Even though we try to ignore it, gossip is a part of a reader's life. We are enthusiastic creatures by nature, and the only way to get us talking is to mention books. Then all of the dirt comes out.We love hearing the dark secrets of characters, relishing in their tragic backstories and all the details of their relationships. When it comes to books, gossip does not always have a negative connotation. In fact, hyping up books, the main practice of book lovers and bloggers alike, is just spreading enthusiastic word-of-mouth about books. Instead of using gossip to break down the community, we tend to use it to proclaim the praises of stories we love. Whether it is through reviews, discussions, enthusiastic Twitter threads, gorgeous bookstagram pictures, or even in real-life conversations, book lovers live to scream about their new favorite books, authors, and characters. I will never shame book-lovers for their intense passion to spread the joy of books, but all of the hype can be overwhelming. Hype isn't necessarily a lie, but it is more subjective than we really want people to believe. However, there are some cases when books lived up to, and even surpassed, the amount of hype they received. Every mention of these books was justified. I will spend the rest of my life screaming from the rooftops about these books, constantly contributing to the hype that I was unnecessarily afraid of in the first place. Without a doubt, these books earned their stars.
Since I do not have a Time-Turner, a TARDIS, or a cloning machine, I just do not have time to write a full review for all of the books that I read. So, I have decided to write mini-reviews to discuss the books that I do not have as much to say about. That does not mean that I did not like these books, but sometimes, as creative and amazing as my brain is, I just cannot think of that much to write about a book. This round of mini-reviews is about an oddly specific facet of fantasy, a story focusing on other fairy-tales as if they are real. Essentially, these are stories within stories, within stories in the true sense of inception. This concept of interwoven and layered stories can be hard to wrap your head around and even harder to get right. So, let's see what I thought about these ambitious books that exist in different layers of storytelling.
The Cruel Prince By Holly Black The Folk of the Air #1 370 Pages Published on January 2, 2018 Young Adult, Fantasy
Of course I want to be like them. They’re beautiful as blades forged in some divine fire. They will live forever. And Cardan is even more beautiful than the rest. I hate him more than all the others. I hate him so much that sometimes when I look at him, I can hardly breathe. Jude was seven when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences. As Jude becomes more deeply embroiled in palace intrigues and deceptions, she discovers her own capacity for trickery and bloodshed. But as betrayal threatens to drown the Courts of Faerie in violence, Jude will need to risk her life in a dangerous alliance to save her sisters, and Faerie itself.
Welcome to Book Battles, a feature here at Crazy for YA where I put two books in the battle ring and have them fight it out to see which one is better. See all of my previous bloody, literary battles.
Today's fight is a vicious fight, two masterpieces from the same creator, a cult classic vs. the new book on the scene, The Fault in Our Stars vs. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green. In case you want to catch up with the record of our contestants today, you can find my original book battle between The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska here. In addition to both being written by the same author, TFIOS and TATWD are extremely similar. They both deal with tragedy, death, and philosophical teenagers. Both novels have a female main character who has to deal with these unfavorable circumstances aided by a love interest. Parents play a large role in both stories, unlike his other novels. Today, I am going to investigate which of John Green's stories is superior.
Today, I am honored to be accepting the Mystery Blogger Award from Noly @ That Artsy Reader, a fellow book-lover and blogger champion. Being nominated for any award is awesome, but it means so much more that Noly was the one who thought of me. You can see her acceptance here (as well as her one of her most embarrassing childhood moments, which is definitely worth a read!). The tag was originally created by Okoto Oke Enigma on her lifestyle blog in order to discover new blogs (so that they are no longer a mystery, get it?) and spread the love throughout the entire blogging community. The bonds created through this tag is so impressive that it has already crossed several niches, starting with Okoto's lifestyle, fashion, and beauty blog to the wonderful realm of book blogging. I hope that I can help it reach even farther in the community! Honestly, the only mystery is how I qualified for this award, but I am going to accept it anyway.
I am a very traditional person who is stuck in many of her ways. I don't like change very much. I will wear one pair of shoes until they have too many holes to properly walk in and then I will go to the store and buy the exact same pair of shoes. I survived throughout middle school and high school solely on the consistency of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I had every day for lunch. Having the same lunch every day was a comfort for me in the ever-changing (and terrifying) jungle of high school. I even ate them on the weekends sometimes because I missed them so much. The same applies to my reading habits; I prefer reading hardcover, physical books that I can actually turn the pages (and caress softly). Spine and paper books will always be my favorite (everyone knows that nothing bets the scent of a new book or the crack of the spine when you first open it). But... I don't completely hate ebooks. There was a point in time when I thought this was a divisive issue that I had to go all or nothing on. I thought that in order to love physical books you naturally had to hate ebooks. However (like most of the issues in the world) there is not a 100% right answer in the debate and both sides have valid arguments. So, against my formerly stringent traditionalist views, I am going to share my reasons for liking ereaders.
As it turns out (even though no one is particularly surprised) I have succumbed to the laziness of summer. On one hand, this means that I spend a lot of time laying around my house with a book. On the other hand, writing posts for me is not exactly a leisurely activity, so it hasn't been getting done. If anything, this summer so far has been an important lesson about how difficult blogging is and how much dedication is required. Blogging takes more than just free time; it requires hard work, motivation, and the will power to avoid procrastination. I didn't completely fail with blogging this month though, I just missed a few of my targets for the beginning of summer. Fortunately, I still have about two months to make up for it! In the meantime, I still have a few milestones to celebrate with you guys and a ton of blogger love to share!
