Week 7 / 2016 - Stardust Review

I have to say that I regret reading Stardust.

*Now Tuesday*
Unfortunately I had to choose between doing work and writing my review, so here I am on Tuesday now writing my review.

One of the things that stardust has going for it is that it is a pretty typical fantasy genre story. It is not hard to follow once you take out all of the over explaining and break it down into sections. Its a pretty easy read (my ebook was only 142 pages), and the audio book is no more than a little over 5 hours long.

The beginning of the story starts with a little backstory. Here you meet Dunstan Thorn, our main characters father. He currently has feelings for a girl in the village, but when the market comes to town he meets a faerie girl with whom he later sleeps with one time. She births a child named Tristran and sends it to Dunstan which is where our story begins.

Tristran's story is not unlike his fathers. Tristran has feelings for a girl in the village named Victoria Forester. Unfortunately she does not feel the same way about Tristran (although he does not know that). One night they are walking together and they both see a star fall from the sky. Tristran says that if he retrieves the star that Victoria will give him whatever he desires, and she agrees. Then Tristran sets out to retrieve the star.

This is where you meet Yvaine, the fallen star. She is the other main character in the story. In the beginning she does not like Tristran, and plans to make their trip as hard as possible. But over time, she begins to develop feelings for him (they are traveling for a long time together to get back the the wall that separates Tristrans village from Faerie). Once Tristran returns to Wall with the star Yvaine, he finds out the truth from Victoria. He then realizes that he actually has feelings for Yvaine and wants to be with her. Even though Yvaine cannot pass the wall out of the land of Faerie, they live happily ever after.

One of the things that I like in a story is a good love arch. Luckily for me Stardust definitely delivered on the one. Although it doesn't start out seeming like Yvaine and Tristran should be together, over time you just begin to root for these two to get together in the end. They are both very kind and I really enjoyed that they did get together in the end.

Overall I would recommend this book to others looking for a quick fantasy read. For those that are fans of the book, you should probably give it a read again. I will say that for some reason it felt like I had already read this book at some point, but oh well cant hurt to read it again.
those that over explain or describe things. One such book that I put in this category is the Hobbit. Outside of that, that book was not too long and was a pretty quick read. (I didn't have time to start reading until Thursday).

Week 6 / 2016 - Divergent Series: Insurgent Review

This week I read Insurgent (the second book in the Divergent Series). I feel that I have burned myself

Much like other things in our lives all good things must come to an end. I felt that Insurgent was no where near as good as Divergent. I don't fault the Author on this one mainly because the story just doesn't seem as interesting as the first one. The story suffers from falling flat at certain points. It definitely has a lot of action, but the story seems to stumble in locations making it tough to get through parts of the book.

Outside of those parts of the book it is pretty good. Fans of the series probably enjoyed it more than I did. I feel like I was hoping that the book was going to be more than it was. I hate some of the decisions or thinking that the characters use in the book (Common sense does not seem to exist). Sometimes I don't understand why characters make the choices that they do, but then I remember if it fits the plot ;).

The book starts where the first book left off, and details the struggle against the Erudite Faction and Dauntless Traitors. The remaining loyal Dauntless elect new leaders (happens latter in the book) and Align with the Factionless to take on the Erudite and Dauntless traitors.

The love story arch between Tris and Tobias felt really bland in this book. I'm not sure what it was about them, but their arch just felt a bit repetitive. The same situations would crop up over and over again with both of them not trusting the other and then they would make up after something happened. Overall it wasn't as good as it was in Divergent.

Overall it wasn't a bad book, but it just seemed to lose the charm that Divergent had. It definitely got a lot more dark than the first book, and there was a definite shift towards the story being much more serious. I feel that this impacted my want to read more of the book. I don't have much more to say on the book other than if you enjoyed Divergent you will find much more of the same thing in Insurgent.
out on young-adult series books for the moment.

Week 5 / 2016 - Divergent Series: Divergent Review

The first month of the 2016 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge is finally over. I have to say that I am actually really pleased with myself about being able to make it this far. I have never considered myself a reader, that is not to say that I don't like books, but it can be hard to find a story that really pulls me in and peaks my interest.

On another note, I seem to have become addicted to the young-adult genre of books. This makes sense as I myself am a young adult, but it still fascinates me none the less. The genre seems to combine some of my favorite themes from fictional and non-fictional stories. Those being: a good love story, some good action, and like-able characters. Those seem like such simple things to care about, but they are some of the things I have and will continue to love about reading.
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I have to say that compared to the movie, the book is about 1000 times better than the movie. After I was a little over half-way through the book I decided to watch the movie again, and I just couldn't finish it. I don't want to say I've become a book snob, but it seems that with certain book to movie adaptations I just wont be able to watch them anymore.

The book seems very well written, and while there are a few similarities between the Hunger Games series and the Divergent series, I think that they are both great books (I should know as I read them back to back from each other). I really liked Tri's character and how she was portrayed in the book. Being sort of an outcast in the Dauntless faction but also fitting in perfectly at the same time. It kind of reminded me of what it was like when we got a new kid in school. She is secretly very strong but it is hidden behind this small and weak looking girl.

Of course we cant forget about Four / Tobias. His character is also really relatable as well. He secretly has a huge crush on Tris. Not only because she was from the same faction as he was, but because they are more alike than even they know. He initially comes off as this tough and silent type of guy who just wants to get his work done in peace, but we later see him bloom into a guy who is in love. I know that sounds cheezy but you would understand what I mean if you read the book as well.

One of my favorite things from the book is Tris and Tobias's love story, or arch, or whatever you want to call it. Im a sucker for a good love story and Divergent certainly has it. Both of them have this outcast kind of personality about them which is why I think they work so well together.

The story itself is pretty well written, and definitely keeps the reader interested throughout the whole thing. The beginning could seem a bit boring to some, but the story moves quickly to the time when Tris becomes Dauntless. I think that, for me at least, the story is interesting in the same way that I found the Hunger Games to be interesting in that it is non-stop action.

I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the young-adult genre (if you haven't already read it), and fans of the sci-fi genre. I would also recommend Insurgent (the next book in the series), but would not recommend Allegiant (the final book). If you want to know why, just google the book on Amazon and read the reviews.