Young Adult Archives - Page 3 of 18

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Posted on March 31, 2018March 31, 2018 by Michelle Huss

(5 / 5)

The Illuminae Files #3
I have so much love for this series, that it’s hard to see it end. From its unique style, to its crazy and epic storylines, to its unique characters and brilliant storytelling, The Illuminae Files does not disappoint! It is one of my top recommended series for a reason.

Obsidio, like its predecessors, is told in a unique style of chat logs, video transcripts, official reports, illustrations, and more. This book brings the main characters of Illuminae and Geminae together, with two new additions: Asha and Rhys. Rhys’s character is particularly interesting as he’s a BeiTech operative, allowing us our first glimpse behind the curtain. We’ve always seen BeiTech as this relatively faceless enemy and it was interesting putting ourselves in their shoes for a change. Quite an enlightening experience.

My only complaint about Obsidio is that I didn’t feel I really got to know Asha and Rhys the same way we did Ezra, Kady, Hanna, and Nik. But…when you are trying to wrap up a series that brings all these characters together, you don’t get to spend a whole book on just the set of characters. I also loved getting to spend some quality time with Ezra and Kady again (and Aiden), so I guess I can’t really complain.

This story is heartbreaking and nail-biting and leaves you wanting so much more. It’s a constant page-turner that you won’t want to put down. I can’t wait to see what Kaufman and Kristoff cook up next.

A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Michelle Huss

(2.5 / 5)

Firebird #1
While I liked the premise of A Thousand Pieces of You, the execution unfortunately fell a little flat for me. As Marguerite sets off dimension-hopping in order to find her father’s killer, I’m expected adventure and action. What I get instead is a lot of stumbling around, fretting about how she’s “fitting in”, and very little actual investigation into what happened to her father. In fact, everything that Marguerite ultimately learns about the events surrounding her father’s death seems to be fed to her by her co-dimension hoppers: Theo and Paul. And add to this the fact that about half the book has her “stuck” in a dimension, making no progress towards her goals whatsoever, just left me feeling frustrated and unfulfilled.

But I really liked the idea of dimension hopping, and getting to see different versions of yourself and your life. The novel also brought up some interesting ethical quandaries surrounding the concept of taking over the body of your “other self,” and essentially blocking them out of their own lives. Overall, I wish that the story focused more on the adventure aspect, and less on what I felt ended up being a romance. I may try to finish up the series at some point, but I’m not in any rush.

Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Posted on March 24, 2018 by Michelle Huss

(4 / 5)

Constellation #1
Defy the Stars opens on soldiers preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice, a suicide run against a deadly enemy that wants to take over their planet. The name of their enemy…Earth. It’s not often you read a story where Earth is made out to be the bad guy, but that’s how Defy the Stars begins, and it instantly peaked my interest. Add into that super advanced artificial intelligence and a plucky young girl prepared to do anything to save her world, and I was hooked!

Even beyond being a fun Science Fiction adventure, Defy the Stars makes us examine what it truly means to be human. Abel’s progress from sophisticated mech to autonomous being is wonderful and inspiring and I loved it so much! He’s such a great character, and I loved getting to watch him grow and change. We see him shift into something he was never meant to be, a new kind of machine with thoughts and feelings all his own.

At the same time, we see a universe in turmoil. Earth, having been ravaged by disasters of its own making, is furiously trying to expand out into the stars. But when its best hope of survival breaks away from the rest of the colonies, declaring itself an independent world, what choice does it have but to strike back? But Genesis does not want to see their beautiful world fall to the same destruction as Earth, especially since Earth shows no indication of changing their polluting, resource-draining, destructive ways.

At its heart, Defy the Stars is a fun sci-fi adventure that takes a deep look at the human condition and the shades of grey that color our world. Though it stands well on its own, Defy the Stars leaves a lot open for future exploration. And I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Michelle Huss

(3.5 / 5)

Shatter Me #1
Shatter Me is a hard book to review. The premise is so intriguing, and the stream-of-consciousness style so unique and engaging, that I couldn’t help but enjoy the book. On the other hand, the story is filled with so much mystery, and so little is explained, that it doesn’t stand well at all on its own. This whole book really feels like a prequel, full of preamble for things to come. As a reader, you feel constantly in the dark, never quite understanding what’s going on. And then just when you start to understand things, something comes along to drastically change the story’s course.

As far as putting you in the shoes of our heroine, Shatter Me does a great job. As far as having a fully formed and complete plot, if falls a little short. But I certainly enjoyed it, and am curious enough to see what happens next. I just wish that there was a little less mystery and a little more defined plot in this first novel. The ending could also have been a little less abrupt, cutting us off right before we started to get some answers.

Angelfall by Susan Ee

Posted on February 27, 2018February 27, 2018 by Michelle Huss

(3 / 5)

Penryn & the End of Days #1
Angelfall is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, where the remains of humanity are fighting for survival against angels who descended with a wave of destruction. I was quite intrigued by the concept; I’ve always been a fan of angel/devil mythos and enjoy stories that bring these judeo-christian ideas to life (Supernatural anyone?). We don’t get to delve as deep into the mythos in this book as I would like, and in fact it doesn’t seem like anyone really knows why the angels descended (not even the angels themselves). We do get a snippet of it at the very end, so I’m hoping that there will be more in the books to come.

It took me a long time to get into Angelfall. I was kind of underwhelmed by the main characters, whose personalities were pretty one-dimensional and uninteresting. Frankly, I found the first half of the novel kind of boring and didn’t really start to get into it until well after halfway through. For me, I think part of the problem is that apart from Raffe (and a quick cameo in the beginning), we don’t really interact with any angels until the end of the novel. Being that the big draw for me was the angels themselves, I think I was disappointed in the survivalist journey that made up the majority of the story. Once we got to the aerie, I became much more engrossed and the story finally started to grab me.

Overall, an okay start but I’m hoping that the rest of the series delves a bit deeper.