So I thought I should get up a Story Time post of the book's I have read in the last few weeks. I love to read all sorts of genre of fiction books so you will find a random selection of book on my monthly Story Time Post. Being a writer (of sorts) myself means I can often be very critical of books though, so expect me to rant if something is badly written!
I've been working my way through a few different teen dystopia novel series recently and am really enjoying them all, so you will find a few of them cropping up now and again. If you want to see all the books I have read and what I thought of them you can find them on my
Goodreads
Although I will be reviewing the books I read I won't be adding full synopsis to them or any spoilers, that is the worst when you want to find out about how good a book is and you find half the storyline! Very annoying, so you won't find any of that here. Photo's are taken from Amazon.co.uk.
The Host by Stephanie Meyers
Now I have read the Twilight books by Stephanie Meyers and although I enjoyed the concept of the storyline itself, it was one of those books that was badly written, edited and executed - so I was a little sceptical about reading another of her books. But my house mate had read it, and she hated twilight, and she said it was really quity good so I should try it. Taking her word for it, I booked it out of the Library.
First thing to say is that it is huge!! I mean it's about 3-4 inches thick to start with. Bigger than a A5, and with small print! So it's pretty heavy to cart around in your handbag, like I do with most of my books, and it will take you a while to get through.
Now the basic gist of the story. Alien species taking over the human race by implanting themselves in human bodies and taking control, but making the world a nicer and more friendly/cooperative place, whilst iradicating the human mind and feelings.
My Toughts: It got into the story pretty quickly at the start, which I like, as spending ages building up can become quite tedious. But then the speed of the story faultered a little in the middle when you have a few chapters droning on about similar things, which could easily have been taken out without losing anything from the story. The end is nicely composed though, without too much dragging out which was a problem with her Twilight books. It is also quite cleverly done, although I felt the final idea was quite predictable I doubt most people reading would have jumped to the same conclusions I did.
The story itself is really great, I love how Stephanie discribes the Aliens and the ways they have changed Earth, and the other planets they have visited. Plus the ideas around how the human race would band together in times of threat and continue to fight and survive is very hopeful. Her characters are well constructed although not all are likeable, and you really start to feel for some of them, and understand what they are feeling about situations.
This book is far better written, technically and creatively than Twilight actually was. The overly romantic storyline, although still there, isn't half as bad as it was in the Twilight books. And although it is again tailored at the teen audience I think this one is more enjoyable for an older audience as well.
Let's just hope the film - which is due out this year, will do it justice
So over all I would give it 4 stars out of 5 as I really enjoyed it.
Reached by Ally Condie
This is the 3rd and finally book in the Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie and is one of the teen dystopia series I have recently read. You would have to have read the first 2 for this to make any sense as the storyline follows on. Plus the concepts of the dystopian world are a little complicated so understanding the background is imperative to understanding this 3rd book.
The general gist of the Matched Trilogy. This is set in a dystopian world where the central (captial government) dictate and control most aspects of the peoples lives. Where you live, what you do, what you eat, who you marry, how many children you have - everything pretty much! They also simplified the world to make it safer, healthier and easier for people. People cannot write there are computers that do that, there is only 100 paintings, 100 historical stories, 100 songs, all which had been chosen by a previous government to control the people.
The story is focused around Cassia who is about to find out her 'Match' - person she is to spend the rest of her life with. But things don't go according to plan when she is shown more than one Match. She starts questioning society and how it works - and things go from there. Can she decide if she wants to live in society or fight against it, will she be able to chose who she loves and can she make her grandfather proud.
The 3rd book obvioulsy takes it further than this as we pick up where we left off at the end of book 2 but I don't want to give anything away to those who haven't read the first books yet, but plan to.
My Thoughts: I wasn't hugely taken by the first book in the series, as it was a little too young for me in terms of writing style and language, but decided to at least read the rest of the series. Number 2 was much better and 3 was very good as well. Condie develops and lets the characters grow throughout the series as she develops on the storyline. The idea of a dystopian controlled society and the outside rebellion rising against it is pretty standard in dystopian novels, but she manages to keep it fresh by having the rebellion work slightly differently than in other novels. I think the ideas she uses are great and very unusual, and she really builds an interesting world. The idea of a world which is against creativity, where expressing yourself is forbidden is a scray idea.
Her charcters are mostly strong and well thought out so you quickly align yourself with certain characters, and really feel empathy towards them. You understand why the do certain things, even if they don't seem right.
The whole series is very well writen, but I think the 2nd and 3rd are better than the 1st. Although the first felt very much tailored to a young teen audience, the story that develops is ore suited to an older teen audience and would be a great easy read for an adult reader too.
I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars as I liked how she ended the series and it was well written, but it was a little dragged out (the 3rd in the series is bigger than 1 and 2 combined)
Reflected in You by Sylvia Day
Ah yes, yet another spin off series from 50 Shades of Grey. Now I can't say I was a fan of 50 Shades, yes I read them all, I don't have a problem with the subject matter or the storyline itself, what I have a problem with is how badly they are written! And how well she is doing of craply written and edited books! I mean logically they will have been seen by at least 4 pairs of eyes before making it to publishing, how can they still be bad grammatically, and be so god awefully written - use a thesaurus for God's sake, and a dictionary for that matter!! Ok rant over as this isn't about 50 Shades, this is about Reflected in You the second book in the Crossfire trilogy by Sylvia Day. What I will say is I do read womens erotic fiction and I know what is good and what is bad - this is boardering on the good side, just about!
I'm not really worried about spoilers on this one as there isn't really a huge amount to the stories themselves. The gist is pretty similar to the 50 Shades story if you have read that (without the BDSM though) if you haven't then it's a youngish female starting to make her way in the world, attracting the attention of a powerful, wealthy, slightly older but damaged man, who wants to control her. The difference is in this book, Eva isn't all nieve and is pretty damaged herself, and has her own wealth, and Gideon isn't quite as controlling or as twisted as Christian Grey.
My Thoughts: The writing couldn't really be any worse than 50 Shades really, but it is actually pretty good technically speaking. Creatively speaking it could have been a little better but I still enjoyed the story. The sex scenes arent quite as graphic as those in 50 Shades, but to me they feel more realistic and actually far hotter. The emotions also seem more realistic, although there are still alot of over the top trust issues, I can at least understand them in part. The lack of Gideons background story is starting to drag on a little and I just wanted to know more about him to understand him better. You do finally get a little of this in the second book. My major problem is that there isn't really a huge amount of actual storyline to warrent it being a trilogy, but I notice this problem in a lot of erotic fiction.
These books are much easier and quicker reads than the 50 Shades as they are onloy about 3rd of the size. Yet I definitely found myself enjoying these more than the 50 Shades ones.
I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars becuase although it is well written in comparison to others in the genre, it is still lacking in a strong interesting storyline.
So there you have my reviews for this month. What do you think? Have you read any of these books? What books are you reading at the moment? Recommend anything else I should try?
