It's Halloween!

It’s Halloween! One of the spookiest and personally strangest holidays around, but when it’s Halloween and I’ve decided I want to do something other than watch an old repeat of a film in my home-made witches’ hat and broom, I look no further than my bookshelf. One of my particular Halloween favourites:

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley- 

Okay so it isn’t really YA, and it might be nearly 200 years old but this has to be one of the most disturbing books I’ve read. We've all heard of Frankenstein and the books existance is so iconic to the modern Halloween holiday that when we see all the variations of the story its characters, it's easy to forget where it all came from. The tale of Dr Frankenstein and his monster that he refuses to accept isn’t one for the faint hearted so be warned. The scenery along with the emotional story makes this book hard to read at times. Especially when you’re sat in the dark by yourself…

How are you spending your Halloween? Trick or treating, eating a crazy amount of sweets or maybe going to a party? Whatever you’re doing have fun and Happy Halloween!

The I'm Booked! Rating System

Since this blogs been around for a few months now, I thinks it's about time I'm Booked! got a real rating system. So here it is:

5-

An example to books everywhere.

4-

Very good. I’d recommend it.

3-

Decent. It had a few enjoyable parts.

2-

Didn’t enjoy. Read at your own risk.

1-

Could barely finish it. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.

I took longer to think of what write than it looks. From now on it will be on display on the right of the blog, so if you're ever wondering whether a 2/5 on here is really bad or if it's mediocre, now you'll know. Also, I will occasionally do half points when I can't decide on a rating.

Dark Angel by Eden Maguire

Title: Dark Angel

Author: Eden Maguire

Publisher: Hodder

Page Count:  398

Publication Date: August 4^th 2011

Synopsis:

Tania's heart belongs to Orlando. Nothing can rip them apart. Until the seduction begins in a flurry of glamour and magic, music and parties all orchestrated by the mysterious and mesmerising Zoran, an iconic rock star who has retired to a remote ranch in the nearby mountains. And there Tania meets the dark side. Can she resist temptation?

What I thought:

I actually read this book a year ago but I thought I might as well review it when I got I was quite excited to read because I have a soft spot for angels but I was a little disappointed and I felt that this book was really hard to get into. I was about a third of the way through before anything particularly interesting happened.

Eden Maguire is also the author of the Beautiful Dead series, but as I hadn’t read those books I didn’t know what to expect in terms of writing style. The main problem was that when the plot was finally revealed it was actually quite boring. Our main character Tania doesn’t seem to have any of the usual teen problems and even attends a celebrity’s party where eerie events occur leading up to a supernatural force disturbing their memories. I suppose that it was somewhat unrealistic that Tania’s biggest problem was whether a rock star named Zoran could be trusted. It would have been okay if she was more interesting to read about but she kept worrying about things that I just wasn’t that interested in.

I was also a disappointed by the lack of angels in the story. The story certainly is ‘dark’ at times but if you’re looking for angels specifically I would look elsewhere.

Not terrible, but not great either.

Rating: 2/5

Grave Doubts and Heaven Sent by Meg Cabot

Title: Grave Doubts & Heaven Sent (The Mediator)

Author: Meg Cabot

Publisher: Macmillan

Page Count:  432

Publication Date: August 10^th 2010

Synopsis:

Meet Susannah Simon: she's a typical teenage girl who just happens to be a ghost-hunter...oh, and she's also dead-over-heels for Jesse - the sexiest spook ever! But can this girl get her ghost? In "Grave Doubts", Suze has to contend with fellow ghost-hunter, Paul Slater, who gives her a deadly ultimatum. Unless she dates him, he'll send Jesse into the afterlife - for good. Paul may be totally hot, but Susannah Simon will not be bossed around. Let the games begin...In "Heaven Sent", all Suze's dreams have come true - she's finally dating the most gorgeous ghost of all time, Jesse! But when her creepy admirer threatens to travel back in time and stop Jesse from dying, Suze is distraught. Will her new boyfriend choose life or love?

What I thought:

Being the last books in the series I expected a few things to happen that would shake up the story. I mainly expected Jesse to make a ground breaking revelation that would leave everyones jaw unhinged but I suppose I wasn’t disappointed. As usual we had some very action packed scenes which are my favourite parts of all the books but I finally decided that I really don’t like Suze. At the start I liked her of the series and then in books 3 and 4 I was on the fence but apart from her ability to see ghosts she isn’t that interesting and she’s quickly gone from independent to boy-obsessed.

But I hate to leave a decent series unfinished so if you’ve read the last few books you might as well read this as well because they are quite entertaining.

Rating: 3/5