Undiscovered Gyrl

Top 5 Wednesday: January 16, 2019

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Most Disappointing Reads of 2018

These are books you read in 2018, not only ones released in 2018.
To participate in Top 5 Wednesday, head over to their Goodreads Group!

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

This book really disappointed me. I had been looking forward to reading this book for years, but kept putting it off for one reason or another. Now I wish I had kept putting it off…

Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

Considering the little mystery and the obvious mental illness, I thought this book would be more interesting than it was. Instead I spent the whole time with a look of vague disgust on my face. Read my review.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

I’ve discovered Yovanoff books are pretty hit or miss with me. Either I love them or I hate them. Unfortunately this was a hate. I wound up abandoning this book.

I Don’t Know What You Know Me From: Confessions of a Co-Star by Judy Greer

So BORING. The prologue to this book made it seem like it was going to be soooo interesting, but it really wasn’t. DNF.

Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls, and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham

It just seemed so rambling… I don’t really have much to say about it. I had high hopes and they weren’t met. Read my mini-review.

What were your disappointing reads of 2018?

May 2018 Reading Wrap-Up

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The Martian by Andy Weir
Rating:  ★★★★☆ – really liked it
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  May 1 – 5
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  Sarcastic!
Least Favorite Thing:  “The lunatics at NASA have me doing all kinds of rape to the MAV. . .” Rape? Really? Jackass.

Well the internet was right, the book was funny, I’m glad I read it. Aside from that one sentence, it was a really good book. I would have quoted it a lot more, but I’m fairly certain if you added up all the ‘Martian’ quotes on Goodreads you could reprint full half of this novel (at least).

My Posts About The Martian

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
Rating:  ★★☆☆☆ – it was ok
Review:  No
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  May 11 – 13
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I just can’t think of anything I liked enough to say was my favorite thing.
Least Favorite Thing:  So many…

I just… This wasn’t a bad book by any means. But I just expected to love it and I barely even liked it… I actually preferred the film, which is something I never say.

My Posts About Practical Magic

Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett
Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Review:  Yes
Format:  Print
Reading Dates:  May 7 – 15
Read Count:  1
Favorite Thing:  I literally didn’t like any part of it.
Least Favorite Thing:  Been a long time since I read a book with so many racist comments. I wasn’t missing it.

I read this because I had seen the movie version and found it tolerable enough that when I saw it was based on a book I decided to try the novel. This was a poor choice on my part.

My Posts About Undiscovered Gyrl

In Progress

Review: Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

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A compulsively-promiscuous, troubled teen blogs about her interpersonal relationships throughout the year off between high school and university.

*** Trigger Warnings:  Child Sex Abuse, Rape, Domestic Abuse ***

Rating:  ★☆☆☆☆ – did not like it
Genre:  young adult fiction, ya contemporary
Pros:  none
Cons:  racism, annoying main character

If you enjoy reading books about characters who are racist, ignorant, self-centered, and downright annoying, then you will love this book. If you prefer to actually like the characters you read about, don’t even bother with this one.

For those who have seen the film, whether you liked it or not, this is one of those rare times where the book is worse than its film adaptation. When making the film they cut out about 90% of Katie’s racism and internalized misogyny, which greatly improved her personality. The character in the film tends to come across more naive and damaged than anything else, but this is not the case in the novel.

Even the very brief mystery at the end wasn’t interesting enough to save this book, in my opinion.

Another thing that explains some of the problems I had with this book about a young girl and her issues: it was written by a man and it shows.

Honestly, there are so many other, better books out there about teen girls with issues, read those, don’t waste your time on this one.

 

Progress: Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

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Lee is on page 70 of 304

I am really not enjoying this book much… The POV character is extremely unlikable. Pretty sure that’s the Point, but with the way this book is written (in blog posts) there’s nothing else to focus on EXCEPT the MC and I hate her entire personality…

If I don’t start enjoying myself by page 104 I’m going to DNF. (I might jump to the end and read a specific part that I’m curious about, but then DNF.)

Teaser Tuesday: May 8, 2018

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That’s the problem with dating somebody you’re not truly in love with. Every few weeks the pressure builds and you turn into a monster. You’re not sure who you hate more for the lie you are living, him or yourself.

– Allison Burnett, Undiscovered Gyrl, page 29

Version:
Paperback, 304 pages
Published August 11th 2009 by Vintage

Welcome to Teaser Tuesday, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker, the weekly Meme that wants you to add books to your TBR, or just share what you are currently reading. It is very easy to play along:

  • Grab your current read
  • Open to a random page
  • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
  • BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
  • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.

First Lines Fridays: April 6, 2018

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First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

  • Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
  • Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
  • Finally… reveal the book!

First Lines:

Last April when I decided to defer college for a year my friends said I was insane, but I’m not. I have no idea what I want to do with my life.

Interested? Scroll down for the cover and summary!

Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett

Only on the internet can you have so many friends and be so lonely.

Beautiful, wild, funny, and lost, Katie Kampenfelt is taking a year off before college to find her passion. Ambitious in her own way, Katie intends to do more than just smoke weed with her boyfriend, Rory, and work at the bookstore. She plans to seduce Dan, a thirty-two-year-old film professor.
Katie chronicles her adventures in an anonymous blog, telling strangers her innermost desires, shames, and thrills. But when Dan stops taking her calls, when her alcoholic father suffers a terrible fall, and when she finds herself drawn into a dangerous new relationship, Katie’s fearless narrative begins to crack, and dark pieces of her past emerge.

Sexually frank, often heartbreaking, and bursting with devilish humor, Undiscovered Gyrl is an extraordinarily accomplished novel of identity, voyeurism, and deceit.

WWW Wednesday: February 7, 2018

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Welcome to WWW Wednesday! This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at Should be Reading and revived on Taking on a World of Words. Just answer the three W’s!

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently Reading:  Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass, book 1) by Sarah J. Maas

I have been planning, and talking about planning, to reread the Throne of Glass novels so that I could read the newer ones for I think two years now. And finally I’m getting started on it!

I’ll probably read them a bit slower than I would normally, just because I read them once before and didn’t retain the information very well. Major plot points, I still got, but everything else is just too fuzzy.

Wish me luck, y’all!

Recently Finished:  Elske (Tales of the Kingdom, book 4) by Cynthia Voigt

I hated ending this book! I tried to read it as slow as I could to make it last, but it still feels like it zipped by too fast!

I love the Tales of the Kingdom so much. In fact, I think I love them more every time I reread them, which doesn’t usually happen for me.

I know I say this a lot, probably more than anything else I blog, but seriously if you like YA Fantasy, or even just YA Fiction of all types, you should totally give these books a try. They are older so most people don’t even know about them, and they are so worth knowing!

  OR  

Reading Next:  Undiscovered Gyrl by Allison Burnett OR Crown of Midnight (Throne of Glass, book 2) by Sarah J. Maas

I’m torn. I can’t decide if I should jump straight into the next Throne of Glass novel or break up my reread by reading other books inbetween, such as this book Undiscovered Gyrl.

I grabbed this book because I saw the film adaptation. (Sometimes when I’m stressed I like to watch movies that make me dissociate. How’s that for unhealthy coping mechanisms?) And I figured since I’ve been trying to read some different sorts of books, I might as well give this one a try.

I guess I’ll have to decide based on how easily I get through ToG and how I feel afterward, but I’d rather know ahead of time.