Review: Crossed (Matched #2) by Ally Condie

Crossed by Ally Condie

Genre: Dystopian

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Synopsis:

The hotly awaited second book in the dystopian Matched trilogy.

In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake. Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Review:

I was reluctant to continue the ‘Matched’ series, because I lost the drive to continue it even though I liked the first book a lot. I remember loving the poetic writing style and how beautifully the plot was written out in each chapter. But I learned not to expect the second book will be as good as the first one.

And true to my expectations, Crossed by Ally Condie was disappointing. It did have the same poetic writing style and beautiful breezy formatting and plot division. But it was too poetic that I just started getting bored really fast.

There was too much inner monologuing and way too much references to actual poems. And eventually, the book felt like it didn’t have much substance.

The plot continues where the first book left out and follows the characters Cassia and Ky, each getting their own chapters right after each other. I usually loved how some authors like to divide the chapters like that and the way we get to know what's on the mind of both the female and male protagonist. But in this book, I just hated it. And the only thing the  book made me feel was impatience because I wanted the book to end!

Crossed by Ally Condie is well-written but lacks the plot and factor to keep a reader interested. A good read for the fans of the ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Divergent’

3/5 Stars

Review: The Hands of Tarot (The Hands of Tarot #1) by S.M. Blooding

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Title: The Hands of Tarot  (The Hands of Tarot #2)
Author: S.M. Blooding
Genre: Young Adult: Steampunk, Young Adult: Fantasy, Young Adult: Dystopia
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

She killed his father.

She imprisoned and beat him.

And now she thinks he’s her trophy.

Synn El’Asim will do almost anything to prove her wrong. But he’s only proving her right.

Queen Nix awakened his Mark of power and inducted him into the House of Wands. She knew what she was doing. The son of the two most powerful Families standing against her is the ultimate prize.

What she didn’t take into consideration was that maybe he was too strong for her.

Maybe.

But the Families aren’t. They’ve been weakened and it’ll take a lot more than one young man with a powerful Mark to take on the Hands of Tarot.

This is my first REAL steam punk book and I honestly didn't think I would like it much. But to my surprise I did like it a lot more than I expected.

At the beginning of the book the story was fairly slow (like most other books) but that doesn't mean you should stop reading. So I kept on reading until I got to the part where action rolled in and Synn, our protagonist, gets captured. I'm amazed of the world Blooding has created and built. It has Sky, Land, and Water Cities. These cities each has its own technologies, language, and a whole different way of life. These worlds remind me a lot of Avatar the Last Airbender and Star Wars, which I both loved wholeheartedly.

I loved the writing style, dialogue and the character development, it went on smoothly, with enough breathing space in between. One thing that worries me about books like these. Is the author's ability to sparingly spread information from one chapter to another. I've read books that slaps on so much information on one page that is way too overwhelming for readers. I hate it when they do that and I was so pleased when Blooding managed to easily and gradually spread how the world works in Hands of Tarot, throughout the whole book rather than compiling them in a prologue or somewhere in between the book. For that, The Hands of Tarot immediately gets 4 stars!

I enjoyed each character in the book (okay, maybe I didn't enjoy Joshua, I don't like how he says "Bloody" in every sentence! Gets annoying but he still cracks me up), my favorite being Ryo, Synn's older brother. Each character comes from a different "Family" that defines their way of life, language and Mark. Marks in this book is something a character gets by the age of 10, that defines the way they fight, or simply the purpose they have in life. Some have water as their mark, or fire, storm, and other elements we have yet to see.

I love the world Blooding has created. She managed to create it in a way that it combines specs of all my favorite movies, books, etc. It's a mixture of young adult fantasy, steam punk, dystopia, sci-fi, paranormal and even some tiny bit of romance. The Hands of Tarot is a diverse book that is intense, a little bit violent, and a whole lot of awesome! I look forward to reading the next book of the series! 

Review: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1) by Tahereh Mafi

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Title: Shatter Me (Shatter Me #1)
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publisher: Harper Teen
Genre: Young Adult: Dystopian, Young Adult: Sci Fi, Young Adult: Paranormal, Young Adult: Romance
Format: Paperback
Buy: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | The Book Depository

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war– and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

Unpredictability in Disguise

Unpredictability in disguise. That is what Shatter Me is, when you think its about one thing Mafi (the author), turns it all around and blows up a huge plot twist that utterly surprised me.

Shatter Me started out under the narration of Juliette Ferrars, she's crazy, broken, dangerous and locked up in an asylum. Juliette kills with one touch, one brush of skin on skin and she murders and the way Mafi writes Juliette's story about her pain, rejection and overall loneliness is more than poetic, its dark and musky and overall creative. It's been awhile since I've read a Young Adult novel with such creative use of words. And these words become the glue that sticks you to each and every page. They make a reader not want to miss a word. Such unique writing from a debut author of 2011.

The plot at first was unclear, the story was fluid and paced at first then it began to shift and move faster with events occurring here and there. Events that keep you occupied and attached to each page.

The characters were interestingly constructed and fit each and every aspect of the story perfectly. Juliette was strong, not so witty, and keeps to herself. You can't really blame her since everyone thinks she's a monster. She was a pleasure to read about throughout the story. Though at one point she didn't get repetitive and sounded like a broken record while she kept on asking a certain someone why he cared so much. It's ridiculous. Moving on to Warner, Warner is the bad guy in the picture. He's still a teenager and is one of the most powerful men in 'The Reestablishment' (Please, refer to the synopsis if this is not clear). I actually liked Warner, until he started acting a little obsessive and a lost puppy, that threw me off. Now, Adam is the knight in shining armor and that is all I'm going to say about him. I might spoil something for the reader.

As the plot grew deeper and all hope was lost. Mafi takes us on a roller coster ride and drops the "plot twist" bomb on us. That bomb absolutely blew my mind. I haven't read such a wonderful book since the Vampire Academy last year. I'm amazed and thrilled to have finally read Shatter Me. I'm looking forward to the second installment and hopefully, my readers will find this book as unputdownable as I found it.

ARC Review + Dream Cast: Chaos (Agent's of Evil #2) by Megan Duncan

HURRAAH! I finally read something and the best part is its one of my fav series! Read on!
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Title: Chaos (Agents of Evil #2)
Author: Megan Duncan
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Young Adult: Dystopian
Format: eBook ARC
Buy: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Is any shot at living, worth dying for?

They thought they’d be safe, but a world ruled by chaos doesn’t die easily.

When Max turned on the radio transmissions assuring safety, they came. But, it wasn’t just survivors of the demon apocalypse that crawled their way into the abandoned military base. A myriad of beastly demons unlike any they’ve ever seen, came as well. Abby, and her companions, struggle to survive as the evil around them grows. Desperate to endure, and to defend their fellow survivors, Abby and a squad of fierce fighters, take on a dangerous mission that has deadly consequences.

Intensifying, seat wrenching, post-apocalyptic book! 

I have been waiting for the sequel for ages and the second I received the Advanced Readers Copy, I tried as much as possible to read it whenever I got the chance in between work and Uni. But only today did I actually sit down and read it from cover to cover. And damn. It got scarier. I don't know how Megan comes up with this stuff.

So, the book started out with Abby and the fighters or 'warriors' of the base getting ready to fight Spider Demons. It was intense, descriptive and entirely page turning. It gets gory sometimes but it isn't as bad as I thought.

New characters came rolling in and I immediately grew attached to them. Abby, Max, Carter and Taya weren't the same after the attack they went through before they reached the base in New Mexico. Honestly speaking, I didn't remember much of the first book. I read it so many books back. It's hard to keep track. I was struggling to remember what happened last time and Megan gave us some peaks and ideas to remind us what happened the book before and I'm so grateful for that!

As the story went on, the plot thickens and the demons began to get more complicated and harder to figure out. It terrifies me, that Megan writes about a world that could be ours. Hell literally breaking lose and demons of all sizes and shapes with different capabilities started to walk amongst us and nearly wipes out human race. It makes me wish, I owed a katana or a shotgun.

Anyways, the best part of the book (besides the fighting and the demons) is probably how real everything seemed. How the characters are all big emotional messes, all trying to fight to hope and stay strong. How they experience real pain and emotions like they're supposed to in a situation like theirs and most of all, how each one of them have lost someone dear to them and they're fighting to stay alive just for them. All this really makes a reader connect strongly with each character.

As usual, I hate it when the books end. Especially, when things start to get good, and we are left with such a huge cliffhanger. Either way, I loved going through another thrilling, seat wrenching, intensifying dystopian book by Megan Duncan! Now, Megan, you know the drill! Go write some more!

This is just something I thought would be fun to post up! :D I got the idea from The Indie Bookshelf's Blog Post here. I photoshopped some celeb photos for fun. :D Here are my impressions of Carter, Abby and Max. (Disclaimer: Celebrity photos belong to their rightful owners and not me)

Brenden Robinson as Carter.

I had to photoshop some glasses on him. But he sure does look good as Carter. I always though him as adorable looking as Brenden. He's definitely a cute geeky guy.

Vanessa Marano as Abby. 

This is definitely the best pick ever by The Indie Bookshelf. So I kept it as it is. I also photoshop this. :DD (Obviously).

Zac Efron as Max.

I can't help it. Zac is just hot. Okay, maybe not in Highschool Musical but everywhere else. He is perfect. *insert heart here*

Megan Duncan is a lover of all things paranormal, fantasy, sci-fi and anything just out of the ordinary. She is continually fighting her addiction to chocolate and living in her overactive imagination.

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I hope you enjoyed the post! I sure did! :D