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...
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The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love - Sarvenaz Tash

The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
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Blurb (on back of book): Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Archie and Veronica. Althena and Noth.…Graham and Roxy?
Graham met his best friend, Roxy, when he moved into her neighborhood eight years ago and she asked him which Hogwarts house he’d be sorted into. Graham has been in love with her ever since.
But now they’re sixteen, still neighbors, still best friends. And Graham and Roxy share more than ever—moving on from their Harry Potter obsession to a serious love of comic books.
When Graham learns that the creator of their favorite comic, The Chronicles of Althena, is making a rare appearance at this year’s New York Comic Con, he knows he must score tickets. And the event inspires Graham to come up with the perfect plan to tell Roxy how he really feels about her. He’s got three days to woo his best friend at the coolest, kookiest con full of superheroes and supervillains. But no one at a comic book convention is who they appear to be…even Roxy. And Graham is starting to realize fictional love stories are way less complicated than real-life ones.

 MY OPINION: ****

I'm going to try my best to make this a quality review, though I can't make any promises.

I found this book off of Goodreads by checking the "related" section to a book that I previously loved, The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson. That was such a wonderful book that I just had to find books similar to it.

This was a short and poignant read that could soon become another tiny guilty pleasure. It was a "cutesy" book (I recently heard someone say that and it's the only word I could think of to describe this book) that was full of romance and friendship and fun.

I'll go into a short blurb since I already posted it up above.

Graham is a "geek" who loves comic books and all that fun stuff. He met his best friend, Roxana "Roxy" Afsari (I'm not 100% sure if that was her last name so please correct me!) 10 years ago. Their meeting consisted of some Harry Potter conversation and BOOM BFFs. Skip ahead a couple of years later and Graham realizes that maybe he wants something more than friendship from Roxy. Both of them love comic books obsessively and Graham makes plans to go with her to Comic-Con to meet the creator of their favorite comic and finally profess his love for her. But once he gets there, he realizes that people aren't always as they seem to be.

I know, it kind of sounds "cheesy" but it was an amazing read.

Graham himself was a little bit complicated. He wasn't as 3D or "deep" as I had hoped for him to be. He had a lot of potential but fell a little bit short of "serious character." He also put himself down a lot, saying that Roxy could never love him because he was a lanky, pale geek who was only ever going to be her best friend. He was quite negative if you look at it. He also complained SO much that it just made me scoff when he tried to do something nice. I DID understand how he felt about things, and how things were unfair for him and TBH, I would probably have acted the same way if some guy (or girl, in my case) tried to hop in and steal the guy of my dreams.

However, Graham didn't really have a right to be so jealous and competitive when concerning Devin. If he's not brave enough to ask Roxy out and someone takes her before he does, he doesn't have the right to act the way he does. Besides, Devin is a genuinely nice guy who really seems as if he cares about Roxy.

I honestly don't think that Graham REALLY ever liked Roxy. He makes it seem like he does but as soon as she rejects him, he goes out and accepts a prospective date with another girl that he just met a couple of days before at SPEED DATING. And he's judging Roxy for doing the exact same thing?? He was honestly almost hypocritical if you think about it. 

 Roxy. What can I even say about her? To be honest, readers never really got to know her. We never get any insight on her and she's definitely not deep. She's more like a paper figure rather than a character because we never get to see her develop. However, from what we did see of her, she was sweet and honestly good-hearted, though she also seemed foolish sometimes and a little bit reckless.

Throughout the story, we can see some changes beginning to happen but we never get to fully see them develop.

Casey and Felicia are kind of a package deal so I'm going to talk about them together rather than with their own separate paragraphs. I honestly have to say that I liked Casey. He was funny, he was committed, he was smart, he was good-hearted. He was willing to help a friend out even if it meant doing something he didn't want to do. He was also punctual, organized, and he was someone who made a schedule and stuck to it. Like, if he was at a grocery store with a premade list of things that he had to buy, he would buy those things and those things only. Felicia, on the other hand, was also smart though she seemed like she cared about things other than her grades and schoolwork, though that was a priority for her. She was very well put-together and she seemed organized and all in all, perfect.

Devin sort of got on my nerves at points because he always seemed to be getting in the way of things. He was always just there, even when he didn't need to be. However, he really seemed like he tried to help Roxy have fun and such and such but I didn't fully appreciate him as much as, say, Casey.

Amelia was sweet and kind-hearted who seemed like she actually cared about other people and their feelings. She risked getting kicked out of a premium interview to get a recording to send to Graham. She also seemed to be nerdy and smart, which I liked. I did not, however, ship her with Graham. I thought she would have made a better friend than a girlfriend.

 I like the writing in this book. I thought that even though it was a short read, the writing was beautiful and realistic and was powerful. I loved the sentence structure and some of the quotes were just amazing.

 Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book. I thought the characters could have used some development but most of them were lovable and kind. The writing was amazing and I liked the whole plotline of this book. I would recommend to people looking for a quick short and lovable read.

Main Character: Graham
Sidekick(s): Roxy, Casey, Amelia, Felicia, etc
Villain(s): Devin (to Graham), love, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This book was very real to life.

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