Veronica Roth:




Well, I tried writing this review without there being any spoilers, but it’s rather impossible – for me, at least. So, readers beware.

Veronica can do so much better than this, so so much. The second Tobias’ PoV was introduced I knew Tris was going to pull some heroic sacrificial bullshit and get her ass killed. I fucking knew it. Not a tear was shed from me… not a single fuck was given. Yes, dear readers, call me a Satanist slash sadist for all I care. I saw no point in this move – perhaps Roth wanted to be unique and inspiring with her story; nevertheless, it was still unnecessary. 

Apart from that, Allegiant is an entirely different story, entirely different. The book was confusing. I wasn’t pissed whilst reading, I wasn’t saddened, hell, I wasn’t evenbored. I was reading this book with a blank expression. Constantly I kept forgetting I was reading a book that’s a continuance of the Divergent trilogy. The terms “Divergent” and “Divergence” were a reminder that I was, indeed, reading the final installment. I’m sorry to say this, but: this was the dumbest book I’ve read in 2013. 

Allegiant was a hot ass fucking mess. The character development as well as the world-building was tragic. It was not explained how Tris survived the death serum, we were only given half-assed, clouded ideas. The romance fell off a cliff and shattered on sharp rocks at the bottom, the relationship between Tris and Tobias failed to impress me. The whole BOOK failed to impress me. It hurts me to say this because I adore Veronica Roth. No one, and I mean no one can change my mind about this book: you can write a mile long essay about why you felt this book was perfectly wrapped and poignant, you can say how wrong I am, you can say just about anything and I still wouldn't give a flying Ford Anglia.

I remember Roth wrote a blog post about wanting Harry Potter to be killed off because "it would have showed the greatest act of sacrifice and love". I don't know what her fucking deal is with killing people off because "it shows real love". No, it doesn't. That's not always the route to take; there are other ways of showing true love and sacrifice. There's always another way. 

The minute the characters went out the fence, the story fell even further into the pit of stupidity. Allegiant tried to be preachy. The government (or should I say the Bureau) in here plays (or is) God. We are introduced to superfluous explanations on why we have the factions and the factionless. We learn about Genetic Purity and the Genetically Damaged. Genetic Purity meaning Divergence; Genetically Damaged meaning belonging to one faction with fucked up genes. We also find out Tobias is, in fact, not Divergent, but Genetically Damaged which gives Allegiant, yet, ANOTHER twist that's pointless with dramatic arguments. Come the fuck ON. I am not impressed. 

OH, how can I forget? Tris' mother was part of this Bureau. HOW FUCKING EXCITING OMFG!!1!!11!!! /sarcasm
What else do you want to throw in to make this all the more amazing and special?

Honest to God I wish I had something nice to say about Allegiant. There's an attempt at a love triangle here between Nita and Tobias, there's an attempt at something unique with this story, but the alternating PoV between Tris and Tobias and everything I've stated above ruined everything. Also, I didn't like Tobias' voice here, Roth did not do a good job with portraying a male protagonist. I kept hearing a female voice in my head, constantly thinking it was Tris'. Did Veronica have this all planned out since the first book? If it was then it wasn't very good and thorough. This book is a flat out FAIL.

1. The right to not read 

2. The right to skip pages 

3. The right to not finish 

4. The right to reread 

5. The right to read anything 

6. The right to escapism 

7. The right to read anywhere 

8. The right to browse 

9. The right to read out loud 

10. The right to not defend your tastes

― Daniel Pennac

[spoiler]It hurts saying "merry christmas" instead of "happy christmas", but I want to please people on Christmas day so whateverrr [/spoiler]

Hope your day is filled with happiness. <3

This three authors have been harassing reviewers, they went into Litchick's (Cory) review and harassed her for not finishing the book. Accused reviewers of intentionally triggering her PTSD. They later attacked Shelby and then Kelly Moore followed Shelby into BL and started posting in Shelby's space about how all this is "harming" her and that reviewers are "punishing" her and her daughters when they post 1 star reviews.

I just received an email from GR saying this:

DNF @ 345



"Inspired by the childhood classic Alice in Wonderland"



I gotta admit: This book had me glued.
Too bad it was in a negative way.

- Who are you?
- Your doom.

Sure, there were some redeeming scenes in here that'd make me give it another star,however, this has got to be the most disappointing; fucked up "romance" slash "zombie" novel I've ever read in 2013 that will not make me do so. I don't know if I can write a review for this because my brain is a mess from reading this mess. 



I didn't mind the sex jokes, I thought they were pretty funny.
I didn't mind SOME of the make out scenes, I thought they were pretty hot.
What I did mind were:
The characters
The confusing love triangle
The back and forth I-want-you-I-don't-want-you never ending cycle
The mediocre writing
The sad excuse of a mystery
The fact this is supposedly a reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland
The spirit sucking "zombies"
The characters 
and, oh yeah,
The characters

I think I hate the Nana more than any other characters in here -- how could this woman be so daft as to leave two guys (Cole and Gavin) alone with her only granddaughter? Why would she let Gavin barge his way into their house making demands and literally saying he's staying the night? I'm not fucking kidding:

"I don't know about you, but I'm starving. I'd love a chance to cook you dinner to thank you for allowing me to sleep on your couch."

The grandmother didn't say anything about dinner, and she damn sure didn't flip shit when he invited himself over. Instead, this is what she said:

"It'll be nice to have a man around the house." 

Then she GIGGLES, "GIGGLES LIKE A SCHOOLGIRL -- A DIRTY, DIRTY SCHOOLGIRL". Don't believe me? It's on page 279-280.

She lets Ali, her granddaughter, constantly bail on her, she doesn't talk to the granddaughter. She just sits and wait, always letting Ali choose her love interests over her. 

And speaking of Ali



Ali puts Cole first instead of her Nana, she constantly gives Nana an excuse on why she can't have dinner with her, or talk with her, or hang with her, etc. "I'll make it up to you, I promise," she always says. After skimming the book once I hit page 345, she has yet to do so.

When the douchebag Cole tells Ali to ask questions about him since he agreed they didn't really know a thing about each other, guess the first question she asked...

"Who was your first time?"




Of all the fucking things, this dumb bitch asks who was his first time. You could have asked him what his morals were, what he sees himself doing in five years, what're his political and religious views, SOMETHING THAT'S FUCKING IMPORTANT. 

On top of that, she straight up said "dying is truly living"? 
Do you know the meaning of living? Do you know the meaning of dying? Once you're dead, you're fucking dead. Your flesh is rotting, you're turning into ash, you will be nothing. How is that living?

I just can't with her...

This book could have been a dark and mysterious read, but the angst, drama, and misunderstandings were too much for me. The "romance" and "love triangle" defused the whole point in this novel. SO many things are left unexplained. I think Gena became a little bit lazy and started whipping up some superfluous shit to make this story all the more "entertaining". I hated this a lot more than I did Alice in Zombieland. Cole really pissed me off; the characters were so bland . I gave the second book a chance and it failed; I'm not picking up the third. 

So after seeing The Holy Terror's status update on a new site called Leafmarks.com, I decided to read what it's about:

Unfiltered reviews. Unbridled creative freedom. Friends and a community that you trust.

Leafmarks came about because we love books. We really love books. And we want to share that with others. So our mission is to bring together like-minded literature lovers from all over the world. We find that words in the form of a story, a book review, or any form of expression can be entertaining, poignant and insightful.

Beyond connecting those in the reading community, Leafmarks likes to "up the ante" and take it a step further. Because Leafmarks is a place where you not only can keep track of what you've read, rate and review books, and organize your books in shelves, but also express yourself openly and creatively. It is a space in which freedom of speech and expression will always be upheld. Only when that is achieved do we feel that discussion and interaction become meaningful. Leafmarks will strive to make sure that this site will always remain true and honest. We hope to help readers connect with one another, tell their own stories, and find new and exciting reading adventures!

Check out our FAQ page with more details regarding what you can do on this site.

 

I definitely made an account.

https://www.leafmarks.com/lm/#/users/10033/profile

For authors:

Greetings. So… you want to be an author for the Young Adult genre, aye? You’re feeling pretty proud of yourself for that uncorrected copy you have in your hands, huh? You’re feeling triumphant of your success in finishing it – all the sweat, the headaches, and the staying up for 24 hours straight trying to perfect your characters as well as your storyline? Well, I’m here to spoil it all for you because I’ve some DO’s, DON’Ts, and AVOIDs for writing YA literature. I’m sorry to wipe the smile from your face; if you followed all of this you have nothing to worry about (same for the authors in the process of writing their debut novel). It’s a small list, it’s not much....

DON’T create the clichéd “my best friend is a gorgeous slut and I’m the plain boring girl no one pays attention to” concept.

DON’T write a novel that’s either an insta-love or a love triangle or both. Statistics show that 70% of YA authors use this as a way to “lure” us readers into their "oh so sexy" world; however, it's been done, and it's not our cup of tea.

DO write a delicious hot romance that's wholly original and not an insta-love/love triangle.

DO craft well-rounded; funny characters that would be memorable. Sass is acceptable -- ENDURABLE sass.

DON'T make your protagonist's lover an abusive prick. This is an extremely terrifying situation that I don't take lightly. I will not brush it off because he's sexy and later on I might grow to love him. That's a terrible risk you're taking. It's not something I (and many other readers) find enjoyable. It's annoying.

Click the view spoiler to see what I'm talking about, it's quite a long passage so I'm going to hide it:

This passage continues for another page and a half, Michael's trying to control himself as he struggle for his words. He's quick to lose his temper, he invaded her space and came too close to her -- close enough to strangle her. I did not like that at all. It was over something so small and he flipped batshit. What I also cannot fathom was the author's incessant description of his sexiness whilst this was happening (i.e. description of his oh-so-beautiful eyes, amazingly toned arms, etc.) and Emerson, the protagonist, wondering what it be like to be in his arms if he wasn't angry.

How thick can this bitch get? He lost his temper over the smallest thing, why are you so interested in this lunatic? Please, for the love of all Greek gods, DON’T use phrases like this when talking about a guy your female protagonist is interested in (even though she’s already “in love” with another): “Kaleb was so pretty I was jealous.” That’s an official virtual slap across the face.

AVOID writing passages you think are funny... because the majority of the time they won’t be:

E.g. “Hey, bro, do you think you can put Shorty back on her chain?" I stepped forward with my hands on my hips, only slightly intimidated to find Kaleb almost eye level with me when he was seated and I was standing. "First of all, no one is the boss of me but me. Secondly, if you ever reference my 'chain' again, I will kick your ass." I jabbed him hard in the chest with my finger. Possibly breaking it. "And thirdly, don't call me Shorty." Kaleb sat silently for a second, his eyes wide as he looked at Michael. "Where did you get her? Can you get me one?"

AVOID writing a passage about your protagonist wanting to slap a girl for being gorgeous and living in the same “house” as the boy she’s “in love with”:

“I had a dilemma. I could find absolutely no good reason to slap the girl standing in the kitchen door. And I really wanted one.”

But then write a chapter later she’s coming on to the guy she’s “in love with”’s best friend. It’s tacky and I’ll hate you.

AVOID cheesy lines like this:

“My heart stumbled a little, but the tenderness in his voice kept me from falling.”

Last, but certainly never least, don’t write a line about being in love with a guy she doesn’t know shit about like this:

“If he wasn't already holding my heart in the palm of his hand, I would have taken it out and given it to him right then.”

Now that the DO’s, DON’Ts, and AVOIDs have been written, make sure you make those changes before sending it in to publishing companies. If you had some of these DON'Ts and/or AVOIDs in your book but it's already been sent out... how unfortunate.

Please repost and share the good news!

We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of. 

Link to the article http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digital-scholarship/2013/12/a-million-first-steps.html 

Link to the images http://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary 

"The Coming of Father Christmas" by MANNING, Eliza F. 

I haven't really been in the mood for any certain type of book lately, so I decided to make myself a TBR jar. That way, I can cut down my TBR list a little faster. 

I had a lot of fun making my jar, and Jensen sure did have fun watching me from below.

So here is my finished jar. I just used a plain Mason jar and some bright and colorful paper. I am very happy with the way it turned out. I have just over 200 books in here..so yes, it'll take me quite a while to get through. And I'm sure I will be adding more as time goes on.

I am planning to review every single book I pull out of this jar. Wish me luck. 

Do you have a TBR jar? Or do you have a certain method of choosing your next book to read. Let me know! 

I have reader's block and I just feel like doing this to the books I try to read:

Plagiarist Alert!

Her blurb is actually author, Roni Loren's bio.

This thief has plagiarized Kristi Avalon's, Billionaire Bodyguard. (http://www.amazon.com/Billionaire-Bodyguard-Book-Bodyguards-ebook/dp/B00ALJDTIU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386185918&sr=8-1&keywords=Billionaire+Bodyguard)

The author's photo is stolen also http://www.businessinsider.com/author-elizabeth-nelsons-fake-photo-2013-12

I wouldn't be surprise if this thief's other books are also plagiarized. Spread the word if you can.

The birth of realism. Henrik Ibsen -- one of the Fathers of realism. A Doll's House -- exceedingly enjoyable. 

There's a reason why this play receives the hype, the praise as well as having to read this in college/high school: The films you see and enjoy now wouldn't be what it is if it were not for this play (and many others). Reading this seems tedious because it's like how we live now, right? What's so special about this? 

A Doll's House was egregious after this was first published -- it shook the world. Never has there been a play about the common man. Never has there been a play where a woman leaves her husband and children; where a woman decides to leave to "find herself". It simply wasn't done back then. Wives were obedient and submissive. Never could a woman plan something without her husband's knowledge. This, my friends, was the one of the first plays to break the ice. Remember the time period this was written in. 

I could give a long review about why A Doll's House is rated five stars. Alas, I merely wanted to put in my two cents because the people who rated this one-star did not understand why this play is considered to be a timeless classic. They didn't understand why Nora was the way she was... or why this play is getting so much attention when there are other different and interesting plays out there that's "a better read".

I performed a scene from here in my acting class last month and I loved playing the role of Nora -- this eccentric, dramatic, and secretive character. She's everything I'm not and because of this, I enjoyed doing it. When you're reading an old novel/play always remember: the writer is not in this era, they do not know that what they've written is being done countless times/is the everyday thing now. Whatever they've done before was entirely new to the readers/viewers of that time.