Out Of The Ashes

Out Of The Ashes, by Michael Morpurgo.

This story is not a story at all. It all happened.

 On New Year's Day Becky Morley begins to write her diary. By March, her world has changed for ever. Foot-and-mouth disease breaks out on a pig farm hundreds of miles from the Morleys' Devon home, but soon the nightmare is a few fields away. Local sheep are infected and every animal is destroyed. Will the Morleys' flock be next? Will their pedigree dairy herd, the sows with their piglets, and Little Josh, Becky's hand-reared lamb, survive? Or will they be slaughtered too?

 The waiting and hoping is the most agonizing experience of Becky's life . . .
  
I found this book the other day in a drawer and I decided to read it, I wanted to read something light and this was a pretty short book. I don't really know where this book came from, I'm assuming my mum bought if for me a few years ago when I went through a stage of reading Michael Morpurgo but I just never got round to reading it. I wasn't expecting this book to wow me or anything, and it didn't. The book wasn't bad, I just found it all a bit mundane for me. I often read fantasy, adventure, dystopian types of books with magic and action and mystery. But this books didn't have any of that, I knew it wasn't going to be a book that would particularly interest me, but I thought I'd read it anyway.

This book was by no means bad, it just didn't do anything for me. I like to read books that take me away from my normal world, which is why I don't always find books about factual events particularly interesting. However that doesn't mean that I rule out all books based on factual events, it all just depends on the event really. I didn't really feel any attachment to any of the characters in this book, I think maybe it was just a fictional book to promote the events of the foot and mouth outbreak, and because I already knew about this there was nothing new to learn really, nothing that surprised me and no great mystery to uncover. I suppose that to those who aren't aware of the devastation this disease caused then maybe it would be a little more interesting to read, I wouldn't tell you to avoid reading this book, I just don't think that you would be missing out on a great deal if you chose not to.

Teardrop

Teardrop, by Lauren Kate.

Never, ever cry . . .

Seventeen-year-old Eureka won’t let anyone close enough to feel her pain. After her mother was killed in a freak accident, the things she used to love hold no meaning. She wants to escape, but one thing holds her back: Ander, the boy who is everywhere she goes, whose turquoise eyes are like the ocean.

And then Eureka uncovers an ancient tale of romance and heartbreak, about a girl who cried an entire continent into the sea. Suddenly her mother’s death and Ander’s appearance seem connected, and her life takes on dark undercurrents that don’t make sense.

Can everything you love be washed away?


I hadn't actually heard anything about this book before I got it and I hadn't read anything by Lauren Kate before this, although I had been told good things about her fallen series. I won this book on twitter when I entered a mystery prize, and I am so glad that I did otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone out and bought it for myself.

Like I said, I had never read anything by Lauren Kate so I wasn't sure what to think. At first I found it a little bit wordy at times and I found myself getting quite confused reading the prologue, but that was probably just me. However, after I got through the prologue I found it a lot easier to understand and I was really getting into it, I didn't want to put it down! This is definitely my kind of book, a world within our own but we just can't see it, people protecting us from things we are unaware of.

I thought that this book dealt with issues that are becoming a lot more common in our generation, issues such as depression, the loss of a family member, slightly dysfunctional families and most importantly the love and social life of a teen. What I enjoyed most about this was the way it was written, it was real,  it wasn't sugar coated it was written from the point of view of a teen, and teens often are upfront and abrupt.

There was a lot of mystery in this book that kept me guessing. It really made me think about the characters and their actions which I don't always do, often a character does something and I just accept it and I don't question why they did that, but not when I was reading this. There were also many tragic events, and it left me exhausted. All I was doing was sitting there reading, but I was feeling the strain that was put on these characters, it was one thing after the other, things just kept on getting worse. The romance... blossoming relationships, it left me feeling fuzzy inside and girly. I'm not a girly person, but these relationships in books always get me, they're just so perfect but not at the same time and i love it! Oh and there was magic! Well I don't know if you would consider it magic but it certainly wasn't ordinary, and I love that kind of thing.

This book left me on one of the biggest cliffhangers going, and it actually made me panic at first because I wasn't aware that this was part of a trilogy. I was over the moon when I realized it was because I just need more, I want it in my life! What makes it even better is that the next book 'Waterfall' is set to be published on my birthday...so feel free to buy me a copy ;)

If you're like me and you like a fantasy/mystery kind of book, then I would certainly recommend this book, I thought it was brilliant and I'm sure you will too!

The Book Thief

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak.

This is the tale of the book thief,as narrated by death. And when death tells a story,you really have to listen.

It's just a small story really, about, amongst other things:

A girl

An accordionist

Some fanatical Germans

A Jewish fist fighter

And quite a lot of thievery.

 

 

My friend had told me to read this ages ago after he read it and decided it was his most favourite book of all time. It took me a while to get round to reading it as I just didn't have any motivation at all to do absolutely anything, but I made myself start it and I was so happy that I did. When I first started it I was finding it a little bit hard to get in to, but once death had done it's little introduction and the story really got going I was fine. That's something it took me a while to get used to, the book is told from deaths point of view, as if death is a person narrating the story. At first I wasn't keen on that, but as I continued I warmed to it and by the end it was one of the features from the book that I liked the most! Death doesn't like surprises, and because of this he often warns you of things that are going to happen in the future, in other words death just constantly gives away spoilers, just slipping them in casually. That can get kind of annoying sometimes, especially when he tells you something you didn't want to hear.

 

I usually only get really attached to characters in a series as I have longer to get to know them and read about them, but I found that I got very attached to the characters in the 552 pages I was with them, and because of this there were many tears. I was very emotional reading this book, it didn't register with me that this book would be sad even though it is about Nazi Germany in WW2, and me being the smart person I am I didn't think to link the two together... good one Ellie! I found the characters so likeable, even the ones that were horrible, I liked them and I don't really know why that was. I think it was because despite the flaws of some characters the fact that they were in this horrible place with horrific events taking place, it just made me feel bad for them, because you know that ultimately with war comes death, and I'm sure that war would of course bring out the worst in people. (Those last sentences may not have made sense, the words wouldn't come out how I wanted them to!)

I really liked the fact that this book was based around real life events, which to me made it feel all the more real and to top it off they even used the German language with translations, which is something I always enjoy in books, using different languages such as the Latin used in The Mortal Instruments series, I find it interesting and it often makes me want to learn that language just so I could understand what they are talking about more easily and without needing to rely on the translations. In some ways I find this book relatable, it's a book about a girl who loves books, how the power of words helped her through life and to overcome obstacles. 

I thought this book was absolutely amazing and you would be silly not to read it! But I will warn you, the feels are all too real and you might need to keep some tissues on hand.

 

The Kill Order.

The Kill Order, by James Dashner.

 
Sun flares have unleashed devastation on the Earth. Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and against the odds they survived.

But now a violent and highly contagious disease is spreading like wildfire. Worse still, it's mutating, and people are going crazy. Mark and Trina will do anything to save their friends - if only they can avoid madness and stay alive...

This is the prequel to the Maze Runner series, which I've already posted reviews about, so feel free to have a look!
 
To begin with I found this book quite hard to get into, as I had literally just finished The Death Cure, so I had to go from one set of characters that I knew to a completely different group of characters in the same world with similar problems. It doesn't sound very confusing, but my brain just couldn't cope and I kept on forgetting who everyone was.
 
As with all the books in the Maze Runner series, this was also completely action packed, in my opinion too much action. I think that the action kind of took away from the story line, and made it slightly predictable and repetitive... there's a problem, they fight their way out of the situation, then they run into another problem, and fight their way out of that too, and this more or less carried on throughout the whole book. 

There were lots of new characters in this book, some of which I absolutely loved, particularly Alec, an old war veteran. He was so tough and harsh on the outside, but on the inside he was loving and soft and he always put others before himself. And of course there were plenty of characters I hated from the word go!;)
 
This book was helpful, it answered a few of my questions I had after finishing the other books in the series, but at the same time I don't think you'll miss out on too much if you don't read it. It kind of told you about how the Flare came about but only to some extent, I don't think they said enough about that part really, and I was more or less expecting the whole book to be about that in particular, I didn't really think there was much else to write about but of course there was.


I did enjoy this book and I did find it quite helpful, but if for any reason you can't or don't want to read this book, you won't be missing out on anything great in my opinion.




I would also like to apologise for my laziness, in my last post I said I'd post in the next two weeks, and it's been two months! :O I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen, I just get distracted super easily and have absolutely no motivation to do things, but I will try and be better! Thank you for being patient with me, I really appreciate it!:D

Update!

So I haven't posted for quite a while, and for that I am sorry! I've been quite busy recently, I've had revision for my Biology Exams, my Duke of Edinburgh practice expedition, controlled assessments and a LOT of maths homework to catch up on! I haven't really been reading too much at the minute either, I haven't had the time to :(. Hopefully within the next two weeks I'll have a new review up, but don't hold me to that ;). I've also got my new camera so that could mean that I start up my YouTube channel relatively soon!:D I'll try my best to keep you updated and post more content for you! If you haven't yet, feel free to follow me on twitter @GirlGotTheBooks or on Google+ which you can find on my blog...somewhere ;).

The Death Cure.

The Death Cure, by James Dashner.

The Trials are over. WICKED is planning to restore the survivors' memories and complete the cure for the flare.

But Thomas has already remembered more than they think. And he knows WICKED can't be trusted...

The time for lies is over. But the truth is more dangerous that Thomas could ever imagine. Will anyone survive the death cure?

This series had me so hooked I again began reading this books straight after I finished The Scorch Trials. Even when I began to think that there couldn't be much more to go wrong in this crazy story, I was just hit with every other possible scenario out there. The thing I love so much about this series is how you are always being kept on your toes, discovering new things when you thought there was nothing else you could possibly uncover. 

In this book you are introduced to a few new characters, we see the return of a few characters we thought were gone, and of course we see all of the characters developing further. We see new sides to characters we thought we had already sussed out, their true colours shine through in this book, and if you're like me, your opinions will most definitely change on a few of them, even after finishing this books I'm still not really sure how I feel about some characters, whether I like them or not, whether I thought they made the right decisions and whether I thought they had the right intentions and did the things they did for the right reason. But that's why I enjoyed this series so much, even after I had finished it, I still had unanswered questions, I was still undecided on many things, which left me wanting more! So I could solidify my feelings, thoughts and overall opinions on why things happened and just how I felt about certain things in the book. That is why I loved this so much, it leaves you wondering and guessing, leaving your imagination to run wild, something I feel every good book should do, leave you wanting more, leave you asking questions. Another positive, was that not every single one of my favourite characters were killed in this series, which is a huge bonus!;)

So, just in case you weren't sure... I think it's safe to say that I loved this book, this series in general, and I would certainly recommend it to all of you! If any one has any book recommendations for me, please comment them below for me!:D

Also, if you want to sty up to date on my reviews and when I've posted new ones, you can follow me on twitter!:) @GirlGotTheBooks and of course you can follow me on Google!:D

The Scorch Trials.

The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner.

Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles, And no more running. Thomas was sure that escaping meant he would get his life back. But no one knew what sort of life they were going back to...

Burned and baked, the earth is a wasteland, its people driven mad by an infection known as the Flare.

Instead of freedom, Thomas must face another trial. He must cross the Scorch to once again save himself and his friends...

So it was a while ago now that I read this, and I'm absolutely terrible when it comes to making notes on books so I can refer back to them when I write my review, and for that I'm sorry. However, from what I do recall, this book is solely responsible for my trust issues, well that and blueberry muffins. Every single time I began to trust someone, they turned around and destroyed that trust and love I had built up for them! I was never really sure what to think when I was reading this, my mind was constantly ticking, I was constantly trying to figure things out, and every time I thought I had something or someone worked out, I would find out I was way off, completely wrong. But this just added to my list of reasons to carry on reading, I was determined to get something right, unfortunately, I don't think I did, but I still enjoyed the book regardless. 

In this book, nothing is ever as it seems, nothing is ever straight forward. There is always some evil twist lurking around the corner, ready to jump out at you and hurt your feels. We both gain and loose characters in this book, sometimes in some very strange and tragic ways. During the Scorch Trials, we meet some absolutely horrific characters in my opinion, people that are plain evil for no good reason, as well as some good, offering to share what ever it is they have with other people, even if they don't have much themselves. We also see many different sides of WICKED in this book, which often left me thinking, could WICKED really be good?

I would definitely recommend this book if you like dystopian novels, this entire series will leave you guessing and wanting more! I should be posting a review of The Death Cure, the third book in this trilogy on Sunday, so keep a look out for that! You can do so by following me on twitter, at @GirlGotTheBooks or you can follow me on Google, which you will find on my blog!:D