Book Review - Uglies

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You know, I think I read more YA fiction now than I did when I was in the YA age range (by that point I'd moved on to "adult" books.) I mean, I read Sweet Valley High and such, but why wasn't there YA fiction like this around when I was that age?

I guess it was so I could read it now.

Uglies takes place in a post-apocolyptic world where war and conflict has been eliminated. The small population goes through surgery to make everyone aesthetically pleasing, and somehow, this makes life better. Well, no, it's not quite that easy. Because people just don't seem the same once they become a "pretty". They seem to forget their old friends, and lose their old personalities. So finds Tally, when her best friend Peris turns pretty and seems to have left her friendship behind.

Tally has a few months to kill before her 16th birthday - the day of the operation - and befriends Shay, a fellow Ugly, waiting in the dorms with her to become what society means her to be. Only, she's not sure she wants to be pretty, or vapid, or dull. Instead, she as other ideas and Tally gets pulled into the mix, which includes the mysterious David, who tells tales of a world where no one is an Ugly, and no one is a Pretty, but everyone is beautiful.

This was an interesting, incredibly fast read. Two nights before bed and I was done. And I'm really drawn to the premise of this book, so I think I'll be starting the next one pretty shortly.

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Book Review - Specials

Specials by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Third in the "Uglies" saga, Specials picks up not long after the ending of "Pretties", with Tally back in the city, under the eye - and hands - of the devious Dr. Cable, who is determined to turn her into one of the unique breed of young Special Circumstances agents called "Cutters", run by Tally's friend Shay.

While I liked Specials much better than Pretties, I didn't like it nearly as well as Uglies. This is another super-fast read, finished in two reading sessions for me, and it's quick moving, with more action than the previous books. We've gotten about as far in character development as we were going to get in the series, and there aren't any significant new characters introduced here. In fact, be prepared to say goodbye to one significant character. Usually this would make me cry, but the way it was handled made it almost emotionless for me, as it had grown pretty inevitable. Mostly, Specials is about capers (tricks) and chases, war (yes, really, war!) and Tally's adjustment to her new "Special" status.

The book seemed to wrap up just about every dangling story line you can imagine, which makes me really wonder about the existence of "Extras", the next book in the series. It almost seems (I haven't looked it up to be certain) that this was meant to be a trilogy and the last book was tacked on to capitalize on the success of the others. Truly, I'm considering not reading the last book, because I like the way things were tied up, and don't necessarily want to see more icky things happen to poor Tally, who has really been through the ringer in this series.

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Book Review - Wild

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cheryl Strayed's excellent memoir of her time hiking the Pacific Crest trail is a journey not just on aching feet and with a heavy pack on her back, but through the trail of grief left behind by her mother's passing and the subsequent dissolution of the family unit she'd always called home.

Newly divorced, floating from job to job, idly doing drugs and sleeping with men, working service jobs here and there, Cheryl is lost. So lost, in fact, that when signing her divorce papers she chooses her own, new last name. Strayed, because she feels like a stray, drifting in the world.

The beginning of the hike is an impulse, and almost seems without purpose, but as she leaves miles of wilderness behind her, she falls into herself in amazing ways.

I loved this book. I related to this book in a significant way, although the journeys I took in my life on impulse were slightly different (and LOTS easier on my feet!). It's a wonderful coming-of-age tale, worth reading by those fascinated by the wilderness and those not.

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Book Review - Afraid

Afraid by Jack Kilborn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So, I had pretty mixed feelings about this book. I started listening to the audiobook a few months ago, and after the first audiodisk I returned it to the library. It was just so violent, and so gross, and so off-putting that I couldn't keep going.

But there were a couple of characters that I was worried about. In one way, I didn't want to finish the book because I was pretty sure the icky and gross things would be the end of them. But I finally had to go back. I got the ebook and finally finished it. A little at a time.

Afraid takes place in small-town Wisconsin, where a helicopter crash has let loose a band of psychopathic, sadistic, nutjob murderers who seem determined to rip every citizen limb from limb. This book is not for the faint of heart. There's a lot of blood and gore, and I skipped large sections of paragraphs of it because it was too much, even for me, the intrepid Stephen King and Dean Koontz fan. There's just too much of it, in my opinion, so even though this book and it's characters were so incredibly engaging that I had to go back to it, I could only rate it three stars.

I mean, taken at face value, this is trashy fiction. But I do like trashy fiction; even trashy fiction is better for entertainment than trashy tv, and we all have our vices. But the characters, for trashy fiction, are actually extremely well written, and one important twist in the book was one that even an avid mytery reader like me - who usually guesses all the twists way in advance - didn't see coming. Though I did guess one of the other "big twists" early on, so there's that. Still, this is worth a read if you either don't mind icky violence or are able to skip it without getting too squicked out. Especially if you like adorable animals like chirpy monkeys and cute beagles named Woof who turn out to be big heroes.

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Book Review - Camera Obscura

Camera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

While Camera Obscura takes place in a brilliantly conceived universe, it just wasn't quite my cup of tea.

This was my first "Steampunk" novel, a movement I've had a bit of a fascination with (and have the fascinator to prove it, hah) for some time, and as it came recommended highly by a friend I thought I'd give it a whirl. While the writing was good and the 'verse of the novel highly interesting, I couldn't get past the fact that I found the main character not just unsympathetic but highly annoying. She's pompous, and snotty, and far too in love with herself for my taste. Now, normally disliking a character wouldn't put me completely off a book, but I found myself hoping she'd fail, or hoping something bad would happen to her just so I could get a new main character I liked.

And, well, ... yeah. Eventually I gave up on wishing her destruction, which made me give up on the book, too.

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Book Review - Autumn: The Human Condition

Autumn: The Human Condition by David Moody
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This collection of short stories centered around the Autumn universe, created by David Moody, is sometimes billed as "Autumn 3.5" so I decided that's exactly where I'd read it as I plowed through the series, between three and four. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have waited until the series was finished.

This was less of a quick read than the other books in the series, partly because I found so many of the stories to be profoundly sad, and because a consistent action oriented plot wasn't at play. I did enjoy getting to see the backstories of some of the characters brought into the story in books 2 and 3. Many of these tales deal with minor characters, and one or two stories deal with characters not seen in the previous books at all. Those tend to be the saddest, mainly because through poor choices or misfortune they didn't make it far enough in this changed world to make it to any of the larger groups of survivors.

You get to find out details of what happened at the community center from book 1, which was of particular interest to me, and at the military bunker once the survivors left. You also, toward the end, get a hint of what's going to happen on the island with Michael and Emma, and that's where I wish I'd waited. If you want to get on with the rest of the stories in this book mid-series, stop before the last one unless you want an abbreviated version of the Michael and Emma future. I'm kind of worried that I've ruined the rest of the series for myself, and definitely would have preferred to to be let in on one particular plot point that's spoiled by that last story - read at your own risk!

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Book Review - Autumn: The City

Autumn: The City by David Moody
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I started this book, so quickly after finishing the first in the Autumn series, my first thoughts were "Oh, no - Where's Emma??? Where's Michael??!! I wasn't expecting to start over at the beginning of the disaster, just in another area of the country. "Meanwhile, back at the ranch..." is what I call that kind of book in a series, and it is one of the reasons I sometimes find myself turning up my nose at serial fiction (along with the repetitive, over-explanatory nature of sequels that continually re-hash old events to inform those just tuning in).

At any rate, you finally catch up with Michael and Emma about halfway through the book, when the timeline in the city reaches where they were on their flight from the farmhouse during the first book. Whew. I was almost ready to give up on the series, but again, there is something about these books that I can't quite explain that draws me in and doesn't let go.

I kind of love the fact that not a single character in these books - nor the author, at least not so far - ever utters the word "Zombie". It's so obvious. If I was in this situation, with dead people trying to break into my shelter to get to me, I would certainly proclaim that they were zombies. Somehow, though, it never comes up. Even when they ask each other what is going on. It had to take a lot of willpower for the author to keep true to this one, and I am going to be keeping my eye on it in future books, to see if it ever comes up.

Another thing I kind of love about these books is that the people are reacting in real ways. Not everyone is a hero. Some people lock themselves up alone with their grief. Some give up and turn to suicide or drinking themselves to death. Some are heroes, but reluctantly, because there doesn't seem to be any other option at the moment. It's gritty and real and made me get up at one point, around 2 in the morning, to double check that that sound outside my bedroom window wasn't a dead guy trying to get in.

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