Thursday, December 15, 2011

Wither by Lauren DeStefano



"I always knew I was an excellent liar; I just didn't know that I had it in me to fool myself."






By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. 


Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?










My rating:

I picked it up because:
There was a good amount of buzz surrounding this book, and I'd seen lots of good reviews for it, so I decided to give it a try. I hadn't even read a summary before I picked it up, which is a first for me, so I was thrown into the plot of this book all at once.



What I liked:
I love the way that Wither is written. Usually, for me, descriptions of landscapes or a room's decor get boring for me and have me skimming through paragraphs. That, or there's no description at all--a streamlined way of writing. Wither has a nice balance to it. I had such vivid images of the places described, like I explored every room with Rhine and the other characters, but I was never bored of descriptions--they were always woven into the story, never an awkward block of text trying to describe everything the author imagined.

What I loved so much about this book is that I never had to fill in the lines--when someone was in pain or excited or otherwise, it was in the book. In other books I've read, the plot is so closely tied to our main character that all we see of others is when someone else is relevant to what's happening to the main character. It was different with Rhine, though. She was, like a real person, just one of many people with many feelings and internal conflict and things happening in her life. Though it's from Rhine point of view, you see so much of other people's lives and emotions, and they're all so real--not cardboard fill-ins of what a good character should say or do, but real, opinionated, complex characters.


The last thing I want to mention is the relationships Rhine forms. They're not black and white--complex characters can only form complex relationships--and you never know quite how to characters stood, but they're genuine; relatable. It's not assumed that she cares for the people she does; you can tell her feelings are real. She cries for her friends, laughs with them, gets angry for them when someone or something wrongs them. Her feelings are complicated, like all feelings are, and you know she really feels them--you feel them along with her.

What I didn't like:


There's a small shout-out to Gabriel in the summary above. It won't spoil anything for you when I tell you he plays the part of Rhine's love interest in the book. I have to say I adored that, while playing this fundamental part, he was not shoved in our faces, nor was Rhine's every thought is not consumed by thoughts or his luscious hair and/or gorgeous eyes like some other books. *cough cough* (Pretty much any YA book on the market.) *cough cough* On the flipside, though, I wished there had been more of him in the story. I wanted to connect with him in every way that Rhine had, but I felt like I didn't get to see enough of him.


Even that wasn't that much of a bother to me, though. The only reason I didn't give Wither a full five heart review was the inconsistencies in the world of Wither. Usually I try to overlook them, but I felt like a lot of my questions should've had answers hidden somewhere in the book. I won't get into them all, but one example is that while they continually speak of the poor orphans who rob and steal and do any other desperate act to sustain themselves a life, rich men have poor girls kidnapped so they may have a bride--or brides, as the case may be. It seems to me that these desperate orphans would've been grateful to marry a perfect stranger in exchange for a home and food and the luxuries of a rich life. There was never really an explanation for why this didn't happen, and other little things like this kind of stuck in my mind. Hopefully, with the sequel, all of these kind of plot holes will be covered. 


Overall:

All in all: Read it. Even if you don't like how the plot sounds, or if more dramatic books aren't your taste, give it a try. The polygamous situation Rhine enters is something that, while I've heard of, I had never really imagined what it would be like. I'd never imagined what it would be like to be kidnapped and forced to marry and have to pretend to enjoy my life because it was the only means of escape. Read it because you'll think new thoughts, experience a world you've probably never have before, and maybe, like me, you'll find a story that enchants you.


Read more reviews for Wither at:
Electrifying Reviews and Writing from the Tub




Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

A quote:
“Sometimes this was just the way the game ended. Sometimes you did your best, and it all went straight to hell anyway.”

My rating:

Summary:
Mackie Doyle is not one of us. Though he lives in the small town of Gentry, he comes from a world of tunnels and black murky water, a world of living dead girls ruled by a little tattooed princess. He is a Replacement, left in the crib of a human baby sixteen years ago. Now, because of fatal allergies to iron, blood, and consecrated ground, Mackie is fighting to survive in the human world.
Mackie would give anything to live among us, to practice on his bass or spend time with his crush, Tate. But when Tate's baby sister goes missing, Mackie is drawn irrevocably into the underworld of Gentry, known as Mayhem. He must face the dark creatures of the Slag Heaps and find his rightful place, in our world, or theirs.

I picked it up because:
Gorgeous. Cover. It's probably in my top ten favorites for this year. It's chic and modern; elemental in its focus on the key aspects: the baby carriage, and the deadly tools hanging above it, a snip of a string away from disaster. I was interested in it from my first glance at the cover.



What I liked:
Behind every popular book is a strong, likeable, relatable, main character. Mackie is that character. From the very beginning of the book, Mackie filled his role with perfection, because he wasn't perfect--he was real. He made mistakes, tried to fit in, pretended to be stronger than he was, wondered why he was the way he was. He wasn't flawless, and he didn't pretend to be. He loved deeply and defended what he loved. Mackie, in my book, passed all tests with flying colors.
Mackie aside, the setting was my next big love. The Replacement is set in the quaint little town of Gentry, which has this peculiar mysterious vibe. It's bound all of inhabitants together in a web of secrets, and no one's telling any truths if they can help it.


What I didn't like:
Tate Stewart, who is Mackie's crush throughout the bulk of the story, is written to be one of those strong I-never-take-no-for-an-answer type of girls, the type that I always feel are the author's attempt to slowly mold the teen girl reader's mind about what the prime image of a strong and self-confident girl is like. That can get annoying, like when a book is over-plugging an environmental message or something like that. Also, Tate had some kind of relationship mood-swing disorder, which kept her attitude towards Mackie flipping between "I will never speak to you again" and "Let me rip our clothes off" as the wind blew.
My only other major complaint is that I felt like the paranormal aspect of the story was accepted too easily when presented to some characters. Like it is said in the summary, Mackie is allergic to iron, among other things. It would take a lot more than some certifiably insane-sounding story to make me accept an anomaly like that as fact.


Overall:
I liked it. Mackie, his comic-relief buddy, Roswell, and a good cast of supporting characters tell a good story, with paranormalcy, mystery, humor, and a cute romance. Don't miss it!

Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!


Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

A quote:
“Just like there's always time for pain, there's always time for healing.”

My rating:

Summary:
Five months ago, Valerie Leftman's boyfriend, Nick, opened fire on their school cafeteria. Shot trying to stop him, Valerie inadvertently saved the life of a classmate, but was implicated in the shootings because of the list she helped create. A list of people and things she and Nick hated. The list he used to pick his targets.
Now, after a summer of seclusion, Val is forced to confront her guilt as she returns to school to complete her senior year. Haunted by the memory of the boyfriend she still loves and navigating rocky relationships with her family, former friends and the girl whose life she saved, Val must come to grips with the tragedy that took place and her role in it, in order to make amends and move on with her life.

I picked it up because:

The summary had me completely hooked. A school shoot-out by one of its students: I'd never read a book with anything even close to this premise before, even though it's something that comes up in the news and everyday life. A book like this can really open people's eyes to something that's become just part of the world, and I think it's great of Jennifer Brown to explore a topic like this.


What I liked:
The perspective. Having the book written from the perspective of the shooter's girlfriend, Valerie, made it much more personal than if it had been from just a kid from the school's perspective, because Valerie doesn't automatically think of Nick as the villain like everyone else. She has good memories of who she thought he really was and her perspective allows you to see her struggle to fit the two people together to find the real Nick Levil.


What I didn't like:
The book skips around in time, letting you see Valerie as she works her way through life as she starts back her senior year, but also excerpts from the past: memories of she and Nick, of the actual day of the shooting, and her recovery in the days afterward. While I appreciated the tidbits of the past, they were a little distracting from the main plot and I found myself double-checking a lot to make sure I knew what part of her life I was reading about. I would've liked to see more of Nick and Valerie's relationship, of how they were close and how they interacted with each other, because I found Nick's character to be likeable, and as the antagonist of the novel, I wished I could've known him better.
My main dislike would mostly be the pacing of the book. While I was intrigued by the plot enough to keep reading, I found myself getting bored. The writing, and I hate to say this, was bland at times, and if it hadn't been for my interest of how it would end, I might not have finished it.


Overall:
If you're as intrigued by the plot as I was, read it, and maybe you'll get more out of it than me. If you need something that's going to entertain you from the first to last page, you might want to look elsewhere.

Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!


Monday, November 21, 2011

The First Blog Post (:


Welcome to This Girl Reads.

What is it, you ask?

It's my book blog, for me to review the YA books I read. (Any books I read, really.)

Who am I?
A girl. Someone who loves reading. The owner of a bookcase full of books. A long-time book blog reader who's ready to try it out herself.

That's about all you need to know for now; I'll add more info as I think of it.

You ready? Here goes.

-This Girl Reads