Weekly Wrap Up

Published on von radioactivestardust

I read entirely too many books the last two weeks, and decided, that if I would write a monthly Wrap-Up no one would read till the end, because it’s just too long. Ain’t no one got time for this. So here are the books that I have read till now

Hollow City

by Ransom Riggs

Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯✯


Summary: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was the surprise best seller of 2011—an unprecedented mix of YA fantasy and vintage photography that enthralled readers and critics alike. Publishers Weekly called it “an enjoyable, eccentric read, distinguished by well-developed characters, a believable Welsh setting, and some very creepy monsters.
”This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.
Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerizing) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.

 

This book felt like a filler. I enjoyed the first volume a lot. It was so much fun to read and similar to watching a Tim Burton Movie (I had that feeling before I knew there was a movie coming). But the 2nd book did not deliver, even with the positive things. Let’s get to them first. I loved that we get to know the characters beside Jacob and Emma better. Now I feel like they have a real personality, something I missed in the first book. The ending was great and I totally loved the last 30 pages. I also loved the one scene with the sisters. For the rest, I felt that this book was a patchwork of short stories, I wanted to have a fluent story, with character growth, and the kids overcoming themselves. And that’s not what I got, the kids stayed the same, Jacob stayed the same.Where was the angst? The weird- and wickedness? If there is an action scene and you know that one character is missing, you know who will save the day. If the characters don’t face consequences when something happens, a reader won’t break into sweat. So no sweat for me.

The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Artwood

Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯✯✯✯


Summary: ‚It isn’t running away they’re afraid of. We wouldn’t get far. It’s those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge‘
Offred is a Handmaid. She has only one function: to breed. If she refuses to play her part she will, like all dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. She may walk daily to the market and utter demure words to other Handmaids, but her role is fixed, her freedom a forgotten concept.
Offred remembers her old life – love, family, a job, access to the news. It has all been taken away. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire
Includes exclusive content: In The ‚Backstory‘ you can read Margaret Atwood’s account of how she came to write this landmark dystopian novel.
 I loved this Book. It became an immediate favourite and I will annoy people to death by telling them they NEED to read this book. I am really annoyed that no one told me about this book before. Why didn’t my teacher force me in school to read it? Why did no one of my feminist friends in college talk about this book? I believe this one should be a mandatory read for every female. For most of my life, I felt relativley save. I mean, another war would ruin the economy so the big guys don’t have any real interest in it, i could get poorer but all in all I am still living in Europe, they wouldn’t take away my human rights. But thinking about what is happening in the world right now, and reading the Handmaid’s Tale I realized how fast things could change. We had a coup in Turkey some months ago, we got lots of disgusting right populists parties. Even here, in Germany Nazis are still a problem. Why should this not be a possiblity. That scares the shit out of me. You know how the lefists always said „Guys, it’s no problem just take the power away from the banks“ and actually let’s face it, they could. They always could. Who cares if the economy is crashing, ask North Korea, still exisiting since 1953.
My rights are precious, and I need to be present and protect them.
If  you haven’t read this book YOU NEED TO READ IT.
And for all those who read the book and didn’t like it:
If you are one of those who complain about the writing style and missing quotations marks, take a step back and realize, that this novel is not for your enjoyment. This is a literary work. The author did that because of a reason, and before you complain, that you cannot read this book, because it takes more time then others, and you actually need to concentrate what you are reading: Think! Why did the author do that? Why are there no quotation marks? How would the writing change, if there were quotations marks?
In all honesty I believe you got a different problem then the quotations marks. This book is not a nice book to read if you are male. It is definitely uncomfortable if you are a man. This is the same for me, when I’m reading what my grandparents did to jews and the whole world. But I didn’t do what my grandparents did, and neither did you do what happens in the book. And I also am smarter than my grandparents and know that I never want to ever live in such a world. In the same sense that you should realize that a world, like it’s described in the Handmaid’s Tale is not a nice place to life for as a man.

A List of Cages

by Robin Roe

Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯✯✯✯


Summary: When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian—the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years.
Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems like the boy he once knew. He’s still kindhearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what’s really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives…

 

I picked this book up because it mentioned a character with AHDH, which I feel is like a big topic that just gets ignored all the time. Going into this book my expectations were pretty low, because so many people were raving about this book. After I finished the book, I joined the train, too. It’s awesome. The best part is, that this is the book I wanted to read when ‚The Fault in Our Stars‘ came out. I have a big problem with stories that center around one character dying. It’s horrible, yes, you are all going to cry about that, yes, but it doesn’t happen a lot. What happens a lot in reality is child abuse and poverty, and not a lot people write or talk about that. These kids always get forgotten. I love ‚A List of Cages‘ for that. For writing a story for these kids. (Plus the ADHD character is so well portrayed, I was reminded of the kids I get to know who suffered the same, it was so throughly positive, i wanted to cuddle the book to death)

Daughter of the Burning City

by Amanda Foody


Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯


Summary: A darkly irresistible new fantasy set in the infamous Gomorrah Festival, a traveling carnival of debauchery that caters to the strangest of dreams and desires.Sixteen-year-old Sorina has spent most of her life within the smoldering borders of the Gomorrah Festival. Yet even among the many unusual members of the traveling circus-city, Sorina stands apart as the only illusion-worker born in hundreds of years.
This rare talent allows her to create illusions that others can see, feel and touch, with personalities all their own. Her creations are her family, and together they make up the cast of the Festival’s Freak Show.But no matter how lifelike they may seem, her illusions are still just that—illusions, and not truly real. Or so she always believed…until one of them is murdered.
Desperate to protect her family, Sorina must track down the culprit and determine how they killed a person who doesn’t actually exist. Her search for answers leads her to the self-proclaimed gossip-worker Luca, and their investigation sends them through a haze of political turmoil and forbidden romance, and into the most sinister corners of the Festival. But as the killer continues murdering Sorina’s illusions one by one, she must unravel the horrifying truth before all of her loved ones disappear.

 

„So, um, hi. I am Sorina, the MC of the book. I am right in the middle of a puberty crisis and basically have no consistency at all. I have that cool ability with which I can create other people, that look like freaks, hence the title of my show is ‚Freak Show‘. These freaks have their own personality and are actually behaving like total normal humans. I don’t have any friends beside that, because I do not have eyes, and people think that’s really monstrous, although they all grew up with me and are as freaky as I am. And really, who needs any friends if you’ve got your own creations to talk to, we can just create our own family, why not. I also should mention that I am kinda like a princes and am going to inherit the leading position of the whole circus at one point. I think I don’t really want to do this, but I totally want all the benefits that go with this position. I have never heard of the word responsibility, but if you break my creations I will totally go and cry to my daddy.“

This was hard to read, i never want to do this again. Yes, I know the cover is beautiful, but gosh I didn’t like that book.

The Sun is also a Star

by Nicola Yoon

Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯✯✯


Summary: Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.
Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.
The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

 

I think a lot of people have already written reviews about this book. I picked it up because of the short stroy from Nicola Yoon in ‚Because you love to hate me‘. Great book. No, I am still not going to read ‚Everything, Everything‘.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

by Becky Chambers

Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯✯✯


Summary: Somewhere within our crowded sky, a crew of wormhole builders hops from planet to planet, on their way to the job of a lifetime. To the galaxy at large, humanity is a minor species, and one patched-up construction vessel is a mere speck on the starchart. This is an everyday sort of ship, just trying to get from here to there.
But all voyages leave their mark, and even the most ordinary of people have stories worth telling. A young Martian woman, hoping the vastness of space will put some distance between herself and the life she‘s left behind. An alien pilot, navigating life without her own kind. A pacifist captain, awaiting the return of a loved one at war.
Set against a backdrop of curious cultures and distant worlds, this episodic tale weaves together the adventures of nine eclectic characters, each on a journey of their own.

Originially I dnfed this book at 30%. That was sometime in May. It was slowpaced, nothing happened, and that nonviolent communication thing, gave me goosbumbs. Shortly afterwards my brother got his hands on this book and told me to read it, because he liked it, and if he liked it, I need to like it, too. Secret family code, so because I love and trust my brother, I finished the book. It definitely got better, it will never be one of my favourite books, but i enjoyed the last half a lot. Lots of people love this, so I think this is the ‚it’s me, not you‘ thing I have going on.

Atheists Who Kneel and Pray

by Tarryn Fisher

Find the book on goodreads or amazon

Rating: ✯✯✯✯

Summary: Yara Phillips is a wandering muse.

She dates men who need her, but always moves on to something new, never staying in one place for very long.

David Lisey is in need of a muse.

A talented musician lacking lyrical inspiration. When he first sees her, he knows he’s found what he’s been looking for.

Yara believes she can give David exactly what he needs to reach his full potential: A broken heart.

David’s religion is love.

Yara’s religion is heartache.

Neither is willing to surrender, but religion always requires sacrifice

 

I had two days before #theReadingQuest started and I could continue with my TBR, so I made use of it and read the new Tarryn Fisher book in between. I should probably not do this, because these books kind of hurt. I think I didn’t like it as much as ‚the Opportunist‘ but it was still great. This book is for all those girls out there, that got so hurt in their lives, that they just can’t trust anyone anymore. Sadly, they will probably not get any hot rock mucisian who is willing to put up with their drama, but that’s not important. Important is, that you can change, that you can start a new, and start trusting other people again. Or you don’t and that is okay, too. I was no big fan of descriptions like slut or whore, because I wouldn’t call my friends like that, or people that I know, it doesn’t make anyone cooler. So 4 stars.

I may add quotes later, for now, I am pretty okay with leaving this post like this. it were A LOT of books in a short amount of time, you see.

5 Kommentare zu „Weekly Wrap Up“

    1. YES I KNOW! That damn beauty and the book was just so bad. I feel like they needed the great cover, just to sell the story. And I didn’t even have high expectations or something. But there are so many people loving it, so I don’t know. It’s the same with Caraval. That book is total shit, but people loved the cover, and a ton of people loved the book. So I think for me it’s an age problem, I have totally outgrown that story.

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