kyarabereading's reviews
58 reviews

I don't often read plays, so it was fun getting to do so. I found the writing very funny and the commentary very interesting. 

I'll admit it: I would finish reading chapters of this book and be left incredibly confused more often than I would like to admit. Mind you, I found some chapters interesting - there were even some I identified with as a woman - and I can definitely see what Anne wanted to achieve with this "manual." But I think it will take a couple of reads for me to fully grasp this story. 

It was a really cool experience getting to read a book in a very nontraditional writing style, and I think that if that's something you are looking for, you should definitely check this one out. 

I don't often read poetry collections, so I was really excited to check this one out. It is beautifully written, it is tragically painful, it is overwhelmingly reflective - I loved those things about Beastiary. I'll admit that I don't know enough about the animals referenced in this poetry collection, and I think if I knew more, it would help me understand Kelly's poetry more profoundly. I gave it a pretty quick read, so I'm hoping to re-read it, spend a little bit more time with it, and do some research as I read so I can understand it further. I look forward to the day I pick this book up again. 

I have re-read this book a handful of times, and I love it more every time. I appreciate Grande's honesty about the struggles that have impacted her life, the reality of both living in Mexico and being an immigrant in America, and the difficult relationship she had with her family. This book is incredibly informative about parts of Mexico's history, as well as legislation in America that impacted the lives of Mexican immigrants. If you are interested in learning some Mexican history told from the point of view of someone who experienced it, I think this is the book for you. I also think this is a book that a lot of Latinos could identify with and be moved by. I, for one, certainly felt moved by it. 

I read Frankenstein in high school, but I decided to read it again, and it's crazy how much more you can like a book when you don't have to be graded on your understanding of it lol. It's not that I hated it the first time or anything. I just think that essays and tests and whatnot can really take the fun out of reading a book for the first time.

There's not much I can say that hasn't already been said, but I really enjoyed this book. Not only is Shelley's writing incredible, Frankenstein is also a much quicker + easier read than I anticipated. All I'm saying is, there is a reason it is one of the most well-known books of all time. 

I think this book series is genuinely one of the best YA book series of the 2000s, and I will always stand by that. It is so honest about the atrocities of war, about capitalism, about fame, about the government, about PTSD, about all these things that affect our lives. This is a true reflection of today's world, and I think it's interesting to read it with our real world and history in mind.

But aside from the clear commentary within this book series, what also makes this series incredible is that there is so much heart in it. You truly fall in love with the characters, you enjoy their interactions, you feel for their struggles. This is truly one of the few instances where I read a book, and I felt so connected to the characters that I started tearing up when I realized I was nearing the end of the story. Mockingjay was a bittersweet ending to this book series. It wasn't this perfect happy ending, but it wrapped everything up well, and more importantly, it was realistic. I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

People give John Green a lot of $#!+ but I genuinely think he's a great author and TFIOS is proof of that. This book is funny, sad, and incredibly insightful. The characters remain loveable and realistic all the way through - even when you read a line that leaves you thinking "no teenager today would speak like a walking thesaurus but ok." The plot is one of those where not much happens, which is part of what makes it feel realistic. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but personally, I like books like that. And finally, I think this book has a great message. It gives the reader a lot to ponder when it comes to life and death and the fear of being forgotten and all that jazz. Green is great about inserting these little philosophical thoughts and conversations into his books - the sorts of things that we tend to obsess over, especially as we get older - and making them more digestible. It is interesting to read TFIOS through that lens, but also, I honestly think it makes this book that much more heartbreaking. 

If there's one thing I wish Green had done differently, it's

remove that part when Hazel and Augustus kissed in the Anne Frank House and everyone clapped. Every time I read it, I get the worst secondhand embarrassment. If I had a time machine, the first thing I would do is go back in time and prevent Green from writing that part, I'm so serious.

 

Anyway, I wanted to share a not-so-fun-fact from Mr. John Green himself. Apparently,

Hazel died about a year after Augustus. Isn't that sad as hell?

I gave this book 5 stars because it is one of my favorite books I read this year, and I definitely see myself reading it over and over again. It's not a perfect book, of course, but I truly do think it is deserving of this rating.

One of my favorite things about this book that I don't think it gets enough love for is the relationship between Starr and her family. I think it is genuinely one of my favorite depictions of a family in a book. This family is so realistic and heartwarming and funny and so so full of love. It is a crazy thing to read a book where you can feel that love radiating off the page so strongly even though the characters are not even real. You could see that too with the Garden Heights community. I loved the interactions Starr and her family had with members of the community. When you read this book, you truly feel like the characters have known each other for ages and that they care about one another even though they aren't related by blood. The characters in this story feel so real and that makes them that much more loveable to me.

Obviously, this book gets a lot of love for how reflective and informative it is on the struggles that Black people face in America, especially when it comes to things like police brutality, micro-aggressions, systemic racism, etc. That's truly one of the things that makes this book so important and impactful. Without saying too much, what I truly appreciated about how this story handled the issue of police brutality against the Black community is that it didn't give you this perfect happy ending. It is a good happy ending, but it is very bittersweet. I have seen countless TV shows, movies, etc. cover police brutality and they paint this fairytale where everything goes perfectly and justice is served exactly as we would hope it would be. And it would be super sick to live in that world, but we don't. We live in a world where things are much more complicated, where things don't always go the way you would hope, and I'm glad Thomas showed that reality. I'm glad she didn't sugarcoat a single thing.

I'll admit this though: Though I appreciate how honest it is about these issues, I think sometimes it does read like a PSA-type video, like one of those videos teachers would put on to teach you about bullying. The way that those informative bits were inserted into the book felt unnatural at times, and it took me out of the story a little bit. But I will say that I am much older than the target audience for this book, and I think that could be part of it. If this book is meant for a primarily teenage audience that will most likely discuss this book in class, maybe it needs to be more obvious and clear about the points it is making. I think that can be a good thing too.

I'll also say that this book, like most books about teenagers written by adults, did not completely grasp how teenagers communicate. I think Thomas did a better job than most because most of the dialogue sounds very natural, but every once in a while I came across a line that had me cringing a little bit. My qualification for saying this is that I was a teenager during the time that this book is set in (lol), so sometimes the dialogue read like an adult trying to sound like a teenager. 

A final little tidbit of criticism: The pacing for this book was a little all over the place. I usually don't mind books where not much happens because they're set in the real world and the real world is not all that exciting, of course. But at times it felt like there was a lot of unnecessary filler that dragged the book down a bit. It, unfortunately, got a little boring at times because of it.

Thomas is a great author, and considering this is the first time she ever published a book, seeing what she achieved with The Hate U Give is incredible to see. I'm incredibly happy for her, and I hope she is having a prosperous and fulfilling career. 

Out of all the John Green books I've read (two), this is definitely not my favorite. It was an enjoyable read, and I liked a lot of the things that Green did with this book, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

Things I loved about this book: I thought it was really creatively written, and I felt the writing style best represented Colin as a character, much better than a traditional writing style for sure. I enjoyed Green's use of footnotes and section headings to display information because I felt it best represented Colin's personality and connection to those aspects of academic writing. I think this book also has a lot of captivating and thought-provoking reflections on human existence, the kind of reflections that make the readers reflect on their own lives, and I've always felt that was one of Green's strong suits (since I read all of two books). It seems that Green's books come with lessons for young people represented through his characters, and I think that those lessons are well woven into the text without being too obvious. The characters struggle through things young people usually struggle through, so I think people could easily see themselves in these characters. An Abundance of Katherines suffers from being a bit obvious about what it was going for at times, but I love the idea of this lesson being delivered through an ex-child prodigy so much that it didn't bother me as much. This book is also surprisingly progressive for the time it was written, but I wouldn't expect anything else from John Green. It does suffer from some outdated language (the r-word is used multiple times) and ideas (about women), but that's about it. Finally, I wanted to end this by saying that Green's attention to detail in this book is admirable. The time he took to make sure the mathematical formulas made sense, to include facts that could be mundane or interesting depending on the reader, to include correct translations of languages, etc. - all of that is incredible to see and made the book more fun to read. 

Things I didn't love about this book: For one, I thought the pacing was a bit odd, and I'm guessing that's because it's a book set very much in real life, and real life isn't all that interesting 99% of the time. I usually don't have a problem with books like that, but this one moves very slowly, and it feels like not much is happening for most of the book until the very end when things get wrapped up rather quickly. I also had a hard time connecting with the characters, but I did come to find them quite loveable the more I read. I love books with three-dimensional characters, that feel like real people you could meet in real life. I feel like I didn't get that from this book because every character had like 1 conflict to get through in the book that was the only thing that was talked about when that character was present.

Colin was worried about not doing something that made him matter. Lindsey was dealing with the fact that she was never truly herself around anybody, just being whoever people needed her to be. Hassan used his sense of humor to not do anything with his life, like go to college as Colin kept telling him he should do.

It made chapters feel boring and repetitive at times. 

Though this book isn't perfect, I think so much about it makes it really unique and sets it apart from other books. It may not be my favorite book I've read in my life, but it was still a fun read. 

That New York Times Book Review that said "Collins has done that rare thing. She has written a sequel that improves upon the first book" was so right. I think Catching Fire truly built on the strengths of the last book, and you can see how Collins improved on the weaknesses in the first Hunger Games book. It’s a book I simply couldn’t put down, reading page after page, excited to see what would happen next (even though I already knew - for the most part - because of the movies lol).

If there is one thing I had a slight issue with, it's that this book had some slight pacing issues. The book is divided into three parts, and the first two parts are pretty slow-moving, then all the action and craziness happens in the third part. It makes the first two parts feel very slow and the last part feel rushed in comparison.  Despite that, I still enjoyed the slow pace of the first two parts. It helps us learn a little bit more about Panem as a whole, and the different districts it contains. It helps us see the slow progression of the rebellion against the Capitol and all the moving parts that lead to that rebellion. It helps us see the relationship Katniss built with everyone around her - from Peeta to her family to her Capitol prep team.

Outside of pacing, I thought this book still had some really strong writing. The characters are all interesting, each with their own personality and mannerisms. I love seeing the way the characters interact with each other, seeing those little moments where their personality, sense of humor, and love for one another really comes through. I especially loved the new additions to the character list in this book, and I'm very excited to see what we learn about them in the next book. I also think that Katniss was a much better narrator in this book. It's cool getting that look inside her mind and seeing how she interacts with the world around her. Katniss's narration is aided by Collins's ability to write about things as simple as food and clothes and wounds and animals and whatever it may be in a way that brings you into the story fully, entirely, completely. Her imagery and world-building are truly so fascinating to see, and they work hand-in-hand to help the reader understand the country that is Panem and its people.

I'm really hyping this book up, and I'm going to end this review with an overly confident statement: I truly think The Hunger Games is one of the best YA dystopian book series of this time, if not THEE best. The other books are truly not doing it like this one. Sorry, but it had to be said!! 😌