Hunter By Mercedes Lackey

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Genre: Fantasy, Scifi, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Magic

Pages: 384

Point of View: First (Joy)

Released: September
1st 2015

Series: Hunter 1

Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Source: NetGalley

My Rating: 8/10 Stars

My Summary:

After the world ended, magic appeared and with it otherworlders, who think of humans only as prey. Luckily some rare humans with magic have a bond with magical creatures, known as Hounds. These Hunters keep people safe and are required to go in the main city of Apex.

Joy is a young Hunter, who has lived in a monetary on a mountain for most of her life. Her only family is her uncle, who is an important man in the city. When he requests that Joy join him, she has no choice, or she’ll risk the government learning about the other Hunters in the monastery.

She realizes things are more complex in the city than she thought. Her uncle is surrounded by enemies and Hunting is done very differently.

My Review:

I am proud to say I am yet again an oddball… I really liked this book!

I’ve never read a book before that started so BAD but ended so GOOD!

The Bad (the first 20%) :

Okay, so the first 20% I’d only rate a 6/10 and that’s being generous. The whole beginning is Joy riding the train to the city. It would’ve been so much better if it started in the mountains. Then we could’ve seen what it was like instead of being told about it.

It starts with TONS of info dumping! This girl has concentration issues. If she really spent this long staring into space people would think there was something wrong with her.

Seriously lots of telling! Do we really need to know how they make bread? The telling doesn’t even track! First she’s thinking about bread then it’s the armed services. She also talks to the reader a couple of times. (Which annoys me.)

I understand Joy’s never left home before and she’s homesick. But I wasn’t sure if I even liked her at the beginning! She came off conceited, constantly thinking how much better her mountain was and how silly the Cits are. (Cits = city people)

Speaking of which, I like made up magical words. But then she added in the dystopian slang too, and it was a bit much. Although I liked the names, did we really need things like coffee to be renamed?

Then she got to the Capital, sorry Apex, and Hunters are Vid stars. (It seemed very Hunger Games esque.)

The Good:

After Joy got to the city, she really grew on me! She really is a genuinely nice person. She also stopped constantly thinking of home and quoting her masters. (Which was beginning to grate on me.)

Once she she gets to Hunter HQ and starts going on hunts, the book improves drastically! The hunts were exciting and well done and I enjoyed the relationships between the Hunters. Though she not only makes friends, but also some enemies. Namely, Ace, the top ranked Hunter. He was a decent antagonist, I certainly disliked him.

There’s also a romance. The dates didn’t do much for me, because they couldn’t speak freely. (Since every minute Joy is being recorded.) There could’ve been more joking and banter, more getting to know him for me. Even though I liked him, I was never sure he was trustworthy and I think that’s why the author left him as a bit of a mystery, so there would be doubt.

The world was complex and there was so much to it; magic and psi energy, hounds and otherworlders. I love how the different mythologies come together. It’s so unique and such a good idea!

My favorite part of the book was the hounds! Joy and her hounds were more like siblings than pets. They had such a great relationship! The way they joked and helped one another. And everyone’s Hounds were so different; from winged lions to Joy’s large colorful shape changing Hounds.

The magic system was obscure, but had plenty of rules to ground it. I liked how it worked and the glyphs and the feelings she invoked. That last battle was pure perfection! Now this shows what a great writer Lackey is!

Do I recommend this book? Yes! But have patience with the beginning. It gets better, I promise!

Another reviewer complained that Joy was too special, but I didn’t think so. Sure, she was good with magic, but she didn’t start out with anything that was rare. (On the mountain at least.)

How do you feel about special protagonists? I don’t mind characters that are special. Talk about a character with a rare talent or a special magic and I’m there!

I am annoyed when they are perfect. Pretty and talented and with a perfect personality, it’s all a bit much. (And boring!)

Sequel Reviews: Miss Misery and Quanta

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I always enjoy batch review posts and neither of these were particularly long, so I thought I’d stick them together.

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Darkest Misery By Tracey Martin (Miss Misery 4)

Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy

Pages: 279

Point of View: First (Jessica)

Released: August 25th 2015

Series: Miss Misery

Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Source: NetGalley

My Rating: 7/10 Stars

See my review of the first three books in the series here.

I needed something to cheer me up after the Croak trilogy and these books always do just that. Though the fourth book in a continuing series, I’m pretty sure you could jump right in and it would still make sense, because everything is explained well.

My Summary:

Jess convinced the various Preds, Maji, and Griffins to sit down and work together to stop the Furies from essentially ending the world. But a murder and some evil Preds from headquarters complicate matters.

Spoiler free explanation for those who haven’t read this series: Preds are supernatural races that feed on negative emotions. Both the evil Furies and the Satyrs are Preds. The magi are magical bird shifters and the Griffins are the magical human police force. Jess is a member of the Griffins, albeit an unwilling one.

My Review:

All of the old characters came back. My favorite, Steph (Jess’ terrific transgender best friend) wasn’t in the book much. Tom, Jess’ supervisor at the Griffins, is growing on me though. I actually like him now, go figure.

I was worried when I read the official summary that Jess pushes her boyfriend away, but doesn’t really, she just goes to France without him. (But that isn’t until halfway through the book.)

The love triangle is still present, and I still don’t care. I love both these guys! And not because they’re perfect, because they aren’t. I know, this doesn’t sound like me at all! I promise I haven’t been body snatched! I just really like the way she does the romance in these books. Though there wasn’t as much banter as the last book there was a sappy moment. (Which shockingly I enjoyed too!)

The romance doesn’t take over the plot though. It’s still about solving mysteries, kicking butt, and saving the world.

The Bad:

Jess still lets her temper get the better of her. Who thought it would be a good idea to make her a mediator anyway?

I hated the head Satyr who showed up! I know I was supposed to, but I seriously want that guy dead! He attacked Jess and that scene really bothered me, because I was afraid he was going to rape her, but he didn’t.

Though it wasn’t to be continued, more storylines were left dangling than in previous books.

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Quanta By Lola Dodge

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Modified DNA, Seeing the future

Pages: 248

Series: Shadow Ravens

Point of View: First (Quanta & Altair)

Released: October 13th 2015

Predictability: 4 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)

Source: Netgalley

My Rating: 6/10 Stars

Age Rating:  Swearing, implication of rape and torture. (We know it happened even though it happens off screen and only implied.)

Even though this is the second book, it features a new story and all new characters. Does it stand alone? Mostly. Quanta didn’t do as good a job explaining the world and since I remembered little from Cypher (My review) I was rather confused by all of the terms.

The Stuff I forgot:

In a world where people have scientifically altered DNA the color or your Helix tattoo reveals what you can do. White Helix, also known as the Seligo are the elite. They don’t get sick and they don’t age. Black Helix are warriors with superior strength and stamina, greens have super smarts, blues are mysterious, but have some sort of mind control abilities. Then there’s the red helix, which are said to have unstable DNA. They have out of control powers and are to be captured or killed on sight. The Shadow Ravens are working against the government to free the red helix and protect them.

My Summary:

Quanta is a red helix who can see the future, so she’s spent most of her life in a cell.

Altair lives in a different sort of prison. He’s a green helix, a scientist, pretending to be the perfect son for his senator parents, but he’s only doing it to get information for the resistance.

When Quanta meets Altair she knows they are going to fall in love and she knows it will end badly. (Like both dying badly) So she fights her growing attraction to Altair. It’s not like she trusts people easily anyway. She doesn’t have a choice but to work with him though, because someone came up with a list of red helix’s and they have to discover how.

My Review:

The Good:

I liked how Quanta saw the future and the past. I’ve never read anything like it! She sees time ghosts, people in the space she’s in or connected to an object or person. Sometimes it was jarring having her visions in present tense and the rest in past, but that might have been the point. A lot of thought went into her powers.

We get to see how the elite live through Altair. They were as vain as expected. But some of their kids aren’t as stuck up. Altair’s crazy gamer sister was a great character! Not that the other characters weren’t good, but there wasn’t much opportunity for levity.

The Bad:

Like Cypher, the main characters in Quanta were ‘magically’ linked. Paired. Destined. Whatever. She requires him to have control of her powers. I didn’t like it in the first book and I don’t like it here. This one is a little better, but I still wish it was just a coincidence that he has this effect on her, or their feelings allowed this connection. And I don’t like that Lady Eva scientifically paired them together. Talk about controlling. Plus it spoils the romance!

Although stuff happens, the plot was rather slow for me. They spend the whole book not escaping from the lab. I also didn’t like the way Quanta’s powers grew. (Plot wise I mean.) It’s been done before and this book had the potential for more. (Sorry spoiler avoiding)

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Do you like multiple review posts? Because I still can’t find the words to describe the awesomeness that was One Good Dragon Deserves Another, so I might wind up sticking it with another book.

Golden Son By Pierce Brown (Spoiler free review!)

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Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Spaceships

Pages: 464

Point of View: First (Darrow)

Released: January 6, 2015

Series: Red Rising Trilogy #2

Predictability: 1 out of 5 (Where 1 is George RR Martin (If the characters make a plan or think about the future I know it isn’t going to go that way.) And 5 is Cinder (where I guessed what was going to happen long before it did, but it was still a great book.)

Source: Netgalley

Warning: Violence

My Rating: 8/10 Stars

Usually it’s hard for me to review a sequel, because I don’t want to spoil the first book for those who haven’t read it, but with Golden Son that wasn’t a problem at all. So even if you haven’t read Red Rising you don’t have to worry about spoilers here. (click to read my review of Red Rising)

My Summary: (Stuff about the world learned in Red Rising)

In a world where one’s color determines one’s status, Darrow was born the lowest, a Red. The Reds were lied to, told they were living a horrible life for the betterment of mankind, working to terraform Mars for their descendants, but really Mars has been colonized for years.

Darrow was approached by the Sons of Ares, a group of Reds who want to change the system. They changed Darrow from a Red into a Gold, the highest ruling class, and snuck him into their elite institute.

Golden Sun Summary:

Darrow’s been out of the Institute for two years now. A year ago he joined the academy where they train for the military.

The book opens on his final exam for the academy. He’s playing a similar game as before, only this time with warships in space.

My Review:

With such a large cast it’s hard to remember them all, but the author did a good job of reminding me.

Like the first, this book has copious slang, (Yikes he’s got me talking like him now.) but it isn’t as annoying as it was in Red Rising. (Or I’ve finally gotten it all figured out.)

And Darrow is still holding things back. We’re in his head, but we never know all he does. I suppose that’s one way to write an intelligent character, but it’s so annoying.

The Good:

Golden Son starts with a bang. One thing I wanted from the first book was a starship battle and the space battles are some of the best I’ve read! I can tell that the author put a lot of thought into the types of ships and tactics that would be used in space. (I so want a companion book about all the ships, with pictures!)

More excellent world building! I liked the techy Blues and the way they communicate with the ship and each other. As well as the culture and history of the huge obsidian warriors.

I enjoyed the new characters as well as the old. It’s so hard not to have favorites and this is the kind of book I hate to get attached to anyone, but I can’t help it!

There’s also more levity. It’s by no means a comedy, but I did laugh out loud on the plane. (I have no clue if I got weird looks because that would require stopping)

And like the first book absolutely nothing is predictable. Unlike Game of Thrones good thing do happen, but there is no knowing when.

I had a book hangover for a week when I finished! Just wow. I need more!! I almost wish I’d waited to read the last two together or stopped before the cliffhanger ending. Talk about to be continued! Why does he do this to us?!

The Bad:

This is at times a dark an emotional book, which isn’t usually my cup of tea. Darrow is more mature in the sequel, but he’s still the same guy. (Moody and way too moral for what he’s trying to do) But the plot and story telling is so strong that it doesn’t matter that I don’t really care for the main character!

I highly recommend this series! Even though I realize it isn’t for everyone.

Who dies in Golden Son? Click here. Obviously SPOILERS! I so wish I knew this ahead of time so I wouldn’t have been so tense while reading.

Can top notch world building and plot make up for a lackluster or unlikable main character? Usually my enjoyment of a book rests largely on the protagonist, but if the world and plot totally rock I can still love the book. If I don’t like the main there does need to be some good minor characters though.

What Kind of Books Do I Like to Read?

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I finally got my ratings and review policy page made! I wanted one for seven months, but I’m a great procrastinator. This got me thinking about what books I do and don’t like and which books I have a weakness for.

If you like this post and want to copy me please do. Post your link below and I’ll link back to you. Then we can all discover new blogs. 🙂

I usually only read books that are fantasy or science fiction. (I’m trying to expand my reading, but it hasn’t worked.) But I like almost all kinds of scifi and fantasy. I used to like scifi more, but now I love fantasy the best.

Some books just have scifi and fantasy in them. If it’s more important to the main character to get with a guy than save the world I consider the book a romance.

Mystery is a great addition to scifi and fantasy though. (like the Dresden Files)

I love books with:

Magic and super powers!

Humor, witty and sarcastic characters. (I like non humorous books too, but humor is always a plus.)

I don’t like books which have: (aka I have a lot of pet peeves)

Lots of sex scenes. I’ll read a good book even if it has sex scenes in it, (Game of Thrones, True Blood.) I can just skip over them, but books described as steamy are not for me.

Books that have heartwarming, or inspiring in their descriptions, I like to be entertained not moved. Same with books that are all downer, the kind where I know I’m going to cry. I like books that make me happy.

I don’t read books with rape scenes! I will NOT read them. I also like to know ahead of time if there is an attempted rape. How far it got and what happens afterwards also matters.

Whiny, weak, annoying heroines, I’d sooner read about a perfect character than a damsel in distress.

Books where the characters fight with one another throughout the entire book. I don’t mind banter, but fighting gets old fast.

Books that preach at me. Sometimes it’s ignorable, (Sword of Truth) but usually it’s just annoying.

I can’t resist a book where the main character is secretly a monster, an alien, a robot, a fairy, or something. I love the whole secret identity thing and when it’s revealed to their friends who/what they really are. Bonus points if they’re one of the few good ones and most of their kind are evil. It’s my weakness, I know. I don’t care how silly the book is either as long as there’s a good revelation I love it!

What about you? What kind of books can’t you resist?

The Young Elites By Marie Lu

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Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Pages: 336

Point of View: First (Adelina) Third (Teren) and occasionally limited third (Enzo)

Released: October 7, 2014

Predictability: 2 out of 5 (Where 1 is George RR Martin (If the characters make a plan or think about the future I know it isn’t going to go that way.) And 5 is Cinder (where I guessed what was going to happen long before it did, but it was still a great book.)

Source: Penguin’s First to Read program. I’d never gotten a book from them before so I didn’t know how it worked. It’s like a library book, it comes in an adobe digital editions format (which works on everything but my plain kindle) and you have two months to read it.

My Rating: 8/10 Stars

Parental Rating: On the verge of an older YA for violence and prostitution.

My Summary:

Ten years ago a blood fever swept through the kingdom and of the children who survived some emerged ‘marked’. They are called malfettos. A select few malfettos are rumored to have super human powers and are called elites. The lazy king blames malfettos for everything, causing them to be scorned and treated terribly.

Adelina is a malfetto and she’s been abused by her father from a young age, because he blames the decline of his business on her being a malfetto. He’s tried everything from breaking her finger to showing her kindness in an attempt to bring out a power in her, then she might be worth something, but one night he goes too far and he’s not happy at all when her dark powers finally emerge.

Teren is the lead inquisitor and convinced all malfettos are demons, he will do anything in his powers to see them all burn.

Enzo is the leader of the Young Elites, a group of powerful malfettos fighting against the king.

My Review:

Young Elites is set on a different world in a medieval kingdom. (I thought it was a future dystopian before I read it, but this is so much better.) We learn about the kingdom and a little about another nation, but I want to know more about this world! Like there’s these flying giant manta ray things, what are they? They seem an odd little world building detail to keep mentioning when everything else is a simple medieval kingdom.

Adelina feels more like a villain than a hero. (She’s not an antihero either.) She’s sympathetic, if a bit unlikable, and fierce, but not stupid. She’s a complex character with many sides and a darkness in her heart. I understand why she is the way she is, she’s been abused for years by her father, not only physically but emotionally as well. In Marie Lu’s Legend Day and June had such a similar voice I was worried Adelina would be the same, but she’s nothing like them at all!

At times I questioned Adelina’s sanity (Teren’s certainly nuts) and I hate books with an insane main character, but here it doesn’t hurt the story. I also liked how I could always tell what was real and what wasn’t. (Another pet peeve of mine, I know I have a lot of them.)

The Good:

I loved the dark atmosphere of this book! I couldn’t put it down and though Young Elites wasn’t what I was expecting I really enjoyed it.

I loved the unique markings the malfettos had. From silver or fiery hair to different colored eyes.

The powers were one of the best parts of the book, they were so cool! The author created an interesting spin on abilities. Usually in these kinds of novels there’s a series of scenes where the character learns how to use their powers and that was sort of done here, but Adelina progressed so quickly that it didn’t slow down the plot in the least.

I like the little quotes and facts about the land at the start of each chapter they really added to the world building.

The Bad:

The characters all had potential, but none of them were developed enough aside from Adelina.

The romance was just okay. I didn’t feel it, but it wasn’t there much so it’s no big.

That ending! (All I can say, sorry.) The next book should be interesting… Though I have no idea what kind of book it will be.

Would I recommend this book? YES! Will I read the next one? OF COURSE!

Red Rising By Pierce Brown

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Genre: Young Adult, Scifi, Dystopian

Pages: 382

Point of View: First

Source: NetGalley

Released: July 28th 2014

Predictability: 1 out of 5 (Where 1 is George RR Martin (If the characters make a plan or think about the future I know it isn’t going to go that way.) And 5 is Cinder (where I guessed what was going to happen long before it did, but it was still a great book.)

My Rating: 7/10 Stars

Warnings: Parts of this book are brutal and violent. If you’re someone who’s bothered by these things, don’t read this book!

My Description: [This is a hard book to describe without giving anything away. This is only the setup for the beginning.]

In Red Rising society is divided by colors. The golds sit on top ruling over the rest, where pinks are for pleasure, greens are technicians and at the very bottom are the reds.

Darrow is a red who works in the mines of mars obtaining energy to terraform the planet for the settlers to come. His life is hard, but meaningful. Then he learns that Mars is already terraformed and he’s little more than a glorified slave. With the help of other LowColors he plans to change the way things are. The resistance will change Darrow from a Red into a Gold and attempt to get him into the Institute which chooses the leaders of worlds.

My Review:

At the start of the book the world stinks. It does in most dystopians, but Red Rising brings it to a whole new level. Usually I don’t like where the book starts and then the timeline rewinds, but it worked here, because things were so bad I needed the hint that they’ll improve.

I loved the beginning of Red Rising! It started out so strong. I liked the latter half of the book too, but not nearly as much as that first quarter. It just wasn’t as unique and interesting, plus it was more brutal and violent, which I understand why, but I didn’t like it.

[Warning: Mild Spoilers in the next paragraph, which I wish I knew before reading this.]

This book was really like two books. The first quarter felt like a dystopian set in space and then the institute which we are expecting to be a school is actually a giant war game. I think the reason for mixed reviews is because the beginning of the book is so good and we think we know what we’re in for and them BAM something else happens for the rest of the book.

The Good

The beginning of this book is amazing! So much potential for this series!

The world building and the culture created in Red Rising is fantastic! I can’t wait to learn more about it in the rest of the trilogy. The technology that we’re shown is also cool and I liked how the history was told, so we know how the world wound up this way. Sometimes with such fantastic worlds it seems unreal, but even being set so far in the future I can see the world becoming like this.

The romance. Yes, there’s romance in this book, and it feels real and is well done.

This is a fast paced book full of action and twists and turns. (There are so many that saying this spoils nothing.) I was never bored.

We got to know the minor characters well and they had good personalities, Sevro is my favorite. (The tricky little runt)

The Bad

The main character is a know it all, which considering he’s a teenage boy makes sense, but as the story goes Darrow becomes harder to like. That’s my main problem with this book, Darrow. He’s a nice enough guy, but sometimes he’s just hard to like. I understand why he’s angry, but his rage and arrogance make him unlikeable.

The author’s intention might not have been for him to come off arrogant, but because this novel takes place over the course of two years much of this story is told (Some things that really should’ve been shown.) and Darrow is telling us how great he is instead of us seeing him be amazing, so he comes off arrogant.

The slang! I know it’s part of the world building, but it can be annoying when I don’t understand half of what’s said.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but only to some people. Will I read the Sequel? Yes, I have to know what happens next!

Sorry this review was so long in coming. My life has been terribly nuts. I want summer back! What about you? Are you a summer person like me or do you prefer the winter? (Yuck!)

Perfection By JL Spelbring

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Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian

Point of View: Third (Ellyssa, Dr. Hirch Ellyssa’s ‘father’, Angela a member of the Gestapo, and Rein a young renegade)

Pages: 317

Source: Netgalley

Release Date: July 8, 2014

My Rating: 6/10 Stars

Predictability: 4 out of 5 (Where 1 is George RR Martin (If the characters make a plan or think about the future I know it isn’t going to go that way.) And 5 is Cinder (where I guessed what was going to happen long before it did, but it was still a great book.)

Warnings: Attempted rape and torture (with super powers)

My Summary: Perfection is a Dystopian where Hitler won the war. Now it’s not enough to have blonde hair and blue eyes, but you have to have the right shade of hair and eyes. Anyone without these traits is sent to a concentration camp.

Ellyssa is a genetically engineered young woman.  She’s literally perfect, a beautiful genius with kick butt martial arts skills, and the ability to read minds. Ellyssa’s spent her entire life in a place called the Center with her siblings. The first chapter is her first experience out in the world after escaping the Center.

Through a series of flashbacks we learn that a young dark haired renegade was dragged through the center and communicated into Ellyssa’s mind Kansas City. She’d never experienced anything like this before. How could an imperfect have such a skill? She then hacked into her ‘father’s’ computer, where she discovered the truth of his plans for the future.

My Review:

This was hard book for me to get into. I’d have liked a chapter or two of Ellyssa’s life at the Center first rather than the flashbacks. That way I would have cared more about what happened to her as she was struggling during the first part of the book.

I was surprised to learn this book was only just over 300 pages, it felt way longer than that. I think the reason for that was that there were so many points of view.

The book would’ve been better if it was only told by Ellyssa. Rein’s perspective was interesting and Dr. Hirch’s showed what was going on back at the Center, but Angela the Gestapo’s wasn’t necessary at all.

Even though there were four points of view, they were all unique and I never confused the characters.

The Good:

When we meet Ellyssa one of the first things she does is enjoy the emotion of panic, because it’s an emotion and she was never supposed to feel. She’s tough and kicks some serious butt. I liked that Ellyssa wasn’t a damsel in distress.

The world is interesting and I’d like to see more about what ordinary life is like, because our protagonists led very different lives, but both weren’t normal. The powers Ellyssa and her siblings had were cool and I liked how they developed.

The plot was fine overall, though I’d have liked Elyssa to have more of a plan when she escaped. The pacing slowed in spots, but there was enough action to keep me reading and the action scenes were nicely done.

The characters were likable enough, and even the side characters were well developed. I liked Ellyssa’s growth from someone who was afraid to feel or show emotion to more of a normal girl.

The ending was good, everything wrapped up nicely making this a self contained story, but still with room for a sequel.

The Bad:

The romance. I actually sped read through some of the romantic parts. I didn’t ‘feel’ the romance. It was love at first sight… *sigh* and they went on and on about how much they meant to each other. *eye roll* I like romance in books, but it happened too quickly and they felt too strongly for each other.

There was also the start to a love triangle, which I think might be developed more in future books. I actually found myself liking her relationship with the other guy, though he fell for her too quickly also.

There was one instance where Rein did something that made no logical sense, but needed to happen to further the plot. (These kinds of things bug me.)

Would I recommend this book? Yes to fans of Dystopian and romance. Will I read the Sequel? Maybe.

My Favorite Quote:

“Perfection? People, in themselves, ARE perfect. Creativity, emotions, the innate quest to find truth – these are the things which evolved humans. All of them. Not just what you choose.”

Book Review: Legend, Prodigy, Champion By Marie Lu

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author, book, book reviews, books, Champion, characters, Day, dystopian, fiction, June, Legend, literature, Marie Lu, novel, plot, Prodigy, read, reader, review, science fiction, scifi, stories, story, write, writer, writing, YA, young adult

Genre: Young Adult Dystopian

LEGEND By Marie Lu

This was one of those books that started so good I wanted to read it slowly and savor it. I was also afraid that it wouldn’t hold up to the outstanding beginning, but it did! The plot, the characters, the world, the voice, they were all perfect! I loved it all! (Molly, tone down the fangirl…)

Day is fifteen and the most wanted person in the Republic. He’s guilty of numerous crimes, including theft, breaking into military bases and blowing up jets, but he never hurts anyone. He lives on the streets with a little girl named Tess and secretly watches over his family who believes him to be dead. At the start of Legend the plague has spread to the poor Lake sector where his family lives.

June is also fifteen. At ten every child takes the trial and the results decide what their lives will be like. Where Day failed his test June did more than pass, she’s the only one ever to get a perfect 1500 score. She lives with her brother, a captain in the military (their parents are dead) and goes to the top academy in the country. She’s always getting in trouble for her outrageous stunts; her latest was scaling a sky scraper to see how fast she could do it. (Copying something that Day’s known for.)

The characters are both similar people, even though they’ve led very different lives. They’re both really smart and talented, but in different ways. June is the kind of person who notices every detail and kicks butt in a fight and Day is great at making complicated plans and leaping about on buildings. The story is told from both points of view and I rarely confused the two of them.

In a Dystopian there usually comes a time when the main character realizes what kind of a world they really live in. Day already knows how terrible the government is, but June buys the propaganda. She’s told the truth, but she also figures it out for herself and as such it’s more gradual and realistic for her to totally change her beliefs.

The world the author created is rich and I could really picture it in my head, from June’s fancy apartment to the streets of the Lake Sector.

Legend is a unique Dystopian and my favorite so far!

9/10 Stars!

PRODIGY

Prodigy was almost as good as Legend. Everything wrapped up so wall it felt like the final book of the trilogy not the second. I’m glad they were all released otherwise I would’ve been screaming for the next one. Though things wrapped up, not everything was happily ever after.

At the start of Prodigy I liked both June and Day, but I had no feelings whatsoever about whether they wound up together or not. By the end I was like, NO!! They’re meant to be! (Whispers otp. Molly your fangirl is showing)

Some of the dialogue to catch readers up felt a bit forced, but this was only at the beginning.

I enjoyed learning how the Republic started, that’s the one thing I was wondering about while reading Legend. (We also learned about the Colonies and a bit about the world at large.)

The side characters were better fleshed out and we were introduced to a couple of new characters in the Patriots. (The group who fights against the Republic.) After reading dystopians I automatically distrust everyone the characters meet.

8/10 Stars

CHAMPION

As much as I wanted to read this book, I was afraid to. So many dystopians don’t end happily. (Especially the popular ones, what’s up with that?)

In Champion the war with the Colonies has accelerated and the Patriots are back along with Tess. We also got to see Antarctica, which was cool! (And there could so be another dystopian set from there.)

Talk about a roller coaster ride of emotions! I didn’t like the entire story line with Day. In my opinion it wasn’t necessary and took away from the story.

THE END: Though it’s probably considered a happy ending, I wasn’t happy. The epilogue ten years later tries to fix things, but it felt like too little too late. I think I’ll pretend it ended happily after prodigy. 😉

8/10 Stars

What did you read this week?

Book Review: The Lunar Chronicles By Marissa Meyer

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Cinder, Scarlet & Cress (Winter forthcoming)

Oddly enough the book I recommend most right now is Cinder, where Cinderella is a cyborg. Seriously that’s the plot, but it’s a good book honest.

The market is flooded with fairy tale retellings, and I almost didn’t read Cinder, but it looked popular on goodreads (and I found it on sale for $2) so I decided to give it a shot and I’m glad that I did.

Cinder is set after the fourth world war, where the world is divided into six kingdoms. Cinder is a mechanic living in the capital of New Beijing. The crown prince, Kai comes to her to have his android fixed. She keeps it a secret from him that she’s a cyborg, because cyborgs are looked down upon and have few rights.

Yes, Cinder has an evil step-mother, her legal guardian who practically owns her, and two step-sisters, but only one is evil and she’s really more bratty than evil. And of course there is a ball coming up, which both the stepsisters are preparing for, but that’s where the Cinderella plotline ends.

The plague that has swept the globe has come to New Beijing and Prince Kai’s father, the emperor, has been diagnosed with the disease. There’s no cure and it has a 100% mortality rate. Desperate to combat the disease, the government issued the cyborg draft. Cyborgs, considered less than human, are used as unwilling test subjects.

As if that wasn’t enough for the young prince to deal with, the evil Lunar queen is threatening war if her demands are not met, and one of those demands is to marry the prince. Her spaceships aren’t even her biggest threat. Lunars, the people who colonized the moon, have evolved into a separate race with the ability to create glamours and bend others to their will.

The Lunar Chronicles has excellent world building, an interesting plot, and good characters. (My favorite character is one of the minor ones, Iko, an android with a personality as the result of faulty programming.) A couple of the reveals which were supposed to be a surprising twist were rather predictable in this series, but it didn’t hurt the overall story for me.

The second book stars Scarlet as re-imagined red riding hood and a man with a shady past called wolf. This was my least favorite of the series, because it felt more like a side story with most of the book focusing on two new characters. I kept yelling at my book ‘Where’s Cinder? Get back to Cinder!’ As you can tell it took me a while to warm up to Scarlet. I understand she was going through a rough situation, her grandmother had been kidnapped after all, but it annoyed me when all she did was stress and complain. Scarlet gets better, mostly through her interactions with wolf, and towards the end the action really picks up.

Cress, re-imagined Rapunzel, is trapped on a satellite instead of a tower. I liked her character right away, and it’s nice that we get to learn more about Carswell Thorne. Cress doesn’t feel like a side story the way Scarlet did, because much more happens to advance the plot of the trilogy. I feel like the author really followed the ‘what would be the worst thing I can have happen to this character now?’ method of writing for this book. I can’t say too much about Cress without spoilers, but it’s almost as good as Cinder.

Cinder 9/10 stars

Scarlet 7/10 stars

Cress 8/10 stars

I’d recommend all three books, but I have no idea which books to compare them to, because they’re just so unique. Maybe dystopian, because the main plot features a world in chaos and characters that are trying to make things better.

Now I can’t wait for Winter! (Never thought I’d say that, I hate the cold.)

Do you like fairy tale retellings? Usually I don’t, but Cinder is a happy exception. (and Grimm)

The Maze Runner Trilogy By James Dashner

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Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Dystopian, Thriller

Pages: 374

Point of View: Third (Thomas)

Released: October 6, 2009

Predictability: 1 out of 5 (Where 1 is George RR Martin (If the characters make a plan or think about the future I know it isn’t going to go that way.) And 5 is Cinder (where I guessed what was going to happen long before it did, but it was still a great book.)

Source: Library

My Rating: 7/10 Stars

My Summary:

Thomas wakes up in an elevator box with no memory other than his name. He’s greeted by other teenage boys in an area called the glade. The glade is surrounded by a massive maze that the boys are trying to solve to escape. Surprisingly for a group of kids they’ve established an organized society where everything works. I can’t really say anything more about the premise without spoiling things. The whole point of the book is to keep reading to figure out the why behind the maze.

My Review:

I would have liked more character development, so that I could get to know the characters better and care about what happens to them more. (Though this is the sort of book I don’t dare get attached to anyone going in.) I understand that it must have been hard for the writer to show characterization when none of the characters has a past. Yep, that’s right none of the characters can remember anything before the maze.

The Good:

The Maze Runner is a read in an entire day sort of book. It’s fast paced and never lets up. The continual questions kept me glued to the pages. What is going on here? My imagination ran wild with the possibilities and I was afraid that in the end I’d be disappointed, but surprisingly I wasn’t. The conclusion actually made sense and didn’t seem contrived just to explain the author’s cool concept.

The Maze Runner is a quick book. There are no slow spots with flowery descriptions here. Other than height, age, and shoe size all we know about the main character’s appearance is he has brown hair. I like a bit more than that, but that’s not the sort of book this is. Maze Runner’s also light on romance, which is odd for a young adult book, but it worked. There wasn’t time for romance. (Though there is more romance in the Scorch Trials.)

The Bad:

The Maze Runner is almost an eight star book, but fell just short of great for me. I can’t explain without minor spoilers, so skip the rest of this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers of any sort. (It’s not really a spoiler that characters die in a book like this, but I know how some people are about spoilers of any kind.) I have no problem with characters dying, but I didn’t like the way a certain character died. It didn’t feel necessary and it was too brutal for me. (Though it was tame compared to a death in the Death Cure. I just know I’m going to have nightmares about that.)

The rest of the trilogy: (spoiler free)

I haven’t been so disappointed in an author in a long time. These books had such potential! Most of the story is good, but the Scorch Trials and The Death Cure had some serious flaws. (In my opinion) They were too gruesome, (scary doesn’t have to be gross) there was too much pointless action, (it got a bit much after a while) certain parts made no sense, (and I didn’t like them) and the main character kept acting stupid. (After the Maze Runner I expected more out of him, he is supposed to be a genius after all.)

So my recommendation is you should read the Maze Runner, it’s a good, unique book, but skip the the Scorch Trials and The Death Cure. (Though I doubt I’d be able to follow my own advice. I just have a need to find out what happens.)

The Maze Runner: 7/10 Stars

The Scorch Trials: 5/10 Stars

The Death Cure: 4/10 Stars

What is your opinion on character’s deaths, should they come quick and unexpected or do you like to see it coming?

I like to be prepared before a character dies, (I’ve been known to peek ahead…) but I don’t mind deaths as long as they serve a point for the story.

Next week’s review: The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. Cinder, Scarlet, & Cress.