More Books Read - More Thoughts
When you don't have a job (but you are getting closer to finding one), you tend to have a lot of time to spare. I've been reading. Mostly YA, because I can finish one in a day. I'm on goodreads, but I thought I'd share my thoughts here.
Dearly Departed by Lia Habel:
The Story: The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria-a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible-until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead-and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
My Thoughts: I liked this book, but I feel I would have liked it more if the narrative had only been from Nora and Bram's POVs. I understand that Pam, Wolfe, and Victor's chapters were important to the overall story arc in this first novel, but - I was slightly bored by their chapters. Though, I think Pam's chapters could have been their own novel. I do look forward to the second novel in the series, but I'm in no hurry to read it.
Score: 3.3 out of 5 stars - borrow it from the library/use bookstore buy.
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Story: Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon.
My Thoughts: In some ways I felt like it was just the start of a larger story, and that was great. But, I also found myself to be a bit bored at times. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this kind of story? I do like the characters, though. I'd like to see more of them.
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars - borrow it from the library/use bookstore buy.
Here by Denise Grover Swank
The Story: Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.
Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.
My Thoughts: I wanted to like this novel, but felt like it was trying to do too much and be too many things. I found this novel to be full of cliches, both in plot and characters. The overall idea of the plot was good, but it just didn't work for me. At the half-way mark, the story finally picked up. But then, it went way too fast. Leaving little room for actual plot/character development. Instead, we got a love triangle between two boys in love with a girl whose dead and the girl whose died alternate universe's counterpart.
While I like both universes Reece's, I found Evan to be very obsessive, possessive, and creepy. He basically risks his life, the life of his friend,and maybe his whole world for a girl. Yes, he's loved her his whole live, but it was still dumb and selfish. Julia started out as a depressed, but somewhat likeable main character. She ended up a girl who rushes in without thinking and whose apparently in love with two boys - both of whom she's known only a handful of days. Yes, the dead Julia's memories seem to have somewhat merged with hers, but still. . .Julia barely knows Evan or Reece.
As for the writing style, I didn't like it at all. It was a lot of tell and little show. At times it felt like I was reading fanfiction of a show I've never seen. Plus, the "evil" General and government of Evan and Other!Reece's world - they came off like huge cliches of what someone thinks a sci-fi story's villains should be.
Score: 2.8 out of 5 stars - borrow it/use bookstore buy.
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
The Story: After Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opens fire on their school cafeteria, Val is shot trying to stop him, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. Now, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year.
My Thought I finished this novel in two days, and then I took about half an hour to think about it. Jennifer Brown is one of those rare young adult writers who writes about real teenagers with real world issues. There are no mysterious and dreamy teenage boys for our main character. There are no vampires or werewolves or anything else supernatural lurking in the shadows. There are just painfully real characters struggling with the aftermath of a horrific thing.
What makes this novel so great - and yet so frustrating - is that the characters are real. So much so that they seem like people you go/went to high school with.
Our story is told by Valerie, who is perhaps the most frustrating of the characters. She’s a thousand teenage girls: strong, unsure, self-centered, selfish, kind, and intelligent. What really got me about Valerie is she spends the novel looking at the shooting as if it only happened to her. She views her past as Nick and Valerie against the rest. Us against Them. She almost views people as stereotypes. She seems them as bullies who came after her and Nick for no reason. It’s not until she starts talking to the victims of the shooting that she begins to see that things aren’t always so black and white.
Chris, the jock who always gave Nick a hard time? He was the boyfriend of Nick’s first friend after moving to town, Ginny. Chris was just a jealous kid acting out. In fact, most of the victims of the shooting didn’t really know Nick or Valerie, but somehow they made it on the famous ‘Hate List’. Some for major things, like bullying. But others for the smallest of things, like refusing to let Nick borrow a truck or for just hanging around people Nick and/or Valerie disliked. It went to show just how self-centered teens can be.
In fact, I would say that this novel just shows how self-centered teens are, and how they just don’t always understand what their words and actions do to others. Valerie doesn’t even stop to think about the ways her friends - and the friends of Nick - have been affected by the shooting. Nor does she really stop to think about the victims who lived. Not until she is forced - by life or herself - to interact with them.
One thing I really loved about the novel was the way that some chapters started with little blurbs about the victims in the shootings. It made things more real for me. Another thing I loved was the way the school was portrayed afterward. The principal and media try to say the school is more peaceful, and it does seem that way. But, there are small moments that let us - and Valerie - see that things haven’t changed as much as the media would like the outside world to think.
One thing I really disliked about the novel was that the characters weren’t given much depth or development. We saw Nick through Val’s eyes, so there were moments - in flashbacks - where we saw a smart and lonely child with some deep seeded issues. Valerie got a bit of development. But, characters like Jessica, Ginny, Stacey, Frankie etc came off a bit flat. But, I suppose that’s because we were seeing them through Val and Valerie’s thoughts weren’t so much on them as on the past with Nick and what the aftermath meant for her.
I think what I’ll take away from this novel is that people see what they want to see. Valerie and Nick saw their classmates as bullies, and their classmates saw them as outcasts or ‘weird quiet kids’. But, they were all so much more than this. As all people are truly more than anyone sees.
This was a great novel about a real issue.
Score: 4 out of 5 stars - Library or buy the paperback.
Crescendo/Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Story: More "fun" with the world's most needy and idiotic teenager and her stalker angel-boyfriend.
My Thoughts: Crescendo was - I read Hush, Hush and gave it one star. I had hoped that the second book in the series would be better. I hoped that Becca Fitzpatrick would have learned from her mistakes and listened to critics. But, she didn't. Crescendo may actually be worse than Hush,Hush.
Nora has become even more brainless and unbearable. Patch has become an bigger jerkass. As for the other characters - they are all either annoying or cliche or just flat. Though, I will admit to liking Marcie. I get the feeling I'm supposed to hate her, because Nora thinks she is a slut and BF has her say the most hurtful things at random times, but - I kind of like Marcie. At least she has somewhat of a personality.
Overall, I really dislike these characters and the plot is even more nonsensical here. But, I'm really not the audience this book is looking for. It's for 12-17 year old who love Twilight. Or people who are bored and want a fluffy read that they don't have to think about. Or goldfish. Goldfish would love this book.
Silence was - I gave the first two books in this series each one star. The only reason this gets two stars is because Patch wasn't around that much, so his and Nora's "love story" wasn't so annoying. Also, the book had some ideas that could have been really interesting. Sadly, most of the main characters continue to grate on my nerves or are just too dumb to live. (looking at you Vee and Nora)
That's not to say it's all bad, the cover is pretty. And I do like some of the characters - though the characters I do like are, I think, the ones I'm supposed to dislike.
Score: Crescendo: 1 out of 5 stars - don't even bother. Silence - 2 out of 5 - borrow it from the library.
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
The Story: Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place-and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make-between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
My Thoughts: Solid start to a new series. The heroine is likeable, as are the minor characters. Tucker is a great male lead, though Christian is a bit boring. Still. . . it's a great intro to a new world and characters.
Score: 3.4 out of 5 stars - borrow it from the library/use bookstore buy.
Saving June by Hannah Harrington
The Story: When her older sister commits suicide and her divorcing parents decide to divide the ashes, Harper Scott takes her sister's urn to the one place June always wanted to go: California. On the road with her best friend, plus an intriguing guy with a mysterious connection to June, Harper discovers truths about her sister, herself and life.
My Thoughts: This was a book that at times was heartbreaking. It even had a bit of humor. The three main characters felt very real and their struggles felt true to life. The only reason it does not get 5 stars is because I didn't really care for the last forty pages. But, it was still a great read.
Score: 4.4 out of 5 stars - buy it in paperback
Dearly Departed by Lia Habel:
The Story: The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria-a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible-until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.
But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead-and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.
My Thoughts: I liked this book, but I feel I would have liked it more if the narrative had only been from Nora and Bram's POVs. I understand that Pam, Wolfe, and Victor's chapters were important to the overall story arc in this first novel, but - I was slightly bored by their chapters. Though, I think Pam's chapters could have been their own novel. I do look forward to the second novel in the series, but I'm in no hurry to read it.
Score: 3.3 out of 5 stars - borrow it from the library/use bookstore buy.
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
The Story: Grace and Sam share a kinship so close they could be lovers or siblings. But they also share a problem. When the temperature slips towards freezing, Sam reverts to his wolf identity and must retreat into the woods to protect his pack. He worries that eventually his human side will fade away and he will be left howling alone at the lonely moon.
My Thoughts: In some ways I felt like it was just the start of a larger story, and that was great. But, I also found myself to be a bit bored at times. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this kind of story? I do like the characters, though. I'd like to see more of them.
Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars - borrow it from the library/use bookstore buy.
Here by Denise Grover Swank
The Story: Sixteen year old Julia Phillips buries herself in guilt after killing her best friend Monica in a car accident. Julia awoke in the hospital with a broken leg, a new talent for drawing and false memories of the accident, in which she dies and Monica lives. The doctors attribute this to her head injury, but no one can explain how a bracelet engraved with her name ended up at the scene of the accident. A bracelet no one has ever seen before.
Classmate Evan Whittaker paid Julia no attention before the accident, let alone after. Now suddenly he’s volunteering to tutor her and offering to drive her home. She can't ignore that his new obsession started after his two-day disappearance last week and that he wears a pendant she’s been drawing for months. When the police show up one night looking for Evan, he begs Julia to run with him, convincing her that Monica is still alive. Julia agrees to go, never guessing where he’s really from.
My Thoughts: I wanted to like this novel, but felt like it was trying to do too much and be too many things. I found this novel to be full of cliches, both in plot and characters. The overall idea of the plot was good, but it just didn't work for me. At the half-way mark, the story finally picked up. But then, it went way too fast. Leaving little room for actual plot/character development. Instead, we got a love triangle between two boys in love with a girl whose dead and the girl whose died alternate universe's counterpart.
While I like both universes Reece's, I found Evan to be very obsessive, possessive, and creepy. He basically risks his life, the life of his friend,and maybe his whole world for a girl. Yes, he's loved her his whole live, but it was still dumb and selfish. Julia started out as a depressed, but somewhat likeable main character. She ended up a girl who rushes in without thinking and whose apparently in love with two boys - both of whom she's known only a handful of days. Yes, the dead Julia's memories seem to have somewhat merged with hers, but still. . .Julia barely knows Evan or Reece.
As for the writing style, I didn't like it at all. It was a lot of tell and little show. At times it felt like I was reading fanfiction of a show I've never seen. Plus, the "evil" General and government of Evan and Other!Reece's world - they came off like huge cliches of what someone thinks a sci-fi story's villains should be.
Score: 2.8 out of 5 stars - borrow it/use bookstore buy.
Hate List by Jennifer Brown
The Story: After Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opens fire on their school cafeteria, Val is shot trying to stop him, but is implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. Now, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year.
My Thought I finished this novel in two days, and then I took about half an hour to think about it. Jennifer Brown is one of those rare young adult writers who writes about real teenagers with real world issues. There are no mysterious and dreamy teenage boys for our main character. There are no vampires or werewolves or anything else supernatural lurking in the shadows. There are just painfully real characters struggling with the aftermath of a horrific thing.
What makes this novel so great - and yet so frustrating - is that the characters are real. So much so that they seem like people you go/went to high school with.
Our story is told by Valerie, who is perhaps the most frustrating of the characters. She’s a thousand teenage girls: strong, unsure, self-centered, selfish, kind, and intelligent. What really got me about Valerie is she spends the novel looking at the shooting as if it only happened to her. She views her past as Nick and Valerie against the rest. Us against Them. She almost views people as stereotypes. She seems them as bullies who came after her and Nick for no reason. It’s not until she starts talking to the victims of the shooting that she begins to see that things aren’t always so black and white.
Chris, the jock who always gave Nick a hard time? He was the boyfriend of Nick’s first friend after moving to town, Ginny. Chris was just a jealous kid acting out. In fact, most of the victims of the shooting didn’t really know Nick or Valerie, but somehow they made it on the famous ‘Hate List’. Some for major things, like bullying. But others for the smallest of things, like refusing to let Nick borrow a truck or for just hanging around people Nick and/or Valerie disliked. It went to show just how self-centered teens can be.
In fact, I would say that this novel just shows how self-centered teens are, and how they just don’t always understand what their words and actions do to others. Valerie doesn’t even stop to think about the ways her friends - and the friends of Nick - have been affected by the shooting. Nor does she really stop to think about the victims who lived. Not until she is forced - by life or herself - to interact with them.
One thing I really loved about the novel was the way that some chapters started with little blurbs about the victims in the shootings. It made things more real for me. Another thing I loved was the way the school was portrayed afterward. The principal and media try to say the school is more peaceful, and it does seem that way. But, there are small moments that let us - and Valerie - see that things haven’t changed as much as the media would like the outside world to think.
One thing I really disliked about the novel was that the characters weren’t given much depth or development. We saw Nick through Val’s eyes, so there were moments - in flashbacks - where we saw a smart and lonely child with some deep seeded issues. Valerie got a bit of development. But, characters like Jessica, Ginny, Stacey, Frankie etc came off a bit flat. But, I suppose that’s because we were seeing them through Val and Valerie’s thoughts weren’t so much on them as on the past with Nick and what the aftermath meant for her.
I think what I’ll take away from this novel is that people see what they want to see. Valerie and Nick saw their classmates as bullies, and their classmates saw them as outcasts or ‘weird quiet kids’. But, they were all so much more than this. As all people are truly more than anyone sees.
This was a great novel about a real issue.
Score: 4 out of 5 stars - Library or buy the paperback.
Crescendo/Silence by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Story: More "fun" with the world's most needy and idiotic teenager and her stalker angel-boyfriend.
My Thoughts: Crescendo was - I read Hush, Hush and gave it one star. I had hoped that the second book in the series would be better. I hoped that Becca Fitzpatrick would have learned from her mistakes and listened to critics. But, she didn't. Crescendo may actually be worse than Hush,Hush.
Nora has become even more brainless and unbearable. Patch has become an bigger jerkass. As for the other characters - they are all either annoying or cliche or just flat. Though, I will admit to liking Marcie. I get the feeling I'm supposed to hate her, because Nora thinks she is a slut and BF has her say the most hurtful things at random times, but - I kind of like Marcie. At least she has somewhat of a personality.
Overall, I really dislike these characters and the plot is even more nonsensical here. But, I'm really not the audience this book is looking for. It's for 12-17 year old who love Twilight. Or people who are bored and want a fluffy read that they don't have to think about. Or goldfish. Goldfish would love this book.
Silence was - I gave the first two books in this series each one star. The only reason this gets two stars is because Patch wasn't around that much, so his and Nora's "love story" wasn't so annoying. Also, the book had some ideas that could have been really interesting. Sadly, most of the main characters continue to grate on my nerves or are just too dumb to live. (looking at you Vee and Nora)
That's not to say it's all bad, the cover is pretty. And I do like some of the characters - though the characters I do like are, I think, the ones I'm supposed to dislike.
Score: Crescendo: 1 out of 5 stars - don't even bother. Silence - 2 out of 5 - borrow it from the library.
Unearthly by Cynthia Hand
The Story: Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy.
Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place-and out of place at the same time. Because there's another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara's less angelic side.
As Clara tries to find her way in a world she no longer understands, she encounters unseen dangers and choices she never thought she'd have to make-between honesty and deceit, love and duty, good and evil. When the fire from her vision finally ignites, will Clara be ready to face her destiny?
My Thoughts: Solid start to a new series. The heroine is likeable, as are the minor characters. Tucker is a great male lead, though Christian is a bit boring. Still. . . it's a great intro to a new world and characters.
Score: 3.4 out of 5 stars - borrow it from the library/use bookstore buy.
Saving June by Hannah Harrington
The Story: When her older sister commits suicide and her divorcing parents decide to divide the ashes, Harper Scott takes her sister's urn to the one place June always wanted to go: California. On the road with her best friend, plus an intriguing guy with a mysterious connection to June, Harper discovers truths about her sister, herself and life.
My Thoughts: This was a book that at times was heartbreaking. It even had a bit of humor. The three main characters felt very real and their struggles felt true to life. The only reason it does not get 5 stars is because I didn't really care for the last forty pages. But, it was still a great read.
Score: 4.4 out of 5 stars - buy it in paperback