Paranormalcy

Paranormalcy
Kiersten White
HarperTeen, September 2010

Paranormal

I already talked a bit about my initial excitement in an earlier post here, but I will briefly reiterate that I was/am excited about this particular paranormal novel because of the strong female lead character. 

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie's always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures. From Goodreads site

Let's just start with characters: Evie is awesome. Although she works for a secret government agency chasing down paranormals, she is still just like any other teen girl -- she worries about boys, loves to shop, feels out of place, struggles to figure out who she is and what she wants. And through everything she's pretty clever and runs around with a pink sparkly taser. Kiersten White proves that you can be girlie and love pink and still be a strong, smart, independent girl. As for the rest of the characters, they are all interesting and play their rolls in the overall story well. Lend, the romantic interest is an interesting opposite of Evie in many ways adding to her character as well as his. I love these sort of character dynamics.

This novel has more going on than you would expect after reading the summary, even after reading the first 100 pages. It's more than just a girl hunting down a killer of paranormals, or a girl falling for a paranormal, or a girl struggling to figure out who she is -- it's all of those things plus several twists and turns. I honestly had trouble stopping myself from pulling it out at dinner with friends when the conversation began to bore me because all I could think about was what was happening to Evie!

Just have to make a few comments on the cover. It  is one of best I've seen in while. The whole mood created fits the book perfectly and it's mysterious, dark, and pretty all at the same time (just like the main character). Everything about it just works; can't wait to see the covers on the next books in the series.

White has created an excellent YA paranormal novel that keeps all the elements teens (and adults) love about the genre while adding something new and different, especially through her excellent characters.

 Move to the top of your to-read pile

Dark Life

Dark Life
Kate Falls
Scholastic, May 2010
Dystopia

Apocalyptic future, societies living on the ocean floor, crazy out-laws, oh doesn't that sound excellent. The whole idea of society living on the ocean floor seems new and original for YA, and it's all wrapped up into a dysoptia, how perfect.

Set in an apocalyptic future where rising oceans have swallowed up entire regions and people live packed like sardines on the dry land left, DARK LIFE is the harrowing tale of underwater pioneers who have carved out a life for themselves in the harsh deep-sea environment, farming the seafloor in exchange for the land deed.

The story follows Ty, who has lived his whole life on his family's homestead and has dreams of claiming his own stake when he turns eighteen. But when outlaws' attacks on government supply ships and settlements threaten to destroy the underwater territory, Ty finds himself in a fight to stop the outlaws and save the only home he has ever known.

Joined by a girl from the Topside who has come subsea to look for her prospector brother, Ty ventures into the frontier's rough underworld and begins to discover some dark secrets to Dark Life. From Goodreads site

Let's get the bad out of the way first: I had a hard time getting in the story. I really liked the premise and the characters especially Gemma, but for some reason I wasn't dying to find out what would happen to them. There was a lot suspense and the "villain" character was awesome, so I'm not sure what prevented me from absolutely loving this book. The main issue, I think was I came into the novel thinking YA, older characters, and the characters are fairly young and the story felt very very Middle Grade, which I really didn't expect. Maybe that's really the only basis for my issues with the book.

On to the good: have I said how much I love the idea of society on the ocean floor?! The underwater world Falls has created was amazing; I especially loved all the detail given about how the homes function, how the people "farm" and raise animals. It all seemed perfectly logical, nothing too far-fetched. I could easily picture every part of Ty's world.

And Ty himself is an excellent middle grade boy character; he's adventurous, brave, nervous around girls, a little awkward, devoted to his family. Young boys will totally relate to him especially since he always feels so different. And Gemma, his female sidekick is funny, smart, stubborn, brave; girls and boys will like her and relate to her struggle to find her brother and a sense of family. The rest of the cast is excellent created as well, especially the various "villains;" all of whom are more than just bad-guys out to destroy society.

Excellent Middle Grade dystopia adventure story. I think I would have really loved it if I hadn't been so stuck on assuming it was older YA.

Add to your to-read pile

Unralveled Contest

YA author Gena Showalter and some of her YA friends are hosting a blog scavenger hunt in anticipation of the release of UNRAVELED (the sequel to INTERTWINED). The contest runs Monday, August 30^th to Thursday, September 2^nd. The hunt participants includes authors Rachel Caine, PC Cast, Marley Gibson, Rosemary Clement-Moore and Tina Ferraro, as well as Gena, natch, and The Knight Agency blog. Three grand prize winners will each win a $100 Visa gift card, plus Gena's giving away signed copies of UNRAVELED to five lucky runner-ups! All you have to do is find all eight letters, unscramble them and email the word to Contests(AT)KnightAgency.net. To find out where the letters are hiding in the great internet universe, click here for a contest road map and rules. 

 

Gena Showalter’s YA series, Intertwined, about sixteen-year-old Aden Stone, a paranormal magnet who has, well had, four souls trapped in his head, continues this fall with the release of UNRAVELED (Harlequin, September 2010). Now, Aden is down to three souls bossing him around, but along the way he’s picked up the title of Vampire King to add to his ever-growing list of worries (which includes a prophecy that says he’ll bite the dust after a knife through the heart).

Get to searching the blogs and unraveling the clues! Happy scavenging!

The Contemps

I recently came across The Contemps blog and found the concept noteworthy. The members describe themselves as such:

We're the Contemps, a group of YA authors with contemporary novels releasing over the course of a year. We are passionate about realistic fiction because these are the books that remind us we're not alone in this real world. Our mission is simple - to spotlight contemporary fiction for young adults through blog posts, author events, and (over)sharing from our teen years. From the Contemps blog

With the recent rise in popularity of paranormal, fantasy, dystopia novels it's interesting and nice to see a group dedicated to realistic fiction for teens. Although I am a huge, huge fan of dystopias (now as an adult), when I was a teen I read almost exclusively realistic YA. And my return to YA as an adult was largely due to reading Looking for Alaska by John Green. As a teen I simply couldn't relate to characters in the fantasy and sci-fi novels that my friends loved; I needed characters that I could really see myself knowing and possibly being. I wanted to escape into a world that was similar to mine, not a fantastical one of dragons, vampires, or other mythical creatures or realms. As an adult I think my reading tastes are much more varied, but I still love a realistic YA novel that draws me back to being in junior high and reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower for the third or fourth time.

So I will be participating in their challenge to read at least 18 of the 21 members' 21 novels. See my challenges page for updates on what my progress and links to my reviews. Check out their site to join in on the challenge and/or spread the word!

Mockingjay

Mockingjay
Suzanne Collins
Scholastic, 2010
Dsytopia

As you all probably already know I've been super, super excited for Mockingjay to come out. I re-read Hunger Games and Catching Fire last month to refresh my memory on everything that has happened and to remember where Collins left off. I finished the book Wednesday night, but have wait until now to write the review because I had no idea what I wanted to say; I didn't want to just ramble away about how it's amazing or I loved/hated the ending. So here's my attempt to do more than that without giving anything away.

My name is Katniss Everdeen. Why am I not dead? I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans -- except Katniss.

The success of the rebellion hinges on Katniss's willingness to be a pawn, to accept responsibility for countless lives, and to change the course of the future of Panem. To do this, she must put aside her feelings of anger and distrust. She must become the rebels' Mockingjay -- no matter what the personal cost. From Goodreads.com

Let's just get the initial "I loved it" out of the way; it was an amazing end to an amazing trilogy. Collins created the same page-turning excitement in the final installment as she did in the first two. The plot twists are unexpected and keep you reading, and the build-up to the end is, as always, amazing. Katniss is still just as amazing, interesting, stubborn, difficult as she was in the first two. The love triangle continues on with added twists. And all I will say about the ending is that I thought I worked perfectly with the direction of the last book and the trilogy overall.

I must say although I completely and totally love the whole trilogy, I definitely feel that the first book (Hunger Games) was by far the best. The Games, the suspense, the romance, everything comes together so very well in this first book. The second book (Catching Fire) is wonderful and just as interesting as the first, but there's so much going on. The Games, the possible rebellion, trying to figure out whose side everyone is on made the book a bit overwhelming at times for me. But this works since that's exactly how Katniss is feeling, but I wasn't as "into" the book as I was the first (I did still read the entire thing in one sitting, so obviously I was "into" the book). I most certainly liked Mockingjay more than Catching Fire. The book didn't feel like Collins was just trying to tie everything up in a nice little bow at the end; there were still twists and turns right up to the end.

Katniss has become one of my all-time favorite characters. Right from the beginning I have loved her; I know she can be a bit annoying, difficult, selfish, but I think she's fascinating. In Mockingjay, she's finally allowing all that has happened to sink in, she's become a more broken character. Everything has caught up to her and like most people it's getting to her. She isn't necessarily a more likable character, but I felt even more on her side.

I can finally breathe a sign of relief that the fate of Panem has been determined -- at least for now. I think I need to go begin re-reading right now to truly soak in all that happened now that the "what's going to happen, who's going to die, who's Katniss end up with" is gone.

Get it immediately and begin reading