I knew nothing about We Were Liars before going in (except that it had a good title and an appealing cover), and that’s probably the best way to approach this book – I’m going to have a hard time reviewing it without giving anything away. The Sinclair family is beautiful, wealthy, and numerous. Normally spread across the country, they spend each summer on their own private island just off Massachusetts, in houses purposefully built for them by the wealthy patriarch. Our narrator is the teenaged […]
Identity crisis
This book was incredibly intriguing. I enjoyed the style of it being written backwards, beginning with now, then creeping back weeks or months at a time. I enjoyed the characters and what they got up to. I enjoyed slowly but surely changing my views on what was occurring. This book was written well in the ‘show don’t tell’ sense, in that with each revelation I was able to make new assumptions or beliefs around what was happening. This was done in a way that wasn’t […]
Honestly tho, what kind of donut shop only has crumb donuts
I really wanted to go for this one. It really could have worked. I honestly didn’t even mind the BIG TWIST, which, you know, when your narrator has traumatic brain damage, it’s almost like, “Of course,” when ~*~ things aren’t what they seem ~*~. I just felt very disconnected, very removed from the proceedings. Which may be a direct function of the narrator/protagonist feeling that way herself, due to her memory loss and bouts of illness keeping her out of the loop, both in understanding […]
We Were Alright
I picked this up solely because I adored the title. The cover seemed calm and mysterious as it stood there on the library shelf. I wasn’t in the market for new books to read, but I thought “eh why not?” Unfortunately I never came to love we were liars. It was a pleasant enough read, short and light. I, however, was expecting a beautiful slow read about families and secrets and the special bonds formed when people grow up together. It wasn’t. Instead it was […]
A Different YA Novel
I guess it is only fitting that I complete my Cannonball on a book that I first learned of from a Cannonball review. Yea! I can’t remember who now, but someone’s review convinced me that I should add The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (2008) by E. Lockhart to my queue. Frankie is starting her Sophomore year at Alabaster Preparatory Academy, an elite boarding school. The summer has changed her from a scrawny girl with frizzy hair to someone the boys are suddenly noticing. It doesn’t […]
This book gave ME a head injury
Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD. What a stupid book. Seriously. At the end, you find out all that most of the main characters died in a fire, and my only thought was “good”. I did feel bad for the doggies, though. Backing up. In her 15th summer, something happened to Cadence on her family’s private island (get ready to meet some really rich people, by the way). Some kind of head injury that wiped out her memories of that summer, and has left her with terrible migraines. […]