Variant #1

While I was not a huge fan when I started reading Variant, I loved it by the end. Many of the things that I didn’t like in the beginning were cleared up as the novel progressed, and character choices that seemed inorganic started to make sense the more I read the novel.

Benson Fisher has bounced from foster home to foster home for as long as he can remember, holding down meager jobs and friendless, after all, how can you make friends when every few months he has to move and can’t afford a cell phone or a laptop to keep in touch. But Benson has hope, he just was accepted into the prestigious Maxfield Academy on a full scholarship. The school has a full-ride program for orphaned and foster homed children and Benson was the candidate that they chose. Benson believes that this is the answer to his prayers, a permanent place to stay until he graduates, a good college, and friends. He has never been more wrong about something in his entire life.

Once at the school he finds that there are no adults; rather cameras and monitors, and a video every morning from a strange man telling them what to do. Everyday it is different, different classes that they have to teach themselves, crazy and violent paintball matches, weird PE classes, and that is just the beginning. Sometimes the doors lock on the students, forcing them to sleep outside in the cold with only a handful of sleeping bags for the entire populous. Other nights. Other times the man tells them to punish each other and send specific students to detention, no one has ever come back from detention. Anyone who has ever tried to run away has been killed, and it seems to Benson that no one even wants to try and escape the strange prison they are all being held in.

Every student was like Benson when they arrived, no family or friends to miss them, and the school knew it. Benson is determined to figure out what the purpose of the school is and escape, but talking about such things has put students in detention never to be seen again. The school is divided into gangs, and a few of them are tired of Benson poking his nose into business that isn’t his and decide to take him and his girlfriend out, even if it isn’t sanctioned by the school. That’s when things go from bad to worse.

Benson can barely walk after the beating his received, but Jane isn’t breathing. Benson is trying to get up and run for help when Jane suddenly sits up and starts making her way to a secret bunker near the school. Benson hobbles after her yelling to stop, but she doesn’t hear them. Once inside the bunker Jane does something crazy, she pulls off her ear and plugs a cord into it. Jane is a robot, and Benson watches as she downloads herself into a computer, 1s and 0s about him and the rest of the students at the school.

Now Benson doesn’t know what to do. Who would believe him about Jane, and more importantly who else is a robot. After all, Jane can’t be the only robot among them. Benson starts to make lists of when the students arrived, who has the most connection with the strange man in the videos, but if Jane who wanted to get out of the school, seemed to bleed when hurt, and who’s “heart” raced when they kissed, Benson doesn’t want to trust anybody. He needs to escape now more than ever, but to do so he has to have help, and he has to figure out who the robot spies are among them.

I really like this book by the end, things that didn’t always make sense in the beginning got cleared up and the story moved forward with excitement. I cannot wait to read the sequels!

TRUST NO ONE!

Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis

I think this book had great potential. It’s a futuristic dystopian novel, set in a time when water is scarce, population laws in cities are harsh and those that live outside the city are left to fend for themselves. It’s realistic, at least in that sense. There are also water witches, woman who can sense where water is and if there are under water streams and lakes. That’s the strain of the book that made me shake my head in annoyance, and made what could have been a great book hardly mediocre.

            Lynn knows no life but the one by her pond. Her mother taught her two things, keep the water safe and don’t trust anyone. Shoot first, don’t ask any question, protect the water because nothing else matters. Lynn has life figured out, its hard and solitary survival is of the upmost importance, and never go anywhere without at least one rifle and a knife.

            There have never been to many people, coyotes usually pose more of a threat than the random starving wanderer, but then Lynn starts to notice things in the distance. Smoke, and a weird eerie light during the twilight and evening hours, and its not the passing smoke of a wanderer. Strangers are in her area, ones who aren’t passing through. They are staying, they are strong, and they are powerful.

            For the first time in her life Lynn knows that she can’t take care of this problem herself, she needs people to help her. Despite the mistrust, Lynn teams up with an old friends of her mother from across the woods, and a young boy and his niece who were left alone after all their family was killing for violating population laws back in the city. Not much, but it’s all that Lynn has, and she would rather go out fighting than give up her pond and become a sexual slave to the strangers.

            Like I said, this book could have been good. Had the water witch thing not entered the story, I know I would have enjoyed it more. It would be a 4/5 star novel if not for the water witch thing, which brings it down to a 2.5 rating. What makes that detail the most annoying, is that the water witch thing isn’t actually a very big deal in this first book of the series, but it will be which is why it gets brought up. Annoying, I wanted a realistic dystopian future novel, not a semi-magical one.

The Fallen: Enemy Novel #5

As it says at the beginning of The Fallen, this book starts at the same time that The Sacrifice takes place, and ends with a few of the characters from the two novels coming together. This is the fifth installment of Charlie Higson’s absolutely amazing The Enemy Series about a zombie apocalypse that takes place in London, England. This isn’t going to be the most details review, because it takes place far into the series, and the novel is over 500 pages.

This novel centers around the characters who are at the museum and those who have been traveling to the museum. It opens with the kids from Holloway arriving at the museum just as the sickos have broken in. If not for the skills of Jackson, Achilles, and the rest of the crew the chances of Justin or anyone else surviving the night was slim to none. Once the two groups merge they decide to embark on an expedition to the medical center nearby. While there, the small group of fighters and scientists learn a few things about the disease that are not good. And while they lose a lot of people on the way, they also pick up some “freaks,” mutated children trapped in the medical center who know more than anyone they have ever come across.

Back at the museum, they are on the lookout for whoever let the sickos in, and that would be Paul. Paul is slowly killing of other kids, he seems to have caught the sickness. That isn’t the worst part though, in the second to last chapter things are revealed about Paul’s evil deeds that shocked me, things I didn’t see coming. And the cliffhanger at the end, about Small Sam and Ella is just to much to handle!! Such an amazing series, cannot wait for the next one.

Independent Study (The Testing #2) REVIEW

I have to be honest, at least at this point in the series; this is better than Divergent and on par to be better than the Hunger Games. I talk about this novel all the time, I think about the kind of world Cia Vale lives in, and how I would deal with that sort of life. I love every situation and character plot of this series, and this sequel didn’t let me down. Independent Study is one of the greatest post apocalyptic novels I have read in a very long time.

Cia Vale survived the Testing, passed with flying colours and is now at University in Tosu City. Everything should be great, her boyfriend loves her, she gets a great internship in government with the President, a house that thinks she intelligent, everything should be perfect. But it isn’t. Cia heard the tape of herself after the Testing, she knows what she did, and what they did to her. The government is the enemy, at least some of them are. And her boyfriend might be an enemy too. Cia knows what Thomas did in the games, the lies he told and the lives he took.

Cia wants to bring down the organization that allows for the testing, but even the people she thinks she can trust she finds she is wrong about. Hidden letters, secret meetings, and more murders than even the Testing saw. Cia realizes that she might actually be alone in this, with no allies or friends who wont give her up for an advancement in University or placement in the government’s inner circle. Loyalty, friends and even family are all a changing game as far as Cia can tell, but what she witnesses at the end will forever change the final installment of this series.

I literally have a countdown on my phone for when the final book comes out. I gave this series to multiple people for Christmas, and received text messages from all of them saying they loved it (the girl I babysat as a child called to tell me she likes it more than Hunger Games).  It holds up to the first novel, and exceeds all expectations.

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

            If The Hunger Games and Divergent had a baby it would be this novel. The Testing is a rare blend of action, intrigue and thought provoking drama that made it almost impossible to put down until I was finished. I thought that the development of Cia Vale over the course of the book was perfect, at her core she never shifted from her ideals and morals, but she grew as different obstacles were encountered. Dystopian YA has become the new “it” genre thanks in large part to novels like The Hunger Games, and while everything nowadays is being touted as the new Hunger Games, this novel is actually one of the few that I think can make the cut. Its well written and I can’t wait until the next book comes out, in fact I have already preordered it.

            The future has claimed much of the Earth, they call it the Seven Stages War. While man was responsible for the first few stages (nuclear bombs, wars and the such), the last few stages were Earth’s retaliation. Tidal Waves, radiation, new animals, and dry spells have devastated the landscape. What is left of humanity has divided itself into colonies. There are many, and all with varying degrees of populations and abilities, located where Earth has been least damaged.

            Cia Vale lives in the Five Lakes region, an area that was once the Great Lakes (although through drought and radiation not much is left). Cia works alongside her father trying to regrow crops in the contaminated soil that can be eaten. Cia’s father was one of the lucky few in his youth. He was chosen to participate in the Testing. After the Seven Stages War, an elite group was set up to help lead the land. This elite group is chosen from the smartest and most potential students from each colony after they complete their education between the ages of 16-18.

            Not much is known about the testing, other than after testing and qualification into University people are placed where their talents can best be used, and that is never in their original colony. The Five Lakes hasn’t had a candidate in over ten years, but Cia’s year four people were chosen to go through the testing. The night before they leave, Cia’s father takes her aside to tell her that the testing isn’t all its cracked up to be. She learns that after the testing her father’s memory was whipped clean, all he knows are his nightmares. Nightmares of his friends dying horrible deaths in the testing, dreams of starvation and injury, and always the feeling of emptiness and horror whenever he thinks about the testing whipped from his memory. The last thing he tells Cia is not to trust anyone, not the testers or the other candidates, not even her friends from Five Lakes heading to the testing with her.

            Cia is not one to distrust where she feels it isn’t deserved. She looks out for her friends, especially Thomas who she’s been friends with and had a crush on since childhood. Its more than that though, Cia sees others scared and alone, and invites them to sit with her. During testing she goes out of the way to look out for her friends, and keep them out of trouble and in the testing, even when it is risky for herself. But Cia has noticed some strange things about the testing facility. Camera’s have been hidden everywhere, not just in the halls and testing rooms, but in the candidate’s bedrooms, gardens, and relaxation areas.

            Some students take the testing seriously; Cia’s father was right to warn her about trusting people. Cia’s roommate poisoned cakes and then offered them to Cia and her friends, hoping to get rid of them. During one of the group tests, one of Cia’s members lied and caused some of the team to be killed. Cia knew something was wrong during that test and tried to warn the other members, managing to save one. Throughout the testing people keep dying, committing suicide and just fail out.

            Cia has watched her friends die, be tortured, and scared. But because they have been looking out for each other, more than half have survived to the final test. Dropped in the middle of a red zone, days and days away from the testing facility, the remaining candidates have to use their skills and knowledge to get through the radiation areas, contaminated water and crops, deal with the mutations of people and animals torn apart during the Seven Stage War. Not to mention some of the other candidates who believe that killing each other is the best way to win and prove themselves during the last test. This last test is not just about making it to University, but will put a strain on the friendships that Cia has formed.

            This book was just amazing, and the ending I did not see coming. It was an ending that made total sense, but not one that I could have predicted. The action lasted throughout the entire book, with no lag or boring sections. I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes Hunger Games, Divergent, Delirium, The Program, young adult novels, dystopian books, or novels by Eve Silver and Cristin Terrill.