GenericBookBlog

If only there was some way to pick the good books from the crowd without having to read their plots...you're welcome.

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Marrow by Tarryn Fisher Despite my deep rooted distrust for collaborations, I burn through all of an author's works rather obsessively. For the record, my fears are not unfounded. BUT, I am often rewarded for my efforts. Tarryn Fisher is definitely my happiest accident. I found her bundled together with Colleen Hoover in the Never Never series. Marrow is shelved under thriller and mystery. If you've picked it up just for the genre tag, you'll have bitten off more than you could possibly chew. Thriller just isn't enough of a label to tie this down. The bone house, she calls it. A decrepit home, a reflection of those that live within. She writes emotions like they are physical presences. Forces to be reckoned with. Her characters are almost surreal, vivid. They are the kind you don't want to believe actually exist. Marrow is a story that will have you follow it around, shuffling after it helple. It is incisive. Inflammatory. Margo is the kind of heroine that the world needs to see more of. I have been trying to write this review for a long time now. And, it just wouldn't happen. This is one of those books that reaches write into your head and rewires your brain. You need a day to figure it all out. Or maybe two days. A week. Any further attempts of mine would only end in ruining a very, very good experience.. Well, WHY AREN'T YOU READING IT YET?!

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The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson Once you start down this road, there is no turning back. Run of the mill heroes seem rather lacklustre after you have caught a whiff of those that walk the shadowy lanes. I have met my fair share of them. From Gone Girl through Velocity. From the girl on the train to the millennium trilogy (I refuse to accept the latest addition into the fold). The Kind Worth Killing is definitely not the best out there. But, we don't read for that. It is the experience, I'd say, that really reels us in. That voice of reason that makes murder sound entirely rational. Perhaps, even the best of all the possible alternatives. That chilling moment when you begin to empathise. Begin to see things in a perspective that certainly doesn't belong to you. And that eventual time, when you realise just how often you have been redefining your threshold for antisocial behaviour. With this genre, you know you've hit a good one if it makes drop the book and then, just as immediately, jump right back into it again. That is one box that The Kind Worth Killing definitely checks. Not every one can write their way through a state of moral dissociation of this scale and make it sound perfectly reasonable. Happy reading. *heh*

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child based on an new original story by J.K. Rowling. A play by John Tiffany and Jack Thorne Somethings we go back to only because we can't rationalize not going back to. The 'eighth' book is, in my opinion, best left to the realms of fanfiction. All those misgivings are usually thrown out of the window once there's Rowling's name stamped across a front cover though. First and foremost, this iteration being a play adds a window into the wizarding world. Attempting to judge a play from a rehearsal script is a dangerous presumption because of their distinctly different dispositions. But one's curiosity overwhelms such caution. The story is told in two parts and one cannot help but wonder if they were written by entirely alien persons with no notion of correspondence. The story opens with Albus Severus leading the story and unfolds as such. And most of the story blurs past almost incoherently. Perhaps, I am all together too used to a slow and methodical character development that spans across 5 or 7 books. Or, maybe the little Potter is only a shell with only an inkling of a personality. The narrative takes on an almost harried desperation to some unforeseeable end. In complete odds with this wasteful haste is the second part. Written with loquacious care and an obvious acquaintance of our beloved characters, the plot begins in earnest, all the while being delightfully Harry Potter. If it weren't for the second portion of the story salvaging such a terrible flash forward, the new sequel would have been nothing short of unsalvageable.

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The Mediator Series by Meg Cabot We live in a great time. A time when heroines who kick butt and wear waterproof mascara exist. The Mediator blurs the lines between typical young angst and paranormal humour. Or perhaps it is the other way around. An eight book set of light hearted reading that won't bore you to death. (Does that count for a pun?) The series chronicles Suzannah's adventures as a, well, ghost buster. I guess you already know what you're signing up for considering how you've just picked up a Young Adult book with a female protagonist. Clichés, while far from non existent, aren't all that visible either. There's something to be said for a sixteen year old girl who speaks with her fists. In the short novella Proposal, the heroine is reintroduced to us as a 21 year old. The contrast works beautifully for the story and is, honestly, one of the best ways to illustrate character development. Having said all that, The Mediator series isn't going to be a revelatory experience. It isn't the first of its kind nor will it be the last. It is funny and entertaining and sometimes, that is enough.

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Confess by Colleen Hoover Profound is the word that comes to mind. The storyline is a treat but it is the background that really adds the colours. By coupling art with anonymous confessions, suddenly, there is a whole new level of relating to strangers at their deepest and darkest. Markedly Young Adult, the plot revolves around a too young mother fighting for custody of her son and an artist who insinuates himself into both her mind and life. Shout out to the contributing artists for renditions so heart achingly touching. Any more and I will have over simplified a tale that is best told on a long afternoon. A tastefully pragmatic take on teenage pregnancy, Confess is a sobering, if somewhat romanticised, read.

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Thieves Like Us series by Stephen Cole This one was everything I needed and more than a little bit unanticipated. Thieves Like Us was something I stumbledupon when I was out looking for young adult. Not as much looking as hoarding it in poles, I guess. Contrary to the usual emotion rich story telling, this thriller trilogy takes off on the very first page. As is wont to happen with any series, near death experiences, even if entirely fictional, weave the characters into your world. Doing justice to its genre, Thieves Like Us is quite a fount of them. Six protagonists to tell the tale paints a picturesque story. Each book is a bigger challenge than the one that precedes it. As entertaining as that sounds, it is also a norm at this point. The seller on this one is its tinge of unnaturalness. The author manages to impress upon us how open to interpretation the unknown can be. All in all, it is a thoroughly enjoyable read. If you have a few hours to waste or maybe some serious procrastinating to do, Thieves Like Us is your friend, your time machine.

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Another series by Daniel and Dina Nayeri Another series and not just any other series. Sorry, not sorry. I'm rather embarrassed of having to clump together the trilogy together when their plotlines share only a common antagonist, not protagonist. Certainly novel in its approach and more than a little twisted in its delivery, the another series is a thrill to read. The plotlines are intricate and almost anything I saw might ruin the read, if I haven't done that already, that is. An aloof and exquisite French governess whose reasons no one questions. Her wards, without exception, impossibly talented. Unrelated by blood but held together by a mere five years and that mysterious governess. And yet, no questions are asked, or rather, asked aloud. When the devil comes calling, there is no such thing as a choice. Especially when offered our deepest and darkest desires. There's little that frail creatures such as ourselves can do to resist such lurid temptation. Right? Actually, yes. But there's a catch in there. And that's something for Daniel and Dina to explore and express. Heads up: Teen adventure. In a high school. With rich kids. In other words, watch out for dat angst.

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Retro in every way imaginable, Ready Player One is a book that is never quite what you expect of it. A healthy dose of altogether achievable science fiction and a social interactions governed by screens and devices. The author takes you on a walk down a future on whose doorstep we're already standing. This only makes the story even more plausible. A dystopian world of our making, a personal hell that the next generation will find entirely normal. References to the eighties were bursting the book at its seams. TV shows, songs, books, games, you name it. For the Star Wars fan in you folks, they're happens to be a truck load of that as well. If the title didn't tip you off, arcade games are major part of this tale. Most of all, the author has managed to capture the essence of the social network interactions. How fake or true something or someone can be in a world where anything goes. A must read for everyone looking for believable dystopia.

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Never Never by Colleen Hoover and Tarryn Fisher Best friends since they could walk. In love since the age of fourteen. Complete strangers since this morning. He'll do anything to remember. She'll do anything to forget. Needless to say, I was sold after that. There's something about amnesia that always makes for good stories. Never Never is not an exception. With its blend of romance, suspense and adventure, Never Never takes you on a ride through years and years worth of memories that survive as ghostly intuition and nothing more. Is the past an unbearable weight that needed disposing? Or was it taken forcibly by someone wishing I'll upon them? Meeting strangers is always a new experience, especially when they're staring back at you through a mirror. I was slightly worried about there being more than one author to pen a work so rich in emotional quotient. My doubts didn't hold any water considering the fact the tale is narrated to us by two fundamentally different characters.

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The Half Upon A Time series by James Riley What if Snow White had a sister or maybe Cinderella had a grandmother? Half upon a time manages to chart the universe that all of us have heard about. So much so that it is hard to think of any scenario beyond the scope of the sweet bedtime tale that was read out to us by the more patient of the parents. Fairy tales with their depressingly sensible morals and heaping helpings of happy endings but not before pushing their unwitting protagonists distressingly close to despair almost unbearably, Aside from frequent revision, they seem to avoid any real danger of being rewritten. At least, they did until James Riley chanced upon them, I believe. By introducing the world to us through the eyes of an entirely normal fourteen year old, he has us wondering at magic beanstalks, terrifying horses, magic weapons, candy houses, magic wielding imps. Did I mention magic? In a three book series, the author takes us through a journey that is both unpredictable and yet, amusingly familiar. Features wickedly clever fifteen year olds.

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November 9 by Colleen Hoover Time heals all wounds. But what about the scars? The ones that make themselves known every day. Scars in the mirror and the ones that go even deeper. This book was a portrait of the two. A deliberate portrayal in an attempt to bring out the likeness between them. A reminder that the scars hide gaping holes in the victim’s life. An account of what a horrible business guilt really is. As always, Colleen Hoover uses a love story to narrate a tale of pain. In the process, you can’t help but notice how much it must hurt to feel that deeply about someone when you have hardly grown into your own person. November 9 is a story that stretches far past the usual bounds that defines the new age teen romance genre. A heady cocktail of affection, dreams, coming of age, love, pain and effort that comes together in this insightful read. The protagonist also happens to be a quick witted author and that fact alone is worth a ton of brownie points.

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The Vivian Apple series by Katie Coyle It is often the extraordinary and the distinctive that tend to stay with us. The Vivian Apple series manages to touch upon both these veins seemingly effortlessly. Set in a not-so dystopian world, the author paints the world to us through an eighteen something teenage girl. Disaster is one block away, bringing Armageddon along with it. The earth is falling apart and it’s people are only a few steps behind. God doesn’t like being ignored, apparently. And he brings his wrath to bear upon the unrepentant. His mercy, however, is negotiable. The church of America shall bring salvation to its flock. But who got to choose the ones that got left behind? Political unrest, faith, desperation, parenthood and survival. And Vivian Apple is a part of it all, in her grandparents’ sedan and a quest for answers. A road trip to remember.

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Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell A short and sweet tale paying homage to the people who have made Star Wars the religion that it is today. To be honest, there's not much else for me to add here. Except for, perhaps, you're not faking your nerd lifestyle only because you haven't watched the prequels. "If anything, this makes you an uber Star Wars nerd. A Star Wars hipster. You're like one of those people who listen to music only on vinyl." Rainbow Rowell through and through. Enough said.

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Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher A poignant tale surrounding the last journey and why it ever happened. When you’re listening to the story of someone’s surrender, there’s almost always a tinge of disapproval. You think, “Sure, that must have been hard, but if only he hung on a little longer or tried a little harder.” The author does not argue that these drastic measures can be justified. Instead, he paints an eerily accurate picture of what it takes to push a person into that mindset. A brutish world that chips away at you tirelessly leaving you with less hope than you had a moment ago. What truly caught my attention was the way he managed to show us both sides of the coin, the victim and the survivor, simultaneously, letting you draw your own conclusions on the burden that is dumped unceremoniously upon the living. At the same time, the one relieved of the selfsame load more than deserved to let it down. It is an eternal tug of war between the one left behind and the ones that just had to leave it all behind, and the author has managed to capture the spirit of this enterprise beautifully.

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~The Mara Dyer Trilogy by Michelle Hodkin

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The Retribution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin With great power comes great responsibility. In Hodkin’s own words, “Thinking something doesn’t make it happen. Wanting something: doesn’t make it real” Funnily enough, Mara has always managed to dodge that particular bullet….or has she? Her morality is finally a tangible necessity when it comes to her actions and it is time to listen to her ideas and feelings on the subject. The Retribution, doesn’t the name say it all? It finally paints Mara in the light after all her adventures and misadventures. 'Supernatural teens against an all knowing evil mastermind' That might probably be blanket description of not just this series but of an genre. Throw in the fact that it sports a female protagonist, you should almost be able to predict it’s path. And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. At its heart, the trilogy has always been a supernatural romance tale. At the same time, the story is so much more than that. It has been a rollercoaster of love, trust, humour, pain, fear, faith, and family. Most of all, trust. About making, giving, breaking and earning trust. Now, that’s a tale that needs to be read.

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The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin First off, I was wrong. Noah and Mara ARE the plot. It definitely helps that they are incredible together. There is a generous development to that obvious chemistry since book 1. Evolution. Boy, is that word perfect or what? With so very many things happening to and around her, Mara was bound to change. Book 2 is a perfect portrait of her transition from that frightened yet rebellious, loved yet friendless, sarcastic yet passionate Mara into something more. Perhaps it was the law of the furnace she was forced into. To sculpt her into her resilient form. Is it possible to love someone and yet refuse to trust a word of what they say? Is it still love then? Mara is an intriguing choice for a narrator. Impressively creative and infamously unreliable. Perhaps being pumped full of psychiatric drugs doesn’t help too much. At the same time, however, when one of her hallucinations are proved wrong, everything collapses around the reader. Very well done, I must say. PS. Literally on the edge of my seat with the way this one ended. The author seems to sport an unhealthy fascination for particularly well rendered cliff hangers. But, all in a day’s work.