Cannonball Read IV: Book #42/52
Published: 2009
Pages: 583
Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian
I did not care for this book. There's a fine line between interesting plot twists and "WTF did I just read??". The storyline seems simple at first: In a small Californian town, suddenly everyone over the age of fifteen disappears. Sounds cool, right? Then it starts to seem like a YA version of Stephen King's Under the Dome (which I really liked) when the kids figure out that there is a weird barrier around the town. Okay...still not too bad.
THEN...the kids start developing weird powers. I can also deal with that, although I was expecting more of a straight-forward dystopian novel.
But then the wolves start talking. We have snakes that fly. Some weird entity called "the Darkness" that lives in an old mineshaft. WHAT. THE. EFF? It just got too freaking weird for me. Not to mention the most anti-climactic ending ever. Most of the book was leading up to this big confrontation between the "good" kid and the "bad" kid (who were twins that were separated at birth by the way). Then they BARELY fight and just kind of walk away from each other.
I also didn't care for the characters. I thought they were too cliche (and I wanted to murder the stupid sidekick surfer friend who attached the word "brah" to the end of every sentence). The good guy (Sam) was TOO good and the bad kid (Caine) was too maniacal to even believe (remember, he's FOURTEEN). Everyone was very one-note. The super smart girl, the autistic kid, etc. -- that is basically their entire personality.
I will NOT be reading the rest of this series unless I feel that I deserve some sort of punishment.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #41/52Published: 2012Pages: 608Genre: Young Adult
Ellen Hopkins is one of my favorite YA writers. She doesn't dumb her books down like some YA novels and although she knows how to bring the drama, there is still a sense of realism with these kids and their lives.
Tilt is a companion novel to Hopkins' previous novel, Triangles. Triangles was her first adult novel that was published last year. Tilt reverts back to her normal teenage characters, but this time they're the children of the main characters in Triangles.
This book mainly follows three teens:
Mikayla: A senior who finds out she's pregnant with her jerk boyfriend's baby.
Shane: A gay teen with a tumultuous home life. His 4-year-old sister is dying from a disease she was born with and his parents marriage is on the rocks. Now they are dealing with Shane coming out and his HIV-positive boyfriend.
Harley: A younger teen who becomes infatuated with her older soon-to-be step-brother.
Overall, I liked this book. Some of it seemed a little redundant because it's pretty much the same storyline as Triangles, but from the perspective of the kids. It's different enough to not be boring, but there aren't any huge surprises because most of the bigger things were spoiled if you'd read the companion novel. It definitely could be read as a stand-alone book though.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #40/52Published: 2001Pages: 448Genre: Horror
I can't believe I'm already on book 40 for this year! I'm on much better track than last year when I had to read about 10 books in December to get caught up.
So, The Association is a schlocky little horror novel. I was actually surprised to see that it was published in 2001 because it just screams of cheesy 80's horror. I've read one or two of Bentley Little's books before, so luckily I wasn't expecting a masterpiece.
The plot is pretty simple: a couple moves into a gated community in Utah called Bonita Vista and everything is awesome until the homeowner's association keeps getting increasingly bothersome with their crazy rules. I decided to read this book because I had never really heard of homeowner's associations growing up because I lived out in the country. Now that I live in southern California, I get a kick out seeing some of the stupid rules they come up in the HOA (one place we lived wouldn't let you put up curtains unless the backs of them were white). Fortunately, those rules seem perfectly normal compared to the HOA in this book.
At first, Barry and Maureen are just mildly annoyed by some of the rules (or C, C, & R's, as the HOA in the book calls them). No pets of any kind, no working out of the house (Barry is a writer, so he has to rent an office in town), things like that. They become friends with their neighbors who also aren't too keen on the HOA rules.
Eventually the rules just become insane. Only married couples allowed to live together. No one is allowed to have kids. No residents or visiters that are not Caucasian. People who break the rules or defy the association seem to have a habit of disappearing or dying suddenly.
Like I said, it's a cheesy horror novel. Nothing more, nothing less.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #39/52Published: 2009Pages: 272Genre: Nonfiction
I grew up in a super small town out in the country where currently a meth lab is busted approximately every few weeks. It's sad. I knew people who did meth and I knew people who sold meth. According to this book, when I was in high school was the beginning of the meth epidemic across small town America. It seems to have gotten much worse since I left my hometown eight years ago.
Methland follows the meth problem in the small town of Oelwein, Iowa. Reding paints a bleak picture of this town during the downturn in the economy: drug use is on the rise and employment opportunities continue to diminish. The town is literally on the verge of collapse.
I was hoping to get a background of the drug from this book and I thought the book did a good job of explaining how meth became such a drug of choice for the working class American. I always wondered why it seemed to be much more of a problem in smaller towns rather than large cities. It's actually pretty simple: Anyone can make meth. Literally. Apparently you can make it on your bicycle. You can have a meth lab in a car, a basement, or a hotel bathroom -- even a Walmart (not kidding. I read this in the news a while back. Some lady was cooking meth on a Walmart shelf).
However, the rest of the book falls short. It was actually a little boring in some places as the author gives way too many pages to characters that don't really need it. Such as the local town doctor. I understand that a small town doctor probably has some good insight on the town drug problem, but does he really need 50 pages talking about his family and personal demons? I didn't exactly pick up this book to read about an alcoholic small-town doctor and his issues.
It's a pretty short book, so if you're interested in the history of meth it might be worth a read. Just skim through the more boring parts.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #38/52
Published: 2003
Pages: 617
Genre: Horror/Dystopian
I first read this book back in college. I know now it's getting a little more press due to the Hunger Games comparisons. I actually first picked up Hunger Games the week it was released back in 2008 because I read that it was similar to Battle Royale. They do share a lot of similarities, but enough differences to make them totally different novels.
For instance, both novels take groups of teens and pit them against each other to the death. However, The Hunger Games picks a boy and a girl from each district. Battle Royale randomly picks a ninth grade class who has no idea they were chosen until they're already there. They pretend they're taking them on a school trip then gas them on the bus. I think it's a little more chilling that ALL of these students actually know each other and grew up together vs. HG's involving mostly strangers.
Both novels also provide weapons to the players, but they are distributed a little differently. Instead of HG free-for-all weapons and food in the cornucopia, BR hands out bags to each student as they leave. Each bag contains some sort of random weapon. However, it could be anything from a fork to a machine gun.
My favorite difference with Battle Royale is the collars. The students are fitted with thin, metal collars that are used as tracking devices. They also contain explosives that will detonate if the wearer tries to remove it or if they are found inside of a forbidden zone. Every few hours, a new zone on the island is "forbidden" and anyone in that section will be killed. If 24 hours goes by without a kill, everyone's collars will detonate and no one wins.
The novel mainly follows local "rockstar" Shuya (even though rock music is outlawed in their country). Shuya was raised in an orphange along with is best friend who is also on the island. Shuya joins up with Noriko early on and feels he must protect her since his best friend had a crush on her (remember, they're 15-year-olds). Noriko is also injured after being shot in the leg. Shuya and Noriko meet up with the mysterious loner Shogo and they all band together to try and overthrow the game.
I love this novel. I can't say weather I like more or less than HG because I really can't compare the two. BR is much more brutal and bloody. It does have some great characters and even love interests, but that's definitely an afterthought to the violence (which is probably more realistic in a situation like this).
With 42 characters it can be a little hard to keep track of everyone, especially with all of the unfamiliar Japanese names. I do like "students remaining" tally at the beginning of each chapter though. I also like that there is a "main" group of students we follow and get to know well, but chapters with other students are interspersed throughout the novel as well.
I don't think Battle Royale is for everyone who might have enjoyed The Hunger Games. However, if you wished HG was a little more brutal and a little less YA, go ahead and try it.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #37/52Published: 2003Pages: 289Genre: 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.
Cannonball Read IV: Book #36/52Published: 2012Pages: 336Genre: 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.
