Keep On Keeping On: I Crawl Through It

I Crawl Through It by A.S. King
Little, Brown, 2015

*eARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley- thank you! This in no way impacted my opinions of this book.*

A.S. King is a writer who has never shied away from stories and structures that are a little more, shall we say, "out there." But if you've thought she pushed the envelope as far as it could go before, just wait until you read King's first surrealist novel.

In a town and a school under the thumb of bomb threats, never ending tests, ridiculous societal expectations, and the usual insurmountable mountain of the pressures that come with being an adolescent human merely trying to survive into adulthood, I Crawl Through It focuses on four teens in particular who cope with their various situations in a variety of ways. One girl wears a lab coat wherever she goes and dissects frogs (and other animals) as often as the science teacher will let her. One boy is building an invisible helicopter to escape. One girl has swallowed herself and is now inside out. Another girl can't stop lying (or doesn't want to) and her hair won't stop growing.

Sound a bit strange? I'm not going to lie - it is. Yet I consistently come back to King's novels. They push me outside my comfort zone. They challenge traditional ways of storytelling and thinking about people, places, and things and how they mold each other, a never ending cycle that can be kind when it's not busy being cruel. It took me a while to fully wrap my head around this book and these characters. No one really seems to question a girl who says she is inside out or a boy with an invisible aircraft, but then again they don't question the bomb drills or the myriad of tests, either. And really, is one set really that much stranger than the other? About halfway through, something must have clicked in my mind and I was able to suspend my reality for the one within the pages. I'm still not sure I was able to fully accept the reality of this book literal truth - it's not - but I was able to accept that it's hardly stranger than the world I live in where being a school teacher isn't just about teaching anymore, but also about being willing to sacrifice my life.

This book is not for everyone. It's weird, but I say that as a compliment, as high praise. A.S. King's books make me a better reader, and transitively, a better thinker and a better human. These lives we lead are beyond anything our ancestors could have ever imagined for us, and this world will only become more surreal for our descendants. Yet, day after day, I crawl through it.

Comments welcome, and as always, happy reading.

The End?: Vivian Apple at the End of the World

Vivian Apple at the End of the World by Katie Coyle (Vivian Apple #1)
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015

*ARC Provided by the publisher at ALA Midwinter 2015 - Thank you! This in no way impacted my opinions of this book.*

Ever since the evangelical Church of America announced three years ago the date of the rapture, life has gotten strange for Vivian Apple. Her parents become Believers (as do thousands of others), but Vivian just doesn't buy it. However when the day comes and her parents are gone, maybe it really is the end of the world. She eventually grows restless and sets out on a cross-country road trip with her best friend Harp and the mysterious Peter, desperate to find the truth.

A recent pick for the Tumblr Reblog Bookclub, Vivian Apple has been all over my social media feeds lately so I was glad at the opportunity to pick it up for myself. In her debut novel, Coyle keeps the pace of the story clipping along and presents a diverse cast that keep readers thinking. The story really gets interesting once Vivian and friends set out on their road trip, but it does take a while to get there.

Coyle takes on a lot of big questions that hit particularly close to home to me. Vivian sees the world, especially post-Rapture, as black and white: there are the Believers and the non-Believers. However, she her categories don't allow for nuance, for differences. While it's true that the Church of America has taken over many aspects of everyday life, it's not the only religion that exists or that people believe in anymore. This is best showed in a scene in which Vivian is critical of a former teacher whom she looks up to and her parents for being Catholic - to her, believing in God at all puts an individual in the evil Believer camp, fanatical and closed minded, never to be trusted. She firmly does not believe in any sort of higher power, which is perfectly fine. But to me, Vivian is just as closed minded as those she criticizes when she refuses to consider that faith and religion has never been so cut and dry as she imagines it to be.

So I do have some objections to Vivian and how she tries to divide the world. It also took a while for the story to gain some steam, but eventually it got there. All in all, I like that this book challenged me. I like that it made me think, that it didn't shy away from big, often taboo topics. I like that most of the characters felt fully formed and that the situations, for the most part, felt realistic. I'd even be interested in borrowing the sequel from my local library when it comes out eventually.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Katie Coyle on Twitter
Katie Coyle on Tumblr

Science and Society: Dove Arising

Dove Arising by Karen Bao (Dove Chronicles #1)
Viking, Expected Release Date: February 24, 2015

*ARC Provided by the publisher at ALA Midwinter 2015 - Thank you! This in no way impacted my opinions of this book.*

Phaet (pronounced 'fate') Theta has always lived a quiet life with her family on the moon. Selectively mute since the death of her father years before, she has an aptitude for her work in the greenhouses and dreams of getting through school so she can focus on the work she loves. But when her mother is arrested, the only way to save her family from destitution is to join the Militia. If she can secure a high ranking after finishing basic training, there may be just enough money to keep her siblings alive and save her mom. But first, she needs to survive training, and she can't tell if her alliance with Wes, a fellow outsider, is a blessing or a mistake.

By all accounts, this is an impressive debut considering that the author is 19 years old. She started writing this in high school and has kept up with her craft while also studying science at an Ivy League university. The plot moves along at a good pace, and Bao has clearly put a lot of thought into the world she has built, specifically the science behind all of it. In the start, this heavy usage of scientific terms felt a bit heavy-handed and clunky, but a combination of the jargon smoothing out as well as me getting used to it as a reader made it easier to understand as the story progressed.

In libraries where science fiction and dystopians are still hard to keep on the shelves, Dove Arising is a good buy. It follows a pattern that seems to be becoming common in this genre: unassuming individual finds themselves needing to make a choice that will change the course of their life, a period of training/competing is involved, and just when it looks like they're in the clear and that the worst is over, it's a good thing all that training happened because now it becomes necessary in real life and more will come to light in book 2. I was hoping for something a bit more off the beaten path. The main reason I picked this ARC up on my last day at Midwinter was because the letter to readers on the inside declared this story "speculates about the future we may be facing if we continue to devalue art, music, and literature in our lives and willingly sacrifice our freedom and privacy in the name of security." I saw glimpses of this goal throughout reading though not as much as I would have liked, but hopefully there will be more in regards to those particular issues as the series progresses.

Over the few days it took me to read this book, I was engaged and interested in what happened next. I think Bao has a lot of potential and I'd be interested in possibly checking out future books from the library if I feel a particular craving for this kind of story.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Karen Bao's Website
Karen Bao on Twitter

Choose Your Fate: Champion

Champion by Marie Lu (Legend #3)
Putnam, 2013

Since this review is about the final book in a series, there may be some spoilers for books 1 and 2 ahead - you have been warned!

It is this reader's opinion that readers who have stuck with June and Day through their many highs and lows in Legend and Prodigy will not be disappointed with this dystopian trilogy's conclusion in Champion.

It looks like peace between the Republic and the Colonies could actually be within reach, but when a plague outbreak hits the Colonies, a revival of an old war seems inevitable. It may be up to the Republic's darlings June and Day to save them all, but it would mean sacrificing even more to a country that has robbed them of so much. Can June unlock the key to her country's defense? Can Day keep what remains of his life safe? Or will the costs for each of them be too high?

When I read Prodigy last year, I complained that I didn't quite understand how all of the pieces of this future society fit together. I was incredibly confused about how the Patriots fit into the picture and what exactly all the fighting was about. It wasn't until I read Champion that I realized the error was my own - I simply read Prodigy too quickly because when I took my time with this final installment, things made much more sense. The Republic and the Colonies were how the US split in two. The Patriots don't have a particular allegiance to either one: their goal is to try to reunite the United States. Realizing that made things so much easier.

This book continues with everything that has made the Legend series so popular before: dynamic dual points of view, plenty of action scenes, some political intrigue and strategizing, swoon-worthy sequences that will pull at your heartstrings and punch you in the gut. All in all, I was so completely satisfied with the conclusion of this series as a reader. Lu makes some bold moves here and I appreciated how they fit in to the conclusion. I wouldn't have made some of these choices myself, but for this story, it worked.

If you've liked the Legend series so far, don't wait to get your hands on this fantastic finale.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Marie Lu's Website
Marie Lu on Twitter

Choose to Read: Allegiant

Allegiant by Veronica Roth (Divergent #3)
Harper Teen, 2013

It should really go without saying considering this is the third book in a trilogy, but there are some spoilers ahead for the first two books. You have been warned!

Now that some time has past, I finally feel ready to write this review. Veronica Roth brings her action-packed dystopian series to an end in Allegiant. Picking up shortly after where the second installment, Insurgent, left off, Tris and everyone in the city must all face difficult choices, the most pressing being if the time really has come to go beyond the fence. Secrets are around every corner, the things that have been accepted for truth so long may be more fiction than fact, and it will take all the bravery, selflessness, intelligence, helpfulness, and honesty Tris can muster to fight for the people and things she loves the most.

To me, this book did a lot of things right. The backstory about why these people have been living with the faction system and why the city is the way it is finally comes out. There is some truly incredible character growth in this book alone, and when you consider some of the people we've gotten to know over the course of the series, many of them have been on a remarkable journey. I thought that having dual narrators in Tris and Tobias/Four was an excellent move as it gave readers a wider look at the world these characters inhabit and showed that it's not just Tris making big choices, but everyone around here also has something on the line.

And for a series built on the questions of what does it mean to be brave and what does it mean to be selfless, the conclusion made the answer clear: more often than not, they mean the same thing.

Was it a big book, literally? Yes. Did I feel like some areas could have been trimmed, that as a reader I was being given more information than I really needed or cared to know? At times - some elements felt a tad clunky or unnecessary, yet I kept turning the page to find out what happened next. While the first book remains my favorite, I applaud Roth for staying true to the ending she always envisioned and the story she always set out to tell.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading.

Veronica Roth's Website
Veronica Roth on Twitter
Veronica Roth on Tumblr

Almost: Anomaly

Anomaly by Krista McGee (Anomaly #1)
Thomas Nelson, 2013

*ARC received at ALA Annual Conference - Thank You!*

The premise for Krista McGee's dystopian/science-fiction novel Anomaly, the first in a planned series, blew me away. However, I quickly learned that this book was almost, but not quite, what the description said it was.

Thalli is growing up in a world post-nuclear war, underground, in a society run by scientists and where emotions have been eradicated. Therefore, her very existence is dangerous because she feels deeply and always has. When her secret is discovered, a childhood friend saves her from annihilation and instead she is studied in labs. But are the scientists really the most powerful ones calling the shots, or could Thalli's anomaly actually be part of a much larger plan?

The story was going along really well with an interesting premise and a cast of characters that were each distinct when the novel took a very sharp turn. Insert the surprise: this isn't just a dystopian and science-fiction story, but Christian fiction. Suddenly there's a religious element that changes everything - the tone, the characters, the story as a whole. I found it very hard to enjoy the book, which I otherwise actually really liked, after this for a few reasons.

First of all, I have no problem with Christian fiction or faith-based fiction in general. It's actually very cool to see a world and characters in which faith plays a big part. I was not a fan, however, of how it was handled here. It wasn't just an element of the story - I felt like I was being preached at. This leads to my second criticism which is the fact that this was Christian fiction was essentially hidden. Nowhere on my ARC when describing genre/content was this mentioned. Had the publisher been forthcoming about this element, I would have gone into this with the proper mindset and known what was coming. Another option could have been for the religious aspect to be handled as an allegory instead which I believe would have been stronger in the context of this incredibly vivid and well-planned world McGee created.

If you are seeking a story that combines Christianity with popular dystopian and science-fiction tropes, then McGee's Anomaly is absolutely for you. I liked the blurb on the back, but unfortunately the way the religious parts of the text were inserted and handled resulted in this novel not being my particular cup of tea.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Krista McGee's Website

A Finale with Fight: Requiem

Requiem by Lauren Oliver (Delirium #3)
HarperTeen, 2013

Lauren Oliver is officially the queen of open endings. She did it with her debut Before I Fall and again in each of the books making up her Delirium Trilogy. That's right, each of them, including this one. But unlike the reactions of so many other people, it honestly didn't bother me all that much.

Requiem is the final chapter in Lena's story, the tale of a girl who fell in love in a world where it has been declared a highly contagious disease that people need to be cured of. She's given up everything she's ever known to join the resistance and a single question remains: is all of this worth the high price she's had to pay? But unlike the first two books, this is also Hana's story. Chapters alternate between the girl who ran away and her best friend who stayed behind, has been Cured, and has been paired to marry the mayor.

I have had to wait a long time to see how this story would conclude since my library's copy of the book is always checked out. So what was my initial reaction to the story, especially the ending? Thinking. I closed the book and just needed to think, because like I said, it's a very open ending with some answers and lots of questions. I can see why this upset a lot of people. After all, this series is all about love, so the love story is the biggest part for a lot of readers. However, to me the ending very much suited Oliver's style and an overarching theme of the book that I think was best told through Hana's story - we cannot confine love to romantic love. It comes in all shapes and sizes and forms. In the end, Lena has love in her life, so in that regard, her journey has been a success. I wasn't always happy with her behavior, and so that regard the ending left me disappointing in her, but it's a dystopian story - happily ever afters should never be expected here.

And getting back to Hana, I was much more interested in her story throughout the novel than Lena's. To see the world through the eyes of a Cured person was so inventive, and the way she describes things, especially her feelings, was so thought provoking. Even though the resistance commonly refers to traditional cities as Zombieland, Hana shows us that that's not the case. She still feels, just not how she used to, and that's a result of trying to take love out of the mix. She shows incredible growth here, especially compared to the girl we knew her as back in the first book. She too got an open ending, but hers here reminded me of the ending of Delirium - unclear, uncertain, but still with some air of hope somehow.

Overall, if you've read the first two books in the series and haven't read Requiem yet, you should. The first book still remains my favorite by far, but the whole story asks a lot of questions that are worth exploring. And if you're really unsatisfied with the ending, check out Delirium Endings on Tumblr, a project Lauren Oliver has set up for people to share their fan fic of what happens after.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Lauren Oliver's Website
Lauren Oliver on Twitter

Pick a Side: Prodigy

Prodigy by Marie Lu (Legend #2)
Putnam, 2013

In her debut novel and the first book in a planned trilogy, Marie Lu taught readers in Legend that looks can be deceiving  The Republic of America demands excellence and has little tolerance for those who cannot live up to high expectations. But insisting on perfection and being perfect are hardly the same. This theme of never being able to take anything at face value continues in the electric second installment of this saga, Prodigy.

June, the Republic's favorite daughter, and Day, their most wanted criminal, have managed to escape Los Angeles and are in search of the Patriots and help. Unfortunately, everything comes with a price and the Patriots are willing to help June and Day for a high cost: they want the two of them to help assassinate the new Elector, a young man named Anden who has just taken his dead father's place as the leader of the Republic.  But as the plan gets underway, June learns that Anden is nothing like his father and could actually be just what the nation needs for a new beginning. Meanwhile, Day questions everything he thought he knew - including June - and is will stop at nothing to get his little brother back.

This sequel had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Lu continues to be a master of the dual-narrators (this time, Day's chapters are in blue ink while June's are in black) and seamlessly weaves the two voices together. I could see why Day thought the things he did and why the answers June desired suddenly weren't as black-and-white as we had once believed. Anden was a huge part of this, too. I wouldn't go as far as to say Lu introduces love triangles (yes, plural - Day realizes little Tess isn't really such a little girl anymore), but she brings in very realistic questions about the nature of relationships and allegiances. Just like the political situations of the story, love is hardly simple, either.

In my review of the first book, I mentioned that my biggest complaint was a lack of understanding of the exact geography and situation of the Republic of America, the Colonies of America, and the Patriots and how they all fit together, and in this novel all of those questions were finally answered in a way where the puzzle made much more sense.

Prodigy has action, suspense, and plenty of plot twists and turns that would be surprising but never in an unrealistic sort of way. Secondary characters from book one are flushed out even more, and the stakes are raised once again as I must patiently wait for the finale that will come in book three. A five-star sequel in this blogger's opinion.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Marie Lu's Website
Marie Lu on Twitter

In Conclusion: Reached

Reached by Ally Condie
Dutton, 2012

Cassia's world was once small and safe in the Society. But then she fell in love, started to learn the truth, joined the rebellion known as the Rising, and now in Reached, the conclusion to Ally Condie's dystopian Matched trilogy, readers finally get to learn if the freedom she dreams of is finally within her grasp.

Building off of the second book, Crossed, which was told from Cassia's and Ky's points of view, this third book added another narrator in Xander, the boy who Cassia was Matched with. While I understand why Condie waited until now to let readers into his mind, a bigger part of me wishes it could have come sooner as he has long been one of my favorite characters in this saga.

On the whole, this conclusion to the trilogy left me wanting more. After all, Matched was a novel that completely and totally blew me away while Crossed had the second book slump in my opinion. I was willing to get past that, though, because it's a fairly common trait in a lot of trilogies. I had high hopes for Reached and while I thought it was very well written, the story left me unsatisfied. The strong emotional connection I had with this series initially just wasn't there like it used to be. The science aspects of the story were an interesting addition, but sometimes I felt like I was being given more than I needed which caused the space to suffer.

Overall, I'm glad I read this book. I know I would have been disappointed to not see this series through to the end. However, and I really hate saying this, but this novel just didn't seem to do it for me, whatever that intangible it is. You can bet I'll continue to read Condie's writing in the future, though, and I look forward to whatever her next project is.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading.

Ally Condie's Website
Ally Condie on Twitter

A Debut with Flash: Struck

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
Farrar, Straus and Giorux BYR, 2012

I'll say this for the debut author class of 2012: they are absolutely blowing me out of the park again and again and again. Struck, the debut novel by Jennifer Bosworth, is one of those books. The premise is incredible, the story has intense world building that is also remarkably realistic, and I've been telling everyone I know 'you have to read this book!'

Meet Mia Price: lightning addict. She's a human lightning rod who has been struck more times than she can count, and her affliction is the whole reason she, her mom, and her brother moved to Los Angeles in the first place - it barely rains there. But then the earthquake happened not so long ago, leaving the entire city in devastation. Rance Ridely Prophet, a televangelist with a large cult called the Followers, has announced the world will end in three days. There's also the Seekers, a group of people who want to take down Prophet and the Followers at any cost. Both sides have prophecies indicating that Mia is a central player in all of it. It doesn't seem to matter to anyone that she wants nothing to do with any of them - all she wants is to keep her family alive - but she also desperately wants to trust Jeremy, a stranger who says he wants to protect her. When the end of the world is on the line, Mia must risk everything to try to save what she loves.

Not since Katniss Everdeen have I come across such a strong protagonist. Mia is willing to do whatever it takes to keep her mother (who is suffering from PTSD) and her brother safe. She has an incredible ability that she'd rather not use because she hates bringing pain to others. She is incredibly complex and a survivor in every sense of the word.

Bosworth's world building here is also impecable. I've only been to LA once, but I have very little doubt that this is what the end of the world would look like there. The situations that arise and the fears that consume people within these pages are all incredibly realistic, as are the wide range of reactions.

Readers will be kept on their toes as they make their way through this story. Primary and secondary characters are all fully flushed out, and Bosworth does an especially good job with Jeremy in my opinion. All in all, this book has action, big questions, big emotions, and the fate of the world is on the line. I was blown away by this novel, and I cannot wait to see what Bosworth comes up with next.

Comments welcome, and, as always, happy reading!

Jennifer Bosworth's Website
JenniferBosworth on Twitter

Choices That Can Kill: Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Harper Teen, 2012

Though I finished this book a while ago, I wasn't able to write my thoughts about it right away because I simply needed time to think about this roller coaster Veronica Roth had put me through as a reader. My brain had to process everything that happened and what it could all mean in this second  installment of the Divergent trilogy and what could possibly be in store the in series' conclusion.

Insurgent picks up where the first book left off - Tris, Four, her brother Caleb, and some other survivors of the simulation attack are making their way to the Amity faction's headquarters, seeking shelter and answers. But any sort of answers Tris does manage to find only lead to more questions, as is the nature of war. While the saying "faction before blood" still hangs in the air, its meaning begins to crumble as factions turn against each other and the members divide amongst themselves.

This book is incredibly emotional and raw, and I love how Tris isn't some kind of mindless killing machine but actually a sixteen year old girl who is rocked by her grief in the midst of chaos. The things she's done haunt her every day, every moment, and the choices she feels she has to make kill her metaphorically as well as sometimes resulting in the deaths of others. It is a sign of a good dystopian novel, in my opinion, when these choices are not easy ones. I didn't always like what Tris was doing, but I admired that she was always trying to do the right thing, be it honor her parents' legacies or try to keep those she loves safe. These are much bigger signs of her Dauntless bravery to me than her ability to physically fight.

We also get insight into the other factions as well as a lot more characters. Four/Tobias was well-rounded and full of depth in the first book, and he continues to fascinate me as more of his story comes to light. Readers also get keen insights on Caleb and as a reader who also has an older brother, I appreciated how Roth captures the dynamic of how two siblings, close in age and raised in the same house, can be so alike and dissimilar at the same time. Getting to see the inside of the other factions was also a treat to me, and I was fascinated by how much thought Roth has clearly put into her world building and into this society where people push their devotion to one singular virtue to the extreme. (Personally, if I had to choose a faction, I'd go for Amity, but like Tris, I think all of us are actually much more Divergent than we realize.)

There were two spots in particular that left me slack-jawed and thinking "What the hell just happened?!" but I won't say because spoilers are the worst. What I will say is that I cannot wait for the final installment (which Roth says she currently refers to as Detergent on her computer) to come out some time next year. I'm also incredibly grateful that I got the chance to hear her read and meet her at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL at the beginning of May (though I geeked out pretty bad, but what can I say? She and I are literally only a few days apart in age and her talent and accomplishments are impressive! I feel like I've seriously been slacking, and that she's definitely the kind of person I'd be friends with. And we both went to Big 10 schools! But anyway... haha)

If you are a fan of dystopian fiction showcasing strong yet incredibly realistic characters, then the Divergent series is something you must look into if you haven't picked it up already. Insurgent challenges readers to dig deeper and to realize that nothing is ever quite as black and white as people (especially those in Candor) might want to believe.

Comments welcome and, as always, happy reading!

Veronica Roth's Website
Veronica Roth on Twitter
Veronica Roth on Tumblr

Digging Deeper: Crossed

Crossed by Ally Condie

Dutton, 2011

Ally Condie’s novel Matched was one of first books I read when getting into dystopian fiction. It brought together elements that I thought were so striking – unlike in The Hunger Games where there is clearly something wrong with a government that forces children to kill each other, Matched presented readers with the Society, a system which on the surface gives the appearance of truly looking out for the best interests of citizens. If you trust in the system and follow the rules, then the Society will take care of you.

Except, things were not as they appeared. Through the eyes of Cassia, a seventeen year old girl, we start to learn that her perfect world is far from perfect. She begins to realize she wants what was taken away generations before her – the right to make choices for herself, including to be with the boy she’s fallen in love with, Ky.

Crossed, the second novel in this trilogy, picks up several months after where the first book left off. Cassia has made her way to the Outer Provinces, searching for Ky. However, thoughts of Xander, her best friend from home and the boy she was matched with to marry, are never too far from her mind either. But Ky has managed to escape the rough work camps and Cassia follows. New characters are introduced who are parts of their respective journeys, and while her longing to be with him remains, her desire to find and join the Rising, the group fighting to bring down the Society, is growing. The time is coming when she will soon have to choose not only between these two boys, but between love and the cause she believes in.

Condie continues to spin a story that keeps readers captivated. This time around, readers not only got to experience events from Cassia’s eyes, but Ky’s as well which was an interesting twist that I really enjoyed. The imagery was rich and I had no trouble visualizing the canyons Cassia and Ky are struggling to survive in. Readers also learn more about Ky’s mysterious past, why exactly his family was removed from Citizen status, and where his loyalties lie. Since the first book focused on what the Society can control, I loved learning about what’s being done to try to stop it this time around.

My biggest criticism, however, was the pace of the story. In this way, the novel does seem to suffer what is commonly referred to as "second book syndrome" where in the world of trilogies, the second book feels a bit like filler until the third and final installment, where all of the tied up loose ends and answers come along. The whole book takes place over the course of a few days, no more than 10 at max, but it didn’t feel like a whole lot was really going on to advance the plot in that time. This book was definitely more about character and history development, which is fine, but patience is imperative.

That being said, I’m even more excited now for Reached, the final installment in the trilogy due out November of this year.

Comments welcome and, as always, happy reading.

Ally Condie's Website
Ally Condie on Twitter

Choices and Chaos: Pandemonium

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Harper Teen, 2012

I'm writing this review literally having just finished reading Pandemonium, the second installment of Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy, and I'm having trouble finding the right words. It was that good.

But first, since I never did a review of Delirium on this blog since I read it before this blog existed, allow me to give a bit of backstory. Lena lives in a future United States in which love aka deliria is considered to be a highly contagious and dangerous disease. That's why everyone is required to undergo the cure, a surgical procedure, when they are 18. But less than 100 days before her scheduled cure, Lena meets Alex and catches the deliria. And so she makes a choice to run away from the life she knows in the regulated world and escape to the Wilds, the world beyond the fences and the government, and live with him where love is allowed.

The story picks up both right after where Delirium leaves off as well as a few months later - Oliver's chapters alternate between Now (Lena living in Manhattan and doing her part to help the resistance movement) and Then (when she first got to the Wilds). With the Then chapters, we see Lena rebuild herself in an unfamiliar world and in a situation she had never considered. Alex didn't make it over the fence with her, you see. He'd been shot and he told her to go, and so even though it literally nearly killed her to watch the boy she loved covered in blood with no way to possibly get out alive behind, she ran just as he told her to. In the Now chapters, we see a strong young woman who has been to hell and back, and now her beliefs are being tested more than ever before.

Oliver is an artist with words, making every scene, emotion, line, and setting incredibly vivid. Bouncing back and forth between Then and Now could have been incredibly confusing in the hands of a lesser writer, but with this story and this writer, it is a balancing act that has been mastered beautifully. Pandemonium continues in the grander themes laid out in the first part of the story, but also has an independent story arc that keeps readers engaged.

And then there's the ending, which I absolutely cannot say anything about except HOLY WOW I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. I'm freaking out, and I hope that Oliver knows what she's doing because I'm going to be having a heart attack from now until the final book, Requiem, comes out in 2013.

Comments welcome and, as always, happy reading.

Lauren Oliver's Website
Lauren Oliver's Blog
Lauren Oliver on Twitter

(Un)Common Enemies: Legend

Legend by Marie Lu
Putnam Juvenile, 2011

The Republic of America is a nation that demands order and excellence. The western portion of what was once known as the United States, it is also at war with its neighbors, the Colonies. On the one hand we have June, a girl born to a good family. She has a loving brother who has cared for her ever since their parents' tragic death, she's a military prodigy, and she's being molded by the nation's elite. On the other hand we have another 15 year old, Day, the country's most wanted criminal. Born into one of the poorest neighborhoods, he has no qualms with stealing from the people who have ruined his life. When June's beloved brother is killed, Day is the prime suspect, but as she investigates the death, June starts to uncover dangerous secrets about her beloved Republic and that there's more to Day than anyone could have realized. In turn, Day is dealing with a crisis of his own and is shocked that he's drawn to the Republic's favorite daughter and that she could be the one to help him. These two may actually have a common enemy who would prefer that they destroy each other.

I knew very little about this book before I bought it when the Breathless Reads Tour came to Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, Illinois a few weeks ago. I'd seen it getting good reviews from other bloggers and a variety of other sources and that it was being recommended to fans of The Hunger Games, so I decided to give it a shot. Readers are in for an entertaining and fairly intricate ride with Lu's debut novel that sets the bar high.

Alongside the fact that I found the premise to be promising, I loved flipping through the pages of the book and seeing right away that the story is told using dual narrators: Day's chapters are printed in gold ink, June's in black. I personally love authors who can successfully use this in their story telling - it's very easy for the tale to feel redundant if not done well, but Lu masterfully utilizes June's and Day's voices, weaving together a full and rich picture of the events unfolding in their lives. Each of them have a distinct voice and perspective. I felt tugged back and forth as they each told their side of the story and was empathetic to both of their situations and the question of why they do what they do.

It is also evident to me that Lu has spent quite a lot of time thinking about the world she has constructed, providing interesting details about everything from funeral dress to the repercussions of what happens when all ten year olds in the country take their Trials, a test that will determine a person's role for the rest of their lives. I had no problems visualizing Lu's Los Angeles - she has a gift for imagery.

My only criticism of the story is while the world building was excellent, I felt lost in terms of backstory and geography. Day and June both discuss that the Republic is at war with the Colonies, but I was unclear as to where exactly the dividing line was, especially since other states are mentioned and I didn't know what side they were on. And were the mentioned Patriots simply people from the Colonies or just anyone who disliked the Republic's practices? I also was a bit unclear as to why they were fighting. Perhaps this is common knowledge to the characters or it will be revealed in a future novel, but knowing even some of the ideological differences between the Republic and the Colonies would have been helpful to me (for example, like the way the major differences between the five factions are made known in Veronica Roth's Divergent).

These were minor things in the grand scheme of things, however, and they will not deter me from continuing to read this series. In fact, it makes me want to read more.

So if you like dystopian fiction, cunning and bold characters, and learning the dark secrets of evil governments, I highly encourage you to pick up Legend. You will not be disappointed, and I can personally vouch for the fact that Marie Lu is awesome - she's a great speaker and really nice, too, signing my book in gold Sharpie and happily posing for a picture.

Comments welcome and as always, happy reading!

Marie Lu's Website
Marie Lu on Twitter

Choices and Courage: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth
Katherine Tegen Books, 2011

I immediately feel a sort of kinship with Veronica Roth. From reading her blog and following her on twitter, I'd like to imagine that if we ever met, we'd be friends. We're the same age. We both hail from Chicagoland. We both attended Big 10 schools. Both of our names end in "ica" which is just kind of fun. But while I may fancy myself a writer, she actually is in a very big way. We're talking New York Times best selling BIG. If you haven't heard of her debut novel Divergent, a runaway hit that recently won the title of Goodreads Best Book of 2011, you're missing out.

Beatrice is 16 years old living in a dystopian Chicago. In this future, Lake Michigan has dried up into a marsh, buildings of the past are crumbling down, and society divides itself into factions, each one devoted to a different virtue. And when you're 16, you have a choice to make: do you want to continue to stay with the faction of your parents and family, the one you have been raised in and have identified with until now, or are you willing to leave all of them behind and join a new faction? An aptitude test is supposed to help you make your choice, but the choice is still yours. Unfortunately for Beatrice, her test results are inconclusive which is very dangerous thing to be.

I read this entire book in a day because I could NOT put it down. This is a high-action book and while there is a bit of a romantic relationship at play too, it is by no means the whole of the story (Think Hunger Games - it plays a supporting role). Roth paints an incredibly vivid picture and explores a question that many people struggle with - what does it mean to be brave? The relationships among characters are complex and Tris (she gives herself a new name) is too. Roth captures being 16 perfectly in that delicate dance between still being a child in many ways, but in just as many others being an adult. 

The only reason I can't give it five stars is because there were a few things that I felt a bit perplexed over when I was done. The first book in a planned trilogy, I'm hoping some of them will be answered in the future, but for now I can't help but wonder what drove this society to the faction system? How is it they can afford these serums and simulations, but not to pave roads? How come sometimes Tris says the food is manufactured/processed, but later it appears that it's fresh? Little things, I know, but they might have significance and so I'm curious. 

If you're a Chicagoan, a fan of debut novels, a lover of dystopian fiction or looking to give it a try, I urge you to pick up Divergent. It seems to be a book people either love or hate, and I definitely fall into the former category.

Comments always welcome, and happy reading!

Veronica Roth's Website
Veronica Roth on Twitter
Veronica Roth on Tumblr