Waiting on Wednesday (46)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on UnSouled by Neal Shustermann (10/15/13):

Description from Amazon (Goodreads doesn’t have one yet):

Proactive Citizenry, the company which created Cam from the parts of unwound teens, is planning to mass produce rewound teens like Cam for military purposes. And below the surface of that horror lies a sinister layer of intrigue: Proactive Citizenry has been suppressing technology that could make unwinding completely unnecessary. As Conner, Risa, and Lev uncover these shocking secrets, enraged teens begin to march on Washington to demand justice and a better future.

But more trouble is brewing. Starkey’s group of storked teens are growing more powerful and militant with each new recruit. And if they have their way, they’ll burn the harvest camps to the ground, and put every adult in them before a firing squad—which could destroy any chance America has for a peaceful future.

How creepy is this cover? Also, how creepy is the story? Seriously, this story keeps getting darker and darker, and after book 1, I just didn’t think it could be any darker. Book 1 blew my mind in its awesome craziness. Book 2 took me a while to get into, but once I did, I absolutely ate it up. I was really surprised to see that Shusterman was turning his one book into a quartet, but I’m happy to keep reading. Bring it. I’m actually way more than happy. I cannot wait to get my hands on book 3. I’m excited to see all the new turns the story is taking.

What are you waiting on this week?

A Good Week in Books (52)

I had a light book week, but a good book week. I purchased two new books from Amazon (go Prime membership!) I know I received a few books to my old address, but I’ll write about them once they’re here at my new address.

Angelfall by Susan Ee
The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey

How was your week in books?

Thumped by Megan McCafferty

I seriously don’t know why it has taken me so long to get to this book. Everything this author writes is wonderful. I absolutely loved the first book in this series (Bumped). I love her other series that for some reason is usually put in the adult section of libraries/stores. And I guess this book just kind of got lost in my giant TBR piles. When I moved though I found it again, and went, “Why have I not read this yet?”

Time is running out for Harmony and Melody, two twins who are pulling off the ultimate scam. Harmony is back to living in Goodside, where she is ostracized by her peers for leaving in the first book. There are some seriously scary moments where characters all hint at Melody’s punishment to come. And this is without everyone knowing that her unborn twins actually do not come from her husband…Who knows what these people would do to her if they knew she slept with Jondoe.

And Melody, the twin who was supposed to sleep with Jondoe –and who is actually being paid an astronomical sum to do so, is fake pregnant with a seriously high-tech fake baby bump. Melody and Harmony are supposed to have the same due dates for their two sets of twins, but Melody doesn’t have twins; she’s actually still a virgin. The only boy she wants to sleep with is the one she is in love with, Zen. But sleeping with Zen would break her contract and Zen wouldn’t make her nearly as much money as Jondoe would.

When Harmony finally sees how awful it would be for her babies to live in Goodside, she decides to escape again (at the last minute). It’s the last minute because her due date is awfully close. She’s barely home with Melody for a day before she goes into labor. And then of course the girls have to figure out how to handle the consequences of their scam. Zen thinks it the perfect opportunity to talk about how wrong society has been, but Melody isn’t exactly sure what to say until she says it.

This book is loaded with romance, politics, scandals, babies, paparazzi, love triangles, social media, lies, and an intense feeling of doom. You know it can’t end well for the girl who is scamming the whole system. And I might have put the book down for a minute when Melody was arrested… However, I’m so glad I picked it up again because wow. She gives such a crucial press conference-type speech at the end. A speech that really has you thinking! And I guess what it all comes down to is what people are willing to forgive and how much people are able to actually see.

This book, while not probably categorized with other dystopias, really defines dystopia for me. It’s in the future. It takes place after something bad happens (aka: the adult population is unable to give birth any more, but teenagers still can). It demonstrates both the direct and not so direct consequences such a bad thing can have on the population at large. And the extent to which McCafferty writes about the indirect consequences is insane! So many details went into this story. There’s the language (or the slang), the advertisements, the propaganda, the change of the education system, buses for pregnant teenagers, maternity clothing, high tech pretend baby bumps, PR, social media, etc. It is almost too easy to get lost in the words of the story, and like all the characters –particularly the main character, forget that anything is wrong.

But just when you forget something is wrong, McCafferty reminds you otherwise by showing you girls who are drugged out at school (forced to medicate so they can produce more babies). Or she’ll throw in a tidbit about kidnapped girls or the legal ban on all condoms. Or there will be the random horror stories of the girls who don’t want to give up their babies for adoption after all.

It’s also amazing to see how political things are. The most liberal are the ones that most support teen pregnancy as a way for girls to fund the rest of their lives. It’s kind of like how professional athletes make money for the limited time they are at the peek of their game, but then have enough to live on for the rest of their lives and more. Except, in this scenario, we’re talking teen girls.

And the more you think of what is happening, in depth, the more you realize how stupid you were for getting sucked in to the language and not thinking of how awful this really is. It should never be okay for girls to be forced or talked into sleeping with someone they don’t love. And the major reason I loved the twins is because both of them, on some level, always understood the wrongness of the world they live in. Harmony has always questioned things and is not nearly manipulated enough to be as docile and subservient as her highly religious (somewhat Amish sounding) culture demands. And Melody is not nearly as rebellious or vocal about her opinions as her hidden boyfriend, Zen, but she’s smart enough to see problems with the way things are run. When a girl cannot have intimate relations with a guy she’s actually in love with, but is encouraged to have relations with someone she doesn’t know, something is off.

And the most dystopia-type quality of this story is just how scary it is to be a woman. When the only options are God and early marriage or selling oneself for a better future, it does not seem like women’s rights have gone in the right direction. And scariest of all is that I can totally see our country heading in such a backwards direction if something as awful as adults not being able to give birth, were actually to happen.

This book is loaded with amazing quotes, but most of them are at the end and I don’t want to spoil things. With each step back I take from this story, I see more and more parody. This author could be writing about our current society’s view on gender, on sex, on women’s rights. And she also could be writing about today’s society’s view on social media, language, advertisements, and more. I haven’t read a book with this many layers in it since Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, which surprisingly is also written with such a humorous voice. McCafferty has already proven to have the whole, witty teen angst humor thing down. But she goes above and beyond with it here.  I recommend this series to fans of Libba Bray, definitely. But, I think I just recommend it to everyone. Seriously, go read it. It gets a 10/10 from me.

Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

I actually kind of have a funny story about this book. I was at Barnes and Noble this weekend, browsing all the new books. And I came across a book a new cute looking book. It took my reading of the whole back cover to realize it was a description of the same exact book I was reading at the time. Apparently, there’s a new publication of this book, and both publications pulled my eye to them. However, the new one isn’t as pretty, in my opinion.

This book is so beyond cute! I keep seeing it being compared to Austen, and I’m not sure I would go that far, but I do see some similar characteristics. It’s kind of like a sugar coated, slightly more modern Austen. Though, I mostly kept comparing it to my favorite Meg Cabot historical romances (like Nicola and the Viscount) or even one of my all time favorite books (and movie): I Capture the Castle.

There seems to be a fad right now that revolves around giant, fancy, Downton-type British estates. And I’m all for embracing this fad. Bring on the British drama! This one is about Althea, a teen girl who knows she has to marry well. She’s known for her beauty, and has that in her favor. However, her family is broke. And her giant, fancy estate is starting to crumble into ruins (literally). She has two mean stepsisters who refuse to help with anything financially (even though they definitely could afford it). And she has a good friend in both her mother and her little brother.

Althea wants her little brother to have a future and an estate to live in, and to make sure this happens, she will need to marry someone of means. At first, she doesn’t seem to care much about falling in love. She doesn’t seem to mind ugly physical attributes either. But, as the book goes on, it becomes abundantly clear that Althea isn’t actually as shallow as she views herself to be. She judges and makes decisions about people based upon their strength of character and level of intelligence, instead of the size of their pockets.

There’s a classic love/hate type romance setup between Althea and Mr. Fredericks, a friend staying with Lord Boring (a man Althea has set her sights on). But like most novels that take place in this setting, nothing is simple and drama runs amuck. There’s balls and horse rides. There’s etiquette and castles. And between all the flirting are some hilarious moments where either Althea or Mr. Fredericks cannot control what comes out of their mouths.

Althea has a lot to learn about love. But, she is so smart in almost all other areas. She plots, schemes, and does anything to help save her home. She is a true Austen heroine. And I could not get enough of her. I read this book in one day, and it was not because of the familiar plot line. It was because of how awesome this main character is.

I recommend this one to historical YA fans. It was really nothing but fun to read. I give it a 9/10 and I have a feeling I might be tracking down this author’s other works real soon.

Waiting on Wednesday (45)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that allows bloggers to share which books we are most anticipating.

This week I am waiting on Allegiant by Veronica Roth (10/22/13):

Description on Goodreads:

One choice will define you.

What if your whole world was a lie?
What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?

The explosive conclusion to Veronica Roth’s #1 New York Times bestselling Divergent trilogy reveals the secrets of the dystopian world that has captivated millions of readers in Divergent and Insurgent.

So, I was kind of hoping that with the release of the cover, there would be more description about the book, but that is wishful thinking… I do really like this cover. I think it goes perfectly with the covers from the earlier books in the series. I also guess the book doesn’t need more description to get people to want to read it. After that ultimate cliffhanger from book 2, the world needs to read this one. Seriously. October is far away. It comes out the day after my birthday though, so in a way, it’s a birthday present. I am so excited for this book’s release.

What are you waiting on this week?

This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

I have been waiting on this book for a long time. I absolutely loved Smith’s other book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. And while, I love a lot of the YA contemporary authors that keep writing awesome books, it’s good to get a fresh new voice for this genre too.

The story is sort of a classic romantic comedy “You’ve Got Mail” type story. It begins with an accidental email that Graham sends to Ellie about his pet pig, Wilbur. How could Ellie not respond to that email, even it were an accident? The two build up a virtual friendship with a near constant correspondence. And much of my favorite lines of the book come from their witty email dialogue.  (Note that while this book seems thick, definitely thicker in length than Smith’s other book, keep in mind that a lot of pages have very few words on them –emails take up page space).

Well, it turns out that Graham is a movie star (and he most definitely did not tell Ellie this), and that his next film location is in the small town in Maine, where Ellie lives. Technically, Graham fought for this location because he knew it was where Ellie was from. However, unlike Ellie’s best friend and the rest of town, Ellie seems to be the only one who doesn’t want a movie crew taking up space.

Ellie has a secret she’s never told anyone (especially not Graham), and as the two meet, and become real life friends, Ellie’s secret has a way of putting up major boundaries in regards to this friendship growing into anything more. Ellie’s secret means she needs to avoid cameras at all costs! And cameras follow Graham absolutely everywhere.

This book is loaded with friendship and family drama. It deals with money issues (for Ellie), and success issues for Graham. It’s about two completely different teens finding someone they can trust, no matter what. And it is just so much fun too! Between the boat adventures, the film sets, the dates, the secret beaches, the Fourth of July fireworks, the ice cream fiascos, and the secrets, it was quite honestly impossible to put this book down.

Was the book realistic in the slightest? Not really. How often do we find ourselves in mysterious correspondence with movie stars? And I’m not sure how in love I am with the book condoning digital relationships turned real relationships, because in most cases a girl will not realize the person she is talking to is actually a teen heart throb. However, Smith takes this fantastical (every girl dreams of this happening) idea and gives it authenticity by making the characters so real. Even Graham has his flaws and I found myself often finding myself feeling more sorry for him than for Ellie.

I loved that it takes place in a town with a season (like the town I’m living in). And I found Ellie’s secret to be so amazing! I’m not sure if I’ve ever read from the perspective of a character that’s been through what she has before. So, even while the story is a sort of classic romantic concept, there were definitely new elements thrown in as well. Also, Smith just wows me with her characters. I loved everyone from the main characters, to the best friends, to the people working for Graham, to Ellie’s mom.

This book makes the perfect beginning of summer read. Take it outside and read it in the sun, and it’s even better. It makes me want to go on a YA contemporary binge. I give it a 9/10. And I look forward to anything else this author has to say.

A Good Week in Books (51)

I had a decent book week. I purchased two new paperbacks this week. Both are books I’ve actually read already, but I know that at some point I would like to re-read because they were super good. I also checked out one library book.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (library book)
Pushing the Limits by Katie McGarry (new paperback!)
A Temptation of Angels by Michelle Zink (new paperback!)

I’ve also realized that I’ve had some books sent to my old address. So hopefully, next week, I’ll have a lot more new books…We’ll see how this works. How was your book week?