The Girl on the Train
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Paula Hawkins
It's in that 'if you like gone girl, you'll like this category' but I kind of have to disagree. Gone girl isn't really a mystery so much as a journey to why two people are as messed up as they are. This is a mystery, as in you don't find out what happens till the very end. It was an easy read but it was all very surface in the end. It tried to cover so many issues- alcoholism, the fallout from losing a loved one, domestic abuse, being the other woman, therapy, sociopaths, child molesters, drug abuse, infidelity. Geez! Everything was very surface and I felt like maybe the author didn't particularly understand any of these issues in any depth. Then again, these are things we can observe without deep understanding right?
Hamilton High-The DUFF
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Kody Keplinger
Remember I blogged about the movie
before? Well, I got excited when I found out it was made from a book and decided to read it. Bad bad idea. The book doesnt have the same plot as the movie, from the trailer anyway, so it ended up being a book about teenage problems and teenage love and teenage bad decisions, which is great, but largely uninteresting the way this is written. It's no fault in our stars or perks of being a wallflower. Sigh.
The Fishermen
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Chigozie Obioma
A dark tragedy about brothers who get a prophecy from a mad man and how their lives change afterwards. I typically don't read anything dark so imagine my surprise when I got sucked into this by my love for reading African books. The book is very wordy, but the story is surprisingly engaging.
We Were Liars
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E.Lockhart
This book is supposed to be the bestest bestest book YA book ever if reviews are anything to go by. I did not find this to be so. It's about a group of teenagers who holiday on an island every summer and family secrets and the difficulty in being wealthy and etc. I think as I grow older, I fine YA fiction to be tedious. Teenagers are SO NARCISSISTIC in fiction. I just keep wanting to shout 'AAARGH!'
The Girl From Nowhere
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Dorothy Koomson
I love Dorothy Koomson. So whatever I'm reading at the time, I pause to read her when she has a new book out. The central theme of this book is adoption, feeling like an outsider and a splash of racism. Although I found the protagonist childish for a 37 year old, it was an easy and enjoyable read that took only a few hours to get through.
Only Ever Yours
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Louise O'Neill
A dystopian novel about a school where women are groomed to become wives, concubines or nuns. I think writing in dystopian settings is an excuse sometimes to not try. As much as I got what the theme was - the story didn't really push any boundaries.
The Two of Us
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Andy Jones
An unconventional love story featuring massive age gaps, chastity, unexpected pregnancy and a hesitation that's often missing from written love stories.
The Dish
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Stella Newman
I read Stella Newmans debut book pear shaped and absolutely loved it. It was a honest telling of an overweight protagonist so when I saw that she has a new book, I almost broke my finger downloading it (and by downloading, i mean buying off amazon and downloading to my kindle). Its about a love story between a chef and an anonymous food critic. A book that has food as it's central element? I was sold before I even started and it was great. It's an easy escapist read.
Dangerous Girls
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Abigail Haas
A group of friends go on holiday and one of them ends up dead. Well, murdered. Who murdered her? The book is a juxtaposition between current courtroom events and flashbacks from the past. It made me scared to think how easily you could end up on the wrong side of the legal system in a foreign country.
If You Could Be Mine
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Sara Farizan
This book is set in Iran and is about two teenage lesbians who can't be together for obvious cultural reasons. After reading Girls of Riyahd, set in Saudi Arabia, I gravitate towards books with a layered cultural background. This fell short. I don't know why I'm reading so many YA books this year. But I think I need to stop actually. There was a sense of desperation , but it didn't feel real. It felt, as usual, overly dramatic. I felt like the plot could have been so much more exploratory. I wanted it to be more of a cultural discourse than it turned out to be.