The one weird thing about this book for me was that Harry Potter, actual Harry Potter, was given a mention in it when I was under the impression Simon Snow was AU Harry Potter.Like, if Harry Potter actually existed I'm not sure if Simon Snow would be the ~#1 obsession~ it is in Cath's world? The world of Harry Potter is way more open-ended and provides so much more fodder to work off, so that mention really threw me off because I started overanalysing it.
it's really weird how an ending can change your perspective of a book, but seeing as i spent the majority of this book not being able to stand either brie (and the overuse of italicised thoughts when the book's already in her pov) or patrick (pet names... i get it) or the cheese quotes or the way brie was dealing with life (the conclusions she jumped to were way harsh and over the top imo)... it's weird how my mental rating of it zoomed up from a 1 to at least a 3. i suppose my ratings have always been incredibly reliant on how coming out of the book makes me feel.i liked the revelation of what was actually going on with jacob and sadie; loved it, actually, because this book didn't go down the whole 'ex-boyfriend is a total douchebag who deserves everything that's coming to him' route. instead, jess rothenberg made her characters human. brie did bad things, but a big part of the story was that it wasn't always about her.so yeah. some of the bad: a) i couldn't get into brie's voice. b) the romance didn't really speak to me as much as it was thrust upon me from the start, and i didn't feel much for it.i did feel a lot for the characters, though, and i'm glad i didn't rage-quit because there were a few times i wanted to so bad.
i really do like lauren destefano's writing. i just don't think the massive task that is dystopian worldbuilding is something she was meant to do.that being said, what i'd REALLY like to see from her is a non-dystopian STANDALONE. something in which she can focus on the characters and not on the high! stakes!also series may have a $$$ factor behind them, but that every single freakin thing has to be part of a trilogy these days bugs me so much. they're paced too far apart that by the time i crack open the next instalment i've already lost any interest i had in the characters.
idk, the ending seemed too rushed and thus it detracted from the whole love interest issue. i still love parallel universes though so major points to this book just for approaching it in a way that i enjoyed.
I thought the Dessen magic would finally wear off on me and I'd find this book average. Based on the synopsis, I wasn't very enthusiastic, that's for sure.However, now that I've finished it, I honestly think this is one of her best. Sarah Dessen is royalty in the YA chicklit world.
1.5I wanted to like this. I really did.With a title like Click to Subscribe, I honestly thought there would be more of an emphasis on the vlogging aspect, but it just seemed too forced and unnecessary. I skimmed every time he got into a camera 'confession'. I think Sam and Cat have an abundance of personality (sometimes to the point where they become nothing but personifications of every teen on tumblr), but this book frustrated me so much and not in a good way. Too much build-up and too hasty a resolution as everything just fixes up. Actually, everything after the first part of the book felt hasty even when he kept beating around the bush of blatant obviousness.Format-wise, waaay too much caps-lock yelling and some other stuff that I thought made it obvious that this was a self-pub. I don't think I've ever seen kthxbye in a passage before.Tl;dr needed more utilisation of the vlogging. Had there been scripts of vlogs rather than emails, the title would have been a better fit. Right now it's just another novel about a penpal who isn't who they seem, which the synopsis prepares you for but geez.Also not enough romance to warrant a reread for fluff. Bummer.
One star for the beginning. The rest of the book bumps it up a bit.Nothing particularly groundbreaking about this. After reading too many dystopians I was hoping the concept would make this one more interesting, but it's just about breaking rebelling against the system. In series form. Again. This book suffers from that whole 'adults are useless' trope. All the parents just willingly go with it and the kids aren't even allowed to mourn anything because it's immediately assumed they're depressed? Like, is this actually America today? If so, I am concerned.I love memory-wiping and brainwashing books, but the execution of this one made my eyes roll. Is this futuristic or alternate universe? I can't remember, and typing on my phone means I can't scroll up and check. The concept of what they're doing in the book, with the rehabilitation, seems very backwards and hard to believe. Maybe I would have liked the story better if it was told in a less linear way? That may be cliche, but it works in making you want more.Also, from a scientific point of view, how does drugging and 'fixing' one generation ensure the safety of the next when the 'disease' is genetic?
Sometimes it's really nice to be able to dive into a book that you can clasp your hand to your mouth about and go, "oh my god, I understand what you mean." Culture-wise, anyway. The Hokkien references made me go !!! as did a lot of the other stuff, really. ALSO LOGAN AND STACEY MADE ME THINK OF SOME ALTERNATE BABY-SITTER'S CLUB TIMELINE.It's such an adorable read uuuuughhh.
This was one of my absolute favourite books when I was younger, but I sold off my paperback ages ago (along with Holes). Kind of regret it.
Who writes the synopses of these books? If they're any hint of the quality of Kailin Gow's writing, then no.(The graphic designer within me also cries.)
