Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

'The more I found, the less I understood'. 


This is our first book review of 2016 yippee!!! Happy New Year! I'm glad this is the first review because I really liked the book. I feel as though this book has made an impact on me- most of the time after I finish reading, I write a review, forget about the story soon after and move on to the next book. I actually finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close a couple of weeks ago, but decided to watch the movie before writing the review (and also because I lacked the motivation to write it as soon as I finished reading it). A picture of the book's cover is on the left, and the movie's cover is below.I hope you all have a good day and have very light boots :) 


Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is about a young boy, called Oskar, who lost his dad in the 9/11 attack. The story takes place about a year after his father's death, when Oskar finds a key in a vase in his dad's closet. They used to do scavenger hunts, and Oskar thinks the key is part of a scavenger hunt. So he goes looking for the lock that it opens, thinking that it will open something important and meaningful. He meets many people along the way and hears their stories.... until he finds the lock (or does he?).

Velvet by Mary Hooper

“All at once it struck her that there were many degrees of evil in the world.”

Velvet by Mary Hooper is a historical fiction novel exploring the world of clairvoyants. The main character, Velvet is a young lady and an orphan. She works at the laundry in order to make ends meet. When something goes wrong and she thinks she is going to lose her job, the famous psychic, Madame Savoya, employs Velvet. Velvet becomes a sort of assistant and gets an inside look into how the world of mediums works. At first, she is completely mesmerized. However, as she learns more, she begins to realize that nothing and no one are really what they seem.

This is going to be another short review. This is because I find that with easier to read books I get so entranced by the story that it becomes hard for me to go back and analyse what I just read. What I can remember is that I loved the book. I read it in a few hours and wanted more!

Sister by Rosamund Lupton

“Grief is love turned into an eternal missing”  - Lupton

Do I even know how to access my blog anymore…? It’s definitely been way to long since the last time I read a book. I think that life can be explained just by looking at this blog – as time passed the less book reviews, not because I’ve grown lazy, but because I feel like I’ve lost the time to read. But with some of my tests over, I gave myself a quick break before I have to get back to my studies. Needless to say, I devoured two books in two days and will hopefully read another one today. Enough about me.

Rosamund Lupton’s Sister, is a thriller (well at least for my standards, as I am not really used to scary things) and almost detective fiction. It follows Beatrice’s journey as she looks for her missing sister. When the police end the case, Beatrice is unsatisfied with the verdict. It becomes all up to Beatrice to uncover the truth. She doesn’t just uncover the mystery but also learns about herself and her relationships.

Maybe it’s the fact that I hadn’t read a book for a long time, or that someone left this book on their fence for someone to take it for free or just simply because I always get to attached to novels, but I absolutely loved it! The language was simple and it was quite easy to read. The only hard part was figuring out when the settings switched - when Beatrice was talking to the detective or talking to her sister through the letter. But this form is perfect for the novel when you get to the end and learn the truth about this ‘letter’. I didn’t start reading expecting much but by the end I was screaming out loud at the plot twists.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

"... Sometimes when I saw him at a distance ... I forgave him a hundred times over... Unfortunately, these were often the moments when he chose to attack ... that I would vow not to forget it, and never to forgive him again. I broke that promise many times... all petty things, really, irritants - too minor, it would seem ... The danger he presented was, after all, not immediate but slow and simmering... hundreds of small, unavenged humiliations which had been rising in me for months..." - excerpt from The Secret History

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is the story of of college students who end up killing their "friend". The first part is the story of how Richard moved to a New England college and found himself trying to fit into the Greek class, full of mysterious, rich college kids. As he befriends them and joins the class he ends up getting mixed into all the trouble and murder of Bunny, the first part is the story that leads to the death. The second part of the book is after the death and how each of them live on. 

This book was lent to me by someone else, henceforth the reason why it is so different to the usual books that I actually read. This book is a murder mystery. While I was quite entranced while reading this book, I didn't find it a really good novel. If you have read any of my other posts you would have realised that I like books that are more passive books, with happy endings. This book from the first page had a murder  (this didn't detract from the book, talked about later) and from then on even more deaths or attempted deaths. The end is quite mysterious and it definitely ends in a very pessimistic mood. Another reason for my contempt in the book is the fact that I couldn't empathise with any of the character's extreme personalities, and this is something I find really important. (I will talk about this later on this post.)

Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey

“Tucking my nose into a book makes me completely oblivious to my surroundings. I would have made a terrible spy in the army--the first person to hand me a novel would have been able to shoot my head clean off without me noticing.”  - Haunting Violet

Haunting Violet by Alyxandra Harvey is the story of Violet and her new abilities to see the dead in the midst of 19th century society. Her mother was a fake spiritualist with a great desire and ambition to join the rich and live in luxury. Violet must obey her mother and follow her schemes however everything changes when Violet finds that an assassinated young girl wants her to solve a real ghost mystery. 

I quite enjoyed reading the book and I found myself pondering if real life spiritualists really do exist. I'm sure many are like Violet's mother, lying and deceiving just for fame and money. However, the world has such a numerous population, I really do think that maybe at least one person actually has this ability to see and talk to the dead. 

While reading this book I realise I would have really liked to be able to go to the past an spend some time in that era; in the richer side of the population, of course. All the dresses, no matter how uncomfortable thy are described as, hold some appeal to me. I realise how girls were treated as having to be all polite and obedient and that the thoughts there were very much sexist but I would like to spend just a week in that time so I can wear those clothes and live in such grandeur and splendour, with so many people to take care of you. 

Spoilers Below!!!

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

'You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.'

Sherlock Holmes is a series of mystery and crime fiction books. Holmes is a consulting detective and Watson is his sidekick. Together, they solve crimes. Sherlock Holmes has a very strange personality. He is very intelligent and observant but isn't empathetic and usually doesn't say what his thoughts are about the crime only when he has solved everything.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.” - Rebecca

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a classic gothic novel. It follows a young woman (not named) who marries a wealthy man widow, Maxim de Winter. She moves to his house in Manderley and finds it very hard to fit in. She thinks everyone is judging and comparing her to Rebecca. All the things in the house are Rebecca's and everywhere she goes she knows Rebecca would have done it. Worst of all Maxim is getting more and more distant and she believes that he was never really in love with her but he still loves Rebecca. It seems that even the dead can win.

I will go straight to the point; I didn't like this book. I really don't get why this has become such a famous literature. It may be that I am still too young to fully comprehend the whole story of Rebecca, but I just found it wasn't as mysterious or as captivating as a gothic book should be. 

Cross My Heart by Sasha Gould

"In Venice, a secret is indeed more powerful than a sword. " - Cross My Heart

Cross my Heart by Sasha Gould is set during the Italian Renaissance. Laura della Scala, the protagonist, is sent to the convent at the age of 10. When her sister dies her father calls her back home to marry her sister's fiancée. Laura despises whom she is to marry, he is completely disgusting. However, all her father cares about is wealth and power. Laura finds out about someone who can help her; they call themselves the Segreta, a secret society of women all they ask is a secret. At the start they seem to help but soon she realises that it may not have been all good. She thinks they link up to the murder of her sister. 

This book will have a similar review to a recent book review I wrote about Ever . It is a very quick read with a short plot. There was quite a lot of mystery but I wouldn't say it was a complex novel. At the end things got quite gruesome but overall I found the story very cute and romantic. 

The Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

"I suppose a lot of teenage girls feel invisible sometimes, like they just disappear. Well, that's me—Cammie the Chameleon. But I'm luckier than most because, at my school, that's considered cool. I go to a school for spies."

Cammie Morgan attends the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. Although the school  appears to be an ordinary private school it is actually a girls' school for spies. Cammie is fluent in 14 languages and can kill a  man in seven different ways. She has been taught advanced martial arts and knows about the latest chemical warfare but she definitely doesn't know how to understand boys.