November Book Haul

Happy New Year's! I'll be posting my video of Top 14 of 2014 soon! Probably film it tomorrow. I've been very busy on my break with Christmas and my birthday, but I'm trying.:) Hope your holidays were fabulous! See ya soon.:D

Trilogy Wrap Up: Divergent Edition

Trilogy Wrap-Up

DIVERGENT TRILOGY BY VERONICA ROTH

If you are interested in my whole Divergent review experience, you can find my review here. I’m incredibly behind on reviews and I read the last two books in this trilogy in March and figured I’d kill two birds with one stone and just finally write my reviews. Obviously this contains spoilers for the previous books in the trilogy and there’s just no getting around that.

 

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Second in the Divergent trilogy

3.5 stars (originally 4.5 stars)

Insurgent follows Tris on her journey after the battle concluded in Divergent between Dauntless-controlled people on Abnegation. Tris struggles to forgive herself for causing a close friend’s death while also facing being virtually factionless. As Tris, Four, and the rest of the gang take refuge with Amity things start to slowly fall apart and they meet the Factionless. Secrets of Four’s past are revealed and Chicago is preparing for war. I originally gave this book 4.5 stars, but since it’s been ten months since I’ve read Insurgent I’ve had a lot of time to think about this trilogy’s conclusion and it’s middle book. Insurgent is surprisingly no longer my least favorite novel. If you asked me months which book in this trilogy was the worst I would’ve shouted Insurgent because I thought it was boring, slow, and uneventful (I still read it in a little over a week despite that). After a lot of thinking I’ve come to realize Insurgent isn’t the worse book in this trilogy, but it is certainly not very good either.


Insurgent is bogged down with a lot of pointless drama and action. The constant bickering between Tris and Four was frustrating and I wanted to rip my hair out more than once.



The big reveal of why the factions and this dystopian Chicago were created was lame and unfulfilling. Plus it was a cliffhanger reveal which for me didn’t give it bonus points like some cliffhangers manage to do. This cliffhanger only infuriated me. It was completely pointless to be included at the END of the novel. The last five pages were this huge reveal and I wanted to screa 


Also the Amity and Factionless compounds were boring. Amity is a snoozefest and while I love the idea of experiencing a new faction life style apart from the ones we were previously introduced to in Divergent, this faction lacked. It was a good idea that was poorly executed. The Factionless compound was just meh for me. I didn’t care for the inclusion of these people because they were just as bad as Erudite. I don’t understand why Roth wants everyone to seem so power hungry. Maybe it has something to do with being genetically impure, but really I don’t give two shits anymore.

The main female character is Tris. Tris, you are…

Tris, I loved you in Divergent. I struggled with her character growth a bit, but I overall appreciated who she became by the end of that novel. All that went right out the train. Get it? Cause the Dauntless jump out of trains. I thought it was funny. Tris was frustrating, selfish, and childish in this novel. Her thought process irked me and she kept egging on fights with Four. I mean it was unnecessary. I lost a lot of respect for Tris in this novel.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 6.5

The main male character is Four or Tobias. I’m not sure what to call him anymore, so I’ll just stick to Four. My love for Tobias (LOL there went the whole only using Four thing) varied throughout Insurgent. There were times when my inner fangirl was strong. My heart was singing when he was in the scene and I wanted to swoon, but then he would annoy the crap out of me. This love-hate feeling toward Tobias had me very confused. I wanted to love him and at times I had no problem loving him. At others he made me want to scream.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 8

The Villain- Well, the main villain plot was slightly wrapped up only to introduce about seventy more villains. I’m so done with Roth right now. Writing a review for this novel has really started to piss me off.


Villain Scale: 6

The characters in this novel were all entertaining and they would make me laugh. Of course, Roth has to kill off at least five characters in one novel and she called off a few new ones introduced that I really liked.


Character Scale: 7.5

I’m so frustrated with Insurgent. I want to rate it four stars, but I can’t. I wanted to love this book, but there are too many problems with for me to do that. I’ve only become angry writing this review and my blood pressure is rising a bit. I think that’s all I should say about Insurgent because I WILL RAGE for Allegiant.


Cover Thoughts: I love this cover. It’s so… Amity. Which says something because this book is far from peaceful Tris’s constant hormonal arguing and fighting whether to have sex with Tobias or not. Or the fact that there’s a war about to start. This book cover is ironic.


 

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

The third and final book in the Divergent trilogy (Should I even consider this a book, thought?)

1 star (I originally rated this book five stars because I was sad this trilogy was over and wanted more, but now I don’t give a shit I’m fricking angry.)

Instead of being my normally brilliant self (LOL I should just stop) and creating my own synopsis for this novel, I’ve decided to use the Goodreads synopsis because this will help me rage because I have a lot of rage for this novel that I’ve kept bottled up, but I can’t keep it inside anymore. There will obviously be spoilers and cursing because RAGE.


What if your whole world was a lie?
Well, Tris your whole life was a lie. All of a sudden you find out the whole faction system was created by scientists as a huge science research project. People are born either genetically pure or impure. The impure genes have led to war and chaos, but there are few people with pure genes. Tris is one of these people labeled as Divergents- genetically pure.

You know what else is a lie was- that this was a good trilogy. This trilogy turned crap. I was lied to. This trilogy was supposed to be amazing and great, but instead all I got was crap marketed as a stunning conclusion and a groundbreaking dystopian trilogy.



What if a single revelation—like a single choice—changed everything?
Tris has a lot of revelations in this novel. She realizes she wants to do the do with Tobias. Tobias realizes he loves Tris 5ever. Tris wants to leave Chicago to found out what lies beyond the compound. Tobias realizes his mother may not be so bad. Tris realizes her brother is a dick, but then realizes she forgives him. Tobias realizes that he isn’t genetically pure like Tris and just exhibits the symptoms. Tris realizes she is invincible- even to a death serum. Tris realizes that her dumbass has been shot by a doctor in the science research facility and takes a bullet for her dickheaded brother- leading her to fucking die. Tobias realizes Tris is fucking dead. Tobias realizes he rules Chicago now and decides to get over his fear of heights and spread Tris’s ashes on the zip line.

I realize Veronica Roth is a cop out and this trilogy is shit. Divergent is the only book worth reading. Fuck Allegiant. I’m hundred percent done trying to make up excuses that this trilogy has a good conclusion because it doesn’t. How can you make Tris survive a death serum, but kill her off with a bullet? I’m sorry Roth, but your logical fails and I’m not going to try to make excuses for this shit book because I’m done.


What if love and loyalty made you do things you never expected?
I’ve lost my love and loyalty for this trilogy after ten months. I don’t care anymore and I wouldn’t recommend this trilogy. ONLY READ DIVERGENT! It is the only thing worth reading.


You wanna know why there’s a fricken wave on the cover? The cover doesn’t fit any of the faction themed symbols. My theory is the publishers wanted to remind me every time I look at Allegiant’s cover I wanted to burst into tears. Not because Tris died. No because this could’ve-been-great trilogy turned to complete SHIT.


Another thing that really bothers me is this whole genetic impurity and purity crap. Like what? What does any of this mean? All I got from the explanations was info-dump, bigger info-dump, mound of info-dump, and look-a-trash-lot-sized info-dump. I’m not satisfied with Roth’s explanation for things because they make no sense. There is no sense in this genetically pure and impure crap. Wanna know why? Because there will always be good and bad people. There will always be people who fight for what they believe in and people who tear other people down. There will never be a perfect utopian society where everyone has a white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a dog, lives in the suburbs, and is morally acceptable. That is not how humanity works. I don’t understand why Roth decided to use genetics and combine it with good and evil. I do understand that Roth’s attempt at being a different kind of dystopian only fueled in pissing me off.



The main female character is Tris. Tris, you have made me pissed. I’m so done with your bullshit. I don’t care anymore. I wanted you to survive because you should’ve survived. Instead you got a copped out hero-send-off. I’m disappointed in your characterization and was it was left off. I do appreciate you finally coming to terms with all your sorrows and sins. Sadly it was for nothing. Believe it or not: I am sad Tris died because it wasn’t the death she deserved.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 6

The main male character is Tobias. Tobias, you sound a lot like Tris in POVs. That’s not a good thing. I should love you, Tobias. I fell so hard in Divergent, was lukewarm in Insurgent, but now I dislike you. I completely dislike Tobias. I feel ashamed to say that now, but I dislike Tobias in Allegiant. So I’m just going to pretend like Tobias-Allegiant never happened.


Swoon Worthy Scale: 5

The Villain- Once again, Roth introduced about twenty more villains before dealing with one. The drama was concluded though.


Villain Scale: 4

Uriah… *cries* I’m unsatisfied with these characters. I read somewhere that Roth that in the future Christina and Tobias get together after the epilogue.

Roth just keeps digging a deeper hole for herself.


Character Scale: 7

I’m left angry, empty, and unsure of this trilogy. This should’ve been a great trilogy. It could’ve been, but I see so many flaws and I had so many issues with it. I’m just angry. I don’t know if I’ll read any of Roths other works, but hopefully I do one day decide to give her another shot. Until then I’m out.



Cover Thoughts: I like the cover. I’ve already expressed deeper thoughts about it above.

What are your thoughts on this trilogy? Did you get as angry as I am? Let's discuss down below!

Night of Pan by Gail Strickland

Night of Pan by Gail Strickland

First in the Oracle of Delphi trilogy

3.5 stars

Thaleia is supposed to marry a man she doesn’t wish to marry. She runs away in the middle of night after being taken by the priests for her ritual in preparation for her marriage. She finds herself in the mountains and meeting a satyr, the god Pan. From there on Thaleia’s life is completely uprooted and she learns that she is an important part in saving Greece. I’m surprised by this one. I started it on a whim because my copy on my computer was about to expire but I wasn’t expecting to like it very much. In fact, I thought I would DNF it quickly and move on. That wasn’t the case at all and I’m happy it wasn’t. The atmosphere of this novel is adventurous. Thaleia is always up to no good and it makes Night of Pan a fast-paced novel. I do think that there was too much going on in chapters and in the plot overwhelm. This book is tiny (254 pages) and there was no down time, which isn’t a bad thing, but the constant surprises and info-dumping gave me a headache.


I love the Greek mythology in this novel. It’s very heavy. In fact, this whole novel is just Greek mythology. There are gods present, but it’s not god heavy like most mythology YA reads. It’s an overall plus for me and it was what made reading Night of Pan enjoyable.


The main female character is Thaleia. I like Thaleia. She’s mischievous, strong, and smart. I really like her character, but my biggest problem with her is that she has four or five prophecies surrounding her greatness and all that jazz. Nobody is that special. Special snowflake in Greek times.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 7.5

The main male character is no one because embrace the Oracle life. You belong to the Gods and don’t need no man.


Swoon Worthy Scale: ----

The Villain- There’s a war; a big war that is solved quickly and is a little disappointing. It was over too quickly and didn’t feel authentic.


Villain Scale: 5

I was incredibly annoyed by Sophia, Thaleia’s best friend. She wasn’t a very good friend and she betrayed her only to be forgiven. They didn’t even fight over the betrayal, it was just brushed under the rug and that really bothered me.


Character Scale: 4

This is very entertaining. It’s good fun. I didn’t like how it ended though. Cliffhangers in unnecessary places are annoying. I’m not sure if I’ll read the sequels, but I’m glad I read Night of Pan. I highly recommend it if you are looking for a quick read or in the mood for authentic mythology.


Cover Thoughts: I like the roses and the girl reminds me of Medusa, but I’m not really sure if that was supposed to be the point.

Video Review Batch #1

I've decided to compile a bunch of books I've read and make a review mash-up of them. So here are five of the books I've read not recently, but a while back.

 

Some of these I've written reviews for and some I haven't (most likely I haven't) but here are the links to reviews I've written for these books if you're interested. Hopefully those reviews will be up soon, but I don't have a lot of time so I haven't written too much.

Jackaby by William Ritter

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Have you read any of these books? What are your thoughts?

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

4 stars

I’ve always thought that the best way to go into a Suma novel is to know almost nothing about it. When I went into Imaginary Girls all I knew was that the cover was gorgeous and that the main protagonists were sisters. I went into 17 & Gone only knowing that the main character was trying to crack the case of a missing girl and then becoming obsessed with several other missing cases. I went into The Walls Around Us only knowing it was written by Suma. I didn’t even read the summary and I think all I need to say about Suma’s work is…

But since I’m reviewer and I’ve been slacking on reviews ‘cause I’m absolutely horrible and have decided to get a social life, I’ll actually articulate my thoughts on this novel without using just one gif.

If you are curious what this book is about… then the briefest summary I can give you without spoiling the major plot is that Ori and Violet were best friends… until something went wrong and one of them ended up with Amber in a place she never expected to be. That’s literally all you need to know. I don’t want to spoil anything because not going into this book with any knowledge was what had me turning the page and biting my nails in anticipation for the reveal. I consider Suma to be one of the best YA authors I’ve read. She has an entrancing style that I just breeze through and find myself easily lost in.


This book opens up in a really weird way. Don’t let the beginning trip you up, though. It has a purpose… a purpose I wasn’t expecting Suma to use. Also this book is set in Canada. I don’t read very many Canadian settings, but this one was interesting. This book is simply put a “typical Suma”. This sounds weird for someone who hasn’t read any of her works before, but all of her elements are there. Lyrical writing, dark atmosphere, haunting characters, and the ability to leave me in chills once I close to book (or my PDF file). I did find this to be Suma’s most suspenseful novel so far. The only thoughts going through my head while reading were, “What’s going to happen?” “What’s the secret/ twist?” “Where’s this going?”


We have two POVs, which is very different from Suma’s usual style, but then again I’ve noticed that she never sticks to a particular writing POV in her novels. They always vary.


The main female characters in this one are Amber, Violet, and Ori. Amber is my spirit animal for books. I can totally see Suma’s love for books and the library in Amber’s character.
"Our private taste books showed a hint of our secret selves, and sometimes I was the only one who got to see those secrets."
This quote was during a prison break. Amber had the chance to break out and run free, but she went to the library… her library. I don’t know if I liked her character though. She was enamored with Ori too much. It kind of creeped me out. Then there’s Violet who has become THE ballerina. She’s off to bigger and better things soon, but first she must visit Ori. I once again find myself loathing a Suma character. She reminded me a lot of a character is Suma’s debut novel (that I won’t mention because it’s a spoiler) with her manipulative mindset and psychopathic tendencies. She was also incredibly obsessed with Ori. Obsessed to the point where I was waiting for her to be like “P.S. I love Ori as more than a friend/ sister and that’s why I hated your bae.” Alas, that didn’t happen because Violet is just Violet. Then there’s Ori. She reminds of the same character that Violet reminds me of. It’s so weird, but she’s has her ability to make people fall for her on-sight. The thing I like about Ori is she doesn’t use people’s love and admiration against them. She’s a genuinely good person to the people in the novel.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: Amber- 7 Violet- 5 Ori- 8

The main male character is… I just think I should point out that there is never really a main Romeo in her novels, which is something I truly love and admire about her novels. A good writer is a writer who can make me love the characters without there being a love story. (But Ori did have a bae. He seemed to love her and it was adorable in the scene I’m thinking of.)


Swoon Worthy Scale: Omitted

The Villain-

I like to think of Suma as an evil puppeteer stringing us along in her writing because fun times for her while making us squirm, plus there was a bloodbath.

Villain Scale: 8

The girls of the prison were integral in the story. I love how Suma was able to weave in their personalities without it being annoying to the flow of the story.


Character Scale: 7

I love the incorporation of ballet and prison life. Two very parallel things, but it somehow worked very well.


This book left me feeling haunted. Oh, puns! The content is one of Suma’s darker ones- taking on the theme of retribution and punishment. The twist at the end was very strange, but justice was served. Definitely not Suma’s strongest work, but still enjoyable. I highly recommend this for Suma fans or anyone curious about all the hype around her.


“Some actions remove words entirely from your vocabulary.”

Cover Thoughts: I love the cover all on its own. It’s is absolutely beautiful, but since I’ve read this I can actually appreciate it’s symbolism and the beauty of it (also the horror).

September and October Book Haul

I'm still alive I promise! I'll be around a little bit more in the next months. Hopefully if everything goes according to plan the week of Thanksgiving I will be posting my Harry Potter series review.

Catch Up Reviews

Sorry, I haven't been around lately. School is kicking my butt, my obsession with American Horror Story also meant that I didn't want to check e-mails or be social. The last few weekends have been very hectic, but I have a five day weekend and you'll probably see me again this weekend. I leave you with three book reviews. Two I hated, one I loved. All very different from each other.



Daimon by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Prequel to the Covenant series

4.5 stars

Alexandria and her mother have lived with mortals for three years. Three years away from her home and trying to forget her duty to protect demigods. After horrifying events lead Alex to Miami she finds herself on the run from daimons, the very things she’s been trained to kill. On the run from daimons and trying to find her way back to the place she escaped from- the Covenant- things are about to get crazy for Alex. The thing I love about JLA is that her writing is always fun. She’s snarky and entertaining. I always find myself loving the heroine and swooning for the hero. Being that this story is only 62 pages and I was already starting to feel this way, I’d say that Armentrout is amazing. I know that a lot of people don’t like this series because it’s a “rip-off” of Vampire Academy. I love VA and I see the similarities, but it doesn’t seem all that much the same now. Keep in mind that Obsidian was also said to be a rip-off of Twilight with aliens. If you’ve read more than one book, then you know that this because completely irrelevant as the story progresses. I’m sure the same thing will happen with this series.


For a short story, I thought Alex was great and this Seth guy sounds great. I already have Half-Blood and hope to get to it soon because JLA never disappoints.


Cover Thoughts: This cover is gorgeous. It’s not particularly different, but it is a good cover and I like it a lot.

This book can be read free online here.




Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose

1 star

Undaunted Courage chronicles the story of Lewis and Clark’s famous expedition, Thomas Jefferson’s dream of America’s expansion, and the events leading up to and after the expedition. Well, this is a nonfiction novel so I can’t pick apart characters or plots. That’s probably my biggest problem with Undaunted Courage it offers no great excitement besides that Indian battle. I read 50 full pages and then decided the easiest way to get through and enjoy this book was to skim through. I read the first sentence of every paragraph and if it pertained to my project I would read the full paragraph. I didn’t enjoy this novel in the least. It was boring, endless and it left me miserable and unsatisfied. I did learn a few things from this book surprisingly (I didn’t know Lewis killed himself and was pretty shocked by that), but I didn’t feel anything besides boredom and the feeling of impatience while reading. Nonfiction like this just isn’t my forte.


There were many maps and pictures inside this novel. They were greatly detailed and offered a lot to the expedition.


Cover Thoughts: It’s a great painting, but it doesn’t appeal to me.


 

Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn't Fly by P.T. Jones
DNF-1.5 stars

Mary doesn’t know what to think when she’s at a lame birthday party with her lame overly religious family when a boy floats up a tree and into the sky. She doesn’t know what to do when her brother starts to float to and other kids. The prospect of this novel is different and cute. I thought I would enjoy it. Sadly I didn’t. I DNFed 91 pages in. I have enough back story on this novel to say that this novel isn’t for me. The writing is painfully childish and uninteresting. The book is chalked full of bad pop culture references. This novel tries to be cool, but instead of me enjoying the references, I found myself annoyed with the author for trying so hard to appeal to younger readers.


Mary was a character who I couldn’t connect to. She had some funny lines, but she was telling me her life instead of showing it to me. I can’t stand characters like that. Mary was just one of the reasons why this book didn’t work for me.


Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 2
The “love interest” I was introduced to was a flop. I’m not sure if he was meant to be a love interest or a crush, but regardless I wasn’t interested.

Swoon Worthy Scale: 1
The Villain- I’m not really sure where this story is going, but that weird man was unsettling. I’ll give the book that.

Villain Scale: 2.5
Mary’s friends and family were present in comparison to most YA and MG novels, but I didn’t feel a family bond or a close friendship bond.

Character Scale: 2
This book was just unsatisfying and I’m sure I continued to read further instead of DNFing, I would’ve just hated it more.

Cover Thoughts: Hands reaching… I’ve never seen that used before.
Thank you, Netgalley and ChiTeen for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Have you read any of these? Let me know down below!