The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde - UPDATED REVIEW

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde  Genre : Classics Blurb (on back of book) : Oscar Wilde’s only novel is the dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. In this celebrated work Wilde forged a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young aesthete in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a striking premise: As Dorian Gray sinks into a life of crime and gross sensuality, his body retains perfect youth and vigor while his recently painted portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. For over a century, this mesmerizing tale of horror and suspense has enjoyed wide popularity. It ranks as one of Wilde's most important creations and among the classic achievements of its kind. UPDATED REVIEW MY OPINION : ****** I would like to start out this review by stating that this is undoubtedly m

The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window - Kirsty Moseley

The Boy Who Sneaks In My Bedroom Window - Kindle edition by ...The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window by Kirsty Moseley
Genre: NA Realistic Fiction

Blurb (on back of book): Liam James, boy next door and total douchebag, is my brother’s best friend. I can’t stand him. Well, that’s not strictly true, at night I see a side of him that no one else does. Every night Liam becomes my safe haven, my protector, the one to chase the demons of my abusive childhood away and hold all the broken pieces of me together.
He’s cocky, he’s arrogant, and he’s also some sort of playboy in training. With his ‘hit it and quit it’ mentality, he’s the last person you’d want to fall in love with. I only wish someone had told my heart that…
The international bestselling novel, and finalist of the Goodreads choice awards YA fiction 2012.


MY OPINION: **

spoiler warning -- this is not a very good review haha it's more of a rant


I wavered between a two-star or a four-star rating throughout the entire book. I would like to start out by saying that this is a self-published book from Wattpad (I believe??) and that's beyond impressive. I would not have the guts to publish some of the things I have written on my Wattpad so props to Moseley.

For those of you who don't already know, I am a huge fan of Wattpad. Yes, I know it's an embarrassing thing to admit but I joined the Wattpad community around three or four years ago and have never left. I have most of my best works up on there as well as some awful fan fictions but I mostly read people's works on there. That being said, this book felt EXTREMELY Wattpad. I could tell that this was a Wattpad-esque book and because of that, the first 70% was pretty enjoyable.

Amber is the basic, innocent, oblivious Wattpad girl who has lived a hard life with her father. Her entire childhood, she was physically, verbally, and sexually abused by her dad, and this has left traumatizing scars on her mentally and emotionally. She is afraid to be touched by anyone because it brings back the bad memories of her dad. Her dad was kicked out of the house by her older brother and his best friend, Liam, when they become strong enough to get rid of him.

And here we are introduced to Liam, the cocky, arrogant, bad-boy Wattpad god that everyone on Wattpad loves to glorify. In the day, he's a manwhore who has a different girl on his arm every day. In the night, he's an angel who sneaks through Amber's window every single night since they were ten years old JUST TO SLEEP. They don't do anything else and Amber has no romantic feelings towards Liam (yet). It all started when she was eight and he was ten and he snuck into her room after hearing the abuse from her father yet again. He became a comfort to her and now they can't sleep without each other. Her brother has never found out about this arrangement in the EIGHT years that it has been going on.

The idea is cute, a very Wattpad book type. I liked the premise because I thought it was going to be a short, simple, fluffy novel full of romance and unnecessary cringe characters.

However.

Things changed.

Suddenly, they realize they actually have feelings for each other. Well, apparently, Liam has been in love with Amber since he was six. I am a whole decade older than that and I have never been in love. HOW DO YOU FALL IN LOVE AT SIX.

When Liam first saw Amber, he thought she was an angel. This is why he calls her Angel EVERY SINGLE DAY OF HIS LIFE. I do not think he said her name ONCE in the novel. She never knew why he called her that and so she was annoyed (cue the obliviousness). However, his mother tells her the story one day and she's like OMG HE LIKES ME.

Basically, they fall in love WITHIN ONE WEEK. My friends, the whole first half of the book is only over ONE week.

Amber has a fear of being touched, as we have said, and so she is not willing to have sex with the manwhore Liam, causing her to fear that he will dump or cheat on her because she knows he can't keep it in his pants. However, he constantly reassures her "No I love you, I've loved you since I was six, I would never cheat on you, Angel." Surprisingly, this is true.

So now, we go through a week-long relationship in which Liam tells Amber he loves her basically every day and every single time they make out they go a little farther. This annoyed me because it didn't accurately represent the trauma that sexual assault victims go through. However, it's chalked up to the fact that she trusts Liam more than anyone else in the world, including her own brother. She often says she would rather be with Liam than with her own brother. She loves Liam more than him, to be quite honest.

Oh and the brother is very overprotective and does not want Liam to date his little sister.

Anyways, of course, we have to get to the drama. I thought Liam was gonna cheat on her and I was just waiting for the moment. HOWEVER I was wrong.

Her dad comes back. Lo and behold. In the flesh. With a new wife and a new family with two children.

Amber finds out she has a stepbrother, Johnny, who is basically her age and she meets him at school. She's initially afraid because of his relation with her dad but she finds out that he's a nice dude. They become pretty close friends and Johnny decides to take her to his house for some reason that I've forgotten. Amber is afraid but Johnny says that the dad isn't home.

Of course, the dad is home.

Amber is reunited with her dad and she meets his new family. The wife and baby are pretty nice but they leave the room, causing Amber to be alone with her dad because Johnny is upstairs showering. UH OH. He hasn't reformed! AT ALL! Instead, he's creepy AF and calls her a "peach". WTF.

Amber is traumatized and Johnny takes her home. Her brother and Liam find out and with their extreme anger problems, set out to go kill the dad (or at least beat him up) to which Amber pleads NO NO don't get in trouble! You're going to go to jail and I can't live without you Liam!!

This makes sense because we all know that in every Wattpad book, the innocent ones go to jail.

ANYWAYS

Amber and Liam do it. AFTER ONE WEEK. She started out saying We might not get to do it until MARRIAGE. But no. ONE WEEK. And they have done it. She goes on the pill sometime in that WEEK which makes zero sense because I'm pretty sure it takes more than seven days for it to start working. But she doesn't read the instructions and thinks she fine so they don't use condoms.

OOPS

Amber finds out that she is pregnant. She's sixteen. She wants an abortion initially but Liam goes NO How could you? Don't you want to start a family? I want a baby with you! I love you! Even though he's eighteen and he's about to go to college.

Amber blinded by her love AGREES. Like, I'm pretty sure it's her choice and she wanted an abortion but okay. She decides not to tell her brother yet because she knows that he's going to kill Liam for getting her pregnant.

They go home. Then we find out that the dad is coming to visit them at their house because JAKE THE BROTHER TELLS HIM TO COME BY. He wants a chance to talk to him and then beat him up. THIS IS THE DUMBEST PLAN EVER.

Liam sends Amber to his house next door to hide out and stay safe while he and Jake get ready to possibly beat up the dad.

The dad arrives and Amber watches from next door as they talk and then Jake throws a punch.

AMBER THE DUMBASS COMES BACK TO THE HOUSE AND SHES LIKE AHHHH STOP PUNCHING HIM YOURE GONNA GET IN TROUBLE

And then the dad sees her, grabs her, slaps her so hard that she's chucked against the wall, and she LOSES HER BABY. A MISCARRIAGE. LIAM IS PUNCHING THE DAD BTW

This was all so like WTF just happened.

Liam takes her to the hospital after calling an ambulance and the brother finds out what's going on and doesn't get to ride in the ambulance with her because Liam wants to. Amber likes this better and she even says I would rather have Liam by my side than my own brother. That's cold.

We find out she lost the baby and there's really no repercussions. She's not as depressed as I thought she would be finding out that she lost a baby. Like I wouldn't eat or sleep for weeks.

Then Amber sets up an elaborate plan because LO AND BEHOLD LIAM GETS ARRESTED. There's no proof that the dad was the problem so Amber takes matters into her own hands and decides she's going to get the proof.

SO SHE CALLS AN APPOINTMENT WITH HER ABUSIVE DAD AND MEETS HIM ALONE WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE UNTIL SHES THERE.

She records him basically admitting to everything and then Jake shows up and the dad agrees to drop the charges against Liam so that he won't be exposed and go to jail.

Amber and Liam are reunited!

Wowza.


Basically, this disaster of a review is how the book felt to me. Crazy, unrealistic. I liked it in the beginning and was going to rate it four stars but then we got to all the drama with the dad and that just lowered my rating extremely. There were also many grammar mistakes throughout the novel (obviously being self-published, this is okay). The characters themselves were one-dimensional and really had no depth other than being perfect, hot, sexy, gods. I would recommend this book to readers looking for the most dramatic Wattpad-esque novel you can find.

I did like the relationship between Amber and Liam because they were pretty cute if you ask me. He cared about her to the ends of the world and really showed that in his actions. I also liked Amber and Jake because Jake was so fiercely protective over her and was willing to do whatever it took to protect her.

I wish Jake and Amber's friend got together because I was really expecting it to happen.

Main Character: Amber
Sidekick(s): Liam, Jake, etc
Villain(s): The dad, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This could technically happen in real life though I hope it never does.

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