Book Review - Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children - Trilogy
Ransom Riggs

YA/Adult/WW2/fantasy/
Easy Read

Soon to be a major motion picture

Miss Peregines Home for Peculiar Children
7 Stars
348 Pages

Abe Portman is a master storyteller, tales of the children he grew up with (who had super strength, could fly, were invisible and other such amazing talents) living in an enchanted school house during WW2. Abe himself left the home to battle monsters and save his people. Jacob Portman believed every word his grandfather spoke was gospel, until he grew up and realized the story's where really a retelling of the Holocaust. Or was it? Grandpa Abe is killed by wild dogs in front of Jacob, the fact that Jacob saw a monster right out of his grandfathers stories was just a stress reaction of course. In an attempt to come to terms with his grandfathers death and what he saw, Jacob retraces his grandfathers life travelling to the island of the "enchanted" school house hoping to meet someone who may have known Abe as a child, literally thrown for a loop Jacob finds his grandfathers long lost friends and much more than he bargained for.

I first read Miss Peregrines when it was first released, finding it in the airport and reading it all in one sitting while I flew. I always find with a reread that I get so much more out of the book than just the story, because I am not rushing to know what happens next. This is yet another novel that is between YA and adult, fast passed but not what I would deem to be action packed. I found all the characters to be strikingly real. This is one of those novels where, there is so many overlapping layers, and so many different ways to consider it and interpret it. The pictures add so much to this novel as well, putting faces to names, I look at it as the book came from the pictures vs the pictures trying to fit the book.


PS: I have now read this first novel, four times, maybe five and love it and wanted to continue the series and even started Hollow City, but I just can't get into it or its the wrong time or when I am in the mood I don't have the books on hand.
Super frustrated by this.

Totally recommend this book and the series

PPS : I wrote this review in early 2016 maybe in 2015 and its been sitting as a draft until now. So like 2 years because its 2017. I figured I had better just publish it already, I was going to just publish one post for the whole trilogy but... obviously not... so yeah enjoy!

Series Review - The Infernal Devices

The Infernal Devices

Cassandra Clare

7 Stars
1520 Pages
YA / Supernatural / Paranormal / Romance /

The companion series to the Mortal Instruments.
We are once more introduced to Shadow Hunters. This time in London, England, 1878. We meet William Harendale, James Carstairs, Tessa Grey, Gabriel Lightwood and Charlotte Fairchild. 
It has a Sherlock Holmes vibe as we learn of the infernal devices and race against the clock to thwart the evil Magisters plot to end the Nephelim. Along the way our characters must lift a curse, discover their family origins, find a cure for a terminal illness, and reclaim a family's honour... I wont give away anything else because it would spoil the novels. 

These books were wonderful!!! I got into them in a way I just couldn't get into the Mortal Instruments (which I have yet to finish 1.5 books to go). The setting fit so much better with the characters and their world; a steam punk, classic felling that just meshed with who the Shadow Hunters are and how their culture functions. These characters were (at least to me) a sign of how Clare's writing has grown and improved, they were a lot more dynamic and rounded, they still fell back on a lot of YA tropes but the flow was smoother. I think with it being only a trilogy instead of a full series helped out in so many ways because the books were condensed. Clare has a habit of repeating the same issues over and over again, having a character hung up on a single point that is semi solved only to reappear. This is one of my biggest issues with the Mortal Instruments and it was present but to such a small degree it didn't affect my rating much.

I would recommend these over the Mortal Instruments every day of the week, this series was just so much better in every aspect and I hope that this trend carries over into the next companion trilogy; Lady Midnight, which I hope to be starting soon.

Book Review - Bloodtraitor

Maeve'ra Trilogy

Bloodtraitor

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

series-review-maevera-trilogy - My review of the first two novels before Blood Traitor was published.

3 stars
easy read
ya/ fantasy / shapeshifters / fiction / vampires

I was really excited about this series when I read Bloodwitch, and now I just wish it had been a standalone. There was so much potential and seeing it go to waste it heartbreaking.
These books should be published in a box set or omnibus, they really should be read back to back, in fact they are so short and easy to read if you had to add the second and third novel it should have just been one novel.
Unfortunately for me and for this book review the third novel was not yet published when I read the first two books, so there was a period of more than year between reading the second and third novel. In that period my opinions of the novels changed a little bit and much of that change was from the wait.
The first issue that started before I even started the third novel was how little I remembered from the first two, normally I can read the synopsis of all three novels again and draw the major points out of my memory, when I hit a total blank its generally a sign, and not a good sign. I had zero interest in rereading so I had to put the novel down and give up on the trilogy or go ahead and hope that it all fell into place. Obviously I took the second option.

This is where the mixed feelings come into play.
The overall story is pretty good, the characters are alright - not fantastic and I found no connections other than Vance in the first novel - the setting is terrible, the timeline is confusing, and there is a overall feeling of Incomplete. I could kind of tell where Rhodes had tried to go which leaves me wondering about her editor and the publisher who should have told her to pick method and stick with it.

Lots was missing in expressing this whole world (that was maybe semi set by a previous series I have not read?) the world couldn't decide if it was total fantasy or kinda partially reality based, throwing in names associated with certain cultures or places - past and present such as America, and Aztecs - that specifically stands out as something that took so much away from the book, those referable names added yet more confusion to an already complicated issue. I found there was so much detail that you got no information, the information you did get lead to more questions that in the end were never answered. I would start a list but it would be pages and pages long at this point.
There was little to indicate change as we jumped between past, present, future, reality, internal or external voice and visions - you did eventually figure out that you had made a leap and then when or were or who of it but why would I want to be figuring that out all the time? . I think this was supposed to add mystery or a sophisticated "layer" but failed. Then with each novel a different narrator... So much was lost by having first Vance, then Kadee, then Malachi narrate, and what is really frustrating is how unnecessary that change was, all three characters where present through all three novels. Another character problem was everyone was a main character or a minimal character. It didn't have that three or four tier layer of characters, with your protagonist, his main three or four, the supporting and then the background characters. With every single character trying to be in the spot light it has a serious case of "everyone is special which makes no one special" which is were connecting to the characters fell through.

It would have been so easy to eliminate these problems, it makes me so mad!

Update - Series, Trilogies, Duologies 2015!

This was my TBR Series of 2015

The Lord of the Rings, J R R Tolkien --> started

The Maze Runner, James Dasher -->

Sookie Stackhouse, Charlaine Harris -->

The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer --> Completed :)

the * indicated that I started this series before 2015 

Started

1. The Chronicles of Nick, Sherrilyn Kenyon
2. Lacey Flint, SJ Bolton
3. Jason Bourne Series, Robert Ludlum
4. A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin
5. The Heroes of Olympus, Rick Riordan
6. Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken 
7. Odd Thomas, Dean Koontz

Up to Date These are the book series that still have books to be published up I have read all the novels that are currently released.

1. The Maeve'ra Trilogy, Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
2. Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King

Series I'm Not Going to Finish

1. Arkwell Academy, Mindee Arnett
2. Crank, Ellen Hopkins

Completed : I have tried to order these from my least favorite to my most favorite.

1. The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer
2. The Bone Collector & Skin Collector Duology, Jeffery Deaver *
3. The Dead River Trilogy, Jack Ketchum
4. The Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy, Laini Taylor
5. The Chemical Gardens Trilogy, Lauren Destephano
6. The Precious Stone Trilogy, Kerstine Gier
7. The Darkness Rising Trilogy, Kelley Armstrong
8. Divergent, Veronica Roth

Links to my previous posts about this topic

Competed Series, Trilogies, Dulogies

Unfinished Series

Book Review - Allegiant

Allegiant

Veronica Roth

6 stars

I read this book in December 2015 and it wasn't until I went through my blog updating my pages and such that i realized I forgot to do a review. So this is a lot late, but I still remember most of what went on and how I felt about it so going to give this a shot.

I was really apprehensive going into this book because of the reviews its gotten and how it was received on booktube, everything was negative and so while I wanted to complete the series I went into this novel ready for disappointment. And while I can see why lots of people didn't like this, I enjoyed it. The middle of this book was very drawn out, slow and boring, I came very close to abandoning the book because again I heard that the end was the worst part. For me the beginning and the end were good, not amazing but alright. I also really disliked jumping from perspective to perspective I didn't feel it added to the book in anyway and it was irritating. My final problem with the novel was the character growth, while our characters made leaps and bounds in the first two they where stagnant in this novel and maybe even regressed? They threw anything they had learned and all their progress out the window; started doing the dumbest things that I felt were out of character and just generally lowered the books rating with stupidity.
As for the ending I won't spoil it but I agreed with how it ended. Very much a closure.

Book Review - Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken

6 stars
Ya / Dystopia / Action / Mystery

This is the first novel in this trilogy, and I had heard amazing things about these novels.

Welcome to the USA, you cannot enter or leave the country. It has become a dictatorship instead of a democracy and the adults live in fear of the children.
All the children in the new generation where born with a mysterious x gene, there are five different classifications ordered least to most dangerous : Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red. All of the children were put into government established camps, which are more like prisons.
Ruby lives at Thurmond camp from the day she turns 10 and while she has been classified a Green, she has a secret. Ruby is an Orange and she is terrified of her own powers. Escaping camp with the help of the government militia group known as the Children's League, is the beginning of her long journey of discovery.

I have just not been in a YA kind of headspace lately, so my opinion of this novel might flex a little with time. Overall I enjoyed this read, it had a few YA cliche pitfalls and hangups but the writing was good. I really liked the setting, how they explained the characters, the concept. The reason why the writing was just good and not great is : there are just too many unanswered questions. What caused the mutation? was it a gene? why the sudden onset, where did "it" come from? When exactly is all this taking place? Unfortunately not being given all the information and slowly finding out about the Colours piece by piece made the novel more confusing than mysterious.

Looking forward to seeing where this trilogy goes but not in a rush to get through them.

Book Review - Darkest Minds

The Darkest Minds
Alexandra Bracken

6 stars
Ya / Dystopia / Action / Mystery

This is the first novel in this trilogy, and I had heard amazing things about these novels.

Welcome to the USA, you cannot enter or leave the country. It has become a dictatorship instead of a democracy and the adults live in fear of the children.
All the children in the new generation where born with a mysterious x gene, there are five different classifications ordered least to most dangerous : Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, Red. All of the children were put into government established camps, which are more like prisons.
Ruby lives at Thurmond camp from the day she turns 10 and while she has been classified a Green, she has a secret. Ruby is an Orange and she is terrified of her own powers. Escaping camp with the help of the government militia group known as the Children's League, is the beginning of her long journey of discovery.

I have just not been in a YA kind of headspace lately, so my opinion of this novel might flex a little with time. Overall I enjoyed this read, it had a few YA cliche pitfalls and hangups but the writing was good. I really liked the setting, how they explained the characters, the concept. The reason why the writing was just good and not great is : there are just too many unanswered questions. What caused the mutation? was it a gene? why the sudden onset, where did "it" come from? When exactly is all this taking place? Unfortunately not being given all the information and slowly finding out about the Colours piece by piece made the novel more confusing than mysterious.

Looking forward to seeing where this trilogy goes but not in a rush to get through them.

Series Review - Divergent

The bookworms archenemy ; the popular books you HAVE to read, that you know are SO over hyped and media inflated (especially when there are movies involved), that you want to read but don't at the same time. Then you read the darn thing and its only OK. It's the OK that I really have a problem with, I am very rarely in the "grey area" with novels, I am a love it or hate it kind of person. All of the YA trilogies lately have been falling in the grey area and its driving me crazy.

Divergent Trilogy

Veronica Roth

Dystopian/ YA
Easy Read

Divergent
5 stars

Introducing our setting, five factions based on the five evils that cause war. Abegnation that believe it is selfishness, Erudite that believe it is ignorance, Dauntless that believe it is cowardice, ect. Amity and Candor are the other two factions. Four factions live together in a  city, Amity the fifth lives just outside the fence. The factions do not interact with each other on base levels, they do not work together, go to school together, or get married outside of their own faction. When the teens of the city turn 16 they take an aptitude test and then there is a choosing ceremony, each person is born into a faction, the choosing ceremony is the only time when a person can decide to change factions. Hence the name during the choosing ceremony each person will choose what Faction they want to devote their lives to *the Factionless also live within the city, they are essentially the homeless. To be Factionless is considered a fate worse than death.
Tris is our main character, she was born Abegnation but her aptitude test is inconclusive which makes her Divergent (she could join Dauntless, Erudite or Abegnation equally). Divergence is dangerous, although the majority people don't know of its existence and those who do don't know why it is dangerous. Tris becomes Dauntless where she meets Four who has secrets of his own... and suddenly the world as they know it begins to unravel at the seams.

I don't have much to say about this book, its a good read, its not original, there are movies. Its a dystopian YA.

BEWARE SPOILERS!!!

Wrap Up - September, October, November 2015

This list is pitifully small, I have not picked up very many new novels, although I did do quite a bit of rereading lately.

September

Off Spring, Jack Ketchum

October

Daddy's Little Girl, Tee Morris

The Doll, JC Martin

November

The Woman, Jack Ketchum

Divergent, Veronica Roth

Insurgent, Veronica Roth

ReRead's

Under the Dome, Stephen King

The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning, Jimmy Palmiotti

 The Doorkeepers, Graham Masterton

I have also started quite a few novels, with this reading block I haven't really been forcing myself to continue anything so I have a long list of partials right now.

Darkest Minds, Alexandra Bracken

The Stand, Stephen King

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

Watership Down, Richard Adams

Series Review - Dead River Trilogy

Dead River Trilogy

Jack Ketchum

SPOILERS !!!

7 Stars
Horror / Thriller / Cannibal / Shocker / Realism /
Easy Reads

Off Season
9 stars

Ketchum balances the impossible with the believable, the realism of the setting and the situation makes you want to lean towards the improbable. That a family of nomadic cannibals roaming the hills and coastlines between Canada and the USA, created out of the necessity to survive, could exist. Although there are a few notes that tipped the story back into fiction.

Needless to say I loved this book, its a definite recommendation for anyone who likes horror. It is an easy, quick, draw-you-in action-packed read. Lots of blood, guts and gore in revolting detail.
\There are two versions of this novel, the original and the uncut. I have read both and as with most things the uncut is much more to my taste. The "original" was modified to appeal to mass market more so than a horror fan, suggested for those faint of heart types.

Off Spring
7 stars

This kicks off years after Off Season. In a world where most sequels have taken to picking up where the last sentence of the first booked left off this is a welcome change. The Family, destroyed in the final pages of Off Season have returned. They are the new generation; the Woman, First Stolen, Second Stolen and their offspring. A couple of mothers fight for their lives and lives of their children as they literally watch other family and friends get eaten alive.

This book did not live up to its predecessor, the characters, the setting, the story is all brilliant. The downfall was lots of repetition from Off Season. Definatly still something I would recommend, its good just not great.


The Woman
5 stars

This novel picks up right where the Offspring left off. The Woman, gravely wounded, is the only survivor of the OffSeason clan, after First Stolen, Second Stolen and the offspring are all killed she wanders the beaches.
The Cleek family appears fairly average until you get a look into their dark secrets.
Patriarch Christopher Cleek captures The Women, she is an experiment to him (one of many), can he domesticate her? and what effect will having a feral cannibal in their lives have on Cleeks wife and children?

I am so sad to write that I was not impressed with this novel. I feel like it was a publisher pleaser, its not something I would expect from Ketchum. The development is sloppy, the plot has huge holes and the whole thing is really unbelievable (which is what made the first book so great!). Filled with lots of shock factors and gore but thats about it :(


+ My Previous Posts for Off Season - Book Review Published August 19/2015

Book Review - Off Season

Off Season
Jack Ketchum

9 Stars
Horror / Thriller/ Cannibal/
Easy Read
270 Pages

The Story of the Lightkeeper has been told around campfires for years. The island where the lighthouse stood flooded nearly killing the whole family, severing their connection with civilization, slowly starving to death. Father and son are lost at sea attempting to reach the mainland, the mother dies hours before rescue in her daughters arms, and the final daughter the youngest becomes a feral child in order to survive. The tale only a generation or two from becoming a legend. The facts forgotten and eroded by the passing of time and many many retellings. Dead River is a small town, No-Wheres-Ville to the city folk who flock there during the busy summer. With winter in the air it is the off season, six travellers from New York settle into a rental home blissfully unaware of the cannibal tribe prowling in the darkness.

#1 right under the title the novel was recommended by Stephen King. #2 Cannibals #3 Ketchum wrote The Girl Next Door, which is one of the only books to stop me dead (pun intended) in my tracks.
This was such a delightful quick read, this had such high expectations after The Girl Next Door, I would have settled for nothing less than being deeply disturbed. Wish Granted! From the word go the action begins, I got a little worried once through this beginning part when the descriptions - which where far from boring, built up anticipation until the tension was pliable - got to be a little longer than I had thought. But it was worth the wait, because once The Family begins there hunt you can't put the book down!

**to the uncut version, which I had started and shelved after deciding to wait till I had the whole series - which I still have yet to get my hands on - you people did the world a terrible disservice, we would have had this masterpiece way sooner if not for your small minded mass market paperback, grubby greedy little manipulations.

Series Review - The Daughter of Smoke and Bone

By Laini Taylor

YA/ Teen/ fantasy/ fiction/

The Daughter of Smoke and Bone
9 stars

I had heard of this book or Taylor before and I really didn't know what the story was about. The reviews looked good though so I thought I'd give it a try. I started reading all of these on my way to New Zealand, and I finished the whole series in a little over two weeks (even though I didn't really do very much reading).
Meet Karou, she is Prague's hidden mystery. No one knows where she comes from, who her family is, where she goes when she disappears on her "errands" for days at a time. Although Karou is bound to tell you she disappears into another world, into a workshop filled with teeth where you can buy wishes, for the right price. Run by the chimera (human-animal hybrids). When angels come to earth, Karou's life is torn apart. Desperate to put the pieces back together, mysteries surrounding the angels, the other world and Karou herself must be solved, before their time runs out.

Amazing, fantastic, phenomenal, wonderful, magical. I fell in love with Karou and all the characters, Prague, the workshop, everything. These books are not YA but they are also not adult books, they fall into a very small elite category in between.

SPOILERS (tried to leave out anything major but BEWARE)

Series Review - The Chemical Garden Trilogy - Fever & Sever

Series Review

The Chemical Garden Trilogy

Lauren DeStephano

Review For Wither


Fever
8 Stars

I read this on my trip from Canada to New Zealand its my mission to finish as many of my started Duologies and Trilogies as is possible this year.
This is one of the rare sequels that rivalled the first novel. I finally thought that the characters matched the story and the world. During the first book Rhine's behaviour seemed childish and naive there was a whiny tone that I couldn't grasp considering the world she was living in and the life she had lived before. I was left in disbelief and the end of the last novel when she escaped the Ashby mansion.  I was not in love with Gabriel and was very much against a relationship between the two of them.

SPOILDERS BELOW, SEVER REVIEW

Series Review - Precious Stone Trilogy

Series Review

The Precious Stone Trilogy

by Kerstine Gier

Ruby Red

YA/ Historical Fiction/ Fantasy/ Time Travel/
Easy Read
6 Stars

Gwen is a normal British teenager, she hangs out with her best friend, listens to music, goes to school. While living in a large London mansion with her two aunts, cousin, grandmother, mother, brother and sister might be a little out of the ordinary, its nothing compared to the secret that her cousin Charlotte is a time traveller...or so they thought. When Gwen begins to jump into the past her life takes a 180 degree turn.  Brought into London's secret time travelling society, she attempts to catch up on a lifetimes worth of special lessons, avoid her furiously jealous cousin and aunt, jump back in time at least once a day and continue her normal life. As if this wasn't enough to make her head spin the handsome Gideon De Villers captures her heart.

I went into this book with a rather bleak outlook, I had heard quite a few negative reviews and while I found the story to be interesting I wasn't entirely sold on the idea. I thought that this was a great story and the writing was good but not great. The major flaws of this book are Insta-Love primarily, a love triangle between the impossible handsome Gideon with Gwen vs Charlotte. The bad characters are balanced out with the good ones, Gwen is likeable and relatable which mostly redeems for how irritating and frusturating she can be

Series Review - The Maeve'ra Trilogy

The Maeve'ra Trilogy

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Supernatural/ Vampire / ShapeShifter/ YA
Easy/ Junior High level Read

BloodWitch
7 Stars

Just browsing through the library killing some time while I got some work done on the car and I found this beautiful little book.
Set in the 1800's. This is a power struggle novel between various shapeshifter clans and the ruling vampire class. Our main character Vance - a Quetzal shapeshifter with bloodmagic-  is torn between the many factions, raised by the vampires they hold his love and loyalty. When his world is suddenly turned upside down by a series of events, be begins to question the integrity of the Midnight Empire.

For a YA novel this was wonderful, there was no romance, the emphasis was on freewill and choices although there was a little bit of prophecy/fate/destiny thrown in. I really liked the main character Vance and found him very believable, he did have some choices to make but there was little of the typical pointless back and forth it was very concise. Overall very a very refreshing read. The only issue I found which has been coming up quite a bit lately was the lack of pleasant characters, although I think as this series continues that will change. The overall character development seems to be setting us up for something!

BloodKin
6 Stars

I am one day going to have to find a second book that is better than the first because this trend is ridiculous. I realize that much of the second book is setting things up for the final novel - which seems to have only two outcomes 1. amazing 2. epic fail - but I always feel like there was so much potential that just wasn't realized... SO frustrating

Overall I really enjoyed this read, I can't wait to pick up the Kiesha'ra series because it is also set in this world. I don't think I have ever read another series that focuses on Spanish, Mexican, Latino Mythology and its really interesting. Unfortunately I also found that this novel was a little too drawn out, I don't understand why we switched over to Kadee's narrative when Vance was there the whole time. I would have rather stuck with him and how he was adapting to his new life. Kadee is a good character but I did find both the story and her to be repetitive in a very irritating way. There was some good info thrown into the mix but I just didn't feel for her the way I felt for Vance. Much of this writing had an unnecessary feeling to it, which is a little bit crushing after how refreshing and original the first novel was...

BloodTraitor

coming soon - April 2016


















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Series Review - The Chemical Garden Trilogy - Wither

The Chemical Garden Trilogy

By Laura Destefano

Wither
Dystopian/ Post Apocalyptic/ YA / Polygamy/
Easy Read
First Person Narrative
7.5 Stars

I went into this book blind, I didn't look at goodreads, I didn't read the synopsis, and while I had heard the name I didn't have a clue what the book was about. I had also never heard of the author Laura Destefano.
I had my doubts about this book when I figured out that it was a dystopian which I love, but has been overdone so much with YA as of late. I was concerned that this would be another spawn of the Hunger Games. This novel had a much different tone, there was no finger to point for the situation, the lack of rebellion by single figure (small group) against government/ impossibly big powerful authority figure was refreshing.  The world captivated me, it was beautiful and tragic. I felt for the characters although a (small) downfall of this book was my inability to relate to the main character Rhine. I occasionally found her "voice" whiney is a very immature childish way. I found the author repeated information about her past and brother a few to many times (it would have been one thing if it was new information each time but it wasn't... for instance I learned that her lost twin brother Rowan loved to fish about half a dozen to a dozen times). I find it very frustrating that she never told Linden more about her past as I feel that would have made some very interesting plot twists. This was a little bit predicable in some places but the ending was a surprise. I will definativly be continuing this series.