February Wrap Up ’17

February was a pretty good month for me. I read a few audio books, graphic novels, and eARCs. A pretty good mixture I’d say.

    

• Fangirl | 3 stars – This book was good, but the plot was too slow for me. It’s very much character driven but I kept zoning out a few times. Also I don’t remeber if I included this in my wrap up last month? I finished it at the beginning of February but I don’t remember.
• Everything Leads to You | 4 stars – This book was all kinds of cute! I loved it.
• Aristotle and Dante | 4 stars – I am glad I finally picked up this book! I am so in love with Ari and Dante!
• The Inexplicable Logic of My Life | 3 stars – After some thought I realized I had a few problems with this book and had to drop my rating to 3 stars. Though I still very much liked the story and the characters, there was too many stereotypes and offensive sentences. They bothered while reading and I failed to mention them in my review. I updated my review so if you’re interested, you can read it here.
• The Bone Witch | DNF – I forgot to picture this book because I ended up having to DNF it. I didn’t finish this book because I was too confused and it was too slow to keep my interest. I am bummed. You can read my review here

The audio books

  

• City of Glass | 5 stars – reread and I loved it!
• 13 Reasons Why | 2 stars – I didn’t like this book. I don’t even know why Hannah included Clay in her little tapes game. Oh well, I just wanted to read it before the tv show.
• The Runaway Queen | 1 star – oof this was also a reread and I only listened to it because I don’t remember much about the bane chronicles. But listening through this I quickly remembered why I didn’t like this novella lol. It was just so boring. The novellas that included TID were my favorite and I should have just listened to those instead. But this was narrated by Athelstan from Vikings so I am not completely complaining 😉

The graphic novels

Nimona | 4 stars – SO CUTE! I loved the story and the artwork!

Ms Marvel Vol 1 | 4 stars – OH MY GOD THIS WAS FANTASTIC!  I loved that Ms. Marvel is a Muslim teen and this it’s fantastic that she is included. I can’t wait to read more because I am ashamed how behind I am.

In Real Life | 3 stars – this was cute. I enjoyed the artwork but I felt like the plot was a little flat. The ending was too quickly resolved. Which I guess is okay considering it;s a graphic novel but I don’t know. Still entertaining though.

the Poetry

I absolutely loved the little doodles that went with some poems and thought they added a special touch. However, some poems didn’t really scream original to me. Some were just a small sentence of things that I’ve seen quotes twitters tweet over and over. But I still really liked this poetry collection and can’t wait to read more.

Well there you have it. What was your favorite book in feb? have you read any of these books before? lets discuss xxoo

 

The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Title: The Inexplicable Logic of My Life

Author: Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Publisher:  Clarion Books

Released: March 7, 2017

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary

Pages: 464

Format: eARC

From the multi-award-winning author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe comes a gorgeous new story about love, identity, and families lost and found.

Sal used to know his place with his adoptive gay father, their loving Mexican-American family, and his best friend, Samantha. But it’s senior year, and suddenly Sal is throwing punches, questioning everything, and realizing he no longer knows himself. If Sal’s not who he thought he was, who is he?

This humor-infused, warmly humane look at universal questions of belonging is a triumph.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are my own.

EDIT: After careful thought, I have changed my rating and review of this book. Additions and chagnes are marked by *

After I read Aristotle and Dante  I knew I had to get my hands on Benjamin Alire Sáenz new book immediately. His poetic, thought provoking writing instantly captured me and this book did not disappoint. It feels very much like Ari and Dante with the big existentialist crises. finding your place in the world, and figuring out what type of person you want to me. The  Inexplicable Logic of My Life will make you cry, laugh, and feel so much love for these characters whose emotions practically drip off the page.

While, this book has no real plot (it is very character driven) I found it very entertaining. Sal and his best friend Sam are going through their senior year of high school when life throws them some pretty hard curve balls. Now dealing with death and grief plus all the very normal teenage obstacles Sal and Sam must figure out what to do and who they want to be. The way these characters deal with grief was so inspiring and real.

Salvador was raised by his gay father, Vicente, who took him in when his mother died when he was three. Sal is struggling. He doens’t know who his mother was. He doesn’t remember her. Plus he has no idea who the man who shares his genes is. Or if he wants to. While Sal felt very much like Ari did (his voice was almost the same in my opinion) I felt for him. He is lost and suddenly he has this anger inside of him that he doesn’t know where it came from and is scared that he’s turning into some unrecognizable. And bad.

Sal has one of the best families I have seen in a while in a contemporary. Vicente is seriously Dad Goals. He is so understanding, yet protective. He gives Sal the space he needs to figure stuff out all while still being there for him. He literally adopts every one of Sal’s friends just because they need a father and someone to love them. My heart is so filled with love because of Vicente. I honestly would love to spend the day with Sal, Sam, Fito, Vicente, Mima, and Marcos because they are all so amazing and trust me, you’ll fall in love with them.

While I would have liked a more direct plot (and maybe 100ish less pages) I  enjoyed this book. It broke my heart a few times while reading it  which led to some tears, but I am so glad I was given the chance to read this.

*However, there were a few problems that I didn’t like at all. First of all, Sam was a bitch. She was arrogant and so full of herself. Sal constantly narrates that Sam “wasn’t like other girls” and pretty much justifies her actions and calling every other girl a bitch, when she is must worse. She has an awful attitude and berates Sal whenever he begins to “not act like himself.” Yeah, no kidding. He has stuff going on, Sam! Then when something awful happens to her and Sal says he wants to punch the guy who “hurt” her she gets upset when he does just that. I won’t say any spoilers, but Sal wanting to punch this guy’s lights out is completely understandable. What isn’t understandable? Sam accepting his apology as if he just kissed another girl in front of her. No. This guy is scum and she shouldn’t have been within 2 feet of him! Another problem, I hated all the stereotypes and terms that I found a bit offensive, such as “for a gay guy, my dad was pretty straight.” That kind of made me really sad to read. Especially coming from the author that wrote Ari and Dante.

*Though I did have some problems and acknowledge it’s problematic material, I did enjoy it for its rep and diverse cast. I appreciate the display of grief. But I have to say that Ari and Dante is still my favorite.