Book Review -- Michael Vey the Prisoner of Cell 25

Title: Michael Vey the Prisoner of Cell 25
Autor: Richard Paul Evans
Genre: YA sci-fi
Pages: Hardback, 326
Published: 2011
Opening Lines: "'Have you found the last two?' The voice on the phone was angry and coarse, like the sound of car tires over broken glass."

"To everyone at Meridian High School, Michael Vey is just your average, ordinary fourteen-year-old. But Michael is anything but ordinary -- in fact, he is electric.

"When Michael's best friends, Ostin Liss and cheerleader Taylor Ridley, make an accidental discovery, the three of them learn that there are other kids with similar powers -- and that someone, or something, is hunting them.

"After Michael's mother is kidnapped, Michael will have to reply on his wits, his unique power, and his friends to combat the hunters, free his mother, an save the others."

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts: I honestly hesitated reading this book. While browsing the books in our local Hastings, my husband and I were stalked by an author at her book signing. One thing you need to know about me, I am an intensely private person. I don't mind people saying "hi" or something similar. I hate it when store employees follow me around constantly asking if I need anything; people butting into a conversation I am having with someone on the assumption I am talk to them as well; random people watching over my shoulder and pestering me; etc. Yes, I have O.C.D. (not joking here, people). Yes, I have a tendency to be over-sensitive, but it just bugs the hell out of me. Anyways, after this lady continued to follow us and chatter on and on and on and on . . . She picked up the book and shoved it in my hands. She was insistent on the fact that I read the first two pages. And, unfortunately, at that point I didn't feel as though I had an option. I glanced at the first few pages enough to make some remark concerning the book. However, after finally losing her, I actually was curious about the book. So, I got online to check it out from our library. They didn't have it. I ILLed it, but was told the book was too new; therefore, they would not allow an ILL. This weekend, I got an e-mail stating that the book came in, but I only had it until the 13th (my birthday ^_~). With that in mind, I put down Pale Demon and started this yesterday.

Starting out, I really wanted to hate the book. I really, really wanted to hate the book. And through my persistence, I wasn't too fond of the book to begin with; however, I plowed ahead, bound and determined to finish this book! And, surprisingly enough, I actually ended up enjoying a vast majority of it.

The book starts out following Michael Vey through a few days/weeks in high school. After being sent to detention for being a victim of bullying, Michael unleashes a massive electric bolt into his bullies while they try to "pants" him. Upon witnessing the act, Taylor confronts Michael. And, of course, this leads into a series of adventures and occurrence, which shape the plot of the book. Unfortunately, I cannot go into much detail about it without giving the story away.

At first, I found the author's writing style to be juvenile. Even though the book is mostly in first person POV and written for teenagers, I felt that the author found the intended audience to be a little dumb. It was frustrating, to say the least. However, the story ended up picking up and grabbing my attention. In addition, when the POV changes and the author is writing in a third person omniscient/omnipresent POV, I felt that it was pretty seamless. I didn't feel any hangs up or felt that the book failed. Honestly, I liked that POV better.

Another thing about voice and POV, I noticed that Michael's tone changes once in the facility in California. I wondered if the author intended this to show Michael's change in behavior and attitude. If so, the author did a good job. After the things that he sees and goes through, Michael was forced to grow up.

Even though the bullying bothered me at the start of the book, the author did a good job handling it later in the book. Looking into the lives of past bullies, it is obvious that this is their way of controlling their out of control life. While that is not always the case, I was glad to see that the author took that into account.

And, because I always do, here is an editing hangup:

"Taylor, McKenna, Abigail, and Taylor . . ."

Hmm . . . That's a little awkward. Also, there is another point that Michael is standing and in next sentence he is getting up from sitting in a chair.

Anyways, on the whole I enjoyed the book. It was a fast read and the characters were funny (although definitely stereotyped).


Rating:
Currently: Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
Current Pages: 25504
Current Progress:

71/50 books

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the follow:

• Grab your current read
• Opening toli a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Share Title & Author, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Here's mine (it's more than two sentences *sheepish grin*):

"You and your mother?" Detective Pearson asked
I nodded. "Yeah. My friend Ostin was with us, but he went back inside to get his jacket."

Michael Vey the Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans, 115

2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge

After a year of acquiring books from friends and picking some up on my various outings to the bookstore, I have built myself a rather large TBR pile. Honestly, some of them I might never read (most of which I tried to read, but had to end up abandoning), but I really want to make a dent in them in 2012. This reading challenge could not come at a better time, especially after a conversation with my husband last night . . . In which I stated I wanted to have a month dedicated to reading the books in my TBR pile. So, with a challenge to put wind in my sails, I am attacking my large pile of books clogging my book case. If you're interesting, here is the info:

Challenge guidelines:

• This challenge will run from Jan 1, 2012 - Dec 31, 2012.
• As we would like to see quality reviews linked up to our monthly wrap-ups, only bloggers can enter. Sorry about that!
• Any genre, length or format of book counts, as long as it is a book that's been sitting on your shelf for some time now. Only books released in 2011 and earlier! NO ARCs and 2012 fresh-off-the-press releases allowed!
  
• You can list your books in advance or just put them in a wrap-up post. If you list them, feel free to change them as the mood takes you.
• When you sign up in the linky, put the direct link to your post about joining the 2012 TBR PILE Reading Challenge (You need to include the info + host list + challenge button. You can also grab the button code and add it to your sidebar!)
  
• You can move up levels, but no moving down.
• Sign-ups will be open until Dec 15, 2012, so feel free to join at any time throughout the year.
• At the end of each month one of the hosts will post a wrap-up. Every wrap-up will have it's unique theme, a mini-challenge, a giveaway and place for you to link up your reviews from this month. For each review you link up, you will get one entry in a drawing of one book of choice from Book Depository. It's open to INTERNATIONALS. For participating in the mini-challenge you will get +1 entry.
  
• If you miss a wrap-up post + giveaway, you can link up your reviews next month. Do not, however, try to link up one review twice - we will be checking ;)
• December is a wrap-up for the whole year. All the book reviews you linked up January-November + the ones you'll link up in December will be entered into a HUGE giveaway - 12 books, 12 winners, INTERNATIONAL.
• You don't have to follow all the hosts to join the challenge, but you do have to follow all of us to be entered in giveaways!

If you're interesting in joining me in this challenge, head over to Evie's page, Bookish, for more details and the linky for sign-up!

Theme Song Saturday (10)

Welcome to Theme Song Saturdays, a new weekly meme, hosted by yours truly, in which we share our love of music and books! Since I love books and music, this meme is for fun to try to incorporate those two loves! Whenever I read a book, a certain song -- kind of like a soundtrack or theme song -- plays through my head.

Want to know how to play? Head over to this post to read the rules and get the code.

Here's my song for this week:

Highway to Hell by AC/DC lends itself perfectly fto Pale Demon. A cross country car trip with a pixy, living vampire, and elf is a disaster waiting to happen. After avoiding assassins shooting death spells at the car on I-70 into St. Luis is proof!

What's your pick this week? Leave a comment with the link to your song ^_^

Follow Fridayfollow

Follow My Book Blog Friday is hosted by Rachel at Parajunkee's View and Alison at Alison Can Read. The point is to follow as many book blog as you can and make new friends! As part of the adventure, she gives a weekly question.

Here's the questions for this week:

Q: What is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to books? Maybe you don’t like love triangles or thin plots? Tell us about it!

EDITING! I understand if the writer doesn't have proper spelling or grammar. Those things happen on a regular basis. My issue is when that makes it into a published book. One or two typos are forgivable; however, much more than that is a big deal breaker for me. To be blunt (as if I wasn't already ^_~), this also includes consistency. If you're going to spell a word one way (even if it is wrong), fine. But do that throughout the book. I loath it when I see the same word spelled different ways in every paragraph! How did that make it through editing?

After working for an epic-fail of a University newspaper, I am very willing to extend people some grace. However, if you're working for a professional company and editing books that will be seen by many people, DO YOUR JOB! I cannot say this enough: reread, reread, reread! Reread it until your eyes are crossed and you know it by heart. After that's done, DO IT AGAIN!

Secondly, the Deus Ex Machina. If you have to use it, your book is an epic failure!

A more detailed list of everything I hate in YA novels is in my Twilight rant ^_~

Business

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already the first of December! I find myself looking around and wondering where the year went. It has been a crazy ride, but all of you made it worth it. Thanks!

Now, onto the business . . . After a lot of thought, I've decided to go back to Blogger's commenting system. While I really love a lot of the features Disqus has to offer, I cannot find a way for the commenting to show with my current blog editor. So, from now on, I will reply to comments in thread. That means that you will have to subscribe to the comments in order to receive response. I find that it can be a little annoying; however, it's nice to see what everyone else has to say about a post you have responded to.

With that, Disqus is an awesome tool to use for commenting! I have nothing but love and fond feelings for it ^_~

If you notice things moving around and others harder to access within the next day or so, I'm working on reorganizing my blog. The layout is staying, but I'm trying to make things a little more accessible to my readers and authors. Just hang in there, things will be running smoothly in a day or so!

Book Review -- The Forest of Hands and Teeth

Title: The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Author: Carrie Ryan
Genre: YA post-apocalyptic
Pages: Oversize paperback, 308
Published: 2009
Opening Lines: "My mother used to tell me about the ocean. She said there was a place where there was nothing but water as far as you could see and that it was always moving, rushing toward you and then away."

"In Mary's world, there are simple truths.

"The Sisterhood always knows best.

"The Guardians will protect and serve.
The Unconsecrated will never relent.

"And you must always mind the fences that surrounds the village. The fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.

"But slowly, Mary's truths are failing her. She's learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. and, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.

"Now she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?"

~ Jacket copy

Thoughts: I have been picking this book up since it was published. I still am unsure why it never ended up in my bag of books I purchased from the book store. However, after seeing it popping up all over the book blogging community, I decided to check out our local library. As I'm sure it is the same for all of you, nearing Christmas cash is a little tight, so no more book book purchases for a bit . . . :'(

Anyways . . . Reading the back, I never suspected that the Unconsecrated referred to zombies. The book struck me as a something akin to The Village. Boy was I wrong! Instead of escaping from society and forming a pseudo-utopia, the people in this book are just a little community of people left after the zombie apocalypse (what the book calls the Return). Even though the isolation is similar to The Village, that is where the similarities end. From what I gathered, the Sisterhood knows that it is possible for other communities to exist; however, they are unsure. And all Mary knows is that a fenced-off path that leads into the Forest is forbidden, which she never really questioned until she sees footprints . . .

The story follows this group of young people coming of age in this small community. After her mother dies, Mary is thrown into a life in the Sisterhood. However, after the fence is breached, the young people are forced to find a safe haven along the forbidden path. The book really questions our desires and drive, and what we consider to be enough.

While zombies are a devise to move the plot forward, I felt they offered a good antagonist without making any one character "bad." Further, the scenery in the story is well described and allows the reader to picture it for themselves without getting bogged down in details. Even though Mary is the central character, through Mary the reader is given a good picture of the supporting characters. However, in some ways I cannot understand the full 180 change in Cass. I wonder whether it was meant that way. Since it is a first person narrative from Mary's perspective, the author might want the reader in the dark and learn along with Mary.

My favorite part of the book was in the three-story house. Finding the chests full of clothing and pictures was exquisitely written.

However, because I pointed it out in the previous book I reviewed, there was an inconsistency I noticed. While Travis is confessing to Mary in the tree, he kneels in front of her and takes her hands in his. However, the next comment about him is that he flexes his hands on the windowsill. Hmm . . . What was he doing during his monologue? When did her drop her hands?

This book was hard to put down. I found myself wanting to read all night; however, my eyes refused to stay open! It is a fast paced novel, but doesn't lack in plot or substance. Rather, the pacing is a reflection of the urgency and anxiety the characters are feeling. So far, this my favorite YA zombie book! Needless to say, I just placed the next two books on hold at the library *squee*

Rating:
Currently: Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
Current Pages: 25178
Current Progress:

70/50 books