Foul is Fair Blog Tour

First of all, I want to be clear that this book has a huge list of trigger warnings. The author provides a full list here.

With that being said, I felt this was an amazing book. It was stylistically, a really interesting book. The way it’s written is very raw and present, and almost flow of consciousness.

I think one of my favorite quotes, and it’s early in the story, is the following, because it sets the tone:

She shakes her head: No. I say, REVENGE. She says, Good girl. Kill him.

This book has everything I love in a book. A trans main character, women who unleash righteous vengeance, and most of all men who don’t get away with their crime.

I remember finishing this book and feeling so many emotions that it was finished. I wasn’t quite sure how it would end, and I felt like I was right there with the characters, anxiously waiting for each of their plans to unfold. I was rooting for them the whole time.

You should, provided the book and it’s triggers is something you can handle, read this book. It’s powerful and punchy in all the best ways. It digs in like little thorns and you keep turning it over in your mind even months after you read it.

The Blogger Recognition Award

So Danni, at _ForBooksSake nominated me for this award! Thank you so much Danni! I really appreciate it! You’re always a friendly face on Instagram and to see posting on WordPress.

The Rules:

1. Thank the blogger/s who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
2. Write a post to show your award.
3. Give a brief story of how your blog started.
4. Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
5. Select up to 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
6. Comment (or pingback) on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created.

How This Blog Began

I started this blog as a way to share my love of books with the world, and to take pictures of books without it being weird. I’ve been following bookstagram blogs on and off casually for a while now, and I thought you had to have tons of beautiful books and an exorbitant book budget in order to be a bookstagrammer. Turns out, you don’t. You just need to enjoy books and want to share your love with the world.

Two Pieces of Advice

1. Do a photo or a writing challenge (depending on whether you’re a book blogger or a bookstagrammer primarily, or you can do both, although I’d suggest doing one at a time). It may seem really intimidating, but it’s a great way to dive head first into creating tons of content on a consistent schedule. Commit to doing this, and commit to picking a challenge that pushes you outside your comfort zone. Practice makes perfect is really true.
2. Be honest with your followers. If you review a book from NetGalley, or for an author in exchange for a free book, let them know that. Disclaimers mean a lot. You may not be getting paid for anything directly, but you’re being paid in free things. You want your followers to feel like they can trust you.

Nominations

1. Northern Plunder
2. sun and chai
3. bookish_heights
4. Bookish Rantings
5. Reader Voracious

Beginning of December Update

My life has been a bit wild, so I majorly slacked off with updating my blog. My Instagram and Twitter have been updated much more often, but the blog? Not so much. That’s something that will be changing this upcoming year, because I will be queuing posts more and also have a calendar of posts. Also, you can expect a post in the next few days (it will be a tour posts!) so look out for that!

Between NaNoWriMo, a short story, and my admittedly insane reading goals, I’ve been kind of all over the place. But here’s some of the books I’ve read since the last time I posted, with ratings and whether I’d recommend them. I may write more in depth reviews, but here’s the TLDR for now.

⭐

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Would not recommend. There are far better horse books out there. If you need recommendations for them, hit me up. I can provide Many.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Solid book. I enjoyed many aspects of this. I’m not sure if it’s one I’d re-read, but I would definitely recommend as either a gift, or a purchase for yourself.

I am so torn about this book. I didn’t rate it after reading it. I’m still not quite sure how I feel about it. It’s definitely not for everyone. I think it’s an important book. I’d have to re-read it to really decide how I wanted to rate it, so for now I’ll reserve judgement on the rating.

⭐

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Major trigger warnings for rape (which I was not expecting from the character it happens to, and no, it’s not just from the murder victim). Also for drug abuse and quite a few other things. Aspects of this book were so good. But the ending was just. I don’t want to spoil the book but if you honestly find the premise really interesting and are concerned about triggers, I’m happy to discuss it. Because this book is a minefield. I hated the ending. It was one of the most deeply un-feminist things I’ve ever seen in a book in recent years and I just. No. I don’t know how else to phrase it. Ugh. I liked so much of this book that it pains me to have to rate it one star but the ending ruined it.

So those are the main books I’ve been consuming as of late. Right now I’m reading Immoral Code and SPELLHACKER, and a few others. Because why read one when you can read 7 or 8 books, am I right?

This is very random, but I’m going to get a new bullet journal for the new year and it’s kind of to treat myself–so any suggestions? What’s your favorite journal, pens, etcetera? I like midsize journals, not tiny ones. I used to like Moleskine but I don’t think I like them as much for bullet journals. Drop your thoughts in the comments if you want, and/or tell me what you’re reading this month! Happy holidays!

What Motivates Me

So, as part of the Liebster Awards, one of the stipulations is writing a short post about what motivates me.

I think it first makes sense to talk about why I started this blog in the first place. I initially got into bookstagram and book reviewing simply because it was a space I really enjoyed. Reviewing books has really helped me with my own writing, because analyzing other writing has helped me see both the flaws and strong points in my own style.

Long term, what motivates me to get up and do things are my strong beliefs, which are grounded in tikkun olam. This basically means “to repair the world.” In Judaism, there’s this idea of having a moral obligation to repair things about the world, by performing acts of kindness, or mitzvahs. My social activism and volunteer work I do isn’t because I think there’s an after-life, necessarily.

Not to get super heavy, I’m just saying it’s because I think the world is harsh and there’s a lot of issues happening, and everyone has a responsibility to try to do something. That could be anything, even something as seemingly minor as starting with helping themselves be the best they can be so they can be a positive influence on their friends and family.

Short term, I’m motivated by my ambitions, to be someone, to make a difference, and to be a unique voice. I don’t know exactly what all that means just yet, but I’m starting to figure it out.

Liebster Award Nomination

I was nominated by Naomi, at Naomi’s Reading Corner. Thank you so much, Naomi. Her blog is really great, I love how she incorporates not just reviews, but also elements like posts about Reading Apps, and popular reading memes. She’s a really sweet person and I look forward to her posts and seeing her on my Twitter feed as well.

Rules

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and put a link to their blog on your blog. 

2. Answer the 5 creative and unique questions given to you.

3. Write a small post about what motivates you in life (not just in blogging).

4. Nominate 2 – 6 blogs that you feel would enjoy blogging about this award the award.

5. Create 5 creative and unique questions for your nominees.

6. List these rules in your post.

Post about What Motivates Me

My Answers

Naomi had some interesting questions for me! I hope I did them justice.

1. You can take one book with you to a Desert Island, which books would you take and why? That is an impossible question, like asking me to pick a favorite dog or cat. I’d have to go with a comfort read. I’m really torn between Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. I really can’t pick, so it’s a tie.
2. You can only eat one food for the rest of your life. What food do you pick? If I say pineapple on pizza, I think a lot of you might block me out of spite. Just kidding. Although I do like pineapple on pizza. That’s such a hard question. I’d pick poke. For those who haven’t had it, it’s a Hawaiian dish of diced raw fish that’s served on rice. I like ahi tuna poke best. I might get mercury poisoning if I only ate that for the rest of my life, but we’re not taking that into consideration, right?
3. You can only keep one item (books are not an option), what one item could you not live without? Something I can use to write and draw with. Being able to write and express myself is something I need, not constantly, but not being able to have it when I need it would be really detrimental to me.
4. If aliens landed on the planet and you were the first person they met. What advice would you give them? I’d tell them to turn around, because our planet is on fire, we have war, hunger, and all kinds of terrible things–and also, do they have room on their space craft for me and my boyfriend and maybe some other earth people who want to get the heck off this planet?
5.  When you were little, what was your career choice? This may seem cliched for someone who keeps a blog and talks about writing a novel, but I wanted to be a writer. I wanted to live out Inkheart (where the characters could bring stories to life by reading them aloud). I brought books to dinner, did NaNoWriMo before I got my license, and I went to writing workshop after writing workshop, because I was convinced that I would be the next Great American Author. I was obsessed with writing the Perfect Book, until I realized there was no perfect book, and only good books. Hence, now I’m finally working on a novel I really am proud of and love, and I guess you could say my dream of being a writer is kind of true, although I’m not at the point where it’s a full-time thing.

My Nominations

Please go and visit these awesome blogs!

Melanie and Mireille @ TBR and Beyond

Sarah @ Bookish Rantings

Lana @ Bibliomedico

Lauren @ Northern Plunder

My Questions

1. If you could be any character, from any book, what character would you be and what parts of the plot in that book would you change?
2. If you could visit space, but it meant you could never return to Earth, would you do so, and why or why not?
3. If you could write a letter to anyone in history, who would it be?
4. What place in the world do you most want to live?
5. Would you rather live forever, or have any super power of your choosing and live out your normal life span?

Review: Fugly (The Worst Book I’ve Read This Year)

⭐

Rating: 1 out of 5.

I received this book as an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

I rarely dislike a book so much I consider not finishing it. But this was that book. I did finish it, mostly because I wanted to see if it had any redeeming qualities.

The answer? Not really, and certainly not enough to account for its shortcomings. It might be the right book for some people, but I can’t get past the triggering content in this book that had no warnings.

Some people like anti-hero protagonists. But Beth goes beyond an anti-hero into just being a villain. I don’t mind reading about villainous characters, when they’re written well, or have a redeeming factor, or have some interesting aspects. Beth was none of those things. Beth is not someone I wanted to root for, and she’s also not written very well.

The book, in general, is a mess. The ending is sloppy and unrealistic. It’s something out of a soap opera. I don’t want to spoil it entirely, but it’s an attempt at a redemption arc, but it’s not truly earned, so it doesn’t make sense.

The book needed trigger warnings. I’m an advocate for trigger warnings, which I know is controversial, some people think books don’t need them. This book is marketed to young adults. It had descriptions of self-harm, eating disorders, sexual assault, fatphobia… need I go on? It needed trigger warnings. It did not have any.

Let’s talk about the fatphobia. The author addresses it a bit with “discussion questions” at the very end. But that doesn’t make up for the intense fatphobia throughout. The main character is fat, so on some level, her encountering a bit of fatphobia from the outside world, or some internalized fatphobia, that could be expected. Not fine, but expected. But this level was horrible. It wasn’t necessary to the plot, and removing it would have, in my opinion, really strengthened the book.

It was clear that Beth had major issues, and she was at points delusional about how the outside world saw her, and used that as an excuse to enact revenge for feeling unseen.

One final note–making the two not-straight characters (it’s unclear what sexuality they are, but they’re not heterosexual) the villains is a homophobic trope that needs to die.

Review: Study with Me

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was as advertised, and I mean that in a good way. It was easy to follow, a breeze to read, and fun. I love how it’s broken down into different subject matters.

Even though I’m not currently a student, I still found the foreign language part helpful, because I’m trying to learn other languages. Whenever I see beautiful bullet journals on Instagram, I’m mystified as to how people even start, because there are so many different techniques, ideas, and ways. But it’s broken down very simply in this book, and while it uses mainly the classic bullet journal techniques, a point was made about making it unique to the user.

I honestly sped through this book and finished it in one sitting, which was partially because it had illustrations, but also because the flow of the book was great. The only thing I’d say is I’d even want a longer book, with more examples and drawings, but that could be a personal thing. I think this is probably plenty of content for most people. I’m really into journalling and looking at journals. It’s a great book, and I love how it brought a behind-the-scenes look at how the #studygram influencers work their magic.

Review: Gone Is Gone

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.

This is a lot younger of an audience than I normally review for, but the topic is really close to my heart and I really wanted to read it and see how it would be handled for a younger group.

I would not recommend it to friends with kids of this age. I know it has to be somewhat simplified for this age group. But the “reuse plastic” line, while important and obviously needs to be in there, should be accompanied by, “and lobby companies to reduce their plastic waste” because corporations and government are a huge culprit in plastic pollution.

The pictures were a bit much, I don’t want to see dead animals so I’m not sure if that’s something you want to expose a kid to or not. I think the story speaks for itself and is disturbing enough, I don’t think the images of, say, a dead owl on the side of the road, need to accompany it.

The book dragged on, and I think it had way too many examples. It needed more of a storyline and to be less preachy. I was annoyed throughout it. I think there are better ways to get the point across than the way this book did.

Also, I’ve never heard of Cinco de Rhino, but the author mentions it and doesn’t say anything critical about it, but it certainly doesn’t sound like a great title for a holiday. It sounds offensive.

I really felt like the author didn’t know where the book was headed, it went in a lot of directions. It was boring, and honestly easily forgettable.

Review: The Library of Lost Things

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3 out of 5.

I received this book as an e-ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Any quotes are from the ARC.

I initially really enjoyed this book. It had some really amazing moments and quotes. The Library of Lost Things is a book about a girl struggling to deal with her a mother who has a hoarding problem, who spends her days largely hiding in books.

I want to start with what I loved. I loved Marisol, who is the character’s best friend and is a half-Cuban and half-Mexican fashion savant. At times, I wanted the story to be about Marisol, because Darcy was a character that I had difficulty relating to at times.

One thing I wanted to point out is at one particular point, Marisol had a very real reason to be angry at Darcy, but it seemed like she wasn’t allowed to be mad for very long, and it was mainly for plot reasons. This, in my opinion, made her seem like she fell into the person of color side-kick trope, which is obviously not a good thing. In general, she was a very developed character. But in that one instance I questioned whether that’s how she really would have reacted, if it hadn’t been convenient for the plot.

Darcy is obviously dealing with a lot, with her mother being a hoarder, juggling her job, school, and her MIA dad. But I just can’t find myself rooting for her 100% of the time, despite how terrible that sounds.

It’s hard to write this book review spoil-free. But I had a hard time rooting for a character who not only wanted someone who was dating someone else, but kept putting herself in situations where she would be alone with him. Granted, he should absolutely not have been putting himself in those situations either, and most of the blame is on him. But there were dateable boys that were single, and she fixated on this one boy who was unattainable.

I get that people aren’t perfect, but I didn’t feel like she felt very guilty about what she was doing–it seemed like she justified it, or the narrator did, by disparaging the other girl. If she had seemed more guilty about it, I think that would have changed how I felt about her as a character.

The middle part of the book dragged along, and I didn’t like the ending, I felt like it ended too neatly and unrealistically, especially considering what else had happened in the book with her mom.

One of the characters had a disorder that caused anger and lashing out. I felt overall that was depicted well. However, I think it needed to be more spelled out that just because that’s part of that character’s disorder, that it is not an excuse for being emotionally abusive (I’m not saying that character is, I’m just saying it felt a bit excused and made me uncomfortable how it was written).

Now, am I being too picky? Am I expecting too much because of how much I liked the beginning, and because I felt let down by the end and middle of the book? Perhaps. But I have to judge the book as a whole. I’d give this book 3.5 stars, if I could give half stars.

My Top Horror Movie Recommendations for Halloween

I’ve been dying to write this blog for quite a while. It’s a mix of older and newer movies and my taste is all over the map. I’ve bolded ones I really loved. In no particular order and in loose categories:

Final Girls

• Ready Or Not (2019)
• The Final Girls (2015)
• Crawl (2019)
• Scream (1996)
• Tragedy Girls (2017)
• Cam (2018)

Trapped in the Woods

• Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2011)
• The Ritual (2017)

Truly Scary

• Us (2019)
• Hush (2016)

Creepy

• Birdbox (2018)
• Annihilation (2018)