Books and Sensibility

We're an Open Book

YA Dystopian

Adaptation by Malinda Lo

     3 Comments

  • Publication Date: September 18th 2012
  • Genre: Science Ficton
  • Pages: 386 (hardcover)
  • Publisher: Little Brown For Young Readers

Synopsis: Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.
Among them are Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David, who are in Arizona when the disaster occurs. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway in the middle of the Nevada night, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are–or how they’ve been miraculously healed.
Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction-and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

Sitting in a Phoenix airport, Reese Holloway’s biggest problem is the humiliation of losing a national debate competition and letting down her partner and crush, David Li. And then things start falling out the sky. …

Read this Post

Head to Head Audiobook Review : Scarlet vs. Prodigy

     4 Comments

Young rulers, fugitives on the run and war on the horizon. The  Legend by Marie Lu and Cinder by Marissa Meyer audio books wow’d the contributors at Book sand Sensibility last year with their intriguing worlds, complex story lines and smart plotting. In 2013, both series debuted their second installments and I’m ready to see how these sequels hold up to their predecessors.

…

Read this Post

Book Review + Giveaway : Prodigy by Marie Lu (Legend #2)

     3 Comments

Release Date: January 29th 2012

Pages: 384

Genre: Dystopian

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Synopsis: June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the unthinkable happens: the Elector Primo dies, and his son Anden takes his place. With the Republic edging closer to chaos, the two join a group of Patriot rebels eager to help Day rescue his brother and offer passage to the Colonies. They have only one request—June and Day must assassinate the new Elector.


Meeting Marie Lu and snagging Prodigy were two of my top priorities at BEA and I was so happy to accomplish both ! It’s seems so long ago, but here I am with a Prodigy review. Sequel reviews can be hard, but I promise a review that is spoiler-free for Prodigy and only slightly for Legend…

Read this Post

Audiobook Reivew : Pure By Julianna Baggott

     5 Comments

  • Publication Date : Feburary 8th 2012
  • Genre : Post-Apocalyptic 
  • Pages : 431
  • Audiobook Length : 14 hours 9 minutes
  • Publisher : Grand Central Publishing (Imprint Hachette Book Group)

 . . . Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. . .There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge [feels] . . . Different. He thinks about loss . . . that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. . . When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Pure is the ultimate survivalist story

I started reading the galley of this book a few months ago and  found its  vivid descriptions and imagery a little dark; or as Kat said on Twitter “It makes The Hunger Games look like a Disney film.” However, I’m glad I gave this book a second change.

Pure is one of the best post-apocalyptic novels I’ve read all year. It mixes what YA survivalist novels like Eve by Anna Carey and Under The Never Sky by Veronica Rossi  have done, but in such a uniquely dark and unbound way. It takes the story of the protected “insider” meets the savage “outside world” and turns it completely on its head.

…

Read this Post

Book Review: Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver (Delirium #2)

     2 Comments

“In a world without love, this is what people are too each other: values, benefits, and liabilities, numbers, and data. We weigh, and the soul is ground to dust.” 

― Lauren Oliver, Pandemonium

 

  • Release Date: February 28th 2012
  • Genre: Dystopian
  • Publisher: Harper Teen
  • Pages: 375

Synopsis: I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, pushing aside thoughts of Alex, pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school, push, push, push, like Raven taught me to do.The old life is dead.But the old Lena is dead too.I buried her.I left her beyond a fence,behind a wall of smoke and flame.Lauren Oliver delivers an electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Delirium. This riveting, brilliant novel crackles with the fire of fierce defiance, forbidden romance, and the sparks of a revolution about to ignite.

Sequel reviews are always hard for me but, here we go. It was a bit of a shock going from listening to the audio book of Delirium to reading the print copy of Pandemonium. I was finally seeing names and places on the page instead of just hearing them. I had to remind myself our protagonist was Lay-na and no Lean-a and there are In-val-ids not In-val-eds

That said, Pandemonium is pretty much nothing like Delirium, in fact, it feels like a different series entirely.

Pandemonium is erratic with a  faster paced and more passionate story than Delirium. Whereas Delirium is a discovery story, Pandemonium is one about a journey. This book embodies the kids in the woods phenomenon seen in a lot of post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction. This idea where it’s mostly the teens and young adults that leave civilization to fight the status quo.

…

Read this Post

Book Review : Legend By Marie Lu

     6 Comments

Synopsis :  What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic’s wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic’s highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country’s most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. . . in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what [has ]brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

Legend is the ultimate cat and mouse game.

15-year-old June is the government’s greatest agent. Day is the government’s number one fugitive. When a series of events leads the two to cross paths, Day becomes June’s first mission and she will do whatever it takes to find him.…

Read this Post