Review: Birthmarked

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



There are books with great cover summaries but poorly planned plots. This is one of them. The idea - a walled society where the insiders adopt the children of outsiders and a midwife rebels against the society - was interesting. Gaia and all of her supporters made a never-ending series of decisions that showed consistent lack of planning or understanding. And the number of coincidences required to make everything turn out was ludicrous. I also fail to understand the people. I have a sense that the insiders were supposed to be a cruel, uncaring, living-it-up group but they raised children, educated them, married, worked, loved. The leader was intended to be cruel but except for behavior related to the loss of a child, it wasn't obvious. There were public hangings on a regular basis but the apathy of the public and the bizarreness of the crimes was unexplained. The society has DNA testing and an ability to track births which makes the premise of finding a coded list to be completely unnecessary. I read the book...it was okay...nothing that I'd read again.



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Review: Enclave

Enclave by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



There's a book out there about the Mole People that live underground in New York's subway tunnels and sewers. Enclave gave me a taste of what life would be like if it were even remotely true. In fact, the Burrowers seemed like the elusive Moles.

Darkness, cramped spaces, abandoned stations and trains, fighting for each meal, living in small communities, life expectancy of 20...Girl15 only knows that existence until she becomes a huntress for her enclave. Raised to fight and kill, she ends up topside and has to deal with a world she never expected to see.

I liked it for its novelty and it's approach to revealing the world as it would appear to someone who has never even seen the sun. It was interesting and the main characters (who I won't name since it would be a bit spoilerish) have different lives and understanding of the world. I liked the ending and will likely read the next book in the series.



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Review: Gone

Gone by Michael Grant

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I'm disappointed. I realized when I got the book that it was the start of a new series because the GoodReads page lists it as Gone #1. I read all 558 pages of it, knowing that it would end and start again in another book. It doesn't, however. Instead, the book merely pauses and then waits expectantly for the reader to go buy the next book.

I love series. I love dystopian/changing reality books. I love teen fiction. I was ready to absolutely love this book.

I didn't like all of the characters (Quinn and Astrid in particular) but that's fine. Any book with nothing but agreeable people would be boring. I didn't like the speed and danger that happened, but again, it's the style of the book. I really didn't like all the baby and toddler deaths. Honestly, poofing everyone over 14 and under 4 would have been a great choice.

My biggest issue is that the book didn't end. Sam made one of the worst decisions I've ever seen made in a book and left the series ready for future epic battles. I simply prefer closure. I want the storyline and the current problem to be resolved and understood by the end of the book. Book 2 can have new situations, new dangers, new adventures, etc...but let Book 1 actually end. I wanted the closure. My 4 star rating dropped to 2 stars in the last five pages. At the same time, I decided I wouldn't continue the series. Six books (time-consuming books, by the way) to get to an ending that I might not even like? Not for me. I'll bow out now.



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Review: The Death Cure

The Death Cure by James Dashner

My rating: 1 of 5 stars



Really?? It's really going to end like this??? I feel cheated. I have loved this trilogy and have waited excitedly for book three. The first, with the Gladers, was amazing. The second, with the Scorch was crazy exciting. And then there is this...no enemy except WICKED?

More lies but enough truths. And I can't even begin to describe how irritated I am that I read three books and never learned anything. I want to know how the trials began and how average kids became involved. I want to know how on earth reactions to WICKED-made monsters would even remotely lead to a cure. I want to know what the point of a Griever was. Or the maze. Or two groups. Or cities for the afflicted.

**spoilers after this point**

And what did I learn? Nothing except Rat Man's real name, which is completely meaningless. Oh, and that WICKED was involved in the disease. Not exactly a surprise.

All of those Gladers get their memories back and we get nothing. No details, no emotions, no memories, no information on how they were selected. We're left with a hero that spent more time arguing and debating and a sidekick with serious temper problems.

Honestly, I think Dashner wrote two great books and hadn't figured out the answers to the questions he created. Maybe writer's block and a deadline created this story?



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Review: Genesis

Genesis by Bernard Beckett

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I read other reviews before posting mine and I'm surprised by the love and amazement heaped on this book. Anax is participating in a 4 hour interview and the book feels like it's written in real-time as a description of occurrences. In fact, it's so close to real-time that I think it took me about 4 hours to finish.

I don't see any connection to 1984. At all. The only thing they share, in my opinion, is that neither book was entertaining or thought-provoking. I'm also curious about the reviewers' opinions about this not being YA because I am completely unable to see this as any level beyond teen.

GoodReads recommendations failed on this one - definitely not a great book for me.



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Review: The Other Side of the Island

The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



None of it worked for me. The wilds, the orderlies, the schools, the enclosures, the watchers. I was never pulled into the story and feel that I was reading an outline of a book because it lacked details and logic. I don't even see this as dystopia because there really isn't much to link it to current day except for a few lines about arctic animals. Just like 2 stars says, it was okay.



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Review: Life As We Knew It

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



My daughter was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago and depends on insulin to live. With that diagnosis, I lost all ability to read any 'end of world' stories as the possibility was simply too overwhelming to consider. This book came up on the GoodReads Recommendations and I debated for awhile and then decided to read it, hoping that as a teen book it would be less intense and perhaps help me get over my fear of the genre.

It was less intense, definitely. The cruel gangs that rape, kill and loot were barely included. Schools continued to exist. People were able to get cash and find food in the beginning. Hospitals stayed open. Less fearsome, however, it was not.

Choosing a teen heroine was an interesting choice. At an age when I would expect a teen to grow up and help deal with the situation, she was selfish and prone to make bad decisions. There were moments, though, when her fears and confusion were clearly age-related and explained her behavior. I gradually realized that this is probably a very realistic response of a teen to such a serious situation. I give the author a lot of credit for finding that balance and doing such a good job of weaving a story around it.

I've already requested the second book in the story and I'm interested in seeing what happens in book 3 when this family comes back to the story again.

Oh, and I've rededicated myself to emergency food storage. I imagine that's a common response to any mom that reads this story and feels for the mother fighting for her children's lives!



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Review: Matched

Matched by Ally Condie

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This story felt so similar to me. It was a little like Hunger Games, a little bit of The Giver, a shadow of The Declaration, and a huge taste of 1984. Luckily, the young adult version of Big Brother is more enjoyable than the classic version.

I seem to be in a dystopian mood lately, which means I'll likely read book #2. It has potential - I just hopes it rises above other books in the genre in the next one.



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Review: The Line

The Line by Teri Hall

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



Is there a category for children's dystopia? Versus young adult? If so, that's the place for this book.

It moves slowly and has very little activity. Even worse, it has no ending. I wonder if the book wasn't done yet and the publishers decided to split it into two books and get the first one out. The entire book is simply a set up for the second book. It's a really, really long prologue. If I were 9 and this was a chapter book I could count towards my language arts grade, it would likely be exciting and suspenseful...but the book doesn't appear to be marketed to this young of a demographic.

It was an okay read but I won't look for book 2.



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Review: Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I picked up this book at the library this afternoon and couldn't put it down. I finally finished it and can go to bed!

I really liked this book. It's similar in concept to Hunger Games and Maze Runner - a dystopian future where teens are faced with challenges that will upset the current regime while likely creating a new one.

This book was a GoodReads recommendation and I was fascinated. I requested it at the library that night. This is the first of many recommended books I've requested and so far I'm loving GoodReads' success rate!

When I was a teenager, dystopian reading amounted to "1984." I hated 1984 then and I hated it just as much when I re-read it this summer. I'm thrilled with this new sub-genre in youth fiction.



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