Severance by Ling Ma Review

Title: Severance
Author: Ling Ma
Blurb: Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. So she barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies halt operations. The subways squeak to a halt. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale and satire.

Me: Eerily relevant and beautifully poignant, Severance was one I absolutely tore through. Such an incredible exploration of what we value in our contemporary world and what we need to be aware of going forward. 

FEMLIT: The Power Review

This month for FemLIT, we decided to read a book that's been buzzed about a lot since last year: The Power by Naomi Alderman. Here's my review of it!

26 CLASSICS: Slaughterhouse-Five Review #5

Title: Slaughterhouse-Five
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Genre: Classics, Sci-fi

Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller - these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

1984 Review

Title: 1984
Author: George Orwell
Publisher: Signet
Genre: Science Fiction, Classics

Blurb: (from goodreads) The year 1984 has come and gone, but George Orwell's prophetic, nightmarish vision in 1949 of the world we were becoming is timelier than ever. 1984 is still the great modern classic of "negative utopia" -a startlingly original and haunting novel that creates an imaginary world that is completely convincing, from the first sentence to the last four words. No one can deny the novel's hold on the imaginations of whole generations, or the power of its admonitions -a power that seems to grow, not lessen, with the passage of time. 



Me: I do not know if I truly understand this book, but it is one of the most terrifying, mind-boggling books I have ever read. The critique of society is absolutely genius.

The Ups: There is a reason that "Orwellian" is a word. The writing and chilling insight of George Orwell in this novel is beyond words.
As a coherent story, this book may not be the best. It lacks interesting plot in some parts of the story, and it tends to get a bit repetitive. However, I think it's important to think of this book as not necessarily a high-quality novel, but rather a crucial critique on our society.
If this critique had been written plainly, with just statements like "Dictators are bad. Pay attention people. Don't let this happen.", it would probably have been very cynical, dry, and too salty for my taste.
However, with statements like

and propaganda like this poster: 

the context in which this story takes place becomes chillingly close to reality. As I read this book, I had to put it down a number of times just to contemplate the absolute magnitude of what the story was saying. Is it not just terrifying? And the scariest part is it is not that different (in some aspects) of the world we see today, and this book was written in 1949!!!!

*spoiler alert* THE LAST PART OF THE BOOK. Oh my gosh, that part just KILLED ME. Even he was changed, and witnessing that was just...ooh...goosebumps. 

The Downs: Again, it's not super entertaining in a story sense. It did take me a while to read, but it takes a while to fully digest all the symbols and genius predictions. However, I think it's important to look at this book as something to learn from and something to absorb, because looking at it from that viewpoint it becomes much easier and enjoyable as a reader. 

Overall: Chilling classic critiquing society while predicting an almost reality. Genius. 

Rating: 4 stars! 

A Thousand Pieces of You Review

Title: A Thousand Pieces of You
Author: Claudia Gray (aka Amy Vincent) 
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: Sci-fi

Spoilers in white. Highlight to read. 

Blurb: (from goodreads) Marguerite Caine’s physicist parents are known for their radical scientific achievements. Their most astonishing invention: the Firebird, which allows users to jump into parallel universes, some vastly altered from our own. But when Marguerite’s father is murdered, the killer—her parent’s handsome and enigmatic assistant Paul—escapes into another dimension before the law can touch him.

Marguerite can’t let the man who destroyed her family go free, and she races after Paul through different universes, where their lives entangle in increasingly familiar ways. With each encounter she begins to question Paul’s guilt—and her own heart. Soon she discovers the truth behind her father’s death is more sinister than she ever could have imagined.

A Thousand Pieces of You explores a reality where we witness the countless other lives we might lead in an amazingly intricate multiverse, and ask whether, amid infinite possibilities, one love can endure.

Me: I am fascinated by this new idea of traveling between different dimensions. A new look on science fiction. 

The Ups: First of all...the cover. It is so freaking beautiful I want to frame it and keep it on my wall forever. 

Anyway, like I just said, the idea of traveling between dimensions, and the craziness that ensues, was incredibly interesting. The scientific aspect of it (which is what I failed to comprehend) made absolutely no sense to me, but I guess the jumble of big words made it sound somewhat professional, because I kept thinking, "What if this is possible?" But it was the more human, the more emotional side of it that really hooked me.

Conceptually, it would have been very simple (if you had the technology) just to hop from dimension to dimension. But as Marguerite feels in the book, it is incredibly confusing emotionally. How would you know if something was real or not? Would you feel any regret knowing that that dimension was how life might've been? Would you lose your sense of identity? There were a lot of questions with the concept, and I think Claudia Gray explored them very well. 

The Downs: I think that this was a very brave, and probably difficult book to write. I've read books where a character travels to a different dimension, but to go between multiple dimensions is something new. It was also very chaotic and a bit hard to follow. The plot twists were hard to comprehend because I was busy trying to figure out everything else that was happening. 

When reading a book and traveling to a different world, I like to feel a strong sense of knowing the setting and becoming familiar with it, but because it kept changing, it was hard to keep up with it. 

I also feel like the characters weren't very strong. Marguerite was a bit naive and was a bit selfish. I feel like there wasn't anything special about her. I feel like I didn't know Theo very well, which only makes sense because we find out that he was a spy. But I also feel like I didn't know Paul well enough to feel what Marguerite did. Also...did there need to be a love triangle. Realllyyyyy. 

Overall: A very interesting idea, but confusing to follow. 

Rating: 4 kisses! 

Have you ever read a book traveling dimensions or going between lots of places? 

If you like books with traveling dimensions check out: Don't You Wish

Article 5 Review

Title: Article 5
Author: Kristen Simmons
Publisher: Tor Teen
Genre: Dystopian, Sci-fi

Blurb: (from goodreads) New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don't come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren't always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it's hard for her to forget that people weren't always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It's hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings—the only boy Ember has ever loved.

Me: A fast-paced Dystopian with frightfully real aspects.

The Ups: I think that the most important concept of the book, and what made it stand out from other dystopians, is that the government, the society in this book had the prospect of being real. I mean, anything can happen, but this book felt like it was more realistic than other dystopians I've read. The Moral Militia, the different Articles, the Sisters of Salvation, all targeted concepts that are still concerns today. It made me really think throughout the book of not only how this is something that people around the world might be facing right now, but also how to prevent this from getting so extreme. 

It was also decently easy to get through. I had a hard time getting through the beginning, only because I didn't have much time to read, but I then read the rest of the book in one sitting. I liked Ember, and I think that by connecting to her and watching her make her journey is what really kept me going. It was fast-paced.

I also enjoyed the romance, because it wasn't overpowering. It was nicely embedded into the story and the book didn't revolve around just the romance. 

The Downs: That being said, I felt like the plot was a bit unoriginal and drab. There were no cliffhangers, no moments that I really loved. Chase also got annoying after a while, and sometimes I couldn't quite understand the relationship between him and Ember. Also, besides Ember, I didn't really connect to any of the other characters, which made me feel a bit disconnected from this world they were living in. 

Overall: A good dystopian that made me think. 

Rating: 4 kisses!

Independent Study (The Testing #2) Review

Title: Independent Study
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Publisher: HMH Books
Genre: Sci-fi, Dystopian 

Spoilers in white. Highlight to read. 

Blurb: (from goodreads) In the series debut The Testing, sixteen-year-old Cia Vale was chosen by the United Commonwealth government as one of the best and brightest graduates of all the colonies . . . a promising leader in the effort to revitalize postwar civilization. In Independent Study, Cia is a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown sweetheart, Tomas—and though the government has tried to erase her memory of the brutal horrors of The Testing, Cia remembers. Her attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the government’s murderous programs put her—and her loved ones—in a world of danger. But the future of the Commonwealth depends on her.


Me: Again, same thing. Unoriginal. Unmemorable. Stuff we've already heard before.

The Ups: I really liked the ending. And that was basically it. The idea of a staged rebellion to eliminate troublemakers was really original and I had not seen it coming. I also loved how it cut off right there, but tied it together quite nicely. The ending made me reach for the third one right away.

The Downs: But it ends there. Every other aspect of the book was repetitive and unoriginal. 
First off, I am so sick of perfect heroines. SO DONE. I felt it with Katniss in The Hunger Games, and now I'm feeling the same with this character, Cia. She seems to be able to do no wrong. She cares for all these people dying in The Testing and afterward, even if she didn't know them or didn't care for them. She is way too sympathetic, and is also way too smart. It's impossible for her to be so extraordinary that she passes the tests that were made for the smartest people in the nation so easily. I just wanted to say, "Do you have flaws? Or are you a freaking goddess?" 

Also, why is the University basically identical to the Testing? Why do people still get "Redirected?" Was the author just too lazy to actually creatively think of a different setting and a different society that she just took the easy way out? You would think there would be a bit more interesting way of the school to work after they've gone through so much just to get to the University. 

I also felt like Tomas wasn't too interesting. I couldn't feel the security and the comfort that Cia felt around him. I couldn't really see what was so special about him. I feel like that made the romance less strong, and I didn't feel the trust and the importance between the characters. 

Overall: There just wasn't anything special, and I didn't feel connected to the story. 

Rating: 2 kisses! 

The Testing Review

Title: The Testing
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Genre: Sci-fi, Dystopian 

Blurb: (from goodreads) Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Isn’t that what they say? But how close is too close when they may be one in the same? 

The Seven Stages War left much of the planet a charred wasteland. The future belongs to the next generation’s chosen few who must rebuild it. But to enter this elite group, candidates must first pass The Testing—their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career. 

Cia Vale is honored to be chosen as a Testing candidate; eager to prove her worthiness as a University student and future leader of the United Commonwealth. But on the eve of her departure, her father’s advice hints at a darker side to her upcoming studies--trust no one. 

But surely she can trust Tomas, her handsome childhood friend who offers an alliance? Tomas, who seems to care more about her with the passing of every grueling (and deadly) day of the Testing. To survive, Cia must choose: love without truth or life without trust.

Me: I think for this review to work, I'll have to do the downs of the book first, and then tie it all together with the ups. So here we go...

The Downs: This book was nothing special. It wasn't unique. I think that with all the dystopian/sci-fi books being released these days, it's hard to write one that has it's own special quality to it. However, I think that that is what really proves a great sci-fi author, and a great sci-fi novel. The Testing was the weirdest mash up of Legend, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, The Program, and Divergent. Seriously. It was major cray-cray.

"Graduation day. I can hardly stand still as my mother straightens my celebratory red tunic..."

Isn't that familiar? Oh right, DIVERGENT. 

"The Testing-their one chance at a college education and a rewarding career." 

Mhmm...Remember Legend and the tests? Oh yeah and when they don't pass they get "Redirected"...wonder what that means.

"A maze. We are in a maze." SERIOUSLY.

And so on and so forth. Also they go into the fourth testing in a place where they basically have to kill other contestants. (Ahem. Hunger Games.) They also are injected with a medicine that erases their memories. (The Program.) WHAT THE HECK. 

The entire book, the plot, the characters, the writing, was just...average. I feel like sometimes that's worse than a completely horrendous book because I just have no opinion on it. It was extremely bland.

The Ups: That being said, it was decent. I got through the book considerably fast, and the writing did keep me going through the book.  I could depict what was happening and what scenario it was, but again, maybe that was because it was kind of a copy of different images from other books. 

The only part that I absolutely loved though, was the ending. It wasn't a cliffhanger or anything, but it brought chills to my arms and I feel like it really brought the book together nicely.

Overall: Not anything new, or special, but not a bad book either. 

Rating: 3 kisses! 

Firefight (Reckoners #2) Review

Title: Firefight
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi 

Spoilers in white. Highlight to read!

Blurb: (from goodreads) From the #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of Words of Radiance coauthor of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and creator of the internationally bestselling Mistborn Trilogy, Brandon Sanderson presents the second book in the Reckoners series: Firefight, the sequel to the #1 bestseller Steelheart.

They told David it was impossible--that even the Reckoners had never killed a High Epic. Yet, Steelheart--invincible, immortal, unconquerable--is dead. And he died by David's hand. (spoiler)

Eliminating Steelheart was supposed to make life more simple. Instead, it only made David realize he has questions. Big ones. And there's no one in Newcago who can give him the answers he needs. 

Babylon Restored, the old borough of Manhattan, has possibilities, though. Ruled by the mysterious High Epic, Regalia, David is sure Babylon Restored will lead him to what he needs to find. And while entering another city oppressed by a High Epic despot is a gamble, David's willing to risk it. Because killing Steelheart left a hole in David's heart. A hole where his thirst for vengeance once lived. Somehow, he filled that hole with another Epic--Firefight. And he's willing to go on a quest darker, and more dangerous even, than the fight against Steelheart to find her, and to get his answers.

Me: Steelheart boggled my mind. Firefight broke my heart and blew my mind and killed me repeatedly. 

The Ups: Such a fast-paced read. And I lovvveedd ittt. 

Brandon Sanderson can weave a story. I think that even though Steelheart and Firefight seem like any other sci-fi/fantasy books that have been out on the market lately, they're not. They have a certain quality to them that makes them seem incredibly fresh and new, and there is nothing boring about them. At all. 

At first I got a bit pissed that the actual release date wasn't what it said at the back of the book, but now I can forgive it. If it took a little more time to make this super amazing book, cool with me. 

So much that didn't get explained in the first book was revealed and thoroughly explained in Firefight. It didn't reveal too much, however, and now I'm left biting my nails until the spring of 2016, when Calamity comes out. (spoiler)It explained more of how Epics came to be, and how their weaknesses relate to their fears. Also, it revealed that Calamity was actually an EPIC (I kind of peed in my pants there) and that it was possible to take powers, give powers, and choose who would become an Epic. 

David, as usual, was a wonderful protagonist. I love him. So much. Any other character might seem annoying and a bit too heroic and "good" for my taste, but David is idiotic sometimes, crazy sometimes, bad sometimes, brave sometimes, and awkward all the time. His horrible similes and metaphors literally made me crack up every two seconds. He seems so real and feels like someone who would be my best friend. 

All the other characters too, like Val and Exel and Mizzy; I developed a real connection to all of them. I seriously am amazed with the character development of this book. I also really liked all the new Epics in this book, and was fascinated with each of them, and their names: Obliteration, Regalia, Sourcefield...LOVE IT

I literally could not put this book down. I became completely immersed in it, and made all my friends jealous because I got to read it right after it was released...

The Downs: I think that the only possible down might be that I would liked to see a bit more of Megan in this book. She does come out a lot but I feel like her character wasn't as strong as it was in Firefight.

Overall: Amazing. It just keeps on getting better. By Calamity, my head may explode. 

Rating: 5 kisses! 

Unwind Review

Title: Unwind
Author: Neal Shusterman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Genre: Sci-fi

Blurb: (from goodreads) Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.
Me: Kind of disappointed after all the hype.

The Ups: I think I only really loved one thing in this entire book. The scene where you-know-who is getting you-know-what and I wanted to puke but at the same time it was so intense and awesome and terrifying and I really felt like I kind of got the feeling of the book. It took a lot of bravery, I think, to write that scene and it was just an absolutely amazing piece of writing.
I don't know what it was, but I really like Lev as a character. His struggle to make sense of something he'd kind of been brainwashed into thinking his entire life and the constant struggle of his character was very interesting.

The Downs: I heard so many amazing things about this book and everybody told me it was phenomenal, but to be absolutely honest it wasn't very good. I think the plot kind of dragged on and made me lose interest after a while, and I didn't like the writing style of Neil Schusterman. It was very drab and I couldn't get connected to any of the characters.
Some things that happened in the book seemed very fake and I just couldn't picture this world very well. I found the concept of Unwinding kind of stupid and I didn't get the entire concept of the book. 
The characters were also unbelievable and not very relatable. I didn't feel myself connected to them.
After reading the book, when I discussed it with different people, they all told me that the entire point of the book was that life was viewed differently in this world, but I didn't feel like that message got across to me at all. 

Overall: Alone in my stand that it wasn't worth the hype..?

Rating: 2 kisses! 

Champion Review

Title: Champion
Author: Marie Lu
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile
Genre: Sci-fi

Blurb: (from goodreads) He is a Legend.

She is a Prodigy.

Who will be Champion? 

June and Day have sacrificed so much for the people of the Republic—and each other—and now their country is on the brink of a new existence. June is back in the good graces of the Republic, working within the government’s elite circles as Princeps-Elect, while Day has been assigned a high-level military position. 

But neither could have predicted the circumstances that will reunite them: just when a peace treaty is imminent, a plague outbreak causes panic in the Colonies, and war threatens the Republic’s border cities. This new strain of plague is deadlier than ever, and June is the only one who knows the key to her country’s defense. But saving the lives of thousands will mean asking the one she loves to give up everything. 

With heart-pounding action and suspense, Marie Lu’s bestselling trilogy draws to a stunning conclusion.

Me: Trilogies, I've found, usually get worse and worse as they go on, until you get to the last one and you want to throw it across the room. (*cough* Mockingjay) Marie Lu, though, amazes me with her talent and what a phenomenal finale she crafts to her series, and the trilogy actually gets better as it goes on. 

The Ups: Everything. There are so many emotions coursing through my heart, so many thoughts I have about the story. Let's see if I can attempt to organize them all. 

The world that Marie Lu creates is so incredibly real. Not just beautifully described or easy to picture but frighteningly real. I can see our world now coming to the world she creates. The failure of what was once the United States, the rise of the countries Africa and Antarctica, the political and social  aspects, there are things in the Legend books that resemble authentic government today. The sectors, the difference between the rich and poor, the plagues, everything in the book has a genuine purpose. The reality of the novel is nerve wracking.

The characters are absolutely phenomenal. Day and June have such distinct voices, and it really enhanced the story, seeing it from both perspectives. Their struggles and pains were incredibly relatable and believable. The love between them wasn't stupid, but I could really feel the bond between them, and it was real and genuine and great. Anden was another of my personal favorite characters, because I think that he really had his struggles that he was trying to beat, and doing that while trying to save a country going to the dogs is heroic. 

The plot, oh my gosh. I actually cried in this book. And I didn't cry while reading TFIOS. So this is pretty much a super emotional book, man. There is just such a connection with me and the characters, and the overwhelming feeling of love and sympathy and pain for these characters made the journey through the book meaningful. 

The ending was beautiful, and I can't believe I'm parting with the Legend world. 

The Downs: I think that there may have been a very small amount of sentences and phrases that caught me off guard because they didn't seem to fit in with the characters and such, but it was very minimal.

Overall: The best final book to a trilogy that I have ever read. Also possibly the best science fiction book I've ever read. Absolutely amazing.

(Mini shout-out to my amazing friend Azaan for lending his signed copy to me...that takes courage and a heckload of trust.)

Rating: BMS! 

The Scorch Trials Review

Title: The Scorch Trials
Author: James Dashner
Genre: Sci-fi
Publisher: Delacorte Press

Blurb: (from goodreads) Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. 
 
Thomas was sure that escape from the Maze would mean freedom for him and the Gladers. But WICKED isn’t done yet. Phase Two has just begun. The Scorch. 
 
There are no rules. There is no help. You either make it or you die.
 
The Gladers have two weeks to cross through the Scorch—the most burned-out section of the world. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them. 
 
Friendships will be tested. Loyalties will be broken. All bets are off. 
 
There are others now. Their survival depends on the Gladers’ destruction—and they’re determined to survive.

Me: I just finally read the sequel, and after hearing a lot of good and bad stuff about it, here's what I have to say. 

The Ups: I loved the setting, and the descriptions of the world that the Gladers had to transition into. James Dashner is really good at depicting a place that readers haven't seen in real life, and making it come to life and making sure that we can really picture it in our minds. I thought I could see the Scorch perfectly. I could see the Flat Trans, see the buildings. I was almost building a mini set in my head.

During the entirety of the book, it felt like I was seeing a movie. I saw the characters as the actors who were in The Maze Runner, and the action was very visual and well-described. Sometimes in other books, the place itself and the action just seems chaotic and a jumble of words. But The Scorch Trials made it very easy for me to just read a certain description and see it right away.

The Downs: However, I feel like James Dashner's characters lost their power in this book. In the Maze Runner, I really felt connected to the characters, and I talked about that in my review. In this one however, I felt like they were completely different people, and some of them just tired me out as a reader.
Thomas, for starters, was acting like a lovesick puppy. The fact that there is a love triangle in the story angers me so much. Unnecessary plot much? Every stinking second Thomas was groaning and moaning about Theresa, and then Brenda.
I really didn't like Theresa in this story. I won't spoil anything, but she was all over the place. Her actions and her constant two-faced weirdness confused me, and after a while I was just sick of her. I didn't understand what was going on with her and Wicked, and I still can't figure out if she is good or bad. I feel like Theresa, of all characters, should have a sturdy skeleton of a character but I couldn't see that at all. 

Overall: Worse than The Maze Runner, and really messed-up characters.

Rating: 2 kisses!

The Giver Review

Title: The Giver
Author: Lois Lowry
Publisher: Ember
Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction

Blurb: (from goodreads) Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

Me: I'm astounded at how ahead of her time Lois Lowry is. This book was written 20 years ago, yet it has assets in it that authors today would envy.


The Ups: The Giver is not a bad book. It has a fascinating setting that is very well woven and interpreted, and I can very well imagine the world that Jonas lives in. Lois Lowry did a fantastic job at really creating this world, really making the culture, the horrific normality of the entire thing stand out. I think that it is so interesting because it is written so bluntly that these people do not experience memories, or color, or music, or love. And to think about that is scary and unreal, yet The Giver portrays it in an eerie form of reality.
The Giver was a very interesting character as well, and his quietness even after knowing the truth showed just how impossible the prospect of change looked in this community. 
I was constantly amazed at how modern the book seemed, and how it kind of pioneered a real genre of dystopia.

The Downs: However, I think that this book was nothing special. It didn't cause chilling emotions, or any sympathy and love for Jonas himself. I was not emotionally connected to Jonas, and throughout the story, didn't really feel his confusion and his pain and his wonder. 
It didn't make me think about how our idea of paradise and perfection might be monstrously contorted or anything eye-opening like that. It was just a decent book. 
I especially didn't like the ending. I found myself getting really bored at the ending, and I didn't like how it seemed to abruptly cut off. It wasn't a smooth end to the story.
Maybe if I took the time someday to really analyze it, and to really think about it, and possibly reread it I may find a new connection to the book I didn't before. But this first time through it, I didn't get much out of it.

Overall: Not bad, but not stellar either.

Rating: 3 kisses!

Steelheart Review

Title: Steelheart
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi

Blurb: (from goodreads) Ten years ago, Calamity came. It was a burst in the sky that gave ordinary men and women extraordinary powers. The awed public started calling them Epics. But Epics are no friend of man. With incredible gifts came the desire to rule. And to rule man you must crush his wills.

Nobody fights the Epics...nobody but the Reckoners. A shadowy group of ordinary humans, they spend their lives studying Epics, finding their weaknesses, and then assassinating them.

And David wants in. He wants Steelheart - the Epic who is said to be invincible. The Epic who killed David's father. For years, like the Reckoners, David's been studying, and planning - and he has something they need. Not an object, but an experience.

He's seen Steelheart bleed. And he wants revenge.

Me: Real life superheroes gone wrong? Who wouldn't love? 

The Ups: It's been a while since I've been so captivated into an idea of some kind of fantasy story, and immersed in a slightly dystopian and science fiction-y world. The action is very well developed, and I could really picture everything that happened in the book, especially the first part. I pictured the bank, Steelheart, the position of David's father; I could really see everything that was happening. 
We all know those action stories where they just seem to shooting at everyone, killing random people for no apparent reason, and I think we've all experienced that point where you lose interest and can't keep up with all the action because it's gotten so chaotic. I didn't experience that with this book. I'm personally not much of an action fan, just because emotions and feelings and inner thoughts appeal to me more than simple, blunt descriptions of gunfire. But Steelheart kept me in with the action and kept me at the edge of my seat.
I really liked the plot twist at the end. There were a few things I saw coming, I won't deny it. But the major plot twist completely caught me by surprise and shocked me. I hadn't suspected it the littlest bit. 
I loved David. His awkward metaphors were just a personal favorite aspect of the book. It really kept me laughing the entire time. I think there was a certain beauty to his character, because he was so incredibly flawed. There were parts of the book where you would look at David attempting to do something and want to cringe, and so when he did succeed, or when he felt something, it felt all the more real and not just the protagonist getting something he wanted.

The Downs: I think that there are just so many of science fiction novels, or fantasy novels, with a bad guy and the good guy, and the good guy winning and the same plot twists and the similar plot. I felt that with this book too. Some parts were just very predictable, and just didn't feel like a fresh story sometimes. 

Rating: 4 kisses!