YA Friday: Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

Title: Struck
Author: Jennifer Bosworth
Genre: YA, post-apocalyptic, science fiction
Publisher: Farrar, Strous, and Giraux, 2012
Source: Library
Read for: Fun

Mia Price is a lightning addict -- the more she is struck, the more she craves the feeling. However, when strange events begin to happen around her, her family moves to Los Angeles, a place where lightning only rarely strikes. Unfortunately, this leads them straight into the path of a devastating earthquake. Now, two different cults are vying for Mia's attention and the power they believe she holds, a mysterious (and cute) stranger is following her around, and her body is sensing that there is a storm in the air.

I had high hopes for Struck. I'd heard great things about the book. I was also excited to read a book set in Los Angeles, where I will be moving in a few days (eep!). Meeting Jennifer Bosworth at Fierce Reads further made me excited to read this book. However, Struck did not pull together for me, and I was disappointed in the novel.

The one thing that is done superbly in this novel is the atmosphere. From the opening pages, there is a sense of anticipation and stress. Food is scarce after the earthquake. Violence is rampant. Mia's mother is experiencing some kind of post-traumatic stress experience that needs to be medically treated, meaning that Mia has to find medication for her on the black market. All the tension and anticipation was present at the beginning of the book, and I felt that my expectations were going to be delivered.

However, shortly after this, Mia meets a boy named Jeremy -- a boy that seems strangely familiar and that seems to be popping up everywhere. Cue the insta-love. Mia and Jeremy have a number of bizarre experiences that seem to link them together, and she describes his physical attractiveness, but the suddenness of their relationship seemed forced and shallow to me. By the end of the book, it seemed to take center-stage in the story. This seemed out of place because so much of the book focused on the apocalyptic events and the different forces pulling on Mia -- and those elements were much more interesting and believable. Basically, the romance left me unconvinced and lukewarm.

I was also disappointed in the interplay between the two cults. The two religions are essentially direct counterpoints of each other -- one dresses all in white, the other all in black; one professes to follow the will of God while the other uses more occult practices such as Tarot cards. For much of the book, they both seem evil, or at the very least not having pure intentions to work with Mia. The fact that these two groups were in opposition and fighting over Mia was believable. However, at the very end (this could be seen as a vague SPOILER so read with caution), one of the groups was suddenly shown to be "the good guys." This didn't seem believable to me because it was added onto the end almost like an afterthought. The "good" group wasn't gradually shown as more than what they seemed; they were just suddenly proven to not be evil.

I also struggled with the pacing. At the beginning, as I mentioned before, everything was tight and tense. However, portions of the middle of the book were loose and slow moving, meandering through plot points that seemed insignificant or drawn out. I think if plot events had been more tightly connected, the story would have played out more smoothly, despite the other flaws.

The book just didn't feel cohesive to me. The premise was interesting and the beginning was promising, but for me, Struck did not deliver.

2 stars

Warnings: some violence, thematic situations, language, mild sexuality

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Title: The Age of Miracles
Author: Karen Thompson Walker
Genre: Literary fiction, speculative fiction
Publisher: Random House, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Read for: Review

The world has never stopped turning -- but for Julia, an eleven-year-old living in Southern California, it does begin to slow down, slowly at first, but later stretching into drastically longer days. At first panic breaks through the world as animals and crops fail. Julia's mother stocks up on canned food. Certain of her neighbors decide to stay on "real time," living their lives with the waxing and waning light, while the country decides to stick with "clock time," lending an air of unpredictability to whether or not the sun will be out or the world will be steeped in darkness. However, the greatest changes come not from the slowing of the earth and its effect on the inhabitants but instead from the changes that occur in Julia's life.

The Age of Miracles, while about an adolescent, is not a young adult novel, in my opinion. While the story it weaves is about a young adult, it is told with an air of retrospection, with the knowledge and wisdom that adulthood brought to Julia's reminiscences.

In many ways, The Age of Miracles is a phenomenal book. The slowly evolving changes to the world's chemistry are heartbreaking and written beautifully. We see the frightening changes through a child's wide eyes -- the death of birds, no longer able to calibrate themselves to the turn of the earth; the fear of adults, behaving ruthlessly to people who haven't hurt them; the sudden, inescapable loss of certainty. Julia's days stretch longer and longer, eventually turning into 72 hours of sunlight, when the sun's power is destructive and must be avoided, before the earth is submerged into night for a subsequent 72 hours. The idea of the earth slowing was completely unique to me -- most post-apocalyptic stories are more extreme, involving nuclear warfare, wide-spread disease and hunger, or my personal favorite, zombie attacks. However, the slow deceleration of the earth offers just as much confusion and change as any more dramatic catastrophe, and The Age of Miracles paints that image with beauty and sensitivity.

Amidst the earth's changes, Julia is going through the changes that are characteristic of adolescence. She struggles with her body, which isn't changing as fast as some of her classmates. She struggles with changing friendships, losing her best friend to another girl. She struggles with the reality of her parents' marriage, which isn't the fairy tale she once perceived it to be. And, of course, she struggles with her feelings for the quiet Seth Moreno, a boy she doesn't know well but to whom she feels a connection and attraction.

At times, The Age of Miracles left me feeling depressed. There is a tone of quiet desperation throughout the novel, a sense that the issue is not going to improve but that the world is definitely in decline. One aspect of the story, one that I won't reveal because it was the sweetest surprise for me, was so heartrending, beautiful, and tragic that I couldn't help being moved by it, despite the sadness that at times seemed to overwhelm the book.

For a post-apocalyptic story that is more contemplative than most, wrapped up in a coming of age tale, The Age of Miracles will surely satisfy.

4 stars

Warnings: a few instances of strong profanity, some discussion of affairs and sensuality, and some mild violence

YA Friday: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Title: Fever
Author: Lauren DeStefano
Series: The Chemical Garden #2
Genre: Dystopian, post-apocalyptic, YA
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2012
Source: Library
Read for: fun

**SPOILERS** for Book 1, Wither, are inevitable.

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped from Vaughan, and they are out in the world, free, for better or worse -- for a couple of hours. After stumbling on a twisted circus, Rhine and Gabriel find a whole new brand of captivity -- that of the scarlet districts, where dying girls exist only to bring momentary pleasure to a dying race. Gabriel, raised in the comfort of Vaughan's mansion, begins to question Rhine's decision to "escape" -- and Rhine too wonders if the reason she left, to find her brother, Rowan, has long since become beyond her reach.

I never realized how very dark and dismal this series was until my sister picked it up off the couch and began reading a paragraph out loud. For some reason, hearing the words somewhere other than my own mind was pretty shocking. However, it wasn't just the experience of hearing the words out loud -- Fever is definitely darker than Wither. 


While Housemaster Vaughan's totalitarian rule and creepy experiments were horrific, the drugged, hazy existence of the circus is also hellish. The ringmaster, as it were, is Madame, a woman who names all the girls that find her after colors and puts them in their respective tents. The girls have children, of course, and one of these is the deformed Maddie, who is rejected by Madame but who seems to know some secrets about the past. Ultimately, it is Maddie who help Rhine and Gabriel the most as they seek to escape the circus. And while the circus is probably the most twisted step on their journey, the book travels through several other areas before its shattering conclusion, all the while with Vaughan pursuing Gabriel and Rhine. The plot moved more quickly in Fever than in Wither, with more key events occurring. While I couldn't put Wither down, either, I definitely enjoyed the faster pace in Fever.


The character development was somewhat lacking for me. While Rhine is having new and dangerous experiences, she doesn't really change as a person. She still doggedly seeks after the same principles and goals. While many of these are good and worthwhile, I would expect her to develop more after all she experiences. Gabriel continues to be the quiet, somewhat blank presence he was in Wither -- sweet, romantic, but not especially interesting. He does have some dark moments in Fever, such as recovering from addiction to the drug Madame fed him in the circus, and flashes of annoyance at Rhine for convincing him to leave the relative comfort of the mansion, but overall he is muted without much change or personality. The only character that continues to shift and change is Cecily, Linden's youngest bride. Cecily can be foolish and is overly trusting of Vaughan, to the point of betraying Rhine multiple times, but as the book continues she finds her preconceptions challenged. I don't think she will ever truly move beyond her desire to be a bride and her level of comfort with what Rhine saw as imprisonment, but she definitely reveals new sides to her personality as Fever progresses.

DeStefano's writing continues to be lush and descriptive, with poignant images of both beauty and decay illustrating the strange worlds the characters inhabit. Occasionally, if I looked carefully at a metaphor or phrase, there were certain issues that didn't quite mesh. I should have written down examples, but unfortunately I already returned the book to the library. However, for the most part, the writing was just as powerful as it was in Wither. I think the real strength of this series is the disturbing, fantastical atmosphere DeStefano creates, and I think her most powerful tool is her ability to create powerful imagery, rather than characters or plot.

Fever is a dark, quick-paced sequel to Wither. While the characters do not seem to develop, instead simply struggling to achieve their goals, the pace is faster and many events transpire, leading Rhine to learn additional secrets about her world and the dark basement of Housemaster Vaughan. I am curious to see where the conclusion will lead.

3.5 stars

Warnings: Dark thematic material (including prostitution), drug use, violence, some language

YA Friday: Pure by Julianna Baggott

Title: Pure
Author: Julianna Baggott
Series: Pure #1
Genre: YA, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, science fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Read for: Review

Years ago, the Detonations restructured the face of the world. Most died, and those who didn't were changed forever; fused to the objects they were holding when the Detonations occurred. Everyone, that is, except the people in the Dome, who sent them a message saying that some day they would come out and help them. The people of the world have held to that hope, but as food gets harder and harder to find and the ramshackle government outside the Dome gets more and more power-hungry, the world seems as if it is going to fly apart. Pressia Belze is trying to escape from her obligation to join the OSR now that she is sixteen. Partridge Willux is trying to escape from the Dome once he finds out that he has been lied to most of his life. Together, Pressia and Partridge make a shocking discovery that could change the lives of everyone in both their worlds.

I should mention that this book isn't officially considered to be YA. The protagonists are in their teens, but this book is written in a slightly more mature style and deals with some disturbing concepts. I'm classifying it as YA because most of the people I know of who have read it are YA readers. Okay, end disclaimer.

I had mixed reactions to Pure. For a long time, I found the book difficult to become involved with. For one thing, it is grotesque. The mutations that affect everyone outside the Dome are disturbing, the substance of nightmares, and while it is definitely interesting to read about them, it isn't necessarily enjoyable. I was also somewhat bothered by the fact that some of those mutations weren't scientifically sound. Some of them were; objects being fused to people's limbs, for example, and maybe people becoming fused together. However, I have my doubts about people becoming fused with machines and functioning as part of the machines, as well as the people that became fused to rocks and animals. Maybe it was possible, but it was pretty difficult for me to suspend my disbelief.

The book is also very long, taking many chapters before any action begins to take place. I understand that it was important to build the world -- it is a unique world with many different features. However, my attention lagged for the first two-thirds of the book.

Fortunately, once things started happening, I was immediately more invested in the book. There is a tangle of complicated relationships and mysteries and I was fascinated to see how they all unraveled. The unexpected twists were perfectly constructed, weaving effortlessly into the world Baggott spent so many pages introducing at the beginning of the book. At first grudgingly, I found myself really enjoying the story by the end, and I was moved by the fight for life and freedom displayed by the characters.

There is also a subtle beauty hovering around the ashes and the grotesque mutations of the book. Despite her malformed hand, Pressia creates beautiful mechanical butterflies and trades them for food. Despite the ugly secrets in Partridge's past, it is revealed to him in a fairytale. And despite the pressure to survive and take what you can get, a beautiful relationship develops that isn't the central focus of the book, but that is sweet and touching.

So, will I continue in this series? I think I might give the second book a chance. While Pure wasn't my favorite book, it certainly shows promise, and I am curious to know what will happen to the characters in the next installment.

3.25 stars

Warnings: Violence, talk of an affair

YA Friday: The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I am super disgruntled because I spent hours today working on a flyer to get toy and food donations for the crisis nursery I volunteer at, only to be shot down because it is "solicitation." So, I will write a review about zombies.

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Author: Carrie Ryan

Genre: YA, post-apocalypse/zombie apocalypse

Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009

Source: Library

Mary is used to her life surrounded by The Unconsecrated. She has heard their moans as a backdrop to her entire life, lived every moment encircled by the powerful fence that keeps her village safe. However, Mary starts to wonder if the Sisterhood, the religious and protective force of the village, has been keeping secrets - secrets like other settlements beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth, and just how the Unconsecrated came in the first place. As she learns more and more, Mary must decide if she can be content with the life she's been dealt or if she will be driven to seek out the world beyond the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

This book had me seriously behind in homework. I started reading it while waiting in line for the bus one morning, only to have to keep promising myself chapter after chapter that "this is the last one." I ended up reading all four hours of my bus drive that day. Carrie Ryan knows how to build suspense. I couldn't stop reading until my questions were answered, but as soon as they were, another would be presented. I was swept into Mary's dark world, discovering with her the secrets that the Sisterhood had kept hidden.

Romance was a fairly heavy aspect of this book, as each year there is a festival where young adults choose a spouse to keep the village populated. An epidemic wiped out most of the people of child-bearing age, so the pressure is especially high. However, Mary is confused as Harry seeks her out as his companion, but his brother Travis - who has already selected his own girl to court - confides in and develops a relationship with Mary. The angst was high throughout the book, and the added element of imminent death by zombie-bite only elevated it. Everything played out to a gut-wrenching climax.

As far as the "scary factor" goes, I was a bit disappointed. I like a decent scare as long as it isn't too bloody or evil, and while the plot was intense, I never really felt spooked. I had no trouble going to sleep at night. It's not that I don't find zombies frightening, either - I had at least two different nightmares about I Am Legend. However, in this book the people were much more awful than the zombies, who actually seemed pretty dumb and easy to fend off except for the fact that there were practically infinite numbers of them. It was still a powerful and emotional story, but I would have liked to be kept up a bit more. The Unconsecrated just weren't quite vivid enough in my mind.

I was also a little disappointed in the fact that some of my questions weren't answered. Granted, this is a trilogy, so things might become clear later on. However, I know that the next books follow different characters - they aren't about Mary, at least not directly. I was left wondering why "The Fast One" was better than the other zombies, and I also didn't find out how the zombies got there in the first place. Neither of these were absolutely essential to the plot, but I felt a little cheated that they were raised multiple times and never answered.

While the scares weren't always powerful, the emotions were. I felt in tune with what Mary was going through, with her conflicting desires for love, acceptance, and answers. At times, her absolute need to get to the ocean was perplexing to me, but when I remembered my own passion for ideals as a teenager, it made perfect sense. Don't get me wrong, I still have ideals that I care passionately about, but when I was sixteen, they were the only thing in the world. I would never have allowed pragmatism to get in the way of pursuing that dream, and neither does Mary. I think adults may see her as a selfish character, sacrificing everything to get what she wants, but I think teens may identify with her single-minded passion for escape and a better world.

I also have to add in this little (mostly unrelated) thought I had while I was reading this book. A year and a half or so ago, I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. There are no zombies in The Road, but there are people who (slight spoiler) eat other people, and have lost their humanity. The zombies in The Forest of Hands and Teeth also eat people and have completely lost their humanity. The only difference is that the characters in The Road still look human, while the zombies in The Forest of Hands and Teeth are visibly monsters. Anyway, thanks for indulging that brief aside.

This was definitely a powerful book, and I am looking forward to reading the remainder of the series (finally, a series I started when it was already finished!). It isn't my normal cup of tea, but certainly left me thinking. If you are looking for something a little darker or love reading about the zombie apocalypse, this is for you.

3.75 - I can't quite give it a four, but it was much better than a three. *Joys of subjective blogging*

Warnings for the sensitive reader: Violence. Scary zombies. Making out.