Annalisa has
726 books
(50 selected)
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| # | cover | title | author | isbn | isbn13 | asin | num pages | avg rating | num ratings | date pub | date pub (ed.) | rating | my rating | review | notes | recommender | comments | votes | read count | date started | date read |
date
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date purchased | owned | purchase location | condition | format | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1442423664
| 9781442423664
| 4.30
| 7,663
| Aug 28, 2012
| Aug 28, 2012
|
3.5 I always categorize authors into two groups: those who are awesome storytellers and those who are beautiful writers. Sometimes authors can be a lit...more 3.5 I always categorize authors into two groups: those who are awesome storytellers and those who are beautiful writers. Sometimes authors can be a little but of both, but usually they are one or the other. Shusterman is definitely a storyteller, and an exceptional one at that. When I heard he was writing a sequel to Unwind, I was a little worried he'd milk the story into a trilogy when there wasn't much to add, but when asked why, he said there was still more to the story he wanted to tell. I could picture him sitting in his writing cave imagining a future for Connor and Risa and Lev, holding on to this world he'd created because it was larger than himself, something that lived and breathed on its own. That's the kind of sequel I like to read. At first Unwholly read a whole lot like Unwind version 2, but once Cam was introduced the story changed. He was my favorite character, probably because he was the most fleshed out, the most complicated, in a way that none of Shusterman's characters have ever felt for me (even if I did have trouble picturing his blended skin and hair). I was at times fascinated, disgusted, sympathetic, and annoyed with him. And he gave me a lot to think about. I contemplated his meaning to this whole Unwind universe and I'm not sure I like what it brought to the discussion. (view spoiler)[The discussion about where a soul comes from is fascinating, but to suggest that humans could create a person, even from a plethora of other people, who had a unique soul completely negating a higher power didn't settle right with me, in a way I was never bothered with in Frankenstein or any other book. Interesting, because some of the characters here had a belief in a higher power when it is never discussed in Frankenstein. Maybe it's because Cam felt more like a human being where the creation in Frankenstein more like a machine. I'm not sure. It was an interesting topic, but I was as conflicted about Cam's creation as the people in the book. I was also conflicted about the message in Unwholly taking away from Unwind's. While I think the degree for unwinding stemming from a fear of feral teenagers more realistic than a resolution to pro-life/pro-choice, this installment in the trilogy kind of negated the whole abortion discussion in favor of one about souls. Kind of in the same family, but not nearly as intense as that one. (hide spoiler)] While I was into this story and enjoyed it immensely, I knew it wouldn't reach the level of Unwind. Here, I was a little more aware of Shusterman's at-times clunky writing, his plot formula, and his less-than-perfect characterization. It's worth it for the story though. There are some strong villains here and unexpected turns. I like that the story took me someplace I wasn't expecting. I can't wait to read the conclusion.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Sep 04, 2012
| Sep 21, 2012
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Aug 07, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0007442912
| 9780007442911
| 4.31
| 157,887
| May 01, 2012
| May 01, 2012
|
In the beginning (or most of book really) I struggled to sympathize with Tris. I kept reminding myself that like Katniss in Mockingjay she was traumat...more
In the beginning (or most of book really) I struggled to sympathize with Tris. I kept reminding myself that like Katniss in Mockingjay she was traumatized and to cut her some slack. But it was hard when she wasn't very likable. She wasn't the strong character of Divergent that I liked and I never knew what was going to come out of her mouth. The lover's spats got on my nerves more than anything. I get why Roth didn't want to have her making out all the time despite everything that happened, but she could be sad and conflicted without fighting all the time to the point that the fights started to feel forced, fights just to keep the lovers apart. It made me like Four a little less than I did after Divergent. We got to know Tris and Four so well in Divergent and here I felt like they rushed around from plot point to plot point without ever really connecting. More than anything, I kept noticing all the similarities with [[book:The Hunger Games Trilogy Boxset|7938275]. I already mentioned Tris acting like Katniss, but there was also Jeanine who was like President Snow and Evelyn like President Coin, the factionless like District 13, etc. However, I noted in my review of Catching Fire that it was too similar to Uglies so maybe it's just a case of there isn't any new fiction out there. About halfway through, I had this suspicion that maybe this was more like (view spoiler)[The Maze Runner (hide spoiler)] and it turns out I was right. The ending wasn't really the surprise twist it was supposed to be. I thought maybe I was wrong when Marcus said he couldn't even describe it to Tris, but that turned out to be a cope out so Roth could keep the secret until the end. I'm not sure how else Roth could have ended the book, but this one left a lot more questions than answers.(view spoiler)[ I didn't really get how when a society has more Divergents than not, that would accomplish peace. I still don't understand how a society wouldn't already be mostly Divergent. Nor does it make sense that if you lock a bunch of people in a city and split them up in different factors that eventually most of the characters will show tendencies toward more than one of the factions. And I'm still not sure I understand Caleb's betrayal. Between his sister's life and woman's quest for power, he chose power. I can kind of get that the unknown of opening up the gate is scary, but not any less scary than the oppression Jeanine had planned. (hide spoiler)] But I have faith in Roth to wrap everything up in the next installment. And like Divergent, despite all my questions, I was into the story. I didn't take time to stop at the discrepancies I found but forged ahead. Roth kept me guessing throughout the novel with twists and developments. Jeanine was a viable villain I wanted to strangle. Despite all the fighting, I still adore Four. And I may not always like Tris, but I still find her interesting. With a little suspension of disbelief, this story is quite entertaining.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| May 25, 2012
| May 26, 2012
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May 25, 2012
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385738773
| 9780385738774
| 3.82
| 38,055
| Oct 11, 2011
| Oct 11, 2011
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Things Dashner does well: Storytelling. Making up this world and coming up with all the plot twists are well done; he's a very talented tale spinner. H...more Things Dashner does well: Storytelling. Making up this world and coming up with all the plot twists are well done; he's a very talented tale spinner. He's great at creating suspense, making the next plot twist come at the right moment, and making you want to go on to the next chapter. A lab-created zombie virus and an overzealous world organization with too much power: fantastic ideas. Some of the plot twists and answers I questioned, but overall it was a fast-paced tale that easily drew me in. What Dashner does not do so well: Character development. This is the third book in the series and I still have no idea what most of the characters look like or what they are about at their core. They all seem rather the same, especially their short tempers. The book is about plot more than character so for the most part I gone on with the shallow characters, but it would have been nice to get a better feel for who I was caring about while reading about all their close calls with the Cranks. Description. I got lost a lot in this book. A lot. I know some of that is me forgetting details from previous books, but most of it was my inability to keep up with what Dashner was trying to describe. I was especially lost in the conclusion, partly because things weren't described well, but partly because I didn't feel like I all my questions were answered. (view spoiler)[How exactly did the wall convert into an entrance to the Flat Trans? I get that it was some form of liquid solid, but the fact that it opened up into a new place sounded more like magic than advanced science. How could this paradise be disconnected from the rest of the world? Couldn't they keep walking and end up in someplace overrun by Cranks? Couldn't the Cranks roaming around the earth eventually wander into them? Also, what ever happened to the people in Maze B? Did they just head to the Maze A and save those people while forgetting all the people in the other maze? Why didn't they split up? Why didn't someone lament about the other maze and the hundreds of immunes dying there? It was dropped from the story. And it wasn't the only loose end I still had questions about. I liked that the conclusion to the trilogy wasn't a happily ever after. There wasn't an eleventh hour cure that was going to fix everything when the world was way past Gone, but I did feel like it happened too quickly without addressing all the loose ends. And one last complaint that we discussed at my writing group. How come Thomas never got his memory back? We've been wondering what's in there since the beginning of Maze Runner. We've waited all this time to learn Thomas' involvement in Wicked and especially at the beginning of this book where he fought so hard against getting his memory back and Wicked fought so hard to give it to him. We were teased (from the very first book) with secrets and information to prove Wicked was good and find out who Thomas had been and how he's changed, but Dashner never came through. (hide spoiler)] ETA: I just found out The Kill Order *spoiler* has nothing to do with Thomas and Teresa. *spoiler* Seriously?! The only reason I was considering reading it was to find out what Dashner should have written here. But instead of milking one more book out of the trilogy, Dashner has milked a prequel to set up the milking of yet another prequel. It irritates me when author's milk a story idea instead of moving on to the next one. That information should have been in this book and I'm not reading a lot of new books for a little bit of information. I will not be reading anything else that has to do with the Maze Runner trilogy.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jan 02, 2012
| Jan 07, 2012
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Jan 02, 2012
| Hardcover
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| 1442429984
| 9781442429987
| 4.04
| 20,949
| Jun 07, 2011
| Jun 07, 2011
|
2.5, maybe 3, stars with the disclaimer that this is a case of not for me. I failed to connect with the book and only briefly, between Hopetown and Fr...more
2.5, maybe 3, stars with the disclaimer that this is a case of not for me. I failed to connect with the book and only briefly, between Hopetown and Freedom Fields, was I into the story. While there are a lot of unexpected and suspenseful plot twists in this book, they seem to overwhelm the story at the expense of character development and world building. Saba's quest is all to get her beloved brother, Lugh, back, but where I never cared about Lugh, it didn't matter to me whether Saba got him back or not. The more she kept repeating how much he meant to her, the more I resisted her putting him on an altar without understanding why he deserved to be up there. I'm not sure how Young could have given me a chance to see more of Lugh where he's taken so early in the book, maybe in flashbacks, but I personally needed more to care about the quest. It's not just Lugh. Other than Saba (because we're in her head the entire book), none of the other characters are well developed, not the Free Hawks, not Jack, not even Emmi to the extent I would have liked. The King was an odd caricature (although I loved the picture of the Sun King); I think Madam Pinch was a better developed villain than he was. I didn't fell anything for the loss or suffering of the characters. For such a long book, there was room to show some humanness to the characters. A difficult task when Saba had such tunnel-vision about her brother and was somewhat emotionally/socially stunted and therefore not the most reliable source to read other people's character. Saba started off awesome: strong, determined, and fierce. I loved the red hot and would have loved to see more of her cage fighting era developed, but it seemed like more of a backstory. She was a little too much like Katniss, down to the bow, but not nearly as strong or likable without Katniss' reasons for being so tough. As Saba's journey progressed, she seemed more selfish than determined, more bullheaded than fierce, to regress in character development instead of progress. I struggled at times to connect with her and care about her journey and often wondered what those who risked their lives for her saw in her. About the romance...(view spoiler)[I was most dissatisfied with her about Jack. There no reason given for their relationship other than her necklace burned whenever he was around. Maybe it was because of that, or her inconsistency with him, or the fact that he wasn't developed enough to like or or understand why he was there, but I didn't connect with them as a couple. I started to get annoyed with the way Saba treated Jack, knowing that eventually she was going to give into it. Despite having a reason to fight a relationship (she couldn't be distracted from finding her brother), the resistance felt forced, as did the relationship. As cocky as Jack was, I often thought he deserved better. But I'm not going lie. I'm glad there was finally a good make out session in there, even if it felt a little ripped off of Ron and Hermione on their way into battle. (hide spoiler)] Not only would I have liked more development of the characters but the world as well. I thought the illiterate dialect went a long way to set the world, but I could have used more. A strong picture of Hopetown and the Freedom Fields, a stronger sense of the oppressed people and the injustice of it all, a stronger sense of how much worse the quasi-government would get if it wasn't stopped. There was an interesting premise here if it had been taken further. While there were some fantastic plot twists, very creative storytelling, and some promise as an author, I often pulled out of those plot twists and found myself a bit disbelieving. (view spoiler)[You have the dead villain in front of you and you don't check to make sure he's dead? Then you have to kill him 3 more times before he actually dies? Climbing a cage surrounded by people who want to kill you somehow gets you out of the building unharmed? The one that really got me: 18-foot worms come of the tiny cracks in a dried lake and not only do they have heads but they can walk? As awesome as killer worms are, they didn't sound very wormish to me and reminded me too much of The Maze Runner (and were handled too easily too). (hide spoiler)] A little too much save the day in the knick of time for me to worry about their safety and success. I can definitely see why people love this book. It's packed with twist, tough heroine, and an unusual world. I would have just liked to see less of the text dedicated to stretching out the intense moments and more to developing the characters and the world. (less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jun 18, 2012
| Jun 24, 2012
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Oct 13, 2011
| Hardcover
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| 0062024027
| 9780062024022
| 4.39
| 297,311
| May 03, 2011
| May 03, 2011
|
It's been awhile since I stayed up late to finish a book. I nearly gave it 5 stars, but I reserve my 5-star shelf for books I believe are so original...more
It's been awhile since I stayed up late to finish a book. I nearly gave it 5 stars, but I reserve my 5-star shelf for books I believe are so original or beautiful or thought-provoking that they stand separate from the masses, and this wasn't quite there. It took me a long time to buy into this world. I had trouble remembering what the factions were, what they stood for, and who belonged to which one. But more than anything, I didn't really believe that this society would develop, and I wasn't sure what we as readers were supposed to take away from it. I also had trouble with how easy it was to be factionless and yet how draining that must have been on the society. You would think they would work hard to keep people in factions as viable members of society, yet a boy didn't run fast enough to catch a train so he's banished to a fate worse than death? I finally had to tell myself that it didn't matter why Roth created this world; it made an interesting premise and a fun read. While I had issues with the why, I still think she created the world well enough. It wrapped itself around me so I thought about it when I wasn't reading. Roth is a very creative writer. She had me hooked and kept me guessing enough that I wanted to learn more. Even though most of the book is Beatrice's training, I found it interesting. Sometimes I got lost in the description and didn't quite follow what Roth was saying, but I still found myself enjoying the book. I have a few things that bothered me or questions I didn't have answered: If it was such a disgrace to move factions, how come so many people did? And if families rarely visited kids in their new factions, how come everyone's parents showed up? If Divergent were people who didn't fit exclusively into one faction, wouldn't most, if not all, of society be Divergent? I kept waiting for the book to explain why there weren't any old people in Dauntless, but maybe that will be clearer in a future installment. (view spoiler)[If Tris' mother was in danger when she chose factions, did that mean the government had been working on this rebellion for decades? And wouldn't that make Jeanine a lot older? (hide spoiler)] And about the plot twists: some of them got a little unbelievable in the end (view spoiler)[Four and Tris giving up their weapons instead of fighting when they were supposed to be Dauntless, Will being the soldier she has to shoot, her mom finding her in the knick of time, etc (hide spoiler)] but without them, the read wouldn't have been as exciting. I really enjoyed the romance, which fueled a lot of my interest. I loved that I couldn't tell who the interest would be in the beginning but that the guy I came to like without every suspecting he could be a love interest turned out to be the one. I loved what we slowly got to know about him. I loved that it wasn't some contrived love triangle. Most of all, I loved that he didn't baby Tris. He pushed her to be a better person. I really liked him. The only thing that bothered me about the romance was all of Tris' doubts. I know she was insecure, but sometimes her double guessing bordered on silly girl stupidity and I thought she was above that. About Tris, I loved that she was small but tough and how much she developed and came into her own throughout the novel. I didn't always like her, but she intrigued me and I liked following her journey. Most of the characters intrigued me and even the villains elicited feelings of anger and frustration from me. I liked that the characters were human and flawed, even if at times I had trouble keeping them straight. Just like the factions. Even though I had to suspend some disbelief for this, they were interesting and certainly got me thinking about virtues in society and people. I will definitely be reading Insurgent.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| May 14, 2012
| May 18, 2012
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Oct 03, 2011
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385738757
| 9780385738750
| 4.02
| 59,563
| Oct 12, 2010
| Oct 12, 2010
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Maze Runner didn't interest me enough to continue the series, but my friend lend me her copy of Scorch Trials. After weeks siting on my dresser, I tho...more
Maze Runner didn't interest me enough to continue the series, but my friend lend me her copy of Scorch Trials. After weeks siting on my dresser, I thought I'd give it a shot. Format for the book: New Chapter. Something's going on but you don't really know what. Wait for it, wait for it... Big Reveal!! (key drum music). Ha, you don't really know anything. New Chapter. Something's going on and you don't really know what. Wait for it, wait for it... Big Reveal!!! (key drum music). Ha, you don't really know anything. New Chapter. Something's going on... Okay you get the point. It gets old after about the third chapter. I was so annoyed with the plot and dialogue and description revolving around holding information and then surprise that around page 50, I committed a mortal sin. I peeked to see if the book was worth continuing because i couldn't stand it anymore. Okay, I was curious. I'd endure the suspense overdose. After awhile I got used to it. And really, even though the writing is nothing special and the character development non-existent, Dashner is very creative and that's what drives the story. I was surprised by some of the plot turns and never really sure what was coming next. I just wish some of those plot twists had been explained better and not dropped so easily (view spoiler)[I'm most curious about the purpose of the green-lit room (hide spoiler)], but there's always The Death Cure to tie everything together and answer all my questions. There's a lot Dashner has to justify in the next book and I'm not sure he can tie it all together, but we'll see. I'm actually more interested in reading the finale to the trilogy then I was to read this one.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Jan 17, 2011
| Jan 26, 2011
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Jan 17, 2011
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0545265355
| 9780545265355
| 4.56
| 55,477
| 2008
| Aug 24, 2010
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None
| Notes are private!
| none
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1
| not set
| Aug 26, 2010
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Aug 27, 2010
| Hardcover
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| 0340893605
| 9780340893609
| 3.65
| 28,566
| May 03, 2007
| May 03, 2007
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None
| Notes are private!
| 1
| Jul 25, 2010
| Jul 31, 2010
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Jul 25, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0439829100
| 9780439829106
| 4.10
| 15,511
| Mar 27, 1995
| Jun 01, 2006
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My main issue with this book is the voice. Marsden's writing is dry, non-descriptive, and oh so masculine, but his main character is a girl. He made h...more
My main issue with this book is the voice. Marsden's writing is dry, non-descriptive, and oh so masculine, but his main character is a girl. He made her analytic with a bit of an ego to try and compensate for the guyness of her, but even girls who are more analytic than emotional are still girls. We still think like girls and act like girls. There is nothing girl about Ellie. I read her as a girl with a man's voice narrating her story because there was no way a girl would have those thought processes. None of the girls are really girls, except for maybe Fi when we are being told about her, but when she opens her mouth, she's a little but of a guy too. There's a lot of that, of being told what the characters are instead of shown. I wish they had been better fleshed out and all eight of them hadn't been dumped on me in the first chapter with a run-down of their distinguishing character description. I didn't digest it all and by the end I was still having trouble separating them. But there are two things that make up a novel: writing and story, and while the writing was only so-so, the story was worth it. When Ellie and her group of friends return from a camping trip, they find their town invaded and their families held captive. They must decide if they want to fight or return to their hideout they call "Hell" to wait out the war. It took a while to get into this book, not until they returned from their camping trip, but it took off after that. Some of the scenes could have been explored or explained more, which could have easily been solved if we were in Ellie's head more. For all the personal stuff she shares in this journal account, she's incredibly sparse with what she's thinking and feeling and her reactions as the story unfolds. But speaking of voice, I loved the Australian character and language in the book. I'm somewhat tempted to finish the series. I'm putting it in the maybe list. Just one more complaint about the writing: it would be nice of Marsden used a comma every once in a while, correctly. Bad punctuation is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine. Okay, I'm done. Go read the story.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Aug 2010
| Aug 04, 2010
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Jul 10, 2010
| Paperback
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| 0385737947
| 9780385737944
| 3.99
| 90,442
| Oct 06, 2009
| Oct 06, 2009
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If Dashner got anything right, he delivered with the suspense. The writing can be a little dry and non-descript (maybe it's a guy thing), but once I b...more
If Dashner got anything right, he delivered with the suspense. The writing can be a little dry and non-descript (maybe it's a guy thing), but once I became involved with the story, I didn't want to put it down. My problem with the book is that Dashner sometimes sacrificed the story for the suspense. It didn't always feel organic, the character choices and the plot direction, and it made me pull out of the story a little. Also, because he built up the suspense so much, the story didn't always deliver. (view spoiler)[For instance, I thought the grievers were thoroughly creepy in the beginning, the stuff of nightmares, but once Thomas encountered them, Dashner didn't bother scaring us anymore. I felt as though he thought we could freak ourselves out now that we understood what they were, but after Thomas beat them, I needed Dashner to remind me that they were a threat. And I was disappointed with that night in the maze. Going into it, the suspense was awesome, but then the night felt like two hours from sunset to sunrise and it was too easy for Thomas. I wanted more escaping going on, more struggle with the maze, more time in there. (hide spoiler)] Dashner explains why Thomas has an easy time in the maze, but still. I would have liked more discovery from him instead of him just knowing stuff from his erased memory and that goes for the whole glade and all the people, not just the maze. It's tough to balance a plot-driven story with the slow pace of character development, and I think this story needed to be faster paced, but I would have liked a little more development, a little more showing of the other characters instead of Thomas telling us what they were like. More depth to the stereotypes and even with Thomas, a few fatal character flaws, a few catastrophic mistakes (other than going into the maze), that made me have to figure out if I liked and trusted him and fear for his life a little more. Also, the fake swears didn't ring true. Normally I love made-up words in a dystopia, but these didn't feel like made-up words so much as replacements for real swear words Dashner didn't want to use. There were a few times that it was too obvious what words they were supposed to be and that they were a straight-across replacement. I think the story could have used a few more drafts before publication, but overall it's a solid, suspenseful story. I really liked the idea of the grievers and the maze test and WICKED: intense, unique, creative. When all my nitpicking fades, I'll remember that I liked the story. If I'm in a good mood 3.5 stars.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Jun 20, 2010
| Jun 22, 2010
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Jun 20, 2010
| Hardcover
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| 0525423648
| 9780525423645
| 3.76
| 172,401
| Nov 30, 2010
| Nov 30, 2010
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When I heard Condie's trilogy was being pushed as the next big thing, I instantly expected this to be cheap, tantalizing but empty, and poorly written...more
When I heard Condie's trilogy was being pushed as the next big thing, I instantly expected this to be cheap, tantalizing but empty, and poorly written. Is my faith in the publishing industry that low? Sadly, sometimes yes. Then I met Ally. She's adorable, down-to-earth, and not at all tainted by the buzz. Ever since, I've been anxiously trying to get my hands on an ARC of Matched. I really wanted it to be as good as her publisher thinks it is. I sat down Friday afternoon with my friend's ARC (and more than a little anxiety) and didn't close the book until I finished. I don't know how Condie managed to make a perfect society where nothing ever happens so intriguing, but she does. From the beginning she pulls you into this world and keeps you interested. You never know when an Official is going to pop up in Cassie's seemingly perfect life to call her out for insubordination to the society's propaganda. Condie ties a clean writing style into this sterile dystopia which builds on the naivete of its citizens. It's not simplistic in a poorly written sense--there are moments when Condie shines with beauty--it's simplistic in a stylistic sense. And it works too in capturing Cassie's teenage mind. Condie's weak point is her characterization. I never fully grasped Cassie or Xander or Ky beyond a general characterization, but my fear for the characters and curiosity about the love triangle was strong enough to make me keep turning pages. And I doubt the depth I wanted and my other issues with plot and character will faze the intended audience. This isn't crossover fiction; it's purely YA. I can see why her publisher wanted this. It has that "it" quality in YA commercial fiction that I can't quite explain but that will grip its teenage audience the way other reads may not. I won't go into my usual in-depth review since most people haven't read it, but if you read YA commercial fiction, you don't want to miss this one. The scoop from someone I know who's read a draft of the sequel is that it's amazing, but we'll all have to wait a year for that one. Matched comes on November 30. Go, preorder it now. (About the cover: Am I the only one who doesn't like it? I never would have picked this book off the shelf. The glimmery background is cool, but the gray doesn't stand out. The dress, which is supposed to be the gorgeous dress Cassie wears to her Matching, is meh, and her hands don't line up with the bubble, which irritates me. I'm glad Dutton is pushing a book with writing talent, but I think they could have done better on the cover.)(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Oct 2010
| Oct 2010
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May 31, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0307346609
| 9780307346605
| 4.08
| 112,121
| Sep 12, 2006
| Sep 12, 2006
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While not all that scary, Word War Z did have enough of a creep factor to satisfy my craving for a solid zombie story. I liked the way the story devel...more
While not all that scary, Word War Z did have enough of a creep factor to satisfy my craving for a solid zombie story. I liked the way the story develops from fear to fight, the details in the background that the narratives assume the reader knows as part of world war Z history (loved the title), and that the story has a journalist feel to it making it feel more real than your typical horror novel. Although I enjoyed the interview format, the inherent problem with it is there is no real fear that any of these people would succumb to the undead. Also, with the short snippets of interviews we aren't ever given the chance to get to know the people behind the story, what their lives were like before the war, or develop any sort of bond for them. In the end when Brooks wraps up their stories, I couldn't remember who was whom or what their stories were about and didn't care enough to flip back and track the names. But I didn't mind too much. The story focuses on the worldwide calamity and political downfall that the zombie apocalypse would produce and we're left to consider the implications on a grander scale, not a personal one. As interesting as the story was, I almost gave it up a third of the way through. Not because I wasn't being given a personal story, but because the stories started sounding the same and I doubted Brooks had much more (or different) to offer for the rest of the novel. All the voices sounded a little egotistical, a little bit of a know-it-all, and quick to blame whilst at the same time defending themselves. Maybe that's human nature to defend your side of the story, but is it human nature that every infected person would hide it and place themselves in swarms of people? I can understand when there was little known that some might be out in search of a cure, but not everyone would have spread it. The one that finally broke me were the people trying to escape into a fortified Jerusalem. What did they expect to accomplish by infecting the inside? Where were the stories of the people who locked themselves away or killed themselves to save humanity? There are instances later in the novel of zombies locked in houses, possibly they are the ones who tried to hide it, but there weren't enough of those stories for my taste. There were also too many stories of exploitation. It seemed like everyone was out to make money off the fear without a care that they were making the situation worse (and every country resolved to take care of the zombies with the same plan). Maybe I have a greater faith in humanity than Brooks, but I wanted more stories of people trying to help and stop the spread. Maybe Brooks focused on what made the situation worse to make me believe the worldwide spread, but in the end it made me fight against the probability that a zombie outbreak would take over the world. Once it reached its critical mass yes, but in the beginning I struggled with the building of this as a worldwide phenomena. Or maybe, my rational mind was fighting the story because really, a zombie apocalypse is about the scariest thing I can imagine. There were a few other things I struggled with. At times I found it hard to wrap my mind around how many zombies were in a particular location, where they could have come from, especially at sea. For as vast as the ocean is, a submarine could be swarmed with hundreds of zombies when man is a land-based creature? And if there are that many zombies out in the middle of nowhere, our interviewees really escaped with their lives? The funny thing is that the downed pilot's story was one of my favorite. That and the Japanese ones. Maybe that's because they are one of the few with close zombie encounters. Despite some of my apprehension, I enjoyed the story. I found myself in those last minutes before I fell asleep wondering what I would do if a zombie wandered down my street or I heard of a zombie outbreak hitting our borders. That's the creepy thing about zombies is once it hits its critical mass, there is no escaping. Well that and while vampires and werewolves and unicorns are creatures you don't really believe, there's that small question in your brain about whether a zombie outbreak could happen. Like I said, I liked the creepy factor and I liked considering how the world as a whole would deal with a zombie outbreak.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Jan 13, 2012
| Jan 24, 2012
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May 13, 2010
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 037321006X
| 9780373210060
| 3.86
| 10,927
| Apr 01, 2010
| Apr 01, 2010
|
I'd say this is a cross between The Uglies and (view spoiler)[Dark City (hide spoiler)]. Interesting, but not completely original. I struggled underst...more
I'd say this is a cross between The Uglies and (view spoiler)[Dark City (hide spoiler)]. Interesting, but not completely original. I struggled understanding some of the world, especially the way she calculated birthdays and eventually gave up trying to figure out how old everyone was or how much time had passed. Plus, there were some minor discrepancies/holes in her world that gave me pause (like the rotating of shifts that supposed to be half on/half off, but then staggered when it was convenient). Some of the plot twists or character availability/knowledge seemed a little too convenient too. Having said all that, her world is vivid and I have a clear picture in my mind of Trella and the Inside. The more I read the more intrigued I became with the plot. The intensity had a nice crescendo through the book. I wasn't surprised by the end, having watched that not-well-known movie in my spoiler, but it was still interesting. And Snyder includes a lot plot twists to keep you turning pages. The story was good enough, it just felt too much like the Uglies for me to be wowed by it. And of course, it's a series. I've committed to only reading the first of a series and being okay with those loose ends at the end.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| May 09, 2010
| May 10, 2010
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May 10, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0747562598
| 9780747562597
| 3.96
| 62,777
| May 06, 2003
| May 05, 2003
|
I'm struggling to pin a rating on this book. Atwood, as always, is a beautiful writer. The first fifty or so pages I drank up her language, her descri...more
I'm struggling to pin a rating on this book. Atwood, as always, is a beautiful writer. The first fifty or so pages I drank up her language, her description and setting. But I have to confess that I didn't like the book. Part of that could be as a parent (of an 8-year-old girl no less) there were parts of Oryx's history that I struggled to read. Child pornography (and abuse) is about the only thing that makes we want to get violent and start castrating guys. After reading that section, I struggled to keep my personal feelings out of the story. For much of the book I thought the grittiness of these characters overdone, graphic for the sake of being graphic. By the end of the book I got it. Atwood is comparing the depravity of society with a engineered race that asks the question what is better: innocence without substance or depravity with the complexities of the human mind that include creativity and appreciation for beauty? Does the human race deserve to live with the power we have to destroy our planet and ourselves? When is artificial too much? Image alterations, genetically engineered animals, or even mankind? What are the repercussions of the world we are now creating? I think the concept was interesting and certainly got me thinking. Snowman is left to care for the genetically engineered children of Crake after a lab-produced virus wipes out the human race. Most of the book takes place in disconnected memory, making it slow to read. Even Snowman, while I initially liked him, didn't warrant much sympathy from me. He seemed so emotionally disconnected and didn't value or open up to the myriad of women he slept with. The middle especially dragged for me. I wanted to skip through all the grittiness to the answers Snowman was building up to. And I wanted more from the characters she brushes through. In Margaret Atwood style, we don't get answers as much as questions about society. I was okay with an open ending, but I wanted to know what Crake's intentions had been. We get Snowman's assumptions, but I wasn't a hundred percent sold on his view. I guess that's not the point of the book, though. Does it really matter what intentions people with too much power have when destruction is the same. I'd say the book is a good one for Margaret Atwood fans. I wouldn't say it's as good as Handmaid's Tale, but along the same alley. I may come back and up my rating once the grittiness of the characters is shed and the impression of the novel is left.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| May 2010
| May 13, 2010
|
May 01, 2010
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0755348826
| 9780755348824
| 4.09
| 3,154
| Mar 04, 2010
| Mar 04, 2010
|
"Trust me, from one sociopath to another: if you don't understand the reason for something, it's always love." What fascinated me in I Am Not A Serial...more "Trust me, from one sociopath to another: if you don't understand the reason for something, it's always love." What fascinated me in I Am Not A Serial Killer is learning about antiosocial personality disorder, discovering the world of morticians, and more than anything rooting for a boy struggling with his sociopathic tendencies and his need to be good. But none of that was fascinating for me here. When it wasn't repetitive or bland (all those "oh my gosh"es and first dates screamed Mormon author), it was darker. The embalming scene in here wasn't about getting the right liquid into veins, but about a real decomposing body that grossed me out a little. The sociopathic struggles were about pyromania and harming animals that made me question whether John should be locked up. And this villain carried out some truly sick and squeamish tortures, but he was the kind of villain I expected in the first one. I was starting to question why I liked John Wayne Cleaver or his adventures, and once again, I wasn't sure I bought into the leap into the supernatural, but wouldn't you know, by the end I wanted to root for John again and I was happy with the turn of events, and more than anything, there was a great hook introducing a pattern for the series. And now I kind of want to know about John's next big adventure. I was so sure I was done with the series, but you had to hook me in the end, didn't you, Wells? And now I want to keep reading.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Oct 18, 2010
| Oct 20, 2010
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Apr 30, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 3763251111
| 9783763251117
| 3.92
| 514,989
| 1953
| 2002
|
I'm always amazed when speculative fiction stands the test of time. In 1953, Bradbury created a world where: -people are so obsessed with TV that socia...more I'm always amazed when speculative fiction stands the test of time. In 1953, Bradbury created a world where: -people are so obsessed with TV that socializing is getting together and watching your favorite show; it's all anyone talks about anymore (Bachelor parties anyone?) -characters on shows are your family, more real to you than your own family (I think this mentality started with Friends) -people watch reality shows and police chases like a drug -kids are so desensitized by what they see on TV that vehicular manslaughter is a popular past time (okay we haven't gone that far, but we are desensitized and drawn to crashes on the side of the road) -everyone drives at alarming speeds without seeing the world around them or thinking of the consequences if they crashed or hit anyone -in his go, go, go society, nobody can be bothered to stop and think, to stop and see the world, to interact with people -houses aren't build with porches any longer because nobody sits around and talks anymore -advertisement jingles are fed to people everywhere so much so that it prevents anyone from thinking beyond them -people are too impatient and disinterested in real knowledge and need things dumbed down for them (the kind of information you could get from a quick twitter; look at the difference in literature from the classics that teens can't even get through these days and modern literature where short, choppy, fragmented sentences are a must) -the voice of minorities is strongest: political correctness (though the term and its way as social thinking didn't come about until the 1990s) is what spears people to get rid of books with portrayals of history that offend them as a minority (read reviews for Gone With the Wind; that book would never be allowed to be published now because of its real portrayal of the South during the Civil War) -his society is so high on instant gratification and a sense of well being that they can't be bothered with guilt, remorse, morality, other people, anything that disrupts their mind-numbing, thinkless state of happiness -TV is a babysitter for parents too busy and self-absorbed to be bothered with their own children (started with Sesame Street) -families aren't important anymore nor is having children; people are just too preoccupied to be bothered with something that disrupts their lives that are busy, busy, busy about nothing Bradbury's book has a definite 1950s feel to it, but the intrinsic message/warning in his society is more relevant today that it has ever been. It's scary how much he got right.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
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1
| Apr 26, 2010
| Apr 30, 2010
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Apr 26, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0061726818
| 9780061726811
| 3.95
| 71,571
| Mar 02, 2010
| Oct 25, 2011
|
Reading through Sam's last day of life, I was transported back to high school with those girls who were shallow, self-centered, and unaware and though...more
Reading through Sam's last day of life, I was transported back to high school with those girls who were shallow, self-centered, and unaware and thought they were cool and better than everyone else because they were shallow, self-centered, and unaware. I felt emotions I had not experienced in years, emotions I had long forgotten. Oliver captures that teenage-centric narcissism so vividly, so much more intently than I ever understood in high school, that I couldn't help but hate Sam and feel some level of vindictive justice. As she starts the same day over again, just as full of herself, I doubted Sam could grow enough to satisfy me. But she did. It was slow and painstaking at times; sometimes I wanted Sam to just get it and be fixed, but that wouldn't have been realistic. She needed to figure it out on her own and at her own pace. Oliver does an excellent job showing us that gradual shift from spoiled teenager to thoughtful person, realizing that there were consequences to her actions, that the universe did not revolve around her, that maybe popularity wasn't worth the price she'd paid for it. While I don't think Sam reached perfect self-actualization, I don't think I wanted her to. She had a long way to come and I believed a character that was aware but still a little bit selfish. Oliver is an amazing writer, so unobtrusive and descriptive. I didn't so much read this book as experience it. She manages to keep a day that is lived over and over again from being repetitive and gives us enough events in that day to give Sam plenty of chances to both mess up and unmess other people's lives. She manages to take a story that doesn't sound very original (Mean Girls vs. Groundhog Day) and own it. She manages to make me care about a girl that I couldn't stand, that represents very real girls that I couldn't stand (but not Lindsay; I never liked her). (view spoiler)[My only disappointment was that the day before the last seemed more perfect than the last. Not for Sam, who learned to fall (or fly), but for everyone else. Especially Kent. I think you can interpret the last day two ways: either Sam learned what she needed to learn to move on, or the final day was the way that day was fated to be and Sam needed to get to a point where she could make that sacrifice. It makes no difference to her, but it makes a difference to everyone else. Which day do they remember? If it's the first, that's too bad for Sam and the mess she left. If it's the last, she left a lot of people with unanswered questions. I get that she couldn't focus on Kent, but she teased him and gave him too little. Even though the day wasn't about him, I still wanted Sam to leave him with an apology and a goodbye. I think Sam believed the last day only happened in her memory and a perfect day included a goodbye kiss to Kent, but then she bothered to give Anna that book and Izzy her necklace and save Juliet. I think a part of her still wanted to leave a legacy. I wanted to believe that last day for Sam and Juliet and Kent and maybe even a little bit for Lindsay. Maybe I didn't hate her so much after all. I keep going back and forth on what day is the real day. Sometimes I think the first one is an obvious choice, but then there are things about the last day that make me think that maybe that one was real. Especially with Juliet. It's like Sam was being told "you're dead anyway. You can be selfish and claim that day, or you can use it to save someone's life." And that goes for Lindsay too. Getting drunk and killing your best friend would have messed her up. I think I believe the last day. At least I hope it. I love the ambiguity of it, but that it doesn't feel ambiguous. When you close the book, you know what happened, even though it could be interpreted on different levels. Either way, Sam took seven days to grow into the person she needed to be. For as sad as the ending is, there is so much redemption in. And that's what it's about, Sam's redemption, not Juliet's or Lindsey's or anyone else's. As hard as she tried, there was nothing she could do to affect change in anyone else. Lindsey can take the wake up call of her friend's death to change into a better person; Juliet can take Sam's sacrifice to get her through high school; or they can keep going on their set paths. Their redemption is up to them; all Sam could do was take what little she could in one day to encourage change in a lot of people. I can see this having an affect on teenage girls who might be caught up in their own lives and learn these lessons along with Sam. I'm an adult and I'll be thinking about this one for awhile. There's something amazing in Sam's growth and for that she gets five stars. (hide spoiler)](less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Jun 09, 2010
| Jun 12, 2010
|
Mar 19, 2010
| Paperback
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1416912045
| 9781416912040
| 4.23
| 52,856
| Nov 06, 2007
| Nov 06, 2007
|
Page one, I'm iffy. Pro-life and Pro-choice fight a civil war and the only way to satisfy both armies is the agreement that no abortions take place bu...more
Page one, I'm iffy. Pro-life and Pro-choice fight a civil war and the only way to satisfy both armies is the agreement that no abortions take place but from the ages of thirteen to eighteen any child can be unwound and his or her divided body and soul be used as organ donation? First off, pro-choice isn't going to go for a woman sacrificing her body through pregnancy and raising a child thirteen years before she can dispose of it. And pro-life isn't going to go for the termination of a child who is more developed than an embryo. I'm not buying that anyone would go for this resolution. Page ten, I don't care anymore. I'm already invested in Connor's fate when he goes on the run after finding the copy of his Unwind order. The premise may be absurd, but Shusterman made the distopia so real for me that I had to find out the fate of these unwanted kids through every horrific detail. The story never slows down with twists paced through the end that kept me glued to the book. What disturbed me most (beside the unwinding) was the music played at the chop shop. Every time I think a society could not possibly go that far, throw in a little reminder of Nazi Germany and I know it already has. While disturbing, the story is near impossible to put down or get out of your head once you do because every scene can be taken to discuss a larger issue in society. It's not really about the absurdity of the resolution but a vehicle for Shusterman to make statements about society. He introduces important questions about abortion, organ donation, stem cell research, the destructive power of propaganda, apathy of uninformed decisions, consequences, parental control, and religious fanaticism among others. But he doesn't shove answers down our throats. He just introduces the discussion. Pro-choice advocates could make the claim that Shusterman is defending their cause by showing all the unwanted children that would come from anti-abortion laws. Pro-life advocates could make the claim that Shusterman is defending their cause by showing how sick the destruction of children is as parents turn a blind eye to the specifics of the practice just because they selfishly don't want to deal with a child anymore. I think what Shusterman is showing is that a society should never allow a government to be its moral compass, but individuals should make their own informed, ethical decisions.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Apr 14, 2010
| Apr 15, 2010
|
Mar 16, 2010
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0152058265
| 9780152058265
| 3.91
| 43,415
| Oct 01, 2006
| Oct 01, 2006
|
**spoiler alert** I'm not sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's definitely a page turner. I found myself increasingly anxious for Miranda and h...more
**spoiler alert** I'm not sure whether to give this 3 or 4 stars. It's definitely a page turner. I found myself increasingly anxious for Miranda and her family, but unfortunately, I didn't get much resolution. In the end, there is still volcanic ash in the sky meaning there will be no future food production whenever the cans of food that magically appear at city hall are extinguished. It just extended their inevitable deaths. Just a mention that the sky was clearing would have been enough for me to hope. I also didn't mind that she never figured out what happened to Dan and her dad, but she could have at least asked about a letter from her dad at city hall. Then if nothing was there, I would have assumed that something happened to her father and leave it at that, but she goes downtown to ask and then nothing. It made me sad that everyone knew Jonny was the one to survive if it came down to one. I wanted a reason for Jonny instead of Matt or Miranda, something more than he was the youngest and a boy. That Miranda knew that and when she confronted her mother she didn't say anything to deny it or comfort her bugged me about her. I didn't always like her mother, but I didn't always like Miranda either, which just made them realistic portrayals of mother and daughter. I enjoyed the unfolding of the characters as much as I enjoyed the plot unfolding. The story was frightening and made me want to go out and double-stock my food storage. A lot of the daily trials that I hadn't considered popped up in the story. Miranda's mom was smart, getting right on the ball buying up all the supplies they needed, but even then, I kept thinking that their food supply should have run out long before—and they were the ones who bothered stocking up. How was everyone else surviving? I know how the preacher was surviving, but I wish there had been some follow up with him too, some discovery that he had died in the flu epidemic. I wanted her to find out how many people in her town survived. Now that city hall was open and they had food, they could have asked. It's good that the book made me question so many things, I just wish a few of my questions had been answered. On a sidenote, Pfeffer's statement that people who turn to God in times of grief brainwashed and stupid rubbed me the wrong way. There's also her obvious portrayal of Bush as an idiot hiding out on his ranch in Texas telling everyone that everything was okay. That didn't bother me as much as I just didn't think this was the place for such strong political (or religious) statements. It added character to the story for sure. I just didn't like it. Religion and politics, the two taboo topics and all that. The book had a lot of promise, but I wanted more. More from Miranda, more explanation of what was going on, and more of a conclusion. Not more as in I loved the story and want to continue it. More as in if Pfeffer had answered a few things for me than maybe I would be curious, but she left too much open for me to go on.(less) | Notes are private!
| Jess
|
1
| Apr 11, 2010
| Apr 12, 2010
|
Mar 03, 2010
| Hardcover
| |||||||||||||||
| 0763622591
| 9780763622596
| 3.57
| 20,895
| Sep 23, 2002
| Feb 23, 2004
|
I started this book over a week ago and only got through the first page before all the "likes" turned me off. I took a break, read a few other books,...more
I started this book over a week ago and only got through the first page before all the "likes" turned me off. I took a break, read a few other books, and tried again. This time I got through two chapters before I closed the book and took a breath. "I can't do this," I told myself. "I hate books that overuse our obnoxious vernacular. And the made-up words are annoying and stupid. I much preferred the made-up slang in A Clockwork Orange." "So you're going to punish Anderson for using slang that is more realistic? You're going to punish him for making you uncomfortable with the world the way it is, for yourself because you know you use that word, like it or not." "Okay," I told the stupid analytic part of my brain. "If you'll just like shut up. I'll keep reading." And that is how I ended up reading this book. And it did make me uncomfortable. It's everything obnoxious about our media-frenzied, frantic-paced, impulse-driven, uneducated-praising society exemplified megawatt. In Anderson's world people are hardwired into corporate feeds that advertise to them according to what they're thinking, feeling, saying, looking at, etc. They chat with each other, watch shows, check the internet, invade each other's privacy, all within their bodies. Schools have quit teaching them facts because all that's accessible at the push of a button-no simpler than that, with nothing more than a thought. All their interactions are interrupted by this internal conversation/shopping/distraction. Through a combination of advertising and ignorance these shallow people don't care that the feeds are destroying them after they've destroyed the world where they continue to live in vertically stacked suburbs with fake air and fake sun and fake food. And they all (adults included) speak in that valley-girl like/dude hollowness, only their words are mega and unit and still plenty of like and f words. I picked up this book weeks after my disenchantment with facebook over the debacle on targeting advertising for us. I can see spelling and vocabulary plummeting in this text-typing generation and the interruption of technology into every moment of our lives. I fear for the laziness in education when information is at our fingertips. I can fathom technology being introduced where electronic devices are implanted so kids (okay me too) stop breaking them and losing them. I don't think we're that far off from biological computers. I can see the pitfalls of our society heading in something akin to this direction and it's disturbing. No more jokes from me about my surgically implanted cellphone. But those "likes" are too ingrained. I just have to keep kicking myself mentally whenever one slips out. ETA: I've been thinking about this book ever since I read it. I can't stop thinking about it. For all the dystopias I've been reading, I'm amazed that Anderson's world could discomfort me this much. And I've been thinking about his main character. While reading it, I was often disappointed with his choices, but now I think he was the perfect embodiment of this shallow world. I loved that Anderson offers no judgment or solution, just shows us this world with all its many flaws and lets it creep under your skin and make you uncomfortable with where the world is headed. M.T. Anderson is amazing. I look forward to reading his other books.(less) | Notes are private!
| none
|
1
| May 29, 2010
| Jun 09, 2010
|
Mar 03, 2010
| Paperback
| |||||||||||||||
| 0385736819
| 9780385736817
| 3.62
| 40,901
| 2009
| Mar 10, 2009
|
Creepy. It's a combination of The Giver and I Am Legend with a flair of The Village. I spend so much of the book trying to shake off the hopeless feel...more
Creepy. It's a combination of The Giver and I Am Legend with a flair of The Village. I spend so much of the book trying to shake off the hopeless feeling that Mary would never escape the zombie apocalypse that it did its job creeping me out. There was a little too much of the zombies have a hold of her and their mouths are reaching for her and she closes her eyes and knows she's going to die and then someone saves her with no plausible way for either of them not be bitten, but it was still suspenseful and the world Ryan created very interesting. My biggest complaint about the book is the writing--of course, isn't it always? :). You take a book written in first person and we're seeing more into Mary's head than the description of this world built to keep the zombies out, which really was very intriguing and we don't get enough of it. Then you write in present tense and the plot slows down, losing the ability to keep up the fast pace a horror novel requires. On top of that, Ryan felt the need to stop the dialogue after each sentence to tell us exactly what Mary was so obviously thinking and the story slows to a stand still. Sure zombies are creepy because they're slow but relentless, but I don't want the writing to mirror those traits. Also, there were times when Ryan wanted to keep up the suspense so she's evasive with her details. I reread several scenes a couple of times trying to figure out exactly what happened, but at a loss to understand. I'd have to guess, often to find out later that I assumed the wrong thing. Like the almost kiss. There was way too much touching for there not to be kissing, so I thought I must have misunderstood the vague introduction to the scene, but no, I was supposed to believe that she was lying on top of him, his hands on her hips pulling him to her and they weren't kissing. I still don't think I understood exactly what happened in that scene. You can built suspense and still let your readers know what's going on. And speaking of the love rectangle (is that what I should call it?), it got on my nerves. Not that it was there, that made the story interesting, but the back and forth of it. She likes Travis, she likes Harry, one likes her, than the other, no he likes Cass, who knows. It didn't really matter after awhile who ended up with whom; I just wanted the back and forth to end. For as much as she claimed she loved Travis, she did an awful lot of avoiding him when she had the chance to be alone with him. It seemed more like she lusted after Travis but could be herself with Harry. Ryan never justified Mary's love for Travis for me. I didn't see it build or grow, just a confession of it. For all that Ryan put me into Mary's thoughts, I should have had a better understanding of her feelings for the boys. My favorite part of the book is when they're stuck in the house/platform with the constant moan of the zombies outside and no idea where to go or if there even is a where, so very reminiscent of what I enjoyed about I Am Legend. I wanted more interactions with Travis, more description of the world, more panic about time, but the creepy moaning zombies really captured the horror of the scene. The story was original, but there's too much saved in the nick of time and very slow writing for me to enjoy it like I could have.(less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Feb 13, 2010
| Feb 14, 2010
|
Feb 15, 2010
| Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||||
| 1433257009
| 9781433257001
| 3.92
| 9,215
| unknown
| Apr 01, 2009
|
This book is meant to scare you into action (probably more the government than citizens, but it will do that too). It's Alas, Babylon out of the Cold...more
This book is meant to scare you into action (probably more the government than citizens, but it will do that too). It's Alas, Babylon out of the Cold War and into EMPs (electromagnetic pulse). An EMP attack would inconvenience us more than the loss of cell phones and cars. We'd loose our food and medical supplies and any semblance of government. Our society was not meant to function without electronics; take that away and it will knock us back several hundred years. Technology has made us efficient but also vulnerable. The writing is sometimes too scholarly and overdone, as well as the plot, but the narrator did a good job with the different voices (minus the whiny teenage girls). I liked other apocalyptic books better for the story, but it should do it's job to scare you into getting some food storage and maybe a gun. (less) | Notes are private!
| 1
| Jan 06, 2010
| Jan 23, 2010
|
Jan 06, 2010
| Audio CD
| ||||||||||||||||
| 0439023491
| 9780439023498
| 4.30
| 927,190
| Sep 01, 2009
| Sep 01, 2009
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In some ways I liked this book more than Hunger Games and in some ways less. The suspense is stronger, the relationships deeper, and the twists greate...more
In some ways I liked this book more than Hunger Games and in some ways less. The suspense is stronger, the relationships deeper, and the twists greater, making this more of a page turner, but it took too long to get there. Plus it's the basic outline of Hunger Games so you're not as intrigued or enamored by the details that have to be hashed out again. I found myself thinking too much of the Uglies, particularly the societal control and makeovers. The capital did not concern me as much in Hunger Games because I was focused on the games, but the similarities are definitely there and even more obvious here. I also found myself questioning the validity of her forced relationship with Peeta. It bugged me a little in Hunger Games (not in the arena but afterwords) and if Collins had moved on from it quicker I wouldn't have thought so much about it. While not as contrived as other stories I've read (*cough* Eclipse), I did find myself questioning the validity of the country's stability relying on Katniss kissing Peeta for the camera. Yeah it was believable enough that she was forced, but a little too convenient to keep the love triangle going. I wanted less love triangle in the beginning and more action in the end. It isn't until about halfway through that the story really begins and with too many details about her wardrobe and her time wandering beyond the fence. Once it did get exciting, I didn't want to put the book down and although I was anxious for the conclusion, I felt like it was rushed. I wanted more details. I kept forgetting which characters were which because I hadn't heard enough of them (which is probably the effect Collins was going for, but even with the dummy trick I had to go back and find the name). I can see the developmental difference in Katniss, an older, wiser, more observant girl while still retaining that fire. I thought her confusion over Peeta and Gale well done and age appropriate. I could feel her emotion for both boys--her respect, camaraderie, in sync feelings with Gale and her protective, guilty, grateful feelings for Peeta--and why she could not give up or disappoint either one. I enjoyed learning more about Haymitch and seeing more of the danger Katniss' district faced for her unintended rebellion. In Hunger Games I felt intense concern for Katniss where here I felt it for her whole district. Of course, with a more dangerous story, there is definitely more gore. Once again, not appropriate for younger teens. It's challenging to take the same format and mix it up enough to keep it exciting, but Collins is an excellent story teller and she does a good job keeping the plot exciting (although her overuse of periods for all forms of punctuation still bother me). She makes you feel more invested in the tributes, more angry at the capital, and more fearful for the districts, which made the book more intense. I got to about twenty pages from the end and wondered how she was going to wrap everything up. I had an idea in my head, but no, she still surprised me. And now I'm even more anxious to read the conclusion. (less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Sep 08, 2009
| Sep 09, 2009
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Sep 08, 2009
| Hardcover
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| 0307265439
| 9780307265432
| 3.93
| 274,944
| Sep 26, 2006
| Sep 26, 2006
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I thought this book was beautiful-dark but beautiful. Post apocalypse and beauty are usually mutually exclusive, but a man's love for his son is the o...more
I thought this book was beautiful-dark but beautiful. Post apocalypse and beauty are usually mutually exclusive, but a man's love for his son is the one shining beacon in this bleak world. I could sympathize with the need to forge ahead for your child, to protect, to remember, to teach. Normally grammatically incorrect prose bothers me, but it works here. Skeletal scene, skeletal characters, skeletal writing. And in those missing apostrophes and quotation marks and descriptions were the weight of things unsaid in the man's, and the boy's, heart. But I still felt them. In a handful of words, McCarthy vividly captures the essence of the story. In the end, I got a little teary-eyed, but I don't think I was sad as much as touched by the hope, the love, the perseverance of the human spirit. (less)
| Notes are private!
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1
| Sep 10, 2009
| Sep 19, 2009
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Sep 07, 2009
| Hardcover
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| 0805076689
| 9780805076684
| 3.74
| 20,053
| Apr 29, 2008
| Apr 29, 2008
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3.5 stars This book wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was about a girl waking from a coma and relearning her life, which it was, but I was not...more 3.5 stars This book wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was about a girl waking from a coma and relearning her life, which it was, but I was not prepared for the futuristic medical sci-fi elements. Instead of being a book about self discovery, it became one about ethics in modern medicine and what makes a person human. It was interesting and at times the writing beautiful, but occasionally it dragged or lacked explanation. Plus, the ending seemed to erase all the statements the book made. I probably would have given it 4 stars had the ending stayed true to the book. I think girls at that age where they are asking questions about society could be moved by this story and encouraged to ask their own questions about what defines them and humanity. Good, solid read.(less) | Notes are private!
| Diane
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1
| Feb 24, 2010
| Feb 27, 2010
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May 12, 2009
| Hardcover
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| 0399137378
| 9780399137372
| 3.68
| 17,577
| 1997
| Sep 22, 1997
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I wouldn't say this is the best Vonnegut I've read. In fact there isn't anything unusual or creative about it. But it was his last book since he died...more
I wouldn't say this is the best Vonnegut I've read. In fact there isn't anything unusual or creative about it. But it was his last book since he died and reading about Kilgore Trout made me smile. Remembering Vonnegut's self-abasing humor made me smile too. There were a couple of insights in the book that made me think, but there were also plenty of times I my mind was wandering and the story didn't grab me. I liked the book more as an autobiographical eulogy than the story. (less)
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1
| not set
| May 16, 2009
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May 11, 2009
| Hardcover
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| 0743454537
| 9780743454537
| 4.01
| 445,810
| May 18, 2004
| Feb 01, 2005
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If you haven't read the book it's about a girl (Kate) with leukemia whose parents had a second genetically matched child (Anna) to help with blood and...more
If you haven't read the book it's about a girl (Kate) with leukemia whose parents had a second genetically matched child (Anna) to help with blood and bone marrow to save their first daughter. As the girls grow up, more and more is required of Anna until she's had enough of being nothing but an organ donor. There are a lot of interesting points in the book, like what do you do when you have to pick one child over another, how do you balance your time and love between children especially when one requires more from you, and at what age can you be responsible enough to make choices about your own body instead of letting your parents word go as law. Even at a young age, a child's sense of self and decision making should always be respected. Even a three-year-old should be asked, not even such catastrophic questions as do you want to donate blood, but would you like to give your teddy bear away. If a child even considers emancipation, then you have crossed the line. Use your persuasion skills with children, not force or games. When you read a second book by an author it's easier to pay attention to the writing style and not get so carried away with the story. Her techniques were a distraction from the story. Picoult is very good at doing research to get statistics on paper, but that's all her characters feel like it. None of these characters had a real breathing personality. They were just stereotypes of what she wanted to portray and therefore not very deep. Even the little memories of the girl's childhood felt like stock photographs set to these vague lives. Throw in a politically correct tendency to add variety to your characters with random stereotypes and I enjoyed the story more for the case study it could be then the story it was. The character I enjoyed the most in the book was Jesse, the older brother who had fallen off the deep end in an attempt to get his parent's attention and still went unnoticed. I liked the quiet things he set about doing to help his sisters. Although I did not find him very well developed, I liked the father, Brian, too. I think he truly did love both his daughters and wanted to set out to do good by both of them. Even though Sara kept saying she loved both her daughters, I failed to find the evidence. All I got was a brazen woman who bullied everyone, especially Anna, into saving the only daughter she did care about. I found her completely unsympathetic, even the chapters written in her perspective, especially then. When she told Anna she couldn't go to hockey camp because she had to be around in case Kate when into relapse, I was disgusted. Yes a sick child would take up more time and emotion, but not to the exclusion of other children. How hard is it to yank Anna out of camp if necessary? Picoult wanted to show a woman who loved both her daughters but had to make tough decisions in order to keep both of them alive, but it fell flat. She tried to credit her with too many contradictory emotions and never fully justified her behavior. I wasn't satisfied with the family dynamics. I found the emotional neglect completely at odds with the scenes of a loving huggy family Picoult threw in to convince us that it was a good family with good intentions. Sara and Anna constantly saying they loved each other just didn't jive with the way Sara treated Anna. I could not picture this child on the verge of growing up wrapped up in her mother's arms when she's being scolded and manipulated by that very woman. But if I found Sara a hard character to pin down, I found Anna even more elusive. Again, too many contradictory motives that just didn't make sense. I got why Anna and Kate loved each other, but I didn't get why the rest of the family did. I think the idea of the story was a good concept, but I think it was under developed. Spoiler: I found the twist at the end unnecessary. I keep asking myself it is the most tragically beautiful ending and I'm not sure it is. Even though I get the point of it, I think I would have rather had a resolution that required a decision, a choice. I liked what Kate said at the end that Anna took her place and how it showed how much of a shadow she was, but it felt a little like a cop out. I want to know what Anna would have done and how her parents would have reacted if she said no or how belittled she would have felt had she said yes.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| May 11, 2009
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May 11, 2009
| Paperback
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| 0439023483
| 9780439023481
| 4.44
| 1,587,090
| 2008
| Sep 14, 2008
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I started this book thinking the idea was preposterous: a government choosing to squelch rebellion by forcing its citizens to give up their children a...more
I started this book thinking the idea was preposterous: a government choosing to squelch rebellion by forcing its citizens to give up their children as contenders in the ultimate reality show of death to the last survivor. Yeah right, and yet it reminded me a lot of the absurdity of the Nazi party, child armies in Africa, and even back to the gladiators of the Roman empire. I realized I believed a government could be this arrogant and wrathful, that society could be this absurd, that the common people would be too afraid to fight back. When people are pitted against each other instead of turning on the establishment they often fight each other within the failed system, fighting for that elusive top spot or ignoring the pain of others grateful to escape tragedy themselves. I soon found myself intensely involved in the Hunger Games and hoping for a certain outcome that would certainly bring about the death of many children but save our brave heroine. Once you're in, what option do you have but to play and survive? Collins did an amazing job of taking an unbelievable and predictable storyline and making it believable and unpredictable. Complete with an impossible love interest, twists in the arena to keep you guessing, and both sympathy and hatred for the other characters, the book is hard to put down. I stayed up late to reach the conclusion that would seem obvious but was still evasive when I could conceive many alternate endings. In some ways the story reminded me of Lord of the Flies, but without as frustrating of a dues ex machina ending. I found it interesting that even in this life and death situation, the kids refused to do anything that would displease the Capitol and make them look rebellious or unwilling to play, or worse emotional and disturbed by death. They did not bond with each other, help each other, or ever want to be indebted by anyone's kindness. Sad that the gravest error would be vulnerability of spirit because the tough ones are the ones to survive. While Katniss gets out of having to do a lot of the killing, she still plays her part, and even being the cause of one death is too many. I found it interesting that they switch to survival mode and kill without thought or regret. I'm sure the regret and nightmares will come later, but we as the readers have to feel the sadness of the deaths now, and live with our own relief that a child died who wasn't Katniss. There is obviously a lot of death hashed out, but only a handful experienced by our narrator. There is one death that is rather gruesome, but for the most part, I thought the subject matter handled appropriately for YA. Nonetheless the subject matter is not appropriate for younger children. My one compliant about the novel would be the overuse of fragments. As a grammar freak, I'll let powerful fragments go. On occasion. As a literary device. But you throw five and six back to back. Just for effect. And all I'm doing is counting. How many are going by before we're back to complete sentences. There were a few paragraphs with way too many. But that's just a style difference. And the story is worth it. A good tale and a thinker. Even after I closed this book, I found myself mulling over the statements about society, our gruesome need for reality TV, our shallow obsession with looks, how much a community will let others suffer as long as they are safe, and the strength of the human spirit when backed up against the wall. I enjoyed Katniss' emotionally detached character, Peeta's vulnerable goodness, and Rue's small but fighting spirit. Now I want to learn more about Gale. A good strong female protagonist and a great set up for the sequel which I will be reading. How will the Capital be brought down? Who will Katniss chose? Can she stand by and let another gruesome show go by training the tributes from her village without action? Can this society be saved or is it beyond redemption? I'm intrigued. ETA: I've been thinking a lot about the messages in the Hunger Games with all the hype for the movie. Good dystopias are warnings, something to make you mull over trends in society by making these public wrongs absurd and larger than life. Here are some of the comparisons I found between Panem and our society: -Overindulgence. The plastic surgery, the bright peacocky colors, the time and money spent primping, the obnoxious outfits that one could never work in or survive in come catastrophe. The shoes Effie Trinket wears in the movie are popular today and nobody can walk properly in them. Our obsession with looks is headed toward the unimaginable level of the Capitol. And the overindulgence doesn't stop at appearances. The overeating, the mcmansions, party-the-time lifestyle. Our shallow, keeping-up-with-the Joneses society is heading there. -Entitlement. The people of the Capitol don't care where their resources come from, who works and dies for it, or how limited the supply is. They don't conserve; they don't say "thank you"; they don't look beyond themselves. The degree of separation from them and their food and resources means they have no appreciation for it. It's like us with our grocery stores full of already slaughtered food and the diamonds we were fought hard for in Africa. You can say the entitlement is a lesson for the 1% out there and you can say the entitlement is a lesson for the anti-1% who feel entitled for their government to support them. Even the poor in America are still better off than most of the world. We are all the 1% and the sense of entitlement from Americans could be our downfall. -Desensitization. Reality TV, video games, gruesome movies (like the Hunger Games :) ) have desensitized us. As horrific as the Hunger Games is (not the book but the actual Games in a society), how far off are we when girls throw parties to watch other girls get their hearts broken on The Bachelor, or when we feel nothing as people starve through a month on Survivor, or break out in fights on shows on MTV. We stop shy of death, but how long before push the envelope there too? How long before a gladiator-style game becomes popular for us too? After all, we are following the footsteps of the Roman Empire. I've been reading articles on Yahoo! like crazy the past few weeks about how to do Katniss' braid or what food to eat in celebration of the movie release. We are as bad as the Capitol in some cases.(less) | Notes are private!
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1
| Jun 03, 2009
| Jun 05, 2009
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Apr 08, 2009
| Hardcover
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| 0689865406
| 9780689865404
| 3.77
| 77,497
| May 09, 2006
| May 09, 2006
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None
| Notes are private!
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1
| not set
| Feb 18, 2009
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Feb 15, 2009
| Hardcover
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| 0689865392
| 9780689865398
| 3.87
| 104,517
| May 05, 2005
| Nov 01, 2005
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None
| Notes are private!
| none
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1
| not set
| Feb 09, 2009
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Feb 05, 2009
| Paperback
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