Books With Taboo Topics | My Summer TBR

I cannot believe that this is my third blog post this week, it's crazy! I've been so busy with work and life in general that I've kind of forgotten about my blog and reviewing books. Does that make me a bad book blogger? It probably does, however, reviewing books doesn't pay my bills; my job does. Now this post is going to be about a few of the books I want to read this summer that deal with very taboo topics in YA. 2015 saw the introduction of books focusing more on mental illnesses which is great but I've slowly seen its decline again and I don't want it to be forgotten.

WHEN WE COLLIDED BY EMERY LORD

This book was massively talked about last year on Booktuber as its US publisher sponsored a lot of videos for it to be promoted in. However, I'm totally excited to read this one. It follows two characters Vivi and Jonah who are both lost souls in the world and when their world collides it creates fireworks. The book heavily deals with depression and grief, which I'm interested to see how Emery deals with it as I'm currently reading her 2017 release 'The Names They Gave Us' and I really love her writing style and views on faith.


ALLEGEDLY BY TIFFANY D. JACKSON

The story of a sixteen year old teenager, Mary B Addison is in prison and unexpectedly pregnant with the guy she's fallen in love with child. Mary B Addison allegedly murdered a 3 month old white baby when she was 9, except with this news of pregnancy Mary realises the truth needs to be finally told to stop the state from taking away her unborn child. Now I've never read anything like this in my life and I'm so excited to read something that's so taboo. I'm intrigued to see how the author will deal with the alleged murder and teenage pregnancy.


HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME BY ADAM SILVERA

Adam Silvera is a well loved author as his books tackle real life issues in a brilliant and realistic way. History is All You Left Me caught my attention before it released as it follows a gay guy named Griffin who struggles with OCD and it gets worse after the death of his first boyfriend/best friend. And despite his struggled feelings the only person who seems to understand him is Jackson, the boy he's supposed to hate. I'm just super excited to finally getting around to reading this book. I've heard it's beautiful and lyrical and really raw, honest.



What books are you looking forward to reading?
Let me know in the comments.

Review: All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Title: All The Bright Places
Author: Jennifer Niven
Genre: YA Contemporary / Mental Health
Publisher: Penguin Books UK
Published: January 8th 2015
Page Number: 388
Rating: 1/5

Summary:

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.

Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death.

When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the 'natural wonders' of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself - a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink.

REVIEW

All The Bright Places was described as 'Eleanor and Park' meets 'The Fault in Our Stars', which is problematic in itself. While I LOVE 'Eleanor and Park' I actually disliked 'The Fault in Our Stars' and saw so many problems with it, especially the romance. And to be compared to such huge, well known authors is a statement, a statement that I disagreed with.

I so badly wanted to enjoy this book, especially since it's about Mental Health but I couldn't help but feel disconnected from the characters and their offish personalities. I couldn't see Theodore and Violet as real people because they had no personality, instead they became their illness, walking zombies in the midst of life. And in some aspects I understand it, but I found myself hating them both.

Depression, self-harm and suicide is something I'm very well known with, in fact I'd say we were best friends at one point. I was so depressed back in 2013-2014 that I scarred my arms for life, tried to overdose on medication and also tried to hang myself. Twice. I was in a dark place with no hope of seeing light, and while I'm aware that no depression story is the same, I just felt like Jennifer created the characters for the sake of having a story with mentally ill characters.

And to be honest, All the Bright Places is just another over-hyped book that fails on anything original. Mental Illness is not a trend, it's a serious problem and I just wished Jennifer Niven could have given it a more realistic portrayal.

 

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🎧: 'We Won't by Jaymes Young & Phoebe Ryan