The Madman's Daughter

The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I should start off saying the low rating is my own fault! I'm not sure why, but I did not read what this book was about. I saw it was a "mover & shaker" so I put a hold on it at the library. NOTE TO SELF: Read the summary of the book first! This book was a gothic, science fiction horror yet it was labeled young adult. I wouldn't want my teen-aged kids to read this.

Again, not the authors fault, she is a storyteller and I'm sure a good one, I just didn't like this story. I did not like thinking of the grotesque images of animals cut apart to create half human/half animal aberrations. It felt wrong, wrong, wrong to read, just so unnatural and disturbing. It totally grossed me out and honestly I skipped the third quarter of the book and read the last quarter. I was fine with the ending and really didn't give two thoughts to the cliffhanger. It was over for me.

I also did not realize this was a series, DUH, of course it was. Is there any young adult books that aren't series these days? (I find that incredibly annoying.) Needless to say, I will not continue with this series. It simply is not a genre that interests me in the least.

Again, my own fault and I'm sorry if this offends anyone, especially the author, but I gave my honest personal perception of a story I never should have started in the first place.

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Pandemonium (Delirium, #2)

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Umm, a lot of prose in this book. Sometimes a bit much, but could also be beautiful. Most of it was predictable but I still like how the story was written. I'm absolutely going to forget everything about this book except for the last page so I will definitely have to read this again before the next book is released. I am looking forward to how this series will wrap up, I'm completely stumped as to how the situation could be resolved! The big lingering question now is: WHO? :-)





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Cinder (Lunar Chronicles, #1)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmmm. Not overly impressed by this book. I'm a big fan of young adult science fiction/dystopia, but this one, I dunno, maybe a little too much cheese factor for me. It was also a little bit predictable which seemed perhaps a little too juvenile. I'm being picky, but I just can't put my finger on exactly why it wasn't a hit with me.

The story follows Cinder, a cyborg (part human, part robot) who lives with her step-mother and step-sisters in New Beijing. Yes, very much like Cinderella except in the future and she likes one of the step-sisters. Anyway, there is a plague that is killing scores of people around the world. In order to find a cure, the government has started a draft for the cyborgs to be guinea pigs to find the cure for the disease. Cinder pushes her step-mother too far and her step-mother volunteers Cinder to be a plague-curing-subject. Cinder of course doesn't want to but when her sister contracts the plague, Cinder realizes it is her duty to help her sister anyway she can.

Cinder discovers many secrets within the empire and that the Lunar queen (yes, as in the moon) wants to marry the emperor so that she can rule the world. Cinder befriends the emperor who does not know of Cinders real identity. He likes her but Cinder knows that this is a match that cannot be made. Meanwhile, many people are searching for the long lost niece of the Lunar queen who is the rightful heir to the Lunar throne but of course the queen wants to find her first and eliminate her. It just all sounds so corny to me. I don't know how better to describe the book, to make it sound more appealing. It is a little cheesy.

This was a book that didn't hold my interest throughout all of it. I could go a day or two without picking it up. But to it's credit, there were also pages that I flew through trying to figure out what was next.

It is good enough that I will read the other books in the series when they come out...but that is along ways away.

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Delirium (Delirium #1)

Delirium by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent! I'm loving all these dystopian young adult books coming out. This one may lead the pack out of all that I've read this year. There are similarities to other popular YA dystopian books out there, but the major plot stands out on it's own.

Way in the future the government decides that it can cure the disease, amor deliria nervosa, also known simply as...love. They figure a simple procedure now deemed safe for 18 year olds, can solve the problems of the world. If there is no love, then there can also be no hate and that is what the government decides is the problem with the world. One simple procedure will make the world a better place.

Lena Halloway is the main character in this book and is 95 days away from her procedure. She is excited to essentially have her feelings removed, to forget her family's past and move on to the mundane but secure life on being cured of the "disease".

There are hold outs, the sympathizers, the Invalids who live in the Wilds and oppose the procedure, those who fall ill to the "disease" before their procedure. Lena's best friend, Hana, decides she wants to live a little before her procedure and Lena is opposed. One night Lena goes to a party she knows Hana is at to warn her of the raids by the Regulators to catch sympathizers and rule breakers. Lena may be angry with her best friend, but she doesn't want to see her hurt or in trouble. Lena makes it to the party only to have it raided within minutes of her arrival.

From there her world is turned upside down after she escapes the raid with the help of Alex, a handsome boy whom she thinks is already cured and is safe. But is he? Is she falling victim to the disease? Is it possible that it's not really a disease? After all, how can something that's supposed to be so horrific...feel so good...

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Insurgent (Divergent #2)

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ack! This is why I hate reading current series. What a cliffhanger! What an incredible ending that has me thirsting to read the next...oh man, how long will that be!?!?!?

GREAT BOOK!

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Legend (Legend #1)

Legend by Marie Lu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Is this a young adult book? Wow, it was pretty awesome! I seem to be on a young adult dystopian kick. This very well could have been better than Divergent, I'm not sure. I think Divergent was a bit more descriptive, I felt like I could "see" more of the book by the authors description, but Legend was pretty kick-a**, full of action. Pretty gruesome for a young adult too, but certainly tolerable.

I'm tempted to give this 5 stars but I just can't because like I mentioned, it wasn't as descriptive as I would have liked. I know what the hero of the book looks like, but I still can't picture the heroine in my mind.

So excited to continue on in this series!

June is a young, wealthy military prodigy living the Republic is at war with The Colonies and a group of people who call themselves The Patriots. The Republic clearly has a sector for rich and poor. The poor are constantly battling the plague while the rich get vaccines. June scored 1500 on The Trials and quickly mastered her education and was promoted to an agent at 15 years old. Her parents died when she was younger so she was being raised by her brother. After a hospital break in her brother is killed by the notorious criminal, Day. June is determined to track Day down and avenge her brothers murder. June goes undercover in the poor sectors and thinks she has found him, but not before Day helps her after being injured in a Skids fight and not before they share an attraction leading to a kiss. When June discovers this boy is actually the infamous Day, she reports to her superiors and a plan is hatched to capture Day. Things go wrong, Day's mother is shot by June's superiors and Day is captured. June is torn between an inner trust she feels for Day after he tells her there is no way he could have killed her brother. June makes more discoveries from secret messages that her deceased brother had left in case he died. The more she looks into the goings on of the Republic, she realizes that her parents were killed and so was her brother, it was no accident...they knew too much. June knows she that if her superiors suspect she is learning the truth, she will be killed as well. June must help Day escape and asks the Patriots for help. They assist, the plan is executed and they escape. However, Day's brother, John, saves his brother by when the escape hits a snag and John sacrifices himself to save Day. At the end of the book, June and Day are alone together on the outskirts of Los Angeles, wondering what their next step will be, where they will go, they are now the two most wanted people in the Republic...

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Divergent (Divergent #1)

Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What an awesome, action packed book. I couldn't put it down. This is what dystopian themed book are all about. It's as good and daunting as Mocking Jay but in a different way. Perhaps not as gruesome, but pretty darn close! I have a feeling this series could be bigger than Mocking Jay. But I don't think a movie could do this book justice. No way!

Beatrice Prior lives in a very futuristic seemingly post apocalyptic Chicago. Lake Michigan is now a marsh, no longer a lake. Many of the buildings are in ruins. The area is now populated by five factions, each one representing a different responsibility and way of life.

Beatrice Potter must make a choice of which faction she will choose to live the rest of her life. A choice that will sever ties with her family and her past way of life. Choosing the faction she is drawn to, Dauntless, is a choice that leads to terrifying secrets. While dealing with her own deadly secret she is learning to deal with love, beatings, fears and learning that she really is not a fit for any of the factions. She is Divergent. She is on her own with others who want to avoid war and others that are also Divergent.

There is so much to this book I'm hard pressed to find the right words to give it justice. If there is one thing I hate about this...it's that I have to wait for the rest of the series to release!!!

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Crossed (Matched #2)

Crossed by Ally Condie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It just didn't feel like a great follow up to Matched. Matched was cool and thrilling from start to finish and while it felt similar to other books I've read, it had it's own sci-fi spin. Most of this book lacked depth. It was poetic but not necessarily in a good way. I didn't feel like I understood what the characters looked like or truly felt. It wasn't until the second half of the book that I started to understand the characters and their purpose. Thankfully the second half of the book felt like something was finally happening!

After reading it, I'm left with more questions and I'm excited to see it all come together in the next book.

I wish I could remember more of what happened in Matched because I struggled a bit with all that occured between Xander and Cassia, Cassia and Ky. Did I miss any signs of what Xander really was?

I still feel like I don't fully understand what the Farmers are, who the Society is, who started the Rising? Perhaps I could call the Farmers hippies or maybe even Freemen? I wish I could understand more about the start up of the Society. Who really runs it? How long has it been around? How many Rebels actually are planted in the Society? And who the heck is the Enemy???

I'm really hoping all of these burning questions are answered in the FINAL book of this trilogy. And man-oh-man I sure hope she does end this series as stated with a third book. Nothing ruins a series like adding more books to a trilogy.

And for my own recollection... Cassia is in the Outer provinces and meets Indie at the work camp. Cassia sneaks onto an air ship to go to the villages to try to find Ky but ends up a decoy. When she gets there she realizes this is the same camp that Ky was at. She learns that he has escaped with two others. With Indie and another boy who knows the direction they went, they escape at night toward the Carvings. The boy goes his own way and dies. Ky is with Vick and Eli. Vick was the unofficial leader at the camp/village, but he died when someone? dropped poison into the river he was fishing at. Vick was a citizen who Contracted with an Anomaly and was reclassified and was made work as a decoy. Ky and Eli (who is the youngest and Ky feels protective of him) start to head out but then they see Cassia in the distance. They are reunited. Cassia learns that Ky wants nothing to do with the Rising. He wants to be a Farmer. He saw that his father was part of the rising and saw that it only kills people. Indie figures out that Ky has other reasons for not wanting to join the Rising. She figures out that Xander is also part of the rising and if Cassia were to figure out that her original match, and life long best friend were part of the Rising, that Cassia might realize she is meant to be with Xander after all, and not Ky. Cassia does not know this but knows that there is some secret about Xander but that he will have to be the one to tell her. Cassia and Indie are dead set on joining the Rising when it comes time to decide to rebel or join the Farmers. Eli, and the Farmer they came across, Hunter, head to join the escaped Farmers while Cassia and Indie head towards the Rising. Ky is torn but realizes he needs to be with Cassia. He would do anything for her. Cassia and Indie make it to the Rising first. Cassia is basically made to go back to the Society as a spy for the Rising. Ky is to be a pilot for an air ship in Camas. They do not get to say goodbye but both know where the other is. Ky is excited about Camas, though sad that he is apart from Cassia again, because it's where he believes the girl Vick loved, Laney, lives. He hopes to meet Laney? I'm not sure where Indie was sent, but Ky thinks that Indie will somehow bail on the Rising too. Hopefully the next book can resolve so many of the questions I have! I am truly excited for it.

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Out of Time

Out of Time by Monique Martin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Started off well. Minimal paranormal, more of a supernatural/sci-fi feel. The paranormal element wasn't introduced until after the second half. About two thirds of the way through I got bored with the story and struggled to want to pick it up again. It would have been 10x better if they stuck to the sci-fi element. The lone vampire was a bit lame. He was a gangster circa 1920's vampire. Just didn't really fit with the whole story.
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Extras (Uglies #4)

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Here's my review of how I think Aya, the main character would tell it:

This is a dizzy making story of Aya, a wanna-be kicker (one who spreads gossip and trends) and wants a high face ranking in her city by kicking a mind blowing story about a secret click called the Sly Girls. When Aya hangs with these adrenaline kicking girls, they discover a fear making secret that Aya knows if she story-kicks, her face ranking will finally be in the top thousand.

With the help of the icy-most-famous-making name in the world here to help, Tally Youngblood, Aya and her friends learn how fright making kicking this story will be.

Okay, that's about all the fake making talk I can make! LOL! This story was rather lame compared to the other three books. This is why an author should say the word trilogy and stick to it. The talk was perpetually annoying.

I did crack up at what I take to be the authors attempt at portraying how our world could be in several hundred years...think Facebook and Wall-E.

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Specials (Uglies #3)

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


What the what?! I clearly set my expectations too high for the finale of this trilogy. While the whole of the book and the series was pretty good and an unusual perspective from the "bad guy", even if she was unknowingly "bad", I mostly enjoyed it. But the ending fell so flat I had to scrape it off the floor.

I would rate the series as a whole at a 4 star. I really enjoyed that the author gave the reader so many perspectives of this society from Tally's view, from an innocent ugly, to a bubbleheaded pretty, to an icy, cruel special. I haven't read a book that gives you a first person story of being a bad guy. Granted, as I stated earlier, she was programmed in a sense to be cruel so seeing her internal battle with it was pretty cool.

I would really like to read more by this author!

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Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3)

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Well. I guess I'm neither overly ecstatic nor let down. **UPDATE - A Few Days Later** I can't stop thinking about the book. Undoubtedly this was my favorite in the series. I think she wrapped up this tragic storyline in the best possible way. It was a deep, dark book. I loved it...

I can agree with the lower ratings I've seen because the romance element was a back story, not really much going on there. For me, that was actually okay. The bigger part was fighting, fighting, fighting. Fighting to regain control of some many things...your mind, your freedom, your land and your life. It was very intense and incredibly sad, but when you're fighting a war where anything goes, tragedy is going to happen.

Thinking back to the beginning of the series, I can't imagine anyone was too surprised that these nasty, deadly, deceitful war games took place. The Hunger Games set you up to understand you really can't trust anyone and that was the theme all the way up to the end.

I've resigned to accept the ending, no hard feelings. Sure it would have been romantic to drag out the story of who ended up together but it would have taken away from the whole book when I think more about it. It didn't dramatize lip locks and embraces at all in this book, it was just like Gale said, that Katniss would end up with who she thinks she could survive with the best. And I think it worked out perfectly, how could it not for these two?! (I won't spoil it!!)
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Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


First off, I won this advanced reading copy from Goodreads giveaway....thanks a million!

Who knew that learning cursive could be so romantic and moving?! (You'll have to read to see what I mean!)

Cassia Reyes lives in a society where choices are made for the citizens. The Officials decide what you eat, how much you exercise, what your vocation will be, what music, poems and books you can listen to and read...even who you will be matched to in life. When Cassia goes to the Matching Ceremony she is matched with her long time best friend Xander. Days later Cassia plugs in Xander's data card to see more about her lifetime match; but it's not only Xander she sees, she also sees another childhood friend, Ky Markham, appear on the screen. A mistake? Cassia is intrigued by this, not only because the Officials never make a mistake, but by the mysterious Ky himself that moved to the boroughs from the Outer Provinces.

Cassia's curiosity draws her to Ky and he to her. They grow closer despite the fact that they are breaking every rule created by the Officials to protect the citizens. Ky teaches Cassia simple things that she never would have learned otherwise, like writing, thinking and learning that love can exist outside of her ordered Match. That there are others out there who are fighting the control the Officials have...for freedom.

I loved this book, it has some small similarities to The Hunger Games and to The Giver being that they are all dystopian in nature. There isn't the action that is in HUNGER GAMES but there is more human depth and awareness of feelings than THE GIVER. I actually like Matched better than both of those books. It's brilliant, I love the soft and sweet romance that slowly develops. I love the passion the resonates from Cassia and Ky when they figure out the only way they can be together is in a free society, not the society created to "keep them safe".

I hadn't realized this was a series when I received this book. I think this series could be huge. It's has elements of what's popular in fiction these days, young romance, dystopia and question the all-controlling society. It's good, real good, I hope this book becomes a success!

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The Time Travelers Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Would have been 5 stars but the ending fell a little flat for me. There was some excessive story-line that could have been removed, it slowly deflated like 10 day old birthday balloon. In the beginning it was exciting, fresh, fun, but after the novelty and brilliance of it wore off...fffbbbbttttt.
Excellent read for most of the book, very creative writing. It sure did jump back and forth a lot in time, duh, it's a time travel book but I managed not to get lost and confused.

On to the movie and I have an inkling that the movie cannot do the book justice. (P.S. Just watched the movie...it stunk.)

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The Giver (The Giver #1)

The Giver by Lois Lowry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I think this is what would happen if you crossed democrats with communists. Okay, low blow, but there is no war, there is no single feeling entity, it's big governemnt (in a sense), it's all about community and what each and every individual must contribute to it. In some aspects it's great that everyone does contribute, but to have no choice in it is down right freaky!

***from here, there are spoilers***

You are told not to have feelings, you are told what to contribute to the community, you are told who to marry, you are assigned children upon signing up for one (they do no procreate as a married couple), everyone is equal, you do not lie or you will be "released", there is no skin color,in fact, there is NO color. There is no free will or choice, period!

I found this book to be both extremly disturbing yet highly fascinating. I was glad to see by the end of the book that someone realized that choice is what humans are really all about. I truly liked this book, it' a classic simply for the debate it brings up between lovers and haters.

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