Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium is the sequel to Delirium, which I reviewed in an earlier post, and the world of the series has greatly expanded letting us get a better feel of the realm. We no longer see only two stand points on the disease deliria, that of the adults and the children and teens of regulated society, but that of the so called Invalids who are banned and reviled from regular society because they do not wish to receive the cure. The Invalids, now a key part of the story, bring us the opposite view of the cure and how it destroys people and turns them into zombies, which is how they often refer to them, and how they seem to believe that the regulated society must be taken down and destroyed.

At the end of Delirium, Lena escapes from regulated Portland, Maine, but at the cost of losing her boyfriend Alex. In Pandemonium, it begins with Lena in the Wilds taken in by the Invalids as she was teetering on the edge of death not knowing if she wanted to live or die after all she has lost in her quest for love, this section is known as Then. In the second section titled Now, she and her "guardians", Tack and Raven, have infiltrated New York City and are posing as the cured while trying to gain information on the DFA, Deliria-Free America, for the resistance. Lena is assigned to trail Julian Fineman, the son of Thomas Fineman, the head of the DFA, and this results in her getting kidnapped along with him by Scavengers, like Invalids but only cause destruction and chaos, at a DFA rally. They must try and work together to escape.

Ok, I have probably stated this before, but I get easily irritated by books that are constantly switching back and forth between narratives. It can be alright if they switch every few chapter, but they don't it is every 0ther chapter and really some of the chapters are simply pointless and prove nothing to the reader. I get the majority of the "Then" chapters because they are showing how she transformed from a completely weak girl from regulated society where the Cure is everything to a insidious Invalid that will kill if she has to. The "Now" chapters are alright, though, many of them seem to just drag on which does not make for a pleasant read.

The characters in this are different from the ones in the last book in more ways than one, even our main character. Lena in the "Then" chapters is constantly moaning about how weak she is and how she can barely lift the water buckets instead of actually doing something to make herself stronger and really is just dispassionate about everything but her old life. In "Now" she is not moaning about her physical weakness, but is still cut off to what is going on around her, though, this lightens as the story progresses. Also, I find it odd that in "Then" she was crying over having to kill a rabbit but in "Now" kills a girl without so much as a sliver of sympathy, a total 180. I did not really like Julian Fineman's character that much. I get he has cancer and grew up with an overbearing and abusive father, but really his life story is a complete pity train, so, you cannot find much to respect about the character. Also, I do not get how he can be all about the cure one minute and cuddling up to Lena the next. So, the characters really did not win the story for me.

I hated the ending because it was the beginning of my most hated plot device, the love triangle. Seriously, I am tired of seeing young adult novels using this because it is in almost every other book that has a female protagonist. Yes, it has worked in some books, but not all especially because half the time we already no which on is going to be chosen from the beginning, so, it really adds no surprise just useless melodrama that does not add much to the story. Seriously, I was fine with the ending until the last few sentences.

Really, I would not recommend this book to anyone. I would recommend just reading the first book in the series and stop. But, I could be wrong some people might like it.

Book Review: Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

I remember reading this book on a whim when I was fifteen and have yet to forget the ending because it just disturbed me for some reason. The book covers a 10 year old girl's abduction and her life at fifteen under the watchful eye of her captor. It is a quick read, but still very unforgettable.

On her tenth birthday "Alice" was abducted by Ray and learned how to live like a doll and wait for her ordeal to be over. At fifteen, her captor begins to speak frequently of her impending death, though, what he does not know is that is what she wishes for most. Though, things take a turn for the worst when he orders her to find her replacement only to turn into what she fears the most, he plans to keep them both.

At the beginning, I was very sympathetic for the seemingly beaten down "Alice" because I could not imagine having to go through a situation like that and still do not fully understand it because it is a foreign concept to me. But, further into the book I begin to dislike her when she goes to a park and starts jotting down in a notebook which girls Ray would like only to chose one she particularly disliked, over something petty, as her replacement. I understand she just wanted to escape from him and that was the only way she thought she could, but seriously picking an, I think, eight year old that she had a minuscule argument with just seemed ridiculous in my mind. Though, she does begin to feel guilt over her decision and ends up saving the girl and in a way herself.

I actually really enjoyed the narrative at the beginning, how it seemed so

Book Review: Sapphique by Catherine Fisher

Sapphique is the sequel to Incarceron and helps further the readers knowledge of the environment and the people where the story takes place. Everything comes to a head in this novel such as defeating the prison in a way and overthrowing the throne and a practice they call Protocol which bans all things technologically advanced, though the rich often broke it frequently already. Though, I found the ending lacking because it left the reader wanting more and I believe the ending book of a series should at least remotely satisfy the reader and not make them thirst for more. But, I actually find this has happened to me with a few series where it is in a society so different than my own because I want to know how it both bettered and worsened itself after the last book.

In Incarceron, Finn and his companions were on a quest to escape the prison that seemed to be on a personal vendetta to stop and/or destroy them before they could reach the Outside. Along with following the main heroine Claudia, who is from the Outside, and her objective to get out of her engagement with the Prince Casper of Realm which she hoped to do by getting Finn out of Incarceron and present him as the late Prince Giles of the Havaarna dynasty. Finn makes it out of the prison at the end of Incarceron only to enter into a new danger that he is not prepared for. In Sapphique, Finn is trying to blend into the role of Giles under the watchful eye of Queen Sia and the secret society of the Steel Wolf while his friends, Keiro and Attia, still trapped in Incarceron try to steal the Glove of Sapphique so they can

The Life Book

Get your life book now! Students that attend TGIM are going around with a little book that helps spread Gods word. It has four different parts to the book. Part 1 is God's story before Jesus shows upon the scene. Part 2 is straight from the bible and it is the story of Jesus while he was on Earth. What About You and this part is what God's story means for your life. What does Jesus have to do with you? What is your role in the world God created? What does God want from you? HELP! this is the last part and it gives some help and answers for things you or our friends might be struggling with. The Bible is full of good answers and guidance for tough stuff in life.

If someone asks if you want it just say yes it is a great book and it only has 107 pages that you need to read. If you wanted

Book Review: Delirium by Lauren Oliver

The book Delirium focuses on a seventeen going on eighteen year old named Magdalena "Lena" Haloway and an alternate United States where choice is taken out of the average mans hands. Love is now considered a disease called Deliria Nurvosa which is often called simply deliria and there is a cure to it that by law one must receive on their eighteenth birthday. Lena is counting down the days til' she is cured because she has seen what happens to the Uncured due to her mother being immune to it which eventually lead to her apparent suicide. Though, it does not stay like that for long after Lena meets Alex who makes her begin to doubt the way she once viewed things in her world and fear the world would turn to gray once she is cured.

Love being considered a disease that can be cured with a simple procedure is an interesting thought. Though, it seems like once you rid a person of the ability to love other things follow such as empathy, joy, remorse and so many other emotions. All the Cured characters in the book seem to be unfeeling, monotonous shells of their former self. Though, they seem content with the repetitive government chosen path set out before them because they have been taught to expect it since a really young age and they do not have the emotions to even notice and question it. Really, the only strong emotions I've seen from the Cured are hatred and disgust.

In this alternate reality the government controls everything, and I mean everything. Before receiving the cure one must be evaluated to be paired with their spouse, be notified how many children they are required to have, what occupation they will have and

Hunger Games: Mockingjay book review

Mockingjay is the third and final installment of the Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The events of Mockingjay take place a few months after where Catching Fire ended beginning with Katniss visiting the ruins of her home, District 12. District 13 has risen from the ashes and is ready to destroy the Capitol once uniting the districts to strengthen the already growing rebellion, though, they need Katniss, a national symbol, to be willing to be their pawn in order to help further their plans. The Capitol tries to keep the rest of Panem in check "peacefully" at first by having Peeta, who was taken hostage by the Capitol at the end of the last book, to warn them of the travesty that would occur if the country goes to war amongst itself. But alas, the rebellion continues and we lose many characters in some way or another along the way.

The pacing of this book was rather odd, in my opinion, because it was dragging in some places and too rushed in others causing you to miss some details both important and insignificant. Seriously, I did not realize that Finnick Odair was killed until it was stated a few pages after the fact causing me to have to go back and find out how he died the first time I read the book. The early days in District 13 are especially slow in pace because not much is going on in the beginning because it is mostly her explaining her daily life, her worries of what is happening to Peeta and the rest of the captured Tributes/Victors, District 13 officials trying to convince her to be

Hunger Games Trilogy: Catching Fire Review

Catching Fire is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Though, some might not find it as intriguing as its predecessor, The Hunger Games, or successor, Mockingjay, it is still a good read. The suspense level is upped by increasing the "Big Brother is watching"-esque feel given off by the Capitol which is the ruling government of the Hunger Games society.

Every year in Panem, the dystopic nation that exist where the United States once stood, the Capitol holds a televised tournament in which two adolescent "tributes" from each of the surrounding districts fight a gruesome battle to the death. In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Petta Mellark, the tributes from the impoverished District Twelve, thwarted the Gamemakers, forcing them to let both teens survive. In this sequel, Katniss , once again our narrator, returns home to find herself the center of attention. The sinister President Snow makes a surprise visit to her in District 12 and lets it be known that she and Peeta Mellark are being watched and if she steps out of line there will be retribution. This book is divided into three sections: Katniss and Peeta's mandatory Victory Tour through the districts, preparations for the 75th Annual Hunger Games and a truncated version of the Games themselves. It has a slower pace than its predecessor and further explores the nation of Panem than the last book where we barely got a glimpse of it. We learn of its power structure, rumors of a secret district and a spreading rebellion ignited by Katniss and Peeta's subversive victory. We also get to see Katniss begin to deepen as a character. Though the story mostly takes place outside of the arena there is enough action to please fans that greatly enjoyed that aspect of the Hunger Games.