Scookie Reviews

SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo 4 Stars Verdict:  Enjoyable if you don't overthink it. #2 Rise and Rising #3 Siege and Storm Alina Starkov is a lonely orphan who lacks energy, until she releases a dormant power, one that could destroy the creatures that plague Ravka. She's torn from her best and only friend Mal and forced to learn the ways of the magically elite known as the Grisha. Alina’s transformation is a beautiful thing to read. She sheds her uncomfortable cartographer self and grows into someone completely distinguishable. There were some surprisingly girly parts in this, from appreciating clothes and magical makeovers, to gossiping and best friends. Only a touch, but enough for me to say I understand why the cover is purple. I loved the way magic was used in this book, but I found there was a lot to learn and even more left unsaid. Why is sunlight so amazingly powerful? I never really knew until very late in the book. While I loved the Russian touc...

AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir 5 Stars Verdict : Beautiful. Brutal , but brilliant. #2 - A Torch Against the Night Laia is a slave, spying on behalf of the resistance in order to rescue her brother. Elias is a soldier, facing trials to become the next emperor in a broken kingdom. I’d heard a lot about this book beforehand, but I never thought it could live up to the hype. Maybe that helped manage my expectations, as I absolutely loved it. The writing style is beautiful, igniting imagery from sentence to sentence. It opens on a life-changing moment for Laia where her family is ripped apart, and the pace doesn’t let up after that. When the POV flipped to Elias, the reluctant solider set on escaping his villainous fate, I was hooked. Tahir managed to keep both Laia and Elias' perspectives taut at all times so that each chapter left me longing for the next. The characters are likable, and so are the love interests, which makes room for a sticky love square. I have ...

THE UNIVERSE VERSES ALEX WOODS by by Gavin Extence 5 Stars  Verdict: Endearing, funny, thoughtful. I’ve already pestered my significant other and he enjoyed it too. It’s the type of book you just have to share with others to find out what they think of bits here and there. So much to think about, so many funny observations delivered in a way that made me smile throughout and almost cry in other places. How does a seventeen year old end up in customs with an urn, thirteen grams of marijuana, and with half the world in awe of him? From the perplexing opening, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to put this book down for long. I wanted to know how it all came together, how a teenager ended up in such a mess, and how on earth would he get out of it. Alex’s logic is dry and simple, often creating humorous explanations that I just had to share with the nearest person. There was a moment when Alex’s mother has dragged him to Mr Peterson’s front door, and the scene is so perfect...

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN by Paula Hawkins 5 Stars Verdict: More captivating than Gone Girl (controversial, I know!) I like characters to be a bit messed up in the head. I need them to do things I wouldn’t dare to, and get caught up in avoidable messes. This is definitely one of those books. Rachel. Pains me to even think of her. She’s miserable, living to regret, barely getting by. She’s completely hung up on her ex even though he’s clearly no good for her or anyone for that matter. Her life has hit rock bottom in the type of way that breaks both your ankles to stop you from getting back up. She watches a house from the train, or more specifically a young couple living a life she isn’t ready to part with, and because she’s a self-destructive meddler, she gets herself involved in their troubles. This isn’t her story, but she makes herself a part of it against her better judgement. There seems to be a lot of Gone Girl comparison, so I’m just going to say it: both my partner an...

DELIRIUM by Lauren Oliver 5 Stars Verdict: A dystopian romance with prose to die for. Imagine a world where love is a disease, one that you’re cured of when you graduate. A disease you live with for years and years, watching others get cured before you, their lives boxed off into neat little ‘compatible’ categories. That’s what Lena is facing, and it all seems a normal-but-scary part of life, until she meets someone who shows her the truth about love. Lena is fairly ordinary. She could be you or me. She’s skin for you wear while you read. I prefer characters with a bit more bite to them, but she grows throughout the book in a way that made me back her. I liked how friendship and familiar love is just as strong a theme as the romantic side, and I found Lena’s friendship with Hana more intriguing than the romance. It was almost painful to read how the two grew up together and drifted apart, and I desperately wanted them to overcome their issues and become stronger than before. ...

THE FIFTH WAVE by Rick Yancey 5 Stars Verdict: Utterly immersive. I picked up this book knowing it will be a rough ride, and so the opening didn’t disappoint. The concept isn’t actually original, but it pulled me in and kept my heart racing. I felt the setting immediately, and became immersed within a page. The blurb is melodramatic, vague , and utterly gimmicky. This book is actually about a girl who has survived waves and waves of unnatural disasters, who needs to survive just that little bit longer to fulfil a promise to her brother, and a boy, who is being trained as a soldier to fight for humanity - a battle that already feels lost. The characters are what make this novel exceptional. They’re broken, fighting for survival, and struggling with trust in a world ruined by the previous waves. Their whole lives are gutted out for us to see, mixing past and present to make us feel the weight of their personal baggage. It’s the questions they asked which really kept me eng...