Graduation Day by Joelle Charbonneau is the third and final book in The Testing trilogy. It continues the story of Cia Vale, survivor of the brutal University entrance exam known as TheTesting, University student and rebel as she attempts to end The Testing. i have enjoyed both previous books and enjoyed reading the ending of the story. What I liked The protagonist. I really liked Cia as a YA protagonist. She has her head on her shoulders and gives great consideration to the consequences of her actions. She’s very much of the watch and wait mould. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t take action, but she doesn’t act without thinking. These character traits are what lead to her central position in the drama. The story would have played very differently with a Katniss Everdeen or a Tris Prior as the protagonist. The themes. The theme of Testing is continued throughout the series. This is continued in Graduation Day when Cia must test the loyalty of those she wishes to have as allies, and she herself continues to be tested in more ways that one as she seeks to end the horrific University entrance exam. Trust is also a major theme in…
Since we’re now into July – halfway through the year! – and I’m 50 books through my 100 book challenge for this year I thought it was time to stop and review my top picks from the first half of 2014. So without further ado, here they are. [book-info title=”The Empire Striketh Back” author=”ian-doescher”] My first pick for my top books of 2014 so far is Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars. This includes Star Wars: Verily a New Hope and The Empire Striketh Back. For those of you who have not read my reviews, Doescher has taken George Lucas’s epic space opera and rewritten it in the style of William Shakespeare, compete with iambic pentameter and nods to Shakespeare plays. It’s incredible how well the Lucas’s epic saga works in Shakespearean language. The audiobook by Random House Audio is a full cast radio play complete with John Williams music and sound effects and is a must-listen. It narrowly missed out on the Audie audiobook award. The Jedi Doth Return is released on July 1st and I’m fairly confident it will make my top audiobooks list, too. Check out Doescher’s Educator’s Guide for more background info. I wish these had been…
Orange is the New Black is the memoir by Piper Kerman detailing the year she spent in a women’s prison. The drug related offences date from 10 years prior to her incarceration and in the meantime, Kerman had built a life for herself with a rewarding job and supportive fiancé. The book has also been adapted into a successful Netflix Original television show, of which I have seen season one, and plan to binge watch season two in the very near future. It should be noted that the TV series and the book, while both excellent, are very different beasts. There is a lot of dramatisation in the TV show not present in the book, which, on the other hand, gives a very thoughtful, measured introspective into Kerman’s emotional journey during her incarceration. I listened to the audiobook during my coach trip from Montreal to Toronto – a trip of about eight hours – and not only did it hold my attention through the trip, but I wanted to continue listening when I got home. What I liked The narration. Cassandra Campbell does an amazing job of providing the voiceover for Kerman’s emotional journey as well as creating distinct…
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo is the third and final book in the Grisha trilogy. It completes the story of Sun Summoner Alina Starkov and her fight against the Darkling. In it Alina and her group of trusted friends must escape from the Apparat and his ragtag army of religious zealots, and track down the third amplifier, the firebird, before confronting the Darkling. Along the way, Alina learns more of Morozova’s background and his secrets. I enjoyed Ruin and Rising far more than Siege and Storm, which suffered from middle book syndrome and patchy pacing. What I liked The Russian style setting. As in the previous two books, Shadow and Bone and Siege and Storm, I loved the world that Bardugo has created for her characters. The writing and descriptions really give a feel for Russia with a twist. The characters. We’ve been with these characters for three books now, and I appreciated the way they’ve grown and developed throughout the series. Their changing relationships were also very well drawn. Who would have guessed meeting Zoya in book one just how much Alina would grow to rely on her? I liked that their experiences have left their marks on…
Half Bad by Sally Green tells the story of Nathan who is the son of a white witch mother and a black witch father. In Nathan’s world, black witches are hated and feared and Nathan’s parentage makes him a pariah, someone to be caged and studied. To make matters worse, Nathan’s 17th birthday is approaching by which time he must receive three gifts and the blood of a family member – or die. The story starts off with Nathan in a cage and trying to escape before flashing back to recount his earlier life. The story is told primarily in the first person present, almost stream-of-consciousness – with some diversions off to the second person when Nathan is trying to distance himself from what is going on, such as during torture. The narrative style is deliberately simplistic to reflect Nathan’s lack of book learning. What I liked The narration. I LOVED the audio narration of Half Bad, which was done by Carl Prekopp. Written as it is in the first person present, the narrator IS Nathan, and it’s as if the protagonist himself is speaking. This is emphasised by the simple, informal language. My heart rate did shoot up during…
Prince of Fools is the first in a new series – The Red Queen’s War – by Mark Lawrence who wrote the Broken Empire trilogy. This new series is set in the same world as The Broken Empire, but focusses on a different set of characters. Emperor of Thorns was one of my top reads for 2013, so I had high expectations of Prince of Fools – I’m happy to say it lived up to them. What I liked The setting. Both Red Queen’s War and Broken Empire trilogy are set in a world which is strongly implied to be ours many millennia after a cataclysmic event (the “thousand suns”) in which magic plays a part. Some references to our world bleed through but often in an almost unrecognisable form. It’s a great deal of fun spotting these references. These are very subtle – for example our protagonists meet a circus elephant, who is, of course, called Nellie. A week later I still can’t get the children’s song out of my brain and now you can’t either. You’re welcome. Anyway to return to the setting. One very interesting choice Lawrence made with the Red Queen’s War trilogy is to set…
I actually found this review of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass quite difficult to write. It tells the story of assassin turned prisoner Celaena and her participation in the competition to become the King’s Champion. I LOVED the book and got caught up in the story and characters. However this made it rather tricky to analyse why I liked it so much and what made it work. Nevertheless I’ll give it a go. What I liked The characters. I found our protagonist Celaena Sardothien very engaging and fun to follow. She is strong-willed, smart, resourceful – and very funny. It’s clear her experiences in the prison of Endovier have left their mark on her, both physically and emotionally. Maas did however add in a few quirks to keep her real. I liked that she wasn’t immediately up to full physical strength after her imprisonment and had to balance physical weakness with smarts. The fact that she was terrified to stand on the glass in the glass castle was interesting. The setting. Now, I am a person who has a stronger affinity with words than with pictures, but I loved the mental picture that Maas conjured of the glass castle…
Of Poseidon by Anna Banks is a YA fantasy novel which tells the story of Emma McIntosh who after a tragic incident at a beach meets Galan Forza, one of the Syrena, or merfolk, who believes Emma may be a Syrena of the line of Poseidon, putting her in a position to end wars between the merfolk. Emma, on the other hand, knows nothing of her heritage. I did enjoy Of Poseidon, and will very likely read the sequels at some point. However, I wouldn’t say the book was fantastic or a must-read. What I liked Fun protagonist. I really liked the way Emma was written. She is fun, sparky and realistic. I enjoyed her interactions with Galen and the rest of his entourage. I was disappointed we didn’t get to see more of her friendship with Chloe – that would have been fun to read about. I felt the tragedy gave Emma more depth than she might have otherwise had. Interesting subplots. There are several subplots woven throughout the story and they were well done – it was also great the way they were woven into the main plot in the end reveal. The worldbuilding. I enjoyed…
First of all, my apologies on the delay of the Throne of Glass review – it’s coming, I promise! Also my apologies for the confusion on the Ruin and Rising release date. This will be released on June 17th. This week Amazon announced a product launch for later this month. The introductory video is deceptively vague, but most analysts seem to agree a 3D smartphone is likely. For the first time Amazon is also inviting customers to attend this launch in Seattle. You can sign up for an invite. I have put my name down, so we’ll see if I’m lucky. [book-info] One of the books i did read this week was Attachments by Rainbow Rowell. I loved her Eleanor & Park and enjoyed Attachments very much, too. This novel is split between two interwoven strands. We have the traditional third person narrative of Lincoln’s story and the other strand follows Jennifer and Beth through email exchange. The two are connected in that Lincoln’s job is to monitor his company’s email and so he gets to know the two women through their email exchange. What I liked Fun, realistic characters. As in Eleanor & Park, Rowell has a talent for writing…
City of Heavenly Fire is the sixth and final book in Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series. It is the final chapter in the fight between Sebastian and Team Good for control of the world itself. There has been major hype and excitement about this book, closing off as it does, the adventures of much loved characters. For me personally, I found the book somewhat of a disappointment. This is the final book in the series and far too often Clare took the easy road. What I liked Setup for the next trilogy. It is perhaps a measure of my disappointment that the aspect of this book I found most intriguing was the setup for the next series, The Dark Artifices. TDA is set in LA and is centred around Emma Carstairs and her friend Julian Blackthorn, whom we meet in this book. At first I’d been unconvinced about the LA setting – for me vampires/werewolves/demons etc have an old world feel, and seemed better suited to the older cities of New York and London. However Clare completely convinced me LA was a valid setting and I really loved the character of Emma. She is still little more than a…