Title: We Didn’t Ask for This Author: Adi Alsaid Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, LGBTQ Publisher: Inkyard Press Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: April 7, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Central International School’s annual lock-in is legendary. Bonds are made. Contests are fought. Stories are forged that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.
This year’s lock-in begins normally enough. Then a group of students led by Marisa Cuevas stage an ecoprotest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met.
Some students rally to their cause…but others are aggrieved to watch their own plans fall apart.
Amira has trained all year to compete in the school decathlon on her own terms. Peejay intended to honor his brother by throwing the greatest party CIS has ever seen. Kenji was looking forward to making a splash at his improv showcase. Omar wanted to spend a little time with the boy he’s been crushing on. Celeste, adrift in a new country, was hoping to connect with someone—anyone. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide how far she’ll go to attain them.
Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.
Review:
At the Central International School, they have a lock in every year where the high school students spend the night together at the school. This year, one student, Marisa, plans a protest. She gets a few students to join her in chaining themselves to the doors, and literally locking everyone in the school. She does this to get a list of demands completed by the school, which involve preserving the environment and stopping the destruction of the oceans. Throughout the protest, students and teachers have to find a way to either comply with Marisa’s demands or find a way to escape the school.
This story was quite intense at times. There were some dangerous moments for the students locked in the school. Marisa had made provisions to make sure they would have food and supplies, and she had also removed all tools from the school so no one could break through the chains.
I was reminded of lockdowns at my former school while I was reading this book. Though the students weren’t dealing with an active dangerous threat like a shooter, they had to adjust to being held hostage by one of their peers. They were relatively safe, but there is always an element of fear in the unknown, when you don’t know how someone will react to certain things or any kind of accidents. There was loads of this kind of tension in this story.
I really enjoyed this book!
Thank you Inkyard Press for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
Author Info:
Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City. He attended college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He’s now back in Mexico City, where he writes, coaches basketball, and makes every dish he eats as spicy as possible. In addition to Mexico, he’s lived in Tel Aviv, Las Vegas and Monterey, California. His books include Let’s Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, and North of Happy. Visit Adi online at http://www.SomewhereOverTheSun.com, or on Twitter: @AdiAlsaid.
Have you read We Didn’t Ask for This? What did you think of it?
This blog meme is hosted by Book Date. It is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It’s a great post to organize yourself. It’s an opportunity to visit and comment, and er… add to that ever growing TBR pile!
What I just finished:
This weekend I finished We Didn’t Ask for This by Adi Alsaid.
What I’m currently reading:
I’m currently reading Gotham High by Melissa de la Crus and Thomas Pitilli (illustrator).
What I’m reading next:
Next I will be reading Rules for Being a Girl by Candace Bushnell and Katie Cotugno.
What are you guys reading this week? Have you read any of these books?
The meme that dares to ask what book has been in your bed this morning? Come share what book you’ve spent time curled up reading in bed, or which book you wish you had time to read today! This meme is hosted by Midnight Book Girl.
This Sunday I’m reading We Didn’t Ask for This by Adi Alsaid.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Central International School’s annual lock-in is legendary. Bonds are made. Contests are fought. Stories are forged that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.
This year’s lock-in begins normally enough. Then a group of students led by Marisa Cuevas stage an ecoprotest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met.
Some students rally to their cause…but others are aggrieved to watch their own plans fall apart.
Amira has trained all year to compete in the school decathlon on her own terms. Peejay intended to honor his brother by throwing the greatest party CIS has ever seen. Kenji was looking forward to making a splash at his improv showcase. Omar wanted to spend a little time with the boy he’s been crushing on. Celeste, adrift in a new country, was hoping to connect with someone—anyone. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide how far she’ll go to attain them.
Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.
Title: Imagine Me (Shatter Me #6) Author: Tahereh Mafi Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy Publisher: HarperCollins Source: Purchased Format: Hardcover Release Date: March 31, 2020 Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
The explosive finale to the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shatter Me series.
Juliette Ferrars.
Ella Sommers.
Which is the truth and which is the lie?
Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrong—between Ella and Juliette—blur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control.
The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But she may not get to choose what side she fights on.
Review:
Ella and her friends continue their battle against the Reestablishment in this story. It starts with an attack by her sister, Emmaline. I can’t give too much away without spoiling the story, but there were some epic battles throughout this book.
I’m so surprised at how my feelings towards characters have changed throughout the series. Ones who I loved at the beginning, I couldn’t stand at the end. At the same time, ones that I was suspicious of in the first book became my favourites by the end of the series. There was a lot of character development and change throughout the series.
I was satisfied with how the book ended, but I really want more information. There was a long epilogue that takes place after everything has happened, but it left me with a bunch of questions. There were some gaps in the time between the final battle and the epilogue, and I’d love to know what happened during that time. There was also one of the original characters who I think deserved more space to tell their story at the end of the book.
I really enjoyed this book and this series. I hope we can one day revisit these characters!
What to read next:
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
Have you read Imagine Me? What did you think of it?
This is a weekly meme hosted Devouring Books. This week’s prompt is Books to Read While in Quarantine, so I decided to list my favourite series to binge read. Here’s my list:
1. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
2. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
3. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
4. The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer
5. The Folk of the Air by Holly Black
(All book covers from Goodreads)
If you’d like to do this list too, consider yourself tagged!
Title: In Five Years Author: Rebecca Serle Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canda Source: Publisher via NetGalley Format: Ebook Release Date: March 10, 2020 Rating: ★★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
Where do you see yourself in five years?
When Type-A Manhattan lawyer Dannie Cohan is asked this question at the most important interview of her career, she has a meticulously crafted answer at the ready. Later, after nailing her interview and accepting her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, Dannie goes to sleep knowing she is right on track to achieve her five-year plan.
But when she wakes up, she’s suddenly in a different apartment, with a different ring on her finger, and beside a very different man. The television news is on in the background, and she can just make out the scrolling date. It’s the same night—December 15—but 2025, five years in the future.
After a very intense, shocking hour, Dannie wakes again, at the brink of midnight, back in 2020. She can’t shake what has happened. It certainly felt much more than merely a dream, but she isn’t the kind of person who believes in visions. That nonsense is only charming coming from free-spirited types, like her lifelong best friend, Bella. Determined to ignore the odd experience, she files it away in the back of her mind.
That is, until four-and-a-half years later, when by chance Dannie meets the very same man from her long-ago vision.
Brimming with joy and heartbreak, In Five Years is an unforgettable love story that reminds us of the power of loyalty, friendship, and the unpredictable nature of destiny.
Review:
Dannie has her life planned out for the next five years. Everything is going exactly as planned when she lands her dream job and gets engaged. However, she has a dream that she wakes up in a strange apartment with a strange man exactly five years later. She thinks it must be a dream, until she meets that man. She becomes conflicted between following her trajectory or continuing toward the life she saw in her future.
My feelings toward Dannie’s situation kept changing throughout the book. At first, I was sure that the future Dannie saw wouldn’t happen. She was meant to be with David and live in their dream apartment. However, something happens halfway through that changed my mind about the future. Suddenly, Dannie’s goals didn’t seem as certain as they did at the beginning.
I read a book last year, where the author spoke about the invisible staircase. We think that we can see the direction that our life is heading, but the future is actually an invisible staircase because we can’t see what will happen. When we go through hard times, we think it will stay that way forever, but we can’t predict what will happen in the future. We only realize this when we look back a few years and realize we have changed a lot in that time. I was reminded of this idea throughout this book. Dannie thinks she can see what she’s planned for the next five years, but then she sees that she will be in completely different circumstances in five years. It also brings up the question of fate, and whether we can change things that will happen or if they are planned out, even if we try to take a different route.
I loved this book and I highly recommend it!
Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
What to read next:
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver
Have you read In Five Years? What did you think of it?
This is a weekly meme hosted by Laurie Reads and Niffler Reads. Every Friday, they post a list of bookish things based on the prompt they provided. The prompts for Feb to May can be found here.
This week’s prompt is Overhyped Books. Here’s my list:
Battle Angel Alita, Vol. 1 by Yukito Kishiro
Don’t You Cry by Mary Kubica
The Reckoning of Noah Shaw (The Shaw Confessions #2) by Michelle Hodkin
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
Jill's Book Blog 