Invincible by Amy Reed | Rating: ★★★★★

"No one knows what to do with me now that I'm alive. There's no protocol for how to treat someone who comes back from the dead. There are so many books about grief and loss, about saying good-bye to the people you love. But there is no book about taking back that good-bye."

As a note, a finished copy of this novel was sent to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

The biggest mistake a person could make when picking up Amy Reed’s novel Invincible is to make the assumption that it is similar to The Fault in Our Stars. If you go into this novel thinking it will be anything like the other, you’re only going to be disappointed. The truth is that they are both heartfelt and will twist your heart until its broken on multiple occasions, but that is where parallels really and truly end.

While there are similarities between both novels, ultimately the story and our lead characters coping mechanisms are completely different and the only deep similarity between these stories is the theme of loss and cancer. A lot of readers have been unable to finish the novel due to the differences in its down, during the split then and now.

I found the differences startling and quite heartfelt, though. As someone who has watched cancer tear people apart in the past, I thought that Amy Reed crafted the character of Evie incredibly well. She is everything a teenage survivor could be and her struggle is all too real. Evie comes to life on the pages of her story and sometimes you want to shake her and sometimes you just want to hold her.

Uses For Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt | Rating: ★★★★★

“I belong here, I tell Toy. I’m hungry for every city block. Every brick building. Every crowded intersection. Electric. I feel brand new.”

From the moment I opened this book, I was drawn and hooked into the story. It’s one of my favorite novels that represents a sort of coming of age as well as the exploration of sexuality. There’s something very meaningful in the way that Erica writes the story. In its flow, there is something just so appealing to the story.

I read Uses For Boys ages ago when I saw the summary for it and saw the little shout out that Ellen Hopkins gave it. I will never, ever regret picking it up and giving it a go. Although there were many aspects of the story I didn’t relate to, and there were many moments you feel uncomfortable for the narrator, it still managed to touch my heart and make me feel as though I know Anna and her mind.

Which is, if you ask me, an open door to something great.

We learn from the start that Anna had once had a decent relationship with her mother when she was younger. But soon through her mothers relationships and inability to really listen, there is this wall up between the two of them. Anna feels the distance and the heartbreak in her mothers constant working and relationships with varied men.