A thousand pieces of you (Claudia Gray)

Marguerite's parents, two genial scientists, have figured out the existence of alternate dimensions and how to travel between them. After her Dad gets murdered and the suspect, her parent's favorite student Paul, leaps into another dimension, Marguerite follows him with the help of another student called Theo to avenge her father's death.

"Every form of art is another way of seeing the world. Another perspective, another window. And science - that's the most spectacular window of all. You can see the entire universe from there."

I'm not the biggest fan of dystopian / sci-fi novels right now, so I was rather skeptical when I started reading this book, but it didn't dissappoint and I actually liked it quite a bit. It's a solid story and I can't say I didn't enjoy reading it, even though it does have a lot of these typical dystopian YA novels aspects in it. Since I haven't read a lot of these in the past few months, this was an rather painful reminder of how much f*cking love triangles s*ck. Seriously, why are they in basically every YA book? They're just so horrible and frustrating and I can't see how anyone could possibly enjoy them. If it wasn't for that crap, this novel would've been so much better, since I actually like the principle of the story. I think it's very interesting to think about the existence of alternate dimensions and wonder about how you would've turned out if a certain event that shaped you a lot never happened or you made a different decision at some point. I loved not only seeing how the main character's situation and surroundings, but also the whole world changed every time a new dimension is introduced. The world building is good, so exploring each new dimension was one of my favorite parts of this book for sure. I was pretty suprised to see that everything added up and the author didn't make a mistake with the timelines and different dimensions since that's what usually happens if characters in a book jump through time and space. The writing is okay, to be honest I didn't like it a lot, but I can't really determine exactly what bothered me about it, I guess I'm just used to a superior writing style because of the books I've recently been reading. It's pretty fast-paced and while it's not that suspense-packed it's definitely not boring and overall quite enjoyable.
I sadly had my problems with the characters since I couldn't identify with them a lot which leads to me just not caring about them. I'm sure the main character Marguerite is a lovely and nice girl, but it's fairly difficult to actually concentrate on learning more about her character because the stupid love triangle is bothering you all the freaking time. Is it really that hard to choose between two evenly great guys? Once she settled on one of them, she wasn't even capable of deciding which of the different versions of him in the different dimensions she wanted. I mean, it's totally not like they're basically the same person anyway. This whole dilemma makes her too annyoing at times to truly like her for me. The other two main characters Paul and Theo are okay, they're not really original or special and I'm sure I'll forget all about them in a few weeks, but at least it wasn't super frustrating to read about them. Who I did like are the minor characters like Marguerite's family and meeting them (or sometimes not meeting them) in the different dimensions is amazing and I was alsways happy to have one of them appear. By the way, is it weird I shipped Marguerite's parents more than I shipped her with either of her love interests?
Anyway, if you're looking for a light and quick read or you maybe even need something to get out of a reading slump, definitely check this book out. Also, the cover is unbelievably gorgeous so it's gonna look amazing on your book shelf, it sure does on mine.

Rating: 3/5 ✹

I'm sorry I'm not able to post more often than once a week at the moment since there's a lot going on regarding my last two years of school right now. I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!

Leah

The martian (Andy Weir)

The astronaut Mark Watney is left behind by his crew during a dangerous storm on Mars because they think he died while he is actually still alive, so he is stuck alone on the whole planet without a way to communicate with Earth. Instead of giving up by killing himself he decides to try his best to survive in this extremely deadly environmen.

"Actually, I was the very lowest ranked member of the crew. I would only be "in command" if I were the only remaining person. What do you know? I'm in command."

To be honest, this isn't really the kind of book I usually read and I've only picked it up because my Dad bought it, but I'm glad I did, since it's so enjoyable. The writing is pretty good and I liked the idea of using log entries as well as the normal way to write a story, which means in running texts.  On the one hand I was very fascinated with the detailed descriptions of the science and quite suprised at how much I understood but on the other hand the huge focus on it definitely makes the whole story a lot less exciting and during some parts even boring, so you probably won't enjoy this novel that much if you're not into science at all. The story in general isn't that suspensful, the only part that at least in my opinion is kind of intense is the ending, so I wouldn't even necessarily call this book a thriller. The aspect that makes this book so unique and outstanding is definitely the humorous way the story is told. When I was told how funny this novel is, I couldn't see how the concept of being all alone and trying to survive can possible be combined with something comical, but once I started reading and realized how fantastic these two aspects work together, I honestly couldn't get enough. In spite of the extremely dangerous and deadly situations I laughed so much while reading. While probably a few people don't like the kind of humor in this book, I thought it's amazing and definitely the reason why this novel is special and not like any other sci-fi/thriller survival story. I did quite like the plot, but after a while I kind of got the feeling that events are repeated and the main character fell into this pattern of everything's fine, then something bad happens, then he fixes it and everything's fine again until the next disaster happens, so the plot ends up being quite predictable. I also would've loved to have a longer ending because even though I enjoyed it, it did feel a bit flat and unfinished to me.
I absolutely loved the main character Mark Watney since he's such a funny and smart guy who still feels very human because he does make sometimes stupid mistakes and there's quite a big focus on trivial problems like using the bathroom, having minor complaints like headaches that aren't included in a lot of books. However, something that's in my opinion really unrealistic is the fact that he, despite being in a hopeless situation all on his own, despite not speaking or communicating with another human being for so long, never has any kind of depressed or suicidal thoughts. Of course are only extremely mentally stable people sent into space, but I think it is very unlikely the astronauts on their way back to Earth are in a worse mental state than the one who's been left to die on Mars. Anyway, I liked the other members of his crew nearly as much as him and seeing their point of view as well as a bit of their backstories is pretty interesting and enjoyable. I honestly was a bit confused with all the different NASA employees since I had no clue who is actually responsible for what kind of work, but I did enjoy their point of view anyway.
I haven't watched the movie yet but definitely plan on doing so in the near future. Apparently it's supposed to be more serious, though it still has some funny scenes. Maybe I'll write a post in which I'll compare the movie to the book but I can't promise anything yet and to be honest, it's probably gonna take me a few months until I finally come around to watching it, simply because I'm not the biggest fan of movies due to their length.

Rating: 4/5 ✹

I'm really sorry for being so inactive here lately but at least I'm motivated to write posts again and hopefully I'll be able to post once and sometimes even twice a week. I hope you enjoyed this review and you're having an amazing day!

Leah

The 100 (Kass Morgan)

First of all, I'm sorry if I get anything wrong or mix storylines with the show, but I read the books some time ago (back in April, I think) and have read a lot of other books and rewatched the tv show since then, so I might mess this up a bit, even though I'm trying my best.

The books, which are called The 100, Day 21 and Homecoming, follow the four teenagers (and POV characters) Clarke, Wells, Bellamy and Glass. At the beginning of the series, all of them are on the colony, a spaceship whose inhabitants are the last living humans who managed to escape the nuclear war centuries ago. But supplies, most of all oxygen are running out, so the government decides to send one hundred teenage criminals down to earth to see wether the earth is survivable again. Among these delinquents is Clarke, Well's first love, so he commits a crime in order to accompany her, as well as Glass, who manages to escape back onto the colony last-minute. Bellamy however wants to get onto the transport ship to protect his little sister Octavia, whose relationship had to be a secret all their lives because of the one child rule on the colony. Once they arrive on earth and realize earth in fact is survivable again, they have to fight for not just their survival, but also the survival of mankind. While the unfamiliar environment holds a lot of dangers, the teenagers need to build a new society whilst they still have to deal with secrets from their pasts and unexpected relationships are developing. Glass hopes she got away from all these risks with her escape, but soon realizes, her life is in as much danger as it would be on earth. Everyone of them has to deal with the decisions they made or they will haunt them forever.

"You couldn't expect anyone else to share your suffering. You had to carry your pain alone."

I just realized I wanted to put too much information in this summary, but I hope it still made kind of sense to you. Anyway, I really enjoyed this series, and especially amazing was following those four really different characters and their storylines. At the beginning they all were in the more or less same situation, but during the series thanks to character development and a lot of events they differ more and more from one another. While you learn more about each person through flashbacks and memories, which are done soo good, you can see where they are all connected with each other. Apart from that, the books aren't really special, but definitely a great read if you're into sci-fi or dystopian books.

Now you may ask me wether I prefer the show or the books, I honestly can't give you an anwser. The storylines and characters are nearly completely different, so you'll have a hard time comparing those two. The show made a lot of changes, but I'm glad they did since the book just wouldn't work as a tv show, because it's focus is more on relationships and there's just not enough action and death in there. But reading the book really made me wish they would've included Glass' storyline in the first season. In my opinion it would've fit quite well and added definitely something interesting to the story. Anyway, the great thing about those two versions is you're actually able to experience two very different stories about the similar characters and the world they live in. And if you don't think that's awesome, I don't know what's wrong with you.

Rating:
The 100: 3/5 ✹
Day 21: 3.5/5 ✹
Homecoming: 3.5/5 ✹

Wow. This just became waaay too long. But, my point is, if you enjoyed the show (which you definitely did because it's AMAZING), you should check out the books, and the other way round. I'm quite sure most of you will like the show a lot more, but please give the books a chance, they'll be a nice "addition" to the series and will help get you over the looooong hiatus.
One last thing: Why the f*ck would whoever designed the covers (don't get me wrong, I actually like them a lot, especially the one for Day 21) put Finn on two of them, if he doesn't even exist in the books?
Thanks for reading all of this, I hope you're having a great day!

Leah