Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

BY THE ANGEL!!!

This book is phenomenal! I thought the other books in this world were good when I read them but this one takes it to a whole knew level. 

From the very start of this book we are thrust into the world of Shadowhunters and Demons and Warlocks and Werewolves and Vampires...the list goes on. The action is introduced right from the beginning and continues all the way to the end. Lady Midnight is full of mystery, romance, fighting and lots and lots of plot twists. 

I loved getting to know all of the characters that were introduced in City of Heavenly Fire in more depth and getting to see how the Dark War really effected them. 

I thought that it was really interesting to see the way that Julian had adopted the role of their father. I liked how it wasn't an immediate thing, that it developed over time with him knowing that they needed someone who would look after them like that. I love the different relationships he has with each of his siblings and how well he knows each of them individually. I also loved to read about how much he adored them. 

I loved learning more about Emma too. It was interesting to see how the death of her parents fueled everything that she did. It fueled her desire for revenge and it fueled how deeply she cared for the Blackthorns. It also fueled her impulsiveness and her carelessness, much like Jace from The Mortal Instruments series. The deaths of her parents, along with the events of the Dark War, very much shaped her into this kick-ass Shadowhunter. 

It was good to get to know the rest of the Blackthorn children better too. They were all so young during City of Heavenly Fire that they were almost pushed to the side a little. None of them were old enough to fight or fully understand what was going on so nobody really considered how everything would effect them. Now they are all older and three of them are teenagers they understand everything better. 

I think the Blackthorn who the war has most noticeably effected is Tavvy. Though he was only two years old during the war, and his siblings tried to hide it from him the best that they could, he still wakes up, five years later, having nightmares of it. He doesn't seem to understand a lot of what is going on around him but I think that is from his siblings still treating him as the child he was during the war. I think this is most noticeable when he solved the Lady Midnight riddle with his children's book. It was never something that crossed the minds of the older children so it was not something they thought to check. 

The main premise of this book is the hunt to discover a murderer but in the background Emma is also searching for the person who killed her parents. Her parents were believed to have been killed by Sebastian Morgenstern during the Dark War but Emma has never believed that story. She knew that something more sinister had happened to her parents. As it turns out she was right. At the end of the book when the young group of Shadowhunters tracks down the murderer, they also unknowingly track down Emma's parents' killer. While confronting the killer, Emma learns that her parents deaths were the result of a failed experiment to see if a spell worked. If anything this left Emma feeling more heartbroken than ever. Her parents deaths had been the result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Another underlying story is that of Mark Blackthorn, the half-faerie, half-shadowhunter boy. At the beginning of City of Heavenly Fire Mark Blackthorn is taken by Faerie and forced to become part of the Wild Hunt. At the beginning of this book, Mark is given back to his family to help them with their investigations of the killings. All the way through the book Mark struggles to readjust to the Shadowhunter world. He cannot decide if he truly belongs with his family of Shadowhunters or with the Faeries of the Wild Hunt. He is pressure by both sides to be part of their world and both sides have things that he wants. Through the whole book Mark refuses to have ruins put upon him but when he finally decides that he is a Shadowhunter he asks Julian to give them to him for the sake of saving Tavvy. 

Not only do I love the world that Cassandra Clare has created with The Shadowhunter Chronicles but I love how she incorporates certain topics into her books without making them an issue. She has written about different sexual orientations all the way through the chronicles but in this book I noticed that she added in a little part about mental illness and learning difficulties. She wrote about how those who had them were treated differently than everyone else for it and how it was just that little bit harder for them to do things. They are very much ignored by the Clave and their families feel that it is necessary to protect them from the names and the humiliation they could face if their differences are discovered. I like the way Cassie described it and explained it with relevance to the story she was telling. She wrote in a way that drew your attention to it but also did not take you away from the story. 

Also, the story at the end with all of the original characters in it absolutely made my day. I am so happy that Cassie added in an extra little bit to allow readers to find out what happened with all of the characters after the Dark War and after the stories in the Tales of the Shadowhunter Academy. It was good to know that they were all happy and enjoying life together with minimal disturbances. 

This book well and truly left me with a book hangover. I never wanted the story to end and as soon as it did I just wanted to have the next book in my hands ready to continue on. This book hangover has now turned into a book slump to the point where nothing I read seems to keep my attention. I guess that is just the sign of a good book and an even better writer to leave you longing after characters after you have turned the last page. 

Peter Pan by JM Barrie

How pretty is this cover?!?! I love it so much!!

The story in this book is one that I have grown up loving. I have seen every film adaptation and even the stage show. The only problem is I have never actually read JM Barrie's book. The only Peter Pan book I have read is the Disney one and I was about 5 or 6 when I read that. I thought it was about time that I read the original version of the story and I have to say, it was a good decision.

If you don't know the story of Peter Pan then 1. have you been living under a rock?! and 2. it is about a boy called Peter, his fairy friend Tinker Bell and the Darling children. There is one thing that is different about Peter though, he never grows up. Peter lives in Neverland. Neverland is a land of magic. It is full of Fairies, Pirates, Indians and some magical creatures.  Most children only go there in there dreams but one night Peter takes the three Darling children there. That one simple act is the basis for the most amazing adventure any child could wish for.

This book had me hooked, no pun intended, from the first line. This line is simply "All children, except one, grow up." I love the concept of Peter never growing up and keeping his innocence forever. I know that in a way it is quite sad that he will never get to experience the world in all of the new ways that everyone else will but in a lot of ways it is amazing. He will forever get to play make-believe and have fun in ways that would only make people call you childish.

I think that everyone goes through a stage where they want to be Peter Pan. Where they want to live in a world with fairies and mermaids and crazy pirates who are scared of a crocodile who ticks like a clock. Where they want to run around all day having crazy adventures with their friends and for someone to tell them a bedtime story every night. I know I went through that stage. Peter Pan though, I think, is supposed to represent your childhood. Peter is innocent and care-free and loves nothing more than going on an adventure, much like a child.

I also know that Wendy is meant to represent something too. Wendy knows that she cannot stay in Neverland with Peter forever because she has a life and her family to get back to. She knows that there is more to learn about the world and that she is expected to grow up one day. She knows that one day she is supposed to fall in love and have her own family. She also knows that one day her time with Peter Pan will be nothing but a distant memory while for her own children it could be just beginning. What Wendy represents, or so I have come to discover, is a stage of acceptance. That acceptance is that you will have to grow up one day.  cannot possible be a child forever no matter how much you wish it and one day you will eventually have to grow up.

With these two representations being stated, I found that when Wendy leaves Neverland and Peter at the window she is really saying goodbye to her childhood. She has realised that although she may wish to be a child forever she knows she cannot. She promises Peter that she will never grow up and in a way this may be true. She may be grown on the outside but on the inside she is still the same little girl that went on the adventure through Neverland with the boy who plagued her dreams.

The ending of this book is both heart-breaking and wonderful. Though it could have been different I do think it is one that is worthy of such a brilliant story. In a way it is almost like JM Barrie himself is saying to you that each generation should get their chance to meet Peter and put themselves in the adventures that he has on Neverland.
JM Barrie really did know how to bring a story to life. His words were written so wonderfully that they still touch the lives of so many children. and adults, almost 80 years after his death. The way he brings the characters to life is tremendous. You can really picture them and their adventures in ways that are special in their own way. I can only dream of being able to tell a story the way he could and for it to have such an impact on the lives of so many. This book really did not disappoint me in any way, if anything is surpassed my expectations of it. The tale of Peter Pan truly has a special place in my heart and I think it always will. It is the kind of story that you share with your children in the hope that they will love it just as much as you.

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do... I also believe in Peter Pan.

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger

This is another book that I picked up because of the movie. Unfortunately I was a bad reader and watched the movie before I picked up the book. I am actually glad I did it this way around because of how different they are.

Both the book and the film are centred around 17 year old Bianca Piper and her struggles involved in her being labelled as the DUFF. While the film focuses on Bianca trying to solve the problems in her love life, the book is different. Bianca's love life does play a large role in the book but it also involves her issues at home and with her friends. In the book Bianca is characterised as a teenager better than in the film. The book allows her to go through more teenage issues that can be related to on a broad scale.

While reading this book I noticed a few topics that it brought up were ones that I had never really taken the time to think about.

One of the topics that this book brought up was labels. Specifically labels given to teenagers in high school. This book made me realise that everyone is given a label no matter how hard you try to run from it. Nowadays the labels given to people when they are in high school are getting more and more creative and are also getting a lot more personal. This book though helped me to realise that you don't need to let these labels define who you are. I know that this is easier said than done and sometimes it doesn't work but trust me, they don't all last forever. The only way you can stop seeing yourself as the label that others have given you is to stop seeing others as the labels they have been given.

Another topic that came up was distracting yourself from your problems. This is the topic that I related to most in the book. It made me realise just how often that I did things as a distraction from my real problem. I have allowed problems to get continually worse until I cannot avoid them anymore. This is something that Bianca goes through in the book. She continually uses Wesley to keep her mind off of the problems with her parents and her friends until she can no longer avoid the problems.

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked how Kody Keplinger was able to make readers laugh and think at the same time. I liked her writing style and her characters and would love to pick up another of her books.

The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner

I want to start this off by saying WOW!!

From the minute I picked up these books I knew I was never going to be able to put them down. This world, this crazy fast-paced world, is one that I could not get enough of. The ending of every book left me both speechless and wanting more all at the same time. I am sad to say that the only reason I picked up these books was because of the films being released and not because I discovered them on my own. I am glad that I did find them though, no matter how or why it may have happened.

Book one was the one that captured my love for the series. The characters were all so authentic and made me wish that I could be a part of their world just for a minute so that I had the chance to meet them.
In a way I didn't need to be a part of their world though, I felt like I knew them and what they were like just from the words on the page. The language that they used took me some time to get my head around but after a few chapters it didn't matter what words they were using because I knew what they were saying. I understood their language and the way that they lived and the feelings that they had. I became a part of the group of people who were fighting for their lives everyday with the hope that there was something better on the other side of the crazy maze that they lived inside.
What I liked most about it all was that the relationships between the Gladers were ones that you make in everyday life, their bonds were just stronger because of the madness they were going through. The plot of the book was so different than most dystopian novels too. Yes, there was drama and yes, it was a survival story but it was such a different take on the whole thing. I loved how fast-paced the action was and loved that with every turn of the page there was something different going on.

Book two was a continuation of the first book. I started where the first left-off and so did the action. From the replacement of people in the group to the addition of a new group all trucked into a new environment, the book was action packed.
While this book introduced new characters and allowed you to get to know them, it also allowed you to better understand the existing characters. It allowed you to see how they would react in different situations. It was almost like you were WICKED and were watching this new experiment play out.
Overall the second book was a great sequel but I did feel that it was dragged out in places. Dragged out may be the wrong term to use because I felt that the information was all relevant and helped with the storyline but after beginning with so much action and ending with so much action, the middle seemed to be lacking something. That is not to say that I did not enjoy the book, I did, I just felt like there was something missing when compared with the first book in the series.

The third book was by far my favourite. The Death Cure was packed with everything that the other two books had and more. The plot of this book was to put an end to the experiments that the characters were going through. Somehow James Dashner was able to slip more emotion into this book than the others. The action seemed to be endless and the emotion seemed to be real. I could not put this book down. This book actually left me in a state of depression when it finally ended. This was not because of the ending itself but simple because it was the end. It was the end of Thomas' story and I wasn't ready to let him go yet. I sat on my couch in my living room just holding the book to my chest in a state of numbness. I tried re-reading the last few pages again and again but each time just seemed to make it worse instead of better. I was so bad that my mum even told me to put the book down and stop reading it.

Once I finished these three books and recovered from them ending, I decided to pick up the Prequel. The Kill Order tells the story of Mark and his comrades dealing with the beginning of the disease that Thomas and his friends are experiments to find a cure for. This book took me the longest to read. It was not as action filled as the others due to it being more of background on the Flare and how it came to be in the first place. I didn't feel that it was as good as the others but I would still give it a 3/5 stars.
The parts of this book that got me the most were the prologue and the epilogue. The prologue is from Teresa's point of view as she prepares to sends Thomas into the maze. It shows how she really felt about him and what they were doing. It made me realise how much he really meant to her and it made me forgive her for awful decisions she made in the trilogy. The epilogue is from Thomas' mother's perspective. It is the few moments that surround the time that Thomas was taken by WICKED. It shows that his mother gave him to them because she had caught the Flare and she knew that he could do great things to save other people from the fate that she was facing. It also explained how he got his name, Thomas was not his name when he left with WICKED.
Does this mean that Deedee is Teresa???

While reading these four books I discovered that James Dashner's writing is just incredible. He writes in a way that makes me remember exactly what happens weeks after I have finished reading it. His writing grasps my attention in a way that no other author has really done before. It makes me feel like I am there with the characters following them in their journey to save their friends. I honestly cannot get enough of it! His books are ones that I will read over and over again, I don't think I could ever get bored with them.

I will definitely be picking up more of James Dashner's books, including The Fever Code when it is released. If they are anything like this series then I cannot wait to get my hands on them.

Happy New Year!

OK, I know this is late, 20 days late, but this is the first chance I have had to sit down in front of my laptop and write something that was just a few words of a moan in a tweet.

Last year turned out not to be a great year to be reading, let alone starting a blog about it. I did it anyways. It was something that I have wanted to do for a while but just never got around to it. I think I did ok considering that this was my first year on here and my life was crazy last year.

All of this talk about how crazy last year was makes me sound like I am super busy all of the time and never stop but in reality there were just a lot of things to be done and milestones to be hit.

Last year I finished high school, I got my first job, I had my 18th birthday, I partially moved out of my family home, I started university and I made a blog in between all of that.

All of that doesn't seem like much but when it all come one after the other it turns into a crazy time.

All of this just seems like excuses for not reading or writing, or even being on my book-related twitter but really I'm just filling you in, whoever you are, on what my year has been like.

This year seems like it will be a little quieter than the last but I'm just going to take everyday as it comes. I have a truckload of books to read already and I cannot wait to tell you about every single one of them. I am doing any challenge or anything this year, I'm just going to see where the land of books takes me. My target on Goodreads is to read 30 books this year and hopefully I can do that in amongst everything else.

A new book review should be up soon about The Maze Runner Series by James Dashner so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Happy New Year and happy reading,
Emily

Books + Age = ??

When did society decide that there was an age limit to how old you can be to read a certain book and for it to still be considered acceptable?

For example, who's to say that I can't pick up a Mr Men or Little Miss book and read it from cover to cover and enjoy every word of it? This is with remembering that I am 18 years old and I could probably do that in around 5 minutes. I loved reading those books when I was younger and when I think about the stories now I still smile. I loved the adventures and the characters and how I could relate the things that they did to things that happened in real life. They made the world seem simpler and a little less scary.

The reason I was thinking about this was because I was on the bus yesterday reading Peter Pan by JM Barrie and people began looking at me strangely. I understand that it is considered a "children's classic" but the story is loved by so many people, all of a variety of ages, I just happened to be the one who decided to read it on the bus. I was reading this book not because I thought it would be a good read, I knew it would be. I was reading it because I love the story of Peter Pan. I enjoy reading it and it reminds me of my childhood.

I don't understand why there needs to be an age where you have to stop reading certain books. Who says you can't pick up a book that you read when you were 10 and read it again when you are 20 and still be just as in love with it. Who made these rules?

I mean Harry Potter is one of those books that you can read at any age. Just think about it. If you were to go into a coffee shop and see an old man sitting in the corner reading the first Harry Potter book while at the opposite end of the shop was a little girl reading the same story, how would you react?

I bet most of you would begin to think about your own memories of reading the book and how you felt when Harry, Ron and Hermione first met. I bet you think about how old you were when you first picked up the book. What if I was to tell you that the little girl was reading it for the second time while it was the first time that the old man had read those words. How would you react then? Would you judge the old man or would you smile and appreciate that he was taking the time to read it?

Ok, I understand that some books need an age restriction because of the content. I understand that it would be highly inappropriate to give a 10 year old a book like 50 Shades of Grey to read. But that is a restriction, not a limit.

Isn't one of the best things about books the fact that you can go back to them again and again and still fall in love with the story? But how can you do that if you grow up and exceed the age limit? I always find a new sense of love for a story when I re-read a book, even books that I read when I was 5 or 6 years old.

A lot of adults (I don't yet consider myself to be a fully-fledged adult) I know said that they couldn't wait until their children were old enough that they could read books to them. This was just so that they had a reason to go into a book shop and go to the children's section and pick up all of the picture books they loved while they were growing up. Yep, the truth is kids, your parents had you so that it was acceptable for them to read their favourite books again... sorry to break the news to you.

I know that the limit is just how books are categorised in bookstores and how advertising companies know how to advertise the book but it is still something that people stick to. In an ideal world people wouldn't judge others but that is not the world we live in.

The stares will just have be accepted.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

Although the cover of this book gives off the impression of a cute little romance of two people who go on a road trip, which it is, it is so much more than that too.

The book starts with a series of emails and school reports followed by Amy sitting on the front steps of her house watching the world go by. This is before she meets the handsome young man that she is going to be travelling across the country with. This is before the detour and the healing.

The reason for the road trip in the first place is because Amy is moving and someone has to take her mother's car to the new house. Amy is moving because her whole family has fallen apart. Her mother has a new job, her brother is in rehab and her father died in a car accident that she blames herself for.

Though the main reason behind the book is to watch these two strangers fall in love in the most unlikely way, I felt that following Amy's journey of reconnecting with herself and forgiving herself for "the accident" was the best part of the book.

 Amy blamed herself for the accident because she was driving when she could have easily blamed her brother as it was him that they were driving to. This shows how much Amy cared about her father. He was more of her twin than her brother was and I think that is why it hit her so hard.

I could never imagine losing my father that way and him and I are not as close as Amy and her father. Losing a parent is just something that no child wants to think about, let alone try and move on from while you are alone.

I think that is why Amy had such a hard time coming to terms with her father's death. She closed herself off from the world and her mother and bother weren't ready to talk about it with her yet. I think the detour with Roger helped her to see that talking could help and that people can help you get through difficult times even if they don't know who you are.

I think that Morgan Matson was so clever with the way that she developed the romance throughout the book while also integrating Amy's life into the story. The development was so subtle that I barely noticed it until I was nearing the end. This is such a clever and insightful read for a romance book and I would highly recommend it.