Hopeless by Colleen Hoover Book Review

Title: Hopeless (#1)

Author: Colleen Hoover

Genre: New Adult Contemporary

Rating: 4/5 STARS

Overall Emotions: Bored, and then straight to ‘Holy crap, what the hell is happening?!’ ‘What?!’ ‘No!!!!!’

 

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Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever

 

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I’ve said before that I haven’t enjoyed the books I’ve read by Colleen Hoover, and that I’d give her one more shot because so many people live (love, if you’ve read this book, you’d know that was not a misspelling) her writing. I’m glad I decided to give her one more chance and read this novel. I loved it, it’s way better than the other novel and novella that I read of hers. Though, there were some points where it just wasn’t believable or I felt like Hoover took it a little too far. Some say that this book may have needed a ‘trigger warning’, due to the content and I agree to a certain point. Nothing ‘triggered’ me, but there were many topics that occurred in this book that might set someone off.

The only reason I didn’t give this book the full five stars was because it only surprised me once and that was the final ‘answer’ hope received from her mother, Karen. Other than that, I kind of predicted the way things would end up going. This book is full of twists and turns. At first you think it’s just a cute romance about the high school ‘slut’ (who is actually not a slut at all) and the trouble maker boy (who is just misunderstood).

For a story about such dark subjects, I didn’t imagine it to have any happy ending whatsoever, I really applaud Hoover on figuring out just the perfect way to heal Sky and give her a happily ever after.

If you’re going to read any of Hoover’s books, this needs to be the one. It’s dark and beautiful and tells the story of a survivor coming to terms with all the pain she blocked out years ago.

Growing Up in the Apocalypse (Extinction Movie Review)

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a huge fan of all things zombies. Rob Zombie, The Walking Dead, Plants vs Zombies, just to names a few. On the 4th, my husband and I had our first ‘Wifey Wednesday’ where we turn our computers and phones off and just hang out with each other, so we decided to watch Extinction (2015). If I were to compare this movie, I’d say it’s like I am Legend meets 28 Days Later. The infected are super fast and intelligent.

Extinction is about two men that have to raise a baby in the post-apocalyptic world of Harmony. The first scene takes place during the beginning of the virus and then we fast forward nine years into a snowmaggedon town.

Here’s what I found wrong with the movie and the only thing that took away from it. The little girl, Lu, has been conformed to gender roles even though she hasn’t grown up with anyone but these two men. At one point she comments, “I’m too old to play with dolls.” How would you know, Lu? You’re nine and you’ve only ever watched cartoon reruns, you’ve never been to school. She also comments on a doll her dad brings her saying, “This is the one I wanted.” How does she know that’s the one she wanted? She’s never been to school, she hasn’t seen any commercials for toys, she’s never even left the compound they live in.

Gender roles are learned behaviors. Lu would be the most well behaved, non-gendered child to ever exist if she was born in a time that didn’t include humans. I didn’t understand why her father even bothered to teach her, considering she will never need that type of knowledge. He should have spent time teaching her how to ration food, hunt, shoot, make weapons, start fires. Sure, teach her how to read and write for when she’s bored, but I don’t think she needs to know the population of China (though the joke during the dinner scene was hilarious).

Then there’s her father constantly saying she needs to brush her teeth before bed, why? He keeps saying she needs discipline, that if she doesn’t brush her teeth, she’s acting out. She doesn’t even know what acting out is, she’s never seen anyone throw a tantrum or misbehave. Acting out is a learned behavior.

I’d give this movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It could have been so amazing! But there were small parts that the script writers just overlooked, and that really killed the movie for me. What I will say about the ending is, it gets dark.

***SPOILERS***

Did Patrick need to die? No. Jack should have sacrificed himself after almost shooting Lu. Plus Patrick could have survived had he just lured the ‘undead’ to the gas with noise and then blown them up. I was literally screaming at the TV the entire time that went down.

The Last July Playlist (Novel Update)

Hello readers, as some of you may know, I’m trying to get my novel published this year. I have a little over 16k words to write, the holidays put me behind on the deadline I made myself. I should be able to finish this before February or March at the latest, let’s be real, I wrote over 50k words in November. What’s 15k? In the meantime, here’s a list of songs that have pushed me through my writing sprints, or created the scenery for my novel.

Enjoy!

Breanna

 

You can find the playlist I created for this novel on youtube

 

The Chainsmokers ‘Closer’

Death Cab for Cutie ‘Summer Skin’

Yellowcard ‘Hang You Up’

Incubus ‘If Not Now, When?’

Yellowcard ‘Always Summer’

Fall Out Boy ‘Miss Missing You’

Daya ‘Hide Away’

Mayday Parade ‘I’d Hate to be You When People Find Out What This Song is About’

Blink 182 ‘Here’s Your Letter’

Alice in Chains ‘No Excuses’

Birdy ‘Light Me Up’

 

When a Mysterious Package Arrives…

 

One December night, I came home to find a package sitting on my desk. All my Christmas orders had already arrived, I had no clue what could be in the box. Especially from New York. Part of me was very excited, thinking I had a secret Santa and it was going to be really cool. However, my excitement turned into dread when I opened the box, only to find another box. I found it strange that someone knew my address and my maiden name.

 

Ah, but there was a letter! And it was signed by a Tom. This brought my excitement back because I have a really awesome friend named Tom, but why was he gifting me something? We see each other once a year, and I hadn’t received a gift from him since I was a kid.

As I started reading the letter, I knew this wasn’t my friend. The letter brought this terrified feeling over me, I could only make out some of the words (as it was in sloppy cursive). I didn’t want to open the box after what I read. I mean, would you open the box after reading this?

The Letter Reads:

“Dear Breanna I do not know you but when the storm tells me that you must know– that you must be warned– I do as I am told. I was given your name. It took me a long time to find you. My duty is done and I can turn aside the memories of that terrible woman. I am relieving myself of this great burden and for that alone I must thank you. I do not envy you having to pick it up. I have looked into the darkness of this poor boy and brought the lightening and the flame. It is all I could do and I hope it is enough. Fate has its reasons for you to hear this story. Perhaps this story wants to stay alive and must be heard. Perhaps she is coming for you next or perhaps it is just the wind. Do with this tale as you will. It is at an end for me. Tom”

I was very tempted to just throw the box away. Or just never open it. I thought it was a prank, maybe a dead spider or snake inside. Or that it was really demonic like this Tom made it out to seem. My husband demanded that I open the box, but I wouldn’t. I didn’t know what was in the box!

 

 

As my husband pried the box open with a hammer (it was literally nailed shut), I did some research. Looking up ‘mystery inco box’, I couldn’t find too much. My husband sat the box back in my lap and I kept pushing it away, still not wanting to open it all the way.

Inside, we found some old newspapers, a journal and a missing person’s poster.

 

 

The journal was in great detail, a burn mark on the cover, bent to fit in the box and tons of little snippets between the pages. The journal belongs to the boy on the poster and it starts out talking about how his dog had to be put down and then the boy goes on a trip to London where weird things start to happen…

I didn’t want to read on…

…but I did…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***There will not be an update on this blog but know that I’ve shown this box to many of my friends and family and they were all equally horrified. I did some research and figured out that this is one of those ‘subscription’ boxes, so it’s nothing to worry about. I did find out who sent the box…***