5 Books That Made Me Go WTF

NOTE: This is not necessarily a bad thing. Unless it is. I shall explain which book is which. And the only order these are in is the order I organized them.

Do you ever read a book and just become confused? Like you don't know what you just read or you couldn't even explain the plot to someone without fucking it up because you can't even explain it to yourself? Or maybe the book was just INTENSE and your brain is just WAPOW-SHKK-BOOM (mind explosion)? And these aren't necessarily bad.

What is bad if the plot and the characters went nowhere and you're left with this empty feeling of WTF because you wasted your time.

*SPOILERS AHEAD SHIELD YOUR EYES HIDE THE CHILDREN AND I'M SORRY FOR BEING A BIT MEAN IT'S THE BOOK'S FAULT OR MY FAULT FOR BEING YOUNG WHEN I READ THEM IDK*

Deadly Little Secrets (The entire series really but I only read up to 3 I think) by Laurie Faria Stolarz. These books weren't bad, they were just HELLA CONFUSING AND INTENSE. I read them around 4-5 years ago and I still get a chill from them. I just didn't understand the whole psychometric abilities thing as a part of the plot (my fault I know) but also, that suicidal aunt as being another POV? That part was just weird to me. And, personally, I found it out of place.

Take Me There by Susane Colasanti. Normally, Colasanti doesn't disappoint me. Most of the time, I enjoyed her books. But this book I felt was just a complete waste of my time. The characters were whiny and three POVs was too much and the plots were bad and there was a FUCKING STUDENT-TEACHER ROMANCE JUST NO. Her other books are fine, just this one was awful.

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles. I HAVE HAD YEARS TO PONDER THIS BOOK AND I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED. All I know is I didn't like it. It may have been because I read a 13+-ish book when I was like 9 but I didn't understand. Was it the sister? What was that last page even about? What the hell happened?

AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY

Vixen by Jillian Larkin. I couldn't even finish this book. I couldn't stand the characters, the plot was contrived and it was ultimately a disappointment. I was really excited to read it because YAY FLAPPERS THE 20s AWESOME TIMES but the no. It wasn't interesting and I went like 50 pages before I was just done.

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews. Here's the gif to express my emotions:

I DIDN'T EVEN REALLY READ THIS SERIES I READ THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS AND THEN I SCARRED MY 13-YEAR-OLD SELF USING WIKIPEDIA SYNOPSES! WHAT HAS BEEN VISUALIZED IN MY MIND-UTERUS CANNOT BE UNSEEN. THERE'S INCEST AND BLOOD DRINKING AND POISON I JUST COULDN'T I CAN'T.

So yeah. That's that.

I need to go calm down.

Bye!

Owyn

Book Review: Boy Meets Boy

NOTE: This is a book. Yay for books!

SALUTATIONS. Today I am talking about David Levithan's book Boy Meets Boy, which is about a gay teen named Paul who lives in an awesome, quirky town and his relationships with friends, crushes and exs.

*No Major Spoilers*

I've read a couple of Levithan's stuff. There are books like Dash and Lily's Book of Dares which I enjoyed to Will Grayson, Will Grayson which I would say is one of my favorite books.

 So, going into this book, I had some high expectations.

And I heavily, thoroughly enjoyed it! WHOOHOO

Here are the reasons why:

It's fucking hilarious. Levithan does such a great job in incorporating humor into his novels. It's not overt and annoying or minor and odd. I was reading this in class and I damn near snorted I was laughing so hard.

THE VOICE. TEH VOICE. Paul's voice is just amazing. He tells the story with such an understanding-confusion of everything and I don't know how Levithan mastered this, but he did. And it is wondrous.

The characters are better than people in real life. But the best part is, they're going through such normal stuff but they're so much BETTER at it. And they're funny and interesting, and if I didn't love them then I appropriately hated them which is JUST AS FUN.

The town should be real. Unfortunately for my hopes and dreams, the setting for Boy Meets Boy is a fictional, accepting and just plain great. A drag queen who goes by Infinite Darlene is the star quarterback. The cheerleaders have harleys. The Boy Scouts disbanded from the actual Boy Scouts for not letting gay people in so they renamed themselves the Joy Scouts. I am a ball of happiness.

Noah and Paul for the win. I loved them. Loved them. I ship them so hard. No spoilers so sorry but this gif sums up how I feel:

Yes. This book. Yes. Read. 237 photos out of 238. Yes.

SINCERELY,

Owyn

Book Review: Unbreakable

NOTE: This was an ARC but I finished it after it got published.

Unbreakable by Kami Garcia (the author who did the Beautiful Creatures series) is about a girl named Kennedy who's mother is killed by a spirit and she's saved by these twins Jared and Lukas and recruited to help them destroy the main demon.

I liked this book. It was good. Allow me to tell you why:

*MINOR SPOILERS BUT NOTHING TOO BAD*

It's intense. Like wow-holy-shit intense. And written really well. I nearly bit my nails off while reading it. The demon attacks and the creepy ghost children and the well scene were just EEP. Want to know what I'm talking about?

This gif is applicable in every situation.

It's action-packed. Garcia did a great job writing the action. It wasn't overly-packed with words, but it gave you a great visual as to what was going on. And the action wasn't annoying, it was interesting and terrifying and fascinating.

The characters. I got to say, even though I enjoy all the characters, I love Priest. Priest is such a good kid and he's smart and awesome and I just adore him.

Let me say this:

THE ENDING HOW DARE YOU KAMI GARCIA. I SO NEED THE SEQUEL SOON PRETTY PLEASE.

I am in agony.

But yes. I really liked this book. 543 vengeance spirits out of 550. Awesome sauce.

Ta-ta!

Owyn

Book Review: Life in Outer Space

NOTE: I got this as an ARC but I read it after it was published.

So this book is called Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil. And to be honest, when I grabbed it at Teen Advisory Board I'd thought it be something fantasy-ish, but it is fact not. Which was pleasantly surprising (nothing against sci-fi/fantasy yadda-yadda.) It's actually about a boy named Sam who's a movie-nerd-geek and how he befriends this totally mysterious new girl named Camilla. She could be popular and dating the Head Dick of the school, but she just floats around cliques and prefers to hang out with Sam and his friends and be a nerd.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Here are a ton of reasons why YOU (yes you) should read it.

1: It's Australian and anything Australian is at least a bit great. I thought it was British at first (because I don't research things at all and it said "knob" so therefore I assumed British) but then they mentioned Australia as their local history and I went:

2: THE VOICE OH EM GEE. Keil had such a great voice for Sam. I could picture and feel his hatred toward the popular people and I totally related. He swore (not annoyingly much) and he was very upfront. Plus, his rapport with his friends was great.

3. THE ROMANCE. I instantly wanted Sam and Camilla to get together. They had so much in common, had great debates and discussions and conversations, and there was this whole scene where the two of them were Skyping while in separate countries and they were just SO CUTE. He helped her when she was scared and she helped him get some hardcore character development up in there. I just... It was JUST SO AMAZING.

I have access to too many of these haha

 4. The character development. I don't want to say too much here in the avoidance of spoilers (sperhlers) but the way Keil handled the story was just well done. I mean, it was just fantastic. All of the characters had something going on and it never felt overwhelming and I just loved (or appropriately hated) all the characters.

Me reading this book (except I didn't have Keenan Thompson yelling at me)

5. Movie references galore. I don't know about you, but I absolutely love it when I understand a reference. It makes me feel all in-the-know. And I understood so many of this book's! I was ecstatic while reading and being all "I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE."

But yes, this book was very much the bomb dot com. I enjoyed it heavily, especially the dialogue and inner-musings of Sam.

9000 Princess Leia bras out of 9001.

Fare thee well,

Owyn

Fun Summer Reads

NOTE: I miss summer :( so therefore I wrote this

I decided to compile a list of a few books that embodied summer for me! And this includes this summer, last summer, and the one before. Please enjoy!

The Summer I Became a Nerd by Leah Rae Miller

This was such a fun read. It touched on the whole identity crisis teens have when deciding to either be themselves or what people expect them to be. Plus, it mashed together the whole nerd-geek thing in a way that celebrated the culture. Admittedly, the near-climax part of the book is kind of annoying with the main girl Maddie deciding between happiness/Logan or popularity/friendship-with-annoying-people but the awesome LARP scene is worth it.

Famous Last Words by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski

I really liked this book. The author had a fun writing style and voice, great characters, great romance, and some awesome drama. As a person who hung out with older, awesome people over the summer at her internship, I really related to Sam and enjoyed her story. Plus, they exposed political corruption. It's a whole bag of awesomeness.

The Summer at Forsaken Lake by Michael D. Beil


Okay, this book is more middle reader, but it's so good and cute and aw. There's a little bit of puppy love, horror-movie making, and solving the mysteries behind the premise of the horror movie. It's enjoyable and it has great illustrations and it's really cute.

JK I mean cute

Wicked Jealous by Robin Palmer

I have already described HERE and HERE that Palmer is already awesome, and in the first link I reviewed this book already. But I feel like that wasn't enough. Palmer did such a good job with this book. The romance, the way she handled the weight loss, the pure comedy with the roommates and friends plus the awesome drama. This is by far my favorite of hers, and it always makes me think of summer. I love this book.

*licks book*

Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald

This book is just really cute and fun and adorable. The romance and friendships were awesome and filled with banter. AND it proves girls are friendzoned too (even though I will fight anyone who actually uses that term.) Plus, the cures work for people falling out of love. It's a good mishmash of stories that work really well, and it's a good summer story. I enjoy reading and rereading it immensely.

This weird sheep-bunny-thing is rubbing hands maniacally for this book

But yes! These books are fun summer reads, and offer great nostalgia for the awesome summer.


Goodbye, mes amis

Owyn