Reading The Riot Act: 4 stars

Showing posts with label 4 stars. Show all posts

Saturday, 24 February 2018

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is - a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh.

Image Courtesy of bookandstrips

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer

Published August 17th 2016 by Harper Collins

336 Pages

Everyone has heard of Amy Schumer, and whether you are a fan of her or not, there is no denying she is a talented woman. Personally, I love Amy Schumer. I find it refreshing to see someone who is beautiful and smart and funny without feeling as though I would need an entire team of stylists to achieve her look.

If we take away her celebrity when looking at this book, you still feel the humour in the pages. I never used to be one to enjoy celebrity life-stories, but Amy Schumer has done something slightly different. It is not so much discussing her fame, as discussing who she is, and what she thinks about the world.

The pages are chock full of hilarious stories as expected, but she writes them with a real flair for words and insight that is often missing from traditional actress memoirs. Schumer is honest, raw and unashamed. She speaks of her family and friends with a deep love that translates to the reader.

I knew very little about Schumer before reading this book, and although she doesn't exactly lay out every moment of her childhood, she really gives a sense of the people around her, and so to an extent reflects herself in the depiction of her loved ones.

Overall, I adored this book, especially the audible edition. I would hate to spoil all the stories within it's pages because part of the charm is that you have no ideas what she could possibly say next. But there is only one way to find out...

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads and Facebook. Until then...Happy Reading.

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

review

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth

Louise Wilkes 02:56:00 0

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

Laura and Tyler are two young women who have been tearing up the city streets for ten years, leaving a trail of angry drug dealers and spent men in their wake. Now Laura is engaged to be married and her teetotal classical pianist fiancé, Jim, is away overseas. Tyler wants to keep the party going but Laura is torn between the constant temptations provided by her best friend and a calmer life with Jim on the horizon. As the wedding draws closer, the duo’s limits are tested, along with their friendship.

Image Courtesy of VivaTramp

Animals by Emma Jane Unsworth
Published May 20th 2014 by Harper Collins
256 Pages

Laura is trapped between two worlds. She's engaged to classcal musician Jim, planning a wedding and trying to act like a grown-up. On the other hand, Best Friend Tyler is a trainwreck. Together they tiptoe the line of alcohol dependency and generally cause hilarious mayhem.

Laura is struggling with how an adult should act, and wanting to escape the seriousness with Tyler. Admittedly, Tyler is a shitbrick. She steals from a drug dealer, has little empathy for Laura's problems and shows no respect for her relationship with Jim. That being said, I have to admit, as a young woman I have found myself in similar situations - although far less extreme.

The North of England is a far different place than the south, adn Unsworthr epresentes it perfectly. The drinking culture is more aggressive, and sloppier - far sloppier. Laura's reluncatance to take on an adult life but also her desire for a "normal" life completely resonates with me, and I imagine, a huge amount of other young women.

Laura and Tyler play with what is expected of women and what the reality is. They are vulgar, gross, dark, comical and sexual. I adore every moment of their relationship...eventhe inevitable downfall. Life desires movement, and when Tyler refuses to grow up and take responsability for her actions - Laura must let her go or risk being dragged into drug abuse and acoholism with her.

Jim, portrays himself as the perfect man. He's talented and handsome as far as we are concerned. He is an upstanding member of the community who takes care of Laura even when she comes in drunk. I mean, what a hero right? He lays the guilt on thick, and is critical and shitty to Laura. All the way through I keep asking: 'What the fuck is this guy's problem?' Well, he tried to fuck one of his work colleagues.

Prick.

The beautiful climax of the story is when Laura finds out, and Jim reports that he could not infact cheat on her, because he was too drunk to get hard. Nothing is romanticised, everything is down and dirty and I love it. Nothing is off limits, Unsworth doesn't seem to care about your delicate sensibilites and to be honest, neither to do many writer.

The ending, is quiet. It's the only way I can describe it. Laura finds some kind of resolve, a decision about moving into the future without both Jim and Tyler and it feels triumphant. She does not need them, she never did. It may be quiet, but it is hella powerful.

You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads and Facebook. Until then...Happy Reading.

Monday, 7 August 2017

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

Louise Wilkes 03:13:00 0

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

Reading the Riot Act

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

Published May 2nd 2017 by Bloomsbury

Paperback 699 Pages

Despite my best efforts, this series has slowly wormed it's way into my heart. When A Court of Thorns and Roses was released, I was ride or die with Throne of Glass. Then, Celaena died and Feyre was born. Aelin, was second to Feyre - and in the place of my beloved Chaol, was Rhysand. I know, I know, how disloyal of me. But A Court of Mist and Fury was one of the best books I have ever read. So, as you can imagine, I waited for this conclusion with bated breath.

This book, was a wild ride. We start slow, building like a roller-coaster and Feyre - honey, I gotta say - is acting like a bit of an idiot. She's undercover in the Spring Court and every two minutes she's like...'Guys, how good a spy am I?' Not a great one Feyre. She's having mysterious headaches and her powers weakening but she notices none of it, she's too busy patting herself on the back for a job she hasn't even finished yet. There are 100 Rhysand-less pages and when everything finally kicks off, it is worth the wait.

Hyberns men attack, Feyre EFFS up Ianthe (totally justified) and Lucien is along for the ride. Turns out Feyre was being poisoned the whole time and she had no clue. (Nice one, babe.) They flee into Autumn Court, on foot, and low and behold. More shit goes down. BAM. FIGHT. ICE. MOUNTAINS. AHHHH! It's so dramatic. I'm on the edge of my seat. We're only 150 pages in and could this be the end? Of course not! Sexy Illyrians fall from the sky, smashing into ice with bat-wings and chiseled jaws. The Court of Dreams. Whoosh, swept up, back to Velaris and our beloved friends.

I've never been so happy to return to a setting before. Now with Lucien and Feyre's sisters and our darling, darling Rhysand. It's like I was coming home, and I didn't expect to miss Mor and Amren as much as I did. Suddenly the pace is different. It feels fast but so much is happening. Raunchy love scenes, sister drama, training. It's all so detailed but my mind is gone. I'm not reading the words, I'm there, trying to grow Illyrian wings and readying myself for battle.

Though it's good to be back, there's still Hybern to deal with. The gang organise a meeting, getting the leaders together and try to unite Prythian against Captain Crunch. Sorry, The King of Hybern. I loved how political this book was, it was like Game of Thrones, where wars aren't just won on battlefields. There is diplomacy, working together and it is so interesting to watch it all come together or unravel.

Hybern attacks Velaris and the meeting is pulled forwards. Nesta, who's been acting like a straight-up biatch is having a change of heart. I mean, we get what her problem is because Elain is acting nuts. Everything she says is sinister and random. Nesta, in her worry, basically becomes a meaner Amren. (I know, who thought that was possible!) The meeting with the High-Lords is pulled up, it has to be now and they are not happy about having a High-Lady in the midst. Neither are the High-Lords wives - Feyre seems to be giving them ideas. Everything is tense but working out and then boom! The moment we have all being waiting for...in walks Tamlin.

Tamlin is ruthless. For some reason, I love it. He's catty, talking about Feyre's climaxing noise and just bating Rhysand, begging for a punch. Then, Rhysand takes away his ability tio speak. As someone who didn't even like Tamlin in book one, this is extremely satisfying. I preferred this scene of the numerous Rhys/Feyre sexy times. After this, although a lot of stuff happens, the war seems to come at you fast. Before I know it, Elain is a seer, we've been winnowing the humans to safety and the battle is on us.

I was sure there was going to be death. Lots of death, and with Feyre rallying the Bone Carver, The Weaver and whatever the hell was in the bottom of the library, the odds seemed good. Until we saw Hyrberns army. The gang don't stand a chance. Lucien has gone to rally the human queens and as it turns out - Tamlin and Jurian are good guys. But, it's not enough. I know it, and the characters know it. They are saying goodbye and it all feels horrible.

I start to dread the ending, dread knowing the finale is coming for Throne of Glass too, knowing this will only be the beginning of my sorrow. Nesta feels it, having taken something from the Cauldron. She knows when it is about to attack, and it obliterates.

They have to nullify it, Amren says she knows how, the Suriel told her where to look. But Elain is mad and Nesta is down. Cassian at her side. More Goodbyes. They need to get Hybern away from the Cauldron, so Amren and Feyre have a chance of nullifying it. Ships appear and there is Feyre's father. Lucien didn't bring the human queen, their father did. With ships named after the daughters, he fights for. I won't pretend I didn't cry.

Damn. This review is long.

We flip between Nesta and Feyre, the latter with her hand on the Cauldron and Amren apologising for lying. They aren't;t there to stop the Cauldron, they are there to release Amren. Feyre is pulled into the Cauldron, watching Hybern battle Nesta and Cassian. He's killing them, both of them. Feyre screams. She can't do anything to stop it.

Then, Elain, with a knife in Hybern's throat. Nesta is on it, twisting the dagger in his throat, pay back for killing their father. The armies don't know Hybern has fallen. They keep fighting and Amren is released, laying waste to the fighters below. The Cauldron is destroyed, the beast inside Amren released. The very fabric of their world is shattered, and it needs to be fixed.

Made and Unmade. Rhys appears. They all know the world will end if the Cauldron is not remade. Feyre does it, but everyone is depleted. Rhys offers his limited power, insists on it. She takes and takes, healing the cracks and saving them all, until she turns, and has killed Rhys.

I know. I know, I crapped my pants.
I had forgotten about Feyre. About how Rhys had held onto her and the High-Lords had brought her back. Spoiler Alert! It happens again.

Then, the war is over. Time passes quickly and everything is such a shock. Amren is back and no one is dead. There is a happy ending. And it feels...disappointing. The final 50 pages are like lightning. I can barely comprehend where we are until we are there, at the end. And it feels like there should be more.

I gave A Court of Wings and Ruin a solid 4 stars.

Despite the slow beginning and the too fast ending - the journey in between was stunning. It was crazy and wild and one hell of an adventure. Besides, it's the journey that counts, not the destination. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads and Facebook. Until then...Happy Reading.

Thursday, 22 September 2016

review

Nerve by Jeanne Ryan

Louise Wilkes 10:28:00 0

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

A high-stakes online game of dares turns deadly
When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy, sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating--Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the Grand Prize round. Suddenly they're playing all or nothing, with their lives on the line. Just how far will Vee go before she loses NERVE?

Nerve by Jeanne Ryan
Published July 28th 2016 by Simon&Schuster
Paperback 294 Pages

I am a huge fan of books turned into movies. I often think book trailers should be more like film trailers (books are a visual medium after all) because the film trailer can always entice me into reading it. I read nerve before seeing the movie and the book only heightened my excitement for what seemed like a blockbuster.

Nerve follows Vee (as in Venus) who is quiet, smart and downtrodden. After a brutal betrayal by a friend and a few insults dressed as compliments, Vee finds herself a part of this colossal reality television game show. She meets a smoking hot guy and wins a ton of cool prizes, but that's not why Jeanne Ryan wrote this book. The plot takes a keen twist into a beautiful and resounding statement about reality tv. As someone who has been on reality television, I can relate and press the idea that there is nothing real about reality television - something myself, and Vee, learned the hard way.

Poor Vee is in over her head and yet summons this astonishing strength to hold her own against so many aggressive competitors and tasks. Struggling with a hidden past, the game becomes all too real and she becomes the kick ass heroine we all knew was in her from the start. It is a fantastic tale about inner strength, a corrupt world and the danger of trusting the media too much. I highly recommend.

Now, onto the specifics.

I hate that they changed the end in the movie. I found that so disappointing as this ending was tense. When all the local competitors are in that room and the tasks escalate and escalate. Damn I wish there was a sequel - it was left open for one but no news yet.

Vee is literally a superhero, she was doing these things and I got that feeling I got when I read divergent. That moment when Tris is about to jump off the building, not knowing if there is a net there. I felt real panic and real fear - just as I did with this book. I was there. I was with her. And I was pooping my pants. Ian is a dreamboat and I loved the fact that afterwards she was only allowed out to run and he came and met her. That was just a really cute image. (For some reason I began with the ending - good job self!)

In the movie I did miss the backstory of Vee. On film she has a protective mother because her brother died and a few really terrible friends. I hate friendzoned characters - I hate the term in general, but the movie really amped up Tommy's character and turned him into this gross stereotype. I felt that way about her best friend too (I can't for the life of me recall her name). She felt 2D in the movie, I knew her motivation and it was just to be a bitch. Then there was all that crap with the hackers - I'm not even going into that!

In the book, Vee tried to commit suicide - but was caught by her parents. Since she had been gaining there trust back and on the night she was finally allowed a longer curfew, she gets caught up in Nerve. In the novel she pretends to be a weird prostitute and all sorts which is so fun to read. Her friends though the tension between them is there with unspoken crushes and resentments, there is something distinctly lovable about them. They are real and good. They are just messed up kids in the book and so their behaviour is a little more excusable. When they come to Vee's rescue at the end, I believe it. I didn't believe it in the film.

It was just a really engaging, easy read. 4 Stars!

If you enjoyed the movie - that is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much beneath the surface and so many cracking scenes awaiting you in the book. Get it now, read it and come back! I must know you're favourite scene! Mine was definitely the celibacy group in the bowling alley! (CLASSIC!)

Happy Reading!

Friday, 5 August 2016

me before you

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Louise Wilkes 03:46:00 0

Warning: Spoilers! (duh.)

Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick.

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that.

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.

Image from booksweheart

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Published December 31st 2012 by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking
Hardcover, 481 pages

Me Before You is set in the English countryside, Yorkshire I assume. I'm from Cumbria so this is like

next door to me and that makes me really happy. Moyes got the setting built really well as I live and have

been to these types of villages many times. That and the fact the protagonist is named Lou (I'm a Lou)

pulled me in immediately. What a shame I didn't like Lou that much - but I'll get to that.

Immediately Lou loses her job. She lives with her family who are a bit hard done for, so the loss of money is
a definite blow. She tries working at a few jobs that are gruesome or terrible until finally, she falls into being
a caregiver for Will. Will has Quadriplegia meaning he is mostly paralysed from the chest down, with a little
bit of movement in his arm. There relationship is pretty rocky to say the least until a mutual attraction forms.
They fall in love it's gushy and romantic and cute - but then we have this underlying issue. Will wants to die.
Will promised his parents 6 months to change his mind and if not he would be going to Dignitas to end his life.

Naturally this is a huge aspect of the book and has caused a lot of controversy. People seem to be concerned that
what Moyes is saying is that Will's life is meaningless now, that he is disabled so he wants to die because he thinks
his life is never going to be good enough. I disagree, personally I never got that reading of it. What I understood
from the book was that Will is a rich boy, he has probably never had to want for anything in his life and I imagine
when that's the case and to want for something so simple that you can never have -that has to be so hard. I don't think
Will as a person, from the way he was raised or whatever, is not equipped to look on the bright side.

I won't touch on euthanasia much but for me, the story was not saying all disabled people want to die. For me it
was about Will as a person rather than a man with quadriplegia. I think Will does not accept second best, even if
that second best is a happy life with Lou, and that is ultimately the tragedy of this book. When she lays it all out on the
beach, telling her she loves him and she can make him happy and he still says no. That was hard to read, it felt so final.

Lou at first really bugged me. I found her very childish, rather annoying and it was a struggle to push through until we
met Will - who was hilarious, charming and complicated. It's just every two seconds I wanted to shake her around and
give her a kick up the arse. She was so hard to get through too, but once Will did she became this whole new person.
Confident and actually honest with herself because I knew very early on that Patrick was awful, they were terrible together,
they barely got on and when she moved in with him it was just so awkward. She spent most of the book going through the
motions of what she thinks she should be doing and it was great to see Will knock some sense in to her.

The romance really was not as big of a part of this novel as it was advertised but that is fine by me. It was steady and real
and slow and I liked that. Moyes did not create insta-love or have her checking him out as he wheeled into the room -she let
the characters do it, almost to the point where you barely notice the change- it was some stunning writing.

That final scene in Dignitas, when they know it's about to happen and she rushes there to see him - BEAUTIFUL. I almost
couldn't believe it was happening it was so awful but it was also just so great. I would have to say this book got better as it
went along. The more we learned about both these characters, the more they reached out of the page and slapped me with
emotion. I think it is a damn fine book, but if I have to read Patrick running one more time - I will throw it at the wall.

I hope this helps, let me know what you thought of the book (or the movie).
Happy Reading.

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