[Book Review] Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Sparks are igniting.
Flames are spreading.
And the Capitol wants revenge.

Against all odds, Katniss has won the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. After all, she has returned to her family and her longtime friend, Gale. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are whispers of a rebellion against the Capitol - a rebellion that Katniss and Peeta may have helped create.

Much to her shock, Katniss has fueled an unrest she's afraid she cannot stop. And what scares her even more is that she's not entirely convinced she should try. As time draws near for Katniss and Peeta to visit the districts on the Capitol's cruel Victory Tour, the stakes are higher than ever. If they can't prove, without a shadow of a doubt, that they are lost in their love for each other, the consequences will be horrifying.

In Catching Fire, the second novel in the Hunger Games trilogy, Suzanne Collins continues the story of Katniss Everdeen, testing her more than ever before...and surprising readers at every turn.

[Book Review] The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Could you survive on your own, in the wild, with everyone out to make sure you don't live to see the morning?

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before - and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Collins delivers equal parts suspense and philosophy, adventure and romance, in this searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present.

[Book Review] Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab

THE WORLD IS BREAKING. AND SO ARE THEY.

KATE HARKER isn't afraid of monsters. She hunts them. And she's good at it.

AUGUST FLYNN once yearned to be human. He has a part to play. And he will play it, no matter the cost.

THE WAR HAS BEGUN.

THE MONSTERS ARE WINNING.

Kate will have to return to Verity. August will have to let her back in. And a new monster is waiting—one that feeds on chaos and brings out its victims' inner demons.

Which will be harder to conquer: the monsters they face, or the monsters within?

[Book Review] Vox by Christina Dalcher

Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial—this can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning.

Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

But this is not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

[Book Review] Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Thou shalt kill.

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own.

[Book Review] Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, called “a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love.”

With Omega Point destroyed, Juliette doesn’t know if the rebels, her friends, or even Adam are alive. But that won’t keep her from trying to take down The Reestablishment once and for all. Now she must rely on Warner, the handsome commander of Sector 45. The one person she never thought she could trust. The same person who saved her life. He promises to help Juliette master her powers and save their dying world . . . but that’s not all he wants with her.

[Book & Novella Review] Unravel Me & Fracture Me by Tahereh Mafi

It should have taken Juliette a single touch to kill Warner. But his mysterious immunity to her deadly power has left her shaken, wondering why her ultimate defense mechanism failed against the person she most needs protection from.

She and Adam were able to escape Warner’s clutches and join up with a group of rebels, many of whom have powers of their own. Juliette will finally be able to actively fight against The Reestablishment and try to fix her broken world. And perhaps these new allies can help her shed light on the secret behind Adam’s—and Warner’s—immunity to her killer skin.

[Book Review] The Power by Naomi Alderman

In The Power the world is a recognisable place: there's a rich Nigerian kid who lounges around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power - they can cause agonising pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world changes utterly.

This extraordinary novel by Naomi Alderman, a Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and Granta Best of British writer, is not only a gripping story of how the world would change if power was in the hands of women but also exposes, with breath-taking daring, our contemporary world.

[Book Review] Wither by Lauren DeStefano

By age sixteen, Rhine Ellery has four years left to live. She can thank modern science for this genetic time bomb. A botched effort to create a perfect race has left all males with a lifespan of 25 years, and females with a lifespan of 20 years. Geneticists are seeking a miracle antidote to restore the human race, desperate orphans crowd the population, crime and poverty have skyrocketed, and young girls are being kidnapped and sold as polygamous brides to bear more children.

When Rhine is kidnapped and sold as a bride, she vows to do all she can to escape. Her husband, Linden, is hopelessly in love with her, and Rhine can't bring herself to hate him as much as she'd like to. He opens her to a magical world of wealth and illusion she never thought existed, and it almost makes it possible to ignore the clock ticking away her short life. But Rhine quickly learns that not everything in her new husband's strange world is what it seems. Her father-in-law, an eccentric doctor bent on finding the antidote, is hoarding corpses in the basement. Her fellow sister wives are to be trusted one day and feared the next, and Rhine is desperate to communicate to her twin brother that she is safe and alive. Will Rhine be able to escape--before her time runs out?

Together with one of Linden's servants, Gabriel, Rhine attempts to escape just before her seventeenth birthday. But in a world that continues to spiral into anarchy, is there any hope for freedom?

[Book Review] Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

It's the year 2044 and the world has drastically gone down hill. Most people escape to a virtual reality world known as OASIS, and our main character Wade Watts is no different. OASIS is basically his childhood, his home. He has most of his memories in OASIS, including ones of his late mother. OASIS was created by James Halliday, who dies and in his death leaves an egg hunt inside the program with a large sum of money waiting for someone to crack the riddles. Wade dreams to win the prize and use the money to get himself and the people he cares about safely away from the wreck that is Earth.

[Book Review] Shatter Me & Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi

A couple weeks ago it was announced that the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi would be getting three more books in the series. Because of that, it sparked my motivation to re-read the series and refresh my memory of the story. I read the whole series in college, so it's been a handful of years ago and I read them back to back alongside doing school work, which may have affected my ability to absorb the story. I am going to try to read the entire series before the March 2018 release of the new series. There are three books and three novellas, so I am going to be pairing one book with one novella when it comes to reviewing. The novellas are so small I don't see a point in giving them their own reviews.

So onto the reviews!

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi 

Shatter Me follows Juliette Ferrars, a seventeen year old girl who has been locked in an asylum because she was convicted of killing a young boy by only touching him. She experiences a lot of self hatred because of her ability to hurt someone with just her touch. She has been thrown in a cell in the asylum by her parents after the accident. She is given a chance to escape the asylum, but that would mean that she had to use her abilities as a weapon for the Reestablishment. Is her personal gain of getting out of the asylum worth hurting people?

4 STARS 

I really enjoyed a lot of the aspects of this book. First, starting with the author's writing. I absolutely loved her writing because of how unique it is. From the strikeout moments of Juliette's thought process to the lyrical but simplistic moments.This book is so quotable.

The characters are all well written and they all have specific personalities that are easy to distinguish which I appreciate because I remember when reading this series for the first time that there were a lot of characters. I really like Juliette as a character, which is a shock to me considering I remember now being the biggest Juliette fan when I first read the series. However, I found myself understanding and feeling for her a bit more as a character, especially with what she's gone through. Unfortunately, I found myself not loving the men in this book. Without going into any detail, I found Adam to be really creepy, Warner seemed a bit psychotic, and Kenji, although at times made me laugh, could have dialed back on the "bro your girlfriend is so hot" comments.

I think I remember who Juliette ends up with, or at least who most readers "ship" her with, but so far the thought of that relationship makes me a bit uncomfortable. Even if this certain character is a better person in the story, it doesn't excuse his previous actions. So I am expecting some serious character development to make me even remotely feel comfortable.

I think he author is talented at writing action scenes. One thing about action scenes for me is that most of the time my eyes just skim if the writing doesn't paint a clear picture. Otherwise all I see in my head is a tangle of limbs and nothing seems to make sense. But Mafi did a really great job, and it had me frantically reading.

Besides the con about men being less than ideal (at least so far, hopefully that changes)  I had one other con. This con can be a bit spoiler-y, so I want to WARN FOR SPOILERS for just this paragraph. So skip until the next paragraph if you have not read the book and do not want to be spoiled. Last warning. My last con is that I couldn't get behind Juliette making out with anyone, never mind two men she really just got to know. She hasn't felt another human's touch in years, and she certainly hasn't been given any compassion or love seemingly her whole life. So it felt weird for me, that someone who has been gone though that would immediately go into making out with Adam. At least her making out with Warner had a specific reason. But she starts kissing Adam pretty early on, and she slipped into the "girlfriend" role a bit too quickly, and both her and Adam said "I love you" the moment they started acting on their feelings. It was too unrealistic for me.

Okay- back to non-spoilers. So overall, I did enjoy this story and I am really excited to continue on with my re-read. So far I recommend the series, but we will see if and how that changes as I keep reading.

Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi 

Warning: if you haven't read Shatter Me, then reading this review below will spoil events that have happened in Shatter Me. However, I do want to mention that I think reading this novella before moving on to Unravel Me, the second book in the series, is an important move. Anything after this paragraph will be spoilers for Shatter Me, so read cautiously.

Destroy Me takes place in Warner's point of view, he''s been shot by Juliette and he's dealing with his emotions on those events. From angry that his vulnerability has been taken advantage of, to feeling infatuated and shocked to the fact that not only can he also touch Juliette, but they kissed. Granted, right before she shot him.

3 STARS 

This novella definitely helps you see Warner as a more complex character than you assume he is while reading in Juliette's point of view. Which I think is important for understanding the story as a whole, so I definitely think reading this novella is detrimental to understanding the story going forward.

Without spoiling the events that happen I can't go into much detail on this review, considering the book is only about 100 pages long. I think that because of the length of the book I couldn't give it a higher rating, because it's just a snippet of a bigger story. The writing, like the first book, is well done and engaging. I enjoyed learning more about Warner, even if he still really creeps me out a bit. I still don't know if the author is going to slip his character from creepy rich guy stalker jerk to possible love interest for Juliette, but we will see.

Overall, I am really happy I read this novella because I think it's important for Warner's character development. I recommend this book before reading Unravel Me.

Thanks for reading!