I feel like all of us bookworms have been there before: standing in a bookstore or browsing Amazon when all of a sudden your eye catches on a book title and the temptation arises to buy it purely based on the prettiness of the cover. Most likely, you’ll end up buying it, too.
Covers aren’t the only thing pleasing to the eye, though: there’s stained pages, decked edges, and imprints on hardcovers. As a person who spends a lot of time taking pictures of books, here are some that look beautiful on camera and absolutely delicious displayed on my shelf!
For such a moving and detailed look at an important subject, I can’t believe how little I’ve heard about this book. I was hooked from the first sentence: “It’s so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself.”
It’s Kind of a Funny Story is a brutally honest contemporary following a teen who has a mental illness—yep, it’s another one of those. But out of the thousands already published, this one stood out because it was so well written.
“You are my masterpiece, Helene Aquilla, but I have just begun. If you survive, you shall be a force to be reckoned with in this world. But first you will be unmade. First, you will be broken.”
Though I enjoyed An Ember in the Ashes more, I think this was a really great sequel. If you loved the action and violence in the first book, A Torch Against the Night won’t disappoint. It’s full of bloody scenes and brutal characters in a world based on ancient Rome, but it also touches on themes of loyalty and love—should you serve the Empire you have sworn your allegiance to, or save your family instead?
Hm, this is a tricky book to rate. I feel like I should give it a high rating because it’s a well-researched look at a serious matter—self harm. But I can’t bring myself to give it any more than two stars simply because I didn’t enjoy Girl in Pieces.
You’re probably thinking, “How could anyone enjoy a book about self harm?” But with these kinds of gritty, realistic novels, I can usually appreciate how the author chose to tackle such a delicate subject, or at least take away new knowledge from being able to step into the shoes of a character who’s gone through so much more than I ever have.
“Why is it they say you always hurt the ones you love? Because you know exactly how to do it.”
I really wanted to give this four stars. Because, oh boy, was this ever good . . . right up until the last ten pages.
With Malice is a hyped up YA thriller, and for good reason. It was extremely well written and didn’t suffer from the cheesiness I usually find in this genre. The pacing was unbelievably fast and I flew through the pages. I was totally in love with it . . . right up until the end, when I couldn’t help but lower my rating.
I don’t think I entirely “get” Kuehn’s books. Charm & Strange was too weird for me, and though I liked Delicate Monsters better, it was still pretty bizarre.
This book is about three messed up teens who are different kinds of monsters, and I don’t use that word lightly. I mean, these characters were awful—borderline sociopathic and just nasty in the way that they thought:
“She puffed harder on her cigarette, enjoying the burn on her windpipe and the hope that she was giving someone somewhere cancer.”
But that kind of just made them even more interesting to read about.
With fall just around the corner, I thought I would share some of my favorite books I read in the month of August! I was able to catch up on some new releases last month and discovered some books I really enjoyed! Here is a complete list of what I managed to read in August:
• And I Darken, by Kiersten White
• The Graces, by Laure Eve
• Steeplejack, by A. J. Hartley
• This Adventure Ends, by Emma Mills
• Environmentally Friendly, by Elias Zanbaka
• Rebel Bully Geek Pariah, by Erin Jade Lange
• My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
• Out of the Easy, by Ruta Sepetys
• The Raven Boys, by Maggie Stiefvater
• How it Feels to Fly, by Kathryn Holmes
• With Malice, by Eileen Cook
Without further ado, onto my favorites!
