Book Review: Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten

 I totally didn't buy yellow nail varnish because of this book.

When June met Delia, she was a lifeline. Their intense friendship gave her a sense of belonging, of security, that she’d never had before. She felt braver, smarter, funnier, more attractive when Delia was around. But then something went wrong, and Delia and June haven’t spoken for a year when an announcement is made at their school that Delia is dead. 

June barely has time to mourn before Delia’s ex-boyfriend convinces her that Delia didn’t kill herself but was in fact murdered, and June is fast swept into a tangle of lies and deceit – and a conspiracy she can barely conceive of, never mind believe.

"Wow" was reaction to the the end of this novel and the book in general.

The book's main narrator and protagonist is June who is trying to figure out what really happened to her ex-best friend. June feels like a real person and the emotions are done really well.

This book is mostly in first-person with a dash of third-person during flashbacks which were used to give us glimpses of important moments in June & Delia's relationships which I think was the best way to show us them when they were still friends. 

This story does revolve around June and Delia's friendship so the characterization  is of course important and it is thankfully done well. Both girls feel like real people and I found myself questioning both of their actions. I just love how complex their relationship is with each other.

The plot of this book was good and kept you guessing. I went down a few wrong thought paths and for a rare change I never saw the solution coming but it worked and was almost perfect. The ending is ambiguous but it works well with the rest of the story.

Overall, I give this book 4/5 stars for maraschino cherries. This book was awesome book about friendship and how much you can really know someone.

I got this book for Review off NetGalley and it was published by Electric Monkey this month.

Book Review: Between the Lives by Jessica Shirvington

Two lives might have made escape easier.

The perfect life or the perfect love. You choose.

For as long as she can remember, Sabine has lived two lives. Every 24 hours she shifts to her 'other' life - a life where she is exactly the same, but absolutely everything else is different: different family, different friends, different social expectations. In one life she has a sister, in the other she does not. In one life she's a straight-A student with the perfect boyfriend, in the other she's considered a reckless delinquent. Nothing about her situation has ever changed, until the day when she discovers a glitch: the arm she breaks in one life is perfectly fine in the other. 

With this new knowledge, Sabine begins a series of increasingly risky experiments that bring her dangerously close to the life she's always wanted. But if she can only have one life, which is the one she'll choose?

 This is a really cool concept, except for I never really got why Sabine needed to make a choice. Even having explained in the actual novel, I still never got the character's motivation.

The main character Sabine is pretty bland and clearly doesn't have a strong personality considering how different her behavour and her persona are in the two "lives", I don't mean her wealth status in that at all. Her general attitude, generally sucks.

The ending of the book was pretty obvious after a certain point. I did not like the very ending, I just don't think it was a healthy or realistic attitude to continue to have. The whole suicide angle was not what I was expecting when it said "choice" in the blurbs.

Overall, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for split personality. It was interesting idea and the execution was alright. If your intrigued by the summary then I would recommend reading it.

I got this book for review off NetGalley and it is published by Orchard Books.

Book Review: Killing the Dead by Marcus Sedgwick

I brought this on 5th of March, but online so it only came the day I wrote this.

Follow the dark, dark path
Into the dark, dark woods
To the dark, dark bridge
By the dark, dark water.

Linger.
Let the ghosts of heaven
tell their story.

This book is 2015 World Book Day and I thought I would review it while you can still buy it. Also somewhat in a reading stump and busy so having a short thing to review is a good thing for me. It's annoying but expected as there is stuff I'm meant to be doing. Ar...If I could ignore everything in my life and make YouTube videos.

This is set in a girl's Bordering school in Stockbridge, Massachusetts; name Foxglove which sounds like the name of a fantasy character that looks like a fox and slaps people with gloves. 

 The story revolves around the school a year after a girl has killed herself and there's not much else I can say without spoiling anything.

This book is told in third-person with changing euphansis on character about every chapter. It works well for the story. 

My only problem with this story is that motive for a small thing a teacher does, isn't explained. It minor, but still it's problem and we should judge it harshly for having one single issue. Of course, that last sentences is not true.

Overall, I gave this little book 4/5 stars for chewing gum. It's interesting story and definitely worth a read for £1.

Book Review: Me and Mr J by Rachel McIntyre

 I was totally not attracted to this book by the fact Harley Quin calls the joker Mr J.

Fifteen-year-old Lara finds her soulmate. There’s just one problem – he’s her teacher.


 Lara's life has changed radically since her father lost his job. As the eldest, Lara tries to keep upbeat, and the one outlet for all her problems is her diary where she can be open about how dire everything is at home, and worse, the fact that she’s being horrifically bullied at school.


And then a shining light comes out of the darkness – the new young and MALE teacher, Mr Jagger. The one person who takes Lara seriously and notices her potential. The one person who is kind to her. The one person who she falls madly and hopelessly in love with. The one person who cannot reciprocate her feelings … can he?

In refection I don't like the title of this book as its grammar incorrect and well grammatically rude. It should be "Mr J and I". I actually think the title is fine, but then again the main character is meant to be getting A* in her English Exam so you're think she know better even though school don't really teach grammar anymore. Okay, I'll stop wasting a paragraph by grammatically judging the title.

The book is written in the form of a dated diary which works both for the character and her story. Lara is likable and I really wanted things to work out for her.

This book deals with bullying, the extreme kind. There were a few times where she should have went to the police, nevermind the school and her parents. The ways she deals with the bully is quite realistic, except I feel Lara's emotionally level jumps about.

I give this book 3/5 stars for terrible Gran Gifts. This is a quick interesting read. The way the plot elements -even small ones- add up to make the ending, is something I really like.

I got this book off Netgalley for Review and it was published by Electric Monkey recently.

Book Review: I was Here by Gayle Forman

I might of wrote this review whilst I still had tears in my eyes from reading this book.

This characteristically powerful novel follows eighteen-year-old Cody Reynolds in the months following her best friend's shocking suicide. 

As Cody numbly searches for answers as to why Meg took her own life, she begins a journey of self-discovery which takes her to a terrifying precipice, and forces her to question not only her relationship with the Meg she thought she knew, but her own understanding of life, love, death and forgiveness.

I always end up reading Forman's work in one sitting as I can't stop reading. I've ended up with sleepless nights because of her but luckily I started reading this book early in a day where I had nothing to tear me away from it. So it was only 1.50am by the time I finished.

Cory goes on this quest to figure out what pushed Meg to kill herself. There part was  mostly well done. However, I feel there are parts that were clearly misleading and slightly unbelievable that certain things didn't come up till the perfect point, especially after having actually read the whole book.

The characters and relationships were once again beautifully done. All the characters we come across have their purpose in the plot and Cory's journey but they're all feel real, like they have full back stories and their own lives going on.

This book is of course sad and I was crying my eyes out during the last chapters, but I actually felt kinda happy at the end. Maybe I just need a cry to relieve my stress levels. However, I find this book oddly life confirming. It deals with tragic topic as well as the grief that Meg's family and Cory go through so well.

This book's ending is great and that last sentences were the prefect way to end the story.

Overall, I gave this book 5 Stars of 5 for bus rides. I recommend this if you're doing a Read-a-Thon or if you need a purifying crying.

I got this off Netgalley for review. It being published by Simon and Schuster on 29th January 2015.

Book Review: Tease by Amanda Maciel

Emma should have probably been homed school.

 Emma Putnam is dead, and it's all Sara Wharton's fault.

At least, that's what everyone seems to think when Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, has been criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma's shocking suicide. But Sara is sure she hasn't done anything wrong, because Emma brought it on herself. Sara is adamant that she was the victim - not Emma.

This book is told from the point of view of someone who bully someone who killed themselves. Interesting idea, but the fact is Sara isn't really that much of bully. I mean she wasn't the ringleader, the one who took it too far. I felt petty neutral through book. I felt more sympathy for Sara than for Emma the dead girl in the end.

To sound heartless, Emma encouraged the bullying to a lot. She did things to antagonizing the other girls. I don't think the author did a good job at all making Emma sympathic. We told she has a mental health issues (I don't think we ever told what exactly) before the bullying started so we straight away have out-cause. It happened over months, not years. The point of the book should be more understanding of other people, but it's not. Emma's parents basically decide to try and blame Emma's death on someone else. Maybe its Emma's not very likable or human. We don't learn anything at all about her as person, except she sleeps with boys she knows has girlfriends. Yes, the boys are dirt bags for cheating on their girlfriends but also she knew that there were cheating on the girlfriends with her. Some of it might meant to be rumours but it confirmed as being true more than lies.

I really liked the format of this book with the switch between now and the past. It worked well with what this book was trying to do.

Overall, I gave this book four out of five stars. It was interesting idea, there were some characterization issues but the actual plot and writing was good. I enjoy the preparing for the court case and the ending worked well.

I got this book for review off Netgalley and is being published by Hodder Children's Book on 1st May.

DeathWishes by Car.

Okay, I've been thinking about death lately. Or more my near death or server injury experience since I was hit by a car on Wednesday. Okay, that sounds so dramatic. It was more a slight bump.
 I lost a tiny bit of skin off left knuckle, the one under finger next to the thumb. It just put slight panic in me about my stupidity.

I have almost been ran over by a car three times. Detain is probably not really needed. It more about what was going on in my head. I have these moment where I'm not really in the world. I make a plan of action and carry through and almost get killed in the process sometimes.

Also I've never been near suicide, though that probably more my stubbornness to never quiet anything, however I have been in moods where I don't care. I don't wear my seatbelt and I don't leave my bed without force. Just generally walking around with a deathwish.

What I'm trying to say is that going to the Job Centre made me (briefly) suicidal and I'm thankfully that I have post my thing instead of going there every two weeks.

I also attempted to give blood this week, but my iron wasn't high enough. I got the cool image of seeing my blood dripped down a needle and a large bruise on my arm from that needle.