Review: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Nobody Owens, known as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a graveyard, being raised by ghosts, with a guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead. There are adventures in the graveyard for a boy - an ancient Indigo Man, a gateway to the abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible Sleer. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, he will be in danger from the man Jack - who has already killed Bod's family.

Master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel about life and death, love and growing up, and finding family in the most unlikely places.

 

Review: (Contains Spoilers)

 

The Graveyard Book was very exciting. I was immediately gripped by its dramatic opening and avidly read about the way in which the protagonist, Nobody Owens or Bod, experiences life amongst the dead. The novel contains plenty of excellent description which vividly illustrates the narrative and brings the story alive.

 

The Graveyard Book is thrilling and action-packed. Bod moves from one adventure to another over his childhood, from escaping ghouls to facing an ancient malevolent creature called the Sleer. There is not a dull moment in Bod’s unconventional life. However, the book makes room for serious contemplation and also explores various relationships such as friendship and family. The characters are 3D and well-developed.

 

There are a range of interesting characters in the book including the strict Miss Lupescu, his adopted parents, Mr and Mrs Owens and his rather mysterious guardian, Silas. Bod’s own development can be seen through the various challenges he faces and show him to be brave, kind and to have a great deal of curiosity which is both a good and a bad thing as he is meant to keep a low profile for his own safety.

Although Gaiman does not explicitly state that Bod’s guardian, Silas, is a vampire, it becomes increasingly evident through the course of the book that he is, especially at the very end of the book when Bod sees that he has a trunk filled with the soil of his homeland.

I think that it was very interesting that Silas said that he had done many terrible things in the past as he must have undergone a drastic transformation in order to become a member of the honour guard. Perhaps we will learn more about his past if there is a sequel.

The reader did not get a detailed enough explanation of how the Jacks of all trades gained supernatural powers by killing people and why they believed that Bod would be the one to destroy their order if he lived to adulthood.

Furthermore, I did not at all like the way in which Scarlett had all her later memories of Bod removed or suppressed in order to save her from acknowledging his supernatural abilities or having to come to terms with the climactic events at the end of the book.

Gaiman definitely leaves the ending of the book open so the reader may get a chance to read about the further adventures of Bod as an adult. I saw some of what the Honour Guard were dedicated to doing, ridding the world of evil beings such as the Jacks and the terrible sacrifices they were faced with but I would certainly like to find out a lot more about them.

Rating: 4/5
Concept: 5/5
Cover: 4/5
Author: Neil Gaiman
 
Thank you to my sister for reviewing this book.

Contest @ Paper Cut Reviews

Enter at Paper Cut Reviews to win The Locket or Across The Universe.

International.

Ends March 1st.

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Contest @ Paper Cut Reviews

Steph from Paper Cut Reviews is having numerous giveaways on her blog in celebration of her first blogversary. Go and check it out. Enter here for the 1st YA Release Giveaway! Win from a great selection of books including Delirium. More followers mean more books!

International.

Ends March 1st.

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Random Magic Tour: Vive L’Amour Entry

Velvet at vvb32 reads is hosting an amazing Random Magic Tour. What makes it extra amazing is that you can win this:

The Language of Flowers: A Treasury of Verse and Prose Scented by Penhaligon's Sheila Pickles


or this:

Love: A Treasury of Verse and Prose Scented by Penhaligon's Sheila Pickles                   
                                                         
Yes, you read right.

Scented.

All you have to do to enter is follow the easy to-do (Make a blog post and collect at least five Heart badges) and you're in! It's international and ends on Feb 14th! Two winners. Don't forget to leave a comment with the link to your post here.

1. Sweet Treat badge found at vvb32 reads: Left a comment.

2. Heart badge found at Book Soulmates (Most Romantic Flowers). Left a comment here and here.

                                                 

3. Heart badge found at Books, Sweets, and Other Treats (Tempting Sweets and Treats) in this post.
Left a comment here and here.

                                                 

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I'd love to win The Language of Flowers.

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ARC Review: Memento Nora by Angie Smibert

Synopsis from back cover:

Forget your cares at TFC.

On an otherwise glossy day, a blast goes off and a body thuds to the ground at Nora's feet. There are terrorist attacks in the city all the time, but Nora can't forget. So Nora goes with her mother to TFC- a Therapeutic Forgetting Clinic. There, she can decsribe her horrible memory and take the pill that will erase it. But at TFC, a chance encounter with a mysterious guy changes Nora's life. She doesn't take the pill. And when Nora learns the memory her mother has chosen to forget, she realizes that someone needs to remember.

With newfound friends Micah and Winter, Nora makes a comic book of their memories called Memento. Memento is an instant hit, but it sets off a dangerous chain of events. Will Nora, Micah, and Winter be forced to take the Big Pill that will erase their memories forever?

Review:

Memento Nora was a gripping, exciting and unique book. This dystopian world came about after numerous terrorist attacks. To keep people safe and to allow them to continue with their lives without constant memories of continuing terrorist attacks, everyone can take a pill and forget. Then, if they witness another terrorist attack or anything bad in general, they can take another pill and the unending process begins again. This leaves people feeling 'glossy'.  

Memento Nora was really inventive. This dystopian world was very believable as I am already seeing the beginnings of it in our current society. It reminded me of date rape pills. The forgetting pill allows anyone and everyone to completely forget terrible memories just by reciting what said bad memory is and then taking the pill. Realistically, this means that a really bad person (and that's putting it lightly) could go and do unspeakable acts on another person and then the victim could just take the pill and forget it. Where's the justice in that?

The realisation of this process left me absolutely horrified and more so because this could be the future. Who wouldn't want to forget all their bad memories and live in a 'glossy' world? All it takes is one pill. It's so convenient. On the surface, the answer might be yes, but delve deeper and in truth, those memories are useful and a part of us. We learn from them. They change us.

Nora was a fantastic main character. She was a strong, believable character throughout the book and I cared about what happened to her. I learnt shocking thruths as she learnt them and hoped she could change things for the better. She became increasingly brave as the story continued. I especially liked how she dealt with the truth of her mother's 'secret' as she proved to be very mature.

Micah, the love interest, was also a great character. Though the romance aspect was there, luckily, it didn't take over the main plot. It was very sweet nonetheless. Micah helps Nora to see the truth and it changes everything for the both of them. Winter was a creative character. Her entries were filled with the artwork she was making and left me with fantastic visual images. Overall, I liked all the characters, even the secondary characters, as they were all useful to the plot and I wanted to know what their role would be in the story. Furthermore, I wanted to know how this dystopian world had affected them and those that they loved.

Memento Nora was very mysterious, but happily, a lot of my questions were answered throughout the course of the book. The plot was intriguing as I was continuously looking for clues and suspecting suspicious characters. The climax was really interesting and I couldn't put the book down by that point. 

Memento Nora ended well but I wished that it had been longer as it felt abrupt. The ending came about very rapidly and though I understood that events were moving very fast, it didn't satisfy me as much as it could have if some of the secondary characters had been more developed and there was a longer explanation at the ending. Furthermore, having a few more characters would have meant that there would have been more people to be suspicious of. As it was, there were only a few suspects.  

From the beginning, the reader knows an inevitable part of the ending because of the chapter subheadings and I wished that this hadn't been the case. This meant that when the inevitable incident occurred, I wasn't as shocked by it as I could have been if I hadn't known.

Overall, Memento Nora was an extremely great dystopian novel and I look forward to a sequel as it is a strong possibility. I believe Memento Nora could have been even better if it had been longer as I wanted to explore Nora's world in greater depth-the good and particularly more of the bad. It would also have been wonderful if there had been illustrations of Memento in the book as it was an important catalyst for the plot. Readers who enjoy the dystopian genre should enjoy this fantastic addition. However, I recommend everyone to read this as you won't be disappointed. 

Thank you to Marshall Cavendish for sending this to me for review.

Rating: 5/5
Concept: 5/5
Cover: 5/5- so glossy! 
Author: Angie Smibert

This review is part of Dystopian February at Presenting Lenore.

Review: Raised by Wolves (Raised by Wolves #1) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Synopsis from back cover:

He's in a cage, I reminded myself, but the words meant nothing to me, because I just couldn't stop staring into his wild eyes and playing the last words he'd said before he Shifted, over and over again.

 I got bit.

I got bit.

I got bit.

At the age of four, Bryn watched a rabid werewolf brutally murder her parents. She was rescued and taken in by the mysterious Callum, the alpha of his pack. Now fifteen, Bryn's been a human among werewolves, adhering to pack rule.

But the pack's been keeping a secret, and when Bryn goes exploring against Callum's orders, she finds Chase, a newly turned teen Were locked in a cage. Bryn needs answers, and she needs Chase to get them. Suddenly, it's Bryn and Chase against the werewolf world, whatever the consequences.

Raised by Wolves will leave you howling for more.

 

Review (Spoilery!):

 

I was really excited to read Raised by Wolves by Jennifer Lynn Barnes because I had read so many great reviews for it. I am on a hunt for an excellent werewolf story (no pun intended) and I thought this one would be it. Unfortunately, that was not the case. While Raised by Wolves had a lot of potential at the start, it lost favour with me as it continued.

 

The first point at which I was significantly disappointed was when Bryn made numerous excuses to see Chase, the boy whom she believes can answer all her questions about what had happened to her when she was four. At this point, I was thoroughly confused by Bryn's actions and wondered why she didn't just ask Callum (her guardian) for the answers to her questions, rather going through the gruelling tasks that Callum put her through just to see Chase again.

 

At the beginning of the book Bryn knows that everyone is hiding something from her and so she defies Callum's orders and sneaks into his house- where the newly turned Were Chase is conveniently caged. Upon setting eyes on each other, Bryn feels a connection to him. I was annoyed by how quickly they formed a 'connection' because at this point Chase was a stranger to Bryn and he was already saying 'I miss you' to Bryn. How on earth could he have missed her if he never knew her before? This wasn't explained.

 

After her brief chat with him in which she learns that Chase 'got bit', she believes that Chase is the same as her and has all the answers. This did not make any sense because Bryn and Chase's encounters with rabid wolves were very different and I wondered two things. What were Bryn's questions anyway? She doesn't inform the reader. Also, how could Chase possibly have the answers to her questions?  

 

I disliked the constant repitition of sentences such as 'I got bit' and the continous utilisation of one word sentences which added nothing to the story and became irritating. I expected to read about how Bryn's parents were killed early on in the story, however, it was a long and drawn out process which wasn't effective. Most of the time, Bryn came up with 'solutions' to her problems in roundabout ways which lacked logic and left me confused.

 

For a story that was told in first person and present tense, I couldn't follow Bryn's logic sometimes because it was so jumpy. More often however, Bryn would repeat something she'd said before again and again which frustrated me. Furthermore, there was a lot of repitition which slowed down the pace of the story, with a favourite being 'I got bit. I got bit. I got bit.'    

 

There were quite a lot of characters and rightly so, as this was a story featuring werewolf packs, however, many of the characters were flat. At the beginning I was hoping that the characters would develop throughout the story, however, I  soon realised that I didn't care about what happened to Sora, Lance, Casey, Lake, Devon, Chase and even Bryn. Sora and Lance (Devon's parents) only had a few lines, Lake was an okay character. Devon was an okay character. Chase was boring. I didn't understand why he and Bryn were connected anyway. Their relationship developed mostly through their mind conversations, rather than physically being next to each other and holding a conversation.

 

There were quite a few conversations about Ali's (Bryn's adopted mum) and Casey's marriage and the breakdown of it but once again, I didn't care because first of all, Casey had perhaps two lines in the entirety of the book and second of all, Ali's arguments, much like Bryn's, were illogical. 

 

Bryn apparently has a 'Resiliency'; an instinct to survive. That's how she always gets out of bad situations. She's scrappy. Chase has it too. This explanation came out of nowhere and left me shaking my head in disappointment due to the sorry explanation. 

 

The most interesting thing would have to be how Bryn can re-do other werewolves' 'pack-bonds'. This means that she can change their connection to their pack. Bryn moves Devon's and Lake's pack-bond connection away from Callum's pack and onto herself so that they only have a pack-bond with her and Chase. 

 

For something that is almost impossible to do, this was just too, too easy for her to do and had me scoffing. Furthermore, Devon and Lake accepted the fact that Bryn re-did their pack-bonds without one word of complaint, even though she hadn't gotten their permission in the first place. Realistically, they would have been somewhat angry at the very least. They had been connected to Callum's pack for all their lives and now she just changed it. They should have gone through some kind of trauma. But they didn't.

 

At one point, Bryn says that she had siblings, however, they are never mentioned again. Another time, she says that she closed off her mind from Callum's pack when she was four, but in another section, she says it was when she was six. While she states that she's closed her mind from Callum's pack, Callum was able to read her mind like a book. Furthermore, 'Callum' is a very modern name for someone who's supposedly lived for a thousand years. I was expecting something a bit more archaic.

 

The plot of Raised by Wolves was simply comprised of two things: Find Rabid. Kill Rabid. The 'Big, Bad Wolf' just wasn't that big and he wasn't as bad as he could have been. This is due to the fact that we didn't get to see the attacks on the children firsthand. I won't say what exactly happened at the end, but the plot was just too simplistic and there weren't any surprises.

 

I guessed a lot of what happened before it did, largely because Bryn took ages to explain anything and she was slow on the uptake. The ending was undramatic and anti-climactic. It was slightly rushed and everything was wrapped up very nicely and unrealistically at the end.

 

Overall, while I expected great things from Raised by Wolves, I was left disappointed. It didn't leave me 'howling for more' as the back cover promised. I wouldn't recommend this book but perhaps if you liked Shiver, you'll like this. I won't be reading the next book in the series, Trial by Fire.

 

Book Rating: 2/5

Concept: 4/5 

Cover: 3/5 

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Review: Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo

Blurb:

Washed up on an island in the Pacific, Michael struggles to survive on his own. With no food and no water, he curls up to die.

When he wakes, there is a plate beside him of fish, of fruit, and a bowl of fresh water. He is not alone...

Review:

Kensuke's Kingdom is a powerful story centring around the themes of friendship, family and adventure. Having read this for the first time when I was in primary school, I did not believe that the story could effect me in the same way now in which it did then. However, I was proven wrong to a certain extent. Kensuke's Kingdom, though aimed at younger readers, was a very enjoyable story. I wondered whether the ending would have the same effect on me as it did in the past. In that instance, I found the ending highly emotional. This time, though I knew what was coming, I still shed a few tears.  

After eleven year old Michael's parents lose their jobs, they decide to set off on their yacht, the Peggy Sue, for an around-the-world adventure. Their dream finally becomes a reality as they visit numerous countries such as Brazil and Australia. However, after an unfortunate accident, Michael is thrown overboard and the next time he wakes up, he's on an island. Unable to find food or water, he believes he will die. Luckily, someone helps him.  

I appreciate the simplicity, honesty and visual imagery of the book. I liked Michael and cared about what happened to him and needed to know how his story would end. My favourite character is Kensuke. He was wise, mysterious and a puzzle that Michael needs to solve. They were at first strangers, then enemies, then friends and finally developed a father-son bond. Though the book was only 161 pages, it packed in quite a lot of events which younger readers will enjoy. Kensuke's Kingdom is funny, sad, contemplative and always visually delightful.

As an adult reader, I wanted more detailed descriptions and a more thorough ending, however, the story was brilliant nonetheless. I would recommend Kensuke's Kingdom to everyone; readers of all ages. It was a quick and easy book to read but is one of those stories that stays with you long after you've put it down.

Rating: 5/5

Concept: 5/5

Cover: 5/5

Author: Michael Morpurgo

Haven Cover Contest @ Imagination In Focus

Amelia at Imagination In Focus is holding a Recreate The Cover Contest for Haven by Kristi Cook! Be sure to enter by the 8th of February to be in with a chance to win the book! Yes, it's international.

Synopsis:

One month into her junior year, sixteen-year-old Violet McKenna transfers to the Winterhaven School in New York’s Hudson Valley, inexplicably drawn to the boarding school with high hopes. Leaving Atlanta behind, she’s looking forward to a fresh start--a new school, and new classmates who will not know her deepest, darkest secret, the one she’s tried to hide all her life: strange, foreboding visions of the future.

But Winterhaven has secrets of its own, secrets that run far deeper than Violet’s. Everyone there--every student, every teacher--has psychic abilities, 'gifts and talents,' they like to call them. Once the initial shock of discovery wears off, Violet realizes that the school is a safe haven for people like her. Soon, Violet has a new circle of friends, a new life, and maybe even a boyfriend--Aidan Gray, perhaps the smartest, hottest guy at Winterhaven.

Only there’s more to Aidan than meets the eye--much, much more. And once she learns the horrible truth, there’s no turning back from her destiny. Their destiny. Together, Violet and Aidan must face a common enemy--if only they can do so without destroying each other first.

***

my entry:

                        

Review: Turnabout by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In the year 2000 Melly and Anny Beth had reached the peak of old age and were ready to die. But when offered the chance to be young again by participating in a top-secret experiment called Project Turnabout, they agreed. Miraculously, the experiment worked -- Melly and Anny Beth were actually growing younger every year. But when they learned that the final treatment would be deadly, they ran for their lives.



Now it is 2085. Melly and Anny Beth are teenagers. They have no idea what will happen when they hit age zero, but they do know they will soon be too young to take care of themselves. They need to find someone to help them before time runs out, once and for all....

Review:

I read Turnabout around seven years ago, really enjoyed it and felt like rereading it a few days ago. It explores the very interesting concept of 'unaging'. Melly and Anny Beth, the two main characters, are injected with PT-1 which reverses the aging process. At the start of the story, Melly and Anny Beth, along with 98 other elderly people, are offered the 'cure'. The cure ends up being effective for half of the patients and the others die unfortunately. 

As time goes on, the patients become younger and begin to be able to to things which they had lost the ability to do such as sit up in bed. However, the dilemma occurs when they realise that the doctors responsible for their unaging haven't figured out a way to stop the process at a specified age (such as 75) and so, Melly and Anny Beth run away from The Agency. 

The first time I read Turnabout I thoroughly enjoyed it because it felt so unique. Melly and Anny Beth were interesting, likeable characters and I cared about what happened to them. Reading it a second time was interesting because I had forgotten so many of the details. This time though, I realised that the science behind the cure wasn't explained fully and though I may not have understood it even if there were a proper explanation, realistically, the doctors would have given a fuller one.  

I wanted to know much more about Melly and Anny Beth's past because Turnabout was about reflecting on their lives to an extent. I believe that including flashbacks and dreams would have made me like them more on an emotional level. I enjoyed the way the chapters alternated between the year 2000 (when Melly and Anny Beth are around 100 years old) and 2085 (when they're teenagers again). 

The book could have been longer and some scenes could have been extended because there was plenty more that Haddix could have explored. The ending felt somewhat rushed and everything was settled very nicely, neatly and unrealistically. At the end, there were some questions that remained unanswered and I really did want to know for certain what exactly happened. However, I understand that 'uncertainty' was one of the themes of the book.

Turnabout did make me feel sad at points such as when a son doesn't recognise one of the patients as his own mother after she escapes the Agency to see him. The plot wasn't as complex as I would have liked it to be but it certainly did have potential. It explored moral and ethical questions and asked how far people would go for science and in the name of science. The future as depicted in 2085 didn't seem too different from 2000 and I wished Haddix could have developed it more.

I liked Melly and Anny Beth as they actually got on and tried to work out their problems. Overall, I enjoyed Turnabout as it was insightful and made me think mor deeply about the aging problem and wonder if this could happen in the near future. I would recommend this to people interested in the aging or 'unaging' process and sci-fi. If you liked The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald or Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, you may like this.

Rating: 4/5

Concept: 4/5
Cover: 5/5
Author: Margaret Peterson Haddix

Honest Scrap

First, I'm going to tag Velvet at vvb32 reads, Adam at Roof Beam Reader and Kirsty at the overflowing library.

--

I was tagged by A.J. at Collections (Thanks A.J:) with this award and now have to list ten things you didn't know about me (and probably will wish you didn't by the end haha). 

1. I lost the entire nail from my little finger (of my left hand, I think) when I was around five because this girl slammed a door on my hand. Yes, I remember it in graphic detail. Luckily, it grew back and looks completely normal.

2. I love collecting things like pictures and quotes. Inspiring things. I used to collect sweet wrappers when I was in primary school. Sometimes, I watch shows like Antiques Roadshow and wonder why I can't just have an attic full of valuables at hand. Sadly, I don't even have an attic.

3. I love poetry. Reading it is fun but writing it is a great stress-reliever. I have a folder where I put all my poems in and I look through them every once in a while (when I'm feeling particularly sentimental:). The majority of them fall into three categories: love, angst and nature.

4. I'm short. One of the worst things about being short is getting on the tube (subway) for obvious reasons-other people's armpits lol- and one of the best things about it is also getting on the tube. I can sometimes get into small gaps where a taller person wouldn't hehe!

5. One of the worst things that happened to me is walking in thirty minutes late to an exam:( I was hyperventilating on a crowded bus at 9 in the morning. Luckily, I got an A for it (they gave me the thirty minutes back at the end in which I wrote like crazy, thank goodness).

6. I have a fear of heights. Oh, and rollercoasters. We do not go well together.

7. I can't sing to save my life, yet as a child, I was constantly singing out the window to an avid (and imaginary:p) audience. I also used to sing and dance in front of the television (My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion was a particular favourite) which prompted my family to throw numerous cushions at me. Alas, no encore from them.

8. I'm nocturnal.

9. One of the most surreal things that ever happened to me occurred in college. I was finished for the day and decided to go shopping. After I'd finished, I walked out and not two seconds later came face to face with my English teacher from secondary school. Awkward. We asked each other what we'd been up to and then as the conversation carried on she told me that she thought I had been the best at English from the class I was in. That was a really big compliment from her. Yeah, I was in shock. I think I'm still in shock:o

10. I take forever to make a decision on anything.

Hah, that's it. It took really long to come up with this list. If you've somehow managed to get to the end, I commend you;) 

Review: Leviathan (Leviathan #1) by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis from back cover:

Alek is a prince without a throne. On the run from his own people, he has only a fighting machine and a small band of men.

Deryn is a girl disguised as a guy in the British Air Service. She must fight for her cause-and protect her secret-at all costs.

Alek and Deryn are thrown together aboard the mighty airship Leviathan. Though fighting side by side, their worlds are far apart. British fabricated beasts versus German steam-powered war machines. They are enemies with everything to lose, yet somehow destined to be together.  

Review:

 

LEVIATHAN is a great addition to the steampunk genre. Westerfeld has created a fantastical alternate history of World War 1. Two sides are on the brink of war- the Darwinists, who use genetically engineered 'beasties' and the Clankers, who use mechanical machines. Leviathan gives an alternate history of The First World War by incorporating future technology with the past. Though humans have not yet mixed up the DNA of animals and created whole new creatures, it is an all-too-real possibility in the near future.

I was very excited to read Leviathan because I had previously read Westerfeld's Uglies series and enjoyed it to a great extent. Furthermore, steampunk is one of my most favourite genres and to top it off- parts of Leviathan takes place in London.

Alek and Deryn were very good characters. After finishing the book, I asked myself whether I liked one more than the other, but they were always quite equal in my affections. Alek is a Prince and does not know much about the real world, so it was highly interesting to observe him out of his comfort zone. He behaved how I suspected he would; unsure of how to act and making numerous embarrassing mistakes that frustrated both him and me. However, I found that he acted in a very realistic way for someone who had never really interacted with 'common' people.

Deryn was also a good character. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go out and get it. Disguised as a boy to enter the Services, I thought that it would only be a matter of time before she was caught out, as she is fifteen years old after all. Deyrn does have quite a potty mouth, what with her constant use of the swear words 'bum rag', 'barking' and 'blistering' in a lot of the dialogue. This slightly annoyed me because they occurred so often and sometimes felt unnecessary. The secondary characters were all very good. I found them entertaining, though Volger, Alek's fencing master, is my favourite because of his acerbity.

Westerfeld has created a strong, visual world in Leviathan and I was very interested in this world. The story really picked up momentum about halfway through the book, however, the first half was really good at setting up the world. I enjoyed all the action sequences because it made me sit on the edge of my seat. When describing a machine or an animal, I did, on occasion, feel myself zoning out, so the exquisite illustrations by Keith Thompson scattered throughout the book were highly usefel in furthering my understanding.

The plot was great overall, though I was expecting much more to happen. The ending was a slight cliffhanger and I confess, I did turn over the page, expecting another chapter to wrap it all up. This did not happen. I will read the sequel to find out what happens next.

Leviathan reminded me of books by Philip Reeve; The Mortal Engines Quartet and The Larklight Trilogy. I would recommend these to anyone who enjoyed Leviathan and who are looking for similar books to read. Leviathan was entertaining and action-packed and I look forward to reading Behemoth, the second in the trilogy. I would recommend this to anyone interested in steampunk, action/adventure and alternate history.

Rating: 4/5

 Concept: 5/5

Cover: 5/5

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Peeta's Song

Every time I hear this song, I think of Peeta from The Hunger Games. Every word applies to how he feels for Katniss. *Goes and cries in the corner*

Review: The Prophet of Yonwood (Ember #3) by Jeanne DuPrau

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It’s 50 years before the settlement of the city of Ember, and the world is in crisis. War looms on the horizon as 11-year-old Nickie and her aunt travel to the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina. There, one of the town’s respected citizens has had a terrible vision of fire and destruction. Her garbled words are taken as prophetic instruction on how to avoid the coming disaster. If only they can be interpreted correctly. . . .

As the people of Yonwood scramble to make sense of the woman’s mysterious utterances, Nickie explores the oddities she finds around town—her great-grandfather’s peculiar journals and papers, a reclusive neighbor who studies the heavens, a strange boy who is fascinated with snakes—all while keeping an eye out for ways to help the world. Is this vision her chance? Or is it already too late to avoid a devastating war?

In this prequel to the acclaimed The City of Ember and The People of Sparks, Jeanne DuPrau investigates how, in a world that seems out of control, hope and comfort can be found in the strangest of places.

Review:

I was highly excited to read The Prophet of Yonwood after having loved both The City of Ember and The People of Sparks. I didn't hesitate in purchasing a copy. However, to put it plainly, the third book of Ember was one of the most disappointing books that I have read in my life.  

I started reading the novel; the 'prequel' to the two previous books, expecting an explanation of how The City of Ember came about and that I would learn more about the disaster that had lead to the city of Ember being created. What I got instead was the life story of an eleven year old girl. 

There's nothing wrong with that. DuPrau could have made her into a phenomenal character and akin to the protagonists from The City of Ember, Lina and Doon. However, what I read instead was the trivial, boring and random happenings of the small, nosy neighbourhood Nickie moves to with her aunt Crystal for some months.


Unbelievably, Nickie's aunt leaves her, an eleven year old girl who doesn't know anything about her new surroundings, to her own devices, while she goes gallivanting around town nearly every day. I was seriously worried for Nickie's safety.

What would happen if a stranger knocked on the door and kidnapped her? What if the house was unsafe and she injured herself? More worryingly, this continued to happen throughout the entirety of the novel and therefore I didn't learn anything about Nickie's aunt, except that she gets married at the end of the book and I couldn't even care by that point.


So many aspects of this book continue to irritate me and I shall list some of them here. Her aunt didn't know of any of the random events that were taking place in the town and Nickie had to explain everything to her at the end which was rather exasperating to read as everything was repeated.


Nickie and her aunt always ate soup or drank herbal tea. This may seem like a little gripe, but it's not. How unrealistic is it that this would be the only things they would eat? I think you would get sick of eating the same thing after the second or third day.


This book was called 'The Prophet of Yonwood' and therefore one would assume that we would see a lot of this person and discover the meaning behind their prophetic messages. That was not the case. The 'Prophet', Althea, has a vision of a future apocalyptic world (something the reader figures out for themselves) and loses conciousness for the majority of the book. Her incoherent words are interpreted by Mrs Beeson, the local busybody. For some unstated reason, the whole town and even the police, take her word for what Althea might be saying and follow her laws, however silly they may be.


Nickie wasn't the curious minded, clever heroine I wanted and I found her lacking in every way. All in all, she was childish, bratty and annoying. She never sought out the 'Prophet' for herself to uncover the true meaning of her words and she never went against Mrs Beeson's strict rules (unless you count her hiding the dog).

It's not until very end-I literally mean the last five pages or so- that you see any connection whatsoever to The City of Ember and its sequel and that connection was rather frail and insignifant to me as I'd realised these obvious epiphanies from the beginning of the book.


Other random events include but are not limited to:


1) Nickie discovering a journal in which ghosts and siamese twins are mentioned. She would read about two sentences from the journal and then become bored, tired or have something else to do, sometimes it was all three. This added nothing to the plot and I'm still wondering why on earth it was included in the book.


2) A strange astronomer who reveals nothing and therefore adds nothing to the plot.


3) A boy named Grover who liked snakes.


The major problem was that Nickie was so, so far away from anything to do with The City of Ember. I would much rather have preferred the story to be from her father's point of view as he had much more to do with Ember. He sent her postcards about the building work he was doing. It was very obvious what his connection to the City of Ember was.


I really could go on as there were so many ways in which this book failed me. I would not recommend this 'prequel' to anyone at all. It added nothing at all to the plot or background information of The City of Ember.


The characters were dull, one-dimensional and cardboad cutouts with exactly one boring agenda each. It felt like DuPrau had just flung together random bits of material to create something that resembled a book. I'm sorry that I ever read this and will never read this again. In comparison, The City of Ember and its sequel were very good. I'm still hesitant to read the last book, The Diamond of Darkhold because it may turn out to be major letdown similar to The Prophet of Yonwood.


Book Rating: 1/5
Cover: 3/5
Concept: 0/5
Author: Jeanne DuPrau

Alex Rider: Scorpia Rising Cover Reveal!



Click on the link below to see the real cover.

 So the people at Walker Books have finally revealed the cover of the last book in the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz (barring the one about Yassen!!!). Here's the super secret footage of it being locked away, safe from prying eyes. If only they knew! Muahaha!

I think it's very, very cool! The red and the black are the perfect colours. I can't wait for March to read it :D I'll be really sad when it's all over because I grew up with this series but obviously he could only stay fourteen for so long...

Horowitz has previously said that we'll know that it's the end when we read it. I can only hope he doesn't kill him off!

:'(

Click here to see the cover.

and the winner is...

Thanks for entering everyone!

random.org did its work and the winner is....

*drumroll*

....

David!!!

I'll email you soon for your information. You'll have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. 

Review: Matched by Ally Condie (Matched #1) Spoilers Included

Synopsis from Goodreads:

Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.

 

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow.

Review (Spoilers included):

I was really excited to read Matched as I'd heard so many great things about it and it seemed like it was going to be a fantastic addition to the dystopian genre. All in all, it was. Cassia was a likeable and relatable character who begins to question the Society that she lives in and can't quite decide between her best friend Xander and the boy whose face appears on the screen for an instant; Ky. Matched has a strong focus on Cassia's feelings for her two love interests, but this is closely followed by her conflicting opinions of the Society.

 

Matched was an emotionally powerful book. The most emotional point for me was Cassia's grandfather's last day. It was sickening that the Society could accept this form of quick death without blinking. Furthermore, I loved the way in which new poetry and literature (apart from the 100 songs, poems, stories etc) were so valued by Cassia that she cherished them.

 

The love triangle between Cassia, Xander and Ky was interesting as I liked both love interests. Xander was a perfect gentleman. At the beginning, Cassia mentions him a lot, however, once Ky, the outsider, enters the story, it's as if Xander has been pushed out of the novel through no fault of his own. He's left with no chance for Cassia's love and I could not help but feel slightly put off by Cassia's behaviour. I am interested to learn how Cassia's feelings will change in the sequels, but I really wish it's not the main focus of the trilogy, but rather, I hope the Society is.

 

I welcomed the fact that Cassia got on with her family; she respected her parents, protected her brother and loved and remembered her grandfather. Cassia has the perfect, sensitive family who get on really well. One aspect that I found unrealistic was how understanding her parents were at some points and how quickly they, more specifically her mother (who previously always obeyed the Society's rules) accepts Cassia's choice to find Ky even though she has a perfectly good and devoted Match and their whole family has to be uprooted and perhaps in danger due to her actions. This could have been realistic to me if I'd seen more of Cassia's mother and learnt the reasons for her change in behaviour, because what I did observe, wasn't enough.

 

Whilst reading Matched, it was easy to notice the rigid structure of Cassia's life- she went to the same places over and over again and there wasn't much of a change in scenery throughout the book. In regards to Cassia's grandfather, I was left with some questions on how the process of preservation would occur. Taking a sample of a person and trying to recreate them would only lead to a clone surely?

 

This clone, while looking exactly the same as the person the sample came from, would not have any of the memories of the original person. This means that the word preservation is only utilised in the sense that the person's DNA would carry on into future generations, and not their memories. I really did need some more details about this in Matched to come to a solid conclusion about what really happens.

 

The only way to describe Matched in terms of its genre is that it is a quiet, dystopian novel. That does not mean that Matched wasn't powerful as it did have an impact on me and it was highly memorable. It is quiet in the way of action and adventure. For me, Matched felt like a prequel to the rest of the story. It is not possible to read a book without comparing it to similar books in its genre and thus I compared Matched to the Hunger Games and Uglies.

 

These are dystopian novels with female protagonists. However, whilst Katniss in the Hunger Games travelled away from her district, travelled through the rest of Panem and entered the Hunger Games in the first book alone and Tally in Uglies not only questioned the City where she lived but also travelled to The Smoke, Cassia's story focusses solely on the small area in which she lives for the whole novel (barring the final chapter). 

 

For this reason, I believe Matched could have incorporated more action and adventure, rather than just questioning the Society and Cassia's romantic feelings for it to be at its optimum. Cassia's perspective was therefore narrow due to the reasons stated above. Though I wanted to know about what was going on in the wider Society and more about the rebels, I didn't learn this information. In the end, Cassia decides to find Ky who has been taken to become a soldier. However, her lead of the 'Sisyphus River' is surely not enough to go on and I felt it was unrealistic that she would venture out into a war zone of which she knows nothing about based on a hunch.

 

I would have been interested to learn more of what was going on in the Society as I have some vague impressions and have been left with questions such as:

 

When Cassia's father was burning the books and the data was saved, where did that data end up?

 

What is the exact process for food to be delivered to every house?

 

What event was Xander talking about when he said they used the red pill once before?

 

What disaster happened that caused the world of Matched to occur?

 

Who is the leader of the Society?

 

Is it really possible for the world to be like this within such a short space of time?

 

Overall, I really enjoyed Matched as it was a powerful, emotional and compelling novel that makes the reader reconsider what is valuable to them. The romance aspect was important to the novel and interesting to read about. I would recommend this book to everyone. I look forward to the next book in the trilogy to discover what happens to Cassia, Xander and Ky and the Society in general.

 
Book Rating: 4/5
 
Cover: 5/5
 
Concept: 5/5
 
Author: Ally Condie

Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Synopsis from Goodreads:

In a single moment, everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall riding along the snow-wet Oregon road with her family. Then, in a blink, she finds herself watching as her own damaged body is taken from the wreck...


A sophisticated, layered, and heartachingly beautiful story about the power of family and friends, the choices we all make—and the ultimate choice Mia commands.

Review:

If I Stay was a beautiful and heart-renching story in which our main character, Mia, has to make the biggest decision of her life; whether she should stay or go. At the start of the story, we are introduced to Mia and her family. They are a lovely, ordinary family- it could've been anyone's family- that is until they fall victim to a car accident.

It was at this point that the book really caught my attention. The detail that Forman gives in describing the destruction in all its gory graphicness means that those images are forever engraved into my mind. The story continues to be told from Mia's point of view, except her body is injured and she is not conscious. Therefore, the point of view is whatever left Mia's body at the time of the accident; either her consciousness, her soul/spirit or something much more abstract.

 

As Mia's body begins to fail, she recounts memories she has of her family, her friends and her boyfriend. Music is also an integral part of If I Stay as Mia plays the cello and music is what brought her and her boyfriend, Adam, together. Though there is some romance in If I Stay, it does not overshadow Mia's recounting of her life, her love for her family and friends  and of course the dire decision she has to make. Her memories felt very realistic and I wouldn't have a problem believing that Mia exists in reality.

 

The writing flows gracefully and seamlessly, almost like a ghost floating past and of course, this suited the story exceptionally well. If I Stay is a serious and emotional book which you have to sit down and think about to really digest and to appreciate it. It asks some life changing questions. What would we stay on this earth for? What would we go for? Could we choose if we were ever in that position and is it right to?

The main theme, as the title suggests, is choosing. Though Mia is exposed as a vulnerable character due to the accident, she still has the strength to choose her path. Mia somehow knows that the choice is hers and not up to someone or something else.

 

The actual story-from the time of the car accident to the end-spans a day, however, by this time and through Mia, we learn about everything important to Mia and are privy to her memories. I appreciated the fact that If I Stay came to a sound conclusion and didn't have me pulling my hair out, but I'm happy to learn that there will be a sequel. Without revealing too much, I will say that I was pleased with the ending.

 

In conclusion, If I Stay was a highly-charged, emotional story which made a great impression on me. There were some moments that I felt were repetitive and extraneous. Also, I did think the story could have moved along just slightly faster and I don't believe that this would have affected the high quality that the story is currently at. I would recommend If I Stay to other people, but warn them to have a tissue box at hand as this book did make me emotional at certain points. I look forward to reading the sequel of If I Stay which is entitled Where She Went.

 

Book Rating: 4.5/5

 

Cover: 5/5

 

Concept: 5/5

 

Author: Gayle Forman

Harry Potter Contest

Hello lovely people.

In celebration of the US release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 go to the:

Hufflepuff House

movie countdown - virtual party

Nov 13-18

@ vvb32 reads

I'm going to give away Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Harry Potter Signature Edition)

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