#FridayReads

Review | Coraline

In the past few months, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Neil Gaiman’s work, and so I was really excited when I realised that Coraline was one of his novels. I can confirm that what I had heard was true, I wasn’t disappointed!

Coraline is the story of a young girl who just moved into a new house with her family. Sadly, her parents are really into their work, and so they don’t really pay attention to their daughter. Actually, they don’t pay attention at all, and at first I was really shocked and angry at them (until I understood that the book was based on this). 

So one day when it’s raining outside and she can’t go play in the garden, Coraline gets really bored and her dad tells her to go and explore the house. Count the doors and the windows. And so, she reluctantly starts on her mission and soon discovers a door. The door is locked, but her mom has the key. When she unlocks it, Coraline only sees a wall of bricks.

A little while later, Coraline tries again, and this time there isn’t any brick blocking the way. She goes through a long tunnel, and then she’s surprised when she realises she’s back into her flat. Only it’s her “other” flat. Where her “other” family lives.

The “other mother” takes advantage of the fact that Coraline isn’t really happy with her life to try and get her to stay. Her “other” room is amazing, the “other mother” cooks great foods and she plays with her. But ultimately, she wants to sew buttons into Coraline’s eyes. 

That’s when Coraline gets creeped out and notices that her “other” mother is an evil creature. From then on, Coraline with the help of a cat tries to save her real parents and get back to the real world. And of course, get rid of the key forever.

I’d like to think there’s a lesson to be learned from this story… But all I can think of is “pay attention to your child or else their other parents will kidnap them.” Which I guess is good advice.

This book is simply brilliant. It’s got everything a good children’s book needs: action, humour and suspense. Oh, and great characters! 

Coraline is a very smart girl. I keep thinking she’s 8 year-old, but she might be older. She handles everything really maturely, but she’s still vulnerable. Yes, at times she cries. She’s terrified. Anyone would be. I like that the author didn’t try to give her this heroic toughness. This makes her a lot easier to relate to.

Their neighbours are also great. Miss. Spink and Miss Forcible are hilarious. They are old actresses, and they still think really high of themselves which made me laugh a lot, but at the same time they are the ones who told Coraline she was in danger and gave her the tool she needed to win over the “other” mother. Mister Bobo, the upstairs neighbour is the world’s craziest old man with his circus mice! 

The story is really fast paced. It took me about 3 hours to get through. I just couldn’t put it down. And I really like that there were illustrations at the beginning of every chapters. The drawings were spooky and gave the book an extra touch of creepiness! 

Overall it’s just a really fun and creepy read! I’m definitely going to check out the graphic novel. The movie in 3D was also really really good! I highly recommend anyone to pick up this book, you won’t be disappointed!

My rating:

You can buy this book HERE

Have you read it? What were your thoughts on it?

Review | Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is a dystopian novel for young adults. I went into this book with high expectations, and to my surprise I wasn’t too disappointed!

Tally is a few months away from turning sixteen and she cannot wait. Not only will she finally be reunited with her best friend Peris, but she will finally get to be pretty. In her world, everyone undergoes surgery at the age of sixteen and they can move to New Pretty Town. 

In this part of the city, everyone is always having fun and they all look stunning. Everybody is the same and everybody is happy, but at what cost?

Tally meets Shay, another Ugly who’s waiting to turn sixteen. Both being the youngest of their group of friends, they quickly become really close. Shay brings Tally outside of the city where she wants to show her another completely different way of living. 

“Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same.”

Shay doesn’t want to be pretty, and she decides to run away. Tally isn’t convinced and stays behind. 

On her sixteen birthday, Tally is brought to the Special Circumstances quarters, where she is given an ultimatum: either she helps them find this mysterious and “dangerous” city where Shay is hidden or she stays ugly forever. 

Torn between betraying her friend and turning pretty, Tally is pressured into a journey that will completely shift her view of the city.

This was my first book by Scott Westerfeld, so I didn’t have anything to compare Uglies with. I had heard a lot of good things about the book (a lot of booktubers also raved about it) and I decided it was time I picked it up to see what it was all about. 

When I first picked it up, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to like it because the writing felt really childish and I had a hard time getting into it. I felt rushed into the story, but I found myself slowly getting used to it. 

The book is really fast paced and I never felt like it was dragging. I read half of it in one sitting. I loved how we got to see how the runaways live. The back story of how they ended up in Pretty cities makes a lot of sense. 

This might sound weird, but when Shay was explaining to Tally why becoming a Pretty and the way they were living isn’t right reminded me of conversations I’ve had with people about veganism.  When it’s all you have ever known, it can be really hard to acknowledge that things you are doing or things you’ve always thought to just “be the way it is” might be wrong. 

When Shay tries to explain to Tally that being Pretty is actually giving up your true self, Tally brushes it off and doesn’t believe it.  

The characters are all pretty simple; not a lot of depth to them. We don’t really know a lot about them except the essentials to make the story flow. I would have loved to know more about the Boss. He seemed like a really interesting character, a lot more than Tally to be perfectly honest.

I really recommend Uglies by Scott Westerfeld if you want to read a light YA dystopian. I myself am not a fan of that genre, but I really enjoyed it. It had a lot more meat to it than I thought it would. I’m definitely going to pick up Pretties at some point because of how the first book ended.

My rating: (more like 3.5)

You can buy this book HERE!

Summer break!

Hello, hello!

It seems I took an unintentional summer break! I have been so busy the past few months, it's been really hard for me to take some time off to write reviews. I did read a lot though, and I'm trying to catch up on everything!

I have a new affiliate section on my blog, so if you are interested in exchanging banners you can drop me an email at thehungrybookster@gmail.com!

I should have a new review up by the end of the week!

Hope everyone is doing wonderfully!

I'm still alive (and announcing the 30 day challenge).

Hey guys,

For some of you who are wondering where I am. Well I'm here! Life's been sort of on the sucky side the past month, and I didn't have the energy to make posts/videos. I read quite a few books that I plan on reviewing at some point, but I don't want to put too much pressure on myself.

Also in the booktube community, there has been talk of a 30 day reading challenge. I think originally the idea is to read 1 book a day, but there's no way in hell I can manage that. So I'm going to modify it a bit. I want to read an average of 200 pages a day for the next 30 days. Which means 6 000 pages.

The challenge starts on June 17th and ends on July 16th. It will overlap with the read-a-thon that's from July 15th to July 21st. I'll post more about the second challenge when the time comes.

I don't have a set list of books that I want to read, but I have a few books from the library that'll have to get through. For this challenge I'm only including books and graphic novels (though I only plan on reading one).

I'm going to try and make a video for the challenge. I don't promise anything though. And also I'll update every 4 days about my progress and what I'm reading.

Let me know in the comments if you plan on participating and what you're going to read!

Review | Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping

Scaredy Squirrel Goes Camping by Mélanie Watt was the first book of the Scaredy Squirrel collection that I read, and I really enjoyed it! 

Scaredy Squirrel is afraid of going camping. Actually, he’s pretty much afraid of everything that requires having to leave the comfort of his home. That is why he doesn’t go camping. 

So Scaredy decides that instead of going camping in the wilderness, he would watch a movie about camping! Sounds like the perfect plan, right? Only he forgot one thing. He doesn’t have a power outlet in his house! The nearest is miles away at…the campground! And so, he sets on a mission to go and plug his TV. 

“Reaching the nearest electrical outlet will require major surviving skills.”

He prepares the best of plans, but of course nothing goes according to them, and he ends up learning a valuable lesson: some things are worth the trouble!

I loved this book, and even though I’m an adult, I will probably try and get my hands on the others in the series. 

I couldn’t stop laughing throughout the entire story. Especially when I read the part about the penguins:

“Wherever there are coolers, penguins rule. They are as cold as ice, and won’t warm up to you! Toss popsicles to occupy their sharp beaks.”

And then his rule:

“If all else fails, take cover and play dead.”

But not only the story was funny, the illustrations were beautiful. They reminded me a little bit of old cartoons and the colouring was gorgeous. I had as much fun looking at the pictures as I had reading the story!

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone. I’m sure that parents will enjoy reading this book (probably the entire series) to their kids as much as they will love the story. You might have to read it over, and over again! 

 

To buy this book you can click HERE! :)

*This book was sent to me by NetGalley in exchanged for an honest review (book ISBN: 1894786866)

A life slump?

I don't know if a lot of you follow my blog... If any, but I'm sorry I've been MIA lately. I think I've just been in a life slump... If that's a thing. It all started last Thursday when the Habs lost the game. This loss also ended the playoffs for my beloved team, and I was a mess for 2 days straight. A hockey team shouldn't have that power over me, but what can I say, I'm Canadian.

I have a few reviews lined up. Some are already written. This week I really plan on working on this blog. Adding links and widgets and stuff. I want to change the layout. I also want to find a host website. If anyone has recommandation for a good one, that'd be lovely. I have no idea where to start looking.

I'm currently reading Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy and it's AMAZING. You should definitely check it out!