WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING

By: Delia Owens

Plot: About a young girl who is abandoned by her family and grows up on the marsh, becoming the 'Marsh Girl'. Major spoilers ahead! (And lots of ranting.)

Thoughts: I did enjoy reading this book. It had major Before We were Yours vibes to me. There were definite similarities between the Marsh people and the river folk. Although I did enjoy it and sure it ended happily enough, I have MAJOR qualms with this book. First off, it baffles me how Kya was ever able to stay on her own in the first place. How does a whole freaking town, realize that a CHILD is basically abandoned and living on her own and no one ever does anything?? I mean Jumpin' did the most out of anyone but it's not like his family could take her in. There's no way she could have ran away from them forever if they had just tried! But they didn't try.

Also, her mom. Ugh. I mean I get why she left. If you are that broken and you can't even take care of yourself, how can you take care of five kids? She was in a horrible situation and she just escaped the only way she could. I get that part. I do not understand, however, that she stayed away. The whole, I think I left my kids behind, maybe I'll send my drunken, abusive (ex?) husband a letter and kindly ask for them back? No! Just no. You go and get your children back! You don't ask permission! It was implied that her family had money, and you mean to tell me they would never once have consult a lawyer and seen what could be done? Of course, he was going to be pissed and say no, when all you do is write a lame letter. Maybe she would have tried harder to go back if she had left those stupid fake alligator boots behind instead. You left your children with a man you couldn't stand to live with yourself. You think your kids are going to fair any better? I mean REALLY?? Okay rant over.

I was annoyed by the whole trial, because it felt like it was just a disaster waiting to happen. Then of course I couldn't stop reading once I got to the trial. I kept thinking maybe it was Jumpin' or Tate that had killed Chase, but I knew they wouldn't let her take the fall for them, if either one of them had done it. I definitely wasn't sad to see Chase go. I hated Chase the moment he said how cool it was that she didn't have parents to deal with. What a dumb thing to say.

Is it terrible that once I found out that it was her I liked the book even more? I'm glad she got her revenge and then was able to happily live the rest of her life on the marsh. It made sense because she knew she couldn't live in fear of him for the rest of her life and that he would never let it go. Of course she would have taken the necklace too, because he was just being a d-word continuing to wear it that whole time anyway, and I'm sure it just pissed her off. The fact that she did get away with it though was incredible. It seemed like the author wanted it to feel like the town was atoning for their previous prejudices and wrong doings, but they still left a freaking child to raise herself and no one stepped in and that's still messed up! I just can't get over that part.

Rating: 4/5 I liked it, especially that ending.

DOROTHY MUST DIE

By: Danielle Paige  

Plot: A teenage girl Amy, from Kansas, is swept up in a hurricane and lands in Oz, the Oz. Except Dorothy and all her friends are evil and the wicked witches are the good guys. So now it's up to Amy to kill Dorothy and save all of Oz, obviously.

My thoughts: Clearly this writer never had to do a 'show not tell' exercise in English class. All she does is tell and tell and tell. I really did not like the writing in this book at all. If the plot had been amazing I could probably have gotten passed that but it was not great either. There is no original story here at all. (I mean had she never heard of the book, turned into amazing play, called Wicked?!) There is no world building either because the author just banks on the fact that you've seen the movie and compares everything to it.

The main character is one I've read a million times before with nothing original about her at all. I didn't like her or any of the other characters. Amy is just your typical angry, 'poor me' attitude having, teenage girl. She felt bad enough for herself that I didn't have any sympathy towards her at all. The characters, plot, and writing were all just terrible. If just ONE of them had been good I could probably have made it through this book. As it is, I have no desire to pick this book up ever again.

Rating: 0/5 I could not finish this book. Life is too short to suffer through books this bad. It was such a disappointment. 

NEVER FADE

By: Alexandra Bracken

Plot Summary: Second book in the Darkest Minds trilogy. Picks up a little bit after the first book left off with Ruby well established in the Children's League.

My Thoughts: I think I waited too long after reading the first book in the series to get to this one. I'm not sure if it was the writing or just me but the beginning seemed so jumbled and confusing. The dialogue was weird and I was confused about what was even going on at times. This time around the story just didn't feel believable.

Getting through this book was like trudging through mud. It was way too much work. The book was so long and it just drug on and on and on. I felt like so many things were pointless and should have been left out and it would have been much better. For example I found the whole Rob situation completely pointless, and wish his character would have been left out of the story entirely.

A huge problem I had with this book was the main character. Ruby was all over the place. One second she is crying her eyes out and the next she's acting all tough. So she's either a baby or a bad a**. Just pick one Alexander Bracken! She's not believable as both. And enough with the constant whining about everything being her fault. A meteor could hit the earth and she would think it was her fault. It drove me up the wall! And she kept making the dumbest decisions and the whole thing was just way too predictable.

Finally, FINALLY, at the end it started to pick up. And by the end I mean the last thirty pages or so. The obvious character dies (Ruby's fault, of course) and it suckered me in enough to want to read the final book and see how this whole mess ends.

Rating: 2/5 Definitely a disappointing sequel to a good book.