Showing posts with label It's kind of a Funny Story. Show all posts
Showing posts with label It's kind of a Funny Story. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Top 10 Books I Could Reread Forever

1. Fruits Basket: This series is my favorite series ever and I have already reread the series at least five times and I find that my love for the series only increases with each time I reread it and I can't see that changing ever. This series is a really good one to reread because it becomes clear that the author knew where she wanted to take the characters and series from the beginning so you notice new bits of foreshadowing when you reread the series. The series is one where I just love seeing the characters and relationship develop over time and I find myself just as invested in them on rereads as I was the first time I read it.
2. Reading in the Dark: This is a book I always feel compelled to reread and I think that the reason behind this is the fact that I think so much of the story is about what isn't being said rather than what is said so it takes rereading it to truly appreciate what the book is about.
3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians: I feel like this series would be good to reread because the books are so much fun and I love the characters and world that the series is set in so much that I find myself wanting to revisit this series.
4. Wolves of Mercy Falls series: This series is one that I think would be good to reread because I really enjoy the characters and I really would like to see if I see them a bit differently on my second read of the series. I also feel like Linger and Sinner would be the two best books to reread because I feel like those books are the ones that did the best at digging into who the characters are.
5. It's Kind of a Funny Story: I think this book would be good to reread because I really loved it when I first read it and I've been wanting to reread it sometime in the future.
6. Cardcaptor Sakura: This series is one that I loved rereading because it is one that just makes me happy each time I revisit it because it such a sweet and optimistic series as a whole.
7. Hex Hall series: This series is one that I remember being a really fun read so I would like to reread because I felt like I went through this series fairly fast the first time I read through it because I just had to know what happened next, so I think I reread would help me appreciate the series more.
8. Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle: This series is a long one and one that had a lot of twist and turns in it's second half so I think that a reread for this series is something that is necessary for this series.
9. All the Bright Places: This is a book that I really loved and I find myself wanting to reread even though I just read it a few months ago.
10. Dare Me: This book was a great read and I really loved the writing style that this book had because you got real sense of personality from it and I think it would be a good one to reread.

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Top 7 Underrated Contemporary and 3 Underrated Fantasy

1. It's Kind of a Funny Story: This book I don't really hear people talk about but I really love because of how the main character is struggling in his life with what seems to be depression mixed with anxiety. I really loved the first half of this book and it was shown that it was something as simple of not doing as well as he expected to do in school that caused him to start to spiral downward and I like that it was some over dramatic thing that happened to him that caused this but rather that he didn't feel like he had a real reason to feel the way that he did so he had no clue how to fix himself. I also enjoy the second half of the book were he stays at the hospital and starts to sort himself out and recover as well, I just love the whole book because I felt like it dealt with the topic in a realistic way rather than in the super dramatic way that it's usually dealt.
2. Perfect: I really love this book because it's a story told through four viewpoints and I love when there's multiple viewpoints in a book because I love getting inside as many different characters heads as I can. I love how this book dealt with the concept of perfection by having characters strive for it and either show how destructive it is or come to the realization that perfection isn't possible so they should strive for being happy instead. I love how this book had the characters stories loosely connected with each other and I loved three out of four the viewpoint characters which is pretty good although I hated one of them but he was a very hateable character so I doubt that's uncommon but other than his storyline I loved the book, on a side note I'd really love for Jenna to have a book with her point of view since she's a self-destructive enigma who I'm still super curious about.
3. White Oleander: This book is one that takes place over a large period of time and the character lives many different sorts of lives because she has to keep moving around due to being in the foster care system and she also becomes many different people so it was really interesting to see how much she changed through out the course of the novel. I also really loved the complicated mother daughter relationship that was front and center through out the book, overall this is just a great book and if you only saw the movie you should know they probably cut out about half of it and so you need to read the book because it's so much better.
4. Tricks: This book is another multiple viewpoint book by Ellen Hopkins which I loved this one I believe had five different points of view and the theme that linked the stories together was that having to sell your body. I really found all the stories interesting in this one and I actually enjoyed most of the characters despite them being in such situations that usually make you look down upon people but you see how they got to the point in which they are desperate enough to do so which while not the most cheerful of stories is certainly interesting. The thing is while had my favorite characters while reading the book the one I actually remember the most years later is Whitney who frustrated me to no end because she just kept making the most horrible life decisions so I just wanted to yell at her to value herself a bit more but now looking back I enjoy her storyline a lot more because I realize how her bad decisions just made me more invested in her characters, anyways I just really love this book.
5. Identical: This book is really interesting with how it deals with this really messed up family and it has two sisters who are both a totally mess but one is really open about it and is just very publicly showing all her damage and the other is just as messed up but is quiet about it and doesn't want anyone to see her as less than perfect. I also found how the sisters saw there parents to be interesting in that one hated and loved one parent and the other vice versa which lead to level of understanding of the parents that I wasn't exactly comfortable with but it was really interesting experience and really well written. I also loved how this book made use of the poetry with how sometimes the poems would be in shapes such as a razor blade or a wine bottle I just think that's a really great use of the style.
6. Tilt: This book is told in three points of view and is the last Ellen Hopkins book on this list although this book has three narrators the reason this book makes the list is because of one story which is Shane's. I really was surprised by Shane's story because I thought I had him and his storyline figured out right away in that I thought it would deal with his sexuality or drugs but then it really didn't instead it dealt with him having a crisis of faith and struggling with grief and I really hadn't read anything else like it and I loved it for how raw the emotions felt in his story. His story is one that isn't told very often and I really loved it because he spent so much of the later half of the book spiraling and he half wanted his mom to notice and half didn't want her to notice because he didn't want to burden her so I spent so much of the book just wishing that they could lean on each other rather than suffer in silence. Anyways great book overall and I really would love if you read the book to tell me how you felt about Shane's storyline.
7. Manic Pixie Dreamgirl: This book is one that I loved for it's honesty with how it didn't shy away from the fact that the main character is an asshole for having a girlfriend and being in love with the idea of another girl and not only is the book aware of it but characters through out the book call him out on his behavior and that his pinning isn't something that is seen as romantic when it usually would've been. I also kind often refer to this book as a more honest version of Anna and the French Kiss because of how the main Tyler's behavior is actually pretty similar to St.Clair's only the difference is that this book doesn't romanticize and excuse his behavior like Anna and the French Kiss did with St.Clair in regards to his dealings with Anna and Ellie(St.Clair's girlfriend for 90% of the book) so I recommend this book to Anna and the French Kiss fans because I think it would make you think about the book differently.

1. The Darkest Powers Series: This series has a bit of slow start but once it gets moving in the last half of the first book it gets really exciting and from then on the plot doesn't really ever stop moving which makes for a very exciting read. I also really love the main character Chloe because she's smarter than most heroine's in this genre which is refreshing and I also just like her a lot and her powers are interesting as well. I like that the romance is very much in the background of these books to the point that I would think that calling these books paranormal romances would be a lie because really it's more like paranormal action/adventure.
2. The Looking Glass Wars: This book series is by far the most interesting retelling of Alice and Wonderland that I have ever read. The world of wonderland being a really place that is full of strange magical things that are quite frightening and Aylss being thrown into our world and being seen as insane before she convinces herself after years of living here that her home world is a lie only to have to go back to it and become a bit of a warrior queen is an excellent twist on the classic tale. I also absolutely adore the relationship between Alyss and Dodge which is important in the story but by no means the main focus and I really wished there were more relationships like this one in YA in general.
3. Linger(Wolves of Mercy Falls): While the Wolves of Mercy Falls series is quite popular I don't think anyone seems to appericate Linger as much as I do since most people see this book as a filler book that contains mostly fluff. To me Linger is the character book which deals with the inter workings of the characters minds. This is the book that with Sam's storyline I like to call it what happens after happily ever after with how his curse has been broken but he can't quite believe that he gets to stay in his human skin like he always wished for but never dared to hope for. I liked how Sam still had plenty of flashbacks to the times when he was young and newly became a wolf and how messed up he was and how even though his curse his broken the damage that it caused is still there and I especially loved the moment when he admits to Cole how much of a mess he still is but that he's trying to improve. For Cole this book is when he's at his lowest point with how the whole reason that he's a wolf in the first place is because he can't stand being in his own head because he hate himself so very much. Also I love Cole because he's a deconstruction of a bad boy in that he's that asshole guy who sleeps around, does drugs and drags people down with him and he absolutely hates being that guy but he doesn't know how to stop being that guy so he decides that it's best that he stays out of his own head as much as possible. I love how we see Cole who's half charming confidence and half self loathing and self destruction and I also love this book because it's the one that got Cole to the point of figuring out that he can't runaway from himself forever and he might not actually want to. I also love this book for Isabel who is struggle with the guilt that she killed her brother when she was trying to save him and I really loved how the relationship between her and Cole developed with her seeing him as a means of self destruction and I especially love the moment when she sees that he's starting to heal and she resents him for that because she doesn't want him to get better before she does and I love that because it's so completely toxic and interesting. Anyways I love this book to the point that it's probably one of my favorites of all time and I would really wished people would look at the book more as a character study than a fluffy romance because the book is so much better when you do. Also I made a list a while back of my favorite moments in books and like half of the list was from Linger.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Top 10 Contemporary Books

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower: This is my favorite book of all time so it's no surprise that it tops this list as well. I love that this is book where we just follow the main character Charlie through his freshmen year of high school because the plot is simple but this allows for a bunch of great character stories through out the book. I also just really love the way that Charlie thinks because it's so lovely and not like any other character that I've ever read.
2. Impulse: I really Ellen Hopkins books in general and this is my favorite book of her's that I have read so far. I love that this story starts with our three main characters recovering from attempting suicide and I love how we slowly learn what led them to the point of wanting to kill themselves. I really love that the three characters each have distinct voices and I really love the poetry form the story is told through.
3. Looking For Alaska: I really love how this story starts off as a going off to boarding school and just general teenage issues but half way through the book the story becomes darker and deeper. I also just really love the characters who had so much life to them and I love the way that the book was written as well.
4. Perfect: This book is a companion novel to Impulse and I like that it gave more depth to one of the characters stories in that book and also introduced us to the stories of 4 new characters. I love that this book dealt with the idea of trying to achieve perfection and how since perfection is impossible it's a very damaging thing to do and some of the characters learned this and other didn't.
5. Heist Society: I really love this fun light story about teenage con-artist that has lots of travel, heists, great characters and a nice dose of romance that at no point overtakes the plot which is a nice change compared to most YA novels.
6. Gallagher Girls: This is a nice fun story about girls spy school that has plenty of great friendship moments and mixes teenage girl and spy pretty much perfectly. As the series goes on the story gets more complicated and darker which I'm really enjoying. There's also a bit of romance that I enjoy quite a bit as well.
7. Tricks: This is a story about five teens who somehow end up having to sell themselves for various reasons and I really enjoyed how different each of their stories were and how they were told as well. I feel like this is a book that sounds a bit strange to say that I loved it but I thought it had a really good story to it although it was by no means a happy one.
8. The Fault in Our Stars: This is a book that is known for it's sweet romance and it's sad ending and while I agree that both those things are great parts of the book I also think that it's wicked sense of humor is also one of the major things that makes me love the book.
9. Tilt: While I always love the beautiful poetic writing of Ellen Hopkins I admit that the reason this book makes the list is only because of Shane's story(I didn't care much for Hardly's and Mikayla's stories). His story went in a way I never expected it to and I really loved him having a crisis of faith and just basically slowly falling apart wanting someone to notice and not wanting to bother anyone with his problems at the same time, it was a complicated story and one that I completely adored.
10. It's Kind of a Funny Story: This is the story about how the pressures of achieving became too much for a boy named Craig and how when he couldn't meet the especially high standards that he set for himself he became depressed to the point of being suicidal so he checked himself into the mental health wing of the hospital and slowly began the process of recovery.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Top 4 New to Me Authors 2013

1. John Green: This year I read The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska and I found both books to be great reads. Both books were able to be both heartbreaking and hilarious and were filled with memorable characters. I loved how the humor throughout The Fault in Our Stars was fairly morbid and I like that this book surprised me because it had humor in it and romance rather than just the sadness I was expecting. I loved Looking for Alaska probably even more than I loved The Fault in Our Stars, it was a coming of age story that was very entertaining and then it became a story about accepting death and how there's always going to be some questions that can't be answered and you have to accept that. Anyways both books were well written and I will read more of his books in the future.
2. Marissa Meyer: I read her book Cinder this year and that book had a very unique retelling of Cinderella and had characters and a story that were far more developed than anything that I would have expected out of a story that was based off of this fairytale. The world building in this book is also very brilliant and the whole species of lunars are very interesting and detailed even though not much is known about them.
3. Ned Vizzini: I read his book It's Kind of a Funny Story which was a book about a high school boy who becomes overwhelmed and depressed by his highly competitive new school when he feels his grades aren't good enough and it also shows the beginning of his recovery. I loved this book it was an interesting story and despite it's subject matter it was actually rather humorous at points. I also learned this year that Ned Vizzini co-wrote the Teen Wolf episodes Venomous and Restraint which I enjoyed both of those episodes as well even though neither are my favorite of even season two both were good and I found it cool that he wrote a few episodes for one of my favorite tv shows. I plan to read more of his books in the future.
4. C.S. Lewis: I started to read The Chronicles of Narnia series this year and I really do enjoy the books and how they were written especially since I just love the way older children's books are written.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Book Review: It's Kind of A Funny Story

                                          It's Kind of A Funny Story Review
This book is about a high school freshmen named Craig who is suffering from depression that is brought on by his feelings that he can't compete with everyone else that he's not smart enough and he's constantly worrying about school work rather than actually doing school work. Craig had worked really hard to get into a really hard school but once he actually starts attending school their he feels like he's in over his head and soon everything including eating and sleeping become to hard for him to handle.

Eventually after Craig had been in treatment for awhile and stopped taking his medication he decides that he's going to fail at life anyway so he thinks he should kill himself know to put himself out of his misery but instead of killing himself Craig checks himself into the mental wing of the hospital and while staying there for five days he has some time to think over his life and his choices in a less pressure filled environment and he ends up rediscovering the things he loved about life and he makes the decision to transfer schools.

I really loved this book I think that it did a very good job at describing Craig's depression without making it well depressing it was something that I felt I could somewhat relate to with how sometimes I seem to fail at sleeping and eating and I just feel pathetic about it even though I don't suffer from depression. I just overall loved this book and I really cared for the character of Craig and I was glad to see him start to get better even though he'll never be cured. Please tell me your thoughts on this book.