The Sky Is Everywhere - A Review By Jandy Nelson

What is it about?

Grieving for her sister, Bailey, John Lennon aka Lennie meets Joe, both are musically talented. Will they make beautiful music together.

Who is it for?

Young adults and adults who are young at heart.

Genre?

Teenage Angst/Romance

Is it any good?  

This is a sweet story, written from Lennies perspective. Beautifully written, she is battling with herself over whether she should be grieving or falling in love. Enter her sisters ex-boyfriend, Toby; being there for eachother, both are misplacing their feelings and emotions. New boy Joe is caught in the middle and love blossoms. Very angst book, but I loved it.

There is also a sub-plot involving Lennie an her bereavd family: Uncle Big and Grams. They brought the two sisters up, after their mum left and with no sign of a father; relations have become strained. Sweet Joe with his dead bugs and croissants helps to heal this broken family. 

The missing mum also features in a very absent role, but it is an element that was required in order for their lives to move forward.

This is a very sweet sincere first book by Jandy Nelson, dealing with grief and first loves. This is a love quadrangle narrative, which pulls on the heart strings.

Was the ending satisfactory?

Yes it was the ending I hoped for. I won't spoil it for you, but this book needs a sequel. I want to learn more about the missing parents and everything. Still loved it though.

Would I recommend the book? 

Yes of course I want your heart strings pulled.

Read it if you like: 

After You by Jojo Moyes

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven 

Mobile Library - A Review By Laura

What is it about?

Bobby Nusku is nearly alone in the world. He spends his nights meticulously archiving the traces his long-absent mother left behind. He spends his days plotting with his only friend, Sunny, trying to contrive ways to protect himself from neighborhood bullies and an abusive father. But the stories they tell and the realities they live are painfully far apart, and when Sunny is forced to move away, Bobby fears he has no one else to turn to.
Then Bobby encounters two outcasts like himself: Rosa, a girl with a red tricycle who collects names in her notebook and whose disability invites the scorn of the same bullies that haunt Bobby; and Val, her mother, a lonely divorcee who cleans the towns mobile library for work. They connect deeply, filling the gaps in each others lives, but the bond between the older woman and young boy also draws the towns suspicion and outrage, as rumors begin to fly about the nature of their relationship. Val loses her job, Bobby is beaten severely by his father, and, with worse sure to follow, they abscond with Rosa in their sixteen-wheel bookmobile, embarking on a picaresque adventure that comes to rival those in the classic books that fill their library on wheels.

Who is it for? 

Young adults and older

Genre?

Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Is it any good?

This book has left a lasting impression on me, so much so that if it is on the recalls in work I will not send it back, I also rave about it so much that I have a lady coming into work who I recommended it to for her bookclub and now every time she is flying out she will come and find me for more recommendations. I usually struggle to write reviews about books I have read more than a few weeks ago, I found this one effortless, if that doesn't tell you something I don't know what will.

It was the cover of the book that first drew me to this book, the cover is so pretty and its a book about books, you all probably know how I feel about that by now. When I read the synopsis I was so intregued I bought it without a moment of hesitation. From the instant that you meet the main characters of this book you feel for them, which helps with going through the emotions with the characters throughout the book, the good the bad and the ugly. 

I found the way in which the book began with the ending really interesting, the way David Whitehouse cleverly structured this book making it impossible to put down until you reach the ending for how they managed to get themselves in that situation. I also loved that this book was not predictable in any way shape or form.

Was the ending satisfactory? 

Very much so, it broke my heart on both a sweet way and a sad way. I knew sort of what was coming because the first chapter of the book begins with the beginning of the end but I would never have guessed the outcome.

Would I recommend the book? 

I would and I do and I have been for about a year now

Read it if you like:

I can't think of anything else like it so far, it truly is one of a kind.

Thoughts For 50 - Pages 253 - 300 Of The Sudden Appearance Of Hope By Claire North

My name is Hope Arden, and you won't know who I am. We've met before - a thousand times. I am the girl the world forgets.
It started when I was sixteen years old. A slow declining, an isolation, one piece at a time.
A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A teacher who forgets to chase my missing homework. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.
No matter what I do, the words I say, the people I hurt, the crimes I commit - you will never remember who I am.
That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous...
THE SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF HOPE is the tale of a girl no one remembers, yet her story will stay with you forever.

Lauras Thoughts

I don't know what it is maybe I had some of that brain testing/surgery that Hope had during this segment but I think I may have enjoyed that. Claire is slowly starting to focus less on useless facts and filling the pages up and actually writing a fictional story again now!

I'm starting to find that I am slowly gaining an understanding of Hope and who she is, I feel like Claire North has been quite clever in the way that she is now allowing us to see a bit of who Hope is as Hope is begining to trust and let people in. Maybe North wanted us to feel like the other characters when meeting Hope, as though she was a stranger to us aswell.

 

Jens Thoughts

Every week I have to pick up this book, I think: ‘do I have to?’ I have never picked it up wanting to read it. It’s not like with our previous ‘Thoughts for Fifty’ book, were it was a joy to read every week. It’s like I am constantly waiting for something to happen. The characters I tend to forget too, it’s probably not Claire North’s fault: this book was not meant to be read in instalments. I believe the whole thing is a metaphor and a comment on society: those who do not have perfection, will be forgotten.
I love the relationship between Hope and Byron14 though, it’s just the narrative and the bits in between I do not like: the factual bits. I just want more action that’s all.

Laura Predicts

• Byron14 dies and Hope wants revenge for it
• Byron figures out what makes Hope forgettable and just makes herself forgettable without helping Hope be remembered and Hope can't find her.

Jen Predicts 

• Byron14 will have perfection
• Hope will get perfection and be remembered
• Grace will make another appearance

Our Chemical Hearts - A Review By Jen

What is it about?
Boy meets girl….

Who is it for?
Teens/Young Adults and Up!

Genre?
Teenage Angst/Romance

Is it any good?
Laura bought me this after an argument….we should have them more often as it’s an ace book. Henry Page is just the most adorable teen ever and he falls for Grace the new girl at school: unwashed, bad haircut, and wearing boy’s clothes. What is good is that he falls for her soul and not her external features. This isn’t a transgender narrative, nor is it a cliché teenage romance. There are little lines reminiscent of other teen romance books: ‘that was the first night I dreamt of Grace Town’. It screamed Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ at me and I was about to put it down on the bus. A quick text to Laura and she convinced me to keep on going and I am glad I did.
The whole narrative plays with the idea of reality love versus fairy-tale love. He falls for her; but there is a reality there I don’t want to go into as I don’t want to spoil the book. I love the cuteness of it all especially the fish bits. Also Henry’s parents are a scream and the relationship he has with them.
These are real issues that teenagers and young adults deal with and it deals with superbly. I couldn’t put the book down and I wanted more. I just can’t go into the actual story….SPOILERS. But well done and Krystal and thank you Laura!

Was the ending satisfactory?
No but it was understandable…. I am not giving it a five for that reason.

Would I recommend the book?
Of course I would, read it and love it.

Read it if you like:
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

The Five People You Meet In Heaven - A Review By Laura

What is it about?

Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. His days are a dull routine of work, loneliness, and regret. Then, on his 83rd birthday, Eddie dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people. These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers. Yet each of them changed your path forever.
One by one, Eddie's five people illuminate the unseen connections of his earthly life. As the story builds to its stunning conclusion, Eddie desperately seeks redemption in the still-unknown last act of his life: Was it a heroic success or a devastating failure The answer, which comes from the most unlikely of sources, is as inspirational as a glimpse of heaven itself.

 

Who is it for?
Young adults and older

Genre?
Contemporary Fiction

Is it any good?

I gave this book 5 out of 5 stars and it really does deserve each and everyone of them. After struggling to get through the last book i've read which took me about 2 months or just under this book was so refreshing and restored my faith in reading... I read this book in just under two days.

The book is based about a old man called Eddie who works on a fairground on a pier, he is a lonely old man after losing everyone he loves and also feels as though he has failed in life by going nowhere and achieving nothing, when he gets to heaven he meets five different people who have impacted his life and make him realise his life was the way it was for a reason. It really is a touching emotional book and I absolutely adore it.

It took me all of a paragraph to become hooked in this book and within the first 20 pages I had completely fell in love with Eddie. Not only is this book so enjoyable because of the loveable nature of the main character but the style of the book also plays a really positive part in making this book as amazing as it is. In past reviews I have said how I didn't really enjoy reading books when the narrative jumped from the past to the present but in this particular book it makes the story even more enjoyable... Just like Eddie in Heaven jumping from past events in his life the structure of the book enables the reader to also jump back into the past and learn about certain events that took place in Eddies life. If you think you are attached to Eddie when the book begins, by the end of the book you will feel as though he was part of your life. Each chapter ends making you unable to put the book down and this being one of the main reasons I read it as fast as I did.

Was the ending satisfactory?

I read this book quite a while back and can't exactly remember the ending but I think I enjoyed it otherwise surely I wouldn't be giving this book 5 stars!

 
Would I recommend the book?

I would recommend this book, a simple but deep read which introduced me to Mitch Albom and I am still looking out for and reading more of his work.

Read if you like:
On the other side
Other Mitch Albom books
Before I Go