Insurgent by Veronica Roth

title: Insurgent
written by: Veronica Roth
series: Divergent #2
genre: Young Adult, dystopia
pages: 525
publication date: May 1st, 2012
published by: HarperTeen

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.


Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

“Insurgent,” he says. “Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent.”

I had been smart, and had kept my expectations of Insurgent very low, so I wouldn't be utterly disappointed in it. It was a completely unnecessary thing to do, I found out while reading. Insurgent is one of these books that completely blew my mind. I just finished it 5 minutes ago, and I still am kind of speechless. I liked Insurgent even better than Divergent, and that was one of my favourite books of 2011. 


Tris and the other characters show a lot of development. Only, character development is not a very accurate way to describe it. I could better day that it was a whole character transformation. The way the title of this book describes Tris 2.0, it's amazing. I can imagine Veronica Roth reading through a dictionary searching for a perfect name for this book, then stumbling upon the word Insurgent. I can almost imagine her squeeing and doing the happy dance. It's something I would do if I were her... :) 


Tris's character has grown from a little girl into a full-grown powerful independent women. Even though she still is very small looking from the outside, which btw really adds something to her character. She isn't Beatrice anymore. Tobias 'Four' also showed a lot of charcter development. The most important to me was a change in his fears, about which I can't talk without spoiling the story... Then there are some new characters, and some old ones who, sometimes very unexpectedly, returned.


Immediately after the ending of Divergent, Insurgent started. This was pretty hard for me. It had been over 4 months since I'd read Divergent, and I had forgotten lots of character names, and quite a lot of the plot. After a few chapters I was completely sucked up by the story again, and all my questions about what happened to who in Divergent disappeared. The story continues, but there are some massive changes in the structure of the soceity. War between the Factions if luring around the corner, and friends aren't who they seemed to be. Tris reminds me of Katniss a lot, and the plot of Insurgent reminded me a lot of Mockingjay's plot. They weren't really the same, but they just shared some similarities I couldn't avoid seeing. The story kept me interested from the title until the very last word.


The ending  already has me craving for the next -and final :c- book in this series. It doesn't even have a title :o! I wish I had it right now. Accio Divergent #3! Does anyone have the blueprints for a time machine? I really need one at the moment.


What did you think of Insurgent? Share it in the comments below :)
rating: 6/5 stars :) -Yeah, to me that seems completely possible-


xo Mar

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

title: City of Lost Souls
written by: Cassandra Clare
series: The Mortal Instruments (TMI) #5
genre: Young Adult, paranormal romance
pages: 520
publication date: May 8th, 2012
published by: Simon and Shuster


Don't read the blurb or this review if you haven't read the first 4 parts in this series and are intending to do so, there are some massive spoilers included in it, which I couldn't prevent using.

The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.


No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away—not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought—Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?


Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved — and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell — a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.


And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?

When I recieved this book I immediately started reading it, and I didn't put it down. At all. This book is dangerous for you! You will not eat, sleep or talk to anyone for as long as it takes you to finish it! Don't start reading it the night before finals. You'll fail! 


Clare has done it again! A whole new shadowhunter book, and some new massive turning points in the plot that kept on surprising me. How on earth can she think of this?! I try to explain TMI to my friends sometimes, but they don't get it. There are so many crazy things happening. I'm like: 'So there is this girl, and she is a shadowhunter. Then her mother is abducted by some evil guy who turns out to be her father. Then she meets this gorgeous boy, and she falls in love, and then he turns out to be her brother. Then there is this other boy she kisses. The first boy she loved isn't her brother after all, the second boy ís. He turns out to be evil, like her father. Then there is the best friend, who becomes a powerful vampire. And he is friends with some werewolf girl. Meanwhile, they save the world from demons a couple of times, meets some very strange people, gets some special powers, ... . Then they free her mother. The mother marries her best friend, who is a shadowhunter / werewolf. Then the boyfriend of the girl dies and is resurrected by the angel. But he is bound to the evil brother, who also died. They both live. -end of part 4 -" and they're like DAFUQ did you just say?!


Sometimes it annoys me that Clare's books are so crazy, sick. This is the 7th shadowhunter, and the idea is getting older and older. I love shadowhunters, don't get me wrong, but 7 books and 2 more that are coming soon is a little bit overdone.


The characters show development. Some just a little, some changed 100%. My feelings about certain characters definitely changed while I was reading this book! Some of them were acting enormously selfish 'in the name of love'. Give up your life for your lover's life is stupid. I mean, when you die either (s)he becomes extremely depressed and wishes (s)he had died, or (s)he doesn't give a  sh*t and just goes on with his/her life, so (s)he wasn't worth dying for. 


The thing with all the dramatic romance is the thing that really freaks me out about this book. Yeah, love exists, we know that. But seriously, it seems as if no-one can be single. Almost every possible combination of 2 has been used in one of the 5 books in this series. And the worst thing is, you read more bad than good things about their relationships. 


CoLS is told from multiple points of view, but still is very easy to read. I read it in a couple of hours only, which is pretty quick for me. Next book I so hope I can read parts from Magnus's point of view! He is like, the most awesome character of this whole series! Team Magnus <3


This book has got everything a TMI fan looks for, but it isn't the best part in the series. It is awesome, crazy and depressing and heartwarming at the same time. Yay for Magnus!


rating:
I have been thinking for a very long time about my rating. Finally I decided I would give it 5 stars. But only just... 


Whoa, longest review ever, and I still haven't put down all my feelings about this book... !
xo Mar

Manga Tuesdays; Lying Mii-kun and broken Maa-chan: Precious Lies

Manga: Lying Mii-kun and broken Maa-chan: Precious Lies

Written by:  author: Iruma Hiruma

                         Artist: Satou Atsunori

Genres: Mystery, Psychological, Romance, Seinen, Slice of Life, Tragedy

Volumes:  1,  5 chapters

Anime: no

own/ library/ borrowed/ read online

read online via the sites: www.mangareader.com

completed/ ongoing

publisher: Kadokawa

Summary:        
The setting is a rural city in which kidnapping and series of murders are happening simultaneously. Eight years ago, a boy and a girl were kidnapped and suffered through the hands of their perpetrator. The victims, the compulsive liar "Mii-kun" (the narrator), and "Maa-chan" (Misono Mayu) reunite and start living together, despite the fact that the recently reported missing children were within Mayu's apartment...source: http://www.mangareader.net/lying-mii-kun-and-broken-maa-chan-precious-lies

Review:

Oh, how I love this manga.... Though it's just 5 chapters long, I could read it three times without getting bored of it, because it's quite complicated and I just understood it the second time I read it. Now I believe I've already read it like five times, just because I love it's wickedness :D

I actually want to tell a lot more about this story but since it's a mystery I will spoil it...  anyway in this manga there are a lot of surprising events, lots of people are not who you think they are and even in the last few pages the story is a twist. I really would recommend reading it at least twice because it's cool to see the hidden like 'messages'.  

I think I also really loved it since it includes three of my favourite genres (tragedy, psychological, romance, though the romance is lacking) especially the psychological part is really good in this manga.

The art is also very nice, quite simple, more like most animes are drawn, but I think it fits the story and I like it more than in most mangas with seinen.

For the ones who are into it, it also contains a bit of blood and stuff, not too much, but what do you expect for a manga of 5 chapters.

Overall it's really good, you should just go and read it :D

Rating:

5 stars

Some things about manga for non-manga readers :P :

Manga is a Japanese cartoon or comic. There are lots of them in all kind of different genres (really from porn to manga for little girls). Of most mangas there is a new chapter released every month, so that's why some are ongoing (it also can be that the translation group is a bit slow. DON'T EVER GET ANGRY BECAUSE OF THAT THOUGH! Manga's are translated by volunteers, and not very much people speak both English and Japanese well enough to translate them. If your bothered by it, join such a group! They are always looking for new members! Also editors and cleaners are needed!).

If you are too lazy to read, of most mangas there is an anime to watch ;)

If you consider reading manga pay attention! Manga is written from right to left!

some terms:

Shoujo= Manga for mostly teenage girls (it can be very childish, it can be really mature)

Shounen= Manga for mostly teenage boys (example: Naruto )

Josei= Manga for older women (the manga site says: late teenage and adult audiences, this is usually because the characters in the manga are not in high school anymore, this doesn't mean it's not fun to read if you are younger)

Seinen= Manga for older men (also for late teenage and adult audiences, also usually fun to read if you're younger)

School life= is sometimes quite interesting because the japanese school life seems very different than what I am used to

Shoujoai= girls love

Shounenai= boys love

Yuri = let's just say: the more advanced version of girls love

Yaoi= the more advanced version of boys love

6 month blogoversary

Hey Guys 


If you have read the title, you already know what this message is about; I have been blogging for 6 months :D The past six months have been awesome, I have made new friends and I discovered a whole network of awesome bookish people I didn't know about before I started this blog. People who understand it when I say that the Harry Potter books were better than the movies, and that Peeta and Katniss are a cute couple. People who understand it that you can fall in love with fictional characters. Also, I met so many new authors, and they have been so kind to me. I regained faith in humanity :)


Blogging is my way of expressing myself. I am not an artist, nor a musician. I'm not a -published- writer, nor am I a photographer. I am a reader. And I love to show that to people. Most of my real life friends don't like reading, or at read they don't like to hear me talking about reading 24/7, 365. Sometimes when I am rambling about a book their eyes almost pop out of their sockets, because they think YA dystopian/paranormal is a crazy genre, for crazy people. And actually it is. But the best people are crazy, it keeps you sane!


In the past six months I have started up 2 memes, Fresh on my Shelves Friday, an equivalent of IMM, and Manga Tuesday, a personal meme in which Lua, a friend of mine who is crazy about manga, reviews manga's. You should really take a look at it :) I myself also love manga, but I love 'normal' written books more. 


There are a lot of things that I love about blogging, but it isn't all sunshine and rainbows and pink fluffy unicorns, blogging can be very hard. First of all, it takes a lot of time to blog, promote your blog, comment, read books you accepted for review and still love your own, already busy life. I always thought blogging would be easy, and that blogs get zillions of followers in no time, without you doing anything for it. After a few days I already had figured out that this wasn't the thruth. Not at all... Secondly, it is so difficult to keep your blog unique. There are so many YA blogs out there, and it can be (is) almost impossible to make your blog stand out from all those other ones. Also, my ideas have been influenced -a lot- by y 'blogging idols'. Before I started blogging, I always wanted to be like them. Soon, I figured out that that wasn't the right way to build up my blog. I had to make it 100% me. And that was the hardest thing for me. Keeping it 100% myself, and always be honest. 


Still, there are so many great, amazing things about blogging! I just can't imagine my life without my blog anymore. It has boosted my confidence, every single time that I got a new follower, or an author sent me a review request for their novel, or I got a comment. Someone really reads the stuff I say! There are people just like me out there on this planet, people whose biggest love is the written word. I don't know lots of those in real life, but here, on the internet, I have met tons of them. Being a fan of the Hunger Games isn't strange anymore -and by that I mean the books, not the movie-, being a potterhead is common, being a nerd is normal. So many great books have been recommended to me. I have a new favorite author, a new favorite book, I fell in love with genres I had never even imagined reading before. It has been awesome!


The past 6 months have been the best of my entire life - and it's all because of you guys! Thank you, you are awesome, we should hang out some time :D


xo Mar