Well Developed Characters, But A Lacking Plot // REVIEW: The Fates' Divide by Veronica Roth

Title: The Fates' Divide
Author: Veronica Roth
Publication Date: April 10th 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 2/2 of the Carve the Mark Duology
I Got A Copy Through: HarperCollins India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Infibeam || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: In the second book of the Carve the Mark duology, globally bestselling Divergent author Veronica Roth reveals how Cyra and Akos fulfil their fates.
The Fates Divide is a richly imagined tale of hope and resilience told in four stunning perspectives.
The lives of Cyra Noavek and Akos Kereseth are ruled by their fates, spoken by the oracles at their births. The fates, once determined, are inescapable.
Akos is in love with Cyra, in spite of his fate: he will die in service to Cyra’s family. And when Cyra’s father, Lazmet Noavek – a soulless tyrant, thought to be dead – reclaims the Shotet throne, Akos believes his end is closer than ever.
As Lazmet ignites a barbaric war, Cyra and Akos are desperate to stop him at any cost. For Cyra, that could mean taking the life of the man who may – or may not – be her father.
For Akos, it could mean giving his own. In a stunning twist, the two will discover how fate defines their lives in ways most unexpected.

READ MY REVIEW OF BOOK 1, Carve The Mark, here

It took me a week to read this book, which, for me, is quite a long time.

In all honestly, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy it. It was dark and delved deeper into war, fate, love, family and blood that I ever imagined it would, and definitely better ‘Carve the Mark’ in many aspects. It was a good book, basically, but for the three problems I had with it:

1)      THERE WAS SO MUCH FILLER. Travelling to new planets and getting SO caught up in the life there, that their mission, whatever it was, seemed forgotten. Basically, filler, and a lot of places I didn’t care about.

2)      I JUST WASN’T INVESTED? I cared about Cisi, Akos, Cyra, Isae and the rest, but I didn’t care ENOUGH to sit at the edge of my seat and wonder if they would survive.

3)      WHERE WAS THE PLOT, REALLY? I struggled with this concept so much, because there was SO MUCH description about medicine making and Ogran lifeforms (a planet in the galaxy) but the actual WAR SCENES and the CONCLUSION were so rushed that I was left… stranded? Wondering WHAT HAPPENED because The Fates’ Divide totally glossed over the most important parts of all. *SIGHS EXASPERATEDLY*

There were a lot of things I LIKED about the book as well, including:

1)      THE DIFFERENTIATING VIEWPOINTS: I absolutely loved that this book was told from five different viewpoints – Cyra and Akos, from book one and also Isae Benesit, Cisi and Eijeh Kereseth. It really showed you what was happening from different corners of the galaxy and I loved, especially, the three new POVs.

2)      EIJEH KERESETH: I LOVED HOW Veronica Roth wrote this boy (no spoilers, don’t worry), especially after everything he endured at the hands of the Noavek family in book one, and I really looked forward to his viewpoints.

3)      ISAE BENESIT: We knew (or I remember) almost nothing of Isae Benesit from Carve the Mark, but I loved her story, as we saw her navigating political alliances and the Assembly of the nine planets. I loved learning about her through both her and Cisi’s points of view.

And that’s it, I guess. I thought The Fates’ Divide was better than Carve the Mark, but I’m not the BIGGEST fan of the series as a whole. (Even though I rated the book higher - I'm just a tougher critic from a year and a half ago)

I definitely felt it could’ve been better in terms of plot, especially at the important parts and that there was LESS FILLER.

3 stars. *waves goodbye* 

Veronica Roth is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Carve the Mark and the Divergent Series (Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, and Four: A Divergent Collection). Her short stories and essays have appeared in Summer Days and Summer Nights, Shards and Ashes, and the upcoming Three Sides of a Heart. The Divergent Series was developed into three major motion pictures.

Veronica grew up outside of Chicago and graduated from Northwestern University. She now lives in Chicago proper with her husband and dog and writes full-time.

Sign up for Veronica's newsletter to hear news, writing thoughts, book recommendations, etc.

Have you read either of Veronica Roth's series'? Which one do you like better?

Have you read the Carve the Mark duology? What do you think of it?

I'd absolutely love to hear from you!

 

Lush, Magical, Addicting // REVIEW: The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Title: The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Publication Date: April 26th 2016
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 4 on 4 of the Raven Cycle
I Got A Copy Through: Scholastic India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || Wordery || Infibeam || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: The fourth and final installment in the spellbinding series from the irrepressible, #1 New York Times bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater.
All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. 

There's always something nostalgic about coming to the end of a series. You've been waiting years and years for this moment, and when you flip past the last page, you honestly can't believe it's over. 

This is currently me, with The Raven King. It's so strange to think that a series I've followed for years is OVER, because it certainly doesn't feel like it. I read the last 200 pages in one fell swoop, and it just got over SO FAST, you know? I keep hoping that someone will pop up from behind a bush and say "It's not over! WE GOT YOU GOOD! Here's the next 10 books."

I'll move out of my slightly delusional, slightly denial filled phase and tell you what I thought about the book: 

MY THOUGHTS: 

1. I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR MAGGIE STIEFVATER'S WRITING TO GET BETTER BUT HOLY COW IT DID. From the very first page, she gorgeously drew us back into her magically realistic world and I WAS ABSOLUTELY ENTRANCED.

2. My main problem with book three, Blue Lily, Lily Blue was the PACE. It was just so slow with so many unnecessary tiny plot developments and I was scared that The Raven King would be the same. IT WASN'T. I was sucked in from the first page with some delicious writing and plot lines and just the anticipation that THIS WAS THE BOOK WE'D FIND GLENDOWER. 

3. I officially have a new favourite couple in YA Literature that take me breath away every time they interact or kiss or hang out. SPOILER: 

"Ronan wrenched his tie loose. "You working after school?""With a dreamer."He held Ronan's gaze over his locker door. School had improved....Adam smiled cheerily. Roman would start wars and burn cities over that true smile, elastic and amiable. "

***

"His feelings for Adam were an oil spill; he'd let them overflow and now there wasn't a damn place in the ocean that wouldn't catch fire if he dropped a match."

LIKE I SAID. I FELL, AND I FELL HARD. Please tell me this means that Adam will be there in the Ronan Trilogy because NEED. HELLO? I will combust into a puddle of happiness and feels to have an entire TRILOGY about these two. 

Buy this quote from Angelina Werner's RedBubble

4. The ending was very... Abrupt. There was a particular revelation about one of the Raven Boys that was SHOCKING but other than that, I found it sub-par and lacking the greatness I expected from it. Still, with Adam and Ronan and my heart soaring, I honestly didn't care much for this aspect of the ending. 

5. I don't know WHAT I felt about certain characters including the Laumoniers, Piper Greenmantle and ESPECIALLY Henry Cheng. I sort of begrudged them a space in the story, but I did t care for them at all. 

Let's be honest, I'm TRASH for this series. It's one of the best out there, in my opinion BECAUSE it's so different. I cannot recommend it enough because when you fall, you will FALL HARD AND THERE WILL BE NO COMING BACK AND, really, ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU WANT ANYWAY? 

The Raven Cycle is an addicting, magical, lush, spellbinding quartet that will leave you gasping for more. 5 stars. 

New York Times bestselling author of The Shiver Trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Artist. Driver of things with wheels. Avid reader.

All of Maggie Stiefvater's life decisions have been based around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you're a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical editor (all of which she's tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists. She's made her living as one or the other since she was 22. She now lives an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with her charmingly straight-laced husband, two kids, two neurotic dogs, and a 1973 Camaro named Loki.

HAVE YOU READ THIS SERIES? 

Are you AS in love with Adam and Ronan as I am? What is your favourite part of this series?

ARE YOU EXCITED FOR THE RONAN TRILOGY?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

 

Bloody, Insane, Dark, Perfect // REVIEW: Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

Title: Godsgrave (The Nevernight Chronicle #2)
Author: Jay Kristoff
Publication Date: September 7th 2017
Publisher: Harper Voyager UK
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 2 on 3 of The Nevernight Chronicle
I Got A Copy Through: Harper Collins India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery ||  Flipkart || Snapdeal || Infibeam || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: A ruthless young assassin continues her journey for revenge in this new epic fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Jay Kristoff.
Mia Corvere has found her place among the Blades of Our Lady of Blessed Murder, but many in the Red Church hierarchy think she’s far from earned it. Plying her bloody trade in a backwater of the Republic, she’s no closer to ending the men who destroyed her familia; in fact, she’s told directly that Consul Scaeva is off limits. But after a deadly confrontation with an old enemy, Mia suspicions about the Red Church’s true motives begin to grow.
When it’s announced that Scaeva will be making a rare public appearance at the conclusion of the grand games in Godsgrave, Mia defies the Church and sells herself to a gladiatorial collegium for a chance to finally end him. Upon the sands of the arena, Mia finds new allies, bitter rivals, and more questions about her strange affinity for the shadows. But as conspiracies unfold within the collegium walls, and the body count rises, Mia will be forced to choose between love and revenge, and uncover a secret that could change the very face of her world.
Set in the world of Nevernight, which Publishers Weekly called “absorbing in its complexity and bold in its bloodiness,” Godsgrave will continue to thrill and satisfy fantasy fans everywhere.

Jay Kristoff is an EVIL MASTERMIND that manages to warp my perceptions of what great books are every time I dive into another one of his masterpieces. BASICALLY, GODSGRAVE AND THIS ENTIRE SERIES WAS BRILLIANT AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF AFTER THAT CLIFF HANGER OF AN ENDING.

I’ve been holding on to my review copy of Godsgrave (Thank you Harper India!) for a while now because I was waiting for the perfect time to put myself through ALL THE INSANITY that makes up The Nevernight Chronicles.

Godsgrave, the second book in this trilogy, was INTENSE, even MORE #StabStabStab than the first book (is that even possible?) and really showed you the Republic of Itreya in a brutal, harsh light. There was so much Roman culture like Gladiators and the very republic itself and IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST WORKS OF (BLOOD FILLED) LITERATURE I’VE EVER READ.

MY THOUGHTS:

1.       If you’ve read Nevernight, or even my review of Nevernight, you’ll know that the world and the book had a slow start, and it took a while for me to really get into the series. Once I did, though, Nevernight was one of my few five star reads of last year and Godsgrave found it’s wat on my most anticipated list!

2.       Godsgrave rivalled Nevernight when it came to pacing, the book throwing you into the fast paced deep end from the very first chapter. The pace and with it, the bloodshed, gore and dark humour worked perfectly in co-ordination with each other and it resulted in this EVIL, STABBY MASTERPIECE.

3.       THE CLIFF HANGER ENDING AT THE END OF GODSGRAVE WAS 32 DIFFERENT KINDS OF INSANE. Do you know how normal plot twists have only one major reveal at the end that makes your jaw drop? Godsgrave had FOUR reveals, at the very least. I sped read my way through the last few chapters and then flipped backwards and read it all again because THE ENDING WAS STUNNING AND TWISTED AND I LOVED IT AND ALSO NEED BOOK THREE.

4.       I loved how much more of the Republic we saw in Godsgrave. It really highlighted the problem of slavery that Iterya was built upon, the few rich feeding off the many, gladiatii and everything else.

5.       I also loved that this book was SO INCLUSIVE, and despite the fact that the Republic is a less than ideal place to live in, it was still completely accepting of absolutely anyone on the LGBT spectrum because it was the NORM in this world.

6.       I CANNOT EVEN EXPLAIN HOW THE STORY, THE WORLD, MIA, MISTER KINDLY AND ECLIPSE EVOLVED IN THIS BOOK BECAUSE EVEN SAYING A SINGLE THING IS SPOILING IT, BUT IT WAS ALL SO SO BRILLIANT. I loved reading each and every of the 400+ pages in this book because it kept your undivided attention throughout.

7.       I SIMPLY MUST MENTION ALL THE SASS IN THIS BOOK because it made a laugh, snort and FALL IN LOVE. Yes for ominous shadow creatures that eat fear and spill sass like there’s no tomorrow.

If you can’t already tell, I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Godsgrave. Jay Kristoff somehow managed to OUTDO himself with the book and I am so in awe of every book he writes. 5 Blood Encrusted Stars. 

Jay Kristoff is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of THE NEVERNIGHT CHRONICLE, THE ILLUMINAE FILES and THE LOTUS WAR. He is the winner of four Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, nominee for the David Gemmell Morningstar and Legend awards, named multiple times in the Kirkus and Amazon Best Teen Books list and published in over thirty countries, most of which he has never visited. He is as surprised about all of this as you are. He is 6’7 and has approximately 13030 days to live. He abides in Melbourne with his secret agent kung-fu assassin wife, and the world’s laziest Jack Russell.

He does not believe in happy endings.

Have you read the Nevernight series? What do you think of it?

Are JAY KRISTOFF and all of his INSANE books on your Auto-Buy List?

What are some of your favourite books with Assassins?

I'd love to hear from you!

 

A Dark, Inclusive, Diverse and Magical Book // ARC Review: Reign of the Fallen by Sarah Glenn Marsh

Title: Reign of the Fallen
Author: Sarah Glenn Marsh
Publication Date: January 23rd 2018
Publisher: Razorbill Books
Part of a Series?: Yes, Book 1 on 2 of the Reign of the Fallen Duology
I Got A Copy Through: PRH International (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon US || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Foyles || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Odessa is one of Karthia's master necromancers, catering to the kingdom's ruling Dead. Whenever a noble dies, it's Odessa's job to raise them by retrieving their souls from a dreamy and dangerous shadow world called the Deadlands. But there is a cost to being raised--the Dead must remain shrouded, or risk transforming into zombie-like monsters known as Shades. If even a hint of flesh is exposed, the grotesque transformation will begin.
A dramatic uptick in Shade attacks raises suspicions and fears among Odessa's necromancer community. Soon a crushing loss of one of their own reveals a disturbing conspiracy: someone is intentionally creating Shades by tearing shrouds from the Dead--and training them to attack. Odessa is faced with a terrifying question: What if her necromancer's magic is the weapon that brings Karthia to its knees?

Reign of the Fallen WAS AN LGBT NECROMANCER FILLED DARK FANTASY NOVEL with the added bonus of zombies (!), stabbing (!), the Dead (!) and SO MUCH MAYHEM that I fell in love within the first thirty pages and I NEED MORE.

I’d been hearing the hype for Reign of the Fallen for a WHILE before I requested it and the lovely folks at PRH International sent it to me. It took me a while to pick it up from my overflowing TBR Pile but now that I did, I am completely in AWE of this STUNNING, BADASS novel and world.

Let’s break it down:

1.       Reign of the Fallen OFFICIALLY holds the record for Book that Made Me Fall In Love The Quickest (EVER) because within thirty pages I’d already connected with Evander and Odessa and ALREADY fallen in love with them as individuals and together.

2.       THIS BOOK BROKE MY HEART. I fell in love and then a third into the book, it managed to break my heart as well. This book had such a powerful representation of grief, depression and that black pit of hopelessness and Sarah Glenn Marsh’s writing really made you feel it all.

3.       A HUGE YES FOR SOME BRILLIANT BI REP, and a world where loving WHOMEVER you wanted was accepted as the norm. We rarely ever see this in fantasy novels but I LOVED IT SO MUCH. Yes for inclusive worlds and a bigger yes for accepting characters.

4.       The supporting cast in this book were all SUCH fun to get to know. I loved Jax, Simeon, Meredy, Valoria and everyone else and I honestly wish that we had MORE of them.

5.       THE MAGIC IN THIS BOOK WAS STUNNING. There were so many kinds of mages including Weather mages, mages with Sight over animals and of course, Necromancers. I loved the politics and magic that were so prevalent in this book, especially the debate of whether the Dead should be brought back and I loved every second of it.

Reign of the Fallen is a brilliant, dark, inclusive diverse book with different magic, zombies, the living Dead and everything you’ve been looking for in a fantasy.  

Sarah Glenn Marsh writes young adult novels and children's picture books.

She lives, writes, and paints things in Virginia, supported by her husband, four rescued greyhounds, three birds, and many fish.

If she could, she'd adopt ALL THE ANIMALS.

Oh, and she'd love to be your friend here on Goodreads, or over on Twitter http://twitter.com/SG_Marsh!

What are some of your favourite Dark YA Fantasies? 

What are some of your favourite Diverse Books with Great Representation? 

Have you read/ are you excited for Reign of the Fallen? What did you think of it?

 

An Exploratory Novel with Intense Writing // REVIEW: All The Dirty Parts by Daniel Handler

Title: All The Dirty Parts
Author: Daniel Handler
Publication Date: August 29th 2017
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Bloomsbury India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Flipkart || Infibeam || Foyles || Waterstones || WHSmith || Kobo || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) delivers the eagerly anticipated companion piece to his award-winning bestseller Why We Broke Up--a gutsy, exciting novel that looks honestly at the erotic lives and impulses of an all-too-typical young man.
Cole is a boy in high school. He runs cross country, he sketches in a sketchbook, he jokes around with friends. But none of this quite matters, next to the allure of sex. "Let me put it this way,†? he says, "Draw a number line, with zero is, you never think about sex, and ten is, it's all you think about, and while you are drawing the line, I am thinking about sex.†?
Cole fantasizes about whomever he's looking at. He consumes and shares pornography. And he sleeps with a lot of girls--girls who seem to enjoy it at the time and seem to feel bad about it afterwards. Cole is getting a reputation around school--a not quite savory one--which leaves him adrift and hanging out with his best friend. Which is when something startling begins to happen between them--another kind of adventure, unexpected and hot, that might be what he's been after all this time. And then he meets Grisaille.
A companion piece to Handler's Why We Broke Up, the bestselling Michael J. Printz Honor novel, All The Dirty Parts is an unblinking take on the varied and ribald world of teenage desire in a culture of unrelenting explicitness and shunted communication, where queer can be as fluid as consent, where sex feels like love, but no one knows what love feels like. Structured in short chapters recalling Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation or Mary Robison's Why Did I Ever, the novel gives us a tender, brutal, funny, and always intoxicating portrait of an age in which the whole world is tilted through the lens of sex. "There are love stories galore,†? Cole tells us, "and we all know them. This isn't that. The story I'm typing is all the dirty parts.†?

The minute I read the synopsis of this book, I was intrigued, to say the very least. I’ve always thought that the more knowledge adolescents have about sex, the more informed decisions they can make about any matter relating to it.

Which is to say, I went into this expecting it to be something GOOD. I finished the entire book in little more than an hour and, at this point, I’M HONESTLY NOT SURE HOW TO REVIEW THIS BOOK AT ALL.

It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever read before and like the description promises, it was purely about sex, from the mind of a ‘horny’ teenager talking only about ‘All The Dirty Parts’ in a cut prose.

MY THOUGHTS:

1.       Despite the fact that the description of this book PROMISES that this isn’t a love story of any sort, and that it only contains all the dirty parts, I couldn’t help but shake the feeling that I wanted something MORE from the main character in terms of character and development.

2.       I guess I didn’t want a love story, per se, but I wanted a little more of a STORY instead of just descriptions of sex.

3.       I really liked Daniel Handler’s writing style. I’ve seen Lemony Snicket on TV with family, but I haven’t actually read any of his books. It was definitely an interesting style of writing with broken, cut away prose that reads SOMEWHAT like verse, but isn’t. The writing DEFINITELY suited the plot of the book, and that made my reading experience that much better.

4.       The descriptions in this book were all kinds of crazy. At first, I was a little shocked at how graphic everything about this book was but I got over that. There was also a lot of diversity in terms of same sex relationships and a lot of experimentation which I really liked.

5.       Despite the fact that there WAS a same sex relationship, I absolutely HATED the way Cole treated his best friend. He honestly acted like a Grade A Dirtbag and I felt horrible for him.

6.       ALSO, CAN I HONESTLY TALK ABOUT HOW COLE’S MONOLOGUES AT THE ENDING CONFUSED ME? Because they did, and I STILL DON’T KNOW WHAT TO MAKE OF HIM.

I HAVE to give this book points for Originality and while it stayed true to its title and description I can’t help but with that there was a little more to Cole as a character. 3 stars. 

Daniel Handler is the author of the novels The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs and, most recently, the Michael J. Printz Honor-winning Why We Broke Up, a collaboration with noted illustrator Maira Kalman. He also worked with Kalman on the book Girls Standing on Lawns and Hurry Up and Wait (May 2015). Under the name Lemony Snicket he has written the best-selling books series All The Wrong Questions as well as A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has sold more than 60 million copies and was the basis of a feature film. Snicket is also the creator of several picture books, including the Charlotte Zolotow Award-winning The Dark, illustrated by Jon Klassen. His newest picture book is 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy illustrated by Lisa Brown.

Born and raised in San Francisco, Handler attended Wesleyan University and returned to his hometown after graduating. He co-founded the magazine American Chickens! with illustrator Lisa Brown (with whom he soon became smitten), and they moved to New York City, where Handler eventually sold his first novel after working as a book and film critic for several newspapers. He continued to write, and he and his wife returned to San Francisco, where they now live with their son.

Have you read any of Daniel Handler's books? What did you think of them? 

Which one is your favourite?

Have you by any chance read All The Dirty Parts? What do you think of it?

I Expected More // REVIEW: Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

Title: Ramona Blue
Author: Julie Murphy
Publication Date: May 9th 2017
Publisher: Balzer + Bray (Harper Collins)
Part of a Series?: No, A Standalone
I Got A Copy Through: Harper Collins India (THANK YOU!)
Buy Links: Amazon IN || Amazon US || Amazon UK || Barnes and Noble || The Book Depository || Wordery || Snapdeal || WHSmith || Kobo || Books A Million || Chapters Indigo || Google Books

Blurb Description: Ramona was only five years old when Hurricane Katrina changed her life forever.
Since then, it’s been Ramona and her family against the world. Standing over six feet tall with unmistakable blue hair, Ramona is sure of three things: she likes girls, she’s fiercely devoted to her family, and she knows she’s destined for something bigger than the trailer she calls home in Eulogy, Mississippi. But juggling multiple jobs, her flaky mom, and her well-meaning but ineffectual dad forces her to be the adult of the family. Now, with her sister, Hattie, pregnant, responsibility weighs more heavily than ever.
The return of her childhood friend Freddie brings a welcome distraction. Ramona’s friendship with the former competitive swimmer picks up exactly where it left off, and soon he’s talked her into joining him for laps at the pool. But as Ramona falls in love with swimming, her feelings for Freddie begin to shift too, which is the last thing she expected. With her growing affection for Freddie making her question her sexual identity, Ramona begins to wonder if perhaps she likes girls and guys or if this new attraction is just a fluke. Either way, Ramona will discover that, for her, life and love are more fluid than they seem. 

I read Julie Murphy’s Dumplin over a year and a half ago, and I fell in love with Willowdean and her world. It was also my first review copy from an Indian publisher, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Which is why I had HUGE expectations for Ramona Blue, and it was one of the first book I started reading from my TBR that suddenly seems to have multiplied itself threefold.

The first two thirds of Ramona Blue was slow, to say the least. I like the message that the story was trying to convey but through the course of 400 pages, I struggled and I mean I really struggled to connect with all the characters.

I found myself bargaining in my head, how about just 50 more pages now? Well, come on, you can do 50 more and so on and the end result is that I simply didn’t enjoy it.

Let’s do a list of what I liked and didn’t:

1.       THE FLUID SEXUALITY: It was one of the highlights of this book for me. I love that no matter what, there were no labels being thrown around after Ramona noticed that she liked Freddie (apart from girls) romantically too. Being put under a label wasn’t a part of, or even a little bit, of what Ramona Blue was about and I absolutely love that.

2.       THE SWIMMNIG: I’m a swimmer. I used to do it competitively and although I gave that up a while ago, I know what it feels like when Ramona says that any workout feels only like the beginning. I love the water and I love that swimming was FINALLY incorporated in a Young Adult book is a serious way.

Things That Could Have Better:

  1.       THE PACE: Honestly, this book was SO SO SLOW. It has 430 pages of “self-discovery” but so much of it was filler. Like I said in the beginning, I kept bargaining with myself to read a few more pages, and eventually made it to the end.

Even the part where Ramona “realises” after 300 pages of being dead against it, to leave her home and pregnant sister and go to college is because her sister spites her and chooses to have her boyfriend in the OR instead of Ramona. It all felt so subpar.

  2.       THE CHARACTERS: Like I said, it was SUCH A STRUGGLE for me to connect with ANY of the characters. All of them felt like underdeveloped secondary characters and I didn’t feel anything for any of them. Occasionally, there was a fun scene like the time where everyone meets Adam’s parents but AAH I just couldn’t with any of them.

I love what this book stood for, I like the idea behind this book and I LOVE THE FACT THAT SEXUALITY WAS FINALLY PORTRAYED AS SOMETHING THAT COULD BE FLUID but that was all. Everything else about this book was subpar and I can only wish that I had connected with the characters. 3 stars. 

 Julie Murphy is a potty-mouthed Southern belle who was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but found her home in Fort Worth, Texas. She’s never seen Star Wars, but has yet to meet a made for TV movie she didn’t love. When she’s not writing, Julie can be found cruising Costco for free samples, watching Sister Act 2, stalking drag queens on instagram, obsessing over the logistics of Mars One, and forever searching for the perfect slice of cheese pizza. She lives with her bearded husband, two vicious cats, and one pomeranian that can pass as a bear cub. DUMPLIN’ is her second young adult novel.

Here’s a link to a more serious and less nonsensical bio for grownup things.

Julie is represented by John Cusick of Folio Literary Management.

Have you read Side Effects May Vary, Dumplin' or Ramona Blue? What did you think of them and which one is your favourite?

Are you excited that Dumplin' is getting turned into a movie?

What are some of the best YA Contemporary books you've read this year?

I can't wait to hear from you <3!