Tag: rating 3 star

Books, Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: From Twinkle, With Love

by ZaheerahLeave a Comment on Book Review: From Twinkle, With Love
Book Review: From Twinkle, With Love

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

Told through letters to her favourite female filmmakers, Twinkle Mehra navigates her journey as she is approached to help direct a movie for her school’s upcoming festival. Wallflower Twinkle grabs at the chance of getting to show off her skills while using it as an opportunity to get closer to her long-time crush, Neil Roy. But she finds herself falling for her producer, Neil’s twin brother Sahil. Suddenly, a mystery person called “N” begins emailing her, Twinkle is dead set on it being Neil. Soon, everything spirals out of control but can Twinkle change the script in time?

Twinkle was such an adorable read. The characters are a bit younger than Menon’s debut characters, but you get the same feeling from this cast. Twinkle and Dimple share similar but different struggles when pursuing their passions so if you’re a fan of Menon’s first, you’ll definitely love this. There’s a lot to like in this book. The formatting was cute and worked well. The storyline with her family was one of the better parts of the book.

I enjoyed the dynamics of Twinkle and her friends. It’s more frenemy, but I liked how up and down the relationship went. It was a more realistic portrayal of teen groups in high schools. But I did feel like there was a lack of clarity as to why Maddie left Twinkle.

With everything that was good and enjoyable about this book, there was a lot that I didn’t enjoy. Everyone sort of becomes unbearable. Like all of them. Twinkle becomes really selfish and just belittles everyone around her and never really apologises for most of her behaviour even though she internally tells herself it wasn’t right to do that. And her stringing Sahil long when she begins to kind of date him even though she really just wants to date his popular twin brother, who literally doesn’t even know her. She uses him to try and shoe her way into the popular group, and her attitude towards everyone just didn’t make sense. She learns her lesson in the end, but that didn’t make it any better to read.

Overall, I’m glad I gave this book a chance since I wasn’t a huge of fan of When Dimple Met Rishi. I think I preferred Twinkle’s story over Dimple’s due to personal taste and how the plot developed and was wrapped up in the end. It was a fun, light read and great for the summer!

GOODREADS | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | AUTHOR SITE

Books, Contemporary, Graphic Novels, Other

Book Review: Amazing Women

by ZaheerahLeave a Comment on Book Review: Amazing Women
Book Review: Amazing Women

Rating: ★★★✰✰ (3/5)

* I received a physical copy of this book from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

Amazing Women spotlights a unique collection of female figures with a focus on British women. It features a vast variety of women in different fields from the sciences to the arts, including the lives of many women.

The illustration of this book is adorable. Sarah Green has a style that I just love and which worked well with this book. And I liked how the book is divided which highlighted the different areas in which these women contributed to society, highlighting older and new voices.

I believe this book can be inspiring to girl and women from all backgrounds and shows the diversity of women that did amazing things. I would say this is quite a cute book with unbiased overviews of every woman and their achievements. I loved the adorable designs and illustrations. I understand its need to be unbiased but I most likely would’ve never picked this book up when I can clearly see women on here I don’t personally agree with supporting.

GOODREADS |AMAZON

 

Books, Cultural, Science Fiction & Fantasy

Book Review: The City of Brass

by Zaheerah2 Comments on Book Review: The City of Brass
Book Review: The City of Brass

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)
* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

The City of Brass refers to the ancient city of Daevabad, a magical city that is split between six djinn tribes. Nahri, a young con woman, accidentally learns of this world after summoning a daeva warrior. And suddenly her skill to magically heal and deduce other’s medical issues makes almost sense. But now she’s on the run with a daeva warrior with a past that’s as cloudy as hers. The point of view switches between Nahri and a young djinn prince named Ali, who resides in Daevabad, and is training to serve his brother and future king.

I think I’ve found a series where I’m genuinely in the middle of how I feel about it. The City of Brass is very action-packed, literally filled to the brim with storytelling and history which was quite interesting to read. I have not yet found myself to love the central trio (Nahri, Dara and Ali) however they all seem to lose their initial spark when we first encounter them in the novel. I think maybe the sequel is where I’ll consolidate how I feel for them. I often say romance can make or break a story and with how jam-packed this novel was, the romance was sort of disappointing. I believe there wasn’t enough of a build-up to understand what they felt was there or just a spur of the moment.

The world building was the best part of the novel. Even though there’s so much of it and the plot doesn’t really shine as much as the world it’s set in does. It’s just so intricate and intensely detailed that it’s a shame it overpowers the actual plot. The cultural detail from the people to their clothes and customs. I imagined it all so well the sprawling city of Daevabad.

This book is very full on and more foundational than what felt like an actual moving plot. Most of this book is us being introduced to the vast world and its people, and I can see most readers being put off by this. I genuinely believe the final quarter of the book was the best. But judging from Goodreads, it looks like everyone was thrown off its exhaustive beginning and ends up DNF’ing the book before they experience the final excitement.

Overall, The City of Brass will be a huge hit or miss for loads of people. I don’t expect anyone to hold on the way I did. I read this during a large reading block (note to self: don’t read a 500-page book during a reading block) it took a while to churn through, but it was, in the end, gratifying with a conclusion that definitely hooks you onto the next book. I have a habit of enjoying the sequels more than the original text, so I do still have high hopes for the rest of series despite being let down a little here. But I definitely recommend this story of a young healer, a djinn with a dark past, and a prince who wants to do his city justice.

GOODREADS | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | AUTHOR SITE
Trigger/Content Warnings: graphic violence, human trafficking, slavery, war, bigotry, torture and rape.

 

Books, Contemporary, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Mini-review: The Unit & One of Us is Lying

by ZaheerahLeave a Comment on Mini-review: The Unit & One of Us is Lying

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)

* I received a copy of The Unit from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

Set in future where the elderly become dispensable (women at 50, men at 60) and are placed into the Reserve Bank Unit where they’re expected to live the rest of their lives. They’re fed well, clothed and have access to many social activities. In return for the comfortable lifestyle, they must partake in medical trials and donate their organs when needed until the final one. The longer you contribute, the longer you live.

The Unit is quite sad since it asks the question of what makes a person indispensable? Why does someone’s life mean less because it doesn’t conform to what’s required? And the government in this book tries to cover it up by treating the people who enter the Unit well. There are a few sweet moments as Dorrit makes new friends and finds a love she never had outside and despite the circumstances, they have a place where they finally fit.

The Unit is an interesting idea but there were so many plot holes and moments of ambiguity that brought down the story a lot.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

If One of Us is Lying was a tv show, everyone would’ve finished the entire series in a day. (Most likely would receive similar hype as Riverdale and 13RW) Five students enter detentions, but only four come out alive and become prime suspects for the death of the fifth person. Simon, the one who died, ran a blog that exposed everyone’s dirty secrets and had a secret for each suspect. McManus did a damn good job in this. Using very stereotypical aspects of a high school, she gave the characters more depth and substance than I had expected. McManus is very good at writing suspense and making the reader question everything. It’s sort of a mash up between The Breakfast Club, Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars.

But that’s all the good things I have to say about the series. The first half was thrilling and fun but towards the end it became so disappointing. Using someone’s sexuality and having them be outed against their will shouldn’t have been treated as a plot twist. Their sexuality shouldn’t be something shocking. Also, villainising mental illness was an instant no-no for me. (Trina @ Between Chapters has a more thorough review. There was another I had read but I’ll link once I find it again)

Content warning: a character being outed against their will, harmful rep of mental illness.

Books, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: The Blazing Star

by ZaheerahLeave a Comment on Book Review: The Blazing Star
Book Review: The Blazing Star

Rating: ★★★☆☆

* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.  This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

After finding themselves stranded in Ancient Egypt with no way out, Portia, alongside her sister and freshman Selene must navigate their way to safety. But the trio discover their appearance is anything but random.

It took me a while to finish this book, due to my massive book slump during the exam period. Luckily, I did finish it in the end and I’m glad my lack of desire to read didn’t affect my opinion on this book massively. To start, the book’s introduction was incredibly difficult to get through. To be honest, I found it rather dull. At first, their introduction didn’t really hook me in. The character of Selene was a big question mark until you learn what her part is in the novel. At the beginning, the only thing kept me going was the fact Portia and Alex were twins. However, it started to changed once they actually made it to Egypt. Trust me when I say staying put with this book was worth it.

Being a twin, I’m always a bit biased towards twin books and Blazing Star follows the similar pattern most YA novels do. One twin struggles with her own identity while under the shadow of their overachieving sibling. But the location makes it different and interesting, we mainly watch Portia learn to accept herself but it lacks in the twin dynamic since they’re mainly apart for most of the novel. Since it’s very character driven, Portia grabs your attention as she evolves from an insecure person to a stronger and more self-assured character.

The book’s strength lies in its location, its description of the city, its people and culture. I particularly liked how everything is introduced into every interaction, you definitely feel Portia’s exasperation as we learn everything about Egypt as Portia does. I feel like there should’ve been more of a contrast between the language. They speak a lot in slang and feel like no one questions it as much as they should. It could’ve added greater tension between the two different groups. Sometimes the girls from the present speak in ways that didn’t seem fitting or wouldn’t have been understandable to someone from Ancient Egypt however, I brushed that off quite quickly since, maybe, writing wise, it’s easier.

The main problem with this book was its pacing. It was just so slow! It takes a while for the premise to finally kick in and towards the end, it truly delivers. It’s a shame that I can tell many people will be put off by this and will fail to see a truly decent book by the end. The ending ends on such a good cliffhanger, I definitely need the sequel since I know it will be better now that we’re past the introduction. I still enjoyed it despite its flaws, but I will anticipate anything Imani Josey will do with this series and any future novels she will write.

Overall, structurally and pace-wise, THE BLAZING STAR could’ve been better but definitely look into this if you love fantasy and time-travel. It was, towards the end, a truly fun and diverse read.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY

Images and graphic are attributed to MediaLoot.com. Cover source: Goodreads.com
Books, Contemporary, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: You’re Welcome, Universe

by ZaheerahLeave a Comment on Book Review: You’re Welcome, Universe
Book Review: You’re Welcome, Universe

Rating: ★★★☆☆

* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.  This in no way affected my opinion of the book

When her supposed best friend snitches on her, Julia finds herself expelled and stuck in a mainstream school who aren’t kind to the only Deaf girl there. The only thing she takes with her is her paints and Julia tags wherever she can. But someone is adding to them and a graffiti war is the last thing she thought she’d find herself in.

The last book I read with Deaf characters was Soundless by Richelle Mead and just comparing these two you tell the difference of research that went into the portrayal of Deaf characters. YWU depicts Deaf culture; the way she texts, how ASL is, in fact, a language not an extension of English, the typical experiences a deaf student faces when in a majority hearing school. We’re shown her lifestyle and it’s not just a case of simply replacing said/says with signed. (I did have a review from a Deaf reader to put in here but the links I had are no longer available – will update when I find new ones)

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