I know that I’m late to reading this, but I’m so glad I did because it was amazing. For those of you who haven’t read it, this book is about 2 people, Sephy and Callum living in a world that’s defined by your race. “Sephy is a Cross, a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought , a colourless member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses”*. This is a love story, yet they can’t be together unless the society they are in changes.

This is a really interesting book, and the focus on racism and the way people are treated because of the colour of their skin, is a still very relevant commentary on the world that we live in now. Despite it being published in 2001, it still feels current, sadly, we haven’t moved on since then and racism is still prevalent. The relationship between Sephy and Callum is really interesting, and at first I didn’t really like Callum, but as the book progresses, you understand why he is the way he is. As their relationship develops you begin to understand why it is so difficult and toxic at times. It was also intriguing to see how their circumstances and other peoples opinions affected how they interacted with each other, which again makes them seem more real, and not just characters from a book.

I really liked the addition of the Liberation Militia, a terrorist group of Noughts fighting for equality, they do some awful things throughout the novel and it made the book much more dramatic and emotional. The book is actually based on real life, and Malorie Blackman’s own childhood experiences. Another thing that I loved about this book was that the events took place over 3 or 4 years, in the first half of the book, Callum and Sephy are teenagers and are in school. In the second half of the book, Callum and Sephy are young adults and have matured, and spent some time apart from each other. It’s fascinating to see how they have changed after 3 or 4 years, and how their relationship changes when they reunite. I don’t want to say any more in case I spoil anything for you.

I only really liked 2 characters in this book, surprise surprise, it’s Callum and Sephy, but I think that was the point of the book, it’s main focus is those 2 characters. Of course racism is a very important part of it, but at the end of the day, this is a love story, the classic Romeo and Juliet love story. I loved this book, I’ve never read anything like it before and will definitely be reading the other 4 books. I think everyone should give this book a go, even if it’s not really your sort of thing, the message of the book is so important and the writing is exceptional. BBC has just come out with a TV series based on the book, which I have yet to see, but I thought now would be a good time to do a review on the book. Thank you for reading, I hope you’re all staying safe, see you next week with another review.

*goodreads –https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/714902.Noughts_Crosses

Hello, I’m back, it’s been about a year since I last posted, but I’m back now, and I have a lot more time for reading and reviewing since we’re all in lockdown. Anyway, I read this book a couple of months ago, and I really enjoyed it, it’s got a bit of everything, romance, adventure, humour and plot twists. The story is centered around Kaz Brekker and his gang, The Dregs, who are attempting to pull off an impossible heist to recover a hostage. The plot was clever and interesting and I could never predict what was going to happen next, or where the story was headed. There were plenty of interesting characters, I liked that the, I guess you could call them heroes of the story, weren’t necessarily good people or traditionally heroic, most novels in this sort of genre have an obvious goody Vs baddy dynamic. However, the line was sort of blurred between who was right and wrong, the heroes of the story all had different reasons to embark on the heist and have very different views on life. Kaz Brekker was by far my favourite, he’s a very complex character, and despite being quite selfish and rude at times, he’s still very likeable. Saying that, Jesper and Inej are definitely contenders for my favourite character, Jesper brings some light and humour back into what could be a quite dark and heavy story. Inej is just really cool, and a strong female lead in a gang full of men. Where the book is set is also really interesting, The Barrel is a town full of gangs and crime in a fantasy setting, I can’t wait to see how they portray it in the TV show. I would definitely recommend this book, especially since they are currently making a Netflix show at the moment, so get reading. I hope you are all well and staying safe, if all goes to plan there will be another book review next week. You can subscribe via email so that you get a notification when I post new reviews.

Since it’s new years eve and I promised a blog post before Christmas, I thought it was only right for me to post, so i’m going to look back at what I’ve read this year. From the point of view of my readers, it may look like I haven’t read much at all however, I have read quite a bit, but didn’t have the time to review them, or didn’t think that they were worthy of a review in the first place. So here’s a list of my top 3 books that I have read this year. (reviews of the other 2 will be published in the new year).

Number 3 – The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

This is a wonderful book, and I really enjoyed going back into the fantasy world after reading a few non fantasy novels. Tomi Adeyemi has cleverly created a beautiful fantasy world, very different to our own, but highlighted some of the problems in our society today. This book managed to get an important message across, despite all the things that were going on in the novel. The novel highlighted the issue of racism in our society today, despite the novel not being set in our world and the book is a clever way to educate teens on the faults in our society and can inspire them to make a difference. This book got into my top 3 because of the message it gave, the beautiful world it was set in, and the fascinating characters, who each had a different story to tell.

Number 2 – Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This book, I have done a review of already, so if you are interested, you can check that out here http://larawhitfield.co.uk/?p=823. Anyway, I really loved this book, despite not being a huge Sci-Fi fan, but this book ticked all the boxes. I loved all the characters, (especially Aech) and how the book wasn’t just about winning the competition and finding the Easter egg, but also about making the world a better place, whether you’re in the Oasis or in the real world. I longed to meet the characters, and be a part of the oasis, and it makes you wonder what the world could be like in 50 years time. The 80s references and snarky comments added to the overall enjoyment of the book, and is probably the funniest book I’ve read this year, which definitely helped it get to second place. And now, for first place…

Number 1 – The Power by Naomi Alderman

Now this book was an interesting one. Naomi Alderman wrote about a dystopian reality where women are in control, because of an electric jolt released from women’s fingers. And in my opinion, is an accurate depiction of what would’ve happened if this really happened. Obviously, I will be writing a detailed review on this book, but I think I might wait to read it again, as it’s quite confusing in some sections, and I’d like to read it again anyway. The book wasn’t a nice one, some of the content was upsetting, in fact it was quite horrible, but her brilliant ideas, and execution of the book was incredible. This novel really makes you think about our society and the patriarchy. I know that swapping gender roles or who’s in charge is not an original idea, but again, the execution was great, and done very cleverly. Despite the book losing some traction towards the end, it was an amazing book to have read, it was a tough one to get through, so when I finished i, it felt like an accomplishment, and I’ve never read anything like it before. Also, the book received very high praise from Margaret Atwood, which is possibly one of the highest forms of praise possible (I’m joking…well, not really). Anyway, I’ll go on forever about this book if I carry on talking about it, but a detailed review will be published, once I have refreshed my memory.

By the way, these are not reviews of the books, I am aware that I have been very vague. I am also aware that not all of these books were published in 2018. In fact, only The Children of Blood and Bone was published in 2018, this is just a list of my 3 favourite books that I have read this year, if you were wondering. Thank you for reading, and stick around for more reviews, especially ones of The Power and The Children of Blood and Bone, they are long overdue. If you would like to be notified when I post book reviews, you can subscribe by email, where it will be delivered straight to your inbox, just go to the contact me page and sign up, it’s as easy as that. You can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram, I will link them right here. Thank you for reading and Happy New Year, leave your list of favourite books you’ve read this year in the comments…

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Hello, I’m back. I know I have promised many times to update my blog on allotted days, every other week and so on, and I haven’t. So I’m not even going to try, because it doesn’t end well, but I will try and blog as frequently as I can, and not always about books. I might express my opinion on important events, or rant about feminism or school. But the usual book reviews will be posted as frequently as I read new books that I think are worthy of a review. 

I will see you soon in my next post, which I promise will be posted before Christmas, so stick around for that. I also have a Twitter, Instagram and Facebook if you are interested. The links to those are floating around my website. See you soon.

Today’s blog post is slightly different from normal, this blog post is about libraries.

I have been going to the library for as long as I can remember. Going to the library is what got me into books and reading. I used to do this reading challenge in the summer, where you had a poster, and every time you read 2 books, you got the first set of stickers, this carried on until you had read 6 books. I used to look forward to doing this every year, because if you completed it you got a sticker, certificate and some freebies. As I was saying, I don’t think that I would be a book blogger if mum had never taken me to the library.

I know I always include the price of the book but I do use the library a lot. As a book blogger, a library is a very important thing. We have a local library and the council recently majorly reduced the opening hours, which is a huge problem considering I have school and then on the weekend I am busy. This means I don’t have much opportunity to get to the library because often when I get home from school it is closed. If it was open more I would definitely go more.

Libraries are for everyone. Especially people who can’t afford to buy books. Lots of people say we don’t need libraries anymore because of all the technology. Well, that’s not true because what if you can’t afford the technology or don’t have access to it. There is also no risk with buying a book you don’t like. If you pick out a book from the library and hate it, you can just go back and swap it for another one, and it didn’t cost you anything. If your book is overdue and you are an adult then you have to pay a small fine, but that isn’t even the price of a book in a shop.

If you don’t use the library, the council will shut them down and we don’t want that. So if you find that you are bored and it’s raining outside during the holidays, go down to your local library and have a look, it doesn’t take a lot of effort and you may be surprised. Basically, USE IT OR LOSE IT!!

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