The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin | Book Review + Discussion

This book is full of surprises that kept me on the edge of my seat and fully entertained!
I recommend this book to EVERYONE because it's really great and steers away from the cliche YA novels, in my opinion. It has a little bit of creepiness, 80% romance (which I did not really enjoy, to be honest but they are great characters nonetheless), and mysterymysterymystery. I craved for those parts of the book.

Summary: "Our main character, Mara Dyer, experiences a traumatic accident that kills her friends, leaving her the only one to survive. This event caused memory loss; Mara could not recall the events leading up to the accident. She and her family move to a new place as per her own request. In this new home and new school, Mara meets a handsome boy named Noah Shaw, who seems to take an interest in her. Despite being in a new area, she slowly but surely recalls the events on the day of the accident; as well as experiences strange things that are happening around her..." 

So just a quick display of some of my thoughts about this book; I liked the writing, I thought it was very lyrical and beautiful in some of the most creepiest parts, and I definitely did get attached to the characters while reading. While I wasn't a fan of the romance, I did admire the strong bond that the two were forming.

If you like mystery, supernatural phenomenons, romance, and YA, I would definitely recommend this book! 

This book is filled with a lot of twists so it provides for a very enjoyable read!

I can't really say much about the book without spoiling it so I'm just going to end the spoiler-free section here. So go read the book now if you haven't! :)

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Characters
Okay, here's the spoiler-y part!

Like in my other reviews, I'm just going to touch on some parts that I liked/disliked or what I wanted to discuss. I guess I'll start with the characters.

I didn't like Mara all that much...about half-way or so through the book. Near the part where she was falling in love in Noah. In the beginning, I thought she was a pretty cool heroine and a lot less annoying than Cadence in We Were Liars. I don't know, I guess I don't like YA romance in general (something about sappy YA romances...well not sappy, really, but it's just the feel of it that I don't like.) And another thing I hate is that love seems to always be a foil to a character. Not always, but most novels I read that aren't centered on romance have a little romance in there that makes the character impossibly dumb instead of being their badass self. About 3/4 of the way in the book, this was how Mara Dyer was to me, tbh.
Now before everyone starts hating and bashing on me, I did eventually accept the romance and even like it a little, it's just that from the premise, I was expecting a little more plot involved than the romance. Hopefully it's like this in the next book. I do like Mara and still do, it's just that I liked her less when she was contemplating about leaving Noah because I'm sitting here all like, "GURL WTF WHY ARE YOU LYING TO YOURSELF."

As for the lovely Noah Shaw, I started to think that he was the typical male love interest until Mara described his appearance and I'm like, damn, he must be really hot to look good even when he's really dishelved. For both Mara and Noah, from reading the book, I realized that both of them are not typical. They both have their own issues but despite that, they can still find solace in each other. I thought that was nice.
I also appreciated some of Noah's comebacks, and appreciated him as a character.
That part where they saw a chicken(?) being killed and Mara was complaining about it, Noah commented, and I loosely quote, "No one likes a hypocrite, Mara." She was eating pork with him, and yet she surprised that they were killing a chicken. I totally agreed with Noah at that moment. You're eating meat and yet you can't stand the sight of an animal being killed for food? So hypocrital, Mara, so hypocrital.

Onto the most important character ever....JAMIE. He is so so important. Why aren't people talking about him more? He's probably my favorite character in the whole book. So sad to see him go, though. I really hope he makes a cameo at least, or plays a part in the next book. All his witty comebacks and his attitude and his willingness to help Mara; I thought it was really sweet. Too bad Noah had to cockblock him from his sister, I mean I know, overprotective big brother but still, REALLY, Noah, REALLY? That was one of the moments I really detested Noah because WOW. B*tch move, imo.
 Just a side note, I'm not going to cuss a lot in my other reviews, I really don't know what's going on with me today.

Anna(please tell me that's her name) and whatshisface were stereotypical popular-high-school villans. I found the whole feud between them and Mara, Jamie, and Noah pretty stupid because it resulted in Jamie leaving because it's like saying all the high school students apart of the popular crowd have no brain and just want to sleep around. There are definitely people like that in every high school but I guess I wanted Hodkin to depict them more realistically.

I thought Mara's family was sweet but it was pretty obvious that things had changed, and the atmosphere was different, etc. and that just broke my heart. Whenever Mara described how Joseph looked at her whenever she got sent to the hospital just absolutely disintegrated every piece of my heart OH. MY. GOD.

I just wanted to mention how nice it was that the main character had an Indian mother. I just thought that was different from typical YA novels where the girl is White and pretty much always assumed to be White unless the cover shows differently or it's stated in the novel. I don't know what heritage Mara's father is though. 

Now onto the plot!

Plot
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer definitely took me for a surprise in terms of plot.
I kind of guessed that Mara's power had somehow caused people's death whenever her emotions were at it's peak (and that she had to picture their specific death.) I just wasn't sure if there were conditions to this power or limits.
The end of the book pretty much answered my question. It seems that if she deliberately tries to use her power, it backfires and could end up hurting someone she didn't mean to hurt. Also, she made someone else commit the murder, so that lady ended up being a victim as well. There would be, of course, a chance that the lady would have shot the defendant and her father anyway but who knows.
The hallucinations that Mara had definitely tripped me up. Sometimes I couldn't tell if what she was experiencing was reality or something she had imagined. The hallucinations of Rachel, Claire, and Jude interacting with her in present day, and not in her memories of the accident, puzzled me. I figured that Mara was just simply going crazy but then THAT ENDING. Jude is freaking alive. What. the. heck. I didn't guess that at all.
Also, nice connection between Joseph's kidnapping and the murder case that Mara's father took on. I was wondering what connection his case would be, and who called to make her father drop the case. I actually still don't know the answer to the latter, but my best guess is that it would be the criminal himself...

Something I really liked about the book is the writing.The book was easy to read and flowed beautifully. The hallucination scenes were also hauntingly beautiful and captivating. Good job Michelle Hodkin!!! ;) 

 I can't wait to read Mara's sanity slowly going down the drain in the next book (or what I'm anticipating.) :D

The Emperor's Edge by Lindsay Buroker Short Review | Free Kindle Book (so go get it now)

I literally just finished this book. And I"ve purchased the next book and currently reading it. And I will purchase the next book. ALL THE BOOKS. Oh. My. God. This book is so good for a free kindle book (no offense to free kindle books but, you know.) If you have a kindle, definitely go pick this one up because it's FREE and it's epic. I cannot stress how much I am in love with this book.

 So if you are not already aware of what this book is about, I will try to give a basic summary of the plot without any spoilers.
Summary: "The Emperor's Edge is set in medieval times with an element of fantasy. Our heroine, Corporal Amaranthe Lokdon, is an Enforcer with a righteous, strict attitude. She gets her job done efficiently, and well. When a notorious assassin by the name Sicarius comes into town, things around Amaranthe are thrown into disarray as the Emperor himself seems to take an interest in her, Commander of the Imperial Armies Hollowcrest assigns her to a mission to kill Sicarius, and people are getting killed by a mysterious beast!"

The Emperor's Edge series is comprised of 7 novels (listed below in chronological order): 

• The Emperor's Edge
• Dark Currents
• Deadly Games
• Conspiracy
• Blood and Betrayal
• Forged in Blood I
• Forged in Blood II

Tips: Here I just want to say a few things about this book if you are willing to get it and read it. The main character, Amaranthe gets a little talky sometimes (like, sometimes her sentences are run-on or she speaks in paragraphs) but that is part of her character so please don't drop the book because of that. Also, it's not much of a fantasy book because the "magic" part doesn't get a huge spotlight until the end. I mean, it's mentioned throughout the story but it's not really used that much. Of course, since it's a series, it has plenty of time to delve into the idea.
If you are looking for romance in this novel, don't. There are some sparks of camaraderie with the main cast of characters and slight flirting but that's it. The main focuses of this novel are about the empire, political intrigue, building a team, etc.

Without further ado, let's get into the spoilers section and review this book! So if you haven't read the book yet, I advise you to stop reading this post and go get the book. I'm pretty sure it's available in formats other than kindle(check the author's website: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/.)

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Short Shortness

Okay, since I finally decided to stop stalling this review, it's been a couple days since I've read this book so I don't think I can really give a review on this at my full potential. I'll try my best though. So sorry if this sounds like mindless rambling.
Some things I really liked about this book is the team building and the sense of unity the characters are starting to feel. I thought the set of characters were very diverse; Books, Akstyr, Maldynado, Sicarius, Amaranthe, and Basilard are all very different but still are able to work together to get a task accomplished.
I really liked the character of Amaranthe. Her wits and her ability to convince people were pretty impressive. I value those abilities in heroines in stories more than being able to fight and such.

Also, props to Lindsay Buroker because she sure did her research for this book. There were many medieval references that I had to look up (my knowledge of the medieval times is very limited), and they were a nice addition to the story.
Throughout the book, I couldn't help but feel that Sicarius reminded me of someone...probably some character in an anime...I can't remember who though. I did like him; and I thought it was so adorable to see him change to this apathetic assassin to someone who actually cares (a little). Well, he's made improvement.
That big reveal at the end, with Sicarius as Sespian's father, was really surprising because I didn't think that Sicarius was that old...although in the beginning they said that he was in his late 30s, I think.

The plot got me hooked real fast, because I'm a sucker for high-fantasy stories, but I do have to admit that the beginning is a little slow. There is a certain point in the book, around the 40% mark (or it depends on the person but that's where it was for me), that really sped things up for the book and it was a rollar-coaster ride from there on.

Things I'm looking forward to in the next book: Amaranthe and Sespian FINALLY meeting (I hope), Sicarius shows more emotions, more explanation on the mental sciences, and more screentime for the other members of The Emperor's Edge.

I don't know...this book was a really strange case for me because I loved it so much yet I don't really have anything to say about it. xD I hoped this review was somewhat useful.

Final Rating:

Have a great day! Don't forget to try this book out! <3

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart | Book Review + Discussion

There was (and still is) so much hype surrounding this book. And know I finally know why. If you haven't already read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart, I highly recommend you to get on that right now. Like, NOW. Because my review is only going to be slightly spoiler-free. The rest of it is going to be filled to the brim with spoilers, so yeah.

Spoiler-free part
I just want to say that there are mixed reviews for this book. Some people loved it, some people hated it, and there were also people that just thought it was okay. I'm...not really sure where I fall. The book itself was kind of a chore for me to get through, but my drive to see the decisive ending surpassed everything I felt while reading it. This hasn't become my favorite book but it also isn't a book that I dislike. It's just...hauntingly beautiful, if I might say so. We Were Liars lingers in your mind days, even weeks, after you have read it. The story is just that powerful and...disturbing. It is definitely very intriguing.

Like many people say, the best way to get into this book is to have no expectations and no background information at all.
I don't think it would hurt to say a little about what it's about.
There is a family called the Sinclairs that go to their private island off the east U.S. coast every summer. The Sinclairs comprise of three daughters and their own families, as well as their parents. We Were Liars focuses in on a particular summer, where something went wrong...

That's all I'm going to say. Enjoy reading this book. ha...ha...

Spoilers, beware!
I hope everyone that is reading this sentence has read the book. If not, you need to, like, click the 'x' button or scroll furiously down. Because if you spoil yourself on this book, I guarantee you will be extremely disappointed in yourself (nah jk, at least I will be. :P)
So, spoiler review begins in...

3....

2.....

1....

OKAY! So I'm going to start off with discussing about the plot.

• Plot(and a few other tidbits)

The WRITING. Although it caught me off guard sometimes, such as the metaphor, seemingly mentioned by every single person that has reviewed this book, on page 5:

"Then he pulled out a handgun and shot me in the chest. I was standing on the lawn and fell. The bullet hole opened wide and my heart rolled out of my rib cage and down into a flower bed. Blood gushed rhythmically from my open wound,

then from my eyes,

my ears,

my mouth."

It really startles you once you read it. But I thought it was the perfect description to make the reader understand how Cadence felt when her dad left her. Good job, E. Lockhart! I knew that it was a metaphor right off the bat because main characters can't die in a story, right (unless it's for the purpose of the plot and they become ghosts or something but that seemed highly unlikely with this book)? ;)
I also thought the writing was very fitting for this novel. The writing is unclear, detached, and the main character speaks in a very vague way, leaving the readers with material but no link, no connection, Since we are seeing from the eyes of Cadence, who doesn't have a clue what's going on, it makes for even more puzzlement and intrigue.

When Cadence goes back to the island for summer seventeen, I questioned the events that were happening around her because it didn't seem like...reality. The Sinclairs never mentioned the rest of the Liars, and her mom always asked where she was and what she was doing, which was quite odd since she would know that Cadence was with her friends. That made me think, "are the Liars actually there?" And my conclusion, is yes and no. I'll talk about my theory sometime later in this review.

The whole mystery of the book only survived because the Sinclairs decided not to talk about it and let Cadence remember on her on, as was advised by her doctor. It also made sense because Cadence wasn't remembering what her mom told her anyway so there would be no use in telling it to her straight out. Her mind would just subconsciously block those triggers out. This is one of the Sinclair family mottos anyway, (first shown when Granny Tipper died);

"Don't cause distress...Don't remind people of loss...Silence is a protective coating over pain."(page 29)

That was also why Cadence was giving away her stuff; to erase herself from the world, to erase her sin. On page 183, the Liars are discussing New Clairmont and why Harris built it and Gat says,  

"New Clairmont seems like a punishment to me...A self-punishment. He built himself a home that isn't a home. It's deliberately uncomfortable."

 Cadence then goes on to ask why he would do that and Gat asks her why she was giving all of her belongings away, making a connection between the two actions. The reasoning behind them was the same.

You know, going through the book a second time, I've face-palmed myself at all the clues I've missed that hinted to what happened in summer fifteen.
Going back to the discussion of New Clairmont, on page 62-63, Cadence goes back to the island for summer seventeen and observes the new appearance it has. The trees near old Clairmont are gone, and of course, the house. Cadence says the house is made of glass and iron. Non-flammable material. Of course. OF COURSE.

A few other hints were the children's behaviors. Taft calls Cadence's home, and they have a conversation about her being a "drug addict". He keeps on repeating the question, saying, "are you sure?" like what she's talking about is crazy. He mentions something interesting too, saying that "Cuddletown is haunted." Hmmm.

Now when you read further and see the unclear events between Cadence and the rest of the Liars, you can put two-and-two together. But I didn't because I'm a numbskull. Really, the whole time I thought they were hallucinations but that just CAN'T be possible either. The Liars had their own mind, they're own actions, and they themselves also gave out hints as to what happened that decisive night. Cadence couldn't have made that all up in her head. So, the only logical conclusion I can get is that the Liars were ghosts because they appeared in front of Cadence even after she knew that they were dead, and said goodbye to them.

 I have never hallucinated because of drugs before but seriously? Cadence would have to be bat-shit crazy to be hallucinating ALL of that. That's just my opinion though. I kind of stuck with the hallucination thing for a while after I read the book for the first time because I thought We Were Liars was a realistic type-of-book but now, I think there was some kind of supernatural activity going on.

Another thing that intrigued me was how the Liars seemed to have been interacting with the rest of the family. They were supposed to be dead, right? But somehow, a few of the family members mentioned them doing something in present tense.
For example, on page 65, Taft says, "Mirren read me a story." How could that be? Could he see her too?
It's very, very interesting.
Gat says, on page 193,

"Penny said it was best. And--well, with all of us being here, I had faith that you'd remember." 

How did he know what Penny said? Was he talking to her? He says, "with all of us being here", meaning that they were there to help her remember. Because, I guess, they wouldn't be there then.

Not to mention, Bonnie seems to have taken an interest in "creepy dead stuff", as described by Liberty. Hmm, I wonder why...? I have just absolutely no clue. ;) That was one of the clues I didn't catch by looking back on it, it's kind of disturbing how she's literally obsessed with it. It might be how she copes with the incident though.

Speaking of coping with incidents, a lot of things changed as a result of the fire. Before, we see in a past memory that one of the Liars motives for burning old Clairmont down was because of the aunts fighting over the property.

Carrie wandering around at night especially killed me. She even asked for Johnny, which tore my heart to pieces, but again, when I first read it, I didn't think that she could possibly be interacting with Johnny; I thought that it was her way of coping. The fact that Will has nightmares at night and calls for her, and she just keeps wandering just felt like someone freaking tore my heart apart and stomped all over it.
Carrie seems to be so emotionally distraught at nighttime that she doesn't even respond to the wails of her son that's alive.
One good thing that came of it though, was the bonding of the three sisters. They was some tension between them before, as they were arguing with each other but this tragedy is just, it really hurts, and it brought them all closer.

The fairytales were possibly my favorite thing out of the whole book. I don't know why, but I liked the way it kind of told the Sinclairs' story in a different way.
There was one, especially chilling, on page 54, about a dragon that terrorized the village and the king thought that maybe his daughters could charm the dragon to calm his rampages. At the end, they all get eaten and Cadence says, "Who killed the girls? The dragon? Or their father?" And the three princesses are, of course, in reference to Harris's daughters, Penny, Carrie, and Bess but I didn't exactly understand how that had to do with the story. I guess...maybe...because Harris was luring them in with his assets, they were fighting over it, thus breaking their bond as family? That sounds pretty far off though. :/

And lastly, the tragedy. Oh. My. God.
I kind of suspected that all three of them were dead but E. Lockhart's writing delivers again! My heart sank, I felt so bad, and it just destroyed me to hear the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts but it needs to be heard. Ignorance is only temporary bliss. 
I will probably look like a jerkface but I honestly didn't feel much when Cadence remembered the dogs dying in the fire. I mean, I felt really, really sad but it didn't affect me as much as the thought of causing the death of your three best friends in the world. That was very traumatizing. I guess it could be the fact that I don't own any pets so I don't know how it's like to be close and attached to one but I LOVE DOGS, I really do and I want one very badly and I'm going to stop because I'm just rambling now.

The last few chapters absolutely killed me. Okay, so my heart was ripped out a few times when reading this book but the last few chapters. They were powerful. I totally understood Cadence's emotions; the words flew off the page and just connected my soul with hers.

I give my condolences to the Liars. What happened was absolutely terrible. No one is the cause of it.

Okay, this is going to be the last thought before I ask a few of mine own questions.
When I finished the book, I finally made the connection to what Cadence said in the beginning and the repeat at the end:

"My full name is Cadence Sinclair Eastman. 
I suffer migraines. I do not suffer fools. 
I like the twist of meaning. 
I endure."

 I might just be really dumb for not getting this in the beginning but if you just look up the definitions of  "suffer" and "endure", they do have similar meanings but different at the same time.

(From a Google search of the definitions)

Suffer

1. experience or be subjected to.

2. tolerate

Endure

1. suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently.

2. remain in existence; last.

 Well, at least we know she's not going to commit suicide. But it could also mean that she's suffering patiently. She's suffering from the traumatic loss, and of course, who wouldn't suffer from that, however, it's disheartening to picture a depressed, broken Cadence, living day-to-day half alive. I really don't like to think about that.

A few more questions I have about the book before I delve into the characters.

One) Why was Harris calling Cadence, "Mirren" sometimes? I understand that this became a thing after the fire incident but I don't know why he would mistake her for Mirren. Maybe because he doesn't want to admit she's gone? He did mention Gat too, saying that there was a book he wanted to give to him so...however, I don't believe he mentioned Johnny. Was it because of the fight they got in?

Two) Why was Mirren getting sick, while Johnny and Gat were okay? The book mentions several times about her feeling sick, vomiting, etc. and I was about to think that she was pregnant because she mentioned her ridiculous "boyfriend", Drake Loggerhead, which turned out to be a lie and she confessed that she's never had sex before. So, I kind of threw that theory out. But I have seen other reviews that speculated Gat got her pregnant and I could see how that was possible since he apologized to Cadence (for whatever reason.)

• Characters

 I'm going to keep this real short because I spent way too long talking about the plot. But that's because the plot was more interesting and evident than the characters. Sorry, I got to be blunt about it. We Were Liars is a short book, not even 300 pages long, and most of the book was pretty much dedicated to the mystery of summer fifteen. I felt like the characters didn't get enough development and there wasn't a single one of them that I felt attached to. So when they got burned in the fire, all I could think about was, "WHY CADENCE? HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW HOW TO SET A FIRE? IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE AN ARSONIST, DO IT RIGHT."
All joking aside, I seriously slammed my face on the table when reading that scene. I just...I understand they were a little drunk but Cadence must have been hella tipsy or something to make such a huge mistake like that.

I'm thinking that it might have been the detached writing style, the distance from the reader and the story that made this story mysterious and intriguing but at the same time, not being able to connect with the story itself. Sure the Sinclairs have an air of mystery around them, but what's the point of a good story if it can't pull the reader in? I literally forced myself to finish this book just to find out what the ending was.

I don't think...there were any characters I actually liked. xD I didn't hate them either but I didn't care for them. This is true for the romance too.

Gat and Cadence. Cadence and Gat. Nope. I don't see a spark between them at all. Of course, they were acting all lovey-dovey in private but I just felt like they were two kids kissing and holding hands with each other. No real love. Which is silly because everyone knows they are in love with each other but I just couldn't feel it while I was reading it. It's kind of surprising since I usually pick up on emotions in books pretty easily. Maybe I was just too focused on the mystery?