Rite of Rejection by Sarah Negovetich

This review is spoiler free!!

My rating: 4/5 stars

This was a refreshingly original dystopian. At first it seemed similar to others (in the beginning it reminded me of The Selection, Delirium, and Matched), but it quickly diverged and took its own path. I've gotten pretty good at figuring out the plots of YA novels, but this one had me guessing. Not that the plot was shocking, but it was relatively original. Rebecca is looking forward to her Acceptance ceremony and the ball that follows after she's been accepted into society. At the Acceptance ceremony, everyone goes through the Machine, which tells who will become criminals. Those people are removed from society and put in a prison camp. Of course Rebecca unexpectedly is deemed by the Machine to be a criminal. She's sent to the PIT, where the real story starts. 

There's some romance, but it's not quite the focus of the book the way I expected it would be. And the ending!! Ugh! Such a cliffhanger! I wanted to read the next book anyway, but now I can't wait!

Anomaly by Tonya Kuper

This review is spoiler free!!

My rating: 3/5 stars

This book had a unique, interesting premise. It's hard to find an original paranormal book anymore. Well, the paranormal ability is rather unique, but the plot isn't so much. It's not bad at all, but it follows the typical plot of random girl finds out she has special powers and that omg, she's like the best at the special powers and now she has to save everyone! 

Cute love interest, but nothing super swoon-worthy. This book is told mostly from Josie's POV, but also occasionally from Reid's POV. I think it would have been better if it had been all from Josie's POV. Reid is sweet, but his narrative doesn't add a whole lot.

The most annoying thing about this book for me is how Josie's nerdiness is played up so much. 

It had to be what it felt like to be zapped by Loki's specter.

My rib cage rattled as if my heard was demonstrating Newton's Law of Inertia.

My chest hurt, like the Hulk had my torso in a death squeeze.

And I latched onto that one morsel of good news like Thor's hammer, Mjolnir.

So I'd hopped in my car, my personal version of an X-wing, like when Anakin first embarked on his new life to train as a Jedi.

The weight of obligation settled on my shoulders with the force of a landing Y-wing.

All of this, only halfway through the book!! And don't even get me started on the number of times she says "thank Thor" or "by the USS Enterprise" or "dear Star Lord" or "thank the moon of Endor" or -- okay, I need to stop there before I end up rating this any lower. I get it, she's a geek. I'm a geek and I do not talk like this. I know lots and lots of geeks (it's pretty much a requirement for being my friend) and I don't know anyone who talks like this. It's just annoying. Once I was able to ignore that, this was an enjoyable book. 

 

 

 

 

 

Wild by Cheryl Strayed

This review is spoiler free!!

My rating: 4/5 stars

I liked this a lot more than I expected to - I normally don't read nonfiction for fun, but this read a lot like fiction. As a backpacker, I alternately laughed and cringed at how poorly prepared she was. 

What is hiking but walking, after all? I can walk! I'd argued when Paul had expressed his concern about my never actually having gone backpacking. I walked all the time. I walked for hours on end in my work as a waitress. I walked around the cities I lived in and visited. I walked for pleasure and purpose. All of these things were true. But after about fifteen minutes of walking on the PCT, it was clear that I had never walked into desert mountains in early June with a pack that weighed significantly more than half of what I did strapped onto my back.

As a waitress and a hiker, I can definitively say that hiking and walking at work are not the same thing! As I'm preparing for a 230 mile trip in the Spring, I keep telling myself that if this idiot could do 19 mile days, then I can too!

Lots of people don't like this book because the author did some awful things in her life - she cheated on her husband and used drugs. But I totally identified with her. I lost my mom at 29 and did some awful things as I worked through my grief. Luckily, I wasn't quite as horrible as her, but I understand how grief can make you self-destructive. But I also understand not liking a book because you don't like the main character - there's lots of books I don't like for that reason! But if you'e ever dealt with major grief, I think you'll get this book. This book is less about the trail and more about her finally working through her grief in a more productive way. 

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

This review is spoiler free!!!

My rating: 4/5 stars

Liz Emerson is an awful person. She's a bully. She bosses her friends around. She destroys people's lives just because she can. But the thing about Liz is that she knows she's an awful person and she hates herself for it. She hates herself so much that she attempts to kill herself. At first, I had a hard time caring if she died because she's so awful. But the further we got into her story, the more I identified with her. I'm not nearly as awful as Liz, but I've done bad things to people I care about and hated myself deeply afterward. So I was able to slightly understand Liz and empathize with her. She's not the kind of main character that you'll ever like, but at the end, I was rooting for her at least.

This book is told from the viewpoint of an unconventional narrator. But this narrator can be anywhere and see everything, so it isn't all that different from 3rd person. It was unique though. There's also a lot of time jumps - the book opens moments after the car crash and then jumps back months, then forward, then back - but not at predictable intervals. It can be a little difficult to keep up with, but it kept it more interesting than if it was told in a linear fashion. 

Earth & Sky by Megan Crewe

This review is spoiler free!! 

My rating: 4/5 stars

This was a fun book about time travel. Time travel can get confusing and messy and just plain weird, but I think Megan Crewe handled it well. Her time travel rules made sense (as much as time travel can) and were pretty consistent. This book is lots of fun if you like history (I do!). They travel to several different times in the past.

I really liked the main character, Skylar. She's a bit OCD, but it just made her more real to me. She's not perfect. She's been able to sense the "wrongness" of changes that the aliens have made to our timeline. Win, one of the aliens, wants her help to find a weapon that can destroy the time field so that the aliens can't mess with Earth anymore. And (finally!!), a character in a young adult book reacts appropriately to being stalked by someone (no matter how cute he is!):

"I just want to talk to you. I'm sorry if I scared you earlier." He spreads his arms, I guess to show that his hands are empty. If the gesture was meant to reassure me, it's wasted. 

"You're scaring me now," I say. How did he know I'd be here? He must have been lurking around the school after practice and followed me. What does he want? 

My hand tightens around the phone. If you don't get out of here, I'm dialing 9-1-1. It'll only take a second."

Eventually, Skylar agrees to help Win, but it requires a lot of convincing and proof. 

The bonus about this book is that even though it's the beginning of a series, you could read it as a standalone. There's no crazy cliffhangers and while it's still open for more story (and I'm certainly going to read the next book), this book has a satisfying end.  

Bottled Up Secret by Brian McNamara

This review is spoiler free!!!

My rating: 3/5 stars

This was a sweet little book about first love. Like so many other ya lgbt books, the main conflict in the book is because one of the boys is (mostly) out, while the other is terrified of people finding out. I know that's a pretty common problem for gay teens, but I've read quite a few books like that already this year, so it's getting a bit old for me.

The main character Brendan is pretty lame - he doesn't drink, smoke, barely swears, and he's still a virgin and plans on staying that way. But I have to admit, he reminded me a lot of my high school self. Seriously, my reasoning for not drinking was exactly the same - it kills brain cells and I wanted to be as smart as possible! lol  

The book was written mostly as a rundown/recap of events, without really going into enough on the feeling behind the event. This seems to be a common new author thing. It's not exactly poorly written - it's just not quite well written. 

The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancey

This review contains lots and lots of spoilers!!


This book opens with Cassie, Zombie/Ben and crew taking refuge at an abandoned hotel where they were supposed to meet Evan. Everyone pretty much assumes that Evan is dead, but Cassie won't give up hope. Ben sends Ringer off to look into another spot for them to hole up because winter is coming and they'll need better shelter. 

This book is also told from Ringer's POV (which is awesome because Ringer rocks). Teacup follows Ringer, but Ringer accidentally shoots her. Sad. And then they're discovered by the alien military people. Ringer could leave Teacup alone, but she decides to be caught too so Teacup doesn't have to face it alone. They put Ringer through all sorts of brainwashing, but she still doesn't give in. Eventually they implant her with the "hub," which augments her immune system and makes her even more badass. She develops feelings for the human military guy who's watching her - Razor/Alex. He helps her escape. But then he betrays her! *gasp* He was on Vosch's side the whole time - Vosch wanted to test the hub and her "escape" was the perfect way to do that. But maybe he's not totally on Vosch's side. He's left alone to guard her and tells her to run. She says she won't as long as Vosch has Teacup. When they get back to base, Razor shoots Teacup so she won't have any reason not to run. And she runs. 

Evan obviously is still alive. He runs into Grace, another alien like him. She beats him up pretty bad, but he escapes, although his super immune system has crashed. And meets up with Cassie and crew. But Grace follows. And the aliens find them. Instead of destroying them though, they deliver a little girl to them. Evan says she's been implanted with a bomb that will detonate when it comes into contact with CO2. That's the aliens new plan - send in children bombs that will detonate when they're in close contact with multiple humans. They're able to get the bomb out of the girl, but then Grace shows up. Evan tells them all to leave. They do, but Poundcake, who's been shot, goes back and detonates the bomb. Grace is probably killed, but Evan might be too! Except, at the very end, we're pretty sure that he finds Cassie et al. 

The big bombshell that Ringer finds out is that the aliens aren't actually aliens. They don't have alien consciousnesses downloaded into them. They had something implanted that made them think they did! OMG  But Vosch is something else. Is he an alien?