Bloodfever by Karen Marie Moning

Reading Darkfever left me in a crescendo of emotions. As soon as I turned the last page, I desperately wanted to know more about Mac and Barrons and their fight against the Unseelie seeping into their world. I’d ordered this book before I’d even finished the first book and because I was so sure that I’d enjoy the rest of the series, I got books 3 and 4 at the same time so that I wouldn’t have to wait a week between each book!

Please note that this is the second book in a series. There may be spoilers pertaining to events in the first book!

Presentation: Mass market paperback. There are 337 pages broken down into a prologue and 20 chapters. The type is small but spaced.

Story: I’m not really sure how to sum up the plot of this one. Basically, Mac is still aiming to bring down the guy who killed her sister (and she knows who he is now); Barrons is still trying to get his hands on the Shinsa Duh; V’lane is still trying to get Mac to work for him; and the Unseelie are still infiltrating our society – eating away at the city of Dublin, killing its residents or inciting them to kill each other.

So what’s new? When detective O’Duffy’s body is found, his throat slit, Mac is suspected of the murder, resulting in her being trailed by O’Duffy’s brother-in-law, also a detective. Mac starts coming across half-eaten Unseelie, but who would be strong enough to subdue them and why on earth would anyone want to eat Unseelie? The sisterhood of sidhe-seers tries to recruit Mac to their side but Mac finds herself torn between them, Barrons and V’lane, not knowing anyone’s full intentions and unwilling to be an unwitting pawn in anyone’s game.

Oh, and some form of Grim Reaper – a mental projection of her sins? – appears to be trailing Mac.

Thoughts and impressions: Again, I’m not sure where I stand on this one. The plot was good but beyond Mac growing as a character and making new acquaintances, I’m not convinced how much the plot in this book advanced the overall plot of the series. Maybe the final battle in this one will have important implications in future books, but I’m not sure that it will in the same way that the final climax (pun intended) in the first book did. There are certain ideas that are obviously going to important such as the concept of eating Unseelie flesh, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s more of a subplot.

That was my impression at any rate. It felt more like a subplot to the whole thing just to introduce one or two new concepts. Maybe I feel as though it was a bit anticlimactic because I saw the final showdown here as of the first couple of chapters. The only thing that made up for it was the character evolution that took place. I adore the relationship between Mac and Barrons, especially the conversations that don't take place!

I once read an interview with an author where the question of first or third person perspective preference was raised. The author said she doesn’t even read books written in the first person perspective because she found that the book would be telling her that “I was sad” and all she could think was that no, in fact, the events hadn’t made her feel sad. I’ve never had this problem before, but in Bloodfever a lot of the choices that Mac made were completely the opposite of what I would do in the same situation.

Style: I noticed quite a few editing issues in places. Other than that, the style was engaging and drew me in.

Final verdict: Not as good as the first book concerning the main plot, but better concerning characters and their evolution. I was toying with the idea of giving this one only 3 stars, but I’ve decided to bump it up to 4 because ultimately I did really enjoy it. 4 stars.

Extra notes: Bad language ahoy! There’s no actual sex but the book is far from clean.

The Dark Mirror by Juliet Marillier

Though Marillier is one of the bigger names of the more feminine side of the fantasy genre, I didn’t come across her until late last year when my book provider internet site recommended that I pre-order the paperback of her most recent release (Heart’s Blood) and I did so without even reading up about the book. I then promptly forgot that I’d even ordered it and was very surprised when it appeared one day in the post. I did, however, absolutely adore this book and promptly ordered in another title by her. The Dark Mirror happened to be in the sales so I picked that one. Then, for one reason or another, I kept putting off reading it until this past week.

If you know me, you’ll know that I’ve been ill all week and that my illness sapped my ability to concentrate on anything at length. This book has been read around that illness and consequently I don’t really remember the beginning of the book all that clearly. I ask you to keep this in mind while reading the review.

Presentation: Mass market paperback. The font is small and closely-spaced. There are 561 pages broken down into 18 chapters so the chapters are rather long. The new chapters just continue on beneath the previous chapters rather than starting on a new page. For me, this means that I can never feel like I want to stop reading without the break between pages.

Story: Bridei is delivered to the druid Broichan for an education when he is but 4-years-old. He is unaware that plans for the future of the whole kingdom of Fortriu are being laid around him. He soon proves to be a bright young lad and an able student, quick to learn and wanting to please. Someone else seem to be aware of the secretly laid plans, though, as attempts are made on both Bridei’s and Broichan’s lives. Though both survive, the Shining One – the ancient goddess represented by the moon – bestows a present upon Bridei to help him in the future. This present comes in the form of a baby girl who is clearly one of the Good Folk and not human.

Despite his misgivings about her, Broichan allows the baby, Tuala, to stay in his house, swayed by the young Bridei’s conviction that he was meant to take her in; that this is what the goddess wanted. And so start the many trials and tribulations set by both mankind and the gods that both Bridei and Tuala must face in order to fulfil their destinies.

Thoughts and impressions: Though a fantasy title, this story is steeped in historical fact based on real people who crop up in the historical record. Unfortunately, the Picts did not leave a written record, and in an author’s note, Mariller states very clearly that a lot of the story is made up of informed guesswork and imagination. In particular, I really liked the religious aspects that Marillier presents based on other religious practises that took place in similar tribes in the same era. I had never heard of Bridei, Pictish king in the 5^th century A.D., but I was familiar with the current events such as the Gaels increasing their spread to the Scottish Highlands and Christianity starting to seep into the various tribal cultures and replace the ancient faiths. I found how the aspect of religious change was handled particularly interesting, though I believe that this is touched on more in one of the later books of the Bridei Chronicles. I really enjoyed the exploration of the Pictish society.

Obviously, though, history is just a starting point for Marillier’s story. The inclusion of Tuala being a child of the Good Folk sets the story firmly in the fantasy genre. It was interesting to see Tuala and watch her grow up, but I never really connected with her very well. She was always set apart just that little bit too far for me to ever really be able to view things through her eyes. I felt sorry for her, of course, particularly when Broichan kept interfering to try to keep Bridei’s destiny to what he had foreseen and not what the gods had in store for him. Tuala knows as of a pretty early age that she’s in love with Bridei – love beyond the love that a foster sister feels for a foster brother – and she suffers through Broichan’s interference without complaint, but she still makes the weirdest of decisions, particularly towards the end of the book.

Bridei I found easier to connect with. He’s forced to face acts of human evilness as well as dealing with Broichan’s constant subtle prods to try to keep him right where Broichan believes he needs to be. One of the stronger scenes was after the battle with the Gaels and Bridei comes across part of their Pictish army herding the Gaelic women with the intention of raping the ones they wanted. The way that this appauls him speaks both of his reverence for females and his innocence regarding warfare.

However, despite all of this, both main characters seemed to come dangerous close to perfection. I’ve seen another person refer to it as feeling like they were watching all the cool kids playing but not being able to join in. It didn’t go quite that far for me, but I did notice that in everything that they do, both of these characters are extremely skilled – to the point where they’re better than their mentors within a very short span. That might be part of the reason why I could never be as close to the characters as I would have liked.

The romance itself isn’t particularly exciting either. Both characters just sort of have one of those light bulb moments when they go “Oh! But I love him/her!” I realise that the story is more based on their evolution and coming of age than it is on their romance, but it would have been nice if that plot point had had some more depth to it. It shouldn’t really be billed as a romance, because it isn’t really, it’s a historical fantasy and on the historical fantasy footing it stands very well. As a romance, though, it leaves something to be desired.

I would have liked to have seen more about the traitor plot, that’s my only really qualm here. The perpetrator is just kicked out of the plot and that’s the end of that but I’d have liked to have seen reactions to the knowledge of it coming out to the family and the consequences for the one behind it all. That’s not touched on at all and only the consequences on the family’s bearing are mentioned in passing.

At some point in the future, I suspect that I will go back to this series. Right now I’ve already got too many books to get through. My next Marillier read will be Daughter of the Forest which I’ve been told is absolutely fantastic so I’m certainly looking forward to that!

Style: Sometimes a little overbearing but that could be because my illness was already making it hard for me to concentrate and Marillier’s prose is definitely not of the light variety so it occasionally got the better of me.

Final verdict: As mentioned, as a romance, not so great, but as a historical fantasy it was very interesting! 4 stars.

Extra notes: I didn’t pick up on any swearing. There was no sex. There are some themes of violence and human sacrifice.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

This was one of my five books for the Basically Books! Autumn 2011 favourites challenge. I took this book from the lovely Char’s favourites shelf. It’s a book that I’ve seen her recommending to others countless times and eventually my eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I bought the book.

It arrived at my house some time in early July when I’d already left for my family home in France. Any and all books that arrived then have ended up on the backburner – even a book by my favourite author! This challenge has pushed me to pick up the book. I didn’t really know what to expect of the book. All I knew going into it was that it was in letter format and that it was about a girl’s ordeal when she is kidnapped, so I went in with a pretty open mind.

Presentation: Your average sized YA paperback. The font is relatively large and well-spaced. There are 301 pages. There are no chapters, though there are breaks in the text.

Story: It’s hard to sum this one up without giving away too much of the story, so all I’m going to say is that it’s about a girl who gets kidnapped from Bangkok airport and is taken away from civilisation itself to live in a hut in the middle of the Australian desert with only her kidnapper, the relentless sun and nature very different from anything she’s ever known.

Thoughts and impressions: I don’t even really know where to begin with this review. This is another case of finding one of those YA lit gems in a vast ocean of mediocre YA books out there. Just like Beth Ravis did in Across the Universe, Lucy Christopher has taken all of my prejudices against YA and completely smashed them apart. Stolen sucks you in as of the very first line and ruthlessly demands your undivided attention until the very last line. This book should come with a warning that once you pick it up, you won’t be putting it down again until you’ve finished it!

I suppose that it is arguable as to whether or not Gemma is a fragile character at the start of the book – personally I found a lot of little hints that she wasn’t happy with her life or where it seemed to be headed (especially the hints that all was not well in her circle of friends because she’d fallen for her best friend who happens to be her other best friend’s boyfriend.) By the end of the book she is certainly very conflicted in her feelings about everything: about her situation, the landscape where she’s living, her captor…

Ty, on the other hand, was “broken” well before the events of the story take place. His story is slowly revealed to Gemma and the reader: the way that he’s been planning all of this for a long time; the way that he needed to be closer to nature, away from the taint of civilisation. Logically, I knew that Ty was in the wrong. He’d taken Gemma from her life against her will, had taken her to the middle of nowhere where she could not escape him. And yet, he did allow her to make her escape attempts; each time he would let her go but he would save her from her folly to try to escape into the Australian desert and nurse her back to health. He definitely had issues as well: this was made obvious in the way that he would freak out over small things. That said, he would always try so very hard to keep him temper under control. Everything that he did for Gemma made him very endearing. This in itself just goes to show just how talented a storyteller Lucy Christopher is.

Stockholm syndrome is, of course, a very important part of the story. But it goes much further than that because it was me as the reader who was suffering from Stockholm syndrome well before Gemma ever changed in her stance towards him. Logically, I knew that really he was the antagonist of the story but at the same time, in spite of myself, I found myself coming to love this poor, broken soul. I don’t imagine that this will be the case for all readers – if you find yourself attracted to the bossy alpha male hero in stories, I suspect Ty might not do it for you. I personally have always found myself more attracted to the tortured male lead that needs help finding his way again and Ty fits this bill perfectly. Lucy Christopher makes the reader consider Stockholm syndrome from the inside. I think that it is also very important to keep in mind that the book treats a glamorised version of kidnapping, Gemma’s experience is a far cry from the kidnap stories you hear in news.

There is also a camel in this story. For most of the story, Gemma and Ty are the only characters but the camel could be considered a side character. I loved her. I really did. I came so close to tears several times during her scenes. I don’t want to spoil this too much but the camel’s story is a great allegory for Gemma’s story.

And finally, this book is cyclic: Gemma starts the story not really aware of what’s going on around her and ends it in the same state. This worked really well.

The only thing that I wasn’t so sure about was Ty’s hair colour. About half way through the story, Gemma mentions his blonde locks. Up until that point, I’d viewed him as having dark hair. I don’t know whether this was because I’d read this in the book at some point or because I’d superimposed my own personal preference for darker hair on the character. It is likely the latter but this still pulled me from the story for a moment while I tried to figure it out.

Style: This book is written as a letter to Ty. It addresses him as “you”, which makes it very different from what I have read before now. This worked really well for this setting, though, and I don’t think that the story would have been as good had it been written in a traditional manner. The style is fairly simple, but it fits.

Final verdict: I will be going around recommending this book to everyone I know. I loved it. 5 stars.

One warning comes with this recommendation, though. Make sure that you have nothing pressing to do when you start the book because if you’re anything like me then you won’t be able to put it down again until you’ve finished it!

Extra notes: No strong language, no sex. Appropriate for mature younger readers who are able to understand the concepts addressed in this book. If in doubt, read it before you allow your child to read it – it shouldn’t take you more than an afternoon to get through the whole book.

Scorpio Rising by Monique Domovitch

The first book in a planned series by indie author Monique Domovitch, I won this title in a giveaway in August. I know how hard it can be for indie authors to get their work out there and recognised, so as soon as I found the energy to spend a day reading from my PC screen, I got to it.

I would like to point out that all opinions are my own and I have not glossed this review for the sake of the author.

Presentation: E-book. My copy was 335 pages long with 21 chapters. Some of the chapters are long (30+ pages) others very short (the shortest was only 2 pages long).

Story: Alexander dreams of escaping his life - the dingy little flat where he lives with his mother who has to sell her body to make ends meet – and making it to Manhattan to become a big name in architecture. He pushes himself, never allowing himself to connect with another too much in case they get in the way of his dreams becoming reality.

Brigitte is thrown out of her home with nowhere to turn to when her jealous mother catches her stepfather in the act of raping her. She finds herself with a benefactor looking after her every need, but when she learns that not only is she pregnant with her rapist’s child but also her benefactor’s motives go beyond wanting to help a girl in need, she runs away and starts a new life for herself, determined to make ends meet with her art.

Thoughts and impressions: Right as of the first chapter, this book hit me with its blunt approach to events and sex in particular. This actually worked really well in the story’s favour. It was refreshing to see a blunt and rather detached view of sex rather than flowery “love’s milk” or treading lightly around the subject. One quote in particular really got to me: ‘“This will be our little secret,” Lucien told her when she opened her eyes. “If you even think of telling anyone, I’ll kill you.” Then he raped her.’  (chap 2) The simplicity with which this horrible action is portrayed really worked for me. I think it’s very hard to portray rape with words because there’s so much in the action that goes beyond mere words. I commend Monique Domovitch for not trying to even go into the character’s thoughts about how she is treated, but hinting at what consequences it has on her life, thus allowing the reader to supply those thoughts for Brigitte in whatever manner works for them personally.

I was expecting a love story in this story. I expected the characters to meet and form some form of relationship and then make their way through at least some good portion of the story together working out their differences.  In actual fact, they don’t meet until very close to the end of this book. I would have liked to have seen more relationship growth between them: once they do finally meet it does seem a bit rushed. I would also have liked to have seen more consequences to certain plot points that were brought up closer to the end, but as naming them would lead to spoilers I will refrain from doing so and simply state my hope that they will be addressed in the sequel.

This said, the characters not meeting until closer to the end does not have any negative effect on the story itself beyond how rushed their relationship felt. The story is about the growth of both of these people from disillusioned youths to adults who have fought tooth and nail for what little they have. The story occasionally slips into a side character’s head for a bit – my favourite of these was Anne. She’s one of those characters that you love to hate. You can understand her actions, even her motives, but you still condemn her for them (which she deserves) but this just served to make her a more interesting antagonist. I can already see her causing all sorts of problems for Alex in the sequel!

There are some really precious gem scenes in this novel. One in particular involves Alex and a certain unexpected surprise when he accompanies a Moulin Rouge dancer home. I had to stop reading to laugh! The somewhat detached bluntness of the narrative just increased the humour to be found in this scene.  Loved it!

Style: As mentioned, detached and blunt. I don’t often like this style but in this case it really worked well with the story.

Final verdict: I really enjoyed this one. It was an honest look at the brutality of the dog-eat-dog world that these characters inhabit. 5 stars.

Extra notes: Infrequent language; references to sex, act itself is never described in detail but you know it is taking place.

It took me a little while to figure out the era but this is set shortly after WW2. I'm not entirely sure how to classify the book so for now I'm going to go with drama.






Find the author!
Site: http://moniquedomovitch.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Moniquedomovitc

Halloween Blog Hop @ Angel Haze

If you like books that scare, books that bite, books you have to read with the lights on, we've got your Halloween scare covered! 

Author Angel Haze is hosting a Halloween giveaway on her blog between now and the end of the month. There are some seriously cool looking titles up for grabs, of various (spooky) genres, and 50+ books to be won!

I am of the opinion that you should scuttle over there immediately and participate in this giveaway! What better for Halloween than not only a scary book, but a free scary book?! So, go! go now!

Happy Halloween!

(As for the "I am of the opinion" bit... what can I say? My French side took over!)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

***WARNING***

This review is very spoiler heavy. The ending is talked about. I tried to review the book without spoilers but I just couldn’t get my emotions across as I wanted to.

I would recommend only reading this review if you have already read the book.

***WARNING***

---

I first came across this title about a year ago when a blogger that I was following at the time read it for Hallowe’en and rated it as one of their favourite books of the year. It got put on a back burner of “maybe I’ll look into that one day” until my GoodReads group, Basically Books, considered it for their monthly read (it got degraded to buddy read, but no matter). So I found a copy of it for a fiver and figured I’d give it a go. It’s got all those shining reviews, right? There has to be something good about it… The fact that Twilight, Blue Bloods, Graceling, etc., all also have hundreds of shining reviews seems to have escaped me.

From just reading the synopsis, I thought it sounded rather like the literary version of M. Night Shyamalan’s film, The Village, except with zombies that invade the village instead of weird scary demon creatures. I figured I couldn’t go wrong.

Presentation: I have the British paperback version. It’s an average-sized YA book with relatively large font that is well spaced. There are 309 pages broken down into 36 chapters so the chapters aren’t particularly long.

Story: Mary has lived her whole life in her isolated village in the middle of the Forest of Hands and Teeth. They tell her that there is nothing beyond the village, only Unconsecrated (zombies) that hunger for human flesh. But her mother has always told her stories of life before the Unconsecrated, of a wide expanse of water where all you can see is more water – the ocean – and Mary clings to the hope that there has to be more out there than just her village.

When Mary’s mother is bitten, doomed to become an Unconsecrated herself, she chooses life as a zombie over death as a human. Mary’s brother, Jed, blames her for allowing their mother to make that choice and casts her out of the house. She is taken in by the Sisterhood – followers of God who run the village – where she is to become one of the Sisters as no one has asked for the right to marry her. She discovers that the Sisterhood has been keeping secrets, secrets that doom the village.

***Repeat WARNING***

This is your last chance to turn back. Spoilers ahead.

***Repeat WARNING***

Thoughts and impressions: Everything started out fine, if a little slow. There’s quite a bit of background information given in the first half of the book. You get to know Mary a bit. You’re presented with her world, her village and their customs, and some of the history. You meet the requisite love triangle – brothers Harry (who wants Mary) and Travis (whom Mary wants) – and the best friend, Cass. You see the Cathedral and the Sisterhood from the inside. You overhear whispered conversations that hint that there’s more to their world than they’re letting on. You find out that those paths the Sisters always said never lead anywhere must actually lead somewhere because a girl came down them. You discover that the Sisters must have fed this girl to the Unconsecrated because the next time she is seen, she’s on the other side of the fence and she’s moving fast – she’s not a normal zombie, she’s a speedy zombie.

But why is she speedy? you ask. That answer is not given. What has the Sisterhood to do with the Unconsecrated? you ask. You’re never told. What’s with the Bible in the locked room with scribblings in the margins? you want to know. That is something that you will have to keep wondering.

I don’t mind when a book does not answer all of the questions put forward. Really, I don’t. But some of the questions ought to be answered. I know why we don’t get the answers here – Mary doesn’t know them herself and after the Sisters sacrifice Gabrielle (the outsider) to the zombies and then get everyone in the village killed, it becomes evident that that could well be information that has died with the Sisterhood.  The story then becomes a quest for survival. It could easily have taken a different, and in my opinion more interesting, route and become a quest for answers – but the pull of the ocean is too strong. Every story should answer at least some of the major questions it poses, but in this case I get the feeling that it’s all just going to be relegated to sequels – at least I hope the sequels answer these questions! Not that I’ll be reading them.

So Mary finds herself in the fenced off paths with six other survivors of the village massacre, with no idea where they’re going or if they’ll survive. Mary becomes absolutely obsessed with Gabrielle (who follows them, bashing into the fence and trying to reach them, until she ‘burns herself out’) and the clue she left scratched into the window pane in the Cathedral – “Gabrielle XIV” (I think it was XIV, I could be wrong). So they wander around this maze with no clue where they’re going, frequently hitting dead ends and having to turn back and slowly running out of food and water. Mary gets annoyed with Harry for wanting to marry her when she wanted to marry Travis and he’s expressed reciprocal feelings; she gets mad at Travis for not coming to save her from marriage to Harry when he’d said he would; she gets mad at her brother for bringing along his infected wife and eventually coldly announces to everyone as a (very) low blow to her brother in a fight that Beth is, indeed, infected and Jed will have to behead his wife, Harry and Travis their sister. Then she wanders off on her own, feeling a little guilty but not at all ashamed of her actions and eventually makes her way back there with the information that the paths are marked by weird letters in a pattern she doesn’t understand. This is followed by more of Mary getting annoyed with Harry, the party coming close to starvation, and then Mary becoming even more one-track-minded when they discover a fence that reads “XIV” and she equates it to Gabrielle’s origins. She leads them all into a village full of zombies without thinking and they get separated – Mary and Travis end up in a house together, the other 4 ended up in a treetop “village”. Everybody has food and water, all is good.

But it’s not because Mary can’t be happy with anything! She’s in a house, safe, with the boy she claims to love and who loves her too. What does she do? She avoids him and spends her time staring at the other four in their treetop safe haven! She becomes obsessed with being remembered and not forgotten. Her old fascination for stories of the ocean rears its ugly head again (now that she no longer has Gabrielle to be obsessed with) and she takes out all her fears and frustrations of the one she supposedly loves but doesn’t want to spend time with.

Eventually things go wrong, as they inevitably would, and the zombies get into the house. So while Travis is fashioning an escape route for them, what does Mary do? She looks at photos of the world before the Unconsecrated, reads a book of poems and tries to distract Travis while he tries desperately to save her life. To make things worse, this is the second time she’s been a useless lump of lard in such a situation! During the attack on the village, Harry is busy ransacking their cottage for anything that may help them survive. What does Mary do? She lies in bed then gets up and puts her skirt and blouse on. Seriously? Seriously?! Mary could not survive on her own and it’s only because of the blind love these two men feel towards her (of which she is not worthy) that she’s even made it this far.

So Travis sends her across to the others then follows himself, but is attacked by Unconsecrated and for a moment it’s a bit touch and go as to whether or not he’ll make it. Then he comes and speaks with Mary and she pretty much tells him that he’s not enough for her, that she wants the ocean. Bitch. As if a few waves could ever make up for being loved and cared for. The ocean won’t protect you, it won’t make sure you get away from a zombie attack – in fact, if Gabrielle’s story is to be believed, it’s more likely to dump a bunch of zombies on you than protect you from them. And yet she still walks away from him.

Cue big fire forcing them to try to escape back to the fenced off paths. Travis, already wounded from a nasty break to his leg at the start of the story and then the zombie attack on the house just recently, takes a rope, leaps down and tries to make it to the paths so he can secure the rope and provide them with a means of getting across to the corridor without having to wade through zombies. He manages to secure the rope, but being already wounded, the Unconsecrated do enough damage to turn him. Too little, too late, Mary realises that he would have been enough but he’s still dead - well, undead until she slams a scythe into his neck - he still gave his life for her. This is where I admit that I cried at this point. I know that really there’s not all that much to Travis’s character – he stays quite shallow throughout the story but I view this as being in part because Mary does not allow him to become deeper. We don’t know why she loves him, we don’t know why he loves her – but this is written from the first person perspective and thus everything is only shown as Mary sees it, and Mary only chooses to see how Travis cares for her. Despite him being shallow, I liked him. By this time I did not like Mary.

She doesn’t do anything to redeem herself. In fact, in her blind obsession she manages to get Jed killed as well. Or we at least are led to assume he’s dead. He falls into a river full of zombies, but then so does she and she survives. His corpse is never found and I was half-hoping that he would just randomly reappear in the sequel, having miraculously survived his trip down the river. Then I discovered that the sequel is about Mary’s daughter Gabry (and the obsession with Gabrielle lives on!) so I lost all hope of that ever happening. The remaining 3 companions are just left in the forest - Lord knows what happens to them. But Mary gets to go and float in the sea, to taste the salt, to see the never-ending expanse of water – even if the beach is full of recently decapitated zombies. So Mary gets her happy ending. She doesn’t deserve it! She’s a selfish child who has got everyone who ever cared about her killed throughout the course of the novel. She deserved to die as well. She did not deserve to fulfil her dream of reaching the ocean.

Let me point out at this point that I have nothing against novels with bittersweet endings. The Book Thief – I cried, I hated the author for what he did (even though he announced that he was going to do it right at the very beginning of the novel) but I loved the story and recommend it to everyone. The High Lord? I cried, I hated the author for what she did, but I loved the story and still snap up everything she writes. The Saga of Darren Shan? I cried, I hated the author for what he did, but I still loved the saga as a whole. But this one? I hated the author for what she did and it brought me to the point of hating the book as well. In all the other cases, the characters had gone through such trials, so many ups and downs. Yes, they’d made mistakes at times, but they were presented as being so very human in so many ways that I knew the deaths weren’t their fault but caused by outside influences – be those bombs, fights against the enemy or whatever else. In this case, the deaths were caused by Mary’s one track mind and her obsession with getting to the ocean. She was a horrible, horrible character.

It is very rare that I get so worked up about a book that I disliked like this. It is very rare that I ever feel hatred towards a fictional character – I mean, they’re fictional, they’re not worth it. But in this case? I can’t help myself. It is stronger than I am.

Style: Fairly basic. Written in the present tense. Not essentially bad but not good. Frequently boring.

Final verdict: In another author’s capable hands, this story could have been so good. If it had taken a slightly route here, a different plot idea there, it could have been one of the better YA horror stories out there. As it is, I was intrigued by the first half, made wary by the third quarter and appalled by the ending. I wish I could unread it. 1 star.

Extra notes: No swearing (I think – if there is it didn’t stand out), no sex.

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

I picked this title as one of my five for the favourites challenge (pick books marked as favourites by your Goodreads friends). For some reason I could not quite understand, this one was calling to me to read it first, and so read it first I did. I went into the book with not a little trepidation, expecting some cheesy YA paranormal love story set in space. I was wrong.

Presentation: Average-sized YA paperback. There are a full 81 chapters (some are only a few lines or paragraphs) over 398 pages.

Story: Amy’s parents have signed up to start a new life on a new planet. They will be among the first group of humans to colonise this new world, 300 light years from Earth. Amy is acquired a special pass, allowing her to join her parents on this journey across the universe. All three are supposed to be awakened, along with all the other who’ve undergone the freezing process, when they reach the new planet. But something goes wrong. Someone unplugs Amy and she wakes up, finding herself on a ship led by a dictator, populated by mono-ethnic people who seem little more than sheep. Elder, set to become the next leader of Godspeed, finds Amy fascinating and is willing to do any- and everything in his power to help her. Because whoever woke Amy… they haven’t stopped with her.

Thoughts and impressions: I’m finding it quite hard to put my exact feelings about this book into words. If you know me, you’ll know that I have been lamenting the state of YA fiction for a while now. (Poorly written, blank heroines, heroes that only exist to adore the heroine, lack of plot, weird romance replacement plots that do not set a good example for young and impressionable girls.) But this book just blew every single one of them apart.

Let’s go through it point by point, shall we?

Poorly written – No, the exact opposite in this case. The book was very well written. The author took great care to show and not tell whenever possible. I knew right as of the very first chapter, when the freezing process is described, that I was going to like this story and that I would find the “science” presented in it a version for which I would readily suspend my disbelief. The author only occasionally slips into telling but this usually goes hand in hand with showing and is mostly for the scientific apparatus that exist on her ‘spaceship’, so I can easily forgive this.

Blank heroines – This heroine was feisty. She had a personality with strong points and fault, quirks and those little habits that really bug you. She didn’t want to face certain realities so she would quite literally run from them – running so she didn’t have to face them. Other times she would face things directly and stubbornly stand her ground even when it would have been in her better interests to relent. She was very raw about certain truths, freely admitting that she preferred to live in the delusions she’d created for herself rather than face the reality behind them. She was a very human character with whom I could connect on many levels.

Heroes that only exist to adore the heroine – Elder, like Amy, is a deep and interesting character. For the first part of the book, the story is actually more about him than Amy as Amy’s stuck in stasis so you get to know him first. For me, he’s very representative of the 16-year-old males I knew: not quite a child anymore, but desperately clinging to his rights to act the sulky teen; not quite a man, but righting tooth and nail to be recognised as such. When compared with the other characters on the ship, he’s the perfect example of being born into a certain mould but how our choices shape who we are. He has a life beyond Amy – an important one. He is to be the next leader of the ship and he knows it and he knows that he still has a lot of learn. He is adorable in his innocence, respectful of Amy and her wishes despite his fascination with her, and faithful to the knowledge his has always been told is infallible truth. He had a very important role in the story – possibly more important than Amy?

Lack of plot – Though the plot occasionally plodded along at its own pace, there was certainly no lack of it and almost all of the scenes felt carefully chosen, representing an important part of this world in the ship. It’s essentially a whodunit tale but with a sci-fi twist. It becomes obvious to the reader as of relatively early on in the story just who the real culprit is and it is rather infuriating at times that the characters overlook things that could not stare them more in the face if they tried… but this is balanced out by subplots and sub-subplots that keep the reader’s interest – while they can guess at the things behind them, they cannot guess spot on. This makes up for what deficiencies there are to be found in the main plot.

Romance replacement plots that do not set a good example for young and impressionable girls – Well, obviously this story did not need a replacement plot as it had a perfectly good plot as mentioned above. What’s more, the romance subplot is sweet and perfect for YA. The characters are allowed to take things at their own pace, neither pressuring the other, and they don’t both immediately fall on each other with declarations of undying love. I highly approve of this budding romance! Also, there is no uncomfortable love triangle, another point in this story’s favour.

There was a whole host of interesting side characters from the doc to Victria; the old woman whose name I’ve forgotten to Harley. I think Harley was definitely my favourite: an artistic soul broken by many things, strengthened by others; a good friend to both Amy and Elder in their times of need. A young man after my own heart!

Style: Written in the present tense, which is usually not a plus point for me. In this case, I was so absorbed by the story that I usually failed to even notice the tense use. For the rest of it, I enjoyed the style and was easily drawn in by everything to the point where time ceased to matter.

Final verdict: Amazingly vivid imagination has gone into the creation of this story. I loved it. The details were so incredibly intricate from start to finish, everything thought through so very thoroughly in a manner that really added the story’s already impressive worth. I’m already itching to get my hands on the sequel. 4 stars.

(High end 4, the only reason it didn’t quite make 5 was the infuriating blindness towards events that the characters often exhibited. Despite its flaws, it's still going on my GoodReads favourites shelf as the best YA (that takes itself seriously) that I have read so far this year!)

Extra notes: Invented bad language (e.g. ‘frex’). No sex.