Review: Insurgent, Veronica Roth

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperTeen)
Pages: 525 (Hardback)
Release: May 2012
Genre: YA, dystopian
Source: Bought
Good to know: Summit Entertainment, the studio that made the Twilight - movies, have bought the movierights to the trilogy. Book 3 is apparently being released some time in 2013.

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love. Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

A good follow - up to Divergent 
(This review contains spoilers if you have not read Divergent yet)

I have been waiting a long time for the sequel to Divergent, one of my favorite books of 2011. I preordered the book as soon as I could, but I did not have time to wait for the book arriving in the mail, so I also bought the kindle - edition of the book. I can now state that Insurgent also is a great read.

The story in Insurgent picks up where Divergent ended. There are more things on stake for Tris, and she must fight for her own life as well for the lives of the people she believe in and love. Someone has the need to find out what secrets the Divergents hide in their brains, conflicts are brewing and people must choose sides. There are some surprising revelations, and Tris begins to question the meaning of the faction - system.

I read somewhere, once, that crying defies scientific explanation. Tears are only meant to lubricate the eyes. There is no real reason for tear glands to overproduce tears at the behest of emotion.  I think we cry to release the animal parts of us without losing our humanity. Because inside me is a beast that snarls, and growls, and strains toward freedom, toward Tobias and, above all, toward life.

Insurgent is, as Divergent was, a real pageturner. There is not a dull section in the book. I was thrown from page to page, reading about suspense and dramatic events.

I also like the fact that we get to know all the characters and the releationships between them even better in this book. I specifically like how the author spends time developing the relationship between Four and Tris. She does that very believeable, without use of cliches. Tris has a great development. There are a lot of great character-descriptions in the book, much more so than in Divergent. That is a natural thing. In bok 1 there is a need to set the story and the plot, to show the reader the characters. In bok 2, the author may dive deeper into the people on the pages and the story.

Evil depends on where you're standing

The language is also good, not one sentence appears to be in vain. Everything is so perfectly built up. There are also a lot of nice quotes.

Grief is not as heavy as guilt, but it takes more away from you.

The last part of the book is so suspenseful, and the ending just wants me to grab the third book rightaway. How will I be able to wait until 2013 to know what happens???

I still believe that this series will be the next Hunger Games. The books have everything: suspense, romance, mystery, dramatic events, great characters etc. I love Roth's worldbuilding in the books, the thought behind every faction and the way they are described.

If you have read Divergent, you can really look forward to this book. If not, you need to read Divergent right now! This is an awesome series!

Other reviews:
Empire of Books
Magical Urban Fantasy Reads
Mundie Moms

Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 338
Release: November 2011
Source: Review copy from BEA
Challenge: None this year, read it in 2011
Good to Know: This is Mafi's debutnovel and the first book in a new series.

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.

A Great Debut

Shatter Me received a lot of buzz before it was released, and Harper Collins put a lot of effort and marketing behind the novel. This off course creates expectations.

Juliette have been locket up in an asylum for 264 days. She has no direct contact with any human being; her food (the days when she is lucky enough to get something to eat) is served through a hole in the door. Everything she does, she does alone. She have not been able to change clothes or freshen up. The reason she is locked up is because she have special powers, powers that may have caused the death of a little boy. One day Juliette gets a cellmate, Adam, and her whole world changes.

The world outside Juliette's cell is also changed. Wars have been raging and a lot of people are dead due to starvation and misery. A lot of the trees and plants are gone. The people with the power, The Reestablishment, have to fight to keep their power because there are rebels and they want power too.

The world is flat. I know because I was tossed right off the edge and I've been trying to hold on for seventeen years. I've been trying to climb back up for seventeen years but it's nearly impossible to beat gravity when no one is willing to give you a hand.

Shatter Me is not a book that screams out loud to you. Nothing happens in fast pace, and the book is not a pageturner as in a lot of things is happening. But it is a pageturner nevertheless: it is the writing and the way the author makes us sympathise with Juliette that makes this such a great read.

I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. (...)My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of lettrs, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.

I have never read anything like this, the writingstyle is unique. Most of the book is narrated by Juliette and her thoughts are very well described. I felt like I was in her head the whole time. There are a lot of good metaphores and descriptions in the novel, I found myself constantly marking pages that had beautiful quotations.  Mafi writes like a poet. Some will perhaps say that it is too much, but it worked for me. Once I got used to Mafi's style of writing I devoured the book.

"You're getting a cellmate roommate", they said to me.
"We hope you rot to death in this place For good behavior", they said to me.
"Another psycho just like you No more isolation", they said to me.

Every inch of my skin is taut with tension, fraught with feeling and the pressure is building in my chest, pounding louder and faster and harder, overcompensating for my stillness. I do not tremble when I'm frozen in time. I train my breaths to come slower, I count things that do not exist, I make up numbers I do not have, I pretend time is a broken hourglass bleeding seconds through sand. I dare to believe.

The book is a dystopian novel, and as such it does not work so well. I miss more information about the new world order: What really happened before, what triggered the events etc. I hope I will get some answers in the sequel, bit if you are reading this book hoping for a fastpaced dystiopian read you will be dissappointed.

His face is 10,000 possibilities staring straight through me.

My eyes are two windows cracked open by the chaos in this world. 

Shatter Me  was a refresing read in a genre where it is not easy to stand out. This book stands out and I am looking forward to the next one. 

Other reviews:
Tynga's Reviews
The Readiacs 
The Book Smugglers 

Review: Crossed, Ally Condie

Publisher: Dutton Books
Pages: 384 (Hardcover)
Genre: YA, dystopian, sci-fi
Release: November 1th 2011
Source: BEA
Good to know: The sequel to Matched. This series is going to be a trilogy.

In search of a future that may not exist and faced with the decision of who to share it with, Cassia journeys to the Outer Provinces in pursuit of Ky - taken by the Society to his certain death - only to find that he has escaped, leaving a series of clues in his wake.

Cassia's quest leads her to question much of what she holds dear, even as she finds glimmers of a different life across the border. But as Cassia nears resolve and certainty about her future with Ky, an invitation for rebellion, an unexpected betrayal, and a surprise visit from Xander - who may hold the key to the uprising and, still, to Cassia's heart - change the game once again. Nothing is as expected on the edge of Society, where crosses and double crosses make the path more twisted than ever.

Poetical dystopian

I had high expectations for Crossed since I loved Matched so much. I liked this book too, but it did not live up to my expectations.

Cassia finds herself in a whole new place, and she begins to search for Ky. Ky, on the other hand, is doing his best to survive and he manage to find new allies and friends.

Condie has a beautiful writing style and she is one of the best writers in the Ya - universe. Her writing is poetical, with a few words and sentences she is able to say so much. Sometimes I just stop my reading and reflect over something she has written. There are so many great quotes, so many good observations. It is simply a joy to read.

Because in the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.

If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well tahe their words out of the dirt and try to snatch them from the wind. Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back

Love changes what is probable and makes unlikely things possible.

My biggest problem with this book, is that the story is too slowpaced. It takes too long before there is any real action, and once the book was finished I still had a lot of questions that were not answered. I longed for more. More information about the Society for one.

Loving him gave me wings and all my work has given me the strength to move them.

The narrative in the story shifts between Ky and Cassia. I liked that, since I felt we got to know each of them better. But what surprised me was that I felt a lot more sympathy towards Ky, he is a much more complex and interesting character than Cassia - at least in this book he is.

Even though I felt the story lacked something, I will still recommend the book. The writing style is, in itself, something that should make you read the book. I hope I will get more answers in the third book, because I will read it. I cannot get enough of Condie's prose.

Other reviews:
The Story Siren
Amy Reads
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Visit the Matched trilogy here.

Review: Eve, Anna Carey

Publisher: Harper Collins
Pages: 336
Genre: Dystopian, YA
Release: October 2011
Source: ARC from Book Ecpo America
Nice to know: Eve is Anna Carey's debutnovel, and the first book in a planned trilogy. There are currently plans about making the books into a TV - Series by the people who make the Vampire Diaries come to life on screen.

The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, and the horrifying fate that awaits her.  Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust...and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

A disappointing dystopian

Eve was one of the YA - books I was mostly looking forward to this year. The premise for the novel sounded interesting, even though there are a lot of dystopian books being published these days. Sadly the book didn't live up to my expectations.

A virus have killed a lot of people, and the remaing population are trying to build a new society behind the walls of a new town founded in the desert. Boys and girls are kept separate, and attend separate boarding schools. Eve is 16 years old, and was taken away from her mother when her mother got infected with the virus. Eve has lived most of her life inside the walls of her school, and she is looking forward to her graduation and to utilize some of the talents she has been tought over the years. The girls have been taught that life outside the school's walls are dangerous, and that boys and men are not to be trusted. They will only take advantage of a girl.

a relationship between two people can be judged by the list of things unspoken between them.

The day before her graduation, Eve makes a discovery that makes her question everyting she has been told. She understands that a horrible fate awaits her, and escapes from the school and out into a world where she does not know who she can trust.

for days in the wild, only the birds spoke to me. The stream was the only hand that touched me, the wind the only breath tht blew the dust from my eyes. I learned the strange art of loneliness, the weathered yearning that swells and passes, swells and passes, when you walk a trail alone.

Eve comes off to a good start. The author sets the atmosphere, and I am instantly interested in finding out more about Eve and her world. The suspense continues until Eve meets Caleb, from that point I lost interest in the story. Considering the things Eve have been taught at school, I find it hard to believe that Caleb and his friends gain Eve's trust so fast. The pace of the story also changed, and made me think of Lord of the Flies.

I also had a hard time sympatizing with Eve, my sympathies was with another female character. She had all the qualities I look for in a YA - heroine. Eve was to weak in my opinion, and I did not understand her motivations, for example I was puzzled that she chose to flee from school and leave her best friend in the arms of a terrible, terrible fate. Eve also has a hard time surviving by herself, she needs help from other characters.

Happiness is a moment.

Later in the book, when Eve meets Marjorie Cross, I thought that the author was inspired by the Stand by Stephen King.

On the back of the ARC Eve is compared to the Hunger Games. That is not a good comparison. Eve does not come close to Katniss, and the book lacks a lot of the depth one can find in the Hunger Games.

Eve is a light read, that will entertain you in the moment. But it is not a book I wil remember for long, and that makes me sad because the story had so much potensial. Anne Carey is a good writer, she knows her way around words, but Eve was not my favorite dystopian read.


Other reviews:
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Chick Loves Lit

Anna Carey's website can be found here, and you can visit the author on Goodreads here.

Review: Uglies, Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Schibsted (Norwegian publisher)
Pages: 367
Release: First published in 2005, this edition in 2011
Source: Review copy
Good to know: Uglies was awarded the prize Best Books for Young Adults, when it came out. Fox has optioned the film rights






The tyranny of beauty

Uglies is a thrilling dystopian about what may happen when society gets to obsessed with beauty and good looks. Even though this is a made up story, it may serve as a critical loook at where out society today is headed, if we are not there already...

Tally is looking forward to turning 16 years, because that is when she will get cosmetic surgery and become pretty. Tally's best friend have already had the operation, and she is eager to meet him again in the city where all the beautiful people live. Whilst waiting for the operation, Tally spends her days doing pranks and going out on adventures. One day she meets Shay, and her life will never be the stame. Soon Tally is presented with a dark view on the world she lives in.

Uglies is a pageturner, written in an effective language. The chapters are short, and a lot of them ends with a cliffhanger. This makes the book a read I believe a lot of teens will enjoy. The story is not very obvious, and there is a lot of surprises. The characters are two - dimensional, and has depth.

Uglies is a coming of age story about finding your place in the world and in your own society. It is a book about growing up, and realising that your innocent view on the world has been just to innocent. The book talks about what happens when you leave your childhood behind, and see the world with different eyes. It is a book about friendship and loyalty, and the main character, Tally, is confronted with a lot of difficult choices.

Uglies was written because Westerfeld wanted to help teenageres love themselves. He also wanted to show what may happen if we just tag along and don't ask questions. The extreme reality that is Tally's world, is a harsh reminder of what may happen in a society that favors beauty before other qualities, and where no one can be different. Is that the place our world is going to in the future, or are we already there? The truth is that we live in a world where people can order babies from spermbanks, and where the intelligence and looks of the donor is important. A world where we are able to terminate a pregnancy if there is a prognosis that the baby will not be born healthy.

Our society loves beauty, and the more beautiful you are, the more sucessful your are likely to be. If your are skinny and beautful, you have succeeded in life. But if you are fat and ugly, you are look upon as lazy and as a loser.

Uglies makes us reflect on important questions, and that makes the book, not just a thrilling read, but also an important story well worth spending some time with.

To change the world, we need to start with our selves. Maybe this book can make you take one step in the right direction.

Other reviews:
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Scott Westerfeld's website
Westerfeld on Goodreads

Review: Matched by Ally Condie

Publisher: Mangschou (Norwegian publisher)
Pages: 395
Format: Hardback

Released: April (Norwegian translation)
Source: Review copy

For Cassia, nothing is left to chance--not what she will eat, the job she will have, or the man she will marry. In Matched, the Society Officials have determined optimal outcomes for all aspects of daily life, thereby removing the "burden" of choice. When Cassia's best friend is identified as her ideal marriage Match it confirms her belief that Society knows best, until she plugs in her Match microchip and a different boy’s face flashes on the screen. This improbable mistake sets Cassia on a dangerous path to the unthinkable--rebelling against the predetermined life Society has in store for her. As author Ally Condie’s unique dystopian Society takes chilling measures to maintain the status quo, Matched reminds readers that freedom of choice is precious, and not without sacrifice

Life in a protected bubble

Matched is a great dystopian novel. I could not put this book away.

Imagine a society where all the big choices in life are decided for you by others. A society where officials decide who you are to marry, fall in love with and when you can have a baby. A society that decides what food you are allowed to eat, and also when you die. A place where no one must differ from the right norm, and where every wrong step may lead to terrible concequences. A place where something as private as your dreams is being monitored too. Welcome to Cassia's world.

There have been sometime since George Orwell wrote his famous novel 1984, but the heritage from that novel still lives on today. That is apparent in Condie's bestselling novel. Big Brother is watcing you and officials controls what you get to read and listen to. People are not able to write by hand anymore, everything is conducted on computers.

Cassia have never questioned this way of living, it is the only way of living she knows. She likes living in a world free of dangerous diseases, and is looking forward to the day when she will be matched with the boy she later will marry. Little does Cassia know that the day of the matching will change her life in ways that she never could have imagined. She gets to know Ky Markham more, and soon she starts asking questions about her life and the choices made for her by the officials.

Matched is a great novel, and I could not put it down. I became fascinated and was horrified by the world the author has created. I felt strongly for all the characters, especially Cassia and Ky.

The writing was good, and Condie is really great at conjuring metaphors and beautiful pictures. I also think she is talented when it comes to character-development. She describes Cassia's relationship to Ky and Xander in a very believeable way.

There is a lot of questions in this book that do not get answered. That didn't bother me, but actually served as an incentive to keep on reading. I am looking forward to reading the next book in this series, and can't wait to see what Condie are up to next. A great debut.

Other reviews:

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The Infinite Shelf

Ally Condie's website

The website for the series

Matched on Goodreads

Book-trailer :

Waiting on Wednesday: Eve

his is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine, where we talk about the books we are eagerly waiting for to be released.

My pick this week: Eve by Anna Carey



The year is 2032, sixteen years after a deadly virus—and the vaccine intended to protect against it—wiped out most of the earth’s population. The night before eighteen-year-old Eve’s graduation from her all-girls school she discovers what really happens to new graduates, and the horrifying fate that awaits her.

Fleeing the only home she’s ever known, Eve sets off on a long, treacherous journey, searching for a place she can survive. Along the way she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Separated from men her whole life, Eve has been taught to fear them, but Caleb slowly wins her trust...and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

I love dystopian novels, and I am looking forward to reading this one. The author has previosly written the Sloane Sisters series.

Review: Divergent, Veronica Roth

Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Format: Paperback (Uncorrected proof)
Pages:496
Release: Released in the UK on May 3.
Review copy given to me by HarperCollins UK
















In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

An outstanding debutnovel

Divergent is one of the best dystopian novels I have ever read. It is an addictive read that you will not be able to put down. This is the new Hunger Games.

Beatrice Prior lives in a future Chicago, where the society is divided into factions that cultivates different virtues. There is the Abnegation, cultivating selflessness. The Dauntless is the faction for the daring and the brave. In Candor the emphazise is on honesty, and in Amity on peace and harmony. Every child must, by the age of sixteen, choose which faction they want to dedicate themselves to. The decision is helped by a test, that will show which faction you best belong to. But you still need to make your own decision, and for Tris this choice is going to be lifechanging.

Divergent have been getting a lot of buzz even though the book is not published yet. People are saying that this is the new Hunger Games, and the rights for both the series and the movie adaptions have been sold in major deals. There is only one thing to say: the book deserves every superlative that have been written about it. It truly is the new Hunger Games, and on some levels it is even better than the Hunger Games.

Beatrice, or Tris as she renames herself, is a fantastic heroine. She is strong, but not superhumanly strong. She is someone the reader wants to relate to, someone you can emphatize with. She has both good and bad qualities, and that makes her all the more interesting. Not one of the things she does is predictable. I really felt for her throughout the book. I cheered on her, and actually felt like she was a friend. Someone I wanted all the best for.

Tris' relationship to the different characters is described with insight, and the different developments in said relationships makes perfect sense. Nothing is given away to early.

Tris goes through lifealtering events, and the author managed to develop her accordingly to this througout the book.

The idea of the different factions is great, and the dystopian society described in this book is interesting to read about. Roth has done an amazing job creating this world. I see it vividly in my mind.

The book have a lot of suspense. It is thrilling, heartbreaking, entertaining, addictive, fantastic and great. Divergent has everything that you would want from a great book. I have trouble finding the words to describe how good it is.

The story have so many levels. Even though this is an entertaining read, you can find a critical look at the society we live in in the text. The book shows how power may corrupt, it talks about a society where individuality is not cheered on, but where everyone should fit into a specific form. If you are different, you are a threat. You are not to ask any questions. The book actually draws on the heritage from authors such as Franz Kafka.

The writing in the book is very good. Veronica Roth knows her way around words. And she avoids every cliche. Every time you think that hey, it will be a happy ending because that is just the way it is in books - she proves you wrong and the storyline takes surprising twists and turns.

Like I said, this is an amazing read. If you like the Hunger Games, you are going to love Divergent. This is the book you need to read this year. Get it now.

Veronica Roth is currently working on the sequel to Divergent. I cannot wait to read it, and find out more about this world. This is an amazing debutnovel.

Other reviews:
Parajunkee
The Lovely Reader
Confessions of a Book Addict
Bookalicio

Divergent on GoodReads
Veronica Roth's blog

Review; XVI, Julia Karr

Publisher: Speak
Pages: 272
Format: Paperback
Release: Januar 2011






Nina Oberon's life is pretty normal: she hangs out with her best friend, Sandy, and their crew, goes to school, plays with her little sister, Dee. But Nina is 15. And like all girls she'll receive a Governing Council-ordered tattoo on her 16th birthday. XVI. Those three letters will be branded on her wrist, announcing to all the world—even the most predatory of men—that she is ready for sex. Considered easy prey by some, portrayed by the Media as sluts who ask for attacks, becoming a "sex-teen" is Nina's worst fear. That is, until right before her birthday, when Nina's mom is brutally attacked. With her dying breaths, she reveals to Nina a shocking truth about her past—one that destroys everything Nina thought she knew. Now, alone but for her sister, Nina must try to discover who she really is, all the while staying one step ahead of her mother's killer.

Interesting, but not engaging

Imagine a future where every girl age sixteen or older has a tattoo on her wrist, signaling that she is ready to have sex. This is the world Nina Oberon lives in. The year is 2150, and Nina is soon going to turn sixteen and become a "sex-teen". Nina's best friend Sandy is looking forward to be what the government has labeled sexually mature, Nina is not.

This is a society where the government runs everyhing and there is a gap between citizens. People on welfare, for example, are feed non-healthy food to keep them overweight. The NonCons are trying to act against the goverment, and anyone being a NonCon can be arrested.

This book is a dystopian kind of fiction, and the main theme is sexuality and the sexual pressure teens must face. And that makes it an important and an interesting read. Unfortunately the book did not succeed in holding my interest and keeping me engage in the story. I constantly felt my thoughts straining whilst reading. The author has too much information on the future society pouring through the pages in the beginning, that I felt it hard to be engage in Nina and her story. We get a lot of descriptions about the world around her, but hardly anything about what she is feeling inside. That changes during the progress of the book, and we get a more complex picture of Nina. But sadly that was not enough for me.

I also had a hard time understanding some of the slang in this book. Maybe that is because I am Norwegian, but I would have prefered a list over unusual words and words made up for this book in the back.

I think this is a book that will be an interesting read in a class where the students may discuss the text afterwards. But I think the novel goes to too many lenghts to deem sex an evil thing that must be avoided at all costs, and some of the characters were a bit one dimensional. I mean, just being a guy does not meea your are about to have sex with every girl you see.


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Phoebe North
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