Welcome back! I know you’re excited, just like me. :/  Anyways, this week, I finished “Vicious” (which I never can spell right on the first try) and I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I gave it 5 stars and immediately started the sequel.

The plot mainly focuses on two groups of people: the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’. The so called ‘good’ group is composed of Victor, Sydney, Mitch, and eventually, my absolute favorite character, Dol. Victor is the main protagonists and he is on a mission to kill his old friend, turned enemy, Eli.

Mitch, is, what I would consider, Victor’s current best friend. Who he met in jail. Because Victor killed his other best friend in college. By accident. But anyways… Sydney is an adorable 12 year old who gets abandoned by her entire family and gets picked up by Victor and Mitch on the side of the road. They make the cutest found family and I love them all dearly. Oh, and Dol is the dog that Sydney brings back to life as a pet…multiple times. I may have forget to mention that part. Both Sydney and Victor have both died, been brought back to life, and now have powers. Sydney can bring back the dead and Victor can manipulate his own and other people’s pain. More on that later but now for the ‘bad’ guys.

Sydney and Dol. I literally love them so much.

Eli went to school and roomed with Victor in college. Together they investigated the idea of “ExtraOrdinaries” which they found out are people who went through near-death experiences, but came back to life, and whatever they were thinking about as they almost died, is correlated to their superpower. Of course, being dumb college students, they both decide to test this theory, and what do you know…you have two college students with superpowers except one is innately evil with a concerning adoration and devotion to God and another who accidentally killed his friend who is also Eli’s girlfriend.

Needless to say, tensions are high and they do not exactly leave each other on the right foot. Eli’s power is to heal himself indefinitely. Of course, Eli picks up a sidekick on his way: Serena, who believe it or not is Sydney’s sister, who experienced the same almost-death experience, but her power is controlling people with her voice. Oh, and should I mention that Eli and Serena are kind of dating even though Eli is technically like 35 and Serena is like 20, but he doesn’t physically age due to his power, and he also literally shot Sydney, her sister, so that seems kind of toxic, but whatever. So, the stage is set and this is just the beginning. I know this was a very dense paragraph with a lot of confusing details and a lot of unanswered questions so I apologize, but I could not recommend this book enough. I love the characters. I love the plot. I love the relationships. I love everything about this book. I wish I was able to explain it better, in fewer words, but I can not recommend it enough. It is not a book that I can even really describe in words, at least, not in this few. It was just complex enough that it was entertaining, but a little too much to explain in only a paragraph or two. It was endearing, thrilling, gruesome, and every other description I can think of.

Not to mention, it has the cool matte covers that feel nice and it is also a perfect thickness to create a good floppiness. Thanks for sticking with me through this somewhat (I apologize for the language) shit show of a blog and goodbye. It’s been fun. Kind of. 🙂

p.s. I have no fucking idea why the picture of Victor is so huge, but I can’t fix it and it’s kind of hilarious.

Welcome back to another episode of Anna writing a book review at 10 pm. For today’s review, we have “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng. I ended up giving this book 4 stars since I felt it lacked a big wow factor and never had that big “aha-moment” that I was expecting. Also, this review is pretty full of spoilers since I felt I had to explain it more to get my views across so if you do not want to know the final scene, do not read the second to last paragraph.

The main storyline of this book revolves around a family of 5 that recently became a family of 4 after one of the daughters tragically dies. She was obviously the favorite in the family and the other children knew this. After her death, the whole family undergoes a changing dynamic and they have to figure out how to adjust to life without Lydia. The big problem is nobody knows how or why Lydia died. All they know is there is rowboat in the middle of the town lake, and her body was found at the bottom of it. How can you grieve something if you don’t even know how you lost it?

Nath, the older brother in the family, is overcome with grief and is determined to find out what happened to his sister. He has high suspicions of their neighbor, Jack, who Lydia recently started hanging out with. Hannah, the youngest sister, is reflecting on all her previous memories of Lydia and how her parents actually pay attention to her now. Despite everything going on, tensions remain very high in the household throughout the book. The parents also have plenty of their own issues as well. The father is having an affair with a student, and their mother has run away in the past to finish her education, only to come back and pretend like nothing ever happened.

picture of author, Celeste Ng

Luckily, you do get some insight in Lydia and her mind before her death. Although seeming like the perfect child, she struggled a lot more than she let anybody else know. She is stressed under her parents expectations and the thought of her brother leaving her for Harvard next year. She finds solace in Jack, who shares his cigarettes and car rides with her. In her time of crisis, she decides she wants to lose her virginity, and Jack seems like the best option. Then Jack reveals that he is in love with her brother, Nath. After deciding the root of her problems began when her brother pulled her out of the lake when they were younger and didn’t let her drown, she decides to change this. She rows out to the lake and swims back to the shore. Unfortunately, she still doesn’t know how to swim. And here is where the book ends.

I think this book was very complex and it was quite short and easy to read. The only reason I did not give it five stars, is because I thought there would be some big reveal at the end and I do not think I totally understood all the hidden meanings. Still, I highly recommend this book, even with the spoilers, it is a very thought-provoking book. It also is pretty short (I think like 200 pages) so it has a pretty nice floppiness and can flop a lot.