Synopsis:
After escaping from the repressive regime seeking to outlaw love, Lena joins the resistance and gets a dangerous assignment.
Review:
Pandemonium definitely suffered from middle book blues. I loved Delirium but I am not confident that the series will end up knocking my socks off. I’ll definitely read the third book whenever it comes out, though!
Synopsis:
Lena is eagerly anticipating her upcoming surgery to have her ability to love removed–until she falls in love.
Review:
Delirium is part one of a trilogy, so I have to reserve judgement until it’s over. I did really enjoy it and immediately downloaded Pandemonium. I loved Before I Fall and it seems like Lauren Oliver is one of those writers with a million stories inside her. Bring it!
Synopsis:
Nina Oberon doesn’t want to turn 16, when she’ll be tattooed and expected to become sexually active, but a family tragedy puts her in touch with an underground movement to reform society at any cost.
Review:
XVI raises a lot of really fascinating issues with identity, coming of age, the exploitation of women, gender roles, and power. Unfortunately, the plotting really faltered near the end. I gave the sequel, Truth, a try but the plotting in that one was even less inspiring and I gave up.
Synopsis:
Three teens are recruited for an elite leadership training program that will allow them to go back in time and change the moments they regret the most.
Review:
Wow, Ascent is a fantastic deal–only 99 cents for Kindle! You’d think that such a low price would indicate low quality, but that’s hardly the case. Amy Kinzer‘s writing can certainly compete with traditionally published authors of YA dystopian fiction. I hope she’s working on the next book, because I am a big fan!
Synopsis:
When the eccentric creator of the virtual reality world that has become more real than the real world dies without an heir, the nerds of the world race to discover a hidden easter egg that will unlock his fortune.
Review:
So. Fun. Ready Player One was an absolute treat of a book–compulsively readable and fabulously geeky. The hero is Wade, known in the virtual world called OASIS as “Parzival,” a high school student who has dedicated his whole life to hunting for the hidden easter egg within OASIS that will unlock creator James Halliday’s fortune. He wants the fame, the glory, and the money, but he also wants to save OASIS from the “Sixers,” egg hunters controlled by an evil conglomerate that wants to monetize OASIS thereby destroying all that is good about it.
It gets even better. Halliday was an 80s freak, so in order to find the egg everyone has to become experts on all the pop culture from that misbegotten decade. We’re talking WarGames, Adventure, Zork!, D&D, and so much more. I loved all the references, both big (Pac Man) and obscure (The Plimsoulls) and how they were integrated into the world and into the plot. Yum!
Wade is basically living the dream–what if you could actually become a gazillionaire by playing video games all day long? What if you got to step inside and live the game itself? I don’t just mean that your life becomes a game. I mean, instead of typing in the text commands for Zork you’re actually doing them in a virtual reality that is more real than real. That’s what this book gives you, from the POV of a character who isn’t just a gamer.
Wade has all kinds of conflicts to deal with that distract him from the task at hand, and he has to decide which is more important, the real world or OASIS. He’s in love with a girl who insists he can’t love her because they’ve only ever met online. But it seems like the real thing, too, and he spends the book trying to get her to see it his way. All this, and Mechagodzilla, too!
Lest you think this is just a lark, the book also offers some pretty keen commentary on technology today. It’s not for nothing he name checks Cory Doctorow. I was also reminded of Scott Westerfeld’s Extras, another book that seems quite prescient to me.
Synopsis:
In a dystopia under a sealed dome where inbreeding has left everyone looking very similar, one girl looks for the truth about the world outside.
Review:
Dark Parties has a decent enough concept, and is executed well enough, but Neva’s plight didn’t strike a chord with me. Perhaps it was the world-building which felt thin and undercooked.
I love dystopian YA, but am growing fearful that the genre has played out. It’s not enough to have an idea and be able to write. When done well, the results can be spectacular, and I’m pretty much done with giving allowances for an effort that’s good but not great. That said, this book is better than average, and not to be dismissed outright.
Synopsis:
Aliens take over the world with nothing but benevolence and peace, but are the changes they bring ultimately good for the human race?
Review:
I listened to the audio version of Childhood’s End thanks to a sale on Audible. I was really hooked the whole time, despite Clarke’s detached style. I felt the story held up mostly well, some 60 years after publication. However, Clarke was unable to imagine how radically sexual and gender politics would change in that time, and so the personal relationships between the characters felt dated and hard to connect with. I felt he tied everything together well and I’ll be mulling on it for a while.
Synopsis:
Now in the hands of rebel forces, Katniss Everdeen becomes the symbol for the battle against the Capitol, even as the human toll of her actions in the arena and out begins to break her sanity.
Review:
First reads of final books are always tough to evaluate, because desperation to have story questions answered (Team Gale/Team Peeta) make it hard to slow down and enjoy the ride. Mockingjay is much more action-y than the previous two books, and the pacing is fast fast fast.
Suzanne Collins’s storytelling is ambitious, both in the plotting and in her characterizations. She goes deep and wide in just about everything, and that’s what saves Katniss from becoming an insufferable figurehead. Though Katniss has achieved fame and adulation in the districts, her internal struggles (which are about much, much more than her love life) dominate the narrative and make her a highly sympathetic character. Collins makes her self-awareness utterly believable, and takes her through a startlingly complex emotional journey.
Like the rest of the world, I love these books and will enjoy sharing them with the girls when they are older. The series is all over Amazon’s bestseller lists. I checked out the list for Bestsellers in YA Science Fiction and the books in the series occupy slots 1-6, 9, and 10. One of those vampire books is in slot number 8, but slot number 7 is taken by a book called Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare, who wrote City of Bones, a book I liked but not well enough to keep going in the series. I think I’ll put this one on my library request list.
Synopsis:
A professional “carer” recalls her idyllic school days, which mask a horror that she and her friends “know but don’t know.”
Review:
Never Let Me Go is one of my favorite all-time books, and this is the third time I’ve read it. Big life upheavals, like having a baby, always send me back to books I know I’ll enjoy, as a way to comfort myself through a major life transition. If you’ve read it, you’ll know that it’s a strange one to read while holding a brand new baby–and I hope that’s enough to tantalize anyone who hasn’t had a chance to read it.
Synopsis:
It’s 2020, and no babies have been born since 1995.
Review:
I really thought I had read The Children of Men before, but must have just really loved the movie or something. I certainly approved of all the changes made for the screen version, because I was bored silly by this book. Oh well.
