Paul's September Pick: The Unwanteds

Like I said, two quick posts! I still need to review Divergent, but after I do that I'll finally be all caught up. I haven't even read this book yet!


Paul's Pre-Reading
Paul's Review

Title: The Unwanteds
Author: Lisa McMann
Year Published: 2011


Synopsis: Every year in Quill, thirteen-year-olds are sorted into categories: the strong, intelligent Wanteds go to university, and the artistic Unwanteds are sent to their deaths
Thirteen-year-old Alex tries his hardest to be stoic when his fate is announced as Unwanted, even while leaving behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted. Upon arrival at the destination where he expected to be eliminated, however, Alex discovers a stunning secret--behind the mirage of the "death farm" there is instead a place called Artime.

In Artime, each child is taught to cultivate their creative abilities and learn how to use them magically, weaving spells through paintbrushes and musical instruments. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it's a wondrous transformation.

But it's a rare, unique occurence for twins to be separated between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron's bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of Artime that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate, magical battle.


Why?: Paul picked it for September, so now I have to read it too.


Expectations: I expect this to be a nice, easy read. From what Paul and other websites have said, this is a middle-grade book. I don't expect it to be as good as the Dream Catcher trilogy just by virtue of it being middle-grade, but I do expect to be entertained. I'm not expecting Harry Potter or The Hunger Games only because I know that if I do I'll be sorely disappointed.


Judging a book by its cover: There's a big flying kitty on the front! I like kitties :). I expect magic to be important, and probably the flying lion to be important as well. 


I will not have this book finished by the end of September... At least it gives me a little more time to pick a book for October though.


--Ashley

Divergent

I am determined to finish my blogs by the end of September. I know this won't happen since I'm going to a Halo party shortly, but I can at least do two quick ones before then. So, first up: 

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Year Published: 2011

Synopsis: In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen.

But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her.

Why?: Paul bought this book over the summer and really enjoyed it, and he told me to read it.

Expectations: I expect this book to be a little like the Hunger Games trilogy. And also kind of like the Uglies series. One girl is different and tries to save her dystopian world.

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is very simple, and has the skyline of what I assume is Chicago and a fire eye thing. I think fire will be important, as will the city.




--Ashley

Month of McMann: WAKE

Lisa McMann is apparently the author of the month here at The AP Book Club.


Ashley's Pre Reading

Title: Wake

Author: Lisa McMann

Year Published: 2008

Synopsis: Not all dreams are sweet. For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime. She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control. Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Why?: Ashley chose this trilogy at random and she seems to have liked it from what I've heard.

Expectations: I enjoyed Lisa McMann's The Unwanted so I think this will be a good concept. I hope it plays out well. Ashley has warned me about an unusual writing style to deal with the dreams. I am intrigued and anxious to start reading, especially since September ends at midnight Friday night.

Judging a book by its cover: I like the cover. The title really pops as does the pillow. 

-PAUL

The Unwanteds

I finished this a few days, if not a week, ago and am just getting around to writing on it. I need to get some blue back on the homepage. Hopefully I remember enough about it to give an accurate review.

Pre Reading


Soon, I want to implement a rating system for my reviews, but for now I will just write about my thoughts and opinions. I enjoyed this book, but did not enjoy that it was praised as "The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter". There were similarities, but it constantly had me comparing two of my favorite series to this one book. If this one book had been separated into a series with the ending present, I think it would have had more impact. The characters were not developed enough. There was so much potential and I unfortunately think it fell short.


This is a middle grade level book. It sure reads like it. It is my opinion that even if a story is written for a younger audience, the plot and character development can still be there. There were so many bells and whistles and not enough subtle character attributes. 


Ashley, in doing research for her reading this I can only assume, let me know that there is a sequel in the works. I, of course, will read it but I believe this could have been a standalone. 


The current trend, or possibly the always trend, is making new things from parts of things that were popular. The vampire trend epitomized this and now this dystopian and magic trend continues. I enjoy reading/listening to/watching/using any of my senses on things I have never read/listened to/watched/used any of my senses on before, not combinations of things I already enjoy. Make it unique.  I watched the new series Terra Nova and it does just the same. A combination of Jurassic Park, Avatar, and so many others.


In conclusion, I actually did enjoy this novel but I expected more from what it could have been. I'm not sure what my rating system will be; maybe I will start it in October, but I would give this novel a 3/5.


-PAUL

Morton's Fork

Finally, the last book of the Dream Catcher trilogy! 

That picture makes me mad with its stupid white background, but I can't figure out how to make it go away.

Look out, there will probably be a ton of spoilers below. Don't read any further if you haven't read the books or if you haven't finished them yet. Unless you like spoilers.

In Gone, Janie deals with so many more issues than just her dream catcher abilities. She starts out the novel spending the weekend with Cabel, his brother, and his brother's wife at their cabin on the lake. She's accepted that she'll be blind and that her body will slowly start to give out as a result of her dream catching. What she hasn't accepted yet is dragging Cabel down with her. Janie sees things in his dreams that scare her and make her doubt their relationship (for example, at one point she sees herself (blind and gnarled) laying on a hospital bed in the kitchen and Cabel goes into the kitchen and yells at her to just shut up and die already).

Janie also has to deal with the appearance of a stranger, who ends up being her father. Once Janie finds out that her father is actually a dream catcher as well who isolated himself, she kind of freaks out. Realizing that she has two options now, she struggles with staying with Caleb and going blind or leaving him and keeping her sight and her body.

Throughout the book, I feel like the relationship between Janie and Cabel is turned into more of a one-sided thing than it had been before. Janie decides that she's going to leave Cabel, but doesn't even tell him that she wants to isolate herself or say goodbye to him. She thinks disappearing would be easier, but I really don't think anybody would agree. Sure, Cabel would probably tell her that she's making a bad decision, but if she's so set on isolating, there's nothing he can really do.

The idea of "Morton's Fork," or having to choose between two equally terrible things, is an interesting concept that I really liked in this book. Janie already knows what's going to happen to her if she continues to be around people and enter their dreams. What she doesn't know, though, is that isolation can be just as bad. Her father's brain exploded because he isolated himself. Having to choose between going blind and all of the things that come with dream catching and having your brain explode kind of sucks. Although I'm pretty sure I'd rather go blind than have my brain explode. Maybe that's just me.

I also liked how Dorothea, Janie's mom, was given a little more depth in this book. In Wake and Fade, Dorothea is presented as simply an alcoholic who cares only about herself. In Gone, however, Dorothea's past with Henry is revealed and her reasons for being an alcoholic are made more clear. Maybe she didn't handle his leaving very well at all, but she's dealing with it in the best way she knows how. McMann causes the reader to feel a little more sympathetic towards Dorothea, even though she just spent two books making you dislike her.

I thought that this book was a very nice conclusion to the trilogy. It dealt more with the emotional side of dream catching, and the repercussions it might have on other people in a dream catcher's life. It also went away from the solving crimes theme that the first two had, and I think that was a good call on McMann's part. You can only have so many novels with the same basic plot in one trilogy. Also, the ending wasn't entirely conclusive, but it also wasn't entirely open-ended. I thought it was a good way to end such an intense series, and I feel like it also left more open to the readers' imagination. You don't need an epilogue detailing what happens 10 years in the future. Make it up yourself.

I am sorry to say goodbye to this trilogy and the characters though. The story line, although dealing with some paranormal things, wasn't like every other paranormal YA novel out there. No vampires, no werewolves, no witches, no dragons... just a girl with special abilities trying to find her place in a world where people aren't at all like her. Well, except for a few people of course. I thought it was very well written and that it flowed together very nicely. Some parts may have been unnecessary or didn't make much sense, but those were few and far between. I would definitely recommend this whole trilogy to anyone looking for a YA book that's out of the ordinary. 

Again, sorry for such a long post! I only have two more to do though until I'm finally caught up and can start The Unwanteds.

--Ashley

Gone

Ok, one last post for now. While I'm still on a roll. 

Title: Gone
Author: Lisa McMann
Year Published: 2010

Synopsis: Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she'd made her peace with it. But she can't handle dragging Cabel down with her. 

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams.

He's amazing. 

And she's a train wreck. 

Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves--she has to disappear. 

And it's going to kill them both.

Then a stranger enters her life--and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she'd ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils.

And time is running out...

Why?: Basically, the same as Wake and Fade. I was in Books-A-Million with my mom and I was looking through all the books on clearance (since I'm so cheap I don't like to pay full price for anything) and kept coming across this book and its sequels. It sounded like a very interesting concept, and even though I'm really over the whole trilogy thing, the books were fairly short and I figured it wouldn't take me very long to get through them. I originally intended on the whole series being supplemental reading, but decided to just make the first one my "book of the month" so that Paul would have to read it as well. I wanted to read this one because I enjoyed the first two so much.

Expectations: I really enjoyed Wake and Fade, so I have pretty high expectations for this one. Even more of Janie dealing with the repercussions of being a dream catcher, trying to be a secret agent, and trying to maintain a secret relationship with Caleb. Oh, and let's throw a wrench into the pile and introduce someone who is going to turn her world upside down. I feel like everything she knows about being a dream catcher is about to explode on her, and she'll learn more than she ever wanted to know. Kind of a lot to deal with in one book, but I feel like McMann is more than capable of handling it well.

Judging a book by its cover: Again, pretty much the same as with Wake and Fade: the cover is pretty simple - lots of black with the title and a chair as the only color on the whole cover. I have no idea how the chair will relate to the book, but we'll see.

It's so much quicker to write these when they're so similar to other posts. Thank you, copy/paste.

--Ashley

"Endless speculation only leads to dead ends."

And now... the review for Fade!

I really enjoyed that this book was structured in a similar fashion to Wake. It made it feel like the two books could have been one longer book, which I believe is how a sequel should feel. I liked that it picked up almost immediately after Wake, and that everything was consistent between the two books. 


I did think that the case assigned to Cabel and Janie was a little stretched. It is mentioned that they have very little detail, but the chance that Janie and Cabel would be able to just figure out who the [SPOILER ALERT] teacher is that's possibly sleeping with students is so slim that it's almost unbelievable when Janie ends up in his class. The school could be relatively small though, in which case it wouldn't be so far-fetched.


I definitely did not see the twist that it wasn't just one teacher though. The subtle hints are there, but I definitely did not pick up on them. Or that it wasn't just the punch that was drugged. Actually, I'm not even sure if the punch was really drugged, but regardless, nobody would have thought to check the meatballs. I liked that the teachers were all relatively intelligent, and that they were able to hide things very well. Until the party, of course. 


Janie is also a very good undercover agent/spy. She handles the job well while she's working, and even though she might not handle it so well outside the job, she doesn't quit just because she's a little uncomfortable. She realizes that she is never in real danger, and knows that she'll be helping other people if she succeeds. Also, Janie is pretty hardcore. Even before she takes the martial arts classes and then beats the crap out of her sleazy teachers. Talk about girl power.


As terrible as this may sound, I kind of like that there are physical problems that come from being a dream catcher. Most of the time, people in books have these awesome powers with no sort of repercussions or anything. McMann makes being a dream catcher both a blessing (since Janie can help solve ridiculous crimes and can help other people sleep more easily and sometimes change their lives) and a curse (with the physical tolls and the whole having to enter a dream no matter where she's at). It makes her more human and less supernatural, I think. 


Although the relationship between Cabel and Janie is super stressed in this book, I feel like it becomes even stronger because of it. Both learn to place more trust in the other, and Cabel learns that he can't always protect Janie, no matter how hard he tries. I think that's an important lesson, since he can't protect her from losing her vision or from her hands turning all gnarled and such. And he chooses to be with her anyway, and to love her regardless. I don't feel like the relationship is pushed at all, and it feels very natural to read about it. Apart from the keeping it secret thing, but that's out of necessity due to their jobs. 


Overall, I felt that Fade was a very nice sequel to Wake. Although the two are connected and Fade expands on Wake, they both have completely different plots. Though they could have been combined into one longer book, I felt that the split was very natural and that it helped enhance the reading experience. I'm glad I bought all three books at the same time.


Sorry for such a long post... The books aren't even that long, but they're just so intense and there's so much going on in each of them!


I'm only 5 posts behind now!




--Ashley

Fade

Time to play some more catch-up! This one was supplemental reading, although I should have just made the whole trilogy my September pick.

Title: Fade
Author: Lisa McMann
Year Published: 2009

Synopsis: SOME NIGHTMARES NEVER END. For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open -- but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both. Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability -- and it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a dream catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd even feared...

Why?: Basically, the same as Wake. I was in Books-A-Million with my mom and I was looking through all the books on clearance (since I'm so cheap I don't like to pay full price for anything) and kept coming across this book and its sequels. It sounded like a very interesting concept, and even though I'm really over the whole trilogy thing, the books were fairly short and I figured it wouldn't take me very long to get through them. I originally intended on the whole series being supplemental reading, but decided to just make the first one my "book of the month" so that Paul would have to read it as well. I wanted to read this one because I enjoyed the first one so much.

Expectations: I really enjoyed Wake, so I have pretty high expectations for this one. More of Janie dealing with the repercussions of being a dream catcher, trying to be a secret agent, and trying to maintain a secret relationship with Caleb. Kind of a lot to deal with in one book, but I feel like McMann is more than capable of handling it well.

Judging a book by its cover: Again, pretty much the same as with Wake: the cover is pretty simple - lots of black with the title and a glass of water as the only color on the whole cover. I have no idea how that will relate to the book, but who knows.

--Ashley

“Dreams are not memories, Janie. They’re hopes and fears. Indications of other life stresses."

I suppose I should write the "review" blog for Wake before I forget what happened in it and start cramming it together with the other two books in the trilogy. It would just get way too confusing then, and I'm already starting to get confused on what happened in which book. 

First, I really enjoyed the way that McMann constructed the novel. I liked that there are definitive chapters, but I also liked that there were subsections within each chapter, denoted by either a date or a time, or both. It helps the reader to gain a perspective of when Janie gets pulled into the dreams, and it helps us to become sympathetic with her. The poor girl can't even sit in study hall without being sucked into someone else's dreams.I also like that it was written with just enough stream-of-consciousness to make it different from most other novels, but not too much so that it was like As I Lay Dying or any of Faulkner's other works. I also really enjoyed when it switched to almost being from Cabel's viewpoint, so that you could see things from an outsider's perspective. Especially since Janie had no idea how the dream-catching thing was physically affecting her. 

I thought that the whole premise of the novel was very interesting. The whole "there are people out there who can help you change your dreams if you just ask" thing is a whole new take on dreams that I'd never heard of or imagined. I know it's fiction, but you never know. Especially since, in the novel, dream catchers are able to hide their abilities so well. And the idea that the dream catchers can use their abilities to help solve crimes is also pretty interesting. 

As far as the relationship aspect of the novel goes, I thought McMann handled it very well. Janie felt as if she would never find someone who she could trust with her secret, or anyone who would care about her (since she didn't feel that her alcoholic mom did and she had only one friend) and Cabel was abused and didn't think he could trust anyone or be comfortable around anyone with all of his scars. Although it seems like the two are so different in the beginning, as the novel progresses we find out how similar they are. I didn't feel like the relationship was forced, or that it was unnecessary in any way. And it wasn't just some stupid "omg I love yooou!" romance either - it had depth and was built on something other than just good looks or "you're a vampire, I love you!" I also liked that McMann didn't try to sugarcoat anything. She presented the relationship as very real, and gave plenty of instances where Janie and Cabel would have fights over legitimate things, just like any real couple.

Overall, I think this book was great. Reading it before bed was kind of a bad idea since it was all about dreams and nightmares and such, but it was still interesting and very hard to put down. Some things did seem kind of forced, but for the most part McMann did an excellent job with this novel. She definitely made me want to read the rest of the trilogy (which I did...). I'm glad that it didn't end up being just another supernatural YA novel with some girl/guy being a werewolf or vampire or having magic or living in a dystopian world.

I'd say that I'm excited to read the next book in the series!... but I already read it. I'll blog about it eventually.... Probably before Paul even finishes reading this one.

--Ashley

September Pick: Wake

I'm finally up to September! 

And this month's book is... 

Title: Wake

Author: Lisa McMann

Year Published: 2008

Synopsis: Not all dreams are sweet. For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime. She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control. Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Why?: I was in Books-A-Million with my mom and I was looking through all the books on clearance (since I'm so cheap I don't like to pay full price for anything) and kept coming across this book and its sequels. It sounded like a very interesting concept, and even though I'm really over the whole trilogy thing, the books were fairly short and I figured it wouldn't take me very long to get through them. I originally intended on the whole series being supplemental reading, but decided to just make the first one my "book of the month" so that Paul would have to read it as well. 

Expectations: I'm apparently doing a fantastic job of picking books from authors that I have no previous knowledge about. I don't know McMann's writing style, and I don't know if she'll even do a decent job tackling such a weird topic. I hope it doesn't go too paranormal, but we'll see...

Judging a book by its cover: The cover is pretty simple - lots of black with the title and a pillow as the only color on the whole cover. It definitely make me think that the main character will spend a lot of time immersed in other peoples' dreams, or having her own dreams. She is a dreamcatcher, after all...

Writing these is still much easier BEFORE you actually read the book... It's weird to write about my expectations and judging a book by its cover once I've already read it.

Only five more until I'm caught up!

--Ashley

A single, shared heart.

I am really bad at keeping up with blogging. It's been almost a month since I finished Sisters Red and I'm just now writing my review of it. Stupid classes and teaching getting in the way of fun things.


As always, here are the links to the other blog posts about this book:
Ashley's "Pre-Reading" Post
Paul's Review
Paul's Halfway Post
Paul's Pre-Reading Post


This is so bad because I barely remember what I thought about this book once I finished reading it. I mean, not that I didn't enjoy it. I've just read 3 other books since then and have been having nightmares about the quotient rule. 


I'm kind of a huge fan of the Little Red Riding Hood story, and I really enjoy all of the different takes on it. I've never red one quite like Pearce's though, and I like how she takes such a traditional fairy tale and turns it into something modern and paranormal without going too far into the OMG WEREWOLVES thing. The wolves are something completely different than werewolves, and I really liked how she made it so obvious that anyone could be a Fenris... even the people you least expect.


I really enjoyed the way that the book was written. Having a novel told from two perspectives that are similar and yet so very different has always been really neat to me. I like the way that Jackson Pearce tells the story from Scarlett's "KILL ALL THE WOLVES" viewpoint and also from Rosie's "I just want to be normal... but still kill all the wolves" viewpoint. It also helps the reader understand the relationship between the two sisters better, I think. 


*SPOILER ALERT*


The only thing I didn't really like was that it was super easy to figure out that Silas was the Potential. I'll admit, the fact that he was the 6th son of a 7th son kind of threw me for a little bit, but I kind of just dismissed it and figured it would resolve itself later... which it did. I did like that she made the Woodsman character into a potentially evil character though. Everyone has the "potential" to be the bad guy - it just depends on the choices they make and how they live their lives as to if they will actually be the bad guy or not though.


The ending was very YA - for the novel being pretty dark, the ending was all nice and happy. Except for the part where Scarlett and Rosie aren't hunting together anymore. But both of them are happy with their new lifestyles, so I guess it wasn't too bad. And they still write and see each other when they can. Kind of the way real sisters are when they grow up and get lives separate from each other.


I would definitely read another one of Jackson Pearce's fairy tale novels, and I'm kind of really excited for Fathomless to come out.


And now, I'm only six blogs behind schedule!


--Ashley

September Pick: The Unwanteds

Title: Unwanteds
Author: Lisa McMann
Year Published: 2011 
When Alex finds out he is Unwanted, he expects to die. That is the way of the people of Quill. Each year, all the thirteen-year-olds are labeled as Wanted, Necessary, or Unwanted. Wanteds get more schooling and train to join the Quillitary. Necessaries keep the farms running. Unwanteds are set for elimination.
It’s hard for Alex to leave behind his twin, Aaron, a Wanted, but he makes peace with his fate—until he discovers that instead of a “death farm,” what awaits him is a magical place called ArtimÉ. There, Alex and his fellow Unwanteds are encouraged to cultivate their creative abilities and use them magically. Everything Alex has ever known changes before his eyes, and it’s a wondrous transformation.
But it’s a rare, unique occurrence for twins to be divided between Wanted and Unwanted, and as Alex and Aaron’s bond stretches across their separation, a threat arises for the survival of ArtimÉ that will pit brother against brother in an ultimate magical battle.


 Why?: I had picked a book for this month, but have been distracted by A Clash of Kings. I saw this book at Target and spontaneously bought it. Ashley recently read the Wake series (spoiler alert), so she is familiar with the author. 


Expectations: This is a middle grade book, so I expect it to not take a very long time. The cover quote puts high expectations on it, but most books nowadays are merely mock-ups of past crazes. I expect a creative, fun story. 


Judging a book by its cover: I picked this book up because of its cover, so I guess that shows I like it. It is intriguing. I like the paper dragons and the Nittany Lion with wings. 


Maybe Ashley will post all the blogs she hasn't since she has read SO MUCH lately. 

-PAUL

Sisters Red... finally.

Title: Sisters Red
Author: Jackson Pearce
Year Published: 2010

Synopsis: The story of Scarlett and Rosie March, two highly-skilled sisters who have been hunting Fenris (werewolves) -- who prey on teen girls -- since Scarlett lost her eye years ago while defending Rosie in an attack. Scarlett lives to destroy the Fenris, and she and Rosie lure them in with red cloaks (a color the wolves can't resist), though Rosie hunts more out of debt to her sister than drive. But things seem to be changing. The wolves are getting stronger and harder to fight, and there has been a rash of news reports about countless teenage girls being brutally murdered in the city. Scarlett and Rosie soon discover the truth: wolves are banding together in search of a Potential Fenris -- a man tainted by the pack but not yet fully changed. Desperate to find the Potential to use him as bait for a massive werewolf extermination, the sisters move to the city with Silas, a young woodsman and long time family friend who is deadly with an axe. Meanwhile, Rosie finds herself drawn to Silas and the bond they share not only drives the sisters apart, but could destroy all they've worked for.

Why?: Paul chose this book way back in August because he follows Jackson Pearce on YouTube and thinks she's hilarious. I'm reading it because I have to.

Expectations: I expect this to be a nice, modern take on a classic fairy tale. I love all of the different ways Little Red Riding Hood can be interpreted, and I like that the girls aren't helpless & innocent and actually hunt the wolves instead of being hunted by them. I expect that, like all YA novels, the romance will be a pretty big part of the plot. The sister thing will probably be a central theme as well. Otherwise, what's the point of even having sisters? Why not just have one Little Red?

Judging a book by its cover: Like Paul, I really like how the cover is constructed. It's fantasy enough to attract the crowd that loves the supernatural vampires/werewolves/etc genre, but it's also got enough to draw in the crowd that's so over all of that. I think the fact that all three characters are mashed into one drawing mean that there is some deeper connection between the two girls and the wolves. Or something.




Judging a book by its cover is way more difficult when you've already read the book. As is trying to remember your expectations. I really need to do this first blog before I start reading the books I'm blogging about.



--Ashley

"Time passes... It must pass."

I'm a failure at blogging. I finished Across the Universe like 2 weeks ago and still haven't posted about it. And read three more books and started a fourth in that time that I haven't even thought about blogging for. I might as well get started though... Otherwise it will never get done.


Here are the previous posts about the book:
Paul's first post
Paul's mid-way post
Paul's final post
My first post


*SPOILER ALERT*


Like Paul, I really like the way the book was written, going back and forth between Amy & Elder. Especially when they were in two different places on the ship and learning the same information from a different source. I like that Amy and Elder are different from everyone on the ship, and have individual thought. Even if it is the "third cause of dischord."


I did not like Eldest at all. I thought he was pushy, overbearing, two-faced, and manipulative. I know he's supposed to be like that, but it seems like anyone who could even barely think for themselves should be able to see how terrible a leader Eldest is. I mean, seriously, he needs to drug the water to make sure people obey him. 


I definitely did NOT see it coming that Eldest/Elder/all of the Eldests and Elders before were just clones of each other. I figured maybe Elder's parents died or just gave him away so he wouldn't know them or something... but the cloning thing does make sense. Even though they wouldn't have the same leadership skills or thought processes, that can (apparently) be fixed before he's born with a simple shot. Although it obviously didn't work for Elder. I think it's the whole "Nurture vs. Nature" argument at work here, to a certain extent.


It also explains why Elder couldn't figure out who was unplugging the cryos, since the "dead" Elder had the same exact DNA. And why the screens always say "Eldest/Elder" even though they're DNA scanners. Totally should have picked up on all those hints... my bad haha.


I like that Elder helps defeat Eldest because he doesn't believe in what Eldest is trying to do, but I also like that he didn't just take Orion's side either. Although shoving him in a cryo freezer just so he wouldn't tell Amy who really unplugged her was a little extreme I think. And yet if he hadn't, Orion would have the whole ship in a total uproar and everyone would probably kill each other. I'm glad Elder did finally tell Amy that he was the one who unplugged her, and I think it speaks a lot for Amy's character that she wants to forgive him even though she was upset about it. At least he told her the truth, unlike everyone else. Even her father.


Who didn't think Amy was actually going to go with them. I liked that he gave her the choice even though her mother didn't want her to have it. And that Amy chose to go with them. Even though it didn't really matter in the end, at least it seems, because she won't be alive when they're woken up. 


Overall, I enjoyed the book, and the issues that were dealt with. I thought it had a nice ending, and could have been a standalone book... Even though apparently standalone books are a thing of the past and trilogies are the new cool thing to do. I'll probably read the sequel when it comes out and Paul buys it though, so I guess that's saying something. 


And now, on to writing more blogs!