Tag: Song Request Book Tag (Take 3)

The song request book tag is one of my all-time favorites, and I was so excited to see that I’d been tagged by Consu! Thank you! ❤

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RULES:

• Thank and link back to tagger.
• Credit to Daniel @ Page to Page
• Listen to tagger’s song requests! After you’re done listening to the three songs the person who tagged you has chosen, choose a book that you think best goes along with that song and tell us why you chose it!
• Request 3 songs of your own! Give any three songs (and your corresponding book choices that think go well with said song) you want for your taggers to listen and respond to!
• Tag 5 people!

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Consu’s requests

1. “To Noise Making (Sing)” by Hozier

Who could ask you
Be unbroken or be brave again?
Or, honey, hope even on this side of the grave again
And who could ask you to be sound or to feel saved again?
But stick around until you hear that music play again

I think that August was my favorite character in Famous in a Small Town, and the bridge of this song reminds me of him so much! August has been through a lot and I just want to give him a hug.

2. “Mourning in the Streets of Amerika” by Rise Against

With a teleprompter in our faces
Yeah, we don’t even know what we’re saying
Car that’s slowly crashing
And we can’t look away
Parading to the edge of the cliff now
We’re trying to figure out how to get down
While the night is fast approaching
Would we even recognize our former lives in this artificial light?

My first nonfiction choice for this tag! I decided to go with Fantasyland because it’s about how people will believe anything they’re told.

3. “No One Mourns the Wicked” from Wicked

Yes, goodness knows
The Wicked’s lives are lonely
Goodness knows
The Wicked cry alone
Nothing grows for the wicked
They reap only what they’ve sown

Winter is all about working to finally defeat Levana after this whole series of her doing horrible things, so it seems pretty fitting for this song about the death of the Wicked Witch of the West.

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My requests

1. “Too Proud” by Broods

And then I start to get nervous
What if I never resurface?
No one can hear me down here
The pressure gets worse the further I fall
The dimmer the light, the lower I go
And I’m getting cold

Sorry (but not really) for not shutting up about Broods, but I was just at their concert and it was amazing. I was thinking about Ariel in You Asked for Perfect while I was driving home from work today, because apparently that’s a thing I do now, and this isn’t the song I was originally going to put it with, but it’s almost perfect. Ariel is drowning in everything he needs to do, but he won’t ask for help because he doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s not perfect.

2. “Strangers” by Sigrid

Like strangers, perfect pretenders
We’re falling head over heels
For something that ain’t real
It could never be us, eh
Just you and I

It’s so hard to talk about the plot of Alex, Approximately without spoiling the whole thing, but basically it’s about two people who meet online and kind of fall for each other while talking about movies. But throughout all of that, there’s this question of whether they should meet in person or not because what if it’s not the same?

3. “Vindicated” by Dashboard Confessional

Vindicated, I am selfish, I am wrong
I am right, I swear I’m right
Swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed
But I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now
The things you swore you saw yourself

I was just talking with my boyfriend the other day about how I was really into Dashboard Confessional during my peak emo stage. I think “Vindicated” could really fit with anything that has a coming of age theme. I think it especially fits with The Way You Make Me Feel because that book really focuses on Clara learning to think of someone other than herself and analyzing decisions she’s made and learning to live with the consequences and become a better person.

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I’m tagging…

Jess ❤ Robin ❤ Hannah ❤ Kensley ❤ Natalie

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No pressure if you don’t want to do the tag (or if you’ve already done it), and please feel free to do it even if I didn’t tag you! What do you think of my song and book choices? Let’s talk in the comments!

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ARC review: Ask Me Anything by Molly E. Lee

Ask Me Anything by Molly E. Lee

Rating: ★★★☆☆
Links: Amazon • TBD • Goodreads
Publication Date: May 7, 2019
Source: ARC via Netgalley

I should’ve kept my mouth shut.

But Wilmont Academy’s been living in the Dark Ages when it comes to sex ed, and someone had to take matters into her own hands. Well, I’m a kick-ass coder, so I created a totally anonymous, totally untraceable blog where teens can come to get real, honest, nothing-is-off-limits sex advice.

And holy hell, the site went viral—and we’re talking way beyond Wilmont—overnight. Who knew this town was so hard up?

Except now the school administration is trying to shut me down, and they’ve forced Dean—my coding crush, aka the hottest guy in school—to try to uncover who I am. If he discovers my secret, I’ll lose him forever. And thousands of teens who need real advice won’t have anyone to turn to.

Ask me anything…except how to make things right.

A little over a month ago, I got an email from Entangled asking me if I wanted to share an excerpt of Ask Me Anything. A sex-positive YA book that features an awesome female hacker? SIGN ME UP. I shared that excerpt, which only made me more excited to read this book.

For the first half of the book or so, I was sure this was going to be a four- or even five-star read. I loved Amber and her friends. I loved Dean and his sister. I loved the Code Club and the whole idea of the competition between Amber and Dean. I loved the idea of the Ask Me Anything blog and I loved that the book gave reasonable, realistic advice in the form of blog posts. Simply put, I loved everything.

The second half, though? It’s not like it was bad or anything. It just wasn’t as good. Amber and Dean were cute together, but a few things happen that felt entirely unrealistic. Principal Tanner was a ridiculous character, completely over-the-top, and almost a caricature of a villain. There are also two points that I can’t really discuss without spoilers, so click below for that.

These are spoilers!

Alright, so the first thing I want to talk about is Amber and Dean’s first time. In general, this book is pretty realistic when it comes to sex. I expected Amber and Dean’s first time to be at least semi-realistic. I did not expect it to be complete and utter perfection, where Dean knows exactly how to make Amber “fly apart” (or whatever euphemism the author used for having an orgasm) despite it being both of their first times.

The second thing I want to address is Tessa’s pregnancy. As I said, the majority of the book is pretty realistic. Tessa’s pregnancy, though, felt contrived, almost like something out of a bad educational film they’d have made us watch in Catholic high school health class. (That’s right, kids, have sex and you’ll get pregnant, there’s no way around it.) It seemed to add a lot of unnecessary drama without really adding to the plot, other than giving Amber and Dean an excuse to have an argument.

Overall, though, I really enjoyed this book. I think it’s timely and important and I wish something like it would have existed when I was a teenager.

Quick note: This book contains many descriptions of sexual assault. If that’s something you’re sensitive to, know that it’s handled well, but it’s still a definite presence and a fairly large part of the story.

#mm19: crack the case

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Have you read Ask Me Anything? Do you know of any similar books?Let’s talk in the comments!

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