Review: Me and Earl and The Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Title: Me and Earl and The Dying Girl                              

Author: Jesse Andrews

Publication: March 1st 2012, Harry N. Abrams

Format: Hardbound, 295 pages             

Source: Borrowed from Eriele of This Is Not Your Book Blog                       

Order it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Book Store / Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

Greg Gaines is the last master of high school espionage, able to disappear at will into any social environment. He has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.

Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.

Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia—-cue extreme adolescent awkwardness—-but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

And all at once Greg must abandon invisibility and stand in the spotlight.

Review:

Death is inevitable. That is what this book's about really and of course the aggressiveness of the voice in this novel that is Greg Gaines. Me and Earl and The Dying Girl is a fascinating read.

BLOG TOUR: A Study In Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro (Review + Dream Cast + Giveaway)

Title: A Study In Charlotte                                

Author: Brittany Cavallaro

Publication: March 1st 2016, Katherine Tegen Books

Format: e-ARC             

Source: Fantastic Flying Book Club. Thanks as always *heart eyes*                       

Pre-order it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Book Store / Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

The last thing sixteen-year-old Jamie Watson–writer and great-great-grandson of the John Watson–wants is a rugby scholarship to Sherringford, a Connecticut prep school just an hour away from his estranged father. But that’s not the only complication: Sherringford is also home to Charlotte Holmes, the famous detective’s enigmatic, fiercely independent great-great-granddaughter, who’s inherited not just his genius but also his vices, volatile temperament, and expertly hidden vulnerability. Charlotte has been the object of his fascination for as long as he can remember–but from the moment they meet, there’s a tense energy between them, and they seem more destined to be rivals than anything else.

Then a Sherringford student dies under suspicious circumstances ripped straight from the most terrifying of the Holmes stories, and Jamie and Charlotte become the prime suspects. Convinced they’re being framed, they must race against the police to conduct their own investigation. As danger mounts, it becomes clear that nowhere is safe and the only people they can trust are each other.

Equal parts tender, thrilling, and hilarious, A Study in Charlotte is the first in a trilogy brimming with wit and edge-of-the-seat suspense.

Review: 

I've been yearning for Sherlock for 2 years now and watching every episode or movie has been helping. It's kinda like Sherlock on cocaine...but rather, staring at a laptop and screaming "MOFFAT YOU DUMBASS". I'm sorry. I just had to put that. Anyway, when I discovered that there's a novel that features teenage Holmes and Watson set in high school solving a murder and Sherlock is a GIRL? I just had to read it.

Review: Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Title: Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda            
Author: Becky Albertalli

Publication: April 7th 2015, Balzer + Bray

Format: Hardcover, 303 pages             

Source: Gifted (Thanks soooooo much, Alia of Ponderings of Psyche)                       

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

SYNOPSIS:

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

Review: 

Okay, I just had a glass of milk and ate half a packet of double stuff Oreos so let's do this! I've been meaning to write a review for this book for a while but can't find the proper words but because of the Oreo energy, I think I'm ready. This book blew me away.

Review: This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

Title: This Is Where It Ends                               

Author: Marieke Nijkamp

Publication: January 5th 2016, Sourcebooks Fire

Format: e-ARC, 288 pages              

Source: Netgalley (Thanks to the publisher!)         

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:

10:00 a.m.

The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.

The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03

The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05

Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

Review: 

I've been severely excited for this book since Book Expo America. Talk about a long time and when I got the chance to review it, I was stoked. I wanted to review it earlier but stuff happened. You know the drill. But I really was clamoring for the need of it and then I got to read it.

This Is Where It Ends is not the type of book you should be reading if you are prone to heart attacks or get shocked too easily. I think that's the power of this novel: complete and total paralysis because of the shock value. A lot of the tension is built up pretty well and at some point you're actually quite scared to turn the next page.

Review: Fans of The Impossible Life by Kate Scelsa

Title: Fans of The Impossible Life                               

Author: Kate Scelsa

Publication: September 8th 2015, Balzer + Bray

Format: e-ARC, 368 pages               

Source: Edelweiss (Thanks so much to HarperCollins!)   

Buy it on: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | The Book Depository | Kobo | National Bookstore / Fully Booked (PH)

Synopsis:                                      

This is the story of a girl, her gay best friend, and the boy in love with both of them.

Ten months after her recurring depression landed her in the hospital, Mira is starting over as a new student at Saint Francis Prep. She promised her parents she would at least try to act like a normal, functioning human this time around, not a girl who sometimes can’t get out of bed for days on end, who only feels awake when she’s with Sebby.

Jeremy is the painfully shy art nerd at Saint Francis who’s been in self-imposed isolation after an incident that ruined his last year of school. When he sees Sebby for the first time across the school lawn it’s as if he’s been expecting this blond, lanky boy with a mischievous glint in his eye.

Sebby, Mira’s gay best friend, is a boy who seems to carry sunlight around with him like a backlit halo. Even as life in his foster home starts to take its toll, Sebby and Mira together craft a world of magic rituals and secret road trips, designed to fix the broken parts of their lives.

As Jeremy finds himself drawn into Sebby and Mira’s world, he begins to understand the secrets that they hide in order to protect themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.

A captivating and profound debut novel, "Fans of the Impossible Life" is a story about complicated love and the friendships that change you forever.

Review:

This book is sad. Absolutely sad and I can't believe that the first book I've read this year was this depressing. And I've had a really difficult time coming up with these proper words to say to it.

Fans of The Impossible Life features the distressed life of three teenagers: Jeremy, Mira and Sebby using the first person, second person and third person narrative respectively. Each character has a different story to tell but all interconnected with each other. The narratives focus on the school and every day lives of the characters and how even the most fun of situations are laced with underlying depression and sadness.