ASYLUM: a thrilling horror tale by Madeline Roux

Dan Crawford cannot wait to start his summer program at New Hampshire College Prep, for once he’ll be around other teenagers who want to learn and who care about their academic futures. When he arrives at the school, he is shown to his dorm in the old sanatorium. Because the regular dorms are being renovated he and the other high schoolers are staying in the old towns asylum that was closed nearly thirty years ago because of the awful torchers and escaped mental patients.

Despite the oddness of his rooming situation, Dan manages to make friends and even lands himself a girlfriend by the first week. However, things don’t stay bright and chipper for long. While exploring the asylum Dan and his friends start to discover weird things, and begin to learn things about the asylum, and the town that the citizens are trying to keep hidden. Soon Dan begins to receive strange notes, and begins blacking out and having visions and dreams of the old torchers and methods the warden used on his patients.

One night, while Dan and his girlfriend Lucy are exploring the “locked” areas of the asylum, one of the college students acting as guide and hall monitor is found murdered in a fashion similar to one of the asylums patients. He is but the first person to be murdered, and even more have murder attempted upon them. To make matters worse, Dan has been blacking out more than ever before, and while exploring one day finds that the old warden shares his same name.

Could there be an explanation for Dan’s blackouts and the reaction people in town have toward him and his name? Is there something to the crazy experiments the old warden wrote about in his journals? Or come someone with a sick fascination for the old towns history just be acting out? Dan is determined to get to the bottom of it, even if it means finding out things about himself and his friends that he didn’t want to know.

  I really enjoyed this book, that is until the last five chapters. It was a fast paced thriller, with a lot of moments when I was truly scared and glad that my front door was locked and the lights in my house were on. I love a good horror/thriller, and the potential for this was great. Unfortunately the ending did not live up to the rest of the book.

I don’t know if the author was rushed for a deadline, backed herself into a corner, or just wanted the easy way out but the ending was rushed and overly simple. It left a lot of unanswered questions, and not the kind that makes you hope for a sequel, but the kind that makes you say WTF out loud and roll your eyes. I think the ending had so much wasted opportunities, and if the author had taken the time to actually flush out the themes and ideas of the book, maybe add an additional forty pages it would have been amazing.

My Feelings On Ender's Game (non-summary)

Ender's Game is my all time favorite book. I have read it over 20 times cover to cover, plus own in on CD and I just recently purchased it on audible.com so I can listen to it in preparation for the movie coming out in less than a month. It would be difficult, very difficult to write a review without becoming emotional, in fact I don't think that I can. Ender's Game makes me smile, and at times cry hysterically no matter how many times I have read it.
The first time I read Ender's Game was New Years Eve in 2008. I had just gone to the Miley Cyrus MTV party and was at my best friends house waiting for midnight when I started reading it. I missed midnight, I missed the party, midnight kiss, ball dropping, everything. I was so engrossed in the story that I couldn't see or care about anything else. The next few weeks I spent reading the entire series, at least everything that was published at the time. I loved the series, but as someone who rereads books all the time I wasn't in a position to say it was my favorite book.
Ender's Game becoming by favorite book happened almost by accident. The next few years, it was always a book I recommended or gave as gifts to friends and family. When my brother was driving his car to college, a two day journey, I bought him the book on tape. Yes, I reread it a few times, and bought all the books in the series that had been published, but it wasn't until I was having a horrible christmas break in 2011 that I realized Ender's Game had gone from one of the best novels I had ever read, but it had become the best book I had ever read. I reread it two and a half times in less than a week, and whenever I was out of the house I put on my headphones and listened to the CD. Ender's Game had become my escape from being sad, and more than that I still wanted to read it when I was happy. It made bad days better, and when I was happy I want to read it to stay happy.
I think that Ender's Game is the most beautifully written novel in history, and I encourage everyone to read it. I will write an actual review on the book, shortly before the movie and then a comparison of the two as well.

METAtropolis:: Review

I am usually not a fan of anthologies, so I don’t know why I keep buying them and reading them. To be honest, when I bought this book I didn’t know that it was an anthology (it’s what I get for ordering books online I guess), but I was actually surprised by how much I liked the stories. I think that a huge part of that is because the anthology wasn’t just a bunch of random post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories, but rather a collection of stories that focus on what major cities would all be like in the future. In theory, every single story in this anthology could be taking place around the same time since it focused on specific cities, but not in a way that lead the reader to think the rest of the world had been obliterated. In the introduction, the editor talks about how he wanted it to feel like the old Greek City-States, each one governed and living very differently at the same time. It worked, and it made the anthology one that I actually enjoyed.

         This anthology is the working of five authors: Elizabeth Bear, Tobias Buckell, Jay Lake, Karl Schroeder and the editor John Scalzi. I think this is also why this anthology worked, to often anthologies try to get to many authors, which shortens the stories and leaves the reader feeling incomplete. Now that I have said I enjoyed the anthology overall, skip the first one. It was long, slow moving and very boring. In the Forest of the Night written by Jay Lake has the name of the main character is Tyger Tyger… yeah, does that tell you anything about how lame this story is going to be? Other than that, its all great, well good.

         Stocasti-City by Tobias Buckell takes place in a future Detroit bent on abandoning cars in favor of using bikes. The Red in the Sky is Our Blood by Elizabeth Bear deals with the future of the Russian Mob and a woman trying to protect her step-daughter. Utere Nihil non Extra Quiritationem Suis by John Scalzi might have been my favorite. Set in a future city with a zero footprint, this story was funny to the point of laughing out loud. Its good to know that in the future, spilling pig feces on your enemies is considered  heroic. To Hi from Far Celinea by Karl Schroeder was the final story. If you want good characters, this isn’t the story for you as I found them lacking depth, but the ideas and the plot were great, and this was the only story to deal with the cyber world. 

 

The Ward: A Dystopian Novel (Review)

If the first 23 chapters had been condensed down to four or five, it would have been a whole lot better of a novel. I don't think I really got into it until chapter 24. It spent far too much time giving information that wasn't necessary to the progression of the plot. For instance, the main character Ren is a racer, and while it is important to the story later on, it does not need to be the focus of the first five chapters; it could have been done within the first few pages or a chapter at most. I felt like it also spent far to much time on Ren obsessing over her crush. Yes he is important, and yes her feelings for him lead to some drama later on, but again it could have been taken care of in a page, there was no need to spend that much time on it. Another issue that I had, and other people might not have the same problem, was the way that Ren talked. It felt to forced, using improper grammar and slang to show she was young and somewhat of a rebel. It was just unnecessary.

The book itself wasn’t all bad though, in fact the premise (while a little tired and over done) was decent, and gave a good twist about 2/3 of the way through the book. Set in New York far into the future, water is a precious source, after the water levels rose drastically, and the salt water waves and storms contaminated most of the lakes and reserves, the world has turned into the haves and have nots who can afford water. To make matters in the future worse, a deadly infection has been spreading for years. Causing tumors, coughs and eventually death. There is no cure, and it is easily spreadable.

Ren was an orphan, but unlike most orphans who were never adopted, she managed to escape starvation and prostitution with her ability to drag race. She often won, meaning having enough money to support herself, and her sister who is dying from the infection. One thing about Ren that no one knows, is that she is immune from the illness. During a routine blood test at the orphanage a doctor discovered that her blood was unsusceptible to the virus, which is why she is able to care for her sister while never getting sick.

One day while out racing, Ren receives a message on her com, telling her of a possible clean water source, and if she agrees to check it out her reward will be more than double the winnings of her race. Knowing that money means more pain meds for her sister, Ren checks it out. It turns out to be more than just water however, it turns out to be something similar to the fountain of youth. But Ren’s contact isn’t the only one looking for this water. Ren ends up in the middle of a government conspiracy that goes back to the times before the flood, and a group attempting to protect the water who have been around since the founding of the Americas centuries earlier. What is Ren willing to risk to save her sister and her friends? That is, if the water actually can stop the illness and increase life.

I loved the last half of the book, when Ren is working with different agencies and conspirators, playing whichever side promises to help her sister the most, all the while discovering secrets buried deep under the salt water that covers most of previous New York. I am not sure that I will buy the sequel, not because the book was all bad, but because I actually liked the way it ended.

The Fall of Five (I Am Number Four Series) REVIEW

I love the Lorien Series, ever since reading I Am Number Four a few years back, I can't stop. The Fall of Five is just as gripping and fantastic as the other novels, and e-reader novellas that came before it. 

This book brings the entire Garde together, but not only that it also reunites Sam and his father. While living in Nine's penthouse in Chicago all the living members of Lorien and their human allies train, and now that Five has joined them, they believe they finally have the upper hand. If course, that would make things to easy. 

The only downside of this book was its title, The Fall of Five. It kind of gives away what will happen. The title tells the reader that one of two things will happen, either Five is going to die, or he will betray them. Want to guess which it is? It's betrayal. 

Turns out, that Five has been living, training, and working with the Mogs since he lander on earth. He gives away the secret base of the Garde, kills number Eight. To make it worse, Ella (number Ten) is kidnapped, and a prophesy is seen my Four, and in it Ella marries the leader of the Mogs and helps them take of earth. 

I love this series, and I defiantly left out a lot of information and details in this review, but I can't give everything away right? This is one of the best, and well thought out alien series I have come across, and recommend the whole series to everyone. 

Where Beauty Lies by Elle and Blair Fowler (Review)

If you liked the LA Candy series by Lauren Conrad then you will love Elle and Blair Fowler’s newest book Where Beauty Lies. And if that is the case, just skip this review, because its not going to be a very positive one. While some people have the ability change media platforms smoothly and with talent, these two YouTube beauty gurus do not have the ability to write a good story.

Two things are needed to create a good novel, writing ability and a creative and interesting story. Neither happened in this book. Where Beauty Lies is the second novel written by Elle and Blair and follows the story of the London Sisters. Many similarities can be drawn from things that happened in the Fowler sisters own lives, and in the London sisters. One of the things I was really bothered by in this novel was that it picked up months after the first, and the first left off on a cliffhanger. Rather than spending the time writing what could have been a great novel about the London sisters being arrested, proven innocent, and the people who tried to frame them and their friends, they brushed it aside, giving it only a few lines to get on with something else.

Skipping the months between the novels puts Ava and Sophia London in New York where they are designing a new fashion line for Fashion Week. Of course craziness ensues, Sophia’s boyfriend Hunter becomes overly possessive and paranoid, Ava and Dalton go back and forth on whether they should be together or break up, and to top it off someone on the London Fashion Team has been leaking the designs making it look like the London sister’s are stealing from other, better known fashion designers.

So far, this to me could have the potential to be a good THIRD novel (I am still annoyed that we didn’t get a novel chronicling all the stuff that happened in-between), now the writing isn’t very good, but the potential for a good story was their… until the last third of the book. To me it felt like Elle and Blaire were just trying to end the novel and do it fast. If you don’t want to know how it ends stop reading this review, because I am giving away the cheesy and annoying envy.

As it turns out, Hunter is the one who has been behind everything bad the London sisters have been through. Going back to the first book he helped steal the money from the animal shelter. In Where Beauty Lies, Hunter is responsible for kidnapping Ava and Sophia’s pets, leaking their designs, setting fire to a house that the London sisters were planning on using, and countless other troubles the sisters have faced. He claims that he did it all to help Sophia because he loves her, but really? It just seems crazy and stupid. To top it off, the man who swoops in to take Hunter down is a man that Sophia had feelings for from the first book, who of course it turns out, is now a rich Count.

The whole novel just seemed overly cheesy, like one of those 3pm midweek after school special from the mid 90s. The writing wasn’t good, and the story’s ending frustrated me to no end. I think that Elle and Blair should stick to their YouTube videos and makeup lines, it is something they are good at, writing novels should be laid to rest.