Review: Ender's Game

   Not being a fan of science fiction, I have long avoided reading Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card's well-known and well-loved take on the culture of war, childhood,  and the modern war machine. But after watching both my boys rip through the pages with glee, I decided to set aside my prejudices and give it a try.
   Excellent book, I must say. Just goes to show, sometimes it is good to step outside your comfort zone; you might be pleasantly surprised. Ender's Game was a brilliantly crafted, scathing critique of the  military industrial complex. The idea of young children being trained, brutally and intensely, to live, work, and fight for the "machine" of governance is not new, but Card adds in the unique stellar landscape, where children play the roles of both good and evil, isolated, for the most part,  from adult supervision, though it is understood that the over arching mechanism is still adult-managed and manipulated.
   I found this book to be a fascinating study of the human psyche, and  how a child's role in the world can be entirely manipulated by the adults who pull the strings. It was disturbing in parts, mostly when Ender, the very image of goodness and humanity, found himself participating in brutal practices, unable to stop. There is a primitive quality in all of us, it seems, and it only takes authority to bring it out.
   I highly recommend this book... enjoy!
~Karina

Review--Numbers

   Imagine being able to see the date that someone is going to die... how would life be for such a person? Invigorating? Depressing? A bit of each? For Jem, in Rachel Ward's Numbers, having such knowledge is a curse, one she literally runs from to try to escape. Joined in this mad dash to flee from her "gift" is an unlikely hero, Spider, who is gangly, smelly, and nerdy.
   Wrongly accused of detonating an explosion that kills several, Jem and Spider must find a way to clear their names, while Jem seeks to discover the source of her abilities.
   Numbers was entertaining enough, I guess, but mostly it was forgettable... I know there is a sequel out there, but frankly, I just don't care enough about the characters to go looking for it.
~Karina

Review--Ashes, Ashes

   This might be one of the last dystopia novels for me for awhile, though for a finale, Ashes, Ashes, by Jo Treggiari, was entertaining enough, though entirely predictable. In a world stricken by plague, earthquakes, and flooding, Lucy, our young heroine, must navigate the post-apocalyptic world of New York City, where she is hiding out like a savage in a city that is no longer recognizable. Central Park is now home to roving packs of dogs, all of whom seem intent on hunting the straggling survivors, and Lucy, in particular, for her blood carries something special... a possible cure to what ails the planet.
   Lucy finds herself on the run, teaming up with Aiden, the young man, who in better days would have been the jock that ignored her in the school hallways. Romance ensues, of course, and the book scrambles to an end that leaves the reader hanging, but not entirely caring whether another book is on the horizon.
   So, if you need a quick, fun read, give this one a go, but don't expect too much.
--Karina
 

Review: Eve

       This creepy, futuristic novel, Eve, by Anna Carey, comes out in October, and it is sure to captivate many people, especially those who enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale. Like that classic novel, Eve touches on the idea that women--or in this case teen girls--are being used as breeding machines in a world that is collapsing. As a young adult novel, I found this to be a heavy topic, but the idea was merely brushed upon and was not the central focus of the book. 

Instead, Eve’s story-line focuses on an intelligent young girl named Eve (surprise, surprise), who is in line to graduate from the secluded all-girls’ school at the head of her class, destined, or so she thinks, for great purpose and great service to the world, whose population has suffered due to plague and apocalyptic unrest. 

She finds, though, that horrors await, with young girls moving no further than to the next walled-in building to become brood mares to help repopulated the planet. Eve makes the bold move to escape beyond the perceived  safety of her confines to the great wild world, where she encounters what the girls have been told to fear above all else--a male, in this case a thoughtful and mysterious boy named Caleb.

Grand adventure begins, and Eve must learn to trust herself and those around her, in the hopes of escaping the ruling powers who are hunting for her. 

I found Eve to be fast-paced with characters that were richly imagined. If dystopia-themed novels are your thing, than look for this book in the fall.

~Karina

Review--The Carrier of the Mark

Ah! Scathing review time! What a magical time of the year! The Carrier of the Mark*, a YA book by Leigh Fallon, was one of the worst and most hilarious books I have read in a while. Poster child of the clichéd paranormal romance genre, The Carrier of the Mark stars rather bland heroine Megan, who has just moved to Ireland, and is suffering all the usual new girl problems. There she meets darkly handsome Adam DeRís,  for whom she feels an immediate and illogical attraction. And, of course, Adam and his family are anything but ordinary.  The characters are nothing special; Megan is nice... but that's it. She has no personality. Adam is gorgeous, perfect, and angsty, but boring. Also, this book had a lot of similarities to a certain popular paranormal romance I could mention. I would not recommend this book. I truly had trouble finishing it.

~Tessa

*Look (or don't) for this book in October, as it is not out yet.

Review--The Circuit

   The Circuit, Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child, by Francisco Jimenez, is a memoir collection of powerful short-stories, detailing the difficult life of a Mexican immigrant during the mid-20th century. Starkly-written and honest, this book educates and enlightens. Not since Grapes of Wrath have I read such a vivd account of the life of transient workers.
   At times amusing and charming, and often heart-breaking and shocking, Jiménez lays bare the ugly underbelly of the idealized American Dream, where bigotry and discrimination run rampant, and poverty and segregation are the norm. As rough as the lives of the migrants are, their sense of hope and their determination to make a better future for their children, is inspiring.
   This book was an eye-opening read for me, and frankly it should be required reading in schools. It's not to be overlooked.
~Karina

Review--Rotters

     Ok, this book really sent my emotions whirling, at times leaving me impressed with the unexpectedly good writing, and at other times disgusted with the subject matter, which happened to be grave-robbing, believe it or not. Rotters, by Daniel Kraus, is a grossly dark read, not only because a good deal of the story is spent six-feet under with too-accurately-described corpses, but even the peripheral events left me gagging and cringing.
     Filled to the brim with mature topics, I found myself marveling that Rotters passed as a young adult book. Though set in modern times, with all its usual problems of drugs, suicide, bullying, and promiscuity, the author threw in the disjointed and disturbing underworld of grave-robbing, which added a Gothic darkness to the already opaque setting.
     I found myself wondering what sort of person this Daniel Kraus is, who can write so vividly and at times eloquently about a world so disconnected from anything modern society would think is normal. That a modern teenager can so easily embrace the life of a grave-robber, with all the side-effects such a life-style entails--the smell of death that lingers, the caked dirt beneath the finger nails, the hooded eyes that have seen too much--well, I found it all just a bit too unbelievable, frankly.
     Unless you are a fan of gross descriptions just for the thrill of the impact it has on your psyche, I would leave this one buried, which saddens me, since the author is clearly a talented writer. Sigh, oh well, onward and UPWARD.
~Karina