I'll never look at pickles the same way again

One of the drawbacks of reading so many books is that I have extremely high standards since I've read some truly excellent pieces of literature...and also some major duds. I say all of this because I read We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 2 years ago and so I know she has the capability to write amazing young adult fiction. I chose Fly on the Wall specifically because the review that I heard on BookTube led me to believe that it was a retelling of Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and because I had enjoyed Lockhart's previous book. What I didn't expect was for it to be chock full of really explicit sexual content. Why on earth did she have to describe penises in such revealing detail? And why did she keep referring to them as gherkins?! (And if I ever hear someone call them that or refer to breasts as biscuits I'm going to slap them across the face.) The main character and the person who we view the story from is named Gretchen Yee and she is the prototypical teenage girl filled with angst. She attends a high school that focuses on the arts and her specialty is drawing comic book style characters (hence the cover imagery). Her obsession with a boy in her school leads her to make a foolhardy wish to be a fly on the wall of the boys locker room so that she can find out how he really thinks about her. (And this is where she begins to ogle the boys as they undress for gym class.)  I guess the story is supposed to be a character study or a revelation that what we think we know about people can be turned on its head if we see them at their most vulnerable. However, for me it was a letdown and vaguely nauseating. This was a 0/10 for me and I'll have to give serious thought to reading anything else from this author in the future.

PS There were also a lot of plot holes in the storyline and the ending truly fell flat.

A/N: Thanks for coming back after the longest break (3 weeks!) I've ever taken off from blogging. Your readership means a lot to me!

Source: Amazon

What's Up Next: The Murderer's Ape by Jakob Wegelius

What I'm Currently Reading: The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **

Privileged youths enjoy summer OR Angst, angst, ANGST

I kept hearing about We Were Liars by E. Lockhart from the various book reviewers on YouTube that I obsessively follow so I finally caved and checked it out from the library. I'm very glad that I did. It was marketed as a young adult novel with a twist ending so shocking that you'd feel compelled to lie about it to all of your friends (after enthusiastically recommending it to them). I'd have to agree with that. (Note: I'm not usually the type of person that can suss out the ending of a book or film from clues at the beginning.) It wasn't until page 196 (out of 225 pages) that I figured out the big WHOA moment (and lost my mind completely). The book focuses on a group of teenagers who are living the kind of privileged life that you only see in books and films. They spend their summers on a little island owned by their grandfather. (I must point out one of the main characters is just a friend who is lucky enough to be included. This is important to the plot.) We are seeing everything through the eyes of Cadence who is the oldest of the grandchildren and the story starts when she is 17. However, the narrative keeps folding back upon itself to the summer when they were all fifteen. I found it somewhat difficult living inside of her head as she wasn't the most likable character...those were few and far between actually. The world that they inhabit is bizarrely fantastical but the storyline is believable. That strange dichotomy is what makes this book so excellent. I found myself turning the pages hoping that the unreality would somehow resolve itself into something understandable. My biggest issue was that the ending was rather abrupt and I feel it didn't do justice to the rest of the book. BUT if you're looking for drama x1000 with a super surprise ending then you can't go wrong with We Were Liars.


**If you're interested in buying this book or any books really, you can click here or here. The first will re-direct you to AbeBooks and the second will re-direct you to The Book Depository. These are great websites for purchasing books (AbeBooks carries inexpensive used and out-of-print books and The Book Depository ships free everywhere in the world). Full disclosure: I will receive a commission on all sales made by following either of these links. I wouldn't recommend a site that I didn't use and you are under no obligation to purchase anything. :-) **