Pandemonium

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

This is book two in the Delirium trilogy. Read my review of book one here.

From Amazon: I’m pushing aside 

the memory of my nightmare, 

pushing aside thoughts of Alex, 

pushing aside thoughts of Hana 

and my old school, 

push, 

push, 

push, 

like Raven taught me to do.

The old life is dead.

But the old Lena is dead too.

I buried her.

I left her beyond a fence,

behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

It's more or less a rule that book two in a trilogy is never as good a book one. Pandemonium breaks that rule. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's better than book one, it's hands down just as good as Delirium. 

It's written in a non-linear way, which I like. Jumping between 'Then', which picks up where the story left off in book one, and 'Now', a point in the near-ish future. It makes the story move along at quicker pace, without having to leave out all the slow bits of Lena getting from there to here. It works really well, because 'Then' can be a little slow paced, but it's important and only lasts a chapter and you're back in "Now" where things are getting...complicated. 

Julian...I'm not sure exactly how I feel about about Julian. I guess he grew on me...grew on me as his character grew as person. Even though he's basically a more repressed, richer, male version of Lena from book one. By the end, right up until the ending happened, I was really starting to get behind where things were going with this Julian fellow. But then the ending happened. 

THE ENDING. Glugghrg. That the sound my brain makes when it thinks about the ending. I spent the whole book thinking about this thing I was sure was going to happen. And I wanted it to happen. There were several opportunities for it to happen that it didn't happen. I had given up on it happening and in fact - didn't want it to happen anymore. And then at the very, very bitter end, it happened and I couldn't decide if I was happy or sad about it. And my brain melted a little bit. 

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it a Just Awesome, same as book one. I am pretty afraid of book three - can it possibly stand up to the greatness of it's predecessors? At the same time, I can not possibly get it into my hands fast enough.

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha Trilogy)

Shadow and Bone (Grisha Trilogy) by Leigh Bardugo

From Amazon: Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone is the first installment in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha Trilogy.

I did not expect to love this book as much as I did. Does it ruin a review if you already know at the beginning how the reviewer feels about it? Meh, too late now. I loved this book. I'm not sure why I ever thought I wouldn't. Young adult trilogy. Female main character. Kind of dystopia like, I guess? All check marks in the things I enjoy column. I think it's the magic thing. I'm really not interested in people who have magical powers, in general, I guess. But it had good reviews and sounded interesting enough. Plus the cover art is cool. So I checked it out of my local library.

And then I started reading it, and holy crap did I ever get drawn into it. Fast. Alina hasn't even discovered her powers yet, and I'm struggling to put it down to go to bed.

Lets talk characters.

Alina is kind of awkward, but also clever and sarcastic. Awesome main character. Love her. I have tons of cliche things to say about her underlying strength and whatnot, but I wont. She's just awesome.

The Darkling - there is a swoon worthy male character. Yes, it's kind of a stupid name, but it works in the book. Somehow. It adds to the mysteriousness of him, I guess. Giving him a real name like Viktor or Nicolai - it just wouldn't work. I know he does have a real name (there was an illusion to "when he gave up his name"), so I hope this isn't going to be like the Divergent Series, where when we found out Four's real name, and then Tris keeps calling him that even though it totally doesn't suit who he is now (as opposed to who he was before he became Dauntless). Anyway, The Darkling - I don't really know how to write about The Darkling without spoilers. But yeah. THE DARKLING.

Who I didn't feel super excited about was Mal. I get the concept of Alina's feelings for Mal - girl falls for best friend who doesn't see her that way. I get it. And I know Mal's supposed to be handsome and confident and all the girls love him - I know because Alina told us so. You know that old piece of writing advice, Show, don't tell? This is the opposite of that. I think it's that he didn't have enough page time at the beginning to show it, though, because the author can write an awesome character (see: Alina and The Darkling).

Lets talk story

Ok, so yeah, the story isn't super original, but it doesn't follow the exact same patterns of every other young adult trilogy I've read recently. And that's something. It never felt tired or old or boring. It never felt unbelievable or wrong.

Words I would use to describe it would include engaging, engrossing and incredible.

The worst part of this book was when it was over. The second worst part? Finding out the library doesn't have book two. And third worst is that book three isn't even released yet.

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it an Incredibly Awesome. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who's a fan of young adult fiction, or magic, or just likes good books.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

From Amazon: In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

I should have majorly loved this book. Dystopia (I guess? I'm not sure if it really fits that category, but I'm putting it there. If not, post-apocalyptic, for sure), female lead, young adult trilogy, ZOMBIES. If you were making a list of things I love, those things would be on it. Even so, I just didn't love this book. 

Don't get me wrong -  I didn't hate it or anything. I gave it three stars on Goodreads. I'm going to read book two. I'm just not as head over heals about it as expected. 

First of all, I prefer books written in first person narrative. Third person narration won't ruin a book for me, but it will lose points (that is, if I used a point system for rating books, rather than the arbitrary way I currently use). On top of that, the characters are a little flat. They were alright, but...yeah, flat. Oh, and Travis, love interest of main character Mary? Boring. When bad things happened to the main characters, I wasn't sad. I wasn't happy either. I was indifferent. 

Now, Mary...I found Mary pretty unlikable - selfish and kind of awful. Still, I wanted her to succeed and I wanted her to live. I wanted her to be happy. Actually, she was unlikable in the best kind of way - a way that made her real. Guess what? Teenagers are often selfish and awful - I know I was. In fact, I can still be selfish and awful, sometimes.  

The zombies were perfectly zombie like. They were the right amount of scary and didn't try to be something new or unique - they were just zombies, and if they bit you, you'd be one too. I really liked that the word 'zombie' is never, ever used in the book. Nor are they 'walkers' or 'walking dead' or any of the other popular zombie names. They are The Unconsecrated. They aren't zombies, but they are zombies. 

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it Perfectly Alright. I'll keep reading the trilogy, but I'm not really expecting much. 

Delirium

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

From Amazon: They say that the cure for Love will make me happy and safe forever. And I've always believed them. Until now. Now everything has changed. Now, I'd rather be infected with love for the tiniest sliver of a second than live a hundred years smothered by a lie.

Although I read a lot of different kinds of books, I definitely have a type of book I'm drawn to. And that's Young Adult fiction set in a dystopia, preferably with a female lead character, preferably part of a trilogy. I may not fit the core demographic, but I'm not concerned. A good book is a good book, no matter who it's written for.

There are two ways to tell that a first book in a series is succeeding: first, when you're reading it, and you have to stop reading it, you want nothing more than to be reading it again (also known as you finish very quickly) and second, once you're finished you want to be reading book two immediately. 

Delirium passed both tests. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Lena is an excellent main character and I liked how sure she was about what was going to make her happy in life at the beginning. And (main love interest) Alex - although he could have stood to be a little more flawed, he served his purpose as the catalyst for change, and was sufficiently fan girl swoon worthy. The premise of love as disease great.

The biggest complaint I have is that nothing particularly surprising happened. Except the thing with the cows. I was surprised by that, I suppose. But I was not surprised by any of the major plot points. The overall pattern of things that happened was very familiar, if you happen to read a lot of young adult trilogies. Luckily, the particulars of the story, it's good characters and beautiful writing carried it to enjoyable heights, even with it's predictable patterns.

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it a Just Awesome. I'm really looking forward to book two.

Allegiant (Divergent Trilogy, Book Three)

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I have written reviews of the first two books in the series: Divergent and Insurgent. I would recommend skipping the link to Divergent, as the review is just plain awful. It's hardly a review at all. It's mostly just me writing that I loved the book. There, I've summed the whole review up in one sentence, so lets move on.

From Amazon: What if your whole world was a lie? What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything? What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected? The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth's #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

I really wanted to be blown away by this book, you know? Divergent still stands as one of my favorite books ever. Insurgent was excellent, but not anywhere near as good as the first, so I hoped it would be a bridge between two phenomenal books. It didn't work out that way.

Don't get me wrong. I really enjoyed Allegiant. I mean, I read it in a day. I wouldn't say that I couldn't put it down, but there were tons of things I could have done that day which didn't involve spending all day reading. It helps that YA novels are easily digestible - reading it all at once was not a strain. I at no point felt bored or like I had to force myself to keep reading. It was perfectly enjoyable. But it wasn't the magnificent third book I'd hoped for, that's all.

Tris is still an awesome character. I love, love, love that girl. In Insurgent, she was so broken, but she's managed to more or less put the pieces back together in Allegiant. She's much more sure of herself and...I don't know, leader-y now, which is a big change from Beatrice Prior from page one of Divergent. She grew as a character in a very real way. Roth did a great job on her.

The ending. No spoilers here - if you want that, just read the reviews on amazon. They are lousy with spoilers. So the main conflict part just kind of...ended. It was all action and excitement and then all of a sudden it was over even though nothing really significant happened to stop it. Also, the very very end was a little too...ThingsWorkedOutPrettyWell-TheEnd. It wasn't as if everything was perfect and happily ever after, but...yeah, I don't know. It was a little off. BUT. The big thing that happened that everyone thinks was wrong and just for shock? It wasn't wrong. It sucked and I hated but it was so right for that character. It was that character making the choice that they absolutely would have made, because of who that character is. It's ok to hate it, but that doesn't make it wrong.

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it Pretty Excellent. The trilogy definitely started out on a high note and got progressively...I don't want to say worse, but...less awesome. Still, I'm glad book two and three exist. I'm a sucker for a trilogy, after all. And I'm glad I read the whole series. And I still recommend that everyone who has not read Divergent should go read it right now. That is all.

Blackout (Newsflesh, Book 3)

This is the third book in the Newflesh series. See my other reviews here: Feed ° Deadline

Blackout (Newsflesh, Book 3) by Mira Grant

Book description: Rise up while you can. -Georgia Mason

The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.

The year was 2039. The world didn't end when the zombies came, it just got worse. Georgia and Shaun Mason set out on the biggest story of their generation. The uncovered the biggest conspiracy since the Rising and realized that to tell the truth, sacrifices have to be made.

Now, the year is 2041, and the investigation that began with the election of President Ryman is much bigger than anyone had assumed. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, the surviving staff of After the End Times must face mad scientists, zombie bears, rogue government agencies-and if there's one thing they know is true in post-zombie America, it's this:

Things can always get worse.

BLACKOUT is the conclusion to the epic trilogy that began in the Hugo-nominated FEED and the sequel, DEADLINE.

Final books in series make me sad. I know this is the end, and I’m going to miss the characters and the world. And the zombies. I can never get enough of the zombies.

The other thing is, third books are rarely as good as the two that preceded it. No exception here. The plot was not near as compelling and there were a lot of things that only make sense if you don’t think about them too hard. On top of that you still have  the fact that the author tends to tell you the same things over and over. YES, we get that Shaun is crazy. We get that the rest of the team ignores that he’s talking to himself. Seriously, we get it.

I did like that we got Georgia back as part time narrator. That was one big plus to the book. I missed her in Deadline, and really enjoyed the parts that from her perspective. Not that I minded Shaun’s parts. I’d gotten used to him as narrator, but he is not nearly as interesting as George.

Then there was the ending. In the first two books, the ending made the books.. I know that  you can’t have some big surprise cliff hanger ending in this type of book. But we’re chasing a conspiracy here! You want to be blown away by the big reveal. When we finally got there in Blackout I was underwhelmed. I found myself thinking, Wait, that’s it? That is the reason for all the hoopla? Seriously? It just seemed like there would be much easier ways to keep that secret. I guess half of the reason was enough to kill and hide, the part that would make it harder for people to "pull the trigger" on the zombies. But the other thing? I don’t know. It was just kind of ...meh.

Book 3’s are why I shouldn’t, logically, like trilogies. But so help me, I do love them. I’m glad I read the series, even though the ending was a bit disappointing. I loved the world, I loved the characters and I loved the zombies. A few loose ends and a less than stellar conspiracy are not going to change that.

On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically awful, I would give this book a Good. It wouldn’t be able to stand on it’s own, but as a final book in an excellent trilogy, it works ok. It wasn’t a bad book, it just could have been so much more.

Insurgent (Divergent Trilogy, Book 2)

Insurgent by Veronica Roth 

First of all, I want to point out that this is book two in the Divergent Trilogy. If you haven't yet read Divergent, you should check out the review I wrote a year ago. Actually, no. I've gone ahead and googled "Divergent Review" for you. Pick any of those and read them. The one I wrote was terrible. Or just go ahead and skip the review reading and just get your hands on a copy and read that sucker. It rocks. That's all you really need to know about it.

...Anyway...

Back to Insurgent.

Book Description:

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.
Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.
New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature. 

Generally speaking, sequels are rarely as good as the original. There are exceptions, but Insurgent wasn't one of them. To be fair though, Divergent is one of my top five favourite books ever (Although that list would now have The Hunger Games in spot four, pushing out The Zombie Survival Guide), and it's a little hard to live up to that.

That isn't to say Insurgent wasn't incredible.

The character development in this novel is excellent. Tris is pretty broken after the events at the end of the first book. The right amount of broken though. All of the strength she gained is still there, but she's also dealing with a lot of grief and guilt. She makes some pretty questionable decisions. We get to see a lot more into the real Four, who is now mostly refereed to by his given name Tobias - which I am not really a fan of. The name itself is fine, It just doesn't suit him. When Beatrice Prior joined her new faction, she became Tris. And, sure, she is still Beatice, but the name just feels wrong on her now. Just as Tobias feels wrong on Four. I got used to it, but I didn't like it.

Lets talk about the Tris/Four relationship for a minute. In Divergent, it was HOT and STEAMY. It was also sweet and innocent. Four is all broody and mysterious. Tris is a little clueless about boys. I loved everything about it. In Insurgent...man. Several times you wanted to sit one or the other (or often times both) down and say, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" It's secrets and lies and arguments and...just really frustrating. I get it though. Tris is, as I said, broken. And, also, still a bit clueless about boys. Only sixteen, and grew up in a faction that barely held hands let alone anything else...yeah, I guess she has every reason to be clueless. And Four...well, he has his own set of issues, not the least of which a pretty terrible childhood. Add to that the stress of all of the THINGS that are happening in their world. Big, scary, horrible things. Contrary to some of the less positive reviews I've read, their relationship makes sense at this stage. That being said, I saw what I hope was a glimmer of things turning around for them in book three. I really hope that's the case - that their relationship grows into something deeper and less frustrating.

The ending is what really pulled things together for me. Not the just-before-the-ending part. The part just before the big cliff-hanger-plot-twit reveal was expected and a little more than cliché. But the final bit, the cliff-hanger-plot-twist - excellent. Just exactly the kind of thing that makes you not want to wait until Fall 2013 for book three. Even if you end up hating the sequel, you will still want to read the next one because of this ending. So fantastic.

 On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it a Quite Awesome. Not as good as it's predecessor, but worth reading if you've read the first one.

But, seriously, you can buy Divergent from Amazon by clicking here. Yes, that is an affiliate link, but even if it wasn't I'd still be telling you to go there to buy it. It's incredible, and the paperback is just 10 bucks. If you have 10 bucks, like YA literature and dystopian futures, I am ordering you to buy this book and read it. If you haven't already. Because otherwise that would just be silly.

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1)

Feed (Newsflesh, Book 1) by Mira Grant

I have a thing for zombies. I know, this is shocking news. That being said, there is a lot of media - and I mean a lot - in the genre I really despise. Poorly written books filled with unoriginal content. Terrible movies filled with bad acting that are also full of unoriginal content. Awful, awful, awful. Even so, I'll give anything zombie related a chance to wow me. Or even just not make me stop watching/reading a few minutes/pages in.

Within the first few pages of Feed, I knew I wasn't going to hate it. That was very promising.

From Amazon.com: The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.
 

It turns out, I didn't just not hate it. I loved it. I loved the characters - they were interesting and varied. The zombie back story was interesting and bordered on originality without going too far (and thus becoming unbelievable). The future tech is not so far advanced that you can't imagine that we'd make those kinds of advances in 20 years, but still manages to be new and interesting. All in all - very well done.

It also gave me my new favourite insult - Bright as a Box of Zombies. 


I really only have one complaint, and it's a minor one. It's the description of Shaun's style of reporting from Georgia. Not the actual description, but the repetition of it. We get it, Georgia. Shaun likes to poke zombies with sticks. You've told us 12 times (note: not actually, but I believe this number to be close), and the book started out with Shaun poking a zombie with a hockey stick. The point has been made. Lets move on now.


Now, lets talk about The Plot Twist. Well I guess there were two plot twists. Not the first one. The one at the end, with Georgia. A good plot twist you don't see coming. A great plot twist you don't believe it's happening while it's happening. I found myself thinking, No. What they're implying is about it happen, is not going to happen. No way. There's going to be some kind of surprise trickery that makes it not happen. And then it happened anyway, and I had to come to terms with it. The funny thing is it didn't really change the main plot of the story. It ended more or less exactly how I thought it was going to end. But, at the same time, it changed...I don't know. Something. The tone maybe, or the dynamic. I don't really know how to describe it. It changed nothing, and it changed everything. And I absolutely did not like it. Not at all. I know I said I only have one complaint. This isn't really a complaint, per se, it's a..I don't know what it is. I guess it just makes me wonder if I'll enjoy the other two books in the trilogy as much, in light of The Plot Twist. 


Prove me wrong, Mira Grant. Prove me wrong. 


On a scale from Totally Awesome to Horrifically Awful, I'd give it an Awesome. If there are two things I'm a sucker for its zombies and a well written trilogy. I can't wait to start the next one.