Title: Earth Girl
Author: Janet Edwards
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: Pyr
Publish Date: March 5th 2013
Pages: 271
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: August 29th 2013
Rating: ★★½ / out of 5
I was Jarra, a Military kid, trained in unarmed combat. A history lecturer and twenty-nine other history students wouldn't scare me.
I stepped into the portal and a new identity.
Summary:
2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. Eighteen-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an “ape,” a “throwback,” but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.
Jarra makes up a fake military background for herself and joins a class of norms who are on Earth for a year of practical history studies excavating the dangerous ruins of the old cities. She wants to see their faces when they find out they’ve been fooled into thinking an ape girl was a norm. She isn’t expecting to make friends with the enemy, to risk her life to save norms, or to fall in love.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads.)
Review:
I'm not really sure exactly what I was expecting going into this book, but I'm pretty sure it was along the lines of a "sci/fi adventure" instead of feeling like it would have been more appropriately labelled as a futuristic self discovery. Especially so after that ending, which ends the story all nice and wrapped up, with the main character realizing she's more than just an "ape" girl, and doesn't hint at anything else to come besides the characters all having their happy endings.
Honestly, though, my problem with this book was just that I couldn't connect. I was practically unfazed by every thing that happened, and I formed no emotional ties with any of the characters. The action scenes stirred nothing within me (with the exception of the very last scene) and the writing felt too clogged with dialogue, when I prefer more description. I also felt like there was info-dumping, but that's just according to me and my standards.
I can, though, imagine where and how people will fall for this story.
The main character, Jarra, is strong and witty. Her love interest, Fian, is sweet and protective. Being Jarra's support for their digs (the person who makes sure to pull her out of the way if something happens) they develop a very personal relationship from the start, yet not exactly in an "insta-love" way.
The world building is pretty cool. We learn many things about what happened to Earth, and where all the humans have gone off to. I would love to live in this world, just for the sole purpose of being able to explore different planets. The writing style fits, too, using futuristic slang and how society's norms have changed over time.
The plot, however, is what I think ruined it the most for me. I just felt no sense of direction, which led to no feeling of suspense. Based of the synopsis, it seemed to me like the only thing I was looking forward to the story progressing to, was for Jarra to discover that she's more than just an "ape" girl, the handicap that society shuns, and that the "exos" are not all bad people. She forms friendships with people who she thought she was going to hate, and she does end up falling in love and discovering a thing or two special about herself. But, that was it. Unless I'm missing the "bigger picture", that's all I got from the story. The plot didn't hint at anything else to come, or any surprise twists to think about for the next book. I honestly see this book as being better for a standalone.
What I would have appreciated, was if the author had at least hinted at something more to come, even though the synopsis of the second book looks like there is more. After the ending of this book, I just felt no desire to read on because everything felt complete and at an end.
Overall, this is still definitely a book to consider, with good science-fiction and a strong heroine. Even though it just didn't meet my expectations in the end, I would still recommend it!
Quotes:
We were adults, we were free, and we were scared.
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/520661583
Title: The Raven Boys
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Book #: 1st of Series
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publish Date: September 18th 2012
Pages: 409
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: August 25th 2013
Rating: ★★★★★ / out of 5
And they were loud and triumphant and kings of Henrietta, because they found the ley line and because it was starting, it was starting.
Note:
Before you decide whether or not you want to read this, I strongly believe that the published summary so poorly depicts this book and what it is actually about. From the summary, there is a large focus on "love" and romance when, in fact, no romantic relationship really develops in this first book of the series. There is hand holding, but that is it, and it only happens at the most 3 times and is more for comfort than romantic feelings.
This story is not at all about "Blue finding true love and discovering that it is not impossible to do so" but rather Blue getting caught up in adventures and magic that will change her life forever. She does not fall in love. There is no "l-word" used. The story is so much more than that.
I decided to write my own summary which I feel does the book (and it's story) more justice:
Summary:
In Henrietta, Virginia, Blue lives a very strange life in a house full of psychics- being the only one without an ability except to amplify the abilities of magical things around her. She longs for something more, even though a heavy fate hangs over her head, taunting her: Someone she meets this year will either be her true love, or she will be his killer.
Even more foreboding (and off limits) are the Raven Boys from Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has never wanted anything to do with them and their rich, stuck-up selves. But then Blue's life becomes entwined in the lives of four Raven boys: Gansey, Adam, Ronan and Noah. They are nothing like the Aglionby boys she expected them to be and she soon find herself being included into the groups dynamic and very unlikely friendships ensue.
As Blue joins the boys on their quest for magic, she learns the possibility that there is something very secret and old buried in Henrietta. And Blue, Gansey, Ronan, Adam and Noah are not the only ones looking for it and that someone will stop at nothing to get there first.
Review:
Honestly, I am still having a hard time believing that the author who wrote this amazingly developed story, wrote Shiver.
As I stated in the note I made at the beginning of this review, I was very unhappy with the book's provided synopsis. I have a feeling they wrote it that way in order to appeal more to fans of Shiver. However, after reading the stories, you realize it just doesn't work that way. It is obvious that the plot of Shiver revolves around the romance, right from the start of reading the book. The plot of The Raven Boys, on the other hand, does hint at a romance at the beginning, but quickly develops into something different with no heavy focus on romance whatsoever.
__________
I don't really have much to say about the story other than the fact that it is nothing like I expected it to be after reading Shiver. If this is how Maggie's writing has improved, I will gladly read anything else she writes from now on.
The dynamic between the characters was perfect, and they are truly wonderful to read about. They are each so well developed, individualized and so obviously different from each other that it sometimes makes you wonder how they can get along so well. But that's the magic (no pun intended) of it.
Yes, there is magic, a hunt for Glendower, friendship and a foreshadowing of death, romance and even more action in the next book.
Overall, this book is a real stunner, with great characters and a plot that leaves you reeling. If you were not a fan of Shiver because you thought the romance was cheesy and unrealistic, I would very highly recommend this book.
Quotes:
The way Gansey saw it was this: If you have a special knack for finding things, it meant you owed the world to look.
"Fate," Blue replied, glowering at her mother, "is a very weighty word to throw around before breakfast."
"Everyone else," said Maura, "had breakfast a very long time ago."
Ronan's expression was still incendiary. His code of honor left no room for infidelity, for casual relationships. It wasn't that he didn't condone them; he couldn't understand them.
One day, she would live someplace where she could stand outside her house and see only stars, no streetlights, where she could feel as close as she ever got to sharing her mother's gift. When she looked at the stars, something tugged at her, something that urged her to see more than stars, to make sense of the chaotic firmament, to pull an image from it.
And just like that, Blue was done. She was, as Neeve pointed out, a sensible girl.
"What if I implement a no-pets policy at the apartment?"
"Well, hell, man," Ronan replied, with a savage smile, "you can't just throw out Noah like that."
"Being a shit in Latin isn't the way to get an A," Gansey said.
Ronan's smile was golden. "It was last year."
"Ah," he said, giving the light bulb a jerk. "Can we leave this anonymous?"
Maura said, "Were psychics, not strippers."
Maura whirled toward Blue. "Blue, if you ever see that man again, you just walk the other way."
"No," Calla corrected. "Kick him in the nuts. Then run the other way."
The poor are sad they're poor, Adam had once mused, and turns out the rich are sad they're rich.
And Ronan had said, Hey, I'm rich, and it doesn't bother me.
Success meant nothing to Adam if he hadn't done it for himself.
Gansey and Adam shared some sort of private conversation with their eyes. It was the sort of thing Blue was used to transpiring between her mother and Persephone or Calla, and she hadn't thought anyone else really capable of it. It also make her feel strangely jealous; she wanted something like that, a bond enough to transcend words.
Something inside him felt like the night, hungry and wanting and black.
Ronan was right. Things felt bigger. He may not have found the line, or the heart of the line, but something was happening, something was starting.
Today, Blue thought, is the day I stop listening to the future and start living it instead
"Because I'm not pretty. Not in the way that Aglionby boys seem to like."
"I go to Aglionby," Adam said.
Adam did not seem to go to Aglionby like other boys went to Aglionby.
"I think you're pretty," he said.
"While I was sitting outside with one of my half aunts."
This seemed to satisfy Ronan as well, because he asked, "What's the other half of her?"
"God, Ronan," Adam said. "Enough."
They also ate a lot of cheap food from convenience stores; this was Blue's fault.
Noah had decided immediately that he would do anything for Blue, a fact that would have needled Adam if it had been anyone other than Noah.
"We have to be back in three hours," Ronan said. "I just fed Chainsaw, but she'll need it again."
"This," Gansey replied, "is precisely why I didn't want to have a baby with you."
"You're always cold, though, Noah," she said.
"I know," he replied, bleak.
Adam wasn't certain what came first with Blue- her treating the boys as friends, or them all becoming friends. And it was a sort of strange magic that it felt like she's always been hunting for Glendower with them.
"I'm sorry. I should've told you I was going to do what you didn't want me to do."
Maura said, "That was not as satisfying as I imagined it would be."
"I'm just warning you, watch for the devil. When there's a god, there's always a legion of devils."
Gansey wished that he could be him, because Adam was so very real and true in a way Gansey couldn't ever seem to be. But Gansey's words had somehow become unwitting weapons, and he didn't trust himself to not accidentally discharge them again.
She tried to imagine being Gansey, seeing the warehouse for the first time, deciding it would be a great place to live, but she couldn't picture it. No more than she could imagine looking at the Pig and deciding it was a great car to drive, or Ronan and thinking he was a good friend to have. But somehow, it worked, because she loved the apartment, and Ronan was starting to grow on her, and the car...
Well, the car she could live without.
She asked, "Okay, wait, so why is Ronan at the library?"
"Cramming," Noah said. "For an exam on Monday."
It was the nicest thing Blue had ever heard of Ronan doing.
"Blue. My name's Blue Sargent."
"Blair?"
"Blue."
"Blaize?"
Blue sighed. "Jane."
"Oh, Jane! I thought you were saying Blue for some reason."
Ronan, stilled weighed down with the luggage, headed across the floor toward Noah's room, saying "Ha. Ha. Ha." in time with his footsteps. It was the kind of laughing that came from being the only person laughing.
Being Adam Parish was a complicated thing, a wonder of muscles and organs, synapses and nerves. He was a miracle of moving parts, a study in surviving. The most important thing to Adam Parish, though, had always been free will, the ability to be his own master.
"Well," said Ronan, "I hope he likes it. I've pulled a muscle."
Gansey scoffed, "Doing what? You were standing watch."
"Opening my hood."
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/702120811
Title: Nevermore
Author: Kelly Creagh
Book #: 1st of Trilogy
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: August 31st 2010
Pages: 543
Format: Hardcover
Date Read: August 22nd 2013
Rating: ★★★½ / out of 5
Isobel fell back, knocking into the table behind her. A shrieking torrent of jet feathers engulfed the light. His form loosened into violet smoke, and like a demon sucked into hell, he vanished into the floor.
Summary:
Cheerleader Isobel Lanley is horrified when she is paired with Varen Nethers for an English project, which is due—so unfair—on the day of the rival game. Cold and aloof, sardonic and sharp-tongued, Varen makes it clear he’d rather not have anything to do with her either. But when Isobel discovers strange writing in his journal, she can’t help but give this enigmatic boy with the piercing eyes another look.
Soon, Isobel finds herself making excuses to be with Varen. Steadily pulled away from her friends and her possessive boyfriend, Isobel ventures deeper and deeper into the dream world Varen has created through the pages of his notebook, a realm where the terrifying stories of Edgar Allan Poe come to life.
As her world begins to unravel around her, Isobel discovers that dreams, like words, hold more power than she ever imagined, and that the most frightening realities are those of the mind. Now she must find a way to reach Varen before he is consumed by the shadows of his own nightmares.
His life depends on it.
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
For a 500+ page long book, I read through this fairly quickly. For reasons I am unaware of, this story caught my attention from the start and held it- even through my wavering faith in the last third- and then snapped my attention right back at the very end.
__________
The characters weren't really anything special, for the most part. I wasn't liking Isobel (besides her name) or her friends at the beginning. Then.. Isobel started to change, slightly, and I slowly began to find her more agreeable. While I still didn't like the fact that she kept lying, sticking her nose in other people's personal belongings, making poor decisions and being good at not listening to life-saving instructions, she grew a backbone and stepped away from her comfort zone as she began to see the world.. differently and far more strange. Her character made a huge improvement by the end of the story and I can't wait to see how she develops through the sequel.
Isobel's old gang, on the other hand, still were pretty shallow the whole way through. Brad especially. It bothered me how Isobel's dad thought he was such a "good kid" when, in reality, he is far from it in my opinion. He had his nice moments, but most of the time he was an ass. I do sense some change in the group, too, though. Especially with Nikki in one of the last scenes we see of her. She's still not my favorite person in the world, but I could tell she was attempting to try. Gwen, hands down, the best. She is just the right kind of friend Isobel (and the story) needed. A quirky, sassy side-kick. And, she is totally a booknerd:
"What is this place? What are we doing here? Whoa, is that a first edition?"
To be honest though, I wasn't finding myself falling for Varen. I can see where and how Isobel did, and I have no problem with it. My heart, however, belongs to Reynolds (just don't ask, okay? it's complicated).
The story, though, wasn't as thrilling or "horror" filled as I was expecting. It was interesting, and the ending definitely left an open ending for things even crazier to come. However, I felt like the story might have been a bit too long, and there was too much focus on Isobel's personal life and less on all this weird stuff that is happening. There also wasn't a single moment that I was technically scared. The third part of this book really dragged for me, but the ending definitely became exciting very fast.
I definitely learned a lot more about Edgar Allen Poe than I probably ever expected to, and I enjoyed how his life and stories were intertwined into this one. But, after a friend on Goodreads brought it up, I agree that I really just wasn't seeing the connection between Poe and all that is happening with Varen and Isobel. I am hoping for more explanation in the sequel.
Overall, if it was just shortened a bit, this would have been an even better book than it was. Still, I liked it and it is a story I would recommend!
Quotes:
"You think you're different. You think you're all so different. You do everything to be different. But you're not. You are just like everybody else." - Isobel
Tonight, even if she failed the project, even if it was for the last time, she would get her spinning lights, her weightless suspension, her gasping crowd- tonight, she would fly.
"Jeez," said Isobel. "What, is your dad in the Mafia?"
"Actually, he's an orthodontist."
Isobel's gaze fixed directly with Lilith's "Didn't anyone ever tell you three's a crowd?"
Those black eyes widened in shock.
"It's too late," Isobel whispered, "for you to do anything."
"But to pine for those we have had and love and once held but will never clasp again," he continued, "it is a torture of an unbearable degree. It is the worst pain possible."
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/632223802
Title: Along for the Ride
Author: Sarah Dessen
Book #: Standalone
Publisher: Speak
Publish Date: June 2012
Pages: 383
Format: Paperback, Reissue
Date Read: August 22nd 2013
Rating: ★★★ / out of 5
There were endless ways to spend your days, I knew that, none of them right or wrong. But given the chance for a real do-over, another way around, who would say no? Not me. Not then. Call it crazy, or just chicken salad. But within reason, or even without it, I was in, too.
Summary:
Up all night.
Nights have always been Auden's time, her chance to escape everything that's going on around her.
Then she meets Eli, a fellow insomniac, and he becomes her nocturnal tour guide.
Now, with an endless supply of summer nights between them, almost anything can happen...
(Synopsis taken from Goodreads)
Review:
This is my first Sarah Dessen book. There, I said it. Honestly, contemporary romance just isn't my thing. I did, however, need lighter read to have with me while I was on vacation at the beach because the book I was currently reading was a 500+ page long horror story. So, yes. I needed a contemporary romance for the time being.
While the first page of this book boasts that you will "Read her once. Fall in love." This was sadly not the case for me.
__________
I liked most of the characters, to a degree. The only character I really managed to connect with was Auden, though I did have problems with her character. I did like the love interest, Eli, but honestly there was nothing overly swoon worthy about him to me, especially compared to some other love interests I am still in love with. The friends that Auden makes are pretty cool. Her parents, though... Those people were a trip. I just could not.
The only characters I am going to go into detail about are Auden, her mother and her father. They were the ones I had the most thoughts built up on by the end of the story. All the other characters were enjoyable to read about, but not extremely memorable in my opinion.
-----
Auden's main goal has always been to gain her parent's praise. She works hard in school to achieve the highest grades. Unfortunately, all her focus on school work has left her with a lacking (or nonexistent) social life. While I am not a brainiac like she is, I was able to connect to Auden for this reason because I, too, didn't really have much of a social life. While I do love hanging out with friends and going places, I mostly like to keep to myself. I never went to any of the school dances, including my senior prom, and spent most of my time nerding it up in the library (a.k.a. "media center").
However, I found her to be a bit of a hypocrite and, despite the fact that later on in the book we definitely see a split between who her mother is and who Auden is, it is apparent that her mother has rubbed her fudgemental ways off onto her. I say she seemed to be a hypocrite because multiple times she complains that Heidi talks way to much, going on and on and on. Yet, she does the same thing. At least two times in this book, when she is talking to Eli, she starts running her mouth off so much that you just want to yell at her to shut up.
As far as being like her mother, Auden makes this comment about Maggie which I found to be totally shallow and inappropriate:
Here you had the capability to know so much about so many things, and you chose shoes and clothes. Leah at least seemed smart, while Esther, who clearly followed her own beat, was an individual. But Maggie was just... well, she was just like Heidi. A girl's girl, all the way, all pink and fluff and frivolity. Even worse, she was happy about it.
Bitch, please. Who do you think you are?
But then, she also pulls a moment like this were she comes off as being strong and agreeable:
"Says who? Society. The same society, I might add, that dictates that little girls should always be sugar and spice and everything nice, which encourages them to not be assertive. And that, in turn, then leads to low self-esteem, which can lead to eating disorders and increased tolerance and acceptance of domestic, sexual and substance abuse."
My final verdict on her is that she is still very judgmental and I didn't like the comments she made about certain people. However, I still did like some of her opinions and enjoyed watching her change some opinions she had over the course of the novel.
Her father is a egotistical, sexist pig head who is just so obviously self-centered that is is laughable. He has a newborn baby and contributes absolutely nothing to helping with the care-giving. He assumes that his wife is happily taking care of the baby, cleaning the house and making dinner for him. He also has no problem dumping all his baby duties off to his daughter who is supposed to be spending her time there vacationing and not babysitting. He makes this statement which was really the final straw for me so much that, despite how much he might have "changed" by the end, I am glad I don't have to ever deal with him again:
"If you were an Ashley or a Lisa, not an Auden, do you think you'd be so special?"
Excuse me?
I'm not even really sure what to label her mother. She is just a piece of work. She gives her daughter the bitchiest pieces of advice, such as things like: "Oh, darling, don't be bitter. It's the first instinct of the weak" and "A smart woman knows a fling is always best."... She, too, is a big fat hypocrite who openly shows her distaste for women who are "feminine" and not "assertive" "enough" or "smart" "enough", but then complains about her son's fiance being too smart and serious for him. She raises Auden to be smart and sensible, but hates the idea of her son settling down and becoming a bank teller when she would rather him go back to partying around Europe and living off her money. No. Just no.
-----
The story just didn't wow me. Maybe there is not supposed to be a major, main plot line in these sorts of books, but I found myself reading without any idea what I was supposed to be looking forward to in the end.
Was the story supposed to revolving around Auden learning how to ride a bike? Or learning to give second chances? Or discovering herself? Or learning to like Heidi? Finding a name for the bike shop? Learning to balance school and a social life? Completing her quest? Getting a second chance at prom? It is mostly a mix of all of these things and I don't know why this bothered me, but it did. A major plot with a beginning, middle and end felt non-existent to me.
Overall, for something I was expecting to be a light, summer read, a lot more thought and analysis came out of this book than I really hoped for. It was okay, but nothing as wonderful as I heard all Sarah Dessen's books were supposed to be. I may or may not read more of them, but I would still recommend.
Quotes:
But I still kind of wondered, that night and so many others, what I was missing.
"People don't change. If anything, you get more set in your ways as you get older, not less."
So I took the checkbook, nodded, and walked out the door, leaving them- as I had so many other groups- to say whatever they would about me once I was gone.
"That first love. And the first one who breaks your heart. For me, they just happen to be the same person. At least I'm efficient, right?"
"Who says there has to be a point? Or a reason. Maybe it's just something you have to do."
"Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that."
"Failing sucks. But it's better than the alternative."
"Which is?"
"Not even trying." Now he looked at me, straight on. "Life's short, you know?"
"People change."
"Or they don't. Sometimes, they don't."
When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder- if not impossible- to lose.
I had these experiences, these tales, more of this life. So maybe it wasn't the fairy tale. But those stories weren't real anyway. Mine were.
"So you don't want me to take you," he said.
"No," I replied. "But I'll meet you there."
On My Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/701288123
