Month: April 2017

Mini Hiatus

Published on by Shouni14 Comments

Mini Hiatus

Hello everyone! Just popping in for a brief second to let you guys know I will be even more absent around the blogosphere than usual. Finals are right around the corner (they’re starting next week, please send help) so I need to focus on that the next few days. My finals end on May 2nd so until then, farewell.

On a more positive turn, I just reached a 100 WordPress followers??!! That’s CRAZY! Thank you so much to everyone who follows and reads my posts. It means A LOT to me. You guys are the best!

Sorry this is a short post, I just wanted to drop by. Good luck to anyone else who has finals coming up! You can do it!

 

Review: “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas

Published on by Shouni3 Comments

32075671~o~Review~o~
5 stars

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend, Khalil, at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, Khalil’s death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Starr’s best friend at school suggests he may have had it coming. When it becomes clear the police have little interest in investigating the incident, protesters take to the streets and Starr’s neighborhood becomes a war zone. What everyone wants to know is: What really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could destroy her community. It could also endanger her life.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Nobles

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Hate U Give quote

When books like this come along, I realize how incredibly inept I am at reviewing books. I’m sure everyone has either read this book or has at-least heard of it. It’s pretty much everywhere now and the hype is very well deserved. It’s been about a month since I read this and I’ve been putting off writing a review for it because nothing I say will justify how great of a book this is.

The Hate U Give is perfect. I was laughing and crying and was happy and heart-broken. If you are to read one book this year, this should be it. This is the epitome of an important book. 

The Hate U Give is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. It has really opened my eyes on a lot of issues that I was aware of but not to the degree in which they exist. This novel touches on police brutality, racism and racial profiling, micro-agression, etc. The fact that there are parents in the world who need to sit their children down and talk to them about how to protect themselves from the police if they are ever pulled over? That’s APPALLING to me. But THUG also depicts the good side of cops through Starr’s uncle who is like a father to her. Not all cops are racist and discriminatory and the story shows both sides.

Even though THUG portrays so many contemporary societal problems, it never seems like the author is shoving her opinions down her readers. The issues are all wonderfully crafted into the characters’ lives and we see how it affects them on a daily basis.

Starr is a great main character. She is strong, funny and utterly relatable. She lives in two different worlds (as she would say). The neighborhood she lives in is impoverished, a little run down and crime ridden but she goes to a private school with wealthier kids that’s about an hour from her house. Because she is a part of both worlds, she also doesn’t think she can be wholly herself in either places. She struggles with finding her place in both her home community and her school.

There were quite a few funny scenes too. Lots of references to Harry Potter, High School Musical, Tumblr, and Starr’s favorite show of all time: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

Another wonderful aspect of the book is the importance of family to the story line. Starr’s parents are straight up awesome. They are supportive, encouraging but also stern. Starr has a great relationship with both her mother and father which can be hard to find in YA. Her older half-brother Seven is great: he is very protective of Starr and his two other half sisters. And Starr’s little brother Sekani is just an adorable cutie.

Like I said before, I cannot stress enough how good this book is. EVERYONE needs to read it.

Have you read it? What did you think?

Mystery Blogger Award

Published on by Shouni15 Comments

Mystery Blogger Award

Thank you so much to Azia @ The Uncharted World and Kayla @ KDREWKTHEBOOKWORM for nominating me for the Mystery Blogger Award! They both have amazing book recommendations and book reviews so definitely go follow them if you aren’t already.

mystery1The Rules:

  • Put the award logo/image on your blog
  • List the rules
  • Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog
  • Mention the creator of the award and provide a link to their blog as well
  • Tell your readers 3 things about yourself
  • You have to nominate 10-20 people
  • Notify each of your nominees by commenting on their blog
  • Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question (specify)
  • Share your link to your best post(s)

3 Facts About Myself

  1. I get overly addicted to TV shows. I always try not to start new shows because I know I wouldn’t get anything else done once I start watching.
  2. My favorite Disney princess is Mulan.
  3. I’m super indecisive and always get really anxious when if I have to make life decisions. It doesn’t even have to be a major decision, just picking what book to read next takes me forever (and then I end up doing eeny meeny miny mo).

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Azia’s Questions

1. Do you have a favorite YA trope that you love (or maybe even tolerate) more than others?

This isn’t just related to YA but a general trope I like is happy endings. I love when  the characters’ problems are all solved or at least resolved and you know they will live a nice life from now on. This is actually pretty uncommon in YA since most of the characters go through quite a bit of loss and even though they have resolution, they don’t really have straight up happy endings.

2. How often do you buy books?

Not very often. I usually only buy books that are sequels to series I’m already a fan of so I already know what I’m getting into. The last book I paid money for was the February OwlCrate book Heartless by Marissa Meyer (still haven’t read it).

3. Do you take off the book jackets while you’re reading or do you leave them on?

I take the jacket off because I’m too afraid I’ll ruin the cover. I also stuff my books into my backpack and that can leave dents in the dust jacket if I don’t take it off.

4. Besides WordPress, where do you go to find recommendations for new books?

I get a lot of my recommendations from my friends because most of them are readers too. I don’t think I go anywhere else honestly. There are rare times when I check out books from the library just by reading the synopsis but like I said, rare times.

5. Random Question: If it were possible, which movie (or TV show) would you transport yourself into to be part of the cast?

Okay, I would LOVE to have magical powers but without any responsibility or trying to “use it for the greater good”. So probably something like Wizards of Waverly Place where I can use my magic for mundane things like levitating a book in front of me so I wouldn’t have to hold it or cleaning my room in ten seconds.

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Kayla’s Questions

1. Where was the last place you traveled, and when was it?

I don’t know if this counts as “travelling” exactly but I went to visit my family in Bangladesh last summer. I haven’t really been anywhere else since then (unless going to the southern part of Georgia counts as travelling).

2. Tell me a teaser sentence from the book you’re currently reading!

“It took seven years to get the letter right” from Caraval. I like it so far but I don’t love it like I thought I would.

3. What song is stuck in your head right now? (if any)

I’m a huge fan of the DC shows on the CW and the Flash just aired their musical episode and I’m now obsessed with Grant Gustin’s Runnin’ Home To You. I also just saw Beauty and the Beast recently so Belle and Be Our Guest has been playing in my head off and on for the past two weeks.

4. Under what circumstances would you DNF a book?

I’m very picky when it comes to writing styles. I will trudge on if the character is a whiny brat, or the plot is horribly predictable but it’s the writing that gets me. I like that perfect mix of show-and-tell, too much description or too little description bothers me to no end. So if I don’t like the writing, I will most likely DNF the book.

5. Silly: Share your favourite meme or GIF!

I don’t really have a favorite meme or gif so I’ll just add one I find hilarious. (Taken from giphy.com).

Dumblin'

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I TAG YOU

 Feel free to not do this if you have already or if you just don’t want to

My Questions:

  1. What book have you re-read the most and why?
  2. If you had to change your name to a character’s name, who would you pick?
  3. If you could shape shift into any animal, what would you be?
  4. Say you have the power to get rid of a certain item from the world (books, phone, toilet paper, etc), what item would you want to get rid of.
  5. Random (even though most of my questions are already kind of random): You now have 10 chimpanzees as your servants. What would you make them do?