Book Review: This Star Won't Go Out

Title: This Star Won't Go Out
Author:  Esther Earl, Lori Earl and Wayne Earl

Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers

Publication Date: January 28, 2014

Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir, Biography

My Star Rating: 5/5 Stars!

Summary:

A collection of the journals, fiction, letters, and sketches of the late Esther Grace Earl, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 16. Photographs and essays by family and friends will help to tell Esther’s story along with an introduction by award-winning author John Green who dedicated his #1 bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars to her. 

     My thoughts on this book are as follows, when I first heard of this book I thought I knew what it was about and I knew what to expect, but when I actually bought my copy and read it, I realized it was more than I imagined. 

     Esther Earl is a girl you can relate to, yes she has cancer but you never realize it, you never realize how much she's really hurting and fighting as you read her funny journal entries. She is a character you grow attached to, I definitely see some similarities between Esther and Hazel from TFIOS. As the summary states, TFIOS was dedicated to her by John Green. In this book you see photos and an entry from John himself when he met with Esther. She was the inspiration/creator of Nerdfighters, a fan base dedicated to Harry Potter, and other things.
     In this book you learn about Esther and her family, it's not a boring biography in any way. You feel like you become part of her family, you grow attached to Esther and her family, when I read the part where she was in the hospital for the last time and she took her last breathe, I started crying like someone died in my life. That's the kind of connection you feel, this book makes you feel every emotion, Sadness, Happiness, Envy (how she can be so strong), Sorrow etc. Every kind of emotion came out whilst I read this book, I was envious of her because she has the strength I wish I had, she had no care in the world, she was full of joy, and laughter, she was, as her name states, A Star.  

                                                                  ~Rest In Awesome Esther!~

       

Book Review: Crank by Ellen Hopkins!

Title: Crank
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: 2004
Genre: Young Adult, Fiction,
My Star Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high school junior, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, Kristina disappears and Bree takes her place. Bree is the exact opposite of Kristina -- she's fearless.
Through a boy, Bree meets the monster: crank. And what begins as a wild, ecstatic ride turns into a struggle through hell for her mind, her soul -- her life. 

     I finished this book yesterday and all I can say is, wow. I will try my best to make this a spoiler free review. 

     I knew that this book was about a girl who visited her father and got into drugs but I didn't think it'd be this extreme. The book starts off with Kristina, a good girl who gets straight A's, who is gifted, quiet and doesn't cause trouble, but it takes a turn for the worst when she visits her father for the summer. When she is at her father's house, she meets this boy who introduces her to Crank. Now for those of you who don't know, Crank is also known as Crack, and once Kristina tries it for the first time, her addiction develops. Kristina changes her name to Bree after doing Crank and her life takes a turn for the worst.

     Bree goes back home after visiting her father and she is different, she is a rebellious teenager, she ends up telling her mother to f*ck herself, and she ends up getting 3 guys to fall for her. Towards the end of this book, Bree/Kristina has a life changing experience, but the monster, Crank, takes over her life so it's difficult for her to go through with this life changing experience. 

     I gave this book 4/5 stars because I just didn't like how some things were written, and this book is written in verse which made it a little difficult to follow in some parts. The writing in this book is beautiful though, so poetic, and you feel like, in some parts, that you can connect with Kristina/Bree. I would recommend this book to anyone, its so wonderfully written, the only bad thing, like I've stated is that it's a little difficult to follow because of the writing style. But be forewarned, this book contains sexual matter, cursing, and obviously drug references.

Book Review: The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Star Rating: 3/5
Title: The Silver Linings Playbook
Author: Matthew Quick
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Genre: Humorous Fiction
Where To Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Thriftbooks

Synopsis:

Meet Pat. Pat has a theory: his life is a movie produced by God. And his God-given mission is to become physically fit and emotionally literate, whereupon God will ensure a happy ending for him -- the return of his estranged wife Nikki. (It might not come as a surprise to learn that Pat has spent time in a mental health facility.) The problem is, Pat's now home, and everything feels off. No one will talk to him about Nikki; his beloved Philadelphia Eagles keep losing; he's being pursued by the deeply odd Tiffany; his new therapist seems to recommend adultery as a form of therapy. Plus, he's being hunted by Kenny G!

    Okay first things first, I watched the movie before I read this book and that's why my rating is low. I LOVED the movie, but the book, not so much. It starts off with Pat Peoples in the mental hospital, he is in here because he keeps a memory in his head that his wife Nikki will get back together with him. She cheated on him, Pat walked in on Nikki and the history teacher from the same school he worked at, in the shower together. He also heard a specific song playing on the stereo, his and Nikki's wedding song as he walked in. He got very upset and beat the teacher up, Nikki and the teacher put a restraining order on Pat because of this. Pat doesn't obey this restraining order at all, he is always trying to find Nikki and make their marriage better again. Whenever Pat hears the song, he breaks down and starts punching and destroying things because it brings back this memory.  

    Pat also tries to exercise, and get fit to try and Woo Nikki, as he is running he passes his friend, Ronnie's house. Ronnie invites him for dinner that night as a celebration for his homecoming, knowing that his wife, Veronica hates Pat for hurting Nikki. While Pat is at dinner he meets Tiffany, Veronica's sister. Tiffany also has mental issues like Pat, she is quiet at times but speaks her mind when she needs to. Pat finds out that Tiffany knows Nikki and she can help Pat send a letter of explanation to her. In order to do this however, Pat needs to do something for Tiffany, he needs to be her partner in a dance competition. Throughout the book you get to read about Tiffany teaching Pat how to dance and you also get to see their relationship develop a lot more.

    I loved Tiffany's character in the book and in the movie, I loved her in the book more after finding out that Jennifer Lawrence plays her character in the movie. There were some times where I laughed in the book and the movie. The issue I had with this book was that the sports part was boring. Pat and his brother, and therapist love football and attend a game in the book where Pat runs into trouble after a fight ensues. 

The sports bored me to death and made the book drag on, and because I watched the movie before reading the book it caused me to find many differences that I didn't like. I regret my choice to watch the movie before reading the book because it made me dislike it. Other than the frequent and drastic changes in this book, I enjoyed Matthew Quick's writing style. I loved the writing in the book, and I loved Tiffany's character as well as Pat's, both characters are very easy to relate to. I'd recommend this book to anyone, it was great and the writing was great as well, great debut novel for Matthew Quick as it is now a major motion picture!

Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Star Rating: 5/5
Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Penguin
Genre: Mental Health, Contemporary, Suicide
Where to Buy:Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Thriftbooks

Synopsis

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

    When I first heard about this book I was kind of nervous. I'd never read a book like this before and I didn't know how I'd feel about it. In the first chapter you meet Clay, he is a young guy who is in high school, the high school he attends is in mourning because a student there has taken her life, this student's name is Hannah Baker. Hannah was a good girl, quiet and a good student, so what made her take her life?  I later found out why.

Hannah made these cassette tapes containing the names of people who caused her to be pushed too far. After she made these tapes, she sends them out to the people on the tapes. One of the people is Clay, he had a crush on Hannah for a long time, he just never told her. Clay is very confused however as to why he has received this package.

As the story goes on you kind of think, at first, that Hannah's reasons were kind of "small" and not reasons to commit suicide, but to Hannah they just kept coming and they kept building and building until she just couldn't stand it anymore. Clay discovers, during the story, that certain people he never thought knew Hannah caused her to take her life. One of these people turns out to be his best friend.

I loved the writing in this story and I loved how I connected to Clay and to Hannah. The author makes you feel what Hannah is feeling, sad, anger, happy you feel what she feels as her story unfolds. I felt bad for Clay during this book because Hannah's tapes made him think, made him have flash backs and actually remember certain things about Hannah. Her tapes also made him go a little crazy, he stopped talking to people, he shut himself out from the world when he listened to the tapes on a tape player with headphones, he didn't act like his normal self after the tapes.

This book is a real eye opener, I was bullied in high school and I didn't have any friends by my senior year. I have thought about suicide and I found out that because of the bullying I received, I became a stronger person and I have a thick skin now. I connected to Hannah in that way and I understood why her "small" problems were such a big deal to her. This book was SO great and I'd recommend this book to anyone, it is so heart breaking, but so easy to relate to, which makes it feel real.