Welcome to the Fangirl Side: Abigail Haas | #CreeptasticReads

Okay, so I've been mulling over what my next fangirl post should be on and it came to me as I was driving home from work. If a book keeps popping into your mind at random times a year, or more than a year, later it's time to share it with others. The thing is that in this case I might have to share more than one book. I blame the incredibly talented Abigail Haas, aka Abby Mcdonald. If you're a fan of psychological thrillers and mysteries and you still haven't picked up Dangerous Girls and Dangerous Boys...uhh...I don't know what you're doing with yourself. Even if you aren't that into mysteries, start with Dangerous Girls. I promise you'll be hooked.

Let me start with how I fell so deeply into this Abigail Haas hole. Racquel from The Book Barbies was blabbing away about some book on twitter and raving about it's awesomeness, turns out it was Dangerous Girls. When I looked at my shelves for my next read I realized that I had an arc of it but had put it off for reasons unknown (that strange cover might have had something to do with it). So I decided to see what Racquel was going on about. I still remember her warning, "don't start this if you have anything due for school soon". Seriously, why don't I listen to these warnings?

Dangerous Girls

It's Spring Break of senior year. Anna, her boyfriend Tate, her best friend Elise, and a few other close friends are off to a debaucherous trip to Aruba that promises to be the time of their lives. But when Elise is found brutally murdered, Anna finds herself trapped in a country not her own, fighting against vile and contemptuous accusations. 
As Anna sets out to find her friend's killer; she discovers hard truths about her friendships, the slippery nature of truth, and the ache of young love.
As she awaits the judge's decree, it becomes clear that everyone around her thinks she is not just guilty, but dangerous. When the truth comes out, it is more shocking than one could ever imagine...

 

The interesting thing about this book, among many, is that there are excerpts and police evidence and conversations throughout the novel. This makes the reader feel engaged in the investigation. I wanted to find out who the killer was and what was happening from page one. The very first page hooks you with a transcript of the 911 conversation from when the kids found Elise's body. It's something that makes you feel like YOU need to solve the murder.

The characters are also fascinating. Once again, I wanted to get into the minds of these teenagers and see their inner thoughts. A young adult thriller that makes me want to crack the minds of the characters? That's what I want to find more often. Not cliche characters, but characters with intrigue and maybe a little crazy.

The story is also told in flashbacks, so the reader gets to meet Elise before she's murdered. Elise is that reckless, careless girl that always ends up getting murdered. She kind of reminded me of Allison from Pretty little Liars (the show at least). In the flashback chapters she was always saying things that hinted toward her future. Things like, don't leave the door open, you never know who can walk in, and I felt like the horror movie viewer who sits there watching things play through, yelling at their screen for the main girl to turn around and see what was coming. But I love being in that position. It keeps me engaged with the story. If you are still doubtful about this book, please read it for the ending. The ride is totally worth it. And to this day I still can't bring myself to rate this book on Goodreads. That's how much it fucked with my mind, in a good way.

My favorite quotes:

“Wouldn't we all look guilty, if someone searched hard enough?”

“Any one of us could be made to look a monster, with selective readings of our history.”

Dangerous Boys

Three teens venture into the abandoned Monroe estate one night; hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding; the other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense? Or murder?
Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece together the story of how they got there-a story of jealousy, twisted passion, and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful of faces… 

To me Dangerous Boys was even more psychological than Dangerous Girls. Dangerous Girls appeals to the thriller fan, while Dangerous Boys had a truly disturbing undertone. It's so disturbing, but in a good way? I feel like only people who have read this before will understand what I'm talking about. I don't want to give away ANYTHING about this story, but just know that the characters are probably some of the most messed up characters you'll ever encounter, but you won't be able to stop reading until the last page.

I don't think this has been picked up by an American pulisher yet (WHYYYYYY? SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?) but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it does because more people need to read this book. I've probably already discussed it with everyone I know that has read it. I NEED MORE PEOPLE TO DISCUSS WITH. So please go read this book. Actually, just writing this has made me want to reread it.

Creeptastic Reads: 3 TV Shows to Get You In the Halloween Mood

While this isn't a post about books, I thought it would be fun to share my top TV shows that get me into that eerie, dark mood we all look for during the fall months, especially around Halloween. We all refer back to our childhood favorites when it comes to movies (thanks ABC family and Disney channel original movies), but these might turn out to be some new favorites.

I did entire posts on Harper’s Island and Supernatural, so if you want to read a rambling of gush for these two shows (especially Supernatural) you can head over to those posts. But today I’m just going to tell you why these shows would be perfect for the Halloween spirit. Each show is for a different audience, so there’s something for everyone!

HARPER'S ISLAND:

If you’re one of those people who loves slasher films or fell in love with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, then Harper’s Island is the show for you. It’s perfect for a rainy, gloomy day where you just curl up on the couch or in bed and marathon a show, especially since there are only 13 episodes! It's about a bunch of people who go to this island for a wedding. Of course they start getting killed off one by one. You can even use this guide with all the characters to cross out the people who are no longer suspects and circle the people you think are absolutely guilty. This one even has an old legend in it! I watched the entire season in one day, and at night I couldn’t even look out my window because I was scared someone was coming for me. Be prepared to leave the lights on because sometimes the reality of things can be scarier than any ghost.

GRIMM:

Grimm is a new addition to all the shows I already watch. I would say if you're not into horror shows, but still want to get that mystery feel, then watch Grimm. It's kind of like a crime show, but with supernatural creatures. Our main character is from a long line of Grimms and he's in charge of keeping these creatures in check. People who love fairytale retellings will for sure love this one. I love the bright colors the show uses, especially in the first episode. Also, some of the characters bring comedic relief to the more tense moments so it's not all serious. I'm still on season one so let me know if you start this show anytime soon, or already watch it. Maybe we can fangirl together! Plus, a lot of the episodes can be enjoyed on their own (at least in the first season).

SUPERNATURAL:

The final show I'm going to talk about is probably the one that I will be ringing in Halloween with. SUPERNATURAL. This one is for those of you looking for the scariest of the scariest, but most of the time I alternate between being terrified and laughing at their snarky comments. There are demons, vampires, ghosts, genies, possessions, exorcisms, werewolves, and everything else you could ever think of. I was religiously watching this show over the summer (again re: THE FANGIRL POST), but when school started again I had to let up on my obsession. That said, this one has fantastic characters, especially the two main brothers, Sam and Dean. As with Grimm, you can watch some of the episodes on their own without having to continue the rest of the series, although I'm sure you'll be just as hooked as the rest of us.

Let me know if you'll be watching any of these for the Halloween season, or what you would recommend. I'm also looking for movie recommendations so leave those in the comments!

Welcome to the Fangirl Side: Supernatural

If you didn't already know, I'm a huge fangirl. Suggest a tv show that I can just sit down and marathon (shout out to Books of Amber for Veronica Mars) and I will probably marry you, as long as you're okay with polyamorous relationships (Dean and Sam come first). So I've been wanting to start a feature where I share what tv shows and occasionally movies, book series and music I've been obsessing over.

What better way to launch this feature than with the tv show I'm currently glued to? I started season 1 last Sunday and I plan on starting season 2 today. You know that point where you sit back and realize that you're obsessed? Yeah, I'm there. I actually looked up Supernatural fan art and this is currently my phone screen:

So lets unleash the fangirl within and discuss why I love Supernatural so much.

First off, I don't know why I waited so long to start it. Actually, if I'm being completely honest, it's probably because I'm a huge scaredy cat. I mean, give me a creepy mystery and I'll devour it in a day but possessions and exorcisms send me running in the other direction. Last Sunday I found myself wandering my Netflix queue and decided it was time to give the first episode a shot. Four hours later and I'm still on my couch in the same position (I may or may not have had a little drool from staring at Dean for so long). Sure there are some creepy scenes and story lines but there's also an underlying comic relief. No episode goes by without me laughing out loud. So if you haven't started watching Supernatural because you're scared, start now and report back to me. There were a few episodes that had me triple guessing the shadows in my room, but Sam and Dean are worth it. If there's any doubt, just look:

The relationship between these two brothers is one of my favorite things of the whole show. They have this complicated relationship but you can tell they truly care for one another and would do anything and risk anything for each other. And even though I'm only on season 2 I feel like their characters never cease to surprise me, especially Dean. I love that he's supposed to be the bad boy of the show but as his character develops you start seeing a completely different side. Another thing I love is that each episode can pretty much stand on its own. They each have their own mystery that gets resolved by the end of the episode and to be honest, I love the separate stories more than the overarching storyline.

I also think that the cross country road trip feel is perfect now that summer is approaching. Oh! And my Grey's Anatomy fangirl heart is happy because Papa Winchester is a hottie. So if you're looking for a new show to marathon this summer go with Supernatural. TRUST ME. The first 8 seasons are streaming on Netflix so there are no excuses.

My question for those of you that have seen the show, any book suggestions so I can finish feeding my obsession? I've already read Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake.

Anyone currently watching the show? Or die hard fans that are already caught up? Can we please fangirl together? I hope you like this feature, leave any suggestions for shows you think I need to watch!

Epic Recs: December 2013

Epic Recs is hosted by Amber from Books of Amber and Judith from Paperiot. It started off as a feature where they could recommend each other some of their favorite books. However, they recently opened it to the public and even more recently they decided that if you wanted to participate but didn't have a partner, they would pair you up.

I thought this was a great way to meet some new bloggers so I decided to sign up and was paired up with Jennifer from Live to Read, Love to Read.

For this month, I recommended:

Altered by Jennifer Rush

I've pushed this book on so many people so I thought it was fitting for Epic Recs. Seriously, this might be my favorite book this year.

Jennifer recommended that I read:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

I've been wanting to read this one since I first heard of it, plus I still haven't read anything by Rainbow Rowell so this is perfect!

I'm going to be taking Fangirl with me on vacation so I should hopefully get lots of reading done. Are any of you participating? Leave links in the comments so I can check out everyone's posts. Don't forget to check out Amber and Judith's posts if you want to join!

YA Bookmark's Book Club: Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Tiffany and I want to start this book club back up and what better way to do that than by picking up a fantastic book? This month's choice is:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Everyone has been raving about Fangirl so we thought we'd see what it's all about. I'm really looking forward to this one in particular because I started the first 40 pages and I'm already loving it. You can look for both of our reviews near the end of the month.

Do you want to join us? Just let us know in the comments and leave us your twitter handle so we can talk about our feelings as we go along :)