Review: Wither

Title: Wither
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Young Adult
Page Count: 356
Release Date: March 22, 2011
Series: n/a
Source: ARC from publisher
Challenge: 2011 DAC 
Quick Rating: 4/5
Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

In the not-too-distant future, because of genetic engineering, every human is a ticking tim bomb - males only live to age twenty-five, and females only live to age twenty. To keep the population from dying out, girls are kidnapped and sold into polygamous marriages.

When sixteen-year-old Rhine is taken, she enters a world of wealth and privilege that both entices and terrifies her. She has everything she ever wanted - except freedom. With the help of Gabriel, a servant Rhine is growing dangerously attracted to, Rhine attempts to escape before it is too late.

 Wither is haunting, beautiful, sinister, and at times, even disturbing. I actually devoured it in one sitting, which was surprising, because there were a couple of things that actually turned me off about the novel. Nonetheless, something kept me going until the wee hours of the morning, just to know what happens at the end of it all. I even had a bizarre sister-wife dream of my own after finishing!

The world Lauren DeStefano has created is scary in the fact that it seems so plausible. Genetic engineering happens already today, girls are snatched off the streets and sold in today’s society. Though, if I’m being perfectly honest, if a third World War did break out, I don’t know if I’d believe America would be the last place standing. (China has my vote!)

Rhine as the main character wasn’t irritating, though I almost felt a lack of…something. Emotion maybe? Her pull in either direction wasn’t strong enough, her hatred wasn’t fierce enough, she wasn’t as sympathetic as I expected, and she wasn’t as determined as I wanted. She had elements of all these traits, enough for me to like her and sympathize with her, but not enough for me to admire her. I wanted more of a forbidden romance out of her and Gabriel - more than a couple of stolen kisses. Though I did like the bit about him hiding June Beans in her breakfast, and the fact that they actually talked. A conversation is so rare in young adult romances these days!

Follow the jump for more!

Review: Matched

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Category: Young Adult
Page Count: 369
Release Date: November 2010
Series: n/a
Source: Library
Challenge: 2011 A-Z Challenge & Breathless Reads Tour Mini Challenge  
Quick Rating: 4/5

In the Society, Officials decide.

Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It’s hardly any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one…until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she’s know and a path no one else has ever dared follow - between perfection and passion.

Matched is a story for right now and story-telling with the resonance of a classic.

Dystopian fiction is taking over the world, and really, I think I’m okay with that. However, my only problem is that a lot of dystopia books are being insanely hyped, and I go in to it expected fireworks, and all I get are sparklers (and, ok, maybe a mortar and Roman candle or two). Which are still really fun, and keep me entertained for hours, but I’m just not as initially dazzled as I expected to be.

Matched was that way for me. It was a fast read, and when I finished, I found myself dangling the book upside down and wondering where the rest of it was. Initially, I was disappointed. But now, with a little time to think and go over my notes, I’m actually impressed.

The whole concept is, hands down, amazing. The Society had an element of the Nazi party to me (you know - kill off the old, keep only the healthiest), and it was absolutely horrifying to me. My disgust with the Officials and Society grew deeper and deeper right along with Cassia, and by the end, I wanted to punch that snarky Officer right in the face for all her meddling. And only living with 100 songs, or 100 poems, or 100 paintings? My mind can’t even wrap around that. Still, though, I felt everything was a little underdeveloped. For being a decent sized book, I was kind of surprised at the lack of real detail. Like more of an explanation between an “Aberration” and an “Anomaly”. Is there any form of religion? What is this whole war thing going on that keeps getting mentioned? What’s beyond the Outer Provinces? How was Society formed? What happened to the world as it was before? I was left with a million questions by the end, and while mildly frustrating, it left me really, really eager for the next installment.

Follow the jump for more!

Review: Mockingjay

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Category: Young Adult
Page Count: 390
Release Date: August 2010
Series: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire
Source: Library
Quick Rating: 5/5

My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss’s family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans - except Katniss.

The success of the rebellions hinges on Katniss’s willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels’ Mocking jay - no matter what the personal cost.

What can I say about Mockingjay that hasn’t already been said a hundred times over? Best book of 2010? Probably. One of the best series to ever hit the young adult shelves? Definitely.

This is the series I would hand to someone who would never in a million years give young adult a chance. I would hand this to boys, girls, young or old. I will admit, I finished this over Christmas, and upon receiving a B&N gift card, the box set of this series was one of the first things I bought. I’ve become a total Hunger Games fan girl, and there’s no going back at this point. I foresee t-shirts and key chains in my future.

The pace, as always, was fast, but never felt rushed. The entire time, I felt myself just wanting to reach out to Katniss, wanting to hug her and shake her silly all at the same time. This was probably the most tense of the books for me, understandably. There’s a lot of freaky stuff that goes on in Mockingjay! The reptilian mutts? Totally creepy.

Really, I just want to gush until I’m blue in the face. I loved Katniss, as always, and I lover her many transformations. I loved Peeta. I adored Finnick, Prim, and Buttercup. I laughed, I gasped, I cried. I  never wanted it to end. The ending was, to me, the only way it could have ended. It was perfect, and left me warm and fuzzy inside, hoping that maybe finally, Katniss could be happy. Could I read ten more installments of the Hunger Games? Of course! But I’m glad it ended where it did, and I’m actually glad I waited so long to read the series. I don’t think I would have survived the long wait between Catching Fire and Mockingjay with my sanity intact.

Final Word: Really, if you haven’t read it yet, you’re insane. Pick up this series today! It’s the perfect time, with all three out, and a movie set to start filming in 2011. Even if you don’t like YA, I can almost guarantee you will fall in love with the Hunger Games.

Overall:

Cover:

Concept:

Characters:

Tea: It only seems appropriate to give this final installment a tea that transforms. I would recommend a blooming tea.

Review: Catching Fire

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Category: Young Adult
Page Count: 400
Release Date: September 2009
Series: The Hunger Games
Source: Library
Quick Rating: 5/5

Flames are igniting. Flames are spreading. And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she’s afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she’s not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol’s cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can’t prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

There is something so wonderful and so frustrating about a good cliffhanger ending. Catching Fire has one of those endings that leaves me with my jaw hanging open and going “Huh-what? What just happened?” The whole huge plot twist is within the last couple of pages, and it’s abrupt and amazing and overwhelming all at once.

*Sorta-Spoiler* Like, where’ Peeta? Is he still alive? Where’s Katniss’s family? What happened to Gale’s family? And WTF happened  to District 12?!

Normally, I give myself a little time to absorb a book before jumping into the next, to think about my review. I am so desperate to start Mockingjay I literally hand-wrote this moments after closing the book, so I could get my Catching Fire thoughts out of my head, and stay up all night reading the final book.

I also can’t believe Mockingjay is it! I’m nervous about starting it, actually. Can it all be resolved in only one more book? And I still can’t make up my mind. I think I’m still team Peeta, but I do like Gale quite a bit too. I think I’ll just vote for Katniss to start her own pretty-boy harem. :D

Final Word: Left me even more eager than the ending of The Hunger Games did! The plot twist, not only once, but twice, is mind-boggling, and I can’t wait to dive head-first into Mockingjay.

Overall:
Cover:
Concept:
Characters:

Tea: Something with a punch! From my own shelf, I’d pick Get Charged energy tea from The Republic of Tea.

Review: The Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Category: Young Adult
Page Count: 374
Release Date: October 2008
Source: Library
Quick Rating: 5/5

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with every one out to make sure you don’t live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before - and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weight survival against humanity and life against love.

I’ll be the first to admit that I kind of avoided The Hunger Games like the plague when I first started really getting in to YA, and now I’m probably one of the last to read it. I really, really regret only picking it up now.

Katniss is a wonderful girl, with so much thrust upon her at a young age, that you can’t help but empathize with her. Her determination to never appear weak is admirable, and her strength is incomparable. I love super strong female leads, and Katniss does not disappoint at one single point - even when she lets her hard outer shell crack just a bit.  *Mini-spoiler!* The scene with Rue made me extremely teary-eyed.

I’m not going to go on and on about how wonderful this book is, because there are hundreds of reviews already out there saying the exact same thing. Hundreds of thousands of people already know how entirely awesome this series is, and I’m totally jealous I missed out on all the real Mockingjay hype earlier this summer.

Basically, I’m just really glad I have all three checked out from my library, because I just devoured the last half of The Hunger Games in one sitting, and I’m itching for more.

(As of right now, I’m totally Team Peeta, but I just feel like I haven’t seen enough of Gale yet to be absolutely firm. We’ll see how my feelings develop!)

The Final Word: If you’re one of the crazy people out there who still have not given The Hunger Games a shot need to run out right now and get them. You will not be disappointed.

Overall:
Cover:
Concept:
Characters:

Tea: Something strong and simple to represent Katniss - plain green tea would be my choice.