Partials

By Dan Wells

468 Pages

Published by Balzer + Bray

★★★★

By Em

This was awesome! Nice and simple. There's this group of girls at my school, all really good friends, and all really big readers. One of them has a thing with buying just about every young adult book in the entire Barnes and Nobles stores, and then lends them to one of her friends, who in turn lends it to another friend, and her to another friend, and in this real big circle of girls until it finally gets back to the girl who bought. Since I have just about every single one of those girls in at least one of my classes, I saw this book a lot. A lot! So, naturally, I had to try it.

This is a total dystopian society book, but one done really well. 16-year-old Kira Walker is a medic-in-training at the hospital in Manhattan, which is now basically, the whole human population. Due to a war with what people call Partials, artificial humans created to fight in wars, humanity was destroyed by a virus called RM, that the Partials released. This virus has abated, except in new born children who haven't developed immunity to it. So, the government enables the Hope Act, which forces any women over the age of eighteen to become pregnant. A group of humans rebelled against this, forming The Voice, who were even more of a threat to the people of Manhattan that the Partials. So the world is in chaos. 

The main character, I could really care less. Especially at the end, my one thought is, Way to "coincidental". When you read it you'll understand. She's a tad naive and doesn't quite know what she's doing. My other problem with this book is all of the medical talk. I'm not a doctor, I don't know all the fancy terms Kira uses when trying to find a cure for RM. And then she's talking about Blobs, and Lurkers, and Spores, and I'm just sitting there with this real confused look on my face. 'O.o And, the worst thing an author can do to me, and one of the most frequent things that happens when I read, my favorite character is killed off. I won't say who, since it will ruin the surprise, but come on!

What I did like... Marcus! There are times that I just enjoy a character who strives to be humorous. It lightens the mood in an otherwise rather dark and depressing story. My favorite quote of his involves invisibility potions, sandwiches, and a talking squirrel. (Check page 9 if you're really interested.) And all together, he just made me laugh. That is always a good sign.

Samm was also a nice character. I enjoyed the fact that he was a very quiet person. It portrays reality. When captured, you are so not gonna just ramble and ramble about your life, like some other characters in stories do. No monologuing. Monologuing is a big no-no. To many characters go on and on about how hard their life was, or what their long lost farther is was like, or why their neighbors cat is so important to them. (I don't know if that cat one has ever been written, but I would like to see it done. That could result in something interesting.) Samm is straight-faced and silent, and I applaud Mr. Wells for doing such.

In reality, the whole premises of the story is really depressing, especially the first chapter. One of the girls previously mentioned saw me when I started this book and she gave me this sad face and said, "That first chapter is a hard one to take in." And she's right. Babies dying is not a happy thing. But, the story is original and to some, like me, enjoyable. Maybe the lead could be a little stronger, buff Kira up a bit, but otherwise, nice job!

The False Prince

By Jennifer A. Nielsen

342 Pages

Published by Scholastic

★★★★

By Em

I'm very happy to say that I like this book. A lot! I saw an ad for this on Goodreads, and the first... nine? times I saw it I thought, Meh... Now that I've read it, I say, "Thanks Goodreads!" Fantasy novels go two ways for me, really good, or old sounding. Can you guess which ones I don't like? For some reason I place at lot of books as sounding like they were written in the 60's, and for some reason I have this thing about reading books that weren't written within the past ten years. It's the style I think, but I just don't like old books. But this book did not fall under that category. I really, really liked it. 

Sage, an orphan, is unwilling abducted by a noble man of the king's court named Conner. Conner is on a search for orphans throughout the kingdom who could be trained to pose as a fake prince. Sage, along with two other orphans (whose names have slipped my mind. Stupid library making me return books because it was only like two weeks over due...) are pitted each other in a two week cramming session where they learn everything they can about how to be a prince. 

This book was great, plain and simple. Sage was the perfect narrator. He had a great voice and a personality that I love! He's witty, and clever, and yes, sarcastic! He is able to outsmart anyone who crosses him, and acts his way through lies and deceit. He is a fantastic character that I bow down to. 

The story over all moves a bit slow, but it doesn't drag on, like some books do. This keeps a lifelike pace, not rushing, but not scrutinizing over every little detail of the boys' lives. (Thank goodness, because I'm sure there are some events that a female like myself would not want to know about.........) 

Over all, I'm glad to say this is not an old sounding fantasy novel. It's fresh and original, and a young adult book that will keep the interest of many boys as well. (Don't worry guys, writers think about you too sometimes.) The male point of view is a nice, well needed change of speed for me, and I enjoyed it greatly. The whole book was filled with exciting and unexpected twists and turns that keep you thinking and wondering. I can't wait to read the next one!

Hex Hall

By Rachel Hawkins

336 Pages

Published  by Hyperion Book CH

★★★★

By Em

Like many other reviews of this book, I am going to start by saying the cover is very misleading. I was sort of expecting a rather young, more ten-year-old speed book. What I found was 20x better! Yay!

Sophie Mercer found out that she was a witch when she was twelve, and then three years later she casts a spell that causes a boy to crash through a gymnasium wall with his truck and start singing love ballads to a girl who later decides to pepper spray him in the face. And that is just the prologue. This book, much to my surprise, was down right funny. 

Sophie, in my opinion, is a great main character. She's witty, and funny, and just you average teenager. (Well, you know, if average teenagers caused poor helpless boys to get pepper sprayed.) And Hecate, or "Hex Hall", is pretty cool. The furniture changes based on what your opinion of the place is. If you think it is the worst place known to humanity, you could probably end up sitting on a dumpster. And they have a very attractive groundskeeper who just happens to be a crazy amazing wizard. (Although, no one can top Hagrid!)


Sophie was a create main character. She was witty and sarcastic, and as you read this blog, you will learn that those are my favorite characters ever! Sophie made me laugh from the very beginning and I became to love her even more as the story progressed. 


And my favorite part was just the story. In general, the story spun was delightfully enjoyable. There was the perfect punch of  humor, romance, and action. The characters were all different and rather unforgettable, and the ending was quite an unexpected twist. The author created great images in my mind of this great school and lively characters and I applaud her for it.


I really feel like I should write more about this book, but I can't think of anything else I want to write about that won't kind of ruin the best parts of the book for you. So, for this review, all I say is just read it. You'll be surprised. 

Void

By Rhiannon Lassiter

669 Pages
Published by Simon Pulse

★★★★★

By Em

I literally finished this monster of a book seconds ago and then accidentally knocked my brother off the porch while running to the computer to write this. (Okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but I really was thinking off pushing my brother off the porch) But I have to say, when I picked up Void by Rhiannon Lassiter, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I most certainly did not expect what I found. 

Being short and blunt, this story was pretty awesome. It revolved around brother and sister Wraith, the ganger, and Raven, the Hex, a genetically modified person who has a way with computers. And even that is an understatement. There is no limit to this girl, and that is probably the main reason I like this book. Raven is epic. Sure, I like little 13-year-old Kez and Jeeva and Finn, two other gangers, but as cool as they all are, they have  nothing on Raven. She is a kick butt heroine, and one of a kind.

The story starts with Wraith and Raven looking for their sister Rachel. But as they search, they begin entangled with many other Hexes who together start a massive revolt against the European government. In all, the story seemed very X-Men to me, which I don't mind honestly. 

Now, I probably should take away one star, or at least half, to the writing style of this author, because the style she has is rather...odd. She seems to switch points of view and back very rapidly, sometimes just telling us what a different character is thinking before hoping right back to the other character. And while I should take a star away for that, I'm not going to, because I'm more on content, then on writing style. (Which is the reason Romeo and Juliet receives a big fat 0. Come on, marrying after knowing each other for a day, and then killing each other over it? And don't even get me started on Romeo laying on the floor, bawling like a eight-year-old girl...) 

All in all, my only other problem (well, actually Cassidy's problem) is the names. They are just plain odd. So things like Ali is good. But let me list a couple of the... strange ones. Wraith, Kez, Jeeva, Drow, Tally, Gift, Avalon, Cloud, Corrin, Alaric, and my personal favorite Electra. You got to admit, it's strange. I'm pretty sure that Electra is the name of a Spider-Man villain....

Electro, it's close.

Anyways, all of my fellow sci-fi lovers, this is totally a book for you. And may I just say, the ending is to die for!

The Gallagher Girls Series

By Ally Carter

Published by Hyperion Book CH

★★★★

By Em

How could any teenage girl not envy the characters in this book? I mean, they go to a high class school with a former presidential chef, they are taught by the totally swoon-worthy Mr. Solomon, and they get to practice beating people up almost every single day! Can't get much better than that.

The Gallagher Girls Series by Ally Carter is a four part (actually five part, as the new book Out of Sight, Out of Time has yet to fall into my hands) about the prestigious Gallagher Academy, a school in the middle of Roseville, Virginia that isn't quite what it seems. It's really an academy for secret agents. And the four main characters totally fit the bill. Cammie Morgan, the headmistress's daughter, Bex Baxter, the secret agent protegee, Liz Sutton, the clumsy computer genius, and Macey McHenry, boy expert and amazing spy. Together, along with great supporting characters like Headmistress Rachel Morgan, Joe Solomon, Zach Goode, Josh Abrams, and all of the other teachers and students, the girls are able to get into all sorts of trouble, while also getting some extra credit.

I can sum up the reason I like these books into three simple parts:

1) Teen super spies are just down right cool. 

2)These books made me laugh. A lot. (Which is why I regret taking them to church with me to read during the Sermon))

3) Zach!

Any teen who loves some good humor, usually revolving around a bunch of girls who were educated in everything from how to drug their CoveOps teacher into spilling his secrets to how to properly dance the fox trot knowing absolutely nothing about boys, will love these, as I loved them. It's not all humor. For crying out loud, it's about a bunch of 16-year-olds, so naturally there is drama, and heartbreak, and all that fun stuff in between.

And for as much as I've advertised the humor that I love about this book, there is still seriousness. A spies life is full of lying and deceit, and Ally Carter really captures that well. So I must say "Bravo!", and I can't wait to read the fifth one!