Review | Unravel Me by Taherah Mafi

Unravel Me
Taherah Mafi
Shatter Me #2
Published 5 Feb 2013 by HarperCollins
YA post-apocalyptic
4 stars

tick
tick
tick
tick
tick

it's almost

time for war.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.

Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

Bite-Sized Review

Once again, Taherah Mafi's spectacular writing makes a fairly standard YA dystopian stand out from the rest. With exciting reveals and plenty of action, Unravel Me will appeal to any fan of Shatter Me.

Chocolate (things I liked)
-I happened to glance at my review for Shatter Me after reading Unravel Me, and I saw this:

The contrast between Warner and Adam was spectacular. They were really mirror images of each other, and seeing their interactions with Juliette and each other was fascinating. Warner was an excellent villain; his motivations and actions were completely understandable, while Adam made a great hero. Normally I don't like love triangles, but this one is a little different – for one thing, Juliette doesn't love Warner, and for another, Adam and Warner balance each other so perfectly that this is just another aspect of their duality.

and I wanted to go back in time and say to my past self, "Kate-of-2012, you have no idea." Everything just gets more complicated in this book, and once the shock wears off, somehow Taherah Mafi makes it all seem inevitable rather than contrived.

-Mafi is one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Her imagery is nothing short of brilliant, and her creativity really makes this series stand out from the rest. There's not quite as much of the crossing-out and repetition in this book -- I know some people weren't fans -- which makes sense because Juliette's situation is more stable. Ish. It's really amazing how much the writing changes with Juliette's state of mind; when she's feeling off-balance, that's when the "crazy" writing comes back. It's incredible how well the writing fits Juliette's character.

-I wasn't a huge fan of Juliette and Adam's relationship in the first book. I thought Juliette was far more dependent on Adam than any healthy person should be. So I'm happy that she does grow and learn to interact with other people normally in this book. She still has a long way to go, but she makes progress.

Brussels Sprouts (things I didn't like)
-Angst is a little overly prevalent in this book. Juliette could do so much, if she would just stop freaking out every eleven seconds. Obviously she's not going to go from no-experience-of-normal-human-interaction to fine right away, but as a couple of characters pointed out to her, of course everything seems terrible if she's thinking about it to the exclusion of anything else.

Recommended for
Anyone who enjoyed Shatter Me. Everyone else should read Shatter Me, and then Unravel Me will be recommended for you too.

Quality: Excellent
Enjoyability: Excellent

Review | Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey

Santa Olivia
Jaqueline Carey
Santa Olivia #1
Published 2009 by Grand Central Publishing (Hachette)
Scifi-dystopia
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
Santa Olivia is the kind of story that makes you want to keep reading. If it hadn't been written by Jacqueline Carey, it isn't the sort of book I'd have picked up, but it's definitely worth a read.

King-Sized Review
Santa Olivia has been isolated from the outside world for years, ever since the influenza epidemic and the war with Mexico caused the US military to quarantine a stretch of land between the Texas and Mexico. Loup Garron, daughter of a warrior genetically engineered to be without fear, still resents the soldiers' oppression of her fellow villagers. Being literally fearless could have made her a boring character, but Carey rose to the challenge: Loup is complex and fascinating, and her reactions seem quite realistic given her nature. 

The blurb says this novel is "Jacqueline Carey's take on comic book superheroes and the classic werewolf myth," which is a true if slightly deceptive description. Santa Olivia has certain elements of vigilante justice, and they're quite good, but the story is really more about family and love. Military rule gives the town of Santa Olivia a dystopian atmosphere, and that makes much of what happens more believable. The general in charge of the base, a boxing fan, decreed years ago that if any champion of Santa Olivia could defeat one of his fighters, that person would win two tickets out of the quarantined area. So a lot of the book is about boxing, but it's not as boring as it sounds. There aren't play-by-play descriptions of matches or written versions of training montages; Carey's a much better writer than that. Instead, she ensures the reader experiences Loup's determination and struggles with her obstacles.

As for the werewolf bit, don't expect anyone to change into a wolf under the full moon. This is scifi, not fantasy, which means no magic and definitely no shapeshifters. There's not a lot of new technology - it's definitely more Hunger Games than Star Trek - but the main scifi element is definitely the genetic engineering that went into making Loup's father and those like him. I think that aspect will be further explored in the sequel.

Jacqueline Carey is very good at what you might call "non-mainstream" love stories. Loup and Pilar's story is very well done in a lot of ways. They complement each other; while Pilar is far softer than Loup, she understands people much better than Loup does. It's not a huge part of the story, but their relationship is important and makes Loup seem more human than her occasionally alien behavior would otherwise indicate.

Santa Olivia is a great story and definitely worth your time, as are the rest of Carey's books.

Quality: Excellent
Enjoyability: Excellent

Review | Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent
Veronica Roth
Divergent #2
Published May 1, 2012 by Harper Teen
YA dystopian/adventure
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
Insurgent is just as thrilling and action-packed as Divergent. Fans of the previous book will be quickly drawn in by this spectacular sequel.

King-Sized Review
Sometimes the second book in a trilogy falls a little flat. The author treats it as a bridge to the conclusion rather than a story in itself, and the entire book consists only of setup for the ending. I have to admit, I was a little worried about this possibility when I started Insurgent.

It's okay, though. Insurgent is awesome.

Insurgent is so awesome that I read it in one sitting. Not one day (although okay, yes, it was one day), but I literally sat down and did not get up until I finished the book. It is utterly action-packed, with barely enough time to grasp one thing before it moves you right along to the next fight. The pace was simply brilliant; maybe if I'd had time to sit down and think for a few minutes I would have gotten more than a vague idea of what the big reveal was, but as it was, my predictions were always distracted by the next scene.

The story starts off right where Divergent left off, with basically no time spent on recapping. Luckily, Veronica Roth has written a background post for everyone who read Divergent months ago and forgot a lot of the details, and I used this resource a lot in the first few pages. After that I got sucked into the story and forgot about the post, not to mention all of the internet.

Insurgent doesn't really seem like a YA book. Every time someone mentioned that Tris was only sixteen, I thought, "Wait. Really?" The characters in this book have a maturity born of hardship and pain, and don't at all act like teenagers most of the time. In some cases, that might be difficult to believe, but here it never seems fake because of all they've been through. While there is a little bit of drama, it's terribly minor in comparison with everything else that happens, which is something I definitely appreciated.

This is a pretty dark book, though of course it has some great comic relief. Bad things happen. Parts are shocking, though some of it wasn't much of a surprise. I really can't wait to see what Ms. Roth has in store for us next. I'm sure it will be spectacular.

Quality: Excellent
Enjoyability: Excellent

In the same aisle
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi
Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Review | Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi

Under the Never Sky
Veronica Rossi
Under the Never Sky #1
Published January 3, 2012 by Harper Collins
YA science fiction/post-apocalyptic
3 stars

Bite-Sized Review
Under the Never Sky is an exciting post-apocalyptic story that fans of the genre will certainly enjoy. It's definitely worth reading if you're interested.

King-Sized Review
You're thrown into the middle of this book with little introduction. Aria gets thrown out of her enclosed home with startling rapidity and no time for a sense of what goes on in the pod-thingy or why it exists. However, things do eventually become a little clearer as the book goes on, and it's worth working your way through the first few chapters to read the rest of the tale.

Essentially, something went wrong in the atmosphere. It gave rise to dangerous storms known as Aether storms and caused a large portion of humanity to move to domed cities, kept sane by a virtual reality interface called the Realms. Aria was content where she was until her mother went missing. That's the reason she was in the agriculture dome when the fire started, and the reason she was exile. She expected to die right away, killed by cannibals or Outsiders or the air itself. When she ran into an Outsider, she had no choice but to stay with him and hope he could help her find her mother.

The story alternates between Aria's and Perry's perspectives, which gives a good view of both Outsider and Dweller cultures. It's a creative world that could be either Earth in a vastly altered future or another world – which one it is isn't really important. Though not new, the scifi elements were interesting and well done. It's a little confusing at first, but it works itself out so that you know what you need to without info-dumping, which is pleasant.

The characters ended up being good despite a shaky start. Aria managed to be shockingly stupid sometimes, but she grew on me throughout the book. And while Perry started out as kind of selfish and annoying, I got to like him too. The minor characters (read: Roar) were probably my favorite.

Overall, Under the Never Sky is a good read, especially if you like dystopian/post-apocalyptic books. I'll definitely be reading the next book.

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Good

In the same aisle
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Partials by Dan Wells
Shatter Me by Taherah Mafi

Review | Unholy Ghosts by Stacia Kane

Unholy Ghosts
Stacia Kane
Downside Ghosts #1
Published 2010 by Del Rey (Random House)
Urban fantasy
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
Unholy Ghosts is a compelling start to a dark urban fantasy. I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something on the grittier side.

King-Sized Review
Churchwitch Chess Putnam has a secret. A Debunker for the Church of Real Truth, she investigates hauntings, exposing the fakes and banishing real ghosts. She's definitely not supposed to be in debt to a powerful drug lord, so when he offers her the option of trading an off-the-books investigation for a debt she doesn't have the money to pay, she doesn't have any choice but to look into his case. Unfortunately she finds quite a bit more than she bargained for.

Unholy Ghosts starts with a fascinating world. After the dead broke free of their City and wreaked havoc on the living world, killing thousands. the Church of Real Truth rose to power, disdaining the old religions and using powerful magic to banish ghosts. Now the Church rules through the strength of its witches in holding back the dead. Usually post-magical awakening worlds look either very similar to ours or are without a central power, so it was interesting to read about a different structure, particularly one as interesting as this one.

I was surprised to find this book written in third person – the trend is for urban fantasy to be in first and paranormal romance in third – but although Unholy Ghosts leans heavily on the urban fantasy side, third person works. Chess isn't the type to reveal many of her innermost thoughts. She has a seriously screwed-up past that gains her sympathy despite the gratuitous drug use. At first this aspect of Chess's character was annoying, but as I learned more about Chess and her history, it became a little more understandable. Plus, Chess has a lot of room to grow; I can already tell that the character development in this series is going to be stellar, though it hasn't gotten far yet.

Chess is surrounded by an intriguing cast of characters. Terrible, drug lord Bump's enforcer, turned out to be a surprisingly excellent character, something I would never have guessed at first glance. I'm eager to learn more about him as well as to see more of his and Chess's interactions. Bump's rival drug mogul Lex was Bump's urbane opposite, suave and controlled where Bump was erratic and a little crazy. The Church played a fairly minor role in this book, at least considering its influence, so I'm looking forward to finding out more about its members.

I can't wait to check out the rest of the books in this series. Unholy Ghosts is a highly promising start to what should be a great series.

Quality: Excellent
Enjoyability: Excellent

PNR or UF?
GARS score: 1.4 (3/4/2/3)
What's a GARS score?

In the same aisle
Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning
Grave Witch by Kalayna Price

Review | The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa

The Immortal Rules 
Julie Kagawa
Blood of Eden #1
Published April 24, 2012 by Harlequin Teen
YA paranormal/post-apocalyptic
Review copy from NetGalley
4 stars

Bite-Sized Review
The Immortal Rules is filled with action and interesting characters, just the way I like it. A definite must-read for fans of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampires series.


King-Sized Review
The Immortal Rules begins with an execution.

I think this is supposed to be shocking, but it's very difficult to shock my fiction-reading brain. It's seen a lot. So instead of going, "Oh my God, they're executing teenagers!" I was using my years of reading political fantasy to think, "that's really not the most effective way to achieve long-term control over a population." That wasn't a great start.

Fortunately, it got much better. The story was enjoyable despite the occasional "how could you possibly think this might end even sort of well?" choice. Allie, an Unregistered living in a city ruled by vampires and surrounded by zombies (Rabids), struggles each day to survive. She hates the vampires with a passion. But when she has to choose between dying and being changed into a vampire herself, she chooses survival and begins a whole new life - or the vampire equivalent, anyway.

Especially at the beginning of the book, Allie reminded me of Katniss: focused on her own survival, but willing to do whatever it takes to protect her "family." She claims to be selfish and willing to let her friends die so she can live, but that's obviously not the case.

After Allie is forced to leave her city, she joins a group of people seeking a human city, a place with no vampires. While the time in the wilderness was certainly interesting, I wanted to know more about vampire society. Hopefully this will happen in book two.

Quality: Good
Enjoyability: Good

In the same aisle
Glass Houses by Rachel Caine

Review | Tomorrow Land by Mani Mancusi

Tomorrow Land
Mani Mancusi
Published March 8, 2012 by NLA Digital
YA dystopian/post-apocalyptic romance
Review copy from NetGalley

Bite-Sized Review
Tomorrow Land was much more of a YA romance than anything else, which basically means that it wasn't my kind of thing. I found the characters extremely angsty and numerous elements of the plot absurd.

King-Sized Review
Tomorrow Land takes place in alternating timelines, sometime in the future, where technology has advanced and an AIDS vaccine has been developed, and four years after the End of Days, when the Super Flu killed off much of the adult population and left behind isolated people, kids, and a whole lot of zombies.

When the Super Flu first emerged, Chris and Peyton's relationship was just beginning. They planned to leave together, along with a few other kids from their school, and hide in the mountains until the disease passed. But Peyton never showed up. Four years later, she emerged from the bomb shelter her father modified for her and her mother, and the first person she met was none other than Chris, now called Chase. After some convincing, she agreed to take Chase and the kids he and his brother rescued as she traveled to Disney World to find her father, who might be able to fix the world – and Peyton herself.

I think zombies are a cool concept that is rarely as brilliantly executed. Tomorrow Land was definitely another underwhelming zombie book. It was very heavily romance-oriented, and the romance itself was extraordinarily angsty, neither of which particularly appeal to me. Possibly I should have realized this from reading the blurb, but I pretty much just glanced at the book and said, "Zombies! Awesome razor hands! Want!" and requested it. Unfortunately, the zombies' main role was to provide romantic tension in various ways, which seemed wrong somehow. I need a "misuse of zombies" stamp.

As far as the writing itself goes, it wasn't bad. If you do like romances, possibly with a side of zombies, I imagine you might enjoy this book. Just keep in mind, the characters are pretty self-absorbed and can be absolute idiots about keeping secrets from each other for no reason other than to please the Romantic Tension Gods, whom I believe deserve better sacrifices. There were numerous times when I wanted to shake Peyton or Chase or both during the book, because their complete lack of communication created so many more problems than they actually had.

For a four hundred mile trip on horses with a bunch of kids in tow (I don't actually remember how many; they weren't very important) their journey was laughably hitch-less. There were, of course, a couple of zombie-related Incidents to move the plot along (and pay heed to the Romantic Tension Gods), but the kids hardly ever complained and never misbehaved or ran off and did something stupid. (That was left to our heroic protagonists.) I don't even have kids and I don't believe this.

Personally, I would have preferred a book with a little less romance and a little more dystopian/post-apocalyptic. but I think this book would appeal to people who enjoy romance more and don't mind a little angst. It just wasn't at all for me.

Quality: Fair
Enjoyability: Poor

In the same aisle
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

Starters by Lissa Price

Starters
Lissa Price
Starters #1
Published March 13, 2012 by Random House

Bite-Sized Review
Despite showing early promise, Starters failed spectacularly to live up to its potential. Lack of support in everything from world-building to romance made this intriguing-sounding novel flop.

King-Sized Review
Starters begins after the Spore War killed off everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty, leaving only the young – Starters – and the old – Enders. Enders, who can live to be two hundred, can relive their youths by temporarily (and illegally) occupying the bodies of minors who get paid a hefty sum for their time. Callie would never ordinarily consider allowing her body to be borrowed by bored Enders, but with lack of food and shelter exacerbating her brother's illness, she doesn't see any other way to make enough money to support them. What she learns as a donor, however, makes the original deal seem fair and ethical.

Reading Starters was like walking into a beautifully apportioned room filled with books and lovely places to read them. At first glance, it seems wonderful. Only then you realize the walls are filled with termites, the building was constructed on a sinkhole, the furniture is actually made of cardboard, and all the books are Scientology treatises. Nothing like what you wanted or expected.

When I saw Starters on NetGalley, the description sounded quite interesting. YA dystopias can be pretty hit or miss, but Starters seemed to have a good premise and the promise of some decent action in the story. However, the more I read, the more disappointed I was with the realization of that premise.

There are a couple of ways authors can introduce readers to a new world. The simplest, the info dump, is effective but unsophisticated. Readers often get bored reading pages of world-building and backstory, and it doesn't really flow with the real story. It takes a bit more skill to convey the same information through the telling of the story itself, in such a subtle way that the reader doesn't notice what's happening. Starters tried to do the second but failed, leaving the reader without even boring info dumps to explain the world. What caused the Spore War? Why weren't adults in their prime vaccinated? How can people live more than twice as long as they do today? If the bioweapons from the war killed off a huge chunk of the population and life is so precious, why are children without families so neglected and mistreated? Where does the labor market come from? If Enders were healthy enough for manual labor, presumably they wouldn't need to rent teenage bodies to enjoy themselves. What does the rest of the world outside the US look like? How were they affected by the Spore War? Is there no longer immigration in this world?

These questions, all at least tangentially significant and many crucial to the story, were never even alluded to, much less answered. Fiction has to make sense. When the world itself doesn't add up, how can the story? For the first half of the book, I was willing to let these issues slide, assuming they would be answered later in the book. That they never were was indescribably frustrating, basically ruining whatever enjoyment I had left of the book.

I say "whatever enjoyment I had left" because the world-building wasn't the only element of the book that lacked support. The characters might as well have been a single figure standing in a hall of mirrors, for all the difference their was between them. Their decisions arose frequently from the needs of the plot rather than their own personalities (which actually made sense since they didn't have them), and several times I was surprised by a sudden unexplained shift in a characters opinion.

Worse was seeing characters that behaved in ways so incomprehensibly outside the sort of people they should have been that I was entirely baffled. Example: at one point, Blake and Callie are trying to talk to Blake's grandfather, a US senator secretly backing the renter program. When they try to explain the program's nefarious nature, he silences them by repeating what they say. In a singsong voice. Because apparently United States senators are the rhetorical equivalent of argumentative four-year-olds. This incident stood out particularly, but there were a few other similar cases that were extremely jarring.

And to top all that off, Starters included a clumsy love triangle and completely unbelievable insta-love. I don't like either of those things in general, but I like them even less when they're done poorly. Honestly, the book would have been better without the Blake romance entirely. The lack of emotion and connection in the love story was typical of the book as a whole.

Starters did have some redeeming qualities. The story, when I could get over how full of holes it was, was suspenseful. The twist at the end was definitely a surprise, though I'm not actually sure that counts as "redeeming." I did enjoy parts of this book, in between running into a variety of problems. Basically,  with better world-building and character development, Starters could most definitely have been a winner. The elements of a good story were all there. But they were not even close to fully realized. I suggest you find something better to read.

Quality: Poor
Enjoyability: Fair

In the same aisle
Partials by Dan Wells
Wither by Lauren DeStefano

Feed by Mira Grant

Feed
Mira Grant
Newsflesh Trilogy #1
Published 2010 by Orbit


Bite-Sized Review
I really, really loved this book. It's emotional, clever, fast-paced, actually meaningful, and all-around excellent, and I can't believe I waited so long to read it. Why haven't you started yet?

King-Sized Review
Feed is the exciting, brilliant story of a team of blogger-journalists who are selected to follow the campaign of presidential hopeful Senator Ryman. As they get to know the senator and his ideas, they find themselves in full support of his candidacy, but it seems there's someone else out there whose opposition to the senator's policies threatens them all. And in a world where the Kellis-Amberlee virus has created the potential for anyone to become a zombie, threats become a lot more real.

There are a few things you should know before reading this book:

1. Feed is not a zombie book. It has the potential to become a zombie series, but for now it's not about averting the zombie apocalypse, and it's certainly not about how zombies have feelings too. The zombie apocalypse has already happened, and Feed just happens to take place afterwards, when the world has changed. What this book is is a political thriller. No, don't go away. I know, if you're reading this blog you're probably not the type of person who regularly picks up those kinds of books. Neither am I. Just trust me. You want to read this one.

2. The world is entirely believable. Everything from the way zombies were created to life after the Rising is spectacularly conceptualized and explained. From the paranoid testing before you can go anywhere to the laws that arose from the presence of the infected, there were no glaring inconsistencies, no transparent plot devices. If an outbreak of something like the Kellis-Amberlee virus occurred, it seems completely reasonable that people would react in just the way they have in the world of Feed. Fortunately for your sanity, it's less gruesome and terrible than the reactions in World War Z, but then, as I said, Feed isn't a zombie book, while World War Z is. Their both quite believable, and they both work perfectly for the kind of stories they want to tell.

3. Feed has brilliant characters. Shaun and Georgia, in particular, are characterized perfectly and complement each other better than you can imagine. Shaun cracks jokes and pokes zombies with sticks, Georgia stoically reports the facts, just the facts. The combination is ideal for a lot of reasons, mainly that it makes for a balanced narrative, because while Georgia is the narrator, Shaun is never far from her or her thoughts.

4. Feed is suspenseful, funny, and brutally emotional. The suspense arises from a conspiracy that our faithful bloggers uncover while following the presidential campaign of Senator Peter Ryman, and it's well done. It's not perfect – the revelations don't come as a huge surprise at any point – but it works, and it's where the zombies come in. If zombies aren't scary, you're doing it wrong. So there's that, but it's the emotion that really gets you. If you're not in tears at the end of this book, it's possible that you don't have emotions. Or that you have retinal KA. But you might want to get that checked out.

Quality: Excellent
Enjoyability: Outstanding

Feed is similar to:
World War Z by Max Brooks

Partials by Dan Wells

Partials
Dan Wells
Partials #1
Published February 28, 2012 by HarperTeen

Bite-sized Review
I really loved Partials. Despite a slow start, the story sucked me in, and I'm rather attached to the characters.

King-sized Review
Worlds built on lies and ignorance are my favorite to read about. There's something thrilling about working your way through the layers of deception to find the truth, and Partials plays that card really well. Partials takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where, after a war with cyborgs, what's left of the human race has been severely depleted by a disease that now kills off 100 percent of their children days or hours after they're born. The main character of the story is Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic, whose determination and will made her wonderful to follow. If she sometimes made questionable decisions, it was only because she was trying to do the right thing, and even though she was sixteen, I didn't see any kind of annoying angst, probably because of the world she grew up in.

The plot ended up being quite exciting. The beginning was a bit slow and depressing, but it did serve as a good introduction to the world, and there was a lot more action later. I found the premise very interesting. There's some medical jargon in the book, and not being trained in any kind of medicine other than what I learned from watching the first three seasons of House, I couldn't tell you if it was accurate, but it sounded reasonable to me.

There were some awkward info-dumping conversations at the beginning, which is probably part of why it was a bit slow. And despite all that, I'm still not quite sure how their world functions. I get why they had electricity but no one knew how to use the more advanced equipment, and I understand why the Voice was fighting against the government. But I don't really understand what people did if they weren't in medicine, the military, or agriculture. I would have liked to see a little more of what Kira's day-to-day life was like, not just in the hospital, but at home with her foster family and out with her friends.

And if you're going to create cyborgs to fight a war for you, why would you give them the ability to feel emotions, particularly fear? That was one thing that really stuck out as odd to me, but I'm willing to buy it for now and hope there's more explanation later, because I really liked the book.

Overall, Partials was a great read. I loved the suspense and action, and the fact that it didn't pull punches. I can't wait to learn more about the Partials' society in the next book, not to mention see what happens to the remaining humans now.

Quality: Excellent
Enjoyability: Excellent


Thanks to NetGalley and HarperTeen for providing this galley!