Notice how I made the title rhyme? This was done purposely.

So Mini Reviews are something I’ve never done before, mostly because I read waaaay too slowly for me to update this blog with all reviews in one post, but I’ve been really lagging on writing my reviews, so I think it’s about time.

This one has a theme: Hype Books!

(Which is pretty much the theme of every review on my blog, but – eh- who’s paying that much attention, anyway?)

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people’s lives.

Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

My Thoughts:

I’m not so sure my thinking was “forever changed” by this one. It was an interesting story, for sure, but I don’t know where all the hype is based. It is fluidly written with a concrete plot and excellent character development, though. One of my favorite things about The Girl on the Train was the formatting. It was written in a “Morning, Evening” way, so there are major time skips in every chapter, which works very well with the main character’s alcoholic personality, because often she doesn’t remember what happens between the two, anyways. This also means the narration skips from present to past and back again constantly without being confusing, which does well for the pace. Overall, though, I was expecting something more unusual, and this one was pretty realistic- as far as murders go, I guess. This isn’t a bad thing, but it means the story itself is nothing uber special.

Three Stars

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Ooooh.. this one’s a hard one for me. Have I even read ten books in 2015? It sounds pathetic, but the year went by so quickly, I hardly got any reading done! But I’m sure I can find a few.

Top  Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that gives a weekly prompt for bookish bloggers to converse over.

You can click on any of the books to get my review! (Except Cress, which I haven’t reviewed.) How cool is that? Picture links are another first on this blog.

Also, I can’t figure out my blog right now, which is the most annoying thing in the world, and if I kept trying I’d end up throwing my computer out the window. So, for the sake of my next paycheck, I’m going to have to just let this post be weirdly-formed.

Anyways, happy Tuesday!

Set in a science fiction setting with elements of twisted horror, Future Winds is a strange yet wondrous tale of species self-preservation and the all-out moral cost of survival. Forced to leave earth, humanity discovers a planet capable of supporting life and hatches an audacious plan that will warp them across the universe to settle and begin anew. There is a darkness that resides below the planet’s surface, but with no option to turn back, humanity must find a way forward.

Buy it on Amazon

Add it on Goodreads

Read the Author’s Interview (Which you should. It’s pretty cool stuff.)

Normally, I’ll start writing a review immediately after I finish a book. I’ll brainstorm the points I want to make, and my overall thoughts. But with Future Winds.. after finishing I felt nothing but shock. Let me tell you, this book has one hell of an ending. Like Girl with all the Gifts style, but better. I wasn’t at all expecting what was going to happen, and it was like a cherry on a piece of sci-fi-pie. (Is that cheesy? It’s totally cheesy. I’m leaving it in there anyway.)

As for the rest of the book, I was enamored. The characters alone had me hooked. Not only are they all incredibly diverse- from personality to ethnicity- they are all so unique. This was a multi-viewpoint book, and normally with those you have your “main character” and everything else is just flavor text. Not with Future Winds. Each character was so well written with their dynamics and their separate conflicts that Laymon could have written a story about any one of their perspectives, and it would still be interesting. My favorite character was Aries, an artificial intelligence drone. I loved the line between human and robot presented by this book, especially during one particular part that I’m not going to spoil, but that scene alone made me want a sequel. But to piece all of the viewpoints together gave so many perfect views of a world that is corrupt to the core, and seeing this from all these different eyes and angles creates a world that is completely three-dimensional.

And that’s another thing! The world! It was so well written that I feel like I could easily draw every aspect of it. Everything was meticulously described, so it’s easy to imagine the kind of strange world the characters are entering, but it’s not detailed to the point of tediousness *cough* Ayn Rand *cough*. Nothing important was left to the imagination, and I think that maybe that’s why, days after reading it, I’m still constantly picturing this world and the characters in it. (Not that it’s at all a pleasant picture.)

It is dark. There are a lot of gorey, nasty moments, but what’s really dark about the book is the overall tone. Laymon, through his novel, makes a commentary on government power, big corporations, and the darkness of the human nature. Reading it, I felt constantly trapped and anxious, and there were parts that made me gasp out loud even though no one else was in the room with me. (If anyone else has read this, message me. I need to talk about what happened to Lucas with somebody.)

But it wasn’t all perfect! Things I didn’t like:

• Good God it’s not for children! Which isn’t really a flaw.. I just wasn’t prepared for the amount of gore I was getting myself into.
• I’m wishing the Overlords were elaborated on. Maybe there will be a sequel? *Crossing fingers*
• Everybody swears! Even, like, the stone-cold officials, which seemed out of place. But I think this was supposed to be a way of showing the unraveling of society.

Future Winds just leaves so much to think about, particularly with the symbolism presented by the Overlords in the book, I definitely want a sequel! I feel like there was one chapter in the book that could have been an entire novel in and of itself, and I’d love to see the author elaborating on the world he’s created. This is a book for people that like to delve into the deeper meaning of things, that want to have an intellectual conversation about symbolism and secrets. If it didn’t have so much blood and cussing I’d recommend it for an English class. But if you’re not into that, it’s good at surface value, too.

Overall, I loved Future Winds. It was brilliant in its realistic characters, inventive scenery, and underlying message. This debut shows an author with so much potential, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!

Five Stars

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme posted by The Broke and the Bookish where participators can enjoy a different prompt every Tuesday.

Love this week’s prompt! Sometimes Top Ten Tuesday get’s a little hardcore for me, like “Top Ten Authors you’ve read multiple books of” (in which case, I could probably name only three) or “Top Ten books you read this month” and I’m like “with my life, I’d be lucky if I got through ONE! But this week is actually something I can come up with plenty for! Not quite ten… but enough.

1) Marie Rutkoski

I absolutely adored The Winner’s Curse. I loved how it was so full of the questions of human nature and brilliant characters. I haven’t read the second in series yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to it!

Continue reading →

So this has happened to me before. I’m enjoying a book, reading along, and then BAM! Genre change! Everything stops making sense.

I think authors do this to add a certain shock value, but I’m honestly not sure how to feel about it. It’s like with every book, I have a certain comfort zone that’s created by my expectations of what that book is, and when it changes so drastically like this, the entire book become unbelievable. Let me give an example.

Thicker Than Water

I read this book several years ago. (And it was freakishly hard to find on goodreads for this post. Do you have any idea how many books are titled “Thicker than Water?”) WARNING: Complete spoilers ahead.

It’s basically about a girl who- to escape the troubles of her teen life- goes to nightclubs where she discovers vampires doing weird vampire things. She spends the entire book trying to blend in with the vampires and get evidence about who they are, until at the end she approaches one to ask him to change her into a vampire. Except surprise! He isn’t a vampire. In fact, no one is. Vampires don’t exist. Weirdos that go drinking other people’s blood in nightclubs, however, do exist. The whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth.

This happens with videogames, too.

Siren

This was my very first horror game when I was a kid. That was okay, though, because it was a zombie game, and I wasn’t afraid of zombies. Except, halfway through I find out it’s not a zombie game. It’s an alien game! And I was terrified of aliens! The first level that the zombies started to get weird alien mutations I was playing with my sister and I was so badly scared and surprised that I cried. Except we’d gotten so far and I didn’t want to re-do all the progress we’d made, so I played with my eyes half closed until the aliens came on and then it was my sister’s turn. We never did win that game. No way I’m going back to it, though. Pff. Aliens.

This even happens with movies! 

The Village

Is anyone surprised that the genre-swapping movie in question was written by M. Night Shadymellon? Spoilers ahead! (Kinda)

People live in an old-timey witchcrafty village, kept inside by fear of monsters. One lady strays out of the village at the very end and the audience finds out that it’s not, in fact, set in old times, it’s in the 21st century.. and no one ever noticed this village-trapped-in-time because they were in a nature preserve.. And I guess no one ever goes to those.

So, overall, I think this genre-change deal exists to create a major shock value in the reader/player/watcher, but in the end, all it does for me is make the entire thing seem pointless and unbelievable. Except for in the case of Siren, in which it just made the whole thing f&^*ing terrifying.

Have you ever come across a piece of media like this? What do you think when something suddenly changes genres? Do you like the shock, or does it ruin the whole thing? I’m interested to know your thoughts!

This is my second Top Ten Tuesday in two weeks! I don’t think that’s ever happened before. Man, am I on the ball today (toweeks?). In case you’re unawares, Top Ten Tuesday is a meme run by The Broke and the Bookish that gives prompts like this one every Tuesday. If you haven’t already, they’re worth checking out!

I’m actually not aware of many debuts, so this topic for me is going to be incredibly skimpy. But there is one I’m really looking forward to!

1) Emotive by Kevin Laymon

Emotive is a tale of life, love, compassion, and the pursuit of happiness as told through the eyes of the story’s narrator Linus. Linus is a puppy living in a small city located in the rolling hillsides of upstate New York. When the abnormalities of his owner Sam are all he knows since birth, he gains a perspective of unyielding acceptance and love towards the man who feeds him, takes him to the park, and murders women in his basement.

I absolutely love the sound of that synopsis. This one’s set to be out in April of next year, and it can’t come soon enough! It seems like it’s going to be dark, but how can it be when it’s narrated by a dog? Definitely looking forward to seeing how it goes.

2) This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

10:00 a.m.

The principal of Opportunity, Alabama’s high school finishes her speech, welcoming the entire student body to a new semester and encouraging them to excel and achieve.

10:02 a.m.
The students get up to leave the auditorium for their next class.

10:03
The auditorium doors won’t open.

10:05
Someone starts shooting.

Told over the span of 54 harrowing minutes from four different perspectives, terror reigns as one student’s calculated revenge turns into the ultimate game of survival.

This one’s been on my TBR for months- I added it based on a review from another blogger that loved it. Looking forward to reading something so time-sensitive, because I think all of the books I generally read are a little too traditionally written.

3) How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

Salem, Massachusetts is the site of the infamous witch trials and the new home of Samantha Mather. Recently transplanted from New York City, Sam and her stepmother are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Sam is the descendant of Cotton Mather, one of the men responsible for thosetrials and immediately, she becomes the enemy of a group of girls who call themselves The Descendants. And guess who their ancestors were?

If dealing with that weren’t enough, Sam also comes face to face with a real live (well technically dead) ghost. A handsome, angry ghost who wants Sam to stop touching his stuff. But soon Sam discovers she is at the center of a centuries old curse affecting anyone with ties to the trials.

Sam must come to terms with the ghost and find a way to work with the Descendants to stop a deadly cycle that has been going on since the first accused witch was hanged. If any town should have learned its lesson, it’s Salem. But history is about to repeat itself.

This synopsis brought up some lost feelings of the kinds of books I used to read, and I’d really love to explore them. My hope is that it feels something like The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong, which felt like starting a new life to me. Probably the most re-read book I own. This is disappointing, because I had a chance to meet Kelley Armstrong and I could not for the life of me find my copy of The Summoning! I was going to buy a new one then and there just to have her autograph on it, but she wasn’t selling any copies. Woe is me.

4) These Vicious Masks by Kelly Zekas

England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes, she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they’re not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive, young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true—and that her sister is in graver danger than she feared.

Is it me, or are all the books I’m looking forward to next year incredibly dark? Talk about holiday spirit.

So that’s it for my top ten-uh.. four. I’d love to see what everyone else is looking forward to! Happy Tuesday!