{Arc Review} How to Make Friends with Dark by Kathleen Glasgow

Book Summary:

Here is what happens when your mother dies.

It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.

That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone.

Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark.

My Review:

How to Make Friends with the Dark was such an insightful read with one girl’s grief. The story is very well written and get to feel for the characters.

Tiger lives comfortable life with her mom, who gets on her nerves at times. One day Tiger’s mom suddenly passed away, then she has to learn to defend for herself. Now she bouncing around foster homes, while trying to grieve. It’s a lot for a young girl to deal with alone, will she be able to find peace in the end?

This book was such a good read. The struggles the main character face, leaves you heartbroken. If your in mood for some good fiction, then your in for a treat. This book already came out.

Happy Reading!

*Review* Any Second by Kevin Emerson

Book Summary:

Five years after being kidnapped, Elian’s captor sends him into the mall–with a bomb strapped to his chest.

Across the mall is Maya, a girl whose crippling anxiety holds her prisoner in its own way.

Whether it’s chance or fate, Maya keeps Eli from ending them all. And now nothing is the same. Drawn together by their dark pasts, Maya and Eli know it takes only seconds for their entire worlds to change. But time will tell if meeting each other will change them for better or worse.

My Review:

This book left me completely speechless. So, this review was really hard for me to write. It deals with a lot of heavy issues and it instantly bonds a deep connection with what the two main characters were going through.

It just took one second and Maya’s life turned upside down. She helps save the lives of everyone at the mall when a bomber shows up. She has already suffered through anxiety and now got PSTD. Will Maya be able to move on from that horrible day?

And then there is Eli, the bomber. What’s his story and why did he try to blow up the mall? Starting in a new school and mingle with people who don’t know his past is difficult. He struggles with being the outcast and watches his new friend, Graham being bullied all the time. Who is Eli under the wolf mask?

I liked Maya in the book, it was sad to read the struggles she was dealing with. Her friend Janice really wasn’t a friend at all and I disliked her immensely. And with Eli, I felt sorry on what he went through and the horrible events that lead to him walking into that crowded mall with bombs strapped to him. Also, Graham another character I did not like in the book, he seems a bit unhinged and tried to take his rage out on people in the wrong way.

*This book may be very sensitive to some readers and there are definite trigger warnings.*

I really did love this book. It was a real eye opener in the world of bullies, being kidnapped and trying to move on. It’s a powerful read that fills you with so many emotions. Don’t forget your tissues.

Happy Reading!!

Thanks so much to Stay Fetters at Acourtofcoffeeandbooks for helping me out with this post. It means so much to me to have you a friend and helper for this blog.

Made you up by Francesca Zappia

Book Summary:

Reality, it turns out, is often not what you perceive it to be—sometimes, there really is someone out to get you. Made You Up tells the story of Alex, a high school senior unable to tell the difference between real life and delusion. This is a compelling and provoking literary debut that will appeal to fans of Wes Anderson, Silver Linings Playbook and Liar.

Alex fights a daily battle to figure out the difference between reality and delusion. Armed with a take-no-prisoners attitude, her camera, a Magic 8-Ball, and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college. She’s pretty optimistic about her chances until classes begin, and she runs into Miles. Didn’t she imagine him? Before she knows it, Alex is making friends, going to parties, falling in love, and experiencing all the usual rites of passage for teenagers. But Alex is used to being crazy. She’s not prepared for normal.

Funny, provoking, and ultimately moving, this debut novel featuring the quintessential unreliable narrator will have readers turning the pages and trying to figure out what is real and what is made up.

My Review:

Thought this book was little insightful with mental illness. It’s always a daily struggle for those who want to feel normal. I enjoy the author work with the book. Enjoy the story and the characters in it.

I really like Alex in the book. Alex is a good kid in the book and just wanted to fit in high school. So she hides her schizophrenia from everyone. Then a boy she knows when she was a kid show up at school. Is he real or something she made up?

Book my be sensitive for some people. Still think it’s well and enjoy every minute of it. Find out what happen to Alex for yourself…