READING: The Ravens (The Ravens #1) by Kass Morgan and Danielle Page

Publication date: November 3 2020
Published by: HMH Books for YR
Genre: College, Contemporary, Hints of Paranormal, Magic, Mystery, Sorority
Rating:

Kappa Rho Nu isn’t your average sorority. Their parties are notorious. Their fundraisers are known for being Westerly College’s most elaborate affairs. But beneath the veil of Greek life and prestige, the sisters of Kappu Rho Nu share a secret: they’re a coven of witches. For Vivi Deveraux, being one of Kappa Rho Nu’s Ravens means getting a chance to redefine herself. For Scarlett Winters, a bonafide Raven and daughter of a legacy Raven, pledge this year means living up to her mother’s impossible expectations of becoming Kappa Rho Nu’s next president. Scarlett knows she’d be the perfect candidate — that is, if she didn’t have one human-sized skeleton in her closet…. When Vivi and Scarlett are paired as big and little for initiation, they find themselves sinking into the sinister world of blood oaths and betrayals.

Oh my. This book.

I really thought it would be one of my 2020 faves. Not only does it play on sorority books nostalgia like The Ivy or Private series which I really enjoyed, but also...witches?? I mean, seriously. This sounds perfect, right up my alley. And until around halfway I thought it would be good. Not the best, but a fun, enjoyable read.
But it started going downhill from there real fast.

Even though the girls are supposedly in college, the vibe was definitely high school. Vivi, the main female character, was this doe-eyed, innocent, quirky little girl (really? can this trope just die already?) who has absolutely no awareness of what is happening around her and has the personality of a napkin. She was really boring to read and a ridiculously weak character.
There was a scene where she was siting alone at a party and the guy she likes asks her "What are you doing here alone?". Her first thought was that that question would have mortified "Old Her" because she saw it as an acknowledgement of her awkwardness and friendlessness. I mean, what the hell? Just because someone asks you why are you sitting somewhere, it triggers such feelings of unworthiness? That's stupid! Vivi is supposed to be 19 years old, a college girl, a young woman, and she is floored when someone asks her "Why are you sitting alone?"
Oh, right. That's the "Old Vivi". Meaning the Vivi from 10 pages ago, who suddenly changed her whole personality and she doesn't mind these kind of questions.
How many eye rolls can I possibly insert here? 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Scarlett on the other hand, I liked. She was strong and assertive and way more interesting to read. Yes, she was a total bitch in the beginning, but I knew what I was signing up for. We're talking coven/sorority, of course there's going to be bitchiness.
Except for her, all the other characters were soooo dull. The love interest was interest in name only. Mason was an underdeveloped character who did not know what he wanted. Or rather he knew, but he went at it completely the wrong way and that made him immediately unlikeable to me.
The other sorority girls were pretty much one person, they all just blended together after a while, and Vivi's mum had absolutely no backstory to justify her words and actions.

Overall, The Ravens started off as a mildly entertaining YA read (meh, more like middle grade if I'm being honest) and ended up as something I had a very hard time finishing. It was like the authors skipped 10 years of character and story development when they wrote the second half, and I could no longer connect with the book.
Not for me :/

READING: Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson

Publication Date: May 6 2014
Published by: Simon&Schuster
Genre: Contemporary, Coming of age, YA, Romance, Summer
Rating:

 

It was Sloane who yanked Emily out of her shell and made life 100% interesting. But right before what should have been the most epic summer, Sloane just…disappears. All she leaves behind is a to-do list.

On it, thirteen Sloane-inspired tasks that Emily would normally never try. But what if they could bring her best friend back?

Apple picking at night? Okay, easy enough.

Dance until dawn? Sure. Why not?

Kiss a stranger? Um...

Emily now has this unexpected summer, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected), to check things off Sloane's list. Who knows what she’ll find?

Go skinny-dipping? Wait...what?

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of coming-of-age books. I am not a teen anymore and I find most of these stories are packed with forced melancholia and unrelatable situations. However, I have heard great things about Matson's books so I thought I'd try one.

The story is about 16-17 year old Emily (exact age unclear, or I just don't remember it) whose best friend Sloane unexpectedly disappeared, leaving Emily a bucket list of things to do during the summer as her "last" wish.
Right of the bat, I disliked Emily's weak personality. She appeared to be more than happy to live under the shadow of the popular girl, Sloane, who she idolised beyond reason. From the flashbacks, we see that Emily had no backbone whatsoever, could never say no to Sloane even when she was being absurd and in the present, she almost has a panic attack when she goes to a party of fellow high schoolers BY HERSELF!! The horror! When a guy offered to move her car because it broke down in the middle of the road, she couldn't even converse with him, she was so shy. I really don't like it when teenage girls are portrayed this way, because I was one of these girls back in the day and I still beat myself over what a stupid idiot I was for letting other people overshadow me. It was horrible and the last thing I want is to relive it through books.

That being said, Emily's transformation begins when she decides to do the list of tasks Sloane left her, probably the one good thing she did in the entire book. Even though Emily is no adventure seeker, she understands it is something she just has to do, mostly because Sloane told her to.
Through these tasks, it dawns on Emily that she has been living her life by someone else's rules and it was time for a change. She slowly realises she is a smart, strong, self - reliant young girl, who doesn't need anyone to speak for her or tell her what to do or how to act. Of course, she was a bit slow to come to that realisation, but at least she finally did. The slow pace only made it more realistic.
The tasks themselves were funny and emotional at times, that part of the book is the best in my opinion. And the fact that she gained nice and understanding friends along the way, was a bonus. I really liked the "love interest", Frank. He was a decent guy, Don't expect a sizzling love story though, it was more of a close friendship that led to something more in the end. A cute and sweet relationship fitting for high schoolers, I liked it.

Apart from Sloane, I didn't particularly care about Emily's parents. They seemed uninterested in their children, bordering on abandonment. It seemed they only cared about their "art", and they came off as selfish jerks. If that is how Emily grew up, I kinda get her attachment to Sloane and her need to find someone to take care of her.
Finally,

Sloane's excuse to why she left without any warning was ridiculous. Classic Sloane, drama queen.

Overall, Since You've Been Gone was a cute and easy read. The whole tone of the book was a bit flat for me, there were no intense emotions from anyone involved, and for a 450 page book, that's not great. But seeing that I am certainly not the target audience for this book, I would happily recommend it to ages 12-15 as a nice, summer read.

READING: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Publication date: February 5 2019
Published by: Celadon Books

Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense, Crime, Thriller
Rating:

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

Finished this book in one day. I can't remember the last time I found a book so addictive!

Part of the Silent Patient's pull lies with its plot. A seemingly open and closed murder that happened 6 years ago, committed by a mysterious woman who has not spoken a word and since been residing in a mental institution, narrated by her psychiatrist. Who wouldn't want to read that?
I am a huge fan of unreliable narrators, especially in such a dark and ominous setting as a mental institution. I have always been fascinated with the therapist/patient relationship and how it's been portrayed in books and movies/TV (hello Hannibal ❤️) There's a co dependency there that I find quite interesting yet disturbing, perfect for a thriller book.
Regrettably, we didn't get to see much of that in this book, mainly because Alicia (the patient) didn't speak at all, and also because Theo was so bad at his job! For those of you expecting to read a lot of intriguing, clue-filled sessions between him and Alicia like I was, you can forget it. For all I know, Theo didn't even need to be a therapist. He could easily be a prison warden and Alicia a prisoner. Her being in a mental institution serves no other purpose than to add an eerie component to the book, it doesn't factor in the story/plot at all.

What also makes Silent Patient so addictive, is the writing. Not necessarily its quality, but its simplicity. Short, to the point sentences, that just had me flying over the words. This was, I'm guessing, done on purpose so the reader, so anxiously wanting to know the ending, would turn page after page without actually seeing what is going on right in front of them.

The characters were across the board very unlikeable, I don't think anyone can disagree with that. Theo in particular was in by no way shape or form the "hero" you're supposed to root for. In some instances I even found myself cringing at what he was saying. He was unesttling, to say the least, and given his profession and the position of power he was in, it was getting harder and harder to sympathise with him as I got more into the book. Granted, he suffered abuse in the hands of his father for many years but then again, according to him (unreliable narrator). I was mostly creeped out by his relationship with his wife, to be honest. Even though at first glance it looked fine, I had a feeling that something wasn't quite right there.

In regards to the ending, I get that it came as a shock to many people, but not to me. I am, by nature, very paranoid, and whenever I read a book like this one, especially one that has been super hyped for its unexpected ending, my mind always goes to the most out-there, wacky places, mostly because I want to be all like "Ha ha I knew it!" (I ruined the Lost Season 3 finale for all my friends. Yes, I'm one of those).
This time, my mind didn't need to go far. I had 2 theories already formed after reading 50 pages or so, and after reaching the halfway point, I was strongly leaning towards one of the two, which turned out to be what actually happened. So, on that respect it kind of disappointed me. I expected a mind blowing ending for such a hyped book and I didn't get it.
That being said, I realised after that it wasn't the ending itself that disappointed me, but how the book came to a close. I felt like there should be a more well rounded explanation as to how and why all this happened. Upon finishing the book and looking back at what I have been reading for the last I don't even know how many hours, I realised that the book's purpose was solely the big reveal and nothing else, and after that was done, the book just stopped existing. I don't know, it just wasn't satisfying to me.

The Silent Patient is an undeniable page turner. You will not be able to put it down, this I guarantee. If you don't take everything apart like I do, you will definitely enjoy it.
If you are nit-picky like me, you will still enjoy it but probably go "Wait, is that it? Well, I already knew that" in the end.

READING: The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1) by Renne Ahdieh

Publication date: October 8 2019
Published by: GP Putnam's Sons Books for YR
Genre: Historical, Paranormal, Vampires, Mystery, Romance
Rating:

In 1872, New Orleans is a city ruled by the dead. But to seventeen-year-old Celine Rousseau, New Orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in Paris. Taken in by the sisters of the Ursuline convent along with six other girls, Celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. She soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as La Cour des Lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic Sébastien Saint Germain. When the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of La Cour des Lions, Celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about Sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

When more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, Celine and New Orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose—one Celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. As the murders continue to go unsolved, Celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about Celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

I'm genuinely very disappointed. I know by now to always be wary of pretty covers, but after seeing all these raving reviews about The Beautiful, I though it would at least be decent.
It wasn't.

The Beautiful failed to capture my interest right from the start. The writing was almost uncanny, like it was trying very hard to be something it wasn't and was failing miserably. Each scene took forever to get through, vases and chandeliers' descriptions dragged on for ages, and there were densely worded sentences saying nothing at all. Also, phrases like "beyond your ken" (used more than twice) do not fit in a book about New Orleans me thinks, it threw me completely off.

This is supposed to be a book about vampires, but there are no vampire in sight until around 90% or so. Why take this long to reveal the plot? The whole point of buying and reading this book is to read about vampires. I absolutely can't stand it when a book promises you one thing and is marketed as, in this instance, a vampire book, when it's clearly a romance book, and not even a good one!

The characters were all one dimensional caricatures.
The big baddie's thoughts were written in monologed chapters, which to me read like "I'm evol and I vant to drink blood mwahaha". 

🤓 Not great.

The chief of New Orleans police is a 18 year old boy *eyeroll* How can you even justify that, it's impossible!
The girls were either clever or stupid, very shy or promiscuous, there was no in between. Celine was a reckless, numbnut who acted all high and mighty, but insta-loved a guy who looked dangerous, threating and unstable.
Oh but don't worry though. It's totally OK because he is soooooo dreamy!
My time machine worked everybody, I'm back in 2010 when this shit was still acceptable!
Stop putting so much importance on good looks, or rather out-of-this-world good looks, unless it fits your plot! It's not right to send these kinds of messages to young readers, or any readers for that matter.

This book was unbelievably exhausting to read. I felt like wading through mud in the last 100 pages, I just couldn't seem to finish it. When I finally did, I admittedly found the last 10 pages kinda interesting compared to the rest of the book, but definitely not interesting enough for me to read Book 2.
If you're brave enough to tackle this, you are my hero and I wish you all the best. I barely got through it.
Very unmemorable and tedious.