Monsters by Ilsa J. Bick | Book Review

*This review might contain spoilers*

The Changed are on the move. The Sparred are out of time. The End… Is now.

When her parents died, Alex thought things couldn't get much worse–until the doctors found the monster in her head.

She headed into the wilderness as a good-bye, to leave everything behind. But then the end of the world happened, and Alex took the first step down a treacherous road of betrayal and terror and death.

Now, with no hope of rescue–on the brink of starvation in a winter that just won't quite–she discovers a new and horrifying truth.

The Change isn't over.
The Changed are still evolving.
And…they've had help.

One thing I love books to have is a few pages that catch you up on the events of the last book in the series. In Monsters, the first page is a who-was-when-and-where-at-the-end-of-Shadows kind of thing. Then, at the back of the book there's a few pages devoted to the characters, I guess you'd call them mini bios. These two things are extremely helpful! The fact that the author thought to add those in is like the cherry on top of a book sundae (let's be honest, we all want there to be such things as book sundaes).

Now, onto some bad news. This book is a DNF: Did Not Finish. Why, you may ask? This is not due to the quality of the writing or anything like that, it's just because I wasn't really interested in reading this book. It didn't capture my attention like the two previous books in the trilogy, and I didn't want to spend time reading a book I didn't want to read in the first place. 

Books are created for enjoyment, exploring new worlds, explaining your views on things, and I don't want to waste time reading books I don't enjoy when I could be enjoying exploring new worlds. I'm still going to feel guilty when I put a book down and don't pick it back up, because I always believed that you had to finish a book when I was little; no other way around it. However, there is. With the Ashes trilogy, you don't have all your burning questions answered and tied up in a cute package with bows. There's yelling at the pages and pulling your hair, because you're left with more burning questions. While that can be feels-inducing, I just got annoyed at this series once I looked over the books again. 

To be honest, I just got bored and did something naughty. I have a habit of reading a quarter(ish) of a book, then reading the last page. I don't normally regret this, but I definitely regret spoiling the last page of Monsters. It screwed with my head and my preconceived understanding of the Ashes trilogy, and I just didn't like how the protagonist ended up, so I stopped reading. This could be a metaphor for my life, omg. Anyway, yeah I skipped ahead to read the last page and got a nasty surprise. Didn't like what I saw.

The book itself is, of course, amazingly written. Ilsa has a brilliant talent for writing and creating vivid worlds for readers to dive into. While I feel like some characters have abrupt stories or could be kind of pointless, the main characters are brilliant. I love the romance between Tom & Alex, and the lovely people they meet on their journeys. I just didn't connect with the characters at all, which is disappointing in any novel.

Monsters is a hit 'n' miss kind of book; you'll either like it or you won't and there's no telling which boat you'll fall into. Personally, this book just isn't for me and I'm ultimately glad I put it back on the shelf. That doesn't mean I won't feel guilty for doing so, but a booklover shouldn't read books she hates; hence the term booklover. 

~zì jiàn!~

Blogs & Vlogs | Miscellaneous Friday

One of the best feelings is (as a blogger), thinking of a really awesome name for a blogpost. Something catchy or something that rhymes; just something that you're extremely happy with. I have achieved this and it excites me immensely, I don't care how silly that sounds. 

I've been contemplating starting a Youtube account for a while now, just because I think it would be a great platform to host all my opinions and thoughts; get everything I want to say across a lot better. I'm kind of scared about doing that, and I know I'll put a lot of stress on myself to upload on time. 

Some of the things I want to address and talk about on my blog don't sound quite right typed up, so I think I'll use Youtube as a little helper for GypsiesandPixies. Just to host videos that address the same stuff as my blog. I won't be uploading very often, but hopefully this will work out! 

I just realised that I have barely anything to say for this post, so I'm sorry that it's really short. I'll try thinking up something for next time because it's like I've got the worst ideas everrrrrrrr at the moment.

~Au Revoir!~

Miscellaneous Friday: Priceline Haul

I've been meaning to buy some more brushes, and basic makeup staples as I really don't have a lot. So off I went to walk the hallowed halls of Priceline! Like the overly organised person I am, I even wrote a list of everything I wanted to get (name of product, price, brand even). I bought some stuff (obviously) and I thought I'd share what I got with you all.

I admit that the revlon blush brush was an impulse buy, and that I'm basically a brush whore. I've actually never used bronzer before, having no use for it, but I've gotten very pale lately. Now I just know I'm going to end up with a few hundred more bronzers (uh oh).

Revlon Blush brush & Kabuki brush

Upon close inspection, these brushes look awesome. However, the blush brush doesn't feel as nice as I'd hoped, especially coming from such a big brand as Revlon. The widdle Kabuki brush feels really soft & lovely, and I know I'll get a lot of use out of it. 

essence powder brush

Just a basic power brush from 'essence'. I got this one because it's small, great for travelling and doesn't take up a lot of space in my brush pot. Plus, it's purple and I heard great things about it online.  But it's so not velvety soft, like it's online description claims.

Models Prefer Double Ended Colour Dipped powder & eye shadow brush
Models Prefer Double eye shadow brush

These were the brushes I was most excited to get, because of the convenient dual-end system (dirty?). Excited! I know I'll use these a lot just because they look so awesome, and I love that they've given really good shape to the range of brushes.

Maybelline Expert Eyewear Shadow Quad in Natural Smokes

I owned absolutely no neutral eye shadows until I bought this quad. I'm not even kidding. I've never really bothered with eye shadow, and if I did I would use colours that didn't just blend in; brown hair, brown eyes, brown eye shadow. Ya know? But I do realise that I really needed just a basic neutral pallet, and I can use the darkest colour for my brows. 

Prestige Ultimate Brow Definer Pencil in Black Brown

I can't wait to use this eyebrow pencil, as I've not used one in a loooong time. I felt it was time to repurchase one because my brows are looking a bit sparse due to a horrible incident with tweezers a few days ago. I might tell you guys about it if I get over the embarrassment. Let's just say I got a bit tweezer happy, to put it lightly.

Australis Fresh & Flawless Pressed Powder in Darkest Brown

You can never have too many powders. I don't use liquid foundation because it's too heavy for my skin and I break out pretty badly, but powder seems to do a good job. I just needed another one, as I ran out a long time ago and wanted to give my skin a break. Plus I just couldn't be bother getting another. Lazy.

Rimmel Natural Bronzer in Sun Bronze

After looking on the Priceline website at all the gorgeous bronzers they had in store, I am just obsessed with bronzers. I know what I want for my birthday, that's for sure. Anyway, I did a swatch of this (and all the other products) but because they don't show up very well on my iPod, I'll describe to you how pretty this bronzer is! It's just beautiful, with a widdle bit of shimmer and lovely pigmentation. It's not heavily pigmented at all, which I like, meaning you can slowly built it up on your face to achieve the look you want. 

I'll definitely be reviewing a lot of these products, although I'm not saying when because I'm shitty at  posting when I say I will. I'd love to hear any recommendations or reviews of products in the comments! I know I don't do many beauty related posts on GypsiesandPixies, so please let me know if you'd like to see more. I love you!

~Au Revoir!~

Miscellaneous Friday: Screw Eating Healthy

We've always been told to eat healthy, that strict diets and rigorous exercise are the best ways to achieve weight loss goals. 

Um, how about no?

When you're following strict diet and exercise regimes, you end up under a lot of pressure and feel extremely let down when you don't achieve the weight loss you were promised. I feel really guilty for eating a piece of mouthwatering chocolate cake or having a slice of meatlovers pizza. It sucks, because as much as I love these foods, I'll end up judging myself for eating them. They aren't good for you, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy eating them every now and again. It's not going to kill me. 

It's the same with exercise. The idea of physical activity repulses me, and I avoid it when I can because I'd much rather relax. However, I know that it's good for my body, so when I feel motivated and positive towards going for a run I will. When I'm forced to do all this healthy eating and sports (by my parents, or in P.E), I associate it with feeling shitty and awful and I absolutely hate doing it.

I actually love going for runs and playing outside with my friends (for gods sake, we still play tips), and I also love eating healthy. Sometimes I just want to tell the infomercials and any other idiots that I'm allowed to pig out on junk food or not do any exercise for a week straight. 

It sucks that a lot of teenagers feel that they need to starve themselves or do crazy workouts to be accepted by society or be 'cool'. Yes, you should be healthy, but you don't have to miss out on breakfast and dinner to do so?! All the bullshit that magazines, TV, and annoying brats at school say isn't true. You don't need to be thin to be healthy & happy, you just need to be healthy and happy. If you're happy, it's a thousand times easier to be healthy. If you're healthy, it's a thousand times easier to be happy.

~Au Revoir!~