HEART-SHAPED BRUISE BY TANYA BYRNE

Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

Another book I just absolutely loved. I hadn't picked out this book myself, it was recommended to me by someone and I was unsure I would like it. But as soon as I read the first few pages I knew it had me hooked.

Emily Koll is in a young offenders unit awaiting her trial for her crimes. You don't immediately find out her crimes, only that everyone thinks she is evil, including the newspapers and media letting you know that it was clearly a horrible crime to be in the public eye.

It is written in the form of a journal from Emily's point of view as she talks you through what is going on in the young offenders unit whilst merging in her memories of what built up to her ending up there. Emily's father is a criminal and when he goes to kill a man he is caught unawares by the man's daughter Juliet who in turn stabs him resulting in him being caught and sent to prison.
Emily blames Juliet for not only her father being sent to prison but for the illusion that he is just a normal father being shattered by her actions.

We follow Emily's story of how she slowly builds up to her revenge on Juliet and what landed her in custody.   I love the way little bits are revealed at a time making it hard to second guess exactly what is going to happen. (I hate when I can predict every little story line, but this one kept me guessing.)
I can't help but like Emily's character and understand exactly what she's doing when she's doing it. She is likeable and I can't help but side with her on somethings. This does not mean I condone what she has done it just makes you think there are two sides to every story. Although because I like her so much it is so hard to read at times when she makes wrong decisions and jeopardizing herself even though you know its already happened.
In order to get her revenge Emily becomes Rose which allows her to become a totally different person for her purpose. I think everyone at some point in their lives have wished they could become someone else even just for a little while and in doing so it did allow her to be happier and freer. But because of where Emily is writing the journal from you know that it didn't allow her to get on with her life happily.

There is an element of love interest but not your loving stares across a classroom all the time and no substance story line. It only comes in half way through the book allowing you to get to know the characters themselves rather than just how they fall hopelessly in love.

The ending left me hanging a little bit because I had to come to my own conclusion about what happened but it definitely got me thinking for days afterwards about what had happened to her.

I would recommend this book to anyone and I did in fact do so. I told them to just a little bit to see if they liked it and lo and  behold just like me; once they started they couldn't stop.

WITHER by Lauren DeStefano

WITHER by Lauren DeStefano

I read this book quite a while ago but it still remains one of my favourites. This book is set in a future where girls only live to age 20 and boys to age 25. This is a result of scientists creating the perfect human race free of all disease and illness, but they are now trying to correct the short life span. The cities are overrun with orphans and girls keep going missing.

16 year old Rhine Ellery is abducted by the Gatherers and sold into becoming a bride to Linden to replace his dying wife, along with two other young girls who become her sister brides.  The book follows Rhine and her desperate attempts to escape that life and get back to her twin brother, with the help of a servant named Gabriel.

I love Rhine’s character because unlike some other YA heroines she doesn’t immediately fall desperately in love with the main male character and it makes it more realistic. I think her character is well developed and her relationship with her sister brides is built slowly and based on their experiences together rather than just blind friendship because the main character needs someone to communicate with. I like the way she is objective and doesn’t hate Linden just because he is the one she is forced to be married to. She comes to her own conclusion about him and is really sympathetic towards him because she can see things from his perspective too. She understands everyone’s suffering around her, not just her own.

Her relationship with Gabriel is built up over time and they don’t immediately jump into anything and his character is not an overshadowing hero to her heroine, which makes it more realistic.

I think the world in the book is created in such a way that it seems so real and you believe that it could really happen. She could have gone down a completely different route with the idea of kidnapping young girls to marry them off to have children and I think she has made it into an amazing story of a strong young woman who has her own mind rather than focusing on that factor. I also liked the small flashbacks in it which explain her life before the abduction and life before the genetic engineering changed the world, which helps to understand why Rhine is the way she is and why she makes the decisions she does.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys YA books, especially those who enjoy dystopian novels. I think it’s different to any book I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters are well developed and I found myself really caring about what happened to the other characters not just Rhine. Also the world around them is described well and you have a complete picture of what is going on and why it all happened.