This was a surprise! Not that I didn't think it would be good - the reason I read it is because it had been recommended to me repeatedly. What really surprised me is that it was THAT good. This book is based during World War II in Germany, so it's considered historical fiction. It's about a girl who really likes books, but for very complicated reasons. I don't want to give too much away, so the last thing I'll say about it is that it's told from the perspective of "Death" or the Grim Reaper, I suppose. There's a lot of foreshadowing at the beginning so it takes a while to sort out what is going on. Be patient and keep reading! By page 60, I promise you will not want to put it down.
I'm probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this but I didn't really like it. I know that part of it was due to the format, but at least a bit had to do with the storyline.
This book is written as a script for a play, so the characters, in writing, lack the depth I've come to expect from JK Rowlings characters. I know that depth comes from the actors themselves in a play, so it's probably a lot better on the stage than in the script. The vivid visual descriptions that are in the books are also missing from the script. I would say that maybe I just don't like reading scripts, but I wasn't very happy with the storyline either. I'm not going to get into that, other than to say "it's been done". This obviously wasn't written by JK Rowling, who seems to have a limitless imagination. Still, you need to try it for yourself. I know some people who loved it!
You won't have seen this one on the shelf yet because it just came in and I took it home before anyone else could see it! That's one of a number of things I love about my job! I'm not quite half way through, so give me two more days and it will be out for all.
This book is about a girl who lives in a society that is surrounded by a wall. No one knows why because no one can remember what was before the wall (and beyond it). This society goes through a "forgetting" every 12 years, when everyone there forgets everything about themselves and their lives. I'm not kidding - wiped clean. This leads to quite a bit of chaos, although it's somewhat controlled by the requirement that everyone keep a "book of truths" that is essentially a diary of everything that's ever happened to you and the people that are important in your life. If you lose your book you lose yourself. And - you can reinvent yourself by changing the "truths" in your books before the next "forgetting". The hitch is that this girl does not forget like everyone else, and she has seen people alter their own lives or someone else's. She starts to question why people forget and if there is a way to "cure" forgetting.
