Sever book review

Sever (The Chemical Garden Trilogy #3) by Lauren DeStefano

Book review by Mayte Van den Broeck

2/3 stars

This book comes after Wither and Fever, part of a trilogy named "the chemical garden trilogy."

This series is set in the future. Men live until they are 25 years old, whilst women live until they are 20. After that the virus takes over and they die. The whole country is dangerous, and girls are being kidnapped and sold as wives. Rhine, the protagonist, is one of those girls. And she wants nothing more than to escape and find her twin brother. I can't really say what happens in this book without spoiling the whole series. What basically happens is that there is a reunion, an illness, and an ending. 

This was definitely my least favourite out of all the books (Wither being my favourite). In sever almost nothing happened and it was too slow moving. The characters hadn't really developed in much of a way, even after what they went through. The ending was one of those endings where the author is trying to make everyone happy without thinking of whether it makes sense or would actually be an interesting ending. Overall, it took quite a lot of effort to get through,though it still wasn't terrible. 

Fairest book review

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Book review by Mayte Van den Broeck

3/5 stars

This book is actually a novella about the villain of a series named the Lunar chronicles. The lunar chronicles includes Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter. They are all sort of based on fairy tales.

The story is about how a young, misunderstood, lonely, and scarred lunar princess named Levana turned into the most wicked and powerful queen Luna had ever had. The story passes over ten years.

I had some mixed feelings about this because, at first I actually felt sorry for the main character (though I didn’t really like her much). And then it was fascinating and a little bit scary how she changed over the years into someone so different. The change being brought on by several factors in her life. The book was written in a nice style, and it was a very fluent read. I did find myself bored quite often near the beginning though, because the story was too slow and uninteresting. If you like this book series, I would recommend A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.

Pride and Prejudice book review

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Review by Mayte Van den Broeck
4.5 stars

I first picked this book up because i wanted to start reading some classics, and guessed that this was a good place to start. I believe that it was.
This novel is about a family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, and their five daughters. Mrs. Bennet's goal is to marry off each of her daughters to eligible young men. The story is mostly focused on the civilised, comic sparring between The rich eligible bachelor mr. Darcy and the witty young woman named ms. Elizabeth.
Since this is the first novel of this style and age that I have read, I might be a bit unknowing and biased in my review. In the beginning of the book, it took a few chapters to get used to the writing style, though after that when i got the hang of it, it read fluidly, and I really started enjoying it. Most of the characters I really liked, and were each unique and interesting. The relationships were also changing all the time which was intriguing. Some of the characters were of varying degrees of annoying. Though Jane Austen easily turned the annoyance into humor in many cases. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and am determined to read more of this kind. Books which I might suggest which seem similar to this are Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, or Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

Stray Book Review

Stray by Elissa Sussman

Review by Mayte Van den Broeck

2.5/5 stars

I was in a bookstore with few English books. However, this book (which I’d never heard of before) was there. And well, the cover is really beautiful, and the book was in good shape. Along with that, the summary sounded very nice. So I bought it.
Stray is about a world where royal girls all have a path, they also each have an adviser who tells them how to stay on the path. Each has magic, though they are told that it is dangerous and that they must not want things or think wicked thoughts. Girls who are unable to fulfil their job, become fairy godmothers. If they fail being a fairy godmother, they become a teacher. The people who leave their path, or run away from it are called ‘strays.’ Aislyn is one of the royals, but she fails her path and becomes a fairy godmother. 

I gave this book almost three stars because the idea was so original, and unlike anything I’d ever read before. However, one thing that bothered me quite a lot was that most of the characters seemed as if they had bipolar disorder. Including the main character. The characters were happy and nice one moment, grumpy/sad the next. There wasn’t all too much character development either. This book reminded me a bit of a fairy tale retelling, though a mix of fairytales. It had certain elements of fairytales. Such as the Briars from Sleeping Beauty and a lone shoe from Cinderella (this one had a severed toe though). Overall this book had many good and bad aspects to it.

Hollow City Book Review

Hollow City By Ransom Riggs
Review by: Mayte VDB
4.5/5 stars

Hollow City is the second book, following "Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children." It starts off right where the first book left off.
Hollow City was possibly even better than Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. The First book was great, but perhaps a little bit too slow moving at times. This one had more action and many good dialogues. Part of why I think that this one was better was because the reader gets to know the characters more, and gets attached to them. This is important since the characters are pretty much the main part of the book. The spooky black and white photography scattered throughout the book worked wonderfully well with the story. It helped the reader to imagine what the many peculiar people, creatures  and places look like, together with reading the imagery. The story itself was also marvellously though out, with witty links to other parts of the book and the previous one. Overall the book is mysterious, funny, witty, dark, and it was always hard to put down.
I am very much looking forward to reading Library of Souls. This is the last book in the trilogy by Ransom Riggs. I very much recommend reading this series during the time of halloween.

Earthbound Book Review

Earthbound by Aprilynne Pike 

Review by: Mayte VDB

1/5 stars

I originally picked up this book because I read a series named Wings by this author, and absolutely loved it. This book was quite the opposite. 

Earthbound is about a girl named Tavia Michaels who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. She is grief stricken and recovering from brain damage. When all of a sudden a strange boy appears. Her life changes completely, and she finds out terrible and wondrous things. 

This book started off okay actually. The characters seemed nice and interesting. However they soon started to become annoying, selfish, and bland. There were very many parts (way too many) in this book when absolutely nothing was happening. Tavia would simply think about the same things as she thought about in the previous chapter(s). The writing style wasn't anything special. However the love triangle might have been the worst part. I didn't like either of the romances, since neither boy was interesting, and the main character kept changing her mind. A good point about this book was the creativity. The story in itself was imaginative and interesting. 

Overall this book was quite boring and took a lot of effort to get through. I read this book till the end because I thought it would get better. It didn't. I recommend reading Wings by Aprilynne Pike, if you liked this, because it's (Wings) so much better. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower book review

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky

Review by Mayte Van den Broeck

5/5 stars

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (to be referred to as "Perks" later on in review) is about a 15-16 year old boy named Charlie, who is starting high school. Charlie is extremely intelligent, shy, and is always watching, listening, and thinking. Charlie learns what it is like to be in the middle of things, instead of on the sidelines. 

I absolutely loved this book. Because it wasn't really like anything I'd read before. The writing was in letter format and the style was quite choppy. Charlie writes the same way he speaks. However, as Charlie changed, his writing seemed to change slightly as well. Which was interesting. I could relate in some ways to Charlie's high school experience, though most of it was entirely different. Perks is one of those books that makes you think, wonder, and recall your memories. One of those books that made me happy and sad, and is both dark and beautiful. The book had a very open ending, and I was left to imagine things myself. 

Overall, I had a great time reading this book. I recommend reading The Catcher in the Rye if you like this book. Not necessarily because they are similar, but because this book is mentioned in Perks several times. 

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer Book Review

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

review by: Mayte VDB

3.5/5 stars

        The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is about a girl named Mara Dyer who was in an accident, a building collapse. She wakes up in a hospital with no recollections of the accident, and finds out that her two best friends and boyfriend didn't survive. Mara moves with her family to Florida, to get away from her past, and to try to remember what happened. However, she soon discovers that there is something different about her. She has hallucinations and sees her dead friends. She wonders if she is going crazy or if there is something entirely different wrong with her. 

         For this book I had a difficult time choosing between 3.5 and 4 stars. Because most of the book was very interesting, but I did find myself to be bored or frustrated sometimes. This book's writing style and the constant air of mystery made this a quick and fluid read. The author did very well in writing the hallucinations and dreams, because in some cases I didn't even know what was real and what wasn't anymore. The story of Mara is very dark. The author introduces a character named Noah Shaw to us, and he is funny and charming, and lightens the mood when Mara is drowning in her dark thoughts. 

        Overall, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is a well written, haunting, and mysterious novel with many unexpected twists and turns. I recommend reading Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver, if you like this book. 

Red Queen Book Review

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

review by: Mayte Van den Broeck

4.3/5 stars

       This was one of those books that I picked up, because of the cover. One of those books that thankfully was as good as its cover, if not better. 

Red Queen is about a world where there are wealthy/royal people with silver blood, and amazing supernatural abilities. These Silvers rule over the Reds, ordinary people with red blood, who are treated terribly, work for the silvers, and are sent to die at 18 in war. The main character, Mare Barrow is a Red, and her 18th birthday is approaching. However, a twist of fate leads her to the world of the Silvers. Where she learns that power is a dangerous game. 

       Victoria Aveyard's writing is smart, full of imagery, and full of action. I liked how she paced the book, not to fast and not too full of action, yet not too slow either. One of the sentences that is repeated over and over throughout the book is "anyone can betray anyone." And this is very true. The plot twist in the end was so beautifully written and built up to so well, that I had not seen it coming in the least. This book is beautiful and dark, and the world in which it is built is wonderfully written. It reminds me of a maze, full of dark twists and turns in the plot.

       I definitely recommend this book to fans of dystopian and fantasy stories. Whilst waiting for the sequel to this book, I recommend The Young Elites by Marie Lu.  Because the mood and stories of both books are similar.