Binge

Started: July 26, 2017
Finished: July 27, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 5/5 stars


“When life throws a wrench in your plans, catch it and build an IKEA bookshelf.”


Tyler seriously cannot disappoint me!

When this book was announced and, later, when it actually came out in print, I had my mind set on getting a physical copy of it. And then other things came between me and actually getting the damn book. So I decided to listen to it as an audio book instead.

I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED!

Tyler reads this book himself – and adds comments, questions and other things just for the listeners. Which does make this audio book feel like you’re sitting in the same room as him, just listening to him telling his stories. Because, comments and questions and other things are sweet and all, but they do not measure up to the stories.

I didn’t start actively following Tyler Oakley until about three years ago, around the time when I was doing my last semester at university. Sure, I knew who he was and had watched a few of his videos prior to that, but that was when I actually subscribed and started watching everything he uploaded.

However, videos lasting a few minutes can only tell so much. In this book, Tyler tells longer stories, more intricate ones, ones that he has sometimes only mentioned in passing but never delved into properly, or ones he has not touched at all. It’s pure and real, funny and sad, and it doesn’t take roundabout routes to point out the truth.

Two words; read it. Read this book. Right now!


I read this book for the BookTubeAThon 2017 (Challenge #3: Read about a character that is very different from you)

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Red Days

Started: July 12, 2017
Finished: July 13, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 5/5 stars


If she did nothing it would haunt her for the rest of her life.


I received a copy of this novel from the author in return for an honest review.

Keiko is a young journalist at a British newspaper, writing articles that are assigned to her and not always exactly what she finds herself interested in. Then, one day, she is asked to go to Japan and do an article based on the events portrayed in the movie The Cove.

The Taiji Dolphin Slaughter.

This is the beginning of Keiko’s new life. She becomes involved with the activists trying to stop the slaughter from happening and uses her powers as a journalist to spread the word to the world. And although Keiko’s life and what she decided to do to help is fictional, the events that this book chronicles are not. They are real.

This book serves to further spread the word of the Taiji Dolphin Slaughter – to give people an idea of what happens to dolphins trapped in the cove outside this little Japanese village. It’s honest and doesn’t try to cover up anything. It will make you think, make you look into these things even more – which is a good thing. And thus I highly recommend that people read this novel.

The Book Thief

Started: March 22, 2017
Finished: April 4, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 5/5 stars


“I am haunted by humans.”


That gif is an accurate representation of how I felt when I finished this. It didn’t matter how prepared I felt I was for that ending – it still broke my heart.

The story is a very slow build. In a way, it is an accurate representation of life. It isn’t always fast. But as war closes in around the main characters and their town things start to change. There’s suspicion and distancing, love and grief, and they’re all viewed and told to the reader from Death’s POV – who learned of all of this through different events but also through a book written by Liesl, the Book Thief.

Death is a very interesting POV character but it works so, so well, because he is not human – he is something else – and is able to distance himself from the actions of humans. I wonder how he would narrate other events in human history – and what’s going on in our current time. I think he’d be able to make better and more accurate observations than most humans.

If you – like me – still haven’t picked this book up, I suggest you do. It is such a unique book and it feels like, in the times we currently live in, it is a book we all need to read.

The Mechanical Bird: A Tale of Two Ladies

Started: April 2, 2017
Finished: April 3, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 2/5 stars


“Do you think, they’d ever let a woman study here?”


I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book felt like a third of a book. Like it was only the beginning of something – but not in the way a first installment of a series feels. It was just like someone had written a whole story, then chopped off two thirds of it. And that’s the reason why I felt this did not work for me. Even if it is a novella I still expect it to have a proper beginning, middle and end – and this one only had one of those three things.

The characters were interesting, the world was interesting, the writing was good – but the story felt chopped off. And then I can’t give it a higher rating.

Shadows of the Forest

Started: March 8, 2017
Finished: March 14, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 1/5 stars


“My brother once said that each person has their own world after they die, a world after they die, a world where they can be everything they didn’t have the chance to be in life. I think maybe this is mine.”


I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating: 1.5/5 stars

This is one of those books that would have needed more pages to make me enjoy it as much as I thought it would. At the moment everything felt a bit flat and boring, the adventure itself was over in a flash and there was no really interesting piece of character development. I liked the romance, even though it felt a bit like insta-love, but it was interesting. Enough to make me give this an extra half star (Goodreads, I’m waiting for that to actually be a possibility).

Hunter

Started: February 15, 2017
Finished: March 7, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 3/5 stars


“You need to stay out of the mark’s head. They will think of anything when they’re in trouble.”


I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a medium book. Fast-paced, action-heavy, but quite lacking in terms of making you connect with the characters properly. The story is interesting enough that you can look past that, but I have to admit that when there were characters dying I merely shrugged. Like it didn’t matter. I would have liked to feel more than that, honestly.

But as I said; the basics of the story are interesting and I would like to read more set in this kind of world where telepaths walk among us and act as assassins. That is a very interesting idea. But the story needs further development in order to engage the reader fully.

Brass Automaton

pos-brassautomaton

Started: February 13, 2017
Finished: February 14, 2017

Language: English
Rating: 2/5 stars


“Let me know when Snow returns to the castle.”


I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating: 1.5 stars

This was, in short, confusing as heck.

I think that the original idea of this is intriguing; Snow White mixed with steampunk and some time travelling magic, but the execution of it was not quite there. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on and where in time this piece of the story was taking place. Still giving it two stars, though, because I think if this was looked into a bit more and developed a bit further, the story could actually become quite an interesting one.
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