Hi there!
Today I was thinking about how there are so many books I’ve read but haven’t review on here because I just don’t have that much to say about them.
So I’ve decided to start a “Mini-Review” series on here, which will basically be a compilation of small reviews on some books I’ve read but don’t have much to say about. This is obviously not an original idea but I think it’s the easiest way to not only share my thoughts on books but also be more active on this blog.
barbara x.
Rating: 3.8/5
Opening line: “Hello, World! I’ve decided to start a blog.”
Sypnosis:
Penny has a secret. Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, her crazy family and the panic attacks that have begun to take over her life. When things go from bad to worse, her family whisks her away to New York, where she meets Noah: a gorgeous, guitar-strumming American. Suddenly Penny is falling in love- and capturing every moment of it in her blog. But Noah has a secret too. One that threatens to ruin Penny’s cover- and her closest friendship- forever.
Review: I went into this book with low expectations. I was pleasantly surprised by an amusing main character (who also sounded a bit like Zoe herself) and a plot, that while a bit fanfictionish and cliche, was still entertaining. The worst parts of the book were the insta-love (I’ll forgive penny cause she never had a relationship and is still young) and the ending. The ending was just a bit disappointing. After everything that went down between Penny and main guy Nosh, I didn’t think it’d take like 5min to fix the relationship up (I was wrong).
Overall it was pretty entertaining if you know what you’re getting yourself into.
barbara x
Rating: 4/5
Opening line: I’d never given much thought to how I would die — though I’d had reason enough in the last few months — but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.”
Plot: This is basically Twilight with the genders swapped.
Review: In my opinion, the best way to read this book is if you haven’t read “Twilight” in ages. Don’t read it if you haven’t read “Twilight” ( and don’t read this review if you don’t want to be spoiled I guess?) and don’t read it if you’ve re-read it recently. The book is almost the same exact thing except for a couple of changes like some plot-points, the genders of the character, of course, and the ending.
That being said, since I haven’t read “Twilight” in about 6 or so years, I went into kind of blindly (as blindly as you can go when it concerns your favorite book from a few years ago). I didn’t feel annoyed at all the same text and same plot because I missed it. I’d forgotten how much I loved this book and how much I loved the Cullens (who I’d much rather read about, to be honest.)
I’m not going to let my nostalgia completely cloud my judgement though. I loved the atmosphere of the first half of the book and then it gets all insta-lovey (something that I, at 11 years old, didn’t really care about). I just couldn’t believe that Edythe and Beau (or Edward and Bella were so co-dependent just a few months after meeting each other and I couldn’t believe how obsessed they were with each other. Another thing that bothered me is in regards to the ending of this book, so, again, if you don’t want to be spoiled just scroll down to the bottom of the post.
~~~~~actual spoilers~~~~~
So Edythe, unlike Edward, is not able to control herself enough to suck the poison out of Beau when he’s bitten by Joss (or James). This means that Beau becomes a vampire and we get to see him transform. This transformation serves mostly to clog up all the information that we learn about the Twilight world in “New Moon”, “Eclipse”, and “Breaking Dawn” in like 20 pages. This bothered me a lot because it’s completely unecessary. I highly doubt that anyone that has read this book has not read the full series so why make an info-dump with stuff we already know about? The main think I noticed had changed (because I was absolute Volturi trash back in the day) is how Aro and Caius were killed by their wives and Marcus because Aro murdered his sister (which, for some reason, makes them better?, according to Stephanie who states it in the very last page of the book when addressing the reader).
~~~~~end of spoilers~~~~~
So, even after all of this, do I think you should read “Life and Death”?
My answer is:
1. Yes, if you’re interested in the concept of the book and don’t mind re-reading the exact same thing with some small differences.
2. No, if you’re looking for a different story or if you’ve read “Twilight” recently. Stephanie says it herself that she wrote this book to show how it wouldn’t be different if Bella was a guy.
bookish barbara 