Review of: Plague (Gone #4) by Michael Grant

Title: Plague (Gone #4)

Author: Michael Grant

Published by: Katherine Tegen Books

Released: 2011

Summary: Life for the kids of the FAYZ never seems to get any easier. They've survived the disappearance of their parents, hunger, and living with no electricity, but somehow things seem to only get worse. A sickness is spreading around Perdido Beach. It starts off as a flu and ends with kids coughing up their own lungs, literally. There is also a new bug problem bothering the kids, it involves bug larvae hatching in kids and eating them from the inside out. New enemies mix with old enemies in this next installment. The Darkness is still there and Drake Merwin escapes to inflict more terror. Just another day for kids in the FAYZ.

My Thoughts: This series just doesn't disappoint! Plague is another action, disaster, and suspense filled tale that makes me really wonder if these kids are going to survive to the end.

I love the realistic way Sam, Astrid, Quinn, Edilio, and others have changed from the first book to this one. They have become darker, less innocent kids, which is entirely realistic to their situation. I fear and hope for almost all of them.

The gore factor was top-notch as per usual. Such a disturbing mental image of kids getting eaten from the inside out. Just imagine that old Alien movie.

Caine is still such a despicable little tyrant. I doubt I'll ever like him. All he strives for is power and attention. I'll just call him cringe-worthy Caine. I mean, come on, even Diana has changed her ways a little.

Overall, this series never disappoints and I'm excited to continue on with it.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 4/5

This book should spread like a PLAGUE! It's that contagious and awesome!

Reading Right Now! (#4)

So this week, I'm reading two books kinda at the same time. I say kinda, because one of the books is actually a bind up of two books. I plan on finishing the first book in the bind-up and then moving on to a different book. Anywayssss....

Title: Deathnote Black Edition #1

Author: Tsugumi Ohba

Art: Takeshi Obata

I'm on page 150 which makes me about 77% of the way through the first book.

So I am a fan of Japanese manga. I used to read more of it when I was in high school, but somehow ended up taking a break from reading them. Maybe they were just easier to get my hands on in highschool or something. I've heard so many great things about the Deathnote series. So many people love it and recommend it all the time. When I first started it, I wasn't sure. The Shinigami Ryuk is just so ugly. That face man, that face. I wasn't sure if I would be a huge fan of the artstyle, but Light is a cutie so it's okay :)

Light is an interesting character too. Is he good or bad? Is the Deathnote twisting him into a truly evil person, or was he already twisted in the first place? Does he seriously think he's going to rule the world? And how is he not evil when he's committing murder? Just because he's killing off criminals, doesn't mean he's still not committing a crime himself. Just a bunch of questions about Light. I wondered how the story would continue for so many volumes. I thought the story would peeter out eventually, but in the middle of the first volume, everything got good. Everyone who's recommended this series so far has been right! I can't wait to finish this one and then hopefully be able to pick up the subsequent volumes. Why does manga have to be so expensive :(

Title: I Hunt Killers (#1)

Author: Barry Lyga

I haven't started this one yet, but I'm excited too!

As soon as I finish the first volume of DeathNote, I plan on starting I Hunt Killers! I'm super excited about it too. I love dark, creepy tales involving serial killers and questionable youths. I love Dan Wells I Am Not A Serial Killer series, and I hope for this series to be in kind of the same vein. I guess I should really worry about myself, enjoying books about serial killers and stuff. But it's interesting!!! So I've heard good things about this one too and can't wait to start it.

So that's what I'm Reading Right Now! Tell me what your Reading Right Now! in the comments below if you want to. I see comments as a great way of interacting with other book lovers and this is in no way a push just to make my blog more profitable. So yeah, hope everyone has a great time with whatever your reading!

Review of: Vicious by V.E. Schwab

Title: Vicious

Author: V.E. Schwab

Published by: TOR

Released: 2013

Summary: Victor and Eli, gifted college roommates and best friends. Working on their final thesis, they become interested in EO's (ExtraOrdinarys). 10 years later, Victor is escaping from prison and determined to kill his arch nemesis Eli. Eli has his own mission, to hunt and kill every last E.O. he can find. As Victor and Eli make their way to the ultimate battle, the future of E.O.'s hang in the balance. A story of revenge, awesome abilities, and how two best friends can turn into mortal enemies.

My Thoughts: This book was AWESOME!!! I loved, loved, loved every minute, every page of it. I was hooked from page one until the very end. I didn't want it to end and was sad when it did. It's pretty obvious that this review is just going to be a gush fest, so I'll just keep going. I loved everything about this book. I loved the concept of Extra Ordinaries and how they came to be. I loved the characters. Victor and his gang were my favorites. I loved how Victor wasn't necessarily a good guy. In most cases, Victor would probably be a pretty bad guy. I couldn't help rooting for Victor though. I loved his little team of Sydney, Mitch, and Dol. I think my like fro Victor increased because of how he cared and took care of his friends. Victor had some sparks of definite good in him that offset his bad, mean tendencies.

It would have been interesting to see if I felt that same way about Victor if we had started in Eli's POV instead. I think I would still have found Victor the better of the two characters though. I really enjoyed how there were no pure good guys or pure bad guys, but characters that fell in between.

It's obvious that I love this book. My only disappointment is upon learning that it is a standalone. I want more of this world! More of Victor, Mitch, Sydney, Dominic, and Dol. I want to see what adventures they get up to next. I also think it would be cool for Detective Stell to team up with Victor and his gang too, but who knows if that could ever happen. I love this book! Pure awesome. I recommend everybody go read this and then bug V.E. Schwab for a sequel!

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 5/5

Super Awesome, Super Fun, Super ExtraOrdinary!

Reading Right Now! (#3)

Title: A Fatal Likeness

Author: Lynn Shepherd

So what I'm Reading Right Now is A Fatal Likeness by Lynn Shepherd. There's actually a funny story behind this book. I checked it out from my library because I thought it looked interesting and the feather in her hair really called to me. After I checked it out, and it had been sitting on my shelf for about a week, I saw a video on youtube by the YARebels. In the video it was talking about this article where the writer pretty much said J.K. Rowling needs to stop writing books if she cares about writing at all. It was pretty much a sour grapes article where she author was complaining that nobody was buying her books or other lowly authors books because of the hype surrounding J.K. Rowling's books. She wanted Rowling to stop writing because it wasn't fair to other lowly authors or something. The author of the article also put down adults reading YA books because they weren't "stimulating" enough or some such nonsense. I'll link the full article here in case you are interested in reading it.  http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lynn-shepherd/jk-rowling-should-stop-writing_b_4829648.html

So the article kind of annoyed me on many levels and I was interested to see what the author of the article had wrote herself. And lo and behold, I had checked out one of the books she had written and it was this one.

So I'm trying really hard to not judge this book just based on the stupid article the author wrote. I think how you feel about a book should be based on what's inside rather than what the author is like in real life.

I'm not very far in this book, only on page 30 or so. So far, it's just an okay book. The writing is very stylized and weird. The narrator will offer asides to the reader that is kind of jarring. Also, I'm trying to get sucked into this historical, Victorian London world and the writing style keeps pulling me out of it by jumping to what a certain street really looks like in 2013. Maybe I'm being overly judgmental and looking for things to nitpick.

So that's what I'm Reading Right Now! Tell me what you're Reading Right Now! in the comments below.

Review of: The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg

Title: The Ice Princess ( Fjallbacka #1)

Author: Camilla Lackberg

Translated By: Steven T. Murray

Published by: Pegasus Books

Released: 2010

Summary: It's like the scene from a horror movie; a girl laying in a bathtub, slits in her wrists, blood on the floor, and frozen with icicles in her hair and eyelashes. This is the sight Erica Falck stumbles across. Not only is the girl dead, but she also used to be a best childhood friend of Erica's. Determined to solve the mystery of Alex's life and death, Erica teams up with detective Patrik Hedstrom to uncover the dark secrets that hide in the town of Fjallbacka.

My Thoughts: This book took me a little while to read, not because it was bad or boring, it just went along in a little bit of a slow way. It also could have taken me a little while to read it because of me being distracted by other things.

I enjoyed this book. I'd already read one of Camilla Lackberg's mysteries before, and thought I'd better start at the beginning of the series. Her mysteries are enjoyable, with lots of twists and turns and surprising who-done-its. I also really like this Swedish town that her series is set in. I've become quite a fan of these Swedish mysteries hitting the English market. My favorite character in this book was Patrik Hedstrom. He just seems like such a nice, fun, easygoing guy and he does some pretty good police work. I don't always enjoy Erica Falck. She can be quite a grump and a bit of a know-it-all, Nancy Drew type.

The mystery aspect of the book was pretty good. I figured out some things leading up to the conclusion, but was totally thrown for a loop on who the actual killer was. I very much enjoyed this mystery and plan on reading the rest of the books in this series.

BOOKCITEMENT LEVEL 3/5

Crimetastic!

You won't know who-done-it until the very last page.