As the World Ends: Siege by Rhiannon Frater

(read and written May 2012)


The third installment of this excellent zombie apocalypse trilogy finishes the story of a small group of survivors struggling to live in the aftermath, rather than simply exist. This theme, of course, is not necessarily unique or new; however, the way that Frater writes the characters into life (and death) is exceptional. I have read a LOT of zombie fiction-it's one of my favorite types of stories-and many have been good, some really good, and a select few have been excellent. The As the World Ends is one of the select few because it is not about the death of society, it is about the life of the characters within the pages. As a writer one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish is to have your character affect a reader in any meaningful way; this can be either positive or negative. If there is a character that you read about and hate so viscerally that you are rooting for their untimely demise, that author has done his or her job. Ditto for characters that you follow to their deaths, whom you weep for as they go, because even if they are only words on a page, they bleed just the same as you. Rhiannon Frater has done her job.

It occurs to me....

It occurs to me as I am posting old reviews that I must start writing longer reviews, otherwise there is no point.  So in the future, my reviews will be longer, more involved and more comprehensive.  But at the moment I am feeling that I need to go do something else, so here I go to do that.  I also feel like I need to re-read some of my favorites so I can efficiently express how wonderful I found them.  I will get to that soon.  Especially the more argued series, like Twilight and Hunger Games.  I can't wait to figure out how I can defend liking Twilight- the books, not the movies.  

The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

(read and written December 2011)


This is another instance in which I read a book in one sitting. I started at 11pm last night and finished at 4am. I couldn't put it down. Again, however, it was another instance in which I wanted to throw the book because it turns out it is a continuing story and I will probably have to wait a year to find out what happens next. You authors are killing me! That being said, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer is an awesome story. The entire time I was utterly entranced, asking myself, "What in the hell is going on?" about once every half an hour. But not in a confused way, in a I'm-desperate-to-know-the-secret way. A touch paranormal, a touch romantic, wholly mesmerizing, I recommend this book to anyone who loves a truly incredible read.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

(read and written November 2011)

I realize that I have read quite a few 5 star books in the past year, but this one I wish I could give a 6. I have read what seems like a million zombie books, but this is the first to be told from the zombie's point of you that actually touched my heart. I learned that the movie comes out August 12 with John Malkovich and a few other great actors, and I am so happy. This is also the first zombie story that is told from a view of hope, that the world is not lost, even when it seems to be. Maybe there are just times we need this message. This is a first-rate novel that deserves every ounce of success it has and will achieve. As, of course, does its creator.

Tris and Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison

(read and written in November 2011)


I love the tragic story of Tristan and Isolde. So I was looking forward to a contemporary retelling, in the vein of Beastly or Falling for Hamlet. I didn't really get that here. Isolde as a protagonist leaves something to be desired,and the characters have very little meat to them. The "love"between Tris and Izzie (and another couple) is utterly unbelievable and shallow. That being said, I did finish the book and it was readable. Normally if a book is just awful I toss it down and pick up the next one. I read this book in 3 hours and I don't feel necessarily like I killed those three hours and I will never get them back. But don't read this book expecting a modern retelling of an epic tragedy. You will be disappointed. It is more like The Hills. With magic. And less money.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher

(read and written in December 2011)


I read The Future of Us, in one sitting, in about three hours. The entire time, in the back of my head, I thought, "What would my 16 year old self think if I saw my 31 year old self's Facebook page?" Emma and Josh are 16 in 1996, looking at 2011. Emma tries as hard as she can to ensure a bright future for herself by changing things in her present. I am, as I write this, 31, and was 16 in 1996. I just logged on to Facebook and yeah, it really made me think. I'm happy with my life now. I wasn't always, and there are things I would have liked to do before that I am just now getting too. There's a part in the book there Emma and Josh both see pictures of their future children, that disappear as they change things. If my 16 year old self had seen my FB I would have known I was about to get pregnant with the help of a loser who will never be a part of his life. Would I have changed things if I had only had that snapshot of the future? I have a wonderful son I wouldn't trade for the world. I think what this book will do is make you think about your actions in your now, and make you wonder what effect they will have on your tomorrows. The Future of Us is well-written, and intriguingly plausible, given the subject matter. Much like 13 Reasons Why, Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler's book will remain with you when you leave it, but for different reasons. I was looking forward to this book so much that I went out and bought it instead of waiting for my library (because buying books is a huge luxury in my economy). I am not regretting that decision.

Cold Kiss by Amy Garver

(read and written December 2011)


Cold Kiss had a very interesting concept, and a new take on the undead. There was only one undead, to be exact. And it wasn't really about that anyway. Cold Kiss is about the intensity of teen love...and maybe even the fleeting nature of it as well. I don't put any spoilers in my reviews, so suffice it to say there are two love stories here, and both are portrayed well. The magical aspect of it isn't fleshed out as much as I would have liked, nor are a few of the major back-story issues (unless there was a book before this and I missed it). Wren's father isn't around, and it's mysterious but the mystery is never solved. There isn't a feeling here of a possibility of a sequel, but nowadays everything seems to end up that way, so maybe there will be. All in all, Cold Kiss was a good read, with a protagonist who's voice is sympathetic and clear, and just enough emotion to tug at the heartstrings. Because I think everyone who has ever loved would consider doing what Wren does, even for a just a second. It's a good thing, then, that we don't have that ability.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

(read and written January 2012)


I just finished reading Fault of Our Stars, having sat down at midnight and reading it in one sitting. This in and of itself is not unusual; I don't sleep much, and I am an incredibly fast and prolific reader. However, this book grabbed me by the heart and didn't let go. Having not read any of Green's other books, I cannot say with accuracy if this is his best work. But I cried steadily throughout the last half of the novel, and there's really only a handful of authors who are capable of eliciting that effect on me. (Although I have to say, the more I read of the YA genre, the larger that handful becomes) I knew going into it that it was going to be a sad story. This is a book of teenagers with cancer, which shouldn't be heartwarming. Yet, in a way it was. I laughed out loud several times. I loved Augustus almost as much as Hazel, and their irreverent humor just made me fall in love with both of them more. The way in which the characters speak is not necessarily realistic, though it's actually how I speak sometimes, when I'm trying to be funny and talk over people's heads. But it was wholly them, that pattern of speech. As per usual I will not speak too much of the story, just that it was beautifully written and insanely moving. It reminded me not just of how fragile all life is, but again of the most incredible part of all our lives- that first real feeling of true and absolute love. Because no matter the circumstances, that first love is deep, immovable, and tragic in its' beauty, regardless of how well or how horribly it turns out. So that is what this book is about, to me. Not a cancer book, or a book about dying. It is simply a book about loving, and how beautifully painful it is.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

     While I obtained this book before its release date through less than conventional methods, I felt beholden to critique it, as that is the purpose of such copies. This is an endeavor made so much simpler by the fact that this is yet another masterpiece written by Maggie Stiefvater. Reading her work is at once amazing and incredibly sad; sad not always because of the content, but because I know that I will never be a tenth of the writer she is. She weaves stories like tapestries, and it is a talent that is very rare. There are many excellent writers, but there are very few that take me out of this world we live in and into theirs. 
     There is a breathlessness in the way Stiefvater writes. This has been illustrated no more perfectly than in The Raven Boys. The entire book reads like the moment before a gasp; I don't know how to express it differently. The story of Blue Sargent and her Raven Boys feels like it teeters on a precipice on which you don't want to fall but can't wait until you do. I've reviewed other works by Maggie Stiefvater and I have talked about her singular ability to create love with such staggering detail that it makes your heart clench with the beauty of it. This first part of the story is about love, but also about the hiding from it. Blue has always been told she would kill her true love if she were to kiss him, and knowing this before I read I expected the love that couldn't be between her and true love-which I also expected to be revealed fairly quickly. But this part wasn't about Blue and her true love as much as it was about the relationship between her and all her Raven Boys. Her true love hasn't been revealed at all, at least not to me. This first leap into this "strange and sinister world" of the Raven Boys is about the quest for magic, for the unattainable just within their grasp, and entirely about showing us, the eavesdroppers into their world, that something is starting. 
     It goes without saying that I recommend this book to anyone who reads...well, anything. My only critique is that I know how long I must wait until I can rejoin Blue and her Raven Boys on their quest. I very much wish that this book had been a stand-alone novel like The Scorpio Races, if only for the fact that I would be able to reach the end with them now, instead of having to wait so long. Why can't excellent authors just start writing 1200 page books instead of insisting on breaking them up into series? Some of us don't want to wait.

I read so much, I may as well review!

I decided whilst I was perusing my goodreads "read" list that I have written many reviews there, but I should have my own blog for reviews.  I have been reading and writing since the age of 3 (my short life as a potential prodigy) and books to me are like air- I couldn't live without them.  I am also a speed reader, which is both good and bad; good because I can read that much more, bad because I am poor and also because until about two years ago I had simply read all the books.  It seemed that way anyway.  By the time I was ten I was reading at a college junior level.  I skipped the children's books, and when I was a young adult, the young adult genre was 95% just slightly longer children's books.  So I went right to adult fiction by the time I was 13, reading classics and popcorn fluff fiction, and the writer's simply couldn't keep up with how fast I could read what was being released.
     Then about two years ago I was starting to get really tired of reading the same thing over and over again.  "Adult" fiction was becoming redundant; all the books by almost all the authors were pretty much the same, with a few exceptions.  However, those few exceptions, being...exceptional, only released a book once every few years.  It seems the best are always that way.  So I saw this book called If I Stay by Gayle Forman, and I read it in about an hour and a half.  I spent most of that time literally weeping; that was how powerful the story was.  If I Stay was listed as young adult, but I didn't really pay attention to that.  The next book I picked up was Impossible by Nancy Werlin, and after that I was hooked.  I was on a full-on young adult, urban fantasy faerie bender.  The next were Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely series, then Maggie Stiefvater's Ballad and Lament.  From there I literally devoured every YA book that existed, and because I was so late to the game, I had thousands to choose from.  The YA genre had changed; I have never read such original stories, written so incredibly beautifully.  There were definite standouts in the genre: Maggie Stiefvater (who will continue to top that list), Lauren Oliver (whose Before I Fall was exquisite, and whose Delirium books have almost killed me), Melissa Marr, Veronica Roth, Nancy Werlin, Michael Grant, Jeff Sampson, John Green (whose work has also nearly killed me) as well as several others; but 90% of the YA books I have read have been exemplary.  Of course there are some that are mostly fluffy, fun reads with no real substance to them.  There have been some that I couldn't read at all.  
     What I enjoy most about this genre is that it is growing.  I'm currently writing my first YA geared book, and it is pleasing to me that I don't have to hold back to make it more palatable to teenagers, but that mostly the stories must relate to how teenagers would react in any given situation.  They are more truthful than they were in my day, and I can clearly recall the days of my own teenagerdom while I read them.  
     That is not to say that the only books I will review are YA, because I am also currently obsessed with zombie books and disaster fiction, and YA doesn't corner that market.  However, since that is mostly what I read right now, that is what I will review.  I'm going to start by posting all the reviews I have already written, just to get caught up, then I will add the ones I read forthwith.  I think I am fair in my assessment, and I give up my incredibly extensive history as a reader as well as a writer as testament to my ability to critique.  Of course all reviews are simply my opinion- for instance, I liked the Twilight series and LOVED The Hunger Games, but not everyone feels the same.  It is what it is, as they say.  (I don't know who "they" are but they definitely say that.)