This review WILL contain spoilers for previous books in the series, so if you haven’t yet begun this series I urge you not to continue.
It MAY/WILL contain spoilers for LIGHT.

BEWARE OF EMOTIONAL OUTBURSTS, TOO.

‘Turn out the light, Sam.’
Sam reached for the switch and turned out the light.

Title: Light, Gone #6
Author: Michael Grant
Publication: April 1st, 2013 by Egmont Books
Format, pages: Hardcover, 576
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Apocalyptic
My Rating:  

IT’S THE END OF ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SERIES!

From Goodreads:

It’s been more than a year since every person over the age of fifteen disappeared from the town of Perdido Beach, California. In that time, countless battles have been fought: Battles against hunger and lies and plagues and worse, battles of good against evil, and kid against kid. Allegiances have been won, lost, betrayed, and won again; ideologies have been shattered and created anew, and the kids of the FAYZ have begun to believe that their new society is the only life they’ll ever know. But now that the Darkness has found a way to be reborn, the tenuous existence they‘ve established is likely to be shattered for good. Will the kids of Perdido Beach even survive?

Light, the sixth and final book in the New York Times bestselling Gone series (which has spanned more than 3,000 pages!) asks as many profound and provocative questions as it answers, while bestselling mastermind and author Michael Grant creates an unforgettable, arresting conclusion that readers won’t able to stop talking about.

For the past four years I’ve followed Michael Grant’s Gone series. I’ll admit I came to this party almost three years late. One day browsing Borders I stumbled upon this book with blue-edged pages. That book was, of course, the UK hardcover of Lies, the third book in the series, which had just been released. On impulse, and being ignorant of the fact that it was the third in a series, I bought it. I liked the blue. But I had no idea that that impulse buy, sheerly on the colour and design of the book, would introduce me to a series of impressively written teenage characters, many whom to fall in love with, a series to follow and be apart of until the end in years to come (e.g., now), and a series to call one of my favourites.

This series also made me a fan of Michael Grant, an author who consistently pushes the boundaries of reality, of fiction for teens and young adult, producing a world such as the FAYZ that could very well happen, and a diverse range of characters, of young people, that could very well attend your school, or even be in your class, with crippling secrets and haunting pasts, with feelings and fears and desires that you would otherwise never had known they possessed if you did not take the chance to meet them, follow their stories, experience what they experienced, how they changed, for the better or for the worst. For the past six years, six books, three thousand pages, from Gone all the way to Light, that is exactly what we, the readers, did. We took a chance and met Michael Grant’s characters – Sam, Caine, Astrid, Diana, Pete, Quinn, Edilio, Lana, Brianna, Jack and all those others. Even Drake and Brittany and the gaiaphage/Gaia. We took the plunge into Michael Grant’s story, followed it from beginning to end, because we found something special within it, grew an attachment to it – whatever ‘it’ was. For me it definitely was the characters, their struggles and triumphs, their fears and doubts, their beginnings and ends, that made me keep returning. After reading the conclusion, the finale, the endgame, it was sad to say goodbye. It truly was.

So thank you Michael Grant. For this series. For these characters. For a story and message(s) that will linger, forever, deep within, and whenever I look upon my shelf and see those books I will remember what they hold: the power to choose – the power to choose good, be good, wield good. To not be afraid. To be someone that chooses wisely, someone who uses their power – whatever that power may be – for good in changing and making the world a much better place to live in. Every teenager that reads these books will understand, despite whatever they’re battling – depression, illness, failure, suicide, heartbreak, loss, addiction, sexuality, among others – that the power lies in their hands, and we can only hope that they discover that power and use it to emit light, guidance, strength – a future to look forward to. And just like what I deduced from Fear, it’s up to ourselves to transcend our deepest and darkest fears.

Michael Grant understands his readers, the modern teenager, and enhances his stories with this understanding. After all, we need to battle through darkness to discover a world of light. Adults censoring or banning such works like Michael Grant’s from their children could learn a thing or two, with the adults doing much more harm to those their “protecting” than these books could ever do: none and quite the opposite.

It’s not easy ending a series and Michael Grant ended it with integrity and intrepidity, both of those things I love to see in what I read. There was a lot of horror and pain, torment and loss in Light – all of that belongs to be in the book, rightfully, dutifully. Because, after all, we are human; there’s good and evil in each and every one of us, chances for redemption and atonement if we allow ourselves change in our lives, a chance to love and respect, a chance to live and survive. We have that right if we choose to accept it. There are other times when we are far beyond being given the right to choose, clouded too heavily in darkness. That the choice, if there ever was one, was made without us even knowing, subconsciously, predetermined. This was the case with Drake. He was predetermined to take on a dark role within the FAYZ, and there really was no change in him since the first book other than physically and in his thirst for more power.

Title: The Darkest Minds
Author: Alexandra Bracken
Publication: December 18th, 2012 by Disney Hyperion // December 11th, 2012 by HarperCollins Australia
Format, pages: Hardcover, 488 // Paperback, 496
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

When Ruby woke up on her tenth birthday, something about her had changed. Something alarming enough to make her parents lock her in the garage and call the police. Something that gets her sent to Thurmond, a brutal government “rehabilitation camp.” She might have survived the mysterious disease that’s killed most of America’s children, but she and the others have emerged with something far worse: frightening abilities they cannot control.

Now sixteen, Ruby is one of the dangerous ones.

When the truth comes out, Ruby barely escapes Thurmond with her life. Now she’s on the run, desperate to find the one safe haven left for kids like her—East River. She joins a group of kids who escaped their own camp. Liam, their brave leader, is falling hard for Ruby. But no matter how much she aches for him, Ruby can’t risk getting close. Not after what happened to her parents.

When they arrive at East River, nothing is as it seems, least of all its mysterious leader. But there are other forces at work, people who will stop at nothing to use Ruby in their fight against the government. Ruby will be faced with a terrible choice, one that may mean giving up her only chance at a life worth living.

The Darkest Minds was my first Alexandra Bracken book and I was pleasantly surprised. Despite the length of the book, which did cause a few difficulties while reading, The Darkest Minds had characters that you couldn’t help to fall in love with. This book took me over a month to get through and that was solely because of the length. I felt it didn’t need to be that long and some things could’ve been cut out. It was about halfway in which my interest was fading, so I took a break, and then after a few weeks I returned full force, determined to finish it. Surprisingly, I jumped back into Ruby’s story with ease and swept all the way to the end without any struggles. The outcome of this book was satisfying, so I’m eager to see where Ruby’s and Liam’s journeys continue and where Bracken develops this society next in the series.

Children in America are becoming affected with the Idiopathic Adolescent Acute Neurodegeneration (IAAN) disease from the age of 10. There is no cure yet for this disease, which triggers a number of symptoms, and the cause of it is unknown. Families do not know what to do so they turn their kids towards rehabilitation camps – if they haven’t already died – in large numbers. Ruby was one of those kids, who, upon learning that she was not immune when she turned 10, frightens her parents and is sent to a rehabilitation camp, Thurmond, joining a multitude of other children in the same circumstance with similar symptoms of the disease. Families and the government is so against this disease because when children discover they’re affected with IAAN they also discover they have abilities, special abilities – abilities that are a hazard to the running of the world that the adults knew before. These kids do not know how to control these abilities that they now possess.

Six years on and things are slowly evolving, becoming different, changing in this society regarding the government, the camps, and the world at large. For six years at Thurmond Ruby manages to keep in check, but when the chance of escape presents itself with the help of an secretive agency called The League, Ruby takes it and soon after a few revelations, finds herself on the run from anybody that would stop her. In the process she finds company in a small group of Psi generation kids still learning to control their powers and trying to survive in their bleak present world on their own. Along with Chubs, Suzume, and Liam, they search for a camp that was everything they could ever need at this time in their lives, where everything was a struggle and protection was what they sought, no matter the cost to get there. Was it all that it was rumoured to be once they got there? Surely not. Ruby learns the hard way whether trust or secrecy is the only option to stand by in order to survive.

If anything, The Darkest Minds is a character driven book. It was not the society and Bracken’s world building that struck a chord with me to make me return but the characters. The characters of Ruby, Liam, Chubs, and Suzumi would be the main reasons to return if you didn’t enjoy The Darkest Minds as a whole. Their characterisations are blissful individually as well as their dynamics together. The relationship between Ruby and Liam was enticing and full of colours – like the colours to categorise the different symptoms and abilities of IAAN. I found no flaw in the development of their connection as friends and their relationship as young teens in love. And the protectiveness that builds between Ruby and Liam over Suzume and Chubs with whatever threats came their way was endearing. I have so much admiration for Ruby and Liam; they remain themselves throughout everything. I looked up to Liam, confident in his ability to help those around him – with zero help from his powers – and his understanding of others, especially of Ruby. Chubs was a modern-day Piggy from The Lord of the Flies, who will win readers’ hearts, and so will Suzume, our mute little Japanese girl, so scared of her ‘shocking’ powers that it has dominated her ability to connect and express with those around her.

I say: pick up The Darkest Minds and make your own judgement about it. Alexandra Bracken has written something that contributes to the number of books and series, such as William Golding’s classic The Lord of the Flies and Michael Grant’s Gone series, in a way that expresses the true nature of human beings, and especially teens, when put in harsh circumstances of survival, where a battle for life and the imminence of death is present, whether set in the real world or in a fantasy and sci-fi set society. These are my favourite types of stories, where humanity is stretched to impossible ends, where innocence is lost, and where self-preservation fights against self-corruption in a raw battle of good and evil.

Thank you to HarperCollins Australia via NetGalley for providing a copy to review.

What others said about this book:

Anna @ Literary Exploration:

I can’t tell you how much I needed a hug by the time it was over, and how badly I want to get my hands on whatever Bracken has in store for me next. If you haven’t already considered reading Darkest Minds you’ll definitely want to add this one to your TBR.

Erin @ Tales of an Inner Book Fanatic:

…The Darkest Minds sets up a fantastic start to a YA trilogy. Containing all of the right elements including action-oriented sequences, an intriguing set of characters and some pretty cool superpowers that all readers will love to have themselves…

Others books in this series:

1. Darkest Minds (December, 2012)
2. Never Fade (November, 2013)
3. Untitled (December, 2014)

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: Dualed
Author: Elsie Chapman
Publication: February 26th, 2013 by Random House Books for Young Readers
Format, pages: Hardcover, 304
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia, Thriller
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

You or your Alt? Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman’s suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

Elsie Chapman’s young adult debut Dualed at first looks like it could roundhouse kick every other book near it off the shelf and crashing to the floor, but upon reading and closer inspection, Dualed may just trip over its own feet. Don’t get me wrong, Dualed was an action filled, pulse thumping read and I relished in the story and the protagonist of West, but this book and the execution of this idea was heavily skewed, that it ran with a one-minded approach, that no matter how much I wanted to cheer and get behind our characters West and Chord, I couldn’t help thinking about the Alts that have fallen, the “foes” that I did not get to know.

Dualed brandishes the saying ‘Survival of the Fittest’ with the city of Kersh using it as a way for conformity, for honour, for advancement in its citizens. Every individual has a genetically identical twin – known as an Alternate (Alt for short) – with a different family, way of living, etc. At fifteen, each person is given an assignment of killing their Alt, and the one to survive acquires life benefits that they wouldn’t have gotten previously – better everything. West Grayer, our protagonist, aids forbiddingly her boyfriend with terminating his Alt, but in the process her brother is killed (no spoiling, this is within the first chapter). West then joins the Strikers, a hidden organisation that targets Alts before assignments even begin and hired by the wealthy, to find strength in herself and some vengeance for her brother’s premature death. But while she does she gets her own assignment, given information to her Alt’s whereabouts, and must bring down her Alt if she is to survive in the end.

Like I said, Dualed is very much one-sided. We only get this story through the point of view of West, so by the time it comes to her facing her Alt all we understand and told about is West’s drive to come out of this dual alive. The Alts are one-sided, only ever seen as the enemy (besides Kersh to the Strikers), and it is only here and there that we can piece together the life of the Alt through West visiting her Alt’s home, spying on her Alt, seeing how her Alt does things. This novel could have been well executed if we were given the point of view of West’s Alt as well. We hardly got to know her. We actually knew really nothing about her except her parents care for her and are, how it always go, on her side. It’s a very flat society – one-sided. I would have enjoyed it more if the ending was also quite different. Again, the ending was very one-sided, not budging that flatline up or down; it frustrated me to no end because I wanted there to be something, a change in our characters, a change in the way this book ended.

Also, the Alts barely said a single word, such as in the confrontation between West and her Alt, the climax of the book. Poor.

West, however, was a character I did like. She was stubborn to the point that stubbornness was tolerable because it showed that she would rather go into a fight with the first swing than stand back, cowering in the corner, waiting to be hit first. After all, look at the society that she lives in. Her protectiveness and sort of maternal trait comes out when she refrains from killing a boy for her Striker assignment but rather protects him from others, teaching him to fight, teaching him to protect himself. I liked her until the end, until the end where I thought something – something like realisation, or defiance (like she showed previously) – was going to make her drop her weapons and walk away, possibly hand in hand with her Alt to start a rebellion and bring down the higher powers of Kersh. But no.

The book on a whole, without thinking about what I would’ve like to have been done differently on Chapman’s part and getting all philosophical and humanitarian-like, was solid. Not the best. But solid. It was enjoyable, tense, suspenseful. If you’re after heavy, well developed and thought out science fiction or dystopians than you might want to look elsewhere. Dualed will spike your blood pressure; as well as your inner critic. But Elsie Chapman is surely an author to watch out for in years to come; she can write pretty great action scenes.

Thanks to Random House for Young Readers via NetGalley for the egalley to review.

What others said about this book:

Wendy @ The Midnight Garden:

All that said, this one definitely satisfies if you’re looking for a fast-paced, suspenseful read. I literally read it in a day, which is a statement in itself of its high entertainment factor!

Other books in this series:

1. Dualed (February, 2013)
2. Divided (February, 2014)

Title: When We Wake
Author: Karen Healey
Publication: January 27th, 2013 by Allen & Unwin
Format, pages: Paperback, 291
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Dystopia
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

The last thing Tegan remembers is the crack as the gun went off, intense pain, and everything fading to black. One hundred years later, she wakes up. A fast-paced near-future romance. 

Sixteen-year-old Tegan is just like every other girl living in 2027 – she’s happiest when playing the guitar, she’s falling in love for the first time, and she’s joining her friends to protest the wrongs of the world: environmental collapse, social discrimination, and political injustice.

But on what should have been the best day of Tegan’s life, she dies – and wakes up a hundred years in the future, locked in a government facility with no idea what happened.

Tegan is the first person to be cryonically frozen and successfully revived, which makes her an instant celebrity – though all she wants is to rebuild some semblance of a normal life …
including spending as much time as possible with musically gifted Abdi, even if he does seem to hate the sight of her. But the future isn’t all she hoped it would be, and when appalling secrets come to light, Tegan must make a choice: Does she keep her head down and survive, or fight for a better future.

Award-winning author Karen Healey has created a gripping tale of an inspiring heroine living in a not-so-distant future that could easily be our own.

At first sight When We Wake will call out for you, its bright, sharp, and almost white cover standing out on the shelf amongst the other covers, too dark in comparison. What the cover of When We Wake achieves is a sense of questioning already in the reader, and once the words ‘cryogenically frozen’ in the synopsis are read and connected to the cover, there would be no going back, no putting Karen Healey’s new science fiction offering back on the bookshop shelf. When We Wake provides a quite different future from today’s world, from today’s Australia, packed with political, global, and humanitarian themes involving activism, social justice, distribution of propaganda, corruption, and deceit. Whatever it is that you enjoy, either the science fiction or speculative fiction elements, When We Wake will fascinate you to no end.

It was the year 2027 when sixteen-year-old Tegan Oglietti joined a rally about climate change on the steps of Melbourne’s parliament house with her boyfriend Dalmar and was killed by a sniper. Thanks to her humanitarian beliefs of signing up to be an organ donor, Tegan wakes up 100 years later, the first to wake up after being cryogenically frozen. Tegan had become a major part of a government program to bring soldiers and casualties of war back to life due to the progress of science, but Tegan seeks out the truth in this changed world, much different to the one she knew. Because of the cryogenic freezing Tegan has become the newest celebrity, bringing fame but then also hate from religious and extremist groups who want to see her dead. Among all this, staying true to herself becomes her greatest test.

Tegan is quite a likeable and relatable character. Dealing with change, almost instantly in her case, isn’t easy, but Tegan deals with it with maturity and modesty, thankful that she gets to live a second life, but dejected it won’t be with her parents, brother, her friend Alex, and boyfriend Dalmar. Her predicament proves her fighting strength to adapt and make change with her longing for the past and the desolation that resides inside her. She never stops questioning, never forgets who she was before she was shot, always determined to protect the memories of her old life and the friends she makes in her new life.

How the future in 2127 is described will make you tremble at the terror of how our very own future may look like (e.g., Australia’s no-migrant policy and denigration of third-world countries) or cry in delight at things like marriage equality, diversity, and if you are vegetarian or vegan, the way the future may lean to your advantage. The setting on a global scale was well detailed. I’m looking forward to exploring Karen Healey’s futuristic world in the next books. As a bonus, if there is a possible space setting in them, then Healey will hit the nail on the head in terms of setting execution.

There was much to enjoy about When We Wake. I found there to be a sort of The Hunger Games in there with Tegan attracting fame and attention and therefore must act like a token figure the government wants her to be. She’d get dressed up, outfit, make up and all, and have to participate in media interviews. Very The Hunger Games-esque, but Healey adds her own ingredients to make it distinctly different. I also loved that it was set in Melbourne, and since this is my home city, it instilled some pessimism in me, a trait which I never want to possess. If someone can do that then you’ve got a winner on your hands. When We Wake did have its moments where I lost interest, but that’s nothing in comparison to all the positives.

Karen Healey has written a strikingly fresh new future through the eyes of Tegan Oglietti. While We Run: come at me!

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for a copy to review.

What others thought about this book:

Mandee @ Vegan YA Nerds:

When We Wake is a unique look at a futuristic world, featuring a solid cast of characters, and an intriguing and action-packed plot. It’s ahead of the pack when it comes to dystopian YA.

Tez @ Tez Says:

I haven’t read anything by Karen Healey before, but I’m glad to have started with the best.

Other books in this series:

1. When We Wake (February, 2013)
2. While We Run (February, 2014)

Title: Unravel Me, The Juliette Chronicles #2
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publication: February 1, 2013 by Allen & Unwin
Format, pages: Paperback, 480
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Romance
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Our lips touch and I know I’m going to split at the seams. He kisses me softly then strongly like he’s lost me and he’s found me and I’m slipping away and he’s never going to let me go.

Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. A place for people like her – people with gifts – and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.

She’s finally free from the Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch. Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.

Haunted by her past, terrified of her future, Juliette knows that in her present, she will have to make some life-changing choices.
Choices that may include choosing between her heart – and Adam’s life.

The sequel to Shatter Me explodes with Tahereh Mafi’s signature prose – beautiful, exotic, addictive, raw and oh so good! (Yep, this review is filled with quotes… take caution.) Returning to Mafi’s futuristic society and the brewing war between the Reestablishment and Omega Point, as well as Juliette’s tale of self-acceptance, -discovery, choice and love was no difficult operation. Of course! I went into Unravel Me on the back of Shatter Me, immediately having four-hundred-and-eighty pages more to be completely immersed in Juliette’s story. Despite how I returned to Mafi’s second book, those who read Shatter Me around the time that it came out to months before now will have no trouble as well. Juliette welcomes you back with open arms… Just watch out for her deadly touch and powerful strength. And that’s what Unravel Me is: deadly and powerful, more so with Juliette’s alluring voice and struggle of self-acceptance than the book’s plot.

As I commented about in my Shatter Me review, Juliette’s voice is distinct due to the way she uses her words – or the way Mafi uses her words – caused by Juliette’s previous isolation in which she had generated her own individual style with the journal she had as her only company. With this comes a lot of metaphors and similes. Although it may be irritating and feel like an electric saw is gyrating through the spongey mass of your straight-thinking brain for much of the time (it was not like that for me though), Mafi presents a creative way for Juliette to communicate about and to describe the world around her. In most cases, like the passage beneath, Juliette develops her own stories to explain what she’s thinking, what she means, and what she wants you, as the reader, to understand.

So I have to keep remembering that Warner and I are 2 different words.
We are synonyms but not the same.
Synonyms know each other like old colleagues, like a set of friends who’ve seen the world together. They swap stories, reminisce about their origins and forget that though they are similar, they are entirely different, and though they share a certain set of attributes, one cannot be the other. Because a quiet night is not the same as a silent one, a firm man is not the same as a steady one, and a bright light is not the same as brilliant one because the way they wedge themselves into a sentence changes everything.

Why yes, Warner does play a major role somewhat in the plot of Unravel Me. Be afraid! Be very afraid! Maybe I should talk about what happens in Unravel Me first before I discuss… uhh… Warner.

Two weeks after the events of Shatter Me shows Juliette still trying to blend in with the crowd below in Omega Point, almost like she’s a flashing red beacon with a siren that wails ‘Danger! Danger! Danger!’ to everyone that passes her. On top of that, Juliette’s relationship with Adam – a relationship that I want continued until the end of the trilogy and beyond – hits some rocky seas and is unable to stay afloat, with the combination of Juliette’s inability to trust anyone, including herself, and controlling her power as well as Adam’s inability to accept his newfound abilities and the new person he has become being contributing factors to the damage to their love. In the mix add that certain antagonist from Shatter Me, Warner, who we learn along with Juliette and Adam much more about. Warner’s father enters the picture and then Omega Point trains and prepares to defend and fight their imminent and closing in threat.

I’ll just come out and say it now: Warner still does nothing to me even after everything we saw, the different side to him and the knowledge about his past and upbringing, in Unravel Me. And no that chapter sixty-two sixty-two sixty-two sixty-two did not sway me at all. I felt that that part of the book was too forced, too this-is-only-happening-to-satisfy-Warner-admirers. Maybe it was because I thought he was a psycho and megalomaniac in Shatter Me and nothing could redeem him. I do have a change of heart for Warner… but just overall, as someone for Juliette, no. He continued to be too brash when with others, most possibly a defence mechanism to hide his true self. At least tension was built throughout Unravel Me due to the unexpected turns in relationship between the characters.

I’m really not sure what else to write in regards to Unravel Me. I found it to be absorbing and I wonder how the third book will turn out and how it will end. Juliette has become stronger, more independent, able to make her own decisions, and although she is impulsive as her confidence and abilities grow she does it to protect those she cares about. Throughout Unravel Me Juliette reveals more about her longings and dreams, pouring out her emotions, served raw on a plate. The most delicious parts of Mafi’s meal are below to end this review.

1.

It’s like a button in my brain is broken, like I’ve developed a disease that forces me to apologise for everything, for existing, for wanting more than what I’ve been given, and I can’t stop.
It’s what I do.
I’m always apologising. Forever apologising. For who I am and what I never meant to be and for this body I was born into, this DNA I never asked for, this person I can’t unbecome. 17 years I’ve spent trying to be different. Every single day. Trying to be someone else for someone else.
And it never seems to matter.

2.

I always dared to identify with the princess, the one who runs away and finds a fairy godmother to transform her into a beautiful girl with a bright future. I clung to something like hope, to a thread of maybes and possiblys and perhapses. But I should’ve listened when my parents told me that things like me aren’t allowed to have dreams. Things like me are better off destroyed, is what my mother said to me.
And I’m beginning to think they were right.

3.

It’s like my face is pressed up against the glass, watching a scene from far, far away, wishing and wanting to be a part of something I know I’ll never really be a part of. I forget sometimes, that they are people out there who still manage to smile every day, despite everything.
They haven’t lost hope yet.
Suddenly I feel sheepish, ashamed, even. Daylight makes my thoughts look dark and sad and I want to pretend I’m still optimistic, I want to believe that I’ll find a way to live. That maybe, somehow, there’s still a chance for me somewhere.

4.

Because sometime you see yourself – you see yourself the way you could be – the way you might be if things were different. And if you look too closely, what you see will scare you, it’ll make you wonder what you might do if given the opportunity. You know there’s a different side of yourself you don’t want to recognise, a side you don’t want to see in the daylight. You spend your whole life doing everything to push it down and away, out of sight, out of mind. You pretend that a piece of yourself doesn’t exist.
You live like that for a long time.
For a long time, you’re safe.

And then you’re not.

Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the copy to review.

What others thought about this book:

Sarah @ Saz101:

Unravel Me sizzles with passion and chemistry, and offers surprise twists to keep those pages turning well into the wee hours. Fans will delight in Unravel Me as it unravels its spectacular heroine just in time to leave them desperate for more.

Jen @ Shortie Says:

I can’t even… Just wow.

Books in the series:

1. Shatter Me (November, 2011)
2. Unravel Me (February, 2013)
3. Untitled (February, 2014)

Title: Shatter Me, The Juliette Chronicles #1
Author: Tahereh Mafi
Publication: November, 2011 by Allen & Unwin
Format, pages: Paperback, 348
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Romance
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

“You can’t touch me,” I whisper.

I’m lying, is what I don’t tell him.

He can touch me, is what I’ll never tell him.

But things happen when people touch me.

Strange things.

Bad things.

No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.

But Juliette has plans of her own.

After a lifetime without freedom, she’s finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she’d lost forever.

Tahereh Mafi has entered the Young Adult scene with a defiantly striking and distinct prose in her debut novel Shatter Me, garnering mixed responses from readers, some overtly displeased while others embraced the change in style. I, for one, revelled in the beauty of the words and the stream-of-consciousness-like writing. Perhaps being different isn’t all that great in such a media when the literary norm has been set in concrete centuries ago, with little transformation and originality able to be done by new writers. Mafi’s prose is a perfect fit for Juliette’s character, however, because she’s someone who has been locked away for 264 days, away from civilisation and zero contact with others, so, therefore, the way in which she thinks, reacts and perceives to the world around her has altered, and this change is exhibited in the writing – only, really, if you want to see it that way. Additionally, Juliette’s love of words, of numbers, and of writing in her journal may also be a contributing factor, with Mafi creating a style that screams ‘Juliette’. Although it took a while to adapt to Mafi’s writing, I’ve developed a taste that I would love more of.

I’ve been locked up for 264 days.
I have nothing but a small notebook and a broken pen and the numbers in my head to keep me company. 1 window, 4 walls, 144 square feet of space, 26 letters in an alphabet. I haven’t spoken in 264 of isolation.
6,336 hours since I’ve touched another human being.

Juliette’s inner struggle to accept who she is, with an ability such as hers, is something that makes falling in love with her easy. Throughout Shatter Me she is manipulated, ordered and forced to use her power, tried to be shaped by Warner into a weapon against enemies of The Reestablishment, something that Juliette wants no part of. Her disastrous past combined with her naught self-acceptance and the destruction she knows she can cause becomes Juliette’s formidable force and resistance against those that want to use her. Slowly throughout Shatter Me she discovers more about herself and her ability through her journey from escaping Warner’s grip with Adam, a childhood friend and somebody she can touch, to Omega Point, the base for the resistance filled with people just like her. There was much to take interest in when it comes to Juliette.

I took a sincere liking to Adam. At first his deceiving to Juliette in the beginning under Warner’s orders made me weary of him, but as the novel progresses you hope Adam is the one that Juliette will be with in the end. The more the two of them are with each other the more we see them change, be truthful, be accepting of one another’s secrets, finally with someone that they can confide in things with. Shatter Me centralises on Adam and his predicament as an older sibling and guardian for his younger brother. There is also Warner, who was the main antagonist in this novel, and is pretty evident to become a love interest as such books usually go. I detested Warner for his conniving, manipulative, and dominant stance with the people around him. Of course, it comes with his position. For me, Warner was very one-sided in Shatter Me, only ever after one thing: Juliette, either that be for her power or to sate his possessiveness and obsession to be with Juliette romantically. He was a complete and utter psycho, someone who I would love to treat by bashing his loose head against the ground at Juliette’s feet.

Mafi’s thrilling plot from Juliette’s escape from isolation to Juliette’s discovery of others like her makes Shatter Me a pretty good beginning to the trilogy. However, I was holding out for more in this book than just a precursor and introductory to what can be expected from the second book. The conflict scenes were resolved all too easily, with a fake kiss being used for one of them as a tool for escape and defence, a tool for kindling vulnerability. The way the story unfolded worked though, with Omega Point being almost like a paradise; Juliette and Adam are on a journey to find this haven, even if it took a while to come to it.

Mafi has created a world where fans of X-Men and The Hunger Games can enjoy seeing two of their enjoyments, superpowers and dystopia, mash  together in a surprising and moving tale of self-discovery and self-acceptance.

What others said about this book:

Brodie @ Eleusinian Mysteries of Reading:

The best part about this book is Tahereh’s amazing ability with words. Her style is so unique and original, I’ve never read anything like it. Every single word is so carefully structured, full of passion and love and tenderness.

Lisa @ Read Me Bookmark Me Love Me:

This novel drove me insane and up the wall. It made me feel like jumping, screaming and crying in absolute joy! Shatter Me is most definitely one of the best books of 2011, if not ever.

Books in the series:

1. Shatter Me (November, 2011)
2. Unravel Me (February, 2013)
3. Untitled (February, 2014)

Here I am, finally posting words, thoughts, on three final instalments that I read in the last few months of 2012, even if I have little to say. Hence why these are mini-reviews. These books are Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick, the last book in the Hush Hush quartet, Reached by Ally Condie, the final in the Matched trilogy, and Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl, the last in the Caster Chronicles. The final book in series are usually the hardest and most demanding to write, because you not only have to tie all those story arcs and loose ends together perfectly but you have to make it gripping and explosive and memorable, have something in it that the reader will want to return and reread the series. Some writers succeed and some fail; these books are always the most anticipated. And no doubt the most emotional.

• • •

Title: Finale, Hush Hush #4
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publication: October 1st, 2012 by Simon & Schuster Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 458
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal – Angels, Fantasy
My Rating:  

From Goodreads:

Fates unfurl in the gripping conclusion to the “New York Times” bestselling Hush, Hush saga.

Nora is more certain than ever that she is in love with Patch. Fallen angel or no, he is the one for her. Her heritage and destiny may mean they are fated to be enemies, but there is no turning her back on him. Now Nora and Patch must gather their strength to face one last, perilous trial. Old enemies return, new enemies are made, and a friend’s ultimate betrayal threatens the peace Patch and Nora so desperately want. The battle lines are drawn–but which sides are they on? And in the end, are there some obstacles even love can’t conquer?

Finale was a good conclusion to the Hush Hush series. It’s not the most memorable series of all the books I’ve read and certainly does not make me go cray cray over them, but there’s the plot twists that kept me coming back and the war between the Nephilim and Fallen Angels that kept me interested. Nora isn’t the brightest, and I guess that’s why in Finale she gives me something to remember: that I called this book ‘The Book of Lies and Doping” instead, because that’s all there ever was in Finale in regards to Nora. It certainly made the plot progress but I found it was such a forced plot device like Nora becoming amnesic at the beginning of Silence. It’s these things that are memorable; not much of anything else. I had an inkling and I called the culprit early, which was saddening as I was expecting a little more. But the last fifty pages was what I liked the most, where there was a battle and much action to be lost in until the final page of the book and the series.

• • •

I remember what Anna called the three of us.
The Pilot. The Poet. The Physic.
They are in all of us. I believe this. That every person might have a way to fly, a line of poetry to put down for others to see, a hand to heal.

Title: Reached, Matched #3
Author: Ally Condie
Publication: November 13th, 2012 by Penguin Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 520
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopia, Science Fiction
My Rating:  

From Goodreads: 

After leaving Society and desperately searching for the Rising—and each other—Cassia and Ky have found what they were looking for, but at the cost of losing each other yet again: Cassia has been assigned to work for the Rising from within Society, while Ky has been stationed outside its borders. But nothing is as predicted, and all too soon the veil lifts and things shift once again.

I have to say… I loved the prose in this book. So many amazing lines. Especially in those final pages.

I loved Matched because it was a more subtle and introspective dystopia than what people expect from such a genre – it had little action; it was a change from the usual. I didn’t find Crossed to be all that engrossing because I was expecting more from it, instead of traversing across The Carving. But Reached, oh my… Reached picked up that introspective feel again, and with the beautiful prose and characters there was so much more to love. So much more to think about. So much more to reach. Ally Condie ties the trilogy up perfectly, and if I reread Crossed I know I would enjoy it much more than I had the first time as I’d know why Crossed was Crossed – not a sequel, but rather the middle section of an overarching story. Cassia, Xander and Ky were perfect leading characters and it was sad to leave them behind as I turned the back cover of Reached and reflected on the meaning of this trilogy. Brilliant!

• • •

Maybe there isn’t a meaning to life. Maybe there’s only a meaning to living.

Title: Beautiful Redemption, The Caster Chronicles #4
Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Publication: October 26th, 2012 by Penguin Australia
Format, pages: Paperback, 451
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Supernatural, Romance
My Rating:  

From Goodreads: 

Ethan Wate has spent most of his life longing to escape the stiflingly small Southern town of Gatlin. He never thought he would meet the girl of his dreams, Lena Duchannes, who unveiled a secretive, powerful, and cursed side of Gatlin, hidden in plain sight. And he never could have expected that he would be forced to leave behind everyone and everything he cares about. So when Ethan awakes after the chilling events of the Eighteenth Moon, he has only one goal: to find a way to return to Lena and the ones he loves.

Back in Gatlin, Lena is making her own bargains for Ethan’s return, vowing to do whatever it takes — even if that means trusting old enemies or risking the lives of the family and friends Ethan left to protect.

Worlds apart, Ethan and Lena must once again work together to rewrite their fate, in this stunning finale to the Beautiful Creatures series.

I pushed myself in December to read Beautiful Chaos and Beautiful Redemption so that I know how it all ends and can have a fresh slate before watching the Beautiful Creatures film and experience this story again but through film and stunning visuals. Beautiful Redemption was a bittersweet ending to this series, but I felt like it needed a lot more – I was waiting for much more, considering everything Ethan goes through to return back to Lena and all the events that lead up to the end ever since the beginning. Sure, there was interesting twists here and there, but the pacing of the plot was all over the place – slow, then fast, slow, then fast. I just wanted to hurry it up and get to the actual conclusion that we have all waited for, the major conflict between Ethan and Angelus, but Angelus was such a sloppily-created villain that I knew he could do no real threat and as much damage as Seraphine had done previously. Obviously, it was probably because I knew Ethan had to win, but everything seemed a bit too easy and smooth sailing (e.g. the fight with Abraham where I was expecting a BATTLE OF HUNDREDS but got a standoff of five). Still, this book would look stunning on the big screen and I cannot wait for all four books to be adapted and for Gatlin County to become reality. Goodbye E&L.

• • •

That’s another three series completed. I wonder what’s next in 2013…

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.

Title: Prodigy, Legend #2
Author: Marie Lu
Publication: January 29th, 2013 by Putnam Juvenile
Format, pages: ARC paperback, 371
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopia
My Rating:  

From Goodreads: 

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.

It’s their chance to change the nation, to give voice to a people silenced for too long.

But as June realizes this Elector is nothing like his father, she’s haunted by the choice ahead. What if Anden is a new beginning? What if revolution must be more than loss and vengeance, anger and blood—what if the Patriots are wrong?

In this highly-anticipated sequel, Lu delivers a breathtaking thriller with high stakes and cinematic action.

This review is coming to you six months too late. Maybe not six months too late, but rather this review was written six months after I read it so details may not be crisp clear. However, having said that, Prodigy was not as memorable as its predecessor Legend. Marie Lu wrote a fantastic sequel, adrenaline-filled and surprises at every turn we make, but it didn’t have that same emotional impact and the momentous occasions that Legend had, occasions that made indelible impressions on me. Maybe it was because I was reading Prodigy at the time I was getting my wisdom teeth out, which was a pretty momentous occasion in itself, stealing my interest away from the book. Maybe. But I’m not going to make reasons for why Prodigy didn’t stand out to me. I will definitely reread Prodigy to see if my thoughts change – most likely before the third book in 2014 – but for now, just know, that Legend was better.

In Prodigy, Lu expands the futuristic society of this world, which we only saw one piece to the puzzle of in Legend. Slowly, Lu gives us more pieces to the puzzle, and in the end creates a visually dynamic and dimensional map for the reader to immerse themselves in and experience. We discover how the continent was split into two separate areas: the Republic and the Colonies. We also see more of the Republic and what lies outside the Republic: a greater world that watches the Republic’s every news, every movement, every change. It is through Day’s and June’s adventures that we get the opportunity to visit a place that they never knew existed, a city of towers of glass and metal, much different to anything in the Republic and the Colonies. This new discovery of theirs comes at a cost, and although it exceeds their wildest imaginations, everything is not what it seems behind its mesmerising facade.

Surprises lurk throughout Prodigy, many you will not expect, with some pertaining to the characters while others about the world. The attraction between June and Day continues to blossom, but while one has someone else vying for their affection, that someone jealous of what they can’t get, the other questions their own situation, fighting an internal battle about who they fit much better with. Prodigy to me was a relationship-heavy book. For most of the time I’d turn my head away or roll my eyes because of the silliness that is present, but I soon realise that these parts of the story further develop each of the characters, the major and the minor. Day and June may seem invincible externally, but internally they fight their own wars, which ends in heartbreak and disillusionment, leaving you, the invested reader, crying out for the third book.

Marie Lu knows her readers, and I’m sure she will continue to use that strength of hers in book three. I’m looking forward to see how Day’s and June’s stories end. I. Need. You. Now. Book. Three! Maybe Prodigy was memorable after all, but like I said, not as memorable and permanent as the legend that was Legend.

A big thank you to Sasha from Sash & Em for sending me an extra ARC she had lying around. Much love!

What others have said about this book:

Steph @ Cuddlebuggery:

Marie Lu has me hook, line and sinker. I’m completely enthralled in this series and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Savannah @ Books With Bite:

Take it from me when I say this is YA at it’s best!! It’s raw and genuine. Nothing that I read before, Prodigy threatens every book out here. Prodigy is EPICNESS!!!

Books in this series:

1. Legend (November, 2011)
2. Prodigy (January, 2013)
3. Untitled (2014)