Top 5 Most Anticipated Releases of Spring

*Organized by Release Date*

Title: Dorothy Must Die

Author: Danielle Paige

Release Date: April 1st

Synopsis: I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask to be some kind of hero.

But when your whole life gets swept up by a tornado—taking you with it—you have no choice but to go along, you know?

Sure, I've read the books. I've seen the movies. I know the song about the rainbow and the happy little blue birds. But I never expected Oz to look like this. To be a place where Good Witches can't be trusted, Wicked Witches may just be the good guys, and winged monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion. There's still the yellow brick road, though—but even that's crumbling.

What happened?
Dorothy. They say she found a way to come back to Oz. They say she seized power and the power went to her head. And now no one is safe.

My name is Amy Gumm—and I'm the other girl from Kansas.
I've been recruited by the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked.
I've been trained to fight.
And I have a mission:
Remove the Tin Woodman's heart.
Steal the Scarecrow's brain.
Take the Lion's courage.
Then and only then—Dorothy must die!

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Title: Dear Killer

Author: Katherine Ewell

Release Date: April 1st

Synopsis: Rule One—Nothing is right, nothing is wrong.
Rule Two—Be careful.
Rule Three—Fight using your legs whenever possible, because they’re the strongest part of your body. Your arms are the weakest.
Rule Four—Hit to kill. The first blow should be the last, if at all possible.
Rule Five—The letters are the law.

Kit takes her role as London’s notorious “Perfect Killer” seriously. The letters and cash that come to her via a secret mailbox are not a game; choosing who to kill is not an impulse decision. Every letter she receives begins with “Dear Killer,” and every time Kit murders, she leaves a letter with the dead body. Her moral nihilism and thus her murders are a way of life—the only way of life she has ever known.

But when a letter appears in the mailbox that will have the power to topple Kit’s convictions as perfectly as she commits her murders, she must make a decision: follow the only rules she has ever known, or challenge Rule One, and go from there.

Katherine Ewell’s Dear Killer is a sinister psychological thriller that explores the thin line between good and evil, and the messiness of that inevitable moment when life contradicts everything you believe.

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Title: Free to Fall

Author: Lauren Miller

Release Date: May 13th 

Synopsis: What if there was an app that told you what song to listen to, what coffee to order, who to date, even what to do with your life—an app that could ensure your complete and utter happiness? What if you never had to fail or make a wrong choice?

What if you never had to fall?

Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is following what Lux recommends. When she’s accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn’t use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux’s recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore — a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.

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Title: Dangerous Creatures

Author: Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

Release Date: May 20th

Synopsis: A new series returns to the world of Beautiful Creatures. Some loves are cursed...others are dangerous.

Ridley Duchannes will be the first to tell you that she's a bad girl. She's Dark. She's a Siren. You can never trust her, or even yourself when she's around. Lucky for her, Wesley "Link" Lincoln can never seem to remember that; quarter Incubus or not, his heart is Mortal when it comes to Ridley. When Link heads to New York City to start a music career, Ridley goes along for the ride-and she has her own reasons. As if leaving small-town Gatlin for the big city, trying to form a band, and surviving life with a partially reformed Siren isn't hard enough already, Link soon learns he has a price on his head that no Caster or Mortal can ever pay.

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, the #1 New York Times bestselling coauthors of Beautiful Creatures, are back and casting another magical spell. Their signature mixture of mystery, suspense, and romance, along with a dash of fun and danger, will pull fans in and leave them begging for more.

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Title: City of Heavenly Fire

Author: Cassandra Clare

Release Date: May 27th 

Synopsis: ΕRCHOMAI, SEBASTIAN HAD SAID. 

I am coming.

Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they journey to another world to find the chance? Lives will be lost, love sacrificed, and the whole world changed in the sixth and last installment of the Mortal Instruments series!

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Book Review: Pretties

Title: Pretties

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction

Page Count: 370

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

Publisher: Simon Pulse




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*WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

     Pretties by Scott Westerfeld is the sequel to Uglies. This sequel centers around Tally Youngblood who is now pretty. She lives in New Pretty Town with the rest of the new pretties and loves spending her days with Peris and Shay. Tally, Peris, and Shay are all apart of the Crims, a very popular clique in New Pretty Town. All she has to worry about is having fun all of the time and making sure she is wearing the correct attire for parties. One day, Tally and the rest of the Crims attend a costume party and someone from Tally's past arrives. Tally must try to remember her past and decide whether she wants to stay in New Pretty Town and have fun all of the time or rejoin her friends from her past and fight for her life. This book was satisfactory. The first of half of the story was boring and nothing much happened but the second half of the story was more fast-paced and reminded me a lot of the first book. There is new lingo, a promising plot, decent characters, and an interesting view on humanity.

     First, there is a lot of new lingo. Since pretties basically have brain damage, they tend to use different vocabulary and new,"cool" slang. Some of this slang includes "Crims", short for criminals, and "surge", short for surgery. At the beginning of the story, I was very confused on what these words meant. They are somewhat obvious and I may just be bad at catching on to these things, but the way the characters used this slang was very unclear to me. Eventually, Westerfeld explained what each word was short for, then I understood. There is also new terminology, which consisted of "bubbly" and "bogus". The new pretties use these two terms so many times it was driving me crazy. I swear, every sentence they were saying, "That's so bubbly," or "That's bogus,". It was honestly so annoying. I understand that the purpose of this language was to show how contorted the pretties minds were but it really got on my nerves.

     Secondly, the plot was okay. The story had great promise to be a book full of action and betrayal, and at some points there was, but overall the story was bland. All that happened the first half of the story was Tally and Zane trying to figure out their past memories and them wandering around to find the cure for being pretty-minded. There were some scenes of action such as the trouble at Valentino Mansion and the revelation of the pills that contained the cure, but other than that the story was boring. The second half of the book, I feel, definitely made up for the first half. In the second half, Tally and Zane began to become cured and realized what an awful place New Pretty Town is. They find out secrets about Shay and how she is trying to find her own cure so she can be level-headed like the two of them. The most intense part begins when Tally, Zane, and the rest of the Crims decide to break away from the city and venture out into the wild to find the New Smoke. This is the part that reminded me of the first book Uglies. This part had the same ideas of Tally struggling to survive out in the wild on her own and her wondering if she will ever find her friends again. The end of the story was very interesting and left me in need of the last book in the trilogy Specials. 

     Thirdly, the characters were decent. Tally was very pretty-minded at the beginning of the story and was very dependent on the technology inside her home. Eventually, she became more like her normal self and was in desperate need for answers. She tried her best to do what was right for her faltering society and herself. Tally was an overall brave character. Zane is the leader of the Crims and is interested in Tally. He has been theorizing for a long time that there was something wrong pretties. When he meets Tally, he knows that all of his absurd ideas are true. He is very comforting towards Tally and wants what is best for her well-being.

     Fourthly, Scott Westerfeld had a very interesting view on humanity. This story has a lot of scenes in which the characters make spiteful comments on our present day selves. These characters who live in this high-tech world think of us as these ugly monsters that destroy our environment and try to kill each other. I found these little comments very interesting because they are to some extent true. The characters described what we know as anorexic people as these people who are contaminated with some awful disease to make ourselves overly skinny. I especially enjoyed reading this part because it's true that people nowadays are so obsessed as becoming "pretty" when in reality all they're doing is making themselves sick and grotesquely unattractive. This story has made me think about our human nature and how horrible we really are.

    In conclusion, Pretties by Scott Westerfeld was a pleasurable read. Although the plot wasn't at it's fullest, it left me in contemplation. I will, without a doubt, be continuing on with this series. I'm looking forward to see how this trilogy wraps up.

Book-to-Movie Adaptation: Divergent

Divergent

Running Time: 139 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: March 21, 2014

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Director: Neil Burger

Writers: Evan Daugherty (screenplay), Vanessa Taylor (screenplay), Veronica Roth (book)

Stars: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet
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*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOK AND MOVIE*

     Last night, I was fortunate enough to see Divergent on opening day. I am a huge fan of the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth and I was very excited to see the movie. Luckily, this movie served the book justice. Although there were a few scenes that were either cut out of the movie or changed, the overall movie was very similar to the book. The actors were phenomenal, the story was fast-paced and almost straight from the book, but there were some differences between the book and movie.

     First of all, the actors were phenomenal. Shailene Woodley, who plays Tris Prior, was very believable as Tris. While I was reading the book, I pictured Tris as a small, weak girl and Shailene delivered that image perfectly. Even though Tris, in the movie, wasn't shorter than the other initiates, she still looked and acted like she was so much smaller than them. I have to admit, when I fist saw that Shailene was casted casted as Tris I wasn't to thrilled because she didn't look exactly the part. I thought that her hair was to brunette and she looked way younger than Four, her love interest. I was reading the People magazine exclusive Divergent edition, and saw that Shailene actually was inside a tank full of water and she really had to stand on the ledge of the tall building that she first jumped of during Dauntless initiation. Also, during the scene in which Tris's mother dies, Tris looked so sad and was bawling which made me want to cry and I did not feel this while I was reading the book. This proves what an exceptional actress Shailene Woodley is. Also, Theo James played a very believable Four. I thought that Theo was much too

old for the role of Four when I first saw him in the trailer, but when I saw him act on the big screen he seemed so much younger and more convincing. Theo had a very good connection with Shailene which made their romance in the movie so fun to watch. Also, he was very good at looking robotic during the simulation scene. This definitely came in handy when Four was under the simulation Jeanine put on him and he looked terrifying while he was trying to attack Tris. Theo James is a fairly new British actor and he was very good at hiding his accent which is probably very hard to do. The main antagonist Jeanine Matthews

was also played very will by Kate Winslet. Kate looked exactly like how I pictured Jeanine. She appeared very sophisticated but also had an evil look to her. Jeanine, in the movie, acted like she wanted to help the Prior children pick their faction wisely, but in reality she really wanted them to be controlled and have no say in the matter. Kate also looked very much like an Erudite leader. She had that intelligent look that every Erudite member has. Also, for Kate's first time playing an evil character, she did an excellent job.


     Next, the plot was action-packed and almost straight from the book. This is the part that

pleased me the most from the film. Some of the scenes were almost directly from the book. I was going to tell which scenes I liked the best, but I love them all too much and it would be impossible for me to pick just one. One of the scenes that was almost exactly from the book was the capture the flag scene. In this scene, we get to see Tris and Four climb the Ferris wheel in order to get a better view of the other team. I loved this part because the screenwriters kept some of the same dialogue between Four and Tris. Also, we get to see some action between the two teams. It was interesting to see the initiates become better soldiers and see how they applied their skills to a realistic battle. Also, the movie was good at transitioning from a slow-moving scene to a fast-paced, adrenaline-pumping scene. The action scenes in this movie were awesome! My heart was pounding for all of the characters that I grew even more attached to after seeing this movie.
     Even though I enjoyed a lot of the scenes from the movie, there were some parts that were cut out from the book and some parts that were changed to fit the movie better. One key part that was

missing from the movie was the butter knife scene. In the book, Peter stabs Edward's eye out with a butter knife in the middle of the night. I know this part isn't really important, but I feel it should have been added to the movie to show the evilness of Peter. For me, this is one of the big parts that made me hate Peter. Also, the movie left out Al's crush on Tris. This was one of the main parts that led to Al committing suicide. Visiting Day was also left out from the movie, but was replaced with a different scene. This scene was very similar to the Visiting Day scene but it occurred after Tris had already visited Caleb at Erudite headquarters which led it to leave out the part when Tris's mother tells her to see Caleb to ask him about the serum. I'm sure there are a few other changes that I forgot to mention but I feel that the rest of the movie stuck to the move pretty well.
     All in all, the Divergent movie was spectacular. If you have read the book, but are afraid to see the movie because you think it will ruin the book for you, I recommend that you still see the movie, you won't be disappointed. For those who have not read the book, I think that you should still give to movie a try because it is full of action and leaves you begging for the sequel.

Book Review: Panic

Title: Panic

Author: Lauren Oliver

Genre: Contemporary 

Page Count: 408

Publication Date: March 4th, 2014

Publisher: HarperCollins

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*Note: Since this is a new release, I will try my best to not include spoilers.*

     Panic by Lauren Oliver takes place in a small town in New York called Carp. Nothing ever happens in this small town, so the high school seniors from several years ago started a game called Panic. Panic is a high-risk game in which the contestants have to face some of their worst fears. Each year, the seniors pitch in a dollar a day to form the prize for the game. Normally, the pot adds up to about $50,000 but this year, it's up to $67,000. Two hopeful teenagers, Heather and Dodge, decide to join in on the game for two very different reasons. Dodge plays for revenge and Heather decides to play after her boyfriend dumps her. This book is full of action, suspense, romance, and anything else you could ask for. I found myself eager to see what happens next and the story left me with a pit inside of my stomach from my nervousness for the characters. The plot was very engaging, the characters were compelling, and the game was jaw-dropping.
     First of all, the plot was very engaging. Throughout the story, the contestants of Panic had to face numerous challenges to get to the final challenge and win the prize. These challenges kept me so on edge and nervous for the characters' fates. Some of the challenges were so dangerous that I literally had a pit in my stomach from the anticipation to see what happened. The romance between the main protagonists was also remarkable. I usually don't read books with a lot of romance in them, and this book doesn't completely surround the romance either, but this book left me rooting for the characters to fall in love. The way Lauren Oliver described the interactions between two of the characters made me feel that they truly loved each other and they didn't even realize it. Lauren Oliver also kept a good balance between the jaw-dropping game and the main characters' everyday lives.
     Secondly, the characters were compelling. Heather, one of the two main protagonists, comes from a crappy family in which her mother is an alcoholic and drug-addict. Heather is ultimately left to take care of her younger sister, Lily, as well as herself. Heather has a low self-esteem but learns to build it after she finds a job that she actually likes. Her two best friends, Nat and Bishop, are always there for her and will support her through whatever troubles she's facing. Dodge is the other main protagonist who also comes from a ragged family. He, on the other hand, has a sister, Dayna, who has become paralyzed after playing Panic a few years before. This leads his family to become poor from the multiple doctor appointments she has to attend. Dodge decides to play Panic as revenge for what happened to Dayna. Dodge is constantly looking over Dayna so she doesn't feel too lonely. I found Dodge to be very likable. I grew attached to him and sympathized for him very early in the story. Dodge and Heather think that they are very different but they are really similar due to their broken family life. The story is written in third person and switches from Heather and Dodge's point of view. I think that the third person point of view helped decipher the different perspectives unlike Allegiant by Veronica Roth.
    Overall, Panic was a marvelous read. The plot was very engaging and suspenseful and the characters were compelling. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes a thrilling or realistic read.

P.S: I participated in the BOOKSPLOSION Read-Along on Goodreads, so check it out my thoughts while I was reading this story.

     

     

Lauren Oliver and Jay Asher Vlog

     This past Sunday I was fortunate enough to go see Lauren Oliver, bestselling author of the Delirium trilogy, and Jay Asher, bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why, discuss Oliver's new book Panic. I found it very interesting to hear the authors talk about their own books and see how they react to others' comments on them. Unfortunately, my video was not able to upload onto this blog so it is up on Youtube. http://youtu.be/movXhww55Sw  Here are some pictures from the event.

Book Review: Uglies

Sorry for not posting anything yesterday for my weekly blog post. I will make it up for you guys by doing a review!

Title: Uglies

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Genre: Dystopian/Science Fiction

Page Count: 425

Publication Date: June 30th, 2005

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Awards: South Carolina Book Award Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2008), Georgia Peach Honor Book Award (2008), Abraham Lincoln Award (2007)

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*WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*

     Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is about a girl named Tally Youngblood who is very excited to turn sixteen. Most sixteen-year-olds now are normally looking forward to getting their driver's license, but in this world, sixteen-year-olds look forward to becoming pretty. Becoming pretty basically means getting plastic surgery all over your body to remove all of your blemishes and sucking out all of your extra fat and your only job is to have fun all day. Tally desperately wants to become pretty, but then she meets Shay who doesn't want to become pretty and eventually runs away leading Tally to question the true meaning of becoming pretty. This book was very good! The plot made me want to keep reading to see what would happen next and there was a ton of cool technology in this world that left me wanting a hover board. The characters were somewhat interesting but were also a little dull.

     Firstly, the plot was very captivating. Tally really wants to become pretty and is willing to do anything to do so. So, when Tally's new best friend, Shay, runs away, the authorities leave her with the decision of either finding Shay and turning her in and then Tally can become pretty or Tally can refuse to find and capture Shay and be ugly forever. Tally chooses to find Shay so she can become pretty which prompts her to go on wild quest to find Shay, wherever she may be. This quest is full of twists and turns! I loved reading about Tally going through these obstacles which included fires, a crazy roller-coaster ride, and solving a puzzling note. I thought that Tally may have gotten through these obstacles a bit too easily and it seemed unrealistic how fast she was able to get to her destination. However, this little adventure intrigued me and left me wanting to see how she got through her challenges. But, the fun didn't end there! Once Tally reached her journey's end there were more conflicts she had to meet head on. When Tally met up with her best friend, she had to immediately start lying to Shay so she wouldn't know that she was a spy for the authorities. As soon as Tally got a feel for Shay's new camp and everyone living there, she decided that she no longer wanted to turn Shay in but she still kept her secret to herself. I did not like how Tally took so long to tell Shay about the truth of her being spy. I feel that if Tally already had her mind made up, she should have told Shay the truth immediately. On the other hand, I did enjoy reading about Tally going through the mess she created for herself. Also, the end had a big plot twist that I did not see coming at all!

     Secondly, I enjoyed all of the cool technology there was in this world. There were hover boards, hover cars, crash bracelets, interface rings, and food maker machines. I think that all of these technologies helped put together the book because it let you know how futuristic this world is how advanced they are from us. I loved how Scott Westerfeld took the idea of flying cars and adding them in here to add to that futuristic feel. I also loved the idea of the crash bracelets. I think that they are absolutely brilliant! The crash bracelets stop you from falling onto the ground when your up high in the air by yanking on your wrists and pulling you upwards. I really liked this idea because it shows how our society feels that it should try to protect our youth from anything that ever tries to harm them. Also, the food maker machine is definitely on the list of things that I want. Now, I don't know the official name for this machine but it is awesome. All you do is type in what you want and open the door then the food you typed in would be there. Not only does the food magically appear, it also comes out at the perfect temperature so you don't burn your tongue or it doesn't come out too cold. These technologies, I feel, helped put together the world because it helped show how dependent the characters became on these machines to do everything for them.

     Thirdly, the characters were somewhat interesting. Tally was your stereotypical teenage girl who just wants to fit in and be like everybody else. She is very cautious and careful, but still manages pull a few tricks. Tally becomes very dependent on all of the technologies that I listed earlier and realizes it when she is left to camp out in the wild to look for Shay. She is very clever and is good at persuading people so she can get what she wants. While she is telling lies about who she really is, she still wants people to trust her which I found annoying. I think if you want someone to trust you, you should be completely honest with them from the start and not wait a while before telling them a secret about yourself. Shay was one of the characters that I found to be dull. In the beginning of the book, I liked Shay because she wanted to be different from everybody else and had her own opinions about things. She was also daring and wasn't afraid to fall when she rode her hover board at high speed. Throughout the book, Shay had the same opinions but she blended in with the characters that were at her camp. She was stubborn and unwilling to forgive Tally after her so-called boyfriend began to take interest in her. Overall, the characters were decent.

     All in all, Uglies was an enjoyable read. The plot was engaging, the technology was spectacular, and the characters were mediocre. I would recommend this book to people who like science fiction novels and futuristic worlds. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series because this one ended on a cliffhanger.