Feaure & Follow (5)

It's Friday! Another week has gone by, and I managed to slip in a little revision here and there, my tests will start next Friday, but I think that won't affect the schedule much. Aside from the meme post, I actually have a review going up today, tomorrow and on Sunday. I know, lots of reviews, well, I am squeezing in as much reading as I could these days, since my reading will slow down during tests, and I have a few requested e-books that I had to review, so, look forward to a weekend of reviews from Chillin' With Books! :)

Q: When you step out of your USUAL genre what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

Since I am Chinese, so I read Chinese books when I am not reading YA like there's no tomorrow. These Chinese books are usually books discussing social issues, like "helicopter parents" and such. I don't know why I like these kind of books so much, I just thought it was kind of fun reading all about the shocking data featured in the books as an accompaniment, they look so unreal yet they were true numbers and cases, and I just like reading about different social issues that I have an interest in. Since it's in Chinese, I don't think telling you the best book in that genre is is gonna help, but I do it anyway. 怪獸家長 by 屈穎妍 is one of my favorites. It's actually about "helicopter parents", even though I am just a student and no where near having a child, I think the cases in there is so ridiculous that I had a lot of fun reading it and think about it too ;)

Review: Once a Witch By Carolyn MacCullough (Witch #1)

Title: Once A Witch (Witch #1)

Author: Carolyn MacCullough

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance, Paranormal, Fantasy

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books

Synopsis/Summary: Tamsin Greene comes from a long line of witches, and she was supposed to be one of the most Talented among them. But Tamsin's magic never showed up. Now seventeen, Tamsin attends boarding school in Manhattan, far from her family. But when a handsome young professor mistakes her for her very Talented sister, Tamsin agrees to find a lost family heirloom for him. The search—and the stranger—will prove to be more sinister than they first appeared, ultimately sending Tamsin on a treasure hunt through time that will unlock the secret of her true identity, unearth the sins of her family, and unleash a power so vengeful that it could destroy them all. This is a spellbinding display of storytelling that will exhilarate, enthrall, and thoroughly enchant.

Find the Book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

 

    When I picked up Once A Witch and went into it, I never once expected it to be a time travel novel, but I when do, I smiled. This book is good!

    The plot was a little flat and childish to me at the first half of the book,but in the other half, when things picked up, I genuinely enjoyed it. I like intricate and complex plots, so needless to say a book that dealt with the ripple effect of time-traveling is right up my alley. I liked to think about how things that the main characters did in the past would affect them and how. Of course, that's just me doing some excessive thinking, because MacCullough explained things to us very clearly. So even if you're the kind of person that just went along with the book and doesn't do too much thinking in between, you'll understand the plot and wouldn't be too confused. :)

    The book was also very fast-paced, a lot happened in the first half but then again, I always underestimate the amount of plot development an amazing author can do with 140 pages. However, there's definitely not enough plot twist and the climax wasn't gripping enough. Usually by the climax, I am racing with my brain to try to catch up with how fast my eyes were reading, but this book didn't make me feel like this. And there's no knock-your-socks-off moment at all.

    I must note that I love MacCullough's writing very much. The sentences she wrote painted a poetic picture in my head, and though it was a little hard to get used to at first, since most author is kind of straight to the point with the exclusion of describing surroundings. But MacCullough described her characters' actions with such beautiful words and comparisons, I can't help but feel intrigued in her writing :)

    Needless to say the world-building of this book is amazing. With a time travel plot, an author must be very careful. That means they can't treat time travel lightly, giving it only mild disturbance in the future, because as you know, there's a ripple effect with time traveling. McCullough handled it nicely, as most of the later parts of the plot were sprang from the ripple effects of time traveling. She did a good job to break down some time traveling laws in the characters' conversations without being too educational and practical. The time travel in this book wasn't confusing, yet it was good and handled nicely.

    I felt that there were not nearly enough character development in this book. It being so fast-paced, there were not many time to develop characters in terms of describing their feelings and addressing their changes throughout the story.

    Tamsin is the main protagonist of this book. I thought she was very whiny at first, and she was. She was born in a powerful witch family with no power and a perfect older sister, why wouldn't she be grumpy and whiny? But since she was a 17-year-old, I thought she would handle things more maturely, I guess I was wrong. Not that I don't like Tamsin, but I thought that her characteristics in the first half of the book was not fitting for her age. Lying just so she could prove herself? Getting in a fight with a child about using her Talent? Seriously, she was acting like a whiny brat and I couldn't stand it. Luckily, she evolved throughout the book and became more mature and assured with herself.

    Rowena was the evil older sister of Tamsin. Well, she was not necessarily evil, just that Tamsin thinks that she was oh so perfect and have everything she wanted handed to her. Actually, that was true. I have an older sister, and she was kind of like that too, not the perfect part, but the having everything she wanted part. She was away to study aboard now but I would never forgot how selfish she was when we were child, and how unreasonable she was treating me, yelling at me all the time, criticizing my every. Move. Okay, now my anger is flaring up... Anyway, I get why Tamsin didn't like her older sister very much. Rowena didn't grow much as a character either...

    Gabriel was the love interest. I liked him, he was easy-going and funny. I am not sure how and when he fell in love with Tamsin though. Their romance was just so right, and MacCullough just didn't bother to tell us how Gabriel fell in love and how Tamsin developed the same feelings towards him. Basically, they were acting all like best-friends within most of the book, and then they kissed, but they never talked about it. (At least not in this book) I like their romance, but it really was feeling kind of like it wasn't developed enough.

    I would give this book 3.8 stars. The plot was intriguing and fast-paced, not very shocking though. I like the time traveling but just that aspect couldn't really brought up my rating for the plot of the book which was 3.5 stars. The world-building was great, the idea of Talents wasn't unheard of, it was just named differently, but I like it. And I like how the world was kind of constructed based on the time-traveling, so I gave 5 stars to world-building. The characters were definitely not in depth enough and some characters were definitely acting out of their age, so I gave characters a 3.5 star. 

    I would recommend this book to YA paranormal readers. This one should definitely be shelved as paranormal powers (If you don't know what I am talking about, click this post where I discuss different kinds of paranormal). 

Rating: 3.8 stars!

This book was actually about witches, the witches in this book all have a special power they were born with that was called the Talent. So what Talent would you want to have? Do you want to try time traveling? Would you dare to do it? Discuss! I am waiting for your comments ;)

Books? That's My Thing!: Different Kinds of Paranormal

    If you look at the reviews of books that I've wrote, you'll know that I am a big fan of paranormal, so this week, I decided to talk about all things paranormal!

    In YA paranormal books, there are different kinds of paranormal, I'd to classify them into paranormal creatures and paranormal powers, so let's talk about my feelings/opinion towards each kind of paranormal (Okay, I've used this word way too many times within one paragraph).

   Paranormal creatures: vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, fearies and whatnot. These kind of creatures takes a resident spot in YA paranormal books, while some of them, like vampires, are sort of an over-kill in the YA world, some are still undiscovered treasure, like demons. I've seen very little book that used a demon as the main protagonist and the only one that I've read with a demon as a protagonist is the Hex Hall Trilogy. I freaking <3 that trilogy! But not because of the demons, I like its wit. I am sure there are more demon books out there, but compared to vampires and werewolves, I think it's a safe bet that demons appears way less in YA books.

    As for my preference on different kinds of creatures... Well, I must say I don't really like vampires very much. So don't tell me something like, "There's a vampire in this book! Check it out!", 'cause I'm not sold on the vampire, however, I would read any vampire book as long as it's great. I feel the same towards werewolves, so no comment there. My favorite kind of paranormal creatures would have to be... Actually, I don't know, maybe a ghost? 'Cause it usually have a tragic past that's juicy to read and I just reread Anna Dressed In Blood, so... let's move on!

    Paranormal powers: psychometry, psychic and magic are three that I can think of, nothing more... Maybe you have more? Tell me in the comments. I actually prefer paranormal powers to paranormal creatures. Personally, I think with powers there are more possibilities. If you're a vampire, then all you can have are the basic vamp skills, but with paranormal powers, there can be more variations, more discoveries of new powers. Of course, that's just my thought, I know many people would prefer creatures to powers.

   Classification can hardly be perfect, and there's a gray area with dividing paranormal powers in two sides too. Exhibit A, I still can't decide whether Witches & Warlocks belongs to creatures or powers. They are born with magic right? That means they are not all the same with humans, but magic can also be an acquired power, so which one does it belong? Blood witches sound like it should be creatures, but what about characters that practice magic and acquired it? Does the acquiring turns them into creatures too?

    Exhibit B, I've seen books that feature shape-shifting as a power or as a creature. We use the term shape-shifters, personally, I think that means they are different with humans and therefore can be counted as creatures, but like the example with witches, some books portray it as a power. The book Otherkin by Nina Berry made it sound like shape-shifting is a birth right, not acquired. However, the famous Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling portrayed the power of shape-shifting as an acquired power.

    As seen from the two examples, there are definitely a gray area between paranormal creatures and paranormal powers. So, let's discuss:

What do you think of my classification? Do you have another way of classifying YA paranormal books? Which one do you prefer, powers or creatures? Or do you just downright hate paranormals? Comment below, I really want to discuss this with you guys :)

Review: Jenny Pox By J.L. Bryan (The Paranormals #1)

Title: Jenny Pox (The Paranormals #1)

Author: J. L. Bryan

Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Paranormal

Publisher: Self-published (Author's site: www.jlbryanbooks.com)

Synopsis/Summary: Eighteen-year-old Jenny Morton has a horrific secret: her touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague, the "Jenny pox." She lives by a single rule: Never touch anyone. A lifetime of avoiding any physical contact with others has made her isolated and painfully lonely in her small rural town.

Then she meets the one boy she can touch. Jenny feels herself falling for Seth...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the deadly pox inside her to confront his ruthless and manipulative girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.

Not recommended for readers under eighteen.

Find the book on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

   Okay, if anyone actually read the basic information before reading this review, you would see that it was said that this book was not recommended for readers under eighteen. And I shamefully tell you, I haven't read the blurb before reading the book and let just say, that line was quite wise :P This books contained some graphic sex scenes that would not be seen in YA, violence of some sort and there are several mentions of drugs and alcohol, but nothing major. This book also have religious contents, with the religion portrayed as bad and corrupted. So readers, beware before you decide to read this book.

    The book was labeled as a horror book somehow, personally, I didn't think it was all that scary. It did get quite disturbing towards the end though, imagine a the results of a zombie attack (this book has nothing to do with zombies, don't worry, no spoiler here), that's disturbingness of that scene. When I read that part, I just read the words without thinking too much of the scenario, so it was okay. A friendly remainder, when you read this book, don't think too much about the scenes, especially towards the end. That said, it wasn't the kind of "horror" I was expecting, just a big bloody mess, so I didn't really get scared or scarred after reading it.

    Back to the plot, this is actually a really good book. The plot is well thought out, and have some foreshadowings. I feel like there are 2 climaxes in this book, one during the middle and one towards the end and got me engaged. There's not much of a plot twist though, but the urge to keep reading is enough for me. However, although officially, the books is just 309 pages for the Kindle edition, I felt like it was much longer. I felt like I have just read a 500 page book when I finished, I enjoyed it a lot, but the pages didn't flow by. There were also some excessive scenes, like a particularly sex scene somewhere in the book. It means nothing, it does nothing to push the plot forward and there was actually no follow up after that scene. Luckily, it was just a chapter, so that didn't kill my enjoyment of the book.

    I like the ending of this book. It was a bitter-sweet ending, with the whole grim and heavyset of this book, it was pretty satisfying.

     Jenny can kill with her touch, it's the power that she had been born with, and there are other characters in this book that has special power with their touches too. These origin of these powers weren't explained until the end of the book. Personally, I didn't really thought much about where their powers came from, I was more focused on the plot. The revelation of it was a good addition to the book and made the world-building a lot more completed, it was nice touch. However, it did come in one pretty short chapter, so prepared to have some big information being thrown at you.

    The atmosphere of this book is very, very heavy. I didn't even noticed how grim it was until I finished the book and kept listening to sad and depressing songs. :( The atmosphere fitted the story well. What with the unfortunate experiences and hardships Jenny went through, it was perfect for readers to really blend into Jenny's world.

    There are three main characters in this book: Jenny, Seth and Ashleigh.

    I really felt for Jenny. Her life.. Well there was no other way to say this, it was a living hell. She was bullied, without friends and can't even fall in love (she'd kill anyone who touches her). With her family in poverty and her mother dead, Jenny really can't afford to lose anything anymore. She was treated badly by almost everyone in town, even the adults thought she was a freak and disliked her. She was treated unfairly for many times and that really aroused my anger. It also portrayed the ugly side of humanity really well, a little extreme, but not exactly unreasonable. All of this combined, we have a tragic main character. And like I said, I really felt bad for her, especially when she was so sweet and kind, it's just that no one wanted to know her and be near her. In a way, her growth throughout the book was kind of like a YA contemporary story, and I am so glad she was way stronger and happier by the end of the book. I also learned that she can get pretty scary if she want, so don't mess with her!

    Seth is a pretty nice guy. I like him a lot. He treated Jenny pretty well, and he didn't judge Jenny at the start of the book. He and Jenny were kind of in a insta-love, but I liked it, those two fit together pretty well and were destined to be together.

     Finally, Ashleigh, I hated her guts, I wanted her dead from the start of the book. Through the whole book she picked on Jenny for no apparent reason. She was just a generally horrible person with a gift that she didn't deserve and was a hypocrite. She was such a hypocrite that I wanted to personally struggle her with my bare hands. On the outside, she was all sweet, cheery, considerate, innocent and whatsoever, but on the inside, she's the most manipulative character I've ever read. She span vicious lie, only used people to her own advantage and was generally cold-blooded. There was nothing to like about her. She was just born a b*tch, so readers, don't hold hope for her to change or actually do anything good, because she would NEVER do that.

    I would give this book 4.5 stars. It was a good and engaging story but I felt a little uncomfortable reading some the parts. I would recommend this to New Adult readers. Yes, that new genre aimed at college readers. One thing that I wanted to complain that has nothing to do with the story is that the title actually read kind of silly. "Jenny Pox"? Didn't that just make you want to giggle? Or is it just me? But, don't let the title fool you, things got pretty ugly in this book.

This is a pretty bloody book I just read, and depressing too. So, what do think about Jenny Pox? Have you guys read other books by J.L. Bryan? How do you like it? What would you do or feel if you touch is deadly? Tell me in comments below. I am all ears! ;)

Feature & Follow (4)

Feature & Follow is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee's View and Alison Can Read. And this week's question is...

Q: What book do you think would make a great Halloween movie? Please explain in graphic detail of goriness...

     Before I write this I want to note that it's my 4th time trying to write THIS post. Yup, the html was getting all messy and I couldn't fix it any other way, so I deleted it. I don't know if it's Blogger or other stuff, but right now I am seriously pissed and annoyed...

     Okay, I should just answer the question. I think the Pretty Little Liars series would make good Halloween movies. I know, the series is already made into a TV show and I love it, but I think that a movie would be great too. Think about it, the series is really spooky, with looks over shoulders and hard-level stares, it would the best blend between horror and drama which would make a great movie. I pictured A as a psycho killer in this one though, which he/she probably is.

    I wanted to write more but currently I can't think of anything, and that's not just because I just had a BBQ where we fooled around and chasing each other like little kids, plus an exam in PE today, I am really pooped out, I don't think I have anything, words or not, to spill out of me anymore, so let's call it a post ;)

Which book do you guys think that should be made into a Halloween movie? Any suggestions on good YA horror reads? I have to brush up on this genre a little, the last (kind of?) spooky book I've read is Anna Dressed in Blood, and it wasn't even scary (I do love the book though, I am currently rereading it ;) )...