Dystopian

Review: Dualed (Dualed #1) by Elsie Chapman

March 7, 2013 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 26 Comments

By Elsie Chapman

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: February 26, 2013
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: Netgalley

You or your Alt? Only one will survive.

The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.

Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Elsie Chapman’s suspenseful YA debut weaves unexpected romance into a novel full of fast-paced action and thought-provoking philosophy. When the story ends, discussions will begin about this future society where every adult is a murderer and every child knows there is another out there who just might be better.

Goodreads Summary

One of the analogies I’ve been tossing around for Dualed is that it’s like a bag of jelly beans. I like the red, black and white ones but the rest only look pretty and are best left to just sit and harden in the bowl before they get tossed out. For every three elements of the story that I enjoyed, there were three more that disappointed me. Dualed could have been so much more than it was.

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Filed Under: *C Rating, 2013 Debut Author Challenge, 2013 Ebook Challenge, Dystopian, Young Adult Tagged With: Elsie Chapman

Renegade (The Elysium Chronicles #1)

November 12, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 12 Comments

By J.A. Souders

Publisher: Tor Teen
Publication Date: November 13, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: Netgalley

Since the age of three, sixteen-year-old Evelyn Winters has been trained to be Daughter of the People in the underwater utopia known as Elysium. Selected from hundreds of children for her ideal genes, all her life she’s thought that everything was perfect; her world. Her people. The Law.

But when Gavin Hunter, a Surface Dweller, accidentally stumbles into their secluded little world, she’s forced to come to a startling realization: everything she knows is a lie.

Her memories have been altered.

Her mind and body aren’t under her own control.

And the person she knows as Mother is a monster.

Together with Gavin she plans her escape, only to learn that her own mind is a ticking time bomb… and Mother has one last secret that will destroy them all.

Goodreads Summary

I was seriously leaning-forward, biting-my-lip, holy-crap excited after the second chapter of Renegade started. It was that freaky. Twilight Zone freaky. Then either it – or I – got lost in a disorganized plot that felt padded, even though it had amazing potential.

In an underwater self-sustaining utopia, Evelyn has been groomed as the Daughter of the People since she was practically a toddler, in preparation for her eventual rise to power as Mother to the people of Elysium. Mother is all-powerful and rules with a platinum fist, creating and carrying out justice, deciding couplings and generally being freakishly terrifying. What Evelyn doesn’t know is that her life is deliberately almost perfect.

Elysium was founded when war broke out and a group led by Mother decided they needed to find a new place to live apart from the violence and disorder. Surface Dwellers are considered dirty scumbags, pollutants and definitely not allowed in Elysium. So Gavin, the one Evelyn finds and is fascinated by, becomes a problem for Mother. Understatement. For once, something in her resists Conditioning and she risks everything to help him escape execution. And that’s when things just went haywire for me.

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Filed Under: *C Rating, 2012 Ebook Challenge, Dystopian, Young Adult Tagged With: J.A. Souders

The Hallowed Ones

September 6, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 6 Comments

By Laura Bickle

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s
Publication Date: September 25, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian/Thriller
Source: Publisher

Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

Goodreads Summary

Earlier in the week I recommended a book that was a little spooky, a little melancholy and sad. Today I’m going all out and recommending an all-spooky, creepy, scary atmospheric thriller. The cover is deceptive – there’s a pretty girl, definitely. There’s also a large body count, things with glowing eyes that eat people and an Amish community that refuses to see what’s happening under their noses. Yummy!

Katie and her friend Elijah are watching the far-off highway, thinking about their upcoming Rumspringa when an out of control med-flight helicopter crashes into the field in front of them. Before Katie can rescue someone she thinks might be alive inside, she thinks she sees something sinister – then she’s yanked back by Elijah and her people as the helicopter explodes.

As the cleanup after the helicopter crash and fire winds down into the evening, two of the young boys from the Amish community haven’t returned home from town yet, setting off a mild panic. An outsider visiting Katie’s family is able to find out that a curfew has been imposed, possibly related increased violence in the area. When the boys still don’t return, the Elders go to look and return home stone-faced, alone, and place the community under lockdown. No one goes out, no one comes in.

Katie has a disobedient streak however and defies the Elders and the powerful, pious Bishop. When she finds a badly wounded stranger just outside the fence, she ignores their edict and brings him inside, risking a shunning. Alex knows about the horrors outside, is willing to tell Katie his theories and they develop a strong bond as she takes even more dangerous risks for him.

Evil strikes, of course. Bickle managed to completely surprise me with the last couple of chapters though. Some books have steady action, some are up and down – The Hallowed Ones starts calm and builds and builds and ends with a big crescendo and a shocker of an ending. I loved the way the tension was handled. I do need to say it – this is a gory book. There are intestines spilled, heads removed and bodies impaled. It works in such beautiful juxtaposition to the innocence of Amish community though, it’s almost lyrical. I never thought I’d say disemboweling could be lyrical, but there it is.

As a perfect balance, Elijah, Katie’s parents, her friends and the Elders are all written with simple motives and speak plainly, as I’d expect them to, and it was comforting to read sometimes, a little oasis of predictability amongst the weird. Elijah is Katie’s long-time friend and potential husband. They’ve been planning their Rumspringa for years but with the closed gates and the disappearance of Elijah’s brothers, things have changed for him. I can’t say I liked him much even though he was probably acting perfectly normally for a young man in his position. He just treated Katie callously for someone who had known her for so long. Her parents were sweet, but it was noted that they were more affectionate than most Amish mothers and fathers. I loved her mom though, the way she called Katie liewe (dear) and pampered her when she came home covered in someone else’s blood, which seemed to happen a lot.

I’d probably run out of superlatives if I went on as long as I wanted to about how much I loved Katie. She was spunky, sweet, unbelievably strong and smart. I loved that she believed in the power of her own convictions enough that she was willing to risk so much every single day. She knew at any moment she could be discovered and it was always in her mind, but she loved her community and her family enough that she had to keep Alex safe and do the right thing. She was delightfully innocent without any worldly knowledge at all but with a love for Wonder Woman comics of all things. Her budding relationship with Alex was a sweet surprise because they were confidantes, then just friends.

My Summary: This is the perfect book to read late at night, when you’re alone and wanting a nice scare, or if you’re not quite up to it, you could just read it during a sunny day. It’s tense, thrilling and just a tad on the bloody side. The setting was brilliant, the characters perfect – I had one big complaint though. I wanted another hundred pages. More, more!

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, Barbara Recommends, Dystopian, Thriller, Young Adult Tagged With: Laura Bickle

Darkness Before Dawn

May 14, 2012 by Cait 12 Comments

J.A. London

Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: May 29, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal
Source: Publisher

This electrifying new trilogy blends the best of paranormal and dystopian storytelling in a world where the war is over. And the vampires won.

Humans huddle in their walled cities, supplying blood in exchange for safety. But not even that is guaranteed. Dawn has lost her entire family and now reluctantly serves as the delegate to Lord Valentine, the most powerful vampire for miles. It isn’t until she meets Victor, Valentine’s son, that she realizes not all vampires are monsters….

Darkness Before Dawn is a fresh new story with captivating characters, unexpected plot twists, a fascinating setting, and a compelling voice. Written under the name J. A. London by a talented mother-son team, the trilogy is perfect for fans of True Blood and the House of Night and Morganville Vampires series.

Goodreads Summary

When vampires first revealed their existence, everything about them was sensationalized. Humanity obsessed over vampire fashion, and the “who’s who” of the vampire world, making them instant celebrities overnight. No one seemed to care about how many vampires there were, or even trivial details as to how many humans have been killed in their quest for blood. Humans eventually got a clue, instigating a deadly war began between humans and vampires that lasted for thirty years. It was only after billions of human lives were lost that the two sides decided to negotiate peace. Humans would willingly donate so much blood a month, and the cities would deliver it to whatever Old Family (vampires that were born) patriarch was in charge of their city and the head of the Family would offer protection against rogue vampires (vampires that were made).

It’s now nine years after the war ravaged the earth, and Dawn has lost her entire family to the vicious vampire nature and holds little love for them. Up until a few months ago, her parents had served as Denver’s delegates to Lord Valentine, one of the most powerful vampires in existence. After they were killed on their way home from a weekly trip to his manor, Lord Valentine has specifically requested a new delegate, Dawn, and no one else will do. She has spent the last few months training for her position, including the proper way to wear a corset, and is now deemed ready to go solo on any future trips out of the city.

Tired of stressing about protocol and the art of negotiation, Dawn and her best friend Tegan sneak out to a party by the Wall the night before her first official day as delegate. After an attempted drugging, Dawn and Tegan find themselves on the trolley at night, alone, surrounded by vampires. Dawn does her best to fend them off, but despite taking one of them out, she isn’t strong enough to take them all and she and Tegan are about to become a midnight snack. They are rescued by a mysterious boy, Victor, who kills the rest of the vampires and then safely escorts them home. Assuming he was human, a particularly talented Night Watchmen, Dawn is shocked speechless when she arrives at Lord Valentine’s the following night and is greeted by none other than her savior of the night before. Victor Valentine, Lord Valentine’s son and heir. Everything Dawn has ever believed about vampires is thrown off kilter as Victor continually shows her that not all vampires are monsters. Denver is under attack, and it seems that rogue vampires aren’t the only monsters of the night. As Dawn and Victor grow closer, she realizes that the monster she’s always feared might be the only one who can save her life.

I received this book unexpectedly from the publisher over the weekend, and I was immediately intrigued by the vampire dystopian mix. It seems that vampire books have gone out of fashion recently, and I was excited to read J.A. London’s new twist on the subject. I could easily see how this New World that this mother-son writing team has created could become a reality, if vampires actually existed. There wasn’t anything complex about the setting, and I enjoyed reading a Dystopian novel that was set in a place that was different, but still familiar. Kids still went to school, parents still worked, people still ate at restaurants, but cell phones were a luxury and most people used the Trolley system or walked to where they needed to go. It seemed like the setting and world were there to support the characters and the development of the story, but weren’t the main attraction. Different enough to make it interesting, but familiar enough that I could concentrate on other things.

Told in first person, Dawn was really the heart of the story. I loved her progression from an angsty teen resenting her lot in life, to a delegate concerned with the state of her city, and finally to a girl in love with the boy who taught her that the world isn’t all black and white. Dawn is strong and independent, but she knows her limits and doesn’t rush into battle when she knows all she’ll do is make things worse. I LOVED that about her. Victor is sweet and charming, and is ready to take on the world if it means Dawn will be safe. I loved the glimpses of the internal battle between good guy and monster that he fought every single day. He loved Dawn, but he knew that whatever relationship that developed between them could end badly. He just couldn’t stay away, and that is the sweetest kind of love.

My Summary: I really enjoyed Darkness Before Dawn. I loved the paranormal/dystopian mix, and I hope to see more stories like it in the future. I loved how the book revolved around the characters, primarily Dawn and Victor, and their growth throughout the story. I love the voice of this author team, their unique mix of serious and humor and I’m really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. Highly recommend!

My Rating: A

Filed Under: *A Rating, Cait Recommends, Dystopian, Paranormal, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: J.A. London

The Selection (The Selection #1)

April 20, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 4 Comments

By Kiera Cass

Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Source: Publisher

For thirty-five girls, the Selection is the chance of a lifetime. The opportunity to escape the life laid out for them since birth. To be swept up in a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels. To live in the palace and compete for the heart of the gorgeous Prince Maxon.

But for America Singer, being Selected is a nightmare. It means turning her back on her secret love with Aspen, who is a caste below her. Leaving her home to enter a fierce competition for a crown she doesn’t want. Living in a palace that is constantly threatened by violent rebel attacks.

Then America meets Prince Maxon. Gradually, she starts to question all the plans she’s made for herself- and realizes that the life she’s always dreamed of may not compare to a future she never imagined.

Goodreads Summary

My review may be more spoilery than usual because I’m going to get a little ranty down below and some of what I’m upset about are general things that happen throughout the book. I’m not going to go into specifics unless you’re a good guesser, but be warned anyway.

When a Prince of Illea reaches a marriageable age, the cattle call goes out to the kingdom – if you’ve got a daughter of a certain age, ask her if she’d like to sign up to try to win his hand. Rich, poor – it doesn’t matter what social standing you have, they’re all eligible as long as they fill out the form and have their picture taken. Then the best 35 of the bunch are announced on television and sent to the palace to try to impress Maxon into proposing.

America and her family are artists – painters, singers, sculptors – and they’re poor. Being chosen to be part of the Selection would mean a huge check and likely a big boost in their family’s status. She doesn’t want to sign up though, because she has a secret. She’s in love with a boy who’s even poorer than they are, a match they’d never condone. But she gives in and is shocked to hear her name announced as one of the 35.

Now under a lot of circumstances, I could like a character like America. She’s feisty, loves her family and is intensely loyal to her boyfriend. But Cass took things way too far and made America an absolutely perfect caricature of a character – she’s beautiful and unique but doesn’t know it, kind to everyone, intelligent enough to offer economic advice to the Prince, sweetly humble, the Queen loves her despite having never met her, etc., etc. I’m sure if she wandered into the woods, butterflies would alight in her hair, birds on her finger and deer and rabbits would gather ‘round her skirts.

I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of The Bachelor, but my guess is Maxon is pretty close to those guys, just dressed up as a Prince with some palace sekrits he only shares with America. He’s not terribly deep, talking mostly about how much he hates not being taken seriously as a Prince by his dad one moment, complaining about how boring meetings are not long after that.

So the characters bothered me and oh, there are more issues coming. But even if I liked them, Cass’ writing style drove me crazy at times. If ever there was a perfect example of telling and not showing, this is it. Especially for the first quarter or so of the book, it was non-stop telling. The author also has a tendency to use the characters’ names over and over in close proximity – I guess she doesn’t like pronouns? In one paragraph, in the retelling of an incident between two characters, each character’s name was used twice, a pronoun once. In one paragraph.

I don’t rant, not really. And this is going to be pretty tame because it’s tempered by the fact that overall, the book wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever read. But there were some things that just made me angry in ways that I can barely figure out how to fit them into the review in a coherent way. So I’m just going to throw them out there.

This was not a dystopian. Was the label slapped on there because the palace was attacked a few times by some literally unseen Northern or Southern troops? They either bombed from afar or invaded, and while everyone cowered in a secure room, they ransacked bedrooms and were driven off by the guards. Really? As far as the caste system, that hardly qualifies. So there are rich people who have money and there are varying social levels of other people who have less, down to people who have trouble finding work and education and occasionally steal to eat. And this is different from our current society how?

The depiction of the girls is so stereotypical, it’s offensive. Cold, rich, bitchy girl who wears too much makeup, clings to the guy and sabotages the other girls? Check. Little mousey girl who’s small, quiet, timid? Check – her name is even – wait for it – Tiny. There’s the smart geek who’s afraid to interact with anyone, the super-friendly middle class girl who befriends America because she recognizes a kindred super-friendly spirit. While not part of the Selection group, there are America’s three maids who of course include one girl who was traumatized and once America soothes her, she earns their eternal devotion. So we have America as just “one of the girls” with her maids.

Prince Maxon all but declares to America that she’s the one he plans on pursuing. If she wasn’t totally oblivious, she’d have seen it, but okay. So his first kiss is with her and it’s very sweet. And the next day? He’s kissing someone else? It seemed like there was some confusion about what qualities make an attractive hero or heroine. Maxon and America are both faithless and loose with their affections.

The ending was the most exasperating type of coy little teaser meant to keep a breathless romantic biting their nails until the next book. Look, I am a breathless romantic and under a lot of circumstances, I would be one of those people but I was so offended by the behavior of all of the parties involved, frankly they all deserved each other and I don’t care who “wins” who.

My Summary: So I didn’t love this, I think you can tell. Even if you take out the plot areas that made my blood boil, there were the storytelling problems and if you take out the style problems, you have the hair-burning issues, so I feel pretty secure with my opinion. It didn’t get an F because in spite of everything, I couldn’t help but keep reading, even though I hated myself and was cursing the entire time. I’d like to take the cover off and frame it so I have at least something pleasant to refer to when I think of this.

My Rating: D

Filed Under: *D Rating, Debut Author Challenge, Dystopian, Reviews, Young Adult Tagged With: Kiera Cass

Masque of the Red Death (Masque of the Red Death #1)

April 19, 2012 by Barbara at Basia's Bookshelf 12 Comments

By Bethany Griffin

Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian/Steampunk
Source: Publisher

Everything is in ruins.

A devastating plague has decimated the population. And those who are left live in fear of catching it as the city crumbles to pieces around them.

So what does Araby Worth have to live for?

Nights in the Debauchery Club, beautiful dresses, glittery make-up . . . and tantalizing ways to forget it all.

But in the depths of the club—in the depths of her own despair—Araby will find more than oblivion. She will find Will, the terribly handsome proprietor of the club. And Elliott, the wickedly smart aristocrat. Neither boy is what he seems. Both have secrets. Everyone does.

And Araby may find something not just to live for, but to fight for—no matter what it costs her.

Goodreads Summary

It’s possible that I was initially drawn to this by its cover. Maybe. But I loved the synopsis and it’s inspired by the Edgar Allen Poe story so I was sold in triplicate. I’ve had it sitting here for a couple of weeks now, taunting me and to be honest, I’ve been sort of afraid to read it because I’d been anticipating it for so long. I can stick it on my reread shelf now, since I got it done and it was the keeper that I’d hoped.

If Araby Worth had more courage, she might just end her life. Instead, she separates herself as much as she can from the real world in her parents’ luxury apartment or with her friend April and trips to the Debauchery Club behind her porcelain mask to protect her from the deadly plague. When her normal defenses don’t work, Araby looks for escape in drugs, not particularly caring who she scores from or even what they are.

It’s through the club that she meets Will and Elliot. They’re practically polar opposites: Will is dark, tattooed and poor while Elliot is blonde, refined, wealthy and April’s brother. Araby lost someone very close to her and had vowed never to kiss, hold hands – fall in love – with anyone because he wouldn’t have that chance either. Both boys rouse emotions she’s tried to suppress – romantic interest, hope for their crumbling society and renewed fears and worries about her family. There isn’t really the dreaded Love Triangle, although there’s romance. I know that’s sort of contradictory, but within the story and all the turmoil, the push and pull of the guys and Araby, it doesn’t come off as any kind of triangle at all. So…breathe out. Heaven knows I did.

Araby narrates the story, so obviously the city and people get translated through her. In the beginning, she’s doing everything she can to be detached and other than some brief flares of extreme emotion, she does seem pretty disaffected. Griffin writes with a slightly staccato style and it suits Araby perfectly. Later in the story, the writing gets looser as Araby’s emotions start going haywire. I think some people might find Araby dull or a little stupid with some of the decisions she made but I think given her age, the state of society and her desire to make things right, I understood her and even liked her. Even if she made some horrible choices, in a city where breathing bad air could kill you within days, she did make those choices instead of hiding and did things that put herself at risk when she didn’t have to because she thought she was doing the right thing.

Even in its lighter moments, this is still a grim story. The threat of death hangs everywhere, from the despot leader, Prince Prospero and the maniacal revolutionary Malcontent to the Weeping Illness and the Red Death. Every moment, everyone has to ask themselves – should they ever take their mask off and where, who can they touch, what do you do if you cut yourself? People who can’t afford the expensive porcelain masks don’t leave their houses or they risk using a flimsy fabric mask and possible death. Historic incidences of the plague are a sort of macabre interest of mine and Griffin really did her homework for more than just the emotional despair. I was torn between being fascinated and a little grossed out by her detailed descriptions of the latter stages of the disease and its mutated cousin. Grossed out is meant to be complimentary.

I’m not going to give away the ending, only say that Griffin knocked the wind out of me with it. I don’t know if I just was enjoying the story so much that I wasn’t paying attention or she just threw something in there that that hadn’t had any clues dropped about, but it completely wiped out the conceptions I had about nearly all of the characters. It was a devious, cruel, torturous twist that delighted me in a completely warped way since I normally hate those, “you figure it out,” endings with a passion and now I’m so anxious to read the next book, it’s crazy.

My Summary: I’m starting to open books with so-so expectations right now, and even though I had really been waiting for this, I tamped down my hope and just started reading – and was engrossed almost immediately. The dark world controlled by disease, the contrast of the disaffected, passionate and forgotten people and the suspense storyline hooked me. 2013 seems very, very far away for the next book.

My Rating: A