Pretty Little Liars Book 1 by Sara Shepard

As someone who watches the TV series Pretty Little Liars, I was somewhat hopeful for this book. Sure, the actresses are not very good and everything is over-dramatic, but there is something about this show that pulls you in and makes you want to keep watching. The number of people I know who have said this is their guilty pleasure show is ridiculous. But the book itself does not come off nearly as suspenseful as its small screen counterpart.

The show follows Aria, Spencer, Hannah, and Emily, four girls who would be losers at school if not for the fact that Allison, the most popular girl in school, has decided to be friends with them. Allison is the girl that everyone wants to be friends with but she is also the girl who knows all of their secrets. But when Allison disappears, the girls grow apart, only to be brought back together by mysterious text messages by someone named “A.” Because “A” knows all their secrets, just like Allison did and will stop at nothing to torment them with it.

Whereas a single episode of Pretty Little Liars feels jam-packed with excitement, the book felt like it didn’t cover enough ground. Maybe it is just that watching the show I know everyone’s secrets and so nothing is a surprise, but it felt like I was learning very little about each girl. And where the show makes the girls likable despite their secrets, the book makes them feel mostly shallow and dull. Aria is a teen looking for her identity and having an affair with her teacher, Hannah is thin and popular but at the expense of shoplifting and her health, Emily has a boyfriend and a crush on the new girl, and Spencer, ever-competing with her sister, starts sleeping with her older sister’s boyfriend.

I don’t often recommend this, but I would say skip the book version in favor of the TV show. It’s not that is it so terrible, it is just that with so many great young adult books out there, there are others worth reading first.

A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones (Book 1) by George R.R. Martin

I had always thought to read the series but it seemed to me that if the author was never going to finish it, I wasn’t sure I wanted to start and get stuck waiting for something that would never come. (Fans have been waiting six years for book five to come out and it was finally announced that the publication date would be in July–book four took five years but in that instance he threw out a year’s worth of work when he decided the format he was using would not work for it so I forgive the time lapse.) But when HBO announced it would be creating a series based on the show, I decided I had to read the books–I knew I would be watching the show and thought it best to read the books too. (The book was written to be somewhat unfilmable, so I knew it would likely be complicated and a reading of the book would probably help clear things up.)

Now, with that preamble out of the way, I found myself greatly enjoying this series. It is not what you expect from a fantasy series. In fact, for the vast majority of it, it feels more like historical fiction than fantasy as there is virtually nothing fantastical about it. We only get a handful of magic details and scenes at all–direwolves are sort of otherworldly in that they don’t exist, there are myths regarding whitewalkers but other than the opening scene we don’t really see them, dragons are now extinct, and the only actual spells cast come near the very end of the book. And though the magical element is usually something I really look for in a fantasy series, I was surprised to find that it didn’t bother me that they were all but absent.

Martin has created a very in depth world filled with dozens of complex characters and history. One might even say too in depth since there are so many characters that at times it is difficult to keep them straight. Many of the deaths lack impact because I was to busy thinking “wait, who was he again?” We follow eight primary characters in first person–some of the members of the Stark family (Eddard, Catelyn, Jon, Sansa, Arya, and Bran), Tyrion Lannister, and Daenyerys Targaryn. Eddard Stark grew up best friends with Robert, the man who he helped make king of the Seven Kingdoms by deposing Aerys Targaryen, The Mad King. When King Robert comes to Winterfell, the Starks’ home, they are pulled into the already fraught political world of King’s Landing where the Lannisters plot for power and the last Hand of the King was mysteriously killed. While Eddard investigates why the Hand was killed, his children are left to navigate their new world–Bran, Rob, and Rickon must learn to rule Winterfell while Sansa and Arya must find their place in the capital and Jon, Eddard’s bastard, must fit into the Wall where he has gone to help protect the realm from more dangerous things up north. Meanwhile in the East, Daenerys Targaryen has been sold by her brother Viserys, the last male heir of the Targaryen family, to Khal Drogo, the leader of one of the barbarian-like Dothraki tribes.

For me, some characters’ stories are much stronger than others. Where Sansa is a believable teenager in some ways she seems much too stupid, materialistic, and whiny for a Stark of Winterfell and was hard to relate to. Arya, on the other hand, was interesting and exciting as she was determined to defy the world and expectations placed on her for being a daughter of a noble family. Bran seems largely unimportant beyond the things he sees in the very beginning (it might have been more interesting to see things from Robb’s perspective as he was forced to take up the mantel of Lord of Winterfell). Catelynn is an irritating character, but mostly because I don’t care for her personality (and particularly the cruel way she treats Jon). It also seems like she does not know Arya very well at all, whereas Eddard, despite being extremely busy, understands his youngest daughter fairly well (though he does not seem to understand Sansa much at all).

Most impressive about this series is how complicated it is while still managing to be clear and easy to follow. It could easily have gotten lost (in the same way as Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series sometimes did when talking about random characters that we have not seen or heard from for hundreds of pages or even entire books. Martin balances the different parts of the story well so that we get as much as we need form each storyline without forgetting what is happening in the others.

Best of all, Martin manages to come up with twists and surprises that I never saw coming. You can’t ask for much more.

Best of all

The Chemical Garden Trilogy: Wither (Book 1) by Lauren Destefano

I recently started watching the HBO show Big Love, which has made me interested in the concept of plural marriage. Not as something for myself, but seeing the dynamics and oddities that come out of a plural marriage are fascinating. So when I saw Wither I was particularly excited: a dystopian novel about polygamy! It seemed to be too good to be true, and in some ways, it was.

America has closed its borders after disaster has struck. A generation of perfect children was born, thanks to genetic engineering. Unfortunately, no one thought about the side effects, which were that those perfect children would grow up and have children who, instead of being perfect, would have limited lifespans due to some sort of virus. Girls die at age 20, boys die at age 25. What this leads to, among other things, is a world of orphans and rich people marrying many wives in an attempt to have many kids and experiment on curing the virus. How do they get these wives? Gatherers find them on the street, kidnap them, and bring them to buyers. The girls who are not wanted either get shot or made slaves. Rhine has had a better upbringing than some. She had parents for part of her life (they were part of the perfect generation) and a twin brother for company. But when she is taken, she is forced into a plural marriage with two other girls and must find a way to escape and find her brother again.

The idea in this story was a very interesting one and I really wanted to like it. Rhine and her sister-wives have very different reactions to their imprisonment. Cecily, at thirteen, is anxious to please and seems thrilled to be married. Jenna, the oldest at eighteen, is repulsed and mostly goes quietly along with things but does not share much of herself. Rhine attempts to gain their husbands favor in hopes of getting more rights and freedom and perhaps the chance at escape. Their relationship to each other is also diverse. Jenna and Rhine become fairly close while they look at Cecily as the kid sister who is annoying, naive, and in need of protection.

My problem is that Rhine and Jenna felt like poorly developed characters. Rhine in particular, as the narrator, behaved in a way that didn’t seem all that believable to me. Her repulsion and upset was never quite as strong as it felt like it should be. Her transition into cooperative wife came too quickly and easily. And when the opportunity to reveal the truth about her situation came, she did not take it, even though it likely would have gotten her free. The fact that she accepted her marriage (in the first person marriage she always referred too Linden as her Husband despite not actually exchanging vows and never sarcastically or halfheartedly like “my ‘husband’”) seemed particularly unrealistic. Cecily felt the most real and the most developed over the course of the series.

The story is interesting in some ways but I hoped it would go further. I’m still interested in seeing where the second book goes, but at the same time I feel like this series could have been much better than it was.

Rise of the Darklings: The Invisible Order (Book 1) by Paul Crilley

Emily sells watercresses on the street in order to provide for herself and her younger brother. She has been doing this for a few years now, ever since her parents mysteriously disappeared. One day, as she is walking through the city to buy the watercresses she will later sell, she witnesses a vicious battle on the streets. And all of the combatants are no taller than her knee. Emily discovers a new world, a world of fantastical creatures of all kinds–fairies and giants, witches and wizards. She is a True Seer, a regular human who can see supernaturals. And what she has seen draws her into a battle between two groups of faeries, the Seelie and the Unseelie and the Invisible Order that seeks out and destroys faeries. Emily’s world is turned upside and things only get worse when her brother William is kidnapped. But who is on Emily’s side and who is evil?

This is definitely one of the better middle grade books I have seen in a while. Emily is a strong, clever protagonist, but she cannot do it alone. I appreciate the fact that she is not suddenly capable of accomplishing every task she needs, as so many characters in other stories are. Instead, she is helped by friend Spring-Heeled Jack and Corrigan, a faerie she found injured after the battle.

I would compare this book most closely with Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series. There are the clever twists (think of Fablehaven’s betrayal story-lines) and a mythology much deeper than expected (such as the history of the secret preserves and who runs the evil society). Emily is no random orphan embroiled in the faerie world drama, she plays a much larger role in things than she can ever guess. The story is not overly simplistic the truth of good and evil is never that simple.

Though we have yet to get to know William, I have a feeling he will become a more important character in book two and I eagerly await the second book in the series.

Pegasus by Robin McKinley

I’m a newcomer to Robin McKinley. In all honesty I’m not sure I’m sold on this author. Which isn’t to say I disliked the book and won’t buy book 2 when it comes out. But I’m just not sure I would seek out another series by her.

On her twelfth birthday, Sylvi is bound with a Pegasus named Ebon, as all royal children are bound, as part of an ancient treaty between the humans and the pegasi when the humans first came to these lands. But of all the children who are bound to a pegasus, Sylvi is the only one who can clearly communicate with hers without the help of a magician. Some, like the king, hope this will help promote a closer relationship with the pegasi people who have long been their allies only in the most technical and official terms. But others believe that this is a symbol of something sinister to come for the kingdom. The appearance of old and dangerous enemies only seems to confirm this fact, threatening to tear Sylvi and her new friend apart.

Many parts of the story are fun and whimsical. Who wouldn’t want a pegasus as your best friend? (And as a short, small person, I could probably ride on one!) Who ever imagined them as intelligent people rather than simply mythical creatures?

For me, the weaknesses lie in the fact that everyone’s motivations are fairly transparent so there isn’t a lot of surprise or even mystery in most of what is happening (though I wouldn’t be surprised if perhaps the magician play some role in the increase of dangerous creatures arriving). I also dislike the fact that the pegasi are so unimaginably beautiful because it makes it more difficult to really think of them as real “people” and makes them seem more like myth.

There was no real feeling of danger or peril for most of the book, more like a feeling that eventually, at some point, maybe later, there would be danger. sure, her brother and her mother were out fighting all the time, but Sylvi was safely tucked away in the palace where the worst she had to deal with was an intimidating magician. I would have liked more, a daring escape form one of the dangerous creatures, a fall of Ebon during one of their illicit rides, something…

For anyone hoping that the novel would wrap up anything at the end of the book, it ended with a promise of things to come but no resolutions. Which is fine by me but not so fine for people who wanted a standalone book (since there isn’t really an indication on the cover that this is meant to be a book one).

It wasn’t a bad book by any means. I just wanted more. I think that the second will gives us more as it steers away from world building and setting up the scene and gets into the real conflict and danger.

The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (book 1) by Cassandra Clare

When Clary goes to a club with her best friend, she witnesses three strangely marked teens murder another teen whose body then disappears without anyone touching it. They are Shadowhunters and the teen they killed is actually a demon. They fight to rid the earth of demons but it is a difficult battle and not all Shadowhunters feel the same way about who should and shouldn’t be left alone of the supernatural folk. When her mother disappears, Clary learns that there is a good deal about herself and her mother that she never knew. And she is more connected to the world of Shadowhunters and demons than she ever knew.

There is something about this series that reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I mean the Buffy of season one who had just found out she could not just be a normal teen but had to fight vampires. The Buffy who fell in love with someone dangerous (Angel) who had secrets that would play an important role in her future. While I don’t find Clary as endearing as Buffy, she was still the perfect person to be the center of the story. As the newbie to the dark world, she is the perfect window to let us, the readers, learn how the world works.

There are a lot of complaints about the book and though I agree that this isn’t the most unique of stories, I didn’t find it to be as weak as some people say. It’s fun and full of dramatic teen angst and a slightly icky realization at the end that is anything but surprising to everyone but the actually characters. (It hold true with my general rule: if you don’t actually see people die or completely see the body, they are not dead! And even then sometimes not.)

The characters could use more development, but then, it’s a trilogy, so you can’t reveal everything all at once. I hope we get more on Isabelle because right now she’s sort of just “there” which is never appealing for a character. Perhaps the best character in the book is Luke who is much more complex than you can initially guess.

In the end, I will pick up books two and three. They won’t be the best books I’ve ever read but they are fun, quick reads and I’m curious to know what is going to happen. There is news that they will be turning this into a movie, which makes me wonder if it would be better or worse off for that. I could actually see this making a good TV show.

The Maze Runner (Book 1) by James Dashner

Every month one boy is brought up to the Glade in the elevator with no memory of anything but their first name. Thomas’s arrival is much the same, as unremarkable as any other arrival. He is quickly introduced to life in the Glades. The area they live in is surrounded by stone doors that close at night, separating them from the surrounding maze and the Grievers, dangerous creatures that prowl the maze. During the day, they explore the maze in hopes of finding a way to escape. But the day after Thomas comes, a girl arrives with a message: everything is going to change. And there’s something about the girl that’s familiar to Thomas. Thomas might know more about the maze and how to escape, if only he could remember it.

The first few pages of this book are a little slow. I think this is mostly because it’s all inside the character’s head with very little actually happening. (Basically Thomas is in the lift, wakes up, has no memory, and the lift rises.) But as soon as it reaches the surface and he’s brought into the Glades, the book really picks up. Dashner has thought of just about everything–how the boys survive, a vocabulary unique to their experiences (though I wonder if some of the new kids pick up that vocabulary a little too quickly for it to be natural), a hierarchy of sorts, different personalities, etc. It is such an intricate world that it is easy to get lost in it.

He has built solid characters, I believe their reactions and care about their survival. There are some characters it would have been nice to know more about (though I suppose that is difficult since they don’t really know anything about themselves), but it makes sense that if a boy’s memory goes back only a month, there is less to reveal about him than someone whose memory goes back a year or two, etc.

Not every detail involved is a surprise (if anyone was paying attention, they should be able to figure out where the escape route is fairly early on), but there are more than enough surprises to keep you interested. And of course, there is the biggest question of all: who put them in the maze and why?

This is definitely one of the better series that I have read in a while (a few of the ones that I’ve picked up lately have been particularly solid). Book two is already out and reading it is a high priority. This is a series that I would love to see made into a movie.

Gone (Book 1) by Michael Grant

Sam is sitting in class when suddenly his teacher disappears. Not just his teacher, everyone over the age of fifteen disappears from his town. There is also a barrier blocking the town off from the rest of the world. Without adults, a fight for control and power takes place, the biggest bullies in town attempting to rule. Sam has a secret though, he has an unusual ability–he can shoot laser-like light from his hands. As he is about to discover, he is not the only one with these powers and while he is a natural-born, compassionate leader, not everyone with abilities is. To make matters worse, Sam learns that his mother has been lying to him about his family, there is a Darkness corrupting animals/people, and worst of all for fourteen year old Sam, is that when people turn fifteen they disappear.

This book has all the ingredients of a book I would like: kids with powers they don’t understand, no adults and thus a reasonable explanation for why the kids are so involved in dangerous events without intervention, and a bit of a mystery to figure out (it’s sort of a futuristic Lord of the Flies). I also like there being a love story without it being the central story (I have never been a fan of a character whose only purpose is to be someone else’s significant other). Overall, I did enjoy reading Michael Grant’s Gone. But that isn’t to say it had no flaws.

The biggest flaw I found in this book involved religion. For one thing, there is a great deal of talking about and invoking God/Jesus/Mary which felt perhaps a little overly forced since there was no indication that these kids were particularly religious to the point where they could recite entire passages off the top of their heads. It also seems a little intrusive. (Maybe it’s just me, but if I was in immediate danger–like say a rush of coyotes surrounding me and threatening to eat me, I think I’d be more inclined to say “Please God, please…” over the an entire long prayer.) Even more than this, was the fact that the main character, Sam, was not only not religious, but not Christian. Though he didn’t particularly identify with any religion, the closest he’s got is Judaism. As such, all the talk of Mother Mary and Jesus, etc should have been a little odd for him, if not a little uncomfortable.

Allegiances seemed a little shifty and easily changed (which I suppose makes sense in a world run by children) but it would have been nice to have a better sense of why people made the decisions they made. Why did Diane choose Caine, why did Edilio join Sam, why did Quinn hover from one side to the other? Granted, this is a multiple book series, so we have time to learn all about the different characters, but sometimes the decisions didn’t quite add up to what we knew.

One of the strengths (and perhaps also weaknesses) of the book is how much is happening. There’s Astrid finding her brother, Astrid and Sam’s relationship, Quinn and Sam’s relationship, the town figuring out how to run, the power struggle between the Coates kids and the rest of the town, the mystery of what happened and how to avoid disappearing, Sam’s past, etc. The plus to this is there is never a dull moment (but Grant did a good job of keeping you from feeling overwhelmed with information). Each scene is informative and moves the story forward in some way. The downside to this, is that we got occasional glimpses of characters such as Lana and Mary who felt like they had serious things going on but simply didn’t get enough attention.

I’m excited to see where the series goes, but I do hope it dials down on the religion and delves into the characters and their motivations/pasts more. This book could actually make a fascinating TV show if executed well. There’s so much happening that there would be material to cover for years.

The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero (Book 1) by Rick Riordan

Much as I enjoyed Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, I am sure I’m not the only one to be happy for the return to the Greek (and apparently Roman) Gods. Unlike the Percy Jackson series, where we only follow Percy, this series allows us to follow three characters: Jason, Piper, and Leo. Like the Red Pyramid, this book shows how Riordan has grown in his writing skills and characterization, as these characters each come out interesting and more complex than, say Grover of Percy’s series.

Jason has no memories before waking up beside Piper and Leo but he has a surprising amount of knowledge of the Roman Gods. Piper’s father has been missing for three days and she knows that to get him back, she may have to betray the people she’s closest to. Leo, has always had a skill with machines and metal, and most especially, fire.

Annabeth has been searching for Percy, who has gone missing without a trace. Her search leads her to Jason, Piper, and Leo, who she brings back to Camp Half-Blood where they get their first quest and discover some important truths about themselves.

Most importantly, while they thought that Kronus was bad, there is something much worse in store. The prophecy at the end of the Percy Jackson series has come to pass, much sooner than anyone expected and the seven heroes begin to be gathered.

Each character has their own mysterious past to contend with and only by dealing with those pasts can they be the heroes they need to be in order to save the world.

Among the other things I really liked about this series was the way the characters we came to know in the Percy Jackson series (as well as in the Demi-God Files) were integrated into this series. We got to see Annabeth most of all, but also Thalia (who played a much bigger role than initially expected), Chiron, and others. Percy was absent, but his absence was an important part of the story and was felt appropriately, so I wasn’t upset about it.

This might be Riordan’s best book yet and my final thought coming out of it was: Why is Rick Riordan so awesome?

Alex Rider: Stormbreaker (Book 1) by Anthony Horowitz

Finally, a plausible (at least semi-plausible) explanation as to why a child might be a secret agent. Plus a believable explanation as to why he’s got some skills–Alex Rider has been raised by his uncle who, unbeknown to Alex, worked as a spy and has been training Alex as a spy for years. When his uncle is killed, Alex is recruited to finish his Uncle’s mission. Specifically, to infiltrate a company led by Herod Sayle. Sayle is donating thousands of computers to schools all around the world but something doesn’t seem right about it and the government needs to know what. It becomes Alex’s job to find out if there is anything deeper going on (which of course there is).

While I was pleased to find a story that I believed in, I didn’t love this book. Not that it was bad, it just wasn’t great. Alex isn’t a particularly dynamic character. Presumably his parent’s early death will play into the larger series but that is hard to say for sure as there was no hint of it in this book. I didn’t connect to Alex either. The most I know about his character is he is curious and determined. That’s not much to go on.

It also felt like everything was sort of done for him. Alex managed such a good job largely because his uncle had done it all before. I would assume that in other books this will not be the case, but here at least, it was just him managing to escape where his uncle did not and only because too many bad guys think slow painful deaths are better than quick ones. Ok, that’s a little unfair. Alex did have skills and he did use them to save himself, but it just wasn’t enough for me.

I think the biggest problem for me was that there weren’t any other characters for Alex to really interact with and play off of. There was no friend working alongside him or even a crush. Anyone who was around was only there for short spans of time while 95% of it was with him by himself.

Clearly other people like this book, since it’s already got 8 books in the series. I have enough other books to check out that this one falls to the bottom of my list (if it makes the list at all).