Review: Nothing by Janne Teller

Title: Nothing

Author: Janne Teller

Genre: Realistic fiction

Pages: 240 (Paperback)

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Publication date: March 20th, 2012

Synopsis from Nothing's Goodreads page

When Pierre-Anthon realizes there is no meaning to life, the seventh-grader leaves his classroom, climbs a tree, and stays there. His classmates cannot make him come down, not even by pelting him with rocks. So to prove to Pierre-Anthon that life has meaning, the children decide to give up things of importance. The pile starts with the superficial—a fishing rod, a new pair of shoes. But as the sacrifices become more extreme, the students grow increasingly desperate to get Pierre-Anthon down, to justify their belief in meaning.

I read Nothing by Janne Teller in January, and it took my awhile to figure out how I felt about the book. I was really hoping that I would love it, and I had been looking forward to it for so long, but I was a bit disappointed with it.

I had originally thought that this book would be about how a group of young children were helping their friend to find meaning in life by giving up their favourite things, and that it would help their friend to see the good in life, and that life was worth living. Instead, I got a book about a group of seventh and eighth graders who were being bullied by their friend into believing that life was meaningless, that everyone was going to die eventually and then be gone, and that life was completely useless. Not only that, but it wasn't about these kids donating things that had meaning to them, but instead it was about how they each forced someone to give up something that they could not live without, and then that person would go to the next, who would go to the next, ect. Not only that, but these young kids were forcing each other to give these things up, and they got more evil and more gruesome the further they got along. These kids were tormenting and torturing each other to try and help their friend who was bullying them, and as someone who can vividly remember my life and my classmates when I was in seventh and eighth grade, I know that we never would have even thought of doing the things these kids are doing to each other.

I had problems with believing some of these kids' thoughts and their motives, and what I found completely unbelievable was that not a single person told a parent, anyone outside of their class, and that they were all totally okay with what they were doing. I know that this book takes place in Europe in the relatively close past, and that I live in Canada and that things are very different over there, but I still can't believe that none of the parents found out, or got involved.
I found some of the characters to be a little childish, and that they all seemed to be very young minded for their age, and that may have affected what was going on in the story.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the writing style, and I did feel emotions for the characters. I was completely shocked during many parts of the book, and I feel that now, knowing what I know, that I may be able to enjoy the book better the second time, as I know that it is more of a gruesome story then the contemporary book that I was expecting.
Overall - ★★★.5☆☆

January 2016 Book Haul

At the end of every month, I usually have a massive (or at least a fairly large) list of all of the books I received and bought for myself during that month. This year, I really want to try and decrease (or at least put a fairly large dent into) my TBR pile. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to read waayyy more than I buy. I'm not on a book buying ban per se, I just want to buy much, much, MUCH less then I read every month.

With that in mind, I got two new books this month. The Queen of the Tearling I ordered in December and I got it in January, and I had a giftcard so I bought Seeker for myself this month.

Adult:

1. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Hardcover)

Young Adut

1. Seeker by Arwen Elys Dayton (Paperback)

January 2016 Wrap Up

Hello all! This year I really want to read at least 60 books, so that means I need to read at least 5 books a month. I'm SO glad to say that I was able to read, well, 5 books in the month of January!

I read:

• ★★★★.5☆ My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories
• ★★★★☆    Blankets by Craig Thompson
• ★★★★☆    Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• ★★★.5☆☆ Nothing by Janne Teller
• ★★★★☆    The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

I had started My True Love Gave to Me in 2015, and I finished it the first day of 2016, so it was technically my first read of the year. There were a few short stories in it that I didn't really enjoy, but I loved many more than I wasn't a fan of. The whole book was very winter-y and sweet, and I loved it. I have a full review here if you want to read my thoughts on each individual short story in the book.

I read a graphic novel, Blankets by Craig Thompson, as my second read of the month. The artwork in it was stunning, even though it was in black and white. It was the largest graphic novel that I have ever seen, being longer than 500 pages. I enjoyed the graphic novel, and I found that the characters were very memorable. I liked how the art was drawn, and how every square inch of paper was used, without any extra unneeded space taken or used. I gave the artwork, and the story, four stars each.

The third book I read this month was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I picked it up on a whim while on winter break, and I really enjoyed it. It was the first adult dystopian book I have ever read, and the difference between young adult dystopian and adult dystopian astounded me, but in a good way. I loved how the adult genre focusses more on the characters and what they go through then the world and how it got there. Seeing so many different characters' perspectives usually worried me and threw me off the book at the beginning of the story, but once I picked it up and really started reading it, I really enjoyed it. I have a full review here if you want to read more of my thoughts on this book.

The fourth book I read this month was Nothing by Janne Teller. I was really looking forward to this book, and sadly I found myself slightly disappointed by it. I was hoping for a relatively lighthearted book about a group of kids who try to help their friend find the meaning of life, and of everything in it, through things that are important to them. This book did have that, but instead of finding this book to be lighthearted and emotional, I found the children to be slightly disturbed and more concerned about getting back at each other for making them give up their worldly possessions then about their friend. In the synopsis of this book, it sounded like they were going to be very young children, and that their friend who couldn't find meaning in anything was very sad and depressed, but instead they were seventh and eighth graders, and their friend was making fun of them and laughing at them for believing that life has meaning. I honestly found this book to be very dark and heavy, which was nothing like what I was expecting, and I still don't really know if I am super happy or sad about that. I have a full review of Nothing that can be found here if you are interested in reading more of my thoughts on this book.

The fifth and final book I read this month was to start my challenge for myself for this year. I really want to read more classics, so I am trying to read at least one classic book a month, in order to diminish that TBR pile. This month, I ended up reading The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. I absolutely loved the movie adaptation of this book when I was little, so I had very high expectations for it reading it now, and I'm so happy to say that I loved it. I found the book to be very different from the movie, obviously, but I mean that in a good way. I really was able to see the characters in completely new perspectives, and see how they were originally imagined to be. I enjoyed the differences between the movie and the book, and it was a very short, enjoyable read to finish off the first month of the year.

Top Ten Tuesday (8): Adult Books I Need to Read in 2016

I have so, so many books I want to read this year, but some I want to read a lot (or a little) more then others. These are the top ten adult books I need to read in 2016:

1. Voyager by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander #3)
2. Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander #4)
3. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
4. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
5. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
6. The Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
7. You by Caroline Kepnes
8. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
9. The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
10. P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Title: Station Eleven

Author: Emily St. John Mandel

Genre: Dystopian

Pages: 333 (Paperback)

Publisher: Harper Collins Canada

Publication date: September 9th, 2014


Synopsis from Station Eleven's Goodreads page


An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.
One snowy night Arthur Leander, a famous actor, has a heart attack onstage during a production of King Lear. Jeevan Chaudhary, a paparazzo-turned-EMT, is in the audience and leaps to his aid. A child actress named Kirsten Raymonde watches in horror as Jeevan performs CPR, pumping Arthur's chest as the curtain drops, but Arthur is dead. That same night, as Jeevan walks home from the theater, a terrible flu begins to spread. Hospitals are flooded and Jeevan and his brother barricade themselves inside an apartment, watching out the window as cars clog the highways, gunshots ring out, and life disintegrates around them.
Fifteen years later, Kirsten is an actress with the Traveling Symphony. Together, this small troupe moves between the settlements of an altered world, performing Shakespeare and music for scattered communities of survivors. Written on their caravan, and tattooed on Kirsten's arm is a line from Star Trek: "Because survival is insufficient." But when they arrive in St. Deborah by the Water, they encounter a violent prophet who digs graves for anyone who dares to leave.
Spanning decades, moving back and forth in time, and vividly depicting life before and after the pandemic, this suspenseful, elegiac novel is rife with beauty. As Arthur falls in and out of love, as Jeevan watches the newscasters say their final good-byes, and as Kirsten finds herself caught in the crosshairs of the prophet, we see the strange twists of fate that connect them all. A novel of art, memory, and ambition, Station Eleven tells a story about the relationships that sustain us, the ephemeral nature of fame, and the beauty of the world as we know it.


I picked Station Eleven up on a whim, after seeing how many other bookstagrammers and book bloggers had loved it. I wasn't 100% into the idea of the book, because I'm a bit past the dystopian/end-of-the-world genre in books now, but I absolutely love all things Shakespeare, so I figured I would give it a go.
The first 150 or so pages of the book I found very slow, and I found it difficult to understand how everything connected to become the dystopian story that I had expected. I also found the alternating perspectives to be confusing, because it would alternate between quite a few different characters in each chapter, with no heading saying when it was switching perspectives. I have no problems with alternating perspectives, I just found that when it suddenly switches, without warning, between more than four completely different characters and time periods, that it gets slightly confusing it you aren't paying attention to every single word.
After the first 150 pages though, I found the story picked up quite a bit. I started enjoying and getting used to the alternating perspectives, and found the story to be very refreshing.
I really enjoyed how this story was more of a end-of-the-world story opposed to a dystopian. Dystopians, to me, are books that there has been a collapsed society and a new, crazy government has taken over with insane, strict rules, whereas an end-of-the-world book is just that the government has collapsed, and everyone just does what they want. I enjoyed how this story was more centered around survival and loss opposed to violence and world building. I found that it allowed the characters to grow more on their own, so the reader is able to see the differences in them, and how their new world and experiences have changed them as a person.
I found the characters to be refreshing, and each of them very different. There are a few characters that were minor that I had grown attached to and wish there was a bit more of them in the book, but I also enjoyed how some characters were moving in and out of the story the whole time.
I loved the setting of the story, being in Canada, because I have never read an end-of-the-world/dystopian book that takes place in Canada, which was refreshing and interesting to me.
If you want something a little different, or something that feels like a dystopian book without any of the government building or fighting you are used to, I highly recommend this book.
Overall - ★★★★☆

January 2016 TBR

I wasn't planning on making a TBR for the month, but I feel like I know exactly what books I plan on reading, so why not!

For the rest of the year, I may or may not be making a TBR list for each month, because I never seem to be following them...but we'll see what happens, and take it month by month.

In January, I plan on reading:

1. My True Love Gave to Me (Already read it - you can read my full review here)
2. Blankets by Craig Thompson
3. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
4. Nothing by Janne Teller

I'm planning on reading AT LEAST 5 books each month, so I'm leaving one spot open for any book that I just have a sudden desire to pick up. Hopefully I'll get all these read this month, which I feel like I can do. Hope everyone has a fantastic reading month!

Top Ten Tuesday (7): YA Books I Need to Read in 2016

Since it's a new year, with new goals and new books (and my first Top Ten Tuesday of the year! :)), I figured I should compile a list of the top ten YA books I need to read in 2016. I didn't get anywhere near as much reading done as I wanted to last year, so I have a lot to do this year.

The top ten young adult books I need to read in 2016 are:

1. Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare
2. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
3. The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater (The Raven Cycle #4)
4. Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
5. Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
6. The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
7. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir
8. Legend by Marie Lu
9. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers
10. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

There are so many amazing books coming out this year, and so many more that I was planning on reading  in 2015 but I just didn't have the time to read, so this year is the year to catch up! Hopefully, 2016 will be good to me!