Book Blogger Hop 2

Dear Blog,

is it a bird?  Is it a plane?  No, it's the Friday Book Blogger Hop (I think I'm going mad...)!  It's that time again where we all post our links on Crazy for Books and wander around the blogosphere exploring and discovering cool new blogs we'd not have found otherwise.
So, well, there you go. Off to find new blogs.
*vanishes into cyberspace*

Foreign Language Friday: Tell Me What You See

Dear Blog,
Foreign Language Friday returns with Tell Me What You See by Zoran Drvenkar.

First published in: Germany

Original title: Sag Mir, Was du Siehst
Translated by: Chantal Wright

Summary (from the blurb): Berlin. The dead of night. Sixteen-year-old Alissa and her best friend Evelin make their secret Christmas pilgrimage to Alissa's father's grave. In the graveyard, Alissa falls through thick snow into an underground crypt. Searching for a way out, she discovers something else: out of the lid of a small coffin coils a strange black plant. Drawn closer, Alissa sees its roots embedded in a young child's heart. This chance encounter sets off a chain of nightmarish events that throw her life into turmoil. Haunted by angels, stalked by her ex-boyfriend, only with Evelin's help can Alissa reclaim her sanity and discover the truth about her frightening new gift.

Review: I rarely read such creepy books.  Apart from dystopic novels where civilisation collapses, I don't tend to read creepy books.  Well, the apocalypse isn't  creepy in the same way that this is.  I've never read any Darren Shan or anything like that.  I read the chapter of The Green Mile where Edward Delacroix gets fried when I was 11.  I may have mentioned this before.  I was intrigued by the dark world of horror fiction and that sort of put me off.  Anyway.  Though I guess Tell Me What You See isn't a horror novel, it is,  a somewhat gothic chiller. I think it ought to begin with, "it was a dark and stormy night....*cue thunder bolt* BWAHAHAHA!" And it certainly begins with the sort of situation you would expect to find in a B-movie: two girls alone at night in the dark, creeping around in a graveyard.  But Zoran Drvenkar writes it so well, you don't even stop to laugh at the slight cliche.  It's genuinely creepy!  That's just the beginning.

The story alternates points of view between several of the characters-Alissa, the main character, Evelin, her best friend, Simon, Alissa's ex-boyfriend, Robert, Alissa's stepfather, the angels, and Nina, Evelin's lover.  In general I like books that do this, but alas alack more often than not they didn't sound incredibly individual.  The only real difference in the writing from Simon's point of view and Robert's point of view, for example,  is that Simon swears much more.  Oh well.  It's not that the writing wasn't gripping-it was-and it wasn't that the characters were 2-dimensional -they weren't-, but when it was told in the first person that's all it was: the first person.
However, alternating the points of view really did give different takes on what's happening: We're worried with Evelin about Alissa's sanity, and almost sympathetic to Simon when he's talking.  But then when Alissa is talking, everything going on in her head seems so real, and all we want to do when Simon appears is scream and run away.
My favourite character has to be Evelin.  She is the most awesome best friend and, in my opinion, the true hero of the story.  A), because she is always there for Alissa, and B) because of the ending, which I won't give away.

Summary: Tell Me What You See is all about friendship, obsession, death, loss, Berlin, ravens, love and angels. It's one of those "what more could you want?" books (more individuality in the characters, but...). 
Rating: 4.

Review: If I Stay

Dear Blog,
Today I shall be rambling about If I Stay by Gayle Forman.  It is the most purest of awesome.

Summary (from Amazon.co.uk): Everybody has to make choices. Some might break you. For seventeen-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend decisions might seem tough, but they're all about a future full of music and love, a future that's brimming with hope. But life can change in an instant. A cold February morning ...a snowy road ...and suddenly all of Mia's choices are gone. Except one. As alone as she'll ever be, Mia must make the most difficult choice of all. Gripping, heartrending and ultimately life-affirming, "If I Stay" will make you appreciate all that you have, all that you've lost - and all that might be.

Review: first things first.  This book is way too short.  I guess the short-ness is sort of fitting to the book, but it's one of those books you read reeeeeeeally sloooooowly so it doesn't end *wants sequel*.
The blurb gives away very little.  I mean, you know some sort of devastating accident happens.  But what exactly?  Maybe it's just me being thick but the blurb made me wander, "hmmm..."

It's a mix of Michael Morpurgo's Cool! (but for teenagers), because of the whole car-crash-coma theme and Elsewhere  by Gabrielle Zevin, because of the out-of-my-body-watching-my-nearest-and-dearest theme.  So I suppose it's probably similar to The Lovely Bones in that sense. But I wouldn't really know, because I've not read the book or seen the film (except the trailer).
Despite these many books I suppose you might compare If I Stay to, it feels wonderfully original.  And I think it's both better than Cool! and Elsewhere because it's longer than Cool and more happens than in Elsewhere.

The story is alive with music.  Mia, the protagonist, is a cello player, and her boyfriend Adam plays in an indie-rock band.  A reviewer on Amazon.co.uk said something along the lines of, "it was like reading a song," and I completely agree.   The writing is flowing and poetic and clear and realistic.  I felt like I too was stood with Mia, drifting around the hospital.

It's strange how in books like this one where there are flashbacks to the protagonists' old life, sometimes they can be fascinating and sometimes you can just think, "um, I just realised I don't care." .  I mean, we didn't buy If I Stay to read about  Mia's pre-accident life.  It's like the salad at the side of your plate.  Pleasant enough but not as good as your chips/meatballs/chicken/whatever that you originally wanted.  More often than not, we don't even eat the salad, save maybe the tomatoes and a few slices of cucumber. 
Before this gets too dragged down with metaphors, what I mean to say is: such talk about your past life is entertaining but not the highlight of the story.  But in If I Stay, it's just as fascinating as the main plot itself.

And the characters themselves?  Well, because of what happened to Mia's immediate family at the beginning of the book, I didn't feel like I knew them very well.  Her parents used to be punk rockers, I knew that much.  And now (or then I should say) her father wore bow ties.  But apart from that, they remained somewhat myserious.
Adam seemed like a cool-enough character.  I liked his relationship with Mia: it seemed nice without being too-good-to-be-true: not perfect because they both kept getting distracted by their music.  If ever I have a boyfriend, I should like to have the same relationship as Adam did with Mia.  Only minus the music-will-keep-us-apart element.  Anyway, enough of my daydreams.

Summary: short, but so veeeeeery good.  Probably my favourite of the books I've read while writing this blog (The Princess and the Captain doesn't  count because I first read it 3 years ago).  As good as Jinx, but I can't compare them.  Only that: they both deal with some pretty heavy issues.  So, yes.  If you haven't already, PLEASE READ IT NOW.  I think they should make it be slightly compulsory reading at school *nods*.
Rating: 5/5.

In My Mailbox (4)

Dear Blog,
My 4th IMM. Hosted as ever by Kristi of The Story Siren.
I woke up at 9:30 this morning which is rather mysterious for me.  I don't sleep very much at all. I know I'm supposed to get 8 hours sleep but I think I only get about six *shrugs*. Well, Winston Churchill, Robert Burns, Abraham Lincoln and other great people were insomniacs *hopes I inherit poetic genius of Robbie Burns*.  But then so was Margaret Thatcher. I hope I don't end up like her XD
Anyway.  Back to the matter at hand. Books!
I got some cool books this week.

IN MY MAILBOX*/BOUGHT

These books fall into two categories: I bought them, but I ordered them off Amazon:

Stolen: a letter to my captor by Lucy Christopher

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

FROM THE LIBRARY

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (seeing as everybody loves this, I thought I should try it)

Tell me What You See by Zoran Drvenkar

That was my literary week.  What about you?

*Seeing as we don't have mailboxes in the *sceptr'd isle* (pfft), maybe I should just start saying In the Post.  But that's not exactly the spirit of the meme so I'll pretend I have one.

Beautiful Blogger Award. Yay!

Dear Blog,
A very very big thank you/efcharistó and virtual hug to Giota of Just Another Book Blog who found my lowly blog worthy of the Beautiful Blogger Award.  Yippee!  I've never gotten a blog award before.

 
This award has a few rules:
1. Thank and link to the person who gave you the award
2. Pass the award onto 15 bloggers you've recently discovered and think are fantastic
3. Contact said blogs and let them know they've won
4. State 7 things about yourself

Seeing as that's what everybody else likes to do, I'll start with seven facts about me:

1. I've been to 28 countries, which I suppose for a teenager is rather a lot.  When I was 11 my family and I travelled around Europe by way of motorhome which explains things.
2. I'm home educated/homeschooled.
3. There is nothing better than Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  Except a good book of course.
4. I am obsessed with everything  Japanese. 
5. By the time I was four I could name all the kings and queens of England and name when they were coronated.  I had a poster in my bedroom that had a big timeline with all the names and dates on it and I used to look at it for ages.
6. I play the classical guitar.  My favourite composer is Ferdinando Carulli. 
7. I have a knack for languages.  As well as English I speak German, Russian, can read and write a basic level of Kanji and speak bits of Czech, Norwegian, Icelandic and French (but not very much).

Now then. Blogs!  I'm supposed to list ones I've *recently* discovered, but being new to the Blogosphere (about a month or two) I guess all the blogs I read I've read recently.  But many of these I have stumbled upon recently as in, the last few weeks anyway.  So here are 15 awesome blogs I read and love (started off in alphabetical order but then ended up just in no particular layout). 

Along for the Ride
Book Journal
Daisy Chain Book Reviews
The Bookette
The Crooked Shelf
The Book Cellar
The Book Bug: Books for Teens and Tweens
Rebecca's Book Blog
I Swim for Oceans
So Many Books, So Little Time
Green Bean Teen Queen
The Book Scout
Insert Book Title Here
Read.Read.Read
Overbooked

Indeed, such fantastic bloggers and blogs. They deserve it *nods*. :D
*goes off to read book*