6/18/2016

REVIEW: Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

Synopsis

Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.



Review

This was my first Brandon Sanderson book and I really enjoyed it!

He surely is a fenomenal world builder and the Epic World Steelheart takes place in is very well constructed with many story possibilities.

The protagonist David and his story were really captivating and I liked it that throughtout the book his theories intertwined with the ones of the others. I think that his past really made him who is is in the book and even though it is very dark with his fathers brutal death it made him believe in many things. I found it quite sweet how much he informed himself about epics and his determination towards Steelheart getting killed. And he really grew in the story as in to what he believes and how things are.

The Reckoners were quite a funny lot of people with many differences but I believe that is what made them so unique and work well together. They all had their topics to deal with but still were a great team which took care of its members.
I really loved their relationships within the group and their open minds.

Steelheart and the other Epics were great villans and although bot all were really bad they made an amazing cast of the enemies with their powers and all.

The storyline wasn't mayve that unique with a rebel group wanting to fight the bad guy but Brandon Sanderson made it look unique, which it was in some aspects.
There were so many little and some big plot twists (especially at the end (the big ones)) which made the book very fastpased.

All in all, I very much liked this book and it won't be my last Brandon Sanderson one for sure!

I recommened it to every fantasy lover who hasn't read it already!

★★★

xo Anne

Have you read it?

6/09/2016

REVIEW: The Sleeper And The Spindle by Neil Gaiman

Synopsis


A thrillingly reimagined fairy tale from the truly magical combination of author Neil Gaiman and illustrator Chris Riddell – weaving together a sort-of Snow White and an almost Sleeping Beauty with a thread of dark magic, which will hold readers spellbound from start to finish. 

On the eve of her wedding, a young queen sets out to rescue a princess from an enchantment. She casts aside her fine wedding clothes, takes her chain mail and her sword and follows her brave dwarf retainers into the tunnels under the mountain towards the sleeping kingdom. This queen will decide her own future – and the princess who needs rescuing is not quite what she seems. Twisting together the familiar and the new, this perfectly delicious, captivating and darkly funny tale shows its creators at the peak of their talents.

Lavishly produced, packed with glorious Chris Riddell illustrations enhanced with metallic ink, this is a spectacular and magical gift.




Review

This was my first Neil Gaiman book but I honestly wasn't really impressed by it. The writing style was great but hard to read sat some points.

I really liked the idea of the storyline, intertwining two fairytails, but I think it wasn't done too well.

The story wasn't told very detailed and you just jumped from one situation to another without really knowing who's the current narrator since you couldn't make a big difference at first.

I think it worked pretty good with letting the two stories combine even though it was unusual and mentioning the pasts of the fairytales too, but I personally couldn't connect to any characters. Probably because the book is quite short but as well that the characters don't seem like they want anybody to connect to them.

The queen seemed adventures and caring since she wants to protect her people and the dwarfs were funny too, but the other characters were odd.
And after the extreme plot and character twist at the end you have to think a whole lot about one of the main characters and this was confusing for me, a lot. And the end.. let just not talk about it..

The illustrations were what made the book better for me as they are so beautiful and underlined the story really well. And because of the book's length I was able to read it in one sitting under an hour.

So all in all it is a nice in between read which you can easily do before going to bed.


★★★

xo Anne

Have you read the book?




5/29/2016

REVIEW: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher


Synopsis


This is the story of teenager Hannah Baker, who sends tapes to the people who are connected to the thirteen reasons why she commits suicide.

A story about friendship, despair and the responsibility we have for our actions and how they influence other people. A story which shows us how important it is to prevent a classmate from becoming a loner.

In Hannah's own words:

"No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes we have no clue."





Review


I read "Thirteen Reasons Why" for my English class so I wasn't that thrilled about it at first but it turned out to be one of the best books I've read for school so far.


Hannah Baker's story is as sad as it is realistic and I think Jay Asher did a great job in telling such a serious topic with still a bit of humour as Hannah sometimes can be quite ironic.
Clay develops a lot throughout the book as in his opinion on certain people at school and as well in getting to know persons who maybe have a lot of prejudice from others since he now knows that those rumours aren't always true.
As in Hannah's development, you can see her break more and more as her stories go on and that in the end her mind is set and you couldn't have changed it although you would have known.


The dual narrator made up a lot since you could firstly hear Hannah's stories on the tapes and secondly see Clay's reactions and feelings on what Hannah is saying which actually makes up even more suspense than the stories already do. Furthermore, Hannah and Clay are both strong characters with their own opinions on different topics. 
And even though Hannah has ended her life I think that after getting to know why she did it and what were her reasons and which people have added to it, it is somehow understandable why she did it but still sad anyways.

There were some passages where I actually almost cried and was at least shocked about what people are capable of doing and how something small or even a joke or rumour can change someones life drastically and how it can as well change a person completely.


I believe that this book really gives a good view into the life of a person who commited suicide and how they see the things that happened to and around them because other people often don't know why somebody killed his-/herself or saw it coming.


I probably will remember this book for quite a while as the message of it is really strong (for me it's: you'll never know how your actions affect others and rumours aren't always true) and I really do want to see if I can change my attitude towards rumours as well as that I don't beliebe everything I hear.


                                                                                              ★★★


xo Anne


Have you read it?

1/04/2016

REVIEW: The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke


The Assassin's Curse (The Assassin's Curse, #1)Synopsis

Ananna of the Tanarau abandons ship when her parents try to marry her off to another pirate clan. But that only prompts the scorned clan to send an assassin after her. When Ananna faces him down one night, armed with magic she doesn't really know how to use, she accidentally activates a curse binding them together.




Review

This books has a really strong female protagonist, Ananna, who is really determined to end what she has begun, on the other hand, the male protagonist, Naji, is one of the sort who doesn't really like sharing his thoughts or what is going on. I really liked that about the two of them because she could easily get on his nerves by asking too many questions and that I, kind of weird to say, found cute.

It was always fast-paced and therefore it was easy to read, hence why I read it in a day, but it didn't let out too many descriptions.

I really liked the fact Ananna's intentions of only escaping the arranged marriage by fleeing got interrupted by this curse upon the two and then them having to work together. I found it quite interesting at some points of how well they could help each other out to either survive or to fight.
Sometimes Naji was in my opinion a little bit too overprotective but knowing the reasons you can understand it.

In the book Ananna and Naji both developed, he in cases of getting nicer and more open throughout the book even though he can annoy you very much when he is all lovey-dovey about this one witch they went to, and she in cases of trust since she accepted the curse and Naji could lead them without her knowing all the details and she would follow anyways (mostly because of the curse but as well because of trust).

Apart from that one witch and the guy Ananna was supposed to marry I liked all the characters they met (some more, some less).


But as with (mostly) every book I got some problems.


One, I couldn't really get to understand how the whole magic system went and what is what because it wasn't really described. That is something I hope will be done in the second book.
Two, I didn't really like Naji's stubbornness at points where it wasn't appropriate at all.
And three, that at some points in this book there was just too much at once or too many things to think about at once or in general suddenly too many enemies.


But overall I think it is a great read you can fly through which isn't too complicated plot wise.
And it has a really awesome cover too! :D

★★★

xo Anne

Have you read it? 
What's your opinion?

1/01/2016

2016 Reading Challenge

Hey guys (:

Happy New Year to all of you!



I think most of you may have heard about the Popsugar Reading Challenge, and I myself want to do it this year.


I looked over the categories and thought that most of them did go very well with my 2016 TBR and therefore I thought "Why not do it?" because it will probably get me to read differently and more widely in terms of genre and books in general since I wouldn't really read for example an autobiography.


I surely will let you know throughout the year, maybe even monthly, how it's going and if I really want to complete it.


But I have a question:

Did anyone of you do it last year? And what was your experience with it?



So everyone an awesome 2016 and have fun reading!

xo Anne







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