The Son of Neptune

By Rick Riordan

513 Pages

Published by Hyperion Book CH

★★★★★

By Em 

 

First, let me say congratulations to everyone for surviving the 2012 apocalypse! Now let's just wait a couple more years, because by then someone will have found another supposed "end of the world"! I also hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas. But remember; Mr. C is still watching, so everyone be good, because no one want to find coal in their stockings next Christmas.

Rick Riordan is what I consider one of the all time greats for young adult writing. And I think this, because his books are written towards teenagers, but anyone can find the great story and humor in them. Take my family. My younger brother loves Rick's writings, I love his writing, and my mom loves his stuff too! These books hit a Harry Potter string, in where they were written for kids, but will forever be loved by everyone! That is a sign of a great, great author.

Percy has awaken from a long, deep sleep, and has no memory of about anything besides his name. After being trained by Lupa, he somehow manages to make his way to a camp for half-bloods in California. But for some reason, none of it brings back any memories, or does he find the one thing he does remember; Annabeth. Hazel was not meant to still be alive. In her first life, she made mistakes that are returning to haunt her. She wishes she could just grab the horse in her dreams and ride away from everything. But now she must face those mistakes, and she's no the only one with her life on the line. Frank has always been clumsy. He keeps being told he descends from great heroes, but whenever he looks at himself, he sees no relation to them whatsoever. Well, his own father won't even claim him, so maybe he's even worse than he thought. But he trusts his good friend Hazel, and hopes that he can eventually confront her with his secret that has haunted him since he came to the camp. Together these three will face all sorts of fearsome creatures and terrible monsters, all destined to be a part of the Prophecy of Seven.

I was happy to get to see Percy again in this book, but with a fresh start. We all remember the great heroic Percy from The Lightning Thief and the books that followed. But now, he doesn't remember that life, so he is completely rediscovering the world he lives in.Though, we see the return of certain beloved factors of him, like Riptide and his impeccable sarcasm that even I am jealous of sometimes. It's so nice to see him again.

I think that Rick Riordan has found a way to breathe new life into this wondrous idea he has made a series. By creating another camp, this one run by the children of Roman gods just brings a whole new world into perspective. They have different customs, different ways of running the camp, and even better yet, a whole new demigod sport that I love. (Though Capture the Flag still holds a special place in my heart.) And while Camp Jupiter may not be as totally awesome as Camp Half-Blood (and honestly, what could be?), it is still pretty darn interesting. It's not only a camp, it's also attached to a town where demigods can "retire" to when they are old enough. That itself makes the camp even more unique. Though, I was a little sad that these Roman demigods named their camp after Jupiter. (Or maybe Jupiter named it after himself...?)

I wasn't exactly as pleased with the new characters as I was with the first book. I feel that the two characters were a little.. what's the word... melodramatic? They have secrets that they so desperately want to share, but they refuse to share them, and then they seem to make this massive deal about sharing their secrets with one another. The characters in the first book had secrets, and yes, they wanted to share them but didn't. But their secrets weren't these weird confessionals. I don't know if that makes any sense at all, but these characters, beyond being melodramatic, did not interest me as much as the other three new characters from the first book. They seemed to have more interesting stories to them. Though, I did like Ella very much. I thought she was a fun new character.

I liked the introduction to some other Roman/Greek mythological things. Like we get to meet a certain rainbow goddess and some new butt-kicking female warriors. We get some more evil giants and these little evil grain spirits that I love! The characters meet all sorts of new villains and allies on their journey.

I think this new series Rick is writing is as good as the first one. (And the books are longer! Score!) I'm literally tearing my hair out as I slowly climb my way up to holding list at the library. I'm up to 11!! I think this series has lots of promise and I can't wait to see where it goes!

(Now, Mel and I owe you a big old apology. We said we would post more over the break, but I don't think we could have lied more. I started this review back on December 21st, the last day of school before break, and now look at the date. But hey, it was Christmas. That in itself is a very stressful time! We're going to do our best to post something, but midterms are two weeks away and about all free time is going to be dedicated to studying for those, so we'll do our best to keep you posted!)

Ashfall

By Mike Mullin

466 Pages

Published by Tanglewood Press

★★★★★

By Em

 

So, this is one of those books where when you first look at it, it sounds like a lot of fiction with a little bit of fact. But, this book is actually crazy realistic. Mike Mullin has spun a great story backed up by tons of scientific stuff. There are at least five, maybe six, pages at the end of the book where Mike talks about all of the facts he has to back up what he has happen to our hero and to the rest of the world. And as I read that end section, it got me thinking even more about that lovely little volcano under Yellowstone.

So, to clarify a bit. Yellowstone National Park gets its lovely geysers and boiling hot springs thanks to a gigantic super volcano underneath it. It's so large that you can only see the caldera from a plane or satellite photos. And in the beginning of this book, right after Alex Haprin's parents and younger sister leave for Illinois, this super volcano erupts. Soon, the world Alex knew is shrouded by darkness, blanketed in ash, and ridden with violence. Alex quickly begins a long and dangerous trip to find his family in Illinois. But even from Iowa, that is a long dangerous journey with many perils. Alex meets many people along the way, finding both friends and enemies, and he soon realizes it is going to be along journey to his family.

Now, the library at my school has recently had a spotlight on a bunch of Survival Guide books. Now, one we have enjoyed reading as a group is The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook. So far I have learned how to survive falling through the floor, how to properly avoid being attacked by a bear, and how to tell if my boyfriend is secretly an ax-murderer. But, that book has nothing about possible super volcano eruptions. That get's me nervous. What if a super volcano were to actually erupt? I think I might hang on to this book, just in case. There is tons of information in this book that could help if Yellowstone actually does erupt. The characters go through many different problems, and there are some good solutions that anyone might want to know. Like, how to build a greenhouse, how to make a cornpone grinder with a bike (though it may be difficult), and how to properly skin animals for their meat. Anyone else seeing the appeal in holding on to this?

MAY BE SPOLIERS!
Now, as I really do doubt Yellowstone is going to erupt anytime soon, I think I should get along with the actually story. I thought this book was great. It was completely realistic, and made you think. I mean, you wouldn't think that a two hour drive would take someone a couple months to complete on skis. Well, when you throw in ash, snow, murderers, wild pigs, and an evil FEMA camp, I guess it may take up some of your time. But I think the realism of all of these problems made the story rich and dangerous. 

I thought that Darla was, excuse the pun, a darling character! I loved her quirk and smarts when it comes to just about anything. She know mechanics and farming, and is able to solve nearly any problems if she really thinks about it. When Alex first sees her, he thinks she's an angel. Though a strange one, since apperantly angels aren't supposed to being wearing overalls. But then again, when her first see's her, he probably isn't quite right in his head. But I think they have a cute relationship and they become great traveling companions. 

I already have the sequal to this book on hold. I can't wait to find out what sorts of new problems they are going to run into in this apocalyptic world. I think this book was great, though maybe creepy and disturbing as well, and would definitely recommend it to people with strong stomachs. Now, I have a promise, from both me and Melanie. (Or at least, I promise.) With break only a week away, we will try to post more reviews. School has been a madhouse recently, what with tests, orchestra concerts, and reading Spider-Girl comics (yeah, you heard me right). But once break starts up, we'll have a lot more time, and promise to keep on posting reviews! 'Till then, have a nice pre-break week!

The Summoning

By Kelley (Oops, almost posted Jelley...) Armstrong

490 Pages

Published by HarperCollins

★★

By Em

So, I had the pleasure of reading this book for our school book club. For some reason, some of the people were just dying to read it, or reread it, or rereread it. And I can't help but ask, "WHY!?!?!?!" What do you people see in this book? Please, tell me. Maybe I missed something. But as far as I can comprehend, this book was terrible. I get it, yes. It is the beloved teenage paranormal genre, but just because you throw in a teenage girl, some teenage boys, a couple ghost, and a zombie here and there, that doesn't make it a good book. Now, by my little description there, some people might go, "Aww yeah! Zombies and ghosts! What doesn't she see in this book?" I would have reacted that way too. But listen to my tale and you shall quickly see the flaws in this sad little book.

The Summoning is about this girl named Chloe. When she was little, she saw ghosts in her basement. And I'm not talking bed sheet ghosts either. No, this little girl is seeing people who hanged themselves dangling behind the furnace. When I first read this, I thought this book could end up rather interesting. But then I started chapter two. Chloe lives with her rich father (or rather her rich father's maid) and goes to a fancy art school. And she's still seeing ghosts. Before she knows it she's placed in a home for "troubled" teens. But like her, these other teenagers aren't all that they seem.

MAY BE SPOILERS
So, problem numero uno with this book is that the pace is all askew. One minute were rushing through things so fast I feel like I'm reading a book hopped up on caffeine. And then the book hits that rut when all the coffee has run out of it's system. It would drag and drag and drag. The book either kept me frantically rereading to try and understand what is going on or going in slow motion.

Problem two; the main character is an idiot! I mean, I always thought it was a bit of a stereotype when privileged kids are portrayed as being rather stupid, but this privileged girl is D-U-M-B! Let me elaborate. One of the worst scenes in the entire book is the one where Chloe is sitting in pitch dark, locked in a cellar, and there is a possibility that zombies are closing in on her. And, she spends half of a page talking about how she doesn't know how to light a match. Are you kidding me?! You don't know how to light a match? I mean, the zombies are getting closer and you sit there going, "Now, how do I light these magical little matches?" I almost wish the zombies had gotten to her. Let's not forget her other reoccurring stupid move. We see Chloe as a rather quiet and shy gal. But, the one guy she decided to smart off to a lot happens to be the really giant guy who is in their troubled home for breaking a guy's back! Are you seriously telling me that he's the guy you're giving attitude to? Smart choice my friend...

One of my other problems was (SPOILER FOR THE END) that they tell us that while there are necromancers and sorcerers and all of that fun stuff, there were no vampires and werewolves. I started to think, "Oh yeah, at least this sad little book isn't going to take influence from a lot of other cliché teen paranormal novels." But oh no. In the end, we get the lovely little surprise that, yes, there are werewolves. It just can't be paranormal without grabbing characters right out of Twilight can it? That just makes me really sad.

So, now that I'm done with my little displeased rant, I can say with the utmost confidence that I shall not be continuing this series that is apparently "fabulous". There was little to no appeal in this for me, and the author just kept making things worse. She would through us through these "loops" where we'd go, "That was stupid," or, "Or that was a completely random twist that was unplanned and not well executed." I mean no disrespect to Kelley Armstrong or any crazy devoted fans, but that was just not good. I'm really hoping we get some better book club books in the future.

Hunger

By Michael Grant

Pages: 590

Published by Harper Teen

★★★★

By Mel

 After reading Gone I was skeptical about reading its sequel Hunger. I enjoyed reading Gone but I had feared that like many series the books would become worse. Luckily, that was not the case. In fact, I think Hunger was better than Gone. I felt more captivated by it and I by the end I had trouble putting the book down.

 

 WARNING: Spoiler Alert for Gone up ahead

To recap, in the first book, Gone everyone fifteen and older disappeared. Just like that, gone. Then, with only kids left, they all raided the stores for candy and chips. Eventually a leader had to step up and tell the kids what to do. At first, the hero Sam declined to becoming "mayor" so bullies took over. Then, the troubled kids from Coates Academy came and their leader, Caine gave his speech and took over Perdido Beach. Sam, who turned out to be Caine's long-lost twin brother, disagreed with what Caine was doing and was the only one who was powerful enough to stop him. The book ended with a huge battle between the brothers and Sam coming out on top. Also, Sam and Caine turned fifteen and time slowed down. They figured out how to stay in the FAYZ (Fallout Ally Youth Zone). All they had to do was say no to leaving which is easier said then done. 

 

Now, in Hunger, it is three months later and food has run out. After all the kids raided the stores for junk food, all the fresh produce has rotted, and the kids are surviving on dog food and hot dog relish. Everyone is starving and some are even thinking about cannibalism. Poor Sam is the new leader and he is becoming stressed out under all this pressure. Children are dieing and the rest are starving. Everyone is blaming Sam and asking him why he isn't doing anything to stop it. Meanwhile, they all sit back and watch DVDs and refuse to work. I love how realistic that is. It's hard to reason with six and seven year-old children. They don't want to work. That was their parents job. They can't understand the seriousness of their situation, at least not as well as Sam, Edilio, Albert, Astrid, or any of the older kids do.

 

Also, Caine is back. But this time there's something different about him. A new monster, the Darkness or Gaiaphage is corrupting multiple kids such as Lana, Caine, and Drake (although I don't think Drake's craziness came from the Darkness). This battle seems to involve more then just the Perdido Beach kids vs the Coates Acadamy kids. Something else is there too.

 

This is definitely a great book and now I'm excited to read the next book, Lies! It was super good and very interesting. It almost reminds me of the colonial times in America when the colonists were trying to make a new and improved government. That's what is happening in the FAYZ. They are trying to make a good government with rules and restrictions. But the only difference is that kids are the leaders and children are the only citizens. This obviously poses my complications.

 

Gone

By Michael Grant

Pages: 558

Published by Harper Teen

★★★★

By Mel

 

  First of all, I must apologize. School came in a whirl-wind of homework and all sorts of after-school activities. I barely find time to read anymore (a sad fact I am desperately trying to change) and thus I find it hard to write reviews for the books I do complete. So, I am sorry to admit that I am in fact not reviewing the many books I read in August, September, and October. There are just too many to find the time to review and some of them I have forgotten too much about to write a review for them. But (with much nagging from Emma) I am finally sitting at my computer and writing a review for the last book I read, Gone.

 

This book was recommended to me by Emma. You may have even read her earlier review of this story. I have not found Gone as exciting as Emma had. Don't get me wrong, I do still love this book. But, after reading Emma's review of it and then reading it myself I have to say that it was not at all what I expected.

In Gone, one seemingly random day everyone from fifteen and older just disappear in Perdido Beach, they 'poof' as Quinn says. At first all the children are confused. What happened to their teachers? But they quickly recover and run away from the school and raid the stores and gas stations for candy with no adults to stop them. Then, by night time they start to miss their mommies and daddies. They all become scared and don't know what to do. Everyone looks up to fourteen-year old Sam Temple for help and answers. A few years ago he earned the nick-name School-Bus Sam after saving a school-bus of children from a fatal plunge into the ocean off a cliff. Now with his hero status he could easily become mayor. When Sam declines, not wanting to be a leader, bullies take his place. In a world with no adults, bullies rule.

 Soon, even worse bullies from Coates Academy (the school for troubled kids) take over Perdido Beach. Caine is the new mayor with is superior powers and great speech. Not only are all the adults gone, but children are also developing special powers. Some can run at super speed, move objects with their minds, or shoot light beams from their hands. It's a crazy world of endless terror for these children and who's going to save them from a terrible leader? Where did the adults go? And what happens when you turn fifteen? The kids call it the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone) but no one actually knows what this new world is and why it happened.

While I loved the book and its story line, it was a bit slow for me. It seemed to drag on. But, it is still a great book to read that I encourage others to give it a try. I am currently reading the second book, Hunger.

Between Shades of Gray

By Ruta Sepetys 

Pages: 338

Published by Philomel Books

★★★★★

By Mel

 

Just to get this straight, this book is not Fifty Shades of Gray. When I told my mom that I wanted to read Between Shades of Gray she freaked out and said that it was too inappropriate, thinking that I was referring to Fifty Shades of Gray. So I just had to make sure you understand that there is a HUGE difference between the two.

 

 This book was really good. I loved how it was written and the ending was satisfying. My friend/ cousin Sami suggested it to me about a year ago. It's very interesting. It's about a family from Lithuania in 1941. The Soviet police came in and arrested fifteen-year-old Lina and her ten-year-old brother Jonas, and their mom and dad. They are deported to Siberia in harsh conditions with a bunch of other prisoners. It's really sad.

 

 Between Shades of Grey takes you along with Lina and her family through the horrors that these prisoners faced. Its the story you rarely hear about. These people were not Jewish and weren't freed until after the Jews. Yet, their story is just as terrifying. I definitely encourage everyone to read this. I personally have an interest in WWII but I don't think you need to have that interest to enjoy this book.

Spell Bound

By Rachel Hawkins

327 Pages

Published by Hyperion Book CH

★★★

By Em 

 

I'm actually kind of sad to say that this book wasn't the ending I was hoping for for this series. All in all, it was pretty darn predictable. There were some nice surprises, sure, but it was a rather unexciting read and the ending in no way thrilled me. Which I am honestly quite sad about, because I was in love with the first two in the series. This one just felt dry and bland to me. 

Sophie had just gotten used to being a demon, when her powers were snatched out from under her by the Prodigium Council. Now she's powerless, and stuck with the Brannicks, a family of kick-butt women who hate Prodigium. But the Brannicks aren't the ones Sophie needs to be worried about. In truth, they know that an epic war is on its way, and their ready to fight along side her. They think she is the only one powerful enough to stop the end of the world. What does Sophie think? Definitely not that. 

So, like I said, this wasn't as good as I was hoping it would have been. But there were some elements that I liked. For one, that Brannicks. I will be the first to rave about an women who knows how to kick some serious butt. This family is so the one for me. With Aislinn, Izzy, and, my personal favorite, Finley, you have a bunch of tough chicas who are ready to take down and werewolf, vampire, or demon that stands in their way. (Which is why Sophie isn't really planning on doing that!) They live in a little compound in Tennessee, complete with barb wire and a magic mirror (with a little twist!). The addition of them was about the one real thing I solidly liked about this book.

 Beyond the occasional twist or turn in this book, I was able to predict most things that happened in this one. I'm not going to say what, for fear of ruining possible surprises for those who have yet to start this book, but some of it was, dare I say it, cliche. I really hate to use that word, but there were relationship problems and certain sections that I would not have expected from this author. I was expecting to be totally blown away by the ending of this, but my overall reaction as I closed the book was, 'Meh... Mom! Drive me to the library! I need something to read!' There wasn't much pause for me to think about what was so unbelievably great about it.

I also thought that the humor I so loved in the earlier two books wasn't very humorous at all. (The more I'm writing the more I'm contemplating my choice of three stars...) Reading other reviews, some people raved about how great the humor was, but I didn't see it at all. I thought the jokes were far and few, and when we did get one, it wasn't funny. It wasn't even corny-funny, which I will laugh at anyways. The whole humor section just passed by me. (I think there may have been one about a nun that I did like thought.)

Another thing I got form this was there were a few plot problems. The final battle. A little to easy? Yeah, I think so. I feel like a huge section of it was just lost, where Ms. Hawkins could have done a lot to make the book  more interesting. And, (Spoiler) whatever happened to the demon glass? They went and got it and then what? They in no case ever mention what they did with it, if they did anything with it at all. 

So, overall, I am sad. I think the author kind of ruined her really good series with a really crappy ending. I could have thought up something better than that! (Well, I know I could....but...I don't feel like it right now...) I just think that Ms. Hawkins should have spent a little more time on the story and really thought it through. Instead, I think she's more worried about this new possible spin-off novel she's going to work on. Save the spin-offs until you have a good ending honey! Please.