Fangirl was funny and sweet and wonderful. What I liked best was the college setting without an intense focus on romance. This book was about Cath who tried to find herself, even though she felt she was losing everything. She so desperately tried to hold on to familiarity through her high school boyfriend, her father and most importantly to her, her twin sister Wren. For the first time, she had to be truly independent. I believe that for many, college is the time to find oneself and Rowell presented this transition very well in Fangirl.
THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US by Kasie West
It happened! I like a book precisely because of the romance. Of course there’re other factors involved but The Distance Between Us swept me off my feet. It was sweet, good light-hearted fun reading this book. I found so many reasons to laugh from the beginning right through to the end, which I loved. I like books that make me laugh. They’re such stress-relievers and wonderful distractions.
BEAUTY QUEENS by Libba Bray
One thing to be said about Beauty Queens is that it’s way over the top. As much as many have referred to the book as satire, I think it got lost in trying too hard to be funny. Some events were just so ludicrous, they were too far removed from social commentary. Maybe it’s because of that that I was hard pressed to enjoy Beauty Queens. “Give it a chance. Things will get better after a while,” I kept thinking. Things didn’t get better—at least not in my opinion.
ANGUS, THONGS AND FULL-FRONTAL SNOGGING by Louise Rennison
There were a lot of things about this book that I didn’t particularly like but to be fair, I did smirk and laugh a lot. Georgia was hilarious, if a little neurotic. She obsessed about some of the weirdest things and there were only so many times I could gloss over a character flippantly saying…
LET IT SNOW by John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
Even though Let it Snow was published as a single book, it contains three stories told by each of the three authors. In that sense, it’s more like three novellas but with a twist. They’re not entirely stand-alone, even though they could be. One can in good conscience choose to read just one of these stories and forgo the other two but I wouldn’t recommend it. I say, read all three, and be taken in by some Christmas magic! And why pick it up now that the 25th of December has passed? Take it from Mayzie (you’ll meet her in The Patron Saint of Pigs.
