Things Dystopian Novels Have Taught Me

Dear blog,
I'm one of those people who worries about the end of the world. A lot.  I am also one of those people who reads a lot of dystopian novels, perhaps as a way of preparing myself for the future state of mankind.
Thankfully there are a lot of books that serve as an entirely handy guide to surviving rising sea levels/nuclear kersplosions/creepy governments/insert other grim demise of humanity here. 
Here are some of the words of wisdom that I think are particularly essential, from some of my favourite novels of the dystopic variety.
Be warned: There are a few spoilers here, so proceed with caution.

Life as we Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

You need food.
And water.

If you're not sure if you've got enough, obtain more of these things.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Cities are the worst place to be in an apocalypse.

For the love of God, don't go in a lift when the electricity system in your building is unreliable.
No matter how many inhalers you have, they still cannot ultimately save you from your asthma.

Gone by Michael Grant

Kids are very creepy when they want to be.
Do not live near a nuclear power plant.
You are probably a superhero mutant freak waiting to happen.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Life sucks.
Ultimately there is no hope for humanity.
You are either going to die or go slightly crazy on an island. But probably both.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Wasps are the most efficient way of killing off your enemies. But make sure you're out of the way first.
Despite the fact your government is evil and corrupt, there are always plenty of shallow hair stylists you can hang around with to lighten your mood.
Your dead villains will come back to haunt you as mutant wolves. 

The Carbon Diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd
Being an English teenager in the years to come will be pretty harsh.
Carry a torch with you at all times.
Keep pigs.  They're amazing.

The Declaration by Gemma Malley
There will always be a slightly too-good-to-be-true boy available to sweep you off your feet and tell you how bad the world is.
Life's not fair and everyone hates you.
There are probably a ton of revelatory secrets about you/your family that you do not know.

Siberia by Ann Halam
Your cute little critter companions may be the one thing that will save your life when you're on an epic trek across a bitterly arctic Europe.
Sweden, the place roughly described as Sloe's ultimate destination, is the place to be (Also, I have proof, because I went to Sweden when I was eleven and it was amazing).
You should listen to everything your mother tells you.

Riding Tycho by Jan Mark

Knitting gets boring very quickly if you have no Ravelry to supply you with fresh exciting patterns, and you are eternally doomed to knit stockings all your life.

Your friends are superficial, two-faced and not worth your time.
Especially when there are Welsh singers available who can open your eyes to the wider world.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver

See The Declaration.
Don't sweat it if you're worried about your authoritarian government stopping you from having a good time; as a general rule, you should be able to sneak out to the country for a party.
You need a motorbike for the ultimate escape to be achieved.

Exodus by Julie Bertagna
If you're unsure if you live on high enough ground to escape the rising sea levels, move higher up.
Do not eat raw fish in unclean waters.
If possible, befriend or fall in love with the son of one of the most powerful men in your city.

Zenith by Julie Bertagna
Greenland is the place to be when the sea levels rise.
Do not get pregnant when you're having a hard enough time fighting for your own survival.
There is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

How to Make a Packet of Minstrels Last the Length of a Novel

Dear blog,
Now for something completely different.
 To explain: The other day I was reading a list put together by the food company Innocent about how to make a bowl of popcorn last the whole length of a film.I was thinking about this, and how similar it is to those times you sit down with a novel and a packet of minstrels*, but then have devoured them all by the time you’re at page 50. 
I am going to remedy this for you, readers.  Here's a guideline; depending on what you're reading, certain events should indicate how many Minstrels you should eat and when.
Note: some packets of Minstrels are quite small.  Some novels are like 400 pages.  This is why I'm referring to the packets of Minstrels that you can get at the cinema, which are a little bigger.
Another note: Eating a packet of cinema-sized minstrels in one go is discouraged.  It will probably make you feel sick and therefore ruin the whole experience.  It takes me a few days to read most books, so this is a sufficient time to eat a packet of minstrels.
Anyway.

If I Stay- eat two every time the word “cello”, “guitar” or “band” comes up.

The Princess and the Captain- Eat two every time you wish Orpheus was real.

Forbidden- Save all the minstrels for the end, and then devour them all to comfort yourself.

This is All- Eat three every time you feel enlightened, learn something new or have gained new insight into something.

Looking for Alaska- three every time Alaska is drunk or two every time there’s a gorgeous profound quietly beautiful quote.

Becoming Bindy Mackenzie- have two every time you’re all, “Pure genius. Jaclyn Moriarty is one.”

The Broken Bridge- Eat three every time you’re like, “Why does Phillip Pullman need to write those sweeping epic trilogies when, fantastic as they are, he can write such an engaging, refreshing but simplistic YA book about a sixteen-year-old girl?”

Tokyo- Eat one every time the writing style, which tries so hard, too hard, to sound like the POV of an eighteen-year-old boy, makes you cringe.

Anything by Haruki Murakami- two minstrels every time you fangirl squee.

The Hunger Games or Catching Fire- Four every time someone dies or is brutally beaten.

Notre-Dame de Paris (okay it's not really a YA book, but I feel like it deserves a mention as one of my favourite books of all time)- Read the book first, saving all the minstrels until the end. When you’re done, melt them, pour them between the pages and then eat the book.

Anthem (again, not a YA book, but.) - Two every time there’s some mention of “self”, “identity”, or “ego”.

Twilight- two every time Edward says something along the lines of “But Bella, it’s not safe for us to be together!” or half a minstrel every time Bella describes his porcelain skin, smouldering eyes and the like.

Crank or Glass- Two every time Kristina/Bree smokes or abuses some sort of illegal substance.

Eunoia (again, not YA, but every poetry lover should read it)- three every time you’re like “Dayum, Christian Bök has a way with words.”

any of the Ichigo Mashimaro volumes- one every time you laugh, snort, or fall out of your chair in a fit of giggles.

*or Maltesers, crisps, smarties, a bar of chocolate or some of those Tesco mini brownies. 

In My Mailbox 23 or In Which Tesni Is Ecstatic Beyond Words

Dear Blog,
In My Mailbox is hosted, as ever, by Kristi of The Story Siren. 
I got three books this week. 

FOR REVIEW

Blood Magic by Tessa Gratton

BOUGHT

Anthem by Ayn Rand

Where She Went by Gayle Forman  [You have no idea how happy I am.  I totally danced around the living room when this came]

So I didn't really get many books, but I'm entirely happy with what I did get.

And now there's only one afternoon left of the weekend, so I had better post this and cram in all the unlimited reading time I have while I can.



Foreign Language Friday: We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Dear Blog,

note: This review is going to have to be way too short and undeserving of such an awesome book. Sorry.

Original Title:  It was originally published in English, then in Czech, but the Russian is Мы/Miy.

Original Language: ^^

Translated by: Natasha Randall
Summary (from Amazon UK): In a glass-enclosed city of absolute straight lines, ruled over by the all-powerful ‘Benefactor’, the citizens of the totalitarian society of OneState live out lives devoid of passion and creativity – until D-503, a mathematician who dreams in numbers, makes a discovery: he has an individual soul. Set in the twenty-sixth century AD, We is the classic dystopian novel and was the inspiration for George Orwell’s 1984. It was suppressed for many years in Russia and remains a resounding cry for individual freedom, yet is also a powerful, exciting and vivid work of science fiction.

Review: So unless you have been hiding in a cave, or the nonfiction section of your library, you are probably away that dystopian fiction in young adult literature is like the new paranormal vampire-werewolf-fallen-angel thing.  With reason.  We fear the unknown, but at the same time it's something entirely, morbidly fascinating.  But recently I've been kind of tired of that, and all these apocalypses have blended into one.  However, the one dystopian novel I've still wanted to read for a long time is We.

  We is like the grandfather of the dystopic, but totally gets the short end of the stick because so many people have read Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World, and seem to believe that's where things got started.  I haven't read either of those yet, so I shouldn't say that We is the most influential book in the genre or anything, because I wouldn't really know. 

It's both at the same time fantastically forward-thinking from something of its time and gloriously kitsch.  It reminds me a lot of the film Metropolis in that respect.  You've got to admire Zamyatin for constructing what was then such a groundbreaking world, which was apparently supposed to be relevant to the political regime in Russia at the time, so it was pretty controversial too.  There's some interesting foresight- id est, Zamyatin foresaw electric toothbrushes.  Yes, ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSHES.  Therefore Zamyatin wins. 
The book is only about 200 pages or so, but it's surprisingly hard to get through.  The writing style is very, very strange.  It's almost dream-like in a way, and in some parts it seems almost hysterical, and then because of that kind of vagueness, the perception of things feels kind of skewed and unclear.   It's pretty fragmented, as well, and seems to jump around a lot.  This can be kind of irritating if there's some particularly interesting scene, or thought,  and then suddenly the subject changes. 

D-503 was, in a word...a strange character.  The emotional journey he went through in the book was pretty similar to that of the characters in other dystopic novels I've read; at the beginning of the book his belief in his society is totally unwavering and almost darkly amusing, but then he falls and love with someone who doesn't buy into the society, and is then entirely confused.  But I think the way that confusion of feeling love, that emotion which D-503 had never really encountered before, was fantastically portrayed. 

I-330 was a pretty interesting character; I wish there had been more to her, or that there had been a better picture of her personality, if such a thing exists in the One State.  I knew she was supposed to be mysterious and beautiful and intelligent; that was it.  There was so much focus on the emotion, and the scenario, and the confusion when the two collided, that things like descriptions seemed almost disregarded.    I quite liked O, too, bit in a pitying sort of way. I think she meant well, but in the entirely unindividual manner of the One State, and hence when D-503 was presented with the Exciting World Outside the state, he had to kind of abandon her.  Their relationship was pretty interesting, too; were they in love? Weren't they?  They would get together for the designated hour in which they could lower the blinds in their glass houses and...you know... anyway, good on her for appearing now and again to try and get D-503 back, even though it was pretty futile.

So, I'm glad I read it.  Though it isn't entirely flawless, you have to admit it is pretty damn awesome for being so subtly influential.

In three words: under-rated, clever, convincing.
Recommended for: all fans of science fiction. 
Rating: 3.5. 

Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Dear Blog,

Summary (from Goodreads): Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that one love -the deliria- blooms in your blood, there is no escaping its hold. Things are different now. Scientists are able to eradicate love, and the governments demands that all citizens receive the cure upon turning eighteen. Lena Halloway has always looked forward to the day when she’ll be cured. A life without love is a life without pain: safe, measured, predictable, and happy.
But with ninety-five days left until her treatment, Lena does the unthinkable: She falls in love.

Review: Dystopian romances are everywhere at the moment.  They are inescapable nowadays and I was, until fairly recently, an utter fangirl of all things dystopian and apocalyptic.   At this recent emergence of novels where the world is either a) unravelling at the seams or b) run by some sinister authoritarian government I was chuffed to pieces. Heck, who doesn't like to see how things might end up however many decades into the future? 
So after reading Before I Fall last year, I was ridiculously excited.  Lauren Oliver + Dystopia= surely potential awesome? In part it was.

 I can't help but see some flaws with the way that Lauren Oliver's futuristic world works.  For instance, why is it so dangerous for teenagers to have the operation before they turn eighteen?  There's not much difference, surely, between someone a few weeks short of eighteen and someone who's within their first few months of eighteendom?  I also didn't really see much sense in the fact that the operation would only remove the emotion that is love.  I'm no biologist, but I find it pretty hard to believe that there's one part of your brain for being capable of love, another for hate, another for sadness, etc. The society didn't seem particularly...threatening, either.  If the world was that terrifying, that creepy, and the police and everyone were really in control,  then why was it so easy for hundreds of teenagers to just sneak out to the country and have huge parties and listen to loud music?  Little things like that that kept appearing here and there that didn't leave me convinced that it was perhaps as creepy as it was intended to be.

Lena, too, bugged me a little.  She was so...plain, describing herself as; "I'm not ugly, but I'm not pretty, either. Everything is in-between. I have eyes that aren't green or brown, but a muddle. I'm not thin, but I'm not fat, either."  Perhaps Lena was created so for the reader to be able to relate to her easily, but I just wanted for her to be vaguely remarkable. I did, however, like that her hobby was running, which seemed quite original, and she stood out amongst the scores of aspiring writers/poets/guitarists in YA literature. 
The only vaguely noticeable thing about her is that she's five foot two, which isn't even particularly dwarfish.  She was also one of those characters who totally buys into the society she lives in until a mysterious boy appears  and opens her eyes to the way the world works. 

I probably sound really harsh, like I didn't enjoy Delirium, but if I said that then that would be lying. Aside from those two points; I did like it.  For one thing, the writing style was absolutely beautiful; something I hadn't remembered from when I read Before I Fall.  It flowed perfectly.   The description, in general, was entirely beautiful, whether it was description of a scene or an emotion or a kiss. 

Also, I did like Lena's best friend Hana.  She had...personality.  I can overlook the fact that she was apparently good at everything, because in being good at everything she was unique.  She had guts and a backbone, too, and she was fairly witty.  Alex was crushworthy a likeable romantic interest;  clever but humorous, tough but sweet.  Also, another awesome thing: There was no love triangle, which was one of the best things about constructing a society where love is forbidden. 
The ending was awesome.   The last few chapters were perfectly, fantastically tense, and not a word was wasted in moving the story along.  It's a cliffhanger, perhaps not as cliffhangery as the cliffhanger of, say, Catching Fire, but still urgent enough for you to be like "I need more.  I need more now. "
Apparently it's going to be a trilogy, so despite a couple of society and Lena-related flaws I can't wait to see what becomes of her and Alex next.

In three words: romantic, suspenseful, poetic.
recommended for: lovers of dystopian fiction.  And Lauren Oliver.
Rating: four.

Review: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Dear Blog,

a short-ish review because I have lots of homework to get through.

Summary (from Goodreads): Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she’s never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.
As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it’s a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy’s uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.
A riveting and astonishing story.

Review:  I really wasn't sure what to expect with How I Live Now.  The cover, the blurb, never gives away any elements of potential war and dystopian life.  It's only when you start reading then you realise how big a part war plays in the book.
Well, never judge a book by it's cover, I guess.

How I Live Now is, if this makes sense, wonderfully chaotic (I just realised how I contradicted myself with that sentence.  Baha).  The writing style is absolutely all over the place, but the confusing-ness seems to add
to the essence of the story. I don't know why, but the almost freewheeling air of carefree-ness reminded me a lot of Bonjour Tristesse.  Which is a little strange, but still, to my mind, true.  Even amidst occupation, the first weeks Daisy spends in England just seem totally perfect anyway, cut off from the world in the middle of the countryside in an English summer where-gasp- it's not raining non-stop. It's so idyllic and perfect.
That is of course until the war really affects Daisy and her cousins.  When she and Piper are sepearated from the boys and sent to live elsewhere, tragic things ensue. 

The main romance in the book is the relationship between Daisy and her slightly younger cousin Edmond.  Incest in some circles, just slightly strange in others.  True, but Edmond himself is absent for the second half of the book, only really appearing at the beginning and then right at the very end, and even though he remains much of a mystery to the reader.  Still, you can't help but wish that he and Daisy could be re-united, and bitter and disappointed when you do.  Daisy's emotions seem so real, that the reader ends up longing for Edward to turn up and make everything right again.

One thing that I'm not so keen on, though, is how vague the book is. You never really find out why England is at war, or who the occupiers are.  I suppose this is to make the situation seem more real, as if it could happen at any time, but instead it just doesn't make much sense.  Still, it's interesting to watch England fall apart in such a way, seeing as it features little in YA dystopian fiction. 
Despite that slight flaw, How I Live Now is devastating and utterly heartbreaking anyway.  Especially part two, the last twenty pages or so of the book.  It's hard to explain without giving heaps away, so I'll keep my lips zipped. Still, it was utterly devastating with one of those tiny flickers of hope at the end that makes it even more tragic, in a way. 

In Three Words: confusing, heartbreaking, wonderful.
Reccomended for: teenagers and adults. 
Rating: 4.5

Review: Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness

Dear Blog,
I just finished Monsters of Men- about ten minutes ago. 


Summary (from Goodreads): Three armies march on New Prentisstown, each one intent on destroying the others. Todd and Viola are caught in the middle, with no chance of escape. As the battles commence, how can they hope to stop the fighting? How can there ever be peace when they're so hopelessly outnumbered? And if war makes monsters of men, what terrible choices await? But then a third voice breaks into the battle, one bent on revenge - the electrifying finale to the award-winning "Chaos Walking" trilogy, "Monsters of Men" is a heart-stopping novel about power, survival, and the devastating realities of war.


Review: I read The Knife of Never Letting Go last winter and devoured The Ask and The Answer a few weeks later.  How many weeks I have spent looking at the cover of this book on the internet, waiting until I have enough money to buy it after having ordered a stack of yet more books of the 'net.  And then it turned up in my local library like the librarians knew about my fandom and just ordered in a copy.
Anyway.  Monsters of Men has lots to live up to, especially if Chaos Walking has fans like me.   And I would hope that it does.
If somebody asked me to describe this in five words, it would be: Oh. My. God. Freaking fantastic. And now I've said that, then I'll go on to explain why.   The proceeding paragraphs shall just be me almost entirely praising this book, so if you are like me and take pleasure out of reading negative reviews, then you shouldn't bother.


Monsters of Men is six hundred and three pages of heart-stopping, heart-wrenching war and action.  I enjoyed this, because a) I love anything vaguely dystopian, and b) I've read a heap of contemporary novels of late and needed something more distant from real life.  Hence it seemed like a good book to read, so for a couple of days I was complet
Like The Ask and the Answer, the story alternates point of view between point of view, but I jumped up and down when 1017, known as the Return, appeared and started talking from his point of view.  It was confusing at first: the Spackle give everything different names; the Land, the Burden, the Sky, the Return, the Clearing, the Knife, etc.  It makes for slightly confusing reading at first. I love how the Spackle call the people they love "his/her one in particular."  And call me crazy, but the Spackle remind me slightly of the Ood in Doctor Who, in that they're all linked with one conscious mind.  The Sky, their leader of sorts, is just like Ood Sigma communicating with the Doctor and his companions, speaking for them.  Either way, it was awesome to see the Spackle more clearly and really get inside their heads, so to speak. 


The plot was fast-paced the whole way through; the sort of book where you start reading and when you emerge for food/a drink/sleep/whatever you look down at the page number and you're like, "whoah!  I'm on page 200 already?!"  Monsters of Men is full of people, humanity, war, aliens and explosions.  There are LOTS of explosions, most of which either go BOOM! or whoosh.  None of this action seems to get tiring, at least not to me.


There is more than one side to all the characters in this book, where hidden dimensions to all of them are revealed.  I wasn't sure what to make of Todd for a lot of the book, seeing as he seemed to trust the Mayor an awful lot and sort of went along with whatever he said.  Now and again I wanted to hit him with my hardcover edition and shriek, "don't you get it? This guy is pure evil, no matter how many times he says he has been redeemed!  Get away from him now!"  That said, with Mistress Coyle being equally complex and creepy, and the Spackle advancing on all sides, there didn't seem to be many places to run and hide.
So Mayor/President Prentiss and Mistress Coyle are some of my favourite characters in the books in terms of character, even though I don't actually like either of them.  They're both very complex and confusing peopl
Viola was indeed a fantastic character and I wish very, very much that she was a real person. I got all sentimental at the end of the book when I was thinking about when she had first appeared in The Knife of Never Letting Go.  So much do I love these characters, I get slightly emotional at leaving them at the end of the book.


Speaking of the end.  The last 50 pages are, well, made of the purest awesome you could ask for. They're particularly heartbreaking but then Patrick Ness of fixes aforementioned broken heart by putting it together with cellotape. But he only uses cellotape, so it is a very shaky mending that still slightly leaves you in tears, be they of joy or sadness (I did actually start to cry properly somewhere towards the end).  But cellotape sort of holds things together, so everything is (slightly) stable at the end, and while sort of wrapping things up leaves plenty of questions, seeing as it finishes just as more settlers arrive on the planet, which is known only as New World.


As soon as I finished this, I just sort of lay staring at the ceiling going "oh. my. word." As you do when you finish a truly awesome trilogy (i.e Tales of the Otori, the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, and His Dark Materials, which I read when I was eleven and haven't read since, though I really ought to).  It could just be me, but when a trilogy sort of blows me away like that then I just end up feeling empty in a devastated sort of way; these characters whom I've lived and loved alongside are just gone, and it's like a friend dissapearing suddenly until you next re-read the trilogy.  Anyway, I totally got that having read the last few pages, which I both tried to slow down and covered the last line with my hand so I wouldn't dare to peek ahead.


My only criticism is that especially during the exciting parts particularly (although I guess every. single. moment. of this book is white-knuckle ride through dystopian awesomeness), to emphasise the frantic urgency the author cuts off sentences-
just like this-
which means that there are no full stops-
and though it seems urgent and terrifying-
there are no full stops for-
whole pages-
which me being a grammar and punctuation freak got on my nerves slightly.


Summary: Heartwrenching, heartbreaking, heartwarming. Awesome, awesome, awesome.  Rating: 5.

Review: Hunger by Michael Grant

Dear Blog,
Review.  I have one.

Summary (from Goodreads): It's been three months since everyone under the age of fifteen became trapped in the bubble known as the FAYZ. Things have only gotten worse. Food is running out, and each day more kids are developing supernatural abilities. Soon tension rises between those with powers and those without, and when an unspeakable tragedy occurs, chaos erupts. It's the normals against the mutants, and the battle promises to turn bloody.
But something more dangerous lurks. A sinister creature known as the Darkness has begun to call to the survivors in the FAYZ. It needs their powers to sustain its own. When the Darkness calls, someone will answer -- with deadly results.

Review: I said in my review of Gone that everybody seems to say that if Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, then it's Gone.  This equally applies to Hunger, with more action, more disturbing scenes, more anarchy, more villains, more gross twistedness, more characters, more enemies, more powers, more mysteries and more danger than its predecessor.  It's a non-stop adrenaline ride which doesn't stop the whole way through, set over the course of only about five days, if my poor maths skills is correct. 

I can't help but wonder if, because this is planned to be a six-book series, books 1-5 will all be pretty similar, revealing as little as possible, with a showdown at the end where everybody lives and let live, which happened in the last book as well.  I do hope it doesn't turn out like A Series of Unfortunate Events,   where the books ask more questions than they answer and every book is the same.  I hope this because the Gone novels are truly, truly awesome, and I don't want to dislike them. 

Another thing: Quinn didn't really appear until about 150 pages in before resuming his role as not-so-awesome sidekick.  I wonder what that was about.  I don't really like Quinn, perhaps just because he seems a bit of a wimp (I'm fully aware that I'm calling the kettle black, here, and if I was in the FAYZ I would count down until my 15th birthday so that I could get out of there).  Though I guess that adds realism to the story-I mean, people would be scared- I still wanted to whack him with the 600-paged hardcover edition that I got from the library.  Albert, too, was an obnoxious brat, but I think he was meant to be so that was OK.

Caine and Drake are wonderfully evil. Well, Drake certainly is.  I have my suspicions that Caine will eventually join Sam, Astrid etc, because Drake will try and take over anyway.  And Diana-Diana is awesome.  If I was a villain I would like to be like Diana.  Why so?  She's just cool, and makes for a much better sidekick than Quinn.  She's clever and manipulative and, though she is eternally loyal to Caine, I think she's the one running the show.  The relationship between Caine and Diana is tense, slightly twisted but very compelling. 
Sam.  Sam, Sam, Sam.  He sort of loses it a couple of times, which he didn't really do in Gone.  The responsibility really seemed to get to him, but I guess it would get to me, too.  I really would not like to be Sam.  Nor Astrid, Dekka, Brianna, Albert or anybody else in the FAYZ.

There was so much going on in Hunger, so many problems; the Zekes, starvation, the Gaiaphage, the freak/human war, the mysterious child that is Little Pete, etc., etc, it could have so easily been very confusing, but all these plot threads are so exciting, and it's so well written, jumping from scene to scene quickly.  Also, almost each scene ends on a cliffhanger, so it's kind of impossible to forget where you left off.  At one point I did actually skip forward to find the next scene with Brianna in it before going back to read the other scenes *guilty laugh*.  You know something is truly exciting when you do that.  Also, Hunger makes you think a lot about what you would do in that situation.  I like to think I would run to the supermarket to stock up on food, torches and batteries (and plenty of books of course) and then hoard it all at home for myself.

Summary: Truly, truly fantastic.  Scary, disturbing, slightly disgusting at some points, but it wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't.  You would have to be cut off from the world in a FAYZ-like manner to  not have heard of or read Hunger and Gone.  Rating: 5/5. 

Review: Catching Fire

Dear Blog,
I finally got round to reading Catching Fire this weekend, so, well, here's my review.

Summary (from Goodreads): Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has won the annual Hunger Games with fellow district tribute Peeta Mellark. But it was a victory won by defiance of the Capitol and their harsh rules. Katniss and Peeta should be happy. After all, they have just won for themselves and their families a life of safety and plenty. But there are rumors of rebellion among the subjects, and Katniss and Peeta, to their horror, are the faces of that rebellion. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.

Review: I put off reading this for a while after I finished the first book in the trilogy.  This is because I don't want to read these two and then have an epic wait for the release of Mockingjay. Eventually I could do nothing but give in and read Catching Fire.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I first started.  I mean- the Games were in the first book.  What would happen in the next two?  The answer is, well, more action, more passion, more danger, and more excitement than before. 

There's much more romance in this book than in the first.  I suppose I can't write a review without saying something about my Peeta/Gale preference. While reading these books I keep changing- when Katniss is with Gale I want them to be together for the rest of their lives, but when Katniss and Peeta are fighting for their lives in the Games, I was thinking, "Yep, Peeta is the one for Katniss".  Now having read Catching Fire I now know that my heart (as well as Katniss') belongs to Peeta. How could you not like somebody who saves your life so many times? And is quick-witted and funny and charming and clever and awesome in every aspect of the word?!

Katniss is as brilliant a protagonist as ever.  She's smart, quick-witted, and about a thousand times braver than I would  be if I was in her situation.   It's a tricky balance of making the protagonist strong enough to survive and realistic enough in their...what's the word?  Youth?  I'm not sure.  But we need protagonists to be like us, the readers. Also, I take my hat off to her for not just spending the whole book going, "oh no, two people love me!" (*cough* the Twilight Saga *cough*).  I guess there were more important things at stake.

Speaking of the important things at stake. Catching Fire is a much more sinister story than The Hunger Games, in which most of the terror evolved around the arena.  But in Catching Fire you realise that even outside the Games arena there's no escape from the fear and horror, as everything seems equally sinister in the rest of Panem. If I was Katniss I would definitely have run as far away as I could from Panem, even if I didn't really know what was out there.   That's because I am a little coward and Katniss is not.  And of course the fate of the Districts kind of rests in her and Peeta's hands and if I was mysteriously sucked into the book, I would merely be a small unecessary character somewhere (I'm thinking District 11 because I live in the country) who wouldn't even be mentioned.

Now then.  I'm not sure if what I'm going to say next is a spoiler or not.  Perhaps if you haven't read the book you ought to skip to the Summary at the end of the entry.  If you have, or you aren't planning to read Catching Fire (to the latter people, READ IT NOW), then just read on.

Paragraph That May Or May Not Be A Spoiler- This is probably because it was the second time, but when Katniss, Peeta et. al re-entered the arena it didn't seem quite as terrifying as in the first book.  I was just like, "Okay, they're back in the arena again." And although what happened in the arena was scary, it wasn't as heart-poundingly "what is this horrible place?  why are we here?" as in The Hunger Games. Perhaps because in Catching Fire the reader understands and knows the answers to these questions.
The scenes in the Games seemed kind of rushed, like it was only set over about 50 pages or so. I know it wasn't, but the whole thing is over in about two days and so it did seem slightly rushed and hurried.  And I didn't really get the scene where they all broke out of the arena.  Speaking of which- surely they can see onto the other side of the forcefield that guards the arena?  What divides the arena from the rest of the world is never properly explained.
End Of Paragraph That May Or May Not Be A Spoiler.

Now then.  The ending.  This is the cliffhanger to end all cliffhangers and will leave you screaming, "WHY?! Curse you, Suzanne Collins, for leaving us hanging in such a way!"  Not that this is a bad thing, of course.  The cliffhanger is excellent and I believe that Mockingjay ought to get a midnight release à la Harry Potter (in my opinion the Hunger Games trilogy is better), just so that we can find out what happens after the last sentence in Catching Fire.  I wander if there will be ARCs of it...if so, I must definitely get my hands on one.

Summary: awesome, awesome, awesome, and I jump up and down in my seat just thinking about the release of Mockingjay.  Rating: 5. 

Review: Unwind

Dear Blog,

I read this last week and I realised that I didn't review it *hits self*.  Anyway. Here's Unwind by Neal Schusterman, though it's a short review because my little brother keeps nagging me to use the computer.

Summary (from Goodreads): In a society where unwanted teens are salvaged for their body parts, three runaways fight the system that would "unwind" them.
Connor's parents want to be rid of him because he's a troublemaker. Risa has no parents and is being unwound to cut orphanage costs. Lev's unwinding has been planned since his birth, as part of his family's strict religion. Brought together by chance, and kept together by desperation, these three unlikely companions make a harrowing cross-country journey, knowing their lives hang in the balance. If they can survive until their eighteenth birthday, they can't be harmed -- but when every piece of them, from their hands to their hearts, are wanted by a world gone mad, eighteen seems far, far away.

Review: I am a complete sucker for dystopian fiction.  So when I saw Unwind in the library and read the blurb, I snatched it off the shelf and practically sprinted down the stairs to take it out. And it's a cool idea: unwanted children get taken apart -unwound- and their bodies used for transplants.  Hence, no *real* doctors are needed  or medicine are needed.  Why have an inhaler and whatever for your asthma, and have trouble breathing when you run/touch animal hair/inhale pollen when you can just get a new lung?   It seems like such a good, simple "why didn't I think of that?" idea, but you can tell that Neal Schusterman has given it some real thought.  I particularly loved the idea of Tithes- children from   extremely religious families who spend their whole lives preparing to be Unwound, and see themselves as sacrifices for God.
But on the other hand, it didn't really *feel* like a dystopia. No climatic disasters?  No Corporations? No nuclear war?  No enslaved citizens, living in poverty and forbidden to live freely à la The Hunger Games or Exodus?  Are you sure this is a dystopian novel?  It's only because of the Unwinding thing that it really is: there are references to contemporary people, places, even pop songs and films.  So it seems quite original in the genre in that sense, and even more unbelievable.  That world is so much like America (or anywhere in the western world for that matter), so it seems all the more frightening.  Could such a thing really happen in a world so like ours?     Kudos for that. 

 I think every  science fiction novel ought to be written with the same style: spare, but with enough description of the places and people to keep things interesting.  As much as I like imagining things for myself (which is why I loathe it when books are made into films), you need some sort of picture.  Other books need poetic, flowing description, but Unwind works best with every unecessary word cut out. 
 
I'm not so keen on the characters, though. They were all sort of annoying in one way or another: Conor seemed  selfish, Levi was a spoilt brat, and Risa seemed slightly two-dimensional and the steriotypical female, e.g looking after the baby while the guys did the work. As the book went on, slowly but surely  Levi and Risa got more bearable, but I was still pretty annoyed by Conor 352 pages after I had first met him, and his heroic deeds didn't make him seem any better.  He just seemed agressive and arrogant to my mind. 

Speaking of the 352 pages. It was fantastically paced and I was intrigued by it from the very beginning.  This is probably to do with the writing style.  It started slowing down slightly as the book went on, with less and less action, but the climax was excellent.   Dramatic.  Devastating. But hopeful, too.

Summary: Not a great book, but not a bad one either. It's definitely worth a read for all teenagers, girl or boys, whether they're fans of dystopian novels or not.  Rating: 3.5. 

In My Mailbox 7

Dear Blog,
It's the weekend.  It's the book blogosphere.  What does that mean?  Yes, that's right: In My Mailbox!

Hosted infinitely by The Story Siren.

I got some cool books this week, all bought. A library about half an hour away from my house was having a sale and all the books were about 10p.  Which means yay!  I go to that library whenever we're in the area, for the teenage section's big and has loads of cool books. My mother's friend who lives in the area said the sale had been going on for weeks; now I wish I'd turned up at the start.  I'd have probably returned with four times as many books.

Anyway.

BOUGHT

Sharp North by Patrick Cave

Many Stones by Carolyn Coman

Massive by Julia Bell

Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty  (reading this at the moment)

Feeling Sorry for Celia by  Jaclyn Moriarty

The Simple Gift by Stephen Herrick

Far From You by Lisa Schroeder (you can read my review here)

I read the two Jaclyn Moriarty books a few weeks ago, but I wanted to re-read them and for 10 p they're definitely worth being on your bookshelf.
All in all, an awesome week.  Except that even though I ordered it about two weeks ago, On Pointe still hasn't turned up yet.  I hope it's not lost in the post.

 And how was your week? What books did you get? Hopefully the books you ordered two weeks ago have turned up?

Review: The Hunger Games

Dear Blog,

I know the title of this review probably sounds pretty silly, seeing as the rest of the book blogosphere is gearing up for the release of Mockingjay this August.  Having not read the Hunger Games, I decided to see what all the fuss was about. 

Before I start: I don't like the UK cover (the one on this review).  If only because I don't like books with pictures of the characters on the front, especially if they look animated.  Like  this one does.  *shall be ordering US editions of the next two books*.

Anyway.  This will be a  relatively short review because my Russian homework summons.

Summary (from Amazon.co.uk): Katniss Everdeen is a survivor. She has to be; she's representing her District, number 12, in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America. To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The event is broadcast like reality TV, and the winner returns with wealth for his or her district. With clear inspiration from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the Greek tale of Theseus, Collins has created a brilliantly imagined dystopia, where the Capitol is rich and the rest of the country is kept in abject poverty, where the poor battle to the death for the amusement of the rich. Impressive world-building, breathtaking action and clear philosophical concerns make this volume, the beginning of a planned trilogy, as good as The Giver and more exciting.

Review: I hear they're making this into a film. I'm not sure if that's actually true or not, it could just be a rumour.  Don't take my word for it.  If they did, I wouldn't be very happy, but that's just me being picky-the characters will look all wrong, they'll miss out chunks of the story, hideous media tie-in editions will become the norm, etc. etc.  But, well, you can see why they're making it into a film.  It would make a good film.  The Hunger Games would make a good anything.

At first I wasn't so sure if it was worth all the hype.  The first hundred pages or so weren't as exciting as I had expected them to be.  Unlike Michael Grant's Gone, (which has a similar idea: teens battling it out in an enclosed space) I don't think the action begins right on the first page.  It's interesting, giving some background to the nation of Panem, Katniss' life in District 12, her friends and family, the preparation for the Games and so on. All these things are important, so you have to  read it to get to the heart-stopping part, i.e the rest of the book. It's only when the Hunger Games of the title actually get going that the excitement begins. 

But when it does?  Wow!   You can't stop reading.  And when you do tear yourself away to attend to far more unimportant matters like eating and sleeping, you're still thinking about it. I kept having dreams about it (In one of which, I was hiding up a tree about to drop a tracker-jacker nest on the Career Tributes [rich children who spend their whole lives in training for the Hunger Games], but the nest was stuck to me and the tracker-jackers flew out and stung me to death).

The idea, you can tell, is influenced muchly from other books.  Reading the synopsis, Logan's Run, Lord of the Flies, Gone, and The Other Side of the Island spring to mind.  But reading the book itself it sounds wonderfully original, and suddenly Big Brother seems innocent, happy and tranquil.  You'll not look at such reality TV in the same way again.

Well, then, what's not to like? The characters? It's sort of hard in the first person to make all the supporting characters well-rounded and three-dimensional, but Suzanne Collins manages it.  The writing? It's written as every action-type novel should be: spare but descriptive. The pace?  Well, you need the first 100 pages or so, the ending isn't rushed nor dragged out, so that's all OK. The ending? It's not exactly a cliffhanger, alas, but it leaves much space for the next two books. Overall, good job Suzanne.  Thumbs-up all round. 

Summary: I seem to be the last blogger in the universe to have read it.  Hopefully everybody else has read it before I have, and though it's not the best book I've read,  it's essential reading for teenagers and adults alike.  Rating: 4.5

*gets Mockingjay countdown for side of blog*

*rushes to library to order Catching Fire*

Review: Gone

Dear Blog,

Today's review is for Gone by Michael Grant.  I've spent  many many late nights reading it.

Summary (from Goodreads): In the blink of an eye. Everyone disappears. GONE. Except for the young. Teens. Middle schoolers. Toddlers. But not one single adult. No teachers, no cops, no doctors, no parents. Just as suddenly, there are no phones, no internet, no television. No way to get help. And no way to figure out what's happened.
Hunger threatens. Bullies rule. A sinister creature lurks. Animals are mutating. And the teens themselves are changing, developing new talents—unimaginable, dangerous, deadly powers—that grow stronger by the day.
It's a terrifying new world. Sides are being chosen, a fight is shaping up. Townies against rich kids. Bullies against the weak. Powerful against powerless. And time is running out: On your birthday, you disappear just like everyone else...

Review: First things first: I much prefer the UK cover (the one I've posted), to the US one. I generally prefer UK covers. Not just because I live there, but because often I just think they're better, is all.

Second things second: Take seriously the 12+ rating and WARNING: CONTAINS SCENES OF VIOLENCE AND CRUELTY sticker on the back (again don't know if that's on the US cover).  Either way, do not misinterpret it.  It's the most graphic book I've read in ages.  Even Persepolis isn't that graphic, and that's a graphic novel about growing up during the Iranian Revolution.  If  they make it into a film (which it would be the purest awesome if they did), I should expect to recreate the true horror of the book,it would have to be a 15.  I certainly think the age rating on the back ought to be 14+.  Some parts of it are very gruesome, very graphic, very creepy and very, very disturbing.

I can't remember which newspaper said that if Stephen King had written Lord of the Flies, then Gone would be it.  I've read Lord of the Flies and I also read that part of The Green Mile where Edward Delacroix's execution goes wrong and he's fried like an egg.  I wish I hadn't.  Oh well, I was 11 and curious about the dark world of horror fiction.  What more can I say?  Either way, that quote completely nailed it and that's how I would describe it to somebody who asked what it was about. 

Although it's so gripping you would want to stay up all night reading, I'd suggest you don't.  Last night I was reading it and I kept looking around my bedroom to check everything was in its right place.  Perhaps it's just me being a wuss because despite my slightly creepy love for end-of-the-world apocalypse fiction, this is almost a horror novel and I read very little of that.  Or perhaps it was just the contrast between Gone and the book I read right before that, Strawberry Marshmallow (Ichigo Mashimaro) 3, a.k.a the cutest, fluffiest, silliest manga in the history of the world.

The book, for all its size, is set over the point of 299 hours and 54 minutes, so there's always something going on.  It drives me round the bend when books say "weeks passed", or "months passed".  In that sense, *Gone* is brief and gets right to the point.

Most likely my only complaint is that I wish you found out more about the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone, the name the kids give to their world-without-adults). Why's it there?  How long will it be there? Is there any way out? What was giving the kids powers? (I assumed it was something to do with nuclear radiation or something but isn't really explained) Who (or what) exactly is The Darkness?  What exactly was Little Pete's connection to the FAYZ? I read the scene where that question comes into the equation three or four times but it still didn't make much sense.  I can't say much more about that because it is a major spoiler that gives much away.  If you can make sense of it. Either way, it seemed to ask more questions that it answered, but it's going to be a 6-book series and no doubt more and more will be revealed about it as the series goes on. The second and third books *Lies* and *Hunger*, are out already in the US (alas *Lies has only just been released in the UK).  As soon as they're out in the library I'll definitely be reading them.

Rating: 4.5