Wither - Review

Wither (The Chemical Garden #1)
by Lauren DeStefano
Rating: 5/5

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Thanks to modern science, every newborn has become a ticking genetic time bomb - males only live to the age of twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 


When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape - to find her twin brother and go home.


I feel like I'm one of the last people to read this book, even though it was only published in March! It's one of the most reviewed and talked about books in the blogosphere this year. Everybody seems to love it, and now I can add my name to the long list of Wither fans.

The writing in Wither was absolutely fantastic. It's exactly the kind of writing that I'm striving for when I write stories myself. Lauren DeStefano is now my number one role model and inspiration for my writing. I'll have to write down quotes from Wither onto post it notes and stick them to my wall. Every time I get frustrated and don't want to write anymore, I'll take a glance at the notes and think to myself that if I don't write, I'll never get as good as Lauren.

The fact that all three sister wives had different ways of dealing with the new life they'd been thrown into made the story really realistic;

The youngest wife loved everything about it and couldn't understand why the others didn't. The oldest wife hated it all, and wasn't afraid to show it. And then we have the main character Rhine, who hated it but would do anything to get away from there. So she tried to gain her captators' trust by pretending to like her new life.

I read a lot of dystopian novels and have created different categories for all of the many dystopians out there. Wither fits into the "The Declaration by Gemma Malley" category. There's no obvious "fighting and struggling for survival in a destroyed world". It's set in a world like ours but where a small science discovery has changed our way of living, a lot. And both of them are really, really thought provoking.

Divergent - Review

Divergent (Divergent #1)
by Veronica Roth
Rating: 4,5/5

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In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue. On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.

This is one of the books that I've been the most excited for this year. I've read review after review in which people have been calling this book one of the best dystopians and telling me to read it right away. And when I received my copy in late May, I did. And here's my review, telling you that this is one of the best dystopians out there and that you have to go and read this book now! 

In the dystopian world that Veronica Roth has created for us, all of the people have been divided into one of five factions Based on your personality you'll have to choose which faction to live the rest of your life in. Tris has a though decision  to make, deciding whether to stay with her family or being who she really is.

Now, I don't want to spoil anything for you guys, but there's a great deal of action and romance in this book. The romance might've been a little rushed and it was obvious that something would happen between the two of them even from the beginning. But otherwise the romance was really heartwarming. Plus, there was some pretty hot make out scenes in Divergent. Thank you Veronica for that.

Divergent is a interesting dystopian with a very likely society. You're seriously missing out on something if you don't pick this one up.

Enclave - Review

Enclave (Razorland #1)
by Ann Aguirre
Rating: 5/5

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In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.

As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.

Wow, this book is amazing. I love it! It's one of the best dystropians I've ever read, it's at the same level as the Hunger Games and the Gone series. Yes, it's that good.

The world that this novel tells us about is really something special. Deuce, the heroine, lives in tunnels, under the ground, in a small enclave and has a simple task to follow. She has to get out of the safety zone and hunt for food in the tunnels, where the bloodthirsty "freaks" are. Her life is ruled by the elderel's rules and she's okay with that. This life is her reality.

One thing that really hit me is how well written all the action and fighting scenes were. The were detailed, heart racing and so real. I really love well written action scenes, and these drew me into the story really fast.

This book made me think about how easily people can be manipulated and how only the things you know about becomes your reality. How everything that you don't know about, doesn't exist. Deuce's reality was her enclave and the hard life she was living. That was all she knew about. But there was so much more to the world that she was amazed to find out about. You know what your reality is like, but I wonder what's for us to find out about?

Parasite Positive (aka Peeps) - Review

Parasite Positive aka Peeps (Peeps #1)
by Scott Westerfeld
Rating: 4/5

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Two days after arriving in New York for college, Cal loses his virginity to a girl who picks him up. From this encounter Cal picks up an STD, but this is an unusual one: it turns its victims into "peeps" -- parasite positives—raving cannibalistic monsters with unusual strength, night vision, heightened senses, and an affinity with rats. Cal himself turns out to be immune, but he's a carrier—he gets the strength and senses without the nasty side effects. But before he knows it he has infected others.

Cal is recruited by the Night Watch, a secret government organization that has existed for centuries to contain the disease and its victims. His first assignment is to capture all the girls he's infected. But soon Cal realizes that there is more going on than he has been told: the disease is changing in response to mysterious forces from under the earth that are waking up after centuries of slumber.


8 reasons to read Parasite Positive (aka Peeps)

1. It's a completely new take on vampires. They're kind of raw and zombie like in their eating, they hate everything that they loved in their former life and you can become a vampire by just kissing somebody who has the parasite.
2. This book is filled with a lot of different genres. It's paranormal meets dystropian meets horror meets zombie apocalypse meets romance meets action meets adventure ...
3. It's seriously action filled and fast paced. You will not be able to tare yourself away from the book because you have to know what happens next.
4. Some chapters are like essays about real parasites. They're super creepy and I freaked out all of my friends by reading those chapters aloud.
5. There was also a cute little romance going on. 
6. It was a very quick read which I read in one sitting.
7. The author is frickin Scott Westerfeld! He's awesome!
8. This book is simply just amazing and everyone should read it.

Lies - Review

Lies (Gone #3)
by Michael Grant
Rating: 5/5

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It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness—or so they thought.

As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?

STOP! If you haven't read Lies yet, stop reading this and drag yourself out and read it instead! This review contains spoilers for the book. This is not an ordinary review, this is a timeline of my reactions while I was reading the book, even for the ending. So if you don't turn back, what you're about to read might ruin the book for you and make you really angry at yourself for not taking my warning seriously.

Okay, I hope you've read Lies if you're reading this. I decided to do this timeline thingie because I thought it would be funnier than writing a review that would sound almost like my reviews for Gone and Hunger. You know that I love the writing, the characters, the dialogue, the concept, the plot .. I love everything. And nothing of that have changed. The reactions are my reactions after I read the mentioned chapter.

Chapter 1

Such a powerful beginning! It feels good to be back in these series.

Chapter 6

Finally they've set up a money system and started having businesses and work! I've been waiting on this since I first started Gone.

Chapter 9

Oh God No. Please don't tell me that Sam and Astrid just broke up! This is not good at all ..

Chapter 11

Aargh, stupid Gaiaphage controlling Orsay's dreams! Because that can't be reality, no matter how much I wish it was.

Chapter 18

I hate Zil! And the Human Crew!!!

Chapter 29

This is what I love about the Gone series. They're so fricking fast paced! I love the action!

Chapter 36

Wohoo Astrid, you've written laws! I fricking love you.

Chapter 39

This is fucked up. Everything is really fucked up, I'm telling you.

Ending:

To quote my tweet: Oh. My. God. I just finished Lies, and my mind is totally blown. These books are epic. I need Plague, like, now.

2011 dystropians I'm dying to read!

2009 was the year of the vampires. 2010 was the year of the angels. And 2011? It is the year of the dystropians!

I personally love dystropians and am really pumped for this year. Lots of wonderful new dystropians will be released so I decided to try to sort down my list to 6 books that I'm really looking forward to! Some of them are already released, some are not. But everyone are/was released in 2011.

(And yes, I do know that this post is really similar to Brent's from The Naughty Book Kitties post. But I planned to write this a long time before he posted his. So, no. I'm not copying him or something.)

All the links go to Goodreads.

Plague (Gone #4) by Michael Grant

Release: April 5th

Oh my god, you guys. The fourth part of Gone. I'm really excited! I haven't read the third part yet, though. But I bought it yesterday! If you've read my reviews of Gone and Hunger, you know that I'd literally marry these books. That's how much I love them.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Release: May 3rd

To be honest I don't know much about this book, more than that bloggers are going crazy over it and the cover is gorgeous. Reasons enough to include it in this list, right?

XVI by Julia Karr

Already Released!

This book sounds so awesome! Horrible, but awesome. Being tattooed with the letters XVI on your sixteenth birthday, which means that any guy who want to can do whatever he wants to you sexwise. Again, horrible, but the book sounds awesome!

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Release: March 22nd

Holy shit what a cover! The model, the colours, the font, the dress .. Everything looks amazing! If I had a cover of the week kind of feature, this cover would be featured. Every. Fricking. Week!

0.4 by Mike Lancaster

Already Released!

"'My name is Kyle Straker. And I don't exist anymore.' 

So begins the story of Kyle Straker, recorded onto old audiotapes. You might think these tapes are a hoax, but perhaps they contain the history of a past world....If what the tapes say is true, it means that everything we think we know is a lie. 

And if everything we know is a lie, does that mean that we are, too?"

Awesome blurb, or what?

The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

Already Released!

This book both looks and sounds awesome. Like, trying to live without water? Hell no! I would go crazy!

Specials (Uglies #3) - Review

Specials (Uglies #3)
by Scott Westerfeld
Rating: 4,5/5 stars

This review might include spoilers if you haven't read the first books, Uglies and Pretties. Read at your own risk!

Tally thought they were a rumor, but now she's one of them. A Special. A super-amped fighting machine, engineered to keep the uglies down and the pretties stupid.


But maybe being perfectly programmed with strength and focus isn't better than anything she's ever known. Tally still has memories of something else.


But it's easy for her to tune that out - until she's offered a chance to stamp out the rebels of the new smoke permanently. It all comes down to one last choice: listen to that tiny, faint heartbeat, or carry out the mission she's programmed to complete. Either way, Tally's world will never be the same.


Review:


Tally's a special. She's a part of her best friend Shay's group, the cutters.  Their mission is to find the new Smoke and bring it down. I love the plot in Specials more than I did in Uglies and Pretties. Especially the last part of the book. But I can't tell you about it! Frustrating!

When I started reading Specials I was scared that I wouldn't like it. I had read lots of negative reviews on it and I was kind of disappointed by Pretties. I wanted to love Specials as much as I had loved Uglies. And gosh, I did. It was amazing! But the problem is that all the wonderful, lovely bits I love, happens in the last parts of the books. Or in the beginning, but still are huge spoilers. So I can't just ramble about all the parts I loved, cause then you guys would get angry at me for spoiling the book for you!

But I do think that this book would have been a good ending for the series. So I really don't understand why Scott Westerfeld wrote Extras. And I read that it's about some other girl, not Tally. Not that I'm complaining, I love that there's another book! I will be hard to leave the Uglies world, I love it! (Not all the brain lesion thingies, but god the technology!) How cool wouldn't it be with interface rings, bungee jackets, hover boards ..? Give me please!

When I got into the story and passed my awful non-reading days, it was a really quick read. I like the author's writing. It's very fast paced and suits the story well. Unfortunately I sometimes had to reread a page in the big action scenes, just to keep up with what was happening. But I can live with that in a book this good.

If you already haven't read the Uglies series, do it!

Hunger - Review

Hunger (Gone #2)
by Michael Grant
Rating: 5/5


This review may include spoilers if you haven't read Gone by Michael Grant. Read my review of Gone here.


106 Hours 29 Minutes


Suddenly it's a world without adults and normal has crashed and burned. When life as you know it ends at 15, everything changes.


An uneasy calm has settled over Perdido Beach. But soon fear explodes into desperation as starvation sets in. More and more kids are developing strange powers and, just as frighteningly, so are the animals in the FAYS. And in the background, in an abandoned mineshaft, lies the greatest danger of all - and he too needs to be fed ...


Review:


Hunger picks up three months after (as they call it) the big Thanksgiving Fight. Sam is president of Peredido Beach, a title which he's not so happy about. He's fearing an attack from Caine and trying to provide the starving kids with food, a kind of hard task now that the fields have been invaded by mutated killer worms ..

The Gone series feels very realistic to me. Not that I think that anything like the FAYZ would ever happen, but if it did, I think that thinks would be like in these books. People panicking, fighting, doing illegal stuff, ruining the city. Just going crazy and out of control.

Because of all the amazing subplots and side characters, we get a little of everything. Love, bullying, hate and all of the common (and uncommon) teenage problems. I would really love to read a whole book just about Mary's struggle with her eating disorders, Jack's not knowing where to fit in or Lana's story about being sent to her granddad in the wilderness. Michael Grant has smashed all of these (plus a lot more) good plots into one epic, awesome story. And it's not confusing or hard to keep up with at all.

You get to hear one persons backstory before they become a part of the main story. So you don't have to sit through lots of pages with a person talking about where he came from, who he is, what have happened to him .. You already know him. And I feel that I can relate to the new characters stories much easier if I "was there" when it happened.

And all of these cliffhangers Grant leaves us with when he changes the story teller! I just wanted to read, read and read to see what they would do next, how they would solve this and that. And all the questions I wanted an answer to! What is the darkness? What happens if you fall for the temptation and poof? And how the hell are they going to get out of this FAYZ mess?!

I ran to my computer and bought the third book, lies, the minute after I finished Hunger. I'm really looking forwards to reading the rest of the series and recommend it to everyone. This are a bunch of books you can't miss. It's a shame that they haven't gotten more attention.

Gone - Review

Gone (Gone #1)

by Michael Grant

Rating: 4.5/5

299 Hours 54 Minutes

Suddenly it's a world without adults and normal has crashed and burned. When life as you know it ends at 15, everything changes.

A small town in California: In the blink of an eye everyone over the age of 15 disappears. Cut off from the outside world, those that are left are trapped, and there's no help on the way. Chaos rules the streets.

Now a new world is rising and, even scarier, some survivors have powers - mutant powers thet no one has ever seen ...

Review:

Every teenager from time to time wants to just ignore the adults, not having to go to school, getting to be out how late they want and being able to live without any rules. And the kids in Gone got all that. But it turned out to be a lot different than they expected.

I liked the main characters, Sam, Quinn and Astrid. Though I couldn’t stop thinking how similar they were to the Harry Potter trio. Sam, a hero and a good leader. But he doesn’t really want all the power. Quinn, the (sometimes) jealous best friend. Astrid, the brain of the group. I got really attached to Astrid. She was smart, funny and took good care of her autistic brother. She was a strong character.

I love how they speculated about why all this had happened to them. I made up lots of theories myself and just wanted to jump into the book and be a part of their discussions.

The book got slightly slower in the middle. Really nothing happened and everybody just walked around chasing each other. But maybe I just thought that the middle was a bit slower because of the epic beginning. I loved it! I got sucked into the story from the very first page and couldn’t put it down in a long time! Every book should have beginnings like this!

But the reason I give Gone four stars instead of five is because it didn’t bring me so strong feelings. I didn’t cry, laugh or start hating any of the characters. I think that’s because the main characters didn’t feel so much either. I didn’t get to hear how sorry they were because of that a person died, or how happy they were about something that had happened.

But I definitely think everybody should read this. I love the plot, the characters and the writing. It was really, really good and I just wanted to read and read to find out what would happen next. I liked it a lot and I am lucky to have the sequel, Hunger, waiting in my bookshelf.