REVIEW - Hunger (Gone #2) by Michael Grant

TITLE: Hunger (Gone #2)
AUTHOR: Michael Grant
GENRE: dystopia, post-apocalyptic, paranormal

PUBLICATION DATE: May 26th 2009

BLURB:

It's been three months since everyone under the age of fifteen became trapped in the bubble known as the FAYZ.
Three months since all the adults disappeared. GONE.
Food ran out weeks ago. Everyone is starving, but no one wants to figure out a solution. And each day, more and more kids are evolving, developing supernatural abilities that set them apart from the kids without powers. Tension rises and chaos is descending upon the town. It's the normal kids against the mutants. Each kid is out for himself, and even the good ones turn murderous.
But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them.
The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.

REVIEW:

I’ve read Gone, which is the first book in Michael Grant’s Gone series, quite a while ago. It left a deep impression on me and I was excited to read the second book!

Hunger picks up almost three months after the events presented in the first book. The kids, trapped in a big dome called FAYZ, are running out of food and it pushes them into decisions they would normally regret. But the hunger is bigger. Sam, who is assigned as a ‘mayor’ of the FAYZ, is falling apart just as everyone else. Can he bear the responsibility of starving 300 kids to death?

What I love the most about Gone series are the characters. As one of the characters, Quinn, noticed, FAYZ changes them for better or worse. Their true colors show, changing the good kids into cowards and the thugs into people everyone run to when in trouble, because they are so reliable.

My absolute favorite character is still Sam – he’s so human he almost feels real. He’s failing his friends, he makes a ton of mistakes but… but inside of that tough, responsible interior of a guy in charge is a 15 years old boy, as scared as everyone else.

Hunger didn’t keep me on the edge of the seat just as Gone did; I’ve grown used to terrible things happening to the kids, which felt disturbing and new in the first book, but not anymore. After some time, you just become accustomed to monstrosities. Even though Michael grant surprised me a few times in this book too.

I am still a little bit iffy about some generic, non-describable ‘darkness’ being the big bad villain. I love every other aspect of the series, but I still can’t accept something like this as the plot device. Maybe the later books in the series will persuade me otherwise.

Because I am definitely picking up ‘Lies’ later!

Overall:

3.5 stars out of 5.

REVIEW #18 - Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

TITLE: Monument 14

AUTHOR: Emmy Laybourne

GENRE: post-apocalyptic

PUBLICATION DATE: June 5th 2012

SOURCE: ARC

SYNOPSIS:

Your mother hollers that you’re going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don’t stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don’t thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not—you hurdle down the stairs and make a run for the corner.
Only, if it’s the last time you’ll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you’d stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.
But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.
Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.
In Emmy Laybourne’s action-packed debut novel, six high school kids (some popular, some not), two eighth graders (one a tech genius), and six little kids trapped together in a chain superstore build a refuge for themselves inside. While outside, a series of escalating disasters, beginning with a monster hailstorm and ending with a chemical weapons spill, seems to be tearing the world—as they know it—apart.

REVIEW:

I hate starting my review with "I had a problem with this book". But I can't help it, so I will say it: I had a problem with this book. Part of me loved it and part of me hated it.

I've read an uncorrected proof, so I shouldn't judge the writing. Well, I will do it anyway, because there were typos, grammar errors, missing/additional words and even tense changes. Normally I wouldn't have even noticed it, but tense changes tickle me the wrong way so much. I hope all the errors and mistakes will be edited out in the final version, because the book loses its appeal because of that!

Now onto the story. Because of the writing (errors aside) I had a hard time getting used to narration for a while. I think it took me about... half of the book? To finally feel our main hero. The POV is in the first person  - the boy named Dean - but he's such an outsider it feels as if it was 3rd person. I don't think the book would lose much if it was like that.

That being said, I loved the characters. They were a bit stereotypical, at least the big kids: book nerd, outsider, tech genius, jock, bad boy, beautiful girl, slutty girl. But they were doing things that prevented from pigeonholing them into one category or another, thanks to the addition of small kids - six primary school kids, who they had to take care of. On top of that, the dialogues were great, especially these with the small ones. And I must admit I went a little soft every time little Max and his cowlick hair was mentioned. ;)

The action was... kind of non-existent. There was an apocalypse going on outside the mart, but the kids were locked safely inside, so we didn't get to see much of it. I didn't mind it that much, though. We got to see the relations between the characters, and observe how they managed to build a small community within their group. I must admit it was quite fascinating to watch.

What I didn't like... some plot devices were random, as well as the characters' choices. I didn't really understand some of the choices the author made for this book. From the reviews I've seen so far I gathered the book is pretty bloody, a lot of characters die, etc. I was surprised to discover it was not the case; instead of that we got cursing (while the "f" word was censored, others weren't!), violence, drugs and teen pregnancy (!!!). The last one got me completely lost, because it was so random!

The premise was all kinds of awesome. I just don't think the book lived up to it.

REVIEW #6 - The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

TITLE: The Other Life

AUTHOR: Susanne Winnacker

GENRE: post-apocalypse, dystopian

PUBLICATION DATE: Feb 2nd 2012
SOURCE: Marshall Cavendish via NetGalley

SYNOPSIS:

"3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world."
Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.
When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.
But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

REVIEW:

Cover

I like this one better than this. I'm usually fond of no-people on the cover, but this time, Sherry on the cover worked better for me, She's just pretty!

Plot

I didn't find the story particularly groundbreaking, but I did like the different approach to zombies. This book isn't your typical epic let's-save-the-world YA. It's kind of... smaller range. And that's exactly what I *loved* about The Other Life. We're more focused on the family than the big evil plan - but I expect we'll read about it in the sequel. Which, I can tell you now, I'm definitely picking up.
So what do we have? We have a family. A virus, turning people into "The Weepers". We even have a little bit of romance, that doesn't feel forced at all. Everything that should satisfy even a picky post-apo fan.

Characters

I had a hard time with the books I picked up in the last few weeks. They all had well-developed main characters, while the secondary characters were merely showcased for a few pages. It's not the case with The Other Life. The side characters - Sherry's family and Joshua's "family are all vibrant, live characters I loved. Especially Sherry's little brother (which should be given a bigger spotlight, in my opinion) and Tyler, the silent tattoo guy.
Main characters were likable as well, and I found their romance quite adorable, given the circumstances.

Writing

If you like epic fights, constant action, riddles every other page - this book is not for you. The story is involving and scary at times, but it's not your usual fight-fight-teenage drama kind of story. It's rather slow-paced but intriguing, and shows tragedy of a few people rather than the whole population, which happens a lot in recent dystopian/post-apo books.

Overall

I've been lured by "dystopian" tag, but it's more of a post-apo book than dystopian. Although I do see that it shows signs of being dystopian, especially at the end. Despite all that, the book felt really... normal. Like it could happen any day to us too. Which gave me the creeps, I suppose.
While I don't think the book is refreshing or completely "new", it's quite a satisfying read.

Rating

3.5 stars out of 5.