*Review* The 5th Wave – Rick Yancey

 The 5th Wave

Rick Yancey

457 pages

Read 1-11-14

Format: Audiobook

Source: Library

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After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

I had read plenty of reviews talking about how great this book is and how it isn’t what you expect from an alien book, so I decided to find out for myself how great it actually was and I am happy to report that these claims of greatness are true.  I wasn’t completely sure of what to expect with this story since I’ve never read a book that involved aliens before aside from The Host, but I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would.

The world depicted in this book is a scary place.  Imagine waves of awful things occurring, not knowing who to trust, and fighting everyday to survive, not knowing what is truth or lie.  It’s ugly, no matter who you are.  I also like the cover and how it goes with the story (can you see the giant bird?).  The characters are also really great.  Cassie is a very strong and determined female MC, and even after all of the crap she goes through, she is still willing to do whatever it takes without being whiny.  I like Evan a lot, he is unusual, but I really like him, even though he has some flaws.  And with Zombie, I enjoyed seeing the military aspect of it and what they have to go through on that end.

I read this mostly in audio format, up until the last 30 minutes when my audiobook files became corrupted and stopped working, then I finished it out in a borrowed hardcover.  Both narrators did really well reading it and had nice voices.  The action scenes were great, both in print and on audio and not at all confusing like some can be.  The book also switches points of view from  female and male characters, and I think the author did a really good job of rotating between two different genders’ mindsets.

Though there is some love interest stuff in the story, there is no real gushy mushy romance.  I didn’t expect there to be either, considering aliens are trying to wipe out the human population.  It also isn’t easy at all, which makes it more real than if they had had some sort of crazy romantic love story in the middle of an extraterrestrial takeover.  This one is definitely a book for guys or girls, and even for those who might not care for alien books much because it really isn’t the kind of aliens you think.

Scary world, great characters, good readers, not what you expect.

*Review* Struck – Jennifer Bosworth

 Struck

Jennifer Bosworth

373 pages

ISBN: 9780374372835

Read 6-30-13

Format: Hardcover

Source: Library

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Mia Price is a lightning addict. She’s survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her.

Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. The beaches become massive tent cities. Downtown is a crumbling wasteland, where a traveling party moves to a different empty building each night, the revelers drawn to the destruction by a force they cannot deny. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

Mia wants to trust the enigmatic and alluring Jeremy when he promises to protect her, but she fears he isn’t who he claims to be. In the end, the passion and power that brought them together could be their downfall. When the final disaster strikes, Mia must risk unleashing the full horror of her strength to save the people she loves, or lose everything.

This was my Random Read for June, and since I was on vacation and finished the book the day I was getting on the plane, I am now able to finally post my review.  This was the first book I have read that involves cults, and it sounded like it could be a pretty intense read, plus, the book trailer was one of the best I’ve seen.  I can’t say this one held up to my expectations, though I did enjoy it I wasn’t blown away by it.  The idea of someone being a lightning was also tugging at me to read it, but I didn’t really feel the “addict” part of it.

Mia was mostly a pretty good character.  It took a lot to shake her up (it would take a lot to shake me up to if I had been hit my lightning so many times) and she stood her ground for what she believed in.  She had a lot of hard decisions to make, sometimes making the obviously wrong ones, and she had a ton to deal with like a stubborn brother and a sick mother.

Jeremy was interesting and I thought it was cute how Mia compared him to Clark Kent at times because of his glasses.  By the end of the book, I had some mixed feelings about him because of some of the things that happened.  Rachel, one of the main Follower characters, I greatly did not like.  If she were a real person, I would have liked to punch her in the face a few times.  But, I’m sure this is what the author was going for, so, well done on her.

The book was written pretty well as were the descriptions; I just wasn’t wowed.  If you are interested in reading it, by all means, still pick it up because it was an enjoyable read and I liked the way it ended.  Also, if you have time you should look up Lichtenburg scars (the scars the MC has), they are pretty awesome looking!

Good descriptions, interesting story, good ending, didn’t wow me.

*Review* and *Interview* Night of the Purple Moon – Scott Cramer

Today I am welcoming Scott Cramer, author of Night of the Purple Moon to my blog. His book is an interesting post-apocalyptic story about a comet that leaves deadly space dust in its wake, killing adults and older teens.

Welcome to On The Shelf, Scott and thank you for the interview! I’d like to ask you some questions, first about your book, then about yourself.

*Review* Starters – Lissa Price

 Starters

Lissa Price

352 pages

ISBN: 9780385742375

Read 9-1-12

Format: Audiobook

Source: Library

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 HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

The plot of this book was so interesting, fresh, and creepy.  How weird would it be to sell your body, so that an old person could rent it from you and use it to do all the things they are no longer young enough to do.  Callie is a desperate Starter who very badly needs money for her sick brother and decides to go to Prime Destinations and sign herself up to rent her body.

*Review* Ashfall – Mike Mullin

 Ashfall

Mike Mullin

466 pages

ISBN: 9781933718552

Source: Library

Format: Hardcover

 

     Under the bubbling hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park is a supervolcano. Most people don’t know it’s there. The caldera is so large that it can only be seen from a plane or satellite. It just could be overdue for an eruption, which would change the landscape and climate of our planet.

     Ashfall is the story of Alex, a teenage boy left alone for the weekend while his parents visit relatives. When the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts unexpectedly, Alex is determined to reach his parents. He must travel over a hundred miles in a landscape transformed by a foot of ash and the destruction of every modern convenience that he has ever known, and through a new world in which disaster has brought out both the best and worst in people desperate for food, water, and warmth. With a combination of nonstop action, a little romance, and very real science, this is a story that is difficult to stop reading and even more difficult to forget.

Ashfall is a wonderful debut novel by Mike Mullin.  It’s very well thought out and realistic.  The eruption of a supervolcano that destroys so much is a very scary thing.  He does an excellent job of showing the nature of people when a natural disaster of this magnitude strikes.  The good, and the very, very bad.  People can become very ugly when a crisis like this happens, and the author put to page some of the worst  humans can become when desperate.

I liked the characters very much, and I could feel my heart breaking for them in several places of the book.  Some situations are very gruesome and tough to deal with, but in a world so rough, there are going to be plenty of harsh times.   Alex did a lot of changing through his journey, starting off as a shelfish teenager who wants to stay at home instead of going to have a good family weekend at his uncle’s farm and turning into a much stronger, grown version of himself who would do anything for those he cared for.  I really liked Darla as well; she is a very strong female, and having been raised on a farm, is very resourceful and smart.

This book is so raw and real.  I liked the romantic aspect of it because it wasn’t the typical type of YA romance.   How could it be in this kind of world?  I liked the bond between Alex and Darla, and that they could find something good in a place so wrought with destruction and ugliness.

Ashfall evokes plenty of emotions and is a very powerful story.  There were numerous times I was so mad at the behavior of people, but it is most likely what would happen if people were in this kind of situation.  The only thing I wasn’t crazy about were the slower points during travels.  The action points were good and fast-paced, but while travelling through the ashen wasteland, it dragged a bit for me.  All in all, I really enjoyed it and I will definitely be reading the next installment.

Very real, emotionally involving, riveting, thought some slow points.