As university rolls back around again, and I begin my Masters course, I’ve been trying to read as many books in my ever-growing collection as possible. Because any student, who is also a book-lover, will know that you neglect your lovely tower of books in favour of the mandatory readings and countless essays that your course demands. In the end, you’re that tired of reading, even picking up a book you want to read seems like effort. So over the summer, I’ve been cramming in as much reading as possible and decided to write one HUGE blog post, all about the books that have kept me up at night, reading until the early hours of the morning; broken my heart into a million pieces, and also those that haven’t lived up to the hype surrounding them.
One of Us Is Lying (10/10)
This book gripped me from the first chapter. Five high school students, spanning the stereotypical spectrum of American teenage tropes, find themselves spending detention together and soon after, four of them find themselves witnessing the death of the final student – Simon. Throughout this book, you’re jumping from every student’s point of view, as you follow every single twist and turn, as they tumble into the centre of a murder investigation and all eyes are on them. This provides the perfect opportunity for their secrets to begin pouring out from an anonymous source on Simon’s Tumblr blog, which sees these stereotypical woeful, teens, become not so typical after all. Page after page, you find the characters shedding their layers of lies and secrets, and confronting their fears as their deepest parts of their souls are laid bare for the whole world to judge.
The geek. The jock. The rebel. The princess. They all soon find their tropes flipped on their heads and all it took was a few spilled secrets, for them to suddenly realise that they were never these cookie-cutter high school teens at all. They are so much more than that, and you’ll fall in love with every single one of them.
Chapter upon chapter, their stereotypical personas are shattered and the smoke and mirrors slowly disappear, and they soon have to learn to live their lives with that one secret they would never want anyone to know, out in the open forever. You soon find yourself so distracted by the insane character development, you almost forget that there is also a murder investigation happening in the background; which turns out to be the biggest bombshell within the whole novel.
I’m not going to provide you with the details of what happened during that detention session, but it’s the work of an evil genius.
All That She Can See by Carrie Hope Fletcher (6/10)
I adore Carrie Hope Fletcher: as an author, a vlogger and as a West End actress. Her first two best-selling novels blew me away! Her debut non-fiction novel All I Know Now was so heart-warming, you felt like you were sitting down with Carrie, sipping cups of tea, as she told you everything about her life, peppered with advice and life tips along the way. Then came along On The Other Side, her first fiction novel, which broke my heart, sewed it back together, only to tear it apart again. Which is why I was so excited to get my hands on her second fiction novel All That She Can See.
This fantasy novel followed Cherry (I love this name!) who has the ability to ‘see’ every negative emotion that each person carries around with them; with these emotions taking the form of grotesque, unique creatures. So, Cherry makes it her mission to ‘bake everyone’s troubles away’ as she sprinkles sugar, spice and all things nice into her goods that she sells at her bakeries, and only ups and leaves once the whole town is basking in the glow of happiness. It’s an adorable story, coupled with a bizarre plot coming in the form of the character Chase, who has the reverse power to Cherry – he can see everyone’s positive emotions. There is then an issue with two psychic sisters, a Guild of emotions and so many more twists and turns that have you lost within the story.
Unfortunately, All that She Can See didn’t blow me away. I loved that Carrie had turned every possible human emotion into metaphorical creatures and even though these creatures (especially the negative emotions) were described as grotesque monsters, it still made them feel more human and understandable to the reader. These glorious metaphorical representations, sprinkled with the quirky personality belonging to the protagonist, Cherry, this book was still packed with the brilliant, heart-warming feel that I found in All I Know Now and On The Other Side.
If you’re fancying a book that is crammed with weird and wonderful characters, peppered with twist and tumbles, and a pinch of cliched romance, then I would seriously recommend this book. However, if you haven’t read any work by Carrie Fletcher, begin with On The Other Side, it’s everything All That She Can See possesses, but packs even more heartbreak and exquisite characters.
The Spectacular Now (8/10)
I received a copy of The Spectacular Now earlier this summer as a graduation present and I’d not heard a lot about this book, other that it had been adapted into a film staring Shaileen Woodley and Miles Teller. But as soon as I opened the first chapter, it had me hooked. The Spectacular Now follows Sutter Keely, an impulsive, explosive, and whiskey-drinking teenager who adores his voluptuous girlfriend, Cassidy, and driving around until the early hours, because he never wants his days to end. With each page you read, you want to shake Sutter and tell him how hopelessly naive he is, yet his undying zest for life, and wanting to make the most of every moment that he is awake, somehow makes you wish that you were more like him.
Then you want to shake him even more when his world collides with the equally hopeless (but way more shy) Aimee Finicky, who he soon sees as a little ‘project’. He wants to show quiet Aimee the sort of life that he lives, and it’s a life that she can have too. A life without boundaries of paper rounds and controlling parents; a life where she calls the shots for once. But even when he tips Aimee over the edge (especially with their drinking) and everyone is screaming in his face that he’s ruining this young girl’s life, he doesn’t listen. He remains hopeless.
Until the end, when this book proves that not all epic stories have a happy ending, nor do stories need a happy ending to be epic. Which is why I’m not going to tell you how this story ends, but all I will tell you is that you’re not going to like it, even if it does make you feel proud of Sutter in the end.
And that concludes my Big Book Blog Post! I’ll still continue reading as many books as I can whilst I’m back at university, but these reviews will be fewer and far between. So hopefully this will tide you over until next time.
Keep reading!
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