YA

Book Review: Storm of Lightning

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Storm of Lightning
Michael Vey #5
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Prisoner of Cell 25.

Michael Vey and most of the rest of the Electroclan are faced with the loss of the rest of the resistance and, for some of them, members of their own family. While they try to find some answers, Hatch goes forward with the plan that the sinking of the Ampere only delayed, rather than stopping.

This isn’t the first book in this series to feel full of filler, but it is the one that seems to be most full of filler. There’s not really any one main quest, even the kind that doesn’t get started until far into the book. I suppose technically going back to help Taylor’s parents can be seen as the quest of the book, but it’s not set up until well into the book, so until then, all we get is Michael and the gang trying to get answers or get to safety. And they’re mostly led around by other people. The only powers that are really used are when Michael is (yet again) stupid and draws attention to himself. Add to that the wholly unnecessary format that Evans uses, which he’s probably always done but is just a lot more noticeable now, of starting a new “part” every time there’s a new perspective to show, and this book doesn’t really feel like action—it’s more like one long rest hold.

Other things in this book that would have been minor points if the rest of the book had been more interesting became bigger distractions. For example, why wouldn’t Quentin’s power that is basically an EMP knock out the locator beacon he’s been implanted with? How does he even have a phone that works? Since the first resistance base was kept super secret, yet Michael managed to reveal its location to the bad guys, why on earth do they tell him the name and location of the next one? And how are we supposed to take Hatch seriously as a super powerful (if not over-the-top) bad guy when one of his favorite methods of punishment is to lock his enemy in a cage with monkeys? I don’t really have a problem with the cliffhanger at the end, though the way it was written was maybe a bit unnatural-sounding. I’m still interested in the series, but while a filler episode in a TV show can sometimes be excused (especially if it’s enjoyable in its own right), my investment in a nearly 300-page book leaves me much more dissatisfied with filler (plus, it wasn’t particularly enjoyable in its own right). Though if you’re reading the series, you probably shouldn’t skip it, unless you find a recap somewhere that gives spoilers.

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Book Review: Mockingjay

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Mockingjay
The Hunger Games #3
by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

If I were rating this book by just the story, I’d give it 5 stars like I did the previous books in the series. But the gratuitous violence and death that I feared when I started reading the first book came in full force in this book. Much more death and much grislier deaths than necessary were spread throughout the latter portions of this book, but especially in part 3. And the pods, though of course they had already been in the first two books, but to a much smaller degree, reminded me a lot of the bizarre methods of attack in The Maze Runner series—over the top and completely unnecessary.

The story itself, including the ending, though, I liked. I can understand why some people didn’t, but I totally got it. I always knew this wasn’t going to end in rainbows and sunshine for Katniss after all the horrors she’d been through and the terrible things she’d been forced to do. Her PTSD would have to be more extreme than anything most of us can imagine, which is exactly what I saw in her in those last chapters. Add to that the fact that she still wasn’t really free, and it’s really no wonder she had no real fight left in her. I was still hooked, reading it as often as I could come back to it, which has not been as common for me in recent months, so that must say something.

I still think it’s funny that I was adamant I’d never read this series, yet I ended up loving it. I haven’t watched the movies yet…I suppose I will try to get to that soon. I am already looking forward to reading the series again though.

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Book Review: Doon

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Doon
by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon

My rating: 1 / 5
Genre: YA fantasy romance

When Veronica starts seeing a blond man in a kilt in various places, including in Scotland, where she travels with her best friend, she is certain there’s more going on than her mind playing tricks on her. Then she begins to hear about a mysterious land that is only accessible to those who learn the secret, and she just knows her visions are leading her there. Taking her best friend Mackenna along, she stumbles into the mythical land of Doon, where medieval meets modern, the blond man she’s been seeing is a prince, and an evil witch threatens to destroy the land.

Before I discuss plot or characters, I want to address the content. You may have seen in some places that this is a Christian book, though it’s not strongly advertised to be such. My first clue was the publisher, which is listed as Zondervan in some places. It’s actually published by Blink, a YA imprint of Zondervan, which purports to publish clean books. I would not call this book clean. It’s not explicit, but it’s way more graphic than I prefer, and there is even some language. After several references to “hot” and “delicious” guys, I knew this wasn’t going to be quite what I was expecting, but it really bothered me to see the references to “girly parts.” And then it got worse… I won’t go into more detail myself, but I think this review on Amazon is very comprehensive, even to the point of pointing out things that didn’t bother me.

As to the plot and characters, if the above paragraph was my only issue with the book, I might have given it 3-4 stars (though it’s hard to say, especially since it really is billed as Christian in some places, and that is a huge problem for me). But to make it worse, I didn’t like the characters at all. Veronica is far too concerned about the possible romance with Prince Jamie, to the point where it distracts her from way more important matters. The book is written in 1st person POV, mostly from Veronica’s perspective, but it switches to Mackenna sometimes. There’s barely any difference in their voices, so it’s really hard to remember when the switch has been made. The main difference is that Mackenna is super into musical theater, so much so that she often thinks and speaks imperatives like, “Sweet Baby Sondheim!” and, “For the love of Lerner and Loewe!” (who, by the way, made the musical Brigadoon, of which this book is a retelling, though I really know nothing about that). It’s a bit over the top, really…real people don’t talk like that. As for the supposedly swoon-worthy princes, as much as I dislike that term, the only way I can really say that they are such is because I’m told. Literally. Right there in the book, it tells me that Prince Jamie makes all of the girls swoon. Okay, so he’s unnaturally good-looking…being “swoon-worthy”, to me, is about much more than that, and Jamie is mostly just a jerk for much of the book. He has his reasons to keep Veronica at bay, but he also leads her on only to shut her completely out when he remembers that oh, she might be in league with the witch!

And so, that leads me to the issues with the plot. The evil witch has been banished from Doon, but is always looking for a way back in to destroy it. Every hundred years (real time), the bridge between the real world and Doon (the Brig o’ Doon) opens to allow people from the real world who have been called to Doon to enter and decide whether they want to stay. Because Veronica and Mackenna came 2 weeks before that time (though how the people of Doon know when it’s going to open, I don’t know, since the amount of time that passes between each Centennial fluctuates in Doon), most of the people of Doon assume they’re working for the witch. They used magical rings to get in, rings that had been used to pass through the barrier outside of the Centennial before, but that doesn’t matter. The possibility that they might be working with the witch is too high for them to be trusted. Except that while they wait for the bridge to open naturally, so the two newcomers can leave Doon and let everyone feel safe again, they take them on tours of the kingdom, let them spend time alone with the nation’s princes, and conveniently forget that they might be evil, so that the romances can progress. And why did no one take note of the incredibly obvious transformation taking place right under their noses?

Add to that the “Calling” angle that is equated to soulmates finding each other, which leaves me a bit puzzled. Are they saying that if two people are brought together by a Calling, then they will have a perfect marriage? Never have to work on it? Never even consider divorce. I don’t necessarily have a problem with the general idea of soulmates, as I believe God can and does bring two people together as part of his will (though it’s generally much less obvious in real life than the Calling is here, and we can more easily decide not to follow that leading). But it seems to me that two people who meet through a Calling could easily become lazy in their relationship because it was “meant to be” and end up even unhappier than two people who met the normal way. It’s a huge flaw in what is supposed to be a romantic story, if you ask me, but I suppose the reader isn’t really supposed to think too much past the “happily ever after” at the end of the current story. On the other hand, this series goes on to further books, so maybe the authors will delve into that more. I won’t be reading more though, so I’ll never know.

I learned long ago that I should avoid contemporary romance, because I rarely like it. Though part of this book takes place in a sort-of-in-the-past land, it’s still completely contemporary. Veronica and Mackenna both make sure the reader knows that the other is beautiful and adored by men, while each thinks of herself as plan, hideous, or whatever, which made me roll my eyes. All of the people of Doon have the same accent, yet whenever Jamie says Veronica’s name, it’s written as “Verranica,” yet everyone else just says her name normally…I guess because it’s supposed to be romantic? I don’t get it, and I didn’t really get this book. And I really don’t get why it was published by a company that is said to publish clean fiction and is associated with a Christian publisher.

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Book Review: Dragon and Thief

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Dragon and Thief
Dragonback #1
by Timothy Zahn

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

On the run for a crime he didn’t commit, Jack Morgan comes across a dragon-like creature that can only survive 6 hours without being able to attach himself to a host—and Jack is the only suitable host nearby. Draycos is the sole survivor of a battle that destroyed 3 ships on their way to scout a planet to relocate an entire civilization. While destruction looms for Draycos’s people, he can’t go anywhere without Jack, and Jack can’t go anywhere without the threat of capture hanging over him. So together, they will work to clear Jack’s name, so that Draycos can try to stop the menace that wants to wipe out the rest of his people.

I was not entirely certain that this was the kind of book I’d like, as sci-fi this heavy and the space opera genre have not held a lot of interest for me in general. But this book caught my interest early on, once I got past the really confusing drop right into the middle of the world building, and I enjoyed it all the way through. Draycos and Jack make a compelling hero/anti-hero combo, and then you throw in the morally questionable Uncle Virge (though he isn’t around as much), and it’s quite a cast. I think that the book being meant for teens, which some people say made it too simple for them, might be the reason that I was able to get into it. The complexities of epic sci-fi and fantasy usually end up leaving me lost and bored. Though some of the descriptions of Draycos’s extra-dimensionalness did go over my head, I’m definitely the right kind of audience for this book, even as an adult. Being a book for teens and fairly short, only one plot line was wrapped up in this book, but I don’t mind that, as I’m happy to continue the series. 

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Book Review: Catching Fire

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Catching Fire
The Hunger Games #2
by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

I did not know where this was going to go at all. At times, it seemed like not much was happening, which is a huge difference from the action in the first book. I don’t need all that action, though, and especially the violence, and the tension surrounding the aftermath of Katniss’s actions in the games was enough to keep me going. In case we forgot how much control the Capitol has, we’re reminded in the way Katniss is controlled through threats to her loved ones. 

This series so far has a different kind of a take on a love triangle. Katniss doesn’t even really have much in the way of control over her own love life, and it brings home the reasons she had for not ever wanting to have a family. Even that decision will be out of her hands, if President Snow has anything to say about it. He’s not happy, but I did not expect the way he would take it out on her. When the story takes its sudden turn, I worried it would be too reminiscent of the first book, but I found it pretty darn fresh.

For someone who never, ever planned to read this series, it’s amazing how much I’ve enjoyed it. This book took turns I never expected and left me really wanting to know what’s going to happen! Now it’s all the more important to me to avoid spoilers for a book & movie series that’s been around for long enough for people to not care about spoilers. 

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Book Review: Hunt for Jade Dragon

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Hunt for Jade Dragon
Michael Vey #4
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Prisoner of Cell 25.

After a brief respite, Michael Vey and most of the rest of the Electroclan are off to Taiwan to try to rescue a young savant who is said to have discovered the secret behind the creation of the electric children. She is currently in the hands of Dr. Hatch and the Elgen, who have been unable to replicate the phenomenon themselves. The Electroclan will have their work cut out for them if they want to keep the Elgen from torturing an innocent girl and making an army of electric people.

The end of book #3 felt like the end of a major story arc. We have moved on from the original premise of this series, which involved Michael Vey just trying to save people he loved from the Elgen and maybe even stop them, but since all they really did was cripple the Elgen, they are still a menace that someone has to deal with. Though there is a question here about whether it has to be Vey and his friends or not, it’s clear from the fact that this book exists that it will be them. I thought this book would feel like a tack-on, but it didn’t. Some advancements are made and the stakes are still high.

Some of the things that bothered me about previous book are still in effect, like the clichés inherent in a YA story and the stereotypes of the strong, alpha males and the females who love shopping and cute things. This time, the pairing off of guys and girls that I noticed happening so cleanly in the previous books becomes much more obvious. And there seems to be a very heavy focus on food this time around, as pretty much every meal or snack was described in detail. Maybe it was like that in previous books, too, but if was, I didn’t notice. And something happened that I can’t give details on to avoid spoilers that at first caused me to shake my head and think of it as a flaw in the writing, but I soon realized that this was a much more realistic view of a teenager’s maturity than what I had been bothered by in the previous book. So in a way, it’s still a flaw, because the character has been shown to be better, smarter, more mature, than what is displayed here, but I prefer this to the way the teens handled a death of their own in the previous book that just felt so unnatural to me. Though this certainly isn’t a deep series, I have enjoyed the stories along the way and find myself able to overlook the little annoyances to want to keep going.

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Book Review: Battle of the Ampere

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Battle of the Ampere
Michael Vey #3
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the previous books in the series, starting with The Prisoner of Cell 25.

Michael Vey is separated from the rest of the Electroclan after the destruction of the Starxource plant in Peru. While the electric teens and their normal friends attempt to escape and regroup, the Elgen are licking their wounds and dealing with a change in management—a change that Michael and his friends are determined to reverse.

I think that part of the issue with this book is that the title doesn’t really come into play until the last quarter (or less) of the book. This is similar to the first in the series, The Prisoner of Cell 25, where Cell 25 is a really minor part of the book. But at least there, we have the initial world building, the introduction of the main character and him learning about the Elgen and the other electric teens. Here, the bulk of the book is the Electroclan trying to get free of the jungle and their pursuers, then a little bit of a battle, as promised in the title, at the end. Maybe that’s the reason that the book came down half a star for me, compared to the first two. I still enjoyed it, but I think it didn’t really deliver on what it promised.

I did like the introduction of a new character and that, though a love triangle seemed to be in the offing, Evans went a different way. I also appreciate that Hatch is more of a background villain this time, rather than being a big part of the story. I felt he was a little over the top in the previous book, but fortunately his extreme villainy then allows both the electric teens and the reader to be fully aware of how dangerous he is without needing it pushed on us so much.

Something that really didn’t sit right with me in this book is the emotional maturity displayed by these teenagers. Various difficult situations happen, even some serious tragedy, and I feel like the characters handle these things in ways that don’t seem realistic for their age (around 15), and they display empathy that many adults haven’t mastered. Saying more would give spoilers, and it’s not necessarily a major flaw in the book, but it did strike me as strange. Overall, though I liked this book just a little less than the first two, I still read it quickly and look forward to the next.

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Book Review: The Hunger Games

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The Hunger Games
Book #1
by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 5 / 5
Genre: YA dystopian

I didn’t want to read this book. I never planned to and was content with knowing nothing more about it than the basic premise. (I’ve never seen any of the movies either.) The main reason I stayed away is due to an aversion to heavy violence and death, and of course a book that involves a couple dozen teenagers being forced to kill each other is going to have plenty of that. I finally decided to read it after my son (who has seen the movies, but not read the books) tried to tell me that I might not be giving it a fair assessment, and of course, he was absolutely correct. And I did struggle still early on in the book, considering walking away because I was dreading what was to come. But I stuck it out, and boy, did I not expect to like it this much.

I appreciate the simple writing style—no pretension, no unnecessary words—and that made it easy for me to keep going when I didn’t want to face what was to come (yes, I am as much of a wimp as it sounds). And as the story unfolded, I realized I was empathizing with the tributes so much that my own pulse sped up in certain moments, during action or even just anticipating what was to come. And yet, in the end, I can say that the “violence for the sake of violence” that I anticipated from the book wasn’t there. Instead, we only see what Katniss sees, which is only what’s necessary to advance the plot or show her character.

The characterization and plot are a huge high point for me. Katniss’s attitude and motivation are consistent, and I really felt for Peeta throughout the book. Even the characters that it would be easy to hate end up being well-rounded and sympathetic. I wasn’t thrilled with the love triangle being set up, but at least it was a fairly minor aspect, as was the “romance” in general. While I can’t pretend to appreciate the world Collins has set up in this book, I do like that the book drew me in and made me want badly to see this system dismantled. I have unintentionally managed to avoid much in the way of spoilers for the rest of this series (or maybe I heard plenty of spoilers but just didn’t know what they meant at the time and don’t remember them now), so I am going forward with no idea what to expect, but with hopes for what I’d like to see firmly intact. All I can really say for recommendation, since I’m sure most people who are going to read this have already done so, is that if you’re like me and don’t want to read it because of reasons I mentioned, I suggest you reconsider.

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Book Review: Rise of the Elgen

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Rise of the Elgen
Michael Vey #2
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Michael Vey isn’t exactly an ordinary kid. For one thing, he has Tourette syndrome. For another, he produces electricity like a taser. And he’s not the only one with electric abilities. Together with some of the other teens like him, and some without powers, Michael sets out to rescue his mom from Dr. Hatch and the Elgen.

I both enjoyed and was annoyed by this book. For plot and intrigue, I give it a thumbs up. For characterization and writing style, I give it a thumbs down. The story itself kept me interested, and I sped through it. Evans has some interesting ideas involving the electric powers and how they can be used by both sides (though there are some aspects I’m not sure are completely thought out—for example, if Zeus’s electric powers are sapped, wouldn’t water not affect him so much? How does Ian’s echolocation allow him to read printed text?).

However, the group of hero teens generally fall into two categories—the boys are strong, alpha males who just want to flirt and smash. The girls are silly creatures that think fluffy animals are cute (except for the rats). The only exceptions to these stereotypes are Michael himself and his best friend Ostin. And then there’s the bad guy, who makes me feel like Evans did a study in how to do one better on the evils of Nazi Germany. The things they do are just over the top evil, it’s disturbing. As for the writing, I hate to say it, but it made me feel like I was reading my own early attempts at writing as a 12-year-old. I rolled my eyes several times at the immaturity. I know this is written for a younger audience, but that doesn’t mean it has to be quite so silly.

In the end, though I wrote down several notes of things that bothered me, I look back and mostly see an exciting, fast-paced book (which might be interesting, since I’ve read several reviews that say this book was slower than the first). While the downsides are the kind of thing that I don’t expect to get any better in future books, as long as the good parts are still there, I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.

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Book Review: The Prisoner of Cell 25

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The Prisoner of Cell 25
Michael Vey #1
by Richard Paul Evans

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: YA sci-fi adventure

Michael Vey isn’t exactly an ordinary kid. For one thing, he has Tourette syndrome. For another, he produces electricity like a taser. In the space of a few days, Michael discovers that he’s not the only one with powers and that there are sinister forces that are looking for him. When his mom is kidnapped, Michael has to go on the offensive while figuring out what his powers can do.

I enjoyed this story overall. The writing was nothing special, but the story is interesting. I think I liked Michael’s powerless friend, Ostin, most. I kept imagining him as Ned from the more recent Spider-Man movies. Hatch is a sufficiently interesting bad guy, who I assume majored in psychology, because he really knows how to manipulate people. Though I do think he makes some obvious errors when trying to break one of the characters, so that was a little off-putting. It might just show how completely deranged he is though.

For as atypical as Michael is supposed to be, he sure seems to bring a lot of tropes and cliches to the book. For example, he has a crush on the cheerleader and can’t talk right around her. He’s also scrawny and victim to some intense bullying, yet is able to understand their motivation super quickly and easily, which is definitely not likely to happen in a situation like this. But while most of the characters don’t get a lot of development and there’s an amazing coincidence involving two kids with powers that happen to go to the same school that is never explained, the story overall moves along quickly and kept my attention. The climax may have been a little on the easy side, but I don’t mind that, especially in a book for a younger audience. The story this first book sets up is intriguing, so I’ll definitely be continuing the series.

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