Thursday, December 3, 2015

#AusYASecretSanta Blog Hop


I am so excited to this be participating in the #AusYASecretSanta blog hop! I love secret santa, my cousins and I participate every year because it is way too expensive to buy gifts for each other so secret santa is something that we do! I get a bit crazy with wrapping my secret santa's gift and sometimes lots of boxes, wrapping paper and tape are used, do not cross me!

1. What are your top 5 books this year?
Only 5 really! I'm going to cheat and use authors because many have multiple books I have loved this year.

  • Queen of Shados & A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
  • The Queen of the Tearling by Erkia Johansen
  • All Fall Down by Ally Carter
  • Shadow Study by Maria V. Synder
  • Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

2. How did you go with you goodreads challenge?
So my goal of 150 books has been smashed despite the fact I have stopped telling goodreads when I have finished a book (it currently says 140 but it is closer to at least 250-300 books read).

3. How many times did you post a week on average? Do you think you’ll post more/less in the future?
I rarely posted (bad Keely!) but this year uni wise I has been crazy and it looks like it will keep on getting crazier, I hope to improve my posting in 2016.

4. What is your favourite blogging moment/achievement of 2015?
Meeting Sarah J Maas last week and also meeting Cassandra Clare & Holly Black earlier in the year.

5. Did you read mostly review or non-review books this year?
Non-review books, I still read to read most of my review books which I am hoping to do over the summer

6. What are your blogging goals for 2016?
To post more than this year and get back into the swing of things!

7. What books are you looking forward to in 2016?
  • Throne of Glass #5 & A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
  • See How They Run by Ally Carter
  • Night Study by Maria V Sydner
Based on the answers above, have you been a good or naughty blogger this year?
Naughty, I have been a bad blogger but a good reader! So that evens out right?

Leave 3 clues to help your santee guess who you are!
  • You are younger than me (I'm 20)
  • You live in a state that borders mine
  • Your goodreads picture is a picture of you!
#LoveOzYA? Join the Australian YA Bloggers on Goodreads and Facebook to join in the fun!
Follow the Aussie YA Bloggers Secret Santa blog hop to meet other Aussie bloggers!
Thanks,
Keely! xx

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Review Time #85

What We Saw by Aaron Hartzler


Kate Weston can piece together most of the bash at John Doone’s house: shots with Stacey Stallard, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early—the feeling that maybe he’s becoming more than just the guy she’s known since they were kids.

But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills’s shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn’t have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate’s classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can’t be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same question: Where was Ben when a terrible crime was committed?

This story—inspired by real events—from debut novelist Aaron Hartzler takes an unflinching look at silence as a form of complicity. It’s a book about the high stakes of speaking up, and the razor thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one hundred and forty characters at a time.


In times where social media basically rules the media, things don't stay secret anymore with people posting photos, tweets or status's anyone can see these things even if everyone else wasn't meant to see them. One night at a party Kate became way too intoxicated and doesn't remember what happened expect that she woke up in her own bed. That night however, while Kate got home safe and sound her classmate Stacey didn't and she was raped. 

This is unfortunately something that has been happening a lot in recent years more and more cases of rape are being reported, while unfortunately there are even more cases that are never reported. During my O-Week in 2013 when I moved into college at uni we had a seminar were spoken to about how to get out of situations like these and what to do if something like this was to ever happen. Earlier this year a friend of mine her drink was spiked while she was at the pub and thankfully everyone who was with her managed to get her back to college safely. 

The closer you look, the more you see.

The following Monday at school Kate sees the fallout of what happened at the party after she left, the students turned on Stacey who was unconscious when everything happened. Kate's friends show her everything that people where writing on twitter following the hashtags that were being used and on instagram. When the next day the students who were a part of what happened to Stacey where arrested for sexual assault and child pornography for filming the assault, Stacey is shamed and blamed for bringing it on the herself. This isn't right.

“Well, I just think it’s awful what that Stallard girl is doing to them. Dragging their good names through the mud."

Kate doesn't know what to believe or what happened because she wasn't there when it happened but it doesn't stop herself from trying to find out what happened that night. Ben has been Kate's friend since they were five and when she kicked him in the head during their first soccer match. While the main theme about this story is what happened to Stacey there still is some romance between Kate and Ben. After 12 years of friendship things change and that is what happened with these two however, Kate can't help but think Ben knows something that happened that night. 

"Kate, I know it's hard to talk about something like this. We don't have to continue if you don't want to."
"Yes... I have to."
"Why do you have to?"
"Because I don't want it to happen again."

What We Saw is based on a real event that happened in a high school in the US and something that should never happen. In writing about this topic Hartzler is allowing the world to see that there will always be someone who cares enough to help you if this ever happens to you and that someone will always believe you no matter what the rest of the student body or town thinks. While you know what happened throughout the entire novel, you keep reading because you want to know what the outcome is. Everyone should pick up this book so that they know this story and that you should always listen to everyone before jumping to a judgement.

Thank you to Harper Collins AU for sending me this ARC!

Rating: 5/5

Keely xx