Bumped by Megan McCafferty

This was definitely a book I needed to read slowly, to savor each moment. McCafferty really knows how to write dialogue and character so well! And I love her other books that started with Sloppy Firsts. I got this one the day it came out, but it somehow got vacuumed up into my never-ending TBR piles. But, the sequel comes out in a few weeks, and I remembered to read this one!

I’m so glad this book was not forgotten. McCafferty’s style reminds me so much of Libba Bray’s, and that is a high compliment coming from me! The best thing about this book was I kept forgetting it was a dystopia; it felt so real and there were no a-typical dystopia “I finally get that the world is awful” moments until the end, by which point I was just so sucked up in the awesomeness of these characters that I had to remind myself what kind of story it really was.

It’s about Melody and Harmony (long-lost twin sisters) connecting for the first time. Melody and Harmony live in a world where no one past the age of 18 can make babies. And girls, once they hit puberty, are paid to conceive and give birth to babies for the highest bidder. Melody was the first girl in her school to go pro and sign a contract with a couple who wants her to give birth to their baby. The only issue is that the couple is taking its sweet time to find Melody the perfect guy to sleep with. And while Melody is waiting, other girls are going on to baby number two. And all of the girls who sign these contracts are set for life money-wise.

Harmony grows up in Goodside, a place that sounds a lot like an Amish colony. There’s little to no technology. Any form of touching with anyone but your husband is considered sin. And girls tend to be arranged into marriage as early as 13 so they can start doing what God wants them to do: make babies. At first, I couldn’t stand Harmony’s character because every other word out of her mouth was about God or Jesus and how she wanted to give God to people and convince her sister to move back to Goodside with her.

And it was so easy to start feeling like the whole teen girls selling their uteruses thing was normal. McCafferty wrote this in such a way where it was almost hard for me to see this as wrong. I was getting sucked into the propaganda as much as the main characters were! And I’m not used to this happening! I definitely liked Melody more to begin with because of this. It made sense that this is what the world would come to when adults couldn’t give birth any more. And I liked that teen girls seemed to be so valued in society.

Yet, as the book went on, the more I realized how messed up things were. For starters, Melody is clearly in love with her best friend, but since he’s short she can’t get involved with him. No couple wants short babies. Guys are all mixed up with drugs to make them taller and stronger. There’s group sex parties where the intent is for girls to get pregnant all at the same time. There’s drugs going around that make you more attracted to your paid sexual partner. There’s stores where young teens can buy baby humps. And the advertisments, slang, culture, and even the parents of all the main characters are so wrapped up in promoting teen pregnancy and making teen pregnancy sexy and even the norm.

It almost makes sense that the religious zealots take such a firm, opposing argument to the way the Otherside works. The story really gets interesting when Melody’s couple finally pick a famous guy to have sex with her, and the guy thinks Harmony (the religious twin) is the one he needs to get pregnant. There’s romance. There’s pissed off husbands. There’s great twin humor. There’s plenty of propaganda from both sides of the spectrum. There’s evil parents. There’s sex, a ton of teen pregnancy, and a lot of heartache. One girl looses it completely after her pregnancy and decides she can’t give up her baby. So, she’s institutionalized. Most girls never get to see the babies they give birth to. Another girl almost dies in childbirth at 16. And a lot of tough themes are addressed in this one.

It took me just a little bit of time to officially dive into the book. I had to fully immerse myself in the language and get used to all the baby-promoting before I really understood what was happening. And I liked that. The author didn’t make it easy for you to understand immediately or pick sides immediately either. The best part is when you realize how rebellious both twins are, how neither one (in their own way) will conform to what everyone else wants and expects of them. They both feel that sleeping with someone you don’t love is wrong. And it does take Melody a little longer to come to this realization, but she does it all the same. And you can’t help but want more girls to come to this same conclusion.

I loved the drama! I loved the dialogue and the culture! McCafferty developed an almost brand new consumerism language. And it was just so believable! It’s a book that makes you think about how much you take for granted and makes you ask, “what should I be questioning right now?” Each twin was so different and both had such a unique voice to them. I loved both of them. I loved the best friend! And I really just think this was a fantastic novel. I can’t wait for book 2. This so gets a 10/10 from me!

Perception by Kim Harrington

So I loved the first one (my last review). And I’m not going to lie; the two biggest appeals for me starting book 2 so fast were the cover and the promise of some juicy love triangle resolution.  I really am hopeless when it comes to a pretty YA cover. And thankfully, in this case, my cover love paid off because the book was just so good! And yes, the love triangle was so good too!

I love when YA books take place in summer time (like the first one), but I also love getting to see the characters in other environments as well. So, what I’m saying is I had a lot of fun watching Clare in school too. So, the book really takes place right after the first one finishes. Clare still has an adorable ex-boyfriend who wants her back, and the new guy in town (aka: the detective’s son: Gabriel) head over heels for her. She’s also not a social pariah any more because she sort of developed a celebrity status of sorts after finding the murderer out in book 1.

She still gets picked on (by her two least favorite people), but the popular crowd keeps hanging around her, inviting her to parties, and asking to see her psychic powers in action. Clare hates crowds, parties, and being the center of attention, so she takes her new celebrity status with caution. She learns a thing or two about the popular crowd, and she finds out she’s right not to trust all of them. She also makes a good friend with a girl who lives really close to her.

The buzz around school though goes from the gossip of last summer to the missing girl of the new year. And when the missing girl’s mother comes in to Clare’s home for a family reading, it becomes clear to Clare that her ability is meant for greater things than just helping her mother make a living. She agrees to go to the woman’s house to touch objects in the missing girl’s room and try to get a sense for if she in fact ran away herself or if, as the mother says, something bad happened to her.

Meanwhile, Clare is getting presents, notes, and packages from a secret admirer that is rubbing her the wrong way. When it becomes clear it’s not from either boy in the triangle, Clare becomes worried. The secret admirer achieves stalker status when he starts sending Clare pictures of her. And while Clare is dealing with school drama, family drama, and boy drama, as well as trying to find a missing girl, she’s also being stalked.

I think I may have liked this one even more than the first one! I loved how Clare was seriously considering her boy options. She didn’t just know which one to choose and I thought this was more realistic than other YA love triangles. She really thought about not just how much she was attracted to them but how much they got along as friends and how much they understood each other.

I also loved Clare’s refusal to stay away from the missing person/murder case. I understand why she kept some of the stalker stuff to herself because she didn’t want to freak her mother out any more than she already was. But, still, the only thing that kind of bothered me was that I feel like she could have shared the stalker things with either of her boys way earlier.

There’s dances, bonfires, unstable brothers, more boys added to the triangle (possibly), murder, kidnapping, revelations, and conclusions. And despite the wonderful ending, (finally, a YA girl picks the boy I’m hoping for!), I kind of feel like there are a few loose ends and I would love to see more in this series. Clare has become one of my favorite YA main characters. I just love how strong she is! I give this a 10/10.

Clarity by Kim Harrington

So, all my favorite bloggers/reviewers loved this one. And because I work in a bookstore, I found out when it would be in paperback, and decided to wait till then to buy it. Well, it’s in paper back now, but once I finished it I knew I would need the sequel (even though that won’t be in paperback for a long time). I’m already into book 2…And I just found this book to be so much fun.

There was nothing too new or shocking about the story, but it was just so well put together. It’s about Clarity or Clare and her ability to touch an object and see, hear, and feel the emotions someone was feeling in the past while touching that same object. What is different here is that this ability isn’t something Clare just comes into all of a sudden and has to hide from everyone. Her whole family has “abilities” of some kind and they make money by doing readings for the tourists who come to their Cape Cod town. The whole town knows what she can do. And she is rather ostracized for it, but at least she’s not hiding.

It’s just not in Clare to hide. She’s the kind of girl who dumps a cup of soda on another girl’s head when she’s being picked on. She’s also the kind of girl to volunteer to help solve a murder in her town, even when it involves working for an ex-boyfriend she’s trying to get over. When a tourist is found dead and evidence is scarce, the town puts Clare (and her ability) along with a private detective and his son on the case.

There’s a love triangle between Clare, the ex-boyfriend, and the detective’s son. There’s a lot of dark humor about family and psychics and competition. There’s the teens that are being murdered off. Oh, and Clare keeps getting more and more evidence that her brother might be involved in the murder of the first girl, but she just can’t see him murdering anyone. There’s talking to ghosts, mind reading, sensing the past from objects, possible future-reading, parties, murder investigations, steamy kisses, and just the right amount of suspense.

What really made the book so good though was Clare. She was so sarcastic and strong. I loved how she stood up for herself and her family. She wouldn’t let anyone put her down, especially those who believed her to be fake. There’s some healthy competition between Clare’s family and a new psychic in town. And I found that made everything so entertaining. The relationships Clare had with her brother, her ex-boyfriend, and the people around town just felt so real and believable. And she had just the right amount of loneliness and need to be accepted to make her authentic!

I look forward to more books by this author, and I am already enjoying the sequel. I’ll let you know what I think of it soon! It gets a 9/10 from me.

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

So, I’ve been in a bit of a reading frenzy this week…I did have off from work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because my kids at my school library have spring break! I do still have my bookstore and volunteer jobs this week, but I still had plenty of time for reading. Also, added bonus, the books I’ve been reading are just so good!

Good cannot even come close to describing Pandemonium. The only time I was able (aka: I forced myself) to stop reading yesterday was when I went to volunteer. And then when I came home, I took my dinner into my room and ate while reading. That’s how good this book is.

If you have not read Delirium yet, A) go do so right now, and B) you might need to stop reading this post because I will be talking about the end of book 1 in a few seconds.

Book 1 ended with Lena and Alex trying to escape. Alex pretty much sacrificed himself so Lena could get over the fence. And this all happened after Lena discovered that her mom wasn’t dead all these years; she was imprisoned. And oh yeah, she escaped.

You know how a lot of YA books now go back and forth between the guy and girl characters? This book goes back and forth between two time periods for Lena: the time immediately following her dramatic escape and the time where she has joined the resistance and has been captured. Neither time period is really pleasant and both are filled with an enormous sense of loss and grief not just for Alex, but for everyone Lena has left behind to achieve freedom.

Each chapter goes back and forth between these two times. And I liked this because it let me know she survived all the earlier hardships she has to endure (like starvation, frost bite, depression, finding other invalids, etc.). And then once she finds other people (or more like they find her), she comes to a point where she really has to decide if she is capable of surviving while being so depressed, because surviving outside the loveless cities is hard; there’s no technology, no good medicine, no furniture, no non-physical jobs, etc. We meet a group of other survivors who all have their own stories about escape. And probably my favorite character is Raven. I like that not everyone deals with hardship in the same way. And I feel like there is just enough hatred in these survivors for the cities they once lived in.

The future Lena is kidnapped after being told to keep an eye on Julian, the son of the head of a political movement in NY that is all about getting rid of deliria at an earlier age no matter what the risks. Forced to survive in a small room with someone who truly believes in the evil of love might just be the hardest thing Lena has ever done. Except, Lena is just so smart and resourceful and living in the wilds has taught her so much about survival. She soon befriends Julian and they share the stories of their lives (the good stories, the ones that involve love). And while outsmarting her captors, killing people, finding a deformed society living in the old subway tunnels, and holding strong to her cause, Lena slowly learns to deal with her grief about Alex, and learns to be capable of loving someone else.

This book never had a dull moment. Lena passes out from hunger. She watches children die. She camps out with others living in the wilderness and goes on long journeys to safe houses. She’s never safe. She gets bombed at in both time periods. She gets captured. She learns about secret messages from sympathizers. She learns to keep moving always and not waste the life Alex so generously let her live. There’s fighting, death, escape scenes, underground tunnels, entire societies of survivors and people who disagree with the cure, there’s information about Lena’s mother, friendship, politics, love, and I really can’t say this book was missing anything.

The one and only negative thing I can say is that (like with the first one), I found a lot of the major actions/plot twists very predictable. Even the end (which I won’t spoil) and involved a humongous twist, was an ending I was expecting. However, since Oliver is such a master at writing, it didn’t really matter to me how much I predicted. I was still so mad at some moments, still so emotionally attached to certain characters, and still biting my fingernails at the end wanting Lena so badly to win.

I remember comparing book 1 to Westerfeld’s and Condie’s dystopias. And while I can still make that comparison with book 2, this one definitely branched out in its own direction and was able to make its own voice heard.  I loved the writing style (with the two times). I loved the nonstop action. I loved that Lena’s grief was so real and not too whiny, and not too overdone. I mean the girl was always almost about die; she didn’t necessarily have a lot of time to whine. I loved her relationship with Julian and how much she could teach him. The politics were fascinating! And really, I was just so impressed here. Oliver has become an author to keep your eye on. I know she will only give us only more amazing books in the future.  And she has become a master of cliffhangers! I need book 3 like right now! This gets a 10/10.

A Good Week in Books (3)

So, I have had a pretty good week in books again. I won a giveaway on my friend Christina’s blog for two books! I bought two books. I got an ARC at work again. And I received a fantastic haul from Net Galley, and I’m super excited for all the new ones I just requested (including a new Juliet Marillier YA book and the first YA title by Philippa Gregory(!). But, this is what I got this week:

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (an actual adult book! I’m so excited for this!)
Flutter by Gina Linko
The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa
Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen
Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

I bought these two beauties this week:
 

Forgiven by Jana Oliver
Uglies: Shay’s Story by Scott Westerfeld and Devin Grayson and illustrated by Steven Cummings

*I’m not normally the biggest fan of when stories get retold in graphic novel format. But A) this is Westerfeld and if I see his name on anything, at this point, I will buy it! And B) It’s a new story from Shay’s perspective and this sounds so good!

My awesome Barnes and Noble Community Relations Manager held on to this ARC for me. She actually got to meet this author! And I’m hoping to one day meet her too.

 
Revived by Cat Patrick

And these are the two I won from Christina’s blog:

 
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles

Spell Bound by Rachel Hawkins

I have had a ball reading this series! I’m not sure if this is meant to be the last book in this series or not. It did have a bit of a finality to it. I would continue to keep reading them if the author so chooses to write more. No question about that!

I set some strict guidelines for myself about reading all my galleys in time. And I’ve already broken my own rules. It’s just that so many awesome books just came out and are going to come out for the next couple of months that I have no idea how I can keep up with my Net Galley deadlines.

But, to the book (beware of spoilers from the first two in the series)! Book two ended with Sophie escaping a burning down Hex Hall for the enemy territory that her mother was said to be at.  When Sophie reunites with her mother in this book, she realizes some very important things. 1) What she thought was a quick magical transport to her mother actually involved her being stuck in limbo for a couple of weeks without knowing it. 2) she has no idea if her father, her vampire best friend, her boyfriend, or her betrothed are safe because they did not all manage to escape together. 3) Her father’s interesting demony past only makes up for half of Sophie’s strange heritage; her mother has an interesting back story too, one that involves hunting demons and prodigim (aka: vampires, shapeshifters, fairies, and witches). And 4) She still most definitely has no use of her awesome demon magic powers; however, she can now use magic when her ex-enemy’s ghost inhabits her body and uses her own powers…

We get to meet cousins/family members on the human/demon-hunting side of the family, and I found them fascinating! They’re a group of strong women who have been training their whole lives to protect people from evil.  How awesome is that? Eventually, we learn that the bad guys from the earlier books have been exaggerating a lot in effort to make their cause seem better. And when Sophie and all her friends are magically forced back to Hex Hall as part of a seriously evil demon experiment where kids are forced into becoming soldier demons, it soon becomes clear that it’s up to Sophie to save the day.

This book has everything! Love triangles, talking mirrors, warrior women, ghosts, family drama, torture, magic, kids who need to be saved, journeys into hell (literally –and this was so cool!), and some serious decision making for Sophie! There’s also an interesting prophecy, some juicy romance, some sacrifice, wonderful friendship moments, and just frankly, all sorts of awesome!

I’m pretty sure I’ve said this about the first two books already, but my absolute favorite thing about all this awesomeness is Sophie! She’s just so funny and brave and one of my favorite YA heroines! The dialogue between the friends, the relationships between all the characters, and everyone’s eventual combined goal (to save all the kids from turning into scary, magical demon monster soldiers) was just plain amazing.

The kids go into hell at one point to maintain demonglass for the upcoming battle. And I just had to share this bit of dialogue that actually made me laugh out loud while reading:

“So…is this it?” Jenna asked. “Are we in the Underworld? Because to be honest, I thought it would be hotter.”
            I looked around in the gloom. “I…don’t know,” I finally said. “Anyone see a sign that says, Underworld This Way? Preferably with an arrow?” (pg 272).

I just love Sophie and Archer’s sense of humor and overall relationship. I also love the best friend: Jenna. Though, I was hoping she’d have more happier relationship times with her girlfriend than she got. Yes, she’s a somewhat of an outcast vampire (obsessed with the color pink), and also she’s dating a girl. And without her, a lot of important decisions would never be made! I also loved the whole ghost taking over Sophie’s body thing. The fact that the girl used to date Sophie’s boyfriend made the love triangle thing even more complicated, and it was just so much fun to read!

I give this one a 10/10. And I do hope that Hawkins continues to write more, if not in this series, than at least with a new one.

Slide by Jill Hathaway

Thank you Net Galley and HarperCollins (Balzer + Bray) for this galley! I devoured this one so fast! It comes out tomorrow and I’m thinking I might need to go buy it. What this book does so well is mix together the tough stuff teen literature sometimes focuses on and the supernatural, my favorite stuff teen literature focuses on!

The whole school knows Sylvia (aka: Vee) is epileptic, and people seem to almost be used to Vee’s episodes. But what no one knows is that Vee isn’t really epileptic; what she actually does during her episodes is “slide” into other people. And she learns a lot about people she would rather not know.

She learns a secret her dad has been keeping for years. She learns why her best friend never invites her to his house. She learns about the affair of a teacher. She learns that people cheat, plot, murder, rape, and so much more. And the worst thing is she’s there in people’s bodies while they are doing these terrible things and she has no way of controlling any of it. She can prevent herself from touching objects that are important to people. When she touches a glove or a T-shirt that belongs to someone, she can slide.

Vee lives with her younger sister, Mattie, and her father. Their mother died from cancer not too long ago. And a nice chunk of the book deals with how families can grow (and not grow) from loss. Another big part of this book deals with bullying the extent to which teens go to get what they think is theirs. Because Vee and her ex-best friend liked the same boy, Vee was ostracized, made fun of, and almost raped. And while a huge part of me hated Vee for not telling anyone about being almost raped or about any of it, another part of me understands her reluctance to share anything. I mean she told her father about her “sliding” and he sent her to a therapist who made up stuff about her dealing with her mom. If anything, I learned the worst thing you can do is tell someone who is suffering that what they are suffering isn’t real and that in fact they are crazy! Because, now Vee doesn’t tell people anything, not even her best friend. She just can’t deal with any more people (or therapists) telling her she’s wrong.

The best friend, Rollins, is obviously in love with her. And then there’s the new boy Zane, creating a love triangle! Oh, and it doesn’t help that Mattie hangs out with all the people Vee used to hang out with, including the guy who wanted to rape her and the friend who was going to let it happen. Rollins and Vee became friends the moment he rescued her unconscious body from Scotch’s (that’s the guy’s very promising nickname) unwanted hands.

But, the book really takes off when Vee slides into the body of a murderer, someone who just killed a friend of Mattie’s and made it look like suicide. And unfortunately, more teens are killed as well. And poor Vee and Mattie have already dealt with so much loss. It’s up to Vee to figure out who’s killing these girls because she’s the only one who doesn’t believe they’re all killing themselves. She just can’t tell anyone how she knows this.

Vee slowly learns how to take more control of her abilities. And she does start to share a little bit more with people like her sister. Unfortunately, before the book ends, there’s more death that the sisters have to deal with. There’s a lot of family drama, some romance, a crazy story of revenge, mystery, death, and a bit of a supernatural element.  I think my favorite thing about the book is how I was able to watch Vee slowly grow and come to terms with her loss. I loved watching her learn about her sliding. And I loved how much she cared for her sister. But, most of all I loved how she was finally able to talk with someone at then end, and to let someone in, because as the story progresses it becomes painfully clear that every character has someone they can rely (except for Vee).

I feel like the ending was rushed a little bit. But, I definitely think it was believable. I did find myself wishing that Vee would have shared a little bit more with more people. And I definitely want a certain guy to get in trouble for something, anything, but that never happens. Though, I guess Vee has will get there eventually. Baby steps. Also, Vee seemed to have a bit of a caffeine pill/drug problem. The girl was popping them like candy because they were the only things capable of keeping her awake longer and preventing her from sliding as easily. But, still, I feel like this wasn’t supposed to be a big deal, like it’s not a problem that a teen is self medicating, and most certainly overdosing on caffeine pills.

This book moves so fast! I picked up on the clues a little faster than Vee did, but this didn’t bother me too much. I really did end up loving this. I give it a 9/10.