Source: ARC from BEA15

Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

October 23, 2015 / 10 Comments / Posted by Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit in Review, Uncategorized
Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

Review: By now you’ve probably heard the flails, the gasps, the “OMG NONONONONOs” that come from reading Illuminae, the 600-page sci-fi brick by Aussie writers Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – if not from me, then hopefully from the rest of the book community. And if you’re coming here looking for an extremely well-written review, well… Reason being that this book is all feels, guys. It starts with a bang, then a character/world building section, and then THE ENTIRE WORLD FALLS APART. Ok, let me rewind. Illuminae, as you probably know, is told all in found documents, sent by a secretive […]

GIVEAWAY & Book Reviews: Fierce Reads 2015 Blog Tour!

October 8, 2015 / 44 Comments / Posted by Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit in Blog Tour, Interview
GIVEAWAY & Book Reviews: Fierce Reads 2015 Blog Tour!

Hi all, I’m delighted to be part of the Canadian Fierce Reads Blog Tour today (thanks to Raincoast Books for including me)! Today I’ve got reviews of Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales and First & Then by Emma Mills, the two YA contemporary (duh, it’s me) books on the tour. I also got the opportunity to ask all four of the Fierce Reads tour authors an interview question. And because the tour is coming to Canada, I’ve got an amazing opportunity to win one of the Fierce Reads books, signed to you! Read on for more! What do […]

Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

October 2, 2015 / 11 Comments / Posted by Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit in Review, Uncategorized
Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness

Warning: There is some profanity in this book and this review – it’s not extreme, but it might be something that puts some parents off.  I’m gonna tell it to you straight: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness is bit of a roast. It’s funny, it’s snarky, and it doesn’t hold back on making fun of some of the conventional concepts and ideas in YA books right now. This is only my second Patrick Ness book (my first was The Knife of Never Letting Go), but it’s vastly different from the one I read before, which […]

“This Slope is Treacherous” Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

August 31, 2015 / 10 Comments / Posted by Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit in Review, Uncategorized
“This Slope is Treacherous” Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon is about a female Bubble Boy. Madeline has had to live most of her life in isolation in her house because she’s allergic to a ton of things. But then new neighbors move in, including a teenage boy named Olly. Slowly, she gets to know him, but that knowledge comes with the recognition that they can never be together…or can they? I fell in love with Madeline as a character immediately. The very first sentence of the book is “I’ve read many more books than you,” which, you know, pretty much is me (challenge: accepted!). […]

“Beauty Beyond Compare” Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

August 24, 2015 / 8 Comments / Posted by Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit in Review, Uncategorized
“Beauty Beyond Compare” Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy

Dumplin completely and utterly spoke to me. I cried two times reading it – that, right there, should tell you just how emotional and resonant a book it is. It’s not that it’s sad – it’s that it’s relateable, and the issues that Willowdean was facing were ones I faced as a teen, especially with her mother, her friends, and feeling good enough to be with a guy. Let me explain: When I was eight, my mom showed me an article in the newspaper that showed Princess Diana and how she wore a lot of pink and purple, and told me that […]

“Sad Beautiful Tragic”: Another Day by David Levithan

August 17, 2015 / 0 Comments / Posted by Tiff @ Mostly YA Lit in Review, Uncategorized
“Sad Beautiful Tragic”: Another Day by David Levithan

Spoilers for Every Day – but honestly, I’m not convinced that you should pick up this book without reading Every Day first, even though I know it’s written so that you can. If you haven’t read Every Day yet, please go check out my review of that first! Another Day is definitely going to be one of those books that polarizes people – you’re either going to like it or hate it. I fall more on the side of liking, because I really liked Every Day and I’m a person who appreciates literary exercises, even if they don’t seem to […]