ByMarlida

WE WERE LIARS
BY E. LOCKHART
PUBLISHED: 2014
AVERAGE RATING: 3.86
242 PAGES
★★★★☆


With this book, it was the title that caught my attention. “We were liars” sounded exciting and thrilling. Also, it was hard to make an opinion about what kind of book this was, so that made me even more curious.

“We were liars” is written by E. Lockhart and was published may the 14th in 2014. It holds several genres, including young adult, suspense, mystery, fiction and romance.

At goodreads this is the description you get:

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies
True love.
The truth.

and that’s probably the best description to give, because it’s almost impossible to say something about this book without ruining the experience of reading it. This is one of the books you just have to read for yourself and just experience the feelings, the questions raising throughout the story progressing and so on.

This book still gets to me on so many levels, and I’m still not sure whether I like it or not. But it’s a book that I’ll remember for a long time, and a book I want to read again, so I absolutely recommend reading it. The story is special and told in a very exciting way, although I thought it was boring at first.

There are two things I disliked about the book. The first thing is the way the writing went crazy at times, without it being any reasons for it to do so. I don’t know if it’s the authors way of trying to be poetic, but for me it was just annoying. Especially because I seriously couldn’t find a reason for it to be written that way.

Just so you’ll understand what I’m talking about, I’ll write the next section for you in that way.

The other thing I
disliked about the
book
is the main character
Cadence. I can’t quite get her.
In many ways, I understand
her and relate to
her, but in other ways I find
her annoying, full of
herself and
whiny. I’ve seen that a lot
of the people reviewing the book calls it
“a shitload of #whitegirlproblems”
and I actually get that.
But in another way, everyone is allowed to have
problems, and they feel just as real to rich people.
So i understand to her, but I dislike her, and that feels really weird…

And as you just read, that’s the way the writing in the book sometimes is. Not all the time, but sometimes, and often on parts of the book that didn’t make sense at all to write like that. I just don’t get it.

But the story is good, and as I said, this is a book that really got to me and that I will be thinking about for a while. It’s worth reading.

Marie Lu’s writing kind of takes me back to when I was reading Hunger Games and Divergent. The language is easy and good, and she only describes what needs to be described. There’s no leftovers that we feel is unnecessary. I also like the way she divides the two main characters, making it possible for us to get to know both characters first hand, while knowing that the other is right around the corner.

From different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths... Until June's brother is murdered, and Day becomes the prime suspect. In a shocking turn of events, the two uncover what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths to which their country will go to keep its secrets.
★★★★☆

ON THE ISLAND
BY TRACEY GRAVIS GRAVES
PUBLISHED: 2011
AVERAGE RATING: 4.14
346 PAGES
★★★☆☆
I’ve always been interested in stories that contains survival methods. Be it an apocalypse, a war or on a deserted island. That is why “On the Island” caught my attention.

“On the Island” is written by Tracey Gravis-Graves and is her first novel. It came out in 2011. Fun fact: After being declined 14 times by the publishing companies, Gravis-Graves published it on her own on the internet. And now it’s an international bestseller. That’s really cool!

Anna is a thirty year old english teacher with a fading relationship and a desire to get some space. T.J is a sixteen year old boy who’s just recovered from cancer. Anna is offered the job as his tutor throughout the summer in the Maldives. On their way to the Maldives, the plane crash-lands in the Indian Ocean, and they barely make it to a desserted island. There are a lot of challenges and obstacles on their task of surviving, but as the days turn to weeks and then months, Anna begins to wonder if the biggest challenge is to live with a boy who is about to turn into a man.

When I read about this book, I had some mixed feelings about it. On one side, it sounded like a really cool story about surviving in harsh conditions. On the other side, that last sentence in the description made things seem a little bit off. I mean, you’re on a desserted Island with no signs of being rescued and have to make it on your own to survive. How in the world can a potential love interest be something that even strikes someone in that situation as a problem?

I was afraid that this would turn out to be a silly, overly-romantic love story (forbidden love on a desserted Island, I mean… the sound of that just does not get to me) with a badly placed desserted Island as an excuse. I was afraid the authour was thinking: Hell, how would the two of them end up together? Oh yeah, I’ll just put them on some Island together. Why not? Because for me, the most important thing with this story would be the survival on the Island.

But I decided to give it a shot, and as it turns out, the author has managed to get a very good balance between the love story and actually surviving on the Island. And it makes sense. I’m obviously not an expert, but for me, the plane-accident, the way they get food and water and all of the survival-parts of the story seems logical. Wich, as I told, was the most important for me.

This is, without doubt, a love-story. But it it’s not too cliché and I actually kind of liked it, even though romance really is'nt my genre at all. It's not a very long book either, so all in all I found this to be a nice break from my studies and I really don't regret reading it. It was very exciting to read about how they managed to survive, and their relationship is both understandable and sweet. I read that MGM has bought the movie rights, and I really hope that this will be a movie! It would be cool to see.

INSURGENT
BY VERONICA ROTH
PUBLISHED: 2012
AVERAGE RATING: 4.11
525 PAGES
★★★★★

Tris makes it to initiation, but the day that should have been celebrated is instead the day it all ended with unspeakable horrors. A war has blossomed between the factions and their ideologies, and in time of war sides must be chosen, secrets is revealed and easy choices become more powerful. Tris has to fully embrace her Divergence, even though she doesn’t know the consequences.

I love this book, more than I did Divergent! It’s such a good book despite the fact that it just gets tougher and tougher to keep your mask on. The thing about these books is that the story just gets better and better, and you get to understand more and more throughout the books. Tris stands in front of this big change in her life, where she loses and gives more than she gets, and by instinct she wants to do everything on her own, which makes Four distance himself more from her. Big secrets are also revealed in this book, and by the end you should have Allegiant by your side, because the ending is just mind-blowing!

What I really love is that Roth takes Tris to another level of danger, self-discovery and even makes her question herself and the people around her. She starts to talk to people that she rather wouldn’t and, well, there are a lot of points in this book where you just stare into the pages and ask “WHY”. Especially the ending, that’s where I was turning pages after pages widening my eyes as I read through the words, and I have to say, I’ve never started a sequel that fast before - and I couldn’t put it down for a second.

The thing about Insurgent is that it builds up to the finale, it explains a lot we didn’t know, and we get to understand the relationship between Tris and Tobias, Tobias and Evelyn (his mother), and a lot of other people. Thing evolves, like the relationship between Tris and Christina when Christina finds out that Tris shot and killed Will, Christina’s boyfriend. I can’t really say more than to read the Divergent series, and hopefully, the movies that are coming out one-by-one, will be just as good as the books!

A WALK TO REMEMBER
BY NICHOLAS SPARKS
PUBLISHED: 1999
AVERAGE RATING: 4.14
240 PAGES
★★★★☆

I think most girls (and maybe some guys) fall for the simple pleasure of reading love-stories. For me, reading a love-story kind of gives me the illusion of having that kind of love in my life, because let's face it; we're probably never going to have our own Romeo and Juliet moment. Now, I don't want to let you down by saying that love like that doesn't exist, because I truly believe it does, but sometimes when reading love-stories I kind of sob to the fact that I never experienced that kind of love, than in the books I've read.

Nicholas Sparks, the man behind so many novels about love I think you could easily catch diabetes through reading his whole collection, and all though I've never really been fond of cliche love stories about two people who accidentally meet and fall in love endlessly, I have to say that I'm surprised. I am, so surprised that I'm sitting here in my bed at 12.30 am, wondering what I'd actually just read.

About thirty minutes ago I finished a book I'd been thinking about reading for a long time, Nicholas Sparks name had come up so often that I swore to myself that I was going to read at least one of his books during 2015. And I did, in about two days.

There was a time when the world was sweeter... when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats... Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister... Jamie, who was destined to show him depths of the human heart - and the joy and pain of living.

I have to say that I was kind of looking forward to this book, since I'd seen the movie based on the novel, and I quite liked it even though it was, indeed, a cliche. The things that really made me love the novel more than the movie was the fact that the book is placed in the late 1950's, while the movie is placed in modern days, so the stories are quite different, and I must say that the book, it swept my heart away.

I had about four stages reading this book, first there was this, "aaw, that's cute" stage, where we get to know Landon, all though he's a douche bag, we can't help but think that some of the things he's thinking about, is kind of cute and adorable.

LOOKING FOR ALASKA
BY JOHN GREEN
PUBLISHED: 2005
AVERAGE RATING: 4.13
221 PAGES
★★☆☆☆

I was, like a lot of others bit by the John Green-bug and wanted to read more of his work after reading "The Fault in Our Stars". Looking for Alaska was another book I'd heard about that John Green had produced, and I wanted to check it out. Normally when I read, it doesn't take me long to finish a book, I normally read them within weeks after purchasing them, but this time it was different.

"Alaska Young, Gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, screwed up - and utterly fascinating. Miles Halter could not be more in love with her. But when tragedy strikes, Miles discovers the value and the pain of living and loving unconditionally."

The story sounds like "The Fault in Our Stars," just different. He's changed the characters, and when we meet Miles Halter we think that he's pretty much that awkward, geeky kid we see in school that's never really touched a girl other than when one bumps into him with accident. And when we meet Alaska Young we can hear Augustus Waters saying all these weird things because they're kind of special. With deep insight, or just plainly dumb kids who've read too many books and poems.

I had a hard time reading this book, and the only thing that kept me going through it was the fact that he doesn't use normal chapters, instead he starts at "One hundred and thirty-six days before" and then it slowly counts down to "One day before" and then, when I thought the book was finished. It started with "The Day After" and I have to say that I was pissed. Because I'd just tortured myself through the boring pages of the life of Miles Halter at this weird boarding school where (as I saw it) every kid smoked, drank wine and did pranks. I guess it can be fun to read for some people, but for me it felt like a bunch of crap.

So, back to the story, on the cover of the book it says "First friend, first girl, last words." His first friend, "The Colonel" which is the nickname for his roommate. They apparently have a friendship described as "an old married couple", and first of all, I didn't like the Colonel very much, because despite the fact that he was from this trailer park, living with his broke mother - and that he was probably the nicest guy ever, he was also a douche. "First girl," well, Miles falls in love with Alaska Young, but as it turns out, Alaska has a boyfriend. So, Miles tries to find someone else, and finds Lara, this Romanian girl that he just takes because he can't have Alaska. Which is pretty mean if you ask me. He and Lara, well, they do some stuff together, like kissing and, well, some more, but he always says that he can't talk to Lara as he can to Alaska.

Spoilers

Now, "Last words", that was the one thing that made me going, because I was pretty sure one of the characters were going to die. And I'm sorry to spoil this book for you, but he does exactly the same thing as he did in "The Fault In Our Stars", it's not Miles who dies, but Alaska. And we already knew that the day before it happened. Go figure. The last words could also be because Miles had this extraordinary gift of memorizing everyone's last words. Which is lame, and totally weird.

Now you can read again if you don't want spoilers anymore

I didn't like the book, not because it's bad written or anything like that, it's easily read if you like these kinds of books. As I said, we get really good details about Miles' life, and all though that's sometimes the point of books, I didn't like it. Nothing really happened, we just read the strange mind of Miles while he lived at that boarding school, and he had all this weird friends, his nickname was Pudge, and to be honest, I won't recommend it to anyone.

I'm sorry John Green, I like you, and I want to read more of your work, but this just didn't get to me as the first book I read.