When the Light Went Out by Bridget Morrissey || Review

"You're a billion pieces, building and unbuilding, stacking and unstacking, hinging and unhinging, pushing, pulling, leaning, standing, falling, all to create something bigger than you." 

This book was kindly sent to me for review, via Netgalley, by SOURCEBOOKS Fire. Many thanks to both!

Name: When the Light Went Out 

Author: Bridget Morrissey

Rating: 3.5 Stars 

Pages: 320

Publisher: SOURCEBOOKS Fire

Published: June 1st 2019

Marley Bricket was the light of their friendship group, she kept everybody on their toes with their annual scavenger hunt called the Adventure, her stories and she made small town life bearable. Everybody knew they, Marley and her friends. When the Adventure comes around, they all get more than they bargained for. A gun that wasn't supposed to be loaded. An accidental shooting. Marley Bricket, dead. 

Five years later, her friends all get together after her memorial, the first one with them all together, for one last adventure. But will finishing what Marley started years ago raise more questions than answers and make everyone fall back into the spiral of grief and loss? 

I wanted to love this book. I really really did. 

And I didn't hate it. 

The writing was great, I really enjoyed the alternating point of view between the day that Marley died, and the days of the Adventure. It flowed well. But the present day point of view almost made parts of the throwback chapters redundant, it answered your questions too early I feel, which potentially made the book drag along a little. The ending was suspected. It made it hard to read and follow the flow. But the author really does have a lovely way with words, there were so many sections of this book I found myself taking note of and highlighting along the way because they encapsulate the process of grief so well. 

Grief is a really difficult topic to write about, especially grief from bereavement. How do you put loss in to words? Morrissey does it very well and the sections that spoke on grief were poignant and raw. They sat with you through the story and you can really feel what the main characters are expressing. 

That being said however, one reason this book isn't rated higher is the main characters. Ollie and Nick were the youngest two of the group and the two that were there when Marley died, Nick pulled the trigger and Ollie watched as Marley was killed by a gun that wasn't supposed to be loaded. That type of trauma is bound to mess anyone up, especially eleven year olds. But something about Ollie didn't sit well with me, I found her character reckless for the sake of being reckless and her unhealthy obsession with Marley was kind of unsettling in places. Particularly when she dresses as Marley to go to her memorial every year. That in particular made me feel a little weird. Ollie's voice is the narrator in this book, she's followed by the spirit of Marley, this presence of Marley was nice but I felt like it could have been developed further. 

I wanted a bit more from that aspect of the book. 

Now looking at Nick, he was a good character. But in terms of him and Ollie and their budding romance, it didn't seem like it was something that was for the best. It seemed too predictable and too cliche for the book, and in my opinion, Ollie forgave him way too fast for not talking to her in five years. 

Something that was unprecedented from this book were the conversations about mental health and whether Marley knew the gun was loaded when she told Nick to pull the trigger. It was a conversation that fit well into the story and made it even more harrowing than before. 

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars, this book didn't fully hit the mark with me, but it was also a good read. I wouldn't call it a favourite but I don't hate it.

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Carrie by Stephen King || Review

“People don't get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it.” 

Name: Carrie

Author: Stephen King

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Pages: 248

Publisher: Hodder

Year Published: Originally 1974 

Movie Adaption?: Yes (1976, 1999, 2002, 2013)

Carrie White has a power, a power that terrifies her religiously devout christian mother. A power that scares her sometimes. This power is something that will change her life forever. If being abused at home by her mother isn't enough,  Carrie is known for being the weird one in school, ridiculed and bullied relentlessly by those more popular than herself in school, especially after experiencing her first period in the open in school. It's following this she is asked to the prom by one of the most popular boys in school, and a horrific prank is carried out that leads to Carrie getting revenge on the town that shafted her as the weird girl. 

This book wasn't what I expected. Stephen King is known for straight up horror, I read It last year and it chilled me right to my core. I found myself looking around corners when I was reading that one, but this book just made me sad. It's something that I found myself aching for Carrie at times because really, she didn't stand a chance. She was never going to come out of this positively, I knew bits of the plot before I read the book but I didn't know how extreme the situations were. 

Starting with her mother, her mother was literally the most hateful person in the whole book for me. She continuously took her own trauma out on Carrie and yes, Carrie's telekinesis power is terrifying and to those of a religious opinion, may seem demonic, that was still her child. Her child that had to stay in a closet and pray to God, a child who wasn't so much as allowed a pillow to sleep on, or wasn't told what her period was and was told it came from sin. Her mother had zero likeable qualities and I'm a little shocked by how Carrie put up with the abusive behaviour for such a long a time.

Secondly, her school life was awful too. The only likeable people from the school were Sue and Tommy and it's so sad that they ultimately got dragged into this whole thing, even though Sue did play a part in the initial bullying act, her intentions weren't malice towards the end of the book. It's sad that Carrie didn't get the ultimate support she needed. Something about Carrie and her life really stirred and empathy within me and it has something to be said about what some teenagers experience within a school environment. Now, I'm not saying that the average teenager will go and explode a town, but I am saying that it should be noted that you never know when somebody has had enough.

Stephen King's writing is great, and I'm glad that I'm finally getting to read the books of his that I own, but I would not peg this book as a horror book. I'd say it's more a psychological book, with paranormal-esque influences. 

As always hit me up on my socials, what did you think of this book?

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Series Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

This is my second time reviewing Lauren Oliver on this blog, and the reason would be that I genuinely love her writing. I loved Panic (to a certain extent) and I loved Before I Fall. But until last week I hadn't read probably her most popular series, Delirium. 

The Delirium series is set in a world where love is a disease. And to be immune to the disease, you have to get cured. The story follows Lena whose mother caught the disease when she was a child, and it's how she navigates her way through this dystopian world. 

Here's what I thought. 

Delirium 

95 days to go until Lena gets cured, but obviously things don't go to plan, or else we wouldn't have a book. 

This book is a four out of five, I liked this one quite a lot. At first, I wasn't too sure about Lena, I thought she was a bit too distant for us to become connected to her, but I was quickly proved wrong by how much she really grew throughout this book, she was unique and likable by the end. 

The world for this book was so interesting too, it was very different from any other dystopian book I had read. It was overall a really good read that made me excited for continuing the series. 

Pandemonium 

This book for me was conflicting, in some ways it was such a step up from book one. It gave us more development, more action and more drama. The ending literally left me speechless and I couldn't make any cohesive thoughts for a few minutes other than OH MY GOD. I really loved some aspects about this book, but there were also sections where this book fell flat. 

I felt that although the ending was incredible, there was something missing, the book was building and building for something that didn't arrive and it left me feeling a bit disappointed. 

I really liked Lena's character development and the introduction of Julian in this book. He was actually a character that I loved. 

Four out of five stars. 

Requiem 

It's always the last book in a trilogy that disappoints me. 

I felt cheated by this book. I was so into it until the last 20% and then it just died. It faltered and I couldn't get back into it. The whole thing with her mum in this book kind of messed me up because I wanted more. I feel like we were promised more from the beginning books in this series than this book gave us. 

I liked some parts about it, I liked getting to know Hana. I liked the little touches on relationship throughout this book but by the end of it I was just so cheated and disappointed that I found the ending anti-climatic and too vague for my liking. 

Three out of five stars. 

Overall Review: 

I wanted to love this so badly. 

But with hyped books, you always have to be careful and with this series I just gave it my heart for it to not live up to my expectations and the last book kind of just ruined it all. 

Overall series review: 3.5 stars. 

QOTD: Have you read this series, did you like it? If not, can you imagine a world without love? 

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