Review: Unravel Me

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Yeah, I'm still interested enough to reserve #3 at the library. But I agree with the person who told me about the series;) that there's just a lot of making out and it's unnecessary. It mostly makes me annoyed with the heroine, Juliette, even though I get that the chip on her shoulder is that she can't touch anyone without hurting them and so to have someone (or two) be immune to that deadly touch is a novelty to her. I still think she could show a little self possession. She IS rather self-absorbed and self-pitying, which makes me appreciate the firm beratings of a certain friend so much that those were probably my favorite parts of the whole book. Isn't that the mark of a true friend, who calls you out when they think you can be more than you are acting like you can be? Is it just me or is Kenji really the most interesting character here? Forget the love triangle. Give me Kenji.



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Review: Dangerous

Dangerous by Shannon Hale

My rating: 4 of 5 stars







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Review: The One

The One by Kiera Cass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars







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Review: Crossed

Crossed by Ally Condie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars







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Review: Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 2 of 5 stars







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Review: The Kill Order

The Kill Order by James Dashner

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



As expected, the prequel is not really necessary to the main trilogy. As a standalone book, it's sort of interesting and easy enough to read. As part of its greater story, The Maze Runner trilogy, which was AWESOME, it pales.



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Review: Shadows

Shadows by Robin McKinley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I forgot how much I liked Robin McKinley! At first I was a bit disoriented by the narrator's, Maggie's, way of narrating, but then I got used to it and enjoyed her personality. Only thing is, I got to the end & thought, "where the heck is the sequel?" The story grabbed me and now I need to find out what's in "Old World" and what all Maggie can really do with her suppressed powers. It's all magical adventure, spunky characters, romance of course, and teenagers just starting to grow up and kicking some butt. Good stuff!



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Review: Fire and Ash

Fire and Ash by Jonathan Maberry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This book for me was more about the price of triumph and about what it means to grow up than it was about defeating a zombie apocalypse. Plenty of zombie fighting, blood, death, tears, and darkness, but there was also hope and sacrifice an love and triumph. I love the shout-outs to samurai ideals along the way. This series was definitely a worthwhile adventure.



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Review: Ready Player One

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Pretty intriguing and creative story about a young guy who escapes the real world into an internet-based cyber world where he goes by another identity and tries to beat the whole world to a million-dollar prize hidden within the game. (Sadly, can't recommend to everybody for some language and other sketchy issues. Wish Cline had just left some of that out, because it still would have been edgy with the characters expressing themselves in more creative and intelligent ways.) The setting of a cyber world with endless planets and galaxies to explore? Awesome. Limitless possibilities here. Cline does hit on some provocative points about cyber privacy, material greed, the conflicts with anonymity, and the difference between living in a real vs. a Matrix-like world. However, the book stays focused on the fun side; that is, the pursuit of a million-dollar inheritance by winning a series of video game quests. Pretty fun stuff.




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Review: Flesh and Bone

Flesh and Bone by Jonathan Maberry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



And the darkness continues...

The third book is a bit violent. I mean, it's zombies, so all the books are violent. Killing zombies calls for some specialized skills (especially if you want a zombie story that's believable). The good news is that it's a book and it leaves more to the imagination than if you were watching a horror movie.

Things get a bit more troubled and hopeful at the same time in Flesh and Bone. The search for the jet continues and the characters realize they have other conflicts they need to fix. Troubled relationships, past tragedies, and post-apocalyptic cults all haunt them.

It's chilling, it's exciting, and it leaves you hanging. Book 4 here we come.



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Review: Dust and Decay

Dust and Decay by Jonathan Maberry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



If you like books that tend to get a little darker with each installment, then you'll like this. Maberry takes the characters and the troubled world of hungry zombies to a whole new level. Gameland is pure creepiness. Dust and Decay has tension and tragedy, but also humor and triumph. Really gilly good.



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Review: Rot and Ruin

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I really like this zombie story. It's original, exciting, and the characters seem so real. I love that the "hero" doesn't start out as the "hero." He's not even necessarily the most admirable character in the book, but I like that. He has room to grow, and you see him starting to do just that in book 1. It's a pretty compelling story about good vs. evil, but not in the way you think at first. (Sorry to give a blatant teaser, but I think the book's worth reading.)

I'm hoping to read the entire series by Halloween. Yep, it's my annual "spooky" read! Happy haunting everybody.



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Review: The Elite

The Elite by Kiera Cass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Similarly to Book 1, The Elite reminded me of the reality show, The Bachelor. Except that most of the characters have some class and the story is more engaging. The romance is exciting in a youthful, dramatic, indecisive kind of way, but love triangles are not as enthralling to me as they used to be. I have a hard time respecting these heroines who can't decide which boy they love more. Still, an entertaining read.



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Review: The Selection

The Selection by Kiera Cass

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



It's a good recommendation if you need a fluffy, young adult romance/dystopia that is well-written and interesting. I didn't quite understand why there could be such a controversy about it. Maybe I'm not reading deep enough. I thought it was a cross between a spin-off of the Bible story of Esther and The Bachelor. Make of that what you will. Book 2 is available and I believe Book 3 is coming out next year?



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Lingering impression about The Death Cure

The ending wasn't quite as good as it could have been in my opinion, but I do have to give it a solid 3 stars because it was part of a really original, really engaging series. The book was still great, don't get me wrong. I didn't get bored or anything. I still buzzed through it eagerly.

Great books build up high expectations for me, and I just expected something a bit more... wondrous than your typical, no-fail, world-changing revolution. I guess I missed the mystical quality that existed in the first book, and that's just me.

Still, a highly recommended series. Can't wait for my sisters to read it and tell me what they think.

Review of The Maze Runner!

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


One word can sum up the expectations I had for this book:

Yessssss.

I loved everything about The Maze Runner - intriguing characters, exciting story, creative, provocative... and I get to live in the story for a few more books!

Through Thomas's eyes, the small civilization in the middle of a maze is confusing, fascinating, and strangely familiar even though he has no memory of his former life. Some of the characters are mysterious, some are funny, but all of them have an important purpose in solving the dangerous maze they are trapped in. Thomas's part is the catalyst to discovering the mysteries of the maze; things become more interesting as his role - and the role of the only girl in the maze - unfolds.

I take it as a good sign that the 1st book in this series was able to sort of resolve one conflict and introduce a whole new dimension of mystery that builds on what the characters just went through. I'm excited to see what the characters go through next - whether they get their memories back, whether Thomas and the girl find out what their past was together, whether the young will once again outsmart the controlling adults in their world...

Yes! yes! yes! Many thanks to my dentist for telling my husband he had no cavities (hopefully you will tell me the same thing when it's my turn again) and for recommending The Maze Runner! :)



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Dazzled by Monsters of Men

Wow! This series is a-maz-ing. I wish I could say something to convince everyone to read it. I'm basically obsessed. 

You know those books that reach out and pull your nose in from page 1 and you think about it even when you're not reading it and you can't wait until you get a moment to read it again and you wouldn't know if everything was burning to ash around you while you're reading and then when you finally finish, instead of being relieved to have your life back you just feel depressed that it's over?

The ending was everything you hope for in endings and more.

Patrick Ness is a genius. 

He makes me think about the power of language, of perspective, war, madness, love, growing up, having hope, changing the world, how the past affects the present, how there's so much wonder in life... and how a story as captivating as this one can feel so original yet so much like an echo of reality.

The book broke my heart and patched it up over and over again. Patrick Ness takes good care of his readers. 

Trust me.

Read it.

You must read The Knife of Never Letting Go

Wow. Just...wow.

This new world where men's thoughts are not their own comes alive instantly. And so does the troubled and innocent boy who takes a heart-breaking journey that I just know will change the world he lives in forever. 

This is so much more than a coming-of-age story. For a story to be this consuming, it's gotta have too-real characters (both the villainous and heroic variety) and a heart-pounding story. Which it does.
Wish I could say more but I'd rather just get on with the 2nd book already.

Reading Witch & Wizard

I haven't finished it yet, so this review is a little premature, but nevertheless I have already formed an opinion.

It's an interesting story with some potentially intriguing ideas, I just don't know how well it's executed.

You know some books, like (take an obvious one) Harry Potter, can draw you into the story world right from the start and you feel like you're living in a place where muggles, and Hogwarts, and Quidditch are real? Well, this young adult fantasy/dystopian tale doesn't quite do that.

Not to be too much of a downer, it is an interesting read and it's keeping me entertained just fine. I'm just not getting that sense of urgency near the end of the book that gets me thinking, "Oh no! I just have to get the next book in the series! I need to keep this story going!"

Know what I mean?

Maybe it's because the characters narrating the tale are a little too juvenile in their narrations. Could be that I can't relate to them or they just aren't giving me enough detail or emotion or complexity. I dunno.

Could be that the supporting characters aren't overly intriguing or complex either.

It all comes down to details, I suppose. Details equal richness of story.

But everyone is not supposed to agree with my take on Witch and Wizard. If you have some reasons you think would convince me to read on in the series, I'm open!

Have you seen "Hunger Games" yet?

So it's a given fact that I'm ALWAYS ALWAYS going to like the book better than the movie. I don't know if I've met a movie yet that I liked better than the book it was based on.

Simple fact.

So, with that in mind, I DID like the new "Hunger Games" movie.

I was a little discouraged when one reviewer in Friday's newspaper said that the movie wasn't great as a stand-alone original, but seemed more like a prequel of things to come. Well, obviously the movie was based on the first book in the Hunger Games series, so that's to be expected, BUT... the first book was the best in my opinion, so I was hoping the movie would do it justice.

After seeing the movie, I doubt whether that particular movie critic had read Hunger Games at all, because the movie obviously followed the plot line of the book. And it was fine. Still a great story by itself.

Loved Katniss. I thought Jennifer Lawrence did a great job, and is a far superior actor (I hesitate to even mention the name, but so many comparisons are already being made) to Kristen Stewart as Bella in the "Twilight" movies.

The Hunger Games books definitely have the same sort of star-crossed love triangle that also exists in the Twilight books, but for some reason I was not as annoyed by it in Hunger Games. Probably because it was a little less dramatic and contrived. Yep. That's probably why.

In other words, Katniss's relationship with both Gale and Peeta seem grounded in believable events and experiences that they undergo. They're not just another angelic face that induces instant true love.

Ahem. That said, Liam Hemsworth playing Gale is a total hunk. I didn't even realize he is the brother of Chris Hemsworth ("Thor") until my husband saw the last name match! How did I miss that?

If you liked the book, then I am happy to say you will probably also like the movie.

"Hunger Games" seems to be making enough money that they will probably get to do their sequels, so we can finally replace the "Twilight" craze with something a little better! (Did they really need to split "Breaking Dawn" into 2 parts? No, thank you.)

If anyone would like more  of a literary review of Hunger Games  or if you want to nominate it for our monthly read, just let me know! I'm happy to re-read books, especially ones that read fast anyway. :)