Book Review- Birthmarked by Caragh O Brian

Title: Birthmarked

 Author: Caragh M O’ Brian

Series:  Birthmarked #1

Published:  2 May 2011 by Simon and Schuster

Length: 361 pages

Warnings: Violence, executions, a little romance. 12+

Source: Library

Summary : IN THE ENCLAVE, YOUR SCARS SET YOU APART, and the newly born will change the future.
In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside. Following in her mother's footsteps Gaia has become a midwife, delivering babies in the world outside the wall and handing a quota over to be "advanced" into the privileged society of the Enclave. Gaia has always believed this is her duty, until the night her mother and father are arrested by the very people they so loyally serve. Now Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught, but her choice is simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.
A stunning adventure brought to life by a memorable heroine, this dystopian debut will have readers racing all the way to the dramatic finish.

Review: In this dystopian world, the lucky live in luxury in the Enclave. Those who don't live outside, struggling to survive. Gaia Stone is one such girl. She's also in training to be a midwife. So the first one she delivers by herself, she delivers to the Enclave. Why? She doesn't know. All she knows is that a quota of babies must be handed in. Soon after, everything changes when her parents are arrested for keeping a code, or record of some kind. Determined to save them, Gaia breaks into the Enclave and, with the help of Leon and some other people, and must unravel the code.

I like the concept to this. Genetics interests me, and so when it's put in a dystopian setting, it's sure to make an intriguing read. Sadly it didn't feature quite as much as I'd have liked, but this was made up by the awesomeness in the rest of the book.

Gaia is a strong, resourceful heroine with a strong set of morals and a huge dose of determination. This makes her a very likeable character that I was rooting for throughout the book.

The system to this dystopia makes a little more sense and is a bit more interesting while actually in the pages and not on the back.

I loved the little code that Caragh thought up, the one that Gaia is forced to dechiper. As well as letting us see Gaia's mind at work, it has the added benefit of giving us some nice backstory regarding the family.

The third person narrative wasn't that engaging. While I got a good idea of what was happening, what the setting looked like, and so on, I just didn't feel like I was in this dystopia.

The ending was great. It ended on a huge cliffhanger with the fate of a rather major character being unknown. And while I think I know what's happened, knowing these books I'm totally wrong. And therefore I really want to get hold of book two.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a really good dystopian with a load of adventure packed in.

Links: | Goodreads | 

Book Review- Anya's Ghost by Vera Brogsol

Title: Anya’s Ghost

 Author: Vera Brogsol

Series:  N/A

Published:  27 June 2011 by First Second

Length: 221 pages

Warnings: N/A 12+

Source: Library

Other info: This is Vera’s debut, but she’s worked on other things.

Summary : Anya could really use a friend. But her new BFF isn’t kidding about the “Forever” part... Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend was not one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century.
Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya’s normal life might actually be worse. She’s embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she’s pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend—even a ghost—is just what she needs.Or so she thinks.
Spooky, sardonic, and secretly sincere, Anya’s Ghost is a wonderfully entertaining debut from author/artist Vera Brosgol.

Review: After a really normal school day, Anya's heading home. But, due to being lost in her own world, she falls into a well. And makes a friend. You can call her a friend, can't you, if she's been dead for ninety years? Due to a little technicality, ghost Emily can follow Anya around as long as Anya is carrying Emily's fingerbone. It seems like a great friendship-keeping Anya from being lonely after failing to fit in for being one of two Russians in the school, and the other one being a complete geek; and a nice change of scenery for Emily. But the when the whole best friends forever thing starts to be taken literally, Anya starts realising maybe it's not the best idea after all...

And another one of those books I don't realise is a graphic novel, not a wordy novel. Will I pay attention to the captions on goodreads? No. I'll carry on with the suprises. Oh well.

I love the idea. It's not often I read books centred totally around friendship, even if it is a paranormal friendship. That's actually a genre I'd be interested in reading a lot of. Romance has been done to death, so maybe...Vera's on to something!

The drawings were extremely cute. The style is consistant, making use of block shades of purply-grey colour, depending on your lighting.

Anya is the typical outsider girl; jealous of the popular one, a semi-friend (best way of describing Siobhan) and gets lost in her own world. She's so happy that she's found a friend in Emily that she does everything that Emily tells her, even if it's not quite what Anya had in mind.

Emily undergoes a lot of development, something I don't normally see in ghosts. Or maybe it's just showing what she's really like. Either way, she undergoes a drastic transformation from dandelion to...something else.

There was a nice range of supporting characters that turned out to be deeper than we think when we meet them properly, for example Dima and Elizabeth. Dima grew on me after a bit, and I think Elizabeth could have done if we knew more about her.

The unfolding of events was clear and logical, but throughout I just wanted to keep reading on. Many questions are answered in the final quarter, such as how Emily ended up dying in that hole, and we also get some unexpected history.

I honestly think that some day, paranormal friendship WILL be a big genre in YA lit. We've seen vampires, werewolves, ghosts and the like and we know that people love falling in love with them. But, as friends, paranormal creatures aren't really cared for, unless main character is romantically involved with another of that type. Hopefully one day, there'll be more books giving us the supernatural element, but with little romance, and with said romance being human on human. More on that another day.

Overall:  Strength 5 tea to a spooky fun little read that makes a refreshing change. I'd love to read more by Vera.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- This Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel

Title: This Dark Endeavour

 Author: Kenneth Oppel

Series:  The Dark Endeavour #1

Published:  23 August 2011 by Simon and Schuster

Length: 304 pages

Warnings: Slight romance, gory/disturbing scene near end 13+

Source: Library

Other info: The sequel, Such Wicked Intent, will be out this August.  Oppel has also written the Silverwing series.

Summary : The purest intentions can stir up the darkest obsessions.
In this prequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic classic, Frankenstein, 16-year-old Victor Frankenstein begins a dark journey that will change his life forever. Victor’s twin, Konrad, has fallen ill, and no doctor is able to cure him. Unwilling give up on his brother, Victor, his beautiful cousin Elizabeth, and best friend Henry begin a treacherous search for the ingredients to create the forbidden Elixir of Life. Impossible odds, dangerous alchemy, and a bitter love triangle threaten their quest at every turn. Victor knows he must not fail. But his success depends on how far he is willing to push the boundaries of nature, science and, love -- and how much he is willing to sacrifice.

Review: Victor Frankenstein's twin brother Konrad has become ill and none of the doctors can think of anything to cure him. But Victor has found a book in the secret library detailing instructions on making the Elixir of Life. He, his cousin Elizabeth and friend Henry all go on a quest to find the ingredients. It's a quest he can't afford to fail, but many things get in his way-impossible tasks, alchemy, and a love triangle involving himself, his cousin, and his brother.

When I saw the summary, I was interested. Young Frankenstein? Heck yes. And a random twin and a love triangle? High hopes.

We start with a lighthearted intro to all the protagonists, which quickly moves on and keeps moving throughout.

The adventure kept me turning the pages wanting to know more at every turn.

I loved the romance in this. We get our fair share of love triangles in young adult literature, but none of them ever come from the boy's perspective. It was interesting seeing something we're used to from a different pov, and the fact the two boys in this look identical, leading to midnight deception, added a bit to the normal love triangle template.

The alchemy in this was thought out with clear rules. Our antagonist Polidori has a lot more to him than we first think, leading to a climactic showdown at the end.

The characters all developed in huge ways, with  Elizabeth coming more into her own and Konrad developing in a big way. Victor himself gains depth and complexity, and I can't decide if he's  a better or worse character by the end of the book.

By the very end, we're left on something in the middle of closure and a cliffhanger; This Dark Endeavour is clearly finished, but we have a clear motive for what will happen later in Victor's life-the part that Mary Shelley wrote about.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a prequel/retelling done excellently. I  can't wait to see  what Victor and co do next.

Links: Goodreads | Author website

Book Review- Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb by MJA Ware

Title: Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb

 Author: M.J.A. Ware

Series:  N/A

Published:  5 September 2011

Length: 204 pages

Warnings: light violence 10+

Source: Author in exchange for review

Other info: This is MJA Ware's debut novel, but he's written other sets of short stories. And sometime ago, MJA Ware gave us a post on how to best deal with the undead. Go have a look at it!

Summary : When life gives you lemons, kill zombies -- turns out lemon juice neutralizes the undead.
After a failed attempt at running away, best friends Nathan and Misty return home expecting to face angry parents. Instead, they discover the military has destroyed the bridges out of their rural town and everyone's fled--except a small horde of the living dead. The stress of flesh-eating zombies may be more than their already strained relationship can handle.
Even with the help of the town geek and lemonade-powered Super-Soakers, there's not enough time to squeeze their way out of this sticky mess. Unless the trio eradicates the zombie infestation, while avoiding the deadly zombie snot, the military will blow the town, and them, to pulp.
Their only shot is something with a lot more punch. Something like the Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb. But even if their friendship survives, there's another problem: Someone has to lure the undead into the trap

.Review: Nate and Misty find themselves in a bit of a bad situation. With bad meaning there are zombies out roaming the streets and our two heroes had to fight for survival. Along the way, they meet a young boy called Kali, who they end up taking along for the ride, and find an unconventional weapon for use against the undead-any liquid with a high pH value- the most accessible of this being lemon juice!

It all starts very quickly, with the mayor being bitten and turning into a zombie  within three short chapters. Our main characters soon realise there is a zombie apocalypse is happening, and steal a car. I loved that scene. Two teenagers in a stolen vintage car driving through zombie ridden streets? Awesome. The only disappointment here was that they never actually hit the zombies in the car. Really, when you get a car chase with zombies, you just want to see them flying up in the air, don’t you? I get disappointed easily... Luckily this was resolved nearer the end!

It would have been nice to see a couple more characters, although I think we did get really close to our main three, Nate, Misty and Kali. There wasn’t much development, but I still liked these characters. To start with, Kali was infuriatingly know it all, but this slowly grew on me and I really felt for him.

The take on zombies was really good. they were funny, and the fact that something as simple as lemon juice kills them deader? Amazing.

This book played to my sense of humour really well, especially the opening. Partway through, the humour was toned down slightly to make way for the survival aspect. The writing wasn’t particularly complex, but kept the story going and me interested. The structure was simple and fun.

Overall: Strength 3 tea to a fun zombie book by an author I’d quite like to see more from.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Weekly update #2

First things first, I’m sorry about the completely unplanned hiatus! A mix of Sherlock, school-work, and laziness meant I didn’t post anything all week. But I did do some reading! And I got a lot of good books...and I had a good trip in London!

So... what I got this week...

• Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin, for review. Thank you,  Anne Walls and G.P. Putnam’s and Sons. It’s not what I normally read, but still. I am trying to expand my  reading tastes (emphasis on the trying) and so... Let’s see if I like this!
• Professor Moriarty: Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman. Forbidden Planet is a very bad place for me. As well as being the only place I have seen Anna Dressed in Blood, Dragonswood  and many other books actually in print in England, whenever I go, I come out with a small bag of books, less money and a much bigger to-read list. Well, when I saw this I thought "literary mash up? Awesome. Must read". And so I got it.
• Switched by Amanda Hocking. I didn't actually know she was signing, but I went in and there was a customer announcement "Amanda Hocking is signing at 1 o clock!". Cue my frantically searching for my dad and feeding the parking machine (those things are ridiculously expensive) so I could be there. Oh, and I found Ana from The Book Smugglers there too.

       

• A hug from Amanda Hocking. I love hugs. What can I say?

I think I did well.

And in news....

• YA imprint of Angry Robot (my favourite publishers who I swear only publish stuff I enjoy) Strange Chemistry have their first two authors! Kim Curran and Shift and Sean Cummings and Poltergeeks have been signed. Both books look great. More info here.
• We blacked out in a Sopa protest. Sopa could be a big deal if it passes, and we should do what we can to stop it. I understand that people have lost a lot of money from illegal downloads, but censoring the web is not the answer. 
• Scott Westerfeld's The Manual of Aeronautics has a cover!  Pretty? I think so.  

In My Mailbox 9 And Other Things

Going to have another go at updating the mailbox thing regularly...let’s see how well I do XD

Here’s my library stash... 

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas-The Film, The Art, The Vision by Frank Thompson I love this film. 

Card Games by Collins. Long story, but you know our book club is also an "argue, eat, read, argue" club? Well, it's morphing into an "argue, eat, read, argue, play cards, argue" club. 

Shakespeare Made Easy Hamlet & The Merchant of Venice. No, not studying either. I just love it when people re-write Shakespeare into modern language. 

The Bookman by Lavie Tidhar. Had it on my to read list for a while, saw it in my library, picked it up. 

For Review

Lies Beneath by Anne Greenwood Brown via Netgalley. Mermaids don't get enough love. 

Witchblood by  Emma Mills. Vampires in Manchester? Sorry, but it's just that I don't think I read enough paranormal books set in England.

News (I'm also going to TRY and update with any news that I can think of. This may or may not work.)

• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (review here) has been shortlisted for the Kitschies Golden Tentacle 2011 award for debut novels. For more de  tails, go here (sorry about the website name. It's not what you think and is perfectly safe for work), or here for info about what it's up against.
• There's an extract of Infamous!!! HERE! And I love our (The UK) cover!

Any other exciting things happen this week? 

Book Review- Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

Title: Sing You Home

 Author: Jodi Picoult

Series:  N/A

Published:  1^st March 2011 by Atria

Length: 446 pages

Warnings: open discussion of sexuality, drink, sex, abortion, self harm, profanity 14+

Source: Library

Other info: Jodi Picoult has written many other books dealing with issues in a courtroom.

Summary : One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds

Review: After ten years trying and failing to get pregnant, Zoe is close, but it still goes wrong. After yet another miscarriage, her husband Max files and gets divorced, and he turns to drink and his brother's religion. Zoe meanwhile is focussing on her work with Vanessa, and soon finds herself in love with her. Then Zoe thinks once again of the embryos that she created with Max, and has found another way of starting a family. But simply asking for his permission to use them soon turns into a legal battle featuring the Church, Gay rights, and a huge question about what makes up a family.

I was already a huge fan of Jodi Piccoult, so this is just another one that I'm reading because I already knew and loved the author. This tackles new moral questions, this time concerning families and homosexuality, and does what Piccoult always does, and shoves it into a courtroom. Despite the fact it follows a similar outline to her other novels (introduce family with big issues, all-for-all in the courtroom, semi-happy ever after), it never gets old and this one is no exception.

The characters, I got very attached to, especially Zoe, Vanessa and Liddy. I never liked the Pastor or Wade, possibly because of their views on Zoe and Vanessa raising a child, or maybe just because of their attitudes to people in general with different opinions. I think Max was the one who underwent the most development from start to finish.

These issues about families and homosexuality were well addressed. Throughout I was very firmly on Zoe and Vanessa's  side for getting the embryos, but I could see where Max's side were coming from, at least on the personal level of wanting the best for what would be his child and so thinking it would be best to give the embryos to his brother and sister-in-law. The other reasons, the ones provided by the church he belongs to, saying that Zoe and Vanessa would make terrible mothers because they're lesbian, are completely terrible, and I don't see how Wade managed to get the Court to see things from that point of view.

The plot unfolded well, with some things we expected and some things we didn't cropping up at various turns. The development in the case towards the end was completely unexpected, but the final ending was predictable on two counts. I won't spoil the suprise.

I love the multiple perspective style of writing. It gives everyone a voice of their own, and gives the characters some real backstory and depth, as well as letting us see the main plot as the opposition sees it.

Overall:  Strength 5 tea to a well woven book about what a family is by modern standards.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Book Review- My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

Title: My Soul to Take

 Author: Rachel Vincent

Series:  Soul Screamers #1

Published:  2009 in America. 2011 in England by Mira Ink

Length: 345 pages (plus bonus material)

Source: Won from Mia @ Gripped into Books

Other info: The others in this series are My Soul to Save, My Soul to Take, My Soul to Steal and Soul Thief. Rachel Vincent has also written the Shifters series for adults.

Summary : Something’s wrong with Kaylee Cavanaugh. She can sense when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally. Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest boy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the dark forces behind Kaylee’s power than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no reason and only Kaylee knows who’ll be next, she realises that finding a boyfriend is the least of her worries.

Review: Kaylee Cavanaugh has a weird, unwanted, supernatural talent. If someone near her is about to die, she can sense it and she screams. A lot. And as girls around her start dying for no reason, it’s up to her, her somewhat-boyfriend Nash, and others to work out what’s happening and what they can do to stop it.

Rachel Vincent uses this to write about banshees, Irish creatures who scream/sing when death is close. Banshees are often overlooked in YA paranormal fiction, and it’s nice having a good variety of creatures to choose from. Reapers also feature in this book, adding a little more interest to it.  The fact two under-represented creatures are in this is something that made me want to read it. Even though I didn’t know about the reapers before I read it.

It gets going very quickly. The club at which the first girl dies is literally the first chapter, and said girl is dead  by the end of the next one. This fast pace is kept up throughout, keeping me interested and wanting to read on.

To me, Kaylee and Nash become real people by the end of it, as did the world of bean sihdes (banshees) and reapers both of these incorporate very very well into “real life”, if you get what I mean. They kind of slot together well as if they were always there and the author was just pointing them out.  So the paranormal elements locked in well with real life.

Kaylee undergoes a lot of development, learning about her power, how to controlit and other things with Nash. They make a great couple together, both powerfully and also romantically. My absolute favourite character is Tod, because of his personality and the fact that he’s a reaper.

I like Rachel Vincent’s writing style. It flows well and moves the plot along. The romantic scenes were written well, and so were the action scenes towards the end.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to an original  series. I would definitely like to carry on reading series.

Links: Amazon | Goodreads | Author website |