I don't know what more I could say about this book that I didn't say when I first read it at the start of the year. I am so amazed by it and by all the feelings and memories it stirred up for me. I also love that this was a random library find for me that I knew nothing about when I started reading. I wish I could have more of those fortuitous library moments. I whole heartedly agree with (and wish I was as eloquent) as these two reviews:
"The plot is gripping and the characters powerfully drawn, but it is its raw and unvarnished look at the dynamics of the high school experience that make this a novel that will be hard for readers to forget." Kirkus Reviews
"An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last." Horn Book
"How I Live Now is the first-person story of Daisy, a smart, stroppy, self-absorbed 15-year-old who arrives from New York's Upper West Side to stay with her English cousins. The four cousins are romantic, bohemian and enjoy an eccentric, faintly feral pastoral idyll of an existence in a rambling English country house, mystically in touch with nature and, indeed, with Daisy."
from The Observer review
How could you not love a book like that? I could not put this one down and revisiting for my end of the year round up has me wanting to reread it again.
This is one of those books that creates a world I would like to live in. Mostly because I want a beach house stocked with boys who think I am pretty and perpetual summertime with no obligations. I'm so glad there is a sequel coming!
Beautiful & sad with an original plot. I cried reading this one.
This book made my stomach hurt. Incredibly sad and very well written.
These two are some of my favorite books of any genre I read this year. I've reread both a couple of times and I am in such knots for Derek. Things will not be ok if he does not end up with Chloe in the next book. My feelings on this might have even surpassed my intense bitterness about the ending of I Capture the Castle. Clearly, fictional characters are supposed to end up with whoever I deem best!
I love the romance in this story and the bonus that there is a sequel coming out. Pretty cover art as well and I greatly appreciate that the sequel has matching art. Nothing better for my OCD book tendencies than lining up matching editions on my shelves.
Creepy, creepy story but beautifully written. I was so mad when I finished reading it. There had better be some answers in the sequel or my rage will have to continue festering. And after watching Bella scream like her internal organs were being harvested from her still conscious body during New Moon I want more than ever to see her kill some zombies in the movie version of this. It would be perfect!
Great atmosphere with an intensely suspenseful plot. It inspired me to buy (but sadly not to actually read yet) some noir.
These are both so clever and hilarious. I loved them both but I honestly loved all of the E. Lockhart books I read this year. She is consistently entertaining.
Swoon. John After made me read this book twice. And if I'm being truly honest I've read certain sections more than twice- it's really that good! John is just so tortured and good and dreamy all rolled into one. I love this book! Still really hate the cover, though.
Historical fiction that is illuminating of the time period but never in an awkward way. It is a very well done book. I couldn't stop thinking about the poor, taxi dancing heroine for days afterward. And the fact that I really need to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I want to go to Italy and kill unicorns! And if that is too much to ask for I'll settle for just going to Italy and having a Marisa Tomei in Only You type adventure with a really cute hair cut.
Book Three needs to come out now! I love these books so much! And I love that the crazy hype was actually legitimate and deserved. But mostly I love Peeta!
