City of Glass by Cassandra Clare

#3 in The Mortal Instrument series
Published in 2009 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
2 Stars

Goodreads Review
To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters - never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.

As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City - whatever the cost?

Love is a mortal sin and the secrets of the past prove deadly as Clary and Jace face down Valentine in the final installment of the New York Times bestselling trilogy The Mortal Instruments.

Review:  City of Glass my be the most frustrating book of the entire series.  There are so many cool ideas in this novel, but it's like the interesting aspects of the world building and plot were rushed or pushed to the side so we could get to the stupid angst and drama going on with Clary and Jace.  And there is a lot of drama, but sadly not much else.

My biggest complaint with City of Glass is the writing style and choices.  A lot of the plot developments (what happened to the wizard Ragnor Fell, what happened with Clary's mother, what happened with Isabel and Max, ect.) happened "off screen".  Clary wouldn't be present for the actual event, she would just be told about it later.  There is a lot of truth to the "show don't tell" style of writing and we do not get shown much.  I also have to point out the horrific overuse of similes in this novel (and in Clare's writing in general).  Now, I'm not inherently against similes, when they make sense.  But when you start comparing every single characteristic a person or building or event has to something else seems just lazy to me.  My personal favorite, "There was a crash—the sound of shattering—and a sudden spray of broken glass like a shower of jagged stars."  What does that even mean? 

I found the plot to be very predictable (in fact I was predicting the events of this book at the end of City of Bones) and the amout of drama and angst surrounding this very obvious plot made me roll my eyes and shake my head a lot.  And it's just so disappointing because there really are a lot of cool ideas in this novel that I don't really want to to mention specifically because I don't want to spoil, but they are all so clouded by Clary's inner monologue stuck on her Jace obsession that it's just painful. 

Let's talk really quickly about the ending (no spoilers, promise!)  The final battle is just a huge disappointment.  After being stuck for over five chapters waiting around for the battle to begin, it barely lasts 5 pages!  I want some bloody action!  And the resolution with Valentine was a huge let down.  The whole ending was so anti-climactic and then everything is wrapped up in one convenient little bow.  I hate endings like that, I like it when character are actually affected by the events of the novel and they don't come out perfectly squeaky clean (ie Mockingjay). 

I honestly just don't get what people see in this series.  I think The Moral Instruments is a weak collection of fantasy tropes that are done much better in other series such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Beastly by Alex Flinn

Published in 2007 by HarperTeen
2 Stars

Goodreads Review
I am a beast.

A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright--a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.

You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever--ruined--unless I can break the spell.

Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly . . . beastly.

Review:  I picked up a copy of Beastly because I surprisingly enjoyed the movie (starring Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer) and I wanted to see what the novel was all about.  I thought Beastly was ok, and was actually enjoying it despite the incredibly cheesy writing and the fact that Beastly sticks closely to the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast and not the classic fairytale.    However, it all went downhill when I got to the ending.

The writing in Beastly is just very safe.  While this is set in "modern day" New York (I use the term modern lightly because the pop culture and technology in Beastly is already vastly dated) Beastly doesn't do much else to deviate from the original fairy tale.  There are no risks or interesting interpretations of the moral of the story, it's the Disney movie in New York.  No more no less.

What really bothered me was how Beastly seemed to miss the whole message of the original fairytale.  The whole point of Beauty and the Beast is to show that inner beauty is more important than outer, but at the end of the book Lindy and Kyle/Adrian are still worrying about each others looks. It's like they learned nothing from Kendra's spell.

Overall Beastly is a very simplified re-telling that doesn't go too deep and keeps the writing and themes very surface level, almost to a fault.  This would be a good book for young readers, but I wouldn't recommend it for anyone looking for a challenge or an exploration into the true meaning of beauty.

City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare

#2 in The Mortal Instrument series
Published in 2008 by Margaret K. McElderry Books
2 Stars

Goodreads Review
Clary Fray just wishes that her life would go back to normal. But what's normal when you're a demon-slaying Shadowhunter, your mother is in a magically induced coma, and you can suddenly see Downworlders like werewolves, vampires, and faeries? If Clary left the world of the Shadowhunters behind, it would mean more time with her best friend, Simon, who's becoming more than a friend. But the Shadowhunting world isn't ready to let her go — especially her handsome, infuriating, newfound brother, Jace. And Clary's only chance to help her mother is to track down rogue Shadowhunter Valentine, who is probably insane, certainly evil — and also her father.

To complicate matters, someone in New York City is murdering Downworlder children. Is Valentine behind the killings — and if he is, what is he trying to do? When the second of the Mortal Instruments, the Soul-Sword, is stolen, the terrifying Inquisitor arrives to investigate and zooms right in on Jace. How can Clary stop Valentine if Jace is willing to betray everything he believes in to help their father?

In this breathtaking sequel to City of Bones, Cassandra Clare lures her readers back into the dark grip of New York City's Downworld, where love is never safe and power becomes the deadliest temptation.

Review:  Ugh this book.  It's really bad you guys.  The characters are boring or stupid, the plot is a scattered mess, and the writing is full of really bad descriptions and terribly lame jokes.  It's just not good.  The only reason I didn't give this a 1 star is because the ending was moderately interesting and City of Ashes didn't fill me with blinding rage like my other 1 star reviews.  I think the best way to review City of Ashes is to talk about the characters, because there really isn't much plot to speak of.

Let's start with Clary and Jace.  They sends shivers of disgust down my spine.  Seriously, every time I read anything with Clary and Jace together I felt like I needed to take a shower.  With a Brillo pad. and some bleach.  I don't get squicked out by many things, but incest is one of them.  I honestly feel like this whole brother/sister thing isn't true and is just added in for some tension that will be revealed later to not be true when it's inconvenient. 

Simon.  He pissed me off so bad at the beginning of this book.  Look, just because you're a "nice guy" doesn't mean your girl "friend" has to like you back or should consent to your advances!  Like seriously, if the only reason you're being nice to a girl is because you think she'll one day wake up and realize she's been in love with you the whole time, you're not a very nice guy! 

***spoilers but I have to rant*** 

When Simon all of a sudden was a vampire I was seriously just like whaaa??  That came out of left field!  They like leave the Seelie court and Simon storms off then it literally cuts to him being almost dead and changing.  We don't get any kind of transition, it was just like Simon's a vampire now ok?

The Inquisitor is totally the Dolores Umbridge of The Mortal Instruments.  She basically exists to get in the way and to be as antagonistic as possible without any reason (ok we kind of get a reason at the end of the book, but in my opinion it's not justified.  How did this person get elected to such an important position if they're unable to be rational or objective?  SMH)

Other random thoughts:

• The faeries in this are rather weak.  Seriously, the biggest mischief you can get up to is forcing a brother and sister to kiss?  Boring!
• The snark that I enjoyed in City of Bones is completely gone.  These characters do not sound like teenagers, they just sound lame.
• Magnus has that creepy I'm-a-900-year-old-supernatural-being-who-creeps-on-18-year-old-mortals vibe going on *cough*Edward Cullen stalker*cough*  (Seriously though, I feel like Clare put Alec and Magnus together because she can't bare to have one of her characters be single.  They so do not work together, they are awkward and in my opinion it really drags down Magnus's character, who could be really awesome if Clare let him).
• Clary is such a special snowflake.  I really hate how her special rune power seems to have no limitations. 
• I had to get through 75% of this book (roughly 340 pages) for anything interesting to happen and to really see any development in the main story arc.  That is not good friends.  Not good.

So yeah.  To say I was not impressed was an understatement.  At this point I'm only reading this series so I can know what other people are talking about and because I own most of these so I might as well read them before I get rid of them.

The Fifth Wave by Rick Yancey

Published May 7, 2013 by Putnam
#1 in The Fifth Wave series
3 Stars

Goodreads Review
The Passage meets Ender’s Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother—or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Review:  I recently watched a really great video from Daniel Marks about Propping.  Propping is basically when book industry consumers who also have some sort of media outlet (youtube, blogs, twitter, ect) get caught up in the hype of a book regardless of it's quality.  I feel like The 5th Wave falls into this category.  People hyped the shit out of this book, it was the BIG RELEASE FOR SUMMER 2013!!!!! So I had high expectations....and The 5th Wave fell far short of them.

I feel like I'm the only person who thinks like this, but I was very unimpressed with The 5th Wave.  I think my main complaint is that at the beginning of the novel Cassie goes on and on about how the alien invasion was like nothing we had ever imagined, we were dead wrong about how it would happen, we could have never predicted it ect.  Instead what we got were many common tropes seen in a variety of science fiction.

***slight spoilers ahead for the different waves.  I won't talk about what happens to the characters, just the general world building***

Wave 1 - EMP takes out all technology.  As seen in The Matrix or War of the Worlds and in lots of modern warfare type video games.

Wave 2 - Natural disasters that cause tsunamis that take out most of the coasts.  As seen in The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, 2012, and loads of other disaster movies.

Wave 3 - Terrible virus/disease that wipes out 95% of the population.  As seen in Contagion, Mask of the Red Death, lots of episodes of Star Trek, and a ton of video games such as Mass Effect and Deus Ex.

Wave 4 - Alien silencers (who look like humans) sent to root out survivors.  Reminds me of Animporhs mixed with Terminator mixed with Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  There are also floating eye machine things that made me think of the attack drones from Oblivion (that recent Tom Cruise Movie) and Portal's Wheatley.

Wave 5 - I won't spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that it didn't seem all the original (and not very logical on the part of the aliens.)

Can you see my frustration?  Each wave didn't seem unexpected because I've seen these same tropes pop up again and again!  It felt like The 5th Wave was trying to be all of the things all at once, and I would have preferred just picking one and really supporting it or having the waves be things that I had never seen before.  This felt too spread out and too stuck in the same old sci-fi genre.

I also had a very hard time connecting with Cassie, especially when she teams up with Evan.  I felt like I was reading what an author thinks a teenage girl would feel or say, and not what his character would feel or say.  The romance was incredibly awkward and just didn't really work for me.  My biggest problem is that we get a very short chapter from Evan's perspective that reveals that he is in fact a silencer (at least that's how I read it) so when Cassie is doubting him and his intentions, we already know.  It completely took out the suspicious tension for me and made their whole romance just unbearable.

Now, with that said, the reason I gave The 5th Wave 3 stars was because I really enjoyed the ending.  I liked it when all of the different perspectives came together for the final show down, it just took forever for them to get there.  I am interested in continuing the story and seeing how they will deal with wave 5 (even though I don't really understand why the aliens would even bother at this point, but who knows.  Maybe we'll get more insight later on in the series).

Overall The 5th Wave was a disappointment.  I was expecting a fresh and exciting adventure and instead I got cliche tropes told through a lot of info dumps.  While I am interested in reading a sequel, it is not high on my list. 

June and July 2013 New Reads

Hi guys, sorry I missed June's new reads, it was during my vacation.  However there aren't too many July releases I'm excited about and I still wanted to talk about some of the June books, so I'm combining June and July into one mega post.  Enjoy!

June 4

Gameboard of the Gods by Richelle Mead
#1 in the Age of X series

Why I'm Excited: It's Richelle Mead, duh! I absolutely adored her Vampire Academy series and I really like the premise. I love sci-fi books that incorporate religion, I'm always really curious to see how it's done.

 

June 11

Belle Epoque by Elizabeth Ross

Why I'm Excited:  First, this cover is absolutely gorge!  I've also read some reviews praising Belle Epoque for it's well researched time period which makes me really excited.  I've read a few historical novels lately that seem very gimmicky, so I'm excited for a book that actually appreciates the setting.










Born of Illusion by Teri Brown

Why I'm Excited:  This sounds like the love child of The Raven Boys and The Diviners.  The spiritualism movement in the early 1900s is absolutely fascinating to me and I'm excited to read a story set in that time period.













June 25

Ink by Amanda Sun
#1 in the Paper Gods series

Why I'm Excited:  THAT COVER.  I love the concept for Ink, especially the setting.  I've read a lot of polarized reviews, some praising the authenticity of the Japanese setting while others condemning the typical YA tropes.  I'm curious to read Ink and form my own impressions.











June 27

Ashes on the Waves by Mary Lindsey

Why I'm Excited:  Yay for unusual folklore and Edgar Allen Poe retelling!  Ashes on the Waves has also gotten some really high praise so I'm very excited to check it out.














June 4 - The Elementals by Saundra Mitchell
               The Impossibility of Tomorrow by Avery Williams
               PODs by Michelle K. Pickett
               Tidal by Amanda Hocking
               Elegy by Tara Hudson
               Phoenix by Elizabeth Richards
               Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
               Tides by Betsy Cornwell
               Abandon by Elana Johnson
               When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney
               The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

June 11 - Dance of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin
                Spies and Prejudice by Talia Vance

June 18 - Star Cursed by Jessica Spotswood
       
July 2

The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Why I'm Excited:  This sounds like a really cute summer read.  It sounds like there will be a lot of preconceived notions about a group of people that will be shattered once you get to know a person of that group.  It sounds cute and funny and great for the pool.












White Trash Zombie Apocalypse by Diana Rowland
#3 in the White Trash Zombie Series

Why I'm Excited:  I really loved the first book in this series, My Life as a White Trash Zombie and I'm really excited to continue the story of Angel.  I love that the zombies in this series aren't immediately rabid brain eaters and I loved that they aren't all sexy and sophisticated as so many other paranormal romance characters seem.  It's a really fun series and an interesting take on zombies and I think a good bridge between paranormal romance lovers and gross out zombies lovers.







July 2 - Awaken by Meg Cabot

July 8 - Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton

July 9 - Shadow of the Mark by Leigh Fallon

July 16 - Belladonna by Fiona Paul

July 23 - Starglass by Phoebe North
                 A Darkness Strange and Lovely by Susan Dennard

Winger by Andrew Smith

Published May 14, 2013 by Simon and Schuster
5 Stars

Goodreads Review

Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy.

With the help of his sense of humor, rugby buddies, and his penchant for doodling comics, Ryan Dean manages to survive life’s complications and even find some happiness along the way. But when the unthinkable happens, he has to figure out how to hold on to what’s important, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.

Filled with hand-drawn info-graphics and illustrations and told in a pitch-perfect voice, this realistic depiction of a teen’s experience strikes an exceptional balance of hilarious and heartbreaking.

Review:  I think I've discovered a genre love I never knew I had.  I love reading contemporary YA with a male protagonist.  Some of my favorite books such as John Green's Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns, Jesse Andrew's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and Evan Roskos's Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets feature hilariously awkward and endearing main characters.  I can now add Andrew Smith's Winger to that list.  Ryan Dean, the main character, is charming and vulnerable and very authentic.

Winger tells the story of Ryan Dean, a 14 year old kid who has the book smarts to already be a junior at a private boarding school, but still has the street smarts of a 14 year old kid (ie, not many).  This leads to some hilariously embarrassing interactions because all of his friends are 2 years older than him and are often exasperated at his antics.  His immature 14 year old mouth often gets him into trouble.  Even though Ryan Dean spends a lot of time thinking that he's a loser, don't believe him.  He's athletic, smart (maybe not the most wise but what 14 year old is?), and very charming.  He is a complete joy to read.

I really loved the character Joey.  He was like the great voice of reason with Ryan Dean.  Ryan Dean would go off on some crazy tangent or get himself involved in some crazy scheme and Joey was there to slap some sense into his head.  I absolutely loved the friendship that developed between these two characters, it was so endearing and cute and (without spoilers promise) made the ending even more sad. 

I am very excited to read this for a second time.  There is a lot of subtle development underneath all of the jokes about balls and I'm really excited to re-read it and see what I can catch.  It's very artful storytelling and I think the words chosen are a lot more deliberate than they seem.  That's very difficult to achieve, and I think Andrew Smith is brilliant for it.

So overall I loved Winger.  It's funny and touching and has a great balance between poignant moments of friendship, love, and personal growth and jokes about balls.  I highly recommend Winger and I think it's a perfect addition to your YA collection.

A Month Off!? Run for Your Lives 5k Experiences!

Hi blog followers!  Long time no see!  Sorry I took a bit of an impromptu vacation, but I needed a break.  Everyone experiences burn out, and I got hit hard.  I also haven't made any youtube videos, so don't feel too neglected. 

Anyway, I'm back, refreshed, and ready to blog!

Today I wanted to talk about the 5k I did last Saturday.  I participated in Run For Your Lives, a zombie themed obstacle 5k and it had to have been one of the most exhilarating and difficult things I have ever done. 

The basic premise of the 5k is simple.  Run away from the zombies!  When you register they give you a belt with three red flags on it. This belt represents your life and if the zombies snag all 3 flags then you are infected!  I love the combination of flag football and an obstacle course, it adds a lot of tension and excitement to a basic 5k.

We ran the 10:30am heat so we had to get up at 6:30 which was no fun.  The closest race location was still 1 hour 45 minutes away (we live in Ohio but actually went to the Indiana race) and they recommended we get there 2 hours early.  Well, we showed up at 8:30 and got through registration in about 15 minutes, so we had some time to kill lol.  However the registration queue did get longer as the day went on, but I do think the 2 hours early recommendation is a bit excessive, at least for the earlier race times.

At the start of the race we ran straight into an open field full of zombies.  It was mass chaos!  I lost 2 of my flags in that first batch of zombies!  After that we were funneled into a much more narrow path through a wooded area.  There were less zombies here, but the close quarters made it very hard to dodge them.  Most of the zombies were shamblers, but a couple of them would full on sprint after people. 

After a while we started running into obstacles along with zombies.  There was a series of walls we had to climb over or under, a set of monkey bars over a giant mud pit (yeah I fell in the mud ugh), a dark house with dangling electrified wires, a wooden tunnel set up in in a creek we had to crawl through (this sucked because there were a ton of rocks), balance beams over mud pits, plus steep hills, creeks, rocky terrain, and oh yeah, zombies! 

I made it really far with my one flag.  I "played opossum" where I would put my flag behind me when there were zombies and jog up to them and act sad, like I had already lost my flags, then sprint past them.   It worked well until I got stuck in a crowd and a zombie grabbed my flag.  Erik made it a lot further but eventually got all of his flags snagged as well.

But, right before the last obstacle there was an employee of the race handing out "health kits" so I got a bonus flag for the final gauntlet.  The final obstacle was a huge slide that ended in a pool of water colored like blood, a horde of zombies, and a belly crawl under an electrified fence (which felt like getting punched if you touched it, ouch!).  It was scary and awesome.  I made it to the slide with my flag but in between the pool and the finish line was a crowd of sprinting zombies.  I waited for a runner ahead of me to take off and distract a few zombies and I just went for it.  I dodged, dipped, dived, ducked, and dodged and made it to the finish line!  I had avoided the zombies with my flag intact!  (Erik on the other hand, slipped in the wet grass and got eaten.  It was very sad).

I got a medal!  My first race medal in fact.

Very proud!

After the race there's an "apocalypse" party, but Erik and I were so knackered we just rinsed off and left.  I thought the people who organized the Indiana race were very efficient and professional.  We didn't have any issues with parking, registration, or security.  The course was also well designed with enough space in between obstacles so there was very little bottle necking.  Overall a very smooth operation, I was impressed!

I would highly recommend this 5k it's a ton of fun.  However, I would really recommend strength training and practicing sprinting before hand.  This isn't a distance race, it's a run like hell then walk kind of race.   Some tips for surviving the zombie apocalypse are:

• Travel in packs.  The zombies get more confused and there's a greater chance they will get distracted by other people, not you.
• Wear shoes that are good for rough terrain but aren't too heavy.  They will get water logged!
• Pace yourself.  Don't run if you don't have to and take advantage of the zombie free zones to catch your breath.
• Do some strength and agility training in the couple of months before the event.  The more quick and nimble you are, the better.
• Don't be a dick and try and hide your flags under your clothes or in a pocket.  That's cheating and takes the fun out of the race!
• If you decide to be a zombie, don't break character!  There were a few zombies that gave me sympathy high-fives when I was flag-less which didn't bother me, but there were a few others that were just heckling runners and being general douche bags.  Not fun.

So what do you think?  Have you participated in Run for Your Lives or another obstacle race?  What were your experiences?  Let me know in the comments below!