The first
thought that crossed my mind after finishing this book was DISAPPOINTMENT
EVERYWHERE. The main reason I wanted to read it was I just finished Anna and
the French Kiss and, for some unknown reason, I imagined My Life next Door
would be as great as Anna, just because both of them where contemporary
romances. What a mistake.
The story
follows Samantha, a teenage girl who seems to have everything a girl would
want: beauty, money, good grades and a way too perfect mom, who happens to be a
politician. Yet, Samantha is not as happy as everyone thinks she is. Her mother
is distant, strict, not at all affectionate and seems to never be at home.
However, in order to escape this life, Sam seeks refuge in stalking her
neighbours: the Garrets. Every night she watches them from her rooftop perch,
wishing she belonged to a family like that. Yet, one night, one of them, Jase
Garret, climbs up next to her and changes everything. The problem is: Sam has
to hide Jase from her mother and sister since his family is all what Grace Reed,
Sam’s mom, hates: a noisy, overcrowded family who are messy, but lovable.
The problem
with this book was, I think, I expected too much of it, I had very high
expectations which, of course, were not fulfilled. For you to have an idea,
what I did not like about this book was:
1- The writing style. I couldn’t
connect with it. It was untidy and not beautiful at all. That, I think, was the
main problem. If you don’t like an author’s writing, it’s less likely that
you’ll enjoy a book. Of course this is very personal, so despite my not liking
it, it does not mean that you’ll feel the same way about it.
2- They fall in love with each other
too quickly, it doesn’t feel real. I understand the fact that they’re
teenagers, but the love they feel is too deep for just having spent only a
couple of months together.
3- The drama with Sam’s mother. Oh my
God, the drama. It upsets me just to think about it. (I’ll not say anything
else since I don’t want to spoil you, though.)
All these things been said, I must add: this
is a fun and refreshing love story, something nice to put your hands on after
reading a George R. R. Martin book, which is full of misery. The book keeps you
entertained enough, yet I can’t assure you that once you finish it, you’ll feel
light-hearted and happy or that you’ll think about it for a while. A good,
slow-paced and well-developed story, yet easy to forget and it’s definitely not
in my reread list.
Everything is about to end, even the lies. After the Gladers made their way to the Berg, Thomas is drugged and confined in isolation for a couple of weeks, separated from his friends and being told more and more lies every minute gone by. Now, WICKED claims that the time for lies has ended, but Thomas remembers far more things about his past than WICKED could ever imagine and knows better than to believe them. Thomas has solved the Maze and made though the Scorch alive, but the final stage is coming and he has to prove it all.
What can I say about James Dashner that I haven’t said before? James is absolutely great at storytelling. He knows how to create suspense and keep it going until the very ending of every chapter, making you automatically want to read the next one, with a burning desire to know what’s going to happen to these characters that we all so well love. Dashner has a spectacular talent, too: creating a marvellous dystopian world (one of the best I’ve ever read, so good you surely don’t want anything happening there to happen here, because I could handle a dystopia like Divergent, but certainly not this,) and including a large number of plot twists which are eventually solved (something that not many writers achieve, since they create so many that they end up forgetting about half of them.) The writing is so good that it keeps impressing me. He does not describe to the end of boredom, just the necessary amount to keep you wanting to read more and more from him. To make it short and sweet, he’s just and excellent writer, and if you like dystopias, you certainly should read this wonderful, talented man.
Regarding the book itself, it wasn’t as full of pain and misery as I expected it to, which was rather confusing. Yet, not disappointing. The Death Cure is a perfect, satisfactory ending for this amazing series. Nothing has been left unsolved and we get to know WICKED and the world James has created thoroughly. In this third and concluding book, we get a great deal of action and adrenaline. It takes away your breath and makes your heart stop several times a chapter. Such feelings aren’t found anywhere, so what are you waiting to experience them all during these three amazing books?
Thank you for reading! Kisses.
Annabelle.
If you’ve read my review on the Maze Runner, you’ll realize that I share the same feelings: Oh, what a marvellous, breathtaking read.
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end, it meant freedom, it meant a normal life, but WICKED has other plans for the gladers and Phase Two is just beginning. After escaping the Maze and being rescued by what they thought were terrorists, the gladers feel a sense of safety for the first time only to panic all over again a couple of hours later. Now Teresa has disappeared, she has been ripped out of Thomas’s mind, the gladers have been infected with the Flare and a strange man delivers a mission to these boys: Thomas and his friends have to make it through the Scorch, the most burned-out section in the world, alive in order to get the cure for the Flare. The problem is now there would be no help, no supplies, no rules. But this time, the gladers are not alone, there is another group, Group B, who are determined to kill them to save themselves. This is mainly what the book is about. To tell you more would mean to spoil you. So this review would not take too long.
I’ll start telling you something about the author’s writing, but let me just copy and paste what I wrote in my first review, because I still think the same and I’m sure it’ll never change: “Regarding the writing style, I found myself really enjoying it. Dashner has a wonderful way of narrating events and his descriptions are full and concise, he doesn’t add unnecessary words, something I fully love. Moreover, I adore authors who manage to keep the tension towards the last sentences of a chapter, making your heart stop once you’ve read the last phrase, and he achieves it completely!”
To start with, this book was literal AMAZEMENT in all the possible senses of that word. James Dashner just takes your heart from your chest and tosses it against a wall and when you think he is going to give it back to you, he just tosses it again, without mercy. He’s so mean, but I love him and I’m going to buy his books, ALL his books, forever and ever, until one of us dies. Many people claim that The Scorch is not as good as its predecessor, that it changed the whole idea presented there, but, in my opinion, both of them are fabulous in their own way and what James narrated in this second part was just awesome. The author has created such a magnificent dystopia and has developed a group of characters that are all unique separately. And Teresa. Oh, Teresa. The reason why many people didn’t like this book was because of her. But let me tell you something: be prepared to love her even when it doesn’t seem right, because WICKED IS GOOD.
Thank you for reading! Kisses.
Annabelle.
Oh, what a marvellous, breathtaking read.
Since the very beginning, we have no idea of what’s going on. A boy, called Thomas, “lands” in the Glade not remembering where he comes from or even the smallest detail about his life up to that moment. The Glade (for you to know) is a place full of male teenagers who call themselves the Gladers and who try to live their lives as best as they can, forming a society. Every boy in the Glade has a job, contributing to the general welfare and, once a month, supplies and clothes are delivered through the Box (a sort of metal elevator) together with a new boy who has have his memory wiped. This place is surrounded by huge walls made of stone. Each morning, these walls open showing what lies outside them: the limitless, ever-changing maze, and if Thomas wants to get out of that creepy place, he and the other Gladers have to solve it. Yet, things are not that easy. Two years have passed since the first Glader appeared and since then, no one has ever been able to solve it or live through a night outside in the Maze, where eerie creatures prowl in the dark. However, now that Thomas has arrived, things are starting to change, even to the point that the very next day, a girl appears in the Glade. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
So let’s talk about my feelings towards this book: at the beginning, it was not easy to get yourself involved with the story. No one wants to answer Thomas’s questions (and therefore, mine) and that made me feel frustrated and anxious at the same time. Not to mention that the characters use some kind of strange lexicon to refer to things which, at first, is rather annoying and difficult to understand, making you wonder what the hell they are talking about. But as the story goes on and on, you end up getting accustomed to these made-up words and you realize (or at least, I realized) that they add an extra and rather unique value to this marvellous book. After finishing those pretty boring first chapters, the story became fast-paced and started to add more and more suspense and thrilling moments, filling me up with surprises every time I turned over a page and giving me goose bumps with every ending.
Regarding the writing style, I found myself really enjoying it. Dashner has a wonderful way of narrating events and his descriptions are full and concise, he doesn’t add unnecessary words, something I truly love. Moreover, I adore authors who manage to keep the tension towards the last sentences of a chapter, making your heart stop once you’ve read the last phrase, and James achieves it completely!
This is a wonderful and gripping tale about how to keep hopes up even when every light goes out and it seems there is no possible exit. You won’t want to put the book down until you finish it. It keeps you guessing what’s going on to the very ending!
Thank you for reading! Kisses
Annabelle.
