Reached (Ally Condie)

Title: Reached

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)

Length: 512 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Reached is the final book in the Matched trilogy (find reviews for Matched and Crossed here). Cassia has chosen to join forces with the Rising, a rebellion against society. But when things get out of hand, she finds herself paired with both Ky and Xander to find a cure for the disease that threatens to destroy everything.

Can we just pause for a second and love on the simple beauty of these cover designs? The green/blue/red symbolism continues to feature and shine in the final installment of the trilogy.

The first book started with the power of choice, and the question of what you could give up to have the freedom to choose. Cassia is swept up into something much bigger than herself when she makes her choice, and Xander and Ky make their own choices to be swept into the Rising as well. But nothing in this book is ever black and white, and there are some great moral dilemmas about choice, love, freedom, and who to follow.

I liked that this book was told from three narrative perspectives: Cassia, Ky, and Xander. I liked also that it wasn’t a simple love triangle. These characters were driven by more than just their love for one another, and Ky and Xander had their own significant relationship outside of their love for Cassia.

In the end, Reached was a satisfactory conclusion to an enjoyable trilogy. 

Embrace (Jessica Shirvington)

Title: Embrace

Author: Jessica Shirvington

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc

Length: 369 pages

Rating: 4/5

Weird things start to happen on Violet Eden’s 17^th birthday. Not only does she find out she’s half-human, but the guy she’s been crushing on knew about it and didn’t tell her. He’s half-human too, and together, they’re destined to fight angel exiles on earth. But Violet doesn’t trust him anymore, and turns to the support of Phoenix, who just happens to be an angel exile. Choice and destiny don’t seem to be getting along for Violet who is learning that life and the higher powers definitely don’t exist in black and white.

Violet Eden not only has the coolest name, but she’s pretty awesomely hardcore herself. Yeah, she’s got the attention of two hot guys, but she doesn’t become passive or whiney because of it. Instead, she’s all about choosing her own destiny, even though she doesn’t actually have a whole lot of choice in the matter. But she tries as hard as she can to control her own fate and has a lot of respectable inner strength to match her outer strength.

Speaking of those two hot guys though- talk about some great romantic tension. I couldn’t put this book down. Lincoln and Violet are made for one another, but angel rules dictate they can’t be together. And he’s broken Violet’s trust and she has a hard time getting past that. Phoenix has a major thing for Violet, because she’s a new, special kind of fighter, and he’s intrigued. All in all, the makings of a great love triangle.

Some of the angel hierarchy explanations still left me a little muddled, but hopefully it’ll clear itself up in the next book. Which I’m very much looking forward to reading. 

Clockwork Prince (Cassandra Clare)

Title: Clockwork Prince

Author: Cassandra Clare

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Length: 498 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

Actual text from my friend Meredith: “Have you read Clockwork Prince? I just finished it and I almost died like twenty times ahhhhh I need the next one RIGHT NOW!!!!”

I went out and bought this book the day it came out. To do it full justice however, I didn’t read it for several days because I had to reread the first book in The Infernal Devices series, Clockwork Angel, before I let myself read the new book, hence the above text message. My response to Meredith after reading? “Just. Finished. The. Book. O.M.G. Dyyyyyyyyinnnnnnnnggggggggggggg. I now need to read everything I possibly can about the book online.”

If these girl-ish squeals won’t convince you to read the book, I don’t know what will!

How about a short summary (short because I dare not give anything away!): In Victorian England, Tessa continues to search for a way to destroy the evil Magister with the help of two handsome Shadowhunters, Will and Jem. But the cunning Magister always seems five steps ahead, and Tessa must also fight to save her home from falling into the wrong hands, as well as trying to sort out her confusing feelings for both Shadowhunter boys.

Some things to consider:

1.      Cassandra Clare loves love triangles. And bad boys with dark pasts. Win-win? Only if Jem and Will don’t kill me with their awesomeness first. The character growth in this novel is great.

2.      All the good people in this book are young, while the evil people are old. Youth power! I refuse to grow up!

3.      Anyone else feeling a love connection between Cyril and Gabriel? What? Don’t give me that look of exasperation. Everyone else is pairing off…

4.      The poetry. Clever, brilliant, beautiful, but so much of it that it comes across as just a little too pretentious for me. The only thing that actually bothers me about this series thus far is the excessive amount of poetry.

5.      The cover is beautiful, and the perfect darker compliment to those of the Mortal Instruments series.

Go read Clockwork Angel, then Clockwork Prince. You won’t be disappointed. 

Matched (Ally Condie)

Title: Matched

Author: Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books (Penguin)

Length: 366 pages

Rating: 4.5/5

In Cassia’s society, officials decide where you live, who you marry, what your work is, and when you die. Cassia never questioned this, seeing it as a small price to pay for safety and health. On her seventeenth birthday, she is shown her Match, and couldn’t be happier when her best friend Xander appears on the screen. But then another face she recognizes flashes by, and in that brief moment of seeing Ky’s face, everything changes. Cassie begins to question everything about her society and her life and must make the ultimate choice: whether to live without choices or to risk everything by choosing a life of her own. Safety or freedom? Xander or Ky?

Dystopias aren’t just THE big thing right now. Apparently they’re MY big thing too. Maybe it’s because I grew up on Ender’s Game, or maybe it’s because they take teenage rebellion to a whole new level, but I’m liking this trend in YA lit. Dystopias are all about personal growth. The more a character learns the imperfections of their seemingly perfect society, the more they learn about themselves.

Cassia has never really had the power to choose before. Everything has been determined by society, and there is little free will, and therefore little chance for rebellion. But it turns out that everyone in the novel has been rebelling in their own little ways. Everyone has a breaking point when they choose not to do what society tells them, and it’s always for the people they love. I really liked this about the book. There may not be a terrible evil to fight, but love is still the game changer.

Ky and Xander. Sigh. You didn’t think I was going to write a review without bringing up the love triangle did you? I loved them both, and Cassia too, but wanted more out of them. They’re all a bit surface level, and I wanted to see what makes them tick, making their love for one another even more believable. Perhaps in the next novel!

Some more things I liked:

1.      The character names! I’m a sucker for unique names and everyone in this novel has one.

2.      Eyes. Again, sucker for authors who focus on characters eyes (window to the soul and all).

3.      Poetry used in a different way!! Instead of epigraphs no one reads (cough so many other authors cough), this book presents a society in which only 100 poems have been saved. (Also only 100 paintings, history lessons, songs, etc). When Cassia’s grandfather gives her a poem thought to have been destroyed, its words become her song of freedom, its words the one thing society cannot take from her. Poetry used this way made me value words rather than curse the increased word count.

4.      The cover. So pretty! I love the simplicity and symbolism.

Confession of the day: I liked this book so much that I bought it!! (Gasp! Unheard of!) And its sequel, just so I could get my hands on it. 

So go read this book- you’ll like it!

Catching Fire and Mockingjay

I tried to try to write this post without any huge spoilers, but it might be safest (if you’re a paranoid reader like myself) to hold off reading this one until you've finished the series. I’m lumping my thoughts about two and three together, mostly because I read them so fast that they’re hard to distinguish from each other, except for the escalating violence.

My reviews for books two and three of The Hunger Games (isn’t it confusing when a series is named after the first book?) aren’t quite as glowing as the first book’s review. First off though, a couple things about the series overall. For starters, amazing cover art- props to Scholastic for creating simple and iconic designs. There were also some great themes carried throughout the series that tied them together more than just a progressive storyline- the build-up of what “games” are for example.

I still love the writing and how Collins really draws you in and doesn’t let go. However, these books were much heavier than the first book. If The Hunger Games was dark, the books that follow are moon-behind-the-clouds-at-midnight-pitch-black. The violence wasn’t just present, it was jarringly real. I’m really curious to see how they portray this in the movies and what kind of rating they’ll get.

Speaking of the movies, I saw the pictures and I like the casting- it helps me visualize the characters better, and it doesn’t hurt that the guys are pretty adorable (http://hungergamesmovie.org/). In the books, the reader gets Katniss’s point of view, but she keeps the other characters at a distance because she thinks they’re safer there (and I would have to agree with her- the closer you are, the more painful your life and/or death). Unfortunately, this leaves the reader distanced from all other characters.

Which leads me to the next big debate: Gale vs. Peeta. I was a Gale fan all the way through until the end when I wondered if I could be a fan of neither. Peeta was the guy I should like but didn’t and Gale was distant but always lurking in the background. Who are these guys outside of their unconditional love for Katniss?

Most of my friends were solidly Team Peeta, but many of them still agreed with me, disliking the love triangle completely. Josh, my friend lured into the books by their violence said he might not read the second book: “I’m not going to like it if it’s full of this love triangle crap. That story line has been done way too many times before.” Brittany, who commented on my first post, agreed, saying that the triangle seemed forced. Gale never had a chance and Katniss doesn’t have a realistic view of her feelings. But would I like these books without the love triangle? Probably not. It’s a huge plot-mover/character-motivator. And a good YA book always has some sort of relationship drama.

What I really want to know is if there’s a correlation between who you pick Peeta/Gale and Edward/Jacob. Leave your picks in the comments and I’ll reveal mine!

Finally, the ending: it wasn’t satisfying. It was way too pessimistic, you don’t know leave knowing the truth, and what exactly does this tell us about our world now?? Collins seems to say: life isn’t perfect, some things you can’t control, deal with it by knowing that occasionally people are compassionate, even if society isn’t. This may be true, but the message isn’t great enough to overcome all the violence we went through to get there! I saw this quote from a YA author, Ilsa J. Bick, today and thought it was appropriate: “Writing for this age group is quite a bit different than writing for adults. It’s not that you can’t be dark or gritty, but with YA there has to be some sort of redemption. Otherwise it just doesn’t work.”

Is there redemption here? How could the ending be better? Let me know if you have any ideas!