- 43 - Girl Online

Author:

Zoe Sugg aka ‘Zoella’

Published:

November 2014

Genre:

Romance, Novel, Young Adult

352 pages [English Edition]

499 pages [German Edition]

I know that 'St Nicolas' Day' isn't celebrated in every country or region... buuuut nontheless... Happy Nicholas to all of you! 🎅🤶🎄

Eat tons of mandarins and nuts and have a very good day, I will do the same! <3

Content

Penny Porter runs a secret Blog on the internet. 

‘Girl Online’ is a place for her to share all her feelings, fears and awkward things that happen to her with her followers that she is too afraid to talk about in real-life. The only one to know about her blog is her best friend Elliot.

When being in New York with her parents and Elliot for Christmas, Penny meets the mysterious, dark-haired, guitar-playing and extremely attractive Noah. Soon, the two teenagers fall in love with each other.

All Penny can think about is if and how they are going to keep up their relationship when she has to return home to far-far-away Great-Britain.

But then, a shocking secret about Noah is revealed.

Will the love of the two teens be strong enough to overcome these rough times, or will it break before it even really started?!

My Review

Because this is going to be a post that is a bit shorter, I am directly going to come to the thing I liked best about this book and that made it very special to me: The main character Penny suffers from anxiety and panic attacks.

The episodes she is having are described in a very good way that makes you as the reader understand how it really feels like having a panic attack. This was especially interesting and helpful to me, because for the last one and a half months my sister is suffering from similar attacks and I don’t really know how to deal with that… :o

Mental health is a topic that definitely needs to be talked about more openly in public. People need to be sensitized for mental health! Starting with slowly showing this to teens in the context of such a lovely romance-story is a very good way to start with I think.

The next thing I want to write about is the general atmosphere that is being created in ‘Girl Online’.

It is a very sweet, fluffy, pink and happy novel. –It all was a bit ‘too perfect’ to me!

It is not like nothing bad happened at all, but the whole plot still is very smooth and positive. The ‘bad guys’ are 100% evil and disgusting persons and the ‘good guys’ are too good to be alive, honestly! In real live, no one can be sorted in the ‘good’ or the ‘bad’ drawer that easily because everyone unites a bit of both in himself…

… BUT! I probably am not the reader this book has been targeted to! 

For teenagers this book might be perfect and exactly what they need to understand the world and themselves a bit better, but for ‘adults’ [like me *cough*] maybe not.

Despite the fact that ‘Girl Online’ addresses some serious topics like anxiety, panic attack, bullying and safety on the internet, it still manages to keep a very warming and positive atmosphere.

Recommendation and Stuff

All in all I can say that ‘Girl Online’ is a very cute book that I enjoyed reading a lot! 

I definitely am going to read and review the second book as well, so strap yourself in for that exciting sequel to this amazing post. xDD

I would still only recommend you to read this book if you are a teenager, or an adult on the hunt for a really cute book to heal your soul. Maybe you could give this book to your little brother or sister and then read it yourself later [I kind of did the same thing with my sister xDDD].

The very last thing I want to write about here is a thing that I found online while trying to find out, whether this book was autobiographical or not [because Zoe also has to deal with panic attacks]. What I found instead were an awful high amount of websites that claimed that ‘Girl Online’ was ghost-written and that Zoe only put her name on it in order to make money.

I don’t want to make any suggestions or start drama here. I just wanted to let you know in case this would be a reason for you not to buy this book. 

I personally don’t think that she did it, but as always, feel free to have your own opinion and maybe even share it down in the comments. :D

Thanks for reading this review,

Hopefully see you soon.

leonie

=^-^=

G E R M A N   C O V E R

- 42 - Mirror Mirror

Author:

Cara Delevingne

Published:

October 2017

Genre:

Novel, Teen Drama, Crime

368 pages [English Edition]

368 pages [German Edition]

The author of this book is the actress of Laureline in ‘Valerian’. Maybe she already seems familiar to you because I massively fangirled over her at the end of my post about this film… xD

Content

This book is about the four teenagers Red, Leo, Rose and Naomi.

All of them are very different and all have different problems in their lives: One has an alcoholic mother and an absent father, another one a violent and criminal brother and the last one dumps boy after boy in order to numb a supressed pain from the past.

What unites all of them and ties them together is the band they all play in together!

At the beginning of the summer Naomi vanishes. Eight weeks later she is found barely alive in the Thames. While she is fighting for her live in hospital, her friends try to find out what exactly happened to her.

 Could it be that the police are right and Naomi ran away from home herself- and the friends simply didn’t pay enough attention to her and missed some important warning-signs?

Or is something much darker behind it all?!

The only certain thing is that at the end of this journey none of the friends is going to be the same as he was before, because...

"

Once a mirror is broken, it can’t be repaired

"

My Review

Literally the only reason for me to buy this book was the woman that wrote it. xD

Maybe [Hopefully!?] you will have some more rational reasons for and against buying this book after having read this review. xDD

To begin with, I want to talk about this book’s language:

It is a bit vulgar; nothing extremely beautiful or with extraordinarily high literal finesse,

BUT, it suits this book and its narrator so well!

‘Mirror Mirror’ is written out of the perspective of ‘Red’ one of the band’s members. He is telling the reader what happens in all honesty and without minding how he says it; which I hail a lot.

This leads me to the next aspect I want to talk about: ‘Mirror Mirrror’s’ narrator

He is very quit, shy, hard with opening up to others and loyal to the ones he loves. He seemed very likeable and relatable from the very beginning. 

With the ongoing of the book something is revealed about ‘Red’ that I would never have expected. 

I can’t tell you what exactly happens without spoiling you, which I obviously am not going to do… BUT this secret showed me once more, that I still am stuck in the schema based on which society judges people by.

I really do believe that people should be free to wear / do / say / think / ... no matter what gender / religion / sexuality / … they have. Nonetheless, it is very hard not to consider all the stereotypes you grew up with and have been confronted for your entire life at all… I [and maybe you too?! <3] really need to work on that harder in the future!

I have come to realize that half of my reviews is consumed by me ranting about random topics and telling you my opinion without having been asked!

I am going to continue with the review now and I really need to work on that for future reviews: xD

The ending of ‘Mirror Mirror’ was a bit silly and predictable, BUT *as I see it* the strength of this book isn’t its outstanding plot or its amazing language. What makes it special and definitely worth reading is the message it and its characters are sending and showing to the reader.

I see this book as an homage to friendship and love, but also as a reminder to the reader that everyone fights his own fights maybe no one, not ever ones closest friends, know about. Identity Struggles, individuality and the painful truth of growing up also are being discussed.

Recommendation and Stuff

I would recommend you to read this book if you search for a book that is a bit ‘lighter’; maybe something for in between reading two very thick and heavy weighty tomes. :3

Despite the important and serious values it talks about, ‘Mirror Mirror’ is not a depressive, sad book that makes you feel bad and horrible. It probably will make you think and question stuff a bit; but in a good and positive way.

I really enjoyed reading Cara Delevinge’s book and I hope for a second one.

I still think that that actress / model / author is a bomb of a woman and I definitively am going to follow her ‘career’ in the future because I think that we have a lot of awesome stuff to expect from her! :D

Thanks for reading this review,

Hugs,

leonie

G E R M A N   C O V E R
[THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO COVERS; I KNOW xDD]

- 41 - Stranger Things [Season 2]

Actors you might know:

*literally all the actors from the first season*

*but apart from that, I didn’t know anyone*

Published:

2017

Genre:

Series, Mystery, Sci-Fi

Episodes:

9

Episode duration:

40-60 min

This is the review of the second season of this show. If you are interested, feel free to read my review of the previous season first. It is linked HERE. xD

I was and still am hyped about this show!

It is so incredibly good that I had to binge-watch it even though I don’t normally do that. :3

Content

The second season is set one year after the last one ended. [Again, if you are interested in its summary, click HERE to be transferred to the one I wrote.]

The four friends Mike, Lucas, Dustin and Will try to live a normal live and to forget the horrible happenings of last year.

The boys however are reminded of it more often than they would like to be. Will regularly is shook by mysterious panic attacks where he finds himself in the upside-down facing a horrible creature all on his own and Mike is still missing his friend ‘eleven’ so badly, that he tries to call her every night on his walkie-talkie.

Soon, Will’s panic attacks are getting more frequent and mysterious things start happening in the boy’s hometown Hawkins again.

Might Will’s visions of a gigantic monster attacking the town be true? Will they be able to defend themselves against such a powerful opponent?

And, even more important, where the heck is ‘eleven’?!

My Review

I had very high expectations ON and a very big fear OF this second season not being as good as the first one. My expectations were more than fulfilled and my fears were smashed into tiny, little pieces.

First of all [this always is very important to me], this season does not seem to only be made for the money; it seems to be made because it makes sense for the plot. I actually really enjoyed it from the very beginning.

In my first season’s review I talked about the lovely and adorable characters of this show for an inacceptable big amount of time. That’s why I am going to keep this part as short as possible in this review. xD

The main and the side characters still are as amazing as they were in the first season. They all grew up a bit and are different from how they were a year ago, BUT the change they went though is realistic; not too much and not too little.

Some new characters are added to the already known ones from first season.

I was very suspicious and uncertain when I first hear about this, but now I can say, that these new characters fit in really well and that I didn’t mind them at all.

The plot of ‘Stranger Things – Season 2’ is very good: thrilling, exciting, addicting, …

For me, it was just as good, maybe even slightly better than the first one’s! :D

A thing that I need to mention at least on a quick note is the fact, that of course ‘Stranger Things’ is a bit scary from time to time. It is nothing that can’t be endured, believe me, but if you can’t stand creepy stuff on any level, this series probably isn’t the right thing for you… [Nothing to worry about, there are countless series that might be the right thing for you <3]

The ending is very good.

I have to admit that I cried several times during the last episodes. Not necessarily because it is a sad and horrible ending, but more because it was so moving and overwhelming.

Recommendation & Stuff

I would definitely recommend you to watch this series if you search for:
a bit suspense, adorable characters, incredibly good actors, supernatural abilities and a bit of drama and romance. 

It would probably be better to watch the first season first, but if you don’t want to do so, you could also start with this one, I guess. 

A third season already is confirmed.

The release date is not out yet, but I would guess that is going to be a bit more than a year again.

👾-> More than enough time for YOU to watch the first two seasons! 👾

Some time ago, I renamed this part of my reviews to ‘Recommendation AND STUFF’.

I now, am going to make use of the ‘and stuff’-part. xD

There currently is a little bit of an online storm around Finn Wolfhard, the actor of Mike. Apparently, some fans waited outside of his hotel for him to return. When he saw them, he didn’t stop to take pictures with them, but he immediately went to his room.

These fans then wrote hate messages to him on social media later. He himself and a lot of other actors reacted to this hate by saying, that everyone needs some privacy from time to time and only the fact that you are an actor doesn’t make you having to spend time with your fans all the time.

Hey everybody! I don't wanna ex-communicate anyone from this fandom, but if you are for real you will not harass my friends, or co-workers. Ya'll know who you are.

— Finn Wolfhard (@FinnSkata) 8. November 2017

I just wanted to use this example as a reminder to all of us, that we need to respect people’s privacy; Also, or especially when, people are famous and decide to share a lot of their lives online with us. NOONE has the right to camp outside of the hotel room of a 14 year-old and then expect him to take pictures with you.

Why I even have to tweet that, I don't know. Anyone who calls themselves a "fan" and actively goes after someone for literally acting and doing their job is ridiculous. Think b4 ya type boiiii

— Finn Wolfhard (@FinnSkata) 8. November 2017

Sorry for this off-topic-rant, but I needed to get this off my chest. xDD

The internet is a very lovely place that I really like going to, but it also has its negative sides that we, as its users, should be more aware of…

If you want a save place to go to on the internet without hate and drama, I will tell you secret one :

There is a certain blog talking about books and series and stuff…

… it is called 'lelo.loves.books' and it is run by an extremely attractive and professional blogger… not...

WoW, I am sorry for that, I don’t know where that came from. I understand every single one of you who leaves and never returns after this disgusting self-promotion. xDDDD

Anyways, thanks for being here and maybe returning soon.

Virtual hugs,

Leonie

=^.^=