• Reviews •• In a GIF • (1)

Sometimes, I don’t want to review books. Because I don’t have to. But I also really like to throw my opinion at people. It’s a conundrum. I’d said once in a post that I wanted to just show the gif and end the review there, and Aentee @ Read at Midnight and The Social Potato said that she thought I should just do that and so…. BOOM. I grant wishes, you guys. 

(But I will still say a few things because I can’t help myself, and maybe some of you want to know things. But the TL;DR version is the ONE reaction gif that sums up the whole book for me!)

Illuminae by Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
Series: The Illuminae Files #1
Published by Knopf Books for Young Readers on October 20th 2015
Pages: 608
Format:ARC
Source:BEA

This morning, Kady thought breaking up with Ezra was the hardest thing she’d have to do.

This afternoon, her planet was invaded.

The year is 2575, and two rival megacorporations are at war over a planet that’s little more than an ice-covered speck at the edge of the universe. Too bad nobody thought to warn the people living on it. With enemy fire raining down on them, Kady and Ezra—who are barely even talking to each other—are forced to fight their way onto an evacuating fleet, with an enemy warship in hot pursuit.

But their problems are just getting started. A deadly plague has broken out and is mutating, with terrifying results; the fleet's AI, which should be protecting them, may actually be their enemy; and nobody in charge will say what’s really going on. As Kady hacks into a tangled web of data to find the truth, it's clear only one person can help her bring it all to light: the ex-boyfriend she swore she'd never speak to again.

Told through a fascinating dossier of hacked documents—including emails, schematics, military files, IMs, medical reports, interviews, and more—Illuminae is the first book in a heart-stopping, high-octane trilogy about lives interrupted, the price of truth, and the courage of everyday heroes.

My GIFish Thoughts:13

 

Because….

What even is this sorcery!? Illuminae is the most unique, well thought out book I have ever read. I can’t even begin to imagine the time this bad boy took to write. The story was brutal and amazing and I fell in love. It’s told through a series of unorthodox methods: IMs, secret files, internal reports, and tons of others. And I thought that because of that, it’d be hard to connect to the characters. I was so wrong. I somehow felt just as connected as I would any other fabulous book, maybe more. There were twists, and feels, and I am basically speechless.

do want to know why all the “curse” words had to be blacked out though. I thought it was a fun way of doing it, and I am sure there is some kind of publishing reason behind omitting them, but out of sheer curiosity, if you know, let me know! And if you haven’t, you’ll need to read these book. Like, now.

Also, at BEA, I wondered if Illuminae would be worth the epic promotion. Affirmative! IMG_4396

5s


The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
Published by HarperTeen on October 6th 2015
Pages: 336
Format:ARC
Source:BEA

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?

The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?

What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.

Even if your best friend is worshiped by mountain lions.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully reminds us that there are many different types of remarkable.

My GIFish Thoughts:

unnamed (5)

Because….

I really was confused during a lot of this book. But um, who even cares, because Patrick Ness is a freaking genius. Example, you ask? Sure. I usually flag one, maybe two things in an entire book as “ohh, I must remember this quote/line/thought/whatever”. This book?

IMG_55261

You can’t even see the full volume of the stickies, because they’re all stacked on top of each other. The characters were freaking amazing, and I was just captivated, beginning to end, even if I still don’t know why. Whatever, just read Patrick Ness. And soon, since he’s creating and producing and writing Doctor Who, you can watch Patrick Ness.

Basically, in this book, the profound and the witty are combined flawlessly. There is no other reason needed to read this book, correct? Great, we’re done here.

5s


Jubilee Manor by Bethany Hagen
Series: Landry Park #2
Published by Dial Books on August 11th 2015
Pages: 400
Format:eARC
Source:For Blog Tour

The thrilling conclusion to Landry Park is full of love, betrayal, and murder--perfect for fans of Divergent, The Selection, and Pride and Prejudice

In Landry Park, Madeline turned her back on her elite family, friends, and estate to help the Rootless. Now, in Jubilee Manor, she struggles to bring the Gentry and the Rootless together. But when Gentry heirs—Madeline’s old friends—are murdered, even she begins to think a Rootless is behind it, putting her at odds with the boy she loves and the very people she is trying to lead. If she can’t figure out who is killing her friends and bring them to justice, a violent war will erupt and even more will die—and Madeline’s name, her estate, and all the bonds she’s forged won’t make any difference.

This conclusion to Landry Park, which VOYA dubbed "Gone with the Wind meets The Hunger Games,” is a richly satisfying, addictive read.

My GIFish Thoughts:

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Because….

Yawn. This may be more “it’s me” than the book, because I only liked the first one moderately. I did think I needed to know what happened next though. (Again, wrong.) I have reasons for not liking it, but boredom was number one. The rest?

  • Everything just felt anticlimactic and unimportant. Like, I guess some of the twists and such were supposed to cause surprise, but even if I didn’t see them coming, I just didn’t find anything too particularly exciting.
  • There were so. many. characters. Seriously, who were all those people?! The names… too many names. I couldn’t keep them straight, which led to even more not caring.
  • I still don’t get the world building. There were these mentions of stuff in the first book that I thought would expand the world building in this book but then all of that just kind of vanished?
  • When bad things befell characters, no one in the book seemed to care any more than I did. Like, I didn’t care because I was bored, what was everyone else’s excuse?

So yeah, I really wanted to care. I just didn’t. I feel like if you loved the first book, this might be a good fit. If you were on the fence… this probably won’t help matters.

2s

Let’s talk about these books! Have you read these? Excited for some of them? Do share!

Posted October 7, 2015 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Quasi-Review, Review / 41 Comments

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41 responses to “Books I’m Never Reviewing: Just One GIF Edition

  1. You’re like a fairy godmother with all this wish granting, Shannon 😉 I need to start formatting all my reviews like this and save myself the pain of writing haha! I love this!! I’m so happy you approve of Illuminae as it’s my top anticipated read of the hour- though the hype scares me a little. Also isn’t TROUJLH amazing?! I adore Patrick Ness so much, he even makes boring people exciting hehe.

    • Wouldn’t life be easier if we could just do ALL the reviews like this? Sadly, I feel like publishers might not agree? And YES- who else besides Patrick Ness could make randos amazing to read about? Illuminae is GOOD- totally worth the hype, and I rarely feel that way 😉

  2. Ee! So glad you ended up loving Illuminae! I plan to read it next. And yeah, I’m totally worried about all the forms of media used to tell the story, and I definitely hope they don’t keep me from connecting to the characters, too!

    The Rest of Us Just Live Here is another book I’m excited for. I’ve had the eARC for ages, actually, but I’ve been scared to read it since I’ve DNFed a Patrick Ness book in the past. I’M SCARED TO BE CONFUSED. But I shall try.

    Awesome GIFs and sort-of reviews, Shannon!

    • Yes, it was fantastic! I LOVED the forms of media, they were done so, so well. I hope you find them to be great too.

      Which Patrick Ness book did you DNF!? I am concerned! I find him to be brilliant- though I actually almost DNFed the first book of his I read (The Knife of Never Letting Go) until a friend actually BEGGED me to keep reading it (this was pre-blogging even), so I did. And it is one of my favorite series now, so she was right!

      Thanks so much, I hope you enjoy them!

  3. When I first heard about all the hype surrounding Illuminae, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read it or not. Maybe the premise sounded too science fiction like or maybe it was because it would be told through documents, emails, etc. But after reading some of the reviews (and especially yours), I am pretty sure I need to put this one on my must read list. Great reviews!

    • That was exactly what I thought! The science/space stuff did not appeal to me, and then it was EVERYWHERE and I felt.. meh. But I gave into the hype monster and YAY it was so, so good! I was really pleasantly surprised! I hope you love it too!

  4. That. Was. Awesome.

    I’m so looking forward to The Rest of Us, because PATRICK NESS. But also a little worried, since I just know him from Chaos Walking, so I’m glad to hear you were happy with it.

    So…gifs. Do you just google until you find something cool? Sorry; I’m kind of old, so these things make me nervous.

    • Aw thanks! Yes, Patrick Ness is SO amazing, and this book was very different than Chaos Walking, but still very good!

      And yep, I just google! It takes a long time sometimes, and then sometimes I get lucky 😉 And gifs fall under the “fair use” clause (or so I have read) so you can use them freely, as long as it isn’t to like, sell stuff.

  5. I seriously need to borrow this idea, because I’m struggling like hell to review Dreamstrider and Illuminae. Like girl, my brain is on mush mode right now lol. I feel the exact same way about Illuminae. It was just . . . fucking amazing, and it would take a village to even explain what the hell the book is even about. I’ve been working on my review for 3 weeks btw, still only have 3 sentences lol. * squeals * I’m so happy you enjoyed The Rest Of Us Just Live Here! Patrick Ness is my all time favorite author, so I’m expecting nothing but shear greatness from him.

    • Borrow away, my dear! I have such a hard time with some books too. I hate when they are books that I HAVE to review and can’t just do this with 😉 That is exactly how I felt about Illuminae! How would I even BEGIN to explain it!? So… I didn’t 😀

      Patrick Ness is so amazing. This book was SO different from anything he’s done before, but it’s still fabulous! Hope you LOVE IT!

  6. One gif reviews? What a concept! 🙂 The hype around Illuminae right after BEA was insane and I’m so glad to hear it lives up to it. And that Landry Park sequel… meh. I saw so many lukewarm reviews of the first book that I just steered clear.

    • Aw thanks!! I agree, the hype monster scared me big time! But luckily, it was all true. Good call with Landry Park, by the way. I bought it ages ago when I was on a huge dystopian kick, but it was so “meh”. I didn’t hate it, so I figured I would give the sequel a shot but I was even MORE underwhelmed, sadly 🙁

  7. “Am I not merciful?” OMG. Illuminae was such an amazing book, and I’m glad you enjoyed it as much as I did. Kady was an amazing and kickass lead, Ezra was a hilarious love interest, and the twists and turns at the end were just phenomenal. (And yeah…I am curious to know the reason why the curse words were blacked out.)

    And I am so excited for The Rest of Us Just Live Here. I’m so sick of reading about books where the heroine is always such a special snowflake. It’s always so unrealistic, you know? Which is probably why I’m looking forward to this book so much – it features a protagonist we can all really relate to and understand – someone who isn’t necessarily anyone important or special, but affects you all the same.

    Thanks for sharing Shannon and, as always, fabulous reviews! ♥

    • I agree with you on all counts! They were just fabulous characters, and I am so surprised that I felt so connected to them. We should probably write a letter to one of the authors and find out why, because I am insanely curious 😉

      And YES- that is really one of the best parts about this book. There were some quotes that I contemplated using to show how realistic the characters were in TRoUJLH, because holy crap, they were just like everyone else. Which was awesome and refreshing! I hope you love it!

  8. I WANT TO READ ILLUMINAE SO BAD I CANNOT EVEN. *hyperventilates* I missed out on the ARC list (Boo) but it’s in my shopping cart hahahaha because I am that desperate for it. Omg, November come faaaster COME FASTER I NEED YOU. *ahem* Also I loved The Rest of Us Just Live Here and I am 10000% in agreement that Patrick Ness is a genius. His characters tho. They ALL feel so so real.

    • Aww that is not good 🙁 BUT that is okay, you will have the gorgeous finished copy! It isn’t out until November there? That is extra sadness. His characters DO feel so real, because he is amazing. I’m just sitting here, waiting for him to announce some new books… any day now, buddy. Any day.

  9. I’d really like to read Bethany’s books because they were once compared to Downton Abbey (MAJOR fangirl) and also I’ve heard Illuminate is ah-ma-zing. Glad you agree. 🙂

    • I loved the Downton Abbey comparison too, and while I haven’t like, seen the show or anything, other than the class stuff, I didn’t really get that vibe. But I hope you like it if you read iT! And yes, Illuminae is worth ALL the hype! I hope you love it 😀

  10. What a fun mini review compilation Shannon! Man illuminae sounds so amazing, I am loving all of those different things that make up the story. The Rest of Us Live here was a really quotable book! And it sounds like Jubilee Manor was really meh and difficult to connect with unfortunately.

  11. YAY TO THE REST OF US JUST LIVE HERE! I agree with the gif, at times I was like “wth is going on”, but I kind of just accepted it (like I do with all things) and that was that. AND I’M SO EXCITED FOR ILLUMINAE. I WILL BE READING IT SOON AKA HOPEFULLY TODAY.

    😀 😀

  12. Everyone said how unique Illuminae was but no one said why. So it’s told in an uncover the truth through investigating IMs and stuff way? I’m not sure how I feel about that.

    I didn’t hear Ness was going to write Who?! I’m not sure how I feel about that. I have a shaky relationship with him.

    I hate those it was just okay but I need to know what happens next sequels that just stinks. I usually wind up reading the third book too..

    • Yep, it’s like, all kinds of “other” methods. There’s IMs, company emails and memos, witness accounts, interviews, all kinds of things. It somehow worked out REALLY well.

      And… you and Patrick Ness do not get along? I am sobbing, Molly! (Not really. But still!)

      Luckily, this series was only a duology. Because I bet I WOULD read the third one 😉

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