Carrie Jones (1)

This was better than Book 2, but not by a whole lot. Truthfully, they could have combined Books 2 and 3 and made the series a trilogy instead of a quartet. This one had a lot more action than the last one, which definitely helped me get through it. I'm still not a fan of the writing itself or of the story in general. Why is it taking three books to do one freaking thing? And this one thing wasn't in the first book, so it's not like the Lord of the Rings where all of these other things are show more happening on their way to this one thing...no, this one thing isn't this life-altering epic saga. It's just getting her boyfriend back. You know what? People die, so she needs to just grieve and move on with her life. As you can tell, my opinion of this is not very high. The only reason I'm finishing the entire series is because I own them, so I want to read them at least once since I paid money for them. If I was borrowing them from the library? I would have stopped after Book 1. There still isn't any character growth or development, I'm just all around disappointed with this entire series. Read at your own risk.

All in all, like I said in my review of Book 2, if you read the first book and really loved it, then read the entire series. If you were so-so on Book 2, stop reading now, it doesn't appear to get any better. show less

My best friend was reading this series and kept recommending how addicting and wonderful the first book was. At first I wasn't sure when I was reading the first few pages, they were short, introspective chapters similar to Girl, Interrupted (which I'm not crazy about.) I found myself giving a damn pretty quickly, though, and this book ended up getting me so glued it would have taken physical intervention to get me off of it.

So yes, while the very beginning was a little tough to chew, I soon show more became enamored by the main character, her realism and her unique outlook. She has this thing with phobias. She studies them, memorizes them, recites them in her head when she's nervous, bored, encountering new people, things, places. She's sent to Alaska to stay with her grandmother (not the little red riding hood kind, either, but a strong personality type) after her father dropped dead in front of her from a heart attack. Apparently her emotions are so numb she's barely living and everyone's worried about her.

At school she starts making friends with unusual but awesome people, and finds that there is a strange guy following her around. This was focused on with the book's back blurb, and around the halfway point of the novel this really takes off as being what fascinated me so much. Even with this, though, it takes a serious backstory in the first half as Zara notices him (sometimes) but mainly focuses on getting close to the other characters.

I won't spoil who the man turned out being but it's epic, and I won't spoil what he is or what he wants as that would be mean. Let's just say it's intriguing, and even if he's "bad", I really dug his character and loved the interactions. So the villain rocked as being dimensional, and the good guys also worked as being convincing, particularly the hunky Nick and the dingy but cool friend Ziggy. ( Think that's her name anyway, I'm terrible with names)

There was "some" clicheness - especially the high school popular kids being traditional jerks. Also, I did guess who the bad guy was before it was revealed a few chapters prior. Jones made it obvious on the boyfriend with plenty of cutely dropped hints, too.

Overall, while Zara may start out hollow and numb, she does not full the book down and comes across believable and sympathetic. Her compassion and inner strength shines all the way. Her friendly, but strong and passionate nature make her a dazzle amongst many other YA fiction-birthed characters. And even if the middle was mildly interesting but not cliffhanger-rich, the middle peaked to an epic intrigue that never let up until the page closed.

It made me curious too to check out some book and reading related phobias:

BIBLIOPHOBIA - Fear of books, mainly fear of only one kind (such as textbooks or fairy tales). Can also narrow down to fear of reading out loud, or not reading well and fearing having to read and someone finding out.
MYTHOPHOBIA - The fear of legends. Can tie in if the legend is written down.
ABIBLIOPHOBIA - The fear of running out of reading material.
LOGOPHOBIA - The fear of words. show less

A sci-fi thriller with solid friendships, weird alien conspiracy stuff, and an engaging main character. This is fairly light and fluffy, and the plot jumped around a fair amount, but I think it could be a good fit for fans of [b:Dangerous|8585924|Dangerous|Shannon Hale|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1369672030s/8585924.jpg|13455292], Men in Black, or Stranger Things. It's a bit more silly, but not really in a bad way.

That said, a character tells another character to stop being "so spazzy," show more and I'm pretty disappointed that got by both the author and presumably an editor. If you weren't already familiar, the word spastic and its shortened forms are often used as slurs. It's perhaps more predominant in the UK than the US, but it's not unheard of here either. Here's a good blog post that breaks this down with resources. I'd much prefer ANY other word choice, particularly when there's no acknowledgement in the text about how problematic the word is. show less

If there's one thing in the world I feel strongly against, it's bullying. I hate that there are wars and hunger and conflicts and stereotypes, yet I know that some of those things are inevitable. But bullying? I really, truly, honestly believe that there isn't ANY reason why bullying should happen!

Dear Bully is a collection of stories from 70 authors who have either been bullied, a bully, or a bystander. And they're all so powerful in their own way -- it blows my mind away how much these show more authors have been through! Some of the stories literally made me want to cry.

I'm usually not a big fan of anthologies, but I loved everything about Dear Bully! It was heart-breaking and moving and powerful. Each and every one of the stories made me think. I can't even pick a favourite because there are so many that just stuck with me.

Whether you have experienced bullying or have been a bully or are even faintly aware of this HUGE issue, you should definitely pick up Dear Bully! I'm so glad that so many of these authors are putting their heartbreaking stories out there to bring awareness to this!

BUY or BORROW?: This is definitely a book you have to buy! Plus, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Stomp Out Bullying, which I think is just amazing! :) show less