Review (6) Impulse - Ellen Hopkins

Pages: 600
Publisher: McEldery Books
Synopsis (from Book): Act
on your impulse,
swallow the bottle
cut a little deeper,
put the gun to your chest.

Tony's painful childhood memories can be quelled only through pills. Vanessa has a secret that keeps her coming back to the blade. And Conner seems to have the perfect life on the outside, but his inward battle with his parents, his peers, and himself give him one last choice - to pull the trigger.

These are three lives that would have been cut short if not for the hasty intervention by loved ones. Or fate. Now they are given a second chance at a better life - but only if they help one another, and if they find the strength to let go of their inner demons. For good.

My Rating:


Review:

Plot:
Aspen Springs is a rehabilitation centre for troubled teenagers. Almost everyone here has some sort of psychological depression. Aspen Springs is bent on resolving these issues and getting these kids back on track with their lives.

Tony has an extremely scarred childhood. His mother wasn't the most responsible and was dealing with psychological issues of her own. His father, having realized his mother was a lunatic - left when Tony was young. Having no strong parental control, Tony is forced to raise himself and fend for himself. He chooses the streets cause he has nowhere else to go.

Vanessa almost killed herself, she cut a little too deep and almost bled herself to death, until her younger brother found her and called out to grandma, who with fast thinking, saved Vanessa's life. She is now at Aspen Springs trying to recover, but her huge secret seems to get her nervous and depressed, and only cutting seems to relieve the pain.

Connor has the perfect life, he's smart, good looking, and comes from a wealthy family. However, he craves love. His parents expect too much and constantly compare him to his more successful twin sister. He's only ever received plastic kisses from his mother, and deprived of maternal love. He tried to kill himself, but the bullet missed his heart and he's now stuck at Aspen Springs.

The three of them only have each others support to get back to normal, and get out of Aspen Springs. They learn new things about each other and about themselves as well.

My Thoughts:

So, I've said this before, but I'll say it again; I love Ellen Hopkins' writing style. It's very creative, and she is so inspiring. I really enjoyed this book and she does a great job at letting us get into the characters' minds, making it so easy to relate to them. I had a tough time putting this book down. Tony, Vanessa, and Connor truly come from difficult backgrounds, and being a psych student, i was able to understand them. I really loved Tony's sense of humor, it made the book a fun read. Impulse definitely helps with the understanding of depression and makes me more sensitive towards people that are suffering from it. Their life is not easy at all.

Review (5) Matched - Ally Condie

Pages: 369
Publisher: Dutton Books
Synopsis (from book): In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one… until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s known and a path no one else has ever dared follow — between perfection and passion.

My Rating:


Review:

Plot:
Cassia's world is perfect, at least as first she seems to think so. Everyone who follows the rules lives a long life, has the perfect job and the perfect match, which are all important things in Cassia's life. We first see Cassia getting ready for her matched banquet; which is a banquet for young adults her age and their parents. On this night, they will be matched with their ideal mate and spend the rest of their lives together. This night is important for Cassia because, her match will finally be revealed. Cassia finds herself matched to her best friend Xander and they could not be happier. Cassia's life seems to be falling well into place.

On this night, they also received a micro-chip with all of their matches information, and things like their likes and dislikes. It's a way for them to get to know each other better. Later, when Cassia goes to view the chip Xander's appears, but about three seconds later, another face appears, and then the screen just fades to black. Confused, Cassia chooses to forget about it for now, and decides not to mention it, until someone else brings it up. But why did Ky Markham's(a boy from her neighbourhood) face appear on the screen? Up until now, she hadn't given him much thought. She decided it would be best not to tell Xander about it, for now. That week during free time, she was with Xander and a few of their other friends, she got pulled away by an official; She told Cassia about the micro-chi and assured her it was a mistake, and Xander was truly her match. Relieved, Cassia goes back to hanging out with her friends. However, she couldn't stop thinking about Ky. Ky is so different, compared to everyone else in the society; he doesn't care about what other people have to say, he just does as he pleases. Cassia is intrigued by this and is happy to find out that they both chose hiking as their summer activity. Over this period of time, Cassia learns more secrets about Ky and they become close. They start to fall for each other, and Cassia has to make a choice between Xander and Ky, between a good, safe, rule abiding life or a life of passion, and exotic adventure.

My Thoughts:
The world that Cassia lives is in, is very unlike ours. Ally Condie does an excellent job of painting this foreign new world for us. It isn't pages and pages of boring description and explaining-everything-that-is-going-on around us. Although, we need to be informed of how things work in this mysterious society, we find things out through Cassia's life and the way she deals with the people and the society. The book flew by effortlessly and it was a fast read. I think their society is very different, but interesting, nonetheless. Everyone has a huge part to play. Most of the characters were very easy to relate to. I really got into some of the events, and I liked how the details were carefully planned.

At the beginning, Cassia and Ky together, seemed a little off to me. I mean they barely knew each other, and it was awkward. But when i kept reading, it grew on me. I'm most definitely TEAM XANDER though! I think they are incredibly cute together and have so much chemistry. It just feels more real. I can't wait to read the next book, to see how things fall into place. It was a very interesting dystopia, if you enjoyed the Hunger Games, give this a try.

Teaser Tuesday (4)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teaser:

Pretty Little Liars - Sara Shepard

"Hanna jiggled her foot nervously, having a sudden urge for some Junior Mints. Or maybe Cashews. Even the Slim Jims on Wilden's desk would do." - Page 95

In My Mailbox (4)

In My Mailbox is a meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren.

These are the books I have in my reading pile for the next little bit.

Blood Meridian - Cromac McCarthy; this was the book I got in the Indigo Fall Party gift bag. It's on the 50 Life-Changing books list. I've read six of them so far, and this will be my seventh.

Impulse - Ellen Hopkins; My second Ellen Hopkins book! I'm very excited for this one, I've heard great things.

Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins; My best friend recommended this one, apparently it's a very feel-good book. I saw it at chapters, liked the cover, so I bought it!

Pretty Little Liars - Sara Shepard; I've really gotten into the show, so I thought why not read the books, right? The books are always better that the movie/show.

Perfect Chemistry - Simone Elkeles; Okay, I basically got this book beacsue the author's first name is the same as mine :P. Can`t wait to read it!

Where have I been?

Hello Everyone!

I trust you are all doing well. So this summer has been extremely busy for me, and I apologize for completely neglecting this blog. I`ve been working really hard, to save up for university and a few other reasons. I also went to India for about three weeks, to visit family. It was a great trip and I had an amazing time, it was really great to spend time with family and friends and re-connect, I really miss them! But I`m back now, and decided to get back into blogging. I have read quite a few books and I`m excited to share my thoughts with you guys.

So, on Tuesday my best friend Laura(allofeverything) asked me to be her plus one for the Indigo Fall Party here in Toronto. We had such a great time! It was exciting to see the new products, they are all so modern and stylish. I especially like the owl book ends from the collection, I'm definitely thinking about getting them, seeing as I'm running out of place on my book shelf! Plus they are incredibly cute. Aside from the products, the venue itself was beautiful, it had a nice loft feel to it, it was very inspiring and gave Laura and me a few ideas for our future loft. The food too was delicious, it was inspired by Michael Smiths Chef at Home cookbook Collection (hes only my favourite chef on the food network!).So, that made my day. After that, we walked to Chapters and got a few new books (they will be featured in my next IMM post.) All in all, it was awesome, and we both had a great day!

XoSimone.

PS. I got a twitter! its @mystdelights. Follow me :)