Theodore Boone

…by John Grisham.

Theo Boone is a 13 year old 8th grader living in the small city of Strattenburg with his parents Marcella Boone and Woods Boone, and his dog Judge. Both his parents are lawyers. But not the exciting kind. His father is a real estate lawyer while his mother is a divorce attorney. Theo thinks he’s a lawyer too. And some day, want to be a criminal lawyer in exciting trials. As the city of Strattenburg gears up for one of the biggest murder trials, Theo is excited and a bit of an expert. The prosecution doesn’t seem to have much of a case. And then, Theo is dragged into the middle of the case. Soon, he is the only one who knows the truth and needs to decide what to do before a murderer could walk free. And Theo wants to see justice served.

What does Theo know?

What will he do with the information especially if lives are at stake?

Will the murderer walk free?

To know all this, well, you have to read the book!

It’s a book for light reading and is one you can probably finish quite quickly. It keeps you hooked for most part and the characters are quite nice. Theo seems like a nice kid and you kind of want him to break through the barriers and see that justice is served. That being said, it’s nowhere near Grisham’s brilliant books like The Partner, A Time to Kill or The Client. But then again, I think this is a book for young adults and teens. It’s a nice little mystery with courtroom drama. Read it for an enjoyable read.

I rate it a 3.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

The fault in our stars

…by John Green.

Sixteen year old Hazel suffers from a terminal form of cancer. Since she was 13. She has been one of the lucky few for whom a trial drug has worked. Lucky in that she is not dead. However, she still needs help breathing and has her lungs drained of the excess water on a regular basis. As she continues with her quiet life of reading and attending college with the thoughts of her impending death, Hazel meets Augustus Waters. Seventeen. One-legged. Charming. Handsome. Beautiful. With a crooked smile. A love for living metaphorically. Humorous. With a crush on Hazel. As they continue with their relationship including a trip to Amsterdam to meet Hazel’s favourite author, Hazel deals with worries about being a grenade…a person who is going to die sometime soon and leave Augustus and her parents who love her, broken. Augustus though seems to believe that in order to be known in death, one needs to do something significant in their lives. The story continues as they delve into thoughts about death and life and cancer culminating to a slightly predictable but sad end.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Why? It’s a bit hard to describe. Let me just say that I finished it in a day with working and everything! The story is narrated by Hazel and her honest opinions are a delight to read. She knows she has a terminal illness. She knows what it means. Yet, she hates the pity and the stares and the fact that everything everyone sees when they encounter her is her illness. Unlike Augustus. His irreverence and humour and plain cheekiness is a delight. I fell in love with both of them and their friend Issac. Cancer is a topic that is hard enough. Add to that cancer in teenagers must be a lot harder. And yet, somehow, without really trivialising it, John Green has managed to convey so much. It’s not about clichéd stuff like ‘live your life to the fullest’. And yet, you are left with thoughts of that. It’s not even necessarily about love even though it is. And it’s not about cancer but possibly about the way in which the world perceives things. Like you are helpless if you have a disease. You are not complete if you have a prosthetic leg. You are not supposed to be irreverent if you are facing death. But it’s this irreverence and humour and able to see things for what they are that make this book so profound and worth so much. Yes, it did leave in tears in the end but it had me chuckling through most pages and thinking deeply through others.

I would highly recommend reading this book and give it a rating of 5.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Beautiful Malice

…by Rebecca James.

17 year old Katherine Patterson has moved to Sydney to get away from her life in Melbourne. While she lives with her aunt Vivien and attends Drummond High School with the aim of keeping to herself and getting through the HSC, she is befriended by Alice at school. Alice is infectious. An extroverted, bubbly girl living by herself in the inner city, breathtakingly beautiful and with no apparent regrets or anxieties. However, Alice avoids talking about anything emotional. But it doesn’t bother Katherine as she too has a secret she wants to keep hidden. It has to do with the death of her younger sister Rachel. The very reason Katherine left Melbourne and chose not to go to Newcastle with her parents.  However, all is not right with Alice. She can be vicious and mean. She treats her boyfriend Robbie like dirt. She doesn’t like it if things are not all about her.

Will Katherine put up with this or will she see through Alice? 

What is it about Katherine’s past that makes her still feel so guilty?

What happened to her sister Rachel? What is the deep dark family secret?

And what secrets does Alice have herself? 

To find out the secrets, read the book. All in all, it was a captivating thriller and I managed to read it in a day. The author has an engaging style and the plot is pretty interesting. The characters are average in that there isn’t too much depth to them. However, you have to remember it is a book aimed at young adults and possibly the plot is more important than characters. Some of the shit that Alice dishes out to her ‘friends’ makes it a bit hard to understand why they put up with it. Why they put up with her. The book goes from present to past with an adult Katherine narrating the story. The adult Katherine appears to have dealt with a lot of grief through her life and is now living for the sake of her 4 year old daughter. In short, it is a great debut novel.

I would give it a rating of 4.

Until next time,

Cheers!!

Note: This has been cross-posted on my personal blog.