Review: Numbers (or, I Clearly Excel at Avoiding the Internet)

Title: Numbers
Author: Rachel Ward
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 325
Series: Numbers #1
Rating: 4/5
From the book jacket: 
Since the day her mother died, Jem has know about the numbers.

Numbers that pop into her head when she looks into someone's eyes. They're dates, the numbers. Dates predicting with brute accuracy each person's death.

Burdened by such grim knowledge, Jem avoids relationships. Until she meets Spider, another outsider, and takes a chance. Maybe they can find happiness together, if only in the brief time that remains before his expiration date.

But on a trip to London, Jem foresees a chilling chain of events: The city's a target. The clock's running out. The countdown is on to a blowup!

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The premise of this book is so cool. The idea just drew me in. It wasn't about exactly what I thought it would be about - the book jacket makes it sound like it's about the discovery of a terrorist plot or something, but that's only in the first quarter of the book. It's more about Jem and Spider on the run afterwards.

I love the Britishness of Numbers. I love the characters. I really love the story. Jem and Spider are so much fun to read about, and Jem is such a complex character - she's literally an outcast of society, and readers can relate to her. And she's got so many questions and problems, about letting people in and and trusting people and coming to terms with death. I wish Spider had been a bit more developed, and the other side characters. Britney, for example - I loved her. I wanted to know more about her.

I also loved the way Rachel Ward explored the idea of knowing when people will die. Is it better to know when you will die or to leave it a mystery? By coming into contact with someone, can you change their future? How much of life is predestined from birth and how much can be changed? So many interesting concepts. It's so cool.

I was not a fan of the ending. Because I am also not a fan of spoilers, I'm not about to tell you what that ending is, but I will say that it would have been a much better book (in my opinion) without the epilogue. If it had stopped before that, it would have been great. That aside, though, I will definitely be reading the sequel soon (I actually have an ARC in my possession, which is what prompted me to read Numbers in the first place).

Also, can I just take a moment to say that this cover is really awesome?

Oh, and one more thing before I go: this book comes with warnings. There's some pretty heavy swearing and, hopefully this isn't a spoiler, a little bit of sex. So keep that in mind before you pick it up.

Links:
Rachel Ward's website

Review: The Scorch Trials

Title: The Scorch Trials
Author: James Dashner
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pages: 360
Series: Maze Runner #2
Rating: 4.5 stars
**Warning: Possible Spoilers for The Maze Runner**
From the book jacket: 
Solving the Maze was supposed to be the end. No more puzzles. No more variables. And no more running. Thomas was sure that escape meant he and the Gladers would get their lives back. But no one really knew what sort of life they were going back to.

In the Maze, life was easy. They had food, and shelter, and safety...until Teresa triggered the end. In the world outside the Maze, however, the end was triggered long ago.

Burned by sun flares and baked by a new, brutal climate, the earth is a wasteland. Government has disintegrated -- and with it, order -- and now Cranks, people covered in festering wounds and driven to murderous insanity by the infectious disease known as the Flare, roam the crumbling cities hunting for their next victim...and meal.

The Gladers are far from done running. Instead of freedom, they find themselves faced with another trial. They must cross the Scorch, the most burned-out section of the world, and arrive at a safe haven in two weeks. And WICKED has made sure to adjust the variables and stack the odds against them.

Thomas can only wonder -- does he hold the secret of freedom somewhere in his mind? Or will he forever be at the mercy of WICKED?

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I'm going to try to avoid too many spoilers for The Maze Runner, but the premise of this book is based on the fact that in the end of the first one, they escape from the maze, so that's kind of a big spoiler right there (although maybe not...I dunno, guess it depends how you look at it). Anyway, The Scorch Trials is set in the Scorch, which is basically post-apocalyptic Mexico. Thomas and the other Gladers race against time and the mysterious Group B, apparently composed entirely of girls, to get to the mysterious "safe haven" within two weeks. If they fail, their lives are forfeit.

I felt like The Scorch Trials did an excellent job of maintaining the same sort of feel as the first book but without blatantly repeating itself. I loved the new characters (particularly Brenda), although I'm still making up my mind about Aris. I loved finally seeing what the outside world looks like. James Dashner has created a fascinating post-apocalyptic dystopian universe, and I know I for one am absolutely fascinated by WICKED and I can't wait for the final book in the series so I can find out what's up with WICKED.

My one complaint is that the walking through the desert started to drag in places, but on the whole, it was really well done and it very rarely slowed down. It kept me turning pages, eager to find out what happened. And just to put this out there: Thomas is a kick-butt protagonist. Seriously, he's awesome.

The Scorch Trials is well-crafted and exciting (although if you haven't read The Maze Runner, you should definitely read that one first) and I cannot wait for the final installment, The Death Cure. I absolutely recommend it!

Links: 
James Dashner's website/blog

Review: The Maze Runner

Title: The Maze Runner
Author: James Dashner
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Pages: 374
Series: Maze Runner #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the book jacket: 
When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. He has no recollection of his parents, his home, or how he got where he is. His memory is blank.


But he's not alone. When the lift's doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade, a large expanse enclosed by stone walls.


Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning, for as long as anyone can remember, the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night, for just as long, they've closed tight. Ever thirty days a new boy is delivered in the lift. And no one wants to be stuck in the Maze after dark.


The Gladers were expecting Thomas's arrival. But the next day, a girl is sent up - the first girl ever to arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers. The Gladers have always been convinced that if they can solve the maze that surrounds the Glade, they might find their way home...wherever that may be. But it's looking more and more as if the Maze is unsolvable.


And something about the girl's arrival is starting to make Thomas feel different. Something is telling him that he just might have some answers - if he can only find a way to retrieve the dark secrets locked within his own mind.

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When Thomas wakes up in the lift and finds himself in a strange place called the Glade, he has no idea what to expect, mostly because he knows nothing about himself - not his name, not who his parents are, not his birthday, nothing. The other boys quickly inform him that one new boy arrives every thirty days, that he will have to work but should be safe, and that he must never, ever enter the Maze. There's one problem with that: Thomas feels drawn to the Maze, and knows right away that he is meant to be a Runner - one of the Gladers who enter the Maze every day, trying to map it out and find some sort of pattern, some sort of escape.

It took me a while to get into this book, although part of that was probably because I have had so much going on with school and college applications and my thesis project that I haven't had much time for reading. Once I did get into it, though, I loved this book. So much. The premise is just fascinating - an unsolvable maze, a mystery girl, a conspicuous lack of memories...plus the plot is not totally focused on romance. AND I didn't completely figure out what was going to happen before the end! Bits and pieces of it, maybe, but I was still totally taken aback by a lot of what happened, which I love.

And Thomas is a great character. I don't find a whole lot of male protagonists that I actually like in YA, so that's cool, but even if male protagonists were the most common thing ever, Thomas is awesome. And I love the other characters as well - mystery girl (whose name I'll not tell you, since you don't find out until probably almost halfway through the book) totally kicks butt, and Chuck and Newt and Minho are all awesome too.

There is so much to love about this book. Thomas, the plot, just the whole thing. The beginning's a little slow, but do not give up! The Maze Runner will totally rock your socks off. Because it's awesome like that.

Links: 
James Dashner's blog

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In other news: oh my gosh you guys this is POST #100! I've been blogging long enough to have 100 posts! Wow. That's so exciting! Thanks so much to all of my awesome readers. You guys rock! ♥

Review: Birthmarked

Title: Birthmarked
Author: Caragh M. O'Brien
Publisher: Roaring Book Press
Pages: 361
Series: Birthmarked Trilogy #1
Rating: 4 stars
From the book jacket: 
In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the wall and those, like sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone, who live outside. Gaia has always believed it is her duty, with her mother, to hand over a small quota of babies to the Enclave. But when Gaia's mother and father are arrested by the very people they so dutifully serve, Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught to believe. Gaia's choice is now simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.

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Birthmarked took me a while to get into it and at first I was afraid I wasn't going to like it. I really wanted to like it, because it came really highly recommended by some of my best friends, but it was just really slow getting started. Of course, that might have been because it took me ages to read any of it thanks to school, but it just felt painfully slow.

Fortunately, it got better. Much better. By the time I got to the end, I was completely ignoring everything around me so that I could keep turning pages. I wanted to know what happened. The characters were only part of it - I liked Gaia, but she was kind of slow sometimes; my favorite was definitely Leon - and the plot was well-crafted but it's hard to get a whole lot of variation in dystopian fiction; it's always someone fighting the system. I think what made this book for me was the world that Caragh O'Brien created.

Those who live inside the wall are privileged and have everything they need. Those who are born outside the wall, are born healthy, and are one of the midwife's first three babies of the month can be advanced - taken inside the wall, to be adopted and raised as an Enclave child. Those like Gaia, who are scarred or imperfect or simply unlucky, live outside the wall - a much harder, less privileged life. Gaia is training to be a midwife like her mother, and has learned all of her mother's traditions and practices. So when her parents get arrested, Gaia is asked to unravel the coded birth record that her mother left behind.

I really loved the set-up with the code (which I solved before Gaia did! At least partially...I was excited) and the DNA testing and everything. Birthmarked was not my favorite book ever or anything, but I definitely enjoyed it once I got into it. I was afraid there wasn't going to be a sequel, because the ending could go either way (I don't think that's too spoilery), but fortunately the author's website says that it's going to be a trilogy. I'll certainly be looking for book two once it comes out!

Links: 
Caragh M. O'Brien's website