Review: Scythe

Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Arc of a Scythe #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Release Date: November 22nd, 2016
Source: Edelweiss
Date Read: 11/24/16 to 12/8/16
435 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

I have been putting off this review since forever. About a month and a half or so. The reason for that is because I just didn’t know how to review Scythe. Because it was that good, but in a way I just couldn’t possibly explain.

The great thing about Neal Shusterman is that he has these worlds that are constrained by rules of his own making. About two years ago, I heard him talk about it during a signing. He showed the audience pages and pages of his manuscript, all written out in ink. I couldn’t imagine all the hand cramps that came with that. His dedication to world building is clearly shown in this new series, and I highly recommend you at least read this for that.

In this science fiction world, humanity has gained immortality. Without hunger, disease, war, or misery, you could say that this is a pretty good world to live in. Well, except for the fact that there are people called scythes, in charge of maintaining the human population. Everyone is scared of them, sometimes there’s bribery, and this book (and most likely the series) focuses on the corruption within the group. That’s where Citra and Rowan come in, two apprentices who not only have to learn the morals of what it means to take a life, but also find a way to survive themselves in this political climate group.

Though I absolutely adored the characters, I was very much drawn into the plot and the world-building. It’s not every day where you read about how to pick someone to kill. And the different scythe mentors, Scythe Faraday and Scythe Curie, each had unique methods. One who goes for the instant kill, and the other who confronts the person first. Also pretty sure Scythe Faraday was one of my favorite characters from this book.

As with all great books that I’ve read, I just don’t have that much to say about Scythe. But don’t take my lack of words as me not liking it. Because I did! Compared to the rest of the books I read in 2016, this one is way above all of them.

Review: The Forgetting

The Forgetting by Sharon Cameron
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Release Date: September 13th, 2016
Source: Book Expo America
Date Read: 9/11/16 to 9/15/16
416 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰

What isn't written, isn't remembered. Even your crimes.

Nadia lives in the city of Canaan, where life is safe and structured, hemmed in by white stone walls and no memory of what came before. But every twelve years the city descends into the bloody chaos of the Forgetting, a day of no remorse, when each person's memories – of parents, children, love, life, and self – are lost. Unless they have been written.

In Canaan, your book is your truth and your identity, and Nadia knows exactly who hasn't written the truth. Because Nadia is the only person in Canaan who has never forgotten.

But when Nadia begins to use her memories to solve the mysteries of Canaan, she discovers truths about herself and Gray, the handsome glassblower, that will change her world forever. As the anarchy of the Forgetting approaches, Nadia and Gray must stop an unseen enemy that threatens both their city and their own existence – before the people can forget the truth. And before Gray can forget her.

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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

There’s something about The Forgetting that draws you in, and you’re just not sure what. There was a point in the novel that really picked up, and finally, finally I got into it. And couldn’t get out until the end.

Nadia lives in a world where everyone forgets every 12 years. No one knows why, no one knows how. But as long as you have your book of all your memories and experiences, you were fine. You wouldn’t be considered Lost. But once that book is gone, and your memories are gone with it, how are you supposed to know who you are? Well you don’t.

Trapped within the walls of Canaan, Nadia constantly escapes over the wall. Until Gray, the glassblower’s son catches her in the act. The problem? Well he wants to go over with her. Of course, she agrees. The more they spend time together, the more they learn about themselves, about Nadia, about Gray, and about the origins of Canaan. And how it’s really not all what it seems (surprise!).

This wasn’t what I expected. At first, I didn’t trust The Forgetting to get memory right. Being a cognitive scientist (officially now, I suppose), I wasn’t expecting the “forgetting” part to be very accurate. And true, it’s not at all. But the only reason I learned to let it go was the way the plot went. This didn’t end up being a pure dystopian, as The Hunger Games was. Neither was it exactly like how the vaults operated in Fallout 4 (Not that you know about those, but basically in Fallout 4, it’s post-apocalyptic. These vaults held people from before the nuclear explosion, but they were also unknowingly monitored by scientists. The Forgetting was giving me those sorts of vibes).

Because of that, my attention was held by The Forgetting. I couldn’t put this down until I finished. Yet saying that, there wasn’t anything remarkably amazing about it, hence only the 4 stars. It was just fast-paced, surprising in a way I didn’t expect, and interesting. I didn’t necessarily root for any of the characters, or care much about Nadia and Gray’s relationship. They were rather “forgettable”, excuse my pun I just had to do it. But still, this concept was executed pretty well, plus it’s a standalone! And you don’t see those everyday.

Review: Metaltown

Metaltown by Kristen Simmons
Publisher: Tor Teen
Release Date: September 20th, 2016
Source: Book Expo America
Date Read: 8/9/16 to 8/12/16
384 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰1/2

Metaltown, where factories rule, food is scarce, and hope is in short supply.

The rules of Metaltown are simple: Work hard, keep your head down, and watch your back. You look out for number one, and no one knows that better than Ty. She’s been surviving on the factory line as long as she can remember. But now Ty has Colin. She’s no longer alone; it’s the two of them against the world. That’s something even a town this brutal can’t take away from her. Until it does.

Lena’s future depends on her family’s factory, a beast that demands a ruthless master, and Lena is prepared to be as ruthless as it takes if it means finally proving herself to her father. But when a chance encounter with Colin, a dreamer despite his circumstances, exposes Lena to the consequences of her actions, she’ll risk everything to do what’s right.

In Lena, Ty sees an heiress with a chip on her shoulder. Colin sees something more. In a world of disease and war, tragedy and betrayal, allies and enemies, all three of them must learn that challenging what they thought was true can change all the rules.

An enthralling story of friendship and rebellion, Metaltown will have you believing in the power of hope.

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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

I am going to be honest, Metaltown was never one of my most anticipated reads. Sure, it sounded interesting, but I mainly read it because Shannon accidentally slept through the signing, and I got it signed for her. And I ended up reading it because "why not".

The world is split between the rich and the poor. The ones that can afford it can live in the nice suburbs, while the ones that couldn't lived in places like Metaltown, where labor is strictly focused on manufacturing for the war. Kids and teenagers mainly worked in Small Parts, an assembly line for building bombs.

Have you ever watched or read Les Misérables? It's similar to that except the kids are rebelling because they have no union. And they want to create one. Turns out, it's a complicated process, and a bunch of people don't want it to happen. Especially the ones on top funding this war in the first place.

Ty and Colin struggle with working at Small Parts. It's a lot of work for so little pay. It's not until Ty's accident that Colin tries to round up the workers to protest for a union. Even though this seems like a very clear cut plot, I never got bored with it. There was a perfect balance between the prose and the dialogue, and it kept me reading until the end.

However, the characters. Are you guys ready for this?

First off, I liked the characters. Though I feel like I did get off the wrong foot with Ty, especially after she had a horrible accident that destroyed most of her face (cue discussion post about attractive characters). This made me a little uncomfortable, for which I blame all those commercials, ads, and news stories that burned the image in my mind. (Spoiler: For all of you who are wondering, her face got burned by acid.) But you know what? I changed my mind by the end of the novel! She turned out to be an amazing character, but nOPE all of that doesn't even matter in the end (and I'm pretty salty about it).

Because you know why? Lena. The prettier, richer girl who Colin is actually attracted to. Which fine, whatever, sure. But man some of Lena's actions were so reckless and not thought out at all. She wanted to help out with the little revolution, but most of the time she ended up making things worse. And you know who would fix them? Ty. And you know what happens? Spoiler (highlight to read): SHE DIES. She dies, all so that Colin and Lena can get together without there being a love triangle. And you know what else? Lena gets the stupid inheritance money that was supposedly Ty's. Because Ty is the sole survivor of her family, but she didn't know until the end of the novel. And she doesn't even get to use it. What am I supposed to make out of this? Huh!?

Honestly I was just annoyed and bothered by Lena.

Before this gets super long, I do want to mention more of what I liked and didn't. (I just had to get all of that out above).

What I Like:

• Love that Colin had two moms, Cherish and Ida. That was a nice surprise. 
• It was well written! A perfect balance of dialogue and character interaction paired with prose. Never got bored with the writing. Just, you know, the relationships.

What I Didn't Like: 

• There is some worldbuilding. Enough to get by, more than some other novels I've read. It was a little hard to imagine the setting. On one hand I thought everywhere was like Metaltown, where everyone was poor and had to work in a factory. But then there was also Bakerstown, which is basically a rich suburb. Or at least one with the middle class.
• Mainly the whole setting sprouted from world hunger and famine. Scientists tried to make synthetic corn, which poisoned many people creating the corn flu. From then on all foods were tested, usually by inmates.
• There is war between the North and East Federation, and the Advocates. Not sure if that is all the federations or what exactly the Advocates are, but I know they're there.
• I guess overall the worldbuilding is nice when you focus on one area, like Metaltown. It seems like the reader is just as much in the dark as the characters.

Whoops this ended up being long, but you get the idea. Metaltown is an interesting read, but I got way too annoyed by some of the characters (mainly one) to fully enjoy what was happening.

Review: Wolf By Wolf

Wolf By Wolf by Ryan Graudin
Publisher: Little, Brown Books
Release Date: October 20th, 2015
Source: Book Expo America
Date Read: 6/6/15 to 6/7/15
400 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰1/2 

Code Name Verity meets Inglourious Basterds in this fast-paced novel from the author of The Walled City.

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule the world. To commemorate their Great Victory over Britain and Russia, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor's ball.

Yael, who escaped from a death camp, has one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year's only female victor, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin's brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael's every move. But as Yael begins to get closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?

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So, I read Wolf by Wolf awhile ago, and I'm going to be honest I do remember some of that, but that's pretty much it. And then I gave my copy away, and now that's that. Whoops. Let's see how I do~ 

Wolf by Wolf is not really a book I would read, seeing as it is about motorcycles, which I'm not too interested in. But let's be honest, put Code Name Verity in your blurb, have the story set during WWII, and I'm down. Let's not forget the fact that this is a reimagined WWII story. GOLD.

Yael has a personal vendetta against Hitler, especially after surviving and escaping a death camp. Which is why her one goal is to kill him. But since he's so well protected (after winning WWII and such), the only why she can do this is by 1) impersonating Adele Wolfe and 2) winning the motorcycle race that is basically like The Hunger Games, but for countries. And it doesn't involve too much killing. But it can, apparently.

Now you may ask, how can Yael impersonate someone who looks nothing like her? EASY. She has superhuman, shapeshifting powers! All due to human experimentation in the death/concentration camp. Actually, I was surprised at the route the book took. I was not expecting there to be science fiction intertwined with this dystopian. So that was a plus. 

Unfortunately, the positives end there. As much as I didn't mind the story, neither the plot nor the characters left an impact on me. And without that, the novel wasn't as memorable. (Though what was I expecting, nothing can top Elizabeth Wein's novels). I didn't feel much for Yael, or the side characters for that matter. I also felt that she was a little too much of a prodigy. First she's a shapeshifter, and suddenly she has mastered motorcycle riding (in a matter of months). It just felt unreal. It also doesn't help that there are two guys, but apparently it is not a love triangle because 1) Yael is imitating Adele and Felix thinks that she is really Adele, who is his sister. And 2) Luka is the one who has a thing for Adele. So in theory, it should not be a love triangle. 

And not only that, but the motorcycle race reminded me a little too much of The Hunger Games. Although it didn't include all the gore and monitoring, it had the same idea in that anything could happen. And the fact that Yael is in the middle of the rebellion. Against a dictator. Who hosts a game. Which in this case is a race.

So that will be an interesting turnout. But I'm going to be honest and say I'm planning to not read the sequel. I wasn't all that interested in this first book, and although the story has a lot of potential, it's not really high up on my list. But hey, another WWII book on my read list!

Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: October 2nd, 2012
Source: Physical
Date Read: 7/20/15 to 7/20/15
340 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

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Before everyone who loved Shatter Me destroys me, I would just like to say that this wasn't my type of book. I wanted it to be something that it wasn't, based on all the recommendations, but hey at least I can say I read it! (Thanks to the Make Me Read It Readathon)

However, I am happy to say that this turned out better than The Sineater's Daughter. If you've read that, then you know what I mean.

Let's start with Juliette. Juliette is cursed with the inability to touch people because she'll end up hurting them or killing them. She ends up in the asylum for that reason, and suddenly the government, The Reestablishment, wants her power for themselves. Well, more specifically, Warner wants this power for himself. So he sends in Adam, Juliette's childhood friend, to scope out the girl and see if she's fit for the real world.

Sadly, I'm not a fan of the characters.

Warner is a little too creepy for my tastes. I get that a lot of people like him because he's the "bad guy", and I'm sure his story gets better over the course of the series, but as of right now, not for me. The way he behaves around Juliette is just really sketchy, and I'm not a fan of it.

Adam is the well needed hero of the story, and a little too good to be true. First off he can [spoiler] touch Juliette, when no one else can [spoiler]. And of course they both know each other from the past. And of course he just happened to know what Warner was planning, and made sure he was chosen to meet with Juliette in the cell.

And then there's Juliette. I didn't really have a problem with Juliette. But I also didn't really care for her either. Though I am honestly surprised at how sane she is after leaving the asylum. 

The only character I loved was James, Adam's younger brother. Because he is a squish. 

And the too good to be true ending

The ending was NOT what I expected (no surprise haha), just because how? Juliette's been stuck in a asylum for three years, yet here we see [spoiler] more people with superpowers? [spoiler] Like what is this? How did this happen? Where have you guys been for the last three years? There are just so many questions my poor brain cannot handle.

Just to clarify, Shatter Me was entertaining to read, but it wasn't exactly my cup of tea. I will probably continue the series or else Holly will squish me, but I'm hoping it'll get better. Though I have heard that this series does get better, so I'm crossing my fingers!

Review: 5 to 1

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Release Date: May 12th, 2015
Source: Library
Date Read: 7/14/15 to 7/14/15
244 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰1/2

In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.

Sudasa doesn’t want to be a wife, and Kiran, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable—and caged. Kiran’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Kiran thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.

This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view—Sudasa’s in verse and Kiran’s in prose—allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.

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I know, I know. Another 3.5 star review? Yes. But hey, I really enjoyed 5 to 1, and it was interesting to say in the least. When I saw this on NetGalley, I was expecting more, more world-building, more character development, more on this world where women are treated like princesses and men are treated like dirt.

And India! (A Little Princess, because favorite movie ever)

The story starts off with Sudasa getting married off. The catch is that her suitors have to compete for her hand. Since men are considered lower than women in this world, if they don't marry and have daughters, they're deemed worthless. And their lives won't ever get better. Of course, if you're a girl, you're pretty much set. This is the new India, within India. If you are within the walls of Koyanagar, then you're part of this system. 

The novel is short and sweet, but not all prose

This novel is short. The chapters also not only alternate between Sudasa's and Kiran's POV, but also between poetic verse and prose. This surprised me the most, and I have yet to figure out why Sudasa's thoughts are in verse. Is it because she's a girl and therefore deemed more elegant, or more intellectual? Who knows. Either way, it was refreshing to see the story told from both formats. I have never really read a book written in verse, and this one was very well done.

Speaking of Kiran and Sudasa, they didn't have much interaction. But the little that they had still led them to a strong connection.  

The concept is interesting, but is somewhat lacking and contradictory.

So here is how Koyanagar was founded. It was the Indians of the past constantly favored boys over girls, and often casted the girls aside. As time went on, there were fewer and fewer girls, which meant less to mate with. To protect the girls, the city of Koyanagar was founded by a group of women. No on can enter or leave the city, which means everyone who entered before the door closed can't leave. 

Now here is the contradictory part. Girls are valued higher than boys. Families are pressured into raising girls, because having a boy is a disgrace. But this doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't this lead to the exact problem that started this in the first place? I'm not sure if this was the author's intention, but I feel like this is a huge problem in the world-building. 

It's not about revenge

5 to 1 is about the revenge of females against the males, but the message of the book is that this shouldn't be our path. Everyone deserves to be treated equally, no matter what. In 5 to 1, we clearly see that some women are so against men, which is what led to such a horrible society in the first place. So yes, in real life, the world is unfair. But that doesn't mean that we should take revenge on the ones that wronged us. It may seem like a good idea, but 5 to 1 is a reminder that it revenge may lead to something worse.

I did enjoy 5 to 1, it had a great message in gender equality, and equality in general, but I didn't end up loving the book as I wanted to. But since it's so short (only 244 pages!), I would still recommend it!

Review: Unwind

Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Unwind Dystology #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Release Date: June 2nd, 2009
Source: Bought
Date Read: 5/26/15 to 5/29/15
335 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰ 

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

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This is so different from anything that I've read, and because of that you can't even tell that this is actually dystopian. And this book ACTUALLY, TRULY deals with organs (unlike a more recent book I read *cough*).

Unwind takes place in the future, where parents can have their children unwound between the ages of 13 and 18. After 18, the children become adults and they cannot be unwound no matter. What exactly is unwounding, you ask? Well LET ME TELL YOU. It's the taking apart of your live, fresh body, in order to harvest for organs. The most important part is that these parts are STILL ALIVE, and will still think they are part of their original body. In all honestly, it's disgusting, creepy, and slightly scary, but so amazingly well executed. 

Unwounding can happen to anyone between those ages, but most of the time only children who are raised to be a sacrifice from a young age, or children who aren't worth being kept "alive", are unwound. This is where Risa, Connor, and Lev fit in. Before their trip to the harvest camp, they all manage to turn their situation into an opportunity to escape together and hopefully survive until they're all 18 years old.

This is intense. Did I say that? The scene where the actual unwounding took place really shook me, and I'm sure it will stay with me forever. And even though I didn't connect with the characters fully, they still grew on me, and I was rooting for them to, well, not be unwound. Lev, who is only 13 years old, grew up so much since the beginning of the novel. 

The only thing holding me back from giving this a full 5 stars is the parts where I was confused (man this is no surprise.) And I guess this is one book where I should've read the blurb or synopsis of, but I didn't because I'm lazy. I also never understood WHY children were being unwounded. I'm sure it was mentioned briefly along with the war in the book, but I either wasn't paying attention, or didn't understand what it was implying. Ah well. 

This is an INCREDIBLE START to the series, and I will be continuing this as soon as I can! This is seriously the most creative dystopian I have ever read. 

ARC Review: Golden Son

Golden Son by Pierce Brown
Red Rising Trilogy #2
Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)
Release Date: January 6th, 2015
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 1/4/15 to 1/9/15
464 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within. A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.

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Golden Son was given to me through NetGalley in exchange for an honest opinion. 

I am seriously not okay. NOT OKAY I TELL YOU. After reading Red Rising, I was eager to get on with Golden Son, and I was not disappointed with the amount of action and strategy put into this sequel. There are a number of ways that Golden Son triumphs over Red Rising, that I kind of regret giving Red Rising 5 stars in the first place, because I can't give a higher one to its sequel.

This review is spoiler-free. But feel free to skim if you haven't read the first book! 

Just keep in mind that Red Rising was action-packed, strategic, and you should check it out! My review of it is here.

So, in this second book, we follow Darrow as he becomes the son of the Arch-Emperor. I thought that the beginning of the book was slightly boring, because of the angst and lack of motivation from Darrow. The first part was him about to give up! IT WAS HORRIBLE. This is not the Darrow I know!

But thankfully he comes back to his senses, and there's this whole civil war brewing between the Golds, because of a plot against the Arch-Emperor. Of course, Darrow plays this well and uses it to his advantage, causing a full out invasion and recapture of Mars. Although I kind of skimmed most of the big battle because I had no idea what was going on, I could still understand the general idea what was happening.

One of the worst part of the book, however, was seeing friends slip away from Darrow, and either betray him, or die. THIS HAS GIVEN ME TRUST ISSUES. His friends suck, Golds suck, power is the only motivation here, and it's really sad to see. Let me get one thing straight. This book is incredibly intense, and you will not leave unscathed by it.

HAHA HAVE I MENTIONED THE WORST PART YET? IN WHICH MY FEELS TOTALLY COLLAPSE UPON THEMSELVES AND IMPLODE?

Well, it's the ending. I just can't believe that happened. Nope. I was prepared and I still was really sad and distressed and I am just not okay. No. Not okay.

I even had a dream where the ending was completely different and better things happened but then I woke up and it wasn't the case.

Overall, Golden Son met all my expectations. Even though the first part was hard to get into, the remaining made up for it BECAUSE WAR. I'm also really glad this was not a repeat of the first book. There is a completely different setting, additional characters, and also more character development. Sure, my feelings are in shatters. I cannot function anymore. I even read and finished another book to get over this but I can't. BUT I REGRET NOTHING. I experienced 100x more feels from Golden Son than Red Rising, and I am not recovering from it. I need the third book now.

Review: Red Rising

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Red Rising Trilogy #1
Publisher: Del Rey (Random House)
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 12/26/14 to 12/31/14
382 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

The Earth is dying. Darrow is a Red, a miner in the interior of Mars. His mission is to extract enough precious elements to one day tame the surface of the planet and allow humans to live on it. The Reds are humanity's last hope.

Or so it appears, until the day Darrow discovers it's all a lie. That Mars has been habitable - and inhabited - for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down on Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day that Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their command school, intent on taking down his oppressors from the inside. But the command school is a battlefield - and Darrow isn't the only student with an agenda.

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Here's to the first review of 2015! Woo! 

I received Red Rising from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I know Red Rising came out a little less than a year ago, but with the release of Golden Sun in a couple of days, I decided to give the series a shot. And to my surprise I did not expect my feels and emotions to act in such a way that is causing me pain and suffering, because holy poop this is a heck of an intense book.

The beginning of the book compared to the rest of it is hugely different, in which the setting is drastically different. It starts off with Darrow living with his family in the underground of Mars. He is a Red, and therefore mines to provide enough resources for terraforming. These resources are given to the "higher-ups" so that they can "prepare" Mars for habitation for the other colors. Oh, and sadly the Reds are the lowest in the caste system. They're basically slaves.

Overall, it sucks for Darrow and the Reds. Luckily, in the latter part of the novel we are thrown into the rebellion phase, where Darrow goes through major surgery to become the highest color, a Gold. Here, we enter the Institute where Golds go to learn and be "drafted" by the higher-ups. Really, it's like football drafting, but uh.....a little violent.

No seriously, the drafting phase is like the board game Risk, but in real life. Every Gold admitted is assigned a House (based on the Greek gods and goddesses), and within that house they plan and strategize to take over the other houses.

Everything is great in the beginning, because everyone has this mindset that there won't be killing since the proctors, or their "gods" are watching them and making sure no one dies.

But of course this isn't necessarily true, and it's evident that the players aren't following the rules. Sure there is medical bots almost everywhere, but sometimes they just don't come in time. It's almost like The Hunger Games, but it lasts for almost year. 

That entire arc of the book is just Darrow strategizing, planning, and finding ways to become the leader of his house and beat the entire game. This means taking over and enslaving each player and knocking out all of the houses. BUT THEN WE FIND OUT it's not even just the players we need to worry about, but also the proctors are involved in this huge nasty business. Basically, everything is unpredictable.

Though I do have to mention that Darrow is really smart and intelligent. Like, incredibly so, in that I don't understand how he got that smart. I mean, I do mind and then I don't mind, because I love cheering for the underdog. Darrow did mess up sometimes, and was also betrayed a lot, but [slight spoiler] the enemy in the book was widely exaggerated and the ending was kind of anticlimactic. [end spoiler]

Overall, this didn't hinder in my enjoyment of Red Rising, since everything, including the world-building and the characters, were creatively well-written. Although there is a lot of new terminology, it reflects on our real life in that it can be easily interpreted (like in Earth Girl and that slang ha). I would like to point out that that there are a lot of characters and a lot of details, plus the pacing is incredibly fast at points, skipping weeks and sometimes even months between paragraphs. 

Red Rising worked for me, and I am excited to get on with Golden Son, because I have no idea what the heck Darrow is going to do next. 

Review: The Girl With All the Gifts

The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
Publisher: Orbit Books, Hachette Group
Release Date: June 10th, 2014
Source: Netgalley
Date Read: 7/2/14 to 7/9/14
416 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰✰

Melanie is a very special girl. Dr Caldwell calls her "our little genius."

Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh.

Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn't know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS is a sensational thriller, perfect for fans of Stephen King, Justin Cronin and Neil Gaiman.

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Please keep in mind that this is published by the Hachette Group, so buying this book from Amazon may lead to actual list price and delayed shipping.

This was given to me in exchange for an honest review. Thanks NetGalley and Orbit!

Attention: This is not your average zombie book, or your average horror book.

In this action-packed, survival novel, zombies, otherwise known as the "hungries" roam the Earth. And in order to research a cure, a team of surviving humans build up a base, where they capture infected children to experiment on them. What makes these children so special, compared to the other adult hungries? They're smart, and they can learn and talk. As long as they're sprayed with chemicals, they won't bite.

Melanie is test number 1, and she attends class with the other children when they're not in their cells. She's the smartest kid in class. Her favorite teacher is Miss Justineau, who loves to read stories about the Amazon and Greek Mythology to the children. Along with teaching them everything that happened before, before the Breakdown.

Now, don't start thinking that this will be another boring novel, where everyone is safe in the base. No that doesn't happen. Right before the crazy scientist lady cuts open Melanie's head, everything turns to..uh...chaos. Hungries have gotten into the base, and are wreaking havoc everywhere. The only escapees are two soldiers, Miss Justineau, the scientist lady, otherwise known as Dr. Caldwell, and lastly, Melanie herself.

The character development is absolutely freaking fantastic. Melanie literally goes through an existential crisis. First, she has to come to terms with herself. Then, she needs to make amends with everyone else, while protecting her teacher. And then, there's the whole unexplored world itself, even if it is reduced to nothing. Throughout the novel, Melanie, a naive innocent girl, changes drastically. And not just her, but the others as well, which is why the multiple POVs work so well in this case. However, I ended up liking Melanie's POV more compared to the Sergeant Parks, Miss Justineau, and Dr. Caldwell. But they still play such an important role for the plot.

Yeah! That's right! You go zombie!

And no, this isn't like Warm Bodies (though I only watched the movie). There is actual science behind the rise of the hungries. So no they don't just pop out of graves or out of nowhere.

And as Stephanie @ Inspiring Insomnia commented on, the blurb makes this sound like Melanie's POV in first person, like in the novel Room. But this is not the case. Instead, it's all told in third person, but even in this form, you can still see the change in Melanie's thoughts over the course of the book. For me, this is what made the novel so good.

The only thing I did not exactly like, was the ending. IT NEEDS DISCUSSION! (highlight to read at your own risk)
OK MELANIE, JUST INFECT THE REST OF THE WORLD WHY DON'T YOU. Have you actually thought about Miss Justineau? I know you think this is the only way, and it might be, but you know your teacher can't survive with all those infectious spores! Sure, she has a suit, and then you gave her another dozen infected children to teach. But, ugh I just don't know. I guess I can see how this all works out, but it's just so open ended. It's just like The Last of Us all over again. (end spoiler!)

This combination of the Walking Dead and The Last of us is good. Real good. If you ever see it in a bookstore, library, or online, be sure to pick it up. You definitely won't regret it!

And it's not scary guys, I promise.

Nessie Reviews ☆ A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Release Date: April 17th, 1995
Date Read: 5/26/14-6/1/14
213 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰1/2

A vicious fifteen-year-old "droog" is the central character of this 1963 classic, whose stark terror was captured in Stanley Kubrick's magnificent film of the same title.

In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. When the state undertakes to reform Alex—to "redeem" him—the novel asks, "At what cost?"

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked".

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I've actually bought this book a bit over a year ago because I had heard excellent things about the movie and wanted to read the book that inspired it before watching the film. It took a while for me to get to reading it because other books and video games (and classes) would call my attention more strongly. But in the year it took me to get around to reading it, I was constantly reminded about what an influential book it was and that it was on Time's "100 best English-language novels since 1923". Needless to say, I expected to be completely mind-blown by this novel, to be completely drawn in, and be constantly wrestling with questions about morality and leave the book with a radically different view of the world.

But that's not what happened. If anything, I felt like I spent most of the book expecting something big and mind-blowing to hit me. It never came, and once I put the book down I basically felt like this.

Yes,  I "meh"ed a classic, but don't hate me

But I'm getting ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning and with the things I liked.

The first thing I noticed when I began reading the book was the slang. Alex, the narrator, speaks predominantly in an invented slang called "Nadast". At first this made the book a bit hard to understand, as I felt he was talking in a completely different language. However after about twenty or so pages of reading I started to get the hang of it and reading was not as much as a struggle. But I think this initial disconnect threw me off a little bit, even though Alex was a very charismatic narrator. That being said, as a writer, I see the genius and value in using Nadast.

As I mentioned, with the slang there is a disconnect between what you read and what you eventually come to understand is happening. And the first part of the book is filled with atrocious crimes committed by Alex and his gang. He describes these acts as if he's narrating an orchestral piece and since I couldn't perfectly understand all the words, it wouldn't be until half-way through or directly after his crime that I understood what had transpired.

My face after each realization

As a writer I soon came to appreciate the role the language played in distancing Alex (and by extension the reader) from Alex's crimes. I think it also aided it understanding just how much of a true sociopath he was if he could describe the most heinous acts in the most whimsical ways.

This book is divided into three sections, each with seven chapters. I knew not to expect too much from from the first section because I knew that its primary purpose was exposition. So I expected all my expectations to be met by the second part. That didn't exactly happen.

There was the occasional quote from a character that caused me to put down the put as I had to seriously mull over what they just said. One such quote was this one said shortly before Alex began his treatment: “Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?”  I think this question in particular struck me because I had witnessed the true evil that Alex was capable of. Furthermore, seeing what Alex was reduced to after the treatment really humanized him for me and made this question more weighty. 

Overall, I think the one problem I had with this book is that I went in expected way too much from it. If I had gone in with low or no expectations I probably would not have spent every page waiting for something "big" to happen. While reading I did like some of the questions and themes raised, but I just wanted more. It's only as I now write this review that I'm discovering where my feelings of "meh"-ness came from.

I still would recommend the book--because of the great moral questions raised--but I would strongly remind future readers not to go in expecting obscene amounts of books simply because they are classics. Even if a book is a classic, still go in expecting nothing as you would from any random book picked off a shelf. At least that way, you won't have to experience the "disappointment" I felt. 


Vanessa is Val's bestest buddy, and she will be guest posting throughout the summer because she loves to read and write. You can also find her at her own blog, Musings of an Aspiring Writer.

Review: Paradigm

Paradigm by Ceri A. Lowe
Paradigm #1
Publisher: Bookouture
Release Date: June 13th, 2014
Date Read: 5/8/2014 to 5/16/2014
382 Pages
Rating: ✰✰✰1/2

What if the end of the world was just the beginning?

Alice Davenport awakens from a fever to find her mother gone and the city she lives in ravaged by storms – with few survivors.

When Alice is finally rescued, she is taken to a huge underground bunker owned by the mysterious Paradigm Industries. As the storms worsen, the hatches close.

87 years later, amidst the ruins of London, the survivors of the Storms have reinvented society. The Model maintains a perfect balance – with inhabitants routinely frozen until they are needed by the Industry.

Fifteen-year-old Carter Warren knows his time has come. Awoken from the catacombs as a contender for the role of Controller General, it is his destiny to succeed – where his parents failed.

But Carter soon discovers that the world has changed, in ways that make him begin to question everything that he believes in. As Carter is forced to fight for those he loves and even for his life, it seems that the key to the future lies in the secrets of the past...

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I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley. Thank you Bookouture!

So. How do I begin this. Ugh, I'm just going to start out with my little summary and go from there.

Paradigm is set in a world after a major catastrophic disaster, and our two main characters, Alice Davenport and Carter Warren, are separated by time. This weather disaster is caused by none other than our good friend global warming, by causing huge storms and rainfalls to flood the earth, killing everyone but a select few. Alice, home alone, has no idea what's going on with all the loud sounds and the rain, until she actually looks outside the window. From then on out, survival of the fittest has begun. Well, until she's rescued by Paradigm industries, who foresaw all of this and built a huge building for safekeeping survivors. Oh, and then there's also Mr. Hutchinson which we will get to later.

A number of years later (a lot of year, I'm not sure the exact number), there's Carter Warren, an inhabitant of the new Community and contender for the Controller General (basically the "leader" of this community). He's recently been unfrozen to contribute to society, and obviously to take his place as the new controller general, or at least try out for it.

So yes, basically like The Walking Dead, or the PS3 game The Last of Us! Except replace the zombies with mutated wolves and huge rats! Oh, and also they're much more prepared.

It's really the scenery that's very similar. Obviously.

I'm actually not sure where my judgment lies with this book. On one hand, I did enjoy it at some points, but then on the other, there were definitely some things that bothered me a little.

For me, I had a very rocky beginning. Not only was I introduced to Carter while he was being frozen for like 20 years, which confused me a ton, the writing felt a little off, kind of forced. I had no idea why Carter was being frozen, or why it was important/bad that he had children, or HOW he didn't know he had children, and then there were lines like these:

• "screwed his eyes together"  wait, wut? 
• "The luminous green second hand scratched around with the rhythm of the rain and Alice gulped down two more glasses of water."
• "...she looked around and ran back out of the shelter and into the blinding lights of the oncoming Transporter as it careered towards her. There was a piercing scream..."

In that last line, I literally thought this girl ran into the Transporter (a huge, well, vehicle type transporter) and then DIED because she got ran over. But no, the "scream" was describing the sound of the vehicle stopping. I had to read this line (plus more after the dots) to finally understand this.

With Lowe's writing, you could really tell at which parts she was struggling with. But then there were also other parts where her writing was really good (unless I got too used to the writing style and it's just me.) But in my opinion, it flowed pretty well during the important and climatic scenes. The book did pick up very nicely in the end.

For example, since I became more attached to Alice over Carter, there was one scene where her and a team of explorers finally go outside to clean up a living area that made me a little emotional. Along with this, the book brought up some very nice themes and questions, like whether we should completely start over from scratch, or build up from what we know after a tragedy or disaster such as this.

But then there were other scenes that just didn't sit well with me, like when Mr. Hutchinson barges into Alice's original home, pretends to be helping her, then gets drunk off her mother's alcohol, and then almost rapes her. Um, okay, I guess this leads to Alice's character development somehow. 

Overall, yes, I did enjoy Paradigm. It's not exactly the top read of 2014, but it is decent. I've read worse. There is a switch in POV between each chapter, which was a good or bad thing depending on what happened in the book. I kept on looking forward to Alice's POV, because I didn't care for Carter much. But besides that, I would recommend this to anyone wanting to read a dystopia "after the the end of humanity" that gives a description of how the dystopia actually started. I feel like most books don't usually start that way, which is what makes Paradigm unique in that aspect.

Also, I think I'm now more afraid of climate change and global warming and natural disasters in general, because I definitely do not want what happened in this book to happen to meeeeeee.