Book Review-Shadows by Ilsa J Bick

 

Title: Shadows

 Author: Ilsa J Bick

Series:   Ashes #2

Published: 27  September 2012 by Quercus

Length: 518 pages

Source: publisher

Other info: Review of Ashes here

Summary : Alex has escaped from Rule - but what new horrors face her in the ravaged world outside?
Tom is safe - but what will he risk to find Alex?
Chris - how much does he really know about the terrible darkness of Rule? And what are his true feelings for Alex?
Ellie - where is she? 

Review: I remember Ashes. The electromagnetic pulse, Alex with the enhanced sense of smell, the zombies/Changed and the cliffhanger of 2012. Now out on her own, and surrounded by a pack of Changed. Also, the elders in Rule may be hiding secrets and Tom is looking for Alex. Fun times!

Yeah, when I started this, I knew I had a basic rememberance of the features of Ashes. So I went into Shadows ready for action. After a bit of Tom, and then the conclusion to the cliffhanger, we follow each of the others in turn, which would be ok..but I’d forgotten most things . lots of characters turn up that I don’t remember meeting in Ashes.

In terms of plot for this, it all seemed very scattered. Normally. I like multiple perspectives, but for this one, I was lost from about page 100 onwards. We flick between groups of characters a lot, with quite a lot of smaller cliffhangers, quite quickly, and I just didn’t keep up with it all. `                       

The zombies, changed, chuckies in this got a bit more development in this one, as did the characters in Rule.

In terms of action, it was amazing. The action scenes are written  so well, you feel like you’re there with all the gory details that mean you can see it all happening in your mind.

I like the fact that humans are evil comes up in this book. It’s a good contrast to the OTT zombies tearing people apart, but just as creepy.

The writing is once again third person, but following a character at each point. the focus changes along with the switches of plot also stopped me really following this throughout. As the action scenes are  so frequent, being randomly thrown from one  to another scene, it’s confusing and slows it down for me.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book with a lot of action but is one of the hardest things to follow I’ve read for a long time.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review-Dawn of Darkness by Daniel A Kaine

Title: Dawn of Darkness

 Author: Daniel A. Kaine

Series:  Daeva #1

Published:  October 20^th 2011 by Smashwords

Length:290 pages

Warnings: drunk sex, dubious content, attempted rape, sex scenes, violence

Source: bought

Summary : Unburdened by the pain of loss and heartbreak, Mikhail is content with his life of solitude. But everything began to change the day he realised he has a psychic ability — the power to alter the emotions of those around him.
Ushered into the Military Academy with others like him — other Daevas — Mikhail does his part to help tip the scales of war against the vampires that destroyed the world and plague what remains of humanity. But after going up against his first vampire, Mikhail starts to question everything he thought to be true.
To discover the truth and expose the lies he once believed, Mikhail will set out on a journey of discovery, and learn some things about himself in the process.

Review: Many years ago: vampires come out of hiding. Some people like them, some don’t. Few years later: plague comes, as those who don’t like vampires said it would come. People stop liking vampires. Also, many people die (see plague). Setting of story: Mikhail is a Daeva, a supernaturally enhanced human. In service at the Military Acadamny, he and his squadron keep the city safe from vampires. Until one day when things happen and he ends up in a group of resistance fighters, learning new things about his powers, the government, and himself,

Mikhael, also known as Mik, starts off as someone with attachment issues. He then (after drunk sex) falls in love with Ash, opening up. I both liked and disliked Mik. He’s driven throughout the novel, and I liked watching him experiment with his powers. what I didn’t like about him was the fact that he was annoying at times and went on and on about Ash at times.

My favourite character was either Daniel, the werewolf, or Violet, the vampire. Daniel would be an awesome friend and Violet was quite memorable. Russel was a creepy antagonist. The squadron I didn’t really care for. Marcus is a very intriguing character.
The world is different. I like the backstory and the closed offness of the city,  and I liked the travelling between France and London, which is randomly renamed Aldar and strangely un-post-apocalyptic for reasons unknown.

The plot and the romance are ok, the friendships were better, the twists were good, the final one was great. The first almost half is romance and action, the rest is more action. the vampires are totally unsparkly, as shown by the very gory results of their actions.

Overall:  Strength 3.5, very slightly more a 3, to a fantasy post-apocalyptic novel with many good and bad points/

Links: Amazon  | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell

Title: The Reapers are the Angels

 Author: Alden Bell

Series:  Reapers #1

Published:  2 September 2011 by Toe

Length: 304 pages

Warnings: attempted rape, violence

Source: won 2011 from Nocturnal Book Reviews

Summary : For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.

Review: Temple is simply trying to survive in this world where zombies, slugs, whatever you want to call them, roam. She wanders from place to place, meeting people then moving on. We find her coming in to a small community. After one of the men there tries to rape her, Temple kills him and runs from his brother, Moses. Further on in her travels, she picks up Maury, a man she must take care of, and plans to help him get back to his family. They carry on travelling, running, from a man who wants revenge.

I like the fact that the zombies weren’t the focus of The Reapers are the Angels. Instead, they’re the world builders, providing a reason for Temple to keep moving and the occasional big action sequence.

 Here, the horror comes from the characters. Abraham, who thinks he’s entitled to have the new young girl have sex with him. The mutants. Even Temple, in the way that she detaches herself so easily.

I like the range of characters. There’s people who remember times before the undead started rising and there’s people who don’t know anything else. Everyone deals with the undead in different ways.

I couldn’t really connect with Temple, despite being given access to her thoughts and method of thinking.

The events in this book seem quite disjointed. Once we met a character, for the most, we don’t see them again. This is perfectly in keeping with Temple’s lifestyle, but as a reader, I didn’t really enjoy it.

It’s all written in third person, closely following Temple and her decisions. There’s simple punctuation, and a distinct lack of speech marks. This and Temple’s strong accent do well in showing her upbringing and lack of education. I did miss the speech marks. A lot. 

The relationship between Moses and Temple is the most interesting one in the novel. There’s the whole wanting to kill each other, but when their meetings become more and more frequent,  they start to understand each other, understand their difference, and similarities.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a character driven post-apocalyptic novel.

Links: Amazon | | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Title: Struck

 Author: Jennifer Bosworth

Series:  Struck #1

Published:  26 April 2012 by Doubleday

Length: 373 pages

Source: Netgalley. Once again, sorry for the wait.

Summary : Mia Price is a lightning addict. She's survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her. Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come. Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn't who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything

Review: Mia is a human pylon. And she loves it. and then she has a dream in which a boy is standing there with a knife ready to kill her. A few days later, an earthquake hits Los Angeles, and people are calling it the end of the world. Mia wants to take care of her family, but then she gets caught up between two cults. Those who follow Rance Ridley, prophet who performs miracles, and the Seekers, who want her for something. Mia only really cares about her mother and brother, but after being pulled in between these two groups, they’re the least of her worries.

A lightning addict! Wow! From the blurb I was highly excited about this one.  And it didn’t disappoint. Mia’s narration is gripping, and her actions to try and keep her family safe even more so. It’s nice that Mia will do what she can to protect them, and her business with the Dealer shows how loyal and caring she is. On other counts, she's not amazing. 

The cults were the most intriguing things about this for me. The devotion to the causes was both spectacular and a bit scary, and people in both of them are completely unpredictable. The Seekers want Mia to stop the apocalypse and keep dragging her in to their ceremonies and so on. The Followers believe it’s time to repent for sins and so on. both of them have good and bad sides that we see along with Mia, and are thought provoking in their own ways.

Instalove alert. Kind of. I found Jeremy kind of boring and slightly annoying. The relationship then develops  at a better pace, but fact that Mia falls in love with a guy she first sees with a knife is a kind of WTH moment.

There’s also a few things that seems a bit drawn out and predictable. It took a long time to get to some important things, and with so many things happening, there were a couple of bits that I thought didn’t need to be there.

But not the world building. Wow. I could easily imagine the disaster-struck LA, full of hungry people desperate for medicine, food, supplies and so on. most things can be obtained if you have enough cash. It’s a kind of typical post-apocalyptic world-but it’s a good typical post-apocalyptic world.

Overall:  Strength  4 tea to a different post-apocalyptic novel with a lot of awesomeness.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts

Title:Dark Inside

 Author: Jeyn Roberts

Series:  Dark Inside #1

Published:  2 September 2011 by Macmillan

Length: 368 pages

Warnings: Violence,gore, 11 +

Source: Library

Other info: Book two will be called Rage Within. Dark Inside is Jeyn’s debut.

Summary : Since the beginning of mankind, civilizations have fallen: the Romans, the Greeks, the Aztecs...and now us. Huge earthquakes rock the world. Cities are destroyed. But something even more awful is happening: An ancient evil has been unleashed, and it's turning everyday people into hunters, killers, and crazies. This is the world Mason, Aries, Clementine, and Michael are living in--or rather, trying to survive. Each is fleeing unspeakable horror, from murderous chaos to brutal natural disasters, and each is traveling the same road in a world gone mad. Amid the throes of the apocalypse and clinging to love and meaning wherever it can be found, these four teens are on a journey into the heart of darkness--and to find each other and a place of safety.

Review: After worldwide earthquakes...a tonne of crazy stuff happens. People become killing machines, turning whenever, turning on friends, lovers, family. There’s no explanation for it, but it throws survivors into chaos. Months pass with everyone unable to trust others to keep them alive. Michael, Aries, Mason and Clementine are four teenagers who are trying to stay alive. Each are succeeding, but only  just. Continued survival depends on thngs they don’t have. And the killing goes on.

It was a nice idea, but not a must read thing. Post apocalyptic things like this where there’s random survivors thrown together are always interesting, with a lot of stereotypes being available for use, invertion and playing around with. Jeyn brings a lot of new things to this, while still keeping some stock characters.

Clementine and Aries are two girls who don’t seem that different to each other.  Mason and Michael are also similar in their ways. It’s nice that they all have their own reasons to keep going, carry on surviving in this carzy world, but they’re not amazingly developed and at some points I was wondering if they’d die so I could be happy. The best character is Chickadee, who’s strong even while dealing with all of this and her diabetes, but still tries to carry on.

It’s different to what I expected-the summary makes it seem as though they’re all somewhere near each other throughout. In reality, it takes a fair bit of the novel for them to meet and interact. So slow on that count.

It starts off really well, with the earthquakes and first wave of things happening really quickly, showing us the characters as they deal with all of this stuff. But from there, it drags out a little.  switching between the four focuses, not perspectives as it’s in third person aside from one part which I’ll say about later, was a bit confusing to start with and it feels a bit all over the place, and it’s a bit samey.

The writing’s not that good. it’s not very engaging when it comes to showing our four protagonaists and their fights to survive, and I couldn’t really care much about it.

Saying that, the parts written from the perspective of “Nothing” are amazing. They’ give a creepy air to the novel and are intriguing enough to make me want to find out more about his “Nothing”.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a postapocalyptic novel with some upsides, but not much.

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- The End by Nora Olsen

Title: The End (Five Queer Kids Save the World)

 Author: Nora Olsen

Series:  N/A

Published:  15 December 2010 by Prizm

Length: 270 pages

Warnings: Sexual longings, not too much actually happening 12+

Source: Author

Summary : When World War Three breaks out, seventeen-year-old Julia is on a school trip to Amsterdam, while fourteen-year-old Marly is trapped in a prison for delinquent girls. They both discover magical amulets, and try their best to save themselves and those around them. But it looks like their best will not be enough, as nuclear war threatens the survival of the human race.
 On her journey home to New York, Julia is joined by three other queer teens--the mysterious and alluring Ginger; lipstick lesbian Vikki; and five-thousand-year-old Skilly, who has an amulet that grants him eternal life. When Julia and Marly meet, they are immediately attracted to each other. But romance has to take a back seat as the five friends learn the true powers of the amulets. Can they travel through time to save the world from total destruction?

Review:Skilly is sailing, Ginger and Julia are on a school trip, Marly is in prison and Vikki is out of rehab for bulimia when nuclear war looms. Fate brings them together, these teenagers (aside from Skilly, who’s thousands of years old) who have amulets blessing them with various powers. Romances quickly form, but they have other problems- an ancient goddess is rather upset with her husband and is hellbent on destroying the earth.

 It’s really nice seeing books with LGBT characters in which the main focus isn’t their sexuality/gender. We do have another plot, underneath the tangle of romances, of Muldoona plotting her destruction and our heroes trying to stop her. It’s nice also seeing a genderqueer character-the T part of LGBT is hardly ever represented. Marly becoming comfortable with sometimes not feeling like a girl, not always feeling like a boy, and sometimes feeling like “a gender free mutant with magic powers” is a development that you could easily see coming and felt natural.

In terms of sexual orientation and gender, we have a diverse range of characters. But on other counts we have a lot of variation too. Age wise, personality wise, and species wise –we have a random selection of deities from multiple cultures. Vikki I found a little boring, as she seemed a bit stereotypical and she didn’t do that much, but the others were good. Ginger is my favourite,  Marly is independent and Skilly is nice in that he’ll try things out for the rest of the team, even if it extends to living out a month again because his time travel theory wasn’t quite right.

That whole time travel thing was a little bit hard to get my head around. Not because it was time travel (I do quite well in understanding it, unless you mess it up like Stephen Moffat does in Doctor Who), but because all characters revert to the bodies that they had. In this case, our five main characters become four years younger. Leaving Marly age ten. It’s hard getting used to a ten year old heroine, when, from many books and this book too, you get used to them being a bit older. Still, ten year old Marly is a good character, even though it does take a little bit of time getting used to them.

This whole timeskip does lead to some rather awkward situations too. We have Ginger lamenting not being able to carry on a relationship with Skilly because she is now in the body of a thirteen year old, while (with his immortality amulet) he is in one of a seventeen (I think) year old. And, before the timeskip, we have a fourteen year old asking an eighteen year old really bluntly “Do you want to have sex now?” I get that they’re in a post apocalyptic environment, but they’ve only known each other two months and I don’t know what fourteen year olds Nora knows but most of us don’t want sex at our age.... I don’t like young (under sixteens) people in sexual situations. That’s something that bugs me. Aside from that, the romance is good and built up nicely.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a LGBT novel with a lot of action, romance, and cuteness.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

Title: Masque of the Red Death

 Author: Bethany Griffin

Series:  Masque of the Red Death #1

Published:  2 August 2012 by Indigo

Length: 336 pages

Warnings: drugs, romance 12+

Source: publisher

Other info: Bethany has also written a YA contemporary, Handcuffs. Book two will be called Dance of the Red  Death.

Summary : Everything is in ruins. A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them. So what does Araby Worth have to live for?
Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all. But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does. And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

Review: This was not what I expected. It’s not a straight retelling of Eggy Ally’s (Edgar Allan Poe’s) story; instead it takes the original and builds a fuller world around it. Here, there’s not that much to live for. Araby Worth lives for nights at the Debauchery Club, where dresses, makeup and drugs help everyone to forget about the people dying outside. Here, she meets Will, owner of the club. There’s also her best friend’s brother, Elliot, nephew to Prince Prospero. And Araby gets to learn all their secrets.

While it wasn’t what I expected, the world building was smooth and created a world that’s beautiful in a decaying, rotting kind of way. Corpses are everywhere and have to be collected off the streets, everyone wears masks to keep out the disease, the poor and children either stay inside and die. The Debauchery club, in stark contrast, is full of glitz and glamour, but Araby and everyone else are still a bit mindful of the plague that could easily kill them.

It takes a fair bit of time to get going. Yes, I get that learning more and more about both Elliot and Will are meant to be plot developments, but that only really occurred to me that they were the plot points when I was nearing the end of the novel. At the time, it was all a lot of character development  on everyone’s parts.

Elliot and Will are both lovely in their own rights, each with their dose of bad-boy in a refined manner. Araby isn’t the whole badass girl like Katniss or the girl from Strange Angels, but she’s also smart and compassionate and likeable. The love triangle doesn’t have a clear outcome, so it’ll be interesting to see who she ends up with. Her best friend April is annoying. The supporting characters are good and the children are really sweet.

The whole fear of everything, dependence on the masks, the things people do to try and block out the world of pain and suffering, comes through really well in this. The writing isn’t always that of a teenage girl, but it’s descriptive, full, and really nice.

 It’s interesting that it’s an unnamed plague that’s keeping everyone in these masks and fear. The Red Death that I’m more familiar with only makes its appearance about half way through, and its emergence is an important plot point.

It ends with Prospero, a minor character, believing he can escape the Red Death and Araby, Will and Elliot wondering what to do next. The ending is quite sudden, with me believing that there’s meant to be something after what is actually the last paragraph. I really want to see what happens next. And I really hope Araby gets to Prospero’s masked ball.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea. Slow start, but really quite beautiful extension of a story I love. Definitely want to read the next in this series.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Wither

 Author: Lauren DeStefano

Series:  Chemical Garden #1

Published:  2011 by Harper Voyager

Length:358 pages

Warnings: 12+

Source: Library

Other info: This is Lauren’s debut. Book two, Fever, is out. Book 3, Sever, should be out next year.

Summary : What if you knew exactly when you would die? Thanks to modern science, 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 limited time she has left.

Review: In this world, people know when they’re going to die. After experiments fail, women life to 20 and men to 25. Rhine is sixteen, giving her four years to live. Like many other girls, she is kidnapped and forced into a marriage with Linden. And unlike her Sister Wives, she dreams of escaping. Together, she and house servant Gabriel attempt to escape and live the lives they have left to the full.

This is one of those books that I hear about, then don’t get round to reading for a long long time. still, I’ve read it now. I like the idea, as it’s different and I like thinking about what would you do if you knew how long you had left.

It starts really quickly, with world building coming after the action. you get used to this society, the polyamory, and short life spans really easily, and you’re soon pulled in.

Rhine is a believable character and interesting to read about. I love the fact that she wants more than a life inside the mansion, but a part of me just wants to shout at her. Compared to her old life, and the fate of some other girls out there, she has an amazing life. Her husband is nice, he doesn’t force himself on her, and she makes friends easily. Still, she doesn’t whine as much as –somebody-.

Linden, Gabriel and the Sister wives, and the servants are all really nice, fleshed out, and you really want to get to know them. They don’t change that much in terms of attitudes, but they do go through a lot.

The only exception to this lovable cast is Vaugn, who is a protagonist that forces Rhine to think differently and stay alert.

My favourite character is Rose, despite the fact that we don’t see that much of her. Second favourite is Deidre- adorable servant who is amazing at dressmaking.

After the quick start, it slows down a little. Then it speeds up. Then slows down. The pace and interest levels fluctuate a lot,

Rhine thinks in metaphors. I enjoy elaborate writing, but I find it hard to believe that this teenage girl thinks completely in metaphors.

This isn’t the best book I’ve ever read. But it’s definitely gripping, and by the end of the book, you really want to read on. I’ll definitely read Fever soon.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a different dystopian novel that will leave you wanting more.

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review-Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Title: Monument 14

 Author: Emmy Laybourne

Series:  Monument 14 #1

Published:  June 5 2012 by Feiwel and Friends

Length: 294 pages

Warnings: violence, sex references 13+

Source: Netgalley

Summary : Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong. In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

Review: It’s a normal day. Dean and his brother are on their school bus as normal. they don’t know that it’s not a normal day. They don’t know that they’ll get caught in a hail storm, and forced to take refuge in a supermarket. Fourteen kids of different ages end up without adult supervision and you end up with  a post-apocalyptic Lord of the Flies.

It all starts off very quickly and promising, with the bus crash happening in what would be the first few pages if this wasn’t a kindle file.  And then the teacher leaves. And then....not much. Dean, Astrid, Jake and the other older ones have to deal with the little children. So there’s fourteen of them, in a supermarket, nobody knows where they are, or what’s out there. But with food, water, sleeping bags and enough to survive. so it should be ok...right?

The idea is definitely Lord of the Flies- (side note-in a creative writing thing we did while studying LotF, I’m sure one of my classmates did a bunch of kids in the supermarket) children left after a disaster, no adults to protect them, no real idea of what to do.

There are a few plot twists built into Monument 14, but they were all quite predictable. The virus-y thing was interesting though, something different, but it didn’t get too much attention, which is a shame. It did help move the story on though.

The characters break off and group up in the same way as LotF. You get the guy who thinks he’s the smartest and the toughest, the sensible ones, the ones trying  to keep the peace and so on.

Their interactions are on the fine line between believable and stereotypical (which are stereotypical for a reason). You get a good sense of the desperateness for familiarity, for survival, for normal life, but sometimes it feels as though it’s a little bit forced.

As I said, plot “developments” weren’t amazing. It’s nice seeing everything happen and such, but it just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. And the ending was really anticlimactic.

Overall:  Strength 2 tea to a book with a promising start, but from then, goes downhill.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

Title: The Immortal Rules

 Author: Julie Kagawa

Series:  Blood of Eden #1

Published:  24 April 2012 by Mira

Length: 480 pages

Warnings: violence and romance, 13+

Source: Netgalley

Other info: Julie has also written the Iron Fey series.  

Summary : In a future world, Vampires reign. Humans are blood cattle. And one girl will search for the key to save humanity. Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters. Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad. Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike. But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

Review: Allison was once an Unregistered-refusing to accept food and healthcare so she would not have to feed the vampire masters that rule the city. But, after an attack on her home, she has a choice-to die as a human, or to live as one of the creatures she spent her life trying to avoid. Choosing the latter, Kanin changes her and trains her-how to live, how to fight. And then they get split up. Allison is on her own, until she come across a band of humans searching for Eden. A place free of vampire control. Under the pretense of being a human, allie goes along with them. But for how long can she pose as one of the creatures that they are trying to escape? Especially when she’s falling in love with Zeke-the son of the man who everyone’s trusting to guide them.

I’ve never read any of Julie’s books before, but I’d heard good things about them. And after reading this, I’ll try and get hold of them.

Allie was a really strong main character. As well as being a vampire, she has many other facets to her personality. It’s nice having a girl being a vampire who has to control her urges for a change. The thing I liked best about her was the fact that she’s always thinking about when she was human, of what she left behind, and such. It added depth to Allie, and changes the way she thinks. Coming a close second is the way she handles a katana.

I lov e the variety of characters that she meets after leaving Kanin. Zeke is really nice, the romance is sweet, and there’s a refreshing lack of a love triangle. It was nice how not all the characters liked Allison straight away-it made it seem more real. I also liked Caleb, Darren and Ruth, for various reasons.

The communities that you come across are well structured, and the writing made you feel as thorugh you were there. The dystopian world before Allison got changed, whcich as well as being interesting, gave context to Zeke’s group.

The very ending was predictable, but good. It’s so open ended, that anything could happen-I’d really like to see the sequel.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a really good vampire novel that makes a change to the kind we normally see-this has action and romance in perfect proportions. 

Book Review-Tomorrow Land by Mari Mancusi

Title: Tomorrow Land

 Author: Mari Mancusi

Series:  N/A

Published:  8 March 2012

Length: 281 pages

Warnings: violence, drugs, sex references 13+

Source: Netgalley

Other info: Mari has also written the Blood Coven (Boys that Bite) series, and some others

Summary : Can true love survive the end of the world? Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice--between her family--and Chris Parker, the boy she'd given her heart. Now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he's the only thing on her mind. All Chris "Chase" Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed--breaking his heart without ever telling him why. Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones to a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk...and feed. As they begin their pilgramage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost--all while attempting to save what's left of the human race?

Review: April 2030. Peyton Anderson is with her friends, discussing boys, as any fifteen year old does. that’s how it is most of the time. and then her dad starts going on about stuff from an old sci-fi book. And people start getting sick. And sick. And dead. And not deader. Fast forwards four years. Chase, formerly Chris, Parker, does what he has to do to survive. only just. So when the girl he’s had a crush on for four years returns and suggests they run away, after careful thinking, he agrees/ even if the girl does now have weird eyes. even if the girl does now have retractable razor blades in her fingers. even if it does mean travelling across a zombie-ridden USA

This is one of those books where if forgot what was meant to happen, so I kind of went in blind. Which made things a bit confusing to start with. Each alternative chapter is set in the pre=outbreak, in which Peyton is fifteen, and Chris is Chris, and every other chapter is post-outbreak, in which Peyton has her implants. While both are nice, it takes me a fair bit of time to realise that they alternated timescales, how they intertwined, and the pattern.

The world building for both pre-and post-outbreak is really good. The pre- is your kind of typical view of the future, wildly advanced with computers  and references to pop culture scattered in. The post-outbreak world is totally different. Mari does a great job of describing the changes and conditions of this new world.

I liked before-Peyton. She wasn’t standout, but she was a good character. After-Peyton, I had a bit of a problem wth. Her personality was great, but the blades and the eyes...how did they get in? How do they not cut her? I can’t see it happening.

Chris is a good character. I didn’t really like him that much before the outbreak, but after the four year timeskip, you can see how much he’s been forced to mature and is now able to cope-just about. I don’t blame him for getting addicted.

Plot turns range from the “interesting and useful” to the “too convenient for them”. I get the need for them to go, but some things seem a little too easy.

The ending...the ending was just...anti climatic. I was looking forwards to some big dramatic showdown, which we kind of got, but it wasn’t as interesting as the rest of the book had set it up to be.

Despite this, there was something about Tomorrow Land which makes me want to see more form Mari.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a book that varies with quality depending on where you are in the novel.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Partials by Dan Wells

Title: Partials

 Author: Dan Wells

Series:  Partials #1

Published:  March 2012 by Harpercollins

Length: 482 pages

Warnings: violence, sex references 13+

Source:Publisher

Other info: Dan has also written the I Am Not a Serial Killer series. Book two in the Partials series will be called Fragments, and should be published next year.

Summary : The only hope for humanity isn’t human. In a world where people have been all but wiped out by a virus created by part-human cyborgs called ‘Partials’, and where no baby survives longer than three days, a teenage girl makes it her mission to find a cure, and save her best friend’s unborn child. But finding a cure means capturing a Partial...

Review: In this world, most of the six billion humans are dead, killed off by a viorus. A few remain, and live on Long Island. The youngest of them is fourteen and every baby is dead by the time they’re three. Three days. Kira is sixteen, a medic in training who is determined to find the cure for the virus, RM. She’s spurred on by the fact that her best friend is preganant. She has nine months to find the cure. However, they’ve exhausted almost every option. All she can think of turning to is a Partial, a genetically engineered soldier that fought in a war a decade ago. But to study one, she has to catch one.

I really enjoyed Dan’s other books, the I Am Not a Serial Killer series. So I was hoping for good things from this one. From the first page, the death of yet another newborn, I was drawn in. Very easily we get a sense of Kira, her morals, and the way she thinks.

We soon understand the world that she’s living in. The last band of humans all living together, without much hope, trying to get the human race to survive longer than the current generation. I like the very dystopian idea of the Hope Act- every woman over seventeen must get pregnant, as many times as she can and as often as she can. Even if her babies all die.

The world building surrounding the War and the Partials wasn’t that good. It took me a little while to understand them, what exactly they were, what they really looked like, and so on. At first I thought that it was meant to be something kept back, revealed later. But by halfway, I’d given up on learning about them fully, and I never got to see that. Shame really.

Kira is a really strong character. She does everything in her power and a couple of things out of it to ensure that she has all the chance she can get to cure RM. Samm was interesting. He’s the Partial. His reactions to everything at first were incredibly sweet, and the logic behind his name is lovely. However, his loyalties towards the end of the book were just really really confusing, what with everything going by so fast.

The pacing was great. Especially from about ¾ of the way through and onwards. While for most of the book, I just wanted to carry on, from then on, I couldn’t put it down. All the little strands were converging, and I just had to see how it all played out.

The ending. Wow. Throughout the novel, I was thinking it would be a great standalone novel. And then we learn a huge thing about Kira. And I just had to know more.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a fast, thrilling, unputdownable book. Must get hold of the sequel. If there is one. There better had be.   ((After writing edit- There is! Fragments!  Yay!!))

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Ashes by Ilsa J Bick

Title: Ashes

 Author: Ilsa J Bick

Series:  Ashes Trilogy #1

Published:  29 September 2011 by Quercus

Length: 465 pages

Warnings: Zombies, sex references, 13+

Source: Library

Other info: Isla has written other, quite different, books. Book two in the Ashes trilogy is called Shadows, has no cover and should be published September 2012.

Summary : Seventeen-year-old Alex is hiking through the wilderness when it happens: an earth-shattering electromagnetic pulse that destroys almost everything. Survivors are divided between those who have developed a superhuman sense and those who have aquired a taste for human flesh. These flesh-hunters stalk the land: hungry, ruthless and increasingly clever... Alex meets Tom, a young army veteran, and Ellie, a lost girl. They will fight together and be torn apart, but Alex must face the most difficult question of all: In such a vastly changed world, who can you trust? 

Review: Alex, a girl with a brain tumour, is out on a solo hiking mission, when the Zap happens. Obviously, she doesn't know what's happening. At the time of the Zap, she's with an old man and his grand-daughter, Ellie. The zap kills the old man, and she is left with Ellie and the dog, Mina. Soon, they come across Tom, and then it's a fight to survive. But there's something else. Alex, since the Zap, has been blessed with super-scent, while others that she occasionally runs across are essentially zombies. Alex, Tom and Elle have to go and explore to try and find a safe place to stay, so their entire journey is a quest to find somewhere to stay, someone to trust, and some way to stay alive.

The cover blurb weren't amazingly pull you in material, but neither were they major turn offs. The concept is interesting, a variation on most post-apocalyptic/zombie fiction, in that it gives some of the survivors of the original disaster a fighting chance. The blurb is slightly inaccurate, as not all the survivors get enhanced senses, but it's still a good premises that's worth taking a look at.

Alex, we get a good sense of her character, her rebellious streak and her determination from page one. The other characters we also get a good sense of soon after we meet them, but there are still some surprises you get after a bit.

The cannibalistic zombie people didn't feature as prominently as the blurb advertised. We were made aware of them, and we ran in to them a few times, but they weren't the most important thing in the novel. The characters and their interactions were.

As I said before, they were all strong characters, built up well and kept interesting. And then Isla wrote them out. I'm still quite annoyed at that. Two quite major characters are dropped at various points in the novel, pushed to the side and not really addressed again. I know that in that situation, that probably would happen. But I was getting quite attached to them, and was annoyed to see them go.

The writing style was good, but not really stand out. It didn't hinder the flow of the story, and kept me reading, but I was a little surprised when I started the book that it was in third person.

There were a few points where there was a change in plot that was incredibly random. But also unpredicted, so there was always something interesting. At the end, there's this huge revelation about this one society and what they are doing with their people and the zombies that I really wasn't expecting. So there. A big cliffhanger.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a good post apocalyptic survival story that I really want to see how it plans out in book 2.

Links: Amazon | TheBook Depository | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Title: Blood Red Road

 Author: Moira Young

Series:   Dust Lands #1

Published:  June 2011 by Marion Lloyd, Simon & Schuster

Length: 492 pages

Warnings: Violence, (fictional) drugs, slight romance 12+

Source: Library

Other info: This is Moira’s debut novel. The sequel, to be published later this year, is called Rebel Heart.

Summary : In a lawless future land, where life is cheap and survival is hard, Saba has been brought up in isolated Silverlake. She never sees the dangers of the destructive society outside. When her twin brother is snatched by mysterious black-robed riders, she sets outon an epic quest to rescue him. The story's searing pace, its spare style, the excitement of its fabulously damaged world, its unforgettably vivid characters, its violent action and glorious lovestory make this a truly sensational YA debut novel.

Review: Saba has lived in the Dustlands ever since she was born, and nothing out of the ordinary has ever happened. Until she is eighteen, when her brother is stolen away by men who appear out of a dustcloud and have been waiting for him ever since they were born. Saba is determined to get Lugh back and sets out on a quest with her sister Emmi, her crow Nero and a group of people she meets along the way. Nothing will stop her from getting him back.

I was initially put off this book by the writing style. There is a clear lack of conventional spelling and punctuation: the word “and” being replaced by “an”, an “ing” at the end of a word having its “g” lopped off, “says” being continually used with “I” and no speechmarks to be found throughout, initially made me think “I can not be bothered right now to put this into something I can understand”, but I got used to all of it surprisingly quickly. It gave Saba a really unique voice, and a personality of her own.

The plot starts out with something quite typical for an action story-giving a reason for  a quest, then going off and doing it. Some things were really predictable though. The variety of places she gets to is huge. My favourite, because I think it’s the best imagined, is the cage fights. All of them are quite well imagined, with the Dustlands becoming a real world to me.

I never really cared for Jack. Or any of the minor characters. While I did enjoy reading about them, all that really mattered to me was Saba and Emmi. Saba goes through a lot, so most of my care-for-characters-quote was used up on her.

The pacing meant something was always happening, no matter where you were in the novel. It also meant that there wasn’t really many convenient places to put it down. Well, there were. But you just didn’t want to put it down. You wanted to read on and on and see what happened.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a fast paced action filled novel. Can’t wait to see how the next one will turn out.

Links: Amazon | The Book Depository | Goodreads | Author website (on Simon&Schuster)  

Book Review- Legend by Marie Lu

Title: Legend

 Author: Marie Lu

Series:  Legend #1

Published:  2 February 2012

Length: 301 pages

Warnings: violence, romance 12+

Source: Publishers via Spinebreakers

Other info: This is Marie Lu’s debut novel. The first in a trilogy, and film rights have already been bought.

Summary : What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias' death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Review: Day is the most wanted criminal in America. June is a young commander who should end up in the highest ranks after being marked as a prodigy. Normally, they’d never meet. But after June’s brother is killed and she vows to hunt down his killer, and Day is put in the spotlight for the crime, they do. And then they discover some more things about their country, ie the secrets they try so hard to keep.

Legend is loosely based on Les Miserables. Apparently. I’ve never read it, or seen the musical, or (I’m guessing) any film, so I can’t comment on it being updated. Sorry about that.

First impressions, there wasn’t anything that really made it a stand-out when looking at concept. But, being a new dystopian trilogy that may be amazing, of course I had to read it. And so they bring it up at a spinebreakers meeting, and I get it.

The tale is told from both Day’s and June’s perspective, which would be very interesting if it weren’t for the fact they’re quite similar. Not too similar, but there wasn’t much of their own voice. Both are intelligent, sporty (not the right word, but neither is active, or any other word to that effect), and do something that you can’t really expect from the average fifteen year old- a life of crime or a life in the military. Fun.

The world building is terrible. Due to my terrible  (read-almost non existent) knowledge of American history, Republicans and Colonies and all that was only very slightly understood. I just had to guess the whole political set up. Luckily, that wasn’t the focus of the book, so I  got by. It would be nice to see what it really was like to get a better understanding of the world.

I also found it quite predictable. The romance, I didn’t like. June was a perfectly good heroine, strong, wilful and intelligent...and then she falls in love. With the guy she is meant to be hunting. Well done. And the ending...the foreshadowing and my mind could already see it happening the way it did. Slightly ruined it, but still enjoyable.

Aside from that, I loved this book. From the start I was interested, a little more in Day than in June. The opening sentence is just...what an amazing hook. And the way it plays out from there is very good too.

The alternate narrative, aside from being similar, was very effective. The double perspective worked in building the story and moving it along, even if it did mean that Day would probably be out of the scene while June narrated, and vice versa.

I think my favourite character was John, even though we don’t get to see that much of him until the end. It’s amazing how much a character can stick in your mind even though he’s minor for most of the book.

The pacing and action scenes were amazing. A pivotal event where you think “it’s all over” happens around halfway through the book, which was quite interesting. And then I spent the rest of it thinking “how is it going to fill out?” But it did, and it wasn’t with pointless things. lots of things happen in the second half. Lots of things happen in the entire thing, if we’re being specific.

Overall: Strength 4 tea to the start of a trilogy with a LOT packed into it-here’s hoping the next two will be just as good.  

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review: Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Title: Life as We Knew It

 Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer

Series:  Last Survivors #1

Published:  1^st October 2006

Length: 337 pages

Warnings: kissing, suicide

Source: Library

Other info: The other two in the trilogy are The Dead and the Gone and The World We Live In.  Pfeffer has also written Portraits of Little Women and, more recently, Blood Wounds.

Summary : It's almost the end of Miranda's sophomore year in high school, and her journal reflects the busy life of a typical teenager: conversations with friends, fights with mom, and fervent hopes for a driver's license. When Miranda first begins hearing the reports of a meteor on a collision course with the moon, it hardly seems worth a mention in her diary. But after the meteor hits, pushing the moon off its axis and causing worldwide earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes, all the things Miranda used to take for granted begin to disappear. Food and gas shortages, along with extreme weather changes, come to her small Pennsylvania town; and Miranda's voice is by turns petulant, angry, and finally resigned, as her family is forced to make tough choices while they consider their increasingly limited options. Yet even as suspicious neighbors stockpile food in anticipation of a looming winter without heat or electricity, Miranda knows that that her future is still hers to decide even if life as she knew it is over.

Review: Scientists say that an asteroid will hit the moon on Wednesday. Never mind though! Nothing will happen! Of course. Volcanoes and other natural disasters are set off when the moon is knocked off course. It's a fight for survival for Miranda and her family of two brothers, mum and long time family friend Mrs Nesbitt. Slowly, normality falls apart as electricity and school become things you can't depend on, you have no idea how your relatives are unless their names are read out on a list  of the dead, and the weather is even more unpredictable than usual. The entire book is a realistic(ish. No paranormal elements here. I say the ish because we don't know what would really happen in this situation. Yet.)survival story with a tiny bit of romance.

The setup is very good. We get a couple of days before the asteroid hits and  how everyone's hyped up(they think it'll be harmless), and then their increasing panic when they realise it's not, and so on.

Maybe our little family of survivors handled this a little too maturely. There's not much extreme panic on their part, and the fact they were thinking so clearly, all of them, was just slightly unrealistic. 

The rest of it was brilliant. It was told from Miranda's POV with diary entries, dated as they happen. I like the irregularity of the entries, which I think is a good way of showing that life could sometimes be really hectic or there were more important things to do. There's a lot of description in all parts, both of what is happening and of Miranda's feelings.

I like the way characters come and go for differen reasons, which is realistic. Does it make me a horrible person that I didn't particularly mind when the romance with Dan didn't work out? I saw it as just another going in Miranda's life, and also think that a lot of romance would    simply distract from the story.

The few characters we see through the majority of the book, I feel as though we get to know them all really well. The fact there was only a few of them worked well, and seeing the way they all reacted to one-another is a good way of getting closer to them.

Overall:  Strength 5 tea to a great survivor story that I really want to read more of

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |