Audio Review: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

TITLE: Will Grayson, Will Grayson

AUTHORS: John Green and David Levithan

NARRATORS: MacLeod Andrews and Nick Podehl

PUBLISHER: Brilliance Audio

PUBLICATION DATE: 4/6/2010

FORMAT: Audio book

LENGTH: 7 hours and 52 minutes

SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING:

SUMMARY (FROM AUDIBLE): One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens--both named Will Grayson--are about to cross paths. As their worlds and lives collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history's most fabulous high school musical.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: I'm having a hard time getting on board the John Green train. Everyone seems to adore his books, and out of the four that I've read the only one that I've really enjoyed was The Fault in Our Stars. I was hoping to enjoy this one, but it was my least favorite so far. It took a little bit to get going and then about two hours into the audio, my interest was peaked, but I still never got really invested in the book. I think a lot of my dislike for this one had to do with the audio though. According to Audible, there are two narrators for this book, but when I was listening I didn't even know there was a difference. I actually remember thinking that I would have enjoyed hearing two different narrators so that I could more easily tell the two Will Graysons apart, and apparently there were two narrators all along.

There was a lot of back and forth dialog that had the names of who was speaking before every line and that was, honestly, annoying to listen to the narrator say the names over and over again. Also, the singing drove me nuts. It was so over the top and obnoxious, which I guess was part of that particular character's personality, but it just got on my nerves.

All of that being said, if you're thinking about picking this one up, I would say to check out the print version rather than the audio.

Mini Reviews #1

(picture from freepik.com)

Mini reviews will be a new feature on my blog. It won't have a set day for publication and will probably be a fairly rare post. I have a stack of books that I have read and haven't gotten around to writing a review for. Some of the books are books that I read quite a while ago and have forgotten the details of, so I will be writing mini reviews of those books with some notes I have taken while reading, as well as a star rating.

TITLE: Rutabaga The Adventure Chef

AUTHOR: Eric Colossal

PUBLISHER: Harry N. Abrams

PUBLICATION DATE: 3/3/2015

PAGES: 128

FORMAT: eARC

SOURCE: Netgalley

MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I chuckled out loud a few times while reading this. It was a pretty weird story. The ending was abrupt, I didn't know it ended until I tried to turn the page and there were no more pages.

TITLE: The Silence of Six

AUTHOR: E.C. Myers

PUBLISHER: Adaptive Books

PUBLICATION DATE: 11/5/2014

FORMAT: eARC

PAGES: 274

SOURCE: Netgalley

MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I was definitely pulled in by the story. There's a lot of talk about hacking, but I didn't find it confusing at all and it was actually really easy to follow. I wanted to know what was going on throughout the book and why Evan did what he did. I found myself pretty invested in the story line and was trying to pay attention to see what everything was building up to. I think the ending was a good one. It tied things up, but didn't have a complete finale so a sequel could be made, but isn't necessary. 

TITLE: Every You, Every Me

AUTHOR: David Levithan

PUBLISHER: Ember

PUBLICATION DATE: 9/11/2012

FORMAT: Paperback

PAGES: 243

SOURCE: Bought

MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I wish the photographs in this book were bigger or in color so I could actually see them. I was very confused while reading this book and had no idea what was going on. This was a really weird book and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

TITLE: Bad Taste In Boys
AUTHOR: Carrie Harris
PUBLISHER: Delacorte Press
PUBLICATION DATE: 7/12/2011
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 201
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: I picked this book up because I wanted a quick, easy read and the back of the book implied that it was going to be funny. Going in, all I knew was that it was about zombies. In my opinion, this book wasn't funny at all. The story and the "cure" were extremely far fetched to me. I was glad that this was so short, or I probably wouldn't have finished it.


TITLE: Lost For Words
AUTHOR: Alice Kuipers
PUBLISHER: Harper Teen
PUBLICATION DATE: 5/11/2015
FORMAT: Hardcover
PAGES: 210
SOURCE: Bought
MY RATING: 

MY THOUGHTS: This book sounded like it was going to be really emotional. It was a really quick read; the writing was very juvenile with a lot of short sentences. The main character seemed to me like a typical girl and I felt she handled the tragedies in her life pretty much the same way I would expect anyone to. The ending was just as it should have been.

Book Haul #23

I haven't done a book haul in quite a while, so I thought I would post one of the books I've received recently (within the last 3 months or so).

Book Outlet:

Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Voyage by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Destiny by Colleen Houck
Entice by Carrie Jones

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

The River by Mary Jane Beaufrand

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph

Undercover by Beth Kephart

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Bewitching by Alex Flinn

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

Echo by Alyson Noel

Mystic by Alyson Noel

Night by Elie Wiesel

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

11/22/63 by Stephen King

Half Price Books:

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Sapphire Blue by Kerstin Gier

Wuthering Bites by Sarah Gray

Blood Loss by Alex Barclay

The Giver by Lois Lowry

For Review:

These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Half Bad by Sally Green
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Let me know if you've read any of these and share your hauls with me below!

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares Review

Goodreads

TITLE: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

AUTHOR: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

PUBLISHER: Alfred A. Knopf

PUBLICATION DATE: 10/26/2010

PAGES: 260

MY RATING: 

INSIDE COVER SUMMARY: I've left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don't, put the book back on the shelf, please.

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the bestselling authors of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

OVERALL IMPRESSION: When I started reading this book, I didn't know anything at all about the plot, I just knew that everyone who read it, loved it. And now I can see why. This was such a sweet story and I really enjoyed reading it. There was a lot of humor in this book (particularly the Santa scene, which I was actually laughing out loud picturing it). The ending of this book was super cute as well.

I do love that this is a standalone, as I'm tired of all the series that are out, but I'd love to see maybe a small novella about Dash and Lily's future together.

CHARACTERS: I loved both Dash and Lily. They were both such fun character to read about. I really liked the alternating perspectives too, it helped me get into each of their heads.

COVER: The cover is amazing. I love all of the covers, and the pretty snow and everything about it.