Made You Up | Francesca Zappia

Okay, so I am so excited for this book I found it on a goodreads deal for 1.99, and I figured that it's time to read a little something different.
The main character in this book is named Alex and she suffers from schizophrenia hallucations. The first one happens when she is at a supermarket at the age of seven, I believe. This hallucation involves her and another boy named Miles and they set all the super red lobsters in the supermarket free and they make it to the ocean and live happily ever after. She tells her mom about this but she leaves the boy out, and she also mentions that the lobsters are bright red like her hair. Which of course, they only turn that color after you boil them. She ends up seeing a therapist, and going on to all kinds of drug cocktails. This book starts with Alex going to a new school and well, well, well, who does she see? Alex. The boy from her hallucation that she made up. Or she thinks she made up. I'm writing this review as I'm reading the book so I'm not currently sure of what is real and what isn't.
One thing I can tell is that some of Alex's halluications are just that as she mentions what she sees in the book. For example, at the beginning she talks about a bunch of security gaurds on a roof of the school. As a security officer myself, that is something that doesn't usually happens. Another one she mentions is that's she is in class and sees a lady bug and she herself knows it must be a halluication as well because instead of spots, well, this lady bug has stars instead. Because of this, at a quarter of the book, I am not completely sure if Miles is real or not. Is this made up? Is this all a little dream? I can't imagine a mother knowing that this is going on with her child and then proceeding to send this child on a bike to a school. Nor a mother not knowing that her child requires school uniforms that are 70 bucks a pop and then being fine with her child raiding a janitors closet for one.
Anyways, Alex is going to this public school and pretending to be normal when she knows she isn't. She goes to a party with a bunch of her new friends and has an episode. Come to find out, I was right! A lot of what she was seeing is a hallucation. I'm currently about halfway through and I am pretty sure that Miles is actually real, and he's a genius.

Okay, the rest of this has been written after I finished this book. Let me being that I'm probably going to be just gushing about this gem because this book was one of the best books I've read all year.

I absolutely loved Alex and her character. She is so smart and sarcastic and I felt like even though I do not suffer from this disease I could still relate to her. There are points in the book where Alex stops taking her medication, which I have done myself before. I have an autoimmune disorder so both of us deciding not to take our medication kind of results in dire consquences. Alex is also very mature, she realizes that her disease is getting worse and does decide to seek out the help she know she needs.

I loved almost all of the characters except for two. Alex's parents. I want to spoil this but I'm not going to because I'm not an asshole. But seriously. I want to knock some sense into those two. Just USGH.

ANYWAYS. As you can tell from the beginning of the post I thought I knew what was a hallucination and what wasn't.
Um, I was so wrong. I couldn't have been more wrong. There were parts where I literally screamed "WHAT THE HELL?" to my kindle and my raccoon so did not appericate that, but seriuosly..do yourself a favor and pick this one up. I feel like I need to get a physical copy after my move because I know that this is going to be one that I read over and over and over again.

5/5 stars

The Bone Witch | Ren Chupeco | ARC Review

** I received an ARC of this book from SOURCEBOOKS FIRE and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!** 

 This is one of my more highly anticipated book releases for 2017 and I am SO thankful to have been blessed with an ARC of this baby! I mean, seriously can we look at this glorious work of art that is the book cover? IT IS BEAUTIFUL. 

 Goodreads Synopsis 

When Tea accidentally resurrects her brother from the dead, she learns she is different from the other witches in her family. Her gift for necromancy means that she’s a bone witch, a title that makes her feared and ostracized by her community. But Tea finds solace and guidance with an older, wiser bone witch, who takes Tea and her brother to another land for training. 

 In her new home, Tea puts all her energy into becoming an asha — one who can wield elemental magic. But dark forces are approaching quickly, and in the face of danger, Tea will have to overcome her obstacles…and make a powerful choice. Memoirs of a Geisha meets The Name of the Wind in this brilliant new fantasy series by Rin Chupeco!  

  

 I LOVED this book. It's descriptive which I really enjoyed, and I loved the entire idea of an geisha going bad ass. In this book however, they're referred to them as "Asha" and I loved learning about how they did their training with the dancing and schooling. 

 Unfortunately for the main character, Tea, things to start to go bad for her when she accidentally brings her brother, Fox back to life. This event is really what changes Tea's life, because she can do this, Mykala THE ONE OTHER BONE WITCH comes along and takes Tea and Fox with her so she can train Tea to become an asha and eventually a bone witch like herself.  

 I love this world that Rin Chupero has built around these kingdoms and something that's called a heartglass. This is how Tea can draw her power but literally everyone has one and it's part of your actual heart/soul. You can give it to someone but they can abuse that power. I haven't read any kind of fantasy book before with that kind of element in it so wrapping my mind around how these things worked was something that had the amazing ability to distract me when I was stuck on the side of the road today.  

 All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I can't wait for the sequel. I am now a fan of a new author and I am sure I am going to read whatever she decides to write next! The Bone Witch releases March 7, 2017 and I already have a finished copy preordered on the amazon!

5/5 stars!

Mirror in the Sky | Aditi Khorana

Goodreads Synopsis
or Tara Krishnan, navigating Brierly, the academically rigorous prep school she attends on scholarship, feels overwhelming and impossible. Her junior year begins in the wake of a startling discovery: A message from an alternate Earth, light years away, is intercepted by NASA. This means that on another planet, there is another version of Tara, a Tara who could be living better, burning brighter, because of tiny differences in her choices. 

As the world lights up with the knowledge of Terra Nova, the mirror planet, Tara’s life on Earth begins to change. At first, small shifts happen, like attention from Nick Osterman, the most popular guy at Brierly, and her mother playing hooky from work to watch the news all day. But eventually those small shifts swell, the discovery of Terra Nova like a black hole, bending all the light around it. 

As a new era of scientific history dawns and Tara's life at Brierly continues its orbit, only one thing is clear: Nothing on Earth--and for Tara--will ever be the same again.



I actually managed to get my super awesome library to foot the bill for this baby! I requested it due to a Goodreads group that I'm in saying that this would be the fall book and (eventually) there would be a live show on it. So. I ordered it, waited forever for it to come, and now I have read it. It's not what I thought it would be. It really kind of reminds me of mean girls in a both a bad and good way. I just finished it a couple hours ago and I'm still trying to decide what I think.

There's a couple of different story arcs in this one.

The first one is that Tara's friend Meg is going to be in a foreign exchange problem and she basically breaks up the friendship with her on the phone.
They're another planet out there with another Tara on it who may make different decisions, oh golly, gee whiz!
Tara's Mommy runs away to Cali and joins a cult.

I loved the diversity in this one, Tara's family is from India and that does play a role in this book.

THAT ENDING! Seriously more people need to finish this on the Restricted Section book club because I'm DYING to talk about it!

4/5 stars!

October Book Haul!

These are books that I've actually bought in the month of October and I have one that my bestest best friend in the whole entire world bought me. <3

Replica

I had this preordered because I was obsessed with the idea of a flip book. I really loved this book even though the ending was a surprise it's not a standalone. :(

Diplomatic Immunity

I ordered this one but I have yet to read it. One of the main reasons why I got it was because Brodi Ashton was one of the lovely ladies who co-authored My Lady Jane and since I loved that, I wanted to check out some of this authors other works. This purchase is a product of that decision. 

Moonlight Brigade

I don't really read a lot of middle grade books. But. I found out about this series in a raccoon group that I'm part of on facebook, and I got the first one from the library. I'm excited to read it, but I'm waiting for when I have a bad day and need a good pick me up. :) The main character in this book series is a raccoon, and the main character in my house is a raccoon as well, so I needed it for my personal library. Speaking of raccoons...

Pumpkin: The Raccoon Who Thought She Was a Dog

This raccoon is pretty instagram famous. She's super adorable. This book is mainly pictures of Pumpkin. It's not mine, it's Sassy's..lets go with that. 

Triple Moon

I think I mainly got this one because I feel like reading something about witches. It'll be read pretty soon.

Gemina

This is the sequel to Illuminae, to say that I was excited to get this was an understatement. 

S.

This is written by J.J Abrams who is the same guy who wrote LOST. Now that I have it, I'm scared to read it. It's just really intimidating for me at the moment, but it looks damn good on my bookshelf.

Something Inbetween

LOOK. MY BEST FRIEND BOUGHT ME A PRETTY BOOK. LOOK. LOOK. LOOK. LOOK AT IT. HOW PRETTY.

Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets

This is the pretty illustrated edition. I found it a few days before it released at walmart, but look how pretty it is! You can never have too many copies of the Harry Potter books. 

**all links lead to the goodreads page for that particular book**

The Merciless | Danielle Vega

Okay, so. I bought an ecopy of this for 2.99 around Halloween because I wanted something spooky to read around this. I finished this rather quickly but I've been sitting on it trying to decided if I wanted to talk about it or not.


Buying this book was a mistake and a major waste of 3 bucks.


This book is like a super religious version of Mean Girls gone gross. That's the only way I can think of to describe it. I though the cover was different. I've seen the copy at my library and it doesn't have a dust jacket and it's pretty cute. That's where the things that I like about this book ends.


When I began this book I was sure it was a cute contemporary and I didn't understand why it was marked under the horror genre nor why it was on sale in the month of October. It begins with a main character named Sofia moving to Texas.


Goodreads Summary


Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned

Brooklyn Stevens sits in a pool of her own blood, tied up and gagged. No one outside of these dank basement walls knows she’s here. No one can hear her scream.

Sofia Flores knows she shouldn’t have gotten involved. When she befriended Riley, Grace, and Alexis on her first day at school, she admired them, with their perfect hair and their good-girl ways. They said they wanted to save Brooklyn. They wanted to help her. Sofia didn’t realize they believed Brooklyn was possessed.

Now, Riley and the girls are performing an exorcism on Brooklyn—but their idea of an exorcism is closer to torture than salvation. All Sofia wants is to get out of this house. But there is no way out. Sofia can’t go against the other girls . . . unless she wants to be next. . . .

In this chilling debut, Danielle Vega delivers blood-curdling suspense and terror on every page. By the shockingly twisted end, readers will be faced with the most haunting question of all: Is there evil in all of us?




Basically the majority of the book takes place during this insanely gross exorcism and then a few pages of what happens afterward. If this book was trying to give me nightmares, it did a good job because of some the descriptive scenes did make me gag, but other than that, I did not like this one. Also let me give you some advice you decide to read this: Don't read it while you're waiting to get you some food from the Waffle House.


1/5 Stars.