Divergent, Veronica Roth


Divergent had all the qualities of a great dystopian YA novel. There is the awesome protagonist, a worthy cause to fight for, some romance and plenty of antagonists to keep your blood boiling. The character that stands out the strongest for me is Tris, the sixteen year old girl who leaves behind the faction of her birth and moves to the community she feels suits her better - Dauntless. She is very brave throughout, but I think her character really develops as the book goes on and she becomes an excellent hero.

Traits, I think she gets from her mother. I really liked the way she didn't even think about what she was giving up by sacrificing her life for her daughter, she just did it. I grew to like Tris's father at the end of the novel, though I thought it was incredibly sad that she lost both of her parents while Tobias is still stuck with his abusive father. I really adore Caleb, though I'm not sure why.

Tobias is really interesting to watch develop over the novel as well. Detached and aloof, he quickly develops feelings for Tris, and it is when they begin to spend more time together that we see how he changes too, facing his fears and becoming more open, while still keeping his wits about him. I expected that he wouldn't actually hurt her towards the end of the book; that kind of thing never happens. I feel as if their relationship happened a little quickly considering how much time they spent together, but maybe there is more we didn't see. What bothers me about them is their idea that crying is a form of weakness, that being comforted is wrong. There are several times Tris is emotional and both of them seem to think it would be wrong for him to wipe away her tears or make her feel better, which I don't agree with at all: it's normal, in fact it's what is supposed to happen in a relationship. No one can handle everything that is thrown at them. Sometimes you break down emotionally. That doesn't make you weak.

As for Al, I was really horrified by his betrayal. I really thought he and Christina would get together, not Christina and Will. Will's fate was awful, but what else could Tris do? It was catch 22.

I enjoyed Divergent, though it didn't blow me away like I thought it would. I've hardly ever seen a bad review of this book and I'm not about to add one to it, but it didn't go the whole way for me. I award Divergent 4/5.

The Lost Saint, Bree Despain

I read the first book in this series last year and I wasn't blown away by it. I decided to give this one a go because I found it in the library and found I was interested in what happened to the characters next. I'm not really a huge fan of werewolf tales, but I liked the fact that Grace got to play the tough girl and train to be the best should could. I think the storyline in this book was better than in the first, although I don't really particularly love any of the characters: I cannot fathom why anyone finds Daniel a heartthrob, because it seems to me like he's always treating Grace awfully. I know they grew up together so there is a lot we don't know about him and their relationship, but I don't understand what attracts her to him so much. I didn't even feel like that had a relationship in this book: all they seemed to do was argue and yell that they were in love with each other (well actually this was mostly from Grace) but they never told each other anything and they never sorted out their arguments. It just seemed like stupid angst that could have easily have been sorted if Daniel didn't feel the need to not tell his girlfriend anything about his life.

As for Talbot, I kind of liked him but I never trusted him one bit. I was shocked at the climax of the book, during Halloween; I didn't know who to trust, but I did think Jude would save her. I was disappointed in him.

I knew that Daniel would be stuck at the end of the book. I assumed this series would be a trilogy, but now I'm not so sure.

I award this one 3/5, though I honestly can't remember why.

morning, everyone!

I don't know if anyone has been following the YA Crush Tourney that has been running this summer but it has nearly come to an end and now I am calling on you guys to help out one sexy YA bad boy and a million girls in need!

if you're a fan of Cassandra Clare's work  (you've probably seen the review in which I gush about City of Fallen Angels) and follow her on twitter, then you probably already know that Jace Wayland is teetering on the edge of being crowned the glorious king of all YA hotties, (and this, in my opinion, is the only choice for the role!)

so here's what we need you to do: it's simple as pie and takes two seconds to do it. (disclaimer: no malicious intent was directed at any pies.)

vote for jace HERE and check out the swag up for grabs from Cassie HERE and HERE. (I am absolutely DYING to get my hands on that Clockwork Prince ARC, I can't even describe to you!)

As you can see, she is far too awesome to her fans and hey, at the end of the day, this is a great way to thank her!

voting has been open from 8am August 10th and closes 8am August 11th (US Central time.) So, rally the troops Shadowhunters: we don't want to leave a legacy of not being the most awesome and amazing fans in the world behind, do we?

Delirium, Lauren Oliver
Wow. Okay. So. 

Delirium. I don't really know how to put Delirium into words; I suppose I should start by saying that when I heard about this book (I stay more up to date with paranormal YA releases than dystopian, so it took me a while to find this one) I was really looking forward to it. Much the same I was with Ally Condie's Matched, actually. And the books are very similar in some ways; they both involved being Matched to a partner - essentially, your future husband/wife is chosen for you by higher powers. Not in the Godly sense; in the 'we're-adults-and-we-know-what's-best-for-you' sense. I'll go ahead and admit right now that I have always been fiercely in love with love, which is probably why I enjoy these kind of books so much; they entwine love with the anger and passion of dystopian fiction, fiction that screams at you from it's very pages to change, to warn you of what the world we know could become. The books were also similar because the lead female characters went from agreeing with their oppressors - they were raised to do so - and then they fall in love, causing them to rebel. They just seem like similar stories in my head, but while they both have awful things in them - in Cassia's world you literally have no choices at all, while in Lena's, love is just simply wiped from your brain - they are both about preserving love and saving it. 

Delirium, then. As I read more of the book, I'm not sure why, but my mind was almost not 100% there. I don't feel like I connected with it as much as I have some other dystopian fiction and I read it over a couple of days instead of all in one go. That disappointed me a little, because I firmly believe that dystopian fiction should rile you, make you furious; after all, it is the readers entire world being changed, ripped away from them - in the pages of a book, maybe, but do we not read to live our lives as someone else, for a breath in time? 

However, it really hit me, how awful this world was when Lena was captured outside 37 Brooks. When she was attacked by a large group of men brandishing bats and guns and dogs. When she was knocked cold, for experiencing the most beautiful thing on earth. Part of being a teenager is surely falling love, the rush and the excitement and the freedom, for the first time in your life experiencing something bigger than yourself. I felt myself burning, raging with anger. I physically wanted to punch something. I felt such an anger towards those men, I wanted to hit them and hurt them and I wanted to shake some sense into the whole damn system. I cannot understand how anyone could believe that removing love could be something positive. Love is the root of everything and you wouldn't just lose romantic love; the love for your family, your favourite things, your memories, all the little things that make life worth living. I agree with Lena. I would rather die than live that passive existence. 

And then, oh God, then - the ending. I knew that Alex wouldn't escape. I thought he planned it, to not escape and maybe he did. I admit that I cried, which is out of the ordinary for me because I usually take longer to get invested in a character, in a story. I don't know how Alex can survive this. The part of the text where Lena talked about sacrifice as she looked into his eyes through the fence broke my heart. There are some wonderful quotes in this book, which is another thing about dystopian fiction that I love. 

As a character, I felt I connected to Lena more than any other character I've read about. Personally, I feel we are very similar in a lot of ways and I liked her and the way she went about things, because of that. I'm looking forward to seeing her as a warrior in the future. 


I award Delirium 5/5 stars.

He is looking at me through the smoke, across the fence. He never takes his eyes off me. His hair is a crown of leaves, of thorns, of flames. His eyes are blazing with light, more light than all the lights in every city in the whole world, more light than we could ever invent if we had ten thousand billion years.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Carrie Ryan
Dystopia is so in right now, thanks to Suzanne Collins magnificent Hunger Games series. I can't say I've read very much of it (although one of my favourite books of 2011 so far is Ally Condie's dystopian novel Matched) but I'm trying to change that and after a glowing recommendation, I ordered The Forest of Hands and Teeth.


I have to be honest; I was disappointed. The premise of the book sounded like it was going to be really interesting, although I was a little cautious about picking up a book about zombies; they're a bit too horror for me. Anyway, upon reading the book, I found myself bored, especially at the beginning. Nothing particularly interesting happened; Mary ran around a lot and pondered the existence of the sea. Now I don't knock this; there always has to be something in dystopian fiction for the characters to hold on to, something for them to fight for, but it didn't make for exciting reading.  When interesting things did happen, they seemed to take forever to actually occur. So much was left untold - I didn't have a clue what any of the characters looked like. What happened to the other characters once Mary left them? Why was Gabrielle the fast one? What exactly happened to bring about the Unconsecrated? Surely they should not have been able to go into the church; why didn't everyone hide in there?

Also, I did not connect to any of the characters at all. I couldn't help but feel disgust at how selfish some of the characters were, particularly Mary's mother, whom we never even meet properly. She struck me as incredibly selfish, leaving behind her two children to become one of the walking undead on purpose. Although it is never stated how old Mary is (another thing that frustrated me; they were like puppets, not characters) I assumed she was a teenager; why should she be expected to stop her mother from killing herself? Look what spawned from it. More death. Jed also drove me insane with the way he treated his sister, but he did redeem himself in the end. The Sisters were awful, awful people; a perfect example of religion gone wrong. 

There was nothing great about this book for me. The only characters I felt some kind of emotion towards were Marry, occasionally, but mostly Jacob and Argos, the dog. I am interested in reading the next book but I wouldn't buy it before I read it, as I did with The Forest of Hands and Teeth.


This one is 2/5 stars.

Passion, Lauren Kate
The third instalment of the Fallen series has the most exciting cover yet. I loved the cover of Fallen, as I am a huge fan of the gothic-darkness-love story, but I love the cover of Passion because it clearly shows that we are close to finding out the secrets being kept from Luce. We find out who she is as she finds it out about herself, and there is lots to discover in this book.

Out of all the books so far in this series, I'm definitely going to have to say that this is my favourite, purely for the really interesting history lesson we were taken on. It was amazing to go back throughout the years and see what it was like in the past - I mean, the whole idea of going any further back than the mid nineteen hundreds makes my head spin - and not just that, but go back and see the love Daniel and Luce had for each other. I always kind of never really got wholly into their love; I can't remember them ever having a conversation where they just talk about stuff and get to know each other. Like 'Bill' told Luce, their souls may recognize each other, but she is a different person in each life. They need to get to know each other before they profess their love; however, it was nice to see how long they have loved each other. Lauren Kate said it would be the most romantic, and I don't know about that; it was, in a way, but I wanted the romance from modern Luce and Daniel. And compared to their conterparts in the past, I find 2009 Daniel and Luce very cheesy. Maybe that's another reason I couldn't get into their love. It's just too cheesy for me. 

It was awfully romantic though, to see how he had loved her literally from the dawn of time. For five MILLION years he suffered for her, just for those precious moments in between all the waiting and the suffering. It certainly has the power to put suffering into context. I did wonder how Daniel changed his appearance of the years, but I suppose that's some angel magic. I would also like to see the first time they ever met and the first time Daniel saw her from Heaven. That would be nice. 

And now it all comes down to these last nine days. As an author, I don't think I could write about Heaven, God and the concept of Christanity, like Lauren Kate has; it's quite a scary thing to take on, I think. But with a name like Rapture, I have hopes for a happy ending in the next book. I do wonder though... is Luce immortal in the body she has now? So she'll stay Lucinda Price for forever, frozen at seventeen? Because that could spawn a whole new series...


Overall, I think this is a very original idea. It was especially clever how the entire book was a kind of prequel to the rest of the series (imagine the surprise and confusion of the 50 or so women, including me, who sat in that book store and met Lauren last October when she told us that!) Passion gets 4/5 stars.

Bite Club, Rachel Caine
I have, of course, read a few books about vampires. You cannot read YA fiction without stumbling across it - from L.J Smith's novel-turned-TV-show The Vampire Diaries (which I profess to love, by the way), P.C and Kristen Cast's joint effort, the House of Night Series and of course, the series that was once described to me as 'classic'; Twilight. I had, perhaps (okay, no definitely) grow tired of vampire fiction and decided to find something else. I tried werewolves, angels, ghosts, dystopia's, soulfinders, mutant bird kids, aliens, kick butt female warriors... the list is endless. And then, after vehemently refusing to pick up another book about vampires, and vampires at college, for that matter, I found myself sitting down with the first Morganville Vampire's book. This little back story here is important, because I feel I must make the public understand; these are the first YA books that do vampires and do them well.

I quickly fell in love with Morganville. Caine has written no fewer than ten books in this series, with a least one more to come, and has not resorted to using any of the following to keep the books entertaining: the main character becoming a vampire, werewolves, wimpy females that constantly need saving (all of the main females characters in these books are powerhouses. Strong, independent women, lets hear it for them!), weird half vamp-half-human babies, love triangles... yep, you heard it right. Morganville is a completely original take on vampires, that won't leave you cringing or rolling your eyes. Vampires are back to being the bad guys we expected them to be, but Caine shows us that, like humans, there are all kinds of vampires. In this series, humans are living in vampire world, but that doesn't mean they're all awful.

In the tenth instalment, Claire faces yet another challenge; her boyfriend Shane goes a little crazy (thanks to his major daddy issues) while her boss, Myrnin, fights with Shane's dad's brain, whom he placed in the computer that stops people from escaping Morganville. Sound confusing? Well, there are ten books to catch up on!

This series has just got better and better for me. However, I didn't really like what happened to Shane; I always found him to be a very steadfast character, one that you could always rely on to be a good person and stick up for his friends. He said and did some awful things in this book - partly under another character's influence, but some of it did come from inside of him. I think, however, it was necessary for him to face these demons inside of him some way or another; the storyline with his father has been running since the very first book. My crush on Michael doubled and there is a tiny little part of me that ships Claire and Michael, although I suspect I am a minority!

I was a little disappointed in Claire deciding not to go to MIT, simply because it was her dream; I didn't actually want her to leave Morganville (I know there's been ten books, but it doesn't feel like we've spent enough time there at all!) and I'm interested to find out how the Amelie-Oliver dynamic is going to change the town now. I'm looking forward to Last Breath, of course - the cast of characters is so fantastic and I can't wait to visit them all again. I'd love go back to Michael, Eve, Claire and Shane in the Glass House again, just hanging out together and facing whatever they have to.

So, if you haven't already guessed, I love these books and award Bite Club 4/5 stars.

Finding Sky, Joss Stirling (pub. October 2010)
When I found Finding Sky in the book shop, I was attracted by the gorgeous cover - but it was the blurb that made me sure I had to have this book. First off, can we just hear it for Joss Stirling for representing YA fiction for British authors because there are just not enough writing for young adults today and unfortunately, from my own personal experience, lots of the ones that are don't tend to be books that I want to read again. However. Miss Stirling completely smashed that idea. Finding Sky was a one sitting read because I couldn't put it down; it had that typical American setting with the really cute American bad boy but an English heroine who gave the book something that felt like home for me, being an English girl myself. I liked that Sky didn't immediately fall for Zed's charms once he turned them on, but once he did, their relationship was cautious and they actually took the time to get to know each other - and there was a lot to get to know.
The soulfinder element was great because it was a really fresh idea and I loved that Sky and Zed were both musicians and Zed had that amazing great big family. The second half of the book was really surprising and slightly heart stopping; part of me believed she'd never remember Zed and something awful would happen to the Benedicts.

My favourite thing about Finding Sky is definitely the romance. It was unbearably sweet and I have re-read parts of it a million times; the scene in the snow - "I'm your guy" - is a personal favourite. I award Finding Sky 4/5 stars and can't wait for the next Benedict book (although part of me is hoping for another one about Zed/Sky!) Yay for British YA authors!

City of Fallen Angels, Cassandra Clare

Firstly, I think that City of Fallen Angels is the best book of Cassandra Clare's career so far. It's not my favourite of this series, but it was her strongest publication to date. To start out with, I took a long time to warm to Simon through the course of the first three novels. Throughout CoG I grew up love him and that love only grew in CoFA. In previous books I often breezed quickly through any parts not directly related to Jace and Clary - not here. I really enjoyed dipping in and out of the stories of all the characters and even considering writing some fiction at one point for Jordan and Maia - something I would NEVER have considered doing for ANY couple than Clary and Jace before. This cast of characters is probably my favourite in YA fiction today.They work so well together and constantly make me laugh, cry and wish I could be one of them.

Speaking of Clary and Jace, I wish they could have had just a little time as a normal -as normal as they can be, anyway - couple. Things were going wrong straight away. The ending was fantastic, my favourite of the whole series so far because Cassandra knows how to do twisted and heartbreaking but this was just fabulous. You really thought things were going to be okay - until Clary said those fateful lines - "I'll be right back. Five minutes."

Also, I really just need to comment on what a incredible character Jace Wayland (oh I don't even know to call him anymore) is. Ask anyone: I love Jace Wayland. I mean, he's beautiful and sarcastic and intelligent and he tells his girlfriend he loves her by quoting lines from ancient Italian books to her - get me a man like that, now! But Clare has weaved such an incredible character. His self loathing, covered by sarcastic comments and dry humour, his tortured soul but his deep to the core goodness, his truly beautiful love for Clary - I would cite Jace Wayland as my favourite fictional character any day. Every time it gets darker for him, I become even more entranced with him (similar to Will Herondale. I have a thing for broken, tortured hot guys I guess.) By the ending of CoFA I was flabbergasted and in tears. I cannot wait for the release of City of Lost Souls. This series is without a doubt my favourite YA series.

 

City of Fallen Angels deserves nothing less than 5 out of 5 stars!

Starcrossed, Josephine Angelini

I really did enjoy Starcrossed, but I found myself left quite confused by a few plot points that I'm not sure if were misreadings by myself or plot holes, so I think maybe I need a reread. Anyway. Greek mythology interests me but I always feel it's a little intimidating, because it's like it's own religion and there is just so much to learn. I felt way in over my head with Starcrossed although quite a lot was explained, however I think I would have enjoyed it more had I been able to put it into context. I read somewhere that some of the mythology is actually incorrect, but I don't know if that's because the author edited on purpose. I can't tell you if this is true or not because I sadly do not know enough about it!
I did really enjoy this book, although it was quite long for a one sitting read. It reminded me a lot of other YA books actually, particularly Finding Sky by Joss Stirling; the big families with special gifts, the girl with the unknown past, the thing that they discover that the protagonists alone have in common with each other and new kid syndrome. I found at the beginning, I was quite annoyed with the text and the prose was hard for me to get into; it was almost as if sometimes the some of the sentences didnt really relate to the ones before it and I felt there was maybe a few too many adjectives in there, but it didn't detract from the reading experience too much.

I feel as if all I've done is critique Starcrossed but I really did enjoy it. I liked the cast of characters (although jeez, does Noel actually do anything other than cook?) and the romance was very sweet. I enjoyed the romantic tension until Lucas came clean about his feelings but still couldn't kiss Helen. I mean surely part of it is the not knowing, and the knowing discovered by a kiss?

I will read the subsequent novels though, and will brush up on my Greek mythology before then! I give Starcrossed 3 out of 5 stars.

Unearthly, Cynthia Hand
I've read quite a few of the popular YA angel books around - Lauren Kate's Fallen series, Becca Fitzpatrick's Hush Hush series, Courtney Allison Moulton's Angelfire; well, you get the idea. I think they all bring something different to the angel genre, and Unearthly does, too. I think it's safe to say that it's my favourite angel book I have read thus far (L.A Weatherly's Angel comes in a close second.)

I loved the way the book was set up so you believe Christian to the boy Clara will fall in love with. I really thought I was going to dislike Tucker because he was going to break Clara and Christian up but that turned out not to be case at all. It was refreshingly wonderful to be duped like this; Tucker was funny and cute and had that charming southern gentleman thing on his side (I adore southern gentlemen!) I wouldn't have even given him a chance if Christian hadn't have been out of the picture. As far as leading men went, he didn't really do a great job compared to Tucker so I'm really interested to see what role he'll play in the next books and the repercussions of his revelation.
There was more to this book than just the romance, though; the angel lore was fascinating, as usual, especially for someone without a religious background. It was also fantastic to see a strong female character who had to save the guy for once. Not just that, but she was also strong enough to defy what she believed to be her fate and forgo her purpose to save the boy she loved. Some may think that she was throwing away her future for a boy, but I have to disagree. I think it showed just how strong Clara was, that she was prepared to sacrifice what she could have had with Christian and incur the wrath of the heavens (maybe that's a little dramatic, but who knows what might have happened next!) for the purest thing on earth. After all, isn't religion about love?

I'm really intrigued to find out about Jeffrey's wings and Angela's Italian lover (how great is Angela, by the way. I am in love with her!) I also cannot wait to get back to Wyoming because the setting of this novel was absolutely gorgeous. One of my favourite things about books tends to be where they are set and I enjoy them a lot more if it's somewhere like Unearthly is set.

I'd give this one 4.5/5 stars, only because I really didn't like Clara's mother much and I also didn't enjoy the way in the English edition 'mom' was changed to 'mum'. Aside from that, I thought the book was fantastic and couldn't recommend it highly enough. This is deifnitely one you should have one your bookshelf!