Armageddon has never been so entertaining!

Angelfall

Susan Ee

Website

Violence, Frightening Content

The world may be ending, but thank God this story isn't! Susan Ee's debut young adult novel, Angelfall, sets the stage for a new series which adds an interesting twist to the post-apocalyptic genre. Angels have descended to Earth with the apparent intention of destroying humanity. They've certainly succeeded in wiping out most vestiges of human civilization.

The story follows Penryn Young, who has been thrust into the role of protecting her wheelchair-bound younger sister, Paige, and their schizophrenic mother. She has to move them from abandoned building to abandoned building, staying one step ahead of the street gangs in Silicon Valley, while also keeping them safe from whatever makes the gangs stay inside at night.

One day, while moving from one hopefully safe house to another, they stumble upon a group of angels attacking one of their own, cutting off his wings. In an attempt to create a diversion, Penryn enters the fray, tossing the wingless warrior his sword. He is able to fight off his attackers, but one of them kidnaps Penryn's sister as he flies away.

Penryn nurses the angel back to health so that she can use him to find her sister. The rest of the story follows the two as they make their way to the angels base in San Francisco. Along the way they encounter street gangs, armed human resistance fighters, and something more frightening than warriors of either species.

Veronica Roth's Faction = ENGROSSING

Divergent

Veronica Roth

Official Website

Excerpt
Audio Excerpt

 violence

I hate to admit it, but I was way behind the curve on this one! Divergent has been out well over a year. The sequel (Insurgent, which I have yet to get my hands on) has been out for months. And I just got around to reading it? And I'm all about the dystopian novels! I loved The Hunger Games (I also just last week watched that movie for the first time!) Legend, by Marie Lu, was a good read. Going all the way back to Brave New World and 1984, I just love dystopian stories! So it's a little difficult for me to admit that it's taken me this long to wade into the dried up marshland of Lake Michigan in Veronica Roth's futuristic Chicago. But I stepped in, I realized that Roth's landscape was more like quicksand, pulling me deeper and deeper into her imagination.

Like most dystopian stories, the world has suffered from some devastating event or string of events and the survivors have devised a plan to restructure society in an attempt to avoid the sort of wars and violence that brought them to the brink of destruction. In Divergent, Beatrice Prior has grown up in a society that has ordered itself according to five certain virtues, with each virtue being represented by a faction of people: Abnegation (selflessness), Dauntless (bravery), Amity (peace), Erudite (intellectual curiosity), and Candor (truth). It's somewhat reminiscent of The Giver by Lois Lowry, with children being sorted into the different factions which will come to dominate their lives, especially should they join factions other than those of their families. "Faction before blood" after all! Of course which faction a person joins is completely voluntary, but even after that choice is made, the person must complete their faction's initiation and be installed as members. Otherwise, they will be doomed to live on the streets among the other factionless, only surviving because of the kindness of the Abnegation.

172 Years Reading This Book

172 Hours on the Moon
Joan Harstad
Official Website
Excerpt

 Language, Frightening Situations

I heard a representative of the publisher of 172 Hours on the Moon tell about how terrifying it is. After reading the book, I now understand that she was terrified because it is her responsibility to promote it. Johan Harstad's book centers around three teenagers who are chosen via worldwide lottery to take part in NASA's first trip back to the moon in 40 years. Mia, from Norway, only agrees to go because she wants to create publicity for her band. Midori plans to use the mission as her chance to leave Japan for good and settle in the U.S. Antoine just wants to put as much distance as possible between he and his ex-girlfriend.

In the chapters before the launch, Harstad gives indications that the mission won't go as smoothly as planned. Something spooky happened on the last mission, scary enough to keep NASA away from the moon for a few decades. Unfortunately, the book does not follow through on the promised suspense. First of all, this is supposed to be a book about scary stuff happening on the moon, but the characters don't even leave earth until half way through the book. Harstad used too many pages trying to set the scene and build up the characters and he wasn't even successful doing that. None of the teens are particularly sympathetic and the adults are completely unrealistic.

Flat characters would be fine if the suspense and action were able to carry the day. But that just didn't happen in this case. Even after they reached the moon and some freaky stuff started happening, there was just too little action. The events that did occur were generally unrealistic or insufficiently depicted. Overall, 172 Hours on the Moon is just a poorly written book. It seemed to me more like 172 Years Reading This Book. If it weren't for the fact that I was planning to review this book for the blog, I would have stopped long before the liftoff!

Crossbow toting assassin nuns? Yes please!

Grave Mercy
Robin LeFevers
Official Website
Excerpt

 Violence, Adult Situations

I was pleasantly surprised by Grave Mercy. And considering the fact that I had been eagerly anticipating this book for months, that's no easy feat! I fully expected it to be an entertaining story, it just wasn't exactly the story I was expecting. Set in medieval  Brittany - which is now part of France, but was then a duchy fighting to maintain its independence - Grave Mercy is the first installment of Robin LaFevers' His Fair Assassin series. Told in first person, the book centers around Ismae, who flees a brutal arranged marriage and is raised in a convent. But she didn't get your usual Catholic school education. The nuns at the convent of St. Mortain didn't whack people on the knuckles with rulers. Think battle axes instead!

Actually they'd lean toward subtler weapons: knives, daggers, garottes, crossbows, poisons. The convent of St. Mortain raised assassins. Not your typical convent, but then Mortain wasn't your typical Catholic saint. He was the Breton god of death, dressed up in Catholic robes to appease the Church, which didn't look too kindly on local pagan deities. Ismae was marked from birth as belonging to Mortain and the convent trained her to do his will.

Crossbow toting assassin nuns? Yes please!

You can see why I would be so excited to read this book. I was all geared up for an 549 pages of bloody action! Maybe the page count should have tipped me off that I'd be in for something a little different. What starts out as a medieval version of Ally Carter's Gallagher Girls series - minus the boy troubles and with far less comedy - quickly turns into a story of aristocratic intrigue and court politics as Ismae leaves the convent in order to protect the adolescent duchess of Brittany from scheming advisers and backstabbing barons. I've got no problem with that! I happen to love history and politics. I found it very interesting learning about medieval Brittany and its struggle to maintain independence from France, especially since LaFevers faithfully carried over most of the people and events from the documented annuls of history. (Read the author's note for more on the subject of historical accuracy.)

Lady Luck Has a Black Heart

Badass, Katana-wielding Vampire Heroine!

The Immortal Rules
Author: Julie Kagawa

Official Website
Excerpt

 Violence, Language

I have yet to read the immensely popular Iron Fey series, so The Immortal Rules was my introduction to the work of Julie Kagawa. Based on the first installment of this action filled vampire series, I need to further acquaint myself with the writing of one of the Young Adult world's brightest stars.

Set a few generations in the future, the Blood of Eden series centers around Allison Sekemoto, an unregistered scavenger living in a vampire controlled city were she must beg, borrow, and steal just to survive. During a foraging mission outside the safety of the city's walls, she and her gang are attacked by a swarm of rabids - creatures which were once human but are now mindless almost vampires. Think of the rage-consumed zombie-esque monsters from the film 28 Days Later, but with vampire strength, fangs, and sensitivity to sunlight. The monsters kill her friends and are about to finish her off when she's rescued by a dark stranger who offers her a choice. She can either die of her wounds or become what she hates most. I'll let you guess which she chooses, but just remember if she went with "A" then this would a shorter, much less interesting story.

So that's the background, now for my thoughts and ramblings. I have to admit that it took me a little while to get into this story. But once Kagawa was able to fully sink her fangs into me, she just wouldn't let go. I couldn't explain why until I finished the book and began analyzing it for this review. It turns out that I didn't find Allie all that likeable. I didn't completely dislike her like I did Ember Morris from Kristen Simmons' Article 5. (Read that review here). And it's not like she went off the deep end for 300 pages when her vampire boyfriend she's known for two seconds abandons her to the cliff-jumping werewolves in order to keep her safe. So I didn't hate Allie, I just didn't really like her. That is, until she became a badass, katana-wielding, rabid-slaying vampire. Allison Sekemoto's character was a little reminiscent of the character Selene (played by Kate Bekinsale) from the movie Underworld.

I Hunt Killer Stories!

I Hunt Killers

Author: Barry Lyga

Official Website

Preview (10 Chapters) & Short Prequel

Violence, Gore, Language, Adult Situations

And finding Barry Lyga's book was one of the most satisfying ends to a hunt I've ever experienced! I knew from the start that I was on the trail of something really good. Finding a story about a guy whose father is a notorious serial killer (over 100 murders) who raised him to follow in daddy's bloody footprints made me feel like a lion catching the scent of a particularly juicy gazelle. And with each masterfully written page I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins.

I love the concept for I Hunt Killers. It's somewhat reminiscent of the TV show Dexter, what with a kid being taught from an early age the best methods of brutally murdering a person without getting caught. In both cases, the protagonist struggles mightily against the monster within them. Barry Lyga did a fantastic job of keeping me in suspense about whether or not Jasper "Jazz" Dent would be able to keep his own demon at bay. He made me feel Jazz' agony about the horrors he had seen as well as the paralyzing fear of what he might become as a result.

As far as Jazz' father, Billy Dent is one of the more terrifying characters I've encountered, even if he is largely absent, appearing mainly in dreams, flashbacks, and discussion of his past crimes. The other primary characters, Sheriff G. William Tanner, friends Howie and Connie, The Impressionist, and Gramma are all well rounded, realistic characters who add depth to the story of Jazz' struggles to hunt down a serial killer and avoid becoming one himself. Lyga also includes enough potentially shady secondary characters to keep you guessing about the true identity of the latest monster to unleash a reign of terror on the small town of Lobo's Nod.

Realistic details of crime scene investigation and human physiology add even more realism to this dark tale which is part murder mystery, part psychological thriller, and all around great read. I would just like to include this one reader's advisory: Reading this book is likely to cause you a lot of sleepless nights, either through fear of nightmares involving serial killer Billy Dent or Christmas Eve style anticipation of the sequel which Santa Lyga currently has scheduled to deliver through your chimney in Spring 2013.