Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Series: Six of Crows (bk. 1)

Genera(s): High Fantasy

Subjects: criminals, gangs, magic, abilities, drugs, rescues

Setting: Ketterdam, Kerch and Fjerda

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV, past tense: Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 462 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $18.99

Publisher: Macmillan: Henry Holt

Summary/ product description: “Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Kaz's crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.”

My Review: This book came out last year and I finally got around to reading it because the sequel just came out. It took me about two weeks to read this book because I was so busy with school, and then my bird died, which made it hard to read. So now I’m finally done with this book. Even though it took so long, I still enjoyed it. It only took me 3.5 hours to read the last 120 pages.

This book was like a fantasy version of Suicide Squad, and I kind of want to compare Inej to Katana and Nine to Harley Quinn and Jesper to Deadshoot, and I’m not sure who the others seem like. It’s about a group of misfits, criminals from various places who came together is a city called Ketterdam, which is basically like Amsterdam. It has cannels and different districts and legal prostitution and lots of gambling dens. It has a late 1800s feel. It’s not even a decade after the event of the Grisha Trilogy and I feel like there’s lot of industrial advancement that happened.

So the book has six main characters, but it only rotates between five point of views: Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias. Wylan doesn’t get his own chapters. Kaz is a theif who uses slight of hand, he’s the leader and he also limps because his leg never healed quite right. Nina is a Heartrender Grisha originally from Ravka and she’s busty and bold and has a talent for languages. Inej, a Suli girl, is also known as the Wraith. She moves very silently and collects secrets for Kaz by spying on wealthy people. She used to be an acrobat. Jesper is a Zemeni sharpshooter who has a bad gambling habit. Matthias is a Fjerdian witch hunter who ended up in prison. Wylan is the son of a mercher, and he’s got a lot of talents.

These character are given a task that will earn themselves 30 million kruge (dollars)if completed. They must rescue the scientist who developed a drug called jurda parum from the Fjerdians. The drug make’s Grisha powers powerful beyond imagination and it’s also highly addictive and eventually fatal. The take a boat to the Ice Court in Dierholm and plan to enter and prisoner, hoping to find the scientist in a cell, but like all plans, there are quite a few bumps along the way and tons of twist and turn you won’t see coming. The book also features many flash-backs that give us more backstory on the characters.

I recommend this book to fans of fantasy who want something a little different and unique, also fans of steampunk, because this is kind of like steampunk in a way. And the Curseworkers series by Holly Black, another book about magical criminals.

Cover Art Review: I like the illustration of the crow and towers.

The Burnouts by Lex Thomas

Series: Quarantine (bk. 3)

Genera: Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: survival, gangs, cliques, high school, quarantines, viruses, diseases

Setting: Pale Ridge, Colorado, inside a high school building

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV: David, Lucy and Will

Age/Grade Level: Teens 15+

Length: 264 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Egmont

Summary/ product description: “Lord of the Flies in a 21st-century high school setting.Welcome to Quarantine 3: The Burnouts , where readers of The Maze Runner, Gone, and Divergent go when they're hungry for more dark, compelling survival stories.

When an explosion rocks David and Will's suburban high school one morning, a deadly virus is unleashed on the school. After a year of quarantine, with no adults around, the students have created their own society. All of the social cliques have developed into gangs-The Nerds, The Geeks, The Freaks, The Sluts, The Skaters, The Burnouts, The Pretty Ones, and The Varsity-and each gang provides a service with which they can barter for provisions. Without a gang, it's almost impossible to secure food, water, territory, or supplies. In the final installment in the Quarantine trilogy, the brothers are reunited on the Outside and it appears as if, for once everything is going right. But inside the school, Lucy is alone with no gang and no hope, until the Burnouts welcome her into their filthy arms.”

My Review:  The finale book in the Quarantine trilogy, The Burnouts makes for a thrilling dramatic and sometimes horrifying conclusion to this dystopia series. I enjoyed it even when I was disgusted by it. It’s been a gruesome and gritty ride and I doubt I’ll even read another series quite like it. It’s so fast paced/page tuner. It’s realistic and horribly so.

At the end of the previous book, we find out the David is still alive. Will has graduated and the virus has left his body. Lucy is still stuck inside the school, still infected. She used to be part of the Loners, and then part of the Sluts, and now she’s nothing. She feels so alone that she ends up joining the Burnout and getting high on gasoline. Will and David heard there’s a cure to the virus, but decided to go back into McKinley to get Lucy out of there. They’ve got gas masks on and the virus can kill them.

I don’t want to spoil how this final book ends, so I won’t give away the plot. We do get to see what’s going on out side the school and how the country is handling it. I will say that it’s everything you’d expect and want in a conclusion from the series. There are twist and death and character that act psycho. There’s disgusting descriptions that’s make you puke a little if you actually try to picture what’s being described. It’s the kind of situation that you wouldn’t want to be it, but yet sound cool. The different gangs/cliques are almost like factions.

If you haven’t read this series yet, you might like this series if you enjoyed: No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz, Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne (Also set in Colorado like this book), Variant and Feedback by Robison Wells, Maze Runner by James Dashner, the Gone series by Michael Grant, Divergent by Veronica Roth, or The Hunger Games series. It’s also like Lord of the Flies or Battle Royale, too. Dystopian fiction in general, you should read this.

Cover Art Review: That pool is so gross. Ew. Fits the series, though.

The Saints by Lex Thomas

Series: Quarantine (bk. 2)

Genera: Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: survival, gangs, cliques, high school, quarantines, viruses, diseases

Age/Grade Level: Teens 15+

Length: 384 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Egmont

Summary/ product description: “A cross between the Gone series and Lord of the Flies, Quarantine #2: The Saints continues this frenetically paced and scary young adult series that illustrates just how deadly high school can be.
Nothing was worse than being locked in—until they opened the door...
McKinley High has been a battle ground for eighteen months since a virus outbreak led to a military quarantine of the school. When the doors finally open, Will and Lucy will think their nightmare is finished. But they are gravely mistaken.
As a new group of teens enters the school and gains popularity, Will and Lucy join new gangs. An epic party on the quad full of real food and drinks, where kids hookup and actually interact with members of other gangs seemed to signal a new, easier existence. Soon after though, the world inside McKinley takes a startling turn for the worse, and Will and Lucy will have to fight harder than ever to survive.
The Saints brings readers back to the dark and deadly halls of McKinley High and the QUARANTINE series.”

My Review: Like many people, I forgot what happened at the end of the Loners, and I forgot who Will and Lucy were, but I remembered pretty quickly because thankfully the author reminds us. David, the main character in the 1^st book, isn’t in this book, but his younger brother Will is. I thought I wouldn’t enjoy this book as much as I did.. I was also suffering from a book-hangover (It took me a few days to decide what to read next! I choose this). Thankfully there was enough action and humor to make me enjoy what I was reading.

There is a lot of gruesome stuff in this book, and a lot of profanities. The 1^st book too. Lot os of swearing, and lots of sex talk, so I would recommend it to teens under 15. There’s a lot of nightmarish stuff in here. It’s all very realistic and horrifying. Very fast paced and interesting. It’s scary good. I love survival stories, and this one was different. In the last book we found out about the different gangs based off of cliques, and they style and dye their hair the same way. Since it’s a quarantine inside a high school with only teens left alive, it’s very appropriate.

It you forgot what the gangs were called, I’ll remind you. The Loners (Will and Lucy were in this gang, white hair), Varsity (jocks, yellow hair), The Pretty Ones (Lucy used to be in this gang, yellow hair), the Sluts (red hair), Freaks (blue hair), Skater (shaved, Mohawks, black hair), Nerds (black hair), Geeks (multi-colored hair), and Burnouts (gray hair? Not sure). This books we welcome a new gang, the Saints, because they come from a private school.

The Saints is led by this guy named Gates, who I think might be bi-polar, ADHD and maybe schizophrenic. He’s pretty manic, but not in the manipulative psychopath way. More in the crazy idea-guy kind of way. Also, he’s a party animal, and used to be a rich kid. (He’s not like Caine from Gone.) He and the Saints live on the bus he crashed into the school. Will helps him out.

I really enjoyed some of the funny parts, especially dialogue. There’s so crazy stuff that Gates did that cracked me up. And Will went along with it. Also, Lucy going through Naked Week. It sounded like a Sorority hazing. Lucy becomes really kick-butt after joining the Sluts. The authors do a really good job of portraying her.

This series is a unique dystopia overall, but similar to others. You might like this series if you enjoyed: No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz, Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne (Also set in Colorado like this book), Variant and Feedback by Robison Wells, the Gone series by Michael Grant, Divergent by Veronica Roth, or The Hunger Games series. It’s also like Lord of the Flies or Battle Royale, too. Dystopian fiction in general, you should read this.

Cover Art Review: Another book with a bus on the cover! Monument 14’s sequel had a bus on it. The bus is kind of where the Saints gang lives. The cover fits the book well. Very dystopian looking. Cool photograph.

The Loners by Lex Thomas

Series: Quarantine (bk. 1)

Genera: Sci-fi/Dystopian

Subjects: Schools, quarantine, viruses, diseases, survival, gangs

Age/Grade Level: Older Teens (recommend 16+)

Length: 404 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Egmont

Summary/ product description: ““As original as The Hunger Games, set within the walls of a high school exactly like yours.” – Kami Garcia, New York Times best-selling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures novels
It was just another ordinary day at McKinley High—until a massive explosion devastated the school. When loner David Thorpe tried to help his English teacher to safety, the teacher convulsed and died right in front of him. And that was just the beginning.
A year later, McKinley has descended into chaos. All the students are infected with a virus that makes them deadly to adults. The school is under military quarantine. The teachers are gone. Violent gangs have formed based on high school social cliques. Without a gang, you’re as good as dead. And David has no gang. It’s just him and his little brother, Will, against the whole school.
In this frighteningly dark and captivating novel, Lex Thomas locks readers inside a school where kids don’t fight to be popular, they fight to stay alive.
"Take Michael Grant's Gone and Veronica Roth's Divergent, rattle them in a cage until they're ready to fight to the death, and you'll have something like this nightmarish debut...Thomas' whirlwind pace, painful details, simmering sexual content, and moments of truly shocking ultra-violence thrust this movie-ready high school thriller to the head of the class." - Booklist (starred review)”

My Rating: êêê1/2

My Review: This book was similar to a lot of books I’ve read, but also very unique. It would have been a very good book if it weren’t for the disgusting parts, where I gag when I pictured them. I think the white hair and dyed hair gangs were interesting. I know that I would definitely be in the art Geeks, so I’d have to dye my hair black. The beginning happened to fast though. Why did the explosion happen first thing in the morning, on the first day of school? Couldn’t it wait a few periods? The author needed to slow things down a bit, and why skip to a year later? Because that’s when there’re little society is fully running? I enjoyed this book, but it was definitely missing some this. It had action, world building, characters, but it’s just missing something.

This book was similar to the following books (if you’ve read and liked them, you may like this book). The Gone novels by Michael Grant, Lord of the Flies, No Safety in Numbers, Monument 14, This is Not a Test, The Hunger Games series. Books about quarantine or teens surviving on their own.

Cover Art Review: I really like this cover. That science class is totally destroyed! They must have put a lot of work into making this What an awesome mess!

~Haley G