Divided by Elsie Chapman

Series: Dualed (bk. 2)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: action, assassins, murder, post-apocalyptic

Setting: A city called Kersh in the future

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense: West Grayer

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 309 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Random House

Summary/ product description: “The hunter becomes the hunted. . . .

West Grayer is done killing. She defeated her Alternate, a twin raised by another family, and proved she’s worthy of a future. She’s ready to move on with her life.

The Board has other plans. They want her to kill one last time, and offer her a deal worth killing for. But when West recognizes her target as a ghost from her past, she realizes she’s in over her head. The Board is lying, and West will have to uncover the truth of the past to secure her future.

How far will the Board go to keep their secrets safe? And how far will West go to save those she loves? With nonstop action and surprising twists, Elsie Chapman’s intoxicating sequel to Dualed reveals everything.”

My Review:  I wasn’t sure how Dualed would have a sequel, but I think Divided did a good job. I liked the first book better, but this book had even more assassin stuff and action. The main character is pretty interesting, but also similar to other heroines in dystopian books. West is very blunt in her narration. There’s not a lot of humor, but with the story line it works well.

She’s pretty serious and similar in personality to Katniss from the Hunger Games, but without much sarcasm. She’s also only 15 and has already killed. In the previous book she killed her Alt and assassinated other Alts. West faces the dilemma of being told to assassinate 3 other Alters in exchange for the safety of any future children she’ll have. Is there anyway to be safe in a world where everyone must kill?

The side characters still don’t feel very developed. Cord is West’s boyfriend, and also completed like her. There’s West’s trainer, Baer, a little kid named Dess and other characters. We also got to know more about the history of Kersh. They never say what country the book’s set in. It could be Canada or even Japan, since the author is a Japanese Canadian. It’s most likely in North America, somewhere on the coastline. We find out about why there are Alters and what Kersh used to be.

I can’t say I truly enjoyed Divided because I ended up skimming a lot of parts. I lost interest in some parts, but some of the action made up for it enough to be 3 stars. I like dystopian series and this one is very unique compared to other ones. The world building is good. The idea of everyone having a doppelganger that they have to eliminate. It’s a good concept, but the story wasn’t as fast paced as I hoped.

I recommend this to fans of Enclave by Ann Aguirre, The Hunger Games, and various other dystopian series.

Cover Art Review: I love the repeating girl and guy in the mirrors and the hexagonal floor tiles. The color scheme is good. The turquoise, violet and red go together.

Linked by Imogen Howson

Series: Linked (bk. 1)

Genera: Sci-Fi/Dystopian

Subjects: outer space, space travel, psychic ability, twins, sisters, love

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 359 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $16.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary/ product description: “Elissa used to have it all: looks, popularity, and a bright future. But for the last three years, she’s been struggling with terrifying visions, phantom pains, and mysterious bruises that appear out of nowhere.
Finally, she’s promised a cure: minor surgery to burn out the overactive area of her brain. But on the eve of the procedure, she discovers the shocking truth behind her hallucinations: she’s been seeing the world through another girl’s eyes.
Elissa follows her visions, and finds a battered, broken girl on the run. A girl—Lin—who looks exactly like Elissa, down to the matching bruises. The twin sister she never knew existed.
Now, Elissa and Lin are on the run from a government who will stop at nothing to reclaim Lin and protect the dangerous secrets she could expose—secrets that would shake the very foundation of their world.
Riveting, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, Linked will make you question what it really means to be human.”

My Review: I am so utterly disappointed in this book. It had such a great premise, wonderful world building, but the way it’s written is just so boring. The characters are boring. The dialogue is boring, and possibly British sounding. This has been such an awful let down. The cover is beautiful, but the book in it sucks.

But the fact that it’s set on a distant planet is very unique (to me). I’ve only read a few books set in outer space, but none on made up planets.This planet has a city with shelf apartments and slidewalks and so many cool unique things that are very different from the world todays. I pretty much pictured the city in the Total Recall remake (such cool CGI). It’s so highly futuristic, set 1000s of years in the future after terraforming a bunch of exo-planets. Yet, there’s some still familiar stuff, like clothing: hoodies.

This book could have been better if it was 1^st person perspective, switching between Elissa and Lin so we could see both points of view. Also if the characters had actual defining characteristic in their personality. Caden was the only well-defined character in my opinion. Elissa is uninteresting. The book could have been better from Lin’s POV.

The plot is kind of slow, despite being on the run from the government. I honestly felt like there was no plot. I basically skimmed the whole book, except for the world building stuff, even if it was info-dumping. I feel like Elissa’s kind of dumb, like she doesn’t think about what she’s saying, and when there’s a thought, it’s too long.

There’s no quirky fun dialogue or banter. Lissa and Lin get into arguments that are about stupid stuff. There’s a lot of obvious stuff. A lot of stuff that the author didn’t need. I was like: Way to state the obvious. I was pretty sick of reading it, but I had to stick with it.

The only other interesting thing was a twist at the end. We find out what Lin was supposed to be used for. The space travel stuff was okay too, but I’m not a Star Treck fan like my mom, so I felt like the author was just copying that stuff.

I recommend this book to fans of Star Treck/Starship Academy, Battlestar Galatica, Star Gate, Firefly, Across the Universe series, Glow (Amy Kathleen Ryan), Black Hole Sun, or space operas. But beware; you may get bored pretty quickly. I’m not even sure if I want to read the second book after such a dysto-fail.

Cover Art Review: I love this cover. The way the photo is cut up is really cool and the type being linked. The NK put together. But the cover is very deceiving. The book’s about a society on the distant planet and psychic twins, so where’s the space stuff? And the book wasn’t good, but the package was pretty.

 

 

Dualed by Elsie Chapman

Series: Dualed (bk. 1)

Genera: Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: Murder, assassins, clones, futuristic, post-apocalyptic, action, Canada

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 290 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Random House

Summary/ product description: “You or your Alt? Only one will survive.
The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.
Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.
Elsie Chapman's suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.”

My Rating: êêê1/2

My Review: This book had a very unique concept behind it. The world building was also very unique. The idea that everyone has a twin that’s born into a different family, and that they have to kill the other. Could you kill someone with your own face and features?  I’m sure that actually having to do that would mess your mind up big time.

Every kid in this book is taught in school about Alts and how to fight them. Alts are not mindless clones, they’re just the other version of you. You and your Alt. are made up of the genes of 4 parents, rather than 2. The parents that raised you and the parents that raised your Alt. Anywhere between age 10 and 20 you can be forced to go from idle to active, meaning you only have 31 days to kill your Alt or you’ll Alt will kill you, and if neither is dead by 32 day, you both die.

This book has a pretty creative city layout. It’s based off of Vancouver, Canada but it’s called Kersh. The city, not the island. There’re 4 different sectors. I’m not sure where she got the names for each sector. They’re not on the map, so she probably made them up. For the most part, Kersh reminded me of the city of Los Angeles in Legend by Marie Lu, but colder and rainier.

The characters are not fully flushed out, or very deep. They’re not boring either. West is really tough and brave, but didn’t deal with her problems in the best possible way. I think if she tried to find a way not to kill she would have been more interesting. The love interest, Chord, was always trying to help her, but she kept pushing him away because she didn’t want to put him in danger. She should have taken his help more often. It would have been more realistic.

Overall I did enjoy this story. The plot was okay, and the book was written in 1^st person present, which I like. It was really action packed and well written. There’s a few minor this that made it tough to get through. Mainly the long chapters. I like short chapters. Chapters that are 20 to 30 pages, or even longer make me feel bored. I made it to the end of the book, and liked it enough. I don’t really understand how it’s a series since the ending wrapped up so well. It’s worth reading if you like dystopia.

Cover Art Review: Very cool cover. I like the metallic title. I love that the shadow is different (scarier than) from the girl. That street looks very dystopian.

~Haley G

Fathomless by Jackson Pearce

Series: Fairytale Retellings (bk. 3)

Genera: Paranormal Romance/Fantasy

Subjects: Mermaids, fairy tales, supernatural, love, magic, sisters

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 291 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Little, Brown

Summary/ product description: “Celia Reynolds is the youngest in a set of triplets and the one with the least valuable power. Anne can see the future, and Jane can see the present, but all Celia can see is the past. And the past seems so insignificant -- until Celia meets Lo.
Lo doesn't know who she is. Or who she was. Once a human, she is now almost entirely a creature of the sea -- a nymph, an ocean girl, a mermaid -- all terms too pretty for the soulless monster she knows she's becoming. Lo clings to shreds of her former self, fighting to remember her past, even as she's tempted to embrace her dark immortality.
When a handsome boy named Jude falls off a pier and into the ocean, Celia and Lo work together to rescue him from the waves. The two form a friendship, but soon they find themselves competing for Jude's affection. Lo wants more than that, though. According to the ocean girls, there's only one way for Lo to earn back her humanity. She must persuade a mortal to love her . . . and steal his soul.”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: As with all the books in this series, to are some connections between characters. Celia is one of the Reynolds. The youngest one. Lo is related to a character in the last book, Sweetly. You can guess who for yourself. And there are werewolves again, eventually, but the main focus is the ocean girls. Celia and her triplet sisters all have special powers, and it reminds me of the characters from Tera Lynn Childs’ book Sweet Venom. I really liked Celia and Jude. Jude is a musician and he’s pretty funny and cute. And Lo remind of Luce from Lost Voices by Sarah Porter. But these girl aren’t mermaids with tails. It’s not even clear why they’re underwater. It’s pretty mysterious. The plot is mainly about Celia using her past reading powers to help Lo remember who she was before. The book switched between their perspectives, and I find Celia’s perspective easier to read. Lo’s underwater world is very strange. She talks about “becoming angels” and that she would have kill a boy who falls in love with her to get her soul back. The story is pretty interesting over all, but I’ve having a hard time reviewing it. I liked Jackson’s other books. She’s really good a write retellings that are very different from the actually fairytale. This is no ordinary mermaid tale, so I do recommend it to those looking for something unique.

Cover Art Review: I love this cover! So shiny and metallic. I like the use of an object rather than a model. And the title is nicely customized on Illustrator (but could be refined even more). The author’s name is nicely done. I love the light effects that make it look under water. The pendant makes the bottom of the mermaid’s tail fin look like angel wings.

 

~Haley G

Thumped by Megan McCafferty

Publisher: HarperTeen (Balzer & Bray)

Series: Bumped (bk. 2, also the last book, a Due-ology)

Genera: Sci-fi dystopian

Subjects: pregnancy, twins, infertility, love, sex

Length: 290 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

Summary/ product description: “THE CONCLUSION TO ONE OF THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT NOVELS OF LAST YEAR
It’s been thirty-five weeks since twin sisters Harmony and Melody went their separate ways. And now their story has become irresistible: twins separated at birth, each due to deliver twins…on the same day!
Married to Ram and living in Goodside, Harmony spends her time trying to fit back into the community she once believed in. But she can’t forget about Jondoe, the guy she fell for under the strangest of circumstances.
To her adoring fans, Melody has achieved everything: a major contract and a coupling with the hottest bump prospect around. But this image is costing her the one guy she really wants.
The girls’ every move is analyzed by millions of fans eagerly counting down to “Double Double Due Date.” They’re two of the most powerful teen girls on the planet, and they could do only one thing to make them even more famous:
Tell the truth.”

My Rating: êêêê

My Review: I have not read a “due-ology” before. It fit the series though, seeing as there’s a “due-date.” This book was really funny. The word-play is amazing as ever. I can’t believe how creative the author is to come up with all of these words. I thought the story line was great. The ending wrapped up really well. The characters were still awesome. The switching perspective between Melody and Harmony. I was very surprised about what we found out about Ram, and it worked out pretty well. I never thought I’d like a series about pregnancy or sex, but this series was fun, and I definitely am not interested in having sex or babies yet, so I can relate to Melody. Faking it would so not be worth it, though.

So this is the funniest Dystopian book series ever and I rilly recommend it. For serious. It is fertilicious. Pregg-tastic. Lol. Love these made up words.

Cover Art Review: The egg has been cracked! What, no baby chick inside? Lol. The cover’s just perfect. If there was a 3^rd book (which there won’t be). How would the egg be “Humped” or “Dumped”?

~Haley G

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

Title: Blood Red Road

Author: Moira Young

Series: Dustlands

Genera: Sci-fi dystopia

Subjects: Kidnapping, Hand-to-Hand fighting, Brothers and sisters, Twins, Coming of age, Orphans

Length: 459 pgs

Rating: ê ê ê

After a dust storm, men know as Tonton show up in Silver lake and kidnap Saba’s twin brother Lugh, and kill her dad. Saba must save Lugh, so she and her sister Emmi leave Silverlake and set out on a journey across Sandsea to a place called Hopetown. Saba doesn’t realize just how much danger lies ahead, and how much danger Lugh is in. Saba’s not such a nice girl, and is real mean to her sister, especially after Emmi ends up following her rather than staying with Mercy for Crosscreek.

This book was different. Bad different. There are now quotation marks for the dialog, so I was never exactly sure what was being said out loud unless followed by I say or something. Even worse, it was written (all of it, cuz it‘s in 1^st person) in a very southern/western dialect. I thought I was reading True Grit (I only saw the new movie) when I started it. I wish I listen to the audio book instead. It was all ain’t and caint and git…..Oh, and the chapter….there are no chapters. They’re more like parts. One is about 30 pages, another is over 100 pages. I prefer the James Patterson like short chapters, so the length of these made in not very fast pased for me.

The few things I did like about this book? One, Nero the crow! What a great companion Saba has. Crows are smart, but Nero acts like he’s at least 2% human (at least….Maximum Ride reference)…or like he’s got the brain of a 6-8 year old child. Very smart for a bird. (Smarter than my budgie). Two, I like the humor. It was pretty funny at times, even with the westernish talk. Three, I like the desterty dystopia feel.

Well, I do recommend this to people I they liked Hunger Games, Enclave, or Maze Runner. And, if you don’t mind books out of the normal form.

~Haley G

Bumped by Megan McCafferty

Title: Bumped

Author: Megan McCafferty

Genera: Sci-fi dystopia

Subjects: pregnancy, dystopia, twins

Rating: ê ê ê ê

Bumped is a very unique dystopian novel set 25 years in the future after a virus caused everyone over 18 to become infertile. Teenage girls become surrogates for older couples. The media is pushing teen to have sex and prevent extinction.

The book switched between the perspectives of newly reacquainted identical twin sisters Melody and Harmony. They start to question what they have been taught about what is right in society. Melody has a contract to pregg professionally for a rich couple. Harmony grew up living by the rules of the Church, forced into a marriage she doesn’t truly want.

This novel is creative and full of fun word play (pegging, egging, MaSEXtinction parties, Do the Deed, Born to Breed…ect.) It’s filled with humor (especially the Melody parts). It’s a great read for both teenage girls and possibly their mothers.

I really enjoyed the funny parts and awesome twists. I don’t want to spoil it. Read it, you won’t regret it.

Art review:

Not much I can say. It’s pretty simple. An egg, pregg……the text is very sci-fi-chic.

~Haley G