The Book: Pretties, by Scott Westerfeld

The Story: This is going to have little spoilers from Uglies, so if you haven’t read it yet and plan to, do yourself a favor and do not read on!

So, this book starts with Tally being pretty… and really confused. She doesn’t remember clearly what happened to her to get her here and she is just kind of going with the flow: getting dressed up, going to parties, talking really stupid.

As time passes, she starts getting a feeling that something is wrong, that she was supposed to be DOING something. From several sources she gets clues as to what that purpose was and she starts to “unfog” a little bit.

The authorities know that she is rebellious though and now she has to decide if the truth is worth risking her life over.

What I Thought: Aw, man. I wish I would have reviewed this one earlier in the week, because I don’t want to end YA-week-and-a-half on a bad note….

But this book just didn’t do it for me. At all.

I was only half sold on Uglies, but I had a gift card to spend and decided to buy this one. Dang. I wish I would have listened to my gut, because this just did not get any better.

Before I bash it, here is the positive: The series as whole deals a lot with body image and intelligence and stereotypes. How all of this is dealt with is thought provoking and kind of fun. I was reminded of Mean Girls. Remember when they cut holes in Regina Geroge’s shirts as a prank, but then everyone does it and it becomes a little fad? At one point, Tally gets this tracking bracelet so they can keep better track of her, but then all the kids get them because they are “cool.” I think that that is a pretty good representation of how fads/fashion works sometimes and I liked how it was worked in. There were quite a few little clever bits like that popped up here and there. So there’s my positive.

The first real problem was how effing annoying language is in Prettyville or whatever it is called. Hearing “bubbily” and “pretty-making” and all their other slang made me want to punch myself in the face. I know he was kind of trying to make a point about how brainless these people were, but at a certain point it just became too much.

Beyond that, I just think that this book suffered from the same flaws that Uglies had. The pacing was kind of off. I felt like there were slow, boring part and then WHAM! all of a sudden there was this huge action scene. It made the book a slow read even though it was probably only a couple hundred pages. While this is just one issue, for me it kind of ruined the book.

I felt like Tally was this pretty weak female lead. This is a whole other post, but I get totally annoyed when women (fictional or real) make their every decision based on one boy or another. I wanted Tally to be gutsy and brave because she wanted to do what was right, but it always seemed like the “right thing” was secondary to whatever the boy wanted. I kind of wanted to smack her around a little bit.

Like I’ve talked about a little bit this week, the dystopian, love triangle, female lead thing is kind of really overdone right now. I think a book has to be pretty killer to stand out in the crowd, and this one just didn’t do it.

Conclusion: I’ve heard that this series gets a bit better, but I think I’m done. Two was enough for me!

The Book: Delirium, by Lauren Oliver

The Story: Lena Holoway is born into a world that has been totally rid of love. Scientists in the past realized that love was the reason that there was hurt, pain, anger, jealousy, and passion in the world. They developed a surgery that successfully rid people of Love and left them comfortably numb.

Lena is pretty much ok with the idea. She lives with her aunt and uncle and looks forward to getting assigned a mate, and getting her surgery when she turns 17.

Ninety five days before she is due to get her surgery, she falls head over heels in love. Whoops.

She has about 3 months to figure out what to do and how to do it. In those three months she is exposed to a whole world that she didn’t know existed and to a past that she never could have imagined.

What I Thought: Let me just say right off the bat that the premise of this book is totally out there. I’m sure that in the course of this trilogy we will find out the hows and whys of how this society started, but I had a real disconnect here. I understand that Lena and her peers were going through with the surgery because that is what is expected of them, but I just can’t imagine the first generation of “no love” or whatever. People just wouldn’t go for this. I know that any dystopian book requires us in some way to just trust the author and go with the flow, but for me there never came a time where this was believable to me.

Outside of that, I thought that this book was kind of amazing. I loved, loved, loved the writing. I thought that it was gorgeous. It was lyrical without being over the top and sounded like a teenager’s thoughts without getting too angsty. I thought that the flow and the pacing were spot on and I flew through this book because I could not wait to find out what happened next.

I thought that the relationship between Alex and Lena was totally believable and I was rooting for them from the second they laid eyes on each other.

My favorite relationship was the one between Lena and Hana. I love a good teenage friendship story and this one was incredible. There was a scene toward the end that made me squirmy with happiness. I don’t want to spoil anything so I can’t tell you even a single detail of the scene, but when you read it you’ll know. I would say that that is the scene that sold the book for me. I loved these girls.

My only real, real problem here is that there’s not much originality going on. I could not help but draw about a million billion similarities between Delirium and Uglies. I mean, seriously!? They are the same story, almost to a frigging tee. It was distracting for me. And like a lot of YA out there right now, there was a kind-of love triangle. And I couldn’t help but compare Lena and Katniss and… well… you see where I’m going. I don’t even read all the YA dystopian stuff out there and I can just see that this is not much different than other stuff being published right now. I know that this is what sells, but come on. I was a little let down by this. Lauren Oliver can write her butt off so I’m hoping that through the series that she just really comes on to some great story lines that blow my mind.

Conclusion: If you are into dystopian books, you will be all about this. Keep an eye out for incredible, lyrical writing and try to forget all that other YA dystopia-fun you’ve been having lately.

The Book: Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld

The Story: YAYADN (Yet Another Young Adult Dystopian Novel)

The little “twist” here is that after you turn 16, each person is made “Pretty” through some crazy surgery.  Until then, you live as an Ugly. Tally is just a handful of days away from turning sixteen and going in for her operation when she meets Shay.  They share a birthday and a love for doing pranks and tricks and sneaking around. The difference is that Tally’s tricks are all fairly tame compared to the seriously rebellious stuff that Shay is into.

Through Shay, Tally learns a lot about what is really happening with the pretties and has to decide what she will do with her newfound knowledge.

What I Thought: You know what?  I think I’ve read more YA so far this year than I read in all of 2010.  I don’t know why, really.  I’ve been finding it more at the thrift store, I guess. Hm.

Anyway, I think that that sort of tainted my view of this book.  Another  (potential) love triangle? More dystopian? Gah.

It was alright.  It was a kind of unique idea.  I think that body issues and being “pretty” is way relevant and I really do appreciate that.  I liked that the main character was unsure and confused and flawed.

Other than that?  Meh. It was not written very well.  The pacing was just… off.  I felt like it was sloooooow then all of a sudden BAM.  No working up to that or anything….. then slowed back to a crawl…. and by the time I finished I felt like I’d read this huge tome or something and really it was a 200 page YA book… so, that’s a negative.  Besides the main character everyone was really flat and stereotypical and boring.

All that being said, I have to admit that I am interested in where this is going to go.  I saw the second in this series and picked it up…. but it has been on my TBR shelf for awhile and I’m not chomping at the bit to read it or anything.  This is all just really blah to me.

Conclusion: It’s hard to say after just one book in a series, but I think I’ll read on.  I’ll let you know!

The Book: Anthem, by Ayn Rand

The Story: This is a dystopian story about a world where the word “I” has been entirely eliminated.  Even the thought of individuality is gone and everyone goes about pretty much like drones.

One kid, Equality ###, can see the craziness in this and realizes that something is wrong, but he just can’t put his finger on it.  When he meets a girl who also has a spark in her eye, they start to illegally see each other and discuss ideas.

When they decide to run away, they make a discovery that pretty much blows their minds.

What I Thought: This was another reread for me.  I have just kind of hit a wall and feel a little too overwhelmed to take on a new story.  I read this in high school, after having read The Fountainhead and I thought it was really good.

With Hunger Games and a dozen other dystopian YA novels coming out recently, the ideas here don’t seem as shocking as they did the first time I read it.

Still, pretty good stuff.  I love the tension you start to feel for the main character.  You know that he’s on to something but the possibility of him figuring it out just seems so bleak.  The innocence in his relationship with the girl with golden hair is kind of wonderful and refreshing. And the fact that their salvation comes from books?  Awesome.

That being said, this is not one of my faves.  As in all of Ayn Rand’s books, there are all these philosophical ideas brought up that I just don’t agree with.  The last quarter of this book kind of goes into a philosophical rant, but I didn’t think that it really detracted from the story itself. The real downfall here was just the lack of… umph.  The characters were pretty flat, their world was undeveloped and unexplained and there just isn’t much connection made here.

I really, really enjoy dystopian books and I would have to say of that genre, this isn’t the worst or the best.  It’s just somewhere in the middle.

Conclusion: Not super remarkable, but a great place to start if Ayn Rand’s giant books are too much for ya.  If all you’re looking for is some good dystopian fun, 1984 or Brave New World may be a better way to turn.

The Book: Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

A Note: I don’t usually fangirl and I don’t usually buy books the day they are released.  I did both in this time around and I’m oh, so glad.  Because I love the Hunger Games series and I want you to read it too, I want to give you this warning:  While I have tried to steer clear of any Hunger Games or Catching Fire spoilers, just the synopsis may give little bits away.  If you aren’t comfortable with that, go get Hunger Games and Catching Fire, read them and then come back! Rest assured though that there are NO Mockingjay spoilers in this post, so if you’ve read the first two, you can feel comfortable proceeding from here.

The Story: Mockingjay picks up shortly after Catching Fire ended.  Katniss is a hot mess and working on getting fixed up.  The rebellion is going strong in the Districts, but the Capitol is not messing around either.  There’s a war coming and everyone is getting ready for it.  Because of her performance in the original Hunger Games and the following year, Katniss is pretty much the face of the rebellion.  President Snow is coming down hard on her and using manipulation that will get your tear ducts working. In order to protect her friends, family, and every other rebel, Katniss has to make the decision: sit and wait for something to happen or make something happen and deal with the blows as they come.  I’ll give you one guess which one she picks.

What I Thought: Suzanne Collins can effing write.  The characters, the settings, the pacing, the plot… the whole deal…. good work, Mrs. Collins.  You’ve blown me away.

While I liked the first two books in the series, I have to admit that there were parts of Catching Fire that really fell flat for me.  Most of those parts were the parts dealing with the “politics” of rebellion and I was afraid that this book was going to be chock full of that.  In a way it was, but it was just written in a better way, I feel like.  I really latched on to what was happening and found myself totally wrapped up in the whole thing.

I think that what made this book stunning was Suzanne Collins’ willingness to take real issues, strip them down and go through them one by one.  Katniss is kind of this really flawed character and I’ve read several reviews that talk about how they wish Katniss would have done this or that or whatever.  She was seventeen years old.  Seventeen year olds are impulsive and confused and gutsy.  I thought that Katniss was absolutely the real deal.

I never thought that this series was about Gale vs. Peeta… it was more about morality and where to draw the line and how to define friendships and what to do when it seems like there’s no solution.  While the Gale/Peeta question was answered in the end, for me that wasn’t the high point.  The high point was seeing these characters that we’d followed closely and learned to love making decisions that were live and death not only for them but for the whole country.  Gut-wrenching at times, yes, but incredible.

Conclusion: Read this series.  I know it’s YA.  I don’t care how old you are, this is good stuff.

The Book: The Running Man, by Richard Bachman/Stephen King

The Story: The year is 2025 and everything is kind of in shambles.  Ben Richards’ young daughter has come down with the flu and because they can’t afford to take her to the doctor, it is just getting worse and worse.  America is pretty much obsessed with reality TV that is taken up a notch- people can get severely hurt or die, but also have the chance to win money for their families at a time when jobs and money are scarce.  Ben decides that this is the way to go for his family so he goes and applies to be part of the Games.

The Game he is chosen for is called Running Man.  It is the most popular show and has the highest payout, however no one has ever survived.  The object is this:  the player is let loose in America. He gets a 12 hour head start, then he is fair game.  There are a group of men looking for him and Americans are encouraged to call in any spotting of the player.  Any confirmed spotting wins 100 dollars and any spotting that leads to a kill is worth 1,000.  The player wins 100 dollars an hour that he stays alive and if he makes it 30 days, he gets a billion dollars.  He can go anywhere in the world but has to send in two tapes every day that the Network can show on TV and can potentially give out clues to where the player is.

Ben is just this cocky, kinda smart guy and he goes into this with his goal being to get enough money for his wife and daughter to be comfortable and for his daughter to be able to go to the hospital.  He is given advice early on not to just hole up, but to run, run, run.  This is advice that he takes to heart and makes the suspense and adventure happening here totally crazy.

What I Thought: I don’t know what took me so long to read this.  I have this book that has four of Stephen King’s stories that were originally published as Richard Bachman.  The other stories I’ve read a handful of times, but I’d always just avoided Running Man.  In an attempt to clear out my basket of books I haven’t read, I decided to read this one last night. I’m glad I finally gave it a go.

What I’ve always thought was funny about The Long Walk and what I thought was funny about this one too is how ahead-of-his-time Stephen King was on calling the rise of reality TV.  Shows like Survivor and Biggest Loser and all that stuff didn’t exist at all when these stories were written, but Stephen King seemed to know that they were coming.  Weird.

Anyway, I thought that this was just alright.  Not Stephen King’s finest hour, and not his worst.  Just somewhere in the middle.  I remember reading that he wrote this full story in 72 hours though.  That in and of itself is pretty impressive.

The part I liked the most was just the bleak look at the future that was presented.  It’s funny, as we’re getting closer to 2025 to see how far off he was about some things (flying cars?  Probably  not going to happen in the next 15 years) and how close he was on others (severe, horrible pollution).  I also really got into Ben Richards’ character and although I felt like everything was stacked against him, I wanted him so badly to beat the system.  All of the stuff I liked a lot was in the first half.

The second half, for me, was where everything got kind of messy and sub-par.  It turned into a full tilt action movie pretty much and I just wasn’t impressed.  It wasn’t awful, but it just didn’t pack a punch like the first half did.  After a few pages of car chases and shooting and yadda yadda, I found myself zoning out… and then it went on for 50 more pages.  I wasn’t impressed.  I did like how it ended and thought that it was fitting, but getting there was just kind of shaky.

Conclusion: Here is really what I wanted to say my whole review: If you liked The Hunger Games, check this out.  It’s only a couple hundred pages and I know you can fit it in before Mockingjay comes out in August.  It’s such a similar story and setting that it is kind of shocking.  It is just the more “grown up” version.

The Book: The World Made By Hand, by James Howard Kunstler

The Story: This book takes place in the not-so-distant future, maybe 30 years or so.  There have been wars and a couple flu pandemics and things have fallen apart. Electricity is gone and there’s no cars or trucks.  Communication has fizzled to nothing. Pretty much, our society has been tossed back about 100 years but with the knowledge of how things could be. There is never a clear cut reason for why everything ended up like that.  The narrator hints at global warning and oil dependency, although he never comes out and says it.

The story here revolves around Robert Earle and his small community in Upstate New York.  His wife died from the flu and several years ago his son took off to see what else was out there and never returned.  Robert assumes him dead but doesn’t want to admit it.  He is just kind of struggling to get by.  He has a good hand at carpentry and makes things to barter.  He has a small garden but gets most of his food from his neighbors.

As the story goes on, several different “sides” are introduced.  There is a group of people that live near the old junk yard.  They are kind of rough around the edges and take advantage of the townspeople by charging them insane prices for things that they’ve stolen from around town anyway.  A creepy-religious group show up in the town and make themselves at home in the old high school.  Their leader is charismatic and forceful and they are trying to revive the town.  There is also a group that lives outside of town on a large farm run by a rich man.  They are doing better than most of the people in town although he works everyone that lives there like slaves.  Then there are the little group of people who still live in town and try to retain some idea of “normal.”

So I’m sure you can guess what happens here.  A series of violent and criminal events take place that that turn these sects against one another and the rest of the story is kind of this primitive culture trying to figure out how to sort things out without the law, in a place where everything has changed.

What I Thought: There is very little I love more than a dystopian/utopian/post-appocolyptic book.  I was really excited to read this one because it’s something I think about quite a bit: If all this technology that we depend so heavily on was taken from us, where would we go from there?  Interesting concept and a great thing to write a book on.

Even now, several days after reading this book, I am not really sure where I stand.  Again, I liked the idea and the first 100 or so pages where the author is setting up the premise was totally fascinating for me.

The follow-through? Not so much.  I feel like there was such potential here to make a point. Any point. Either about what got these people here or about human nature or…. just anything.  It seemed like he got so caught up in new kinds of violence that he got distracted from the point of the story. Once he hit on the idea of justice being carried out without a justice system, he was totally off on a bunny trail and he didn’t ever quite make it back.

To be fair, there were great scenes here and great ideas presented, it just lacked “umph.”  There was no heart behind it.  It seemed like someone approached the author at a party and said “Oh, I have this idea for a book…” and so the author took it and ran with it without thinking it through to the end or really caring about the premise.  The writing was engaging and the characters were pretty believable.  Of course after everything goes bad, there are these people who start to take advantage of the situation, of course there are religious nut-bags, of course some people are as lost and confused as Robert.  The people and situations did ring true, it was only with the story and resolution (or lack thereof) that there were real problems.

Or maybe I’m wrong and all this is leading up to a sequel? That would be the only way that the book as a whole makes any sense…

*Just wanted to edit to add that I just did some Googling and found out that the sequel for this book is called The Witch of Hebron and should be released during the fall of this year. Hm. Who knew?

Conclusion: A read that will make you think for the first 100 pages and make you shake your head for the rest. For fans of this genre, I’d say it’s worth a read if only for a different kind of take on things.  Also, if you are a film director/producer/anything, make this into a movie, because I have a feeling that it’d be pretty awesome.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry

Nothing gets me quite like a good dystopian book.  I love them.  The Giver was, I’m sure, the first book that I read that was set in another version of the future, and I was in love with it.

The thing that Lois Lowry did perfectly was give us just enough information about Jonas’ world to make us able to see it, but not enough to spell out what was going on.  Like in Jaws, how they didn’t show the shark until about halfway through, you really are left guessing through the majority of this book, and I think that that is what leads to such appeal.  I remember, in middle school, this being the absolute “it” book to read.  Everyone was crazy about it.  I think it is because of the guesswork that the author makes the reader use, along with the character of Jonas.  It was impossible not to put yourself in his shoes and live through what he was going through.  Just an incredibly written children’s book.

Just a side not, when I saw Pleasantville (the movie with Spiderman before he was Spiderman) this is the first thing I thought of.  I kept thinking about how the kids that were transported into the black & white tv-world were opening everyone’s eyes in the same way that the giver opens Jonas’ eyes, even down to having the flowers change color and so on. I always relate these two things in my  mind now.

For more information on Flashback Fridays, head over here.  If you decide to do your own Flashback, come back here and comment with a link to your blog so everyone can see it!