You better believe it, a bonus blog
post despite the fact that the school year has ended! Oh, yeah!
To my credit though, I had this
idea for a couple months (maybe since last year, I don’t remember) to take all
the books I’ve read this year, even the one’s I didn’t review on this blog and
put it into a top X list. Top X because I’m not 100% sure how many books I’ve
read this school year but I’m pretty sure it’s over 35. It’s a fun way to
reflect on what I’ve read and analyze my favorite type of books really quick (I
say really quick but have you been paying attention to the length of these
reviews?).
A few things about this top X: I
will only be including novels in this (I read waaaaay too many manga to
remember and add to this list), I will not include Julius Caesar because I didn’t really read this whole thing and,
yeah I’m just not counting that. With all that out of the way, here’s some mood
music and let’s get on with the list!
The characters sucked, the plot was
slow and I had to force myself to keep reading this book. Absolutely atrocious,
hence why it’s at the bottom of the list.
The horrid
conclusion to a slowly falling trilogy. Also there weren’t that many horrible
books I read so this has to go pretty low with its bland characters, ridiculous
jumping around, and lack of Wonderland. Sorry Beddor, you should have stopped
at book one.
Speaking of
horrid conclusions, the Dorothy Must Die series should have ended on book 3!
Seriously, why does this exist? It’s too derivative from the first three
getting rid of OZ and all people OZ during their most epic battle to go to a
dead land with dead characters and a dead plot.
Wow Beddor,
you got more than one book in the bottom five. But this book was the pitfall
that ArcheEnemy amplified and I
struggled to read it when my favorite characters were doing boring junk. Sorry
Beddor, but again, book one was enough.
31: Atonement by Ian
McEwan
Ay, a book
I didn’t review because I read it after the end, but I still read the book and
am here to throw it some shade. Essentially I enjoyed the very, very, very, beginning of the book where it
explained how stuff worked, but that going boring really quickly. The plot was
slow as heck and then when things stared to speed up I ended up hating the main
character with a passion because she was such a liar. Don’t get me wrong,
sometimes I lie myself, but liars who know they’re liars and don’t seek
atonement are some of my least favorite people. Trust is a two way street: one
path is one we walk together and the other is where I dump you in Hell because
you’re such a snake. Then parts 2 and 3 chose to focus on one person after all
that switching perspective craziness in part 1, but by then I had lost interest
in most of the characters from that slow beginning and my stance on Briony was
set in stone. I’ll admit it was handled well with all the perspective and tone,
but I still hated the character and found that it failed to interest me and the
beginning and everything after that. So that’s why it’s all the way down here.
AP reading
list books can be so dull, but actual reason this is on the bottom is because
this is something I didn’t 100% understand and found hard to read. Other books
weren’t like this and while I did find lots worthwhile out of the book it’s
down pretty low.
Awesome writing style, unique topics/characters,
absorbing content. I was still disturbed by lots of the stuff in this book and
won’t read it again if I can help it (and I can) so it’s down kinda low here.
Stereotypes,
flat characters, low development, oh my! Get down here SBD, you failed a lot
but still had a minute of potential (and a really cool cover).
Again, low
character development because of the circumstances of the plot, but still low
character development. The idea was pretty original though, not many people
write about the inner workings of such a tragedy (a shame I’m rather jaded and
felt practically no emotional attachment to anyone who died except Thomas).
Wasted
potential and too much romance. There was some redemption, but will someone
please explain to me why most young adult novels are centered around romance?
There’s more to life than just one romance and an opportunity to really comment
on the qualifications of humanity (also there’s a sequel).
You get
some you lose some, and if you want to get my reasons for this you’ll just have
to click on the link to the original review so you can see my thoughts on all
the stories.
Romance
took over the novel again. The beginning was okay/interesting, but once the
romance was in full bloom I was like “are we seriously doing this again?” There
are still worse books than this was though as I seemed to find it inspiring
enough to draw a picture based on two characters.
I forgot I
read this book after a while, but when I did remember I remember how good a
book it was. For being forgotten it’s down here pretty low, but for having good
memories it’s up pretty high. What really got it down here though was the world
building which was beautiful.
I was
losing interest in the series at this point because of the Nome King and the
first half (or so) taking place in our world; then there was that nasty ending
that made me go, “Why isn’t this over? This should be over by now!!” so it’s
not too hot but not too bad either.
21: Night by Elie
Wiesel
I don’t
have found memories of my experience reading the book, but the writing was phenomenal
as was the message. Still low on the list because I don’t have fond memories of
reading this. Also, you won’t find a review for this book because it was class
required, but I still read the whole book dang it!
Unique and
interesting over the Thanksgiving break, but there were some parts that were
just slightly above average and this wasn’t one of the books that really stood
out. Still a great book though.
The last of
The Looking Glass Wars series I read,
it falls low due to wasted potential and way too much time spent on Alyss’
mundane life in our world rather than world building Wonderland and that
wonderful war we miss a lot of. This book was my favorite out of the three
though.
I loved the
fantasy in this one but it’s ending was like a kick to the shin. I actually
appreciated the romance in this novel, even if it was only hinted at and never
came true *enraged/delighted screaming in the distance,* but some parts felt
trite (like leaving your family to escape marriage and save your father in secrete).
Awesome book still, some were just better….
Isn’t it
nice how I liked all the books in this series less and less as it progressed?
But yeah, this book fell short in the series from the first one in terms of villain’s
page time and action. Pete was great here though and it was nice to see that
Nox wasn’t in there to be the love interest.
Romance in
a bad way, Kai Sen was fun alone but he should have been with Skybright, and
Kai Sen dies. I can’t get over that ending killing of, not just a love
interest, but a strong unique character with his own dreams and goals. Also,
Zhen Ni’s parts were mostly drag as well as Skybright’s (though less drag than
Zhen Ni) putting it about midway.
And that my
reader(s?) concludes my list! Why you ask? Because everything else is ranked
number 1! Yes, I’m serious (and indecisive) that number one spot belongs to (in
no particular order):
·
Hatter Madigan
Book 1: Ghost in the H.A.T.B.O.X. by Frank Beddor and Adrienne Kress
There’s a simple explanation for
this: I can’t chose a number one book. Each one of these books has a strong
sense of identity and craft; they know their purpose in the world. I shouldn’t
have to compare a young adult fantasy like Dorothy
Must Die to a juvenile realistic fiction such as Red Butterfly; I shouldn’t have to compare a nonfiction book like Escape from Camp 14 to a science fiction
novel like Invasive Procedures; I
shouldn’t have to compare a (young adult) realistic fiction novel like Eliza and Her Monsters to a historical
fiction novel like Memoirs of a Geisha.
There needs to be absolute decision on this list, and there doesn’t need to
absolute decisions on this list, I love all these books and would love to read
them again when the time is right (meaning I’ve forgotten lots of the plot and
have nothing else to read), heck if my wallet allowed it I would buy all these
books for my collection! But my point is, these books have all stood out to me
this year and to single some out would be a challenge because I take (at least
I think so) a wide arrange of factors into consideration before making a
verdict, and looking over the list there isn’t any one that screams “I’M THE
BEST BOOK!!” it’s a bunch of books screaming, “WE’RE NUMBER ONE!!”
So there you have it folks, thanks
for taking the time to read this silly little list I have that’s only a real
list halfway through. If anything, it’s nice to see that I have a variety of
favorites in terms of genres (though most are fantasy and historical fiction)
and that I’m a rather strong reader in terms of how much I read. I hope this
trend continues in the future so that I’m able to expose myself to all sorts of
new concepts and inspirations.
….
Well this is kinda an awkward
ending.
….
Ah, best not waste this
opportunity!
I’d like to thank my English
teacher for the 2017-2018 school year who gave my class this assignment and
challenged us to read at least two books back then. I remember be honestly
scared I wouldn’t meet the minimum two books each quarter, but that obviously
wasn’t a problem in the long run. This list, this blog, this person *point to
myself* wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for this assignment you gave us that first
week of school and for that I’m very grateful. One of my biggest grievances
with this school year was how standard most of the work was and the fact that
it didn’t push most students towards further exploration of knowledge to use in
their daily lives, yet your classes was not one of those with that problem. I
may have sounded like English was the bane of my existence a couple months ago,
but I didn’t truly mean that and deep down knew that this would leave a positive
impact once it was all and done and I should just bite the bullet for the time
being. Seeing that this has indeed come to pass I’d like to take the chance
(because I don’t know if you’re reading this or not) to thank my English
teacher from the bottom of my heart for making English fun again, as someone
made me hate it some time ago, and it is my weakest subject. With that all said
and done, I bid you the final and true, fair well from this blog as it’s time
for me to move on.
Until next blog!
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