Book Review: The History Major – Michael Phillip Cash

A book with an interesting twist. This book was very short, you could potentially read the whole thing in one sitting, it covers quite a bit for being so short.

Here is the NetGalley summary:

***

After a vicious fight with her boyfriend followed by a night of heavy partying, college freshman Amanda Greene wakes up in her dorm room to find things are not the same as they were yesterday. She can’t quite put her finger on it. She’s sharing her room with a peculiar stranger. Amanda discovers she’s registered for classes she would never choose with people that are oddly familiar. An ominous shadow is stalking her. Uncomfortable memories are bubbling dangerously close to her fracturing world, propelling her to an inevitable collision between fantasy and reality. Is this the mother of all hangovers or is something bigger happening?

***

Amanda has a really interesting relationship with her boyfriend, and I think that relationship gives this story a frantic feeling. She desperately misses him the whole time and it clouds her vision of whats really going on around her, which makes the reader feel anxious.

I think this story would read a lot better if it was written in a different point of view. I think it would greatly increase the quality of this story if the point of view was first person rather than third person. It gives the story a really impersonal feeling and you just don’t have the proper connection with the characters. In some parts it was hard for me as a reader to feel invested in the Amanda’s well being.

While the story was pretty straight forward it does have a few twists and turns, but for the most part it’s pretty predictable. I feel like the historical aspect of this story wasn’t done in the most effective way. The flash backs didn’t seem to correlate with the main characters life until it was explained.

Another problem I had was that Amanda’s backstory was very typical for a book like this, it didn’t have the diversity I hoped for. I think the author played it too safe.

I would recommend this book to someone in their teens or older, because it does have some disturbing content. It wasn’t the best book I have ever read, but it was interesting and made me think.

3/5 On my rating scale because it made me think deeply and it sparked my curiosity.

Book Review: Wake The Hollow – Gaby Triana

This book was far from what I had expected.

It is, I guess, a Paranormal/Mystery/Young Adult book. It is about a high school girl named Mica who just lost her mother, and travels back to her mothers home to collect her belongings and unbeknownst to her uncover the secrets of Sleepy Hollow.

Here is the NetGalley description:

***

Tragedy has brought Micaela Burgos back to her hometown of Sleepy Hollow. It’s been six years since she chose to live with her affluent father in Miami instead of her history-obsessed eccentric mother. And now her mother is dead.

But while Sleepy Hollow was made immortal by literature, the town is real. So are its prejudices and hatred, targeting Mica’s Cuban family and the secrets of their heritage that her mother obsessed over. But ghostly voices whisper in the wind, questioning whether her mother’s death might not have been an accident after all, and Mica knows there’s a reason she’s here.

With the help of two very different guys—who pull at her heart in very different ways—Micaela must uncover the hidden secret of Sleepy Hollow…before she meets her mother’s fate.

***

This book had some details that I really enjoyed, it has historical facts, speculation, and does a really good job of analyzing and quoting Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow. It does a masterful job of capturing the essence of teenagers (which may have actually worked against the book in a way, I’ll explain further down) from the douchey Bram to the sterotypical teen girl who is Mica.

Other than that it doesn’t do much. It’s over ambitious, it has too much stuff going on in the background. Too many relationships, old friends, family friends, and pointless minor characters that cloud up the main plot. We jump around constantly and don’t fully understand what we’re searching for until we’re seventy five percent through the book.

Bram, Mica’s old friend and one of her love interests, is an ass, and one of the reasons I dislike this book. He seems to be so obsessed with her but then says crap like, “Which currently is in this stupid garden while HollowEve is going on, but whatever, no beef. I’m here for you. Let’s get this done.” He is always trying to ‘help’ and ‘prove’ himself but honestly he’s a jerk, and typical teenage boy who has other things to do, that are far more important.

The next thing I disliked about this was the childishness of the main character. She was very dependent on the men in her life. She constantly called her dad, even though he wouldn’t answer, she practically needed Bram to breathe, and Dane, her other interest, was constantly being brought up, even in front of Bram. She was too kid-like for my taste. Then during one of her many boring inner monologues she said, “Crud, crap, lies.” Trust me as a 20 year old who only very recently emerged from teenhood, I would not have said ‘crud’ or ‘crap’.

I had to force myself to read this book because I kept telling myself it would get better. Trust me it doesn’t, and the ending messes with you and leaves you feeling unsatisfied. It’s aimed for teens, but I feel like maybe a middle schooler would get more enjoyment from it.

2/5 Because I loved the knowledge of history and literature, the plot had potential, but it was too busy and some of the character aspects really bugged me.

 

Horror Story Chapter 4

It’s been a few months since I published the third chapter of this story. I put a lot of thought into it and did a lot of brainstorming deciding where I wanted things to go, I’m still a little unsure.

I’ve been struggling to come up with a title, if anyone has suggestions I’m definitely open. I feel like everything I come up with is uber cheesy.

In this chapter you get a lot more freaky encounters and you get a little more of Erick, in the coming chapters you will see a mixture of Erick and Hazel. I have decided that they will be taking bigger parts in this than I had originally planned.

Without further ado here is chapter-4

As always leave in feedback or suggestions in the comments below ▼▼▼