Secrets

The first day of a new semester. Michigan weather has caught me off guard yet again and as I am trying to make my way out of the driveway, my car gets stuck. This is not what I needed today. I woke up with some major pressure in my head, which is not my normal headache, so of course I head straight for the Sudafed. This is my go-to for head pressure, but what I didn’t think about was how groggy and awful it made me feel, granted it took the pain away. As I trudge through the snow in the parking lot after taking nearly forty-five minutes to get across town I huff and let out a sigh. I’m already defeated, and the bell hasn’t even rung yet.

As I make my way to my first hour class my head pressure comes back. I debate going to class, but since I really hate to miss the first day, I decide to tough it out. Let me just say, that was a bad call on my part. Today’s Chapel speaker talked about how secrets made us sick. You want to know what else is making me sick? POTS. Not secrets, my sickness is related to POTS. But the more I thought about it today, I realized something. I do keep my pain a secret. I don’t show defeat easily, and certainly not at school. I have always been this tough, hard to reach person, and I realized, that my secret pain, is making me emotionally sick. I am physically sick, but trying to stay tough on the outside and not let people see my pain is hurting me more than POTS ever could. I feel all the time as though nobody understands, that everyone is sick of me talking about how much pain I’m in, that in the end nobody really cares about me. And this attitude has left me keeping my secret pain from even the people I trust the most.

What I can conclude from this revelation is not that I should continually complain more about my pain. But that I should simply let my friends and loved ones know what I’m feeling. To not keep my pain bottled up inside where it hurts me from the inside out. Even if I don’t think they want to hear it, they need to know because I need those people in my life so that I can be honest with them about my pain, even if it’s just a brief, “hey, my pain level is pretty bad today, would you mind turning down the lights to let my eyes rest?” Instead of trying to do everything by myself, I need the people around me to help so that I can let my body rest the way it needs to.

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Random thoughts during exam week…

Do you remember high school and how stressed everyone got around exam time? Yeah, that’s this week for me. Yay. You can see I’m really excited about this. Ha. So fun. Not. The only good thing about this week is that we have half days, two exam periods per day for the rest of the week. This also means that my mom thinks it’s a good idea to schedule doctors appointments because after only being at school for a couple hours I should be feeling up to it right? Nope. I only have finals two times a year, but it’s just so stressful because I feel like teachers expect me to be able to cram and get done everything that other students can do. I respectfully disagree. These couple weeks have been the most stressful of my life. I took the ACT for the first time, and my 17th birthday came and passed (yay!) I have five exams

Something that has been on my mind a lot has been something that happened at work yesterday. I work at my old elementary school after school taking care of kids in their after-school program. Even though I never feel up to it, I’m still glad I have it. I worked this past summer and it was really good for me. This job is perfect for me because I work two days a week, one day for one and half hours and the other day for two and a half hours. That’s it. I love it because it is so low key, my boss is so understanding, and the people I work with are girls that I go to school with. With that being said, yesterday one of my good friends was working with me and asked if I could work the late shift (2.5 hours) instead of the early shift (1.5 hours) which is what I was suppose to do. She had a migraine, so of course I said yes even though I didn’t feel any better than she did. Now I want everyones opinion on this, but from my perspective, I can cope, whereas people who don’t have chronic migraines have a harder time when they get one. I could tell she felt bad about asking me considering my POTS, but I assured her that I would be fine. I feel like people are afraid to ask me that because they know about my illness, but I really was happy to take her shift. My mom gets headaches occasionally, and they knock her down because she’s not used to them. Before I was diagnosed with POTS I got the occasional headache, so I know how uncomfortable it is if you don’t experience that pain every day. I could tell she was in a lot of pain, so was I, but I’ve been living and working and going to school for over a year with my chronic headache. I have coping methods to deal with them along with medication. Yes, I feel awful, but I’m going to be ok. I realize that I take on too much, but I’m young, I don’t want to be normal, but I don’t want to sit in bed all day too tired to move. I like living life to it’s fullest. That’s why my diagnosis was so devastating, because I can’t do half of the things I used to be able to. My now ex-boyfriend told me something last year and it’s not profound, but it means something to me. He said “You can do this, don’t ever give up.” That’s what I’ll end this post with because I have to get back to studying for my biology exam. Fun.

A Penny for Your Thoughts

Wow, it has been a while since I’ve written anything for this blog. I’ve been reading more about the spoon theory, and it’s made me think a lot about my energy levels. Now I know there are a lot more people who know a lot more about the spoon theory than I do, but reading about it did make me realize how much it applies to me (which, big surprise, is probably because I have a chronic illness!) Ha ha, but in all seriousness, I do feel like I have to save my energy and make decisions on how to spend my energy because I do not have a lot of it.

On Friday, September 18th, I went to go see Fall Out Boy. I am in love with this band and have been for quite some time, and it was my first rock concert! I had an awesome time with my dad and my best friend Erica, but by the end of the night I was exhausted, and I don’t mean the “That was sooooooo amazing but I’m tired”, no, what I mean is I could sleep for an entire day and not wake up after that concert. I mean my dad literally carried me to the car, I am almost seventeen years old and my dad carried me to the car because I could not walk back. What I mean is I was exhausted to the core, if I had to get away from a serial killer I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I took three naps that day and I still slept that night for close to eleven hours. The next day I rested, I had to because I had used up all my spoons (and then some!) the night before.

After researching, and actually I’m still learning more about the spoon theory, I’ve come to realize how much a good analogy like spoons related to my energy levels is such an accurate representation of what I’m going through.

Also, one more little thought, I have finally found some exercise that doesn’t exhaust my body entirely, and I just needed to share it with you all. YOGA is fantastic, I’ve really enjoyed taking a yoga class because it is something that is very “more at your own pace” and it really centers me for when I’m feeling off balance. Now obviously when I’m dizzy, I can’t do some of the standing poses, but even the sitting ones are better than nothing. I used to be a gymnast, so I have always had good balance. When my POTS is keeping it’s distance I have fantastic balance, which is why I love yoga, but also because again, I can just sit down when I become light headed. Anyways, we’ll see how I feel about it in a few weeks, I’m just getting started, but so far so good, and it doesn’t wear me out like some other things do!

Until next time!

Bethany 🙂

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies…

“You don’t look sick…” Um, thanks? I’m glad my fake smile looks real! I get compliments all the time, and I really do appreciate it, often when I feel bad I don’t feel pretty. This is a touchy subject for people with an “invisible illness” because we don’t want to get mad at people, or at least I don’t. They didn’t purposefully say it like that (or maybe they did) but they didn’t hopefully mean anything by it.

Well anyways, I had a rough day. First things first, I would just like to vent for a moment because I had three tests in three different classes all in a row today. Teachers, can you please please please find another way to torture us? Because that is just cruel. I swear, I love my teachers, but they need to plan better. Also, fire drills at school: not the best way to start out the morning when you have sound sensitivity and they decide to blast a loud screeching sound at 8:30 in the morning to a bunch of half asleep teenagers. So I went to the counseling office and took a nice nap. And then again I took another nap this afternoon and slept fifty minutes into my history class. Lovely. I know a lot of POTS kids can’t go to school, and I do feel lucky enough to have my symptoms managed enough to be able to go, but boy, its not all its cracked up to be. I go to school, come home and crash. Literally. My body aches, my head hurts, I feel like I could either throw up or pass out, or both. Note: Teachers who keep their air conditioning running even though it’s only 70 degrees outside; can you just not? Your room is like 60 degrees and the constant cold is killing (read KILLING) my head. Here’s my advice for the day; stay positive even when things seem to not be going your way. Yes, I had a bad day, but it’s just one bad day, hopefully tomorrow will be better. Also a quick note before I go, my baby dog Teegan (who isn’t really a baby anymore, she’s six!) is having mouth surgery tomorrow morning, so please pray that it goes well! Thanks so much!

Bethany

POTS and Autonomic Dysfunction

Hello everyone, it’s been a while since I wrote and a lot has happened. I’m working on blogging a little bit more and one of the things most recent on my heart and mind is chronic illnesses. I recently took a tip to Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, where I was diagnosed with POTS and Autonomic Dysfunction. This wasn’t a huge surprise for me because I had been diagnosed with POTS by a doctor in Michigan, but he wasn’t sure and wasn’t familiar with the condition so we were referred to Mayo Clinic. Six months after that first diagnosis we took the ferry across the lake and I was diagnosed with POTS and Autonomic Dysfunction. Chronic illnesses are very common, whether its POTS or anything else, you may not know someone has it. POTS kids don’t wear casts or look sick in any way. We might look tired a lot or we might have to sit down more often, but other than that, there is nothing that looks seriously wrong with us.

So here I’m going to give you a little background info on my diagnosis, and if you’re anything like me this stuff is actually interesting, for those of you that are like, I really don’t care about the statistics, then you can probably just skim this paragraph. First off, from all the doctors I’ve been to see, we have heard many times that POTS usually occurs in caucasian teenage females who are often high achievers. I was 14 when all of my symptoms started. Every POTS kid is different, there is usually a different “trigger” event and different symptoms. My first symptom was nausea, I was constantly nauseated from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. My “trigger” event was a bad case of food poisoning, in which I threw up all night long, had fever, chills, I was terribly sick. After you have something like that you usually go back to being able to eat normally by the second week. I have never been the same since. The second symptom I experienced was this chronic fatigue. I had no energy, I wasn’t able to walk long distances, I got winded going up stairs at school, I just kept getting more and more out of shape. This started the summer of 2013. My next symptoms over the next two years were a chronic headache (that I still have to this day) and syncope, which means I pass out and have low blood pressure. We didn’t know it at the time, but this was all related to POTS. Doctors couldn’t figure it out, I was misdiagnosed a million times it felt like before we came to the conclusion of POTS. What POTS actually stands for is Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. It means that going from sitting or laying down to standing I pass out because my blood pressure drops instead of rises. This is where the Autonomic Dysfunction comes in. Not everyone with Autonomic Dysfunction has POTS, but everyone with POTS has Autonomic Dysfunction because Autonomic Dysfunction causes POTS. What this means essentially is that my autonomic nervous system is not functioning properly. Things I should be able to do automatically like digesting food, regulating blood flow, etc. doesn’t happen quite right in my body.

That’s all the info I will give right now, but if you want to know more about the illness, Click Here

What I’m going to be mostly focusing on right now for my blog is stuff surrounding my illness because I would like to spread awareness for any and all chronic illnesses like mine because they are often “invisible” illnesses that we just don’t know a whole lot about. My inspiration for this blog and my future blog posts was from this blog: https://lethargicsmiles.wordpress.com/ This woman is amazing and she has inspired me to write about my illness. I hope anyone fighting a chronic illness will see my blog or hers and be inspired like I was.

Until next time!

Bethany

Still enjoying this lovely weather, I felt great yesterday so we seized the day and took a trip!

Book Review: Prodigy by Marie Lu (part 1/2)

Hello everyone! I haven’t written in so long, but thats because I’ve been reading such good books I couldn’t will myself to put them down to write a review until now! As you may have remembered, I wrote a book review on Legend by Marie Lu a while back. I loved it, and I wanted to read the second and third of the trilogy, but I didn’t get right on that until my good friend offered to lend me them. I couldn’t refuse since I was in the market for some more books to read. She had actually gotten them signed by Marie Lu, which is just so cool! Yes, I actually touched her signature! Ok, fangirl moment is over. Now, I know every book fanatic has the “To Read” list. And it gets really long sometimes…and I mean REALLY long! Trust me, I know that the last thing you want is to add another couple books to that already out of reach list. BUT… yes there is a but; I’m here to tell you to drop everything thing and read this series, it is not long, each book has about 300 pages, which is really not that many. If you want to know more about the original book and plot please refer to this link to my original review of Legend. https://musingsofateenbooknerd.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/review-legend-by-marie-lu/

Usually the second book/movie is NOT as good as the first, many people are widely disappointed in second and third story lines, but I am here to tell you that you will be so happy with the Legend series. Prodigy was just as good, if not better, than the first book. What I love about these books is the genius writing style, but also the balance between plot, action, and romance. If you read the first book, then you know that there is definitely chemistry between Day and June, but unlike so many distopian books (*cough cough* Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.) the romance does not take over the whole plot. It was quite refreshing to find a very nice balance between the plot and romance. I love how the second book expands on the war between the Republic and the Colonies. It also has plot twists that give you *the feels* like oh my gosh, I can’t even begin to describe the feels you will have. It starts out with Day and June joining the patriots to try to assassinate the new elector, but then June blows up the plan and again she and Day are on the run from the Republic and now the Patriots. I’m trying so *so* hard to not give out any spoilers, but this is incredibly hard for me. I won’t give out any more details because I don’t know what you consider spoilers. If you are looking for some easy and quick, yet exciting books to read, this series is a good one.

Until next time,

Bethany

I’m No Angel

Hello everyone! Today I am doing something that I haven’t done before, I am going to write a review for a book that I haven’t read yet! Actually, it’s not really a review, I just felt like I really wanted to write about this subject that just happens to revolve around a book that I would like to read. First off, the author of the book I’m No Angel is former Victoria’s Secret Runway Angel, Kylie Bisutti. One of my good friends was telling me that she also wrote a devotional book called 30 Days to a More Beautiful You.

The modeling business is one of the most cutthroat, competitive, and dare I say aggressive. It single handedly ruins young girls self esteem, creates eating disorders, and continues to tell women that they are never going to be thin enough, curvy enough, pretty enough, or sexy enough.

Society is seriously screwed up. You can’t be too thin because then its assumed you have an eating disorder, but if you’re chubby, you’re overweight and therefore not right. You have to have huge hips, a curvy butt, big boobs, yet a teeny tiny waist. You should have good looking legs, not too tall but not too short, and of course your thighs should be just right, otherwise you don’t look good in skinny jeans. Your hair should be filled with volumes of natural looking curls, and you should have nice looking makeup, not too much though because then it looks like you’re trying too hard, but not too little, it has to look naturally perfect. And don’t wear slutty clothes, but don’t cover it all up.

The standards for women are literally impossible. I once saw something on Pinterest that said “If you want a perfect girl, go buy a Barbie.” Yes, just yes. Everyone has “flaws” compared to supermodels. YOU CAN’T LOOK LIKE THE MODEL IN THE PICTURE BECAUSE EVEN THE MODEL DOESN’T LOOK LIKE THE MODEL IN THE PICTURE. Ladies, does that make sense?

That’s where this book comes in, and once I read it, I might retract this post, but I think that is is amazing that this model gave up fame and fortune for her faith. She made it to the Victorias Secret Runway, that is like the top of any modeling career. Her book, I’m No Angel is about her personal journey though feeling inadequate and never pretty enough, or sexy enough. I would really love to read this, and I think that just from the research I’ve done, every woman struggling with self esteem issues needs to read this book.

Also, I am going to read her devotional book, 30 Days to a More Beautiful You because the idea is that internal beauty triumphs outer beauty. I have to remind myself of this so many times a day, as a young woman I already feel the need to look perfect, to put on that fake smile, and keep up appearances because that is the most important thing to everyone else. I find myself judging others on how they look, which I also have to remind myself is wrong because I don’t want people judging me like that.

Well, I’m done for now, writing makes me hungry, so I’m going to go prepare some dinner. Here is the link for the two books I talked about.

http://www.tyndale.com/10_Authors/author_bio.php?authorID=1556

*Pictures from:

http://www.westcoastfiya.com/kylie-bisutti-who-quit-the-runway-for-god-tells-her-story-in-im-no-angel-book/

Book Review: Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Hello everyone, sorry I haven’t been posting much, between school and reading, and lots of homework I just simply haven’t had time. But, I have been wanting to write a review on a book that I enjoyed over the summer called Beautiful Creatures. I finished it the weekend before school started, and I just noticed it sitting on my desk. It was one of the best historical/fantasy/fiction novels I’ve read. I love the suspense that this book gives. All of the events line up for the one climactic event in the end. I like that it’s around 600 pages because I feel like with that much space you can really tell a story and set it up for more books in the series. It really sets up such a good plot line and develops the characters. I like the authors writing style. The book starts out like you would think a mystery would, but then it gets deeper and deeper until you find yourself in the midst of a huge hole of darkness with this story and how you keep learning things. There are so so many plot twists not just at the end, but throughout the whole book. I just got the second and third books in the series and they are just as long, but I have a feeling they are going to be just as good.

I promised myself no spoilers in my book reviews, but when my mind gets going, things happen that I can’t control. So, I’ll try to stick to just background info on the book and leave the rest up to you. Ok, so picture this, southern small town America, everyone knows everyone. One grocery store, one barber shop, no mall, and main street is the only street downtown. That’s Gatlin, where the story takes place. There’s one high school, and everyone has a reputation. Then you’re introduced to one of the main characters, and of course I consider him cute, his name is Ethan and he’s 16 and in high school. He has these dreams about saving a girl, it’s the same girl every time, and he is never able to save her. The weird thing is, they feel so real. Then one day, there is a new girl at school. Ethan swears he’s seen her before, but he isn’t sure. The girl is Lena Ravenswood, Macon Ravenswood’s niece. Macon hasn’t been seen by the town’s residents in years. He stays at Ravenwood manor, the “haunted house” of the town. To say the least, everyone is surprised and shocked by Lena’s presence. Everyone is suspicious of her, but things get even weirder for Ethan because he starts thinking that she is the girl in his dreams (and she is). Lena is an outcast, the girls at school won’t talk to her, and after more than a couple “incidents” the whole school is against her. Meanwhile Ethan starts defending Lena. His friends think he’s crazy, but he feels something when he’s with her. On the day she has her first “incident” at school, he follows her home and finds her in the gardens behind the house. He wants to make sure she’s ok. Let’s just say this is one of my favorite parts, they find a locket and when they each touch it at the same time they have a flashback to the Civil War. There is a huge significance to the Civil War and the town that they’re in. Now you also have to understand that both of Ethan and Lena’s family bloodlines have lived in the town for centuries. I won’t say anymore because **spoilers** so you get the idea. The book is amazing and you need to read it. Also, Lena is a witch (or Caster as they call it in the book) ha ha, sorry I just had to.

Until next time,

Bethany

picture from: http://popstyle.ew.com/2013/02/14/beautiful-creatures-costume-designer-on-dressing-the-characters-in-the-supernatural-flick/

Lindsey Stirling

Hello everyone, I know I did a nice long post on music, but I would like to share something I have just recently begun obsessing over. I’m not good at putting my taste of music in words so hopefully this will help. I just love Lindsey Stirling, if you haven’t heard of her, please look her up on YouTube and iTunes, she just released a new album which I recently bought. Here is the iTunes link, but if you want to hear the full song before buying it I suggest listening to them on YouTube. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/shatter-me/id844250403

This album is seriously amazing, I just love her style. She definitely puts off this goth-rocker vibe, but if you’ve ever watched her music videos, she really has all sorts of personality traits. She plays the violin, which is usually not a common instrument in dubstep, but dubstep is something she is passionate about as well as dancing. In her music video “Shatter Me” I really feel like it has so much meaning. She also incorporates all of the things that she is passionate about in this one video. I feel like the meaning of this is that we all go through a time in our lives where we would do anything just to feel something. We feel trapped in our own lives, we’re suffocating in the routine and we need something to “shatter” us in a sense to make us feel something instead of the numbness we have come to know and dread.

This is the music video I have posted, so please watch it and if you like it and like her style of music I can do lots more posts on her music and songs, so please comment your opinions, thanks!

Avengers Unite!!

Ok, the nerdy side of me has managed to escape for this post. I am in the Avengers Fandom and proud of it. Anyone who doesn’t like the Avengers should just leave right now. (just kidding, I love my followers, we can agree to disagree) Now that that’s out of the way, I’m going to go on a mini rant because Robert Downy Jr. agreed to do the second and third Avengers movies!! I heard that and started fangirling all over the place, my family now thinks I’m crazy, but I promise you, I’m not. Although this decision came after a lot of negotiation, and he didn’t want to do any more Iron Man movies, which is understandable, the first three was like the perfect trilogy, and we can all respect that he has other projects to work on. Let’s be real, I believe that if they made another Iron Man movie, it would be a disappointment because it couldn’t possibly be better than the first three.

Iron Man isn’t the only Avenger though, so let’s talk about Clint and Natasha, Marvel, I believe you need to explain what happened in Budapest!!!!!! I think I speak for every Avengers fan when I say that we have a right to know! Also, I know I’m crazy, but there’s some serious chemistry between those two. Like, ex-cu-se me Marvel, but this needs to happen! I totally ship Clintasha. Thats all I have to say about that.

Let’s take a minute to appreciate Tom Hiddleston in all of his glory.

http://girlphotoblogs.com/blog/sexiest-man-alive/tom-hiddleston-39767/

Why must he be so perfect?! The feels are real guys…he’s a gentleman, a damn good actor and have you seen him shirtless?! Guys, you really need to step up your game…and that’s all I’m going to say because Loki and my fangirl feels.

Music

Good morning! I was just thinking about what I should post about next and I decided to turn on Pandora to help me think. I realized in that moment that I have unusual taste in music. I think that what I listen to depends on the mood I’m in and what I’m trying to accomplish. My current obsessions are with anything by Maroon 5, The Fray, One Republic, and Daughterly. The song that I’m listening to right now is Battle Scars by Guy Sebastian. It’s a mix between rap and modern contemporary. I used to love country music, but since then I have moved to rap and contemporary. I like songs with a good beat, one of my favorites is Sail by AWOLNATION and it’s not so much a lot of words, but a great beat and really good mixes. Dare I say it is like dubstep. One of my favorite songs to workout to is Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. I’m in weightlifting at school and it’s one of my favorite classes because a.) I’m one of two girls in a whole class full of football players *sigh* they’re so cute and b.) the teacher plays my kind of music, I love the days he plays ACDC and rock like that because it’s just fun to work out to.

Now, when I’m feeling down or sad, I listen to…wait for it…..Taylor Swift! Yes I know, I’m a girl though, you had to know it was coming. She understands what girls go through. Guys, you are pretty tough on us. Say what you want about Taylor Swift, but somehow she makes it better. I especially like the songs You’re Not Sorry, Jump Then Fall, Sad Beautiful Tragic, Fifteen, You Belong With Me, Long Live, and Tim McGraw. There, now that that’s out, I would like to remind you that I only listen to Tay when guys are jerks to me.

One of my other favorite bands that I forgot to list earlier is Imagine Dragons, I am like obsessed with them and have been for about a year now. I heard their first song Radioactive on the movie The Host and I downloaded it and listened to it for about a week on repeat. I love this song because it’s so raw and the beat is fantastic. I also like the song Monster by Imagine Dragons and Demons. There are tons more by them that I love, but if you haven’t heard of them, go check them out!

Now, any guys who are reading this probably haven’t see Pitch Perfect, but in my opinion it was a good movie. That was also the first place I heard the song Titanium by David Guetta. I love singing, maybe if I get enough requests I will record myself singing and post it. Anyways, the reason I like this song so much is because the beat is just amazing, it really gets me pumped up.

This post is almost done, I promise, but one of my favorite songs just came on Pandora right now and I really want to mention it. I’m listening to Maroon 5 radio and the song is The Monster by Eminem (feat. Rihanna). Ok, I’m done now, thanks for reading! Comment your favorite songs or artists! 🙂

*Image from:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=battle+scars&source=images&cd=&docid=o8aF6tGXT0m58M&tbnid=7RI33G8KNPiAPM:&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fatrl.net%2Fforums%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D261205&ei=RTkcVP_rN4vnoASXjIGADw&bvm=bv.75774317,d.b2U&psig=AFQjCNHICq1GCF3mPpVt4R6eb2I_CQOeOA&ust=1411222204215123

iOS 8

As many of you may know, iOS 8 just came out. You know, I was looking at it and thought of what Blackberry had done in the past. Funny how that is, eh? Anyways back to the real issue, I went to update my phone, I have an Apple iPhone 5, 15 GB currently running iOS 7, and I don’t have enough space on my phone for it! I believe that article I just read a little while ago said it took up whopping 5.4 GB! That’s insane! Especially since Apple will not make their phones compatible with external memory cards! How stupid! I am honestly usually a big fan of Apple, but lately I have not been impressed. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone to death, but there are a few things I would change if I were the CEO. How about your thoughts on iOS 8 and Apple? I love new opinions, please share in the comments below! 🙂

-Bethany

Review: Legend by Marie Lu

I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading (along with a Spanish course) to keep me busy, and I have been asking one of the librarians at the library what good series and books there are to read. You see, every time I go in there to look at the shelves I think, oh I read all of these. Well, it turns out I didn’t. I had written a review for a book called Burning Blue. Now, I still hold my opinion, that was one of the best books I’ve ever read. But, if you don’t want a “chick flick” book, I just finished another magnificent book that I just have to rant about. So here it goes. The book is called Legend by Marie Lu and it’s part of a trilogy. Maybe you’ve read it, I think it’s becoming more and more popular. Anyways, so I first started reading this book and I was like, whoa this is distopian, set in the future, evil government, and a protagonist that fights against the government. What does that sounds like, oh yeah, Divergent or Hunger games. I was like, yep, it’s gonna be another one of *those* books. Not that I didn’t like Hunger Games and Divergent (but don’t get me started on a movie rant because I will go on forever) but I was kinda disappointed when I first started reading it. Ok, then everything changed. The way this book is written is pure genius. This book is told from two different perspectives. I just love how it’s written, because the story is told so smoothly even though every chapter it is a different person talking. It goes back and forth between the two main characters, Day and June. The setting is in central California, in the future, where the state is in a war with the colonies. In this book, the plague is taking over the poor sectors, and the main character, Day, his family is in one of the infected sectors. Day is a criminal, but he doesn’t kill people, he steals money, food, sets fire to government airfields in the middle of the night, but he doesn’t kill. The government is after Day, but they don’t know what he looks like. When every kid in California turns ten they have to take a “trial” test which determines their placement for schooling and Jobs. Day failed his test, so he was send to a labor camp, but then escaped. His family, except for his older brother John, all think that he’s dead. The government doesn’t know what Day looks like, and he’s too fast for them to catch him. That is until June starts looking for him. June is the government prodigy child. She is the only child in all the sectors to get a perfect score on her trial. When Day breaks into a hospital to get plague cures for his family, he accidentally kills June’s brother. This sets June out on a manhunt for Day, with the government backing her up. The two paths meet when she pretends to be a street child while hunting for clues that might lead her to Day. She meets him and he helps her, both not knowing that they’re suppose to be turned against each other. Nobody knows what Day looks like, so she doesn’t know that she is falling in love with the person she’s suppose to kill. I won’t give anything more away, because that’s when the book starts getting really good, but I will say this, the government has been hiding secrets that June finds out about. And I am restraining so hard from telling you the ending, but, please just read this book. It is seriously the best. I can’t wait to read the other two in the series. It is a very fast moving, and there isn’t a lot of romance, which I like because some books start out as action and then the balance between action the romance goes out of whack, but I can honestly say that that’s not what happens in this book. It is a fast paced novel that had me up until 2:00am last night because I was just so caught up in it. So, if you’re looking for a new read, I **highly** suggest this book! It is amazing, and plus I need someone to rant with me about it, so people, go out and read it, you will not regret it.

About Me!

Hello everyone! Thanks for coming to my blog! Please stay and follow me 🙂 My name is Bethany and I’m 15 (almost 16!) and I’m a sophomore in high school. I created this blog to be able to post stuff that I’m passionate about. I love books, so this will mainly be book reviews, but I am also a huge nerd for the Avengers, Tom Hiddleston *sigh*, Divergent (the movie was NOT as good as the book) and of course John Green and TFIOS (if you don’t know what that acronym was for you may leave right now and never return) and a couple other fandoms which you will learn about soon enough. I am on Pinterest constantly, and I am somewhat of a “girly girl” so I may post some stuff about clothes, hair, and occasionally makeup. Thanks for coming, please check me out on Pinterest at http://www.pinterest.com/BethDanielle15 🙂