Shay

Wow. Just wow. The author's tortured relationship with his father seems so petty in the face of all his father suffered. But his father's persecution during WWII informs many of his “quirks” and the reasons for strife between them. It's very sad but very important that people understand how horrific this time period was.

The characterization of the different races/ethnicities/religions as different animals helps the reader see at once which “side” a person is on—down to some nice wearing masks to pretend they're not Jewish.

Much of what we know about concentration camps comes from Auschwitz—it's one of the few camps where some people came out alive. Vladek's account of his time there confirms what we know and provides more depth and understanding.

A must-read for anyone and everyone.

Wow! I don't even know where I should start.

I guess I should begin with saying that I loved this book. I loved it so much I read it in less than a day and I just bought “Golden Son” and pre-ordered “Morning Star.” I shall now attempt to demonstrate why.

We're all bored with dystopian science fiction, aren't we? Well, not anymore.

I don't want to give away too many spoilers, but I really want you to read this book. It does a better job of setting up a revolution than “Divergent” or “The Hunger Games.”

Pierce Brown does an incredible job of weaving a story that sucked me in and made my heart race. When Darrow experiences the worst tragedy of his life, the tragedy that makes him a revolutionary, I felt it. I felt the mounting dread as he realized what was about to happen. My heart pounded when I myself realized what was coming. And when it happened, I cried.

Darrow isn't perfect, but he loves his family, and he wants revenge. He makes mistakes, he gets things wrong. He rude, impulsive, afraid, and so incredibly angry. His rage burns in your own chest as he realizes that for 500 years, his people have been lied to and enslaved.

I enjoyed this book because I was rooting for someone who was finally realistic. Katniss Everdeen was cold and clinical. Tris was whiny.

Darrow does everything because he wants revenge, and hopefully the rebirth of a broken system. His love for his wife and the life they should have had drives him. But what's amazing is watching him evolve. Like I said, he makes mistakes, but don't we all?

He feels shame and remorse when people die and constantly evaluates if his mission is worth the cost. There are difficult sacrifices made along the way, and the people who die for him, he does not forget.

I really hope you pick this up. People say this book started out slow, but I didn't feel that way. Perhaps because I read it over the course of a single day, it didn't feel like it was dragging. I didn't feel like there were too many houses, colors, or characters. Everything had a purpose. Everyone had a job to do. And I can't wait for more!

P.S. I loved that it was on Mars! Space stuff rocks!

This book is not good and I'll tell you why. Nesta's presented as a character with serious trauma and her coping methods are sex, music, and alcohol.

Surprise! She starts having sex with Cassian. Now, the sex scenes are disgusting and borderline savage (and not presented as romantic at all). But ya girl could get down with the kinks IF Cassian wasn't basically abusing her by taking advantage of her vulnerability and one of her only coping mechanisms. This is presented as romantic because Cassian is so head-over-heels for her that he can't keep it in his pants long enough for her to have a little character growth.

Add on to this the fact that Nesta is horrible to literally everyone and this book becomes unreadable. She literally is not given a single redeeming quality and her behavior crosses the line from “Kind of nasty but wounded” to “I don't care about anyone and I'm going to hurt everyone no matter what.” There is not enough character development within the first half of this book to bother with reading the second half. Don't waste your money and just stick to the first three books.

I enjoyed this book. I'm definitely one for more flowery scene-building, but even though the descriptions were relatively sparse, I had a picture in my mind of how everything should look.

First, Ildiko. She was awesome. Patient, kind, smart, and sassy. She kept me going.

Brishen was sweet and strong. I really enjoyed watching them fall in love. There was no angst between them. Honesty, friendship, then love. It was a nice change from typical drama-filled romance.

There were several copy-editing issues with the Kindle edition, but I was able to look past them.

The book probably should have have a glossary because how on Earth are we supposed to pronounce “hercegesé?” In my mind, I just replaced it with the word “duchess” because muddling though it every time (and it is in there a gratuitous amount) was too annoying.

Overall, this was a good, fun, short read. I'd recommend it if you like fantasy romance.

I was excited about this book because I left a fundamentalist religion myself last year.

The prose was really interesting and often very beautiful (except toward the end where the author had run out of words to describe sex).

Also the word “fat” was used to describe body parts (a lot) in ways that just didn't feel... sexy. “His fat lips.” “His fat hands.” You get the idea. I always got thrown off when Enoch was physically being described. Fat lips. Small eyes. Huge shoulders. Like a wall. Fat hands. Small eyes. Huge chest. Massive form. Hunched over to kiss her. His knees cracked. His back cracked. Those small eyes. Every time he was described I was a little turned off. Physically he just got more clownish with every scene.

And I didn't get The Point of this book.

They had sex as teenagers, she was cast out, they get back together later, they're the only two who are happy, everyone else is upset that they're together. But we're supposed to believe it will be Happily Ever After even though he's staying in the church?

It was just... sad. And unrealistic.

And the sex scenes were kind of odd. I got really annoyed with him getting off every time and her not ever getting there except a couple of times.

I'll probably update this review when I've processed it a bit more. But for now I just feel let down. It wasn't really about a faith crisis from either character. It wasn't really about changing or growing. It was just about the main leads' supposed chemistry.