Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Synopsis (From The Waterstone's Website)

Tally lives in a world where your sixteenth birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation which erases all your flaws, transforming you from an 'Ugly' into a 'Pretty'. She is on the eve of this important event, and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time.
But then she meets Shay, who is also fifteen - but with a very different outlook on life. Shay isn't sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to a community in the forest - the Rusty Ruins - where Uglies go to escape ' turning'. Tally won't be persuaded to join her, as this would involve sacrificing everything she's ever wanted for a lot of uncertainty. When she is taken in for questioning on her birthday, however, Tally gets sent to the Ruins anyway - against her will.The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she could ever imagine: find her friend Shay and turn her in, or never turn Pretty at all. What she discovers in the Ruins reveals that there is nothing 'pretty' about the transformations...And the choice Tally makes will change her world forever.

What I Have to Say
  
I've fallen completely in love with this series. It just feels so real. All of the new ideas that Westerfeld has come  up with have a basis in today's society. The whole "Size Zero" thing that we have today seems like it could really grow into the "Pretty" society that Westerfeld describes.

But I think the scariest thing about it is that the logic behind it is understandable. I'm not saying that it would be good, just that you can see where they're coming from. Mostly, it's the making people Pretty so that everyone looks the same thing. It's true that a lot of conflict comes from differences in appearance and one way to stop those arguments would be to somehow make everyone the same.

I think that's the way to make a good realistic "Utopian" society. Start with one thing that could make the world a better place and then find all the problems with it.

Secrets also tend to be good, 'cause they give a mystery into the plot. It's especially so because when you see a Utopia you instantly start looking for underlying problems.

Anyway, I think this is a really, really interesting story world and I'm looking forward to reading more of it.

In a few weeks they'll be another review for the next book in the series. In the mean time, I really think that you all should get Uglies, because it's just an amazing book. 

Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa

Synopsis (From Julie Kagawa's Official Website)

My name—my True Name—is Ashallayn'darkmyr Tallyn.

I am the last remaining son of Mab, Queen of the Unseelie Court. And I am dead to her.

My fall began, as many stories do, with a girl… 

What I Have to Say

I'm splitting this section into two parts so as to give both the book and the series justice whilst not spoiling anyone who hasn't read the previous books. If you don't want any of the previous books in the series please don't read the section about Iron Knight.

About the Iron Fey series in General

Julie Kagawa is one of my favourite authors. I will buy everyone book she writes without question (or even stopping to read the blurb). The Iron Fey series is a really original but still pretty classic fey story. She intertwines the normal rules of Faerie with this new idea of combining fey creatures with iron to show the human effect on Faerie. Then she goes to show how damaging this is to the original fey. 

I love reading about fey. I love the stories people are finding to tell about them. But Kagawa takes it even further by finding something new that she can create by basing her iron fey on the age of technology. Her inventions range from powerful creatures such as Iron Horse, Glitch and Virus to adorable little things like packrats and gremlins (even if the latter is a bit of a nuisance xD). 

So not only has Kagawa described in wonderful detail her interpretation of the land of Faerie, she's also made it very original and interesting to read. 

If you haven't read the other books in the series I strongly recommend you read them before reading the rest of my review. It's your choice, of course, but they're amazing and you should read them :p. You can get them all off Amazon or from a decent bookshop (Order them from your local independent bookshop!!! They need the profit. Amazon will survive without your money!!!!)  

About Iron Knight in Particular (contains spoilers for previous books in the series) 

I think that Iron Knight is my favourite of the Iron Fey series. First of all because it contains Ash who I absolutely love, even if he's gone soft since falling for Megan. He's change a lot from his hard, cold, unseelie self, but there's still traces of the ice prince in there as well as flashbacks of him in his prime. I like evil guys!! I can't help it!!! 

I also really love him and Puck together. I love the way they bicker and threaten each other even though they kind of like each other really. They also make a really good team, which goes some way to show what they were like before their feud got in the way. 

All that said, I think the thing that made me love the book so much more from the rest of the series (which I didn't even think was possible before I read it) was the whole Arthurian feel it had about it. It was set out as a traditional Knight's tale: a group of companions setting out to face challenges together with the purpose of gaining the power to go back to the side of their leaders one True Love. You can imagine that it could big King Arthur trying to get back to Guinevere. Or you could if Arthur was an unseelie fey who'll throw ice daggers at anyone who annoyed him anyway xD. 

The book is also so emotional. You go through the trials that Ash faces with him and experience what he has to give up in the hope of being able to be with Megan again. 

I strongly recommend the whole of the Iron Fey series. 

 

 

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Synopsis (from the Watersones Website)

  'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins. This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...

What I Have to Say 

Dark Fantasy has really brought a lot of new plots into the world. Nowadays there are Werewolf romances and Faery romances and way, way too many Vampire Romances. But the one thing that was the genre was really missing was a good zombie romance. Now Warm Bodies has filled the gap in the market. Marion has characterised R so well that you want him to succeed so badly. It's so good at making you feel things that you don't expect to. 

It's such a reversal of the normal zombie stories that it brings a freshness that was really needed in Zombie stories. 

And it's awesome to tell people that you're reading a zombie romance xD 

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Synopsis (From the Waterstones Website)

 Every November, the Scorpio Races are run beneath the chalk cliffs of Skarmouth. Thousands gather to watch the horses and the sea that washes the blood from the sand. The mounts are capaill uisce: savage water horses. There are no horses more beautiful, more fearless, more deadly. To race them can be suicide but the danger is irresistible.

What I Have to Say 

I've loved absolutely everything that Stiefvater has written so far. She has a way with words that few authors have. The Scorpio Races is something really special. It contains in it a few pieces of writing that you just have to read aloud and share with anyone who'll listen. That includes you so listen up: 

"This last exclamation is because we've just got to a high point where we can see the ocean and the area around us. The land is perilous, low cliffs, cracked and cut deeply into the green pasture and then suddenly empty air and then pasture again. Below us and beyond us, the sea is whitecaps and foam and black rocks like teeth. A busy sea." 

This is such a wonderful piece of description of the sea, a central part of the plot. It shows its beauty and it's danger without slowing down the pace or being extraneous. 

I really, really loved every moment and every component of this book so I highly recommend it. 

Fiktshun's Soul Screamers Reading Challenge: My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent

 

 Synopsis (From the Waterstone's Website)

Being a teenager just got much more complicated. There is something very wrong with Kaylee Cavanaugh: she senses when someone near her is about to die. And when that happens, a force beyond her control compels her to scream bloody murder. Literally. Kaylee just wants to enjoy having caught the attention of the hottest guy in school. But a normal date is hard to come by when Nash seems to know more about the need to scream than she does. And when classmates start dropping dead for no apparent reason, only Kaylee knows who'll be next.



What I Have To Say

 The thing I think I love most about this book is how realistic the characters are. I like how damaged Kaylee is. Here's a main character who's been struggling with a  condition which she doesn't know anything about and as a result is being treated for mental health issues. She doesn't just live out a normal existence until one day she finds out that she has special powers. No, Kaylee has known that there's something different about her for her entire life and has suffered the consequences of this, with noticeable side affects. 

And what's more, she doesn't hide that much of her problems from those around her. Although, there aren't many people to hide if from and she does have to conceal some stuff once she finds out what is actually different about her. But mostly this is something that can't be hidden from those close to her (the screaming is a bit too much of a loud reaction to be able to hide). And because of this Kaylee has suffered. She's been institutionalised and strapped down with padded straps and she has the scars to prove it! 


It's just too common these days for characters to go through hell and then just walk away unscathed. Not that it's that much of a bad thing in a book. I think most people can enjoy books that don't have realistic features of trauma. But it's really good to get a book where there are characters who do have that kind of depth and reaction. 

Another thing I like is that all of this has happened in the past. I think a lot of authors feel that if something dramatic happens it has to be included in the book. It's good to have a story where they refer to it when we haven't seen it happen. And in such little ways too. Ways like just having the character shaken and afraid from someone holding her wrist. 


So I think this is the thing that I'm taking away from this book. The characters. It's really good depth. Rachel Vincent is an amazing writer and she writes Kaylee well. 

Next month I'll mention whether or not My Soul to Save keeps up this realism. Don't let me forget! 

Affinity by Sarah Waters

Synopsis (from the Waterstones Website )

Now you know why you are drawn to me - why your flesh comes creeping to mine, and what it comes for. Let it creep. From the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud, or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you'll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic.

What I Have to Say 

 I'm not a big fan of ghost stories. I get scared too easily and then can't turn off the lights at night. It was a problem as a kid, but now I can just amuse myself until the sun comes up and then sleep then. 

Insomnia has brought me a lot of things, one of them being the ability to read ghost stories without it being a problem. And I'm glad, because if I still couldn't read ghost stories, I'd never have found the beautiful writing of Sarah Waters. 

It can get really spooky in parts but in a good way and you really feel for the characters. So if you like lyrical prose and ghost stories then this book is for you.  

And this is the last of my catch up posts. From now on it's all books that I've read since making this blog! Hope you've enjoyed my posts so far and continue to do so in the future. Leave a comment! :) 

City of Masks by Mary Hoffman

Synopsis (from amazon.co.uk)

Set in Talia, a parallel world very similar to 16th-century Italy, the narrative follows Lucien, who in our world is very ill. Given a marbled notebook to use as a diary, the notebook is the unexpected means that transports Lucien to this dangerous new world; a world that thrills to the delight of political intrigue and where a life can be snuffed out with a flash of a merlino blade.

 What I Have to Say 

This is the first book in the wonderful Stravaganza series by Mary Hoffman. I first read this book when I was pretty young. I fell in love instantly with both the world that she had created and with the city of Venice, though I fear that when I do finally get to Venice (which should be soon \o/) it will be a disappointment in comparison to the beautiful city of Bellezza that Hoffman describes.  I just love the world she's created too much.

The series is still going and the next book in the series is due to come out this year. Go and check it out. There's time to read the books so far before the next one comes out.