5 Stars

3 Reasons why you should read The Art of Being Normal

08:00

The Art of Being Normal
By Lisa Williamson
Series: None (Stand alone)
Source: Waterstones
Format: Paperback
Pages: 357
Published: 1st January 2015
Genres: Young Adult, LGBT+, Contemporary, 

Two boys. Two secrets.

David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth – David wants to be a girl.

On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year eleven is definitely not part of that plan.

When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. Because at Eden Park School secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long...


I read The Art of Being Normal a few months ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It’s become one of my all-time favourite books because I loved it so much! I can’t recommend it highly enough, but if you’re still unsure on whether to read it why don't you trust me?!, here are some reasons why it should be your next read!

1. The Writing

Lisa Williamson has become one of my favourite authors, even after reading just one book by her. She's a really talented writer, and this book proves it. It's written with a dual POV, which I’m usually wary of, because sometimes it can become confusing, or sometimes I like one person’s voice much more than another. However this was certainly not the case - I loved reading about David and Leo equally, and could tell their voices apart distinctly. I liked seeing depth from both of them, and it added so much to the story. I’m really glad it was written this way, because it meant I was able to see different perspectives on the story.

2. The Characters

This is a purely character driven novel, but it’s done so well! I instantly adored all of the characters, but especially the main characters, David and Leo. David was like a fluffy puppy for me - he was instantly loveable, and I just wanted to give him a hug all the time. He was innocent yet I never found him annoying, and I cared about him so so much. At many points you could call his story pretty tragic, but the way that he was always so full of optimism and hope made the book uplifting and truly inspirational. 


Leo was our other main character. He was different to David in the sense that he was initially shown as grumpy and miserable. However, the book was written from both of their perspectives, so we got to see both sides to the story. I loved reading about Leo just as much as I loved reading from David’s voice, because he had more depth to him. His character developed so much throughout the book, and I loved seeing how it unraveled for him.

He was precious to me too, because a lot of bad things happened to him in the book as well. He handled it differently to David, with much less of David’s enthusiasm - some may think he was too predictable because of this, but I thought he was the complete opposite to that. It made him so much more interesting, because we got to see inside his walls and outer shell that he put up. He had his reasons for everything he did, which sometimes were truly devastating. I wanted to give him a huge hug too at times, because of how badly he was treated! I think Leo was my favourite character due to how much depth he had, and how much I loved finding more and more about him. 

3. The Important Messages

Another reason to read this book is how important it is. No matter what your gender identity is, I think the messages conveyed will be beneficial to everyone. This story is about transgender people, and I think the issues raised about the topic are dealt with such sensitivity and care. I’ve met the author in person (I know, I fangirled so hard!! She was so lovely!), and she was talking about to the extent she researched this book, which I think proves more of her skill, and more of how well it's written. It’s so educational, and if I could, I would make it compulsory for everyone to read this! It teaches acceptance, love, and compassion without ever being boring or patronising, so you just need to read it!


As you can tell, I absolutely adored The Art of Being Normal! As well as all the reasons listed above, it was a highly emotional read, and was the first book ever to make me cry first time around. It was also super addictive. Read it so we can gush together! ☺

5 Stars

Why TROUBLE Will Be Your Next Favourite Book

14:10

Trouble
By Non Pratt

 Source: Second hand, paperback
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary,

In this dazzling debut novel, a pregnant teen learns the meaning of friendship—from the boy who pretends to be her baby’s father.

When the entire high school finds out that Hannah Shepard is pregnant via her ex-best friend, she has a full-on meltdown in her backyard. The one witness (besides the rest of the world): Aaron Tyler, a transfer student and the only boy who doesn’t seem to want to get into Hannah’s pants. Confused and scared, Hannah needs someone to be on her side. Wishing to make up for his own past mistakes, Aaron does the unthinkable and offers to pretend to be the father of Hannah’s unborn baby. Even more unbelievable, Hannah hears herself saying “yes.”

Told in alternating perspectives between Hannah and Aaron, Trouble is the story of two teenagers helping each other to move forward in the wake of tragedy and devastating choices. As you read about their year of loss, regret, and hope, you’ll remember your first, real best friend—and how they were like a first love.


Why TROUBLE Will Be Your Next Favourite Book:

1. It explores family themes like no other book. When you start this book, it’s pretty obvious this will explore families (I mean, there’s fucking sperms on the cover, what do you really expect?), but I never knew it would do it just so well. I loved the dynamics between everyone because they were so realistic, and family life was captured so well. Hannah’s family really became my own while I was reading this. 

2. I adored all the characters! Trouble is told with 2 POVs, and I cared about each of the characters completely equally. I was really rooting for them all the way, and I found their story so captivating. I was hooked throughout the whole book, and found it really hard to put down, because of how much I just wanted everything to be okay! They had so much depth, and were so complex. Everything became too real, so I just didn't want the book to end!

3. SO. MUCH. FRIENDSHIP. This might have been one of the biggest ideas, and I loved it! It showed how much a true best friend can mean to us, and this was the aspect that really helped me. The platonic relationship between Hannah and Aaron made me realise so much about my own life, which was one fo the reasons I found this book so touching. It hit really close to home, and although this won't make it everyone's favourite book, I think it was really moving, and important for everyone. 

4. It’s feminist. If you’ve read this, you might be thinking: “What on Earth is she talking about?!”, but hear me out. It doesn't explicitly deal with gender politics. But I found that the way this dealt with issues like slut-shaming, and misogyny in sex, really opened my eyes (and will do to so many other people). Let me explain further:

Hannah is known for being ‘easy’ in her school. Everyone has the idea that she’s slept with loads of guys, so she’s worth less. (Bear with me for this bit). The other protagonist, Aaron, doesn’t believe in any of this. He doesn’t think of Hannah any differently, even though his ‘friends’ are miming her giving them a blow job, and being really horrible about her behind her back.

I liked the way this was shown to be not true. It’s a really big issue for teenage girls today, and it was explored so well, if you want to look for the themes. It's another really important message that I took away from this book, and I think if you're willing to think about it a bit, it's really educational. Also, Hannah's self esteem and self worth is not dictated by these disgusting men. She knows it isn’t true, and that’s one of the reasons why I love this book so much.

5. It’s emotional af, but in a good way. There were sad points (yes, I did well up in the school library. I was having a tough day, ok?! *sniffs*), but there were also times when this book was so uplifting. I loved how happy it made me feel (the ending... it was perfect!). SO MANY FEELS HERE. It was sad and happy all at once, but overall, it was light-hearted (even if it dealt with some really hard topics), and such an enjoyable read.

6. It’s super meaningful, and has so many brilliant messages for you to take away. There’s some pretty heavy themes in the second half of the book, but they were dealt with so well, and the book was still kept light and enjoyable. These dark feelings a character had were really important, and weren’t glorified in any way. It was real, dark, yet uplifting because of how well they were dealt with.

7. It’s a sex positive YA, and deals with it really well. Although this won’t appeal to everyone, I think if you’ve made it this far, you’ve seen the cover, and you’ve seen the sperms! I think you’ve probably twigged that this book is (to some extent) about sex. I liked how it was shown, as it wasn’t the typical fade to black scenes. There certainly wasn’t any “and then I didn’t know where he ended, and I begun” crap that seems to be in 50% of the sex scenes I’ve read. It was so honest, which I think is so important in YA fiction.

As you can tell, I adored Trouble! I didn't expect for it to be one of my new favourite books right until I finished it. It's UKYA, so it very British, but I'd highly recommend it to everyone, from every country, because it was absolutely fantastic! Also, this is a new format of review for me, so let me know what you think! 


5 Stars

Review: Under My Skin

08:00

Under My Skin
By James Dawson

 Source: Borrowed, paperback
Genres: Young Adult, Horror, Thriller, Paranormal, 
Meet Molly Sue. Once she's under your skin there's no getting rid of her...

Seventeen-year-old Sally Feather is not exactly a rebel. Her super-conservative parents and her treatment at the hands of high school bullies means that Sally's about as shy and retiring as they come - but all that's about to change. Accidentally ending up in the seedier side of town one day, Sally finds herself mysteriously lured to an almost-hidden tattoo parlour - and once inside, Sally is quickly seduced by its charming owner, Rosita, and her talk of how having a secret tattoo can be as empowering as it is thrilling. Almost before she knows what she is doing, Sally selects sexy pin-up Molly Sue, and has her tattooed on her back - hoping that Molly Sue will inspire her to be as confident and popular as she is in her dreams.

But things quickly take a nightmareish turn. Almost immediately, Sally begins to hear voices in her head - or rather, one voice in particular: Molly Sue's. And she has no interest in staying quiet and being a good girl - in fact, she's mighty delighted to have a body to take charge of again. Sally slowly realises that she is unable to control Molly Sue... and before long she's going to find out the hard way what it truly means to have somebody 'under your skin'.


I really didn’t expect to love this as much as I did! I’ve heard good things about some of James Dawson’s books, but not as much about this one. I’m so glad this was my first book by him, because ended up absolutely adoring it. I can’t find one fault - this book is perfect for me! It’s everything I’ve been looking for and more.

It was so creepy too! I was actually pretty scared of this book. After finishing it at 9pm, I was buzzing, and couldn’t sleep for a long time. I’ve heard a few people saying this, but I didn’t really believe it until well into the book. At first, it was even making me want a tattoo even more, but now I’m not too sure...

I adored all of the characters right from the beginning. I loved Sally - she was strong, independent, yet at the start, there was plenty of room for development. She made all the right decisions, and I was never irritated by her. Whenever she did something, I was like “yes, girl!”. Fist pumps all the way for Sally.


Another thing I loved about this book was the plot. I loved how fast-paced it was - from the very beginning we were jumped into the action, and it was never slow at all. There were plot twists after plot twists, and I was overwhelmed by how shocking it was! Some people who’ve read the book won’t think that, because there was gentle parts in the story, but I found these just as engaging as all of the action scenes, because of how much I loved the characters.

This is one of those books that really is best when you don’t know much about it. I’ve tried really hard to not spoil it here, but you should just go and read it! This has become one of my favourite books of all time, and I honestly can’t tell you how much I love it. I think I’ll definitely be re-reading this one.

5 Stars

ARC Review: Beautiful Broken Things

19:16

Beautiful Broken Things
By Sara Barnard

 Source: Netgalley
Release date: 11th February 2016
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mental Illness, 

Goodreads Synopsis:
Best friends Caddy and Rosie are inseparable. Their differences have brought them closer, but as she turns sixteen Caddy begins to wish she could be a bit more like Rosie – confident, funny and interesting. Then Suzanne comes into their lives: beautiful, damaged, exciting and mysterious, and things get a whole lot more complicated. As Suzanne’s past is revealed and her present begins to unravel, Caddy begins to see how much fun a little trouble can be. But the course of both friendship and recovery is rougher than either girl realises, and Caddy is about to learn that downward spirals have a momentum of their own. 

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I expected (and desperately hoped!) that it would be amazing, but I really didn’t imagine it could be so hard-hitting and emotional. I had no idea that it would destroy me in the ways it did, and shatter my poor heart into a million pieces. I am beyond words (though I will try to make a decent review!), because this book has rendered me utterly speechless.

This is one of those books where I can never words say just how amazing it is. I don’t know if I’ll be able to encourage you enough to go and buy this book when it comes out, because I just loved it so much. Loads of people have said that a book you love is always the hardest to write a review for - this one definitely takes the lead for hardest review! You just need to read the book.
There’s no romance at all, which I loved. As soon as I heard it would be a book entirely on female friendships, I requested it from Netgalley straight away. It’s so refreshing to see a book that doesn’t need romance to make it interesting. This was probably my favourite element because I hate romance it was so original, which was one of the reasons it was so hard-hitting. It captured the essence of true friendship so realistically so it’s definitely the best portrayal I’ve ever read.
I raced through this book, because I was enjoying it so much. There were parts in which I was welling up, and parts when I was breathing heavily because of how nervous I was, but overall, it was such a fun read. Sure, the ending wasn’t fun at all (I am broken!), and there were plenty of chapters that were tough, but it wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were lots of fun scenes, which really made me smile, and love the characters even more. There was loads of light-hearted bits to balance out all of the sadness, which just made me adore it even more.

It was perfectly paced, and beautifully written. When this book comes out in February, I’ll definitely be buying a physical finished copy because the cover is so pretty it’s such an exquisite book. I definitely want to read this again, and I know that everyone will love it when it’s released. I know this enchanting story will stay with me for a long time (que major book hangover), and it’s become one of my all-time favourites. I’d highly recommend (as you can tell by this gushing review!) picking this up next February - don’t forget about it, because it’s truly amazing!

5 Stars

Review: Only Ever Yours

09:30

Only Ever Yours
By Louise O'Neill

 Source: Personal purchase, paperback
Genres: Young adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Feminism

Goodreads Synopsis:
frieda and isabel have been best friends their whole lives.
Now, aged sixteen and in their final year at the School, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to wealthy and powerful men. The alternative - life as a concubine - is too horrible to contemplate.
But as the intensity of the final year takes hold, the pressure to remain perfect becomes almost unbearable. isabel starts to self-destruct, putting her beauty - her only asset - in peril.
And then, the boy arrive, eager to choose a bride.
frieda must fight for her future - even if it means betraying the only friend, the only love, she has ever known...

I have been putting reviewing this off for ages now, but now I’m finally gathering my thoughts to attempt a review. Because it’s just that good. Anyone who has had the pleasure of reading this will know just how hard-hitting and important it is. I didn’t love reading it, because it was a truly harrowing read, but  what I did love was how important it is, and how much it gave me to think about. it’s one of my favourite books because of this. I recommend it to everyone - regardless of your gender.

I can’t tell you how important this book is. You just have to read it for yourself, and I think the less you know, the better. It’s a haunting view of our society, but after reading, and thinking a hell of a lot about society, it’s scarily true. I know we don’t generally see women in the same way that they do in frieda and isabel’s world, but if you really think about it, we’re not too far off.
This has made me want to do something about it. I’m a teenage cis girl who has dealt with sexism for my whole life. Usually, I’ve just learnt to “accept” it, but this book has really inspired me to do something. Although life isn’t as bad as it is for the girls in Only Ever Yours, our society could become this way, and I don’t want it to happen. This book has inspired me to try and make a change (even if it’s really small).
If you’ve ever spoken to me (especially in real life), you’ll know I’m an intersectional feminist. I knew as soon as I heard about this book that I just had to pick it up. Before, I hadn’t read a book that was so blatantly feminist - it’s a hard thing to brand yourself as today, in a world that pretty much hates feminism. I was so shocked to read this, because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I have recommended it to everyone, because it’s just so good.

Please, please, just read this book. Even if you don’t “enjoy” it, it’s one of the most important books you’ll ever read, and is so cleverly crafted that I don’t see how anyone could ever regret reading it. My hat goes off to Louise O’Neill for writing such a crucial book, and I know I will read every single book written by her in the future, because I know they won’t disappoint.

5 Stars

Review: Carry On

20:51

Carry On
By Rainbow Rowell

 Source: Personal purchase, hardback
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, LGBT+

 Goodreads Synopsis:

Simon Snow is the worst chosen one who’s ever been chosen.

That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.

Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he sets something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters. 
My Review:

I loved this book so, so much. I went in having such high expectations, because I’ve read all of Rowell’s other books, and really enjoyed them all. Fantasy is one of my favourite genres too, so when I heard Rainbow Rowell was writing a gay fantasy, I knew I had to read this one straight away. It was amazing the whole way through, and has instantly become one of my favourite books ever.

The start was slow. I wondered if it was ever going to pick up, because for the first 150 pages (which is a lot, in my opinion) nothing had really happened. The style is the same, so I was enjoying all of the quirky features that I love in all of Rainbow’s books. There were so many unique touches which made the story truly magical.
It started to pick up once I was fully into the story. I know some people have accused the book of being boring, and that there was no plot, but I didn’t find that at all. Once the book had properly started, things were happening all the time, and I was constantly so engaged. There was mystery and suspense, combined with a really good fantasy. In my opinion, it was a match made in heaven!
My favourite aspect was the romance. There wasn’t much, and only began to fully develop towards the end half of the book, but every romantic scene was heartbreakingly beautiful. This book is not a love story and isn’t centered around romance; I enjoyed the kissing scenes so much that I was wishing for more. Tears of joy actually brimmed in my eyes because of how happy I was for the characters involved.
Like all of Rainbow Rowell’s books, the characters were so likeable. It was easy to be so invested in everyone - they were so complex, yet flawed, so felt so real. I adored everyone in different ways; I think Baz is my favourite character because of how many layers he has, and how we got to see so many different sides to him.
The multiple POVs in this book really worked. Usually I’m really against multiple narrators, but I liked it in this because it never got confusing. Everyone sounded so different, so it wasn’t hard to remember who was speaking. It is written in first person present tense too, which I’m normally so against, but Rowell made it work in this book, and it worked so well.

If you’re a fan of Rainbow Rowell, I’d definitely recommend this book. It has everything that you’d hope for in a book by her - the writing style is the same, so has the same whimsical feel as all of her other books have. It has quickly become one of my favourite books of all time, so I’d advise everyone to read it. There’s nothing at all to dislike.

Rating:

5 Stars

Review: Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy #3)

22:34


Shadow Kiss
By Richelle Mead

 Source: Library
Page count: 443
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Vampires, Romance,

 Goodreads Synopsis:

 Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth's magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires - the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa's best friend, makes her a Dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

Rose knows it is forbidden to love another guardian. Her best friend, Lissa - the last Dragomir princess - must always come first. Unfortunately, when it comes to gorgeous Dimitri Belikov, some rules are meant to be broken...

Then a strange darkness begins to grow in Rose's mind, and ghostly shadows warn of a terrible evil drawing nearer to the Academy's iron gates. The immortal undead are closing in, and they want vengeance for the lives Rose has stolen. In a heart-stopping battle to rival her worst nightmares, Rose will have to choose between life, love, and the two people who matter most... but will her choice mean that only one can survive?

 My review:
I loved this book so much. From giving the previous book only 3 stars, I was really surprised to find myself liking it this much. I knew I was going to really enjoy it, but not as much as I ended up doing. The pacing was perfect, so I constantly wanted to read on. It’s definitely my favourite book of the series so far!
The romance in this book was perfectly done. It had already been slow-burning throughout the other previous books in the series, so it didn’t feel at all like insta-love. This meant that we also had time to want them to be together. It didn’t take away focus from the main plot too, so we had some of romance focused scenes, but a lot of action too.
I really liked all the action scenes. They were perfectly done so we weren’t confused, yet the choreography was done really well do we could clearly picture the scenes. Towards the end, there were lots of action scenes with I really loved. The plot was unpredictable and had lots of twists.
Rose developed so much again throughout this book. She was still very mature, yet badass throughout the whole thing. It was amazing to see how well she could fight (it made the action scenes much more exciting!) and how far she had come as a character. Her opinions towards political ideas had changed, so the overall themes of the books changed too, and they were really interesting to read about.
I really enjoyed this book. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the series now, and I just know that I won’t be able to read another book until I get Blood Promise (the next in the series)! I loved literally everything about this book, so it’s really worth reading the series, even if the first two books aren’t amazing.

Rating:

5 Stars

The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass #0.1-0.5) Review

14:00

The Assassin's Blade
By Sarah J. Maas

 Source: Personal purchase, paperback
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, 

 Goodreads Synopsis:
Celaena Sardothien is Adarlan's most feared assassin. As part of the Assassin's Guild, her allegiance is to her master, Arobynn Hamel, yet Celaena listens to no one and trusts only her fellow killer-for-hire, Sam. In these action-packed novellas - together in one edition for the first time - Celaena embarks on five daring missions. They take her from remote islands to hostile deserts, where she fights to liberate slaves and seeks to avenge the tyrannous. But she is acting against Arobynn's orders and could suffer an unimaginable punishment for such treachery. Will Celaena ever be truly free? Explore the dark underworld of this kick-ass heroine to find out.


Wow. My breathing is still so uneven after this book. Sarah J Maas’ writing is so vivid, it really hits me so hard. My emotions are really wild after this book, and - to be honest - only Queen of Shadows can fill the Celaena shaped hole in my heart. I just know I am going to have a massive book hangover after this!


Because it’s split up into 5 novellas/ short stories, I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the others, but in actual fact, I enjoyed it much more than Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. The individual stories followed so well together, it didn’t feel at all disjointed. It was really smooth, and was just like reading one long book, not 5 short ones.


The Assassin and the Pirate Lord - 5/5 ~ This was a great way to open the book. I loved all the action, and it was amazing to see Celaena be as badass as usual. I also really enjoyed seeing Celaena and Sam’s relationship change. We saw much more development in this book, and I really enjoyed it.
The Assassin and the Healer - 4/5 ~ This novella was much more slow-moving at the start, so I didn’t begin to enjoy it as much. Though, it did soon pick up, and once it did, Celaena was being as great as usual. It was a lot shorter than all of the others, so I read it quite quickly. It didn’t really make a difference to the overall story, but I still enjoyed it a lot.
The Assassin and the Desert - 4.5/5 ~ I really enjoyed this story. We saw a different side to Celaena - which I loved - and it was really exciting and fast paced too. It had lots of plot twists which I didn’t see coming, and I was hooked throughout.


The Assassin and the Underworld - 5/5 ~ This one was so cute! In this novella, we saw much more of Sam (which I loved!), and how his relationship with Celaena developed. They’re so cute together, I need all the Sam + Celaena (what’s their ship name?) I can get! It was really fun to read
The Assassin and the Empire - 5/5 ~ I loved the romance in this one (Team Sam forever!), along with everything else in it. One of my favourite aspects was that the sad part wasn’t dragged out. I knew what was coming from reading Throne of Glass before hand, so it would have just annoyed me if it was just trying to make us cry. Also, Celaena was still really badass, even though she was dealing with a lot, and I really liked that aspect.
Overall, this was an amazing book. I love the series so much more now, which I didn’t even know was possible! If you’re thinking of starting the Throne of Glass series, I would recommend reading this first - I think you will definitely enjoy the others more if you do. I just need Queen of Shadows now!

My reaction:


My rating:



5 Stars

Review: The Retribution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer #3)

17:57

The Retribution of Mara Dyer
By Michelle Hodkin

Source: Personal purchase, paperback
Genres: Young Adult, Paranormal, Romance, 

 Goodreads Synopsis:

 Mara Dyer wants to believe there's more to the lies she’s been told.
There is.

She doesn’t stop to think about where her quest for the truth might lead.
She should.

She never had to imagine how far she would go for vengeance.
She will now.

Loyalties are betrayed, guilt and innocence tangle, and fate and chance collide in this shocking conclusion to Mara Dyer’s story.

Retribution has arrived.

 My Review:
Oh. My. God. I finished this book about 10 hours ago, and I still have all these amazing quotes and scenes and thoughts swimming around my head. Not only was this book - and the whole series - instantly one of my all time favourites, the writing style was beautiful. Michelle Hodkin described everything perfectly - I had such a clear image of what was happening, yet the description wasn’t boring at all. Michelle Hodkin is an absolute genius everybody.
This book didn’t start off as well as all the others. This is purely down to the fact that there was no Noah *cries*. I still enjoyed it, but I would have liked it much more if Noah was there *cries even more*.
The plot for this book was amazing. There were so many twists and turns - I was really kept on my feet. I especially enjoyed the medical and science parts of the story, and the bits about mental illness were some of my favourites. I was confused for practically the whole book - I know that is the way it was intended, so I didn’t really mind, and I liked trying to figure out what was happening. And I didn’t actually guess the plot twists, which is a first for me.
Mara has turned into such an amazing heroine. She was now so badass - she didn’t even care about killing people. I now know why the books are called what they are (I loved the bits where the titles of all the books were used to describe Mara) - she has changed so much as a person (in a good way), yet she still has her dark humour and sarcasm. In this book, she is so tough, which I admire so much.


The series is rounded off pretty well. The last few chapters - GAH! I ship Noah and Mara so much! It was just perfect, and so was the epilogue. The only trouble is, I still have a few questions left unanswered, which is super annoying, because the characters who have the answers died *sigh*. I understand that we can’t get the answers, but it still does feel a bit like a cheat to me...
Another thing that felt unfinished was the names. We found out in the start of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (review here) that the names in the books were fake, but in this book we didn’t find out the real names. This, to me, makes the book seem less real, which makes me cry because I need this book to be real like. (I need my Noah Shaw, okay?) And it feels like a bit of a sham, but it doesn’t bother me too much.
The before bits didn’t link either. Which is really frustrating, as I had to read through them, being bored, when they didn’t even matter. What a cheat.

In conclusion, this series is amazing. So was this book. And all the rest in the series. And probably any book ever written by Michelle Hodkin (side note: when is she going to write another book?). Just read this series. It will be the best and worst decision you’ll ever make.

My reactions to this book:

 The series is over *cries for eternity*, This is even sadder than that scene in Doomsday.

My rating: