My thoughts on 13 Reasons Why – Season 2

So whilst this post is not entirely book related it has obvious book connections so here we are.

I, like a lot of people, was anxious when Netflix announced a second season had been commisioned for 13 Reasons Why, a show based on the book of the same name by Jay Asher. The first season had made such an impact on wider society; people were actually talking about suicide and rape and not in hushed voices. Some saw the show as controversial and I think this only helped the conversation progress further. I was worried a second season would take away the social impact but I was more worried that Hannah’s story would be dragged out and lose its integrity. I had no need to be worried.

In this second series, we again follow each character’s story over 13 episodes. Hannah Baker’s parents have taken Hannah’s school to court, claiming that they did not do enough to help Hannah and this, in turn, led to her suicide. As each person is put on trial, either in defense of Hannah or in defense of the school, we find out the stories behind the ones Hannah told and the secrets she tried to hide.

After watching the first episode I was sceptical; it wasn’t until the second or third episode that I realised what the writers were trying to achieve. Season One (and the book) we listen to Hannah’s story through her own words left on cassette tapes but essentially Hannah was an unreliable narrator as we all know there are two sides (minimum) to every story. Season 2 focuses on the secrets Hannah did not tell us and how the events leading up to her death were experienced by the other characters.

This season is just as important, if not more so than its first. I realised that I had got so caught up in Hannah’s original story that I believed her every word. When other parts of her life were brought to light in this series, it made me question everything she had said on the tapes. If she was twisting the truth on this aspect of her story then what about the rest?

I am not going to ruin this story for those who will watch it, I’m not that person, all I can say is give the second season a go if you have seen the first or read the book but please DO NOT watch this show if you will find it triggering. At the beginning of the first episode and at the end of every episode there is a website (13reasonswhy.info) to go to if you need help, alternatively there is some information below – please don’t ever feel like you are alone because someone will listen, you just need to reach out to the right people.

United Kingdom – 

Samaritans

DIAL: 116123 (free)

http://www.samaritans.org

United States – 

Crisis Text Line

If you are in crisis, reach out for help. Text REASON to 741741.

http://www.crisistextline.org

Free, 24/7, confidential.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

DIAL: 1-800-273-8255

http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org

Australia- 

Lifeline

DIAL: 13 11 14

http://lifeline.org.au

Suicide Call Back Service

DIAL: 1300 659 467

http://suicidecallbackservice.org.au

Canada- 

Suicide Prevention

Find the number for your local crisis centre at:

https://suicideprevention.ca/need-help/

For all other countries please visit 13reasonswhy.info to find information specific to you.

King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard Review

3.75*

It’s been a busy week with lots of extra shifts at work and celebrations for the royal wedding but I did manage to finish King’s Cage.

If I’m honest I really struggled reading this book, unlike the first and second book in the Red Queen series I found the pace of the story quite slow and I think this affected the pace at which I read it. With Glass Sword it took maybe 50% of the book before it really got started and with King’s Cage I would say this was closer to 75%. This isn’t to say that the first three-quarters of the book were bad because it wasn’t, it was just a slow build.

I particularly enjoyed the character progression of Maven. At the end of Glass Sword the only thing I felt for him was pure hatred but now I feel so conflicted. He was made into a monster by his mother and now I pity him but I also can’t forgive him.

A stand out change from the 2nd installment to this one was the alternating POV. I found that Cameron’s voice felt different enough from Mare’s, however, Evangeline’s felt too similar to me. Evangeline is one of my favourite characters and I felt like her character was somehow going backwards in King’s cage. I understand that in the final book in this series we will be getting even more characters perspectives so I am hoping that their voices are unique enough to differentiate.

I am really over the Cal and Mare I love you, no, I hate you, wait I love you, storyline. The first time it may have worked but now it’s just too overdone. I understand that characters are not supposed to be perfect, that we all have flaws and so should they, but their ‘romance’ is not so believable at the moment.

I really want to enjoy this series and the majority of the time I do but Mare and her ego are irritating me. I will, of course, be reading the final installment of this series because I am excited for this story to come together, I just hope, and beg, that I will get the ending this series deserves.

The Mystery Blogger Award

Thank you Velvet Spade Reads for my nomination, this has been really fun to do!

Here we go: 🙂

Rules:

• Display award logo
• List the rules
• Thank the person that nominated you!
• Mention and link the award creator: Okoto Enigma
• Tell your readers three things about yourself
• Answer the questions from the person who nominated you
• Nominate 10 – 20 people
• Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice

Three Things About Myself:

1. I live in a town called Luton in England. It’s a large town only 30 miles outside of London. If you google Luton you will probably come across a lot of negative news articles but I love my town. For each negative, there are so many positives and the majority of people are lovely. It is a hugely multicultural town which some people like to write about as if this is terrible but I truly believe growing up in a school with people from all over the globe has left me an open and accepting person. In fact, I now work for charities in my town that are about bringing people from different cultures together to improve the community.
2. I suffer from mental health problems. Hey, I’m not ashamed and I am sick of the stigma. I have something called Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (also known as Borderline Personality Disorder) It sounds scary but it’s really not. It means I struggle to regulate my emotions so something that I should be able to brush off without a thought can haunt me for a long time. It also means the emotions I feel can be felt a lot stronger than someone else. Sure, if that emotion is sadness then it sucks but when I am happy it’s the best feeling and if I am in love I love with everything I am. I am getting better with the ‘negative emotions’ but sometimes it hurts and it’s a struggle. Right now I am just trying to fill my life with so many positives that they outweigh the negative.
3. I met the 8th Doctor and he kissed my hand! I’m a huge Doctor Who fan and when I met Paul McGann he kissed my hand and I honestly thought I was going to pass out.

Five Questions from Velvet Spade Reads

• What is that one book you own that you would NEVER lend out to anyone for fear that you might never get it back? (Either due to nostalgia or because you love the book too much to let it go)

Before my Grandma passed away she gave me her Good Housekeeping Recipe Book that was a wedding present for her and my Grandad in the 1950s. It’s falling apart on the pages of her favourite recipes and has occasional splashes of cake batter and who knows what else. It might not be the kind of book you expected me to have said but to me this cookbook is the most valuable book I own, it’s a piece of an amazing woman.

• Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors or go into the future and meet your great-great grandchildren?

I would definitely go back and meet my ancestors. I would be gutted if I went into the future only to discover I never had children. I would want to write down every story my ancestors told me so when I came back I could tell everyone the dramatic story of my family, because from based on what I already know my family line is one big rollercoaster.

• If you could go on a two week vacation tomorrow (& of course money is not an issue) where would you go?

Greece with my Mum. When I was 9/10 I did a school project where you had to plan a holiday somewhere in the world and I picked Greece. My Mum helped me with the project as she had been before and for the past 15 years we have said that one day we will go and visit everywhere I mentioned in my project. One day we will get there 🙂

• If you were given a lifetime supply of anything in the world, what would you choose?

Books are the obvious answer so I will try and pick something else, hmmmm. If not books then a lifetime supply of theatre tickets please, I’m a sucker for a musical!

• Good news or bad news first?

Good news first, just so I can have a little bit more happiness before whatever comes next.

My Five Questions:

1. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, which one would you pick?
2. You have been made King/Queen of a small country, what would your country be called and what would your first law be?
3. You are given the option of knowing the exact date and time of your death or staying blissfully unaware, which would you pick?
4. If you were told you could be an expert in any one thing instantly, what would you pick?
5. What one stereotype about your country do you want the whole world to know is wrong?

I nominate:

Book Drunk

The Bibliophagist

Bobbi

Erin’s Bookish Faves

The Book Raven

The Unabridged Reader

Bionic Book Worm

No pressure if you don’t fancy doing it 🙂

Scythe by Neal Shusterman Book Review

4.75* Wow, just wow!

Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.

In Neal Shusterman’s Scythe, we all live in a world with no disease, no war, and no death; we are immortal. Because of this the earth is becoming overcrowded and Scythes are responsible for gleaning, essentially killing, random members of the population to combat this.

After both Rowan and Citra encounter Scythe Faraday they are offered scythe apprenticeships where they learn the physical, emotional and intellectual skills they will need, but only one will receive their Scythe ring at the end of the year. Neither of them wants it but one of them will get it.

This book has taken me on a complete rollercoaster and I absolutely loved it. Never have a read a book that left me debating my own morality as much as Scythe. Would I want to be a Scythe? Would I be a good Scythe? Or would I be one of the sycophants sucking up to the Scythes in the hope of a short immunity? I don’t know but I have loved thinking about it!

Citra and Rowan’s character development was truly a work of art. Citra’s loyalty and Rowan’s harrowing internal conflict made them so believable. Scythe Goddard was truly despicable, I hated him with such a passion I forgot he was words on a page.

I enjoyed the pace of the book, I think my only complaint about this book would be the cringey so-called romance. Hormones tend to send people crazy, especially teenagers, but sometimes in Scythe it bordered on the ridiculous.

Would I recommend reading this, you’re damn right I would!

As I showed you in my Book Haul I have already bought the next book in the series. I’m going to try and be patient and read something else in between but I can see the next book out of the corner of my eye and it’s calling me.

3 Days, 3 Quotes Book Tag Day 3

It’s the last day of the book tag already! Thanks again to Sara @ The Bibliophagist for tagging me.

The Rules
1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Post a quote for 3 consecutive days (1 quote for each day)
3. Nominate three new bloggers each day

My last quote comes from Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist. I read this book whilst volunteering in Uganda nearly 3 years ago and it’s one of only a few books I’ve read that has stayed with me. The quote I picked makes me smile every time I see it, I hope it makes you smile too.

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting”

 

I tag:

• You, yes you, the person reading this right now!

Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard Review

3.75*

I absolutely loved Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and I was so excited to keep reading Mare’s story but for the first, maybe 50% of this story I found myself bored and really struggled to keep reading. It wasn’t because the writing changed at all; there was just a lack of action when compared to the first in the series where it felt like action was on every page.

Despite this, the book really picked up when Mare and her crew started recruiting other ‘newbloods’. Mare has a lot more anger in her in Glass Sword and to me that makes so much sense. Instead of breaking down completely she put on a front which I found very true to life. Yes, occasionally I found her inflated ego really irritating, but a character needs flaws.

I really disliked Farley in Red Queen but I was surprised by how much I wanted her character to grow in Glass Sword. Kilorn still annoys me, and I feel the urge to punch both Princes at different stages of this book, one more than the other!

I don’t want to go too much into the story as I don’t want to risk spoiling it for anyone who hasn’t read it, but that ending…seriously Victoria Aveyard knows how to finish a book and leave the reader begging for more.

Because of the disappointing start I gave this book 3.75*/5*. With the 4^th instalment to this series, War Storm, coming out soon I am hoping to read book 3 very soon.

3 Days, 3 Quotes Book Tag Day 2

Thanks again to Sara @ The Bibliophagist for the tag!

The Rules
1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Post a quote for 3 consecutive days (1 quote for each day)
3. Nominate three new bloggers each day

Yesterday I finished reading Glass Sword, the 2nd book in the Red Queen series, and came across this quote. Unrequited love is a pain in the arse and this quote says it all!

“We can’t choose who we love. I wish, more than anything, that we could.”

 

I tag:

• @ Life Should Be Lit
• @ Abigail’s Tales
• @ Samantha the Reader

 

• If you’d rather not be tagged, let me know 🙂
• Let me know if you like doing tags and I’ll remember you next time!

3 Day, 3 Quotes Book Tag

I was tagged by Sara @ The Bibliophagist to do the 3 Days 3 Quotes Challenge. Thank you!

The Rules
1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Post a quote for 3 consecutive days (1 quote for each day)
3. Nominate three new bloggers each day

The first quote is one of my all-time favourite writers, Ernest Hemingway. I was visiting Paris with my Mum and decided there would be no better time to read his novel ‘A Moveable Feast’. I occasionally write a little bit (I did a degree in Creative Writing) and this quote really helps me when I have the damn block.

“Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”

 

I tag:

• Justina @Book Drunk
• Shane @thebluegreenreader
• Tiana @The Book Raven

 

• If you’d rather not be tagged, let me know 🙂
• Let me know if you like doing tags and I’ll remember you next time!

Book Haul!

 

 

I have books! Yesterday I went to the Waterstones in Piccadilly Circus, London, with my gorgeous friend Bobbi and I bought 7 books…yay for payday. Firstly I want to talk about this bookshop because, damn, it was a pretty bookshop.

Obviously, I headed straight to the YA section, I had a few books I knew I wanted from there before I went for a wander around the rest of the shop.

So many books and so little money! In the YA section I bought…

Scythe by Neal Shusterman keeps popping up on my Goodreads and Amazon so I caved. I am so convinced that I will love this book from the description and reviews that I bought the second in the series as well.

I’m really looking forward to reading Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen. My friend and I will be buddy reading this and I can’t wait to review this for you lovely people.

I have heard nothing but good things for Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. I get wary of books with so much hype but I am really hoping this lives up to it.

That’s it for YA, the last 3 books I bought came from the fantasy section of the shop.

This book comes highly recommended by a friend of mine. I haven’t read a book set in a circus before, mainly because I am petrified by clowns, but I am going to give this a go.

My mum is a huge Joanne M. Harris fan and I really wanted to read a book based on Norse Mythology so this was an obvious choice.

And lastly…

I know absolutely nothing about this book but the blurb really grabbed me…

Sounds good right?!

So there you have it, 7 books and a very happy shopper. Now comes the best part…reading. But which one should I start with?

I hope you are having a lovely weekend wherever you are.

Anya x

p.s. check out my friend Bobbi’s blog as she documents her journey to self-improvement https://bobbisquestblog.wordpress.com/

Bookshop Haul Coming Soon

Tomorrow I am off to London to visit the biggest book shop in Europe! The Waterstones in Piccadilly Circus has over 8 miles of shelving…be still my beating heart.

I will take pictures if I can and will update you on my purchases soon.

Anya x