Series Review: Prim Improper Series by Deirdre Sullivan

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I was lucky enough to meet Deirdre at Dept Con back in October of last year and attended one of her panels where I heard her talk about this series. I became interested in the series so I went home and was delighted to find it in the library. 

I recently finished reading the series and I have to say I was surprised at how thoroughly impressed I was. Upon first glance, I had thought these novels would be middle grade, light hearted sort of reads. I did not account for the range of difficult topics, character emotions and resonating story the books would hold. 

Through out the series Deirdre Sullivan writes about deep issues that affect Prim, from grief and loss, to parental separation, friendship, growing up, love and mental health. Deirdre Sullivan writes all of these issues with such honesty and does not rose-tint or sugar coat any of the more difficult themes. This made the story of Prim feel so real and really allows for the reader to sympathise with Prim and her family. 

If I could describe the series in a word it would be quirky! The novels are unique, with a host of unusual and fun characters and the format of the novel is broken up occasionally by Prim's word definitions as she one day wants to be a crossword maker. 

The writing style had great flow and kept the reader hooked. Prims narrative style was so blunt, humorous and compelling. 

Review: Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne

Publication Date: August 1st 2015
Publisher: Usborne 
Source:  Bought 

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Blurb: 

All Evie wants is to be normal. She’s almost off her meds and at a new college where no one knows her as the girl-who-went-crazy. She’s even going to parties and making friends. There’s only one thing left to tick off her list…

But relationships are messy – especially relationships with teenage guys. They can make any girl feel like they’re going mad. And if Evie can’t even tell her new friends Amber and Lottie the truth about herself, how will she cope when she falls in love?

As you may know if you have read my favourite books of 2015 blog post, Am I Normal Yet? was one of my absolute favourite novels of last year. You may also be wondering, Shannon if you read that book back in October of last year, why on earth are you only writing a review now?! Well blog reader, the answer to that is that I kept putting off this review to formulate my thoughts in a comprehensible manner as I did not want to be a mess of emotions just yelling at you to buy this book!

I picked up this novel before attending Dept Con 1, a book convention where Holly Bourne was speaking and signing her novels. I did not know much about this novel before reading it apart from the fact that lots of people on twitter, including my wonderful friend Cooleen, had read and adored it. I went into this novel expecting it to be good, but I was utterly blown away by how incomprehensibly fantastic it was! 

Am I Normal Yet? tells the story of Evie, a sixteen year old girl with mental health problems that wishes to just be a "normal" teenager. The novel goes through so many themes from family life to school to fitting in. Some of the most prominent themes in the novel is friendship,mental health and the concept of what "normal" is. 

End Of Year Survey 2015

This End Of Year Survey was created by Jamie, aka the Perpetual Page Turner. If you would like to find out more on this, click here. 

Number Of Books You Read: 56

Number of Re-Reads: 4 (The Bone Season, Paper Towns, Mockingjay & Deadlands)

Genre You Read The Most From: YA / YA Contemporary

1. Best Book You Read In 2015?

I read SO Many amazing novels in 2015 but the best I read were probably, Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill and Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne. 

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver was sort of a big disappointment for me as I have heard so much hype around Lauren Oliver's Delirium series.

 This book was nothing special for me, I disliked most of the characters and found the plot and ending to be very predictable. Overall it left me feeling unsatisfied. 

 

3. Most surprising (in a good way or bad way) book you read?  

One by Sarah Crossan would have to be the most surprising book I've read this year....in a good way of course! 

I have never read a novel told completely in verse / poetry and would never have thought it would be something I would enjoy. But this book was just perfection. From the beautiful writing to the achingly raw human emotion conveyed in the novel, One is a novel I will never forget. 

 4. Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read (And They Did)?

All Of The Above by James Dawson is not only one of the best books I read in 2015 but one of the best books I have ever read! So I sort of pushed my wonderful friend Cooleen (Check out her YouTube channel here!) into reading this book so I could have someone to share my thoughts and feelings on it. Honestly such an amazing honest look at teenage life, sexuality and friendship. 

 5. Best series you started in 2015? Best Sequel of 2015? Best Series Ender of 2015?

The best series I started in 2015 would have to be The Geek Girl series by Holly Smale. Such a hilarious, entertaining series filled with vivid characters and realistic relationships. Harriet Manners is the kind of character I would love to jump out of the page and be my best friend. I can't recommend this novel enough.Overall a witty, fun, gripping and memorable contemporary novel that will have you laughing out loud! 

One of the best sequels I read this year is Love Bomb by Jenny Mc Lachlan. This is the second book in the Ladybirds series and was just as fun. thrilling and cute as Flirty Dancing while also taking a more serious turn. I enjoyed how Jenny McLachlan handled writing the storyline of this novel and felt that the topic of Betty's mothers death was written so well and with such care. Although the books can be read separately, it is classed as the second book in the series on Goodreads so I'm counting it as a sequel! 

Dept Con 1 | Event chat & Haul

Dept Con 1 was something myself and my friend Cooleen (Youtube Channel) had been looking forward to since it was announced back in August. 

Dept Con is a book convention organised and ran by the Easons and Department 51 (the YA side of Easons) staff  and head children's and YA book buyer Dave O' Callaghan. The convention took place over two days in Smock Alley Theatre. 

The convention featured 26 speakers and authors along with signings, a YA breakfast and plenty of other fun things!

The authors featured at the event included: 

Books I got signed: 

 Over the course of the Con, I mostly tweeted my reaction to all the bookish awesome-ness (@Shannonbookworm) 


Day One: 

On the first day of the event, the con kicked off at 3pm and ended at 10pm.

Panels on the first day included discussions on "The World of YA & How it is Perceived & Represented by Hollywood" which Jenny Downham, Sally Green & Patrick Ness discussed YA adaptations and Patrick Ness' upcoming A Monster Calls adaptation (Review) . 

The next panel was on the topic of "LGBT* in YA Panel" held by James Dawson, Cat Clarke, Deirdre Sullivan and David Maybury . This was one of my favourite panels of the day as I felt that all the topics raised such as representation of LGBT main characters in YA and discussion on whether "Gay YA" was a trend in YA lit (the answer was an obvious no). 


The "Future of YA & Its Audience (Adult readers vs Teens) panel was hosted by Holly Bourne, Sheena Wilkinson and Julia Bell which talked about the new stat released that 55% of YA book buyers are aged between 30 - 44, and whether an author should write with their reader in mind or focus on the story. 

The final panel of day two was a great panel which featured Holly Smale and Louise O'Neill (Review) on the topic of "Death to the patriarchy!" and feminism in YA. I loved this panel and the discussions on abusive relationships being shown as the norm in YA and the representation of women in YA. Such a great panel and a wonderful way to end the first day.