Review: Matched

Title: Matched
Author: Ally Condie
Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 384
Series: Matched #1
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket: 
Society matched them, but love set them free.

In the Society, Officials decide. Who you love. Where you work. When you die.

Cassia has always trusted their choices. It's barely any price to pay for a long life, the perfect job, the ideal mate. So when her best friend appears on the Matching screen, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is the one...until she sees another face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black. Now Cassia is faced with impossible choices: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path no one else has ever dared follow - between perfection and passion.

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I don't even know where to start. Matched was such an utterly amazing book that I really have no idea where to begin. So I suppose I'll begin by saying that I absolutely adore this cover. It is so gorgeous. Also, it shimmers. Love love love.

And the story! It's set up within a typical dystopian frame - "perfect" society, someone rebels. (I'm totally not trashing this frame, by the way - it's just part of the genre.) But it feels like it has so much more to it than that! The Society is so intricate, so well-developed. It just kind of makes you shiver with how these are all realistic people acting so...machine, but still with their human characteristics. I'll stop now before I go off into my whole spiel about how much I love dystopian fiction, but suffice it to say that the Society in Matched is one of the best.

The background is perfect: just add characters. Honestly, I feel like the characters could have been boring as all get-out and the book would still have been semi-readable because the backdrop is so good, but Ally Condie did so much better. Cassia is one of the most real protagonists I've encountered, especially with this kind of set-up. And Xander and Ky....oh, man. I love Xander and all, but Ky is so....ahh. I would not want to have to choose. Poor Cassia.

Okay, I recognize that I'm rambling. I shall attempt to stop that. Basically, Cassia gets Matched to Xander, so the two of them will be married...but then, for just a moment, Cassia sees Ky's face on her Matching screen. Cue forbidden love and all sorts of intrigue.

The plot sounds kind of basic, but the execution...I could read pages and pages of absolute nothing, as long as it was written as beautifully as this book. I love love love Ally Condie's writing. And when paired with an awesome dystopian society (er, Society) and some amaaazing characters...well, you're in for a novel you don't want to miss. My only complaint was that I wanted to see more development of the minor characters, but really, I felt like even they were well-rounded.

Long story short, I love this book. Definitely, definitely read it.


Matched is in stores November 30, 2010 (that's tomorrow, for those of you reading this on the day I'm posting it). I recommend finding a copy.

me with Ally Condie at ALAN

Links: 
Ally Condie's website/blog

Review: Countdown

Title: Countdown

Author: Deborah Wiles

Publisher: Scholastic

Pages: 377

Series: Sixties Trilogy #1

Rating: 4.5 stars

From the book jacket:

A time that changed the world. A time that changed Franny’s life.

Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that’s hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall.

It’s 1962, and it seems that the whole country is living in fear. When President Kennedy goes on television to say that Russia is sending nuclear missiles to Cuba, it only gets worse. Franny doesn’t know how to deal with what’s going on in the world – no more than she knows how to deal with what’s going on with her family and friends. But somehow she’s got to make it through.

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Countdown is a little outside the genres I usually read – it’s historical middle-grade, rather than contemporary/paranormal YA – but I loved it. Franny, who is eleven years old, is a wonderful narrator: the perfect blend of humor and seriousness, completely believable, and Deborah Wiles captured the voice of a child perfectly. The other characters are just as good: Franny’s parents, her brother and sister and crazy uncle, her friends, the boy across the street…this could very easily be a totally true story.

It gets even easier to believe when you consider the documentary part of the novel. The whole book is full of actual footage from the 1960s – photographs, quotes, ads, political cartoons, reminders to stay safe in the bomb shelters if the air raid siren goes off…it’s all there, in between chapters. Seriously the coolest way to set up a historical book that I have ever seen. The book would be worth reading just for that. But there’s more to it than that.

The story is great too. Reading about an eleven-year-old protagonist was kind of different for me, but Franny is great and the story is amazing. I think it’s easy to forget that while the Cold War was going on, life was still going on like normal – for those of us who have never lived through something like that, it’s just history book stuff. Countdown takes those events that we read about in history class and makes them real, which is really awesome. Historical events aren’t the focus of this novel; they’re the setting. The story is about Franny and how she comes to terms with what it means to be afraid and, more importantly, what it means to be a friend.

Countdown is such a sweet, fun, and interesting book. I know those aren’t particularly original adjectives, but they certainly apply. It’s also very much a stay-up-until-you-finish-it kind of book. Definitely, definitely read it if you get the chance!

Review: I Am Number Four

Title: I Am Number Four
Author: Pittacus Lore
Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 440
Series: Lorien Legacies #1
Rating: 4.5 stars
From the book jacket:
Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books - but we are real.

Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.

But they know.

They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya.

I am Number Four.

I am next.

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When I first picked up this book at Barnes & Noble and read the jacket cover, I thought it looked fascinating. Now that I've read it, I can say that I was absolutely right.

The author, using the pseudonym Pittacus Lore, wastes no time in plunging readers into the story of the Loric people and the Mogadorians. Lorien and Mogadore are two of the eighteen life-sustaining planets in the universe. The closest one to them is Earth. Nine Loric children and their guardians (called Cêpan) traveled to Earth after the Mogadorians destroyed their planet. These nine children are the future of Lorien, its only hope of someday being restored to what it once was. They are protected by a charm, so they can only be killed in order. One, Two, and Three are dead. Four - alias John Smith - knows he is next on the list.

There's one problem. John and his Cêpan, Henri, are living comfortably in Paradise, Ohio, and John has started fitting in for the first time ever. He's also come closer than ever to revealing who he really is, because he's receiving his Legacies - the "superpowers" that come naturally to Loric Garde (the ones who aren't Cêpan). He has a girlfriend, Sarah, a best friend, Sam, and a life that he actually doesn't want to leave. Enter the Mogadorians.

The action in this book was incredibly intense. Once I started, I did not want to stop - I had to keep going and find out what happened next. I'm not sure when Book 2 comes out (although according to the website, it will be called The Power of Six), but as soon as it does, I want to read it. I Am Number Four is coming out as a movie (starring Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron) on February 18, and I want to see it so I can see what they did with it, although rumor is it's quite different from the book. At any rate, the insane action in the book should translate really well to film.

But I digress. The plot was amazing, sure, but the characters were great. I love Henri, and Sarah, and Sam, and Six (S, S, S, haha), and of course John is the star of the show. I wish a couple of them had been developed a little more, but the cast is still amazing and they just came to life in my mind. Love, love, love.

Long story short: READ THIS BOOK. My one complaint is that the writing got to be a little more tell than show in one or two places and I wanted more of the characters, but aside from that, this is the best sci-fi action novel I've read in a long time and among the best novels overall that I've read recently, too. It's so awesome!

Links: 
Official Lorien Legacies website

Review: The Wednesday Wars

Title: The Wednesday Wars
Author: Gary D. Schmidt
Publisher: Clarion Books
Pages: 264
Rating: 5 stars
From the book jacket: 
Holling Hoodhood is really in for it. He's just started seventh grade with Mrs. Baker, a teacher he knows is out to get him. Why else would she make him read Shakespeare...outside class?

The year is 1967, and everyone has bigger things to worry about, especially Vietnam. Then there's the family business. As far as Holling's father is concerned, the Hoodhoods need to be on their best behavior: the success of Hoodhood and Associates depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has so much to contend with? Rats, for one thing; cream puffs, for another. Then there's Doug Swieteck's brother. And Ariel's costume: tights. That's just for starters. In a series of mishaps and adventures over the course of the school year, fate sneaks up on Holling again and again.

Gary D. Schmidt has written a novel that is at turns comic and compelling, down-to-earth and over-the-top. In The Wednesday Wars, he offers an unforgettable antihero in Holling Hoodhood, a kid from the suburbs who embraces his destiny in spite of himself.

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The Wednesday Wars is written for a little bit younger audience than most of the books I read - it's set in seventh grade, not in high school. The only reason I picked it up was that my Dad, who read it for a YA Lit class he teaches, insisted that I would love it, and I agreed to give it a try. Turns out Dad was right - The Wednesday Wars was fantastic. I adored it.

Holling Hoodhood (which, by the way, I think is a completely ridiculous name) is convinced that his English teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. He's the only person in his class who isn't Jewish or Catholic - which means that instead of going to Hebrew School or Catechism on Wednesday afternoons, he has to stay with Mrs. Baker. And she has a nefarious plot in mind: she's going to bore him to death with Shakespeare. Or so Holling thinks, anyway. But her plan backfires, because it turns out Shakespeare isn't so bad after all.

There is so much about this book that is just delightfully funny and adorable, from the escape of pet rats Sycorax and Caliban to Ariel's bright yellow tights (you'll understand if you read it). But there's a whole other level, too - Holling's family issues and the Vietnam War. Parts of The Wednesday Wars had me laughing hysterically and parts of it were heartbreaking. The characters are just wonderful - Holling is a fantastic narrator and I want Mrs. Baker to be my English teacher. I loved this book so much.

If you're a fan of Shakespeare, read this! If you're not a fan of Shakespeare...read this anyway! The Wednesday Wars is an adorable, wonderful book and I absolutely loved it. Even if you don't normally read more-like-MG stuff and prefer to stay in the realm of older-YA, I think it would be pretty impossible to dislike this one.

Review: Mockingjay

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic
Pages: 390
Series: Hunger Games #3
Rating: 5 stars. Or, you know, a gazillion or so.
**Warning!!! This review contains spoilers for books 1-2. (I promise no spoilers for this one, though!)**
From the jacket flap:
"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.

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So, it's been about twenty minutes since I finished reading Mockingjay (I was all for staying up last night to finish it, but unfortunately school stopped that). For all of that time, I have been literally lost for words.

I read the last page and then just stared at the book for a little while. It's over. This is all there will ever be of these characters who took me on this absolutely heart-wrenching journey. And what a story it was.

I'm really not sure what I can say without being mega-spoilery, so I'll just ramble for a while about how much I adore the characters and the story and everything about this book and the whole series. Katniss is seriously one of the strongest, most kick-butt heroines I have ever encountered. Her strength is more physical than a lot of heroines' anymore, but she's got this mental strength too, and Mockingjay tested her in so many ways. We got to see another side of Katniss, which was really awesome. And I think more than anything, it's Katniss's weaknesses that make her such a wonderful character. And then there's Gale and Peeta (both of whom are wonderful characters, regardless of what all the die-hard Team Gale/Team Peeta people say. Although I know whose team I'm on - and always have been - regarding Katniss), and Prim (who's finally a legit character!) and Finnick (who is wonderful) and Boggs and everyone else.

And the villains, too. President Snow, of course, is one seriously bad bad guy. Also I will say that the development of other antagonistic characters was excellent.

I'm rambling a bit. Sorry. I really just do not have the words for this book. And I REALLY don't want to spoil anything. The plot just starts going and never slows down. And like I said...it left me speechless.

So instead of rambling on until I become completely incoherent or inadvertently spoil something, I will leave you with these thoughts: The themes of this book really hit hard. Suzanne Collins can do magic with words. And I approve of the ending. And I'm very, very sad to leave these characters behind as their story ends. Mockingjay made me smile and it made me cry (yes, literally cry. I will admit to this). The Hunger Games trilogy is definitely one of my favorite series ever, and this conclusion is absolutely stunning.

Links:

Suzanne Collin's website

Official Hunger Games fansite, Mockingjay.net