"The Martian" Review

Yes, I do already have another review for you guys, and before you kill me...I saw the movie before I read the book. MERCY! Haha, anyway, I received this book for free through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. Since I'm feeling lazy, the synopsis will simply be a photo of the back of the book, but I will still have my review and favorite quotes included. Let's dive into Andy Weir's The Martian. 

Review:

This book was so flipping hilarious. Yes, it was serious with the whole Mark-Watney-could-die-at-any-given-moment-on-Mars scenario, but Watney's dry sense of sarcasm WAS LITERALLY ME EVERY DAY AT SCHOOL. I connected so well with the way he pretty much laughed at any situation he was in, after first admitting to himself how totally screwed he was, of course. I loved how realistic and plausible everything seemed, from the Hab on Mars, to NASA in America, and the Hermes floating through space. 

Rating:

5 out of 5 stars, without a doubt. Although a word of caution to any younger readers: lots of explicit language.

(Very Few of My) Favorite Quotes:

[ ] = In place of a foul word.

"I wondered why I wasn't more dead."

"I'm a botanist and mechanical engineer; basically, the mission's fix-it man who played with plants."

"My [butt] is doing as much to keep me alive as my brain."

"[Heck] yeah I'm a botanist! Fear my botany powers!"

"I suppose I'll think of something. Or die."

"If ruining the only religious icon I have leaves me vulnerable to Martian vampires, I'll have to risk it."

"How come Aquaman can control whales? They're mammals! Makes no sense."

"We have a certain bond, after I spent two days in it during the Great Hydrogen Scare of Sol 37."

"Once I got home, I sulked for awhile. All my brilliant plans foiled by thermodynamics. [Darn] you, Entropy!"

"It's a desert so old it's literally rusting."

"I wonder what NASA would think about me [messing] with the RTG like this. They'd probably hide under their desks and cuddle with their slide rules for comfort."

"Fortunately, when you spend a lot of time in space, you learn how to [poop] in a bag. And if you think things are bad after opening the [urine] box, imagine the smell after I drop anchor."

"With all due respect to Carl, I can call it whatever the [heck] I want. I'm the King of Mars."

"I've gutted that poor rover so much, it looks like I parked it in a bad part of town."

"I haven't been this excited about a yes since prom night!"

"Jack, I'm going to buy your whole team autographed Star Trek memorabilia."

"Turns out the L in LCD stands for Liquid. I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I'll post a consumer review. 'Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.'"

"They did it because every human being has a basic instinct to help each other out. It might not seem that was sometimes, but it's true...This is so fundamentally human that it's found in every culture without exception. Yes, there are [buttholes] who just don't care, but they're massively outnumbered by the people who do. And because of that, I had billions of people on my side."

"Discovering April" Review!

Hey y'all! I hope you guys haven't been too blizzard-ed (?) out with winter storm Jonas and all the snow storms the south has been receiving! But, cold weather is the PERFECT time to cuddle up with a blanket, coffee (or hot cocoa), and a good book, and that's precisely what I have done! This review is over "Discovering April" by Sheena Hutchinson, an author of which I had the pleasure of meeting at UtopYA last summer. Featured will be my review and rating (of course), the synopsis of the novel, as well as my favorite quotes, and links to Sheena's social media/website. Let's begin discovering "Discovering April"! (See my punniness? xD)

Synopsis:

April Landau thinks she has everything she’s ever wanted. Her high school sweetheart, a house she can’t afford, her bipolar tabby cat, and she’s all set to begin her Junior year of college. Just when she least expects it, her life gets thrown for a loop. When things between her and her long time boyfriend unravel, she becomes stuck in a downward spiral of emotion. Finally, opening her eyes to the fact that she may have given up more than she ever could have imagined in this relationship. She finds herself struggling to keep her head above water.

Enter April’s next door neighbor— Jared Hoffman. He’s her complete opposite. A high school drop out who was forced to take over his parent’s business after their untimely death. It’s no surprise this tragedy affected him greatly, causing him to recede almost completely from society. 

But he has one secret. A secret he’s been carrying around for years. 

What happens when their worlds collide? Can an old friendship be the one thing that brings these two back to life? 

Review:

Okay, let me just start off my saying that this book is only for readers of a mature age due to quite a bit of sexual, steamy scenarios. With that out of the way, I can digest and process my feelings towards the novel. I felt like the title was very true to the story; as you watch April realizing who she was before she started dating her boyfriend Hunter, you see just how much she truly gave away in that relationship, and it's so realistic to see that she was literally blinded by love and so filled with denial that she allowed herself to stay in an unfaithful relationship with him. Now, when Jared comes back into the picture (plus the switched POV in the epilogue), you see that initial childhood connection spark up between them, and it's really touching to see how their love lasted through Jared's loss of his parents, all of April's horrible boyfriends, and the several years of no communication between the two neighbors. The story felt very true to how much pain and fear, along with the immense happiness, you feel in a strong relationship. Amazing work, Sheena.

Eating:

4 out of 5, just because of the amount of mentions to sex and the language scattered throughout. Again, this novel should only be read my readers of a mature age. It's not Fifty Shades, but it definitely has quite a few mentions to it, and I don't want to risk any children accidentally reading it and getting a huge surprise.

Favorite Quotes:

"When you spend practically every moment with someone and then they just disappear, you just don't know how to act when you're alone."

"I'm expecting an answer, one that will make everything fall into plae. Maybe there is no answer. Mate sometimes, the guy is just a complete asshole. I wonder if Prince Charming ever screwed over Cinderella. Is there really such a thing as happily ever after?"

"Sometimes you just need to get away from it all to refocus again."

"Staring at the sloping symbol before me [infinity symbol], it loops around in a never-ending reminder that everything comes full circle."

"One smile from him made my anger disappear like a feather on the wind. Either I'm in love with him, or I'm in need of serious medication."

"From the moment he showed me the stars—the real stars—I have been unequivocally his."

"Men, real men, that is, do these things for women, not because we have to, but because we feel they deserve to be honored in some small, tiny way every single day."

"I glance up and see the gleam in his eyes, and my stomach twists in a weird sensation. It's strange, because I don't know how to describe it. It's not anxiety or those butterflies everyone always talks about. It just feels...real."

"I guess you can't find what you aren't looking for."

"The people around us disappear, the floor beneath us falls away, the music is a distant melody, and it's just us. Us. Just like that, I became part of a couple, us."

"You've said life is a series of choices, but I think it's also a series of opportunities, a series of lessons, a series of me moments all strung together that loops around into a lifetime—it's a lifetime of moments. Every decision, every person that has entered my life, has shaped who I am today."

"After being with Jared, how am I suppose to settle for anything less?"

"I guess there are just some things you new to know for yourself. There is no substitute for peace of mind. There is no reasoning with love, no common sense, no thinking. Feelings like love and friendship are beyond common sense, beyond all reason."

Sheena Hutchinson:

www.sheenahutchinson.com

Instagram: @author_shea