Saturday, August 30, 2014

Review: "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

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~o~Rating~o~



I read this a few months ago and I am still obsessing over it. The Darkest Minds was absolutely amazing! I loved the story, the world building and the character development. This is a difficult book for me to review because it was the writing that caught my attention so much more than the story. Alexandra Bracken is a wonderful and truly gifted writer. I liked how she didn’t give us all the details at once but rather left clues for us to piece together. The plot twists were very well done and enough of a surprise to wow the readers.

I loved reading this book from Ruby’s perspective because I feel like she is a very strong character. At-first she is unsure of herself, she is still coping with accidentally causing the memory loss of her parents and her friend Sam. It takes her quite a while to become comfortable with the others (Liam, Chubs and Zu) but she does.

Liam is now definitely in my top 5 favorite YA male characters list. He is so sweet! I think him and Ruby make a very good team.

And I was a bit wary of Chubs at-first, but he turned out to be completely and utterly AWESOME! He is probably my favorite character. I loved his sense of humor and how he slowly became accustomed to Ruby. He turned out to be a very good friend.

So many things happened in this book but still I thought it was way too short. This isn’t a very thorough review but if you haven’t read it yet, go read it right now!

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~           

The ending scene made me so mad! Ruby just had to go and be all noble! It was very unexpected; I was shocked. Thankfully, I was able to start on Never Fade (the sequel to The Darkest Minds) right away.





Saturday, August 23, 2014

Review: "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card


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~o~Rating~o~
 

Ender’s Game is one of the few books I have read multiple times. It is one of my all time favorite books. Ender Wiggin is a very strong character. At the mere age of six, he had been through so much. Every time I read this book, it makes me cry.

Ender is an outcast from the day he was born because he was a Third. The government only allowed families to have two children, but because his parents had two exceptionally smart children who couldn’t be admitted to Battle School for their personalities, they decided to allow them to have a third child. Ender is sought out by school bullies; he is tortured by his brother, Peter and his parents don’t really understand him. The only person he loves dearly is his sister kind and caring sister Valentine. He is taken away from his family when they decide he is perfect for Battle School.

Ender is isolated in Battle School on purpose by the instructors. Every time he made friends, he was taken away from them. And the one time he decided to give up completely, they used his sister against him.

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~

The ending was devastating. They told him he was actually doing a stimulation when he was actually controlling a battleship. He had to endure so much and now he had to live with knowing he was responsible for wiping out an entire species. 


At-first I was confused when he finds an alien in his “Game” world. But I liked how it represented hope for him; finding a place for the Buggers to establish another home would give him a chance to redeem himself. 






Thursday, August 7, 2014

Review: "Allegiant" by Veronica Roth

Allegiant is the third (and last) book to the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth


 
~o~Rating~o~


It started off pretty well but I disliked the dual narrative so much! I'm used to being in Tris' head. I don't think Veronica Roth did a very good job with Tobias' perspective. He sounded way too much like Tris.

Anyway, so they go out of the city and things just fall apart! I was expecting the cameras and the experiments and such but I don't think Roth did a very good job with everything. The Maze Runner had similar concepts and I LOVE those books.This book definitely did not meet my expectations. 

~o~SPOILER ALERT~o~

Apparently, Beatrice Prior gave her life up for a message (which was to send an army of Divergent out of the city) didn't matter! Then why in Hades did she agree to go into the experiment??

And now you're telling me that Tobias isn't Divergent! I think that was completely unnecessary!! And even is he wasn't, Tobias would NEVER act like how he was acting. He would be mad at the bureau people for thinking he was damaged and wouldn't have taken it for an explanation. And he is TOBIAS. He would NEVER go on with a plan in which he didn't know exactly what he was getting into (as was the case with him and Nita). He is not a trusting person, he's never been a trusting person, and there he is going along with a coup with someone he met three days ago. That's NOT how he acts. Does Veronica Roth not realize that she CANNOT change a character's personality to fit the plot?!?! And Uriah! Poor Uriah, who I feel so sorry for right now.

And then, after the last two books had built up to the war between the factionless and the factions, we don't even get to witness most of it. We only get some glimpses from the cameras at the bureau.

And the whole thing with genetically healed and genetically damaged just didn't fit for me. So, they had set up an experiment and monitored their genes. Okay. And they have been in that experiment for more than three decades. I don't get why in Hades someone didn't try to escape!! They said that if they tried to escape, they'll inject them with the memory serum. But if a group of them were to go out, and if that whole group was injected with the memory serum, don't you think at-least some of the residents would know something was fishy? Take the Erudite, for example; they’re naturally curious and yet, none of them tried to find out what was beyond the fence? Humans are curious and stupid creatures! They're not going to stay inside a fence for decades!

I didn't mind that Tris died. I've been waiting for AGES for a main character in one of my favorite book series' to die (I thought it would be a nice change), but the way she died just seemed horrible to me. When she was escorting Caleb to their "mission" I knew that she wasn't going to let him die for her. I mean, this is Tris! So of-course she saved Caleb and went herself, if she hadn't I would've been disappointed.

Also the whole time I was thinking. If the bureau people could really be so low as to wipe out the memories of thousands of people, why couldn't they just inject Jeanine or Evelyn or Marcus? Do you realize how many people that would be saving??
And then in the end, Tobias goes to his mother and just ASKS her to quit the war. This is EVELYN! She left her son when he was a little boy with an abusive father/husband so she could save herself. She led hundreds of people to revolt and wage war. I do think that she would stop all the nonsense for Tobias but it shouldn't have been that easy. Maybe a little more convincing in Tobias' part. And if it really was that easy, why did Tobias not talk to his mom BEFORE all this happened.

The last part with Tobias almost drinking the memory serum was UTTER NONSENSE!! Again, this is TOBIAS!! Yes, Tris' death screwed him up but he wouldn't drink the memory serum. He wouldn't want to forget Tris and everything they did together.
So, what did I like about this book?

Well, I like Christina more now and I feel really sorry for her. She lost her boyfriend in the first book in the hands of her best friend, she was getting close to Uriah who just HAD to die, and then she loses her best friend. I mean, she came from Candor to Dauntless which drove her away from her family but she found a new family among her new Dauntless friends, but now they're all gone too.
I seriously can't think of what else I liked.