Things I've Learned Thursday

Trust your gut when it comes to things like leaders. Often times, the new leader can be far worse than the old. Keep your eyes open.

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS ~ Review

Daelyn Rice is broken beyond repair, and after a string of botched suicide attempts, she's determined to get her death right. She starts visiting a website for "completers"- www.through-the-light.com.

While she's on the site, Daelyn blogs about her life, uncovering a history of bullying that goes back to kindergarten. When she's not on the Web, Daelyn's at her private school, where she's known as the freak who doesn't talk.

Then, a boy named Santana begins to sit with her after school while she's waiting to for her parents to pick her up. Even though she's made it clear that she wants to be left alone, Santana won't give up. And it's too late for Daelyn to be letting people into her life. Isn't it?

National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters shines a light on how bullying can push young people to the very edge.
From Goodreads.com

Though I dislike comparing one book to another book simply because of the reason that all books are different because they're written by a different author, but I believe I must compare this book to another, very successful, one. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.

Here's the thing. Both books deal closely with suicide based upon bullying, but the approaches are different. In Thirteen Reasons Why, the girl's story is told in the past, a voice of the already dead, speaking to another person who could have saved her if they had had the chance. In By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead, the girl, the one who is bullied, tells the story from her point of view, looking forward to the day she plans upon killing herself. Two different things, as readers of both will notice as they read the book.

Through Peters' novel, each chapter opens with how many days are left until the day the Daelyn will kill herself. Having attempted before, she no longer plans to fail and is trying to plan how to make this her final attempt.

But a monkey wrench is tossed into her plans when she meets a boy who appears at the place where she waits for her mother every day. Something about him intrigues her, and, suddenly, Daelyn has a friend she shouldn't. It is this tension that makes the story so heart wrenching.

The mere thought that this young girl wants so badly to kill herself was something that kept me awake and, more importantly, kept me reading. I wanted to reach into the book and grab her and explain how much good there was in the world if she would give it a chance, despite thinking that Daelyn wasn't one to listen to things like that. Because her character was crafted so well, I hurt for Daelyn and cringed at her memories, wishing I was there to offer a comforting arm.

The book moves forward at a steady pace, despite the events being small. I can't pin down what it was that propelled this book forward, but something kept pushing me, pushing the story, prompting me to finish it in a matter of two days.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel, despite the touchy topic, and look forward to reading more by this author. If you haven't noticed, this book is different from the science fiction, fantasy, dystopian I usually read, and I enjoyed it! A welcome change to the usual reading.

Rating: A

Teaser Tuesday ~ THE GARDENER

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen
From page 48

My hands trembled so much it was difficult to open the door. The girl slid into the middle and I hopped in beside her and slammed the door.

Music Monday ~ Mat Kearney

LOVE THIS SONG. Mat Kearney, Closer to Love. I heard it for the first time in the CW's Vampire Diaries and loved it ever since. Take a listen.

STORM THIEF Review

Orokos is a city of chaos, lashed by probability storms that re-order the world wherever they strike. It covers every inch of the rocky island that it dominates. It has stood for so long that history has forgotten it, and its citizens no longer question what exists beyond its walls. Then three of its denizens discover a map that holds the key to the secret at the heart of Orokos. But there are others, such as the Chief of the Protectorate Secret Police who would do anything to get their hands on that power...anything at all...
From goodreads.com

To be honest, that summary up there tells nothing about what the book is actually about. It doesn't tell you about Rail and Moa, two thieves, who come across and odd artifact from long ago science that allows them to pass through walls without a problem. It doesn't tell you that Rail and Moa, despite being told to give everything they have to the thief mistress, steal this item in hopes that no one will notice it. It doesn't tell you that the item is quickly missed and it sends Rail and Moa on a journey of a lifetime, fighting against the probability storms that literally shift anything in Orokos.

To be brief, I don't know what made me pick up this book. The cover is interesting enough. The summary is alright. The author has written other praised books. But something drew to me this book. More likely than not, it was the idea of a terrible society, a common theme I come back to again and again.

The story begins instantly, and kept me reading. Despite the lack of explanation, everything seemed to make enough sense so that I wasn't scrambling to understand. Some scenes were a bit confusing, especially ones describing the horrors that exist in Orokos because of the probability storms, but, in the end, everything formed together well and I was able to understand.

One thing that I constantly mention in my reviews is character and character development. When it comes to Chris Wooding's Storm Thief, these are done beautifully. Despite characters in many YA novels who have no flaws and live perfect lives, both Rail and Moa are conflicted in one way or the other and have struggled for years to make it by. To me, reading about a character who has faced troubles in their life is a lot more interesting than one who has had everything handed to them on a silver spoon.

Speaking of the rich, the rich, surprisingly, also play a role in this face-paced novel, a roll that I rather enjoyed because of how out of place these people seemed in a city that could take your breath away as easily as it could give breath to something inanimate. The rich were not exempt from this worry which made them all the more realistic in comparison to novels in which the rich have perfect lifestyles.

Another thing I love in books is when the book consists of multiple main characters, all of whom have an interesting role to play and ultimately come together in the resolution. Wooding did an excellent job at crafting these different personalities that all managed to work together without disrupting the flow of the book.

Overall, Storm Thief was a quick-paced novel that will appeal to both male and female readers because both male and female characters create the main roles. Wooding is an author I would love to read more from.

Rating: A

Things I've Learned Thursday

You see a ghost? You run. No questions asked. Ghosts will only cause misery.

The MOCKINGJAY Wrap-up

NOTE: This post will not contain spoilers for the final book, but may contain spoilers from The Hunger Games and Catching Fire because it's hard to review this book without commenting on things that happened in the other books, so if you haven't read them, please don't read this post. Again, this is SPOILER FREE FOR MOCKINGJAY.




Unlike my usual reviews, I won't include a summary of the plot because, unlike me regular reviews, this isn't a review but simply a wrap-up in order to give you my views on the third and final book in The Hunger Games series. That being said, I am turning off reader comments on this post because I don't want anything being said that will lead to spoiling a person who comes on here to view the spoiler free review.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mockingjay. Fans of the series, you know that in both The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, Katniss was faced with similar events. Not so true for Mockingjay which is what I loved the most. Characters only mentioned in the other books had a chance to grow and develop into the roles Suzanne Collins determined for them, which was great to see.

This is not to say there won't be laughter, tears, gasps, and cries (there will), but that is to be expected from a book of this nature. Readers of the Harry Potter series will remember their reactions to the final book in that series and can relate it to their reactions to this simply because it is the final book and reading the words THE END on the final page of a series you enjoy is always bittersweet.

Shockingly, the twists in Mockingjay didn't surprise me as much as the twists in the other books, but perhaps this was because I have grown used to the writing style. It may also be that I was reading too quickly for anything to sink in, but I truly and completely enjoyed this.

Those little paragraphs are all I can say about the novel without spoiling it for anyone. After reading, I know how important it is that no one knows what happens until they read it for themselves. The power the novel has is decreased in learning what happens and I hope everyone else will respect other's choice not to be spoiled.

In other news, for those of you who don't know, I attended a midnight release for Mockingjay at Magic Tree bookstore in Oak Park, IL, which was a lot of fun. You can view their reports (also spoiler free) from the night or view my personal pictures from the event if you would like to see the man costumes and lots of fun we had. I walked away with quite a few prizes including a Mockingjay bookmark, a couple fake tattoos, and a very cool key chain featuring the mockingjay, a lump of coal, and Peeta's pearl.

In further news, Suzanne Collins will be attending a book event at this bookstore in October, which I will also be attending and will write a full post on after the event. Until then, I offer this simple phrase to those who have read Mockingjay.

Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be, if
we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.