Claire Stevens's Blog, page 51

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is set in a dystopian future, where a global energy crisis has led to global war, hunger and suffering and where people willingly put themselves into indentured servitude with massive corporations just so they have something to eat and a place to sleep.  No wonder, then, that the majority of the world’s population spend every waking moment plugged into OASIS, an MMORPG where you can literally do everything you can in real life, but without the suffering and dreariness.

When the creator of OASIS dies without an heir and leaves control of his company and his multi-billion dollar fortune to the first person who can solve the riddles and clues he left behind to find an Easter egg, the whole world takes an interest.

There are so many geek references in this novel, I can’t even begin to describe them all.  I mean, I consider myself to have fairly excellent geek credentials - I managed to guide a half-elf wizard from being a kobold-slaying weakling to a thirtieth-level demi-god in D&D without dying -  but there were plenty of references that even I didn’t get.  Luckily the author manages to include all the geek references without being a tosser about it.  Like, he doesn’t ever include references like they’re an in-joke that you wouldn’t ‘get’ if you’re not a committed enough gamer/movie buff/music nerd.  I did wonder how the gunters (egg-hunters) managed to have so much time to basically learn everything about the eighties (Wade has watched Monty Python’s Holy Grail 157 times.  157!  As a 90-minute film, that’s 240 hours in total!  Ten days!  On just one film!), and in addition learning every known fact about the creator of OASIS, but I decided to let that slide.

The characterisation is pretty good.  They learn and grow and become different people.  The characters are well-rounded and believable.  They have flaws.  There are strong female characters.  You end up caring about them.  All good.

Characterisation isn’t why you read Ready Player One, though.  What blew me away most about this book were the crazy ways Ernest Cline blurs lines between genres.  He basically takes a fantasy plot (ordinary Joe undertakes noble quest for a world-changing item, complete with magic, going up against evil villain), chucks in loads of sci-fi (the MMORPG, in-game technology) and sets it in a dystopian future.

There is virtually no introspection in this book - it’s not going to change the way you see the world (although you might perhaps make more of an effort to ensure the world doesn’t end up like the world in the book) but holy crap, it’s completely bloody entertaining.

The only possible flaw I could find is that the first half of the book contains some pretty serious infodumps.  I personally don’t mind infodumps too much (there are other aspects of writing, such as instalove and love triangles that bother me more), but I think the back story of OASIS and the dystopian future could have been more skilfully done.

Would I recommend this book?  Yes.  Because even if you *think* you’re not much of a geek, you probably secretly are.  Sci-fi, dystopia and fantasy are so much a part of entertainment these days (and this is a good thing) that having geek credentials has never been so mainstream.  Do you watch Game of Thrones?  Did you like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games or Divergent?  Are you looking forward to checking out the new Star Wars films?   Rupert Murdoch and the bloke from TOWIE who doesn’t know how to tell the time are literally the only two people I can think of who might not fall into this category.

So yeah, this book is awesome.  Read it.  Now.

4.5 stars

Awesome Holiday Read - Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This is shaping up to be a superb holiday read!  I'm not going to start a massive fangirl rant right now - I'll save that for the review - but suffice to say that it's got enough references for even the most hard-boiled geeks, enough story to involve non-geeks and it's possible to get completely immersed even when people are trying to involve you in conversation/asking if you want a cup of tea/nagging you to build sandcastles with them.

And yes, that's a jumper I'm wearing.  It may be August, but south Devon is absolutely bloody perishing.

Waiting On Wednesday - Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and it highlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  

This week, my Waiting On Wednesday pick is Dumplin' by Julie Murphy.  Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed “Dumplin’” by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. With her all-American beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy’s, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn’t surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she’ll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine— Dumplin’ is guaranteed to steal your heart.

This sounds pretty cool, doesn't it.   It's due for release in the U.K. on the 15th September and it's right up there on my TBR list.

What about you?  What books are you waiting for?

A Thousand Nights by E.K. Johnston

Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to my village looking for a wife.

The narrator of A Thousand Nights lives with her family in the desert, a peaceful and prosperous place thanks to the ruler, Lo-Melkiin.  Unfortunately, despite his excellent ruling abilities, Lo-Melkiin has some flaws: the main one being that he marries girls and murders them for fun.  One day, Lo-Melkiin comes to the narrator’s tribe looking for a new bride and our narrator offers herself as Lo-Melkiin’s new bride in order to save her sister.

What I wanted from this book: a clever heroine weaving stories for her murdering despot husband every night in order to prolong her life. 

What I got from this book: an interesting description of life in a Middle Eastern desert, with some fairly vague magical powers thrown in.

A Thousand Nights isn’t a terrible book, but the main problem I had was that the story didn’t exactly match up to what I assumed it would be.  Part of this is my fault, I guess.  I’d heard that this was a re-telling of the Scheherezade myth and I assumed we would hear some of the stories the main character weaves in order to save her life.  Unfortunately we don’t.  Instead of telling stories to keep her husband captivated, she has a strange magical prophesy-type power that makes Lo-Melkiin unwilling (or unable?  I never managed to work it out) to kill her.  She tells Lo-Melkiin about her fiery sister on a couple of occasions, but mostly their night-time encounters consist of Lo-Melkiin holding her hands and a strange light being transferred between them.


I never really understood what the source of the power-giving light was.  Was she becoming a god?  Or was she just being granted the favour of the gods?  There were a lot of aspects to the plot and background where I felt like I was watching everything through gaps in a fence, never really getting the whole picture.

While the pacing of the book was quite slow, I was happy to carry on reading because the world-building was pretty good.  There was some lovely writing and descriptions which really evoked life in the desert and I got a good sense of the structure of society and what the people there do in order to survive the harsh conditions.

For a first-person-narrator book, however, it felt like I was constantly being held at arm’s length, and I never really got a sense of who the narrator was.  All I could really tell you by the end of the book was that she loved her sister a lot.  It probably didn’t help that she had no name, so everything just felt very impersonal.  In fact, none of the characters (apart from Lo-Melkiin) have names and I’d never realised how much I use names when I’m reading to get a sense of who characters are and and to remember facts I’m told about them.

Also, the narration didn’t really evoke any feels.  I didn’t feel the MC’s terror at potentially being murdered by her husband every night, no curiosity about her burgeoning magical abilities, no desire to know what was causing them or where they came from. 

I think there was a lot of potential in this book and there were some really good ideas, but ultimately the story was too vague for me to enjoy it properly.

I received a copy of A Thousand Nights in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley.
2 stars

Burn Girl by Mandy Mikulencak

Burn Girl is the story of Arlie, a sixteen year old girl living in Colorado with her meth-addicted mum.  When her mum dies of a drug overdose, Arlie’s life changes forever.  She goes to live with her uncle and starts attending school for the first time.  She even meets a boy.  But Arlie soon finds out that there are some parts of her past that won’t stay buried.

I really liked Arlie as an MC.  She is strong and loyal, but living with and acting as carer to an addict has damaged her severely (as it would) and her mum’s death has left her with all these confused, angry emotions roiling round.  She reminded me of a hedgehog - all prickly and curled up into a ball to protect herself from the world.  She does some pretty dumb things on occasion, but on the whole she was a great MC.

The only aspect I didn’t really buy into was her relationship with Cody.  Cody seemed sweet and I have to give props to the author for bringing in a love interest with a disability, but it felt a bit instalove-y and I thought it could have been developed a bit more before they decided they were in love.

On the other hand, her relationship with Mo was really well written.  It’s rare to see a female friendship explored in such depth and it was interesting to see how both girls push the boundaries of their friendship.  I also enjoyed reading about the development of Arlie’s relationship with Frank and how she learns to start trusting people and accepting that she now has a stable home life.

The author doesn’t pull any punches when describing what it’s like to live with an addict and I have to commend her for that.  It would have been really easy to gloss over the skanky, dark parts of Arlie’s life, but the author doesn’t do that at all and it gives a real sense of how awful Arlie’s life must have been.  From her mum’s all-weekend drug benders to waking up to strange people wandering through the house and being kissed by one of them when she was only seven, Arlie seems to have lived through it all. 

There is tension woven throughout the book from Arlie’s relationship with her ex-stepfather who may or may not be stalking her.  Lloyd was a suitably creepy villain and some parts were really spooky, although I’m not entirely convinced by his motives for contacting Arlie - I’m not sure how he thought a sixteen year old was going to drum up fifty grand.  Perhaps long-term meth use rotted his brain?

I’d definitely recommend Burn Girl if you’re looking for a decent contemporary standalone this summer.

I received a copy of Burn Girl in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to Netgalley and Albert Whitman.

Feature and Follow Friday #14

Feature and Follow Friday is a weekly book blog meme hosted by Alison Can Read and Parajunkee's View.  The idea is to answer the featured question, link back to the hosts and featured bloggers and then hop around the blogs on the Linky thingy making new friends!  

This week's featured question is:  If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be? - Suggested by  Life Is Reading  

Well ... If you discount the standard wishes of winning the lottery and having good health and happiness for you and your friends and family, I guess I'd go for the super skill of being able to speak and understand any language in the world.  I always think I'm missing out on being able to read books in other languages because I think even with amazing translations, there's nothing like being able to read in the languge the author meant for the book to  be read in.  Then I'd wish for a week's worth of really great weather, because I'm on my holiday at the moment and I need more beach time!  Lastly I guess I'd wish for my very own (successful) independent book shop, kind of like the one Meg Ryan has in You've Got Mail, but not just for children's books.  

What about you?  What would your three wishes be?

Feel free to follow me on Bloglovin', Goodreads or Twitter  and leave me a note so I know to follow you back!

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

So, The Summer I Turned Pretty is based around a love triangle.  I’m just going to put that out there straight away.  I’m not a fan of love triangles, I think they’re lazy and frustrating, and I think the only love triangles that ever work are the ones where someone ends up dead (e.g. The Infernal Devices).

And yet, despite the love triangle (and at one point it progresses beyond a love triangle onto a love square), I actually quite enjoyed this book.  I’m in the mood for contemporary YA at the moment, especially in the Summer Romance subcategory, and this absolutely fit the bill.

Belly (Isabel), her mum, her brother, her mum’s best friend Susannah and her two boys, Conrad and Jeremiah spend each summer together at a beach house.  Belly has known the Fisher boys since she was little and has harboured a crush on Conrad for almost as long.  Belly lives for the summer - she counts the weeks down in winter until she can get to the beach house - but this summer it looks like everything is going to change.

One of the things I especially love about Jenny Han’s books is how she makes writing seem so effortless.  Like, I’m sure she sweated blood over this manuscript, but it just comes across as so light and easy, the words just tripping over themselves.  In the first chapter, where Belly, Steven and their mum are driving up to the beach house, I could almost imagine myself there, with that sense of anticipation of a great summer ahead of you, smelling the sea air, holidaying in the same place you go to every summer.  It probably helps that I’m about to go on my holidays by the seaside in the same place where my family and I go every year, but still.  Very evocative.

Unfortunately, the central theme in the book - Belly’s long-standing crush on Conrad - just didn’t do it for me.  Maybe it’s because I just don’t like love triangles and I could see that Jeremiah would be a much better guy for her, but I just didn’t get why Belly liked Conrad so much.  He’s a dick.  He’s really unfriendly and mean to her.  Why doesn’t this put her off?  There are lots of flashbacks in the book to previous summers, and he wasn’t nice then either.  I get that the whole silent-and-brooding attitude is a thing, but you need to counterbalance it with something emotional as well, otherwise you’ve just got a girl chasing after a grumpy guy.


Luckily, there was plenty else going on in the book to take my attention away from grumpy-arse Conrad.  At one point, Belly starts seeing another boy, Cam (making it a love square), although she mostly likes him because he calls her beautiful and she thinks it makes Conrad jealous.  I liked the relationship between the two mums and how Belly saw Susannah as a second mother.  There are secrets that come out and some heartbreak as well.

Belly herself was an interesting character.  I found her a bit obsessive, and for all that she didn’t want the boys to think she was whiny, she seemed to whine an awful lot!  Still, I liked her in all other respects and I guess these flaws just mean she isn’t a Mary-Sue.

Overall, this was a good summer read and made me eager for my own holiday.  I’ll definitely be checking out the rest of the series.

3.5 stars

Paint My Body Red by Heidi R Kling - Cover Reveal

Heidi R Kling has today revealed the cover of her upcoming novel Paint My Body Red, and here it is: Looks good, doesn't it?  Here's the Goodreads blurb:

They think I'll be number seven. Unlucky number seven.
 
Dead teenager number seven. With the rash of suicides at my school, I've been shipped off to my dad's Wyoming ranch for “my own safety.” My mom worries I'll be next—another depressed teenager whose blood will end up on the train tracks. But she doesn't know my secrets...or what I did.
 
Everything has changed at the ranch since I was there last. The staff is gone, and there aren’t any visitors. The place is struggling, and ALS is destroying my dad. The one bright spot in this mess is his new—and only—ranch hand, Jake. He’s gorgeous, cheerful, healthy and sane. Shadows don't haunt his eyes and eat away at him in the night.
 
But the ranch and Jake can't save me from the darkness inside, or the knowledge of what I've done. This time, it's up to me to save myself...

Sounds spooky!  I think this one will have to go on my Autumn TBR list!  

Paint My Body Red is release on the 2nd November 2015 by Entangled Teen.

Cover reveal hosted by:

Waiting On Wednesday - Underneath Everything by Marcy Beller Paul

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill over at Breaking The Spine and gives us a chance to highlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my Waiting One Wednesday pick is: Underneath Everything by Marcy Beller Paul, due for release in October 2015.  Here's the Goodreads blurb:

Mattie shouldn’t be at the bonfire. She should be finding new maps for her collection, hanging out with Kris, and steering clear of almost everyone else, especially Jolene. After all, Mattie and Kris dropped off the social scene the summer after sophomore year for a reason.

But now Mattie is a senior, and she’s sick of missing things. So here she is. 

And there’s Jolene: Beautiful. Captivating. Just like the stories she wove. Mattie would know; she used to star in them. She and Jolene were best friends. Mattie has the scar on her palm to prove it, and Jolene has everything else, including Hudson.

But when Mattie runs into Hudson and gets a glimpse of what could have been, she decides to take it all back: the boyfriend, the friends, the life she was supposed to live. Problem is, Mattie can’t figure out where Jolene ends and she begins.

Because there’s something Mattie hasn’t told anyone--she walked away from Jolene over a year ago, but she never really left. 

Poignant and provocative, Marcy Beller Paul’s debut novel tells the story of an intoxicating—and toxic—relationship that blurs the boundary between reality and fantasy, love and loyalty, friendship and obsession.

Sounds good,doesn't it?  What about you?  What books are you waiting on this week?

Ten Things We Shouldn't Have Done by Sarah Mlynowski

Ten Things We Shouldn’t Have Done is the story of April, who gets told one day that she, her dad and her stepmother will be moving from Connecticut to Ohio in a couple of weeks.  She panics - her friends, her boyfriend and her whole life are in Connecticut and she doesn’t want to move to Ohio.  In desperation, she asks to move in with her friend Vi.  The only problem is, Vi’s mum is leaving town for a few months, too.  Will April and Vi be able to swing it so that they get to live parent-free?

I really enjoyed this book.  It probably helps that I was in exactly the right frame of mind for reading it when I did.  It’s the summer holidays and I was in the mood for a not-too-taxing, enjoyable, flim-flam, laugh-filled book, and this one ticked all the boxes.

I liked April and Vi.  April was enjoyably scatty and contrasted nicely with Vi’s responsibility.  I loved that they did dumb things and the way they tried to hide their parent-free lifestyle was like a screwball comedy at times.

I also liked the very frank way this book talks about sex.  I know this might put some people off, but it was actually done in a mature way, with info thrown in on contraception, STDs and the emphasis was on being in a loving relationship.  Okay, so the loving relationship bit didn’t quite go to plan, but still.

The biggest problem I had with this book, and the problem I suspect others may also have, is that it takes a fantastic leap of faith to think that two teenagers, both of whom come from loving, involved homes, would get left on their own in a house for months on end without anyone finding out.  Seriously, April has a fairly protective dad and stepmother, but they seem to be happy with a couple of emails from Vi’s ‘mum’ before letting their daughter go and live with her.

I read the chapter where this happens, and then I re-read it.  And then I just decided to go with it.  I mean, I guess it’s not impossible.  Just pretty implausible.  And I believe crazier things in YA lit - angels, vampires, demons, superheroes, magic spells - so why not this?

Once I just decided to make that huge leap of faith, I really enjoyed the book.  April’s dad is well off, and he gives her $1000 a month to spend on groceries, pay towards bills, buy petrol and as an allowance.  So what’s the first thing she buys?  A hot tub!  Yes!  This really made me laugh, because it’s so exactly what I would have done with $1000 when I was sixteen, and then I’d have just lived on cereal for the rest of the month.

There are plenty of other crazy shenanigans, too.  They get a cat.  Obviously.  They skip school so they can go to the Planned Parenthood clinic.  They lie almost constantly to their parents.  It all makes for a really engaging, fun book with a plot that goes all over the place.  All in all, I’d say this is a great summer read.

4 stars