Book Review: Splintered, by A.G. Howard

Title: Splintered
Author: A.G. Howard
Publisher: Amulet Paperbacks
Date of Publication: February 18th, 2014
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 371
Goodreads: Click
Amazon: Associates Link
Recommended? Yes
Similar Books: Wicked, by Gregory MaGuire
My Rating: ★★★☆☆

I started reading this book last year and put it on hold because I wanted to have access to the other two books in the trilogy before I finished it, as I expected to rebound straight into Unhinged upon finishing Splintered. Generally speaking, I like to read a series back to back, though sometimes it doesn't work out that way and I get bored (or I'm waiting on the next book in the series).

Perhaps in part because of this break between starting the book and finishing it, I have mixed feelings about the novel in general and I feel a bit unsteady upon having finished it.

This book sucked me in, and I am not what I would consider a "Wonderland fan." It was a new adventure for me, a trip into something that I've never explored but which I quickly found that I enjoyed. The novel if fascinatingly atmospheric and I could feel the setting as I read. I fell into Wonderland the way that one would hope to fall down the rabbit hole, and it was quite easy to fall into Alyssa's (and Alison's) madness. Atmosphere can be difficult to write well, and Ms. Howard did a wonderful job of pulling me into the setting of her book. That's definitely something that I can appreciate!

I enjoyed the story well enough. It was twisted and wicked and surprising in many unexpected ways. The author does a great job of making the Wonderland story unique, and she ties up loose ends (which is often unusual in young adult fiction). These are things that I can appreciate from any author, and things that I definitely enjoyed about the story. Unlike Wicked (by Gregory Maguire), Ms. Howard didn't leave me feeling confused: She was able to give me enough information as the story went along to come to my own conclusions and to enjoy the story.

Where the book falls apart for me is in characterization. The characters come across as invariably flat, like they are missing something critical that would make them whole people in the mind of the reader. Unlike many reviewers, I don't hate Jeb (one of the two love interests -- what is it with love triangles these days?) for being sexisty -- I dislike his lack of development, the lack of strong negative traits, the fact that he could have been more in this book. The same goes for Alyssa and Morpheus as well, so it's difficult to dislike Jeb when he is no different from the other characters in the book. They blend together, and this book is therefore more focused on the story than on the characters in it.

I want more from the authors who I read, certainly in terms of the characters that they write, and this is something that Ms. Howard could focus on a bit more in her writing. She needs to know more about her characters than she puts into her story, but I want more from them in general. So Alyssa and Jeb are both artistic people with an interest in skating. Not only are they too alike to make them a logical romantic interest, but that's too flat. What else interests them? What television shows do they watch in their down time? What sorts of habits do they have (good and bad)? These are the sorts of things that define the character, even if it never comes up in the story and the sheer alikeness of Alyssa and Jeb makes them boring for me as a reading. 

This is what makes Morpheus stand out to the reader: There's more to him, he's not like Alyssa. He's not a short cut. He's the real central character to this story, and Ms. Howard would do well to fully develop the other characters in order to match him -- even if she views them as being tertiary or incidental to the story. Every character ought to be important if they are to be included.

It's the lack of whole people -- whole characters -- that brought this book down for me. The book itself is beautiful with a gorgeous cover and beautiful purple font and illustration. Visually, this book is very appealing, and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the book enough to carry me into the second book in the series.

Splintered could, however, carry its own weight without plowing into the second book in the series, however, based on the fact that the book does have a complete ending. This is rare and appreciated, as it doesn't drive me straight into Unhinged when my to-be-read shelf is stacked higher than I can manage right now.

I hope to see better things in Unhinged!

Book Review: Divergent, by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date of Publication: November 21st, 2013
Format: Paperback
Page Count: 487
Goodreads: Click
Amazon: Associates Link
Recommended? Yes
Similar Books: Bait, by Courtney Farrell, The Gender Game by Bella Forrest, The Giver by Lois Lowry
My Rating: ★★★★☆

This review is giving me a difficult time, and I'll tell you why: I'm reviewing a book that I've already read, already reviewed, and which I loved the first time around, but which I found less enjoyable the second time around. This never happens to me. In general I love books more the more often that I read them, so this has left me confused, and reeling a little bit.

I think that it was the movie that ruined it for me, on a number of levels, but I also think that, having loved this book the first time around (and preferred it over The Hunger Games, in fact!), I'm left feeling let down by its pacing, by the development of the characters, by the development of the romantic plot line, and by the way that the story progresses to its end. 

It's strange going from the movie back to the book, and I feel now like the movie might have ruined this story for me. I'll be reading Insurgent (for the second time) and finally finishing Allegiant, so we'll see if that changes anything for me.

This is the story of Beatrice Prior, a sixteen year-old girl born into the faction of Abnegation. In futuristic Chicago, the city is divided into five factions: The Abnegation (the selfless), the Candor (the truth-tellers), the Erudite (the intellectuals), the Amity (the kind-hearted), and the Dauntless (the courageous). She must make a choice to either stay with her family in Abnegation, or to leave her family behind and join a new faction. 

When the results of her Faction Aptitude test are "inconclusive," Tris must make the decision of a lifetime -- with potentially devastating consequences.

Tris is a strong heroine with an incredible strength of character. All of the characters in this book are well-developed and three-dimensional, with both strengths and weaknesses. Ms. Roth has done an amazing job of giving us strong secondary and tertiary characters about whom we want to know more. 

This is an action-packed dystopian story set in the future, where society has been divided into factions based on the personality types of the individual. Sixteen year-olds are tested to determine which faction they belong in, and then must make a choice for where they want to live out the rest of their lives. Based on the principle "Faction before Blood," these teenagers must decide to leave their family behind and follow the system that was set in place longer ago than anyone can remember.

There are a lot of great things about this series. The first, and the thing that I enjoy the most about this type of dystopian novel, is the action of the story. There is never a dull moment in Divergent, and the author pushes the characters to their limits. Given that my favorite part of Harry Potter (the books, I don't care for the movies, again) is the Quiddich, you can guess that I do like a lot of motion and movement in the stories that I read. This series definitely delivers that.

I also adore Tris. As protagonists go, she defies the odds, she's strong in terms of character, and she is a complete character in that the author makes sure to give her both positive and negative traits. She might have been boring had she not been divergent. It might have been preferable had she not been so reliant on Four to get her through initiation, but if she wasn't, we wouldn't have the budding romance. 

I love that Ms. Wroth doesn't waste words. The story starts immediately and it ends abruptly to lead into the next book in the series. She kept me wanting to read because reading was easy. There were no lulls in the story, nothing to keep me from continuing with reading the book. Nothing made me want to put the book down and pick another up (other than being sent ARCs to read).

So if you like fast-paced books with a futuristic setting, this book -- this series is definitely for you! If you're looking for a strong female protagonist, you'll love this book. If you're looking for the type of book that you can easily read in one or two sittings, then yes, you'll love Divergent. 

However, I advise people going into this story to not compare it to The Hunger Games. It's an entirely different series with an entirely different feel to the novel, and you must be prepared for something that is vastly different. Surely fans of The Hunger Games (as I am) will enjoy this novel, but I feel that it is imperative to allow this series to stand on its own, for its own merits.

The drawback, for me, was with the pacing. While the book didn't feel rushed, it was difficult to read -- and different to read -- after watching the Divergent movie. I've not seen the Insurgent movie, so we'll see whether or not I have the same experience with reading the second book in the series as I did with reading the first. It's altogether possible that it will be different for me.

Even so, looking back I still believe that I enjoy this series better than The Hunger Games (which for a fan of the series, is saying a lot).

Book Review: Waking in Time, by Angie Stanton

Title: Waking in Time
Author: Angie Stanton
Publisher: Switch Press
Date of Publication: March 1st, 2017
Format: .pdf file
Page Count: 362
Goodreads: Click
Amazon: Associates Link
Recommended? For young adult audiences, yes.
Similar Books: Hannah's Rainbow
My Rating: ★★★★☆

I need to start this review by stating, honestly, that this book was a roller coaster ride. It started strong, with good dialog and interesting characters (who remained interesting throughout the book) but while reading this one, I felt like the author didn't have a strong enough grasp on dialog overall, or that some sections of the book were more closely copy edited than others.

Poorly developed characters are the biggest frustration for me in fiction, but weak dialog definitely comes in a close second. It's one of those things that can make a truly great book quite dull, and this was not a truly great book. 

This novel is the story of Abbi, whose grandmother recently passed, but not before pleading with Abbi to "find the baby." Shortly after arriving at college, Abbi's mother sends her a hat box that her grandmother left for her, and the morning after opening it and going through the things contained within, she wakes up -- in 1983. Now she must find her way back to the 21st century with the help of a pair of friends she meets in time, all the while trying to uncover the secret of the baby her grandmother wished her to find.

Ms. Stanton has potential -- a lot of potential. The book was a quick and easy read that I plowed through in less than 36 hours of reading time. I enjoyed the story so much that in fact I would have liked for there to have been more of it, and I would have preferred to see more development of the relationships between the characters. While I fully realize that Abbi had little time to spend with Smitty and Will to facilitate this development, I find myself wanting more out of this story.

The book does take some logistical leaps, but most of that is overshadowed for me, as an adoptee, by the way that Ms. Stanton addressed Smitty's life in an orphanage and other issues which affect people who were adopted both during that time and throughout American history. This made me happy, and was a relief to read addressed in mainstream fiction.

I love books involving time-travel, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to read this book. Ms. Stanton could do with tightening up her dialog a bit (or some stronger copy editing), but I would certainly enjoy seeing more from this author.

In particular I appreciated the afterward to this novel, and the things that inspired it. I hope that Ms. Stanton won't give up the search for Ruby's baby and that she finds some relief in discovering who the child might have become. Adoptee rights groups are making great strides in reuniting families with one another and she may still be able to find the child for whom she seeks. 

I'd like to recommend my best friend's novel Hannah's Rainbow if you enjoyed Waking in Time, as I believe Ms. Stanton and Cyndi have similar writing styles and were both inspired to write stories about people from their family trees. Thank you!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: The Gender Game, by Bella Forrest

Title: The Gender Game
Author: Bella Forrest
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Date of Publication: September 24th, 2016
Format: .doc file
Page Count: 640
Goodreads: Click
Amazon: Associates Link
Recommended? HECK YES!
Similar Books: Bait, by Courtney Farrell, Divergent by Veronica Roth, Matched by Aly Condie, The Giver by Lois Lowry
My Rating: ★★★★★

Holy crow. 

I can't even right now. I can't. even.

I'm flailing like a schoolgirl. Like a fangirl. 

I lost sleep over this book. When I wasn't reading it, I thought about it. I was rooting for Violet. I wanted to read when I couldn't get to my Kindle. This book kept me going, thirsting for more. Thank you Bella Forrest!

If you're following me, you know that I'm a slow reader. A very slow reader. Books take me a week, sometimes more, to finish. Even books that are 200-some pages long. This book is 640 pages long and I finished it in four days. I opened up my Kindle and it told me that it would take me seven hours to complete this novel. After what seemed like minutes, I glanced down and found I had an hour and twenty minutes left of reading time. 

And boy, I wanted more than that!

So let me get on with the review here. I want to start giving my readers a summary of the novel, but that's going to come at the end of the review, since what you're really here to read are my opinions of this book.

I loved it!

But I want to be fair and honest, because that's the best purpose of a review, and it's what helps everybody the most -- including the author, the publisher, and most of all, the reader. My job here is primarily to make sure that you know what you're about to read, as a reader, right?

So here goes. You know I loved the book, so let me talk to you about the things that I didn't like, the things that this book had to make up for to reach the five-star rating that I've given it.

I hate the concept. I'd wanted to love it, because in the past I've been a fairly genderist person myself (something I'm ashamed of, to be honest with you) but the truth is that I wasn't thrilled with the fact that this novel uses gender in such a binary way. I want to say that this would have been more appealing if the title had been different, but I'm not sure that's the case, either. 

But it made up for that, in spades! Much like Divergent separates people into different factions, the world of Matrus and Patrus delineate people based on their gender, and all people are meant to fall into line in a binary way. Some readers are upset by the binary nature of the novel and the assumptions that are made by the people of this world (and therefore presumably by the author) but it appears to me having concluded this book, that the author is attempting to do something revolutionary in terms of expressing that not everyone fits into a binary mold. 

We can hope, right?

I feel strongly that Ms. Forrest took some of the best of the well-known and much-beloved dystopian novels most of us have read and wound them into an exciting novel. There are certainly shades of The Giver, along with elements from Divergent, and even Matched. If you enjoyed these books, I believe that you will enjoy The Gender Game as well. Surely if you enjoyed The Gender Game, you need to read these better-known and mass-published books, because you will get a great deal out of them.

The heroine of this novel, Violet, is a strong and spirited young Matrian girl who committed crimes for which she had been thrust into detention in Matrus, commissioned by the Court to embark on a mission in Patrus to retrieve a silver egg which had been stolen from Matrus. She must complete her task without detection and without Patrus suspecting Matrus of the crime, which would result in a war between the two nations. She's a strong lead with a lot of spirit, but without the boring "girl power" that one might expect from a book in which people are divided by their gender. Her romantic interest grows throughout the novel, and their relationship is not a sudden surprise to the reader.

It is abundantly clear that Ms. Forrest loves the characters about whom she's writing -- I found it difficult not to love them too, and none of them bored me (which worried me in the beginning). 

She launches straight into the story, which is narrated in first person (and this is a reason that the novel reminds me of the lesser-known Bait [do yourself and Ms. Farrell a favor and read this one if you enjoyed The Gender Game]) without giving excessive background details to bore the reader. The only thing that I was really left wondering is what had led the society to be the way that it is. Of course this is the first book in a series and no doubt Ms. Forrest will reveal this information in her own time and in her own way -- I look forward to finding out!

As with most Dystopian novels, however, I am left with the question of "Where is the rest of the world?" Assuming that this is set on Earth (and we're not told otherwise), these are small countries and the book is written in a very North American tone, so I'd love to know where the rest of the world has gone that these two nations appear to be all that is known to our heroine (Violet).

I am very excited to see what comes next in this series, and I've signed up for updates to review an ARC of the next book in the series (put a hardcopy in my hands if possible please, Ms. Forrest!).

Loved, loved, loved this book!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.