Counting The Ways To Where You Are

Published:  September 3rd, 2013

The 100 (The Hundred #1)

By: Kass Morgan

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

ISBN-13:  9780316234474

In the future, humans live in city-like spaceships orbiting far above Earth's toxic atmosphere. No one knows when, or even if, the long-abandoned planet will be habitable again. But faced with dwindling resources and a growing populace, government leaders know they must reclaim their homeland... before it's too late.

Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents are being sent on a high-stakes mission to recolonize Earth. After a brutal crash landing, the teens arrive on a savagely beautiful planet they've only seen from space. Confronting the dangers of this rugged new world, they struggle to form a tentative community. But they're haunted by their past and uncertain about the future. To survive, they must learn to trust - and even love - again.

Review

     Clarke, Wells, Glass and Bellamy all have something in common.  Soon they'll be sent to Earth to live, as an experiment to see whether or not it's truly habitable for people once again.  Two of them are going voluntarily, following the people they love.  One of them is going along with it to avoid certain death and the last is going to find a way to stay behind at any cost.  Bellamy's main concern is his sister Octavia, Clarke and Wells have a complicated love/hate relationship to work out, and Glass is in love with Luke who seems to have given up on them.  The air is breathable on Earth, but there are plenty of dangers to keep the teens on their toes.  And with the government keeping secrets up on the ship, Glass may be running out of time to save herself and Luke.  Will all of the teens be able to survive in the cutthroat worlds they're part of and the web of lies they've been dropped into?  What if Earth isn't quite as abandoned as they always thought?

     This is definitely perfect material for a CW television show.  I will say that can be both a good and bad thing, when talking about a book.  It has plenty of detailed descriptions, I could really picture the ship they were on and the wild, regressed back to primitive Earth they get sent to.  The characters all have interesting backstories and their relationships with each other are honest and full of a stark combination of pain, love and that strange self-centeredness that comes with being a teenager in any society.  I definitely believed in the reality of the characters.  It was the rest of it that could use some more work.

     The plot has major potential, but I shared the feelings of a lot of other readers that not much really happened when it comes down to the deconstruction of what I just read.  I liked the idea that the ships were running out of resources and were using the delinquents to test out the viability of moving back on to Earth.  It's a very interesting premise.  But the plot is mostly consisted of flashbacks and long conversations/angsty moments between the main characters.  The Lord of the Flies dynamic once they got to Earth wasn't explored as much as I would have liked.  I think Clarke forgave Wells for his stupidity a little too easily.  Octavia was a little to mysterious for me to draw a strong sibling connection between her and Bellamy.  She really uses him pretty badly in the present time the book's set in.  I did like the mystery concerning whether or not there were people still inhabiting Earth.  Overall it was an interesting science fiction read (if a little light on the true sci-fi elements).  In practice it reads a little too much like a TV show to make a phenomenal book though.  If you want your book to be something above and beyond, it needs to stand out.  It was a good setup and I hope the rest of the series has more meat and depth to it.  Otherwise the promise will be unfulfilled.

 

VERDICT:   3.5/5  Stars

 

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No favors or money were exchanged for this review.  This book was published September 3rd, 2013.*

Snatched Up By POD People

Published: June 4th, 2013
PODs (Pods # 1)
By: Michelle Pickett
Spencer Hill Press
ISBN-13:  9781937053284

Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul.

After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters.

Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life--a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.

 Review

 

     Eva is sixteen and just wants to live in peace with her parents and maybe grow up to do something that makes her happy.  But than an unknown virus starts breaking out across the country and the government takes action that will changer her life forever.  Unsure how the virus is even transmitted, the government decides to have a lottery to decide who will live protected for a year in underground PODs, that will support life and keep them safe.  But is the lottery really fair?  Eva is chosen and goes into her POD not knowing what to expect.  A year later when she comes out, she's in love with David and ready to start a new life in a society different from what she left behind.  The virus may not be destroyed like they thought, and when things take a turn for the worst Eva and David may be forced to retreat into the PODs once again for safety.  Can they make it long enough for a cure to be found or will they be killed by the infected who are hunting them relentlessly?

     This book is scary in way that I haven't felt since watching that movie Contagion a few years ago.  How easily this could actually happen in the reality of the world we live in makes it downright terrifying to me!  And to be honest, as horrible as it was that the government only chose people between ages 12-24 for the POD lottery, it made sense on a certain level.  They needed people young enough and healthy enough to survive and rebuild a broken society.  They needed to be able to be taught and molded into certain career/societal roles and they also needed to be self-sufficient and not dependent on an adult for survival.  With only 70,000 spots in the PODs, it makes sense.  But it would still be extremely agonizing to know that everyone you left behind is almost assuredly dead and they died in a painful way.
     Eva is a strong, admirable girl but she is unsure how she can make it without her parents.  Living with 10 strangers for a year isn't her idea of fun, but somehow they start to get close to each other and make their own family.  Especially after delivering her fellow POD survivor's baby and falling in love with another PODmate, David.  But when the doors open a year and a half later and they are all separated into different 'village' assignments, Eva and the others have no real hope of seeing each other again.  The relationships between all of them were really realistic, not perfect because they were all basically scared teenagers.  But they managed to prop each other up and survive for their time in the PODs.  Also, other people are complaining about insta-love between David and Eva, but to me it just seemed like instant attraction.  The will-they/won't-they dynamic and their attempts to 'protect' each other DID start to annoy me.  But the romances in this book were very sweet and had some great chemistry.  I won't tell you what happens after they leave the PODs, but this book was full of action, romance and truly great character interactions and growing maturity on the part of Eva especially.  It was a wonderful book and one of the best I've read so far this year.  It could stand alone, so I'm interested to see if the next one is a sequel or a companion novel.  I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great dystopian read, and happening to be sick of the same old stories.

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. This book was published June 4th, 2013.*

A Waste of My Time

Expected Publication:  March 26th, 2013

Wasteland

By: Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan

HarperTeen

ISBN-13: 9780062118516

Welcome to the Wasteland. Where all the adults are long gone, and now no one lives past the age of nineteen. Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan’s post-apocalyptic debut is the first of a trilogy in which everyone is forced to live under the looming threat of rampant disease and brutal attacks by the Variants—hermaphroditic outcasts that live on the outskirts of Prin. Esther thinks there’s more to life than toiling at harvesting, gleaning, and excavating, day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day. But then Caleb, a mysterious stranger, arrives in town, and Esther begins to question who she can trust. As shady pasts unravel into the present and new romances develop, Caleb and Esther realize that they must team together to fight for their lives and for the freedom of Prin.

Review

     Esther and all of the others living in Prin are just trying to live through one day at a time.  The difference between her and them, is that she is friends with a Variant named Skar and they believe Variants are an abomination.  Then the Variants begin to attack the town of Prin, firebombing buildings and killing innocent citizens for seemingly no reason.  Around this time Caleb, a stranger, comes to town on a mission.  Caleb is determined to find out who murdered his wife and kidnapped their infant son - and more importantly, why they did it.  And what does the Source have to do with everything?  Esther is shunned and Caleb is run out of town as they get closer and closer to the truth.  With time running out, can they figure out what's really going on, save the town and get Caleb's son back?  I was wary about this book from the get-go because of the authors feeling the need to make the 'bad guys' hermaphrodites and outcasts.  Oh, so just because they don't have one set gender they're deformed and disgusting?  Shame on both of you assholes for perpetuating stereotypes, even in dystopian fiction.  I managed to slog my way through the book, even without any real world-building to get me involved in the story and some horrifically one-dimensional characters.  Esther is a spoiled brat, who lets her sister do all the work and then steals food to give to her friends when her sister isn't watching.  She admits that she doesn't know how to do anything, but it's almost like Esther's proud of it, even though it makes her useless, in a high-risk, low-survival world.  I liked Caleb, but I feel like I didn't get to know him very well and that while his quest was admirable it was also prepackaged to fit anyone.  The romance between Esther and Caleb was unrealistic and majorly based on lust and nothing else.  It was sickeningly obvious from their first interaction that they were going to be thrown together.  I did like the revelation about what was underneath Joseph's building and way Levi was defeated.  Overall, a very lazy attempt at high grade dystopia and I will definitely NOT be reading the next one.

VERDICT:  1.5/5  Stars

*I received this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie. No favors or money were exchanged for this review. It will be available for purchase on March 26th, 2013.*

Wake Me Up When Winter Is Over...

Expected Publication:  October 16th, 2012
Ashen Winter (Ashfall # 2)
By: Mike Mullins
Tanglewood Press
ISBN-13: 9781933718750

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series.

It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

Review

 

     When we left Alex and Darla at the end of Ashfall, they had finally made it to his Uncle's farm only to find out that Alex's parents had already left to find him shortly before they got there.  This book picks up six months later and his parents still haven't returned to the farm.  When they are attacked by a bandit who has gun that belonged to Alex's Dad, they decide to get any information they can and follow a trail that will (hopefully) lead them to his parents.  They thought it was bad when they were out on the road before, but in the last six months things have only gotten worse.  Food is scarce, some of the surviving factions have turned cannabalistic, the weather is twice as brutal and morality has pretty much been thrown out the window with slavers snatching people up to make a profit.  When Darla is shot and kidnapped, it's up to Alex to rescue his parents from the government camp where they're prisoners and prevent Darla from suffering a fate worse that anything they could imagine.  I was truly looking forward to this one since the moment I finished Ashfall, which I thought was probably the best dystopian book I read this year (that was published in 2011).  Darla is still a very strong and rational balance for Alex's less thought-out and more emotional actions/schemes.  I liked that they finally decided to go after his parents, but I was mad that Darla was gone for almost half of the book's main narrative.  Her kidnapping did provide a lot of pivotal action for the plot though, and Alex's struggle to get her back kept things moving along.  I liked the inclusion of Alyssa (a desperate teen girl, forced into prostitution to protect her autistic brother) and Ben, her brother who has high-functioning autism.  How would such a thing be handled during the apocalypse?  Mullins gives a very respectful and realistic look at the possible answers to this question.    One of the things that really irked me were the way Alex's parents treated him like some helpless kid who had been playing video games through the apocalypse and was too stupid to take care of himself/understand danger.  Seriously?  He'd been separated from them for SIX FREAKING MONTHS!  What, did they think the stork took him back while they were gone and took care of him again?  Puh-lease.   Also, the way Alyssa persisted in trying to seduce Alex while Darla was missing and she knew he was taken, plus she'd basically been raped repeatedly and completely traumatized rang very false.  It also made her come across as a mercenary, unsympathetic whore (at least to me personally).  The non-stop action with no even pacing also got on my nerves.  I felt like things were constantly being thrown at me and I should take notes or something.  It lacked balance.  I liked this book overall and felt that it managed to escape the sophmore slump of most second books in trilogies.  But it wasn't nearly as good as the first book.  I will be eagerly awaiting the third book though, to see what happens next! :)

 

VERDICT:  3.25/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is October 16th, 2012*

I'm Just Prey in a Hunter's World

Published: May 8th, 2012
The Hunt (The Hunt # 1)
By: Andrew Fukuda
St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN-13:  9781250005144

Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.
Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.
When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

Review

   Gene is not at all like his classmates.  He doesn't sleep hanging from the ceiling, he breathes, sweats and can go outside during the day without being hurt by the Sun.  His fangs are fake and Gene is masquerading as 'normal' among creatures that would like nothing more than to rip him apart and drink him dry of blood.  Then he is chosen to be among those hunting the reamining 'hepers' (humans) in a competition that will be televised.  Another of his classmates, Ashely June, has been chosen, a girl he could care about if their races allowed for it.  Everything changes when the officials pit them against one another for their very survival.  Also, Gene begins to know the hepers that he will be hunting - people just like him, only without the advantage of hiding in plain sight.  Can Gene survive the hunt or will he be slaughtered with the rest of his kind?  I honestly didn't know what to expect with this one.  It's also kind of funny that I never made the connection that the creatures ruling society were vampires until I was almost finished with the book.  I know, I'm kinda flaky and dense!  But as much as the premise interested me, Gene was a hard character to empathize with.  He's just scraping by, instead of truly living.  Plus the amount of time he spent talking about his sweaty armpits and the way the creatures drooled at the thought of hepers got annoying, monotonous and unnecessary after the first few times.  Plus it was disgusting to constantly think about it.  The whole book began to decline when it started to focus onm Gene and Ashley June's 'forbidden love.'  Especially when it turned out that she was heper like him.  This book was disappointing, boring and disgusting a lot of the time.  I will not be reading the rest of the series.  I'm just not interested, it wasn't the book for me.

VERDICT:  2/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published May 8th, 2012.*

Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down

Published: October 11th, 2011
Ashfall
By: Mike Mullin
Tanglewood Press
ISBN-13: 9781933718552


Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don't know it's there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.

Review

   Alex doesn't want to go visit his Uncle's farm with his family and subsequently die of boredom.  So his parents actually agree to let him stay home alone for the weekend.  After being a jerk to his family all he wants to do is be alone with his computer.  But then Yellowstone has a volcano erupt and ash travels to Alex's hometown, destroying his house and much of everything in the nearby area.   Feeling panicked about his family's safety (even his bratty sister), Alex decides to make his way on foot to his Uncle's house (140 miles) and find out if they made it through the disaster.  Along the way Alex is forced to deal with the descent of humanity into looting, killing and evil.  Food is in scarce supply and many farm fields have been ruined by the ash.  Also, prisoners have escaped in the chaos and Alex almost dies after an encounter with one of the brutal inmates.  He is saved by a girl named Darla and her Mom, who nurse him back to health.  He learns a lot about helping on their farm to harvest the corn that's still edible and how to build machines to simulate modern conveniences.  But when Darla's Mom is murdered and Alex is forced to leave with her in tow, will Darla and Alex be able to safely make it to his Uncle's?  Even after the government turns out to be yet another threat?  This was the best dystopian book that I've read since finishing the Hunger Games series.  I loved how dark it was and the terrifying part was how viable such a future is.  The people portrayed have real feelings and reactions in dire situations.  I especially enjoyed the fact that while most dystopians focus on the world quite awhile AFTER a major disaster, this was the immediate aftermath.  Alex grows and changes so much over the course of the book that by the end he is such a different character it amazes me.  Darla is a wonderful comparison to Alex, because she had major adult responsibilities from the beginning, before the crisis.  She still manages to learn new things about who she is and her place in the new world order.  I would go as far to say that this will be in my Top 10 for books that I've read when 2012 draws to a close.  Highly recommended to anyone with a sense of adventure, who doesn't shy away from harsh content.

VERDICT:  5/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores and online.*

Unwritten Future

Published: October 19th, 2011
The Mers
By: Ami Blackwelder
CreateSpace
ISBN-13: 9781466455153


A Mermaid Dystopian
What lies beneath the surface? One hundred years from now, the world has changed and brought with it, new forms of life. Who are the Mers? Who is Mira? Mira always knew she was different. Growing up with Mers, she never quite fit in. When Mira breaks the rules and takes Niren across the border that divides Ellis Island and New Jersey, a border that divides two vastly different worlds, she thought the journey to find out who she really is would be an easy one. But as the world in Jersey proves to be a convoluted mix of Aristocrats who hate the Mers, Pirates who want to sell them, and Magi who want to use them...finding her true identity will be a challenge, especially when her best friend Niren is a Mer willing to fight to the death.

Review

   Mira is a teenage girl living in a shattered world, a world that survived a massive flood and is mostly made up of water now.  Humans have been evolving to adapt to their new environment, some being born with gills and webbed hands/feet.  This has caused wars between the newly evolved humans, named Mers, and the humans who have stayed the same.  The wars are supposedley over, but the races remain separated and pirates steal away unsuspecting Mers to sell their bodies piece by piece to the wealthy humans who use them to try and live forever.  Mira has realized that even though she lives as a Mer, she isn't one.  All she wants is to know where she comes from and who her real parents are.  But all Mira manages to do when she steals away to the human side of the divide is cause major trouble for all the Mers, especially her best friend Nerin and his sister Nerissa.  It sparks the remnants of the war, threatening to blow up the powder keg of resentments lying in wait.  Who will be left standing in the end, humans or Mers?  This was an extremely interesting read and I liked the plotline.  It was like nothing I've ever read before and I can honestly say it's the first Mermaid-dystopian I've ever heard of!  The beauty of the language and the plot couldn't make up for the truly lacking dialogue and the two-dimensional characters who I never really cared about at all.  I read disinterestedley because I was not emotionally connected to Mira enought to care whether she won or not.  And that is a deal-breaker for me.  I would recommend this to curiosity seekers looking for something truly different and younger teens who might be swept up in Mira and Nerin's romance.

VERDICT: 2/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the author herself, via LibraryThing. No money was exchanged for this review. The publication date of this book was October 19th, 2011.*