Tori's Review: Panic by Lauren Oliver

Panic by Lauren Oliver
Series: None
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
Rating: ♚♚♚½
Pages: 408
Published by HarperCollins on March 4, 2014
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Panic began as so many things do in Carp, a dead-end town of 12,000 people in the middle of nowhere: because it was summer, and there was nothing else to do.

Heather never thought she would compete in Panic, a legendary game played by graduating seniors, where the stakes are high and the payoff is even higher. She’d never thought of herself as fearless, the kind of person who would fight to stand out. But when she finds something, and someone, to fight for, she will discover that she is braver than she ever thought.

Dodge has never been afraid of Panic. His secret will fuel him, and get him all the way through the game, he’s sure of it. But what he doesn't know is that he’s not the only one with a secret. Everyone has something to play for.

For Heather and Dodge, the game will bring new alliances, unexpected revelations, and the possibility of first love for each of them—and the knowledge that sometimes the very things we fear are those we need the most.

I expected a lot from this book. I didn't get exactly what I was hoping for, but I wasn't disappointed either. The pace was decent, and the plot was sort of thrilling. The characters were typical, but I connected with them a bit as in they made decisions that seemed realistic and matched their personalities. In a way, the characters made the plot predictable, but not too terribly so. The world-building, in all, was pretty good, and I wasn't left hanging.

This book had been raved about a lot, therefore I was expecting something spectacular. Sadly, Panic is pretty average. The pace wasn't fast paced, but it wasn't slow either. A bit slow at first, but after the first 50-60 pages, it picks up more. I read it in a single night, because I had to know what was going to happen to Heather and Dodge next. It was a page turner for sure!

Dodge was dodgy to me. Really. I like an unreliable narrator though, so I sort of liked Dodge. The one thing that really got to me about him was that he was obsessed with Nat, Heather's (the main character's) best friend. It was cute at first, but after so long I got irritated with him and his infatuation. The same thing goes for Heather and her obsession/infatuation with her ex-boyfriend Matt. There was this line at the beginning of the novel that I felt was extremely true.

There's just something about her.

Something about her. Which meant: Nothing about you.

I felt like that is how a lot of girls feel after a guy uses the line, "It's not you; it's me." Not the same line, but still. Same meaning. Trying to pin the blame on themselves or some imaginary force that doesn't exist. Heather just seems so dead set on being with Matt. It's sort of sickening, and it got annoying. Plus, the players' motives for participating in Panic didn't really fly with me. Their backgrounds/histories were a bit shady, which ultimately made them shady as characters.

The one character I liked through and through was Biship. His motives were a bit predictable and cheesy, but in the end I liked him a lot more than the other characters. I originally thought I'd like Dodge, but I ended up not liking him as much. I liked Bishop more than Dodge.

On the world-building side of the story, it was good. There was a page or two in the beginning that explained the background of the city Carp. Usually, this wouldn't work since it would be considered a form of info-dumping, but since the book is written in third person (she, he, they), I think it worked out a lot better than if it was in first person (I, me, we).

Panic was nothing like I expected. I thought it was going to be more action-y and adventurous, but it ended up being thrilling and suspenseful, maybe even a bit mysterious. I'd recommend it to people who have liked Oliver's previous works since the writing is still really good as well as people that are just interested in the synopsis in general. I don't think you'll be too disappointed with Panic if you're already interested in reading it. I think I'll leave this review with my favorite quote.

"That's the thing about trust. You don't know [if you can trust me]."

Tori's Review: Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #3
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★
Pages: 416
Published by HarperCollins on February 4, 2014
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The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love"

Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.

In Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi created a captivating and original story that combined the best of dystopian and paranormal and was praised by Publishers Weekly as "a gripping read from an author who's not afraid to take risks." The sequel, Unravel Me, blew readers away with heart-racing twists and turns, and New York Times bestselling author Kami Garcia said it was "dangerous, sexy, romantic, and intense." Now this final book brings the series to a shocking and climactic end.

Ignite Me was one of my top anticipated books of 2014, and it feels great to finally have read it, and to finish another series. I have to admit that I started out Team Adam, but as the book series went along, I was less Adam and more Warner. If you've read Destroy Me, no doubt you felt the same. Tahereh Mafi has a way with characters. She so beautifully crafts their personalities and their voice as well as their mannerisms. Some people think her writing is choppy, but I think it's genius.

Warner absolutely breaks my heart. His character survived a long character arc since Shatter Me, and that makes me really happy. I'm glad that he's made it out not-so-unscathed but alright. Ever since Destory Me, I've been in love with that dude. In Ignite Me, he made my heart break/swoon/ache. Just all of those adjectives. He made me feel.

He smiles like it hurts.

In my opinion, each and every character in this book has their own demons they need to learn to face. In Fracture Me, we as readers learn that Adam does have his own inner anger that he needs to tame and learn to deal with. If it weren't for Fracture Me, I don't think I would've been ready for Adam's hostile personality in Ignite Me. His anger surprised me.

Other than Warner, Kenji was my favorite. I think if you've read Shatter Me and Unravel Me, you'll know that Kenji is hilarious. But in Ignite Me, I really start to see Kenji and Juliette's friendship for what it is—hilarious. Not in a sense that it doesn't work, but in the sense that they work so well together as friends. They feed off each other.

That's because you're not fragile," Kenji says. "If anything, everyone needs to protect themselves from you. You're like a freaking beast," he says. Then adds, "I mean, you know—like a cute beast. A little beast that tears shit up and breaks the earth and sucks the life out of people."

Plot-wise, Ignite Me was lacking. The common thread throughout the trilogy was that Juliette wanted to take down the Reestablishment, right? But it seemed as though Juliette's sudden drive to make a change was sudden. Too sudden. She wanted to take down the Reestablishment after Warner's father, the leader of the Reestablishment, shot her, which was reasonable, but I felt like it could've been improved a lot. This trilogy has been solely based off relationships and character arcs, which I'm perfectly fine with, but I wished that it had more substance.

And lastly, the world-building was pretty much nonexistent. Tahereh Mafi barely touches on how this dystopian world came to be. I think I remember hearing about radioactive events occurring prior to Shatter Me, but I think it should've been covered more thoroughly. Even at the end of the book, I'm left wondering if Juliette ever truly gets a happy ending. Plus, the action happened within the last 20 pages, which more or less irritated me. I feel like endings should be big. This one wasn't.

In conclusion, if I wanted to rate this book not thinking about its faults, it would no doubt have five stars. But sitting down and really thinking about the book, I can't give it more than five stars. It was amazing, but it wasn't all that. Regardless, Ignite Me will be a 2014 favorite.

On a final note, Tahereh Mafi is very good at hot scenes, let me tell you.

Torsay Reviews: Rise (Eve #3) by Anna Carey

Torsay Reviews is a feature that Lindsay and Tori have where they both read a book together and then review it. These posts will feature both Tori and Lindsay's review of a specific book and maybe even a discussion between the two on what they thought.

Rise by Anna Carey
Series: Eve #3
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Romance
Pages: 310
Published by HarperCollins on April 2, 2013
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How far will you go when you have nothing left to lose?

When she lost her soul mate, Caleb, Eve felt like her world had ended. Trapped in the palace, forced to play the part of the happy, patriotic princess of The New America—and the blushing bride of her father's top adviser—Eve's whole life is a lie. The only thing that keeps her going is Caleb's memory, and the revolution he started.

Now, Eve is taking over where Caleb left off. With the help of Moss, an undercover subversive in the King's court, she plots to take down The New America, beginning with the capital, the City of Sand. Will Eve be able to bring about a new, free world when she's called upon to perform the ultimate act of rebellion—killing her father?

In Rise, Eve must choose who to leave behind, who to save, and who to fight as Anna Carey's epic tale of romance and sacrifice in the chilling dystopia of The New America comes to a stunning conclusion.

Tori's Review

Rating: ♚♚

NOTE: There are spoilers for books one and two, Eve and Once respectively, in this review. Read at your own risk.

If you've read my review of Eve, then you'd know that I loved that book. Like, a lot. There was the right amount of action and romance and mystery that just made the book all that amazing. Then if you've read my review of Once, then you'd know that I wasn't too fond of that one, although I didn't hate it either. Once suffered from Second Book Syndrome, and it just didn't have as much going on as the first book, which made it somewhat boring.

Now if you've read my review of Rise, then--

Oh, wait. That's what you're doing. Right. Knew that.

Onto the review. To be blunt, Rise was boring. Nothing happens until page 280. At least, nothing interesting, anyway. The first 280 pages was a whole bunch of Eve missing Caleb, Eve pretending (yes, I say pretending) to be brave, and Eve putting people in danger. And in the middle, maybe even a little bit of Eve being the naive little girl that she was in book one. Basically, throughout this entire book, the entire book, Eve annoyed the crap out of me. 

Around page 100, Eve helps girls from the Schools that have come to the City escape. Nine of them. At first, it seems like a good idea to her. But then they get on the road and this one girl--Bette--doesn't like her. (Shocker.) Eve begins to realize that this is a bad idea. (No crap?) So Eve's taking these girls to Califia, and at first I think this is a great idea to move the plot along, but no. Again with the nothing happening. They travel for about 100 pages of nothing. Turns out, Bette's stupid, almost gets them killed, and she still manages to despise Eve in her free time.

I think the biggest fault with this book was my lack of emotion toward the characters. Well, any emotion other than hate. I think that a book's characters should be memorable enough that even if it takes me three years to pick up the next book, I should still remember how much I cared about the characters. I didn't care about any of the characters in Rise. Also, I don't think Carey gives us enough time to cultivate feelings for the girls from the Schools that Eve brings to Califia. The book seemed rushed to me. 

Nothing happened (I've said this several times, I realize), but things were still rushed. When I say nothing happened, I mean nothing important happened. The events that did occur seemed irrelevant to me. In Eve and even in Once, the major plot points were clear and big and meaningful, but in Rise they just didn't seem as, you know, clear and big and meaningful.

In conclusion, I just wasn't feeling it with Rise. I'm not going to say that Rise ruined the series for me, because I don't regret reading the trilogy, per say. It's just that it wasn't the best ending that could've happened for the trilogy. I think the ending should've been bigger and better and just more monumental than it actually was.

Lindsay's Review

Rating: ♚♚

When an author concludes a series, I feel like there should be a big buildup throughout the last book. There should be major issues, major self discovery where applicable, and end with a note that ties up loose ends but leaves the reader wanting more. To be honest, as much as I enjoyed the Rise series, it just didn't do that for me.

Because this is a conclusion book, I won't talk much about the characters, major plot spoilers and issues as much. I like to look more at how it ended a series I spent my time reading. Once ended with a whimper rather than a bang. There was a lot going on, I'll give Carey that. However I felt no build up, no pressure, no stress with what was happening. And then how it ended - I won't spoil this part for you, but I must say that I do not understand how that person at the end of the novel existed. It just makes me angry almost to think about how throughout the book there were no explanations or mentions of this possibility, and then it happens.

Character-wise, Once was lacking. There was a bunch of new girls added into the mix from the schools who were either forgettable or irrelevant, old characters killed off without a second thought, and even though Eve was changing, something was missing with her relationships. She almost seemed like a numb character, like she was detached from everything and not in an artistic writing way. I also noticed that there were a lot of characters throughout the novel with such little parts that made the book feel like a rough draft. Mauve from Califia, her daughter, Bette, Beatrice and Sarah. They all just seemed irrelevant to me and didn't seem to have a purpose to the plot whatsoever.

And don't get me started on Caleb being dead the entire novel.

He would have made the book more readable, and I think it was a dumb move for Anna Carey to cut him out because romance is what sells with readers these days.

For some readers there was no epilogue at the end of the book unless they got the book after it's first publication. I was excited at the chance to read it, given the ending. And when I closed the book I really didn't understand why the epilogue was needed. It was irrelevant and overall frustrating. Some parts were cute but it didn't really make the point of even including it. Sure, the new world is crumbling after everything Eve has done and they're going back to Califia, but really, why is this needed? It just ruined what I had previously read and honestly, kind of made me hate Eve who I defended the entire book.

If you're in the middle of the series, I suggest finishing it, just because I can't stand leaving a series halfway through. Eve was fantastic and could have been a great standalone book, but the series seemed to tumble downward instead of creating a buildup. I'm disappointed with the ending of the trilogy, but will keep the first book as a favorite regardless.

WoW: The Murder Complex (The Murder Complex #1) by Lindsay Cummings (12)

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Series: The Murder Complex #1
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Science Fiction
Pages: 400
Published by HarperCollins on June 10, 2014
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An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings. 

This book just sounds awesome. 'Nuff said.

Tori's Review: Once by Anna Carey

Once by Anna Carey
Series: Eve #3
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Romance
Rating: ★★★
Pages: 354
Published by HarperCollins on July 3, 2012
Date Read: September 16, 2013
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

When you're being hunted, who can you trust?
For the first time since she escaped from her school many months ago, Eve can sleep soundly. She's living in Califia, a haven for women, protected from the terrifying fate that awaits orphaned girls in The New America.
But her safety came at a price: She was forced to abandon Caleb, the boy she loves, wounded and alone at the city gates. When Eve gets word that Caleb is in trouble, she sets out into the wild again to rescue him, only to be captured and brought to the City of Sand, the capital of The New America.
Trapped inside the City walls, Eve uncovers a shocking secret about her past--and is forced to confront the harsh reality of her future. When she discovers Caleb is alive, Eve attempts to flee her prison so they can be together--but the consequences could be deadly. She must make a desperate choice to save the ones she loves . . . or risk losing Caleb forever.
In this breathless sequel to "Eve," Anna Carey returns to her tale of romance, adventure, and sacrifice in a world that is both wonderfully strange and chillingly familiar.

Tori's Waiting on Wednesday: Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi 
Series: Shatter Me #3
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Paranormal
Pages: 352
Published by HarperCollins on February 4, 2014

The heart-stopping conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, which Ransom Riggs, bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, called "a thrilling, high-stakes saga of self-discovery and forbidden love"
Juliette now knows she may be the only one who can stop the Reestablishment. But to take them down, she'll need the help of the one person she never thought she could trust: Warner. And as they work together, Juliette will discover that everything she thought she knew-about Warner, her abilities, and even Adam-was wrong.

Tori's Review: Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi

Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi
Series: Shatter Me #2
Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Romance
Rating: ★★★★★
Pages: 461
Published by HarperCollins on February 5, 2013
Date Read: August 23, 2013
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

tick
tick
tick
tick
tick
it's almost
time for war.
Juliette has escaped to Omega Point. It is a place for people like her—people with gifts—and it is also the headquarters of the rebel resistance.
She's finally free from The Reestablishment, free from their plan to use her as a weapon, and free to love Adam. But Juliette will never be free from her lethal touch.
Or from Warner, who wants Juliette more than she ever thought possible.
In this exhilarating sequel to Shatter Me, Juliette has to make life-changing decisions between what she wants and what she thinks is right. Decisions that might involve choosing between her heart—and Adam's life.

Tori's Review: Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi

Destroy Me by Tahereh Mafi

Series: Shatter Me #1.5

Genre: Dystopia, Young Adult, Romance

Rating: ★★★★★
Pages: 103

Published by Harper on October 2, 2012

Date Finished: July 31, 2013
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Perfect for the fans of Shatter Me who are desperately awaiting the release of Unravel Me, this novella-length digital original will bridge the gap between these two novels from the perspective of the villain we all love to hate, Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.
In Tahereh Mafi’s Shatter Me, Juliette escaped from The Reestablishment by seducing Warner—and then putting a bullet in his shoulder. But as she’ll learn in Destroy Me, Warner is not that easy to get rid of. . .
Back at the base and recovering from his near-fatal wound, Warner must do everything in his power to keep his soldiers in check and suppress any mention of a rebellion in the sector. Still as obsessed with Juliette as ever, his first priority is to find her, bring her back, and dispose of Adam and Kenji, the two traitors who helped her escape. But when Warner’s father, The Supreme Commander of The Reestablishment, arrives to correct his son’s mistakes, it’s clear that he has much different plans for Juliette. Plans Warner simply cannot allow.
Set after Shatter Me and before its forthcoming sequel, Unravel Me, Destroy Me is a novella told from the perspective of Warner, the ruthless leader of Sector 45.

Tori's Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Series: Shatter Me #1
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia, Romance
Rating: ★★★½
Pages: 338Published by Harper on November 15, 2011
Date Finished: July 21, 2013
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Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.
The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.
The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.
Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.