All the Books.

"Part Fantasy/Part Coming of age story, this was an interesting one from Ness. It had his dark, gritty realism but at the same time, the storyline with the Indie kids ended up just being overdone and confusing."  2 Stars Pros:  Ness touched upon some serious issues with his characters, mental health/anxiety/OCD/Eating Disorders but he handled it all in a realistic way. He didn't sugarcoat anything, which was tough at times but I think it added to the story.  Cons:  The fantasy story of the Indie kids being told in summary at the beginning of each chapter was unique but also, just kind of felt rushed and trite.  Full Summary: Mike is just weeks away from graduating high school and having his whole life change. His sister Mel, his best friend Jared, the love of his life but he's never told her, Henna, everyone is preparing to up and going their separate ways. And there's that whole thing with the Indie kids always causing some sort of magical mishap. It'll be a ...

"The dark but necessary conclusion to Yancey's series. It brings everything to a close but the cost is always high. Yancey handles it all in gently heart breaking way. Post-apocalyptic YA Sci-Fi at its best."    Pros:  Yancey does wrap it up well with a pretty good bow, one of the times a rare ray of light shines through this overall very dark series.  Cons:  Not a con per se but reading this series through now as an adult, it is dark. Like, sure, the protagonists are mostly teenagers but, it can get heavy at times, so tread lightly/Though there were some truly deep parts, the ending did go on for a bit.   Full Review: This is one of those times where I feel obligated to say that if you haven't read the first two books in the series, then stop here. Go back and get a copy of The 5th Wave and then please, proceed...  ***SPOILER ALERT*** It's been 6 weeks since Cassie and company escaped Urbana, Ringer was captured, tormented and freed and the Alie...

"A direct continuation of The 5th Wave  and Yancey goes even deeper, never pulling any punches and leaving the reader feeling shocked and horrified but at the same time, like the characters, somehow, still hopeful. I'm excited to see how the Series ends in The Last Star. " 5 Stars Pros:  Basically picking up right where The 5th Wave  left off, we follow Ben/Cassie in their attempts to lay low and survive after the cataclysmic events of the first books ending/The scene between Poundcake and Grace was absolute perfection.  Cons:  Some of the scene with Ringer were very surreal and a little hard to follow, a little repetitive but it didn't take away from the book too much, sometimes it went on for a little too long though.  Full Review: Cassie has found her little brother Sam, along with Ben (Zombie) who is Sam's commanding officer and the rest of Ben's unit. Once they realized what was happening, they went rogue and they know it's only a matter of time befor...

"A dark, gritty, unflinching look at how the world descends into chaos when Aliens finally invade. Yancey pulls no punches and there were times that this book was so intense that I had to remind myself that it was fiction. It was a tough read but a powerful one, one that has stayed with me for a long time." 5 Stars Pros:  Though she has her moments of naivete, for the most part, Cassie is a relatable, strong protagonist and her loyalty and love are endless, the same with Ben Parish/Ringer is a mystery that I hope will be solved.  Cons:  This book is extremely dark and violent at times, so brace yourself. It's not a con precisely but it gets deep and depressing at times.  Full Review: It's finally happened.  Aliens have invaded the Earth.  But it wasn't with ray guns, or Death Stars or blowing up the White House, "Independence Day" style. Instead, the mother ship slips into our orbit, hovering above the Earth like a green, lidless eye and for ten days, no...

"Epic fantasy in every sense but a bit too epic at times. Though I liked most of the characters and Rollins was good at pacing at the beginning, for some reason, once they all reached Havensfayre, everything got kind of complicated, cerebral and hard to follow. I think there was too much happening to too many people all at once. It was an interesting read but by the end, I just needed it to be done." 2 Stars Pros: I do always love the lax, underestimated underdog character like Kanthe/ Rollins didn’t pull any punches, he killed off characters left and right. Cons: I felt like I learned more about the world than the characters, there were brief glimpses but it was overwhelmed with Nyx and her ability to "sing" to creatures, to "feel" them and "bond" with them/There was a lot happening all at once, to a bunch of different people, so it got confusing as to who was where/when/It went on for far too long. Full Review Nyx was abandoned at birth in th...

"Essentially, the war between Good and Evil is constant and its up to our intrepid heroes to once again, fight Fallen Angels to try and save the life of the ailing, Charles Wallace. This book was WAY out there and honestly, once the jaded and bitter principal of the grade school, Mr. Jenkins showed up in multiple forms, I just kind of gave up and finished it to see if it would make any more sense but it never really did."  1 Star.  Pros:  Proginoskes was a fun bit of snark at times. Cons:  L’Engles literalness, nothing was imaginary but at the same time it was hard to remember what was real and what wasn’t cause you have Proginoskes always transporting Meg five ways from Sunday to different places/I was so overwhelmed by everything going on that whole characters names were lost on me, like the teacher, Blajeny/Meg's CONSTANT questions and the lack of actual action/More than once I wanted to scream at the book that I didn't care if they were on a different plane of d...

"The tried and true story of "good versus evil", L'Engle's approach was a unique, peppering inter-dimensional travel into the mix. But in the end, the characters Meg and Charles Wallace were a bit much and the lack of explanation, especially about Mr. Murry and how he just happened to land on Camazotz and become a prisoner of IT, left me wanting more information and not getting it." 2 Stars Pros:  The idea of a Tesseract is an interesting one, though very complex based on the fact this is a young readers book.  Cons:  Meg was very shrill and also very opposite. When speaking with IT, she argued saying that the least he could do was give them some food and then when he gives them food she refuses to eat it, she was really kind of obnoxious/Also, the end, what saves everyone made sense but, it was a bit of a letdown.  Full Review It's a dark and stormy night and Meg can't sleep, so she goes downstairs to the kitchen to find her youngest brother, Charle...

"As Europe falls to the Nazis. Josef Kavalier is the only one of his family to manage to escape to New York City, where he stays with his cousin, Sammy Klay. An instant friendship is formed and soon that friendship is a team. Together they create one of the best selling comics of all time, The Escapist. This had so many different amazing moments and others that were just, soul crushing. It was a heavy, heavy book but a beautiful one as well. "  4 Stars Pros:  Sammy and Josef, you can just picture them, one short, the other tall, eager Sammy and quiet, contemplative Josef. They were a pair that just worked/The ending 💯. Cons:  The over and over heart break of Josef , like, dear Lord, Chabon, give the kid a break/It was sometimes so emotionally heavy that I'd have to put it down and take breaks.  Full Review: Josef manages to escape German occupied Prague with the help of his former teacher, Kornblum, who taught him the arts of sleight of hand, escapism and lock picki...

"It had potential, and I liked Keeble's sardonic voice, for a bit, but after awhile it all got repetitive and the story got overly complicated and hard to follow. This book was purely for research purposes and it was a struggle to get through, kind of like, Summer Reading 👍."  1 Star Pros  Keeble's voice is sardonic and offbeat and I appreciated it, at first. It eventually started to grow old though. Like, her obliviousness just became tedious eventually.  Cons:  So much was happening in this novel, all of it at the same time and it all just got very confusing. It needed to focus on just one thing/The protagonist is so unforgettable that I had a hard time remembering her name for this review.  Full Review Xanthe Jane Green loves Vampires. She's a read all the books, seen all the tv/movies, knows all the characters, all the myths, all the legends. Vampires are her life. And when she wakes up in a coffin and realizes, through a befuddled conversation with her app...

"The final book in The Expanse series, Corey brought everything to a nice, solid conclusion. There were mind bending hallucinations, shared consciousness and all the insanity that comes along with the Protomolecule but it's the end game and James Holden is determined to see everything through to the finish. I'm glad I got the chance to follow the crew of the Rocinante on their truly epic journey." 4 Stars Pros:  They got the band back together/The pork pie hat 🤫❤️/It was a satisfying end to the series.  Cons:  Proto-Molecule, who killed the creators, like, super epic, far flung, mind bending kind of stuff at points, very trippy to read.    Full Review Extreme measures are being taken to get Teresa Duarte back in the hands of Laconia. She’s shipped on the Rocinante for a year and to Jim’s surprise, has become an integral part of the crew. But through all of it, they're still on the run from the strongest military force in the history of time. Jim knows a ship is...

"I think the lesson of this book is "think before you speak." Other than that, I felt like it was the author trying to show off her knowledge of different religions but Marlowe, the protagonist, wasn't smart enough to realize how to interact with these different Pantheons. And she never, ever learned. This was just a poorly written, badly edited, underwhelming book and I just wasn't impressed. " 2 Stars.  Pros:  The book itself was beautiful, the pages were bound with blue edges but the story was severely lacking.  Cons:   Dial back on the melodrama can we please? Marlowe's first reaction of, pitching a fit and telling Caliban to go away, that she never wants to see him again, leads to him disappearing, DUH. You have to think before you speak when dealing with humans and deities.   Full Review Marlowe grew up dirt poor, never had any friends and was raised by an overbearing, abusive, religious zealot of a Mother. The only comfort she finds is in the form...

"A simple, honest, touching story about a boy and his dogs, hunting raccoons in the foothills of the Ozark mountains. It has faith, love and loyalty and it hit just as hard as an adult as it did when I was a kid."  3 Stars Pros:  Billy's love for his pups, Old Dan and Little Ann is the most pure and genuine love there is and there's never any doubting it/Touched upon the idea of God/Heaven/Faith in a tender and respectful way.  Cons:  I had trouble with the passage of time in this novel, I was unsure of how much time had passed between chapters, so all of it seemed to happen very quickly, it was a little jarring at times/I do not approve of hunting unless you're using all parts of the animal and need to kill said animal to survive, even then, I'm not a fan of it, so the whole constant hunting of small woodland creatures was a bit cringe-worthy.  Full Review One night, on his way home from work, Billy Coleman witnesses a dog fight. He, at first, can't help ...