Mundie Moms

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Hysteria by Megan Miranda / Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan, Book Review



By: Megan Miranda
Published by: Bloomsbury Teen
Released on: February 5th, 2013
Source: arc from publisher to review
3 stars: It's A Good Read
Purchase it from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Add it to GoodReads

Mallory killed her boyfriend, Brian. She can't remember the details of that night but everyone knows it was self-defense, so she isn't charged. But Mallory still feels Brian's presence in her life. Is it all in her head? Or is it something more? In desperate need of a fresh start, Mallory is sent to Monroe, a fancy prep school where no one knows her . . . or anything about her past.But the feeling follows her, as do her secrets. Then, one of her new classmates turns up dead. As suspicion falls on Mallory, she must find a way to remember the details of both deadly nights so she can prove her innocence-to herself and others. 

In another riveting tale of life and death, Megan Miranda's masterful storytelling brings readers along for a ride to the edge of sanity and back again

I have been looking forward to reading this book. The cover, the synopsis and all the hype I've heard about this book made it sound like a great read. There were a few things that didn't set well with me in the story. One of the things I really liked about this book was the way it totally toyed with my mind. There's a lot of mystery in this story, pertaining to they how and why Mallory killed her boyfriend. While reading the story I spent a lot of time trying to piece together what really happened. There were times I'd think I figured out what happened, and then a new twist would be throw in to the story. At the same time, after awhile all the piecing together did grow a little old.

Character wise, it was interesting to see the bits and pieces of Mallory's relationship with her boyfriend, and the changes that occurred over time in their relationship. Luckily she a relationship with her best friend that helps keep her going. I'll be honest, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. At first I emotionally felt a connection to what was going on, but some where along the way all that changed. Normally that takes me out of the story, and I'd stop reading. There's so much mystery going on in the story that by the time I felt that way I was already too invested in figuring out what was really going on to stop reading. 

It's not that Hysteria is a bad book. It's not. It's not one I enjoyed as much as I thought I would. That's always a downer for me. Over all it was a good read, and it's one I think fans of Megan Miranda will enjoy. It's going to stop me from picking up Megan's next book.



By: Michael Hassan
Published by: Balzer & Bray
To Be Released on: 2/19/13
Source: arc/book from publisher to review
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

On April 21, 2008, Steven "Crash" Crashinsky saved more than a thousand people when he stopped his classmate David Burnett from taking their high school hostage armed with assault weapons and high-powered explosives. You likely already know what came after for Crash: the nationwide notoriety, the college recruitment, and, of course, the book deal. What you might not know is what came before: a story of two teens whose lives have been inextricably linked since grade school, who were destined, some say, to meet that day in the teachers' lounge of Meadows High. And what you definitely don't know are the words that Burn whispered to Crash right as the siege was ending, a secret that Crash has never revealed.

Until now.

Michael Hassan's shattering novel is a tale of first love and first hate, the story of two high school seniors and the morning that changed their lives forever. It's a portrait of the modern American teenage male, in all his brash, disillusioned, oversexed, schizophrenic, drunk, nihilistic, hopeful, ADHD-diagnosed glory. And it's a powerful meditation on how normal it is to be screwed up, and how screwed up it is to be normal

I have been looking forward to reading this book for awhile now. I've been intrigued by Crash, and curious to find out what Michael had in store for me with this story. The more I got into the story, the more I realized this wasn't a story for me, and instead of just walking away from the book like I should have, I kept reading it. I know, weird right? I should have, but part of me was hoping to see if things that I didn't connect with would change. 

Much of this story is of Crash telling his story about what happened that day with Burn, and the aftermath of it all. The story does jump around a lot, as Crash is retelling the reader all that happened. I felt like I kept up with the jumping back and forth just fine, but it got confusing when all the sudden Crash was having a flash back, and there was no key description of him going into the flashback and then back to the present moment. For such a large book it does read quickly, but what I missed for this book's size was more depth from the characters. I wanted them to be built up, and given much more interaction than I personally felt they had. I also had a hard time with the writing. While the writing was to the point, I had hard time keeping up with what was going on.

Okay now I have to put on my critical review pants, because I had a huge issue with this book......  My biggest problem I had with the book was how much of the book is about Crash's raging hormones, how often he gets high, his drinking, and how often he's getting it. By getting it, I mean sex. I felt there was so much more potential with the story then having so much of it be about this. It disconnected me from the story. Sure I spent time reading this, hoping I'd get to know Crash on a different level than just this, but sadly I didn't. I got why some of this was in the story, but it took away a lot of depth to Crash's character for me.  I felt there was so much more to him than just sex, drugs and alcohol. I wanted more of his interactions with this family, friends, and most importantly Burn. I went into this story excepting more of it to be focused on Crash and Burn together, which ended up not being the case at all.

Now, that doesn't mean this story couldn't have mentions of sex, drugs and drinking, but I personally felt it was mentioned way too much. Now that doesn't mean someone else won't enjoy it, but for me personally, I didn't. This wasn't my cup of tea. Before anyone asks, yes I was once a teenager, and I totally know that teens have sex, do drugs, get drunk and do things they aren't suppose to, in high school. Are these things going to be in some YA books? Yes, they are. Do they need to talked about for much of the book? No, they don't. One of the biggest down falls for me in this book was too much time was spent focusing on the sex and boozing Crash does and not on the relationships he had. Had it been the other way around I may have enjoyed this book.

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