tori_storydelver's reviews
625 reviews

I thought this was even better than the first book of the series! I loved really getting to know everyone more especially Ronan and his whole family, which is the main focus of this book. Readers also get to learn a lot more about Blue's family which continue to be some of my favorite characters in this series. I liked the way the dreams worked. The gray man was a cool addition to the characters. I even liked the villain. I didn't expect to get into this series, but now I can't wait to read Blue Lily Lily Blue!

Stephen King seems to be hit or miss with me, and this one was a big miss! I just don't see what everyone else loves about this book! I do not like any of the characters. Mike might be an exception, although the stories surrounding him are much more interesting then Mike himself is. I did not like the rambling descriptions of everything. Then, when it is time to reveal the monster it is indescribable and the closest thing it looks like is a giant spider, a SPIDER, really!? And do I even have to mention my thoughts on the extremely uncomfortable sex scene! There are so many other ways to show a bond between these kids. As I feel with a lot of Stephen King stories, the ideas are terrific, the books not so much.

I was very reluctant to pick up this book. On one hand I love a good dystopia, on the other Suzanne Collins claimed to have never heard about Battle Royale before writing this book. I find that very hard to believe, there are numerous similarities between the two. It's really too bad because if she had said that she had written this book as an Americanized YA version of Battle Royale I would have read this series years ago!

That being said, this book went above and beyond my expectations! I love all the survival elements of it. Sure, the premise alone should be enough to make one think this will be a horrifying tale, but there were truly terrifying moments in the story that I was not expecting. A lot of people hate the love triangle aspect, but I actually appreciated it in this case. It gives our protagonist, Katniss, flaws, which is great because I don't want to read a book where everything is morally black and white and the heroine is perfect. To be fair, she is portrayed as socially awkward too, but that is so overused in YA that I feel it hardly counts against a character at this point. Either way, I wasn't sure if I would continue with the series when I first decided to read this, but I am very excited for the next book.

It's been a few years, but I loved The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, I thought it portrayed childhood very accurately and was a great summer read. I expected the same with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but this was a much more serious story. It has a really slow start. I was worried I wasn't going to like it very much at all until about two-thirds of the way through it. The end really picks up though. It was a little hard to read because Jim is in such a dangerous position and Huck treats it more like an fun adventure sometimes. Huck is a kid, and helps Jim a lot so ultimately it is forgivable. Although this was not the sequel I was expecting it to be, I still ended up really enjoying it, and definitely recommend both these books if you haven't read them yet.

I thought this book was okay. I really liked the parts that talked about Mia's photography/artwork. It was definitely the highlight of the book for me. There were many interesting situations the characters were involved in, and it was cool to see these situations from different perspectives. Ultimately I think the author was trying to say that sometimes there is no right or wrong decision. While I appreciate this unique take on things, I just couldn't help but feel underwhelmed. I had the feeling the entire time reading that it was supposed to be challenging my views, but I didn't think it was challenging at all.

I really liked this one, although I may be just a bit biased as an amateur mycologist myself! I feel like this series really sped up with The Slippery Slope, and I think it will continue through the final two books. I really like how this book explores the idea that not everyone is either good or bad. There are many gray areas.

I really liked this one. We get to see lots of new, old, and even one very mysterious face. The lines between what makes one good or bad get murkier than ever for the Baudelaires. Count Olaf's plan continues to fall apart, but not without causing some truly horrible memories for the Baudelaires.

I've enjoyed most of the books in the series, but there is quite a bit of filler throughout it. On that note I am excited to read the last book and find out how the series ends. (hoping it doesn't end too unfortunately)

I love reading books about what life was like for an average citizen during events that are too often just remembered as fragments of history on a timeline. Persepolis did not disappoint. There are parts that are sad, hopeful, happy, horrifying, and down right heartbreaking. I admit I didn't know much about the Islamic-revolution and had to do a bit of googling while I was reading. But, I thought it was great! It had been a long time since a book has made me go out and research something I didn't know much about.

I read this as part of a group here on good reads, and a lot of the Murakami fans in that group were upset that 1Q84 was going to be the introduction to Murakami's books for most members. If this is regarded as one of his worst books, then I am so excited to read his others!

I really enjoyed this book. Sure it is unnecessarily long, the plot was just okay, and there was a lot of weird (and gross) sex stuff. I've seen a lot of complaints about the descriptions of mundane activities. While I agree taking some of this out would make the book shorter and more enjoyable, I actually liked these parts. I thought that Murakami's writing style was so engaging that I was happy to read about all the "simple meals" Tengo or Aomame made. I think there was a lot of symbolism in this story, and not being familiar with Japanese symbolism, I think a lot of it went over my head. However, it is clearly a story of transition and transformation. I would share my interpretation of the story as a whole, but there is really no way to do that without spoilers. Overall, I was excited to pick this book up every time I read it, and it made me very excited to read more Haruki Murakami's books in the future.

I guess I have no idea what I expected this book to be. If you're looking for a quick, fun beach read and you don't mind cheesy jokes, I'd definitely recommend this. I however found this book predictable and didn't enjoy the sense of humor. Does anyone think jokes like, "No one puts Janey in the corner," ? There were several times like that where I found myself rolling my eyes. There are also several overused tropes. I am so tired of the gay best friend turned enemy, anyone else? What really annoyed me was that after not exercising for years the main character just starts exercising without complaining or talking about how difficult it is. Janey would be so much more relate-able if she just talked about how difficult it was to start exercising. Or am I the only one who doesn't relate to a high-end wedding dress shop owner whose family owns a successful chocolate factory? I can say I never thought about not finishing this, it wasn't completely horrible, it is just not the type of book I enjoy.