The Darkest Part Of The Forest Review

Hello nerd-peeps! Today I will be discussing the new(ish) Holly Black book, called The Darkest Part Of The Forest. Words cannot express my love for the characters, the setting... everything about this book.

So basically this book is sort of urban fantasy, sort of psychological thriller and totally amazing. It's about this weird town called Fairfold where there is, undeniably, faerie presence.

There's a sleeping prince, two twins who both love this prince, a curse, the-faerie-next-door, true love, magic and more. It's an amazing read and I highly, highly recommend this book.

I won't give you a full synopsis because I don't think you should go into this book knowing everything, I think it's really fun to explore this weird, amazing book as you go along.

So go grab yourself a copy then head back here so we can properly discuss!

***SPOILERS***

Wow. This was everything I wanted and more. This whole world Holly Black has created, the whole atmosphere and especially the characters just roped me into this book and wouldn't let me go for the entirety of the time I was reading it.

First of all- Fairfold. What the ever-loving heck is up with this town? I loved the whole "well if you get hurt you're a tourist" type of mentality. It just added another layer of creepy to the situation, that these people excused the faerie's murdering and havoc by saying that their victims did something wrong, broke the rules, behaved like a dumbfounded tourist.

The mythology of this whole book was wonderful. The idea of having the prince in the glass case, the forest with weird enchanted creatures, the Alderking who everyone was scared of but didn't really talk about. The fact that these people in the town were so okay with all of this and that they just accepted it was very eerie and magical.

My favourite thing about this book was the characters. In my opinion, characters drive a story, and no matter how fantastic and wonderful the setting and plot is, if you have dry, boring characters your story can't succeed. That certainly was not a problem in this book. There are four main characters in this book, Hazel, Ben, Jack and Severin. Of course, there are other characters, too, like Carter and Mrs Gordon, but I'll discuss them later on.

Hazel, our main narrator, was everything I could've wanted from a kick-butt female protagonist of a supernatural novel. She was fiery and shamelessly flirty, a trait I don't see often in *positively portrayed* female characters. She wasn't afraid to fight for what she wanted and she was traditionally feminine but also a faerie knight, which was just a terrific change from the normal "I'm not like other girls" female protags. I genuinely thought that Hazel would end up with Severin, as well. It was only half way in that I thought maybe things weren't going the way I thought they were.

We got a few chapters from the perspective of Ben, Hazel's brother, and I was so, so glad. He was an amazing character and such a contrast from Hazel. Ben was a bit more demure than Hazel, more easily shaken. He was a bit like the typical talented artist, a bit kooky and unique. I loved that where Hazel didn't think much about love or romanticize her situation at all, Ben was a through-and-through romantic. His narration, although not in first person, was much more romantic and soft than Hazel's. I felt like Hazel was like a firework and Ben was like watercolour paint.

I didn't expect Hazel and Jack to end up together. I thought that she'd pine after him until Severin woke up, and then she'd fall in love with him. I thought, originally, that it was more likely that Ben and Jack might end up together. I wasn't super in love with Jack; he was fairly flat. He never really was overly interesting on his own, but I loved the dynamic he had with Hazel and Ben. The way his whole character was based around this idea that he wasn't even supposed to be there, wasn't even related to his family but still undeniably tied to them was really interesting and was just another amazing layer of intrigue Holly inserted into this novel.

Severin was everything I could've wanted from his character and more. I loved the mystery and magic that his character was surrounded by, and the way he was slowly trying to work out the "human" feelings he was having for Ben. I loved the way he spoke, like he was from a different time but he'd spend years and years listening and comprehending what people said to him, and his language was a mish-mash of different sorts of slang. And the way he just perfectly fitted into Ben and Hazel's tight little bond, like he really had been their prince was just amazing.

I loved his relationship with Ben and the way they bonded over family even though they were so, so different. It was so amazingly easy to ship and adore all the main relationships in this book.

To be perfectly honest, these four characters drove the story and I would happily read another seven books about them please Holly give me a ten thousand word novella where Ben and Severin and Hazel and Jack attempt to have a very normal life and Ben takes Severin out for ramen and cute domestic fluff like that PLEASE.

Even the minor characters in this book, like Carter, Mrs Gordon and Hazel's mother all had such an amazing atmosphere surrounding them. Mrs Gordon, Carter and Jack's mother, was the typical over-protective, homely mother, like Molly Weasley. But even she wasn't just as she seemed, with her whole backstory of being the Alderking's lover and demanding to get her baby back. The way Holly developed the average stereotype of small town people in this book into a slightly altered just plain weird set of individuals was really quite amazing. They were all such familiar character archetypes, but the way they interacted and dealt with the odd, supernatural events in the town made them foreign, maybe even more dark as characters. The whole town of Fairfold was not only an amazingly well developed setting but also made even better by the powerful yet minor characters who drove it.

The actual storyline, the problems with Hazel being the Alderking's knight and Sorrow's vengeance on the town was also an amazing element of the story (although I may have been too busy crying in awe at the characters to pay a whole lot of attention to the plot). The faeries, as per usual, were dark, enticing, dangerous creatures. A lot of the faerie mythology was the average sort of mythology but with this new twist of a sleeping prince and the "king of the forest". And also the fact that the entire town knew that there were faeries. I don't think I've ever read a book where everyone knows that faeries exist and are living among them.

In addition to the whole faerie-war aspect of the book, there is also of course the fact Hazel was a legitimate knight, in service of the Alderking. I certainly didn't see that coming, and if you did I salute you! I thought that was a really cool twist because the childhood flashbacks Hazel gave us had a vaguely fairy-tale vibe, with a prince and a knight and the more cerebral, strategic sidekick.

I really appreciated the way everything you expected from this book was flipped. As someone who reads a lot of YA fiction, I can tell you that a lot of the time, it's the same old tired narrative used over and over again. But in this book, the heroine was just that- a heroine. She was the knight, not her love interest, not her brother. She didn't fall in love with the charming swoon-worthy faerie prince, her brother did. Instead, she ended up with the guy who, ordinarily in YA fiction, might be flung into the unappreciated "friend-zoned boy-next-door" type. And I totally thought it was going to be that way! It was such a pleasant surprise to see something different and I hope I am able to find more books like this!

The Darkest Part Of The Forest was an amazing, dark, perfect read. I loved it a lot and I hope you guys did too! I will certainly be picking up some more Holly Black so if you have any experience with the other Holly Black books, let me know below in the comments.

If you agree, disagree or just want me to see some words you have strung together don't be afraid to comment below and let me know! If you want to get in touch with me and don't have a google plus account, feel free to send me a tweet to @lilypherondale, an ask to my tumblr, sherlockcrumpets or even an email to mywordsarearrows@gmail.com if you want discuss business or just say hi. I would love to talk to you, to be perfectly honest. I can send you puns and we can be friends. It'll be great.

See you next week for another post!

Lily xoxo

Your Spirit Book

Hello! Sorry for not posting yesterday. I'd like to say I have a really interesting reason, but I was just swamped in work.

This week I have for you a short post, but an important one. An interactive one.

I am committed to helping as many people as possible find what I call their "spirit book". A person's "spirit book" is the book they connect to on every level, a book they feel in throughout their entire body. You know your spirit book when you read it, because the words fill you up and you feel like the book could save your life if it needed to.

I've been doing this for a while now, with my friends who don't read much. I've been trying to use my excessive (and somewhat dangerous) obsession with books for good, in helping them find their spirit book.

And because of how much joy it brings me and the people who find their spirit book, I decided to expand my services to you delightful people on the internet! If you don't read much, this might be the perfect opportunity for you to discover a book you can read that you will actually enjoy.

If you do read a lot, but are in a reading slump or in need of a good recommendation personalized to you, then this may also help you.

The way I'm going to run my Spirit Book Campaign is this- you guys will send me some details (more on this below), I will analyse them and then determine the book I think will be your spirit book (or just a book that you'd really love, I'm not psychic so I'm not going to pretend I am!) and I will either post it up here, or just reply back to you, it's your choice.

Here is the questionnaire you can fill out if you'd like to see what your spirit book is:

Name/Screen Name:

Age:

Favourite author:

Favourite book:

Favourite genre/s:

The type of book you feel like reading:

Any additional notes you think might help me:

A way I can contact you (email, tumblr etc) to send it back:

Do you feel comfortable posting your details on my blog?

Once you fill out the questionnaire, send your answers to my tumblr, the comments below or to my email, mywordsarearrows@gmail.com. I will send you your answer before I post it (if you have no problem with me posting it, of course!) so you'll know despite how long my posts are scheduled for.

Unfortunately, I mostly only read young adult fiction, rarely adult, and so I mightn't be much use if you are looking for an adult book.

Sorry this post is so short, but I hope that the payoff for you guys is worth it. I really want to help you guys find your spirit book!

Contact me at any of my socials; twitter @lilypherondale, tumblr, twitter, my email mywordsarearrows@gmail.com, to ask any more questions and etc.

See you next week!

Lily xoxo

I'll Give You The Sun Recommendation/Review

This is so difficult to class, because it's not a review and it's not a recommendation. It's not a recommendation because I imagine it's going to be a lot longer, and it will involve a lot more discussing about the book, but it's not a review because it's not long enough and doesn't properly analyse the content. So call it what you want, but this is a spoiler-free discussion of Jandy Nelson's I'll Give You The Sun.

The reason I'm not doing a rec or a review of this book is because it's too good for both. A recommendation won't serve it justice and I don't think I could review it properly because it's so good.

Here's the summary- 

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This book was incredible. I had no idea just how fantastic this would be. The characters, especially Noah and Jude, were so, so real. I found myself relating more to Noah, however, for several reasons, the main one being that his quiet, resigned artist's nature resonated with me. I am less like Jude, absolutely, because I'm not really out-there or extremely social (I do spend my time writing reviews for the internet, I can't be expected to uphold a perfect social life as well!). The struggle they faced trying to seek the approval of their parents was heartbreaking and realistic. I felt these kids and I felt their pains as they did.

I am also more attached to Noah as a character. He was such an amazing character. He was artistic and a little crazy, and he was so full of emotions and feelings that I could feel them bubbling over in his narration. He was so dedicated and loyal and loving, I felt like I owed it to him to fix his world for him.

In the start, I enjoyed Noah's chapters better, but towards the end, I didn't care. I couldn't get enough of both the parts of the story. It did take me a while to get used to Noah's kooky, arty metaphors and narration, but it was so interesting seeing Noah through his chapters and then Noah, older, through Jude's. I love love love the prose in this book, it's beautiful and so well thought-through and I was sucked into it.

I know from personal experience that it's so hard to write a manuscript of that length and keep up such beautiful writing, and I'm in awestruck tears. Jandy Nelson is a writing goddess.

The story, both halves of it, were so tragic and wonderful. Noah's struggles, through his quirky narration, were felt deep and I connected with him on a level every author hopes their characters connect with the reader. Jude was just as quirky in her narration, but in a completely different way to Noah. Not only has Jandy Nelson managed to write beautifully and uniquely, she managed to write beautifully and uniquely in two very distinct narrations. What she's done is what I aspire to do someday.

This book made me laugh and cry and gasp and smile until my cheeks hurt. It's so beautiful and tragic and it's definitely going onto my favourites list. For fans of Lauren Oliver (Panic, Delirium, Before I Fall) and Jennifer Niven (All Of The Bright Places), this was truly amazing and I can't accurately express how much I loved this book. My feelings are all over the place.

I highly, highly recommend this book.

I'd love for you to share your opinions with me via the comments below, my twitter @lilypherondale or my tumblr, sherlockcrumpets. You can also send me an email to mywordsarearrows@gmail.com for business inquires or just to say hi. If you want to stay updated with what I'm reading and posting, you can also like my facebook page.

See you next week with another post!

Lily xoxo

From The Ashes Review

Hello readers! Today I will be reviewing a book that was given to me by the author, Shelby K. Morrison, in exchange for a review. The book is called From The Ashes and it will be released on May 3rd. I would very much like to thank Shelby for offering me the chance to read and review her wonderful book! It was truly an honor. If you are an author with a book coming out and you're looking for ARC reviewers, feel free to contact me via my email: mywordsarearrows@gmail.com. Anyways, onto the review.

Because this book hasn't come out yet, this will be a totally spoiler free review, so anyone can read it.

It is a young adult fantasy, and I really enjoyed it! Here's the blurb:

For eighteen years Aia Wynnald has lived a lie. Raised as a highborn in the Kingdom of Tharien, she's filled her days with tutors and archery lessons. But simmering beneath her polite surface is a dangerous gift, one which she must keep a secret. Aia is a bender. And in Tharien, Benders are feared and hunted. 

When her unruly power breaks free with dire repercussions, Aia's lifelong goal of independence shatter. As she scrambles to piece her life back together while evading capture, she disturbs a vengeful force intent on destroying the kingdom. 

Now, with the help of an unlikely ally, Aia will decide the fate of Tharien. To rescue those she cares about will require accepting what she is. But can she risk becoming the monster she's dreaded to save the very citizens baying for her blood?

This was such a great read. I was getting serious Throne Of Glass-esque vibes from it, which is great because I love Throne Of Glass. The book overall was really fun and I cared a lot about all of the characters. I felt like this book worked really hard with the relationships between the characters, and I loved that.

Firstly, let's talk about Aia, the main character. Aia spent most of the book working through these issues she had. I really liked that she wasn't your typical fantasy-protag-cliche. She didn't automatically accept this change in her environment and tackle it head first. She was cleverer than that, and she thought things through a lot better than most other protagonists, which was really refreshing.

I liked that her internal struggles were dealt with in such a realistic way. She was fighting her instincts that were so deeply ingrained in her, that Benders were inherently evil and that she was a danger. I feel like in fantasy a lot of the time the characters are way to adaptable and run into things headfirst, never really thinking things through. In From The Ashes, this was so much more realistic, and it made for a really interesting internal conflict with Aia.

The writing in this book was really beautiful. I loved the prose, it was classic high-fantasy and it really fit well. There was the perfect balance of descriptive, metaphorical language and actual character interaction. This was the way it reminded me of TOG most, because I feel like this book and TOG are two of the best written high fantasies with the perfect tone.

Then there were the other characters, Cole and Illicina. I really liked both of them. Cole, a young man working for the Emperor, hunts Benders... but maybe there's something more to him? Cole was a multi-dimensional character (maybe love interest?) and I was really feeling the relationship between him and Aia. I hope that in future books, their relationship might just develop into something more. Despite wanting them together, I was glad there wasn't too much romance in this book. I think Cole and Aia's relationship was growing but slowly, and somehow, that made it more real and enjoyable than if it had been rushed. And also the plot twist surrounding Cole... did not guess that one at all!

Illicina is an angry, vengeful Bender, focused on bringing retribution on those who hurt her. I liked Illicina quite a bit. At the start, I was a bit apprehensive, but as we got to know her, even though Aia's suspicious, eyes, I started to like her. She was complex and detailed, and I would really be interested in finding out more about her.

Her relationship with Aia was beautiful. Illicina, who doesn't trust anyone, starts to trust and love Aia in a way that she clearly hasn't for a while. And in return, Aia starts to love and trust Illcina as well. They had a very sister-like dynamic, and I am hoping that in the next book, we'll get to see more of Illicina and her relationship with Aia. I feel like there is plenty of potential for hilarious scenes with Aia, Cole and Illicina.

The actual story, which has a gentle pace, worked very well with the complex internal struggles of Aia and the well-developed relationships between Aia and Illicina and Aia and Cole. It follows Aia and her desperate attempts to evade capture from the Breakers, the people who hunt Benders, and trying to stop Illicina from taking out her anger on the people who want Aia convicted. I really liked the story. All the elements fit nicely together and it flowed really well. As I've already mentioned, Aia's internal conflict is a lot of the story, and I think it was done fantastically and it slotted into the plot perfectly. I'm never going to stop gushing about the relationships and Aia's internal conflict in this book, to be perfectly honest.

On occasion, the dialogue felt a bit forced and would snap me out of the story. It was also quite cheesy occasionally, which was a shame, because there was plenty of room of banter and emotive writing in the dialogue.

I also would've liked a lot more worldbuilding. I feel like there was so much potential for an amazing world, a deep and well developed society. Unfortunately, I still don't know all that much about this wonderful world the book is set in. I'm hoping that in future books, we'll see this world expanded.

My final critical point for this book was Aia's backstory. We sort of jumped straight into her life as a fugitive, and I would've liked to see some of her life before, as well, to have some contrast. I think it would've helped the audience understand the world and Aia a bit better. Although this would've been nice, it didn't really impact or detract from my enjoyment of the story.

All in all, From The Ashes is a beautifully written, well developed story that treats its fantastic characters the way they deserved to be treated. I liked it a lot, and I'd rate it a solid four out of five stars. I would recommend it to fans of The Winner's Crime, Throne Of Glass and Snow Like Ashes. So set your calendars to alert you on May 3 for the release of From The Ashes!

If you want to share your thoughts or get in contact with me, you can leave a comment below, send me a tweet to @lilypherondale, a tumblr ask to sherlockcrumpets or even email me at mywordsarearows@gmail.com. Also, like my facebook page to keep updated with what I'm doing!

Have a wonderful Easter weekend, and I'll see you next week with another post!

Lily xoxo

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