Every Day by David Levithan

 Title: Every Day

 Author: David Levithan

 Series: Everyday #1

 Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

 Date Published: August 28, 2012

 Genre: Contemporary, Fantasy?

 Pages: 338 (Hardcover)

Age Range: 12+




                                                                     Summary:

     Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
     There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

     It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

                                                                       Review:

     From the flap, I was really interested in reading this book. That personal hype started around two years ago, and since then, it hasn't abated much. So, I read this book, aware of all the hype surrounding it, expecting (for once) to fall in love with this bit of hype, and get some amazing message to walk away with, and cherish in my heart forever. Instead, I was left with a bit of a sour taste, and a ton of lovey-dovey fluff that I didn't want anywhere near this story. I know the flap practically screams I'm a Romeo and Juliet kind of scenario but I was praying for something a bit more unique. What did I get? A Romeo and Juliet scenario.

     A's predicament was fascinating. Sure, it was never fully explained, it was kind of half thought out, and it had a plethora of rules that were just too convenient, but I liked it. I thought it was kind of original, and I wasn't that bothered by how convenient the rules were- well, I wasn't bothered at first. Then, I realized that we were never going to get a full background of this... traveling thing. And since I couldn't have that, I wanted everything to stop being so darned easy for A. Like, just because he finally meets someone he wants after about four hours of instalove does not mean that he can suddenly start screwing with rules that were set in stone before, just so he can stay near the object of his desires. All of that said, I did like A, and- dare I say it?- I actually felt pretty bad for him.

     Rhiannon, on the other hand... not so much. I'm just going to come straight out and say that I didn't feel as if she's good enough for A. A is actually a really good guy stuck in an unfavorable set of Life's Cards, and Rhiannon is a girl who sticks around her crummy boyfriend because she can. Honestly, we don't get a lot of character development for this girl, and what we do, is pretty negative. Her boyfriend isn't the best, but he also doesn't hurt her or anything, and sometimes he can actually be really great, and she's kind of an outcast because of her gloominess. Maybe I missed something with her, but I just din't feel like she was good enough for A.

     The plot was something that could have been shortened drastically, and had something of major relevance happen. Besides a weird outside threat, and a "will they, or won't they" kind of drama, nothing really happens besides some super cool body changing from A. I think something else that made this book drag its little feet is the writing. I actually thought the writing was very pretty, but a little too flowery in many parts. I feel like a bit more an action-packed writing style would've worked better.

    I don't even know what book two is about, so I don't know if I want to read it. I think I do, but if it's from Rhiannon's POV, or mainly about her, I'm passing. I want a lot more A in book two, and I want more background from his childhood.

                                                 

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

 Title: Eleanor and Park

 Author: Rainbow Rowell

 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

 Date Published: February 26, 2013

Genre: Contemporary

Pages: 336





                                                                       Summary:

     Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.

     So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
     I'm not kidding, he says.
     You should be, she says, we're 16.
     What about Romeo and Juliet?
     Shallow, confused, then dead.
     I love you, Park says.
     Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
     I'm not kidding, he says.
     You should be.

     Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits-smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you'll remember your own first love-and just how hard it pulled you under.

                                                                          Review:

     This is a book that I'm actually terrified to dislike. Everyone and their grandmother has read, and loved, this book. It has been wildly loved and acclaimed by everyone who has read it, and many people love Rainbow Rowell. Now, let me start by saying that I have read Fangirl and I LOVED it! My co-blogger, Ashley, didn't love it as much, but I truly loved it and look forward to reading Attachments and Landline. So I really do like Rainbow Rowell's writing style, and I like her- she seems like a really fun person! All of that being said, I feel like this is that one book of hers that I would like to forget exists. Ya know how we all love Star Wars, but just pretend Jar Jar Binks doesn't exist? Yeah, I'm Jar Jar Binks-ing this book.
     This is a character-driven book. To have a character-driven book be successful, you have to like the characters. And I didn't. I pitied Eleanor and her incredibly difficult situation. I am not going to sit here and claim that Eleanor came from a perfect life, and that her attitude is despicable. Just no. But  what I am going to say is that I feel like she could've used a major attitude adjustment. Hear me out! I feel like if we had walked through an attitude adjustment, I would've liked Eleanor more. I felt bad for her, sure, and I even pitied her. But that didn't make me like her. If she had changed, and if we could've seen that change, I feel like I would've connected more with her, and would've enjoyed her character more.
       That was Eleanor, but Park had his issues too. I actually kind of liked Park, but I feel like his character was set up for something that we never get to see fully developed. When Park starts, um, embracing the more feminine side of the world, his father gets angry, and Park claims that this is who he is and that his father just needs to accept it. Now, in this place, I feel like Rowell set us up for two things. 1: A perfect look at an identity crisis, and watching Park struggle with what gender really means. He doesn't necessarily have to struggle with what his gender is, but he could struggle with gender as a whole. 2: Is what ended up happening- push the whole set up aside for romance to further the cuteness of  this story. I understand that this story isn't supposed to be about gender, but I feel like Park's character could've perfectly segued us into some important discussions.
     Besides that, I got bored with the story pretty quickly. Sneaking around is fun and all, and the stakes are particularly high with Eleanor's situation, but it's cliched. Really cliched. Somehow, this book enveloped a lot of cliches without seeming like a cliche book, and for that, I have to give Rowell major props. Another problem, instalove. Seriously, the entire book was built on some chance encounter on a bus. How cliched is that? BUT the fact that Park helped Eleanor was kind of sweet, and relationship-building.
     Incredibly long review short, I feel like Rainbow Rowell could've taken this book great places, but she didn't. Instead, we're left with some book that, while cute, just falls way flat of its true potential. Pardon me while I Jar Jar Binks this book into oblivion.

                                      

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

 Title: Finding Audrey

 Author: Sophie Kinsella

 Publisher: Delacorte Press

 Date Published: June 9, 2015

 Genre: Contemporary

 Pages: 304 (Hardcover)

 Age Range: 12+








                                                                          Summary:

     An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey’s daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him. Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.


                                                                            Review:

     Finding Audrey was one of those books that you just couldn't escape earlier this year. Everyone and their grandmother has read this book, and a majority of people LOVE it so so so much. I admit, I got swept up in the hype, and read it, thoroughly expecting to love it because everyone else did, and it sounded like a book I would simply adore. I read it, and it fell short by a long mile. I think this is yet another instance of the Hype Machine making a huge deal about nothing special.
     The characters in this book were nothing special, and they were very cliched. I understand, and fully believe that cliches exist for a reason, but this book was supposed to break these kinds of molds. Audrey was very anxious, but she was also childish and immature. She never did a single thing that made me feel like she should get an award. Simply living with a mental issue, does not mean that she did anything out of the norm. Linus was just...blah. He was plain, and I've read a million other boy-next-door kind of types like him that I actually liked more. Audrey's brother had me constantly laughing, and I really liked him, but he was still super cliched.
     Besides the characters, the whole plot of this book was...meh. I truly appreciate that Sophie Kinsella accurately portrayed anxiety, but she really shrugged it off in the end.. Audrey was shoved WAY out of her comfort zone with very few repercussions, and certainly nothing of the caliber that we should expect. Besides, anxiety is very arresting, and I appreciate that Audrey had true symptoms, but they quickly dissolved into nothing.
     Basically, I disliked this book, but everyone LOVED IT. Honestly, I just found it too cliched, and I had issues with all of the characters. But really, it was funny, and I see why people like it so much.


                                           

Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined by Stephenie Meyer

Title: Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined
and also Twilight Special Tenth Anniversary edition

Series: Twilight saga #5

Author: Stephenie Meyer

Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Date Published: October 6, 2015

Pages: 752 (hardback)




Summary


Celebrate the tenth anniversary of Twilight! This special double-feature book includes the classic novel, Twilight, and a bold and surprising reimagining, Life and Death, by Stephenie Meyer.

Packaged as an oversize, jacketed hardcover “flip book,” this edition features nearly 400 pages of new content as well as exquisite new back cover art. Readers will relish experiencing the deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful love story of Bella and Edward through fresh eyes.


Review


I bought this book for 2 reasons. The first is because I wanted to feel the same things I felt while reading Twilight for the first time. The second was because it was a gender-swap and I thought it would be hilarious.

What ended up happening was that since this book has 2 novels wrapped into one, I ended up reading both Twilight and Life and Death at the same time to compare. I got more emotion out of re-reading Twilight for the possibly-fourth time than I got out of reading Life and Death.

Now, I was completely wrapped up in Twilight when I first read it, up until the movie for Breaking Dawn Part 1. I was pretty done at that point. Twilight was out of my system because I had read dozens of better YA books since then. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy Twilight for many reasons--and I might name them at the end of this review--but there are many problems with it.

Life and Death just left me disappointed. The book started out exactly the same up until about chapter 8 or 9. I got bored because of the short sentences, Beau's ridiculous thought-process and because I was basically re-reading a dumber Twilight. I know, I said it was exactly the same as Twilight as it started out and it was, but with very short sentences. It was too choppy and boring.

In the beginning, Beau's thoughts were too much like Bella's, but as the book progressed, they started to progress and differ from Bella's. 
I was also having slight difficulty in puzzling together who all the characters originally were in Twilight--because there were too many names that started with "E"--but it became less confusing throughout the novel.

I found this book just as, if not more sexist than the original Twilight. I can understand why Stephenie Meyer felt the need to change some things, but she could have left others alone! Boy or girl, some of the original plot could have stayed! But I suppose Meyer thought we all didn't want to get bored and complain about how it wasn't any different from Twilight.

I feel like Stephenie took this book much too seriously when she should have written it as a joke kind of thing. Instead, she decided to shove this down our throats.

Now here are some spoilery/fun things:

When Edythe and Beau were about to leave the meadow: when Edythe wanted Beau to ride piggyback on her but he refused because she was tiny, I was laughing because it was ridiculous how she sped off to yank a boulder out of the ground to bring it back to Beau. I thought it was a funny, girl-power moment! 

I noticed something while I was reading. When Beau took the phone and Joss started talking to her, how could not hear her? Joss was telling Beau to follow her instructions while Archie was standing in the same room, and vampires are, evidently, supposed to have super hearing so how does this make sense? Same thing with the original Twilight. How could Alice not have heard it too??
There were several other plot holes but this was the one that hit me the most.

My favorite line in probably the whole book was when Joss and Beau were at the ballet studio. Joss was explaining how she'd manipulated him while Beau was wondering why she was bragging about outsmarting a "weak human." And then I busted out laughing at the next line: "Where was the glory in beating some weak human? I didn't feel the need to rub it in to every cheeseburger I conquered."

I liked how Stephenie Meyer did this big "what if Bella had left 5 minutes sooner" ordeal. It was very interesting in the beginning, then the ending became more scrambled than scrambled eggs. It was like all the Twilight books were wrapped up into one and it was just too much. Some of the information didn't even need to be there. If I was someone who hadn't read the original Twilight saga before this Twilight Reimagined, I would have been confused by all the new, overbearing information that was almost randomly thrown in there.

2.5 STARS


I would have been much happier if Stephenie Meyer had released Midnight Sun. And she had enough time to finish writing it; I don't care what she claims. She knew that the 10th anniversary of Twilight's release was coming up, and if she had enough time to think about and write Life and Death, she had enough time to finish Midnight Sun. I'm sure we all would have been happier. I'm not sure how much happier, but I'm sure it would have been better than what she ended up releasing.

Reasons why Twilight will always be kinda special to me: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight opened the door for YA fiction. The young adult genre is the most popular book genre now because Twilight blew up.
And Twilight was the first book I read and liked, and it encouraged me to read more. If it weren't for this book, I don't know if I would have gotten into reading, which would have led to me never trying out writing and falling in love with it.

www.ashleyearley.com
www.ashleyearleybooks.tumblr.com
www.ashleyearleybooks.blogspot.com