Title: The 5th Wave Author: Rick Yancey # of Pages: 480 (hardback) Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Fantasy Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ Synopsis:After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. Review: And I had such high hopes for this book!
Below are the notes I took while reading The 5th Wave.
Do the aliens speak English? The message they sent out was in English (see page 31). And if they're so smart, why would they talk like a lowly human?
Lizbeth has got it all backwards in this conversation:
"'There's so much I wanted to do,' Lizbeth said, 'I've never even...You know...What about you?'
'About "you know"?'
'Oh I know you haven't "you know"...I'm talking about our lives, Cassie! Jesus, this could be the end of the freakin' world, and all you want to do is talk about sex!'" (Yancey 32).
She's the one who brought up the sex topic after all. Since we're on the topic of sex, it seems like a good time to bring up another quote for discussion:
"'What makes you think I'm a virgin?' I asked.
'You wouldn't have hit me if you weren't'" (65).
This quote comes from a conversation between Crisco and Cassie after Crisco is hit in the nose by Cassie when he suggested that they should have sex. Crisco's description is incredibly undesirable, and I think more than one woman would have hit him if he tried to force them to do it with him, virgin or not. Just because you've had sex before doesn't me you're going to be fine with have sex with anyone.
It seems that the layout consists of a lot of flashbacks, which reminds me of If I Stay. The difference is that If I Stay needed to have flashbacks or the story would be pretty boring. But The 5th Wave? There's plenty of story worthy material in the situation Cassie is currently in. If the flashbacks are necessary for the development, the story should have started in with the flashbacks!
And then I reached Part 2: Wonderland. At first, I was extremely confused. Was there suddenly a time skip? No. There was a POV switch.
Well, there goes a star.
What I don't understand is why Dr. Pam made Ben kill off his companion. AND even more so, I don't understand why he was so quick to kill him. What if they found a way to remove the infestation later?
Moving on to Part 3 of the book, which holds yet ANOTHER surprise! We have switched to third person, from the silencer's point-of-view! It really isn't looking good for this book. But another question arose from reading part 3; was part 1 suppose to be a diary entry? It was. So we have three modes of telling this story; first person (part 2), first person through diary (part 1), and third person (part 3).
Although this book is turning out to be below my expectations by the end of part 3, I do applaud Yancey for the use of the word "fangirly."
In part 4, anyone can sense that Evan and Cassie are going to have a relationship. But this immediate closeness isn't the kind of romance I was hoping for. And it escalated too quickly; I'm not feeling the chemistry between the two of them.
And in part 5, we find ourselves with yet another POV: Sammy in third person. The POV changes to come one completely different in part 6 (Zombie). But it seems like he's the same person as Ben? It is. And my guess is that Private Nugget is Sammy. I'm not feeling the chemistry between Ben and Ringer either.
Part 7 is from Cassie's POV again, and my suspicions brought into the story: Could this guy be the Silencer in part 3? This part had a creepy-horror movie like feel.
Part 8, 10, and 12 are from Ben's POV. Part 9, 11, and 13 is from Cassie's.
It's SO convenient that Cassie is some kind of crazy master at karate. She called her past self a typical teenage girl, but, if you go by feminine stereotypes, most girls aren't a master at karate. Some experience? Sure. But to the point where karate lessons are boring? No.
Wait, did Evan die? I guess that's what the other books are for. But I'm really hoping there won't be a love triangle; I mean, Ben doesn't even KNOW her. At least Evan and Cassie have spent time together for a while like how Ben has spent time with Ringer. The pairing is obvious.
Don't be fooled by the cover! I don't recommend this book!
Title: These Is My Words Author: Nancy E. Turner # of Pages: 384 (paperback) Genre: Adult Fiction, Romance, Historical Fiction Rating: ★★★★★ Synopsis:A moving, exciting, and heartfelt American saga inspired by the author's own family memoirs, these words belong to Sarah Prine, a woman of spirit and fire who forges a full and remarkable existence in a harsh, unfamiliar frontier. Scrupulously recording her steps down the path Providence has set her upon—from child to determined young adult to loving mother—she shares the turbulent events, both joyous and tragic, that molded her, and recalls the enduring love with cavalry officer Captain Jack Elliot that gave her strength and purpose. Review: This book had a terrible first impression on me.
The title worried me; I was anticipating a very long and boring read. I am also not very fond of reading books in diary format, especially after having the displeasure of reading Anne Frank's (I did not enjoy reading her diary, if you couldn't tell). The first fifty pages seemed to fall right into my expectations, which is why it took me over a week to get through them.
But after that, the romance hit.
I wouldn't have even known that it was a romance if it weren't for the synopsis. I usually try not to read the synopsis because most of the time, it contains spoilers. But I read a short synopsis in a review, and I realized a lot of people liked it for the romance.
And I am one of them.
I loved the relationship Sarah and Jack had! There relationship was unique, however, they did remind of two couples in two popular YA books; Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars. Spoilers for these two books ahead!
Just like Hazel and Gux's Okay? Okay, Jack and Sarah say to each other "Don't ever leave me" and "Not ever." Just like Hazel and Gus, and Issac and Monica, that was there promise to each other. And it's adorable.
Tris and Four are not only in love with each other, but they trust each other when they're stuck in a undesirable situation. Tris and Sarah are both able to use a gun, and they are both as capable to fight as their men. Sarah and Tris are not your typically damsel in distress, and neither pair are your typical fairy tale couple.
And what links all three of them together? One of each pair, (Gus, Tris, and Jack), die early. Which kinda sucks.
Despite how much I loved this book, I do not plan to read the sequel in the future. Most of what I wanted to know about the characters was covered in the first book of this series, so I do not feel the need to read more about Sarah's life (and I would be incredibly sad to read about her without Jack).
True, the book still read like a soap opera, but I was finally able to submerge myself in the book! I was hit by many emotions through Sarah Prine; I felt her joy, her fear, her anguish! It was an amazing experience. There is a bit of graphic content, so this book is not for everyone (after all, it's classified as adult fiction). Otherwise, recommended!
Title: Requiem Author: Lauren Oliver # of Pages: 391 (paperback) Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Romance Rating: ★★☆☆☆ Synopsis: As her country erupts in open rebellion, Lena fights for the resistance and must make a heartbreaking choice between two loves.
After saving Julian from a death sentence, Lena escapes with him and other members of the resistance. But as she embraces her love for Julian, a boy from her past returns and causes her to question everything.
In the meantime, Lena's best friend, Hana, is engaged to Portland's young mayor and is living a safe, proscribed, loveless life. The story is told from both Lena and Hana's points of view.
Review: After seeing the title of the first chapter: Oh no.
It's always bad news when the chapter title is a character's name. More than likely, the next chapter will have someone else's name as it's title AND will be from his or her point of view.
I wish my hypothesis of POV switching would be wrong. But I wasn't. After reading the second chapter from the other character's POV, I have already knocked the book down to four stars.
I didn't buy Requiem to hear a different character's story! I wanted to hear Lena's! After the cliff-hanger in Pandemonium, I needed to know what happened next in Lena's romantic life. I didn't care too much about anything else. '
The POV switching also sets alarm bells ringing in my head. Why is Oliver doing this for THIS book? This wasn't how she wrote the previous books, so why the change? I know why Roth did it for Allegiant, and I was afraid that something similar is the reason for the change in Requiem.
Of course, now I know that is not the case. I'm not exactly sure why Oliver felt the need to change to point-of-view. The Hana chapters were considerably shorter than the Lena chapters, and all we learn from it is that Fred is bad, proving that Lena's side is the good side after all! But we didn't need to know that Fred was bad to realize Lena and the others are good. That has already been established. As far as I'm considered, most of the beginning Hana chapters are pointless. We've already seen the world inside of society through Lena in Delirium!
I can't believe Lena would accept Alex's "I never loved you" excuse. I would have thought that she would have known better than that. But then I thought that maybe she was just in shock because he had said such a mean thing to her. However, near the end of the book, she still is refusing to believe that Alex loves her, even when Coral tells her so! It's all very frustrating.
Some of the descriptions are...un-appealing, such as "I wonder whether Celia knows what happened last summer: how Steven and I breathed into each other's mouths, and let feelings pass between each other's tongues" (312). It almost sounds as if they're performing some sort of ritual together. This is one of many examples of awkward descriptions.
Oliver also tends to repeat herself. For example, on page 302, the reader is told that Coral "has barely spoken since Alex left." BUT this same point is made AGAIN on page 318 in which it is stated that "since Alex left, [Coral] has gone almost completely mute." A bit unnecessary, yes?
It's as if Oliver just wanted to finish the series. It felt as if there was only half of the book! Then ending was not the final kind of end that I like. And the romance at the end wasn't very good.
If you liked the other two books, go ahead and read this one just to finish the series. But if you haven't, it's not worth your time.
Title: If I Stay Author: Gayle Forman # of Pages: 262 (paperback) Genre: YA, Romance, Contemporary Rating: ★★★☆☆ Synopsis: On a day that started like any other,
Mia had everything: a loving family, a gorgeous, admiring boyfriend, and a bright future full of music and full of choices. In an instant, almost all of that is taken from her. Caught between life and death, between a happy past and an unknowable future, Mia spends one critical day contemplating the only decision she has left. It is the most important decision she'll ever make. Review: What happened to the development?
That was my first thought after I read the first two chapters of If I Stay. I had already seen the trailer for the movie that is being made based on this book, so I knew a little bit of what was going to happen. But there were a few parts of the trailer that popped up in the book earlier than I expected.
It turns out that the development of the characters occurs throughout the book through flashbacks (which also happen to be what makes up at least 50% of the story). While switching between the past and the present is an interesting writing technique that is not seen very often (thank goodness), it makes the plot a little confusing. Some flashbacks went farther back than others, and it made it hard for me to pin point exact how old I'm supposed to be picturing Mia at the time.
Since the character development is incomplete for a good portion of the book, it is harder for me to feel a connection with Mia and her friends and family. Many people have said that this book made them cry, but for me, I might have felt a little bit sad. The best part in the whole book was the very last bit/chapter. By then, the characters were all fully developed, and I can finally sympathies with them!
This is not necessarily the author's fault, but I was disappointed to find that the last seventy pages or so were just extras (acknowledgements, question and answer, study questions, and previews to the author's other books). I was hoping for a little more story!
Be warned that you will be left wanting to read the next book, especially since this one is just the development for a real story to come (I hope!).
Although I was disappointed by this book, I do still recommend due to the potential I can feel for the sequel.
Title: Thirteen Reasons Why Author: Jay Asher # of Pages: 288 (paperback) Genre: YA, Contemporary, Mystery Rating: ★★★☆☆ Synopsis:You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret. . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her.
Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes-- and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.
All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town. . .
. . .and what he discovers changes his life forever. Review: To be honest, I'm a little scared to write this review.
Thirteen Reasons Why is a page-turner (I practically read it in a day!) that addresses a very controversial topic: suicide. What made me want to continue reading it throughout the day was not because of how it made me feel (which was a combination of anger and sadness), but because of the mystery behind the tapes Hannah made.
Why was I so angry while reading this book? It's because of Hannah. SHE made the decision to kill herself, yet she blamed it on other people. Sure, there are people who are jerks and make the world seem like a terrible place sometimes, but we have the power to choose how they are going to effect our lives.
But some of the people on her list weren't complete jerks. Everyone makes mistakes or accidentally say/do things they don't mean. While these people's actions may have hurt Hannah, does that give her the right to record these tapes as "revenge"? You would have thought that she wouldn't want people to experience the same pain that she felt near the end of her life, especially Clay. Wouldn't she hope that no one would have to experience what she has? But she forces the people on the list to do just that, people who were probably unaware they were contributing to the snowball effect.
In a way, this book is sending the exact message Asher wanted it to send, "It's important to be aware of how we treat others" (Asher, Between the Lines: Thirteen Questions for Jay Asher). But while this statement is true, it does not justify Hannah's death, nor does it make the people on the list guilty of her passing. And if the people on the list are at fault, then so is Hannah. Her own mind and the decisions that were made within it resulted in how she coped with the challenging situations she encountered.
Do not expect this to be a happy read. If you think this book will help you somehow, then go ahead and read it. But if you want to read it for fun...be wary.
Title: The Knife of Never Letting Go Author: Patrick Ness # of Pages: 479 (paperback) Genre: YA, Science Fiction, Dystopian Rating: ★★★★☆ Synopsis: Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him -- something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is. Review: Would you rather have to speak everything on your mind or never speak again?
The Knife of Never Letting Go addresses the former. The Noise presents the reader with a unique twist to this dystopian world. It's crazy; it's beautifully horrifying! And I love it.
Although I would categorize this book as a young adult, science fiction, and dystopian, it is also a mystery. There are cliff-hangers at the end of pretty much every chapter, so prepare yourself to be reading for long periods of time.
There were a few aspects of the book I didn't like.
Just as Todd said, I can't see why Aaron will not. Just. Die. The fact that he kept coming back throughout the whole book (besides the very ending) was a bit much, especially with his injuries.
I don't know if this is going to change in the other two books, but Manchee's death occurred too early. He's practically one of the main characters, and he's killed off like he's nothing! I don't know what Ness' reasons are, but he should have AT LEAST waited until a bit later in the book. Why waste time developing Manchee if he's going to be gone, just like that?
Overall, The Knife of Never Letting Go is a very good book! Recommend!
Title: The Things They Carried Author: Tim O'Brien # of Pages: 232 (paperback) Genre: Historical Fiction, War, Short Stories Rating: ★★★★☆ Synopsis: In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O'Brien's unique artistic vision is again clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America two decades later. Review: This is one of the strangest books I have ever read.
I'm not calling it strange based purely on the content (although there were quiet a few strange parts there too), but on the strange ways The Things They Carried made me feel.
Everyone has their own way of perceiving the war and how the soldiers feel/interact with others while in the war. But the way I viewed it was completely different from what O'Brien felt.
Most of these stories are not interesting as far as the plot. However, O'Brien's strange way of telling these stories somehow is able to convey a certain feeling that a soldier could have been feeling in a similar situation.
I hope that I understand war stories in the way O'Brien would have liked me to have, but I doubt that I have actually achieved that goal. He would probably tell me that I was wasn't listening hard or well enough to the story.
This collection of short (mostly) fictional stories has changed my views on certain aspects of life. I do recommend reading this book sometime in the future if you haven't already.
