Review: Ship Break by Paolo Bacigalupi

Genre: Young Adult, Dystopian
SciFi Element: Apocalypitic 
Order Online:  Amazon.com 
Stalk the Author: Web | Twitter | Facebook  
Audible.com Download

 

PJ's QUICKIE POV:
After having read and enjoyed The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi I quickly moved on to his young adult novel, SHIP BREAKER. Favoring the gritty and in-your-face style of writing that Bacigalupi is known for, SHIP BREAKER, while young adult, didn't hold back. Bacigalupi thrust you into a very uncomfortable, dystopian world and rubs your face into it repeatedly and if you are anything like me, you'll love every minute of it.

REVIEW:
In the future world of SHIP BREAKER there is a huge economic divide between the poor and the rich, much like you would find in 3rd world countries. The rich live in sickening luxury while the poor destroy themselves to earn pennies and barely survive. The Gulf Coast region of what was once the United States has been devastated by hurricanes, plague and famine. Ragged villages exist upon the coast, their whole existence revolving around scavenging the oil tankers that were left to rot after the decline of the human race. Nailer is our hero of this story, he is a young teenager, still small in frame so he is able to squirrel his way through the ships and scavenge on what is called Light Crew. His existence is horrendous, forced to scavenge in an environment that could kill you at any turn, then only to come home to an abusive father, waiting for that day when his shoulders grow a little too wide and then he won't be able to crawl through the ships...therefor not able to work any longer.

Change comes to the shores in the form of a terrible hurricane, not uncommon in those parts, but with it comes more scavenge as Nailer and his friend Pima come across a clipper ship, broken and screaming wealth. A lone survivor on the ship puts some serious questions in front of the teens...it would be so much easier just to kill her and take the scavenge then it would be to let her live. Something stops Nailer though and he does the right thing...hoping that his choices, made for the right reasons will lead him to a better life instead of just scraping by in his village.

Bacigalupi (just like writing out his name – saying it is even better) has the voice of a science fiction rock star. His descriptions are so vividly stunning that the world comes alive around you. To describe his book in one adjective it would be “rusty”, it's just this old world, slightly acidic environment that is portrayed in such naked and viscous detail that it can almost be hard to digest at times. This is a book you don't want to pass up.

What some readers might find hard to take in: This is a more “boy” oriented story, it's not romantic with kissing and sobbing and love triangles. This is an adventure story with a girl and a boy, but the theme is triumph over your circumstances, not romance. I highly recommend this one and it's great for something different, if you are tired of those love triangles...

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Recommended for fans of dystopian and gritty science fiction. Recommended for more mature teens 14+ because of some mature and sometimes violent themes, but nothing that is out of line.




  


Like this Like That

1. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
2. Maze Runner by James Dascel

Review: Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden

Genre: Young Adult, Apocalyptic  
SciFi Element: Apocalypitic
Order Online:  Amazon.com
Stalk the Author: Web | Blog  
Audible.com Download

 

PJ's QUICKIE POV:
It would seem since I have been on an apocalypse kick for awhile, so audible.com was keen on me listening/reading to TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN and I had done a marvelous job ignoring them...even though it kept popping up on my recommended lists on both amazon and audible. You see, even though I enjoyed RED DAWN the movie, I didn't know if I would like to read about it – and that is what the reviews constantly compared it to. I guess I should have listened to Auntie Amazon and Audible, they were right. I should have read, listened, inhaled TOMORROW a long time ago, because it was a fantastic read and has thus launched me on a mission to get a hold of a digital copy of the Australian made movie inspired by the book. (Which is IMPOSSIBLE!!!) One day I guess. This book has it all, smart witty teens, a bit of action, action and more action, innocent coming of age drama, a slight bit of romance and a carefully tailored setting that had me wanting to board the next plane to Australia.

REVIEW:
Ellie and her friends have planned a spontaneous camping trip that ventures deep into the bush of the Australian outback. Their camping is fun and might spark a romantic interest or two, but besides that it all goes as planned...until they return home. Only a week has passed but their houses seem abandoned, their pets are starving, dying or already dead. Something is seriously wrong and as they push further into town they realize that those jets they had noticed flying over at the beginning of their trip might not have been domestic. They have been invaded, their families held in makeshift POW camps and households suspected to hold insurgents are being bombed indiscriminately. They are at war and to escape capture Ellie and her friends must make choices, what will they do, who will they hurt to survive and stay free?

Phenomenal ride! I was literally on the edge of my seat throughout the entirety of this novel. Haters can yammer all they want that this is just like Red Dawn and I give it to them – TOMORROW is like Red Dawn, just like TWILIGHT is like The Vampire Diaries. Same concept – yeah, but the story is compelling, heart-felt and intense, it entertained me, broke my heart at times and had my anxiety up. I also did this one via audio book so I got to experience the Australian accents, which was fun. I love their accents – but they didn't fall into a lot of Aussie slang, which was a relief because frankly I'm usually at a loss with a lot of their “shortened” words. You have to check this one out and I'm literally restraining myself to not grab book two.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
Recommended for fans of young adult apocalypse novels. There are some heavier themes with violence and some sexual references so recommended for more mature teens, but there is nothing graphic that should turn off parents.







Like this Like That

1. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
2. Maze Runner by James Dascel

PJ Review: Die for Me by Amy Plum

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
Paranormal Element: Revenants
Series: Revenants #1
Order Online:  Amazon.com

Audiobook review, copy purchased from audible.com

PJ's QUICKIE POV:
To say I didn’t like this book is an understatement – but I finished it. Yep, I trudged through it, hoping beyond hope that at one point it would redeem itself and turn into this brilliant piece of fiction instead of a French spin on Twilight. It never did. So, I’ll do a quick summation of why I didn’t like this book and follow it up with a Die For Me vs. Twilight break down to show just how alike these books really are.

REVIEW:
After the tragic deaths of her parents, Kate Mercier is dragged to Paris by her older, “party girl” sister to reside under the care of her French grandparents. Horribly depressed Kate finds solace in books and museums, rarely socializing with her peers at school. Until she meets über hot, Parisian, Vincent – and Kate’s depression is long forgotten as she slowly falls in love with him. But, as their relationship grows, Kate suspects something isn’t normal about Vincent and in a daring move she forces her way into his “family” and finds out the truth – Vincent is a revenant. An undead being forced to save people as a compulsion. And to make matters worse, like all universal truths every thing must have it’s opposite –Kate is faced with the evil revenants - those whose compulsion it is to kill.

This just drips with yawn worthy material. But, I was struck by the hype. I should have paid attention to more reviews…because the people that are saying it is just like Twilight. Well, they are right – but it came nowhere near being as good as Twilight. Between the hokey dialogue and lovey-dovey phrasing, the semi-formed plot, the silliness of the whole revenant mythology and then the sudden wrap-up at the end, Die For Me was just dead in the water. Don’t waste your money or your time.

To expound on my silliness theory let’s go over the finer points of what is a revenant. A revenant is a person that dies in the act of saving someone’s lives. No one knows why not everyone comes back as a revenant just some do. It takes three days (vampire like) to come back, but then you are “undead” and have to live the rest of your existence with a crazy compulsion to save other people. But, the thing is you “die” when you save other people and each time you “die” you age. You can’t help it, you have to save these people you have to go looking to save people. Then there are the evil revenants who die in pursuit of heinous death crimes. They come back as the opposite – with a compulsion for depravity. So, they buy nightclubs and live in catacombs – so they can kill people. Right.

Now, I know the revenant theory sounds like nothing Twilight-esque so here I will expound on the similarities of the two books. Brace yourself for the snark and spoilers – so if you want to read this book don’t go any further.

KATE	Alike	Not Alike, but still on the same lines	Similar	BELLA
Kate is human	X			Bella is human
Kate moves to Paris after the death of her parents.			X	Moves to Forks after her mom remarries
Kate is severely depressed with her new surroundings.	X			Bella hates Forks and is depressed.
Kate uses books to escape her pain.	X			Bella reads books to get away from her depression
Kate is kind of akward and doesn't think she looks good but is really the hottest thing to hit Paris in a long time.			X	Bella is socially akward and thinks she is ugly, but all the guys think she is hot.
Kate has an older sister who is a party girl and is constantly trying to get Kate out of her shell.		X		Bella has a father that is socially akward also but tries to get Bella to open up.
When Kate sees Vincent her whole world changes and she is suddenly not depressed.	X			When Bella sees Edward she is instantly drawn to him and suddenly Forks isn't so bad.
Kate sees Vincent perform a death-defying feat that makes her question his normality.			X	Bella is rescued by Edward and he performs a death defying feat which proves that he isn't normal.
Kate has no problem when Vincent reveals his non-humanness	X			Bella has no problem when Edward reveals his non-humanness.
Kate breaks up with Vincent because she can't deal with his non-humaness.			X	Edward breaks up with Bella because he can't deal with her humanness.
Kate parties without Vincent but finds life is empty without him.		X		Bella does stupid things like jump off cliffs when they are apart.
Kate tries to sacrafice herself for her love	X			Bella tries to sacrafice herself for her love
Kate posseses talents that no human has ever possessed before when dealing with the revenants.	X			Bella posseses talents that no human has ever possessed before when dealing with the vampires.
VINCENT	Alike	Not Alike, but still on the same lines	Similar	EDWARD
Vincent is a Revenant		X		Edward is a vampire.
Vincent is undead	X			Edward is undead
Vincent is immortal	X			Edward is immortal
Vincent doesn't sleep	X			Edward doesn't sleep
Vincent is plagued by the compulsion to save people's lives		X		Edward is plauged by the compulsion to eat people
Vincent is in-love with a girl that is decades younger than him	X			Edward is in-love with a girl that is decades younger than him
Vincent lives with his "family" a group of pepole that are just like him that he treats like siblings	X			Edward lives with his "family" a group of pepole that are just like him that he treats like siblings
Vincent lives in a big old mansion with lots of rooms where his whole family lives	X			Edward lives in a big old mansion with lots of rooms where his whole family lives
Vincent was just a shell of a man, living his immortal existence with no "joie de vivre" before he met Kate	X			Edward was just a shell of a man, living his immortal existence with no "joie de vivre" before he met Kate

This one did get a 1.5 because the narrator rocked (Julia Whelan)...and I would hate to spoil her craft with a funky 1 skull. Her French accent was perfect with all the French phrasing that Plum shoved in there and French locales and she transitioned the male roles wonderfully even with the French accents.

PJ Review: Need by Carrie Jones

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW

Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Romance
SciFi Element: Shape-Shifters, Pixies
Series: Need #1
Order Online:  Amazon.com
Stalk the Author: Web | Twitter
Audible.com purchase.

PJ's QUICKIE POV:
This is what I have to label as one of the sweetest young adult paranormal romance novels that I’ve ever read. (Well listened to). I wouldn’t say that it was the greatest PNR to ever be written, or even one of the best, but...I’m completely smitten with Zara and Nick and am dying for more. Through the whole novel I just wanted to sigh in contentment as Carrie Jones described normal feelings and events so well that I could almost taste them on my tongue. Between Carrie Jone’s words and the perfect narration by Julia Whelan I was in Young Adult bliss. The sweetness that was the blooming relationship between Zara and Nick and the intensity that was Zara’s passions for her beliefs and hurt over losing her father made the novel brilliant. I had certain expectations going into NEED and I can admit I was taken completely by surprise.

REVIEW:
Zara is a shell of herself. The death of her father has destroyed her. Vibrant and in love with life, Zara had always been a force to be reckoned with, but the light has left her eyes and her mother is worried. To combat Zara’s depression, Zara’s mother has decided to send her to live with her Gram in Bangor, Maine. Far away from warm Charleston, basically a whole other world...as far as Zara is concerned.

From the charming way that the characters interacted, like real teens, to the recitation of fears that was a constant litany in Zara’s inner-dialogue, I was hooked. I loved the characters, even the supporting characters -- even the evil characters! And there was just something in the way Jones described things. They meant something to me, it felt real. There was this one scene, where Nick sits down next to Zara and their thighs almost touch, it was so simple, such a nothing moment, but for Zara it was momentous and Jones description made it that way for me also.

Now, for the part I didn't like, because while I thoroughly enjoyed this book, there were a few things that didn’t sit well with me. I thought parts were skipped over and not explained as well as they should have been. I felt Zara’s reactions to certain revelations were real at some point (Nick’s reveal was the best) but the father’s reveal was just -- bleh. I was once again thinking after the reveal -- why are these people going to high school?? I think I might have missed something there. And then the big one...why did her mom send her in the first place? It was casually touched upon, but really Mom? Really? Epic fail on that one. As you can see I really had no problems with the writing or the plot, just character behaviors.

AUDIO BOOK REVIEW:
The book was narrated by Julia Whelan, who is absolutely amazing. I love narration that just breaths the main character and Whelan conveyed Zara perfectly and then switched into the other characters with ease. Her pronunciation was also seamless. She has narrated a lot of books, including ELIXIR which I also reviewed. (Didn't like that book though - but the writing not the narration). I'm almost templted to download The Magnolia League just so I can hear her again.


RECOMMENDATIONS:
For fans of paranormal romance of the young adult variety. If you like the Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater, you might just like this one.







Similar Novels

1. Shiver (wolves)
2. Strange Angels (vamps & wolves)
3. Unearthly (angels)
4. Iron King (Faeries)
5. The Summoning (wolves, witches, and much more)

The 411:

1. Book 4 will be released in January 2012
2. They have won a ton of Indie awards 
3. Teams are being formed on the Facebook page so I don’t want to stalk the site too much, since I haven’t read book two, and so far there was no one else to be on a team!!