I’m back…

Hello everyone!

It’s been a minute since I’ve been on here but now I am back and ready to get back into it! Reading is definitely one of my favourite things to do, but sometimes life gets in the way and I allowed it to take over and take a step back from this blog. I have not stopped reading at all, I have spent every day in lockdown since March reading as unfortunately my job is unessential so I haven’t been working much 😦

If you want to see what i’ve been up to over the past 2/3 years and if you’d like to see the reviews of the books I’ve read over this time, comment below and let me know.

I’ve missed you all so much, but now ya girl is back!

Natalie xx

by Categories: Young Adult Leave a comment

Gone Girl

When I think of my wife, I always think of her head. The shape of it to begin with. The very first time I saw her, it was the back of the head I saw, and there was something lovely about it, the angles of it.

WOW JUST WOW. I spent the majority of my bank holiday monday reading Gone girl by Gillian Flynn. I needed a day or two to fully process my thoughts and feeling towards this book and honestly, my feeling towards it still confuse me, but i LOVED it. A story about two people who messed each other up and were so toxic, it makes me feel better about myself.

Who are you?

What have we done to each other?

The story begins with a girl who is utterly in love with her husband, he is someone who she adored, her best friend, her soul mate, her lover. However, Nick seemed odd. Emotionless, his mind always elsewhere, he took her for granted. Did he love her? Yes. But did her show her time and attention? Not really.

Amy, a beautiful woman with shiny blonde hair married to a handsome man. She was perfect, she was the “cool girl”, she was Amazing Amy. Nick, on the other hand was relaxed, laid back but made her feel great, in the beginning. It was the perfect marriage, they weren’t like other couples, she did nag him, she let him be him, she let him do what he wanted to do.

On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. ‘It’s always the husband’. Amy’s friend say that she was scared of him, that she kept secrets from him, but he says that is not true. There are strange searches on his computer, there are strange items that have been bought by him, and there are persistent calls on him mobile phone. So what did happen to Nick’s wife?

I was discussing this book with my mum (she’d already read it) and I told her what I thought happened to Amy (and I guessed correctly) but I could never have thought of what ACTUALLY happened.

This book messed with my head a lot. I went from hating Nick, to liking him, to hating him to liking again. The same with Amy, I loved her, I hated her and I liked her again. The only way I can describe how it made me felt is by saying it went from 0-100 real damn quick.

I had heard this was a good book by many people, I’d seen people talk about it a lot and even my sixth form studied it in English lessons (although I did not take this subject) so I was intrigued to know what all the fuss was about. It had been on my TBR pile for a long time, and I’m so good I read it. However, this book did make me kind of thankful that I am not currently in a relationship, but I’m hoping to never be with someone as fucked up as these two.

Overall, I found this a really good read. It made me feel uncomfortable, but it was exciting (is that the right word for a deranged, dark book?)  Gone girl gets 4 stars from me! I look forward to reading more by Gillian Flynn!

 

The film

SO. I have just watched the film and I am impressed. The casting was very well done. The characters I had imagined were very similar to the ones that were casted.

The book IS ALWAYS BETTER than the film, but for me, the film was as good as it could possibly be. I honestly cannot fault the way the story was portrayed within the film and I think that the film stayed pretty true to the book, so I am happy and satisfied!

 

 

by Categories: Crime, Mystery, PsychologicalTags: , , , Leave a comment

Can You Hear Me?

In the August of 1978, the summer I met Anna Trabuio, my father took a girl into the woods.

–First sentence

Can You Hear me? By Elena Varvello is a book I recieved from BookBridgr. I loved this book, I thought it was great, although there were times when I lacked understanding of what was going on, but I’ve just put that down to the fact that it was originally written in Italian but was later translated to English.

The book is based in 1978. Ponte is a small community in Northern Italy with peaceful woods, discarded rubbish and a closed-down factory. An unbearably hot summer wilted flowers and trips to the waterfalls.

Elia Furenti is sixteen and living in a secluded house with his parents, a life so unremarkable that even its moderate unhappiness is considered normal, until the day the beautiful and damaged Anna returns to Ponte and propels Elia to the edge of adulthood.

However, things then start to unravel.

Ettore (Elia’s father) is let go from his job and loses himself in the darkest corners of his mind. A young boy is murdered, which shakes to small community to its core. And a girl climbs into a van and vanishes in the deep, dark woods.

This book is a story of Elia Furenti and his father Ettore, it is a story of one summer and one night and everything that happened. What I liked about this book, is that in alternate chapters, there is a different story being told, It’s what keeps you glued to the book, you carry on reading and can’t put it down because you want to know what happens next within both of the stories being told within the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, at the end of every chapter I was left wanting more, I wanted to know what was going to happen next, it was very cleverly written. This book gets 4 stars from me.

The life we have left, this is all it is, and we must not waste it.

–Last sentence

by Categories: Crime, MysteryTags: , , Leave a comment

See What I Have Done

Lizzie Borden took an axe,

And gave her mother forty whacks

When she saw what she had done,

She gave her father forty-one.

I feel like I’m the only person who had never heard of the Lizzie Borden case before reading this book. The poem gave it away a bit, but it was so intriguing I instantly wanted to know more.

For those people like me, who have never heard of the Lizzie Borden case, here a few things to get you started:

  • August 4th 1892 – Andrew and Abby Borden’s bodies were found by their daughter, Lizzie Borden. Both of them had been brutally murdered by an axe.
  • After some time, Lizzie Borden was arrested for their murders and her trial was one of the first nation-wide news sensations which was covered in America, she was then released in June 1893.
  • There was no murder weapon found.

Sarah Schmidt wrote a historical fiction of the case on true events of the Borden Murders. After I had read the book, I went straight to Google to do some research about the case because for this type of books, the facts NEED to be accurate. I’m glad to say that most of the events she wrote about were true to the real life story.

I think that Schmidt did an amazing job with writing this book, from the first page to the last I was completely engrossed and intrigued with the story. From the first page, she puts you right in the middle of the action, with the discovery of Andrew Borden’s body. However, I was instantly made aware that there was something not quite right.

It wasn’t until references’ to Lizzie’s age within the book, and especially when I finished the book that I realised her actual age: 32. I had thought she was MUCH younger than that because she acts very much like a young teenager. She continuously makes demands off of her parents and practically suffocates her older sister, who is in her forties. This also adds to what I said previously about being aware that there is something not quite right, it adds a sort of creepiness within the book.

At the time of this story, Lizzie should be married and have her own children, instead, she is still living at home with her father, step-mother and sister and she remains very childish. Maybe because the family was trapped in a time-warp, and even though they were all aging, they all stayed the same age at heart? Particularly Lizzie.

It is very clear throughout the book that Lizzie loves her family. She loves her sister Emma and looks up to her, she loves her father and she so badly wants to feel loved by him and make him proud of her. But could she really get angry enough to kill her own parents?

I know my opinion, what’s yours?

by Categories: MysteryTags: , , Leave a comment

Milk and Honey

how is it so easy for you

to be kind to people he asked

milk and honey dripped

from my lips as i answered

cause people have not

been kind to me

– First poem

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur is a book of poetry. I have only just really started to have an interest in poetry, and my friend recommended this book to me, and i fell in love with it instantly. It has four chapters: The hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing. The poems used were so relatable and every poem makes you realise you’re not alone in whatever you are feeling or going through.

“milk and honey is a collection of poetry about love, loss, trauma, abuse, healing and femininity. It’s divided into four chapters and each chapter serves a different purpose dealing with a different pain and heals a different heartache.

Milk and honey takes us through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere, if you are just willing to look.”

This book is the journey of suriving through poetry, this is the heart of Rupi Kaur, this is about the hurting, the loving, the breaking and the healing, this is the blood sweat tears, of twenty one years.

Many of you, like myself, will understand what it is like to be in a relationship, and go through a break up, you’ve found out that the person you once thought that you loved turned out to be someone completely different. Milk and Honey talks about what that is like in all sections of the book. It is so relatable to me about some past relationships I have been in. The love, loss and feminity portrayed in this book is so amazing and I couldn’t fault it at all. It has everyone I wanted, and things I didn’t even know I wanted from it.

Therefore, This gets 5 stars from me. It is so relatable and tells us so many things and for all those people who love poetry like I do, it is perfect for you. It allows you to take a journey through the hard times you’ve been through and to know you are not alone, but to also move on from them.

you split me open

in the most honest

way there is

to split a soul open

and forced me to write

at a time i was sure i

could not write again

– Last Poem

by Categories: Young Adult Leave a comment

13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher was a book that I had been wanting to read for a while. This was on my TBR pile for a while, and then when I heard that it was soon coming out as a Netflix series, I decided to read it as soon as possible. I read this book in two days, If I hadn’t had responsibilities such as going to work, then I would have 100% read this in one sitting. I had heard nothing but good things about this book and I was so excited to start reading it, and I also found it quite relatable.

This is a novel about friendship, sexuality and honesty, and as a teenager, (although now in my final year of being a teen) and with my final school years still fairly fresh in my memory, It was easy for me to think back, and also relate to how Hannah was feeling before she took her own life.

Hannah Baker killed herself two weeks ago, and Clay gets home from school finding a package on his bed, confused, but also interested in what is on these tapes, he straight away listens to them. There are 7 tapes in the package, and both sides have recordings on them, except for the 7th one. There are 13 recordings altogether. Each side is a story that belongs to someone at school, with Hannah explaining why that person was apart of the reason that she killed herself. The rule is that each person must listen to all of the tapes, and when they are done, pass them onto the next person in the list. If one of them does not do this, then there are a second version of the tapes, and not only the 13 people involved hear what is on them, but everyone does.

Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo.

No return engagements. No encore. And this time, absolutely no regrets.

I hope you’re ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes, you’re one of the reasons why.

I’m not saying which tape brings you into the story. But fear not, if you received this lovely little box, your name will pop up . . . I promise.

Clay Jensen returns home to find a strange package with his name on it. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker – his classmate and first love – who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice explains there are thirteen reasons why she killed herself. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why. All through the night, Clay keeps listening – and what he discovered changes his life forever.

Asher cleverly allowed both Hannah’s and Clay’s point of view of everything on the tape and the same time, and it works very well. It allows us as the reader to know Hannah’s reasons, but also Clay’s perspective of it all.

At school, people can be so nasty, for absolutely no reason at all. I had some experience with this, along with so many other people. People would just take the piss out of others for little things, things that didn’t involve them in the slightest, and they knew they were hurting the other person, but did they care? of course not, because it was fun for them and they were bored, so why not make someone else feel shit? Some people do this intentionally, however, the message that Hannah brings, is a lot of the time, people don’t even realise that they are hurting other people, and their action affect so many things going on in someone’s life.

This book makes you think about what we can do everyday, to make people’s lives a little better, if we didn’t do that one thing, or say that one thing maybe we can save their lives. If we didn’t comment on someone’s hair or their appearance, but actually complimented their hair or their appearance, maybe we can make their day a little bit better. If we don’t say that one negative thing, someone else won’t do that one negative action and things will be better for that person. Therefore, I’m going to give this book 5 stars because it is relatable and it makes us think about how our actions and our words can affect other people both in a positive and negative way.

 

by Categories: Young AdultTags: , , Leave a comment