Genre: Dystopia

ARC Reviews: The Epidemic and Dream On

Posted April 25, 2016 / Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I was SO excited to grab this one from ALA back in January, but OF COURSE I waited forever to finally sit down and read it. There’s something wrong with me, okay? But after the cliffhanger at the end of THE REMEDY, I knew I had to get to it as soon as there was a break in my reading schedule. Honestly, I kind of created a break in my schedule; I knew this book was one I could finish in three sittings or less because I get sooo addicted to Young’s writing. This was definitely the case with THE EPIDEMIC! It took a few chapters for me to be reminded of what happened in the previous book. Thankfully, there was a pretty solid amount of recapping THE REMEDY without feeling like too much information. I still loved Quinn and was wondering what would happen with Deacon, after the previous book’s major cliffhanger about him. The biggest question I had throughout the story was HOW. How is all of this happening? Does Virginia have something to do with it all? How is it possible that suicide became an epidemic – something contagious – instead of something just related to groupthink. I was so eager to get to the end see everything tie into THE PROGRAM and THE TREATMENT. It’s weird reading a prequel series because you know how the world ends up afterwards… and it’s not a pretty place to be. I knew that my final rating for this story […]

Book Buddies Review: The Remedy

Posted September 30, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 1 Comment

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link below) View Kaitlin’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead! In the climax of the book, Quinn becomes too entangled in Catalina’s life and can’t remember who she is anymore. Did you feel for her in that moment, or did you feel like she was straight up deranged? Kaitlin: I obviously don’t understand much about this “being a closer” thing because I thought Quinn was overreacting a little. The thing is, it’s not like whenever you go into an assignment you’re brainwashed. It takes time to adjust to being a new person but over time it becomes easier to live the life of someone dead. Plus, she has been a closer for so long, you would think Quin knew how to pretend to be someone without actually thinking they were that person rather than themselves. I also had to consider the fact that she wasn’t “Quinlan McKee” for 2 weeks. That definitely could have messed with her head a bit. I don’t know! […]

Book Buddies Review: The Treatment

Posted July 29, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Kaitlin’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead! Do you agree with Sloane’s parting words at the end? She explains how the NOW is all that really matters; the memories don’t matter as much. Kaitlin: Well, I think this really depends on the person. I personally think that childhood memories are super important to have because they are the ones that are truly carefree and fun and happy. Sloane could have had a childhood that was happy and I would like to remember that stuff but if she didn’t have a good childhood then obviously you wouldn’t mind letting go of those memories. One important factor in her childhood though was Brady. Based on what I’ve read, Brady and Sloane have been pretty close for a lot of their years in her life and that’s something you don’t want to forget, especially because Brady is no longer around. She does have James and her parents to feed memories to […]

Book Buddies Review: The Program

Posted May 27, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 2 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Kaitlin’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead! A lot of dystopia books seem to offer some kind of warning or moral about today’s society. Do you think this society, with The Program and the suicide epidemic, could happen in our world? Kaitlin: This is a question I tend to ask often about the society when reading a dystopian book. Honestly, yes I do think that this could be a possible outcome of our society in the future. Suicide and depression is what I believe to be a national issue that is in our society. People killing themselves due to bullying, mistakes, a mental disorder, etc. There are things like therapy but does that seriously help? Obviously, therapy and other things won’t prevent all suicide, With technology advancing more and more, the pills people took during the Program could be invented. It really intrigues me as well because in this book, it seems that the people that are causing depression […]

Book Buddies Review: These Broken Stars

Posted May 1, 2015 / Book Buddies Reviews, Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Book Buddies is a discussion-style review that takes place with one of my two buddies. (Learn more and see past reviews here) We both read the book and then have a private discussion about it. We post our discussion as a review on the last Wednesday of each month. You’ll be able to see our similar/different opinions on the overall book, characters, writing style, etc. – just like a regular review. The first half our discussion will take place right here, and the second half will be on Kaitlin’s blog! (Link at the bottom) View Cristina’s part of the discussion here. Some spoilers ahead, so proceed with caution. What past experience have you had with sci-fi books like this? If you’ve read some before, did you find this book easy to slip into, or was it a challenge from lack of experience? What did you think of the world-building? It felt a lot different than the world-building in fantasy books I’ve read. Lauren: I don’t think I’ve really read any book that falls into this category. I was kind of leery but extremely interested to see how it worked for me. To be honest, it took a while to get into. I was eager to see what happened with the characters but started off quite confused about their world. I couldn’t grasp the fact that (I think?) Earth didn’t exist to them. They were just floating around the galaxy on a ship and there were loads of other planets to explore. With fantasy books, they’re usually set […]

200 Word Review: The Death Cure

Posted December 17, 2014 / Book Reviews / 2 Comments

This book made me want to pull my hair out most of the time, and yet I somehow finished it. I can’t tell you how tempted I was to just Google how this book ends and be done with it all. The trilogy certainly got progressively worse for me. I LOVED the first book, didn’t like the second book as much, and pretty much loathed this last one. Here’s a summary of this book series (basically book 2 and 3): Walking and/or running around, trying to figure shit out Separating from friends Trying to find friends Separating from friends again Trying to find friends again Making a lot of dumb decisions and being stubborn Some fighting and/or killing I just got so sick of the same shit happening allllll the time. The ending honestly didn’t bother me that much but at the same time I wish there was a little more to it. The whole book felt like a cop-out. Did he plan the series in advance or make it up as he went along? I really don’t know.

200 Word Review: The Scorch Trials

Posted December 3, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

Ugh. This book didn’t grab me nearly as much as the first one. I definitely liked more parts of it than disliked, so it gets 3.5 stars from me. I have a bad feeling about the next book because most people didn’t like it (and my boyfriend HATED it). In the first book, Thomas is a perfect character. No flaws, except for occasional (very rare) stupidity. This book it was like his brain was actually being eaten by the Flare. He was still a smart person and very crafty, but he had no common sense. I don’t want to give much away, but there were MORE times in this book that I wanted to shake some sense into him. I give him props for persevering; I would have given up a LOOOONG time ago if I were them. I don’t trust anyone except for the other Gladers. (I also wish they were featured more in this book.) What’s going on??? I’m eager for the next book because as usual there was a pretty good cliffhanger. I really am hoping there is some resolution in the next one, even though most people don’t have good things to say on that end.

200 Word Review: The Maze Runner

Posted November 21, 2014 / Book Reviews / 3 Comments

I’m not sure what I can say about this book that hasn’t already been said. It’s been around for a while and I definitely feel like I’m the last person to read it! Regardless, I LOVED IT. Strong 4.5 stars from me. I loved the characters, the story, and the fact that I kept repeating “what the fuck is going on?” Just when I thought there was some clarity, everything got crazy again. You know I love books with slow release of information; this was the epitome of that. I love that you were in Thomas’s head without it being a first person narrative. It made me feel like I was one of the gladers but also that I had some insight as to what he was thinking. The one reason for not giving it the full 5 star treatment: I wanted to punch them sometimes because the answer was obvious! I won’t spoil it, but there are two specific things that happened where I was like UM DUH JUST DO _____. This book’s ending just punched me right in the feels and I am so not okay with what happened to one of the characters. Ready for book two!