Shadow and Bones by Leigh Bardugo

The Book: Shadow and Bone
The Author: Leigh Bardugo

The Publisher: Henry Holt And Co., June 2013

The Acquiring: Giant Tiger (which is a discount/ bargain store) for 4.99$

The Thoughts: I was randomly waiting around and browsing through the store when I seen Joyland by SK. at the very top. I just took a quick look through to see what else was there when I spotted this book. I had hear several other people talk about it on YouTube's BookTube community so I just couldn't leave it there since it was only 5$. I didn't even bother read the back of the book so I kind of went into it blindly.

I began reading that day and I was hooked. It was an easy read. I really enjoyed it. It would be a great beach book for people who aren't into all that romance stuff. Don't get me wrong, there is kind of, sort of a romance story to it but the focus isn't all about getting the guy. I mean, it's a YA novel so you kind of have to go into it knowing that it's not going to be 1984 or Grapes of Wrath or something but it is an overall great read.

Though it's set in some sort of mystery fantasy place, I feel it has a Russian culture vibe. I don't know too much about the author but I feel there is a lot of Russian folklore to the book. I say this because from what I've read of the translated folklore, it has a deeper darker "Cinderella isn't going to find her Prince Charming" edginess to their stories. I appreciate stories like that, I think they portray a more believable world. Plus I've always been fascinated by Russian Culture.

I think this would make an amazing movie.

Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

The Book: Hollow City

The Author: Ransom RIggs

The Publisher: Quirks Books, 2014

The Acquiring: Bought at Atlantic SuperStore for 40% off

My Thoughts: This is the sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children which I’ve heard of but never read. Sometimes I do these things…

The author’s first name is Ransom, which I had not realized before right now. Yes! I love it. I hope it’s his real name  One day if I have children of my own, I wish to name my child an equally as awesome name.

At the beginning of the book, there is a series of photos of weirdly unusual children. They are photos of the characters. My first reaction was maybe the writer is horrible at character descriptions which caused me to prejudge his writing.. in a negative way. I was wrong, once I’d read about a particular character, I simply returned to the pictures to compare my imagination to.. I guess.. the writer’s imagination, and they were pretty much exactly how I pictured them. So LESSON LEARNED: don’t judge a book’s ability by the pictures in the beginning.