06 June 2011

Review: The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Cover of The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson Title: The Sky Is Everywhere
Author: Jandy Nelson
Publication Date: 9 March 2010
Publisher: Dial
Source: Library
Summary (courtesy of goodreads.com):

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.

I'm just going to come right out and say it, I read this book solely for the cover.  Seriously.

Unfortunately, it came at a bad time for me.  Well, not so much for me.  More like it came at a bad time for...it.  I imagine, in a perfect world where I hadn't chosen to read The Sky Is Everywhere between If I Stay and Cracked Up To Be, two books with moderately similar concepts (hey, someone's dead/missing!  how do we deal with it?!) that I enjoyed a considerable amount more than this book, I would like it better.  But it's not a perfect world, and I did read it between those two books, and so, mostly, I just found it annoying.

My main complaint about this book is the author's inability to write dialogue that doesn't involve a run on sentence lacking any consideration for subjects or conjunctions.  Thirty pages in I wanted to stop reading simply because of the way characters talked.  I have never heard anyone in real life eradicate completely relevant words from their sentences the way the characters in this book do, much less an entire community of people.  It's like, just come to life out of the pages so I can slap you, please.

Furthermore, Lennie is just obnoxious.  I truly did not understand the "half of our hearts make one whole of her heart" crap that was her excuse for fooling around with her dead sister's fiancĂ©.  I feel like "oh, my sister's dead, I don't know what I was thinking" was a sorry justification for her actions, especially after she clearly states just as much, and then does the same stupid thing again.  The whole thing just didn't work for me and I hated Lennie for it, which I'm not sure was the intention.

But just so this review (rant?) isn't all bad, I will say that I liked the resolution with the poems that are "found" throughout the book.  And the general idea that "the sky is everywhere."  Honestly, I think the story was mostly good, but then the characters had to came along and ruin it by being annoying and stupid and poor users of the English language.

Rating:

03 June 2011

Mini Reviews: Cracked Up To Be, Lament, The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Sometimes, no matter how much I love or loathe a book, I just don't have enough to say about it to dedicate an entire post to its review.  So I present to you, MINI REVIEWS!  My thoughts on books I've recently read, in three sentences or less.  You know you're excited.

Cover of Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

Holy fudgesicles.  I hope Courtney Summers' other books are as amazing as this one.  I can't even remember why I only gave it four stars...

 

Cover of Lament by Maggie Stiefvater Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception by Maggie Stiefvater

The only thing that saved this book from two stars is that Maggie Stiefvater is technically a good writer. Unfortunately, I finished it confused and pissed off. And don't even get me started on the main character who was so annoying and stupid that I can't even be bothered to remember her name.

 

Cover of The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

A would-be five star book if it weren't for the first hundred pages that bored me out of my mind.  Also, I hate this cover.  What part of this story implies anyone is wearing heavy black eyeliner?

01 June 2011

waiting on wednesday: five

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
Title: Twisted (Pretty Little Liars #9)
Author: Sara Shepard
Release Date: 5 July 2011
Summary (courtesy of goodreads.com):
It’s been a year since the torturous notes from A stopped and the mystery of Alison DiLaurentis’s disappearance was finally put to rest. Now seniors in high school, Aria, Spencer, Hanna and Emily are older, but they’re not any wiser. The Pretty Little Liars have more secrets than ever - twisted secrets that could destroy the perfect lives they’ve worked so hard to rebuild.

Aria’s jealous of her boyfriend’s new exchange student. Spencer’s getting a little too cozy with her soon-to-be-stepbrother. Hanna’s one scandalous photo away from ruining her dad’s Senate campaign. And Emily will do anything to get a swim scholarship.

Worst of all: Last spring break in Jamaica, they did something unforgivable. The girls are desperate to forget that fateful night, but they should know better than anyone that all secrets wash ashore … eventually.
Okay, here's the thing about the Pretty Little Liars series.  I hate it.  It's awful and horribly written and has absolutely no merit whatsoever.  That said, OMG I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS BOOK!  For me, these books are like watching a car crash: you don't really want to see it, but it has numbed your mind to the point that you can't look away.  That's just what reading these books is like!  My intelligence rapidly diminishes as a result of their pure horrendousness, but I just CAN'T STOP READING!  I can't wait to find out what these girls have gotten themselves into now.

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