Book Review 4- I Am Number Four

Book Review of I Am Number Four By Pittacus Lore

            2/5 stars- This book, oh this book. Okay so the thing is this book isn’t by Pittacus Lore. Pittacus is fictional. However, James Fray is real. You know James Fray, he’s that guy who wrote a biography about his life that was actually fictional and then lied to Opera about it. I’m going to be honest here, the history of this author and the way this book was written had me a little biased. I’m going to try to review this based purely on story.

            The story is okay, the characters are okay, everything is okay, but not great. It has a lot of action in it, but I was never too entertained by it.  The romance bordered on cheesy, but never fully crossed the line. Everything was just mediocre to me. 

            The characters were tolerable, I didn’t feel attached to any particular one though. There is one thing that bugs me though. John is never described from what I remember. Not once in book one are his physical characteristics given to me.
            John’s personality isn’t that spectacular either. The only time he shows an alien characteristic is when he’s with Sarah (Who he’s freakishly in love with), and proceeds to act like a lovesick little schoolgirl. These feeling at least get an explanation with him being from a different species and culture. At least I thought so but Sarah is really attached to him to. I could just say, “Well she’s a girl and girls are different when it comes to romance,” but Henri clearly said humans do not love the way the super powered aliens do. Yet Sarah seems really certain about this relationship. She doesn’t even freak out when John says he’s an alien. So my guess is either this relationship is somehow making her evolve up to John’s level so she can love like he can love, or she’s just a teenage girl who will probably get over him eventually. I’m not sure.

            As for the alien aspect, well they are from space, and that’s about it. Any other weird traits they have is due to magic, which would be fine, but this magic is pretty bland and broad. I’m all for Sy-Fi Fantasy crossover, but with this I felt like the alien aspect was overshadowed by the magic aspect. The magic itself wasn’t that unique either, and it was difficult for me to grasp the way this race worked. The culture was interesting at times, and excused the cheesy romance, but overall it was boring.  As for the enemy aliens, they want to destroy all life on earth so they can steal the resources themselves and then they’ll move on to the next planet…I’m bored just telling you this.

            Maybe it was my A.D.D, but I never fully enjoyed this book, and I really wanted to. The characters weren’t complete idiots all the time, and I understood why John didn’t want to move away from his friends. It was selfish, but I understand how that would be hard for someone. There were even moments where I felt worried. But in the end, I couldn’t lie to myself, this book was blander then plain oatmeal. 

Book Review 3- Matched

Review of Matched by Ally Condie (Spoilers)

1/5 stars- Matched. Where to begin with this book? Oh I know, let’s start with a boy named Jonas. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Jonas? Who’s Jonas? I don’t remember a Jonas in this book.” Well that’s because there is no Jonas in this book.

            Jonas is the main character in a book called The Giver. An interesting read that was simple, but it entertained me. The character Jonas lives in a society that is (Cough) exactly (Cough) like the society in Matched. Jonas slowly begins to realize the world around him is far from perfect. This realization is brought on by his apprenticeship with The Giver, an old man who holds all the memories and emotions of the old world. This book does what it needs to do, it gets Jonas from point (A) to point (B) in a way that makes sense. On top of that it’s only 179 pages, so the writer didn’t put much filler in it.

            Matched is basically The Giver with a Female teen protagonist, and 187 more pages filled with pointless angst. People are told who to marry, when to marry, where to work, when to stop working, and when to die. I don’t know how anyone can read this book and not think “Is this the first fan girl fanfiction from The Giver fandom?”, but I’m sure it can be done.

            The characters are dry and uninteresting, and we’re stuck in Cassia’s pov (Pronounced Ca$ha), who’s dullness can only be matched by her love interest Ky. Ky is a boy with blue eyes (Trust me I know they’re blue, they were described to me in a number of strange ways), and knows how to write.   Then there’s Xander, the third and destined to lose point of the love triangle. You know how I know that? Simple. Pick up any YA book with a love triangle. The boy who is described the most over and over again will most certainly win over the boy whose eye color I can’t even remember. Cassia will end up with Ky, even though their relationship lacks the substance to be anymore then a simple friendship.

            I will give the book credit where it’s due, the characters do change. Granted this change is like being slapped in the face by an invisible hand, but there is some character development. I think this author was trying to focus on character building, because the plot lacks, well, a plot. I read roughly four-hundred pages of Cassia’s boring life, and that was painful. Cassia doesn’t have the character to hold a story up on her own, and her romance drama only brings the cheesiness to the table.

            The society isn’t really that menacing. “Oh you better not do anything bad! We might cut down a tree from your front yard.”

            Yes, I am serious. Yard work is warning one. What next? Are they going to go around fixing our dishwashers? I’m shaking in my boots here.

            The most insulting attack on my intelligence is the villain of the story, a woman who I can’t even name because her name was only mentioned once. However, I do remember she said something along the lines of, “Oh yeah, we were in control the whole time. This whole love triangle thing was a science experiment, just to see if you would fall for it.”

            So you’re telling me that you had this brilliant idea to conduct this experiment that could ruin people’s lives and change their perspective of the society and the people who run it (People who already never question you and completely trust you). Not only that but this experiment is being conducted while people are starting to rebel outside the city, and you want to bring this rebellious thought process into this cocoon of safety for your order. Are you that stupid woman!?

            Alright I know this woman didn’t have complete control, but think about it, why did she show the picture to Ky? Why did she let Cassia see Ky? Why would she plant the seed of doubt? Why not just fix the glitch without anyone knowing it happened? I noticed this book was compared to the Hunger Games. If this was the Hunger Games, President Snow would have this woman killed.

            Finally I have to say something about the pills. Here is how the pill system works, green calms you down, blue is kept for emergency nutrition and red makes you forget. The thing is some people are immune to the pills effect. Why? They just are.

            I want to accept this and get over it, but I can’t. The purpose of the matched program is to ensure that the offspring are the healthiest outcome. One might think that the society would have it so the offspring would no doubt NOT be immune to the pills. You know who’s immune to the pills, Xander and Ky are. This is either really convenient, or this is a fairly common thing.  I mean think about it, out of all the people who could be immune it happened to be both of Cassia’s love interest. I can’t see how the society wouldn’t know about this issue. Then again they did allow that woman to conduct her experiment, so maybe I’m overestimating their intelligence.

            Overall Matched just reminded me how much better The Giver is. The love triangle isn’t interesting enough to make it stand out from The Giver’s shadow, neither are the extra pages. I know originality is hard to come by, but this book was worse then City of Bones for me. I can’t look at it without thinking about The Giver. I can say that the pretty cover is relevant to the story, but you still only get one star from me Matched.  

Book Review 2- Eon

Review of Eon by Alison Goodman


3.5/5 stars- Eon is about a girl who’s disguising herself as a guy so she can train to be one of the twelve dragoneye. However, if this secret of hers is found out she and everyone close to her could be killed. 

            I personally don’t know how to feel about this book. The cover is pretty well done. It has excellent world building with a culture and society derived from ancient China and Japan, so that appealed to me. The characters were well rounded, and Eon’s struggle to reject her feminine nature, Eona, in order to survive was intense. Her actions were understandable, and I could see myself doing the same things she did if I was in this situation. Also another plus factor is that there is very little romance in this book, by the end the main character doesn’t have a love interest. Seeing that this book is in the YA genre, I found myself appreciating that.

            However, the biggest pull in for me was the fact it has dragons in it. So in my mind when I brought this book I was thinking, “Yes, perfect book to read after the Hunger Games.” Yeah I was wrong.

            Eon doesn’t really have much- what’s the word- Questing in it, rather much of its plot is based on political intrigue. So at first I was like, “Oh okay, so it’s kinda going to be like Assassins Creed,” except it wasn’t.

            Alright so I’m going to sum up my feelings about this book real quick before I go into major spoilers. Eon had nice characters, really nice world building, but dragged in a lot of areas for me. I experienced sort of what I call the mid plot lull, and the ending really didn’t make up for it. I thought it could have been shorter, but it was pretty decent. It had interesting concepts and I felt the writers themes were very well done. If you’re into Girl power, and political scandal you should check this book out. I don’t suggest reading this book right after a face passed novel, but it deserves to be picked up sometime. My personal score is 3.5 out of five stars.

            Alright that’s the basic review, so if you haven’t read the book and you don’t want to be a spoiled reader, click the “X” button in the upper right corner of your screen.

Onto some major spoilers.

Spoilers!!!!

            Over the first one hundred pages, Eons main focus is to become the Rat Dragoneye apprentice. Yeah only instead of doing that she becomes the Mirror Dragoneye apprentice. Only the problem with that is there hasn’t been a Mirror Dragoneye for a long while now, I think maybe five-hundred years while. So Eon not only doesn’t have anybody to teach her the Dragoneye secrets, but she’s now one of the most interesting people in the world, and here’s why.

            So the Rat Dragoneye master, Ido, is planning to overthrow the ill emperor alongside some guy named Sethon. Everyone and there mother knows what’s going on, so this means the Emperor and Ido are both wanting the Mirror Dragoneyes support.

            Eon being young and new to the royal world, has to learn all the proper ways of being in the royal palace and in the dragoneye council. This is where it starts to drag with the info on eunuch’s or Shadow Men, proper ways to kowtow, and various robes. I mean I like it, but it dragged at times.  Then there was the ending. The ending I was expecting to be so great but it wasn’t.

            So Eon has another problem, she doesn’t know her dragons name. This is kind of important, because if you don’t know your dragons name, you can’t call upon your dragon and get your power.

            Eon doesn’t tell anyone about this because, well, she could potentially die but she thinks that the reason she can’t communicate with it is because she’s a girl. Then her creepy old master is poisoned and dies, and it also turns out he loved her. I knew that was going to happen, because he was a creeper from the start! Okay so then it’s just a long string of problems with no sight of a solution for this girl.

            Then the solution does come, and there’s in this epic take over, and people are dying. Then Eon, whose now accepted she’s Eona finally discovers her Dragons name. Now the spirit dragon battles before were kind of confusing, but I got the gist of it, and I thought, “Okay those past battles were like a little warm up, this one’s going to be like an Dragon Ball Z episode. NOT LIKE THE CENSORED ONES ON NICKOLONEON! THOSE ARE LIES!” Yeah, my hopes were a bit too high.

            So what happens is Ido has Eona up against the wall, literally about to rape her, because he can get power that way (Yeah I’m serious, it makes more since when you read it, but it’s still equally as creepy). Eona’s Dragon is hovering over them, teeth bared and everything. And I’m going, “Yeah girl! All Rapist should get their head bitten off by a Dragon! Do it! Do it now!”

            But then Eona sees that Ido’s heart Chakra is shriveled up, and that’s an easy problem to fix. So she does, despite the fact she just killed two guys previously, so it’s not like she needs to keep a clean conscience. This causes Ido’s heart Chakra to swell three sizes its own size. And then he’s sorry for everything he’s done, and then he goes back down to whovile and gives  all the who’s their Christmas presents back and- wait this is the ending to the Grinch that Stole Christmas. This is the ending to the Grinch who Stole Christmas! Ido is the Creepy Dragoneye Murder/Rapist version of the Grinch!!!!

            Okay I’m sorry, really I can’t help that my brain works this way, but when I read the ending with Ido’s heart Chakra and him being just “Sorry” I felt a little cheated. Seriously this guy killed her master, killed all the other Dragoneye, nearly killed his apprentice with the steroids of this fictional world, assisted in the murder of a baby and his mother, tried to rape a girl and in the end all we get are his apologies? Really, really, really? This guy is EVIL, ruthless, and now he’s groveling. I ask you again, really?

            I am sick and tired of these “Love is the cure to all your problems,” endings. Okay it was at least done in a way that somewhat made sense, but at the same time made me roll my eyes. Well at least it wasn’t as bad as the Evermore ending.

            (Shivers)

            So as you can tell the ending really ruined it for me, but hopefully you guys have different views on it.  I’d like to end this on a good note though. The writer did a really good job with her characters. She made me feel what Eon was feeling. Confusion, stress, identity issues all those things were written well.

            

Book Review 1-Hunger Games

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins  Series Review (Warning Spoilers)

               The hype the Hunger Games has accumulated is pretty well earned (At least better deserved then Twilight in my opinion).  With well done covers that do not have girls in pretty prom dresses (Even though it could) The Hunger Games impressed me, cover and all. Granted it does have its flaws with a forced love triangle, and a villain who is no Andrew Ryan or Big Brother. The Hunger Games raised the bar and drew in popularity (whether for better or for worse) to dystopian YA. I see this as a good thing. 

            So the plot to the Hunger Games is pretty much this. The capitol rules over twelve districts, and in order to remind everyone who’s boss, one boy and one girl are taken from each district to fight in the hunger games. The rules to the Hunger Games are pretty simple, kill or be killed, and only one can survive.

            Katniss Everdeen is our main character, and a refreshing YA lead. She’s protective over her family, and is willing to do anything for her sister and mother.  The other characters like Peeta, Rue, Finnick, Johanna, and more really impressed me. Suzanne Collins knows how to build suspense, and knows how to make a reader care, and feel sorrow when something bad happens to the characters. For me the characters where everything for this series, and I can forgive a lot if the characters are good. I can also be a nitpick if they annoy me. With this series I understand the pain Katniss is going through. People often complained that Katniss became a complete mess by the end of the series, but wouldn’t we all? She lost practically her whole family, what’s worse is her mother won’t even bother to comfort or help Katniss. This emotional turmoil on top of the physical pain will haunt her for the rest of her life. So yeah I think she deserves a little slack at the end.

            However, despite good charaters, there are some “Eh” points to the plot. Towards the end of the series it started to make no sense. So District 13 exists and on top of that they did make bombs, yet they just sat back and did nothing for seventy years instead of blowing up the capitol? Uh-huh, right. I mean I understand Coin wanted to have the districts support, but really most of them would’ve been on her side if she went on ahead and blew up the capitol. Also why President Snow would allow district 13 existence is beyond comprehension for me.

            So here’s my rating of all the books.

            Hunger Games 5/5 stars- This book was simple and didn’t get into the flawed existence of District 13. It really had me in awe of the fact that these kids had to kill each other. Was it really worth living if I had to do that, or would the fear of death keep me going?

           

                Catching Fire 3/5 stars- This book started off pretty slow, but it did introduce some past victors that give us an idea of what being a victor is like. Unfortunately there isn’t much time to get to know these new characters. It does face that question I had in the first book. What if the tributes teamed up and worked together in a large group? The book was a little repetitive though with the interviews and chariot rides.  

            Mockingjay 3.5/5 stars- This book exposes the flaws of the book. Why would President Snow allow the existence of district 13? Did he really not see a rebellion coming?  Likewise why would Coin wait so long to rise up against the capitol. For as compelling the hero’s are, the villains are fairly weak. However, the character development of the hero’s sort of makes up for this flaw.  Peeta and Katniss’s relationship is strained, and Katniss is really puched to her limits. Gale’s character is reveled to be willing to sacrifice anything to bring down the capitol (While one might view this as a good thing, Gale takes things to the extreme at times).

           Even the minor characters like Johanna and Finnick get more rounded as characters. Granted I wish the relationship between Annie and Finnick was further looked into, but maybe it’s best that was shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately while the ending is realistic, it was lacking. Gale was sort of pushed off to the side, we never hear what happens to Johanna, and Haymitch goes back to being the worthless drunk he was at the beginning of the series. I wish Gale had died instead of Finnick, and I wish Haymitch would meet his end. Not because I hate his character, quite the contrary I like him, but to be honest I think death would have been better. The moment Katniss sings the folk song “The Hanging Tree”  this question pops into your head,“ Is death a better outcome then living.” It’s disturbing, it’s beautiful, it’s haunting and yet it’s just a simple song that sounds like it’s for children. Yes, it’s exactly like “Ring Around the Rosie”.

 (This is a fan’s interpretation of the song)

            Katniss’s ordeal will forever haunt her, and in the epilog we see how even with a family she still has nightmares from the arena and rebellion. In the end Mocking Jay was a decent ending, but not a great one.

            Over all I would suggest the series to everyone, just about, because even with its flaws it’s still awesome.