Book Love

Intense, but true

Tomorrow, When the War Began

Title: Tomorrow, When the War Began
Author: John Marsden
Publisher: Pan Macmillian Publishers
Year: 1993
Series: The Tomorrow Series #1
Genre: Adventure, Science Fiction-Dystopia

Plot Summary: Seven Australian teens decide to go camping out in the bush in a place called Hell for a few days. One night, a some of them wake up to the sound of military jets flying overhead but dismiss it casually. The teens then return home to find that their pets are dead, the food in their refrigerators rotting, and their families are gone. It becomes clear that something happened to their families during the towns Commemoration Day, and that outside forces have invaded their town, starting a war. The teens then must decide whether to flee back to Hell where they can be safe, or to fight back in the hopes of rescuing their families.

Opinion: I thought that this was an amazing book about self discovery and the need to work together. John Marsden reminds me a bit of film maker Christopher Nolan, in that he can take what seems like a bizarre scenario and make it feel utterly real. Even though I live in a different country than the teens in the book, it was written so well it made me feel something like this could happen to my neighborhood (especially with today's foreign policy and our US economy). Marsden did a wonderful job as a male author writing from the perspective of a young teenage girl. Usually when men attempt to write female characters they fail miserably, but not once in reading it did I ever think about the fact that Ellie was written by a man. One thing that many young adult authors, or any authors in the adventure/action genre is they forget to include the emotional toll it takes on a person to kill someone, but Marsden did not do this. The main character Ellie, kills three soldiers in self defense but seeing the dead/dying soldiers that she killed affects her profoundly, probably for the rest of her life. That to me was one of the best aspects to the book and what made it feel realistic was the reality that even if you kill someone in self defense, it is still a life taken and something that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

The fall from innocence was a great theme, the teens had to learn how to take care of themselves in a war zone within a matter of hours; they had to grow up and rely on each other and their instincts in order to survive. The fall of innocence is also present in the teens' realization of the capacity for evil and how this other strange nation invaded them and killed people for the basic principle of they needed more land for all of their own people. At first the teens do not understand this concept, but then realize that the enemy had to have found a justification to commit this harm and in return, the teens must find their own means to justify an attack against their enemy.

I am surprised that this book has been out since the early nineties and that it was never recommended to me before. I in turn recommend this book for you to read. I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. Next I'll be watching the Australian film adaptation of the book.

My top 5 favorite books.... so far

Friends of mine always ask me what my favorite books are, and it's a very difficult question to answer. I always want to quote Drew Barrymore's character in Ever After, when asked to pick a favorite book she responds "I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens." So this is my best answer without any subcategories, although when/if I get better at this blogging thing I hopefully will add more to the list.

1) The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling (yes all seven of them).

       --- I love them all but Half-Blood Prince is my favorite of the seven.

2) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

       ---You may call my choices generic and I may call you a stinky hipster in return.

3) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

       --- Ignore the blatant racism of the author for a return to the old southern ways (which historically          resurged in the 1920's) and it's a beautiful love story. Also the most realistic character I've read in a long time.

4) Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

       --- If you love paranormal, urban fantasy, and strong female characters, this is a book for you.

5) Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

    --- A book that seems normal to the reader, and then goes on to question the morals of humanity in one of the most intelligent books I've ever read.

One of those days

Requiem

Title: Requiem
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Harper Collins
Year: 2013
Series: The Delirium series
Genre: YA, Science Fiction/Dystopia

Plot Sumary: The final book in a dystopian trilogy, this is the story if Lena and her struggle to chose between two guys: Alex and Julian. After having run away and fallen for Julian in Pandemonium, Lena discovers that her first love Alex is alive, but he is not the same man he used to be. The old Alex was sweet and caring, this one is hard and jaded. Lena, Alex and Julian must work together in the same group in order to survive and continue with the movement. The other side of Requiem is of the perspective of Hana, Lena's former friend who has gone through with the cure but is scared it may not have worked.

Opinion: Pretty soon I am going to write a theory based on the third book in a dystopian trilogy called the Mockingjay Effect. By this I mean the first two books in a trilogy are just mesmerizing and wonderful and keep the reader sucked in, whereas the third book feels rushed, muddled and always has an outcome which leaves the reader unsatisfied. Right from the beginning of the book Lauren Oliver skips ahead from the pivotal moment at the end of Pandemonium (where she should have picked up in the third book) and quickly skips to the three unhappy lovers on their trip away from the bad guys (the regulators). The rest of the book is just them traveling around, kind of helping the resistance but not really and having Lena ponder on the past. In my opinion Lena was a bit more passive than active. The more interesting story line was that of Hana, who has had the procedure to be cured, but is having doubts about her wedding, her cities morals, and the everlasting guilt of a betrayal she committed against Lena a while back. Hana's situation was the most intense because she had to hide her feelings in plain sight (her procedure probably helped with this). Hana's fiance was literally terrifying, as it became clear he was a sociopath and wanted nothing but to harm others under the guise of helping them.

Overall, I call a redo. Books one and two were great, but I wish someone had pulled Oliver aside and told her to fix the book because it did not match the rest of the trilogy and felt VERY muddled and rushed. Unfortunately Requiem falls for me under the same category as Mockingjay (Hunger Games trilogy), Reached (Aly Condie) and Forever (Mercy Wolves trilogy). All had so much potential that they never accessed.  I waited eagerly for over a year to read this book so I was very disappointed. I give this book a 3 out of 5, mostly because I loved the first two books so much.

Every Day

Title: Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Publisher/Year: Knopf Books, 2012
Series: none
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Every Day is the story of this amorphous being known as A, who wakes up in the body of someone new every single day. It's always been this way, and A does not know why. One day in the body of a shallow, negligent boy named Justin, A meets a girl named Rhiannon and falls hopelessly in love. A then vows to do everything possible to be with her, despite the issue of being a different person everyday.

This book started out a bit slow, describing A falling in love with Rhiannon. I had to push myself to go further because the main question of the book is "where is this story line going?". It really did get better. The main aspect that the book explores is can we really love someone for who they are, despite what they look like? Whether they are male or female, fat or thin, etc? The main plot lines include A's relationship with Rhiannon, the after effects A has had on a boy named Nathan, and the question of whether or not A could stay in one body, or better yet, should A stay in a body. David Levithan wrote a very interesting book, but there were only so many inevitable places the book could go so the ending was expected if not necessary. Levithan does actually redeem some characters thought lost by the end which was unexpected. More food for thought that the book touched upon was the idea that when living another person's life day to day gives the reader perspective on how many people live in many different ways, not one person is the same.

I give this book 3 out of 5 stars as it was interesting, but it probably won't be a profound book that I remember forever.

The Dreamcatcher Trilogy

Title: Wake, Fade and Gone
Author: Lisa McMann
Publisher/Year:  Simon Pulse, 2008-2010
Series?: Dreamcatcher series
Genre: YA fiction, fantasy/paranormal
Source: Burbank Central Library

This series is about Janie, who gets sucked into dreams whenever people around her fall asleep. The result of this being she lives as an outcast, she has only one real friend and her alcoholic mother pretty much ignores her. Until one day she falls into the dreams of Cabel, the awkward boy who grew up into a good looking guy, who has terrifying nightmares that Janie becomes a participant in.

Lisa McMann did a really good job writing in the third person so that it wasn't too distracting. These books are a very interesting concept and McMann does really well on developing Janie's ability throughout them. The first book is managing to control it, the second book was for using the ability for a good cause, and the third laid out a future and Janie's options for her ability. The chemistry between Cabel and Janie was amazing, they both come from horrible family backgrounds that seem to follow and haunt them into their adult lives, but when they work together they are able to find peace and manage their fears.The second book Fade was by far the best in the series, as it had the most coherent plot and suspense of all three of the books.

Rated as a whole I would give the series a 3.5 out of 5 stars, and a definite read for anyone who likes paranormal/fantasy.

Frost Burned

Title: Frost Burned 

Author: Patricia Briggs
Publisher/Year: Ace Hardcover, 2013
Series: Mercy Thompson series
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: Burbank Central Library

Spoilers! If you have not read the first six books in the Mercy Thompson series (and I highly recommend you do) please do not read this review as it is for the most recent book in the series. Mercy and her stepdaughter have decided to go shopping on Black Friday when they get into a car accident that destroys Mercy's beloved Rabbit. The problem is when they try to contact the rest of the pack, including Mercy's husband, Adam the Alpha, no one answer the phone. It becomes abundantly clear that the pack was kidnapped, but by who? And why?

This seventh book started out a bit slow, but once it was made clear that the book was not meant to be a search for the missing werewolves and more of a search to find out who is responsible, it got much better. There was the death of a beloved minor character, which was heartbreaking, but it could prove to be good character development for his mate in future books. Frost Burned also returns the character of the vampire Edward, struggling to maintain what is left of his humanity. The book also brings us back to Mercy's interesting ability to see and communicate with ghosts, something I feel that Briggs could touch upon more as it proves to be very thrilling whenever it happens. Overall this was a great addition to the series, Briggs was able to balance many different supernatural creatures and characters all in the same book instead of just touching upon them in separate books. Bravo, I give this book a rating of 4 out of 5 stars! I cannot wait until the next one!