Mini Review Monday #4 - The Tahereh Mafi and John Green edition

On this weeks edition of Mini Review Monday you'll find my brief thoughts on two very popular YA titles that I read recently - Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi and The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. I'm only doing mini reviews for these two as they are so popular with many, many reviews available on Goodreads and Amazon that I feel it's a little pointless to provide a full detailed review of my thoughts as I'm sure everyone else has already read them. ;) If there is something you really want to know from me about these titles, feel free to leave a comment and I'll let you know the answer. :)



Title: Shatter Me
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Published: 2nd October 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Series: Shatter Me, #1
Genre: Young Adult: Sci Fi, Dystopian

I heard nothing but amazing reviews for this book and series. It took me a while to get around to reading this, and I'm sorry to say, but for me, this didn't live up to the hype.

Juliette has a fatal touch which got her locked up for murder. The Reestablishment having originally locked her up, changes it mind. Now they think she may be useful. 
The storyline itself is interesting, however it only held my interest in waves. 
The writing was certainly different than anything I have read before, however after a while I found the crossed out sections annoying. I'd first read over them, then have to stop and go back to read them, turning the originally enjoyment of reading this book into a chore. I understand this was done for a purpose, but unfortunately it didn't really make me see Juliette sane or insane due to it. It just annoyed me. 
I didn't feel anything towards any of the characters. None, and that is really different for me. Normally I at least like someone. It didn't help that the romance felt forced and was a driving point for the plot.  

Due to the writing style, despite being unique, and the romance, there were multiple times where I was just bored. I even came to a point where I thought I might DNF it, but I preserved due to the reviews, however my opinion at the end of the book didn't change. 

Unfortunately with all the 5 star reviews I was expecting an amazing book, instead I'm left amazed that it received so many 5 star reviews.

I'm clearly in the minority, but for me, this wasn't as amazing as everyone hyped it up to be and I most likely won't continue with the rest of the series. 

★★

 It Was Ok

Title: The Fault In Our Stars
Author: John Green
Published: 10th January 2012
Publisher: Dutton Books/ Penguin 
Series: Nil
Genre: Young Adult: Contemporary


This was my first John Green novel. I thought this would be a difficult read for me, which is why it took so long for me to read it but it wasn't too bad. 

I loved the characters. Hazel has terminal cancer and attends a support group because her mum wants her to make friends, while Augustus is a cancer survivor after surgery and attends to support his friend Isaac, which is where they meet. Hazel Grace and Augustus were delightful characters that drew me into the story and their journey. I adored Augustus, and the witty conversations between him and Hazel made for a funny, light read considering the seriousness of the subject. There were times that they were more mature then you would expected from teenagers their age, but it wasn't over the top and considering what they have been forced to go through it fitted the characters well. 

I really liked John Greene's writing style and I will definitely be reading more books of his. 
I understand why so many people loved this book as I totally fell in love with it too. 

★★★★★

 It Was Amazing

Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1)

Author: Jamie McGuire
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Release Date: 14th August 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Romance
Obtained From: ARC from Simon & Schuster Inc via Netgalley


Read from August 19 to August 21, 2012

"The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate percentage of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance between her and the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand. 

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match." - Goodreads

I have had the hardest time trying to write this review. I didn't hate the book, but there were so many elements that annoyed me. This made it difficult to rate and review it. I've spent several days thinking about how I feel about this book and how I'm going to write it up. 

Firstly I read this because I was curious. I had read so many mixed reviews that I just wanted to read this for myself and make my own judgement. So many people hated it and the relationship between Abby and Travis, and then others just loved it. I didn't hate the book but there were (and in hindsight from reading all my notes) so many things I didn't like about the story that I'm struggling to say why I did like reading this book. I was, at the time, struggling to finish some of the books that I started so I decided to give them a break and give this a read since I got it for review. I understand that this was a review addition and that things can change for the print edition but I really, and I mean REALLY, hope this gets another check before being published because the amount of errors, such as missing capitalisation and poor grammar, drove me crazy. 

There was a lot of unnecessary detours which got annoying as the main point of them was to either pull Travis and Abby apart or put them back together. There were also many unbelieveable elements in the plot too, including the basement fire that was started through the use of gas lanterns - do people really use them still? And the trip to Vegas was really unnecessary, I didn't see the point (other then to break Travis and Abby up again). The twists turned the plot into a mess. 

I found the pace to be ok. I read a few reviews saying that it was uneven but I read it fairly quickly so I must not have noticed!

I'm not even going to go into the relationship between Travis and Abby. The only thing I do want to say is that I wish Abby had had a backbone. I was so sick of her not standing by what she said. Right in the beginning she is carrying on about how much Travis unsettles her, how much she wants to get away from her past, etc then she makes friends and develops a relationship with him. Who would do that. If someone freaks you out wouldn't you stay away from them for crying out loud. 

That leads to me to the characters. There was not one character I liked. That's right, not one. Travis's behaviour annoyed me and I wont tell you what I'd do to a guy that behaved like that towards me or in front of me. 
Abby was gutless, shallow and frustrating. She did everything a girl complains that a guy does. For example, if a guy doesn't say something outright and beats around the bush about feelings and where a relationship should be going, the girl would get frustrated and possibly mad. Abby did it frequently and then got upset when Travis was frustrated. She wanted him to express himself, yet she didn't. On top of that, Abby actually encourages Travis to bash some guy up. 
I didn't care about the rest of the characters, beyond hating the name America and Brazil. I had the hardest time dealing with their names, maybe because its not a common thing here in Australia, who knows. I just didn't it.

Eastern U must be a small university because it almost felt like they were in high school. Everyone having lunch together, doing the same classes despite the differences in degrees. I don't know about American universities, but I know it's not like that here. 

Now don't even get me started on the blatant puppy neglect! I was mad when I read the part after they got him back from Brazils. 

I know plenty of people like this book, but I'm sorry, I'm not a fan. I didn't hate it, but I definitely don't love it.

★★

It Was Ok

A copy of this book was provide by Simon & Schuster Inc via netgally. Thank you.

The Hunt (The Hunt #1)

Author: Andrew Fukuda
Publisher: St Martin's Griffin
Release Date: May 8, 2012
Genre: Young Adult - Dystopian


★★

Read from June 14 to 19, 2012

On the cover of my book it states "If you loved the Hunger Games, you'll love this". Um yeah - No. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.

Humans are nearly extinct and the only ones remaining are those in the dome being studied at the Heper Institute. What's a heper? - A heper is what the humans are know as. 

A decade ago the vampires held a heper hunt, and this is now the time for the next hunt. 

Our protagonist, Gene, is a heper, and is selected to be one of the hunters in the hunt. 

Yes, this is a different, interesting and creative story.  Maybe it was a little too creative for me. There were a few things that I couldn't get use to, and just down right didn't like. 

Let me elaborate:

There was a lack of world building. This made it difficult for me to picture the situations that Gene was in. 

Gene is getting dehydrated. There is a pond in the Dome, he has seen it. yet he doesn't know where to get water from. Is is able to walk out in daylight, there is no reason he can't walk into the dome area during the day. 

Gene states that hepers "can be so unpredictable like zoo animals" - He is a heper. He isn't like that. He learnt his behaviours, why on earth does he think they wouldn't? He was trained to act like the vampires. Also how is it even possible to stop emotions, flinches, sweating etc. They are a part of being human. I can't fathom how someone could train away those natural occurring bodily functions.

I couldn't get use to the whole scratching of the wrists  and the elbow to armpit thing. I'd also like to know how. since vampires who are changed from humans, would have a completely different way of 'laughing'. 

Vampires aren't friendly here. They only eat bloody meat and hepers are a delicacy since there are so few left. However, for some reason they can and do eat ice cream and cakes. :-/

Vampires can smell hepers from as far away as the dome, but they didn't suspect Gene who was right next to them. 

Lastly, I felt nothing for the characters. They weren't well rounded and I didn't and wouldn't care if anything happened to them. 

That being said, the last 70 odd pages picked up the action and I was interested in what was happening, more so then the 230 pages prior. 

I think this book was too much of a stretch for me to enjoy it, though I'm sure there will be plenty of people that love it.