Book 18: The Storyteller

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Book Summary:
After the death of her mother, Sage Singer becomes an introvert who works through the night, trying to escape her memories and loneliness by doing the one thing she knows, baking bread. When Josef Weber begins coming to the bakery, the two form an unusual friendship. This all changes when he confesses to her that he was a Nazi, and he has spent the last seventy years hiding from his past. He only asks two things, that she forgive him being that she is of Jewish decent and that she kill him. With confusion over her own identity and the idea that her closest friend could have done something so terrible, Sage must make the toughest decision of her life.

My Review:
Let me start by saying that I am not a huge Jodi Picoult fan. It's not that her books are awful because she's actually a very good writer; it's just that all her books seem like a lifetime movie in the making. This one is no different. It was very well written, and I liked the idea behind it. A former Nazi asking forgiveness of the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor is a great plot. However, this storyline is squeezed in among an affair, a romance, a death, and about ten other subplots. Even though this is the main point of the book, at times it got lost amid all the other things that were going on. I really like that Picoult did so much research before beginning this book. She pretty much learned everything she could about Nazis so she could weave a plausible back-story. She also learned about what someone who actually hunts down Nazis for a living does to find and prosecute World War II criminals. Lastly, she learned the intricacies of bread baking, which being that this is something that I actually know about, I thoroughly appreciated that Sage actually knew her way around baking bread. I think my favorite thing about his book was the ending, and Sage finding out that sometimes people aren't who they seem to be.

Though I enjoyed Minka's story from the war, I felt that it drawn out longer than it needed to be. I honestly skipped pages during her story because it literally went on for well over a hundred pages, and though it had everything to do with her story as a Holocaust survivor, I didn't feel like it was as important to the plot as Josef's story which was not nearly as long. I also did not like the subplot of Sage dating a married man. I don't feel that it added anything to the story other than causing Leo to judge her for it. I understand the reasoning behind the author using this, as it's a device to help us see how much Sage changes from the beginning of the book until the end, I just thought the book would have been fine without it.

Overall, I thought the book was very well written, it just wasn't really my type of book. I think that if you really like Lifetime movies, you would probably thoroughly enjoy this novel. There is some swearing and a good amount of sexual references.

My Rating: 6/10

Book 16: Reached

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*Spoiler Alert: This is the third book in a series. If you haven't read the first two books you may want to stop reading*

My review of book one can be found here, and my review of book two can be found here.


Book Summary:
When an epidemic of the plague hits the provinces, the Rising uses their cure to gain hold and overthrow the Society. But when the plague mutates, Cassia, Ky, and Xander must help the Rising and the Pilot find a new cure. They must decide who they can trust. Is the Rising really a rebellion, or are they just the Society under a new name?

Book Review:
It's been a couple months since I read Matched and Crossed, so it took me a couple chapters before I was able to get back into the plot of this series. There were parts of this book that I liked a great deal more than the previous two, but there were also parts that I liked quite a bit less.

First off, I really enjoyed the storyline. I thought this was a much more interesting plot than either of the first two books. Since Cassia, Ky, and Xander are all major players in this book, each chapter is written with one of them as the narrator. As I've said before, I normally don't like when authors do that, but it worked out in this series pretty well. I really liked how in the series as a whole Condie goes from everything being told from Cassia's point of view in the first novel, to going back and forth between Cassia and Ky in the second, and now using all three of them in the third. As far as characters go, I still don't really like Cassia or Ky much; however, I really liked that Xander played such a large role in this story. Since the first book, I've never really gotten the reason behind why Cassia decided she loves Ky so much when she knew next to nothing about him before his face popped up on her microcard. Because of this, I always felt bad for Xander because he truly loves Cassia and had always hoped he would get matched to her someday. Thankfully, though, Xander was given another love interest in Lei, and I really liked seeing that story come to fruition.

Now to the things I didn't like. I thought the last couple chapters were really boring. Honestly, I wasn't such a huge fan of the final wrap up. It's not that the story ended terribly, it's just that I felt that the ending could have been a lot more interesting. It was just kind of a "blah" ending. I also didn't like what happened with Indie. I was really starting to like her, and felt that Condie could have done a lot more with her character. The final thing I didn't really like or even really understand was the whole thing about Cassia and the tablets. I felt like Condie was trying to make us believe that Cassia was really special because the tablets didn't work on her like they did everyone else, but this fell flat for me. I didn't feel like Cassia was special at all. I honestly got tired of reading about her and the tablets, so I ultimately skipped over the parts of the book where she was trying to remember the Red Garden Day.

Overall, I guess the good outweighed the bad in this book. And as far as family friendliness goes, there are very few (if any) curse words and no sexual references.

My Rating: 6/10 - (for the series I would give a 6/10)

Book 4: Matched

I love dystopian novels. From the moment I read The Giver in 7th grade, I was hooked. Recently there has been an overflow of dystopian novels coming out, from the Hunger Games trilogy to the Uglies series to my choice for book four, Matched by Ally Condie.

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Book Summary:
Cassia Reyes is your average teenage girl who lives in a perfect world where she has no worries or hard choices because the Society makes them all. From what you eat to how you dress, where you'll work, and who you'll marry, everything is decided for you, even when you'll die.

On the night of her match banquet, Cassia learns that her perfect match is none other than her best friend Xander Carrow, but the next day when she looks at his microcard, it's not only Xander's face she sees but also Ky Markham's. Thrown, she's unsure of what to do or who to tell. When an official shows up to inform her that there was a glitch in the system and that Ky can't be her match because he's an Abberation, she's initially relieved. For some reason, though, she can't seem to get Ky out of her head, and after getting to know him better, she begins to question if the Society is as good as she thought it was.

My Review:
This is one of those books that going in, I just knew was going to be awesome and I would love it. I was sadly mistaken. Now, don't get me wrong, the book is good, I just don't think it's up to caliber with the other dystopian novels I've read in recent years. It wasn't until about half way through, that this book finally grabbed my interest. In general, the concept of the book is really good. The idea that the government literally decides who you are going to be through your entire life is an interesting one. I also thought Condie's writing style was lovely.

I, however, didn't enjoy the main character of Cassia. I just didn't really get her at all. Basically, she falls in love with this guy just because the Society has told her not to. Really? I get that she's just a teenager and they fall in and out of love quicker than I can snap my fingers, but I just think that sort of premise is a bit ridiculous, especially since the entire time she's trying to convince herself that she didn't fall in love with Ky for this reason. On this same thought, the way she treated Xander made me want to punch her. Yes, I actually wanted to punch a fictional character. I really liked the character of Xander. He is a nice guy who does everything he can for Cassia, and she basically blows him off. The character of Ky is much harder for me to review. I think he's a genuinely nice kid who's been dealt a bad lot in life, but it bugs me that he is friends with Xander and then pretty much does everything he can to steal Cassia away.

All in all, I would recommend this book to others, especially for young teens. I'm not sure that there is any swearing in this book, if there is, it is VERY minimal, and there are no sexual references. The worst it gets is kissing and talking of having kids, nothing more.

My Rating: 6/10