Into the Water, by Paula Hawkins | Suspense | Psychological Thriller | Murder | Book Review

Everybody Has a Secret

Some people will love this book. Others will hate it. A lot of people will be somewhere in between.

I thought this would be a difficult review to write.

The truth is this is one of the most straightforward books I've read in a long time. Some people are going to love it and some people are going to hate it, but for most people it will be "just okay." Its solid three-star rating on Goodreads is an accurate depiction of the enjoyment-factor behind this book. 

For the most part, it's "just okay."

When I started reading, my first thought was "this is a three-star book." Now bear in mind I start every book out at three stars and add or subtract stars as I go along, bearing in mind the current atmosphere of the writing, the story, and how much I am or am not enjoying the book. MOST books gain or lose a star in the first chapter or two. 

I enjoy most books I read, so most books go from three to five quickly, then deteriorate after that. But this one? This one was instantly a three-star book. I knew before I finished the first "part" that it would be a three-star book.

Turns out I was wrong, but I'll get into that in a moment.

One review I read said this book isn't a page turner, but the reviewer couldn't stop turning the pages. (I apologize, because although I know where I saw this review, I can no longer find it to quote it or credit it directly. If this was your review, please comment for credit!) That is EXACTLY how I felt about this book, at least in the beginning.

The basic premise of this book is this: Ten of the eleven narrative characters in the story has a secret they are keeping from at least most of the others. The eleventh is trying to reveal the secrets of the other ten. (If this sounds a little like Pretty Little Liars [the television series, not the book series, which I haven't read], I had the same thought.)

Each character holds a single component of the mystery. As the narrators reveal their secrets (slowly) to the reader, the reader can piece together the story of how the central character died. 

That is BASICALLY what this book is. It also claims to be about memory and how elastic memory can be. While this is ESSENTIALLY true, I wouldn't recommend this book to people who enjoy books centering about how flexible memory creates an alternate reality in the mind of the person remembering. This book isn't REALLY about that.

As I usually do, I want to talk to you about what you need to know before you commit to this book. The next section is safe to read if you wish to avoid spoilers, but will footnote an important spoiler appropriately. Please do NOT read the footnote if you do not wish to be spoiled but please DO read the footnote if the section referencing it pertains to you.

This book requires a content warning.* Please see the footnote for the content warning. I recommend reading the footnoted content warning if you are sensitive to reading triggering topics. I won't go into detail right here so those wishing not to be spoiled can enjoy the rest of this review. There are three content warnings listed below. Please skip them if you don't wish to read them! (I'll put them after a cut for those reading directly on my blog home page.)

There are -- I'm not exaggerating -- ELEVEN perspective characters in this book. It's a lot. Most of the critical reviews of this book address this point specifically. 

The perspectives alternate, which is common in novels in the 21st century. Some are in first person, some are in third. And one is -- again, I kid you not -- in second person.

A lot of people struggled with this. I thought it was FANTASTIC, and it is one of the reasons the book bumped from three stars to four stars for me. Because the book was narrated from each of these perspectives individually, it allowed secrets to be revealed slowly. I discovered, as the reader, what each character knew only when somebody else also discovered it, without any one of the characters taking a priority over the others.

There is a character guide at the beginning of the book. I've noticed several reviewers saying this doesn't exist, so it might not have been in previous versions of the novel, but for me there was a guide to the connections between characters, making it easy to follow who was who. I had NO trouble keeping up with how people connected to one another, even without this guide.

(But then again, I am a writer with hundreds [close to a thousand] of characters in my head, so I'm used to this kind of keep-up.)

The book leaves some unanswered questions. It's supposed to be that way, and I'm astonished how many people have questioned this on Goodreads. This is an author trick which leaves a lot to the imagination of the reader. Personally, I love it, but you may not. 

Not to worry -- in the end we DO know how the central character died, and why. It's the details which are left to the imagination of the reader, along with some other factors.

There are graphic depictions of sex in this book. One of the common questions I see asked on Goodreads is "is there sex in this book?" Yes, there is sex in this book. Some of it is fairly graphic. All of the graphic sex I can recall is heterosexual. I mention this because...

There are undertones of homosexual romance in this book. If you're part of the LGBT community, I hope you enjoy the way this flowed as much as I did, because it's subtle and normalized, for the most part. There is ONE slur in the book (a character refers to another character as a "dyke" in a derogatory sense), but it fit with the character and the scene it was in. For the most part, the subtle normalization of homosexual relationships excited me, as a member of the LGBT community myself.

If you prefer NOT to engage with stories including homosexual romance, that is your prerogative, and I want you to know it exists within the context of this story so if you prefer not to read, you can make that decision to avoid rather than complain about its presence after reading the book.

I wound up loving this book. It kept me turning the pages, got my heart racing a few times, and the characters -- though terribly flawed and most of them in one way or another "bad people" -- were sympathetic for me. Others have described these characters as 100% irredeemable, all of them. For me, that wasn't the case. I loved their flaws, loved how real they were, and how far some of them would go to protect one another.

A lot of people are going to feel similarly to my initial reactions to this book, that it's just "okay." I respect that opinion because it's certainly valid and I went to that place initially myself.

This was also the first of Hawkins' books I've read. That's right; I've not read Girl on the Train. I will be reading it though, just as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. Into the Water made me want more by Hawkins. I'd consider that a win!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase Into the Water from this page, I will receive a small compensation from Amazon.

The Orphan's Tale, by Pam Jenoff | Historical Fiction | World War II Europe | Book Review

Heartbreaking Historical Fiction

This book broke me.

It's been a good few days since I finished reading it, in part because I had to take some personal time once it was finished to come down from the trapeze. 

No, seriously. This book destroyed me. It didn't break me. No. It SHATTERED me. 

Alright, alright. I should tell you, first and foremost, that I love all things circus. This probably sounds ODD coming from someone who hasn't read Water for Elephants (in my Amazon cart right now!) or Night Circus (on my bookshelf!) yet, but the fact remains this book appealed to me because of its circus plot.

That is certainly MUCH of what HELD my interest throughout the experience reading The Orphan's Tale, by Pam Jenoff.

I loved this for two reasons. The first is that the circus created an amazing backdrop for the story and creates the cornerstone for the relationship between the two women, Noa and Astrid. The other is that it is historically relevant to the experience of Jews during occupied Europe during World War II.

This book, therefore, brought me gently back to World War II fiction (something I was needing anyway) by connecting me to it through my love of circus settings. It has been YEARS since I read World War II fiction at all. (And by YEARS I mean I was in middle school at the time.) The Orphan's Tale gave me a reason to pick up historical fiction again. It started a ball rolling I'm grateful to have rolling.

So here's what you need to know before you commit to reading this book.

First, the synopsis is meaningless.

I bought this book based on its circus setting because the synopsis was too weak to gain my interest. The book's inner flap describes this as a novel of two women, at first enemies and then unlikely friends, whose secrets threaten to tear their friendship apart.

That's not what this book is about. In fact, I'd venture so far as to say this synopsis is INACCURATE to describe this book. Not only are the secrets between Noa and Astrid minor in most cases, but they aren't FRIENDS in the sense of most chick-lit.

This REALLY isn't a story about a friendship. It's a story about a circus sheltering Jews during World War II when the Nazis were everywhere.

If you want to read a book which demonstrates how people passively allowed the atrocity of the Holocaust to take place, or if you wish to read a novel which demonstrates how ordinary people did extraordinary things, then this book may excite you. I've not read other books on this topic in a long time, and can make no comparison to popular novels such as The Nightingale, but I can speak to the merits of THIS book.

I loved the relationships between people and their situation more than the relationships between the characters in the book. How they interacted with the circus and with the war is remarkable and fascinating. This is what was most important to me.

You may also want to know this book contains a racial slur referring to a woman of Roma descent. Before you argue that this is simple historical accuracy, you have to understand the reader does NOT encounter a lot of supremacist talk against JEWISH PEOPLE (which would also have been historically accurate).

I believe this is a situation where the author may not be educated on the use of this term, but I would have preferred it to be omitted OR used to the story's advantage.

After all, the Romani people were also targeted during World War II.

Therefore, I also find myself concerned by the missed opportunity on the part of the author. She could have discussed the protection of the Romani woman in this story, or addressed HER fear of the Nazis, but this never came up. 

In my opinion, if a racial slur is used for historical authenticity, it's important it be placed in context, and I didn't feel it was in this story. Whether Jenoff realized "gypsy" is a slur or not is irrelevant. The use of the term felt contextually out of place with the rest of the story, and served as a missed opportunity to address the plight of the Roma people during this period of history.

The book is written in first person present tense from the alternating perspective of Noa and Astrid. This keeps the tension high, as the circus is in constant peril, the characters at risk of being discovered by the Nazis. This is a HUGE plus for me.

I recommend this book, and I hope you love it as much as I did. This is a novel which stayed with me long after I had finished reading it, and I still have dreams of the flying trapeze (which takes up a large portion of the story)! 

Please let me know what you thought of this one!

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase The Orphan's Tale from this page, I will receive a small compensation from Amazon.

Defending Jacob, by William Landay | Legal Thriller | Family Drama | Book Review

Deeply Psychological, Thrilling!

Oh. My. God.

You know, I nearly abandoned this book based purely on the first couple of pages of the book because I disliked the court transcript formatting for those pages. I thought it was difficult to follow and lacked depth (which ought to be obvious). If I'd not pressed on, I'd have missed one of the most entertaining reads I've enjoyed in some time.

Ironically, these first couple of pages, and the way they tie the entire story together and wrap it up in a tidy bow, are precisely the reason this book made it onto my coveted list of five star books. (Alright, alright. Maybe not COVETED. I'm a nobody, after all.)

I realize I'm fangirling, but this book is BRILLIANT. It's  not just the way the author ties one end of the book to the other so skillfully. It's not just the brilliant pacing which rarely ("never" is too strong a word for me) drags. It's not just the fact that every move the author made throughout this novel was so deliberately planned (and, no doubt, well-revised). Amazingly, it's not what this book made me feel.

Oh no. It's what this book DIDN'T make me feel.

Truly and astonishingly perhaps the MOST psychological book I've ever read, brilliantly executed, and outstanding in its construction. 

Oh yes. I loved this book.

But that's not what you REALLY want to know. You want to know if YOU will love this book.

I like to give my readers information about the book -- a warning label, if you will, of things about the book which may not appeal to some readers. When I first started writing, I couldn't think of a single thing I'd want you to know before you invest your time (and potentially your money) in this novel. Fortunately, the more I wrote, the more cognizant I became of some of the flaws in this novel.

So  here's what you need to know before you purchase, or borrow this book.

First, Landay writes in huge blocks of text.

See how short my paragraphs are here on my blog? I try to keep them a length which is easily readable for most people. We tolerance is lower, of course, than print tolerance, but I try to keep my paragraphs at a length readers can easily scan without losing any significant amount of information. A paragraph is generally about five sentences long, often four lines long in text. This paragraph is five sentences long.

Landay's paragraphs sometimes span the length of AN ENTIRE PAGE of text. This makes it more difficult for the reader to scan the paragraph for relevant information, slows down speed readers, and can make even a standard reader (one reading every word at a normal pace) frustrated because its point seems interminable. I consider myself a "standard reader" and Landay's paragraphs slowed me down considerably.

This is never more relevant than at the end of the novel. 

Because following the climax, Landay continues with the story. 

Now if you're like me, you like something after the climax. You're probably not looking for much more story, just something to conclude what you've been reading and to wrap up the book. Some books are terrible about ending immediately after the climax -- what we'd call a "cliffhanger," sometimes without any intention of continuing as a series. So I appreciate the effort. Really, I do.

The problem is the massive paragraphs. They initially felt superfluous, as though they intended only to tell the reader the general sense of what happened after the climactic moment. I asked myself several times, while reading page-long paragraphs, why the author had included this information. (I'm glad I kept reading, because the story actually continued, but suffice it to say this was frustrating, and somewhat tedious.)

I know what you're probably thinking: "Well good! There's something to wrap the story up!" And if you are a die hard for post-climax conclusions, this will definitely be helpful for you.

But this post-climax storyline goes on for several chapters. I'll be the first to admit it's important, and it seems the author had it in mind the entire time, but it's poorly paced. A quick-moving story takes a turn for slow and drawn out. And maybe -- just MAYBE -- this was information I didn't WANT to have.

Not that it destroys the story, because it doesn't. But I'd have been fine with a bit more left to the imagination. (Intriguingly, one of the one-star reviews on Amazon argues that the entire story leaves TOO MUCH to the imagination!)

In another note about the ending, it's similar to the ending of another book I've read. Not that it's predictable, because HOLY MOLY I DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING! But the resemblance struck me as odd and jarring. I didn't like the ending of THAT book, but in this case I felt like it worked. (No, I'm not going to tell you which book, in case you've read it and can then compare notes.)

Finally, I want you to know before committing to read this book that the characters aren't likable. 

I always find myself wondering at the fact this is such a BIG deal for so many reviewers. "I didn't like the characters." Really? Do you like EVERYBODY you come into contact with on a day to day basis? Now granted, even the worst monsters in history have had FRIENDS who loved them in spite of their flaws, but that's beside the point.

Some people just aren't likable, and Andy, Laurie, and Jacob Barber are on the list of unlikable people in the world. (So, as it happens, are Derek Yoo, and Paul Duffy. You're going to despise Ben Rifkin and Neal Loguidice by the time it's done as well (though that is less veiled than the aforementioned characters). 

There's good in each of them. Well, MOST of them, anyway. But I don't think you're supposed to like them. No, not even Andy, the narrative character, Jacob's father. Not even sweet, sympathetic Laurie. While not caricatures, I do believe these characters were made intentionally exactly the way they are. So if you're reading this book, and you pause to think to yourself "something seems to be missing from this characterization," try to consider some people have something missing from their personality and that's just the way the author intended it to be.

Oh yes, I loved this book. LOVED this book. It was amazing! I'm not finding many negative reviews I don't feel missed the point of the novel. I think you'll enjoy it too, if you can live with the aforementioned flaws.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase Defending Jacob from this page, I will receive a small compensation from Amazon.

With Love from the Inside by Angela Pisel | Family Drama | Legal Thriller | Book Review

A Roller Coaster from Start to Finish! 

This book made me FEEL things.

If you've ever been a mother, or if you've ever had a mother, this book will make you feel things, too. Some of them may be heartrending, others tragic, but this book will make you feel things. 

I loved this book. 

With that said, let me (as I like to do) go over what I feel you need to know about this book before you purchase it. Whenever I can, I like to help readers avoid purchasing books which will provide unexpected or unwanted surprises.

First, while not what I'd call "Christian fiction," the religious aspects of this book were a bit of a smack for me. It might help to note that my to-be-read shelf (the one in my home, as I don't keep one on Goodreads) includes Witch, by Lisa Lister, 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack, and The Inner Sky, by Steven Forrest.

If you're not at all interested in religious undertones in your fiction, skip this one. While it's not exactly "in your face" it was a bit much FOR ME, and I tend to be pretty diplomatic about these things. (Heavens, I even read Christian fiction from time to time. As long as I know it's Christian fiction, I'm fine with that!)

Second, it's implausible. I'm having a difficult time believing a woman was sentenced to death for the murder of an infant. I probably SHOULD be able to believe it, but I watch true crime shows and read enough true crime novels to find this difficult to swallow. 

Because it is SO CONFUSING whether this novel is set in North or South Carolina, it's difficult to track down the information on death row convictions for the state in which the novel is set (but I think that would be important information. I WAS able to find the site where Pisel appears to have done her research on the female death row.

It strikes me this may have been the only research into females on death row in North Carolina the author did at all, and that astonishes me. The topic should have been more well-researched than that.

The final thing I think you need to know before committing to this book is the editing is odd. I wish, now, that I'd taken better notes with the book as I read it. (I'm terrible at this, by the way.) In one case, the author used an ENTIRELY WRONG word (one which sounded similar, but was NOT a homophone AND had an ENTIRELY different meaning).

Alright, so now you know what you NEED to know before you commit, I'd like to talk about the details, plus my feelings on this book. No worries! I don't include spoilers in my reviews. 

Like the past two books I've reviewed, it was written in alternating perspectives from Sophie (the daughter), and Grace (the mother). Sophie's parts are written in third person, and Grace's in first. 

It is crucial for me to mention this because there are some problems with the perspective I want to bring to light. 

Specifically that Grace's portions alternate between past and present tense and her first-person perspective is in itself a potential spoiler for a novel. If you've ever read a first-person novel from the perspective of someone whose life is in peril (and Grace's is, considering she's on death row for the murder of her infant son), you'll note most of them are written in PRESENT TENSE in order to avoid alerting the reader this character survives to tell the story.

Plus, you'll note my admonition on the editing, above. This is troubling for me as this book was published by G.P. Putnam's Sons (a division of Penguin Publishing) and it seems the editing should have been SUPERIOR. Watch out for this if you're accustomed to reading better edited books!

Some story lines hang out with loose endings. In the case of this book (and I won't spoil which loose ends aren't tied up), I feel like the sub-plots are mostly unnecessary. There are three major sub plots throughout this story. None of them resolve completely. Each of them has some gaping hole which doesn't get filled by the author. The reader is left to simply drop this sub-plot entirely as though it never happened. It's frustrating.

Not only that, but the sub-plots mostly bored me. I found all but one totally uninteresting, and they had little impact on the story as a whole, other than (perhaps) to make Sophie (who is altogether unlikeable as a character) more sympathetic to the reader. At least one of these sub-plots introduces what may be her only positive traits to the reader.

Also, without giving it away, I had suspected the ending purely based on the dust jacket. If you read deeply at all, the ending is wholly predictable.

So why did I love this book so much?

It touched on issues I can understand and relate to. It made me feel things I hadn't felt in a long time. It brought emotions I had refused to feel to the surface and forced me to deal with those feelings in a healthy manner.

I loved it because it made me not only cry, but WEEP. I loved it because of the emotional tone and quality of this book, and because of how deeply it touched me. I loved this book. I did. 

I think a lot of others will love this book as well, if they can tolerate the negatives and overlook those for the good in the novel. I hope you'll give it a try!

What did you think of With Love from the Inside, by Angela Pisel?

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase a book through this page, I will receive a small commission from Amazon.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See (Book Review)

Title: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Author: Lisa See
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Library Binding
Pages: 254
Publication Date: 6/28/2004
Publisher: Random House

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

Lily is haunted by memories–of who she once was, and of a person, long gone, who defined her existence. She has nothing but time now, as she recounts the tale of Snow Flower, and asks the gods for forgiveness.

In nineteenth-century China, when wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in almost total seclusion, the women in one remote Hunan county developed their own secret code for communication: nu shu (“women’s writing”). Some girls were paired with laotongs, “old sames,” in emotional matches that lasted throughout their lives. They painted letters on fans, embroidered messages on handkerchiefs, and composed stories, thereby reaching out of their isolation to share their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.

With the arrival of a silk fan on which Snow Flower has composed for Lily a poem of introduction in nu shu, their friendship is sealed and they become “old sames” at the tender age of seven. As the years pass, through famine and rebellion, they reflect upon their arranged marriages, loneliness, and the joys and tragedies of motherhood. The two find solace, developing a bond that keeps their spirits alive. But when a misunderstanding arises, their lifelong friendship suddenly threatens to tear apart.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful. With the period detail and deep resonance of Memoirs of a Geisha, this lyrical and emotionally charged novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.

My friend and I saw the trailer for the movie version of this book, and I instantly said to myself "I want to read that" while she said at the same time "I want to see that." 

Ironically, she read the book first, after checking it out from the library, and I borrowed it from her to read once she was finished. We still haven't watched the movie yet.

The book did not, for me, live up to the promise of the movie trailer. I have the sense, after having skimmed some reviews of the movie, that this could be because the movie itself doesn't live up to the promise of the book, or even of its own trailer.

I wanted to love this book. In the end, I think that I did love this book. It's just that it took me a long time to get to that point. I'm not a fan of books that take me a long time to finish them. 

My experience with this book was unusual. When I was reading it, I didn't want to put it down. I was entirely immersed in the world of nineteenth-century China. When I wasn't reading it, I wasn't compelled to pick it up. There just wasn't enough movement in the story to make me interested.

I admit that this could be a side effect of reading a lot of young adult fiction for a long time. This is precisely the sort of book I ought to love.

The Selection, by Kiera Cass (Book Review)

Title: The Selection
Author: Kiera Cass
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 339
Publication Date: 4/24/2012
Publisher: Harper Teen

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

The first book in the captivating, #1 New York Times bestselling Selection series! Discover a breathless fairy-tale romance with swoon-worthy characters, glittering gowns, fierce intrigue, and a dystopian world that will captivate readers who loved Veronica Roth’s Divergent, Ally Condie’s Matched, and Lauren Oliver’s Delirium.

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape a rigid caste system, live in a palace, and compete for the heart of gorgeous Prince Maxon. But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her, and competing for a crown she doesn’t want.

Then America meets Prince Maxon—and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

There's a formula for these sorts of books. Take one part inexperienced author, add a dash of cloudy* female protagonist, combine together with a "dystopian" setting, and voila! You have a young adult "dystopian" story.

I'd like to say that I'm not being fair, especially considering how much I enjoyed this book and how much effort I'm putting into not being influenced by the opinions of others, but that's how I feel about this book.

It's how I feel about a lot of these young adult fantasies.

I need to take a moment to explain why I use "dystopian" in quotes in this case. The setting of The Selection is futuristic and set in a time when the people of North America no longer have the privileges that we currently enjoy.

It rides on the coattails of stories such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, and Delirium. I honestly can't blame the author for wanting to take advantage of the popularity of these stories. Considering how much I love dystopian settings, I read this book precisely for that reason.

I'm a sucker for a good dystopia. 

There's two problems with The Selection, if you're a fan of dystopian stories. 

The first is that the setting isn't believable. As with most of these teen dystopias, this is not a story that could happen. I'm not going to discuss my personal political views, but I will establish that there are some wonderful dystopian stories written for adults that are believable, things that could actually happen. 

Most of the popular teen dystopian stories would never happen in the real world. It does not, in my opinion, mean that they are not dystopias, only that they exist within the realm of pure fantasy.

The other problem with calling The Selection a dystopia is that it lacks some of the necessary components. Dividing the people by caste lacks the "oomph" of the oppression demonstrated in other books in its category.

What I'm trying to say is that the society of The Selection just isn't that bad, and the story takes place outside of it for the majority of the story.

You need to know this if you're selecting a story based on its genre. Readers who are looking for good dystopian stories may want to give this one a pass.

Or maybe not, because I was looking for a good dystopian story.

What The Selection is is a good story, period. There are a lot of things wrong with this book. More things wrong than right, if I'm honest with you. But the story captivated me in spite of those things.

There's not a lot to say about what I loved about this book. Suffice it to say that the story pulled me through the novel from start to finish in a single day. That means something, at least to me.

If you love a good story and you can overlook a lot of flaws, I think that you'll probably like this book. 

Beautiful Creatures, by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl (Book Review)

Title: Beautiful Creatures
Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Format: Paperback
Pages: 563
Publication Date: 12/9/2009
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★☆☆

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she's struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever.

Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. WhenLena moves into the town's oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them.

In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

I'll cut right to the chase. This book is okay, but it's not brilliant.

This is my second time reading it. I did this because I got a wild hare and decided that I had to review the entire Caster Chronicles series if I was going to maintain a decent blog reviewing YA fiction. That impulse resulted in the impulsive purchase of the entire series as a boxed set.

I did the same with Delirium, another book I disliked.

If Delirium works out the way that  Beautiful Creatures did, it will be a lucky mistake.

Here's how it goes: This book is a solid three-star rating. That's the same rating I gave it the first time that I read it, and I stand by that rating even though it surprises me. Maybe the first time around I should have given the book two stars.

The difference between then and now is that the first time around, I didn't enjoy this book. Not even a little bit. I found it insufferably long and it took me nearly two months to finish reading the book because I couldn't stay with the story. According to my current rating system, that warrants a two-star rating.

Maybe this is why I chose to revise that system, yeah?

Having read this book twice now, I can attest that this is an enjoyable story and that I would recommend it to readers who enjoy atmospheric teen romances.

Thing is, that's not really me. 

Warm Bodies, by Isaac Marion (Book Review)

Title: Warm Bodies
Author: Isaac Marion
Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 12/25/2012
Publisher: Astria/Emily Bestler Books

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★★

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization. 

And then he meets a girl. 

First as his captive, then his reluctant house guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

Full disclosure: This is my favorite book of the twenty-first century. 

I guess that's kind of corny. Certainly there must be better books written during the past seventeen years, and yet this is the book that has called to me the most over the past four years since the first time that I read it.

Another note of disclosure: This is the second time I've read this book.

And it's only the second time I've read this book, which seems strange when I consider how much the language comforts me. Reading this book feels like wrapping myself in the warmth of grandmother's favorite quilt and snuggling down for a long winter's nap. Or maybe just a good read.

Let me start this review by stating this: This book is corny. It's humorous and it's implausible and it's cheesy and it's sappy and it's just a weird genre.

I want you to read this book. What I don't want is for you to read this book and groan, because it does bear its similarities to Twilight (which, by the way, I thoroughly loved but which does not make my top 10 books of the twenty-first century by a long shot).

You're here to read about this book though, and that's what I want to tell you about.

How about we start out by talking about what this book is not?

Rot & Ruin, by Jonathan Maberry (Book Review)

Title: Rot & Ruin
Author: Jonathan Maberry
Genres: Horror, Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Pages: 458
Publication Date: 5/3/2011
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★☆

In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.

Well this one was definitely not what I was expecting. I don't read reviews prior to reading a book due to concerns that I'll spoil the book for myself, and the synopses of this book didn't begin to do it justice.

I'm tempted to type up the text on the back cover for you, but that seems somehow silly. 

So let me emphasize: This book was not what I expected it to be.

I've discovered recently that I love zombie fiction. What's wonderful about it, for me, is that every zombie book (or series) that I've read has been different than the books that I read before it.

Everybody has a different take on zombies, and that's pretty cool, if you ask me. Sorry, I shouldn't use that word. Benny Imura would cringe. How about I say it's pretty fascinating?

Jonathan Maberry's take on zombies is that they were people once, too. Or at least that's Tom Imura's take on zombies. For me, this perspective was life-changing and not at all in the least bit what I expected to get from this book.

Okay, maybe life changing is strong wording for how this book affected me. The point is that it did affect me.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Series), by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Series)
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: ---
Publication Date: 2010-2014
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★★★

All five books in the blockbuster Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, in paperback, have been collected in a boxed set fit for demigods. Now with glorious new cover art and packaged with a special poster, this value-priced set includes the best-selling The Lightning Thief, The Sea of Monsters, The Titan's Curse, The Battle of the Labyrinth, and The Last Olympian. Whether it is for readers who are experiencing Percy's thrilling adventures with Greek gods and monsters for the first time, or for fans who want to devour the saga again, this gift will be prized by young and old.

When I initially decided to review this series as a whole series, I'd thought I would do so as a general discussion of the merits of the story, its similarities to Harry Potter, and open up discussion of the characters. 

I still want to do that. However, the further I got into this series, the more that I realized that any similarities to any other series were meaningless, because Percy Jackson is the best mid-grade series I've read to date.

Yes, that means I liked it better than Harry Potter. 

(But do note that I also separate middle-grade fiction from young adult fiction.)

The main thing that I have to address about this series is that the series as a whole is better than the sum of its parts. I could not average my individual ratings of each book and achieve an accurate star-rating for the entire series that reflected my feelings about the series.

So I didn't. I assigned a five-star rating to the series as a whole because it deserves it. This is a series that I will read again. And again. And one that I will recommend.

There you have it. That's the simple part. But there's a lot more I have to say about this, so let's keep going, shall we?

There may be spoilers beyond this point!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Last Olympian
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 381 Pages
Publication Date: 01/25/2011
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★☆☆

All year the half-bloods have been preparing for battle against the Titans, knowing the odds are against them. Kronos is stronger than ever, and with every god and half-blood he recruits, his power only grows. 

In this momentous final book in the New York Times best-selling series, the prophecy surrounding Percy's sixteenth birthday unfolds. And as the battle for Western civilization rages on the streets of Manhattan, Percy faces a terrifying suspicion that he may be fighting against his own fate.

This book was unnecessarily long.

Let me jump right in and tell you why I don't feel like this book deserved more than three stars. It's highly rated on both Goodreads and Amazon and it distresses me to mark this book so low when it ordinarily rates so high. 

But here it is: The book was too long, and during the entire middle portion of the book (roughly one half, but potentially as much as two thirds of the middle section of the novel), nothing happened.

Okay, okay. Before readers who've read this ahead argue with me that there's plenty of action in this book, allow me to clarify that there most certainly is action throughout The Last Olympian. It's one battle scene after another after another and I'd say that certainly qualifies as being "action" in a book of this nature.

If that's your thing, and you like action regardless of plot, you're going to do great with this book. For me, this sort of reading drops a book almost instantly to a two-star status for me. And if it wasn't part of a series, a one-star status.

Yep. I'm telling you I almost couldn't finish the final book in a series. 

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth, by Rick Riordan (Book Review)

Title: Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Author: Rick Riordan
Genres: Fantasy, Mid-Grade
Format: Paperback
Pages: 361 Pages
Publication Date: 4/7/2009
Publisher: Disney Hyperion

Goodreads | Amazon

★★★☆☆

Percy Jackson isn't expecting freshman orientation to be any fun. But when a mysterious mortal acquaintance appears on campus, followed by demon cheerleaders, things quickly move from bad to diabolical. 

In this latest installment of the blockbuster series, time is running out as war between the Olympians and the evil Titan lord Kronos draws near. Even the safe haven of Camp Half-Blood grows more vulnerable by the minute as Kronos's army prepares to invade its once impenetrable borders. To stop them, Percy and his demigod friends must set out on a quest through the Labyrinth-a sprawling underground world with stunning surprises at every turn. Full of humor and heart-pounding action, this fourth book promises to be their most thrilling adventure yet.

Ugh. This book was incredibly difficult to rate. It was tough to pin down a specific star rating, and that brings to light the fact that Lightning Thief wasn't difficult to review because it was the first in the series; It was difficult to review because it was so disappointing.

If I had to characterize the fourth book in this series with a single word, that word would be disappointing.

I've read some reviews of this book, and many readers say that this was their favorite in the series so far. For me, I found that many characters that I had previously loved fell flat, that the relationships lacked texture, and that ultimately a book or series nearly always loses me when it introduces the (spoiler alert!) love triangle.

So let's talk about the things that made this book such a let down for me.