Review: The Dark

What would you count as your greatest fears? Heights? Never finding true love? Or perhaps it’s finding a hole in your favourite sweater. If I had to think about it, mine would probably be losing my favourite red lipstick, but for Laszlo, his greatest fear is the dark. Unfortunately for him, the darkness lives in his house too. Usually, it creeps in all the usual places in a house such as cupboards, and downstairs in the basement. One evening though, the darkness leaves it’s confines and enters Laszlo’s room and it’s here he has to confront the faceless and deal with his ultimate fear. 

I love the way Snicket approaches the realm of fears in this, especially of something as being afraid of the dark and the unknown. He hasn't added things that go bump in the night, or any sort of boogie monsters or supernatural beings. There's nothing that can be defeated, or even something that can be killed. It's simply something that Laszlo has to learn to deal with. It seems here, that for our protagonist (wonderful, beautiful, and completely Snickety name), his fear is fear itself.

There is no question or doubt in my mind, this book is utter perfection. The Dark’s voice has a creepy edge to it, which I completely expected. Snicket always injects his children’s stories with some adult humour, but still manages to maintain a child friendly atmosphere. Although the dark is a huge mysterious and sometimes intimidating force, it also acts as a guardian and teacher- showing Laszlo that actually there isn't anything to be afraid of. There is a particular page that talks about how one thing cannot exist without the other, it was a wonderful addition, although sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the book's layout. In terms of reading out loud though, it could probably be skipped and no one would really notice.

This is the usual extra large helping of Snickety goodness with the addition of the beautiful illustrations from Jon Klassen. I've not had the pleasure of his company before but I'm glad I've been introduced. A definite out loud read, a definite read and then reread. Perfect for children, perfect for adults; everyone should read this. Everyone. It's pure joy in word form. It's also pure joy in picture form. I couldn't recommend this enough! I promise, you won't regret it. 

Rating: ★★★★★

Review: Gone

I have an odd thing when it comes to reading; I avoid book editions with models on the front. I avoid them like the plague. I like my own imagination to create the images, and they just end up being a big roadblock in my way. Hello my name is Kaveeta, and I judge books by their covers; fortunately it isn't what I'm reviewing today.

The premise is really simple here, every person over the age of 15 seems to vanish into thin air with no possible explanation. Sam Temple is an extraordinarily ordinary boy, and with the help of his best friend Quinn, Sam tries to figure out what has happened to the world. As expected, there is some Lord of the Flies-y typed angst and violent behaviour, which occurs almost instantaneously. As does the budding romance between Sam and his lady love. It wouldn't be dystopian future if something sinister isn't lurking underneath the surface of it all, and it has chock loads of it. Sam makes a shocking self discovery, and the world as he knows it is turned spectacularly on its head.

This was an incredibly slow burner, for over half of the book we’re treated to a group of teenagers running around the small town, finding a seemingly endless barrage of open ended questions. Sam was very reluctant as far as protagonists go, he was so spineless he seemed to be putty in my hands, but still managed to keep a consistent tone of annoying self righteousness throughout the book. It was a treat to see the transition from that, into the hero the story so desperately needed- once he’d managed to choke down a whole bottle of Skele-Gro anyway. I did end up warming to him, which I openly admit. Aside from it's slow start, it grew on me once things actually started happening, the more shambolic the world became, the more I began to enjoy myself.

The story didn’t go the way I thought it would, I was surprised with some of the directions the plot took. It was enough to keep me interested though, as some of these YA books have a bad habit of following a system. Grant has an unusual way of writing, he split the book up into the point of view of several different characters. They weren't connected in anyway other than occupying the same world, but in different places. I'm unsure whether I liked the format, but if the series continues like this, I guess it's something I'll have to get used to.

I was fairly concerned that the voice of the youth would become irritating but the author managed to get away with the 'brahs' and the 'dudes.' The only thing I really had a problem with, was the religious subtext. The Cain and Abel story was practically screaming at me the whole time I was reading, and the constant praying by some of the characters became uncomfortable. I'm not really interested in having it shoved down my throat that way, but I was able to push it to the back of my mind.

Nothing was resolved in the end, as expected. I do hope that Grant has all the answers to the questions he's left me with, though. I'm fairly certain that list will only grow as the series progresses. As far as firsts go, this isn't a bad introduction. If you're a fan of the whole YA dystopian future thing, I'd definitely give this a read. 

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Review: A Clash of Kings

Well, George R. R. Martin has done it again.
From where we last left off, the allied lands have fallen into disrepair. King Joffrey reigns over a broken kingdom, alongside his mother and the newly appointed King's hand.
Robb Stark means to make war as the new, and self appointed King of the North, while Joffrey's uncles, Stannis and Renly, try to claim ownership of the Iron Throne.
Meanwhile, Daenerys plots to overthrow the usurpers and rule over the Seven Kingdoms, and Theon Greyjoy appoints himself as the next King of the Iron Islands. And if that's not enough to whet your appetite, Jon Snow and the rest of The Night's Watch ready themselves for some exploration across the Wall.
War is indeed brewing, and it's coming to claim them all, and soon.

A Game of Thrones simply blew me away in terms of sword and sorcery, and I knew I needed time before throwing myself into another 800+ page epic. It's needless to say that A Clash of Kings didn't disappoint, and it was definitely worth the wait. There was a bit more alchemy and magic involved in this seemingly never ending book of war, which I have to say I was really excited to see. I'm completely happy with all the 'sword' bits, but a little more sorcery can go a long, long way.

Unfortunately I'm at an impasse again when it comes to reviewing these books. There is so much information I would love to talk about but am unable to do so, in order to keep it all spoiler free. I loved reading this book though, as well as being disgustingly well written it was just a pure joy to experience, from beginning to end. The complexities of the Kingdoms was beautifully explained and thought out, usually I get confused with the endless barrage of words in stories like this but I found this a lot easier to follow.
I have to admit, it's not without it's faults- at times the plot dragged a bit, particularly with Daenerys. I found her to be almost insignificant in this part of the series, which is a shame as her storyline has potential to be one of the most interesting. It was one of those parts in the book that I wouldn't have missed, should they be removed completely. Although, I did feel that there was decidedly a lack of the Night's Watch in terms of moving  the plot forward. I would have liked to have seen more of it, and taken some of the war bits out. I'm hoping there'll be an improvement when I start the next book.

Even with the lulls, it had a way of pulling me straight back into the plot with no warning whatsoever. There were more 'Oh my God' moments in this book than I've had with any other. At some points I flat out refused the plot direction, it was an unhealthy reminder that Martin is an untrustworthy and malicious author who finds pleasure in ruining my life. He is like J.K. Rowling without the age restrictions. I've been trying  to stop some of the characters from worming their way into my heart, and failing, I don't know what their fates are going to be and it's making me miserable. I get to flex my masochistic muscle and love every detailed description of despair, which is wonderful in it's own messed up little way.

The end of the book, much like the first, just falls away and I'm left in limbo wondering what on earth is going to happen next. My mind was reeling with the sheer amount of information I was left with, and found myself almost drunk with it. The book hangover that followed the next day was awful.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review: Pretties

** Warning! Contains spoilers! **

When we first meet Tally Youngblood in Uglies, she is living in Uglyville, waiting for the day she can join the land of the Pretties via mandatory beautifying surgery.
After going on the run and realising that actually, all the Pretties have lesions in their brains to make them complacent- Tally voluntarily undergoes the transformation in order to help find a cure.
In Pretties, we are introduced to the Pretty Tally, who has no recollection of her time in the wild or her dear beloved, David. Now she's all about the parties, the drinking and the beautiful people; the beautiful people.

There is so much wrong with this book, I'm unsure of where I should begin, so I'll start in the most obvious place, the language.

The Pretties like, have this dialect that they think is way bubbly, when in actual fact it's totally missing. It's like, zero milli-Helens out of a possible one whole Helen. I'm sure Scotty-wa didn't mean for it to be bogus, but it was just completely misery making. 

Apart from being completely distracting and ridiculous, it made the whole of New Pretty Town seem like they were extras in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. It was really a huge obstacle in the way of me actually enjoying the book, and it wasn't the only one.
The only redeeming quality in this book was the fact that there wasn't a blow-by-blow account of Tally on her hover board, Tally falling off her hover board and Tally being saved by her crash bracelets. I count it as a small mercy though, and not an all out win.

I'm well aware that sometimes in a series, books can follow the same formula; this happens a lot for example, in the Alex Rider series. However, Pretties has exactly the same plot as Uglies. Instead of wanting to be Pretty, Tally this time wants to be a Crim- her whole world seems to revolve around this clique and her quest to belong in it. Once she gets lost in the Wilderness, again; she finds herself in a love triangle, again. The same sequence of events takes the same overly long time to unfold, again. I really felt as though I was reading the same book but with additional irritating colloquialisms and some of the worst handling of taboo subjects I have ever seen.

Once the Crims become aware of the lesions in their brain, they commence in a growing rate of destructive behaviour in order to gain brief periods of clarity, or in Pretty-talk: 'bubbly'. Such behaviour includes extreme and dangerous stunts, starvation and self-injury. If that wasn't enough to set my teeth on edge, the latter gave way to a separate group called Cutters- who were ritualistic group self-injurers.
I'm not opposed to subjects such as these being approached in literature but when it's done in a way that somehow makes it entirely justifiable and the right way to deal with things, is not okay with me. Nor does this shoddy attempt at being controversial blindside me in the sheer number of plot holes littered throughout this book.
The main source being Tally's knowledge. The book starts off with her being absolutely unaware of any history whatsoever; her time on the run and the boy she fell in love with were completely alien to her. When her memories started coming back, she was what only can be described as a medical miracle; suddenly she remembered ancient history like she'd just read it out of a book. With the simple explanation of, "Tally remembered from her lessons in school..." was the equivalent of putting a plaster on a gaping wound, considering in Uglies she didn't even know what a railway line was. As a reader, I was just meant to accept this and I wasn't having any of it.

When the author wasn't bombarding us with very obvious inconsistencies he spent the remainder of his time preaching about the passed and how awful it was. The 'Rusties' and the 'Pre-Rusties' were stupid, barbaric and awful. It seems as though Westerfeld wanted a platform to release every issue he has with the world and used his book to do so. The plot once again becomes lost in this Rustie-bashing, as there is no proof to say otherwise, I tend to forget why exactly we're trying to change the world back into the awful place it once was. The world just isn't believable, there's only a shallow explanation to how the world became the way it did, I would like to say Westerfeld explores more in the next two books, but honestly I wouldn't bet my life on it.

I tried to give this series a chance, even after the first book got less than favourable reviews on my part but after this debacle I'm hanging up my Pretty dress and beating myself into a bloody pulp with the ugly stick. It's time for me to re-enter the world of the Rusties you guys, and I dont think I'll be returning.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

World Book Day!

Happy World Book Day to all!
I pretty much love any book related celebration out there! Especially ones that enables me to share my love of books to anyone who is willing to listen.

What I particularly love about World Book Day is the fact that it targets children to pick up a book and really enjoy themselves. The book tokens provided in schools will allow them to read outside of school. I also happen to know a teacher or two out there who are dressing up as characters today, so the whole experience is about good, clean, wordy fun!

I was taught to enjoy reading from an incredibly early age, and couldn't imagine where my life would be without it. In an age where technology and gaming pretty much rules the world, reminding children you can have the same kind of fun whilst reading warms my heart incredibly.

In the spirit of the day I thought I'd share some of my favourite children's books, if I've reviewed them the titles will be clickable. So without further ado:

1) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K Rowling: We all know the story here, 11 year-old orphaned boy discovers he has magic and is about to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oh, and he's famous for being The-Boy-Who-Lived. So many people haven't read this series yet, and I urge you to do so, whatever age you are. There is nothing out there quite like it.

2) Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll: Young Alice finds herself falling down a rabbit hole and into a very peculiar world, where nothing is quite what it seems. If you want mind-boggling imagery with beautiful splashes of colour this is certainly the book I would point you towards. If you can, procure a book with the original illustrations- they accompany the rest of the book beautifully.

3) The Twits - Roald Dahl: Probably my favourite book by Dahl, which tells the tale of the horrible couple Mr and Mrs Twit who live in a brick house with no windows, have a family of pet monkeys and who hate each other so much, all they want to do is play pranks on one another. You can get nothing but laughs out of any book by Dahl, but I'd always recommend starting off with this one.

4) Peter Pan - J. M. Barrie: One of the most wonderful magical tales out there. Peter, the boy who wouldn't grow up, befriends the Darling children and flies them off to have an adventure in Neverland. The writing is a little hard to get your head around, considering it's publication date is 1911 but once you do, you discover there is a tale that has incomparable beauty.

5) The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter: The story of a mischievous Peter Rabbit who is chased around the garden of Mr McGregor despite being warned by his mother not to go there. A book recommendation for the very young here, but it doesn't mean it can't be enjoyed by any age, if you haven't had a chance to read it you most certainly should!

There are so many others out there, but these are the ones I love very much. A special mention goes to Percy Jackson and the Olympians; The Alex Rider Series and The Jimmy Coates Series. All of which I have started (or completed) reading and have more in depth reviews already written for them.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this, I hope I've added some titles to your shopping list. Enjoy the rest of your World Book Day and remember World Book Night  is just around the corner!

Happy Reading!

Review: Killer (Jimmy Coates, #1)

What I truly love about literature is the infinite possibilities you have in the realm of 'firsts'. First classic, first Byron poem, first self confessed obsession with a Potions Master...
I hereby bestow the award for 'First One Sided Shouting Match with my e-Reader' to Jimmy Coates. Now, I'm not one for crazy heroics, I tend to leave that to the Percy Jacksons and Harry Potters of the world- but I genuinely thought that my emotional ramblings would change the fate of this boy. Thank you Mr Craig, for a madness worthy of the Hatter himself.

Jimmy was a normal boy, content with doing normal boy things; fighting with his sister (and losing) and pretending to be interested in the news. An evening of normality was quickly thrown into the wind when a bunch of suited men arrive to his house asking for 'the boy.' The need for safety stirred something inside Jimmy, and he found himself escaping the clutches of these men (not for the first time) in the most extraordinary way.
As the men proceed to chase Jimmy around the city, the eleven year old boy is filled with nothing but questions. Questions about his new found powers, about these mysterious men and just how his parents knew them and most importantly, what exactly was happening to him.

I didn't really know what to expect, usually when someone tells me to read a book I immediately think of all the ways it won't be like the ones similar to it; it's a bad habit I really can't shake, although this feeling usually leaves me with a pleasant surprise.
Killer is a wonderful introduction to a series, I felt it was a little bit long on the 'chase' bit of the story but on reflection I feel it was the intention of the author to thoroughly destroy every avenue of trust Jimmy had accumulated in his short life. The idea of this saddens me, but I see it now as a necessary plot device, considering what actually becomes of the boy.
Once the plot picks up, the pace quickly moves along as well, and it becomes one of those books you just can't put down. So much happens in a short space of time, I found myself having to force myself to slow down in order to properly realise what was happening, when all I really wanted to do was find out what happens next. In the interest of keeping these reviews as spoiler free as possible, there isn't really much I can say plot wise without ruining it. You're just going to have to trust me.

One thing that really surprises me is how much I felt for Jimmy, maybe it's his age, or his sheltered outlook on life- I wanted to give him a hug, ruffle his hair and tell him it was all going to be okay. After all, being a weapon isn't all that bad, right?
It could be that Craig's wonderful whimsical writing style has a lot to do with it. Although the story did get dark, at times I also found myself erupting with genuine laughter. The previously unused highlighting feature on my e-Reader got a thorough workout too, there are some wonderfully constructed sentences that just left me grinning from ear to ear. It's books like this that reawakens my dream of wanting to be a boy-hero and it's wonderfully satisfying. If the first book can have me waxing poetic like this, I can only imagine what the next book has in store for me.

According to Joe Craig's official Twitter account, the release of the seventh Jimmy Coates book is out this June- it's more than enough time to power through the others before then. I don't think anyone would be disappointed in reading them, I feel this series really needs a lot more coverage than it gets. With that said, go forth and buy! I know I will be.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Review: UnEnchanted

Meet Mina Grime.
Mina is a unpopular, she's so uncoordinated she makes Bella Swan look like a master of grace and she's unlucky (although, not in the way she thinks).
After a field trip goes awry, Mina ends up almost killing (and then saving) the boy of her dreams, and is consequently thrust into the world of popularity. Her new found limelight brings an old family curse into play, for Mina is a descendent of the brothers Grimm and is destined to fight the evil stories that are trying to kill her.

Every once in a while, I get a reading request that is a bit worrying. This was one of those times, as a free e-book though I can't really complain, but I will anyway. (I should probably mention I read this with a friend and we discussed our reactions in real-time.)*

I really liked the idea of a curse like this, as darker sides of fairy tales is a personal favourite of mine. There is nothing in this world I hate more than a good idea that is poorly executed.

You know something is wrong when the characters are so flat and unlikable, not even borrowing obvious traits from other book series help plump them up. (We even had a Snape moment, you guys. Turns out Mina's father James is a no good, arrogant, imbecile too!)
We also have the two polar opposite boys to help form the love triangle: the brooding misunderstood rich kid, and the quintessential leather jacket clad, motorcycle riding, bad boy. He's also brooding. The minor characters are no different, really. Same unlikability, in different bodies. It almost doesn't need to be thought about.
They all have their roles, and stick to them rigidly, the boys spend their entire time saving the damsel in distress, fighting with each other and mooning over their emotionally unavailable object of affection. Even Mina was tiresome for someone who, for a lack of better phrasing, should have been learning to kick some serious ass. She spends most of her time being stubborn, unreasonable and feeling ridiculously inadequate to every single person around her. It was entirely unbecoming, I was half hoping she'd get killed off and we'd be allowed to see her mute younger brother get a piece of the action.

The character jumping in this book was the least of my problems, although trying to figure out who's point of view I was looking at did leave me with a migraine. The plot and writing style ranged from dire to unintentional hilarity and I found I was trapped between a rock and a hard place (or in this case, grimacing and howling with laughter). You don't have to be a master of grammar to understand the basic concepts, the amount of typos borderlines worrying. My all-time favourite incident being, "Mina, they're coming over her!"  The plot holes were many and the editing was questionable at best- I was led to wonder if anyone had actually proof read it at all.
Where it lacked in grammatical correctness, it all but made up for it in the sheer abundance of misinformation and general ridiculousness. A special mention here goes to the casual racism in the form of Mr and Mrs Wong, who not only own the Chinese restaurant underneath Mina's apartment but are guilty of more spoonerisms than William Archibald Spooner himself.

There was so much wrong with this book, that I ended up loving it for all the wrong reasons. It is, in short, an exquisite guilty pleasure and I just can't wait for the sequel. I hope is just as irksome as this one. If you want to join in on the fun, you can download the e-book here.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

*Thanks for making all the live reaction readings bearable, Emma!