Title: Once
Author: Anna Carey
Book #: 2nd of Trilogy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publish Date: July 3rd 2012
Pages: 354
Format: Hardcover
Date Read (Throwback): November 15th 2012
Rating: ★★★★ / out of 5
We stood side by side, and for that minute, in the stillness of that room, he was not the King. I was not not the Princess, taken against her will to the City. We were two people trying to forget.
Summary: After finally making it to safety, Even thinks all will be well. If only she could get back to Caleb.When she hears a rumor of his appearance nearby, Eve leaves the safe haven of Califa in search of him.Suddenly, one thing leads to another and Eve turns out not to be the only one who needs saving this time.Review:So, overall, I did enjoy the book. I kept putting it off because I was concerned that it wouldn't measure up to Eve, but when I did start reading it, I finished it in a day!My feelings toward this book, however, are mixed. It seemed like it was going well for Eve, and then it looked as if it would possibly get even better.. but then things just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And most of the time, it was her own fault. Or, perhaps I just want to blame her because everything was constantly going from good to bad and it was extremely unfortunate.There was a lot of hope at the end though. (view spoiler) Eve still has a shot at changing things. Overall, I just hope she matures more in the third novel. I can't wait to read it and find out!Quotes:"You do anything for the person you love,” she said finally."And then when you don’t think you can give any more of yourself, you do. You keep going. Because it would kill you not to."
On My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/404709721
Title: The Line
Author: Teri Hall
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: Dial
Publish Date: March 4th 2010
Pages: 219
Format: Hardcover
Date Read (Throwback): October 23rd 2012
Rating: ★★★ / out of 5
"Don't you see? You can't be brave without being afraid. The brave ones are always afraid. But they do what they must, even so."
Summary:
Rachel's life is quiet.. until she finds a message asking for help. A message from.. the other side of the line.
With everyone she knows and everything she's been taught fighting against her, what will she do to fight for what shebelieves is right?
Review:
I was fascinated by the ideas and concepts set forth in this novel. The whole National Defense system was similar to things I always used to day dream about the United States creating around our borders. Except, for the Unified States, this went horribly wrong when they trapped part of their country on the outside. The Away
It was the find-tuned details that I felt were lacking. For example, I liked how there were different POVs, but not how they sometimes went chapter to chapter, to being multiple within one chapter. It was a little too random. And just some other things like the conversations sometimes felt over-dramatic or not detailed enough, and most of the time, they just felt strained.
The characters were really nothing special or memorable, either.
Overall, it was good enough that I felt as if it would be amazing, if only it were longer and a little more developed.
Quotes:
“As long as the sun has not set on a day, anything can happen.”
Understanding and agreement are not the same thing.”
On My Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/406602016
Title: The Hundred
Author: Kass Morgan
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: September 3rd 2013
Pages: 277
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: October 10th 2013
Rating: ★★★★¾ / out of 5
"A hundred lucky criminals are getting the change to make history." The corners of his mouth twitched into a smirk. "You're going to Earth"
Summary:
In 3010, humanity lives in city-like spaceships orbiting far above Earth's toxic atmosphere. No one knows when, or even if, the planet will be habitable again. But faced with dwindling resources, government leaders know they must reclaim their homeland . . . before it's too late.
Now a hundred juvenile delinquents are sent on a high-stakes mission to re-colonize Earth. After a brutal crash landing, the teens arrive on a savagely beautiful planet. Confronting the dangers of this rugged new world, they struggle to form a tentative community and to get over their dark pasts. In order to survive, they must learn to trust - and even love - again.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Note:
So, before I go into this review, let me just tell you about one of my all time favorite things in the universe: FALLOUT 3
Here is the game summary:
Fallout 3 takes place in the year 2277, 200 years after the nuclear apocalypse that devastated the game's world in a future where international conflicts between the United States and China culminated in a Sino-American war in 2077, due to the scarcity of petroleum reserves that ran the economies of both countries.
The player character is an inhabitant of Vault 101, a survival shelter designed to protect up to 1,000 humans from the nuclear fallout. When the player character's father disappears under mysterious circumstances, the Overseer, or the leader of the vault, initiates martial law, and sends security forces after the player, who is forced to escape from the Vault and journey into the ruins of Washington, D.C. to track him down. Along the way the player is assisted by a number of human survivors and must battle a myriad of enemies that inhabit the area now known as the "Capital Wasteland".
Is that not the tightest shit or what.
After hearing about The 100, I just knew I had to read the book.
Thoughts:
To come!
Quotes:
It wasn't death she craved, but if that was the only way to silence the voices, then she was prepared to die.
There were messages carved into the walls.
Rest in peace.
In memoriam.
From the stars to the heavens.
Humans had abandoned Earth during its darkest hour. It wouldn't care how many died trying to return.
He'd be ready for whatever was waiting for them in those woods. It couldn't be worse than what was going to come hurtling down from the sky.
For the first time in his life, he was free.
"They killed my parents," she said quietly, imagining the scene as she had so many times before. "That kind of pain never goes away."
"We always have a choice," Clarke said, trembling.
Glass was supposed to be a symbol of the Colony's sense of justice, and she would have to keep face as though her life depended on it. Because this time, it did.
"I don't think anything's unforgivable," he said quietly. "Not if it's done for the right reasons."
Title: Mothership
Author: Martin Leicht & Isla Neal
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster books for Young Readers
Publish Date: June 10th 2012
Pages: 308
Format: Hardcover
Date Read : September 10th 2013
Rating: ★★★½ / out of 5
The Goober is still kicking me like the kid's trying to place in the Olympic freestyle, so I wrap my right arm as tight around my belly as I can, until I'm, like, choke-holding my own stomach, and I tell the thing, "When you get out of there, bub, the two of us are going to have words."
Summary:
Elvie Nara was doing just fine in the year 2074. She had a great best friend, a dad she adored, and bright future working on the Ares Project on Mars. But then she had to get involved with sweet, gorgeous, dumb-as-a-brick Cole—and now she’s pregnant.
Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship—and one of them turns out to be Cole. She hasn’t seen him since she told him she’s pregnant, and now he’s bursting into her new home to tell her that her teachers are aliens and want to use her unborn baby to repopulate their species? Nice try, buddy. You could have just called.
So fine, finding a way off this ship is priority number one, but first Elvie has to figure out how Cole ended up as a commando, work together with her arch-nemesis, and figure out if she even wants to be a mother—assuming they get back to Earth in one piece.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
This book is a super fun, light read about the future, pregnancy and aliens. It has the concept of a contemporary with the feel of a science-fiction adventure. While this is definitely not something I would normally read, I am glad I did. This book is hilarious. Elvie is sassy and super smart, and I knew that I would want her by my side during an alien invasion! I also really liked the side characters Ducky and Ramona. I thought they were good friends for Elvie.
What is up with that love interest, though? Elvie literally states multiple times that he is dumb as a bag of bricks. Even dumber than that, actually. But, of course, his super good looks are utterly irresistible and he "loves Elvie" so she loves him and forgives him, too. I wasn't really a big fan of him or the romance, but I don't hold it against the book too much.
Unfortunately, what I do hold against the book is the plot. It started off very fun and not too uncomplicated, and then soon became way too messed up for what it started out to be. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but basically there are two different races of aliens, one "good" and the other "bad", and they both want these pregnant teenage girls. Honestly, though, I had a hard time seeing the one as good:
"So you're saying we'd be hunkered down in caves, counting on our fingers and toes, without you guys? Scratching pictures on walls and humming to ourselves, is that it? That justifies selective sterilization?"
"Humankind has flourished with us."
"Maybe the species has flourished. But not the poor girls you rob of any choice of what to do with their bodies. What to do with their lives. They're just incubators to you."
This is basically my argument. Enough said. And, at this point, I was expecting the girls to revolt and refuse the "good" aliens' help. Unfortunately, they did not, but they were also in a very sticky situation as they were stranded on a spaceship. Who knows what will happen in the second book!
Then, and this I will talk about even less, there is quite the discussion of abortion/termination of these weeks away from being due babies. I am not going to state my opinion on the matter, but I will say that I admire the protagonist for choice, and the message she sent:
I don't know anything about the Goober, not really. I don't know what he'll look like, act like, want to eat. He'll be a completely foreign creature to me, without a single strand of my DNA.
What I do know, though, is that he could grow up to be someone amazing. Important. How could I deny the world a child who may one day grow up to cure CMS? Or compose the next great symphony? Or develop a brave new political philosophy?
And if I raise the baby, I can make it more than simply the sum of the great genes it was born with. I can teach it the things that make human beings so wonderful- the joy of blowing bubbles on a sunny day, the oppotunity to go to school, to have a family. The unconditional love of a real, true parent who already knows that great things lie in store for him, and can help prepare him for them. If I raise this baby, it will be mine, DNA or not. When it comes to caring for the species or caring for the individual, sometimes you don't have to choose.
My mind made up at last, I wrestle my phone out of my pocket and open a new message box.
keeping it
Overall, even though Elvie had so many plans for her life and worried that having a baby would ruin them, she learns that she can still do those things. She doesn't have to let having a baby hold her back. I really found her to be a strong and easily admirable character. I would totally recommend this book!
Quotes:
I wanted to ask her if when her baby's born she's going to cut the horns off right away, or wait until the kid is older. But I'm a civil sort of gal, and civil sorts of gals don't say things like that.
I'm really hoping he'll go and get E. coli soon so I can donate my kidney and make it up to him, but so far he seems totally healthy. Which if you ask me is just being selfish.
But it turns out that the kind of guy you want to raise a baby with isn't always the kind you want to make one with in the first place.
"Watching soap operas without female company shrivels my man parts."
"You can make it!" I shout at her.
Ramona is less encouraging. "Bitch, drop the beach ball!"
"Conjugate this, asshole," she tells him, then socks him square in the jaw.
"Cole is the Picasso of Lower Merion High School," I tell Ramona. I point to my baby bump. "Behold, Guernica."
"Aaahhh," she says, nodding in Cole's direction. "Well, it's nice to meet the artist in his prime."
Which is more important to save- the individual or the group?
"Come on. That's it. Hoo-hoo-hooo, hee-hee,hee, hoo-hoo-hoo..."
"Keep that up, and I'm going to hit you right in your 'hoo-hoo.'"
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/716761577
Title: Eve
Author: Anna Carey
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publish Date: October 4th 2011
Pages: 318
Format: Hardcover
Date Read (Throwback) : September 2012
Rating: ★★★★ / out of 5
Summary:
The Earth's population was dramatically wiped out after a deadly disease and a hope-filled vaccine.
It is now 2032.
Eve, a extraordinarily brilliant girl with a promising future, is waiting to graduate along with her best friends, and move on to the world they have been dreaming of since starting school.Why? Well, it's what they have been training for their whole lives. To move to the new City and contribute their intelligence to the rebuilding of the American society.
Right?
Review:
This book was great. It was what really got me into the whole YA-dystopian theme. There was tragedy and romance all tied into a wonderfully crafted futuristic scene. Yes, the world building is awesome.
The only problem, is that there maybe-kinda was a tiny bit of insta-love.
Overall, this was a fantastic read! I am excited to read the second and I recommend you do too if you like dystopian reads! It wouldn't hurt to give it a try.
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/403730253
Title: In the After
Author: Demitria Lunetta
Book #: 1st of Series
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publish Date: June 25th 2013
Pages: 455
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: September 3rd 2013
Rating: ★★★ / out of 5
Something emerged, turned toward the camera, stared. Still coughing, I pressed PAUSE on the DVR remote and stood.
That was the first time I saw an alien.
Summary:
Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape—and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive—and avoid Them at all costs.
After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby—and much more.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
Unlike the last book I just reviewed, The Infects, in which I divided the book into three parts, this book is already parted. We have After, New Hope and Guardians. Unfortunately, the last two parts pale in comparison to the first.
__________
In the first part of the book, we see the MC, Amy, as she discovers that the world has been invaded by "unfriendly aliens". We are there with her as she tries to adjust to life surviving on her own, soon realizing that she definitely lucked out- her house is surrounded by an electric fence and powered by solar panels. While other houses lose power and are scoured by aliens, she is protected. She believes her parents are dead and that she may even be the last person alive on the planet. Then, she meets Baby. The two of them create a silent way of communicating (their own version of sign language) and together they survive in this deadly new world.
Though Amy definitely learns quickly- she soon abandons shoes, for they make too much noise, and only goes out at night, when the creatures are hiding- she is not perfect. She does make mistakes, like not assuming from the start the light and noise will attract attention, taking on a second stray who doesn't seem to understand the survival precautions, as well as following a surviving man into his home. She does, however, learn from her mistakes.
Looking back on that first trip, knowing what I do now, it was a miracle I survived at all (page 27).
This first 150 or so pages were my favorite, and really the only thing I liked about this book. (view spoiler).
Unfortunately, the last two parts were really disappointing. Before, I found myself agreeing with most of the decisions Amy made in order to survive. Not every single one, but most of them. After Amy is taken to New Hope, though, she starts making certain judgments, decisions and opinions that I didn't. One minute, she will be declaring something someone said as propaganda and then next she will so happily believe them. The MC and I just were not on the same page.
The story, too, just seemed to lose it's luster. It was no longer a fast paced survival, but now a government conspiracy/dystopian? While I do enjoy reading about the latter, it was really dull in this book, especially in comparison to the first part. The pacing seemed to slow, and now Amy's priority went from surviving to disobeying authority because she didn't like being told what to do. Side note: I do agree, though, that this new mini government was corrupt: Required (with partners chosen for you) pregnancies every 3 years and "keeping everyone happy and ignorant" is not the way to run a healthy community.
We also meet a bunch of new characters, each that made no impression on me. From the love interest and forced romance, to the new best friend, to the "bad-ass Guardian" who I was supposed to look up to?, to Amy's mother, and then to the bad-guy behind it all. None of these new characters affected me, nor did the death of one of them. I didn't find any of them as being unique, but rather cliche.
At the very end, we get a big "reveal". I saw that some people claim they knew what was coming, but I didn't. However, instead of finding myself shocked or surprised, I just sat back and rolled my eyes. Really? You think people are that stupid? Well, I guess they honestly are because they believed it (including myself but also excluding because I don't actually live in this world). Did no one realize that it was an art exhibit?! The explanation just seemed like a lame cover-up. Though it did work, because that's what everyone believes, it was still super lame.
__________
Though I don't compare books often, I couldn't help but think of Oupost, by Ann Agguire, while reading this. The "aliens" are very similar, physically and behaviorally, to the Freaks in Outpost. Especially after the reveal: (view spoiler) There is "survival out in the wilderness" in the beginning, "adjusting to life in a survivor camp" in the middle, and then "back out in to the wild" in the end.
However, Outpost pulls this whole concept off much, much better.
One thing I did like that these two books had in common, is the elemental question about ignorance. Quoted from In The After:
"Sometimes ignorance isn't bliss. Sometimes it's just dangerous." (page 375)
Overall, I had really high hopes for this book, but, unfortunately, only the first part lived up to those hopes.
Quote:
When I still believed things would return to normal. I no longer hold that hope. Nothing this broken can ever be fixed.
On My Goodreads;
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/527153845
