Title: If I Stay
Author: Gayle Forman
Published: 7th May 2009
Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. Then, in an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the one decision she has left—the most important decision she’ll ever make.
Simultaneously tragic and hopeful, this is a romantic, riveting and ultimately uplifting story about memory, music, living, dying, loving.
This book is a book mix of Lovely Bones and Afterwards, which are both adult books and highly recommended. This book is everything it says it will be. Tragic and hopeful and an uplifting story about the memories of Mia. This book is written beautifully and Mia is a great character to follow, fragile and vulnerable.
You can't help but want everyone to be alright. From the beginning you get introduced to the family and I noticed how real the family is (mum, dad, Mia and Teddy), and the whole feel they have as a cohesion.
The book covers the idea of out-of-the-body experiences. The idea that while you are unconscious your spirit can float around and still see what's going on around you, as well as covering the love for family and friends.
The ending was great, it fits in with the whole flow of the book without going into a massive BAAM the end. If I could cry at any book this one is definitely a crying one, in my mind. It's a delicate flowing book and definitely recommended.
Title:The Secret Hour
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Published:March 1st 2005
Meh....yeah so this book was...meh. I'm not overjoyed by this book but I'm not bored out of my mind reading it, it was a good read, but after finishing it I feel like nothing had really happened in the book. It's like we've moved 1cm, only revealing one main piece of information which we've been looking for through the entire book. Everything is still in the shadows and you could say that from reading this book you don't really know know the characters and their history with one another enough. Saying this, this book is included in a trilogy called The Midnighters and therefore I'm hoping that all will be explained, the other two books are eagerly waiting to be read, as I have read the Uglies series also by Scott Westerfeld and thoroughly enjoyed them.
My main attraction to this book is it's fresh. I haven't heard anything like the blurb. Something supernatural without the vampire..but it does in a small way, you could say, there are werewolfs. "The Secret Hour" is after 12pm, time freezes allowing people who were born at midnight to have an extra hour of Bixby. Other creature explore the area at the same time, only coming out during this special time. Everyone who can acess this secret hour has some sort of "power" but at first glance it doesn't seem like Jess has one and so the characters venture on to figure it out.
I find that I'm drawn to Dess and Rex. Rex is a really interesting character to read about and I only wish there was more detail about him in the book. The way Rex is represented as this "dark" and "mysterious" character makes his character such a good read...and kinda wanted Jessica to fall for him, but he seems to be a guy who has no emotional features. I liked Dess because, maybe, she was more of the character I could relate to in this book. She is the friend who is always there. She is someone that I wouldn't mind being friends with myself, she looks out for you and does what she thinks is best for you.
What you get out of this book? It's self discovery for Jessica, the main character, and that's pretty much it...
Meh...
Not one of Scott Westerfeld's best.
Author: Gayle Forman