YA and Beyond discussion
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BOOKS TO DISCUSS
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What are you currently reading?
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AHHHHH so good. I don't know if I loved it quite as much as the first book, but it was still amazing. Neal Shusterman never disappoints. :)..."
IMO Chaos Walking is the best dystopian series out there even though I liked the Hunger Games more than you did -- Chaos just kicks it's ass (again IMO). I need to read both UnWholly and Dust Lands AND I need to read the second book in David's series Star Dwelllers! Ugh! I feel so behind.
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AHHHHH so good. I don't know if I loved it quite as much as the first book, but it was still amazing. N..."
I totally agree, Heidi! I think Hunger Games was fine and all, but I'm not sure why people think it set the bar so high for dystopian fiction and that therefore EVERYTHING has to be compared to it. Chaos Walking is the one to beat in my eyes, too. Haha. But still, it's not like I pick up every dystopian book and say, "Gee this isn't as good as Chaos Walking." Just because something is the same genre as something else doesn't mean that they're supposed to be the exact same book, ya know? I just think it's silly.
The book is actually called Rebel Heart ... It just looks like it's called Dust Lands because they made the series title bigger than the book title. lol. Like I showed the new cover of the first book to my mom and she was like "WTF they changed the name of the book to Dust Lands?!" But yeah ... it's just that they made the series title huge. Not a very good design, IMO. >.< Oh yeah, I still need to read Star Dwellers too ... ahhhh! So many things to read!
I really prefer if they don't put characters' pictures on the cover of a book. I like to leave that in my imagination, especially if they start doing it midway through a series. I mean, I've already got a picture in my mind and now you're going to mess with it.
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I agree. I kept looking at the cover of Easy when I read it and the model was just not how I pictured the main male protag. so it irked me It's distracting.
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I know, right? I hate that ... totally messes with the image I already have in my head. Haha yeah, especially if it's already mid-way through the series. It's annoying. :P
Now I have a conundrum. (And I use that word 'cause it's a fun word.) My inter-library loan came in The Knife of Never Letting Go which I expected to take at least 2 more weeks, I just checked out 2 other books and I have The Night Circus & The Great Gatsby still sitting there waiting for me to start. Now I have to figure out which to dig into first.
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Yes, I think you're absolutely right. I think people who don't read as much kind of just read the popular books, and then if they read anything else they look for books that are similar to popular books, so that's why you see so many comparison-blurbs on books. Mehhh.
Chaos Walking is definitely the best. I agree!If Unwind ends as good as it started, it'll be my second favorite.
I actually liked Maze Runner more than Blood Red Road, lol. I was a little disappointed in BRR.
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If Unwind ends as good as it started, it'll be my second favorite.
I actually liked Maze Runner more than Blood Red Road, lol. I was a little disa..."
Yes, I love the Unwind books almost as much as CW. :) I'm still kind of digesting the second book; I'm not sure if I loved it quite as much as the first book. But we'll see how Neal Shusterman ends it ... I'm very curious to see how it'll end.
Huh, really? I loved Blood Red Road a LOT more than The Maze Runner, but to each her own. :D
Oh and also The House of the Scorpion is really high on my list of favorite dystopian books. So good.
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Can you wait to pick it up (mine holds them 5-7 days) and then review it right before the due date?? I have had to do that a few times when I had too many holds come in at once!
I am reading: Undaunted by Christian Caine, and Zoo by James Patterson.
oops... sorry this is YA. But alas I am reading a YA book, MockingJay by Collins, and The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Heidi (up to no good) wrote: "Becky wrote: "Now I have a conundrum. (And I use that word 'cause it's a fun word.) My inter-library loan came in The Knife of Never Letting Go which I expected to take at least 2 more weeks, I j..."I can wait to pick it up (up to 1 week) but cannot renew it. I think I do get 3 weeks to read it. I should probably just take back a couple of other books that I haven't started so I don't feel so overwhelmed. :)
Luella wrote: "oops... sorry this is YA. But alas I am reading a YA book, MockingJay by Collins, and The Giver by Lois Lowry."I just finished Jane Eyre & will be reading The Great Gatsby. We don't just read YA here, just our monthly reads are YA. I'm hoping to get to The Giver soon.
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You can post any books you are reading - even non YA ones! :) We just like to stick to YA books for our monthly reads.
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p.s. that is a bummer that your library doesn't allow renewals - boo!
Heidi (up to no good) wrote: "Oy my Gosh Becky - great minds think alike! I just realized you said the same thing about non YA reads :) p.s. that is a bummer that your library doesn't allow renewals - boo!"
I doesn't allow renewals on inter-library loans. Books borrowed directly from my library can be renewed a few times unless there is a hold against it.
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I'm reading a withdrawn library book I picked up in a huge book sale bag of withdraws/used books last spring in the library sale... a huge brown paper bag for $2 filled to the hilt with books...Its called "Does My Head Look Big In This?" By Ranada Abdel-Fattah
I honestly didn't expect to like it. I thought it would be a quick read when I didn't want to think that much but it has proven me totally wrong. It has made me think SO MUCH. I am also loving it for the most part.
I love being suprised in this manner. :)
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I..."
I have seen that book Kaylini - it looks cute.
It is really thought provoking. I didn't think it would make me think about my own prejudices and views of things, or change my view on things. I think the book has some great things to offer thus far, and I am only about a third of the way into it. That could change tonight if I continue reading as I have read about 100 pages in a hour today. We shall see. My right eye is being a brat right now so I can't sit and eat a novel like normal :(
I'm still mostly, sort of enjoying Gone, I think? LOL I have to admit I was really enjoying it for a while and then got a little bored and I'm totally wondering how this could possibly turn into 6 books. It's also maybe a little too sci-fi for me and not enough dystopian (is it even dystopian? Going into it I thought it was?) LOL
I don't think it counts as Dystopian. I think it's more sci-fi action. (I always told my husband they were Stephen King/Xmen/Lord of the Flies, lol.)
OK that helps get me in the right mindset. I'm hoping the ending will bring it home for me and make me want to read the rest of them :) But I wanted to count it in my 2013 dystopian challenge!! LOL
LOL, well 547 people have shelved it as Sci-Fi/Dystopia so you could probably get away with it.
Hehe, it's probably in the gray area and I'm usually pretty liberal when I'm in the gray area so I guess I'll count it!
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See?? I agree! I gave up after book two because I was like how the heck can this get drawn out for six books?! Perhaps Wendy can enlighten us!
Hmmm, well keep in mind that the fact that was a little irritated about the pacing in book 4. But, for me I actually never really questioned how it would stretch on for 6 books. Maybe it's because I read a LOT of serial books. I mean, I read 10 of the Wheel of Time books and that seemed to drag out. And Outlander... and other series that are drawn out slowly.What I enjoy when I read the Gone books, is the side things. How the characters fight to create an actual society and you see the different political personalities coming out. Then you get the emotional tolls that the whole things take out on the characters.... and each book brings out a new struggle with the second book being about the lack of food and the fourth book being about a sickness.
David, I do think that there' a period in the middle of each book that's a little slower, but the ending picks up with more action.
The series has it's flaws. But I liked more than I disliked.
Cool thanks Wendy, I think I'll be the same and probably like them enough to keep reading :)
Just finished
for our group read. Hhhmmmm....
David, I have
and am wondering if I should read that one next. I need to get into my TBR list tomorrow for sure! I'm waiting on
from the library or would start that next. Soooo many books!!!! :-)
Lol I'll be interested in your thoughts on Gone. It's entertaining but maybe too sci-fi for me. Not sure yet though, need to get to the end :) Ohh you'll love The Boof Thief!!
Karen wrote: "David, I have and am wondering if I should read that one next. I need to get into my TBR list tomorrow for sure! I'm waiting on from the ..."The Book Thief!!!!!! So amazing.
Karen wrote: "Just finished for our group read. Hhhmmmm...."Sooooo?? Too strange? I have yet to find someone who enjoyed The Night Circus as much as I did!
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for our group read. Hhhmmmm...."Sooooo?? Too strange? I have yet to find someone who enjoyed The Night Circus as much as I did!"
Maybe next month when it is the monthly read?? Actually I know a lot of people loved it. It is worth the read either way :)
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Heidi (up to no good) wrote: "David wrote: "Hehe, it's probably in the gray area and I'm usually pretty liberal when I'm in the gray area so I guess I'll count it!"See?? I agree! I gave up after book two because I was like h..."
As a fan of the Gone series, I'm going to state that they can't draw the series out for six books without a low point. Books one through three are good in my opinion, but books four and five were just okay. The whole problem is that the central premise of the series, while good for, say, a trilogy, simply does not work when extended to six books. Wendy has a point when she says that the main appeal of the Gone series is that the setting brings out character development, which is exactly why I picked up the series in the first place. However, I found book four to be somewhat lacking in this and book five to have foregone the concept of character development entirely aside from a scene or two involving Caine and, in a spout of irony, Drake Merwin, who gets more character development than any other character. (Except for Astrid, who becomes a less interesting character, though you could argue for Caine) Personally, I'm not optimistic about the sixth book and I think that this series should have ended a while ago.
Interesting... for me 3 & 4 were the low point books. I actually really liked 5. (view spoiler). Though, that's all a matter of opinion, lol. I definitely agree iwth you. 3 was reaaaaaally slow for me. I liked the politics of the books, but Lies just seemed to have SO much of it that I tend to gloss over that one when I think back. And on the flip side, Plague had waaay to much violence and gore.As much as I've enjoyed the series overall, I'll be glad with book 6 is out and read and it's over.
Wendy F wrote: "Interesting... for me 3 & 4 were the low point books. I actually really liked 5. [spoilers removed]. Though, that's all a matter of opinion, lol. I definitely agree iwth you. 3 was reaaaaaally..."Oh, right, I forgot about Edilio! And yes, the story arc involving the parents was quite interesting. I think I may have spoken too soon. (Though I stand by what I said about Astrid becoming a worse character. I liked her before book five because she was unique. A selfish girl who manipulated her way into safety is just more interesting, though less likeable)
Lies was actually my favorite because it was more of a suspense novel than anything. I particularly liked how Drake was always in the shadows until the very end.
I also agree with you about Plague. Too much blood. Though the line "Me? I'm going on an epic killing spree" is an Eastwood-worthy one-liner.
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Haha, I agree with Heidi. XD
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Uhhhh. Well. I liked it. I can say that much. But let's just say, a lot of really strange and unexpected things happened in it. So there were a lot of things in it that I just found ... weird. I didn't like it as much as the first book, but it was still good and I'll definitely read the third. I'm curious where the series is going to go from here ...
I think now I'm going to concentrate on finishing:
I keep getting distracted by other books! But I only have about 30% of it left so I should probably just finish it. :P
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Yeah ... I feel like you might not like it, Heidi. But I'm not sure. I mean, I still thought it was good. It's just that it took a lot of strange turns. :-/ Also I loved Saba in the first book, but in this one ... meh. She made a lot of really stupid decisions.
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Ah ... well if you didn't like the first book that much, I don't know if it's worth it. I mean, I loved Blood Red Road, and Rebel Heart was a bit disappointing for me. I liked it, but I feel like Blood Red Road probably would have been better as a standalone.
I totally get what you mean about Astrid, lol. I hated her, like seriously, hahaha. But I can see what you mean about her being more unique.Very little is 'Harry potteresque" hahaha. I mean, the same could be said of lots of books. vampire academy, even Percy Jackson is no Harry Potter. I enjoy them for what they are though. An escape.
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YA and Beyond
Books mentioned in this topic
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A Darker Shade of Magic (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Sarah Addison Allen (other topics)Sarah Addison Allen (other topics)
Markus Zusak (other topics)
Melina Marchetta (other topics)
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I agree with Unwholly. It was SO good. So So good. But there was something missing that the first book had. There were a few scenes in Unwind that made tremble reading, because they were so intense. I didn't feel that in the sequel.