Skip to main content

Teen SRC 2021 – Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows eBook : Bardugo, Leigh: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store

I’m going to be honest, Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is a book that I had been highly anticipating for the longest time. It had been on my TBR for months and I was really excited when I finally got to read it. What I didn’t know was that the book would turn out to be quite a big disappointment.

At first I thought the book was pretty interesting, but I think this book introduces a bit too many characters right at the beginning. I thought the introduction/1st sentences were good, but by the time I got to the second chapter, I really didn’t want to read the book anymore. That’s literally all I have to say, the rest of the book was just a repetitive pattern of flipping back, being bored, and pushing through every word.

I have to say though, I did like most of the fantasy aspects of the novel, and honestly after reading They Both Die at the End, nothing can really have a lower rating than that one. I just didn’t enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, but it still gets maybe six out of 10.

Teen Book Review- Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Allegedly - Jackson, Tiffany

TL; DR: This is the first book I am at a loss on how to review. 4 or 9 /10.

So. I don’t know how to start the review for Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson and that’s a first. I usually have a million of things to say (notice the average length of my reviews, hahaha) but for this one, I am still grappling.

Before I go into that, the premise.

Mary B. Addison killed a baby. Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say. Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home. There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

Just from that you know that this thriller is going to be intense. And it really was.

First of all, why is this a YA novel? The protag is 16 years old but the topics in here are HEAVY and well… don’t open it expecting your typical YA stuff. Although that isn’t exactly fair either, because it does have a bunch of your typical YA stuff.

To give (some) structure to the review, I’ll break it down like this. Characters: 9/10. The arcs are strong, and the main characters are EXTREMELY complex and well-written. The side characters on the other hand are lacking, and stereotypically so. Writing: 7/10 Some lines catch you off-guard with their beauty but the overall style was just average. Romance: 8/10. I am still iffy about the romance, but oh well, it’s YA! Importance/Issues Discussed: 10/10. Now that’s one thing I can’t criticize Allegedly for. It takes the most uncomfortable, least-discussed, nitty gritty of the world and forces you to grapple with it. Just… astounding.

Notice how I didn’t rate the plot. Because the plot is *continuous screaming*. Without any spoilers, this is my plea to authors everywhere: DO NOT INCLUDE A PLOT TWIST IF THE ONLY THING IT’S ADDING TO THE BOOK IS SHOCK VALUE.

The ending felt incomplete and it was a long way for me to go to end up unsatisfied. I can’t give the book an overall rating because it’s either a 4/10 or a 9/10. Take from this review (which ended up being long despite what I said at the beginning, super sorry!) what you will and go forth with indecisiveness on whether to read Allegedly or not. 🙂 You’re welcome.

Teen SRC 2020 – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Hate U Give eBook: Thomas, Angie: Amazon.ca: Kindle Store

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas features Starr Carter, an African American teenager who sees her childhood best friend, Khalil Harris, being shot and killed by a police officer after a routine traffic stop escalates into Khalil’s untimely demise. Starr is then forced to decide whether she will adhere to the unspoken laws of her local neighborhood and stay silent about the injustice she had witnessed, or testify in front of a grand jury and join an ongoing movement to end racist/xenophobic violence and police misconduct in communities across her area.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

If this review were being read to you like an audiobook, you wouldn’t even be able to hear it over the sound of my tears. Thankfully, I’m just joking (although that’s not the case for Heartless), surprisingly I didn’t cry for this although it definitely hit me straight in the feels quite a few times.

Crooked Kingdom is the sequel to Six of Crows which I absolutely loved. This is a huge book, hence why it took me so long to finish but I have finally concluded and gathered my opinions.

Spoilers for Six of Crows but not Crooked Kingdom: Following their raid on the Ice Court to rescue Kuwei Yul-Bo, Kaz and the Dregs are working to free Inej from Van Eck’s grasp. OK I’m done, you can open your eyes now LOL.

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter

This review is for Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter.

The reason this review took so long to get to you guys was that I couldn’t find it on the library catalogue so I thought the library didn’t own it? But I just re-searched today and it’s on… that was a little odd but I’m not mad about it 🙂 Anyways, I read it on Hoopla so if you’re more of an e-book person, this one’s for you sis.

No synopsis for you guys, sorry but if you want to know what the books about just read the summaries from my reviews of the previous two books!

Thoughts: I LOVED this finale. It was a lot deeper than the first and second books which made it more emotion-filled (I cried. Just a little though!). The ending was very satisfying (especially in terms of romance) so if you’re one to get mad about unsatisfying conclusions (like me), you won’t be disappointed here. I really loved the romance that was in this book as well because it wasn’t super intense, not everything was about it; but it was always there, very sweet and very, very adorable. I HIGHLY recommend this book, you really will not regret it. My final rating is 5/5 stars.

P.S. From now on, I’m going to rate books out of 10 instead of 5 because I feel like there are amazing books and then there are completely life-changing ones and I really need to differentiate them.

Teen SRC 2019 – Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

Hey guys, I’m back from a few days of Summer School and boy am I glad it’s the weekend, haha! Anyways, I’m continuing to review the Heist Society series so this is the second book: Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter.

Starting off, I think I forgot to mention this in my previous previews but every single book in this series is very short and fast-paced. This means that I highly recommend these books to you if you’re a person who’s even busier in the summer than the school year (like me :)).

If you haven’t read my review of Heist Society (book 1) I highly recommend you do so because it’ll help you get an overall feel for the book and you’ll come back understanding what I’m talking about. Just click here. If you’re back from there, read on for a short synopsis and my thoughts for this one!

Read More

Teen SRC 2019 – The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Agatha Christie is one of my favourite authors, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the best mystery books I’ve read. The book is full of plot twists and it is impossible to stop reading. The narrator in this book, Dr. Sheppard, is recording this case as he is the helper of detective Poirot. Mr. Ackroyd is known throughout King’s Abbot as a wealthy guy, but he is stabbed to death a few days following the death of the woman he loves. It is fascinating to read how Poirot analyzes every piece of evidence and how he eliminates the suspects one by one.

Teen SRC 2018 – The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Image result for lovely bones book

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder — a murder recounted by the teenage victim. Upsetting, you say? Remarkably, first-time novelist Alice Sebold takes this difficult material and delivers a compelling and accomplished exploration of a fractured family’s need for peace and closure.

The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was violated and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished.

Sebold creates a heaven that’s calm and comforting, a place whose residents can have whatever they enjoyed when they were alive — and then some. But Susie isn’t ready to release her hold on life just yet, and she intensely watches her family and friends as they struggle to cope with a reality in which she is no longer a part. To her great credit, Sebold has shaped one of the most loving and sympathetic fathers in contemporary literature.

This book is one of my most favourite ones ever, and I think it deserves to be a classic. It holds some power over me because I cry every single time I read it. I watched the movie a few years ago, and although the actors were well casted, it did not do much damage as the book. It covers realistic and hard topics and is not suited for everyone (needs a mature reader), but it is a beautiful book mostly focusing on Susie’s point of view (even after death), which I think is very artistic and filled with symbolism.

I recommend this book to those who like reading crime, philosophical, and coming of age novels.