Tag: dystopian

YA

Review: Cress by Marissa Meyer

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: The Lunar Chronicles #3

cress -marissa meyer

In this third book in the Lunar Chronicles, Cinder and Captain Thorne are fugitives on the run, now with Scarlet and Wolf in tow. Together, they’re plotting to overthrow Queen Levana and her army.

Their best hope lies with Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.

When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a high price. Meanwhile, Queen Levana will let nothing prevent her marriage to Emperor Kai. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

 

3.5 Drink Me Potions

I wanted to love this as it so clearly thrilled the majority of Meyer’s fans from her previous two novels in the Lunar Chronicles. However, the only feeling I’m left with is mild adoration instead of the OMG, that was the best thing ever.

Let me start off by saying that I did really enjoy it, but it just didn’t meet my extremely high expectations after reading Cinder and Scarlet. I will break down what I loved about it, and what gave me pause from giving it a maximal rating.

LOVED:

1. Cress was different from the two previous protagonists in the series. She’s a little naive (after all, she spent a huge chunk of her life stuck in a floating satellite all on her own) and a whole lot innocent. Her voice stood out from regular heroine-types in YA literature. She wasn’t a fighter; she believed in the best of everyone.

NOT-SO-LOVED:

1. Maybe it was her innocence or whatever, but her huge crush on Thorne even before she met him was a little farfetched for me. She fell for a figment of her imagination, someone she molded Thorne to fit into when she read up on his history. I’m not saying their romance wasn’t great and all – eventually. Just, the strength of her feelings before even truly getting to know him really puzzled me. Honestly, why him? Of all the people she spied on, she picked Thorne and believed the best motives behind all his crazy plots and mishaps.

LOVED:

2. The camaraderie between all the protagonists so far in the series. Cinder was still very much present, for which I’m glad ’cause she’s still my favourite character of all of them and an integral part of everything. Their banter and scenes were very fun to read, and Meyer writes in a way that each person she added to this story wasn’t some generic version of each other. They had a unique personality that definitely shone through their actions and their comments.

For example, Cinder can be quite sarcastic but you know she has a genuine heart. Thorne is hilarious with his wittiness, charm and sometimes the most inappropriate things to say. Add Cress’s innocence and eagerness to help him out, it made for a lot of fun reading this novel, considering the length of it could potentially bore people if it wasn’t kept entertaining.

Knees suddenly weak, Cress reached for [Thorne’s] forearms to stabilize herself. “You came for me.”

He beamed, looking for all the world like a selfless, daring hero.

“Don’t sound so surprised.” Dropping the cane, he pulled her into a crushing embrace. “It turns out you are worth a lot of money on the black market.”

NOT-SO-LOVED:

2. Because of the continual addition of new protagonists with each book, there are more and more POVs separating all the characters. So you’ll be invested into one particular scene with say, Cinder, and then suddenly pop on over to what Cress is up to. It made me impatient to get past one person’s adventures in order to continue with the one I was most invested in. So by the end of Cress, even with 500+ pages, it didn’t seem like as much happened for each character because the length of the novel was split so heavily between so many people. I just didn’t love Cress as much as Cinder because I read so much more about Cinder’s hardships and rise to heroine status.

LOVED:

3. The plot was jam-packed with crazy things that each heroine had to face, along with their potential “Prince Charmings”. It wasn’t boring as there’s always one thing or another happening to someone. The action and adventure were just as fun as you would expect from Meyer, that I can assure you.

NOT-SO-LOVED:

3. But, because of the segmentation of everyone’s POVs, the plot didn’t flow as smoothly. Eventually when most of the gang got back together, it was a little easier to go from Point A to Point B.

The other thing was the lack of romance (or hints of it) for the most part.  Obviously, the grand finale would give us all the closure we needed with each heroine and their love lives, but there just wasn’t much in this department here. Wolf and Scarlet get separated early on, Cinder and Kai still have some unresolved issues since book 1, and Cress has these huge expectations for Thorne that he really didn’t ask for so he obviously doesn’t measure up.

All in all, Cress was a fine novel and continuation in the Lunar Chronicles. It just had a lot of expectations to meet, and these points may have just been things that only bothered me as the majority of fans found it immensely enjoyable.

Agh, but that ending! Now I really want me some Winter.

Overall Recommendation:

Marissa Meyer does it again with this next installment of the Lunar Chronicles. Due to my nitpickiness and extremely high expectations for her work, I didn’t enjoy Cress as much as I had hoped. Switching between too many POVs made the plot seem disconnected in places and there just wasn’t enough resolution in the romance department for a fairy tale retelling. That’s not to say it wasn’t still a good read. I would recommend this to any fans captured by Cinder as the pace picks up heading into the finale.

YA

Review: Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Under the Never Sky #3

into the still blue -veronica rossi

The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do—and they are just as determined to stay together.

Within the confines of a cave they’re using as a makeshift refuge, they struggle to reconcile their people, Dwellers and Outsiders, who are united only in their hatred of their desperate situation. Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. Then Roar arrives in a grief-stricken fury, endangering all with his need for revenge.

Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble an unlikely team for an impossible rescue mission. Cinder isn’t just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival–he’s also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most.

In this final book in her earth-shattering Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close.

3 Drink Me Potions

For a series conclusion, it wasn’t really all that epic, to be honest. Perry and Aria have so many problems to conquer, an accumulation of everything that’s happened in both Under the Never Sky and Through the Ever Night. And sure, I will admit that everything gets resolved, somehow, but it just wasn’t the explosive kind of conclusion that I was expecting.

Sacrifices were made. Lives were lost. A fight against the bad guy ensued. Yes, it had all these elements, but it just felt like something essential was still missing at the heart of it. Maybe this is just me, and not at all the book. But that’s just how I felt coming out of this.

Character development was decent. Perry has a lot of stepping up to do to lead a group of people away from everything they’ve ever known. Aria, likewise, needs to convince her people that these Outsiders aren’t as bad as they always believed. Soren wasn’t the typical bad boy anymore. I think he had to grow up, real fast, after seeing what kind of a deal his father had made with Sable, the leader of the Horns, and the ensuing consequences. Lastly, there’s dear ol’ Roar. I’ve always loved him. He was the best friend for both Aria and Perry, but he also had a soft romantic side to him. After the absolutely heartwrenching events of the previous novel, Roar’s left with an aftermath that he wasn’t ready to deal with. I won’t ruin anything, but not everything can be happy-go-lucky for every character. He got the short end of the stick, but I’d like to think it made my favourite character the strongest of them all.

Eh, I guess there’s not much more to say. I was quite iffy with this ending. I had so hoped there would be a surprising twist, but it went pretty much the way I had imagined it (minus the lives lost). Maybe you would like it more than I did, but the only favouring point I can give it is that it was a stable ending.

Overall Recommendation:

Into the Still Blue was everything I expected. Period. There was no amount of surprise, pretty much unfolding in a predictable manner that anyone can guess from reading the two previous novels. For a series conclusion, it held no special umph that gave it a bit of spice and excitement. At the end of the day, it was a decent ending for everyone, but it wasn’t one of those memorable ones. Unfortunately, it also didn’t end “happily ever after” for every character, though I guess that made it more realistic. All in all, I’m glad I read it to see how things wrapped up, but don’t expect it to be “OMG that was awesome” or anything.

 

 

YA

Review: Through the Ever Night by Veronica Rossi

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

Series: Under the Never Sky #2

through the ever night -veronica rossi

It’s been months since Aria last saw Perry. Months since Perry was named Blood Lord of the Tides, and Aria was charged with an impossible mission.

Now, finally, they are about to be reunited. But their reunion is far from perfect. The Tides don’t take kindly to Aria, a former Dweller. And with the worsening Aether storms threatening the tribe’s precarious existence, Aria begins to fear that leaving Perry behind might be the only way to save them both.

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, can their love survive through the ever night?

4 Drink Me Potions

Through the Ever Night is a heart-pounding, fast-paced novel that left me breathless as I raced through it in one sitting. This is one sequel that definitely surpassed its predecessor. And I rarely say that, so it’s one BIG compliment.

Now that the details of this dystopian world has been settled in Under the Never Sky, the action really starts coming from all directions. Starting right where Under the Never Sky left off (at that sweet hint of a reunion between our two protagonists), things get hairy – real fast. Perry is now the Blood Lord of his tribe, the Tides. He’s rather young and not as heartless as his brother who was before him. That could cause problems. And to make things worse, he’s bringing a Dweller – aka Aria – into the fold.

I wasn’t very into Perry and Aria’s romance in the first novel, but their relationship takes a realistic turn that I enjoyed here. Their first fight and how to deal with a potential future for the both of them when they come from such different backgrounds. Their sweet, hidden moments away from the prying eyes of the Tides. Dealing with jealous exes. It was real, poignant and their love was so very tangible that I felt I could almost taste it (or should I say, smell it?). They didn’t say “I love you” to each other at any point, but a good romance doesn’t need the words physically there in order to show that the love is still present. So this made everything drastically better from the awkward transition in their relationship in the previous novel.

Secondary characters were immensely well-written. I had said in another review that I absolutely adored Roar, Perry’s best friend. He’s funny and he is more laid-back among Perry and Aria, so it gives a nice comical edge to a story that’s otherwise filled with impending doom and trouble. He also has his own problems – romantic ones – that just tugs at my heartstrings. I wish Rossi would just soothe away all his heartache.

I am glad, though, that there’s no hint in his friendship with Aria that moves beyond the platonic. I guess he’s a very suitable character for a potential love triangle to form, but it really isn’t necessary so I love the fact that things aren’t thrown into more chaos by something like that. Their friendship is as strong as Roar’s friendship with Perry, but different at the same time. They’re both Auds (people with enhanced hearing) so they understand the melody and tunes of the world. He’s like the guy best friend you can talk about the bad stuff with, but also tease and joke with as well.

Beyond Perry having difficulties leading his new tribe and settling Aria in, Aria had her own problems to deal with. The Dwellers were exploiting the fact that she was Outside of the safety of their Pod (aka a dome-like structure that housed people from the fury of the strange storms). In this world, there are weird electrical storms shooting through the sky, and it’s getting worse. This strange element is called the Aether.

And Rossi finally explains what the Aether is/how it came to be. Apparently, in past centuries, a freak solar flare changed the magnetic fields of the Earth and caused it to fluctuate, letting cosmic rays into the atmosphere. This somehow made the Aether that’s constantly flowing through the sky. Or rather, shooting electrical currents or waves through the sky. Don’t ask me if that’s scientifically sound, but as far as fiction goes, I’d say it’s good enough.

Anyway, Perry and Aria attempt to find out the location of a rumoured haven where there is no Aether destroying the land in funnels of fire coming from the sky. A beautiful piece of paradise called the Still Blue. This was no easy attempt, as the only person they could ask for this information was a Blood Lord of another tribe who sounds immediately unlikeable. Hence, they embark on an epic (ish) adventure in order to save their peoples. Action, action and action galore. This is why I loved Through the Ever Night more.

And with such adventure and conflict concludes the second novel of this trilogy. I do recommend you read this. Like now.

Overall Recommendation:

Through the Ever Night was by far better in every way compared to the previous novel in the series. With a romance that sweeps you off your feet and roaring to cheer their forbidden love, as well as conflict among Perry’s people, this book doesn’t let you bore easily. It sets the stage for the conclusion of the trilogy but never falls into the trap of “second book syndrome”. Continuing to follow both Perry and Aria’s POVs, Through the Ever Night will definitely satisfy fans of the first book and I highly recommend you read this. You’ll be whooping and crying with them, that’s how brilliantly this world has captured me.