Chapters Pages Words

For years now book lovers and the like have been battling with the insufferable reading slump from time to time but a lucky few manage to escape from these reading slumps effectively. I, unfortunately am not one of these people.

How do you get out of a reading slump?

Forcing myself to read

Inspiring myself to read (blog posts/youtube videos)

Reread your favourite books

Try a new genre

Try an easy read

Listen to an audiobook

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Title: They Both Die At The End
Author: Adam Silvera
Publisher: HarperTeen
Page Count: 384
My Rating: 4/5 Stars

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There's an app for that. It's called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure and to live a lifetime in a single day.


This book intrigued me from the get-go because why wouldn't it? A world where you get an alert the day you're going to die telling you you're going to die and then a huge adventure?? Sounds pretty intriguing to me.

The concept itself is definitely a cool one and it was so interesting to see this alternate world where this kind of technology exists and how different it would be to our world now. In fact, reading about this concept was the more enjoyable part of the book. My one issue with this book and hence why I did not give it a five star rating is that the 'on last great adventure' is not what I expected at all. I felt that the events of their last great adventure were indeed cute and a nice story but when you're told that two characters are going to die so they're going to try and have 'one last great adventure' you kind of expect something like world domination or at least something bigger than the events of this book to be quite honest.

Despite saying that I did really enjoy the majority of this book, mainly like I said the concept but also the characters. Mateo and Rufus were completely different personality wise and they spurred each  other on to do things they never would've other this one day and it was really lovely and entertaining to watch how their characters grew as the story progressed. I have to give serious props to Adam Silvera for his characters because I love all the side characters too, especially Lidia and The Plutos. Having these amazing side characters really helped with the plot and without them I do believe the story wouldn't have been nearly as interesting.

I'd heard from most peoples reviews that they cried at the end of the book but that wasn't the case for me. Obviously I was sad about what had happened to Mateo and Rufus, however I feel like my love for the story had deflated when their great adventure took a different turn than I thought it would so I was constantly thinking in my head, yo, I just want to see how they die now (a bit rough but I'm being honest) so I don't really feel like I had the opportunity to invest myself in the characters enough and the relationships.

However it was an overall enjoyable read, despite not being the story I would've preferred it to be. I still thought the writing was wonderful and so were the AMAZING characters and it is definitely worth the read.

Until a few posts ago I hadn't posted on here for a while and so when I decided to come back to Chapters Pages Words I did a little book shopping and hunting to get me back on my feet.

Books I purchased:


 For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.

I've already devoured Warcross and if you want to know all my thoughts and feelings about it then you can find my review here but in short I ADORED IT! I had to get my hands on this book when I found out it was a new release and when I read that synopsis because who wouldn't be intrigued by it?!



One-by-one, the students of Osborne High are dying in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets among them must finally be confronted.

International bestselling author Stephanie Perkins returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.

Title: There's Someone Inside Your House
Author: Stephanie Perkins
Publishers: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 287
My Rating: 2/5 stars

One-by-one, the students of Osborne High are dying in a series of gruesome murders, each with increasing and grotesque flair. As the terror grows closer and the hunt intensifies for the killer, the dark secrets among them must finally be confronted.

International bestselling author Stephanie Perkins returns with a fresh take on the classic teen slasher story that’s fun, quick-witted, and completely impossible to put down.


When hearing that Stephanie Perkins had a new book out I was over the moon with excitement for a lovely dovey, happy, fluffy romance novel that would remind me of the good old times I had reading the Anna and the French Kiss series, however my dreams were shattered (a little extreme but whatever) when I found that it would be a horror novel. But nevertheless, my hype for the book grew as October came around and I was getting in the mood for something scary and gruesome but turns out There's Someone Inside Your House may have been the romantic contemporary I once wanted plus a few measly killings.

I am a horror film fanatic and I love anything creepy so I thought this book would be right up my alley, by one of my favourite authors too! But I was disappointed by this book because it missed the mark on so many occasions. 

I'd heard many times before diving into this book that it is the epitome of a contemporary author trying her hand at a horror novel, and whilst I applaud Perkins for stepping out of her usual work, this book just didn't do it for me.

To start off with the characters and I clearly didn't mesh well. I just couldn't get to liking any of the characters. The main character, Makani felt a bit lifeless to me and I couldn't get to liking her, same goes for her love interest who I didn't like at all and quite frankly thought he was the creepiest thing about this horror novel. For me having good characters that I like reading about is detrimental to a good read and this fell short of the mark.

Speaking of the romance, I feel like it took too much of a front seat. I'd much rather have a more developed and interesting plot line and antagonist than any of this relationship. Too much focus was put on Makani and Olly in my opinion and I do think that the heavy focus on the relationship ruined the ending of this novel. So much was put into making the love between Makani and Olly a central aspect that the ending to me was pointless and unrealistic.

I mentioned before that I wanted a more in depth antagonist and I really do think the book would've benefited from it. In many popular horror films the antagonist is complex and has a backwards and twisted reasons for his/her actions, this book dabbled in that but the intentions of the antagonist were unclear and eventually lost which in my eyes took all the creepy out.

Finally, I just generally wasn't enjoying myself whilst reading the book. The best thing in my opinion was Makani's sassy grandmother and that was not what I expected to enjoy the most when reading a horror novel. I was overall disappointed in this novel but I do understand that this is Perkins' first dive into horror fiction so for that I give this book some credit.

Title: Genuine Fraud
Author: E. Lockhart
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Page Count: 264
My Rating: 3.75/5 stars

The story of a young woman whose diabolical smarts are her ticket into a charmed life. But how many times can someone reinvent themselves? You be the judge.

Imogen is a runaway heiress, an orphan, a cook, and a cheat.
Jule is a fighter, a social chameleon, and an athlete.
An intense friendship. A disappearance. A murder, or maybe two.
A bad romance, or maybe three.
Blunt objects, disguises, blood, and chocolate. The American dream, superheroes, spies, and villains.
A girl who refuses to give people what they want from her.
A girl who refuses to be the person she once was.




I enjoyed E. Lockharts 'We Were Liars' but it wasn't one of my favourite books ever so when picking up Genuine Fraud I wasn't overly sure that I was going to enjoy it and for the first probably 100 pages, I didn't. I will admit that whilst I enjoyed the book overall, the beginning of the book really out me through my paces as half the time I had no clue what was going on and it took me quite a while to realise that the book is told in reverse chronological order so basically the first chapter is the end of the story etc etc.

Now that I had that out of the way, I really began to enjoy this novel. The trippy timeline was annoying and confusing to begin with but as the novel went on more and more was revealed to you about the characters as you heard more and more about their past. Without giving away too much I'll just say that as the book goes by you realise that everything is not what it seems, wait scratch that, NOTHING IS WHAT IT SEEMS!!!!

'Imogen' our main character (if you read the book you'll know why I'm a bit sceptical about that name) at the beginning was not likeable at all to me, she seemed a bit cocky and full of herself but as her character progressed in the novel, I can't say that I enjoyed her more but she definitely become a more complex character as did the others and I thought Lockhart did a fantastic job of revealing more and more about each character when you needed to know so that the shocks in this book were even bigger.

The story of the book was fantastic. Once getting over the initial confusion I was hooked by the story.  The was things played out and happened were so interesting and there were times where I couldn't put the book down because I was so lost about what was going on but in the best way possible!!

So the question is, if I enjoyed this novel so intensely, why only 3.75 stars? Well really I only enjoyed about 66-75% of it as I WAS SO CONFUSED HALF THE TIME. I think that doing this kind of story in reverse chronological order was a great idea and added so much to the story but I would've liked to have been clued in a little bit more about the structure so that I wasn't spending half my time thinking well how is this character still alive when they died in the last chapter?? It baffled me so much that I almost put the book down permanently but luckily I didn't.

Overall, I'd definitely recommend this book now that you know about the structure (I just saved you hours of confused, you're welcome) because other than that it was a fantastic, thrilling experience that I'd love to read again.

Title: Warcross
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 367
My rating: 5/5 stars

For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.


I was going into reading Warcross expecting to enjoy the novel but not as much as I actually did. Reading Warcross transported me into a different world of culture, technology and society so well developed I forgot that it wasn't real (unfortunately). 

I don't really know where to start with Warcross because it was TOO GOOD FOR WORDS. Warcross locked me in from the first chapter and after that I didn't dare put it down. Marie Lu had managed to create such an interesting and developed world in Warcross that was so complex yet still made perfect sense to me as a reader that I was immersed straight away. It was so entertaining and fun to read about the Neurolink and the wardraft as for me at least I'd never read a book like this before. The awesome virtual reality aspects of this book were fascinating to read about and really allowed for an unpredictable story to unfold.

Speaking of unpredictable, THE PLOT!!! Not one but TWO plot twists that I never in one million years saw coming. The story of Emika Chen and how she does her job were nothing far from pure gold (can you tell I enjoyed this book?). I felt entertained throughout the whole book even when nothing major was happening but even so the big events and plot twists in this novel were even more satisfying. Warcross took so many twists and turns all throughout the book that made me frequently put the book down in fear that my brain would explode.

Emika was a stellar main character that I loved almost instantly. She was super smart and independent as well as having rainbow dyed hair so...what's not to like? I was so so so down for the relationship that blossomed in the book and enjoyed reading about it so much and even about how it progressed towards the end of the book, as shocking as it was and loved Hideo individually too even when I was questioning myself for doing so. Her friends and teammates were such great characters and I especially loved Hammie and Roshan, they were so badass and lovely I can't wait to see them in the next book (aaaah!!!!).

The main reason for me loving the book to pieces is how I felt after I had finished it. I not only wished that I could read it all again from scratch, but also it made me think long and hard about the themes of the novel and what I would do in the characters situations after the shock plot twist ending. The relevancy of the story to the real world stuck with me days after finishing the novel and am still not quite over Marie Lu's masterpiece of a novel.

I urge anyone and everyone to pick up this book if they have a chance even if you do not think it would be your cup of tea because as far as I can think brilliant characters, an amazing world, a delicious plot and shocking plot twists is everyone's cup of tea!