DNF: Spontaneous

Review:

I received this book through an offer from Penguin's First to Read. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me and I'm DNFing and just over 100 pages.

 

It was on my August release list, interesting idea, a small town with high school aged kids randomly exploding and a very snarky protagonist. My biggest issue with the book was the voice of Mara the main character. It was kind of crass, very blunt and snarky. Usually I like this kind of humour, and this kind of character. While the tone does have a fairly believable teenage POV on something very weird happening, and I can even understand where Mara's coming from. However, she does waffle a lot.

 

In the end, there was something about the narrative simply wasn't doing it for me, and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot whilst reading those first 100 pages or so. It was kind amusing at first,  but at least for me it was the type of humor that gets very tiring very quickly.

 

100 pages in and I'm bored, after reading some spoilery reviews over on Goodreads and seeing where this is going, I'm not interested in spending more time reading this.

 

Thank you to Penguin First Reads, but this one wasn't for me.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1441497/dnf-spontaneous

Review: The Smaller Evil

Review:

I received a copy from Penguin's First to Read.

 

I didn't actually like the last book I read by this particular author, the writing was beautiful but the characters were abysmal excuses for people. I have a weird fascination with cults. So I figured I'd give this one another shot, I had some points available over on Penguin's First Reads programme so I was able to secure a review copy of this book. As it turned out, it was one of the most nonsensical weird things I've read in a long time, yet I just couldn't put it down, and I kind of loved it.

 

I didn’t actually like any of the characters, though there was something compelling about the writing and the plot, even if at the same time there was an underline tension and something quite uncomfortable that I couldn’t put my finger on.

 

The novel tells the story of Arman, an LA teen who is taken in by an enigmatic older man, Beau, who runs some sort “social wellness” camp (reading immediately to me – some sort of hippie cult). Beau is very soft spoken, and just seems to understand Arman in a way no one else does. Arman is passive to the point of pathetic. He has a crappy home life, equally passive sounding mom, step dad who’s a drug dealer, real dad in prison. Arman has all sorts of social disorders – ADHD, GAD, GERD to name a few, is constantly popping pills, he has some sort of anxiety disorder. I get the impression he could be very intelligent, just doesn’t really make any effort to be. He seems to be resigned to getting through the day as best he can. He makes very little conversation with the other people travelling to this cult. It’s understandable, but even when people try to talk to him he hardly says anything.

 

The novel starts with the Arman on the bus with others heading off to this camp. He knows two of the people from school, Kira and Dale. You also get an uncomfortable vibe that Arman is getting some sort of special attention from Beau when he makes an appearance fairly early on. Arman isn’t hurried into the group social activities nearly as much as the others. He seems to be allowed to go at his own pace.

 

He has a weird connection with the female cook on arriving, there’s nothing remotely romantic about it, a physical connection that just seems to happen for Arman when the cook’s around. The cook turns out to be quite an interesting character. As the other characters are introduced into the cult setting, it starts getting weirder and weirder. At one point, Arman decides enough is enough, it’s not for him and tries to leave.

 

After that is when the novel hits the crazy sauce and the narrative becomes really bizarre. Something bad happens and Arman races to get help, but when he does, and tries to take others to the scene of the incident, there’s nothing there. It goes on from there and as Arman gets involved deeper and deeper the novel becomes more and more confusing. Is this really happening? Did anything happen? Is he being set up for something?

 

Though in spite of the weirdness and confusion and unlikeable strangeness of the place and the people involved, it was in a way, very compelling. Once I sort of got used to Arman’s tone, even though I can’t say I particularly liked him much, there was something understandable about him that made me want him to be okay throughout when things got fucked up and strange. Bottom line with this guy is after all, he’s just trying to find somewhere to fit in and this “social wellness” thing is supposed to help. (The whole cult dynamic and ideals are all explained). It doesn’t.

 

It’s a quick read, but not a light one. It is in parts at least for this reader, uncomfortable. But I did kind of love the strangeness of it all.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1440930/review-the-smaller-evil

DNF: The Immortals

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

Unfortunately at about 45% I am bored and marking it as DNF. 

 

The premise of this one sounded really interesting, the goddess Artemis, no longer in full power has spent almost two thousand years on earth, her powers are practically non existent, though she remains ever the chaste huntress, she protects the women of New York City in the modern day who need help. Known as PI Selene DiSilver she stumbles on a dead body killed in a disturbingly familiar way. 

 

Theo Schultz is a classics/mythology professor, who knew the victim. They find themselves inadvertently working together when Theo discovers the crime  holds significant resemblance to an ancient Greek cult.

 

This wasn't a terrible book, it was just very long winded. The Artemis character was a surprisingly interesting interpretation. She appears to have absolutely no grasp of empathy or sympathy. She doesn't seem to get along with hardly anyone, other than her dog. She's blunt to the point of bordering on rude. She's a former goddess, who's powers and memories are diminished greatly, but seem to be coming back in small strides when more dead women start showing up. She loathes being weak and almost human and loathes having to work within the boundaries of human law enforcement. 

 

While Professor Schultz on the other hand, is charming and very likable. When his character his introduced, it/s at one of his lectures, and my initial though on the way the information on Greek classics and mythology was being presented, was I would love to take this class. It turns out Theo knew the victim, and well. And finds himself crossing paths with Selene.  Selene/Artemis wasn't the only former goddess involved, there's a whole host of familiar names (and some unfamiliar) deities that made appearances. The world building as far as that was concerned was pretty unique and interesting. 

 

My biggest problem with this was it got very boring very quickly. There was an awful lot of information relating to the murders to do with Ancient Greek history and it felt less like an interesting mythology class, more like a text book on ancient cults. I could only read maybe 10% at a time and find myself drifting. The actual untangling of the information and skirting round the on going police investigation and investigating parts got dull. 

 

While it's got a fairly original premise, I can't say I flat out hate it because I don't. I'm just bored with it. So calling it quits on this one.

 

Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for approving my request to view the title.  

 

 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1438626/dnf-the-immortals

Review: The Thousandth Floor

Review:

Review: The Thousandth Floor

 

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

There are some books you know you are going to love right from the first chapter. For me, this was one of those books. Rich people drama is a guilty pleasure of mine (even though I loathe reality TV). Though this is just what that book read like. I would love to see this book as a TV show. It’s one of those weird things where you don’t actually like most of the characters much but can’t stop watching things.

 

This book is basically Gossip Girl of the future. A host of pretty people drama who live on the upper tower floors, the Highliers, and the downTower people who they get involved with. A fairly large cast of delightfully diverse characters from both the upper tower and the down tower falls, all of whom wind up interacting with each other.

 

It starts off with a bag, some unknown girl falling from the top of the tower. And then the rest of the book flips back to the beginning to get to that point. Initially I thought it was fairly obvious once all the different characters were introduced, but as the novel went on and the plots and characters became deeper and twister, several times I found myself thinking, even when things were going smoothly, at some point this is all going to go hideously hideously wrong. I thought I had it all figured out a few times, but the end was completely surprising. Never saw it coming.

 

Each chapter is from a different character’s point of view. There’s your Highliers - Avery who lives on the very top floor genetically engineered to be perfect and beautiful and appears to have everything she could ever want, expect the one boy she loves desperately but can never have. Avery’s adopted brother Atlas, who disappeared for a year and has just returned out of the blue. Avery’s best friend Leda, who’s hiding a summer stint in rehab due to a designer drug addiction. Leda’s struggling to get back to normal and hide her secret from her friends. Leda’s very dry cut snarky boarding on bitchy. With a secret fling with Atlas to hide and feelings to figure out on where that’s going. Along with Eris who finds out a major family scandal which throws her whole world into chaos. Though not without relationship drama of her own.  Along with party thrower Cord. And a few other background friend type characters.

 

From downTower there’s computer genius hacker Watt who’s actually a really nice guy but has some brilliant technology in the form of some sort of super computer chip which he’s had illegally grafted to his frontal lobe (or something along those lines), Rylin who’s solely responsible for her younger sister after the death of their mother, struggling to make ends meet.

 

This book gets big bonus points for character diversity, and an f/f relationship.

 

All the characters find themselves interacting at some point, and each one of them is considerably deeper than their first impressions give. Each one managed to surprise me by the end of the book by their actions or their emotions as their plots changed and grew. Brilliant character depth. The futuristic technology was equally fascinating, and the setting of Manhattan 100 years into the future is visual, striking and believable as well.

 

Great twist at the end too.

 

I loved this one. I need more. NOW!

 

Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK, Children' for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1437721/review-the-thousandth-floor

Review: The Square Root of Summer

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

This is one the rare occasions where the book has left me utterly baffled. I didn't have a clue what was going on, hardly through any of it. And the weird thing? I still completely loved it. It’s a UKYA book about a girl who’s obsessed with complex math, space time continuum and theory along those lines.

 

Gottie’s summer is looking pretty dull. The previous summer her beloved grandfather died, she’s not seeing eye to eye with her BFF at the moment, she had a hot and heavy yet secret affair with her brothers band made which ended badly. Her sweet but absend minded father is drifting away more and more. Her older brother Ned is a bit of a dick. Gottie isn’t really coping well. To make things worse the boy next door Thomas, who she was friends with for years and years until he mysteriously moved to Canada is apparently coming back to stay with Gottie and her family for the summer. So she’s a bit all over the place. She desperately misses her grandfather, she has confused feelings for Thomas’s reappearance and is miserable over the relationship that failed with Jason last summer. She wants the feelings back.

 

At the same time, she’s working on some complex mathematics for a school project. A lot to do with space time continuum. When finally steeling herself to look at her grandfather’s things she finds his old diaries and starts reading them. As the summer progresses, weird things start happening with time. She finds herself getting split screens, do overs, visiting time periods that have already happened, and other weird things. That’s about the gist of the plot from what I could gather. There was a lot of complex mathematical equations and lot of drawings and diagrams to go with them throughout the novel.

 

Despite the fact that the math made no sense whatsoever to me, nor the scienecy stuff, I still really enjoyed the book. I even bought a finished paperback so I could get a clearer picture of the math diagrams. Plus, a Back to the Future reference so bonus points there!

 

I loved Gottie as a character. There was something very relatable to her tone, and how she got completely absorbed in the math bit. I also loved her interaction with all the other characters as she tried to deal with feelings lingering for Jason, working things out with her best friend Sophia when she knew things were changing, even her brother Ned, who could be a moron, but in a humours way but not without his deeper moments. The best bit about this book was the relationship between Gottie and Thomas, how they managed to deal with each other and new feelings.

 

All while time was going weird and only Gottie seemed to get it.

 

So weird, timey-whimey awesomeness (sorry, I had to get that quote in there somewhere) a lot of fun and great emotional moments.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for approving my request to view the title.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1436886/review-the-square-root-of-summer

Review: Devil and the Bluebird

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

17 year old Blue has lost her mother to cancer, she never knew her father, her sister has disappeared and left her alone after a promise to always call on the anniversary of their mother's death. After the year it doesn't happen, Blue decides to head to the crossroads and make a deal with the devil in order to find her sister Cass.

 

Anyone who's ever seen an episode of 'Supernatural' will know deals with the devil are notoriously bad ideas. I think that's sort of what I was expecting with this book, especially from the whole deal at the crossroad thing, deal gone bad and figuring a way out of it. Which is more or less what happened just in such a unique and brilliant way.

 

The novel starts out with Blue making her deal, nicely done, creepy and atmospheric. Blue is given an ultimatum and they set terms, off she goes. Only to find nothing is as it seems and embarks on a truly epic road trip. Which is impossible to recap as would be very spoilery.

 

 She meets a boat load of colourful characters. Some are good, and some are downright nasty pieces of work, others are just struggling to get by. As Blue goes along the backroads of the country as well as big cities all sorts of different things happen. Half way through the devil she made her deal with changes the game and the rules, making the plot twister and an unfortunate downside for what happens when Blue breaks the new rules.

 

I loved Blue’s snarkiness. I loved her tone. I loved her sheer determination. I loved how she made connections with all sorts of different people and discovered things about herself she may never have known. A deep emotional investment was brought out in the sheer depth of the characters and Blue’s connection with dealing with her own memories and her own family. Also some great twists at the end about the devil she made her deal with.

 

All the way through a wonderful background theme of folk and country music and some very powerful images and thoughts on music, particularly on how certain songs can evoke very powerful and long forgotten memories.

 

I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting when I started this book, as it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised by how different it was and how much I loved it. It boarders the line somewhere between fantasy and magical realism. I loved it so much I purchased a finished copy.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and ABRHAMS Kids for approving my request to view the title.

 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1434941/review-devil-and-the-bluebird

Review: A Frozen Heart

Review:

 

A delightful novelization of Frozen told from alternating view points of Anna and Hans.

 

It's impossible to read this without the Frozen soundtrack running through your head (if of course like me you've seen it a million times, and can quote it word for word, know all the songs and all the music ques). A fast read and a fun one, after the first chapter I read this in a few hours.

 

I'm sort of surprised it was Hans's point of view and not Elsa's or even Kristoff's. I think the idea is to give some insight into Han's character. Which the author does a nice job of, detailing the misery of growing up with 12 older brothers and being the last in the royal line without much prospects, a horrible father, a weak and limpid mother. So Hans sees an opportunity to make something of himself by heading to Arendelle and seducing Elsa and overthrowing the throne and taking it for himself.

 

The author also does a brilliant job of capturing Anna’s loneliness and isolation, as well as her utter naivety when it comes to the open gates and falling madly in love with the first handsome guy who was nice to her. Many many times I have said to the cat whilst watching the movie worst instalove ever! Of course, through a novelisation it’s easier to understand why without wanting to shout at the girl. She’s been forced into isolation through no fault of her own, ignored by a sister she was once very close to, the loss of her parents…the gates are open for 24 hours only so she’s got to make something work if she wants to find a way to change her dreary existence.

 

As interesting as the details into Hans and Anna were, the story captures every part of the Frozen movie, all familiar scenes and all the familiar dialogue, but some of it falls rather flat and some things simply just don’t work as well as they do on the screen. Like Olaf and the trolls. Olaf is the comic relief in the movie with some surprisingly deep points to make (“some people are worth melting for”) but in a novelization his comic lines just don’t have the same impact. Same when Kristoff takes Anna to meet his troll family. It’s loud, flashy and fun. While mama troll has some nice things to say about what true love means, the whole troll wedding thing without the catchy music is just flat.

 

It doesn’t really do Elsa any justice either, until right at the end. Elsa is just a figure who’s there, there are no insights into her character at all. Her scenes and lines are all from Anna’s point of view. While I love that no matter what Anna is still saying that’s my sister and I love her no matter what, Elsa hardly has any impact other than her ice magic. Elsa’s ice powers get a pretty decent treatment, and there is certainly a big rush of emotion towards the end. I really would have liked there to have been a third viewpoint of scenes from Elsa’s POV.

 

For the most part, it was very good and entertaining.

 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1433821/review-a-frozen-heart

Review: Flawed

Review:

I received a copy from Netgalley.

 

Initially I got a copy of this from one of those feed your reader emails with a  read it now for the first 250 members. I also purchased a hard cover copy when I saw it in the book section of my local supermarket.

 

A reasonably interesting UK based dystopia which was in parts surprisingly brutal. The system of government was a little hard to wrap my head around. It seemed that bad decisions by the UK government brought the country to the blink of collapse so a whole new system was instigated. Something to do with moral decision making. People are branded Flawed - literally branded with an F seared into your skin if you break a rule. However many brandings you receive depends on how deep your infraction is. The heroine of the story Celestine comes from a “perfect” family.

 

Mum is a model, Dad does something for the local news station. She’s got a younger sister, and a younger brother. She’s dating the son of the most important judge on the Flawed council. The Judge – Judge Craven is seen by everyone else as a strict tyrant – but he’s more like a normal friendly dad figure to Celestine.

 

This image starts detoriating rapidly. The reader is introduced to the Flawed system right off. Celestine, her boyfriend Art, and Judge Craven and Celestine’s family are supposed to be having dinner with their neighbours. One of the neighbours is arrested and taken away for a Flawed infraction. It’s swift and disturbing and raises an interesting moral point. The infraction is for assisted suicide. Illegal in the UK but not in other countries. The neighbour took her dying mother to another country to help her die with dignity. But arriving home the Flawed people strike harshly.

 

The people branded Flawed live outside of polite society and have to live by a set of harsh rules enforced by strict people called Whistleblowers who keep track of them to make sure they adhere by the rules or else there can be extreme consequences – and not just for the flawed, their family can be made to suffer too. And the head of all these decision, supposedly with two other Judges on the council, but Judge Craven seems to be behind it all with an iron fist. (There are of course, reasons, which are explained later on in the novel)

 

Celestine’s perfect existence comes crashing down around her when she makes a decision to help a Flawed person, which is strictly against the rules. Everything changes as she knows it. She’s punished in a way she never thought she would be, she’s made an example of. She made a split decision to help someone and everything changed for the worst for her. Her punishment is very harsh and was actually shocking and disturbing to read.

 

She keeps thinking she will get out of it, but it’s a hard hit to adjust to her new circumstances. School changes, her sibling’s attitude change, the boyfriend disappears. The worst Whistleblower imaginable takes charge of her. Despite all of this, Celestine handles it all fairly strongly for a girl whose world has been thrown into chaos.

 

The story progresses as some of the things that happen to her are not standard protocol for punishment. What is done to her is completely against the rules. And when people start finding out, she gets involved inadvertently with another political party who want to change the Flawed system. The end is a big ass cliff hanger set for the next one.

 

It’s a little slow in the middle, and there was a potential love triangle, which wasn’t explored much but I can see it happening in the next one.

 

The novel raises some fairly interesting points in morality without being overly preachy about it. Celestine is not abandoned completely, though she has some nasty incidents with the kids in her school class, she has the support of her mom, and when a famous reporter gets involved, she manages to turn the tables to get the woman to listen and use her platform for a better purpose. Not without drawbacks and drama of its own, of course. And this plotline does have its own little twists and turn.  After the first bit with the first introduction to the Flawed, and Celestine’s incident, there is not a whole lot that happens until right towards the end.

 

It started off quite well, maybe not fast paced and action filled, but interesting characters and a strange government system that was not entirely comfortable to read about. (Who decides it was a good idea to give these government people the right to say who’s moral or not when their own morals are often questionable?!) It was fairly obvious where it was going after about the half way point. It did have a fairly good little twist towards the end.

 

A fairly good, reasonably unique dystopian read. I’m looking forward to seeing where this series is going.

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1431230/review-flawed

Summer Bookish Bingo Update

After one month at Summer Bookish Bingo from Pretty Deadly Reviews this is what my card looks like

 

 

10 squares completed.

 

Titles Read:

Yellow Cover: Pretending to be Erica by Michelle Painchaud - 4 Stars

Outdoors: Shipwrecked by Siobhan Curham - 3.1/2 stars

Water on Cover: The Girls of No Return by Erin Saldin - 3 stars

Mental Health: The First Time She Drowned by Kerry Kletter - 3.1/2 stars

Political Intrigue - The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barns - 5 stars

Food in Title or on Cover - 100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen - 5 stars

Red Cover - A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas - 3 stars

F/F or M/M Relationship: Without Annette by Jane B Mason 3 Stars

Middle Grade - Kristy's Great Idea (Babysitter's Club #1) Anne M Martin - 5 stars

White Cover: How it Ends - Catherine Lo - 3 stars

 

Currently Reading:

Monsters: Heir to the Sky by Amanda Sun

2016 Debut - Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira

Aussie Author - Finnikin of the Rock by Melina Marchette

Book about Books - Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

Historical Setting 1900s - 1950s- Broken Sky by LA Weatherly

Freebie - The Thousandth Floor by Katharine MgGee

500 Pages + - A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas

Name in Title my Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand etc

Folklore or Mythology - The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

June July August release - The Shadow Hour by Melissa Grey

S U M E R in Title - Even if the Sky Falls by Mia Garcia 

Original post: sunsetxcocktail.booklikes.com/post/1429772/summer-bookish-bingo-update