Library of Souls ~ Ransom Riggs

A boy with extraordinary powers. An army of deadly monsters. An epic battle for the future of peculiardom.
 
The adventure that began with Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and continued in Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls. As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he’s diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.
 
They’ll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil’s Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It’s a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. Like its predecessors, Library of Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.

Book Review:

Ransom Riggs ends his Miss Perengrine's Peculiar Children trilogy with the final instalment, Library Of Souls, as Jacob and the other peculiars race to save the ymbrynes. It was captivating from the very beginning, I was unable to put it down. Plus, I own a signed copy which is exciting within its self. 

Jacob and Emma are my favorite characters. I love their relationship. I love how they feed off of each other, how they both of are really protective of each other and the other peculiars, but most of all, of Miss Peregrine. Each of them have their own relationship with her and though they are very similar relationships, you can tell how different they are as well. 

I still don't understand how Riggs, is able to create this entire world and characters around these old photographs that he has just happened upon. The amount of talent that he has is beyond comprehension. 

I'm just going to move onto the spoilery section now because writing a non-spoilery review for a third installment is hard...

Book Discussion: SPOILERS:

I loved how Jacob's "ability" developed. I loved that it was the same ability that was his Grandfather's and how that made him feel even closer to him, though its still kind of weird with the Emma situation. I was really excited when he was able to control all of those hollows. It was an exhilarating part of the novel to read. I'm fairly certain that my heart was ready to jump out of my chest for him and the others. 

I was also really happy that he was able to reunite with his parents in the end, even though they thought that he was insane and forced him into therapy. I thought the ending was hilarious when Miss Peregrine and the other kids showed up. I really thought his parents were going to have heart attacks or something just as terrible. Though I loved how Riggs inserted the ending with some closure, I really wish there was going to be a novella or fourth novel because I really want to know how things turned out for them, partiularly Jacob and Emma, in the end. 

Favorite Quote:

“Early in life we recognize certain talents in ourselves, and we focus on those to the exclusion of others. It’s not that nothing else is possible, but that nothing else was nurtured.” 

The Girl On The Train ~ Paula Hawkins

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

Book Review:

I started getting into more adult fiction last year, when I read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Previously, the only  adult fiction that I had read was absolutely everything by James Patterson that I could get my hands on because he is incredible. I was kind of sceptical when I picked up Girl On The Train because I had heard so many good things about it, but I tend to avoid books surrounded by a lot of hype. I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed the book. 

Hawkins didn't grab me completely from the very beginning. It did take me a while to get into the book. At first, I knew it was going to be a good book from the first paragraph but it wasn't something that I was sure I was going to be 100% captivated by. That didn't occur until half way through. But once I was grabbed, it was impossible for me to put the book down. 

The characterization of each individual character was impeccable. You could see all of their multifaceted sides, the good, the bad, and the terrifying, except for the character that caused the biggest plot twist of the entire story. I thought that he was the good guy but in reality, he was the devil in disguise. 

Favorite Quote:

“Hollowness: that I understand. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything you can do to fix it. That's what I've taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps” 

Bookish Academy Awards 2016

I have been slacking on publishing content on this blog. I have had a lot of personal stuff to deal with lately and just wasn't feeling like posting. That is one thing that I will never do. I will never force myself to publish content because I won't be happy with it. Anyway, I am getting myself back on track and I plan to be publishing a lot more now.  I will be scheduling my book reviews for Mondays at noon and I want to start posting other posts here and there throughout the week, so keep your eyes open. 

I got this idea from one of my favorite book tubers, Reagan or PeruseProject. Basically, you take each of the categories from the Oscars and change them into bookish categories.

Best Male Protagonist: Jacob Portman from the Miss Perengrine's Home  for Peculiar Children series by Ransom Riggs. He starts out as this confused and scared boy but he turns into this brave man who is willing to risk everything to save his friends and honor his grandfather.  

Best Female Protagonist: Mare Barrow from the Red Queen series by debut author, Victoria Aveyard. The story may be generic to YA fantasy readers, which isn't my most read genre (possibly why I love it so much), but Mare is such a bad ass. She isn't afraid to stand up for what she believes in but she also has all of the demons inside of her that Aveyard allows her to feel with vivid rhetoric. 

Best Plot Twist:  Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han. It's the third book in the Burn for Burn series and I would never have been able to predict this ending. I had so many theories and none of them were even miles from close to this!! It was incredible and confusing! 

Best Book Cover: It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. The cover just describes mental illness in a profound way. It's an image of a drawn map inside of a man's brain. That's exactly what the story tries to portray. Mental illness is just as complicated as the inner workings of a city. 

Best Side Character: Elliot in the Girl Online series is such an incredible best friend. He reminds of my best friend, Ash. He's always there for Penny, even when she isn't for him. He understands her more than she understands herself. He is also the epitome of the best gay best friend, just like Ash. 

Best Movie Adaptation: I haven't seen any movie adaptions, other than Paper Towns and that movie butchered the book!!! So I am most looking forward to the adaption of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I am so excited that Tim Burton is directing it. He is the only director that I would trust with this series because I know that his tendency for weirdness is just perfect for this series because of how weird the books are!! I am sooooo excited!!!!! If you haven't watched the trailer yet... DO IT!!!!!! 

Book You Would Love To See Animated: I haven't read many books that I feel would be good animated but Joe Sugg's graphic novel Username Evie would be a really good animated short film. 

Best Writer That You Read For The First Time: Rainbow Rowell. I read Fangirl over the summer and I really resonated with that book. 

Best Short Story/Novella: The two novellas in the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi. 1.5 is Fracture Me and 2.5 is Destroy Me. They were the only novellas that I have read. Recently I have been reading a collection of short stories for my English class but I don't feel like anyone would enjoy them, that reads this blog, if it weren't part of a class discussion; whereas, the Shatter Me novellas were incredible. I especially liked the first one because it wasn't the perspective that the rest of the series was in. I liked having Warner's perspective on the same events that we learned of through Juliette. 

Best Action in a Book: American Sniper is Chris Kyle's memoir written by himself with the help of Jim DeFelice. It was quite eye opening, and for me, it hit close to home since a lot of my family has spent time in the military and many over in the places that Kyle mentions. The action was very spot on. I could feel the dust in my lungs and covering my eyes, I felt like I couldn't see what he was describing when he couldn't see, I felt my heart race every time he was trying to protect his fellow brothers and sisters in combat, I felt restless when he wasn't out there. It was all very real. 

Best Historical Fiction/Nonfiction/Memoir: I haven't read much on the basis of Historical Fiction or Nonfiction this year, but I have read many memoirs. The one that I found most compelling though, was El Deafo by Cece Bell. It's her graphic novel memoir about her childhood as the only deaf kid in her elementary school. I just found the entire story to be really eye opening and beautiful.