Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Reviews-Week of 5/2

Wither
What if you knew exactly when you would die? 


Thanks to modern science, every human being has become a ticking genetic time bomb—males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. In this bleak landscape, young girls are kidnapped and forced into polygamous marriages to keep the population from dying out. 
When sixteen-year-old Rhine Ellery is taken by the Gatherers to become a bride, she enters a world of wealth and privilege. Despite her husband Linden's genuine love for her, and a tenuous trust among her sister wives, Rhine has one purpose: to escape—to find her twin brother and go home. 
But Rhine has more to contend with than losing her freedom. Linden's eccentric father is bent on finding an antidote to the genetic virus that is getting closer to taking his son, even if it means collecting corpses in order to test his experiments. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to break free, in the limited time she has left.

So I had a little read-a-thon day and read Wither, and for once I didn't throw it across the room, but I was left with a lot of questions... First and foremost I liked it (I think) and I would recommend it to any teen in my library.  I think I just need to talk it out.


Things I liked about it:
  • I liked the story and the separate girl's stories. For the most part, I even liked the girls (There is a 'but' in the bottom section)
  • I liked the Jane Eyre feeling of the novel. I had the whole women in the attic feeling throughout the whole novel. It was a haunting story.
  • I LOVED the way it was written, no matter if it's within the series, I will read Lauren Destafano's next novel.
  • I liked the way the dystopian world was built int he novel. I felt like I know a lot about the world in which they live. 
  • I am not trying to be saucy, but I liked that teen sex and pregnancy were apart of the story. It was refreshing that there were no apologies, it was just apart of the characters life.
  • Gabriel was dreamy
Things I didn't like:
  • Seriously, in Florida it doesn't snow! No matter what the time frame. I wish this was justified.
  • Instead of it "just ending" like I usually complain, it ends suddenly. Like after this whole drawn out beautiful 330 pages, she announces it's her last day in the mansion... and then they just leave without anyone finding out, no fight, no confrontation, just happily ever after for Gabriel and Rhine. 
  • I am questioning my last remark already but I'll still put it out there. By the middle of this novel I was questioning how it was a series. And by the end I was really wondering... Rhine's story seems complete, but as I look back on my remarks I realize that the other character's story isn't finished. And maybe that's the direction the series will go...
  • Cecily... That's all. 
  • Linden and Vaughn kind of bored me. Linden revealed little about himself, his father Vaughn is painted as the bad guy and never, truly does anything wrong (at least he isn't confronted, Linden knows nothing of his father's actions). 
  • I'll make this point again... There was a general lack of confrontation in the novel. No one was told they did anything wrong, and no one truly changed as a person, they just changed to fit their circumstances.

Catching Fire
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol.

This book is in three different parts and I have to say it I had 3 very different feelings while reading it. 

The beginning I was kind of bored, and then very much on edge and stressed out, even more so when they announced the new rules for the quarter quell. 

When they entered the games, I enjoyed the characters smartassness. Effie and Haymitch left them up to their own devices, so for once you were able to see Katniss and Peeta truly interact without acting a part. I believe they really fell in love in this novel. And they can't even admit it to themselves.

The last part, left me confused, especially the last words of the novel. I didn't know what was going to happen and I still don't fully understand it. But I'm not meant to, that's why Mockingjay exists.

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