Books about drugs tend to overdo it. This is not one of those books. Amazingly written and with a great message. Definitely recommend.

Diverse books are always a hit or miss. I don’t think I’ve ever read a “meh” diverse books. They’re usually very good or very bad, so I’m always hesitant at picking them up from the library. That being said, I’m glad I picked up this book.

Right off the bat Janna is such a likeable character. She’s quirky but realistic. She comes off as someone you could know and relate to and she’s not a sulking mess. She’s an accurate portrayal of today’s Muslim youth: a little confused but trying to make their way through it. At some points in the novel I was why she would make such bad decision but I realized that everyone make’s menial mistakes and there’s probably someone out in the world that did the exact same thing.

The subject matter in the book is heavy. Sexual assault is not something that is openly discussed in many muslim households and its difficult to live with something like that if you can’t tell anyone. The situation gets worse when the attacker is a supposedly “pious” Muslim man with a very clean reputation. This book serves as a reminder that no matter how religious someone is, only their actions can determine how they really are.

Final thoughts: A great book that everyone should read. Balances light humour well with a heavy subject matter and does a great job at representation. Pick up as your new contemporary read!

(Originally posted here: https://wordpress.com/post/willreadanything.wordpress.com/805 )

In almost every book that has teens suffering through a violent situation, everyone ends up confessing their feeling for basically no reason. Unfortunately, this book has that trope too. But not all hope is lost. 

When I read the reviews on Goodreads a lot of people seemed to be praising Rashid as a character. A lot of these people also were not Muslim - American. I had a lot of issues with Rashid right off the bat. The way he was written to be suspicious even though he was innocent. The info dumping of detail to show how religious he was at the beginning. It was unnecessary and seemed forced. But more importantly, Rashid didn't seem realistic. I've met a lot of Muslim men and boys and I've never met a single man who has not cut of his beard for religious reasons. Rashid (who I'm pretty sure was born in America but I can't remember right now) does not cut off his beard for religious reasons and thats what makes him "stand out". This seems more like a stereotype than an actual thing Muslim teens do. Rashid's Muslim tendencies come out only when its relevant to the plot. Rashid also prays in school which is not unlikely just not in the same level of religiousness the rest of the book is. If Rashid was a religious character he would literally be praying all throughout the entire duration of these events, at least in his head. But Rashid only prayed out loud which was weird. Rashid had a lot of potential for exploring issues of islamaphobia but it got overshadowed by the awful portrayal. 

The rest of the characters seemed one sided. I don't think we needed to know their backstories if there was no substantial character development. Cas really annoyed me as a character because he experiences seemed so weirdly simplistic. Bullying is definitely a real problem and from what I understand she was bullied for being fat but the way she explained it was just more "they bully me because I'm different" which is vague. "Different" could mean that you don't wear makeup or that you're a person of color. Everyone was written as angry which was also really weird because what are the chances that the people you're stuck with are all angry and angsty like you? Having a gay person of color was a right step though. I wish all these characters had actual character development instead of just being vehicles for the suspense and story to take place. (On a side note I hate the "popular but broken" trope so much because its so rare in real life.)

The perpetrators motives were just very vague and outlandish. I low-key think it would've been better for the writer to just have kept us in the dark than try to come up with a viable reason for the heinous act committed. 

The plot itself seemed less like a critique of society and more of suspenseful novel. I don't think I had a different view of the issue after. What really saved the entire book was the question of privacy and how we should address the problem. (Although the idea behind giving administrators your passwords to your social media accounts if you're deemed a threat is so dumb because why don't you just show it to them? Like you can just show your account?) 

Final Thoughts: Read for a suspenseful novel but not a meaningful one. 

(Originally posted on willreadanything.wordpress.com )

So, I'm not big on books about art students. The problem starts because art student characters tend to have this pretentiousness that other characters don't and I've never seen an art student character thats different from the rest of them. Despite that, the adoption factor of this story really made me want to read it so I picked it up anyway. 

I usually don't like the writing in poetry-poetry novels but this as an exception. Jensen is an amazing writer and I was engrossed in her words (if not the plot) as soon as I started. Everything smoothly transitioned from one place to another and I didn't find it choppy like I usually do with books like these.

As for the characters, I didn't like them. Linc was your cookie cutter art student who wasn't good enough for her family and constantly berated them for not liking her art. Here's the thing, Linc was in a very rigorous school. Rigorous schools have a rigorous academic program. Her parent didn't hate her photography, she was just bad at all her other classes which are needed to do to graduate high school. I don't really know why it was such a big deal about her dropping out because she definitely wasn't flourishing in her academic space. Holly and the mother were very interesting characters but weren't as fleshed out as I'd like them to be. I spent a lot of this book being discontent with Linc. 

As for the plot, it was initially intriguing but the narration threw me off. Linc made a lot of poor decisions that were not at all justified so I truly felt no pity for her. The book tried to introduce some racial tension but most of the time it was weird and unrealistic. The way the book talked about race sort of felt like it was being explained to a kindergartener. The love story was forced and unnecessary. There were a lot of plot twists but they were so overshadowed with Linc's perpetual angst that I couldn't give them the attention they needed. This novel could have had a better execution. 

Final Thoughts: Read for the nice prose.

(This review was originally published on https://willreadanything.wordpress.com )

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an entire sub category called "brooding teenage artist is losing their mind". The trope is so common sometimes I can tell just from the cover if the book has it. Nevertheless, I picked this book up at the library and read it in a day. 

The narration of the story starts really weirdly. I couldn't figure out what was going on for a good 50 pages and couldn't really get into the book for that reason. Once I figured out who was who and all that the characters seemed very flat. None of the characters seemed realistic or relatable and Klee wasn't very likeable. Sarah was a complete manic pixie dream girl  and actually pretty annoying. I never really figured out who the nun was. She didn't really add anything to the story. There was no one I was rooting for and I wasn't as invested in the story as I could have been. 

The plot was very intriguing. Not going to lie, I really wanted to know what had happened but when Klee's actions came to light I didn't really feel any more sympathy for him. Though the novel does portray getting mental help as normal and recommended I find that the characters did not make it seem like a realistic occurrence. The story in its entirety did not seem real because the characters reactions weren't real. 

Final Thoughts: A quick read about coming to terms with grief. 

(This review was originally published on https://willreadanything.wordpress.com )
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So good that its insane. The narration, the plot, the suspense. So well done.

I really wanted to like this book. The humour was the type I read, the concept so real but with so much potential. But due to careless issues I just couldn't.

Firstly, all the characters are so "Californian". I don't really know if this is enjoyable for Californians but after a few jokes it got redundant for me. There are only so many jokes you can make about algae shots and plastic surgery.

The Natasha mini plot line was so gross. That's literally it. It tried to bring some... depth? I don't know. But it was literally what is wrong with the world exemplified through like a Californian. I hated it beyond words. Completely unnecessary.

Other than that, the story line was engaging and the dialogue was cute. I feel like it could have been shorter over all though.

so good? How is it so good? well thought out characters, depth (i figured out who it was but still), cute interactions and sooooooo engaging. i get sick of school girl thrillers so easily but i loved this one.

I love this so much! SO much! Twinkle is so cute and so worthy of love. The plot is realistic and adorable. The relationships have so much to gush over. I love it!