Review: Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Title: Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)
Authors: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Published October 20th 2015 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Goodreads - Amazon
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I have a question. 

To myself.

"Why did it take you so long to pick up this book?!"

Honestly, if I'd known what I was getting into, I would have read Illuminae a long time ago. I guess my reasoning was that it is just so massive that I figured I needed a lot of free time when I finally started it... WRONG. It was a breeze! 

Once you start you can't stop, and it's so action-packed and written in such an entertaining way that it never feels like a long story.

I loved it, if you can't tell by now. I loved Kady and her personality, she is going through the end of her world and you can see her vulnerability bleeding through her words, and yet, so much strength. She doesn't sit around to take a chance to grieve, instead turns to what she knows best: hacking. She was an amazing character. I had my doubts of really getting to know the characters with this format, but these authors are geniuses. 

Then we also had Ezra, who I loved too. He is the yang to Kady's ying. He's always trying to find the bright side and trying to make her laugh. He always made me laugh. He has a huge, warm heart and is basically a dreamboat.

What I really liked about this book is that it showed that in life not everything is black and white. It kept me on the edge of my seat trying to figure out what was going on all the time. From the start you think you know who the villain is, bit then turns out it was just a pawn, and then there is the real villain, but wait, no, he isn't really a villain, now that's the villain, or is it not? and basically you are kept on your toes all the time.

Can't wait to continue reading this trilogy, I hope it only gets better.

Review: Alienated by Melissa Landers

Title: Alienated 
Author: Melissa Landers
Expected publication: February 4th 2014 by Disney Hyperion
Goodreads | Amazon
Young Adult Fiction / Sci-fi / Dystopian
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Alienated is a book from Disney Hyperion and as a result, I expected tons of fun times and an easy breezy story. And I did got it. With a concept like an intergalactic high school exchange program one is bound to have a good time.

Cara is our human and Aelyx is our alien. Their personalities, cultures and races couldn't be more different, but somehow they found a way to coexist in the same house. But not without a few amusing clashes though.

While I liked the whole concept of this book, I just had a 'meh' time reading it. I don't know why but it never fully grabbed me. From all the explaining of the differences between the races and, especially, all the explaining of L'eihrs, I just couldn't make myself care. And there were many points where it just got so preachy I didn't want to even keep reading.

I got tired of hearing again and again all the ways these L'eihrs are so perfect and have all these awesome abilities and whatever. I mean I am no member of Humans Against L'eihrs Occupation but I still don't want to read the same thing on and on. But I pushed through and at the end the book as a whole wasn't so bad, I liked the characters and Aelyx was hot but I just thought overall it was too preachy for me.

So really, I don't know about this one, maybe if I were younger I would have enjoyed it more but at this point in my life it just didn't work for me, though who knows you might love it!

 

Review: Uninvited (Uninvited #1) by Sophie Jordan

Title: Uninvited (Uninvited #1)
Author: Sophie Jordan
Expected publication: January 28th 2014 by HarperTeen
Goodreads | Amazon
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction
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Uninvited started off with a bang. The United States are doing some testing to filter out individuals who have a gene that's been linked with homicidal tendencies. This, as a med student, was particularly heartbreaking. I mean it goes against every human right to accuse people of something they haven't done just because they have some 'scientific proof' that they some day will. We have no means of knowing the future, why don't people get it?

 

 But anyway this is fiction and I tend to get irked off easily. But even if you know nothing about science, this book's whole plot will get you worked up. Especially after you meet our main character, Davy. Davina is a prodigy, no kidding, she can play pretty much any instrument and she sings too. Music is inside of her and that is a fact.

 

 While Davy was a little bit too naive and sometimes she was pretty thick, I still found myself rooting for her and cheering her on every page. It must be so hard (and wrong) to be judged for something you cannot change, like your DNA, but to me, Davy handled it with pride. She didn't always did the correct thing but you just now she is not malicious or evil, she is just a girl (albeit a very confused one).

 

 And then we have Sean. Who has had a horrible life since getting tested and discovered to be a positive carrier of the homicidal gene when he was just a little boy. But as much as you and I hate that this happened, it is probably what made him so compassionate and accepting. He was a big highlight of the book.

 

 The first half of the book is about Davy discovering she is a carrier and we get to see everything unwind as she struggles to accept her new reality. I ate this all up like my life depended on it. I raced through it all because it just was so action-packed (emotionally speaking) and I couldn't catch a breath to stop the feels from overbearing me. It was my favorite part.

 

 Now the second part, where the literal action happens, I wasn't that crazy for. Yeah. I liked it but somehow it seemed to me like almost a different story than what I was reading at first. It became a little too much like every other dystopian book out there, which you all know I am not a big fan of.

 

 Still, I really, really liked this story. I liked the concept and I liked that is something I can totally see really happening. I am sure there's still more to come, I can just tell from the ending. And I'm glad there's more because I haven't had enough of these characters and their story yet. Extremely recommended. One of my favorite reads of 2014 so far!

 

 

 

Review: Countdown by Michelle Rowen

Title: Countdown 
Author: Michelle Rowen
Published October 1st 2013 by Harlequin Teen
Goodreads | Amazon | The Book Depo
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I haven’t read the original Countdown with its original adult characters but I did know of it before starting the new young adult version and I did find some parts to be quite off, like in some scene what the characters did or thought made them look older. But once I shook off the feeling, I did end up liking the book.

The story is really out there, brain implants are put into people’s heads so they can watch this hardcore reality show where people face these horrible and impossible tasks that they have to pass before the countdown is over. And this time the unlucky ones are two teenagers, Kira who is kind of a street rat, and Rogan, a mass murderer and current juvie convict.

Lots of action happen, and since the point of view is Kira’s, is really cool that we get to see the struggle she goes through during the game, not knowing if she can trust Rogan who is known for being one of the most awful criminals in history but is also helping her along the way.

I did think that the whole plot and some of what happened was completely unbelievable and so crazy that I couldn’t enjoy the story just because my head was like: “Oh noooooooo way, dude. No way.”

But at the end I really thought nothing was bad about it, about the book I mean, it’s not its fault that I am so cynical and hard to please. The truth is that I did like the story line, and the characters did make me care for them, so I can say that why I am usually not a fan of sci-fi, I did end up liking it.

Review: All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terril

Title: All Our Yesterdays
Author: Cristin Terril
Expected publication: September 3rd 2013 by Disney Hyperion
Goodreads | Amazon
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While I definitely liked the story line of All Our Yesterdays, and like every other normal person, I obsessively love time travel and paradoxes and Marty McFLy; I had trouble enjoying the book like I should have.

Because even though I knew this novel is fiction, some times it was too out there for me. Yes, I know, I'm reading time travel, what did I expect? you ask. It's just that the characters sometimes were pretty unbelievable, like James, this seventeen year old genius/villain that Em called Doctor (and therefore my mind evoked flashes of Doc Emmet every time he was in a scene). I mean really? what are the odds a seventeen year old invents a time machine? it just makes me laugh. But I got past that and then what do I get? 

 

Marina/Em. That's what I get for sticking through it? a main character who annoyed me to no end. It was hard to sympathize with her because I just couldn't understand her level of infatuation. Borderline obsession, actually. And except for a few glimpses of a young James helping Marina when she fell off her bike, I didn't even understand what she saw in him or why she loved him so much.

And then her "love" for Finn was kind of ridiculous too, because you can't be in love with two guys at once and sometimes it felt like she was just dragging him along, and that's unfair. This love triangle, or whatever, shouldn't have existed.

Now, annoying characters aside. I think this novel hit its mark in terms of time travel. The old and young versions of the main characters facing each other gave the book a cool vibe of childhood fantasies meet reality. I just think the book could have done better without the love triangle and over the top drama between these three.

 

 

 

Review: The Rules by Stacey Kade

Title: The Rules (Project Paper Doll #1)
Author: Stacey Kade
Sci-Fi/Paranormal YA
Expected publication: April 23rd 2013 by Disney-Hyperion
Goodreads | Amazon
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It was seriously a long wait I had to go through for this book. I'm a fan of Ms Stacey Kade's Ghost and the Goth series, so my expectations were high and I was super excited to dive into this new book world she created. I was not disappointed.

The Rules is about a girl, half alien half human, that has to follow this series of rules (the name had to come from somewhere) so she people don't realize her true identity and the bad guys who are after her don't find her.

It's really not hard to sympathize with Ariane, she's just a young girl who wants a normal life but the scientists who created her somehow convinced her she's a freak. My heart got all sad for her situation even though she has awesome abilities like levitating things and stopping hearts (not with her dazzling alien looks or anything).

And then there's Zane, tall, popular Zane who no one bothers to understand. He has a pretty messed father who is kind of a huge jerk and treats Zane like garbage. I didn't exactly loved how quickly Zane fell for Ariane but when you think about how bad of a hard time he was having maybe he only needed love.

I think the book did a great job of explaining everything we needed to know about Ariane and the company that created her. However at times it got way into the technical aspect and stuff I'm not sure I cared about so it borderlined boring. But aside from that, i liked the way the layout for the series was spread and I'm really excited to see what's next for our heroes in the next books, there's a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of room for more action.