REVIEW: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon

Title: The Bone Season (The Bone Season #1)
Author: Samantha Shannon
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Romance.
Publication Date: August 20th 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Format: Paperback
Pages: 452
Rating: 4/5

 The year is 2059. Nineteen-year-old Paige Mahoney is working in the criminal underworld of Scion London, based at Seven Dials, employed by a man named Jaxon Hall. Her job: to scout for information by breaking into people’s minds. For Paige is a dreamwalker, a clairvoyant and, in the world of Scion, she commits treason simply by breathing.

It is raining the day her life changes for ever. Attacked, drugged and kidnapped, Paige is transported to Oxford – a city kept secret for two hundred years, controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. Paige is assigned to Warden, a Rephaite with mysterious motives. He is her master. Her trainer. Her natural enemy. But if Paige wants to regain her freedom she must allow herself to be nurtured in this prison where she is meant to die.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine and also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

Ah, The Bone Season. I saw this book absolutely everywhere in 2014 — it was all over Goodreads, Booktube and Blogs and I would see it every time I walked into a bookstore. It was about this time last year that I managed to pick it up second-hand. Then, as usual, it sat on my shelves for a year until Michelle eventually convinced me to pick it up.

I was incredibly intimidated by the size of this book. Not only is my copy one of those really tall editions, it’s also just a really heavy book for some reason — it’s like the publishers thought to themselves ‘How do we make this book even more intimidating? Let’s make it weigh the same as a small child!’ Luckily, the story inside was so good that I pushed through the fact that it actually hurt my hands to read this book.

I’m not really a big of fan of the ‘fans of insert book here will love The Bone Season’ but I’m going to make an exception for that today. Other people who have read this might not agree but I kind of got a The Darkest Minds meets Angelfall meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone vibe. Don’t get me wrong, this is completely unique but there were just moments or elements that reminded me of those books. Again, you might disagree but that’s what I felt. I should mention that I adored those three books, so you can imagine my feels about this.

I think my favourite thing was the world, because oh my god how? Like honestly, Samantha Shannon — how did you manage this? What even is this? I admit that bits of this were confusing but I have a feeling that those things are going to be solved and explained later in the series. Did you know that this a seven book series? Can you imagine the development that is going to happen by the end of this series? Does that make you as excited as it does me? (Probably not.)

Characters. Okay, characters. Wow. I really like Paige — she’s amazing, and she’s my age and I just feel like despite how shit her life is, she’s still doing better than me. Yes, I am so terrible at life that someone living in a weird dystopian/fantasy world is doing better than me. It’s something I’ve come to terms with. Anyway, Warden. What even are you? How can you be this amazing? I don’t even have proper words to describe you.

So yes, this is an amazing start to a series and you can better that I’m already looking up prices for the second book and trying to work out exactly where I can fit a seven book series on my shelves.

Oh, and Michelle — you were right, again.

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The Brontë Sisters and Popularity

I very recently read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë and I absolutely loved it. It got me thinking about hype within the classic genre. I’ve had heaps of experience with hype in YA, but I never really thought about it for classics until now.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Brontë sisters, whether you read classics or not. I’m sure you’ve also heard of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. They’re popular classics, right? So my question is, why isn’t The Tenant of Wildfell Hall just as popular?

If you read my review the other day, you’ll know that I basically thought this book was brilliant. It’s a very raw story as it was based on Anne Brontë’s own experiences with her brother, Branwell. I absolutely love Jane Eyre — it’s one of my all-time favourite books, and I’m not particularly fond of Wuthering Heights (at least what I’ve read of it) but I feel that this deserves the same amount of recognition.

I’ve seen a few book bloggers and booktubers talk about this in the past, but not nearly as many as it deserves. I’ve seen people say they prefer this over Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, but still — not enough people have read this.

And not only in the book blogging/tubing community. When it comes to classics, I really like watching adaptations after I’ve read the book just to see how the words get translated onto the screen. There are some really great ones out there, mainly the BBC miniseries of North and South, but then there are some not so great ones. When it comes to the Brontë sisters… well, it gets interesting.

There are about eighteen different adaptations of Jane Eyre, and those are only the ones in English. Out of all of those, I’ve seen two neither of which I particularly liked. There are 13 adaptations of Wuthering Heights, again these are just the English ones. How many adaptations are there of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall you might ask? Two. There are two.

Both of them are miniseries. One made in 1968 that doesn’t even have a promotional cover on IMDB (so you can imagine how well that must have turned on) and another made in 1996, which stars Toby Stephens (from Jane Eyre), Tara Fitzgerald and Rupert Graves (this is just for you Inge).

Some of you might know that Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights got remakes a few years ago, but no — The Tenant of Wildfell Hall has still got nothing. I just don’t understand why it isn’t as popular as the other two. In my personal opinion, it would make a really great movie — firstly, the setting of the novel is seriously beautiful. Secondly, can you imagine the soundtrack? It would be beautiful piano pieces and other sombre stuff, it would be amazing. Thirdly, and possibly most importantly, it tackles the issue of domestic abuse, which is incredibly relevant in our society. I should mention when I say ‘abuse’, its not violence but more emotional abuse and manipulation. That’s something people deal with now, every day, and not just women either so why shouldn’t we see it from the eyes of Anne Brontë who experienced it, even if it was ages ago. It just proves how much of a serious issue this is.

I’m sorry if this made no sense at all. I just really needed to get these thoughts of my chest and I’m hoping some of you might agree with me. If you hadn’t read this yet, then maybe this will convince you to?

Thank you for listening (reading) to me rant about the Brontë’s…again. I’d say that I’ve gotten over my obsession for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, but I really haven’t. #sorrynotsorry

DNF REVIEW: Mila 2.0 by Debra Driza

Title: Mila 2.0 (Mila 2.0 #1)
Author: Debra Driza
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction.
Publication Date: March 12th 2013
Publisher: Harper Collins
Format: Paperback
Pages: 470
Rating: 1/5

Pitched as a "Bourne Identity"-type sci-fi thriller about a teenage girl who discovers that she is a Mobile Intel Life-like Android, an experiment in artificial intelligence created by the U.S. government, and her scientist mother, who kidnapped her when she was found to have human emotions.

I’m not in the habit of DNFing books. I can generally tell whether a book is going to be for me or not from the synopsis. Sometimes though, I get it wrong.

I can remember the day I bought this. It was on the shelf at Readings (one of my favourite bookstores) and it was reasonably cheap for Australia — about $14. I’d never heard of it before I picked it up that day, but it sounded like a good Sci Fi so I bought it.

It sat on my shelves for probably about two years, and then I decided I read it for Round 5 of RYBSAT. I should have known when I picked this up and wasn’t excited to read it at all that it probably wasn’t a good sign, but I ignored that.

Anyway, enough story time let’s talk about why I DNFed this. For those of you who don’t know, the basic premise of this story is that Mila is a cyborg (and I checked Goodreads and every review mentioned this so I don’t think that’s a spoiler). Cyborgs are cool though right? I mean, Cinder.  Apparently cyborgs belong in the same category as dragons for me, which is the ‘only if it’s done really super well’ category.

The thing that gets me the most is that I read chapter one and I thought it sounded great. I was interested in where it was going, and then I read chapter two. Suddenly it was like every other YA ever. Let me break it down for you, in chapter two Mila and her friends are in this café/diner/thing. We have Kaylee, Mila’s best friend, who is a bubbly, (far too) energetic, sort of ditzy girl. Then we have Ella, one of those characters who I like to describe as the ‘Peter Pettigrew in fanfiction’ characters — basically they serve no purpose other than just to be that fourth friend. Finally, we have Parker, the stereotypical mean girl who lives to make Mila’s life a living hell, but somehow they’re friends? Anyway, Mila is being all distant and spacey, thinking about the memory loss she’s suffering from when a boy walks in, naturally he’s new to town, incredibly hot, named Hunter and Mila is weird in front of him. Have you read this before? Because I know I have.

I kept going. I read chapter three, in which Hunter turns up at Mila’s school. Chapter four, in which she and Hunter flirt, share number and then Kaylee (her best friend, remember?) yells at her for talking to Hunter because that’s a totally normal thing to do. #friendshipgoals

I skim read up to page 100 but I just couldn’t push any further. I know quite a lot of people love this, and I really wish I did but it was just too generic for me. I’m sorry!

Writing Resources: What Not To Say to a Diabetic

Welcome to part one of my new Writing Resources project. If you’re not entirely sure as to what this is about, I’ve linked the original post here so you can learn a little more about the project and about me.

Part one is going to be focusing on Diabetes. In particular, Type One Diabetes. I’ve been Diabetic for almost six years now and obviously, it plays a big part in my daily life so I thought it was the best place to start. Because I’ve been dealing with this for six years, I have a lot to mention and so I’m thinking this is going to be broken into parts rather than just one ridiculously long post. I’ll come back and add the links to any other parts when they go up.

In this post, I just wanted to go through the basics—the general gist of Diabetes and how to write it into your novel/play/poem/screenplay/whatever. I mentioned this in the introduction, but I want to reiterate it here…this is not going to be scientific at all. These are my personal experiences, so this isn’t representative of all Diabetics in the world, this is just me.

Firstly, the biggest pet peeve in the world for any Type One Diabetic is dumb questions. Trust me, you get a lot of dumb questions/comments. The most typical one is the ‘But you’re not fat’, ‘Or you could just go on a diet’ or ‘Oh, my grandma has that’. And yes, maybe your grandma does have it but there are more than one type of Diabetes. Type One is the type that requires needles, constant monitoring and is in no way prevented by the amount of exercise you do or what you eat. If you’re pancreas decides it’s going to stop working on you, there is nothing you can do about it. It’s important that you understand that telling me that I’m ‘not fat’ is not going to help me or suddenly cure me.

Secondly, there is no cure. I will be injecting myself for the rest of my life, or until there is a cure. I know how harsh this might sound, but when you get diagnosed, you have quickly learn that you will be stuck with this forever. You know what? That’s okay. I’ve dealt with that already.

Which leads me to the next point—the ‘I don’t think I could do that’ comment. I get it, the idea of injecting yourself or pricking your fingers sounds terrifying. The thing is…we don’t really get a choice. Either we do these things, or we die. When those are your two options, you’ll learn to inject very quickly.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Diabetes relies heavily on the consumption of the right amount of carbs. Basically, I’m really happy that you can last all day on that smoothie you just had but I’m going to need food at least four times in the time it takes walk the city. Most importantly, don’t tell me what I can and cannot eat. You aren’t my endocrinologist (fancy word for a doctor that deals with diabetes and stuff) or my nutritionist, so please stop.

So this basically became a rant about things you shouldn’t say to a Diabetic. I hope it helped some of you, if not for a novel then just in general. In my next post, I’ll be talking more about the insulin/medication side of Diabetes and how that affects our daily lives but also, our mental and physical wellbeing.

Thank you all for sticking around!

May Wrap-Up: A Mixed Bag

Ah, May—well, you turned out to be an interesting month, didn't you?

BOOKS

Guess who was really, really lazy this month and couldn't be bothered to save each book cover individually? Ely. The answer is always Ely. So yes, 21 books this month. Two of which were DNF's...it wasn't the best month. 

CHALLENGES

I kind of suck at challenges guys...

TV/FILM

I've been so busy with Uni that I've barely had the time to sleep, let alone watch TV. I did however get to see Pitch Perfect 2 for a special event which was great!

VIDEOS

I managed to upload a few videos in May... I had my April Book Haul, May TBR, a RYBSAT TBR/Unboxing, my RYBSAT Wrap Up and finally, Part One of my May Book Haul. I also hit 200 subscribers, which is just crazy and I'm not entirely sure how it happened.

ON THE BLOG

We had a very busy month here on the blog and already June is shaping up to be even crazier! I shared my first ever writing snippet here on the blog—thank you to the very lovely Val who convinced me to do that. I reviewed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and talked about my Classics Club TBR. I also introduced my new series about Writing Resources, the first post of which will be released verrry soon.

OTHER THINGS

May started off on a high for me. I spent the first three days at a country book festival with two of my besets friends—Michelle and Miranda. These two are honestly some of the best people I've ever met and we had a great weekend full of lots of laughing and food. There were some kind of sucky times in the rest of the month. It was my first Mother's Day without my mum, so that was really weird. I have some really great friends who sent me some lovely messages that day that just warmed my heart. I also got to hang out with Michelle again and we need some more book/comic shopping and well, eating. We really like food. 

I got a piece of writing workshopped for the first time in my Writing unit. I don't really share my writing a lot, so I was kind of nervous. Everyone was super nice and they all seemed to like it which was amazing. That same day I got to have a really nice chat with my lovely friend Rachel. Rach is a reasonably new blogger but we've been friends for something like four or five years (?). She actually used to beta the story that has now turned into Tied Together. Anyway, she's possibly the loveliest person I know and we always have a great chat about books and writing. Have I convinced you to go check out her blog yet?

It was also my mum's birthday at the end of the month, and it would have marked one year since she got diagnosed with cancer. I really tried to stay positive because that's what mum taught me, but yeah—it was tough. I'm sorry if you are sick of hearing about this, I just think it's important to show that sometimes this isn't easy. 

Moving on to more happy things! On Sunday, I went to Reading Matters/YA Matters/Writing Matters/Everything Matters with Michelle, Miranda and Chami. We also met up with Tash and Becca for the first time, who by the way, are both absolutely lovely people. Anyway, we listened to some awesome authors talk, went book shopping and Michelle and I met LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON. There will be recap of the event soon, but just quickly—she is honestly one of the nicest authors I've ever met.

My YALC TBR

So, in my Top Ten Tuesday post the other day, I mentioned that I had a few TBRs for my upcoming Europe trip to share with you all. Today, we're starting that little miniseries with probably the biggest TBR you've ever seen in your life. I present to you... my YALC TBR. (If you'd like to learn more about YALC, check out the official website here).

(BUT FIRST, little bit of this gorgeous human being drum rolling for you all)

I'm sorry about the oddly stylish pattern here at the bottom. Apparently, I don't have enough books on my TBR.

YEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.

Okay, so obviously I'm not going to list every single book here and why I want to read them or what I think about them individually but I will highlight just a select few. Also, I'm writing this a few weeks in advance so hopefully I've read something off here!

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

One of the few on here that I actually currently own a physical copy of. 

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

I've heard such great things about this series, mainly from Cait and Miranda, but I'm excited.

Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow

Maybe my favourite cover on here. It reminds me a little of The Raven Boys.

Legacy by C.J Daughetry

This is the sequel to Night School which I read...last year, maybe? and reasonably enjoyed. I haven't heard the greatest things about this one, but I'm going to give it a try.

Read Me Like a Book by Liz Kessler

I believe this is a teacher/student romance, but ALSO, LGBTQ+

The Manifesto on How To Be Interesting by Holly Bourne

I borrowed this from the library today (my plan is to read as many of these before I leave Melbourne through my library so I can decide what to buy over there). It's absolutely gorgeous, like really gorgeous because of its red/orange-y pages. Very excited to read this one.

So those are a few of the ones I've picked out. I know this is a crazy TBR guys and I don't honestly expect to read them all. I wanted to give myself options, and I really hate meeting authors without reading at least one of their books first because I like to tell them how much I enjoyed their books and my favourite characters and etc. 

If you're going to YALC, let me know what's on your TBR and who you're most excited to see. For me personally, it's a tie between Patrick Ness, Marie Rutkoski and Alice Oseman. If you're not going, let me know if you've read any of these books and what you thought about them.