*This ended up being longer than I thought and it has some spoilers under the cut.
Where do I even begin? Celaena Sardothien is the character I've been waiting for my whole life. A strong, badass assassin, who happens to be a pretty girl and likes dresses. I just needed this in my life!
So, at the beginning of the book, she's a prisoner in the mines, and she barely speaks, or show any emotion even when she's already in the castle. I must admit, when I first read the first couple of chapters, I was very confused as to where the whole plot was heading. I thought, ok, she's an assassin, the king wants one. But what for? Why is he so mean? Why all the prisoners? WHAT IS GOING ON???
And then, suddenly...there once was magic in the world and he wiped it away!!! I know, WHAT? That was the moment I fell in love with the book. Because, so slowly and smoothly, Sarah J. Maas introduced us to this complicated universe, full of secrets and mystery.
One of my favorite parts, is the way she makes all these characters so realistic, despite the fact that they live in the most fictional of universes. I mean, Celaena has her period at some point. How many times have you read a fantasy/dystopian book and you wonder what happens if the main female character gets her period, how do they handle that? And here, she does. And she has cramps that keep her in bed. It's beautiful!!!
Overall, I love this book, I love the world Sarah created, and all the characters. Even the ones I don't like as humans, I like as fictional people, 'cause they're all well written and have personal depth. And as the series goes, the story thickens. It's not one of those stories where you get to know everything in the first book and then random things happen. No, here, you have to keep reading to find out the real story.
I believe Celaena is one of the best female protagonists I've ever read. She's strong, intelligent, independent, and flawed. She's too proud, a little egocentric at times, and impulsive, but also, she's in complete charge of her sexuality which is just amazing for a young adult book. We need more heroines who are beautiful and know it. We need role models for young girls that own their bodies and minds. Enough with the special snowflake who's beautiful but doesn't know it, until a beautiful troubled boy falls in love with her and tells her just how beautiful and special she is. Enough with the girls who only get to experiment their sexuality if a boy sweeps them off their feet. NO. I want a girl who knows she's beautiful, a girl who sweeps a guy off his feet and she know she does. Girls need to learn that it's ok for them to love themselves and to be flirty and to pick the guy they want, while still being badasses who save the world.
I read Stolen in January of 2014. I read it in one day and the book effected me so much that I haven't been able to open it since then. The writing, the plot, the characters were all so amazing!! I can't properly review this book as I literally cried for 4 hours when I was done.
I feel like Stolen really does an amazing job at showing people how effective Stockholm Syndrome is. Lucy Christopher attempts, successfully, to give it to most of her readers. By the end you can't help but love Ty, or at least feel bad for him, regardless of everything he's done. He risked and gave up his entire life to save Gemma, the one and only person he's ever loved.
Overall this book is beautiful and I recommend it to the the entire world.
This book sounded exactly like my kind of book. I was ready to have my heart torn out, to cry and swear at the pages before me as I read on. I expected it to be utterly amazing, since the movie trailer gave me chills and brought me to tears. Unfortunately that is not what happened. Not even close.
The premise was promising and this book could have been amazing. I was ready to explore death in a whole different way, but the book fell short on that one. I feel like the author tried too hard, you know? I also thought Mia was a selfish girl for the better part of the book. I know this sounds awful and I don't mean to step on any toes of the many (many!) fans this book has, but come on. She doesn't think to wonder about why both of her grandparents are there to see her, when her brother's in a completely different hospital supposedly fighting for his life. Her flashbacks don't make her grow on my either. The way she treated Kim the day they met, for instance, or how she's always thinking about what she wants to happen, what she needs in her life. It really started to annoy me at some point. For instance; she desperately needs her best friend to "love" her boyfriend and vice versa, which just seems plain weird to me.
Adam's another thing. Levi kind of saved fangirl for me, but Adam left me completely cold. Frankly, I didn't see the appeal. (Also the snogging scenes where she plays him like a cello and he plays her like a guitar, made me outright frown in embarrassment for both characters. Who does that and how awkward is that?!)
There were things that redeemed the book in my eyes though. Teddy, the little brother, was absolutely adorable and he made me smile whenever he appeared. Mia's father was absolutely awesome and I adored him. He seems like an awesome person to get to know. Mia's grandpa's speech broke my heart. It was the only moment I had during the book that I actually felt touched. Adam's sentence "Don't make me write song about you" in reference to him only writing songs about things that made me sad, was beautifully done. Kim! I loved Kim!
In conclusion, I give the book 3 stars for the potential it had. The emotional loss Mia experienced could have been dealt with a lot better. I mean, I know she said that she didn't feel anything, but really? She could feel everything else but the loss she endured? This could have been dealt with a lot better. I am, however, really looking forward to the movie! This is the kind of book that is probably going to be better as a movie than it was as a book.
I watched this movie in theatres when it came out however many years ago. I remember not liking it and I recentlt watched it again and I still wasn't a fan. Reading the book made me realize that what I don't like is that I was left unsatisfied. I realize the realities that killers don't always get caught and there aren't always leads, but still, I wanted more. So reading I had hoped reading the book would change that for me.
I really love the story of The Lovely Bones. I love the premise and all the characters. I love Susie's voice and I love the descriptions of her heaven. I was still left a little disappointed but it didn't bother me so much in the book. I just really wish that Alice had told the same story in a different way, it was good, but I would have liked it to be a little different.
But regardless I liked it enough to give it 3.5 stars :)
I'm finally reading the lovely bones books and I like it!! I really dislike the movie but the book has the heaven in it and her heaven is so much more in the book. It's nice.
Hi everyone! So due to medical issues on my side I am going to extend the date we have to read The Lovely Bones to July 23rd. Hope you're all enjoying the book!!