Stung - Bethany Wiggins (Guest Review)

Review by Emily Ritter

Synopsis: There is no cure for being stung.
Fiona doesn’t remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered—her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right hand—a black oval with five marks on either side—that she doesn’t remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. She’s right.
Those bearing the tattoo have turned into mindless, violent beasts that roam the streets and sewers, preying upon the unbranded while a select few live protected inside a fortress-like wall, their lives devoted to rebuilding society and killing all who bear the mark.
Now Fiona has awakened branded, alone—and on the wrong side of the wall.

Fiona wakes up in an abandoned house with a tattoo on her right hand. She can’t remember how she got there or why she has the mark. What’s stranger is that it’s her old house, but it’s been destroyed, and she is no longer the thirteen year old she last remembers being. Fiona is thrust into a violent world where those bearing the mark have turned into senseless beasts, and the rest of humanity stays huddled inside a wall, venturing out only to hunt the beasts down. In this dystopian re-telling of Sleeping Beauty, Fiona finds herself marked for dead on the wrong side of the wall with little hope of survival.

What first drew me to this book is that Fiona wakes up on the wrong side of the dystopia. It’s not a long drawn-out choice to be there. Instead, she’s thrown into the action and must figure out who she is at the same time she’s figuring out how to survive. And woah is the world violent! I’m willing to go so far as to call this a dystopian/horror mash-up because of the disastrous state of the world in this book.

Stung was a very compelling read. The danger and action are non-stop, and I was glued to the page to find out if Fiona had a chance. And of course I wanted more of the handsome anti-hero helping Fiona survive. Who wouldn’t!? (Don’t worry, you get plenty of handsome anti-hero action!)

If you’re into dystopians, loose fairy tale-retellings, or survival stories, Stung is for you. 

*Make sure you check out Emily's amazing blog, (YA)y Books! 

Going Vintage - Lindsey Leavitt (Guest Review)

I'm so excited to have the amazing Emily from (YA)Y! Books on the blog today sharing her thoughts on Going Vintage!

Synopsis: When Mallory’s boyfriend, Jeremy, cheats on her with an online girlfriend, Mallory decides the best way to de-Jeremy her life is to de-modernize things too. Inspired by a list of goals her grandmother made in1962, Mallory swears off technology and returns to a simpler time (when boyfriends couldn’t cheat with computer avatars). The List:
1. Run for pep club secretary
2. Host a fancy dinner party/soiree
3. Sew a dress for Homecoming
4. Find a steady
5. Do something dangerous
But simple proves to be crazy-complicated, and the details of the past begin to change Mallory’s present. Add in a too-busy grandmother, a sassy sister, and the cute pep-club president–who just happens to be her ex’s cousin–and soon Mallory begins to wonder if going vintage is going too far.

When Mallory’s boyfriend cheats on her online, she swears off technology and decides to live like they did in the 1960s. Inspired by a list found in her grandmother’s diary from 1962, Mallory decides to make her life simpler. But of course, little goes according to plan, and going vintage makes everything more complicated.

This book was a quick, adorable read. At first, I thought it was a little too simple: Mallory thinks she can fix all things by returning to a “simpler” decade. But she forgets to factor in things like using the internet for research at school, and an ex-boyfriend who doesn’t understand what he did wrong.  Going back to the 60s is supposed to be a quick-fix.

Which of course is absurd. The History major in me is screaming injustice. But as Mallory learns, teenagers in every decade had their share of problems, and we’re not just talking fashion.

What I really loved about this book were the side-characters. Mallory’s younger sister was my favorite, and it’s so refreshing to read about a modern pair of sisters who are best friends. Mallory’s parents were also pretty great in the parents-are-always-crazy kind of way. And of course, the drama/romance with the ex-boyfriend’s cousin, Oliver (what a great name!), was adorable.

In the end, while the premise may seem kind of simple, the book definitely redeemed itself with a great cast of characters and much deeper meaning.

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About Emily: Emily Ritter found her dream job working in the marketing department of a children's publisher. When she's not reading books, she's watching sports and eating ice cream. She blogs about YA books at yay-books.blogspot.com and general NFL shenanigans at aeryssports.com/aerys-offsides. One time she married a trophy!

Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi (Guest Review)

Synopsis: Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.
The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war-- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.
Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior. (From Goodreads)

I’ve had Shatter Me sitting on my desk for awhile because I really couldn’t get too excited about it, mostly because the title didn’t offer any clues that it’s dystopian. And I’m a new-found fan of dystopian YA (Divergent and The Hunger Games rock my world!), but when I started reading I was sucked in immediately (I don’t normally like the reading the synopsis until after I read the book...I know, weird).

We meet Juliette in a jail cell and not much is known about the world beyond except that The Reestablishment controls society and the world is barely a shadow of its former self. Mafi not only details the horrible living conditions of the citizenss but also the sorry state of the planet. I haven’t read many dystopian novels that incorporate issues like pollution and animal extinction as part of the misery and chaos. One thing that remains unclear, and part of why I can’t love this book as much as my other favorite dystopian novels, is the organization of society. We only know that soldiers seem to be in control, but control of whom? It seems to be the run-of-the-mill “Our new leaders promised life would be wonderful but they lied” kind of society. However, part of the reason we don’t know much is because we are seeing life through Juliette’s perspective, and she has been isolated from her society. This adds to the fear (or excitement?) of waits outside of her closed cell.

She eventually gets tangled up in an odd love triangle. There’s Adam, a soldier meant to keep an eye on Juliette, but is also an important part of her past. Then there’s Warner, the heartless, psychopathic soldier who you will love to hate and who has an overwhelming obsession with Juliette. Oh, by the way, she can kill people just by touching them. So it’s easy to see why a murderous lunatic like Warner would be a bit interested. What I loved most about these characters is that they have sides to them that are somewhat contradictory. Juliette constantly struggles with what/who she is: a deadly monster or a powerful young woman. In fact, she’s the only female character throughout most of the book. Adam is a stoic soldier when he needs to be but is also a gentle soul who has feelings for Juliette. It’s more than just physical attraction though; they have an involved history even though that haven’t spoken to each other until now. And Warner, well, despite having no noticeable conscience, I really believe he also has true feelings for Juliette but more of the lustful, compulsive kind.

In the end, like the synopsis suggests, Shatter Me takes an X-men turn...I’m not sure how I feel about that. There was a real tangible shift in tone that did not quite fit with the rest of the book, but did offer an unexpected twist. Overall I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait to see how Juliette transforms in the sequel!

 

This review was written by Caralyn (if you remember, she and I wrote a joint review of The Scorpio Races in January). I'm trying to convince Caralyn to write for the blog more, so show her some comment love =)