ByMarlida

★★★★☆

The plot still continues to amaze me, as it has been doing from page one of this triology. The Plot behind the triology in itself is just perfect, and the plot behind Golden Son is fast-paced, action-filled and just brilliant. Never in my whole freaking life have I experienced so many plot twists in a book. There were several times I cried out loud during the reading of this one, which I normally don't do. I woke my sister up with a "Holy shit?!" one night, just to give you an example. That even turned out to be one of the smallest surprises of the book. The plot most definetly makes it harder to put the book down. 

And that ending?! I mean, how can you do this to me when the third book hasn't even come out yet?! Seriously. I have absolutely no clue as to how the story is going to continue after this. For reals, I have absolutely no idea, no suggestion at all, and I cannot believe how it is supposed to be only one book left because I cannot in any way possible imagine how everything is going to be solved in only one book or at all. Seriously. That ending. Holy shit. 

The World ★★★★★
The World in the Red Rising triology continues to amaze me. Pierce Brown is one of the writers that managed to make a whole world and make me believe in it. It' so easy to just picture how it's like. The Red Rising triology is dystopian, and the whole point of the book is to create a new "world" (which is not a spoiler, it's a freaking dystopia), so naturally, there's not much about this world you actually like. As in, you would'nt really be a part of this. Yet, it geniously made. I love how everyone is divided by colors, and how it's the universe and how big everything really is 

But yeah, it's so very well explained how everything works throughout both the first book and this one, it's easy to imagine how it's like and I'm so excited about how everything is going to turn out - if the world is changing, how is it going to be like then? 

In Golden Son, we get to know even more about the world and it still isn't a single thing about it that makes me doubt it. So yes, five stars. No doubt about that either. 

Characters ★★★★☆

I think that absolutely every character in this book/this triology is built up perfectly. They all have depth, and always do things that makes sense that they would be doing because you know their personality. Except like five times in this book. A shitload of the plot twists in this book is actions that are based on characters that I seriously thought I knew doing something I seriously thought they would'nt be doing. Does that make them even better chracters? Yes and no. 

It's kind of hard to talk about this without spoiling, but one of the characters I never really liked became one of my favourites after this book, and one of the characters I kind of liked is now on my top 10 hate-list of all fictional characters ever. Both of this surprises definetly made the book better.

Then, there's a plot twist in this book I kind of can't believe, because it still makes no sense that this character would do that, so I'm left hoping Pierce Brown will plot twist it back (like, a plot twist in the plot twist that shows that the first plot twist was really a lie and the second plot twist is the truth... you get me?). 

During this book, my feelings for Darrow started to get complicated though. I kind of loved him in Red Rising. I did, because he's a protagonist that has a personal purpose, he has his own personal reasons to do all the things he has to do, and he just felt so human. But, I kind of lost that a bit in this book. I'm not really sure if that negative or not, because a part of me think maybe I'm supposed to feel this way. In many way, he feels more human than ever, which is actually perfect and makes me like him more. But in another way, there's something about this development that makes me like him a little less. Or more? Seriously, I'm so confused about this... 

Mustang however, I absolutely loved in Red Rising and now, I absolutely love her even more. Brown has given her so much more depth in this book, and she seems so much stronger and smarter. She was in the first book as well, but in this book it's just beautiful.

And Sevro. Seriously. He has been my one favorite since he came into this story and now I think he's made my list of Top 10 Fictional Characters I will Love Forever. Seriously. 

So, even though there now are some characters I used to like but now dislike, and some I used to dislike and now like, I'm actually quite pleased with the character development in this book. Except for Darrow's development, which I seriously can't figure out if I'm satisfied with or not. 

Writing style ★★★★★

This one is a little hard for me, because I'm reading it in my language (Norwegian), so I can't really say anything about the original writing. What I can say however, is that I almost never read translated books. Almost everytime I do that, I get annoyed by the poor translating and how no one ever seems to get the words right in translation. That didn't happen this time. So, my five stars on this one goes to Torleif Sjøgren-Erichsen who translated them to Norwegian, for doing a job I so very few times find people skilled enough to do. 

Dramaturgy ★★★☆☆

To be honest, I actually wished the book would slow down a little bit at times. It felt a little bit like watching a movie with only action-scenes and nothing else.

Although it made me want to finish the book the same day I started it and it made it so exciting all the way, I sometimes actually had to put it down just to be able to comprehend everything that had just happened before a shitload of new things would happen. I seriously feel that all of  this could have been made into two books, because there is so much going on. But, I still love the book, so it's not that bad. And I'd take this a thousand times instead of a boring dramaturgy. 

All in All ★★★★☆

Golden Son get's a solid 4 star rating from me. It felt so incredibly right to be back in that world again when I started reading, there are so many things happening in this book that just makes me want to laugh and cry and jump up and down in frustration and I'm almost dying here because I cannot understand where the story goes from here, or how the freaking hell Pierce Brown is going to solve all of this in just one final book and how all of this is going to end because... yeah, I have no clue. I need to read that last book and I need to do it yesterday seriously. But yeah, I loved the book, although it was a little to well action-filled and could have given us a little more pauses. Apart from that, this is brilliant. And, If this triology is not made into movies, I don't understand humanity anymore. 

I just have to point out that I absolutely love the point of views in this book. We've got multiple; first-view of Cassie, of Ben Parish, we've got an all-knowing point on Evan Walker, on Sammy, there's a lot of different point of views and that's probably why the book is so damn interesting and good. I felt agony every time I came to the next "part" of the book because I didn't want to leave the character for another ten or twenty pages. Some times I had to count the pages until the next part, so that I knew how long it was until I reached it. That's also something I really liked about this book, how Yancey decided to divide into chapters and parts. It's fast paced, and it makes it all so interesting. 

So, was this a good book? Hell yes. Would I recommend it? Hell yes. Am I excited to see the movie? Hell yes. Will I continue to read the next book? Hell yes. I mean, there's nothing to say except for the fact that I loved it, and I'm looking forward to continue on the series. I feel like it doesn't quite reach up to the other books I've read that I've given a 5, so this gets a solid 4.5. 

One thing that I miss in this book is a map, a map over the fictive world she has created. I get a feeling that Kennettra is similar to Italy, but apart from that I can’t really place the other countries.

So, to the characters of this book. I want to talk about some characters, since it’s impossible to write about all of them without ruining your reading-experience. Adelina, Violetta, Teren and Magiano??? are the characters that I really feel like talking about, because they are key-characters.

Adelina is as you probably already knew or guessed, the main character. While reading The Young Elites, the first book I loved Adelina, she was in my eyes that beautiful middle thing of perfect and seriously messed up. I loved how she transformed through the book, but I always knew during the Young Elites that she would eventually be drawn into the dark side. (No we’re not talking about Star Wars here). I think that when you read The Rose Society, you kind of forget how you used to like her, and kind of try and try to embrace her the way she is now. I still like her, but I can’t seem to actually liking her as much as I used to. Maybe it’s because she’s less likable now when she’s changing into the inevitable? I don’t know, but I feel like I’m constantly drawn to other characters, trying to find the more likable ones.

“I am tired of being used, hurt, and cast aside. It is my turn to use. My turn to hurt.”

Violetta was kind of anonymous during The Young Elites, I couldn’t place her. Did I like her or not? Was she good or bad? During The Rose Society I feel like we get a better view of who Violetta really is, and this is probably why I actually can’t seem to relate to her at all, and therefore, she doesn’t really feel important to me. Not in a way that I think she should have been cut from the book, but in a way where I can’t seem to actually like her, and therefore, I don’t care if she lives or dies. It sounds horrible, I know, and I’m usually harsh on characters, but she didn’t seem important to me.

The big horrible villain in The Young Elites (Teren) finally gets a more likable character. I can’t believe that I just said that, but it’s true. In The Young Elites I felt like he was like the ultimate villain, now, I feel like he’s more complete. We get a more human side to him, and therefore I actually end up feeling sorry for the bastard.

"I will find you all. I will use everything in my power to save your souls. I was born to destroy you."

A new character appears though, Magiano, my new favorite. For some reason I love the cocky guy who’s got like a thousand funny comments and who does all these funny things. I love him. And I actually find him more interesting than Enzo in the first book, so is this Adelina’s new love-interest? I don’t know. Is he mine? Yes he is.

I just want to point out that I love The Young Elites as a series, not jut the first book, and all though I really like The Rose Society, it didn’t quite raise me to those same heights that I had during The Young Elites. So, all in all this is a 4.5, and not only a 4. I also want to make it clear that it’s not that it’s not as good as The Young Elites, but it’s important to point out that it’s hard to make one book better than the other, to like, keep the level rising. In this book it was a lot of back and forth, a lot of Adelina thinking, and all though it was important it could get kind of boring in the long haul.

It's not a dystopia, which actually made me kind of sad because I loved Gemma and Harper in the book. Anyways, Wake is mainly about Gemma who's a swimmer and Gemma's older sister Harper. In their home town some strange girls suddenly come during tourist season - and they're beautiful as hell. Everyone wants to be them, only Harper and Gemma kind of think there's something strange about them. Suddenly the strange girls start approaching Gemma, and she's suddenly under their "spell".

It's just as much as a story about love and family as it is the paranormal. Hocking kind of does that right, by making some family dynamics that is interesting to read about, and it's actually that, that makes me want to read further. I can't say that I'm particularly interested in Gemma's love interest, but Harper's. Because I kind of see myself in Harper, the protective older sister who would practically do anything for my two younger siblings. And, by all means, I'm older, and closer to Harper's age than Gemma's - and I can absolutely like her interests in Daniel. 

It's not that there's a lot of things that I don't like about the book, but I kind of didn't feel like finishing when I was about halfway through. I don't know if it was because I was kind of sad that it wasn't dystopia, because I was seriously SO sure that it was - but I think it was rather the fact that Gemma was hard to relate to. I mean, the fact that Gemma is a swimmer and knows that this is what she wants to do with her life, then why would she ever miss practice? And the fact that both her older sister and her father kind of hates her going out to the bay in the middle of the night to swim, she does it anyways, because, hey I love swimming under the stars. I get that, but, I don't get it, if you get what I'm trying to incline? 

There's a lot of things that I feel like doesn't seem right. First of all, the three girls, why is it that they make everything so public. I mean, if they want to talk to Gemma, why not just talk to her like normal people instead of cornering her at the dock, threatening her? If something like what happened to Gemma happened to me, I would tell my sister, and my father, and probably my boyfriend too. I would be freaking out, not, ah, I had a bruise a minute ago but now it's gone, how strange, well, now I'm going to kiss my boyfriend. It's not how a normal teenager would have acted. And through all of this, it seems like Gemma has no friends whatsoever. She has her sister Harper, and Alex is Harper's friend, and therefore Gemma's friend, but Gemma doesn't mention ONE friend throughout the entire book. Not that I can recall. It's not entirely normal to not have any friends if you're on a swimming team in high school. 

Anyways, I could rant about this all day, and I'm not going to do that. It was a book worth reading since I like fantasy, but it's not a book I would consider mentioning for any of my friends until they told me that they liked mermaid books, or greek mythology for that sake. And to mention it, yes, the names of the sirens in greek mythology are correct, and the sake of muses and gods are also correct. So it was good background work by Hocking. 

I loved this book, I can’t hide my appreciation for feelgood books, and this was absolutely one of them. It might not be the typical love story that makes you smile at the end, but it makes you think, and that’s something I absolutely love about books. The thought you have when finishing them. Also, Theodore was so likable, while Violet kind of crept closer and closer to me during the time I read it. I won’t forget this book and there’s a big chance I’m going to read it again some time.

As for the story I feel like it goes into some of the typical storylines of YA books. The shy love that becomes great and massive in a very short amount of time - they fall in love and nothing else matters. While this book does that in a slightly different way, making us kind of fall in love with the characters themselves before we fall in love with their relationship - I have to say that it was kind of typical. For some reason it felt like reading the Fault in our Stars, just without the cancer.

Jennifer Niven is a really good writer, and I love her style of writing. It inspired me, and made me more aware of the really important theme about this book, which I’m not going to tell you because that’ll just ruin it for you.

It was an easy read and it was exciting, I enjoyed it a lot and I would recommend it. But it's just not one of the books I'll remember for the rest of my life, and I don't think I'll read it again.

What I like about Clare is that she’s able to give the dead branch on the ground some life. That’s really unusual, and what I also care a lot about is the way she describes the characters and the places they visit. I often feel like I’m there with them. I also love the way she makes that tension between Jace and Clary, but also with Simon, who’s so incredibly familiar and relatable it scares me sometimes.

I love the Mortal Instruments world, but this book was hard to read at first. Maybe it was the lack of action? I don’t know. But when I got about halfway through the book, things started to happen and the book was impossible to lay down.

This is also one of the reasons why I love Cassandra Clare, because she can make each book so exciting, you just have to read it. To my annoyance it actually took me three months to get through this one, but as I said, halfway through; and I read the rest in a day. Now I’ve just started City of Glass, and I can promise you that the next book is going to be epic!

GIRL INTERRUPTED
SUSANNA KAYSEN
PUBLISHED: 1993
AVERAGE RATING: 3.88
169 PAGES
★★★☆☆

Set in 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she’d never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital. She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous clientele, as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.

I’d seen the movie that was made of the book and I loved it, so when I saw that we had it at the library where I’m working I figured that I was going to read this book now that I had the chance.

I’ve never really liked biographies and books like that, but I kind of liked this one, probably because of Kaysen’s of describing how she felt, and being exposed to a facility like this; I can kind of relate to what Kaysen was feeling; I have to get out of here, I might not be crazy now, but these people will make me crazy. But I was proven wrong, and so was Kaysen after a while in McLean Hospital.

She met so many interesting people, and her way of describing them; to describe them to us so that we can get to know them just as good as she gets to know them, I love it.

First of all the book is about a girl named Lia who have a eating disorder, and throughout the book we get to know her relationship with this disorder, her relationship with her dead friend Cassie and her relationship with her family. Now, I want to say that I don’t have much knowledge about anorexia, and I don’t know much about it, so don’t get me wrong. 

I didn’t like the writing style, Anderson uses crossed out words a lot, now, some say that it’s because it’s Lia’s real thoughts, but for me, they kind of slowed down the paste, and eventually I didn’t really care to read them at all because they, as I said, slowed down the paste and that was pretty annoying. The chapter headings in the book is like this: 001.00 etc, and that was a big distraction that took me several chapters to even realize what they meant. So, something more that slowed down the paste during the book. 

I didn’t really connect to Lia and I never grew to like her either, which is really rare because I often find some things about the characters in the books I read that kind of make me relate or even feel like I’m the character, but this book didn’t do that to me. For me she sounded like a spoiled brat who was selfish and throughout the book I didn’t really care if she got well or not, I just wanted to be done with the book. If the book had been a success for me, it would have been a major part of the reading experience, knowing that she got well and that she’s doing good and all that. 

I find her kind of heartless and cold towards her parents, and she keeps referencing to the fact that she knows she’s starving herself, so she doesn’t do anything out of unawareness or confusion, she seems more reckless.

To my confusion I thought it would give me more insight in how the world of someone with a decease like this lives, how their lives are, maybe that it would give me some kind of understanding about it. And sure, I do get why people suddenly find themselves doing it, I mean, who doesn’t want to get skinnier? But the fact is that this book kind of ended up as a freaking manual to how to get Anorexia, and I don’t think that’s the proper way to write a book. I’ve never had any real connections with eating disorders, because I was always scared of getting one, but it can also serve as a relatable book to people who have this disorder, and I’m sure that some people would love it, I mean, looking down the reviews on Goodreads I was surprised to see how many people put five stars on it, so I think this book is more about taste than it has to whether or not it’s good written. If the subject is something you’re interested in, maybe it’ll serve you a purpose more than it did for me. 

After christmas I went to my local bookstore and bought the four first books of the chronicle, and started the first book almost immediately, and I was so amazed by the way Cassandra Clare writes, how you can see what happens to Clary (the protagonist) when she finds out about the Shadow World and what lives inside it. It’s been a really long time since I read a book with this many turns and twists, action filled scenes with vampires, werewolves, the Nephilin’s, it’s so exciting, and here’s why. 

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It's hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary's first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It's also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace's world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know...

Cassandra Clare is extraordinary good at writing detailed descriptions of what happens, when you read the books you can smell the taste the air has, the way the floor feels under someone’s feet feel like, you can see the people in front of you so clear it’s almost a little scary. I really liked Clary from the start, she was this smart girl who liked to paint and for so many reasons I felt like I could really connect with this character. Then we had Jace, a Nephilin (Half angel, half human), who joked his way through the books with awesome comments and witty comebacks, and with his golden hair and strong muscles we kind of saw ourselves holding his waist while riding a motorcycle. 

There aren’t many characters in this book, we have the Institute, which is where the Nephilin’s of New York live (Jace, Alec, Isabelle and their teacher Hodge), we have Clary, her mother Jocelyn, Dorothea and Jocelyn’s old friend Luke. Simon, Clary’s best friend gets dragged into this mess of the Shadow World, and what once seemed like a blossoming relationship between them got totally screwed up in the process. We have the Warlocks, the men of The City of Bones, we have vampires, a pack of werewolves, and last there is Valentine, the evil Nephilin who wants the Cup in order to change humans into Nephilin’s so that he can kill the Downworlders (which pretty much means every creature except humans and Nephilin’s). 

I think that the reason why this book works so good is because of the small pond of important characters, we don’t get lost in a ocean of names, and we kind of carry on through the book, knowing a lot about the few characters. Like the fact that Hodge, the Nephilin’s teacher, has a bird called Hugin, or that Alec and Isabelle are siblings, we get to know that Jocelyn is not the woman Clary thought she was - and there are so many details in this 500-page book that you’ll be amazed and quite pleased to know that it’s worth reading every page of it. 

As we speak, I’m going to start the second book; City of Ashes, and I’m so excited to get to know the Nephilin world even better, and this time, the pages aren’t that many. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did, and that you’ll leave a comment below if there’s anything you’re wondering about!

If I have to complain about anything, it would be that I felt that Anna as a character is a little… plain. She acts in logical ways and says things that makes perfect sense, but since we’re reading parts of the book as is we were in her head, I feel like I we should have been able to get a deeper sense of her feelings. I just feel that something’s missing there.

But I was surprisingly pleased with this book, it was a quick read and a nice break from my studies. I just heard there is a sequel of sorts, described as “On the Island 1.5”, and I’ll probably read that as well. And considering this is Garvis-Graves’ first book, It’s very good.