Hello, readers!
Okay. So we’re gonna do something a
little different here. I’m going to talk about a bunch of books I’ve read a
while back and, basically, categorize them by how I felt when I finished them.
It’ll be fun. Promise. If you have further questions about any of the books,
please make a comment, and I’ll answer you. Okay… On your mark. Ready. Set. Go.
If you haven’t read these books, you’re failing at being a YA
reader:
Allie Condie's Matched
This was completely different from what
I thought it’d be. I think it was the writing style that really surprised me. I
thought it was going to be all giddy giggles and hearts missing beats, but it
wasn’t. Honestly, the way the characters fell for each other was very
underwhelming. However, I loved that. I felt it was a nice dystopian attempt. And
personally, I think it was a success. The writing, let's go back to that, was lovely and thoughtful and vivid. I’ll eventually read the whole series
once it costs less on my Nook. Anyway, the book’s about a future world in which
people are matched up to other people based on whether or not the government
thinks they’ll be a good couple. The main character in this book, duh, falls in
love with someone she and will never be matched to. The book’s about government revolt, which I love like cupcakes. I mean, who doesn't? And I mean that about both. No one should dictate who we fall in love or end up with. The way this book explores that notion made me feel more passionately about the notion itself than I have in some time.
Moira Young's Blood Red Road
Genius. Young is amaaaazazing. This
book is about two twins (a boy and girl), set in the way distant messed up dead world future, who
get separated when one of them (the boy) is kidnapped. In simpler terms, the girl twin, Saba,
has to venture off with her kid sister, whom she hates, to find her male brother,
Lugh. In the mean time, Saba gets captured and then forced into being a
cagefighter. Yeah. It’s kinda badass. The only drawback to this book would be
that if you’re not a friend of “dialect,” the writing may not be your cup of tea.
Personally, I LOATHE dialect, but this book was like a pack of Red Bull, and I
loves the Red Bull and the wingage it so grants meez. What’s dialect, you say?
Ever read Huckleberry Finn? "I never knew that missin somebody could hurt, I says. But it does. Deep inside. Like it's in my bones. We ain't never bin apart till now. Never. I dunno how to be without him. It's like... I ain't nuthin." Dialect pretty much, at least in this book, is being told
the story from a present tense backwoods redneck’s perspective. I luv it.
Makes me feel simultaneously smart and yet country. Also, the second book is out. Also, it's intensely spectacular. ;P
Shannon Hale's Goose Girl
This
book is one of those books that really makes an impact on you as a reader. It’s
a retelling of “The Goose Girl,” if you are unfamiliar with the book itself. If
you are unfamiliar with “The Goose Girl” as a Grimm story, it’s about a
princess sent off to marry a prince only to have her waiting-maid and everyone
in cahoots with the B turn on her. They all pretend the princess is a peasant when
they get to the kingdom (even forcing her into peasant’s clothing), and the
waiting-maid poses as a false princess (now wearing the true princess’ garb).
This results in the princess having to gain a job; the job she obtains is that
of a goose girl. Alright! So basically from there, the princess tries to find a
way to prove her identity. Of course, others laugh at her, as they think the
real princess is on the thrown. In Hale’s story, she does a very good job
incorporating the elements within the Grimm version. The way she fleshes out
the story, really making it more… real, I guess… totally works. I’d recommend
this book to anyone and everyone. It's a book that's about more than romance. It's about personal pride and the relationships that bind us to others.
This book was cute… better than I expected it to be:
Jackson Pearce's As You Wish
This was cute. Would I read it again?
Meh. Would I tell everyone I know to try it? Not on my life. That doesn’t
make me deny the fact that it was enjoyable to read. I mean, if someone’s all
about genies, sure. I’ll recommend it. Cause that’s what this book is about.
Genies. A girl gets one and wants to use him to get the men/love/recognition in
her life she thinks she deserves, until she falls for the genie herself. Also,
on a side note, there’s more depth to the story, involving the death of the
main character’s brother, as well as the fact that she’s in love with her best
friend… who’s uber gay and has turned her down before the start of the story. Also, when you fall in love with a genie, it's not as easy as, "I wish we could be together forever." There's his feelings to consider, which we actually get to see, as this book alternates perspectives. Yay, Pearce!
Guilty Pleasure reads:
Aprilynne Pike's Wings
I don’t think it was like the best
thing I’ve ever read, but yeah, I liked it. The romance to me was a little too
dramatic and girly, but it wasn’t too over the top like in some YA out there. This
book is about faeries. Woot. Yay, fey! However, it’s kinda interesting, because
the faeries are more like an alternate species of human, instead having cells akin
to a plant. I thought that was super original, and I applaud Pike for her
creativity. Anyway, the main character, who’s just transferred to a new school,
something that can be hard enough for a person, wakes up with a freaking bloom
on her back like a bulbasaur. She, along with the help of her dreamy new bf,
try to figure out what it is. Obviously, they don't think plant bulbs and the fey have anything in common, at least at first. In the meantime, she also meets another dreamy
guy, this time of the plant/faerie variety. He tries to reach out to her, but
she’s not sure if she should trust him or not.
Rachel Vincent's Soul Screamers
Series
These are addicting in the way that
you don’t want to admit out loud. It’s funny. My boyfriend read about them
somewhere and was like, “Oh God, this is the crap that’s making teens
underwhelmed with boys if they’re not fighting over them.” To that I was,
meekly, like, “Well, that’s a little judgmental. I mean, come on, you haven’t
even read them.” Which was the blatant sign that I had shamefully read all of
the books that had been released in this series in the span of three days.
Yeahhh, at the time, there were six. Anyway, the books are about a girl named
Kaylee Cavanaugh who can
sense when someone around her is about to die. Freaky, no? In time, she figures
out this is because she is a bean sidhe, a.k.a. (for those of us who speak english and although it's never mentioned in the
books, oddly) a living, breathing banshee. She meets a boy named Nash,
also a bean sidhe, though his powers, being male, differ. The story unfolds from
there. Nash’s brother, Tod (my faaaaaav), becomes important in subsequent
books, though I won’t tell why even though it’s meg awesome. If you hate books
where you go from completely loving to ardently hating a character, I don’t know if this series
will be your thing. However, it’s amazeballs, especially when the books explore
the fact that bean sidhe are not the only supernatural beings in the world.
Bum, bum, bummmm. :O (Book one is called My Soul to Take.)
This book had a lot of hype, but I think it failed to deliver:
Kiersten White's Paranormalcy
This book is the
starting book in a series that already has a second book, Supernaturally, out. (Etc., etc. for the other books.) White has
been one of those new go-to popular names in the YA genre when teens are
looking to let the supernatural into their lives. Her books and her characters
have been most commonly compared to the good old 90’s TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As a fan of
both Buffy and Angel, I think this comparison stands true. However, I don’t think
this book was as good as Buffy. Also, I think the book (let’s not let comparisons cloud our jugement) was a little too cliché for my tastes. Maybe the
word I’m looking for isn’t “cliché”? Maybe it’s “childish”? :/ It’s about a
girl named Evie who works for a top secret government agency that monitors the
supernatural. In addition to carrying around a pretty cool blinged-out pink taser, Evie has the kickass power to see through the supernatural and their various disguises, which
helps her to spot them out in a crowd. She can see their true faces, which aren't always as pretty as their plastered-on human appearances imply. However, when her agency takes in one
supernatural, a supe with no true face though he has a human form, things get
kind of chaotic. Evie, after bonding a bit with the odd boy, starts to question whether or not she’s working for her
agency on her own accord, or whether she’s like a pet to them, which
they keep on a leash and order to attack others when wanted. Also, she kinda
gets the hots for the supe her agency captures. Stuff goes down. I just thought the stuff that went down may be more enjoyable to a younger audience. Maybe if you're reading YA at the age of 11 to 14, you'll like this book more. A more mature audience is probably going to feel a little like the material is written for someone younger. It's very reminiscent of the Artemis Fowl books. If you like those, you'll probably dig this.
This book sucked more than a baby sucks on a pacifier:
Carrie Jones’ Need
Oh my God, kill me. I HAAAAAATED
this book. Seriously. I couldn’t stand another minute of it. There are very few
series that I start where I’m like, “Well, I sure as hell am not going to read
the second book!” This was one of them. DIS-AP-POINT-INGGGG. I started it out,
and I truly enjoyed the way it was written. Something about the way it was
paced I just totally clicked with. So I bought it. TRICK! Once I bought it, it
was like all the characters and the plot (and even the beautiful pacing) went
off the deep end, spiraling off into a portion of deep space I will only refer
to as Totally Bogus. UGH. Was anybody who read this bothered with the fact that
faeries are called pixies and they have something to do with Norse mythology?
Okay, let me be the enlightened person I should be here. Yay, Jones, you
did your homework. Yes, some faerie lore dates back to the Nords, what with
their frost giants and dark elves and whatnot, but shit. Pixies? Where the HELL
did you get that word from? Just think about it. Pixies…. Norse myth. Something
about those two words together is making the sky fall or at least Loki poke
Balder in the gut, going, “Ha! And that’s a joke I didn’t even partake in!” UGH.
Freaking “pixies.” *Slams head against wall repeatedly* Main character Zara White
moves to a town in Maine where she is to live with her step-grandmother after
her stepfather dies. While in town, she finds she is being pursued by a
really creepy pixie king who apparently wants her goods because she’s
apparently part-pixie and her dad was a big name in the world of their kind. Also, somehow werewolves enter the picture, alongside
the valkyrie and OTHER pixie kings (less creepy, more dreamy if you can
pass over a boring personality for looks). WTF. That’s all I have left to say.
W…T…F. >:/
Okay! That’s it for today! Hope you
enjoyed this, because I’m going to be doing it AT LEAST one more time. After
that, it’ll be back to normal reviews, at least for a while. I just needed to
get these all off my chest. Some were suffocating me; some could have stayed there
forever. *Shrugs*
Till next time! :D
