Heartstopper Volume Three and Four

SPOILERS BELOW FOR VOLUMES THREE AND FOUR!

As with the first two volumes, you get all the aboslute adorable-ness and loveability that is Nick and Charlie, and of course the rest of the squad that we have fallen in love with! But we also delve into some deep, serious topics as well. Topics such as self- harm, mental illness, and eating disorders. It’s a lot, but it is dealt with in such a mature way.

In Volume 3 we find ourselves in Paris with the squad! Nick and Charlie are sharing a room with Issac and Tao. Nick is not completely out yet, so they have to still be careful about their relationship. We see relationships develop, and friendships grow.

Volume 4 really focused on Charlie’s mental health and eating disorder. Nick is nothing but supportive and thoughtful to Charlie throughout this entire book. He encourages Charlie to speak to his parents, and even goes with him when he does. And I loved every minute reading this! WE LOVE SUPPORTIVE PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES!!!

As much as I adore Nick and Charlie, I truley believe Nick’s mother had the best moment in this book! Sarah is an absolute angel, a gift, and someone that everyone needs in their lives. AND in my opinion, she had the best speech in the entire book.

I love how Alice Oseman addresses that as much as Nick and Charlie care and love each other, they can’t always depend on one another for everything. They need other support systems around them, like friends and family because it is just as important! And with that I will end with the AMAZING, BEAUTFUL, WONDERDFUL speech by Sarah Nelson!

“Maybe you can’t help him, darling. I know you love him so, so much. I’m sure he loves you too. And I know you feel like it’s your job to “save him”. I know it feels like you are both each other’s whole world, but that dependency isn’t healthy for either of you. Charlie needs help from someone who isn’t his sixteen-year-old boyfriend. He needs help from a doctor or a therapist, someone who knows about eating disorder and how to treat them. Love can’t cure a mental illness. There are lots of ways to help him, you can just be there. To listen. To talk. To cheer him up if he’s having a bad day. And on the bad days you can ask what you could do to make things easier. Stand by his side, even when things are hard. But also knowing that sometimes people need more support than just one person can give. That’s love darling.” Sarah Nelson (Nick’s mum)

Heartstopper Vol 4- Alice Oseman

TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR:

• Mental Illness
• Self Harm
• Eating Disorders

If you need more information please check out her website which has all the content warnings for these books, plus her other books as well CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!

Wicked Fox and Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho

Lets talk about Wicked Fox and Vicious Spirits by Kat Cho! SPOILERS BELOW!

Wicked Fox follows MiYoung and Jihoon. MiYoung is a Guhimo(a nine tale fox) who, in order to survive, must consume the gi(energy) of men. She comes across Jihoon(a human), who is being attacked and she jumps in to save him. While saving him, she ends up losing her fox bead and from there a whole bunch of crazy follows.

In Vicious Spirits our characters are dealing with the aftermath of Wicked Fox. With MiYoungs bead gone, a new problem has occurred. A tear has appeared in the Between and ghosts are starting to roam around in the mortal world causing people to go mad. They have to fix the problem, while also dealing with why MiYoung doesn’t seem to be getting better.

With Wicked Fox I found myself enjoying the plot, but at times found myself a bit bored. With Vicious Spirits I found myself just a bit more invested in the plot line.

Wicked Fox was a really fun and addicting read. I was invested in both MiYoung and Jihoon as characters and getting to know them. This book also had in-between parts where we got to see the backstory of the Guhimo and MiYenas(MiYoung mother) story as well.

There were two “big” plot twists, one I saw coming and one I didn’t(but if I’m being honest, I should have). Nara betraying MiYoung was the one I definitely saw coming. I knew that was going to happen, so I was not surprised at all, but it also didn’t take away enjoyment from the story for me. What I didn’t expect was for the detective to be MiYoungs father. I should’ve realized it though(I mean why else would he just all of a sudden show up and get close to Jihoon).

I really liked Junu’s character in this book, and was thoroughly surprised when I found out that we would be following his perspective in the sequel. I thought we’d be following MiYoung and Jihoon again. To be honest, I didn’t care all that much for Somin in Wicked Fox. I mean I didn’t dislike her by any means, but I also didn’t really feel any sort of special way towards her. But I can definitely say that that has changed in Vicious Spirits.

Vicious Spirits follows Junu, a dokkeabai, Somin, and MiYoung. Honestly, I didn’t care much about following MiYoung perspective in this story. Don’t get me wrong, I like her and yes, she was important to the story(very important) but I found myself being way more interested in reading from Somin and Junus perspective.

Somin is literally one of the best friends that you can ask for. She will literally do anything for the people that she loves even at the risk of hurting herself(which, admittedly, can be a problem)

Junu became such an amazing character. I absolutely loved reading from his perspective. But when I say I got so annoyed with Somin, MiYoung, and Jihoon for always treating Junu like he was this horrible person, I mean I was so annoyed! Yes, they do have some reason, but damn give him the benefit of the doubt will you! Oh, and I want to quickly add in that we also got in-between stories of the dokkeabai.

I loved seeing Somin and Junu work together and develop a relationship! Kat Cho definitely took you on a ride with these two. I found myself being so invested in how it would all play out. The ending of this book was so intense and all the characters went through hell! Speaking of characters, we also got to meet a couple new ones. One of them is Hyuk, whom is a reaper that I was very intrigued by. I don’t believe Kat Cho is writing another book in this series, but if she ever did, I would love to read his story!

Overall this was a fun and very addicting series and while reading both of these books, I could absolutely imagine this playing out as a KDRAMA! Which I would LOVE to watch!

Queen of Air and Darkness

Thule

I personally quite enjoyed this portion of the book. It really surprised me, because I wasn’t sure what to expect. What happened to the characters in this alternate world was absolutely heartbreaking. Don’t even get me started on Magnus and Alec! And the Blackthorns…Damn! When Thule Livvy was telling Emma and Jules what happened to the Blackthorn family, it was heartbreaking.

Emma and Jules

Honestly, Emma and Jules are not my favorite characters, and this relationship did frustrate me throughout this series. However, I could tolerate them the most during this book. It was sad to see Julian without his emotions and how he treated the people around him. I knew it was going to be bad because he’s already a character that will do anything to protect the people he cares about. Now without any emotions, it will end up being 10xs worse. He could go around killing everyone!

Mark, Kieran and Cristina

I don’t know about anyone else, but this one was and is my freakin SHIP! I love these threes so much and I really didn’t expect to. When we were first introduced to Mark I loved him, and I still do. Same thing for Cristina! I love her so much, and throughout this entire series, my thought was NO ONE better hurt Cristina. I didn’t care about Kieran in Lady Midnight. He did things that were NOT okay, and even though he did try to help at the end, it didn’t make up for it. However, slowly we start to see more of him and the reason he did things, and how much he truly cares for Mark, and I started to like him. By the end of Queen of Air and Darkness, I absolutely adored Kieran. And I love these three together soooo much! As Emma said “hot faerie threesome” and I’m all for it!

Ty and Kit

This plot line followed Ty as he tried to bring Livvy back from the dead. It surprised me that no one noticed what he was doing…but at the same time, with everything going on, it does make sense. Kit, who didn’t want to do this, but also didn’t want to let Ty down, reluctantly went along with it. I really wish Kit would’ve just said no from the beginning. I understand why he didn’t, but still. I honestly think it was a good idea for these guys to going their own way for now…and I mean just for now. We don’t want that forever(NOPE NOT FOREVER!) Kit wants to be liked and have a real family so honestly he would probably gone along with anything. Ty is so use to having someone(his family) with him, I think it’s good for him to go to the Scholomance. Secretly(not so secretly) I absolutely LOVE Kit going to live with Jem and Tessa! I love it so much!

Helen and Aline

It was so nice to see these two FINALLY back with the family. And it made sense how it all worked. She wasn’t just welcomed back into the family by the younger siblings. They were so young when she was exiled, they obviously would feel the way they did about others. Plus they just lost Livvy. TO me, it made sense. Still, Helen tried so hard to work on gaining the relationship back with them, and I liked seeing it.

The Cohort

F**K The Cohort!

The Cohort is some bullshit. This damn whatever you want to call it…I see it as a damn cult…well I HATE THEM! As I assume we all do. And the entire time I was reading this book, I kept picture Horace Dearborn as a former president that we have(if you know, you know). I honestly didn’t expect for them to all get exiled. It’s going to make for a really interesting story line going into The Wicked Powers(which I’m soooo excited for)

Ash

I honestly don’t know what to expect from this character. At this moment in time, I’m kind of indifferent towards him. I feel like we don’t know enough about him yet for me to love him or hate him. I need to know him more. But I’m curious how will this character play out. But the fact that he’s Sebastian Morgenstern’s son…HOLY FUCK!

Dru

I feel like Dru did have more in this story than in the other stories, but we still didn’t get much. Which is fine since I heard she will be a main character in The Wicked Powers. I really like Dru and I can’t wait to see her story. I felt bad for her because every time we saw her, she was pretty much alone. Also everyone kept calling her fat because she’s curvy and for her to not eat so much. I swear it was pissing me off every time I read it, and I wanted to punch everyone one in the face. She’s fucking 13 dammit.

TMI Characters

Some people felt like we saw too much of the TMI characters in this book, but I completely disagree. I loved seeing them every time, and it made sense why they were there. They definitely added to the story, and were not just thrown in.

MALEC

OMG YESSSS! I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! YES YES YES YES YES!!!! I loved this so much and I couldn’t be happier with how it ended. Just to see where Alec started way back in City of Bones, to him at the end of Queen of Air and Darkness! It’s so beautiful!

Rosales

I’m so curious about this family and the relationship that they have with the fae. They have a lot of faerie heirlooms, but they had to hand them over to the Clave when the Cold Peace was in place. They hid some heirlooms from them, but I’m curious about it. Maybe we will find out more in The Wicked Powers?

Random Thoughts

Alec Lightwood the new Consul! YESSS! I’m so happy for him. It’ll be nice to see how he leads.

Clave in Exile. I really didn’t see that coming, and I’m so curious how it’ll turn out. Especially now that they basically have to rebuild everything.

Ending

Please tell me how this entire 912 page book, and with that 5 page epilogue, it ends on a HUGE ASS CLIFFHANGER!?!?!?! WHAT??? Seriously, in just 5 pages?

I’m probably missing so much more, because this was a huge ass book and A LOT happened. What did you guys think of this book? What was your favorite part? What about your least favorite part? Who’s your favorite character(s)? I would love to know!

Heartstopper VOL 1

Charlie, a highly-strung, openly gay over-thinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, meet at a British all-boys grammar school. Friendship blooms quickly, but could there be something more…?

Oh my God this book! What can I say? I can honestly say I had a smile on my face the entire time I was reading this book. It’s the most heartwarming, sweetest book.

Hearstopper deals with friendship, romance, acceptance, coming out, and more. This story follows the relationship between Nick and Charlie.(I’ve heard these characters are mentioned in other books by Alice Oseman, but this was my first read of hers.) We follow the meeting, friendship, and growing feelings between the two of them.

You will end up flying through this story. Not just because it is a comic/graphic novel, but because you will be so invested in this story and these characters.

Also how can I not mention NELLIE! Oh my God, NELLIE!(Nicks dog) She’s the absolute best! We love her!

I also want to add that Alice Osemans book deal with serious issues, and I found a list of the trigger warnings on her website. So I would like to list them here for any of you who are intesrested in checking this story out. These are taken from her website! https://www.aliceoseman.com/content-warnings

Heartstopper VOL 1 Trigger Warnings:

• Emotionally abusive relationship
• Non- consensual kiss
• past homophobia/slurs
• past bullying

Book Review- In the Afterlight

Title- In the Afterlight
Author- Alexandra Bracken
Pages- 535
Rating-  3.3 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Third and final book!

WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! ONLY READ IF YOU’VE FINISHED THIS BOOK!

If you saw my review for Never Fade, then you would know I really enjoyed (almost)everything about that book, except for Ruby. The same goes for this book, except now you can add Ruby and Cole to the mix. I’ll start off with what I didn’t liked about this book.

Ruby and Cole- I can’t explain to you how much these two frustrated me in this story. Now i can’t deny that these two work well together, but that’s because they’re so similar. To me that was a bad thing. They both want the same thing, to free the camps, but they wanted to go about it by fighting and killing, which, yes, there was obviously going to be a lot of that, but they wouldn’t even listen to anyone else’s ideas. They just shut down anyone’s plan. Also, these two had so many secrets from everyone, it pissed me off. Every other word from them was “you can’t tell anyone”, “no one else can know” “this stays between us”. Damn, it frustrated me to know end.

What pissed me off the most, was the way Ruby and Cole treated Liam. Talking down to him, treating him like he’s useless, like he can’t fight, or help. He freaking escaped from a camp, survived on the run, and took care of Chubs and Zu. Now, what? He can’t do anything? I don’t think so!

COMMUNICATION- Oh my god! This is what made me want to throw this book across my room. Except, I was reading on my ereader, and I couldn’t do that, but I was tempted. As I said before, so many secrets were kept from one another. If they just talked to each other, told each other the truth, so much could have been avoided!

Moving on to what I liked about this book:

Plot- I really liked where this story started off, and was heading. As with the rest of these books, this one had a lot of surprises. I enjoyed seeing them finally work out a plan to free the kids from the camps and expose the truth. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it must be to wrap up a series, but I felt this one did a decent job. I didn’t even see the big twist coming: Clancy was controlling Ruby! What the actual hell?

Characters- As always, I loved the characters. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. These characters are fun, strong, badass, and real. I loved seeing all these characters that we know and love come together and work towards a common goal. People who you’d think wouldn’t work well together, surprisingly did. Also SUZUME was back! YESSSSS!

Ruby and Liam- Now as frustrated as Ruby was, I do have to say, I really loved her when she was with Liam. I adored all the Ruby and Liam scenes. These two, for all the flaws, are perfect for one another.

Chubs and Vida- This was just EVERYTHING! I have nothing else to say but that!

Cole’s death- I don’t know how I feel about it. To be honest, I didn’t really like Cole that much. I mean, I didn’t hate him, but I also didn’t care much for him and I think most of that had to do with the way he treated Liam. I did feel sad about his death though, mainly because of Liam. I mean, Liam had just found out about Cole being a Red. I really thought they were on there way to fixing there relationship, but then he dies? Are you kidding me? I would’ve loved to have watched Liam and Cole get there relationship back. I could’ve seen myself growing to really like Cole.

So those are my thoughts on In the Afterlight by Alexandra Bracken. Let me know what you thought about the conclusion below!

Book Review- Never Fade

Title- Never Fade
Author- Alexandra Bracken
Pages- 507
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Sequel

I want to start off by saying that I really enjoyed everything about this book: the characters, the writing, the pacing and plot. Everything was great. Except for one thing that wasn’t. One thing that made me go from giving this book a 5 stars to a 4 stars…Ruby. I’ll start off with this positives first, and then talk about my one negative. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE DARKEST MINDS AND NEVER FADE!

Plot- The story started off a bit slow, and I wasn’t really sure how I was feeling about it. But I kept going, and it really started to pick up. Next thing I new it was 3:30am and I’m still up reading. I was doing that whole “just one more chapter” thing us readers do. When Ruby finally ended up going on a mission for the League to find Liam and the flashdrive, that’s when it started to pick up and damn it got good! They’re were so many surprises that you don’t expect and it just keeps you wanting more.

Characters- The characters, I think are the best thing about this books! They’re fun, strong, bad-ass, and real. I was surprised to find myself really loving the new characters: Jude, Nico, and Vida…especially Vida. But what I really loved more than that, was seeing Ruby reunite with old characters. CHUBS! LIAM! Even though both reunions were completely different and surprising, it was amazing to see!

Liam and Ruby- One thing I really loved about The Darkest Minds, was the relationship between Liam and Ruby, and the way it ended in the first book was heartbreaking! I was so glad to see them finally reunite in this one, although I knew it wasn’t going to be the same. I was surprised to find out that even though Ruby erased herself from Liam’s memories, his feelings were still there. So when he saw her, he just knew.

Now lets talk about the one thing I didn’t like about this book:

Ruby- I just  want to point out that yes, Ruby did have moments in this book where I did like her, but for most of the book she got on my damn nerves. Most of the time, that happened was when she was alone, or with the leaders of the children‘s league. She just seemed like a completely different person, at least until she got her friends back: Chubs and Liam. With them by her side again, she seemed like the same old Ruby, whom I did like. Without them, she was mean, rude, and just cold. I also didn’t like how she trusted Cole. I get that he looks like Liam, but he’s not Liam. You don’t know him, so why trust him? Why keep a secret from Liam, because Cole asked you to? You already messed with his memories, now you’re going to keep a secret from him about his brother? You should be trying to earn his trust back, not keeping secrets. It frustrated me.

Book Review || Saga Volume 5

Title- Saga
Author- Brian K. Vaughan
Pages- 152
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- 5th Volume

Marko as aligned himself with Prince IV, as both of them try to find there families. It’s a very uneasy alliance as they both seem to hate each other. However, when you have a common goal you try and work together. I really enjoyed there arc together. Mainly because we got to see Marko, and Ghus(whom I adore). We got to see Marko high as all hell, and get a view into his past.

Alana is with Klara, as they’re being kept by Dengo who also has the kidnapped Princeling and Hazel. He has called the Revolution to where they were to make a deal with them. Although nothing goes as planned and all hell breaks loose!

We also follow Gwendolyn, Sophie, Lying Cat, The Brand, searching for a cure to save The Will! Trust me when I say, shit gets really weird in this storyline!

Ohhhhh and I just have one thing to say….Dragon jizz….Dragon freakin jizz. That is all.

As always this story has beautiful artwork, and amazing writing. The humor is on point, and the characters are wonderful! Throughout the whole story your so invested and just needing to know what happens next. As always, we are left on a cliffhanger, and I can’t wait to read the next volume!

 

Book Review || The 5th Wave

Title- The 5th Wave
Author- Rick Yancey
Pages- 457
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- 1st book!

This will contain SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! This was my first Rick Yancy read, and I’m glad hat I picked this one! This book starts off with the others ship landing on earth. Everything was quite for ten days. After the tenth day…all hell broke loose.

So I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this book. I knew it was about aliens and an invasion, but that’s all I knew. I really loved this take on the story. The waves and different stages of attack. I found myself wanting to keep reading, because I wanted to know what was going to happen. I could say it was the characters, which in some part it was. But.i really think it was Rick Yancey’s writing. There’s something about his writing that keep me invested!

The characters were fantastic. Going into this, I had NO IDEA this was told in different perspectives. Here I am reading from Cassie’s perspective, and then all of sudden it’s talking about someone being called Zombie. I was like what the hell? Afterward, it’s easy to differentiate whose point of view! My favorite to read from is Ben. I found his story to be the one that I was most invested in!

Cassie is such a strong, sarcastic and funny character! It was great to read from her and get her point of view of the invasion. We follow Cassie as she tries to get to her brother Sammy who gets taken to Wright Patterson(Camp Haven) a supposed safe zone! She goes through so much on the way including meeting Evan, the man who shoots and saves her!

Evan is cool, and very bad-ass, but also creepy in my opinion. When I was reading it I just found some of the things he did and said to be creepy. I like him as a character, but I’m hoping we get to read more from his perspective in the next book! Maybe I won’t find him to be as creepy!

Ben is my favorite! He’s strong, loyal and he makes a good leader. I loved his relationship with Nugget(Sammy). It was so cute! I loved that he went back for Nugget when he found out the truth, and went back for Cassie at the end when he could’ve easily left her.

Speaking of the ending, it was my favorite part of this whole book! I loved how we were reading from the different perspectives and then it all comes together: Cassie, Ben, Evan, and Nugget(Sam). The ending had me pulled in, and Cassie, Ben and Evan make a hell of a team! I wouldn’t want to be on the bad side of them!

Book Discussion- Life and Death

Title- Life and Death
Author- Stephenie Meyer
Pages- 389
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Twilight Reimagined!

This was my first read of 2016, and I have to say, I quite enjoyed it! This story brought me back into the world of Twilight, which I haven’t been in awhile! It definitely made me want to reread the original as well, so I’m thinking I may do a reread of the saga this year.

This story follows the same story as Twilight, however with some changes in the scenes, and dialogue to work with the gender swap! It does take some time to get adjusted to these characters. I admit that I definitely had a hard time picturing Beau and Edthye because I was so use to the original characters. However, once you’re able to do that you do get to enjoy these characters. My favorite was Archie, who is this books Alice!

The ending! I really enjoyed the ending of this book! It was fun to see how Twilight could have ended if it was just a standalone book. I’m glad I got to see this alternate ending, however I do feel as though it was rushed. I do prefer the original ending for Twilight. This ending also made me a bit depressed. Because of Beau changing, he had to fake his own death and he never got to apologize for what he said to Charlie before he left, and you can tell how he regrets that. It was upsetting, and I’m glad that wasn’t the original ending!

I honestly believe people had too high expectations, and were expecting a bit much from this story. Going into this I expected a fun, enjoyable, slightly different story because of the gender swap, and that’s what I got. I honestly believe because I wasn’t expecting a lot, I enjoyed it more than others.

You have to enjoy this story for what it is. A fun, enjoyable story that Stephenie wrote for the fans. Also for those saying that this was published for just a cash grab, I have to disagree. A tenth anniversary edition would have been published anyway, this was just something fun that she though the fans would enjoy. Enjoy it for what it is, and I think you’ll have fun with this story!

Book Review- The Darkest Minds

Title- The Darkest Minds
Author- Alexandra Bracken
Pages- 488
Rating-  4 out of 5
Companion/Sequel/Other- Book 1

Okay so this is the last book that I read in 2015, and I’m happy to say that it was a good one! I tried reading this book about two years ago and I just couldn’t finish it. Here we are two later, and not only did I give it another go and finished it, I ended up really enjoying it. I don’t know what it was this time, but I passed the part where I stopped the first time, and I honestly couldn’t remember why I didn’t finish it before.

I really did enjoy the idea of this story- the camps, the different colors and powers. However, and this is what made me give it a four stars. Even though they talked about the powers, I honestly didn’t feel like they gave us enough explanation about them. By the end of this book, I still didn’t know much about the powers. I mean we got the basics, but that was really it. I just wanted more from that.

I absolutely adored the characters- Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and Zu. Seriously, they work so well together and are just an all around great team. I couldn’t wait to find out more about these characters, especially Ruby.

Ruby’s story, even though it took awhile to get to it, was heartbreaking. I felt so bad for what happened to her as a kid, and it really makes you see how strong her powers are. I want to say that even though I can see why people say that she can be an unlikable character, I personally loved her. I thought she was fun, strong, and sweet. However, that’s not to say that she’s not flawed because she definitely is.

This book was crazy and it felt like these kids were being chased by EVERYONE! The PSFs agents, skip tracers,bounty hunters, the League. Pretty much everyone and anyone were after them. Especially Ruby and Liam, for what Ruby was, and for what Liam did. Liam was worth a lot of money to people!

I want to talk about the romance for a second. I noticed that a lot of people seem to love or dislike the romance. Me? I’m on the love side. I absolutely adore Liam and Ruby and definitely think they make a great couple. You can see the connection from the beginning, and it definitely took some time to develop but I loved it. Liam is absolutely amazing and one of my favorite lines from this book came from him:

“Give me one reason why we can’t be together, and I’ll give you a hundred why we can.”

Last but not least, the ending. Oh god, the last few chapters were extremely heartbreaking and it left us on such a cliffhanger. I can’t wait to find out what the heck will happen next.