TAG: Playing with your emotions

The "Playing with your Emotions" TAG was created by PadfootandProngs07.

Which books made you feel...

1. Happy:

 

Always a huge fan of Merlin/Arthurian legend spin-offs, Avalon High by Meg Cabot has remained one of my all-time favorite books for about five years now. I have reread this book I don't know how many times, and it never fails to make me happy — the perfect mix of contemporary-adventure and fluff.

2. Sad:

I usually try to stay away from books that make me want to sob hysterically in a corner for hours on end, but John Green has captured my heart in a way that few authors have; with his very real portrayal of life, love and growing up. The Fault in Our Stars is my favorite book of his and, despite the heart-wrenching topic, I absolutely adored the characters and their story. I cannot wait for the movie!

3. Angry:

I don't remember much about this book, just that the ending made me very, very angry, which is something you do not want to be at three in the morning (sorry, Twitter). There were so many unnecessary deaths, and things were wrapped up a bit too quickly - leaving me with a ton of unanswered questions and leftover feels and I just, askflaslkdf....

4. Nostalgic:

What else could it be, but the first book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling - the one that started it all! I cannot help but rediscover my childhood within these pages; roaming Hogwarts for the first time, listening to Miss Mayer read the books to our fourth grade class, reading into the night, dressing up for midnight book releases, and falling in love with each of the characters all over again...

5. Scared:

It has been about two years since I first picked up The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin, but no amount of time could make me forget how frightened I was while reading. The Mara Dyer series deals with the darker aspects of psychology, love and death - all of which can be very eerie when handled correctly (subjects I would not recommend reading about at night).

6. Surprised:

This emotion coincides with an entire series, rather than just one book. Before last year, I had never really been a fan of Sci Fi; preferring contemporary, fantasy and action/adventure reads over those that deal with machines and space. After being bombarded with amazing reviews about Beth Revis' Across the Universe series, however, I finally caved and bought them, mentally preparing myself for disappointment and boredom. What I did not count on was falling in love with this series; the characters, development, plot and action so nail-bitingly delicious that I could not put the books down, and had to read them, one after the other. This series really surprised me, and has helped me to be more open, genre-wise, when choosing which books to read!

7. Disappointed:

The Kill Order was, by no means, a bad book. It was just as beautifully written as James Dashner's other works and had likeable characters that were easy to get attached to and nail-biting situations that left you going, "What just happened?!" The sole reason I found this book so disappointing was because it was not at all what I was expecting. We spend the majority of The Maze Runner trilogy experiencing flashbacks via the memory-deprived characters that are telling the story. When picking up The Kill Order, I was hoping we would be seeing the apocalypse as it actually happened, rather than just getting snippets of it through our main character's memory. The whole "going crazy" thing was really, really cool, but I wanted to live through this fictional End of the World, not learn about it a year after it had happened.

8. Distressed:

Between the spoilers floating around the internet and the anxiety that comes with reading the last book in a series, Allegiant by Veronica Roth left me feeling very distressed and panicky the entire time I was reading it. So much was either happening or not happening, characters were dying or getting into trouble, and I was in such a rush to finish the book and find out what happened that my nerves were a complete mess when I finally finished.

9. Confused:

 

As I Wake by Elizabeth Scott has got to be one of the most confusing books I have ever read... Ever. It was interesting in a Sci Fi, parallel worlds kind of way, but things were left unexplained, nothing made sense, and I had the worst headache after finally completing the story, which is never a good sign. I have been debating whether or not I should reread this book, give it a second chance, but given the low ratings it has received on Goodreads (2.95 average), I am assuming that I was not the only person to feel this way and doubt I will ever get around to picking it up again. A shame, given the gorgeous cover.