Review- How to Be Bad by E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowksi and Lauren Myracle

How to Be Bad on Goodreads

 BOOK SUMMARY:

Three bestselling authors--E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski, and Lauren Myracle--bring you on the road trip of a lifetime in this dynamic novel packed with fun, friendship, and feminism.

Jesse, Vicks, and Mel each has her own reason for wanting to get away from their nowheresville Florida town. Add in a hot (and harmless) hitchhiker, an impending hurricane, and a close encounter of the gator kind, and the result is one sizzling road trip where the journey is far more important than the destination. Now in a fresh new package, How to Be Bad will take even more readers along for the ride. 

Release date: April 28th 2015

Published by: HarperTeen

Page numbers: 352

REVIEW: 

I was gifted a copy of How to Be Bad by my family, and somehow, whenever I saw that it was written by not one, not two, but three authors, I thought it was a collection of three short stories. When I finally decided to read the book in the hopes that it would break my very long and very boring reading slump (which it did, by the way), I realised that it is a road trip book written in three points of views, and my God, what a fun book it is!

How to be Bad is the story of three young girls who work at the Waffle House and are each facing their own problems, when one day Jesse convinces her friend Vicks to go on a weekend road trip to Miami and somehow new girl Mel becomes a part of the gang as well. Over the course of the book and everything the girls went through, I found myself growing fond of them, and both admiring and appreciating them because they are so real, raw and relatable.

The three girls were so different from each other, and somewhere, that is what made the book so fun to read. On the one hand, we have Jesse and Vicks, who have been close friends and even though they are the complete opposites, they complete each other in a certain way. Then we have Mel, who I thought was most relatable, and she just adds that extra something to not just the entire road trip, but to the lives of Jesse and Vicks.

There's so much that happens in this book over the course of one weekend during the road trip that it's hard to summarise everything. The authors E. Lockhart, Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle have written a spectacular book with a very fun yet moving and touching story. I've previously read E. Lockhart's We Were Liars, which was a very unique and heart-warming read and Sarah Mlynowski's Ten Things We Did (and Probably Shouldn't Have) which again, I loved. So only Lauren Myracle was new to me, but man, was I impressed with the way this book was written!

All I will say is that How to Be Bad is a lovely coming of age story that is done so brilliantly. Coming of age stories are always a hit, and this one is no exception. I am in complete awe of this stunning and engrossing read that has so much to offer and teach, that has nothing to do with being bad, but learning how to accept both sides and live with it. I read this book over a weekend, and I had a great time doing it, so I would highly, highly recommend it, especially to fans of young adult contemporaries.

Buy the book: AMAZON

Review- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Goodreads Summary:

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.

REVIEW:

When your favourite bloggers read and appreciate a book, you have to read it, no matter what. We Were Liars has already gone down in history as the fastest and most sincere recommendation I've taken from my buddy Tanja. I had been seeing the book around a lot and when I read Tanja's absolutely beautiful review for it, I began reading the book within an hour of reading her review, so you can imagine the impact her review had on me. Our buddy Glass read and loved the book as well so that was definitely a plus. I wasn't expecting much (as I've learned not to do) from the book, but it seemed like it would be a very good story. Unfortunately, my feelings are mixed and even more unfortunate is the fact that I do not like mixed feelings.

Let me start with the positives. This was the first E. Lockhart book that I read and the writing was amazing. It had such a pretty flow to it and it could be read as poetry. It's not always easy to read books written this way and I am well aware that most people do not prefer to read in this manner, but I get hooked on to it from page one. The writing was the second reason why I went fast with the book than my normal reading speed. The first reason, you ask? The mystery. The intrigue. The curiosity. Just like the writing, I was into the plot from the beginning. I was dying to know exactly what would come my way and my curiosity was piqued to the point that I wasn't even making up my own imaginary scenes as I just wanted to know, know and know more.

That brings me to the plot itself. While the story was quite strong and highly interesting, I didn't quite like the way in which it was executed. I loved the ending because I love these kind of endings, but somewhere, I felt that something was missing and that is purely my fault since I kept asking and waiting for something more. There were quite a few issues that were going on on the island on which this story takes place among the family there and they were really good and well developed, but issues like this are much more fascinating when there's more depth to them. I felt that they became very petty at some point. Also, the ending didn't have an impact on me. If anything, I was only trying to search for something that wasn't there. The characters were fascinating, I would say, with each person having flaws, making them more real, but I didn't connect to them save for a few truly exceptional times.

I really wish I had liked We Were Liars more like everyone seems to have, but then again, I am someone who goes left when everyone goes right. Anyway, I am so glad I gave the book a try since it is beautiful in its own way and the whole reading process was one amazingly cool experience keeping me at the edge of my seat throughout and when a book does that,  it is a good book. The few aspects that I didn't quite enjoy or "get" end up being the main parts unluckily, but that aside, this was a good book.

RATING: