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Sunday, September 23, 2012

Review: The Name of the Star


The Name of the Star
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Aurora (Rory) is funny, witty, and fills the first few chapters with plenty of character. She is also Southern, which I love cause I am as well a Southerner and can relate to the fish out of water feeling.

"I once met a girl in line at Walmart who told me she was going to be on America's Next Top Model. When I next saw that girl, she was crashing a shopping cart into an old lady's car out in the parking lot. Signs. You have to read them."

"Annoy a Southerner, and we will drain away the moments of your life with our slow, detailed replies until you are nothing but a husk of your former self and that much closer to death."

These sentences had me hooked. I would also like to take this time to express appreciation for the detail put into the non living characters.

I enjoyed Johnson's writing style. The mix of comedy and suspense was captivating.

However I feel we could have done without the beginnings of a love triangle.


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Review: Enclave


Enclave
Enclave by Ann Aguirre

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I felt so unsatisfied at the end. I don't know if there will be a sequel or not but I would like to know what happens to Deuce, Fade, and their companions. Some things were left unresolved and I really wanted to know what happens next. It felt like there was no conclusion at all. Just a sudden jarring stop in the middle of the road.

I like that the author took the time to research what life would be like after the apocalypse. And it makes sense the way the surviors are grouped into small enclaves with no knowledge of each others survival.

I think the point of the book was to tell a story of how diffferent societal enclaves would react to the same situation, the end of the world, and build their group based on what traditions were necessary for survival in the environment surrounding them. I think it also demonstrated how important it is to allow growth and new ideas shaped by changing circumstances to influence the development of the group in order for the society to survive.

I like the characters somewhat and felt Deuce was portrayed as a strong character. But I hate how many young adult heroines allow themselves to become entangled in tricky situations and then hit a mental brickwall with the inability to reason their way out. Basically, I hate when love triangles happen in a perfectly good story. This one was unnecessary and soiled the plot.



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Review: Feed


Feed
Feed by M.T. Anderson

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I was turned off by the dialogue and I felt no draw toward the characters. This book gets zero stars because I did not read enough of it to give a rating.

The dialogue and language used by the characters made it dificult to understand what was really going on in the story. I could not take it anymore and after around 60/200 pages I decided to give it a rest.

The world is described with minimum detail. All I know is everyone speaks as if they are uneducated/unmotivated teenagers (not saying all teenagers were uneducated, I was referring to the teenagers who refuse to use proper language/grammar/punctuation when communicating.), even the adults , with a limited and skewed vocabulary. I kept expecting the characters to complain about how hard life is and how no one understands them or cares about their feelings. The typical kind of complaints you get from teenagers who lack depth and refuse to take avantage of the benefits provided to them.

I think a world based entirely on consumerism and technology implanted directly into the brain to feed mass advertisements and information could be one plausible future for our species. (And that is what scares the daylights out of me.) Do I want it to happen? No. Even without reading what few pages I have of this book, I still would not wish to see a future based on consumerism and 24/7 brain feeds.



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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Review: Shiver


Shiver
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



I tried..but did not succeed in reading this book. Pretty sure I lack the warmth to enjoy this book. The cover is very pretty, yet I did not like Grace or Sam. The premise seemed interesting, but I will never know how it ended as I gave up half way through and listed this as Did Not Finish.



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