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The Maze Runner
by
James Dashner
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Eragon by Christopher Paolini
I’m back! This next review is on Eragon, by Christopher Paolini. This is the third time I’ve read Eragon (have re-read it when the new books have come out), and it was just as good as the first time I read it. It’s essentially about a boy that lives with his uncle on a farm; his mother left right after he was born, and no one knows where she went or who the father is. On a trip through a range of mountains, called the Spine, a mysterious blue stone suddenly appears in a flash of blue light. Intrigued, he takes the stone home with him, where it eventually cracks open, with a small blue dragon crawling out of it. This event sets Eragon on an adventure of discovering the history of Dragon Riders, and embracing his role in the war to come.
The reason I’m reading this book again is because of the new and final release in the series, Inheritance. I haven’t read any of the books since Brisingr was released, so this is a good way to refresh on the events of the first three books.
The reasons I love this book is because it is full of action, has dragons and magic in it, and is fun to read because of the suspense and surprises that you encounter in the story. I’ve heard many people read the first book and automatically dismiss the entire series because they didn’t like it. Upon reading Eragon again I can see why people would do that; it can seem slow and uninteresting, but the story really begins toward the end, when he stops learning how to do different things, and actually starts needing to use them. Even so, I still find Eragon to be a great book that sucks the reader into the story and, especially during intense scenes, doesn’t let go.
I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy books with magic, dragons, and intense battles!
Rating:5/5
Next Book:Eldest by Christopher Paolini
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One Land, One King by Y.S. Hassan
“After their grisly battle for supremacy over the One Land, the king and his five knights anticipate peaceful times ahead of them. Then, almost before they can rest their bloody swords on the ground, angels and demons—masquerading as humans—begin to carouse the Earth, vying for human souls before their very eyes, powerless to stop it. While the king and his knights are without equal on the battlefield, this war is different from all the others they have had to face. It takes place in the heart of their cities and of their people. A secret war of influence has started with the rise of the One King, and the outcome, the doom or salvation of their world, is to be determined by Yan, a boy with unimaginable powers chosen to be the scale on which the actions of men shall be weighed.” - Goodreads
I read this book because the author sent it to me through goodreads, and after a year I finally found time to read it! While reading it I found it pretty easy to get through and at times hard to put down. The beginning hooked me in, then it threatened to shake me off, but I hung through the slow parts and finished it!
Overall there were two chapters (out of ten) that were kind of slow and drawn out. They were difficult to get through, but once I did the following chapters were great. For an author’s first book, this is amazing. Very few writing problems, and the story is awesome for fantasy lovers!
Essentially the book starts out with the fight between two sides of five knights (two fight each other and the victor gets a spot as one of the five knights of the One Land, until each spot is filled; aka five knights are victors) and then the two kings fight for the position of the One King of the One Land. It’s creative and descriptive, allowing you to picture the fight perfectly. After the knights and king are determined, they later find out that the demons are wanting to take over earth and there’s a special boy, Yan, being born that will decide the fate of the One Land.
Based on the description I thought it would be alright, but I was a little unsure. But once I got into it I had trouble putting it down (I started reading it on the trip back from the beach and ending up reading it for 4 hours cause I got so into it). So if you like Fantasy, magic, battles, or anything awesome, you should read this book!
Rating: 4/5
Next book: Eragon by Christopher Paolini
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The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
The Maze of Bones is about a brother and sister, Amy and Dan Cahill, that discover that their family is the most powerful in the world and has affected how the world is today. Upon the death of Grace, their grandmother, they learn in her will of a treasure that would make anyone who found it the most powerful in the world. They receive their first of thirty-nine clues, and must race their distant relatives to the final treasure.
I read this mainly because it’s by Rick Riordan (who is awesome), and seemed interesting… So I genuinely liked this book because it’s written well (of course) and the concept was really intriguing. Two kids racing family members (who are trying to KILL them) for clues to a treasure. To be honest it seemed familiar to A Series of Unfortunate Events in that Amy and Dan remind me of the orphans from it (they’re orphans that lost their parents in a fire).
As the book progressed it got more intense, and I felt myself engulfed by the story, unable to let go. I probably read 3/4 of this book in one sitting, which isn’t a HUGE feat considering it’s only 220 pages long. But still, that’s pretty awesome. My only problem with this book is that the conflict got really old. They’re investigating a hint, oh look there’s a family member trying to kill them, OH LET’S RANDOMLY GET AWAY!!! At first it seemed normal, not much different from other stories. But after multiple chapters ending in the same scenario, I got a tad annoyed (and the end of the book kind of pissed me off).
But don’t get me wrong, I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys books by Rick Riordan or liked A Series of Unfortunate Events. Anyone that enjoys mysteries and kids (and adults) trying to kill each other, will enjoy this nice series! I also find it interesting how each book in the series is by a different author, giving you multiple writing styles to read through. Plus they’re pretty quick reads, being only around 200 pages each. So read it! Or not, whichever you choose. No pressure. No really, do whatever you want.
Rating: 5/5
Next book: One Land, One King by Y.S. Hassan
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The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
This book is based on the play called “The Vagina Monologues,” which covers the struggles women have encountered when it comes to their vaginas. This particular edition also covers the V-Day movement in which colleges around the world perform The Vagina Monologues in order to raise money for organizations that protect women, as well as spread how much women are hurt and attacked around the world.
So I was really looking forward to reading this because I thought it’d be informative and amusing. I was wrong. It was relatively informative… Some of the monologues were just ridiculous, focused on women that endured rare and unlucky incidents as girls, and didn’t really provide much insight into women’s actual struggles. Don’t get me wrong, some did, but it seemed more often that Eve Ensler was more aiming at causing emotions to surface rather than actually informing the audience genuine, common struggles that women encountered with their anatomy.
It also bothered me how at the beginning, Eve Ensler even admits that some of the monologues didn’t take place. That she created some out of her own imagination, and even finished some in a way she liked. At first it didn’t bother me, but now having read all of them I’m stunned. She says she’s interviewed hundreds of women, yet she can’t find alternatives to put in to give an actual realistic view of the subject? This truly bugs me and made it hard for me to finish the book, but overall I guess she did a decent job.
I was genuinely touched at how much money was raised for the cause, and made me extremely happy that this all worked out well.
Rating: 4/5
Next Book: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
This is the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy, where the biggest Hunger Games is yet to come, involving the entire nation. I don’t really want to reveal too much for those who haven’t read the first two, but I must say that it was rather explosive.
Now, I finished this book like a week ago but by the end of it I was crying and hating Suzanne Collins. She didn’t end the trilogy as well as I was hoping, but then again I’m a huge critic of how series are ended (A Series of Unfortunate Events is the only series I was 100% happy with the ending). I’ve kind of tried to keep the ending out of my mind, delaying this review. But I’ve finally accepted that I need to go ahead and write one while it’s still fresh in my mind, allowing me to rant.
So I’ve heard mixed feelings on this book, most of which saying this is the worst one of the trilogy. I must say that I agree. To me, the first book is by far the best one of the trilogy. After that Suzanne Collins just seems like she’s trying to recreate and essentially write again the same event. They all seem to have some kind of Hunger Games, but Catching Fire and Mockingjay just seem to lack the umph that the first book had.
However, I feel that Mockingjay was still written pretty well, it’s just that I got the same feeling I did after reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: the author is a serial killer! It seemed that she brought characters in solely for the purpose of adding more death, which truly bothered me. I truly did think that the last event in the Capitol was rather epic, providing suspense and extreme satisfaction. I felt that that event should have been the ending, and that Suzanne Collins should have cut out everything that came after. My reasoning is that after that it didn’t really serve much purpose in that the “epilogue” pretty much summed it up. But those are my only quarrels with the ending, I suppose. There was a certain tear-inducing catastrophe that seemed highly unnecessary. When you read it you’ll know what I mean and you can rant with me.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoyed the first two books of the trilogy, and if you haven’t read any of the books I would highly recommend them to anyone that enjoys Young Adult novels in which there is conflict, humor, violence, and suspense. In each book you’ll laugh, you’ll cry. And occasionally you’ll want to kill someone. But on top of that, you’ll be ranting with me, which is an automatic win, right?
Rating: 5/5
Next Book: The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
The Peach Keeper is about the history of two separate families connected by a secret. One that is discovered when a skeleton is found underneath a peach tree on a hill. Unlikely friends come together and discover what true friendship really means and what they really want to do with their life.
Okay, so The Peach Keeper was definitely better than I was expecting (wasn’t expecting it to be a paranormal novel) and was engaging. My biggest problem with it is that the author didn’t describe the characters very well, so I found myself struggling to imagine what they looked like, and generally would picture them differently every time. Also, the constant changing of who the story is focusing on could be confusing. However, I was able to get over these issues and read through a rather incredible book.
The main plot of the book seemed more of the bonds between old high school buddies than the peach tree above a skeleton, which kind of surprised me. I expected this to be some ghost story where a ghost is haunting the main characters. However, it’s really just discovering what the main characters want to do with their lives and how to be close to one another.
I would recommend this to anyone that likes romance novels as well as paranormal novels (Paranormal romance). It is a somewhat quick read, if you don’t have issues picturing the characters like I did. But if you give it a chance, I’m sure you’ll love it!
I’m giving this novel a 4 out of 5 mainly because the lack of description of the characters made this novel more difficult to get through than I’m used to, and frankly it got kind of annoying not knowing what the characters looked like. But other than that it was great!
Rating: 4/5
Next Book: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
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The most impressive map of Panem I’ve ever seen. An obvious work of a nerd.
Placing the Districts:
- The Capitol is in Denver.
- D12 is Appalachia.
- D11 shares a border with D12, is one of the largest districts, is South of D12, and is primarily used for growing grain and produce.
- D10 is primarily used for raising livestock. They do NOT process the livestock in D10. However, to feed an entire nation, D10 is likely another very large District.
- D9 processes food for the Capitol and the tesserae; therefore, it likely shares borders with the food production Districts (D4, D10, D11).
- D8 produces and treats textiles and is a factory District. It is POSSIBLE to reach D12 from D8 on foot over a course of weeks/months. Therefore, it does not cross a large body of water.
- D7 specializes in lumber. It’s probably large. It has no role in food processing or manufacture.
- D6 works closely with the Capitol in the research and manufacture of drugs (morphling, medicines). It likely has close ties to D5 in the production of mutts.
- D5 is entirely dependent on the Capitol, so it’s probably somewhat nearby, and specializes in genetic research and manipulation. Because of the necessity of creative thought and intellect, it’s most likely a smaller District so that it’s easier to monitor and control.
- D4 is the ocean. It does have a role in food production. It’s very large. It is a Career District, so it likely is near the Capitol and has some self-sufficiency, but not enough that it doesn’t engender loyalty. (Aside from that, D4 = perfect.)
- D3 has extremely close ties to the Capitol and works with electronics and technology. It is likely small, the Capitol can closely monitor its scientific minds. It has no role in food manufacture or processing.
- D2 specializes in weaponry, is the most loyal District (because the Capitol needs to keep its weapon specialists happy, non?), and has no role in food production. D2 also works in some minor Mining elements and trains Peacekeepers. The Panem railroad is easily accessible in D2.
- D1 produces luxury goods for the Capitol — INCLUDING having a diamond mine. Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine is a
defunctdiamond mine in Colorado, USA. It is located in the State Line Kimberlite District, near the Wyoming border.- D13 specialized in nuclear power, shares a border with D12, is both visible and reachable from D12 by foot, and is North of West Virginia. Three Mile Island was in
New YorkPennsylvania, and probably remained a nuclear reactor or was co-opted again as a reactor. D13 is small but mighty and is surrounded by Wilderness. It is self-sufficient.
Love.
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I think I woke up feeling sentimental about Harry Potter…
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull’s-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol. (Goodreads.com)
So this book was pretty damn amazing. At first I found it difficult to put down the put, but once I made it to around chapter 12, I found it impossible mentally to put it down. I kept wanting more and stayed up late to finish it! Hell I read over 200 pages in one night, which is saying something considering I’ve been having difficulties reading lately. Reader’s block, I guess. But this book cured me! It was amazing and I felt at every turn I thought: WTF?!?! And at the end I nearly had a braingasm. I’m now dying for the third and final book in the Hunger Games Trilogy!!!
But I would highly recommend it to those that enjoyed The Hunger Games. I’ve never felt so passionate over a character since Professor Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as I felt for President Snow. He is so deliciously hateable and at times you’ll take a mental break to envision yourself doing painful things to him, and then at times you’ll laugh at things that ACTUALLY happen, which most likely has him squirming in his wittle shoes.
This is one of the very few books that has sucked me in and not let me go no matter how much I knew I should stop. The ending is kind of a cliffhanger because you’re dying to know exactly what ends up happening (and what has happened, as well as what is happening). Essentially there’s so much confusion that even the most coordinated readers will baffled. I’m hoping Mockingjay will bring home the answers and outcomes I desire, even though they might not.
But read this! Obviously read The Hunger Games if you haven’t yet, then read this! But make sure you have a coffee maker, a 12-pack of mountain dew, or some other abundant source of caffeine. Trust me, you’ll need it!
Rating: 5/5
Next Book: The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen
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the short second life of bree tanner by Stephenie Meyer
the short second life of bree tanner is an Eclipse novella that focuses on how Bree Tanner coped with being a newborn and what it was like to be with and socialize (or hear socializing) with the other newborns, as well as how they prepared for the big fight that occurred and how Bree Tanner reached the fate that was waiting for her.
I thought this book was pretty good and well written (with only two typos that I noticed). I thought it was kind of unnecessary because it caused us to sympathize with Bree even more, knowing the fate that awaited her. This book caused me to like Bree a lot, and learn more about her friend(s). It made me hate the Volturi even more and in turn hate the ending of Breaking Dawn even more.
If you’ve read Eclipse I would recommend this because it’s a pretty quick and interesting read. I hated how it didn’t have chapters (it was essentially one long chapter), which drove me insane because I generally read a book by chapters. But I read it rather quick so it didn’t become that big of an issue.
If you enjoyed Eclipse then you’ll like this book! I’d recommend it if you’re really curious about Bree Tanner’s life or if you’ve finished the entire series (seeing as at that point you may as well, which is why I read it).
I’m giving it a rating of 4/5 because I feel like this book was a bit unnecessary. Yes it gives us insight to the world of the newborns (so would it being from Riley’s point of view, which would have been a lot more interesting considering the emotional betrayal), but it really just tells us stuff that we could have assumed, and makes Bree’s fate more painful. It also seemed at times Stephenie Meyer was twisting things around to make it reach the fate that Eclipse set for Bree instead of the fate we all want for her.
Rating: 4/5
Next Book: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
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