Fiction Fortnight | The Giver by Lois Lowry

I'd been curious about The Giver for a long while, ever since I started booktube over two years ago in fact. I'm a huge fan of dytopian fiction and with this being one of the first books written for the genre I knew that I needed to read it. After spending months with it being sat in my Amazon basket it was the news that the book was being made into a movie that spurred me on to buy it. 

It's taken me weeks from finishing the book to try to put my words down on paper so to speka as I'm not really sure on how I feel about it. The Giver is one of the most talked about books for a reason after all. 

For me it's a great dystopiana and a wonderful story which is extremely thought provoking, but one scene let me down. As a new mother this one scene broke my heart and still to this day I cannot utter the words to decribe what happen out loud. The images it brough up brings chills to my body and force me to hold my son closer than I've ever held him before. We struggled to become parents, granted not as much as some, but we still struggled non the less and the way in which this society treat human life has scarred me. This one scene has clouded my judgement in regards to this whole book. I remember enjoying The Giver wholeheartedly but now every time I think of it I only ever think of that one scene. 

I feel terrible that I cannot give a full review or even decribe my feelings but what I can do is warn other mothers away from it. I do actually wish that I had never read The Giver as I can never not read it again. I've actually told my Mum not to read it which is something I never do. Anyone who's followed my youtube channel will know that I always encourage people to read the books that I didn't enjoy but this time I just cannot do it. 

If you've read The Giver I would love to know what you thought. 

    

Fiction Fortnight | Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

I'd been rather curious about Rainbow Rowell's work since news of her books exploded all over BookTube and have wanted to get my hands on one ever since. Though I'm a huge fan of Young Adult fiction I picked up her adult novel Attachments first as I was intrigued by the concept and boy I was not disappointed.

Attachments is a clever, witty and addictive read following Lincoln who monitors work based emails for a living. One day the computer's security system flags up a series of emails between Jennifer and Beth which contains anything but work related information. Though Lincoln should report the emails he instead gets drawn in and their witty banter quickly becomes part of his every day routine. 

Jennifer and Beth's daily conversations had me laughing from page one. Their own personal stories were so normal but so completely intriguing. Their friendship was so warm and comforting but also at times, hilariously blunt. What I found interesting upon refection was that this book is only written from one perspective, Lincoln's. Jennifer and Beth's stories weren't being told by them, but were in fact told only through Lincoln reading their emails. Though this may be blatantly obvious to some, for me I was so wrapped up in the story that it was hard for me to withdraw myself long enough to notice. Relating to why Lincoln had become so engrossed into the pairs lives were so easy because the same had happened to me.

Lincoln's character was loveable but for reasons unknown. Yes he was a likeable character but still one that if you met you would only say hi to. He still lived a home, with his mother still packing his lunch for work and he still played board games with his now married friends at the weekend. Your expectations for this character were pretty low, which is why I guess falling in love with him crept up on you. 

Now the first half of this book was pretty slow with a  lot of character development. But what I found strange was that though it felt slow I could not put it down. Then midway through we hit a turning point where I fell head over heels in love with it. I remember turning to my husband saying, "this book just got adorable." From here on out the pacing was fast, though I am still unsure as to whether this was due to the plot or the characters, but either way I didn't want to stop reading. 

I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I wish that I could have given it 5 but unfortunately the pacing of the first half was an issue for me, and though I wouldn't know what to change to speed it up, it's just not something that I can get over. 

Overall Attachments is such an enjoyable read. If you like contemporary with witty characters and posses the attributes of an hopeless romantic then this is the book for you.