Review: Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch

Perfected by Kate Jarvik Birch
Date Published: 1st July 2014
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Amazon    Book Depository 

Goodreads Summary

Perfection comes at a price. As soon as the government passed legislation allowing humans to be genetically engineered and sold as pets, the rich and powerful rushed to own beautiful girls like Ella. Trained from birth to be graceful, demure, and above all, perfect, these “family companions” enter their masters’ homes prepared to live a life of idle luxury. Ella is happy with her new role as playmate for a congressman’s bubbly young daughter, but she doesn’t expect Penn, the congressman’s handsome and rebellious son. He’s the only person who sees beyond the perfect exterior to the girl within. Falling for him goes against every rule she knows…and the freedom she finds with him is intoxicating. But when Ella is kidnapped and thrust into the dark underworld lurking beneath her pampered life, she’s faced with an unthinkable choice. Because the only thing more dangerous than staying with Penn’s family is leaving…and if she’s unsuccessful, she’ll face a fate far worse than death. For fans of Keira Cass’s Selection series and Lauren DeStefano’s Chemical Garden series, Perfected is a chilling look at what it means to be human, and a stunning celebration of the power of love to set us free, wrapped in a glamorous—and dangerous—bow.

 A VERY HAPPY RELEASE DATE TO PERFECTED! And a massive thank you to Entangled Teen for providing me this book for a review!

A new legislation is passed where owning a pet is taken to another level. Instead of having a fluffy puppy or a kitten to cuddle you to bed you can own a teenage girl who was bred to be perfect in all physical aspects.

The idea for this book seemed really out of the box and original. I was pleasantly surprised how the idea developed but there was nothing shocking about the plot or where it leads. There were no cliff-hangers, no surprises, nothing that would have actually made this book outstanding.

Number 8 or Ella as she’s later is named is an engineered pet, raised in a kennel to be obedient to her new master. As soon as I read this description of the main character my first thought was obviously these beautiful girls will be used as sex play toys by middle aged guys. I suspect that most of them were brought just for that. However Ella was brought to be a playmate for a bubbly little girl and her family; which doesn’t seem so bad.

“I was bred to be the perfect pet”.

“I was bred to willingly put my owner’s happiness before my own.” 

Taken out of context these two sentences seriously look like the worst starts for a porno. I mean come on! Willingly putting my owners happiness before my own. I get that they were bred to be like that and to think like this but I don’t think I would be able to do that. Not in a million years. I wouldn’t care if my “owner” was happy and none of my pets flipping do! To be fair they are cats and just care about food and where to crap but that is beside the point…

Okay now back to the book.

Ella’s new family already had a pet, a pet that was given away for being “ill”. However it’s not hard to figure out what actually happened to the last pet, with the congressmen’s wife not being particularly happy with Ella being there and with how the congressman acts towards Ella.

After she is brought her world changes, she needs to learn more things and more importantly learn what it really is like to be a pet. But is this the life that Ella can live with?

I don’t think the ending and the love story is at all surprising. This book was a pleasant read but it’s not at all amazing.   

Review: Shatter Me By Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #1
Date Published: October 2nd 2011
Publisher: HarperCollin
Amazon Book Depository 

Goodreads Summary 

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color. The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now. Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

This book surprised me a lot. Shatter Me is a beautifully written novel about a dying dystopian society where humans didn’t take a good enough care of our world.

The story follows a young Juliette that has a curse gift where she can kill someone just by touching them. I have never heard of anything close to this idea and I think it’s absolutely amazing! A lot of books nowadays have a lot of contact in them; especially romance books where the first little feather like touch is important to any of the characters relationships. This gift that Juliette has rules it out almost; as the girl has never touched anybody without hurting them. She has never hugged her own mother or father, she never had a bestfriend that would hold her when she was upset and she never had a boyfriend because she would kill him. It’s so sad and beautiful at the same time. I mean imagine if that were you. I can’t even begin to imagine what would be like to never feel someone else’s skin.

“I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.” 

:’)

Juliette touched someone 264 days before the Reestablishment locked her up for murder. She hasn’t touched anyone, spoken to anyone in 264 days until a boy is thrown into her cell- a boy named Adam whom she has a history with already. After a few weeks Juliette is then taken to a facility where a highly disturbing guy named Warner wants to use her and her gift as a weapon and is strangely obsessed with her.

While I was reading this I was confused as to why these random events would lead to her meeting Warner, but as the book progresses you can see exactly what is happening and why.

I loved this book, the story was great, the dystopian world was great although somewhat confusing, and the writing was great- but it was annoying at times.

The reason for it being annoying.

1)     The repetition. At first I loved the emphasis of the white bird which meant freedom for Juliette. I loved the fact that it was repeated three times. But the random words halfway through the sentences sentences sentences. It was annoying annoying annoying. There was no use for it. Halfway through the book I thought that my book was faulty and that the words weren’t meant to be there!

2)     The strikethroughs I loved at the beginning. It was a way of Juliette to get her thoughts out and it would be crossed out like this.  What Mafi did was rather clever. But again it got rather boring and annoying at times. I loved hearing what Juliette thought but there were long sentences that were crossed out and it’s annoying to read.

Those are the only things that annoyed me the most about this book. There were certain metaphors that made absolutely no sense to me and I have a feeling Mafi only included them to sound sophisticated and poetic. But I’m going to let this slide.

“Killing time isn't as difficult as it sounds.

I can shoot a hundred numbers through the chest and watch them bleed decimal points in the palm of my hand. I can rip the numbers off a clock and watch the hour hand tick tick tick its final tock just before I fall asleep. I can suffocate seconds just by holding my breath. I've been murdering minutes for hours and no one seems to mind.” 

I mentioned already that the world that Mafi created was confusing but that I loved it nevertheless. The reason why it was so confusing was because MAFI FAILED TO EXPLAIN IT. I mostly guessed that all of their foods and resources run out and that the atmosphere and the weather fucked up but honestly I have no clue why; my educated guess would be that humans fucked up and let the world get ruined by using up everything and not caring enough for our planet. But I wish that Mafi explained this. It was almost not thought out.

Juliette’s power is great. She can touch someone and kill them. But again there was no explanation why she had the said power and why the hell she enjoyed using it. Warner the sick little puppy made her touch one of his soldiers as a way for her to show that she was powerful so they wouldn’t underestimate her. But when she touched the soldier she got a weird kick out of it. She liked it. Is this some weird sexual thing? Cause it sure seemed like it.

“Why are you touching me? 
Because I can.” 

There is an exception to Juliette’s gift, and that’s Adam. He can touch her and not die or scream out in pain and she doesn’t get a weird kick out of it. Well scratch the last bit because in some scenes she does. I actually rolled my eyes at this bit. I’m glad the two love birds can touch each other up but wouldn’t this be great if they couldn’t?! If Adam still loved Juliette even though she could kill him!!!? Am I the only person that thinks this would be a much better idea for their little romance?!!?!?!?!?!?1??!?!?!?1??!?!?!

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Matched by Ally Condie
Series: Matched
Release Date: November 30th 2010
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
Amazon Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

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

Is falling in love with someone’s story the same thing as falling in love with the person himself?

This is the only decent thing in this book.

Entertainment weekly described this book to be “the hottest YA title to hit the bookstores since The Hunger Games” is it though?! IS IT?!

I think you need to go and rethink your life choices if you think this was anything close to being as good as THG. This book was a complete snooze fest and I haven’t been this bored with a book in about a year now; so you can guess my big disappointment!

This book is readable yes but I would rather stick hot needles through my eyes than sit through another 360 odd pages of this story.

I’m not going to lie. The idea behind it is fantastic. But the book. Ew no.

Cassia lives in a world where the society controls everything. Where you work, who you get married to, how many children you have, ect. Therefore on their 17^th birthday’s (why 17? What’s so special about that) all the teenagers go to the Match Banquet dressed in their pretty clothes and await their perfect match to be shown on a screen. The couple later on then get aquatinted, get married and have kids. But when Cassia is matched with her childhood bestfriend Xander her life couldn’t be any better. She already knows her match and they can speed along their getting to know each other and she won’t have to move away from her family. But once Cassia returns home and watches her Banquet a different face flashes before her eyes; Ky, another guy she already knows. Isn’t Cassia just the luckiest! This is where the boring and predictable and very annoying part of the story begins. A love triangle. Obviously.

I don’t understand the hype for this book at all! Yes I’m late with reading this book and I’m glad I am. Actually no I wish I never read this tragedy. Ally’s writing is decent enough for me not to throw the book out of my window but the rest? Dull. There’s no passion in her writing, no urgency, no real desire to make this world come into life. It’s as if Ally was bored of her own dull work and couldn’t be bothered to make this book at all interesting. The relationships between the characters were dull, the society that she created was dull, the conflict if there ever was any was dull and not to mention the dull conversations between the characters. Actually no. The conversations were ugly. They were hard to read.

 “Once you want something, everything changes.” Erm no. Let me just burn the page this quote was on.

“Now that I've found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?” How about anywhere but near me.

“Do not go gentle.” I can’t remember where this is from but is this a sexual innuendo I smell here? Nope. There was nothing in this book that was remotely fun or funny or at all interesting!

I looked up some of these quotes just to show the kind of nonsense that’s in this book and it made me hate it even more. I forgot some of the stupid stuff that’s in here. And the stupid, stupid love triangle! This made me so mad!!! Cassia is matched with Xander and that pretty much means she will eventually marry him and she knows this. She agrees with the society but then goes off and has a relationship with Ky while poor cute little Xander has no idea. THAT’S CALLED CHEATING YOU SLUT.

“I came up on the screen, too, Cassia. But he was the one you chose to see.”

And look at him. He’s heartbroken because not only did Cassia chose to run away with Ky she also ruined Xander’s life. Bitch.

Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Cress by Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3
Release Date: February 4th 2014
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Amazon Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army. Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice. When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

In this book we’re introduced to a new character called Cress who is imprisoned in a satellite near the moon by Sybil the right hand girl to Levena the Lunar queen. Cress is a fairy-tale adaptation of Rapunzel what with being imprisoned away from people (or aliens for this matter) where she’s all by herself and has long blonde hair. But apart from those two factors nothing else reminds me of Rapunzel. I wish that Marissa Meyer worked a little bit harder to edge that fairy tale into the book like she did with Cinder.

I was rather annoyed that a new character was being introduced when Cinder was around and most of the attention should have been focused on her instead of introducing another girl. I was already in love with Cinder I think she’s a great female character who doesn’t take any horse crap; and then there’s Scarlet who’s even more badass and isn’t scared of pretty much anything who’s determined to get what she wants and then there’s Cress. Cress is a damsel in distress, who is scared of pretty much everything. She is the total opposite of the rest of the characters which isn’t initially a terrible thing but makes her so much more annoying. Not only does she believe in falling in love with Captain Thorne who she hasn’t met (can’t blame a girl for falling in love with a celebrity) but then she can’t exactly take care of herself like she should; and she always needed to reassure herself and make up a different scenario in order for her to cope with the stress.

Aside from that the book was brilliant.

SPOILER ALERT

Cress is awaiting her rescue while things go wrong and Sybil finds out about this; attacking Cinder and the gang leaving Captain Thorne and Cress aboard the satellite that’s about to crash into Earth. Scarlet is stuck on the moon being tortured for being human, Cress and Thorne the pilot of their ship is about to die, Wolf has been shot and is also about to die and things aren’t exactly looking too hopeful for Cinder and her friends. After surviving the crash Cress and Thorne are rescued by some humans and brought into a town where Cress ends up being sold to no one other than the good doctor who helped Cinder. Reuniting the whole gang together. Giving them the advantage of being able to break into the palace, kidnap the emperor and stop his wedding.

But nothing would have made this book any better than crushing my sprit right before taking off with the emperor and having everything sorted out. Lunars can now get the plague; and the good doctor himself develops the early stages of it while in the palace. Having to leave him behind goodbyes are made where he confesses to Cress that he’s her father. And seriously their goodbye and confession made me cry buckets. I could not even look at this book afterwards I had to put it in the freezer as a punishment for breaking me! Just when everything was going right and Cress was about to get her father back he had to go and die. God damn it. 

Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #2
Release Date: February 5th 2013
Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
Amazon Book Depository

Goodreads summary 

Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Ahhh!! I love love LOVED this book!! It's a Godsent and why oh why didn't I pick up Cinder before?! I'm so glad this series was recommended to me. Before I kept thinking "A cyborg Cinderella pfff hell no" But now I want to be a cyborg or at least have the cool lie detector thing she has! 

I was pleasantly surprised with the new character Scarlet although I was disappointed that the first chapter didn’t feature Cinder. I couldn’t figure out what Scarlet had to do with the story other than being a teenage citizen during 126 t.e. but halfway through the book everything started clicking into place and the whole puzzle was fitting together; the whole thing was thought out perfectly.

The book jumped from Scarlet who was a granddaughter of a farmer that went missing, to Cinder who was running away from her prison to Kai who was trying to decide what to do with Cinder’s disappearance and keeping the Lunar queen at bay and not reaching a war. The layout of the book was really cleaver and not at all jumpy which a lot of books sometimes have with more than one settings.

Although I was really disappointed with the fact that this book wasn’t anything like Little Red Riding Hood… Cinder had the evil stepmother and stepsisters, the ball, her being an orphan, losing a foot ect while in Scarlet there were only little things like her red hoodie, and her grandmother being missing and Wolf being a wolf. But apart from that nothing else which disappointed me a great deal. But the relationship between Scarlet and Wolf made up for it!

Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Cinder by Marissa Meyer 
Series: The Lunar Chronicles #1
Release Date: January 3rd 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

The lovely Regina from The Sunflower Pages recommended me this book and I'm so happy she did :)

This book! I can’t even begin to explain how much I loved this book! A fairy tale with a twist that will make sure you never forget it.

Cinder is a cyborg, a mechanic with no family and a horrible stepmother and two sisters. A nobody until the New Beijing prince Kai shows up at her booth and asks her to look at his broken android.  

The plague that has no cure, that is taking most peoples friends and family, infects Cinders younger sister making Cinder the one to blame in her stepmothers eyes. In order for a cure to be found cyborgs are needed to be guinea pigs and sacrifice their lives in order to save humans. Even after the 4^th world war humans still find beings that are “beneath them” that are second class even though they are part human part mechanical. Cinder’s evil stepmother and sister volunteer her to be the test subject in the research for a cure. But instead Cinder finds out she’s immune to the plague that’s wiping cyborgs and humans alike. Not only this but from space a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move onto earth and take over. So basically Earth is screwed either way.

A cyborg Cinderella story set in the future? Erm not really my scene but I’m so happy I got the chance to read it! I don’t really like the whole mechanical scene but Cinderella was one of my favourite stories as a child.

The way the book is written is incredible. I was getting goose bumps just by reading the book, even in the more boring chapters where nothing exciting was happing. Marissa is able to send her readers into the future alongside Cinder and her trusted android Iko. It was really easy to picture everything happening in the space of my bedroom and I can’t remember the last time I was mesmerised by a book this much.

The fact that some bits from Cinderella were in this book made me super happy. The prince, the evil stepmother and two sisters, the ball. Although I would never have imagined Cinderella to have a mechanical foot and hand. I imagined that Cinder would leave her foot when running away from the ball at the end of the night just like Cinderella had with her glass slipper and I screamed in joy when this came true! Leaving this bit out of the book would have been the biggest mistake.

Overall this book was amazingly written and created a great retelling of a classic story. However there were aspects that weren’t developed as much as they could have been. The fact that I’m still confused about the Lunar (moon people), there was no culture even though the book was set in New Beijing. But apart from that I am a massive fan and I need the other books in the series now!

ARC Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic by Lauren Oliver

Release Date: 4th March 2014

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do. Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought. Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for. For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

I was so lucky to get this book from Netgalley for my review. I was so excited to start this amazing book and oh, boy was I not disappointed.

For Heather, Dodge, Nat and Bishop summer won’t going to be ordinary. It is their turn to take part in the every year game taken by high school graduates to compete for money. It’s their way to make a name for themselves, take revenge and have the money to move out from the dead end boring town called Carp.

I had no clue what kind of books this was. I just knew that there was going to be a game with a lot of teenagers and possible danger. My first thoughts were Hunger Games. I thought this was going to be another dystopian book with characters set in a different time, with a weird world, with a rundown government, ect. I was so happy to find out that this book was about typical teenagers set in this century doing typical teenage things.

The idea of the game Panic is well to raise as much panic as possible. Running across a busy street blindfolded, to burning down a haunted house while you’re in there. The idea for this game is quite stupid but brilliant at the same time! I could not figure out why a town would even come up with a game like this, it seems so unrealistic. But it was described beautifully.

Each of the characters has their own story, which I absolutely love. Heather who wants to win the games badly so that her and her little sister Lily can finally move away from the town and start again. Doge who wants to take revenge for this sister’s accident that happened in the game before. Nat who was completely different from the rest of the characters and wanted to become a model and Bishop who wasn’t taking part in the game but was still there for his best friends. All the characters were developed so well they had their own personalities and quirks.

I’ve read one book before by Lauren Oliver and I wasn’t so impressed. Her writing didn’t impress me in Before I Fall but this book is so much different! This book was written in third person and what many authors forget to write about are the feelings of the characters and what they are thinking. Lauren however did not forget! You get the entire picture of the whole story along with emotions.

I cannot praise this book enough! There is action, some romance but it’s not focused on that, friendship, family matters, and a lot of emotions. Seriously. Go and preorder this book right now! 

Review: Once We Were by Kat Zhang

Once We Were by Kat Zhang
Series: The Hybrid Chronicles #2
Release Date: September 17th, 2013
Publisher: HarperCollins
Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

"I'm lucky just to be alive."

Eva was never supposed to have survived this long. As the recessive soul, she should have faded away years ago. Instead, she lingers in the body she shares with her sister soul, Addie. When the government discovered the truth, they tried to “cure” the girls, but Eva and Addie escaped before the doctors could strip Eva’s soul away.

Now fugitives, Eva and Addie find shelter with a group of hybrids who run an underground resistance. Surrounded by others like them, the girls learn how to temporarily disappear to give each soul some much-needed privacy. Eva is thrilled at the chance to be alone with Ryan, the boy she’s falling for, but troubled by the growing chasm between her and Addie. Despite clashes over their shared body, both girls are eager to join the rebellion.

Yet as they are drawn deeper into the escalating violence, they start to wonder: How far are they willing to go to fight for hybrid freedom? Faced with uncertainty and incredible danger, their answers may tear them apart forever.

“Everybody’s got sad stories.” Devon’s voice was as ungiving as stone. “And everyone thinks they’re so very special and broken because of them.”

I read What’s Left of Me back in 2012 and fell in love. I read Once We Were in 2014 and fell out of love. What’s Left of Me became a favorite of 2012 while Once We Were became a disappointment and it makes me wonder what went wrong? Was it me? Or was it the book?

I think the answer is both to a certain extent. One of the things that intrigued me in the first book was the hybrids. I was drawn in by this new spin on souls. It was so different from what I had read before and while some of the details concerning the concept bothered me, the uniqueness of it all made it easy to overlook things that didn’t work. In this book, the shiny gleam of originality wore off and I started to get really bothered by the idea of two souls in one body. I couldn’t wrap my head around it and it made no sense to me.  It was so HARD to imagine these hybrids. It seemed so weird and some things didn't line up for me as a reader. I felt like the idea hadn’t been as well thought through as it should have been because it was so DIFFICULT to wrap my head around. I'd be lying if I said it was easier to understand the concept of hybrids in the first book, but the problems with said idea really nagged at me in this book, making it harder to enjoy.

Eva was a character whose name reminded me of Wall-E who really shined out to me in the first book. Her struggles were realistic and her journey was a joy to experience. In this book that went down the drain. She read as a naïve girl who in spite of everything she had faced earlier, learned nothing. She, although not selfish, was incredibly self-centered. She never really bothered to ask how other people felt and went along with whatever she thought was right, dragging her sister and her close friends into her mess. She blindly followed other people because they were obviously ‘right’. It was disappointing because hadn’t the last book taught her anything about how much you can trust people? Character development didn’t occur until the last 20% and by then it was too late. I thought she had had it (referring to a certain event) coming and felt no sympathy for her.

Addie was annoying as always. She is a major hypocrite. She makes it impossible for Eva to have a normal relationship with Ryan for the first third of the book and then gets pissed when Eva freaks out about her relationship with Jackson. Oh and Eva feels guilty. For the most part though, Addie is very subdued. Not in a good way though. She acts even more childish than Eva (and throws tantrums).

The romance is very light and honestly, I don’t give two shits about the romance. It seems too awkward to me. I mean you’re making out with a guy but the guy’s brother and your sister can feel you making out and it seems so weird *shudders*. I am not sure a romance was even a good idea in this case. There was something brought up in the book that would make these romantic situations more bearable but I think that would negate the whole ‘point’ of these books. Hybrids aren’t defects, they’re ‘normal’, so doing what was suggested would be implying otherwise.

The plot was my biggest problem in this book. Where the first book had been doused with the element of danger, something I as a reader LOVE, this book hadn't been. Of course, that isn’t to say they weren’t in danger, I just didn't feel the danger. I wasn’t sitting on the edge, I was roaming around taking breaks because I was bored out of my mind. The plot of this book is basically stupid teens trying to start a revolution. Emphasis on stupid because none of them even think of the consequences and are surprised when things don’t go as planned. When I say everyone, I mean even the ‘kids’ who were older. Who should have been smarter but they weren’t. An eye for an eye isn’t actually a solution; it just makes both sides half blind and also provides some truth to the government’s claims about hybrids being dangerous. I can understand their rage but they are adults. They should know better than to let their rage control them. Their experiences should have matured them even if it turned them into rage beasts out to get the government.

At this point, I am so turned off by this series that I am not even sure I want to go through with it and read the last book. The ending does leave room for improvement but the idea of hybrids no longer appeals to me and is hard to wrap my head around. When I cannot even accept the building blocks of this series, I am not sure continuing is a wise idea, even if I really want to. 

ARC Review: Uninvited by Sophie Jordan

Uninvited by Sophie Jordan
Series: Uninvited #1
Release Date: January 28th, 2014
Publisher: HarperTeen
Pre-Order: Amazon | Book Depository

Goodreads Summary

The Scarlet Letter meets Minority Report in bestselling author Sophie Jordan's chilling new novel about a teenage girl who is ostracized when her genetic test proves she's destined to become a murderer.

When Davy Hamilton's tests come back positive for Homicidal Tendency Syndrome (HTS)-aka the kill gene-she loses everything. Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.

Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

The first in a two-book series, Uninvited tackles intriguing questions about free will, identity, and human nature. Steeped in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan's trademark mix of gripping action and breathless romance, this suspenseful tale is perfect for fans of James Patterson, Michelle Hodkin, and Lisa McMann.

This book. Is just. It’s hard to form words because it is just so damn good. I am stunned. I was a little wary going into this because I had NOT enjoyed Jordan’s Firelight. Maja’s review did re-assure me to a certain degree and gave me the push I needed to finally read the book.

Which I am really glad I did because otherwise I would have been missing out on a lot of awesome.

The book reels you in right from the start. It has a powerful opening that makes you want to read more. You have the main character finding out she has the kill gene and her life turns upside down. Her friends don’t want to be associated with her anymore, her boyfriend, who had claimed to love her, tries to work things out but even he cannot overlook the fact that his girlfriend may be a killer. What is even worse is that even her own parents turn on her. They treat her like she is bomb waiting to be triggered, like she is some kind of monster and not their child.

My heart broke for this wonderful young girl who had everything snatched from her because there was a ‘possibility’ that she would go all bzerk and kill people. It hurt when I had to see her friends shun her and treat her like crap. It hurt when her parents refused to discuss what was going on and instead avoided it. It broke when her dreams were snatched away from her.

Jordan manages to capture the cruelty of the human nature. She is shunned by society because of something that she had no control over. All these innocent people (and some not so innocent people) were treated like livestock. But humans did what they do best; they blamed a whole group for the crime of certain individuals.

The characters in this book are wonderful. From Davy (whose name reminded me of Captain Davy Jones, it still does) to Sean to Mitchell.

I believe it was Mitchell’s character that stuck out the most of me. He was the one person who didn’t turn his back on his younger sister. The one person who would have had more reason to do so then everyone else (siblings rivalry), but he didn’t. He stuck with her. His own heart breaking at how his sister was being treated. I was actually surprised by how sincere his character was. I do hope we get to see more of him in the next book.

 

Davy herself was a very strong main character. She starts of as a naïve privileged girl who cannot quite wrap her head around what just happened to her but she slowly grows as a character. She starts accepting her situation even while seeing the injustice of it. She pays close attention to her instincts and learns to navigate in this new world she has been thrust into.

I don’t have much to say about Sean though, the romance between the two lurks in the background but that isn’t the focus of the book. He was a good enough love interest, I could find no fault with him (I am not implying he is perfect). I’ll have to admit to being initially annoyed with the fact that he seemed to be a cliché (he was closed off) but when he was the first one to make a move, I decided that didn’t matter. At least he didn’t pull the ‘you’re not safe with me’ card.

Their relationship is slow to develop and *gasp* there is no insta-love (unlike in Firelight).

But in the end the book wasn’t about romance. It was about how a girl adjusts into her new life as a possible killer.

This wonderful book reminded me why I love YA and why I was once obsessed with the Dystopia genre.

A book with a strong message and a psychological undercurrent I definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good gritty and powerful YA. 

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent

Author: Veronica Roth

Publication date: May 3rd, 2011

Publisher: HarperCollins

Buy: Amazon

In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). 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. Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series--dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance.

4+6= <3

This book is just…

16-year-old Beatrice lives in a society that has been divided into five factions. Now it is hers and the rest of her classmates to take a test that is supposed to help with the decision of whether they should stay in the faction they were born in or move to a completely different one. After Beatrice’s test results come back unusual, she has to decide herself about which faction she wants to spend the rest of her life. The Amity and be forever peaceful, Abnegation and carry on her selfless life, the Erudite to the intelligent, the Cando the honest, or the Dauntless to the brave.

I think if I were in the same position I would want to mix in some Amity and some Dauntless mostly for the tattoos and piercings. But then again it’s hard for me to choose which chocolate bar to eat first so I don’t think I would make the right decision.

I still cannot get over how much I loved this book. From the style of the writing to the characters, to the action and back to the characters. Did I mention I love Four? No. Well I do! Where can I get one?! Tris is an amazing female character. She is weak and unsure of herself and then becomes this amazing fighting machine that’s still scared at times but hides it really well. I just love the way that she transforms and that I get to be there to see it happen. I’m not too keen on characters that are just born amazing. What’s the fun in that? I knew straight away from the very first time Tris met Four that there would be something between them. I just love their relationship!

Seriously this is the best quote the summarise their relationship

“Fine. You’re not pretty. So?” He kisses my cheek.

Not to mention what this bit of the book did to me-“I might be in love with you." He smiles a little. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though.” 

I wanted to sit in a corner and just turn into mush; that’s how much I love this quote!!!

Veronica delivers this amazing new world that takes you by your hands and pulls you in from the very first chapter. I’m mesmerised by the precision of her book. I even tried to find some faults in the book; like Tris being Divergent and that not really being explained but then bam, it’s explained very well. Or some faults with their plans or even the way some characters spoke but still I haven’t found anything. This book made me tear up, cringe badly, laugh out loud, smile at stupid moments and my heart race when there was any action.

“Peter would probably throw a party if I stopped breathing.'

'Well,' he says, 'I would only go if there was cake.”- have I proved that this book is pretty much more than amazing?! That I want to give away everything just so I can erase my love for the book so I can read it again and be able to fall in love with it all over again?