#77 The Beautiful

The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh 

The Beautiful in set in the 1870's in New Orleans, i should preface this by saying ive never read any Anne Rice so i had zero expectations going into this, i just wanted it to be better than the shit show that was Twilight and thankfully it was. The book follows our main protagonist Celine who has fled Paris after something happens to her and moves to New Orleans for a fresh start and a new life. Celine moves into a convent with a group of other girls, their main aim is to find a husband and move out of the nunnery.

When Celine meets the mysterious Odette who asks her to make a dress for an upcoming masquerade party Celine then becomes involved with the wrong crowd known as 'The Court of Lions' and within the opening few chapters a body is found in the restaurant that they frequent and thus the story begins. The killings dont stop and people around Celine begin to die, she begins to become suspicious that she may be in danger. Through The Court of Lions Celine meets Sebastian, a mysterious handsome figure who in true YA tropey fashion she falls head over heels for even though she shouldnt because hes 'bad news'.

I was a bit worried about the hype surrounding this book. Renee Ahdieh is highly loved within the book community and this is the first book of hers i have read. The writing is very atmospheric and Gothic, two things i really appreciated. I was hoping this book would be a fresh start for vampire fiction but alas my main problem with all YA fantasy at the minute occurred, there was too much focus on the sodding romance. Well this book had a fantastic start, i thought the writing was stunning and the first half had me completely enthralled but then it just sort of veered off. I feel bad saying this but there wasnt enough vampires for me and i dont think i will bother with the sequel. There was a lot of aspects i enjoyed, mainly the writing. I didnt care for the characters much, i thought they were a bit unrealistic and not very true to the time period. There wasnt enough information about The Court of Lions and i thought that could have been explored a bit more. I dont really care for hate to love tropes in YA and this felt a bit too insta-lovey for me and that was the main reason i couldnt give this more than 3 stars. I usually love historical books but i didnt think this was very true to the time which was annoying to me.

All in all this wasnt for me really. Yet another YA fantasy 2019 release book that i havent really liked. Im beginning to think the problem is me. Maybe at the ripe old age of 29 i should probably stick to more adult titles (i definitely wont cos i never learn). This book from my extensive google research will be a 4 book series so i believe thats why there isnt too much vampire action as she may be delaying that for the later books, i would recommend this book to people who like a YA murder mystery type storyline with some vampire action thrown in at the end.

#76 Educated

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated is the true story of Tara Westover and her family. She grew up in Bucks Peak, rural Idaho and is raised as a strict Mormon. Her father has very extreme views and doesnt believe in modern medicine or anything that is even remotely government run so much so that not only was Tara not born in a hospital, she had never set foot in one for the majority of her childhood. Tar's birth was never registered either. Her mother is a kind of herbal 'medicine woman' and heals using tinctures and essential oils mixtures and with the 'grace of god' thrown in. She is also a local midwife and helps women give birth in their own homes without the help of medicine or doctors.

The Westover family is made up of the mum and dad (i dont believe their names are ever mentioned?) and children, Tony, Tyler, Shawn, Richard, Luke, Audrey and Tara. The elder boys were born in hospital and all attended school for a few years before their father developed these extreme views and pulled them out to be 'home schooled'.

Her childhood is full of strange stories and some memories that made for very difficult reading. Her father is a difficult man to live with and is very much a 'what i say goes' type of parent. He has his own 'business' scrapping metal and building huts in which he enlists the help of his children from a very young age they are expected to operate machinery and get stuck in to help out. The children are never properly home schooled as their mother only teaches them to read and very basic maths skills, the rest is up to them, if they want to learn something they are expected to pick up a text book and read it themselves.

When Tara is 17 she sets foot in a classroom for the first time. She is accepted to BYU (Brigham Young University) which is located in Provo, Utah and run by The Church of Latter-Day Saints. Tara was encouraged to study for the entrance test by her brother Tyler and teaches herself trigonometry, grammar, algebra as well as many other things in order to pass and gain entrance. Tara is floored by the classes she takes and how little she knows about the world for example she believes that Europe in a country and not a continent and gets very confused in her geography classes. She was also never taught about the holocaust and has to look this up on the library computers.

Throughout her time at college Tara struggles to keep up with classes whilst also paying rent and basic living. She spends many hours of the day studying the basics and trying to keep up. At the end of her first semester she has achieved good grades and is granted a partial scholarship. Every summer when she returns home from college her father makes her work in the junkyard which she hates but needs the money to return to BYU so she never argues with him.

It is ultimately her time in college and being away from her family that makes her realise how backward their life and teachings are. Throughout this time Tara begins to question things and step away from that way of thinking.

Tara overcomes so much in her childhood, it really does make for an extraordinary read. Her older siblings leave home early to get away from their father. Tony works on long haul rigs in Vegas, Tyler leaves to go to college which is extremely frowned upon by their father, Audrey gets married and moves out leaving just Shawn, Richard and Luke with Tara. Shawn is extremely physically abusive and takes most of this anger out on Tara which made for some very difficult reading.

I have used a lot of inverted commas in this review and that is mainly down to the fact that her life is so strange and using words to describe events arent really accurate like 'home schooled' for example, she isnt actually properly home schooled so you cant really use that word to describe it.

I really enjoyed this book and gave it 5 stars, it was so thoughtfully written and at times you feel as if you are there. I highly recommend to any non fiction lovers.