Stay Home Reading Rush

The Stay Home Reading Rush

APRIL 16TH-19TH, 2020

(Message from hosts) We are running this event to encourage people to stay home and to have some bookish fun together as a community! Our website is still under construction preparing for our full event this summer (join us July 22nd-July 28th, 2020!) but there are still a bunch of things for us to do together!

Reading Rush Website: https://thereadingrush.com/

Stay At Home Reading Rush: https://thereadingrush.com/stayhome

TBR

**subject to change**

- Dear Sweet Pea - Julie Murphy

- When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi

- The Paris Hours - Alex George

- You are Awesome - Neil Pasricha

I do plan on participating in the photo challenges on my instagram stories! @jj_melody

The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It's been a few days since I finished this book and I am still angry with myself for not reading this when I was younger. It was incredible, and not just incredible for the target audience (middle grade/young adult) but for all ages. I've read a few middle grades and one of my main complaints is how while I enjoyed the plot, everything just felt immature and too young for me (which I then go onto explain that it is my fault for reading something that I'm not the target audience for), but that wasn't the case for this book in the slightest! It didn't feel to young or immature. It felt like a typical book I would pick up. Except it was so good!

There were a few reasons to why I finally decided to give this a try, the first being one of my closest friends recommended it to me last year when I first got back into reading it again; my response was along the lines of "I'm not sure that'll really be my thing" well past self, you were wrong. The second was for The Nostalgia Book Club (twitter)! It was Chanelle that made me interested in picking this book up again recently, so I'm very thankful for her!

Okay. Why I totally, completely, absolutely adored this book. First, the characters. I loved Percy and Grover and Annabeth, plus some of the Gods and other side characters! They were all memorable and I want to credit that to Riordan's writing, he knew exactly how to create each character (even those that already existed!). He gave them their quirks and their personalities and I just fell in love. The trio clicked well together, even when it seemed like they didn't, throughout the quest. I also just wanna say I love that Grover is part goat.

Speaking of the quest, that was the next part of the book I really enjoyed. Considering the quest was most of the foundation for the plot, I'm glad I ended up enjoying it! In my personal opinion, more books need to have quests. Or I need to find books that have quests, because they make both the characters and the readers journey throughout the book much more entertaining. There is always twists and turns throughout the quest and this book was not an exception. I did not see the many plot twists coming throughout the book. Riordan, again, wrote these very well and his creativity was brilliant. The idea of this quest too was very unique, that Zeus had his lightning bolt stolen, like dang.

Another thing I liked was how Riordan combined parts of the real world, with aspects of mythology. Mythology has always been something that has captured my interest and this fiction story with mythologic elements was the perfect fix I didn't know I needed. This book starts with Percy at a boarding school, very normal. Throughout the book, on his quest, Percy travels through various cities throughout the United States, two that I've actually been to! The scene in St. Louis was especially captivating to me because

1. I've been to St. Louis

2. I've been inside the arch and know the surroundings of it pretty well

It was crazy to imagine that part of the story happening at a place I've been before, but it's also really cool!

Another thing that made this book enjoyable for me was the narrator of the audiobook. Jesse Bernstein really knew how to voice these characters to encapsulate their entire essences and personalities. It just added this whole layer to the experience and I am so glad I ended up picking this up in an audio format.

I now feel like I need to binge read this entire series along with all of Riordan's other books.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox - Mary E. Pearson

Rated: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½

This has taken me a while to write because 1. I completely forgot about it and 2. Because online college has turned my brain into complete mush. My routine has been royally messed up.

But I have finished a book this month! (On track to hopefully finish two more). I listened to this on audio from Scribd and it was okay. There were parts of it that had me captured, like the parts with the science and Jenna hearing voices in her head, accidents, weird coincidences and the end. That sounds like a lot right? No. Most of this book was just filler it felt like. Unnecessary scenes with characters I felt didn't have an impact on the story. Jenna going to school felt especially unnecessary. In my opinion there were other ways to have incorporated Ethan and Alice into Jenna's lives. Everything else about the school was just boring to me. I know it was supposed to be the transition about Jenna slowly figuring things out about herself and her life, but the transition didn't feel like it fit with the story. It felt too normal for such an abnormal story. I would've liked to have felt more connected to Jenna's overall journey throughout this book, but her going to school (which felt like a majority of the story) took over what could've been more development in her character and the science that plays a role. I guess I'm just disappointed in the direction the author took this book. However, I thought the ending was good, (SPOILER) (before and after the time jump), fit well with the course I wanted for this story and was a good introduction for the next book. Which I will read.. but I'm unsure when. I wasn't captivated enough to pick it up right away.

Okay things I did like about this, I liked the character interactions! I felt that the relationships started from zero and built up as Jenna progressed. I like that she ended up being close with Lily again, and that why their relationship was strained was explained to the reader. I liked how Jenna's relationship with her parents was in uncharted waters, and that her parents were unsure of what to do about it.

I liked the secrecy. I felt like that plays a part in the uncharted waters aspect because her parents kept huge things from her (as well as the reader). So when Jenna found out about things, we found out about them too, and we were just as surprised as she was. It made me feel a bit closer to Jenna as a character.

Going off of that, I really liked the science that was involved in this story. That while Jenna's dad is this high up bio-something guy, his role as a parent comes first to him. He brought a whole new aspect of science to the world inside this book!

I didn't like how immature Jenna felt as a character. I understand that she has woken up and literally remembers nothing, but she is 17, and a person that old doesn't act and speak like such a child. That was something that was continually an issue for me, as I felt it didn't get any better until the very, very end of the book.

I felt like the "romance" was kinda weird and unnecessary to the plot and direction of the story. Ethan kissed her a few times. Stuck up for her, but only kind of? And was way too invested in Jenna's problems for his own good. That was kind of all we got from Ethan. He played no significant role, he was just kind of there. Until the end when they described his true, overall purpose of being Jenna's romantic interest.

So while I did enjoy parts of this, it was mostly just okay.