The Hallowed Ones by Laura Bickle

This was one of the big surprises for me out of the Cybils.  I'm not big into Amish stories and I hate horror, so the combination sounded really distasteful.  And, I have to say, on some level it was.  My horror hate did come through a bit.  However, it really stuck with me as a good read, and I was still having nightmares a week later through all the other books I was reading so my subconscious really latched onto it as a chilling thing!

The concept of this book is great: what happens to Amish society during the apocalypse?  And what happens to a smart Amish girl who is questioning her faith and her elders?  Katie is a great narrator and a very well-built character, showing us her humanity and her faith at the same time.  Katie is very conflicted between preserving her way of life by not going against the elders and preserving her way of life by learning what's out there and how to keep it away from their community.  This conflict is great, and serves as a driving plot that really kicks up the drama, especially for such a short read.  The pacing is good, and although the romance seems very fast and a little forced, I went with it because Alex is such a well-rounded character.  The mechanics of the apocalypse are really well done (and I really want to say more about how awesome they are, but I can't without spoiling you!).  I was so enchanted and scared out of my pants that I read this book all in one sitting and then couldn't sleep.  I think any horror fan will find it as wonderful as I did.

Outpost by Ann Aguirre

Deuce’s whole world has changed. Down below, she was considered an adult. Now, topside in a town called Salvation, she’s a brat in need of training in the eyes of the townsfolk. She doesn’t fit in with the other girls: Deuce only knows how to fight.

To make matters worse, her Hunter partner, Fade, keeps Deuce at a distance. Her feelings for Fade haven’t changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore. Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.

Deuce signs up to serve in the summer patrols—those who make sure the planters can work the fields without danger. It should be routine, but things have been changing on the surface, just as they did below ground. The Freaks have grown smarter. They’re watching. Waiting. Planning. The monsters don’t intend to let Salvation survive, and it may take a girl like Deuce to turn back the tide.

I really loved Enclave. This book, though, not so much.  Where Enclave was really a plot-driven adventure story Outpost turned into a more character-driven emotional roller coaster.  That's not necessarily bad, however it was really slow and much harder to get invested in things.  Deuce is still set on surviving, and that's really the arc of her character through the book: getting more stubborn and making the world around her something that protects her.  She has a few issues with growing up and trying to reconcile romance with her hunter nature, but that is not a very pressing issue.  Fade and stalker, on the other hand, really shine in this book.  Where they were both characters of little growth in Enclave they really made up time in this book.  I like how they both seem so similar and yet make such divergent choices.  The plot is incredibly predictable in the beginning, which isn't helped by the snail's pacing.  It gets better towards the end, and the plot twists near the climax worked well for me.  I wasn't as pleased with the big twist concerning the zombies or the cliffhanger ending, but it was not a total turn off.  In all I'd say that I'm not a fan of this book but the ending makes me hopeful that the next book in the series will be more like Enclave.

The Hunt by Andrew Fukuda

Since I'm on Vacation this week I can't do Follow Friday, so you get an extra book review instead.

Don’t Sweat. Don’t Laugh. Don’t draw attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, do not fall in love with one of them.

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can’t run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn’t hurt him and he doesn’t have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It’s the only way to stay alive in a world of night—a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him. He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

I started out loving this book’s premise. It’s a nice twist to see a plot about humans hiding in plain sight among vampires instead of vampires hiding in human society. The book doesn’t disappoint, either. The plot is refreshing, with hints of a love triangle that never pan out, a quick pace with lots of tension even though there’s little action or blood, and tons of developing introspection. The vampire society is doled out in small enough chunks that you never feel there’s an info dump going on. The character development is skillfully done, detaching the reader from the characters, especially Gene, in order to show his isolation and emotional turmoil and yet as a reader you’re still drawn to him and root for him. The other characters, though, are harder to like since you know they are ultimately the enemy, which works against some of the things the author tries to accomplish in the book. I’ve heard this billed as a Hunger-Games ripoff, and while I can see the connections I think there’s more than enough unique about The Hunt to draw new readers in.



I received a copy of this book free through NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

The Last Princess by Galaxy Craze

Happily ever after is a thing of the past.

A series of natural disasters has decimated the earth. Cut off from the rest of the world, England is a dark place. The sun rarely shines, food is scarce, and groups of criminals roam the woods, searching for prey. The people are growing restless.

When a ruthless revolutionary sets out to overthrow the crown, he makes the royal family his first target. Blood is shed in Buckingham Palace, and only sixteen-year-old Princess Eliza manages to escape.

Determined to kill the man who destroyed her family, Eliza joins the enemy forces in disguise. She has nothing left to live for but revenge, until she meets someone who helps her remember how to hope—and to love—once more. Now she must risk everything to ensure that she not become... The Last Princess.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a very long time. I love the premise of following a monarchy through a disaster instead of everyday people. It has a different flavor than your everyday post-apocalyptic dystopia. Although The Last Princess was nothing like I expected I was not disappointed in the least in how things turned out. The book is full of predictable twists and turns, but the author’s fresh take on things made me not mind so much.

The plot charges at a breakneck pace, using lots of action and drama to keep things moving. Towards the end of the book it seems too fast, though, as if you’re going so fast you’re about to fly off the tracks. I think it needed a few more pauses and lulls for the reader to catch up and absorb what’s going on. It’s almost as if the book could have benefited from another 50-100 pages even though it’s not short to begin with. Although the book had a nice wrap up it also neatly set up the sequel without leaving a huge cliffhanger, which I like.

The characters are well written. I loved Wesley and how he was presented as a complicated individual almost as much as I loved Eliza and her headstrong will to survive and save her family. I do wish we saw more of both their motivation, though. Not that either seemed to act illogically, just that the book could have benefited from some more inner monologue. Cornelius Hollister is a perfect villain, and my only beef with him is “why in the world would anyone follow him?”

In all The Last Princess was enjoyable, and I will be looking for the sequel. If you can handle a little predictability and slight pacing issues then I recommend it to you as well.

Thumped by Megan McCafferty

THE CONCLUSION TO ONE OF THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT NOVELS OF LAST YEAR

It’s been thirty-five weeks since twin sisters Harmony and Melody went their separate ways. And now their story has become irresistible: twins separated at birth, each due to deliver twins…on the same day!

Married to Ram and living in Goodside, Harmony spends her time trying to fit back into the community she once believed in. But she can’t forget about Jondoe, the guy she fell for under the strangest of circumstances.

To her adoring fans, Melody has achieved everything: a major contract and a coupling with the hottest bump prospect around. But this image is costing her the one guy she really wants.

The girls’ every move is analyzed by millions of fans eagerly counting down to “Double Double Due Date.” They’re two of the most powerful teen girls on the planet, and they could do only one thing to make them even more famous:

Tell the truth.

I think if I had to describe this book in one word it would be “convenient”. A lot of the the things in this book seem convenient when they happen. From Jondoe and Melody’s rise to fame to Harmony’s escape from Goodside things seem to flow just a little too easily. Convenient is not exactly the same as contrived, however. Things seem to flow a bit better than they do with contrived books, and there is a basis laid for all the choices characters make. And this book really is about character and choices. Characters only have the barest of plot twists to get through, leaving them lots of time for introspections and character development. Compared to “Bumped” this is where the book really shines: characters have time to grow and react to things around them rather than relying only on the plot to drive things along. Although the end wraps things up in a bow that’s a little too tidy for my liking I still enjoyed this book more than I did “Bumped” and I would recommend the series to people who like satire of America today.

This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers

It’s the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won’t stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self.

To Sloane Price, that doesn’t sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she’s failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she’s forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.

But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group’s fate is determined less and less by what’s happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside.

When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. In a lot of ways this book reminded me of “Life as We Knew It” by Susan Beth Pfeffer. The end of the world and bleak outlook certainly helped. That’s not really a bonus for me, though, because I really can’t get books like “Life as We Knew It”. I have difficulty with books where I can’t see the characters having an out, where I know that after the book their life will only get more difficult until they die. That made this book a rather hard read for me.

In other ways, though, there was a lot to like about this book. Sloane is a good narrator. I had a hard time putting myself in her place because of her experiences with abuse and her sister, but it did allow me to empathize a lot with her and her position. The way the book is written, with a lot of introspection and inner monologue, makes it easy to feel for Sloane. I even understand and feel for her when she decides to commit suicide. The language in the book is very poetic and beautiful, and there is little action to break up the pace, which actually seems like a good thing in this book. Add in that Summers is not careful with her characters, they can get dirty and say things people won’t like and get hurt and die and you get a pretty good character-driven story. Was it enough for me to get over my dislike of grim outlook books? Honestly, I’m still not sure. You can find out for yourself, though. Here’s a free excerpt of the book:

http://courtneysummers.ca/this-is-not-a-test-excerpt/

A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

It's been several generations since a genetic experiment gone wrong caused the Reduction, decimating humanity and giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Elliot North has always known her place in this world. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family's estate over love. Since then the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress, and Elliot's estate is foundering, forcing her to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth--an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliot wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she let him go.

But Elliot soon discovers her old friend carries a secret--one that could change their society . . . or bring it to its knees. And again, she's faced with a choice: cling to what she's been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she's ever loved, even if she's lost him forever.

Inspired by Jane Austen's persuasion, "For Darkness Shows the Stars" is a breathtaking romance about opening your mind to the future and your heart to the one person you know can break it.

Reading this book was a complete joy.  I loved it from the first minute to the very last page.  It was a great modern update on the Austen classic, making it understandable and relatable.  Elliot was less passionate a narrator than Kai, but more steady and reliable.  Kai was less mature and more volatile, and I liked the differences between them and how they complimented each other nicely.  It was great to see this grow and develop not only in the narration but also in the past letters.  The letters fit nicely into the world Peterfreund built for us.

And what a world it is.  I loved the backstory of genetic manipulation and uncertainty about the world.  It fit well into making a futuristic world that had science and yet didn't choose to use it, something that many authors try to create and fail at.  Rather than use dry paragraphs telling about the new world Peterfreund expertly used characters to show what the world was, from Reductionist Ro and her amazing abilities for her kind to the Luddite Baron North and his disdain for the Reductionists and "CoR"s on his farm.  In fact, if I had to find something wrong with this story it's that the worldbuilding is so amazing I'm disappointed to know that there's nothing more coming from it.  Peterfreund has said that this is definitely a one-off, and yet I really want to know what is beyond the islands and what is found on the long voyage.

I will caution readers that there's no deep meaning to the story.  It seems as if it could be a treatise on the dangers of science and genetics, or how we need to take caution with our experiments, or how science can fix what it hurts, or even where the line should be drawn between religion and science in lawmaking; but in the end Elliot seems to flip back and forth between beliefs before she seems to throw her hands up in the air and ignore the whole issue.  I don't know if this is good or bad, I was left wanting a bit more but it is a hard subject to have a definite "side" to fall on.

Among the Nameless Stars by Diana Peterfreund

Before Kai joined the Cloud Fleet, he wandered… AMONG THE NAMELESS STARS

Four years before the events of FOR DARKNESS SHOWS THE STARS, the servant Kai left the North Estate, the only home he’d ever known, and Elliot North, the only girl he ever loved, in search of a better life. But the journey was not an easy one.

Featuring narrow escapes, thrilling boat races and at least one deadly volcanic wasteland.

This was a great introduction to “For Darkness Shows the Stars”. Kai is a compelling narrator, and he shows the worldbuilding and setting without making it seem heavy-handed. His experiences make the reader really feel for him, admiring his passion and tenacity and feeling heartache for his failures. I think the only downpoint for me was Kai’s age. I was very surprised to learn that Kai was only 14. He felt like a much more mature narrator than that, and his feeling of connection and his harshness towards Elliott both felt like they had a dated bitterness and a maturity to them. Perhaps making Kai 14 was the only way to make the timeline work for the longer book, but I feel that Kai should have been a bit more age-appropriate.


**note 1** - this review was written before I read “For Darkness Shows the Stars”.

**note 2** - you can download and read this story here.

Plague by Michael Grant

It's been eight months since all the adults disappeared. GONE. They've survived hunger. They've survived lies. But the stakes keep rising, and the dystopian horror keeps building. Yet despite the simmering unrest left behind by so many battles, power struggles, and angry divides, there is a momentary calm in Perdido Beach. But enemies in the FAYZ don't just fade away, and in the quiet, deadly things are stirring, mutating, and finding their way free. The Darkness has found its way into the mind of its Nemesis at last and is controlling it through a haze of delirium and confusion. A highly contagious, fatal illness spreads at an alarming rate. Sinister, predatory insects terrorize Perdido Beach. And Sam, Astrid, Diana, and Caine are plagued by a growing doubt that they'll escape - or even survive - life in the FAYZ. With so much turmoil surrounding them, what desperate choices will they make when it comes to saving themselves and those they love? Plague, Michale Grant's fourth book in the bestselling Gone series, will satisfy dystopian fans of all ages.

I love how this series is really starting to catch its wind. With this book it takes the sharp left turn into fantasy that had been hinted at in the last three books, however, I consider that a strong suit. In giving up any contrivance of a scientific basis and setting up a world where there were rules but they were governed by one person’s notions there is so much explanation and holes that can be just skipped over. Thankfully it also gets us away from the nuclear power plant where most of my scientific issues reside (darn that military nuclear training and the nuclear engineer husband making books difficult!).

This book also took a turn for the better because I really started to have hope for the characters. There is so much more in the expansive world of the FAYZ than what we’ve been shown, and this book showed us that with a little sleight-of-hand our characters can discover new places and new ways to survive (I had been wondering about the military base for a long time, it was on the map the whole time, and military bases have grocery stores and industrial cafeterias too!). I also liked the growth of the female characters in this book. Astrid’s breakdown was a long time coming, and I think it really played out in a realistic and compelling way. I really empathized with her issue and the conflict between her intellect and her morality. It was an interesting foil to the conflict with Diana’s feelings and her morality and how the two girls dealt with issues surrounding their relationships was very telling for their characters. I didn’t feel that Sam or the other boys (except maybe Edilio) grew much in this book, but that may be because I more naturally identify with girls. Although the ending was unexpected and a little *rocks fall, everything dies* I liked it. Changing up the game and surprising everyone was something that was really needed in this series. I’ll be looking to get the next book when it comes out soon because I really want to know what happens next!

This book was provided to me free by the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

Lies by Michael Grant

It's been seven months since all the adults disappeared. Gone. It happens in one night. A girl who died now walks among the living; Zil and the Human Crew set fire to Perdido Beach; and amid the flames and smoke, Sam sees the figure of the boy he fears the most: Drake. But Drake is dead. Sam and Caine defeated him along with the Darkness--or so they thought. As Perdido Beach burns, battles rage: Astrid against the Town Council; the Human Crew versus the mutants; and Sam against Drake, who is back from the dead and ready to finish where he and Sam left off. And all the while deadly rumors are raging like the fire itself, spread by the prophetess Orsay and her companion, Nerezza. They say that death is a way to escape the FAYZ. Conditions are worse than ever and kids are desperate to get out. But are they desperate enough to believe that death will set them free?

This book felt a little more contrived than the previous two, but, somehow, it also felt more coherent. I liked the character development, especially in Sam and Astrid. Their growth and the arc of their relationship was interesting to watch and it was nice to see them have to deal with day-to-day life rather than emergency after emergency. In fact, I think a lot of this book’s success lay in the few newly-introduced characters. We could concentrate on getting to know the characters we already saw better and sympathize more for them. It worked well, too. My heart was breaking with Mary’s decisions and her problems. I felt the same sadness and yet hope that Orsay was feeling. I could even sympathize with Lana and her PTSD. The new characters, on the other hand, seemed a little off. The island seemed very convenient and rather deus-ex-machina. The reveal about Petey, though, seemed to be so long in coming that I wasn’t as excited or even amused by it as I felt I should be. That’s not to say the book was entirely bad, though. Somewhere, halfway through this book, I think I finally got this series. Things stopped being about hopelessness and characters picked up and started acting instead of reacting and things got very interesting. I can’t quite pinpoint what it was or when, but I’ll be diving straight into the fourth book to try to figure it out!

Hunger by Michael Grant

It's been three months since everyone under the age of fifteen became trapped in the bubble known as the FAYZ. Three months since all the adults disappeared. GONE. Food ran out weeks ago. Everyone is starving, but no one wants to figure out a solution. And each day, more and more kids are evolving, developing supernatural abilities that set them apart from the kids without powers. Tension rises and chaos is descending upon the town. It's the normal kids against the mutants. Each kid is out for himself, and even the good ones turn murderous. But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them. The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

Although it was inevitable from the last book Hunger was even more bleak than Gone. There’s more and more of a downward spiral towards inevitable disaster, and I’m not sure I can follow to see the crash. This book has some good plot points: the continuing battle between Caine and Sam, the quickly disappearing food, further conflicts between the super-powered and the kids who haven’t developed powers, and more exposition about The Darkness. Rather than building tension, though, I really felt like these plot points were more about dog piling on an already grim situation. Instead of feeling anxious I felt hopelessness. About a third of the way through I felt similar to the kids, and I could feel the fight leach out of me as I decided I’d rather lay down and die than suffer like the kids were. Perhaps that is the aim of the author, to induce in the reader the feelings the kids are having in the book, but I wasn’t exactly pleased to experience it with no sense of hope. The cast of characters expanded in this book again, and as we got to know more of the kids better the hopelessness only increased. It actually got painful to get to know kids that you were sure were doomed. Other than the author beautifully putting the reader into the situation I had a few other problems with the book. The ending pivots on a highly strange tale involving the town’s nuclear reactor. While this justifies all the time spent describing it in Gone, it seemed very confusing. The chain of events was implausible at the least, and ridiculous as described. There are some simple ways to make things work, but the author didn’t go there which is annoying. If you are going to go to all the detail of describing a working nuclear reactor I’d think you would put in a little more work to make it accurate as well as propel the plot. The very ending finally seems to give hope to the kids, but it’s so late in the book I’m doubtful it’s going to result in real change and progress. I’ll keep reading, though, because something has me hooked and I have to see things through to the end.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back. Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization. Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

This book was hard to get into at first. I’m not sure where an Australian writer living in England learned an Ozark accent, but she had it down pretty well. That was really what was so harsh about this book: the voice of the narrator, Saba, is written in accent as if she was speaking to you. There are no quotation marks, only ‘But no I said.’ Add in the grammatical idiosyncrasies and a liberal dose of misspelled words and the result is a book that’s very difficult to get into since it’s not the way we’re used to reading books. As you read, though, the strangeness of the narrative voice forms a strong basis for the character and development of Saba. It turns from a strange way of writing to an quirk of the lead, something that shows where she came from and how much she has overcome to get to where she is. After I got over the narrative voice and started to appreciate it I found a really interesting story. Saba is harsh, uneducated, mean and unfair to her younger sister, and downright rude to most people. Somehow, though, we grow to love her anyway. I love how the narrator gives her a pet crow, Nero, from the beginning of the book. He is so loveable and smart that the reader can’t help but like Saba for his sake. Her quest to rescue her brother in the harsh, post-apocalyptic world drives the reader to look towards Lugh as well and forgive Saba of any small mistakes along the way. After all, she’s got bigger things to worry about than offending a crazy man on a boat. As Saba fights in gladiatorial battles I am still somehow rooting for her. After I met Jack I started rooting for him, too. The Free Hawks also get two thumbs up. I love a good tale of smart warrior women. In fact, I think the only thing I didn’t like was Saba’s treatment of Emmi. I loved seeing Emmi grow as a character, and even though Saba tried to deny it and hold her down as much as possible Emmi keeps rising to the occasion and showing that she’s got just as much grit as Saba does. There was also the problem with the Pinches. They didn’t seem incredibly realistic, and once you’ve reached the end of the books a lot of their actions seem insensible and illogical, making them seem more like plot devices than real characters. However, once I got past the language that is my only real complaint, which means this is an excellent story with no major drawbacks, a few different but equal examples of strong females, and an excellent romance story. I highly recommend it to everyone who can get past the writing style.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

In this electrifying debut, Tahereh Mafi presents a world as riveting as The Hunger Games and a superhero story as thrilling as The X-Men. Full of pulse-pounding romance, intoxicating villainy, and high-stakes choices, Shatter Me is a fresh and original dystopian novel—with a paranormal twist—that will leave readers anxiously awaiting its sequel.

This new release has shot to my shortlist of best books released this year. I loved the plot, the characters, and everything about it. Juliette is a broken girl, but that is to be expected when she’s been in jail for 2 years and had no human contact for almost 1. I like that she still has agency and pushes to overcome doubts that she was born wrong. I think that, in her position, it would be very easy to give in to depression and despair, and although she brushes those she always manages to pull herself back enough to keep on going. The plot in this book is great, surprising but it has a flow to it that seems very natural and makes you want to keep reading. The romance is especially good. The two characters seem to support each other while still being independent and making choices jointly. Even though he’s stronger the boy never overpowers Juliette, instead they both recognize the strengths and weaknesses of themselves and their partner and work together to utilize them to get themselves out of bad situations. The very end seemed a little forced or not well set up in the former parts of the book, but since I think it is a setup for future books I will forgive it.

Enclave by Anne Aguirre

WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

In Deuce’s world, people earn the right to a name only if they survive their first fifteen years. By that point, each unnamed ‘brat’ has trained into one of three groups–Breeders, Builders, or Hunters, identifiable by the number of scars they bear on their arms. Deuce has wanted to be a Huntress for as long as she can remember.

As a Huntress, her purpose is clear—to brave the dangerous tunnels outside the enclave and bring back meat to feed the group while evading ferocious monsters known as Freaks. She’s worked toward this goal her whole life, and nothing’s going to stop her, not even a beautiful, brooding Hunter named Fade. When the mysterious boy becomes her partner, Deuce’s troubles are just beginning.

Down below, deviation from the rules is punished swiftly and harshly, and Fade doesn’t like following orders. At first she thinks he’s crazy, but as death stalks their sanctuary, and it becomes clear the elders don’t always know best, Deuce wonders if Fade might be telling the truth. Her partner confuses her; she’s never known a boy like him before, as prone to touching her gently as using his knives with feral grace.

As Deuce’s perception shifts, so does the balance in the constant battle for survival. The mindless Freaks, once considered a threat only due to their sheer numbers, show signs of cunning and strategy… but the elders refuse to heed any warnings. Despite imminent disaster, the enclave puts their faith in strictures and sacrifice instead. No matter how she tries, Deuce cannot stem the dark tide that carries her far from the only world she’s ever known.

I loved this book a lot. I read it right after Divergent, and the similarities really jumped out at me. Deuce seemed a bit more real to me, though, and the threats in her world were more vivid, so this book holds a little more love. Deuce is such an active character, and her relationship with Fade is a really neat situation. It's refreshing to see that Aguirre has constructed a world where gender really doesn't matter and has no past patriarchy to undermine the equality ideal and yet allows characters to have romantic attachments as equals without destroying the worldbuilding. The plot is full of action and I liked how Aguirre describes things in a matter-of-fact manner that lends a little more voice to Deuce. The halfway twist is a great way of turning the plot around, and even though Fade's world is a little more boring and slower-paced than Deuce's I didn't really mind because I needed a break from all the piling-on of horror that I had in the first part and the promise of two more books makes me excuse some slowing down for worldbuilding and exposition that will be needed later. I anxiously await Outpost, too bad it's going to be almost a year!

Dystopian YA

From the handout made by me for the Hunger Games panel and the handout and discussion from the Dystopias for Teens panel at DragonCon.

Series are represented by the first book only to keep the list manageable.

Enclave by Ann Aguirre
Feed by M.T. Anderson
Restoring Harmony by Joelle Anthony
Candor by Pam Bachorz
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Pure by Julianna Baggott
Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess
Eve by Anna Carey
Dark Secrets by Elizabeth Chandler
Matched by Ally Condie
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau
The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde
Truancy by Isamu Fhkui
The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill
Flux by Beth Goobie
Gone by Michael Grant
Feed by Mira Grant
Dark Parties by Sara Grant
Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Girl in the Arena by Lise Haines
The Line by Teri Hall
Nomansland by Lesley Hauge
The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch
Possession by Elana Johnson
Awaken by Katie Kacvinsky
XVI by Julia Karr
In the Company of Whispers by Saillie Lowenstein
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Legend by Marie Lu
The Declaration by Gemma Malley
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Mayberry
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
The Unidentified by Rae Mariz
Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden
Bumped by Megan McCafferty
The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Ashfall by Mike Mullin
Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Witch & Wizard by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve
Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Tankborn by Karn Sandler
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
Memento Nora by Angie Smibert
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine
Skinned by Robin Wasserman
Variant by Robison Wells
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Empty by Suzanne Weyn
The Children of the Lost by David Whitley
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America by Robert Charles Wilson

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Set initially in a future shanty town in America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being dissembled for parts by a rag tag group of workers, we meet Nailer, a teenage boy working the light crew, searching for copper wiring to make quota and live another day. The harsh realities of this life, from his abusive father, to his hand to mouth existence, echo the worst poverty in the present day third world. When an accident leads Nailer to discover an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, and the lone survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl, Nailer finds himself at a crossroads. Should he strip the ship and live a life of relative wealth, or rescue the girl, Nita, at great risk to himself and hope she'll lead him to a better life. This is a novel that illuminates a world where oil has been replaced by necessity, and where the gap between the haves and have-nots is now an abyss. Yet amidst the shadows of degradation, hope lies ahead.

I ordered this book because I saw it on so many award lists (Andre Norton Award, Michael L. Printz Award) and I wondered what all the fuss was about. To be honest, the book blurb kept me away for quite some time. It just seemed stale and formulaic, like someone was trying to cash in on the dystopian trend and didn't quite know how to go about it. I'm glad I finally gave in, though, because this book was excellent and nothing like the impression the blurb gave me. Lucky is a great character, believable as a rich girl in her situation, and her situation is a great plot twist that sets her up to be not only rich and privileged, but also intelligent and competent in her situation. Nailer is a great foil to her and a unique voice, providing us with insight into how unique her “ordinary” (to the reader) life is and helping to illustrate how his world has changed from ours. The plot follows logically, and although it seems that everyone is motivated by the same thing (money) it doesn’t seem contrived to me because money and survival is a constant obsession with people living constantly on the brink of not having any to survive on. Although Bacigalupi has written another book in this world, I haven’t read it and I didn’t feel that it was necessary to understand what was going on, although I am tempted to find it now that we’ve been introduced. In all, this was a very good book and I will be looking for more work by the author in the future.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

In Mary's world, there are simple truths.
The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village....

I first got interested in this author because I fell in love with her story, Bougainvillea in Zombies vs. Unicorns. I am so glad I looked for other work by the author, because The Forest of Hands and Teeth is truly a wonderful, horrible book. Wonderful in that Mary is a realistic, vibrant character who is only trying to make a better life for herself. Wonderful because the descriptions in the book are vivid and the language is evocative. And wonderful because the plot is surprising yet not out of left field, the worldbuilding is thoughtful and has a solid base in science, culture, and geography, and the writing structure is eloquent and works well to draw the reader into the story. But the book is horrible as well. Mostly the book is horrible because of the zombies. Horrible because there are places where you truly feel the despair and lack of hope of the characters. Horrible because of the choices the characters have to make, and the characters die and are left to horrible fates, and Mary's pain is so palpable you can't help but empathize as a reader. However, as horrible as the plot gets sometimes, this book walks the fine line between lack of hope and hopeless. There is always a draw to keep going, both for the characters and the reader, and there really isn't a moment when you want to give up in reading the book because you just can't feel that the situation has no escape and you can't bear to watch the characters get picked off. I highly recommend this book as heavier reading, and I will be looking for its sequels as soon as I can stomach them.