Ready Player One Review

I bought this book because one of my favourite booktubers raves about it. I saw it on book depository

and thought, "why not". And I did not know how much I needed this book at the time.

After reading The DUFF (don't even talk to me about The DUFF. I will not be reviewing it or seeing the movie, sorry to disappoint, but I don't want to offend anyone, but I will say that it was the singular worst book I've ever read) I didn't feel like facing another contemporary, good or bad. So I gave Ready Player One a shot.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is a wonderful geeky paradise. It's all about video games, movies and above all, the 80's.

It's set in a world where everything has gone wrong. The outside is a grim place. And so most people of the world spend their time in the OASIS, a huge virtual reality made be none other than James Donovan Halliday himself. You can do or be anything in the OASIS, and so almost everyone uses it to escape their reality.

And almost everyone dreams of finding Halliday's "easter egg", an egg in the game the finder of which inherits all of Halliday's massive fortune. Dying single with no heir meant that Halliday could do anything with his money. And so he decided to give it to make a contest of it.

But then, unassuming eighteen year old Wade Watts stumbles across the first prize, and the whole world turns their attention to him. Thousands of other hunters join the competition, including some who would be willing to murder to find the egg.

Ready Player One is incredible. It's amazingly crafted and devastatingly addictive. Everything about it is just so real and I really, really liked it. It definitely deserves the 4.31 star rating on goodreads.

I highly recommend it; so read it and come back here so we can discuss!

***SPOILERS***

I thought Ready Player One was fantastic. There are very few things I have to criticize in it.

My favourite thing about Ready Player One was probably the contest, followed very closely by the whole world of the book.

The contest, understandably, was what drove the book. The start dragged on a little, because there was a lot to explain. That was one of the few faults with this book; the amount of information needing to be conveyed at the one time often meant there were pages of info-dumping. It was interesting, and I loved all the back-story and the pop culture from the 80's. But despite the slow start, once the competition started, the book flew past.

The world Ready Player One is set in is terrifyingly like our own. The problems brought up in the start, like running out of energy, fossil fuels and other necessary things, and the statistics about starving, unemployed and homeless people in the world were really realistic to me. I felt like this horrible world that Ernest Cline illustrated wasn't far off from being our own.

And then there was the element of the story where everyone drowned their misery for reality in the OASIS. I felt like that was really relatable and real. Lots of people disappear into worlds like video games, books, movies, career, family and more to distract themselves from the sadness, and I could feel this world and I felt like it was real.

The characters weren't the driving point of this novel, but they were pretty awesome. I didn't really relate to Wade, because I feel like he and his avatar were sort of blurred, and it was hard to distinguish was was real and what was online. Despite making me feel distant from his character, this made the struggle of real world vs. the OASIS even more vibrant. But by the end it was clear that Wade had changed vastly, through the competition and his adoration (and slight obsession) with Art3mis.

Art3mis was awesome. She was smart, her avatar was on a level smashing Wade's and even Aech's, and she wasn't afraid to do whatever to get to the egg. I personally thought she would've found the egg, because she seemed more intelligent than Wade, and even Aech. Her lines were sharp and wonderfully hilarious, and everything she did made me wish I was her, or wish I could have a spin-off staring her.

I did not see the Aech plot twist. I did think she'd (I will refer to her as "she" because I'm talking about her character, not just her avatar) be a person of colour, due to some hints dropped throughout the book. But I did not foresee a girl named Helen as Aech. But the message given by this particular event and basically the whole book was that friendship was about much more than physical appearance, race, gender and etc. I really liked that sort of feel towards the end, when Wade met everyone.

The middle of the book, whilst everyone was looking for the Jade Key, was probably the slowest part, other than the start. Wade seemed to be spiraling out of control after Art3mis "dumped" him, and it was really odd watching him. I think at this point the pressure got too much for him. But I was so glad when Aech gave him the clue to the Jade Key, because I felt like he was back in the game. And despite thinking that Art3mis should win, I was still subconsciously rooting for Wade.

Once Wade found the "test", things picked up again the rest of the book flied by. I was totally hooked and there was no way I was putting the book down until I finished. The end was enthralling, fast-paced and I loved it. It was probably the best part of the book, especially when the four best gunters (Aech, Art3mis, Wade and Shoto) met up.

You're probably thinking, "what sets this book apart from all the other books like it? All the latest young adult sci-fi dystopians that are being pumped out faster than new versions of the iPhone?" and I can answer that for you. This book had a feel of professionalism I haven't read in a young adult for a while. It was sharp, edgy, perfect for young adults, but at the same time, really well thought out and very smart. The whole thing was crafted perfectly and it was clear all the research on the 80's paid off.

All in all, this book was really fantastic. I would highly recommend you read it; I've given it a solid five stars on goodreads.

If you have read Ready Player One and would like to share your feels, post a comment below, send a tweet to me at @lilypherondale or an ask to my tumblr, sherlockcrumpets. If you want to send me an email for business reasons or even just to say hi, feel free to! My email address is mywordsarearrows@gmail.com; I'd love to hear from you! All the contact details you could ever wish for are also up in the "contact me" page in the bar just below the title of my blog. My twitter, tumblr and facebook are also all linked there :)

If you want to stay in touch with me and check out what I'm doing and reading, like my facebook page. I generally post whenever something strikes me, every few days. I post pictures of books and thoughts as I'm reading them. Also feel free to friend me on goodreads here. I'd love to check out what you guys are reading!

See you next week with another post!

Lily xoxo

Amy And Roger's Epic Detour Recommendation

Hey! So lately I've been addicted to finding-yourself-contemporaries. I picked Amy And Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson up in a book depository order back in January, and I finally got around to reading it. It was every bit as wonderful as the internet told me it would be.

For fans of Stephanie Perkins (Anna And The French Kiss) and Huntley Fitzpatrick (My Life Next Door), this book is one amazing love story/contemporary.

Amy Curry is mourning the loss of someone close. Roger is heartbroken and puzzled as to why his girlfriend broke up with him. So when Amy and Roger's mums decide Roger will drive Amy from California to Connecticut, where her new home is, they don't expect the epic journey that will ensue.

Both desperate to escape, they decide to take a small detour- and end up travelling all over America. But as the best discovery stories go, Amy and Roger don't find what they go looking for. They find something better.

This book was just amazing. I read it in two parts, one section of about eighty pages and then the rest of it all in one go. Once you start, you can't stop. There's no place you want to stop, no place when the need for sleep overpowers the need to continue reading. It's fun, cutesy, adorable, romantic and heartwarming.

The characters are all well developed and interesting and the travelling part of the book is just amazing. As someone who's never gone to America, it made me want to get on a plane, hire a car and just drive. It's so fun seeing the journey through Amy's eyes, and I loved the travel aspect.

Some of the cute excerpts and drawings in the book. Image
taken from here.

Another cool thing about this book was the drawings and images in the book. It's super-adorable seeing Roger's playlists and drawings and Amy's photos in between the story.

All in all, this book was adorable and perfect and just thoroughly enjoyable. It was heartfelt and cutesy and just all-round perfect. I highly, highly recommend it.

If you would like to share your thoughts on Amy and Roger or suggest me a book to read/post up here, leave a comment below, send me a tweet to @lilypherondale, a tumblr ask to sherlockcrumpets or let me know via my facebook page. You can also shoot me an email for business reasons or just to say hi at mywordsarearrows@gmail.com.

See you next week for another post!

Lily xoxo

Insanity (Mad In Wonderland) Review

I am so confused... Utterly bewildered by this book. I'm not quite sure what I just read, all I know is

that I really did love it.

I just finished reading Insanity by Cameron Jace. It's a part of a series called Mad In Wonderland, and there's a sequel that was just released at the start of December, I think, which I just downloaded from the kindle store. I'm super-duper keen to get into that.

So Insanity is, as you probably gathered from the title, insane. It's possibly the most mental book you'll ever read. I personally would label it as a psychological thriller, paranormal fairytale retelling. Insanity is about Lewis Carroll's famous story of Alice In Wonderland. I was intrigued from the beginning, when it was recommended for me on goodreads (as you may know, I love young adult psychological thrillers so if you know any good ones let me know in the comments or via my various social media sites). Here's the goodreads synopsis-

After accidentally killing everyone in her class, Alice Wonder is now a patient in the Radcliffe Lunatic Asylum. No one doubts her insanity. Only a hookah-smoking professor believes otherwise; that he can prove her sanity by decoding Lewis Carroll's paintings, photographs, and find Wonderland's real whereabouts. Professor Caterpillar persuades the asylum that Alice can save lives and catch the wonderland monsters now reincarnated in modern day criminals. In order to do so, Alice leads a double life: an Oxford university student by day, a mad girl in an asylum by night. The line between sanity and insanity thins when she meets Jack Diamond, an arrogant college student who believes that nonsense is an actual science.

So as you may have already gathered, Insanity follows the story of Alice Plesance Wonder, a girl who now  lives in a mental asylum and cannot remember anything past a week before. Everyone tells her she's been there for two years, since killing all her classmates, including her boyfriend, on a bus. The only person who believes she isn't an insane maniac is a slightly mad serial killer professor, Carter Pillar. Together they try to solve the mystery in the outside world- a serial killer is on the loose, killing young girls. So Alice leads her double life, trying to solve the mystery and save the next victim of this strange killer.

I don't want to get too deep into the story in the non-spoilery section, so if it interests you, I would very much recommend it as a quick, maddening read. It's the type of story that sucks you in, spins you around and spits you out.

***SPOILERS***

disclaimer I have never read Alice In Wonderland so I may miss certain things due to this... feel free to leave a comment pointing out things I've missed/didn't interpret correctly

I can barely even process this book. It's so very odd that it was always keeping you on your toes, never actually knowing what's going on. In that respect, it really felt like Mara Dyer, which I loved. I read it in three sittings; the only thing that could tear me away from it was eating, sleeping and helping my cousin and sister make cookies.

Firstly, the characters. I liked almost all of them, but they were all so mad. Alice I found might've been an unreliable narrator. I was always reminding myself that anything she was doing could've been a hallucination, but it did end up appearing that she wasn't hallucinating. There were times where she scared me, though; she was so unpredictable! Particularly when she was escaping and when she was pretending to be mental in order to meet with Margaret Kent, when she said, "Insanity is so fun".

I did, however, find the synopsis to be a tad misleading. I expected Jack Diamonds to be a really, prominent character. I expected a much more heavy part of the storyline to focus on him and his relationship with Alice. But in actuality, Jack isn't in it all that much. He makes a few stalkery appearances, but appart from that, he isn't that involved until the end. I did like him, and possibly would've liked it even more had he been more heavily featured. I would've loved a Mara Dyer/Noah Shaw style relationship where they both kind of embrace their own and each other's madness, and they develop a sort of relationship where they're still very independent but at the same time, they need one another. Well, that's where I'd like them to end up at the finish of this series. I also called the plot twist, where we found out that he was possibly Adam, Alice's boyfriend who she "killed". Well, that's how I interpreted it, I'm still not quite sure what was real and what was not in this book. I had a feeling Jack might be Adam, and I was extremely pleased when we found out he was. I think it'll be great watching her rediscover Adam/Jack not in the way she first did but through this new character (Jack). I can't wait to see what Cameron Jace does with this.

Pillar was the sort of character I liked but didn't. He was sort of like a high, crazy, slightly sociopathic version of Dumbledore. Whenever I found myself liking him and his eccentric, sarcastic wit, I reminded myself that he too was a serial killer, that he really shouldn't be trusted. His character really divided me, and I am excited to see Pillar's further adventures in the next book.

Fabiola was just the perfect character. She was calm, graceful and lovely, but she also was super strong. One of my favourite parts of the book was when they were fighting the Reds and she whipped out that sword, and said, "I have to kill them fast, I have to attend prayers in a few". I loved that one minute, she was a beautiful, respected nun, and then the next, she was the White Queen, whipping out her sword and kicking butt.

The Cheshire was creepy. It kind of ruined my perception of him from the film, the sort of cutesy, whimsical cat with a big grin. For a while, I hoped he was possessed or being forced to do what he was doing, but unfortunately not. His motive, however, was clear, if not a little separate from the story. The whole backstory of his family being thrown out of the window was very different from the rest of the story, but it might have something to do with the original Alice In Wonderland book, which, as I previously mentioned, I have never read.

I did suspect something odd was up with Waltraud and Ogier; they were just too creepy. But eventually, I just put it down to the fact that the whole asylum was a twisted place. I certainly didn't expect that the Cheshire would be Ogier.

All the other characters, Margaret Kent, Tom Truckle and etc were sort of just there for me. They didn't really have any long lasting impact on me, except for the fact I'd love to know Margaret's back story and Tom kind of reminded me of a corrupt cop, or something like that. I did, despite this, find myself rather liking Tom's character, oddly enough, and I really appreciated the dynamic between Tom and Pillar.

The actual story was really dark. I definitely preferred when she was outside of the asylum, doing the missions for Pillar. The whole idea of having all the characters from Wonderland recreated as modern-day people was really quite ingenious, and I kept wanting to meet more and more of them. I am extremely eager to see characters like the Red Queen, the White Rabbit and the Mad Hatter in future books.

I'm also very scared of what the Cheshire is going to do in the next few books, and whether we're going to end up seeing a full-fledged Wonderland War.

Then there's the issue of whether Alice is the "Real Alice", the one who Lewis Carroll wrote about. It's pretty clear she is, but the only one who seems to think so is Pillar. Until the end, when Fabiola confesses that she doesn't know whether Alice is the Real Alice, and we're back to speculation.

I think that Alice is the Real Alice. I think she has to be, and I can't think of anyone else who could be the Real Alice. For a short time, I thought it might be Constance, but it appears she is not. But to be perfectly honest, this book confused me so much I'm not even that sure...

I assume that once I read the next book I'll have more of a handle on this story and I'll be able to compose my thoughts more clearly... but until then, feel free to leave your opinions of Insanity in the comments, my twitter @lilypherondale (the link is up the top of the page) or my tumblr, sherlockcrumpets (the link is up the top of the page).

Have a great day!

Lily xoxo