Undead (Undead #1) – Kirsty McKay (Review)

Hardcover, 272 pages
Published September 1st 2012 by The Chicken House
Source: Publisher

Synopsis:
Out of sight, out of their minds: It’s a school-trip splatter fest and completely not cool when the other kids in her class go all braindead on new girl Bobby.

The day of the ski trip, when the bus comes to a stop at a roadside restaurant, everyone gets off and heads in for lunch. Everyone, that is, except Bobby, the new girl, who stays behind with rebel-without-a-clue Smitty.

Then hours pass. Snow piles up. Sun goes down. Bobby and Smitty start to flirt. Start to stress. Till finally they see the other kids stumbling back.

But they’ve changed. And not in a good way. Straight up, they’re zombies. So the wheels on the bus better go round and round freakin’ fast, because that’s the only thing keeping Bobby and Smitty from becoming their classmates’ next meal. It’s kill or be killed in these hunger games, heads are gonna roll, and homework is most definitely gonna be late.

Review:

Undead is like a summer teen flick (that is set in winter, there is a castle as well) which contains zombies, unlikely friends and an evil corporation. Bobby is finding life in England a wee bit difficult after her mother uproots her from America and returns them to their starting point in England. Her classmates seem to disapprove of her lingering American-ness and so when out on a field trip to um, Scotland? I think, she stays on the bus instead of getting off at a café with the rest of her classmates. Smitty, the resident bad boy, accompanies her (he isn’t given a choice as his bad boy-ness results in café-outing privileges being stripped from him). Then everyone dies apart from the school nerd (who is universally bullied) and the school mean-girl. It wouldn’t have been so bad except that they all rise again…as zombies.

I want to say it’s rollicking good fun with lots of running, tension, danger and all that delicious stuff. There are hints of romance, some jealousy and a lot of dead people. There is very little logic and substance to the novel itself but the book is about zombies. You cannot expect it to be proselytizing on the meaning of being human. Well, maybe you can but you’d be reading the wrong book. Anyway, unlikely friendships do prop up and while Bobby is not especially memorable as a heroine, she is very likeable and easy to empathize with. She could be you or me or any other normal person trying to survive high school. Some revelations are interesting and I do think that there may be more to the whole thing than we are told but as this is a series, I have no doubt more interesting hijinks are in store for us. And zombies too, of course.

All in all, if you are looking for something lighthearted, marshmallow kind of novel that is easy to read, Undead is the book for you. Enjoy.

Something Strange and Deadly – Susan Dennard (Review)

Hardcover, 400 pages
Expected publication: July 24th 2012 by HarperTeen
Source: Edelweiss

Synopsis:

The year is 1876, and there’s something strange and deadly loose in Philadelphia…

Eleanor Fitt has a lot to worry about. Her brother has gone missing, her family has fallen on hard times, and her mother is determined to marry her off to any rich young man who walks by. But this is nothing compared to what she’s just read in the newspaper—

The Dead are rising in Philadelphia.

And then, in a frightening attack, a zombie delivers a letter to Eleanor…from her brother.

Whoever is controlling the Dead army has taken her brother as well. If Eleanor is going to find him, she’ll have to venture into the lab of the notorious Spirit-Hunters, who protect the city from supernatural forces. But as Eleanor spends more time with the Spirit-Hunters, including their maddeningly stubborn yet handsome inventor, Daniel, the situation becomes dire. And now, not only is her reputation on the line, but her very life may hang in the balance.

Review:

Dennard’s debut novel is the first one where I was forced to reevaluate my initial thoughts about the book. The beginning is a bit shaky or, more likely, a bit more melodramatic than what I am used to and it led me to feel that the novel just may be too pathos-filled for me to like. Maybe it is the writing style or the young age of the protagonist, I don’t know. However, as I read further into the novel, it became more compelling and raised some questions that made me think quite a lot – something that is a bit unusual where young adult novels are concerned.

You will know from the synopsis that this novel is set in Philadelphia in the late 19th century. It has zombies, a missing brother and a heroine who has to save the world. Or have hysterics at the very least. What the synopsis doesn’t tell you that the novel raises questions of social status and identity, has themes of human greed as it relates to the acquiring of power and, perhaps most intriguingly and pertinently, the status of women. I found Dennard’s portrayal of the status of women, the limits, boundaries and choices available to women in the time the story is set to have the most authentic feel. Dennard made me think (feel, even) what it is to be a woman shoved into a space, to have no voice or agency to be more than what society deems you acceptable for. It is not like other books have not done the same thing but the difference in this is that women’s status etc is not a wholly explicit dialogue but a gradual realization on the part of the protagonist. Eleanor’s relationship with her mother is also very intriguing and adds to the conflict of being what society expects you to be whether you have the means or not.

I also really liked how the romance in this novel was approached. There was no love at first sight and there was no stupidity once love had set in. In fact, I dare say this novel leaves one of the most intriguing open ended romances I have seen in a YA novel maybe ever. The novel leaves several questions unanswered without leaving a cliffhanger. I quite liked that. I also liked that the romance didn’t consume the main character’s thoughts to the point that she couldn’t think about anything else. Eleanor definitely grows into a heroine I could back and hell, I applaud Dennard for where she took Eleanor in the end. The next book will become a whole lot more fascinating when you think about how Eleanor has evolved by the end of Something Strange and Deadly.

The pace of the novel has the right speed and I found the writing, while at times rather melodramatic, to effectively express what it sought to. The book is somewhat mean girl free which is to say there are mean girls but of a different breed and not nearly as annoying.

This is not to imply the novel is perfect. The beginning is a bit shaky and I would have liked more information about the machines the Spirit Hunters were using but other than that, I think this is quite a strong debut that packs a surprise punch. I didn’t think I would like the novel as much as I do and that is always a plus. Strongly recommended.

The Immortal Rules – Julie Kagawa (A Review)

Hardcover, 485 pages
Expected publication: April 24th 2012 by Harlequin Teen
Source: Net Galley

Synopsis:

Allison Sekemoto survives in the Fringe, the outermost circle of a vampire city. By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten.

Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them. The vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself is attacked—and given the ultimate choice. Die… or become one of the monsters.

Faced with her own mortality, Allie becomes what she despises most. To survive, she must learn the rules of being immortal, including the most important: go long enough without human blood, and you will go mad.

Then Allie is forced to flee into the unknown, outside her city walls. There she joins a ragged band of humans who are seeking a legend—a possible cure to the disease that killed off most of humankind and created the rabids, the mindless creatures who threaten humans and vampires alike.

But it isn’t easy to pass for human. Especially not around Zeke, who might see past the monster inside her. And Allie soon must decide what—and who—is worth dying for.

Review:

Let me preface this review by announcing to all and sundry that I, yes I, actually liked The Immortal Rules. It’s not a perfect novel by any means but I liked it. Not for its plot really because there’s nothing novel about it but because I liked Allison. I also still like vampires. I don’t know why. I don’t think of them as sexy…there’s the whole corpse thing. Okay no, I might be persuaded to think of them as sexy should the words find themselves in the hands of the right author but I think they are intriguing. I think it’s the whole immortal bit. I know it’s supposed to be all oh my goodness, eternity is sooo tiring but dude, I’d like the chance to find out for myself. Know what I mean? Yeah? Yeahhh.

Okay, another reason I like TIR (because typing out the entire thing is takes too long and I’m lazy) is because it’s so smartly written. Yes, it’s smart. Kagawa situating her protagonist’s origin in the “Fringe” gives the reader a direct, first row view, into life on the other side of the fence, that is, as a blood suckee instead of a sucker. The clarity of the description about life on the fringes of society, heck, humanity gave me a new appreciation for my status as fully human right now. Also, the emphasis on reading etc? Loved that. Anyway, beginning the novel before Allison gets turned lets the reader understand and empathize with the internal battle that rages inside Allison for the better part of the novel. I mean, sure I’ve read this before. The good vampire being all sad because you know, munching all little humans is bad. But here I actually can see where Allison is coming from.

So good job with that.

I also like how kickass Allison is. But no surprise there. What did surprise me was the relative lack of pathos in the novel. Even though she was tortured by the internal struggle within her, her battle to be human despite not being human, she was not hung up and melodramatic about it. There were facts and they were facts and the people might not like them but they were facts. Ya know? I liked that. Being a vampire comes with a certain set of conditions, mainly the Hunger and a set of pointy fangs, and I liked the sparsity of that description. I also like how Kagawa did not romanticize them with descriptions of their hedonistic palaces overflowing with…wait, there was some description but I think Kagawa stuck to her dystopian/apocalyptic setting and kept things faithful to the world.

Now that I’ve spent a bit of time on the things I liked, let me talk about the not so awesome aspects of the novel. Namely the romance. I didn’t like it. I’m developing this simmering hate for the “forbidden romance” trope where the love interests will be different species that CANNOT BE TOGETHER EVHAR but then somehow at the end get together anyway. I don’t like it. I especially didn’t like the romance in this one because I think it is just so overdone. The vampire falling for the human. Like seriously? Why can’t Allison find another vampire to fall for? Please, Ms. Kagawa? A cute one whose ass she can kick around without feeling bad about it?

Okay, I get it. I know why the love interest is human. To keep Allison human. But she’s not human any longer. She’s non-human, in fact, humans say “moo” to her now and usually, you don’t kiss your food. I can see Allison being made to feel like crap because she cannot deny her vampire nature, oh I saw the lips tightening at the end of that one scene, I saw it and that’s the conclusion I drew. His morality will make her feel like the worst non-person around. And I’m kind of sick of that.

Anyway, other than that, I found the novel to be very readable and I’m quite invested in the tale. In fact, I can’t wait to read the next book. Especially if it contains a vampire who is more Spike-like than goody-two-shoes like…I don’t know anyone that good. I think you should read the book and then come talk to me about it.

How to Write a Dystopian YA Novel

The Dystopian novel made easy. Just follow these instructions and you will end up with a fantastic dystopian novel too!

First, you take the world:

and break it:

Once you’ve messed it up enough that the natural resources have completely depleted and danger is everywhere, find a small group of surviving mankind and place them in a controlled setting like for example:

But ensure that there is something terribly wrong with this dystopian society. For example, in the picture, the dome is cracking. In your book you could um…make love forbidden or make monkeys rule and since monkeys can’t rule very well (no offense intended), chaos would threaten which would mean that there is a necessity for heroes:

(I thought the blood was a nice addition. Makes him look very capable, doesn’t it?)

She might get cold if the dystopian world is in an icy age but it’ll keep things interesting (and tense: will the heroine die from frost bite before the final showdown with the villains? Dun dun dun…stay tuned for books five, six and seven to find out.)

Let the boy hero and girl hero fall in love. And, if there’s not much else going on and you want to up the ante, maybe add in a love triangle (always makes for more tense moment, you know, her life may be over in the next few days but will she choose JOHN or DAVID! Wait for book 9 to reveal all!):

Very importantly, you need a villain. Or two:

His pose screams villainness to me. Doesn’t it to you? Or maybe it’s his evil mustache?

Anyone who licks blood is a villain. Unless he’s a vampire. In which case he’s sexy. … Don’t ask me, kay? I didn’t make the rules.

You could throw in a few extras to make your world more unique. Like:

Teen pregnancy, enforced pregnancy in a dystopian world. Very original idea. No one’s ever done it before.

Zombies. If you use zombies, I won’t read your book but I’m sure other people will tell me how wonderful it is.

Now that you have all these elements, bring them all together. There will be war:

And your main characters will watch the world burn:

But make sure you don’t reveal who dies and who survives. You have to end the book on a cliff hanger so that people will stop breathing and (a year later) take another breath when they find out that your heroes (girl and boy) both survived. So you see, writing a dystopian novel is very simple. As long as you follow these rules. Good luck. ;)

Beautiful Dead – Yvonne Woon

480 pages
Published September 2010 by Hyperion Book CH
First in a series

Synopsis:

On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she’d ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.

Dead Beautiful is both a compelling romance and thought-provoking read, bringing shocking new meaning to life, death, love, and the nature of the soul.

My Awesome Tootin*’ Review

So yesterday, while I was in the midst of being a good little worker bee, er, student and writing this awesome paper (okay, I’m not sure if it’s awesome right now but by the time I get done with it, it will be) when I had a stupid idea. What stupid idea, you may ask? Well, I have been “reading” this book for a few days now, you know, a page here, one page there but my idea (the stupid one) was to read this book in the breaks I took from writing said paper.

It was a stupid idea. I believe I have mentioned that oh about three times already so it must be true. The thing is, my brain was (it still is) in hyper critical mode, overthinking every single thing, just in case I miss something VERY IMPORTANT (it deserves capslock) that I can develop into an idea. So when I switch from paper to book, I carry this mindset with me and totally ruin the reading experience because I am now critically analyzing everything. So long rant short, sorry.

On to the book.

Let’s start with the cover. It makes me laugh. No honestly. The cape she’s wearing makes me feel like it’s a little girl dressing up as Count Dracula and I was totally expecting vamps in the book. I was wrong but it wasn’t far from the truth. And the model’s hairstyle is totally…fail. Those bangs are…well, I think they should rest in peace.

The story. Hmmmmmm. Let me tell you what the story reminded me of.

1. Twilight. (She meets the guy, is almost electrocuted by his touch. But there’s more. She meets him in “Crude Sciences” which everyone knows is another word for Biology. He is her lab partner. He is cold and haughty the first day and then all of a sudden, he wants to be friends. Sounds familiar right? Hey, I read the first book.)

2. Vampire Academy. Well, before Rose realized that she was a Dhampir – okay, that never happened but still, it had the same feeling about it.

The book felt like it was cobbled together by taking different parts of many other books. Not necessarily a negative thing but the fact that the parallelisms between it and Twilight were so obviously took off marks where originality is concerned. Couldn’t they have met in, oh  I don’t know, English class?

Characters.

I remained largely unimpressed by any of the characters in the novel. I didn’t like Renee at all. More times than not I felt there was no substance to her. She had no depth and God, she was so selfish. Her roommate and perhaps closest friend at the school, Elenor is clearly having trouble and instead of asking her about it, she’s upset that the girl is not around because she wanted to talk about her problems. Ergh. Seriously. Ergh. The love interest is a shadow, an echo of many other silent, more beautiful than the most beautiful thing you have ever seen and you know, all those other fun things – that is to say, he’s like any other love-interest (Edward comes to mind). The side characters – I didn’t see the point of them because they weren’t developed and even if they were, the plot was one hot mess and their purpose remained ambiguous.

Plot

So I really liked the inclusion of Latin in the story. I thought that was interesting. And the manner in which the author brings in philosophers shows her obvious knowledge of them. I liked all that. However, what I didn’t like was the lack of logic. Yeah, it’s an original idea. Something akin to zombies but not quite. Okay, this is going to be spoilery so STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOK.

Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Anyway, so according to the author, when children die and aren’t buried, their souls leave the body, but the body remains “alive” and rises after nine days. After that they have 21 years to find their “soul” because when they die the first time, their soul are given to some other baby being born. So, they find the person who has their soul, smooch them and get their souls back – leaving the other person quite dead. Get that?

Every other book I have read has asked me to suspend my belief (other book in the Paranormal genre) and it has been easy to do because even if the idea is way out in the land of masked Martians, it still retains some sort of logic that makes believing if not easy than acceptable. This, I simply could not believe. In fact, my conscience was cackling like a hyena on coffee. A way to tell these Empty Bodies from Full Bodies, uh, humans, was the fact that the Empty Bodies  would suddenly be proficient in Latin. I’m sorry but is the author suggesting that only European children die and then wake up? Is it a selective un-deadening? What about a little girl in India who keels over one day from lack of food. Does she not wake up? And if she does, will she speak in Latin? A language she has never heard of before. And what about places where there’s famine, hunger, war, where kids are dead in large numbers. Do they not wake up and wander around? Maybe I question things too much but I just couldn’t get my brain to believe it.

The Writing

I think Ms. Woon has a beautiful turn of phrase. There are some phrases that I wrote down (because I was being a citing monster at the time) that I quite liked. Remember how Edward has a velvet voice? Well, Dante has a “buttery voice.” I am telling you, I’ll take buttery over velvet any day. Buttery reminds me of popcorn and if I had a guy who sounded like popcorn, I’d take him to the movies.

Oh that was awful but I still laughed. Haha.

She also mentioned “vacant banter” that she and her friends engaged in. I think that’s an interesting way to say that they talking about nothing important.

The Ending

It was horrible. I sort of expected it but still, it was horrid. I didn’t see the point of it. I won’t give it away but I promise you, you will feel the same way. If it was meant to be a cliffhanger, well it had the exact opposite effect because it just made me decide not to read the next one in the series.

Verdict

I didn’t hate it but I didn’t like it either. The book needed a lot more work plot wise. Of course this is just my opinion and no one is obligated to follow it. I think the author herself has a lot of potential, as I said, her descriptions are beautiful and if I could read just her descriptions and ignore the story, it would be awesome. Would I recommend it to you? No. Do I suggest you read it and formulate your own opinion? Of course. (Why should I suffer alone? :P)

*I don’t know what “Tootin’” exactly means in this case but my friend used the word the other day and I’ve been wanting to using it ever since.

Die For Me (Revenants #1) – Amy Plum

352 pages
To be published May 10th, 2011 by Harper Teen

Synopsis:

DIE FOR ME is the first of three books about Kate, a sixteen-year-old American who moves to Paris after the death of her parents. It introduces a new version of the undead with revenants, beings who are fated to sacrifice themselves over and over again to save others’ lives. Kate finds herself falling for Vincent, who she discovers is not the typical French teenager he appears: he is something else entirely.

Review

I waded into this one without any expectations and left pleasantly surprised. This is Ms. Plum’s debut novel in the YA genre (I am not sure whether she has any books out in any other genre) so I was ready for anything to happen. And many things did. Happen, I mean.

I loved the care and detail dedicated to the setting of the story. Ofttimes there is only a vague sense of the place in which a story is set but in Die For Me, Ms. Plum paints Paris with the attention an artist would grant his canvas. The quaint cafes, the architecture – it almost seems like a love letter to the city. Juxtaposing such beauty to Kate’s grief gives the latter more depth and an added poignancy. The side characters are interestingly hued and I liked that there is a sense of camaraderie both between the sisters and the Revenants.

The plot is interesting if a bit predictable and the pacing matches the narrative tone of the story. I would like have liked the mythology of the Revenants to be explored in much more detail than it was done but I hold out hope that future books in the series will fulfill my wishes. Vincent is an interesting character – dark, mysterious and yet intriguing. I had a bit of trouble with Kate. I understand what Ms. Plum was trying to do (re: the caution with which Kate approaches the relationship) and I appreciated it but I felt that it was rather clumsily done. At those points, I heard the author in the words rather than the character she is writing. And her presence sort distracted me from the story and made me wonder whether Kate really was in love. Honestly, I felt that Kate was rather cold and I’m not sure if that was the intention of the author.

The ending was interesting and I liked how, in an interesting twist, Kate wasn’t a damsel needing to be saved. All in all, I found the novel entertaining. There were some blocks over which I stumbled but as a whole, I enjoyed it. But I have this question that I am really curious about.. Like seriously curious about.

Is Kate a Revenant?