REVIEW: Dying to Forget by Trish Marie Dawson

Piper Willow dies the summer after her high school graduation but she doesn’t make it to Heaven or Hell…instead she finds herself in a spiritual terminal called the Station. She’s given only two choices: Return to Earth as the subconscious for a person in need of some outside assistance, or move on and spend an eternity lost in her own sorrow and pain.


Does Piper have what it takes to save a life - to be the nagging voice inside someone else's head - or will she fail and end up lost and tormented in limbo...forever?

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MY THOUGHTS
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I didn't love it, but the book takes a unique spin on the afterlife and it felt like a wonderful combination of the supernatural and contemporary.

After Piper is raped at a party and her best friend dies in a car accident (when Piper was behind the wheel), Piper feels like she has nothing left to live for. She commits suicide, but instead of it being the end, she ends up in an afterlife for those who committed suicide. These people are given a choice: They can be taken to a hellish limbo or they can go back to Earth as a Volunteer. A Volunteer enters the mind of a person who is thinking about suicide and tries to act as a conscious to help them find their love for living again. Piper isn't sure if she can do this, worried that she will fail, but it's an option she will take.

I haven't really seen very many paranormal books like this one. It encounters very tough subjects, such as sexual assault, suicide, grief, and guilt. I see topics like this all the time in contemporary, but such difficult subject matter does not always make its way into paranormal books. I especially have never seen this in independently published books. I really liked the fact that the book did not hesitate in discussing these topics. The afterlife (or The Station) did seem to take a back seat to the assignments (when Piper Volunteers to help those on Earth) through a lot of the text. Part of that could have just been the pacing of the book as the book is fairly short so some elements were sped up. I actually really liked the assignments, because they had a strong contemporary feel and I read more contemporary nowadays than paranormal. The assignments did feel a lot different from the rest of the book and were almost like short stories, but I really enjoyed seeing different lives and seeing how they tried to overcome their struggles.

One of the really great things about this book was that there was no romance! Sure, Piper watches come of her assignments strike up a relationship, but she doesn't. I loved that about this book because it allowed Piper to grow without a romantic relationship! Since as I am writing this review I have since read Book 2, I can say that, unfortunately, this changes in the next book.

IN CONCLUSION

Overall, I did like this book and it felt like a great start to a series. It tackled the afterlife in a new way and I loved the contemporary twist. It ends in a bit of a cliffhanger. Even though I saw the ending coming pretty early on in the book, it did make me want to immediately read the next book.

I hereby give this book

3.5 Stars

Meaning: I liked it, but it wasn't quite amazing.

REVIEW: This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (+ pre-order giveaway!)

10:00 a.m.
The principal of Opportunity, Alabama's 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
The auditorium doors won't open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student's calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

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I received an ecopy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

MY THOUGHTS
After reading the synopsis, I had to read this book. This book spans only 54 horrifying minutes of a school shooting. I was very curious as to how this book would be put together and how it would tackle such a tough subject. I thought it handled everything really well and the book was very well written!

The way this book is written is very unique and I admit that I was also very intrigued by the formatting. Not only does this book's story last less than an hour, and even gives a time-stamp each 'chapter', but there were multiple different perspectives as well. We see the event through the eyes of Claire, Tomas, Autumn, and Sylv. I was a little thrown at first to have so many different perspectives, but the characters were so immensely different and so well-developed, that I was easily able to differentiate them. First I would like to mention that all the characters are very diverse! What I also liked was how we got to see the backgrounds of all four of the characters and how they all were somehow connected to the shooter.

I really liked this book and I thought it was very unique and harshly real, but for some reason I cannot bring myself to give this book a 5/5. I feel bad saying this, but for some reason this book didn't make me feel as strongly as I thought it should've made me feel. Did I feel anything at all? Yes! Of course! I'm not entirely heartless! But I didn't feel on the edge the whole time, with my heart being torn into shreds. 

IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I thought this was a very stand-out debut novel! I was very impressed by it! The writing was fantastic, the characters were very well-developed, and the tough subject matter was handled very well. For some reason this book didn't make me as emotional as I expected from the subject, but I still liked this book. I will most definitely be reading any other books Marieke Nijkamp writes!

I hereby give this book

4 Stars!

Meaning: It was amazing!


Also, there's a special pre-order offer going on for this book!

There are two ways to enter the giveaway:

1 - If you pre-order a copy of This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp, submit your name, mailing address, email address, and order confirmation number via the Rafflecopter widget provided.

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REVIEW: Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers

Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard—falling from it is even harder.  Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her—and her best friend's boyfriend—start going around.  Now Regina's been frozen out, and her ex-best friends are out for revenge.  If Regina were guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth, and the bullying is getting more intense by the day.  She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past whom she herself used to bully.  Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend...if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

Tensions grow and the abuse worsens, as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of Cracked Up To Be.

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MY THOUGHTS
I kind of picked this book up on a whim. I already had a copy, since I was curious after reading Courtney Summers' other books, but I really decided to read the book after hearing some over-bearing mother try to ban this book. I thought this was ridiculous, and I'll touch up on that in my review, so I wanted to read the book. Call me a rebel. Anyway, this book was a really raw, realistic take on high school, bullying, and the social order.

Regina was one of the popular kids. She was one of the girls that everyone hated, but everyone was afraid of. When her best friend's boyfriend tries to rape her, word gets around, but instead of people thinking that she was almost raped, they think that she slept with her best friend's boyfriend. She's shunned outside of her group and suddenly she's left with no friends, besides a misfit named Michael that her group used to bully. Now Regina is the one being bullied, each day a new torment, while the people she used to bully herself watch.

This book is so realistic and it makes me glad that I'm both done with high school and went to a high school that, thankfully, situations like this were rare. Sadly, this is something that happens, which is why this book is so real. Which is why that mother upsets me so much. She was against this book because she found it inappropriate, but this book is true to life, and yeah, I get that you don''t want your kid to read certain things, but your kid is old enough to deal with these things and know about what kind of things happens to kids the same age. Also, this book carries certain messages and I found it very offensive that this book is considered inappropriate when many teens have gone through  similar situations. Okay, rant over.

There are a lot of books out there featuring bullying and slam-shamming,  which are important in YA books, but this one is different. This book features an unlikable main character. She was once a bully herself and circumstances cause the tables to turn and for her to be the victim, so you have a very different dynamic here. You feel sorry for her and horrible for her, but you're reminded quite constantly that she used to do the same to others. The question that is constantly asked within this book is whether she deserves this and Regina herself believes that she actually deserves it at many points.

To be honest, this book made me angry, though not in a 'this book sucks' way. I have issues with bullying books because they are the definition of unfair and I can't do anything about it. I wish I could stop what's happening, but I can't, and instead I just get angry over the unfairness. Maybe it's just me, and it doesn't harm my opinion of this book, but I just wanted to say that I spent an hour and a half in anger.

My main problem with the book, though, was the end. This book would've had a much higher rating if the ending was more satisfactory. I felt like the ending was resolved too quickly and easily, especially compared to the situation and how long the drama lasted in the book. I also didn't feel like it was finished.

IN CONCLUSION
Overall, this was a very quick read focusing on a very tough subject. This book is very gritty and real, with a very different perspective than we are used to in these type of novels. I had issues with the ending, and my emotions, but overall I really do recommend this book to those who like to read realistic novels over tough subjects.

I hereby give this book

3 Stars

Meaning: I liked it.