Caraval

                                                                          Caraval 

        By: Stephanie Garber 

       5/5 LOVED IT 

Caraval gets 5 stars from me for what it is in it's category of YA Fantasy, Caraval was very immersive and as claimed magical, so very magical I enjoyed every minute of the read.
Scarlett the main character is finally given a ticket to Caraval after years and years of asking the Caraval Master Legend to come to her Isle of Trisda, from which she is not aloud to step foot from. Scarlett and her little sister Tella are plagued by a cruel and abusive father, their mother went missing years ago; and Scarlett is soon to be married to a faraway Count, whom she has never met, to procure further riches and rank for her repugnant father.

The sisters and a random (handsome) sailor Julian, end up on Caraval's secluded island in time for the game and from the start embark on a mind-bending adventure, where so many people have come to compete for the grand prize of a wish. Scarlett is instructed to keep her wits about her, don't believe everything you see and or hear, and never ever get too swept up in the game. 
As a reader I had a hard time following those rules, I read with trepidation, never knowing who to trust and what was real, so who could blame Scarlett? The island is overridden with illusions and dangerous people and beautiful places that can suck you in, I loved it! It was a gorgeous setting, and Garber created such magic with her words. 
Some aspects of the story seemed juvenile to me but those "scenes" we'll call them moved on quickly and were easy for me to ignore and get right back into the story. 
The ending was confusing, but in a good way, it definitely fit with the "don't believe anything" theme, also there was a huge door left WIDE open on the very last page, I NEED a sequel now... I'm demanding it, I could do with a few more answers and of course more magic from the world of Caraval!  

                           -xoxoTHISRAVENCLAWREADER

Into The Water

                                                                      Into The Water

    By: Paula Hawkins
  3.5/5 LIKED IT

I enjoyed reading this book don't get me wrong, I was never dragging to get through it...but compared to The Girl On The Train  also by Paula Hawkins, Into the Water was not up to par. I figured out the twist pretty early on and Hawkins tries to evade it by throwing false lines and hints towards the reader, It all felt very simple to me, (especially the ending. ugh too easy) the "who done-it" gets passed to literally every character we meet... it's overkill and very obvious in my opinion.
On a positive note the scene capturing and descriptions are wonderful, the town of Beckford seems very picturesque and lovely, despite it's surly and tempestuous inhabitants. The river and "drowning pool" that is central in this novel and is frequented by all of the characters is also a figment of great allure and beauty, I loved imagining the town and all it's little houses and of course it's natural beauty.
I really enjoyed the character of Nel Abbott, who is dead from the start of this book and looked forward to the flashbacks of her writing or of her younger self, conversely I could not stand Jules her little sister, who comes to aid Nel's daughter Lena in her loss and reclaim their childhood home, the two sisters are estranged and the reason is so heartbreaking... and irritating; communication with friends and family is invaluable, one day they might be gone and you'll never get to clear the air, which is a scary prospect and very sad. Assuming things about the people close to you can be very consequential, overall it's an okay book I think it's definitely worth a shot for any mystery lover, it was simple for me but had some high points and like I said is not bad! 

                                  - xoxo THISRAVENCLAWREADER

The Shuddering

The Shuddering

Ania Ahlborn

5/5 MUST READ 

The Shuddering was so good ! I would recommend this book to any lover of horror, It had a distinctive Until Dawn vibe. (Until Dawn is a PS4 game, in which the outcome of is influenced by your choices along the way,I highly recommend that game as well.)
Ahlborn has such a talent, the creatures in this story just crawl off the pages and the secluded snowy mountain/cabin setting in her hands is so immersive. The terror and claustrophobia of such a vast space is hard to portray and she nailed it- it's a page turner. Another stand out point for me is something you don't get from too many horror plots, is the connection to the characters, the more you read the more you know them and grow the insatiable need for them to get to go home a live happily ever after and then you remember what your reading and that's most likely not going to happen. From very early on in the story I loved Sawyer, Jane and her twin Ryan, they have so much to hope for but I read with a heavy heart knowing that they probably weren't going to ever leave their fancy cabin in the mountains...and the ending AHH! I need to know more !
Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to binge read everything Ania Ahlborn has written.-I'm obsessed.

                        -xoxoTHISRAVENCLAWREADER

All the Missing Girls

All the Missing Girls

By: Megan Miranda

4/5 LOVED IT

All the Missing Girls was so very good, it kept me on my toes from page one, no exaggeration! This book was so enticing right off the bat, this may or may not be because of the way the story is told ... Backwards! Starting at "Day 1" on which Nicolette aka Nic, our leading lady goes back to her small southern hometown to help with an ailing father (who had just sent her a very cryptic letter) and her overworked brother. The story then immediately  jumps to 2 weeks later to "Day 15"  when the plot is coming to it's climax,  then it stops , rewinds and keeps reeling backwards throwing you into the past 2 weeks of Nic's stay in Cooley Ridge one day at a time and consequently into the much darker and even more distant past.

Corrine, Nic's childhood best friend has been missing without a trace for ten years, being back in town and in her childhood home has Nic struggling with  demons from her past: memories, old friends, rumors, her first love.

When another girl in Cooley Ridge goes missing , Nic and her old comrades are front and center, suspects once again. I really appreciated  the construct of this story especially how the story-breaking secrets were revealed, because if you think about it , if you had some dark secret hidden for years and came back to the scene of the crime , it would be the first thing you thought of... on "Day 1" , not 2 weeks after you'd been there, very smart writing done here.

A huge theme of All the Missing Girls is TEENAGERS, and what dark and twisty messed up little monsters they can be, the emotions set on fire, sociopathy is almost a guarantee and what a disaster they can cause with unintentional selfishness. The teens in this story are very frustrating, but in all of the chaos there is something very sad and touching.. I know, just read it you'll understand. Again, amazingly written.

I don't have much more to say; most aspects in this story were pretty straight forward and not overly complex , that being said one thing stood out for me (as intended by the author) Loyalty; a word of which  I feel like most of us don't really experience the true meaning and we may be lucky for that in a way ,but Miranda sheds a light on that small town/family mentality with her characters and just how much one person can do for another in a million ways for no other reason then love or even just sharing blood, and doing it without a second thought no matter how reckless, how many people in this day and age would show such unbreakable solidarity for another even if they are scared to death or get nothing out of it ? My guess is not many.

I loved this book, and am so happy I read it- can't wait for more !

                                  

                                                          -xoxoTHISRAVENCLAWREADER

I Remember You

I Remember You 

By: Yrsa Sigurdardottir

5/5 MUST READ 

Oh my goodness ! I absolutely am obsessed with this book, it was the kind of read that when you finish you can't stop thinking about it and all the characters and events that fell from the pages. I never wanted it to end, I freakin' love anything paranormal or horror themed and it is so hard to find a well written ghost story that isn't cheesy, campy or too obvious and cliche. 

I Remember You was unique and was the first book I have read that took place in Iceland and was written by Sigurdardottir, what a great first impression .

This story goes between the POV of a threesome renovating an abandoned, dilapidated house in a very seculuded summer destination village that can only be reached by boat, in the beginnings of winter- they are Lif, a widow and her longtime friends Garoar and Katrin; and the POV of a Psychologist named Freyer who is a divorcee and has suffered the unimaginable tradegy of his son and only child going missing without a trace years before and has never been seen again.

The ambitious trio ignore many warnings about their new house and begin to experience strange and unexplainable phenomena ; they are trying to fix an unviable house-that's haunted- and soon learn that they were not the only ones who had ever had this goal and the former owner had failed and is now presumed dead. They also learn that a mother and child had died on this property and are buried very near to their house; could the boy have not died though?? How could he be dead if they can see him standing by the beach crying and he keeps making all these bad things happen to them... So that's not his grave then right??

Meanwhile, Freyer helping the Police investigate a vandalism of a primary school back on the mainland, finds a connection to the past- this exact thing has happened 60 years before- and now one of the class members of 60 years ago commits suicide in a church to which she does not belong and writes that she must find Benni, who is Freyer's son and another boy called Bernodus, another classmate from the first vandalism investigation who also disappeared without a trace. 

Freyr is sent into a downward spiral when he delves into this mystery and how it could possibly be connected to Benni; could he still be alive after all these years? If not then why can Freyer hear him running down the hall and calling out to him?

The way these two stories collide was perfection, and was actually very sad, I always appreciate a well thought out back story for any ghost stories. Sigurdardottir has a real skill, to create such a story that really gets the tradgedy across, this is not just a haunting, although very scary and some insidious methods were used it is a cry for help this ghost used to be a living person who could have experienced anything and needs to be absolved. I feel like in most movies that message gets lost just for the "jump scare" I loved reading the scary movie so much more it allows your imagination to really sink its teeth in and create the atmosphere and it cant be ruined by a campy stock image ghost, or terrible acting.

 ( That being said I live for scary movies campy or not and love them all, and I recently saw I Remember You is being made into a movie and you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to watch it with nothing but high hopes and excitement.... and subtitles.) 

The way this story ended was very open ended -in a good way- the kind of ending that blatantly says this cycle isn't over, problem not solved. I love love love this book and wish I could read it anew, its a real gem.

                                                                         

              XOXO-THISRAVENCLAWREADER

King's Cage

King's Cage 

By: Victoria Aveyard 

4/5 LOVED IT 

I loved this third installment in the Red Queen series the most so far! King's Cage is such an exciting fast paced book, with deep meaningful undertones, and some superb character development.

We are left off at the end of book 2 with a full blown Red rebellion underway, a heartbreaking loss, and the capture of Mare Barrow landing her in the clutches of the obsessive boy King Maven. 

Finally, all the secrets of The Scalet Guard are revealed and some serious new players in the revolution  are discovered. Piedmont a southern country much like Norta, Montfort -a "free republic" where Reds and Silvers live alongside each other as equals not enemies or slaves. (We shall see about that) - which is a new far off country  that many Nortans did not known existed has Allied with the Guard as well as some unexpected Noble Silver houses of Norta who also align themselves to the cause. CRAZY.
 First, we see a few new traits in Mare Barrow our leading lady, she is less of a martyr and more of a solider in this book and she also has to make some crazy hard choices, like wanting to get revenge for someone she lost but not taking the opportunity for the greater good, that my friends would be incredibly hard to do and props to Mare.
Also , we meet a lot of awesome Newbloods with incredible abilities and overwhelming loyalties to Mare and the Guard. There are a lot of politics in this book , but never boring and very applicable to our world today. If you are rich and born to the right family you will worry for nothing, but be just a lowly poor red blooded schmuck and your odds at success and fair treatment are signifantly less. 
All that matters to the nobles and royals of Norta is strength and power, they marry to conceive the strongest most optimal children, never for love, that's what reds do in their meaningless, trivial, and depressing lives. People are sent to war and used as pawns in a never ending struggle for power and those who profit from all the destruction are never the  people who suffer. This whole series has had the same rhetoric of inequality and how little people's lives mean to the rich and powerful, why should they care who starves or who's kids are sent to work or war when they are still children if its not their own or if it's for their own gain?
Another narrative I noticed a lot of was how people can use their own children in the coldest ways for power and selfishness, the manipulations of a child's parents can be most damaging. Maven is the screwed up boy he is because his mother quite literally twisted his brain (she is a whisper after all) and took pieces of him and added what she wanted and ultimately created a hollow monster who has only ghosts of true feelings, which is very sad and not his fault at all and in this book he is finally  showing signs of his true self trying to break free, but that being said he as a ruler is unyeilding and malevolent, I can't wait to see what Aveyard does with this character.
The other Calore brother Cal, the once heir to the thrown was also manipulated grown to know only battle and that his Kingdom's way of life - Reds are lesser beings meant to serve, and reds like it that way and Silvers are gods- is the only way and it takes a lot for him to step up and choose to sacrifice his way of life, even though at his core he is a genuinely good, and kind man. Cal has never had to make a hard choice in is life and is taught to do what the royals do and move on, no need to change a broken system if those on top stay there; it is very hard for Cal to accept that the old ways can no longer be tolerated and that change is a long fraught battle, and is always more difficult but in the end necessary. I ended up crying a little at the cliff hanger at the end of this book when Cal finally makes a damn choice and it was definitely not what I wanted but hopefully in Book 4 it will be for the best, as of right now my heart hurts a bit. Overall this is such a great series and cannot wait to read on! Aveyard sure has a lot to say about humanity and I'm hooked.  

Glass Sword

Glass Sword 

By: Victoria Aveyard 

3/5 LIKED IT 

I really liked Glass Sword, it did take me a really long time to read it but I definitely was able to get into it. Although it was never so captivating to the point of me not being able to put it down or just having to keep reading,  it was still good and well written. 

As I had previously guessed it shed a bit more light on The Scarlet Guard and how deep the veins of the rebellious group run in the country of Norta.  Glass Sword was much more "tactical" than Red Queen it's predecessor, Mare and The Gaurd are of course in the makings of a war so it only makes sense. We find out that Mare is not the only Red with a special ability (hers being able to control and create electricity.) 

Mare and Farley's rag tag group call these anomalies "New Bloods" both Silver and Red blooded . With the help from exiled and wanted (for murder of the former King) Prince Cal who was betrayed by his step-mother Queen Elara and brother Maven, who is now King, they make it their mission to hunt down the new bloods throughout the country in attempt to recruit and save them, because the saboteur King Maven knows these people exist as well and is also hunting them down but for very different reasons.

So we follow Mare and her group around on their missions and inevitable setbacks as they collect New Bloods,learn of new maddening secrets of evil intent,betrayal, anonymous groups with a secret hand in all of the mayhem, and of new lands and countries. They also strive to motivate both Silvers and Reds of Norta to join the rebellion against the Crown resulting in a civil war.

Mare meets a lot of new characters each with a lot of special abilities and strong personalities, she also meets hard and monumental decisions that are literally life and death. Prince Cal also faces very hard times, being betrayed so awfully and fighting against all he ever stood for. 

Mare succeeds at a lot of her endeavors but is faced with becoming into a hardened killer ready to use anyone at anytime for leverage and gain, we leave her at the end of Glass Sword with a HUGE win, a heart breaking loss and a terrrifying sacrifice. I'm on to King's Cage-book 3 and Cruel Crown - the prequel to Red Queen, featuring  the back stories of Queen Coriane and Diana Farley. Can't wait!

                                                                                            XOXOXOXO- THISRAVENCLAWREADER