice and relaxed and comfy during these entire 648 pages.

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas