Possession

Ok, yet another Dystopian book! I really need to check out the genres before I read a recommended book or a book for book club! This book is written by Elana Johnson and I have to say that I enjoyed it but still had a hard time with it. When I read the first chapter I got really mad because it is another Uglies/Hunger Games/Maze Runner book-people controlling other people. However, that being said, I always try to give a book 100 pages unless the language is too bad. So I gave it 100 pages and I was hooked! It's very suspenseful and has action and is a thinking book. I don't know if this is what the author had intended but for me it made me think about what the world would have been like if Satan's plan had been accepted instead of the Lord's plan. So basically we would have to do everything that Satan said so that we couldn't make any wrong choices instead of having our free agency to make our own choices. I totally fell in love with all of the characters and I especially liked the main character, Vi. I had a little bit of a hard time with the swearing in it because again-it's teenagers saying those words. That's like nails on a chalkboard for me. Even though I say them I'm an adult. I probably disliked it because I'm a mom.

Anyway, one thing I absolutely loved....NO VIOLENCE!!!! Finally, a Dystopian book that doesn't involve everybody trying to kill each other as a solution to the world's problems! What I didn't like...the ending. But let me explain. I was told that this was the only book and that it wasn't a series. So when I got to the ending I thought LAME!!!!! Once again we have a book that totally has this climactic build to a really stupid ending. HOWEVER, upon further research I found out that the author had announced on her blog a THIRD book which means that there is a SECOND book which then changed my opinion of the ending from LAME to GOTTA FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!! Once I got hooked I couldn't put the book down. It's a total page turner and very well written. It's kind of futuristic because it has a lot of technology in it. But you basically have the "Goodies" and the "Baddies." The Goodies follow all the rules. They have to wear long sleeve shirts to their wrists and pants and large hats so that the sun never touches their skin. They aren't allowed to walk with the opposite sex, talk to them or touch them until the age of sixteen. Even parents aren't allowed to touch their children in anyway-not even hold their hand. They have to listen to things called "Transmissions" which essentially is brainwashing. If you are caught walking with a boy then your transmission would be about how evil and bad and dangerous that is and the things you have to do to be good. You can get arrested for doing things like that. The Baddies live in a total different area-banished basically-and they are the people who choose what they wear and live "freely". They don't have the level of technology that the Goodies do. One example of the Goodies thinking vs. the Baddies thinking is mail. Vi (raised as a Goodie) is just appalled when her friend Jag(raised as a Baddie) tells her that mail is like the Goodies e-comms only written on paper. Vi in her mind thinks that this is bad because of all the trees that are cut down and the damage that does. E-comms are basically texts.

So, like I said it gets you thinking. The story is about Vi who thinks that some of the rules are just stupid and is labeled as a rule breaker. After 8 offenses (the last one being that she was walking in a park, after dark, with a boy while holding hands) she is sent to prison where she meets Jag who is Baddie who was caught bringing illegal tech into the Goodlands. The story is about their adventure that these two completely different lives brings. It has so many twists and turns and like I said the ending is lame-until you realize there is more to the story and you want to run right out and get the second book! I think you will enjoy it. If you like books like "The Uglies" and "Hunger Games" you will like this...except there's no violence-yay for me! Boo for you others who enjoy that sort of thing! ;)

Maze Runner

I know that I am sensitive to things but I really just can't continue on with this series. I totally got sucked into this book. It's such a page turner! I couldn't put it down and I read clear until like 4 in the morning to finish it and then I was so disappointed with the ending. I read the first two chapters of the next book because they were included in my book and I just got even more upset and decided I couldn't read the next one. It's about a group of boys who get dropped off into some unknown place and the only way out is a maze. Their memories have been erased and each month they get food and supplies and a "new boy." Everything is perfect and simulated. It kind of reminded me of "The Truman Show." You don't really know what's real and what isn't. There are some evil machines that will kill you if you are stuck out in the maze at night-called Grievers. What I liked about this book is that the boys built a community for themselves. Each boy had a specific job and role and they grew their own veggies and butchered their own livestock and so on and so forth. They had the "maze runners" who went out everyday trying to find a way through the maze. Well, the last two people to get put into the maze are kind of "special." One is a boy and the last...is a girl...the only one...who comes with a message. Basically it means that you have to figure out the maze or perish forever. Very adventurous and suspensfull and I found myself trying to figure out the maze along with them.

So the things I didn't like-it has a lot of violence and these are teenage boys. What is it with teenagers and violence in books?? The way that they figure out how to get out of the maze is totally dumb...all this hype and suspense and climatic things happen and then...really? That's how they get out and destroy the maze? Lame! Then you get to the very ending where you find out basically why they were put in the maze. Apparently the sun is too close to the earth and it's burning everything up and causing all kinds of diseases and destroying the world. These boys are the smartest, strongest, bravest-basically the best of the best. They are put into situations to see how they will figure things out and react and respond. The ones left standing will be considered the ones who will know how to solve this major problem with the world. So at the very end these adults who are controlling the environment for these teenage kids decide to have one of their own turn on them and kill a few of them so they can see what the reactions will be. I just don't get it. Then the kids get rescued but that's all a setup as well and all the rescuers get killed in the next book.

I DO NOT like having teenagers be the entertainment for the adults and that this entertainment is pure torture for the kids. I disliked it almost as much as I disliked Hunger Games for the same reason-too much violence involving teenagers who mostly don't want to be put in these situations.

My friend explained to me that this particular Genre is called "Dystopian" which is basically the opposite of "Utopian." Ok, so that makes total sense. Utopia is a perfect world where everything is total bliss. The opposite would be the world in total chaos. The worst case scenario of what could happen. I guess I don't like to think about that. I know the world isn't perfect but I hate to think that other people think the worst that can happen is that adults throw their own children into torture and watch them kill each other for fun. Maybe it's because I'm a mom and I'll have teenagers soon but really? Parents these days wouldn't want MORE for their children? They wouldn't fight to protect them? Even if it was a worse case scenario I don't think that I could let this happen. Maybe I'm thinking too much and reading between the lines too much. But I like to read for entertainment and to "get away" to new places and adventures...this book did not do that for me. I have no intentions of finishing the series especially because I talked with others who did like it and read them all and they told me it doesn't get any "better" as far as the violence is concerned and I will not let my children read this book!! So disappointed James Dashner. I expected greater things from you!

39 Clues

I haven't read them all yet but I am totally hooked on these! Yes I know these are for Juvenile readers but you learn so much in them! I started reading them because I thought my daughter might be interested in them but I wanted to know what they were about. Now I'm addicted and I love them!! I'm thinking about getting a map and then doing that push pin with yarn thing while we read the books so we can follow all the places around the world they go. Great read for boys and girls. Filled with action and suspense and they learn things to without even knowing it! I also like that each book is written by a different author. So it's kind of like that game you used to play when someone would start telling a story and then leave it in a cliff hanger spot and the next person would pick up from there and so on and so forth. Don't know if this is what they had in mind but I love the idea! Rick Riordan is one of the authors and I love all of his stuff anyway. If you haven't read them go get them...but be prepared to be sucked into the treasure hunt!