"No Safety in Numbers" by Dayna Lorentz (Y1 & Y2)

This is a New One...

No Safety in Numbers

By Dayna Lorentz

The No Safety in Numbers Series, Book 1



# Pgs: 288

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Overview:



A biological bomb has just been discovered in the air ducts of a busy suburban mall. At first nobody knows if it's even life threatening, but then the entire complex is quarantined, people start getting sick, supplies start running low, and there's no way out. Among the hundreds of trapped shoppers are four teens.

These four different narrators, each with their own stories, must cope in unique, surprising manners, changing in ways they wouldn't have predicted, trying to find solace, safety, and escape at a time when the adults are behaving badly.

This is a gripping look at people and how they can—and must—change under the most dire of circumstances.

And not always for the better.

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Review:



No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz was just another story--granted and interesting story--but just another story. There was nothing exactly that stood out about it. I mean, it was a great idea. I haven't exactly read a lot of stories where a biological bomb keeps people in a mall for an extended period of time. In fact, the number of books equates to just one--this one. I think that the problem with this book was that it wasn't believable enough. The story was there, the idea, the author knew where she wanted to go, but where she wanted to go and where this story went was two different things.

The characters make up the story. Whether the main character is human, animal, plant, setting, or thing, it doesn't matter. When we read a story, the main character is the one thing that we may (or may not) become sentiment with. The goal for the author is to make us become intimate with the character by telling the story. In order to do so, he or she has to tell the story well. It's up to us, from there, to interpret the characters. When an author writes a story, they have to put the concept of the time period, the place, and the complications that have occurred or that will occur, on the front line. Who, what, when, where, why, and how? This is what makes us love a story.

Notice, in that statement, that the "who" comes first. If the characters are believable, then the story will be believable, and you've set up the dominoes to a great story. If the stories aren't believable, then it makes the rest of the story less believable. "What" the problems are, whether it's a great plot idea or a dramatic impact, immediately becomes less of what it could be just because the characters facing the "what" have holes in their characterization. If those two things fall through, then all that hard work you've set up lining up those dominoes will collapse. The "when" could be interesting, the time period from point A to point B. The "where" could be kind of cool, like "hey-- we're all trapped in a mall". "Why" could be about anything, from the main problem to the characters to the plot line itself; it's up to the reader to interpret the why, so to be safe, you have to make sure you either give out the answers, or flat out tease the characters that "you" know something that "they" don't. The "how" is the answer-- that's where we're trying to get to by reading a book or poem. How do the characters get from point A to point B? How does the main problem impact the character? How does the character deal with problems? How is this important to the story?

By this long winded explanation of what I'm looking for when I read a story, I'm trying to tell you that from the very beginning No Safety in Numbers was foundationally weak. The characters weren't believable especially for the time period that they're in. Since we want to root for the character to succeed (or fail, depending on the story), since we're looking for that intimacy and understanding, that connection that the reader has with a character, that relation between two worlds, the job of the author is to deliver that connection to us. There wasn't really any connection or relatability. I mean, on some level there was, but there wasn't enough to make me want to root for them to succeed or make me ball my eyes out when tragedy befalls. There wasn't enough.

And perhaps, that's my biggest problem with this book; that I couldn't believe the characters.

The "who" was weak; the "what" was interesting but not believable because of the "who". That's what I've been trying to say.

:P

Sorry, I always say a lot more about something that I mean to. It's a roundabout method of speaking.

The book was more than slightly predictable, based on the cover of the book and the overview (it was easy to tell what was going to happen). I think the only thing that really surprised me happened at the end with one of the character's mothers. It set up, what I'm guessing to be, one of the complications for the next book in the series. I know that it's categorized under "teen fiction", but other than a few swear-words here and there and some sexual references, it really seemed like a book written for the younger generation. It was an interesting idea, but not at all an interesting book to read. This book was slightly disappointing, though I did find some enjoyment in it. Blame that on my curiosity, and on how I over-think some situations.

I don't know that I'd really recommend this book to anyone. It was just so bland; not necessarily a bad book, but it was just another book. Nothing but its idea stood out about it. It wasn't interesting. If I had to, strictly stated, had to recommend this book to anyone, it would be for sci-fi, somewhat dystopian, drama lovers. Out of five, I'd rate this book as a three. It wasn't a bad book; it was just sort of disappointing.

With all that said, thanks for reading~ Hope you found this helpful...

"Rebel Heart" by Moira Young (X1 & X2)

The First Book Was Better

 

Rebel Heart

By Moira Young

The Dust Lands Series, Book 2



# Pgs: 448

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Overview:



There is a price on Saba’s head. She brought down a ruthless tyrant and saved her kidnapped brother. But winning has come at a terrible cost. Saba is haunted by her past—and a new enemy is on the rise, an enemy who searches for her across the Dust Lands.

Saba needs Jack: his moonlit eyes, his reckless courage, his wild heart. But Jack has left. And her brother is haunted by ghosts of his own. Then news comes that tells her Jack can never be trusted again. Deceived and betrayed, haunted and hunted, Saba will need all of her warrior’s strength just to survive. For the enemy has cunning plans of his own…

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Review:

This is the second installment in Moira Young's Dust Lands series, and with this things definitely got more complicated. In the previous book review I mentioned that things get worse before they get better; I can't say with a definite answer that things are going to get better after this book, but I can tell you that things definitely got worse with this one. I don't mean to say that Moira made a mistake or anything, I'm just talking about the story itself.

Of course, with this novel I found myself a little more... frustrated with the main character's choices. It's a good thing because main characters can't be perfect all the time, and yet I was hoping for something akin to what I found in the first book. For a good portion of the book I couldn't help but question Saba's sanity. It seemed like she was suffering from PTSD or something; that wasn't the problem. The problem was that she never really seemed to recover from it. For the rest of the story there was something that was faintly reminiscent to her choices from the first book--the brash decision to rescue a loved one--the consequences of such a decision--and yet, her choices didn't seem to stem from boundless determination and stubbornness this time around. Rather, it seemed from a sort of weakness about her character that cause Saba to make her decisions, and that weakness didn't match at all with what I've come to understand was the character Saba. In this, it seemed like she was a completely different person with yet a similar storyline.

I suppose if I thought about it, what happens makes sense. The PTSD thing wasn't the thing that I had a problem with; it drew me closer to Saba as a character, made me feel more compassion and sympathy for her overall. It's just... that whole weakness thing. It makes sense if it comes from the loss of Jack and the need to get him back; it's a different sort of love for Jack than what she felt for her brother in the first book, so perhaps she can't help but feel weak without him. This, even though it makes sense and should (in theory) work, it doesn't. In the first book Saba was developed to make us see her as this strong, independent, fierce young woman. In the second book, it's almost like she loses her center and Jack had been her support; without him she's crippled. It works in theory and sort of on paper, it's just that because of the way that Moira Young wrote this everything we'd come to understand about Saba would changed. It didn't work as well as it could've.

As we didn't learn much about Lugh in the first book, it was kind of shocking to see him much more in this book. In the first book Saba idolized him to the extreme, and we'd come to, by extension, see Lugh in this heroic way. However I doubted her brother's sincerity in this book. Everything we'd been told he was in the first book conflicted with the evidence that came from the second book. It's understandable in what Lugh had to go through by the end of the first book (which still isn't revealed in the second), and that bad things continue to happen to him. I've come to think of Lugh as being used to getting his own way. Now that Saba's gotten a touch of independence in her life, with Lugh back in it, it seems like more and more control has to be relinquished by both to make the twin-ship that they had once held easily before work. They'd both been through so much tragedy and travesty, it's understandable that the dynamic between them would change.

What pleased me to no end is that it seemed like the relationship between Saba and her younger sister, Emmi, seemed to have improved as well. They've reached an understanding and easy love that they hadn't had before.

Saba makes a lot of mistakes in this book that make me feel for her in this sort of protective way; well, not so much a lot of mistakes as a few, big mistakes. The way that the other characters in this book treated her also got me angry; often blaming her for their problems and walking all over her. Throughout it all, I could only feel compassion and sympathy for the character that is Saba.

Moira Young continues the dystopian society, drama, mindless violence, and light romance in this second installment in the Dust Lands series. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The similarities between the first and second book have me biting my lips a little bit, and yet the dynamic between the characters as compared between the two have changed drastically.

If I had to, I'd rate this book as a three out of five, and recommend it to people who loved the first book, who love dystopian societies, and who love a book that's different (because Young wrote it in that same, strangely interesting manner that she did in the first book). Hope you read this series; it deserves a look at.

Thanks for reading, sorry for babbling, leave a comment if you're interested. Thanks again!

"Blood Red Road" by Moira Young (W1 &W2)

Well, It's Definitely Something

Blood Red Road

By Moira Young

The Dust Lands Series, Book 1



# Pgs: 480

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Overview:



Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.

Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba’s unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

Blood Red Road has a searing pace, a poetic writing style, and an epic love story—making Moira Young is one of the most exciting new voices in teen fiction.

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Review:



Do you like mindless violence?

A dystopian society novel?

A post-apocalypse fiction?

Or how about a really weird book?

You're gonna want to check this book out then, 'cause it's seriously interesting. Moira Young took a serious risk with writing this book in the way that she did, and for me, at least, it turned out quite well. From the first few written words, you're drawn in to the story just by the accent that Young writes in. Rather than perfect English and the odd accent just when a character speaks, Young carries the accent throughout the entirety of the novel. Now, I'm sure there are books out there just like this one in that aspect, but this is admittedly the first time I've ever read a book written like this. Young writes this book so that it's almost like it's bridging the fourth wall (or whatever it's called). In Young's book, Saba is talking to us. She's relaying to us the story. It's kind of difficult to describe just what I'm trying to say unless you've read the book. It's not so different that characters relay the story to us as the reader, but I mean Young specifically wrote the book as if the entirety of it is just one long (rather one-sided) conversation.

You have to read it to understand it, but regardless the different way that Young wrote the book is something that I can appreciate. It took some getting used to, but in the end I couldn't have imagined the book written in any other way.

In case you can't tell by the cover or the overview, this book is a dystopian society type of novel. These kinds of books have been in lately, I've noticed, though it's not like I have a problem with it. I love to read these kinds of books. In fact, this book is a perfect example of the type of book I like to read.

Dystopian, a bit of crazy (okay, a lot of crazy), a dash of romance, a plethora of adventure, faintly reminiscent of Spartans; there's nothing fluffy about this novel at all. It's all hard edges and rooting for the home team. Very interesting aspect to read from.

Saba, as a main character, is a riot to follow. You feel as much sympathy for her as you do annoyance regarding her choices and situation. For over half the novel, you're under the impression that Saba hates her little sister and is only keeping her alive for Lugh's sake. Yet, there were many chances that Saba had and many choices that Saba made that made it so obvious to me that she couldn't have done what she had done if she didn't love her sister (even the tiniest bit). I understand though, from the many other times that I've read stories in which one or both of the characters has a twin, that when you are a twin you almost become caught up in your own little bubble of twin-hood. I don't know if that has any support to it, and yet that's the only way I can think of to describe Saba's and Lugh's relationship as siblings. For years they'd been caught up in their own little world as brother and sister, and Emmi disrupts that just as much as Saba blames Emmi for their mother's miscarriage, if not more than, and so Saba holds it against her.

Of course, we can't continue on without discussing the casual flirtation between Saba and Jack. Jack is portrayed as this mysterious, handsome, tough and gentlemanly kind of guy. He catches Saba's eye when the two were, ahem, imprisoned, and from then on is able to keep it. It develops slowly, but it's cute to watch as Jack nonchalantly (and un-obviously) pursues her with the excuse about the "rule of three".

It's obnoxious to a point to read about Saba's infatuation with getting her brother back. It's like she's obsessed with this idea that things can return to the way that they used to be, or that things can become better than they used to be once Lugh is back safe and sound. As the reader, we know that, of course, in these kinds of situations nothing can return to the way that they used to be. They say that things get worse before they get better, which is quite obvious what the second book in this series is leading up to... the worse.

But that's for another time.

Regardless, this was a book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. The plot ideas, the character construction (Saba's stubborn nature specifically), the development of the story from beginning to end, and the quite original way in which Young had written this novel kept me reading this thing from beginning to end tirelessly. If I had to rate this book, I'd give it a four out of five. The mindless violence, while enjoyable, was sometimes difficult to believe in that one character couldn't have done something like what occurred all on her lonesome.

I'd recommend this book to lovers of dystopian societies, mindless violence, adventure, a touch (really more like a brief brush than a touch) of romance, and just something that's different to read should read this book. This book was seriously a good book, and very different to read. I loved it.

Thanks for reading; sorry for babbling, leave a comment below if you're interested. Thanks again!

"Whatever Happened to Janie?" by Caroline B. Cooney (V2)

A Dash of Complications

Whatever Happened to Janie?

By Caroline B. Cooney

The Janie Johnson Series, Book 2



# Pgs: 224

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Overview:



As Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl on the milk carton, she was overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl—it was she. How can it possibly be true? But it is.

With the mystery of her kidnapping now unraveled, Janie's story continues, and the nightmare is not over. No one can bring back or relive the 12 years gone by. The Spring family wants justice, but who is really to blame? The Johnsons know that they must abide by the court decisions made, but it's difficult to figure out what's best for everyone.

Janie Johnson or Jenny Spring? Who is she? Certainly there's enough love for everyone, but how can the two separate families live happily ever after?

The members of two families have their lives disrupted when a teenage girl who had been kidnapped twelve years earlier discovers that the people who raised her are not her biological parents. Sequel to "The Face on the Milk Carton."

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Review:

I liked this book only a slight bit more than the first book. The resolution to the climax was a little bit of a shift for me to get in to, from where the first book left off to what was happening currently. It was kind of a tough love to read once I realized exactly what was happening to Janie and her family.

I felt terrible for a good portion of the book, my compassion for the main character eating me alive. Cooney's books definitely make you think. On the one hand, you have the family that you love with all your heart, the family that raised you; and on the other there's the family that continued to love you, miss you, want you back, the family that looked for you for all the years that you were gone, that needed you to feel normal. It was almost tough to read, the kind of emotions this book inspired.

Janie, in this book, becomes the most desperately confused child that I've read about recently. It got to a point where her vulnerablilty, her stubborn rebelliousness and rude behaviour, made me want to take this character under my wing. I mean, I can't 'cause I'm real and Janie's a fictional character, but I'm a sucker for looking out for people. I worry about everyone, though I don't let anyone else know that. Janie's troubles make me wish that I could just reach through the pages to reassure her. I wouldn't necessarily agree with the choices that she made involving her two families, or the way she acted on them, but I can understand why she would do that. Her one family might love her, might miss her, might be her biological family, but as far as she is concerned her other family, the family within which she was raised, that she loves; that's her real family.

The cover of the book is a mite bit misleading, especially since the call happened in the first book and it wasn't as all dark and dangerous as this one implies. Though maybe it's supposed to have a symbolic meaning, now that I think about it. That one phone call changed Janie's life, and now she's almost trapped in this moment of her life, she's trapped with being removed from the family she loves to the family that wants her home safe.

It's a story about emotional suffering. It's touching to read, heart breaking even. You can see how much her biological family loves her, and how much she doesn't want to go to live with them regardless of the fact that she was kidnapped. She feels terrible, because she doesn't want to have to choose one family over the other, except that she does and she feels like she has to. For her, she has no memories of her biological family except for some scattered moments here and there. For her, her adoptive/kidnapped parents are her real parents. It's terrible, because everyone's trying to do the right thing and everyone's suffering because of it. The parents that raised her, the Johnson's, are trying so hard to encourage their sort of daughter to get to know the parents she never had a chance to know. They never really had a choice in the matter of her leaving them though, and it's tearing her apart. They already lost one daughter. Yet the other family already lost one daughter. Both families lost a daughter, both families don't want to lose another daughter, Janie is left without much of a choice, and since both families are trying so hard to do the right thing.

If anything, Cooney's series is something to think about. A scenario that makes sense, but is none the less conflicting. Who? What? When? Where? Why?

As the second book is better than the first, I'm not going to put an age recommendation on this one. So I'd recommend this book to mystery, drama lovers. There's a lot of drama in this book series. I'd rate this book a three or four out of five. With the second book, I'm beginning to really like this series.

With that in mind, thanks for reading~

"The Face on the Milk Carton" by Caroline B. Cooney (V1)

A Dash of Interesting

The Face on the Milk Carton

by Caroline B. Cooney

The Janie Johnson Series, Book 1

# Pgs: 208

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Overview:



No one ever really paid close attention to the faces of the missing children on the milk cartons. But as Janie Johnson glanced at the face of the ordinary little girl with her hair in tight pigtails, wearing a dress with a narrow white collar—a three-year-old who had been kidnapped twelve years before from a shopping mall in New Jersey—she felt overcome with shock. She recognized that little girl—it was she. How could it possibly be true?

Janie can't believe that her loving parents kidnapped her, but as she begins to piece things together, nothing makes sense. Something is terribly wrong. Are Mr. and Mrs. Johnson really her parents? And if not, who is Janie Johnson, and what really happened?

A photograph of a missing girl on a milk carton leads Janie on a search for her real identity.

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Review:

This was an overall gripping book to read. I mean, it's not exactly the type of book that I'm used to reading, but compelling none the less. The main character, Janie Johnson, is a somewhat pathetic character that you can't help but feel sympathy for. I don't pathetic in a way that she's whining all the time, it's more of that she's so stressed out with this suddenness of finding out that it was herself on the carton of milk that her vulnerablility shows through in different ways. You begin reading about this teenage girl that you can relate with, who begins to unveil the truth about her parents and from where she came, and nothing is as she expected. How do you come to terms that the family that you love to death, that raised you, that loves you just as much, potentially kidnapped you? What do you do?

The furthest thing from Janie's mind is to actually figure it out, although this is the kind of situation where you can't resist that pull to know the truth. What exactly is the truth, and what is the lie, and why? Despite the atypical situation that this is, this book is easy to relate to.

At first, when I began to read this book, it took a second to breath it in. Cooney writes in a type of style that I'm not used to at all, but is refreshing. It's simple, while the plot itself twists in complexity, the words are there. The book is predictable; I knew not ever half-way through the book exactly how it was going to turn out, and how everything all connected. There was a certain chapter in the book when Janie finally couldn't take it anymore and had to talk to her parents; she loves them, surely this couldn't be all that it seemed? The story they told made me facepalm. When reading it, I'm not sure I quite believed it (I'm a suspicious person) and what they told Janie just seemed so far-fetched. How could it be real?

So while I accepted the answer they gave, and figured out how it could all make sense, I remained apprehensive.

Authors write books with a question in mind, a possibility, a "how this all turns out" kind of reasoning. That's probably not the best way to say it, and I'm sorry if it's confusing, but it's the main focus of the book. The main goal. It's the thing that keeps us, as readers, reading.

With this book it seemed like the main focus of this book was always changing. There was no goal. What exactly was Janie working towards? There wasn't enough complexity; everything was just laid bare and it wasn't good. I knew exactly where this book was going to go, and I was hoping to have been mislead, I was looking for the dark corners of the book for the secrets, the truth, about Janie's kidnapping. There was so many possibilities, but Cooney wrote it so that it was simple, however outlandish. I just wish that she'd have taken this in a different direction.

I don't know. This book was ok, I liked it enough that I wanted to read the next book straight away. So I did. The one thing that I did majorly appreciate about this book was the cliffhanger at the end. Cooney, by that point, had drawn me in to the book enough that, despite its predictability, I was still able to massly appreciate it. This isn't one of the best books that I've ever read, but it was still pretty good. It was ok. So-so. I think it would be a better book for the younger generation to read. Oh well.

I give this a two and a half out of five. Recommended for teens younger than eighteen but twelve and up; or people who just like mysteries. It's simple. Just a mystery.

Thanks for reading~ ^^