A couple of months ago a small package arrived on my doorstep. To my amazement, it included not only a copy of the high anticipated All These Things I’ve Done, the newest book by the lovely Gabrielle Zevin, but also some chocolate covered espresso beans. The espresso beans ended up being delicious but the book was even better! Enchanting and engaging, All These Things I’ve Done has to be one of the best books I’ve read so far this year, and given the fact that it’s the first in series, I also th...

Let me first say that the first half of this book deserves 3 stars. I really enjoyed the setting even though I still don't quite understand why the world is the way it is. Annie, Scarlet, Natty, Leo, and Win were all great characters in the beginning. I felt like the story moved along pretty well and that things were really going to get good with Annie's mafia family background. Unfortunately the second half of the book did not deliver at least for me anyway. I got tired of waiting for the actio...

This is the first book I've given up on in a long time.And some might think it strange. Because, looking at it objectively . . . is it better than Twilight? Is it better than Evermore? Is it better than Hush, Hush?I think I'd have to say yes to all of those. But the difference is, however terrible those books may be, the one thing they did do is keep me interested. They kept me invested enough in the story that I wanted to know how it all turned out. And that just did not happen with All These T...

All These Things I've Done was surprisingly good. I was completely captivated by this intriguing and tension filled story.I have been reading quite a bit of dystopia lately and I loved that this novel did not focus on matching people or the government trying to control everybody. In the year 2083 they are plenty of problems and changes but overall it feels more like a realistic future. Chocolate is illegal (EEK! no chocolate would make me crazy) together with a million other things like caffeine...

LOVE this! Even though the narrative is first person, the way the story is told, it’s almost like a much older Anya is reminiscing about her misspent youth to her own grandchildren in a distant future. I liked Anya immediately and basically hung on her every word.

*reread in 2021*I didn't love this as much as I did back in 2015, it was a fun read but nothing special. I had to reread it because I couldn't remember anything from the first time I read it, and I really want to finish the trilogy this year. *first read 2015*I really enjoyed this book, the Storyline was so different Chocolate being illegal? It was set in the future, I don't remember the date…I felt like the story was a little slow in the beginning that's why I gave it a 4.5.I love Win he's so g...

The status comments I made for this book do a lot to explain my descending feelings. I'm just flat bummed that Zevin took things in the direction she did, because I started out absolutely LOVING this story. To be honest, the only reason I was initially engaged in the book is because I liked Anya and her family. The worldbuilding is practically nonexistent, and for any book that touts itself as a dystopian, that's not good. Chocolate and caffeine have been outlawed, and there's little-to-no expla...

With a cover like that, a premise like that, and the name of one of YA’s most highly awarded authors attached to it, how could one not pick this book up? With her trademark intelligent writing and world-building, Gabrielle Zevin’s dystopian ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE should be a hit for those who like their YA dystopias a touch on the literary side. It doesn’t quite hit the mark in terms of characterization, but I still very much enjoyed this novel, and look forward to its sequels.Anya’s New Yor...

2.5 starsMixed feelings about this book. At first, I was enamored with All These Things I've Done. Mainly because of its originality. Even though the novel is pushed as another dystopia, it is more of a mafia crime drama, at least in the beginning. The setting is futuristic - 2083, but hardly dystopic. The end of the century US is overrun by lawlessness, corruption and rationing, however there is nothing particularly oppressive about it. In fact, it actually reminded me of 1990s Russia - the civ...

3.5 stars.I remember reading Elsewhere and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin and enjoying them both. Zevin has a knack for creating unique stories and All These Things I've Done is no exception.However, the dystopian aspect of the book could have been developed more. Chocolate and caffeine are illegal, there are copious amounts of crime, mafia families are present and powerful, but how did it get this way? How are these things affecting society? Even though Anya isn't directly aff...

I didn’t know much about this book before I started reading it. Just the basics. Dystopian world. Protagonist is a girl. Something about attempted murder. And chocolate and coffee are illegal (come on, that’s enough to make anyone pick up the book). It promised to be good. What I didn’t know? It’s a romance. Probably the most intense romance I’ve read. (Yeah, I know, the word “love” is plastered all over the back cover; but in my defence I didn’t get to see the back-cover until I picked it up fr...

3.5 stars (Looks at back of book. Reads “2082”. Looks at Goodreads synopsis. Reads “2083”. Is confused.)New York, 2083. Chocolate and coffee are illegal. Curfews are enforced. Water is a precious commodity. And Anya Balanchine, orphaned daughter of a prominent criminal underworld figure, is arrested for attempted murder. Gabrielle Zevin drops her readers into a future that is unsettlingly easy to imagine (with the exception of the chocolate ban, perhaps). It’s our world – just bleaker, harder, d...

Let's be clear, I did a lot of skim-reading and not-reading after the 150 page marker because there was nothing much - actually, nothing at all - about this book that I can say I enjoyed. I'm not surprised after reading a lot of my friends' negative reviews, but I do admit to a little curiosity sparking in me when this arrived from the publishers claiming to be The Godfather with a dystopian twist. This is nothing at all, slightly, remotely like The Godfather beyond the mention of mafia - an

To make myself feel like an equal-opportunity teacher, I like to force myself to read some "YA chick books" so I can pitch them to reluctant reader girls the way I do so many sports, war, and horror books to reluctant reading boys (and girls, as girls seem less bothered by a book's gender target audience). But mea culpa, I'm here to confess I am a fraud. I cannot bring myself to read a single sentence of the Twilight series. Ditto anything by the much beloved Sarah Dessen (#1 with 8th-grade girl...

New York City is a very different place in 2083. Crime and poverty are everywhere, and it seems that the only thing that the government is good at doing is banning and rationing items. You’d think that life would get kind of boring since caffeine and chocolate are illegal, but life for Anya Balanchine is always a little more interesting than she’d like it to be. All the excitement probably comes with the family name—the Balanchine crime family is one of the most eminent crime families in the wor...

There has been a huge upswing in the amount of dystopian and dystopian-like books written in the past few years. Some are excellent. Some have excellent premises that are just not quite carried off. And some have premises that leave you kinda scratching your head. Despite all of the good things I've heard about Gabrielle Zevin, I was afraid this was going to fall in the latter category. I mean, a world where chocolate and caffeine are banned, but alcohol is not? And since that was all that was r...

This book was a total air ball for me. The premise sounded so fun— a futuristic society with a Prohibition-era-type ban on chocolate,a black market run by mobster families, and a teenage heir to the family empire. MURDERS! POISONING! Boredom? Boredom. Oh, and tepid romance and a selfish MC. Imagine all the places this book could’ve gone. Yeah, that’s right, I’m thinking total badass teenage girl threatening her way across NYC and putting her dysfunctional family business back in order. (I mean,

I was pretty excited when I got this book. A future society where chocolate is banned and mafia included? Omg! Sounds so exciting. Especially since I'm such a chocolate whore. Haha.Despite the ridiculousness of the premise I totally devoured up the whole caffeine and chocolate being outlawed because it just sounds cool. I don't know what I'd do if they were banned. I think I'd go crazy because I'm Asian! How can you go without tea? TEA?! But I'm just curious... Why would you ban chocolate and ca...

I read the last page, closed the book, smiled and kind of hugged/patted it lol Have you ever gotten that feeling? All These Things I’ve Done was the ultimate comfort and deliciously good read.I fall in love with Zevin’s writing. Her characters are PHENOMENAL! Anya Balanchine, she is such an honest. I was with her every step of the way. And even through I didn’t get I chance to meet her father, he seemed like a wise man(even though he was a notorious crime boss.)Who shaped Anna to be the young br...

I'll admit that this was fun to read, and that the echoes of the Prohibition era was done quite well, but it was the worldbuilding that really killed it for me. I mean, apart from the absurd notion that coffee and chocolate are banned, I can't understand why those two items are banned when alcohol is legal, even for minors. A lot of things just don't make sense in terms of the worldbuilding. If anything, it felt like it was dystopian for the sake of being a dystopian. There was nothing remarkabl...