Series Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan

Review: Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
Goodreads 
Release date: March 21, 2006--May 12th, 2009
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Series: Duh
Source: Purchased
Rating: My new obsession.




Be warned: this is probably the least intellectual review I've ever done. Here be fangirling, giffery, and keyboard-smashing.

Real talk: Before I read this series, I used to think Percy Jackson was sort of a Harry Potter rip-off. Now that I've read this series, I want to punch my past hipster self in the face.

To say I was engrossed in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series would be the understatement of my life. This series was, in fact, the binge-read of the century for me. I ate, drank, and slept this series. It consumed my every thought. I swear I was actually physically in the world of Percy and Camp Half-Blood and all the rest of them.

 

All I wanted to do for a week was read these books, and so I did. I read all five books in less than a week, and I had the best time. So good a time, really, that it's all a blur of

 

and

 

and then at the end of each installment a strong feeling of



Quick series concept overview for those who have no clue what these books are about:
Percy Jackson is a twelve-year-old troublemaker about to be kicked out of his millionth school when one day his math teacher turns into a harpy and tries to kill him. This very subtle sign clues him in to the fact that he's no ordinary boy--oh no. He is the son of a Greek God, and for reasons which you should just go with, Olympus and its denizens reside in New York City, and their children, demigods and heroes, train and sometimes live and play capture the flag in a place called Camp Half-Blood, which is a thousand times cooler than any camp you went to growing up. I promise you.

People try to kill Percy like literally all the time, and then he makes them more annoyed and they try to kill him even more, but Percy somehow always stays alive. He becomes best friends with a satyr named Grover and a brilliant daughter of Athena named Annabeth who is obviously his soul mate.

I'm not going to do full reviews for each book, and will instead review the series as a whole, but here are a few baby reviews for the individual novels:

The Lightning Thief

I'm not going to lie; it took me a few chapters to really get into the story, though I loved the character of Percy right off the bat (more about him below). A LOT of time is spent not telling Percy relevant information, like, oh, he's the son of a Greek God. Small things like that, and when he's already battled a minotaur and is at Camp Half-Blood, even (aka the training ground/summer camp for demigods). The plot was a little too episodic and questy for me, plus worldbuilding had some holes at this early stage, but they get filled later on. However, I still loved it. The updates on the Greek gods and myths were hilarious. And PERCY. And PERCY AND ANNABETH. Is it wrong to ship twelve-year-olds with the power of a million fiery suns? If so, I don't want to be right.

The Sea of Monsters

Things really pick up in this, the shortest book in the series (especially because there's a lot of Percabeth and this is obviously the most important thing). Grover becomes more fully realized as a character, plus TYSON the adorable cyclops!!! All the points for Tyson!

The Titan's Curse

 AND THIS IS WHERE THINGS GET AMAZING. AHHHHHHHHHH. Rick Riordan, I can't EVEN. The new characters in this book were amazing (Nico! Zoe! Rachel!), and the plot is gorgeous and heartbreaking (ANNABETHHHHH! Luke! SURPRISE DEATHS ALL AROUND!). The villain fully VILLAINIZES here. I was blown away by this book. I loved it so hard I can't even remember how to word right now.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Full on flaily flails falls over can't deal epically epic battle cool myths Percabeth PERCABETH oh wait so cruel utter heartbreak much pain and yet I'm laughing why is everything so perfect gahhhhhhh



I CAN'T, PHOEBE. I'M SORRY. I'M TRYING.

The Last Olympian

Perfection in book form. The big final battle starts in, like, the first third of the novel and continues all the way through. It is epic and wonderful and there are casualties and secret heroes and surprise endings to prophecies which is what Rick Riordan does and there are ships and there's my feelings going splat all over the floor.



I really meant to be more cogent in my analysis of these books. I really did.

Why you should be reading this series if you already aren't:

PERCY

What a little sass he is. Percy is the coolest kid, but he's also such a dork. He is brave and loyal and sometimes incredibly dense (particularly where girls are involved--oh, and keeping his tongue in check), but he's quick on his feet and never passes up an opportunity to be highly insulting to immortal beings who want to kill him. How can you not love that? Through all five books, all the prophecies and monsters and rogue gods and evil Titans all have it out for our Percy, but me? I loved him fiercely.

PERCY AND ANNABETH

MY SHIP. Hello brand new OTP. Throughout the series, Percy and Annabeth become best friends. They trust each other beyond all others, and there's no one else they'd choose to have their backs. And they're so different, Percy being all devil-may-care and kind of dumb about things, and Annabeth's all analytical and well-informed and likes to roll her eyes and correct Percy. And they banter and fight. And there's the smallll issue of Annabeth being in love with this other guy, Luke, but there's no good portmanteau of Annabeth and Luke, so obviously it could never work.

Percy and Annabeth. They just... I feel like... I really...



My feeeeeeeeels

This series isn't perfect, but the amount it made me feel was. The flaws vanished due to the strength of my investment. I cared so much about these characters I felt a little crazy. Like, whenever I think about Percabeth I get this painful crunched-up feeling in my chest. And omg how will I survive the Heroes of Olympus series? (SPOIL THINGS FOR ME AND YOU DIE).

Oh, the hilarity

Percy's voice is hilarious. The way Riordan modernizes the myths is hilarious. Everything is hilarious. Overall, this reading experience is fun, in exactly the way MG (and eventually MG/YA crossover) should be. I was tickled pink and giggling. I felt like I was whatever age Percy was in each installment. And Riordan really does do some amazing things with his plots and, in particular, his prophecies. Each book contains a prophecy delivered by the Oracle of Delphi that helps shape the novel's events. Riordan puts an interesting twist on the idea of the chosen one and fate. The prophecies that frame every plot are always fulfilled differently than you'd expect. Some of the surprises totally blew my mind, and they way he makes everything fit together ultimately is EPIC.



This series isn't perfect. I still don't buy one or two world-building elements, and a lot of the background characters (campers in particular) are names on the page for the first couple of books. But feeeeeels. Obsession. The flaws didn't even register, really, because I was totally, one hundred percent sold.

Well done, Rick Riordan. You've turned me into a... Percophile? A Camp Half-Blooder? A demigod? Whatever, I'm still a newbie. Your series is glorious. You deserve some Justin Finch-Fletchley slow clapping, so here you go. You've earned it, dude.

Review: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski

Review: The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Goodreads 
Release date: March 4th, 2014
Publisher: Farrar Strauss Giroux (Macmillan)
Series: #1 in The Winner's Trilogy
Source: Early unbound manuscript
Length: 355 pages
Rating: Everything could not be more perfect... except for that one thing. (And it is most definitely NOT the cover)



 Winning what you want may cost you everything you love

As a general’s daughter in a vast empire that revels in war and enslaves those it conquers, seventeen-year-old Kestrel has two choices: she can join the military or get married. But Kestrel has other intentions.

One day, she is startled to find a kindred spirit in a young slave up for auction. Arin’s eyes seem to defy everything and everyone. Following her instinct, Kestrel buys him—with unexpected consequences. It’s not long before she has to hide her growing love for Arin.

But he, too, has a secret, and Kestrel quickly learns that the price she paid for a fellow human is much higher than she ever could have imagined.

Set in a richly imagined new world, The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski is a story of deadly games where everything is at stake, and the gamble is whether you will keep your head or lose your heart.


This is going to be a tough one for me to review. The good news is, this is a fantastic book. The worldbuilding, prose, characters, concepts, and themes are all stupendous. I read this novel in one sitting. I burned the midnight oil. I burned the two am oil. I ran out of oil.

Just kidding. There's no such thing as an awesome math lecture.

I gasped in all the right places, and my god if that ending wasn't genius. So why is this a difficult review for me to write? Because every other review I've read for this book spends paragraphs gushing about the one element that didn't blow me away: the romance. Which is, if you've ever read any of my other reviews, my most favoritest part of any book.

We'll start with the good, of which there is lots. I'm not sure if Rutkoski was directly influenced by the Roman Empire, but the culture of Valoria feels very Romanesque. It is a dominant, austere, logical country with a vast military that swallows up other cultures and countries around it, steals their land and their resources, and turns their people into slaves. Such is the fate for the Herrani, who find themselves conquered and enslaved and are not too thrilled about it. Rutkoski creates such a deep and fascinating political landscape for her story. I could see the marketplaces and the people. I could feel the tension between them. I understood what being a Valorian meant and what growing up in that culture would be like. Rutkoski is a master at giving you a sense of place without info dumping in the slightest.



Kestrel, our main main character, is the wealthy daughter of a Valorian general. She is brilliant, strategic, and smart. She's also and secretly kind, which is shown in the opening scene when she buys a handsome Herrani slave to save him from a worse fate (it doesn't sound like a nice thing, but it is). Of course, that slave is our other main character, Arin, and he has secrets of his own--namely that he is not the uneducated, passive laborer he claims to be.

Kestrel is my girl. She could out-logic and outmaneuver the best of men, and she does it over and over again in The Winner's Curse. In fact, one of the main themes of the novel is the concept of the pyrrhic victory, that by winning, you really lose. Every victory in TWC is somewhat of an empty victory. People gain what they wanted at great cost, and it's totally tragic and beautiful. Arin is fiery and full of revenge and passion, and while I didn't connect to him quite as much as I did Kestrel, the way Rutkoski slowly reveals his secrets and softens his personality was masterfully done.

"But Gillian!" you're probably thinking. "This sounds like a rave! What's the issue?" Well, my issue is both a minor and a major one. The good news is, I've only found one other blogger who had the same issue as I did, which means, statistically, you probably won't share my feelings. The bad news is, the weakness of this one element weakened my enjoyment of the novel as a whole, because it hit me right where my readerly heart lives: the feels. The romance.

The ship.



I'm sorry, Thor. I'm so sorry. I'll tell you. It has all the bones of a Gillian romance. Arin and Kestrels are enemies. She is a Valorian, one of the conquerors. He is Herrani, one of the conquered. She is a wealthy mistress, and he is her slave. They are both full of strategy and brilliance, and they like nothing better than to spar with their minds and their words.

And yet there was a step missing. That's all it was to me: bones. They went from mutual loathing to grudging respecty friendship-ish stuff and then BAM! They're making out in carriages. I felt like I missed a step. I needed a scene or four where I started to understand where love was coming from. Because of my lack of investment in the starcrossed romance, which is really where the bulk of the emotion lies in The Winner's Curse, I never got the soul-crushing feels I wanted.

I did not swoon, but I wanted so, so, SO BADLY to swoon. Like, I want to go back in time and pretend I swoon, because why didn't I swoon?! Is my swoonability broken? Have I lost my swoon? WHO BROKE MY SWOON?

Anyway, once the couple declares their coupley feelings for each other, the plot of the book becomes awesome. Seriously, I love every single choice Rutkoski made (besides the romance). She is cruel and tricksy and devious and really, REALLY drives home the concept of the winner's curse for both Arin and Kestrel.



As much as I adore and prefer my novels to have some kind of magic in them, it was also refreshing to read a fantasy novel entirely dependent on the actions and decisions of humans. Tables are flipped, rebellions are started, deals are made, and I cannot wait to see what happens in the next book. Hopefully, I'll be shipping it a bit more by then.

Top Ten Books I'd Love to See as a Movie or TV Show

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I was so sad I missed this topic a couple of weeks ago, and couldn't resist taking it up this week. Because of my over-ambitiousness--and the fact that I made crappy little movie posters to go with each entry on this week's list--I was only able to do a seven, when in reality there are dozens of books I'd like to see adapted one day. Here are just a sampling.


1. The Lunar Chonicles by Marissa Meyer

 How amazing would movie versions of Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress be? The plots are exciting but not too complicated, the settings are lush and unusual, and I want it, please.

2. Catching Jordan by Miranda Kennealy

I would LOVE a Catching Jordan TV show. How cool would it to see more of the day to day reality of being the girl quarterback on an all-boy team, navigating the politics of sports, locker rooms, and boys. Plus, bonus Sam Henry!

3. The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce

 

Tamora Pierce writes some of the best fantasy there is, and Alanna started it all. I was considering doing the Lioness' Daughter as a series or miniseries instead, but Alanna is the first, after all, and it would be seriously awesome as a Game of Thrones-style show. Plus, George and Jon. Yessss.

4. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein



Another book I think would make a great HBO miniseries. And by great, I mean it would WRECK ME. And then after that they can do a Rose Under Fire miniseries and I can cry myself to death.

5. Poison by Bridget Zinn

 

This book is so cute and fluffy and look! The cover already looks like a movie poster! This could be an adorable children's holiday movie in theaters or on, say, ABC Family or Disney Channel.

6. The Mediator by Meg Cabot



I love nearly every single Meg Cabot novel there is, but her Mediator series just might be my fave. It would make an INCREDIBLE TV series, every episode revolving around a new ghost Suze has to handle. And every episode, she and Jesse the hot ghost would become closer and closer, and there would be SO MUCH sexual tension because hello, CW. So everybody would be gorgeous.

7. Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

 

Okay, I did not make that poster, obviously. It's a still from Howl's Moving Castle, but how amazing would it be to see the talented people behind Studio Ghibli tackle the alternative history awesomeness of Leviathan, which is chock-full of flying machines and monsters? Very amazing, is the correct answer.

ETA: A Harry Potter miniseries

I cannot BELIEVE I left this one off! I've been hoping for ages that they'd so a really comprehensive miniseries (or regular series, really--seven seasons for seven books!)  adaptation of Harry Potter. The movies are great, and all, but for brevity's sake, there's a lot they need to leave out and characters and situations they need to change. I'm sure there are a lot of Potterheads like me who'd be very happy to watch every single word of the books transmitted directly onto the screen in real time. I would so watch a hundred plus hours of Harry Potter. I mean, really.

Review: The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

Review: The Unbound by Victoria Schwab
Goodreads 
Release date: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Series: #2 in The Archived series
Source: Purchased
Rating: An intense, frightening, original, romantic sequel in a series you really should be reading.



Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she starts her junior year at Hyde School, she's struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn't easy -- not when her dreams are haunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she's really safe.

Meanwhile, people are vanishing without a trace, and the only thing they seem to have in common is Mackenzie. She's sure the Archive knows more than they are letting on, but before she can prove it, she becomes the prime suspect. And unless Mac can track down the real culprit, she'll lose everything, not only her role as Keeper, but her memories, and even her life. Can Mackenzie untangle the mystery before she herself unravels?

With stunning prose and a captivating mixture of action, romance, and horror, The Unbound delves into a richly imagined world where no choice is easy and love and loss feel like two sides of the same coin.




I'm going to format this review in a slightly different way, keeping this mostly if not entirely spoiler free for the first book, The Archived (read my review here). Some cute, furry animals and I are going to tell you why The Unbound is even better than The Archived, a book I adored, by the way, but primarily I am here to urge you to read try this series if you haven't. Go out and buy and borrow from bookstores, because I MUST HAZ THIRD BOOK, OKAY?

Reasons you should be reading The Archived and The Unbound:

Mac: Our heroine, Mac, is a Keeper. She's in charge of catching the dead who escape the Archive, aka the library in which the dead are stored. How COOL is that? Mac is a hardened fighter, but she's also a lonely girl who misses her younger brother terribly, and whose parents force her to move as the family tries to escape their grief. Mac spends most nights wandering the Narrows, these creepy, shadowy corridors between the Archive and the real world, catching the Histories (aka the dead people) and returning them to the Archive.

I love Mac.  I feel what she feels, and she feels a lot, despite the armor she works hard at building and maintaining. She can also hear people's "noise", meaning their emotions and a smidge of their thoughts and aura, which is handy for catching Histories, but makes it difficult to be around real people. Mac went through a lot of trauma in The Archived at the hands of a rogue History, and in The Unbound, she's suffering from it. She's having terrible nightmares that just might be real, and even more dangerous things are afoot.

The writing: Hot damn, can Victoria Schwab turn a phrase. All of her books have this smoky, haunted atmosphere, lyrical prose, and knife-sharp emotions that are so perfectly described the reader can't help but feel them with the characters.



She focuses close on Mac and her feelings, the way her sanity is unraveling and the way she adjusts to the new fancy private school she finds herself in, but she also keeps the plot moving. She conveys the growing stakes, danger, and action.

The originality and the concept: The dead on bookshelves? Histories? The Archived? The Librarians? Crew? The creepers in charge of things who are capable of digging into your brain, torturing out your thoughts, and slicing out your memories? I've never read books like these before. I read The Unbound in one day, in one sitting. It was, admittedly, a long sitting, as I was getting my hair cut and colored and all that jazz, but still. The whole thing.

In The Unbound, the disparate story lines (Mac's new school, her feelings for Wes, the people who vanish mysteriously after they interact with Mac, Mac's troubles within the Archive) are all balanced, and they all manage to come together at the end.

The Wesley: Wesley Ayers, you beautiful enigma of a boy. Wesley is on my list of ultimate book boyfriends, and the ship in these books is a MIGHTY SHIP. If none of the above managed to entice you, then at least know this. There is extra Wesley in The Unbound, and that is a great thing. Wesley is full of secrets and humor and wit. He's brave and loyal, and he and Mac have a beautiful almost relationship thing that's full of spoilers so I can't really say. But he's funny, he wears guyliner, he's intensely attractive, and I want one, please. Thank you.

My Wesley.

The covers: I mean, look at them. They're insanely gorgeous.



So, really you have no excuse. The characters are all interesting, and you never quite know if they're trustworthy (except for Roland, who is pure awesome). In fact, there was a character in The Unbound who I could never quite figure out--in a good way. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and, well, it was interesting to see how Schwab handled that element. It certainly surprised me!

Go read. Go buy. Go borrow. Go meet Mac and my sweet Wesley. I'm pretty sure you won't regret it.

 

Book Haul, or the One With the Random Random House Package Randomly at My House

I took a tiny blog hiatus this week since my dog, Ginger, was having a couple health issues, and I just couldn't find the energy or the focus to do bloggy stuff. Thankfully, Ginger is going to be better than ever, having undergone a very simple surgery on Thursday to fix her knees. So all is well here at Casa Ginger and Gillian! Both the blog and the dog will be back to normal this week.

I wasn't expecting to do a book haul today, since I didn't get any books this week, when lo, a package from Random House randomly appeared at my house! I didn't request anything from them (and I hadn't heard of the two books inside), so it was a lovely surprise to brighten up my Friday.

From Random House:



The Tyrant's Daughter by J.C. Carleson

 I can't believe I'd never heard of this book. It sounds amazing! It's about a girl who is the daughter of king of a country in the Middle East, and there's a coup and she finds out her father might have been a dictator and there's intrigue and suspense and I'm SO EXCITED for this one. Thank you, whoever randomly and generously sent me this.



The Secret Ingredient by Stewart Lewis 

I absolutely hate that girl's shorts, but this is set in Silverlake, a cool and funky LA neighborhood, so that should be fun to read about. Apparently there is cooking, a cute boy, two dads, and a search for a birth mother, so it sounds like it's got a lot of the things I like going on there.

Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers Cover Reveal and ARC Giveaway!

Series Goodreads info

MORTAL HEART! MORTAL HEART IS COMING! I super adore Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin series, because it's about assassin nuns in medieval England doing all kinds of amazing things. And today I get to show you the cover to the third book in the series, Mortal Heart! You ready for it?

_
__
___

No, seriously, are you ready for it?

Top Ten Reasons I Love Being A Blogger and a Reader

Hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I've been a reader my whole life (well, for as long as I've been able to read, anyway--which is a long time if you believe my parents) and a blogger for about a year and a half. They're two of the things I love best about my life, after my dog and really good chocolate cake. And that's saying something.

The Perks of Being a Readerflower:

I get to experience things, do things, and be things I never would get to in books. Flying on the back of a dragon? Done that. Defeated the Dark Lord? When I was sixteen, bitch. Kissed on top of Notre Dame? BEEN THERE. Speaking of...

What can I say? I love romance. I love getting to live vicariously through all the ships in fiction. I love loving them, obsessing over them, and drawing them. Seriously, drawing still lifes and all that junk is so boring. I'd rather draw fictional characters kissing.

Back to that whole "Readers live a thousand lives" thing. When you read, you can be anyone and go anywhere. Not only do you get to visit historical France or China or wherever, but you can step into the shoes of someone with a totally different life experience than you have. I'm pretty sure reading is the thing that keeps us from being totally ignorant.

It's fun. I am never ever ever bored. What do people who don't read DO with all the excess brain space?! And all that free time? Like, say you're killing time in the waiting room of a doctor's office, or a friend is late for lunch, or you're standing in line for something, and you don't have a book. What do you do? What do you even talk about?

I'm definitely the obsessive type. I don't like things; I love them passionately and wholly. I dream about them, I draw them, I write about them, and I talk about them. Reading about fictional characters and visiting fictional worlds gives me both a focus and an outlet for all that nerdery. it's like my brain is Tumblr and I need something to reblog. FEED ME FANDOMS.

The Perks of Being a Bloggerflower:

When you're a blogger, you get exposed to a ton of books you otherwise wouldn't see because of other bloggers buzzing, and publicists, and all that jazz. I have big pretty shiny book piles full of awesomeness. My TBR mountain is absolutely gigantic now, and that's all because of blogging.

It's a little sad how little I knew about the industry I hoped to become a part of pre-blogging. Book blogging is an excellent education in publishing and the internet world of books in general. Plus, whern you're a blogger, you totally get to be a reading hipster, reading and loving books before they're cool. Before they're even out. Plus there are awesome perks, like meeting and lunching with bestselling authors.

I get to write about something I really love all day long. Books are something I've never really been able to talk about to the extent I love. But now, not only do I have a space in which to blather, but I actually have people listen. It's the coolest thing in the world! Plus I get to have a hobby that doesn't require horribe things like pants or leaving the house or people.

I had NO IDEA such an amazing blogging community was out there. We are a powerful bunch of badass bitches, if you ask me. We know the pain of a cover redesign mid-series, when a highly anticipated release gets pushed back, and when a favorite character dies. And that leads me too...

WHAT WOULD I DO WITHOUT THE FRIENDS I'VE MADE THROUGH BLOGGING? You guys get my references. You've been to the worlds in my head. You know what I mean when I randomly scream "HECTORRR!!!1!!" or "STURMHOND <333". You know why I have nightmares about the dreaded not-yet-released third book in the series. If I start a Disney singalong on Twitter, dozens of you crazy people will join in.

Because of blogging, there are awesome people willing to do things like, oh, help me put this thing together (holla at Christina Franke My Dear, Ell Oh Ellis, and Megasus). I've met a ton of people I otherwise wouldn't meet, and I've made super awesome friends who are always willing to talk nerdy to me at odd hours of the day.

Book Haul, or the One In Which I'm Very Eco-Friendly

No print books this week! All electronic, baby! I am singlehandedly saving world. Climate change will soon be a thing of the past, all thanks to me, obviously.

For review:

From Hought Mifflin Harcourt:



A Death-Struck Year by Makiia Lucier

I've already read this, and it's a pretty solid historical novel dealing with a subject matter I haven't seen much of in YA: the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918. Also, I keep mistyping that author's name as Makiia Lucifer, which is kind of a problem.

From Simon & Schuster:



Falls the Shadow by Stefanie Gaither

YES. I love this cover and this concept so much that I actually clapped when I saw I got approved for this. Pleeeeease be good!

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith



Double yay! I really enjoyed Grasshopper Jungle, Smith's absolutely bananas and hideously green novel that just released from PenguinTeen. I hope I enjoy this one as well.Or that I at least have a smoother journey than that poor horse.

Servants of the Storm by Delilah S. Dawson



O_O Good God, that cover is creepy. Um... I requested this? Me, the marshmallow who categorically refuses to watch horror movies? I have no memory of this, but that sure was brave of me. Gulp.


In addition to listing the books I got this wekk, I'm also going to start doing a recap of my bloggy week (a weecap? weekap? weekcap?) on my haul posts. So, yeah. Here it is.

Weekcap:

On Sunday, I posted a new 'Ship Shape installment discussing how painful it is to invest in a sinking ship.

On Monday, I reviewed Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg.

On Tuesday, I got in the Valentine's spirit and listed the books that make me swoon. I also made graphic thingies for the very first time.

On Wednesday, the blog tour for A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller stopped by the blog. I loved this book so much, and I'm so happy PenguinTeen asked me to be a part of the tour!

On Thursday I reviewed the weirdest book I've ever read, Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith, and hopefully explained why weird was good!

And on Friday, I showed you guys both my geekiness and my drawing skillz with my YA Bookentines (there's a giveaway here, too)!

And now your weekly dose of Ginger:

 "HUMAN HUMAN noooo why are you reading instead of paying attention to meeeeeeeee human look at meeeeee"

(And yes, she really does sit that way.)