review: 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

pub date: April 17, 2012
publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
pages: 355
source: for review at Kiss the Book
appeals: Space!, horror, scifi, suspense, life and death, future-ish
content: some swearing

summary:
It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever.


Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune.

Midori believes it's her way out of her restrained life in Japan.

Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.

It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space... no one is coming to save them.

In this chilling adventure set in the most brutal landscape known to man, highly acclaimed Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad creates a vivid and frightening world of possibilities we can only hope never come true.
 
thoughts:
I do not read suspense often, but I'm assuming that suspense books normally focus on story, and not so much on character's development. The first half of this story focused on characters, mostly the three teens who are chosen to go to the moon. But I never felt attached to the characters and there didn't seem to be much to them and they weren't really developed. Since there wasn't much going on, it was a little slow. And boring. It took me a week to get through the first half of the book.

Once the five astronauts and three teens got to the moon...much more interesting. Things were happening, people were dying (was that a spoiler? sorry if you hadn't guessed that already), and the suspense was good. But I also felt like it was rushed. Like I said, I don't read suspense so maybe I don't know what I'm writing about, but I think the suspense would have been more suspenseful if it had built over days, instead of hours. They are supposed to be on the moon for 172 of them, not 20. If between horrific events, the characters stewed about it a while... But, whatever. There was suspense and my interest was held. My impression of the book went up quite a bit.

I read the last of it while I was house sitting...and it rather freaked me out. I was in a strange house with strange noises. It was cool.

As for the premise...sending random teens up into space? Really? I get the publicity aspect of sending the teens (sort of), but I also thought it was a stupid idea. Especially because the higher ups at NASA have top secret information and they have specific goals for going to the moon (I think) and teens would just get in the way. And it's dangerous.

The whole, "what else is on the moon," question...the answer is odd. But cool. And the ending was good.

Let me just say, these "possibilities" will never come true.

reviews by Jaye: A Million Suns by Beth Revis

Because I've been such a horrible blogger the past few months, I convinced my good friend Jaye to write some reviews for me to post on my blog. Which is awesome because I get to be a horrible blogger and still post reviews. Yay! Here is the first of Jaye's reviews, hopefully more will follow. I'm crossing my fingers for one a week.

pub date: January 10, 2012

publisher: Razerbill

pages: 386

Jaye's Thoughts:

Book two of a trilogy, Suns suffers from that horrible middle-book symptom, filleritis. I really enjoyed book 1, Across the Universe. In this second book, though, Amy seems designed to annoy. She goes back and forth, saying she can’t have feelings for Elder because they’re the only teens on the ship, then flipping back to, “Wait, Elder’s mine!” and not having a problem with it. Plus, she acts incredibly selfish the entire book.

In fact, there are several things like that in the book. On one page, a certain thing will be said, or explained, or whatever. Then, maybe two paragraphs later, maybe two pages later, the real truth comes out, which is the complete opposite of the earlier bit. I got more and more frustrated.

As for plot structure, it was illogical to me. It turns out that Orion (a main player in the first book) has planted clues around the ship for Amy to follow, because she is the only one who can make The Choice. But he never tells her what The Choice is. Also, because of other things going on (like people fighting against Elder because he shut off the phydus machine to let them think for themselves, and the murders that have started up—more on that later) time is kinda of the essence. Orion knew other things, too, but they would be spoilers, so I won’t say them here. Suffice it to say, it makes no sense to send Amy on a scavenger hunt for clues when he knows there’s no time for it. If it’s so important—and it is—just tell her straight up! He can still send her off to see these things, but don’t make her hunt—what if she can’t find one of them? It’s still a choice that needs to be made, but because of the scavenger hunt, she could easily miss out on an important part. It all seemed designed to take up a few hundred pages before the third book.


Okay, the murders. This is a later development, but I’ll try to avoid spoilers. People start getting killed. Gasp! Anyway, there’s always a message with the body. The same message every time. I guess the murderer felt the point wasn’t getting across. The thing is, when we find out who the murderer is, and why they were killing people, it still doesn’t make sense. It was about a secret very few people knew, and leaving the cryptic message was never going to resolve anything.


Overall, it was a second book that struck me as a 386 page tour to get us to the start of the concluding volume. I’ll still pick up the last one, but it’s going to be a skimmer.

summary:
Godspeed was once fueled by lies. Now it is ruled by chaos. It’s been three months. In that time, Amy has learned to hide who she is. Elder is trying to be the leader he’s always wanted to be. But as the ship gets more and more out of control, only one thing is certain: They have to get off the ship.

review: The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

pub date: May 8, 2012
publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
pgs: 304
source: LibraryThings Early Reviewer program
appeals: dystopic of sorts, evil vampires, a little romance, end of the human race, a hunt!
content: some gore and violence

thoughts:
I wish I'd written this review the moment I finished the book. I had some great thoughts about it. But I didn't write this review the moment I finished the book, it's actually been almost two weeks since I reached the last page. So all I have left are some vague thoughts. I'm sorry.

Vague thought #1: I should've liked this book. I should've LOVED this book. The premise (below) sounded exciting and the blurbs from authors were so promising. I should have found it exciting and unputdownable. Let me just say, it did not live up to my expectations. The last thirty pages, the climax of Gene's story, took me five days to finish. When faced with going to bed or finishing, I went to bed. When the choice was between washing dishes or finishing, I washed the dishes. Obviously, it was a struggle to finish. So why did I finish? So that I could write this review.

Vague thought #2: The world building left something to be desired.

In the beginning I was intrigued with the quirky social behavior of the vampires. It was bazaar and original and wierd. Really wierd. Which made it interesting. (Though how they named each other was pretty odd and would be totally confusing outside of school). Gene just accepts their behavior as normal so when he's describing the vampires, it seems normal in this world. Though it really is wierd.
But there were parts of the world that didn't make sense to me. First, a human boy hiding around super fast and strong vampires without getting caught out? I didn't buy it.

Second, where did the vampires come from? Gene had been alone for many years (7?), but before that he had his dad and before that he had his mom and sister. They're gone because the vampires ate them. Gene is the last free human. But his dad remembered a time before the vampires. Or at least the dad understood what being "human" meant, which Gene doesn't understand. I just didn't understand when the world went from human to all vampire, and how.  

Aslo, did the humans really give up so easily that they all became meals in less than a generation? Okay, that last question is going to be answered in the next book, I'm sure, but I doubt that the vampires would overcome so many humans in such a short time, even with their uncontrollable bloodlust. We humans are experts at weapons and survival. So what happened?

Vague thought #3: Gene was a very unsympathetic character. He was fine in the beginning because he was all about surviving by not making waves. I found it interesting that he hated being human. He wanted to be "normal." But later, he was rather wimp. He didn't DO anything. He just went a long with the flow until someone else came along and told him what to do. I wanted him to think for himself.

And when he went on the hunt and met the hepers (vampire word for humans) he's just a jerk. I understood why he thought and acted the way he did. It made sense. But it also made me not like him. At all. Which is why the ending drug on and on for me. I didn't like the progagonist, a sure bet that I wasn't so interested in his survival.

Vague thought #4: the romance rather stunk. But that's because I'm a girl that likes girly romance. If you like more manly romance, then you probably wouldn't agree.

Okay, so that wasn't as vague as I expected. I take my apology back.

EDIT 4/11/12: I just reread this review and it is very negative. Which is why I should reread reviews before I post them. But I wanted to point out that there were good things about this book, too. It was well written, there was a lot of suspense, the vampires were interesting. I think it will definitely have an audience who will love it. I enjoyed most of it, up until the part I thought Gene was a jerk and and a wimp didn't care so much for him.

summary:
Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

reveiw: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

pub date: November 15, 2011
publisher: Harper/Collins
pages: 338
source: library
appeals: romance, super powers, dystopian, future,
content: swears, some steamy kissing scenes, violence

thoughts:
I really, really enjoyed this book. I read it twice, the second time more of a skim, but I read it front to back and didn't skip around like I tend to do on rereading. It was just so fun. Which I think is an interesting way to describe it since it's rather a darker book.

I loved how in the beginning Juliette's thoughts are so scattered and disjointed. There was such a progression of character development shown through language and ideas, from the girl forgotten in an asylum, to the strong, confident character that the reader is left with at the end of the novel. Her thoughts get clearer, stronger, and more cohesive. It was just awesome writing. And such beautiful language. Mafi's description of feeling was unique and interesting. Though I will admit, at times, it did get a little much for me. But it was still really amazing.

Another well-done progression...the romance. That was some nice romance. I like nice romance in my books, and this one was really nicely done. I loved the history of Adam and Juliette, how they go from antagonists to friends to more. It was rather exciting to read, as much as the overall plot.

I loved the ending. Loved it. I cannot wait for the next book in the series because I am so excited about where Mafi took her characters and where they're going to be going. It was just so fun.

summary:
Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

review: A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan

pub date: August 9, 2011
publisher: Candlewick
pages: 342
format: audio
reader: Angela Dawe
appeals: future, fairy tale retelling, romance, sorta scientific
content: a few swear words--maybe ten?

thoughts:
I needed an audio book, but I wasn't sure what to listen to. So I went browsing at the library and picked this one up because the title sounded familiar. I'm sure I read something about it somewhere. Besides, I like fairy tale retellings, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The the story follows Rose, who is awoken by a boy (hehe) after 62 years hibernating in a stasis tube. Her parents are dead, and the world around her has changed quite a bit while she's been "sleeping." So she has the present she woke up in, but a long ago past that still haunts her.  

The audio was really good, too. I liked the Angela Dawe as the reader, a lot. I thought she did a good job with the male voices.

Here were my thoughts as I listened:


discs 1: This is a really interesting world that the author has created. I love well built worlds, and I think this one is well built. Very intriguing. However, where is this story going? If I had the book, I'd probably skip to the back and read the last few pages just to find out, because even after reading the summary on the jacket three times, I'm still confused on what the point of this story is.

disc 2: The plot is a little slow. Rose's present is broken up a bit by her memories from her past. It's still interesting, but a tad slow. And I still don't know where the story is going.

disc 3: Rose is a wimp. She is so spineless she's practically an amoeba. As her past unfolds, I understand why she never stands up for herself and accepts everything everyone tells/told her (especially her dead parents), but the book is a third through, when is she going to grow up? I want her to take a stand. Grow a spine.

disc 4: I am really enjoying the future technology Sheehan created for this book. It is so creative. And interesting. And very cool.


disc 5: I am so angry at the people that surround Rose and how they manipulate her, past and present. I am so angry at them! I want Rose to feel the same anger! Yet, she's still in the amoeba stage of her development. When? When will Rose break free?!!!!!


discs 6: YES!! FINALLY! Rose gets ANGRY!!!! It was long in coming, but very satisfying. I sit in my car for 30 minutes because I want to know what is going to happen. It isn't slow anymore! The pace has definitely picked up. I make myself get out of my car when the disc ends.

disc 7: Oh no! Is this the first book in the series? I had no idea it was a series! But I can see how Sheehan is setting it up for another book if she does continue it. And it's all so exciting! I like Rose when she has some bone structure. Yay Rose!

disc 8: The dreaded two words: Love. Triangle. Ack! Not in this book, but I think Sheehan is setting it up for one in the next book. And now I'm going to have to read it. I'm hooked!

summary:
Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose— hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire— is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes— or be left without any future at all.

review: Prized by Caragh O'Brien

pub date: November 8, 2011
publisher: Roaring Brook Press
pages: 368
source: for review at Kiss the Book Blog
appeals: dystopic, political, series,
content: there is some talk about sex, but not graphic--just that this is a book that talks about babies


thoughts:
I was worried about this book. I loved the first in the series, Birthmarked. And from Prized summary, I wasn't too excited about this one. I was afraid it would just be another dystopic society, another set of problems, a new set of characters. And didn't appeal to me. But I decided to take the risk of being disappointed.

And yay! I wasn't disappointed. I was enthralled. I still love Birthmarked more, but this one built on the previous story and I was so glad! I more especially glad because Leon was back! I was worried he wouldn't show up in this book, or if he did he wouldn't be in it very much. But he was in it, and it was a lot. YAY!

A lot of the plot is based on science, once again, which I really enjoyed. It surprises me how much I liked the science in Birthmarked and Prized. I think it adds a dimension to the story that is appealing. It's still about survival, but not with wars or food shortages or environmental issues like tsunamis and earthquakes. It's more about babies. Keeping the humans alive through future generations. Which is an interesting premise, especially for YA.

It is a new society, but just like with Enclave, it is so interesting and original. And aggravating, too.  Some of those characters were just so hardheaded and I wanted to reach into the book and slap them unconscious. Which, you know, strong emotional responses to a book, even when it's aggravation, means it's doing it's job.  


Overall, it was good.


However, it was also frustrating. Gaia wasn't my favorite in this book, nor did these few months of her story show her in the most flattering light. I didn't even much like her for half the book because of her decisions. She was one of the characters I wanted to slap. At one point she says to herself (paraphrased), "I've heard of love triangles, but never love squares!" Yes, that is correct. Not just two boys, but THREE. And if you know how I feel about triangles (I hate them) just imagine my disgust with a square! One of the things that I hate about love triangles is the girl leading on two boys. Make a decision! Stick with it! So when she leads on three boys, however unintentionally, it was annoying. UGH!


I loved how the book ended. It sets up the third in the trilogy so well and I am excited to see how it will end. I'm am hoping Gaia does not disappoint.


summary:
Striking out into the wasteland with nothing but her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her, sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone survives only to be captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where women rule the men who drastically outnumber them, and a kiss is a crime. In order to see her sister again, Gaia must submit to their strict social code, but how can she deny her sense of justice, her curiosity, and everything in her heart that makes her whole?

review: The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

pub date: November 21, 2011
publisher: Razerbill
page: 309
source: LibraryThing Early Reviewer program
appeals: the 90s, facebook, futurish stuff, slight romance, multiple narrators,
content: swearing, it seemed that the topic of sex was brought up a lot

thoughts:
I don't really know what to write about The Future of Us. Like a lot of people, I really wanted to get my hands on this book. This was JAY ASHER. And the premise sounded really cool. But there is so much hype around this book, that in actually reading it I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book. It just didn't blow me away like I thought/hoped it would. It's good, but it's not going to change the world.

And now we get to me not knowing what to write besides the general, "this was a good book" stuff. But I will try...

All the 90s references were fun. Emma and Josh are my age, I was 16 in 1996. So I laughed a lot at their lives because that was me. It's amazing how much has changed in 15 years.

To go along with that, the way they interpreted what the future was through facebook posts was also fun. My favorite was Emma in 1996 wondering why she was writing such personal information on a public forum in 2011. I wonder that all the time about others.

Whereas I liked Josh a lot, Emma really irritated me, as I'm sure she was supposed to. But I never felt like she redeemed herself, not even at the end. I hope she learned her lesson, but I still have my doubts. Mostly I was left wondering what Josh saw in the girl. 

I liked how Emma and Josh changed their future. I would write more, but every thing I try to expand on that thought, I delete it because I think it gives too much away about the plot. So just know, I liked how what they read in the future influenced their present, which in turn influenced their future. Get it?

I thought it similar to Gimme a Call by Sarah Mlynowski which came out a few years ago.


summary:
It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet.

Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM.

Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future.

Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

review: Bumped by Megan McCafferty

pub date: April 26, 2011
publisher: Balzer + Bray
pages: 336
source: NetGalley
appeals: future, dystopia
content: a lot of talk about sex, some swearing including the f-bomb

thoughts:
I'm not really sure what to write about this book. I'm not sure what I think.

First of all, I should research books better before I read them. There is A LOT of talk about sex in this book. It's practically all about teens having sex (though the actual act isn't ever described). Yes, I am rather naive. I did expect some, just not so much. If I had done research about the book and knew this before picking it up, I would never have picked it up.

However, I did pick it up. And I got rather interested in this really, EXTREMELY disturbing story McCafferty writes. There were a few times I almost put it down because of content, but I was so intrigued by the story that I didn't, I couldn't. I kept reading. I read it on my nook and for some reason it wouldn't tell me what page I was on, so I didn't know I was at the end until the acknowledgement page popped up. And then I was UPSET! It's such an abrupt ending, like stopping in the middle of the story. And I really wanted to know what happened next.

Like I said, not sure what to think about this book!

McCafferty wrote a future, dystopic novel that is amazing. One that is extremely disturbing, but utterly believable.  I mean, the propaganda geared towards teens about having babies--ack! The young age of these teen mothers and would be mothers. The emotional and physical and social effects of teens having babies so young, just to give them away...so very upsetting. But I really believed it.

For example--parent's selling their children's bodies for 9 months at a time to make babies for the highest bidder. I watched 5 minutes of Toddlers and Tiaras the night I finished this book(had never seen it before) and I totally saw how this could happen. Another example--the glamour of being a sperm donor. Think Justine Bieber. How many teen girls would want him to be the father of their baby? How many parents would want his DNA in their babies? Imagine the paparazzi attacks!!! I can see it.

Everything was meant to be disturbing and make the reader think, so that was good. But the religion bothered me differently. The two religious viewpoints were very extreme. It bothered me in a more personal sense. Where's the more rational religious look at infertility and rampant teen pregnancy?


So, yeah. Read at your own risk. But very interesting. And rather addictive.

summary:
When a virus makes everyone over the age of eighteen infertile, would-be parents are forced to pay teen girls to conceive and give birth to their children, making teens the most prized members of society.

Sixteen-year-old identical twins Melody and Harmony were separated at birth and had never met until the day Harmony shows up on Melody’s doorstep. Until now, the twins have followed completely opposite paths. Melody has scored an enviable conception contract with a couple called the Jaydens. While they are searching for the perfect partner for Melody to bump with, she is fighting her attraction to her best friend Zen, who is way too short for the job.

Harmony has spent her whole life in religious Goodside, preparing to be a wife and mother. She believes her calling is to bring Melody back to Goodside and convince her that “pregging” for profit is a sin. But Harmony has secrets of her own that she is running from.

When Melody is finally matched with the world-famous, genetically flawless Jondoe, both girls’ lives are changed forever. A case of mistaken identity takes them on a journey neither could have ever imagined, one that makes Melody and Harmony realize they have so much more than just DNA in common

review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

pub date: January 11, 2011
publisher: Razerbill
pages: 398
source: librarything Early Reviewer
audience: upper teen
appeal: space, future, dystopian, romance, mystery
challenges: debut author challenge, 350 page challenge
content: a very few swear words, an incident of sexual assault, rather disturbing attitude towards sex that ties into the plot


goodreads blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.

me:
I've had this book since November and waited this long to read it. Why?!?!? It was fantastic. The plot was not what I was expecting, but then when I think back to before I read the book, I'm not really sure what I was expecting. But whatever it was, it wasn't what I got.

There were so many surprises in the plot. A lot about how life on Godspeed had evolved into something rather disturbing. Then there were the lies and secrets and the mystery of the murders. I liked Elder and am curious who he will be in the next book. And Amy was a strong, likable character.

And that is it. I'm feeling rather lazy at the moment and so many other people have raved about this book, that I'm not going to write more. Which makes this not so much a review as it is a recommendation...it's a fantastic adventure, you should pick it up!