Book Talks: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I finished this book a while ago but haven't been able to properly review it. So, I'm implementing a new little format to my book talks and reviews to make it easier for me to sort my thoughts.

Summary: This book takes place many years into the future in New Beijing. 5 world wars have passed, and a deadly plague ravages the earth. (And a colony of beings called Lunars live on the moon.) Our main character, Cinder, is a cyborg mechanic, and an important discovery about herself could change the fate of the world.

Star rating: I gave this book 4.5 stars, but that rounded up to 5 stars on goodreads. It was entertaining and the idea was very cool. I highly recommend if you haven't read it. If you have not read it, I think that you should leave now. I do have some spoilers below, but I did cover them up. Still, it's better going into this book without knowing what I thought of it.

Main characters:

• Cinder. She was a pretty cool character. She seemed to react to most of the situations in the book normally, as a normal person would, and her cyborg parts were really cool and fun to read about. It annoyed me how she always turned the prince down whenever he asked her to the ball. It seemed to just lengthen the book, but I also didn't mind that she turned the prince down. It showed that she had more priorities than just going to the dance with him. <SPOILER> And I really loved how her story unraveled. It was predictable that she was Lunar from page 1, but I didn't realize she was princess Selene until I was nearly halfway through. But I love how there was a little clue each chapter. For instance, when she thought she was a shell, but then she couldn't see past Levana's glamour. That showed that she was Lunar, but she wasn't a shell. <SPOILER>
• Prince Kaito. I felt very meh about him. He felt kind of flat but HE'S THE PRINCE, SO THEREFORE HE'S AMAZING! No. Even royalty won't save you from being a boring character. But I didn't really have any problem with him. He's kind of like Jason, from the Heroes of Olympus. He doesn't really do anything, but all the female characters seem to like him, and he has some famous parents.
• Peony. I was kind of surprised that Peony was fairly kind towards Cinder, and that they both cared for each other. Peony is supposed to be one of the evil stepsisters, but she wasn't evil at all.
• Pearl. Now, Pearl is evil. I didn't like her.
• Queen Levana. Don't like her either. Need I explain?
• Iko. Everyone says that they love Iko, but I didn't feel like there was very much of her in this book. I don't feel like I got to see enough of her personality to truly like her.

What this book did well:

•  It was a very interesting idea. Futuristic retellings of old stories are always very cool. There was little things in this book, like when <SPOILER> Cinder self-destructed(?) or something and her shoe came off on the stairs <SPOILER> Cinder lost her shoe that related to the original story in a really cool way, and I enjoyed that.
• The plot twist, though predictable, was pretty cool, and it opens up a lot of doors for the sequel.
• I loved how even though this was a fairy tale retelling, new elements were added. For example: the plague. The plague is what really got me into this book. Whenever they were searching for a cure, I was enthralled and I couldn't stop flipping the pages.
• I loved how the relationship between Cinder and Kai was political. (Is that the right word?) Kai wanted to take Cinder to the ball because he didn't want to talk to Queen Levana and he didn't want to marry her. It didn't feel like a stupid, carefree, teenage love story at ALL.

What this book did NOT do well:

• It was predictable. Though predictable, it was still cool.
• I felt like most of the side characters were either good or evil. Queen Levana: straight up evil. Pearl: evil. Evil stepmother: evil.

My thoughts on the writing style: I liked the writing style. It had that kind of generic YA style where it's pretty, but not spectacular. However, there were some really nice words that the other threw in to distinguish her writing from all of the other millions of YA authors.

Other things I'd like to mention: I'm going to this author's book signing soon! Yay!

That's all I can really say about this book. 4.5 stars, entertaining read, highly recommend.

Book Talks: Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I did cry during this book, but mainly because I was expecting to cry, so I just let it all loose.
I did a happier, half baked review here: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/06/half-baked-reviews-eleanor-park-by.html

It's about these two characters; one is Eleanor. She's the new student. She's a little
overweight, has really really red curly hair, she's very quiet, and when she does speak, she's usually pretty funny or sarcastic.
The other character is Park. He's pretty normal. He's Asian, he wears band t shirts, he reads comics, and he leads a pretty normal life.
One day, Eleanor walks onto the bus, and immediately, Park thinks "She's asking for it." Eleanor is really quirky and she's an easy target for bullies. So, when we tries to find a seat on the bus, everyone says mean things to her, and tells her that she can't sit in a certain seat. Finally, Park just says "Sit down!" (plus some unkind words) and she sits next to him.
That is how this amazing story begins.

I am not prepared to review this book. If you're reading this, it's a miracle because I wasn't really sure if I would ever make a book talk for this book. It's practically perfection. What more needs to be said?

Without spoiling anything, I can say these things about the book:

• The characters are very realistic.
• The talking is very realistic. Reading the book made me feel like I was just eavesdropping on their conversation from the seat behind them on the bus.
• The characters definitely are different than most YA characters, and I really liked that. Think back to the last time you read a book with an overweight YA character . . . keep thinking . . . keep thinking . . . found anything yet? No? Didn't think so. I just appreciate that the author added that into the story because it gave the main character a flaw, a struggle, an insecurity, a message that looks will never interfere with true love.
• Every page was perfection.

Now, for spoiling. If you don't know how this whole thing below works, then I'm terribly sorry. You'll have to look through another one of my book talks to find out, or you can use your knowledge on how computers work to discover the truth.
<SPOILER> None of the book reviews that I have read have said exactly what Eleanor's stepdad is. The book doesn't say it directly either. It just says that Eleanor isn't allowed to have a shower door, her stepdad wrote nasty notes on her books, and he's not a nice person. So all we can do is speculate. I don't get the impression that Eleanor was raped or sexually assaulted by him, just because I think she would have been less trusting with Park and that her situation would be entirely different. But I get the impression that Richie might have been verbally abusive, at least. But I was not expecting that ending. When Eleanor first saw the makeup and messed up comic books, I was thinking "Those stupid, irresponsible kids . . ." but then, once everything came together, I was just like . . . OH MY GOSH ELEANOR! I somehow let the whole Eleanor having to use the bathroom without a door thing just completely slip under my radar. And the ending . . . I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. It was like, NO! LOVE EACH OTHER AND HOLD EACH OTHER AGAIN! But it was also like, that was the cutest thing I have ever read. What do you guys think Eleanor's letter said? It seems like most of us can agree that she said something along the lines of "I love you" because that would have been a perfect ending, but we can never be entirely sure. <SPOILER>

Anyway, loved this book. Fantastic. I'm gonna go die in a corner.

Book Talks: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare by MG Buerhlen

I did a half baked review of the book here: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/06/half-baked-reviews-57-lives-of-alex.html

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"
So, this book is about a girl named Alex who can travel back in time to her past lives. It's a pretty interesting premise, and I liked the concept. However, I did have some problems with it. So, let's just talk.
*By the way, I'll be repeating some of the points I made in my half baked review.

• I hated the main character. Alex seemed to be a pretty rebellious and cool protagonist at the beginning of the story, but the more I got to know her, the more I hated her. Even though she seemed affectionate and the part about her sister having cancer was touching, I didn't feel like the protagonist was a very likable person.
• The instaluv. In the book, Alex travels back in time to 1927 and meets an attractive blonde boy there with blue green eyes. They go out on a date the next day and kiss, and then she wants to have sex with him. But what bothered me is that this instaluv was dragged out throughout the book. <SPOILER> Whenever she sees someone with blue green eyes, she immediately thinks "OMG! IT'S BLUE!" Even though she was right, it was annoying. And the author tried to justify it by saying that their souls were powerfully connected, but I did not believe the love between them. Like I said, Alex wasn't a very likable person. Also, whenever she sees blue, how does he have the same eye color? If he was a different body with each life, then how does he have the same eye color? That makes no sense. <SPOILER>
• The author usually used very nice sentences, but there was one sentence in particular that just killed me so much that I felt the need to fold the end of the page it was contaminating just so I could point it out in this review. "Every muscle was stiff, and my stomach growled, demanding a living sacrifice." page 208. WHAT? DEMANDING A LIVING SACRIFICE? That one sentence just changed the mood of that entire page so much. There was this kind waiter serving her pancakes an other yummy stuff, and I'm just laughing and shaking and crying all at once because I'm imagine her stomach tearing bloody birds apart and devouring their feathers one at a time and screaming "GIVE ME MORE!" Not imagery I needed.
• There were long information dumps. Page 186 is basically an entire page of information dumps disguised as conversation. It really bothered me how the main characters gave too much information away when they were speaking. It was during a crisis, too. The main characters would be like "Oh no! This bomb is going to go off in five seconds! Please, during this time, let me educate you on why it will be bad if this bomb goes off."
• It really makes me sad when authors use inconsistent spelling. During the book, one of the main character's past lives is as Shooter Delaney. On page 268, her name suddenly becomes Shooter Delany. Now, mistakes like this don't ever affect my enjoyment of the book, but when I am making reviews and I'm being very critical of the text, I like to point these little things out.
• While I'm pointing out little things, the author used abbreviations and just didn't add the periods. Instead of Dr. the author said Dr which I realize that I do quite a lot, with names like JK Rowling, but that's okay on a blog. I'm not trying to be professional, but this is supposed to be a professional book. Little tiny things like that just annoy me.
• The author explains things. Now, I don't feel like the author should spoonfeed their reader. Before I talk about a certain spoiler, the author would put in words what just happened and kind of sum it up for the reader. It made this book feel like it was targeted towards a younger audience, but it dealt with things that younger audiences don't usually read, so that means that the author was just plainly telling you what happened. There is one rule in writing I think all writers should follow: Show, don't tell. <SPOILER> On page 359, the author says "He rubbed circles around his pinky knuckle with his thumb." Now, I think that most of us picked up that this was a habit that Porter had. But the author literally tells you in the next page. That really bothered me. <SPOILER>
• I like that the main character seemed to have dignity, but she also felt a little too hung up about some stupid guy at the same time, so everything kind of cancelled out, which made the character feel like a generic female protagonist.

Now, all of this being said, I didn't hate this book. I actually kind of enjoyed it. The concept was kind of interesting, the book was pretty fast paced, and there were a lot of possibilities in this book. It all lead up to one big cliffhanger, which linked back to the instaluv, but I'd like to see what happens. And though the rest of this review might have seemed kind of harsh, I actually recommend this book. Because the finale was kind of exciting, it was an easy read, the ending was nice, the writing was usually pretty beautiful, and you know what? It was a fun book.

Book Talks: The Harry Potter series

If you have not read the Harry Potter series yet, you absolutely must. I don't care if it takes you fifteen years to read them. You have to.

I decided I would do a mini-book talk about the entire series. There will be spoilers, so if you haven't read the series yet, leave. And of course, if you've only read the first book, don't read the book talk for the second book, if you've read the second book, don't read the book talk for the third book, and so on.
Basically, read at your own risk.


Okay. If you're here, I'm guessing you've read the series or most of the series.

#1 Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone
This is the happiest book in the series. Besides learning the Harry's parents have died and all of that stuff about Voldemort, it's the happiest book. Even the cover's kind of quirky and childish. (In the best way possible)
Harry is just learning about the wizarding world, and he hasn't known about it until now. It's a really good book. Not my favorite in the series.
The beginning was hard to get past though. You had to read up to page 50 just for Harry to finally catch onto the fact that he's a wizard. Still really good book, really enjoyed it.




#2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Things start to get a little more serious here. Harry learns that Moaning Myrtle died and that Voldemort is slowly coming back and all of the students could be petrified or murdered by a snake at any moment. But the series isn't too dark yet. The cover of the book still looks like a children's book, it's only a little larger than the previous book. Again, it's not my favorite in the series, but they're all so amazing.





#3 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
This is a good one. For one thing, Harry has a family member who was close with his parents! Yay. Also, there was a little more mystery regarding the time turner. I didn't know how Hermione was taking a million classes a day. (Magic! of course!) And I loved how they used the time turner in the end to save the hippogriff and Sirius. Also, Harry learns a lot in this book. In this book, we get to take a look into the magical world. We learn about dementors, patronuses, boggarts, and we learn that Draco is the most annoying person to ever exist.



#4 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
This is almost everyone's favorite book in the series. It's not my favorite, but it's a super close second.
The cover looks a little more serious. Harry's lost some baby fat on his face, and all of the people in the background look angry and sophisticated. The Tri-Wizard Tournament is awesome. And . . . VOLDEMORT'S BACK! Loved this book. I remember shaking and choking on . . . air . . . as I was reading the end of this book. I was gasping and just . . . a wreck.




#5 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
This is actually my favorite in the series. I really enjoyed it. Everyone says, "How can you like it? Sirius died!" but I just loved Dumbledore's army.
Although, I ABSOLUTELY HATE PROFESSOR UMBRIDGE. I WANTED TO REACH THROUGH THE PAGES OF THE BOOK AND STRANGLE HER. I love reading about book characters totally outsmarting the villains, and Hermione did that so well at about page 747. If you don't have a copy of the book within five feet of you, Hermione says something along the lines of, "We have to tell them where it's hidden, Harry!" Basically, she leads Professor Umbridge into the woods and she's murdered by centaurs. Yay!


#6 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Not my favorite in the series. I don't remember a lot of the details because it wasn't as interesting to me. I do remember Harry kicking ass in potion's class, and that was awesome. And I loved how he brought up Ron's self-confidence and . . . oh, it was a good book. Not my favorite, though. Dumbledore dies, but I actually wasn't too sad.
The cover looks pretty serious, doesn't it?





#7 Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
Ultra-serious cover.
I don't want to talk too much about the Horcruxes or anything. I loved the action in this book and when Mrs. Weasley went all mama-bear on page 736. ("NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!")
I did not like Dobby's death. I was fine with almost everyone else dying in the series. But I was not fine with Dobby's death. AT ALL.
And I thought that Harry fixed the school with the Elder Wand. I thought he said "reparo" and then the school was just back to normal. I guess that didn't happen. Did it?
Now let's talk about the epilogue. Harry and Ginny get together. No surprise. Ron and Hermione get together. Again, not surprised. It doesn't say if Luna and Neville get together, but I'd like to think they do.
And the last sentence in the entire Harry Potter series is . . . "All was well."

Book Talks: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"

I literally just finished this book, so my thoughts will be kind of scattered.

For those of you who haven't read it, The 5th Wave is about alien invasion. It is the first alien book that I've read, and I really enjoyed it because it wasn't a beat-the-odds-and-kill-all-the-aliens book. It was more of an oh-crap-we're-so-screwed-aliens-why kind of book.

Where this book does well:

• Confusing the crap out of you, in the best way possible. The book convinces you that whatever you're thinking is wrong, and you share the paranoia with the characters.
• Accurately describing how stupid humans would be in the case of apocalypse. Teenagers were having sex under the bleachers, people were raiding stores to get only the essentials: beer.
• It has multiple POVs. Every time there is a black page, it is the start of a new POV. It never really tells you who is narrating the story, so the first time that narration is introduced, it can be confusing. However, the author was able to help you distinguish the POV with the writing alone. The writing was just very different. It almost felt like the author became the person who was telling the story.
• Female protagonists. Cassie just rocks. She can do karate and blow out people's brains.
• Ringer. <SPOILER> She's just so smart and when she figured out the truth behind the trackers, I just gained so much respect for her. She's also really independent and she sticks up for herself. When she told the guys not to make sexist and demeaning jokes about her I just felt all of the feminism inside of me explode like a volcano of awesomeness.     What. And do you guys think that she'll end up with Ben, because I honestly don't see a huge connection between Cassie and Ben. <SPOILER>
• The book goes full circle. Everything connects. <SPOILERS> Cassie's crush on Ben Parish, the babies, Sams being sent to Camp Haven, Cassie quitting karate, etc <SPOILERS>
• The writing. I was fairly impressed with it, because it had a great mix of power and wit. The writing had the power to get me excited and scared, and I loved it.
• The whole concept. It takes a less traditional stance on the alien invasion. Because of this, I don't think that you can really call it sci-fi, but it was impressive. It almost feels like the arena in Catching Fire. Instead of a new horror every hour, there's a new horror every wave.
• IT WAS REALISTIC. Aside from it having to do with alien invasions, which could happen, because we can't be the only ones in the universe, it was realistic. You never, EVER in YA hear a girl say "Hey, I kind of can't slice the heads of off monsters today--I'm on my period." And Cassie didn't say that, because she's a badass. But this, and I appreciate it so much, she mentioned that she was always worried about running out of tampons. THANK YOU FOR INCLUDING THAT, RICK YANCEY!
• The cover of the book. Just because.
• The plot was exciting, but not what I was expecting. This book focuses more on survival than triumph, but <SPOILER> we have Ringer, Cassie, Ben, Sams, and all of the others in a car headed somewhere, so we can only expect that stuff is going to do down in the next book. <SPOILER>
• I liked all of the Wizard of Oz references for some reason. Going Dorothy, Follow the road, follow the road . . .

Where this book didn't do so great:

• Evan. Um . . . I know that a lot of people like Evan, but I didn't. He seems pretty nice, but I hate the whole "I'll do anything to save you!" thing. And he's basically Edward. He kind of stalks Cassie and he's "dangerous." I just didn't like his character and how his hands were so soft and how warm his kiss felt and how he was well muscled.
• Something that may be cleared up in the next book. <SPOILER> If the aliens are only, like, existence or something, then how the hell did they build a mothership? <SPOILER>

Overall, I loved the book. I highly recommend that you read it. It's an exciting book and may pave the way for a new alien trend, who knows? But you definitely want to get in on this book before the sequel comes out. Don't be late to the party.

A-Z Marathon! Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

**Minor spoilers below, kind of.

I already did a pretty detailed post for this book: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/a-book-that-i-feel-kind-of-conflicted.html

But today, I am going to be showing you some of my favorite pictures from this book.

If you read my last post about this book, you will know that I absolutely adored the pictures because they added so much to the book, and I probably would have given the book 1 star without the pictures.

This book was pretty interesting because it was told through two perspectives in different time periods, and one of the perspectives was told in only pictures, which I really liked. I can't say much more without repeating myself, so be sure that you check out the detailed post about the book.


Let's begin.

Yet another tribute to TFiOS

I'll eventually stop posting about TFiOS. Eventually.
But something amazing happened that forced me to create another post about it.
I'll explain. I was in art class and this popular girl who sits across from me who normally just doodles and talks with her friends was reading a book: The Fault in Our Stars.
She also never reads because she has dyslexia, and I asked her about the
book and she said that she loved it so far.
You do not understand how much joy it brings me to see people reading books that I love.
Anyway, before I show you guys a bunch of pretty pictures, here are my other TFiOS posts: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/books-to-read-fault-in-our-stars-by.html
http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/book-talks-fault-in-our-stars-by-john.html

Let's begin.

A-Z Marathon! Insurgent by Veronica Roth

You see, nothing that I read starts with I.
I kid you not, no authors that I have read (that I remember) have names that start with I, nothing of their characters have names that start with I, and no books except for this one book starts with I.
Well, I suppose The Invention of Hugo Cabret counts, now that I'm looking at my bookshelf . . .
Still. Not much of an option.
Everyone just start naming your kids Isa and Ivy and Ivan and any other names that start with I. Please.

I already did a book talk for Insurgent and you can see it here: http://bookahooligans.blogspot.com/2014/05/dystopiathon-insurgent-by-veronica-roth.html

Anyway, we're just going to look at pictures. But there are certain pictures that I want to show--the fan made covers/movie posters. I don't know what it is about the Divergent fandom, but they are all awesome artists and they can do some pretty cool stuff with photoshop.
I mean, the covers are so good that some of these, especially the fan made Allegiant covers, are probably good enough to actually be the actual book cover. *Also, I think that one or two of the, are just less popular editions of the book.

These two covers are the actual covers.

A-Z Marathon! Book Talks: The House of Hades by Rick Riordan

Leave if you have not read the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series and the Heroes of Olympus series.

I loved The House of Hades. It is probably one of my favorite Heroes of Olympus books. And I'll tell you why:

• The writing, as always, was perfect. There was always a nice balance between descriptions, dialogues, thoughts, witty comments, feelings, and imagery and all of that fun stuff.
• The plot. STUFF WAS HAPPENING. I have read a lot of slow and boring books. HoH was not one of them. There was constant action from multiple perspectives and it I was constantly entertained.
• Leo and Calypso. For one thing, Rick Riordan brought back a character that we only saw for about a chapter five books ago. Also, LEO FINALLY MIGHT GET A GIRL. And don't they just look perfect together? I'm sorry . . . I usually don't ship couples together or anything, but Cleo is my OTP. I have to have one, and this is it.
• Tartarus was awesome. It was super cool, and--I need to discuss something quickly. This book was amazing in particular for one reason: a lot of old characters, good and bad, were brought back. It's so cool to read these books and think "Oh yeah. That's a monster they defeated in The Titan's Curse." I just loved that. Back to my point--it constantly kept me on edge and enthralled in this book.
• One thing I don't understand about this book is why Tartarus chose to fight them in his human form. I mean, he said was trying it out, but he could have just swallowed the demigods whole if he wasn't in his human form. But I know, Rick Riordan was trying to protect his house from angry fangirls, so I get it.
• Nico. That just kind of came out of nowhere. The more the demigods said that Nico had a crush on Annabeth, the more I doubted it, but I wasn't expecting this.
• Jason. I know he's supposed to be the attractive and strong and heroic male lead, but none of that is coming through. He's just so serious and he does cool things that help nothing.
  
• Piper. Yay. She's learning to fight. Woohoo. Her charmspeak is much cooler. I still don't really buy that she was able to charmspeak Festus to life, but you know, whatever Riordan says.
• Hazel . . . I guess she was a pretty important character in this book. The first chapter was from her point of view. She learned how to use the mist! Yay!
• Percabeth: 5 stars.
• Bob. I feel so sad for Bob. I love Bob. He had to be a janitor for all of those years, and then I feel like Percy kind of used him, but he had to.
• Small Bob. Ten stars for Small Bob.
• However, the award to the most developed character goes to Frank. He developed physically, which never really happens in a book. And he also became a leader and he kind of came out of his shell and . . . I loved it.
• Lastly, this book is leading up to the perfect finale. We saw a glimpse of Graver and Rachel. We might have a Nico or a Reyna POV. Cleo might become a thing. Storm or fire. Everything has lead up to The Blood of Olympus.THIS CAN ONLY MEAN THAT WE WILL SEE THEM IN THE NEXT BOOK. WHO ELSE IS EXCITED???
  Yeah! BLOOD OF OLYMPUS!

Books to Burn/Book Talks: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

**To view spoilers, drag your mouse over the empty space between"<SPOILER>...<SPOILER>"

BOOK TALK HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANoFqxz0oHY

Where do I begin . . .
I have just finished The Book Thief.
To sum up my reading experience, I waited 550 pages for a plot and didn't get one.

Let me just purge my thoughts onto this blank page. Maybe you can sort them out for me.

The Book Thief is about a girl named Liesel who stole about three books and learned to read.

Just . . . I really am happy for you if you liked this book, and maybe I missed something, but I did not enjoy this book.

Okay. It's easier for me to sort my thoughts with bullets and it's more fun for a lot of people on the internet to read things that way.

• The writing style was beautiful. It was very difficult to get used to, but once you get used to it, it's really poetic and dramatic. However, some of the word choices were very strange (a breakfast colored sun) while others worked very well. The metaphors and other figures of speech were definitely very different than anything I'd ever read before. I just flipped open the book to a random page and found very interesting sentences.

-Papa apologized. "It's quite pathetic. I realize that." "Better than nothing," Max assured him. "Better than I deserve--thank you." p 208
-There was a constant urge to speak both expressions, spurred on by the affliction of guilt. p 208
-It was much the same as the way he left his family in Stuttgart, under a veil of fabricated loyalty. p 208
-To live. Living was living. The prices was guilt and shame. p 208
-She denied his existences. His rustling hair, his cold, slippery fingers. His tortured presence. p 209
-Drizzle came down in spades. p 209
-Dead leaves were slumped on the road. p 209

I mean, Markus Zusak should become a poet.

• The narrator. This book was narrated by Death. He freaking annoyed me. I was okay with him until p 241. You know what happened on p 241? <I suppose it's a SPOILER> HE FREAKING TELLS YOU THAT RUDY DIES. The big finale where Rudy dies is the only thing that would have given the book some sort of plot. But I was spoiled BY THE FREAKING AUTHOR. Maybe the author was just like "Oh, goodness. My ending is so great that I just can't keep it to myself." NO. JUST DON'T. <SPOILER> In the beginning, when the narrator kept on butting in, it irked me a little, but I got used to it. Then, with all of the dictionary definitions and the spoilers, I was just like . . .
  
• The plot. There was none. I don't think that someone learning how to read while hiding a Jew in their basement is much of a plot. There is only one moment in this book when I was thinking "Yeah! This is awesome!" That was when Liesel punched the kid who was making fun of her in the face. Then, you know what happened for the rest of the book? Nothing.
• The ending. Don't worry, if I tell you, it won't matter because DEATH FREAKING SPELLED IT OUT ON PAGE 24FREAKING1. But, it wasn't much of an ending. Yeah, it was realistic I suppose, but even with Death pretty much telling us what happened, it just came out of nowhere. <SPOILER> A bomb just comes out of nowhere and kills everyone but Liesel. Fantastic. <SPOILER>
  
• The characters. I liked Rudy. He was interesting. The whole Jesse Owens thing gave him a personality, and he was interesting. I liked his character. But the dreaded page 241 . . . ugh. Also, I imagine him like a normal, blonde haired dude, even though Death insisted that he looked like an anime character with lemon hair.

Liesel felt a little flat-ish, but I can appreciate that most of the people around her have died and she doesn't act like a complete Saumensch.
I liked Max. He was really nice and cool and I loved his drawing and I loved how he fought Hitler in his . . . dreams. But his arrival didn't really give the book a plot. On the back of the book, it says that "When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down." But it was just like "Yay! We're hiding a Jew in our basement! Let's feed him soup for 300 more pages!"
I liked Hans. I liked Rosa, much more than I thought I would, minus her constant swearing. I liked a lot of the characters, minus Hitler, but it didn't give the book a plot or anything.

• I liked all of Max's drawings. Pages 223-236 and pages 279 and 280 and pages 445-450 were by far my favorite pages, and they are the reason that I would rate this book 3 out of 5 stars. Those pages added to the story, especially page 280, which despite looking like it was drawn by a not-particularly-talented sixth grader, felt really powerful and stirred up more emotions inside of me than the sad ending of this tragic book did.
• The reviews of the book. I can completely see why people love this book. I totally understand. But The New York Times called this book "BRILLIANT and hugely ambitious . . . . It's the kind of book that can be LIFE-CHANGING." But you know . . . I don't think it is. This quote was really one of the reasons I was excited to read this book, but I felt nothing. The ending didn't make me cry, I didn't cry at all during this book. It didn't change my life. I just kept looking at the bottom of the page to see how close I was to being done with this book.

All in all, I didn't hate this book and I'm not going to burn it because it was expensive. But I didn't enjoy this book. It was just kind of . . .

Yay! I'm going to read this book!

Yay. I'm reading this book.

Still reading . . .

Still reading . . .

Ugh. It's over.

Yeah. I'm sure that some people will like this book, but . . . not me.