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I don't know if this will actually be a weekly thing, but I just wanted to share with you some of the books that actually arrived in my mailbox today. Well, the courier brought them. Whatever. About a month ago I won a contest on inkpop involving books turned into movies/TV shows, and for a prize I got these four books:

I'm really looking forward to this read. My friends have told me the movie was good (I haven't seen it yet) and the whole idea of a Beauty and the Beast retelling with modern day highschoolers sounds pretty cool. I'll let you know what I think of it within the next couple weeks. 

 This series seems to be wildly popular, so I'm willing to give it a go. Highschool drama really isn't my thing, though, especially when it involves girls crushing on their teachers, or their female friends, so I don't know...

Same with Pretty Little Liars... If I really don't like the first one, I won't even read this.

In case I don't like them, who's up for a giveaway? :)

Some of you will know that I've already read this book and didn't really care for it that much. Since I already own it, I'll probably be giving this away to my friend. She's lucky that it turned out to be a really nice hardcover with dustjacket and everything. It even has a sneak peak of The Power of Six... Maybe I'll keep this version for myself and give her the other one? 

No... this didn't come in my mailbox. I wish! I read the first hundred pages on HarperTeen and I absolutely can't wait 'till the May 3rd release date. I've read an awful lot of positive reviews, so it seems like this is going to be a big release. 

That's enough of me. What did you get in your mailbox this week? Any big releases you can't wait to get your hands on? I'd love to hear what you guys are reading! 

Why Book Reviews are Useless (and how to make them less so)

This isn’t exactly a post on writing, but I thought it needed to be said, and I just finished my six-part series, so now’s the time for it.

I assume that all of you have a favourite book, or at least a book that you really, really like. I’m also guessing that you have some books you really dislike, ones you think aren’t worth reading and you can’t imagine how anyone could like it. For instance, I absolutely love The Hunger Games and I hated Shiver, and I really don’t get how anyone could dislike The Hunger Games or like Shiver. But lo and behold, if you go on Goodreads, they’ll be a lot of people who disagree with me.

On the whole, people do agree with me on those two books. The Goodreads rating for The Hunger Games is 4.54 (quite high for Goodreads) while Shiver is rated 3.96 (fairly average). When you average it out, The Hunger Games is ‘better.’ However, if you look at individual reviews, Shiver is going to have some five stars (I just check, and some of my friends gave it four or five), and The Hunger Games will have some one-stars (a couple of my friends gave it three). Some individuals will drastically disagree with me.

If that’s the case, why should you bother reading my reviews? Why read reviews at all? I can tell you a book if awful, but then you could go and read it and love it. I’ve read books that people have told me they loved, but I couldn’t stand them. Is there any reason to pay attention to goodreads/amazon ratings?

The thing that a good book review does is give you a sense of why the reviewer (dis)liked the book. My review of Shiver makes clear that I am not a werewolf fan, so that could well be why I didn’t like it. When I read reviews on Amazon for I Am Number Four, I saw that most of them talked about how terrible the characterization was. When I got the book, I had to agree, the characters were boring (though I have had some people say they loved them). If you’re more interested in a fast-paced action story than in riveting characters, then I Am Number Four would be great. If you like characters better, then you probably won’t enjoy it.

Basically, a good book review should do three things:

1-      Make clear that this is only one opinion (Don’t say ‘The only people who would like this book are ones who think Twilight is great literature’)

2-      Show how the reviewer’s personality affected the review (For instance, ‘I don’t normally like Paranormal/Romance, but I loved Paranormalcy’)

3-      Showcase both the books strengths and weaknesses (even the best book has some bad things, and even the worst has some strengths)

I’m not sure if my book reviews always fulfill those criteria, but I try to include them all. It may feel egoistic, but it’s essential to let your readers know what kind of reader you are, so that they know if their tastes are similar or not. You also need to temper that with a fair bit of humility, admitting that yours is only one opinion and even your favourite books have bad parts and even the ones you hate have good points. Basically, think about how your book reviews can be of the most help to your blog readers.

As for you, my loyal followers, is there anything I could be doing with my book reviews to help you out? Do you have any tips, either for me, or for other book bloggers out there? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment! 

Book Review: I Am Number Four

 By Pittacus Lore


Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books-- but we are real.


Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.


But they know.


They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.

I am Number Four.

I am next. 

 Why I read it: I won this book from HarperCollins through inkpop.com. I had seen tons of advertisements out for it and the movie and I love sci-fi action stories, so this seemed perfect.

What I liked: The premise of the story is really intriguing. Nine aliens have come down to earth with a protective charm saying they can only be killed in order. The tagline, “Three are dead. I am number four,” is just so cool, and the plot really follows up.

The writing isn’t bad, and the plot is kept moving fairly quickly. Since the main character is a superhero it could easy have turned into a whole battle of magical ‘legacies’ but luckily these ‘legacies’ don’t develop until half way through the book so it never feels like the author is just using the magic to get his characters out of trouble when he’s too lazy to do it properly.

What I disliked: If you read any review on Amazon they’ll say exactly what I’m saying now: no character development. It’s true. I was expecting Number Four to be a really cool character (he is an alien from Lorien, after all) but he just feels like a plain ordinary boy. His girlfriend is a fairly flat semi-popular girl, and his best friend is a stereotypical nerd. Altogether, there were no original characters in here, and very little in the way of character development.

From a Christian Perspective: There was a fair bit of swearing in this book. It felt like the author was trying to fill the pages with certain swear words just to make it feel like he was a real teenager. There was no sexual content, though, besides for a couple kisses.

This book does contain a number of fight sequences, but nothing too graphic. I wouldn’t give this to little kids, but any teenager can handle it.

To buy or not to buy: This is a classic example of a book with incredible promise which fails… as a book. The lack of character development ruined it for me. However, there’s a movie out which I plan to go see. This is probably the only time I’ll ever say this, but, don’t read the book! Go see the movie!