Catching Up and Mini Reviews

Hi there, faithful readers! You all look like you haven't aged a day, even though it's nearly been a month since we last chatted. In my defense, I've had a lot going on recently.

Saying that I've been busy over the month of August would be a huge understatement. I'm still in the process of moving, which has taken much longer than I hoped it would. At the current rate we're going, we'll hopefully be all unpacked and settled in by mid September. On top of the move, I started my second year of college last week. So... yeah. Just call me Jared McBusypants.

All of the stuff that moving and being a student requires aside, I have had time to read, I just haven't had the time to type up my thoughts into a coherent blog post. To make up for it, I have written this trio of mini reviews covering my most recent reads. These aren't my full thoughts; just quick blurbs covering my main points. This should get me all caught up and back on track. Things are settling down, so we should be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.

Tighter by Adele Griffin (Summary from Goodreads): When 17-year-old Jamie arrives on the idyllic New England island of Little Bly to work as a summer au pair, she is stunned to learn of the horror that precedes her. Seeking the truth surrounding a young couple's tragic deaths, Jamie discovers that she herself looks shockingly like the dead girl—and that she has a disturbing ability to sense the two ghosts. Why is Jamie's connection to the couple so intense? What really happened last summer at Little Bly? As the secrets of the house wrap tighter and tighter around her, Jamie must navigate the increasingly blurred divide between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Brilliantly plotted, with startling twists, here is a thrilling page-turner from the award-winning Adele Griffin. 

My Review: Tighter was a great read. It was very creepy and suspenseful. Experiencing this book through Jamie's eyes was particularly unsettling as she tried to uncover the mysteries of Little Bly. I was certainly creeped out by the end of the novel.

 Monster by Walter Dean Myers (Summary from Goodreads): Young, black, 16-year-old Steve Harmon, an amateur filmmaker, is on trial for the murder of a Harlem drugstore owner. Steve copes by writing a movie script based on his trial. But despite his efforts, reality is blurred until he can no longer tell who he is or what the truth is.

My Review: There were many things that I enjoyed about Monster. I liked the varied typography. The novel flips between handwritten notes and a typed film script. The script format was not only stylistically interesting, it also kept the courtroom details from being confusing. It was a quick, intriguing read.










An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (Summary from Goodreads): When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. He's also a washed-up child prodigy with ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a passion for anagrams, and an overweight, Judge Judy-obsessed best friend. Colin's on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will predict the future of all relationships, transform him from a fading prodigy into a true genius, and finally win him the girl. Letting expectations go and allowing love in are at the heart of Colin's hilarious quest to find his missing piece and avenge dumpees everywhere.

My Review: This novel in typical John Green fashion, was wonderful. The Characters were great, the story was fun and interesting, and there was a plethora of Green's quirky humor. Unfortunately, I felt that this was Green's weakest novel. It just didn't seem to pack the emotional punch, like Looking for Alaska or The Fault in Our Stars did.