Review: BRAVE NEW LOVE: 15 DYSTOPIAN TALES OF DESIRE

Stars: 4/5

 Format: Paperback

 Read: April 29, 2012

The average of all the individual stars was 3.6, but I rounded up.

Just a small disclaimer, I have nothing against gay/lesbian/bi/etc. couples, I am critiquing the writing only.

This book had the “brave” and some of the “new”, but love was lacking in some of the stories. Please be aware that five of these stories do have gay/lesbian/bi themes so if you don’t like it, skip those stories. They will be noted in the individual reviews below.

HIDDEN RIBBON by John Shirley
4.5 stars- Good world building, a fast paced story, and a sweet romance. Classic dystopian world with a sealed bubble that only the elite can live and thrive in and the rest of the contaminated world for the rest of them. Girl gets invited in, boy loves her and can’t go, and conflict ensues.

THE SALT SEA AND THE SKY by Elizabeth Bear
2.5 stars- Two girls, in a world where women are only allowed to procreate with a man or run away. The main character only has her heart set on running away and seemingly is indifferent to Shaun, the love of her life. Shaun proclaims her love to Billie several more times, but the characters were flat and the situation was further exacerbated by cliched lesbian stereotypes. The story just didn’t have a very strong foundation.

IN THE CLEARING by Kiera Cass
4.5 stars- A great dystopian society coupled with a group that has essentially “defected” made for a great short story. This rogue group have made themselves ‘Borrowers’ of a sort by taking essentials from the proper society. This story could definitely become a novel, even if the idea was already written in UNDER THE NEVER SKY. Great character building in such a small allotment of pages.

OTHERWISE by Nisi Shawl
3.5 stars- Gritty and rough, two lesbians (one bi) plan an escape to a safe compound to find Aim’s boyfriend. Oh, and they randomly pick up a kid. Being dropped in mid-story doesn’t help matters and it kept me confused until the end. However, there are no lesbian stereotypes and the “in your face” characters were endearing. As far as dystopians go, there’s no clear reason why the world fell apart and in this case a reason would really help the story.

NOW PURPLE WITH LOVE’S WOUND- Carrie Vaughn
3.5 stars- A very dull and overused storyline, this story is not distinctly dystopian. A middle class girl is chosen to be the wife of the Warlord’s son. The question is, was she made to love him by serum or has she always loved him? The son’s a wimp, lamenting about how he loves her but can’t trust her love is real. The girl, meanwhile, dangerously explores ways to prove her love, yadda yadda. Dull, cliched, and had me rooting for no one’s happiness.

BERSERKER EYES by Maria V. Snyder
5 stars- I have always loved Maria V. Snyder’s stories, and this one is no exception. We’re thrown right in the thick of things and the story unfolds with the perfect amount of information given at just the right times. There’s great world building in such a short span of “time” and beautifully polished characters. The characters are deliciously dark and brooding and the story is constructed wonderfully.

AROSE FROM POETRY by Steve Berman
2 stars- Another unfortunate gay couple built of stereotypes. The story started out promising with a strong lead named Tetch, but it was negated completely by weak and wimpy Allard who is young, privileged, and pretty and that’s pretty much it. Very short and not very sweet, the kiss at the end is overshadowed by the very unbelieveable “whoah, even though I’m a teen, I have all of a sudden realized I’m gay RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT and this has never occurred to me before!” Come on, please.

RED by Amanda Downum
4.5 stars- A lesbian couple comprised of one human and one zombie. I sense a new and promising story! There’s fantastic world building and characterization with a few major stereotypical relationships thrown in. I actually enjoyed this spin.

FOUNDLINGS by Diana Peterfreund
4 stars- Twin sisters, one pregnant and one not. Mix in a hot young male agent and a freaky government spy program for young unwed teens, and this could go several directions. Good characterization and decent, plausible actions made for a good read.

SEEKERS IN THE CITY by Jeanne DuPrau
4 stars- Two pre-teens catch a glimpse of one another and make it their mission to find each other once more. Sweet, but a little juvenile and pointless lacking a moving plot like her previous novel (which I loved) THE CITY OF EMBER.

THE UP by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
4 stars- A civilization living underground can’t sustain their lifestyle and must leave their settlement to go above ground to survive is a bit of a worn plot, but this story has some unique sparks to it. The fact that there is communication between other settlements is new, as is the knowledge of the above world. There are careful inbreeding rules enforced that made the plot a bit more realistic (honestly, you’d think that most dystopian writers don’t think through their worlds). This story is mostly a compilation of previously used ideas, but it was a good read nonetheless.

THE DREAM EATER by Carrie Ryan
4.5 stars- Dark and confusing, the main male character is in love with the Cruce, a girl chosen to come every night and take any memories associated with pain or shame from the entire settlement. She’s disgusting and horrible, yet every night the male lead remembers he loved this girl before she became the Cruce, just for a moment before it’s taken from him. Good, but confusing.

357 by Jesse Karp
4 stars- Brilliant world building but super confusing, the protagonist falls in love with a girl who may or may not exist and goes in search of her in the building where each floor is inaccessible from the rest. There are 357 known floors and secrets abound.

ERIC AND PAN by William Sleator
2.5 stars- One of the lamest stories in this entire anthology. This story is also about two gay boys who sneak around and see each other secretly. That’s it. No clear worldly civilization distress, just two flat characters making gaga eyes at each other. Disappointing.

THE EMPTY POCKET by Seth Cadin
2 stars- I honestly could not make heads or tails out of this story. I just know it involves minds, computers, and deserts. I couldn’t even find the love or the bravery.

Review: THE PLEDGE

Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback from the library

 Read: June 2, 2012

I have had my eye on this book for a while and, seeing as my summer vacation has begun, I checked it out at the library. The synopsis was interesting if a little cliched, so I gave it a chance. Luckily, this book was a fairly strong hit!

Charlie, our heroine, was independent and didn’t take crap from anyone which is always a good foundation to begin with. She was loyal to a fault to her silent but adorable four-year-old sister and did a very good job hiding her talent of understanding languages she shouldn’t know. Brooklyn her best friend was a shallow girl with depth; she didn’t feel like a bunch of cliches thrown together and she complimented Charlie very well.

However, though I loved the romance, it was just too flat. I felt that it was a beautiful and lyrical story covered with a thin veneer of grime that didn’t let through all the shine. Plus, the villain was lacking. That could have been because we hardly got to see about the queen, but I just wasn’t fearing for anyone’s life from her. I get it; she’s ancient and big and bad and has magic that can kill, but I was left asking “so what?”. There were also weird random chapters from either Max’s or the Queen’s perspective in the third person (as opposed to first person with Charlie’s chapters) which were nice, but not consistent and, like I mentioned, not in the first person. It didn’t ruin the flow of the book too much, but didn’t exactly add too much to it either. Most of Max’s chapters happened before you really knew or cared about him and the effect was kind of wasted.

It was a bit predictable and wasn’t anything super wowing and going where no dystopian has before, but it was a good ride. If there is a sequel, I will read it. But it didn’t make much of an impression. A good two or three day read while waiting for a new summer release.

Review: INSURGENT

Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback

 Read: May 9, 2012

I wasn’t very impressed with this book as DIVERGENT. Granted, I read DIVERGENT over a year ago, but I don’t remember the characters being so… flat. Tris was suffering PTSD the entire book, with good reason, but the spark that made the characters come to life and envelop me wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened between this book and the previous one, but while it was good enough to read, I tore through it desperate to prove to myself that it was me and not the book that was lacking.

I understand the liberties the author took in not “recapping” what happened, and it was very nice not to waste thirty or so pages doing that, but I also think that you can transition better than that. The entire time Tris was in her own mind (which did get annoying, but at least it was accurate) I wanted to slap Four and ask him exactly when he became lackluster and started to be distant. I found myself just simply not caring, no matter how much I struggled against that feeling.

Four stars because it is decent, long, and does give you a little reward for reading it. There’s reconciliation, tiny bits of character building, and some new characters I found I liked. But it was just a book that left me with little memory of what I read, even though I read it as slowly as I could stand.

Read if you liked DIVERGENT and hope that you feel the same good vibe I do for the next book, because otherwise it would be such a shame to waste such potential.

Review: BLACK HEART

Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback

 Read: April 5, 2012

First off, I hate the fact that they changed the cover when the first two in the series are similar. I don’t particularly like this cover either. It’s too retro ’70s and doesn’t match the first two with the awesome models posing like gangsters. Why can’t they just give me the option to buy a cover similar to the first two? It’s messing with my OCD, not even kidding.

This was a decent end to the series. In the first two, there was a lot of people “working” people, using their powers, and even an exploration of what powers are and how they came to be. There isn’t a lot of that in this book by comparison. However, what there is totally makes up for the slight blandness of the story. You get to learn more about Cassel’s powers, his flirtation with the feds and what he deems “the good side” of his life, and the one and only love of his life. I was mostly satisfied.

The book series as a whole leaves me lacking. I sort of feel like I’m talking with a person who just has a forgettable face and personality and leaves me with no impression whatsoever. That’s not to say that it isn’t very well written with strong characters, it’s just that it isn’t my favorite nor will it ever stand out in my mind as a series that impacted me one way or the other. Cassel will forever be a fantastic inherent “bad” guy always trying to be good, but he left me with nothing to aspire to daydream with.

All that aside, if you’ve read the first two books, you must read this one because I believe Black did a good job ending the story. Plus I did care quite a bit about Cassel and his views on life, even if he wasn’t very memorable to me. So I enjoyed it, but it was more like a small snack before a big meal in terms of satisfaction in the long run.

P.S. Why is the cover art on the audio CD and Kindle version different than this ’70s pop art nightmare? That artwork would match my set! I demand a printing of it in hardback!!
In case you were wondering, this is the cover I found on Goodreads for the Kindle and Audio CD version. It also MATCHES.

Review: BEDBUGS

 Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback

 Read: March 15, 2012

This was an interesting read. I got a free copy from the publisher to review and it’s been sitting on my shelf for a few months. I finally had enough spare time to read it and it only took me about a day or so to finish it.

This is more of a psychological thriller than a haunting, though it’s also both and neither. An enigma, if I were to pinpoint a word for it. The book takes you through a stressful move to a new apartment, but time moves very fluidly. For instance, one week happens in about fifty or so pages whereas three weeks can happen in less than twenty pages. In the first week, the base of the whole story is built and after that subsequent turmoil builds from there.

I haven’t read many psychological thrillers (I’m more of a ghost/haunting/paranormal girl myself) but the book also includes a very twisted dash of paranormal to keep me hooked. This is a book I could read in the dead of night and not scare myself silly (not a frequent occurrence, mind you)and in fact did read well into the night. I honestly didn’t foresee circumstances entirely, which kind of added to the addiction of knowing you were half right but not knowing what you missed or why.

It did, in my opinion, end abruptly and yank me to a close when there were still some significant (in my mind) plot threads that needed tying, but I don’t think I wasted my time in reading it. Keep in mind the F word is sprinkled throughout, but less so than say a Rizzoli and Isles novel. In fact, I liked it better than a procedural because, well, there’s more action and less contemplating one’s navel. If you enjoy mild psychological thrillers or just are looking for a book suitable to kill an afternoon, this is a great book for you.

Review: ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS

 Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback

 Read: March 1, 2012

To say that I devoured this book is an understatement. Like a weirdo, I read LOLA AND THE BOY NEXT DOOR first so I kinda knew how the whole relationship between Anna and St. Clair would work so I was slightly disappointed that this book has so much… well drama. More drama than romance, really. Which was not like LOLA at all.

If there wasn’t so much teenage drama I would have given this book five stars. I am not against drama, not at all, because it keeps a story moving. The same drama over and over with different people? Yeah, that got on my nerves. To me, if you’re going to give me that much drama, give me more times where I feel good rather than painfully reliving my high school years and having no say in how it turns out.

Anna was likable, but I felt I got to know her through drama almost exclusively which tainted her in a slightly negative light. She likes movies, which is fine and dandy, but you learn very little about HER. You learn loads about St. Clair, which is very wonderful, but you can’t slightly neglect your other leading character otherwise it’s a bit noticeable. I liked Anna, which is why I wanted a little more of her. However, what you do see is almost the complete picture and I really cheered for her. I liked Lola better, but hey, I did read Lola first after all.

I thought that overall, this was a great ‘senior year’ type book dealing very practically with the ‘I’ll never see you again probably’ bit. Having been out of high school for four years now, it is bittersweet, but you know that you really weren’t that close otherwise you’d keep in touch. Perkins deals with this the best that I have seen in a young adult book ever. Yes, it is important since you’ve spent a year or more with these people, but in the end you make room for whomever you can’t live without.

I loved LOLA more but I am very happy with ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS, Perkin’s writing style and characters, and the romance. Small side note: The F word is present a handful and a half times in correct context, but I have never liked that word. Just in case you like to be warned.

Pick it up, you might be pleasantly surprised!

Review: A MILLION SUNS

  Stars: 4/5

 Format: Hardback 

 Read: February 9, 2012

I picked up ACROSS THE UNIVERSE at a Borders closing sale and thought ‘Hey, why not? The cover is very pretty and it sounds like it’s right up my alley.’ I was fairly impressed, felt that it had a good premise but I wasn’t in love. I bought its sequel and I really wasn’t wowed anymore than the first time.

The characters are the same, no one of significance is added, so I had to rely on the first book to showcase the characters. I felt that this book was ABOUT the characters but the characters themselves were static and didn’t move very much either in development or romance. I was indifferent to them, though I tried hard not to be. But fiery Amy felt dimmed and mischievous Elder, though he was supposed to evolve, really didn’t. The story evolved without the characters, like a piece of tapestry caught on a sharp edge while the tapestry itself is yanked in the opposite direction. It was awkward, but didn’t make the entire story crash down.

I highly enjoyed the mystery aspect of this book, how more of the ship is stumbled upon, a people without phydus, and a world more aware of Amy were dealt with by the people of Godspeed. There were enough pieces to keep me hooked despite the characters having trouble keeping up with the story.

Plus, the book is an entire crescendo and you want to ride the wave until the very end. Instead, it’s more of a gentle wave pool than the crashing ocean. You bob to the top of a tiny wave expecting it to go somewhere and it slowly levels out again.

Despite the mystery I was very unimpressed by the cliff-hanger left for me. When I finish a book that I enjoyed more than average, generally I can see when the next one is coming out and get moderately excited to see where the author goes with this. Whether I adored it or not, I still want to see where these characters will end up. I got to the title of the last in this trilogy, SHADES OF EARTH (coming in 2013), and was neutral. I didn’t much care either way whether or not I’d buy it, read it, or what could even happen with the story. I don’t know if it’s because the characters never connected with me or the pacing was strange or the fact that I never did have a connection with the story back in ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, I just didn’t have any feelings evoked in me.

I decided on four stars because it was a good, consistent sequel to ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and because the author did a good job sequencing events with some thrill of puzzle mysteries amidst the action. It just continued to not click fully with me.

Review: HOLLOWMEN and THE FAERIE RING

Stars: 4/5

 Format: Kindle Book

 Read: November 13, 2011

I’m sad to say I didn’t love this as much as the first book. It starts 6 months after Hollowland ended, and started fairly well. And then everything went to pot.

So they end up having to move, like usual, because no place is truly safe. I get that. Remy has to find her younger brother, so they take a detour to Arizona and I get that too. Remy is kind of emotionally damaged, so stuff isn’t quite so engaging for the reader. That’s fine. And then the author begins picking off characters. Which is also fine. However, the fact that Remy has basically turned into a flat, monotonous character that expresses few emotions and all shallowly is what bothered me.

When people begin to die, Remy doesn’t engage. I felt like I was reading the story through a fog, where everything was dampened and not always in a good way. I know she’s emotionally damaged, but I felt like this was an extreme that wasn’t plausible. So my favorite character is gone, there’s a whole slew of new characters, and other characters are mentioned in passing as dying. The whole story is very removed from Hollowland in a way that didn’t connect well at all with me.

I didn’t feel the characters at all. In fact, I went from Hollowland being my favorite to mourning the characters and story prematurely in Hollowmen. Because whatever spark that was in the first book, was gone from this one. I might also be overly disappointed because I had anticipated this sequel for so long that I sort of built a fairly large expectation, but even looking at it from a neutral stand point, I just did not connect with this book.

However, I will read any subsequent books in this series and hope that Remy will find her way back to us.

 Stars: 3/5

 Format: ARC Book Won

 Read: October 18, 2011

After so much hype and a gorgeous cover, I deeply wanted this book. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC, only to be highly disappointed by the book itself.

The characters are fascinating, if a bit slow to develop, but the plot was the main problem. It felt that the author was overenthusiastic about writing and pours out several plot threads at once, most of which having nothing to do with the main agenda of the book. Tiki steals to care for her family, oh wait she has a mysterious birthmark-tattoo on her wrist, on wow she happens to be inside Buckingham palace and happens to have a ring fall right in front of her, she takes it… and then the writing changes completely. It’s like two different writers tried to fit the same book idea and characters into one novel. The writing starts declining from “mediocre” to “childish” to “high schooler trying to write a book and make it big with no regards to prose or character development”. It wasn’t too bad, until everything is resolved. Then everything magically turns out okay; all that was missing was “and they lived happily ever after”. Which, you know, is fine in some circumstances, but felt like silk tacked on to a burlap sack. It just doesn’t fit together, no matter what you do.

Even the lore was weak, if nonexistent, to the point where I had no reservations on whether or not the agent even read any faerie books before taking this one on. I wanted to love it so much, even just like it, but in the end I just couldn’t. It was a rocky “oh well this is getting better” only to turn to the next chapter and have it decline again.

It was just painful to read, having so much potential gradually get burned to dust. You’re welcome to try it, but don’t expect too much or your soul will cry a little.

Review: THE DEMON’S SURRENDER and FIRE

After leaving my blog for dead, I have returned haggard but alive. My major is eating me alive, testing my every move so that when I stumble it can laugh at my show of weakness and mock me. (In case you were wondering what kind of hideous major could do that, my answer is molecular biology coupled with organic chemistry and physics classes.) As a bonus at the end of this post, I will have a picture of me for you in my lab coat looking professional.

Stars: 4/5

Format: Hardback personal copy

Read: October 6, 2011

I disagree that the point of view ruined this book. It didn’t, not completely. I liked Sin alright, she was dynamic and interesting, but compared to Alan, Mae, Nick, and Jamie, she can’t win. Taking this point of view was a challenge, mainly because in order to include all the facts that are needed, Sin does a lot of creepy stalking in the shadows. More often than not, there’s an entire scene in which Sin is watching interactions from outside a door without voicing a thought in her head and you forget that it’s from her point of view.

Also, there were some loose plot threads. For example, you see Jamie from Sin’s eyes, and all of his struggles are shrugged off because Sin has written him off as a magician gone to the dark side. Mae (lovable Mae whom I fell in love with in The Demon’s Covenant)is a rival and is viewed in a not so nice light, and the interactions with Alan were just flat (not Alan himself, but Sin because she’s not so dynamic). Plus you never really find out what becomes of Sin’s little sister and brother, other than “they live happily ever after” together. I was interested in that bit (though it was a hugely side plot) and I got nothing.

Was it a good book by itself? Yes. Was it a good companion book to the series? Yeah, more or less. Was it a good way to end an awesome action-packed and witty trilogy? No. If this book was a stand alone, in addition to a book with no Sin POV, I think people would like it more. As it is, I don’t believe becoming experimental in side characters at the end of a three or so year trilogy with very vocal fans was the greatest choice. However, I enjoyed the book, even if it wasn’t quite up to par.

If you enjoyed The Demon’s Lexicon and Covenant, pick up this book. But I’d wait for a price drop because there’s a high chance you’ll be a little disappointed and paying too much for it will fuel your frustrations.

Stars: 5/5

Format: Hardback personal copy

Read: October 1, 2011

After reading Graceling, I was super excited to pick up anything with Kristin Cashore’s name on it. I went to Amazon in search of her next masterpiece, only to find her next book didn’t involve any characters from Graceling. In fact, it was termed “a companion”. The word companion usually means nothing good in the world of a reader, and I didn’t buy it. If I were honest, I flat out refused. But shopping at McKay’s used bookstore here in Nashville, I came across a beautiful, pristine copy and picked it up for almost 75% off. I wasn’t disappointed.

Where I thought that Kristin Cashore couldn’t match the characters in Graceling, she most definitely did. Fire is lyrical, witty, funny, and lovable. She is so different from Katsa, an entirely different species in fact, yet I found myself loving her just as I had done with Katsa. The characters are beautifully woven, like fine silk and rubbed to perfection. Fire has weaknesses, but she’s not weak. She’s complicated, ashamed of herself, but so utterly and undeniably human at heart you can’t help but want her to come out on top.

Of course there’s a romance, no novel from Kristin Cashore could be complete without one, and it’s fairly obvious who is going to hook up with whom. However, in another typical Kristin Cashore plot thread, you never can quite predict much else. Fire had me entranced, where no chapter was boring and I only skipped ahead once just to make sure nothing horrible (such as the world ending) was about to happen before I turned in for the night. This is a rare feat for me, since I have little control over my eyes and brain impulses with books.

Pick it up. If you didn’t want to because there was no Katsa, do it anyways. You will love Fire and you will adore the complicated Archer and the elusive prince and his brother the king. You will not go wrong and it will be money well spent.

Review: Limerick: A Faerie Tale Girl Novella, #2

Stars: 4/5

Version: Kindle

Read: July 31, 2011

I got this ebook free from www.librarything.com in exchange for a review.

A very good sequel to the first novella, it starts off a little oddly in that a good chunk of time has passed, but doesn’t keep you lost for very long. You get to know Jensen’s “dad” some more, learn about her powers, and find some very interesting information about her best friend’s family.

The romance was a little off in this book. I felt that we were on a paranormal romance track in the first novella and the second was “let’s focus on more lore, but oh I have a romance. Let’s break it up temporarily!” kinda thing. Which is okay, but it didn’t transition very well and left me squirming without a real reason why I was feeling that way.

BUT I did like this novella better than the first in that more things were coming together. I am definitely going to spend some money to buy the sequel AND the prequel as well, I liked it that much!