Ariel’s Comments (group member since Feb 18, 2014)

Ariel’s comments from the 2014 Hub Reading Challenge group.

This book was great! Easy to understand and fun to read. I especially loved the chapter on typefaces. The activities at the end are a great addition! What a great book to have in a school library.

I LOVED this book. I thought the characters were great and the story grabbed me instantly. This is SURE to be a teen favorite for years to come. Fantastic!

Just finished this adorable book! I can see middle schoolers loving it. The book deals with the stress of being a new student in middle school... but with a fantastic Star Wars theme. It was a quick and fun read.

I really enjoyed reading this. I've never really been interested in spy stories, and this was a great one to start with. While the numerous names of the people involved did get a bit confusing, the over all execution of the story was great. I learned a lot about Eichmann's capture. I think this would make a fantastic addition to any high school library.

What a performance! Daniel Kraus's exquisite and terrifying prose is brought expertly to life with this audio book. It was not an easy book to get through due to the subject matter, but I am glad I did. Just one piece of advice: try not to listen in a public place. I definitely made some involuntary grimaces and gasps. There were also public tears.

I loved this book! Can't wait to read the rest of the series. What a wonderful change from all the realistic fiction I'd been reading so far. I love fantasy and humor, and McBride's novel was a wonderful blending of the two!

I agree with everyone's comments. I am not a big graphic novel reader nor a war story reader. The first two stories were kind of what I expected and I read through them kind of quickly, but that third story.... that really hit home.

I just finished it. I am pretty sure I liked the idea of it, but I wanted more. I spent the first half of the book being confused, and the rest of the book just kind of coasted forward with no real climax in my mind. I wanted to know a lot more about Win vs. Drew and his anger issues. I wanted to know more about his cousins and siblings. I wanted to know more about Lex and Jordan. While I did love the author's language and imagery, I felt that it was kind of a fluff book, about a serious topic. That said, I think that this could be a valuable book to have in a High School library. It sparks conversation about abuse and mental illness, while also being a fantastic example of an unreliable narrator.

I just finished this book. I quite enjoyed it, but did not love it. I thought that certain parts (self-injury, depression, anxiety) were very realistic, but some of the school/home situations seemed less plausible. The ages of the characters, while mentioned, were forgettable. That said, I think this could be a great book to have on the shelf at a High School library. The issues that the characters deal with are very relevant to teenagers, and I think a lot of readers could benefit from reading James's story.

Just finished it. It was a great complement to ROSE UNDER FIRE. Most of the Holocaust books I have read were about Jewish people and their suffering. Reading about homosexual suffering under Nazi rule was horrifying and informative. Glad I got the chance to read this.

I just finished this yesterday. I thought it was absolutely fabulous. Zusak's words are like poetry. It was a very different type of story, but it worked perfectly. Message delivered.

I really enjoyed this book, but I found myself being quite angry at Victoria when she seemed to care more about reality TV and swag than about Audrey. I felt that the fight between the two friends should have come much sooner and been much more of a plot point. That said, it has a positive message, and was a lot of fun to read.

I was not expecting to like this book at all. I am not normally a zombie fan, but it was the only audio book I could download immediately on my phone. When I started listening, I was a bit bored, but soon the story picked up with the appearance of the zombies. With the backdrop of working conditions in the meat packing industry, and illegal immigrants in America, the classic zombie genre was brought to a whole new level. I could see tweens and teens enjoying this book immensely.

Just finished it. I really liked it, but I too wish there was more. This is definitely a book I will need to reread to fully understand everything that happened. I also agree with the comments that this seemed like more of an adult book than YA. I can see why a YA audience would be attracted to a story like this, but I still think it should be more geared towards adults.

Stay with it. It's fabulous. It took me a while to get past the language, but the rewards are immense. The characters, their relationship, the story....

I also think that this book has high appeal for teens because of the perfect depiction of bus/high school hierarchy. Anyone who has been on the outskirts of popularity, or just an outcast should be able to find themselves in this story. Stick with it.

David Levithan's words are poetry. I get the feeling that he crafted each sentence as he would verse. I loved the feeling and the story of this book.

I thought this book was fantastic. It also took me a while to get into, mostly because I kept trying to figure out where/when the story was taking place. Once I realized that it didn't actually matter, I relaxed and let the story happen. What a vivid and intense book. I highly recommend it.

I also loved this book. I did have a bit of trouble with the timeline at the beginning, but I sorted it out before too long. I also read it as historical fiction. I loved Judith's voice, as well as her relationships with her brother and Maria. And while her mother is pretty horrible, It seemed believable to me. Judith could have been raped, therefore making her ruined, and then she was rumored to be be a whore. In that time, she definitely would have been ostracized by her family and her community. The only thing I found slightly unbelievable was the fact that people believed her in the end. However, after reading about her suffering, I was more than happy to suspend my disbelief and enjoy her justice and happy ending.

I had the exact same reaction! I just started reading, not knowing which award it was! I was so surprised when I saw it was an Alex!