Thoughts: In the Afterlight

In the Afterlight

by Alexandra Bracken
Book 3 (final) of The Darkest Minds

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Ruby can't look back.  Fractured by an unbearable loss, she and the kids who survived the government's attack on Los Angeles travel north to regroup.  With them is a prisoner: Clancy Gray, son of the president, and one of the few people Ruby has encountered with abilities like hers.  Only Ruby has any power over him, and just one slip could lead to Clancy wreaking havoc on their minds.

They are armed only with a volatile secret: proof of a government conspiracy to cover up the real cause of IAAN, the disease that has killed most of America's children and left Ruby and others like her with powers the government will kill to keep contained.  But internal strife may destroy their only chance to free the "rehabilitation camps" housing thousands of other Psi kids.

Meanwhile, reunited with Liam, the boy she would--and did--sacrifice everything for to keep alive, Ruby must face the painful repercussions of having tampered with his memories of her.  She turns to Cole, his older brother, to provide the intense training she knows she will need to take down Gray and the government.  But Cole has demons of his own, and one fatal mistake may be the spark that sets the world on fire.

Admittedly, the conclusion of The Darkest Minds trilogy was pretty exciting.

While The Darkest Minds was never the best series or dystopian to hit the YA trends, it had the fortune of including elements that hit the right marks for me, personally. While there wasn't much ado about the concept or the story, or even the probability of a dystopian world unfurling in the manner of which the world in The Darkest Minds had done so, I still managed to love it.

Despite the fact that these weren't the best characters in the world, they somehow grow on you and you find yourself falling for each and every one of them before the end of the books come around. We were introduced to Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and Zu in the first book--a ragtag group of young, innocent teens with the misfortune of being forced into tragic circumstances as they run for their lives and dream about ways to right the wrongs committed in their world so they can have a better future, and try to survive day by day. The second book reintroduced the characters you fell in love with along with few others.  But by now, a more realistic sense of "Action must be taken" has overcome most of our characters, and the dream for a better future is no longer just dream but an ambition.  In the new fights, new friendships form and old friendships are reforged.

I personally loved watching the friendships wind and knit so tightly together that you'd have to use force to pry them apart. It was heartwarming despite the bleakness of the situation these kids are thrown into in the fictional world of The Darkest Minds.

The ending approaches with pretty much the same action-packed, constantly-in-motion activity that had transpired from Never Fade, spilling the continuation over in the the last book of this series.  But this time, it seems like our kids have more of a direction... and yet, at the same time, very little action seems to occur, and we find ourselves struggling with the constant angst, the constant fear and danger, the constant idle planning and planning and more strategic planning before the ending finally rolls out some action.

Ruby continues to struggle with her powers and the "monster" she believes them to be; in doing so, she continues to hold her friends at arms length, fearful of hurting anyone she loves, but at the same time, she yearns for their warmth and is loathe to part with them.

Liam's struggle was a little less emphasized, and I'm a bit disappointed that he doesn't get very much book-time in In the Afterlight.  With his brother, Cole, and Ruby trying to take charge as the more powerful Psi kids (and the more dangerous ones) who have had training because of the Children's League, Liam is kind of left in the dust to find some way of feeling useful.

Other conflicts arise as well, and somehow also end up being a bit much to process.

And yet, I still found it all quite enjoyable.  I think it had to do with all the character interaction and all the conflicting, emotional ties being unknotted, and all the secrets and the personal dilemmas finally finding peace with one another.  To watch this group of kids get together, fight and make up and continue to remain together, willing to stick by each others' sides despite all the differing views and conflict of interests and secrets... it was pretty nice.

To date, my favorite relationship in the world of The Darkest Minds is still between Chubs and Ruby.  I don't know what it is about this pair that brings the FEELS surfacing when they interact.  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the romantic coupling of Ruby and Liam; but the friendship and the understanding between Chubs and Ruby just seems to outshine the rest of the relationships around them, whether best-friendship, sibling-love, or even the romantic pairings that occur.

Chubs is the intelligent, level-headed big brother who just gets it, and despite having been hostile to Ruby in the beginning of the series, I love how he's grown to just accepting whatever she does, and just knows her well enough to remain by her side even when others suspect her actions.  Of course, he's also great enough to call out her fallacies with hopes that she'll think long and hard about her decisions before making them.

Not to say that the others (Vida and Zu) don't do the same, but there's something powerful about having Chubs on your side that just feels right.  He's like the voice of reason, a protective guardian... and I love him for that.

And now that I've made a whole lot of nonsense sound like more nonsense, I'll just end off this review.

In the Afterlight, as well as the full Darkest Minds series probably doesn't rank high on many people's list of good YA dystopian.  Goodness knows I've read better stories with better concepts.  But it's written well with some thoughtful quips and discussions and ideals here and there.  And most importantly, it's got a heartwarming feel to it presented through the characters and their love for one another through the struggle of a collapsing world around them.  The characters aren't the best, but on paper they can be quite complex if given the chance.

Most importantly, I personally grew to love them all and I DID find enjoyment in this book.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in November 2014.

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Review: Never Fade

Never Fade

by Alexandra Bracken
Book 2 of The Darkest Minds

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Ruby never asked for the abilities that almost cost her her life.  Now she must call upon them on a daily basis, leading dangerous missions to bring down a corrupt government and breaking into the minds of her enemies.  Other kids in the Children’s League call Ruby “Leader,” but she knows what she really is: a monster.

When Ruby is entrusted with an explosive secret, she must embark on her most dangerous mission yet: leaving the Children’s League behind.  Crucial information about the disease that killed most of America’s children—and turned Ruby and the others who lived into feared and hated outcasts—has survived every attempt to destroy it.  But the truth is only saved in one place: a flashdrive in the hands of Liam Stewart, the boy Ruby once believed was her future—and who now wouldn’t recognize her.

As Ruby sets out across a desperate, lawless country to find Liam—and answers about the catastrophe that has ripped both her life and America apart—she is torn between old friends and the promise she made to serve the League.  Ruby will do anything to protect the people she loves.  But what if winning the war means losing herself?

This book went by in a flash.  Honestly, there was so much forward movement and progression that I didn't even consider stopping to think about the book at all.  At least not until that little break in the middle when I had to make myself go to sleep.

This was very much the same exact experience I had when I read the first book, The Darkest Minds.  I enjoyed the same things from both of these books: character interaction, character bonding, makeshift family coming together to save the world, fast-paced action, exciting adrenaline rush, and an adventure-like story-line.  Except, since I had gotten to know the characters from the first book already, there may have been a bit more of an emotional impact.

I may have had a few moments of "the feels" when Ruby and Chubs had their reunion.  I may have smirked a bit when Vida turned out to be "part of the team" rather than just "that jealous girl who wants to be the leader."  And when Jude, for the nth time, is the one to welcome Ruby "home" with a smile and a tackling embrace, I might have had some "feels" there too.

Just like the first book, Never Fade is very much a character driven story.  Honestly, without Ruby and her Scooby gang, I don't know if I would be so in like with this book with the same enthusiasm.  Sure, we get a deeper look into the heart of this dystopian conspiracy now that Ruby has joined the Childrens' League--more politics and whatnot going to work here.  Frankly, those parts were kind of boring for me; informative, but lackluster at the same time.

What I enjoyed actually came in the moment that Ruby broke out of the League's HQ, dragging Jude with her, to head across the country in order to find Liam.  And then along the way, she is joined by Vida and reunites with Chubs.  A whole new rag tag gang is formed with these four--SO MUCH LOVE FOR THAT!  It was at that point that the story actually started getting exciting for me.  I mean, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed bits and pieces of seeing Ruby's life in the League as well.  It just wasn't as much fun.

The character bonding in this book is winning (just as much as it was from the first book).  The hopeless romantic in me is still rooting for Liam and Ruby to be together; their romance was set up pretty subtly and well, and even though it took a bit of a back seat in this book, it still managed to hang around with quite the intense punch.  I'll admit that there are always choices and decisions made by characters that don't sit well with me and there are also reactions to those choices by characters that also don't sit well with me.  And Liam and Ruby's relationship teeters on those lines that had me feeling a bit uncomfortable for the both of them.  Nonetheless, I do still love them and hope that there will be a good conclusion for them when the last book rolls around.

But while I'm a hopeless romantic and am rooting for Liam and Ruby to have a heartwarming ending, I'm also a bigger fan of the Ruby and Chubs friendship now that it's more developed and they've gone through so much to still maintain their friendship.  I love that they care about each other and have this weird understanding of each other's thoughts; but at the same time, they're pretty harshly honest with one another as well.  I can't get enough of these two, just watching them do what they do as friends who have been through suspicion and hate and love and... well, they're like all the family that they lost during the "apocalyptic" parts of the story line.  Even when these two are fighting with each other, it's still kind of heartwarming... cause then they hug and make-up and everything feels right in the world again.

And THEN there's also the love/hate bickering between Vida and Ruby; the love/hate bickering between Vida and Chubs; the adorable sunshine that is Jude (whom I kept picturing as a twelve-year old boy even though it's made clear that he's fifteen and has hit his growth spurt); and that strange new connection that Ruby now has with Liam's brother Cole.

I'm just saying, there are some really nice character dynamics going on here and I DO really like what's going on.

My only complaint came in the form of the ending, unfortunately.  (And hopefully I don't give too much away since I'm not one who likes including spoilers in reviews.)

Let's just say that it was a bit... disjointed.  On top of that... well, I understand the "BANG!" impact that the the author was probably going for in the end, but I'm not sure I liked it all too much.  It felt too abrupt and kind of forces a bridging onto the next (and maybe last) book of this series.  The first book ended with less of a bang with a more "finalized" feel to that part of the series.  You knew that there was more to the story, but you didn't feel like you were missing something--if that makes any sense.

It's not that I completely dislike cliffhangers... it's just that, sometimes I want to take and dangle an author by the toes over a cliff above shark-infested waters for making me hang at the edge of my own cliff for a whole entire year because the ending of the book was so abrupt and obviously prepared to dive into the next book with heart-wrenching, adrenaline-boosting "I need to read the next book right now" intensity.

But no, I don't completely dislike cliffhangers, really...

Nonetheless, we've got a little more than a year until the next book is released, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what's coming up.  I especially look forward to seeing more of our characters together, now that old friends have reunited and new friendships have formed.

I wouldn't call Never Fade a perfect book nor a terrible book for it's standards.  The series itself is quite enjoyable.  But I DID like The Darkest Minds a bit more, and to be honest, again, if not for the character interactions, this series would probably just be like every other YA trendy dystopian out there garnering attention right now.

I'm not complaining since I'm thoroughly into it.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in February 2014.

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Review: The Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds

by Alexandra Braken
Book 1 of The Darkest Minds

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Side note (7/15/18):  I read this book back in 2013 almost a year after it first came out, but have just gotten around to transferring the review to this blog, as it was originally posted on another platform (see link at end of post).  This review, as well as the rest of the reviews for the trilogy have been sitting, ready to be published in my draft section for months now, and I decided it was time to get them published.  Of course, the fact that a movie is being adapted now is purely coincidental.

Happy reading!

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed.  Something frightening enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police.  Something that got her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.”  She might have survived the mysterious disease that had killed most of America’s children, but she and the others emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they could not control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.  When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life.  She is on the run, desperate to find the only safe haven left for kids like her—East River.  She joins a group of kids who have escaped their own camp.  Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby.  But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close.  Not after what happened to her parents.  When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader.  But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government.  Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at having a life worth living.

I love a story with great characters and character interactions.

The Darkest Minds had a very awesome makeshift little family of four as we follow Ruby through her short adventure with Liam, Chubs, and Zu, and frankly, there is nothing I love more in any kind of novel.  And to be totally honest, it really had been the characters who made this book the wonderful experience it had been for me.  Ruby was a good heroine to follow, although her character description was rather standard as the kick-butt, strong, heart-of-gold, female main character who leads her friends into the heart of our dystopian controversy.  The rest of the characters were pretty quirky in their ways as well (especially Chubs), and to be frank, if not for the character relationships, this probably would have been just another YA dystopia trilogy that you end up liking while you're reading it, but that you would forget about after it's over.

Liam, especially, was a personal favorite for reasons that I may not understand at the moment.  He's gentlemanly and caring and unsure of himself, and has so many flaws as a leader... but for some reason, that makes me want to cuddle him and make him feel better.  The bonds between each of the four were pretty awesome: Liam and Ruby were sweet, Zu and Liam were adorable... etc., etc....  But I especially loved Ruby and Chubs together as friends, though they started off as a pair of perfect strangers who didn't really care about each other and Chubs was annoyed by Ruby's inclusion in their group.  I loved how each of them bonded in their own ways; and I loved the sweet friendship to romance development that took place between Ruby and Liam (not just because it wasn't instalove, I promise).

Outside of my love for the characters, this book had all the typical, fast-paced and suspenseful dealings as all the trendy dystopians now-a-days; so while the ideas unique to this book were intriguing (kids either died or turned into super humans with strange powers and the world broke into pieces after that), and some of the interesting twists were... well, rather interesting, the concept was still a predictable one.  I hate to say that "it's just another trendy YA dystopia," but to be honest, it kind of is.

I must say, I DID enjoy the plot devices from the "concentration camp" type scenarios at the beginning, to the adventure that Ruby joined to find a place where they could belong safely.

In spite of all that though, I still found this story to be highly addictive and easy to fall right into; I found myself reciting my standard "One more chapter, then I'll sleep" mantra.  And to top it off, I am undoubtedly looking forward to the next book in this series and will be pining in agony as I toss Never Fade into my ever-growing pile of "OMG!  I physically need this book, like, RIGHT NOW!"

Something about The Darkest Minds just happened to grab me.  I don't know what it is, but I'm not arguing with it.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in October 2013.

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Review: The Giver

The Giver

by Lois Lowry
Book 1 of The Giver

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world.  Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

I'm uncertain how I feel about The Giver, but given the huge popularity as well as "classic"-ness of this book, I can't be certain that I'm on the same page.  It always worries me to find that a lot of people loved a certain book, but when I finally read it, I'm questioning my ability to see why the book is so popular.

Do I just NOT understand it like everyone else does?  Is there something I've missed, maybe?

There's no doubt that I enjoyed reading The Giver; there was an immensely hungry curiosity I felt while reading the book.  Throughout, I had a need to know what was going to happen on every aspect, be it the story, the characters, or even Jonas, himself.  I found myself more and more curious about the story's development and I started asking questions about the society, the community, the world, the people...

Mainly, I wanted to know how the world came about to be the way it is in The Giver.  I mean, there's a definitive "reason," but what propelled that need to force a community where everything is dictated by a structurally organized lifestyle that never deviates, built for the maximum sake of survival, to have to exist?  What will continue to happen?  Because no matter how soundproof a society's structure, there will always be a flaw somewhere that will eventually dictate the collapse of everything the community has stood for for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Such as we end up seeing in the end when Jonas runs away and The Giver is certain that the memories will force things to change in the community.

It's an interesting concept, the ideas within the dystopian world of The Giver.  However, I'm not sure I'm appreciating or comprehending The Giver on more than a simple, "Did I enjoy this book and what does it do for me?" level.  Like I'd mentioned before, I'm done with deep analysis and insightful thinking.

So, to me, while The Giver was a thoroughly well-written and enjoyable book, it didn't slip my notice that there is still so much missing from the story itself, especially after the fairly abrupt ending given to us.  I won't go into too much detail, even if I'll try to explain my conflicts in a way that doesn't spoil too much of the ending for others who haven't read The Giver.

Nonetheless, I should probably place a spoiler tag somewhere in here for the next few paragraphs.

Despite the fact that this book has been circulating for a long time now, I'm sure there are still people who haven't read it.  I mean, I've had this thing on my reading list since I was in middle school and finally picked it up to fulfill a Reading Challenge priority for this year.  I'm not saying that I would have never read it, I'm just saying that it wasn't ever my first choice simply because my mood dictates what I read and my recent mood has taken me in different directions.

So, while I don't like giving away conclusions and surprises, I'm going to label the next few paragraphs with a spoiler tag, because I will inevitably give away the exact way that the book ends.

Ahem...


-- HERE IS YOUR SPOILER --

The ending is what really earned the book a 3.5 star rating rather than anything 4 star or higher (which was what I'd been sitting on since I started reading the book).  It dropped because things turned out... giving me conflicting reactions.  I liked a lot about the book until the abrupt ending.  There seems to be no sense of finality that I can see, and because of that, I'm not even sure what the meaning of the story really entailed.

Does the second book pick up right after this first one?  But it's got a whole new summary with a whole new community and a whole new main character to follow.  It feels like it's a new and different story, separate from The Giver's current time frame.

Mainly, I'm not certain I understand the meaning behind the conclusion's abruptness.  Why introduce such a complex idea of using "Sameness" as a means for survival, then bringing on the idea that this is not the right way to truly live, then having Jonas break away and try to ruin the society... and then just end off the way it did?  Jonas ends up on a hill with the baby, Gabriel, only to be sledding towards a destination that may or may not even exist.

The society was created to keep people numb from pain and over-excitement.  It was built as a means to survive.  The things that happen to maintain this Sameness, of course, feels completely wrong to us as readers who live in a life of freedom of choice (to be able to feel what you want to feel, and do what you want to do, and know the joys of happiness, and love as well as to feel the extremes of pain and sadness).

But Jonas's running away from the community only seemed to enforce all the reasons why the Sameness was put into place to begin with.  He went through the sufferings of hunger, pain, desolation and hopelessness, just to be able to feel the wonderment of freedom.  And then the ending doesn't even tell us whether or not he made it to that "Elsewhere" he's hoping to find where Sameness doesn't exist and he can truly live a fulfilling life.

Maybe it's there and maybe it's not.  We don't know.  So we don't know whether he should have just stayed in his community... or if he made the right choice by leaving.

What kind of message is that?

I guess I'm mostly concerned about the abrupt ending.  You don't know what happened and why and whether or not the progress of the story meant anything at all.  But otherwise, I will admit that I enjoyed the majority of what I read in The Giver.  So I'm not really all that disappointed since I wasn't really sure what I was expecting anyway.


***

This book was read as part of my 2014 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in February 2014.

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First Impression (originally posted on 02/13/2014)

I started reading this one at work last night and finished a good six chapters without realizing it.  Then I got home after work, told myself that I have insomnia anyway, and proceeded to read more of this book.

By the time I got to the heart of the story, I finally told myself to put the book down.  I need to at least get enough sleep to wake up at a decent time.  There's dinner to make, preparations to be done, lists to organize, friends to harass...  You know, stuff to do and no time.




I can see why The Giver turned out to be such a classic YA book.  There's enough content to see that Lois Lowry put a lot of thought into her world and her characters.  So far, I'm enjoying it quite a bit.  It may not be my favorite book, nor the best book I've read so far, but it's still a good one and I'm glad I added it specifically as a book to read for one of this year's Reading Challenges.

I'm only about half way through it right now, so it might still be too early to make any more opinions, but I have a good feeling I'll enjoy the rest of the book as much as I've enjoyed the first half so far.  Unfortunately, I also have a feeling this book may not be the most memorable despite how well written and created it is.

So much for trying to finish The Demon King first, but my intention had been to read the first chapter of The Giver as a sort of "first impressions" of sorts... and well... we all know what happens when something catches my attention enough to hold it.

So this will probably be the first book I finish for my TBR Pile Challenge (hosted by Roof Beam Reader), and I will update my post accordingly.

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This update was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in February 2014.

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Thoughts: Lark Ascending

Lark Ascending

by Meagan Spooner
Book 3 (final) of Skylark

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars


@62% into book
This last book is probably the least haphazard one of the trilogy with a much clearer direction.  Even with new events surfacing that give rise to new plot twists, we’re at least still focusing on one main conflict, even if said main conflict is extremely predictable.

Unlike the first two books, I’ve yet to encounter too many dragging moments.  And then, much like the first two books (with the exception of some of the first book), Lark Ascending is fast-paced with an urgent “need-to-know-what-happens-next” narration.  At least it has that going for it.

However, also much like the first two books, the characters are hard to relate with--I find myself caring very little for them or concerning myself about what happens to them.  This book is more plot driven than it is character driven; but as I’d mentioned in the other two Skylark reviews, the characters have a lot of potential for great story.  They just don’t seem to come to life in the books.


@ Book’s Completion
To be honest, this wasn’t a bad ending for the Skylark trilogy, if only because despite having an ongoing conflict that was hard to grasp, each book also had it’s own well-rounded conflict and conclusion.

And maybe, aside from that fast-paced storytelling that made the books within the Skylark trilogy easy to read, I can give it a little bit of credit for the above-mentioned well-roundedness of each book’s sub-conflict within the bigger main conflict of the trilogy.

Of course, for all the other things I stated in the 62% few paragraphs further up in this haphazard review (characters that are hard to relate with, ready predictability of story direction, uncertainty of each book’s general direction throughout the series…), the overall impression I got from the trilogy was quite less than enjoyable.

Makes sense?  Probably not. I’m not even quite sure I know what I’m trying to say.

Nevertheless, I still managed to fly through the books without too much trouble.


In this conclusion:
Basically, it feels like we’re moving forward in the main series conflict with the start of Lark Ascending.  But at the same time, it feels like the book recycles the same formula and storyline from both, the first and the second book.

There’s traveling in the dark wilderness outside of the safety of magic-generating cities wherein Lark and her companions are headed to fight another evil.  Except that, much like the first two books, she doesn’t know she’ll find another villain to save the world from--she’s just traveling to her destination to find answers she has lots of questions about.  And in doing so ends up in another large-scale battle to save lives and overthrow oppression or defeat the bad guys or something like that.

There’s a lot of fighting, a lot of bloodshed, a lot of inner monologue-ing angst about darkness and evil and monsters and etc….


My Thoughts:
The only real difference between this book and the previous two in the trilogy was the fact that (as I’d already stated), the main conflict and the story’s direction are a little more clear cut.  It made the book easier to read than the previous two books; I fell asleep less often and got bored less often.  I turned pages with a good bit of urgency, curiosity, mostly; wanting to know how the series would tie up; disappointed that there were still a lot of loose ends.  Of course, it could also be stated that because the storyline was easier to grasp, so was the predictability of future twists and secret reveals.

Even then, it doesn’t mean that the book itself wasn’t chaotic.

As a dystopian in a sea of other YA dystopian series/trilogies, Skylark isn’t a terrible set.  As I’d stated before, the world created in Skylark has potential; the storytelling and the general YA formula, however, made it into “Just another YA dystopian trilogy”.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in November 2015.

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Thoughts: Shadowlark

Shadowlark

by Meagan Spooner
Book 2 of Skylark

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.0 Stars


@50% into book
I fell asleep twice reading this book already.  Whether it’s because I’ve been overly tired from lack of sleep or because the book is kind of boring, I’m not sure.  Up to this point, there’s a fairly flimsy plot line wherein I have an idea where the book is headed, but I’m not entirely sure I know what is actually going on in this book.  Even since the first book I’m not sure I know what the main conflict really is--

1.  Lark is looking for her brother, Basil.
2.  Lark is trying to find a place where she can live normally.
3.  Lark doesn’t want to settle where the society will use her for their own needs.
4.  Lark creates her own romantic angst by not knowing what she wants when it comes to Oren.

I honestly have no idea what’s really going on here and I’m having an even harder time relating with any of the characters.  I’m not even sure Lark knows what she’s doing, honestly, but I suppose it helps that no matter where she goes, everyone likes her.


@ Book's Completion
I still have issues trying to figure out what all happened in this book.  It still feels overly haphazard and confusing.  And boring.

But at least it was fast-paced and still had some points where I could get into it and forget that I'm not exactly enjoying it.  At least the characters are different and at least Lark is a strong character even if she makes a lot of misguided decisions (misguided by her own dramatic, wandering monologues).

And it's not like Shadowlark was a terrible book, or anything.  It's got serviceable writing and a narrator who isn't entirely boring.  And the situations DO present with a slight "Wait and see what happens next" vibe.  And so I keep reading to figure out what happens next.

And also, Nix is kind of a new take on the R2-D2 of a YA world, with attitude and all.  But, of course, Nix is no android Iko from The Lunar Chronicles (Yes.  I'm still riding some residual Book Hangover from finishing Winter).


To Paraphrase:
Basically, Shadowlark picks up where we left off from Skylark wherein Lark is continuing her journey to finding her brother, Basil, if he’s still alive.  After the events at Iron Wood, Lark is more determined to find Basil and figure out where she belongs in this world.

And she is joined by her human-like pixie, Nix, as well as Tansey, one of the scouts from Iron Wood.  Of course, along the way, more conflicts happen, Oren rejoins Lark, but there’s the obligatory romantic angst for reasons… and so on.

And also, more evil stuff surfaces and more saving the world ensues.


My Thoughts:
My thoughts are pretty much what I’ve already stated above: this book was fairly boring.  But on top of that, we’ve got some awkward emotional flip-flops all over the place. Scenes that were meant to be gut-wrenching or heart-breaking felt overdone to me.  Scenes that required a more emotional reaction ended up narrating rather flat.

Once again, much like Skylark, I really DO feel like this series, this world, had a lot of potential.  It’s creative and different.  The history of Skylark’s world, however, is still rather vague.  But at least back story is what these books have going for it.

The characters seem intriguing on paper, and even the situations and relationships have potential for development, for a more exciting storyline.  But in the story itself, the characters are hard to relate with and kind of dull and kind of typical YA standard, even if their situations are a little more unique, especially the romance between Lark and Oren--a darkness to their realities that intrigued me to an extent.

Another fortunate aspect to this book is that it’s pacing is fast.  I flew through it before I even knew what was going on.  In fact, as I already stated above, I still had no idea what was actually happening in the book, but I breezed right through the entire thing pretty quickly.  I mean, I get the events and I see the happenings… but I’m still not entirely certain I know what the point of the book had been.  Nor did I understand where the book’s direction was headed.

At least not until the end.

And now, despite knowing what’s in store for the concluding book in this series, I’m not quite sure I’m all that excited about it.  The only thing keeping me connected to this series is the curiosity--wanting to know how it all ends.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in November 2015.

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Thoughts: Skylark

Skylark

by Meagan Spooner
Book 1 of Skylark

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.5 Stars


When I first started reading YA dystopians, Skylark had been one of few I’d been immensely interested in.  For what reason that is, I’m not even sure I remember anymore.  But due to the current “trilogy” fad for any and all YA novels, I had decided to wait until the entire series was completed before reading it.

As intriguing as the story concept is, and as solidly as the story had started out, Skylark wasn’t exactly the most exciting YA dystopian out there, among many.  I can’t help but feel like it could have been better or more exciting… but in the end, I’m not even really sure what it is that Skylark needed to have in order to appeal to me from beginning until the end; because I could have used a dose of something in order to not feel like the story’s adventure arc dragged something terrible.


The Basic Story Line…
To be totally honest, I’m not entirely sure that I understand what the story line of Skylark encompassed.  The beginning was a bundle of confusing, and I understood only that our heroine, Lark Ainsley, lives in a city (of typical dystopian setting) wherein children are “harvested” regularly for their power.  No one knows what it means to be harvested, except that a certain power within each person is taken away to help power the city’s machines and keep the “Wall” in place, to keep dangers outside of the wall from coming in.

Then it is discovered that Lark may be a “Renewable,” an individual capable of regenerating her power even after it is taken away from her.  And now the city wants to plug her into their network so that she can endlessly power the city.

So then we start an adventure wherein Lark escapes and must make her way through the dangerous outside world of uncivilized wilderness where there are fierce hunters, monsters, who used to be human--it is said that the lack of magical influence has turned them into what they are now: monsters, cannibalistic, dangerous…

Lark’s destination is a place called Iron Wood where she will find many others like her, a place where she may finally feel as if she could belong; a place where she can feel safe and live out the rest of her life.


My Thoughts:
I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I’d been hoping.  In all honesty, the book’s premise had potential.  The world is a creative one with interesting ideas.  The characters were a little bland, though, and Skylark felt like it might have been grasping for story while trying to get Lark from Point A to Point B.  It dragged.

I love adventures.  So books wherein there is a lot of travel or a lot of walking don’t typically bother me… unless they’re written with such little pizazz that I stop caring about what’s going on with Lark as she travels by herself and self-monologues about her life and her future life and the life she left behind, and all the new scary, frightful things she’s encountering.  Because it didn’t feel exciting to me even if it was whole new territory for her.

Even while I got extremely bored with Lark’s solitary trek through the dangerous forest; and even after she met up with Oren and brought the pixie, Nix, on-board her journey, the adventure was still a bit boring.  And then, the moment things started getting exciting, another change would take place with our traveling troupe and the story would dip into either boring (again) or frustrating (even worse).

So while I DID find some parts of Skylark enjoyable, and while the ending seemed to reignite my interest, it makes me wary that the book had more moments of boring monotony than the good stuff.

Nonetheless, I’m still curious (a mild curiosity) as to what will happen next, and so I’m hopeful that things will pick up a little bit in the next books.  I may not be entirely invested in these characters, but I’m hoping something will come of the rest of the trilogy.

***

This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in November 2015.

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Brief, Final Thoughts: Endsinger

Endsinger

by Jay Kristoff
Book 3 (final) of The Lotus War trilogy

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  2.5 Stars

-- SPOILER ALERT --

**This is the last book in the series.  The summary blurb and review will contain material that gives away pertinent information from previous books.  Continue at your own risk, or skip this review until you've read all books.

A TREMBLING EARTH
The flames of civil war sweep across the Shima Imperium.  With their plans to renew the Kazumitsu dynasty foiled, the Lotus Guild unleash their deadliest creation—a mechanical goliath known as the Earthcrusher, intended to unite the shattered Empire under a yoke of fear.  With the Tiger Clan and their puppet Daimyo Hiro in tow, the Guild marches toward a battle for absolute dominion over the Isles.

A BROKEN REBELLION
Yukiko and Buruu are forced to take leadership of the Kagé rebellion, gathering new allies and old friends in an effort to unite the country against the chi-mongers.  But the ghosts of Buruu’s past stand between them and the army they need, and Kin’s betrayal has destroyed all trust among their allies.  When a new foe joins the war tearing the Imperium apart, it will be all the pair can do to muster the strength to fight, let alone win.

A FINAL BATTLE
The traitor Kin walks the halls of Guild power, his destiny only a bloody knife-stroke away.  Hana and Yoshi struggle to find their place in a world now looking to them as heroes.  Secret cabals within the Lotus Guild claw and struggle; one toward darkness, the other toward light.  And as the earth splits asunder, as armies destroy each other for rule over an empire of lifeless ash and the final secret about blood lotus is revealed, the people of Shima will learn one last, horrifying truth.

There is nothing a mother won't do to keep her children by her side.

Nothing.

I'm finally done.  This last concluding book of The Lotus War trilogy was more enjoyable to read than the previous book, Kinslayer, but not by much.  The dramatics just keep rolling in, and I might have skimmed a lot of the last few chapters.

Anyway, I really don't know what else to say about this book, and this series in general, except that I'm kind of relieved I'm done with the trilogy.

It's not a terrible series, but it really just wasn't for me.  Aside from the hot mess that was Kinslayer, I think the rest of the trilogy really just suffered from being a bit over-hyped.  Yes, it's very creative and imaginative.  Kristoff really is quite creative and imaginative.  His writing is excellent if only he didn't get so carried away with words and details to the point of redundancy.  A lot of this book felt like it was quite unnecessary, which made the book feel long just for the sake of being long.

But overall, it could have been a very enjoyable book, minus all the dramatics.  Though I suppose some people go for that--I'm not one of them.

On a side note, there were probably two characters I really liked in this entire story: Hana and Michi.  But both of these girls kind of get cheated in their endings, so I don't know how to feel about that.

The romance felt over-dramatic and I honestly could have done without.  As I'd stated in my review of Kinslayer, I don't even remember there being any declarations of love or deep feelings and emotions being thrown around from Stormdancer, but a lot of the chaos really DID hinge on the fact that our main characters were feeling betrayed by people they had "loved," so I'm just going to blow over that one and move on.

Finally, I feel like if there were going to be big dramatics and gory deaths and stuff like that, then Kaori shouldn't have gotten such an easy end.  She was just plain spiteful and mean throughout all three books, and NOTHING about her past history associated with the shogunate--none of those little flashbacks you get about Kaori's life before she was forced to join the rebels--made me feel any more sympathetic about her reasons for being hateful and mean.

But she gets her Happily Ever After™ while everyone else suffers their losses.

She wasn't responsible for much of the chaos, but she didn't do anything to help.  She was hateful and mean because she was a spoiled brat who didn't get her way.  Period.

As for our main triangle-not-quite-triangle... I didn't care for it.  Moving along, I didn't care for the relationship between Yukiko and Buruu much either.  Yes, it's kind of cool, but their thoughts and dialogue got mushy to the point of cringe-worthy cheese, because who talks like that?  I've only seen dialogue like that in badly written romances.

On the other hand, Hana's relationship with Kaiah was actually kind of cool.  Because they didn't have as much cheese in their dialogues with each other.  Even Yoshi wasn't so bad either.  But I never understood the significance of all his side tangents and how they contributed to this overly long story.

And while we were on the subject of dialogue:  The dialogue spoken by the characters were hard to follow.  One moment we're sounding like a fantasy, with awkwardly poetic sentences that remind me of badly translated Asian phrases.  The next moment we have more modern colloquial speech with the back and forth bantering between characters.

The quality was extremely jarring and made it hard to focus... or even take all the tragic darkness of the events in this book very seriously.

So, okay, I guess I could think of more to say about this book than I'd thought.

And on that note, we're turning the page and moving on.


***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• Mount TBR Challenge
• COYER Summer Vacation 2016

Review: The Gift

The Gift

by James Patterson
Book 2 of Witch & Wizard

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  1.0 Stars

Official Blurb:

When Whit & Wisty were imprisoned by the wicked forces of the totalitarian regime known as the New Order, they were barely able to escape with their lives. Now part of a hidden community of teens like themselves, Whit and Wisty have established themselves as leaders of the Resistance, willing to sacrifice anything to save kids kidnapped and brutally imprisoned by the New Order.

But the One has other plans in store for them: He needs Wisty, for she is "The One Who Has the Gift." While trying to figure out what that means, Whit and Wisty's suspenseful adventures through Overworld and Shadowland lead to a jaw-dropping climax and conclusion: the highly-anticipated fulfillment of the heart-pounding opening prologue of book one... The Execution of the Allgoods.

I don't quite have words. I'm not quite sure I'm sure I know what was going on in this book. There was a lot of attacking and there was a lot of strange analogies and a lot of strange things happen. But in the end, what exactly was going on? I'm not quite sure. Rather than being a fast-paced read (which it sort of was) that I enjoyed like I had the first book, this one, I constantly found myself loathe to continue. And when I DID continue, I found myself eager to get to the end.

Because in the end, we get back to square one, with no new developments really, with a lot of the same stuff happening that happened in the first book. Of course, there's a whole new mysterious occurrence that bugs me, because it makes me curious. But, honestly, I think I could live without knowing right away what happens next in this somewhat saga.

And the humor that I had found funny from the first book -- a lot of it just seemed rather cheesy this time around. And a lot of happenings just seemed nonsensical.

The best thing about this book: it was a fast-paced read and slightly entertaining.

---

This review was originally posted at Goodreads in July 2013.

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Review: Witch & Wizard

Witch & Wizard

by James Patterson
Book 1 of Witch & Wizard

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.0 Stars

Official Blurb:

The world is changing: the government has seized control of every aspect of society, and now, kids are disappearing. For 15-year-old Wisty and her older brother Whit, life turns upside down when they are torn from their parents one night and slammed into a secret prison for no reason they can comprehend. The New Order, as it is known, is clearly trying to suppress Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Being a Normal Teenager.

But while trapped in this totalitarian nightmare, Wisty and Whit discover they have incredible powers they'd never dreamed of. Can this newly minted witch and wizard master their skills in time to save themselves, their parents--and maybe the world?

It's hard to say how I actually felt about this book, but to be totally honest, I would file it under the short, fun, sweet, and witty category. Basically, it's something that I thoroughly enjoyed reading, but not something that I would boast about to friends unless they also wanted something short and fun to amuse themselves with.

The only reason I started reading Witch and Wizard in the first place was because it came to me from the library's e-book waiting list alert. I had put myself on the waiting list for this book out of curiosity one day and had forgotten about it; then I got the email alert and decided to go ahead and check the book out for 21 days and hope to have it read within that time frame. Well, apparently 21 days was a lot more than I really needed to finish this particular book. I knew that I was going to be done by the time I hit 50% after four hours.

This book is written in a very simplistic fashion as a first person narrative through the eyes of two different narrators: fifteen year old Wisty and her eighteen year old brother Whit. Brother and sister chronicle their tale of how they came to be a witch and wizard in a suddenly changed society, taken over by some whack-job who calls himself "The One Who Is The One" (which amusingly reminds me of those strange names I come up with for role-playing games whenever I can't think of something cooler, so I settle with stuff like "That One Person" or "That Other Guy").

While I'm not a big fan of first person narration to begin with, there are certain instances where it works and I enjoy it just fine. In this book, I'd say that it was fine; HOWEVER, there were certain points where the flipping back and forth from Wisty and Whit almost got confusing. Pretty much there were times when I had to consciously remind myself who's POV I was reading from in each chapter, though since the chapters were short, those moments of confusion were short-lived and usually settled themselves pretty quickly when the name of the other sibling was mentioned.

The story line requires quite a bit of willingness for suspension of disbelief, especially since the groundwork of this newly formed dystopian world is still in the making. But I don't mind it too much since the readers are learning about the new screwed up world that seemed to practically fall in overnight at the same pace that Wisty and Whit are learning about it. We don't know how things came to be the way they are and we don't even know how Whit and Wisty end up being magic-wielding wizard and witch. We aren't even really sure why the world is suddenly turned upside down. The magic system is still a bit sketchy, but we know just about as much about it as our two protagonists do.

The pacing is excellent and the story is interesting enough, but the ending drifts on a cliff hanger, so it seems that it's a must that you start reading the second book when chance allows. Of course, somehow, the ending also seems to give you leeway for not needing to IMMEDIATELY seek out the second book. At least for me, I can wait it out for the next available e-book library copy on yet another waiting list.

While not the best written book ever, the book DOES accomplish what it sets off to do with enough wit and humor to make me giggle and laugh out loud. I enjoy following a set of characters with a great sense of the laughs and both Wisty and Whit have their own dry sarcasm and strange humor that I can totally relate with. The world and the characters and even the bother/sister interaction kind of reminds me of the humor that usually belongs to Japanese manga.

I will look forward to the next book, but I'm not going to trample anyone to get to it. It was really just a fun, light read; so I can say that I really DID enjoy it. This book might not be for everyone; the premise is a bit silly, but the author captures two teenagers' voices quite well, so I liked it.

---

This review was originally posted at Goodreads in April 2012.

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Review: Inhuman

Inhuman

by Kat Falls
Book 1 of Fetch

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars

See Also:  Inhuman Reading Updates

I looked forward to this book mainly due to the premise which sounded intriguing just by the summary alone. And while the basis for the story's concept was pretty strong, the set-up of the world (a desolated, post-apocalyptic place where a virus called Ferae has turned most humans into savage, mutated creatures) is pretty much standard YA dystopian fare. But I'm not complaining. There's a reason why I'm drawn to these types of books -- they're exciting, they're intense, adventurous, interesting... if written properly.

And ultimately, my love of a YA dystopia comes down to a simple factor: how this author depicts his or her post-apocalyptic dystopian society differently from others running on this same trend, and how well the author incorporates this idea using well-developed characters and a good plot to follow with.

Inhuman already had a good premise going for it, though a little vague. Delaney "Lane" Park McEvoy (she of whom I had been referring to as simply "Delaney Park" because I kept forgetting she has a last name) lives in a societal safe haven away from the rest of the American nation which has turned into a wilderness of life infected by the Ferae Naturae virus. Due to certain reasons (big corporate greed and the fascination of rich people's need to play god in this world), this virus broke out and life became chaotic. I'm sparing the details since I don't really remember all of it anyway -- something about the richest company during that time, called Titan, playing around with animal DNA because the CEO wanted to include a centaur or something like that into her amusement park-like mazes as entertainment. But Ferae broke out, people became infected, and apparently the virus spread like rabies (which isn't really a rabies-like virus) is turning all humans into savage animals when infected -- a blood-borne pathogen, if you will, that affects a human's mental faculties and turns them into wild animals. I was still trying to understand the nature of Ferae, but then the action started, so I just kind of shrugged and moved on.

In order to repent for this problem, Titan's CEO builds a wall, isolating the uninfected half of the population in a safe bubble from the rest of the population in the eastern part of the country now known as The Feral Zone. And this wall is safe guarded by Titan-employed line guards to keep each half in their designated sides on the wall. Familiar set-up, interesting concept, nonetheless.

Anyway, the rest of the story details how Lane must go into The Feral Zone in order to save her father's life. I like how, in the beginning, it was supposed to be a simple task for Lane. She was to find her father and tell him the situation so that he could perform a "fetch" (retrieving items in The Feral Zone for clients on the other side of the quarantine wall for money). When she couldn't find her father, eventually, she ends up having to do the fetch herself. Adventures ensue.

As I said, the premise of this book was good to begin with. The first half of the book was also quite intense and exciting as we got introduced to the The Feral Zone with Lane as our guide. She's got a good voice and tone and I actually enjoyed following along with her, as she also shows us that one can be a kickbutt heroine and take care of herself, without also being that annoyingly stupid type who tries too hard to be tough and gets herself into troublesome situations -- which eventually require a man to come to her rescue. There are various situations in which Lane manages to pull herself out of danger, or to stay out of danger all together, and this works for me.

Rafe was a boy I couldn't quite put my finger on. While at first I thought he was a douche for being rude, arrogant and seemingly dangerous, he surprises you by using that jerk of a personality to become charming at the same time. He kind of just sneaks up on you. But then, he kept reminding me of all the other douche main characters you loved to hate, and by then I couldn't figure out how I managed to stop disliking him. Rafe has an interesting history and an interesting lifestyle; and his survivalistic mode is understandable. It's really just HIM I have trouble understanding.

Everson is the typical good man, stoic, intelligent, lovely, heart of gold, Mr. Congeniality and... well, boring. I have little to say about him, mainly because he doesn't stray far from the standard descriptions. There was maybe once or twice in the book that he surprised me a little bit, but then it didn't seem too significant, so I didn't take much note of it.

The ideas that went into the effects of Ferae become quite fun and intriguing the more that Lane learns from others about it. There's a very great suspension of disbelief being tossed around the more scientific topics as well: the human/animal mutations (both feral and manimal), a specific number of virus strains being known to be in existence, the animal/animal mutations called "mongrels", the fact that second and third generation offspring of mongrels and manimals don't become feral and don't transfer the virus if they bite...

These are all really creative and interesting, but only if you don't really try to think about them or analyze them. Otherwise, you just end up continuously asking yourself: "Hmm... is that even possible?"

Anyway, story-wise, Inhuman had a lot of good going for it. But the second half of the book reminded me of the word "Deadline". Because that's how it felt -- the rest of the story seemed rushed and the climax and twists and conclusions felt underdeveloped. It was as if we got to a point where the story needed to find a proper ending, and well, there IS a properly thought out ending in outline form... but, how to write it? And then we run out of time and simply patch things up the best that we can with deux ex machina tricks and supposed surprising occurrences of the emotional kind that ended up going by so quickly that I didn't even have time to react to them. I wish I could point out a couple instances at the end of the book that caught me off-guard (and not in a good way), but then we'd get into spoilery territory, and I honestly don't really like including spoilers in my reviews if I can help it, even WITH tags.

Finally, the romance... I wasn't really too bothered by it, honestly, because it felt kind of underdeveloped and placed in the sidelines. So it's not that I didn't enjoy it, but I just didn't really think about it too much aside from, "Oh, we've got a triangle at hand now", but since it didn't really take off in a significant fashion, I've got no complaints about it despite how much I dislike triangles (or any kind of relationship polygon).


Final Conclusion: Great premise, good characters, decent writing, intact story, great imagery and creativeness... I enjoyed it even if it wasn't the best and even if it was just another one of your typical YA dystopian affairs. I'll keep an eye out for the second book since I'm intrigued to know where Lane, Rafe, and Everson go from here; most especially Lane since I overall liked her the most of all the characters.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in September 2013.

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Reading Progress Updates for Inhuman

Inhuman by Kat Falls

Book 1 of Fetch series

~ Goodreads ~

Official Inhuman Review

Inhuman was the first book I started reviewing and writing updates on when I first joined BookLikes.  If anything, I would have thought I'd have more updates if only because of how easy it was to write blog posts for books.  But there are only two, both of which are quite lengthy, and thus, a separate posting from the review.

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First Impression: 18% Complete  

(First Inhuman update on September 25, 2013.)

So...

I've got a few quibbles going, but so far the book has managed to hook me.  And it happened almost immediately.  I'm taking this as a good thing unless the book ends up proving otherwise (yeah, redundancy = my blogging fail, but whatevs).

Delaney seems like a legit, standard butt-kicking main female character.  And I like the hints of her father subconsciously training her for travel in The Feral Zone.  That's always fun -- to secretly develop your child into a kick ass hero without even letting her know.  Which, honestly, makes me wonder if Delaney might be a bit slow on the uptake, but we'll see.

Director Spurling is one of those characters you hope will get shot by the end of the book.  Or that her face will get eaten by a mutant, Ferae infected, sickly dog or something... you know, like one of the ones she's putting in harms way just so she can blackmail Delaney.  Yeah, pulling that kind of stunt always puts you on my shit list.  Then again, I didn't really like her from moment one when she was first introduced, so sue me.

What else...  We'll probably never see him again, but I had a feeling Orlando would turn out to be a douche.

And moving onto Everston Cruz...  keeping an eye on that one, I am.

So far so good.  I'll probably end up finishing this book within the next two days.

---

Progress Update: 50% Complete  

(Second Inhuman update on September 26, 2013.)

Just to be safe, I've marked this post with a spoiler tag.

I like where the train of events is going.  A simple fetch that could have been completed by an experienced hunter living in The Feral Zone, but now Lane has to take things into her own hands.  And boy DOES she take things into her own hands.  That girl's a strong one, I tell you what.

At mid-point in this book, I'm more than happy about how things are progressing.  Lane doesn't strike me as a heroine who stands out any more than others have in other YA dystopians, but she's agreeable and I like her.  It took me a while to warm up to her, but not because I disliked her or anything, only really because I didn't have any outstanding thoughts about her at all.  But all of her little quirks and mannerisms, her do-gooder personality, her stubborn pride, and the fact that she knows when she needs to fall back rather than stubbornly charge forward... it makes for a more likable character than you'd usually get to see in those termed "Too Stupid To Live" types who are always out to prove something.

So I applaud her.

As for Rafe (yes, we've moved on from Everson, apparently, who actually went from agreeable to, "dear god, just go away" all too quickly), I like him too.  I was conflicted, cause the guy's a bit of an ass, and I'm more or less for the good boy, most of the time.  But Rafe is a snarky ass, and before I knew it, he picked up my heart and sang to it.  I'm not saying that I'm in love with him or anything, but he's got my attention.  He's rude and a jerk when it suits him, but you can tell he's not a complete selfish prick.

It works.  These guys are all fairly natural and realistic... well, as realistic as you can expect in a post-apocalyptic dystopian.

So, yes, I'm quite enjoying this book.

I'm also formulating a possible guess at what the series is veering into and it's got me quite excited, actually.  I've got ideas, and I hope that the author's got the same ideas, if the hints at the beginning of the book are any indication.  So this might be a series that I'm going to latch onto.

---

These updates were originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in September 2013.  Links go to original BookLikes posts.

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Some Thoughts... I guess: Promised

Promised

by Caragh M. O'Brien
Book 3 (final) of Birthmarked trilogy

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  1.5 Stars

-- SPOILER ALERT --

**This is the third and last book in the Birthmarked trilogy and so the following review may have information that could spoil the reading experience of the previous two books if you have not yet read them. Please proceed with caution.**

So let’s get straight to the point:

The concluding book in the Birthmarked trilogy was honestly kind of unnecessary and felt out of place.

As I had already stated in a previous post, I’m not sure I understand what was actually going on in this book. Birthmarked had been a mediocre read, but it still had a good concept, a strong enough story line, well-developed characters, and enough interest to keep me hooked. It wasn’t the best book in the world, but I still enjoyed it. I went on to read Prized because I wanted to know what would happen to Gaia and how the entire dystopian aspect would be settled. But Prized turned out to be fairly disappointing: all the typical YA tropes that hadn’t been used in Birthmarked found their way into Prized and a lot of other things about the book didn’t make much sense either.

So I’d been hesitant to start reading the last book Promised without some outside motivation.

And so I stuck the darn book on two different Reading Challenges.

I had a small inkling of hope that things would turn out a bit better. Prized had to have used up the YA quotas of love polygonal angst and “speshul snowflake” main character clichés, right?

Guess not.


The Story in Brief:
So after all the too many events from Prized that I don’t really remember, the Birthmarked story line takes Gaia and her people (now that she’s a teenage leader of a large community) back to where she had started out from: the Enclave, Wharfton, the Wall that divides up the rich from the working class… the place where people outside the wall are expected to give up their babies for the honor of letting people inside the wall raise them as their own.

But Gaia was a runaway fugitive and Leon is a man despised by his own adoptive father, the Protectorat, who wouldn’t hesitate to use his own manipulations to get what he wants, even if other people have to die or suffer.

Gaia and Leon are now engaged to be married. The people of Sylum are bent on creating New Sylum with hopes for a better life. But the Protectorat of the Enclave still stands in everyone’s way.


My Thoughts:
This book was ill-executed (as had been the case with Prized).

That is the only reason I can think of as to why nothing made any sense at all and why all the characters we had sort of had respect for ended up being flimsy excuses for main characters and heroes of the people.

As I had mentioned before in my previous post, I don’t remember being so annoyed with Gaia in Birthmarked. She had been strong, resourceful, and intelligent. She had her priorities straight. She had a purpose. She wasn’t so naïve.

I remember that Birthmarked was one of the first few YA dystopians I had read back when they were first becoming popular. I was in a phase of having just finished the entire Hunger Games trilogy in one marathon read and needed to find another, similar type of story to satisfy my Bookish needs.

Having just discovered Goodreads at this same time, I started looking to the whole “similar books other readers enjoyed” recommendations options provided.

Being that a good number of YA books are written in the first person POV (which is probably my least favorite POV, but I deal with it because, BOOKS), I was happy to see that Birthmarked was written in a third person POV.

And I also found it great that Gaia wasn’t (supposedly) a typical YA heroine. She had a scar on her face, she had her personality flaws, she reacted naturally to everything that happened to her. Sure, she wasn’t the best candidate for rebellion hero for the people in this dystopian, but she had time to grow and develop, and that was what she did throughout that first book.

But then Prized came along and backtracked a lot of her growth, opting, instead, to make Gaia that special YA female lead who attracts all the men, solves all the mysteries with her limited intelligence, and becomes the savior of all the people by doing… stuff.

And now, in Promised Gaia further cements her “speshul” status by being the leader of her people who is loved by all despite the fact that she makes really bad decisions, comes up with ill-conceived strategies, can’t control her own people, and doesn’t have any foresight into the “Bigger Picture”. I mean, her plan was to get back to Wharfton and the Enclave and request assistance from the Protectorat so that she and her people could start a new little community. And it surprised me that she thought she could just waltz right back into her old home and get exactly what she wanted without any problems.

She left the Enclave as a wanted fugitive--did she really think the Protectorat would welcome her back with open arms and fulfill her every request without giving her any trouble?

What irked me the most about her was that, as the leader of New Sylum, she doesn’t act like it. She gets arrested upon arrival and still she continues to attempt “playing nice” with the Protectorat without any back-up or contingency plans. The Protectorat manipulates her in brutal ways time and again and she still believed that she could find peace with him, that his people and her people could all live together under some misguided sense of comradery. And whenever any one of her closest people came up with any plans for her to think about, she immediately shoots it down with her own twisted logic and being all, “No, this is not how we are going to run New Sylum. I know what needs to be done and I’ll thank you to stop disobeying me even though I make really bad decisions, too.”

So doesn't make her decisions based on what she feels is best for her people.  It just feels like she makes her decisions based on what she stubbornly believes to be the "right way" to settle a new community, even if it means endangering her life, her friends' lives, and the rest of the people of New Sylum's lives.  Because she makes really bad decisions.

She should be thinking about her people and what's best for them.  As the leader they look to for guidance and commands, she shouldn't be trouncing off and almost getting herself killed.  As the leader trying to establish a new community and see her people to a new and safe life worth living, she shouldn't be negotiating terms with the Protectorat while at his mercy without any fallback plans; especially after he threatens her and her people time and again.

She knows what kind of a person he is and what kind of an army he employs and knows that they wouldn't question razing her New Sylum to the ground without hesitation.  So why, oh why, was she so stubbornly set against having a fallback battle plan just in case the Protectorat decides to squash all of them rather than extend that friendly hand in peaceful alliance that he was never going to extend in the first place?

No one else in the book made sense either. Leon would go trouncing off on his own to wreak his own havoc without consulting anyone, which then caused Gaia to go after him rather than holding her place as her community’s leader and taking charge. The Protectorat and his wife would arrest or torture Gaia and then claim that she has a place with them in their baby factory as a guest, claim that she and her people are the terrorists, claim that Leon is the monster and a murderer, then turn around and arrest and torture her some more.

And, again, all this time, Gaia is still hopeful that she can come to peaceful terms with the Protectorat and get her people what they need to have.

Honestly, a rebellion against the Protectorat should have started up two books ago, and Gaia should not be the leader of that. Maybe she could be the symbol of the rebellion, but an emotional teenager who makes really bad decisions should never be the leader of any war. Especially since she keeps putting herself and everyone else into danger by acting on her own ill-conceived ideas.

But in the end, everyone still loves her and everyone still believes she’s the only one who can lead them into equal rights and freedom.

This last book felt like it was written with no direction, and that the story’s events were randomly plucked out of thin air as the author thought of them. Nothing really made any sense. I’m going to admit right now that I skim-read a good portion of the last half of Promised. At least the book was short.


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This book is a pre-chosen participant in the following Reading Challenge(s):

• 2015 TBR Pile Challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader
• 2015 Reading Assignment Challenge hosted by Because Reading and Fantasy is More Fun

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in June 2015.

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Thoughts: Rook

Rook

by Sharon Cameron
**based on The Scarlet Pimpernel

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.0 Stars

See Also:  Rook Reading Updates as well as the random post Another One Bites the Dust.  Both include reading progress updates I have written, and the latter also includes a side tangent of musings.

I have the distinct feeling I just didn’t really know how to appreciate this book. Or I just didn’t really understand it. From page one, the narration and events and scene changes were confusing despite the fact that the prose was actually written quite well, quite beautifully, actually. The story progression was slow-paced, and twists and turns were so deliberate that you could see them coming miles away. And, at first, the constant flipping back and forth of POVs, picking up phrases where the previous POV left off to draw upon some sort of coincidental narrative structure to continue another character's narration, was kind of attractive; however, by the end of the book, it felt overdone.

However, if it is one thing that frustrated me the most about this book, it was the feeling that it could have been a hundred pages shorter. The real action and the real conflict don’t even start until a hundred pages into the story. Everything leading up to it, I found flat and drawn out--it wasn’t that it was insignificant, but it could have been shortened.

Then the rest of the book went through another zig-zag of intriguing-to-draggy, then back again. Wash, rinse, repeat.

My enjoyment for this book took on a sort of up-and-down, old-fashioned roller coaster ride of interest. I even pictured a graph in my head... and then went on to create one:

 

My enjoyment range:

• Boring = 0
• Meh = 25
• Average = 50
• Hmm... interesting = 75
• Exciting! = 100

At least there's an upward trend, right?


The Story in Brief:
It took me a while to realize that this book’s setting was a futuristic world where technology has fallen and no one remembers the society of our current modern day industrialization and advancements. Instead, cultural day-to-day has gone backwards into a more historical-era-like time when wealthy families married off their daughters for power or money or alliances, and girls were supposed to be trophy wives of the innocent and bimbo-like variety and only concern themselves with finding a husband and looking pretty and being superficial.

It was a little hard to grasp, to be honest, and for the first few chapters I had thought I’d been reading an historical fantasy with an alternate reality of oppressive government. Instead, Rook is actually a futuristic dystopian--something I didn’t realize until Sophia described an “ancient artifact” from the “Time Before” that sounded suspiciously like a Nintendo 64 game controller.

And so then we learn the backhistory:

The present world in Rook is a time when modern technology has failed the people and ruined the world and so has become “extinct” (for lack of a better description). And now any such machines or advancements are strictly forbidden in the new world and anyone who is found to associate with technology have been arrested for treason. Any and all who oppose this new regime will be executed.

Enter the Red Rook who is the savior of the people, entering the tombs to free wrongfully captured prisoners, helping them to escape the condemning Razor. This mysterious individual has garnered the attention of the current governing regime in Paris and a search for the infamous Red Rook by the ambitious and dangerous Albert LeBlanc has lead to the Bellamy household in the Commonwealth across the sea.

Sophia Bellamy, in the meantime, is getting ready for her engagement to René Hasard in order to help her family keep their estate. Her father has wasted away his life as well as the Bellamy assets, acquiring a huge amount of debt that his children, Tomas and Sophia, will have to pay off when he is gone. Tomas has an injured knee that disallows him the opportunity to make his fortune as a soldier in order to take over Bellamy household.

Law has decreed that Tomas cannot inherit his father's home or possessions, but that he must make his own money in order to earn what Daddy Bellamy leaves behind. Of course, the law has no qualms about Tomas inheriting Daddy Bellamy's debts, though, and won't hesitate to arrest him if he cannot produce the sum necessary to pay off his father's debts.

And among all of this, the oppressive leaders of Paris have pinpointed the Red Rook’s identity to that of an individual of the Bellamy home.


My Thoughts:
As I had stated, this book was a hundred pages too long and it feels like there is entirely too much going on sometimes.

But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy it. In fact, I really did LOVE Sophia Bellamy.

She is revealed as being the Red Rook from the beginning, thus referencing the “game of cat and mouse”, noted in the official blurb, between her and her proposed fiancé, René Hasard. Neither of the two are what they seem with Sophia keeping the secret of the Red Rook and René searching for information about the Red Rook.

The excitement of this so called “cat and mouse” chase, however, felt quashed in light of the fact that we already can predict what’s going to happen, as well as how deliberately deliberate each twist and turn was so painstakingly written. There was no sense of urgency or suspense, and instead, I simply found myself falling asleep a few times while reading the first part of Rook.

Then Sophia and René team up and THAT’s when things start getting a bit more intriguing.

Sophia Bellamy has all the traits and potential for being a badass main female hero. She’s smart, resourceful, head-strong, and has an eye for detail and strategy. Her penchant for leadership is strong, and she doesn’t hesitate to get the job done. She revels in the excitement of being a hero, saving people, and challenging the oppressive, corrupt governing of the Premier Allemande in Paris. And she willingly goes head to head with the dangerous LeBlanc without batting an eye.

In contrast, the guys were kind of irritating. There are more important things going on, but our resident triangular male-posturing must endure so that both Spear and René can piss in a circle around Sophia to determine who’s a better candidate for her hand in marriage. And all this time Sophia has already left the circle with bigger fish to fry. It was a little disheartening, because René had so much potential to be a kickbutt male hero, even if Spear was just the standard YA third wheel of the non-triangle of this romance.

In turn, this all just goes and helps make Sophia look much more badass. Not that I’m complaining or anything, because we need more strong female characters to save the day in YA books, who have much more important things on their minds outside of romance, and who don’t hesitate to go after the romance they desire without making it all about angst and such.


Rook is an extremely well-written fantasy/futuristic/dystopian whatever-genre-it-is book, and my only disappointment was that it was slow to start and then had trouble staying on track. The beginning was flat and boring to me, then things got exciting, and then we zig-zag up and down that roller coaster for a while before finally ending the book with an exciting bang, even if the narration got a little clunky.

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This review was originally posted at Ani's Book Abyss / BookLikes in June 2015.

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