The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The Secret Garden will always have a special place in my heart because I watched the 1993 film plenty of times when I was growing up. I loved the idea of a secret place you could go to that nobody knew about, the blooming flowers and tame animals. But I hated Mary Lennox.

And I mean hated. She's a spoilt, vicious, unruly brat who is finally taught a good lesson. She ends up being bearable. In the book, she's even worse. However she's more likable at the end.

So, as you now know, I was brought up with the film, which actually has slightly more to it than the book. They made the family situation more complex and certain characters have more of a part to play. It makes a bit more sense.
I know those of you who read the book first and loved it as children are probably thinking that I must not have read the same book and watched the same film, but I assure you, I have.

I think the main reason I wasn't so enthused is because I'm not a child. I think if i had read this as a child then i would have laughed along with them, found a sense of wonder in the changes that the garden and the moor bring and most of all, not been annoyed at the spelling when people are talking in a Yorkshire accent. I can quite easily imagine a Yorkshire accent, thank you. But If I were still a child, I might have even tried to do one.(Although I can see why it was used).

In it's own right, it's a nice little story about friendship, changes and gardens. Which is all well and good, as long as you haven't read anything you deem to be amazing, because then in comparison this is a really dull book. I had to force myself to keep reading it, and it's not even very long. I was happy when my kindle told me i had less than half and hour to go.

The language is extremely dated, and the overuse of the word 'queer' really started to annoy me. However the garden and nature imagery in general was lovely, and the whole premise of the story is good. I also did like a bit nearing the end that was talking about Archibald Craven. That was very nicely done.

Overall, I'm sure children would still enjoy it, but find it a little difficult, but i felt there was something distinctly lacking from it. This is may be partially due to the fact that the film had a few plot points done differently and I preferred them (and the presence of Maggie Smith).

I give it 2 out of 5 stars.

0.4 by Mike Lancaster

The book cover - image from google

0.4 is the story of Kyle Straker, a 15 year old voice recorder onto tapes and transformed into a book. Nobody knows if this is a hoax or if it is real. But this is his version of the events of the early 21st Century.

I love the cover of the book. It's pretty awesome and makes you think about what weirdness could possibly be in this book. So, just by looking at it you can tell that it's a sci-fi. Futuristic in some ways and completely normal to the point of mundane in others. It has everything to do with technology. It's so sci-fi, I wasn't quite sure how to react when I finished the book. I think my thoughts were: "Well, that's odd, and also pretty cool". one thing I can say for sure is that it has some great ideas and leaves you thinking about reality.

Reality itself is a huge theme here. And I thought the book was a bit short actually, because it didn't explore reality in the way I would have liked. Sure, it was action-packed, but I wanted more background and insight.

It's an easy read, and very interesting (I read it in a few hours). But I don't think it's for everyone. Basically if you're not a fan of dystopias, weird goings-on, mysteries or classic science fiction, don't read it. If you're in it for a story that is different, interesting, and plot-driven it's for you. A good thing is that it can be read by either gender, as long as they like the premise.

Unfortunately I didn't really feel much for the characters. I understood Kyle, but wasn't really overly empathetic towards him. I think perhaps the author could have described his feelings a bit more. It was probably more aimed at a teen audience though, so I'm not really the target audience.
However, I think teens would love this, I think especially boys who like sci-fi and gadgets.

For me, this book gets 2/5 stars. While it was a good idea, and I loved the premise, I don't think it was executed quite right for me. I didn't feel much fro the characters and it was on the young side.

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There is a sequel already out, called 1.4, which tells you about the aftermath of 0.4.
0.4 /Human4 on Goodreads.com.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater

I picked this up at 'The Works' for £1.99. Bargain! I'd been looking at it but hadn't decided to buy it yet, until I saw it. It's another one of those books whose cover draws your attention.
The cover is blood red with the shadow of a horse on it. Curly dark red is strewn across it in the shape of a heart, and the white writing over the top is pretty cool too. I do like an interesting font.

However, I don't usually like seaside stories, and aren't usually fond of horses either, but the idea of the story was what made me pick it up. The Scorpio races happen every year. They are a race of sea horses, and to race means that someone will die. It is a certainty.
The idea is that a girl enters the race (the very first girl may I add) to save her family from poverty as there is a hefty amount of money available if you win the races. So, that's a good start - it has danger and a touch of romance. From there it went downhill.

This book, in one word, was disappointing. The idea was good, the sea horses were actually pretty scary, but to me the characters did not have enough substance to them. I liked most of the characters, but I wasn't overly invested in them. The only one I thought was interesting was Finn, the girls brother.
It might be worth a mention here that I did think it was a bit weird how easily people got over deaths, for example, of their parents and friends. You would have thought that some of the book would be about their feelings on that, but not much time is put into it, it is more about the feelings of now. Saying this, it does make for a quicker pace.

The romance was quite well written, it played out how you might expect it to in a usual teen relationship. But the whole tone of the book was either solemn, nervous or occasionally exhilarated. However, it was easy to read, unless the tone depresses you.
Something that I did think was very good though, is the fact that Steifvater deals with women's rights and the treatment of women in a mans sport. It was well done in mu opinion.

I do think that this is written with younger readers in mind, even though one of the main characters is supposed to be 19. I think this is more for 14-15 year olds who love horses. I'm not a fan of horses, but I thought that the idea would make it worth the read, which it certainly is. But, for me there was still something missing in this book.

The ending is very exciting, but everything comes off as you might expect it to, so, yeah, disappointing. The ending isn't so much of a bang as a small fizzle in which everything goes as you always expected it to.

However, it was, overall, fairly enjoyable, and brilliant to the right audience. Unfortunately, I'm not the right audience so it gets 2 out of 5 stars, because quite frankly, there's not much substance to the characters.

( Also, don't read this if you hate it when authors use people's whole names. It grated on my nerves.)
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Quite a lot of other people seem to like it, so have a look at these opinions:
From GoodReads.com