Quickie Reviews & A Rant

Sometimes you have good days, and sometimes you have days where you get your braces tightened and it’s impossible to eat anything but you’re so hungry so you spend five minutes chewing a Goldfish with only your front teeth only to discover that it is horrendously stale.
But enough about me. How is your day going? I know that I said I was going to be posting randomly, but ever since then I’ve posted every day! Don’t worry. It won’t last.
So while I was gone I read some books (although not nearly as many as I wish I had, it’s seriously shameful. I stumble across some long, boring ones that I tried to push through and just couldn’t. Also I reread Harry Potter, and it’s not like after the fourth time around I realized how much I secretly hate them, you know? Nothing new.) I want to share my thoughts on them but I definitely don’t have time to review each and every one by itself. So here are 11 quick reviews, all leading up to one not-so-quick rant. So, um, stick around? Brace yourself?
Maybe leave early.
(If I can somehow persuade you to read a book in 3-4 sentences, click the title to be taken to their Goodreads pages)

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – I had to read this one for school. It wasn’t nearly as hard to understand as I thought it would be, and I actually ended up really enjoying it. All of the analysis and projects definitely took away some of the fun, but I’m glad I read it and I would definitely recommend it to someone looking to read a classic that isn’t too complicated but still incredibly well-written. 4/5 stars
2. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven – I was really entertained by this book. It was a darker plot that still had funny moments and an easy-to-follow plot. I just feel like the whole girl-meets-boy (who is equally as quirky as girl), boy-and-girl-go-on-adventures-until-something-tragic-happens thing wasn’t that original or amazingly executed in this story. It was a nice break from the other boring books I was reading at the time. 3.5/5
   
3. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare – This was another one I had to read for school. It wasn’t a bad play at all, and the ending honestly got to me. It’s so tragic and frustrating and you just wish that you could grab the characters and scream, “Thou art an idiot.” I definitely think that reading this in school kind of ruined it for me though – we would read one chapter as a class, then listen to a recording of it, and then watch the movie clip before moving onto the next part. It took forever. 3/5
4. The Martian by Andy Weir – Sooo good! I don’t know why it took me so long to get to this one. I meant to read it before the movie came out (which I still haven’t seen) but after I missed that deadline I guess I wasn’t really in a rush. Mark Watney is so funny. I didn’t think I’d be able to handle a book of just mostly narrative – I usually like some light dialogue – but it was fantastic. 5/5
   
5. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – Once again, for school. I thought this book was so quirky and hilarious. I flew through the first half. If I’m being honest, I do think it got ridiculous to the point of being hard to follow, but I still enjoyed it for the most part. The beginning was definitely my favorite, and I need to watch the movie. 3.5/5
6. Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon – I don’t think that this book was nearly as amazing as everyone made it sound, but that’s not to say I didn’t completely love it. Based on the hype I was expecting fantastic writing and a life-changing plot. However, it was so entertaining. I read it in one sitting, and immediately took it to my friend’s house so she could read it. I totally, totally predicted the ending, but I was okay with it. The romance was pretty insta-love and unrealistic if you’re one of those people who hate that, but I was okay with it. It was just one of those addictive contemporaries that I love so much. 4/5
7. We Should Hang Out Sometime by Josh Sundquist – This book was really okay. Like, it wasn’t bad. I just expected it to be funny stories, as opposed to stories. The whole plot was that this guy went around and found everyone that he ever almost dated and asked them why it didn’t work out, but that was really about 10% of the story. The rest of the book was him dragging out the backstory of how they met into multiple chapters. And then the stories were basically, “I met her, I thought she was cute. We became friends and then I was going to ask her out because I got scared.” And then when he meets up with them again the girls are like, “Well, yeah. We didn’t date because you never asked me out.” I’m explaining this poorly. It had a good message, it just wasn’t very… interesting. It was just stories. And I know he’s a Youtuber, but I don’t watch his videos. Maybe if I was more invested and interested in his life I would’ve enjoyed it more. 2.5/5
8. Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy – I’m a sucker for long titles and unique formats, and this book is told entirely in lists. The issue is, it’s more than 650 pages long. The idea is great, but when that idea lasts so long and is backed by a mediocre plot, there’s only so much you can do. I didn’t actually finish this one (I think I have about fifty pages left) but I’m counting it because if I really wanted to I could finish it in about an hour. I just don’t really care what happens to the characters. It’s hard to get attached when you only learn about them through lists. It was a cool idea, though. 2.5/5
9. Carry On by Rainbow Rowell – I loved this book so much. I know that some people have an issue with it because if Harry Potter wasn’t a thing this book really couldn’t be a thing, but it doesn’t bother me too much. They really aren’t that similar, and the plot was so unique and good. I can’t imagine the last time I finished a book this long so fast. Rainbow Rowell does it again. 4.5/5
10. This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp – I was really hoping that this book would be more than it was. The entire plot takes place over maybe an hour, while a school shooting is going on. The little hook on the cover is “Everyone has a reason to fear the boy with the gun.” It sounds like it should be so chilling and crazy, but it just wasn’t to me. It felt like the entire book was either brutal murder or vague backstory. It had so many perspectives that it was hard to keep them straight. I read it very quickly, but I wasn’t super hooked. 3/5
11. The Crown by Kiera Cass – You know how I feel about these books. Poorly written, but ridiculously entertaining. I read this in one day and loved every second of it. 4/5
    BUT… this is where the rant comes in.

If you’ll recall, I wrote a predictions post about this book a million years ago. As it turns out, that post ends up pretty high in the search results when you Google what happens at the end of the series. In the days leading up to and following the release of The Crown, my blog was being flooded with people who weren’t wanting to wait to know what happens (like, that post now has around 10,000 views).
Most of the comments on that post were really nice, and I appreciate all of them, even the ones that weren’t (I would tell you to go and read them – there are some really interesting ones – but I don’t think I approved them at the time and they’re so buried now). I love getting feedback on my writing and interacting with people. Most of them pointed out that I forgot to consider one of the bachelors (did he really have a chance?) and gave their own predictions.
However, there were three comments that stuck out. Again, I really do love all of the comments and I know that no one means any harm by them. I’m not trying to call out or make fun of anyone, I just like ranting. Honestly, thank you for those comments, you three.
One of the comments was in all caps, screaming at me because I predicted that one of her favorite characters was going to die. Look, I didn’t want it to happen. I just thought there was a pretty good chance. I honestly loved this comment – it’s crazy to me how books can provoke so much emotion in people. Can you imagine writing fictional characters that people get so attached to that they’ll yell at real-life people over them? My favorite part was that it concluded with the commenter saying that she loves the cover of the book because I don’t.
That’s when you know that she’s really angry, because I stand with months-ago me. It’s a horrible cover.
The second comment just blatantly spoiled the ending of the book. It was really my fault for reading the comments before I read the book – I should’ve known someone would spoil it. It was just funny because the comment just opened with, “(name) wins her heart.” There was no warning, no chance to realize the potential danger and get out. It was devastating.
Perhaps more frustrating though, was a comment that said (name) wins, except she didn’t really say the name. She said the first and last letter, and then put stars in the middle. It’s a nice thought, because you’re not really saying the name while still potentially being able to discuss with people who have already read the story. Except… except in what story are there two guys competing for a girl’s heart whose names are the same amount of letters and begin and end with the same two letters?
None. At least, not The Crown. So when she did that, there was only one option.
*sigh* The thought was there. She even went on to say that I can’t say that she spoiled the book because she didn’t actually say his name.
Pro-tip: If you have to explain how you didn’t spoil something, you spoiled it.

That’s all from me, folks! I hope you enjoyed these quick little reviews – I might do some more like this in the future. I also hope you liked hearing that rant-y story. I’m over it, though. It was reasonable for them to assume that if I spent so much time making a predictions post, I would’ve been dedicated enough to get the book right away and read it immediately and I would’ve already known what they told me.
Be sure to let me know any of your crazy stories or if you’ve read the books I’ve reviewed in the comments! You can also subscribed to my blog and follow me on my other social media below, if you’re feeling generous. 🙂
Happy reading!