Blood On My Hands by Todd Strasser

Another couple days gone in the life of Megan the book review writer. It always surprises me how much I read every time I get back to writing one of these for you guys. Whatever, you know what the young people say these days ‘YOLO’

All it takes is one second. One stupid move. One click of a cell phone. When Callie Carson discovers ice queen Katherine Remington-Day sprawled on the ground one night, she bends down to help her. It's only natural-the party's been a bit wild, after all. And it's only natural for her to pull out the fake knife she discovers, irritated at one more example of Katherine's callous disregard of  other people's feelings. But the knife is real . . . and bloody. And then Callie hears the click of one cell phone, followed by another, and another. In minutes, images of her holding the bloody knife have gone viral. Now wanted for murder, Callie is on the run from the police. All the evidence points to her guilt, but she's determined to prove her innocence, which would mean . . . the real killer is still out there.

Seeing as I’m a strong believer that you can never tell how good a books is by its cover, I chose Blood On My Hands randomly from my school library. Its easy to say though that this was not the most brilliant book I’ve read. It’s slightly boring actually with all of the teenage drama and the bitchy girls. I didn’t find anything particularly surprising or grabbing about this book. The genre is mystery and its about a murder so I expected a little more suspense.

The main character Callie is great at running away from the police, everything pretty much goes her way even at the end. I don’t know, maybe I’m grumpy maybe I’m not but say this book was special: I cannot.

A great big 2 OUT OF 5. As it its still a book with a storyline but by just a bit. :D Just kidding! Not really.

MRR – out.

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Good evening for anybody in Pacific Western Time, and greetings to anybody else. This novel was recommended to me by my friend Antony. I haven’t seen the movie, and I’m glad because seeing as the book was pretty amazing, the movie probably sucks compared. Anyway, no paragraph for this book its just something you have to READ.

“You are not special. You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We're all part of the same compost heap. We're all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

The first thing I noticed when I opened this treasure chest of a book up was the writing style. Palahniuk uses plenty of repetitive writing throughout Fight Club’s entirety. The way he phrases everything really lets you absorb what’s happening, as well as capture your attention from the first chapter. As you go through the beginning there several parts that are hard to understand because you don’t know the full story, but the repetitive writing keeps you focused and wanting more.

Next thing that made this book unique was how the author wove the story together. As a reader, you are thrown into random settings which keep you guessing but still wanting more. I was dragged through this book by the continuous thread of dark poetry. Unlike anything I’ve ever read really.

So there you have it folks, add this to your to read list. It’s a classic. 5 OUT OF 5.

THATS RIGHT.

BE PREPARED.

FULL MARKS FOR THIS GUY.

Aaaaaaaaaand next week on insubstantial we have Mr. Todd Strasser and “Blood On My Hands”  Never heard of it? Yeah neither have I.

MRR – out.

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick

Whew, it has been a while. I have been absent on here due to my wonderful trip during spring break to Austria and Spain, as well as being deathly sick for a week as soon as I returned to my country. Now that I’m half caught up on homework I’ll take some time to do some bloggin’


Despite starting a relationship with Patch, her guardian angel (whose title is the only angelic thing about him), and surviving an attempt on her life, things are not looking good for Nora Grey. Aside from fearing her boyfriend is interested in her nemesis, Nora is haunted by images of her father and becomes obsessed with understanding his disappearance. As Nora delves into the mystery of her father's death, she begins to wonder whether her Nephilim blood line has something to do with it. And since Patch isn't answering her questions, Nora has to start finding the answers on her own. Relying too heavily on the fact that she has a guardian angel puts Nora at risk again and again. But can she really count on Patch-or is he hiding secrets darker than she can even imagine?
I haven’t ever held this series as important to me, there isn’t anything that stands out greatly about the story or anything.


When I started reading Crescendo I didn’t really remember what happened in the first book but it was still enjoyable. Let me tell you though, all of this reading I’ve been doing especially in the young adult section makes me realize how very alike most of the stories are. I’m just going to categorize this one with the rest haha.

The protagonist in this book is extremely childish, which I guess some teens can relate with. I found it sort of annoying to read about her relationship problems at most points in the novel. Patch also needs to start showing some flaws at some time or another. So far he is the perfect boyfriend and person and he does everything right which is kind of boring if you ask me. When Nora was getting upset and jealous of Patch and the other girl I knew the entire time she was wrong which as a reader is kind of boring.

There was a good twist though at the end that is sure to surprise the readers because there is no hints whatsoever to what is going to happen. I think there is another book out in this series, maybe in that one we’ll actually know what’s going on instead of being stuck in naive Nora’s shoes. http://www.beccafitzpatrick.com/

A 2.5 OUT OF 5 for Crescendo. Taaaaa daaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Fight Club is next, and some Canadian writing from Margaret Atwood sometime in the future.

MRR