Hi guys, today I have my August Wrap-Up. I can't believe summer is already over, and I'm going back to class soon. I will do my best to post at least once a week once classes start up again. With the PJO challenge, I read A TON of books this month, so without further ado, here are the books that I've read this month.
- Percy Jackson's Greek Gods: I randomly picked this up because it was the only Riordan book I hadn't read (except for the latest Carter/Sadie/Percy/Annabeth crossover). Obviously, Percy did a great job narrating, and bringing in the perfect amount of humor (also simplyfying complicated names). It did get a little dull at times because it was basically an informational book. Despite that, I enjoyed it all the same and gave it 5 stars because, its Percy! How could I NOT give it 5 out of 5 stars?
- Across the Universe: Across the Universe by Beth Revis is a science fiction book where a new planet has been discovered, and a team of people are being sent out to see if it is habitable. Among these people is 17-year-old Amy, who is leaving behind her boyfriend, her extended family, and her promising future as a runner to follow her parents as a member aboard the ship. They are cryogenically frozen and told they will be woken up in 300 years when the ship lands upon the new planet, Centauri-Earth. Yet, 250 years later, Amy is unplugged, and would've lost her life if it wasn't for the future leader of Godspeed (the ship) finding her and saving her. Now she has to figure out who unplugged her and stop them as more frozen members are being unplugged and killed. I gave this book 4 stars, because it was very promising for a first book to a series, but it took me a while to get into. It's told in two points of view, by Amy and Elder, and even though they both think very differently, they didn't seem to have very different voices, and I would get really confused whose point of view I was reading from. I really liked some of the abnormal text, where the words formatted like a staircase (I'd say the page number but I don't own the book). I felt like Amy was bursting at the seams with opinions and whatnot, and I didn't really like her. Elder somewhat fell flat, he just didn't really have any flaws, which kind of bugged me. I also didn't really appreciate the insta-love between them, which was mainly on Elder's part. You honestly can't just force two characters together because they're the same age and opposite genders. There's also just this massive info dump at the end which bugged me just because I waited a few weeks before reading the next review, and forgot almost everything in the info dump, so how is someone supposed to wait a year and remember every little detail? Usually, I hate when books recap, but in this case, you need one if there's an info dump at the end. Now, if you don't know, the cover for Across the Universe was changed twice! The original is this beautiful star studded version with Elder staring at Amy (and you'll see this scene in the book). When I saw the original cover at the library, I immediately checked the book out without even reading the description because it was so beautiful. Then, when the second book came out, they tried changing the cover, to Amy walking down the hall and pointing off into the distance. It was okay, but not as capturing as the first one and it was pretty boring too. At least the first one showed stars, which actually play a big role in the book and hint at the sci-fi genre. Then, they change it to an industrial-type thing with broken ice and a black blob. I-I-I DON'T COMPREHEND HOW THEY COULD EVEN FATHOM THAT BLACK BLOB OR POINTY THING WOULD EVEN COME CLOSE TO PRETTY STARS. I JUST DON'T. Maybe it didn't appeal to guys, even though its told in dual points of view by Amy and Elder. Solid 4 stars for me, and I would recommend reading it, even if you don't like sci-fi because I'm not a huge sci-fi fan myself.
- Nimona: Nimona is a graphic novel by Noelle Stevenson that's basically about a villain named Ballister Blackheart and his new sidekick, Nimona, who is a shapeshifter. This graphic novel had an art style I loved, the characters were hilarious and the complicated plot was pretty simple to understand. I read this in one sitting and gave it 5 stars because it was so good and I just couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this and it was probably the best thing I read this month (except for the Riordan books).
- Ms. Marvel: No Normal: This is actually the first comic I've ever read, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd thought. This is about a Muslim girl named Kamala, who is walking home from a party, when Ms. Marvel suddenly shows up and gives her powers. I'm still not exactly clear on what exactly happened, but that's what it seemed like. All the characters felt really flat, and her parents felt really stereotypical. I have friends that are Muslim and their parents are pretty chill as long as they make good choices, like every other parent. Just because someone is a different religion, doesn't make everything about their life different from everyone else. It really bothers me that Asians aren't really seen as normal people (and this is coming from an Asian) but are instead seen as robots with strict parents, get good grades and have no social lives whatsoever. Honestly, these stereotypes can be very offensive because people are ignorant about other cultures. I gave this 3 stars because I feel like comic writers need to do a little more research if they want to have proper 'diversity'.
- The Lightning Thief: Looking back on The Lightning Thief, I remember all the good 'ol days with 12-year-old Percy. Basically what this book is about is a kid named Percy who finds out that he's a demigod which means he's half mortal and half god. He also finds out that someone stole Zeus' lighting bolt, and that he has to go on a quest to retrieve it. I love this book, I gave it 4 stars because it had first book issues, but ITS SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!
- The Sea of Monsters: The Sea of Monsters is my second least favorite Percy Jackson book because I didn't really like Tyson when he was introduced and the whole book was lacking in the mystery element. Some parts felt really drawn out, even though the actual book was really short. But, don't worry, it get's better!
- The Titan's Curse: The Titan's Curse is my least favorite of the Percy Jackson books just because there's NO ANNABETH! I did like the new characters a lot, though. There isn't a whole lot I can say without spoiling the books, so I *might* do a series review with spoilers and some of the quotes I wrote down. I gave this 4 stars because of the lack of Annabeth, but all I can say is...dam
- The Battle of the Labyrinth: The Battle of the Labyrinth is my favorite of the Percy Jackson books. The plot keeps moving and it doesn't seem to drag, its about one of my favorite greek myths, and there are some beginnings of shipping ^_^! FIVE STARS ALL THE WAY THROUGH!
- The Last Olympian: The Last Olympian is one of my favorite Percy Jackson books and it is the final Percy Jackson and the Olympians book. This was the PERFECT end to the series, Riordan tied everything up into a neat little package. It had all the makings of a good book: action, friendship, betrayal, humor, romance and Perseus Jackson of course. AND THE LAST UNDERWATER SCENE! YOU KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. THAT MADE MY HEART EXPLODE.
- The Lost Hero: The Lost Hero is the first book in the Heroes of Olympus series and my least favorite. The only new character I liked was Leo, because he was the only one with a brain that used it. And he's flipping hilarious. ALSO, IF RIORDAN THINKS HE CAN JUST KIDNAP PERCY AND THAT EVERYONE'S GOING TO BE OKAY WITH IT, HE'S GOT THE WRONG IDEA.
- The Son of Neptune: The Son of Neptune is my favorite book in the Heroes of Olympus series, because I love all the characters in it (except for Octavian). AND THAT CLIFFHANGER? WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT, HUH RIORDAN? YOU CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS TO US!!!!!!!
- The Mark of Athena: The Mark of Athena is the third book in the Heroes of Olympus series. It seemed to drag in parts but there were lots of nice shipping moments. BUT THAT END. I HONESTLY GO INTO HYSTERICS EVERY TIME I READ THAT. RIORDAN, THE FANGIRLS/BOYS ARE COMING FOR YOU!
- The House of Hades: The House of Hades is the fourth book in the Heroes of Olympus series and it definitely has the best cover. Its so.....Percabeth<3. Jason and Piper were useless as usual, but what else is new? Also, we get a new ship, which I LOVE because 7 is an odd number and I was kind of hoping that it would be Jason that ends up forever alone. The ending is the least cliffhanger-y out of all of them, which is really surprising, because we all know Uncle Rick. He probably has this great big pythos at home full of cliffhangers that he pulls out every time he ends a book.
- The Blood of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus is the disappointing final book in the Heroes of Olympus series. Now, maybe its just me, but I feel like Riordan has become out of touch with what it takes to properly end a series. There were TONS of loose ends and we didn't really get any closure. ALSO, WHERE WAS PERCABETH????????? I get it if Riordan didn't want to give Percy a POV since he had his own series, but at least Annabeth should've gotten one so that we could see her and Percy dealing with PTSD, which he just glossed over. We better get more closure in Magnus Chase because I need to know what happens to everyone.
- Extraordinary Means: I have a full review of Extraordinary Means that you can check out right here: http://onceuponsomefangirls.weebly.com/caramel/extraordinary-means-book-review
- A Million Suns: A Million Suns is the second book in the Across the Universe series, so I'm not going to say too much because I don't want to spoil the books. We needed some sort of recap in the beginning because the end of Across the Universe was a massive info dump, and I couldn't remember most of the stuff that happened. I thought that the mystery in A Million Suns was less obvious compared to the one in Across the Universe. A problem that I had with this book was that it still felt like Amy and Elder just didn't really have very distinct voices, so I would get very confused about who's POV I was reading from. I did start to like Amy a bit more, in the sense that she wanted to step back from Elder in order to choose him rather than feel forced to be with him. Elder still felt pretty flat, which is hard when you read from a character's POV but he just seemed really cookie-cutter. I gave this 4 stars, but it has less problems than Across the Universe.
- The Summer I Turned Pretty: The Summer I Turned Pretty is the first book in a trilogy by Jenny Han. I picked this up because I really enjoyed To All the Boys I've Loved Before, which is also by Jenny Han. I didn't really enjoy the Summer I Turned Pretty, I thought it was okay. The main character, Belly, was childish and insufferable. She thought that the world revolved around her, and that people acting weird had a direct correlation to only her. Her voice, like that of Lara Jean in To All the Boys I've Loved Before, came out as someone a lot younger than her actual age. I also found it very annoying that Belly expected every guy to be wrapped around her finger, but got upset that they moved on when she picked a guy. All of the characters felt very flat and underdeveloped. I really liked Jeremiah, because he was super sweet and considerate towards Belly, while Conrad was kind of a douche to her. I get that Belly is annoying and that Conrad was going through a lot, but so was Jeremiah and he wasn't douchey towards anyone. Part of me doesn't want Belly to end up with Jeremiah just because he could do a lot better than Belly. I gave this 3 stars, but I will be continuing on just to see where it takes me.
So those are the books that I read in July and I will talk to you guys soon with my September TBR.
Caramel