One Mini-Review

Hiya!

Today I am reviewing this random book from the library.

"Tippi and Grace share everything—clothes, friends . . . even their body. Writing in free verse, Sarah Crossan tells the sensitive and moving story of conjoined twin sisters, which will find fans in readers of Gayle Forman, Jodi Picoult, and Jandy Nelson.

Tippi and Grace. Grace and Tippi. For them, it's normal to step into the same skirt. To hook their arms around each other for balance. To fall asleep listening to the other breathing. To share. And to keep some things private. Each of the sixteen-year-old girls has her own head, heart, and two arms, but at the belly, they join. And they are happy, never wanting to risk the dangerous separation surgery.

But the girls' body is beginning to fight against them. And Grace doesn't want to admit it. Not even to Tippi. How long can they hide from the truth—how long before they must face the most impossible choice of their lives?

Carnegie Medal–winning author Sarah Crossan gives us a story about unbreakable bonds, hope, loss, and the lengths we will go to for the person we love most." From Amazon.

This is called One. I have no idea when I started it, but I finished it 6:07 pm. This book is about conjoined twins, which is surprising mostly everyone but me. See, the girls on the cover look pretty much exactly like conjoined twins exact in a paper snowflake. Perhaps it is the text above it "Two lives. Two sisters. One choice." Yeah, it would have been better if it said "Two lives. Two sisters. One body." or something along those lines. 

This 
  book
is done 
in 
a 
poetry 
style
in case you haven't 
  noticed.

So, the basic plot is Grace gets sick, and they can't treat conjoined twins, so they have to choose if they want to be separated or not. Hope I didn't reveal to much.


PROS
-I don't think I have ever read a book about conjoined twins, but I tried to write one. So this was kind of cool to read, like seeing the story I never finished.
-It is moving.

CONS
-The cover.
-You can not probably have an eating disorder. You do or you don't. Plus how these people's parents not notice the fact their daughter was super super skinny? 


COS (con pros)
-"Her voice was wispy like laundry drying on a line." 

Overall, this is a good book, but not something I can really rant or rave about. Four stars. 



-Sarah

The Sun Is Also A Star Review

Warning: This review is very ranty. It also contains spoilers. Not sure why spoilers are bad here because I am telling you why you should never read the book. But proceed with caution. 

"This book is inspired by Big History (to learn about one thing, you have to learn about everything). In The Sun is Also a Star, to understand the characters and their love story, we must know everything around them and everything that came before them that has affected who they are and what they experience. 

Two teens--Daniel, the son of Korean shopkeepers, and Natasha, whose family is here illegally from Jamaica--cross paths in New York City on an eventful day in their lives--Daniel is on his way to an interview with a Yale alum, Natasha is meeting with a lawyer to try and prevent her family's deportation to Jamaica--and fall in love."


I wanted to like this book. I really did. I read a sample off Amazon*, and it sounded interesting.The Amazon sample is great. It starts with to make a apple pie from completely nothing, you must create the universe, create atoms and molecules. It starts with Daniel, whose Perfect Older Brother Who Is Never Described Without Words I'm Not Going To Say™ has been kicked out of The Best School™, Natasha who is trying to convince someone, not too sure about that, not to deport her and her family. It seems like an awesome book that you must read, so you read it. Then you resist banging your head against a wall.

The first reason why I hate this book is the two narrators, Daneil and Natasha. They are unlikeable to the π degree.
 Dan is just kind of..strange, and isn't really likable or unlikable. You sympathize. You move on. 
But Tash is  awful-ish-ish.  I mean, she is a good beginning character, but the middle, was kind of ish. I am not the kind of person to accuse someone of..wait I don't remember what it is. Stringing along? No idea. But Dan falls in love with Tash, Tash breaks it to him that she can not love him back, Tash does the equivalent of breaking up with him**, and then Tash falls in love with him, etc etc. It ends with Dan and Tash dating, with Tash never telling him she is being deported to Jamaica. Maybe she doesn't get deported in the end. I couldn't finish the book, it was so bad.

The second reason is the foreshadowing. Sure, foreshadowing is good and all, but not when it reveals the entire story in a sentence. Like saying you were writing a poem on heartbreak, but was having trouble because you have never had you're heart broken? You are going to get you're heart broken. Doesn't even matter what genre it is anymore, you are going to get your heart broken. So..what..read the book, and like all stories like this, root for Dan and Tash, yet you know it wont have a happy ending because of foreshadowing. Unless it is false foreshadowing, which is the most awful thing you can do with your book.

Wait. I had forgotten about someone. Ladies, gentlemen, and nonbinary people, I present to you Irene. Irene is the worst thing you can do with your book***. So..Irene doesnt have anything to do with the story other than Being There, so far, so..most likely will not go good. I read a book that did a silimar thing, bring in the roles of total strangers, but they were important in the end. EDIT: Flipped ahead to see if they were important. My head hurts now BECUASE A FAMILY IS BEING DEPORTED BECAUSE YOU MISSED IT BECAUSE YOU HAD A DATE  DESPITE THE FACT YOU WERE MARRIED AND HAD TWO KIDS. I am fuming. 
Lets go back to Irene. She needs her job, because it is the only social contact she gets all day. She works in a metal detector. She saw a phone case, Tash's, showing and album cover, listened to the music, and killed herself. DO YOU KNOW WHAT HER SUICIDE NOTE SAID? "Oh well. Whatever. Nevermind." 

What next? Oh yes, The Train Preacher and The Waitress. So..this guy becomes and Evangelical Christian, drives a train, so he decides to preach to the passengers like a Jehovah's Witness. When the passengers don't like it, he kicks them off. Daniel is one of these people, and he spends the time after looking for a sign, and he meets Natasha in a deus ex machina sweater. Daniel is a recently converted atheist-Christian character, which is...fine...if it wasn't for the fact Tash being an atheist is views as tragic and most likely also converts. Oh yes..the chapter right after that is explaining how happy The Train Preacher felt when he converted, so he should convert others and share the happiness. 
The Waitress is just the server at a Korean restaurant Tash and Dan go to. Tash asks for a fork, server tells Dan to teach his girlfriend how to use chopsticks. That's it? WRONG! The next chapter explains that her son fell in love with a white woman. The Waitress and her husband cant accept that, so her son cuts her out of the family, only asking later if they want to come to his wedding. The Waitress wants to go, but "Daddy" doesn't allow her, and she never talked to her son again. So now every tine she sees a Korean guy and a non-Korean girl (no vice versa apparently) she tells them off because their relationship with only cause heartbreak to them and their family. What....?
What now? Yes, the chapter explaining why Tash and her family were deported. So..seems normal, saying that Sam, the guy who cheated, kids will never truly forgive their father or love someone ever again truly. Which is fine. It is like it is telling off Sam for cheating. Then you get to the next part, saying that Sam and Hannah's kids will love people truly, not like Sam's kids. Then the next part, which says it isn't to say if Sam did the right or wrong thing. Okay. But it is saying he did the right thing, replacing his wife and kids.
Next is that Charlie hates his brother because Dan doesn't hate himself and his life.
EDIT: Yass I think Irene is alive! Yass everything ended happy but I am still upset on what happened with Irene. Suicide isn't a plot device so The Protagonist can save them, meet later, and cause The Protagonist to meet Her Long Lost Love. Seriously.

In conclusion, I thought this book was worth the hype. It is very much not. The best thing about this book is..not sure..hang on..I'll think of something...eh..no..there is nothing. 

Okay. I shall think of something. Both of the main characters are people of color, and their culture is touched on, like irie and the history of Korean people in the black hair care business. Which isn't something I thought I would learn, but whatever. Plus this book is a book about a Jamaican girl.  This is the only book I can name with that. 

The writing is indeed good, but when you resiting the urge to bang your head against a wall it doesnt matter anymore. Or maybe that is just me.

Summary: This book has good writing, but too many side characters, instalove, coincidences, stalking, WAIT WHAT YOU BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF YOU AWFUL LAWYER! moments, please no moments, and takes place withing twenty four hours. 

Sorry about no posting in a while.


-Sarah


*Something fun to do is to go onto Amazon, find your favorite book, and look at the books in the related section, and read samples, You might find a really could book. I found a book that for some reason had the majority of the entire novel in a sample. 
** This I can remember the name of. Instalove, in which (two characters look at each other)  (fall in love) Plus they tried a scientific reasoning for that. And it failed miserably.
*** Not Irene herself, but what happened to her. Also you do realize I read part of the book while writing this, so my thoughts changed. Like with Irene.