Off Season by Jack Ketchum (CBR-III #44)

Cannonball Read III: Book #44/52
Published: 1980
Pages: 308 (17,669 total pages so far)
Genre: Horror

Carla rents a cabin up in the woods of Maine to work on her novel in peace. She decides to invite her sister and some friends up for a visit. Then things get ugly. Apparently a clan of cave-dwelling cannibals live nearby and target the cabin that our group is staying in. It's a pretty basic horror plot, but it's very effective here.

The story opens up with a bunch of kids chasing a terrified woman and hitting her with sticks while laughing. It's disturbing and really sets the tone for the rest of the novel. Not only are there crazy mountain men and women out there, these kids are vicious.

The one problem I had was that the main characters weren't very fleshed out. It found it hard to tell them apart and didn't really care about them. It's hard to root for someone to live when you barely know their name. Also, a few things really dated the novel such as one character reminiscing about fighting in Vietnam, but that's sort of expected since it was published in 1980.

Overall, this book was a good, quick read. It's a classic horror tale with plenty of blood and guts thrown in.

Cruise Confidential by Brian David Bruns (CBR-III #43)

Cannonball Read III: Book #43/52
Published: 2008
Pages: 384 (17,361 total pages so far)
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir

I love cruises. So when I saw this Kindle book for $2.99, I figured it would be worth a read. Plus I spent Thanksgiving in Florida with family, so I wanted something light and easy to read by the pool. Well, it was definitely light reading, but not really what I was expecting.

The full title of this book is "Cruise Confidential: A Hit Below the Waterling: Where the Crew Lives, Eats, Wars, and Parties. One Crazy Year Working on Cruise Ships." Uh...yeah. Longest title ever. Basically, Brian fell in love with a gorgeous Romanian who works on a cruise ship. Naturally, he decides to follow her and get a job with Carnival Cruises. The only problem is that no American has ever lasted a full contract in the dining room of a Carnival ship. The book follows Brian's quest to become the first.

I always wondered why Americans never work on cruise shops. Now I know. It's HARD - long hours, tiny living quarters, weird roommates - just to name a few. Americans don't exactly have the highest work ethic in the world, hence mostly foreigners working on cruise ships. I found that aspect of the book interesting. I like seeing what the living quarters were like, what they thought of the passengers, and stuff like that. Unfortunately, those parts are few and far between.

Most of the book is a platform for Brian to brag about how many hot women he has to beat off with a stick and to rate every women her meets by her physical attributes. It gets annoying really fast. You know how everyone in their 20s has that one friend who constantly stories about crazy times when they're drunk and it's not really interesting unless you were there an/or also drunk? Yeah, this is that friend if they wrote a book. It's page after page of drunk exploits that you probably had to be there to enjoy. A few stories would have been okay, but most of the book was this crap.

Overall, I didn't really like it. I really wanted to read more about crazy guest stories and things like that. I also didn't like how it just abruptly ended. Brian does finish his contract with Carnival (the first American ever!) though. He starts working towards a job as an art auctioneer with Carnival, but the book just sort of ends there. We don't really find out what happens between him and his girlfriend either, with is what a good chunk of the book is about!

Church of Lies by Flora Jessop (CBR-III #42)

Cannonball Read III: Book #42/52
Published: 2009
Pages: 320 (16,977 total pages so far)
Genre: Nonfiction

This is one of several books I've read about the FLDS (a fundamentalist Mormon sect) but it's by far the most horrifying. Not only are most of these women married off at a very young age to be one of multiple wives, but apparently abuse runs rampant in these communities. Flora Jessop tells her story about how she was raped and abused as a child before she had enough and ran away as a teen.

The abuse in this book is so horrific, you almost feel like you're reading fiction. Flora was strong enough to realize that she needed to get out, but unfortunately a lot of women don't realize that there are other options. There's also not a lot of help. When she told the police about her father molesting her, they sent her back home. Realizing that the law wasn't going to help her, now Flora spends her life trying to help other girls and women to escape.

The FLDS compounds are scary. I can't even imagine being born into a community like that and it being all you've ever known. They are taught that the outside world is evil, so most women are even more afraid of leaving than staying. I think it's brave of these women to write their stories when they're losing their entire families by leaving the religion and going public. Hopefully their bravery can save more women from this lifestyle.

Overall, the book was good. It wasn't the most well written book, but Flora Jessop isn't a professional writer. She tells her story effectively and leaves an impact on the reader. I would definitely recommend this book if you're interested in polygamy and the FLDS.

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (CBR-III #41)

Cannonball Read III: Book #41/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 304 (16,657 total pages so far)
Genre: Scifi

I didn't really expect much from this book. I figured it would be kind of cheesy and reminiscent of Terminator. Add a little bit of Transformers into the mix and I wasn't exactly wrong. However, I did enjoy it much more than I thought I would.

The story takes place sometime in the future where robots and computers are even more commonplace than they are now. Most houses have domestic robots that can wander around the cities and run errands. Then a scientist creates a computer program named Archos who becomes too intelligent and eventually programs all of the robots in the world to turn on humans. The book spans over 2 years showing how the humans fight this war against machine.

This book was definitely heavy on action and light on character development, but I wasn't expecting an intelligent piece of classic literature with a title like Robopocalypse. It's written in a "found footage" type of narrative. Chapters are transcriptions from security cameras and interviews or copies of various documents.

It's a good, quick read for a rainy day if you're interested in the genre. I heard it's going to be turned into a movie even though it was just published this past summer. It might be worth watching.

The Dark and Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan (CBR-III #40)

Cannonball Read III: Book #40/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 352 (16,353 total pages so far)
Genre: Young Adult/Zombie

Previous books in this series:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

The Dead-Tossed Waves

***Possible spoilers if you haven't read the first two books***

This is the third book in this teen zombie trilogy. I normally don't care for zombie stories, so I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed these books. I think they actually progressively got better too. In this third book, we follow Annah, Gabry's long-lost twin from the last book. She and Gabry got separated in the Forest of Hands and Teeth as children and Annah ended up scraping by in the Dark City with Elias (also from the last book).

They also really amped it up with a love QUADRANGLE instead of the love triangles we found in the first two books. It's also vaguely annoying and full of teen angst, but the story and plot are good enough to make up for it. Early in the book, Annah reunites with her twin as well as Catcher and Elias just as the Dark City is infiltrated by a massive hourde of the undead.

I thought this book did a great job of tying together the trilogy. I actually think it was my favorite of the three. There seems to be less teenage love drama and more suspense and action in each book. I also like how each book took place in a totally different environment, but still tied together key characters. It kept the series from getting too monotonous. Overall, a good read.

The Dead-Tossed Waves by Carrie Ryan (CBR-III #39)

Cannonball Read III: Book #39/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 416 (16,001 total pages so far)
Genre: Young Adult/Zombie

Previous books in this series:

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

***Possible spoilers if you haven't read the first book***

This is more of a companion novel to The Forest of Hands and Teeth than an outright sequel. It follows Gabry, the daughter of the heroine from the first novel (Mary). In the last book, Mary made it to the ocean after travelling on the mysterious paths through the forest full of the undead. We find out here that she ended up staying in the oceanside village of Vista and now lives in and runs the lighthouse and kills the Unconsecrated (or Mudos, as they're called in Vista) as they wash up on the beach during high tide.

Her daughter Gabry is a teenager who is terrified of ever leaving the fenced in city. However, most teenagers are dumb and easily swayed by boys so she gets talked into sneaking out one night with her friends by Catcher. Catcher (dumb as his name may be) is Gabry's best friend's brother. He's Boy #1 in our required YA novel love triangle. The sneaking out plan goes awry and several of the teens get bitten by Mudos, including Catcher. Gabry ends up escaping.

A few days later, Gabry ends up sneaking back outside the gates to find Catcher, hoping that he didn't actually get bitten and escaped. During this outing, she meets Boy #2 in our love triangle, Elias. Of course he's mysterious and sexy, blah blah.

I actually did like this book, although I could have did without the nauseating love drama. It was pretty bad. This is an actual quote from the book: "His words explode inside me, touching fire along my veins and spiraling into my heart." Ugh. We're bordering on Twilight territory here. I just think these books are better than that -- like they were going for The Hunger Games and the editor told them to just add a little more Stephenie Meyer to appeal to the pre-teens.

I loved how they tied this trilogy together. Instead of being just continuations of the previous books, they follow different characters who have tie-ins to previous characters. The third book in the trilogy is the same way and looks really promising. I think that also helps me stomach the love triangle when I don't have to read about it for three straight books.

Overall, the story is really great if you overlook the teenage romance parts. It moves quickly and the action starts right from the beginning. I love the mystery and the tension in these books and will definitely be picking up the third in the series.

The Death Cure by James Dashner (CBR-III #38)

Cannonball Read III: Book #38/52
Published: 2011
Pages: 256 (15,585 total pages so far)
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

***This is the third book in a trilogy. There could possibly be spoilers if you haven't read the first two books.***

Previous reviews in this series:

The Maze Runner

The Scorch Trials

If you've read my previous reviews on this series, you know I have a love/hate relationship with these books. To sum it up quickly, I am completely enthralled by the mystery and the plot but I really hate the execution of the writing. My previous reviews (linked above) go more in depth with my thoughts so I'm not going to rehash it all here.

The basic plot follows a group of kids who were put into a mysterious maze in the first book. After they figure out how to escape, they go through the second faze if the government trials in The Scorch Trials. There they find out that most of the world is falling apart due to a virus called "The Flare" and they were part of an experiment being conducted by a group called WICKED to find a cure. In this final book of the trilogy, the group of kids escape from the WICKED compound and try and stop them from continuing their "trials".

The characters were still kind of blah. After reading all three books, I should know these characters pretty well. However, I was still struggling to remember who was who and who did what. Occasionally someone will die and you have to think for a second who that person actually was.

I'm not even going to get into how irritating I find their made up, slang curse words again. It's just annoying. Thankfully, it was slightly toned down from the first two books.

As for the ending, I knew all along I was probably going to be disappointed. I did like how they made a full circle and had to go back to the maze towards the end, but that part was kind of rushed. Actually, the whole ending seemed sort of rushed, like it was thrown together at the last minute.

As much as I am intrigued by the plot of these books, it's really confusing. I never did figure out how exactly they're going to find a cure for a deadly disease by putting a bunch of teenagers through life threatening and horrible situations. A lot of things were never really fully explained or were explained horribly - such as whether or not Thomas should get his memory back. Did it really matter if he did or didn't? They made an awful big deal about it, but it seems like it didn't really effect anything in the long run.

I know I like to complain about these books, yet I keep reading them. I really do like the plot lines and the books move very quickly. There are more twists and turns than in any book I've ever read. It's really hard to put this book down once you start. I can't quite explain why, but as irritated as I might get at this series, I constantly need to know what happens next.