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?

REVIEW: The Assassin's Curse by Cassandra Rose Clarke

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?

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