B3THANY READS

'I can feel myself being slotted into place, a cog in a massive ticking clock, propelling a mechanism I'm too small to understand.' Title: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Author: Stuart Turton Rating: 5/5 I bought this book from the tiny English language section of a book shop here in Genova, Italy. I moved here back in August and have since exhausted the supply of books I brought with me, and so I needed to find something new to feed my addiction. I'm not usually one for murder mysteries or crime fiction, but I saw The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle on the shelf and remember hearing great things back when it was published a few years ago. This relatively spontaneous purchase has become one of my favourite books I have ever read. I found myself wanting to read "one more chapter" every night. I fell in love with the setting straight away. A grand manor in the woods and a madman on the loose, what more could you want? It took me right back to my A Level...

You know that feeling when you start a new book that's 600+ pages long, part of a trilogy and you fall in love with it from the first chapter? That was The Name of the Wind for me. Even though it took me nearly four months (!!!) to read it, it definitely consumed my life for the past few weeks. Let's just say it was the perfect lock down companion. First off, the medieval vibe was incredibly refreshing. (I say medieval even though Rothfuss has never confirmed this but it's what feels right to me.) The medieval trope can sometimes be overdone and repetitive, especially in fantasy for adults, but not this one. It was medieval enough for my brain to place it in time and space pretty easily, but Rothfuss has put his own interesting twist on details such as money, clothing style, languages etc. It could literally be anywhere in the world at any point in time. Title: The Name of the Wind Author: Patrick Rothfuss Rating: 5/5 You can buy it here Kvothe may just be one...

The Shades of Magic series is the first series I've read in its entirety in a really long time. I think the last time I read a series from beginning to end was when I read the Percy Jackson series at age 11ish. So, I thought I would dedicate today's Blogmas post to all my thoughts and feelings about V.E. Schwab's trilogy! (Be warned - major spoilers). I found out about this series through Hannah's ( A Clockwork Reader ) YouTube channel, and I always like the books she recommends so I trusted her on this one as well. It took me almost 5 months to read the entire series because I like to space things out and give myself variety in between books. What's cool is that you can see the seasons changing in the photos of the books I took! A Darker Shade of Magic Photo taken on Totland Bay, Isle of Wight First up, 'A Darker Shade of Magic'. When I first started reading this book I really liked the mad King George character from Grey London. I thought he wa...

Title: The Girl With All the Gifts Author: M. R. Carey Rating: 5/5 It's officially spooky season! As soon as October came around I knew I wanted to read something to fit the theme of Halloween, so I chose 'The Girl With All the Gifts'. And guess what? I loved it. The very first time I pick it up I read over 100 pages in one sitting, which is very rare for me. Usually I read 30-50 pages and get bored (because the first few chapters of books are never the most thrilling), but I was hooked from the start. However, I read it just before bed and ended up having the most  terrifying  zombie dream - heart palpitations and all. Secretly loved it, though. So yeah, I feel like I need to preface this review by saying that I love all things zombie related so surprise surprise this will be pretty positive. Overall, I enjoyed this book so much mainly because the concept is so refreshing and not like anything I have personally read or seen before! When I first started re...

Title: When the Moon Was Ours Author: Anne-Marie McLemore Rating: 2/5 I don't even know where to start with this book. 'When the Moon Was Ours' had been in my want-to-read section of Goodreads for a long time before I ever seriously considered actually reading it. It came up on my feed, I quickly read the synopsis and decided it sounded good. Added it to my TBR with no intention of actually reading it. But then I went on my year abroad, and my mum kindly asked me if there were any English books I would like her to buy and post to me (thanks, mum). So, as it was nearing Halloween spooky time, I decided to go with the theme of magical, whimsical and maybe even a bit scary to suit the October vibe. I chose 'When the Moon Was Ours' amongst others. As soon as I started reading it I found it pretentious. I automatically picked up on the flowery language that was already annoying me by page 3. This continued to bug me throughout the whole book, which I wi...

Title: The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil Author: Stephen Collins Rating: 3/5 'The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil' is the first graphic novel I have read that isn't The Walking Dead or superhero themed. The only graphic novel I knew was the fast-paced, action-packed adventure where someone dies every other page, so this was quite refreshing. However I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Firstly, from reading a few reviews, I was expecting to be blown away by the artwork because people rant and rave about it. However unfortunately this wasn't the case. Yes, it's simplistic and beautiful but I couldn't bring myself to appreciate it as much as others had. Maybe I just don't have an eye for art, who knows. I do have a few favourite pages where I particularly like the artwork and the clever positioning of the drawings on the page, but I definitely think it didn't live up to the hype. Secondly, the story line did not go the way I t...

(I know I am INCREDIBLY late to review this book but ... oh well.) I read TATWD in two days. Two days. 48 hours. Given that last year my Reading Challenge goal was to read one book a month, reading a whole book in two days is quite an accomplishment for me. Safe to say I absolutely loved it. Prior to this I had only read The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns when I was much younger. When TATWD was announced, I was simultaneously excited and apprehensive. The last time I had read John Green I was probably around 14 and my reading tastes have changed drastically since then. I look back fondly on that era of my life, even though I also majorly cringe about it.  Because of this, I was apprehensive to ruin this fond memory I have by reading a book that is too 'young' for me and find it annoying and cringey. However I was too excited to not ask for it for Christmas. So I did. I asked for it purely on the basis of hype; I hadn't even read the blurb yet.  If you...

Title: The Maze Runner Author: James Dashner My overall rating: 2.5/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts I asked for The Maze Runner  for Christmas years ago and it has been sitting on my bookshelf ever since. I'm not sure why but I never picked it up until now. I had just finished The Night Circus  and didn't have enough money to buy a brand new book so I decided to finally read it. I probably should have read it when I received it, I would have liked it a lot more back then. Good bits The Maze Runner 's main selling point was that fans of The Hunger Games  would like it. Personally I disagree with that method but hey ho, I guess it worked. I never finished The Hunger Games , I only read the first few chapters or so which is probably why I thought the story line for The Maze Runner was really cool. If I had read The Hunger Games before, I would have probably thought it was a massive rip off. Nevertheless, The Maze Runner  was something I had n...

Title: The Night Circus Author: Erin Morgenstern My overall rating: 5/5 Get it here from Amazon I have never fallen as in love with a book as I have  The Night Circus . For that reason, I have chosen to gush about it in this blog post rather than writing my usual type of review. I invite all reveurs to join me. 1. THE WRITING Erin Morgenstern has said that her novels are 'fairy tales in one way or another' and she is absolutely right . From the moment I started reading The Night Circus  I was mesmerised by the writing.  'The rain increases and umbrellas sprout like mushrooms amongst the graves' There's something about the writing that is so poetic and beautiful . Although there has been a fair amount of criticism of The Night Circus  saying that it's very slow-moving, I personally never noticed as the writing is interesting enough on its own to grab and maintain my attention. 'October slips into November, a change that goes larg...

Title: The Martian Author: Andy Weir My overall rating: 3/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts I'm not entirely sure what drew me to this book. Maybe it was my cousin's unhealthy obsession with Matt Damon that introduced me to the film and then I found out it was a novel first. Or maybe it was the cool cover. Who knows. I think its important to mention that I read the majority of this book whilst sitting on an aeroplane. Probably not the best place to read a story about a man trapped in space with no escape - a bit like watching Life of Pi whilst on a cruise ship, which I've also done. Good bits The Martian  is super entertaining. After much consideration I have decided that Mark Watney is the funniest character I have ever had to pleasure to meet, which is a massive credit to Weir's writing. Watney reminds me of the 'fun Uncle' type who doesn't take himself too seriously and is always there to lighten the mood; the perfect antidote to...

Title: HEX Author: Thomas Olde Heuvelt My overall rating: 5/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts When HEX  appeared in my Goodreads' recommendations, I was intrigued. I suddenly realised that even though I am obsessed  with The Walking Dead  and other horror-related TV shows and films, I have never read a horror novel. I decided there and then that HEX  was going to be the first one I read. And I'm so glad I did. Good bits I whizzed through HEX. Olde Heuvelt has such an interesting writing style that even shines through being translated from Dutch to English, showing how talented he is. I could not put this book down. I have seen a few other reviews talk about how some of the idioms Olde Heuvelt uses don't translate well into English but I didn't notice it, I must have been too immersed in the story to realise. I absolutely love the concept of the story. A town being haunted by a 300-year-old witch who has her eyes and mouth sewn shut to prevent utt...

Title: We Were Liars Author: E. Lockhart My overall rating: 2/5 Get it here from Amazon First thoughts This book was kindly given to me by my best friend for my birthday, which kinda makes me feel bad for disliking it so much. But that's what reading is all about, right? Forming an opinion? 'My mum and my sister raved about this book and said I should read it,' my friend said, 'but I don't read books, so I thought I'd get it for you'. At least she wasn't emotionally attached to the book. That way my negative review won't completely destroy her feelings. Good bits We Were Liars is a semi-enjoyable holiday read. It is super easy to read, not requiring too much effort to understand the plot (probably because the plot is stupidly boring but we'll get to that later). I could have finished it in a day if life didn't get in the way, so if you're planning on bringing this with you on holiday I'd recommend bringing a back up......

Title:  Room Author:  Emma Donoghue My overall rating:  3/5 Get it  here  from Amazon First thoughts At first, I was really excited to get stuck into this book. For Christmas I was lucky enough to get a gift card for a bookshop and  Room  was one of the first books I bought in 2017, thus starting my Goodreads Reading Challenge. There was a  huge  hype surrounding it when I bought it and I knew it had been turned into a film so I was expecting big things from Donoghue, especially as it addresses such a sensitive topic.  I must admit, the size of the book concerned me a little as I knew the majority of it was set in one room, so how was Donoghue going to retain my attention for 400-odd pages with a story set in one place?! I hadn't heard of Donoghue before picking up this book so it wasn't as if I had trust in her writing to keep me interested, but I decided to take the plunge anyway. Good bits Right, s...