The Bone Season - Samantha Shannon

It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing.

But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city—Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly—as soldiers in their army.

Paige is assigned to a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

The Bone Season introduces a compelling heroine—a young woman learning to harness her powers in a world where everything has been taken from her. It also introduces an extraordinary young writer, with huge ambition and a teeming imagination. Samantha Shannon has created a bold new reality in this riveting debut.

Are you ready for the next big series? Because this is going to be it. The first in a new seven book series by a young British author discovered in a creative writing class at Oxford, The Bone Season is very much the new, hot thing. Not to mention the movie rights have already been picked up.

I had no idea what The Bone Season was when I picked up an ARC at BEA but the cover intrigued me and I had kept hearing more and more about how big it was going to be. Intrigued, I started it pretty quickly and found myself drawn in, spending hours on the couch because I simply couldn't put it down.

The best thing about The Bone Season is the sheer power of imagination it took to write it. Even more so than in most of the other dystopian books that have come out in the past five years or so, Shannon has created a completely immersive world, the kind that shows instead of tells and gives you feelings more than words. She also has created an entire new vernacular, based mostly upon Victorian slang, to the point where, for a good while, you're not entirely sure what any of the characters are talking about. There's a glossary in the back for some of it but mostly you pick it up as you read. It's a bit hard to push through at first but once you begin picking it up, it stays with you.

Shannon has created an entire world of psychics which is also beyond brilliant. Although it takes a bit to figure out who's who, it's actually quite interesting to see what each different kind of voyant can do and how that affects them and the world. The idea of auras, of dream walking, of soothsaying is something that everyone is familiar with at a very basic level but this new hierarchy, complete with a rewritten history of Victorian England and onward, shows not only a interesting new world but the talent that Shannon possesses. Not only am I excited for more in this series but I'm excited for more by Shannon in general.

Paige, our heroine, is pretty refreshing mainly because she's tough as nails. One of my favorite things about her is that, even as she warms up to people, she stays true to herself. For example, even when she starts to think that Warden, her "master," might be not all that bad, she still tries to escape whenever an opportunity arises. Because, hey, of course you would. There's none of that hemming and hawing that other heroines go through. Paige puts herself first and that's what she needs to do.

Other characters are also great. Warden is perhaps a bit dry but I do admire how much he puts up with. Paige's gang back home are some very interesting side characters, from her fairly creepy boss to her friend from childhood, each of them memorable in a way that some books with multiple characters can't pull off. 

I just have to mention again how amazing Shannon's new history is. I'm always impressed by people who write alternate histories and this one works particularly well. The major changes from our world start in Victorian England, giving the present (which is our future) an odd Victorian feel to it. I also loved the references to past Irish riots (which are called the Molly Riots causing me to giggle every time) which feel completely in line with the timeline she's established.  

This book is the first in a series and I will admit that I'm not entirely sure how it's going to stretch through seven novels. It seems like a three or four book story at most. But I like Shannon and if she can pull something out in her second novel that shows me how this is going to continue forward, I'm all for it. I have a feeling she's going to do it. Watch out for this book because pretty soon, it's going to be everywhere.

The Bone Season comes out August 20th from Bloomsbury.

The Elite - Kiera Cass

Thirty-five girls came to the palace to compete in the Selection. All but six have been sent home. And only one will get to marry Prince Maxon and be crowned princess of Illea.

America still isn’t sure where her heart lies. When she’s with Maxon, she’s swept up in their new and breathless romance, and can’t dream of being with anyone else. But whenever she sees Aspen standing guard around the palace, and is overcome with memories of the life they planned to share. With the group narrowed down to the Elite, the other girls are even more determined to win Maxon over—and time is running out for America to decide.

Just when America is sure she’s made her choice, a devastating loss makes her question everything again. And while she’s struggling to imagine her future, the violent rebels that are determined to overthrow the monarchy are growing stronger and their plans could destroy her chance at any kind of happy ending.

I was surprised to find myself liking The Selection last year and when the sequel showed up on Netgalley a few weeks ago, I couldn't help myself. I remembered some strong characters and the hint of a much more exciting backstory waiting to unfold in the next two books. I was excited to see what was going to happen.

The Elite is both gives the reader more and falls back in terms of plot. When I was reading the first book, I felt sure that we'd have a good view of what was going on with the rebels by the end of book two, maybe even having America be captured by them or some sort of breakdown of the kingdom. Something dramatic. I was disappointed to find this not the case.

It's not that nothing happens in the book. We do find out more of the backstory of what happened to the world to make it what it is. America gets to read some secret diaries that give her some facts of life before the caste system. And we do see a bit more of the rebels, if only a tiny bit. I really wanted more plot and although I got a taste, I wasn't satisfied.

I was, however, annoyed as hell with America. I like her as a character, I do, and she's very strong but she spends almost the entire book hemming and hawing over Aspen and Maxon, going from one boy to the next and then overreacting if one of them looks like they might have had a toe out of line. In one aspect, I do think Maxon made a poor choice but for everything else, America flies off the handle at the smallest hint of a problem and doesn't let anyone explain. It's alright once but it happened at least three or four times in the book and it was getting old.

This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the book because I did. I even missed my subway stop because I was engrossed in it. The book plods merrily along and I definitely want to know how the series is going to end. I was a bit disappointed that this book didn't make the most out of what it could have been but I'm hoping book three will blow it all out of the water.

Light - Michael Grant

It's been over a year since all the adults disappeared. Gone.

In the time since every person over the age of fourteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California, countless battles have been fought: battles against hunger and lies and plague, and epic battles of good against evil. And now, the gaiaphage has been reborn as Diana's malicious mutant daughter, Gaia. Gaia is endlessly hungry for destruction. She yearns to conquer her Nemesis, Little Pete, and then bend the entire world to her warped will. As long-standing enemies become allies, secrets are revealed and unexpected sacrifices are made. Will their attempts to save themselves and one another matter in the end, or will the kids of Perdido Beach perish in this final power struggle?

Light, the sixth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Gone series by Michael Grant, creates a masterful, arresting conclusion to life in the FAYZ.

Probably a little under a year ago, I wrote a review called Why You Should Be Reading the Gone Series. When I wrote that, the penultimate book had just been released and I wanted everyone to jump onboard. Well, last week, the final book in the saga came out and the other day, I locked myself in my room, away from distractions, to finally see what was going to happen to the poor, poor children of Perdido Beach.

I'm going to be very careful not to leave any spoilers because it is my genuine hope that anyone reading this that likes YA dystopia will run out and marathon all six books because they are that good. I marathoned the first four when I got into them. Seriously, go. It's worth it.

The last book had a lot to live up to. There were quite a few questions that needed answers, a seemingly impossible villain to overcome and the need for an end for this really epic saga. I can happily say that I was not disappointed. Light answers a good 99% of the questions everyone was wondering about (there was one I wasn't satisfied with but what can you do?) and also answers a lot of things you wouldn't have thought about asking. 

This book has the typical countdown clock at the beginning of each chapter, escalating the action to the final climax. However, what I really appreciated was that it continued a good thirty or so pages past the climax, showing us what happens after. I really enjoyed that aspect, something that I wasn't sure we were going to get and although it didn't feel perfect, it felt satisfactory. 

Not all our favorite characters survive but we've come to expect that. Some villains get rewarded. Some heroes don't get their fair share. There are some genuinely sad scenes. But that's why I love the Gone series. It's much more intelligent than a lot of fare out there. It pushes the boundaries for what is acceptable in a YA series. It's definitely gritty, completely gory and has really atrocious details but that all adds to the world building and the completely absorbing atmosphere. I couldn't put a single one of these books down and neither will you.

Anyone who loves YA dystopia and hasn't read these books, you need to get on this right now. You'll plow through them. They're great.

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale is one of those books that you always think you should have read but for some reason have never gotten around to. I bought myself a copy months ago so that I would finally read it but only got along to it now that I'm trying to read my entire collection of books so that I can give them away. Once I settle down again, though, I will have to get myself another copy because I absolutely loved it.

The Handmaid's Tale is set in a dystopian America that has recently undergone a major revolution. A fundamentalist theocracy has taken over and civilization has changed so as to be nigh unrecognizable. Taking their rules from a few passages in the Old Testament, the roles of men and women have been completely changed, a strange caste system having formed.

The heroine, known as Offred (for of Fred), is a handmaid for a Commander. Going off of an old Biblical precedent, households that are having problems with conceiving, are given a handmaid (if they're well off enough), a woman proven fertile that basically just serves as the womb of the family. She is not to be looked at, does nothing else but keeps herself comfortable, and once a month has to complete a ceremony with the Commander and the Wife in hopes of conceiving a child.

The novel is told completely through Offred's thoughts and memories. She tends to zone out and jump back in forth through time as she remembers the years before the new regime, her training to become a Handmaid once everything had changed and her present situation. 

It's strange but The Handmaid's Tale is one of those books that doesn't really need a plot. The world building and exploration of social mores is more than enough to fill all the pages. I found, as I was reading, that I had no idea where the plot was headed because I didn't really know what the plot was, other than Offred's life and I was completely fine with that. The world of The Handmaid's Tale just completely sucks you in and you find that hours have passed while you've read and you hadn't even noticed.

Another thing I loved about the book is the framing device. Well, you don't really know there's a framing device until the end of the novel. There is a wonderfully meta epilogue that is told as keynotes from an academic conference years in the future, post-Handmaid, discussing Handmaid as a historical text. As someone who just finished her Masters in English, this was completely up my alley. I loved what this allowed Atwood to do with the story and the insinuations she could make without messing up the extremely personal first person narrative that was the novel. It was absolutely brilliant.

I can't believe this is the first Atwood I've read. I've been meaning to read her forever and if this is any indication of how great an author she is, I'm jumping in feet first. I absolutely adored Handmaid's Tale and could not recommend it highly enough. Please, please read.

Blindness - Jose Saramago

You know those books that you know are really good and you know you should read and you know you'll probably like but you can never quite make yourself pick up? Yeah, that was Blindness for me for awhile. I really liked the idea of the plot and the author had won the Nobel for Literature the year before it was published so that gives you an idea of its quality. Nevertheless, it sat quite sadly on my bookshelf for months. 

However, with my imminent departure from the UK and the lack of room in my suitcase for books (and the ridiculously exorbitant amount they expect you to pay for shipping), I have started reading everything and anything I own and then, almost immediately, giving it to a friend I think might like it. And so it was with Blindness.

Blindness tells the story of a sudden epidemic of a new kind of blindness. One day, as a man sits in his car, waiting for the light to change, he no longer can see. It isn't a dark blindness, either; he can only see a bright white. A good samaritan helps him back to his home but then proceeds to steal his car. When his wife gets home, she takes the man to the eye doctor who has never seen anything like it. The next day, the "good samaritan", the eye doctor and various patients in the clinic that day become blind, as well.

As the blindness moves from person to person, seemingly from just making eye contact with each other, the government begins to worry and quarantines the blind and the infected into old mental hospitals. However, as the government begins to fall apart, the blind become rowdy and without a clear leadership, criminals begin to take over the ward.

Throughout all this, there is one character who can always see. The eye doctor's wife never goes blind but fakes it so that she can accompany her husband to the quarantine. She spends the novel trying to help but also having to pretend that she is also blind. It is with her character we are supposed to empathize with (and I did, at least) and her character that we see the suffering of the others.

The plot of Blindness is quite brilliant. It is always interesting and page turning, never growing dull. I also really enjoyed the narrative voice. It was a bit meandering, in the best kind of way, throwing in asides and ideas so much that the narrator became a sort of invisible character, someone watching a movie with you and making up comments as they go along.

The only thing that bothered me about Blindness, to be honest, was the formatting and some editing choices. Most of the story is told in huge, chunky paragraphs with long, run on sentences whose endings and beginnings don't make a ton of sense. While I understand at least part of the choice to do this, throwing the reader into a disorientated state with the characters, not allowing you to skim by forcing you to concentrate on long paragraphs, I still didn't enjoy it. But what can I say? I'm not a Nobel winner.

I did quite enjoy Blindness and found the plot very interesting. While it's not a super thriller, it's definitely page turning and I would recommend it, as long as you're up for the challenge.

Oh! And there's a lovely movie starring Julienne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. A great adaptation of the book. I think the end works particularly well in the movie version, I thought.

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

I had heard of Ready Player One when it came out last year. It was hailed as an amazing new science fiction voice in the market. When I saw it on the shelves at work, I knew I had to read it.

Ready Player One is set in the 2040s, after the internet has basically been turned into a giant, all immersive separate world which people rarely leave called the OASIS. The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has recently died and left a very interesting will: there are three keys that open three gates within the OASIS. Whoever finds all three keys and completes all three gates will win ownership of his estate and OASIS with it. And thus, the great hunt begins.

Our protagonist, Wade Watts, is your average computer geek. He lives in a dystopian RV park with his aunt and spends all of his time locked within the OASIS. He doesn't have the money to level up or buy weapons so he's very low level but has friends in high(er) places. He has spent the past year trying to decipher the puzzle of the first key, along with the rest of the world. However, something special happens to Wade: he actually solves it.

Ready Player One is a ridiculously fun read. It's a strange mix between Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Matrix and the entire decade of the 1980s. Since Halliday was a teenager in the 80s, all the hunters have to know pretty much anything that could halfway be related to the decade. There are more geek references than you can stamp your foot at.

The story is interesting if a bit typical. What's really fun are all of the throwaway references, the characters quoting ridiculous 80s trivia as if it's the holy grail which, for them, it is. Even narration bits have references in them. It's very silly but very fun.

I enjoyed the story overall. I definitely read it rather quickly. It's a bit predictable but never in a bad way. You know things will ultimately go well for Wade, he'll get the girl and win the contest, blah blah blah but along the way are fun characters, silly side quests and more nostalgia than most people can even think of.

It's fun. If you consider yourself any sort of geek, I think you should check it out.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter - Cassandra Rose Clarke

You know when you start to read a book and you know it's good but it's also not particularly your cup of tea? That you probably wouldn't have read it if you knew this is what it actually was? Even though the cover warned you that it was heartbreaking? Yeah.

The Mad Scientist's Daughter follows the life of Catarina Novak, the daughter of Daniel Novak, a preeminent engineer in robotics. Of course, we never learn all that much about it because we start following Cat at the age of 8, when she is much too young to understand what her father does. She's a young girl that enjoys running through the forest and catching fireflies. 

One night, when she comes back with a jar full of fireflies, there is a young man standing on the porch with her father. Finn, Cat comes to understand, is an android but the only one of his kind. He becomes Cat's tutor and as she grows older, her friend and something more.

The book follows Cat from the ages of 8 to roughly mid-thirties, I would say. In that time, society changes around her, as robot rights get bandied around and Cat tries to find herself in a world that doesn't appreciate her feelings for Finn (who she doesn't even know if he can reciprocate) while also doesn't want someone who fails at the sciences. And so, much like the forests of her youth, Cat wanders through life a bit aimlessly.

This book is so sad. This is what I mean when I say I probably wouldn't have picked it up. It's not that tragic kind of sad, where there's some sort of heroic sacrifice (His Dark Materials) or a tragic twist (Never Let Me Go) or just the sense of the end of an era (Lord of the Rings). No, this is that kind of numbing sadness that pervades the entire novel, as you watch Cat wander through her life, not finding joy in anything but brief moments. Sometimes it felt like it physically pained me to keep reading. I don't demand my books be happy by any means but it felt like deliberately making myself miserable.

However, this is not to say the book isn't good. The book is rather wonderful. Clarke has managed to create a world that is at once recognizable and foreign. There are robots and vice stands and tales of the old ways before the disaster. However, there's also marital troubles, dating the wrong guy and raising children. It pulls off what I personally think is the most important part of science fiction: creating a world that feels real and solid without having to actually spend time to explain it. It's all there in the tiny details, fleshing out the world Cat and Finn inhabit.

Clarke is also a wonder at drawing up fully recognizable characters. The reader knows Cat by the first fifty pages, completely inside her head and watching as the excitable young girl becomes to melancholy adolescent to the unfulfilled young adult. She grows and changes and feels and never seems unconvincing. All of her characters have a bit of that in them. Finn is also very real, changing in small, nearly unnoticed ways as the book progresses. In a way, Finn is also growing, becoming more human, despite his best efforts.

I really did enjoy this book, even if it made me mildly depressed. It's very well written and creates a compelling story. Just don't read it as a pick me up. 

The Mad Scientist's Daughter is out in February 2013 from Angry Robot.

Partials - Dan Wells

The first thing my flatmate said when she saw me reading Partials was "Oh no wait, let me guess. You're reading a dystopian YA novel?" It's true that the YA dystopia trope is really very overdone, especially these days. With the success of The Hunger Games, Divergent, and the like, it's clear that this is a genre that sells and does well. However, as I've told many people over the past few months, dystopia has always been a big feature of YA literature. I can remember reading tons of dystopian fiction growing up, Shade's Children by Garth Nix being one of my favorite books. I have my own theories as to why dystopia works so well for the YA genre, puberty and changes reflected in dystopian worlds where children now find themselves having to fend for themselves for the first time, but I think dystopias are something that will always be a part of the YA genre. 

The other thing I love about dystopias is, although they share a common thread of a world in need of rebuilding, they are always vastly unique and intriguing. A good dystopia needs a ton of world building and a new and inventive plot if it's going to work. The reader needs to know what the new world is, how it functions, and why the protagonist is in the position that they're in or will soon become. It requires a ton of imagination and talent to create good dystopian fiction and I admire people who can do it well.

On that note, let's move on to Partials. Eleven years previous to the opening of the book, humanity was almost completely wiped out by a disease called RM and a group called Partials. Partials were created by gene manufacturers to be the perfect soldiers and fought in a war between the Americans and the Chinese. However, they rebelled against humanity and ultimately won the war. Our heroine is Kira, one of the few humans left that resides in a small community in what used to be New York. She works in the hospital and is in a group of researchers trying to find the cure to RM. 

See, the problem is that the disease that killed most of humanity is still around and has been killing all infants born since its introduction. Thus, humanity is dying out, the youngest known human being fourteen. To combat this, not only are the doctors studying the disease but every woman age eighteen and above has to be pretty much perpetually pregnant, the thinking being that one day a baby will be born immune and can be studied. Kira, however, is positive they have somehow missed something and decides that they have to study a being that hasn't been seen in eleven years but is definitely immune to the disease: the partials.

I think the first thing a person notices about Partials is the fact that the book is long. Most young adult titles tend to be around three hundred pages. Partials is a whopping four hundred and seventy. It's not even that the print is strangely large or anything; it's just that the story is that intensive. I really appreciate what Wells has created. He spends a lot of time developing the world that Kira and her friends live in which kind of needed to happen because it's so vastly different. Although the book is long, it is still a quick read. I read the first seventy pages on a train ride to and from the movie theatre so it isn't impossible to get through, it just looks intimidating.

Also impressive is the amount of plot Wells puts into his novel. The focus changes about every hundred or so pages, keeping the reader on his or her toes. You don't even meet a main character until about two hundred pages in. This book could easily have been split into three but knowing it's the first in a series means that there is tons more to explore and I definitely am intrigued enough to read on. 

I have to admit that I found Kira a bit grating at times. She is rebellious to the point of just silliness at times. However, I really like how Wells created her. She is very smart and is also a scientific researcher. There are bits where she is doing laboratory tests and examining microbes and the like. Instead of skipping through it, Wells actually explores this and tries to explain the things Kira is seeing and tries to explain them. I was pleasantly surprised by this. Sure, it slowed the plot down a bit but it also added some really interesting information that indeed did come in handy later in the book. 

I was impressed with Partials and would love to read the next book. The book ends in both a comfortable and cliffhanger-y way. The plot of the first book is definitely resolved by the end but it leaves just enough questions and niggling thoughts to make you want to push on, just like a good first book should. If you're a dystopia fan, this is definitely up your alley.

The Listeners - Harrison Demchick

The Listeners is a book I received a galley of through NetGalley. I thought the plot looked intriguing and I'm happy to read anything once. For some reason, I had gotten it into my head that it was a YA novel. After reading it, I'm pretty sure it's not a YA novel. It definitely had an interesting plot and narrative structure.

The Listeners tells the story of a boy named Danny. Danny has been in his house for heaven knows how long when the book opens, forced inside by a quarantine of the borough he lives in due to an unknown disease. His mother went out for toilet paper three days prior but has yet to return. As Danny eats his breakfast, he sees an infected person out on the street who shoots at him. This calls the cops over, who offer to trade Danny his mother's gun for supplies. However, they take a little more than that, as well. After the cops leave, two men appear and whisk Danny away with them. They are two Listeners.

The Listeners are definitely the main focus and idea of the novel. They are a brotherhood (no women are allowed in) that live together and work together to take out the cops, who they feel are corrupt. They are led by a 'prophet' named Adam and, ritualistically, cut off their right ear when they become a true Listener, so as to only hear the truth. Demchick has definitely created a stunning image and the chapter where the ritual is performed is extremely well written.

I think the thing I liked more than even the plot itself was the narrative structure. This story is told in chunks. The chapters jump back and forth through time, following Danny through different parts of his journey with the Listeners and what he comes to believe and to doubt. Meanwhile, there are also 'respites' throughout, that offer a somewhat lengthy chapter from a random, usually only tangentially related character's point of view. This both fleshes out the world that the novel is taking place in and allows the author to explore more complex views than Danny has without questioning his protagonist. I found the respites maybe the most interesting parts of the novel, since you never quite knew what was going to happen with them. The chapter about the male nurse I found especially haunting. It could have been a short story on its own.

The way the plot twisted and turned, especially with its nonlinear fashion, made the book a quick read. Chapters were short and usually ended on somewhat of a cliffhanger. It kept you on your toes, although sometimes it was a bit too fast paced, racing through bits you would have to go and reread because you missed the significance of them the first time around.

Another really interesting idea was the disease, itself. Although it takes a typical zombie movie-esque formula, Demchick has invented a very interesting and somewhat more disturbing take on the stereotypical 'infected.' The sickos, as they are called, are normal people who begin growing boils all over their skin. However, for the most part, they remain conscious and aware of their surroundings, able to talk and communicate up until the point where, well, they can't. That's what makes them such interesting "monsters." Some can be communicated with, some are basically harmless as they've lost their awareness and some turn violent. It's just unknown when and why any of them will be the way they are. It adds complications and ethical questions into the plot more than a normal zombie situation, although, to be honest, it's not talked about all that much.

To be honest, as much as I liked this book, I think it needs a continuation or it's sunk. It has created a very interesting world and cast some questions on it. However, the last twenty or so pages are completely unfulfilling compared to the rest. Questions are brought up (especially one in regards to a picture found) that are not even thought about but briefly. I'm hoping that means a sequel is on its way. However, if this book is a stand alone, I don't know if I could recommend it. It's interesting but it asks more questions than it answers and not in a good way. It is the beginnings of a very good zombie novel but only the beginnings. There definitely  needs to be more.

The Listeners comes out in December from Bancroft Press.

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

When the trailer for the new movie Cloud Atlas was released about a month ago, everyone was horribly confused. Just what was this movie actually about? I didn't watch the trailer myself, still not quite sure why, but was very aware of the confusion surrounding it. That's why, when I was at the library next and saw it sitting on the shelf, I decided to pick it up and give it a go. Surely, if I could read the book, then I would understand the movie and see just what all these people were talking about. And it was shortlisted for the Booker the year it came out so it must be good, right?

I don't even really know how to describe the plot of Cloud Atlas. It's a series of separate narratives, all taking place in very different places and times. The book opens with the diary of a solicitor from San Francisco, on his way home from New Zealand in the late 19th century. His story ends midway through (as, indeed, all the stories will, although this one does end mid sentence), and you find yourself reading a set of letters from one dear friend to another, detailing the exploits of one Robert Frobisher, a young composer living his life quite extravagantly and dangerously in Belguim in-between the world wars.

The story turns from Frobisher to Louisa Rey, an investigative reporter in California in the seventies. Her story reads like a crime thriller, with short chapters and explosive cliffhangers. On one such cliffhanger, the story then switches to the tale of an elderly publisher, who's just lucked out on his latest autobiography becoming a best seller due to a rather elaborate stunt pulled by the author. Just as he's living the high life, however, he has to go on the run due to some thugs trying to hustle themselves into a share of the profits.

Things become a little strange (not that they weren't before but still) with the next story, the futuristic The Orison of Somni-451. This story is about, essentially, a clone worker who slowly begins to realize that she's more than what she's supposed to be. Each of the stories is amazing in its own right but Somni-451 is astounding, in my opinion. It's a real science fiction masterpiece, within an amazing novel of its own.

Lastly, you reach the center of the book with a post-apocalyptic tale of a young goatherd whose family ends up taking in a stranger who wants to learn more about their tribe. This story, quite different from the rest, continues on longer as, in the center of the book, it is not divided in half. The reader follows Zack and while reading this bit, I think this is where the novel really begins to gel. The story is told and slowly, in reverse order, you begin to read the second half of each of the earlier narratives. And that's when it hits you: this book is spectacular.

I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning to finish this novel and then spent the next hour looking up things about it and writing friends to pick it up. I just honestly think it's amazing. It takes six very different characters, six very different writing styles, six very different plots to tell a story about the human spirit and the triumphs and failures of power. There are small connections woven throughout the stories that tie them together but even without those, the general theme shines through without much work. The characters speak for themselves and no amount of author gibberish clogs the main message.

This is one of those books that you finish and then sit in awe for awhile, not even entirely sure what to do with yourself anymore. It hangs over you like a benevolent cloud and all you can think is, when am I going to read another book that good? 

If you're a fan of epistolary novels, diary novels, crime thrillers, science fiction, bumbling old british men, post-apocalyptic fiction, interwoven morals or just books in general, this is the book for you. I really encourage you to give it a try. It's definitely worth it.

The Selection - Kiera Cass

This, my friends, is an extremely odd book. The combination of YA, dystopia and what is basically The Bachelor creates a book that seems like it should be bizarre but is oddly readable. I got curious about it when I was working at HarperCollins and it was going to be the big hot thing. Obviously interested, I grabbed a copy when I could get a chance.

The Selection takes place in an America of at least a few hundred years in the future. In this new land, the new prince of country must take his queen-to-be from one of the common people, an idea of uniting royalty and nation. These girls are picked from random from each of the remaining states and sent to live in the palace as they slowly get whittled down, reality show style. 

The other significant part of the plot is that, in this dystopian society, there is a sort of caste systems of Ones, Twos, Threes all the way down to Eights (the homeless). Each person is born into their caste and it's very hard to move in and out of them. The Threes and above pretty much have it made while the lower classes have to work very hard for food and the like. 

Our heroine, America Singer (I know), is a Five, the artist class, making her a (can you believe it?) singer. She earns her money performing at events and parties but is also in a family of seven, helping to earn their keep. Secretly, she is also in love with the boy next door who happens to be a Six (oh no!), the servant class and much below her. Not that our plucky America cares.

Now, obviously or this book would be quite short, America gets picked to represent her area in the Selection and is whisked away to the palace to court Prince Maxon (along with thirty four other girls.) Of course, she doesn't really care about winning the prince's heart so much as earning money for her family (there is a generous compensation awarded to the girls' families) and just eating some good meals at the palace. But when she actually gets on quite well with the prince, will she find that she might truly want this?

What I liked about this book is that it was more than it appeared. There are hints at an underground war being fought and secrets behind the government that could bring down the nation (there are no history textbooks, the subject only being taught orally and rarely.) I'm really quite intrigued to find out more about this country that Cass has created because it actually sounds interesting. 

Along with that, America is actually a quite likable character. Although I detest her name, her personality is well written and relatable. She's a good female lead, if I'm a bit annoyed with her random love affair with Aspen, the boy back home. She's plucky and high spirited but she also doesn't mind wearing a pretty dress once in a while. That's my kind of girl.

The character that I surprisingly liked the most, though, was Prince Maxon. He was adorable! Not used to women and clearly enjoying getting to spend time with a bunch of pretty girls (but in a little boy in a toy store way, not a letchy way), he just stands out as the one character that doesn't have an ulterior motive. He genuinely wants to find a wife (if not just a friend) and wants everyone to be happy. He may not be as dashing as Aspen but he was sweet and I liked him.

The Selection is not a book for those that hate the very idea of The Bachelor and such but it's definitely for someone that likes a good dystopia. It has girly elements but at its heart, it's a story of a messed up world and some young people that are just trying to find their place in it. I'm looking forward to the next one and think you should give it a try.

Insurgent - Veronica Roth

Remember how I said I hadn't read Insurgent yet? Well, that was a lie. I managed to squeeze a little time in between parts one and two of book three of Game of Thrones. (Yeah. Yeah.) Not to mention that the book reads ridiculously fast. It's definitely something you can get through in a few hours.

Insurgent picks up literally right where the last book left off. Tris is on her way out of Abnegation Territory and headed who knows where while still reeling from everything that has just happened to her and everything she has discovered about the world she lives in. Suffice it to say, things are not going to get any easier for her.

I had the disadvantage before reading this to be working in the Children's department of HarperCollins and helping manage a blog contest for the Insurgent release. While, of course, the job was amazing, having to read thirty plus reviews of a book I meant to read before I could even touch it was super hard and put expectations in my head. I don't want to do that to you but I do want to address some things that I had read over and over in all the other YA blogs.

Firstly, I want to talk about Four. There are such differing opinions on him! Some reviewers think he is heaven come to earth. Others think he is a controlling bastard. I went into the book knowing there were conflicting views and have to say, the people that called him controlling are very much in the wrong. I'm not saying he's a perfect little daisy (I would not date him, if we're being honest. But I wouldn't be Dauntless either, so there you go), but what you really have to look at when reading is how he acts in relation to how Tris is doing. 

You see, Tris isn't doing that well in this book. If you've read Divergent, you know that she went through a lot in the last fourth of the book and is obviously now going to have some issues. What you might not realize as she had been so badass in book one, is that she is still very much a young girl and doing what she had to do is going to scar anyone, let alone her. She reacts badly, to say the least. Is it understandable? Yes. But blaming Four for his reactions seems odd to me. If I were in his shoes, I'd act the same. That's just the truth. He had reason to worry about Tris and he did. End of story.

As for Tris, well, she was getting a tad bit on my nerves, I have to admit. While I do admire her tough, go-get-em style, she does grate on me a bit as too Sometimes I feel like her character is too much a reaction to the pansy heroines of earlier YA (coughTwilightcough) and goes too far in the opposite direction. While I want to like her for being unique in not being some sort of perfect action girl, I guess her flaws are just the kind of things that would make me dislike her in real life and that's a bit hard to get over. 

I don't want this to sound like a negative review, though. It isn't! The plot is really well thought out and interesting, twisting and turning from moment to moment so that you really don't know which way is up. Part of the reason it reads so fast is that you sit down and don't realize you've read forty pages until you look up. It pulls you in and doesn't let you go until it's good and ready. I do really enjoy that.

The other unfortunate thing about reading the reviews, though, was knowing that there was some big twist at the end that no one wanted to spoil. Now, I'm not going to spoil it either, obviously, but I do want to say that if you're aware there's a twist and you're reading carefully, it's not going to be that much of a surprise. It is an interesting direction to take the novel but it is not very shocking as there is appropriate lead up to it. I would like to think that if I wasn't looking for a twist, I would have still seen it coming. Is it a good plot point? We'll see in future books. Is it surprising? Not especially.

Should you read Insurgent? Yes, yes you should. The series is turning out to be super original and interesting, a fun take on a slightly overdone genre. Plus, with the first two titles being Divergent and Insurgent, aren't you just dying to find out the title of the next? Convergent? Resurgent? Non-urgent? Detergent? We'll just have to wait and see.

Divergent - Veronica Roth

As the long-anticipated sequel to Divergent came out last month (and sits unread on my window sill, thanks to Game of Thrones), it seems only right to write up a review that probably should have been posted oh, I don't know, last year.

Divergent tells the story of a girl named Beatrice who lives in a dystopian version of Chicago. This new world has divided itself into five factions: Abnegation characterized by their selflessness, Candor known for their penchant for telling the truth in all situations, Erudite who value knowledge above all, Amity who promote kindness and Dauntless who think only the strong need survive. Each child has a brief test before their sixteenth birthday where they find out which faction they are most suited for and, in a brief ceremony, decide upon their new home.

Now, Beatrice (who will go by Tris for most of the novel so I'll switch to that) has a very different experience. When she undergoes the test, she is told by the now very distressed tester that she is Divergent, meaning that she has the traits of more than one faction. She is warned that she must never tell anyone this fact and has a very tough choice to make at her faction choosing.

I'm not going to say any more than that about the plot. I've really only told you the first two chapters or so. The reason I'm keeping my mouth shut is that I knew next to nothing about the book when I started it and I think that's a good way to go into it. The world that Roth has created is so new and imaginative, not knowing the basic plot made me keep guessing all the way up until the end. It's nice diving headfirst into something with no prior knowledge. It keeps you on your toes.

Suffice it to say, this is another one of those dystopian YA novels with a strong female heroine. They seem to be all the rage these days. However, I kind of like this trend. Not only is each dystopian world completely unique and inventive, I will never deny anyone the chance to portray girls as strong characters that are heroes in their own right, not relying on a man or love interest to save the day. Tris does not need anyone to watch her back. She is strong, even to the point of being cruel sometimes. She is definitely no little girl that needs saving. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she is a good role model for the young girls that are reading these novels as there are aspects of her that annoy me. However, the fact that she can be a flawed character does add to her charm. Not to mention the lessons she is teaching girls. Go out and save the world yourself; you don't have to wait for your sparkly supernatural boyfriend to help you.

Divergent has lots of twists and turns that will keep you reading until you reach the last sixty or so pages where you will find it hard to put down. The end is completely different from the rest of the book and so intense that you won't be quite sure what you're reading until it's over. The ending is one hell of a cliffhanger which is why I'm glad Insurgent is waiting on my bookshelf for me to pick it up. Can't wait to find out what happens next.

P.S. My friend Katrina recently reviewed Divergent (and has a yummy recipe to go with it!) Check it out here!

The Gone Series - Michael Grant

The fifth book in the Gone series, Fear, just came out a few weeks ago and after reading it, I have decided that everyone in the world should read it, as well. Which is why this post can also be titled

WHY YOU SHOULD BE READING THE GONE SERIES

Do you like YA dystopian novels? Than have I got a series for you. Trust me when I say that it is definitely more disturbing than The Hunger Games (and I love The Hunger Games.)

The first book begins as, one morning out of nowhere, everyone over the age of 15 disappears in a small town in California called Perdido Beach. You find out later that a dome (known as The Barrier) has formed around a huge chunk of California, about a twenty mile radius from the middle, a power plant. Perdido Beach just happens to be inside. The kids will call the area The FAYZ.

Of course, the first reaction of the kids is what you would expect: no parents, party, eat all the junk food, etc. However, one thing that I think really sets the Gone series about is that it continues past that. For when all the food is gone because no one is planting or harvesting. To when all the water is gone because there is no rain inside the dome. To when the littlest children have to start being looked after because they can't care for themselves. To when they need to install a currency system because bartering has become too dangerous. 

That, in itself, I think is one of the most interesting aspects of the Gone series. Beyond that, however, we have the creepy, dystopia stuff. Because why did The FAYZ come into being in the first place? And why have some of the kids begun forming strange powers? And why are there sudden mutations in the animals inside the dome? There is nothing creepier, let me tell you, than talking coyotes. 

Whenever I try and pitch this to my friends, they always look at me a little strangely when I start mentioning the supernatural elements but let me assure you that they do nothing but add to the book. If there were nothing of that sort, to be honest, it would just be Lord of the Flies. By adding a supernatural element (and an enemy in terms of the Gaiaphage (you'll see)), there is added danger and strategy. 

The books are very dark, as well. It's not easy to survive in this new world and, honestly, a lot of kids just don't. Some go crazy. Some get killed by wildlife. Some just die by weird accidents. And Grant has no qualms about killing off main characters. In each book, new important characters get added but characters you've cared about for maybe all the previous books are just as likely to be killed as a random red shirt. I rather like that aspect of it; you never get too comfortable while reading.

Another important detail that adds a lot to the books is the format it's written in. Each chapter begins with a countdown, usually less than 36 hours, to when the major event in the book is going to occur. Because of such a short time period, the pace is frantic and tense, really pulling you in to each novel. Between books, however, whole months pass so that now, by book five, I think the kids have been in the FAYZ at least a year. Watching them have to sustain themselves for that long, while not knowing if they'll ever get out, is powerful.

All in all, I love the Gone series and am quite upset that the last book, Light, doesn't come out until next year, especially since there was such a dramatic revelation at the end of Fear. If you would like to catch up and discuss the end of Fear with me, well, that would be much appreciated.