Review: Denton Little's Deathdate

Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: April 14th, 2015
Format: Library
Date Read: 8/11/15 to 8/13/15
352 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰

Denton Little's Deathdate takes place in a world exactly like our own except that everyone knows the day they will die. For 17-year-old Denton Little, that's tomorrow, the day of his senior prom.

Despite his early deathdate, Denton has always wanted to live a normal life, but his final days are filled with dramatic firsts. First hangover. First sex. First love triangle (as the first sex seems to have happened not with his adoring girlfriend, but with his best friend's hostile sister. Though he's not totally sure. See: first hangover.) His anxiety builds when he discovers a strange purple rash making its way up his body. Is this what will kill him? And then a strange man shows up at his funeral, claiming to have known Denton's long-deceased mother, and warning him to beware of suspicious government characters…. Suddenly Denton's life is filled with mysterious questions and precious little time to find the answers.

Debut author Lance Rubin takes us on a fast, furious, and outrageously funny ride through the last hours of a teenager's life as he searches for love, meaning, answers, and (just maybe) a way to live on.

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I'm going to be honest, I never really considered reading this until I saw it at the library. And then I thought, "Wait this is about death, right". You see, I loved the Machine of Death anthology, where the manner of your death is spit out by a machine. But in this book, it's the time of death that you have to prepare for. So obviously after I found this out, I was going to pick this up ASAP.

 

Denton is due to die when he's 17 years old, on the day of prom. And you would think that since it's practically YOUR day, you can do whatever you want. But that ends up not being the case. Instead,  You get to 1) attend your own funeral, 2) write your own eulogy, and 3) even sit with your family and friends on your day of death. Where is all the fun, crazy last days? Like whut?

Now I'm going to be completely honest with you, because I don't remember the minor characters (sorry I should take notes more often). All I know is that I loved Denton. At first, he didn't mind that he was dying so early. But then as his day gets closer and closer, you can see him just breaking apart. And as fun this novel is, I have to say it was sad to see that happen.

And what exactly is going to kill Denton anyways? Is it his girlfriend's psychotic ex-boyfriend? A car accident? Or maybe that huge purple splotch that's slowly spreading throughout his entire body. Gross. Either way, I did not really see that coming, even though I did already predict the conclusion of the story. I mean come on now.

 

Did I mention how fun this novel is though? Sure, it's a book about death, but it's a funny book about death. I know it seems weird and contradicting, but just trust me on this one

I didn't really have any gripes with this one, it's a four star read mainly because it doesn't have the "POP" that I think it should have. Sure, Denton's going to die and hilarity ensues, though, oh I don't know. It's very clear that the author wants the reader to pity Denton, especially when he ends up having a mental breakdown at his own funeral.

Overall, I think I was more interested in the whole situation of knowing your death date. I loved the fact that people tried to avoid dying by locking themselves in a room or not doing anything the entire day. The author really did a good job in that regard, and because of that, I enjoyed the book a ton. 

(By the way, it's actually Denton Little's Deathdate, in that "Little" is his last name. It's weird because I can never see it that way, and I always end up pronouncing it as "Denton's Little Deathdate" instead)

Top Ten Tuesday #68

Hosted by the Broke and the Bookish!

Top Ten Books That Would Be On Your Syllabus If You Taught "Survival 101"

Well this is a fitting topic to the start of the school year. I'm actually really excited to attend classes again, though I'm sure I'll regret saying that 2 weeks in. Oh well.

My class is the place to be! We live in a dangerous world, and in order to be adequately prepared (or at least attempt to be prepared), Survival 101 will teach you how to survive in almost ANY dangerous situation, whether it's a dystopia, an apocalypse, or a man-eating bug ATTACK! Get ready for the syllabus!

Do you have the guts to take this class? Will you survive?

Review: Time Between Us

Time Between Us by Tamara Ireland Stone
Time Between Us #1
Publisher: Hyperion
Release Date: October 9th, 2012
Format: Kindle
Date Read: 8/11/15 to 8/13/15
368 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰

Anna and Bennett were never supposed to meet: she lives in 1995 Chicago and he lives in 2012 San Francisco. But Bennett has the unique ability to travel through time and space, which brings him into Anna’s life, and with him a new world of adventure and possibility.

As their relationship deepens, the two face the reality that time may knock Bennett back to where he belongs, even as a devastating crisis throws everything they believe into question. Against a ticking clock, Anna and Bennett are forced to ask themselves how far they can push the bounds of fate, what consequences they can bear in order to stay together, and whether their love can stand the test of time.

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If you don't know me by now, I really like reading about time travel, even though I'm sometimes not content with how it's executed. When it comes to time travel, there are always some plot holes here and there that never get explained because, well, it's time travel, which is a tricky topic in itself. However, with Time Between Us, I thought it best to ignore the flaws within the author's rules of time traveling, since it wasn't the main focus of the plot. But I can explain this later.

A Cool and Intriguing Concept

Even though both are in high school, Anna is from 1995, and Bennett is from 2012. Bennett has the strange ability to travel through time and space, but he's limited to certain rules. For example, he can't jump to a time when he isn't born, and he can't jump to his future. Unfortunately, he ends up losing his sister in the past while trying to travel further than his birth. In order to find his sister, he time travels to Anna's time. And from there, they meet, and eventually fall in love.

 

But can you guys see how implausible it seems? How can you be with someone in the past who is almost 30 years older than you in the present? The author takes the approach that time can be relived through Bennett's time travel, and it can affect the future differently through "re-dos". If Bennett were to travel to the room where he was a baby, he would end up redoing his entire life over. However, if he is not in the same room, then he can exist in two places at once. Therefore, I believe that this story takes into account that parallel lives can occur, which reminds me a lot of Parallel. 

The Characters Were Well Written, But The Plot is Better

I thought the characters were very well written. Anna ended up realizing the costs of being with Bennett, and I'm glad she didn't throw her life away because of him. However, I wasn't fond of her pestering Bennett about breaking his own time travel "rules", even if they were for a good cause. On the other hand, I wasn't able to get a good feel for Bennett, except that he can be a pushover. I was more focused on the story and how the two of them interacted, because they're both from different times. Though unfortunately, I was sad to see how little time was spent talking about the past and the future. (I like it when time traveling characters share things about their own time)

Time Travel = Complex

Like I said before, the mechanics of time travel is complex, and all the answers won't be there. But for this novel, it's best not to think too hard about it. As I said before, although the plot includes time travel, it focuses more on the relationship between Anna and Bennett. Therefore I didn't feel the need to analyze everything that happened. (Though there was this one scene which I was trying to figure out HOW it happened, but in the end I gave up)

In the end, the reason why this isn't a full 5 stars from me is because there are some little holes here and there, but not enough to be considered a major flaw. Plus, although I did like the characters, I was more invested in the plot, and I paid little attention to their development and personality. However, despite this, I loved the concept of time traveling and romance, and I love the execution of it. Overall, the novel was very well done, made me feel emotions throughout, and made me want more. Which is why I am definitely looking forward to the sequel!

Stacking the Shelves #30

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

I borrowed Denton Little's Deathdate on a whim, and I am glad I did. I have already read this and enjoyed it immensely!

I've been meaning to pick up another book by Catherynne M. Valente, but haven't done so until now, which is why I borrowed Deathless. I am excited for some Russian folklore based stories!

I know that the Iron Fey series is never ending, but I figured that I should at least finish the main trilogy. I don't know. I just WANT to finish the series since I started it, so here I am with The Iron Queen.

I have heard a lot of a lot of good things about Melissa Keil, so when I found one of her books at the library, Life In Outer Space, I borrowed it right away!

As for graphic novels, I had Ms. Marvel on hold, and I HAVE read this volume! Though it wasn't until recently that I found out the library had all three volumes, I just didn't know! Next time I will borrowing the rest of the series!

NOT SHOWN: Reawakened by Colleen Houck. I just finished reading this 5 minutes ago! It was a fun read, even though I did have minor issues with it!

LAST WEEK OF SUMMER! HOW???

Well let's be honest I am very excited to get back to classes and not work full-time hours. I am ready to see some of my friends that have been gone the entire summer, especially since I have friends in all of my classes. 

Other than that, I am mainly looking forward to getting work over with, my car tire fixed, and to have a great new semester. It also looks like I'll be working two jobs this semester, which means I'll be more busy than usual, but at least I'll have some extra cash rolling in. You know, for when I decide to switch over to Wordpress.

Remember how I mentioned that I was having trouble recruiting children? Well since I recruited at the zoo, I've gotten three lab appointments for next week! As of then, I will have 10 children recorded! And my goal was 16! Plus I recently dropped off consent forms at a daycare, and they were very willing to pass them out to parents. Soon, my project will come to an end, recruiting wise!

So yep. I think things are looking up. Though I should wait until tomorrow before I say that, aha.

How was your week?

What To Do When You Feel Behind In Blogging

Source from Pixabay

Stop. Drop. Roll. Take a break. Do a jig. Run around naked.

Often times, I feel overwhelmed by the number of posts I need to write, the number of books I need to read for the week, and the number of comments and blogs I need to reply to. Let's be honest here, blogging gets crazy. Newbie bloggers might not think this is true now, but just wait, the stress of book blogging will slowly overcome you. Like sleep.

Therefore, I've decided to share with you a number of tips that have gotten me through the potential burnout of being a blogger.

This is the simplest, and most easiest thing to do if you feel like you're in a blogging slump. When you're on a break, whether it's for a week or a month, you don't have to worry about scheduling, commenting back, or any other obligations

As Amber @ YA Indulgences says, (currently on a hiatus now):

It's super refreshing to wake up every morning and not think "I need to blog today". I just like that I don't have to worry or stress about doing blog posts. It's freeing.

Thank you Amber!

By this, I mean to close away any old open tabs of blogs, mark all Bloglovin' posts as "read", stop commenting on blog posts from 1994 and get with the future already! I suffer from this a lot, and I've noticed that it impacts my commenting back. If I leave posts open on my laptop for too long, I'll lose interest in them, so that's not a good thing. My solution, and tip to you, is just to focus on the new posts from blogs you love, rather than being stuck in the old. Unless one of the posts is still super interesting to you.

Starting fresh could also mean starting over completely with a new blog, which I have seen some bloggers do, but it's not something I personally will do. (But moving to Wordpress? Maybe one day!)

Rather than commenting on a hundred blogs in one day, just focusing on 10 to 15 blogs a day is much more manageable. I have been guilty of leaving all my commenting until the last day, and in the end I'm burned out by all the commenting. However, if I take things one at a time, and comment on a couple posts throughout the day, I feel more interested in the posts I am reading, and less burned out. So win win for me and the blogger!

This works on your own blog too! I always had (have) a hard time with commenting back on my own TTT post because my response would be the same over and over again if I tackled them all at once. However, when I responded to comments right away, I felt less repetitive when it came to replying, since I replied as the comments were posted.

This worked extremely well for me during the academic year, when I was incredibly busy with not only work and classes, but studying as well. During the year, I would read on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday whenever I had free time, comment on blogs on Tuesday and Thursday, and schedule blog posts on Saturdays and Sundays. This well balanced schedule helped me read about two to three books a week, which is something I had been struggling with beforehand.

Lastly, you can just panic. There's no reason not to right? Sometimes life will always be out of control and there is nothing you can do about it hahah! Hey some people live off of stress! It makes people stronger, and allows them to keep blogging until the end of time.

Just look at Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight, she is very overwhelmed, but is doing a fabulous job at basically everything blogging-wise. 

Okay. I am insanely overwhelmed right now, because for three weeks I have been/will be posting every day, sometimes more than that because of the event AND blog tours that ended up coinciding, PLUS all books ever written coming out on September 1! I am behind on comments, and basically a big old ball of panic. BUT, blogging and reading are basically my crack, and I cannot go without a fix. And I need to talk to my people, so blogging is kind of ideal for that too. And even though the event IS a little stressful, it has been so amazing to see everyone being so inspirational and kind and supportive that the uplifting parts absolutely outweigh the stressful ones.

You go Shannon. I have faith in you. And the event she is talking about is Shattering Stigmas, which you all must go check out.

So yes, I'm hoping that maybe this will help some bloggers out when it comes to managing blogging and time, and what to do when getting behind on comments on posts. The bottom line is, it's OKAY that you are behind. The world isn't going to smite you if you don't return EVERY SINGLE COMMENT within the day you posted! Bloggers know that life gets in the way, so it's completely acceptable to slack off once in a while.

How do you handle blogging stress? Do you have any other tips to add?

Review: Hold Me Closer, Necromancer

Hold Me Closer, Necromancer by Lish McBride
Publisher: Square Fish
Release Date: May 8th, 2012
Format: Paperback
Date Read: 8/2/15 to 8/7/15
343 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

Sam leads a pretty normal life. He may not have the most exciting job in the world, but he's doing all right—until a fast food prank brings him to the attention of Douglas, a creepy guy with an intense violent streak.

Turns out Douglas is a necromancer who raises the dead for cash and sees potential in Sam. Then Sam discovers he’s a necromancer too, but with strangely latent powers. And his worst nightmare wants to join forces . . . or else.

With only a week to figure things out, Sam needs all the help he can get. Luckily he lives in Seattle, which has nearly as many paranormal types as it does coffee places. But even with newfound friends, will Sam be able to save his skin?

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Book Depository

I read a review of this a LONG time ago from a blog that I now don't remember. But anyways, I remember being intrigued by the premise, because NECROMANCERS, and then I saw it at the library and thought "Hey why not!". Let's just say that that was the best decision I have ever made at the library. Which is why when I saw it on BookOutlet, I went grabby hands, and long story short I hope my wallet forgives me one day.

Anyways, if you've read Written in Red by Anne Bishop, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer is kind of similar in setting, but with a male main character, Sam. Sam is a high school dropout, and works at the local burger joint. He knows nothing about necromancers or witches or werewolves and hybrids until he's accused of being a necromancer out of nowhere. His life turns around for the worse when his friend, Bridget, is killed but brought back to life (as a head) by a powerful necromancer who only wants to harness Sam's power for his own. Basically shit goes down and it's a lot of fun to see it all happen.

Necromancers, Witches, Werewolves All Under Our Noses

Who knew that The Rolling Stones, The Queen, and Jimmy Carter could potentially be undead, risen by necromancers because their deaths could be an inconvenience? Well apparently things like this happen in the world, and no one knows about it except for the supernatural. Personally, I love plots like this, which is why I picked up this book in the first place. 

Fortunately, the story isn't just a major info dump, because you're going along with the main character, Sam, to figure out what the heck is going on. Being incredibly lost and confused on just about everything, his discoveries come over time in a show not tell fashion. Along with that, we also get the POV of Brid, a were-hound who's being held against her will by Douglas. Her snark along with Sam's is what makes this book so entertaining.

Did I Mention The Snark?

On almost every page? Man this book was just so fun to read because there were lines like this:

I shook my head. "You don't have Hitler in your basement or anything, do you? Tabloids are always claiming he's still alive. Him and Elvis. Because I can't condone that sort of thing. The Hitler thing, not Elvis. I've got nothing against the King."

Or this:

"On top of all that, you're naked. And while I'm going to hate myself for this later, could you put on some clothes? At least just for a little while, so I can think. Then you can go right back to being naked. All the time. With my full blessing."

I really just couldn't stop reading because of how, despite the situation (which wasn't that bad), fun the writing was. I fell in love with Sam's snark, especially when he was around Douglas, even though he was incredibly scared of him.

This is just a great start to the series, and for once, I am sad to say that there is only one sequel rather than the trilogy that I am so used to seeing. I am going to be pissed if I find out that this series is unfinished for some reason, though I highly doubt that. I just need all my answers, and more Sam and Brid, and just more of this amazing dialogue. So if you're really into paranormal fantasy, then this is the book for you. TRUST MEEEEE.

Stacking the Shelves #29

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews and is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

I waited a pretty long time to buy Monstrous Beauty, just because I always try to buy more than one book on Book Outlet because shipping costs. But hey now I have it! Hopefully it's a good mermaid story.

Then I impulse bought Lux: Beginnings, just because it was 1) on sale and 2) by Jennifer L. Armentrout, an author I have never read before.

And then there's these two books. I recently borrowed Hold Me Closer, Necromancer from the library, and LOVED IT SO MUCH. Then I found that, plus the sequel, on Book Outlet and it all went down from there. But I have no regrets whatsoever. I cannot wait to read Necromancing The Stone.

So, life has kind of been tough lately. But it's slowly looking up. Last week, I had a couple of appointments last week when I went home, and each one didn't exactly go the way I planned.

And then, there's this project that I am working on that requires testing small children, and it's really not going the way it was planned to go. And I really just want to stop working on it, because 1) the lab isn't very good at recruiting children, and all the day cares I call aren't really willing to help out, and 2) I didn't even come up with this study, which is why I always had doubts about it "working". Anyways, short story is that I want to stop, but I feel bad for the lab because I've spent a year working with another undergrad (WHO IS NOW GONE) on this project. Ugh. And there was one point this week where I thought I could quietly get out of it, but then my mentor/primary investigator emailed me today about new day cares we could recruit from, and I was like "Nooooo". Le sigh.

Anyways, there's that. Onto the good news! I'm participating in Round Three of #OTSPSecretSister, which is A LOT of fun. I have tons of fun planning and stalking the hashtag! If any of you are interested in it, Round Four will begin in February I think! And here is the link from this round, by Alyssa, Amy, and Brittany, just in case you wanted to know what this whole thing was about!

As you should know, Shattering Stigmas is happening on the blogs of Shannon, Kayla, and Inge! You should really go check out this Mental Awareness event!

Classes actually start really soon, in two weeks. And I am excited, I know it's weird right? Mostly just because I'm tired of working eight hours a day, or even four (and also I don't want to deal with my experiment anymore). The only bad thing is that I won't be paid the huge bucks anymore. Goodbye grant money! Oh well! As long as I still have a job, right?

How are you doing? Students/teachers, are you ready for summer to be over?