What makes this book so tricky is my grown up mind (at least in comparison to the intended audience). It’s absolutely adorable but I also felt like it was trying to be more mature than it was because it was dealing with so many important issues. There were some pretty intense plot twists but I found myself giggling instead of being shocked because the book is too cute for me to gasp at yet if I were younger, I would definitely be gasping and thinking about how frickin awesome the book was.

 

There are a lot of stereotypical aspects to this book. We have terms like “the mean girl”, and “the mean girl’s accessories” being used, we have a main character who is introduced to us as the stereotypical “beautiful but doesn’t know it” and that worried me. I was worried that this book would turn out to be one big cliché but after these initial cliché-like introductions, the characters were fleshed out (including one of the mean girls to a certain degree).

 

Raine is an interesting main character, she has the ability to extract memories from sparkles. Before you laugh, sparkles are just the things that appear on certain objects that only Raine can see and thus only Raine (and her grandmother could) can read.  I thought this was an interesting paranormal addition to the story although it made me wonder about the sparkles. Why sparkles? Why not just plain ole touching of objects?  

 

Raine also happens to be surprisingly mature. There are things she has gone through that make her more mature than her peers but at the same time, she also acts her age, she will throw a fit and she will say something stupid or do something stupid. What I also liked about her that even though she started making new friends right away, she never forgot about Shirlee, who wasn’t as cool or popular.

 

This book deals with bullying and that worried me too! I was scared that maybe the book wouldn’t manage to pull it off or would portray it in some offensive way or even go down the lane of some really cruel revenge. Bullying is such a touchy topic in general but also specifically for me and while I won’t give the book an A+ with the way it dealt with it, I will say that it does manage to tackle bullying in a very healthy and not uncomfortable way.

 

There is also a slight romance in the book which I thought was absolutely adorable. I wish I could quote my favorite line (in terms of the romance) but alas it would kind of be a spoiler. You should know though that the romance isn't about falling in love but about having a crush!

 

I loved the plot in this book. This may be a book for kids but I become just as invested. None of the twists caught me off guard but I know, I KNOW that kid me would have adored this book and would have genuinely been taken in by those twists. The problem is that the predictability made it harder for me to take what was happening as seriously as I should have been taking it. 

 

This book ended up being pretty intense for a middle grade novel and I had a lot of fun reading it. It may not be perfect but it is enjoyable and one I would say that you should give a shot if you’re looking for a light, adventurous, surprising, middle grade read.

***This review has also been posted on The Social Potato

Compulsion is a hard book to review just because I felt so many different things for it. At times, it was definitely a one star read, but at other times, it blew my mind and was exciting enough to be  5 star read.  Which leaves me confused as to whether I enjoyed the book or not.However, the fact that I want to read the sequel may be an indicator that I did enjoy it enough to want to know what happens to these characters.

The book has its pros and cons, obviously, but they are almost extremes so they kind of cancel each other out. What works in favor of the book is the atmosphere and the setting and just the general set up of things, the characters on the other hand make the book a lot harder to read.

I personally saw Barrie as a silly girl. She is going through a hard time in her life and that is understandable. Her pain is clear and the author doesn’t undermine it. The problem is that she is so SILLY. For starters, she already likes a guy she just met. She  also decides that even though all these people are warning her against hanging out with her dad’s side of the family, they must clearly be wrong because they aren’t willing to give people a chance. That had me rolling my eyes. She was in this completely new place yet she was already taking the side of people she didn’t know. I liked that she wouldn’t let anything stop her from trying to get what she wanted but there is a certain line between stupidity and doing things your way and she crossed it.

Eight, her love interest, on the other hand confused me. I was never really his biggest fan. He was too pushy for my tastes and while he seemed to have Barrie’s best interests at heart, the fact that he was never really straight forward with Barrie bothered me. If he had been more straight forward with her, perhaps she might have made better decisions since she would have had more information at hand. I mean telling someone to stay away won’t really help, you got to give more reasons! And really, he just seemed to be there to move the plot along and play love interest rather than for any other ‘real’ reason.

What also bothered me was the relationship between the two but what also bothered me specifically about their relationship was the fact that I wasn’t too bothered by the insta love. Have I confused you yet? That’s how I feel. I am so confused about their romance and my ability to not be too annoyed by it. I mean there was the L word floating around a couple days after their first meeting so yeah, their romance has insta-love written over it. Their romance definitely has cheesy moments and made me roll my eyes plenty of times yet at the same time, the weird thing was that I kept forgetting they had only met a couple days ago since it seemed like they had known each other for a while.There was a certain chemistry between the two characters that made the romance seem a little more real.

What I liked best about this book was the idea it was built around. I liked the world building and I loved the interesting elements the author weaved in to make her world more interesting to the readers. The characters may not have blown my mind and there was definitely some stereotyping in terms of the fact that this book was set in the south but the way the author weaved in these layers of suspsense made me happy. It made the book fly by and I read it a lot quicker than I thought I would.

I mean we’re talking secret curses, pirates, magical abilities and things that have been lost. Of course this book sounds like it’ll be amazing and while all these little bits did make it amazing and fun to read, the characters and the romance definitely brought the book down for me.

On top of that, while there were all these interesting things going on, a lot of them ended up being brushed under a rug when the author kind of had to choose a specific thing to focus on.  I feel like some of these ideas will be better explored in the sequel which is why I am looking forward to reading it.

My advice would be to check this book out if characters aren’t as important to you and you’re up for dealing with a lot of stereotyping and annoyingness for the awesomeness that lays within.

Admittedly, I only gave this book a go because the title amused me but don’t be fooled by the title, this book is amazingly deep.

 

Oh who am I kidding, this book was laugh out loud hiliarious and I had a hard time getting myself to stop laughing. You kind of just fly right through it (if you’ve read the book you might understand why this sentence makes me laugh so much).

 

When a bunch of kids are forced to eat the horrendous burritos from the school cafeteria, their lives are changed forever as a result of… uncontrollable gas! Their farts are now magical. But something dark is brewing and it is up to the fart squad to save the day. 

 

As you can already imagine, there isn’t going to be much depth to a book like this but I most certainly admire these characters' bravery. They may just be little munchkins but they take it upon themselves to save the day. They train for it and they make themselves eat those horrendous burritos to help strengthen their magical powers. I wouldn’t put up with horrible cafeteria food for a bunch of silly children. Or maybe I would, but that's beside the point.

 

I thought, given the context, the plot line was actually pretty interesting. I had fun seeing them unravel the malicious plot and I was amused by the tricks they decided to use to help save the day. What really made me laugh was the way the magical farts were weaved into this. Hey, who knew having magical farts could help save the day?

 

This book, is unsurprisingly childish but I have to say, it definitely made my day. It’s hilarious and seriously, who doesn’t want to read about farts? … well that was a rhetorical question but either way I think that in spite of the book's childish nature, it was a good read so don’t be afraid to read it even if you think you’re too old for such childish endeavours. It’s worth it.

For those of you that are interested in the zodiac or horoscopes, or for those that have an interest in native American culture, this book will be of interest to you. The indigenous population was able to work with nature and their culture had a deep respect for the animals in their surroundings. They believed that animals were able to give us wisdom and that each animal has a different wisdom to share based on it’s own traits. By knowing what traits a particular animal has, we learn how to adapt to our surroundings in a mental, physical or spiritual sense. The amount of information is this book is amazing and it is THE most complete book on the interesting and mind expanding topic of animal totems.

This book is my go-to reference when trying to interpret dreams and visions. Also a great resource for my fiction writing. It's so worn out, I might be due for another copy in the next couple of years. An excellent guide. I highly recommend it.