A little book review (and it's April?)

So for starters, it's April. March flew by! I only have about 48 days before school is over. O.O (And yes, I am surprisingly still alive.)

So. Today, I'm here with a lovely little review. This is my first real review, other than on Goodreads, so don't kill me please! So I'm going to review DREAMERS OFTEN LIE by the lovely Jacqueline West (you can find her website here), and let me just say: I adore this book. I adore this author. 

Jacqueline is a sweet, lovely, absolutely amazing human being. I can't express how awesome she is! So go check her out now or I'll scream! Ahem, I mean, I'll politely ask you, then beg you, then resort to screaming at you to go check her out. :) I'm joking! But she's a great friend and I really love her books. So let's get back on track, shall we?

Here's the cover:

That cover is so pretty. 

There was blood on the snow. White, with a smattering of red. Like petals. 

So. The book is about a girl named Jaye Stuart, and she gets a concussion while she's skiing with her family. (Sports, as Jaye mentions many times in the book, are not her thing.) Jaye is a drama kid, and has landed the role of Titania the Fairy Queen in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (and a lot of seniors are mad at Jaye for getting the lead because she's just a little junior). So, with Jaye's concussion, she starts hallucinating in the hospital.

She starts to see Shakespeare's characters from his plays, and even sees Shakespeare himself.

Jaye lies to her family, her doctors, saying that she's fine, when in reality she isn't. She goes to school, getting in trouble with the new kid Rob, who her mom warns her away from, and her friend Pierce is acting up. Pierce had removed himself from the Stuarts' family after Jaye's dad died, but now is trying to get back into Jaye's life.

Throughout the entirety of the book, Jaye remains a very unstable narrator. That's what makes this book so trippy and deliciously creepy. Every time I read this book, not only am I questioning Jaye's sanity, but my own as well. Very, very few books are written in ways like this.

This book is honestly so beautifully written, I could gush for hours! It's written in such a realistic manner, and it also is something that honestly could happen to anybody in real life. A concussion can definitely happen, and hallucinations can come with concussions that come with brain damage (like Jaye's, in this case.). For all I know, Jaye is walking the streets of Minneapolis, hanging out with Nikki and Tom or going out to antique stores and tiny coffee places with Rob. Or she's at school, enjoying what is now her senior year (as the book was written last year and she was a junior in the book).

If she's real, she's (hopefully) enjoying her senior year, planning college and what color to dye her hair next. If she's real, maybe she's reading this. You never know. And I suddenly realize that I sound absolutely crazy, saying that book characters could be real. But with books like this, you just never know. :)

This book is so beautiful. I cry at so many parts, either out of frustration or sadness or anger. (Now I'm honestly thinking of pausing my splurge reading the Mortal Instruments series and re-reading DREAMERS OFTEN LIE this weekend.) This book is just... there are no words. Sometimes the best books are that way: indescribably amazing and just no words. Or the only words you can say while you're reading the book are "go away! I'm reading!", "LEAVE ME ALONE I AM READING HERE. ARE YOU BLIND", or "Just read the freaking book to figure it out".

The petals rained over me, red and weightless. I closed my eyes. They buried me.

~ ~ ~

Yes, I am back. I didn't mean to take a hiatus, but life got in the way. I've been so busy that it's just exhausting. I've had school, writing, and just life. But I'm not really complaining, because school is almost over, my aunt is having a boy and is due any day now, and my mom is having a baby girl in May. Life is pretty good!

Also, I'm writing this post actually because it's a project for English! My teacher (who, side note, is pretty awesome and I adore her) said that we had to do a blog post type thing for a project and I was kind of like "oh, hey, maybe I should actually update my real blog! Like, the one I've been forgetting about for the past month? Yeah, that one." So here's a post for all of you. :)

As always, have a lovely day!

~ Indi