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For my next book review, I want to talk about the awesome book The Maze Runner by James Dashner.

(Spoilers will be ahead!)

The book is incredibly fast past and action packed and throws the reader right into it. It starts with a boy named Thomas who wakes up in an unknown area surrounded by a group of boys. He has no recollection of who he once was or where he is, but he senses a feeling of familiarity that he can’t put his finger on. As the story progresses, Thomas befriends the people around him, specifically Newt and Minho, along with a young boy named Chuck. The story revolves around these group of boys trying to survive and make a life for themselves while right outside a dangerous maze. The maze has vicious and evil creatures inside that can sting and cause people for remember their old memories, but the cure for the sting is both incredibly painful emotionally and physically. People who have been cured often don’t come back the same, including a boy who tries to kill Thomas. The rest of the boys eventually “banish” the boy who tried to kill Thomas in a gruesome act. A day after Thomas gets there, a girl shows up in a coma. There has never been a girl in the two years that the group of boys where there, and never in the same week have two people arrived. Thomas also can telepathically talk with the girl. As the story progresses, Thomas tries to find his place in the group by trying out different jobs, but ultimately he is drawn to the most dangerous job, the runners. The runners are the ones who map out the maze looking for a possible escape. They often don’t come back alive, especially if they are caught in the maze when the doors close to the entrances and they are stuck in there at night. Eventually, Minho does not come back and it alarms everyone, but one night as the gate is about to close, Minho and another boy are trying to get out of the maze. Thomas (being the loving and courageous character he is) breaks the group of boys main rule and runs into the maze to help the boys. As the night progresses, Thomas not only saves the injured boy and Minho, but also defeats some of the monsters and finds a possible exit. When they get out of the maze back to the group of boys, they hold a meeting to talk about Thomas. The one boy who didn’t like Thomas wants him banished for his actions, but ultimately no one else agrees. Minho wants Thomas to be the new head runner but that idea is shut down too. Thomas does become a runner though and is only punished for one measly day. As time progresses, Teresa, the girl in the coma, wakes up and has small bouts of memories she remembers. Her and Thomas feel connected somehow but do not know exactly how. One night, the mazes don’t close and the boys and Teresa and stuck to fight off the grievers (the monsters) in the maze. Eventually, the boys and Teresa do escape with multiple casualties including Thomas’s beloved friend Chuck. The story ends with the boys in a newfound facility with the creators of the maze talking to them.

Overall, The Maze Runner was a really enjoyable, fast paced book. It was one of the best written and developed action, dystopian novels I’ve ever read. It was also a fairly quick read since it was such a good page turner. Overall I would rate The Maze Runner a 8/10 for likable characters, fact passed action, and an overall well written story.

(There is also a movie series of the trilogy as well that I am planning on watching once I’m done all the books!)

(PS: The summary provided is a very rough summary and leaves out a large chunk of the story!)

#the maze runner #james dashner #book recommendations #bookblr #book review #authors #writing #fiction #dystopian #reading

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For my next book review, I read The Ugly Duckling by Iris Johansen.

(Spoilers will be ahead!)

The book starts with a young child being told by her mother that she will forever be “average” looking and ugly. (Obviously a mother of the year award haha. But I was almost turned off by the start of this since it seemed very demeaning and cliche). The story fast towards to that same women as a mother with her young child and her husband. She is still an average looking women and her husband is a powerful and handsome man. As he has a house party, Nell (the average looking women) sits with her daughter upstairs. A man is at the house who is taking with Nell and her daughter. The man is a guest Nell does not recognize. The man leaves Nell and her daughter alone and suddenly Nell is horrendously attacked. Her whole face is completely cut up and she was thrown off the balcony. When Nell wakes up in the hospital, she finds out the murderer killed both her husband and young daughter as well. Nell is given plastic surgery by a world renowned surgeon and now looks beautiful. (Again, almost put the book down due to the cliches, but nevertheless I persisted). Nell goes on to try to avenge her daughter and husbands deaths while going to wild lengths to learn training. The man who was a guest at the party was supposed to protect Nell, but didn’t, so he felt guilty and responsible. He eventually agrees to help Nell on her journey. As the story goes on, you come to find out that Nell’s husband is in witness protection with his mistress and is in fact not dead, BUT, literally right after that, he is blown up along with his mistress in the house they were in. (Incredibly weird, again, very cliche stuff). As the story progresses, Nell does avenge her daughters death and falls in love with her companion. The story abruptly ends with Nell having to find herself and then a year long time skip of her going back to the man who she was with he whole journey.

Overall, the story was not terrible and I did finish it, it just was filled with a lot of cliches. The characters at time where also very unlikable and hard to tolerate. The story overall was alright and I would rate it a modest 6/10 because Nell was a badass mother who loved her daughter dearly. I also liked that Nell and her companion ended up together.

(PS: The summary provided is a very rough summary and leaves out a large chunk of the story!)

#the ugly duckling #iris johansen #romance #book review #fiction #authors #writing #reading

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For today’s book review, I will be reviewing The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt.

(Spoilers will be ahead!)

To get started, I quite literally don’t have enough words to describe how incredible this book was. It was just one of those books who touches you and leaves such an emotional yearning in your soul. It truly was incredible.

The book stars a young boy named Theodore Decker. Theodore and his mom are going to Theo’s school for a family conference. The weather gets and suddenly and they go into a nearby art museum to escape the rain. Theo’s mom loved art and they went inside the museum to look at her favorite paintings (particularly, The Goldfinch). As Theo and his mom are walking around, a girl around Theo’s age with red hair and an older gentlemen are also walking around the museum too. The young girl is holding a flute case. As Theo and his mom go to leave the museum, his mom goes to look at one more painting before all he’ll breaks loose. There is a sudden blast as a bomb went off in the museum. Theo wakes up to rubble, dust, and blood. As he stumbles around he finds the older gentleman who is named Welty. Theo tries to help Welty the best he can, but Welty is badly hurt. Welty gives Theo his ring and tells him to go to an address with specific instructions. As Theo leaves the building, he ends up stealing his mom’s favorite painting. After this embarks on a long a treacherous journey for Theo. He goes to live with his best friend and their family as social services can’t get ahold of Theo’s grandparents. Theo follows Welty’s instructions and meets with his business partner (and romantic partner I’m fairly sure) along with the young red headed girl, who he finds out is named Pippa. Theo continues to visit the two of the on a regular basis. Unfortunately, Pippa is getting sent to live with her aunt since Hobie is technically not her legal guardian. Eventually, it seems like Theo is going to get adopted by his best friend Andy’s family, but his dad appears with his new girlfriend. Theo’s dad left him and his mom with nothing so needless to say, Theo wasn’t super pleased to see him. Theo’s dad takes him back to Vegas where Theo meets a boy named Boris. Boris is an incredibly smart, funny, sarcastic, Russian. He speaks multiple languages, talks about world politics, and protects and adores Theo endlessly. Boris and Theo spend much of their time by themselves as both of their parents are quite abusive and terrible. They do a lot of drugs and get drunk almost daily along with stealing various items. Eventually, a man comes to Theo’s house looking for his father. Soon afterwards Theo’s dad is found dead and Theo has now lost both parents. Theo quickly takes his dog and leaves to go back to New York City. Before going, Boris kisses him and Theo confesses in his head that he loved Boris. Theo eventually gets back to NYC and moves in with Hobie. As the story progresses. Theo falls in love with Pippa and continues to struggling with addiction. He also still has the stolen painting which he keeps in a storage bin. Theo also goes and works with Hobie on antiques and ends up taking over Welty’s old job. Theo continues to go and scam multiple customers claiming their antiques were “real” and brought in a lot of revenue for him and Hobie. Later in the story, he runs into Andy’s older brother. He finds out Andy and his dad both died in a tragic boating accident. (This really made my heartache not just due to Andy being a sweet kid, but for Theo who has continued to lose every important person in his life). As time goes on, he gets engaged to Andy’s sister, a women named Kitsy. Their relationship is well, a hot mess to be exact. Theo is still deeply in love with Pippa. Eventually, him and Boris are reconnected by fate. Boris is now a big crime lord and has a whole private driver and all this nice stuff. Theo finds out Boris stole the painting from him. Boris and him embark on this wild journey to get the painting back. To sum it up, they get the painting back, Boris gets shot, and Theo has to kill the men who were going to kill them. Theo goes back to his hotel and thinks Boris is dead, while he goes and almost overdoses. Theo writes multiple suicide notes and leaves a super expensive necklace for Pippa. Afterwards, Boris comes to him and tells him they’ve come into a ton of money because he turned in the painting to the art police. Theo goes back to NYC -

-and goes to buy back all the fakes he sold. Pippa tells him that they cannot be together because if one goes down, they both will. (Ironically, Boris serves as everything Pippa said she couldn’t be for him). Him and Kitsey break off their engagement and him and Boris maintain their friendship.

The ending of the book left me wanting so much more. I fell in love with Boris and Theo’s relationship and really wished there was more there than what was discussed. Although, so much love was there if you just looked under the surface. Overall, this book was one of the best books I’ve ever read. Therefore, I give this a highly praised 10/10 rating for the incredible characters, plots, storyline, relationships, and rawness. I fell in love with this story more and more as I continued to read it and I am planning to eventually read the story again. Donna Tartt’s talent is impeccable and truly is a gift to this world. I would recommend everyone reads this story.

(PS: The summary provided is a very rough summary and leaves out a large chunk of the story!)

(There is also a movie which I am planning to watch too!)

#the goldfinch #donna tartt #writing #authors #book review #boris pavlikovsky #theodore decker #reading #boreo #lgbt #book recommendations #spoilers

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For my first book review, I wanted to do Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman! I read this book recently and truly was not expecting as great of a story as I got.

(There will be spoilers!)

The story reminded me of this dark and twisted version of Neil Gaiman’s other story Coraline along with a sense of Alice In Wonderland as well. The book started off with a character who I admittedly didn’t like at first, Richard Mayhew. Richard finds a woman on the streets of London while with his (horrendous) fiancé to meet her boss. He leaves his fiancé to help this young women and takes her back to his apartment. From this point on, Richard has no idea how drastic things where about to change for him. Two men come to his apartment later to try to take back the young women he found. After they leave and the young women named Door leaves, Richard finds his life completely turned upside down. No one remembers who he is, he no longer exist in the above ground London world. As the story progresses he goes to find Lady Door back in the underground London world to try to get his life back. From that point on, he embarks on a wild and hectic journey of trying to get his life back, trying to avenge Lady Door’s parents’ murder, while also running from Mr. Croup and Mr Vandemar (the two men who came to Richard’s apartment looking for Lady Door). Along the way, they meet multiple friends, foes, and alies (the hilarious Marquis de Carabas). Lady Door and her family have special powers that allow them to open up any doors. (Thought this was very ironic as he eventually went on to write the infamous Coraline which starts with the little door). As the story progresses, they have to find a key for the Lord Islington, the highest of angels. Now the plot twist is it turns out Lord Islington is evil! Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandamar are working for him! Eventually, the good guys win in the end and Richard gets his life back and Lady Door avenges her parents death. At this point in the story, it seems as if Richard is going to leave Lady Door, Marquis, and the whole underworld of London to go back to a very basic life of an office job and a broken relationship with a women who was once his fiancé. ( I was devastated at this point because I really wanted Richard to stay with his newfound friends). As his life goes back to normal, he realizes that he is truly not meant for above ground London and desperately pleads to go back to his friends underground. (The last scene of the book is both hilarious and quite special). He is saying his whole story of traveling in the underground to a homeless women (who definitely thinks Richard is wacky) and he goes and draws a Door on the side of a building and bangs on it. As he does, a tired Marquis comes out and takes him back to the underground.

Overall, I really was pleasantly surprised and really adored this story. It was quite a quick read and once it got started, it was hard to put down! For my rating, I want to rate it a 8/10 due to the awesome environment, characters, and plot twist!

(PS: The summary provided is a very rough summary and leaves out a large chunk of the story!)

(There is also a show of this I found out that I am planning to watch eventually!)

#book review #spoilers #neil gaiman #neverwhere #books #authors #bookblr #reading #fiction #fantasy #book recommendations