In which I talk about nothing in particular

Firstly, here are some videos to entertain you...

One of my amazing friends just posted this on my Facebook wall... 

Needless to say, it's now one of my favourite song. IT'S SO CATCHY!

This is awesome because it's true :)

For no reason in particular.. I just love the Weasley twins :D

Also for no reason... It's just hilarious, plus I love Charlie :)

NOW... The age old question, WHY AM I POSTING RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEOS INSTEAD OF REVIEWS??? 

Well, it's not really an age old question, I think I'm just going a bit loopy :S Anyway, to answer that, here is a list (cos I like lists):

1. I've been rereading Harry Potter

2. When I read Harry Potter, I seem to forget any other book (or just life in general), exists. 

3. University has started back up

4. A particular unit at uni has me wanting to punch myself in the face several times a week (and rather than punch myself in the face, I've been attempting the gazillions of assignments I have to do for it)

5. Said unit's teacher also makes me want to punch myself in the face

6. I have just been introduced to Doctor Who

AND in the spirit of keeping to the magic of the number 7 (in the Harry Potter world)

7. Harry Potter.

NUFF SAID.

No?

Well, there is another reason apart from Harry Potter and the temptation of punching myself in the face, and that is, my mum and 4 year old sister have come to visit me :) (have you ever tried to read, do assignments or ANYTHING with a 4 year old saying, "What are you doing?", "But why?" and "Will you play with me?" every 5 minutes?) It's pretty great, I've missed them both a bunch :D

So, I will keep the reviews and blogging coming as much as I possibly can, but it won't be as often as I'd like it to be. But things with dragon-unit and dragon-lady will hopefully even out soon and I'm onto Half Blood Prince at the moment, so I'm nearly done rereading Harry Potter ;)

So tell me...

HOW FREAKING AWESOME WAS THAT FIRST VIDEO?

"Baby I'm a Slytherin and girl you are a Gryffindor..." *hums*

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Release Date: February 7th 2012
Publisher: HarperCollins
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥1/2

I've been looking forward to reading this for agessss, and finally got the opportunity to when the lovely Rebecca from Reading Wishes sent me a lovely surprise in the mail :) Thankyou Rebecca <3

It's difficult to rate this book, but I think I'm going to go with a 3.5 star rating.

In some point in the future, love (amor deleria nervosa) has been declared a disease. They've also found a cure. The cure is administered to those who have reached age 18. Each person goes through an evalulation and are ranked according to how well they answer questions and whatnot. The cure sounds horrible to me; you lose all feelings of love, friendship, ambition and dreams. Once you've been evaluated, your future education, partner and career are all decided for you. It's quite an interesting concept and I think Lauren Oliver has done a good job of executing it. Lena is looking forward to her evaluation (she, along with everybody else she knows, have been taught that love is the worst thing to happen to a person), she is a pretty regular girl just hoping to get "paired" with someone decent and to be granted the right to an education. She meets a guy named Alex. Then she falls in love...

It definitely wasn't the writing that let this book down. I've heard so many good things about Lauren Oliver's writing and who am I to disagree :P. Her writing is beautiful... It's purple, but not so much purple that makes you want to gag. The thing that stood out to me most about her writing was how she began chapters. Firstly, she has these little snippits of something from Lena's world, say a textbook or a pslam from their version of the bible (The Book of Shhh), secondly, they are intriguing and give you a lot of backhistory into Lena, or the other characters.

The first half of the book really let it down. It was quite uhh, bland? And Lena didn't really have much of a personality. She was just a boring, rule-abiding, scared teenager - This would probably be the reality of a teenager in a dystopian world, but I just wanted her to be a little more rebellious, or less frightened or more like her friend Hana (I LOVE YOU HANA, come be my best friend?). But after the halfway point, Lena developed a personality... Sure, it was due to her meeting and hanging out with Alex, but it was a personality nonetheless!

Alex... Oh Alex. Why are you so damn gorgeous? And just overall awesome? I love that you're not an asshole, I love that you didn't treat Lena like a child, yet still cared for her. I love your secrets, I love your passion and I love your determination. I also love your name, I have this theory that naming hot, awesome boys in YA, Alex will be the latest trend... First there was Alex in Hunting Lila, now there is you... <3
(I'm aware this is basically a letter to Alex declaring my love for him... Well. Do you see me trying to make any excuses :D)

Now. The reason I've given this 3.5 stars is not only because of my undying love for Alex *swoon*, but because of how much Lena grew toward the end (I much prefer, as she calls it, "the New Lena") and the actual ending itself! It was a cliffhangerish ending, but it didn't result in me wanting to commit crimes to get a hold of the next one (I know it's already out now, but book buying ban= my own personal hell) ("You're like my own personal brand of heroin, you're like a drug to me...." HA! Sorry, had to throw that in there - Edward's seedy looking face just popped into my head). ANYWAYYYYY.... The ending had action and suspense and defintely left me wanting more, what DOES make me think of committing crimes for Pandemonium, is the first chapter sneak-peek.

I will definitely be reading more Lauren Oliver in the future, because her writing is just beautiful and the ending in this definitely made up for the slow-paced and somewhat boring beginning :)
Well worth the read ;) ESPECIALLY if you're into romance... 

Follow Friday (6)

 

 

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read!

This week's question is

"What is the longest book you've read? What are your favourite 600+ page reads?"

Well, the longest book I've ever read is probably Under the Dome by Stephen King, at 1,072 pages.... 

My FAVOURITE 600+ page reads are obviously the last four Harry Potter books (636, 766, 607, 607 pages respectively) and The Passage by Justin Cronin (766 pages)
I have a uh, slight feeling that EVERYBODY is going to put Harry Potter as their favourite long reads :) Because well, they are amazing! YAY FOR REREADING HARRY POTTER AT THE MOMENT! I'm reading Order of the Phoenix, and god I hate Umbridge.

How teeny does Deathly Hallows look compared to Half Blood Prince? The pages are so much thinner than all the other books!!

I did enjoy Under the Dome and I'm yet to read Stephen King's The Stand and It (which are also 1000+ and I own The Stand!!)

In My Mailbox (10) I LOVE MY FELLOW BLOGGERS EDITION

In My Mailbox is a weekly feature by The Story Siren which allows us to drool with one another over the books that we received or bought this week!

OH I have been extremely spoilt in the past week and a bit!

Last week I recieved Delirium, some postcards and and an adorable handmade card from her! Rebecca from Reading Wishes really didn't want Amy or myself to break our book buying ban because needless to say, we've been going a little bit crazy! So, she decided to be really sneaky and sent us both a book we've had on our wishlist for ages! Isn't she naughty! (Or maybe just awesome :D). I've been driving myself crazy because I didn't have Delirium and it's been at the top of my wishlist for ages, my wish has come true <3 She also wrapped mine in purple and pink packaging (she obviously knows me too well, already!)


I also found out that last week, I won a massive prize pack from Brodie and Lisa's month-long Valentine's Event!
I got the first book in the mail today, along with MY FIRST EVER SWAG! Now, this has me over-excited because I've never received anything like that before. So when I find that I got a signed bookmark, bookplate and a cover, I went a little spastic :)

As it turns out, Lisa from Read Me, Bookmark Me, Love Me, lives about 10 minutes down the road from me haha, and she also threw in a signed cover of Storm (hello sexy boys on the cover).

Gifted: 
- Delirium by Lauren Oliver (from the lovely Rebecca)
- An adorable card :)
- Signed cover: Storm by Brigid Kemmerer (from the lovely Lisa)

Won:
- Jenna & Jonah's Fauxmance by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin
- Signed bookmark: Kim Harrington
- Signed bookplate: Kim Harrington
- Two Under the Never Sky bookmarks

I AM A VERY HAPPY GIRL! 

Thankyou so much to Rebecca, Lisa and Brodie for being so lovely and just amazing!

What's in your mailbox :)

Torn by Stephanie Guerra

Torn by Stephanie Guerra
Release Date: April 1st 2012
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥

This book had me completely hooked from the very first page.
Stella is your average teenage girl. She is friendly with everybody, gets good grades, is on the Soccer team and has a pretty balanced social life... Stella's life is pretty good apart from having a father who left her mum and the kids when they were younger. Then Ruby shows up. Ruby is beautiful, edgy, cool and rebellious and ends up befriending Stella, causing Stella's life to be turned upside down.

This reminded me vaguely of the movie 'Thirteen'. Torn isn't a nice, comfortable story but it completely sucks you in. I don't know how she's done it, but Stephanie Guerra has written a teenage rebellion novel in such a realistic way.

As an MC, I loved Stella. She was fun, she had flaws, she was caring and in a way, she reminds me of my best friend. I really connected with Stella because she's a scarily accurate representation of a lot of teenagers. Stella wasn't considered perfect, things didn't always go her way and the problems she went through in her last year of high school with Ruby were pretty spot-on (if you occassionally rebelled and whatnot). She was feisty, protective, passionate but she had her issues too. I really admired her strength. She stood up for what she believed in and knew when to call it quits with certain uh, issues...

Ruby on the other hand is probably Stella's opposite. She is confronting, rebellious and has this awesome "Don't give a shit" attitude that just added so much spark and fire to her personality! The girls at school hate her because she didn't try to impress anybody. Ruby is a take it or leave it sort of character and I really appreciated this. The thing I loved the most is that while you'd expect yourself to hate Ruby for making such stupid decisions and being so direct, you just can't! In addition to Stella, Ruby is such a complex character and I don't know how she did it, but Stephanie Guerra manages to make you love Ruby although you know you should hate her.

This is probably one of my favourite contemporary novels so far (mind you, I'm very new to the genre). This is due to the fact that whilst I couldn't relate to Ruby (I could somewhat relate to Stella), I knew girls like that-and I knew them very well. Ruby was troubled, had her own way of dealing with things and Stella learnt what it means to be a true friend. The friendship between the girls was incredibly well portrayed. Some moments they had together reminded me of myself and my best friends. However, if you're looking for romance, this isn't going to do it for you! There are relationships, but there isn't romance (I appreciated this as well!). There isn't any, "I can't live without him" or "I was falling apart without him by my side" bull. The decisions made by some of the characters were stupid, but I could believe the situations they got themselves into because I've seen it firsthand.

There is swearing, drugs and law-breaking in this novel and whilst I didn't care (I thought it was well-done and a realistic, "THIS IS LIFE. IT HAPPENS" message), some others might. Due to the tone of the novel, I completely understood the swearing, it made me feel like I was in freaking high school again myself! I even understood the drugs and the law-breaking content because again, I've seen it happen and I think it's an unrealistic expectation that you won't get any of that in a novel as raw, gripping and edgy as this. I'm not saying that all teenagers are like those in Torn, but as one representation, I thought it was accurate and well-done.

Torn was gripping and edgy with a heart warming ending that hopefully gives hope to anybody who's been bullied. It teaches us that yes, karma can be a bitch and that not all things in life should be easy.

I received this from Netgalley and this has not affected my review

Blog Tour: Whispering Hills by Taryn [Excerpt & Giveaway]

Woohoo! My very first blog tour!
Today I'll be providing you guys with an awesome excerpt from Taryn Browning's new novel, Whispering Hills and a giveaway! (YAY!)

Check out SupaGurl Books for all the tour stops, if you're interested :)

Title: Whispering Hills
Author: Taryn Browning
Release Date: March 19th 2012
Add it: Goodreads

For as long as she can remember, 17-year-old Alexis Forbes can hear the thoughts of others. Most recently, she is disturbed by the dark, unfamiliar voice of a frightening killer: callous, cunning, charismatic…and dead. She hears his every sinister thought. But she can’t tell anyone. No one would believe her. 

Alexis is suddenly being haunted by a terrifying past she doesn’t remember, and a ghost with a serious score to settle. Even Chance, the gorgeous new guy she’s falling for, has his own ghostly secret. He’s definitely not like any guy she’s ever met. Alexis soon discovers she has a connection to the dead and it runs much deeper than she could ever imagine. 

And if the sociopathic entity has his way, she’ll finally be sentenced to the fate she escaped thirteen years ago.

Excerpt:

After telling Brooke about the horrible voice I’d heard at school, I paced the floor, from her dresser and back again, wearing a perfect line in the carpet.

     I tripped over a pile of community college textbooks at the base of her desk. “I’m going to the lake.” I wasn’t sure if I was justifying my actions out loud, or just forcing myself to do something—anything—to locate the girl.

     “For what? There’s nothing you can do.” She shot in front of me, blocking my path. “You’ve got to calm down before Mom hears you.” 

     “Trust me, she won’t. She’s too wrapped up in the bake sale and the October Festival to care.” I attempted to push by her, but she had me by at least twenty pounds and four inches. At five-foot-two, I wasn’t much of a match. “Move out of my way. If I can’t tell the cops, the least I can do is check it out. It’s a big lake. I’ll be fine.” 

     “Seriously, Alex, you have no idea if a murder actually occurred. So you heard it. It could have been hypothetical. You know, a guy who’s pissed off at his girlfriend.” 

     I stared at her, gazing into my own light brown eyes. People always said we looked similar, only Brooke’s curly auburn hair settled around her shoulders. Mine streamed clear down my back and refused to hold an ounce of curl.

     “Okay, fine. You’re never wrong.” Brooke stepped away from the door. “Go. You’re not going to listen to me anyway.”

     “I knew you were going to move. You made the decision before you said it.” I smiled victoriously.

     “Save it,” she laughed, smiling tightly. “You and your telepathic mumbo jumbo suck.” She placed her arm out to block me again. “Why don’t you just probe the minds of every student at school? Someone’s bound to confess.”

     “I guess it’s a mental glitch in my ‘psychic’ radar,” I replied. “But I can’t just probe them like aliens. You know I can’t eavesdrop at will.”

     Her eyes lit up. “But wouldn’t that be awesome?” she grinned, no doubt plotting how she’d use the ability to read her college professors’ minds, or the minds of guys she had interest in.

     Even though she couldn’t fully understand my ability, she loved and accepted me anyway. She did her best to support me when the voices became too overwhelming, but many times she treated my telepathy as something humorous or fantastic – both of which, it was not. Brooke joked because she didn’t understand how burdensome it was too literally hear other people’s decisions. As I had discovered today at school, the thoughts weren’t always pretty.

There will be three winners!

Each winner will either receive:

1. An e-copy of Whispering Hills

2. A Dark Seeker bookmark OR

3. A Whispering Hills bookmark

Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Release Date: January 5th 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Books
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥

What would you do if you had your future at your fingertips? What would you have done if you stumbled upon Facebook 8 years before it was invented and you saw how your living in the future?

Josh and Emma have been best friends almost their entire lives until things get a little awkward... Josh gets a free AOL CD in the mail and gives it to Emma to install on her new computer. The pair then stumbles upon a website called Facebook and it's a little bit weird... Who would write about what their having for dinner or what colour they want to dye their hair? They have no idea how they came across Facebook when it hadn't even been invented yet or why their posting such personal things for everybody to see!

Whist I wasn't a teenager in the 90's, I still consider myself a 90's kid (is that something I should be proud of?). All the little bits and pieces mentioned such as scrunchies, dial up, Windows 95 (I refused to have any screensaver but the brick maze) and the fact that a COLOUR monitor was pretty freaking cool made me feel all giddy inside and I constantly found myself going "OOOOH I REMEMBER THAT!". Then there are the mentions of things we didn't have any idea about back then... For example,
'I flinch. "What the hell happens to Pluto?"'
or
'"It doesn't matter," Tyson says, biting off more sandwich. "My dad thinks Ellen DeGeneres is gay, and we love Ellen!"
"Are you kidding? She's not gay," Kellan says.'
and finally
'I don't know what Harry Potter or The Help are...

This is set before Harry Potter was a phenomenon (there was such a time? Must have blocked it out :P). The 90's nostalgia was great :)

This was written in dual narrative and I thought both character's had very distinctive voices and I really loved seeing them mature and grow throughout the novel. We still witness the freakouts either has over something they've seen on Facebook, but I found that the two of them handled situations very differently. I'm not entirely sure whether I liked Emma or not. I liked her, however she was never happy with what her future offered her and jumped to conclusions very easily. If it was implied that she had a bad week on Facebook, she would go to drastic measures to manipulate her future. She did this several times and whilst Josh understandably freaked out about a few things, he didn't do anything too drastic in attempt to change his future. Josh thought more rationally than Emma did and was a little more accepting. He didn't intentionally do anything to change his future, although he did "accidently" due to the simple fact he knew what would happen to him in 15 years.

Although the ending and the story in general fairly predictable, it was still a delightful, fun read and is a thought-provoking novel with just enough 90's nostalgia tossed in (which obviously, I really enjoyed!). Also, the ending is super-duper cute :)

Ohh yeahhh!

 

Also, did anyone else used to play Chip's Challenge? Or was that just me? :) 

Follow Friday (5)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read!

This week's question is

"Have you ever looked at a book 's cover and thought 'This is going to be horrible'? But, was instead pleasantly surprised? Show us the cover and tell us about the book.

 

 We all know we shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but face it, it's something we've all been guilty of at once stage... On that note, I thought "Oh, wow. THAT looks fascinating" *insert sarcasm here* about the following book. The only reason I bought this was because it was released in Australian 2 weeks earlier than the US (and I wanted to feel special), and I liked the premise.

In all honesty, I can't stand this cover. Sure, it's meant to look 'pretty', but the girl looks like a runway model/bride, I hate the dress and it just doesn't look very exciting at all. The cover designers have tried to be all sparkly and exciting, but it just didn't do it for me. It looks boring to me... Thank god the book is awesome :) -Why, hello there self-promotion!

In My Mailbox (9)

In My Mailbox is a weekly feature by The Story Siren which allows us to drool with one another over the books that we received or bought this week!

So Amy and I are into the third month of our book buying ban AND IT SUCKS.
Imagine my surprise when I actually got books IN THE MAIL this week! I won Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder from a giveaway hosted by Brodie (I LOVE HER) and HarlequinTeen. This will be my first Maria book and I've heard nothing but amazing things about all of her books, so I'm really excited to start this!!


In addition to this surprise, Mum decided to spoil me (I LOVE HER ALSO). I started back up at uni last week so I just got back "home" from my real home, and after spending 4 months at home I feel a little sad :(. Mum ended up sending me The Future of Us and Switched! Turns out Dolly magazine (an Aussie magazine for girls aged 13-17ish) was giving away Switched this month! WHATTT? I mean it has, "exclusive to Dolly" written across the top (see picture!) and whatnot, but I'm still so happy :)

Before I left, Mum and I got us each the first series of The Universe (it was onlt $15 from the Post Office, I love you Australia Post - sometimes) and we got a little over excited over this because we're both big nerds ;)

A huge thankyou to Mum, Brodie and HarlequinTeen <3

For review:
Whispering Hills by Taryn Browning (this is part of a blog tour, my post will be up on the 13th March!)

Netgalley:
Night Beach by Kirsty Eagar - AHHHHHH I'M. SO. HAPPY.
Torn by Stephanie Guerra - ALSO MEGA EXCITED!!
Hollyweird by Terri Clark
Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown 

Gifted:
The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler
Switched by Amanda Hocking
Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

What's in your mailbox this week :)

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
Release Date: October 1st 2011
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥♥
 
After picking up the little pieces of my brain and putting it back together after the masterpiece that was Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I thought I'd give my brain a little time to get working again before reading anything else by Laini Taylor. Lips Touch is wonderful. Just plain wonderful. It's a collection of three short stories that has kissing, magic, fantasy creatures and that beautiful, beautiful thing that is Laini Taylor's prose and imagination. I love adore and envy Taylor's imagination and her incredible story telling ability. Each short story just gets progressively better and better. You'll think you've had and incredible taste of what's in store after you've finished Goblin Fruit and just when you think it can't get any better then Spicy Little Curses Such As These, Laini Taylor pulls out the big guns and has Hatchling bewitching your mind (I've been re-reading Harry Potter...) and believe me, will have you begging for more!

Goblin Fruit:
Stephenie Meyer! Becca Fitzpatrick! Lauren Kate! Gather around and listen! In approximately 35 pages, Laini Taylor has managed to write a better story and a more developed character than some other YA authors have in their entire series. This is a great feat. Kizzy is interesting, different and intriguing and has always been on the sidelines and has wanted that extra something in her life. This was the shortest of the three, but Kizzy's story will have you laughing and doing double takes the entire time. It's not as dark and gritty as the others, but the goblins and their fruit are fascinating, and is aplenty in so few pages.

Spicy Little Curses Such As These:
There was so much meaning in this story. Estella once made great sacrifice to a demon, and due to that, has been forced to make heavy decisions every day of her life whilst living in Hell. In order to save children, the demon says she must make sacrifices. She makes these sacrifices but when she is forced to place a curse on a baby named Anamique, the demon eventually gets more than he bargained for. Due to the curse, Anamique grows up mute, unable to even murmer a sound for the chance that it will kill anybody who hears it. She is teased and lives her life lonely until a soldier named James, finds her diary and falls in love with her. The romance that unfolds is breathtaking, beautiful and heartbreaking. Throughout, many sacrifices are made, but many lessons are learned.

Hatchling:
This was easily my favourite of the three! It BLEW MY MIND. The mythology was brilliant and once again, Laini Taylor has written a more complex and deep plot in 100 pages that many YA authors have tried (and failed) to do in their entire series. I WANT THIS MADE INTO A MOVIE. Or maybe I don't... Ohh, I don't know!! The world of the Druj is shocking and incredible. The Druj Queen keeps human children as pets until they reach child bearing age. This has so many stories rolled into one. Mab was the Queen's pet once, and her treatment was unbearable, it was absolutely horrible. When Mab is forced to have a child (literally, forced), we are told of how she managed to escape with her baby and what becomes of them once she becomes of child bearing age. Esme is incredibly three dimensional, and at first you may just think this is the story of Mab and Esme. But, it's not. This is only the tip of the iceberg and there is so much folklore and incredible world building. The 'villain' and characters who you think are just minor at first, turn out to have incredible stories of their own and Laini explores them so deeply and wonderfully that this will have you absolutely begging for more!

The illustrations are mind blowing. To call them beautiful would do them injustice. At first they don't make sense, but once you've finished, you realise they capture the true essence of each story. Jim Bartolo is so incredibly talented!

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
Release Date: March 1st 2012
Publisher: Amulet Books
Add it: Goodreads
Overall: ♥♥♥♥


I have no idea where to begin with this book... At first glance, it appears very poorly written, unstructured, messy and just all over the place. For example, the narrator, Greg Haines talks about his friend Earl and then says something along the lines of "Oh yeah, I should probably introduce you to Earl hey?". It's like you're having a conversation with him and that he really has no idea where to begin or what to say, but this is the beauty of it.

The entire novel basically tells you to stop taking life so god damn seriously! You can't control everything that happens around you, and this is what I think the main moral of the story is. Greg used to try to control everything. He didn't want any actual friends, but he didn't want any enemies either. Once he has to hang out with cancer-stricken Rachel, he learns that things can be out of your control and sometimes you have to just deal with it.

Some of the chapters are basically entirely compromised of lists. Dot-point lists and 'subtitle lists', so please allow me to write my review like that :)

This is how the "subtitle" list worked:
Now, this writing technique had had my mind reeling, I was incredibly confused as to whether this is what Jesse Andrews intentionally meant to do. Turns out, it was. Once it was all wrapped up, it made complete sense! NOW. That's not to say I didn't enjoy reading it! Because I did! Greg was absolutely hilarious, he made jokes about every 3 sentences and I could sort of relate to him in a way because, I make people laugh when I don't mean to (or if I trip over nothing/run into a pole or something). When I actually try, I just end up mocking myself or make a really lame joke on purpose and I do this thing where I slap my knee and say "AHHH HAAAAA. Aren't I hilarious.." . MOVING ON. Greg was genuinely funny. He did this. He made fun of himself and was well-aware of the fact that nobody is perfect. I do wish that Greg stopped making fun of himself sometimes though, but that was just how he was and I guess how he dealt with stressful situations. Despite there being no real plot or character development, this was okay because you were too busy laughing!

I also loved the fact that Greg makes films:
I studied film, technique and screen arts as part of my first year of uni. The films mentioned, such as "Walk Lola Walk" and "Cat-a-blanca", made me giggle. Alot. Because the movies these were based off of, were two of the movies that we had to study to the 'nth' degree as part of the unit. I unfortunately can't relate to Greg wanting to pursue directing though. I made a 5 minute short movie with 2 other people, and it took 3 days of straight shooting and 9 hours of straight editing. And because I know that, I know that Greg is obviously incredibly patient and actually really clever.

Some quotes, because this book was so funny:
'...including Brandon, who is thirteen and probably the most violent and aggressive of the bunch. (For example, he has a huge painful-looking neck tattoo that says "TRU NIGGA" next to some pictures of guns.'
(On his Dad) 'Around the house he usually wears a muumuu, which is essentially a blanket with holes cut in it, and he talks to the cat, Cat Stevens, as if he were a real human being.'

I'll try to tell you what I honestly thought of this book, without rambling:
Apart from this book being hilarious and Greg constantly putting himself down, he does grow towards the end. This wasn't a flat out change, it was a subtle growth. The switch from Greg-Cracking-Jokes-Every-3-Seconds to Greg-Cracks-Jokes-Ocassionally was steady. Andrews manages to tone it down so gradually that by the time you realise what had happened, the book ended. I loved Greg's narration and how it ended. I loved that this was a "different" type of cancer story, yet still managed to have heart. This wasn't just a book that takes the piss out of everything and whilst it's still hilarious, it's realistic. I loved the fact that Andrews allowed his characters to be indifferent about things (even cancer). This book explores the idea that, despite what other people say, you CAN move on from a tragedy and you're allowed to feel a little indifferent about things.

This is a brilliant, HILARIOUS novel that, despite the synopsis, allows you to watch Greg grow and begin to understand who he is.