May Reading Challenge: Monument 14 Series

Author: Emmy Laybourne
Rating: an average of 4 stars
Review Contains Spoilers

                                       

May Challenge: Love Letters to the Dead

Meeting an author in real life became a reality for me a few years ago. In 2013 I met Lauren Oliver, Hugh Howey and Jodi Picoult. 2014 has not been as exciting, mainly because I haven't met anyone. I'm counting on June's Fierce Reads tour to change that. Leigh Bardugo, Emmy Laybourne, Ava Dellaria and Jennifer Mathieu will headline the YA tour with their May/June releases.
I challenged myself to read and familiarize myself with these authors and their latest novels in May so I'm ready for the event in June.
I'm one book down for my goal after reading Love Letters to the Dead.
Author: Ava Dellaria
Rating: 4 stars
Review Contains Major Spoilers

Burn

Author: Julianna Baggott
Rating: 4 stars
Review Contains Spoilers

Burn is the last book of Julianna Baggott's amazing Pure trilogy. Each book, especially the ending, always left me fangirling or with my mouth hanging wide open.
If I had read Burn as a hardcover the ending would have made me throw the book against the wall. Luckily I read it on a Kindle, which I threw into a pile of pillows.

Gone Series

Author: Michael Grant
Rating: 3-5 stars pending on the book
Review Contains Spoilers
Book One (Gone) and Six (Light) Covers Featured

 

Dark Inside and Rage Within

Author: Jeyn Roberts
Rating: 4 Stars-Dark Inside 5 stars-Rage Within
Review Contains Spoilers

The Age of Miracles

Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Rating: 4 stars
Review Contains Mild Spoilers

Being an 11-year-old can be such a fragile thing. A kid's mind is still developing and tender right as puberty is inching closer. School/homework, crushes and arguing with parents are main parts of everyone's puberty. 11-year-old Julia gives readers a special point of view when the world starts ending. First of all, this is not the average apocalyptic novel. The end of the world is slow and never really happens (more on that later). Issues and drama are planted like seeds--slowly budding and evolving before exploding before Julia's eyes.

Earth's rotation is slowing down. Days grow longer. Daytime and nighttime flip flop. Gravity is a memory and the environment suffers. All things people take advantage of every day. Julia and her family live in California and are forced to adjust to a different life. Readers also get to see how Julia's neighbors challenge and adapt to new ways of life.

I don't know if it's just me but survival of the fittest came across as the underlying theme. All the characters--whether they oppose or support the new daylight rules--survived based on their will to adapt to their liking.

Despite the end of world coming undone, Julia grows up and experiences heartbreak and wisdom. She loses her best friend. Not to death or disease but the natural growing apart what happens between friends and cliques. Julia's crush turns into a good friend and somewhat of a boyfriend. Her relationship with her grandfather is also tested as he prepares for a fallout, feeding on his own government conspiracies. Julia and her parents are tested as an affair threatens to break them apart.

As the novel ends, Julia and her family overcome obstacles and stay together. Several years have passed since the rotation slowed down and while things get worse, Julia deals with the new normal as well as she can. I wasn't expecting anyone to be alive at the end but maybe the end is not always so definitive. The end of the world will happen, just on its own time. While Age of Miracles ended on a bleak note, the concept felt fresh to me.

House of Hades

Author: Rick Riordan

Rating: 4 stars
Review contains spoilers

School Spirits

Author: Rachel Hawkins
Rating: 4 stars

Like everyone else, I'm a huge Hex Hall fan. I found it really fascinating how the series now focuses on Izzy Brannick,  Sophie's cousin. The Brannicks have been monster hunters for generations, hence why Izzy never had a normal upbringing. Her homework and reading assignments covered how to kill and hunt vampires, witches and other creatures. She knows nothing about dating or friendships. In this spin-off series, we see her tackle a new identity. 
Izzy's older sister goes MIA on a hunt and her mom decides to take a break from their lifestyle to attempt so Izzy can have a normal life. Her mom solely focuses on finding her sister. Izzy hates the transformation until she makes a new best friend and *gasp* falls for a cute guy. She befriends members of a ghost hunters society at her high school and soon figures out an evil ghost or demon might be lurking at school. Not to mention one of her friends, and another possible love interest might not be exactly human..no teenager can escape angst can they?
I thought there was too many plots going on at once at times. Some characters could have been cut out. I loved the idea of a supernatural character going to a "normal" high school. That was never explored in the Hex Hall series although I'm well aware it's in countless other series. And don't think Hex Hall characters are completely MIA either. This series has its own charm. It's not as good as Hex Hall but I'll continue reading.

The Hurricane

Author: Hugh Howey
Rating: 4 Stars

Hugh Howey, an self-published author on Kindle, is well known for his sci-fi novels and series. In this standalone book, Howey tackles completely different topics: technology, teens and nature. With smartphones, the web and video games, technology has shaped and completely changed the way people learn, communicate and insult each other. Daniel Stillman, a high-school senior, is not someone glued to his game console or phone. He's ignored by girls on video chats and ridiculed by his classmates. Not to mention his family ignores each other at meals and his best friend just got a girlfriend.

So by most terms, Daniel feels like a loser. Until a hurricane hits. Set in South Carolina, Daniel's community is used to the threat of hurricanes but has never experienced one full on. So when Mother Nature arrives she takes on the digital age and wins. All it takes is for the lights to go out.

 I won't spoil everything but a few important topics arise:
1. Family- Daniel's family has the capability to communicate but are extremely isolated from each other. They spend breakfasts and dinners watching TV or on their iPads. Daniel's stephfather becomes an important focus when the hurricane hits and especially when Daniel's estranged dad comes back in the storm's aftermath.
2.  Relationships-No cell phone reception or electricity means Daniel, his teen sister and classmates have WAY more time on their hands. Daniel meets a girl in his neighborhood who has impressive survival skills and needless to say, a somewhat cliche but special relationship begins. Reading about a new crush/romance set under special circumstances was nice but predictable. 

This book definitely holds a few obvious important lessons. I wish readers knew the aftermath of these characters but let's hope Daniel teaches readers how people can communicate with each other outside of the tech savvy world.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Author: Lionel Shriver
Rating: 4 Stars
Spoilers in Review

This book portrayed the delicate and destructive relationship between a mother and her son. We start with Kevin's life from birth to current day. I like to think Kevin's parents (Eva and Franklin) were both wealthy adults who grew bored with life and made dumb decisions but it's so much more than that. Especially since Kevin goes to jail for killing several classmates and a teacher. With most school shootings there's always someone or something to blame for the kid becoming a murderer. In this book 

Kevin grew as a bully and simply hated everyone. Everyone but his mother.

The reader is often faced with the question: is Kevin truly evil? As a baby, he's shown to be indifferent towards displays of affection. As a child he's shown to be the devil, causing the nanny to quit after ripping out her hair. When he grows to be a teenager he remains sullen and placid.
The author seems to focus heavily on how a mother's bond can make or break her son, causing him to grow up and be a serial killer. This book drifts away from Columbine and climaxes with a creepy Hunger Games scene, except Kevin is no likable Katniss. We find out Eva summarized the entire story in letters to her husband Franklin and we later find out Kevin also killed Franklin and his younger sister. Eva was the only major character spared.

Although I enjoyed most of the book I didn't feel impacted until the end. It was fascinating to read how a child can trick their parents so well starting at an early age. However, Kevin's killing scene didn't really get to me. It was moments like the last day his family spent together, and when Eva visits him in jail and resolves to give him her support, which hooked me. In the end it truly seems like Eva realizes she loves her son. Too little, too late. But she goes with the flow and I like that. By the end even Kevin is freaking out after being Mr.I Don't Care for the majority of the book, mainly because he's going to be transferred to a more notorious jail. I like how everyone decides they are only human at the end, albeit really shitty ones. Eva has to take on the public image as the Shooter's Mother which is really heartbreaking but she ends the book waiting for her son to get out of jail. You can't get what you want, but you deal with what you get.