Title: Song in the Dark
Author: Christine Howe
Publication: February 21, 2013 by Penguin Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 216
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Where do you end up when you have nowhere to go, and no one to turn to?

Paul isn’t thinking clearly. After destroying a series of relationships – with his friends, his flatmates, his mum – he finally hurts the one person he cares about most of all. And then he runs away.

An extraordinary and heartrending story of love, betrayal, addiction and hope.

Christine Howe’s debut novel Song in the Dark is a book of tough and mature themes definitely written for a mature young adult audience. It’s nice to know that some authors write to not squeeze into what’s popular within the age group such as young protagonists, cliched romances, and genre trends, but write matters that have meaning and levels of emotionality that you wouldn’t see elsewhere. Song in the Dark is one of those, but sadly for me, I didn’t quite connect with the book. I mean, it was good. But as it was written in third perspective it was hard to connect with our main character Paul as he hurts people he loves, family and friends, and runs away to recover at a rehab treatment centre for his marijuana addiction. I felt incredibly distant from him because of it; maybe it’s because I’m the polar opposite. If it were written in first there might’ve been a difference in the way I felt about this book. Despite it being short and a quick read I had skimmed about 30% of it and that’s really a shame.

Thanks to Penguin Australia via NetGalley for the egalley to review.

• • •

Title: Shadow Kiss, Vampire Academy #3
Author: Richelle Mead
Publication: November 13th, 2008 by Razorbill
Format, pages: Paperback, 348
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal, Romance
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

It’s springtime at St. Vladimir’s Academy, and Rose Hathaway is this close to graduation. Since making her first Strigoi kills, Rose hasn’t been feeling quite right. She’s having dark thoughts, behaving erratically, and worst of all… might be seeing ghosts.

As Rose questions her sanity, new complications arise. Lissa has begun experimenting with her magic once more, their enemy Victor Dashkov might be set free, and Rose’s forbidden relationship with Dimitri is starting to heat up again. But when a deadly threat no one saw coming changes their entire world, Rose must put her own life on the line – and choose between the two people she loves most.

Richelle Mead has soooo many passionate fans the world over for her Vampire Academy series and I think I slowly am becoming one. I’ve taken my time – even if poorly – with this series and it’s a goal to finish the series this year. Shadow Kiss, the third instalment in the series, was packed with thrilling if not emotional moments, especially the ending between Lissa and Rose. It’s such a genuinely complex relationship between friends and one of the best I’ve read; there’s a lot of depth and history to their friendship that you don’t see anywhere else. It’s at that ending that it explodes and Rose and Lissa ricochet their own ways, and it’s funny how it’s both their faults. I look forward to reading the next three in this series following Rose and the path she takes to find Dimitri. This was a great instalment and the next books seem like they’re just going to cascade down on me.

• • •

Title: Pandemonium, Delirium #2
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publication: February 28th, 2012 by HarperCollins Children’s Books
Format, pages: Hardcover, 375
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Romance
My Rating:  

“So what was your name before?” I say, and she freezes, her back to me. “Before you came to the Wilds, I mean.”For a moment she stands there.

Then she turns around.

“You might as well get used to it now,” she says with quite intensity.

“Everything you were, the life you had, the people you knew… dust.”

She shakes her head and says, a little more firmly, “There is no before. There is only now, and what comes next.”

After falling in love, Lena and Alex flee their oppressive society where love is outlawed and everyone must receive the “cure” – an operation that makes them immune to the delirium of love – but Lena alone manages to find her way to a community of resistance fighters. Although she is bereft without the boy she loves, her struggles seem to be leading her toward a new love.

Title: The Prey, The Hunt #2
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Publication: February 1st, 2013 by Simon & Schuster Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 336
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

For Gene and the remaining humans—or hepers—death is just a heartbeat away. On the run and hunted by society, they must find a way to survive in The Vast… and avoid the hungry predators tracking them in the dark. But they’re not the only things following Gene. He’s haunted by the girl he left behind and his burgeoning feelings for Sissy, the human girl at his side.

When they discover a refuge of exiled humans living high in the mountains, Gene and his friends think they’re finally safe. Led by a group of intensely secretive elders, the civilisation begins to raise more questions than answers. A strict code of behaviour is the rule, harsh punishments are meted out, young men are nowhere to be found—and Gene begins to wonder if the world they’ve entered is just as evil as the one they left behind. As life at the refuge grows more perilous, he and Sissy only grow closer. In an increasingly violent world, all they have is each other… if they can only stay alive.

Andrew Fukuda returns full force with a sequel that grapples you as soon as you begin reading, as if you were the book’s prey. The Prey picks up where we left Gene, Sissy, Epap, Ben, Jacob, and David at the end of The Hunt as they escape the Duskers, the vampire/zombie-esque race that dominates Fukuda’s post-apocalytpic world. In The Prey Gene and the hepers are in search for the Land of Milk and Honey, Fruit, and Sunshine that the Scientist – who we learn is Gene’s father at the end of The Hunt – spoke of in his journals and teachings at the Heper Institute while escaping the Duskers. On the way to discovering this mysterious paradise that was spoken so highly of they come across a compound village, The Mission, that at first seems safe and inviting but really is a prison, a misogynistic and prejudiced little society under the surface, full of lies and secrecy. While at this remote but thriving village Gene, Sissy and the other surviving “hepers” learn more about their world’s history, about the whereabouts of Gene’s father, about the cure for the Duskers, and if there really is a paradise called the Civilisation at all.

The thing with The Hunt and The Prey is that it’s pretty easy to not be fooled. Early on, you can guess who is who, what is what, etc., because everything really is in plain sight. If you read these books knowing how Fukuda writes them and sets up his twists early your premature guesses may be correct 95% of the time as there is a lot of foreshadowing throughout. I know my assumptions were correct, which did sort of add a guessing game element to the story when reading. However, despite that, Fukuda’s writing, storytelling and world building are the strongest elements of The Prey, mature and effortless at the same time. From the first chapter Fukuda throws a ton of action in your face, and the story flows like a raging torrent from then, full of action, full of conflict, sweeping you up in Gene’s struggles until the end presents itself.

Gene has become ever more realistic in The Prey with him struggling to identify who he was in the past to who he is in the present through memories and inner conflicting thoughts, as well as identifying the father he knew before to the proclaimed “Scientist” he is known by the other hepers and people of The Mission and the secret identity Gene’s father had hidden from him. Not only is The Prey a story about physical survival, it is a story about emotional struggles. This struggle is seen in Gene for most of the book, as well as in his band of Heper Institute-survivors while living in The Mission. Each of the characters besides Gene, particularly that of Sissy and Epap, are further developed, with trust, leadership, and uncertainty being influences for the conflicting dynamics between them. Fukuda’s story has evolved tremendously since the first book, much more visual, much more realised.

There was a lot to take in in The Prey, from the expansion of this Dusker-dominated world, to The Mission, to the importance of Gene as the protagonist, to Gene’s father, to the mysterious Civilisation. Due to the intensity filled, fear inducing, heart thumping, action packed story, this series is one that will have boys thoroughly entertained, and just like me, clamouring for the third book now.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster for the copy to review.

Books in this series:

1. The Hunt (May, 2012)
2. The Prey (February, 2013)
3. Untitled

Title: Life in Outer Space
Author: Melissa Keil
Publication: February 1st, 2012 by Hardie Grant Egmont
Format, pages: Paperback, 316
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Comedy
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Sam Kinnison is a geek, and he’s totally fine with that. He has his horror movies, his nerdy friends, World of Warcraft – and until Princess Leia turns up in his bedroom, he doesn’t have to worry about girls.

Then Sam meets Camilla. She’s beautiful, friendly and completely irrelevant to his life. Sam is determined to ignore her, except that Camilla has a life of her own – and she’s decided that he’s going to be part of it.

Sam believes that everything he needs to know he can learn from the movies … but now it looks like he’s been watching the wrong ones.

Melissa Keil’s debut novel Life in Outer Space has the heart and voice that many young adult contemporary romance novels lack. Hardie Grant Egmont’s Ampersand Project has surely delivered on what they set out to do, because a novel like Life in Outer Space deserves its space on the shelf for what it has brought to the Australian YA scene.

In Life in Outer Space, all Sam knows how to be is a geek – computer games like World of Warcraft and films, especially that of horror, is all he ever knows. That is until Camilla Carter, the new girl at Bowen Lakes Secondary College, enters his world, as if she has stepped outside some fictional universe. And when she does, a sequence of events unfold that forces Sam to step outside of his comfort zone and attempt to put things right – for himself, for his friends… and for Camilla Carter.

What I loved most about Life in Outer Space was the character of Sam and the world he responds to, his own geeky universe – he’s just extremely relatable. Keil’s prose brings Sam to life, making his voice believable, as well as making his heart go thump thump thump right out of the pages, forcing you to not let go of his breathing story. As he understands those around him you as the reader do too.

The impact Camilla and Sam’s friends have on him creates quite a few side quests for Sam to complete – like the many quests on World of Warcraft – with the main quest being connected to Camilla. It was a nice relationship to see develop, between someone who is not so confident, unsure and used to the things he knows and someone who is out there, willing to try new things, determined but holding back. Sam and Camilla influence one another to step out of their comfort zones and go for the big things in life, to step out of the shadows and into the light, to step out of the bedroom and into someone’s heart.

Life in Outer Space was one of my most anticipated books of 2013 and I’m happy that I was not let down by it. The story flowed naturally, coming together in the end well. This book was adorkable. And you’ll feel adorkable too, just as much as I was, even if you would not call yourself a dork, a nerd, or a geek. Sam will convert you. Have no fear. Come to the dark side, young padawan.

Thank you to Hardie Grant Egmont for the ARC to review.

Title: Slated
Author: Teri Terry
Publication: January 24th, 2013 by Nancy Paulsen Books
(originally published May 3rd, 2012 by Orchard Books in UK/AUS)
Format, pages: Hardcover, 352
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Kyla has been Slated—her memory and personality erased as punishment for committing a crime she can’t remember. The government has taught her how to walk and talk again, given her a new identity and a new family, and told her to be grateful for this second chance that she doesn’t deserve. It’s also her last chance—because they’ll be watching to make sure she plays by their rules.

As Kyla adjusts to her new life, she’s plagued by fear. Who is she, really? And if only criminals are slated, why are so many innocent people disappearing? Kyla is torn between the need to know more and her instinct for self-preservation. She knows a dangerous game is being played with her life, and she can’t let anyone see her make the wrong move . . . but who can she trust when everyone is a stranger?

Debut author Teri Terry has written a brilliantly compelling, original and thought-provoking novel about an uncomfortably plausible future.

Although I’ve had Slated for some months now from the Australian publisher Hachette, when I saw it on NetGalley – as it was debuting in the US soon – I told myself I have got to get around to reading it. And so I did – and loved it! Dystopias at the moment are grinding on me. I love them, don’t get me wrong, because of the harsh, conflicting, and sometimes war-torn realities and societies that are ever present in them. But recently some authors have failed to encapsulate the meaning of a ‘dystopia’ and have thrown something into their book, an element of a dystopia or futuristic society, to draw readers in off the craze that the dystopia genre has become from the success of The Hunger Games. Although it does not have The Hunger Games‘s action-filled and thrilling plot, Teri Terry’s debut Slated is one that encapsulates dystopia in its purest form, like George Orwell’s 1984, of a reality that could well happen. It forces readers to debone and deconstruct their every belief of now and the future, and just like Kyla, their right to be the person they are and believe to be without the restrictions put on them by the controlled society in which they live.

Slated had perfect pacing, allowing me to glide through its pages and further allowing me to be immersed in Kyla’s story of struggle and resistance against the society and government that has changed her. After all, Kyla is a Slated, someone who in a previous life has committed something terrible and who now is having a second chance at life at the cost of her memories being wiped and all that she had known previously… gone. New family, new name, new life. Always watched, always disciplined. Slating makes resistance that much harder, with the people who have undergone this treatment unable to use their voice to express their individual thought. But with their memories forcefully stolen and beginning anew unaware of who they are, they cannot. Terry has designed a sinister new world and government, and a protagonist that slowly but surely questions the silence and disappearances around her.

Terry’s incorporation of science, in particular psychology and neurophysiology, to detail and explain Slating was something that I, someone who is studying psychology and psychophysiology, thoroughly enjoyed. It captivated me. It made me think ‘What if?’ and portrayed the brain as an item that government’s can shape, alter, manipulate, wipe, or destroy depending on their desires and the society they wish to control. The government in Slated uses physical and medical means to control their world, to control the criminals and terrorists that attempt to change it, whereas other dystopias such as The Hunger Games or Divergent use conformity to govern the way in which ordinary people must live and ultimately survive. Dystopias are captivating stories, and it is our free minds today that can change the way in which we wish to live, far from the worlds that we read about in such a fascinating but raw genre.

Slated is the beginning of a captivating new series and the start of a new life for Kyla. I’m looking forward to where Terry develops the story next in the sequel Fractured, out in May 2013 in UK/AUS.

Andrea Cremer is one author I dearly love. She is not afraid to take risks (e.g., Bloodrose), and although many have still not accepted the damage Cremer has done to them, Cremer continues to bring out compelling stories despite that. Bloodrose was a favourite and it’s with hope that Cremer continues to deliver high levels of action, suspense, and superb storytelling. Rift and Rise were a fantastic prequel duology to the Nightshade trilogy, combining fantasy and historical elements seamlessly in a suspenseful and conflicting origins story.

To know of the existence of evil, true evil that corrupted the world, had forever altered her heart and mind. If she had chosen a different path, she wouldn’t have slept another night. Her head would have been restless as she thought only of the horrors that might be creeping outside her door, waiting to rend her flesh. She would not live a life as the hunted; she would be the hunter.

Title: Rift, Nightshade Prequel #1
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publication: August 7th, 2012 by Philomel
Format, pages: Hardcover, 431
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Historical, Fantasy
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Chronicling the rise of the Keepers, this is the stunning prequel to Andrea Cremer’s internationally bestselling Nightshade trilogy!

Sixteen-year-old Ember Morrow is promised to a group called Conatus after one of their healers saves her mother’s life. Once she arrives, Ember finds joy in wielding swords, learning magic, and fighting the encroaching darkness loose in the world. She also finds herself falling in love with her mentor, the dashing, brooding, and powerful Barrow Hess. When the knights realize Eira, one of their leaders, is dabbling in dark magic, Ember and Barrow must choose whether to follow Eira into the nether realm or to pledge their lives to destroying her and her kind.

With action, adventure, magic, and tantalizing sensuality, this book is as fast-paced and breathtaking as the Nightshade novels.

It didn’t feel like much happened in Rift until the big event towards the end and that this book was just a precursor to what was to come in Rise. However, having said that, I liked Rift very, very much. I don’t think something has evoked that much resentment in me to a few characters in some time. I found the beginning a bit slow as I was getting into the time period and the third person as I was so used to Cremer’s first person narrative in the Nightshade books, but once I learnt more about the Guard and Conatus I just could not get enough. Ember was a wonderful heroine to follow and I kind of do love her more than Calla now. The supporting cast as always were fantastically well-drawn too.

• • •

Title: Rise, Nightshade Prequel #2
Author: Andrea Cremer
Publication: January 8th, 2013 by Philomel
Format, pages: Hardcover, 432
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Historical, Fantasy
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

The sequel to Rift and the prequel to the New York Times bestselling novel Nightshade.

Everything Conatus stands for is at risk. Hoping to gather enough resistance to save their order, Ember and Barrow attempt a desperate escape. But fate offers little mercy. When their mission is exposed, the  couple face relentless pursuit by the supernatural horrors that act on the commands of Eira’s ally: the mysterious Bosque Mar. A shocking revelation forces Ember out of hiding, sending her back into the heart of dark magic at Tearmunn keep, where she must convince her old friend Alistair of her love or face dire consequences. Ember’s deception offers the only chance for the resistance to succeed, but what she discovers in the shadows beneath the keep will shatter her world and bring about the Witches’ War.

Richly sensual and full of magic, action and danger, Andrea Cremer’s fifth book set in the Nightshade world is an edge-of-your-seat page turner.

But, uhh, how can I not be excited for Cremer’s Nightshade world-set erotica books? I’m a nearly 20-year-old male with no desire to read erotica AT ALL, but my dear Andrea Cremer had to pull the delicious rabbit out of the hat and tempt me. And because these eroticas are by her and in a world I have come to love in five books, of course I’m going to be tempted. Wolves on wolves: utterly perfect. *laugh maniacally*

Thank you to Philomel via Edelweiss for an e-galley to review.

• • •

UK/AUS editions – Hachette/ATOM

  

Title: Spark, Sky Chasers #2
Author: Amy Kathleen Ryan
Publication: August 1, 2012 by Pan Macmillan Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 384
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
My Rating:  

Teenagers Waverly and Kieran were the first boy and girl born in space, and the first to fall in love.

Cruelly wrenched apart when the enemy ship the New Horizon attacked the Empyrean, they have finally been reunited. Now the young crew on board the Empyrean must chase down the other ship in the race to save their parents. But Kieran’s leadership methods have raised suspicions, and Waverly questions if this could really be the same handsome loving boy she was torn from such a short time ago. Meanwhile she finds herself drawn ever closer to the wild and unpredictable Seth, despite the accusations Kieran has levelled against him…

 Goodreads

I left Glow completely stunned and confused – there I was for the entire book despising Seth, then the entire ship gets flipped on its head and I’m unaware of who I should have been hating all along. Authors who are able to transform your perception of a character within a few sentences are rare; Amy Kathleen Ryan is one of those. This continued on into the sequel, Spark. For a good portion of the book I despised Kieran more and more as the pages flicked by and liked Seth in Spark more than I did Kieran in Glow. Ryan just has a knack for writing fantastic characters no matter their ability to instill love or hate in you.

If he ever did get out of here, he’d show her he could be a good person. It didn’t matter that he could never have her. He just couldn’t stand the thought of her thinking badly of him. And maybe, just maybe, he could help her, too. Because whatever had happened to her on the New Horizon had pulled her downward, bent her back, hollowed out her eyes. If he could see her again, he’d take nothing from her. He wanted nothing. He just wanted to help—be a friend.

The above quote from Seth just presents the transformation that occurs in him within the first couple of chapters from his POV… but I must say, it felt like Ryan  has two different styles of writing for two groups of characters: those that we are made to side with and like and those that we are meant to dislike and wish would see the light – or just die. This was probably why I liked Seth more than Kieran in Spark, but if that logic is bizarre from your view then it must be something else. Having liked Seth more than Kieran I should have enjoyed Spark more than its predecessor, but that wasn’t case; maybe I would have if I reread Glow with a different perception, knowing where book two was going. Both books are equally as good, the first focusing more on religion, the second more on politics – and both involve ceaseless morality dilemmas, which I think in Spark was upped the ante. The morality really showed all sides and complexity of the characters making them dimensional however much I thought there were characters labelled as good or bad for the reader.

I go on and on about characters but they are the ones that drive and provide you with the twists and turns in the plot; they are unpredictable in their actions and behaviour. Even new additions to the story are unpredictable and have meaning to what they do/have done. It’s best to keep you’re emotions locked up because hate can go along way with such a book as this. However I give you permission to harness that hate for the end of the book because it leaves you on a cliffhanger that will have you regretting picking up this book so early from book three. I am eager to see what Ryan is able to do next in book three and I am positive that it will be better than both book one and two.

Title: The Hunt
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Publication: May 8th, 2012 by Simon & Schuster Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 304
Finished on: April 19th, 2012
My Rating:  

Against all odds, 17-year-old Gene has survived in a world where humans have been eaten to near extinction by the general population. The only remaining humans, or hepers as they are known, are housed in domes on the savannah and studied at the nearby Heper Institute. Every decade there is a government sponsored hunt. When Gene is selected to be one of the combatants he must learn the art of the hunt but also elude his fellow competitors whose suspicions about his true nature are growing.

Goodreads || Book Depository

If you’re not scratching your wrists or frothing from the mouth when you finish the book, if not halfway through, then there’s something wrong with you. Period. There’s no zombies. There’s no vampires. Just humans – hepers: vulnerable, near extinct, scared… civil. And the infested population that hunts them, kills them, feeds on them/cannibalises… and studies them. They’re strange and unhuman, like nothing you have ever seen or read. They perish in sunlight – who cares? At least there’s something natural to kill them with. Get ready for your mind to be slaughtered. You’re in for a thrilling ride along with Gene (a heper living among the infested and pretending to be one of them – I wouldn’t survive like he has with half my heritage being Mediterranean and of hairiness.

With his writing, Andrew Fukuda will seem like a veteran. The correct words are used at the most appropriate times and you’ll be enthralled with his imagination, both in words and vision. What I loved the most was the descriptions used: for the horror/gorey parts (e.g., decapitation, cannibalism) and those to describe the behaviours of the infested (wrist scratching, mouth frothing, drooling etc). Also all the fighting and actions scenes was great to be immersed in. I loved everything about it. It was different, unusual… and fun to picture. But I did notice A LOT of ‘;’ and ‘:’ which was fine by me.

If anything, The Hunt is The Hunger Games for boys: a male protagonist, more gore, more excitement for them. I dislike comparing anything to The Hunger Games but I’m really not comparing – I’m just saying what it is. However, I was anticipating the actual ‘Hunt’ to come earlier but it didn’t begin until the last 40 or so pages. Despite that, the anticipated was built and you’re left hanging to discover what would happen next and how Gene would get out of the predicament he is in. Yes, so you can say there is a The Hunger Games feel to it, but it’s different. Familiar yet distinctly different.

So pick up The Hunt and be immersed in Gene’s world, but just take precautions to not become an infested as occurred to me – my wrist is raw; I see bone. I should’ve written this review over two weeks ago but what can you do? Like it matter anyway – The Hunt is released today!

–> THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES. <–

Title: Black Dawn, Morganville Vampires #12
Author: Rachel Caine
Publication: April 26, 2012 by Penguin Australia (Razorbill)
Received an ARC from NetGalley
Format, pages: Paperback, 350
Finished on: April 8, 2012
My Rating:  

In Last Breath, the rain brought a new and dire threat to Morganville and its vampires… their ancient enemies, the draug. Now, the vampires are fighting a losing war, and it will fall to the residents of the Glass House: Michael, Eve, Shane and Claire, to take the fight to an enemy who threatens to destroy the town, forever.

Lovers of Morganville, rejoice: Black Dawn takes the intrigue, romance and nail-biting suspense of the series to its highest level yet!

Goodreads || Book Depository

First thing I want to say is that this series needs to be turned into a TV series stat! I’d be happy to write the script – lately I’ve added ‘write a tv series/script’ to the list of things I want to accomplish. Morganville reminds me of Revenge just in terms of all the game-changers and twists and turns that you do not suspect. This series has evolved so much since the first book, Glass Houses, that I feel like I’ve known these characters for ages – and with twelve books as of yet, that is exactly the reason why I feel so close to them, especially Clare, Michael, Eve, and Shane. They are the glue that hold the series together.

Secondly, this book was to be the final book in the series until Rachel Caine was signed on for three more. I’m all for more Morganville books, but I would’ve loved to still have a more resolved and completed ending to this book. I wanted an epic battle between the vampires and the drudge. I wanted more intensity in that “planned” confrontation scene that will remain unsaid. I wanted closure. If you’ve read Black Dawn already and understand where I’m getting at then please don’t hesitate to agree or disagree with me on this. I felt like we could’ve gotten more from this instalment and because there were three more to come, with Bitter Blood next, that Rachel Caine held back her original plans and changed them to fit the newer ending, drudge-less. Although, I bet they’ll still be around to wreak havoc. I’m just not sure.

Long series keeps me on my feet and Morganville Vampires is one of those which I love for that very reason. I do love the character development in Black Dawn though. Scarred is what I can describe each and every one of them. And I wonder what more Rachel Caine can show us, throw at us, hold at our eyes in order to keep us reading. That’s my only worry. That the blood and surprises in Morganville will run out. But I know – I trust in Rachel Caine, and she’ll give us another three books that may as well blow every burnt down house and building in Morganville off the ground and leave nothing but vampires burning in the Texan sun.

Bitter Blood come faster! I want to know what happens next! Like now.

If you have not read The Iron Thorn yet you can check out my review for that here as the full review may include spoilers for it.

“I am alone. Alone except for the sirens, alone except for the burning, empty city on the edge of a rotting, pollutedriver green with algae, host to rubber-skinned, gibbous-eyed things with mouths large enough to swallow me whole and protruding stomachs ready to digest me.”

Title: The Nightmare Garden, The Iron Codex #2
Author: Caitlin Kittredge
Publication: February 14, 2012 by Delacorte
Format, pages: Hardcover, 417
Finished on: February 27, 2012
My Rating:  

Everything Aoife thought she knew about the world was a lie. There is no Necrovirus. And Aoife isn’t going to succumb to madness because of a latent strain—she will lose her faculties because she is allergic to iron. Aoife isn’t human. She is a changeling—half human and half from the land of Thorn. And time is running out for her.

When Aoife destroyed the Lovecraft engine she released the monsters from the Thorn Lands into the Iron Lands and now she must find a way to seal the gates and reverse the destruction she’s ravaged on the world that’s about to poison her.

Goodreads || Book Depository

The Nightmare Garden is an outstanding sequel to The Iron Thorn that cleverly combines the magnificence of Lovecraft, Steampunk, and Fae into a dark and eerie world, which has an ambitious protagonist on an ambitious adventure to turn back time and make things right – the way they should have been in the first place years ago. This adventure-filled tale has twists, shocks, and surprises around every corner, and will leave you wanting the third book, The Mirrored Shard, to see how this trilogy ends. Caitlin Kittredge is an excellent world-builder; you will have no problem being immersed in this world. And if you enjoy Fae tales just as much as I do, then this is one to add to your reading lists.

 Title: BZRK
 Author: Michael Grant
 Publication: March, 2012 by Hardie Grant Egmont ~ February 28,2012
 Format, pages: Paperback, 407
 Source: Publisher
 Finished on: December 11, 2011
My Rating:  

 A global war is raging. You can’t see it, but it’s happening all around you.

 Inside you.

 Down in the meat.

Welcome to the nano – the microscopic matrix where invisible armies will   determine the future of mankind. Here, the ultimate battle is for sanity. Losing is not an option when a world of madness is at stake.

BZRK.

An epic, ground-breaking new thriller from the author who gave us Gone…Writing just doesn’t get better than this.

 Goodreads || Book Depository

If you’re a big fan of Michael Grant’s Gone series like I am, and eagerly anticipating for Fear, then you are absolutely going to devour BZRK, the first book in his new thriller series. Where Gone was my entrée in 2010 and Plague my main course in 2011 (the books in between being complementary champagnes and refreshments), BZRK was my dessert – although filled with internal bodily environments, blood, bits of brain, and shards of bone, it was sweet and delectable the entire way through, or as they say, “cooked to perfection” – before my satisfying tea and biscuits – Fear – arrives in April. Yes, I understand you must think I’m delusional after spending over a year and a half in the restaurant called ‘The Fayz’ with a dessert special containing nanobots and a thrill ride… but I’m hooked. All I need is a hook-ah/er and I’d be even more hooked then I already am. Michael Grant can give me my hookah course so that way I can save the hooker course for when I find myself in Amsterdam again… BRAIDEN! You’re getting off-topic mate! Get with it! Okay I will.

So you’ve come here to read my thoughts on BZRK and yet you found me discussing hookers. All I can say is Michael Grant’s writing, his novels, his characters, his worlds, are a drug. Maybe Gone was the hookah in the first place. Oh God! I am getting totally sidetracked because I don’t know how to – or don’t really want to – write a review for this exciting and thrilling book. There’s one way to comprehend how I feel after reading it: BZRK literally f***s up your brain, your mind, as if an army of nanobots has invaded your cranial cavity and is now pulling and pushing and poking about, injecting every neuron in your brain with psychedelic drugs. Or it could feel like you’re undertaking aversion therapy (think of Clockwork Orange). Either way, I’m studying Psychology so I could well know what this “pleasurable” experience felt like. Or you know, going back to basics and being a so-called “adult”, it’s like eating your favourite dessert… where the psychedelics and dessert are one and the same. Round and round in circles I go.

Sensible time: In alternating perspectives we find ourselves introduced to Noah and Sadie, two separate individuals, an ocean dividing them, each with an event that is about to dramatically change their lives and thrust them into a war they never knew even existed. A war involving nanobots and biots, two opposing sides, which happens in the very meat of the individuals each side is either trying to defend, or attempting to succeed. Even by reading this, these microscopic DNA-based bots may have crawled onto your skin, into your eyes, your nose, your ears, scurrying along your optic nerve, your olfactory or trigeminal tracts, your auditory nerve, heading straight for your brain, their target, to invade, to control, to takeover your every action, your every thought, your every right as a human being on this planet. The next time you do something stupid or caught by the police for doing something against the law (like running a red light), blame it on the bots. Or give them Michael Grant’s number for your contact and let him explain the situation. He’s the creator. A damn phenomenal creator who knows how to twist your mind every which way humanly – and not-so humanly – possible.

But we can’t blame it on Michael Grant of course. So he gives us a pair of conjoined twins – Charles and Benjamin – to pile all the blame on. These twins have one goal: to “attempt” to make a better world. Do they succeed? You’ll find out. This “better world” is termed Nexus Humanus, where we become an interconnected species and able to communicate with one another more efficiently (like we don’t communicate enough!), to make one another an equal, with equal rights and equal lives – their view on what a utopia should be. Being conjoined is hard enough in a world where you are outed, different, targeted. So they’ve worked hard at this Nexus Humanus, to build it, and they’re going to do all it takes to make it work. Although they’re the true villains of this twisted society, we can’t blame them entirely for the war which has started. This war between the “baddies” working for the twins, the Armstrong Fancy Gift Corporation, and their nanobots. The “goodies”, those in the guerilla group BZRK – that also recruit Noah and Sadie – using DNA-derived biots to destroy the nanobots, to protect the very rights of the human being affected with these bots. Which side would you choose? They’re both fighting for a cause which they believe is right. And why shouldn’t they?

You may have seen goodies and baddies in quotation marks. That is because in BZRK there’s no point in taking sides. Each character in this book has the right to believe in what they want to believe in, to do the things they want to do, to be the person they want to be. There’s no denying them of that opportunity. Bugman who works for the twins is just a teenage boy like you and me, the teenage you will be like or how you were like. And when you put him besides Noah and Sadie, there’s really no difference. They have their dreams and aspirations even if it’s to do with revenge or just to find peace and happiness in the world around you. You feel sympathy for the “baddies” and the “goodies” and Michael Grant gives you access into each of their lives, their emotions and feelings. You begin to feel empathy to everyone. A trait we all must possess today. But looking out of one character’s eyes makes the other set of eyes, which you are directly glaring at, seem evil and sinister like a monster’s, and vice versa.

The only issue I did have with BZRK was the changing from macro to micro, the view of the human to the view of the bot/biot. It was confusing at first, but as you read and understand the descriptions and moments more, you find yourself automatically being transported from the macro to the micro, from being face to face to being face to brain. So as you change, it’s an automatic “transferral” of view which I’ll term it as. And this was my only issue – hence the half a star deduction – but everything else was sheer perfection and an enjoyment of epic proportions (DESSERT! hehehe).

And like I said: BZRK f***s you up hardcore.

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Now when I think about it, I did feel an itch in my eye when I met Michael Grant in 2010 when he came to Melbourne (at Jam Factory’s Borders – now closed [blame it on the bots!]). Thought it was an eyelash but I’m beginning to think it was much more than just an eyelash…