Review: Ship Breaker

Title: Ship Breaker
Author: Paolo Bacigalupi
Rating: 8
Date of Release: May 1st, 2010

Summary: In America's Gulf Coast region, where grounded oil tankers are being broken down for parts, Nailer, a teenage boy, works the light crew, scavenging for copper wiring just to make a quota--and hopefully live to see another day. But when, by luck or chance, he discovers an exquisite clipper ship beached during a recent hurricane, Nailer faces the most important decision of his life: strip the ship for all it's worth or rescue its long survivor, a beautiful and wealthy girl who could lead him to a better life... 

Let's start right off with first impressions. The cover goes very, very well with the story, it is what drew me in to reading the book in the first place. It isn't super common that a cover goes along well with the story, but this one does. Second, I hate that summary. Look at the first sentence. Thirty-nine words and five commas. Too much, just break it into different sentences for crying out loud! I'm a stickler for simplistic sentences, so that irked me.

About the story itself. For once, I preferred the characters to the plot, which usually isn't my view. The plot had promise, but at times it felt a little...flat. The final sea battle was confusing and I felt a little unfulfilled at the end. Plus, all of Nailer's choices seem 'right'. One of the rules of plot devices is that the first problem should just happen to the character, and the rest are caused by his or her choices. Look at Harry Potter, the Goblet of Fire. The whole Dark Mark thing in the beginning wasn't Harry's fault, but at the end, Sirius dies because of Harry's impulsive choices. Nailer made no such choices, and so the plot was a little iffy for me. It wasn't horrible, but I had an all-over 'meh' feeling about it.

The setting was great. Beached clippers, rusting all over the Gulf, destroyed cities, a "Life Cult". The lore of the story was great, I don't have much negative to say about it.

Now, the characters. As I mentioned above, the characters plus the setting are what gave this book its highish rating. Nailer was definitely not perfect, just a boy living in a imperfect world. His sense of morality has been dulled but not destroyed, as he finds when he looks into Nita's (the wealthy girl that was beached) eyes. The lingo used throughout is pitch perfect, rich people are 'swanks', there's 'light crew' and 'heavy crew'. And also, I'm so happy that this story had a male protagonist. Nearly all YA seems to have a female protag these days, or at least the popular books.Although this was written two years ago, I'm hoping to see more male protagonists in the future, just for diversity.

Will I read the sequel? Maybe. If I have time.

Final Rating: 8

Review: Ashes, Ashes

Title: Ashes, Ashes
Author: Jo Terggiari
Rating: 6
Date of Release: 6/1/11
Summary: A thrilling tale of adventure, romance, and one girl's unyielding courage through the darkest of nightmares. Epidemics, floods, droughts--for sixteen-year-old Lucy, the end of the world came and went, taking 99% of the population with it. As the weather continues to rage out of control, and Sweepers clean the streets of plague victims, Lucy survives alone in the wilds of Central Park. But when she's rescued by a pack of hunting dogs by a mysterious boy named Aidan, she reluctantly realizes she can't continue on her own. She joins his band of survivors, yet, a new danger awaits her. The Sweepers are looking for her. There's something special about Lucy, and they will stop at nothing to have her.

I expected a lot from this book. Cool cover, interesting synopsis, nice setup...it had all the necessary components to make it insta-book love. Unfortunately it fell short.

First of all, I didn't really care about the main character, a girl named Lucy who lives survives by herself in what was once New York. I didn't dislike her, but I had no feelings to really care about her. So, sure, her life kind of sucks and she meets a hot boy who saves her from a pack of feral dogs. I didn't really care at all.

The other characters were slightly better. Aidan, the boy who saved her, is cute, but we never really know about him. Why does he like Lucy, aside from the fact that she's the female main character and that kind of thing is written in the literary stars? Where did he come from? Why does another character, Del, like him for? I feel the author was setting up for another story to answer some of these, but I'd have liked a lot less secrets and a few more answers. 

In the same way, we never know how this plague that killed much of the earth's population 'mutated'. The characters use the phrase 'it mutated', but we never know how, are what that entails. The plot had holes, and more than I touched on here for the sake of spoilers. There were too many scenes of Lucy doing work, flirting with two different guys or just thinking about superfluous details--like how to get meat off a turtle--that when you get to the end of the story you realize how little real plot went on between the 342 pages that wasn't some long, detailed treatise on how Lucy's house looked before she moved out.

But, for all its shortcomings, I cannot say I derived no enjoyment in reading Ashes, Ashes. I did. Maybe because, as I stated before, I really love this genre, or the fact that everything was directing me to read this first out of all the new library books I picked up. So while there were many things I didn't like about this novel, they didn't stop me from reading it. If you don't look too hard at the plot holes or annoying main character, some could enjoy this book.

Final Rating: 6

Quick Review: Divergent

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Rating: 9.5/10
Date of Release: May 3rd, 2011
Summary: In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue--Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is--she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are--and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. As she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves...or it might destroy her.

The reason this is a short review is because nearly anyone at least partially well-versed in YA books knows this title. And nearly everyone likes it. I mean, it was on the bestseller list for twelve weeks. But I just wanted to drop my two cents down the reader's well and say how much I liked this book.

Tris was an awesome character. Four is awesome. The characters I loved, although I would have wanted to get a little more knowledgeable about the other characters. Their backstories, motives, etc., but I get that in a 300+ page book anything ambiguous has to be cut. I just hope I get to know more about Christiana, Caleb, and the others in the next two installments.

The plot was really interesting. If I had anything negative to say, it would be that Tris got hurt a LOT. And then was fine. And then got hurt again. After a while it got a little unrealistic, but that was okay because Tris was doing other awesome stuff. The simulations were my favorite part, even though 'dream sequences' (which the simulations are very similar to) are usually lifeless and dead to me, these were unique and interesting.

All in all, this is getting a place on my 'favorites' library! I've been hooked on this story, even if tiny little things bugged me.

Final Score: 9.5

In one gif:

Review: The Hunt

Title: The Hunt
Author: Andrew Fukuda
Rating: 6.5
Date of Release: 5/8/2012
Summary: Don't sweat. Don't laugh. Don't call attention to yourself. And most of all, whatever you do, don't fall in love with one of them.

Gene is different from everyone else around him. He can't run with lightning speed, sunlight doesn't hurt him and he doesn't have an unquenchable lust for blood. Gene is a human, and he knows the rules. Keep the truth a secret. It's the only way to stay alive in a world of night--a world where humans are considered a delicacy and hunted for their blood.

When he’s chosen for a once in a lifetime opportunity to hunt the last remaining humans, Gene’s carefully constructed life begins to crumble around him.  He’s thrust into the path of a girl who makes him feel things he never thought possible—and into a ruthless pack of hunters whose suspicions about his true nature are growing. Now that Gene has finally found something worth fighting for, his need to survive is stronger than ever—but is it worth the cost of his humanity?

Again, another review. I promise I won't do only reviews, but this book was another one I whipped off real quick. I was trying to read 'The Keeper's Tattoo', but it was so unutterably dull I took a break for something more exciting.

For any of its faults, you cannot say The Hunt isn't exciting. The action sequences were the best part of this book, and what gave it a higher rating then I would have otherwise from me. Also, something I was glad to see, The Hunt isn't full of the weak, palsy, sparkly variety of 'vampire'. I use the word 'vampire', even though they aren't expressly called 'vampires' in the novel, that is basically what they are: beasts who hunt 'hepers' (humans) for their blood and who cannot be in contact with sunlight. These are the true vampires, the ones that suck blood and go into rages. That being said, there were holes. How did the 'vampires' take over this futuristic world? Did they evolve? Did they come through magic? We never learn exactly how. All we know is that the humans, called 'hepers' by the 'vampires', have almost gone extinct, and Gene is one of the few left.

Gene wasn't my favorite character. He didn't seem to have much personality, or character to him. Many times throughout the novel he remembers the phrase his father told him 'never forget who you really are' while he tries to blend in as one of the 'vampires'. But I didn't know who he was. I didn't see much in him but love for a girl and a primal urge to survive. Also, one of the "big plot reveals" could have been seen a mile away. I can't say if I want to keep this spoiler-free, but to anyone who knows how a writer might think, it was painfully obvious that would happen from the beginning.

The other characters were forgettable. The main female character, Ashley June, is smart and drags Gene's sorry behind through the survival process, but again, a weak character I didn't really care for.

The thing that saved this from a very low score was the interesting plot. A dystopian with vampires isn't the classic formula, and the idea of the Heper Hunt was intriguing. But, again, [minor spoilers], there was no heper hunt! Most of it was full of Gene waking up, shaving, eating, dancing, thinking about Ashley June and the other hepers, and then sleeping. When there is some real action within the last pages, all one can think is 'Finally!'.

This book was not my favorite, but not bad either. I would give it a 'meh' score. That being said, I might look out for the sequel only to get another action fix.

Final score: 6.5