Waiting On Wednesday (50)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, in which we highlight an upcoming book release we're eagerly awaiting.

This week I'm waiting on For Darkness Shows The Stars by Diana Peterfreund. I've been meaning to read her books Rampant and Ascendant for a while now, since I've heard excellent things about them. I'll try to get to them before this comes out (two books, seven months. I think I can manage). Also, the cover. What fabulous hair!

Generations ago, a genetic experiment gone wrong—the Reduction—decimated humanity, giving rise to a Luddite nobility who outlawed most technology.

Eighteen-year-old Luddite Elliot North has always known her place in this caste system. Four years ago Elliot refused to run away with her childhood sweetheart, the servant Kai, choosing duty to her family’s estate over love. But now the world has changed: a new class of Post-Reductionists is jumpstarting the wheel of progress and threatening Luddite control; Elliot’s estate is floundering; and she’s forced to rent land to the mysterious Cloud Fleet, a group of shipbuilders that includes renowned explorer Captain Malakai Wentforth—an almost unrecognizable Kai. And while Elliott wonders if this could be their second chance, Kai seems determined to show Elliot exactly what she gave up when she abandoned him.

But Elliot soon discovers her childhood friend carries a secret—-one that could change the society in which they live…or bring it to its knees. And again, she’s faced with a choice: cling to what she’s been raised to believe, or cast her lot with the only boy she’s ever loved, even if she has lost him forever.

[Synopsis by Goodreads]

For Darkness Shows The Stars is being released by Balzer & Bray on the 12th of June, 2012.

Feel free to leave a link to your own Waiting On Wednesday post in the comments, and I'll be sure to have a look.

Review: Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien

     

Birthmarked by Caragh O'Brien
______________________________

Series: Birthmarked (#1)
Pages: 361
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: May 2nd, 2011
IBSN: 9780857071392

IN THE ENCLAVE, YOUR SCARS SET YOU APART, and the newly born will change the future.
 In the future, in a world baked dry by the harsh sun, there are those who live inside the walled Enclave and those, like sixteen-year-old Gaia Stone, who live outside. Following in her mother's footsteps Gaia has become a midwife, delivering babies in the world outside the wall and handing a quota over to be "advanced" into the privileged society of the Enclave. Gaia has always believed this is her duty, until the night her mother and father are arrested by the very people they so loyally serve. Now Gaia is forced to question everything she has been taught, but her choice is simple: enter the world of the Enclave to rescue her parents, or die trying.

Gaia's always been in the business of midwifery. Outside the Enclave, completely dependent upon them for basic commodities, it's her job to advance newborns to them. Life is better in there, anyway, and she's proud to serve the Enclave. But then her parents are convicted of harbouring a mystery code, and in venturing beyond the wall to find them, she's forced to rethink the faith she has in the Enclave.

While the premise of a girl in a dystopian world realising the inherent flaws of the system she lives in isn't exactly unique (that said, the coding aspect was interesting, and I was constantly trying to solve them before our characters), and this specific premise occasionally felt a little far-fetched (so many baby emergencies around her!), Birthmarked had a readable quality that built as as the story progressed. 

The beginning I found quite dull, but the drama was akin to a snowball rolling down a hill, constantly growing (people who've actually seen snow, tell me in the comments just now crappy my uneducated metaphor was!).

The setting --  or settings, rather, with such close areas so vastly different and cleverly juxtaposed -- at its basic level, a world ruined by climate change, felt plausible. Plausibility in a dystopian future is an absolutely vital element for me. I reserve high suspension of disbelief for fantasy. The atmosphere of the oppressive society and despondent environment was well-captured, and most key elements of the setting were justified. But it felt like too little was distinguishing O'Brien's future world from one of the past, and the way this world transitioned from an initial struggling community to dictatorship was blurred.

Gaia was a likable enough character, with a personality portrayed distinctly in the narrative voice, but I never found her story or her emotions arresting. A couple months from now, Gaia probably will join the expanding list of characters whose names and natures escape me. Birthmarked for me was driven by the plot, rather that the characters, though her determined nature did aid the plot significantly.

Birthmarked is something I'd recommend for devout fans of dystopia, specifically to the subset of you who aren't dissuaded by more unsettling themes. It's very readable, but not something fresh and engrossing for the reluctant dystopia reader.

I give Birthmarked a 3 out of 5.

Review: Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

     

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan
______________________________

Pages: 245
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: September 13th, 2011
IBSN: 9780375860980

In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he's been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence. And as crazy as it sounds, Evan's starting to believe it's Ariel that's behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself. Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.  

Evan wasn't exactly stable with Ariel, but now she's gone and left a best-friend-shaped-hole in his life all his pretenses of normality are dropped. To top off his misery, somebody who knew Ariel, somebody she never mentioned, is sending him photos. Strange photos of Ariel and him that only somebody watching them from afar could have taken.

New books from David Levithan are an automatic must-read for me, since Dash And Lily's Book of Dares and The Lover's Dictionary. Every You, Every Me was no different in the fascinating idea and execution and the skillful writing (but that was a given before I'd even read him -- I mean, the edited Shiver and The Hunger Games).

Every You, Every Me began with the cover photograph by Jonathan Farmer, and it evolved from there with Levithan writing a section inspired by each new photograph. Farmer didn't get the read the lead up to each photo before offering each new addition, and this kind of spontaneity of writing intrigued me. Especially since I didn't know about this until the ending, and the photos always meant something to the story and were smoothly plotted.

As always, David Levithan offers a story in fresh prose, in equal parts moving and fascinating. Every You, Every Me was written in the raw and jagged way of actual thought processes, with struck out, repressed thoughts and emotion dripping from the page, stickying your hands with it in a way you couldn't just wipe off on your pants leg.

Every You, Every Me isn't just for fans of psychological thrillers; those themes take a backseat to insight into the mind of someone in emotional anguish, deeper than see in regular first-person grieving stories. Definitely for fans of darker, more serious, YA. Think like Printz winners -- Every You, Every Me will appeal to fans of Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Paper Towns, Nothing.

I give Every You, Every Me a 5 out of 5.

Review: Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor

     

Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor
______________________________

Pages: 272
Publisher: Arthur A. Levine
Published: October 1st, 2009
IBSN: 9780545055857

A girl who’s always been in the shadows finds herself pursued by the unbelievably attractive new boy at school, who may or may not be the death of her. Another girl grows up mute because of a curse placed on her by a vindictive spirit, and later must decide whether to utter her first words to the boy she loves and risk killing everyone who hears her if the curse is real. And a third girl discovers that the real reason for her transient life with her mother has to do with belonging — literally belonging — to another world entirely, full of dreaded creatures who can transform into animals, and whose queen keeps little girls as personal pets until they grow to childbearing age.

From a writer of unparalleled imagination and emotional insight, three stories about the deliciousness of wanting and waiting for that moment when lips touch.

Laini Taylor teamed up with husband Jim Di Bartolo, illustrator, to create three short stories about the power of a kiss, each emotionally wrenching and magical and imaginative.

Lips Touch: Three Times seemed to improve on what felt initially perfect with each new story. Goblin Fruit, Spicy Little Curses Such As These, and Hatchling, they were named respectively, and also in order of my favourites.

Goblin Fruit was of Kizzy, with longing for something more so tangible that even obvious malicious intent cannot dissuade her. Spicy Little Curses Such As These told the overlapping stories of Estella, liaison between worlds, and Anamique, the girl given the opposing gift of the most beautiful voice and the curse to kill whoever she lets hear it. And the last, Hatchling, introduced a world of rich imagination that I couldn't match with 20 more of me sitting down to brainstorm. The world of the Druj and their human pets and the redemption they find through them was so beautiful and bittersweet.

Each are of my favourite kind of fantasy: breathtakingly unique and teeming with tragedy and temptation (though I do hate myself after reading them for the amount of emotion they evoke that I don't know what to do with. I'm essentially useless after reading such emotionally exhausting books, but I can't stop myself). Kizzy's total abandon, Estella's painful compromises, and Mihai's perseverance all got under my skin.

Laini Taylor writes with a unique flair and a poetic style, perfectly executing otherworldly ideas and bringing characters which tug on the heartstrings to life:

"She was a girl and she was a queen and back in the mists she was a woman who had seized the moon from the sky and drunk its light so that she would never die."

All of this was furthered by the beautiful illustrations to accompany, detailing backstory in the beginning that will have you letting out an understanding "oh!" when you reach the point where that same story is woven in. I've already returned this book to my library (with more than one ignored "due soon!" notice  beforehand), but the image especially of Esme's mother suspended in the cage, rich red hair flowing outward and concealing her face, has stuck with me.

For Lips Touch: Three Times, Laini Taylor has crafted three worlds of contradictions: beautiful and dangerous; romantic and eerie. Three stories in anticipation of kisses that change everything feature fantasical settings that will have you wanted to pack up and move to them despite their malevolent lining.

I give Lips Touch: Three Times a 5 out of 5.

Psst. If you didn't notice, Laini Taylor's newest book, The Daughter Of Smoke And Bone (also brilliant!), is my current book of the month, and you can find your way to a giveaway up top.

Waiting On Wednesday (49)

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking The Spine, in which we highlight an upcoming book release we're eagerly awaiting.

This week I'm waiting on Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler, her third novel following Twenty Boy Summer and Fixing Delilah. I loved the former and liked the latter, so I'm excited for this one. Plus, isn't that cover simply gorgeous? And does anyone else want to bake cookie cutter biscuits looking at it?

Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances... a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been.

So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life...and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done.

It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last..

[Synopsis by Goodreads]

Bittersweet is being released by Simon Pulse on the 3rd of January, 2012.

Feel free to leave a link to your own Waiting On Wednesday post in the comments, and I'll be sure to have a look.

Book Of The Month giveaway: Daughter Of Smoke And Bone

This is beginning to feel like more of a tradition already, with the second giveaway of my Book Of The Month. My favourite read last month was Laini Taylor's brilliantly imaginative and poignantly lyrical Daughter Of Smoke And Bone, and you can check out more of my praise in this here review.


The same details as last time apply:

         - Open to all followers, except, of course, me.*
          Think of it more like a subscription to more of these giveaways if you're scowling at this hoop I'm making you jump through.

         - Open from now until the end of the month, when I'll announce the winner in my wrap-up.

         - Check out my policies page to see me offer images of myself looking innocent and promises of not misusing any of the information you use in entry.

         - Fill out this linked form or the one embedded below. Whatever suits you.
            The giveaway is now closed and the winner has been announced!

* Do you guys follow yourself as well? Do you feel as pathetic about it as I do?