Incarnate by Jodi Meadows (Newsoul #1) ★★★★☆ NEWSOUL Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why. NOSOUL Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame? HEART Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all? Wow. That’s my reaction to this one. First off, I just love the whole reincarnation thing - the idea that it didn’t matter what body a person had. Way to go, Jodi Meadows. Not to mention, it’s executed near-perfectly, which, to be honest, is the best you’ll get from me. I love the concept of Heart, and the role the city itself plays in Ana’s story. I love the characters, because there are those I like, those I hate, and those I don’t know about. I love that this book has a GINORMOUS amount of subtext, and that subtext raises important questions and makes great arguments in a very subtle way. And then I love Ana herself; while she certainly has many flaws, like all humans do, she has a bunch of ingenious qualities, one of them being: Ana knows the difference between bravery and stupidity. I think that with Incarnate being set in a sort of alternate world, a whole lot could’ve gone wrong that didn’t. I wasn’t crazy about the beginning of the book, only because Meadows does a lot of telling-not-showing, but she does get better with that the further in you get, and the plot starts off right away. Every paragraph in this book either moves the plot along or reveals something about a character. Jodi Meadows, I applaud you.
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The Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse ★★☆☆☆ As an obedient orphan of the U.N.A. (the super-country that was once Mexico, the U.S., and Canada), Alenna learned at an early age to blend in and be quiet—having your parents taken by the police will do that to a girl. But Alenna can’t help but stand out when she fails a test that all sixteen-year-olds have to take: The test says she has a high capacity for brutal violence, and so she is sent to The Wheel, an island where all would-be criminals end up. The life expectancy of prisoners on The Wheel is just two years, but with dirty, violent, and chaotic conditions, the time seems a lot longer as Alenna is forced to deal with civil wars for land ownership and machines that snatch kids out of their makeshift homes. Desperate, she and the other prisoners concoct a potentially fatal plan to flee the island. Survival may seem impossible, but Alenna is determined to achieve it anyway. As dystopian books go, there are much better ones than The Forsaken. The plotline is great, but it isn’t executed very well. The way Stasse writes creates a bit of disconnect to the characters, and readers don’t get to see them as many-sided. At times the relationships between characters are hopelessly confusing, like that of Alenna and David. Still, The Forsaken doesn’t fall very far down the ranks. The civil war between the Wheel’s inhabitants - those belonging to a religious cult run by the only elder on the island, and those who haven’t gone crazy - is interesting and adds a lot to the book. A few good plot twists thrown in makeThe Forsaken a good read, if not a head-over-heels-in-love one. Plus it has a really awesome cover. Wither by Lauren DeStefano ★☆☆☆☆ By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children. When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can’t bring herself to hate him as much as she’d like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband’s strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape—before her time runs out? Together with one of Linden’s servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom? Rhine’s story is beautifully written. What else could you expect from a book whose first sentence is “It was so dark we lost sense of our eyelids”? Rhine’s voice is believable and sincere, and her relationship with her sister wives is touching and real. That said, Wither was a little disappointing plot-wise. Most of the book consists of Rhine dreaming of escape but playing mini-golf and swimming instead. Don’t get me wrong; I liked Wither a lot - I just wish there was a little more action in it. For a book whose summary promises daring escape, Wither doesn’t really deliver. While still a good book, it’s more about Rhine learning to cope with her situation, her husband, her terrifying father-in-law, and the fact that she has only four years to live. The concept behind Wither, while creative and captivating (I couldn’t put this book down), isn’t completely believable. We’re not given much information on why humans only live to twenty or twenty-five. For a science fiction book, there isn’t a whole lot of science. We also don’t know why humans are so focused on procreating. To continue the species, obviously - but twenty/twenty five years is plenty of time to date, and maybe fall in love with, someone - especially with such drastically shortened life-spans. I don’t know exactly why the men are so eager to precreate that they have to kidnap multiple girls, marry them, and impregnate them, especially when orphanages are already so overrun. Obviously the human race isn’t ending totally yet, calm your balls. Wither was a book with great intentions that didn’t live up to all the hype for me. If you want to read it, I fully encourage you to do so. But I won’t be biting my nails waiting for a sequel. Divergent by Veronica Roth ★★★★★ ONE CHOICE decides your friends. ONE CHOICE defines your beliefs. ONE CHOICE determines your loyalties - forever. ONE CHOICE CAN TRANSFORM YOU. Roth’s debut couldn’t be more perfect. Tris is an amazing character, one who is many-sided and fully created. She’s easy to relate to and her story is gripping, keeping you turning pages until the end. The relationships in the book are wonderfully realistic, as well as the characters in them. Tris will have you rooting for her to the end. Roth’s writing style is part of what makes Divergent such a good read. We don’t hear Roth’s voice, but Tris’. She’s woven the story with a multitude of details that only add to its brilliance, and there are a number of unexpected plot twists along the way. Overall, Divergent is one of the best dystopian books I have read. |
Once Upon a Time...As a longtime lover of stories and a believer in the power and magic of books, I've spent my life seeking out the best reads. This blog is dedicated to reviewing the books I read - good, bad, or magnificent - to help other readers find their next favorite books. Currently ReadingKing Zeno
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