Little Bits

The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

4.5 stars

Heartbreaking and hopeful, the best kind of book.

Read: August 1st 2017

4.5/5 stars

The Invisible Child and The Fir Tree by Tove Jansson

Two lovely stories showcasing themes of tolerance, respect, and kindness, with an extra bit of special added to them – at least £4 of every £4.99 sale goes to Oxfam projects that empower women and girls all over the world.

Read: October 2nd 2017

5/5 stars

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

Once again John Green puts thoughts and feelings into words in a way that I could never manage. If nothing else this book is an outstanding take on mental health, life and death, and love (I personally think it was so much more than just that, though). Superb.

Read: October 11th-15th 2016

5/5 stars

Little Bits

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

The boy who wouldn’t grow up will always have a special place in my heart, and this will always be one of my favourite stories, whether it is in print, play or film form. Absolutely wonderful in every way.

Read: April 8th-10th 2013

5/5 stars

Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill

I’m so confused, disturbed and impressed by this book. It’s a beautiful, lyrical and incredibly dark fairy tale that I enjoyed from start to finish. It’s one of those books you read and wonder if you really understood anything that was going on in it. Fascinating.

Read: March 2nd-23rd 2014

4/5 stars

Looking for Alaska by John Green

‘I go to seek a Great Perhaps.‘ – François Rabelais

John Green has a way of making my heart explode and in the last fifty or so pages of this book, that’s just what happened. I went from thinking 3.5 stars, to four, to maybe even five, all within the last few chapters. Looking for Alaska didn’t hook me as I had hoped, it pales in comparison to The Fault in Our Stars, but the characters are under my skin and in my soul regardless, and that final paper by Miles? Beautiful.

‘Thomas Edison’s last words were, “It’s very beautiful over there.” I don’t know where there is, but I know it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.‘

Read: June 14-15th 2014

4/5 stars

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

‘My thoughts are stars I can’t fathom into constellations.’

Augustus, you said it all. This book is amazing, for lack of a better word, and I don’t know if I can fathom all my thoughts and feelings into one coherent response and express just how amazing this book is. I am left raw and emotional and crazed with affection, in the best possible way, by it. John Green is simply a class apart and his writing is simultaneously heartbreaking, joyous, painful and insightful. How he has managed to write a book about a terminal cancer patient and left me feeling a little bit brighter and left the world looking a little bit more beautiful is beyond me. Some books are genuine magic, disguised as ink and paper, and this is one of them; a true literary gift to the world.

The best thing about this book is Hazel and her relationship with the incomparable Augustus Waters. The way Green wrote Hazel and Gus had me head over heels for these wonderful characters and their tragic, yet somehow beautiful, story. They were both convincingly unsure, unwell and in love sixteen and seventeen year old’s and at the same time so much more; intelligent, well-spoken and wonderfully smart assed and positive about their lives. I can’t recall reading a book that has so magnificently endeared me to its characters in such a short amount of time before.

I know this book will stay with me for a very long time, and I think it will similarly touch the lives of many who read it. I know I will read it again and again, and fall in love with Hazel, Gus and Isaac again and again (I know I’ll cry again and again too). All I can really say now is: to you, whoever you are, life and love are good and precious, so don’t you dare go wasting them, and, to John Green, thank you so much for enriching my life a little bit more with this book.

Read: March 21st-22nd 2013

5/5 stars