Books – Page 49 – as told by zaheerah

Books, Contemporary, LGBTQIA, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel

July 28, 2016April 8, 2018by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

you can find the book at:
GoodReads | Author’s bio | Amazon | BookDespository
Rating: ★★★★☆

As an Iranian-American, Leila’s different enough but if word got out that she liked girls, life would be twice as hard. But when Saskia shows up, Leila begins to struggle to sort out her feelings.

I really wanted to love this book. It’s diverse, challenging, and absolutely needed in YA. But Farizan’s writing style doesn’t appeal to me at all. What I liked about Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel was that it captured the awkwardness of high school. Leila has a great and sarcastic sense of humour. Her small comments were really funny and I think she’s a well-rounded protagonist. I liked reading about her cultural conflict, in both her sexuality and future. While I can’t relate to the former, I could certainly relate to the latter. This kind of cultural conflict introduces a newer perspective that isn’t really discussed in young adult literature.

However, the story, overall, felt extremely simplistic in terms of plotting and characterisation. And I felt like the story focused way too much on Saskia as an attempt to bring in some drama when Farizan gives us so much more than the novel could’ve focused on if the plot hadn’t revolved around Saskia so much. (Leila’s family, Lisa’s family history, the way she used the Twelfth Night was a favourite part of the novel and I really wished that was introduced earlier into the novel and developed more.)

Despite the problems I had with Farizan’s characterisation, I did enjoy Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel. While the plot was a little cheesy and predictable, but the romance between Leila and a certain character was adorable, and I loved their backstory. I know I’ll be reading more from Farizan.

Kindle Edition, 304 pages

Published October 7th 2014 by Algonquin Young Readers
ASIN: B00KNCWLP2

Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: Schism

July 25, 2016April 8, 2018by Zaheerah1 Comment

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

*This review is not spoiler-free*

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

Set years after a virus wiped out the older population, the only survivors are prepubescent children. SCHISM follows Andy and her friends as they are forced to love their home in Bermuda and return to the US. Soon they band together with other fellow survivors in search of a new home.

SCHISM wasn’t all that bad. It was adventurous and fast-paced. I’ve been wanting to go back to reading more dystopian types of books. And I guess I was sort of satisfied. But my opinions on this book were quite divided.

A big weakness of this book is that, in my opinion, too much happens. In this one book alone, the time frame is quite long and wasn’t delved into that much. So much happens that the suspense that should be there didn’t have much of an impact because whatever issue there was, it was basically resolved in the next few pages.

As I was reading, I kept thinking that this one book could’ve easily been written as two, maybe three. Many things happen and could’ve been much better if they were expanded on.

Like more time spend in Bermuda to help us understand how they developed their skills. (because I don’t think it’s possible to be naturally good at being a doctor – there’s a reason why they train for so long and it didn’t seem plausible that Andy could ‘inherit’ her father’s medical skills.)
The pacing in this novel was sub-par. One moment they’re in Bermuda, next, they’re in New Mexico, Colorado and finally New York. Like I mentioned before, if expanded more, the events in book one alone and would’ve been a much more enjoyable book if most of the scenes weren’t skipped over in favour of the more boring ones. (they get to the US by boat- the journey and implications alone with such an act could’ve been really interesting to read about)
Character-wise, it’s lacking in diversity. It felt like the author was ticking off some imaginary tick box on what to include in a dystopian novel. Everyone is beautiful. Everyone is smart. (see: Andy inheriting her father’s skill) They were all black and white, fitting the stereotypical qualities you usually see in novels like these.

Overall, I believe the author had something with this novel. So much could’ve been explored in terms of setting, history and development.

Kindle Edition, 274 pages

Published March 14th 2016 by Delirious Pixie

ASIN: B01D0KTJYO

Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: Hush, Hush

July 19, 2016April 8, 2018by Zaheerah1 Comment

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

Books, Contemporary

Book Review: A Boy Made of Blocks

July 14, 2016April 10, 2018by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

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

Category: Books

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