Author: P.J. Hoover
Publisher: Tor Teen
Genre: Mythology, Dystopian
Blurb: (from goodreads) Piper's world is dying.
Each day brings hotter temperatures and heat bubbles that threaten to destroy the earth. Amid this global heating crisis, Piper lives under the oppressive rule of her mother, who suffocates her even more than the weather does. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, when her mother is called away on a mysterious errand and Piper seizes her first opportunity for freedom.
Piper discovers a universe she never knew existed—a sphere of gods and monsters—and realizes that her world is not the only one in crisis. While gods battle for control of the Underworld, Piper’s life spirals out of control as she struggles to find the answer to the secret that has been kept from her since birth.
An imaginative melding of mythology and dystopia, Solstice is the first YA novel by talented newcomer P. J. Hoover.
Me: Such a different take on the normal dystopian genre...
The Ups: Go look back up at the Genre section again. Yup. You're reading it right. Mythology and dystopia. Is that not amazing or what? Dystopia is something we regard as extremely sci-fi, and churning mythology into that was fascinating. Personally, I am not a fan of mythology. I don't not like it or anything, it's just not one of my favorites. But when I read this book, I felt compelled to indulge deeper into mythology.
A more personal view on normal reviews, P.J. Hoover is my schoolmate's mom. I've admired her since her first book, The Emerald Tablet, was published, and know her personally and as an author. I have two books signed by her, and have seen her at multiple book festivals. I really enjoyed Solstice because it was her first YA book, and I thought that it was very well woven together. I felt like her writing had progressed, and that was very interesting too.
As a character, Piper was extremely relatable when she wanted to rebel against her mom and be free from limitations. I really liked how when she discovered her identity, the entire story seemed to piece together. I could see the red herrings planted throughout the book.
I loved the visual descriptions of the setting. Especially because it was Austin, Texas, I could completely see the heat bubbles, and the domes to keep them out as well.
The romance was wonderful. At first, when she talked about how Shayne felt familiar and how she wanted to be by him forever I thought it was going overboard, but in the end I understood why she felt like that.
The Downs: I loved every aspect except I feel like it was kind of slow paced in the beginning and too fast at the end. At the beginning, I was kind of confused and slightly wishing for the pace to speed up a bit, but at the end it was like a huge storm of words and ideas and plot twists and sometimes I could literally hear my head clicking and having an "OH so that was it" moment and other times I was just lost in the huge jumble.
I don't know. I think that the general plot could have only been done this way, for her to understand everything at the ending, but I wish it could have been packed together a little better.
Rating: 3 kisses!
The Downs: I loved every aspect except I feel like it was kind of slow paced in the beginning and too fast at the end. At the beginning, I was kind of confused and slightly wishing for the pace to speed up a bit, but at the end it was like a huge storm of words and ideas and plot twists and sometimes I could literally hear my head clicking and having an "OH so that was it" moment and other times I was just lost in the huge jumble.
I don't know. I think that the general plot could have only been done this way, for her to understand everything at the ending, but I wish it could have been packed together a little better.
Rating: 3 kisses!
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