The Night Bookmobile

Author: Holly BlackAdd It: GoodreadsSeries: Curse Workers (#1,...

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:59:55 -0400

Author: Holly Black
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Curse Workers (#1, #2 & #3)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

I was late to the Curse Workers series and read all three of the books in a hurry; read them in such a hurry in fact that I raced through them before I wrote reviews for any of them. So here are three mini reviews of each book and my final thoughts of the series as a whole. Whether or not this contains spoilers depends on how sensitive you are to them. I don’t reveal anything big, aside from perhaps something that is very major in White Cat, but was something I actually knew of before I started reading the book and didn’t mind knowing. Proceed at your own risk through the individual reviews, or once you’ve read the mini White Cat review, skip down to the series review which is definitely spoiler free.

White Cat – White Cat is without a doubt my favorite book of the series. I am pretty sure that you gain 100 cool points just by reading it. I mean, crime workers who wear fancy gloves, what’s more classy than that? Mafia families! Magic! Betrayal! Intrigue! The entire book has a very noir vibe that I have yet to see anywhere else in the YA genre. Since this book was the first in the series it was all very fresh and exciting. I loved the story of the white cat. I loved Cassel’s occasionally snarky narrative. I couldn’t put it down.

Review: Fury by Shirley Marr

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:01:19 -0400

Pages: 277 (Paperback)
Author: Shirley Marr
Add It: Goodreads
Publisher: Black Dog Books

Fury was a book I was fully prepared to love. I have high expectations for any book with a badass looking redhead on the cover. I have spent many years lamenting the fact that I am not, in fact, a badass redhead. Any chance I have to live vicariously through a literary character to attain my Ginger dreams is a chance I am eager to take.

Unfortunately, the contents of the book did not live up to the cover for me. Perhaps I am a little burnt out on books that use high-school as a setting, which is why I am gravitating more towards YA set in the Fantasy genre lately. I have been out of high-school for several years now and I tend to relate more to characters in YA that come across as older. The characters in Fury were very immature and catty. Girls vs. Girls. It annoyed me and did not endear me to them. The biggest issue for me in books is not feeling connected to the characters, and unfortunately that was the case here. I couldn’t care about the outcome because I didn’t like any of the characters.

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Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 12:03:49 -0400

Pages: 375
Author: Lauren Oliver
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Delirium (#2)
Publisher: Harper Teen

I have grown into somewhat of a diehard Lauren Oliver fan. I just like everything she does. That is basically my entire review for the novella Hana: I just like everything Lauren Oliver does. Guess what? That was a lie. I didn’t like this that much.

Okay, I liked it. That’s what a three star rating means to me: I liked it but there was something missing or something wrong. I expected better of this book. I spent a great deal of the book bored. It took me awhile to finish this. I felt completely detached from Lena’s story for most of the book. I really didn’t like the choice to split the book into Then and Now. I can see why she chose to tell the story that way, but it was like reading two completely different books, and I just kept finding myself annoyed that when I would finally get into what was happening in one section I had to read about the other.

I enjoyed all of the side characters in the Then story. I enjoyed reading about Lena’s interactions with them and the struggle of living among the Invalids. Oliver certainly knows how to make the feeling of grief tackle you from the pages of her story, dragging you down until you feel it right alongside her heroine. Much of Before was rife with emotion. Raven’s story in particular was especially harrowing and beautiful.

I enjoyed Now’s story much less. It felt too plain to me. It didn’t do anything to stand out from the many other dystopian novels on the shelves. There was just something about it that felt like I’d read it all before, and not even Lauren’s gorgeous prose could save it for me. I also didn’t buy the romance between Lena and Julian. I liked it only because Oliver seemed to be allowing Lena to move on instead of the usual in YA in which One True Love is all our heroine gets, but the relationship between them seemed to only be formed by proximity and chaos, and it didn’t feel entirely genuine to me. It seemed like Lena was falling for him when she wasn’t completely over Alex, instead of giving herself time to properly grieve and move on.

The book ended in a cliffhanger that I found predictable and very disappointing. I also have begun to grow a specific hatred for books that so obviously end in a cliffhanger this way, and it did nothing to improve my feelings toward the book. I really hope that the conclusion to this series is satisfying. If anyone can get it back on track it’s Lauren Oliver.

Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:57:33 -0400

Pages: 409 (Hardcover)
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Add It: Goodreads
Publisher: Scholastic

The Scorpio Races is a very slow and subtle story. Maggie Stiefvater has said that she will sacrifice many things in her story to make readers feel something and it shows. Contrary to what the title may imply this is not an action packed racing story, and I feel like that may be why so many of the reviews are all over the place, because readers came into the story expecting something different. It’s not that the negative reviews citing lack of action are wrong, that’s all a matter of personal preference and this book is not something I’d recommend to someone who prefers a lot of action, but I would hate to see people turned away from this story because they think it might be boring. It’s certainly not as action packed as the title implies, true. If a book with very little action that spends most of its time detailing every sight, smell, and minor character is not for you then definitely look elsewhere, because I can see how the pacing would not appeal to every reader. The actual race is a very small part of this book but I wasn’t at all bored by all of the rich character development and world building.

What Maggie excels at here is transporting you to this little Island town. You can feel the tension on the beach, easily picture the beautiful and dangerous water horses, and almost hear the waves as Puck and Sean sit atop the cliffs. Even the minor characters on the island easily come to life; from tough Peg to Finn and his struggles with OCD, to the three quirky Maud sisters who own a shop in town. I think that Maggie is one of the more poetic and evocative YA writers that I’ve come across. While I easily prefer this to the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, both works showcase Maggie’s obvious ability to write a lovely phrase, and pull her readers into a story headfirst. I think that The Scorpio Races rises above the Wolves of Mercy Falls due to the originality of the story and the subtlety of the romance.

Romance actually plays a very, very tiny part in this story so those who need a lot of romance in their books beware. The romance here is barely there and yet it is probably my favorite pairing in the entire YA genre. It is slow to develop and only beginning once we reach the conclusion of the story. I think a quote from Puck’s (Kate’s) perspective really explains what I love so much about the couple in this story.

“I think every now and then about Sean’s thumb pressed against my wrist and daydream about him touching me again. But mostly I think about the way he looks at me – with respect – and I think that’s probably worth more than anything.”

The friendship and budding romance here is built upon a mutual love of horses and respect. That’s worth much more to me than any overly grand love story of the Romeo and Juliet variety. The main love story here was between horses and their masters. Sean and Corr and Puck and Dove were the true shining pairings of this novel.

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Review: Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:51:31 -0400

Pages: 480 (Kindle Edition)
Author: Rachel Hartman
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Untitled? (#1)
Publisher: Random House
Rating: 4/5

I remember being born, in fact, I remember a time before that. There was no light, but there was music: joints creaking, blood rushing, the heart’s staccato lullaby, a rich symphony of indigestion. Sound enfolded me, and I was safe. Then my world split open, and I was thrust into a cold and silent brightness. I tried to fill the emptiness with my screams, but the space was too vast. I raged, but there was no going back.” [ARC]

Rachel Hartman has come into the fantasy genre with a beautiful debut, a book filled with lovely paragraphs such as the one above, and intricate but enjoyable world building. She takes a different approach to dragons; the dragons shift into human form but mostly remain emotionally detached and incredibly intellectual. This idea pays off and creates a very interesting dynamic between humans and dragons that I really enjoyed reading about.

One of the most heartwarming relationships between dragon and someone with human emotions in the novel is between Seraphina and Orma. I really loved watching how they navigated their bond to each other, as Orma struggled with acting more like a human companion, and Seraphina attempted to learn how to accept loving someone who didn’t know how to love her back in ways she could understand. A struggle for Seraphina was to learn to accept that she loved and was bonded to someone who could not legally show affection for her without the threat of having his memories erased.

Review: The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:01:47 -0400

Pages: 506
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Seven Realms (#1)
Publisher: Hyperion
Rating: 4/5

The Demon King is, admittedly, a book that might lose your attention in the first two hundred pages. No one wants to be bored for that long. Generally, I give a book a hundred pages to catch my attention, and if nothing is striking me then I put it down. Thankfully, The Demon King was one of those books that I thought had enough interesting elements and characters that it might get better, and on the advice of a friend I ended up diving back in to the book a month or so later. I finished the last 3/5 in two days time and didn’t want to put it down. If we hadn’t gotten off to such a slow start, this book might even have made my favorites list, as I suspect that future books in the series will.

One of the strongest parts of the story is its characters. The cast is varied but Chima does not scrimp on the development of her large ensemble. Nearly every character is fleshed out and we see different sides of supporting characters like Amon Byrne and Micah Bayar. We visit the clans and come to love Willo and Mother Elena and Bird and Dancer and Averill Demonai. The only characters I would say were not sufficiently developed were Raisa’s mother and sister, but that made sense given Raisa’s need to hide from them herself, and there’s always room for that in the later books if necessary. With such a wide and involved cast of characters I think Chima did a great job balancing them all. I also love that there are some POC in the story (including Raisa!) because sometimes authors write as though we’re living in a world filled with people of one color, which obviously isn’t the case. I respect any author who includes diversity in their cast, and even more so one who so clearly gives us a main WOC heroine to root for.

Of course, I can’t mention characters without commenting in more detail on our two main heroes, Hunts Alone and Princess Raisa. I grew to love both perspectives equally. Hunts Alone is a former gang leader who still sometimes thinks as if he is the leader of the gang, making decisions others would see as bad, but are decisions that make sense to him and allow him to protect and provide for his family. I loved that we were given such a gray area character in Hunts Alone. It’s not often that authors give us a character to root for who has murdered and thieved for a good portion of his life. I thought Princess Raisa was a little less unique, she is your typical princess trying to break out of the shell of what everyone expects of her, but at the same time she was also deeply flawed and incredibly selfish, which gave her a more interesting personality and lots of room to grow throughout the series. I really liked Raisa’s bold and oftentimes inconsiderate personality and am looking forward to watching her develop as the story takes her further away from where she needs to be.

The plot itself is also wonderful. I can’t say too much without giving things away. It’s very involved and very intense. The plot moves in all different directions which keeps it fresh and exciting. It reminds me of the Song of Ice and Fire series in that way, but obviously for a younger audience. I can actually say that I have no idea what direction the story is going to go in, which is rare these days when so many books seem to follow a certain formula, and I cannot wait to read on to the other chapters in this story.

Review: Incarnate by Jodi Meadows

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:51:49 -0400

Pages: 384
Author: Jodi Meadows
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Newsoul (#1)
Publisher: Katherine Tegen
Rating: 3/5

I am a big fan of the world that Jodi Meadows has crafted in her Newsoul series. With so much dystopia on the shelves I didn’t realize how refreshing it would be to read about a utopia.

In a world where people die only to come back in a different body to different parents there is much opportunity for fascinating relationship dynamics. There is also an opportunity for the exploration of what it is like to have lived life in both a woman’s body and a man’s. The novel also discusses what might happen if two lovers come back as the same gender and that wasn’t their physical preference. I thought that raising these sorts of questions made this a very smart book and let it stand out among other YA books on the shelves today.

My complaint is that I think too much time was spent on the romance and not enough time exploring these very interesting ideas. I did enjoy Sam as a character. I think he may be one of my favorite male leads. I just wish the romance had taken a bit more of a backseat. I also thought it was sweet that their relationship grew with music, but beyond that I didn’t see much between them that would have built a romance, other than the fact that Sam was her first friend and that she was the only new person in the entire world he hadn’t met yet. That made the relationship seem less real to me. In fact, I kind of think it made it sort of unhealthy given Sam’s actual age and power over Ana from the start, even if he didn’t seem to be trying to use that power.

Ana’s personality is very combative and at times irrational. I thought that it was very realistic given the abusive environment she grew up in and I really respect Jodi for not creating another bland and likeable character who is loved by everyone. I know from personal experience that Ana’s behavior after leaving her abusive childhood is realistic. Mental abuse (and physical) leaves its mark. It colors the way you perceive the world and other people. It takes years to recover from that type of abuse, and I’m not sure that you ever completely do. I hope that Ana is able to grow throughout the series and learn to trust people. I am excited to go on that journey with her.

Another wonderful thing about this book is the addition of dragons and sylphs. I love fantasy and am immediately drawn in by books that include magical creatures. I thought they added extra enjoyment to the conclusion of the book. I was a little disappointed with the other answers provided at the end so I was happy the dragons and sylphs were present to keep the ending exciting.

I would recommend this series to others while admitting that it is very much a first book and doesn’t quite reach the potential of the questions it raises. I do think that given time to grow the series can be very worthwhile and I think it should be given a chance. Jodi has created a very original world and I’m eager to see where she goes with it as she continues to build Heart.

Review: The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 14:57:15 -0400

Pages: 557
Author: Rick Riordan
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Heroes of Olympus (#1)
Publisher: Hyperion
Rating: 4/5

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call,

To storm or fire the world must fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

The Lost Hero is the first book in Heroes of Olympus, a companion series to the popular Percy Jackson novels. I was a big fan of the Percy Jackson series. The first books read a bit young since Percy was just a kid when the novels began, but the series was still so much fun to read, and I loved all of the bits of Greek Mythology. The same is true of The Lost Hero. The characters are also older when this series begins and we get to bypass the awkward middle school phase that dragged down the PJ series at the beginning. I do think the characters still tend to come across a bit younger than other YA characters but it didn’t really bother me.

The Lost Hero is told from the perspectives of three different half bloods: Leo, Piper and Jason. I thought that each character had their own unique voice, which I think is so important when it comes to a novel with multiple perspectives. The three half bloods go on many adventures in this novel and all proved to be just as amusing and interesting to read about as the adventures of Percy and Annabeth. The humor is still a little cheesy but it actually grew on me after awhile. It was refreshing after reading so many novels that seem to take themselves too seriously.

A few of our favorite characters from Percy Jackson are back at Camp Half Blood. By far my favorite scenes from both this series and PJ are the scenes that take place at Camp Half Blood. There’s just something about the camp that reminds me of Hogwarts. Perhaps it’s that each half blood is grouped together with their other siblings and they all compete against each other. Just like at Hogwarts each of the students tends to exemplify certain characteristics of their house; each half blood is similar to their God parent in some way. Aphrodite’s children tend to care a lot about beauty. Hephaestus’ children are good at fixing things. Ares’ children are eager to go to war. There is something so fun about trying to guess which God each half blood belongs to before they are claimed by their godly parent.

Also, ten extra points to this book for including a flying mechanical dragon and making him into a loveable character all his own. Maybe I just like dragons.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a light read. I think people who are interested in Greek Mythology will get more out of this series than others.

Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:59:42 -0400

Pages: 170
Author: Elizabeth Scott
Add It: Goodreads
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Rating: 3/5

Living Dead Girl is an extremely hard novel to read and rate. No one could call this book enjoyable. The subject matter is extremely rough and there is no easy or comfortable way to approach it. Kidnapping, rape, and child abuse are things that crawl under the skin and a book written about them has to unnerve you. It has to make you cringe and ache, because we live in a world where these things really happen, and that is impossible to stomach. This novel is very short but it felt like it took forever to read. I wanted it to be over. I recommend reading it in one sitting so that you do not have to think about going back to it, because you won’t want to.

I’ve watched a lot of Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit and all of those episodes combined didn’t affect me as badly as this one little book did. That just speaks to the power and possibilities of literature as a storytelling medium, I think, because it placed us inside the head of the victim herself, and that is a very terrifying and ugly place to be. Years of abuse will change and reshape the brain of anyone and make the victim’s actions seem almost incomprehensible to outsiders because they haven’t been in that situation. They haven’t been forced to do things to survive. I thought this book did a very good job of showing what it is like to be inside the head of someone who has been through these sorts of horrific things.

In the end, I wished there had been more hope, but we live in a world where sometimes there is no happy ending or resolution, and that’s just the sad truth. I’d recommend this book with a great many trigger warnings.

Review: When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:00:05 -0400

Pages: 352
Author: Hillary Jordan
Add It: Goodreads
Publisher: Algonquin
Rating: 2/5

How absolutely cool is the premise of this book? People’s skin is genetically mutated a certain color to paint them as certain shades of criminal. Red skin means murderer. In this society, red skin also means someone who has had an abortion, a procedure that has been deemed illegal now that Roe V. Wade has been overturned. This novel had the potential to be as frightening as Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel that didn’t seem entirely far fetched, and still does not in a world where women still have to fight for their right to have complete control over their bodies. I think books of this nature are especially important given the current fight over birth control that has cropped up as candidates fight to challenge Obama in this year’s election. People like Rush Limbaugh really exist. There are groups of people out there who want a world like this one to be the one we live in. Books like this one are almost realistic fiction when you think about it like that. Terrifying.

The novel starts out strong. Hannah Payne has recently been transformed to become a Chrome, her skin mutated Red, to represent her crime of abortion. She must live her days on camera inside of jail, where her every move is being broadcasted to people at home for their entertainment. Experiencing with Hannah her first moments as a Chrome, alone in solitary, is deeply intimate. Because of her perceived crime Hannah is subjected to humiliation and psychological torture. It was very interesting and painful to be inside of Hannah’s head as she dealt with this experience.

Hannah is soon released and dropped off in a religious facility aimed at “curing” women chromes and bringing them back to the light of Jesus or whatever. This section of the book actually wasn’t half bad. There were some definitely great points made using Hannah’s experiences in that facility; even if perhaps Jordan should not have been so heavy handed with the message and allowed the “evil” characters to be humanized a bit. A particularly frightening thing about this facility was that Hannah and others were forced to create and carry around dolls that represented the “child” they aborted.

Once Hannah leaves the facility things get a little far fetched. She joins a sort of underground program put in place by those that oppose the new government and after that it is one unbelievable situation after another. Hannah’s narrative is also a little weird. She still considers herself a murderer even if she doesn’t believe she deserves all of the ways she’s been treated, and that is never resolved. I also didn’t buy her loyalty to the father of her baby, or why she would put entire groups of people at risk just to see him one last time. Also, there is a brief segue into lesbianism that would have had more meaning if it had, well, meant anything at all and didn’t seem to be just a convenient plot point to represent Hannah’s supposed awakening.

I think this book would have been far better served if it had focused on Hannah being made an outcast by society as a whole, and the treatment she would have received trying to live a normal life as a Red. I’m mixed on whether or not I’d recommend this one. It was a fairly enjoyable read, the idea of chromes was fantastic, the feminist themes were important, but in the end it fell short of everything it was trying to accomplish. I’d much rather recommend The Handmaid’s Tale instead.

Review: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 23:18:01 -0400

Pages: 427
Author: N.K. Jemisin
Add It: Goodreads
Series: The Inheritance Trilogy (#1)
Publisher: Orbit
Rating: 4/5

N.K. Jemisin is definitely a force to be reckoned with in the fantasy genre. Her ability to craft an exciting and imaginative fantasy world is evident from the very first. The story of the gods is both unique and unpredictable. I would venture to say it is the most original use of gods in a story that I have ever seen. Jemisin’s gods are everything you would imagine a god to be. They do not get weighed down by humanity because they are not human. I think this is one of the book’s greatest strengths.

Another credit to Jemisin, and perhaps the biggest one, is her ability to write. This woman can write the pants off of many fantasy writers and many writers in general. Her phrases are lyrical and raw and inspiring. I immediately wanted to write them down and share them with others. The stream of consciousness style of writing was the novel’s greatest strength and its greatest weakness. I thought it was strongest when Yeine’s narrative was being overtaken by Enefa.

“I gather her body to mine and will all of creation to make her live again. We are not built for death. But nothing changes, nothing changes, there was a hell that I built long ago and it was a place where everything remained the same forever because I could imagine nothing more horrific, and now I am there
Then others come, our children, and all react with equal horror
in a child’s eyes, a mother is god
but I can see nothing of their grief through the black mist of my own. I lay her body down but my hands are covered in her blood, our blood, sister lover pupil teacher friend otherself, and when I lift my head to scream out my fury, a million stars turn black and die. No one can see them, but they are my tears.”

I also found the stream of consciousness style to be frustrating and melodramatic at times. Yeine would often begin a story only to swear she’d come back to it later and start telling another one. While it certainly was a unique way to tell the story, it was also very distracting, and confusing for me as a reader.

While I think that this novel was beautifully crafted, and such an original addition to the fantasy genre, I didn’t absolutely love it. In fact, I found myself uncaring about the outcome and the fates of the characters and the plot. I think this is because the characters never felt relatable to me, and I couldn’t say that I truly liked any of them. Sieh seems to be a favorite among readers but I thought he was actually a little creepy and unpredictable. I suppose that’s as it should be, since he is a god, and they live their lives in shades of gray. I think that it was just hard for me to get outside of my own head and view the gods as non-human creatures who clearly don’t play by our rules. If I had been able to do so his behavior would not have seemed so odd to me.

Yeine was my favorite but there was something about her that always kept the reader at a distance and didn’t allow for intimacy. Perhaps it was because she was slipping away? Characters seem to make or break novels for me. If you can make me care deeply for at least one character then you’ve got me, but if you can’t, then it’s going to be hard to grab my attention much at all.

I’d definitely recommend this to fans of the fantasy genre looking for something worthwhile and unique.

Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 00:16:21 -0500

Pages: 387
Author: Marissa Meyer
Add It: Goodreads
Series: Lunar Chronicles (#1)
Publisher: Macmillan
Rating: 4/5

When Cinder first came to my attention I was completely enamored with the idea for the book, and even more so for the concept of the entire quartet, which will also focus on other fairytale heroines. After finishing Cinder’s first story I am happy to say that my expectations for this series were more than met.

Cinder is a cyborg. This was such an interesting spin on the story of Cinderella that I was captured by her character from the very beginning. I think fairytale retellings need to find a way to leave their own mark, to find a way to differentiate themselves entirely from the original story. Cinder certainly did that. I haven’t read too many retellings prior to Cinder, Ash by Malinda Lo comes to mind, and while I more than appreciated Malinda’s attempt to modernize the character of Cinderella (More LGBT characters in literature, please!) I felt that the rest of the story fell flat and failed to deliver anything exciting or new to the tale. Where Ash failed for me Cinder rose above and beyond. Cyborgs, robots, and aliens from the moon brought life and twists to this classic story.

Cinder herself is tough, amusing, and full of heart. She is a first class mechanic and highly intelligent. She will fight to protect those she cares about even if she has to do it without one of her feet. She dreams big dreams and is haunted by her past. Together with her robot sidekick, Iko, she was a pleasure to read about. I enjoyed her relationship with her sister Peony as well; it was nice to see Cinder have a true friend in the house aside from Iko. Cinder’s relationship with her stepmother was nothing new but was made even more horrifying by the fact that Cinder was a cyborg. The evil stepmother was given more opportunity to be cruel in new and imaginative ways; she could hold Cinder’s body parts hostage! I also enjoyed Cinder’s relationship with Kai. It was slow to develop and realistic. Neither character was willing to put aside important things for the other and throw everything away for “love” as some YA characters do nowadays. Cinder and Kai both know that there are more important things than budding romance; like survival, a kingdom, and family.

I did feel that a certain “twist” was so obvious from the early pages of the story and wish it had been more subtle. It didn’t bother me until we reached the ending. The ending seemed rather anti-climatic because it relied so heavily upon the reveal of a secret many of us had seen coming from the beginning. The story did feel a little incomplete and unresolved. I would have rather seen Cinder’s story end in this book and had the other books in the quartet focus on the other heroines being introduced. I don’t think this is only because I am growing so tired of cliffhangers and series in general, but also because it would have served the story better. Focusing on a new heroine each time would give plenty of time to give new life to the classic characters, instead of spending so much focus on just one. I wish the YA market would start going in the direction of companion novels (like Kristin Cashore’s Seven Kingdoms Series) which would allow us to visit the same worlds again but also let us read about new and interesting characters, instead of dragging out the stories of the same characters over and over.

I would definitely recommend Cinder to others. It’s a fun book that stands out amongst the other debut novels of the year. We need more Science Fiction (non-dystopian) on our shelves. More cyborgs and robots too.

Book Review: Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:01:53 -0500

Finished: December 24, 2011
Pages: 320 (Paperback)
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Add It: Goodreads
Series: The Chemical Garden (#1)
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Source: Purchased

“Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden’s genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home. But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden’s eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant she trusts, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limted time she has left.”

Read the first chapter of Wither at Simon & Schuster’s website.

Quote: “There’s nothing here to say good-bye to. There’s no dancing girl. No mischievous smile. She’s gone, off with her sisters, broken free, escaped. And if she were here now, she would say, “Go.”

Cover Love: As soon as the cover art was released, my interest in this novel was piqued. Call me superficial, but I love some good cover art. I think that the cover really captures the feel of the novel, of the blanket of glamour that has been thrown over Rhine’s horrible world, to hide all that is beneath. I also really love the purple coloring.

Thoughts: I wanted to like Wither. Considering the fact that I eat up Dystopia novels the same way I eat a tray of cookies placed anywhere in my vicinity, I was fully expecting to love this. I sat down with the beautiful purple book and went forward with no hesitation. Unfortunately, once I got to Linden’s mansion, I began experiencing a strange feeling. We’ll call it frustration.

For me, it was completely unrealistic to see Rhine expressing any sort of emotion toward Linden. Were we supposed to feel sorry for this character as we watched him bed hop between three different girls? One of them being a thirteen year old? Were we supposed to believe that Linden was so naive to his father’s cruel plans despite the fact that he begins the novel by selecting his brides from a line up? If this was the author’s intention, then for me as a reader, she failed to make me believe.

Please head over to my Blogspot page to read the rest of this review: Wither Review @ The Night Bookmobile @ Blogger

Interested in seeing what books I got this week? Also check out my In My Mailbox post.

Book Review: Unearthly by Cynthia Hand

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:35:04 -0500

Finished: December 11, 2011
Pages: 464
Author: Website
Book: Goodreads
Publisher: HarperTeen
Series: Unearthly

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she’s part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realizes, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn’t easy. Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town. When she meets Christian, who turns out to be the boy of her dreams (literally), everything seems to fall into place—and out of place at the same time. Because there’s another guy, Tucker, who appeals to Clara’s less angelic side.

Quote: “I won’t be that girl who lets the guy treat her like crap and still fawns all over him.”

Thoughts: Unearthly is a great example of a book I found and really liked that was entirely out of my comfort zone. From the synopsis, I didn’t think I would like it, but I pushed forward due to all of the reviews saying the same thing I’m saying to you now. People seem to be surprised that this novel worked. On the surface, Unearthly is very much a novel that relies on your usual cliche YA paranormal elements. The angel mythology didn’t really offer anything different, and I didn’t feel that Hand brought anything new to the table there, such as Susan Ee did with Angelfall. This is by no means a life changing read, at least not for me. That is why I was surprised that I enjoyed this book so much that I was unable to put it down.

While not exactly offering anything new, Cynthia Hand’s writing and the great care she gives to crafting her entire cast of characters, make this an easy book to fall in love with. Clara’s inner voice is sarcastic and self-deprecating. I never thought I would like a book that included a word like adorkable, but here we are. Despite being a supernatural being predisposed to being great at things, Clara still manages to be a normal and awkward teenage girl. I especially enjoyed Clara’s interaction with her family. Her relationship with her younger brother was entirely realistic and reminded me of the relationship I have with my eldest younger brother. Her relationship with her mother was also nice to see; it’s nice to see a badass supernatural parent for a change.

My favorite part of this novel was the romance between Clara and Tucker. Perhaps I am just a little sick of the bad boy trope that runs rampant in YA these days; but it was nice to see a nice guy finally win the day for a chance. Tucker is a southern gentleman, and not one that would usually appeal to me, but oh how he does. He is playful and sweet and it seems like he could be any guy you meet on the street. See, YA authors, the guy doesn’t have to be a mysterious supernatural being to be attractive to your readers! The romance was realistic and slow to develop. No Instalove! I will say that I do not like the implications of a love triangle presented toward the end. I dislike it so much I wrote it in my notes twice. Who knows, maybe the overused love triangle will be another thing that becomes enjoyable to read in Cynthia Hand’s capable hands.

Another thing worth mentioning is the love I have for Cynthia Hand’s sense of humor. I laughed out loud several times while reading this book, which is not something that happens often for me. I love that this book doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is a trap that a lot of these sorts of books seem to fall into nowadays. I hope the same holds true for the rest of the series and am very much looking forward to picking up the sequel.

Recommendation: Anyone looking for a light and fun read.

Rating:

Four out of Five Coffees

Unearthly is on sale now in paperback. You can purchase it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository and other retailers. The sequel, Hallowed, will be released January 17, 2012.

For more reviews and other fun stuff please check out the main site @ Blogger.

Looks like Tumblr has fixed the bugs that were running around.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:07:03 -0500

I will continue to post my reviews here. For other fun stuff please subscribe to this blog’s main site at Blogger.

Happy reading.

I can't find comments on your blogger page. Is that on purpose? Or am I just being completely dense?

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:21:29 -0500

No, it was me! Thank you. I knew I forgot to set something up. Disqus commenting is in place now so unless I am completely dense (i’m not ruling it out) you should be able to comment now.

For anyone who missed the previous announcement I’ve moved to Blogger. I will still be cross posting reviews here, but due to a Tumblr bug, I keep getting locked out of the account here and am unable to edit my layout at all now that it was deleted. I hope you’ll all continue to follow and share your opinions on books.

Moving to Blogger.

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:04:38 -0500

I haven’t received any response from Tumblr Support and I’m still unable to edit my layout after it was deleted. I’ve decided that this is a sign that I should finally make the move to Blogger. I’ll still be cross posting my reviews here, once I (hopefully) hear back from Tumblr Support and can fix my page, but everything else will only be posted at my main site. I hope you’ll all join me there to talk about books! :)

The Night Bookmobile @ Blogger

Issues with layout.

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:35:33 -0500

For reasons I am not entirely clear on Tumblr decided to completely delete my layout. I was in the middle of editing my layout when it said there was a security risk with my account and forced me to reset my password. I logged back in to find my entire layout gone. When I attempted to install and customize it again, the same thing happened. I will be emailing customer support immediately but in the mean time things around here are going to look for very basic! Thanks guys.

The Cemetery of Forgotten Books Challenge.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:08:09 -0500

As an addition to (and inspired by) Libraryofmind’s Conquer the Lurker Challenge in which I will be reading one chapter of A Dance with Dragons a day in order to try to finish it already, I am going to be picking a book from my unread shelf every week that has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for several months or more. Perhaps you are like me and you have several books that you keep meaning to get to it but never do. I’m hoping to change that in 2012. Every Monday I will make a post saying what book from my shelf I’d like to tackle for the week. You’re welcome to join in. You can list your book as a response to my post or make a post in your own blog.

My pick from the cemetery this week:

“In 2014, two experimental viruses—a genetically engineered flu strain designed by Dr. Alexander Kellis, intended to act as a cure for the common cold, and a cancer-killing strain of Marburg, known as “Marburg Amberlee”—escaped the lab and combined to form a single airborne pathogen that swept around the world in a matter of days. It cured cancer. It stopped a thousand cold and flu viruses in their tracks.

It raised the dead.

Millions died in the chaos that followed. The summer of 2014 was dubbed “The Rising,” and only the lessons learned from a thousand zombie movies allowed mankind to survive. Even then, the world was changed forever. The mainstream media fell, Internet news acquired an undeniable new legitimacy, and the CDC rose to a new level of power.

Set twenty years after the Rising, the Newsflesh trilogy follows a team of bloggers, led by Georgia and Shaun Mason, as they search for the brutal truths behind the infection. Danger, deceit, and betrayal lurk around every corner, as does the hardest question of them all:

When will you rise?”

I will be back next Monday to tell you if I accomplished my goal and select my choice for the next week’s forgotten book.

What site do you use to keep up with all the books you've read? I would love to start a 100 book challenge, but I'm not sure where to start.

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:16:45 -0500

Hi, Mandalyn! Happy New Year. I highly recommend Goodreads. I have discovered so many books through that website and found lots of people to discuss books with. You can create all kinds of different shelves to keep track of what you’ve read and what you’d like to read. They also give you book recommendations based on the books you’ve read and rated and you can also browse the different genres on their site.

For 2011 they added a challenge option for you track your progress. I’m sure they’ll have another one set up for 2012 as well. There is link to my Goodreads account on my page if you’d like to add me as a friend once you set up your account.