I'm 2 books down so far from my summer reading list and I'm feeling a bit down, both were such disappointing reads. I think maybe I expected too much because one did have a fair amount of negative reviews on Goodreads, but I thought to myself so did Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore and I loved that book! Let's just say that I should've trusted the reviewers instead of my heart. First up...
We Were Liars
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.
I believe this was featured in a Peeople or Us Weekly "Must Read" section last summer and since it centered around a rich family with a secret (again similar to Bittersweet) I thought it was going to be perfect! That was 100% not the case. Let me pump the brakes a bit, because this book wasn't absolutely terrible. It did have interesting language, quite big words (SAT level words, but then again it's for that age set, so it makes sense). Also the style of writing was...unique, extremely descriptive and moments in the chapters dip and and out of prose. She also included these stories about a king and his 3 daughters which was poetic towards the story of the patriarch (grandfather) and his 3 heirs (mom & 2 aunts), which to be honest were extremely annoying and I disliked very much.
*Spoiler Alert* I had this book figured out about 75 pages in and I'm surprised it took me that long, because the story was fairly typical of a rich family with a "secret". Sidenote: The secret always either involves Nazi's and/or someones gonna die. We Were Liars chose the latter of the two. The death toll Lockhart leaves us with is 3 "Liars", 2 golden retrievers, and 1 beach mansion. I'll admit I was really torn up about the dogs and it added to the burning hatred of our main character and narrator (who at this point I can't even remember her name or anyone's name for that matter). I really don't want to bash this book that much because it wasn't horrible. I just really wanted to know why they were called "Liars" because they never technically lied about anything. The family definitely avoided the truth after she burnt the house down and killed everyone in it (and the dogs! Don't forget she killed the dogs too!). I think people in the 15-18 age set will really enjoy this. It's summer setting and limited page numbers makes it a good beach read option. Final Grade: C-
Come to the Edge by Christina Haag
When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love, and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest.
A haunting book, Come to the Edge is a lasting evocation of a time and a place—of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York’s history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery.
Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully.
About 2 years ago I read my first book abut JFK Jr, Fairtyale Interrupted by RoseMarie Terenzio and I fell in love with his and Carolyn Bissette's love story. So when I saw that someone had written a book about their romatical relationship with John I had to read it! Let me preface by saying that I admire Christina Haag in how hard she has worked to get where she is in her career and that she busted her ass taking every job offered to her as an actress. That being said I could care less about her telling this story of her life. Which sounds harsh, but I really didn't. I'm sure a small minority of the people who read this because it had John John also felt the same. Now that all the negativity is out of the way, I'll start by saying this book was beautifully written. Haag and Kennedy grew up with one another in NYC, went to Brown together, and finally got together when they both stared in a play together. I would like to point out that she has a very sophisticated, dream like way of telling the story of her life. My one issue is that I found her recollections a bit weird. Maybe she didn't want to put too much of their conversations into the book because she didn't want to misrepresent him by speaking for him or maybe she just really couldn't remember anything they really talked about to a T just the scenarios and important moments. To me her memories seemed like they were told from really far away (which is reasonable since all of this stuff happened in the 80s and were in fact far away). I really can't pinpoint what I didn't like about this book. Maybe its that she wasn't Carolyn, but if you can not be shallow and look beyond that, I feel like you would enjoy this book. Final Grade: C+
So first 2 reads of the Summer haven't been great. I'm optimistic that we can turn this car around! That's it for now!
<3's Laterz!
We Were Liars
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.
I believe this was featured in a Peeople or Us Weekly "Must Read" section last summer and since it centered around a rich family with a secret (again similar to Bittersweet) I thought it was going to be perfect! That was 100% not the case. Let me pump the brakes a bit, because this book wasn't absolutely terrible. It did have interesting language, quite big words (SAT level words, but then again it's for that age set, so it makes sense). Also the style of writing was...unique, extremely descriptive and moments in the chapters dip and and out of prose. She also included these stories about a king and his 3 daughters which was poetic towards the story of the patriarch (grandfather) and his 3 heirs (mom & 2 aunts), which to be honest were extremely annoying and I disliked very much.
*Spoiler Alert* I had this book figured out about 75 pages in and I'm surprised it took me that long, because the story was fairly typical of a rich family with a "secret". Sidenote: The secret always either involves Nazi's and/or someones gonna die. We Were Liars chose the latter of the two. The death toll Lockhart leaves us with is 3 "Liars", 2 golden retrievers, and 1 beach mansion. I'll admit I was really torn up about the dogs and it added to the burning hatred of our main character and narrator (who at this point I can't even remember her name or anyone's name for that matter). I really don't want to bash this book that much because it wasn't horrible. I just really wanted to know why they were called "Liars" because they never technically lied about anything. The family definitely avoided the truth after she burnt the house down and killed everyone in it (and the dogs! Don't forget she killed the dogs too!). I think people in the 15-18 age set will really enjoy this. It's summer setting and limited page numbers makes it a good beach read option. Final Grade: C-
Come to the Edge by Christina Haag
When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep school friends, a skinny kid who lived with his mother and sister on Fifth Avenue and who happened to have a Secret Service detail following him at a discreet distance at all times. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair. Glamorous and often in the public eye, but also passionate and deeply intimate, their relationship was transformative for both of them. With exquisite prose, Haag paints a portrait of a young man with an enormous capacity for love, and an adventurous spirit that drove him to live life to its fullest.
A haunting book, Come to the Edge is a lasting evocation of a time and a place—of the indelible sting of the loss of young love, and of the people who shape you and remain with you, whether in person or in spirit. It is about being young and full of hope, with all the potential of your life as yet unfulfilled, and of coming of age at a moment in New York’s history when the city at once held danger, magic, and endless possibilities for self-discovery.
Rarely has a love story been told so beautifully.
About 2 years ago I read my first book abut JFK Jr, Fairtyale Interrupted by RoseMarie Terenzio and I fell in love with his and Carolyn Bissette's love story. So when I saw that someone had written a book about their romatical relationship with John I had to read it! Let me preface by saying that I admire Christina Haag in how hard she has worked to get where she is in her career and that she busted her ass taking every job offered to her as an actress. That being said I could care less about her telling this story of her life. Which sounds harsh, but I really didn't. I'm sure a small minority of the people who read this because it had John John also felt the same. Now that all the negativity is out of the way, I'll start by saying this book was beautifully written. Haag and Kennedy grew up with one another in NYC, went to Brown together, and finally got together when they both stared in a play together. I would like to point out that she has a very sophisticated, dream like way of telling the story of her life. My one issue is that I found her recollections a bit weird. Maybe she didn't want to put too much of their conversations into the book because she didn't want to misrepresent him by speaking for him or maybe she just really couldn't remember anything they really talked about to a T just the scenarios and important moments. To me her memories seemed like they were told from really far away (which is reasonable since all of this stuff happened in the 80s and were in fact far away). I really can't pinpoint what I didn't like about this book. Maybe its that she wasn't Carolyn, but if you can not be shallow and look beyond that, I feel like you would enjoy this book. Final Grade: C+
So first 2 reads of the Summer haven't been great. I'm optimistic that we can turn this car around! That's it for now!
<3's Laterz!
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