Tagged: masq1
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
(Cover picture courtesy of Pepper Ink.)
Here are the confessions of a vampire. Hypnotic, shocking, and chillingly erotic, this is a novel of mesmerizing beauty and astonishing force—a story of danger and flight, of love and loss, of suspense and resolution, and of extraordinary power of the senses. It is a novel only Anne Rice could write.
Interview with the Vampire is no doubt a classic novel, but it is not for everyone. If you do not like descriptions of graphic sex or admittedly disturbing violence, this is not a book you should attempt to read, regardless of its classic status. I do not like graphic descriptions of sex, so I skipped over these parts, but the violence was unavoidable as this is a true vampire novel. This is definitely a book for older teens to adults.
Aside from some mature content, Interview with the Vampire is a wonderful, slightly disturbing novel. It starts off rather slow, but as Louis’ tale goes on, this book will become glued to your hands. The sensual descriptions, the exotic characters and the authentic historical details are what really make this novel so great. The plot slowly twists and turns until we learn how being a vampire has changed the once mild, innocent Louis de Pointe du Lac. If you’re used to the wishy-washy vampires of today, prepare for a fresh and frightening experience.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
(Cover picture courtesy of Kristin Cashore’s blog.)
Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.
When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change.
She never expects to become Po’s friend.
She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…
Kristin Cashore’s debut novel is a well-written, emotionally resonant, fast-paced and surprisingly addicting masterpiece. Katsa is a strong protagonist who does not just live for romance, as many YA characters do, but falls in love with prince Po by accident. Even when she has to leave Po and go off on her own, she does not fall to pieces like a helpless damsel. Instead, she rises to the challenge and brings down the villain.
Graceling is set in a well-developed world of enchanting beauty and petrifying horror. It is full of light and dark and characters like Katsa, Po, Raffin, Leck and Bitterblue reflect this balance very well. They have realistic motivations and are three-dimensional, which is more than I can say for many characters in young adult fiction. Not only is the world believable and the characters are three dimensional, the plot is intriguing. Graceling starts out like a typical YA novel, but Kristin Cashore throws in interesting and unexpected plot twists that keep you hooked until the end.
If you’re looking for well-written and very interesting YA novel for slightly older teens, Graceling is certainly the book for you.
I give this book 5/5 stars.
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
(Cover picture courtesy of Wikipedia.)
Everybody gets to be supermodel gorgeous. What could be wrong with that?
Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can’t wait. Not for her license—for turning pretty. In Tally’s world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.
But Tally’s new friend Shay isn’t sure she wants to be pretty. She’d rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn’t very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.
Tally is a character that many young teens can identify with. She just wants to fit in, be with her friend Paris and otherwise live a happy, normal life without drama. But everything changes when she meets Shay, a spunky rule-breaker who doesn’t want to fit in and turn pretty. In the beginning, Tally’s world seems great until Shay points out that the authorities manipulate people into thinking they’re worthless so they conform and want to turn pretty.
Uglies is one of those novels that truly deserves to be among the YA greats. Like Harry Potter, it has many different messages and means something different to each reader. On one hand, it is a commentary on our society’s obsession with beauty, but on the other hand, it is a tale of love and friendship. It’s also a dystopian science fiction novel with many elements that will be familiar to YA readers: a love triangle, a long and dangerous journey, the realization that not everything was as good as it seemed and a tough choice that sets the gears of change in motion.
Uglies is a well-written book that explores many issues teens (especially younger teens) face every day. It is a book that makes you think and I highly recommend it to people ages 12+ who love to question the status quo. Scott Westerfeld really has written one of the great novels of our generation.
I give this book 4.5/5 stars.
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
(Cover picture courtesy of Carrie Ryan’s website.)
In Mary’s world, there are simple truths.
The Sisterhood always knows best.
The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.
And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
But slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things that she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown in to chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?
Zombies, romance and death…what more could you ask for in a post-apocalyptic book? As it turns out, a lot more than what The Forest of Hands and Teeth has to offer. In Carrie Ryan’s debut novel, Mary (the book’s main character) wants more than what life in her isolated village has to offer. But when her mother is bitten and her village is overrun by zombies (which are called the Unconsecrated to avoid the z word), her life is turned upside down and she must make a choice: to stay in her now zombie-infested village or go forward to an uncertain destination deep in the Forest.
I have not yet reviewed a book in which one line in it sums up the entire novel: “You’re selfish to want to sacrifice all of us for your own whims.” (Cass, page 144) If Mary is one thing, it is selfish. I have rarely read a novel in which I cannot identify with the protagonist, but The Forest of Hands and Teeth is an exception. Mary wants more in life, but she is willing to sacrifice people she loves to reach her dream of seeing the ocean. To me, that seems pretty selfish and it feels like she is always the exceptional character in the novel. She gets attacked by zombies without being bitten, runs through the Forest and scales down a sheer cliff without getting picked off by falling zombies and is the only one to know the truth about the Sisterhood and all its secrets.
Carrie Ryan’s world-building is also lacking. Mary’s village is completely closed off to Outsiders, yet there seem to be no unfortunate genetic implications, even after several generations. Also, the story of how the village came to be is a bit unbelievable to me because it was established during the apocalypse for future generations. If there was a zombie apocalypse, your first concern would likely be your own survival, not the establishment of a village filled with enough supplies to last for generations.
Despite the character and world-building faults, The Forest of Hands and Teeth is a fast-paced, page-turning novel with a few interesting insights into what could happen when a village is completely cut off from the rest of the world.
I give this book 2/5 stars.
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
(Cover picture courtesy of Wikipedia.)
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister’s place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before—and survive, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.
The Hunger Games is a book that has received quite a lot of hype from the media—and with good reason. Both boys and girls alike can relate to Katniss’s struggle for survival and her love for her family. Suzanne Collins has penned a well-written, fast-paced and engaging novel that certainly deserves to be remembered among the YA greats.
This novel is first and foremost a story of survival. Katniss is a believable (if not completely sympathetic) character with a good motivation: to survive so she can go back and take care of her family. The Hunger Games can also be seen as an allusion to the Roman Empire, what with its gruesome form of entertainment and the decadence of the Capitol while the districts suffer. Students of Roman history will also recognize names like Cinna, Flavius and Octavia. It can also be a commentary on how senseless violence is and the power of fear. The Capitol holds the Games to strike fear in the districts, yet the deaths of 23 children for the sake of it is senseless.
The Hunger Games can also be read as a love story, but this is the one part of the novel that falls flat for me. Peeta loves Katniss and will do anything to see her leave the arena, yet Katniss is prepared to kill him in order to survive. Even near the end, when she supposedly feels a bit of affection toward him, it does not ring true. It seems a bit rushed, like Suzanne Collins wanted to insert another subplot into her novel. Despite this ‘romance’, The Hunger Games is an excellent novel that lets you see it in a different light every time you read it.
I give this book 4/5 stars.