Me on Pyromantic

Title: Pyromantic
Author: Lish McBride
Release Date: March 21, 2017
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. (Macmillan imprint)

Ava is having a rough time. Getting rid of Venus didn't set her free—she's still part of the magical mafia called the Coterie. Her new boss seems like an improvement, but who knows if he'll stay that way—the Coterie life changes people. And since Ava's currently avoiding her friends after (disastrously) turning down a date with Lock, well, everything kind of sucks. And that's not even taking into account the feelings she might have for him. But when a mysterious illness starts to affect magical beings, it's up to Ava and her team to stop its spread… or else one of them might be next.

Pyromantic is all danger and magic and family. It's the story of a girl and those she keeps close, those she tolerates, those she works for, and their attempts to keep everyone alive when something deadly and gross pops up in their area.

Ava is this wild combo of fire and snark and mediator and awkward teen. She's rough and powerful, fire in her veins and sparking out of her fingers when she's not careful or feeling awkward around Lock, and ready to get in a fight if anyone threatens anyone she keeps close. Like Lock and Ezra, her best friends. Like her supportive dad Cade and her excitable and nerdy but always supportive friend Sylvie. The Coterie? Not so much. Well, not when Venus was her boss. Now that it's this guy named Alistair, and that he's not exactly pure evil, Ava's got some second thoughts about the Coterie lifestyle. Maybe it's not all super evil? Maybe? But that doesn't mean her work for them is any lighter or easier. If anything, it's a lot more dangerous this time.

I love this book. It picks up where Firebug ended, right back into Ava's life with Cade and her awkwardness around Lock and her hunting down murderers and weird stuff for the Coterie. The combination of paranormal creatures and action and intrigue and family and friendship and banter and awkward moments worked for me. It all came together, to me, rather seamlessly. It just all fit. This bizarre found family all full of people with different abilities and vices and perspectives. If you're any kind of Lish McBride fan, you'll love this book.

(I borrowed a hardcover copy of this title from the library.)

Me on Extraordinary Means

Title: Extraordinary Means
Author: Robyn Schneider
Release Date: May 26, 2015
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins imprint)

At seventeen, overachieving Lane finds himself at Latham House, a sanatorium for teens suffering from an incurable strain of tuberculosis. Part hospital and part boarding school, Latham is a place of endless rules and confusing rituals, where it's easier to fail breakfast than it is to flunk French. There, Lane encounters a girl he knew years ago. Instead of the shy loner he remembers, Sadie has transformed. At Latham, she is sarcastic, fearless, and utterly compelling. Her friends, a group of eccentric troublemakers, fascinate Lane, who has never stepped out of bounds his whole life. And as he gradually becomes one of them, Sadie shows him their secrets: how to steal internet, how to sneak into town, and how to disable the med sensors they must wear at all times. But there are consequences to having secrets, particularly at Latham House. And as Lane and Sadie begin to fall in love and their group begins to fall sicker, their insular world threatens to come crashing down.

Extraordinary Means is an intriguing look at disease, at the different ways we live, at the different definitions we have for living, and at the second chances we get when it looks like our first is about to run out.

Lane is new to Latham House, a tuberculosis sanatorium for teens. He doesn't want to be there, doesn't want to be sick, and he doesn't understand the doctor's orders. Think of Latham as a vacation? as time away from school to rest? Lane has plans. College, summer internships, business or law school. There's no time for him to be sick, to take nature walks or long naps. He can't be left behind. He can't stay there. He needs to get back to his life.

Sadie is sarcastic, creative, and fearless, but more than a year in Latham House has changed her. If she was sent home, would she know how to life? She acts like her life is on hold, like it will always be on hold. Like she's now living this alternate life of sneaking out, sneaking in contraband, and never taking anything seriously. But then she meets Lane, someone who wants out, someone who wants to go back to their life outside of sickness, and Sadie realizes that life inside Latham House isn't life.

I found the disease, the completely fictional completely drug resistant tuberculosis, rather intriguing. TB attacks the lungs, attacks young people, settles in them and halts their lives. And then what? Lane and Sadie's lives are stuck on pause, waiting. Waiting for anything. To get better, to get worse, a cure. But until then, all they can do is wait. What about their lives? They're stuck not moving forward, not learning, not experiencing all the crap that teens experience. Instead of something, there's nothing but a narrow bed, a wait, and a tissue to cough blood into.

I think a lot of this book is about second chances, about what we do in order to feel like we're alive. At the beginning, Lane's attempts at normal wear him down. He has to keep up with school, he just has to, but it makes things worse. Sadie sneaks out and sneaks contraband into Latham House in order to make it feel like the outside world, but it never really does. There are still alert bracelets and nurses, still confining walls and well-meaning doctors. It's not living, but Lane and Sadie try and make the best of it. Until everything changes. I do think fans of the author's previous book will enjoy this as well as contemporary YA fans looking for something a little serious.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from HarperCollins Canada.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (115)

Waiting on Wednesday is a bunch of weekly fun hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. :)

Title: Inhuman
Author: Kat Falls
Release Date: May 1, 2013
Publisher: Scholastic

From Goodreads:

In a world ravaged by mutation, a teenage girl must travel into the forbidden Savage Zone to recover lost artifacts or her father’s life is forfeit.

America has been ravaged by a war that has left the eastern half of the country riddled with mutation. Many of the people there exhibit varying degrees of animal traits. Even the plantlife has gone feral.

Crossing from west to east is supposed to be forbidden, but sometimes it’s necessary. Some enter the Savage Zone to provide humanitarian relief. Sixteen-year-old Lane’s father goes there to retrieve lost artifacts—he is a Fetch. It’s a dangerous life, but rewarding—until he’s caught.

Desperate to save her father, Lane agrees to complete his latest job. That means leaving behind her life of comfort and risking life and limb—and her very DNA—in the Savage Zone. But she’s not alone. In order to complete her objective, Lane strikes a deal with handsome, roguish Rafe. In exchange for his help as a guide, Lane is supposed to sneak him back west. But though Rafe doesn’t exhibit any signs of “manimal” mutation, he’s hardly civilized . . . and he may not be trustworthy.

I know what you're saying, you're tired of dystopian. I'm sort of getting there, it helps that I like different genres and will always be a paranormal sort of girl. That being said, this sounds different enough that it could be interesting. :) Maybe like Partials but better (I was 'meh' on Partials).

Me on The Lives We Lost

Title: The Lives We Lost
Author: Megan Crewe
Release Date: February 12, 2013
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

A deadly virus has destroyed Kaelyn's small island community and spread beyond the quarantine. No one is safe. But when Kaelyn finds samples of a vaccine in her father's abandoned lab, she knows there must be someone, somewhere, who can replicate it. As Kaelyn and her friends head to the mainland, then encounter a world that's beyond recognition. It's not only the "friendly flu" that's a killer, there are people who will stop at nothing to get their hands on the vaccine. How much will Kaelyn risk for an unproven cure, where the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?

The Lives We Lost is an exploration of humanity, of inner strength, of the drive to stay alive. The world around Kaelyn is slowly descending into utter madness and chaos, and she will have to battle her way through everything that's thrown at her in order to complete her mission: to return the world to what it once was. To bring back everything that's disappeared under the snow.

The book, the series, is eerily realistic. The disease, the bleakness of the situation, the degradation of society and governments, the sudden loss of the things that were once easy to obtain like food, heat, and shelter, the struggle for survival. The situation is not over-blown or exaggerated, not filled with action or battles for the cold box or constant drawing of guns, but it is tense enough to keep your heart pounding past the last page.

Kaelyn is pushed down by the weight of everything on her shoulders, but she's the one who put it there. She's the one who had the idea to take the vaccine off the island, she's the one who wants to save everyone, she's the one who wants her peaceful life with her healthy parents and her friends back. And she will go as far as it takes. Will she do anything? I don't think so, we all have our limits, but she believes in this cause so strongly that she will travel as far as she must. Previously, it was Kaelyn against the disease, against herself as she built up her strength and courage. Now, it's her against the world, a world far different than the one she remembers, a world far more dangerous and desolate.

In the first book, Kaelyn recounted the events of the disease on the island to Leo in a journal, but now he's there, now he's right there with her. But so is Gavin. It's something she doesn't need, to be pulled between Gav's support and Leo's familiarity, but it's what she gets. And sometimes it's both that help her continue the long walk.

There is something about this book that is utterly depressing, perhaps it's the complete breakdown of society as we know it now, but you can't help but have hope for Kaelyn and her group. You can't help but hope they make it, that Kaelyn finds the right people to give the vaccine to, that they all make it there alive. They have the strength and the resolve to continue on this seemingly impossible journey, they can only hope the world doesn't come after them before they reach the destination. It will be a long and arduous wait for the final book of the trilogy.

(I received an advance copy to review from Hachette Book Group Canada.)