Book 21: Graceling

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Book Summary:
Katsa lives in a world where some are born with innate skills. These Graces are feared by many but exploited by those in power. When she was young, Katsa learned that her Grace was that of killing, and though she despises it, her uncle Randa, king of the Middluns, uses her to punish and torture those who displease him. When she meets Prince Po, a Graced fighter, her world is turned upside down. In the midst of turmoil surrounding a horrid secret in a faraway kingdom, she doesn't expect that this cocky prince will become a true friend and that he will show her more about herself and her Grace than she thought possible.

Book Review:
As far as debut novels go, Kristin Cashore did a decent job writing this one. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this book and read it in record time. Overall, the story was engaging and the main characters were interesting. I found Katsa and Po to be pretty well rounded characters, and I loved reading their evolution from strangers to friends to lovers. The back story on both of these characters was decently written, so I definitely felt like I knew them really well by the end of the novel. I think Katsa's character was possibly my favorite thing about this story. Even though she believes her Grace to be terrible, she finds a way to use it for good by helping others whenever she can. I've read multiple reviews where people didn't like that she had such a big issue with marriage and couldn't understand why she hadn't changed her mind by the end of the book given everything she's gone through with Po. I, however, felt that this added so much to her character and that it made perfect sense. Until she leaves Randa's court, she's never had freedom, and even though Po loves her and would never cage her, if she married him she would be giving up her freedom again. Even though I don't agree with that train of thought, I think that it completely matches Katsa's character.

As far as other characterization goes, I don't think Cashore did a great job. Most of the characters other than Katsa and Po are very one-dimensional. I wish we had gotten a little more background on characters like Oll, Raffin, Giddon, and Bitterblue. I felt that these characters were very important to the plot; however, I didn't really feel like I knew them. They felt more like characters instead of friends. And then we have Randa and Leck. I felt that these two characters were very poorly formed, especially Leck since he is the main villain of this plot. Other than the two of them being kings who crave power, I don't fell that I knew anything about them like why they actually acted the way they did. The author definitely could have done a better job writing these two.

I really liked the idea behind the plot of people with Graces that could be as mundane as swimming or as powerful as mind-reading or suggestion. I thought, though, that the plot as a whole was somewhat poorly formed. They say over and over again how people are afraid to be around those who are Graced, but most people that Katsa and Po come in contact with don't seem that scared until either Katsa and Po get angry. And even though the main plot is supposed to be about Katsa and Po finding out who had kidnapped Po's grandfather and in turn learning of a great threat and thwarting it, I couldn't help but feel that this was actually secondary to Katsa and Po's relationship. I know that the novel is supposed to be a coming-of-age story and that their relationship is a big part of that, but it just seemed to overwhelm the book to a point that the rest of the plot outside of their relationship was not well written. For the first half of the book they're trying to figure out who kidnapped Po's grandfather, and then once they figure it out, they realize that King Leck is not what he seems and the rest of the story is them trying to kill him. When if finally gets to the climax of the book, the scene in very underwhelming. Cashore definitely could have put a little more effort into this aspect of her story.

As I said earlier, overall I did really enjoy this book. It was an easy read, and even with the issues of secondary characters and plots, it was definitely worth the time. As far as family friendliness goes, there is no cursing that I remember, but there are some definite sexual references as Katsa and Po decide to become lovers instead of marrying. I would say the killing and torture in the book (there isn't a ton of it, but there is some) is probably worse than the sexual stuff. If I had a younger teen I would probably let them read this.

My Rating: 7/10

Book 8: Tell the Wolves I'm Home

I recently joined some bookclubs on goodreads.com. I figured it would be a good way to read some books I wouldn't have otherwise picked up. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt was one of the books for the month of February for one of said book clubs.

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Book Summary:
In 1987 June Elbus is a fourteen-year-old girl who isn't understood by anyone. Anyone, that is, except her Uncle Finn Weiss, a renowned painter. Super shy around everyone at school and terrorized by her sister, she can only be herself around him. When he dies, far too young, from AIDS, she is lost. She has no one she can turn too except, perhaps, the one person she never suspected. Toby may be just the friend she needs to help her heal. Being the only person that loved her uncle as much as she did, he may be the person she needs the most to get her through.

My Review:
First off, let me say that this book is beautifully written, and based on the reviews on goodreads and amazon, obviously it has deeply touched a lot of people. I, however, am not one of them.

I really wanted to like this book, but I found the story to not only be quite dull but also really kind of creepy. The relationship between June and her uncle, and then Toby, came off very disturbing to me. June says numerous times that she loved her uncle, and she pretty much means she was in love with him. After he dies, she basically transfers those feelings to his boyfriend, Toby. It really bothered me that Toby, a thirty-something-year-old man, would spend so much of his time with a fourteen-year-old girl. I understand that many young girls develop crushes on men in their lives who they deem "safe" and this is what is happening from June's perspective, but that does not explain Toby.

On top of being slightly bothered by the entire book, there is basically no plot. There is no climax. There is nothing but the main character continually thinking and doing the same things over and over again. I kept putting the book down because I was bored, only to pick it back up again because I knew that if I didn't just barrel through it, I would never finish it. I found myself counting down the pages until the end of the book.

Finally, June's sister Greta is the worst portrayal of a sister ever! She is just plain mean and hurtful throughout the entire book, and then when the author explains the reasoning behind it, it is so stupid! I understand sisters being mean to each other; after all, I have a sister. But, I cannot imagine my sister, or any sister, ever acting the way Greta acts in this book. It made her entire character completely unbelievable for me.

All that being said, I would not recommend this book to anyone. I may be in the minority with this, but I just think you will waste your time reading it. I don't believe there is much swearing, but there are some sexual references, though nothing graphic.

My Rating: 3/10

Book 6: Diveregent

Still on a dystopia kick, I went with Divergent by Veronica Roth for book six.

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Book Summary:
Society has come to a breaking point, and in order to prevent war they have separated into five factions. The Abnegation believe the fall of society came about because of greed and selfishness, so they have given up all things considered self-indulgent and pledged to act selflessly. The Amity believe aggression to be the root cause to society's downfall, so they have chosen to be peaceful at all costs. The Erudite think ignorance is the issue and seek the never-ending path to complete knowledge acquirement. The Dauntless are the brave and courageous who believe society's true problem was from cowardice. Lastly, the Candor, who think human duplicity was the issue, took to always telling the truth and speaking their mind.

Beatrice Prior was born into Abnegation, but has always had trouble being selfless, as she knows she should. When her aptitude test ends up inconclusive, she struggles to understand why being a Divergent is so dangerous and chooses to leave her family and join Dauntless. As war between factions breaks out, she begins to understand what being a Divergent truly means and how she can use her ability to help those around her.


My Review:
This is my favorite book I have read so far this year. I seriously struggled putting it down the day I started it and was almost late for work. First off, the book is very well written. The characters truly came to life for me. By the end of the novel, I felt like I actually knew Beatrice (aka Tris) and Four (yes that's his nickname). Reading how Beatrice processes through everything was one of my favorite aspects of the book. She knows that she is different, but she doesn't fully understand why or how she is different. And since she's been told to not let anyone know she's divergent because of how dangerous it would be, she has no one to talk to about it. I also really liked getting Four's background. I guessed early on who Four actually was, but I liked that Roth keeps that a secret until Four feels that it is time for Tris to find out.

There honestly wasn't anything that I didn't like at all about this book. Everything about it was just fabulous to me. I would definitely recommend this to others. There is minimal swearing and a few sexual references. Nothing too graphic though; they basically just kiss a lot and talk about having sex.

My Rating: 9/10

Book 2: Paper Towns

For book two, I decided to finish out my John Green book set by reading  Paper Towns.

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Book Summary:
The book begins in Orlando, Florida when the protagonist, Quentin "Q" Jacobsen, and his neighbor and friend, Margo Roth Spiegelman, both nine-years-old at the time, find the body of one Robert Joyner, a divorced man who had committed suicide. Flash forward to high school. Q and Margo are no longer the close friends they used to be. Margo is popular and dating starting shortstop Jason Worthington while Q is a band geek, who isn't in the band but spends all his free time there with his best friends Marcus “Radar” Lincoln and Ben Starling.

Margo finds out that Jase has cheated on her with her friend Becca, so she enlists Q's help to get back at them in a night he will never forget. The next day, Q wonders if Margo will begin eating lunch and hanging out with him and his friends since she is upset with the popular kids, but she doesn't show up for school. After going missing for three days, Margo's parents file a report with the police, but decide that since this is the fifth time she's run away, they don't care if she comes back. After learning that Margo has run away, Q discovers a poster of Woody Guthrie taped to the back of her window shades. This leads him to a string a clues that he believes will ultimately lead him to where Margo has run, so he, Radar, Ben, and Margo's friend Lacey all team up to hunt her down.

My Review:
Paper Towns is my second favorite book by John Green. The story was really interesting, and I liked it a lot. About half way through the book I wasn't sure if they were going to find Margo at all, and if they did find her whether she was going to be dead or alive. Because of this, I did what I always do (and people think is crazy), I read the last chapter of the book. Most people think that ruins the book, but I like to know where a book is headed so I can prepare myself.

I enjoyed the character Q a lot. Although he doesn't have a strong voice, he was a great character that I found myself really routing for by the end as he comes to figure out not only who Margo really is but who he is as well. Along with him, I liked the secondary characters of Ben, Radar, and Lacey. In the beginning of the book, Green makes you want to dislike Lacey. He turns her character around quickly, and she adds the much needed female perspective to the group. Plus, being the only character other than Q who knows Margo at all, she is the only one who is truly worried about Margo which creates a nice bond between the two of them. Although Ben and Radar are great characters, I think that they are there more for comical relief than anything else, even though Radar definitely progresses the story at times with his knowledge of computers and the internet.

By the end, I found myself really bothered by Margo. I just didn't like her at all. I thought she was super selfish and needed to get over herself. Her character is probably my biggest issue with the book. She's just kind of a jerk, and I wanted Q to get over her and find someone better to be in love with. Other than that, there were parts of the story that were slightly confusing to follow, and I needed to reread a couple pages to understand what was going on. But, that could be more that I was reading quickly than an actual issue with Green's writing.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed myself through this book. I would recommend it to others, but be warned that there is some salty teen talk and sexual references, though nothing overly graphic and I don't believe any f bombs (I'm not totally positive about the f word, but I don't recall there being any).

My Rating: 8/10

Book 1: An Abundance of Katherines

So for Christmas my parents got me this book set:

 

And being that I love John Green (seriously, he's awesome...check out the vlogbrothers on youtube and be amazed by his awesomeness), I was super excited to open this. Now, at this point I had already read The Fault in Our Stars* and Looking for Alaska, so I started with An Abundance of Katherines.

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Book Summary:
The main character is a seventeen-year-old child prodigy named Colin Singleton, and he's dated a lot of girls named Katherine. In fact, he's dated only girls named Katherine (spelled as such)...nineteen of them to be exact, and they all seem to dump him.

After being dumped by his most recent girlfriend, Katherine XIX, he and his best, and only, friend Hassan Harbish decide to go on a road trip. They end up in the town of Gutshot, Tennessee where they meet Lindsay Lee Wells and her mother Hollis. When Hollis offers them a job and a place to stay, they decide to stick around Gutshot. While there Colin comes up with a theorem that he believes will be his big Eureka moment that will transform him from child prodigy to genius, an equation that can predict the outcome of any relationship.

My Review:

So, ultimately I liked An Abundance of Katherines. It had a fun storyline that was easy to follow. It's an original concept that's humorous and super quirky, which I loved. One of my favorite things about this book is all the footnotes explaining things Colin says, and trust me, some of them you will actually need to look at to understand what he's talking about. Colin is really smart, so he has a very hard time making friends and doesn't fully understand some of the nuances of human interaction. I found the scenes where he doesn't fully understand why people do certain things very amusing.

One thing that started to get slightly annoying was the fact that Colin likes to anagram anything and everything, so there are tons of times in this book where he randomly starts anagramming.  By the end I was just skipping over those parts. Because the storyline is so easy to follow, I found myself zoning out at times and realizing that I didn't remember anything from the last page, but it never really mattered enough for me to go back and re-read it. 

All in all, this book is a fun coming of age novel that I believe teens and adults alike would enjoy. As far as swearing goes, the characters use the word "fug" to replace the f word, and I believe most, if not all, other cursing is done in other languages. There are some sexual references along with one sexual scene that is slightly graphic.

My Rating: 7/10

*I read The Fault in our Stars twice last year. It is by far my favorite of John Green's books. You will laugh, you will cry...it has everything you want in a book. If I was reviewing it right now I would be giving it a 10/10. I would definitely recommend you check it out!