Cannonball Read V: Book #13/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 550
Genre: Scifi/Dystopian
5 stars: A favorite! Would read again.
Why did I wait so long to read this book?? It was fantastic. It was originally released as a short story (Part 1) and then the next five parts were released as novellas. The entire thing was eventually released as one volume called Wool Onmibus.
Part one is a stand alone story, but sort of acts as a prequel to the rest of the novellas. I was sucked in after that first story. The stories take place in a large underground silo that houses thousands of people because something happend outside making it a hostile environment for humans. They have outside cameras so the people in the silo can see that there is nothing out there but dust and grey clouds. It is absolutely forbidden to express any interest in going outside. If someone does, they are sent out for "cleaning", where they are sent outside to clean the camera lenses and then die in the poisoned atmosphere. But what happened out there? Who build the silo? Why do the banished cleaners actually clean the lenses?
Parts 2-6 of the book mainly follow a girl named Juliette. She works way down deep in the silo in the mechanical section. She had helped law enforcement with a murder case a few years ago, so when a new sheriff is needed, she ends up on the list. She ends up taking the job and gets curious about what happened to the previous sheriff (his story is in Part 1).
I loved the suspense of this book. Questions were answered, but there was so much tension that I just wanted to keep reading more and more. Don't mistake this for another tired dystopian series. I can't wait to read the next part of the series (another collection of novellas called the Shift Onmibus).
Cannonball Read V: Book #12/52
Published: 2007
Pages: 400
Genre: Memoir
4 stars: Very good. Would recommend.
I've read a few other books by people who escaped polygamy, but this one was unique in the face that Irene Spencer is my grandmother's age. She literally spent almost her entire life on polygamy compounds in Mexico and other parts of Central America. Her mother left polygamy when Irene was a child, but even that didn't keep Irene from re-entering the world of plural marriage. As a teenager, she left her monogamist fiance in the United States to marry her brother-in-law, Verlon, and be his second wife. He moved her and his first wife down to a compound in Mexico. From there, Irene's life was a living hell of extreme poverty and the awful jealousy over Verlon's eventual nine other wives. The wives ended up with a total of 58 children, with Irene having 13 of our own.
The most heartbreaking part of the story was that Irene stayed with Verlon only due to the fact that she thought she was doomed to hell if she didn't stay. She was obviously not cut out for polygamy (but what woman is?) and was spiteful to Verlon and rude to the other wives. But through all of her fits and jealousy, she stayed with him for DECADES out of fear.
This was one of the best books on polygamy I've read. It's well written and tells Irene's heartbreaking story from her teens through grandparenthood (she has over 100 grandchildren now).
Cannonball Read V: Book #11/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 409
Genre: Young Adult
2 stars: Meh. Struggled to get through it/wasn't for me.
This books follows two main characters: Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick. They are both teens from a small island somewhere near Great Britain that is home to the water horses. The water horses rise from the ocean and are blood-thirsty and dangerous. Every year, the island holds the Scorpio Races where the water horses are caught and raced for a cash prize. Puck signs up to try and save her house from being taken away and Sean has won the race for four years due to his close relationship with his slightly-more-tame water horse.
This book was so disappointing for me. I really thought I would like it, but was pretty let down. The book was pretty long, but the water horses were never really explained that well. Why do they only come to the island? Why do they kill? Who came up with the Scorpio Races and why? There were just way too many questions that weren't explained.
Puck and Sean were good characters though. The chapters were pretty short and sometimes it was confusing switching between the two characters so often. I also guessed the ending from a mile away, even though I was hoping they would go in another direction because it seemed pretty far fetched to me.
Cannonball Read V: Book #10/52
Published: 2006
Pages: 231
Genre: Young Adult/Coming-of-Age
3.5 stars: 3 stars for the first half, 4 stars for the second half.
Miles (or Pudge, as he becomes known) is headed to Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama this year. Up until that point, his life had been pretty boring, but at boarding school he meets a girl named Alaska through his roommate, Chip. They act like stupid teenagers for a while (drinking, smoking, sneaking off school property, pulling pranks on other students) until "the event" happens in the middle of the book. I didn't read any spoilers, so I had no idea what was going to happen although the book does allude to it with a sort of countdown with each chapter. I won't spoil it here, but it completely changes the second half of the book (which was my favorite and definitely the stronger part of the book).
I didn't get the hype over this book (it has won a bunch of literary awards) while I was reading the first half. It didn't seem to have much of a plot and was kind of just the aimless wandering of a few teenagers. I'm glad I stuck with it though...the second half definitely packs a punch and earned those awards.
Cannonball Read V: Book #9/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 484
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal
4 stars: Very good. Would recommend.
When I started reading this, for some reason I had it confused with The Mortal Instruments series (I guess because I've seen ads for the movie that's coming out this summer based off of that book). So, I was sort of confused when they started introducing vampires. I generally enjoy dystopian YA books rather than supernatural creature books, but this book kept me interested from the start.
Allison lives in the Fringe - the outskirts of a vampire town. She is also Unregistered, which means she has to beg and steal for food. Her parents are dead and she has a small group of friends who take care of each other. When Allison finds a stash of food buried beneath an old house, she brings her friends out to gather it up, but they get caught on their way back by some rabid vampires (the more "wild" ones - there are different strains of vampirism). All of her friends are killed and, technically, so is Allison. She is dying when a vampire offers to either let her die or turn her into one of them. Allison decides to be turned (these aren't really spoilers as they happen very early in the book and are revealed on Goodreads main synopsis as well).
After Allison is turned, the vampire that turned her teaches her about how to survive by killing as few humans as possible. Before she fully discovers who the strange vampire who saved her is, they are separated and Allison tries to hide among a group on humans who are traveling to a supposed vampire-free island.
This book is a strong contender to help get YA vampire novels away from the joke that they have become after Twilight. The writing was good, the pacing was strong, and I loved the main character. I really liked that Allison was described as Asian too. I'm white, but it gets kind of boring to see every female YA main character as a white girl. Do no other ethnicities survive the apocalypse? But I am kind of annoyed that a generic white girl is on the front of the book. Shouldn't she look like the main character?
The book also had lots of surprises without making them become cliche "twists". It kept the story going as Allison floated from location to location - with her friends, with the strange vampire, on her own, with the group of humans. I sometimes get bored with post-apocalypse books that keep the characters in one spot. I like to see more of the destroyed world they live in instead of just one city or area.
The sequel comes out this spring and I'll definitely be checking it out.
