Christina's Review: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Synopsis from School Library Journal: In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch. When 16-year-old KatnissÆs young sister, Prim, is selected as the mining districtÆs female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart, Peeta, the son of the town baker who seems to have all the fighting skills of a lump of bread dough, will be pitted against bigger, stronger representatives who have trained for this their whole lives.

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I want to write like Suzanne Collins. This lady took an issue of which she is adamantly passionate (child violence) and wrote an amazing science fiction novel that reaches into your soul and twists around until you feel vehemently against war and famine. Written in first person, the story follows the journey of a young girl who-for the love of her little sister-decides to fight against 23 other teens in a battle to the death (chance of survival= 4%).

THE BAD

Hmmmmm, I don't like the ending. But don't worry, this isn't a spoiler; all I'm saying is that she shouldn't have left us not only dangling but gripping the rock at the top of a cliff with only our index and middle fingers still holding on and sliding precariously further down. I honestly can't think of anything else that bothered me in this book, although my brother complained that the writing was choppy and especially hated the first person present voice (which I thought intriguing).

THE GOOD

Everything. I loved the heroine, cleverly written with depth, personality, a good dose of bravery, and a girly love for nice clothes (but not enough to make us want to toss a dirty t-shirt at her). I loved Peeta, the guy that liked/didn't like? her throughout the book; whenever he started going flat, the author instantly threw another story into the mix to update his personality with a new flaw or endearing characteristic. And the story itself? Brilliant, deep, intense, thought provoking.

THE VERDICT: AWESOMENESS

Any book that makes me cry AND tremble with excitement within the FIRST CHAPTER deserves my highest rating; so for Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games, I hereby bestow a 5 out of 5 in hopes that a little of her brilliance will rub off on my own writings in the future. Thank you, Suzanne, for a wonderful read.

Susie's Review - The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf

When two young girls disappear from their homes one early morning, the answers to their disappearance lie in the secrets of their past. The Weight of Silence is a book that really starts off with a bang. It was one of those books I picked up and just had to finish as soon as possible so I could know what was going to happen. However I didn't reach the end and think 'wow, that was just incredible', I reached the end and thought it was just pretty good.

The book is definitely suspenseful, although I felt the author took an easy route writing from the different people's perspectives. One chapter will be from the mother's perspective, the next one will be from the detectives perspective, etc,...
I wouldn't have minded so much if the author had given each of the characters different voices. They are all so varied, in age and upbringing, yet there is no variation in voice or writing style. I felt like, at times, the writing was very amateurish. I also found a few of the characters really disappointing. However, the three children featured in this book; Calli, Petra, and Ben are all fascinating and you'll keep flipping pages so you can find out what happens to them.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars, and I hope that Gudenkauf will continue to write great stories, only next time I hope her writing is a little improved.

Christina's Review: If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Synopsis from Publisher's Weekly:

The last normal moment that Mia, a talented cellist, can remember is being in the car with her family. Then she is standing outside her body beside their mangled Buick and her parents' corpses, watching herself and her little brother being tended by paramedics. As she ponders her state (Am I dead? I actually have to ask myself this), Mia is whisked away to a hospital, where, her body in a coma, she reflects on the past and tries to decide whether to fight to live. Via Mia's thoughts and flashbacks, Forman (Sisters in Sanity) expertly explores the teenager's life, her passion for classical music and her strong relationships with her family, friends and boyfriend, Adam. Mia's singular perspective (which will recall Alice Sebold's adult novel, The Lovely Bones) also allows for powerful portraits of her friends and family as they cope: Please don't die. If you die, there's going to be one of those cheesy Princess Diana memorials at school, prays Mia's friend Kim. I know you'd hate that kind of thing. Intensely moving, the novel will force readers to take stock of their lives and the people and things that make them worth living.

Overall . . .

This story was more of a "lemme sit you down and tell ya what happened last week" story than an organized novel. There are no chapters in this book, just a continual flow of dialog broken periodically by time references that held no meaning for me (i.e. 7:35AM) because I didn't really care how long she had been in a coma; I more just wanted to know what would happen next, who would be visiting her in the upcoming section, and what we would learn about her past. From the beginning, I was intrigued by the plot: within a few pages her entire family is out on a snowy bank, covered in blood, with the car on its side a few feet away. Definitely a quick start.

The Bad . . .

A few things really bugged me. First, everyone in her family seemed a little too "good." Even her friend, Kim, fit into a little box of "bitchy yet sweet" or something like that. And although I liked the vignettes about various people, I was sometimes bored as if wondering "have I heard this already?" because by about halfway through the book, I could have told you the story. Let's see, Mia is going to have another Cello experience, Adam will show how cool and collected he is, Kim will blow off steam on someone, her mom will be unusually punk rockish for a woman with two kids, and her dad will be overcoming his rocker past.

The other thing that bothered me was the ending. Not to give away any spoilers, but despite the fact that Mia seemed perfectly set on her decision to stay/leave (not giving that away here!), it was very obvious she had no real explanation as to why. There was no surprise in the end when she at the last minute changed her mind. Because of that, I did not cry at all in the book, more just rolled my eyes and said "c'mon already, we know what you're actually going to do, Mia."

Finally, although this won't bother a lot of readers, I was a little miffed by some of the sexual content in the book. I would have loved to suggest this book to teens I know because of the thought-provoking ideas in the book, but I wouldn't want to give a young girl a book that encourages high school aged sex with guys you have just met. So that was definitely a negative to me. (If this book was not in the Young Adult section, I would not even mention this.)

The Good . . .

Despite my negativity above, I will say that there were many good things in this book. I like Forman's idea to show a young girl at the brink of womanhood suddenly finding herself in an out-of-body experience where she has in an instant lost so many things she holds dear. And at first, I truly wondered what she would do in the end, seeing that staying in her life without her family would be very painful. I love the coma-victims-can-see-whats-going-on idea. Very clever and eye-opening.

Secondly, Forman's voice was super fun and quirky. Mia has a lot of spunk. I especially love that she is obsessed with the cello. I love music and I wish that I could play the cello and date a rocker and all of that. Very cool. I also really liked Adam, her boyfriend. He had more depth than some of the other characters; you're never quite sure what he's going to say and that's how it should be I think.

Finally, although her characters weren't immensely complex, they were very fun and lovable. And I will confess I walked around the house, cooked meals, fed the baby and worked in the church nursery while reading the If I Stay. And I don't do that unless I'm really enjoying a book.

Summary . . .

Gayle Forman's If I Stay was fun, quirky and filled with intriguing stories and thought-provoking topics, but because of the predictable ending, I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

Christna's Review: Wings by Aprilynne Pike

The reason I have not posted a review in so long is not because I have read nothing but rather than I have read so many things I've had no time to you about them. Just the fact that Wings, by Aprilynne Pike, is the book I am now reviewing scares me. I think I've read about 15 books since then, all of which I should review here soon!

When I read Wings, I had an experience unlike anything most will have when reading it. This is because the first half of the book sounded nail-bitingly similar to Behind Every Illusion, the book I wrote last year. Yikes! The main character turns out to be a fairy, her best friend is cool and probably the only nice and level-headed person in the book, and then she starts to sprout something . . . .aah! At that point, I got really nervous and started reading in high gear. What happened in the end? Would I be sued for plagiarism (despite the fact that my book was out before hers)?

Thankfully, halfway through--at the sprouting part, in fact, the book took on an entirely different spin (i.e. trolls, plant people, open mouth life-saving kisses, etc). And there was no environmental cause whatsoever. So, whew.

My review?

THE BAD

I felt that the book was a little simple, the characters fairly one-dimensional, the story-line predictable, and the love triangle confusing and unpassionate. Her best friend, Chelsea, came in at random times during the book, said highly confusion and irrational things and then disappeared again. The love triangle between Laurel (main girl), David (best friend) and Tamani (fairy-dude) felt very forced and awkward. Every time Laurel was kissing David, she was thinking about Tamani and every time she was with Tamani, she thought about David. It was weird. At least enjoy it while you're there!

THE GOOD

I absolutely loved Pike's idea of making fairies actual flowers. Not only do they live in the flowers or whatever, they are actually flowers themselves, so they look like humans but inside their biology is completely plant. Laurel pretty much just drinks sugar (Sprite, peach juice, etc) and during a certain season she sprouts flowers out her back that look like wings (hence the name). Also, as I read the book, I couldn't help but feel that Aprilynne and I are probably highly similar in personality. Her stories and ideas were all things I'd thought of writing before and that was fun and exciting (and highly weird!).

OVERALL

Adding the shallowness of the book with the brilliance of plant fairies, I'd give this book a 3 out of 5 stars. Read it if you are looking for a fun book about fairies that will be turning into a movie with Miley Cyrus next year (yes, you read that correctly). If you don't like Miley, fairies or Sprite, skip it.

Christina