When I first finished reading Falling into Place, I didn’t know how to rate it. It spoke to me in the most painful manner. No other book in recent memory has made me cry so much. When I wasn’t crying, I was on the verge of tears. The rest of the time I was uncomfortable. Liz wasn’t a nice person and yet I felt a connection because a lot of her thoughts had been mine before.
SAINT ANYTHING by Sarah Dessen
Saint Anything wasn’t a book I had meant to read. I figured that the three unread Dessen books that I own should take priority and I don’t even know when I’ll get down to reading any of them. Perhaps I’ll read one later this year since I did like this latest release of hers. The reason I decided to listen to the audiobook of Saint Anything was that it happened to be available to me via Overdrive, so I decided to borrow it on a whim.
CLEAN by Amy Reed
Clean is a book that thoroughly surprised me. Firstly, I thought this book would be about mental illness. Actually it’s about addiction. I should’ve realized that before I started reading but as usual, I hardly glanced at the synopsis. Secondly, I was impressed with how the characters were portrayed in terms of depth, development and voice. Best of all, I was amazed by the writing style. It was on the experimental side, which I hadn’t expected.
THE TREATMENT (The Program #2) by Suzanne Young
I can hardly describe the overwhelming disappointment that The Treatment brought me. I know I wasn’t a fan of The Program but I did like it for the concept. Still, I had problems with it because of the many unanswered questions The Program left me with. I pegged them as cliffhangers, so I expected The Treatment answer them, particularly the ones about the suicide epidemic that wrought this society. Did I get those answers? Hardly. The big issues were glossed over so much, I was mad at the end of the book. To me, The Treatment hardly contributed to the duology. It would’ve been better left unread.
SCREAMING DIVAS by Suzanne Kamata
Screaming Divas had a couple of elements that I particularly liked: music, friendship and diversity.
Music effectively tied all four main characters together despite all their differences. Trudy, Harumi, Cassie and Esther had very different musical backgrounds, yet they came together to form a punk band. Each one of the girls had something to bring to the table, which also led to a lot of conflict. I think that is one thing I particularly appreciated. They didn’t always get along, which added a facet of realness that I often find lacking in books.
