Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Genres: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Release Date: October 22nd, 1999

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: Checked out book from GPL

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Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

When Speak came out over a decade ago, it was ground breaking because of the way it dealt with teen sexuality. 16 years later, it is still relevant and continues to change lives because it isn’t afraid to tell the story of a teenager who had real problems and real reactions to them.

Melinda doesn’t have a whole cast of friends to rely on. She doesn’t have parents to rely on. When she called the police at the party at the end of the summer, she lost her friends and she is stuck all by herself not knowing how to deal with what happened.

In that way, Melinda’s character is heartbreakingly realistic. But, Melinda also has a certain wit that makes her more than just a character to which a ‘bad thing’ happened. It makes Melinda a character worth knowing and someone you want to cheer for.

This book also deals with rape in a way that I think is realistic. It doesn’t dramatize it (this may be the wrong word to use but I don't know how to better express myself) but rather approaches it in a way that shows the reality of it. There are some things that were a little iffy but I am not going to go into detail because SPOILERS.

This book wasn’t perfect, though. I did think there were things that happened towards the end that were perhaps too easy but at the same time, worked. I also wished that we weren’t cut off from one scene towards the end of the book because it was the most important in my opinion.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I am so glad I finally read it after having it on my to-be-read list for ages.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Genres: Fantasy, Drama, Young Adult

Release Date: April 28th, 2015
Publisher: Razorbill
Source: ARC from Publisher

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Set in a terrifyingly brutal Rome-like world, An Ember in the Ashes is an epic fantasy debut about an orphan fighting for her family and a soldier fighting for his freedom. It’s a story that’s literally burning to be told.

LAIA is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

ELIAS is the academy’s finest soldier— and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias is considering deserting the military, but before he can, he’s ordered to participate in a ruthless contest to choose the next Martial emperor.

When Laia and Elias’s paths cross at the academy, they find that their destinies are more intertwined than either could have imagined and that their choices will change the future of the empire itself.

This book has had it's fair share of hype even though there are still a couple of months before it comes out but the question that arises now is whether it lived up to the hype or not. As someone who doesn’t pay as much attention to the hype, I cannot answer that question with certainty but I can say that I wholeheartedly adored it. It’s one of those books I would have finished in a day had I not needed a desperate break from the brutality.

Sabaa Tahir has written a book that is bound to blow your mind or have you getting excited because it is so wonderfully crafted. It may not be the most original book; some aspects of it reminded me of other books I had read, but what is important is that Tahir adopts those aspects and makes them her own. Which is why I ended this book on a very high note.

I don’t know where to start breaking down this book because practically everything about it screams amah-zing.

Source: http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6udvkKmHV1qfyb4ho8_250.gif

But I figure the characters would be the best place to start. Laia and Elias are worthy characters. For starters, I was just happy to come across a character named Elias, but that small fact aside. I absolutely adored the characters and their strengths.

Laia has grown up believing she could never be a strong or brave as her brother or mother who everyone referred to as the lioness.  And really, I am not going to tell you she is a typically strong  female lead. She isn’t. But she is strong, in a whole other way. She doesn’t start off as brave in the classic definition. She is not ready to do what she is going to have to to gain her brother’s freedom yet she does it anyway because she loves her brother and because he is her only family left. She does what she has to and while she is not happy about it, while it scares the heck out of her, while she isn’t even sure about her ability to make it through this alive, she pushes through and that is where her strength lies. That is why I adore her so. She isn’t classically strong, she is strong because she has no other choice which turns her into a character that becomes strong in a way that you cannot help but admire and relate to.

Elias is just as fantastic in his own way. He never wanted any of this. He hates the empire and he doesn’t want to be a martial. He isn’t out to save the world. He just wants out. He wants to be free. He doesn’t want to constantly hide who he is and he doesn’t want to have to kill people. At the last moment, when he is about to desert, something happens (I will not reveal this something so as to avoid spoilers). What makes me admire Elias is that even though he has a somewhat low opinion of himself (as a result of his fear of turning into a stone cold murderer like his mother), he somehow manages to retain his beliefs and almost always do what he believes is the right thing. That is his way of saving himself. His ability to do the right thing makes me adore him, especially considering that even his best friend doesn’t share all his ideals and thinks that he is out of line for believing certain things.

Is there a romance between the two characters? I am sure plenty of you are curious and I have to answer that question with a sad no. I personally think the two would make a great couple but that just isn’t happening now. We can only hope it happens down the road. I would like to mention that there is a bit of a love square situation but, it’s a lot more complicated than just that. If you’ve read the Seven Realms series, think the first two books (those are the only ones I’ve read so I don’t know what happens in the other two and cannot take those into consideration).

The world building on the other hand is a lot more straight forward. The blurb said something about a Roman-like world and I actually kept on seeing it as more of a middle-eastern-like world. There are so many mythological aspects weaved into this book too, like Jinns!!!!! That definitely got me excited and I cannot wait to learn even more about this world in the future instalments of the series.

In terms of plot, this book is brutal and I don’t say that easily. Tahir doesn’t hold back on us. Laia for example, goes through a lot not just emotionally, but physically as a result of her ‘owner’. The author doesn’t dance around this but instead shows us and inadvertently makes us feel the misery of the slaves. It’s one of the reasons why I had to put down the book instead of finishing it that very day. Elias faces his own internal conflict with his beliefs and the beliefs of everyone he is surrounded by and he needs to find a way to be himself.

This book is also paced beautifully and is neither too fast or too slow. The tension is just right in this instalment although I imagine things are definitely going to get more intense in the future instalments. 

This book is definitely a must read and I'd recommend it to not just all lovers for fantasy but anyone looking for a book that is bound to blow your mind and leave you with a massive book hangover!

Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath

Genres: Historical, War, Young Adult

Release Date: November 11th, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: ARC from Publisher

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It is 1914, and the Ottoman Empire is crumbling into violence.
Beyond Anatolia, in the Armenian Highlands, Shahen Donabedian dreams of going to New York. Sosi, his twin sister, never wants to leave her home, especially now that she is in love. At first, only Papa, who counts Turks and Kurds among his closest friends, stands in Shahen's way. But when the Ottoman pashas set their plans to eliminate all Armenians in motion, neither twin has a choice.
After a horrifying attack leaves them orphaned, Shahen and Sosi flee into the mountains, carrying their little sister, Mariam. Shahen keeps their parents' fate a secret from his sisters. But the children are not alone. An eagle named Ardziv watches over them as they run at night and hide each day, making their way across mountain ridges and rivers red with blood.

Note: This book is written in verse.

This beautiful book

isn’t as fun to read.
It treats your heart like a stone
and tosses it into a lake
where it skips and skips and skips.

It’s not easy to read
you might have figured that one out
but it’s worth every moment of pain it will put you through

You see
it’s not a regular YA novel.
it is one that tells a story of immense loss
yet it also tells a story of familial love.

The author doesn’t cut back on the
gory details
believe me
I’d know.

But at the same time, she is honest
which is why this book is so heartbreaking

With its fierce characters
who continue to march on
You cannot help but fall in love
with not just with their innocent determination

You cheer for them
because they need to be cheered
Most of all though,
you hope,
you hope everything will be all right.

If you are a lover of truth and
a lover of heartbreakingly real stories
I’d say give this one a shot
and let your heart skip skip skip
over a lake of your own tears