Review: I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman

Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from home to find the boy that he loves, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City after a family tragedy leaves him isolated on the outskirts of Washington state. After the three of them collide in Central Park, they slowly reveal the parts of their past that they haven't been able to confront,and together, they find their way back to who they're supposed to be. 

Told over the course of a single day from three different perspectives, this is a story about the power of friendship and being true to who you are. 

 

Review: Do you ever read a book and think "this book was so clever, I wish that I had written it!"? Well this was one of those books. Firstly I love a book that takes place over just one day and secondly I love a book with multiple narratives and this fabulous book had both of those. This book is also relatively short which was very refreshing, I didn't feel intimidated by reading it and read it over the weekend which was just perfect! Safe to say, one of my favourite things about this book was the way it was structured!

The characters were pretty awesome too though! Firstly we have Freya who is definitely a celebrity. She is of Ethiopian origin and so I loved that diverse aspect of her character. She has a rocky relationship with her family and she has definitely lost her way. Then we have Harun, whose family is Pakistani. Harun has some secrets he is keeping, some of them even from himself. I like Harun a lot but found him a little frustrating, I wanted to jump into the book and fix him. Nathanial is definitely my favourite of the three characters here. He also has some secrets but we, as readers, get a little peak at what those might be. I also wanted to jump into the book and fix him but I had a little more faith that his new friends would be able to help him out with that so I wouldn't have to. I worried about him the entire way through, I think I felt a very motherly connection to him-oh dear!

Because this book is set over just one day, the storyline is pretty intense but we are treated to lots of flashbacks so each of the characters will have a chapter where we learn a little bit about how they lost their way. I loved this structure, as I have already mentioned and feel like these flashbacks gave the characters and the storyline depth. I couldn't directly relate to any of the reasons these characters had lost their way but because I liked all three of the characters, i definitely felt sympathy for them. I loved the structure of this book and the diversity of the three characters; it was  quick read and definitely something I would recommend picking up sooner rather than later!

To order your copy now, just click the link: UK or US

Review: Into The Water by Paula Hawkins

In the last days before her death, Nel called her sister. Jules didn’t pick up the phone, ignoring her plea for help.

Now Nel is dead. They say she jumped. And Jules has been dragged back to the one place she hoped she had escaped for good, to care for the teenage girl her sister left behind.

But Jules is afraid. So afraid. Of her long-buried memories, of the old Mill House, of knowing that Nel would never have jumped.

And most of all she’s afraid of the water, and the place they call the Drowning Pool . . .

Review: Unfortunately this was one of those books for me that didn't live up to the hype. I did finish reading it and did take some enjoyment from the main storyline, it was interesting and something I'd not seen done before. The structure of this novel though really baffled me, if left me quite confused and so really affected my enjoyment of the book. I think that the structure was multiple narrative, something which i normally love but there were just too many separate bits to this narration that I found it very hard to follow. There were first, second and third person narrative. Some part of the narrative were set in the past and some parts of the narrative were extracts from a book that one of the characters was writing. If there had just been narratives changing ONE of these variables, it would have been fine but it was just a little too much. 

Having said that, I did enjoy the main storyline and getting to know the very main characters. Obviously we know from the synopsis that Nel has died in these mysterious waters and it is being class a suicide but we know right from the word go that there are differing opinions on that. It was really interesting finding out about the other people that have died in these same waters and the mysteries surrounding their deaths and how their deaths fit into Nel's death too. It was also interesting finding out about her relationship with her family but I did enjoy trying to work out what exactly happened when Nel died. 

In terms of characters, it is really difficult to judge whether I liked these characters or thought they were realistic because we jump between characters so often. It was interesting getting to know where Nel fitted into the community. I enjoyed watching the relationship between Nel's sister Jules and her daughter develop. I found myself very suspicious of one of the families in the community and found a couple of the other characters very difficult to actually visualise because they didn't feel entirely whole or realistic. 

The thriller aspect of this novel is obviously there because I kept reading until the end but I wasn't particularly desperate to find out what had happened because there was so much else going on. I wasn't filled with adrenaline like I am with some other books and so I think that was another reason why this book came up a little short for me. If you like a big cast of characters and being shaded from the truth by a whole load of other storylines then definitely give this one a go but I couldn't honestly recommend this book. 

To order your copy now and see for yourself, click the link: UK or US