September 17, 2014

Wolf Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny Edited by Hannah Kate

Synopsis:
Feral, vicious, fierce and lost... the she-wolf is a strange creature of the night. Attractive to some; repulsive to others, she stalks the fringes of our world as though it were her prey. She is the baddest of girls, the fatalest of femmes - but she is also the excluded, the abject, the monster.

The Wolf-Girls within these pages are mad, bad and dangerous to know. But they are also rejected and tortured, loving and loyal, avenging and triumphant. Some of them are even human...
Wolf-Girls is a collection of short stories about she-wolves. No two are the same. They range in writing style, emotion, and themes. But one thing remains the same – bloodlust.

I am not a big reader of werewolf (or she-wolf) tales, so I had to go into this one with an open mind and no expectations.
By doing so, I actually started to enjoy the stories as I got through more and more of them.

The writing in each of the stories was decent. Some of them seemed to drag on more than others, and some seemed to go really quick. It is definitely a grab bag of stories which made it a bit more exciting. I never felt like I was reading the same thing twice.

I never really felt attached to any on character or story, but they were super short so there wasn’t much time for that to happen and grow. This made it easy to set it to the side and pick up another book instead of just finishing it all at one time since it is relatively short.

For those interested in this genre of books, I would say give it a try.

3/5 stars.


September 16, 2014

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Synopsis:
Choices. Seventeen-year-old Mia is faced with some tough ones: Stay true to her first love—music—even if it means losing her boyfriend and leaving her family and friends behind?

Then one February morning Mia goes for a drive with her family, and in an instant, everything changes. Suddenly, all the choices are gone, except one. And it's the only one that matters.

If I Stay is a heartachingly beautiful book about the power of love, the true meaning of family, and the choices we all make.
I am not sure what I was really expecting out of this book, but it did not live up to my expectations.
Most of the book was spent living in the past telling the story of Mia’s life through flashbacks. This helped to show the relationships between her and the people in her life, but it got dragged out and boring at times.

The characters were pretty well written. I felt like I knew them all pretty well by the time I was done. The dialogue flowed really well between them as well. Character development was the best part of the book.

The story itself is interesting before you get into it. The execution comes up a bit short. I felt that there should have been more about the accident and maybe her condition instead of all of the flashbacks. A good majority of them served a purpose, but a few could have been left out for a more relevant story-line.

I thought there would be more drama surrounding her decision. I didn’t feel emotionally tied to it or her character at all. Maybe that is why I wasn’t as into it as the next reader.

That said, I want to read the sequel.

4/5 stars. I did really enjoy it, I was just expecting more.

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