Read Between The Lines Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Read Between The Lines

AUTHOR: Jo Knowles

PUBLISHER: Candlewick Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 3/10/2015

FORMAT: ARC

PAGES: 336

SOURCE: Amazon Vine

MY RATING:

BACK COVER SUMMARY: Unpopular Nate suffers a broken finger courtesy of a bully in gym class. The middle one--splinted to flip off the world. It won't be the last time that finger is raised in this extraordinary novel. Dreams Claire envisions herself sitting in a cafe, filling a journal with her thoughts--but fate has other plans. One cheerleader dates a closeted basketball star; another questions just how, as a "big girl," she fits in. A group of boys scam clueless drivers for beer money without remorse--or so it seems.

Their voices--and many others--speak of the complex dance that is life in a small town. These characters orbit one another, trying to understand and be understood in the face of trauma, heartbreak, and revenge. The line where presentation and perception meet can be hard to discern. Unless, of course, one can look a little closer--and read between the lines.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: This book is made up of many many different perspectives. I like how all of the stories are intertwined, but we don't see them collide all at once, we see things unfold slowly throughout the story. It makes you think about how people are always interspersed in each other's lives and how we are all connected in some way or another, even if we don't realize the impact we may have on other people. This book is a very small snippet of time for this community and it was really interesting to read about.

CHARACTERS: The book gives the perspectives of ten different characters. Because the book is so short and there are so many characters, I feel like I didn't really get to know any of them as deeply as I would have liked. But I also feel that this story is more about the community as a whole than any one individual character, so it works for this book.

COVER: The cover is pretty simplistic, which is a feature I like in covers. It ties in well with the story.

**I received and ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.**

More Than This Review

Goodreads

TITLE: More Than This

AUTHOR: Patrick Ness

PUBLISHER: Candlewick Press

PUBLICATION DATE: 9/10/2013

PAGES: 480

MY RATING:

BACK COVER SUMMARY: A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America. But the neighborhood around his old house is overgrown, covered in dust, and abandoned. What's going on? And why is it that whenever he closes his eyes, he falls prey to vivid, agonizing memories that seem more real than the world around him? Seth begins a search for answers, hoping that he might not be alone, that this might not be the hell he fears it to be, that there might be more than just this...

OVERALL IMPRESSION: First of all, I urge anyone looking into more information about this book to not do too much research. You don't want to be spoiled on anything and it's really hard to talk about this book without spoiling things. 

I've heard nothing but great things about Patrick Ness, but I hadn't read anything by him, so I was really excited to see what I thought about his books.

Just by starting the preface of this book, I knew I was going to love it. The writing is amazing. It just sounds so pretty and makes me want to keep going. I had lots of confusion while reading this, but I was very intrigued throughout the whole book.

That's really all I can say without giving anything away, but I really enjoyed this book.

CHARACTERS: I really like Seth. He seems like a really awesome kid.

COVER: The cover pretty much sums up the whole book.

**I received an ARC of this book from Amazon Vine for my honest review.