Book Review: Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer

Kathryn and Brooke are both amazing singers and are motivated to win an annual music competition that offers scholarship money. Though they used to be friends, they are now bitter rivals. Told from both the point of alto Brooke and soprano Kathryn, the novel makes us root for both. But only one can win. Who will it be?


RIVAL is an engaging look at the reasons friends become enemies and how bad blood sours other aspects of their lives. Though I initially had more sympathy for Kathryn, Brooke grew on me. Her characterization as the queen bee who doesn’t care about the popularity game felt unique and fresh, even if her daddy issues were fairly standard YA material. Kathryn can also be pretty clueless, especially when it comes to her one friend. The poor guy let her totally treat him like a doormat. Do unto others, Kathryn, do unto others…

Debut Author Sara Bennett Wealer keeps the tension and stakes high, resulting in a quick, satisfying read and a nail-biter of a final showdown.

RIVAL comes out in hardcover on February 15, 2011. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

Fun fact:  Sara is a fellow Kansan - and she went to KU.  Go Jayhawks!

Book Review: Choker by Elizabeth Woods

What if your best friend turned out to be dangerous? 

16 year old Cara feels like an outsider at her high school.  She has no real friends and tries to ignore the taunts of the popular girls who call her choker.  So she's excited when her best friend from her old town shows up.  Zoe is bold and independent and gives Cara confidence.  But when Cara's enemies start turning up dead, Cara has to wonder if Zoe has something to do with it.

Soooo....this is one of those novels that messes with your head.  You know, one of those that you start reading and initially dismiss as predictible and then WHOA!

Debut Author Woods builds a frighteningly effective atmosphere that's a mix of bullying, desire, low self-esteem, and mental instability.  It's an explosive combo.  Cara is a total train wreck, crush Ethan (the head mean girl's boyfriend) is hiding an atypical dark secret and Zoe is campy fun...that is until she engages in some PETA unfriendly behavior.  NOOO!

I should note that this is the first full length novel I read on my new NOOK.  I am noticing a bit of a disconnect with the material I am reading on it, which is worrying.  Hopefully I'll take to reading on an eReader soon.

CHOKER was released yesterday in hardcover. Find out more about it (and read an excerpt) on the publisher's website.

Book Review: Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers

Eddie Reeves’s father, a semi-famous photographer, has committed suicide and Eddie just wants to know why. When she meets Culler, a student of her father’s, Culler tries to help her make sense of her father’s legacy and could just possibly be the key to unlocking the mystery of his death.


Courtney Summers is my go-to author for raw YA contemporary, and once again I was not disappointed. Though I may be getting tired of the death of a loved one angle in YA, when it’s done this well, I can’t complain. Summers captures that feeling of everything feeling meaningless after such a tragedy and has Eddie, who seems like she was a “good” girl before her father’s death, acting out and taking risks a teen in mourning might very well take.

The relationships feel very real here too. Eddie’s long-term friendship with Milo is tested by both her semi-withdrawal, complicated feelings towards each other, and Milo’s crush on a girl who looks like Marilyn Monroe. Culler is an older boy, a “starving artist” as well as someone who promises answers and thus has an irresistible allure. Eddie feels let down by her mother whose grief has kept her in a bathrobe and homebound, and is annoyed by the take-charge Beth, who tries to get both Eddie and her mother functioning again despite her own pain.

FALL FOR ANYTHING comes out in paperback tomorrow. Find out more about it on the author’s website.

Book Review: Secrets to the Grave by Tami Hoag

Marissa Fordham is found brutally murdered, her four year old daughter lying barely alive at her side in a pool of blood. Sherriff’s detective Tony Mendez calls in the help of Anne Leone, teacher turned child advocate, to help with the child, the only witness to her mother’s tragic end. After some digging, it turns out Marissa had been hiding some dark secrets – one of which being that she was living under an assumed name.


SECRETS TO THE GRAVE is the second book in a mini-series that started with DEEPER THAN THE DEAD. While it can be read as a standalone, if you plan to read the first book, you should read it first as basically that whole book is spoiled here. I did not read that first book due to lack of time – but I’m sure if I read it in 6 months, I won’t remember too much of what happened in this fairly standard crime thriller.

What attracted me most about the novel was the assumed identity angle. I always find it fascinating to read about people who have changed their identities and why. Marissa’s story is quite twisted too, and the killer’s motive pretty original (if crazy unbelievable). I am usually not that good at fingering the killer, but this time, I caught on to the clues pretty easily and early on.

I did laugh quite a bit at the repeated mentions by the characters that they were living in 1986 and did not have the proper equipment, such as widespread DNA testing and computer databases, to really do their job as efficiently as they might be able to do a few years down the road.

SECRETS TO THE GRAVE comes out on December 28th. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

This has been a part of a TLC tour.  Check out the tour post for more stops!

Book Review: The Twin's Daughter by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Shouldn’t a daughter know her mother? Lucy has lived a happy, sheltered life with her affluent parents, but the arrival of a poverty-stricken woman who looks just like her mother shakes up her entire existence.


THE TWIN’S DAUGHTER is a delicious psychological historical thriller which never goes where you might expect it to. There’s a foreboding, claustrophobic atmosphere (the events of the story happen almost entirely at Lucy’s house, which she rarely leaves, over a period of a few years) which leads up to the tragic event spoiled in the official summary (which you won’t find here).

Lucy is an appealing main character and her believable relationship with neighbor boy Kit is a solid foundation in an otherwise shifting social/familial landscape. Lucy’s relationships with her mother, newfound aunt and father seem distanced in comparison and as a young teen, Lucy can only see a very small part of the big picture – a picture filled with, class-differences, jealousy, betrayal, murder, and scandal. That means a lot of what really happens is only hinted at, which made my brain hurt when I tried to untangle all the adults’ motivations after the twisty ending.

THE TWIN’S DAUGHTER is available in hardcover now. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

Book Review: Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Since the death of her younger brother, Andi can’t really make herself care about anything. Until she goes on a trip to Paris with her father and finds the secret diary of Alexadrine, a girl who lived through the French Revolution. Despite living 200 years apart, Andi discovers strange parallels in their lives and soon the past will become all too present.


Despite the fact that me and this novel got off to a rocky start (I am soooo over teens suicidal over their feelings of guilt for a loved one’s death), I really came to adore it, so much so that I had to buy a hardcover for my keeper shelf after having read the ARC.

There’s so much to love here – the exploration of classical music via a fictional composer named Amadé Malherbeau, a reimagining of might what happened to Marie Antoinette’s son Louis-Charles, a believable and sweet romance, and even of bit of time travel. It’s an immersive read, well-researched, tight and passionate.

My favorite quote:

"Life's all about the revolution isn't it?" he said. "The one inside, I mean. You can't change history. You can't change the world. All you can ever do is change yourself."

REVOLUTION is available in hardcover now. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

Book Review: Rosebush by Michele Jaffe

A fun, edgy mystery about a popular girl whose friends are not what they seem - in fact, one of them is trying to kill her.


When Jane wakes up in the hospital, she finds out she was hit by a car and left for dead in a rosebush. Jane can only remember fragments of that night, but if she doesn't piece everything together soon, her life could be in danger again.

Jane is not your typical mean girl popular type. She's into photography, and as her friend Scott tells her, tends to live her life in autofocus. She aims to please and to be loved by all, but for some, that's a reason to hate her.

There are some deliciously warped supporting characters here, and a ton of red herrings about who the killer might be - though when you find out whodunnit, it doesn't come out of left-field either, which is the mark of a good mystery in my book.

Compulsively readable!

ROSEBUSH comes out in hardcover in a little over a week on December 7th. 

Book Review: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

2008. Nya spends all day every day walking to the pond to carry water home to her family. 1985. Salva is fleeing a war and soldiers that threaten to conscript him in to the army. In a dual narrative, we see the hardships people in Sudan face through the eyes of two children.

At 115 pages, this is a slim novel, but the story of survival against the odds is so heartfelt and moving, the emotional takeaway is massive. Salva’s story is based largely on the childhood memories of Salva Dut, one of the “lost children of Sudan” who was later relocated to the US from a refugee camp. While some of his experiences were horrifying (imagine being shot at and forced to cross a river full of hungry crocodiles), the novel never sensationalizes. The detached “reporter” tone takes the edge off, making the story more suitable for young readers.

It is ultimately a story of hope and the triumph of the human spirit and is well worth the read.

A LONG WALK TO WATER will be released next Monday November 15th in hardcover. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

FUN FACT: I won an ARC of this book in a contest on the author’s website (thanks to Cynsations for the link). Included with the book was a sticky note in the back with Salva’s phone number! I am sure that it was an accident, but it served as a gut-wrenching reminder that a real person went through what I had just read. Very sobering indeed.

Book Review: Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan

Nastasya is an immortal, and she’s been partying to forget the pain of her tragic childhood for hundreds of years. But when her fellow immortal, and best friend, Incy starts using magik to hurt people, Nastasya flees to a rehab house for wayward immortals.


First off, I want to address the title. Immortal Beloved is somewhat of a misnomer, because there is no one here being loved immortally (at least not in this installment of the purported series). I was expecting something along the lines of THE ETERNAL ONES (see my review) where two people love each other across time, but instead this is more of a learning to love yourself story.

Nastasya, or Nasty as her friends call her, is a train wreck at the start. It’s interesting that she’s considered a teen protag despite her immortal age, but of course, she certainly is stunted emotionally and has aged so little physically that she looks like a teen. Nasty has a lot of demons in her past, but finally decides she wants to better her existence – or at least escape the pressure for a little while.

Enter River’s idyllic farm. Nasty finds everything boring and beneath her at first (and her snide asides are infinitely amusing), but after a lot of back-breaking work and stargazing starts to let herself heal. Since this is more of an internal process, the vast majority of the novel is either following Nasty’s daily drudgery at the farm or flashbacks from her past which shed light on her emotional state. Surprisingly perhaps, this all worked for me, and I very much enjoyed seeing Nasty emerge from her shell and interact more with the other immortals at the farm (though I must confess, I had a hard time keeping some of them apart) as well as the mere humans around the town.

There’s also a fair amount of immortal mythology and magical powers woven in which I found quite fun. I am looking forward to Nasty’s further adventures.

IMMORTAL BELOVED is out in hardcover now. Find out more about it and read the first chapter at the author’s website.

Book Review/Fan Letter: Mostly Good Girls by Leila Sales

So, this is what happened. I met Leila Sales at a friend’s dinner party back in May. She gave me a copy of MOSTLY GOOD GIRLS. I knew it had the potential to be really witty – because Ms Sales is really witty. I went back to my hotel and started reading. I started reading passages aloud to Daniel. Daniel stole the book from me and read it first. He wrote Ms Sales his FIRST EVER fan letter. Then I read it. And I now I owe Ms Sales a fan letter of my own. So here goes:


Dear Leila,

Thanks for writing a book that all of us mostly good girls can relate to. Not everyone is an outcast or a mean girl or a wallflower who falls in love with a vampire/werewolf/fairy/demon. Most of us are more like Violet – someone who makes mistakes sometimes but means well.

I loved the vignette style of the story, and how all these funny scenes at a girl’s prep school and Violet’s wry observations were woven together to form a larger tale of the ups and downs of friendship as well as the overemphasis on achievement in today’s society. Most of all I loved the six paragraphs that make up the chapter “The precious Jewells” which have to be the most hilarious paragraphs I’ve read all year.

Keep writing and I’ll keep reading,

Lenore

Find out more about the novel, which just came out, at the author's website. (There's a really awesome trailer to be seen there. Trust me!)

Book Review and Blogger Only Giveaway: Please Ignore Vera Dietz by AS King

Vera had a falling out with her best friend Charlie and then he died. Told her whole life to ignore her neighbors’ misdeeds and concentrate on her own problems, Vera’s not sure if she should share what really happened the night Charlie died and clear his name - or if she even wants to.


After legions of novels with paranormal creatures and rich girls, it is so refreshing to spend time with someone as normal as working class Vera. Sure, she’s a bit of an overachiever – working a full time job as a pizza delivery girl while still maintaining excellent grades in school – but since her social life is practically nil, she can swing it. See, all Vera really wants is to be ignored – to fly under the radar so she can emerge from high school unscathed. She doesn’t want to end up like her now absentee mother, pregnant at 17 and a stripper at 18.

There’s a bit of a mystery element to the novel as Vera slowly reveals clues about why she and Charlie were no longer speaking to each other and hints about what happened that fateful night. And although most of the narrative is in Vera’s voice, we also hear from Charlie (from the great beyond), Vera’s dad Ken (who offers up some hilarious flow charts) and even the pagoda at the top of the hill (quirky, eh?). It’s an engrossing, touching, and funny read – very different from King’s debut THE DUST OF 100 DOGS but just as special.

PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ comes out October 12th, and ARCs were in short supply. That’s why I am offering my ARC to a book blogger/reviewer who is willing to review it before the end of October. If that describes you, please leave a comment telling me your blog name, e-mail address and why you want to read/review it. I will pick a winner this Saturday, September 25th at 11:59 pm CST and send it out on Monday the 27th.

Find out more about the novel at the author’s website.

Book Review: Razorland by Ann Aguirre

This is my last book review of Dystopian August (I know - so sad!).  I have an unrelated book tour tomorrow, and will do my recap post (with a final AWESOME giveaway) on Thursday.  Look for it!

At her naming ceremony, Deuce finally receives the triple cuts on each of her arms that signify her as a huntress among her people. As a huntress, Deuce not only gathers food but also protects her underground community from wild mutant scavengers. She’s paired up with Fade, a mysterious young man who claims to have originally come from the surface. When they are sent out on patrol and discover that their nearest neighbors have been overrun, the enclave elders dismiss their concerns, and Deuce realizes her blind obedience to the enclave may not be the best course of action.


A dystopian society AND an apocalyptic wasteland in one fast-paced thrill ride? YES! Deuce’s world is pure survival of the fittest. When someone dies, they are not mourned, just thrown out to become part of the food chain. It’s a rough life, and that’s why the elders are no older than 24.

Deuce is immediately someone I liked. She’s an awesome fighter (wields a club in addition to knives) but she’s not arrogant about it. She’s been raised to be hard, but she also has an innate generosity of spirit that gives her a special connection to Fade. And Fade is definitely someone you want to cultivate a special connection to…YUM. Even though I insist time and time again that I am not big on romance, I wanted these two to get together. The fact that Deuce thinks “breeding” is for losers put a damper on things though…

I enjoyed following the story – it kept me on my toes, never knowing what would happen next. Some scenes felt like they might have been lifted from elsewhere (the cherry tasting scene was a lot like the coke scene in THE ROAD) but that could just be because I’ve read so many of these types of books where desperate people are scavenging for food.

Oh yeah…guys? This is a series. No big cliffhanger, but I do wish I could read the second book now. And the first one is not even out yet! *Sigh* These series are killing me!

My rating? 4 Zombie Chickens – An Excellent Example of the Dystopian Genre

RAZORLAND comes out in January 2011 in hardcover. Find out more about it and read the first two chapters at the author’s website.

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: Solitary (Escape from Furnace Book 2) by Alexander Gordon Smith

Back in February, I reviewed Book 1 of this series, and though it squarely aimed at teen boys and horror fans (of which I am neither), I really liked the main character Alex (a bad boy and a bully, but not deserving of the fate worse than death that is furnace prison) and his quest to make an impossible prison break.

Book 2 starts up immediately where its predecessor left off - and if you don't want to be spoiled, better stop reading now.

Alex's plan did get him and his buddy Zee out of the main population, but the river they found leads down, and they are caught and thrown into solitary. Much of the book addresses the madness that sets in when you are stuck in small, claustrophic hole in the dark.  Since this is one of my worst nightmares, I really had to disassociate myself from the book in order to keep reading.  Alex once again comes up with a clever escape plan, but this time, it wasn't as fun to follow as the first time - maybe just because the creatures that inhabit the depths of the prison were just so distasteful.

Though I'd still recommend this installment to the aforementioned teen boys and horror fans, I think I've had quite enough, thanks.  I might read the end of the third book just to see how Alex is faring by then, but I just can't follow his journey anymore.

2 Zombie Chickens - Entertaining (for some at least) but not essential.

Series order:

LOCKDOWN (read my review)
SOLITARY (coming December 2010/US, already out/UK)
DEATH SENTENCE (coming June 2011/US, already out/UK)

Find out more about the series at the author's website.

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

Lena can’t wait to get the surgery, that at 18, will cure her of the disease that took her mother – the highly contagious delirium nervosa (or in layman’s terms: falling in love). Lena’s main concern is passing the exam that will determine her future status in society. But then she meets Alex and soon becomes “infected”.


Lauren Oliver skillfully introduces us to a society where people are either afraid of love or are numb to it. For the past 43 years, the government has stamped out “messy” emotion in favor of a more ordered existence. Most accept it, as having the surgery makes you immune to heartache and pain. But of course, there are those who resist. As an “uncured”, 17 year old Lena, needs to be protected from those resisters, and there are strict measures in place to ensure her protection – a curfew, raiding parties that look for offenders, unisex education and socialization.

Though it was a bit implausible to me that a society that abhors love would allow the family unit to remain intact, putting its most vulnerable citizens – those uncureds under 18 – at unnecessary risk (if they REALLY wanted them safe, they’d lock them up in unisex dorms until they got “cured” - although that still wouldn't keep everyone safe, obviously), the world-building suited the main plot brilliantly. Because, of course, for the story to work, Lena has meet an uncured guy to her liking (and Alex fits the bill) and have the opportunity to sneak out and spend time with him.

And DAMN, if I may say so, Lena’s scenes with Alex sizzle, making the novel soar to dizzying heights of emotion.

But it isn’t just romantic love that is so well explored here. Lena has a very close relationship with her best friend Hana that is heart-breakingly real, and we also see snippets of the happy familial love she shared with her mother.

The shock ending underlines and gives even more depth to the powerful themes of the necessity of love and the meaningless of life without it. I, for one, can’t wait to read the sequel.

DELIRIUM comes out February 1, 2011. You must read this book.  Find out more about it by reading my interview with Lauren that I posted earlier today.

5 Zombie Chickens – The Ultimate Dystopian Reading Experience

See index of all dystopian Reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: The Limit by Kristen Landon

13 year old Matt lives in a world where going over your family credit limit can have serious consequences, but Matt's family is not worried.  Their father has a great job, and the family spends and spends.  One day, on a shopping spree, Matt's mother is informed that she has gone over their limit, and soon the government authorities come pick up Matt to make him work off the family's debt.

This fast-paced middle grade novel has such an interesting premise, and addresses the problem of runaway spending that many consumers engage in well.  Matt's parents are portrayed as very, very silly.  They buy expensive items they don't need and never check their account balances even though they know that going over the limit could mean that their children are taken away from them.  They both have such a serious shopping addiction that they can't stop even after Matt is taken away.

Matt has other worries.  Once at the government workhouse, he is installed on the "top floor" a paradise with everything he wants as long as he does his (difficult) work and never leaves.  Matt is a math genius, so it's no ditch digging for him.  The villian here, Ms Smoot, has a honey voice and knows that the carrot motivates more than the stick.  Yet, Matt becomes suspicious when people start getting headaches and having seizures.  Is something sinister afoot?

You bet! And this is a fun ride to find out what.

My rating?  3 Zombie Chickens - Well worth reading.

THE LIMIT is available in hardcover on September 7, 2010. Find out more about it on the author's website. 

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: Salvation City by Sigrid Nunez

Cole has been orphaned by a flu pandemic that has not only killed his parents but also large numbers of people worldwide, creating widespread panic and chaos. After he recovers from his own infection, Cole is taken in by an evangelical couple in Salvation City who have a starkly different worldview than what he grew up with.


I’ll come right out and say that this was nearly a DNF for me. At about 100 pages in, I just really wasn’t feeling it. The apocalyptic setting did not seem integral to the story, and I felt I had been drawn in on false pretences. It’s a like a regular novel dressed up in apocalyptic clothing. At the start of the story, Cole is already with his new family and we only see snatches of his life before and what happened during the pandemic in flashbacks.

The plot is spare since this is very much a character study of Cole, a character I never really warmed to. He’s a cold sort of kid, hates reading (and is actually proud of the fact he’s never read a whole book), and at first even welcomes the pandemic:

“To Cole, it was pretty exciting, albeit in a sick-making way, like watching an ultra-realistic slasher flick, or going on a roller coaster when he was still young and dumb enough to think it was a death-defying thing to do. […] It always gave him some satisfaction, seeing grown-ups lose control.” p 52-53 ARC version, may not reflect final published version.

It is an interesting idea to take a closer look at how a community who believes in the biblical end times would react to living in a post-apocalyptic world. And there are very thought provoking passages throughout. I just wish Nunez had delved deeper into the more intriguing aspects of her creation, such as the “rapture children”, or provided new insights into the evangelical Christian psyche (she isn't one herself, by the way).

I did decide to finish because the reading guide promised some scandalous happenings towards the end, but what occurs is so minor and so unexplored by the community at large that it left me with more questions than answers. Though this wasn't the best book for me at this time, if you like in-depth character studies of semi-unlikeable characters, then give it a try!
My rating? 1 Zombie Chicken - for dystopian completists only.

SALVATION CITY comes out in hardcover on September 16th. And even though the main character is 13, this is very much an adult book (as in, not YA). Find out more about it at the author's website.  (By the way, the author herself calls this "a near apocalypse and a temporary dystopia" in the Q&A on her site, and says that she was more interested in exploring Cole's circumstances than the effect of the pandemic on the world at large. Funny, I am interested in the exact opposite.)

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen

Mason lives with his mother in the shadow of the successful biomedical corporation TroDyn. One day, when Mason visits his mother at her nursing home job, Mason inadvertently awakens a comatose girl his age who insists she has to get away from “The Gardener” and seems frightened of TroDyn. Mason goes on the run with her and tries to help her figure out her past, not suspecting her past has something to do with his own.


There, I just tried to write a summary that doesn’t ruin the whole tension of the first part of the novel, like the official summary text and even the tagline on the freaking front of the book does. DO NOT read the official summary people – you will enjoy this book much more if you follow this advice.

Moving on…I really enjoyed the Mason’s characterization. After being attacked by a dog when he was five, half of Mason’s face is scarred. He’s football player big – a strong, silent type with a hero complex. He’s protective of his mother and takes to the “girl” immediately – not just because she’s hot, but also because she needs his help and doesn’t shrink from his scars.

TroDyn is also an interesting place, and it’s fun to uncover piece by piece just how fanatical they are about protecting people from the end of the world. And while most of the people at TroDyn’s motivations are clear, I never got a good read on what was up with the person who emerges as the main villain. It didn’t help that this villain has a serious case of “bumbling villain” disease.

THE GARDENER is available in hardcover now. Find out more about it at the author’s website.

My rating: 3 Zombie Chickens – Well-worth reading (especially if you DO NOT read the official summary. You have been warned.)

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review and Giveaway: Matched by Ally Condie

Cassia lives in a society that decides everything for its citizens for the greatest good of them all – even who you marry. When Cassia is matched with her best friend Xander, she is thrilled. But when viewing her matching card, another face flashes on the screen – that of mysterious classmate Ky. This seeming glitch awakens an awareness of forbidden desires within Cassia, and for the first time she begins to question a society where the individual has no right to choose.


MATCHED is without a doubt a well constructed novel, hitting all the expected beats of a YA dystopian novel. And while there may be few surprises for avid readers of the genre, there are some genuine discussion-worthy developments.

The society is set up to look to its citizens like a utopia. Strict regulations nearly guarantee you’ll live the prescribed number of years until your “final banquet”. Everyone is given the exact number of calories needed to maintain a perfect, healthy weight. The culture has been pared down to the hundred “best” of everything (poems, songs, stories, paintings, etc) so that everyone can appreciate them to their fullest instead of being overwhelmed with too much. It’s a society that rewards perfect order, but that also banishes any sort of individuality or aberration.

Cassia has always been a dutiful citizen, but she also likes to be a little different. She’s proud that she was the only one who chose the green dress for her match banquet. She thrills to the fact that her grandfather entrusts her with a forbidden poem (Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night”) before his own “good night”. And when she learns she could never marry Ky because he’s not in the match pool, that makes her more determined to find moments to spend alone with him. But could it be that even Cassia’s small rebellions are orchestrated by her society? Is there a more sinister purpose behind their interest in Cassia?

I loved the world building here (which is why I just spent two paragraphs of my review on it). It’s logical, well-thought out, chilling and thought provoking. However, the rigid society setup does have its’ downside in that I never got to fully connect to Cassia emotionally, and I was never convinced she had genuine feelings for either Xander or Ky. I felt very much like I was being TOLD how to feel, instead of actually feeling it (which, you might argue, based on the ending, is exactly what Condie was going for…but I digress).

I enjoyed this installment, but really hope that the emotional impact quotient is raised in book two.

My rating? My head gives this 4 Zombie Chickens, but my heart gives it only 3. And in that battle, when it comes to reading, my heart always wins.

Still, I can highly recommend it as kind of a must-read. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but there you go! And because I want you to read it, and because it doesn’t come out until November 30, 2010, I am giving away my extra ARC to one lucky reader anywhere in the world. Just leave a comment telling me what poem you’d make sure got into the Hundred Poems if you were a creator of this society (or if you can’t think of a poem, you can also suggest a painting or a song). This contest will remain open until August 31st at 11:59 CST and is open internationally.

Find out more about the book on the author’s website.

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore.

Book Review: The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher

Vera lives with her family in the Republic of Illinowa – what’s left of the Midwestern US in a future where the politics of water determine whether you have enough water to thrive…or not. Vera’s family is just getting by. And then she meets Kai, a boy who seems to have a limitless supply of water. When Kai is kidnapped, Vera convinces her brother Will that they need to rescue him, and the two set off on the adventure of their lives.

This one really works because of the atmosphere and world building. I really believed in this dried out land and in these dried out people, with their thick tongues, flaky skin and willingness to do anything just to get a drink. And I am a fan of anything that frames the complexities of geo-politics in an exciting way. Stracher is able to weave a convincing portrait of how people would adapt to a world where water is the most precious resource around.

I’ll admit, though, it’s not my favorite type of plot. Vera and Will’s path is more often determined for them than not, like they are being swept away by a raging river and can only hang for dear life. The teens are bounced from one dangerous situation to the next with little breathing room or time for reflection.

Ultimately, I really liked it though. Vera is sympathetic and smart and there are a host of colorful supporting characters, like the water pirate Ulysses and the harpoon wielding vigilante Sula, who are really fun to spend time with. I also liked that it ended on a high note after quite a cool final showdown.

My rating? 3 Zombie Chickens – Well-worth reading, especially for adventure fans.

This one doesn't come out until January 1, 2011 but come back later today for an interview with the author and a giveaway.

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore

Book Review: For the Win by Cory Doctorow

At some point in the (near?) future, MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) run some of the world’s biggest economies. There are millions who play for fun, and then there are the millions of “gold farmers” in poor countries who play for prestige items for their bosses to sell to the highest bidder. A diverse group of young people from all over the world get caught up in a movement that dares to challenge the status quo, trying to form a workers union across borders while staying at least one step ahead of the muscle (and police) hired by the big bosses and the gamerunners.


Sounds complicated doesn’t it? Aside from this being pitched to me as dystopia (which, honestly, doesn’t actually describe it very well) and being written by Cory Doctorow whose last book LITTLE BROTHER kept me up all night reading, I was skeptical. I have never been the least bit interested in gaming (unless you count a tetris addiction and a brief infatuation with The Legend of Zelda in the early 90s), and FOR THE WIN is long – around 500 pages.

But, while I was reading this, I LOVED every second of it. Doctorow concocts a sprawling narrative following a bunch of different characters (mostly gamers), and some of the time, the storytelling takes a back seat to pages of Doctorow telling you stuff about economic theory, finance, labor unions and confidence scams. While I can imagine this won’t interest everyone, I found it freakishly fascinating (but then, I’ve always had a thing for applied economics).

Doctorow also writes some very compelling scenes, like when Wei-Dong (real name Leonard) smuggles himself and a pimped out shipping container from LA to China or when Lu escapes a police raid into the arms of an underground broadcasting star who features him on her show. I even enjoyed the scenes “in world”, when the characters were on quests to farm gold, even though logically I should probably hate that sort of thing.

And he’s funny! He writes passages like this:

“The rest of the time, Connor’s job was to work on his Fingerspitzengefuhl. That was a useful word. It was a German word, of course. The Germans had words for everything, created by the simple expedient of bashing as many smaller words as you needed together until you got one monster mouth-murderer like Fingerspitzengefuhl that exactly and precisely conveyed something no other language could even get close to.” p 234

It was only after I put the book down, after the spell Doctorow had me under was broken, did I start to think back on some of the weaknesses – such as the uneven character development. Doctorow has a tendency to treat his characters like avatars and switch between them depending on who is most convenient to get his point across at that point in the story, without much consideration for their particular character arc. I kept asking myself questions like, what ever happened to x?

My rating? Certainly not for everyone, but I’ll give it 4 Zombie Chickens.

Find out more, and even download your own free copy (really, Doctorow WANTS you to), at the author’s website.

See index of all dystopian reviews on Presenting Lenore