Seraphina Review

Summary: Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Folding themselves into human shape, dragons attend court as ambassadors, and lend their rational, mathematical minds to universities as scholars and teachers. As the treaty's anniversary draws near, however, tensions are high.

Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murdered-in suspiciously draconian fashion. Seraphina is drawn into the investigation, partnering with the captain of the Queen's Guard, the dangerously perceptive Prince Lucian Kiggs. While they begin to uncover hints of a sinister plot to destroy the peace, Seraphina struggles to protect her own secret, the secret behind her musical gift, one so terrible that its discovery could mean her very life.

My thoughts: I did not expect to finish this book with tears in my eyes. I’d expect that kind of reaction from a John Green novel or some other contemporary story, but not a book about dragons. Because as impressive as Hartman’s take on dragons are, it’s strange to find that my favorite parts weren’t the fantastical beings or the greatly imaginative world, but the emotional, intimate moments.

Seraphina is so delightfully layered and spellbinding without even trying and it’s because of the characters more than anything else. Do you want to know how you can have a story that includes basically any concept in the world? You get us to care about the characters. When you start with that kind of solid foundation, something to hold on to, readers will follow you anywhere. Even more so if you can make them relatable.

In so many ways, Seraphina is a product of two worlds. And yet she feels separated from both. She longs for things she thinks she can never have, and if that isn’t relatable I don’t know what is: The need to belong, to feel accepted and loved.

Not to mention that while she learns more about herself, the “peace” between humans and dragons threatens to come undone. But simply replace the words human and dragon with two new distinctive groups, be it by race, sex, or anything else, it’s easy to see how this equates to real life. We often separate ourselves in so many ways, producing the temptation to hate what is different, rather than to celebrate it and try to understand it.

So as Seraphina works to accept herself and to be open to the love she deserves, her two worlds must decide whether they can continue to coexist and learn to accept each other. The former issue is addressed throughout the story, in a coming-of-age way that made me more emotional than I thought I’d be. The latter issue is still being worked on, with enough deep-rooted problems to see why a second book would be helpful.

I look forward to continuing Seraphina’s journey. To see her sacrifice for what she believes in, to see her grow, knowing that she’s good enough, that she’s loved, and that she has a gift. One that might help bring real peace between her two worlds.

Blacklist Review: The Babysitter

General information: My current dream/goal is to be a screenwriter, but I’ve been pretty bad at following one of the cardinal rules of writing. If you want to be a better writer, read a lot. I’ve fallen off in that department, so this is a way to publicly announce and hopefully fix my problem. I’m going to read through the 2014 Blacklist screenplays (in no particular order) and review as many as I can here. Starting with--

Blacklist Review #1: The Babysitter

A lonely twelve year old boy in love with his babysitter discovers some hard truths about life, love, and murder.

To be honest, I’m not sure how The Babysitter ended up working as well as it did. But it was quick, simple, and a whole lot of fun, finding a way to be playful yet self-aware, regardless of the rules the writer decided not to follow.

The way screenplays are generally structured, something out of the ordinary has to happen around 15 pages in. But nothing like that happened until the end of the first act. And I didn’t mind it at all. Setting up Cole’s world and the dynamic between Cole and Bee carried me the entire first 30 pages. You got a feel for Cole’s unease with himself as well as Bee’s self-confidence and what that should mean for his growth during the following pages. It’s still a coming-of-age story despite the murder.

The first act was like the beginning of a roller-coaster. That slow crawl upwards that gets you going just off of the anticipation. And just like a theme park ride, once it takes off, there’s no going back. After page 30, the story is at full speed. And since it takes place in one night (I love those kinds of movies), it feels like one continuous, epic scene.

The writer does a great job of ignoring what a lot of my teachers have told me not to do. Giving background info in the action lines in a way I don’t mind. Skipping some of the structured steps found in most scripts, because he doesn't seem to need it. Plus his dialogue could have become annoying and too wink-at-the-camera snappy, but he makes it clever and laugh out loud funny. Not to mention all the small moments he sets up that seem to have no relation to the plot, but comes back around in the most satisfying of ways. He breaks some rules. But it works. Plus, if you can get me to care about the character and keep the movie interesting, you have a good chance of keeping me entertained.

I’m pretty impressed with my first script read of this series. Well done Brian.

Side note: normally, when the bad guys are up to something, I eventually want to know what it is. I still know next to nothing regarding why the bad guys DID what they DID, and yet, it doesn’t matter.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Review

Summary: Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship- the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

My thoughts: There are stories so simple and to the point that it's startling. No dragons to slay. No princesses to rescue. Just your standard contemporary novel. Except that although it’s not a fantasy, maybe there is still something to defeat. And maybe there is still someone that needs to be rescued.

To say Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is about two best friends as they grow (sometimes apart, sometimes closer) into something more than boys, doesn't seem to do this story justice. This is about love and everything that that can mean. But that seems too vast of an explanation.

Like every single person in this book, love takes on a different form depending on who's expressing it. For every moment Dante wants to feel and acknowledge aloud, Aristotle wants to store away and ponder. To keep close and analyze. Ari's dad loves in silence. You can see the way Dante's mother feels just by a look. Ari's mother and Dante's dad through their words and in the way that they talk.

So out of all the secrets in the universe that need discovering, like what Ari's dreams mean, or why his parents won't talk about his older brother, the biggest secret of them all seems to be about self-discovery. Who am I? And what does that mean?

It's weird growing up and learning who you are. Whether you're becoming more of yourself or less. I'm not a teenager anymore, but I can remember how fragile you can feel when everything about you seems unclear, especially your feelings and who you feel them for. But when you see these characters grow and change and learn to accept, it's a reminder. Some secrets are meant to be shared. Some discoveries are meant to change you. And when they do, those who love you will still be there.

Earth Girl Review

Summary: A sensational YA science fiction debut from an exciting new British author. Jarra is stuck on Earth while the rest of humanity portals around the universe. But can she prove to the norms that she’s more than just an Earth Girl?

2788. Only the handicapped live on Earth. While everyone else portals between worlds, 18-year-old Jarra is among the one in a thousand people born with an immune system that cannot survive on other planets. Sent to Earth at birth to save her life, she has been abandoned by her parents. She can’t travel to other worlds, but she can watch their vids, and she knows all the jokes they make. She’s an ‘ape’, a ‘throwback’, but this is one ape girl who won’t give in.

Jarra invents a fake background for herself – as a normal child of Military parents – and joins a class of norms that is on Earth to excavate the ruins of the old cities. When an ancient skyscraper collapses, burying another research team, Jarra’s role in their rescue puts her in the spotlight. No hiding at back of class now. To make life more complicated, she finds herself falling in love with one of her classmates – a norm from another planet. Somehow, she has to keep the deception going.

A freak solar storm strikes the atmosphere, and the class is ordered to portal off-world for safety – no problem for a real child of military parents, but fatal for Jarra. The storm is so bad that the crews of the orbiting solar arrays have to escape to planet below: the first landing from space in 600 years. And one is on collision course with their shelter.

My Thoughts: With YA, I’ve read a lot of books where the main female character is supposed to be special, but doesn’t know why. And that, by itself, is OK. I think a lot of people in real life don’t understand why they’re special, but it doesn’t mean it’s not true. Unfortunately, in these kinds of books, the character reminds you repeatedly how unsure of themselves they are at each turn.  It happens to mirror some real life problems women deal with, but that’s a longer story. What was refreshing about Jarra is that I didn’t have to be concerned with that. She was exceptional, and she didn’t go off questioning it or apologizing for it.

Another standout aspect was the worldbuilding. This society that’s been built around portals, with their social caste and past that mirrors the 21st century, was so imaginative. By the beginning chapters, I was almost salivating with the thought of how cinematic this was. And that whatever problems Jarra faced to get what she wanted would be awesome to watch unravel. But here’s where things get a bit murky. Jarra’s main problems came from herself, which isn’t abnormal in a man vs. self-type conflict. But there were other problems that seemed to suggest man vs. nature, except there was no deeper connection between the inner and outer conflict.  The “rescue missions” (I won’t say more than that) didn’t tie in well enough to the internal problem.

Or maybe my issue was that Edwards set up a world where something bigger could have happened. Like, don’t give me a Star Trek world and have the whole story take place on earth. That’s what it felt like. Jarra’s personal problems could have been in the midst of a bigger/deeper “world” problem, but it wasn’t. With that said, I’m aware that this is the first of a series. And because I loved Jarra and the world, and could still see where a second book could redeem the story, I won’t give up on this series. It has too much potential!

Update: I just read the premise of the second book, and it sounds like what I wanted to happen during the first book!

The 5th Wave review

Summary: The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

My Thoughts: I read a blog post a couple of weeks back about insight into what people working at book publishing companies look for in a manuscript. To sum it up, there was nothing special this particular person was looking for. No wizards over dragons, or road trips instead of dying patients. But something that was interesting is that this person always looked forward to the novel about a subject that they weren’t really into. Basically, if you wrote about something she didn’t really like and made her like it, then the book was really good. The 5th Wave is my supreme example of that.

To my knowledge, I’ve never read a book about, pertaining to, or including aliens. I avoid it. I try my hardest, and sometimes fail to stop myself from rolling my eyes whenever my dad tells me he saw another show proving aliens exist. And I put books like this, at the bottom of the tbr list, because even though I’ll give it a try (because I’ve heard great things)… it’s still about aliens.

Here’s the thing. Books are repetitive. Stories are repetitive. There’s something a character wants, and the whole story is about either striving to get it, and getting it, or striving to get it, but not getting it (in that case they might get what they need rather than what they want.) This is pretty simple. And when life as you know it ends, it’s hard to talk about anything but grief. Well, Cassie could go on talking about grief and despair (and other things) for a full series and I’d still eat it up. She thinks brutally and honestly to the point that I’d start to get a feeling in my gut that maybe I shouldn’t roll my eyes too hard when dad starts talking about area 51. It felt that real.

As for the story, the way it was split up between the main characters seemed questionable at first, but it was all brought together perfectly by the end. I knew they would connect somehow, but I initially wondered how story A would line up with story B. And it didn’t happen the way I wanted it to. It actually turned out better than I could have imagined.

And the action! Even though we’re in characters heads a lot, there is so much action. I read the first chapter and immediately thought that this story was film-worthy. No wonder there was a deal for a movie before The 5th Wave was even released. There’s irony, which makes the best kind of stories (especially movies). There’s people you’re rooting for and people you’re suspicious about that seem to trade places out of nowhere. There’s heartbreak, and not kiddie heartbreak. I mean people suffering in terrible ways. And yet, there’s hope.  Hope that you’re a mayfly and not a cockroach (it’ll make sense if you read it), or a human and not a shark. And even though life is fleeting, that you’ll learn to use what little time you have left, alien invasion or not, to do something that matters.

Fangirl review

Summary: A coming-of-age tale of fan fiction, family and first love. 

Cath is a Simon Snow fan.

Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan . . .

But for Cath, being a fan is her life — and she’s really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it’s what got them through their mother leaving.

Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.

Cath’s sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can’t let go. She doesn’t want to.

Now that they’re going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn’t want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She’s got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words . . . And she can’t stop worrying about her dad, who’s loving and fragile and has never really been alone.

For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?

Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?

And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?

My thoughts: 433 pages later, and it's still really hard to believe that the woman who wrote Eleanor & Park wrote this. That book left me with an open wound. Fangirl left me smiling cheesily.  And I'm not trying to dismiss the hard parts of this book. The character's problems in Eleanor & Park were front and center for everyone to see, but Fangirl, not so much. Regardless, there's still lots of problems. Problems with siblings. Problems with family. Problems with boys. And problems with trying to be whole when people took pieces from you long ago. But all these troubles are intermixed with a lot of relatable good-natured positive aspects. Like new friendships, first loves, forgiveness, and an awareness of oneself like never before. 

And Fangirl speaks to me! The way Anna from Anna and the French Kiss did when I found out she wrote movie reviews. In a way, Cath is us!... Or better yet, Cath is me. The girl who is perfectly contempt with spending time with characters on a Friday night rather than going to a party, making pleasantries, and getting drunk (and the fact that I just said "making pleasantries and getting drunk" probably proves my point). 

For me, this story wasn't hard hitting. But I don't think it needed to be. I don't need every good book to break my heart. Sometimes I just need one that can heal it.

The Lost Hero review

Summary: Jason has a problem.

He doesn't remember anything before waking up on a school bus holding hands with a girl. Apparently he has a girlfriend named Piper. His best friend is a kid named Leo, and they're all students in the Wilderness School, a boarding school for "bad kids", as Leo puts it. What he did to end up here, Jason has no idea—except that everything seems very wrong.

Piper has a secret.

Her father, a famous actor, has been missing for three days, and her vivid nightmares reveal that he's in terrible danger. Now her boyfriend doesn't recognize her, and when a freak storm and strange creatures attack during a school field trip, she, Jason, and Leo are whisked away to someplace called Camp Half-Blood. What is going on?

Leo has a way with tools.

His new cabin at Camp Half-Blood is filled with them. Seriously, the place beats Wilderness School hands down, with its weapons training, monsters, and fine-looking girls. What's troubling is the curse everyone keeps talking about, and that a camper's gone missing. Weirdest of all, his bunkmates insist they are all—including Leo—related to a god

My Thoughts: I was excited about The Lost Hero for the pure fact that it was the beginning of a new series that still took place in the same world as Riordan's previous series. I loved being able to see old characters, but still having a new story to marvel over. I do admit that initially, I eyed Jason, Piper, and Leo with pre-judged contempt (sorry). It's like when new characters show up on my TV shows. I need a few episodes before I'm at ease with the situation (or not). And its not that I wanted the new trio to "match" Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. I just wanted them to stand out in their own way. I didn't want their quest to be underwhelming.

And it definitely wasn't! There's a mystery that the main characters are trying to solve, both in relation to their quest and to their leader's identity. Thanks to my love of Greek mythology, I tried to solve the latter (I didn't want to "pre-guess" their quest), but to no avail until characters dropped huge hints near the end of the book.

In both mysteries, I was impressed by Riordan's abilities to take this series to the next level. Everything seemed elevated. More things were at stake. And he won me over with the three main characters. They each had something in their personalities that made them endearing. They all had something in their pasts that made me sympathize. And this is just the beginning. I know I am behind in the series, but I'm positive that I'm in for a wild ride with the next three books. Up next: The Son of Neptune.

Anna and the French Kiss review

Goodreads description: Anna is looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. Which is why she is less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris-- until she meets Etienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Etienne has it all...including a serious girlfriend.

But in the City of Light, wishes have a way of coming true. Will a year of romantic near-misses end with their long-awaited French kiss?

 My Thoughts: When John Green said “Anna and the French Kiss is like Maureen Johnson and I had a baby, a French baby,” that was all I needed to hear. Not to mention that most of the story takes place in France, a place I can’t get enough of.

I was immediately sold, but for whatever reason, a good amount of time passed before I finally read it. And an outrageous amount of months flew by before remembering that I hadn’t reviewed it. So unfortunately I’ve forgotten many details about the story. Thankfully I remember some of the more important pieces. I remember liking that Anna and St. Clair became friends before anything else. Because St. Clair is in a relationship, they try to keep their boundaries. I love this for two reasons. For one, although if done well I don’t mind it, I was getting tired of these quick-all-consuming loves in other YA books. This relationship had a good foundation that expanded into something loving yet realistic.

So as their feelings grew, we got to see more of these characters, even the darker parts of their lives.  And we also got to see an Anna that didn’t “belong” to any guy. She’s the girl that hopes know one finds out who her father is. She’s the kind of person that loves movies and gets ecstatic over discovering independent cinemas. We also get to know about St. Clair and the struggles he’s having with his parents and his future. Those are things I don’t think I would have known if any and every thought they had, had been for the other person. How would I know they were complex characters if all I found out about them was that they couldn’t stop thinking about the other person?

Also, and this ties into the all-consuming type love, I’m glad they both wanted to respect St. Clair’s relationship with his girlfriend. Because this is the kind of book that shows you that there is still a life outside two people who like each other. And that what they do still has consequences, especially for those outside of their relationship. It shows that although they might be better together, Anna and St. Clair were whole people before they met. I think that’s important, and it’s a good enough reason to finally read Lola and the Boy Next Door.

The Maze Runner Review

Goodreads: When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade-- a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.

Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every thirty days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.

Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up-- the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the dark secrets buried within his mind.


My Thoughts: I've had this book for at least four years, but it took the reminder of the upcoming movie and a sick day to remind me to read it. And to be honest, I thought it was just OK. It was interesting enough that I'll undoubtedly go see the movie, but it's almost in spite of the book, since I have mixed feelings. If you know anything about The Maze Runner, there's no secret that these guys are in/surrounded by a maze that they can't figure out. There's more to their problematic story than that, but it's already clear that this group of people don't know what's going on. And in turn, the reader doesn't either.

This wasn’t an uncommon way to tell a story, so I was fine with being in the dark along with the characters. But little by little, when parts of the truth began to be revealed, it begged for a huge reveal. It was exciting to know that some of these answers would come by the end of the book. But when I got them, they didn’t seem big enough. Or maybe they were too big. And fantastical books don’t have to be realistic, but these answers didn’t seem realistic for the world Dashner had painted. Either that or I didn’t truly understand the reveal regarding the maze and its purpose.  I think what else didn’t help is knowing that the whole time I’m reading this, I’m thinking of how it would play out on a big screen. And by the end of the story, I became afraid that viewers for the movie might share the confusion I felt for the book. I really hope I’m wrong, because I do want the potential movie franchise to succeed, but I do have my reservations.

I am however, still invested enough to read the second book. Because despite the problems I had with it, it was still fun, interesting, and fast-paced. Not to mention that I have so many unanswered questions. So I can’t not continue with the series. Hopefully The Scorch Trials (and The Death Cure) will help clear things up for me.

Eleanor & Park Review

Goodreads description: Set over the course of one school year in 1986, ELEANOR AND PARK is the story of two star-crossed misfits – smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love – and just how hard it pulled you under.

My thoughts: After reading a book like Jellicoe Road, it’s seems as if there’s no solution to such a book hangover. That is unless you decide to delve into a story such as Eleanor & Park. I’d made two earlier attempts to start a new book (Ketchup Clouds and The Vile Village) but it was in vain. It took a big girl with a head full of red hair and a half-Asian boy who looks like sunshine to break me from the hold Jellicoe Road had over me. And it actually wasn’t that hard in the end, switching worlds. It probably took me less than a chapter: right after Eleanor sits with Park on the bus for the first time.

It was nice to see two people who didn’t know each other grow into two people who came to need each other. Sometimes, after I realized I’ve grown very close to someone, I wonder how we got there. What I mean is, I wonder how we got from trying to remember each other’s names and getting past the “awkward points” to automatically thinking about the same thing at the exact same time and/or always being together. How did we get so close? Here’s a whole book that takes a couple of strangers and makes them fit so well that any other result would seem ridiculous.

And in this case, Eleanor and Park’s love story is like a bowl of ice cream. It’s great by itself, but what gives it that extra something is everything else, aka the proverbial cherry on top.

Cherries:
- I don’t remember ever having a female main character in a YA book be big. This is so much so that even with my imagination, there was a limit to how she looked in my head. And in fact sometimes I couldn't imagine her at all past the red hair.

- Park’s family and upbringing: Here’s a guy that knows kung fu, not because his mom is Korean, but because his dad loves it. A guy whose parents have basically the same routine every day when they see each other that includes making out. A guy who’s grandparents give him a kiss-me-I’m-Irish shirt every year. Basically his family is made of awesome, and not in a they’re-perfect kind of way, but in a they’re-awesome-because-they-love-each-other-and-they’re-trying kind of way. It was so different from Eleanor’s situation with her family, which in some scenes (especially with her mom and/or step-dad) made my insides go rotten.

This is one of those stories with scenes that warmed my heart right before it was (temporarily) wrenched from my chest. But that made the story accessible and something...living. As a person who doesn't usually have the patience to re-read a book, the writing was so on point that I'd never mind revisiting this world. Basically it made me feel all-the-things! And what’s better than that?

On the Jellicoe Road review

Goodreads summary: Abandoned by her mother on Jellicoe Road when she was eleven, Taylor Markham 17, finally confronts her past. Hannah, the closest adult she has to family, disappears. Jonah Griggs, moody stares and all, is back in town. If Taylor can put together the pieces of her past, she might just be able to change her future.

My thoughts: It seemed like a gift and a curse to choose Jellicoe Road after one of the longest book slumps of my life. A gift because it practically yanked me out of my bookless world. A curse because it left me with a book hangover, which in the past has led me to... a book slump.

I was so confused initially: by the sections in italics, the hermit, the cadets, and boys in trees in dreams. It was to the point that I wondered if I should stop reading. That was an option for me because I was tired of books that were just OK or just good. And I couldn't see a book that I barely understood being great. But after the melodramatic version of myself calmed down and pressed on, it became blatantly obvious how beautiful and powerful this piece of writing truly was.

Taylor is this girl with a chip on her shoulder, but to understand where she comes from and what she's gone through, it's a wonder she's done so well. But she has help throughout the story, as she finds out more about the past (hers and others), from friends who aren't "supposed" to be friends. And as their lives begin to tangle into each other's, the sections in italics make more sense. And the idea of friends being your family (or at least a part of it) becomes a deep, recurring theme.

It's amazing how the book that started off slow for me swept me away with its characters, writing, and plot.

Characters: I respect the hec out of Jonah Griggs. I want to date Chaz Santangelo. I want to be best friends with Raffaela. And I want to love Taylor until the pain stops.

Writing: I'm not really a fan of re-reading something (unless it's The Phantom Tollbooth or Shadow of the Fox) but there were so many fantastic passages that I'd be willing to re-read this.

Plot: What seemed annoying at first was a pretty brilliant way to tell a story. As a future screenwriter (hopefully), it definitely encouraged me to "step my game up" as far as storytelling goes.

It's an amazing thing to go from being mildly interested in a story to having to hold back tears during the last few chapters. There is no doubt as to why it won the Printz award, or why there's supposed to be a movie version coming out. The only thing I could hope for after was that I'd find another book that could move me... My review of Eleanor & Park should be up next week.

The Sky is Everywhere review

Goodreads summary: Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.

This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Francesca Lia Block. Just as much a celebration of love as it is a portrait of loss, Lennie's struggle to sort her own melody out of the noise around her is always honest, often hilarious, and ultimately unforgettable.

 My Thoughts: This is another book I can't believe took me so long to read. It's sad yet hopeful and realistic in a way I didn't expect. Realistic in a way that caused me to think about the people that have died in my life. And not like a family member who's much older than me, but a friend or a fellow student. It seemed impossible because they were my age. They were my friends but they died and the world kept spinning. Oddly enough, the indescribable feelings I felt in those difficult times seemed a bit more easy to describe (and accept) thanks to this book. 

And what makes The Sky Is Everywhere stand out is that not only does Lennie have to live past her sister's death, but she also has to deal with her weirdly-but-perfectly timed "awakening." She's finally leaving the comfort of her sister's shadow and coming more into her own. But of course, what is living and growing without making mistakes and/or being unsure of yourself?

And let me tell you, Jandy Nelson can write. It's in a way that makes sadness seem poetic but still very real. Especially when Lennie leaves her notes all over town. And if the captivating story or the gorgeous writing wasn't enough, there are these amazing and very descriptive characters:

- A giant hulk of a man for an uncle
- A beautiful guy with full lashes who can bat his way in or out of anything
- A mother/grandmother who's the best "florist" in town

It's just the perfect mixture of complex issues and normal situations that has me adding this to my list of favorite contemporary novels.

Raven Boys review

Goodreads: “There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”

It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

From Maggie Stiefvater, the bestselling and acclaimed author of the Shiver trilogy and The Scorpio Races, comes a spellbinding new series where the inevitability of death and the nature of love lead us to a place we’ve never been before.
  
My thoughts: The kind of authors I enjoy are ones that either stick to similar themes but have a creative way of telling them or have drastically different stories with some familiar thread running through them. Maggie represents the latter, and after reading and loving Scorpio Races, I couldn’t wait to see what new adventure she would design. And this one a very different, filled with lay lines, sacrifices, and nature settings that have a fondness for Latin.

            Raven Boys almost seems to start with an ending (a good way to start if you do it right, according to my cinema teacher). Blue knows that if she kisses her true love, that person will die. But she and we don’t know who and when. And you think it will go one way as characters are introduced (mainly Gansey), but it doesn’t. As things continue to be revealed, there are some secrets that have been "hidden," out in the open the whole time.  And there are some things that you wouldn’t expect until it actually happens.

       Raven Boys initially seems like a romance. But once you get to know all the characters and see the complexity of their fate, it is shown that there is more to this story. Not just with Blue and “the boys,” but also with her mother and her psychic friends.

     The one thing I didn’ t like was how things got wrapped up. I know this book has to help setup the series, but after building and developing the story, it seemed to end too soon.  Not in the sense that I needed more pages, just that something seemed missing. Other than that, it was a good story that has set me on my own quest to learn more about a certain welsh king. At least until the next book comes out.

Adaptation review

Description: Reese can’t remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She’s different now.

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

My thoughts: It wasn’t until I started reading this that I realized this was my first book I’ve reviewed that dealt with area 51 related controversies/we are not alone related topics. Which excited me.

In Adaptation we have a big problem that has to do with birds. Then we have a seemingly small problem (but it’s actually pretty big too) involving Reese and David. As you continue to read, assumptions and theories of what happened to them are proven (or disproved). 

And although there were parts of this story where I needed to really suspend disbelief, there were various aspects of it that seemed hauntingly real. Like the birds. The birds freaked me out because it reminded me of how it felt when that was actually happening in real life. And I was almost as freaked out during the occurrences in the book as when it was really happening.

It’s not that Adaptation is scary, like Halloween movie scary (actually some of those are just funny). But some passages did make me feel uneasy.  For instance, I could relate to a lot of Reese's inner dialogue right after she starts discovering things (she's not supposed to) because I know what it feels like to be watched but not know who is actually watching me. It’s freaky! But these are the kind of books I like to read in October. Plus I was sick (still am) while reading this; so it reminded me of when I’d be in bed with a box of tissues, chicken noddle soup, and goldfish watching the X-files. Good times (except for the sick part).

As for the rest of the story, it was an easy read with an interesting plot. I just feel like I really didn’t get to know the characters that well. In fact, even though a lot happens in the story, it felt like it was just touching the surface as far as what was in this peculiar world. Which is why I’m hoping we’ll get to know everyone/thing better in the sequel.

My only real issue that kept bugging me was that Adaptation ended in a way that had me wondering where book two would start.  I think it’s a pacing issue. It felt like I was being led to expect more, then dropped at a not quit random but not quite expected place. Other than that one issue, the book was very entertaining. And I’ll definitely read the next book when it comes out… Now all I need to do is find some episodes of X-files online.

The Storyteller review

Goodreads: Anna and Abel couldn’t be more different. They are both seventeen and in their last year of school, but while Anna lives in a nice old town house and comes from a well-to-do family, Abel, the school drug dealer, lives in a big, prisonlike tower block at the edge of town. Anna is afraid of him until she realizes that he is caring for his six-year-old sister on his own. Fascinated, Anna follows the two and listens as Abel tells little Micha the story of a tiny queen assailed by dark forces. It’s a beautiful fairy tale that Anna comes to see has a basis in reality. Abel is in real danger of losing Micha to their abusive father and to his own inability to make ends meet. Anna gradually falls in love with Abel, but when his “enemies” begin to turn up dead, she fears she has fallen for a murderer. Has she?

Award-winning author Antonia Michaelis moves in a bold new direction with her latest novel: a dark, haunting, contemporary story that is part mystery, part romance, and part melodrama.

My thoughts: It’s been pretty hard to understand all the feelings I have for this book. The writing is fantastic, which seems to happen often when the author is not from the United States. And there was a story within a story, which should have made things difficult, but it actually made everything more appealing and exciting. Plus, I’m impressed that not only can this author write one story well, but two. The confusion as far as my feelings comes from all that happens in between all that wonderful writing. So many unthinkable things happen. Things I would have never imagined that left me with my jaw dropping to the ground. 

I actually feel like a passage from the YA book Anna and the French Kiss expresses how I had to look at this book. There’s a part in the book when a teacher is discussing the meaning of words in a book, and specifically talks about foreign books. The teacher says that “foreign novels are less action-oriented. They have a different pace; they’re more reflective. They challenge us to look for the story, find the story within the story.” This is exactly what I had to do, except I had to look for the story within the story within the story (within the story). And all those stories meshed together almost impeccably, but sometimes that meant heartbreaking moments were more… um… heartbreaking because something similar happened in both stories. It was gritty, and sometimes the characters did things I couldn’t believe happened. They did some things I didn’t agree with on a personal level that bothered me to the point that it once again made me reassess my feelings regarding the story. With that said, it’s unique, deep, and thought provoking (obviously since I’m still trying to figure some things out). And I’d actually be interested in seeing what others thought about this novel.

Description: Humanity is all but extinguished after a war with partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the world’s population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island. The threat of the partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to the disease in over a decade. Humanity’s time is running out.

When sixteen-year-old Kira learns of her best friend’s pregnancy, she’s determined to find a solution. Then one rash decision forces Kira to flee her community with the unlikeliest of allies. As she tries desperately to save what is left of her race, she discovers that the survival of both humans and partials rests in her attempts to answer questions of the war’s origin that she never knew to ask.

Combining the fast-paced action of The Hunger Games with the provocative themes of Battlestar Galactica, Partials is a pulse-pounding journey into a world where the very concept of what it means to be human is in question—one where our sense of humanity is both our greatest liability, and our only hope for survival.

 

My thoughts: This is what I look for when I read the first book in a series! Forget what the book was about, or whether I liked the characters. My favorite thing about Partials was that something actually happened! This wasn’t one of those books where an author drags you along the whole first book, only for nothing to happen except that cliffhanger that forces you to read the next book. So much happens in this book. From some things I thought would happen to other things that didn’t correlate with my predictions at all.  

Besides being happy that this book wasn’t a 400+ page filler, I was impressed by the political related topics that surfaced. These topics included freedom of speech, women’s rights, and the freedom to choose. What made these aspects even more interesting is the fact that humans are dying out. And with survival being the main focus in the book, it forces the characters of the story and the readers of the book to question things. For one, how important is the freedom of choice when we’re all about to die? And do the need for other freedoms change when extinction is right around the corner?

Something that also made the book stand out was the main character.  Kira was smart, strong, and could definitely take care of herself. And something that was refreshing about her as a female character was that she dealt with the problems at hand, and not the romance related aspects in her life. There were bigger fish to fry in this case, and thank God she didn’t worry about the shrimp.

With that said (I feel like I’m about to contradict myself), I am actually excited about the romance that seems unavoidable in the next book. And although a lot happened in the first book, a lot is (thankfully) going to happen in the next one too. I can’t wait!