Sunday 23 November 2014

The Knife of Never Letting Go

First impressions and the cover

This book caught my attention sitting amongst other books on the shelf, not because of the title or the cover, but because of the author, as soon as I saw “Patrick Ness” I just thought, I need that book in my life, I didn’t even bother to read the blurb I just brought it. Now you are probably wondering why I am going on like this but it is mainly because of Patrick Ness’ last book I read, called more than this, and that is what it literally is each time you find something out something else becomes confusing. The knife of never letting go is no exception to this, there are so many unsolved puzzle’s in it that your mind jumps to crazing conclusions, then you find the truth and you feel like banging your head on a table, each and every time I fall for this, and this makes his books not only the best books alive but the best author ever.

I loved this book, I was actually reading this book while I was on holiday so instead of spending every spare moment of my life on a tablet or phone, I was reading this book which I never put down the whole holiday, and when I did put it down I was still thinking about the plot and what could happen next. This links to the title of the book, because, even though the title makes no sense it reflects the book perfectly without any trouble and I really think that the title is another big part of what makes you pick a book. This title especially because as you see it sitting there almost so many other books the author obviously need the book to stand out , from the others around it, and the title of this book is not only gripping but it makes you think and take another look at it. This is exactly what happened when I saw the title of the book; I was drawn in without a thought and picked it up. The next thing I saw was obviously the front cover and again it reflected the narrative of this book, and of course you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover but I think it is hard not to as when you pick up a book the first thing you see is the title, and I find myself constantly judging books by their cover simply because that it what catches my attention. This cover was one to be judge as, by just looking at the cover you knew that this was a book you either wanted to read or a book you want to put down and never go back to it. Obviously the former one was me but I think for a lot of people they would have not have picked it up as it does have a rather viscous and intimating title and book cover.
Plot summary

In summary of the book:

The book starts 4 weeks till Todd Hewitt becomes a ‘man’ in the new world. The new world is a place in the dystopian future, where everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. All the women are women are dead and everyone can hear each other’s thoughts. At least that’s what Todd thinks, but when Todd finds something so unbelievably amazing his life is turned upside down and he has to leave everything he has. Armed with a knife, some food and a map Todd leaves to become a real man.

The characters

I love the characters in this book, Patrick Ness really describes the characters in so much detail throughout the book, and it’s almost like the characters are standing right in front of you. I think that it is quite hard to describe like Ness does because he describes the characters all through the book, therefore you get different images until you have finished reading the book, and even then you would want to go on to read the other books in this series without hesitation.

Todd Hewitt is the protagonist in the book along with viola and these characters are describe so beautifully and carefully, not managing to miss out even the smallest detail that you feel like you know them. He however does not describe the characters all in one go or neither by saying “he has short blond hair and is tall” which is not only dull but skill less, a 5 year old could write that, what he does do however is let other people describe him and let you find out that he actually doesn’t know a lot about himself so when he finds out about himself you find out too, which is nice because it makes you feel like you are Todd, not like you are reading about him. The final thing you must know about Todd Hewitt is that he can’t kill, and in the world he lives in killing is a big part of the world so the fact that he can’t kill is very important to the book as you read on.

Viola Eade is the other protagonist is still describe, but because of the fact that she knows very little about the new world, and the thought that she can hear Todd’s noise (his thoughts), she remains very silent for a vast majority of the book, so when she is described its Todd’s thoughts. So you know more about her personality really than her looks. Viola is a very brave and thinks on her feet. She does however has quite a hot temper which does cause her to have a few fallouts with Todd. She always looks after him and sees past Todd’s old towns plans in multiple parts of the book.

Analyse

Because of how beautiful this book is there are so many wonderful quotes, one of my favourites is:""War is like a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too."" - pg. 392, I just love this quote so much it is so true and it just makes you think so much especially when it says “war is like a monster” because even though it is a fictional book and story, with how the world is at the moment it is a very reliable and quote that anyone could look at and think about how it could help many people if everyone just realised that it is true.

Conclusion

I loved this book the quotes from it are perfect the characters are also perfect, and I don’t think anyone who read the first one would hesitate to read the other two. Throughout this whole book review I have obviously not said anything made but that is because I cannot think of anything bad to say about it.

Some people however may really dislike it because it is a very scary and people like to always know what’s going on and in this book half the time you don’t know what’s going on. Also how you display and read the book can completely change it. For example if you HAD to read it and you weren’t enjoying it you wouldn’t pick up all the details and you wouldn’t feel like you are the characters so you wouldn’t get the best out the book. If you, however, were enjoying it then you feel like you’re in the book and your there in the new world.

I would rate this book 100/10 and would not hesitate to read it 50 more times. I hope this book review makes you go on to read the book, and if it does I hope you enjoy it as much as me.
****

I thought I would share this with you I actually wrote it for school and it is quite long winded so well done if you have got this far, I loved this book and you should go and read it, I have mentioned it in my favourites and I just felt like it would be a good post to publish at the moment, because I am extremely busy with school work so I don’t have much time to write a whole post. I hope you don’t mind and I will be back to writing post again next week, love you all very very much
Tavi & Mollyxxxxxx

Monday 17 November 2014

My Mid-Month Favourites



Hola, how has your day been today? I have been extremely tired after spending 18 hours walking 24 miles and only getting 12 hours sleep, but other than that and my excessive amount of homework I am good. I felt like writing a favourites post because I have never done one and I have loads of stuff that I have been enjoying recently do I thought I would do a mid-month favourites, I hope y’all all enjoy and here is my mid-month favourites.
So let’s get straight in there with a book, this book is so good and I have a SUPER long book review (1,316 word to be exact) that no one would ever want to read, anyway I am not even going to try to summarise this book but it is a must read for everyone. I will say that it may be a good idea to re-read it because it is a bit confusing and I did have to read certain chapters about 3 or 4 times in order to understand it, but it is one of the best books I have ever read, and I’ve read A LOT of books

This concealer is reviewed so many times and I did love it very much but I very annoyingly got it in the wrong colour so I can’t give you a proper review but it has still managed to creep into my favourites. I did really like this and it was ok in the summer when my skin doesn’t look like a ghost and has a slight tan, it also like it says is “lasting perfection” because it lasts the whole day when I do where it. I used my bobby brown eyeshadow brush to blend this out, because why not, and it did blend very well. I shall be buying this again as I have nearly run out but this time in the right colour.

I can’t remember buying this mascara but when I went to get the link I discovered it was very very reasonably priced for the quality, I tend to find waterproof mascara is more expensive than non-water proof mascara and also waterproof mascara can be clumpier but this mascara was surprisingly smooth and not clumpy at all. Another must buy if you not have a huge budget.
These two nail varnishes I am going to write a joint review because I always wear them together the Revlon one as an overcoat then the Jack Wills one as a base coat, I only recently discovered this combo but it so so pretty and very wintery. I annoying have discovered that Jack Wills no longer do nail varnish so I did some searching and found this gift set which is not only really cute but would also be a fab Christmas present (CHRISTAMSSSS EEEE). The actual quality of the nail varnish is very good and the only minus of the jack wills one is that is very weirdly pigmented so that it stains my nails but I can cope with that.
This another product that I have no idea where I got it from, probably around the house knowing me, but it is very good and at this time of the month where my lips become ridiculously chapped it is a essential to my lips. I am going to say that this is not a super cheap lip product in my opinion, but neither is it super expensive I hope it will last me a little longer because I can only find it in America so I’ll just have to manage to save it.
I brought this about 2 years ago and just never used it but I have recently rediscovered it and I should probably actually get a new one because I recon it’s probably gone off. I not sure what other shops do this but it is basically a solid perfume in a little tube that looks like lip balm, it is also red so when I first got it I may have put it on my lips, whoops. It is a very bohemia smell from the 60’s which I love; it’s not particularly florally just a bit musty. I loving this smell for autumn/winter as it just what you want, it is a little bit sweet so if you don’t like sweet smells I am going to say that this smell is not for you.
I love lush a lot and they now have the Christmas stock in which excites me, because it Christmas and lush mixed together, which is my two favourite things ever. This bath bomb is very fizzy and I buy about 5 of them every year because I love them so much, it is a little bit of a smaller bath bomb but it is just as good and will easily fill a whole bath with that lovely Christmassy spice smell that you want at Christmas (that is the fifth time I have said Christmas in this blogpost, I may be a little excited). Simply if you have a lush near you GO AND BUY THIS OR I WILL BUY IT FOR YOU.


My God-Sister was throwing these out because she was going to Uni and I she said I can have them if I like so I took them, being the hoarder I am and discovered that they are the best headphone ever. They aren’t stupidly priced but neither are they super cheap, but they are well worth the money that you can invest into them. The materials used for them are really nice and comfy in your ear; I actually managed to break the rubbery bit because I was fiddling with them so the ones here aren’t they originals. They also have a super bass (because you know I’m all about that bass) and the sound quietly is so good, they are pretty sound proof too which has its advantages and disadvantages.
Danke (I’m feeling very continental today) for reading, I hope you all enjoyed this blog, it may have been a bit longer than meant it to be but oh well. Keep an eye on the side bar thingy because you will see some changes to it as I have spent the last month designing little Pinterest, Tumblr and such logo and I am now done, I might write a blog post about that because why not.
Hope I have shown you some new products and that you know a little more about me and what enjoy.
Have very merry (Christmas) day, au revoir
Tavi and Molly xxxxxx

Wednesday 12 November 2014

The Liebster Award



So Thoughts Through A Teacup nominated me for the Liebster Award (thank you very much, love her blog, go check it out), and I felt it would be rude to decline it. I love to find new blogs so I thought I find some blogs for you and I to share, also you don’t know much about me so I thought this would be a good opportunity to not only find some new blogs but also to find out more about me.

If I have tagged you then you will find the rules at the bottom xxxx.


I made this badge myself but feel free to use it xxxx


 So to start of here are 11 (very random) facts about me-

1.       I am 13 but will be 14 on February 9th
2.       I am in year 9 and loving it
3.       I have a crazy obsessions with fruit
4.       I couldn’t get hold of my best friend (the co-owner) to help me write this
5.       I live in England but have never travelled outside Europe
6.       I love to ski, it is the one thing I am actually ok at
7.       I’m running out of facts
8.       I read books all the time, they are like food to me
9.       I love to bake and do it in my spare time A LOT, it is also another thing I am good at
10.   My favourite kind of chocolate is Cadbury marvellous creations, it is LUSH
11.   I feel super Christmassy and its only 11th November

Now I’m going to answer the question Ariana set me:

1.       What's your favourite thing to do when you're sad?
 First question and its already getting deep, when I’m sad I like to talk to people not about my problems but just about everything except from the thing that’s making me sad, it’s just nice to have someone there to talk too and knowing they’ll always be there.
2.       Coffee or tea?
This is really hard, I love coffee but I also really like tea, can I say coffee-tea, a mixture of both.
3.       If you could re-live any day of your life, which would it be?
My leaving party, when I left Scotland, all my friends were there it was beautiful weather, and yea it was just the best day ever, it made laving so much easier.
4.       What's your favourite thing about the autumn/winter months?
Darkness, easy peasy, I love darkness when you can turn on the fairy lights have a tea or coffee ;) and watch some YouTube or read a book, or even better write a blogpost.
5.       When do you feel happiest?
 I feel happiest when the people I love are around me it makes me feel so calm, I also feel happiest when I am off with my camera in wonderland.
6.       What secret talent do you wish you had?
Anything I have no secret talent so anything will do for me
7.       All-time favourite classic Disney movie?
Mary Poppins, BEST FILM EVER, may I also just say I am way to excited for a 13 year old for the Paddington Bear Movie, forget mokingjay (although I will be watching that) Paddington bear all the way.
8.       Early mornings or late nights?
Not sure about this one I like midday time but I’ll say evenings because they feel cosy and also I normally stay up quite late.
9.       What's your favourite song to listen to on repeat?
Ok so not generally listen to on repeat but I could listen to it on repeat if I wanted to, but this song reminds me of my childhood so much and I love it, there are two and they are both by Moby, the first one is “why does my heart feel so bad” and the other is “in this world” I love them both a lot and I could listen them forever and ever.
10.   Who’s your favourite book character?
I don’t particularly have a favourite book character, but I do love Mina, from “My name’s Mina” she is very inspirational character. I loved her because she is so philosophical and I do love myself a bit of philosophy.
11.   What made you start blogging?
I started blogging because I was looking for something to do, a platform that I can inspire from, a place where my photography can be displayed, a place where everyone is equal and starts of at the same place and I found it.

So I am tagging these accounts- 
Rules for those tagged:
1.       Thank the blog that nominated you, follow them if you'd like, and link them. 
2.       Post eleven facts about yourself.
3.       Answer the eleven questions provided by the person who nominated you and then create an eleven question set for the next group of nominees.
4.       Choose five to eleven people to nominate and link them on the post.
5.       Let your nominees know they've been tagged - and no tag backs!
6.        Nominate blogs with fewer than 200 followers.

So now for my questions, some may be silly some may be very sensible and deep just depends really, good for all audiences shall we say-

1.       Who is your inspiration(s)?
2.       What your favourite Starbucks drinks (or Costa or Nero’s)?
3.       How would you describe yourself in three words?
4.       What are your hobbies/what do you do at a weekend?
5.       Do you have any Christmas decorations up yet?
6.       Would you rather live in a book or live in reality?
7.       What is the weather like where you are?
8.       What’s the best present you’ve ever been given?
9.       Who’s your favourite music artist?
10.   What’s been the best moment this year?
11.   What’s your favourite childhood memory?

So I did actually get through to Molly in the end and she helped me write the question for the tagged people. Different post for you all, hope you still liked it, I enjoyed writing it lots, and I hope you found out something new about me too.

Much love Octavia and Molly xxxxxx