ALL OF THE STARSThank you so much netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review."Shame. It’s a peculiar beast, especially when it happens in public. It leaves you powerless. It strips you of everything you thought you knew about yourself, forces you to examine the very core of your being."Where to even begin with this book?! This is one of those where I would honestly want anyone and everyone to read it. It has so many topics that can start a conversation, all of the topics are problems that people may face in day to day life, and they are handled amazingly. We have: Slut Shaming, White Privilege, Feminism, Coming to terms with sexuality that a religion doesn’t agree with, the apparent “friend zone”, Revenge Porn and so much more.The idea that if a male does something sexual they don’t receive any form of backlash and are often praised for it, whereas if a girl was to do something she would be slut shamed and everyone would turn against her is so true! It’s not fair that things can be so biased towards someone, it is their body and then can do what they choose to do and should not be judged because of how many sexual partners they’ve had. The idea of revenge porn is such a sad thing to hear, because at the end of the day that is someones life you’re ruining… not your own. In regards to this, we also see a sense of victim blaming and that is completely unacceptable. We see one person have her life go to shit, while another person involved gets accepted and as though nothing ever happened. "Do no harm, but take no shit.”CharactersIzzy is the main character, I loved her sarcasm, sass and how she handled EVERYTHING. She is un-ashamed of who she is. She’s so quick witted and her love for her grandma is so beautiful. The closeness between the two was so well-done, it reminded me what me and my nana are like and it was nice to see. We see Izzy at her highs and her lows, and I loved how strong she was, even if she wasn’t actually feeling that. She calls out bull shit, and tries to keep her head held high.Ajita is the best friend anyone could wish for! Her support for Izzy is incredible! For me Ajita played a big part in this book for me, while she was struggling with some of her own life she was still there for Izzy. The support she gave was so lovely, and I like the fact she took no bull shit either, when she KNEW something was wrong she wouldn’t sit there and let her best friend take it all on her own. I just loved her SO much.For me Danny is a piece of shit. As soon as I met him, I just didn’t like him. He was supposed to be Izzy and Ajitas friend, but you just get the feeling from him that he is entitled to things because he has money. He tries to buy Izzy’s love, he said he forgave her when she did nothing wrong… like COME ON. Danny clearly has issues at home with his family, but that doesn’t excuse how he treats his so called friends.What I liked?- We had SO many references to todays culture: Films, Songs, YouTube, Buzzfeed: THEY QUOTED MEAN GIRLS!- The whole friendship between Izzy and Ajita, everyone needs a friendship like that.- Betty is the kindest person EVER.- I loved the detail that was described for Carsons painting- The characters on most part are so relatable, for instance Izzy explains that it’s not just boys that are horny, I was like FINALLY someone has said it!- So many different representations!- It was so honest when it came to talking/describing sex. Not only that, but it’s telling you not to be ashamed if you DO have sex, and if you DO have sex and it’s a one night stand then no one should care other than yourself. You are human, these things can happen.- The issues on retirement and that people who are older, may work longer because they need more money (I feel like I’ll be working until I’m 90 at this rate)- EVERYTHINGWhat I didn’t like?- Honestly it’s hard to explain because I’m glad they included it in the book, but just how unfair Izzy was treated, it made me feel so angry, and the fact that she received barely any support from her teachers, and they LET it happen. Nope.Overall, I will not stop saying how much I loved this book. It brings so many issues to light, it is hard hitting, raw and deep. For me this is one of those books that will stay with me for a very very long time.”Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”19.04.2019 Re-Read ThoughtsI don't think I will ever stop praising this book so highly, it honestly makes me so angry when I read it because this shit legit happens! I'll add to this later but first I need foooood!The Exact Opposite of Okay - 5 StarsA Girl Called Shameless - 4 Stars

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  "We were all heading for each other on a collision course, no matter what. Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story."\
At first, Jude and her twin brother Noah, are inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them. Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor. The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world. This radiant, award-winning novel from the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.Printz Award Winner Stonewall Honor Book.

Everyone thinks they know Libby Strout, the girl once dubbed “America’s Fattest Teen.” But no one’s taken the time to look past her weight to get to know who she really is. Following her mom’s death, she’s been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby’s ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything. Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he’s got swagger, but he’s also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can’t recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He’s the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything, but he can’t understand what’s going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don’t get too close to anyone.Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.

Inertia, force, mass, gravity, velocity, acceleration... cause and effect.Liz Emerson doesn't understand any of it.But I do.I understand how we fall. Where we fall. Why we fall.I understand her sadness and loneliness and silence, her shattered heart.It doesn't have to be this way, does it?It wasn't always this way, was it?Stay alive, Liz Emerson, stay alive.On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton's laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road. Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? The nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High's most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn't understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn't understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang's haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

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  I’d always heard that when you truly love someone, you’re happy for them as long they’re happy. But that’s a lie. That’s higher-road bullshit. If you love someone so much, why the hell would you be happy to see them with anyone else? I didn’t want the easy kind of love. I wanted the crazy love, the kind of love that created and destroyed all at the same time.\
They say it takes a bitch to know one, and it will come as no surprise to many people that I found myself loving this book.I love the lies. I love the manipulation. I love the bitterness. Or rather, I hated the main character. I hated her manipulation. I hated how she used people. I hated her doormat of a love interest.But the thing is I loved hating them.You are not meant to like these people. Make no mistake, Alice is a horrible, horrible person. What this book does so spectacularly is its ability to portray someone who feels real. Someone deeply flawed, someone so complex that you cannot help understanding them and sympathizing with them while hating them with every cell of your being. This book was so tremendously well-written.Think about it. If you're going to die, and there are people in your life who deserve what's coming to them. Fuck, I know what I would do. I'm going to be a fucking bitch and do all the shit I could never have gotten away with otherwise before I die. It's called revenge, and it tastes as sweet as a plate of dark-chocolate covered orange peels, served to me by a half-clad Tom Hiddleston.Whoo. Excuse me. Yum.This book is not purely about revenge, it is about an immature girl, so caught up in a lie involving her family, that---in typical teenager style---she lataches onto that as an excuse to act out, to be a jerk. The cancer is merely the catalyst to her anger.You're not going to like Alice.The Summary: Some people feel that their life begins anew when they receive the news that they are recovering from terminal cancer.\
  Dr. Meredith took a deep breath. “Alice.” His brown eyes found mine, and it was only me and him. He exhaled. “You’re in remission.”Oh shit.This, I did not expect. This was not on my list.\
While most people would rejoice at the prospect that they're going to LIVE, Alice is most unhappy about this. You see, she has lived the last year of her life knowing it was her last---including doing some rather unsavory things. It wasn't an entirely angelic year. There's no Make-A-Wish-Foundation final Disneyland trip with posed family pictures of Mickey Mouse shit here.THEN:You see, last year, there were some people who wronged Alice. And before she dies, she's going to make them pay.Harvey is her best friend. They have literally lived their lives next to each other, their parents are best friends, and Harvey and Alice have grown up alongside each other. Harvey adores her. Every pair of best friend has a ringleader, and the leader of their little duo has always been Alice. He can see nothing, no one but her.\
  On that cold night in January it all slipped into place for me and she became my everything and my everyone. My music, my sun, my words, my hope, my logic, my confusion, my flaw.I was thirteen years old, and she was all these things to me.And I was her friend.\
Alice treats Harvey like a dog, meaning she knows he'll always be there for her, she knows he will come when she shouts "Fetch!"\
  “Harvey,” I said, my voice low. “Trust me.”I knew what this looked like. It looked like I was using Harvey. But here was the reality of the situation: the minute my life went from semipermanent to most likely temporary, I decided to latch on to everything in my world that had always been permanent, and for me, Harvey was so permanent he was concrete.\
Everyone has the sort of people who become a pebble in the shoe of life. Alice has several, namely Luke, the asshole ex-boyfriend---the one who revealed a secret, and Celeste, a lifelong nemesis and rival. Alice wants to get even, and get even, she does.I can't say they don't deserve it. Luke is an asshole. He is homophobic, he is an abuser, he is a cheater. And he's about to get what's coming to him.\
  Luke hauled ass out of the locker room and ran for the ladder to the projector, which ran up the back of the bleachers opposite us. To Alice’s absolute delight, he wore nothing but a towel.Luke leaned forward a little farther and his towel began to slip. He wasn’t fast enough to catch it. We all watched as the white piece of fabric drifted slowly down to the bleachers below, leaving him in nothing but his skin.\
Alice doesn't just use Harvey, she abuses him. She pushes him, using his love for her to enlist his help in executing her revenge.\
  I shook my head again and Alice took my hand, pulling me to her.“Please,” she whispered, so close to me that when she spoke, our lips touched.“Fine, but after this I’m done.”\
NOW:\
  “What do you want, Celeste?”“All I want is for you to feel welcome. It’s cute how people are so excited to have you back.” She took two steps closer to me. “They don’t know what I know. The cancer might be gone, but the bitch isn’t.”\
Now, Alice is going to live. And it completely sucks. She has to face up to all she's done at school. She has to face the hostile glares, the people she's alienated.\
  We stopped in front of the last case. Every surface was covered in cloth. Old, dying flowers had been thrown across the surface. There were candles; those idiots could have started a fire. And pictures of Alice. Her eyes had been crossed out and things like bitch or whore had been written across each print.\
Now, she has to face what she had with Harvey. Their moments of tenderness, as he held her while she was dying. Harvey was fine for Alice when she had no future, but now that she's going to live, she can't bear to face him. Now, Alice plays with other boys, so she doesn't have to admit what she feels for Harvey.\
  Pushing away my memories of Harvey, I shoved Eric’s shoulder back and straddled his lap. This wasn’t scary or complicated like being with Harvey. This didn’t have to mean so much.\
Now Alice has to face up to everything she's done. She has to confront her family. She has to come to terms with the fact that she has her whole life ahead of her.Will Alice's future be one without her best friend?\
  I laid my head against him and he wound his arm around my shoulder. “What’s going to happen to us, Harvey?”He pressed his lips to my head and said, “It’s a surprise, I think.”\
Alice: The characters in this book were so well-done, and I loved how Alice was written, while hating her. Alice is not a likeable character. She is selfish, she is a teenager. She blows things out of proportion. At the beginning of the book, Alice finds out that her mother is having an affair. That one single event becomes the stimulus for everything she does in the book. It becomes her drive for revenge. Teenagers can blow one single event out of proportion, and as frustrating as it is to the reader, that becomes her driving force. Cancer gave Alice a free pass to her anger.\
  Cancer would take away plenty. My hair, my body, my life. What I’d never realized, though, was that there was one privilege to dying: the right to live without consequence.\
I hated her selfishness and her manipulation as I reveled in horror as I read about what she did. She uses her best friend, Harvey, as she sees fit.\
  After a moment, he threw his arms up and said, “God, what the hell, Al? This is so screwed up. You don’t talk to me for a year and now—no, this is ridiculous.”\
I loved her anger, I loved her self-hate, because a person cannot act like this and not be utterly fucked up on the inside. Alice doesn't know how to be kind, it's like her mind thinks one thing, and she does another. She willfully sabotages every remote bit of kindness that comes to mind.\
  “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound that way.” I almost said it, that I was sorry for how I’d acted and what I did, but instead I said, “Do you want to write up your own apology and I can sign it? Would that work better for you?”\
Alice hates her mother's actions---what she sees as a desecration of love.\
  This feeling that the world was so pleased to call love destroyed people every day and it would do that to me too. It would disappoint and deceive and manipulate. But then, the part of me that was dying thought, What would it matter? If I wasn’t going to live long enough to have to worry about the aftermath of it all, what did it matter?\
I loved it when Alice snaps. Like all good characters, there's a moment when everything comes to a climax, and boy, was it worth it to see Alice fall to pieces.\
  “You should’ve left us then. Ripped the Band-Aid off. Because the lies are destroying us,” I said, my voice catching on every syllable. “You ruined me. You made me this way. This.” I motioned to myself, my chest heaving now. “Is your fault. And now it’s too late to fix it.”\
Harvey: Initially, he got on my nerves. He thinks the sun rises and sets on Alice. For most of the book, he puts up with Alice's bullshit without a fight. In his effort to get over Alice, it almost feels like he's using someone else, as he's pushing himself to like someone for the sake of liking someone. Harvey doesn't know how else he can move on, even as he realizes that he can never totally escape her.\
  I wanted to lie to her and tell her that I didn’t like Alice in that way, but I couldn’t. “I don’t know. But I’m not on a date with Alice. I’m here because I like you. That’s not a good answer, but I won’t lie to you.”\
But as much as he is a doormat, Harvey isn't an ass. He's just a guy who's hopelessly entwined within Alice's web.\
  “Yeah.” I was an ass. I knew from the moment I asked Debora out that I wasn’t over Alice. I was too selfish to even bother wondering how this might end.\
The Other Characters: I loved everyone else. All the side characters were brilliantly portrayed. There is a authentic dynamic between their relationships, and every single character feels human.There are minor characters, like Debora, the really nice, smart girl who captures Harvey's attention---whom Alice instantly, irrationally hates. She is so fucking nice and my heart broke for her involvement in Harvey and Alice's twisted version of love. I loved the relationship between Alice and her mother, both with strong personalities. They are two negatives sides to a magnet: put them together, and they will repel each other.\
  Most mothers don’t talk to their daughters like that, but my mom and I had never been most mothers and daughters. I remembered reading about wolf packs when I was younger. Each wolf pack could only have one alpha, one chief. This was the very unfortunate truth of my mother and me. We were two alphas who could never coexist in peace. The only time we had was when she thought I was dying.\
This was such a frustratingly amazing read. If you wanted adorable characters you could love, run far away. If you want devastatingly believable, hatefully flawed characters, you need this book.

I am a collection of oddities, a circus of neurons and electrons: my heart is the ringmaster, my soul is the trapeze artist, and the world is my audience. It sounds strange because it is, and it is, because I am strange.After the sudden collapse of her family, Mim Malone is dragged from her home in northern Ohio to the "wastelands" of Mississippi, where she lives in a medicated milieu with her dad and new stepmom. Before the dust has a chance to settle, she learns her mother is sick back in Cleveland.So she ditches her new life and hops aboard a northbound Greyhound bus to her real home and her real mother, meeting a quirky cast of fellow travelers along the way. But when her thousand-mile journey takes a few turns she could never see coming, Mim must confront her own demons, redefining her notions of love, loyalty, and what it means to be sane.Told in an unforgettable, kaleidoscopic voice, Mosquitoland is a modern American odyssey, as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

What if you aren’t the Chosen One?The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death?What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life.Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions...

Sixteen-year-old Solomon is agoraphobic. He hasn’t left the house in three years, which is fine by him.Ambitious Lisa desperately wants to get into the second-best psychology program for college (she’s being realistic). But is ambition alone enough to get her in?Enter Lisa.Determined to “fix” Sol, Lisa steps into his world, along with her charming boyfriend, Clark, and soon the three form an unexpected bond. But, as Lisa learns more about Sol and he and Clark grow closer and closer, the walls they’ve built around themselves start to collapse and their friendships threaten to do the same.

If you asked anyone in his small Vermont town, they'd tell you the facts: James Liddell, star athlete, decent student and sort-of boyfriend to cute, peppy Theresa, is a happy, funny, carefree guy.But whenever James sits down at his desk to write, he tells a different story. As he fills his drawers with letters to the people in his world -- letters he never intends to send -- he spills the truth: he’s trying hard, but he just isn’t into Theresa. It’s a boy who lingers in his thoughts.He feels trapped by his parents, his teammates, and the lies they've helped him tell, and he has no idea how to escape. Is he destined to live a life of fiction?

Seven students. Seven (deadly) sins. One secret.Paloma High School is ordinary by anyone’s standards. It’s got the same cliques, the same prejudices, the same suspect cafeteria food. And like every high school, every student has something to hide—from Kat, the thespian who conceals her trust issues onstage, to Valentine, the neurotic genius who’s planted the seed of a school scandal.When that scandal bubbles over, and rumors of a teacher-student affair surface, everyone starts hunting for someone to blame. For the seven unlikely allies at the heart of it all, the collision of their seven ordinary-seeming lives results in extraordinary change.

A heartbreaking YA debut about love and loss, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson.In this YA contemporary romance, a sixteen-year-old boy must learn to swim against an undercurrent of grief – or be swept away by it.Otis and Meg were inseparable until her family abruptly moved away after the terrible accident that left Otis’s little brother dead and both of their families changed for ever. Since then, it’s been three years of radio silence, during which time Otis has become the unlikely protégé of eighteen-year-old Dara – part drill sergeant, part friend – who’s hell-bent on transforming Otis into the Olympic swimmer she can no longer be. But when Otis learns that Meg is coming back to town, he must face some difficult truths about the girl he’s never forgotten and the brother he’s never stopped grieving. As it becomes achingly clear that he and Meg are not the same people they were, Otis must decide what to hold on to and what to leave behind. Quietly affecting, this compulsively readable debut novel captures all the confusion, heartbreak, and fragile hope of three teens struggling to accept profound absences in their lives.

Despite sending him letters ever since she was thirteen, Taliah Abdallat never thought she'd ever really meet Julian Oliver. But one day, while her mother is out of the country, the famed rock star from Staring Into the Abyss shows up on her doorstep. This makes sense - kinda - because Julian Oliver is Taliah's father, even though her mother would never admit it to her.Julian asks if Taliah if she will drop everything and go with him to his hometown of Oak Falls, Indiana, to meet his father - her grandfather - who is nearing the end of his life. Taliah, torn between betraying her mother's trust and meeting the family she has never known, goes.With her best friend Harlow by her side, Taliah embarks on a three-day journey to find out everything about her 'father' and her family. But Julian isn't the father Taliah always hoped for, and revelations about her mother's past are seriously shaking her foundation. Through all these new experiences, Taliah will have to find new ways to be true to herself, honoring her past and her future.

It’s been five years since Summer Marks was brutally murdered in the woods. Everyone thinks Mia and Brynn killed their best friend. That driven by their obsession with a novel called The Way into Lovelorn the three girls had imagined themselves into the magical world where their fantasies became twisted, even deadly.The only thing is: they didn’t do it. On the anniversary of Summer’s death, a seemingly insignificant discovery resurrects the mystery and pulls Mia and Brynn back together once again. But as the lines begin to blur between past and present and fiction and reality, the girls must confront what really happened in the woods all those years ago—no matter how monstrous.

A beautiful and distinguished family.A private island.A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy.A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive.A revolution. An accident. A secret.Lies upon lies.True love.The truth. We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Read it.And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.

The Fault in Our Stars meets Eleanor and Park in this exhilarating and heart-wrenching love story about a girl who learns to live from a boy who intends to die.Soon to be a major motion picture starring Elle Fanning! Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it’s unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the “natural wonders” of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It’s only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who’s not such a freak after all. And it’s only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet’s world grows, Finch’s begins to shrink. This is an intense, gripping novel perfect for fans of Jay Asher, Rainbow Rowell, John Green, Gayle Forman, and Jenny Downham from a talented new voice in YA, Jennifer Niven.

My disease is as rare as it is famous. It’s a form of Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, but basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in fifteen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.But then one day, a moving truck arrives. New next door neighbors. I look out the window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black t-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I want to learn everything about him, and I do. I learn that he is funny and fierce. I learn that his eyes are Atlantic Ocean-blue and that his vice is stealing silverware. I learn that when I talk to him, my whole world opens up, and I feel myself starting to change—starting to want things. To want out of my bubble. To want everything, everything the world has to offer.Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

books that look like good reads for 2021 (kinda gay lmao)

2021 books <3