Category Archives: Book Review

Changers Blog Tour: Book Review + Unselfies!

Today the Changers blog tour is stopping here at The Bibliomaniac! Enjoy my post ^_^

CHANGERS BOOK REVIEW

Published 12th January 2016 by Little, Brown.

27256347Goodreads Synopsis: Changers book one: DREW opens on the eve of Ethan Miller’s freshman year of high school in a brand-new town. He’s finally sporting a haircut he doesn’t hate, has grown two inches since middle school, and can’t wait to try out for the soccer team. At last, everything is looking up in life.
Until the next morning. When Ethan awakens as a girl.
Ethan is a Changer, a little-known, ancient race of humans who live out each of their four years of high school as a different person. After graduation, Changers choose which version of themselves they will be forever – and no, they cannot go back to who they were before the changes began.
Ethan must now live as Drew Bohner – a petite blonde with an unfortunate last name – and navigate the treacherous waters of freshman year while also following the rules: Never tell anyone what you are. Never disobey the Changers Council. And never, ever fall in love with another Changer. Oh, and Drew also has to battle a creepy underground syndicate called ‘Abiders’ (as well as the sadistic school queen bee, Chloe). And she can’t even confide in her best friend Audrey, who can never know the real her, without risking both of their lives.

My Review: As soon as I heard about Changers, I was so eager to read it – and it really didn’t disappoint. As it’s now out in the UK, I can’t wait to see what other people think of it!

The premise of the book reminded me of Every Day by David Levithan, which was why the book piqued my interest. However, getting into it, I realised it’s definitely quite unique – Changers is a rather interesting blend of contemporary and fantasy, as the Changers are actually an underground, secret species of humans.

I wasn’t too sure on the beginning – the scene where Ethan wakes up as Drew seemed a little cheesy in its dialogue and stuff, but the story definitely does improve. With many scenes conveying the general awkwardness of high school and growing up, it’s almost possible to forget the fantasy element in places! I really love how Changers openly discusses identities – I think the premise of this whole series is a brilliant, accessible approach to an important topic for teenagers.

Drew is an incredibly relatable character – taking out the shape-shifting element, she’s such a realistic teenage character. She’s working out life, high school, crushes, and forming her own opinions about the world around her and the situation she’s been thrown into. I really liked how the authors made sure she was still very ‘Ethan,’ the person she was before her Change – Ethan’s identity is still there and the blend of two very different high school students is so interesting to read about.

Overall, Changers is a really great (and relatively short) read that I would undoubtedly recommend to anyone who wants an engrossing story. It’s got a really important message at its core, woven into the plot, and I just really love the whole concept. I’m excited to read book two, and see what the protagonist’s next Change has in store for them!

My Rating:

four

I received a copy of Changers from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.

CHANGERS UNSELFIES

In Changers, there is a references to a site called wearechangers.org, which is set up by a separate group of Changers who are kinda rebellious. wearechangers.org is actually a website, run by the authors of the book, and coincides with the book’s message about identity and aims to spread positivity and empathy. I think it’s such a great idea!

2016-01-08

Checked out the website? Awesome, so you might have seen the #unselfies project on there. This is my favourite thing about the movement – the idea of turning the camera away and ‘focusing your attention outward.’. So, here’s my #unselfie!

IMG_5504

i thought this photo i took would be a cool unselfie because  ooh calm waves and disrupting the norm and ooh metaphors

Enjoyed this post? Check out more about Changers on the rest of the blog tour stops, and be sure to share your own #unselfie online and on the wearechangers.org project!

Book Review: Moth Girls by Anne Cassidy

Publisher January 7th 2016 by Hot Key Books.

27766357Goodreads Synopsis: Helplessly drawn like moths to the light, two girls go missing in an evocative and gripping tale . . .
They called them the Moth Girls because they were attracted to the house. They were drawn to it. Or at least that is what is written in the newspapers that Mandy reads on the anniversary of when her two best friends went missing. Five years have passed since Petra and Tina were determined to explore the dilapidated house on Princess Street. But what started off as a dare ended with the two girls vanishing. As Mandy’s memories of the disappearance of her two friends are ignited once again, disturbing details will resurface in her mind.

My Review: I really enjoyed Anne Cassidy’s Looking for JJ and Finding Jennifer Jones quite recently – so when I heard of her latest book, I was really looking forward to reading it!

Cassidy is a master of YA crime books – a genre I feel is a little neglected. Her writing is fantastic, her stories always suspenseful and addictive to read. This one was no different – I was sucked into the story straight away, eager to know what happened to Tina and Petra, the two girls who went missing after entering an almost-abandoned house. The pages were pretty much turning themselves – I read this over a day, I was so engrossed in it!

I really liked the angle of the book; it heavily focuses on how Mandy, the girl who didn’t go to the house, is affected by the events half a decade later. The emphasis on Mandy’s psychological state, and how she was affected by her relationships with the two girls, was really interesting – I would have loved to see more scenes of her counselling sessions, as the way Mandy unravels how she feels is so well written.

The book isn’t just centered around the main crime story – I found the back-story of Petra, one of the missing girls, to be my favourite part of the book. Cassidy tackles a lot of very sensitive themes well, I think, and some scenes between Petra and her father felt quite unnervingly real.

The story is told in various parts, switching between before the vanishings, and five years after them. The mystery unravels slowly throughout the book, and as soon as you think you’ve figured out what happened, there’s another plot twist. The ending did feel a little disjointed to me, as the final elements of the puzzle seemed to be put together a bit too fast. Although it did leave quite an adept cliffhanger, I would have liked to know one tiny bit! [The next sentence is a spoiler – highlight to read] I think the story with Mr Merchant and his money could’ve been solved a little better – what was it all about?

Overall, I think Moth Girls is a perfect, relatively short read for fans of crime, or those who want a brilliant book to get into the genre with. The plot is inventive, unexpected and hard to stop thinking about once you’ve started reading! Anne Cassidy’s characters are always so well-developed and enjoyable to read about. Recommended!

 

My Rating:

four

I received a copy of Moth Girls from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.