Tara
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any financial compensation or reward for this review. This review may contain SPOILERS
Individutopia follows the life of an Individual named Renee, as she survives living, working, and competing in London, a large city filled with thousands of other Individuals who are also living, working, and competing. Renee only interacts with her avatar images, created by her at various stages of her life. She is able to monitor her debt and order all the products she needs through a feed she sees in special lenses called Plenses. Her avatars cheer for her, keeping her motivated to be the best Individual she can be, as she interviews for jobs and competes with other Individuals to rise up in the ranks of the workforce. Then, one day, something goes wrong and this one incident puts her on a path to let go of her individualism and seek out companions and relationships, things she has never had. This path leads her outside of London to an unfamiliar territory where she has to learn how to live as part of a society. Living within a society changes her in ways she didn't expect.
I was intrigued by the plot of the story and it did not disappoint. The London society Renee lives in is all about the individual. Renee only interacts with the avatars she has made and has never met or spent time with any of the people she's competing against. At the beginning of the story, we are informed of Renee's debt and how the debt system works within this society that isn't a society. The individuals living in the city are charged various amounts for doing basic everyday things, such as steps taken or breaths inhaled. It's difficult to know what London looks like since Renee's vision is affected by special lenses she wears, called Plenses. The Plenses allow her to see her own avatars as she interviews for jobs on a daily basis. When she makes money from various jobs performed, her debt goes down, but it immediately goes back up as she buys necessities like food and hygiene products, very much like our current society. We earn, we spend, we spend a lot of time on our cell phones and on social media, and maybe not enough time with real people.
Renee's life starts to change when she destroys a kettle, and it throws her off the track she's on. This destruction and the following confusion it causes in her head leads to her leaving London in search of others who want to be with her. She doesn't have a word for what she is looking for, all she knows is that she wants to find another Individual that wants to be with her – two Individuals existing together. Renee is a good example of our own society – for all of the time we spend on our cellphones interacting with social media, we spend less time with others, but deep down there is a part of us that desires to be with other people. Renee discovers this desire and seeks out a society of people, and begins to learn what it is like to share with others, cooperate within a group, and how to feel real emotions for other people.
I think this book is a thought-provoking exploration of society and the impact technology and social media has on our lives. We spend a lot of time interacting with the world through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other social media sites, that our vision becomes distorted. We see the world through a false lens, impacted by the seemingly perfect lives others share on their social media feeds. It's when we put down the phones and spend time with other people, that our lives become richer. That is exactly what happens to Renee.
A short note about the closure of the book: throughout the book, Renee steps over a homeless man living on the street outside of her “pod”. At the end of the book, we discover who this man is and why he's on the street rather than being a part of the Individutopia of London. It was not something I expected. I also was surprised by the reveal of the omniscient Narrator, also not what I expected.
Overall, I found this story entertaining and a creative example of what society becomes when each member of that society focuses on individual needs instead of the good of the whole.
Reviewer Note: The author provided me with a free copy of this book for an honest review. I did not receive any financial compensation for writing and/or posting this review. This review may contain spoilers.
Who wouldn't want to reverse time and go back to a period when they were younger, thinner, better looking? If it just came in a pill or tiny bottle, would you take it? No surgery, no diets, just a simple swig from a bottle and “POOF”, you're suddenly ten years younger – would you take that drink? If you did take the drink, what would your life be like? Those questions are answered for Mr. Thomas Elder, husband and father, in the book Younger Every Day by Rob Santana.
Tom, father of two, feels his age the day he turns 50, when he collapses in his home from a heart attack. He feels old and out of touch with his own family. His daughter, Penny, is angry most of the time and his son, Mark, spends the majority of his time playing video games. His wife, Kim, is fourteen years his junior and still beautiful. He feels his life is going nowhere and wants a change. That change comes when he meets a man who offers him the fountain of youth in a tiny bottle. All he has to do is drink the first liquid, then return in a few days to be restored to his actual age with a second liquid (if he wants).
Things get interesting as he grows younger, first explaining to his very shocked wife about the youth elixer, then posing as a cousin that the children didn't know existed (since their father is an only child). Kim and Tom create a story, a fairly convincing one, to explain how it is that Tom has a nephew that no one had heard of. Then, as a young boy of 12, then a young child of 5, and eventually an infant. Each age regression occurs after Tom loses consciousness, whether it's by falling asleep or passing out, and eventually his children have to be let in on what is happening, as Kim attempts to find a cure that will reverse her Tom's aging. With each regression, Tom learns a little bit more about his children and what their lives are like since they rarely share things with their parents. As he grows younger, he attempts to hold onto his authority as their father, which becomes harder and harder to do. His transformation also impacts Mark and Penny. Mark finds someone to play video games with and care for. Penny, on the other hand, becomes more rebellious, attending parties with the proverbial bad boy and taking her mother's car on an anger fueled drive.
I was intrigued by the relationship between Kim and Tom. Kim comes very close to cheating on Tom at one point, but backs out at the last minute. She was very young when she married Tom, all of 18, and I think there is a part of her that felt the age difference when he suffered his heart attack. Yet, as Tom begins to grow younger, Kim's love for him shines brighter. She is genuinely concerned about the reversal and she genuinely wants him back to his actual age, his current self. As I read the story, I wanted even more about Tom and Kim and the ins and outs of their relationship. I really liked the flashback story on how they met quite a bit. I felt that the children, especially Penny, were a distraction. I didn't really care for Penny and her actions throughout the story. I did develop a bit more sympathy for Mark as the story proceeded forward and Tom reversed in age, it seemed like the younger Tom got the more Mark grew, which I liked seeing. I did not see growth from Penny in the same way, at least not for a significant part of the book. Sometimes, not all characters are going to be favorites, and Penny is definitely not my favorite. That being said, I was hopeful for this family, hopeful that the reverse aging would be cured, hopeful that the relationships between husband/wife, mother/daughter, son/father, and father/daughter would be healed, that an important lesson would be learned by all (including the reader). While I didn't like the ending (it made me sad), I appreciated it because it made sense to me. I think we all flirt with the idea of growing younger, instead of older, but there's always going to be consequences for messing with a natural process and that is what I think this book explored very well.
My sincerest thanks to the author, Mr. Rob Santana, for the opportunity to read this book!
This book has put me on the path to accepting myself 100% as I am. My copy of Messy Brilliance is highlighted and flagged and written on! There is nothing wrong with not being perfect, and it's totally acceptable to embrace the messiness of your life – you haven't lost the baby weight, you didn't put on makeup today, you're exhausted, your house isn't up to some crazy standards that has unrealistic and unattainable – it's ok, it's more than ok. Your Messy Brilliance by Kelly McNelis will take you on a journey to learn to recognize and embrace every aspect of YOU, and let go of the belief that you have to be perfect all of the time in order to be acceptable. Kelly shares her own traumas and disappointments and insights to guide you through exploring your own imperfections and embracing them as brilliant!
One of the things I love about this book is that there are questions that Kelly encourages you to think about and answer in a personal journal to help you really explore the parts of yourself that you keep hidden from the world, and possibly also hidden from yourself. These questions aren't easy to answer and they will make you uncomfortable, but I do fully believe that they are very important in helping me let go of this idea that I have to be perfect – the perfect daughter, perfect partner, perfect mother – all of the time, and that all of my imperfections are just as important a part of me as the perceived perfect/acceptable parts.
I will return to this book multiple times when I need to be reminded that my messy life is ok, and even brilliant.
Wonderful story about family, love, and finding yourself
Tig is a therapist whose one bad day grows into a series of sad and heartbreaking experiences. As the “responsible” one, she takes care of everyone, except herself. Then, life takes an interesting, twisted path and Tig is a fish out of water, unsure but fighting to maintain her sense of responsibility.
I really loved Tig! She is a strong, resilient, deserving of all the good things kind of woman, but like many of us, she's so busy taking care of everyone else to really care for herself. She ends up on a journey that ends with her finally figuring out what she deserves.
This was a heartwarming story. The characters were flawed, but still very human. I liked that no one was perfect. There was a lot of loss in this story, but also forgiveness and joy. It was a good balance.
*Reviewer's note: I received a free e-galley of this book and did not receive any compensation for the review. I want to thank Ann Garvin for letting me read this, I loved it 😊
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter is more than just an “end of world as we know it” story; it's a story about relationships and strength in an uncertain time. The narrator is a new mother, a nameless woman who manages to remain strong in a world that is chaotic and unstable. She must continue to move forward, with her infant, trying to find a place that is safe and dry.
The narrator uses initials when referring to people she meets along her journey. She loses people she knows, meets new people, builds new relationships, and appears to be more calm than she should be. This is a woman who knows that she must survive for her son, and she must continue to work her way through a world that is changing around her.
I enjoyed the way the author told this story. Ms. Hunter weaves an engaging story, sharing the Narrator's life with us, both in the present as well as the past. The narrator tells the story in a very matter of fact way, she doesn't sugar coat anything and she isn't flowery, she just tells the reader what happened to her as London experiences a major natural disaster. The way Ms. Hunter wrote the narrator, there were times when I felt awful for her, yet, there were other times when I said “You go, girl”, because she has a quiet strength. I enjoyed this story and would definitely read it again.
Reviewer's Note: I received an advanced e-galley of this book from the publisher through the NetGalley website. I did not receive any form of compensation in exchange for my review of this novel.
I received this book as an advanced e-galley from Penguin Books through their First to Read program. Review to follow, but I will say that I enjoyed this book. I don't know much about the Cuban Missile Crisis, other than what was covered in high school history classes back in the 1990s, so reading about it and how impacted a close-knit family, was very powerful. I love Charlotte and Wes Avery, these 2 characters have the kind of father-daughter relationship that reminds me very much of my relationship with my own father (and made me miss him, terribly). I want a little more time to think about this story before writing a full review, but I am very glad I received this book. I don't know who I would recommend this book to specifically, so I'll just do a blanket recommendation. Look for this book when it appears in stores, and read it, even if you lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis (or only heard about it in history class). It's very well written and the characters are written in such a way that they seemed very familiar.
I received a free advanced e-galley of this book from the Penguin First to Read program and did not receive any compensation for the below review.
Sonja Yoerg presents a tale about a journey a couple takes, both physically, emotionally and mentally, along the John Muir trail. The couple, Liz and Dante, face heavy decisions about their relationship as well as the long trek along the trail, while encountering other hikers of varied and interesting backgrounds. This story is as much about one person's quest to work through deeply personal experiences, as well as a fight for survival in more ways than one.
As Liz and Dante travel along the trail, enduring its various valleys and peaks, they encounter, and become suspicious of, two brothers by the last name of Root, who seem, at first, ill prepared for the demand of the trail, yet also a bit too comfortable. Strange things begin to happen along the trail, as Liz and Dante continue to travel forward, with the Roots on their heels. Liz and Dante are working through very large issues within their own relationship, dealing with the pain of honesty and heartbreak, while also fighting to stay one step ahead of the Roots, who seem determined to make this hike more adventurous than it should be.
I enjoyed reading this book and want to read it again! Liz's story is very compelling, and her desire to walk the entire trail has deep meaning for her. She's a very likeable character with just the right amount of flaws. Dante is also very likeable and flawed, but the love they have for another seems to help them make the trek as well as forgive each other, and themselves, for breakdowns in the relationship. The addition of the Root brothers created just enough suspense to make the hair on my arms stand up and I found myself pushing Liz and Dante along, hoping they'd remain out of the path of the Roots, two men who were suspicious at first glance, and then downright dangerous.
I would recommend this book to fans of both suspense as well as travel. Hiking the John Muir trail is a big part of the background in this story, this trail is where a lot of deep thinking and whole-hearted confessions are made, and it's where Liz and Dante heal. This is a story about love, forgiveness, suspense, a little murder and some heartpounding adventure.
I received an advanced e-galley of this book through the Penguin Books First to Read Program. I did not know anything about Michael Ross before receiving this book, but I found his story very fascinating. Martha Elliott spent 10 years corresponding and meeting with Michael to learn why, after receiving a reprieve from the Connecticutt State Supreme Court, why he would voluntarily choose to be put to death for his heinous crimes. Her research and investigation into the history about the murders, the trials and Michael himself was very thorough and eye opening. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys true crime novels and stories about the legal system, serial killers and/or the death penalty in the United States. The book will be released nationwide by Penguin Books in August. I did not receive any compensation for writing a review and the book was available for reading for a period of 41 days, after that I will no longer be able to access the e-galley.
I really enjoyed this book until the end. The epilogue didn't really give me anything, as far as closure. I really wanted to know more about what happened with the characters and their journey to Rome, but it just sort of ended. I'm hoping that this is actually part of a series and the second book will pick up where the first one left off, but at this moment I do not know if there is a sequel.
The nitpicky stuff: there were some grammar issues which sometimes hung me up, but for the most part it was well written.
This book was okay. I didn't particularly like the main character Scarlett. I found her very annoying and, while I know she was trying to be a good person, she ended up hurting a lot of people. I liked Sean, Ursala and Oscar the most, they all made the story very enjoyable. I've seen almost all of the movies Scarlett is obsessed over and I thought the various links between those movies and this book were well thoughtout. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I could have liked Scarlett more, but I just didn't like anything about her.
I've had this book on my Nook for quite awhile and am finally getting around to reading it. It was free through Barnes and Noble and I downloaded exactly for that reason – FREE! So far, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I initially thought I would. Currently on page 474 of 636 and I find that I'm actually interested in what the characters are going to do next. We'll see how it goes once I finish.
Update: Well, I finished this book and was pleasantly surprised by it. I enjoyed the ending and was glad the book ended the way it did.
This was a well written book about the impact a cancer diagnosis can have on a family, especially when it is a child who is diagnosed. The story is told from the pov of Tessa, younger sister to the popular Kristina, whose diagnosis of osteosarcoma leaves the family shaken and uncertain of the future. I really liked Tessa, she was a great narrator for the story and very realistic. As someone whose lost a loved one to cancer, I thought the emotions and reactions were very realistic and relatable. I would recommend this book to anyone.
I won this book in a drawing on the author's blog. I received it free in electronic form and was able to easily download it to my Nook. I have to say I LOVED IT! The story was really heartwarming and romantic (I realize that might sound cheesy, but I had warm fuzzy feelings all day from this book). This is a novella about finding your true love after 20 years, and it definitely reaffirmed my opinion that true love does exist.
Kelly and Brandon reconnect over Facebook and feelings they had 20 years before come bubbling to the service. There's a lot of things that happen in the story, and it's presented both in present time and in 2nd/3rd grades. I found that it was very easy to relate to Kelly, both in the present time period and when she was being tormented by girls at her school. Kelly is a very strong character, well written and three dimensional. I don't want to write too much cause I don't want to ruin it for anyone else. I will say I really enjoyed this book and had fun reading it!
Slamming Open the Door is a collection of poems written in the aftermath of the murder of the author's daughter. I found these poems powerful and moving. Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno puts into words all of the feelings she has surrounding the heartache of losing a child. I was moved by this collection. I would recommend this book to anyone.