Review: Hereafter by Tara Hudson

Can there truly be love after death? 

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life or her actual death, she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive. 

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.
Thrilling and evocative, with moments of pure pleasure, Hereafter is a sensation you won't want to miss. 

Hardcover, 404 pages

Published June 7th 2011 by HarperTeen
(info grabbed from GoodReads)

What teenager is this forward?  Ridiculous quote time!  I think three from the first 100 pages will suffice:

"'Beautiful.  Too beautiful for people not to have noticed you the other night.'"

-Joshua pg 35

"'...otherwise I'm crazy and I'm talking to a beautiful, electrified, imaginary girl.'"

-Joshua pg 71

"'Anyway, it doesn't matter where we go, I just want to be wherever you are.'"

-Amelia pg 87

Joshua, I do believe you are crazy.  I understand some odd behavior from Amelia since she's been dead for a mysterious length of time and hasn't brushed up on how to act like a non-dead-and-desperate person.  But Joshua?  His only reason for wanting to be around Amelia is "UR BEAUTIFUL AND I SAW YOU IN THE WATER WHEN I DIED.  WEIRD."  Granted Amelia's main reason for wanting to be around Joshua is also his looks, added with the fact he's the only person who can see her so, you know, slim pickings.  I don't like it.  It's not even insta-love; it's insta-attraction and nothing else.  No chemistry.  Just stupid.

  

Also, all mysterious-ness is forced.  All questions regarding Amelia could be answered with a minute of research.  And on that note, if I was a ghost and suddenly starting to remember my previous life, I think I'd be more interested in that than following around a boy who is perfectly aware of who he is.  Furthermore, if I were a boy hanging around a ghost only I could see who didn't even remember her last name, I would start investigating.  Immediately.  This book is written in the modern age (or not stated otherwise), and Joshua doesn't even think to look up recent obituaries on his smart phone?  Or go look up old newspaper articles about a girl who died in the river?  No desire to know the unknown?  What the hell! 

There is no love between HEREAFTER and me.  It is unfortunate, because I don’t like to not like books, but this one was a complete dud with me.  Momo and the infinite sadness.

Final Thought: Zero.  Just zero, no toadstools.

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Hero by Alethea Kontis

Rough and tumble Saturday Woodcutter thinks she's the only one of her sisters without any magic—until the day she accidentally conjures an ocean in the backyard. With her sword in tow, Saturday sets sail on a pirate ship, only to find herself kidnapped and whisked off to the top of the world. Is Saturday powerful enough to kill the mountain witch who holds her captive and save the world from sure destruction? And, as she wonders grumpily, "Did romance have to be part of the adventure?" As in Enchanted, readers will revel in the fragments of fairy tales that embellish this action-packed story of adventure and, yes, romance.

 

Hardcover, 304 pages

Published October 1st 2013 by Harcourt Books

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

This book was a huge let down.  I adored ENCHANTED with its magical world chock full of fairy tales and was thrilled to read the sequel.  HOWEVER.  This sequel does not live up to any of my expectations.  Maybe the bar was set pretty high after how much I loved ENCHANTED, but HERO honestly doesn’t even come close on any level to the amount of enjoyment of its predecessor.

HERO follows Saturday Woodcutter, Sunday from the first book’s next oldest kin.  The non-magical sister gets a fantastical tale of her own: whisked away to a mountain cave inhabited by a witch, Saturday faces danger and excitement, with a touch of romance.  It sounds like this story couldn’t go wrong.

My first bone of contention?  Saturday.  Saturday Woodcutter is not nearly as fun to read as her little sister Sunday.  Whereas Sunday was whimsical and dreamy, Saturday is tomboyish and … boring.  She is a generic I-wish-I-were-a-boy character that had no original spunk.  Her lack of personality made reading her adventure tiresome, and I just couldn’t keep reading.

Next issue: the writing is pretty bad.  Alethea Kontis excels at writing interesting dialogue.  Other than that, everything gets confusing and isn’t described nearly enough -- there was never a moment where there was a beautifully painted picture of what was going on.  It seemed like guesswork whenever there was any action, where this was less of a problem in ENCHANTED.  The characters were what pulled you into the story and kept things interesting in addition to helping the reader find their way through the somewhat lacking prose.  In HERO, where I had no connection to the main character, the writing issues were all the more apparent and unforgivable.

HERO ended up being completely dissatisfying and disappointing.  I had other issues that I decided if I fully disclosed, this would turn more into a rant than review.  If you’re a fan of ENCHANTED, then you probably are going to pick up this book regardless.  Maybe with a bit of warning the reading experience will be more enjoyable for you.

Final Thought: 2 out of 5 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott

Trained in the magical art of shadow-weaving, sixteen-year-old Suzume is able to re-create herself in any form - a fabulous gift for a girl desperate to escape her past. But who is she really? Is she a girl of noble birth living under the tyranny of her mother's new husband, Lord Terayama? Or a lowly drudge scraping a living in the ashes of Terayama's kitchens? Or is she Yue, the most beautiful courtesan in the Moonlit Lands? Whatever her true identity, Suzume is destined to use her skills to steal the heart of a prince in a revenge plot to destroy Terayama. And nothing will stop her, not even the one true aspect of her life- her love for a fellow shadow-weaver.

Hardcover, 447 pages

Published April 24th 2012 by Candlewick Press

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

I was really expecting to like this one. 

For supposedly being a retelling of Cinderella set in an alternate version of Japan with a moon kingdom, there is surprisingly little magic.  And what magic is there has very little spark for me.  This one is really struggled to hold my attention.  I could see where the book was going at every turn and that it is a story of revenge, but I'm just not feeling any urgency with the story.  Everything feels drawn out and wordy.  Rather than flowing right along like a river, the story moves like a trickling creek that is about to run dry.  I think SHADOWS ON THE MOON is a good book, maybe a great book to some, but overall just not for me.

I was worried when reading the description that SHADOWS ON THE MOON would be similar to CINDER, in that they are both retellings of Cinderella, they have Asian inspired settings, and that they both involve a moon kingdom.  However, all of those similarities just lay on the surface of both books; at their core, they are nothing alike.  CINDER is a science-fantasy retelling whereas SHADOWS ON THE MOON is a slower paced tale of revenge that has very little in common with the traditional Cinderella tale.  And it has no robots, which makes me sad.

Speaking of things that make me sad, the pacing also felt off.  The story would stop and go as I was reading and I personally don’t like playing red-light-green-light with books.  I like a nice flow, which unfortunately, I did not get with SHADOWS ON THE MOON.  One thing that also worsened the slow pacing was the lack of urgency.  All these terrible things happen but we’re not going to do anything other than wait.  Let’s hurry up and wait.  Not digging it.

Basically this all adds up to: this book wasn’t for me.  If you’re looking for an anger fueled journey of revenge riddled with self-mutilation and a lot of reflection in a semi-magical Japan, SHADOWS ON THE MOON is for you.  If you want a story with a bit more of a kick and excitement, maybe look elsewhere.  Whatever you do, happy reading

Final Thought: 1 out of 3 moon bunny toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

Hardcover, US, 418 pages

Published September 27th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

(info grabbed from GoodReads)

I’m not one to throw around the term Mary Sue, but… Mary Sue.  Mary Sue Mary Sue Mary Sue.  MARY SUE LIKE WOAH.  Fo’ rizzle.  What makes her a Mary Sue, you might ask?  Per Wiktionary, it is defined as a fictional character, usually female and especially in fanfic, whose implausible talents and likeableness weaken the story.  Karou fits this bill, minus the bit about fanfiction.  She is graceful, beautiful, smart, physically strong and tough, idealized by her classmates as an artist in an art school, and a bunch of other positive traits.  However, you can have a “flawless” character and still make it work.  For example, June in Legend by Marie Lu is a prodigy, but cocky and impulsive.  Another example is Clara from Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, where in the book it is a problem how she is too perfect.  I read almost half of The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, and not one issue arose from how perfect Karou was.  Seriously, Karou is not a real person, there is no confusion over that.  The issue for me was that she couldn't be a real person.  Because perfect people spontaneously combust in real life -- everyone knows that.

For me, her perfection weakened the story.  I couldn’t connect to her.  I like characters to have problems other than external ones; some inner conflict is much loved.  Maybe it developed later in the story, and I really went back and forth with finishing the book.  It boiled down to me thinking that the promise of better was not worth it.  A book should be able to hold my attention and make me care within two hundred pages.  Since it didn’t, I decided it wasn’t worth my time.  There are too many books to read, and no time to waste on a book that I may have to struggle the rest of the way through.

I do love the use of chimeras, though.  Chimeras are not everywhere in YA lit so far (but who knows, maybe they’re the next mermaids), and I wanted to like this book based on that fact alone.  But even the underused mythological creatures combined with the mystery forming around them in the story were not enough to pull me in.  Even sitting here thinking of the premise, I’m like, “Why don’t you like it?  I mean, read that synopsis again.  There’s something wrong with you, Momo.”  Because I do often talk to myself using third person.  Aloud.  Anyway, I think Karou’s lack of imperfections repelled me from the book.  And it is just so sad.

This book is much loved, but it isn’t for everyone.  Maybe it’s for everyone except me, and that’s fine.  But here’s my opinion, internet.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Final Thought: 2 out of 5 sparkly perfect toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky

Maddie lives in a world where everything is done on the computer. Whether it’s to go to school or on a date, people don’t venture out of their home. There’s really no need. For the most part, Maddie’s okay with the solitary, digital life—until she meets Justin. Justin likes being with people. He enjoys the physical closeness of face-to-face interactions. People aren’t meant to be alone, he tells her.

Suddenly, Maddie feels something awakening inside her—a feeling that maybe there is a different, better way to live. But with society and her parents telling her otherwise, Maddie is going to have to learn to stand up for herself if she wants to change the path her life is taking.

In this not-so-brave new world, two young people struggle to carve out their own space.

Hardcover, 309 pages

Published May 23rd 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Books for Children

(summary grabbed from GoodReads)

I originally started reading Awaken during the summer, but put it down to try and read later.  I thought that maybe I missed something while reading it the first time because the characters seemed inconsistent.  Then I realized, no -- the characters were simply that: inconsistent.  Here are a few more adjectives for them: unlikable, boring, and confusing.  This book had such great promise, which is the main reason I was going to try and read it again eventually.  I thought the book presented a logical possible future: one where people don't leave the house unless necessary and where they are attached to their computers not out of want, but requirement (at least that is what I got from the blurb).  It's not much of a stretch and I can see our world going in that direction.

One problem was that Maddie's world wasn't a stretch at all.  The world is supposedly 50 years in the future, but the technology hasn't really advanced.  The only innovation that is addressed is that there is online schooling, but it hasn't completely gotten rid of person-to-person instruction as there as group in-person study sessions.  I felt like it should have been more extreme; that people did not come into contact normally -- that would have been more interesting to me.  There also were not any new cool gizmos and gadgets of the future and instead, she describes an iPad.  I seriously hope we've advanced past the iPad at least a little in 50 years. 

But my real issue was the fact that Maddie was a hot mess of a character.  I was really intrigued by the idea that the main character was the daughter of a big shot.  In other dystopian novels like Delirium, Matched, and Uglies, our heroine is a mostly normal girl living her life in her society.  Maddie was connected to power, and that could have been really cool depending on how it was explored.  Maddie could have been the dutiful daughter, following the rules, trusting her parents judgment only to have the floor ripped out from under her when she discovers the awful truths of her world.  Or she could have been rebellious, trying to tear down the walls by destroying the school system her dad is the head of and ultimately unravel the society.  This Maddie would have to be a strong character to have the balls to try and pull off that kind of stunt.  But the Maddie we get is a bit of both the Maddie's I describe.  And if you're thinking, "How could that work?"  The answer is that it doesn't.

A lot of Awaken came off as wishy-washy, like the author did not really attempt to think of a new world.  It felt more like an extension of our own current one.  One of the big things of dystopian literature is that these societies are made of absolutes, but Awaken didn't seem to have any.  For example, kids go to school online at home, but they can still meet up and go to in person study sessions or be a sports team together.  Without any kind of absolute like that, it just didn't seem feasible that people would be that outraged about online schooling.  Granted, I did not get very far (maybe 100 pages) and maybe Maddie's split personality would make more sense or the schooling system would seem more sinister if I had kept reading.  I completely lost interest though, and a book should be able to hold my attention up until the twist (if a twist exists).

Final Thought: 1 out of 8 toadstools.

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Flame of Surrender by Rhiannon Paille

Kaliel and Krishani weren't meant to meet or fall in love but they did. Krishani’s dreams of death lead him to a fate he’s terrified of - becoming the next Ferryman. His only refuge is Kaliel, the peculiar girl that swims with merfolk and talks to trees. Kaliel has a secret of her own. She’s the Amethyst Flame, one of nine apocalyptic weapons. The Valtanyana will destroy everything on Avristar to get to her. Kaliel has to choose: face them, hide or unleash the Flame.

How far would you go to save everything you ever loved?

eBook, 280 pages

Received from NetGalley (first published October 6th 2011)

(summary grabbed from GoodReads)

Flame of Surrender takes place in the ethereal country of Avristar: a high fantasy world of elves.  High fantasy isn’t my normal genre, and usually I find high fantasy dry, so I tend to avoid it.  Nevertheless, I still was intrigued by the blurb about Flame of Surrender on NetGalley.  I wasn’t disappointed as the story was extremely imaginative and had great prose, but I did have some hiccups while reading.

As I said before, the world is incredibly imaginative.  The problem I had, though, was that it was sometimes hard to follow.  I thought that the author could have gone into a little more introduction about the world so it would be easier for the reader to keep what-is-what straight.  This may have been more of an issue for me particularly since I don’t normally read high fantasy, which commonly incorporates vast and elaborate lands.  At the same time, however, the reader should never feel lost and more than once was I flipping back in my e-reader to check if I had missed something (but normally I hadn’t).

As with any book labeled YA, the romance is an extremely key element.  Though I thought the romance was cute, it felt rushed.  Their initial attraction was sweet, but the build up over the time spent apart seemed… unrealistic.  The intensity of their pining for each other seemed a little much for having had such a brief meeting.  I only found it slightly annoying and not enough of an issue for me to put the book down.

The only full criticism (the other criticisms were only half) I have is that the pace is way too slow.  There seemed to be a lot of lengthy build up for elements that were not important, and it felt like nothing was happening for quite a long stretch in the beginning.  When the characters do reunite and it seemed like the story would start to pick up, it still didn’t.  I found myself losing interest as it felt the plot had barely moved since beginning the book.

Overall, Flame of Surrender was well written and set in greatly creative world.  However, it was another book that I desperately wanted to love, but found myself barely liking.

Final Thought: 15 out of 30 magical toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

Review: Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter

 

She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.

Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

Hardcover, 404 pages

Published September 25th 2012 by Harlequin Teen

(summary grabbed from GoodReads)

I told myself I was not going to read this book. I loved the original Alice in Wonderland and it is what first got me into reading. My grandma's name was Alice and when we would watch the Disney cartoon movie, she would tell me the movie was about her. I would be like "Grandma's silly haha," but it got me curious in the story and I read the book. I fell in love with reading at that point, so yeah, I'm kind of attached to the book. I sort of don't want anything to ruin it for me. Not that one badly written story could ruin a lifetime's attachment, but… you understand.

It would be impossible for Alice in Zombieland to ruin Alice in Wonderland since the two have nothing short of details in common.  The similarity between the two novels ends with both main characters first names being Alice.  My brain made no connection between the stories; there was no "Oh I see how she did that to incorporate zombies" or "this reminds me of that scene."

None. Of.  That.

If you were looking for Alice in Wonderland meets zombie appocalypse, look elsewhere.  And it is not just the name that implies this notion: all over the cover of the book it says “Off with their heads!”  I was horrifically disappointed, as this could have been so good.  At the very least, it is a cool book to look at.

I dropped it after getting 200 pages in with still no real zombie goodness.  What I concluded from these 200 pages was that Alice was an inconsistent character.  She didn't have any defined, consistant traits.  For example, she is a sheltered and fairly modest girl in the beginning, and then marches out of her friends house in hooker heels without so much as a grimace.  This did not add up to me.  Also, I found the main love interest uninteresting, as he was so over the top with the bad boy persona to the point of ridiculousness.  I couldn’t have cared less about them getting together -- I WANTED ZOMBIES.

Final Thought: 1 toadstool for the White Rabbit in the sky

                          But it’s out of 300 so it doesn’t really count.

This review is also available on GoodReads

"Review:" Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

A devastating plague has decimated the population, and those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery makeup . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club--in the depths of her own despair--Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club, and Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find not just something to live for, but something to fight for--no matter what it costs her.

Hardcover, 319 pages

Published April 24th 2012 by Greenwillow Books

(summary grabbed from GoodReads)

Masque of the Red Death is a retelling of Edgar Allan Poe's book of the same name.  Poe is the master of creepiness, so a retelling of his classic tale would be perfect for October, right?  Well... it fell flat for me. was reading it on my Nook and got about halfway through, but grew bored.  I started skipping around, reading other books, and I just don't see myself finishing it.

It feels almost as if I'm breaking up with the book: it's not you, Masque of the Red Death, it's me.  We had a good run, but I think this is where we go our separate ways.  I treated you wrong -- cheating on you with other books.  Many other books.  All the while, I strung you along on my Nook and that was wrong.

The story simply did not resonate with me.  I could not connect with the characters, the world felt blah, and I had no sense of intrigue.  It was rather disappointing because this book has a lot going for it.  I can't see myself going back to finish this, but maybe I will.  And maybe I'll turn around and go "Omgomgomg this is best book everz!!!!!!" and fangirl out.  Today, however, is not that day.

Final Thought: 7 out of 10 breakup toadstools

Thoughts?  Non-thoughts?  Want to rate my break-up skillz?  Be sure to leave a comment! 

This "review" is also available on GoodReads