Before I Die by Jenny Downham (CBR-V #52)

Cannonball Read V: Book #52/52
Published: 2007
Pages: 336

Genre: Young Adult
 Tessa is dying from leukemia and decides to make a list of things she wants to do before she dies. She enlists of one of her friends to help her and eventually brings her neighbor into the fold as she grows closer to him. Some of the things on her list are what you'd expect from a teenager - sex, fall in love, etc. But most of the things on the list were kind of weird, such as shoplifting. Who wants to shoplift before they die? 

I had a hard time with this book. Some parts of it were very good - such as her family dealing with her illness and now her rebellion just before she dies (she stays out all night, jumps into a freezing river, joyrides without a license in her dad's car - just to name a few). The ending was also beautifully written. Even though you know what's going to happen, it doesn't make it any less emotional. 

However, I didn't care for Tessa that much. I completely understand her being angry and all of the different emotions she was going through while she was processing what was going on with her, but something about the character just made her hard to grasp. In fact, all of the characters could have stood to be fleshed out a little more - they were good, but not great. I think it's just more noticeable when it's the main character.

I also was getting a little tired of the romance crap by the end. A good chunk of the book ends up being mushy love sentiments between Tessa and her new "love of her life". Plus, all I'm thinking about is how the heck does she have the energy to have that much sex if she can barely get out of bed towards the end?? I figured he was going to kill her mid-coitus. I mean, that's great that she got to fall in love before her eventual death, but once he came into the picture the rest of the story pretty much took the back-burner.

Overall, this is a pretty solid 2.5 star book. Not terrible, but not that great either.

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (CBR-V #51)

Cannonball Read V: Book #51/52
Published: 2009
Pages: 391

Genre: Young Adult/Dystopian

This is going to be a short review because this series has been reviewed to death already and this is a re-read for me. I wanted to read it again before I saw the movie since I already forgot half of what happened since I last read it several years ago. I'm not going to re-hash the plot, because if you don't already know it you've probably been living under a rock for the past two years. 

I was actually a little surprised at how much I forgot about this book. The middle books in trilogies tend to get forgotten the quickest, I think. Everyone remembers the beginning and end, but forgets the details on how they got from Point A to Point B. Although for a middle book, this one is actually quite strong. I know it got some flack for being a re-hash of the first book with a second Hunger Games, but I think it works for two reasons. One, they don't actually get to the arena and start the games until halfway through the book, and two, they make enough differences in the games to keep it fresh. For instance, the new Head Gamemaster (is that what he's called?) brings a new spin on things and I actually think the other Hunger Games tributes are stronger and more memorable characters in this book than the first.

This book lived up to a second read, although it does lose some of the thrill of reading it for the first time and not knowing what's going to happen. 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (CBR-V #50)

Cannonball Read V: Book #50/52
Published: 2007
Pages: 304

Genre: Young Adult

Hannah is a high school student who committed suicide. Before she did it, she recorded 13 cassette tapes naming all of the people who contributed to her decision to end her life and why. If the people on the tapes don't pass them along to the next person the list, a second set of tapes will be made public. The book follows Hannah's classmate Clay and his experience listening to the tapes. 

I had really mixed feeling about this book. One one hand, I do get the point the author was trying to get across. You never know what is going on with someone else so try and treat people with a little decency and compassion. Unfortunately, decency and compassion aren't well-known traits among high-schoolers. 

On the other hand, I felt like Hannah was trying to justify her decision to commit suicide. Like it was okay because these were her reasons. But there is no justification for suicide. She tried to put all the blame on these other students when the blame should have been put on her obvious depression. 

I'm not trying to downplay how serious of an issue suicide is. It's terrible and awful for the people they leave behind. However, I didn't really feel that Hannah's high school experience was that abnormal. There were some rumors that spread about her and SHE made some bad decisions as well that ended up with consequences that she felt guilty about. Sounds like a pretty typical high school experience to me. 

Basically, I wish the book had focused more on the signs of suicide she was showing (change in appearance, giving away possessions, etc.) and why no one noticed. She even talked to the guidance counselor and showed some pretty disturbing signs of extreme depression. But no one thought to get her any help? The suicide probably couldn't have been prevented even if every single person on that list behaved differently. It might have been if someone had noticed Hannah's signs and gotten her real help. That was the real tragedy here. 

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (CBR-V #43)

Cannonball Read V: Book #43/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 390

Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy

Cinder is a cyborg - part human, part robot. She lives with her evil step-mother and two stepsisters (this is a re-imagined Cinderella after all) in New Beijing which is on the verge of a war with the Lunar people (who live on the moon). Cinder is a mechanic and she meets the prince when he asks her to fix one of his old robots. They strike up a friendship as Cinder tries both to hide and figure out who she really is. 

This story really could have went either way, but I thought it was actually pretty good. It was interesting and never got boring. The romance was never too sappy and I felt like Cinder was a strong female character on her own (i.e. didn't need a man to define her character). I also liked that she had other relationships that were focused on, such as with her dying step-sister (the nice one of the two) and her friendship with the house robot.

However, I did think the idea of setting it in China was interesting, but it probably could have been integrated into the plot a little more. I also thought the beginning was unclear on what exactly Cinder was. I spent the first several chapters thinking she was a full on robot with no human blood at all. I'm not sure if that was intentional in order to reveal her backstory as to how she became part robot or not, but it was sort of confusing at first.

There is a second book in this series that focuses on Little Red Riding Hood, but I believe that Cinder is also a character in it. So hopefully they continue her story since it didn't have a definite ending here. 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (CBR-V #42)

Cannonball Read V: Book #42/52
Published: 2005
Pages: 576
Genre: Young Adult

Liesel Meminger is dropped off at a foster home by her mother at the onset of World War II in Germany. Her younger brother has just died and she is now dealing with her new home and new parents. Her foster father ("Papa") is a kind man who teaches Liesel to read (she's far behind the other kids in school) after she steals her first book - The Gravedigger's Handbook. 

This book was hard to get into. First, it is narrated by Death. Which is...weird. It's hard to grasp and I mostly wondered why Death cared so much about Liesel's story. It's tragic, but I'm sure Death sees thousands of tragic stories every day. It was also sort of slow and I wasn't sure where the story was heading at all. But the writing is poetic and beautiful, so I kept going.

By the end, I couldn't stop crying (and I'm not really one who cries during books/movies). This is definitely one of those books that you can't make a judgement about until you finish. The end packs a huge emotional punch and makes you realize just how much you actually came to care about these characters. 


I can see why this book is so highly rated. It's a beautiful story that will stay with you for a long time after you finish.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater (CBR-V #11)

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. 

Looking for Alaska by John Green (CBR-V #10)

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. 

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa (CBR-V #9)

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.

The Torn Skirt by Rebecca Godfrey (CBR-V #6)

Cannonball Read V: Book #6/52
Published: 2002
Pages: 208
Genre: Young Adult 


3 stars: Good, but I probably wouldn't read again.

This was a random find at my library's bookstore. The title sounded familiar, so I figured I'd pick it up since it was only 50 cents (LOVE the library bookstore!). 

The Torn Skirt is about a Sara who was "born with a fever" (the book is full of this type of writing. Some of it is pretty eye-rolling, but you get used to it quickly). Basically, Sara is a teenager. Every teenager thinks their angst is special, but really it's not. Whatever. Anyways, Sara grew up in a cult until she and her Dad ran away to Canada. She's getting tired of her loser stoner friends and after he Dad leaves for a while she goes on a wild spree across her town searching for a mysterious girl in a torn skirt named Justine.

Sara was hard to like. She had a rough upbringing, but she's self-aware enough to know her actions, rather than her circumstances, are the cause of her trouble. She seeks out bad people and bad places. She purposefully decides to screw things up and it's hard to root for a character like that. I wanted to strangle her when she is laying in bed whining about her non-existant "fever" to the cops instead of actually realizing or caring what she was in trouble for. 

The Torn Skirt is well-written and I did enjoy it, although I think teenage me would have enjoyed it more (notice I keep saying that lately? I'm getting old, I guess). The older I get, the less "deep" and the more annoying teenage angst gets. 

POD by Stephen Wallenfels (CBR-V Review #4)

Cannonball Read V: Book #4/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 192
Genre: Young Adult/Alien


I've been trying to track this book down for a while now but I think the first edition went out of print or something so it was really hard to find for a few years. Then I realized that one of the local libraries had it and I could get it via ILL! Finally!

POD is a Young Adult book about an alien invasion. Not much is known about the invasion except that a bunch of mysterious pods showed up hoving over the earth and is zapping anyone who steps outside. So now everyone is trapped inside of their house or whatever other building they may have been in at the time of the Pod's arrival.

There are two main stories that the book switches between. The first is 12-year-old Megs (ugh...hate that name...why not just Meg?) who is left inside a Los Angeles hotel parking garage while her mother goes on a "job interview" (she's actually going to a man's house for money). Megs and her mom just left her abusive step-dad, so they are living in their car for the time being. She stays in the car as long as possible, but has to leave and scrounge for food in the other cars. Meanwhile, a couple of men are terrorizing all of the other people stuck in the hotel and start looking for Megs when they find out she's hiding in the garage.

The second story follows 16-year-old Josh and his father who are trapped inside their house in Washington. They slowly run out of food and water and end up having to contemplate on what they should do about it. 

I thought this book was great. It was interesting and moved quickly. The story with Megs was a little over the top at times (she refers to herself as a pirate and leaves notes around as she evades the "bad guys"). But then again, she is only twelve. Josh's story was very, very grim. I was shocked at how much so considering my library labeled this book as for "younger teens". This book has everything from eating pets for dinner to suicide and cannibalism. It's not super graphic, but probably too much for some people.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (CBR-V #3)

Cannonball Read V: Book #3/52
Published: 1999
Pages: 213
Genre: Young Adult


I've had this book on my to-read list for a long time. I'd heard it was good, but the plot seemed somewhat boring and I was slightly turned off by the fact that MTV published it (MTV publishes books?). However, after being bombarded with previews for the movie version, I decided it didn't look too bad and I always prefer to read the book before I see the movie.

So, The Perks of Being a Wallflower follows a "wallflower" named Charlie who is just starting high school after his best friend committed suicide the previous year. Then he meets a pair of senior step-siblings (Sam and Patrick) who sort of take Charlie under their wing. The story unfolds through letters that Charlie writes to an anonymous penpal. 

I could relate a lot to Charlie in the beginning because my best friend died (although not via suicide) when I was 12 and just entering high school (we didn't have a middle school - high school was 7-12th grade). I was already very introverted and was very much a wallflower. However, I did not have "cool" senior friends to help bring me back out of my shell. I think I would have loved this book when I was in high school. 

Although I liked it overall, some of it was kind of over the top. Like Charlie's crying. My god, that kid cried every other page. He's not 10 - he's 15! I'm not saying that boys shouldn't cry or anything, but NO ONE should cry as much as that poor kid. Also, the ending was really, really unexpected and I didn't think it really fit with the rest of the book. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation now.

Gone by Michael Grant (CBR-IV #42)

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.

Tilt by Ellen Hopkins (CBR-IV #41)

Cannonball Read IV: Book #41/52
Published: 2012
Pages: 608
Genre: 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. 

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. 

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.