Review: Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

I was really looking forward to this book, because I really enjoyed 'Stepsister' by Jennifer Donnelly, but this one fell a bit flat, to be honest.

Sophie is the princess of a great kingdom, but is ruled by her evil stepmother, who is beating all the kindness out of her, one day at a time. Fed up with her constant kindness one day, her stepmother sends her huntsman to cut out her heart, and Sophie ends up living with the seven men of the woods, who build her a new mechanical heart. With this and the friendship of the seven men, Sophie sets out to take back her kingdom and overcome her stepmother once and for all.

This beginning of this was great, and the ending saved it, but the middle was a bit... meh. It was just a bit slow, and there were several sections where not a whole lot happened. 

As I said, I had really high hopes for this as a modern retelling of the traditional 'Snow White' fairytale, but it didn't quite meet those expectations, unfortunately.

Review: How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi

This was fantastic. I finished it in one sitting, it was that good. It made for truly wonderful Saturday night reading indeed.

Amir is eighteen, Muslim and gay. He knows he should tell his parents, but doesn't know how to approach the subject. One of his classmates finds out and blackmails him for thousands of dollars, and so in order to escape, Amir escapes. Literally. 24 hours later, he finds himself in Rome, and so starts a summer of self-discovery...

This was wonderful. It was very different from anything that I have read before, but it was so good that I finished it in one sitting. It was really interesting having the main story be Amir's life in Rome and the colourful characters that he meets, but it was also really interesting hearing from Amir's parents and sister in the shorter interrogation chapters in between

Overall, this was a really good book, and I would highly recommend.