Kyle
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I won't lie - for a long period during the book, I was thinking about giving this book something around a 3-3.5-ish range. However, the last third really got me hooked into the story and the characters, and the darkness in the story won me over.
This novel is easily one of the most original novels I've ever read. However, some of that originality came off as a little cluttered, and didn't seem to really fit in with the rest of the story. The brief intervals in between Emer and Saffron involving her 100 lives lived out as a dog were completely out of place, and just seemed to be a waste of time.
In complete honesty, that entire section of the book should've been completely edited out. Not the idea being used at all, just the chapters were we're given the glimpses into some of her different lives.
This isn't a read that'll linger with me for years to come, or change my perception of life or anything sentimental like that, but it's a page-turner, and the story just flies by with how smooth King's writing style is. The use of reincarnation was well handled and engaging, and I loved how King incorporated Fred Livingston into the story. Not so much reading through his eyes, since he was a disgusting human being, but the twist involving him towards the end.
Speaking of how twisted Fred was, I need to applaud the author for how creeped out she made me when I was reading his chapters. Just sends shivers down my back thinking back to what I had to read with him.
The best part of the book though was easily the scenes when Emer was becoming a pirate. I mean, why wouldn't that be the best part? Traveling around the Carribbean, fights, kick-ass female pirate captain - sounds like a good time to me.
Emer's story is also the darkest and most depressing part of the story for me. Just everything that she goes through, makes everything that Saffron goes through seem like nothing - even though Emer and Saffron are the same person, Emer definitely had it way worse.
For some light entertainments involving dogs, reincarnation, pirates, and even a little dash of star-crossed lovers, King's The Dust of 100 Dogs should be your next natural reading choice. I for one cannot wait to get my hands on another one of her books.
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2.5 stars
Three blind mice,three blind mice,see how they run,see how they run.They all ran after the farmer's wife,she cut off their tails with a carving knife.Did you ever see such a sight in your life,as three blind mice?
Is this really by the same woman who wrote And Then There Were None?
The aforementioned title is the only other work of Christie's that I've read, and it was one of my favorite reads of last year, as well as all-time. So, after completing Gretchen McNeil's Ten, which is a modern retelling of ATTWN, I realized that my library had a whole bunch of Christie books that I hadn't yet checked out.
This one sounded particularly intriguing, so, lo and behold, I checked it out and have now read it.
As you can tell from my rating, I was just a little dissapointed.
Three Blind Mice:The best story in the entire collection, although I wasn't surprised by it since it was such a successful play and the title of the collection. The story was enthralling enough, the mystery was twisty and unpredictable, although the ending was a little too quick for my tastes. The mystery is solved with about two pages left. Still, pretty good.
Strange Jest:Really? I just wasted my time reading 17 pages of utter nonsense that seems so completely out of place with the rest of the stories? It wasn't even remotely interesting, and Miss Marple is (to me anyway) not an interesting character at all. How an entire series was written about this woman is at a loss to me after reading several more stories with her.
Tape-Measure Murder:The only positive thing I can say about this one is that I didn't guess the murderer, so that's always something nice. I also liked how Christie continued to use people's secret backstories as a motive for murder. Still, Miss Marple is so boring that I feel so detatched from the story.
The Case of the Perfect Maid:Not much else different from the rest of the Miss Marple stories. Boring narrator, and a boring, out-of-place story that just doesn't fit in with the rest of the collection.
The Case of the Caretaker:This one was ok. I guessed the murderer though and their reasons for doing so pretty early on though, so it made the ending very boring and had me rolling my eyes. If there was one thing I was counting on from Christie, despite how dissapointing the book had been so far, was for her to maintain her unpredictable mysteries.
The Third-Floor Flat:Poirot seems to be far more interesting than Marple! The overall story was pretty good, as well as the mystery! While I wasn't very interested until I was halfway through it, it's still better than the majority of the stories before it.
The Adventures of Johnnie Waverly: Just a very blah reaction to it. It's well thought out, but it lacks the enjoyment that I wanted from it.
Four and Twenty Blackberries:See the above review.
The Love Detectives:I liked this until the end, then I just started zoning out (like I am while writing this review).
So, so dissapointed by this collection. I still have hope yet for Christie though, since according to some of the comments below, there are still some gems in her vast array of works.
Better than I expected actually. Not exactly quality literature or anything, but it was pretty fun.
I'm not a fan of teen slasher flicks.
Or horror movies in general since this is me during even the most cheap, non-scary gore fests:
I don't even like horror movie commercials because they creep me out so much, especially the ones with real life psycopaths instead of monsters, just because it makes me more convinced that Leatherface is standing outside my house getting ready to kill me.
Ten is a cheap teen horror book, that isn't particularly scary, with over-the-top angsty romances that aren't very good, but it's a nice book to read in a few quick bursts.
One of the things I liked right off the bat was how we got different ethnicities amongst the characters: African-American, Asian-American, etc. We also got a pretty standard cast of characters: the popular jock, the manic best friend, the plain-average-nobody-could-love-me girl, the smart girl, the “slutty” girl, the dream guy that loves the “average” girl, the two male best friends, etc.
The writing really helps the pages fly by, and most of the time the atmosphere was perfect for a modern-day And Then There Were None. However, the romance between Meg and T.J. really fucked up the otherwise perfect atmosphere by Meg constantly worried that Minnie would mistake a conversation for flirting, whether or not T.J. was still into her, whether or not she was into T.J. - I was just like this:
I mean, TWO PEOPLE HAVE JUST DIED. Does making out with T.J. really matter anymore?
Speaking of people dying, are these kids just really dense or was the author trying to drag out the tension? Two people dying in gruesome manners within hours of each other should've raised some eyebrows way quicker than it actually did. The kids don't accept that they're being systemetically hunted down by an unhinged maniac until a little over halfway in.
The mystery was pretty good up until the end. I thought I had it completely figured out, but then the author decides to pull some twist that just made everything very convoluted, and very “teen horror flick.” It also made absolutely no sense how somebody could kill somebody, then take their place, and NOBODY can tell that there's a difference with this person.
I did like the incorporation of the diary though. Very unsettling.
Overall, the book is alright. It's not a very smart novel, but it's a fun novel if you overlook the flaws and just go along to be entertained. Even if the original source material blows its ass out of the water.
Also found at Living Is Reading!
Hmm, very conflicted about this one. I liked it a lot more once I got about 200 pages in, but with only 68 pages left, that is very late. Certain aspects of this book just fell so flat, and I'm kind of left with that “scratching my head” feeling as to why so many people responded to this as positively as they did.
Harrington writes fine, even if her writing isn't particularly captivating. If only the characters that she wrote about were more compelling, and less black and white. Maybe if the character relationships had more obstacles, more fight, and the main character wasn't so frustratingly self-pitying and ridiculous.
Like I said, Harrington does write well, and she has some very good passges in here that have me interested in reading Saving June, and once I got into this it was very difficult to put down, and I also enjoyed the first 40 pages pretty well. Also, some of the secondary characters such as Asha and Sam, while not particularly memorable, are enjoyable and bring a little bit of life to this otherwise dull story.
Chelsea Knot is my biggest complaint by far. So, she's a gossip that spreads a rumor (a true rumor, but still a rumor) and somebody gets hurt so badly in a hate crime that they end up in a coma at the hospital for several days.
And who decides to throw themselves a month long pity party?
Why Chelsea of course.
Some might view her vow of silence has brave, because she does one good thing by reporting the people that committed the hate crime, but remaining silent wasn't by any means “brave.” She was more brave when she actually started talking again, standing up for people, not just standing there and watching other people and herself get bullied and harassed.
It's also frustrating because of this: Noah gets hurt so badly that he's in a coma for a short period of time, yet Chelsea gets to go feeling sorry for herself writing on some stupid whiteboard? Okay, people are saying some mean insensiive things. Yes, you feel bad that you played a part in what happened.
Still, I don't see you needing a wheelchair to move around. I don't see you bruised up in a hospital bed. I don't see you in a coma.
Now get over yourself, because between you or Noah, I feel way more sympathy for him.
The road for Chelsea's forgiveness is so easy for the friends of Noah that it was completely unrealistic. If Asha was really friends with Noah, why didn't she feel any kind of . . . uncomfortable feelings being around Chelsea? I know I would. I definitely wouldn't go around befreidning her almost instantly.
Same goes for Sam. He expresses a little disdain for her, but it quickly dissappears after two or three days.
Andy was the most realistic of Noah's friends, actually having a little anger towards her, and he also has feelings of guilt himself (yet we don't see him being a drama queen staying silent).
So yeah, I kind of hated the romance too because of Chelsea's forgiveness happening so quickly that a romance between Chelsea and Sam also came off as unrealistic. You don't go from disliking somebody to being head over heels for somebody in the course of one month realistically, especially with what Chelsea had done.
I also hated how everybody was so black and white. Chelsea and Co. are the good guys, Kristen and Co. are the bad guys. Asha and Sam never do any wrong, same for Noah, and Andy is just the angry boyfriend, and Chelsea is being overdramatic to be the good guy. Kristen is a manipulator and a liar, everybody else is homophobic and fake.
Yeah, seems legit.
If you want a more realistic, complex, honest story about the downfall of a “mean girl” I would reccomend Courtney Summers's Some Girls Are. It's not quite the same as this, but it falls into the former mean girl category pretty well, and is extremely well written and fantastic (as are all of Summers's books).
May also be found at Living Is Reading
This is a really difficult book to review. I mean, I liked a lot of aspects about it, and there is no denying that the book has a very relevant and important theme, and I'm in no way denying that. My issue with this book is solely my opinion, and none of my friends who have read this book have had this issue (at least not to the extent that I have), so it could be just my own interpretation.
In fact, I just kind of want to get it out of the way, since I have a lot to say about it.
Female characters in this book: Misunderstood, misjudged, good once you get past their reputations
Male characters in this book: Dirt bags, douches, pervs, assholes, one-dimensional, selfish, controlling, manipulative, rude and just horrible people
Really? I can only think of three people in this book that are NOT the stereotypical male in this book, and one of them was considered to be like that stereotype for about 85% of the book. The other guy - I don't even remember if he even had a line of dialogue, but we're just meant to percieve him as good because the main character and her friends think he's alright. The other is the MC's dad . . . so it's a bit biased anyway.
How come all the female characters get all this hidden depth and the males never get any development past this stereotype that seems to run rampant in a lot of male characters in YA?
I really am bothered by this, since the entire time I was reading this, whenever a guy came into the book, I was just waiting for him to do something where he would fall into one of these traits - and they always did.
Thinking about it afterwards just made me even more frustrated, and I kind of wonder if I should drop this to 3.5, since all the good thoughts I had about this book just seem to be overshadowed by just how much it annoyed the crap out of me. ALL characters deserve sufficient depth and development.
Now, I get that the book was about gender double standards in regard to sexuality and how we express it regarding how a female is considered a slut for having sex, and a man is known as a player or whatever, but that doesn't mean you exclude male characters getting the same time to be as well-written as the female.
Yet this book . . . I really do connect with Audrey's troubles. I mean, nothing that happened to her in actuality happened to me, but the sense of judgement that stayed behind for something that nobody understood did happen to me.
Last year, in January, I punched a kid in the face because he was treating me like shit. I didn't plan it, I didn't hunt this kid down. I thought of him as a friend, even though he didn't treat me right, and he came up to me, said something that he knew offended me, and then instinct just sort of took over.
Only one kid actually saw what happened, and they reported me.
Everybody wanted to know why, but I refused to tell anybody everything since I tried telling somebody and they didn't believe me. Basically, I just had somebody on Friday say that I was a “bad person” because of what I did, and they were a “good person.”
It was really bad over the next couple of weeks, since the kid told his sob story to anyone that would listen, especially whenever I was around, so I was made out to be a monster for something that nobody even understood.
So yeah . . . I get in a sense how Audrey feels about being judged for something that nobody has any real idea about.
The characters though . . . like I said, male characters are generalized without any sufficent depth, I barely remember a lot of the side characters, and even some main characters. I remember liking a lot of them, but they didn't have distinct personalities for me to separate them.
The romance with Audrey and Luke was alright. It isn't written to be this epic love story, so for what it is it makes sense.
Overall, this book is just alright.
Okay, screw it. I'm dropping this to 3 stars, since as the days go by, my memories of it grow bitter.
In conclusion, great themes and ideas presented . . . lackluster execution at best.
Can also be found on Living Is Reading
My copy of this book was supplied by the publisher via Edelweiss. Thank you so much! : )
Now I can finally join the Hannah Moskowitz bandwagon that many of my GoodReads friends seem to be a part of! This intriguing story of the friendship between Rudy and Teeth held me captive from the first page to the bittersweet final page. Well written, engaging, original, unique, mesmerizing, magical, and many other adjectives that I simply cannot think of can adequately describe this book.
That's not to say that the book is perfect. It's more of an exploration of the relationships that Rudy has with some of the inhabitants of the island than an actual storyline, and therefore begins to drag a little bit once you get about ⅔ of the way through. The final 10% though more than makes up for it, and I applaud Moskowitz for taking the hard road to ending the book instead of just going for what the reader wants to happen.
The banter between Teeth and Rudy, while I enjoyed it for the most part, became increasingly repetitive, and made them both seem very whiny and indecisive most of the time. Teeth was constantly whining about how much he hated humans, Rudy was always complaining about Teeth being infuriating a lot of the time, Teeth does something and Rudy is disgusted by it.
That isn't to say that the characters weren't great, because they were. Rudy is flawed, and has multiple layers to him, which makes for a much more fascinating read. He does make mistakes, and he acknowledges that he makes them, and tries to improve himself by trying to not make those mistakes again. Teeth definitely makes mistakes, and while I'm not sure how much he learns by the end, he does grow a little bit, even if he did leave me really annoyed a good portion of the time.
The secondary characters aren't as well-rounded, but they're still enjoyable to read about, and aren't so flat that they're cardboard cutouts.
The writing is beautiful, and flowed so well that I found myself reading this book so fast that I couldn't believe it, simply because I was so drawn into this world. The longing, and the desire to escape was so prevalent, and I loved the amount of emotion weaved into the characters and the story.
The bromance/romance between Teeth and Rudy is well-developed and not rushed, and it takes time to flourish, and even when it is there, it is far from easy, or perfect like it is in so many novels. One of my favorite things about it was how when it departed from bromance to romance, the world love didn't have to be used. It was so well written that it showed that it was love.
I do think that the ending suffers because of poor plotting, in the sense that the climax comes out of nowhere. The resolution, while not an easy choice, seemed like the obvious one. I did feel the despair and the heartache though, so maybe I shouldn't be complaining at all.
In conclusion, Hannah Moskowitz has crafted a beautiful work of magical realism, and is one that I hope to pick up a copy of once it comes into stores.
This and others reviews can also be found at Living Is Reading
Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite writers . . . ever. I love her prose, characters, pacing, romance, and how she's not afraid to write about taboo issues like prostitution, sexual abuse, etc. Ever since New Year's Day of 2011, when I took a chance and downloaded Crank despite the fact that I was uncertain about the verse format, I fell in love and have since then read every book, YA or adult, that she's published.
However, I have a sad confession to make: I feel, especially since the books published after Tricks, that she's losing her edge. Basically:
Crank, Burned, Impulse, Glass, Identical, Tricks = Amazing
Perfect = Amazing, but not quite as amazing as her other works
Fallout, Triangles, Tilt, Collateral = Not as good by any means
Moving on, let's talk about Collateral. I thought that this book would be really easy to connect to, since my grandfather served in the Navy during the Pacific theater of WWII, and my cousin fought in Iraq until he was killed on July 12th, 2006. I really wasn't very close with my cousin, since I only met him once in before he died, but I figured that perhaps I could relate to the feelings that a lot of these characters have.
I encountered a lot of problems along the way, unfortunately.
First off, our main character, Ashley Patterson, is very drab and boring. She lacks a distinct personality and that charisma I need in characters so that I can become invested in them. Because I couldn't become invested in her and her troubles, I didn't really connect to her feelings of longing because her Marine boyfriend Cole wasn't there.
Also, Cole himself is an asshole. Sure, he was pretty nice when he was first introduced, but if anybody believes that rape is okay in some cases, they can't be all that nice. Thank God that Ashley told Cole off after he said that, otherwise I would've had to set this down.
The romance between them wasn't any good either. Ashley rarely displayed a backbone in my opinion, and Cole was just such an asshole that I was waiting for them to have some kind of dramatic breakup, or for Ashley to just go find somebody else.
There wasn't much of a plot, since it basically revolved around Ashley and Cole's relationship, and the trials that it had gone through since they met and the trials that it was going through during the present time.
This isn't to say that the book is all bad. I do still like Ellen's prose, even if it does have the occasional slip-up into strange, and this was definitely impossible to put down. I read about 380 pages in the car-ride to and from Staten Island on Christmas Eve. For the most part I was also reasonably entertained and my interest was held.
Disappointed is the best word to use, I guess.
To see this review and more, please visit my blog at Living Is Reading!
1.5
I recieved an e-ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Thank you very much! : )
Well, it looks like the never-ending train of bad YA dystopians being published will continue onward into 2013. When I read The Hunger Games series back in the summer of 2010, I was completely enchanted, and was so happy at the outpour and demand for dystopians that quickly accompanied the release of the last book.
Then I read the majority of them.
I mean, don't get me wrong: there are some decent ones out there.
It just so happens that Dualed isn't one of them.
The book was good for about the first 5%, maybe even go as far as to say the entire first chapter, but after that I lost all enjoyment I was getting from it, and I actually stopped reading for about a month almost before I picked it back up (two days ago). There's a multitude of problems, so I'll try not to delay:
World-Building
I was left with quite a few questions regarding this world. I understood why they had the idea of Alts, and it kind of made a little sense up to a point. I mean, why did they REALLY have to kill each other? Couldn't they just test out which Alt was stronger and then have them in a kind of drafting system in case a military was needed? Was the senseless killing really that nessecary? Just because one Alt is stronger than the other, doesn't mean that Alt will win. The other Alt could have a stroke of good luck and win by accident, but that doesn't mean their stronger.
Did the Alts have to share a name? Throughout the entire book, we're never given West's Alt's name. It's always just “she” or “her” and that it's. Is her name West? Why would it have to be? If there's so much violence in the outside world, how exactly has Kersh been able to support itself and not see any of the violence of the outside world? Did they just happen to be in an area that never runs out of supplies?
Boredom
Like I said before, I was liked this for the first 5%. After that I just wanted this book to end. It's not like this is a long book - it only clocks in at 290 pages, which is a far cry from long. It's just that the plot doesn't start to kick in until you're almost 100 pages in, and nothing particularly interesting happens up until that point except for in the beginning, when West's brother is killed when they're trying to assist their friend in tracking down his Alt.
I mean, how can assassins not be interesting? I guess that was proven to be possible when people read Grave Mercy which didn't recieve the highest acclaim from my friends, but still! ASSASSINS! BORING! DOES NOT COMPUTE.
Lackluster Romance
Boring romance. Was hoping once I was 80% of the way through and not even a kiss had been exchanged between the MC and the love interest that it would stay that way. Alas, they declare their love for one another shortly after, and it evoked no emotion from me. Kind of because the love interest had no depth/complexity to him, and I didn't care for West either.
Characters
Never got invested in these people, which also added to my boredom. There is a specific focus on certain characters, yet they never feel fully fleshed out to any extent. We have West, Chord, West's Alt (who never speaks a WORD of dialogue - no exaggeration) . . . and that's kind of it. Because West virtually isolates herself from her surroundings, no character really ever lasts for longer than a scene before they're dropped completely to never appear again. So, with only three continuous characters, they should be very well-developed.
Unfortunately for Dualed that just isn't the case. Their personalities and complexity were very one dimensional, and lacked any kind of substance. I did not connect with these people. I did not care for these people. I wouldn't have cared if West and her Alt had reached the self-detonation point in their challenge.
West's Alt is a very strange character. We're never given her name, which makes her a very impersonal, distant person. Is she the antagonist of the story? What about the Board, the people that are making her act against West the way she is? Very strange.
You'd think that West would have a very large internal conflict with killing somebody who is basically her twin! Nope, not really. There's some thoughts of anguish, but it's moreso her fear of killing somebody else by accident or she herself dying. It could be explained as how desensitived everybody may have become because of the Board (the government of Kersh). Which is a perfect lead-in to my final point as to why I hated this book.
The Lack of Fire/Rebellion
Never once in this book is rebellion ever implied. Yes, it is mentioned that some people aren't very happy with some of the Board's methods, but never talk of an uprising, and the main character herself never questions the unethical methods of the Board. What's the fire in this series then? I'll find it very hard to believe that in the next book West will just decide to uprise and “fight the man” when she didn't think to do it when she was fighting for her own survival.
Conclusion
Not impressed in the slightest. The writing was decent, which is why it gets 1.5 stars, as well as the interesting first chapter. Will probably NOT continue on with this series.
Reviews like this and more can be found over at my blog, Living Is Reading!
4.5
Spoilers for Delirium
It's been more than a year since I read the first installment in this trilogy, Delirium, so I might not be in the best place to compare Pandemonium seeing as how my memories of the first are so fuzzy, but I feel pretty confident in saying that this is not only a good sequel, but a sequel that has improved upon the flaws of it's predecessor.
Now, since my computer has an infuriating virus, I need to write this review quickly, so I'll try to keep it pretty straightforward.
My feelings for the first were overall pretty positive. I liked Lauren Oliver's writing, I didn't think the romance was shit, after the first 100 pages I couldn't put it down, the characters were enjoyable enough for me to read about, but the world-building was garbage, plain and simple.
So, the world-building does improve a little bit, but not a whole lot, so if that is going to damage your reading experience of this tremendously, I wouldn't reccomend reading this. We do get a better look at how other areas of this world operate, but not so much that I could visualize this actually happening.
However, I guess that's why it's one of my guilty pleasure series (kind of like The Chemical Garden Trilogy by Lauren DeStefano). I know that it's not exactly great literature, and won't impact the way how I view the world or society as a whole, but reading it is pleasurable, and it's a story that I can invest myself in for the time I'm in it.
Lena has grown a large amount since the ending of the first book. She's not afraid to get down and dirty, and she isn't afraid to pull some punches in this book. She is still depressed over what happened at the end of the first book, where her little hope of having a happily ever after with Alex was obliterated, but it's not a depression that bogs down the book.
Seeing her pull this inner strength from within was amazing to read about, to be able to compare the Lena I was seeing now to the Lena from my memories. They're almost two completely different people, and I do think that Lauren Oliver did this intentionally when she wrote these books.
Julian is interesting. I don't think he's an amazing character, but I kind of like him, and his relationship with Lena seemed to progress rather naturally. It definitely wasn't insta-love, and perhaps it does progress maybe a little on the fast side, but not unrealistically so.
Also, those who were weary of the romance-heavy hand of Delirium need not worry when it comes to this book. Romance is definitely put on the backburner compared to the amount of action in this book. I know that sounds weird when the first book was esentially a romance, but this book really is more like an action book.
We have Lena constantly having to fight for her survival against the government, nature, and even the Invalids that she has joined. I do hope that this more action oriented angle does continue into the last book, since I was pleasantly surprised at Lauren Oliver writing an action scene at all, after having convinced myself that I would never see her write one.
Pacing is a large step-up. There is very little down-time, mainly because of how non-linear this book is. We're constantly flipping between the present and the time immediately following Lena's separation from Alex. This almost always promised one of the storylines to have action or some kind of element of the fast-paced variety.
I won't rave about Lauren Oliver's prose more than I have to. I'm just going to say it's beautiful.
The only negative aside from the lackluster world-building is the cliffhanger. It was obvious, but still a really cheap shot.
Even if it was obvious when the first book ended.
For this review and more, check out my blog, Living Is Reading!
This is a really frustrating book to rate (although it's very easy to review since I have many things to say about it).
A large part of me wants to just give this 4.5 stars, and maybe even a 5 star rating if I'm feeling particularly generous, despite the glaring flaws in this (there's only two, but they're biggies in my opinion), so a 4 isn't the most exact rating. Maybe a 4.25? However since I personally don't give out those ratings I'm just giving it a 4.
So, Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone seemed to be a pretty quiet book. It wasn't like a lot of books this year that came with heaps of hype, and tons of people reading it left and right. In fact, I think only four of my GR friends read this, one DNFed it, two gave it a 4, and another a 3. The reviews for it in general seem to be very polarizing, and I'm going to leave a link to two of my friends reviews, since they're both very well written and informative, and may help you decide whether this is your book (I believe all of our reviews share at least one recurring complaint).
I live in a pretty average-sized town, not a small one like you see in a lot of YA mysteries with a population of 1,000 or less. However, one of the things that really brought this book to life for me was the desire to up and run at the first chance you get. That desire just seemed to flow through the veins of this book, an entire central theme of freedom. I mean, don't get me wrong, my town is a nice place to live in, but I desperately want to get out of here, move someplace, fresh, new.
Easy connections here, and it made for a very entertaining reading experience.
However, it's these characters that I connected to that are one of my only problems with this. While I did connect with our MC Becca and the titular character Amelia Anne, I never really got the feeling that they (and the side characters) could be real people. Their story was compelling, and their drive was great to read about, but they aren't the thing that drove the book for me, entirely. Still, they entertained me, and I wanted to read on and find out what would happen to them, but there were other elements that helped it tremendously.
I think this is a pretty great example of YA literary fiction. It's very character-driven, so if you don't connect/like these people, then this book probably won't work for you. I suggest sampling it, see if you feel any interest in reading on with these characters, and if you don't, then I recommend not venturing further, since the mystery presented in the synopsis never takes center stage.
Speaking of that mystery, this book is pushing it to the limit with that. That was not a mystery. That was the obvious not being spoken until the end, but it was so obvious considering the fact that it couldn't be anything else. I mean, they tried this super-obvious red herring, but Rosenfield simply tried way too hard, that I might've given this 3.5 if it'd been the actual killer since it would've been one of the most poorly written mysteries . . . ever (and it still kind of is).
I mean, what is it with authors writing mysteries these days? I mean, is it that hard to write something like Dark Places by Gillian Flynn or And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie? A mystery with a killer that isn't as obvious as having their name shouted in your ear?
I'm rather indifferent about the romance in this. It doesn't take center stage, so I can't say it's a total fail, or overly sappy/borderline abusive (well, not the Becca-James romance). It's just not the most well-developed element of the book is all I'm saying.
Alas, I cannot deny Kat Rosenfield's ability to create some of the most captivating, evocative prose I've come across in YA. Seriously, this woman has extreme talent - those last two pages were sending shivers down my back the entire time. The writing completely brought me to the hot, sweaty, paranoid cage of this small town.
Like, seriously, when is this woman's next book coming out, because I needed it like yesterday, when I still had 100 pages left.
So, if you would like reasons as to why somebody DNFed this, I recommend reading Tatiana's fabulous reivew.
For a 4 star review, I'd recommend reading the equally fabulous review written by Wendy.
To wrap things up, beautifully written, engaging characters (for the most part), atmospheric, creepy, and a great debut from a very promising new author.
Read more reviews like this over at my blog, Living Is Reading!
Since I recently lost my grandfather a little over two months ago, I decided that Rabbit Hole would be an interesting read, and something that I wouldn't have too much difficulty connecting to. Apparently, I was right in that assumption, since even though this is a short read, it's still a worthwhile read, and has me interested enough in checking out the movie adaptation starring Nicole Kidman.
Now, plays aren't my natural reading selection. I generally stick with novels - no manga, no comic books (okay, I read the occasional graphic novel - occasional), just books. Still, I recently developed an interest in checking a play out from the library, see if it was something that I would continue reading, and I think that it's an experiment worth investing more time into. This is a short read, clocking in at only 61 pages, and basically all of it is dialogue with a line or two here and there giving you a brief description of movements the characters make to help you visualize the scenery around you.
The characters are pretty realistic here - we have Nan, Izzy, Jason, and our two main characters, the grieving parents, Becca and Howie. They all have emotional baggage, grief, and backstories, and they all seem to have layers of depth to them, particularly the main character of all, Becca. Pain, anger, sadness, and a simple need to move on and recover from a traumatic event in her life.
Honestly, this whole story was just so sad, yet so true, and I was able to connect with these people on so many levels. Perhaps if I hadn't lost my grandpa I might not be able to connect so much, but I was able to, and that just made this an even quicker, even more emotional read for me. I don't know if loss inspired David Lindsay-Abaire to write this (I imagine that it would), but whatever he did, he did right.
So, for anyone who has suffered a devastating loss, than this is the book (or play I suppose) for you. I know that it was a worthwhile experience for me.
To see more ARC/regular book reviews, head on over to my blog, Living Is Reading!
I recieved this novel through the publisher via NetGalley. Thanks so much for giving me the oppurtunity to read/review this! :D
I was absolutely ecstatic to receive an e-ARC of Splintered from the publisher, and I still am happy that I was given the opportunity to read this book, for it is one that I enjoyed, although more so at the beginning than the end. If there is anything that I can say about this book, it is that it is possible to read a book and feel like there is an obvious lack of quality in one half over another, almost instantaneous.
Literally, during the 50% mark, one more click on my Kindle away from being 51%, something happened that set made my blood boil, and I wanted to roll my eyes and stop reading. After that beautifully disturbing first half, my liking of this novel seemed to almost stop altogether.
However, let's focus on the good first, since when I say I liked this book, I really liked this book. For one thing, the writing is magical, and while it does have some slip-ups, I feel that for the majority of the time, Howard has some pretty beautiful prose here to roll around in and absorb. She creates this morbidly beautiful, disturbing, haunting version of Wonderland, quite unlike that of which we experienced in the Disney movies (or other movie adaptations) and the classic novel itself.
In fact, the writing was so perfect for me at times that I just had to highlight certain passages to put here:
Photographs. Why did Alison say that about pictures . . . how people forget to read between the lines? - 18%“Ohhhh.” The cadaverous creature swoons with an odd clacking sound, like a chime made of bones. - 27%I follow his gaze over my shoulder. It's like a zombie movie - the flowers moan and rip their stems up from the dirt; their mouths stretch wide, pressed open by long, spindly teeth, clear and dripping with slobber like melting icicles. - 28%I think of his watercolor paintings: darkly beautiful worlds and gothic fairies weeping black tears over human corpses. His depictions of misery and loss are so poignant and surreal they break the heart. - 31%I pause. “I'm going to fall in love with an artist. And we'll have two kids and live in the country. A quiet life, so we can hear our muses and answer when they call. - 33%He's a contradiction: taut magic coiled to strike, gentleness at war with severity, a tongue as sharp as a whip's edge, yet skin so soft he could be swathed in clouds. - 44%The feelings I've been suppressing uncoil and thrash inside me like electric eels, shocking me to life. - 50%I cringe, thinking of how close I came to being stuck inside her toys. “How can an empty plaything hold a spirit? That doesn't make sense.” “Contrariwise. It makes the rightest sense of all. Only toys from the human realm be chosen, and only the most beloved of the lot. Those accustomed to being filled with hopes and dreams and all the affections their children pour into them. For that is the essence of a soul. Hopes and dreams and love. When the most cherished toys are abandoned in junkyards and trash heaps, they become deprived of those things that once filled and warmed them. They become lonely and greedy and crave the essence of the life they once had.” - 76%
Okay, maybe the quote about the electric eels isn't as beautiful as that last one, but I felt like the writing as a whole is better than the average style we see nowadays in young adult.
Perhaps some might call it a bit purple-y, but I liked it, and for me that's all that matters, no?
However even that evocative beauty I felt when reading the first half evaporated during the second half, seeing as how only one passage spoke to me during the end.
So yeah, creep factor, beautiful writing, engaging plot, with alright characters (some of them I wasn't particularly fond of, one of them being our main character Alyssa). What could possibly have gone so wrong?
The romance.
Surprise, surprise. I know a lot of people view this book having a love triangle, but I don't think it was. I think Morpheus was never a contender for Alyssa's heart, and was simply a platonic childhood entity that Alyssa had an attachment to. No, it was JEB that made me want to throw my Kindle across the room.
Now, I didn't really like Alyssa too much, since I felt that at times she could be a bit of an airhead, but I liked her intense determination to save her mother and herself. Oh, and I loved how she was kind of a quirky person in general with how she dressed and how she acted, etc. I never liked Jeb from the start, especially when he starting becoming a serious love interest in the plot. He was controlling, bossy, and constantly treated Alyssa like a child, when she was becoming a young woman.
Yet their relationship is also riddled with infidelity, which I am absolutely not a fan of.
The rest of the characterization is kind of sketchy. I liked Morpheus, not because he was a good guy or anything, but because I liked how manipulative he was, and how he was constantly scheming to get what he wanted, and I loved everything that his character did in the story. Had he been a love interest I probably wouldn't have liked him, but as a character he was great for me.
Then we have stereotypes like Taelor, the rich popular bitch with some sort of vendetta against our main character, and has no existing personality outside of this, and Jeb's sister Jen, who doesn't play any part aside from being Alyssa's friend that she vents to, and we never get to see any other side apart from what we're shown upon first appearance.
Yeah, and I just wasn't as entertained and engaged once the book started ending, however I did love the big plot twist as well as how everything was wrapped up with in the end (romance aside). Still, the ending simply doesn't compare to the wonderful start, and therefore I guess I'm a little bit disappointed with this book.
Although I am extremely excited to see what Howard publishes next, since I have a feeling that she is a talent that could get better and better with more experience.
To read more of my reviews (and probably see them a little sooner than here on GR from time to time) stop on over to my blog, Living Is Reading!
Fellow nerds, I am home.
This book is seriously nerd Heaven. I mean, we have magic, cops, murder, brief almost sexytimes, mystery, demons, talking skulls, potions, mafia, drug wars, plots and counterplots, and it all works perfectly.
Harry Dresden is a character that I did have a hard time adjusting to, and I still am having to get used to him. While he is quite funny, his “chivalry” is a little outdated for the 21st century, and woman can handle themselves, and don't need a man to treat them like a delicate flower. It seems that may continue on as the series progresses, but in the grand scheme of things it's very small to what it could be (like, let's say, he could be Travis Maddox).
We also have Murphy, Bob the Skull, Susan, and a wide cast of characters that I can't wait to get to know more over the course of the next thirteen books. They all have personalities and stories that I really want to get to know better, and I'm interested to see what happens to them, and where Butcher takes their places in the arc.
One of my issues though is Harry seeming to just throw information out there kind of randomly. Such as him mentioning that he killed the first girl he loved when he was a teenager and then never mentioning it ever again the entire book? In my opinion, if you're going to spill info like that, you need a little more elaboration, and you don't just save the rest of the story for next time.
The mystery was pretty captivating, although I think the outcome is too obvious - in fact, it was so obvious that I thought it was something entirely different simply because it would've been too obvious. Alas, what I thought might've been a potential red herring of sorts turned out to be the actual culprit. That, to me anyway, is the worst thing you can possibly do with a mystery. Hence, a large part of the story arc kind of let me down in a sense that it wasn't more well thought out I guess?
However, I still like the characters, writing, humor, story, world, and really want to get to know the backstories about some of these people, and learn more about the world that we didn't get to see in this book (such as the Nevernever, which I hope we enter into at some point in the series).
And I'm kind of impartial to anything having to do with the mafia.
Who knows what's wrong with me, but it's just a very fascinating thing to read about, especially supernatural mafias.
I've heard the next book is probably the weakest installment so far, but that after that it's basically awesome the rest of the way through, so I'm really excited to get further into what could become my next bookish addiction!
To read my reviews sooner/see more of my reviews (I wrote this review about two weeks ago . . . and am just posting it now because I'm lazy like that) please check out ze blog, Living Is Reading!
I guess it's safe to say that I'm a pretty big fan of Lauren Oliver. I have yet to read a book by her that I don't like at least a little bit. Delirium wasn't quite her best, and as time has gone by I'm not quite on the bandwagon for Liesel & Po (yet it was still satisfying), but I loved Before I Fall and I really, really enjoyed The Spindlers. I still have Pandemonium checked out from my school library and have yet to read it, but that's a different story (although I read the first two chapters and that was good).
Obviously Oliver has incredible prose. Like, it's up there with Laini Taylor (although don't go fooling yourself by thinking that Oliver is the superior prose writer, because she's not, so you need to stop imagining things). It's safe to say that she tones it down a lot in her middle grade novels, but it's still prevalent, and it's still has this magical twinge of beauty to it, that seems to be lost in a lot of books, whether it be middle grade, young adult, or adult. Her writing makes everything seem like a fairy tale, if it's about demonic spiders living underneath our world, or a dystopian society where love has been declared an illness, or mean girls finally learn the damage that they, or any others that bully, can inflict on those around them.
The idea behind this one involving demonic spider beings, rats fighting for civil equality, and a girl off on a quest to save her brother's soul is obviously quite original (well, maybe not the part about a girl off to save her brother - Blood Red Road for example). I also found myself loving that it wasn't just about the fantasy elements with this book. It's also a brief exploration at the inside life of people living in our country now dealing with financial issues and what that can do to people, and therefore how it affects the rest of their family.
I don't exactly come from a lot of money. Not poor, but I'm middle class all the way. My family is pretty stable, so maybe I can't relate entirely to the situation that Liza's family seems to be going through in the background of the story, but it's not something so foreign that I'm left scratching my head in an elaborate mansion counting my money, completely frazzled at the idea that not everybody can fly around in a private jet.
It's something that a lot of people can relate to though, and I appreciate Oliver putting this in there, instead of focusing completely on some ten year old girl having a perfect family in a perfect town off on some perfect journey to Wonderland to save her perfect little brother.
The characters themselves are pretty engaging, and the story itself was interesting enough to hold my attention the entire way through. Liza is a flawed heroine, she's prejudiced against certain things (namely rats wearing make-up and whatnot, but I guess all of us are a little bit against rats deep down), and at times has a more narrow view of the world. However, I guess that's where Mirabella comes into balance it all out, and to question things that our society poses as what's “normal” and what's “abnormal.”
This is a quick read, and clocks in at only 246 pages, so it shouldn't take you too long to get through this. It's a light, fun adventure story about a girl in a not-so-perfect world to go on an adventure and learns that there is hope and beauty even in a world full of darkness (even if that sounds a little cheesy).