***CAUTION: MAY CONTAIN MILD SPOILERS** Synopsis: I have a curse I have a gift I am a monster I'm more than human My touch is lethal My touch is power I am their weapon I will fight back 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. Review: Though I enjoyed reading Shatter Me, I don’t quite understand all the hype surrounding it. Tahereh Mafi’s writing style struck me as pretty standard – aside from the crossing out of words which I was only indifferent to. There was just nothing that wowed me about her writing, it was just…good. It made me want to keep reading, yet didn't give me the I-can’t-put-this-down feeling. The story itself has been told before. It’s the Hunger Games meets the X-Men. Including the Hunger Games world where citizens are suppressed and living on a dying earth, and the X-Men as Rogue is identical to Mafi’s character, Juliette, and “Omega Point” is a blend between Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and District 13. With all of these parallels, I still enjoyed reading this story. It presented some plot twists but nothing completely spectacular, it was not entirely predictable, though some parts were very obvious, and all of the characters seem to be standard YA paranormal romance characters: Juliette is insecure about herself but is crucial to the fate of the world because of her power, Adam is mysterious, incredibly capable (even though he is 17 years old), speaks in a “husky” voice at times, and very easily and quickly falls completely in love with the heroine. I know it sounds like I’m ripping on this book, but I really did enjoy reading it. I just don’t understand all of the hype about it – it’s not THATTTT original or suspenseful. It’s just “pretty good”. I also have to say that I really don't like the original book cover which I own (as shown above). I find it annoying when a main character is shown on the cover - it completely ruins any attempt for me to form my own image of Juliette in my head. I with I would have bought the Newer edition with an eye on the cover.... Rating:
3/5 Stars
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***WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST AND SECOND BOOKS IN THE SERIES*** Synopsis: New Year's Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come. After Rennie's death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn't left with Reeve... If Kat had only stayed with Rennie... Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same. Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes? Review: WOWWWWWW. The last book in this series, Fire With Fire, ended with such a cliff hanger that I don’t think anyone really knew what to expect for this book. But WOW. This series shifts from a teen contemporary drama vibe to almost a horror vibe. The Fact that Mary is DEAD makes you rethink everything you thought you knew about her in the past two books. Though Lil and Kat both go through plenty of character development here, Mary’s character development in this book is by far the most drastic and terrifying. This turn of events forced me to sympathize with characters who I’ve previously despised, and gave me a whole new outlook on the dynamic and relationships between the characters. I love when books force me to rethink everything I thought to be true – it really is a key feature of a great story teller. The one criticism I have for this book is that it came to a seemingly abrupt ending. Though it was satisfying, I would have loved for the climax to last just a littleeeee longer – but still, I was happy with how it ended. It even wrapped up what the next several years were like for the main characters which is very satisfying. Han and Vivian’s writing is so easy to follow and very intriguing, it’s easy to get lost in the story and forget that you are really just looking at words on a page. Due to the great writing and intriguing storyline, this series just seemed to fly by, and I’m really going to miss it! This is the first book (series) I’ve read by Jenny Han and it definitely makes me want to check out more of her work! I really did love this book and this series! Rating:
4.5/5 Stars Synopsis: R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and strangely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world. Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between. Review: You would never have guessed that this is Isaac Marion’s first novel! Though his writing style is very basic, and at times it feels like he took a thesaurus and threw in big words that didn't necessarily follow the rest of his basic writing style, I still enjoyed this book. I’ll admit, this was not one of those omgicantputthisdown books, but I did find myself wanting to find out what happens next. It’s small size of only 239 pages made the book seem very short – it felt like only a couple chapters worth of events – which seemed to me like a novella. But the short seeming story was perfectly fine with me, considering I was not wonder-struck by it. I did however love how Marion managed to tell the story for the point of view of a zombie, and actually managed to make me sympathetic for R. I mean, it was kind of tacky how love cured the “zombie disease” and how there really was no explanation for that phenomenon…but the love story was strangely cute and interesting, and I've definitely never read anything like it before. This was a perfect little book to read in between all of those long series I have on my bookshelf. ***This novel is very different from it's movie. This book definitely doesn't have a rom-com vibe**** Rating:
3.5/5 Stars Synopsis: By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz. Common enemy, common cause. When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love. But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world. What power can bruise the sky? From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy. At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter? Review: To me, this book was perfect! Laini Taylor just has such an amazing writing style: her poetic tone mixed with genuine language and fluent transitions – I love it. I also love the introduction to new characters. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out considering this is the third book in a series, but the new characters were just as intriguing as the rest, and Taylor did a fantastic job of keeping a sense of mystery around them by slowly revealing more truths throughout the book. It made for a crazy read with so many plot twists and new mysteries being revealed that no reader would ever have been able to predict. This book had everything you could want in a conclusion to a series… EXCEPT a conclusion to the overall story, of which I can’t decide is a good or bad thing. Though the story is left on a bit of a cliff-hanger, enough of the story was resolved that I was satisfied – no, I was very happy. If this story didn’t end on a bit of a cliff-hanger, It would probably go on forever – which, hey, I wouldn’t mind! I just have to say that I really did love love love this series. I have fallen in love with Karou, Akiva, Zuzana, Mik, and the rest of the seraphim, chimaera, human, whateverelse… as well as with Eretz. Rating:
5/5 Stars |
WelcomeHey everyone, my name is Amy and this is my reading and writing blog. Look out for book reviews, hauls, recommendations and original writing! xo Archives
October 2016
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