Fight Club - Review

**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free.**

"The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club."

Flight Club by Chuck Palahniuk is a very interesting novel and I can assure you that you've probably never read anything like it at all. This book is narrated by a young man who isn't satisfied with his life. He finds everything pointless and is upset with the lack of connection he has with other people and that people in general have with each other. He then meets Tyler Durden who completely changes his life, and the story follows their journey together. 

The Good

I enjoyed this book. I found a lot of really great quotes that I can easily apply to my own life and life in general, which is always a sign I connected with a book. Fight Club is filled with extremely unique and unusual characters and they are so realistic. I found the plot relatively easy to follow; HOWEVER, I had previously seen the movie, which definitely helped me to keep up. The novel is also littered with little interesting facts, that I'm not sure are true or not, but they were fun to read and learn about. 

The Bad

Now, these things aren't necessarily bad... They are just things that might be a problem for some people. The plot is quite intricate, and if you haven't seen the movie, then you might not have any idea what's going on. The writing style is 100% unique, and it took several chapters before I was able to immerse myself in the story, and even then, it took me quite long to read considering how short it is. Like I said before, I am also certain that I would not have followed the plot easily if I hadn't already seen the film and therefore known what was happening.

The Recommendation

This is very unorthodox for me, but if you know nothing about Fight Club, I am actually going to recommend that you go and watch the movie first before you read this book. I know, it's a strange recommendation, but the movie is fantastic and a lot easier to follow, and it doesn't take away form my impressions of the book either. Don't be fooled by the shortness of this novel; don't go into it looking for a light, easy read, because you certainly won't get one. This book is hard work (as far as reading goes), so I would recommend reading it when you're in the mood for something that really makes you think. 

You can find out more about Fight Club here. 

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to me on YouTube here.

Things I Hate - Book Edition

**A note on my notes: These are my opinions only.**

I hate a lot of things.

People in real life get sick of me complaining about everything. And by everything, I really mean everything. There are some issues that real life people will rant about with me for a few minutes because they understand. Books, however, are not one of those topics. So you're going to be subject to these complaints, and I'm not sorry for it.

1. Cover Changes
Sometimes, I really don't understand cover changes. How can anyone possibly think that a picture of a girls face will make a better cover than one of the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen? I'm talking about the Delirium trilogy right here, if you're unaware. I seriously have no idea why a publisher will decide to change the cover of a book series halfway through... What on earth would make you decide that forcing people to have non-matching editions a good idea? What is wrong with you?

2. Covers with faces on them
Why do you think that people would want to own a book that has a huge face on the cover? You know that people judge books by their covers. You know that people will not buy a book they know nothing about if the cover doesn't catch their attention. You know all this. SO WHY DID YOU JUST PUT A GIRL'S FACE ON THIS COVER THAT IS ABOUT WAR AND REBELLION. Yes, I'm talking about Delirium again.

3. Huge copies before small copies
If you've ever followed a series from a time before the final book is released, then you probably know what I'm talking about. What I mean here is that, for example, the first two books in a trilogy are both a normal book size, but when the final instalment is released, the only copy I can buy is HUGE, and it's not until months later that a normal size edition is published. WHY. This happened to me both with Clockwork Princess and City of Heavenly Fire, and it seriously makes me so angry. I don't understand why anyone would think this was a good idea.

4. Not having books on the release date
If a book has been advertised as being released on a certain date, RELEASE IT ON THAT DATE! You don't get to allow people to buy it earlier. You should have the book on the shelves ready to be purchased on THE DATE THAT THE BOOK IS SUPPOSED TO BE RELEASED. People shouldn't be frustrated by driving all the way to whatever store just to buy a book on the day that it's released, and to be turned away because they don't have it. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND FOLLOW SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS, LIKE THE DATE.

5. Prices
I live in Australia. Books are more expensive than everything. You can expect to pay around $25 for a paperback. A PAPERBACK. If you want a hardback copy, you'll probably have to search every book store for weeks before you find one, and you can expect to pay around $30-$40 for it. If you to buy books online, you better hope they're coming from Australia, because international shipping will set you back about $30 too. Think you're saving money by buying books from the Book Outlet online? Nope, because the shipping will cost you more than the books did.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to me on YouTube here.

Delirium Trilogy - Review

**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free. If you don't agree with me, that's okay too!**

"What if love was a disease?"

"Life can change in an instant."

"Can the truth set you free?"

The Delirium trilogy is a YA dystopian series written by Lauren Oliver that is set in America somewhere in the future. In this world, love has been classed as a disease and at the age of 18, all citizens are forced to get a 'cure'. This cure stops allowing them to feel any significantly strong emotion, such as love or hate. Those who disagree with the cure illegally live within and outside the major cities borders.

While I did enjoy this series, I didn't love it. I had a few of problems with it, particularly with the second and third books. In saying that though, I enjoyed all three books and I was compelled and invested in them enough to complete the trilogy easily.

Delirium
Delirium is a solid start to the trilogy and I obviously liked it enough to finish the rest of the series. The story moves along at a good pace, making the novel super easy to get into and to get through. The characters are established well and are pretty interesting; however, sometimes Lena, the protagonist, makes stupid decisions. And the cliffhanger is really exciting, and by exciting I mean makes you want to read more.
Like most dystopian series, the first book is bigger because it has a lot of world building, which is something that I also really enjoy. However, the world building in Delirium leaves a lot to be desired, and this goes for the trilogy as a whole. There is so much information that you're not told, and I think this is something that really let me down as a reader.

Pandemonium
I enjoyed the second book, but no where near as much as the first one. The second book isn't told in chronological order and it switches from the past to present, which I think worked really well in terms of the plot.
Pandemonium introduces a lot of new characters, and really the only character from the first book that is prominently featured in this one is Lena. I found the new characters a lot more interesting and I was able to connect with them a lot more. The cliffhanger at the end of this book is incredible... It's probably the most adrenaline-pumping cliffhanger in the history of cliffhangers.

No matter how many issues I have with this series, one thing Lauren Oliver did right was cliffhangers, and these books have the most cliffhangery cliffhangers I've ever read in my entire life. 

Requiem
As soon as I finished the second novel, I knew I had to read the final one just because of the cliffhanger. I enjoyed this book as well, but it's definitely my least favourite of the trilogy.
This book is told from the dual perspective of both Lena and Hana, Lena's best friend from the first book, and I also think this style worked well with the plot. The only thing that I really didn't like about Requiem was the ending! It's extremely ambiguous, which I know would be something that a lot of other readers would really enjoy.

Recommendation
If you mostly read contemporary fiction and are new to dystopian books, then this trilogy is for you. I would also recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of dystopian series' and trilogies, because while these books are not my favourites, I did enjoy them and I think the concept and ideas they raise are important ones.

You can find out more about the first book here. 

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to me on YouTube here.

Update Time

Hey everyone!

I don't have a post planned for today, and I haven't had any time to work on anything worthwhile. So, instead of creative a mediocre post, I've decided to just give you all a quick update. I don't really have anything to update you on though, so don't expect any exciting news.

If you've been following my blog for the past month of so, then you'll probably know that I make YouTube videos now, and you can subscribe to my channel here.On my channel I upload Top Five Wednesday videos on Wednesdays, and I upload another video on Friday/Saturday that can be about anything. I'm still working things out with that and I'm still in the testing phase with things such as lighting and editing etc., so don't expect incredible videos at the moment (and probably ever, really!).

I'm still trying to read 50 books this year, and according to Goodreads, I'm still two books behind schedule. Whoops. I've just been really busy at the moment, so I haven't devoted much of my time to reading anything, which is okay because I don't want to force myself to read when I don't want to. At the moment, I'm reading Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Uni is really hectic at the moment, and I'm pretty swamped with all the work that I have to do. In saying that though, I'm still really enjoying what I'm studying so I don't really mind all the work. I will be happy when the year is over, however, and I no longer have to stress about meeting deadlines!

That's all the semi-interesting things that are happening in my life at the moment. If I was a cooler person, then my life updates would be better, so I'm sorry for that. I'll be back on Friday with another review, but I'm not sure what book yet. On Wednesday, I'll be posting another T5W video that's all about my favourite worlds, so keep your eyes peeled for that! Happy Reading!!

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to me on YouTube here. 

More Than This - Review

**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free. Also, you should read this book.**

"Haven't you ever felt like there has to be more? Like there's more out there somewhere, just beyond your grasp, if you could only get to it?"

More Than This by Patrick Ness follows a young boy who drowns and wakes up somewhere completely different. But it's so much more than that. And I know, what a sneaky pun. But seriously, that blurb only describes about the first third of the book. If you're interested in reading this book, you should go into not knowing anything about it, because you'll appreciate it so much more that way. (I know, I did it again).  

The Good
I loved this book. The concept of the novel is an interesting one, and it definitely lived up to my high expectations. It made me think so much, about anything from life to technology to depression to friendship and probably close to a thousand other things. It's almost definitely the most thought-provoking book that I've read this year. I love Ness' writing style; it's short and to the point, with a lot of short sentences to emphasise certain events, which makes the book incredibly easy to read. Seth is an excellent protagonist - he's well-developed and I found it so easy to sympathise with him.

The Bad The Not-as-Good
There isn't much I can fault with this book... However, I found the beginning to be a little slow. I don't know what it was, but it took me just as long to get through the first 100 pages as it did to get through the rest of the 200+ pages. After that section though, I flew through it. There are a few times when I thought it was a little repetitive, but that wasn't a major issue for me at all.

The Recommendation 
If you're looking for a thought-provoking book that really makes you think about life and all that jazz, then this book is 100% for you. If you're looking for an unique book, something unlike anything you've every read, then this book is also for you. If you've never read a Patrick Ness book, I think you should definitely try More Than This because the writing style is for sure something I'd read again.

You can find out more about this book here.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can follow me on Instagram here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to me on YouTube here. 

Favourite Book to Movie Adaptations

**A note on my notes: These are my opinions only and I'm not an expert on this subject (although I wish I was). Accept that perception is a real thing that exists and don't claim that I'm wrong or you're more right.**

I love books. I also love movies. I don't always love book-to-movie adaptations. So when one of my favourite books is about to be turned into a movie, you could understand why I get a little nervous. I mean, you saw The Hunger Games (or didn't see, with all the shaky camera...) or Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief (yes I know I haven't read the book, but the adaptation was still terrible) so you probably all know exactly what I'm talking about.

While book-to-movie adaptations definitely make me nervous, and I do end up hating a lot of them, there are some that just get everything right. Here is a short list of all the book-to-movie adaptations that I am truly grateful for. (Note: the list is in no particular order.)

1. Catching Fire
The Hunger Games movie was bitterly disappointing. Granted, it had a few moments where I was happy, but overall, the entire movie was a let down. Because of that, I really wasn't that excited for Catching Fire to be released, because I was preparing myself for a re-emergence of the bitter disappointment I'd felt with its predecessor. However, I didn't need to prepare for that at all! Catching Fire was such a beautiful movie, because it so accurately portrayed the book. I was completely happy with this movie. Johanna. That's all I'm going to say.

2. The Book Thief
Now I read this book after I saw the movie, so my opinion of the movie might be a little different had I read the book first... But I also highly doubt that, because I read the book straight after and noticed hardly any differences between the book and movie. I think the casting for this movie was perfection. The acting was just beautiful. I also thought the portrayal of Death as the narrator was done well, which would have probably been the thing I was most worried about if I read the book first. But I didn't need to worry because it was done right.

3. Harry Potter in general
This is kind of a hard one to judge for me, because the time between when I read the books and when I watched the movies was so huge that I mostly didn't even remember what was going to happen. Because of that, it's hard to judge whether the movies were accurate adaptations, but they're on the list because I do remember that when I watched the movies I loved them just as much as I loved reading the books. The whole Harry Potter universe is just incredible, so I would love anything that is a part of the Wizarding World.

4. Water for Elephants
This is another one where I read the book after seeing the movie, but in this instance it was a couple of years after. However, I remember that I loved the movie when I first watched it, and then I loved the book when I read it in July of this year. I can't say whether it was an accurate adaptation, but from what I gathered, the major details were the same and I did really enjoy both the movie and the book, which is why it's on the this list.

5. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This book was brilliant, and so was the movie. It was such a faithful adaptation and the movie really captured the essence and tone of the book and its story. I think the acting in Perks was perfect, and the casting was so accurate. I was extremely happy with the way this movie turned out.

6. Divergent
I really enjoyed the Divergent book series, but to be completely honest, I wasn't expecting the movie to amount to much. I thought that there were a lot of emotional scenes that just wouldn't work on screen as well as they did in the book. But I was pretty impressed with the adaptation! It's not my favourite movie and there were a few things that I wasn't happy with, but overall, the movie just made me so pumped. There was so much adrenaline running through me after seeing it, which is why I'm putting it on my list of favourites, because it captured the tone of the book.

Those are six book to move adaptations that I think were extremely successful. Let me know what your favourite adaptations are. Happy Reading!

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can follow me on Instagram here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to my on YouTube here. 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Review

**A note on my notes: This review is spoiler free.**

"I thought about all the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped."

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a very interesting piece of fiction. The novel is told in an experimental style and involves sections of pictures, letters and pages that are symbolic of the protagonist's thoughts. The novel is told from the perspective of Oskar, a nine-year-old boy who sits somewhere on the Autism Spectrum, as he embarks on a journey to discover any kind of information about his father.

The Good
I thought the experimental way in which this book was written was perfectly suited to the way Oskar narrated the story. The book deals with a lot of emotionally heavy topic, such as 9/11 and the finite nature of life, but in my opinion, these topics were dealt with in such a beautiful way. I found the writing style to be unique and interesting and I loved the characterisation of Oskar. I loved Oskar's perspective on life, and I love the way that the author dealt with a  lot of heavy issues in such an innocent way, and there are so many quotes that I've highlighted because of this. This book made me laugh and cry so many different times, which usually tells me that I loved the book, which is certainly true in this case.

The Bad
The novel deals with two generations, Oskar's and his grandparents'. While I think this definitely added some much-needed depth to the story, there were a couple of times that I was so completely confused about who was narrating a particular chapter. This was especially true of the letter writing aspects - and even when I knew it was from the grandparent generation, I was sometimes then confused about which grandparent was writing the letter... However, once I got into the story more it became easy to distinguish each perspective.

The Recommendation
If you have never read any experimental fiction before, then I would definitely recommend this book to you, because while the experimental aspects are very prominent, they're also easy to understand and follow. If you've never read a book in which the main character suffers from some form of Autism, please read this book! It's such an eye-opening experience and can really help people to gain a better understanding of why people like Oskar do what they do. At the same time, if you've read a book that ticks both of those boxes, I would still recommend Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to you, because I thought it was an excellent book.

If you're interested in this book, you can read more information here.

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can follow me on Instagram here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to my on YouTube here. 

Embarrassing Unread Authors

If you haven't already guessed, I read quite a lot of books. Despite this, there are still some authors that are insanely popular, have written insanely popular books or are simply highly praised that I have never read. For example, it wasn't until about May this year that I read my first ever John Green, Rainbow Rowell or Markus Zusak novel. I know, it's shameful. So here are 5 authors who I'm embarrassed to say I have never read.

1. Neil Gaiman 
This really upsets me because I really want to read The Ocean at the End of the Lane and The Graveyard Book, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

2. Patrick Ness
I saw a review on More than This, which made me extremely interested in Ness as an author, but I never got around to picking up the book.

3. Brandon Sanderson
I am huge fan of books of either fantasy or dystopian genres that cross over with science fiction, so I know that I would absolutely love so many of Sanderson's novels. Alas, I own none and have read none.

4. J.R.R Tolkien
No, I haven't read Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. I own them, but I've just ever gotten around to reading them which is a real shame because I think I could be really invested in the world.

5. Rick Riordan
For someone who watches the BookTube community (and now even makes videos myself!!), it's very surprising that I haven't been convinced to read the Percy Jackson series. I saw the first movie when it came out and it just really put me off reading the books.

Those are five authors that I'm embarrassed to say I haven't read. However, I plan on reading at least one book by each of these authors (except maybe Rick Riordan) by the end of the year. If you have any embarrassing authors like me, let me know!! Happy Reading!

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can follow me on Instagram here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to my on YouTube here. 

BookTubeAThon Reads - Quick Reviews!

**A note on my notes: these reviews are spoiler free.**

BookTubeAThon is finally over, which is both a relief and a little sad. If you're interested in how I did, you can read my wrap up post here. Because I did read a lot more than I usually would during the week, I've decided to do one post that does a brief review of all the books I finished rather than full, individual reviews.

Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carol
I enjoyed this book, but I didn't love it. If you know anything about Alice in Wonderland then you'll know that the story isn't supposed to make sense and is complete nonsense most of the time. While this means that the story ultimately lacks plot (intentionally, though), it is still a fun read. This book was quite short and had some really interesting illustrations which made it perfect for BookTubeAThon. I would recommend that you read this book regardless of who you are - it's a classic that can be read across several sittings or all at once, depending on how you feel.

Unwind - Neil Shusterman
I flew through this book because the plot was so intriguing. I thought the entire concept and idea of the story was really interesting and unique, which really added to the books appeal. I thin k the characters were pretty well developed; however, the book really lacked in terms of word building. There was hardly any background information about the wars that are constantly referenced in the book, and the concept of Unwinding - like how it first came about and the original reactions - weren't explained in much depth. Overall, I did enjoy this book, but I just really wish there was more world building.

The Romeo and Juliet Code - Phoebe Stone
This book was definitely not what I expected. I went into this book knowing nothing about it, and from the picture on the cover I assumed it was a cutesy romance, which it wasn't at all. I did like this book, but it took me longer to read because I didn't really care that much for the story. It's narrated by an eleven year old girl, so I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I was a few years younger than what I am. The plot was kind of slow paced as well, so there wasn't really anything that made me want to constantly keep reading.

Pathfinder - Orson Scott Card
I loved this book! I thought the overall concept and ideas were super cool, which I why I picked up the book in the first place. Not only that, but these ideas and concepts were explained really well. However, this book is science fiction, and there were some sciency bits that flew right over my head, but I was able to understand the general gist of things, which is enough to follow the story. I think the characters were developed nicely and the plot is a good pace. I would definitely recommend this book to any science fiction reader.

Those are my quick reviews for the four books I finished during the week of the BookTubeAThon. Let me know what you thought about any of the books I read! Happy Reading!

You can follow me on Twitter here.

You can follow me on Instagram here.

You can add me as a friend of Goodreads here.

You can subscribe to my on YouTube here.