Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke Review

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke by Anne Blankman

Title: Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke

Author: Anne Blankman

Series: Prisoner of Night and Fog #2

Publisher: Blazer + Bray

Publication Date: April 21, 2015

Genre: Fiction; Historical Fiction; Romance; Adventure; Mystery; Young Adult

Pages: 406

Format: ARC

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The girl known as Gretchen Whitestone has a secret: She used to be part of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. More than a year after she made an enemy of her old family friend and fled Munich, she lives with a kindly English family, posing as an ordinary German immigrant, and is preparing to graduate from high school. Her love, Daniel Cohen, is a reporter in town. For the first time in her life, Gretchen is content.

But then, Daniel gets a telegram that sends him back to Germany, and Gretchen’s world turns upside-down. And when she receives word that Daniel is wanted for murder, she has to face the danger she thought she’d escaped-and return to her homeland.

Gretchen must do everything she can to avoid capture and recognition, even though saving Daniel will mean consorting with her former friends, the Nazi elite. And as they work to clear Daniel’s name, Gretchen and Daniel discover a deadly conspiracy stretching from the slums of Berlin to the Reichstag itself. Can they dig up the explosive truth and get out in time-or will Hitler discover them first?

*Sigh*Historical fiction is so great.

Gretchen Whitestone was once Adolf Hitler’s pet. She was the perfect niece, and she admired Hitler to the point of fault. After meeting Daniel Cohen, her world shattered, and she ended up in England, free from Hitler’s tight reign over her and Germany. She’s happy, and she sees the life she always wanted stretched out before her. However, when Daniel is captured in Germany, Gretchen must face her horrible past, and triumph over the once inescapable grasp of her Uncle Adolf.

Even though we all know how it ends (Hitler gains control of Germany and starts a war around the world), Anne Blankman still manages to keep me guessing. She writes like there’s a chance of Hitler’s defeat, even if there’s not. When I’m reading her work, I’m in Germany while the Nazis are rising. I’m watching the Nazi parade and seeing Hitler’s stupid little mustache. Her melding of history and fiction together is astounding and thoroughly entertaining. Her painstaking attention to detail is enough to send her novels over the moon.

I love how this book shines a totally new light on who Adolf Hitler was, and how his comrades in his quest for domination acted and thought. I love the historical value of Anne Blankman’s writing, and it totally makes this whole reading historical fiction thing worth it ten times over. Reading and learning are two of my favorite things, and both come in this 406 page package.

I maintain that the Prisoner of Night and Fog series is one of the best World War II novels written, among Code Name Verity and The Book Thief. If there is ever another book in this series, I would read in a heartbeat. 

Made For You Review

Made For You by Melissa Marr

Title: Made For You

Author: Melissa Marr

Series: None

Publisher: HarperCollins

Publication Date: September 16, 2014

Genre: Fiction; Contemporary; Mystery; Thriller; Romance; Paranormal

Pages: 356

Format: Hardcover

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When Eva Tilling wakes up in the hospital, she’s confused—who in her sleepy little North Carolina town could have hit her with their car? And why? But before she can consider the question, she finds that she’s awoken with a strange new skill: the ability to foresee people’s deaths when they touch her. While she is recovering from the hit-and-run, Nate, an old flame, reappears, and the two must traverse their rocky past as they figure out how to use Eva’s power to keep her friends—and themselves—alive. But while Eva and Nate grow closer, the killer grows increasingly frantic in his attempt to get to Eva.

For the first time, New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr has applied her extraordinary talent to contemporary realism. Chilling twists, unrequited obsession, and high-stakes romance drive this Gothic, racy thriller—a story of small-town oppression and salvation. Melissa’s fans, and every YA reader, will find its wild ride enthralling.

My reaction to this book: ….WHAT?! #*@! What the effing F?

Eva Tilling has a classic case of amnesia you often find in mystery murder thrillers. She was a victim of a hit and run and is now the key witness in catching this want-to-be killer. I don’t know about you, but that sure does sound like fun. While caught in a maelstrom of “Who dunnit?” Eva is reunited with him. Nate. Not just a boy, but the boy. I think you see where I’m going with this. So, because a girl’s work is never done, Eva not only has to catch a murderer, but she also has to navigate the treacherous waters of boys and love.

“Creepy” is the first word that pops to mind. Weird is another, but creepy really encompasses the strangeness this book is comprised of. Would you believe that before this book, I was a Marr-book virgin? Never, not once, have I ever read anything of Marr’s before. I have to say I’m a little hesitant to touch another. I’m not really one for creepiness.

The things I liked: the writing and the format. There is no denying that Marr is the queen of suspense and thrill. Her writing had me on the edge of my seat, and multiple times my eyes did that thing where they widen in surprise and awe even though it’s just a book and no one else is there, so you’re kind of just surprising yourself which is a little nerdy and odd. I don’t usually have those eye-widening moments, but in the case of this book, I had many. Which is good, I guess. Also, I’m a fan of the way Marr wrote in the point of view of the killer. Made it even more mysterious. Ooh. (*finger waggle that people do when they try to make a scary point*)

Like I said, I’m not one for creepiness, which lets me move on to what I didn’t like. The obsession and the psychopathness of it all was just a little too…much. I could see where all the people who raved about this book were coming from, I really could. The writing was amazing, but my own personal opinions of what I like to read just got in the way. In the standpoint of an indifferent third party judging purely on the technique and quality of the book, it was amazing. But in the point of view of me, the creepy-sensitive book reviewer, it was not so amazing. Multiple time it just went a little too far. And plus, I just couldn't get into the whole "oh, I have mysterious powers that I automatically understand and don't really care where they came from or why I have them" thing going on. 

I love thrillers and murder mysteries. Just not like this. It’s my personal opinion that I would rather not read stories that make me want to go out and buy fifty more locks and dead bolts to put on my door.

We Were Liars Review

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Title: We Were Liars

Author: E. Lockhart

Series: None

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Publication Date: May 13, 2014

Genre: Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Romance; Mystery; Young Adult

Pages: 227

Format: Hardback

goodreads

A beautiful and distinguished family.
A private island.
A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.
A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.
A revolution. An accident. A secret.
Lies upon lies.
True love.
The truth.
 
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. 

Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

The epitome of class and style. The personification of erudition and grace. That is how I would describe Lockhart’s books. I haven’t read one of her books that I didn’t end up loving. Well…all two of them.

Cadence Sinclair Eastman can’t remember the last summer she was in Beechwood. All she remembers is waking up alone on the beach, cold and wet from the sea. Her mother won’t tell her what happened. Everyone, including her cousins and her beloved Gat, is tiptoeing around her like she is an explosion with mass casualties waiting to happen. When she finally returns to the beach house on her grandfather’s private island, she is determine to remember. What she finds is nothing like what she thought, and will change her life in ways she’s not sure she’s ready for.

Ambiguity is one of my favorite ways authors start a book. When they just drop you in the middle of the story and it’s up to you to figure out the beginning and the end. Keeps me intrigued. It also exercises the mind, and that’s always fun. And let me tell you, did this book keep me entertained! There wasn’t a dull moment in We Were Liars. And I was always guessing. Constantly working out what exactly happened those two summers ago. And I was way, way, way off. I could not have been more wrong. And the twist! The oh-so-infamous twist! Oh, my God! It was so weird, but in the way that makes you go, “Holy-mother-of-everything good-in-the-world, I can’t believe that just happened!” It was so genius and yet so tragic; I honestly did not know whether I loathed or loved the author in that moment. I’m still on the fence, actually. My feelings change day by day.

The lyrical prose and elegant language that Lockhart used was to die for. It was so beautiful. You could feel and touch the emotions of the characters, fully understand the frustration and sadness of Cadence (mostly because you were just as frustrated and depressed from not understanding anything in those first few pages). While this book was in no way a poetry book, there were moments it seemed like it was. Lockhart effortlessly combined all the splendor of poetry with the fullness of an everyday novel. It added some spice and flavor, and, I have to say, it was delicious and supremely satisfying.

I would recommend this to all readers of Melina Marchetta (especially to the lovers of Jellicoe Road). I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Marchetta’s and Lockhart’s writing are so similar. I love both, and I think others should make it a point to read them. This book was exquisite and one of my favorites. Plus, John Green read it, so who was I to say no?

Jellicoe Road Review

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Title: Jellicoe Road (also known as On The Jellicoe Road)

Author: Melina Marchetta

Series: None

Publisher: HarperTeen

Publication Date: August 26, 2008

Genre: Realistic Fiction; Mystery; Contemporary; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 419

Format: Hardcover
goodreads

Taylor is leader of the boarders at the Jellicoe School. She has to keep the upper hand in the territory wars and deal with Jonah Griggs - the enigmatic leader of the cadets, and someone she thought she would never see again.

And now Hannah, the person Taylor had come to rely on, has disappeared. Taylor's only clue is a manuscript about five kids who lived in Jellicoe eighteen years ago. She needs to find out more, but this means confronting her own story, making sense of her strange, recurring dream, and finding her mother - who abandoned her on the Jellicoe Road.

The moving, joyous and brilliantly compelling new novel from the best-selling, multi-award-winning author of Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca.

                                            

To anyone that has not read the Finnikin of the Rock series, this is for you. I am officially handing you a formal invitation to read one of my favorite series.

Now, to anyone that has not read Jellicoe Road, you might want to add that to your to-do list. Near the top of the list is my recommendation. Preceded by a big fat #1 would be appropriate also.

Taylor Markham has a past. A secret one that even she hardly ever looks back on. Her past is one that she would rather forget. One she would rather replace. She would rather not remember the mother that abandoned her on Jellicoe Road. When Hannah, the closest thing that Taylor has to mother, abandons her too, Taylor’s not so easily willing to forget. Besides becoming the new leader of the boarders, and her ongoing occupation with trying to decipher her strange dreams, she must find Hannah, wherever she may be, with only a out of order, loose-leafed manuscript to guide her. But then, of course, things get complicated. The complication’s name? Jonah Griggs. Yet another piece of Taylor’s past she would rather forget. But, things are still too easy; not only is Griggs nothing like his scrawnier, younger self that Taylor seems to remember, he is also leader of the Cadets, only one of the two gangs Taylor must thwart in the territory wars. The world is against Taylor as she fights to reveal a past she’s not sure she wants to uncover. Not only will Taylor learn more about herself than she ever knew she could, she will also discover a secret buried deeper than her own that will not only change her life, but everyone around her as well.

Do you like boarding school underground societies? Sparks of romance about to burst into consuming flame? Protective and loyal friends willing to endure the depth of the earth for you? If you said no, then this blog really is not the place for you. If you said yes, then congratulations, I think you've just found your perfect novel. Not only does this book have all of these things (and so much more), it is also deeply riveting and will hang over your head for months. The secrets are so mysterious and the characters so seamlessly portrayed, I really don’t know how anyone could not love this book. I read this a couple months back, and I still think about it. I wonder about the ending, the middle, and the beginning. If I could, I would buy it, just to have it on my shelf. Just so I could know I could revisit the characters whenever I wanted.

Yeah. This book is that good.

Taylor has it rough: abandonment (on two cases), and a strange dream she can’t stop having. A boy on a tree branch, listening to her every thought and secret, but telling only so much as to make her more lost that she already was. I love how, through it all, Taylor never stops being strong, determined and pugnacious. She wasn't scared of doing what she had to in order to discover the truth. Both she and Jonah were that way. Jonah a bit more enigmatic, but broodingly intriguing and easy to love. Raffy and Chaz, two incredibly well rounded characters were perfect friends and totally admirable. Especially Raffy, who keeps Chaz on his toes. The romantic connection between Jonah and Taylor was my favorite kind; consisting of two independent people who interlock perfectly with each other. Neither of them depends on the other, just relies on the other for support. They coexist, instead of depend. One doesn't make the other. They make themselves, and their rough edges just happen to match up with each other. It’s beautiful and true. They don’t try and change the other, they accept and embrace instead. They bring out the best in one another.

It makes since that if you love E. Lockhart (which I do), you will love Melina Marchetta (again, that’s me). Their novels are so similar, both in their topics, but also in style. They have strong female heroines that just seem to overtake the story, but in a good way. They let their character run the show, instead of the plot or setting. Like Lockhart, Marchetta also has strong beginnings. Most reviews that I have read mention a slightly strange and ambiguous start, which is true. But you must power through. You’re dropped in the middle of story that you have absolutely no idea what is going on, but it’s a wonderful story. I promise. When you figure out the beginning and the ending to the middle you seemed to have been dropped into, you’ll love it. I know I did. And I won’t forget about it anytime soon.

This book has taken up the very proper place on the right hand side of the screen, just under the words “Books I Love”. If you look close, you’ll find it, and, just as soon as I get my hands on them, I’m sure Marchetta’s other novels with take up residence right next to it. 

Prisoner of Night and Fog Review

Prisoner of Night and Fog by Anne Blankman

Title: Prisoner of Night and Fog

Author: Anne Blankman

Series: Prisoner of Night and Fog #1

Publisher: Balzer + Bray

Publication Date: April 22, 2014

Genre: Historical Fiction; Romance; Mystery; Young Adult

Pages: 401

Format: Hardback

goodreads

In 1930s Munich, danger lurks behind dark corners, and secrets are buried deep within the city. But Gretchen Müller, who grew up in the National Socialist Party under the wing of her "uncle" Dolf, has been shielded from that side of society ever since her father traded his life for Dolf's, and Gretchen is his favorite, his pet.

Uncle Dolf is none other than Adolf Hitler. And Gretchen follows his every command.

Until she meets a fearless and handsome young Jewish reporter named Daniel Cohen. Gretchen should despise Daniel, yet she can't stop herself from listening to his story: that her father, the adored Nazi martyr, was actually murdered by an unknown comrade. She also can't help the fierce attraction brewing between them, despite everything she's been taught to believe about Jews.

As Gretchen investigates the very people she's always considered friends, she must decide where her loyalties lie. Will she choose the safety of her former life as a Nazi darling, or will she dare to dig up the truth—even if it could get her and Daniel killed?

From debut author Anne Blankman comes this harrowing and evocative story about an ordinary girl faced with the extraordinary decision to give up everything she's ever believed . . . and to trust her own heart instead.

You read so many books about World War II, but you almost never read about Nazi Germany from a Nazi’s point of view. I’ve read my fair share of WWII-based books (it’s one of my favorite subjects to read about), but I have never read one like Prisoner of Night and Fog.

Gretchen Müller is the beloved princess of the National Socialist Party, favored by Adolf Hitler himself. Daughter of the famed martyr that saved Hitler’s life, Gretchen has little to question in her life. But when she meets Daniel Cohen, a Jew so unlike the enemy he is made out to be, she is forced into second guessing everything she’s ever been taught. About the Jews, about Hitler, even about her father’s death. This epic tale teaches us the difficulties of finding what’s right and wrong for yourself, and breaking free of an oppression you didn’t even know you were trapped under.

What made this book so great was not the plot (a bit predictable), the characters (who occasionally fell flat), or the setting (amazingly realistic). It was the fact that half of what Blankman was writing actually happened. According to the lengthy author’s note at the end, about half the characters actually existing and a lot of the pivotal events are ones that you could find in a history textbook. The politics of the Germany in that time were nothing if not complicated. This book untangled the mess of questions I’ve always had about WWII and Germany before Hitler’s reign.

It surprised me that Hitler’s character was as big as it was. He had a personality and dialogue in this book, which is so unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Usually he is minor character, mentioned briefly in passing for the effect of the setting or plot. He is almost never a flesh-and-blood (metaphorically speaking) character like he was in this book. Understandably, Hitler is one of the most mysterious historical figures of all time. Almost nothing is known of his past or who he was before becoming a German politician and eventually one of the most hated tyrants this world has ever seen. It’s honestly incredible how Blankman managed to capture such an ambiguous character.

While you get to know Hitler on an intriguing level, you also learn so much about the Nazi party, not just as a political faction that persecuted innocent people, but also as individuals who honestly believed what they were doing was right. You also discover people who brave enough to stand against the person who would ruin thousands of lives, who was, even then, terrifying and powerful.

It still astounds me that a person who was that obvious of a psychopath came into so much power. This book explores that subject and expands on your knowledge of what really happened during that time. Phenomenally interesting and hard to put down, definitely worth reading and reflecting over.    

Conspiracy of Blood and Smoke

April 21, 2015

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks Review

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Title: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Author: E. Lockhart

Series: None

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Publication Date: March 25, 2008

Genre: Realistic Fiction; Contemporary; Young Adult; Mystery

Pages: 345

Format: Hardback
goodreads

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father’s “bunny rabbit.”
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Laundau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take “no” for an answer.
Especially when “no” means she’s excluded from her boyfriend’s all-male secret society.
Not when her ex boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she’s smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew’s lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

“I, Frankie Landau-Banks, hereby confess that I was the sole mastermind behind the mal-doings of the Loyal Order of the Bassett Hounds.”

As Frankie Landau-Banks returns to her high-class private school as a sophomore, she has changed– whether for the better or for the worse is uncertain. Her body had filled out in all the right places and people, especially boys, are starting to notice. While she can’t complain about the radical change, she does resent that she is still the “bunny rabbit” in the family. She is not taken seriously by anyone and underestimated by everyone. When her dream guy finally takes notice and becomes the boyfriend she always hoped for, she can’t help but want to be more than just a pretty girlfriend. When she learns that her boyfriend is part of a secret society called the Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, she decides to take matters into her own hands. As a result of her evil genius ideas, the Basset Hounds become infamous and notorious for brilliant pranks all around the school. When Frankie’s ideas suddenly become a serious problem for the administration, and someone is blamed for her ideas, she must make decisions that will change her entire of idea of who she is and what she wants to become.

This book was as amazing as any book can be. Witty, sarcastic, and intellectual in most brilliant of ways, it is hard to do anything but love this book to its very spine. I fell in love on page one, and kept adoring it until page 345. The Disreputable History is the reason why I read books. I love to find ones that are as creative and intelligent as this one. Every character, even the dumbest, was smart and witty, in ways I can only wish to be like. If everyone talked like how people talked in the Disreputable History, then I would like people a whole lot more.

“In some ways, we can see Frankie Landau-Banks as a neglected positive. A buried word.

A word inside another word that’s getting all the attention.

A mind inside a body that’s getting all the attention.”

Frankie Landau-Banks (is that just the coolest name you have ever heard, or what?) is a woman who dreams of being seen as more than just a woman. She is extremely resourceful and smart and wants nothing more than being seen as such. She recognizes the unfairness in the world where woman are seen inferior to men. She resents that femininity is seen as weakness, and balls are a symbol of courage. I related to Frankie like she was one of my best-friends, and I wish she were a real person so I could get to know her more.

The language in this book was astounding. I had to read a few sentences over and over just because I loved them so much, and didn’t want to forget them. The idea of neglected positives was enthralling and amusing. Lockhart used words how they were meant to be used; how they were meant to be seen and understood. E. Lockhart is an amazing author that I would love to meet. I can’t wait to read more of her in We Were Liars, a book already climbing charts and reaching a well-known popularity.   

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is an amazing book that everyone should read. I loved it, and it reminds why I love to read in the first place.

“It is better to be alone, she figures, than to be with someone who can’t see who you are. It is better to lead than to follow. It is better to speak up than stay silent. It is better to open doors than to shut them on people.”

Origin Review

Origin by Jessica Khoury

Title: Origin

Author: Jessica Khoury

Series: Origin #1 (Has a Short Story Companion)

Publisher: Razorbill

Publication Date: September 4, 2012

Genre: Science fiction; Mystery; Romance; Young Adult

Pages: 394

Format: Hardback
goodreads

Pia has grown up in a secret laboratory hidden deep in the Amazon rain forest. She was raised by a team of scientists who have created her to be the start of a new immortal race. But on the night of her seventeenth birthday, Pia discovers a hole in the electric fence that surrounds her sterile home―and sneaks outside the compound for the first time in her life.

Free in the jungle, Pia meets Eio, a boy from a nearby village. Together, they embark on a race against time to discover the truth about Pia's origin―a truth with deadly consequences that will change their lives forever.

Origin is a beautifully told, shocking new way to look at an age-old desire: to live forever, no matter the cost.

“We are limited only by the questions we haven’t yet thought to ask.”

Pia is perfect. Or at least that’s what everyone tells her. She had unbreakable skin, enhanced reflexes to match those of a cat’s, and incomparable speed and agility (but not strength). Oh, and she’s immortal. Her life expectancy is eternity. She is alone in that she is the first and the only of her kind. She dreams of creating her own race, her own Mr. Perfect, so she won’t have to be alone. Hidden away in the jungle, she has never seen the outside world. She is happy with her home and her family of scientists, never questioning her way of life. Until. One fateful day she escapes into the jungle and gets her first taste of freedom, and meets a boy named Eio. With the help of the natives, she learns the truth of her origin. And it changes everything.

I don’t know what I expected from this novel. A fun story, maybe, that I would quickly forget and never think about again. A filler of space and time that would entertain me and keep my boredom at bay. This book was all of those things. And not much else.

“‘No one should live forever,’ I whisper. ‘Isn’t that how it goes? ‘There must me be a balance. No birth without death. No life without tears. What is taken from the world must be given back. No one should live forever, but should give his blood to the river when the time comes so that tomorrow another may live.’”

While the frequently brought up questions of immortality and ethics were interesting and insightful, and it did add depth to the plot, this book could’ve been so much more. The characters, in my opinion, fell flat in terms of complexity and, well, character. There was only one layer to their personalities, and I wanted there to be more. Pia, for example, was supposed to be smart, agile, and perfect, but all I read was a normal teenage girl who couldn’t get paper cuts. She was raised as a scientist but was ironically incurious about what was going on behind lab doors. Eio, too, was flat and uninteresting. The romance between the two was border-line insta-love (just add water!). This book didn’t connect with me.

The only truly good thing about this book was the insightfulness of the questions it brought up, the creativity behind the science in the book, and the setting. It was just interesting enough that I kept reading until the end of the book, but, honestly, this book was way too long and had too many extraneous elements for what the author was trying to convey. A book this size should have more action, more suspense and climatic moments, and Origin fell flat.

Origin was not an entirely bad book. It was just sub-par to all the other sci-fy books I had read in the past. It had so much potential, and I wanted to love it, but I couldn't. In short: unimpressive, and only the slightest bit interesting

 “They all haunt my mind, waiting for me in the shadow of sleep. Reminding me how fragile this life is and how easily it can be lost. Compelling me to live and to live well, while I still can.

Because sooner or later, we must all face eternity.”

All Our Yesterdays Review

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Title: All Our Yesterdays

Author: Cristin Terrill

Series: All Our Yesterdays #1

Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Publication Date: September 3, 2013

Genre: Science Fiction; Mystery; Young Adult

Pages: 360

Format: Hardback
goodreads

What would you change?

Imprisoned in the heart of a secret military base, Em has nothing except the voice of the boy in the cell next door and the list of instructions she finds taped inside the drain.

Only Em can complete the final instruction. She’s tried everything to prevent the creation of a time machine that will tear the world apart. She holds the proof: a list she has never seen before, written in her own hand. Each failed attempt in the past has led her to the same terrible present—imprisoned and tortured by a sadistic man called the doctor while war rages outside. 

Marina has loved her best friend, James, since they were children. A gorgeous, introverted science prodigy from one of America’s most famous families, James finally seems to be seeing Marina in a new way, too. But on one disastrous night, James’s life crumbles, and with it, Marina’s hopes for their future. Marina will protect James, no matter what. Even if it means opening her eyes to a truth so terrible that she may not survive it... at least, not as the girl she once was. Em and Marina are in a race against time that only one of them can win.

All Our Yesterdays is a wrenching, brilliantly plotted story of fierce love, unthinkable sacrifice, and the infinite implications of our every choice.

“Time travel isn’t a wonder; it’s an abomination.”

What if you suddenly found that you were in possession of a DeLorean time machine? Or a Time Turner? Or even a Time Sled, right out of H.G. Well’s imagination? Some would say that time travel was a gift. Others a curse. All Our Yesterdays shows the brutally horrific side of time traveling along with some of the advantages of being able to change the past and all the future that goes along with it.

The book opens to Em, a girl incarcerated in a cell neighboring a boy named Finn. Together they try to persevere the torturous activities of “the doctor”. When Em discovers a slip of paper with scratched out phrases written in her handwriting, she can’t seem to forget the final perfectly readable phrase right at the bottom of the list. Just five words holds the future in its hands, but will Em have the courage to do something that could possibly destroy her?

All Our Yesterdays took me on a roller coaster ride that was not limited to turning my mind upside down and backwards. The incomparable complexity of time travel was made surprising simple, even with all its paradoxes and loops. Terrill spun magic into her words, making it impossible for me to put it down for anything other than bathroom breaks and food. The plot twists made my mind implode. The romance made my heart try to break out of my ribcage. Honestly, I’ve only read average books before this one, and I was just so happy to finally have a book to obsess over.

“Basically, space and time are really one thing, a kind of giant film stretched across the universe called space-time.”

Terrill knows how to do time travel right. Incorporating just a dash of science, a pinch of mystery, and somehow concocting the perfect recipe for science fiction at its best. The ending made me slam the metaphorical brake. Should I cry or should I jump with joy? I was so conflicted I didn’t know what to do myself! Let’s just say, that night, I did not sleep very soundly. I want the sequel. Now. Right Now. At this moment. Literally, cannot wait another moment. *slams head on keyboard*

Read this book. Just do it. Please. You won’t be disappointed.

“People weren’t mean to travel in time.”

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children Review

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Series: Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children #1
Publisher: Quirk
Publication Date: June 7th, 2011
Genre: Supernatural; Mystery; Fantasy; Young Adult
Pages: 348
Format: Kindle ebook
goodreads

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive.

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows

"I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."

 Jacob Portman was anything but extraordinary. He was rich, friendless, and labeled crazy by all his family after witnessing Grandpa Portman brutally murdered by a monster that only he remembered seeing. He sees a therapist and barely survives everyday life, all the while being haunted by Grandpa Portman’s dying words.

Find the bird. In the loop. On the other side of the old man’s grave. September third, 1940.

Jacob Portman has always looked up to his Grandpa, seeing him as a hero and someone worth idolizing. When Grandpa told him stories of children with mysterious powers, he believed every word, not just because of his faith in his grandfather, but because of the strange pictures Grandpa Portman could conjure up as proof. A floating girl. An invisible boy. A boy who had a family of bees living inside of him. A girl with the ability to ignite fire. And strangest of all, the monsters that Grandpa Portman always seems to talk about. Monsters he claims to have spent his whole life fighting.

Jacob stopped believing in his grandfather’s stories when children started to tease him for believing fairy tales. His grandfather stops telling his stories when he stops believing them, and he soon writes off Grandpa Portman as crazy; that is, until the day he dies. 

Jacob journeys to find closure and, more importantly, the truth about his grandfather. In the small isolated island Cairnholm, nothing much seems possible. On an island with only one restaurant, telephone, and hotel/pub, what could possibly have led to Grandpa Portman’s mysterious stories? One day, when Jacob journeys to the bog containing the decrepit house of Grandpa Portman’s stories, he sees something that he will never be able to un-see.

Ransom Riggs talent for imagery brought the mysterious atmosphere of this book right into my world. I could feel the mud of the bog beneath my feet and smell the diesel of the electricity generators of the island of Cairnholm. The monsters were as real to me as they were to Jacob in the story. Riggs engrossing language held me page after page, unable to look away until the mystery was solved. I gasped aloud when I read the final reveal and bit my fingernails as the harrowing final battle played out.

"My grandfather had described it a hundred times, but in his stories the house was always a bright, happy place- big and rambling, yes, but full of light and laughter. What stood before me now was no refuge from monsters but a monster itself, staring down from its perch on the hill with vacant hunger. Trees burst forth from broken windows and skins of scabrous vine gnawed at the walls like antibodies attacking a virus- as if nature itself had waged war against it- but the house seemed unkillable, resolutely upright despite the wrongness of its angles and the jagged teeth of sky visible through sections of collapsed roof." 

One of the greatest things for me about this book was the pictures in the story. It brought reality into something totally and unquestionably unreal. Of course, when I saw them, I knew that they were manipulated. That is, until I read the first few sentences of the Author’s Note. The photos in the book, the totally and utterly impossible photographs, were in fact real. When he found the photos, they inspired Ransom Riggs to write their improbable story.

This book is one of my new favorites. From teens to adults, all will love this book to its very spine. It questions our beliefs of what can or can’t be real. It challenges how we react to the impossible. It makes us rethink the peculiar. This book taught me one very important thing:

Being peculiar is sometimes the same thing as being great.

"I'd always known I was strange. I never dreamed I was peculiar."