Mister Death's Blue-eyed Girls / Mary Downing Hahn

In 1955, two girls are shot to death.
*That's all I dare say because it's so good to read it without knowing much, haha*

In 2014, I thought I didn't like historical fiction, or was sure I wouldn't enjoy this genre. Did I really say that??? I remember reading a lot of this back in 2012, but I didn't know what it was called. Simply called them "books set in 1950s/1960s".

I've seen this book in many of the libraries I've been in, but never picked it up because I was always just looking for books that Booktube/Bookstagram have mentioned before. What a mistake. The 5th time or so I saw this title, I decided to just take it.

Books are really best enjoyed not knowing anything about. Jumped into this and immediately loved the setting of 1955. The writing was clear and I could easily imagine the clothes, the places, the characters and how they talked and acted. I loved every bit of it. The changing point of views apart from our main girl Nora really added to the story.

If you're looking for an actual murder mystery though, this isn't the one for you. It doesn't revolve around that, but it's more of a coming-of-age story about letting go, how small a town is and how everyone can know everyone and at the same time not... how being accused of something you didn't do could leave such a huge impact.

This was based on an actual murder in 1955, and reading the author's Afterword just made me wanna cry my heart out. Reading the book halfway I looked at her picture on the back cover flap and was like... Wow, she's old. But there is a reason for that *cries*

I Googled about this real life case, and reading about how every single detail in it matched the details in this book is just........ *cries again*

Underrated books recommendations 20/3

I've read so many books in 2016 so far! I thought I'd share some here. These are the last 4 books I've read, and I've realised they're all pretty underrated and not overhyped on Booktube =)

Read Between The Lines / Jo Knowles

The first chapter begins with a constantly-bullied guy who fractures his finger during gym class; his middle finger, no less. The accident's left his middle finger up always, making him constantly flipping off the entire world.

What makes this book unique is how it doesn't have just one or two points of view, but ten. Ten different perspectives, ten different characters, ten different lives, all that intertwine within a day. One chapter could mention how bitchy a character is; and then when you get to the perspective of that bitchy character, you see a different side of her.

This book makes you think twice before judging someone by putting you into the shoes of different types of teenagers and know what they're thinking. I really loved this one, despite picking it out randomly at the library.

Daughters Unto Devils / Amy Lukavics

Amanda's family decides to move from their small mountain cabin to the prairie, where she decides is a place and time for a fresh start, after being shunned by a boy she thought loved her. Well, you already know by the cover that creepy shit happens.

It's best going into this book without knowing anything about it, like all great books. But just know, the writing gave me goosebumps and some of the paragraphs were really on point. I was scared to read this by myself, no joke, and yet I couldn't stop reading it til after midnight. (with my mom beside me)

I loved the setting of this book, somewhere in the 1900's I think, not too sure? But it did add to the story. It just felt like that typical horror movie where everything else is really quiet and nothing much happens, and then you get near the ending and SHIT HITS THE FAN.

They All Fall Down / Roxanne St. Claire

Every year, 10 junior girls are selected as Vienna High's hottest girls. Our main character has never been popular or even noticed, and yet she makes it 5th on this list. Great for her, isn't it? Well other than the fact that she thinks this list thing is retarded, the girls on it start dying one by one, in the order of that list...

It really was a great premise, and the writing makes you stick with it, dying to find out more, but personally for me, the revelation wasn't very top-notch and didn't seem well-planned, and the ending wasn't so satisfying. But that's just my personal thought, you should read it for yourself to know =)

52 Reasons To Hate My Father / Jessica Brody

Lexington Larrabee is the heiress to the multi-billion-dollar Larrabee Media empire, and her father, the CEO of said company, gives a trust fund of 25 million dollars to each of his children, aka Lexi and her 4 older brothers, when they turn 18.

Lexi has been counting down the days to her eighteenth birthday, but then she crashes her car into a convenience store, drunk, a few days before. What's a spoilt brat got to do when her father decides to hold that 25m dollars from her??? She's got to work 52 low-wage jobs, every week for a year, that's what.

It was a lot of fun to read, and honestly even though she's a spoilt brat I thought Lexi was kinda adorable. The misery she went through, her doses of bad luck, were all too hilarious to read about. I thought she went through such a huge character development, from a brat to a strong and smart woman.

I liked this kind of books in secondary school, and that's why I enjoyed this one so much =)

All these books are underrated and are hardly noticed, so do give them a try =) They were all such unique and fun reads which stick to you for a long time, be it positively or not xD

(spoilers) Burn For Burn trilogy / Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

I've been wanting to read these since 2014, but I didn't like not having matching books on my shelves, so I didn't buy them. I borrowed them from the library only because I was lucky enough to have found them in one single library.

This had a great premise, really: three girls who have been wronged by a bully, an ex-friend, a boy... And instead of waiting for karma to hit them back, they decide to take things into their own hands.

This is gonna be full of rants.

Alright, so I loved the first book, Burn For Burn. I enjoyed the girls' plotting and the way the executed it, despite how messy or flawed they were. After all, they're just high school girls. I loved Mary, really, she's so sweet and cute, while Kat is such a strong person and adorable in her own spiteful way. And I loved hating Rennie, however weird that sounds.

Well, I didn't like Lillia from the start. The Asian model's face on the covers really irks me and gets on my nerves, and it affected my view of Lillia, especially the fact that she was always described as pretty, hot, popular, blah blah blah.

By the time we got to book 2, Fire With Fire, I hated Lillia so much. I hated her as a character, and then the plot fell downhill as well, and by downhill, I meant leaning towards Lillia and just Lillia alone.

Trust Jenny Han to make the Asian character the sweet, innocent one who is popular and wanted by all the boys for no apparent reason. It's really annoying, mind you, even though I'm Asian too. She was really pushing it too much with this character. Everything just revolved around Lillia.

And then we got to book 3: Ashes To Ashes. Oh my god, I wanted to throw this book across my room. Mary was doing worse damage to Kat than Lillia, to the extent of destroying Kat's precious boat, while merely scaring Lillia off using her stupid horse. OH MY GOD. LILLIA WAS THE ONE WHO "FELL IN LOVE" WITH REEVE, WHO BETRAYED MARY. OH. MY. GOD.

And of course, Lillia is the one who gets everything. She is the one whose life is most unaffected. She is the one whose perfect family is all safe, who still gets what she wants, who didn't lose anyone, who still has 2 boys fighting for her even though she PLAYED WITH THEM LIKE HELL COUNTLESS TIMES. Kat lost her dog, didn't get into Oberlin, her relationship with Alex wasn't touched up on. EVERYTHING WAS LILLIA THIS LILLA THAT.

AND: am I the only one who sees a shadow of a To All The Boys I've Loved Before/PS I Still Love You character in everyone of Lillia's clique???

The Asian that is excessively described as "sweet and innocent": Lara Jean / Lillia
The sweet kind nice guy who is close friends with the family: Josh / Alex
The douchebag/player who is suddenly so in love with the Asian for no reason???: Peter / Reeve
The popular pretty girl who grew up with, and have a love triangle with the Asian and douchebag: Genevieve / Rennie

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Done ranting, goodbye.

25 bookish facts about me

Yes yes, I'd seen a Booktuber or two doing this, yes yes, it looked interesting yes yes let's cut to the chase =D

1. I love to jump into a book without knowing anything about it. It's always a pleasant surprise!

2. My most-read genre is Contemporary, and it's just like my safe zone when it comes to reading... I know, I should get out of it.

3. On the other hand, all kinds of Fantasy bore me. The kind with swords, the kind with monsters; but I recently read the first 2 books of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series and enjoyed them. It just takes luck to find a Fantasy book that I like.

4. I don't like to read in bed. Mainly because the most comfortable spot to read is too dim and my eyes are already as bad as they can get.

5. I find it easy to read through any noise. Be it in the bus, with all the people talking and the engines,  or at work, with my colleagues talking and laughing so damn loud xD

6. When it comes to music while reading, I let my playlist go on shuffle and my focus will only waver if a song that I'm currently loving comes.

7. Whenever I'm reading, I like to put the side of the page on the right between my thumb and forefinger and stroke the paper. It's so nice X_X

8. I hate not having all the books of the series before starting to read it.

9. What makes me a lucky person? The fact that I'm always finding entire trilogies in just one library by luck! In February, I've found the Delirium trilogy, the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, and the Burn for Burn trilogy, all in just one single library each xD

10. When I buy a series, I have to buy them in matching heights, covers, and spines. That's why I prefer buying them all at one shot =D

11. I am the only one in my family who reads. I find it weird to think that there are whole families (in books and real life) who like to read together??? It feels so awkward.

12. I've never bought books online before. Maybe because I don't know how to xD But mostly I just like to go to bookstores, you know?

13. I don't play favourites with authors because I always just read something because I want to, not because of the author =) I do have auto-buy authors though, but I don't call them "favourite authors".

14. I get annoyed when people who don't read at all post pictures of a book that is popular at that period. Aka I hate the local girls when they post pictures on their Instagram of If I Stay or The Fault In Our Stars just to make their feed more "Tumblr".

15. I can spend a long time in a bookstore if I am alone. I'll walk here, walk there, pick up a book, pick up another, put down a book, put down another.......

16. I've never read Harry Potter and used to have the mindset that I will NEVER read them.

17. My childhood wasn't Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or Lemony Snicket. Instead it was all Enid Blyton and this series called the Boxcar Children.

18. I love to match books with songs. If you look carefully there's always that one song that seemed to have been made for that particular book.

19. I have membership for 3 of the major bookstores in Singapore, which are Popular, Times, and Kinokuniya. Of course, I don't need that membership for Popular anymore when I became a staff there, because staff discount =D

20. I still like physical books the best. Not ever gonna try e-books or audiobooks again, they're just not my thing.

21. The very first book that I reread a few times was Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, and I don't even know why. In fact I bought it just because there was a cat on the cover.

22. I don't read books in my own language aka Malay. I'm not actually very good at it, speaking it only with my grandma and a few customers, and even then I still struggle /: English books it is.

23. I need to read a minimum of 100 pages a day if not I'll feel so unaccomplished =)

24. I try to avoid local authors, not that there are too many of them. I recently gave up on my dreams of becoming a writer and seeing accomplished ones in my own country makes me want to pick it up again, which I'm trying not to.

25. I have no idea who I'd be without this love for books.