ARC Review: To All The Boys I've Loved Before

A/N: This is a review of a book that comes out on April 22, 2014. I read and finished this book back in December, but decided it'd be too early to post a review, and I was recently re-reading it so I decided it was a good time now so here it is.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before is a YA book by Jenny Han (name familiar? I reviewed her Summer trilogy) and it's about Lara Jean Song, a girl who writes love letters, but not in the strictest sense. She writes letters to boys that she was in love with and trying to get over. She pours her heart out, maybe even attacks them, and then they all get sent to their recipients.

I really, thoroughly enjoyed this book. Hell, I read it during math class. And here are the reasons why:

The characters. I'd already known Han had a great talent for writing characters from her books Shug and the Summer trilogy, but this book just reinforced this. Lara Jean was an intricate, awkward, sweet, naive character with a fresh voice and dynamic relationships with Peter, Kitty, her father, Margot and Josh that were amazingly awesome to read.

Plus, that dialogue the characters have with each other was fantastic and I loved reading it and was often like OH SNAP.

The drama. Han writes teen-soap-opera level drama minus the bullshit. It's refreshing and addicting to read. I could barely put this book down, I read it on the bus, in between classes, during classes (shh don't tell my parents) and as soon as I got home.

The relationships. I already kinda mentioned this but it deserves a reiteration. The relationships in this book (whether they be between crushes, fake-boyfriend/girlfriends, friendships, parents, or sisters) were immensely fascinating and just so well-written.

Read this book yes. 494 Christmas Cookies out of 495.

Minus one for the fact that this is STANDALONE GOD DAMMIT.

LOOK AT THIS SAD CAT. THIS IS HOW SAD I AM

The book is good read it when it comes out.

Sincerely,

Owyn

Book Review: Ask the Passengers

NOTE: This is a review of a book by an author, A.S. King, I'm going to meet in April. Yay!

Ask the Passengers is about Astrid Jones, a girl who lives in a small town, and about her struggle with her sexuality, family, friends, and relationships.

I really enjoyed reading this book, I practically flew through it because I was really invested in Astrid's story.

Here are the more in-depth reasons for why I enjoyed the book so much.

*SLIGHT SPOILERS KINDA*

The premise and writing story. It's hard to explain but I loved the book's idea and the way it was executed. King did a great job of writing this, and

The passengers' stories- Interspersed throughout the book, there are these little excerpts from the lives of people flying in planes over Astrid's town. She'd "send them love" and ask questions about love and life. And they would have parallels to some of the passengers' problems. These little clips were probably my favorite part of the book. They were so interesting, the voices, the mini-plots, everything was just so well done. Plus they were so cute and emotional and AWW

The LBGT aspect: Writing Gay People- This book is about a girl falling for a girl, and I think it told a beautiful story. Plus, in some stories out there portray the gay characters as stereotypes, but they were people in this book. They were assholes, amazing, and human. Plus, the stories were cute.

The LBGT aspect: Coming out- I'm not gay, and I've never had to come out to anyone, but I feel like this book did a great job of highlighting the struggles, like family and friend and school reactions that you have to put up with. There's a great speech on page 203 that I loved about sexuality, along with the frustrating reactions from her family.

Magical Realism- You don't understand how much I love magical realism, I haven't read much but I really respect the genre. King did a great job of putting the hints of the magical realism without hitting you over the head with it.

I really enjoyed this book. 150/154 Shrimp Veins

Read it.

Sincerely,

Owyn the Intern 

BLOGGER'S NOTE: Wow, my last post was December I am going to upload more, I'm sorry I haven't been.