I cannot believe how quickly time flies! It seems just yesterday that summer began! Well, it’s another month and so I’ve got another five books up on the judgement table. Listed below I’ve selected five books from my TBR list in the hopes that you’ll have read them, heard about them, or just have some sort of advice/vote/opinion for them. 

Please let me know what you think! Should I keep them? Some of them? Or none of them? Little by little I’m trying to manage my ever-growing TBR list with your help! 🙂

(This post was inspired by Lia @ Lost in a Story. To read more about it and how this post series works check out my first post here) 

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The Books

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)
About:
“A vicious fifteen-year-old “droog” is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick’s magnificent film of the same title.

In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to “redeem” him—the novel asks, “At what cost?””
–Goodreads

My Thoughts: 
This book is a classic and it sounds brilliant, but sometimes you read a classic novel and just wonder why?? Is this one of those books that warps your mind in a good way? Or is it just another boring musty book teachers often make kids “read” in class?

Briar Rose by Jana Oliver (2013)
About:
“For Briar Rose, life is anything but a fairy tale. She’s stuck in a small town in deepest Georgia with parents who won’t let her out of their sight, a bunch of small-minded, gossiping neighbours and an evil ex who’s spreading nasty rumours about what she may or may not have done in the back of his car. She’s tired of it all, so when, on her sixteenth birthday, her parents tell her that she is cursed and will go to sleep for a hundred years when the clock strikes midnight, she’s actually kind of glad to leave it all behind. She says her goodbyes, lies down, and closes her eyes . . . And then she wakes up. Cold, alone and in the middle of the darkest, most twisted fairy tale she could ever have dreamed of. Now Briar must fight her way out of the story that has been created for her, but she can’t do it alone. She never believed in handsome princes, but now she’s met one her only chance is to put her life in his hands, or there will be no happy ever after and no waking up.”
–Goodreads

My Thoughts:
Fairy tales are great and some of my favorite books get their inspiration from fairy tales (e.g. ACOTAR by Maas). Then again sometimes authors take a fairy tale, try and twist it, and it just falls flat. This is definitely one of those books that I’d really like to love but have a feeling will fall beneath my hopes and expectations. Have you read it? What did you think?

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (2002)
About:
“The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder — a murder recounted by the teenage victim. Upsetting, you say? Remarkably, first-time novelist Alice Sebold takes this difficult material and delivers a compelling and accomplished exploration of a fractured family’s need for peace and closure.

The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished.”
–Goodreads

My Thoughts:
I’ve seen the movie adaptation of this novel and actually really liked it. It was a great, creepy, psychological thriller. My question is does this book live up to the movie? Does it surpass it? I really want this to be a good book but I know that sometimes with these types of stories movie directors can often make the plot more exciting than the original book.

Never Never by Brianna Shrum (2015)
About:
“James Hook is a child who only wants to grow up. When he meets Peter Pan, a boy who loves to pretend and is intent on never becoming a man, James decides he could try being a child – at least briefly. James joins Peter Pan on a holiday to Neverland, a place of adventure created by children’s dreams, but Neverland is not for the faint of heart. Soon James finds himself longing for home, determined that he is destined to be a man. But Peter refuses to take him back, leaving James trapped in a world just beyond the one he loves. A world where children are to never grow up. But grow up he does. And thus begins the epic adventure of a Lost Boy and a Pirate. This story isn’t about Peter Pan; it’s about the boy whose life he stole. It’s about a man in a world that hates men. It’s about the feared Captain James Hook and his passionate quest to kill the Pan, an impossible feat in a magical land where everyone loves Peter Pan. Except one.”
–Goodreads

My Thoughts:
Peter Pan! Although the movie was not my first pick as a kid, the original play script did become a true favorite once I left for college. So not only does this book tackle Neverland but it also gives Captain Hook a backstory???? I LOVE villain backstories!!! Basically my enthusiasm and high hopes for this book is what has kept me from reading. Please tell me truly if you liked it or if it wasn’t all that impressive. I’d hate to buy it and be disappointed

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke (2016)
About:
“Every story needs a hero.
Every story needs a villain.
Every story needs a secret.

Wink is the odd, mysterious neighbor girl, wild red hair and freckles. Poppy is the blond bully and the beautiful, manipulative high school queen bee. Midnight is the sweet, uncertain boy caught between them. Wink. Poppy. Midnight. Two girls. One boy. Three voices that burst onto the page in short, sharp, bewitching chapters, and spiral swiftly and inexorably toward something terrible or tricky or tremendous.

What really happened?
Someone knows.
Someone is lying.”
-Goodreads

My Thoughts:
I love the cover of this book! I’ve also heard some really great feedback via Goodreads for it too. It’s not the first book that pops into my head when I’m at a bookstore but sometimes it’s the ones you least expect that surprise you. Have you read it? What did you think?

 

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Thanks!

Once more you’ve been incredible and I really appreciate your help! Not only do I love hearing all of your input and opinions but these posts are really fun in my opinion. I get to tidy up my TBR list and I get to interact with all of you! 🙂

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