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Sam (74 KP) rated Rebecca in Books

Mar 27, 2019  
Rebecca
Rebecca
Daphne du Maurier, Sally Beauman | 2003 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.6 (32 Ratings)
Book Rating
I’ll be honest, and my best friend Cheyenne is going to kill me for this, but when I first started reading this at college, I absolutely hated it. Now I can put that just down to the fact that I naturally expected to hate any book we had to learn about in English. Because I love Rebecca and wouldn’t be able to cope without it.

Essentially, it’s an adaptation of Jane Eyre (which I LOVE). I always joke that it’s fanfiction that has become a classic (if only). I didn’t actually read Jane Eyre until after I had read this for the first time, but the book made so much more sense to me then.

The nameless narrator is brilliant, if a little bit childish. I can remember the first time I read it, it really annoyed me that she whined like a child a lot. But then again, when your new husband is still obsessed with his dead wife, who wouldn’t complain?

I fell in love with Maxim in the same way that I fell in love with Mr Rochester. They are so similar – all dark, mysterious, and brooding… what every girl wants in a book! Even through the whole plot, I found it impossible to ever dislike him, despite some of the events. I’m not sure why.

I love that there’s so many different meanings of the book. Spending one year analysing it in college was never enough for me – I’m still constantly digging out new meanings, especially now I’ve got a friend who loves this even more than I do.

I almost always take this to Cornwall with me to re-read on a miserable day. It’s the perfect place to read this book and I can always snuggle down with it.

This is something everyone should read at least once in their life.
  
Coming Up For Air
Coming Up For Air
Miranda Kenneally | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
9.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally is a fantastic book in the Hundred Oaks series. This is the 5th book I've read in the series. I love getting lost in the sporty world that Miranda Kenneally has created. I love that each book features a different girl with a different sport.

In Coming Up for Air the main character is Maggie. Maggie is a devoted swimmer. Swimming is her entire life, she is passionate about it. Maggie hopes that one day she'll get into the Olympics. Swimming is not something that is forced rather it is something she loves.

Coming Up for Air is light, funny and cute. Maggie has four great friends, who all have sports that they love more than life itself. Levi is her best friend, and he swims with her. They are great characters, and have a great romance. They are best friends first. They don't let anything come in the way of their friendship; however, when Maggie feels she needs experience in certain areas before she heads off to college, Levi is the one person she feels most comfortable asking for help.

Maggie wanting experience before going to college causes their relationship to go through a period of being a awkward and emotional. Eventually they both begin to see the other in a new way, and to start feeling emotions. The new direction of the friendship does not feel forced; but, rather natural. The strong bond between Maggie and Levi and their friendship was more important than anything else, and that was the one thing they wanted to save.

This book was such a worthy edition to the Hundred Oaks series. I also loved that Jordan Woods got a bigger speaking role as Maggie’s school coach.
  
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Veronica Pena (690 KP) rated Speak in Books

Jan 6, 2020 (Updated Jan 27, 2020)  
Speak
Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson | 1999 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
10
8.3 (23 Ratings)
Book Rating
I have read this book multiple times throughout my almost 21 years of existence. I think the first time I read it, I was in 8th grade? Maybe 9th. I'm not one hundred percent sure. But I've read it maybe 4 or 5 times and every time it's different.

The last time I read it, I was a freshman in college and in a completely different spot in my life. When I read it the last time, I hated it. I just found the pacing to be bad, I didn't enjoy the novel itself, but I recognized the importance of Melinda's story. I still do. But now, reading it 2 years later and being where I am, I feel so different. I love this book. I loved it the first time I read it and I guess my relationship with this novel has just ebbed and flowed as I've gotten older and I've floated along with my own trauma and experiences.

I think what I love most about this book, besides its relatability and its incredibly important story, is the truth in it. I think so much of Melinda's experience and her story and the way she copes or doesn't cope is left in the things she doesn't say, in the things that aren't explicitly written. I think you take as much as she gives and then some more. I'm not sure if that makes any sense, but that's what I get from it.

I'm still a firm believer that everyone should read this book before high school and before college, but now I just think that everyone should read it every once in a while. I'm definitely going to check in with this book again in a couple of years and see where I find myself with it again.