Storm Siren

Well, it's been more than a month since I read Storm Siren, a young adult fantasy by Mary Weber, and alas, the details are slipping away. I know I enjoyed it quite a bit and gave it four stars on Goodreads.

The story is this: Nym is a slave, sold from owner to owner because of her unusual looks, looks that mark her as an impossible and dangerous magical being. In Faelen, they kill her kind at birth, but perhaps because she is female (when all the others are male), she escaped that fate, and now no one knows what to do with her except pass her along before she kills them all. Nym doesn't want to kill, but she can't control her powers. When her emotions rage, she ends up calling forth storms and lightning from the sky until everyone around her is dead. But her fifteenth owner is delighted with her powers and offers Nym the chance to use them to fight in the war. Nym really doesn't have any other options, and when she meets the first person who has ever been able to keep her powers at bay, her training begins.

Weber's world is unusual and exciting with a bit more detail than you typically get in young adult fantasy but not so much as to make it high fantasy. This world, its fantastical and bizarre characters and creatures, Nym's struggle with her own powers, and the war setting all draw the reader into a tale that intrigues to the end and excites anticipation for the next installment in the series. There's a little romance, too, of course, but the book is a clean read. No sex or graphic violence, though people do die (it's about a war, after all).

What surprised me most about the book as I began to really enjoy it was that it appeared to be from a Christian publisher: Thomas Nelson. I didn't think I was reading Christian fiction at all, mainly because most of the ARCs I have access to are secular and because most Christian fiction doesn't impress me easily. It's either too preachy or too safe, not morally (I like good, safe morals) but thematically. I'm more impressed by stories where the author is Christian but writes a book that appeals to secular readers and perhaps has a more subtle message. Good stories are good, period, and shouldn't have to be encapsulated in a religious bubble to remain "Christian." That said, there are some great Christian authors out there, who write both secular and Christian stuff, like Ted Dekker.

This story had nothing in it to scream "Christian message coming your way!" except a piece in the middle that was written with more mythological flavor than religious. However, it was clear enough to me, seeing where the book was coming from, that this was the author's way of squeezing a bit of belief in as subtly as possible. Actually, I think it still might have been a little over-the-top. This quiet, pastoral setting just popped up out of nowhere and provided background for the mysterious, religious focal point of the book. It didn't quite mesh with the direction of the rest of the story. I think what the author was trying to accomplish was necessary, but I'm not sure she chose the best way to say it, carefully as she tried. Ironically, I found it too much and too little at the same time. Obviously she was trying to say something without saying too much of anything, and I'm not sure it got said. It honestly could have been written from several different religious viewpoints. But it was a small enough section of the book that it wasn't obtrusive. I don't think there's room to read too much into it.

Aside from my mixed feelings about the presentation of belief in the book, I am always excited to see a book like this on the market. Subtlety is beautiful. Let's not throw our soap box messages at the world. Let's speak our hearts instead. Let's be storytellers like Jesus. He who has ears to hear, let him hear, right?

Storm Siren is certainly an original story, entertaining right up to an end that surprises and leaves you eager to know how it will all unfold. The jury's out on that one until Siren's Fury arrives in June!

Outlander (the book)

I got interested in Outlander through the advertisements in Entertainment Weekly. I'm always interested in TV shows that are a little (or a lot) out of the ordinary. First, the pictures attracted me, and then I watched the free first episode on the Starz website. I was a little worried about the amount of sexual content the show would have, being on Starz, and my worry was warranted. When I finished the first episode, I had mixed feelings. I was undeniably curious about where the story was going, but I was put off a little by the sexual gratuity. I would have continued to watch more of the show anyway if I could have, but I don't have access to Starz on TV. So, the show was done for me, at least until DVD. But fortunately for me, it was based on a book, and I figured that was a better way to satisfy my curiosity anyway.

The attraction of the story lies in this: Claire is a war nurse from 1945 who, while trying to reconnect with her husband on a trip to Scotland, finds herself transported through time to 1743. There, she becomes captive to a Scottish clan and is eventually forced to marry. It's certainly an interesting premise. But that's not all the story has going for it. Once I started to read, I was fascinated by the land and people that the author, Diana Gabaldon, describes so well. There's a wealth of detail in this book.

There's also an intriguing moral question. If a person is married, and happily so (though that doesn't affect the morality of the question), but finds herself two hundred years in the past with no knowledge of whether or not she will ever get back, is it right to get married again and essentially be married to two men at once, though in two different times? I'm not sure the book gives a satisfactory answer, though it is certainly addressed.

(SPOILERS ahead.) The shock value of this situation is not singular in this story. And I have mixed feelings about this, too. Gabaldon seems to rely on providing as much shock value as she can throughout the book. While this pulls the reader further into the story, I think it also hinders her story in two ways. First, the story seems a little less likely. (I mean, it was never that likely to begin with, but all the details do create a fairly believable world.) Second, the shock value often goes hand-in-hand with moral depravity. For instance, Claire encounters a predecessor of her 1945 husband in 1743. He looks nearly identical to her husband but ends up being the villain of the story. He attacks Claire, creating a link between her first husband's face and violence. He's a sexual sadist and gets pleasure particularly out of violating men, both body and spirit. All that seems a little over-the-top. Speaking of sadism, the one scene that almost stopped my reading was toward the middle of the book when Claire's new husband (1743) whips her with a belt. It's to punish her for nearly getting him and his men killed, but he gets some pleasure out of it, too. The book does a remarkable job of explaining the situation and relating the fallout of it (I did keep reading, after all), but it made me so mad. I won't spoil every instance of shock value for you, but these should give you an idea.

And unfortunately, on top of a lot of shock value, Gabaldon is at least as graphic as the one episode I saw of the TV show, though the TV show added details that weren't in the book. Now, I've never read Fifty Shades of Grey and don't plan to, and I'm not really comparing the two books, but I doubt Fifty Shades could be much more graphic. There are pages and pages of details about Claire and her 1743 husband's sexual explorations. Later in the book, there are details about the villain's homosexual sadism. Not much is left to the imagination. As far as the sex scenes involving Claire go, I was at least happy that she was married. Morally, that is acceptable. But is it morally acceptable for a person to read all that explicit sexual content? Perhaps there are people out there who can read it with impunity. Their consciences are whole, and they are unaffected by what they read. I admit, I can't. And I think a lot of people who do read that stuff shouldn't. I think it hurts us, raises expectations that can't be met, causes us to long for a fantasy that isn't real. It's not harmless. Our culture says it's harmless, and we've become much more sexually "free," or so we believe. We give our hearts and souls away for nothing. We are free...to lose everything. And through books like these, we numb our consciences until we believe the lie.

Soap. Box. Sorry. But it needed to be said.

Outlander begins an eight-book (eight major books so far, but there are also extra related books) series. The first book was published in 1991, and the latest book was published this year. So, there's quite a lot of content. But as interesting as some of the details about Scotland and the livelihood of people from the 18th century are, I think I am already done with this series. Perhaps it's just that these are very long books, and it took me awhile to get through Outlander, and I'm ready for something else right now. But also, I think I need to be careful about searing my conscience with images that are meant to shock and entice. From what I know of the latest book, I don't think that aspect of Gabaldon's books goes away. I do know the series continues on years into Claire's future (in the past), and I'm sure there's a lot of great stuff in there. But for now, it's not for me.

I give it three out of five stars.

The Eye of Minds

I've been on a James Dashner kick, or at least I was when I read his Maze Runner books in quick succession. I was a tad disappointed with the end of that book series, so I didn't bother to read the prequel, which was about different people anyway. But I saw The Eye of Minds, also by Dashner, on the library shelf alongside those other books, and intrigued by the premise, I thought I'd give it a try.

The book was interesting enough. I think it just hit me at the wrong time. I went on a four-day camping trip shortly after starting it, and here's something about me that you might think odd...I don't usually read on vacations. The only vacation over which I remember doing some lovely reading was the one where I was pregnant with my first child. I left the sun and water be and stayed on my bed in my air-conditioned room and just read. Ah, it makes me happy just to think of it. I read two whole books that week! And though I could do that at home, it was quite the accomplishment to do it on a vacation. I know that sounds opposite, but that's how I work. So, you guessed it, I did not read on my camping trip, and after that, summer whirled in like a cyclone: birthdays, holidays, outings, the World Cup! (Having spent my formative years in Brazil, I root for them, even against the USA should it get to that.) I knew the summer would fly by, but now in the eye of the storm, I'm still blinking in confusion and wondering how I got here.

This week, I finally got to the halfway point of the book, and then it was smooth and quick reading from there. The first half of the book took me all month. The second half took a couple days. And like I said, I don't think it's all the book's fault. But I think I'm over James Dashner...for now (not that there's much else to read, though there is a fall movie I'm looking forward to). As always, his premise is intriguing, and once he gets the action rolling, his books are hard to put down. But I'm never quite happy with his endings.

In The Eye of Minds, Michael is a gamer and hacker who spends much of his time in an immersive virtual world with his two best friends whom he's never even met in real life. While his body is nourished and his senses are stimulated in the "Coffin," as he calls it, he is able to taste virtual food, feel the sword slash in battle, and even experience death without real repercussions (like, obviously, staying dead). But when players begin to die in the game and not return to their bodies, Michael's hacking skills earn him the dangerous job of tracking down whomever is tampering with and controlling the virtual reality.

Aside from summer's interruptions, this book's timing was interesting because I was simultaneously introduced to the anime Sword Art Online, the first season of which I am almost through watching (short review here: the first half is better so far than the second). The main similarity is the all-immersive aspect of the virtual realities in both. In Sword Art Online, however, the characters are stuck in their virtual reality, and the only way out is true death (even in the physical world) or beating the game. The Eye of Minds begins differently, in that regard, but as the book goes on, the similarities are even greater. I won't spoil it more than that.

Due to the nature of virtual reality, you'd expect a lot of gratuitous sex and violence in a book about it, but I'm happy to say that Dashner steers clear of the sex. At one point, there's a lot of violence, but it's not made light of. The main characters, at least, don't do it for the fun of it, and there's some commentary on why anyone does it at all (though I'm not sure the author ever gives us a clear answer). The real interesting moral questions come at the end of the book and lead into its sequel, which will be available later this year. Most anything more I would say would spoil the book, so sorry. Only this: it doesn't have to do with sex or violence, but it was one of the things that made me unsure about the book. It's interesting but unsettling.

I give the book three stars because, overall, I enjoyed the read. I might even read that sequel some day. But for now, I need something that isn't quite such a downer at its end, so I part ways with James Dashner.

The Maze Runner

If you haven't yet been surprised by the preview for The Maze Runner movie, out this September, look it up! That might make you want to read this series, as it did for me. I'd heard of The Maze Runner book, by James Dashner, but for some reason, I'd never read it and didn't even really know what it was about. Actually, when I first started hearing hype about it, I thought I'd already read it. I mistook it for another book. Anyway, I missed it, but now I'm jumping on the bandwagon with everyone else, it seems.

So, is it worth the hype? I've been asked this question by others intrigued by the trailer, as I was. The short of it is, I sped through the book and am still interested in seeing the movie. It wasn't everything I was expecting, maybe, and I'm not yet sure how I feel about the revelations at the end of the book. But the journey is mysterious and suspenseful, the danger is life-or-death, and the characters are, for the most part, likeable and complex. I've already got my hands on the sequel in the four-book series (actually, a trilogy and a prequel, and I'm uncertain if that's it or if there are more books coming).

The Maze Runner is about a boy who remembers nothing from his life but his first name, Thomas, as he is slowly lifted in an elevator toward an unknown destination. He arrives, the ceiling of the elevator opens, and he is met by a bunch of boys who've been expecting him, the monthly newbie to their small, organized, self-led civilization. None of the boys know where they've come from, but they quickly find out what they are supposed to do. When Thomas steps into the light, he discovers that he is in a large field, of sorts, surrounded by high walls. The community of boys is mostly self-sustaining with supplies delivered weekly from the "Creators." But all is not harmonious. Even though the boys have strict rules and seem to live a relatively stable, productive life, they are prisoners in a maze, where maze runners daily search for a way out, dodging evil machine-like creatures who rule the night. Little do they all know, Thomas included, that his arrival will change everything.

Intrigued yet? I was. The set-up of the all-boys community and the hierarchy of leadership is well thought through. The creatures are revolting and terrifying. The mystery of what the maze is and what the boys are there for, especially since they don't remember anything, just begs you to read on. With such drama and mystery, there's bound to be some disappointment upon getting the answers. Remember the TV show Lost? I loved it, beginning to end, but a lot of fans hated where it ended up. Part of what made that, and makes this, so entertaining is not knowing what to expect. But don't get me wrong, I'm pretty excited about reading the next book, The Scorch Trials. This series hasn't let go of me yet, not by a long shot.

Go check out that movie trailer now. If you aren't interested yet, you aren't going to be, but if this review already piques your curiosity, I'm betting that will clinch the deal.

Eyes Wide Open

Ted Dekker has a seemingly endless stash of ideas. In Eyes Wide Open, he tried something a little different, releasing the book in four parts, like TV episodes. That's how I got ahold of the first part called Identity as an ebook a while back. Then, at the time, the second part, Mirrors, was going for only a dollar, so I paid to read a little more of the story. After that, I didn't really want to pay to get the other parts on ebook when I knew I would eventually want to own a physical copy of the book itself. There are very few Ted Dekker books I don't have paper copies of! So, I waited for the paperback to be released, and finally, I got a chance to read the whole thing. It had been awhile since I'd read the first two parts, but I found I only had to skim a little to remember most of it. There are also very few Dekker books that aren't uniquely memorable.

In Eyes Wide Open, seventeen-year-old Christy finds herself in bizarre circumstances when she goes searching for an empty locket that holds sentimental value for her. Unsure of who she really is, with no memory of her parents or the first thirteen years of her life, she's suddenly thrust into a situation where everything she's ever known is called into question. Is the little she thinks she knows about herself even true?

Austin, also seventeen, is brilliant. He relies on his mind for everything, but now it appears something might be wrong. Headaches plague him. Still, his mind is strong. He can reason through anything...except perhaps the fix he and Christy have found themselves in. When they accidentally trap themselves in a mental health institution and are mistaken for delusional patients, Austin and Christy's options quickly narrow until the most important question becomes: Who am I?

As usual, Dekker delivers a thrilling, suspenseful, twisty mind trip, but also packs in a message of Truth, narrowly focused on a single idea. This one is clearly about identity and what makes us who we are. Is it what we do, how we grew up, what we think? (Minor SPOILERS follow.) I don't think I'm spoiling too much to say that Austin's mind isn't going to be enough, but just in case, I did warn you. Interestingly, shortly after finishing the book, I came across a verse in my Bible that meshed really well with this novel. The verse talks about Jesus' "love that surpasses knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19). That might give you a glimpse of where this book ends up thematically (and we're not talking about romantic love, by the way), but there's so much more to it. And I didn't think this would happen, since the book is part of a new series, but as usual in the Dekker-verse, this book relates to some of Dekker's older novels. It's also connected to the separate stand-alone novel, Outlaw, but that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, considering the title.

Eyes Wide Open is part of a series called The Outlaw Chronicles. Water Walker, the second installment, is partially available now (the first two parts have been released in ebook form), and the paperback will be released in March. I already have my copy on order. Four stars.

Pawn

In Pawn, a young adult dystopian novel by Aimee Carter, Kitty is a girl on the brink of adulthood, getting ready to take the test everyone takes at seventeen, the results of which forever brand you with a number. She just wants a IV so she can have enough to eat and not be separated from her boyfriend. Anything under a IV is bad, the dregs of society, the bumbling idiots. And only the members of one family, the ruling family, get to have a VII. So, when Kitty scores a III and then is given a chance no one else gets to change her number to a VII, she accepts the offer blindly, thus becoming embroiled in a dangerous family feud. It doesn't take long for her to realize that her gift comes at the highest cost, and if she doesn't cooperate, she and those she loves will lose a lot more than numbers.

The premise is interesting, though not unique. Kiera Cass has done something similar in The Selection. What's different about this is that Kitty has to become an entirely new person. She gets Masked, and her whole appearance is made to be the exact replica of another girl, Lila Hart. But she also has to learn to act and talk like Lila. Kitty does this surprisingly quickly, perhaps too quickly, and she never seems to have a solid handle on it, making me wonder how she's supposed to be fooling anyone.

But what kept me reading was the intrigue. Kitty finds herself involved in a battle, and each side wants her for their own. Those on one side want the country to stay as it is. They need Kitty to recant Lila's public viewpoints, and that side is the one Kitty needs to listen to in order to survive. The other side wants the opposite: for Kitty to finish the work of her predecessor (the same work that got her killed) and give hope to the lower echelons of society in order to start a revolution. Though Kitty would love her society to change and be a place of freedom once again, she's not sure whether it's worth the risk.

The back-and-forth pull of right and wrong on a girl who just wanted one number higher is what gives this story resonance (and its title). Morality is part of the package; you can't avoid the discussion. Kitty clearly decides it's worth the deception to live, but is the deception worth killing for, too? There are some shockers, both in plot and morals, but author Aimee Carter doesn't let them go to waste. When morality is at stake, she delves into it, and as far as the twists of the story itself, it's clear the repercussions will continue into the sequel.

Pawn was released in December of 2013. Three stars.

Sovereign

Sovereign is the third book in The Books of Mortals, a series Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee are writing together. It began in Forbidden, and Sovereign wraps things up pretty well but leaves room for future books. (I cannot tell from this book if more will definitely be written or not.) If you have not read the first two books and think you might, don't read this review. SPOILERS from the first two books follow. Instead, start with my review of Forbidden (above).

If you are familiar with Dekker's Circle series, these books are similar. They are fantasy but hint at the modern world we know as being ancient history. This third book focuses on some different characters than the first two books did. Rom, the main character from the first book, is still in play (though others from that book have died), but we don't get into his thoughts. Instead, the story focuses on Jordin, a warrior from the second book, who took Jonathan's blood into her veins and lost her powers but supposedly gained something more, something that seems to be leaving her with the passage of time, filling her with doubt. The story also focuses on Feyn, the Sovereign of the land and the new villain of the story after the preceding Sovereign, her brother Saric, killed Jonathan and then disappeared into the wild.

Jonathan is this world's version of Jesus, in some ways. He's not exactly the same, the most notable difference being that he loves Jordin as a man to a woman while he's alive. But he does sacrifice himself at the end of the second book, and his blood has all sorts of powers, both before he dies and after.

Jordin is one of a group of dwindling believers who received Jonathan's blood in their veins after his death and call themselves Sovereigns. His blood before death gave powers such as quick reflexes and heightened eyesight, invaluable things for a warrior. His blood after death takes those powers away but seems to come with a deeper insight into life and a bit of precognition. Now, however, six years later, Jordin hangs onto her beliefs with dwindling conviction as the powerful Immortals (those who took Jonathan's blood before his death but not after) and the Dark Bloods (warrior slaves of Feyn's, completely loyal to her, fearless, and also powerful to a lesser degree than Immortals) seek the annihilation of those who call themselves Sovereigns.

When a new virus is threatened to be unleashed, one that will kill the Immortals and Dark Bloods and return the Sovereigns to the emotionless beings they were before Jonathan's blood ever touched them, Rom and Jordin know they must go into the heart of enemy territory if they hope to save their people and discover Jonathan's true purpose.

The plot and setting are a little complicated for me to reiterate here in a succinct manner that doesn't sound completely chaotic. Dekker and Lee do a much better job unwinding the details for you. This is not my favorite series of Dekker's, but it's still fascinating. I kept wondering, along with Jordin, who was wrong and who was right. I missed her superpowers along with her, and I thoroughly enjoyed her side of the story as she ventured into the unknown (I can't reveal too many spoilers!). I found it a little hard to buy into the romance at the end of the book. It seemed a bit contrived and forced. Maybe it just needed more time to develop, because I do like the result of it. And don't worry, I haven't given anything away about it in this blog.

Overall, though, the story is not a romance, at least not in the stereotypical sense, though it is a tale of a higher love. It's a dark story of doubt and living on the edge of life, wondering if you missed the point. It's a story of warriors battling an evil so terrible it takes all love and hope from your being. It's a story of death and life and what it really means to live. And it's a story of redemption, even for what seem to be the vilest of souls. Perhaps that, more than anything, separates it from most fantasy battles of good versus evil. But nobody expects Dekker, or Lee for that matter, to do things the normal way.

Ted Dekker and Tosca Lee make a good team, and I give them four stars for a fantasy story that delivers high entertainment with a deep and true message.

Icons

Icons is my first Margaret Stohl novel. She writes young adult fiction and is the coauthor of the Beautiful Creatures series, the first book of which is now a movie (I didn't read Beautiful Creatures, but I saw the movie and was not too impressed; then again, I'm not really into witches and should have known better).

Icons is quite a different type of story, though still paranormal. Dol and Ro are not normal teenagers, and it's not just because they no longer live in a normal world. When they were infants, everything changed on The Day, when the Lords invaded from space and killed everything in 13 major cities across the globe. The survivors knew there was no hope in resistance. But Dol and Ro are special. They have abilities no one else has, abilities that feel more like curse than blessing. Dol feels everyone's emotions, and on Ro comes a rage so strong he becomes an unstoppable physical force. Only Dol can calm him. They've managed to stay out of site of the Icons and the Lords so far. But the truth of their existence is about to be revealed, and they will have to face their fears and the power of their emotions.

I enjoyed this book for the most part. The setting, though post-apocalyptic, manages to be different than what I've read before (though, granted, not much detail is given), and the paranormal powers are surprisingly (since so many books use them) unique in their presentation and use. I was intrigued about what Dol, who narrates, could or would do with her power, and information about her power is strung along little by little to pull the reader deeper into the story. Between chapters there are "classified memos" that relate to what's going on, often revealing an outside perspective to Dol's. Sometimes the memos' significance doesn't become clear until later. The story is interesting, particularly as new significant characters are added, broadening the plot.

But there was something lacking for me at the end. (Minor SPOILERS may follow.) I felt like there was the story and there was the ending: two separate things that didn't mesh well together. From a character development standpoint, it was fine. Dol got from one point to another, and all the connections were fairly clear. What wasn't as clear was the plot resolution. Not enough clues were provided on that front early on. The end just happened, and not everything necessarily followed from what had transpired earlier. Sorry for being vague, but I really try to avoid spoilers. So, there was that, and (this might be the SPOILER you want to avoid), I didn't like how the romance ended up. There's a love triangle, and I'm not sure Dol picks the right boy. It didn't make the best sense to me. I wasn't convinced of it working out that way, and I didn't understand it. So, the ending was a little rough for me.

I didn't have issues with the morals of the book, though no great attempt seems to have been made to discuss issues of morality. The biggest question raised is whether to risk lives for a chance to do greater good, but even that is not satisfactorily answered. Overall, the morality of the book is neutral, but there's nothing too offensive.

Other than that, I thought the story was unique and enjoyable and a worthy three-star beginning to a new series. Icons was published this past spring. Idols (Icons #2) will be published next summer.

Scarlet

Since I have already reviewed Cinder, the first book in this series, here, I am not going to say too much about Marissa Meyer's sequel, Scarlet. If you like fairytales and science fiction, these books are a great mixture. Scarlet (Can you guess which fairytale this story is influenced by?) continues the story told in Cinder but adds another set of main characters on their own journey.

Scarlet is sure her grandmother has been kidnapped, but no one believes her. So, when a handsome but dangerous street fighter named Wolf has some clues as to where her grandmother might be, Scarlet has no choice but to follow his lead...even if she doesn't trust him.

I pre-ordered this book (Is there anything so wonderful as receiving a package of goodies in the mail?), and I was thoroughly hooked by the story and sad to have it end. Nonetheless, The Lunar Chronicles aren't over yet. This is one of my top recommended, current, young adult series!

The Darkest Minds

[DISCLAIMER: I read this book before the school shooting in Connecticut and wrote some of this before that, as well. I do not mean for this review to reflect an opinion on the shootings or have anything to do with them, but some might find it in poor taste. For sure, the timing is bad. Please do not take my words the wrong way, and please do not read further if you have been personally affected by this tragedy.]


Just in time for Christmas, you can pick up one of the best books I've read this fall. It really pulled me in with its high-stakes danger and underlying theme about being afraid of one's own power. The Darkest Minds, by Alexandra Bracken, is the first novel in a new series for young adults. As the title suggests, there's a large element of darkness to this book. It's similar to the darkness of The Hunger Games, though instead of kids killing kids, it's adults torturing and killing kids, which might be worse in some ways.

Ruby is afraid of what she can do. That's why she's kept her true abilities a secret for six years, ever since her tenth birthday. Not that she could use them anyway. Her kind, meaning kids with powers sorted and identified by colors ranging from blue to red, are imprisoned in camps, forced to work, supposedly being rehabilitated for the outside world, though aside from some experimentation, the only rehabilitation going on is that of making sure they fear and obey the guards over them. All the others of her color are gone, disposed of. As far as she knows, Ruby is the only one left, and then her secret is revealed. No one escapes the camps, but with her life on the line, Ruby manages it. But has she gone from one form of control to another? Desperate to keep her identity a secret, scarred by memories of what she's capable of, Ruby is hesitant to let anyone in, even when her heart is longing for the friendships and romance being offered her. One thing is for sure, Ruby's old life is gone, and she will have to find her own way in a new world.

I like plotlines that are a little dark sometimes. Maybe that's why I like to read dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction. But there's more to it than just the thrill of it. I don't like a book that has no hope. So maybe that's what I like about this kind of book: the trickle of light in the night, the hope that pulls the characters through, the triumph over the trials. The higher the stakes, the better the hard-won victory. I think that's part of the appeal.

Ruby goes through a lot of internal struggle, which I really like, too. It's more than teenage angst. Ruby is powerful, and rather than use that power, she wants to escape it. She doesn't want to be dangerous, but she is. That makes for interesting internal and external conflict.

The plot is fast-paced, a chronicle of one escape after the next with truly loveable companions and complicated bad guys with varying degrees of evilness in a semi-post-apocalyptic United States. I love where the book leaves off for the sequel to pick up at. I don't want to spoil anything, but I think I can give you this: the book leaves you with one tantalizing question: is it sometimes necessary to choose a lesser evil to combat a greater one?

I almost gave this book five stars, I really did. I liked it that much. After all, I gave The Hunger Games five stars. But I couldn't quite do it, so it stands at four, maybe four and a half. Though there were tiny annoyances here and there (like the fact that Canada and Mexico would close their borders to the United States, and the reason given is that they never liked the United States and just needed a good excuse...right), the main reason is that it is truly dark and horrifying at places without the balance of a faith-based worldview. It's not too graphic, but the imagination is afforded lots of room to fill in the blanks. So, be warned, this book may not be for everyone. I do think it's appropriate enough for its targeted age group, though.

It's really too bad this book is just coming out this Tuesday because I'm looking forward to the next book already! But anticipation is fun, too, so join me and let's anticipate this next great series together!

Starters

This is not an advance reader's copy for once. I picked up a used copy of Starters from my local bookstore. If I didn't already have about 50 books to read (The goal of reading 50 books this year was to diminish that pile, not replace! Too many interesting books!), I'd be ready to read the sequel, Enders, right now. Unfortunately, the release date was pushed back from this month to next year. It appears this is a two-book series with some short e-books between. Very unusual for a young adult series these days to not have at least three novels, but I don't mind. I get to read only the first book of so many series. I'd be happy to read a young adult novel with a solid ending and no planned sequels. Bravo, Lissa Price, for changing things up a bit.

Starters is a little like a tamed-down version of Joss Whedon's TV show Dollhouse, from a few years ago. Callie is a Starter, a teenager at the beginning of her life. Those who aren't Starters are Enders, elderly people who have figured out how to extend their lives to 200 years. Everyone between about 20 and 60 is dead, unvaccinated against deadly spores released in the wars. Starters have no rights, especially if they are unclaimed by grandparents, and Callie is one of those. In order to make some sort of living, she is forced to consider illegal employment at the body bank, where Enders can rent her body for a limited time to live as young people again (Dollhouse-esque). Callie is supposed to sleep through the rental, but then something goes wrong and she finds herself in the middle of a plot to murder. As Callie pretends to be what she is not, hoping against hope to salvage the situation and meanwhile finding unexpected friendship, including a love interest, she becomes part of something bigger than she ever imagined, and there's no backing out now.

Lest you think I am swayed by the hype written on the cover of a book, let me tell you that this is certainly not the next Hunger Games, as this and far too many other books are claiming to be. The next Hunger Games will look so different from The Hunger Games that no one will see it coming, believe me. After all, there's not one single vampire in Katniss's story. Part of the success of big young adult series is their uniqueness.

But Starters is still a decent story that hit me at just the right spot after a month of not having time to read that I'm giving it four stars. It's not brilliant, but it's entertaining, suspenseful, intriguing, and surprising. And those who liked The Hunger Games might find some of the same appeal in this book. The end of Starters was not completely unexpected, but I liked where it was going as it led up to the sequel. It reminded me a little of this fall's half-season finale of the TV show Once Upon a Time, where everything seemed to be coming to a happy resolution until that final "Oh, snap!" moment when they set up the central conflict for the next half of the season. Starters ends that way.

This Christmas, if you need a good book series for a teenager you know (or, let's be honest, yourself), this is one of the better books I've read lately. The sequel comes out in 2013, but details have not yet been announced. For more information, you can go to www.lissaprice.com.

Stay tuned to the blog for an upcoming review of another great read, out this month.

Beta

Rachel Cohn's Beta, advertised recently in Entertainment Weekly, is another one of those young adult dystopian novels that are so popular now, but this one has an interesting protagonist: a clone, just days old, in the body of a female teenager.

Elysia might be only a few days old, but she's been programmed to act her age. She's got everything--looks, physique, manners--everything but a soul. Clones do whatever humans tell them to do. They are property. But they can have good lives. For one, they live in a beautiful paradise, only accessible to rich humans, and without souls, they have no wants and desires. As long as they do their jobs, which they are programmed to do, life is bliss for the humans and as good as it needs to be for an emotionless, unfeeling clone. So, when Elysia begins to want things, she knows something terrible is wrong with her, which puts her in grave danger. The clones that don't work are sent to the infirmary, where they are practically tortured in order to discover what went wrong. For a clone who feels things, that is a very undesirable fate. Elysia must hide her big secret, but maybe there are others like her out there. Maybe there is a life she can have. Because the one she has isn't enough. Slavery isn't a life.

This book is not the next best thing in YA fiction, but it's relatively entertaining. The moral question of cloning is tackled head-on. Can a clone have a soul? Is it right to clone? If we did, how would we treat clones? With a clone protagonist, the book obviously favors one side of the issue over the other. In reality, though, we don't know the answers because we haven't yet cloned humans (to my knowledge). But scientists keep trying to find a way to do it. If they succeeded, would God breathe a soul into their creation? Interesting food for thought.

As far as other morality in the book goes, slavery seems to be the author's main concern. Clones become whatever you want them to be, including objects of sexual pleasure (for humans, of course). The book's morals clearly don't agree with that, but as with many young adult books, teenage sex, as long as it is performed by two loving partners with mutual consent, is okay. The book doesn't actually go all the way there (though there is a rape scene), but the implication that it would be acceptable is presented. There is also drug use with a rather mixed message, in my opinion. Obviously, our culture agrees it's bad, and that comes across in the book. But in regards to the clones, it almost seems like a good thing. I won't spoil any more than that. There may be more revealed on that end further on in the series, of which Beta is the first.

It was unique to get inside Elysia's head, not knowing exactly what sort of species she is. She's not human because she was born 16, or so. But she has human emotions. She often expresses things in terms of her programming. In some ways, she seems like a robot. Overall, I wasn't sure what to make of her. I liked her, but I did feel like she wasn't human. And I don't know if she is supposed to be.

Other than Elysia's character and what she knows or discovers, there's not a lot of development of the dystopian world. But I guess that's to be expected when your main character is a teenager; a teen's focus is narrow. There's a lot that could be talked about in future novels. This book takes place in a dystopian paradise, but much of the rest of the world is less idyllic and more post-post-apocalyptic (meaning life has been renewed after Earth's destruction). I'm curious to know if we'll get to see more of this in a broader story.

I give the novel three stars for an intriguing heroine.

Rise of the Elgen (Michael Vey, Book 2)

Rise of the Elgen is the second book in Richard Paul Evans's young adult series about Michael Vey, a teenager with electric powers, so if you haven't read the first, don't start here. Reading this review might spoil the first book, and if you read this book first, you'll be playing catch-up for a long time. Start with The Prisoner of Cell 25, which I've reviewed for you here. If you like superheroes and science fiction, you'll like this series.

Again, if you haven't read the first book, there will be some major SPOILERS ahead. Michael Vey and his Electroclan, other kids with assorted electric powers, are on the run. After shutting down the facility he'd been a prisoner at and recruiting some of the formerly-evil electric teens to his cause, there isn't a place on the globe that Michael can run to where Dr. Hatch won't hunt him down. But Michael isn't planning on running away. He plans on running toward the danger so that he can free his mother from Hatch's cruel hand. The rest of the electric teens, and a few friends who aren't, are deeply loyal to Michael, so he's not alone. His best friend is a brainiac. His girlfriend can read minds. Two former school enemies and bullies owe him their lives, so even though they're not electric, they're part of the group, putting all that aggression to good use now. Then there's Zeus, who shoots electric bolts; McKenna, who heats things up; Abigail, who can ease pain with a touch; and Ian, who's blind but can see living things better than anyone. And as time passes, Michael's own powers of electrocution become stronger. The Electroclan is a force to be reckoned with. But so is Hatch. He still has some very powerful electric teens on his side, and the methods he'll use to keep his people in check provide him with a very loyal and dangerous group of soldiers of his own: the Elgen. This second book of the series takes the action into the jungles of the Amazon basin in Peru.

You can get bogged down in names and details in this series, but at the same time, part is that contributes to why it's so good. Evans puts all his characters to use. None of them are just along for the ride or a pretty face (okay, except maybe Wade, poor secondary character). Each electric power comes in handy. Each character contributes, both to the physical plot and to the emotional development of the book.

There's also something very good about this series and Michael Vey, in particular. Michael wants to do the right thing. He has all this responsibility on his shoulders, but the power never goes to his head. The good characters are clearly good, and the bad characters are clearly whatever they are: truly evil or conflicted or coerced. There's in-fighting in Michael's group, but they learn to overcome it and even fight for each other, instead. It's a series about teens who don't have it all together but who do have these amazing powers they are willing to use for good, even if it terrifies them to confront evil.

That doesn't mean the book's remotely realistic, but when are superhero stories ever? Yeah, things are a little over-the-top. There are lots of helpful coincidences (a fact the book doesn't deny) and lots of impossible odds. Peru is definitely not as dangerous as Evans makes it out to be. I grew up in the Amazon rainforests; I should know.

Despite the goodness of the Good vs. Evil being really good (or maybe to balance it), the evil is pretty awful at times: torture, violence, and death. The good guys try not to kill in cold blood, but there are casualties as they defend themselves. The bad guys don't have any such scruples, of course, and I'd be disappointed in the book if it pulled punches like that. But the level of violence, particularly in the torture, may not be for everyone.

That said, however, Rise of the Elgen is a good addition to Evans's series and a book that older teens and adults alike should enjoy. Four stars.

Carnival of Souls

By the title Carnival of Souls, you can imagine that this young adult novel, by popular author Melissa Marr, is a bit gritty, indulging in sensationalism and sensuality. But it could have been much worse. For a novel with a carnival where you can buy and sell murder or pleasure, this story is not as graphic as it could be. The main characters do not have sex within this particular story, though they have before, and we're not talking about sex strictly between lovers but also about sex for money. The violence is slightly more graphic with fights to the death.

As far as I know, Carnival of Souls is the beginning of a new series and is not part of the Wicked Lovely books or any other series of Marr's. It tells the intertwining stories of several characters on the cusp of adulthood. Mallory is a 17-year-old, raised by her adoptive witch father in the human world and trained to fight an evil she barely understands to protect something the witch once stole. Aya is a ruling-class daimon, so she could have an easy life, if she wishes, as long as she is willing to breed. But Aya's most terrible secret would be revealed in her child; therefore, the only option left open to her is entering the fights in the hopes she can win a place in The City's governing body. Kaleb is a cur, almost the lowest caste of daimon, forced to hire himself out as assassin or lover just to feed himself and his pack. In the fights, he has a chance to raise his station in life or at least die on his own terms. He's also falling in love with the girl he's been contracted to kill. Daimons rule The City. Witches have been exiled to the human world, where their power remains strong. And these three characters, among others, have been raised on one side or the other to fight a war begun long before their time.

Melissa Marr is quite the storyteller. Her stories are rich in detail and full of life. She mixes fantasy with the real world in a way that fits more into contemporary fantasy than the trendy paranormal genre. But this particular story was, for me at least, a little over-the-top. It's hard to root for a character who kills for hire and prostitutes himself, even if the world is such that he has no other choice. (I think there's always a choice. Isn't death better than selling your soul that way?)

Part of it comes down to there being not enough internal struggle over these big moral questions. It bothers me when so many young adult books are full of questions but no solid answers or no strong delineation between right and wrong. The gray area is dangerous because there are clearly things that are wrong in the real world that may or may not be wrong in fiction, but then there are things that might be wrong in both but that are portrayed in such a way as to be appealing to readers. I'm not saying books make people evil. I think, rather, that our books reflect and support our culture. If sex outside of marriage is okay in our culture, no one thinks twice about it in a book. But reading about it in a book reinforces the idea that it's okay. (Have you read other reviews by me? Big soapbox.) Anyway, I can't recommend a book, even if it is well-written and I enjoyed parts of it, if there's too much moral gray area. If this book were a movie, I'd probably have to give it an R rating.

Moving on...as you know, if you've read past reviews, I'm not a fan of witches. I tolerate them better in fantasy because there, a witch is just another creature of the world. In some cases, though, the use of witches toes the line between fantastical creature and something out of the real world. Again, I don't like the moral gray area. This book is more fantastical than not, but some elements are borderline. If that was the only thing I didn't like about the book, though, it wouldn't keep me from recommending it.

By the way, it seems to be a trend lately for fantastical beings to take credit for real historical events, for instance, the Salem witches. The first time I read something like that, it was kind of cool, smudging the line between fiction and that which we can't explain in the real world. But it's been used enough (say, in the last three books that I've read) that it's not clever anymore.

One last issue I had with the book has to do with the romance, but I don't want to spoil too much. I think it will get better as the series progresses, but at this point, it's a love based on deception and animal attraction. There's also an annoying sexism in The City, where females are viewed as property for breeding. I'm certain the author will have more to say on this subject, as she already has, but readers will have to wait for future books to get any satisfying resolution there.

So, I don't recommend this book for the average young adult fiction reader. But, having given you fair warning, if none of the above bothers you in fiction, I'll just say Melissa Marr knows how to hook a reader. Though I likely won't get a chance to read the rest of this series, I'm still interested in knowing how it turns out.

This first installment is available in September.

False Memory

False Memory, a young adult science fiction novel by Dan Krokos, is one of those 3-star books I enjoy reading in the moment but that don't intrigue me enough to follow them up when the next in the series comes out. I was actually intrigued by the set-up for the next book in this series, and if I'd had a copy on my shelf, I would have dived right into it, no problem. But by the time this one's sequel comes out, I'll have plenty of other books competing for my attention. Since I read advance reader's copies, sequels don't even cross my radar unless I make a point of looking for them after reading a story I'm not ready to let go of. Most likely, I'll never even know when the sequel to False Memory comes out.

False Memory (and I'll get to my opinion of the title in just a moment) begins with 17-year-old Miranda North waking up and not remembering who she is except for her name. She recognizes that a mall is a mall and a cop is a cop, but her past is blank. When she accidentally causes mass panic with her own mind and easily wins hand-to-hand combat, she realizes she is more than your average girl. But it all feels right, and as she returns to the only world she's ever known with a boy just like her, her memories start to come back in patches. The question is, is it enough? Her childhood friends are at odds with each other, but that's nothing compared to pressures from outside the group. Someone wants them dead while another wants to use them for nefarious purposes. Miranda's fractured mind follows along as best it can as her team deals with its troubles, but there's no doubt, some things have changed for her. Can she go back to the person she was, or is she irreparably altered into someone new?

Interesting premise. I like the whole idea of someone starting over when memory fails her. But, tell me, why, oh, why would you go and name a book with memory loss as the premise False Memory? From the beginning, I suspected Miranda's memories! The title felt like a major give-away for someone who hates spoilers. Would you name Star Wars The Boy Whose Father was Darth Vader? So, then, why would you tell us right off the bat that your main character who's struggling with her memory might be remembering things that aren't true? It doesn't make sense. I won't say whether or not it mattered in the end or if it was a real spoiler or not. The point is, it felt like a spoiler, and rather than wondering, I was just waiting for it to happen.

Title aside, there are pieces of this story, or even just lines here and there, that are confusing. If I didn't understand something, I left it and read on, and overall, the story makes good enough sense. There is just something in the writing of it that isn't completely smooth and clear.

My one other problem with the book is its treatment of death. In the opening pages, Miranda accidentally kills people. It's shocking, yes, but I don't necessarily mind the murder being present in a young adult novel. What I need to see, however, is the murderer's reactions. Is she horrified? Does she care? Does it change her? When given the opportunity, does she murder again? I'm sad to say that Miranda's character does not ace these questions. Yes, she feels awful about the initial deaths, and yes, she doesn't want to do anything like that again. But later, she easily kills people who get in her way, and she hardly thinks twice about it. She's trained to be a weapon, but especially after the loss of memories, I would think she'd be more horrified by what she's capable of. The people she kills later in the book are not civilians. They are basically nameless, faceless soldiers, but they are still humans. Does it make it okay to kill people if they would kill you first?

And here's another question the book raises and seemingly answers: is it okay to kill a few so that more don't die? Sacrifice a few for the greater good? It's still murder. I know it's not an easy question, but the lack of internal struggle over it is more of a problem to me than the presence of it in the book. Make the characters tackle the big questions; that's good. But don't raise big questions if you can't deliver an honest discussion of right and wrong. Comparatively, I was less bothered by some of the brutality in The Hunger Games. There, the discussion of good and evil is clear, and the main character has qualms about killing, even for survival.

False Memory is the equivalent of a popcorn movie. A bit of entertainment without much heavy thinking required. This book is released this month.

Insignia

I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book about teenagers turned into human weapons in a military world. It all depends on the presentation. In the case of Insignia, by S.J. Kincaid, I was pleasantly surprised. The story is more about the characters than the tech, so even a person in unfamiliar territory, like I was, can figure out what's going on.

Tom is a gamer and a con. He can make a person think it's their idea that he's beating them out of all their own money until it's too late. That's why he's the perfect candidate for a school that trains teenagers to be the new soldier of World War III, a war fought entirely for resources in space by machines controlled from the ground. No bloodshed. At least, not yet. Tom jumps at the chance to leave his gambling, drinking dad and escape a life of moving from hotel to hotel in the hopes they will win big. But he's not prepared for the catch. Is he willing to give everything up to play the game of his life?

Add to this scenario a mix of interesting, likeable characters, and you have a story that's not about fighting World War III, but rather about friendships. It's funny with great dialog. It's a little techy, but just enough to be fascinating. And it's a series, so if you like it, there's more to come!

Four stars for a unique young adult novel that doesn't rely on romance (though there's still a bit) for forward drive!

The Lost Code (Book 1 of The Atlanteans)

The Lost Code (Book 1 of The Atlanteans), by Kevin Emerson, is a fun post-apocalyptic, dystopian adventure that advertises itself too cheaply. Since when did The Hunger Games become the new standard for violence in young adult fiction, making anything "tamer" be geared toward a younger audience? That makes it sound like anything other than hardcore is boring, and in my opinion, if it's too boring for young adult, it's probably too boring, period.

Here's the deal. There is some discussion going around on whether or not The Lost Code is for younger teen readers than many other popular young adult novels. For instance, it's being compared to Gone, which is about kids who are of a similar age, but which has, perhaps, heavier thematic content and scarier danger. Supposedly, it's for a younger audience than Gone is. I disagree. They may be for different audiences, but it's misleading to say a book is for a younger audience. That implies that older teens won't enjoy it, which simply isn't true. I can understand if a teen isn't mature enough for some books. In that case, perhaps The Lost Code is better for younger readers than Gone is. However, readers shouldn't automatically infer that it works in the opposite direction: that some readers are too old for a book. If a book is written well, nobody should be too old for it. I'm fast approaching the end of three decades (Sheesh! That makes me sound old!), and I love young adult novels. It's because they are often good stories, and good stories are universal.

I think one reason people are saying this book is for younger readers is because Owen, the main character, does sometimes seem like a younger teen. He's not immature, but the other kids his age around him are pretty immature, making you wonder just how old he might be. I don't believe the book ever gives an exact age. There is a notable difference between the mind of Katniss (Hunger Games) and that of Owen (though Owen and Gone's Sam aren't that far off from each other), so I can see why someone might say The Lost Code is for a younger audience than The Hunger Games.

The issue, though, seems to be more about the book's content than the age of the kids in the book. The Lost Code is not as violent or scary as The Hunger Games or Gone, granted. But advertising it as tamed-down adventure might lose it some readers who might have actually enjoyed it (almost lost me). There is actually a scene as gruesome as some in more hardcore books, although The Lost Code isn't kids pitted against other kids, which adds a certain horror and ups the stakes, perhaps. I don't think a book should be considered only for a younger audience just because it's on the lighter side, and on the other hand, I don't think young readers should always be protected from reading heavier stuff (though that should be determined by parents on a child-by-child basis). It's my belief that the important thing is story, and this story holds its own.

In The Lost Code, Owen gets to go from his underground community to summer camp in one of only a few specially designed domes, protecting people from the end-of-the-world conditions and radiation outside. He immediately fails the swim test and drowns; only, he doesn't. His body adapts to his surroundings, and suddenly, he finds himself part of something much bigger than he ever dreamed could come out of summer camp: an ancient secret related to the location of the domes and the very genetic make-up of his DNA. To say the least, things aren't what they seem at Camp Eden.

Evoking summer camp nostalgia, Emerson creates a world desperately trying to pretend everything isn't falling apart. This juxtaposition, along with bits of romance, science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, makes this an intriguing, entertaining read. As the plot develops, it gets more complex, and the end promises more high-stakes danger and adventure to follow in future books. Summer camp seems so mundane for a book about the end of the world, but I think that's why the story is so interesting and strong. It's the familiar juxtaposed against the future, and who doesn't love to speculate about that?

The Lost Code is available this month. Three stars.

Unraveling

Unraveling, by Elizabeth Norris, is almost-end-of-the-world young adult science fiction, new this month. I would have given it four stars except that it uses the F-word far too much. It's one thing to use it in dire circumstances. I still don't like it, but I get it. It's another thing to use it simply for emphasis or to grab attention or to be edgy. I know that appeals to people somehow, but to me, it's cheap and dirty. I prefer classy and original, and I'd prefer to never see the F-word in a book at all. In this book, it actually got to the point where it was used so often it didn't make my eyes bug out every time I saw it, and that's not a good thing. The author even used the phrase "Thank God" with the F-word inserted in the middle. Really? I'm sorry to even put that phrase in your head, but I have to be honest.

On the other hand, without the F-word, this is a really creative and entertaining book. Janelle literally dies at the beginning, and this kid she barely knows brings her back to life, leaving her crazy for answers. But that's not the weirdest thing. Since her dad's in the FBI, Janelle often has access, illegal as it may be, to his cases, and some odd stuff is going on. For instance, the guy in the car that hit and killed her died, too, but he died from radiation...like the kind you'd have to be standing right next to a bomb or nuclear meltdown to be exposed to, but he was in the middle of a highway. Janelle determinedly goes after the truth and finds more than she ever bargained for, including a countdown to the end of the world.

This book has some great twists and action, but it also deals with hard issues. For instance, Janelle has to be older than her years, taking care of a bipolar mother and her younger brother while her dad loses himself in his work. Then, there's also the night Janelle can't remember, when she was drugged and ended up alone and half-naked in a strange car. People die in this book, people the reader actually cares about. In some ways, it's a very serious book.

There's romance, too, but I have mixed feelings regarding it. It's the kind of romance that you want to succeed but that seems doomed. (SPOILERS) The book leaves it open-ended, and you don't know if the characters will ever even find each other again. There's a lot of tongue-kissing and desperate body grabbing but no actual sex. The characters, at least, have more going for them than the physical. Both are pretty intelligent and share a love of books.

Altogether, I enjoyed the read, though I have to give it only three stars. I could have done without the F-word and the physical romantic stuff. I guess it added to the desperate, end-of-the-world vibe of the book, but I find that sort of thing tasteless.

Unraveling sets itself up for a sequel.

Shatter Me

Sometimes a book stands out for the way it is written. Though the plot of Tehereh Mafi's Shatter Me is interesting in itself, this young adult novel certainly wouldn't have the same feel written in any other style. Used once or twice, hyperbolic metaphors can be startling, providing you with an extreme picture of an otherwise mundane moment or emotion. But what if a person's thoughts were dominated by such metaphors and a book was narrated from that person's point of view? It might seem ridiculous at first, but as you continue to read and the style stays consistent, it becomes something part beautiful/part insane, which I think is what the author was going for with her main character.

Seventeen-year-old Juliette is a prisoner. She lives in isolation, abused, tormented by her past, by a murder she unwillingly committed. Juliette wonders if she might be crazy. She knows she's a monster. Her greatest desire in the world is to be touched, loved, but it's impossible. Even her parents abandoned her, a fact she tries greatly to forget. But Juliette can never forget what her own hands can do. With a mere brush of skin to skin, she can torture a person until they die, and she has no control over it.

From her cell, Juliette can see a little of the world outside, a world not much better than her own, a place where birds no longer fly, where food is scarce, where soldiers control the population, where radiation kills. It's a dystopia rising from post-apocalyptic ashes, but what Juliette doesn't know is that she could become a weapon and there are people looking for her for just that purpose. Imprisoned or "free," it seems Juliette has little choice over what she does with her own hands or life.

And then she discovers Adam, and her life will never be the same.

Although this novel contains elements that are dystopian and post-apocalyptic, with superhero and girl-power themes, it's primarily a romance. And a more steamy romance you'd be hard-pressed to find. The steam is mostly generated by the metaphors and by the sheer passion and intensity in Juliette's mind. She is a character who feels things deeply in her soul, having spent her whole life suffering from lack of touch. The author does an astounding job melding this dichotomy, making it logical in this character. You could almost say that the writing style is a manifestation of the state of Juliette's mind. A personal journal could not have captured her mind better.

(SPOILERS here.) I must say, however, that I was a little put off by the romance. Some of it is a little too much, more steam than substance. Occasionally, it makes the book begin to drag, which is all the more noticeable in a book that keeps its intensity on overdrive most of the time. Though the characters never actually have sex, it's not for want of doing so. It's more that they are interrupted. And while you could say that this keeps the book "clean," I felt like the author was just trying to create romantic tension and that she will get the sex into the story in later books, as this is the first in a series. It's kind of like in Twilight, where they don't have sex, but it's more because they are afraid of what could happen than any moral conviction. Shatter Me doesn't have any moral dilemma with the characters having sex, and in fact, if you aren't paying close attention, you might think they actually do, the descriptions of their kissing and touching being as intense as they are. But though the romance bugged me sometimes, the story wouldn't have been the same without the romantic aspect.

I was excited about where the book started going by the end, so I will definitely be checking out the sequel. But that may be awhile in coming; Shatter Me just came out in November of last year.

Four stars for a beautifully written, fast-paced (for the most part), engaging story.

Touch of Power

I first found a Maria V. Snyder book in a box of advance reader's copies, and I have been hooked ever since. My favorite series of hers is the Poison Study series. She also has a Glass series that takes place in the same fantasy world. I was less fond of Inside Out, the first book of a science fiction series that seems to take place in an enclosed community in outer space. There is a second book in that series that I have on my shelf but have not read yet. Snyder shines brightest in her fantasy worlds, I think. I found Inside Out boring in comparison to her other books.

Touch of Power is her ninth book, unrelated to her previous fantasy novels but a new fantasy novel that appears to be the beginning of a new series. It looked good, but when I started reading it, I was initially bored. Perhaps that had something to do with being in labor at the time...ha, ha...because when I picked up the book to read this time, I realized I hadn't gotten more than a chapter in and I'd quit right before it all got interesting.

In Touch of Power (I'm less impressed with the title than the book), Avry is the last healer, a magician who can take a person's sickness or wounds onto herself and heal herself ten times faster than the average human. Sounds like she would be in high demand, doesn't it? But the healers are blamed for the plague that ruined the Fifteen Realms, so Avry is on the run for her life. If only she didn't have a soft spot for healing kids. When she's finally caught, her only options are execution or imprisonment at the hands of her mysterious "rescuers," who want her to heal a prince she hates. As she journeys with them, she causes a lot of trouble, learns how to defend herself properly, makes new enemies and friends, and even sort of falls in love. It's great adventure, intriguing magic, and memorable characters that make me love Snyder's fantasies.

There are a few weaknesses in this one. I caught a turn of phrase that was reminiscent of the main character in the Glass series, and it was so exactly like what she would have said that it caught me off guard in this book. Otherwise, Avry is typical of Snyder's strong heroines but also a character all her own. Her traveling companions are all interesting except that Vinn and Quain, two less important characters, could be interchangeable. The villains are great. Snyder likes to vilify her heroines' love interests at first and then have the heroine get attached to them...a little Stockholm Syndrome going on there, but it works. Mainly it creates romantic tension. I thought the end was a little mushy. Not trying to give much away here, but you wouldn't be up for having sex if you were dying, would you? I mean, come on.

And now I come to Snyder's greatest flaw: character morality. I guess it's called Fantasy for a reason. So many fantasies kind of just throw certain aspects of morality out the door. After all, if you create a world where STD's don't exist, why not have characters sleeping together left and right? Snyder does it in all her fantasy books. She's isn't particularly graphic about it, which I appreciate, but she treats the subject like it's no big deal, which I guess it isn't to many people nowadays. We're talking sex outside of marriage here. When I read her first series, it was targeted toward teens. I assumed her Glass series was young adult as well but then noticed it wasn't advertising itself as such. Touch of Power also does not advertise itself as young adult. Though it's probably mostly okay for teens, I'd agree that it's not specifically for them. The Glass series, on the other hand, had some very mature themes in it, and after I'd read it, assuming it was young adult, I was kind of shocked until I realized I'd been assuming something that wasn't necessarily true. However, even the Poison Study series gets darker in the third book. Touch of Power is tamer than both.

So, maybe Maria V. Snyder is my guilty pleasure, but fast-paced fantasy that doesn't bog you down in details and stars independent, strong-willed, stubborn female characters seems like it's hard to come by. If I'm wrong about that, let me know! (And here my husband is telling me for the thousandth time to read Wheel of Time, but honey, I'd have to read all the boring male parts, too.)

Three and a half stars for a good (but not the best) Maria V. Snyder fantasy romance.