Wake Up Missing by Kate Messner

My rating: 3/5 stars

When Cat falls out of a treehouse, she suffers a serious concussion which lands her in the most advanced brain treatment centre in the country. There, she meets four other kids: Ben, Quentin, Sarah and Trent.

Soon after arriving at the centre, Cat becomes suspicious of the doctors and the treatments being facilitated. She confides in the other kids and they then discover they are subjects in an elaborate science experiment that would prevent them from ever returning to their normal lives.

Scared, confused & worried no one would believe them – the youngsters are determined to escape & tell their stories.

This was a nice, quick and easy read. I think I also enjoyed it because it reminded me of my pre-teen self who was super into books about kids solving mysteries e.g The Nancy Drew & The Famous Five series.

 

Educated by Tara Westover

My rating: 5/5 stars

“You are not fool’s gold, shining only under a particular light. Whomever you become, whatever you make yourself into, that is who you always were. It was always in you.” 

This is probably the most inspiring book I’ve read in a little while. Over the last year and half, I’ve really grown to love memoirs & this one was gripping from the start.

I think it’s so easy to get caught up in our own lives that sometimes it’s hard for us to truly conceive the idea that there are people out there living completely different lives from us. People whose perception of reality could be completely warped.

Memoirs like this remind me of how interesting life is. I mean, just think about your life and how all consuming it is – to you, and the scale of it & then try to amplify that feeling by 7.5 billion. You can’t. Your brain just can’t fathom all of that. Which is even more fascinating to me because it just shows that there are many stories out there, so many versions of life being lived right now, that we’ll never get to experience, that we could never even envision. But through memoirs, & people like Tara, we get to have a glimpse at someone else’s journey, someone else’s pain, someone else’s dreams.

I’m not really going to summarize Tara’s story because 1) my words simply won’t do it any justice & 2) I think the synopsis already does a good job of that

If anything, I hope Tara’s story reminds you that nothing in this world is too great to accomplish. No obstacle too big to knock down. No dream too far out of reach.

 

All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin

My rating: 5/5 stars

Sometimes fictional books do a shitty job of portraying serious issues. Usually in the form of over romanticizing or downplaying. But Giffin did such a phenomenal job addressing the reality of ‘rape culture’, the consequences or lack thereof, the implications it can have on all parties involved, the unfairness, judgement, backlash etc.

Reading this book was a roller coaster of emotions: what to believe, who to believe. I felt deceived, irritated, angry, impatient, hopeful…Everything was spot on. The characters were so interesting and had so much depth. I didn’t want it to end!!

 

Emma in the Night by Emily Walker

My rating: 3.5/5 stars

“It’s so easy to think that we are important and that the things that happen to us are important. But the truth is, we are so small, so insignificant in the scope of even just our solar system, which is itself meaningless in the scope of the Universe. The truth is, nothing really matters unless we decide it matters.” 

Three years ago, two sisters, Emma and Cass disappear from their home. All efforts to find them are unsuccessful. Then Cass shows up out of the blue, on the front steps of her home and warns everyone that they need to find Emma. As Cass recounts the events of the last 3 years to authorities and her family, a new search begins, but the results are not what you would expect.

This story is told from the point of view of Cass and Dr. Winter (who is one one of the leads on the investigation). There is almost a new revelation at the end of each chapter. If you love thrillers/suspense, I think this would be a good book to add to your reading list.

 

Paper Girls Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan

My rating: 3.5/5 stars

Great art work. Mystery. Time travel. Stranger Things vibes. & that cliff hanger definitely makes me want to continue on to Vol. 2.

I hope we get more of a back story on each of the girls because we really didn’t get any of that in this volume.