Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Dystopian
Series: The Hunger Games #2

Hardcover, 391 pages

Publication: September 1, 2009 by Scholastic Press  

Source: Personal library  

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Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

I’m probably the last person that has read Catching Fire, but like last year the movie is a couple of days away (2!) so I’d thought I’d try and finish it before then.  I’ve seen plenty of trailers of Catching Fire over the months, and thought surely the book is pretty much spoiled for me. I was wrong. The book still had plenty of twists and turns and even what I saw in the trailer still had a strong impact on me while reading it. 

Catching Fire takes place 9-12 months after the first book, Katniss and Peeta are living with their families and Haymitch in the Victor’s Village preparing for their Victory Tour through all 12 districts/Capitol. Things seem to be quiet and normal till President Snow personally visits Katniss and tells her that her stunt in the games is possibility creating unrest within the district…a rebellion against the Capitol. Katniss does everything possible to stay under Snow’s radar but it seems he is definitely out to get her no matter what, especially when he announce that the 75^th Quell Games will be picked from the victor’s pool! 

I honestly didn’t think Collins could top the first book, but she manages to do so; and she does it well. The stakes were high for Katniss alone in the first book, but now everything just escalates because it involves not only her but her friend, her family, and all the districts. I was shocked by the game’s turn of events toward the end…I definitely didn’t see it coming. In my opinion Catching Fire was even better than the first book; everything is more intense and had me at the edge of my seat the entire way through till the end. 

Overall I really enjoyed Catching Fire, while Collins’ writing isn’t what I’d say as great; she still created a fast-paced, engaging story. I can’t believe I waited this long to read the books, and can now see why the fandom for this series is so big. If you haven’t read this series yet, or any dystopian book for that matter…I highly recommend starting with The Hunger Games/this series! (Although, again I’m sure everyone on earth has already read this series LOL).

Review: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Title: Vicious
Author: V.E. Schwab
Genre: Adult, Paranormal, Sci-fi
Series: N/A, Standalone 

Hardcover, 368 pages

Publication: September 24, 2013 by Tor  

Source: I received a review copy from the publicist in exchange for a honest review.  

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Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong.

Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end?

Vicious is Schwab first adult novel and it was superb! I’m a big fan of her YA novel, The Archived so when I heard about her new book I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Vicious is a story about two college friends who discovered a way to become Eos, ExtraOrdinary; people with special/unique abilities. Victor and Eli have total opposite personalities, and we see how their new ability/power stems from who they are at their core and how the power shapes them further throughout the story.

I must say, the layout/story of Vicious is ambitious. There are many books that jump back in and forth; past and present but Schwab takes it to a whole other level. The book is split into two parts; the first part jumps from the present to 10 years ago, a couple of weeks ago, couple of days ago, back and forth till the characters are all connected in some way. The second part is sort of a countdown when Eli and Victor meet face to face (present, after 10 years), the final battle/climate of the story. At first the format was kind of confusing but 50 pages in I understood why Schwab wrote it the way she did. Readers are given in-depth explanation of how our two main characters came to be; a look at how Eli and Victor are, their personalities, their beliefs and how they view themselves and the world. How becoming an ExtraOrdinary showed ones’ true natural. The layout made for an engaging read and had me on the edge of my seat as we got closer and closer to the deadline to explosive face-off between Eli and Victor.

At first glance; everyone would assume Victor was the villain of the story and Eli the hero but that assumption proved wrong as both their motives is revealed.  There are no heroes or villains in this story; Victor and Eli believed all the choices they made were for the right reasons. For example Eli was ‘removing’ anyone and everyone that was an ExtraOrdinary because he truly believed God gave him the power to do so. Victor and Eli are extremely well-written, realistic and complex characters.  By the end of the story you will know everything about them; how fascinating yet terrifying-cutthroat they can be. Schwab doesn’t stop there with incredible character development; the secondary characters were just as interesting and I found myself absorbed in their story and background. There’s Sydney the 12-year-old with the deadly power to resurrect the dead, Serena, Sydney’s big sis who can control anyone with the sound of her voice and Mitchell, a non-ExtraOrdinary that is the brain and brawn of the operation.  Everyone played a crucial part to one another and brought a little something extra to the amazing world that Schwab built. 

Vicious is everything one can hope for in story; engaging plot, thoroughly researched world-building, strong and multifaceted characters and beautifully written prose. Vicious is a very dark and violent novel, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’ve mentioned before that I think Schwab is a very talented writer. She has a way with words that immediately grabs your attention from the first page and keeps you mentally and emotionally connected with the story and characters till you finish the book. Schwab is definitely a writer to watch. She has already conquered young adult novels, and now adult…is there anything this lady can’t do? I can’t wait to see what Schwab comes up next! If you haven’t read Vicious yet (but really, who hasn’t?), I highly recommend you picking up a copy A.S.A.P!

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Early review: Afterglow by Karsten Knight

Title: Afterglow
Author: Karsten Knight
Genre: Young Adult
Series: Wildefire #3

Hardcover, 336 pages

Publication: November 12, 2013 by Simon & Schuster BFYR

Source: I received an Arc from the publicist in exchange for a honest review. 

Pre-order✽Amazon✽Book Depo

Teenage volcano goddess Ashline Wilde discovers that her former love, Colt Halliday, has an evil plan to kill the Cloak, the benevolent beings that oversee the gods. And that’s not all—he also wants to merge Ash and her two sisters back into a single, too-powerful goddess, Pele. Ash must stop her trickster-god ex-boyfriend once and for all…and to do it, she’s going to have to feed a few flames.

Afterglow is the final book in the Wildefire trilogy about teenage reincarnated Polynesian volcano goddesses Ashline Wilde. In this last installment, Ash is hunting down Colt, her ex-boyfriend as he jumps from state-to-state looking for objects that will help him kill the all-knowing cloak race and to bring the pieces of Pele’s soul back together.  With the help of new and old gods, Ashline sets out to make sure Colt doesn’t accomplish his goal, because Pele is one of the most unpredictable and dangerous goddesses around.

Afterglow takes place less than 24 hours after the events of Embers & Echoes and has the same book layout as the first two in the series; the chapters are divided into three parts and again we get flashbacks scenes of Pele and Colt but this time it’s in Maui, 1831.  The story start rolling  within the first 20 pages, when Ashline learns that Colt needs help from Hephaestus, Greek  god of forge and metallurgy who happens to be clueless that he’s a reincarnated god. The story is nonstop action and snarky one-liners from Ashline and Eve from start to finish. I love Ashline, she’s one of the toughest heroines in the YA genre, but the one thing that bothered be this time around is the snarkiness; it was just too much. It was like every other sentence. In the beginning I thought it hilarious, second book it was still funny but now it just feels like overkill…but overall it didn’t deter me from enjoying the book.

Readers reunite with familiar gods/goddesses from the first two books and many more new ones in the flashback scenes and present. My favorite part of the book was probably the way Knight ended his trilogy. There were a LOT of casualties, more so this time around than Ember & Echoes but the good thing is that they’ll be reincarnated in the next life. The ending for Ashline was bittersweet because while she saved some important people in her life she couldn’t save everyone.  As for the main-main ending (epilogue); Knight did something that no author has ever done. It was brilliant! The ending fit the series perfectly, and is probably one of the best ending I’ve ever read for a series.

Afterglow was a gratifying end to a great series. It’s been an amazing ride with Ashline and the gang, and I definitely won’t look at gods and goddesses the same way ever again. If you’re looking for a series with a refreshing concept and relatable/likable characters then this series is for you. Make sure to start at the beginning to get the full effect of this series starting with Wildefire. 

✽

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Review: Perfect Ruin by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Perfect Ruin
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Fantasy
Series: The Internment Chronicles #1

Hardcover, 356 pages

Publication: October 1, 2013 by Simon & Schuster BFYR

Source: I recieved an Arc from the publicist in exchange for a honest review.

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On Internment, the floating island in the clouds where 16-year-old Morgan Stockhour lives, getting too close to the edge can lead to madness. Even though Morgan's older brother, Lex, was a Jumper, Morgan vows never to end up like him. She tries her best not to mind that her life is orderly and boring, and if she ever wonders about the ground, and why it is forbidden, she takes solace in best friend Pen and her betrothed, Basil.

Then a murder, the first in a generation, rocks the city. With whispers swirling and fear on the wind, Morgan can no longer stop herself from investigating, especially when she meets Judas. He is the boy being blamed for the murder — betrothed to the victim — but Morgan is convinced of his innocence. Secrets lay at the heart of Internment, but nothing can prepare Morgan for what she will find — or who she will lose.

This is my first time reading a book by Ms. DeStefano. I’ve heard about her Chemical Garden Trilogy for awhile now, but haven’t read it yet (I have Wither in my TBR pile). After reading Perfect Ruin, I can see why her books are so popular. DeStefano’s writing is entrancing and the words just flow seamlessly that I was sucked in from the first page. In Perfect Ruin readers are introduced to 16-year-old Morgan who lives on a floating island in the sky. Morgan is pretty content with the ways of Internment, she abides by the rules and belief that is ingrained in everyone since birth but slowly she begins to question the rules and yearns to see what else is beyond the edge of Internment. Everything that Morgan thought she knew about Internment gets shaken when a girl she knows gets murdered.
 

DeStefano’s world is quite unique, and very easy to understand. To ensure that no one will ever be alone, people are paired since birth and at the age of 19 they’ll wed. To control the population on Internment, once a couple wed, they have to file paperwork and enter the queue to get the ‘o-k’ to have kids. The biggest rule of all is to not be curious and go to the edge of internment or to even speak about leaving for ground. The pacing of the story was constant throughout the entire book. There were a couple of key scenes but nothing too crazy or big. I usually like an action driven plot, but DeStefano was still able to make things work well…she definitely has a way with words to keep you engage the whole way through.

In most of the dystopians I read, the heroine is always a strong individual, a leader you can say but it wasn’t the case with Morgan. Don’t get me wrong I like Morgan; it’s just that for the most of the book she is trying to figure out the mystery behind a classmate’s murder. Morgan questions the rules and beliefs of Internment but that’s just it…she voices it but doesn’t do anything else about it. She follows the rules and rationalizes everything she does, usually. There were times where she didn’t and she found herself in a bad situation that not only affected her but also her friends/family. The secondary characters were all okay, none of them really stood out except for Morgan’s best friend Pen. Pen loves Internment, and doesn’t question how things are but is still an outgoing-outspoken young lady and a really good friend.

There is a little romance that takes a backseat to the story between Morgan and her betrothed Basil (love the name). A lot of reviewers gushed about how adorable/sweet their relationship is and for the most part they do like each other regardless of it being an arranged marriage but I was meh- about it. Basil is sweet to Morgan but I think he takes the whole betrothed/protector title a bit overboard. It seemed like nothing in his life is important besides her or everything he does do revolves around Morgan, he literally lives and breathes Morgan. I mean dude, get a hobby. I just found his ‘love’ for Morgan a little smothering…not that Morgan mined.

All in all, Perfect Ruin was a great introduction to the Internment series. There is certainly still a lot of questions regarding the whole makeup of Internment but on the bright side the; mystery surrounding the girl’s death is revealed toward the end and readers are left with an interesting turn of events cliff-hanger. What I enjoyed most about this book was the writing, and it is probably what sticks out most for me in the already saturated dystopian genre. I am curious to see where DeStefano takes the story next, especially with that surprise ending. If you love dystopians, then you’ll want to check this new series out.