What I read in January 2019

Sonntag, 31. März 2019

   Hi Everyone!
   Am I late to writing this by like 2 months? Yes. Am I writing this right now because I'm stalling on finishing my preparations for Camp NaNo? Maybe. But hey, better late than never, right? For the fact that I originally set 5 as my Goodreads goal for 2019 (I've changed in to 10 by now, but I think I'll raise it to 20), I'm doing an okay job so far. My reviews have also gotten much shorter so I thought I'll post monthly reviews up instead of separate ones. For some books I've also decided against assigning star ratings.
   ANWAY, enough talking lets jump into what I read in January!

Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M. McManus
Published: January 10th 2019 by Penguin
Number of Pages: 327 Pages (Paperback)
Series: No

   Ellery's never been to Echo Ridge, but she's heard all about it. It's where her aunt went missing at age sixteen, never to return. Where a Homecoming Queen's murder five years ago made national news. And where Ellery now has to live with a grandmother she barely knows, after her failed-actress mother lands in rehab. No one knows what happened to either girl, and Ellery's family is still haunted by their loss.
   Malcolm grew up in the shadow of the Homecoming Queen's death. His older brother was the prime suspect and left Echo Ridge in disgrace. His mother's remarriage vaulted her and Malcolm into Echo Ridge's upper crust, but their new status grows shaky when mysterious threats around town hint that a killer plans to strike again. No one has forgotten Malcolm's brother-and nobody trusts him when he suddenly returns to town.
   Ellery and Malcolm both know it's hard to let go when you don't have closure. Then another girl disappears, and Ellery and Malcolm were the last people to see her alive. As they race to unravel what happened, they realize every secret has layers in Echo Ridge. The truth might be closer to home than either of them want to believe.
   And somebody would kill to keep it hidden. (goodreads.com)

   WOW. As much as I enjoyed One Of Us Is Lying, I absolutely LOVED this one. So many twists and turns, so many possible suspects, and the tension was through the roof the entire time. The characters were great and interesting, the sibling dynamic between Ellery and her twin Ezra was awesome, the writing really good, even better than in her debut, and just...WOW.
   TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET is an amazing (murder) mystery thriller that I just couldn't get enough of, so if you're in the mood for a twisty thriller, definitely check this one out.


The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo
Published: May 8th 2018 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux Byr
Number of Pages: 323 Pages (Paperback)
Series: No

   From the author of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, a laugh-out-loud story of love, new friendships, and one unique food truck.
Clara Shin lives for pranks and disruption. When she takes one joke too far, her dad sentences her to a summer working on his food truck, the KoBra, alongside her uptight classmate Rose Carver. Not the carefree summer Clara had imagined. But maybe Rose isn't so bad. Maybe the boy named Hamlet (yes, Hamlet) crushing on her is pretty cute. Maybe Clara actually feels invested in her dad's business. What if taking this summer seriously means that Clara has to leave her old self behind? With Maurene Goo's signature warmth and humor, The Way You Make Me Feel is a relatable story of falling in love and finding yourself in the places you'd never thought to look. (goodreads.com)

   The Way You Make Me Feel was exactly what I wanted it to be, cute, fun, and with a core I could relate to in ways I rarely can when it comes to families in YA. The characters were fun and interesting, the setting different (a Korean-Brazilian food truck) and something I haven't read about before, and the writing style fit Clara's voice really well. I finished it in less than 8h because I simply had to know what happens next and how it'll end. Maurene Goo is definitely an author I'll watch out for in the future, and also want to read the books she's already published in the past.


Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, Mikki Daughtry, Tobias Iaconis
Published: November 20th 2018 by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers
Number of Pages: 288 Pages (Hardcover)
Series: No

   Soon to be a major motion picture in March 2019!

   In this moving story that’s perfect for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, two teens fall in love with just one minor complication—they can’t get within five feet of each other without risking their lives.
   Can you love someone you can never touch?
   Stella Grant likes to be in control—even though her totally out of control lungs have sent her in and out of the hospital most of her life. At this point, what Stella needs to control most is keeping herself away from anyone or anything that might pass along an infection and jeopardize the possibility of a lung transplant. Six feet apart. No exceptions.
   The only thing Will Newman wants to be in control of is getting out of this hospital. He couldn’t care less about his treatments, or a fancy new clinical drug trial. Soon, he’ll turn eighteen and then he’ll be able to unplug all these machines and actually go see the world, not just its hospitals.
   Will’s exactly what Stella needs to stay away from. If he so much as breathes on Stella she could lose her spot on the transplant list. Either one of them could die. The only way to stay alive is to stay apart. But suddenly six feet doesn’t feel like safety. It feels like punishment.
   What if they could steal back just a little bit of the space their broken lungs have stolen from them? Would five feet apart really be so dangerous if it stops their hearts from breaking too? (goodreads.com)

   Reviewing Five Feet Apart is hard for me simply because I know this book and movie mean a lot to actual patients with CF (Cystic Fibrosis) and for the cause of bringing awareness toward CF, which was an illness I didn't know of until I saw the trailer for the movie on Instagram, of all places.
   Going into the story I expected for it to be similar in feeling and emotionality to The Fault in Our Stars, but unfortunately that wasn't really what I got. For most of the book I felt like it stayed close to the surface, barely allowing for the characters to dig deeper into their feelings and what was happening around them. Because of that, I didn't feel particularly attached to any of them, or drawn in by the romance the way I hoped to be.
   There were a lot of good moments, pieces that even I could relate to as someone who doesn't have CF but also has an incurable illness, but there were also things I had an issue with. The last 80-60 pages felt wrong to me in many ways, because I felt like the events that happened across those pages were far too dramatic, even melodramatic, and could've easily been dealt with differently.
   All in all, this is certainly a book I would recommend, even if only to educate people on CF and what it means to have it and live with it. I learned a lot about the disease and, after finishing it, went on YouTube to learn more. If you're interested in doing the same, this is a channel I discovered that offers a great insight into CF (since he is a CF patient) and also just great content overall.

RATING WITHHELD 

   And that's it. Three (3) books read in January. As for the fact that I've been in a major reading slump for most of 2018, that's not a bad result. I know some people read like 20 books a month, but honestly, I have no idea how they do it. I wish I could do that as well, it would definitely help decrease my TBR, but alas.
   In the comments, tell me what books you've read in January, or what your favorite book has been so far in 2019!

   Thank you so much for reading! Have an awesome day!