Sara Ingle

I write things. Here are the things I write.

15 May 2013
1 Comment

YA Wednesday: The Diviners by Libba Bray

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I haven’t read anything by Libba Bray since high school, which was a mistake on my part because she’s awesome.  I never stopped loving her, but for some reason after the Gemma Doyle Trilogy I didn’t pick up any of her books.  When The Diviners came out last fall I made my mom buy it for me.  I needed to have it.  But I didn’t read it right away because I’ve been on a Cassandra Clare kick and reading lots of other things.

I started The Diviners last week, but I wasn’t letting myself read at night because I knew I wouldn’t sleep, so it took a while and then I went to visit my parents and I left it in my apartment so I didn’t have it for a couple of days.  Then last night I couldn’t sleep, so I read the last five hundred pages and just didn’t sleep at all (which is why I don’t read in bed because I’ll never sleep).

The Diviners is so good.  Like amazing and I’m really mad because the second one isn’t coming out until next spring and I just want it in my hands right now.  I want to devour them like good food (possibly like chicken wings or ice cream).  It is so good and creepy and I love all the characters so much.  I have a small 1920s obsession because it’s just the craziest time and there’s so many horrible things and so many glamorous things and I love it all so much.  Libba Bray captures what I love about the 20s in The Diviners.  She gets the glamorous things like parties and flappers, but she gets the horrible things like eugenics and the KKK and prohibition.

The Diviners was so good that I’m mad at myself for not waiting to read it until I could have the second one.  It was a horrible mistake and I’m pretty sure I’ll be thinking about it for the next year.

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10 Apr 2013

YA Wednesday: Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff

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I started Paper Valentine a while ago and then I got Clockwork Princess (and I still am not emotionally stable enough to write a real review, though maybe I will one day) so I put it down.  I liked Paper Valentine at first.  It was okay, interesting concept (a girl is haunted by a ghost of her best friend, but also girls around the town are being murdered), but it kind of started off slow.  I probably would have stopped reading it after the fourth chapter because not a lot happened except I really loved the main character, Hannah, and her dead best friend, Lillian, and the sexy mysterious blonde Jared Padalecki figure, Finny.  So I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened.  AND IT GOT SO GOOD!

I don’t want to give anything away and I guess the main thing I have to say about Paper Valentine is that if you have a short attention span like I do and get bored if a book doesn’t have things going on every second, keep trucking.  It is so worth it.  I also can’t stress enough how much I loved the characters.  Hannah is so real.  Not just a small awkward girl who somehow has friends or doesn’t, but also still scored the hot boy and manages to be the center of attention.  I love that story line, but it’s not real.  Hannah is a girl that was once popular (like Mean Girls popular) and still kind of is, but her best friend died and is haunting her so she’s not exactly at her social peak.  She comes into her own in the story and it’s a real growth a real person who something unreal is happening to.

At some point in my life I’m going to have to read something I don’t like because probably gushing about everything sounds fake.  I did read Fifty Shades of Grey out loud with my friends over the weekend, but I can’t even go there.

 

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27 Mar 2013

YA Wednesday: Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare

ImageI just can’t even.

But oh my god it was so good.

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19 Mar 2013

YA Wednesday

Okay.  Here’s the thing. I started reading Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff and I actually really like it.

But Clockwork Princess came out today.  Which means that I’m not going to Finish Paper Valentine until I finish Clockwork Princess and I’m still gearing myself to even look at the first page.  I’m pretty sure that it’s going to tear my heart out in the best way possible.  So expect reviews of both Paper Valentine and Clockwork Princess next week.

 

 

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13 Mar 2013
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YA Wednesday: City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

City of Fallen Angels Cover

I’m pretty sure it’s a well known fact that I flipping love Cassandra Clare. She’s really cool based on interviews and my stalking of her on Tumblr, Twitter, whatever. I’ve never met her in person, but a girl can dream. Cassandra Clare is basically everything I want to be in a writer. Her books are funny and intelligent and her characters are just so damn likable.

City of Fallen Angels is no exception.  I don’t want to give too much away because it’s the fourth book in the series and really I should already be on book five, but who knew that having a job would be time consuming?  Not me.

My main point to all of this is that I flipping love Simon.  He’s the best.  I mean, I know I’m supposed to love Jace and Clary and everyone and I do love them.  I just really really love Simon.

This coherent and exciting book review was brought to you by the six cups of coffee I drank today because I stayed up until three finishing this book.

 

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13 Feb 2013
3 Comments

Things I love: Valentine’s Day

I know it’s hard to believe.  Or maybe it isn’t.  But for the most part when I reveal to my friends that Valentine’s Day is second only to Halloween for me (I have a bit of a candy thing), they’re always a little surprised.  I’m this crazy hipster who hates romance and wears almost all black (in a New York way, not a gothy way).  I write stuff where love tears down governments and kills people.  I listen to angsty folk music and I was a vegetarian up until three days ago.  By all accounts I should not like Valentine’s Day.  I should pass it off as a holiday created by card companies to sell more crap.  And I guess I don’t like it. 

I fucking love it. 

There’s one very simple reason why: It is a single day in the middle of what I consider to be the bleakest month of all to tell everyone that you love them and eat heart shaped candies to celebrate that love. 

I want to punch all the people who call it national single awareness day.  Because you’ve got family and friends that love you.  If you’re on the internet as much as I am, you’ve got people you’ve never met that love you.  And that’s kind of awesome.  

So embrace this great day, eat a crap ton of candy hearts that say things like “ur cute” and “luv u,” and tell everyone that you love that you love them.  

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06 Feb 2013

Dream I had last night

I had this dream last night that I was reading a book that was told in short conversations. It was kind of medieval-y, though of course the dialogue isn’t, though you can’t hope for complete accuracy in dreams. It was about these two characters that were in love, though in different social classes, so they could never be together. It was written like this (and this is the only part I specifically remember):

Character A: We need to stop this.
Character B: Not as long as I’m here.

I don’t think they ended up together. I’m actually pretty sure that one of them was killed because that’s how it always goes. It just made me so sad. But it was actually still pretty cool in the set up and everything. Though I don’t know if I could actually write it.

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31 Jan 2013

YA Wednesday: Rise by Andrea Creamer

Rift cover

So I read Rise by Andrea Creamer this past week and I loved it.  I really liked Rift, so I wasn’t so surprised.  I recommend it, obviously.

I don’t want to give too much away, so I’m not going to give a summary of it or anything.  Rise continues from where we left off in Rift and takes some pretty surprising turns.  I really love Andrea Creamer’s style, I love the way she writes her characters and their relationships.  I also love how real her world is.

There’s also a trip in Rise to La Rochelle which is possibly my second favorite place in the world, so that made me really happy.

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31 Jan 2013

SCBWI

Just a quick note to say I’m going to be at the SCBWI conference in New York this weekend. Find me and say hi!

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16 Jan 2013

YA Wednesday: Divergent by Veronica Roth

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YA Wednesday is back up and running. My life has turned into a lot of waiting around for emails, so I’m getting a ton of reading done and I’ve got the next few weeks lined up for book reviews.

I know I’m a little late to the party on Divergent. Everyone’s already read it and loved it and it’s already going to be a movie, which I’m kind of crazy excited about because I loved this book! I was kind of avoiding it because I didn’t know how I felt about yet another dystopia (even though that’s basically all I live on and what I write). I was going to actually read another book instead and then my friend recommended Divergent and I had it downloaded to my Nook, so I started it.

I didn’t love it at first, but the plot was intriguing enough and the way the society was built was really interesting. There are five factions and each have a defining trait and they each have a place in society. Tris is originally from Abnegation, the people who are selfless and make decisions for all the other factions. Every year the sixteen year olds have to choose what faction they’ll become a part of. They’re given a test that shows them where they best fit in, but they can choose any faction they want. Tris ultimately chooses Dauntless, though her test shows her to be Divergent, which is extremely dangerous. Dauntless is the faction that values strength and fearlessness.

A large part of the story is Tris’s training to become Dauntless, but it’s undercut with a sense of foreboding. There’s something wrong in her world and it involves her Dauntless, Abnegation, and Erudite, the faction her brother belongs to.

Part of what makes Divergent so good is the characters. They all fall into different factions and for some of them that faction is very definitive of their character, but the best characters, Tris and her friends included, don’t let their faction define them.

I ended up reading most of the book in two nights, which seems to be a bit of a habit for me. It’s action packed with just the right amount of gore. There are also extremely heart wrenching scenes and I kind of cried at certain parts.

Definitely recommend and I’m starting Insurgent next week.

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