Review for "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing" by Hank Green

"It is easy for me to recognize that I made some good decisions and some bad ones. But it's telling that, with this, I knew it was a bad idea even then but I still couldn't control myself. Knowing something is a bad idea does not always decrease the odds that you will do it." 



Rating: 4.25 stars

April May has made some very bad decisions. Including, but not limited to, meddling in alien technology without knowing what the heck she was doing, withholding information to relevant government bodies, and turning on her friends for the purpose of increasing, maintaining, or augmenting her fame. One of the best parts of this story is that April is a very flawed human. I love this aspect of the book so much. The entire theme of the story is the differences between humans and machines like the Carls; humans are flawed and dysfunctional and all the more beautiful (Carl's words, not mine), for it. April May is an excellent example of this. On one hand, April's flawed thinking is super entertaining. You know that the decision she's making is a stupid one, but you want to know what will happen when she does it. On the other hand, you can't even be that frustrated with her horrible choices because the story is set up so that April is constantly talking about how she knows the stuff she did was dumb and sometimes regretting those decisions.

On top of the characters, which are entertaining, realistic, and diverse without being cringeworthily obvious about it (a common trope in YA contemporaries nowadays), the plot was unexpected and just interesting. The fact is, the majority of the science fiction parts in this book were absolutely absurd. Not in a way that was like "bahh this would never happen I hate how unrealistic it is". But more in the way that's like "I did not see THIS coming, I love it". I mean, I wasn't anticipating such a tribute to CRJ's 2012 pop masterpiece but I am certainly not complaining.

The other thing about this book is that it didn't go in the direction I anticipated to begin with. It was much more a contemporary, in my opinion, than a science fiction book. The plot with the Carls was almost just a subplot, a thing that had to happen to further the main plot. And what was that main plot, you ask? April May's insane navigation through the world of fame and fortune (but mostly fame). In April's quest for fame, she learns about human desire and relationships, cruelty, humanity, and what it means to have a truly common goal. The plot here was so intricate that I can only imagine the author had some experience with this himself or did a LOT of research for it. Either way, the story was just well crafted and gorgeous. This is really just a quirky and fun yet meaningful contemporary with splashes of science fiction throughout. -0.75 stars because there wasn't quite enough of the science fiction to hold my absolute attention 100% of the time.

BEST BOOKS OF 2018

These are all my favorite books I read this year! I read 42 books this year, and there are a lot of good ones. I am only going to list the books here; if you want more information I recommend checking out my reviews and monthly wrap-ups as well as Goodreads! I've narrowed my list down to the top 20% of books I've read throughout the year, and they are all recommendations. There is a variety of genres, so I'll include those as well. (These are in order of date read, not in order of priority.)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, read in February
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Nonfiction, science, biography


Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach, read in March
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Nonfiction, science


A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas, read in October
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: YA fantasy series


Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand, read in November
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Nonfiction, historical, biography


The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, read in November
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Greek mythology


Artemis by Andy Weir, read in December
Rating: 4 stars
Genre: Science fiction


It's King of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, read in December
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: YA contemporary


Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo, read in December
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: YA fantasy series

December 2018 Wrap-Up

1. Artemis by Andy Weir
Rating: 4 Stars

I liked this book a lot, more than I thought I would. I loved the narration and the main character, and I loved the heisty feel to it. I definitely recommend this to science fiction lovers.

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Rating: 3 stars

This book was fine. Not super special, in my opinion. I thought it was a cute story, with magical realism elements. It's a short read so I didn't feel like I wasted any time on it.

3. World's End (Dormia #2) by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinksi
Rating: 3 stars

This was a quick read for me. The plot was interesting, and I like the characters, generally speaking. I've struggled with this series since I feel like the main character has no personality, and I'm waiting for the plot to come up with something fresh. The plot was essentially the same as the first book - a long journey to some Dormian land to save everything from even the same antagonist. Since the title of the book "World's End" is the name of the American town Alfonso is from, I thought maybe the Dormian/human worlds would collide in this one, like maybe some of the fight would be in his own territory. But no. So we'll see if the third book can turn the series around.

4. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Rating: 5 stars

This is actually one of my favorite books of all time. It's on my favorites shelf with just 5 other books and I love it and my heart breaks every time. Clearly, this was a reread for me and it took about 2 hours to finish it.

5. Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3) by Sarah J. Maas
Rating: 3 stars

This book gets three stars, two stars for the first half of the book and four stars for the second half.
I just felt like this story dragged horribly through the first 150 pages. The whole thing was supposed to heist and action, yet I still felt like nothing was happening. Also, I had unanswered questions by the end of the novel and I hate that. However, I loved the ending of this book.

6. Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot
Rating: 2 stars

I don't even know if this should be in the memoir category, or in the poetry category. Every sentence was like poetry. I can appreciate poeticism to a point, but this was a little melodramatic. Also, I didn't realize half the book was going to be letters to her (one) boyfriend/ex-boyfriend/husband(?), so that was just kind of annoying. Overall, I was underwhelmed. Maybe I don't "understand the art" of it, but I feel like I have read and appreciated memoirs (The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, the latter of which is a very poetic memoir) and this just didn't do it for me.

7. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Rating: 3 stars

This book was good, just not amazing. I guess I was expecting more based on how many medals are slapped on the front and how many recommendations I've heard. I thought the book was sweet, if a little predictable. I will probably not reread it or recommend it to people unless they really love contemporaries.

8. Shiver (Shiver #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
Rating: 3 stars

This was a reread for me, and I used to really love this book. I think since I've read more fantasy and paranormal romance novels, this just doesn't do it for me anymore. I will still try to reread Linger and Forever, the second and third books in the trilogy, sometime in the next year probably.

9. The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Rating: 3 stars

This book was highly recommended to me, and it was not all that I was hoping for. The story and characters were still good, but it wasn't spectacular. The premise of the book is that there is a fantasy adventure going on, but our main character is not "the Chosen One", he's someone who just happens to be caught up in the crazy things going on. I guess I expected this to be more involved in the fantasy story, like maybe being a side character involved in it, but instead the character had literally nothing to do with the fantasy aspect of the book and to me it just wasn't very interesting. I'm a very plot-driven reader, and there was not much direction with the plot here.

10. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 3 stars

This book was good and sweet, but I wasn't amazed by it. I don't have much to say about it. If you like contemporaries, books set in the 80's, teen romance, and stories about dysfunctional families, this is the book for you.

11. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Rating: 3 stars

I'm not a huge thriller person. Not because I don't like them, I just haven't read a ton so I am not familiar with the genre. A lot of people said that this was a good book for people who don't read thrillers often. I thought it would be a pretty good fit for me, but I wasn't super impressed. It wasn't shocking or twisty, and overall it was good but just good.

12. It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
Rating: 5

This was a reread for me and I still love it! The beautiful thing about this book is that it creates such a meaningful story, and you come to know the characters well, without being unnecessarily poetic. There are a lot of books that use obscure poetic lines ("We accept the love we think we deserve") to make the book seem more artsy. This story is simple and beautiful without overdoing it. I love it.

13. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
Rating: 3 stars

Boy does this book drag in the beginning... parts 1-4, which comprise more than half of the book, are pretty much just exposition. The problem is that there are so many characters and storylines, that the introductions take forever. Once you get to part 5 though (there are seven parts), it picks up and becomes really interesting. If you pick this up and find yourself wanting to DNF, I recommend sticking it out until the end.

14. Shadow Tree (Dormia #3) by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski
Rating: 1 star

I'm actually mad about this book. I was able to take the flat characters, unnatural flow of conversations and emotions, and ridiculously dry plot with a generous 2-star rating. BUT. There were probably over 25 typos/grammar mistakes throughout the book. It's just sloppy work. I can understand that this book was probably self-published and that presents challenges, but this was just terrible. It seems like the book wasn't revised or edited, either for its story or for basic grammar conventions like spelling and capitalization and COMMAS. The writers got lazy, and I can't respect it at all.

15. 5 to 1 by Holly Bodger
Rating: 5 stars

I didn't plan to read this book this month, I just picked it up and read it in one day. The prose was so creatively expressed, and the story and emotions in the book were beautiful.

16. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Rating: 4 stars

This book is very good, and I can understand all the hype for it. The characters have a lot of depth, so if you're a character driven reader, this book is definitely for you. The backstories were definitely the most intriguing part of the story. It was a really brilliant weaving of past and future. The first 2/3 of the book is pretty dry. I didn't feel enraptured by the story for most of the book. I was also disappointed with the world building.

17. Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo
Rating: 5 stars

This book was such an improvement on the first one. The first one was good, but I was not super invested in the characters. This book did it for me. A beautiful story that is a remarkable mix of high fantasy, teenage angst, and thriller-level action-packed heist.

18. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Rating: 4 stars

This book was obviously a reread for me, and as expected I enjoyed it more this time around than when I was forced to read it in high school. In general, I love the childhood-innocence-narration trope (see my notes above on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas), and this story is very well done. I love the motifs and metaphors in the book, and Scout is one of my favorite female leads.

19. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Rating: 2 stars

I don't have a really good reason for why I disliked this book as much as I did, it just felt like a child's rendition of LOTR and I love LOTR so much that I can't accept this.

If I could only recommend one...

This is so tough! I would have to recommend It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. This is a mental health story done well, and beyond it being a fantastic book, I think it could be an important read for many people. 

Review for "Catwoman: Soulstealer" by Sarah J. Maas

"But once she’d gone to the League, Nyssa and Talia had taught her far, far more. Bring Gotham City to its knees."



Rating: 3 stars

My disclaimer for this review is that I know very little about the DC universe. I've never read any of the comics, seen any of the movies besides Wonder Woman and Justice League, or even read the preceding books in this series. I enjoyed the book enough, I would recommend it to people who love superhero stories, but I personally probably won't pick it again because of how slow it moves through the beginning and middle.

This book gets three stars, two stars for the first half of the book and four stars for the second half.
I just felt like this story dragged horribly through the first 150 pages. The whole thing was supposed to heist and action, yet I still felt like nothing was happening. 

“There are good people in Gotham. Protect them.”

Also, I had unanswered questions by the end of the novel and I hate that. I love how Selina was doing everything for her sister, but then why did she keep insisting through the beginning-middle that she wanted to "bring Gotham City to its knees"? I understand if she had to keep up that facade in front of Harley, Ivy, and Luke, but why was it in her personal thoughts? She could have just referred to a plan vaguely without making it seem like she really was what everyone thought she was. I wouldn't have had a problem with the evilness of it, it's just that it was contradictory to her personality at the end of the book. I suppose, though, that she did continuously try to get Luke to "protect the good people of the city", but overall Selina's personal moral compass and personality confused me.

"Her face was white as death. Blood covered her suit. A stab wound in her back, piercing through the shoulder. Still bleeding out. Yet she still held her sister over a shoulder. Fingers white knuckled as they clenched her. She'd been stabbed, and yet Selina had carried her sister here. Tears began sliding down her face. Her mouth trembled. "Please," Selina whispered. One word. Just one, as those tears rolled down her face, through the dirt and blood. Please."

I loved the ending of this book. I love the dynamic between Luke and Selina, I love the way Selina "stealing something" from Nyssa ties into saving her sister, I love the resolution between Selina and Ivy about their friendship. I wasn't fond of the whole "Harley's getting psychiatric treatment because she wants to be good" thing. It just doesn't seem canon to Harley Quinn's character, and I like her crazy lawless personality. 

My Life in Books Tag

Here's a book tag so you can get to know me!! These will mostly be books I recommend too, so you should pick some of them up if they look interesting to you. This is called the "My Life in Books" tag and I will link the creator here: https://booklovingnut.com/2017/08/24/life-books-tag/

1. Pick a book for each of your initials: 

L -

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

M -

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

D -

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

2. Count your age along your bookshelf. What book is it?

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. I couldn't really control this one, but coincidentally it is also a book I highly recommend!

3. Pick a book set in your city or country.

I'm choosing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief for this one because I do highly recommend it, and it features a journey across the U.S.

4. Pick a book that represents a place you'd like to travel to.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I would love to go to Greece!

5. Pick a book that's your favorite color.

Kissed by an Angel series by Elizabeth Chandler. It's kind of multicolor, but I love the combination of colors, and it does feature my favorite color, pink.

6. Which book do you have the fondest memories of?

Sisters Red by Jackson Pearce. This is a book my sister and I really bonded over because of how much we both loved it.

7. Which book did you have the most difficulty reading?

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. This is one of my all-time favorites, and I say it's "hard to read" because from the onset, you know that the author dies before the book is finished and that he's writing about his own physical demise. It's difficult to read because it's a heavy topic, but absolutely worth it.

8. Which book in your TBR will give you the biggest sense of accomplishment when you finally read it?

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. This is a huge book/series, and it's daunting to think about reading, but I know I will get around to it eventually!

Hyped Books That I Want to Read

I've been active on Goodreads and Booktube for a few months now, and I've found a lot of super hyped books that I want to read (eventually!). I'm going to share them here. Most of these books are YA/NA fantasy series, and I'm so okay with that!

The reason I wanted to do this post is because I recently read the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas and I really loved it so it makes me excited to read the other books that are heavily recommended by other readers.

In no particular order:

#1: The Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas

I'm not sure if I'll like this one as much as ACOTAR but I'm definitely excited to give it a try! Overall, I think people like ACOTAR more, but that doesn't mean this one isn't also hyped in its own right.

#2: Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

I feel like I hear about this series every day. I have already bought both Six of Crows  and Crooked Kingdom and I'm hoping to get to them soon!

#3: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Honestly I don't even remember what the basic plot of this is, I just remember hearing everyone talk about it and reading the synopsis and plopping it down on my TBR list a while ago. And it has like 4 medals on the front, so it has to be good I guess??

#4: A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Ever since I read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, I've been hooked on the premise of forbidden love because of "out of time" societal barriers. This is like George Washington but... with GAYS! Amazing. Or at least that's what I've heard.

#5: The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater

This is another series that I hear about constantly, with all amazing ratings. I really loved Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver trilogy (which I actually want to reread), so I'm very excited to collect and read all of these.

#6: The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

This book deals with a topic I have not read a lot about or (thankfully) ever come close to experiencing, so I think that it will be refreshing for me. I also think it will break my heart in half, but it's fine.

#7: Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma

I've seen this book get mixed reviews, and the bad reviews are mostly from people who are too uncomfortable with the taboo theme of it. And that's exactly why I was intrigued to read it. Again, here's another book that I'm pretty sure will snap my heart like a twig. But  i t ' s  f i n e.

#8: I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Here's another book that I don't actually know what it's about, but the reviews, recommendations, and synopsis were enough to set it on my TBR. Also the cover is pretty :)

#9: The Wrath and the Dawn duology by Renee Ahdieh

I think this is the only book on my list that the synopsis stopped me from immediately putting it on my TBR. I heard really good reviews, went to look it up, and thought that the plot/theme/setting were not really my style in fantasy series. After a few more recommendations, I went back a few times and finally put it on my TBR. It might end up being my favorite series ever, who knows??

#10: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

This book sounds exactly like something I would like, and everyone is always talking about Victoria Schwab so I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.


There we have it, my list of hyped books that I am most anxious to read. There are plenty of other hyped books that are on my TBR but these are my top ones. I know I am super late to the party on all of these books/series (which I'm fine with actually because I hate starting series and then having to wait months-a year for each new book to come out *cough* ACOTAR *cough*), so I'm hoping to knock them out in 2019, and I'll probably be posting reviews for most of them!

Review for "Artemis" by Andy Weir

"When they designed Artemis, someone said, 'What if there's an explosion at the reactor? It's like, a thousand meters from town? That'd be bad, right?' A bunch of nerds furrowed their brows and pondered this. Then one of them said, 'Well... we could put a bunch of dirt in the way?' They gave him a promotion and a parade."



Rating: 4 stars

I was so impressed with this book. It doesn't have as good ratings as Andy Weir's other novel, The Martian (which I haven't read), so I didn't have super high hopes for it, but I am so so glad I read it.
So first of all... Jazz is hilarious. Her personality and narration was what made this book so enjoyable for me. I loved her snarkiness, her sarcasm, her dry humor, her no-BS attitude, and the way she was trying to do the right thing without being pegged as "the good guy". For example, throughout the book she keeps talking about how she needs 416 thousand and some specific amount of slugs (their currency), and in the end (SPOILER) you find out it's to repay her dad for ruining his shop as a teenager, when the whole time she seemed like she couldn't care less about her dad/being a bad daughter. ANYWAY. I love Jazz. The only problem I had with her was that I thought she acted a little bit too young for her age. Making jokes about boobs, handjobs, etc. It's not that I thought the jokes shouldn't have been in the book, I just thought Jazz's age should've been set as 22-23, not 26.
I also really loved Svoboda, but I felt that some of the things that happened were only to advance his character and not anything relevant and it was annoying. Like the thing with the reusable condom? Why did that have to happen at all? Why???
The other problems I had with this book were that I felt like there was not enough explanation of some things, or that the explanations came really late. The world-building itself is pretty good, but I never got answers to: 1) What is EVA? (I had to look it up myself because I'm not a space person) 2) What is KSC? (It may have been mentioned but I didn't catch it), and 3) What year is this set in? They make references to "century old technology" and Clint Eastwood movies, so I wanted to know how far in the future this was supposed to be. I also wondered often about the population of Artemis before it was finally revealed.
I loved the story. I expected a very straightforward space adventure plot, but this one was full of twists with secrecy, crime, murder, betrayal, the whole nine yards. Overall, a really amazing story with fantastic characters, and the narration is wonderful too!