Review Dead and Buryd by Chele Cooke - Out of Orbit Blog Tour

HEY GUYS!
I'm so so so excited for today's blogpost! As you can see from the picture above - I'm participating in a blog tour! Woohoo!
I know, I know - it already started at the 18th and I haven't told any of you about it, but that's because I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise!
And in honour of the Out of Orbit blog tour I'm reviewing the first book in the installment - Dead and Buryd.

Summary

"You're an inmate, not a medic. You should get used to that."

On the planet Os-Veruh, the native Veniche have endured a decade under the oppressive rule of a race of invaders, the Adveni.

When Georgianna Lennox, a Veniche medic, discovers her childhood friend has been sold into slavery, she seeks help from a revolutionary outlaw group.

As Georgianna's struggle to save one life ignites a battle to liberate her homeworld, is she about to discover that it is better to be dead than 'buryd'?

My opinion

Rate: 8/10

This book was great! 

I've said this in a previous blogpost before, but I'll say it again: I love stories with these political games and wars, because I feel like the best and exciting stories come from it.

And this book was really one of those great stories. The characters, the plot mainly and the world itself were amazing and so fun to get into.

I want to start with the world itself, because I found it genuinely a very original and fascinating world indeed. Because of the way the world is built I feel like we're in a futuristic and prehistorical setting at the same time.

The fact that the Veniche people are divided in tribes on the planet and that they live quite a primitive life underground, including other prehistorical elements such as the need to join to keep a bloodline going, for example, makes it prehistorical, but the fact that above them another kind from outerspace took over with its high developed technology makes it more futuristic.

While reading the story I felt like I was constantly changing worlds, from the primitive underground to this "alien" and technological upperground, which made the reading experience far more fun.

I think the characters in this book are pretty strong. I can imagine them being real human beings, or Veniche in this case, and not these predictable people we've all heard of already. A thing that caught my eye was how their ideals changed from person to person. Now this is pretty normal for every character, but the way it's put in the story, quite indirectly, by using their words and actions only made it better and far more interesting. It wasn't like our protagonist was explaining every little detail about the other characters, some background things she pointed out but the way these people are shone through their words and actions in a good and interesting way.

I do have to say that sometimes these descriptions our protagonist gives, aren't always wanted by me. Of course, explaining is pretty important in a very fictional world, containing elements that aren't very normal to the average human and seeing her struggle with her personal problems is also important for her character development, but sometimes it bothers me. I'll explain why:

These explanations and troubled thoughts sometimes become a bit too long, making it more difficult to get through story sometimes. Especially when used during exciting events. There was one exciting event which could've blown me away, if we wouldn't have spent much time with the protagonist's rambling thoughts on her relationship.
But luckily this wasn't very often!

I really liked how Cooke opened the story.
Starting with giving us a quick overview of how Os-Veruh was taken over by the Adveni and with a quite mysterious event was a very attractive way to open up the story. 
By opening this way, Cooke uses an interesting method to the reader's attention;
she puts some questions and knowledge in your head first, so that you want to figure out the rest to complete the picture.
I've seen some other authors do this too, but I don't know in this case I found it even more appealing especially because the other event was so fast paced.

I like saying that reading this story felt like watching a series, which is a good thing by the way. In series you have these different perspectives on the story from different people, some knowing more than others or going through different events that don't seem to fit the story at all or seem to be kind of part of the story and kind of not.
Well, it was something like that, only then the other perspectives excluded. The book is only written from Georgianna's perspective and in this perspective very interesting things seem to happen all at once. Some have to do with the actual plotline, others introducing another secret buried (not buryd, haha) in the ground, slowly finding its way up through the ground. So you don't just stick to the storyline - you get more out of it. More events, more problems, more mysteries, which make me very excited for the next book.

AND THAT ENDING YOU GUYS...
Wasn't actually that mindblowing.
BUT it wasn't bad either. Not at all actually.
So when I reached the ending I was expecting this mindblowing and heartbreaking cliffhanger which would make me die for a few seconds.
In reality it didn't turn out that way. When I reached the ending, it actually felt like I was already getting into the first chapter of the next book, making me afraid that the ending wouldn't have that wow-factor I was aiming for. And it didn't.
It had something even more interesting.
It ended in such a subtle and secretive way that I first felt like: Wait, this is it? and then I felt like: Oooo, I like this.
The way it ended just fitted to the story itself, with its secrets and mysteries and its rebelious character. It was perfect.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. I felt connected to the characters and I loved the world and the story itself. I'm really pumped for the next book - Fight or Flight!

Giveaway

There is a tour wide giveaway during the tour.

The prizes include;

A full set of Out of Orbit series in paperback and a £25 Amazon giftcard

Ten ebook sets of the Out of Orbit series

Here is the link to the giveaway;

    http://chelecooke.com/giveaways/out-of-orbit-giveaway/

And I want to thank Faye Rogers for reaching out to me and asking me to participate in this blog tour! It was very fun to do and I'm happy she introduced me to this great series!
And as for you guys - make sure you join the giveaway! I promise you - the books are worth it!

Until the next blogpost then! :)

Review Wonder by R J Palacio

HEY GUYS!
I'M BACK!
YAAAYYY!
I really missed blogging these past weeks so I'm happy to start it again.
And how long has it been? THREE WEEKS
Jeez. Ah well - whatever.


For today's blogpost I'm reviewing a very special book, a book that I wanted to read for a very long time, a book that has touched many people's hearts and mine, a book that is more than a book - Wonder.
O my god, guys. It was one of the most moving reading experience I had in a long time.

Summary

The book is about August Pullman, a ten-year-old who's far from ordinary.

Sure, he does ordinary things like eating ice cream or riding his bike. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary kids don't get stared at wherever they go.

To protect him from the cruel world, Auggie has been home-schooled all his life by his parents. And now, for the first time, he's going to a real school. And he's anxious about it.

He just wants the people the accept him, to like him, to show them that he's no different underneath it all. But will they?

My opinion

Rate: 9/10

THIS BOOK YOU GUYS!

I've never felt this moved and happy by reading a fantastic book. THIS BOOK MADE ME CRY. ALMOST.

And if a book can do that to you, it's a good book. A very good book.

I was immediately engaged to the story from page one. The writing style is great and fits the story. It is simple and its maybe a bit plain, but that is exactly what I like about it.

Because of this plain writing style it feels like these people in the book are normal, who deal with their issues and events in life in a realistic, comprehendable way. It doesn't feel fake, it doesn't feel overreacted - it feels like all of it could've happened in our lives.

I really enjoyed reading this book from these different perspectives. It was really interesting to see how various people who came into August's life dealed with August and their own personal struggles, creating somewhat an understanding towards them and making them more complex and multidimensional.

Via's perspective was one of the most interesting ones to read.

(MINI-SPOILER ALERT) 

Seeing her secretly struggle with her brother's deformity, the fear of what other people might think in her new school, the guilt for seeing her brother sometimes the way other people do, is interesting to see, especially because it affects them both and that it doesn't make her a perfect sister - it makes her real. It makes her human.

Another thing that I liked about the perspectives was the fact that some of them were perspectives of kids, of ten-year-olds, instead of using a teenager.

Now that's completely true - she does use teenagers in the book with a "teenage-environment" and teenagerproblems, but they aren't that important. They make the story complete, yes, but in the end it is about August and how he deals with it all.

And I really liked seeing that, because Palacio really sticked to how kids of that age think and act, not making them seem like they have no idea what's happening. Because in the end kids know more than we all might think. Just saying.

#KIDSRULE 

I find the build-up of the story another very fun and original thing.

We literally race through time in the book and not in a way that it seems to fast or that we're missing out on something. In the beginning, for example, we have August who introduces himself and tells us what's about to happen and for that he kind of races back in time till the point where that thing will actually happen. In the other perspectives they do kind of the same thing and all starting from the moment they met August till the moment we stopped at in the previous perspective. And from that moment continuing the story. And the great thing is - it doesn't feel unclear or too much.

I also really enjoy the tiny little details in the book. Like how many chapters are pretty shorts and have these funny names like "Paging Mr. Tushman" or "Floating". And how every perspective opens with a blank face like the one on the cover, but then adjusted to the person's perspective. And underneath that blank face a quote from a particular song is placed that fits the characters perfectly. I just really enjoyed that!

Overall this book was a fantastic read and was really as good as everybody said it would be. I highly recommend it!

This book was definitely a Wonder.

Until the next blogpost! :) (Feels so good to type that again, haha)

The Book To Movie Wishlist Tag!

Don't you ever have that when you read an amazing book with amazing characters and an amazing world that you feel like: WHY ISN'T THIS A MOVIE YET?

And then you go make an entire dreamcast for the movie, make a little video on it by getting all these pics from these actors and actresses that would be just perfect for the role of this character in particular. You go find a nice song that fits the video and put it on youtube for the whole world to see. In those few weeks you get tons and tons of views and comments saying: "YES I KNOW RIGHT." "OMG YAAASSS."

And in those same weeks you try to figure out how the movie should be - which scenes should be there, which are unnecessary. And this idea too, you put out on the internet for everyone to see. Suddenly a few weeks later you get this mail from Universal Studios saying: "Hey! We saw your ideas and video on a book that you think should definitely be a movie and we wanted to ask if you want to help us out!"

And then, obviously, say yes and help them out and become besties with the author and the movie becomes a hit and  you become rich and popular and die happily.

Well, that has never happened to me. And it probably hasn't happened to any of you either. But hey - one can always dream, can't he?

Either way - I still have some books that definitely should become a movie. 

So here is the Book to Movie book tag!

1. The Iron Fey by Julie Kagawa

HELL YEAH. 

The story was A-MA-ZING and the world was awesome. The characters were great and just everything was on point. I would really like to see a movie adaption of the series with Amanda Seyfried as Meghan Chase, because she just looks exactly like how I would picture Meghan in real life. And then the movie should be recorded in the studios were they recorded Harry Potter, because then that world Kagawa made will be just as amazing.

I'm thrilled already! AHHH.

2. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!

The plot line was amazing and will shock and interest EVERYBODY (every bookworm at least). The fights will be awesome with the Silverpowers and I would love love to see the palace and the capital of the Silvers come to life. 

AND I NEED A MAVEN-REPRESENTATION SO THAT I CAN SPAM THAT ACTOR'S TWITTER AND INSTAGRAM FULL WITH COMMENTS ON WHY HE DID IT. (I probably don't have enough guts to do that, so don't worry actor ;))

3. The Humans by Matt Haig

I'm already laughing at the idea of it becoming a movie and I think the actors themselves will pee their pants from filming all of it. Though I think it will be very much like any other comedy with alienlike, or just immensely foolish or strange people, I still think it would be a great movie. Although I do think that the intelligence or the thoughts of the alien wouldn't be shown very well in the movie hen they're actually the funniest thing of the book.

Hm. I have mixed feelings about this one, but whatever.

4. Throne Of Glass by Sarah J Maas

No discussion. No doubts. It has to be a movie.

I NEED a representation for Celaena, Dorian, Chaol, FLEETFOOT.

Just do it, okay. And do it well.

5. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I was destroyed by reading it. 

Now let the whole world be destroyed by watching the movie.

*Evil laugh* 

*sobbing*

*Way too many sobs*

*Wipes away her tears*

*Finishes her blogpost*

Well that was it for today, folks! I hope you enjoyed this one!

Until the next blogpost, then! :)