Review: Such a Pretty Girl by Laura Wiess

Such a Pretty Girl 

by Laura Wiess 

 Paperback, 212 pages

January 2nd 2007 by MTV Books 

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Details from Goodreads: 

They promised Meredith nine years of safety, but only gave her three. Her father was supposed to be locked up until Meredith turned eighteen. She thought she had time to grow up, get out, and start a new life. But Meredith is only fifteen, and today her father is coming home from prison. Today her time has run out. 

REVIEW:

What's the point of obsessing over cholesterol or bike helmets or even cigarettes when the biggest threats to our children are being released back into society every day? Yes, maybe 'some' of them have reformed, but what about the ones who haven't? Doesn't anyone realize that one 'touch', one 'time' will destroy a child's life ten times faster than a pack-a-day habit?

Such a Pretty Girl was disturbing and a very painful subject. The kind that makes one uncomfortable, as it should be. It is sick and sad but it is true and real problem among us. Child incest destroys the innocence of a child and leaves a ruinous future in its wake. The effects of it are devastating, profound and can last a lifetime.

Straight word: ordinary. There are many novels out there that deal with this kind of subject, and Such a Pretty Girl is like any of them. This book deals with usual issues, like rape, abandonment and incest. Despite being ordinary it’s not an easy novel to read, as reader will feel Merith's nightmare toward her father’s abuse and mother’s abandonment.

There are some that I liked in this book. First is the Merith's fascination on numbers (maybe the only thing that I like with the main character). And last, is how the author shows us various outcome of child behavior with same past experience. Like with Merith and Andy. One character finds strength and confronts her problem, while the other finds avoiding or escaping as a solution. Though other than that is plain and I didn’t feel hopeful at the end. I just felt beaten down by how cruel the world can be, and how sick and vile some people can be.

IMM (42)

In My Mailbox idea from Kristi @ The Story Siren, IMM is a meme in which I post the books and/or swag I won, received, for review, bought, borrowed, or etc. over the course of whole month! 

 BOUGHT:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart 

Secrets and Shadows by Shannon Delany

Marked by P.C. Cast, Kristin Cast 

Evernight by Claudia Gray

Cruel Summer by Kylie Adams 

Showdown by Ted Dekker

Neck And Neck, Volume 7 by Sun-Hee Lee 

Neck and Neck, Volume 3 by Sun-Hee Lee (scanned)

Cant wait to read them all.

Have you read any of these? What did you get this week?

Review: Cruel Summer by Alyson Noel

Cruel Summer

by Alyson Noel

Paperback, 229 pages

May '08 by St. Martin's Griffin

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Details from Goodreads:

“This was supposed to be my best summer yet, the one I’ve been working toward since practically forever.  Now I’m being banished from everything I know and love, and it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Having recently discarded her dorky image--and the best friend that went with it--Colby Cavendish is looking forward to a long hot season of parties, beach BBQ’s, and hopefully, more hook-ups with Levi Bonham, the hottest guy in school. But her world comes crashing down when her parents send her away to spend the summer in Greece with her crazy aunt Tally.

Stranded on a boring island with no malls, no cell phone reception, and an aunt who talks to her plants, Colby worries that her new friends have forgotten all about her. But when she meets Yannis, a cute Greek local, everything changes.  She experiences something deeper and more intense than a summer fling, and it forces her to see herself, and the life she left behind, in a whole new way.


REVIEW:

1.5
This is the only book (so far) that I felt like giving up numerous of times! but I didn't.

Told entirely through Colby's letters, journal entries, and blog posts, this story is one of a girl's search for her identity and struggle to fit in. And this, like so many other young adult novels, is a great idea. I just wish I found Colby a little more likable. She's just so whiny. I mean, sure, teens are typically an unhappy and angsty bunch when things don't go their way, but Colby is more like a petulant child than an angst ridden teenager. It's obvious that she cares about the social politics of high school, like most of Noel's characters in her other novels, but I couldn't really bring myself to care about her.

 My view of Colby as little more than a whiny little girl is probably due in part to the format of the novel. Normally, a book that tells its story solely in correspondence gives the reader letters from both the main character and the people they spend their time writing to. Not the case here. Even when Colby emails people from back home at the internet cafe, we don't get to see their responses to her. Anonymous comments on her blog are the only voice other than her own in the whole novel. It makes for some very one sided conversations, and I don't think it works quite as well as if Colby was allowing the readers to see what other characters had to say.

 Now, none of this means the story is particularly bad. I know quite a few people who enjoyed it. The way the story was told just wasn't my cup of tea. If you want more interesting stories of teenage girls finding themselves in summer settings, I'd go for a Sarah Dessen novel instead.

Random Reads (1): Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Random Reads is a monthly meme hosted by I'm Loving Books.
The point of it is to read those books on your TBR pile that you probably would never get to otherwise. You know the ones that you put off again and again thinking I will read these soon when really you know that you will most likely NEVER get to them.

Want to join in?
1) If you’re on Goodreads enable sorting to your to-read shelf (you should see numbers next to each book now).
2) Go to Random.org and type in the Min as 1 and the Max as how many ever books are on your to-read shelf.
3) Scroll down to the book matching the number Random.org picks.
4) Link up to your Random Reads post at I'm Loving Books.


Now onto this month’s Random Read! This month Random.org chose…
#40 on my to-read list, Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Hhmm, not bad. I read Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (review here/here) and Liesl and Po and I enjoyed it a lot. Lets see if this book is better than that two. :)

Book's Synopsis:
Ninety-five days, and then I’ll be safe.
I wonder whether the procedure will hurt.
I want to get it over with.
It’s hard to be patient.
It’s hard not to be afraid while I’m still uncured, though so far the deliria hasn’t touched me yet.
Still, I worry.
They say that in the old days, love drove people to madness.
The deadliest of all deadly things: It kills you both when you have it and when you don’t

Review: The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden Book 1) 

by Julie Kagawa

ARC from NetGalley

Expected publication:

April 24th 2012 by Harlequin Teen

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Details from Goodreads:

In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity.

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn't easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

REVIEW:

The Immortal Rules is a very dark, on-and-off paced Post Apocalyptic which despite few weaknesses kept me hooked from start to finish. It portrays an orphan teenager Allison who is struggling to survive in the outermost circle of a vampire city by scavenging for food. Until something bad happened to her and met Kanin, who is a vampire and gave Allison a chose to continue living as a thing she hated most. To become a bloodsucking vamp.

I was slightly worried as I started this that it would be waaaay too much like just a generic vampire novels. Like Julie said there were already so many books about vampire, and adding anything new to the vast quantities is quite difficult and hard. Yes, It is true but as I read this book of yours Ms. Julie Kagawa, i say with your writing and imagination - it is piece of bloody cake. *grin*

Despite its pages with 485 to be exact - which is rather long for a single book. There was so much going on in this that justifies its length. There’s the vampires, rabids, enslaved human race, plague, Eden and others. With its complex world and tons of elements that used, you can take whatever path you want and still find it interesting. Yes, at some point it’s kind of hard to pinpoint the center of the book, if Julie will focus it more on the human side with the Eden place and Zeke's knowledge about the plague or the vampire side with the vampire city and Kanin's complicated politic situation. These two are intertwined but not joined plus for me it just barely scratched the outermost layer of the story. It have a lot of explanation things to do.

As for the characters they are all greatly shaded and often intriguing. Allie in particular, she was a very strong main character, a stellar kick-ass heroine. Heck that kind of heroine is tend to loved by most of the readers especially me. The leading men of her undead life - Kanin and Zeke. Well i definitely want to see more of them and their role in this book specially Kanin. We just see him in the first quarter of the book and bam, he’s gone. Hope to see you soon buddy.

Upon reaching the end of the book I still found myself with hundreds of questions about all ... and plus. There are some characters that intrigued me but quickly wiped out. Overall though, The Immortal Rules remains a new stellar vampire story slash post apocalyptic that surely will won the majority of YA readers including me. A fantastic start to what’s sure to be an incredible series!

Thanks to NET GALLEY, YOU ROCK!

Is it just me or I’m seeing Rick and Shane all over again in this book but with Buffy and vampires rather than Lori and zombies?