All the Bright Places Review

Spoiler Free

All the Bright Places is a romantic novel by Jennifer Niven. I discovered this book while perusing through amazon and decided to buy it along with a few others. To start with I had no idea who the author was so I have done some background information. Overall she has written 8 books ranging from nonfiction and fiction, both historical and contemporary, adult and YA. All of her books are very different and as I was looking her up she had said "all my books are all over the map, but if you look closely they share a common theme: they are stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things." At this moment in time I am trying to multitask but its definitely not working, listening to music and trying to type is not the best idea and I have had to go back twice now because I typed out the lyrics... Anyway back to the review, I knew straight away I was going to like the story to this book, give me a romance over action any day.  I had heard a lot of good things about this and it just appealed to me, I like books that make me think over everything when I'm finished or leave me feeling completely lost.

Violet Markey (the protagonist) is devastated by the death of her sister and Theodore Finch well he’s basically obsessed with death. They meet on the bell tower at their school both wanting to jump but in fact end up saving each other. How far will Violet go to save the one she loves?

When I first started reading this I felt as though it was just another Fault in Our Stars hype but for me it definitely wasn't. I felt as though I could connect with the characters a lot more and because of this I got attached to them and actually cried more than I did with John Green's overly hyped book, but that's another matter. I have read some comments on goodreads and some said that this book is glamorizing suicide which kind of upset me a little because if you read the authors notes at the end it actually tells you what inspired to write these characters and it does involve personal experiences.  

The book is set in the state of Indiana, America and the characters both attend High School. Before they meet on the bell tower they had never really spoken to each other before and actually belong to different groups inside the school. "Theodore Freak" is what Finch (he tends to be called "Finch" throughout the book) is nicknamed by the group that Violet belongs to although she hasn't really been herself since the accident and therefore doesn't quite fit in anymore. Their relationship is quite rocky at the start and it can sometimes feel like Finch is stalking her but Violet ends up falling for the mysterious boy and they have to be one of my favourite book couples. I was "awwing" the whole way through and the chemistry between the two characters was undeniable. 

The disappointments in this book for me were the other characters. They lacked the likability and didn't leave much of an impression on me. However saying that I think it was necessary as otherwise there would have been too much to focus on. 

Overall this book left me feeling like I had been stranded on a desert island for days, it really messed with my emotions and made me think about how lucky my life truly is. I think this book is good for anyone who likes quite an intense read because it’s definitely not a quick read. As much as I loved this book, for me I'm very fed up with the same format in the romance genre. They always seem to try and make characters so different and intelligent when to be quite honest I would like to read a book about average people, at least then I can sort of hope it would happen to me. I have decided to give this book a 9/10, because I loved the characters and the start of the book but the ending was a little disappointing.  

Charlotte 

♥

Hexed Review!

Spoiler Free

October time last year I decided I would read Hexed (The Witch Hunter #1)  by Michelle Krys. In an obvious attempt to be festive I got a book that could pass as a Halloween book to read to get me all spooked. I was not impressed. I chose this book as it was a book that a booktuber I watch likes. The majority of the time I have the same opinion on books as her, however on this particular one I must disagree.

This book is the first book I have read that is primarily about Witches. For me, this sounds great. I'm all for spooky Witches and supernatural groovy times, however this book just did not do that for me. 

Indigo Blackwood is the most popular girl and cheerleader in school, aside from her best friend. She has everything you'd ever want - she's a great cheerleader, has the best friend ever, a fit footballer boyfriend. Who wouldn't want to be her?! (me) However, when Indigo meets 'sexy' Bishop, her life changes as she discovers that she is a Witch and that her mother owns a powerful book that a group of evil Witches are looking for (sigh). In order to protect the book, Witch Bishop attempts to teach Indigo how to use her powers.

...

To be honest, I found this book quite laughable. I finished it purely because I found the 'tense' and 'action' scenes to be quite comical rather than exciting and nail-biting. Reading was like watching a movie spoof. It didn't seem to take itself serious when it should have. The story had some comparisons to other books which I love, such as The Mortal Instruments: mother owns an extremely important object that bad guys try to get, daughter tries to save the day, discovers she has powers/ strange ability, falls for a sexy guy. In my opinion, these points were performed horrifically and here's why - 

I wanted to strangle our protagonist. She was literally a representation of a particulary stupid American cheerleader (blond-haired and perfect bod) . I don't really have anything against this however I was expecting some serious character development where she gets a reality check and changes into a nice, respectable heroine. Nope. Yes, she showed some signs of heroic behaviour. A very small amount. The way Indigo spoke was irritating and is made reading the book even more exasperating "Double Urg" being an example of face-palm, cringey, annoyance. The book is written in first person, Indigo's point of view. The first sentence of the book is - "Exactly twelve minutes into cheerleading practice, and I already wish I were dead." Is this to warn the readers that are reading the first page in the bookstore to put it down if they want to avoid over-dramatic, stupid, spoilt teenaged girl protagonists? Well darn I wished I read the sample on Amazon before buying. Also, Indigo brags about her perfect life, but then contradicts herself when complaining about her predictable and typical douchey boyfriend and best frenemy Bianca, who is even more annoying than Indigo.

Bishop is not the heart-throbbing guy that usually pops up in these kind of books. His appearance is no match to any of the other guys in books I am used to. However I am not vain. But his personality is awful. Instead of witty one liners that I love from Jace (TMI) or Daemon Black (Lux) Bishop's are stupid and awkward. His character comes across more stalkerish than protective and instead of the hilarious love/hate relationship between many love interests in YA fantasy books, this one was done complete wrong and was like some weird flirtatious banter that would happen at school between two twelve year olds. No no. It was ridiculous. 

I think the main point that made the book so disappointing was the antagonists. They were not threatening, scary, frightening or deadly. They were too, quite comical which I believe was not what the author was going for. Also, when the characters were attempting to be evil (yanoe, how villains should be) it came across ridiculous. For example, without giving away a spoiler to those who still want to read this, an important scene in the book and the big 'scary' witchery spell that the villains used was to create a tiger which that just flapped its paws at a victim. Create. A. Tiger. I am open minded when it comes to books. I mean, my favourite series is the LUX series for goodness sake! A series based on Aliens in high school but I could not get past the inane resolution in this book. I know books are an opportunity to be imaginative, and I'm all for that. I don't necessarily expect a book about Witches to be realistic but maybe it was the writing style (?) that just made this book a bit pathetic for me. Another example of how ridiculous this book is, is when the world appears to be over but Indigo decides to fly up to the Hollywood sign with Bishop? Nope, I'm out. 

Overall not a book for me I guess. If the book focused more on the Witch background and supernatural element rather that hormonal, dramatic teenage 'problems' it may have been better. I'd be interested in hearing your views on this book in the comment section below. Sorry if I sounded too harsh, but there won't be another review like this, as I think this is the worst book I own so I don't actually have another book to critique this much! Also, sorry for not being very active, my laptop has been broken but all is well now! See you next post.

Hannah

 ♥

How to... Find the Perfect Book for You

Hello people of the internet, me and Hannah have decided we would like to do a "How to" series, this could include anything and we are open to suggestions. Every month one of us will upload a post containing a how to. For the first ever one I have decided to do "How to find the perfect book for you".

For me finding a book I want to read takes a while, I have to research about the author and the content in the book. I know a lot of people have a favourite author and they will religiously read books because they have wrote it. However I tend to just ignore the author and focus on what the story's about, I'm a sucker for a good romance and anything that involves some sort unnatural being. Yesterday I actually bought the first two books of the Beautiful Creatures series because I had heard they were great. A lot of people say that the film wasn't as good but I rather liked the film and I like the really bad book adaptations for some reason. I bought them because they involved everything I wanted and the author(s) didn't really make a difference in my decision. Although there are some cases in which the author does play a part for, example my favourite book of all time (so far) is The Time Travellers Wife by Audery Niffenegger, therefore I went to read one of her other books in my schools library. I was about 20 pages in and I just couldn't stand to read it, I didn't enjoy it and it made me feel saddened that I didn't because I loved the way she wrote The Time Travellers Wife, I ended up going back to shelf and rereading my favourite parts of that book.

Step 1:
Try and discover your favourite genre, but don't settle for the same every time (I definitely tend to). Experiment with the different ones, there are so many, I find myself even snooping in the British History section in Waterstones just because I can.

Step 2:
Although I don't really do this myself, you should probably check out books that your favourite author has written. This will give you a much better idea of how the book will be written and set out meaning you can get stuck into easily.

Step 3:
Ask your friends for recommendations! Me and Hannah are always telling each other books we like and because Hannah has read so many I always end up with her books at my house, the best one she recommended was "We Were Liars" I cant tell you how much I loved that book and there will be a review up by either me or Hannah this year.

Step 4:
Find your favourite book store, as silly as this may sound it actually works. If you're in a place you love to be you will enjoy the experience a lot more and probably spend more time scouting for a book. My favourite place is the Waterstones in Birmingham, the building is just beautiful and inside its so open and just jammed packed full of books (4 levels :D). Unfortunately I don't live in Birmingham so I don't go as often as I would like to but every time I go I end up buying something.

Step 5:
Use the internet! The internet is a great source of book finding. Before I started writing this I did some research about it and what other people did and there were so many book finding quizzes and even on websites where you can input what you like and they will find it for you.


Step 6:
And finally the last things you could do is read reviews! I love it when someone comments on how our reviews helped them, its such a great feeling. Instagram is also another great way of finding a book because there are so many book devoted accounts now and its such a great community.

I hope this has helped those of you who just can't decide what book to read. I really loved writing this and coming up with the ideas as its refreshing after writing reviews. It would be great if you could comment if you have any other suggestions or contact us on the following...

Email us: readdithc@gmail.com
Instagram: @biblio_topia

Charlotte 

♥