A 21yr old female who reads because she believes that living life from one perspective is too boring and that critiquing those perspectives is inevitable. | Created on the 8th of January 2015.
Because this is a new blog and I really need something to help plan out what I will be posting here throughout the year, I thought why not go ahead and start my first reading challenge. According to the rules, you cannot use the same book twice for the same challenge. In other words, you can only tick one box per book even if the book is relevant and appropriate to more that one of the challenges below!
By the end of the year I will post the books that I've read to complete this challenge; but for now, below is a list of what I might be reading:
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The evolution of Mara Dyer |
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Sense & Sensibility |
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The book thief |
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Fairest |
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The 5th wave |
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Galagolia |
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Cinder |
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Fan-girl |
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In the Afterlight |
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We were liars |
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Crescendo |
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My true love gave to me |
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Girls of Riyadh |
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Wonder Woman: Marketing |
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Looking for Alaska |
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The Disreputable History of FLB |
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The last lecture |
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To kill a mocking bird |
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Free Fall |
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Legend |
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ساق البامبو |
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Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children |
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Pride & Prejudice |
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These broken stars |
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Julius Caesar |
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Diary of Anne Frank |
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Four |
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Inside Out & Back again |
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Anna & the French kiss |
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The Giver |
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The Goodreads killer |
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The Summer I turned Pretty |
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Alice in wonder land |
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The host |
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Never Fade |
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The Duff |
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Scarlet |
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The Fault in Our Stars (Re-reading) |
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Red Queen |
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The Sleeper & the Spindle |
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The unbecoming of Mara Dyer |
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City of Bones |
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Desperate in Dubai |
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Ruby Red |
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Let it snow |
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The Queen (The Selection Trilogy) |
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Romeo & Juliet |
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Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour |
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Delirium |
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Hush, Hush |
Replaced A book mom loves, a banned book, and a book written by an author with your same initials with An Arabic book, a stand alone, and a novella – because 1. Mom hates books 2. I can't get my hands on a banned book 3. I couldn’t find an interesting author that has my initials, and 4. I need to read an Arabic book.
Don't hesitate and join! If you have any questions, visit this link for further information.
Trilogy: Mara Dyer #1
Publication: September 27th 2011
Goodreads Summary: Mara Dyer believes life can't get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there. It can. She believes there must be more to the accident she can't remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed. There is. She doesn't believe that after everything she's been through, she can fall in love. She's wrong.
If I had a camera recording my one and only face expression while reading this book... my face would probably look like this...
The book starts with Mara Dyer, AKA our disturbed protagonist, waking up in a hospital bed not knowing how she got there or how she managed to survive an accident that killed her boyfriend and two of her friends. The doctors suggest that it is better for her to move to a new school which in turn will hopefully help mara regain her memories of the accident gradually.
Mara's family moves to Florida and her memories start to resurface. Throughout the book, Mara tries to cope with her PTSD's side effects, including her inability to differentiate between reality and hallucinations. On the other hand there is Noah, her love interest AKA the douche bag who slept with all the girls in her new high school because he’s a good-looking asshole. Noah eventually falls for Mara because she’s “different” and he's good looking so why not...
Yeah, that was not a cliché at all.
The good:
At first, let me just put it out in the open and say that I did, in fact, like this book. It was a quick read for 452 pages and the writing style wasn't bad at all. I also love how the mystery turned this book into a page turner until the very end. The characters where well-rounded and interesting. Each one of them had a distinct personality and role that added to the plot in some way or another.
The Bad:
1. The book starts with her saying "my name is not Mara Dyer" well... hate to break it to you but we do not figure out exactly why she has a nom de plume... at least, not yet.
2. It is difficult for me to admit that I’m not quite sure what on earth it was that I read! That is not because of the author’s writing style, but because of the story itself. The protagonist is someone that cannot be trusted. She is someone who's suffering from PTSD. Mara keeps hallucinating throughout the entire book, leaving you questioning each and every event because it is told from her POV. Did this really happen? Is that person real, a ghost, or just another hallucination? Are the people close to her really in danger or is it just all in her head?
3. Another thought that I was not able to push aside while reading this book, is how the plot suddenly shifted from being a paranormal/psychological one to being
(show spoiler)
The book ended with a cliffhanger that I did not expect at all…
(show spoiler)
Do I recommend this book? Yes, but not to everyone. If you’re into classics and realistic stories that are in no way affiliated with YA and, hate to say it, “Twilight” then do not read this book. However, if you’re like me and you like mysterious-YA-fiction-with-an-annoyingly-perfect-love-interest then go ahead.