Girl in the Arena
by
Lise Haines
It’s a fight to the death—on live TV—when a gladiator’s daughter steps into the arena.
Lyn is a neo-gladiator’s daughter, through and through. Her mother has made a career out of marrying into the high-profile world of televised blood sport, and the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association are second nature to their family.
Always lend ineffable confidence to the gladiator....more
Lyn is a neo-gladiator’s daughter, through and through. Her mother has made a career out of marrying into the high-profile world of televised blood sport, and the rules of the Gladiator Sports Association are second nature to their family.
Always lend ineffable confidence to the gladiator....more
Hardcover, 336 pages
Published
October 13th 2009
by Bloomsbury USA Childrens
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May 15, 2012
jo mo
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Shelves:
dystopia,
2009,
cover-swoon,
own,
tough-heroine,
gift-to-me,
gladiator-esque,
reviews,
3-stars,
kick-ass-heroine,
autism-asperger-s,
re-reads
this is like nothing and everything i expected it to be.
born into a world of violence, 18-year-old lyn, the daughter of 7 neo-gladiators decides to fight uber, the guy who killed her 7th father and took her dowry bracelet, so she can claim her now threatened independence and prevent being a glad-wife like her mother, who represents everything she doesn't want to be. but there's also thad, her unusual 8-year-old brother, seemingly able to predict the future, who she wants to take care of.
before...more
born into a world of violence, 18-year-old lyn, the daughter of 7 neo-gladiators decides to fight uber, the guy who killed her 7th father and took her dowry bracelet, so she can claim her now threatened independence and prevent being a glad-wife like her mother, who represents everything she doesn't want to be. but there's also thad, her unusual 8-year-old brother, seemingly able to predict the future, who she wants to take care of.
before...more
Lyn is a pacifist—she thinks. Though avoiding violence is quite a challenge when one is the daughter of seven gladiators (six dead, one alive) and—even worse—a Gladiator’s Wife. But nothing in Lynn’s life has ever been easy. Not watching her former fathers die in their matches, or protecting her oracle of a brother from being placed in a facility, or worrying about her mother’s next faux death.
But when Lyn’s bracelet is picked up in the arena by her father’s killer and she has to choose between...more
But when Lyn’s bracelet is picked up in the arena by her father’s killer and she has to choose between...more
I have really conflicted feelings about this book. I was expecting some cheap Hunger Games rip-off, but it wasn't like that at all.
This book is about Lyn, who has had seven gladiator fathers, due to her mothers career as a Glad wife. As a substitute to war, an entire Glad culture has arisen, blood sport being just as common as football. Lyn's life is ruled by bylaws put forth by the Gladiator Sports Association. It is these bylaws that say she is required, through a chain of unfortunate events,...more
This book is about Lyn, who has had seven gladiator fathers, due to her mothers career as a Glad wife. As a substitute to war, an entire Glad culture has arisen, blood sport being just as common as football. Lyn's life is ruled by bylaws put forth by the Gladiator Sports Association. It is these bylaws that say she is required, through a chain of unfortunate events,...more
Girl in the Arena is a science fiction novel. Yet it does not tell a future story; it is firmly anchored in a – only slightly altered – ‘now’ by using plenty of pop-culture references to today’s society (Youtube, Second Life, Sofia Copolla ...).
Closing one eye the fictional turns of the past decades and the imagined outcome for the present even seem almost likely. But the likelihood of the exact setting does not strike me as so important. If you peel away the alterations, you basically find the...more
Closing one eye the fictional turns of the past decades and the imagined outcome for the present even seem almost likely. But the likelihood of the exact setting does not strike me as so important. If you peel away the alterations, you basically find the...more
I want to give Girl in the Arena four--possibly even five--stars, because it has something few other books I've had the pleasure of reading has. Something I've been looking for, desperately, within YA fiction. Something that just...I don't know... Just speaks to me, I guess; feels true. I can relate to it, to the protagonist, how she feels. I understand her because, in a way, I was her. Maybe, from time to time, I still am her.
To help you understand where I'm coming from I need to go back. Way...more
To help you understand where I'm coming from I need to go back. Way...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Girl in the Arena really interested me at first. Gladiator fighting in an urban setting? Neat. But I was so, so disappointed and ended up struggling to finish this book.
Where to start, where to start.
Let's begin with the world building. Girl in the Arena takes place in an alternate world where basically everything is the same, only gladiator fighting is a thing. A big thing. Let's stop here. Why would millions of people watch two guys hacking away at each other (and one eventually being murder...more
Where to start, where to start.
Let's begin with the world building. Girl in the Arena takes place in an alternate world where basically everything is the same, only gladiator fighting is a thing. A big thing. Let's stop here. Why would millions of people watch two guys hacking away at each other (and one eventually being murder...more
Where to begin with this book? I thought the idea was phenomenal. I mean a book about gladiators!! I don't even think that's really been done before in the young adult genre...and to be honest I'm getting a little distressed and bored from all these standard vampire/werewolf/zombie teen books. It is basically the same concept and plotline redone by different authors in every novel I pick up. It's an inescapable representation now quite overdone in the juvenile/young adult world. There were endle...more
Jun 14, 2011
Lauren
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
15 years and up
Shelves:
science-fiction
Well, it was better than I thought. Maybe.
The book is a satire of modern society-- of its fascination with horror, violence, and celebrities. It is set in the future, and follows Lynn, a daughter of a neo-gladiator. Essentially her father's job (he is the neo-gladiator) is to fight to the death on live television. Pretty great job, eh? The books begins with Lynn's account of the history of the neo-gladiator sport, so the readers have some background about what is happening.
I was super pessi
...more
Nov 11, 2012
Jennifer Wardrip
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
trt-posted-reviews
Reviewed by Karin Librarian for TeensReadToo.com
In today's society, we enjoy brutal sports like World Wrestling Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Imagine, if you will, a world where we also couldn't wait for the next gladiator match.
Lyn lives in just such a world. In fact, she is deeply entrenched in the Glad lifestyle. Lyn's mother has had seven husbands - all Glad fighters. She has been widowed six times, her husbands always dying in the arena. Her latest husband, Tommy, is...more
In today's society, we enjoy brutal sports like World Wrestling Entertainment and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Imagine, if you will, a world where we also couldn't wait for the next gladiator match.
Lyn lives in just such a world. In fact, she is deeply entrenched in the Glad lifestyle. Lyn's mother has had seven husbands - all Glad fighters. She has been widowed six times, her husbands always dying in the arena. Her latest husband, Tommy, is...more
http://scholarberry.blogspot.com/
"These are not my enemies."
My Rating: 7/10
Lise Haines' Girl in the Arena is spectacular! The story was centered around a girl named Lyn, who had 7 fathers. All 6 were dead and Tommy is the 7th. All 7th were gladiators.
Then came one fight--and Tommy's dead. Allison (Lyn's mom) can't support Thad (Lyn's brother) and Lyn anymore. Caesar's (the Hollywood in the gladiator world) won't let Allison marry for the 8th time, cause 7 is the limit.
Lyn had given her bracelet...more
"These are not my enemies."
My Rating: 7/10
Lise Haines' Girl in the Arena is spectacular! The story was centered around a girl named Lyn, who had 7 fathers. All 6 were dead and Tommy is the 7th. All 7th were gladiators.
Then came one fight--and Tommy's dead. Allison (Lyn's mom) can't support Thad (Lyn's brother) and Lyn anymore. Caesar's (the Hollywood in the gladiator world) won't let Allison marry for the 8th time, cause 7 is the limit.
Lyn had given her bracelet...more
This book would have been awesome except for the fact that there were no quotation marks. This made the writing feel really vague to me and gave me a headache. I think this is probably a personal issue and I don't know if anyone else thought the same thing but the no qoutations made me go "Wait? What just happened?", more than once. But I still really liked the whole marry your fathers murderer because he picked up your bracelet thing. It was really interesting for me for some reason! And the fa...more
A vague, poorly written book trying to capitalize on the rush, brutality and teen sexual tension that the Hunger Games offered. Oh, and there's a useless mother and needy sibling as well. Same dissatisfying ending as Mockingjay, too. Lise Haines is not an author whose writing style I enjoy. Lots of dashes instead of quotes. It's hard to understand where the conversation starts and the sarcastic inner remark begins. Part of the reason why grammar nerds get so upset is that a message is clearer wh...more
I love writing reviews right after I've finished reading the book. Which is how I’m doing this at 3:00 am. Now looking at the genres listed for this book, I don’t see anything that quite describes it. It is not Science Fiction, I would not call it Action, it’s not a Romance, and I scoffed when I saw Urban Fantasy, and I would frown heavily at calling it Dystopian, and that is the major problem plaguing this book.
I feel like I should be typing in all caps with a whole lot of exclamation points. I...more
I feel like I should be typing in all caps with a whole lot of exclamation points. I...more
It's really a 2.5
SPOILER
Lyn, the daughter of the seven glads. After her father is killed in a gladiator fight, she has to marry her fathers murderer, and to get out of this marriage she will do anything, even if it means going into the arena herself. The characters were okay if not a little to bland. One pacifist who is forces to sit through her fathers' fights, one best friend who i in love with the main character, one gladiator who had to kill the man he SAYS he admires. The one character i re...more
SPOILER
Lyn, the daughter of the seven glads. After her father is killed in a gladiator fight, she has to marry her fathers murderer, and to get out of this marriage she will do anything, even if it means going into the arena herself. The characters were okay if not a little to bland. One pacifist who is forces to sit through her fathers' fights, one best friend who i in love with the main character, one gladiator who had to kill the man he SAYS he admires. The one character i re...more
Girl in the Arena takes us into a future society where instead of basketball and WAGS you have GSW's , where you are only allowed to marry a total of seven times and that if a gladiator picks up your bracelet , you have to marry him. For Lyn , her whole life has been surrounded by these rules with her mother being a GSW - Gladiator Society Wife and being the only women to have married seven gladiators. Allison, wants this life for her daughter Lyn but she can't think of anything worse as she has...more
Maybe I've just had some pretty good luck in picking out books to read but I RARELY come across a book I dislike as much as I did Girl in the Arena. I wavered on whether or not to give the book 2 stars versus 1 and went back a forth a couple time rating it on Goodreads. There were several things about this book that weren't terrible. The author created ideas within the book that were intriguing. Unfortunately, I was just blown away with disappointment by the overall result. It is a book that is...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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*Spoilers* well... I had to read this book for English and Omfg! I didn't like it. first the no quotes thing i dont like. second Lyn seems like a really stupid girl. she gives her father her bracelet for good luck(stupid for two reasons. 1 he is going to DIE! and the bracelet is going to end up in ubers hands forcing her to marry him. 2 the stupid prick was cheating on her mother!) Uber the freaking guys name is Uber! if the book was better then his name wouldn't have mattered but it just added...more
I really rate this book a 4.5, leaning toward the 5 star. Just an awesome book! those of us that like the hunger games will enjoy this book, though for those that say it is a copy of the hunger games...NEWSFLASH... is NOT the hunger games. a similar method, but quite a different concept. This book had quite a bit of action (!), had great characters, and discussed (in a subtle you-font-actually-recognize-what-the-book-is-telling-you-way) "deep" concepts. The main character was great! you could re...more
Great concept, poorly executed. Plot holes galore. Villain's actions make no sense for someone who's supposedly so business minded- If you deny your employees their reward after they've completed their gig (fighting to the death), who the hell is gonna wanna work for you? It all felt so lazy, as if the author had an end game but couldn't be bothered to think of believable paths for her MC to get there so she just threw in new rules for the Gladiator Handbook. Lazy lazy writing.
I just finished re...more
I just finished re...more
Imagine a parallel world where the Gladiator games were reintroduced to the populace as a form of entertainment. And we're not talking foam swords and cushioned mats--this is just like it was in ancient Rome. Now imagine a corporation (appropriately named Caesar's) that has taken it to the extreme and knows the best way to exploit all its members. Lyn lives in such a world--her mother loves being a Glad Wife and touting that her daughter is the daughter of seven Glads (though Lyn will tell you o...more
Girl in the Arena has a good premise. A bit of dystopia, some Roman influence, and a mite of romance. However, (don’t you just hate howevers) the execution was a little lacking and the ending…ugh. To put it nicely, the ending qualifies as one of the floppiest flops of all time, in my very humble opinion. But Wait! I’m not saying you should give up on this book entirely. It’s definitely not a classic, but it does have some entertainment value. And what I consider to be a flop might not be what yo...more
So let me just start by saying that this is my first review on Goodreads.
Another thing I'd like to say was that this book, Girl in the Arena, was not what I expected it to be.
I started reading it a while ago, but I got a little bored. The writing style, to start off with, was a bit - shall I say confusing - but after a while, I started to think of it as rather beautiful. It wasn't always clear what Lise Haines meant/what Lyn meant, but I think that was the beauty of it. It was written in such...more
Another thing I'd like to say was that this book, Girl in the Arena, was not what I expected it to be.
I started reading it a while ago, but I got a little bored. The writing style, to start off with, was a bit - shall I say confusing - but after a while, I started to think of it as rather beautiful. It wasn't always clear what Lise Haines meant/what Lyn meant, but I think that was the beauty of it. It was written in such...more
I was suckered into this book by it's fancy cover and what sounded like an interesting story line. Gaaa...
The story could have been really good, there were good ideas it just lacked the execution. I did like the letter written in the beginning of the book that details the history of the current day Gladiators, but it kind of fell from there. I think mixing the world of the Gladiators with actual current day things and people distracted from the story.
I felt like any time the story was about to...more
The story could have been really good, there were good ideas it just lacked the execution. I did like the letter written in the beginning of the book that details the history of the current day Gladiators, but it kind of fell from there. I think mixing the world of the Gladiators with actual current day things and people distracted from the story.
I felt like any time the story was about to...more
At the second paragraph of this book I declared it amazing, but the half way point I begrudgingly trudged through to the end. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I just didn't care anymore. It gets three stars though because I did finish it; I cared some amount I suppose.
What stood out to me in this book was how well fleshed out everything was. The gladiator world is colorfully and completely drawn out and inserted in to our world. On the one, I liked that, but on the other hand I (for some...more
What stood out to me in this book was how well fleshed out everything was. The gladiator world is colorfully and completely drawn out and inserted in to our world. On the one, I liked that, but on the other hand I (for some...more
As seen on: The Pie Bookery
Oh where to begin? Yes I know! This book was terrible. I thought this was a self-published book at first. My biggest reason for disliking this book? There are no freaking punctuation/quotation marks!
Example: -Don’t you dare- I said viciously –this is ridiculous- I thought to myself.
And this went on and on throughout the whole book! I had no idea where the thought started and ended and when she was really saying anything out loud. It was to tedious to read trying to fig...more
Oh where to begin? Yes I know! This book was terrible. I thought this was a self-published book at first. My biggest reason for disliking this book? There are no freaking punctuation/quotation marks!
Example: -Don’t you dare- I said viciously –this is ridiculous- I thought to myself.
And this went on and on throughout the whole book! I had no idea where the thought started and ended and when she was really saying anything out loud. It was to tedious to read trying to fig...more
If you're looking for a quick, really easy read, this is for you. If you aren't, don't even pick this book up.
This was a fun read. With a definitely unique plot, as well as a writing style I've rarely seen employed, and a messed up yet still fighting female protagonist, it was definitely an enjoyable book.
That said, there were a ton of problems with the actual world presented - although somewhat completely science fiction, with aspects of American society that would never be allowed today (and...more
This was a fun read. With a definitely unique plot, as well as a writing style I've rarely seen employed, and a messed up yet still fighting female protagonist, it was definitely an enjoyable book.
That said, there were a ton of problems with the actual world presented - although somewhat completely science fiction, with aspects of American society that would never be allowed today (and...more
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LISE HAINES is the author of three novels, Girl in the Arena, Small Acts of Sex and Electricity (a Book Sense Pick in 2006 and one of ten “Best Book Picks for 2006” by the NPR station in San Diego), and In My Sister’s Country,, a finalist for the 2003 Paterson Fiction Prize. Her short stories and essays have appeared in a number of literary journals and she was a finalist for the PEN Nelson Algren...more
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Probably one of the worst books I've ever read.
Feb 06, 2013 02:12pm
Personally I enjoyed this book because I was able to connect with the rela...more
Mar 17, 2013 01:18am