The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“I've learned, in my tragic little life, that memories are like water. Not solid, like some people think. Once something happens, it isn't set it stone. It can change. You can make yourself believe anything if you lie to yourself enough.”

 The pretty cover gets me again! I must admit I didn't know very well what this book was about when I first picked it up, and yet still, the content was nothing like what I was expecting or hoping for.

 The story revolves around Katherine, she's the alter ego of Carly, it is never clear if their two-minds-in-one-body situation is the result of a medical condition or a paranormal one. While Carly exists during the day, Katherine functions during the night, they've never met and only comunicate with each other through written messages in a book, but each one loves the other as if they were sisters. The novel is fashioned out of a series of diary entires, transcripted interviews and videos, emails and medical records which are put together as a means to try to explain a mysterious accident in which the two girls had a major role more than a decade before the present day.

“One box, and it holds a whole life of love - almost every letter Carly and I have ever exchanged. Seeing it here, all together, three big bundles of paper...is that all we were? Dying pages, fading ink?”

 Generally speaking there are just as many things I liked about this book, as the ones I disliked about it so I guess it's a tie. For example, the first few pages didn't capture my interest at all, and in a way I felt that though the atmosphere was really good, it took the author way too long to build it. There are pages that feature images that are supposed to add up to said atmosphere, but which are totally incongruous with the story or the characters (those I heavily disliked) they weren't needed or wanted and didn't fulfill their purpose.

 The story feels ambiguous at first and almost nothing happens during the first half of the book, the characters are not especially likeable, I have to admit I was even considering dropping the book in that moment... And then, the amazing happened, somehow the story picked up, sucked me right in and had me turning pages at three in the morning like crazy. The funny thing is that the parts that really spooked me were not the parts where in which I was supposed to be spooked I think, all the horror scenes felt a bit corny for me, what got me was the overall feeling of the story towards the end, there's a sensation of helplessness combined with the notion of not beign in control of your own body, that I found really creepy.

 Although for all the good moments there quite a few fails: there are some police reports between the diary entries that make absolutely no sense (and not in the paranormal realm, but in the logical one) most characters are terribly underdeveloped and there's a plot twist I saw coming from miles away. In the end however, as a scary Halloween read it excels all expectations, so if you're looking for something like that, The Dead House has it.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, etcetera. The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!”

 I literally don't know where to start, you know how there are some books that just bring a smile to your face whenever you pick them up? Well these Percy Jackson and The Olympians' books are the biggest smile conjurers in my bookshelves. I hold them specially close to my heart.

 Almost everyone knows the story, whether it's because you've watched the movies (which are terrible, I recommend you drop them right now and pick up the books) or you've heard about these books, or like me, you've already read them. But in case you don't, this is basically it: Percy Jackson doesn't do well at school, he has a hard time concentrating and his dyslexia makes reading for him very hard, on top of that his mother is married to a douchebag and they don't have much money. What he doesn't know is that he is really a Half-Blood, as in half greek god, half human. His real father is Poseidon and a lot of things are about to change for him.

“He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!”

 I can't point a single thing and name it what I love the most about these books, sometimes it's the characters or the writing style, sometimes it's the hilarious way in which Riodan merges greek mythology with pop culture and sometimes it's the aesthetic. It has some clichés, and I'll admit the first time I read the summary I thought it looked suspiciously similar to Harry Potter. But it's a diferent experience entirely, even though they deal with similar themes.

 I don't want to spoil anything, I can only say, that I loved these books as when I was little and I love them now, I just can't recommend them enough, if you have kids, if you're a kid, if you were a kid you should read them, you won't regret it.

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Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“We weren’t ourselves when we fell in love, and when we became ourselves – surprise! – we were poison. We complete each other in the nastiest, ugliest possible way.”

 I really don't know if there's anything I can say about this book that hasn't been said before, but for the sake of organizing my ideas I'll try. However, considering I can't really talk about this book without getting to spoiler territory, I can only warn you not to keep reading if you haven't read the book, or watched the movie (which is really good by the way). So let's get into it.

 Gone Girl is a sharp, sarcastic and ultimately vicious story about a marriage that has gone horribly wrong. I'm asumming you know the story, Nick Dunne lives a seemingly perfect life, until his brilliant and beautiful wife disappears in suspicious circumstances that lead to believe that he killed her. Only to be revealed later that it was actually her who ran away and framed him for her murder. Amy Dunne is a psychopath, she's smart and cold and has been hating her husband for a while now. Pretty much because he decided he doesn't love her anymore, yet still dragged her across the country to live in a house she hates and consumed what was left of her money, and on top of that he's cheating on her with a student of his. So she's also vengeful.

“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. [...] Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.

 There's a odd kind of joy in watching these two destroy each other, I must admit I even sort of started rooting for Amy after the Cool Girl monologue, she's so full of self righteousness and hate, it's kind of enjoyable to listen to her calculations. On the other side Nick strucks me as an asshole really, though a likeable one with that strange sense of humor of his. Of the two he seems to be the "normal one" but I think he's the most hateful of the pair. He despises Amy, he's tired of her but won't ask for a divorce because his bar was bought with her money and he fears she would take it from him, besides he doesn't like confrontation and a divorce just seems like too much work.

 I'm not going to pretend otherwise, it's a bit of a f**ked-up book, but a very good one at that. It's fast-paced and loaded with witty, sarcastic writing. Nick and Amy are like metaphors that ask themselves if they really know the person they married, and there's a great deal of critizism for those pretend to be someone else in order to be loved. I absolutely recommend it, but beware, it's not an easy read.

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El príncipe de la niebla by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“He lost himself in the words and images conjured in his mind and for a while forgot ... He found himself flying among stars and planets ...”

 I first discovered this book back when I was... twelve? This was when I had first encountered the joys of reading (not compulsively like now, but in a healthy curious way) and back then I absolutetly loved it, don't take me wrong, I still like it, it's surrounded by this nostalgic aura and really nice memories. And it had been so long that I decided to re-read it for this year's Halloween Read-A-Thon, so here are my thoughts on it, as an adult now (or sort of).

“Max had once read in one of his father's books that some childhood images become engraved in the mind like photographs, like scenes you can return to again and again and will always remember, no matter how much time goes by.”

 The story revolves mostly around the old beach house Max and his family move in to escape the war, which had previously been owned by a couple whose only son had drowned on the beach just across the street. Once they arrive strange things start happening, the house seems haunted, there's a strange hidden statue garden in the woods behind the house and a sinked ship on the beach with an eerie aura around it. The premise sounds good doesn't it? I liked it as a kid, and I still like it now.

 The finished product is a bit underwhelming. The idea for the story is very interesting I think, but a bit underdeveloped, if it had just been a little more explored... Well it could be a different thing altogether. This is the first book Carlos Ruiz Zafón wrote, which explains why sometimes it's brilliant but lacks a little building. Still for a debut novel I think it's really, really good, and considering his posterior work I'd say he already made it to my favourite authors.

 I'd say the major problem this book has is that it lacks major world building, and though the characters are a bit two dimensional for my taste, I must admit I cared for them a great deal more than I did for others in many hyped YA books. What I really liked was the atmosphere, it very good for such a short book and frames the story perfectly. Overall, I think it works really well as a Middle Grade mystery book, maybe a ghost story for kids. It was nice re-reading it.

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Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**This review contains spoilers**

"Marry me," he said. "Marry me, Tess. Marry me and be called Tessa Herondale. Or be Tessa Gray, or be whatever you wish to call yourself, but marry me and stay with me and never leave me, for I cannot bear another day of my life to go by that does not have you in it.”

 To be completely honest I didn't think the writing style was great and the story didn't really get me either, and there were too many clichés... but the characters, the characters are so good, too good. They're the sole reason I picked these books up again and finished all three in a weekend. So yeah, Cassandra Clare has regained a place in my heart.

 This was actually a re-read, I first picked up Clockwork Angel when I was in school and back then I must admit I didn't really enjoy it. However I decided to give it a second chance because I already had the books and I never finished the third one the first time around (not to mention they have excellent reviews). And having finished them now, I can say I finally understand the hype surrounding them.

 I loathe love triangles in YA books, they're all the same, this one is the only exception. Tessa and Will and Jem have this rare quality that makes the angst between the three of them bearable and actually sad, they all love each other and wish each other happiness, which inmediately erases jealousy and bitterness between them, leading them to sacrifice their personal happiness so the other two may be happy instead. It's a rare thing to find in books of the like, but it makes the otherwise plain story compelling.

 On the things I didn't like, I could list the writing style, it didn't feel very special minus the occasional quotable parts, and the plot, which besides the romace seemed very common and full of clichés. Something I particularly disliked were the chapters narrated from Will's sister Cecily's point of view, I thought they were really unnecesary, as nothing really relevant to the main story happened in them, and in the end drove me to dislike her for this same reason.

 On the ending, oh well, where to start? It kind of felt like a punch in the gut, not the actual ending but the epilogue, the thing about including an entire chapter in modern setting kind of killed the victorian magic for me. And also, I could have lived the rest of my life without the description of Will's death; he was my favourite character by far, and this death though happy, only served to make my heart ache. The epilogue also made him appear like in the end he was only a chapter on Tessa's life in my eyes, which really didn't sit well with me, I don't know if I'm beign unfair or if someone else feels that way... But at least that was how I see it.

 Still with all the things I didn't enjoy about these books, I have to admit that as a love story, it shines. The entire time I was wishing they would all end up together, because it felt like the only solution where no one got hurt. But well, you can't always get what you want, right? Would I recommend it? Yes, but only if you have the time, Clockwork Princess feels pretty long and there's a lot of angst, it'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, but you'll be happy at the end, sort of. So consider yourself warned.

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Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“I knew it was insane to be happy, to feel this desperate exultation at his words. But I felt like I had been waiting all my life to hear them. I had been waiting, all my life, for someone undeceived to love me.”

 I don't know why I let so much time pass between reading this book and writing a review, it doesn't make any sense. Anyway, this is it, I completely loved this book, I feel like it captured almost everything I love about retellings, from the incorporation of new elements and the flawed heroine to the satisfying romance.

 Nyx's destiny is to marry the demon that cursed the island in which she lives and murdered her mother, only so she can win his trust and destroy him in the process. She is not happy with this but there's nothing she can do about it. However when the fateful day comes and Nyx moves to her husband's castle he is nothing like she imagined and the plans her vengeful father had carefully created are useless against him.

“If you’d ever asked, I would have crawled to help you. But you never wanted my help. You only wanted me to be your sweet and smiling sister. So I smiled and smiled, until I thought I would break.”

 I have to admit, I thought that the dialogue in this book was brilliant, it is after all a romance driven novel and a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but compared to other similar stories this seemed so unique to me; it has a lot of Greek Mythology elements that paint a very interesting background, and the evolution of Nyx and Ignifex's relationship was better developed than in most YA books.

 But what really captured my attention was the protagonist's characterization, she strikes as little bitter in the beggining, but really who wouldn't be? When you're forced to marry a monster for your father to finally obtain his revenge on said man? She resents her family for forcing that fate on her, and yet she still wants to do good for them and the other people in the island. But then Ignifex is not exactly the kind of monster she believed and he might be a tiny bit thoughtful too... At least when he's not mad.

 When I finished it, I thought it was one of the best retellings I've read this year and I still feel that way, so if you love Beauty and the Beast give it a try, I was pleasantly surprised.

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It's that time of the year again, the time watch Hocus Pocus and eat candy and of course, read spooky books. This year I've decided to participate on Lauren's Halloween Read-A-Thon which will be running from October 10th to 31st and hopefully, enjoy some scary reads.


The Prince of Mist / Carlos Ruiz Zafón
 This is actually a re-read for me, I first came across a Spanish edition of this book a very long time ago (like in my preteens) and I remember finding it's cover so creepy, it was calling to me from the shelf. Unfortunately back then I got scared  pretty easily and couldn't finish it until years later. Still, this guy is such a good writer so he's going on my list.



The Dead House / Dawn Kurtagich
 This one I discovered while browsing though Goodreads and other people's Halloween TBR piles. The cover is creepy enough and the premise sound very interesting so if I have a little mor time I'll pick this up too.






The Walls Around Us / Nova Ren Suma
 This book I love. I picked it up when I first got my Kindle, like two years ago and I adored it. It's a ghost story about three girls, two of which are dead; in a way I think it reminded me of Gone Girl, if only for the dark human factor on it. I'm looking forward to read it again.





Gone Girl / Gillian Flynn
 And speaking of which, I think it's time that I re-read this one too, it's been too long.







 I always read before going to sleep when I'm already in bed, at first I used to do it to make myself sleepy, nowadays good books keep me awake at night. Anyway, it has become a habit, so I count this one as done already.


 To be honest I'm ahead of this one. And I know it's just the beginning of the month but scary movies are my guilty pleasure and so I have already watched The Ring, ParaNorman (not scary but for the aesthetic) and Silent Hill.


The Lightning Thief / Rick Riodan
 This one is easy, I recently finished The Infernal Devices so I need something simple and funny and warm to get me out of the angst, because those books were terrible... and wonderful and so sad my little turtle heart can't handle it.






 And finally, I don't know if I'll make it but I'll try!