Book reviews: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea | The Colour of Magic | Den sommaren

Title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Author: April Genevieve Tucholke
Original title: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
Genre: YA, fantasy, horror
Series: Between #1
Publisher: Dial
Format: Hardback
Pages: 360
Finished: 2/1/17
Summary: Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. 

My thoughts:
Oh boy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Where do I even start with this? First things first, somehow this author managed to do everything wrong with this story. To start off with something, let's do a short summary of the main character, Violet White (silly, silly name), who quite honestly doesn't have much of a personality. I'm tired of authors portraying their female protagonists as stubborn, weak in the presence of good looking teenage boys, illogical, sensitive, and quite dumb, but then throw in a "she reads books" and that's supposed to make me, the reader, think she's intelligent? My point is, Violet talked in her inner monologue about how her personality was, but every decision she made and her every action went directly against the picture she painted of herself? Unprofessional.
Then we have the to main male characters; Violet's twin brother Luke and this story's male love interest River West (again, silly name). Luke, firstly, is a sexist bastard and he is extraordinarily open about it, and everybody is just okay with it?! To be fair, Violet and River express dislike towards Luke's sexism, but neither of them speak up when he goes on degrading half the Earth's population with his uneducated statements. The only time Violet speaks up is when Luke throws a bottle into the sea. Oh, so then he's doing something wrong? Nu-uh, I don't appreciate that at all, Sir Author.
So River, then. Lying, manipulative, murdering. He seems to be a manipulative liar, and I mean as long as Violet is okay with that in their relationship, then I guess it doesn't do too much harm, but the way he treats her is also so disgustingly sexist, I just couldn't stand it. I won't go into detail, but he was not very appealing.
And logic! Where did it go? They came to conclusions out of nowhere that made no sense whatsoever, and then the author tried to just explain it with some stupid logic, and it made even less sense. Also, the story was so predictable, not even the plot twist was very twisty. This was supposed to be horror? I wouldn't have noticed unless I'd looked at the tags on Goodreads. If this classifies as horror, then cotton could just as easily classify as iron.
Oh well, it wasn't all bad. A few select parts were good, I'm sure. I don't remember them, but I'm sure they were there, hidden behind sexism, plain characters, predictable plot, and long, boring, unnecessary environment descriptions.
The cover was pretty though!

Rating: 1/5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: The Colour of Magic
Author: Sir Terry Pratchett
Original title: The Colour of Magic
Genre: High fantasy
Series: Discworld #1
Publisher: Corgi
Format: Paperback
Pages: 238
Finished: 14/1/17
Summary: On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets out. There's an avaricious but inept wizard, a naive tourist whose luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist if you believe in them, and of course THE EDGE of the planet...

My thoughts: 
This is great. I loved this, and I don't know how it took me almost a year from start to finish. Reading slumps are tricky things. Anyways, storywise, this had everything. The world is well developed, the characters are unique and hilarious, the plotline is up paced, and the whole this is just to die for. I can't think of more things to say without spoiling it for you, but just GO READ IT!

Rating: 4,5/5

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Title: Den sommaren (That Summer)
Author: Jillian Tamaki & Mariko Tamaki
Original title: This One Summer
Genre: Graphic novel, Contemporary
Series: --
Publisher: Placebo Press
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 319
Finished: 6/2-17
Summary: Every summer, Rose goes with her mom and dad to a lake house in Awago Beach. It's their getaway, their refuge. Rosie's friend Windy is always there, too, like the little sister she never had. But this summer is different. Rose's mom and dad won't stop fighting, and when Rose and Windy seek a distraction from the drama, they find themselves with a whole new set of problems. It's a summer of secrets and sorrow and growing up, and it's a good thing Rose and Windy have each other.

My thoughts: This was my first time reading a graphic novel! I picked this up at the library the other day. I usually don't borrow books, but I'm broke so I'll have to cope. I chose on of the heftier ones that I'd seen a lot of on BookTube a while back, and going into it I had no real expectations or knowledge of what is was going to be about.
Hands down, I adored the artwork in this novel. The illustrations were so beautiful, and although I thought I might end up confused with only drawings of what happens rather than worded descriptions, I found that I had no problem following the plotline. Regarding the plot, then, it was not as good as the artwork (the artwork being my favourite thing about this book), but it wasn't bad. Just rather boring. Some of the minor characters were pretty bland, and there was close to no excitement during the entire read, although I did finish the whole thing in one sitting. However, what I did enjoy a lot was the close friendship between Rose and Windy, and the summer vibes. For two hours, I was on a sunny beach rather than here in cold, snowy, grey Sweden. My favourite character was Windy. So charming and believable.
In the end, I loved the artwork and found the story ok. The art kind of pushes the rating up a bit, I have to admit ;p

Rating: 3/5