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(ARC) REVIEW | Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts

September 16, 2013 Comment : 1

Tumble & Fall by Alexandra Coutts
September 17, 2013
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

A novel about the end of days full of surprising beginnings

The world is living in the shadow of oncoming disaster. An asteroid is set to strike the earth in just one week’s time; catastrophe is unavoidable. The question isn’t how to save the world—the question is, what to do with the time that’s left? Against this stark backdrop, three island teens wrestle with intertwining stories of love, friendship and family—all with the ultimate stakes at hand.

Alexandra Coutts’s Tumble & Fall is a powerful story of courage, love, and hope at the end of the world.

First sentence: “The day she gets out, it feels like the end.”

Oh, cover of Tumble & Fall, how you have misled me. You would think I wouldn’t judge a book by its cover, right? WRONG.

You might think this book is strictly about the apocalypse, but it’s not; it’s more contemporary with an apocalyptic backdrop, dealing with relatable issues like family, death, and absent parents. Tumble & Fall follows three characters – Sienna, Zan, and Caden – as they continue with their daily lives while they wait for the asteroid, Persephone, to hit Earth. Sienna has just been released from rehab due to her depression and has to adjust to life on the outside. Zan mourns the death of her boyfriend, Leo, and goes on a scavenger hunt to find out what he was doing in his last moments. Caden deals with his alcoholic mother and an absent father who kidnaps him, which I can only describe as a bizarre mess.

I wanted to like Tumble & Fall. I really did, but this book was sooo goddamn boring. Reading it was like waiting for the impending doom to arrive. I wanted the end to come, so I didn’t have to force myself to trudge through the nonsense (maybe that was the point of the book?). The story was very slow and dull because of the lack of plot. It was very much “a day in the life of these characters” with an added bonus of the world ending. Yes, “a day in the life” stories can be done well, but I struggled hard to connect with this book, especially why the author decided to use an apocalypse as a backdrop since it didn’t really change the way any of the characters dealt with their issues.

Besides the plot, I didn’t connect with the story because I found the characters and their situations to be unlikeable and unrealistic. They felt one-dimensional. I didn’t feel like I knew them enough to understand their actions. Their stories lacked a connection to each other, which was fine, but I felt that it was too disjointed, especially when it came to Caden’s POV. I was extremely turned off by the instalove that occurred in Sienna’s POV. (I kept thinking, “Ummm, honey, I know the world is ending, but you have known this guy for FOUR DAYS. FOUR. FUCKING. DAYS. Just think about it for sec.” You can just imagine the look of disgust on my face when I read that part. Eww.) The only problem with Zan’s POV was that I didn’t care for her “epic love” with Leo. I didn’t understand why I should care. Caden’s POV was extremely different to Sienna’s and Zan’s POVs. Everything in his part was…how should I say…comical? (I’m sure it was unintended.) It was like a messed up circus. So many absurd things occurred during his POV that I was left with a big fat WTF??? over my head. His situation felt extremely exaggerated, so I was so close to dismissing the entirety of his POV.

I like that Tumble & Fall is very much an examination of what people do when they know the end is near. Do they run around the cities, stealing anything they can get their hands on? Or do they spend the rest of their time relaxing with their family? Or do they try to cross out things on their bucket list before the end finally arrives? It made me think of what I would do if an asteroid was to Earth in a few days.

I would advise against reading this book. I had to force myself to read it, which is one of the worst feelings on the world. If you want something apocalyptic, go watch “This Is The End” featuring Seth Rogen and James Franco or “The World’s End” featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Those were way more entertaining than Tumble & Fall.

gradeD-

Blog News

VOILÀ! THE NOVEL HERMIT IS OFFICIALLY A SELF-HOSTED BLOG!

September 11, 2013 Comments : 16

Well, you guys. It didn’t take long. Here it is.

Like the title says, The Novel Hermit is officially a self-hosted blog. CELEBRATION TIME!

MOVING ON UP

I decided to go the self-hosting route because – 1. I wanted freedom that WordPress.com did not allow me + 2. I was jealous of people who had made the move (I wholeheartedly admit this). I was so frustrated that I couldn’t fix my layout. I had to make do with what I had, which meant making extremely minor fixes. (Not a fan.) And I was getting irritated with my blog URL. I wanted to own my name and my site, but being on a free blogging platform did not give me that. The URL addresses got extremely long, especially for my discussion posts, and that made it difficult to submit links.

Every time somebody that I knew or followed announced to the internet world that they decided to move their blogs to WordPress.org, I hissed in envy because I wanted to do that too. My first thought was always, “Aww man, I want to self-host my blog too!” and then I would debate with myself whether I should make the move. I wanted that happiness in actually owning my blog. However, with a heavy heart, I usually talked myself out of buying a domain and a web host.

MY INITIAL WORRY

I talked myself out of self-hosting my blog because of my anxiety about money (which I got over fast when I realized the amount I would pay wasn’t as bad as I had expected), and about not having a clear idea of how to set-up everything. I had no idea how I would transfer my blog and didn’t have the money to get somebody to do it. I would be going into the whole self-hosting thing blind, something I did not want to do (because I get stressed out easily). I feared that I would mess everything up. So I put it off.

D.I.Y.

I always knew I was going to transfer all the content on The Novel Hermit by myself. I just didn’t know how. So, when Ashley at Nose Graze, wrote an extremely thorough DIY blog transfer walkthrough, I nearly screamed in joy. It was a total gift/sign from the heavens or wherever. This walkthrough was perfect for me. Yeah, her post is about a Blogger to WordPress.org transfer (even though my blog is on WordPress.com), but it still worked. I was extremely thrilled that Ashley used RFE Hosting as the example web host for her walkthrough because I had decided early-on that I wanted them to be my web host provider. My anxiety continued to ease as my questions were answered by Ashley and I familiarized myself with her post to ensure I didn’t miss anything.

With the help of that handy walkthrough, I went through the process of buying my domain and then my web host, and transferring my content over. It was surprisingly easy. For those who want to go the self-hosting route, but are not savvy at technology or great at DIY, Ashley’s walkthrough is extremely helpful. She lays it out on the table for you, so all you have to do is follow the steps.

THE WAIT

I had to wait a few hours for RFE Hosting to finish setting up my account. That was the only thing that took a few hours. I was extremely antsy because I wanted to get a move on things. It took me under an hour to get everything transferred over to the new blog, which is fairly fast, but that’s probably because I didn’t have a lot of content to transfer to the new self-hosted blog.

LAYOUT

I am not CSS-savvy. Not at all. I had so many issues trying to figure out what each code meant. It took me so many frustrating hours. I fiddled around with the CSS coding. Sometimes, I fixed what I wanted, and other times, I didn’t. It was like having to turn off the lights but you realize that there are a bunch of light switches. When you push one down, another one turns on. You pushed another, a different turns off and another turns on. I tweaked so many layouts, trying to find the best one for my blog. I wanted to keep using the one that I had been using on WordPress.com, but the layout was funky (sidebars were too thin and I couldn’t figure out how to make the width bigger, and I didn’t how to get rid of the header text). I was sooo tempted to purchase a theme, but I knew that was not an option.

I somehow managed to fix the theme that you see in front of you to the best of my abilities and I am 88% happy with the layout. I feel it’s a bit impersonal and that bothers me. There are some things I want to add, but like I said earlier, my CSS abilities is limited. So, to CSS-savvy people, I have a question – how can I insert borders (like the blue ones you see in the sidebar) in-between posts? I don’t know the coding of that and Google isn’t helping me. :(

AT THIS MOMENT

I am still working on this blog. I’m trying to understand the whole SEO thing and Google Analytics. I will get used to it. I just need to fiddle with things. That’s how I learned how to use InDesign. :D

If you have questions about transferring blogs from WordPress.com to WordPress.org, feel free to ask me questions. But if you don’t, tell me what you think about my layout and plugins you think I must install. (To name a few, I have CommentLuv, Askimet, Editorial Calendar, and WordPress SEO by Yoast.) I know the Ultimate Book Plugin is what I should get, but MONNNEYYYY. :( I’m pretty excited for this new adventure as a self-hosted blog.

Waiting on Wednesday

WAITING ON WEDNESDAY | Reality Boy by A.S. King

September 11, 2013 Comments : 7

wowfestivo

Waiting On is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we’re eagerly anticipating.

Reality Boy by A.S. King
October 22, 2013
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Pre-order: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Gerald Faust knows exactly when he started feeling angry: the day his mother invited a reality television crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he’s still haunted by his rage-filled youth—which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle—and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school.

Nothing is ever going to change. No one cares that he’s tried to learn to control himself, and the girl he likes has no idea who he really is. Everyone’s just waiting for him to snap…and he’s starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that.

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child “star” who finally breaks free of his anger by creating possibilities he never knew he deserved.

Why I’m waiting?

I am always fascinated when I find fictional books about reality shows. I cannot begin to imagine what it is like to be scrutinized by millions of viewers. I assume there’s a lot of pressure and stress that comes with it. I would not want to put myself out there to either swim or get ripped apart by the media. I like having my privacy, thank you very much. ;D

I love the idea that this boy is trying to control himself, control his anger. I just wonder how Gerald will grow, especially in a world that only knows him as the kid who got angry a lot on TV.

What books are you waiting on?

Blog News

ANNOUNCEMENT | The Novel Hermit Will Become A Self-Hosted Blog

September 9, 2013 Comments : 5

BIG NEWS, EVERYONE.

I’m taking the plunge. I decided to self-host my blog. YAYYY.

I had been thinking about going the self-hosted route for a while, but I had a lot of anxiety, mainly because of money and of having to transfer all the content myself. The lovely Ashley of Nose Graze wrote an extremely thorough DIY blog transfer walkthrough, which eased my anxiety extremely, so I thought why not make the move?

I don’t know how long it will take for my self-hosted blog to be set up and transferred. It shouldn’t take very long though since my blog doesn’t have vast amounts of posts and comments, but we shall see in the next few days. Here’s to hoping I do everything correctly. :D

In the mean time, you can catch me on Twitter! Do say hello. :D

Holy Mother Cover

Cover Change | Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker

September 5, 2013 Comments : 9

Inspired by Pure Imagination Blog and Stacked.

Let’s be honest, nobody follows the age-old cliché that tells us not to judge a book by its covers. If you say you do, I am side-eying you. Book covers are the first thing that attracts any of us readers to a book. Before you pick up a book, the cover can essentially make or break a book. If I don’t like a cover design, I won’t pick it up. Lucky for us, publishing companies publish different cover designs, especially when a paperback book comes out. Sometimes we like it, sometimes we don’t. Whatever the changes with cover designs, I will discuss it.

Today, we look at the cover of Unbreak My Heart by Melissa Walker.

I don’t like the paperback cover of Unbreak My Heart. It irritates me because of the romantic-esque design, which makes me scrunch my nose in distaste. I’m not a big fan of couples showing PDA on the front cover, especially if the romance doesn’t play a large part in the book like the cover design suggests. Yes, there’s a budding romantic relationship between Clementine (the main character) and the boy she meets, but it is not the most important part of the book. A large part of this book is about Clementine on a sailboat, trying to forgive herself for betraying her best friend. Do we have any semblance of that on the cover? No. We have a kissing couple with the girl lifting her leg up (this is not the Princess Diaries!).

I prefer the hardcover design because what you see is what you get in the book – Clementine on a sailboat, thinking back to the events that brought her out to the open sea. I like that everything is covered in pink except the girl, the sails, and the ocean. That’s the focus. It’s more memorable to me since I rarely see YA cover designs of people on a sailboat. Whereas, the paperback…well, you know my thoughts on it.

Final thought: I wish the paperback wasn’t changed to this gag-inducing cover (I have a cold-heart. ;D). The hardcover design is a better image of the Unbreak My Heart story. But that’s my personal preference.

What did you think of the cover design and the changes? Do you like it? Is there anything you would change?

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