The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Series: The Murder Complex (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Thriller

Subjects: murder, death, love, mystery, action, assassins

Setting: in the future, in Florida, near the everglades in a place called the Shallows, in June

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense, rotating between Meadow and Zephyr

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 398 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover and now in Paperback

List Price: $17.99/$9.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Greenwillow

Summary/ product description: “An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.”

My Review:  The Murder Complex is a bloody story filled with action. It’s a fast-paced thrill ride. It’s set in Florida, in the everglades. Meadow, the main character, lives in a boathouse with her family. It’s not a setting that I’ve read before in Dystopian. The story alternates between Meadow and Zephyr’s point of views. Meadow is very badass and was trained by her father. Zephyr seems kind of too-nice, but he’s got a dark secret, some of which he doesn’t even know.

This story is full of murder and horrible event, sometimes gruesome. I wouldn’t recommend it to the younger kids. This book is bloodier than the Hunger Games. Like Katniss, Meadow has a younger sister that she care for: Peri. Meadow’s mother is dead. Meadow’s older brother doesn’t have a job because he didn’t pass his trial. Meadow’s dad is a fisherman.

The world building is scary. People get murdered daily in the Shallow. The murder rate is higher than the death rate. Anyone could be next. People kill for survival reasons as well. Everyone must know self-defense. There’s the government called the Initiative that set four rules for the people within the perimeter. If not followed they could be killed. There’s as The Murder Complex, the organization behind the murders. Not all the murders are random. There’s a deep mystery behind the murder complex that could be linked to both Meadow and Zephyr past.

I recommend this to fans of Divergent, The Hunger Games, Legend and other action-packed YA dystopian book about survival.

Cover Art Review: Bloody looking. I thought that was a drawing and not a photo, but it’s a photo and it’s been photoshopped in some way. I like the cover, but don’t love it. Face covers are so overdone.

Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

Series: Sweet (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Thriller/Horror/Sci-fi

Subjects: cruises, ocean, celebrities, drugs, survival

Setting: Luxury Cruise Liner in the ocean

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense rotating between Laurel and Tom.

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 272 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Macmillan: Feiwel & Friends

Summary/ product description: “*People would kill to be thin.*

Solu’s luxurious celebrity-filled “Cruise to Lose” is billed as “the biggest cruise since the Titanic,” and if the new diet sweetener works as promised—dropping five percent of a person’s body weight in just days—it really could be the answer to the world’s obesity problem. But Laurel is starting to regret accepting her friend Viv’s invitation. She’s already completely embarrassed herself in front of celebrity host, Tom Forelli (otherwise known as the hottest guy ever!) and she’s too seasick to even try the sweetener. And that’s before Viv and all the other passengers start acting really strange.

*But will they die for it, too?*

Tom Forelli knows that he should be grateful for this job and the opportunity to shed his childhood “Baby Tom-Tom” image. His publicists have even set up a ‘romance’ with a sexy reality star. But as things on the ship start to get a bit wild, he finds himself drawn to a different girl. And when his celebrity hosting gig turns into an expose on the shocking side effects of Solu, it’s Laurel that he’s determined to save.

Emmy Laybourne, author of the Monument 14 trilogy, takes readers on a dream vacation that goes first comically, then tragically, then horrifyingly, wrong.”

My Review:  Sweet was unexpectedly entertaining and thrilling. Originally I thought it was just realistic fiction, but it does contain some sci-fi elements. It’s set on a cruise ship, which is cool. There are celebrities and wealthy people on this ship. Most are there to try Solu, a sweetner that supposed to help you lose weigh.

The main characters Laurel and Tom do not try Solu. Laurel’s rich friend Vivika (who brought Laurel) did try it and becomes obsessed. Tom was part of a reality show as a kid and used to be fat, but has a meal plan and work out to stay thin. He’s being filmed during the cruise, updating people on what’s happening before Solu launches. Solu it not what is seems. People using it seem to be losing weigh too fast and all they want it more. They’ve become addicted and would do anything for more.

I really enjoyed the pop culture references and celebrity stuff I think it’s kind of fun. I like that the main characters are not obsessed with thin-ness. Tom has his routine. Laurel doesn’t care about loosing weight. She thinks having curves is more normal than being stick-thin. A lot of this book has meaningful stuff about being obsessed with being overweight. A lot of our culture has taught us than being skinny is better when we should just focus on encouraging healthy eating and exercising rather than hate on fat people.

The last 100 pages of this book are crazy full of action and horror. This cruise gets scary. The addicted people go crazy. They’re like zombies that want Solu. I’m not spoiling anything. I think it’s important to know that this is sci-fi and not contemporary. I hope it will make more people interested in reading it. It kind of reminded me of the TV show The Strain for some reason. How the addicts are described later on. Really it’s about a nightmare kind of cruise. Enjoy!

Cover Art Review: Creepy looking just by being upside down and using dim colors. That blood on the title is even suggestive.

The Cage by Megan Shepherd

Series: The Cage (bk. 1)

Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi

Subjects: aliens, extraterrestrials, psychic ability,

Setting: In a alien zoo, or enclosure with various environments

POV/Tense: 3^rd person POV limited and past tense, rotating between the human characters: Cora (mainly), Lucky, Rolf, Nok, Leon and Mali

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 385 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover 

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: HarperTeen: Balzer + Bray

Summary/ product description: “The Maze Runner meets Scott Westerfeld in this gripping new series about teens held captive in a human zoo by an otherworldly race. From Megan Shepherd, the acclaimed author of The Madman's Daughter trilogy.

When Cora Mason wakes in a desert, she doesn't know where she is or who put her there. As she explores, she finds an impossible mix of environments—tundra next to desert, farm next to jungle, and a strangely empty town cobbled together from different cultures—all watched over by eerie black windows. And she isn't alone.

Four other teenagers have also been taken: a beautiful model, a tattooed smuggler, a secretive genius, and an army brat who seems to know too much about Cora's past. None of them have a clue as to what happened, and all of them have secrets. As the unlikely group struggles for leadership, they slowly start to trust each other. But when their mysterious jailer—a handsome young guard called Cassian—appears, they realize that their captivity is more terrifying than they could ever imagine: Their captors aren't from Earth. And they have taken the five teenagers for an otherworldly zoo—where the exhibits are humans.

As a forbidden attraction develops between Cora and Cassian, she realizes that her best chance of escape might be in the arms of her own jailer—though that would mean leaving the others behind. Can Cora manage to save herself and her companions? And if so . . . what world lies beyond the walls of their cage?”

My Review:  From the author that wrote a historical fiction book that I actually enjoyed, comes a sci-fi story about an alien zoo. Megan Shepard is a genius at writing unique and interesting characters. She knows how to make thrilling mysteries within multiple generas. I was really excited when I heard about The Cage. It sounded really unique, and it is.

The alien zoo isn’t really a zoo in the normal sense. It’s an environment with different biomes. 6 teens were picked to live in this environment: Cora, Lucky, Leon, Rolf, Nok and another girl who died right away. Cora is the main character, and she’s the daughter of a Virginia Senator. Lucky is also from Virginia, but had moved to Montana. Leon is from New Zealand, Rolf from Norway, but went to school in London. Nok if Thai, but she moved to London to be a model. All these characters have a trait that the aliens desired, and that is why they were taken.

There are 8 biomes: desert, tundra, mountains, ocean, farm, swamp, jungle, and grasslands. There’s also a town with various building, such as a candy shop, toy store, diner and more.  There are games in the buildings that they can earn tokens to buy stuff with, much like a fun zone/arcade. The teens only asked to stay healthy, play the games, and procreate.

I’ve read quite a few books about aliens lately, but none of them had full-on aliens. Series like The 5^th Wave, Scan and The Rules had aliens that wear pretty much human, and The Cage has aliens that look different from humans. The main ones are called the kindred. They are humanoid, but have black eyes, metallic bronze skin and telepathic abilities. One kindred, their Caretaker (like zookeeper) named Cassian actually seems to care about human more than the rest. He sees them as more rather than lesser species. Cassian and Cora develop a forbidden romance because she was meant for Lucky.

I enjoyed the romance and the complexities of this story. There’s a lot of sci-fi elements that I enjoyed. There’s also a deep mystery. Why are the teens really there? What happened to Earth. Time seems to move strangely. Weird stuff happened. There are black viewing windows on wall that are not thick enough for a room in which the Kindred could watch them. Optical illusions of space. Just strange stuff going on. And as always with anything by Megan Shepherd, there’s a huge plot twist at the end! I recommend this book to fans of The 5^th Wave, Gone by Michael Grant, and The 100 by Kass Morgan.

Cover Art Review: I like the cover, but wish it was metallic and had more embossing than just the title.