Karissa

This one was such a hard one to decide if it was a 5 star or 6 star read for me. 6 stars means that it's a favorite of the year. I may end up adjusting the more I sit with my thoughts because man did this book have me screaming, crying, throwing up at MULTIPLE points in the story. It makes me want to go back and read the other 2 in the series (I read out of order because of a travelling book club I'm in, not that ya'll care).

However when I say this book's plot was unhinged, I mean UNHINGED. It was more unhinged than a broken door. I won't get into why this book was unhinged to avoid spoilers, but know that there were many times that I sat there, stared at the book, and went “What in the world?” then shrugged and said “Why the fuck not at this point?” and kept on reading.

I find it really hard to review this book. I loved this book when I read it. It was my favorite book for the longest time because of how powerful it was and I was recommending it to everyone to shed some light on the atrocities committed in North Korean prison camps. However, now, after knowing that large elements of Donghyuk's story was fabricated and altered.... I don't know how to feel. What he experienced was inhumane and terrible for sure, but.. knowing now that he lied changes how I feel about it. I have the original 2012 printing and read it not long after it's original release, so I feel like if I'm going to reread this book, I will have to get the new 2015 printing to due to the revisions Blaine Harden has made since my initial read.

The One and Only Ivan focuses in on a gorilla named Ivan who lives in a strip mall zoo. He doesn't think his life is so bad; he has his friends and he gets to create art for the people who visit the zoo. It is only when Ruby, a young elephant, joins him at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade that Ivan begins to question everything he once thought about his home. Told in short diary-like entries, The One and Only Ivan will pull at your heart strings and at times rip it completely out of your chest, but also fill you up with such happy, hopeful fluttering feelings. It is a fantastic, wonderful read. I cannot recommend it enough.

I was not sure how I felt about this book at the beginning. Fair warning there is A LOT of religion in this book. Religion plays a major role in the character development and the universe. Not a dealbreaker in a book for me, but it might be for some people. I wasn't sure for 80% where the book was going and just kind of wanted it to be over. There were elements of the writing that I liked, but overall I didn't feel like the book was going anywhere. It was very slice-of-life and I could kind of see that the author wanted to focus more on character development than actual plot but... boy howdy did I HATE Hannah by the end of this book. The first part of the book was good. The second and third bits were ... ehhh.... and the last part of the book was awful. Choices that were made in terms of Hannah's character were infuriating and made absolutely no sense and I felt at times that diversity was thrown in simply just to have diversity.