Kyle
A really great psychological thriller that kept me up rather late into the night (for me anyway). Great mystery, with an outcome I didn't see coming. At first I was afraid I wouldn't be able to keep track of the ten characters, but once they started dying I was able to keep everybody together a little bit. XD I wouldn't say it's a book about the characters but more the psychology of them and how the killer begins to break them apart.
Also, the ten people arrive at the island on August 8th right? Well, that's my birthday. I don't know why I bothered mentioning that but I found that kind of creepy. Lawl.
A very little-known fact about me is that I enjoy watching true-crime stories on TV, specifically the TV channel Investigation Discovery (Channel 123 for me). It's a very bizarre guilty pleasure, but I just love watching all these strange cases of kidnapping and murder. I love how it creeps me out, like how some people enjoy the adrenaline that comes with watching a movie that scares the crap out of you. Of course, I do have my limits. I cannot watch the show Dissappeared since the cases on that show never get solved, so you never know if they actually ran away or if they're dead because of some brutal kidnapping/murder. That is just way too creepy for my tastes.Some of the most popular ones on I.D. I've seen involve a spouse dissappearing (9 out of 10 times the wife) and those are always my least favorite. It's always the other spouse (9 out of 10 ten times being the husband). Their motivation is always petty, typically involving money or jealousy. The latter is almost always the justification for the rare time whenever the woman kills. One of my favorite things about [a:Gillian Flynn 2383 Gillian Flynn http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1232123231p2/2383.jpg] is that she doesn't fall into gender stereotypes regarding criminal fiction. She doesn't pull the BS that if a wife goes missing, her husband has offed her. This book in particular actually addresses said stereotype, since Amy Dunn has dissappeared on the day of her fifth wedding anneversary to Nick. The scene when Nick arrives home shows that of a potential kidnapping. However all the fingers slowly seem to be pointing at Nick as the prime suspect. To top it all off, Amy gets her own POV for the reader, from the pages of her diary detailing her life from the day she meets Nick to shortly before her dissappearance.But is something more sinister occuring in between the lines of this marriage that was picture-perfect on the surface?I'm a huge fan of Flynn. I loved [b:Dark Places 5886881 Dark Places Gillian Flynn http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320483555s/5886881.jpg 6873353] and is one of my favorite reads of 2012. [b:Sharp Objects 66559 Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1298431315s/66559.jpg 3801] was okay psychologically, but I was so dissapointed by the mystery and didn't care about the characters that I gave it a very low 3 stars. Still, I've read far worse. For the first 50 pages of [b:Gone Girl 8442457 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1339602131s/8442457.jpg 13306276] I wasn't sure what I would be giving it, but once I got past those first fifty pages I really started to get into the story, and was trying to unravel the mystery going on. The first half is a very nice 3.5 stars, but that second half? I would go as far as to say that it's almost completely perfect, 4.5 star almost perfect. Just to balance it all out, I'd settle for 4 stars, but in reality it's somewhere between 4 and 4.5. This novel is chilling, fascinating, disturbing, repulsive, and is not easy to like. The characters are pretty horrible people, and I would not want to be associated with them in real life. However, their flaws are definitely one of the best things about them.Amy is one of the craziest bitches I've ever read about. Girl is hardcore.I love Flynn's writing, and I love her use of the unreliable narrator that you discover literally the opening pages of the second half. It's brilliant. That entire ending was so disturbing I just - wow, I can't. I'm actually very surprised people don't like the ending, since I think it was mind-blowingly brilliant and matches what I think the characters would do. I could go on and on about how much I loved the story, the writing, and the characters, but instead I'm just going to insist that if you are a fan of Flynn, or if you're looking for a great mystery/psychological thriller, than definitely pick Gillian Flynn up.
Holden Caulfield is one of the biggest hypocritical phonies in this entire book.
I loved it.
I wanted to read this for two main reasons:
1. It's on the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list
2. I wanted to read it before the educational system ruined all classic literature for me
Longer review to come.
This is so amazing.
I don't even know how to describe this to you. It may have been less than 1,500 words, but it's some of the finest post-apocalyptic fiction I've read. It was bleak, realistic, got me all misty-eyed, I cared about the characters and their situation . . . but most importantly of all:
I wanted more. I wanted to read a whole book about these characters, and what they were going through and what happened before the story took place and what would happen after the grim ending.
Seriously, this will take you a minute to read. Just click the link on the GoodReads page, and I'll even provide it to you at the end of this review. Why are you even still here?
Go read it.
http://www.undergroundvoices.com/UVArchieCory.htm
Now that a few weeks have passed, I have finally come to the mental coherency to (try) express my thoughts into words and sentences worth reading without sounding like a babbling idiot. .Sloane Price has nothing worth living for anymore. Her sister Lily is missing and her father abuses her. So, when the zombie apocalypse begins on the same day as Sloane's planned suicide, her natural reaction is to of course die. However, after one week of survival, she is now trapped in her high school with five other individuals. I love [a:Courtney Summers 1487748 Courtney Summers http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1324454937p2/1487748.jpg]. She has yet to write a book that dissapoints me, or gets anything less than 4.5 stars. This is no exception, and surprisingly enough, her first foray out of the contemporary genre is perhaps her best book yet. You've probably already heard this, but I think it's worth repeating: this isn't really a zombie book. Don't let that turn you off from it though if you were expecting zombies, because there are some phenominal zombie scenes given to you throughout the novel. Especially that last 10%. Whew. Summers has some of the most evocative and unique prose I've ever read. It's evokes so many emotions so simply, and just makes the pages turn themselves.Not much actually happens plot-wise, but I don't think this is a very plot-driven book in the first place. The beauty of this book is in the characters, and how real and 3-D they are. I'm not going to lie, I didn't care for Harrison. I didn't mind exactly when the zombies killed him towards the end. Didn't feel like a big loss in the grand scheme of things since I felt nothing for him. Although I won't lie I did start crying a little when he started talking about never being able to do anything with his life now. Sad stuff. Sloane isn't an easy narrator to like, but her struggle to just want to survive is compelling and is surprisingly strong enough to carry the whole novel by itself. The brief splat of romance is refreshing since it never ventures in “The ‘L' Word” territory, or ever goes beyond just feeling something beyond fear and pain. The atmosphere is incredible, and I couldn't put this book down and read it into the late hours of the night. However, it was in those final minutes during the night that I encountered my one and only problem with this novel. The ending. Only this and [b:Some Girls Are 6624871 Some Girls Are Courtney Summers http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317791700s/6624871.jpg 6819111] have had endings that bothered me, the latter bothering me far more. It was really just the last chapter for me. I'm going to put a spoiler tag up below discussing what happens in the last 10% of the book, so DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ/FINISHED THE BOOK. I'M SERIOUS. YOU WILL BE SPOILED A LOT. So, the group (minus Grace) sets out searching for Lily since Sloane has recieved the text from her father that she is alive and well and at their house. They set out on their daring expedition through their destroyed town, where Harrison dies, Trace kills himself, and Cary sacrifices himself so that Rhys and Sloane will make it. They get to the house, and Sloane goes downstairs to look (they snuck in through her bedroom window). She gets down there, and sees that not only is her father dead, but Lily is one of the infected/zombies. She tries to kill Sloane, but Sloane kills her. Sloane and Rhys get in a car to make their way to the safety zone, they drive for a little while, and a zombie makes their way to Sloane's window. The End. So, first issue: Sloane has very little emotion after what happens between her and Lily. I mean, this person was a huge part of Sloane's life, and now she's dead, because Sloane killed her. I know Sloane was mad at her, but there had to have been some kind of emotion, right?It was especially strange since the rest of the novel was so emotional, yet this was so bare. Second issue: That very end part was too vague. Does Sloane take this oppurtunity to die by letting the zombie get to her? A friend of mine that also read/loved this have discussed this with me, and he said that he thinks Rhys wouldn't have let Sloane kill herself, and that they probably made it. I've seen somebody say that the ending was a sort of metaphor or whatever, but I think it was exactly what it appeared to be. Any other speculation? Still, this novel is still spectacular. A lot of tears were shed, a lot of feels were experienced, a lot of spectacular characters and writing were read, and so you are now reading a lot of positive review. Just go read it.NOW.
Actual rating: 4.5 stars
Over the course of four months, I have read everything this woman has written. Not everything has been a perfect 5 stars, but I've never been dissapointed. I'm not going to lie: I was slightly let down by the ending of this, and I mean the last two chapters really, but everything leading up to that was perfection.
Regina Afton is part of the Fearsome Fivesome, led by Anna. They bitch, be mean to people, get drunk, gossip about other people, ruin reputations, and turn them into social pariahs just because Anna gets ticked off. At a party one night, Regina is almost raped by Anna's boyfriend, and tells another member of their clique, Kara, about it. Kara tells her to keep her mouth shut since Anna wouldn't ever believe her, but the following Monday, Anna knows and is out for blood.
Now, Anna doesn't know the truth. She thinks Regina and Donny (her boyfriend) were hooking up behind her back, and not that it was an attempted rape.
Courtney Summers knows how to get into the minds of teenagers, whether they be mean girls, depressed, guilty, or suicidal. She just knows how people works, and the complexity of them all, and it shows in her writing. She has created once again, a heroine we normally might not have rooted for. As the novel progresses, we find out more of what she'd done to other kids, and I'm not sure I would've liked her at all if we hadn't seen everything from her perspective.
We feel Regina's pain, and we see her quest for forgiveness. We also see her begin to have feelings for Michael, a boy that her and Anna made a social pariah and everybody believes to be a depressed maniac. Now, this is normally where I'd hate Regina, since I was definitely Michael for a lot of my life due to a wide variety of people. Once again, because we see it from Regina's head, it saved her character for me.
The relationships between these people, the friendships, the rivalries, the romance, the cliques, their minds, are all very complex. Nothing is simple, especially the idea of if Regina even deserves any kind of forgiveness.
The bullying Regina endures starts out as nothing too big (I've seen and read worse), but it begins to escalate to physical violence, cyber bullying, and Michael is eventually pulled into the drama for just being associated with Regina. It never feels forced or melodramatic though, and the 3-D-ness of Summers's characters definitely gives you a heightened snese of what this must feel like.
The writing is phenominal. It isn't the most poetic and beautiful prose you'll ever read, but it has this way of being simple yet it packs quite an emotional punch. If the quality of it continues throughout all of her books, I'll never tire of it.
The ending is the only downfall for this. There is a lot of build-up, but how the book resolves itself is too simple, to understated. It's literally a simple case of “you better stop or I'll do this” and then the book finishes. I actually forgot that there was another chapter (it was only one more page of a chapter) and I thought it ended completely without any resolution whatsoever. I was prepared to say it was abrupt as the title.
I mean, Some Girls Are . . . what? The last page definitely made a difference though, and it didn't feel quite as abrupt. Still it's too simple for so much build-up.
Courtney Summers is definitely not an author to miss, and even if this isn't my favorite work of hers, it's still better than 95% of all YA fiction, contemporary or otherwise.
A note before reading: My rating is in no way influenced by my friendship with Mikayla off of Goodreads. She doesn't even have an account, so she won't know I wrote a review. So this review is completely, 100% MY thoughts. If you don't believe me, then that's your problem.
If I said this book met my expectations completely would be a lie unfortunately. I did read this when it was just a story on the Internet, but only about 1/4 of it.
Cara, Peter and Naomi are all physically and verbally abused by important people in their life, who make them feel useless and don't deserve to live.
The story is told in verse from the POV of three different people in first person, and the voices were pretty clear and distinct IMO. So, that is always an amazing positive.
However, these characters aren't exactly people we can connect with, possibly due to the length of the book - 135 pages - and they seem very flat and 1-D.
On the positive side, I love Mikayla's writing. I don't think it's anything absolutely spectacular, but there's just this cinematic flow to it that I really enjoy. There are editing issues, some of which seem very obvious, but I've come to expect that from a lot of self-published books, and even traditionally published books.
The author's note is fantastic, and it raises some very valid points that people seem to turn a blind eye to.
Since I know Mikayla, I know how personal this book actually is, and it's not just some random book on abuse she wanted to write. There is a lot in between the lines, and I applaud Mikayla for deciding to write this book.
The ending is very brave, even if it isn't the ending we want in terms of a story about abuse. It's the truth, and that makes it a million times better that what we want, even if we can't realize and accept that.
I won't say the story itself is flawless, and there were several inconsistencies, but it had me riveted. I devoured it in about an hour, and about half of that hour was me watching an episode of a guilty pleasure TV show.
So, even if it isn't amazing, and may have dissapointed me on some levels, there are some truly remarkable things about this book, some of which not everybody will get because they don't know the history of the author.
Also, it's $2.99 on an e-reader. : )
*This review does contain spoilers for [b:Last Sacrifice 6527740 Last Sacrifice (Vampire Academy, #6) Richelle Mead http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1319850978s/6527740.jpg 13385418]*I can't say I'm exactly dissapointed by this book. I'd read enough reviews and been told by enough people that it certainly wasn't as good as [b:Vampire Academy 345627 Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1) Richelle Mead http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1331231240s/345627.jpg 335933]. No, I'm just sad really, since I know [a:Richelle Mead 137902 Richelle Mead http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1270374609p2/137902.jpg] can and has done better than this. Last year I fell in love with the VA series, and with the exception of the last two books, they were everything I wanted from PNR. This year I read the last two unsatisfactory installments, and read the first Georgina Kincaid novel, [b:Succubus Blues 235718 Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid, #1) Richelle Mead http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1315976722s/235718.jpg 228316], and that was alright, better than this but not as good as VA. Sydney, the Alchemist from the last three VA novels, is still in trouble for helping Rose Hathaway escape from jail when she was accused of assassinating the Queen. To protect her sister Zoe from getting the golden lily tattoo, tying her forever to the Alchemists, she is forced to go to Palm Springs to protect Jill, Lissa's illegitimate younger sister, from people wishing to remove Lissa from the throne by killing her. She is also joined by two other familiar faces: Adrian and Eddie. So, now Sydney must find some kind of social skills, handle melodrama, and uncover a mystery involving a tattoo parolor called Nevermore.Before I begin this review, this takes place after the end of the VA series and to fully understand it, you do need to finish those books, or read some spoilers to get caught up. One of the biggest problems with this book is the overwhelming amount of predictability. There were some minor things I didn't see coming, but all the major plot twists really didn't surprise me in any way. I knew who the villian would be, I knew the secret Keith was hiding, and nothing about it was subtle. Sydney is a very different protagonist than Rose Hathway is. I was one of the few people that enjoyed her appearances in the latter VA books, so I was pretty thrilled to get a whole series about her. Boy, does this girl have some problems. She has no social skills, and I mean none and this is coming from somebody that can be very antisocial. She thinks being the class know-it-all is blending in, she cannot tell when somebody is asking her out, and she has no understanding of human social interaction. And no Sydney, being homeschooled by your strict father isn't a good excuse. I was very happy to see some familar faces in this book, like Adrian. This definitely makes me even madder that Rose cheated on him, but it was for the best it seems, since Sydney and Adrian do have a little something going on. I may not be very fond of Sydney, but I think she works well with him, and I'd like to see them start up some kind of romance in the next book (or at least let Sydney know that it's obvious she's into him). Eddie is also a nice character to bring back. Like a lot of characters from the last VA book (except Rose and Dimitri) he got the raw end of the deal really, and is in a bad place in his guardianship status.None of the new characters really made an impression on me unfortunately, and weren't very fleshed out or given any distinct personalities aside from a few stereotypes. There really isn't a plot with this book. There's Jill getting a modeling gig, Jill having a petty rivalry with the school mean girl over a boy that likes Jill, relationship drama regarding that boy who likes Jill but is gasp human, and then the occasional mentions of the killings happening in Palm Springs and LA. Oh, and the tattoo parlor.However, I love Mead's sassy and witty style of writing, and Adrian has some very funny moments (even Sydney actually, but she's still blah as the MC), and the book was very hard to put down the whole way through, even if it did lack a plot. Action sequences were vary far and few between, but I suppose they could've been worse.So, 3 stars. Take it and run Mead, because I might not be so generous with [b:The Golden Lily 8709523 The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2) Richelle Mead http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1338529022s/8709523.jpg 13582370].
Can it get any more overdramatic than this?
Too melodramatic, too much like a soap opera with zombies, so much cheating, racism, misogyny/sexism, and I just cannot stand it at this point. Still, I read this in a few hours, so I'm going to read the third installment very soon.
I know, what's wrong with me?
The world is divided into three classes of people:a very small group that makes things happena somewhat larger group that watches things happenand the great multitude which never knows what happened.
-Nicholas Murray Butler
That beginning-of-chapter quote perfectly describes the premise of this book - and plus it sounds cool. Charlie Hardie (I know, I hate names that rythme) is an ex-cop from Philidelphia, who hasn't been the same for three years, and is now a simple house sitter going around the country staying in nice houses. On a particular job in Hollywood, he finds actress Lane Madden hiding in the basement, high on speed, raving about people called The Accident People who are trying to murder her and make it look like . . . an accident (did you not see that coming?)
Turns out, she just might not be as crazy as she seems.
There were two aspects of this book I found extremely dissapointing.
The first were the characters, since they had very little depth. They had some great backstories, and they were far from perfect, but I wasn't able to connect with them on any level. I liked Lane, but I needed something more from her, and because she was killed I won't ever be getting more from her. Our MC Charlie seemed at times too much like a stereotypical action movie hero.
The whole book really read like some strange action movie to be honest. Which leads into my second issue. Okay, so I understand that adrendaline can help people do some pretty crazy stuff. However, if you are imapled in the chest with a mic stand, beaten, poisoned, and shot in the arm and HEAD YOU SHOULD FREAKIN' BE DEAD! This annoyed me greatly, since Charlie just seemed to push through, no matter what injury he got, when most people would've either died or needed immediate medical attention.
Nope, not Charlie Hardie. He's RoboCop.
I guess a third issue would be the lack of depth from the story itself, but I guess that goes hand in hand with the lack of it from the characters.
However, there is a lot going for this, even more than there is against it. The premise is completely unlike anything I've ever read before, and the inclusion of “Phillip” towards the end of the novel was very well done. The action sequences are perfectly described and very easy to visualize (part of why Kelly reccomended this author to me), and it reads like a very good action movie.
Duane's writing really grabbed me and held my attention. It isn't anything lyrical or poetic, but it's very easy to read. The ending was insane, and I definitely am excited to read the last two books in the series, although I am wondering why there is a third book. Maybe the end of Book Two will answer that?
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
These aren't my normal type of reads. I don't mean zombie books, since I do enjoy them when they're done right. I mean comics/graphic novels. I've never been much of a fan. I find I just flip through them occasionally reading the dialogue bubbles and looking at the pictures. So, I knew right away from the get-go that I'd be able to finish this, since I found myself actually reading the dialogue more than looking at the pictures (probably because some are extremely gory). In fact, I had to remind myself to probably take a look at them so I knew what was happening visually.
This is set several weeks after the zombie apocalypse has begun. Rick, a police offier, has awakened from a gunshot wound in the hospital. He finds it abandoned, except for some of the living dead. He then sets out for Atlanda, since he is told by a man occupying a house neighboring his that the government promised protection in big cities, and his wife Lori has family there, and may have taken his son Carl with her. When he gets there, he meets finds out that not only has the city been overrun with the zombies, but that there is a camp nearby awaiting the arrivial of rescue.
Now, I did have some issues with this. After awhile, it began to get this soap-opera feel to it, with cheating, forbidden love affairs, love declarations left and right, jealousy, and I was getting annoyed with it. However, it always remains in the background and is not as important as staying alive.
However, like in soap operas, the women seemed to just sit around not really doing anything. One woman (whose name was Donna I believe) was the only one that actually noticed this, and wanted to stand up and actually do something more than washing clothes . Lori and another women just laugh it off, acting like she's being ridiculous.
Also, like a soap opera, everybody was so overdramatic. Now, are they really being overdramatic for their circumstances? Maybe not, but from my standpoint, these people (especially the women it seemed) were constantly crying, acting like every tiny thing was a huge deal.
Face palm
The story also had this kind of back and forth formula going around, with them finding a safe place, it not being safe, run, meet new people, rinse and repeat. Still, I was entertained by the story, so it didn't dissapoint me entirely.
The characters were pretty good as well. I suppose because they're in a comic book I didn't get all the depth/development I wanted, but for what they were, it was fine.
I couldn't put it down, and I read it from start to finish in less than twelve hours. I wanted to read the next installment right away, and now have it on hold at the library.
So, for what it was, I was entertained. Perhaps this will be a new guilty pleasure?
If you know me well enough, you know that I love the disturbing, twisted fiction that is so rarely written. I was a huge fan of Flynn's second novel, [b:Dark Places 5886881 Dark Places Gillian Flynn http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320483555s/5886881.jpg 6873353], which was easily one of the most disturbing novels I'd ever read. The characters, the mystery, the atmosphere - it all was just pitch-perfect for me. Camille Preaker returns to her home town of Wind Gap, Missouri to get a story for her unpopular Chicago newspaper involving the death of two small girls, who were both strangled and had their teeth removed after death. However, Camille soon is forced to unravel the mystery surrounding her own personal demons, and the disturbing link between it and the two murders.The only thing this book truly impressed me by was showing how much Flynn improves as a writer during the time in between the publication of this and Dark Places. Nothing in this book won me over.The disturbing, psychological factor was still there, involving Camille's disturbing cutting of words onto her body. The mystery itself is extremely wicked, yet I never felt very compelled by it like in DP. The story seemed very tedious to me. There seemed to be a lot of back and forth, with people warning her to leave, people not wanting to be interviewed, people gossiping about other people, and every now and then a revelation about the two young girls that were killed. The mystery was too dang predictable. Was it meant to be? Flynn did the one thing you should never do with a mystery novel: don't make the most obvious suspect the perpetrator. Isn't that like Rule #1 of How to Write a Basic Mystery Novel? This is definitely a weak debut in my eyes, but maybe it's the fact that I forced myself to read it. It was on hold at the library so I couldn't renew it, and it was due on Thursday, and I'm not in a reading mood but I wanted to read it really bad, and ugh. Perhaps I would've liked it more had I been more in the mood for it, and I'd been able to relate and connect with the characters a lot more than I did (which was nil). I still do reccomend Flynn in general, since I do think she has improved.
Easily one of the worst books I've ever read. I hated all 288 pages of it. I wish I could give it 0 stars.
PRO:
-Great premise
CONS:
-Insta-love x40: since the girl doesn't remember yesterday, she falls in love with the guy instantly over the course of SIX. MONTHS.
-Flat characters
-Slut-shaming
-Melodrama
-The romance was so nauseating and the two had zero chemistry
-Incredibly boring
-The writing wasn't anything special, and there were some romantic scenes with some pretty weird metaphors in there a la Shatter Me
You can read this eerily written Gothic tale of grandeur and death here:
http://www.online-literature.com/poe/36/
It's too short for a review, but I will say that it's unlike anything I've ever read, fantastically written, and is definitely strange. However, anybody who loves the dark and gothic sides of literature will find themselves captivated by this for a short amount of time.
If somebody went up to me and told that all women are victims of male brutality and evil, I would do two things. First off, laugh in their face and tell them to get some perspective.
Second, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves and choke on their snobb-y ness. There are, as I like to call them, man haters that believe that women are superior to men in every single damn way, and have higher morals, and all people of the opposite sex are rapists and murderers who deserve to rot in Hell. I'm sorry, but women can be just as vicious, cold, and just plain “evil” as men can be. Gillian Flynn is a writer who has some perspective, and the woman are just as pathetic as the men. Everyone is this book is a liar, a thief, depressed, stuck-up, cold, wicked, twisted, and will do anything to get what they want.
I knew I was going to like this. Did I think I would love it? I had no clue. There are some 4 star books that I do love, but they're just not quite 5 star quality either (okay, I have given 5 stars to “fun” books as well). Maybe I had my expectations too low by expecting 4 stars. All I know for certain that if this book is an indicator of what I can expect from Gillian's other two books, she will wind up on my Kyle's Favorite Authors sidebar on my profile. Even if they aren't 5 stars, if they maintain good quality, they're a sho-in.
I just re-watched The Dark Knight in preparation for The Dark Knight Rises, and oh boy do I love my sociopathic clowns (oh and R.I.P. Heath Ledger - you're talent was beyond human comprehension). This is potentially a reason for why this book and I were meant to meet. If you see who I reccomend this book to, you'll know that this is not for people who think chic-lit is hard-core.
This is for people who think books about evil people are brilliant.
Almost twenty five years ago in the early hours of January 3rd, 1985, seven-year-old Libby Day crawled out the window of her mother's bedroom to save herself from a bloody massacare that left her two sisters and mother dead. Who did she testify as the killer? Her eldest sibling, fifteen-year-old Ben Day, who was almost accused of practicing in Satanic worship and killing animals for sacrifice. Now thirty-two, Libby is depressed, pathetic, and living off charity given to her being the soul survivor of the killings. However, she barely has over $900 left, unemployed, and is desperate for cash. When a offer from the Kill Club, a group of people obsessed with murderous mysteries, her's in particular, is given to potentially figure out who really killed the Days (she might have never actually seen Ben kill her family), she jumps on it.
Is she in over her head?
The mystery is well thought out, and not predictable in the least. Well, in just about 90% of that regard. I slightly figured one part of it out, and it does become more and more obvious the closer everything begins to unravel of course, at least one part of it. Some 3rd person chapters are told from Patty Day (mother)'s POV, and some of them from Ben, all of them from the 24 hours leading up to the massacare. Every question raised regarding it is given a logical answer, even if it seemed like nothing. Pay attention to details people - you'll see just how spectacular Flynn thought this through.
I wouldn't go as far as to say the characters are likeable, or even very sympathetic. However my heart does break for Libby, since she does have reason to be mad, depressed, even if it could be a bit of laziness as well. However not one character is unnessecary, and they all have their baggage. Diondra was never a character I liked, or even cared for, even when you find out she probably has a dysfunctional home life. Bitchiness can only be justified by so much.
The story is very quick, and those last 300 pages were extremely riveting (well, last 300 pages in the large print edition, which is the only kind my library had). The atmosphere is absolutely incredible, and had me convinced my dreams would be haunted by this. There are some scenes in this book were your eyes will be popping out of your head, especially if you hate brutality against animals. I was lying under a blanket with the AC blasting on as high as I could get it, so when you hear it's winter, there's snow on the ground, tempature is low, and there's killers in the night, I was a very freaked out reader.
This also deals with some pretty great themes, such as corruption, murder, acceptance, paranoia, and the human urge to condem something they don't understand fully.
So, if you can handle rather explicit sex, violence, and have enough perspective to accept that women and men alike are volatile and destructive, and love your mysteries dark and gritty (and unpredictable of course) this is the book you need to read.
I cannot wait to read Sharp Objects, which is available for pickup at my library.
Revive has one of the most unique premises I've come across in YA, but fails to deliver since it seems to leave out the actual plot of the book in the flap that so deceivingly made me think this was a good book.
In modern times, there is a secret government project that has made an experimental drug known as Revive, which can revive people back to life. Daisy is one of many test subjects, who all died in a bus crash one day and have since then been relocated, given new last names, and given Revive every time they die. They also live with new people, in Daisy's case Mason and Cassie, who are her legal guardians that are agents for the project. After Daisy dies for the fifth time (somebody's a klutz), they're relocated to Omaha, Nebraska, where she meets Audrey and Matt McKean, and makes friends outside of the test subjects for the first time in her life.
Some people were disappointed because they thought it was a dystopian novel, but it turned out to be a modern day science fiction.
Others, like me, are disappointed because this isn't science fiction like we were told it was by the people who thought it was dystopian, but because it's a contemporary romance masquerading behind a flimsy science fiction façade.
The romance isn't even very good, it comes up out of nowhere, you know it's going to happen, there's nothing between the two, Daisy's reasons for falling in love with them are nonexistent, and it took up far too much of the book.
The whole book was far too mundane for my tastes. Hanging out with her best friend and the friend's brother (i.e. the love interest), school, visiting other people, hanging out with more friends, doing more ordinary things, and mentioning of science-y things.
Do you know what a huge flaw in this book is? WE DON'T KNOW HOW THE HECK PEOPLE MADE REVIVE. So you expect me to believe that people just randomly found out a drug that you inject somebody with a syringe with, but you're not going to tell us how this amazing discovery was made. Okay, I'm not going along with that. I'm sorry, but if you're trying to be a science fiction book with contemporary elements (or be a contemporary novel with science elements in the background compared to the romance like this book), you need to explain the science elements. And if you can't even give us a stupid, random reason at all, then the author should not be writing science fiction.
I did not find one character in this book relatable or just likeable. There very flat, I didn't connect with them, didn't sympathize with them, and they're not going to be people that I'll be thinking about months from now. The love interest felt flat, and of course he was uber-hot. Audrey should be the one we really sympathize with the most, since you find out some big secret about her health, but I didn't. Daisy was whiny, she was far more concerned with friends and boys to advance the plot in any significant way other than finding stuff by chance, and oh my God, how many times can you get freakin' stung by bees?! You're deathly allergic to them, so why don't you ever learn to be more careful?!
I'm not an expert on CPR, but I know for a fact the chances of you being brought back to life with CPR after being dead for twelve minutes is virtually impossible. So don't you dare try and pull that on me, I know for a fact that she should've been brain dead by the time you “saved” her. So the climax of this stupid book is just not only virtually medically impossible, but it's very convenient for Daisy and it comes too easy.
Maybe I was just expecting far too much from this book, but I think it's the fact that the marketing team was trying to make it look either far better or far different from what it really was: some starry-eyed teen romance with random sci-fi elements to try and hook readers (but only a reader who doesn't care how the heck it's possible, just that it's there).
This is easily one of the biggest surprises of the year. I have hated on, and frowned upon the first two books in the Iron Fey series. I hate the heroine (doormat) Meghan, the love interest Ash (the flat, bi-polar robot), most of the other characters (I'm probably the only person who was vastly annoyed by Iron Horse), the pacing is too slow for me and I'm not even that interested in the story, the romance is boring, doormat, insta, and the two leads have zero chemistry IMO.
Allison Sekemoto lives in the Fringe, the part of New Covington that belongs to the Unregistered citizens, who have chosen not to be blood cattle for the vampires that have taken over the world after the Red Lung disease ravaged the world and created the rabids. Through gruesome circumstances, Allie is turned into a vampire to escape death, and must now cope with the Hunger (do I need to tell you what that is?), not getting destroyed by the sun, and survive humans that would rather see her dead (again) than alive when she escapes New Covington into the outside world and joins a group of humans heading for the rumored island city of Eden, a city with humans, and no vampires or rabids.
I was hooked by this from the first page. I'll admit, the middle is very slow, but I was able to fly through it for the last 200 pages. This book got me back into writing, so a lot of the time spent “reading” this book was actually me writing 6,000 words of my story and reading about 50 pages of this a night until pg. 267.
I do think the world of New Covington, and the other vampire cities, and the outside world of wandering humans is very interesting, and cool, and I was left wanting to know more about it and everything, I only found the world-building okay. It all added up I suppose, but I guess because it's hard to accept fantasy becoming our reality.
The characters are pretty cool, and I loved our MC Allie. She is not afraid to kick some ass if she has to, she doesn't go crying in a corner when she gets upset that her love interest is rejecting her (i.e. Meghan Chase) and she even rejects him a couple of times, she doesn't let people walk over her and even broke somebody's nose when they tried to. With strong female characters, I don't just want the physical side of things strong, they need their emotions to be stable and not running around punching and crying, and Allie had that. She did cry at times, but those times were understandable, rational times for crying. Yet she was able to jump back to the Allie I loved, and that is what I don't understand why Meghan couldn't be that way, sicne God knows when she started crying, you're in for something.
I did feel a little cold in regards to the other characters. I did like Kanin, Caleb, and Zeke, but him only to an extent which I'll get to when I talk about the romance. Caleb and Kanin didn't really jump out at me, or really make that big of an impression, but I thought Caleb was this cute little kid, and Kanin . . . was Kanin. He's hard to explain since he dissappears from the book rather abruptly and doesn't ever come back physically.
The romance did fall flat for me, unfortunately. Not because there was insta-love (they did have the awkward “close” moments fairly early after when they met though), but because Zeke was this really flat character to me. He seemed to nice, too sweet, too understanding. When you had this idea ingrained in you for years and years, I doubt two days of hearing something different will make that great of a change. He just didn't come across as a real person, and so when the romance came in at the end, I didn't really care.
The last 100 pages are action-packed and unpredictable, and it made up for the slow middle in my opinion. Julie Kagawa definitely knows how to write an action sequence that holds my attention, at least in THIS series. I was just flipping the pages like mad to see how it would all get resolved, and when I read the last 5 pages, I was just going, “No, no, no NO!” I don't know how I'll be able to wait a year for the next book.
I know I did a lot of complaining in this review, but I loved the MC, creativity of the world, ending, action sequences, pleasant reading experience, slow-burning romance (even if the romance itself didn't really make an impression on me) and the world-building could've been a lot worse.