Post Tagged with: "YA Fiction"

Eve, by Anna Carey

Eve, by Anna Carey

Eve

by Anna Carey

3.5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com

Sixteen years after a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth’s population, the world is a perilous place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has never been beyond the heavily guarded perimeter of her school, where she and two hundred other orphaned girls have been promised a future as the teachers and artists of the New America. But the night before graduation, Eve learns the shocking truth about her school’s real purpose—and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Arden, her former rival from school, and Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust . . . and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

I don’t normally start books like this, but there was one moment that this book “won” me over.  Eve had come across a group of boys in the “wild” and had become a teacher to them. She had to explain what love is to the little boys who didn’t remember the world before the plague: Love is just caring about someone very deeply. Feeling like that person matters to you, like your whole world would be sadder without them in it. And as she’s leaving camping to two little boys start SCREAMING “I love you! I love you!”  To read that from two characters who were so naive to the world…it was one of the moments my heart got all warm and tight.

I liked that this book was a journey. Once the characters left one location you knew they’d never be going back…at least not any time soon.  The premise of the plague is this creepy This-Could-Really-Happen reality, and what they do to the girls — as barbaric it sounds — could be something humans turn to.  I enjoyed all of the characters, and passed my 1st person POV test: Eve’s inner monologue did not annoy me. Her choices did annoy me, and I had to keep reminding myself that a person in her position would do some of the stupid/naive things she did.

I’ve already read Once so I’ll finish my review over there.

August 1, 2012 0 comments
Insignia, by S.J. Kincaid

Insignia, by S.J. Kincaid

Insignia

By S.J. Kincaid

4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com

More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom’s drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone’s been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he’s offered the incredible—a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom’s instincts for combat will be put to the test and if he passes, he’ll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War III. Finally, he’ll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom’s always wanted—friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters—but what will it cost him?

So this book was a total random.  It wasn’t on my to-read list and actually, I need to be reading Between You and Me (Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus) since Goodreads was awesome enough to send me a copy.  Insignia is hot off the shelves (well, Internet) coming out just yesterday. Veronica Roth, famed author of the Divergent series, actually made a tweet about it and it linked me to Harper Teen’s website where there was quite a long peek at it (six chapters I believe).  I was interested because you do not find many main male characters in YA.  Mazerunner(James Dashner) is the one that first comes to mind and in the rest of them, there’s always a girl (Clary/Jace, Tessa/Will, Tris/Four, etc).

I was pretty freaking hooked.  It was just so so so DIFFERENT.  Like, mindblowingly different than any plot I’ve read in the past few years.  It’s the future, but not a dystopian.  It’s sci-fi, but (and probably the most terrifying part) it’s totally possible.  I tried to figure out what year it was — I’m guess close to 100.  I thought at first it was sooner because they mention the war in the middle east, but not only is their space program WAY more sophisticated, but a middle-aged character mentions his grandfather playing World of Warcraft which was released in the mid-2000′s.  Regardless, while Kincaid was filling me in, I was just like DUDE WE COULD BE LIKE THIS.  It was freaking FASCINATING.

If you’ve read my past reviews you’ll know I’m a stickler for characters. I loved them all.  The bad guys kicked bad guy ass, the girls are all bad ass and Tom, the main character, is a champ. Even Elliott who was a psuedo-bad guy was written so it wasn’t this sappy OH WE’RE BFFS NOW.  It was just really, really well written.

July 11, 2012 0 comments
Torment, by Lauren Kate

Torment, by Lauren Kate

Torment (Fallen Series #2)

By Lauren Kate

3.5 out of 5 on goodreads.com

Okie-dokie, if you haven’t read Fallen this is pretty much going to be a total spoiler review so just skip it for now.

So Luce (By the way, I’ve been calling her Lucy and not “loose.”  Anyway…) is now in a special school for part-angel (Nephilim) kids to keep her safe.  The one thing that really just annoyed me, and something that annoys me with a lot of fictional heroines.  THEY DON’T LISTEN.  How does, “Luce, stay here where you’re safe. People want you dead,” translate into the guy who loves you is being controlling?  Clary does this in TMI and Tris did it in Insurgent.  So. Annoying.  I get the whole woman empowerment thing, but this makes them looks just naive and stupid.

Some of the story lines like the barely touched-upon history between Shelby and Daniel, weren’t needed.  The fights between Luce and Daniel were obnoxious by the end of the book and she was coming off ridiculously bratty and whiney.  If you read back to my Insurgent review, you’ll find I hate whiney  characters.   I felt the book was whine, whine, whine, jump through a time portal, love Daniel, hate Daniel, whine, whine, whine.  At this point I really hope she does NOT end up with Daniel. I like Miles way better and if he keeps it up, he may be added onto the Fictional Boyfriends list (Jem, Four, Tucker, Finn in that order).

Props to Kate though, because I have no idea who Luce actually is as in who/what she stands for and what she and Daniel have to do with the apocalypse. If I had figured that out, I don’t think I would have kept reading the series.  There are two books left and as you can tell, I’m not as into them as I was other series, but I will get to them in due time.

July 7, 2012 0 comments Read More
Fallen, by Lauren Kate

Fallen, by Lauren Kate

Fallen

by Lauren Kate

4 out of 5 on goodreads.com

Though I dread the flight from L.A. to New York, it is inevitable that I make the trip at least twice a year.  (And hopefully after a book deal it would be more! Insert wishful thinking.)  The good thing about being an avid reader is that I read a (good) book in about five hours, which fits in perfectly with the airtime.  This latest trip the book of choice was Lauren Kate’s Fallen, mainly because I had heard Kate’s name over and over again and the last book, Rapture, has just been released.

Obviously the fact that I read it in five hours means I liked it enough to well…read it in five hours.  The characters well developed and stand out on their own which is considerably harder with so many active characters (I’d consider eight active characters through the book). It isn’t an action book by a long shot, but gives you just a tidbit of information at a time to make you want to answer the brand new question Kate just threw at you.

Spoilers below…

July 3, 2012 0 comments Read More
City of Lost Souls, by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls, by Cassandra Clare

City of Lost Souls

by Cassandra Clare

Well it’s about time.  I’ve been waiting a flipping year for this book.

I loved it, it just lacked a bit of the pacing the other books had, which isn’t bad, but very unlike the first four.  I loved the characters as usual and I truly to love the fact that the book is written in third person and we’re not stuck inside someone’s head.  The entire plot was very…different.  And while Clare’s series are very very fantasy/paranormal, she always makes sure that it makes sense in their world.  She isn’t just going to say, “And a big polka dot bunny came to them….”  We will know, at least eventually (because her readers trust her), that there is a explanation (in the Shadowhunter world) for why there is a polka dot bunny.  So with the whole Jace/Sebastian tied together thing, she had a history of how it happened, it just didn’t “happen” for the sake of a plot and no one knows why.

From here down SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT.

May 12, 2012 1 comment Read More