The Winner's Crime

Book Title: The Winner's Crime

Author: Marie Ruthkoski
Series: The Winner's Curse #2

Date Started: March 9th 2015

Date Completed: March 12th 2015

Genres: Romance, Mystery, Adventure
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

The Winner's Curse was so different and unique and wonderful in its romance without being typical or annoying. It had taken the politics and made that an actual threat and influence on Kestrel and Arin's actions. The Winner's Crime was most what the first book wasn't - and it makes me sad that its in a bad way. Overall, it was the abrupt changes from the last book disappointed me, but even the story itself was underwhelming.

I do really like Rutkoski's writing; it's really nice but also easy to read. Despite not enjoying The Winner's Crime as much as the first book, I still got very easily lost within the pages - and it's not often that I sit down and look up an hour and a half later thinking it had been five minutes. The style just tied in so well with the uniqueness of the first book, but I felt like it was somewhat lost amongst the reasonably level tension throughout this story.

The big big thing I loved about The Winner's Curse was how well Rutkoski had avoided being typical and having her characters pining or being just downright stupid. The big surprise for me was when halfway through the book, Kestrel and Arin started to be annoying. But I thought it's fine, they have a right to have miscommunication. But then they starting pining, and still refused to do anything about it. And then they started acting stupidly in ways that didn't affect them but their country. And it got to the point where it was more about their 'will they, won't they' dilemma than about the characters themselves and their situations - arguably at a time when their situations should've been the driving forces for the whole story.

At first there was some really nice inclusion of politics: it was dangerous and it was logical. But it ended up petering out towards the end, and it ended up only really being there for the cliffhanger. I noticed with a couple of things in this novel that were only really there as a cliffhanger - it felt like Rutkoski was picking and choosing what mistakes actually ended up having consequences at all. The threat of politics; Kestrel's principles; the time it took for Arin to have a brain and realise what was going on - it was all only there for a particular thing, but then there didn't seem to be much effort to hide its purpose (I don't even think there was a trigger for Arin's realisation. It just happened to be at this moment where things would work out like she wanted for the plot. Not how it actually would've happened if the characters were acting normally).

But to be honest I could've gone with all that and just been mildly disappointed. But then the whole book became really negative and depressing - I can't even remember a lot of the beginning of the story because of how much the second half just felt strange. Even in dark or sad books, there's got to be some sort of hope or objective to drive the characters into action. But there was nothing. No triumphs or achievements at really any point in the story; no hope for anything coming soon. I don't know what happened, but when I finished the last page I didn't feel any real tension towards what was going to happen in the next book, or any sense of a big approaching climax. I will read the next book because I'm praying this was just a couple of things getting a bit muddled, and I'm sure after that first book the end will be great.

There's only a few new characters in this book - something that surprised me a little, and also was slightly disappointing. I loved the introduction of Verex and his impact on the story, though I feel he was slightly wasted, especially considering there are so few people left that Kestrel might consider an ally.

Kestrel herself had changed a bit from the last book (or so I remember). Honestly, I was okay with that because of what likely happened in between the novels, and I liked that her principles and political understanding were still very important to her. But when they started slipping she didn't seem to try very hard to get back to herself and it actually didn't impact the plot until the very end (when it really should have).

If I'm honest, the thing that irritated me the most about the whole book was how different Arin was. Perhaps I remember him wrong, but even so the stubbornness with which he was pushing to get what he wanted, and the way he pined for the majority of the book, and how stupid he was, just wasn't Arin. Sure, he hadn't been the most practical or cunning character I'd ever read about, but he wouldn't spend so long only thinking about himself - even above his people towards the end. I was prepared for him to have changed, but his aggression with no explanation I could see, turned him into a typical YA male interest that wasn't getting what he wanted and I hated it.

The Winner's Crime was very addictive. I've already mentioned how easily I got lost in it, especially at the start. But when things started to get more and more unlikely the magic broke down a bit for me and I started reading smaller and smaller chunks.

I would widely recommend The Winner's Curse, but it's harder for The Winner's Crime. If you enjoy romance then you'll love this series, but even if you aren't someone who enjoys stories centered purely around a love story (like myself) the writing style and world building really pushed up the appeal for me. However much I was disappointed by this book, it was necessarily bad - and because of that I do think it is worth reading if you enjoyed the first novel. Perhaps just don't expect quite the same thing.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21469060-the-winner-s-crime

I Am the Messenger

Book Title: I Am the Messenger

Author: Markus Zusak

Date Started: February 22nd 2015

Date Completed: March 6th 2015

Genres: Mystery, Contemporary, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars

Final Rating: Four stars

Review:

I Am the Messenger was not what I expected, but impressed me in how genuinely heartwarming it was. Ed's quest to make people's lives better through the hints he gets in the mail was a really interesting idea and I loved the way his connections to these people were more complex than just helping them and disappearing. I can see why some people might not like it because of the repetitiveness for the majority of the book - but for me I think the ending was worth it, however illogical and silly it seemed.

I absolutely love Zusak's style and it definitely translates from his masterpiece - it's more subtle here since in a way the things presented aren't quite as overtly meaningful, but it's definitely still there. Some quotes are just beautiful and it definitely made the slower parts of this book interesting. It also enhanced the atmosphere - something else I really liked about this book. There's the wonderful heartwarming feel, but there's also a underlying sense of danger if Ed doesn't do everything that's expected of him. I have to say this didn't exactly span the entirety of the book, and the laid-back attitude of the narrator for most of it made everything seem a little less serious than it might otherwise have been.

The opening chapter of this book is brilliant - but it's not what the whole book is. I think some readers have been surprised after that suspenseful, exciting first scene and then become bored with the slower development of the plot. Personally however, I really liked this story: the concept of getting little missions to help strangers was nice, and the execution of it was good. But the main issue with this novel is that it really gets repetitive: Ed gets a card with clues to people he needs to help; he visits them a few times and solves their problems; he moves on in time and as a person. Of course, each person he has to help is a little different, but there were further ways Zusak could've varied how it happened. In his defence, I liked how he did it, and I can definitely see why he did it that way (you have to make it to the end to find out), but it is understandable why some people might find it hard to come on with.

The ending was really good in my opinion though. It wasn't logical, and there isn't any explanation as to how this all happened, but I couldn't help thinking it was cool and quite clever. In many ways it wasn't a very good conclusion at all, but it hit home what the whole story was about and it satisfyingly fit with the story.

I like the characters in this book, but I wasn't wild about them. I suppose it's about the messages sent through the characters rather than the people themselves. Though I do think perhaps if I'd been closer to the characters as people rather than their part of the story.

Ed was a nice protagonist, and I think his true ordinariness (not your typical 'normal but with a hidden talent' protagonist) made the reality of the story a whole lot more important - there is a very clear idea that this is supposed to send a message to readers themselves, and Ed's character really hits home with it. I also thought he was a really realistic guy and I can think of a few people I know that face the exact problems with motivation he has - and seeing him grow so much during the book was just lovely to follow (this is also where I can support the slow pace, because it increased the realism a fair bit).

The pacing of events wasn't too bad actually; one of the positives from this idea of a constant quest is that there's always something important to the plot happening. In this respect the pacing is good; but there still comes the issue that the actual action itself becomes repetitive after the first few times.

I would recommend I Am the Messenger to fans of Markus Zusak's writing, but be aware it's very different from The Book Thief. For me it was a still just as lovely (most of the time). It does require a bit of patience, but if you're willing to really get immersed in the story I think it's a really nice read. And the ending will either infuriate you or blow your mind.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19057.I_Am_the_Messenger

Bookish Academy Awards 2014

The Bookish Academy Awards was originally a tag created by Kayla at BookaDooodles.

This post was inspired by Regan at PeruseProject.

To celebrate the film award season (particularly the Academy Awards), the film categories at these ceremonies have been adapted into their bookish form. Each of my selections come from books I read (but were not necessarily released) in the year 2014. I have tried to avoid using the same book twice.

Best Actor

Best Male Protagonist - 

Skulduggery Pleasant - The Dying of the Light, Derek Landy

Best Actress

Best Female Protagonist - 

Celaena Sardothien - Heir of Fire, Sarah J. Maas

Best Cinematography

Best Plot Twist - 

The Storyteller, Antonia Michaelis

Best Costume Design

Best Book Cover - 

Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor

Best Supporting Actor

Best Male Non-Protagonist - 

Marcus Whitmore - The Book of Life, Deborah Harkness

Best Supporting Actress

Favourite Female Non-Protagonist - 

Sydney - Vicious, V. E. Schwab

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Book-to-Movie Adaptation - 

The Maze Runner - The Maze Runner, James Dashner

Best Original Screenplay

Best Original or Complex World - 

The Winner's Curse, Marie Rutkoski

Best Animated Feature

Best Book to be Turned into Animation - 

Ink, Amanda Sun

Best Director

Newly Discovered Author - 

Morgan Rhodes, the Falling Kingdoms series

Best Visual Effects

Best Action - 

Armageddon Outta Here, Derek Landy

Best Short Film

Best Novella or Short Book - 

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, Mathias Malzieu

Best Picture

Best Stand-Alone Novel - 

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

Best Documentary

Best Historical Fiction or Non-Fiction - 

The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller

Image Sources -

The Dying of the Light - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18131799-the-dying-of-the-light?from_search=true

Heir of Fire - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20617636-heir-of-fire

The Storyteller - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13741785-the-storyteller

Dreams of Gods and Monsters - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18244506-dreams-of-gods-and-monsters

The Book of Life - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21076207-the-book-of-life

Vicious - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18180495-vicious

The Maze Runner (film poster) - http://www.fiktshun.com/fiktshun/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/TMR-1Sht-691x1024.jpg

The Maze Runner (book cover) - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12382940-the-maze-runner

The Winner's Curse - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16069030-the-winner-s-curse?from_search=true

Ink - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17852056-ink

Falling Kingdoms - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13613142-falling-kingdoms

Rebel Spring - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16000044-rebel-spring

Gathering Darkness - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17342700-gathering-darkness?from_search=true

Armageddon Outta Here - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20752500-armageddon-outta-here

The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6671933-the-boy-with-the-cuckoo-clock-heart

The Night Circus - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10860047-the-night-circus

The Song of Achilles - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13617066-the-song-of-achilles

The Book of Beasts

Book Title: The Book of Beasts

Author: John and Carole E. Barrowman
Series: Hollow Earth #3

Date Started: February 12th 2015

Date Completed: February 13th 2015

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Mystery
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

Final Rating: Three stars

Review:

I really enjoy these books, and I think they're just great for younger readers starting to move into more frequent/complex books. The concept of people who can draw and 'animate' things into the real world - while being used before - is unique in its development in this series and the vibrant depth of this will really draw readers in I think.

This series has a really nice style for children's books, but I did have an issue with the coherency of the writing: objects would just suddenly be mentioned like they were there the whole time, and events would happen out of no where without consequences or reason. Honestly the consistency in children's books doesn't irritate me as much as in more complex stories (for obvious reasons) but when I'm reading it and suddenly confused or finding it hard to keep up because things are happening out of nowhere it's a problem for me.

I did prefer the stories of the previous books, but The Book of Beasts succeeded in tying the story together in a reasonably satisfying way (I'll get to that in a minute). However, though the parts that don't include the twins had the potential to be good, they didn't end up adding to anything since this probably would've made things too complicated, but instead we've got this little snippets of the adults' stories but I don't quite see the point of it. I think younger readers would've enjoyed just following the protagonists and be satisfied with the explanations offered by the adults anyway.

The ending was very underwhelming for me - it did tie everything together and was perfectly fine, I was expecting more. The climax of a final book are usually more tense than the previous ones, but (though I admit I can't remember much about The Bone Quill) the endings of the prequels have been much more dramatic and exciting than this. The villain isn't exactly difficult to overcome and once everyone's together the story finishes. This is one of the few cases I would've liked to have a 'one week later' epilogue or something - as it was I felt things tied up but everything stopped very abruptly. (I wanted to know how the twins felt being back together; Em and Zach's relationship; what happens with the twin's mum?)

I really like the characters in these books - though I'm a little indifferent to the adults - and I really love their relationships. But some of the outer characters are a little necessary to me as they only really appear once or twice and have very little impact.

I really love following a story based on twins, especially when they're separated, because there's this real connection and drive for them to progress through the story. Having said that, I do feel that Matt is focused on more than his sister, and Em ends up missing a lot of the action, but I do appreciate that both of them are capable and talented in their own ways. I think Matt conforms a little too much to the brave-kid while Em reflects the overcoming-fear stereotype. But they're still enjoyable and good protagonists.

I really love Zach's character, and I love his normal representation despite being deaf - I also like the way it isn't constantly being used against him. Aside from the obvious, I just think he's a really nice, caring person that you don't often get in a side-kick that's still active and capable.

I have to say I don't really feel like I know Solon or Carik and I'm not entirely sure of their significance apart from preventing Matt from being completely alone in the Middle Ages. It was also very unsatisfying how we left them and they were then never mentioned afterwards.

While the pacing was far too rushed for me, I can see how it would appeal to a younger age group. This goes back to the incoherency in the plot for me but everything was very fast and events spiralled to their climax and were over extremely fast. This did make things less enjoyable for me just because I'm used to more suspense in the action.

This series has a brilliant premise for younger readers, and while some other parts of the story aren't exactly consistent, it's a lot of fun and a really nice series for anyone to read. I'd also say it's a good introduction into fantasy, adventure and even a little bit of mystery. Though in my opinion the trilogy starts off on a high and falls a little bit as you go through, the whole thing is really enjoyable and I'd be interested in a sequel if one were to be written.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22920717-the-book-of-beasts

Station Eleven

Book Title: Station Eleven

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

Date Started: February 8th 2015

Date Completed: February 11th 2015

Genres: Adventure, Dystopian
Quality Rating: Four stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three stars

Rating: Four stars

Review:

I really enjoyed Station Eleven and it was a nice variation on the post-pandemic/apocalyptic world, but for me it was just missing something to make it completely brilliant.

The writing in this book was very clever. The ordering of words etc itself was nice, and I fell very comfortably into reading it fast, but the big thing that impressed me about Station Eleven was the structuring. This story isn't told in chronological order, and we aren't shown any one character's full story: it's this big mix of bits and pieces from everyone, and thoughts and memories from characters, and little hints left to tie people together. What I really loved was the gradual reveal of the character's exposition because of this; you learnt about some of the characters as you followed them in 'present day', but then you realised you didn't really know them until you learnt something from another person's past - likewise, there's mentions of people in he apocalyptic world, but then we actually follow them in some chapters. while this sometimes didn't have the biggest impact on the story (only sometimes), it was really interesting and definitely kept my attention fixed.

There are just little parts of Station Eleven that I would never have thought of for the setting and just worked beautifully: the Travelling Symphony being the obvious example. Though the idea of a group of actors and musicians travelling around after the apocalypse isn't actually far fetched at all when you think about it, they're two things I would never have put together and thought of to make a story from. But it works so wonderfully, because the mere idea of Shakespeare performed in that setting is just brilliant to me. I was very disappointed when the performances stopped reasonably near the beginning - but the plot turns in a direction where it's impossible and rightly so. (The Severn Airport was also an idea I really loved - a museum of artefacts from the 'old world' - and Clark setting it up in memory of his partner hurt my heart a little bit.)

Though the story itself was good, the things that stick out to me while I'm writing this are the little details: the things that made Station Eleven different and interesting. So I'm not going to talk too much about the plot itself, but know that it's substantial and reasonably satisfying (perhaps the reason it wasn't perfect for me was because the story doesn't quite mark up to the little things). One big difference is the portrayal of a post-apoclyptic world, and I'm not sure that's the right word for it, because it's not exactly an apocalypse - a pandemic yes. But this world wasn't shown as a complete disaster with everyone deciding they might as well just give up now. And that, for me, was an amazing difference. It reminded me how long it's been since I've read a dystopian that doesn't mirror that one we all know and can't help but think about in this genre. But Station Eleven's world wasn't all disaster; there were nicer moments and there were feelings of safety between these people, and it actually made it feel a lot more real - and definitely more interesting. This wasn't overdone either - there was an almost perfect balance between the harsh realities of the world, but the nice reminiscent stuff too.

The characters in Station Eleven were great: even the evil ones had a backstory and a development to who they are in the 'present day' of the narrative - and the jumps in time meant we really got to explore these developments.

Kirsten was my favourite character in this book, and I loved very slowly tying together her past. But actually, I think as we followed her story (she's really the protagonist in the 'present day') just getting to know the older Kirsten was enough to make me love her: she's not made out to be this huge hero, or to know everything, or to be particularly special or anything. She really is just normal, and yet she still stands out because we follow her and we learn about her - it just goes to show for me that a main character doesn't have to have all these crazy rarities to be interesting or important.

Clark was the loveliest character in the story and I don't think I want to reveal anything else about him.

Everything in this book seemed to tie together beautifully - apart from Jeevan. I loved his character and his story was great, but it just stuck out to me as the one thing that didn't intertwine so closely with everything else. I don't think it's a bad thing, but it just felt a bit strange - at the very least I was expecting Kisrten to bump into his on the road and never find out their connections.

There's a nice structure in this book, so the pace of the action itself doesn't matter too much since we're tying pieces of information together as we go instead of getting consequences from events. I found it really hard to put down because of this, and the reasonable lengths of chapters helped.

Station Eleven's a really good variation on typical post-apoclyptic books, but it also combines some other elements you wouldn't expect. While it has its serious parts, there's also more heartwarming scenes than is typical of the dystopian genre.

Image Source - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23306186-station-eleven

Burning for Revenge

Book Title: Burning for Revenge

Author: John Marsden
Series: The Tomorrow Series #5

Date Started: February 5th 2015

Date Completed: February 8th 2015

Genres: Action, Thriller, Romance, Dystopian
Quality Rating: Five stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four stars

Rating: Four stars

Review:

It's been quite a while since I read some of the Tomorrow series, and so I really forgot just how good they were. Burning for Revenge was a solid four stars for me, not because there were aspects that disappointed me, but just because I know this is all building up to something massive, and I'm saving those five stars for then.

The surprising thing about these books is there's a lot of personal narrative, where the group are just staying in the same place, lying low. But it's not boring. I don't know how he does it, or even how he stops Ellie from becoming annoying, but these anecdotes about her life before the war, or her musings about her friends, or her daydreaming about the future, never bring me to the point where I want to put the book down. Marsden has just built up such a genuine and good person, despite all the things she's done, that I really do believe every word she says - or rather I believe it like she was real, maybe not her opinions, but you get what I mean.

Actually, not that much happens, but when it does it's written so confidently that it's just brilliant to read. There's real work within the structure of the writing, and the words themselves that tell you Marsden has really put effort into his atmosphere and it ends up being so vivid that you really do feel for the characters.

It's quite funny, because there's a group of kids introduced for a small part of this book and it just showed how mature and realistic this series is compared to most Young Adult dystopians I've read. I'm still trying to work out if it was deliberate that they sounded and acted like they had literally walked out of those books, or if it was just naturally written that way, because it just stood out to me as such a huge contrast that I hadn't really thought about before. Honestly, I could probably argue that this series doesn't fit in YA.

I love the twists the story takes: you can't really predict it in the long run, which makes you feel like you're in the same precarious, uncertain situation as the group. Admittedly, it does depend a little too much on coincidence for my tastes - but I suppose realistically it is all down to chance.

What really caught my attention in this novel in the series particularly, was the first severe portrayal of the mental consequences. Up to now all the characters have been affecting by their experiences, of course, but this was the first time someone literally stopped functioning, lay down and couldn't do anything anymore. And, of course, this hindering the group in huge ways that really threatened their lives - sure, it made me uncomfortable because of course you don't want to hear about someone in that situation, but wow did it make things real. Again, it just stood out to me as something I don't read about all that much in this genre, when it should be a really big feature.

Finally, I really liked the romance, because this is how it really works in wars. It isn't a big issue, but you push it to the front to try and get your mind off the serious things; you don't think it's important but then someone mucks something up because of it and you're all threatened as a consequence; it's there, but survival is first.

Having the same group of characters throughout the whole story is really effective: if I think about it all the series' I've adored have had the same group of characters in throughout the whole thing. And it works because you get attached to them and you don't get distracted from everything else by learning about new characters, but you still build up on what you know about these ones. They're the kind of characters I don't want to let go, but I know I'll have to at some point.

Ellie is one of my favourite protagonists of all time. Like I've said before, she's just such a genuine person that even after all the bad things she's done, I still think she's trying to be a good person, and I still love her. She's real in both the good things she does and the bad; in the horrible ways she treats her friends, and the ways she tries to make up for it; when her instincts make her do stupid things, and when they save her life. We need more protagonists like Ellie.

My love for Homer has definitely grown, and I think he's now contending with Ellie for my favourite. Fi is still wonderful, and even though I've never felt an affinity to Kevin, I felt for him this time, and I wanted him to be okay. As for Lee, I think it was really clever how suddenly we couldn't help but look negatively at him - and that's because of Ellie's narrative, and because she's always shown him as good person.

I really liked the way this book was paced: Marsden has always been a skilled writer, and all his books prove it. This series is definitely action packed, but there's a lot of downtime too, and the balance between them is perfected so that we really do learn about these characters, and we really do feel the danger when they're threatened.

I think the Tomorrow series is one of the best 'dystopian' survival series' out there. Don't get me wrong, there are some good things to come out of the YA dystopia genre, but this is the real thing. If you want to get sidetracked with some romance or the occasional drama or some full-on direct attack of the government, stay with the popular ones. But if you want the gritty truth, with a real sense of realism in the relationships and consequences, then I couldn't recommend this series more.

Image Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17125747-burning-for-revenge

The Wronged

Book Title: The Wronged

Author: Kimberley Chambers

Date Started: February 2nd 2015

Date Completed: February 5th 2015

Genres: Mystery, Contemporary
Quality Rating: Two/Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: One/Two Stars

Final Rating: Two stars

Review:

Thank you to HarperCollins for providing me with this copy to review!

This is the first review copy I've ever not been able to finish, and I've been wondering about how to write this review fairly, but not harshly. It's hard for me to distinguish between what I just didn't like about this book, and what actually are the flaws in it. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to be brutally honest - I am asked to be after all - but also accepting that I clearly wasn't part of this target audience and so am not that likely to understand its reasonings.

For me, I can't say that I particularly enjoyed the writing of The Wronged. There was an unnecessary amount of swearing - and I have no problem with swearing. But when it gets to the point where you can't find a line that doesn't have swearing that has now lost all impact because it's been used so much, I think it's gone too far. The general structure also just didn't work for me: it seemed like a very basic 'this happened, and then this happened, and then he went and did this, then she said this' ordeal and it just took out any sort of tension or pace, and frankly enjoyment for me. The extremely short scenes didn't really help this. The page-and-a-half conversations worked at the start to throw us into the story, but as it carried on it felt a bit like Chambers couldn't maintain a narrative for more longer.

I really liked how the story begins straight in the middle of everything: it was a different kind of way to be introduced to the characters and I think worked quite well for tying each of them together. On the other hand, being told who Molly's murderer was within the first few pages lost all the suspense and mystery for the rest of the book to me. I was expecting another couple of things that hinted otherwise to come up, but as far as I could see we were just jumping off the dysfunctional members of the family, with their typical drug taking, and abortions, and this that and the other. Maybe if I'd kept reading something new would have jumped out, or perhaps a different take on these issues, but unfortunately by the time I got to my decision limit [the number of pages I make myself read to make sure I'm not being lazy or giving up too soon] it just wasn't enough to keep me reading.

The characters were very dislikable for me, and seemed to lack any sense of depth and were incredibly robotic. Sure, they had issues, and they were conflicted about these things, but there wasn't any sense that it was important or that what they were choosing was going to have any implications on them in the future: they just seemed a bit...emotionless.

Little Vinny seems to be the focus for everything going wrong in the family, but honestly I can't see anything he did wrong that was any worse than the rest of them. And they all seemed unconditionally against him, so can you really blame him for going out all the time and having 'typical teenager behaviour'?

Queenie also stood out to be as an important character, and perhaps is has more gravity over the later parts of the book, but she did nothing of note while I was reading.

Without reading the whole book, it's hard to talk about the pacing: from what I read, it started off well but then feel and hovered at exactly the same rate for a long time. The dramas didn't grow or fall in tension; there weren't plot twists with any effect. I would thin this was partly to do with the tiny scene lengths; we'd have a chapter with quite a few little scenes in them that lasted a page and a half before shifting to someone else. Because of this I was never reading anything long enough to get any sort of attachment about it.

Like I said, I'm clearly not the target audience for this book: I just didn't understand the purpose of the structure, I hated the characters and was bored of the melodramatic dramas even fifty pages. It just was not for me. But I don't think I really know who it was for, either.

Image Source: http://4edd9444c072ad07aff7-11d966b2703d5a5467932b6516b2610f.r67.cf2.rackcdn.com/harpercollins_au_frontbookcovers_648H/9780007521753.jpg