To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han | Book Review

"The secret of if all is to write in the throb, the gush, the flood of the moment. To put things down without deliberation, without worrying about their style, without waiting for a fit time or place," -Walt Whitman 

One thing I love about my school's book club is that it pushes me to read books I never would have before. 

Like To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. 

follow me on instagram @olivia.j.the.wordshaker 

I wasn't sure what I was getting into when I started this book, but as it progressed, I found myself liking it more and more. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. As usual, it's not perfect, and I have some minor gripes, but this didn't take away from my experience of enjoying the story. 

As usual, we'll start with . . . 

The Negatives

1. Kitty's Betrayal

While I understand why this happened, that doesn't mean I like it. Throughout the novel, I adored Kitty. I have a younger sibling, and I adored Kitty - she was funny and entertaining and had a realistic complexity even though she was so young. Although I understand why it happened, it seemed a little predictable and seemed to undermine Kitty's character at some points. 

2. Lara Jean's Irrational Behavior During the Climax

This book tripped over a hurdle commonly known as misunderstandings. I hate this so much most likely because I'm a pretty confrontational person. If she and Peter had just talked about what happened, surely they could have worked it out, because Lara Jean knew he was different, that he wasn't like that. We're shown this because rarely do we see Peter ever do anything really douchey, despite what the other characters say. All of this could have been avoided if Lara Jean had just been honest with Peter and herself, which she rarely was. While this points out something interesting about Lara Jean as a character, it's still frustrating to the reader, which is rarely the reaction you want to garner. 


The Positives

1. Perfect Portrayal of Teenage Relationships

The confusion, the angst, the strangely new feelings - all aspects of a high school, teenage relationship was perfectly captured here, and it pulled me into the story. The nuances and description of feelings were so spot-on that I couldn't help but be drawn into the story. 

2. Relationship Dynamics

The relationship dynamics, especially between Lara Jean and her family, was so powerful and was a strong foundation of the novel. Snippets of backstory were cleverly revealed and added to the character's development and personality. This gave the characters a deeper sense of reality and connection. The Song sisters had a beautiful relationship with each other, and their emotional moments hit deep. 

3. Smart Storytelling

Things that were set up chapters ago would be resolved, and it was so satisfying seeing these come to fruition. Jenny Han has a way of weaving conflict and resolution into just a few chapters, but also keeping with the overarching plotline. The relationships all built upon each other as the story progressed, and it was great seeing that in the story. It was amazing watching Lara Jean become more independent from Margot, which was one of the subplots. This was built up and executed perfectly.

4. Overall Enjoyableness

This is a pretty general one, but this book did what it promised: entertain me. I devoured this book. Previously, I had been in a reading slump - thanks, Life As We Knew It - but this book pulled me right out of it. I was never bored; I laughed and I cried and I enjoyed every moment of reading this. Time well spent. 

Overall, this was a solid YA contemporary romance. I've already ordered the second book on Amazon. 

8/10 would recommend. 

~The WordShaker

Chapters of Our Lives | How Writers Handle Life

"Blessed are the weird people: poets, misfits, writers, mystics, painters, troubadours, for they teach us to see the world through different eyes," -Jacob Nordby

My last novel was about surviving. But this one is about living.

My last novel, titled A Cactus In the Valley was about two teenagers working through their issues while surviving in the desert. It was to show that no matter how bad life is or how bad life has been, that we can always overcome. That there is always hope to conquer anything. That no matter how bad life can get, that it can always get better.

This novel, which has yet to have a title, is about six teenagers, each struggling with a different aspect in their lives. While it does deal with them struggling, it has more emphasis on them living - experiencing, loving, just being, appreciating the good and where they are in life. That no matter how bad life can get, or how bad life already is - that it can always be good. Something about life is always good, even when the hurricane rages on and the whole world is crashing down around you.

My point in this is that each "segment"of my life is a story. Everything I am, everything I learn, goes into all of my novels. And, I think, as writers, this is how we deal with things, how we tie everything in life into a nice little bow and send it off. A culmination of our lives, of a season. 

The past six months, maybe even year, have been a novel in the making. But when I was going through it, I hated it. I didn't understand why I couldn't write. 

And now, to send off this season of my life, I need to write about it. As painful and as raw as it might be.

~The WordShaker

Back At It Again | My Newest Novel

"I write from real life," -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I'm so flipping excited!  I have finally started a new novel!

After over a year of not consistently having a novel to work on, I've finally found a dart that's stuck. 

This novel is something that's been especially brewing within the last five months. It's young adult contemporary. 

This story is copyright 2016 by Olivia J - plagiarism will be prosecuted. 

This story has no cover. Or title, since it is such so underdeveloped. 

However, I have definitely made an aesthetic collage for it. Enjoy it. Love it. 

photo credits to the people on instagram that I got these images from :3

The basic idea behind this novel is that life is always good, and it always can be good.

Plot: Six high school seniors have to complete a project for their psychology class, and they discover the beauties of their small town and of eachother. It is best summed up in this quote:

"This project is aimed to demonstrate the theories of psychology and sociology while improving upon the students' lives."

-By the legendary Mr. Artus, the eccentric psychology teacher who stands behind the kids no matter what. 

As with many of my novels, it's told through dual points of view: Amelia, a passionate girl stuck in her deadbeat life, and Roman, a quirky boy dealing with a family death. They bond with Elliot, a boy struggling with his sexuality, Bailey, a girl struggling with mental illness, Alice, a girl who jumps from guy to guy, and Nick, a football boy who faces immense pressure from his family. 

~

Truthfully, it reflects my life over the past five months, because even though shit happens, and shit will always happen, I've always been able to say: "God is still good - which means life is still good."

Enjoy my few and golden nugget-like updates on the progress of this novel. I will definitely update you all with an official back cover synopsis, title, and cover reveal. 

~The WordShaker

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp BOOK REVIEW: Olivia J, The WordShaker

"No one else will write it for you," -Unknown

Like with many books, it's a mixed bag. But that doesn't mean it's not worth it.

I read This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp for mostly research purposes. If you're not aware, I've got a school shooting story boiling on the backburner, and I wanted to read this so I could get an understanding of what other school shooting fiction is like.

~

Bad first, then the good.

1. Tyler (and Autumn) Browne 

The bad or negative things I have to say about this book are more nitpicky than anything else. Tyler, the shooter, I felt, was one of the problems. He grew into more of his character as the story progressed. However, his character and who he actually was was unclear in the slightly slow beginning. I wanted to see the kinder, more damaged side of Ty. Fortunately, he becomes more sympathetic through the eyes of Autumn.

A lot of my problems with this book focus on Tyler Browne and on his sister, Autumn, who serves as a narrator in the book. A problem I found with them is that while Tyler is a cold-blooded killer, Autumn is this shy, sweet butterfly. However, their father abuses them, and their mother died tragically, and they are ostracized from the rest of Opportunity, Alabama. However, Tyler kills 39 people, and Autumn is quietly discontent with her dancing and girlfriend. One could argue that this is because they are inherently different: Autumn is inherently good and Tyler is inherently bad. However, we are shown that Tyler has the capacity to be good and, many times, the author shows us that Tyler was good, he was just beaten down by the world.

Then, the latter supports the statement: then why isn't Autumn just as screwed up? She possesses almost no negative character traits that would be indicative of her awful backstory. Autumn is passionate and brave and kind almost to a fault, and while this makes her an admirable protagonist, it does not at all fit with the trauma she's been through.

While I will praise this book for being a disturbingly real and gripping psychological thriller, it seemed so out of place for Ty to be monologuing like a supervillian in the Batman cartoons. I get his anger and his hardness towards what's going on, but I feel like he should have been more emotional and brooding. At times, he seemed idealistic, and this kind of took me out of the story since the rest of it was so viscerally real.

2. Passive Characters

On to Autumn. And partially Sylvia. While I didn't hate their characters, I felt that they weren't active enough. Claire as well. While all of this hell is happening, they personally don't do much. At times, I just wanted Sylvia to break out and run to her brother and protect him. At times I wanted Autumn to stand up to her brother, and it's beautiful when she does. I desired for Claire to rush in and be with Matt. But many times the characters, while good and developed, were stagnant. While I understand why, this doesn't deny the simple fact that we WANT to see our beloved characters fight back against the villain.  Tomas comes the closest to being the most active character in the story next to Tyler, next to Claire, and next to Autumn, and then last would be Sylvia.

3. Tension/Pacing Changes

After Tomas opened the doors, and people started getting out, I just felt the tension drop like a brick, and the focus was turned off of Tyler, whose level of terrifying kind of just went down after that. The pacing after the auditorium doors opened, which was near the middle, just slowed way down. Whereas in the middle, the tension was consistent.

~

However, like many things, there's both sides to the cons of this book.

1. Thoughtful Storytelling and a Smart Author

You could tell that the author was writing smart. Now, this might be a new concept to some, but usually a reader can tell when the author is a plotter or a pantser, or if they had any idea where the story was going when they started. An example of a writer who wasn't very smart was Rick Yancey. You could tell that he didn't know where the story was going in Book 1, The Fifth Wave, and the voice and themes developed as the series went along. However, THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS had smart writing and storytelling. This gives a comforting feeling to the reader, because the author was definitely in control when the story and characters themselves were not.

2. Characters

Nijkamp does an amazing job of developing characters in a short amount of time, and even with characters we get barely any page-time with, for example, Matt and Jonah and Jennifer.

Some standout characters were Matt and Claire. I found Claire to be passionate and active, in contrast with Autumn and Sylvia. Tomas was probably one of my favorite characters; he had a great and lovable personality, and his conversation right before his death is beautiful and stunning and truly shows his character.   I loved Autumn's bravery and kindess; like I said before, it was all very admirable, but I still had my problems with her. I must admit that I was crushed when she got shot in the knee.

3. Great Usage of Flashbacks

The backstories and flashbacks - which is a favorite storytelling element of mine - were perfectly placed to not break up the flow and tension and to develop characters. The flashbacks just enriched the story so much more because the entirety of the story takes place over fifty five minutes. The flashbacks were amazing and intense and dark and twisty and added so much to the story.

4. The Intense Realness

What I must give to this book is how viscerally real it felt. I could totally imagine this nearly exact same thing happening at my high school. The reactions and the passage of time and all of the characters were all so relatable and real.  Sometimes it was so intense I had to put the book down, and I even had physical reactions to this book, like the boiling in my gut. It was terrifying and heartbreaking all at the same time.

I loved seeing Ty develop. As we were given more and more insight into his character, you just kind of loved to be afraid of him and hated to feel bad for him. This was masterfully done and wasn't as strong at the beginning but accumulated in the end to a stunning suicide. Amazing messages about school and social interactions and even mental health were weaved in and out through Ty's story.

~

Overall, this book wasn't flawless or outstanding or anything, but it had it's good notes and I'm glad I read it for research and context purposes. It was terrifying and real without being too gory.

7/10 would recommend

~The WordShaker