Review: 5 to 1

Title:  5 to 1
Author:  Holly Bodger
Rating:  2/5

Summary:

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa doesn’t want to be a wife, and Contestant Five, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Five’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Five thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view—Sudasa’s in verse and Contestant Five’s in prose—allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.


Review:

This book left me wanting a lot.  The first thing that drew me in was the magnificent artwork on the cover, and next that the majority of the book was in poetry.  However, those two points are about the only things I liked about this book.

I love dystopian novels, but this felt as disjointed as an imagined future world seems to be.  The writing was loose and there several grammatical errors that I'm unsure how they passed editing.  The concept was very interesting, especially considering China's one-child policy and the likelihood of this situation (outnumbering girls) will happen in that country.

The first time the author switched points of view I was lost.  The paragraphs were dense blocks of text with little meaning and less emotion.  This story could have gone two ways, and should have chosen one of these paths:  [1] been a short story of no more than 75 pages and only in Sudasa's point of view; or [2] been lengthened by at least 100 pages and have Kiran's point of view more developed.

Lastly, the title is just ridiculous.  It makes the book hard to search for and while it applies to the book well, I think something symbolic of the poems that were mentioned would have been a much better fit.

Top Ten Swoony Quotes From Books

Top Ten Swoony Quotes From Books

I don't keep track of quotes as well as I used to, so these aren't my favorites, but they are some of my most liked ones from books that I've read in the last few years.

“He had a nice smile. Seeing it, I felt like I’d won a prize, because he was so sparing with them.” 

― Sarah Dessen, Saint Anything

“I miss you."

"That's stupid," she said. "I saw you this morning."

"It's not the time," Levi said, and she could hear that he was smiling. "It's the distance.” 

― Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

“I play the music of Steven

for Steven;

ragged, helpless,

it owns me, enveloping me

with an incomprehensible love -” 

― Stasia Ward Kehoe, The Sound of Letting Go

“Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.” 

― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“Angel, a crowd of millions couldn’t hide you from me. I found you once. I’ll always find you.” 

― Sylvia Day, Entwined with You

“I'd rather argue with you, angel, then laugh with anyone else.” 

― Sylvia Day, Reflected in You

“Love is wild and when it is cut returns again, stronger whether you want it to or not.” 

― Jessica Anthony, Chopsticks

“I love you now for what we've already shared, and I love you now in anticipation of all that's to come.” 

― Nicholas Sparks, Nights in Rodanthe

“Loving someone and having them love you back is the most precious thing in the world.” 

― Nicholas Sparks, The Rescue

“My love is selfish. I cannot breathe without you.” 

― John Keats, Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne

Top Ten Books I've Recently Added To My TBR

Top Ten Books I've Recently Added to My TBR

This is an ironic top-ten because I actually finally cleaned out my Goodreads TBR this past month.  I have added a few though, let's see if it's enough for this list.

1. One with You (Crossfire, #5) by Sylvia Day

2. Halfway House by Katherine Noel

3. Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell

4. The Martian by Andy Weir

5. The Bear by Claire Cameron

6. Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton

7. The Small Hand and Dolly by Susan Hill

8. A Trick of the Light by Lois Metzger

9. The Gorgeous Nothings by Emily Dickinson

10. On the Fence by Kasie West

2016 Reading Challenges

Hello all!  I haven't posted in forever!  So to start off the new year here is a post on the reading challenges I have accepted for this year.  I may accept more depending on what I find.

First, my Goodreads challenge this year is 85 books!  I've already read three:

          

In addition to this challenge (which I do every year), I accepted a challenge my local library put out:

I have not yet begun that challenge, but I'm looking forward to it and I've already chosen several books for some of the categories.

What reading challenges are you doing this year?

I'll start putting up reviews again soon.

Review: Fangirl

Title:  Fangirl
Author:  Rainbow Rowell
Rating: 5/5

Summary:

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow Fan...

But for Cath, being a fan is her life--and she's really good at it.  She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon SNow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading.  Rereading.  Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go.  She doesn't want to.

Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates.  Cath is on her own, completely outside her comfort zone.  She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand?  Is she ready to start living her own life?  Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?


Review:

I don't believe the summary of this book does it justice at all, but that summary and the title are what initially drew me into Cather's world.  I am a long-time reader and writer of fan fiction (for the better part of the last 10 years).  The fact that this underworld was brought into the world of a published book made me far to excited to pass this book up.

When I did finally get my hands on the book (ebook...), I couldn't put it down for very long.  Cath draws in every introvert (like me!) and gathers us together to let us she how she evolves.  She goes from a scared girl who is set adrift by her twin and is ensconced in the world of Simon Snow, to a young adult who is trying to make the best out of her life.

It's also a bit of a plus in my opinion that Simon Snow was obviously Harry Potter (with Baz being Draco Malfoy in my opinion).  This is one of the biggest fandoms I read and I was just so happy with this.

I wish more people knew about fan fiction, but at the same time I like how it belongs to only us, the fans who want to see where the story could have gone if the author had went there.  There is some truly astonishing pieces out there, and I hope some day their author's are like Cath and they go on to publish worlds of their own.

I can't recommend this to everyone, because unless you love the fan fiction world [and are a bit of an introvert], you won't get the same value out of this book.

P.S. - Rumor has it that "Carry On, Simon" is going to be written as a full book.  Who else is majorly excited about that?!

Rating: