Review: The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave 
Rick Yancey 
457 page (Hardcover) 
Putman Juvenile
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble
 
Blurb: 

The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up. 

Review:

The 5th Wave was even better than I was expecting it to be, and I was expecting a lot. I haven't read a whole lot of alien books in the past, but this one stood out compared to those that I have read. It was well-paced, fresh, and that was one badass alien invasion.

I really enjoyed the sheer amount of thought that must have been put into imagining  the post-invasion world. It was just so well-thought out, with so many details. There were a few things that I probably never would have consider, but that really added to the novel. I loved every detail that Rick Yancey deigned to give us readers, savoring absolutely everything even when it was an awful detail that killed me.

Which brings me to the fact that I would never want to live in this book. Ever. The end of the world wasn't coming. No, it had already come and gone and anyone left was still there because of pure bad luck. But I loved watching the characters fight to live and do what was right in that horrible messed up world. It really gave me something to cheer and hope for.

I also really loved seeing the characters grow throughout the story. Each of them got so much stronger as they kept trying to fight back And some of the twists in the plot had me understanding the hardships the characters were going through At points, I didn't know if I should cheer them on or shout out to warn them that they were being tricked (only to find out I was way off anyways).

So the book was pretty spectacular, aside from the fact that when the point of view switched the first few times, it left me feeling a bit lost. But once I understood what was going on, I saw how necessary the change was. It added to the story rather than detracting from it.

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 5 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Super Six Sunday: Characters We'd Love to Be

Super Six Sunday is an meme hosted by Bewitched Bookworms (one of our favorite blogs) and inspired by "Top Ten Tuesday" from The Broke and Bookish. Today's awesome topic is Characters that We Want to Be. So below is a list of super-cool characters that we'd love be.

Super Six Characters We'd Love to Be

Angie's Picks

1. Fred & George Weasley

I'd absolutely love to be one of these two. They were always having so much fun and loving life, although they were willing to fight and die for a cause too. Both of the twins were very intelligent (even if they didn't always show it) and loved making mischief, which made the books so much more fun than they would have been without them. These were two of my favorites characters throughout the whole Harry Potter series and I'd love to be them.

2. Bonnie McCullough

Bonnie wasn't one of my favorite characters in the Vampire Diaries, but I had so much respect for her. She was just a tiny little redhead, the frailest of the whole crew, but she never backed away from a fight and was always willing to help out her friends. She also had her really cool witch roots that traced all the way back to the Druids, which makes her pretty kickass to me.

Jordyn's Picks

1. Vee Sky

Vee was one of my favorite characters in the Hush, Hush saga. She was fierce in that fun, sarcastic best friend way. The humor that Vee created at the most unnecessary of times was part of the reason why I first loved her, but she also didn't take shit from anyone. I'd be proud to be Vee.

2. Luna Lovegood

I wrote a paper once on how Luna (from Harry Potter) was one of the most inspirational fictional characters I'd ever had the pleasure of reading about, despite the fact that she's not a main character. I still think that's true. I always loved the way that Luna was so innocent but so honest  at the same time. She didn't care what people thought about her, fought with her friends no matter what, and she was very intelligent (even though there was an a lot of crazy in her). I'd love to be Luna.

Michaela's Picks

1. Stella Gunn

Stella was one of my absolute favorites out of Kristen Ashley's Rock Chicks. Rock Chick Reckoning was wonderful. I'd love to be Stella for a lot of reasons. One of my favorite things about her was the fact that she seriously knew how to rock. She could sing and play guitar with passion and had a killer music taste. She stood up for what she believed in, even though it wasn't safe for her. And she also ended up with one of my favorite guys. I'm just saying. I wouldn't mind being her.

2. Sadie Townsend

My second pick is Sadie Townsend from Rock Chick Regret (the seventh book in Kristen Ashley's Rock Chick series). Sadie was different from Stella in a lot of ways, but she was still pretty intense. Sadie faced her fears and didn't break when literally everything in her world was going wrong. She stood up to her family, which I think is always impressive, and she did what she could to make up for things that weren't her fault. She also had a stellar fashion sense. Those are a few of the reasons why I'd like to be her, although I could go on.

Those are our six picks for Super Six Characters We'd Love to Be. We hope you enjoyed them. Let us know which characters you'd love to be if you had the chance and comment below!

Review: The Brightest Kind of Darkness

Brightest Kind of Darkness
P.T. Michelle
357 Kindle Edition
Patrice Michelle
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb: 

Nara Collins is an average sixteen-year-old, with one exception: every night she dreams the events of the following day. Due to an incident in her past, Nara avoids using her special gift to change fate…until she dreams a future she can’t ignore.

After Nara prevents a bombing at Blue Ridge High, her ability to see the future starts to fade, while people at school are suddenly being injured at an unusually high rate.

Grappling with her diminishing powers and the need to prevent another disaster, Nara meets Ethan Harris, a mysterious loner who seems to understand her better than anyone. Ethan and Nara forge an irresistible connection, but as their relationship heats up, so do her questions about his dark past.  

Review: 

I've been waiting to read this book for such a long time, and I'm glad I finally got the chance. I'd heard a lot of good things about it, and I can say that I agree with most of them.

Brightest Kind of Darkness has such an original plot. I haven't read anything like it before. I really enjoyed the whole idea of Nara (love her name, by the way) dreaming her whole day the night before. But it didn't take long before things were changing. We didn't get a complete explanation as to why Nara started losing her dreams, although we did learn what happened to them. I can't wait to read the next book so I can learn more about what was going on. One of my favorite things was the repercussions that Nara caused by changing Fate. It was so logical that there something should happen when someone tries to mess with destiny. And it added a feeling of suspense while I wondered what was going to go wrong next.

I really loved all of the characters in this novel. They were all fresh and unique and I couldn't help but picture myself in Nara's position. And let me say, Nara was an amazing heroine. She tried so hard to help others, even though it could only affect her negatively some of the times. She was a very strong heroine and I loved her for that. Another character I really enjoyed was Nara's aunt Sage. Aunt Sage was that aunt that everybody wants. She was understanding, knew how to bake and make an awesome meal, and was willing to listen to Nara and support her when needed. The other character I feel I need to mention is Ethan. The love interest. Ethan was the perfect compliment to Nara's happiness and lightness, because he was all shadows and mental demons (with an interesting twist). But he wasn't sulky or gloomy. He was just trying to live his life as best as he could, which I loved.

The only complaint I have with this book is that it felt like Nara and Ethan started caring about each other very suddenly, but that might just be me. It didn't really bother me very much though because they progressed slowly and had a few obstacles along the way. There relationship was very sweet and I really liked that they had so much in common.

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 4 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!

Review: Tilt

Tilt
Ellen Hopkins
608 pages (Hardcover)
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Goodreads - Amazon - Barnes&Noble

Blurb:

Three teens, three stories—all interconnected through their parents’ family relationships. As the adults pull away, caught up in their own dilemmas, the lives of the teens begin to tilt….

Mikayla, almost eighteen, is over-the-top in love with Dylan, who loves her back jealously. But what happens to that love when Mikayla gets pregnant the summer before their senior year—and decides to keep the baby?

Shane turns sixteen that same summer and falls hard in love with his first boyfriend, Alex, who happens to be HIV positive. Shane has lived for four years with his little sister’s impending death. Can he accept Alex’s love, knowing that his life, too, will be shortened?

Harley is fourteen—a good girl searching for new experiences, especially love from an older boy. She never expects to hurdle toward self-destructive extremes in order to define who she is and who she wants to be.

Love, in all its forms, has crucial consequences in this standalone novel.

Review:

I've read a lot of Ellen Hopkins in the last few years, making my way through the majority of her works. I've loved most of it, rarely disliking her stories. Anyone who has read one of her books knows that she writes about issues and problems in society, showing darker aspects of life. I fully enjoy them, and Tilt wasn't really any different.

The first book I ever read by Ellen Hopkins was Impulse. I was kind of shocked by the content and how the content was portrayed. It took some adjusting for me, as I wasn't used to or originally a big fan of verse. I also had to adjust to the alternating point of views. Tilt was much like Impulse in those ways, containing verse writing and also multiple view points. But Hopkins is a master at telling stories like this. Her verse is elegant and I'm always very impressed at how well the stories flow. The multiple point-of-views only added to the effect of the story, letting the reader see connections we wouldn't know about otherwise. Because, while technically there are three stories being told, I only view it as one.

Speaking of the story . . . I can't explain how much this one spoke to me. It was all about how one lie can lead to another and how everything we do can affect those around us. It was about how people can change. I really loved reading the stories about Mikayla, Harley, and Shance. It was heartbreaking and inspiring all at once as I watched their lives spiral out of control and they tried to deal with it.

And, of course, the classic Ellen Hopkins ending. She left the story off, telling us what happened, but leaving it kind of open-ended, allowing readers to wonder what happened next. It shows readers that the characters' lives aren't finished yet. And I adored the ending.

Overall, I give it a hangover level of 5 out of 5.

Want to purchase the book? Check out the links at the top!