BOOK REVIEW | THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS BY MARIEKE NIJKAMP

Title: This Is Where It Ends
Author: Marieke Nijkamp
Published: 2016
Pages: 285
Rating: 4/5

10:00 a.m. The principal of Opportunity High School finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.
10:02 a.m. The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.
10:03 a.m. The auditorium doors won't open.
10:05 a.m. Someone starts shooting.

Told from four different perspectives over the span of fifty-four harrowing minutes, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.


Ever since this book first got attention I was really curious to read this. This book is about a school shooting, something that nowadays happens a lot in America. Something that is very sad but in my opinion also is something that needs to be educated about. I was curious about the message this book was going to bring.

The way the story is told is quite cool. It's told from multiple perspectives, over a time spend of a couple of minutes each time. I personally found that this kept me really curious about what was going to happen.

I really liked the fact that this book had a very diverse set of characters. What I did find unfortunate is the fact that we didn't read in the perspective of the shooter. I think this could've made the book a whole lot more interesting. 

Although this was a really good read, I think that I would have liked this book a whole lot more as a 14-year old. I think this is definitely aimed for the younger audience of the young adult genre. 

BOOK REVIEW | THE VEGETARIAN BY HAN KANG

Title: The Vegetarian
Author: Han Kang
Published: 2016
Language: Korean
Pages: 192
Rating: 4/5
Translator: Deborah Smith


Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. 



I was really excited to finally pick up 'The Vegetarian' since it has been on my wishlist for so long. I am really curious to read more translated fiction and had never read a book from South-Korea. I think that the book starting with someone becoming a vegetarian is a really interesting start for a book about mental health. 

This book had plots and twists of which I never could imagine them happening when I imagined what this book would be about. What I really liked about this story is that you can see the mental illness 'being born' you see how it develops and grows within our main character.

This book is separated in 3 parts, and in the second part we also experience sexual desire, but again not as we are used to. We experience it not about lust objects and sexual desire from human to human but about the power of an individual. 

This was a book like no others.

BOOK REVIEW | MEN EXPLAIN THINGS TO ME BY REBECCA SOLNIT

Title: Men Explain Things To Me
Author: Rebecca Solnit
Published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 130
Rating: 4/5

"In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters."

I found this a very interesting read. Since I listened to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk in the end of 2016 I have been interested in discovering the feminism topic. For me it felt like 'Men Explain Things To Me' was a good book to start with. I felt like it explained the basics of feminism. 

It's a relatively quick read but the emotion that comes with this book, makes it no fast read. Most of the numbers that I now read about for the first time are so shocking, as well as the fact that most numbers get explained with horrific stories. 

I would recommend this book if you are new to the topic of feminism and would like to discover this subject. I think that it won't technically be mind-blowing to ones that have been reading more about feminism. 

BOOK REVIEW | MY TRUE LOVE GAVE TO ME EDITED BY STEPHANIE PERKINS

Title: My True Love Gave To Me
Author: Stephanie Perkins, Holly Black, Ally Carter, Matt de la Pena, Gayle Forman, Jenny Han, David Levithan, Kelly Link, Rainbow Rowell, Myra McEntire, Kiersten White and Laini Taylor
Published: 2014
Language: English
Pages: 321
Rating: 2/5

In this anthology 12 popular contemporary authors write short stories set during or around Christmas. Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year's Eve, all are present in this anthology edited by Stephanie Perkins.

I was really excited to read this with one of my book clubs, but this did quite disappoint  I felt like the stories were lacking quality. It felt like anyone could have written it, they were not special in any way. I did quite like Rainbow Rowell's story 'Midnights' which was the first one in the book, which made it start of good.

'The Lady and the Fox' by Kelly Link was the second story in this book which I enjoyed as well but not as much as 'Midnights'. Lastly I also liked 'It's A Yuletide Miracle, Charlie Brown' by Stephanie Perkins herself. That's for all the stories I liked in this anthology. 

What can I say, this wasn't my cup of tea and I am contemplating to erase the summer anthology, co-written by the same authors of my wishlist.

FRIDAY READS

Men Explain Things To Me and Other Essays by Rebecca Solnit

DECEMBER 2016

December has been an incredibly busy month and made it almost impossible for me to read. In the beginning of the month I finished 'Naamloos' a Dutch fiction book which I really enjoyed. The other two books I finished this month were 'Reached' by Ally Condie, and 'My True Love Gave to Me' edited by Stephanie Perkins. Unfortunately I didn't like either of these books. Reviews will be up soon!

I am really looking forward to a new year full of reading. I am really excited to start reading in 2017, with all my reading goals being set. 

December has been a fun month full of festivities and happy things! 2016 overall has been a year I utterly enjoyed and I can't wait to find out what 2017 has to offer. I wish you all a very happy new year! Thanks for your support!

TOP 5: BOOKS I WANT TO RE-READ

This year I set as one of my reading goals to re-read at least 5 books. Here are the books I am planning to re-read this year.

The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I really can't even remember what this book is about, but when I read it I gave it four out of five stars. I'm really curious to discover again why I did so.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

To be honest, when I first read this book I didn't quite like it but back then I wasn't strong enough on my opinion to give it the rating that back then I would have wanted to give it. I would like to re-read this book and give it my full and honest opinion. 

Counting by 7's by Holly Goldberg Sloan

I really loved this book when I first read it, but now cant' remember much of the details of what this was about. I can't wait to re-read it this year!

The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen

To be honest, when I first read this I didn't have a clue what was going on in this book. It was so hard for me to understand and although I finished it, I didn't understand anything of this book. Time to give this another chance!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

I read the first 5 Harry Potter books almost a dozen of times. But I can only remember reading the last two books just one time. I can't wait to re-read the whole serie and especially the last two!