Bloggin' 'bout Books: Dystopia 2012 Challenge

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Showing posts with label Dystopia 2012 Challenge. Show all posts

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Just As I Feared, Things Are Not Well in the FAYZ ...

1:00 AM

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

(Note: While this review will not contain spoilers for Fear, it may inadvertently reveal plot surprises from earlier books in the Gone series. As always, I recommend reading books in a series in order.)

The FAYZ is many things—violent, scary, strange, dangerous—but there's one thing it never is: peaceful. And yet, four whole months have passed without any major problems. It's almost ... boring. Sam Temple, leader of the kids at Tramanto Beach, can't quite handle it. He should be thrilled with the relative calm, but he feels jittery, too keyed up to just relax and enjoy the unexpected break in the chaos that usually defines life in his crazy, domed world. Maybe it's because Astrid, the one person who keeps him sane, has decided to strike out on her own. Or, because he doesn't really trust Cain, the self-appointed king of Perdido Beach, to not be up to something. More probably, it's because Sam, like every other kid trapped in the FAYZ, knows nothing good ever lasts in the nightmare land they call home.

When Astrid returns to Tramanto Beach bearing disturbing news—a weird darkness is crawling up the walls of the dome that encloses the Perdido Beach area, slowly squeezing out all available light—chaos returns in full force. The thought of eternal night scares everyone, especially Sam. Desperate to control his own fear, Sam throws himself into finding a solution to the dwindling light problem. In the meantime, there's plenty of other things to worry about, among them Diana, who's pregnant with a very powerful baby; an out-of-control Freak playing lethal mind tricks; the ever-present Gaiaphage; and a little boy who's playing God with the "avatars" in Perdido Beach. So much for peaceful.

But that's life in the FAYZ.

It's no secret that I love the Gone books by Michael Grant. It's not the best written YA dystopian series out there, it's true, but the story never fails to engage me. And surprise me. Just when I think the author must be out of horrifying ways to torture his characters, he comes up with something—or someone—even more sinister. Fear, the 5th book in the series, also offers a glimpse of what's happening on the outside, which creates greater chaos, bigger risks and an even more absorbing story. I know I'm not going to shock anyone when I say I loved it. Because I did. I do. No matter how bleak and awful it is, I adore the Gone world and can't wait to see how Grant wraps it all up in the next—and last—book.

(Readalikes: Other books in the Gone series [Gone; Hunger; Lies; Plague] by Michael Grant)

Grade: B

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), violence and sexual content (more implied than graphic)

To the FTC, with love: Another library ~~fine~~ find

Labels:B Grade Books,Dystopia 2012 Challenge,Dystopian Fiction,Michael Grant,PG 13-rated Books,YA Novels | 3 bookworm(s) said...

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Ashfall Not the Most Brilliant YA Dystopian, But Not Bad Either

2:25 PM

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

Alex Halprin doesn't mind being left behind when his parents and younger sister go on vacation without him. In fact, the 15-year-old is thrilled. He's not planning any wild parties either; he just wants to enjoy a nice, quiet weekend without anyone bugging him. It looks as if Alex is going to get exactly what he wants. Then a supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park erupts, covering the Midwest and beyond in a thick, choking layer of ash. Fires break out, looting begins, and people become frantic to find food, water, shelter, help. As Alex watches his ordered world crumble into a brutal, post-apocalyptic wasteland, he forgets about video games and alone time—he just wants to survive.

After disaster strikes, Alex realizes he can't just sit around in small town Cedar Falls, Iowa, waiting for the world to go back to normal. Normal no longer exists. Alex decides to take action, to hike across 140 miles of ruined terrain in the hopes of reaching Warren, Illinois, the town for which his family was heading before the volcano blew. What he doesn't realize is just how much the world has changed in such a short amount of time. Alex thought the biggest challenge he would face on the road would be finding food, water and shelter. Not so. While those are certainly issues—vital, life-or-death issues—they're nothing compared to the monsters lurking around every corner. Only they're not monsters. Not exactly. They're good, Midwestern folks turned hungry, desperate and dangerous by their increasingly hopeless situation. Does a lone, teenage boy have any hope of surviving, let alone making it all the way to Illinois? Alex is about to find out.

Like most YA dystopians, Ashfall by Mike Mullin paints a pretty bleak picture of humanity's hope of surviving a catastrophic ecological disaster. It's not just lack of food and water that will destroy us, according to such stories, but our own selfish, savage selves. In the world Mullin describes, it takes less than a month for humans to turn into wild, cannibalistic beasts. While that may be far-fetched (let's hope), it does make for an exciting, action-packed story. While Ashfall's not especially original or brilliant, it's definitely entertaining. With a fast-paced plot, interesting enough characters and some food-for-thought situations, it's a decent YA dystopian. Not the best and not my favorite, but not bad either.

(Readalikes: The Road by Cormac McCarthy; The Last Survivors series [Life As We Knew It; The Dead & the Gone; This World We Live In] by Susan Beth Pfeffer; and a little like the Gone series [Gone; Hunger; Lies; Plague; Fear] by Michael Grant)

Grade: B-

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), violence and some sexual content (not graphic)

To the FTC, with love: Another library ~~fine~~ find

Labels:2012 50 States Challenge,B Grade Books,Cannibalism,Dystopia 2012 Challenge,Dystopian Fiction,Mike Mullin,PG 13-rated Books,Volcanoes,YA Novels,Yellowstone National Park | 2 bookworm(s) said...

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Under the Never Sky Combines Familiar and Orginal—in the Best Kind of Way

1:00 AM

(Image from Barnes & Noble)

The world outside her Pod may be a disease-ridden, nightmare-awful "Death Shop," but inside, 17-year-old Aria is kept perfectly safe. Perfectly. Safe. She feels no pain, no fear, no discomfort. Not "in the real" anyway. If she wants a little excitement—or romance or adventure o

r even a good scare—she only has to enter the Realms, a series of virtual worlds that exist inside the Smarteye she wears at all times. Aria can experience anything she wants in these faux environments without risking a thing. The Realms' slogan says it all: "Better Than Real."

When an acquaintance suggests a stunt guaranteed to provide some real thrills, Aria agrees to go along with it for one reason—she needs information about her missing mother. What she gets, astonishingly enough, is banishment. Forced to survive in the very hostile world outside the Pod, Aria has no choice but to put her trust in an unlikely ally. Perry is an 18-year-old Outsider who hates "Moles" like Aria just as much as they loathe "Savages" like him. But, since she can't find her mother without his help and he can't get what he wants without her, they strike a deal. It's a tense, infuriating partnership that both want to dissolve as soon as possible.

As Aria and Perry fight their way through a treacherous land full of every kind of enemy, they come to some startling realizations about each other, like the fact that maybe they're not so different after all. When Aria makes some even bigger discoveries about her home, her family and herself, she 's forced to admit that Perry's right about one thing at least: nothing under the Never Sky is ever what it seems. Not her home, not herself, and especially not the Savage on whom she's come to depend so wholly. But what does that mean for Aria? Does she have a home? A family? A future? And when Perry walks away after fulfilling his end of their bargain, will she have anything left at all?

Under the Never Sky, a debut novel by Veronica Rossi, combines a whole bunch of dystopian elements to create a tale that's at once familiar and original. In this case, "the usual" doesn't bother me, predictable though it may be. Why? Because Rossi takes the time to create a fascinating world, build a believable romance, and develop a plotline that veers in enough directions to keep the story interesting. Taut plotting kept me on the edge of my seat, while Rossi's careful character-construction ensured that I cared—and cared a lot—about what was happening and to whom. This patchwork quilt of a story (a little dystopian, a little paranormal, a little romance) kept me so enthralled that I read it in one day. And wanted more, more, more. In case you can't tell, I loved it. A lot.

(Readalikes: Parts of it reminded me of Feed by M.T. Anderson; other parts reminded me of Delirium by Lauren Oliver and the Chaos Walking series [The Knife of Never Letting Go; The Ask and the Answer; and Monsters of Men] by Patrick Ness)

Grade: B+

If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), sexual innuendo/content and violence

To the FTC, with love: I received an ARC of Under the Never Sky from the generous folks at HarperTeen. Thank you!

Labels:B Grade Books,Dystopia 2012 Challenge,Dystopian Fiction,PG 13-rated Books,Veronica Rossi,YA Novels | 5 bookworm(s) said...

Monday, January 02, 2012

Because Failing Miserably Is Always An Option

8:00 AM

Because I did so brilliantly with 2011's reading challenges, I decided to sign up for a whole slew of 'em for 2012. Why not, right? I actually love reading challenges, especially when I don't take them too seriously. Lots caught my eye this year and, as usual, I had a very difficult time resisting the urge to sign up for every single one. I finally narrowed it down to five. What about you? Do you love reading challenges? Hate them? Which are you joining this year?

Mine are:

Bookmark Break Challenge - Because this one is so simple (all you have to do is read), I totally rocked it last year. I'm going to see if I can win it two years in a row ...

50 States Challenge - I didn't quite finish this one last year, but I came pretty close. Plus, I enjoyed doing it. So, I'm giving it another go this year.

Adoption Reading Challenge - I've always been interested in the subject of adoption, but even more so since experiencing it for myself. This one sounds fun and informative.

You don't have to make a reading list, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm choosing Level 3, which requires that you read 12 books about adoption - 6 fiction, 6 non. I'm totally excited. Here's what I'm thinking I'll read:

Fiction:

The Red Thread by Ann Hood
Then She Found Me by Elinor Lipman
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
Girls in Trouble by Caroline Leavitt
The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian

Non-fiction:

The Blind Side by Michael Lewis
There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Fay Greene
The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans
Swimming Up the Sun by Nicole J. Burton
The Girls Who Went Away by Ann Fessler
Jessica Lost by Bunny Crumpacker and J.S. Picariello

Dystopia 2012 Challenge - I love dystopian and am always reading it, so why not join up with this one? I'm going for the Contagion level, which means reading 15 books. Here's my list:

Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi
Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne
Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Crossed by Ally Condie
Possession by Elana Johnson
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
1984 by George Orwell
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Fear by Michael Grant
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
Sapphique by Catherine Fisher
The Other Side of the Island by Allegra Goodman
The Death Cure by James Dashner

YA Contemporary Challenge - I'm also loving contemporary lately, so I decided to challenge myself to read more realistic fiction. I'm going for Level 2, which involves reading 10+ books. Here's my list:

52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody
Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler
Black Boy, White School by Brian F. Walker
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins
Paper Towns by John Green
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
How to Save A Life by Sara Zarr
The Crazy Things Girls Do For Love by Dyan Sheldon
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Dreamland by Sarah Dessen
Sparrow by Sherri L. Smith