Tina Sandevska

Seeing this made me remember that I still have 80% of the 7th Harry Potter book to finish. I know, I know, I'm probably one of the last 1% of human population who haven't read the series. Life happened guys, don't judge, and with my recent moving I've definitely cut back on reading. BUT I'm definitely enjoying the whole series and will finish it very, very soon!

Happy reading! :)

My heart just melted a bit.

I know almost every person on this planet is familiar with the story, but I want to tell you this: Forget about any movie or TV series you've ever seen and get your hands on a copy of The Dead Zone. It's a book that will warm your heart and then rip it apart. A book that will tell you about finding love and losing it because it was just too good to be true; about the shit life has in store for us and the consequences we have to deal with; about getting a great 'power' and accepting the responsibility this curse power brings. All of that brought to you by Stephen King at his best--an amazing storyteller with a superb character-developing skill.

Even though I read it almost ten years ago, The Dead Zone is by far my favoriteStephen King book. I highly recommend it.

Meet August Pullman:

"The main thing I have is this thing called man-di-bu-lo-facial dys-os-tosis--which took me forever to learn to pronounce, by the way. But I also have this other syndrome thing that I can't even pronounce. And these things kind of just morphed together into one big superthing, which is so rare they don't even have a name for it. I mean, I don't want to brag or anything, but I'm actually considered something of a medical wonder, you know."

But his medical condition is not what defines Auggie. He is a son, a brother, a good friend, he is obsessed with Star Wars, he is smart, funny--he is just another person. And this is what defines him. Wonder is one of those heavily emotional books that kind of change you, restore your faith in humanity (if you will) and make you love everything and everyone around you.

I know almost every person on this planet is familiar with the story, but I want to tell you this: Forget about any movie or TV series you've ever seen and get your hands on a copy of The Dead Zone. It's a book that will warm your heart and then rip it apart. A book that will tell you about finding love and losing it because it was just too good to be true; about the shit life has in store for us and the consequences we have to deal with; about getting a great 'power' and accepting the responsibility this curse power brings. All of that brought to you by Stephen King at his best--an amazing storyteller with a superb character-developing skill.

Even though I read it almost ten years ago, The Dead Zone is by far my favorite Stephen King book. I highly recommend it

Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose is probably the one book I’ve read so far that I’m really proud of finishing and not giving up on. To some this may sound stupid, but believe me when I say that I have 10 years worth of reasons to want to drop this book and never pick it up again.

It can happen to anybody: you have a high school teacher that wants to broaden your mind, give you something to make your teenage mind wander and explore the literary world, enjoy some good writing. I had this teacher. She was constantly referencing Umberto Eco’s work (although he wasn’t in any way included in the list of literature we were supposed to read and study), I can see why she enjoyed him so much and why she wanted to pass to the stupid lambs the experience of reading Eco’s masterpiece. But is the age of 15 appropriate for reads like this one? And more specifically, can a 15 yo brain comprehend everything that Eco does in The Name of the Rose?

To answer this question, I must first go into details about the book itself. I had seen the movie 3 or 4 years prior to picking up the book, and I remember that it was about some kind of a murder mystery and that there was a girl. Period, nothing else. The novel, however, has two main plot lines that, although completely different, blend together perfectly as the story progresses: while one of them is indeed related to mysterious murders and their investigation, the other one, surrounding the religious debates that are to take place in the abbey, requires that you’ve previously read of lot of big and important books, which would help you understand what the actual hell is going on. I don’t mean to say that you need to be like some kind of walking encyclopedia to read, understand and enjoy this book. I simply mean to say that reading this book will require a lot of additional page-turning and research (if you are like me and your knowledge on these topics is very, very limited).

I can see why The Name of the Rose can be intimidating, and you may have moments when you don’t want to continue with it. I had a lot of these moments because somewhere deep in my mind I had this “hate” for Eco simply because I associated him with school and my crazy-add Lit teacher. But, believe me when I say, this book is simply a great work of literature that needs to be read. It is a book about books and knowledge, and I honestly wanted to get lost in the abbey’s labyrinth of a library and just spend the rest of my life surrounded by all of its goodies. We can call it historical fiction, mystery, philosophy; regardless how you categorize it, Eco did a superb job creating a magnificent setting and filling it with just the right characters, and I am really glad I followed through with this one.

So finally, to answer my question, I really don’t believe that a young teenage mind can comprehend this work to its fullest, but it definitely needs to try. Because it’s literature like this that reminds me why I love books and reading. And since this review completely sounds so not like me, I have a small addition that I want to call “Notes to self”:

It always happens with me that I don't have Internet access exactly when interesting stuff happens online. The recent fuss about Goodreads' new policy (or whatever it is) is one of the recent things that I caught up with days after the bomb exploded.

But let's start from the beginning of my online-shelving history and then get to the whole migration point. I started using Goodreads in January 2013 and it quickly became my favorite social network. Then several months ago I very randomly found out about Booklikes, registered and loved it as well. If I have to be completely honest, I've been manually importing books, reviews, etc. from GR to BL whenever I had the time, so I'm definitely not one of the new users here, but I don't consider myself very active or 100% sure about what and how I'm doing it here.

Although similar in a lot of ways, both platforms have significant differences which, for me personally, make it really hard to decide which one I like better. On one hand, I have my GR friends, some sort of an existing network of people I enjoy communicating with that really make my GR experience a pleasant one. On the other hand, however, BL, with all of its fancy blog features, takes expressing your love of books on an entirely new level.

I've been part of both platforms for a while now, and don't intend to quit any of them since they give me slightly different experiences that I really enjoy. Still, I feel a really strong need to express my opinion on the ongoing migration from GR >> BL. That's not in any way a bad thing, but...

I've never enjoyed censorship. However, neither do I enjoy harsh tone, offending random people on a personal level, solely based on their work (in author's case books) or any other type of written word. So yes, in a case where people offend authors, because they simply didn't like their books, I cannot help but agree that this is not cool and I do not support it. Especially in a community where there is a really big chunk of people present solely to hate-read (I believe this "term" doesn't need an explanation). It's ok guys, it can happen to anybody: You read a book, you really hate and you want to share with the world that this books might potentially be a disappointment to other readers as well. This is perfectly fine. What's not perfectly fine, however, is intentionally reading stuff you're pretty sure you won't like, and then express your opinions in a harsh tone, targeting your hate to a person who simply realized in words an idea they had in their mind. 

I don't want this blogpost to become a mile-long stream on authors, how they write, publish and whatever; want I want this post to be about is very simple: Regardless of the platform you're using, bullying other people (both reader>>author and author>>reader) is not cool and should not be practiced. Whether you use GR or BL is inconsequential because, regardless where you are, you are there because you love to read and communicate with people who share this same passion. Whenever you come across something you don't like, feel free to express your opinion and "warn" other potential readers, but don't behave like where in the stone ages throwing rocks at one another. Don't turn reading into a hate sport, into a competition for likes, reblogs, whatever. Don't care about things that aren't important, care about the books--that's what you initially came here for, right?

If you've read this whale of words thank you and sorry if it sounds really random and stupid. If you haven't, enjoy your stay here and happy reading!

Either I'm this megamind prodigy of nature, or Finale was written for an intended audience of complete idiots. I'm sorry but reading this book literally insulted me. Come on, all you need to do is take a single look at the cover to understand what exactly is going to happen in the end. One look, guys--that's not like skimming through 400+ pages.

Not only that, but to my humble opinion the author did not even remotely try to make this interesting for us. I mean...It was so transparent and boring, that at some point I could hear my brain snore. Everything in this story was so obvious, it hurt my eyes. It really did.

I don't want this to be one of those reviews that are full of spoilers. But on second thought, there is nothing I can further spoil for you. The biggest spoiler is that Becca Fitzpatrick has not written a single word in this book that could even remotely surprise and intrigue you. Not even one, period .

The only reason behind my 1.5 star rating is the fact that Nora finally cut back on her whining a little (even though it was a little, it's still something, right? Oh, thank you, Lord!). Apart from that, I think the book failed pretty hard.

No, no, no. I can't believe you can milk a stupid character like Nora to such an extent, that you write four books out of it! Four books, people, that's a lot of pages of crap, crap, crap. Lemme tell you this. Nora is a moron, not even sure that this is a strong enough word. Like I've previously said, this girl should have been killed back inCrescendo.

'In my mind, I smacked my head against a wall'. Well, Nora, in my mind I also smacked your head against a wall. And I also did it repetitively ...

But I want to point out one of the greatest issues of Silence--the first-time-Nora-and-Patch-meet-from-his-point-of-view shit. Now, how do I put this mildly? Becca, dear Becca, you failed very very hard. You did not tell a story from Patch's point of view--quickly bitch slap that thought out of your mind! All you did is that you magically transformed him into Nora--a mind numbing and ridiculously stupid character (next one, please). I am now officially sorry for noticing that...bonus. And what bugs me the most is that...this final and utterly tormented part of Silence (which I kinda shoulda be thankful for, right?) feels like it wants to grow legs and run far, far away to a land where poorly written books can get therapy!

So, there is only one book left now, and since I've proven myself to be masochistic, I'll read it. Then, all I'll be left with is hoping for somebody to erase my memory...

I have to be completely honest here. I read Hush, Hush and still woke up the next morning. That's when I decided to punish myself for something I've done in a past life (probably) and continue with the next book.

There are no words which could describe the feelings that torment my poor soul after finishing Crescendo. So, this review will be very very short.

'Scott was speaking, tapping the pool stick against my forehead, [...] .'

This is where Scott actually failed really hard...Dear Scott, you should have slammed Thor's hammer against Nora's head and simply put us out of our misery.

So, I start reading Hush, Hush and all the way to 5% I get so bored, I decide to get a nap.

A couple of hours later, I've gathered all my strength and willpower, so I decide to continue reading. It takes me several hours more to finish this book, skimming through most of the mind numbing thoughts of the Nora-character and all the other bull this book is packed with. 

To say I like this book would be a lie. What I like, however, is its cover. Hell, I think the cover is what made me even consider reading this book in the first place (despite the horrific reviews I've read). So, after I finally got this over with, there is only one question in my head: Did I just reread Twilight?

1.5 stars for the author's effort and the nice cover.

I'm glad that's over and I hope they live happily ever after. BUT...

Even though I didn't love Slammed, Point of retreat hardly even made me smile. Maybe because it somehow managed to completely ruin my 'Will' experience (which was actually the better part of why i liked the first book). I used to think that Layken was the immature one, but this? This is just ridiculous. I was glad Will was almost always that serious and focused in Slammed. But now? He somehow magically turned into a whining teenage girl, I shit you not.

I suppose I could say I kinda (but really kinda) like this book - maybe because of the poetry part and the partial development of some of the secondary characters. After all, I also did manage to read it until the very end without getting pissed every 5 minutes and constantly skimming through the lines.

So, I would recommend both books to all fans of this genre, as well as to people who have a couple of hours to kill.

This book was really awkward at the beginning and it took me a while to become comfortable with the way Charlie introduces us to the past and present of his life and his emotions. 

But once you get to know him, it all falls right into place - nothing about his words, expression, feelings or actions is strange. It becomes normal and sweet and clumsy and very emotional. I guess that's just the way he discovers life itself - by making mistakes and trying to fix them, by facing his demons and trying to defeat them. Just like everybody else...

It was very hard for me to get excited about this book when I started reading it, and also took me a lot of willpower to continue reading until the very end. I found myself skimming through the better part of this book, so that I can simply get it over with.

I found the plot quite dull and the characters, if I am to put it mildly, not very exciting - if i have to be completely honest, the female protagonist is one of the most stupid and incomprehensible characters I've ever encountered in a book. At times I was literally considering beating my head agains the wall, wondering how a person could be that deluded. This girl probably killed a couple of thousand of my brain cells. And the Lucas guys...Seriously? How many books are there with the same guy in the cover and that name for the leading male character?! Sorry Lucas, even though you may be a good person and a good-looking guy, I couldn't quite fall in love with you. Perhaps you should ask the person who created you why...

I also totally hate the way the assault issue was treated and, at moments, I was like 'What the ****?!'. I'm sorry but...this is soooooo wrong. This is not how you handle serious issues like this in young adult books - this sets a bad example to young girls and should be completely out of the question. So, if you don't know how to write about this part of life, then don't. Just don't.

Easy? NO. This book was not easy - it was mind numbing.

That's it. I'm out - 1 star (even though I would have gladly given it 0 stars, if such an option was available).