All These Things I've Done By Gabrielle Zevin Review #80

Author: Gabrielle Zevin
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Pages: 354
Source: ARC
Links: Amazon/ Chapters
Rating: 4/5

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

Engrossing and suspenseful, All These Things I've Done is an utterly unique, unputdownable read that blends both the familiar and the fantastic.

Last year I had come home and found a packaged box for me in the mail. In the red box was confetti, coffee bean cover chocolates, a letter and an arc of All these things I've Done .

Immediately I dug into the book and devour it. It was as addictive as chocolates themselves. Sadly I went away for eight months to Taiwan and never got around to reviewing it before it was published. 

Now all that set aside , I just got to say that I love some of the promotional things they do with novels. The people or person that does them is both brilliant and hard working. I imagine for an author and others involve in the team it takes  a lot of work to promote a novel. In this case: Coffee Covered chocolates with the main character's (whose the daughter of a dead mob boss) last name on it's package. Not only was it  fun to dig into the book itself, but devouring the chocolates were also a yummy treat. So I just want to say thanks to Ksenia Winnicki @ Macmillan for sending this to me =D 

I found this novel to be witty, charming and overall a great read. 

It was easy to dive into the story. 

There was many circumstances where I could not put the book down.

 Zevin's did a amazing job with 

characters. She made each and every one of her character stand out

 and apart from each other. 

Every person in the novel had their own little trait about them 

(Natty; genius, Win;hats, Scarlett; theatre, Gable; Jerk ect;) 

that set them apart. 

The story flows flawlessly in first person. It was set in the big apple 

one of my favourite places. 

The originality of it was what peak my interest when it first

 arrived and through out the entire novel. 

Set in the future where chocolate is illegal.

Who would not want to read a story like that? 

All These Things I've done is definitely a book I will be finding myself

 read over and over again.

Especially since it set in NYC. After I received this novel in the mail I 

actually went on a vacation in NYC. 

So I got to see some of the many places that are actually talk about.

 It was cool reading the novel while actually visiting the places

 that the characters go to. 

Annie devotion and love towards her family, even when sometimes

 she went astray from that path, was mesmerizing and

 beautiful. I thought the strong sense of family ties 

and love (and how far you would go for them) was what made the 

novel more strong. 

The things Annie did and gave up for her family is what made her a 

strong protagonist. 

I felt heart broken every time she had to give up something up

 (that she truly loved) 

because of the situation she was in. 

This novel, though intriguing at every point, was not a hard read. My 

only complaint was that the ending did not seem satisfying enough. 

It did not feel like a ending but more of a cut off point. 

This September 2012 the sequel comes out, Because It is My Blood. I

 am definitely looking forward to the second novel. 

This is definitely a novel that readers should read or put on their tbr 

pile.

 Check out Gabrielle Zevin's website =D