Desert Places by Blake Crouch (CBR-IV #37)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #37/52
Published: 2003
Pages: 289
Genre: Horror/Thriller

I'm a huge fan of Blake Crouch, but I didn't think this was his best novel. I think it's one of his earlier ones, so maybe that has something to do with it. Andrew Thomas is a writer who finds a strange note in his mailbox one morning. It says that there is a body buried on his property with his blood on it and if he doesn't do what the note says, the police will be notified about the body. 

The story had a great setup, I'll definitely give it that. However, the rest of the book fell a little flat. I struggled through finishing it, which is pretty bad for a thriller. In my opinion, thrillers should always leave you wanting more and I figured this would be a quick read. 

I finished this book about a week and a half ago and honestly can't even remember enough details to write any more about it. That probably says something. It didn't stick with me and was ultimately pretty forgettable. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't BAD, but I wouldn't start with this book if you're just getting into Crouch. 

The Kill Order by James Dashner (CBR-IV #36)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #36/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 336
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian

Previous review of this series:
The Maze Runner
The Scorch Trials
The Death Cure

The Kill Order is a prequel to the popular YA "The Maze Runner" series. If you've read my other reviews, you know how much of a love/hate relationship I have with these books. This one was no exception, although I had slightly different reasons for hating this one.

My absolute favorite part of this book? No stupid Glader slang! I was hoping without that fake cursing distraction that I could get more into this book. Unfortunately, a complete lack of character development kept me from doing so. These characters were so cookie cutter and boring. Mark is our main character. Other than that, he barely has a personality. He teamed up with an older military couple after the solar flares destroyed most of earth. He has a girlfriend (I think? It's not totally clear what their exact relationship is) named Trina.

After surviving the initial solar flares, the group of four find their way to a nice little village of survivors and live happily. At least until an aircraft lands in town and guys come out and shoot the village people with plague-ridden darts. The four main characters fight back and take over the ship. In the quest to figure out what the heck is going on, the two women get taken by a crazy religious cult.

Basically, this book is fight scene, escape scene, fight scene, escape scene, blah blah blah. It gets really repetitive and boring, especially considering it takes half the book to get the blah characters straightened out. I was really hoping for a prequel that explained more how WICKED was formed and followed Thomas before he was put into the maze. There is a preface in the book that tells a tiny bit about Thomas, but other that it's all new characters. 

Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis (CBR-IV #35)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #35/52
Published: 2005
Pages: 404
Genre: Fiction

Apparently this book wasn't very well received by most Bret Easton Ellis fans and I can see why. It's definitely different. I've only slightly familiar with Ellis' work, having read American Psycho back in college and The Informers just recently. Strangely, Lunar Park is probably my favorite of the three.

The book follows a very well-known author named Bret Ellis (sound familiar?) as we marries a famous actress and they move to the suburbs with their family (they have a son together and she has a daughter). The first half of the book is almost an autobiography of Ellis' career. I'm not super familiar with his real life history, so I'm not sure how much is true and how much was fictionalized for the story. The fiction Bret Ellis in the book also wrote American Psycho, Less than Zero, etc. 

The second half of the book is where everything gets kind of weird. I think this is where Ellis lost some of his audience. I went into this without having read most of his other novels, so it wasn't such a divergence to me for him to start writing about hauntings and such. I can see how that would be hard to swallow to a huge BEE fan. Kind of like if Stephen King started writing romance novels or something. 


Anyways, I liked this part of the book. It's definitely weird, but it was super creepy as well. The daughter's Ferby doll coming to life was creepy as heck. Those things always kind of disturbed me. The tension really built up as more and more weird things start happening and more mysteries pop up. Why does Bret's son seem to be involved in a bunch of teen disappearances? Why is there a serial killer replicating Patrick Bateman's murders from American Psycho? What the hell is going on with that creepy Furby?? 

I thought the book was great. It's a slow burning mystery, but definitely still a page-turner. I also liked the ending. It fit well without being cliche or some completely nuts twist ending. People generally wouldn't recommend Lunar Park as a first Ellis novel to try out, but I actually think it might work better if you're not a huge Ellis fan already. Maybe check out American Psycho first though so you have some background on Patrick Bateman.

The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis (CBR-IV #34)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #34/52
Published: 1994
Pages: 226
Genre: Short Stories/Fiction

First of all, I'm really glad I read that this was basically a collection of loosely connected short stories rather than a novel. Otherwise, I would have been really lost. 

I'm still trying to figure out if I like Bret Easton Ellis. I read American Psycho years ago and it still remains one of the only horror novels to ever make me sick enough to never want to read it again. And I read a lot of horror, so that's saying something. I finally decided to pick up another B.E.E. novel and somehow ended up with The Informers. 

This book is about rich people in L.A. Every story has a different twist (some are more extreme than others -- such as the vampire one), but they are all basically about drugged-up rich people. It was an interesting glimpse into the dark side of the rich and powerful, but the lack of plot was sometimes annoying. I'll probably try another full-length B.E.E. novel before I give up on him. 

Jenny Pox by J.L. Bryan (CBR-IV #33)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #33/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 312
Genre: Young Adult/Paranormal

Jenny was born with some sort of disease that she infects people with through touch. Basically, she's the plague version of Rogue from X-Men. If she has any skin-to-skin contact with anyone, she can kill them. Jenny killed her mother just by being born and now lives with her alcoholic father. Her condition is becoming harder to live with as a teenager -- she gets made fun of for wearing gloves all the time and she also realizes that she will probably never be able to kiss a guy. 

We meet our YA romance quota when Jenny finds out that a popular jock  at her school named Seth has the ability to heal. His power counteracts hers and they find out that Jenny can actually touch him and not kill him. Unfortunately, Seth is dating Ashleigh. Ashleigh has hated Jenny since grade school when Jenny infected her on the playground one day. It wasn't enough to kill her, but Ashleigh still apparently holds a grudge. Ashleigh has her own special power that causes everyone she touches to idolize her. Basically, Jenny steals Seth from Ashleigh and Ashleigh makes Jenny's life hell until she breaks and goes on a rampage across town.

Eh, this book was just okay. The story was alright, but I feel like it wasn't ever really brought to it's full potential. I was hoping for a Carrie-like book, but it was more YA fluff. Or was it YA? I'm not really sure because it had some fairly graphic sex (by YA standards) and really gory violence, but the storyline was YA all the way. Who was this book actually intended for? Adults who like to read YA? If so, I feel it should have had a little more depth to the story. Some of the characters were basically caricatures. I had a hard time imagining Ashleigh without her becoming a cartoon with horns on her head and a cackling laugh. It was just too much. You can convince me a character is bad without making her do and think every "bad" thing you can think of. 

Also, the ending sucked. I won't ruin it for you if you haven't read the book, but it was really bad (at least in my opinion). It was a little too far out in left field for me. I don't think I'll be checking out the other books in this series.

Hollowmen by Amanda Hocking (CBR-IV #32)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #32/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 194
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian/Zombie



***May contain spoilers to previous books in the series**


In the sequel to Hollowland, we fast forward six months from where the previous novel ended. Remy has spent the last six months being prodded and tested by doctors due to her immunity to the zombie virus. She gets a chance to escape when the building is breached by a zombie hoard and heads out in search of her brother, yet again.


I liked this book as well, although I think it had a few more flaws than the previous one. For one, I don't understand why Remy was experimented on so viciously. I know they were trying to find a cure for the virus, but I have a hard time believing that such a well equipped military quarantine didn't have any anesthesia or anything to use on her during surgeries. They did explain that they were saving their stock of painkillers since it was all they had, but I still don't understand why they couldn't have used some on the poor girl. 


Also, the characters weren't as well written. I liked Lazlo and Blue and Harlow in Hollowland. I can tell you a little about their characters. In Hollowmen, I barely remember any of the supporting characters besides one of the evil doctors who escapes with them (and don't get me started on Remy's feeling sorry and apologizing TO HIM eventually). The few military men and women who she traveled with all sort of blurred together. When Remy started forming a relationship with one of them, I was surprised because I thought he was a middle aged guy for some reason. 


I did like the realism that was present again. Remy doesn't magically meet up with everyone she lost. She doesn't find her long lost love. She starts a new relationship because that's what anyone would do in such a hopeless situation. There is no happy ending. 

Hollowland by Amanda Hocking (CBR-IV #31)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #31/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 291
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian/Zombie



Several years ago, a zombie virus swept across America. Some survivors managed to live in isolated military quarantines for a while. Now, the zombies are getting smarter and broke into the quarantine where 19-year-old Remy King has been living. Before they were taken over, her younger brother was evacuated to another quarantine somewhere up north. Remy manages to escape and goes after her brother.


I actually really liked this book. There was a lot of action and good pacing. Some characters were a little cliche at times (tough as nails main female character for one), but still likable. I liked that there was a tiny bit of romance, but it didn't take center stage over the story. I think that made the story a little more realistic compared to a lot of YA dystopian novels. Of course there would be romantic relationships during in a post-apocalyptic world -- especially when you have a small group of young people in such intense situations. However, the relationships in this book weren't overly sappy and actually felt like they were almost due to a lack of options and being in a high stress environment (which is completely feasible in this type of situation). 


One thing that sort of bugged me was the zombies. They weren't really what most people consider "zombies". They weren't reanimated dead. They were just really sick with the virus. They were also much faster and sometimes smarter than typical zombies. It didn't really effect the story, but it just sort of bugged me. 


Overall, I enjoyed reading Hollowland. It had just what I look for in my dystopian fiction: lots of action, interesting characters, and low on the romance.