S Reignite

  'This self-worth is the most important thing you can develop for yourself, that any of us can develop. And it can't wait until you reach your goals.’ – Grace Beverley Grace Beverley’s self-help book illustrates how the 25-year-old was able to juggle her Oxford University degree, social media success and two new businesses but the brief self-care section shows that she admittedly hasn’t mastered mindfulness. I first became aware of Grace through watching her University of Oxford vlogs on YouTube. Her channel at the time was named GraceFitUK as the original focus of her channel was to showcase her fitness journey. Her growing platform later expanded to include other content like travel vlogs and clothing hauls.  When watching her videos, I sometimes felt she was overextending herself, trying to meet her university deadlines, working with brands, and travelling the world. With her channel now being renamed and revamped to highlight her growing businesses, Tala and Shreddy, you ...

‘the things I want to remember I can’t, and the things I try so hard to forget just keep coming.’ - Jules In Paula Hawkins’ second novel Into The Water   the sudden death of Nel Abbott at the ‘drowning pool’ which she was fascinated by, causes the lives of everyone in Beckford to be put under the microscope. Suspense is built well in the beginning as we slowly discover the connections between each character and the tortured history of the drowning pool. But these falters when we are given too many characters to care about. Hawkins must be aware of the overload of characters as she includes a page that details the ‘People of Beckford’ all of whom do play important parts in understanding what caused the death of Nel Abbott. I regularly flipped back to this page as I was getting into the book, so it is a useful tool, but it begs the question of whether such a thing should be needed. With many characters to choose from, none of them a particularly likeable. From Jules...

‘She is in balance with the tempo and rhythm of the universe.’ -Rob Amanda Robson’s debut novel shows the consequences of asking questions that you don’t want the answer to. After wife and mother Carly asked her husband Rob what she thought was a harmless question about who he would sleep with, it puts their lives as well their best friends and married couple Craig and Jenni, in a constant battle to regain themselves. The book is promoted as one that Paula Hawkins fans would enjoy because it is a thriller that utilises viewpoint narration that Hawkins help popularise. However, it doesn’t compare to Hawkins’ thriller debut Girl on the Train . The first parts of the novel manage to build suspense and intrigue as the reader witnesses first-hand how Carly has let her husband’s response to a trivial question consume her and motivate her questionable decision making. But in the latter chapters, as the story starts to go in around in circles and relationships are constantly broken and m...

‘there is incredible power in subjects that don’t seem to pertain to you.’ Charlamagne Tha God In Charlamagne Tha God’s autobiography he looks back to his turbulent journey in becoming the well-known radio presenter he is currently on Power 101.5.   With every chapter of his story he attaches a privilege to teach to reader what they can gain from embracing their own ‘privilege’. Charlamagne writes his autobiography in the blunt and shocking manner that he speaks in on the radio and seemingly all the time. Not only does this help him to come across as authentic, but it is also great for creating discussions around each of his eight principles. He even anticipates some of the responses to his outlandish statements but still he stands strong on his point of view. It’s obvious from the start that Charlamagne is a student of Hip Hop with no page being without a reference or influence from the genre, Charlemagne does admit that at times his preferred musical genre has been ...

‘He had come to believe that life was a series of ironic ambushes’ – Narrator The second instalment of the Shining written by King lacks horror as much as the first but is a much more pleasant read.   In Doctor Sleep Dan Torrance struggles to find his place in life and is caught off guard when he becomes connected to Abra Stone, a young girl with the shining. The book spends a lot of time following Dan as he uses the wrong methods to cope with what his father has done even decades later and consequently is unable to settle down. This novel gives Dan the voice that he didn’t have in The Shining due to his age, so it is interesting to see how he has developed. King writes about both Dan and Abra at points in their lives when they are finding themselves which makes the book a page turner as you become invested in each character’s journey. Suspense is then added to this by the threat of the True Knot. As the element of the True Knot becomes more prevalent in ...

‘It was a depression so low and flat that I couldn't even envision suicide as a solution.’ Flynn The debut novel by Bobby Hall aka rapper Logic has its moments of ingenuity but those moments are overshadowed by over explanation and uninventive dialogue. From the opening chapter, it is obvious that Hall wants elements of his writing to shock and scare the reader, as expected from a psychological thriller, as he introduces a cliff hanger, but unfortunately this is the first of many unsuccessful attempts to intrigue the reader. This coupled with the over explanation of characters such as Ronda who works in the supermarket or action in the novel, impedes on the readers ability to engage and enjoy the story. Also, there were moments when Hall proudly broke the fourth wall. The first time I found it to be whimsical writing style but as it appeared more often it became another element that impeded on the action of the novel, causing me to lose more interest in the story th...

‘that what the Head had left undone and could not do, the Heart may have been doing silently.’ Mr Gardgrind. As someone who is aspiring to be a bookworm, I felt that I can’t hold that title without reading a book by renowned British author Charles Dickens. Unable to find one of his more popular books I stumbled upon Hard Times and choose to read it was presented in the blurb as a ‘celebration of the power of the imagination.’. The story starts out with an introduction to the Gradgrind family and how Mr Gradgrind teaches his children and students at the local school, in the interesting city of Coketown, the importance of ‘facts’, an understanding that Cecilia Jupe or Sissy, doesn’t seem to grasp so after an unfortunate event with her father, Mr Gardgind takes Sissy into his home to educate her and giver her a better future in life. Although at this point in the book the direction of the story seems clear, at almost most two hundred pages in I became more unsure what the p...

‘A woman just couldn’t relinquish her control’- Daphne Will Boast’s debut novel, ‘Daphne’ offered me nothing new nor intriguing as a reader despite its enticing concept and stimulus. I chose to read the book based on its tagline; ‘Emotion suffuses everything we do, think, and are. Who would guess it could quite literally paralyse you.’, as I believe as humans we all do both consciously and unconsciously, use our emotions to control our lives and decisions but the idea, and unfortunately some people’s reality that it can paralyse you  and I wanted to better understand this reality. I first started reading the book at the beginning of October but after the first four chapters I had determined that I had no interest in Daphne’s trials and tribulations with her neurological condition, job and personal life, so was deciding upon returning it the book to the library, but after consulting several favourable reviews on Goodreads I gave it another chance, read it all, and sa...

‘She looked like a zombie. A zombie that has just been shot’ – Lorenzo Niccolò Ammaniti’s 2010   ‘Me and You’ novel stood out to me in the library but unfortunately the overall story did not. Although, Ammaniti’s name is obviously Italian, I initially didn’t know that the novel was translated from Italian but as I began getting into the story there were moments in the book where information was presented very literally, out of tone with the rest of the book, which caused me to disengage with the novel at times. Despite this, I was intrigued to begin with as a Lorenzo appeared like more than a child who just struggled to fit but someone who had deep issues that affected him, which was proved to be true. The time I started reading the novel coincided with the announcement of YouTuber Shane Dawson’s latest docu-series which investigates whether fellow YouTuber Jake Paul is a sociopath. Due to this, I have began playing the role of a psycologist and do somewhat question ...

‘The rules no fucking longer apply’ Starr Carter The other week when I went to watch the BlacKkKlansman the trailer for the up and coming film adaption of the novel ‘The Hate U Give’ was played and it got me riled up and intrigued. I’ve seen the book advertised in my local library for a while but hadn’t picked it up till now mainly because it is categorised as a teen book and I felted I’ve out grown the genre, but I was very wrong. The novel tells the story of a teenage girl named Starr Carter who witnesses the murder of her best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer and how she and the people in her lives react to the situation. From the first page I fell in love with this book. The way it is written sounds very much like the thoughts in my head which makes it so easy to read, so much so that I finished the book in only four days. Angie Thomas merges potentially the two things that mean the most to me and to herself according to her interview with ...

‘Are you sure self-pity is a luxury you can afford Jack’ – Al Shockley I have watched many films adapted from Stephen King novels, such as Misery and The Green Mile without knowing that they were initially books, so I decided to change my pattern and read one of his novels before they most likely became a film. I chose ‘The Cell’ to read but did discover later that it was adapted for film in 2016 but still started to read it. 200 pages later I realised I didn’t care about any of the characters despite their apocalyptic struggle and stopped. Still wanting to read a Stephen King novel and interested to learn how one could write horror, I reverted to his classic ‘The Shinning’, which got my attention from the start. The book was very much a pleasant read and reminded me of the film ‘The Green Mile’ because I was content with the lack of action and getting to know the characters; however the book is classified as horror it failed to provide enough for me. This isn’t saying that t...

‘ i’ll ruin your day without rhyme or reason.’ – Gabbie Hanna Gabbie Hanna’s poetry anthology is the only Youtuber book I’ve actually wanted to read because it starts to turn Youtubers away from the new idea of being social influencers to the older mentality of them being creators. ‘Adultolescence’ contains a wide variety of both fictional and autobiographical poems from Hanna that, much like her videos, have relatable and entertaining narratives such as the poems of ‘Philosophy’, ‘Stunted’ and ‘Lonely’. Coupled with these poems she includes an unique feature of illustrations that accompany nearly every poem showing Hanna’s artistic side as well. The pictures are drawn monochromatically which allows the reader to indulge in their own creative journey. Amongst these well thought out poems are many less impressive ones that Hanna admits herself are just ‘fillers’. Also, her childlike idea that poems are expected to rhyme at times takes away from the story being told and fo...