Book Review: Hush, Hush

review_hushhush

you can find the book at:
GoodReads | Author’s website | Amazon | Bookdepository
my review:
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

HUSH, HUSH is the story of Nora Grey and how her life becomes anything but average when she is seated next to the new kid, Patch Cipriano, in her Biology class.

This really isn’t much of a review. Just me complaining, really, of how extremely terrible this book was. I’m not going to even follow my usual review format because I don’t think this even deserves a well, written review. Even if I absolutely despise a book, there’s usually a couple of redeeming factors but with this, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing

  • Ok, who lets a gym teacher teach Biology? I understand if he was a supply teacher but, no, this school let this poor excuse for a teacher teach Biology. (and half the stuff he was teaching I’m sure didn’t have anything to do with Bio)
  • This is also the same coach who allowed a male student to openly harass a girl in class, in front of the entire class by telling everyone exactly how to tell when a girl is turned on
  • Nora brings it up to the teacher that he’s ignoring her basic right as a student to not be harassed like that in school. His response? Just wait it out. And then proceeds to tell her that she should tutor the very boy who is making her uncomfortable.
    • No teacher should condone the abuse Patch does to Nora. 
  • I’ve seen Patch very high on YA Book Boyfriend lists and now that I’ve read it… I’m so confused as to why? Even if he does he better in the next book, his behaviour now is frankly quite disgusting and it’s quite scary to see people crown him as an amazing love interest.
  • For a girl aiming for the big Ivy league schools, Nora shows no sign of actually caring about her grades. The idea of Nora being smart is just told to us. We never actually see how smart Nora is. (Every chance she gets it’s ruined because she’s distracted by Patch the trash)
  • Patch sends the majority of this novel just stalking and sexually harassing Nora. And it actually confounds me that we’re supposed to be swooning at this. Are we really supposed to be finding a boy who continues to make unwanted advances on a girl who has repeatedly told him that she doesn’t like him attractive? He is manipulative, abusive and just plain disgusting.
  • “If rape, murder, or any other miscreant activities were on Patch’s mind, he’d cornered me in the perfect place. ” That is what the PROTAGONIST thinks of HER LOVE INTEREST.
  • Very stereotypical female enemy. You know the drill. I think the words slut and bitch were chucked around.
  • A pathetic excuse for a best friend. I liked Vee to start with. She was almost a redeeming factor but halfway through she stopped being a best friend. No best friend would make you go out with a guy you’ve told her is making you uncomfortable. Vee is the worst and their friendship is just so BAD.
  • One example of Vee being the shittest friend I’ve ever seen:
  • “He dragged me out the front door and shoved me against the house.”
    “But he was drunk, right?”
    “Does it matter?” I snapped.
    “Well, he has a lot going on. I mean, he was wrongly accused of being messed up in some girl’s suicide, and he was forced to switch schools. If he hurt you—and I’m not justifying what he did, by the way—maybe he just needs … counseling, you know?”
    “If he hurt me?”
    “He was wasted. Maybe—maybe he didn’t know what he was doing. Tomorrow he’s going to feel horrible.”
  • I ALMOST DROPPED THIS UGLY BOOK. YOUR BEST FRIEND TELLS YOU THAT A BOY ATTACKED HER AND YOU BRUSH IT OFF BECAUSE HE WAS DRUNK? WHAT KIND OF A FRIEND ARE YOU?

I’m going to stop here because that’s all the sections that I bookmarked but I think you get the gist. I hated everything about this book and its attempt to justify harassment by covering it up as a so-called love story is actually quite worrying.

Paperback, 391 pages
Published October 13th 2010 by Simon & Schuster BFYR
ISBN: 1416989420

Book Review: A Boy Made of Blocks

review_aboymadeofblocks.jpg

you can find the book at:
GoodReads Author’s website | Amazon |
Rating:  ★★★★★

~ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review~

Thirtysomething Alex is struggling. Struggling to have a close relationship with his autistic son Sam. Struggling to hold onto his failing marriage. Struggling to come to terms with a childhood tragedy. During a trial separation, Alex moves in with his best friend Dan, wondering if his family could ever come back together.

I loved this. It was so good. I don’t know how many ways I can say how amazing this was. Sad, happy, heart-warming and heart-breaking. A BOY MADE OF BLOCKS is incredibly humorous and moving. It may sound gloomy, but it’s far from it. In the beginning, you sit there wondering if Alex will ever learn but he does. He learns from his mistakes. He changes his approach in handling Sam’s tantrums and understands his son’s fears. There were so many moving scenes in this. (Tears were streaming heavily when a certain thing was destroyed but my heart was warmed when it was fixed.)

There were certain moments where Alex knows he shouldn’t yell at Sam but continues to do so and that really irked me. Like, he’s aware of how he shouldn’t yell at Sam but still continues to do so. I kept wanting to literally yell at Alex to shut up so many times. This is repeated so many times, probably for plot’s sake, but like it was really irresponsible of Alex. It was in those moments when I thought Sam would be better off with his mother.

The incorporation of Minecraft is one of the best parts of this book. People often unfairly associate Video Games with negative things. How it’s destroying this generation of people blah blah durr hburr techonology is bad kind of thing. But A BOY MADE OF BLOCKS shows one of the many positive things about video games and games like Minecraft. Minecraft provides an environment that encourages social interaction and helps people learn to communicate within the game’s well-defined rules.

Inspired by the author’s experiences with his own son, A BOY MADE OF BLOCKS is a heartfelt story of love and family.

Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Expected publication: September 1st 2016 by Sphere
ASIN:B010QDG9RI

About the blogger!

tttaboutheblogger
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by the Broke And The Bookish! Each week, a new topic is put into place and bloggers share their top ten (or your own amount) accordingly.

  1. I’m a twin! – You know how every first day at anything often means you have to give one interesting fact about yourself? Well, this is my go to fact. And we’re fraternal as well.

    Processed with VSCO with a6 preset
    Zakiyah and Me!
  2. I am the third child of five kids. (Growing up consisted of mainly ‘wooow how do your parents manage??’ I don’t mention the fact my mum is the eldest of seven….. I think five is nothing to her)
  3. Both my parents were born in Bangladesh, while me and my sibling were born in the UK
  4. I hope to study Anthropology and Geography in university. (that is if I get the grades ahah…. AQA crushed the hopes and dreams of many students this summer with their sociology exam, including mine)
  5. The reason I started book blogging was quite simple. I just wanted to talk about books I’ve read. I don’t come from a family that takes pride in reading books. And most of the books I’ve read, no one I know in real life knows what they are. I just needed a place to vent. Also, I want to be an author, hopefully, and using my blog and writing reviews actually help me a lot with my writing process.
  6. I actually started this blog back in 2013. I used it to upload my own writing and projects that I started but didn’t want to continue. But I went silent for a couple of years until I started college in 2014. And my friend from a gaming class got me into Goodreads after the drive back from Eurogamer that year. We did a thing where we went through the email we received from BookBub and chose the strangest book we found and read it together.Which later led me to restart this entire blog. Cleaned it out, learned how to use spellcheck, and began writing for reading and reviews.
  7. Contrary to how I seem in some of my reviews, I’m actually a very nice, easygoing person. While in some of my review, I’ve been told that I come across as rude. I am sarcastic at time, but I never aim to be malicious.
  8. Posting negative reviews scare me shitless. Especially when it’s a review of a well-loved book/series.
  9. I am currently watching;
    1. Criminal Minds
    2. White Collar
    3. OITNB
    4. iZombie
      I also realised I have a thing for crime shows lmao….
  10. I am currently reading (at time of writing)
    1. Wonder Women
    2. Been Here All Along
    3. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
    4. A Boy Made of Blocks

Book Review: Paper and Fire (The Great Library #2)

review_paperandfire

you can find the book at:
GoodReads | Author’s website | Amazon | Barnes and Noble |

my rating: ★★★★☆

Ink and Bone was one of my favourite reads of last year (and as you can tell, it became one of my favourite books ever), and I’m pleased to say that overall, Paper and Fire is a worthy sequel.

PAPER AND FIRE follows Jess and his friends as they attempt to save on of their own from the hands of the Library. But it ends with them being on the run and targets of the Library’s deadly automata. This sequel was much more intense and brutal than the first as no one is safe from The Archivist.

I’ll always prefer the first book but PAPER AND FIRE was no means a disappointed but an exciting development to the series. It was amazing to enter the world of The Great Library again. Caine’s ability to write believable, diverse characters is just amazing and she is excellent at pacing and this series has so much going on to keep readers entertained. It was interesting to delve deeper into the world that the Postulants live in and, especially, about the Library and its violent methods of control.

Continue reading “Book Review: Paper and Fire (The Great Library #2)”

It’s under 2000! (ratings on Goodreads)

TOP TEN TUESDAY IS A WEEKLY FEATURE HOSTED BY THE BROKE AND THE BOOKISH! EACH WEEK, A NEW TOPIC IS PUT INTO PLACE AND BLOGGERS SHARE THEIR TOP TEN (OR YOUR OWN AMOUNT) ACCORDINGLY.

25285470

 

The Color of Our Sky by Amita Trasi (198 Ratings )

A sweeping, emotional journey of two childhood friends—one struggling to survive the human slave trade and the other on a mission to save her—two girls whose lives converge only to change one fateful night in 1993.

 

 

 

Where Death is a Hunter by Christopher Stookey (32 ratings)26206927

A patient under Hannah’s care dies unexpectedly during a routine operation. An investigation into the case reveals the cause of death to be a basic medical error committed by Hannah. Wracked with guilt, Hannah falls into a malaise of depression and self-castigation. Yet the more she ponders where she went wrong, the more she realizes that something about the way her patient died doesn’t add up.She begins to suspect someone has framed her for a fatal medical mistake she didn’t make. But who would do such a thing and why?

 

Continue reading “It’s under 2000! (ratings on Goodreads)”

Book Review: bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward

you can find the book at:
GoodReads | Author’s website | Amazon
Rating: 3 stars

“one day I will tell you what I’ve been.

It will scare you.”

Before reading Bone, I was completely unfamiliar with Daley-Wards’ writing.
I must say, after reading it I have no regret on this purchase. Bone is a beautiful collection of poems. While I preferred the shorter ones, it was still a beautiful collection of poetry and prose in which she paints a detailed picture that made it a pleasure to read. I’ll keep this short but here’s a few snippets which I liked;