Book Review - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

I decided to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline after I heard a few YouTubers mention it and my housemate also recommended it. I started the book last Wednesday and I finished it Sunday because oh my god I could not put it down. This is the first book in a while that has really captured my attention and I just need more people to read it please (especially before the film adaptation comes out next year)

Ready Player One is set in the not-too-distant-future the 2040's where environmental problems has left much of the planet in desolate states and poverty... except the entire world can also access the OASIS, an interface sort of Virtual Reality type service and game where you can essentially live without ever having to physically go outside. The OASIS was created by James Halliday, a child of the 1980's, so the book is littered with pop culture references (which I absolutely loved); when he dies, his avatar makes an announcement that, just like any good video game, there are Easter Eggs hidden within them. 3 keys will lead to 3 gates and whoever clears all of them with the highest score will become the heir to his fortune and to the OASIS. The book is told from the POV of Wade Watts, or Parzival as his avatar is known, who becomes the first person to make any progress with the Easter Egg hunt. I won't go too much further as I'll start spoiling things but let's just say there's also some people on the Hunt who wouldn't use the OASIS for good...and they won't stop at killing people. 

The writing itself was perhaps a little shoddy at time, things seemed to move on very fast and towards the end, it seemed a little rushed to wrap up some plot holes. However, the story itself had me hooked, you found yourself really wanting to find out what the end of the quest was as well as finding out more about the other people behind their avatars, for example Ar3temis and Aech... we only ever see their avatars until towards the end. Every character is well-rounded. Despite a straight white male protagonist, there is good diversity within the book ranging from sexuality and race not to mention the fact that Ar3temis is clearly the smartest of the main characters and she's female so yay! 

I give this book a strong 9/10 and highly recommend it. If you like sci-fi but also obscure pop culture references, this is a definite read. I'd also say it doesn't have a particular gender preference and the ages of 14 up could read this. 

Thanks for reading! Laura x

The Girl from the Savoy - book review!

Because I am a university student who does a Humanities degree it means I spend the majority of my time reading which ultimately means my reading for pleasure suffers as I tend to use my breaks to catch up on TV or YouTube. However, after starting this book last August (and then stupidly leaving it at my friend's house who lives an hour away from me....plus I got distracted by the Cursed Child script whoops) I finally finished The Girl from the Savoy last week so thought I'd do a little review!

I read one of  Hazel Gaynor's other books, A Memory of Violets, last year and I absolutely adored it so I was very excited to read The Girl from the Savoy. I'm a history student/geek who is a romantic at heart so Hazel's fiction is very much up my street. I will highly recommend A Memory of Violets (and I may even say at a push I enjoyed it slightly more than this one ahem)

The Girl from the Savoy is set in 1920's London, funnily enough at the Savoy Hotel. Hotels are a setting I often find fascinating because you come across literally anyone and everyone, no matter the point in history. It follows the story of Dolly Lane, a young aspiring actress who becomes a maid at the Savoy, as well as Loretta May, a famous West End star. They both hold secrets in their past, they have both loved and lost and their stories intertwine together to form a wholesome, interesting story.

What I particularly found interesting about this book was the slight twist (probably the best way to word it) in terms of the romantic story lines. No spoilers but it did seem as if the story was heading one way only to demonstrate that love is a fickle, delicate thing and just because a person seems right for you, and perhaps in another world or time they would be the right person, it doesn't mean it all works out happily. The book also covers various topics such as sexual abuse, illness, losing a loved one and the issues of the soldiers who returned from war. It contains two central female characters who come from different walks of life but wholeheartedly support one another which warms my little feminist heart right to the centre. In terms of the setting, the whole world of 1920's London is a magical place it seems (obviously this was not necessarily the case but Hazel does a lovely job of describing and making you get entirely engrossed in this glamorous past)

My slight issue with the book was that it dragged a little in the middle and a plot device at the end did seemingly come a little from nowhere. But that may have been because I also read this book normally quite late at night so I may have just not picked up on the hints about it. However, the characters are interesting and even though occasionally flawed (but who isn't?), they are people you find yourself rooting for and it keeps the reader invested.

On the whole, I rate this book a solid 8/10 and would definitely recommend.

Bye for now!!
Laura x

Book review: Kill Your Boss by Shane Kuhn

The latest book I have read (apart from school ones bleurgh) is this lovely little one - okay lovely is a word we will use loosely- by Shane Kuhn. I've always liked stories of assassins and such like as creepy as that makes me sound but I find them exciting and intriguing.

This story is written partly as an FBI investigation into John Lago, the anti-hero of the book and partly as John's own perspective - an experienced hitman and killer writing to the new recruits for the company he works for HR Inc.
In summary, the story is that this is John's last assignment - he is 25 now so too old to be an intern anymore (how HR Inc get their killers into where they want to be) so he wants to go out with a bang. However, when he finds himself falling for a undercover FBI agent named Alice who just so happens to investigating the man he has been sent to kill; things get interesting. (Of course, there are huge plot twists in this but I'm not going to tell you so go read it for yourself)

I really enjoyed this book; it was funny, it was just the right amount of blood, guts and gore and there was a rather sweet little love story at the centre of it and despite me hating fully romantic novels, I do like a good love story when it's surrounded by an interesting plot line. I liked the character of John's narrative; he was rather self-deprecating at times but I can forgive him that; he hadn't had the best start in life! I also thought Alice was particularly bad ass and would have liked a back story on her!

Criticism of this book is I found myself slightly confused towards the end; everything gets a little blurry and distorted as to who is where, who is dead etc etc.

All in all, I would highly recommend to anyone who is up for a quick, easy read and who enjoys murder mysteries from the murderer's perspective. 8/10 :)

Laura x

Book review: The Deaths by Mark Lawson

This week, I finished 'The Deaths' by Mark Lawson - I'm not gonna lie, I was initially attracted to this book because I thought the cover/font of the title were really pretty and aesthetically pleasing but upon reading the blurb, I was intrigued. This book, on the outside, looks to be a "satirical comedy" regarding Britain's upper class and how an "act of violence" opens the book - I do like a good murder mystery so I figured I would give it a shot.

I have to say I was fairly disappointed with this book. It was funny at times, especially regarding supermarket hierarchies, and I did rather like how it wasn't revealed which characters were killed until the last few chapters as the rest of the novel explained possible motives or killers from within the group of characters but other than that, it was essentially a lot of disjointed narratives from different characters none of whom (except maybe the doctor and the police officer) were particularly likeable - in order for me to enjoy a book, I have to connect with at least one character and that just didn't happen with this story. I stuck with it as I wanted to see how did actually get killed but otherwise, I probably would have given up with book halfway through.

My biggest annoyance with this story though was clearly the author had no clue what feminism actually is - he mentions the word 'feminist' identifying characters as so several time but each time was totally wrong. Feminism simply means gender equality. That is it. Mark Lawson, however, seems to take it as women not needing men to get by, that they should be shunned for enjoying sex with their husband and just bleurgh. I do not have time for people who choose to write about a topic that they clearly have no idea about. Mark Lawson, I'm sure you're a lovely man but please do some research before saying your characters are feminists when they are a rather dodgy idea of one instead.

Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this book, giving it only a 6/10 as it was a mildly intriguing story and an easy read but the characters were just too annoying for me to give a rate any higher!
All opinions are my own and stuff like that and give me some book recommendations please! I need a major book haul soon.
Laura x