The Sunshine Blogger Award

I was tagged for The Sunshine Blogger Award some time ago by Lori @ Betwined reads. And then by Leslie @ Books are the new black. Thank you to you both!

 

First Lori’s questions:

1) Which fictional character do you think best represents you?

Oh no, difficult start. I don’t think I’ve found one yet. Which is strange considering how many brown-haired introverted nerdy girls who love reading and writing there are in books, almost like the authors often write someone similiar to themselves. Honestly I would be the supportive side character friend that always gives out advice, and you sometimes see them going on with their outside of the plot. I’m very critical, but all characters that has that trait also seem to have too much cynism, where I constantly shift between “let it burn” and weird optimism. 

2) What book do you most regret ever having bought?

I’m not sure there’s any- CURSED CHILD. Holy fuck why does that book exist (the reason is money and wanting to keep relevancy).

3) If you watch BookTube, who are some of your favorite creators?

Ariel Bissett was the first booktuber I liked and I’ve watched her a couple years because she has a similiar taste in books as me, but she’s also been a couple years and steps ahead of me in what kind of books she’s interested in. Like she broadened her reading from mainly young adult books and I was like “but why?” and not long after I felt like doing the same.

4) Who gave you your love of reading?

Not who, but what – Libraries. Started liking books in literally kindergarten because there was a book bus visiting us that had so many varied books. In school we had a little library and when I grew out of the fantasy section there, I fell in love with the big library in the city. And I miss it dearly after moving away.

5) Do you prefer in-person or online book clubs?

Would prefer in-person, but I talk so much about books online because there’s never been anyone of my close friends that’s as much into books.

6) How do you organize your upcoming blog posts?

I mainly post reviews, which then depends on which books I want to read and how many and schedule them. I’ve played around with the days I want to be posting and still haven’t figured that out. I do the top ten tuesday if I like the theme, so tuesday. Want to keep it to thursday and friday/saturday. I recently added some other “regular” posts, like quote of the week (because I really like searching for good quotes and have collected a lot of them) and a semi-weekly update because I wasn’t writing enough about books as I was reading them.

7) What do you think of fans who write angry letters/direct messages to an author?

I’m not really up to speed on how much this happens, if the question is about a certain author or problem. In general be a nice person, harassment is not okay. If something happens to your fav ficitional character that you just don’t like, write fanfic or something, don’t attack the author. The author has created something though, and if they’re a public person, it should be allowed to give opinions on that.

8) How would you try to convert an non-reader into a reader?

As a teen my classmate said she wanted to be a reader, but didn’t know how. She was actually being serious about it and came back after I recommended some young adult love story, it might’ve been Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. I wouldn’t go for that now, but the most important thing is to ask what they would like to read about and think of popular books in that genre. I wouldn’t recommend my fav books – like any of Brandon Sanderson’s – because they require more effort to get into.

I did also read my little brother Harry Potter from he was like four years old as a bedtime story and he still didn’t become a reader, so I’m not to be trusted on this one.

9) If you could frame one book cover and hang it up in your house, which cover would it be?

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This book is stunning. And I haven’t read anything by Emily Bronte, I bought it solely because of how this 200th annivarsary edition is so perfect looking. I want to embroid it and hang it up, seriously.

10) Which fictional character do you love that you think would be horrible in real life?

Most of them, I feel it would be a “never meet your heroes” kind of moment. Usually you get to see so much into character’s thought processes and some of the people I find horrible in real life I would surely like better if I could get that much insight of reasoning behind actions and behaviors. I’m taking these questions too seriously, oops.

11) What’s one of your favorite blog posts that you would like to receive a little more love?

Like every review, because I want to just discuss books and if someone mails me pointing out details they loved or hated, I’m completely in for it. My review of Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente is kind of messy and rambly, but so was the book and I really liked to pour out my thoughts on it.

 

And Leslie’s questions:

1) If you have an e-reader, do you have a cover?

Slytherin forever? This gorgeous kindle cover is from Klevercase.co.uk and shipped internationally. It’s amazing, except for being really difficult to remove (at least without breaking it).

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2) What was in your last book haul?

I’ve only published one book haul post, but I just got and read “An absolutely remarkable thing” (review coming soon) AND IT WAS SO GREAT

3) What’s your favorite number?

I’m a hp and fantasy fan, obviously it’s seven.

4) Best book to movie adaptation, in your opinion?

There’s so many bad ones. I liked “The Hobbit” I guess, but more so that they’ve come to a level of fame, talent and money to make it so grand and I just love seeing dragons flying.

5) Your favorite food?

Pie.

6) Something you learned in 2018?

In fiction and telling stories about real life, people like to say things like “and that’s when I hit the bottom and …” about our lives. It’s not given that you hit The Rock Bottom though, where your mentality change and you start digging yourself up. It might be a row of horrible things, decisions or circumstances happening over time and constantly digging to not suffocate. Here’s my pessimistic side coming in, told you earlier. 

7) Best bookstore you’ve visited 

I have so many I want to visit, but no good ones I’ve actually visited.

8) Are you usually early or late?

Early, because anxious mess. Late is I have to count on the damn bus.

9) If you were given 1 wish today, what would you wish for?

I can’t take these questions not seriously, no matter how hard I try. Are we talking genie-wish? I would wish for cure to autoimmune diseases, because there’s a lot of them and they suck and are difficult to treat. Sponsing cancer research is great people, but so few have heard of autoimmune diseases and there’s soo many.

10) Best book you read/discovered this year?

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Radio Silence by Alice Oseman.

11) Share a funny or sweet moment you had this week!

Good way to finish this long post! I have autumn vacation this week and have spent time with my little (teenage) brother and we’ve laughed a lot together. Everyday is sometimes very busy and we don’t get much quality time, so it’s been fun to realize again how like himself he still is, while also starting to mature.

 

Here’s the questions I want to ask:

  1. Which fictional character would you like most to be real?
  2. Where would you go and what would you do if you had an endless budget for a vacation?
  3. What do you honestly like most about blogging?
  4. Which book was disappointing recently and why?
  5. If you were magically given the choice of one thing you would succeed at, no matter what, what would you choose?
  6. When do you stop and DNF a book? Do you give it a set number of pages or just based on feeling?
  7. What’s a genre or type of book you want to read more of?
  8. What’s your top three favourite books of the last year?
  9. Do you write?
  10. What’s one book you love to recommend to people?
  11. What’s a book cover you would frame and hang on your wall?

 

I’m tagging:

PaigeTammy LakshmiChasing the four winds – Sara – Ally – Catherine  – Merline Siobhan  – Amy Carolina 

No pressure 🌸🌸

Quote of the Week #16

Here’s the quote of the week –

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There’s this story that won’t leave me. It started more than a year ago and I started writing it down, like a first draft, but at one point it just stops, with no conclusion. WHat kind of story is that, it’s like having a part of a song stuck in your head, but not being able to listen to the rest – because it doesn’t exist. Some of you are surely gearing up for NaNoWriMo where everyone writes like crazy in November, and I’ve never participated. Wouldn’t call myself much of a writer either. I just want the end of this thing to come to me, I’ve sat down so many times and tried to just get it out. Nothing. There’s like a jump from this girl escaping this town, getting into some bad shit and then escaping that again for starting a new life. Like we’re talking “the goldfinch” kind of shift in tone and genre like midways in the story, because there’s no “end” to the first part. I have so many thoughts on why I have a mental block about the end. But I didn’t make this main character anything like me. I just can’t get to the bottom of it.

Also there’s another problem in that I cannot write. I feel very much like I did writing my first newspaper article, like googling what an article was and what the small text under a picture was called. If you have good resources for becoming a better writer, throw them at me pls

Longest Books I’ve Read | Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl to bring bookish friends together. A new topic is posted each week.

Do I like long books?

I like long books that are that way to be able to hold a lot of information and world-building, especially in fantasy. My main problem with long books is if they don’t have a strong enough plot to justify it, like the author needs time, info-dumps or a series of essential but boring things to happen between one major moment and another. I also feel like it’s difficult with series that have long books, but books are still being released, because you have to remember the previous action and it’s not easy to just reread quickly. I’ve also seen series that could’ve been fewer, bigger books, especially in young adult, and it’s weird because you shouldn’t have to read book one and two to get the complete story like there being something essential explained in the second book that cast an entirely different light one the first book.

A third thing is that I often find myself waiting if I know the last book are going to come out soon. It’s difficult with series that have long books, and books are still being released, because you have to remember the previous action and it’s not easy to just reread quickly. Brandon Sanderson’s series is so memorable to me though that it hasn’t been a problem there.

 

 

All these books are part of one fantasy series “The Stormlight Archive” and I absolutely love it and would recommend it, Brandon Sanderson is a brilliant writer and world-builder – I want to make an entire post about why – and this is definitely one of my favourite fantasy series.

Word of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2) by Brandon Sanderson

1328 pages.

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (The Stormlight Archive #3) by Brandon Sanderson

1243 pages.

The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1) by Brandon Sanderson

1000 pages.

 

The Wise Man’s Fear (Kingkiller #2) by Patrick Rothfuss

1000 pages. My favourite series of all time, it’s fantasy and I love it so so much. The writing is very “flowery” at parts and people seem to love or hate it, but it’s just what I’d been missing.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J K Rowling

870 pages. This might be the most boring Harry Potter book is what I thought the first time I read it, and the size doesn’t help. Love Harry Potter in general though, don’t get me wrong.

Inheritance (Eragon #4) by Christopher Paolini

850 pages. Aaah, Eragon. I’m always really curious about people’s reaction and opinions on Eragon. You see, like a lot of others I read the first two books as a kid and adored them because farmer boy finds dragon egg and goes on an adventure and there’s a fairy princess badass and it was all great. Then the forth book was released and I recognized how normal the action and plotlines were and that I shouldn’t reread the entire Eragon series if I want to keep the image of it’s awesomeness. Paolini wrote the book around fourteen years old, published it at nineteen and I wouln’t discredit it’s sucess, but I also believe it has a lot more cliches and plotholes than I picked up on as a kid.

 

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire #1) by George R R Martin

848 pages. I don’t often tell parents to keep their children away from certain books, but I read this book before the tv series aired – which meant I was like ten or eleven years old. It’s epic fantasy with lots of intrigues, but the whole series is so freaking long and I couldn’t take the rape scenes being an eleven year old. Now I might just watch the tv series because for once the length of the books are keeping me away.

Winter (The Lunar Chronicles #4) by Marissa Meyer

827 pages. Too long! Too slow! I really didn’t like this book, building up to a grand finale and not being able to deliver because it hasn’t the weight of other fantasy series on this list. Why would Meyer do that to herself?

 

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire #2) by George R R Martin

784 pages. I’m going to copy-paste what I wrote above for the first book: I don’t often tell parents to keep their children away from certain books, but I read this book before the tv series aired – which meant I was like ten or eleven years old. It’s epic fantasy with lots of intrigues, but the whole series is so freaking long and I couldn’t take the rape scenes being an eleven year old. Now I might just watch the tv series because for once the length of the books are keeping me away.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

771 pages. The secret history by Tartt is definitely a better pick if you haven’t read any of her books, but the godfinch is so particular, special and fantastic. It’s a lot of different types of plotline put into one, with heist and suburban life with neglect and a lot of other crazy shit.

 

 

Book Bi-Weekly Update #4

Hi guys!

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New book posts:

Three things on my mind:

  • I’m starting to repeat myself, but I’ve not read a lot of books these past week or month. Why? I can’t. I literally cannot sit down with a book and understand what’s going on. I can barely follow tv series, or podcasts, or comedy specials – even though I try to have them on in the background as to not sit here in complete silence for the past week. #chronicillness problems I guess. In short I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve definitely been considering going to the hospital certain really bad days this past week.
  • everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by jomny sun has been a miracle when I literally cannot read and I am in pain and need distraction. It reads a bit like a children’s book, only it’s a graphic novel of sorts and there’s a lot more to it with loneliness and existential dread and aliens. It’s also nice that the drawings are black and white with big lines that can easily be drawn in with shaky hands, so that’s been fun. Cheers to better weeks ahead?
  • The day I’m publishing this post I’m a bit better and just picking up watching tv series again – maybe not the best pick as it’s pretty heavy and serious, but Mr Robot season 2 is so so good. It’s one of those shows that very much lives up to it’s build-up and hype.

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • An absolutely remarkable thing by Hank Green (currently reading, also wowowow it’s really finally here!!!!)
  • At the edge of the universe by Shaun David Hutchinson (currently reading)
  • The golden compass by Philip Pullman (currently reading)
  • everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too by jomny sun

Added to my TBR:

  • It’s all too much by Peter Walsh. I’m pretty sure it was Alex Cox from the podcast “Do by friday” that brought up this book as the non-hocus-pocus or speaking to objects version of the famous “life-changing magic of tidying up”. That sounds like just what I’ve been looking for.
  • I wish you all the best by Mason Deaver. The author Alice Oseman recommended this young adult book, it has a nonbinary main character and anxiety.
  • The last girl: my story of captivity and my fight against the islamic state by Nadia Murad. SHE JUST WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE, I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING AND I’M SO HAPPY FOR HER!
  • I’ll be gone in the dark by Michelle McNamara. About the hunt for the golden state serial killer.
  • Never let me go by Kazu Ishiguro. Science fiction with boarding school.
  • My sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier. The sister is a psychopath supposedly.
  • Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen. I’m forced to read another Ibsen play “a doll’s house” and while researching it noticed that I’ve never heard of or read this one.

Recent book buys:

This time my broke student self has completely avoided buying books, but I’m going to pay for continuing my Scribd membership and get audiobooks there because it’s cheaper (even though I’m still not the biggest fan of audiobooks)

Quote of the Week #15

Ok, in my head Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is written out of the official canon and surprise it was just fanfiction and nothing more. I hated everything about it as a real book after so many years of having the harry potter series finished. It did have a couple good quotable moments though, to remind me that you can write a book as full of bad tropes and cliches and reawakening of … I’m gonna stop myself from ranting, you get that I think it’s bad.

This is a quote said by Scorpio to Albus:

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To which Albus answers: “No offense, but I’d choose someone massive and really good at magic.” Cute.

 

Book Series I Want to Finish Part 2 | Book Things

I went through my TBR and cleaned it out, what was most difficult was deciding what series I want to finish – some I started as a kid or teenager, some I needed a break from. Here’s part one

 

Monster (Gone #7) by Michael Grant

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Let’s see how long ago I started this series … Likely nine years ago (!!!). This book was released last year, another book this year. This shouldn’t be happening, the series was finished a long time ago. But I can’t stop now?! I have to finish this, unless this book is completely awful, in which case I guess I’ll find out reading it.

 

 

 

Opposition (Lux #5) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

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The first three books of this series was good. A bit predictable, but entertaining. I still have this fifth book left, along with some extra material and hope to finish it just to see how it ends. Do you ever read a series too fast and suddenly you’ve gotten enough of it, like it’s way too much and you need a break? Usually happens with tv series, but apparently book series as well.

 

 

The Shadow Cabinet (Shades of London #3) by Maureen Johnson

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The problem with trying to finish series is that I don’t remember the plot of the first (two) books sometimes. Maureen Johnson seems like a awesome person, and I recently read “Truly Devious” which was everything of the modern boarding school mystery I didn’t know I wanted, but I’m going to have to read some summaries before starting the third book of “The Shades of London”

The Saga of Larten Crepsley by Darren Shan

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Last post here I mentioned how much I want to finish Demonata by Darren Shan. Then I remembered I didn’t finish this one either, it’s a spin-off of the original “Cirque du Freak” series. I’m honestly finishing these series to figure out how scary they are compared to me first reading them as a kid.

Should I Read This Book? Unhaul

Hey. I have a big TBR list, it’s a problem. According to goodreads I have 329 books I want to read, which is after I removed a lot of books a couple months ago. The last four years I’ve read anything from 45 to 84 books a year. Let’s say I read 50 books a year and don’t add new books (unlikely I know), I would spend nearly six and a half year to get through this TBR. And I am going to get tired of young adult books before that, as well as other books I might like if I read them now.

So please give your opinion on books on this list, positive or negative. It’s books I want to remove from my TBR, but I am scared of missing out on reading really good books as well.

 

 

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Pros: seems to reference the arabian “a thousand and one nights” which is a good start

Cons: fairytale retellings are too often just not good, how many stories of girl not wanting to marry awful guy and then finding out some secret do I really need to read

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon 

Pros: fantasy, asian elements

Cons: know nothing about despite reading synopsis and spoiler-free reviews, seem bland and vague

Grave Mercy by Robin La Fevers

Pros: a lot of fellow goodreads friends seem to like it, it’s been on this tbr very long

Cons: I’ve tried to start this book twice and it’s just so slow at the beginning and I can never remember any of it, more arranged marriages

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Pros: about mental illness, good ratings

Cons: people seem to love or hate it, seen comments on the weird cute writing style about serious and heavy topics, why is every book at that time compared to “the fault in our stars” and can’t they change it now

It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover

Pros: good ratings, I was excited by the synopsis at first

Cons: I’m ready to give up on Colleen Hoover as the last book I tried November 9 I found really disgusting. I’ve brought this up with some different reviewers, how I immediately reacted to the guys action and objectification, but a lot of people didn’t see it. He’s the poster guy for the person I would advice my friend to keep the hell away from, and I’ve recently flirted with some guys that turned out to be really awful so it’s not like I’m on the look-out for this shit.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg | Review

 

Pages: 375

Genre: nonfiction, psychology

 

Synopsis

The official synopsis of this book should be reworked, it makes it sound three times more boring than the book actually is. So here it is in short –

There’s many areas in your life habits show themselves. It’s shown that people that changed patterns, habits, in their lives for the better also fudementally changed patterns in their brain. Marketing people study people’s habits and use psychology to sell new or more effective products and develop advertising, manipulating you. Habits at work and how to make more effective and safer employers. In general people bettering something by focusing on the patterns that shape every aspect of our lives – transforming habits. Why is some able to change more easily than others? What parts do habits play in Olympic successes, social movements and CEO’s? What are unhealthy habits and what effects can they have?

“In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.”

The Audiobook

The narrator’s voice is a bit annoying, something about the ups and downs as he talks. I played it at 1.2 to 1.5x speed and it went fine. The biggest downside is that there’s a lot of passages and tips in here that you’re going to want to mark down, which is more diffcult without any visual copy.

My thoughts

“Once people learned how to believe in something, that skill started spilling over to other parts of their lives, until they started believing they could change. Belief was the ingredient that made a reworked habit loop into a permanent behavior.”

Rating out of five: four

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I’ve read some bullshit productivity book, but not many good ones, which I realized a couple chapters into this one. In short, this book gave me a different view of habits, even though I had put some research into them already. In the beginning I was a bit disheartened, as it was mostly things I knew, but then it picked up and got more in depth.

Not everything in this book is equally compelling. I thought first that it might be my stage in life – I’m a student, not a business-owner – but it seems like more reviewers agree to this. My biggest issue with the writing is that the author wants to turn everything into a habit to justify the title and theme. Why couldn’t he just reconcile with some of the things he’s discussing being different types of behaviour and spare me from automatically counting the amount of “habits” said in a chapter. It’s a part of the bigger picture in that the author needs to always be painfully clear and repeats things like he’s certain the reader is dumb.

It’s a lot of good things and lessons in here, and I’ll get to that later promise, but I also want people to be critical reading this. I’m going to look further into willpower because I know there’s been discussion and questions around of the fact given here that willpower can be used up in the span of a day. Also, I’m not sure if I agree with the views on how social movements and social habits are made and upkept, he’s giving a lot of different components needed, but it sounds off to me.

This book is meant introductory, to make people think about their habits in a different way, that they’re something under their control if they pay them enough attention and work on them. Which is very positive, so of course I recommend this book. I got a couple lessons from it, along with simpler ways to explain what I’ve been knowing already.

A couple things I liked and took from this book:

  • “Rather, to change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.” 
  • His take on the marketing campaigns of big brands and supermarkets and how they dig into and use people’s habits was really interesting – that it has been funded so much it’s almost become its own science
  • Importance of organizational habits
  • The monkey experiments on how cravings are built, watching his brain respond to a task and the reward he got after. And after time when the habit had become ingrained the scans show the reward happens right after the cue (the task), but before the actual reward – he’s anticipating it, which creates a craving for the reward and keeps the habit strong.
  • The story about institutionalized unhealthy habits. In particular hospitals and other high risk jobs where they make checklists because everything needs to be done in order, and how giving nurses the authority to speak up when finding mistakes is important for cutting deaths under operation.
  • Learn from crisis and if the aftermath use them to make sure it doesn’t happen again
  • If you want to go down in weight, generally it helps to make a list of what you eat because it makes you more aware of your habits surrounding it

Quote of the Week #14

Here’s this week’s quote –

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This book “Kafka on the shore” (full review here) is really quotable, on top of just being amazing magical realism and so surreal and beautifully written. It truly both made me understand and more confused at the same time about what magical realism can be. This quote in particular really rings true to me. Most likely whatever you need won’t turn out the way you imagined, whatever you’re searching for won’t fit the expectation you built for it. Don’t limit yourself in your search and you might find it sooner. At least I hope so. 

I Was Born for This by Alice Oseman | Review

Pages: 400

Genre: contemporary young adult, lgbt characters

 

Synopsis

Angel Rahimi does not know what she wants to do with her life, but she knows she loves The Ark, a famous pop-rock trio boyband. She’s very involved with the fandom, which is seen to have its positive and negative sides as we also experience Jimmy Kaga-Ricci’s opinions about it. He’s one of the members of the trio boyband, playing with his childhood friends. The music is what makes him like it, being on stage and performing. But he can’t go out on the street alone without being assaulted by fangirls, he barely have any free-time with their busy schedule and his anxities are getting worse as he feels his privacy is invaded. When they started to get popular he was accidentally outed as trans, so he knows a couple things about privacy concerns. His dream has turned into the beginning of a nightmare, caging him in. Angel and Jimmy is forced to figure out the balance together, as one helps the other.

 

The Audiobook

There’s two narrators for the two different main characters, Angel and Jimmy. I really liked both of them, the accents were lovely, but sometimes they got on my nerves as well which was strange. Jimmy’s narrator voices all the guys though, and the voice he gave Mac (a minor character) is the most douchy and annoying voice, which made me laugh and grin my teeth together at the same time. Didn’t surprise me when he was starting to act a bit douchy as well, it fit well.

 

My thoughts

Rating out of five: four

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“Most adults see teenagers as confused kids who don’t understand much, while they’re the pillars of knowledge and experience and know exactly what is right at all times.
I think the truth is that everyone in the entire world is confused and nobody understands much of anything at all.”

Writing books about internet and fan-culture seem to be a difficult thing based on the books I’ve read that has gotten it wrong. There’s many reasons for that, most of all how fast it’s changing, making it difficult to capture even one particular moment in time. Alice Oseman does it so well, describing it as well as dvelving deeper into the pros and cons of idolizing groups and celebrities and how much space and influence to give them in our own personal lives. And she does all this in anentertaining way! Alice has some really on-point thoughts on it, with different sides conveyed through Jimmy and his other bandmates Rowan and Lister, along with their “biggest” fans Angel and Juliet.

idolization

I’ve always had a difficult time idolizing people, like I’ve always known that on some general level all those people have flaws as well. Also I’m very scared about meeting people I look up to, in case I have to experience those flaws first-hand. I’ve not been a big fan of artists, even though I wished I was at times. The community I saw friends building, bonding over their favourites, going out and promoting their records, waiting in line for their concert. All this is things Angel would do, and during this book she goes out of her way to help the guys of her favourite band. To an almost comical degree, because she finds herself in weird situations with them. But it wasn’t unrealistic enough to break the fun it was to see these characters interact and the questions, prejudices and reactions they all had to each other. Angel and Jimmy especially had some hilarious and cringy scenarios together, where the characters goes a bit meta and describes how much it’s seeming to turn into a fanfic, but it’s always done cleverly and tastefully.

characters & plot

Through this light and fun story Alice serves, there’s also greater themes pointing to internet and fandom culture, as well as indentity and how we might use things we enjoy both to escape and to connect with others. There’s always lines between interests being healthy and unhealthy, losing yourself in it. Still, I did not appreciate Jimmy’s grandpa telling Alice how things were and that she needed to focus more on herself and stop thinking she was in love with the guys from the band. Okay, some of it made sense, but when he started his speech I realized how much Alice grew on me through the book. I didn’t like Jimmy very much, I thought he should’ve reached more out to his friends, but I also wanted to defend his anxiety and the need of a good support system, which none of them had. So there’s proof that he had his place in this story as well. They all did. I thought I knew where this book was headed for a while, but the ending was a (kind of) pleasant surprise.

Feelings I had reading this book: enjoyed it, clapping my hands at the well-written characters and their personal struggles coming to terms with their popularity or identity, want to read more Alice Oseman books right away