Book Review: Written in the Stars by Aisha Saeed

This heart-wrenching novel explores what it is like to be thrust into an unwanted marriage. Has Naila’s fate been written in the stars? Or can she still make her own destiny? 
Naila’s conservative immigrant parents have always said the same thing: She may choose what to study, how to wear her hair, and what to be when she grows up—but they will choose her husband. Following their cultural tradition, they will plan an arranged marriage for her. And until then, dating—even friendship with a boy—is forbidden. When Naila breaks their rule by falling in love with Saif, her parents are livid. Convinced she has forgotten who she truly is, they travel to Pakistan to visit relatives and explore their roots. But Naila’s vacation turns into a nightmare when she learns that plans have changed—her parents have found her a husband and they want her to marry him, now! Despite her greatest efforts, Naila is aghast to find herself cut off from everything and everyone she once knew. Her only hope of escape is Saif . . . if he can find her before it’s too late.

I always get excited when a book with diversity gets good reviews from other people. It's always great to have more books with diversity. 

I think this is a very important story for all types of people need to hear today. The story features a young girl of Pakistani heritage that ends up in an arranged marriage by her family during a "vacation". Of course, in some cases, these marriages go over smoothly and they end up very happy with each other. Other girls aren't so lucky and end up in dangerous situations. This was one of the unlucky ones.

It was difficult to read at times, because the narrator had no idea what was really going on, but as a reader you quickly realize how dire her situation becomes. While she had to face some incredibly heart-breaking things at such a young age, she handled it with as much strength as anyone could. The scariest part of this whole thing was when she began to expect her fate. She stopped fighting because she realized how useless and fetal it was. That was scary and as a reader you want to keep cheering her on. 

With such a real topic in today's society, the author handled everything very well. It was never forced down our throats that we were supposed to feel sad, that we should hate her culture or religion and it was written incredibly well. She described everything so eloquently and with vivid detail in few words so that not one page was unimportant. This book is pretty short, only around 200 pages. Which, if I'm being honest, was good because I didn't know how much more I could've taken. 

While it was a hard book to read, it's still a good one to do so. It's good to have these books with all types of diversity and allows one to understand this culture better. If you've read any of Khaled Hosseini's books, this will be very similar. #WeNeedDiverseBooks

Read: July 2015
My Rating: 4 stars / 5 stars

Book Review: Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook, and Liar.
Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8-Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She’s pretty optimistic about her chances until classes begin, and she runs into Miles. Didn't she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She’s not prepared for normal. 
Funny, provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up.

Fair warning to all who are thinking about this: the story is about a girl who has schizophrenia. While it is not a story about the mental illness, it is still an important part of the story. 

If you are one who is well-versed in the genre that is Young Adult, then you are probably aware of the fact that there are a lot of book dedicated to all types of mental illness. Some are good and handle the illness as it should; with understanding and respect of it without making it to be any more or less than what it is. Others have been known to romanticize these illnesses and use them as an easy way to get popularity by tackling "hard issues". 

I praise all the higher beings out there that this one was not like the latter group at all. 

By the time the 10th page rolled around, I was in love with this book. I was laughing out loud because of how witty and genuinely funny the jokes were. The jokes were about how the protagonist, who is schizophrenic, sees things that aren't always there. It wasn't the demeaning bullying kind of joke where it made fun of it, it was just accepting of that fact and making observations in her situation. She does this throughout the book. 

Since she is the narrator of the story, she's obviously unreliable. She has auditory and visual hallucinations. I knew really soon into the novel that not everything I was seeing through her eyes were real. Which was exciting and also really interesting to know it but get so absorbed that you quickly forget. There are some obvious ones to the reader and maybe some not so obvious. 

It was just really great as a reader, to read from the perspective of a mental ill person without constantly thinking that they have this illness. After a while I just got used to her seeing red squirrels and men in suits on the school's roof. It was a part of her character as much as being good at math or living in San Diego is for other characters.

Then there was the romance. Yes, there is a romance in this book. Thankfully, her love interest does not find her "quirky" or whatever because of her illness. He just loves her for who she is and wants to be with her. He was more than able to handle the stuff in both their lives. He's a good boy.

There's also a mystery aspect. Which sounds weird since we have an unreliable narrator, but we have one anyways. It makes the story even more gripping for me. It was like playing Nancy Drew, only that some of the clues might not be real. I guessed the big plot twist like three pages before she did, so I'm really glad by that. I hate guessing correctly early on. Still confused about the scoreboard. Like, wtf. You'll understand when you read it. 

I can't wait to own this bad boy. The cover is wonderful and the story is even more so. SOON.

Read: July 2015
My Rating: 5 stars / 5 stars

Book Review: Things We Know By Heart by Jessi Kirby

When Quinn Sullivan meets the recipient of her boyfriend’s donated heart, the two form an unexpected connection.
After Quinn loses her boyfriend, Trent, in an accident their junior year, she reaches out to the recipients of his donated organs in hopes of picking up the pieces of her now-unrecognizable life. She hears back from some of them, but the person who received Trent’s heart has remained silent. The essence of a person, she has always believed, is in the heart. If she finds Trent’s, then maybe she can have peace once and for all. 
Risking everything in order to finally lay her memories to rest, Quinn goes outside the system to track down nineteen-year-old Colton Thomas—a guy whose life has been forever changed by this priceless gift. But what starts as an accidental run-in quickly develops into more, sparking an undeniable attraction. She doesn't want to give in to it—especially since he has no idea how they're connected—but their time together has made Quinn feel alive again. No matter how hard she’s falling for Colton, each beat of his heart reminds her of all she’s lost…and all that remains at stake.

I read this because I loved the premise. A girls falls in love with her late boyfriend's heart  recipient. A little corny and sounds more like a Hallmark movie than a young adult novel. Okay, it was basically what you would expect, but still really good. It's just so cool to think about how love can transcend death and pieces of you can actually be connected to others after you're gone. 

This book was good, quick and nicely written. I wish the main characters had better personalities though. That sounds a little mean, but they were so... plain. Like their personalities weren't ever really brought out for me. I know they both had issues that held them back from being 100% comfortable, but we should get glimpses of what they are truly like. I think some quick-wit humor could've put this book into a whole other level. This could be mainly just a personal preference and I am the type of person who allows a heavy situation to remain that way for a while, but then I need a reprieve. Usually in the form of humor. Just think of all the puns they could've made. Yes, I know I'm a terrible human.

It just felt too heavy throughout the entire book. I know it's a sad topic, but that's not what it was about. It was about finding love after a loss, and all the problems that go along with it. It only felt light or not as heavy at the end. Having a few lighthearted moments (ehhhh see what I did there?) would've been nice. I don't think it should have been. I wanted a roller coaster of emotions. Maybe it's just me. 

Despite all this, I did enjoy it and would recommend to anyone who doesn't mind the topic for a good quick read. The cover is also pretty as well. 

Read: July 2015

My Rating: 3.5 stars / 5 stars

Book Review: Parallel by Lauren Miller

Abby Barnes had a plan. The Plan. She'd go to Northwestern, major in journalism, and land a job at a national newspaper, all before she turned twenty-two. But one tiny choice—taking a drama class her senior year of high school—changed all that. Now, on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Abby is stuck on a Hollywood movie set, miles from where she wants to be, wishing she could rewind her life. The next morning, she's in a dorm room at Yale, with no memory of how she got there. Overnight, it's as if her past has been rewritten.With the help of Caitlin, her science-savvy BFF, Abby discovers that this new reality is the result of a cosmic collision of parallel universes that has Abby living an alternate version of her life. And not only that: Abby's life changes every time her parallel self makes a new choice. Meanwhile, her parallel is living out Abby's senior year of high school and falling for someone Abby's never even met.

As she struggles to navigate her ever-shifting existence, forced to live out the consequences of a path she didn't choose, Abby must let go of the Plan and learn to focus on the present, without losing sight of who she is, the boy who might just be her soul mate, and the destiny that's finally within reach.

This had been on my radar for quite some time but never got around to actually reading it. I don't know why I waited so long because it's a time travel/parallel universe story and I love those. They are easy for me to understand, and I love seeing how each author explains how these worlds work. 

Surprisingly, this one took a lot of brain power to fully understand. Actually, to be completely honest, I still don't fully understand. It's definitely a new theory/adaptation on parallel universes that I haven't read before, so really happy about that. You kind of learn with the protagonist through her journey to understanding it all. There's also a lot of scientific jargon that make it more believable. 

There's also a time leap from chapter to chapter. The protagonist doesn't remember the her senior year and we get to see everything that leads up to her present. Well, technically it's just her consciousness living out her parallel's life. Complicated, I know. It was weird seeing the path lead out for her while also adjusting to changes being made. It's confusing if you don't read it. How it happens it's that you make choices and in a parallel universe, you made a different one than the one you made. So interesting to think that the littlest things can have the potential to greatly steer our lives onto different paths. Anyways.

I did not like one of the love interests. Like, at all. I was very, very happy when the ending that explained everything and made it nice again happened. No spoilers, sweetie! But man, getting there, whoo boy. There's a point in the book where everything just goes to shi- poop. Just everything. It was So. Painful. You just wanted everything to go smoothly and her to end up with the right guy and UGH.

THE ENDING THOUGH. GOODNESS. I really want a sequel. Or an epilogue. SOMETHING. I know everything will be okay because it ended and stuff, but I want to know for sure. Everything just went poof! and all the trouble gone. Just read it. It's a good book in its own right and does a fantastic job in the parallel universe department, despite my slow understanding. I felt things and I wanted to throw the book. That means it's written very well. Ugh.

Read: July 2015

My Rating: 4.5 stars / 5 stars