Review: Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Sunday, February 13, 2011

| | | 0 comments

Author: Beth Revis

Release Date: January 11th, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 398
Source: Library
Series: Across the Universe (Book #1)
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge (hosted by The Story Siren)

Summary (goodreads.com): A love out of time. A spaceship built of secrets and murder.

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming.


My Review:
Four pages into Across the Universe I was ridiculously creeped out. Being Frozen alive is one of the worst things ever, its just too awful to even contemplate. The first chapter almost made me think it was too science fiction-y to go on, but hoping it would get better I kept reading and I’m really glad I did. This ended up being a sort of murder mystery in a space ship type thing. It wasn’t until the end that I decided I really did like this book and that when the sequel comes out that I really want to know what happens. I really liked Elder and Harley, two of the people on the Godspeed. I liked Elder because he really didn’t know much about what was happening whether it was on the ship or in his head. He’s one of the characters that people either love or hate, I love him. My Favorite character is Harley the artist though. He’s just so awesome! I love how he calls Amy Little Fish. Without Harley I’m sure I would have given up on this book and never finished it (never realizing its potential if I had quit). He’s such a tragic character though, you can see how hard his life is and how hard he’s trying to be okay, but he’s not. This book reinforced my belief of never going in a spaceship though. People on this spaceship are Insane, with a capital I. I wouldn’t have been able to handle being cooped up on a ship like that, never seeing the sky or breathing fresh air. I’m not claustrophobic, but reading this book made me claustrophobic. I’ve never felt trapped inside a book. Revis is really good at describing, well everything, from settings to emotions and physical features of the characters. Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to try out something different.


Review: Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton

Saturday, February 12, 2011

| | | 1 comments

Title: Angelfire
Author: Courtney Allison Moulton

Release Date: February 15th, 2011 (This Tuesday)
Publisher: HarperCollins / Katherine Tegen Books
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 464
Source: Ebook from Publisher via NetGalley
Series: Angelfire (Book #1)
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge (hosted by The Story Siren)

Summary (goodreads.com): When seventeen-year-old Ellie starts seeing reapers - monstrous creatures who devour humans and send their souls to Hell - she finds herself on the front lines of a supernatural war between archangels and the Fallen and faced with the possible destruction of her soul.

A mysterious boy named Will reveals she is the reincarnation of an ancient warrior, the only one capable of wielding swords of angelfire to fight the reapers, and he is an immortal sworn to protect her in battle. Now that Ellie's powers have been awakened, a powerful reaper called Bastian has come forward to challenge her. He has employed a fierce assassin to eliminate her - an assassin who has already killed her once.

While balancing her dwindling social life and reaper-hunting duties, she and Will discover Bastian is searching for a dormant creature believed to be a true soul reaper. Bastian plans to use this weapon to ignite the End of Days and to destroy Ellie's soul, ending her rebirth cycle forever. Now, she must face an army of Bastian's most frightening reapers, prevent the soul reaper from consuming her soul, and uncover the secrets of her past lives - including truths that may be too frightening to remember.


My Review:
What a Debut! Courtney Allison Moulton is a great new comer to the YA world. Angelfire is a fast paced, action packed, hysterical, romantic book that will not let readers down. I just finished this and I already want to read it again. I’m already planning on buying it Tuesday with the gift card I got for Christmas (I was saving it just in case an amazing book came along that I just had to own when it came out). I felt a sorta connection to the main character Ellie, but not because of her amazing reaper killing skills (I have no skills that cool). No, I connected with Ellie because she named her car Marshmallow. Ellie is ridiculously funny and I saw some of myself in her. I love how she’s always calling Will a Ninja (he totally is, the way he’s always sneaking up everywhere. Ellie should totally buy him tap shoes to wear when they aren’t hunting). I love how this book is angelic in nature but its not all about angels, actually they sort of just make appearances and are mentioned rather then being a main focus. Its more about reapers (soul eating nasty things that creep me out a lot) and how Ellie keeps being reincarnated. Its very original and very good! I’ll give this to Moulton she is really good at describing Ellie and Will’s battles with the Reapers and Vir as well as the injuries they all receive (so good that I would squirm, which I have never ever done before). Anyway, I encourage all of you to check this book out, you won’t be sorry!


Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

| | | 2 comments

Title: Delirium
Author: Lauren Oliver

Release Date: February 1st, 2011 (Today! That's right! I'm posting day of release! I've finally done it!)
Publisher: Harper Teen
Age Group: Young Adult
Pages: 440
Source: Received from Publisher via NetGalley (will buy as soon as possible though)
Series: Book One of Delirium Trilogy
Other Titles in the Series: Pandemonium (book #2 in 2012) and Requiem (book #3 in 2013)

Summary (goodreads.com): Before scientists found the cure, people thought love was a good thing. They didn’t understand that once 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 Holoway 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.


My Review: *sour face* Gah! First off let me start off by saying I hate this book. It ended so wrong. IT WAS SO GOOD UNTIL IT ENDED! That’s all I will say about the ending, just that it was WRONG and I don’t approve and that I demand a do over.

Now let me tell you how much I love it. Seriously, other then that ending this is a grade A novel. It’s creepy, it’s romantic, it’s funny, and there’s action. What more can you ask for in a book? Oh maybe some kick ass characters? Delirium’s got those, too! Lena is one of those great characters that I love to see go through an emotional change. Usually it passes me by because I’m so caught up in the story aspect to really pay attention to how much a character really changes during the course of a novel. In the beginning Lena is like everyone else supposedly is, counting down the days until they are cured and safe from the disease that is love or Amor Deliria Nervosa. She’s brainwashed basically into believing that Love is what has Destroyed the world. Then she meets Alex (a totally awesome guy) who is the complete opposite of Lena. Everything changes after that, Lena’s look on life, her respect for the rules and even Lena herself. Sometimes I wondered about how Hana (Lena’s Best friend) felt about having to cover for Alex and Lena when they went off together. I’m sure she misses her best friend and wishes she was with her instead of Alex. I would feel a little used and angry when Lena’s all like “Hana's being great with this.“ But, what if she's not? What if she wishes she had a secret boyfriend instead. I mean Lena really met Alex because Hana decided to run to the labs that one day. Lena owes Hana more then I think she realizes. This becomes an even bigger thing later in the book. I honestly hope that this is addressed in the next book, I wonder if Lena really knows how good a friend Hana really is to her.

The concept itself of this book freaks me out though. A world without love is as ridiculous as a world without books to me. It took me a while to get used to the setting, to this dystopian world, I’m not used to reading about them and every time I do a little bit of them sticks to me. I find myself thinking about worlds without love and its just plain scary. All in all, I’m really glad I read this book. It was so good. I think everyone should read it.