Not Gonna Get Us - t.A.T.u.

Sneak
Swipe, Book 2

Author: Evan Angler
Pages: 288
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Publication Date: September 4, 2012
Source: Thomas Nelson via NetGalley

Description from Goodreads:
In a future United States under the power of a charismatic leader, everyone gets the Mark at age thirteen. The Mark lets citizen shop, go to school, and even get medical care-but without it, you are on your own. Few refuse to get the Mark. Those who do . . . disappear. 

 Logan Langly went in to get his Mark, but he backed out at the last minute. Now he’s on the run from government agents who will stop at nothing to capture him. But Logan is on a mission to find and save his sister, Lily, who disappeared five years ago on her thirteenth birthday, the day she was supposed to receive her Mark. 

Logan and his friends, a group of dissenters called the Dust, discover a vast network of the Unmarked, who help them travel safely to the capital city where Lily is imprisoned. Along the way, the Dust receives some startling information from the Markless community, opening their eyes to the message of Christianity and warning that humanity is now entering the End of Days. 

When the Dust finally arrives in the capital, it seems that all their careful planning is useless against a government that will do anything to bend its citizens to its will. Can the gentle words Logan has found in a tattered, banned Bible really stand against the most powerful military the world has ever known? Can Logan even sacrifice his own freedom, choosing to act through faith alone?

Prior Book: Swipe

First Sentence: "There was a clock in the corner that counted the seconds, an old-fashioned analog-type with long hands and a slender needle that tapped a maddening beat."

Review:
There are two basic methods by which dystopias nee utopias are formed: through force or through people agreeing to give up their rights in exchange for an easier life. Angler's Swipe series falls into this latter category, along with Anthem. There's something so entirely horrifying about people giving up rights in exchange for peace. Don't get me wrong: I like peace, but I like being able to be myself more.

Despite my worries, I read Swipe last year, and was pleasantly surprised. With actual dystopias somewhat thin on the ground as a broader definition takes over, in an effort to make the most of the genre's popularity, Swipe comes as a nice refreshing dose of old school dystopian. Also setting Swipe apart is the youth of the heroes. Though still a YA and not an MG, the main characters are but 13.

They are, however, a rather mature 13 for the most part. Most incongruously for their age is Erin's hacking skills. This is something that happens all of the time in fiction: young people who can outhack anyone. I just have a little trouble accepting that child of privelege Erin has picked up these skills. Where did she learn them? However, their youth does shine through when it comes to their romances. This one has less romance than Swipe because the kids are busy with other things, but they react so childishly to romantic things, which is about the only time they read as their age.

My favorite aspect of this series is how powerful the two main female characters, Erin and Hailey, are, particularly in comparison to the main male characters. Though Logan has become the figurehead of the Markless movement, he really is not good for much. Mostly he causes trouble and makes unwise decisions. The girls, though, have the talent and the cleverness to really accomplish the group's goals. You all know how much I love books where the female characters are not portrayed as weaker than the men or in need of saving.

My favorite character by far is Erin. I love her for her acerbic, antisocial nature and her brutal honesty most of the time. When Logan and Dane are missing at the beginning of school and everyone wants to know where they are, she's the kind of girl who will tell it like it is and say they aren't coming back, who wants to yell at everyone to stop pretending like they care Logan and Dane are gone when they didn't care about them when they were in school. Plus, I love that Erin isn't all good. She totally buys into the Mark and Cylis and everything. She's more complex for her imperfections and her darkness.

There are two really wonderful new elements in Sneak that were not in Swipe. First, there's the River. Following the same concept as the Underground Railroad, the Markless have formed the River. This is not an actual river, but a road along which assistance can be found for the Markless if you know how to read the signs. For example, a boat means that there's a person there to help guide you, a captain. There's another sign indicating that a person therein will give you food or a place to sleep. I loved the way he brought history back and thought it was totally authentic. There was, however, some seriously obvious plotting here, because there's a symbol that's a hook, which means, basically, "It's a TRAP!" As soon as I saw that, I knew the kids would miss seeing it and get hooked. They, of course, did. Chekhov rule.

Second, there's a literary reference which is unbelievably cool and mad props to Angler for this. He brings in Dante's Inferno. In Sneak, their whole goal is to get to this prison, Acheron, where Logan's sister is supposedly being incarcerated. Well, Acheron is modeled after Dante's vision of Hell, which  was just awesome. Acheron won't be less creepy if you haven't read Dante, but, if you're familiar with the Inferno, it adds another level (or 9) of awesomeness.

Lastly, I have to talk about religion. As you may or may not know, Thomas Nelson is a Christian publisher. That was what initially gave me pause, but I found little to no religious reference in Swipe. In Sneak, I can now see why a Christian publisher would have chosen this work, but the religion remains very light. I was never annoyed by it, and I'm touchy about such things. In fact, at one point someone sneezes, and the response was 'Gesundheit' and not 'Bless you,' which seems like a little thing but indicates to me that he has no intention of shoving his views down anyone's throat.

If you enjoyed Swipe, Sneak will not let you down in the slightest. If anything, I would say Sneak is actually a bit stronger than its predecessor.

Favorite Quote: 

"'Just . . . make sure to take care of her, will ya?'
   Logan laughed. 'She doesn't need taking care of, and you know it. She needs less taking care of than anyone else we know.'
   Dane smiled. 'You're probably right. In that case, I guess . . . makes sure she takes care of you.'"

"They're not gonna get us"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Lullaby from Pan's Labyrinth

Skylark
Skylark, Book 1

Author: Meagan Spooner
Pages: 344
Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
Source: Meagan Spooner signing at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
Sixteen year-old Lark Ainsley has never seen the sky.

Her world ends at the edge of the vast domed barrier of energy enclosing all that’s left of humanity. For two hundred years the city has sustained this barrier by harvesting its children's innate magical energy when they reach adolescence. When it’s Lark’s turn to be harvested, she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish web of experiments and learns she is something out of legend itself: a Renewable, able to regenerate her own power after it’s been stripped.

Forced to flee the only home she knows to avoid life as a human battery, Lark must fight her way through the terrible wilderness beyond the edge of the world. With the city’s clockwork creations close on her heels and a strange wild boy stalking her in the countryside, she must move quickly if she is to have any hope of survival. She’s heard the stories that somewhere to the west are others like her, hidden in secret – but can she stay alive long enough to find them?

First Sentence: "The din of the clockwork dawn was loudest in the old sewers, a great whirring and clanking of gears as the artificial sun warmed up."

Review:
Meagan Spooner's debut novel Skylark creates a fantastical steampunk world where magic has a physical presence, and people are varying degrees of monster. While many dystopias focus on action and drama, Skylark moves along at a slower pace, a bit more contemplative. Thankfully, the personality-filled writing and gorgeous world building kept my interest level high.

Lark feels constant shame. She is the oldest person to not yet have been harvested. People years her juniors have been chosen before her. The other kids call her 'the dud,' 'the freak,' and she can't help but wonder if it's true. Nor can she find comfort at home. Her closest family member, Basil, a brother, left on a mission outside the wall and never returned, presumed dead. We never even see her parents. The only family member who seems to be around is her oldest brother Caesar, whose name is particularly apt, considering that he would do just about anything to advance his career.

Finally, though, Lark's name has been called and she is to be harvested. Excited does not even begin to describe how she feels, anticipating finally being normal and valuable. Despite having very little idea what her harvesting entails, she quickly comes to suspect that something weird may be going on. Why do they keep taking her to be harvested? Isn't that just supposed to happen once? Her answer, of course, lies in the secret room she discovered: she's a Renewable and they're going to plug her into the city until she becomes nothing but a husk.

The City, you see, runs on magic. Cool, right? In this world, magic exists in just about everything, including people. At the Harvest, they're using a machine to drain the magic (or, as they
call it, The Resource, from the children of the population. There used to be Renewables, people who could create more Resource, but there haven't been any born in a long time and the City's magic is depleting. They need Lark's Resource, but she refuses to be a pawn and escapes into the eerie woods.

What's especially neat about Skylark is how many different societies you can explore in this world. At the beginning, we're in the City with Lark, which is full of clockwork and magic. It's got a sort of industrial feel to it. Then, outside the wall, we get to see a bunch of different environments. Basically, the magic out there is all unbalanced, so some areas have to much and others none, which means that pretty much anything can happen. I just loved this world building, especially the changes that the magic bubbles wrought.

If you love reading about creepy monsters, Spooner cooked up some of those for you in her writer's cauldron too. The Dark Ones. I'm not entirely certain what happened to them, whether there was some sort of event or chemical, or if it was just a change out of necessity. Either way, they're cannibals, humans turned dark and twisted and hungry for other humans. This adds some fun spice to an otherwise fairly pleasant journey. I definitely would like to know how they came about, though!

Lark makes a great heroine. Her voice is clear and direct. Her narration kept me totally involved in the story. Despite being a complete newbie to pretty much everying, Lark tries really hard. She's not a complainer, and learns and grows from every experience. Otherwise, though, I would say characterization was probably the weakest point in the book. None of the other humans really manifested strongly to me. There are two possible love interests so far, but, thankfully, Spooner has so far resisted the urge to make this into a melodramatic love triangle.

My very favorite character, though, the one that totally stole the show in my opinion is not human. I freaking loved Nix. He's so adorable and cool and I don't even know. Basically, I want him to come hang out with me. Also, the way the scene where he learned things was just fantastic. He also raises some thought-provoking questions about sentience.

For stellar world building and some serious clockwork awesomeness, go get yourself a copy of Skylark. I really enjoyed it and will be keeping my eye out for the next book!

Favorite Quote: "'I don't want to be kept safe! I don't want to have someone constantly trying to keep me from tripping on my own incompetence. I want to live in a world where I know the rules, where people are just people. Not one where they keep trying to eat me. That's the reason I left the city in the first place. I don't want to be kept, not by anyone.'"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Waiting on Wednesday: Dystopian Sequels I'm Desperate For

We all know that dystopias are often series nowadays. Thus, I am waiting on a ton of them. Which ones are you guys really excited about? Believe it or not, this isn't every single sequel. :-p

I've only included the ones that have titles and release dates set. Some don't have covers yet.

September 2012:

Outpost (Razorland #2) - Ann Aguirre
Flesh & Bone (Benny Imura #3) - Jonathan Maberry 
Shadows (Ashes Trilogy #2) - Ilsa J. Bick
Dearly, Beloved (Gone with the Respiration #2) - Lia Habel

October 2012:

Promised (Birthmarked Trilogy #3) - Caragh M. O'Brien 
Rebel Heart (Dust Lands #2) - Moira Young

November 2012:

Middle Ground (Awaken #2) - Katie Kacvinsky

December 2012:
Enders (Starters and Enders #2) - Lissa Price

January 2013:

Through the Ever Night (Under the Never Sky #2) - Veronica Rossi
Shades of Earth (Across the Universe #3) - Beth Revis

February 2013:

Breaking Point (Article 5 #2) - Kristen Simmons
Homeland (Little Brother #2) - Cory Doctorow
The Lives We Lost (Fallen World #2) - Megan Crewe 

Fuse (Pure #2) - Julianna Baggott 
 Scarlet (Lunar Chronicles #2) Marissa Meyer

April 2013:
The Eternity Cure (Blood of Eden #2) - Julie Kagawa 
Dance of the Red Death (Masque of the Red Death #2) - Bethany Griffin

February 2014:
Divided (Dualed #2) -Elsie Chapman

Map of the Problematique - Muse

The Farm

Author: Emily McKay
Pages: 420
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: December 4, 2012
Source: Penguin at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
Life was different in the Before: before the Ticks began devouring humans in a deadly swarm across America; before the surviving young people were rounded up and quarantined “for their own protection.” These days, we know what those quarantines are—holding pens where human blood is turned into more food for the Ticks. Surrounded by electrical fences, most kids try to survive the Farms by turning on each other…

And when trust is a thing of the past, escape is nearly impossible.

Lily and her twin sister Mel have a plan. Though Mel can barely communicate, her autism helps her notice things no one else notices—like the portion of electrical fence that gets turned off every night. Getting across won’t be easy, but as Lily gathers what they need to escape, a familiar face appears out of nowhere, offering to help…

Carter was a schoolmate of Lily’s in the Before. Managing to evade capture until now, he has valuable knowledge of the outside world. But like everyone on the Farm, Carter has his own agenda, and he knows that behind the Ticks is an even more dangerous threat to the human race...

First Sentence: "Some days, you just want to let the bad guys win."

Review:
Like its cover, Emily McKay's The Farm is exceedingly dark and creepy, filled with the kinds of vampires that are never going to make swoon-inducing heroes. The Farm reminded me somewhat of The Passage and of The Immortal Rules, both in tone and vampire-ness.

In The Farm, the world has been overrun by Ticks. No, not the bugs. Humans-turned-monsters that feed on human blood. As is the case in roughly 37% of post-apocalyptic fiction, scientific research intended to help humanity accidentally got loose and turned some of the population into man-eating monsters. Oops! The road to hors d'oeuvres is paved with good intentions, right?

Like in The Passage, the humans have consolidated into walled communities, carefully defended from the monsters roaming the majority of the world. Thankfully, the Ticks are not as clever as the creatures in The Passage. The difference, though, is that the humans are not behind the walls united to fight against the monsters. The people under eighteen were rounded up and stuck into these Farms, ostensibly because young, hormonal people are the most delicious and thus the most endangered. They are fed up, fattened up, and required to go for regular blood draws, this and the crazy, out-of-control vamps outside the city reminded me heavily of The Immortal Rules.

Lily and her twin sister Mel are about to turn eighteen. Unconvinced that what will happen on their birthday will be at all pleasant (nobody knows what becomes of the people who 'graduate' from the Farms), Lily determines that they will escape. She prepares to trade for the final items necessary to complete their withdrawal from the camp. Everything's planned; she can keep Mel safe.

Lily lives her life for Mel, her mother's last words having been an invocation to protect her sister. Mel has autism, which has not been improved by the collapse of the world as it once was. In high school, Mel was relatively high-functioning, but, now, she can no longer speak in anything but nursery rhymes, something she did as a child. Lily's love and care for Mel is powerful and touching, definitely the most powerful aspect of the book for me.

Just when they're about ready to escape, enter the love interest, Carter, the only crush Lily has ever had. He was the typical bad boy and Lily's lab partner. He now seems like he could be their deliverance, if only she could trust him, which she can't do, since he obviously wants something. Though this won't make sense if you haven't read it, I have to state that I'm really not a fan of the abductura angle of the story, especially if this book is a standalone.

McKay uses three perspectives to tell the story: Lily, Carter and Mel. The bulk of the narration is Lily's in first person. She has a powerful voice, and is one of those heroines that manages to be likable but not all that nice. Her sections really worked. Mel's sections, also in first person, were perhaps my favorites and I really wish that they had been longer. Mel has a unique way of perceiving the world that I found utterly beautiful. Unfortunately, she receives only about ten pages. None of her sections are above two pages.

Where things go wonky are Carter's bits. For some reason I cannot even begin to fathom, Carter's sections are told in third person. This threw me out of the story every single time, because everything else was in first person and I expect that to continue. Choose one! As a result, I also didn't have as strong of a sense of Carter's character. Actually, I don't really think it was entirely necessary to have him as a POV. I think The Farm would have worked better as all Lily's narration or a more-balanced narration with just the two sisters.

If you enjoy post-apocalyptic horror novels, The Farm will not disappoint. From what I can tell (aka Goodreads), The Farm is a standalone, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that more books are coming. It could really go either way, I think, but there are subjects that have scarcely been touched on, such as the folks orchestrating the Farms (and what precisely happens there) or where all the adults are. I personally hope there's more.

Favorite Quote: "'It's my own job to keep myself safe. I've been doing that quite well for the past six months. So don't treat me like I can't take care of myself. Next time you're planning on rushing off to save the day, tell me your plan first.'"

"Fear and panic in the air
I want to be free
From desolation and despair
And I feel like everything I sow
Is being swept away
Well I refuse to let you go"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Creeping Death - Apocalyptica

Masque of the Red Death
Masque of the Red Death, Book 1

Author: Bethany Griffin
Pages: 319
Publisher: Greenwillow
Source: Gifted

Description from Goodreads:
Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

First Sentence: "The charcoal sky spits cold rain as we rumble to a stop at a crossroad."

Review:
Bethany Griffin's Masque of the Red Death is based on Poe's story of the same name. Having not read that, I cannot speak to the quality of this novel as a retelling. What I can assert with confidence is the awesomeness of this book as its own entity. The story contained inside this book perfectly matches the mood of creepiness and beauty set by the cover.

A horrible plague swept humanity, killing indiscriminately. There still isn't any cure, although the wealthy, at least, have found a way to protect themselves. Araby's father, a noted scientist, invented the mask which can filter the air and keep out the infection. Now those with money enough to purchase them can live with less fear of the disease.

Araby is one of the lucky ones, and she hates it. Her family has money and she is pretty well protected from the plague. None of this means anything to her without her brother, though, who died from the disease because she got the first mask instead of him. Filled with guilt and loneliness, Araby has made a vow never to do anything that her brother Finn didn't get to do.

Grief-stricken Araby suffers from intense depression, so deep that she nearly committed suicide. Her savior, April, gives her reason to keep going: escapism. With April, she gains access to the most exclusive club, The Debauchery Club. Within its walls, she can procure drugs or alcohol, forget about life for a while. Plus, she can eye the cute guy who works at the door. These opening chapters do lag a bit, suffering from a poor little rich girl vibe, but the story picks up when April's brother appears on the scene.

Like so many books these days, Masque of the Red Death does have a love triangle. Unlike most books, I have absolutely no idea which guy will win fair Araby's heart. In fact, I'm not even certain which guy I ship her with. Both have their moments and their drawbacks. Will seems almost too perfect, beautiful and kind; in a world such as this, I doubt someone could truly stay so pure, and so I imagine there must be some dark secrets there. Elliott, April's brother, definitely has issues, having had some serious family problems. Still, there's something so desperate about how much he clearly needs Araby that holds an appeal. Basically, I am torn, and I will remain undecided until the next book.

While the romance aspect does make up an important part of the plot, the world building definitely takes the lead. In this plague-ridden city, three different groups battle for supremacy. Prince Prospero has control at the moment, reigning from his castle, keeping his power through fear and withholding of resources. Two different groups aim to overthrow him, including the creepy as hell Reverend Malcontent. Add to this a totally new disease and it's possible no one will survive this future.

Masque of the Red Death is gorgeously written and atmospheric. The internet informs me that I have to wait until April 2013 for the next installment. This does not please me.

Favorite Quote:

"'She has to live, Elliott. I owe her a lifetime of apologies.'
   'Sometimes I think that's all we owe our parents.'"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Love Hurts - Incubus

Black City
Black City, Book 1

Author: Elizabeth Richards
Pages: 373
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons BFYR
Publication Date:  November 13, 2012
Source: Penguin at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

First Sentence: "An air raid siren wails in the distance, alerting Black City citizens to lock their doors and turn out the lights."

Review:
In a grim future filled with deadly creatures, a difficult romance blooms. Black City is a dark romance, a tale of star-crossed lovers in a post-apocalyptic world ruled over by a man setting up his own cult of personality. This series will appeal to Romeo and Juliet fans that like their stories dark, violent, vampiric, and want to give the lovers another chance to survive to the end.

What happened to the country is not entirely clear. Now, though, there are Darklings, which are much like vampires, and Bastets, half-cat creatures that can kill Darklings. Was there some sort of war that created these creatures? I don't know. On top of that, there are also Wraths, Darklings driven mad by a disease until they are nothing but hunger.

Humans, horrified by these monsters in their midst have taken over, having defeated the Darklings in a brutal war. They segregated the Darklings into camps behind high walls, killing any who escape. They have forbidden relationships between humans and Darklings, meaning that only a few twin-bloods like Ash exist. The Darklings' venom, conveyed by a bite, does not kill; instead, it serves a powerful narcotic, the Haze, to which many humans are addicted.

Purian Rose, who we don't really get to meet, looms in the background. He is the leader of the United Sentry States, a totalitarian government bent on keeping the Darklings down or, even better, killing them all. Really, though, Purian Rose is a cult leader. He has even created a religion to himself. Warning: if your leader makes a religion based around himself, it's time for the straitjacket.

The opening scene sets the tone for Black City and may make many readers uncomfortable. Ash, the hero of the piece, peddles his wares (aka Haze...and pleasure) to a young girl. She has some drug in her system already, which is against his rules, and he leaves her in the streets. He meets Natalie, the daughter of the Emissary who caught him in the act. He threatens her death and leaves. The rest of the book I would say is not quite as shocking as the opening, but, if it upsets you, you may not wish to continue.

As is very popular these days, Black City is told from the perspectives of Ash and Natalie. While I like Richards' writing, I had difficulty discerning which character I was reading at any given time if they were in the same location. I really just didn't get a sense of them from the writing itself. For one thing, Natalie seemed a lot more silly and girly from Ash's perspective than her narration conveyed. They just really read the same to me. There are chapter headings with their names, but if I forgot whose chapter I was in I had to rely on them seeing or thinking about the other one to clear things up for me. Also, it didn't help that they occasionally didn't alternate chapters.

As such, I wasn't bonded to the characters. I really just did not have a feel for them at all. Is Natalie the way she felt from Ash's perspective or how she is in her narration? I really just don't know. Ash, too, I have trouble getting a feel for, as that opening scene seemed a bit out of character for how he acts for most of the rest of the novel. Perhaps I'm supposed to see this as Natalie's affect on him, but I didn't really get that impression. Their romance really was pretty meh to me. It was so obviously coming, and I didn't find the build up or the fruition especially satisfying.

The most interesting aspect to the romance was actually the love triangle which appears along the way. I won't tell you what happens, but I can say that it opens up some philosophical questions about the nature of love that I found fascinating. I only wish more had been done with this, because these questions seemed much too easily dismissed. There should have been some more navel-gazing as a result, but that really wouldn't have gone with the epic true love angle Richards is going for.

I enjoyed reading Black City, although I was not pleased about the animal that died. Richards' writing held a lot of appeal and the world was interesting, though I would have appreciated more back story. I do plan to continue on with this series. If you like really dark tales and true love stories, Black City will be perfect for you.

Favorite Quote: "No fear, no power."

"Love hurts...
But sometimes it's a good hurt
And it feels like I'm alive.
Love sings,
When it transcends the bad things.
Have a heart and try me,
'cause without love I won't survive."

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Red Dust - Iron & Wine

Blood Red Road
Dustlands, Book 1

Author: Moira Young
Pages: 459
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Source: Won from Presenting Lenore

Description from Goodreads:
Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when a monster sandstorm arrives, along with four cloaked horsemen, Saba's world is shattered. Lugh is captured, and Saba embarks on an epic quest to get him back. 

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the world outside of desolate Silverlake, Saba is lost without Lugh to guide her. So perhaps the most surprising thing of all is what Saba learns about herself: she's a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. And she has the power to take down a corrupt society from the inside. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization. 

Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetically minimal writing style, violent action, and an epic love story. Moira Young is one of the most promising and startling new voices in teen fiction.

First Sentence: "Lugh got born first."

Review:
Y'all know that I jest cain't stand dialect. Them books is the worst. I espect good and proper writin. All them misspellins and such jest get my goat. I ain't never liked one and I ain't never thought I could. I probly should of not even read this but I'm powerful stubborn. Turns out Blood Red Road's ezzackly as it should be.

I hardly expected to like this book, let alone love it. Dialect really does annoy the ever-lovin heck out of me. It's distracting, unpleasant, gives me a headache and slows me down as a reader. Basically, it's torture, plain and simple. Well, apparently, it can be done right. Moira Young has proved that and left me speechless, so it's a good thing I'm typing my review rather than vlogging it. I don't quite know precisely why her dialect works so much better, but I am plum grateful for sure that she didn't put apostrophes in place of every dropped g (ex. runnin, fightin, etc). By the end of the book, I didn't even have to work to process the text; I was completely sucked into the story, something that's never happened to me with dialect before.

Writing in dialect was not the only bold stylistic choice Moira Young made, and it's not even the boldest. She made the really odd decision not to use quotation marks. There are none in this book. However, that's not because there's no dialogue; in fact, there's plenty of it.. She doesn't mark the dialogue in any way, except by he says or I says, but even those aren't on every bit of dialogue. Rarely did I have any issue distinguishing dialogue from narration. The fact that she did this and the result emerged easily comprehensible speaks volumes to her massive talent.

This novel has some of the best characterization I have ever encountered. There is not a single character in this book that's around for more than a page that doesn't feel just as real as you or me. Their personalities are all distinct and vibrant. They leap off the page or, perhaps, pull you into the pages to spend time with them. The story had to be told with dialect, because that's who the characters are. They don't know how to read or write; they only know how to speak and that's how most people talk in this strange post-apocalytpic world.

Speaking to that, I have no clue what happened to the world, none at all. Either we're somewhere out west near a lot of deserts or something's happened to cause less rain, because most everything is arid, parched, harsh. What technology exists comes from the time before. Knowledge has been lost. Few people are familiar with book learning, and I suspect fewer still will in a couple of generations.

In case that wasn't bad enough, there's also an evil, crazy king, whose mission in life is to take over this dusty world. Guys, let me tell you: he is creepy as all hell, like Louis, the Sun King, meets Henry VIII and his festering wounds. GROSS. Plus, he has his troops, the Tontons (which I have to try really hard not to picture as tauntauns - they're people). More mysteriously, there's his right-hand man, DeMalo, handsome and haughty. There's something to him and I want to know more.

At the beginning of Blood Red Road, Saba doesn't know hardly anyone but her family. In her whole life, she's met just three other people. She's not bothered though, because that's just how life is. There's her pa, who claims to be able to read the stars, her twin brother Lugh, the light of her life, and her little sister Emmi, who she hates for having caused their mother's death (childbirth). Saba doesn't start out as an especially likable character. She hero-worships her brother and is a right terror to her sister, so much so that even I thought she was being seriously awful.

Men on horseback show up, kidnap Lugh, kill her Pa, and ride away, leaving her behind with a useless sister and desert land. She has no purpose in life but to rescue her brother. As she goes, she keeps trying to leave her sister behind (with good people to look after her) but Emmi, just as stubborn as her sister, is having none of it. Along the way, as mentioned in the blurb, Saba picks up more people, like Jack and the Free Hawks, a badass group of women.

Though I want to leave most everything for you to experience on your own, I just have to comment on the perfection that is the evolution of relationships in this book. Saba's relationship with her sister changes ever so slowly, the character arc so believable. So too is Saba's slow evolution to being able to trust people that aren't Lugh. Then, there's the romance, which made my toes curl. Saba, not being trusting, has no desire for romance and fights it just like she fights anyone who tries to kill her or hurt Lugh. This allows for a perfect slow burn. She and Jack have amazing chemistry; I just love the way he teases her. *swoons*

If Moira Young can make me love a book written in dialect, the same could happen to you. If you like post-apocalytpic novels at all, do not miss out on this one. You would be cheating yourself of serious awesomeness. Also, my birthday is coming up (September 14), in case anyone wants to send me a copy of the second book as a present. ;)

Favorite Quote:

"Because everythin's set. It's all fixed.
   The lives of everybody who's ever bin born.
   The lives of everybody still waitin to be born.
   It was all set in the stars the moment the world began. The time of yer birthin, the time of yer death. Even what kinda person yer gonna be, good or bad.
   If you know how to read the starss, you can read the story of people's lives. The story of yer own life. What's gone, what's now an what's to come."

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Dystopian Storytime

I've always loved it when people tell me a story. That's why, as a special feature of Dystopian August, I am going to tell you guys a story. Two stories in fact! This i s largely an experimental feature. We'll see how it goes. Let me know if you like it!

BAAA

Author: David Macaulay
Pages: 64
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Source: Bought

Description from Goodreads:
After the last person has gone from the earth, sheep take over the world, make the same mistakes as humans, and eventually disappear as well.

Review:
BAAAA by David Macualay is, without a doubt, my favorite picture book of all time, due, largely, to the fact that it is one of the least appropriate for children picture books. BAAA would fall, I suppose, under the heading of post-apocalyptic perhaps more than dystopian, since clearly something happened to clear out all of the humans, though it's really not clear what since they left good behind as well as undamaged good. That part is a mystery, a creepy, creepy mystery.

This picture book will likely horrify any children that happen to read it, assuming they figure out that soylent green is people. Because of that fact, this book has never been particularly successful. The picture book format targets very young readers, but the subject matter and dark humor, with lots of intelligent references (Casablanca is one), make this a treasure for adults, who will, likely, never discover it. Most libraries, I believe, do not carry it, and, if they do, probably not in the picture book section.

BAAA is an underrated gem of a book, coming at twice the length of the standard picture book. This is one to buy and enjoy for yourself, not to share with the kiddies.

Vlog:

The Little Stormdancer

Author: Jay Kristoff
Pages: 20
Publisher: Self-Published

Source: Won from Claire Legrand

Description from Me:
A picture book companion to Jay's fantabulous steampunk dystopia Stormdancer.

Review:
As you may have already seen, I loved Jay Kristoff's Stormdancer with my whole heart. You should check out my review and interview of Jay while you're here. Or not. You know. Whatever.

This picture book proves that Jay has EVEN MORE TALENT. Like he needed it. Seriously, can't you leave any talents for the regular people? You do know people are boring without flaws, right?

In The Little Stormdancer, an incredibly brief, simple tale set in the same world as Stormdancer, you get to follow Yukiko on a journey through a land filled with smoke and noisy machines in search of the animals. The pictures are incredibly precious. Though I'm not generally a fan of the chibi style of art (gasp, I know), Yukiko and Buroo are so freaking adorable this way that I want to love them and squeeze them and put them in my pocket and keep them with me forever.

Vlog:

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Altered States - Bush

Altered
Altered, Book 1

Author: Jennifer Rush
Pages: 323
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date:  January 2, 2013
Source: Gifted by Bekka of Pretty Deadly Reviews for review & giveaway during Dystopian August

Description from Goodreads:
When you can’t trust yourself, who can you believe?

Everything about Anna’s life is a secret. Her father works for the Branch at the helm of its latest project: monitoring and administering treatments to the four genetically altered boys in the lab below their farmhouse. There’s Nick, Cas, Trev . . . and Sam, who’s stolen Anna’s heart. When the Branch decides it’s time to take the boys, Sam stages an escape, killing the agents sent to retrieve them.

Anna is torn between following Sam or staying behind in the safety of her everyday life. But her father pushes her to flee, making Sam promise to keep her away from the Branch, at all costs. There’s just one problem. Sam and the boys don’t remember anything before living in the lab—not even their true identities.

Now on the run, Anna soon discovers that she and Sam are connected in more ways than either of them expected. And if they’re both going to survive, they must piece together the clues of their past before the Branch catches up to them and steals it all away.

First Sentence: "For most of the last five years, I wasn't allowed in the lab."

Review:
Despite the slightly more boy-friendly cover (maybe? I'm guessing. It seems like it holds more boy appeal than some, but I'm not sure about the shirtless guy), Altered is definitely what we generally quantify as a girl book. The main subject of the book, it's driving force, is romance, with all of the science-fiction-y aspects coming second. If you're in the mood for a really hardcore dystopian novel, this is not the one I would recommend.

We'll start with the things that I liked. The best part was Rush's writing style. Her writing is neither overly ornate nor laughably simple. I thought it worked with the story and the intelligence/education level of the heroine, Anna, from whose perspective we see. The only downside, which I'll extrapolate on later, was the tendency towards hackneyed phrases when it came to romance.

The science stuff was definitely cool. Though much of why this is happening and precisely who is responsible for it remains unanswered, Rush has not left her readers completely in the dark like some dystopian authors like to do. I hope to learn more about the processes and any special skills the boys have in the next book. I've always been a sucker for stories about people with special powers, whether mutated or scientifically-given, so this was right up my alley. So far, the book is not especially dystopian, although I think it does qualify, since the government does know of and fund the Program. Still, it's definitely not the best example of one.

There were, however, quite a few things I did not like. First off, there's the characterization. I hardly feel any connection to any of these characters, even Anna. Since I'm looking a the world through Anna's eyes, I ought to care whether she gets Sam, the boy she's been obsessed with for years...but I don't. Other than the fact that she likes to draw and drools over Sam, I know very little about her. She's sometimes sarcastic, but otherwise she's mostly just naive and kind of boring. The boys are a bit more interesting, with Sam being the one I have the least interest in. Actually, the character I liked best was definitely Nick, who I think was supposed to be the one that I didn't like.

It will likely not come as a surprise to find that I did not ship Sam and Anna, since I wasn't invested in either one individually. The biggest problem I had with them as a ship was that there didn't seem to be any reason for them to be into one another, aside from the whole physical attraction thing. Sam seems so much cleverer than Anna, and they really don't seem to share any interests aside from living. There was never anything to explain why she crushed on him so hard or any conversations between the two about something normal to show a real connection, a possible basis for a relationship not driven by heightened we-could-die-at-any-moment emotions. As far as I can tell, their feelings are manufactured solely by the conditions in which they find themselves.

Perhaps the biggest reason that I couldn't handle them, though, was how obnoxious Anna was whenever she thought about him. She indulged in the kinds of phrases YA heroines love to bandy about that always make me want to punch everything. Here are a couple (though they're from the ARC and could be changed pre-publication):

"If I had known the night before would be our final night together, I would have spent more time with him.
     I would have told him how much he meant to me, that not a second went by when I didn't think about him."

Let's analyze this, shall we? It should be noted that this is early on in the book and Sam has expressed zero interest in her romantically at this point. Her phrasing implies a stronger connection than they had (they played chess together at night, which he always won). What really irritates me is the second half where she says that 'not a second went by' without thoughts of him. Really?! How does she manage to function? Well, she kind of doesn't. She really doze zone out a lot while thinking of him, but, still, think about the implications. When she's taking a dump, she thinks of Sam. All of her dreams? About Sam. NO.

"I fought for air but came up short, like I was drowning, like the panic had filled my mouth, my nose. I gulped. Sam tipped my head back and air trickled into my lungs. This was not happening. Those men were not dead. And Dad was not shot. And I was not so close to Sam that I could feel his breath on my face."

 This quote is worse, as the first can be dismissed as merely a poetic flight of fancy, exaggeration used to show the scale of her love (obsession). This one, though, not so much. Let me add some context: Sam has just shoved her against a rough brick wall, only to stop her from punching him but still. Her first reaction is panic. Okay, good so far. Then disbelief at all the crazy shit that went down (many men were killed so the boys could escape). Realistic response. Her final reaction? Squeeing over how close she is to Sam. *headdesk* This guy just killed a bunch of people, shot your father, and shoved you into a wall and you're STILL distracted by how sexy he is. Oh, HELL TO THE NO.

That all sounds quite harsh, I know, but Altered was a fun, if mindless read. I definitely intend to continue with the story and hope that, since Rush's writing is good, that she will develop further with her characters. Personally, I would love to see a wrench thrown into the story...like Anna starting to like Nick instead? That would be awesome. My opinion: fun book with sexy boys and action scenes but with some major issues.

Favorite Quote: "You're the only person I trust. That's not something you waste."

"Living in a cage
Washing in a birdbath
Sinking in a fish bowl
On a broken farm
I try to never lie
I really do
I wonder if my friends
Will get me through
Conscious of the was as best we can
17 ways to kill a man
States we've been through"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Love Will Tear Us Apart - Calexico

The Testament of Jessie Lamb

Author: Jane Rogers
Pages: 240
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Publication Date: May 15, 2012
Source: Library

Description from Goodreads:
Jessie Lamb is an ordinary girl living in extraordinary times: as her world collapses, her idealism and courage drive her towards the ultimate act of heroism. If the human race is to survive, it's up to her. Set just a month or two in the future, in a world irreparably altered by an act of biological terrorism, The Testament of Jessie Lamb explores a young woman's determination to make her life count for something, as the certainties of her childhood are ripped apart.

First Sentence: "The house is very quiet now he's gone."

Review:
Looking at this pretty, stark cover, with its brags of the Man Booker Prize (even the long list is impressive), I could not help but look forward to reading this. I expected something extraordinary, something literary, something as well-written as Stormdancer. What I got was nothing like that. The Testament of Jesse Lamb has a marvelous concept, but the execution of the novel just left so much to be desired, like knowledge of proper grammar.

Before I get all ranty, which believe me I will, I want to discuss the positive things. As I mentioned, the concept really does hold a lot of appeal to me. In this vision of the future, some terrorist, for reasons unknown, created a virus that affects pregnant women. Every pregnancy equals death. No cure has been devised and humanity has only so long until the youngest remaining women become to old to bear children, assuming a cure ever is created.

Jessie Lamb lives in Britain. When the virus, MDS - Maternal Death Syndrome, hits, she becomes an activist, arguing for children to be given legal independence younger, since obviously adults cannot be counted on to protect their best interests. Basically, YOFI claims that the older generations screwed up the world, so they should really stop pretending to be all wise. Through this group, Jessie searches for meaning in this new world that could end with her generation.

Like Jessie, everyone searches for meaning. Scientists desperately consider cures, ways to develop antidotes or to produce disease-free babies from frozen eggs and sperm. Militant women's rights groups form to protect women against this new harsher climate, where rapes and abuse have become more common. Homosexuality, too, has become much more common and more accepted, which seems one of the only good things to come of all of this. Some people distract themselves from mankind's likely end by focusing on fighting for the rights of all of the other animals, pissed off that humanity's last act will be murdering other creatures in an effort to stay alive ourselves. Of course, the end of the world would not be complete without creepy cults, and those are there too: the Noahs.

Most pertinent to the story, though, are the Sleeping Beauties, the teenage girls that sacrifice their lives to bring a new life into the world. It is, actually, still possible for new babies to be born, though they too have the disease. However, the only way for this to happen is to put the mother into a coma and keep her alive with machines while the virus destroys her brain. After the baby is born, cut from her stomach, she is unplugged. These girls have no chance of surviving; no pregnant women do. Pregnancy has a one hundred percent mortality rate.

All of that is just fantastic. On top of that, the book starts with a bang. Jessie is being held captive for some reason, and is being forced to write out her testament. This technique, while a bit hackneyed, was effective, because I did want to know who had captured her and why he was keeping her in the basement tied up in bicycle chains.

From what I can tell, neither Rogers nor her editor (assuming there was one) have the slightest clue how punctuation works. Throughout the book, it seems as if different punctuation marks were inserted almost at random into sentences. I had so many flashbacks to high school English teachers lecturing the class about how awful comma splices are and how you should never ever use one in a paper or they would automatically deduct ten points. Rogers would have negative points. She uses comma splices like they are about to go out of style; the bad news for her is that they already were out of style, so this is in exceedingly bad taste.

EXAMPLE: "I thought of the drugs trial volunteers, they were nearly all men."

When connecting two separate but related sentences, one should use a semicolon NOT a comma. FACT. This happens innumerable times. Of course, she balances that out by also sometimes using semicolons incorrectly: "Then we walked back to my house holding hands and not talking, feeling as if we owned the night and everything in it; moon, stars, the dark shapes of trees, the crouching quiet houses." This proves that she DOES know what semicolons are, but not that she knows how to use them. To be fair, she does very occasionally use them as they are meant to be used. What I find even more frustrating about this is that if she had just accepted she didn't know how to connect the sentences and had two complete sentences, she would have been just fine.

Another big problem she had grammatically stemmed from her desire, I guess, to make the tone sound like a teenager. A very popular way for writers to do this is sentence fragments. Here's her punctuation-challenged version: "There was a longish silence then she asked about my parents. Which was a relief; rattling off their sorry story was easy and I hope made me sound more sensible and objective." Lovely, right? This both misuses a semi-colon and is entirely unnecessary. Tack the 'which was a relief' onto the end of the prior sentence with a comma and you have perfectly correct writing. No editor should let this pass. There are way more issues, but I will stop here in the grammatical portion of the review.

Since reading closely made me want to weep or claw my eyes out or go visit my high school English teachers and get them to commiserate with me, I ended up basically skimming most of this book. On the plus side, this did make it go faster, which is good since I was also somewhat bored. The characters just did not interest me that much. I tried to care, but Jessie is a bit distant from other people and I couldn't support most of her decisions at all.

I did try to care about the romance. The scene where the characters admit their feelings was kind of adorable and then they realize she has built in birth control (all the girls do for obvious reasons), so they might as well have sex now. It's going great until the hymen-breaking puts a damper on things. They stop momentarily and then this description happens:

"He began to kiss me again. And to move as slowly and gently as a little pink earthworm when you pick it up from the garden in the palm of your hand."

What the fuck did I just read? No matter how many times I read that, I am never any less grossed out. This is one of the least sexy things that could ever be put in the midst of a sex scene. AND WHY? There's no reason for this to happen. NONE.

This review has rambled on and on, so I should probably draw to some sort of close. The Man Booker people loved it; I did not. (Or, in her speak: The Man Booker people loved it, I did not.) With such distracting and flagrant errors, I simply cannot countenance giving this book a rating above 2, though the content would be a 2.5 or 3. Do what you will with that information. I'm off to watch Pretty Little Liars and read Blood Red Road to cleanse my soul.

Favorite Quote:  Context: Jessie and her dad play a game in which they plot perfect games. It was probably my favorite thing.

"'Perfect crime,' he said softly.
   'Yes?'
   'Persuade an innocent, idealistic young girl that the future of the human race depends on her sacrificing her own life. She will come into hospital as trustingly as a lamb to the slaughter. She will welcome the implantation of a baby that will kill her. She'll lie there while her brain is destroyed for nine whole months, and no police will arrest you, no court will judge you, you'll get away scot free. At the end of nine months she'll be taken off life support and she'll be completely dead. And no one will be blamed.'"

"When routine bites hard and ambitions are low
And resentment rides high but emotions won't grow
And we're changing our ways, taking different roads
Then love, love will tear us apart again
Love, love will tear us apart again"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.

Autoclave - The Mountain Goats

Beta
Beta, Book 1

Author: Rachel Cohn
Pages: 329
Publisher: Disney Hyperion
Publication Date: October 16, 2012
Source: Disney Hyperion at BEA

Description from Goodreads:
In a world constructed to absolute perfection, imperfection is difficult to understand—and impossible to hide.

Elysia is a clone, created in a laboratory, born as a sixteen year old girl, an empty vessel with no life experience to draw from. She is a Beta, an experimental model of teenaged clone. She was replicated from another teenage girl, who had to die in order for Elysia to be created.

Elysia's purpose is to serve the inhabitants of Demesne, an island paradise for the wealthiest people on earth. Everything about Demesne is bioengineered for perfection. Even the air there induces a strange, euphoric high that only the island's workers—soulless clones like Elysia—are immune to.

At first, Elysia's new life on this island paradise is idyllic and pampered. But she soon sees that Demesne's human residents, the most privileged people in the world who should want for nothing, yearn. And, she comes to realize that beneath its flawless exterior, there is an undercurrent of discontent amongst Demesne's worker clones. She knows she is soulless and cannot feel and should not care—so why are overpowering sensations clouding Elysia's mind?

If anyone discovers that Elysia isn't the unfeeling clone she must pretend to be, she will suffer a fate too terrible to imagine. When Elysia's one chance at happiness is ripped away from her with breathtaking cruelty, emotions she's always had but never understood are unleashed. As rage, terror, and desire threaten to overwhelm her, Elysia must find the will to survive.

First Sentence: "It's me she wants to purchase."

Review:
Before I got to read this one, I saw a few non-flattering reviews roll in, so I was on my guard, prepared for another in a string of disappointing reads. Thankfully, I enjoyed Beta pretty much all the way through, although I am definitely immensely skeptical about where the series is heading.

Beta takes place on an island paradise, home to only the richest and most fashionable of people. These people are so rich that they have clones, programmed to be emotionless and get work done perfectly, to take care of them, because, honestly, human butlers and nannies are just so last season. The rest of the world is not so nice, and is very different from the one we know today. Details on that are somewhat limited in Beta, but I hope to learn more about the Water Wars and what the cities are like in later installments.

I do need to talk for a bit about the concept of the clones to serve this island. Honestly, I don't get it. They talked about why they needed them: because good labor is too difficult to find, since the island didn't have natives and travel to the island is exceedingly expensive. That's nice and all, but I'm FAIRLY CERTAIN that producing clones is about 80 billion times more expensive than that. Also, the whole process seems suspect to me. For one thing, the person being cloned is supposed to be dead, which makes me wonder where all of the hot, dead people are coming from. Another problem with I have with this is the whole business about how they separate out the soul from the body. Did I miss when we figured out where the soul is? Has a physical soul been located in the future?

Betas are not supposed to be able to feel or taste anything. They should be, essentially, like robots. Elysia, our heroine, is a beta, a test clone for the new teen line. Because she is gorgeous (stacked), she sells quickly and goes to serve as a companion in the home of a wealthy family. It quickly becomes apparent that Elysia is not what a clone should be, which I am thankful for, since her first person story would have been VERY boring were she actually the way clones are meant to be.

Thankfully, I did not find her narration boring at all. Cohn's writing often amused me and I really liked the rhythm of it. Basically, she used the beginning clone section for comedic value. Even early on, it's apparent that something is wrong with Elysia's programming because she is so incredibly curious. As such she asks lots of inappropriate questions. For additional reader amusement, she interprets things very literally, like wondering where a girl 'puts out the sex.' This humor was obvious, but I must admit I was still entertained.

Cohn makes an attempt at twists, and there are several in here. Most of them I saw coming from miles away. Pretty much as soon as a character was introduced, I would predict that x and y would happen to them and then a hundred pages or more later, it would. The twists at the end did get me, though, I will admit. Basically, there are enough surprises that she'll likely catch you off guard once or twice.

For most of the book, I was okay with the romance. Just okay. I don't especially care for either guy (yes, a love triangle, and one that I suspect I will come to loathe). Tahir sounds totally dreamy. Were I Elysia, I would be all over that one, because he sounds delicious. Besides, he's actually there, which helps. Still, I did not really experience any feels at their romance. Mostly, I just wanted her to enjoy herself, because why the hell not. The other boy has a history with her First, aka the girl she was cloned from, and she knows him from a brief memory. He holds no appeal for me. Still, the dynamics of the love triangle were interesting enough thus far.

Did you notice that I have mentioned THE END a couple of times as having been somewhat distinct from the rest of the novel for me? GOODNESS GRACIOUS, THE ENDING. I really wish that I could talk about this in detail with you guys, but I won't because spoilers. Here's what I can say. Things get darker, which I give Cohn props for. Something I thought was coming but kind of didn't think would happen because it usually doesn't in YA DID happen, and it was painful. That part of the end was good in a painful way.

THEN there's some things that I am just all kinds of not cool with, which sucks because I had such a pleasant reading experience up to that point, despite my nitpicking above. What it comes down to is that some trope-ish things happen all in a row and I am REALLY concerned about whether I will like the next book at all. If anyone has read this book, I would love to discuss!

So, for the review skimmers, I will say that I enjoyed reading Beta quite a bit, but I am not altogether sure how I feel about it. A lot will hinge on whether you like Cohn's writing and what happens in book two.

Favorite Quote:

"'Does chocolate compel ataraxia?' I ask the family.
   'Darling,' says Mother, cutting a piece of her soufflé and placinng it on my plate. 'It's the antithesis of meh.'
   'What is meh?' I ask.
   She shrugs. 'Indifference. Chocolate is the opposite. It's the very essence of happiness.'"

"Hand me your hand, let me look in your eyes
As my last chance to feel human begins to vaporize
Maybe it’s the heat in here, maybe it’s the pressure
You ought to head for the exits, the sooner the better

I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam"

Remember: Every comment on a post during Dystopian August is an entry to win one of fourteen dystopian/post-apocalyptic novels IF you've filled out the form from this post.