I'm very vocal about the fact that I'm a huge Taylor Swift fan, so when Kiersten showed me this book tag (seen on
Downright Dystopian, created by
Reviews from a Bookworm) I knew I had to do it!
1989 Book Tag!
Welcome to New York
A Book with LGBT Themes
You can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls.
Amrutha mentioned this book in her section of our last
Top Ten Tuesday (books that celebrate diversity) and this was the first book I read by both John Green and David Levithan (I'm like 98% sure of this so if you ever see me contradict myself about this I'm not lying I'm just wrong on one of my accounts) so it jumpstarted my love for both authors. Anyway, the writing in this book is fantastic and one of the protagonists is gay and so is the best friend of the other protag and all in all it's an excellent book that I highly recommend.
Blank Space
A Book that hit you right in the feels
(but was totally worth it)
You can tell me when it's over if the high was worth the pain
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
Ahhhh there are so many of these!!
The Book Thief is one of the most prominent though so I'm going with this one. I
reviewed it almost two years ago (wow has it really been that long?? I'm due for a reread) and the haunting feeling of the book has never left me. Every time anyone mentioned the book I get all the emotions again and I can honestly say that this a book that has stayed with me since I closed it the first time and will continue to stay with me for years to come. It felt like a punch to the gut but the good kind and I implore you all to read it if you haven't already.
Blank Space
A book you hated but loved the cover
Darling I'm a nightmare dressed like a daydream
The first book I thought of when I saw this prompt was this one which Amrutha and I did a
double review of a while back where we both agreed that it was pretty on the outside and really really terrible on the inside. And it just made me so sad because honestly, it has
such a pretty cover and and such a nice title and the actual book is just terrible and a few hundred pages of whining which honestly doesn't even make sense. Sigh, books that have nice covers but are terrible make me so sad because I honestly really frequently judge books by their covers because covers are supposed to entice you!!!! Don't entice me to a bad product!!!! Entice me to dynamic characters and fluid writing!!!!! Sigh.
Blank Space
Your latest Book Boyfriend/Girlfriend
I've got a blank space baby and I'll write your name
Okay, so I realize this isn't a "latest" obsession and I probably should have put one considering I'm so fickle that I have a new fictional crush every week but I really wanted to take this opportunity to discuss how in love I am with the idea of Marauders-era Sirius black. Yes, I know the books haven't given us all that much to work with in that regard but the fandom has come up with such an elaborate idea of what Marauders-era life was like and it's all pretty consistent and I'm i love with Sirius Black, we were made for each other bye.
Style
A timeless classic you love
We never go out of style
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
I don't even remember when I read this book but I really really fell in love with it. Sometimes when I say I say
Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books I feel like I sound like one of those pretentious dudes who lurk in cafes and think they understand the world better than most and really resonate with Holden Caulfield because they think everyone is a phony except them but honestly I hope I don't because I just really liked the book, I liked the way it was written and narrated, and I could reread it again and again because it just stuck with me.
Out of the Woods
A book which had vivid world building
The rest of the world is black and white, but we were in screaming color
While some high fantasy series like
Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire go super hardcore into world-building, I wanted to talk about
Graceling because I thought Kristin Cashore did a great job integrating her story and plot progression with the world-building. In my
review, I focus mostly on the characters and the writing, because the world wasn't thrown in my face and wasn't too much to handle. It flowed as a part of the story and didn't feel like a separate entity which was really nice. I'd still call it vivid though because the world created was intense -- people had Graces (skills they were exceptionally good at), and the protagonist was Graced with killing. It was so interesting to see the type of world they lived in and what the dynamic between all the different people was.
Out of the Woods
A book where things weren't exactly how they seemed
The monsters turned out to be just trees
This book was interesting to say the least. I read it and
reviewed it about a year and a half ago and I'd like to reread it because it's 100% one of those books where you get something different out of it each time you read it. It's also a love it or hate it book and I definitely enjoyed it. It's not exactly how it seems because the story has so many layers to it besides the simple "a man receives a letter in the mail, here is the letter." It leaves you with a strange feeling at the end, and I definitely feel like this is characteristic of Martel because the ending of
Life of Pi was also a very reality-questioning one.
All You Had to Do Was Stay
A book you were eagerly anticipating, but ended up
being disappointed by
You were all I wanted, but not like this
Okay, just want to preface this by saying I wasn't totally disappointed, I didn't completely dislike it, I just didn't love it. I'd give it, maybe 2.5 stars out of 5? There's a chance that if I read it again my opinion could change but as of now that's where I stand but I can see how people would like it. For me, there was too much going on and I wasn't invested in any of the characters because they weren't the ones I spent three books getting attached to and I just got bored which was impressive considering that there was
so much happening. I don't know, it just wasn't for me, but it was kindof cool to see how everything began though.
Shake it Off
A book/series that everyone seems to love but you can't help but hate
The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
I DO NOT HATE THIS BOOK OR SERIES. I needed to write that in all caps before I started this. What I meant by putting this here is that I feel like there are so many people who I talk to about the show and they're like "yeah the book is so much more intense/so much better, you should read it!" and I think "wow I should read ASOIAF" and I have the series and I've tried to read it twice and it's just so heavy that I can't do it. I don't know what it is, because people have said that
Eragon was too descriptive for them and I read that fine and
LOTR is pretty high on the fantasy and I'm cool with it but this is another level and I just can't get through it and I really wish I could because I love the show but every time I start reading I think of what else I could be reading.
Shake it Off
A book/series you love that everyone else seems to hate
The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate
Everyone hates
Allegiant and the ending of
Allegiant and Veronica Roth for everything she did with
Allegiant. I am one of the few people who don't share those feelings. I actually wrote a very positive
review for it and looking back on that review I'm not sure everything I wrote there is still entirely consistent with how I feel now -- I still would say I perceived the book positively but I think now I'd be a little more critical about it and see a bit more of the negatives with it. In either case, I still was overall satisfied with it and with the ending, unlike most people.
I Wish You Would
A book/series you know you will always love
I wish you knew I'll never forget you as long as I live
I know this is the basic answer but honestly, this is the book series that I'll always come back to. It's just become such a central part of my life -- I literally grew up with it, from seven years old to now. And the other day on my Timehop, I saw that it was the eight year anniversary of
Deathly Hallows and it felt like the first moment all over again. And the other week I got into an argument with a friend about Snape (by the other week I mean every time we talk) and I just felt so invested in the idea of all these characters that I knew this was a series I'd hold in my heart forever.
I Wish You Would
An upcoming release you wish you could have right now
I wish you were right here right now
Lady Midnight
Cassandra Clare
The Dark Artifices, #1
I knew you were all waiting for Cassandra Clare to show up on this list and here she is. I think this is an appropriate place for her, don't you? I am absolutely
dying to explore these new characters, to get to know Emma and Julian, and I am especially interested in the way the Fair Folk are involved in this book as I've always been quite interested in faeries as a general concept. I just really like the idea of a Shadowhunter series set in the same realm and era as TMI but focusing on different but slightly related characters. It's a new and refreshing way to take on the Shadowhunters while still giving us the setting we know and love (and maybe some of the in-jokes?? who knows).
Bad Blood
A character you once loved but grew to hate
Now we've got bad blood, you know it used to be mad love
This is like, the most unpopular opinion of them all but I'm really not a fan of Peeta? I liked him in the beginning, when he was really sweet and kind but then it just became too much and it was really annoying and his relationship with Katniss just seemed forced and incompatible to me and I just got really annoyed with him as a character. I don't know what it is, but he just got on my nerves. And while I do feel like Katniss would have gotten so much more done and so much more efficiently if she had zero boys slowing her down, obviously he
was still helpful to their team, just in a really annoying way.
Bad Blood
An author you haven't forgiven for what they did to your
favorite characters/books
Did you have to do this? I was thinking you could be trusted.
Did you have to ruin what was shiny, now it's all rusted
I will never get over the ending of
Gone Girl. I will never forgive Gillian Flynn for the way it ended. This isn't even one of those situations where the fan is harassing the author like "why didn't you end the book the way
I wanted you to?????" or "why did you kill off my favorite character don't you know this reading experience is all about me?????" That ending was just so wild, by literally not being as wild as the entire rest of the book. I mention how furious I am with it in my
review. Honestly, the book is still excellent and one of the best books I've ever read but I'll never forgive her for doing that to me at the end.
Wildest Dreams
A book that was far too predictable
I can see the end as it begins
Amrutha and I
reviewed this a few months ago and I know between the two of us it's definitely mentioned how predictable this book is because it was honestly ridiculous how easy it was to know exactly what would happen. The connection between the two main characters, which we weren't told until the end, was easy to figure out from just the blurb, and if you didn't read that, then the first few pages. A few chapters in, and you understand the way he's going to try and parallel their stories and have them connect but fail really hard at it. Read our full review for a longer description of how this book was predictable and all the other ways it didn't reach our expectations, but please don't read the actual book.
Wildest Dreams
A book/series that you wish could have gone on forever
Nothing lasts forever but this is getting good now
Ugh, these books are just so good. Everything about them is so intense, the language is so beautiful and Cassandra Clare demonstrates how varied her writing can be -- the narration of
The Mortal Instruments is so different from
The Infernal Devices but both offer compelling stories and writing. Not only that, but her characters have such depth and are so wonderful. I fell in love with every single one of them (especially Will. I should have written him as my fictional crush, sigh. I used to have a Tumblr URL dedicated to him and everything. Double sigh). I just wish I could have kept reading forever and ever about this set of characters.
How You Get the Girl
One of your favorite books where they "got the girl"
That's how it works, that's how you get the girl
This was such an adorable book and I loved it so much. It was definitely one of my favorite books where they "got the girl" (well the girl "got the guy" because the girl was the protagonist) for quite a few reasons. One of them is a little strange, but it's because the book -- well most of it, including the beginning and their getting-to-know-each-other-ing -- takes place on an airplane and an airport and I really like those things so I just really liked the whole idea of this book even more because I just fell in love with the idea of sitting next to someone who could potentially be the love of your life on an airplane. Besides that, it was an excellent book and super cute and I just felt giddy when I read it so definitely a favorite romance.
This Love
A book that completely shocked you
In darkest dreams, in wildest dreams, I never dreamed of this
I know I already used
Gone Girl once and I really didn't want to do repeats but I really feel like this is the most appropriate book to put here because honestly it was such an insane and shocking book and I feel like Gillian Flynn deserves hella credit for that so she should get a section where I mention that instead of talking about how I'll never forgive her. It was just so unpredictable, the characters were so wild, something would happen and my mouth would open in shock because I would just not be expecting it.
I Know Places
A book you thought you loved but quickly came to hate
Loves a fragile little flame it could burn out
I think everyone needs to acknowledge that their
Twilight phase happened, and it was real, and that we should move past it. Anyway, seventh grade was clearly a bad time, because I was really into it:
Twilight merch, midnight movie premiere, getting into fights over Edward and Jacob. Oh, I was terrible. I can't tell you exactly when I came to my senses but I know it was before the second movie came out because I know I didn't see it and it was a deliberate decision, so I'm going to say I spent about a year in this phase.
I Know Places
A book you didn't want to be seen reading
Something happens when everybody finds out, see the vultures circling dark clouds
I don't have an answer for this one because when I'm reading a book it means a. I've decided to read that book or b. it's a textbook and in either case I don't have a problem being seen reading it???? If the book turns out to be bad, then it's bad, but I didn't know that going in and I'm not the one who wrote it, so if it's something I chose to read, then I'd read it in public.
Clean
When the wait between books made you forget
everything that happened
The drought was the very worst, when the flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst
Okay, this one is actually my fault. The wait between the books isn't actually longer than normal books, but I read the first book a super long time ago (I
reviewed it and everything) and I never ended up reading the second when it came out and in that time the third came out too???? Noor what???? I own the second one too, and I've been meaning to read it forever and I don't know why I keep picking other books over it because I
loved the first one so much I thought it was amazing but I'm a terrible person and I remember the plot and especially the important things but I'm going to read a plot summary of the first book before I start the second one anyway.
Clean
A book/series you wiped from your memory
By morning, gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean
When Kiersten
reviews a book lower than both Amrutha and I (especially Amrutha though) you know something is wrong with that book. I just want to pretend I never read
Those Girls, that the things that happened in that book were not things I read about. It's working out pretty well. The points of view of the three main characters are already flying out of my brain and melding into one blob -- oh wait, they were already basically the same. It's still working though, the scarring left by the book doesn't seem to be too permanent and I think I'll be okay if I never think about this book again.
-Noor
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