Me on Defy the Worlds

Title: Defy the Worlds
Author: Claudia Gray
Release Date: April 3, 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

Shunned after a trip through the galaxy with Abel, the most advanced cybernetic man ever created, Noemi Vidal dreams of traveling through the stars one more time. And when a deadly plague arrives on Genesis, Noemi gets her chance. As the only soldier to have ever left the planet, it will be up to her to save its people... if only she wasn't flying straight into a trap. On the run to avoid his depraved creator's clutches, Abel believes he's said good-bye to Noemi for the last time. After all, the entire universe stands between them... or so he thinks. When word reaches him of Noemi's capture by the very person he's trying to escape, Abel knows he must go to her, no matter the cost. But capturing Noemi was only part of Burton Mansfield's master plan. In a race against time, Abel and Noemi will come together once more to discover a secret that could save the known worlds, or destroy them all.

Defy the Worlds is a return to characters flawed and familiar and a journey through time. Even though Noemi and Abel are apart, there are still forces at work around them. Forces determined to see their plans through, to survive no matter the cost. The two will have to come together if they want to see a world saved and secrets revealed that could turn the tide of war.

After their time together, racing from planet to planet, coming to terms with their missions, their humanity, Noemi and Abel are apart. Noemi is back on Genesis, continuing her time as a soldier in order to keep it safe in the long war with Earth. Even if she still feels uncomfortable, even if other soldiers around her no longer trust her. See her as a liability. She's back, turning everything she saw, everything she went through over and over in her head. Abel is traveling the stars with a rather sparse Vagabond crew of two, keeping them under the radar. Keeping himself hidden from his creator, Burton Mansfield. The aging genius who would have Abel's mechanical body as a place for his own mind when his body finally gives out. But Abel's discovered his humanity, his desire to stay alive, to stay himself. He will do whatever it takes to stay hidden, and in turn, keep Noemi safe. But then he receives word that Noemi has been kidnapped, and Abel must find the man he's been hiding from.

In this second book, the picture is expanding. It's still Noemi and Abel, their motivations and their missions, their humanity and their determination. But other forces are at work. Burton Mansfield and his daughter Gillian, they have their plans for the future. Plans that rely on certain things, like secrecy. Like Abel. So much is revealed in this book, things only hinted at in the first. Abel's newfound humanity and individuality continue, this artificial being discovering what it is both to be alive and be the only one. What I enjoy is seeing Noemi and Abel continue to be different people, Noemi's soldier training and headstrong ways alongside Abel's predictions and practicality and curiosity when faced with the possibility that he might not be alone. But both will do whatever it takes to keep the other alive and safe. After the ending, I'm desperate for the next, to see what will happen and what it will cost the both of them.

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

Me on Obsidio

Title: Obsidio
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Release Date: March 13, 2018
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House imprint)

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.

Obsidio is the end of a journey both epic and seemingly impossible. It's the conclusion, the race back to where it all began. Back to Kerenza IV and a chance at getting back home, a chance at saving so many lives. A chance to show the universe the consequences of corporate greed, the number of lives lost, and the strength six people found in order to keep moving forward.

Kady and Ezra are alive, Hanna and Nik are back together, Nik's cousin Ella is somehow hanging on, and both groups have come together to make some tough decisions. The jump station is gone, resources are limited, and everyone is desperate to make it back home, make it out of the sector. So the decision is made: head back to Kerenza IV, hopefully survive long enough against BeiTech, and use their jump platform. What they don't know is that Kerenza IV isn't a smouldering crater, that some of the colony survived the initial attack, keeping quiet and compliant in order to survive. What they don't know is that a resistance is slowly acting, waiting for a chance to break free. What Kady doesn't know is that her cousin Asha is alive.

There was something about this third book that made it especially harsh, especially brutal. There's a glimpse into what it means to sign up for service, military or otherwise, and not have it turn out how you thought it would. What it means to be part of an occupation from both sides, the despair and the weariness of being a civilian under control, and the grating of horrific actions against conscience for a soldier. The sleepless nights and the days of numbness that follow. There was definitely a lump in the back of my throat during some of those sections.

As a whole, this trilogy is expansive and epic, packed with stories of humanity and resilience, of survival, of hope and fear. Of the evils that exist and those who hope to stand tall against them, reveal their secrets to the eyes and ears of the unsuspecting. Against all odds they have survived again and again, hoping that everything they do will count in the end. That their actions will make a difference. That BeiTech will pay for every single death they caused. The way this series is told, through found footage and e-mails, audio files and classified reports and posters, makes it all the more powerful. And AIDEN, of course, was AIDEN. Fans of the previous books will definitely enjoy this conclusion, this end to a journey full of danger and hope.

(I purchased a copy of this title.)

Me on Your One & Only

Title: Your One & Only
Author: Adrianne Finlay
Release Date: February 6 2018
Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint)

Jack is a walking fossil. The only human among a sea of clones. It’s been hundreds of years since humanity died off in the slow plague, leaving the clones behind to carry on human existence. Over time they've perfected their genes, moving further away from the imperfections of humanity. But if they really are perfect, why did they create Jack? While Jack longs for acceptance, Althea-310 struggles with the feeling that she's different from her sisters. Her fascination with Jack doesn't help. As Althea and Jack's connection grows stronger, so does the threat to their lives. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?

Your One & Only is slightly haunting. It's a future of order and perfection built on the need to survive and the sacrifices of humanity. But there will always be consequences in the search for perfection.

Jack is alone, the only human being in a city of clones. The only one without a pre-destined role. The only one who knows music. The only one with asthma. Compared to the others, he is as flawed as possible. Unpredictable. Then why did they create him? What is the reason behind his existence, when they despise him so much?

Althea-310 is like all the other Gen-310 Althea clones, like all the Althea clones before her. Apart from the scar around her wrist, the sign that she wasn't grown perfectly and needed a replacement hand, she's indistinguishable from her sisters. But she still feels out of place. A little distant from the others. Jack intrigues her, he isn't like any of the other clones. Because he's human. There's only one of him. And so many of the other clones hate him. But when strange things start to happen around them, Althea-310 doesn't understand why the Council is quick to blame Jack. Why they're so eager to name him as the cause of their problems. Why they're keeping so many things secret from the others.

This book takes the human condition and strips it out of the clones, leaving behind genetically-altered beings who function without impulse, creativity, or affection. They fill roles destined for them, designed for them. And then they bring in Jack, with all his human emotions and imperfections and perceptions, and the clones don't know what to do beyond ridicule him and shun him. Anything that isn't them they hate. But they're crumbling at their cores, not knowing or caring that what they need is to return to those human flaws. There were a few parts that I wasn't so sure about, like why there was such cruelty aimed towards Jack. Why have clones with their genes altered in order to eliminate disease but still have them know hatred and violence? I don't think this really became the story I was expecting, but I imagine others might enjoy it, those intrigued by futures and questions about humanity raised in Cloud Atlas or Never Let Me Go.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Raincoast Books.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (361)

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

Title: Defy the Worlds
Author: Claudia Gray
Release Date: April 3, 2018
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

From Goodreads:

Noemi Vidal has returned to her planet, Genesis, as an outsider. Ostracized for refusing to sacrifice Abel, the galaxy's most advanced mechanical man, she dreams of traveling through the stars one more time. And when a deadly plague arrives on Genesis, Noemi gets her chance. As the only soldier to have ever left the planet, it will be up to her to save its people...if only she wasn't flying right into a trap.

Abel, now fully aware of his soul and captaining his own ship, never thought he'd get to see Noemi again, not when the entire universe stands between them. But when his creator, Burton Mansfield, delivers news of Noemi's capture, Abel must go to her, no matter the cost.

In a race against time, Abel and Noemi band together to stop Mansfield once and for all. The depraved scientist has engineered a way to achieve immortality, but that technology comes with perils of its own. Abel and Noemi are about to discover a secret that could save Genesis and Earth...or destroy them all.

I read Defy the Stars last year and love it. It was the right kind of deep space race against time sci-fi I was looking for. It was tense and complicated in the right places.

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (351)

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

Title: Obsidio
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Release Date: March 13, 2018
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House imprint)

From Goodreads:

Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? 

Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. 

With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken.

Yesssssssss. I've been vocal in how much I love this series. It's different and weird and complicated and epic and deadly and I want to know how it all ends while having it not end. Because it's so good.

Me on That Inevitable Victorian Thing

Title: That Inevitable Victorian Thing
Author: E.K. Johnston
Release Date: October 3, 2017
Publisher: Dutton (Penguin imprint)

Victoria-Margaret is the crown princess of the empire, a direct descendant of Victoria I, the queen who changed the course of history two centuries earlier. The imperial practice of genetically arranged matchmaking will soon guide Margaret into a politically advantageous marriage like her mother before her, but before she does her duty, she'll have one summer incognito in a far corner of empire. In Toronto, she meets Helena Marcus, daughter of one of the empire's greatest placement geneticists, and August Callaghan, the heir apparent to a powerful shipping firm currently besieged by American pirates. In a summer of high-society debutante balls, politically charged tea parties, and romantic country dances, Margaret, Helena, and August discover they share an unusual bond and maybe a one in a million chance to have what they want and to change the world in the process —just like the first Queen Victoria.

That Inevitable Victorian Thing is charming and intelligent, hopeful and kind, and oh so witty. It's an adjustment of the past and a look towards the future for three young people full of worry and expectations.

Victoria-Margaret is a crown princess. One day she will be queen of the empire. But until then, she's Margaret, a young British woman spending the summer in Canada before heading back home. Home where expectations, like finding a future spouse, await. She's kind, intelligent, and wondering if there's anything that could be hers in the future. Helena is quiet and thoughtful, a young woman who doesn't expect anything too grand in her life. She's happy enough to live quietly with her parents, and one day with her husband, who might very well be family friend August Callaghan. But is she sure? Is that really what she wants? Especially when she discovers something rather important and life-changing about herself. August is sure of his future, he knows he will spend it with the family's shipping firm. Even though their ships are being cornered by pirates. Even though he might've screwed up here and there trying to fix it all. Even though he's stubborn as a mule. He'll still have Helena by his side. Right?

Like most E.K. Johnston books, the world-building is exquisite and extensive. I so adore the premise of this book, where it started in history and took a turn. This is like if the wrongs of history were known and were righted sooner than they have been. If racial diversity had been embraced by Queen Victoria in terms of who her children and grandchildren should marry, and by extension the rest of the British Empire, instead of continuing the tradition of marrying into white European royal houses. But like all E.K. Johnston books, the characters are just as wonderful. Full of sense and practicality and curiosity. These three young people have their whole lives ahead of them, but who knows, when all is said and done, what the future will bring. Or what they will turn the future into.

As I read this book, I wondered if I'd ever be able to articulate my thoughts and feelings on it. In the end, all I have is how I felt while and after reading. This bizarre, charming creature made up of Victorian Era tones and moods, wonderfully funny Canadian references, the religion of genetics, and honest compassion. The heartfelt, hopeful attempt at making history better than it is. The wide range of diversity it holds, from race to sexuality to ability. This book is impossible to describe. It's full of wondrous charm and sense, of practicality and honesty. It doesn't talk down to the reader, no matter their age. I would definitely recommend this to readers looking for hope and sense in the world, to those looking for something completely different.

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

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (340)

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

Title: This Mortal Coil
Author: Emily Suvada
Release Date: November 7, 2017
Publisher: Simon Pulse (Simon & Schuster imprint)

From Goodreads:

In this gripping debut novel, seventeen-year-old Cat must use her gene-hacking skills to decode her late father’s message concealing a vaccine to a horrifying plague.

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.

That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.

When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.

Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?

I like the cover, the red dust explosion and the title's implications of mortality. I get the feeling that people are going to die in this book.

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (309)

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

Title: The Edge of the Abyss
Author: Emily Skrutskie
Release Date: April 18, 2017
Publisher: Flux Books

From Goodreads:

Three weeks have passed since Cassandra Leung pledged her allegiance to the ruthless pirate-queen Santa Elena and set free Bao, the sea monster Reckoner she’d been forced to train. The days as a pirate trainee are long and grueling, but it’s not the physical pain that Cas dreads most. It’s being forced to work with Swift, the pirate girl who broke her heart. 

But Cas has even bigger problems when she discovers that Bao is not the only monster swimming free. Other Reckoners illegally sold to pirates have escaped their captors and are taking the NeoPacific by storm, attacking ships at random and ruining the ocean ecosystem. As a Reckoner trainer, Cas might be the only one who can stop them. But how can she take up arms against creatures she used to care for and protect?

Will Cas embrace the murky morals that life as a pirate brings or perish in the dark waters of the NeoPacific?

Yessssss. I want it now. The Abyss Surrounds Us was a big surprise for me this year, it was so different and so interesting. Twists I wasn't expecting. I want to know how this duology ends, what happens to Cas and Swift, and where they end up.

Me on All In

Title: All In
Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Release Date: November 3, 2015
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Three casinos. Three bodies. Three days. After a string of brutal murders in Las Vegas, Cassie Hobbes and the Naturals are called in to investigate. But even with the team's unique profiling talents, these murders seem baffling: unlike many serial killers, this one uses different methods every time. All of the victims were killed in public, yet the killer does not show up on any tape. And each victim has a string of numbers tattooed on their wrist. Hidden in the numbers is a code—and the closer the Naturals come to unraveling the mystery, the more perilous the case becomes. Meanwhile, Cassie is dealing with an equally dangerous and much more painful mystery. For the first time in years, there's been a break in her mother's case. As personal issues and tensions between the team mount, Cassie and the Naturals will be faced with impossible odds—and impossible choices.

All In continues the overall theme and mood from the first two books, continues the tension and the mystery, the intrigue and the danger. There's always a killer out there waiting to be caught, there are always clues left behind in the things they do, the people they kill, and there's always someone watching and piecing it all together.

It doesn't take long for Cassie to get slammed by painful memories again. The loss of her mother, the lack of knowledge as to what really happened to her, if she's really dead or just missing. But then she gets some news. They think they found her body. But Cassie doesn't have time for grieving all over again. Not when she and the other Naturals are on their way to Las Vegas in order to help with an ongoing case. No more cold cases.

Everyone's demons creep out a little here, reminding the reader that Cassie isn't the only one with skeletons in her closet. There's Michael's... relationship with his father, Sloane's issues stemming from her past before the Naturals program, Dean still coming to terms with his childhood and what his father made him do (but he is getting better with that, being supportive with Cassie). And as always, Lia being Lia. Cassie is the glue that holds them all together. She knows that. But can she keep it up after all this new information about her mother?

I regret that I didn't pick this up sooner because I couldn't stop reading it. Like Cassie and the others, I had to find out who the killer was. I had to know who did it and why, what their reasoning was, what the patterns meant. And the twist at the end? Fans of the previous two books will certainly enjoy this one and scramble to read the fourth once they finish.

(I borrowed an e-book of this title from the library.)

Me on Gemina

Title: Gemina
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Release Date: October 18, 2016
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House imprint)

On board the space station Heimdall is Hanna, the station captain's pampered daughter, and Nik. the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. While the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion. When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren't just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands. But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.

Gemina is a story of fear, worry, survival, and impossibility. It's a meeting point in deep space where everything is about to explode. We know what's already happened, we know what's coming. Now we get to see the impact.

Hanna is the station captain's daughter. She's smart, skilled, tough as nails, and totally has her dad wrapped around her little finger when it comes to getting what she wants. Sure, she's spoiled, and sure, she doesn't want to be stuck on a space station where nothing exciting ever happens, but that doesn't mean she can't make her own fun. Like hanging out with her friends, spending a little quality time with her boyfriend. But she's no idiot. Nik is like a classic nice guy, except he's caught up in some family politics. Which can get pretty sticky and hard to escape when your family is a crime family. When you're knee deep in a current job. When you've already been to prison. But he's surviving, being on the station. He has things that get him through days. Like the chats with his cousin. Like the chats with Hanna.

Apart from Hanna and Nik, we get a good look at the bigger picture. At BeiTech's plots and plans, at their determination and ruthlessness. We get BeiTech's highly skilled team of "auditors," led by a seemingly calm and calculating monster of a man. We get a group of well-trained operatives who go in expecting business as usual and end up in a perfect storm of catastrophes. And because they're cold-blooded killers, it's hard to feel sad when they die.

AIDEN. Because of course AIDEN would be back. How could it not come back? How could it not return, say the most obvious and logical things, and give the human characters chances to snarkily talk back? How could readers pass up the chance to witness AIDEN's continued fracturing?

Even with the book written in chats, audio logs, and video transcriptions, you can find the differences in the characters. Their choice of words, the different degrees of their worry and panic. Their skills and how they use them. Hanna's trained in martial arts, she can definitely handle herself in a fight. Nik is your classic nice guy stuck in a bad situation, he's tough but that doesn't mean he's not afraid. This is an exciting, deadly, tense continuation from the situation that first started in Illuminae, that first started with the attack on Kerenza IV, and I can't wait to see how it will all unfold in the last book.

(I received an advance copy of this title from another review blogger.)

Me on The Swan Riders

Title: The Swan Riders
Author: Erin Bow
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry (Simon & Schuster imprint)

Greta Stuart has become AI. New transmitters have silvered her fingerprints. New receptors have transformed her vision. And the whole of her memory has become one book in a vast library of instant knowledge. Greta is ready to rule the world. But the new technology is also killing her. Greta is only sixteen years old, but her new enhancements are burning through her mortal body at an alarming rate. Of course the leader of the AIs, an ancient and compelling artificial intelligence named Talis, has a plan. Greta can simply do what he's done when the time comes, and take over the body of one of the Swan Riders, the utterly loyal humans who serve the AIs as part army, part cult. First though, Greta will have to find a way to stay sane inside her new self. Talis's plan for that involves a road trip. Escorted by Swan Riders, Greta and Talis set out on a horseback journey across the strange and not-quite-deserted landscape of Saskatchewan. But there are other people interested in Greta, people who want to change the world... and the Swan Riders might not be as loyal as they appear.

The Swan Riders is tense, full of gambles and plots and plans. It's a look at what it is to be human, what makes us human, and the lengths we will go to in order to keep our humanity. In order to keep those around us human and sympathetic.

Greta, now an AI with a failing human body, is struggling with a number of problems. One is the decaying of her body. The memories that overwhelm her, that remind her what she left behind. The torture. The quiet moments with Xie. It can hold her AI consciousness for a time, but not forever, and one day she'll have to pick a new body if she wants to continue to move around. Another is Talis, for a number of reasons. And one is the Swan Riders, the army of young people who've volunteered to be the bodies for the AIs. As a former princess, a girl turned captive in order to keep the peace, she knows the Swan Riders as murderers. As angels coming down to Earth in order to carry out justice, to kill the royal children of the parents that dare go to war.

Talis. Oh, Talis. You never expect an AI to be so layered. But circumstances have changed. Talis has changed. Meeting Greta. Being in Rachel's body. The journey to the Red Mountains. His relationship with Greta has changed, from omnipotent intelligence vs stoic princess into something more of a friendship, a companionship. Greta has changed Talis, just as he changed her.

Knowing there would be a follow-up to the punch in the gut that was The Scorpion Rules, I wasn't sure what I expected to find here. More Greta, more of the struggle between her human emotions and her new AI brain, yes. More Talis being amoral and calculating, of course. But I don't know that I expected this. This exploration of what it is to be human. This look at devotion and faith, at the lengths we go to in order to send our message, our hopes, to those we look up to as gods. This book definitely expands on the world of the AIs and their Swan Riders, expands on purpose and end goals. This wasn't the book I expected, I'd hoped for a moment between Greta and Xie but it never happened, but I do think this was a good follow-up. I never knew what was going to happen, who was going to act first, or how Greta was going to fight back in order to keep those she cares about safe. When you read this, be prepared for another punch to the gut.

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

Me on Spare & Found Parts

Title: Spare and Found Parts
Author: Sarah Maria Griffin
Release Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins imprint)

Nell Crane has always been an outsider. In a city devastated by an epidemic, where survivors are all missing parts—an arm, a leg, an eye—her father is the famed scientist who created the biomechanical limbs everyone now uses. But Nell is the only one whose mechanical piece is on the inside: her heart. Since the childhood operation, she has ticked. Like a clock, like a bomb. As her community rebuilds, everyone is expected to contribute to the society's good... but how can Nell live up to her father's revolutionary idea when she has none of her own? Then she finds a mannequin hand while salvaging on the beach—the first boy's hand she's ever held—and inspiration strikes. Can Nell build her own companion in a world that fears advanced technology? The deeper she sinks into this plan, the more she learns about her city—and her father, who is hiding secret experiments of his own.

Spare and Found Parts is at times enchanting and other times frightening, a cautioning against relying too much on technology and a welcoming embrace of it. Of the multitude of things it can show us, teach us. It's a story of a lonely girl searching for a companion, searching for answers. Looking to make her mark on the world.

Nell is a quiet and lonely girl who resents the ticking in her chest. She's looking to make the decisions when it comes to her future before anyone else does. Trapped in the shadows of her accomplished parents, pioneers in contributions that helped save the town. More than a hundred years after the Turn, after the pulses that swept across the land and made so many sick, there are only so many options Nell has when it comes to the future. She can go away to the Pasture, a place of quiet and without the chance to experiment. She can marry, which is a thing that makes her sick, especially to someone like Oliver Kelly. She can head to the stoneyard, build up the statue her mother first envisioned. Or she can contribute something to the community, make something of herself, something the town needs. But what can she contribute? Her tinkering can only go so far with secret batteries and no codes. She needs something more, wants something more. But can she make a companion, a person, a human soul, out of spare parts?

The reader is set down and eased into Nell's world, a world that's come out of our own. A world without higher technology, without computers, after a devastating apocalypse that left many dead and most of the living scarred. Now people must contribute to society, must do something that will boost morale or provide for the community. Something without the use of computers than can think for themselves. You can see the pokes taken at the modern day and its obsession with technology, with creating a machine that can do the work for you. The pokes at the lack of human conversation and interaction that screens and the Internet can provide. But technology isn't all evil.

This is like a steampunk-esque post-apocalyptic futuristic reimagining of Frankenstein and his creation in a world that fears technology. I think this book nudges towards finding the middle ground between technology and humanity, between creating and advancing and not moving away from human contact. And I think Nell's search for a companion, her desire to build one, is her way of having someone in her life that doesn't expect anything from her. It'll just be, be there to be with her, to talk with her and share with her, and make no demands. Some of the later chapters have a certain charm brought on by a certain character. And the last chapter made me chuckle. I would definitely recommend this to readers looking for something a little different, like Leah Bobet's An Inheritance of Ashes or Moïra Fowley-Doyle's The Accident Season.

(I downloaded an e-galley of this title from HarperCollins through Edelweiss.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (286)

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

Title: Every Hidden Thing
Author: Kenneth Oppel
Release Date: September 20, 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada

From Goodreads:

Somewhere in the Badlands, embedded deep in centuries-buried rock and sand, lies the skeleton of a massive dinosaur, larger than anything the late nineteenth-century world has ever seen. Some legends call it the Black Beauty, with its bones as black as ebony, but to seventeen-year-old Samuel Bolt, it’s the “rex,” the king dinosaur that could put him and his struggling, temperamental archaeologist father in the history books (and conveniently make his father forget he’s been kicked out of school), if they can just quarry it out.

But Samuel and his father aren’t the only ones after the rex. For Rachel Cartland this find could be her ticket to a different life, one where her loves of science and adventure aren’t just relegated to books and sitting rooms. And if she can’t prove herself on this expedition with her professor father, the only adventures she may have to look forward to are marriage or spinsterhood.

As their paths cross and the rivalry between their fathers becomes more intense, Samuel and Rachel are pushed closer together. Their flourishing romance is one that will never be allowed. And with both eyeing the same prize, it’s a romance that seems destined for failure. As their attraction deepens, danger looms on the other side of the hills, causing everyone’s secrets to come to light and forcing Samuel and Rachel to make a decision. Can they join forces to find their quarry, and with it a new life together, or will old enmities and prejudices keep them from both the rex and each other?

I'm so intrigued by this! Dinosaur bone-searching plus romance? I'm all in. This sounds different than other books with similar descriptions. Plus it's historical! It's set in the late 1800's! Want. Want so much.

Me on A Fierce and Subtle Poison

Title: A Fierce and Subtle Prison
Author: Samantha Mabry
Release Date: April 12, 2016
Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers

Everyone knows the legends about the cursed girl--the one the señoras whisper about. They say she has green skin and grass for hair, and she feeds on the poisonous plants that fill her family's Caribbean island garden. Some say she can grant wishes; some say her touch can kill. Seventeen-year-old Lucas lives on the mainland most of the year but spends summers with his hotel-developer father in Puerto Rico. He's grown up hearing stories about the cursed girl, and he wants to believe in her and her magic. When letters begin mysteriously appearing in his room the same day his new girlfriend disappears, Lucas turns to her for answers--and finds himself lured into her strange and enchanted world. But time is running out for the girl filled with poison, and the more entangled Lucas becomes with her, the less certain he is of escaping with his own life.

A Fierce and Subtle Poison is a dark and mysterious tale filled with secrets, a mixture of superstition and some very real, very serious, disappearances all wrapped up in tense, beautiful prose. Is there really a ghost in the house at the end of Calle Sol? Is there a witch who will grant wishes? Or is something far more sinister hiding behind its walls, behind the leaves?

Lucas is caught up between worlds, between his life is Houston and his summers in Puerto Rico. Between the opulence and money grubbing of his white father and the love and later abandonment from his Dominican mother. Between listening to the stories and legends of the señoras, the tales of heartsick nuns and cursed girls and a house that birds refuse to fly over, and thinking about the practical things he could do with his future. He doesn't understand his father's motives, his need to build fancy, pretentious hotels for rich people to stay in while the locals can only hope to work there, but he knows that it's his father's money that lets him go there in the summers, hang out with his local friends and get drunk almost every night. It's like he's in limbo, until he swears he sees the girl with green skin and grass for hair. Until the letters come. Until his wish is returned to him. Until he falls head first into poisoned plants and a poisonous girl.

The setting also brings this book to life. The warmth of the sun and the rage of the storms, the lashing wind and the pounding rain. The mosquitoes, the lush greenery that entices while hiding poison in its leaves. The very clear divide between the rich white hotel guests and the Puerto Ricans struggling to make enough money to leave. The stories mixed in with Lucas's words, the secrets and the ghosts and the hidden magics of the islands. The tucked away things that are kept alive by those who believe in the unknown and the impossible.

There's something about this book that might stick to you like honey or sap from a tree, dark and syrup-like. Something that seeps into you and lingers. Because of the stories and legends that race through the streets, because of the scientist's work, you're never quite sure of what Lucas sees, what's happening. Is the girl poison because of a curse? Or is it because of an experiment? Does Lucas hallucinate because of the poison, or is he seeing the truth behind the stories? I wanted to believe in the magic of this book, I really did. I love books that fiddle with truth and perception like that, books like this and The Walls Around Us and The Accident Season. A must-read for those looking for magical realism, for those looking for something a little different, a little dark and dangerous.

(I received an e-galley of this book to review from Algonquin through NetGalley.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (269)

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

Title: Company Town
Author: Madeline Ashby
Release Date: May 17, 2016
Publisher: Tor

From Goodreads:

They call it Company Town--a city-sized oil rig off the coast of the Canadian Maritimes, now owned by one very wealthy, powerful, byzantine family: Lynch Ltd.

Hwa is of the few people in her community (which constitutes the whole rig) to forgo bio-engineered enhancements. As such, she's the last truly organic person left on the rig--making her doubly an outsider, as well as a neglected daughter and bodyguard extraordinaire. Still, her expertise in the arts of self-defense and her record as a fighter mean that her services are yet in high demand. When the youngest Lynch needs training and protection, the family turns to Hwa. But can even she protect against increasingly intense death threats seemingly coming from another timeline?

Meanwhile, a series of interconnected murders threatens the city's stability and heightens the unease of a rig turning over. All signs point to a nearly invisible serial killer, but all of the murders seem to lead right back to Hwa's front door. Company Town has never been the safest place to be--but now, the danger is personal.

A brilliant, twisted mystery, as one woman must evaluate saving the people of a town that can't be saved, or saving herself.

This all sounds rather intriguing. The family empire aspect, the sci-fi bio-engineering aspect, the murders and mystery aspect.

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (268)

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

Title: Gemina
Authors: Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Release Date: October 18, 2016
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers (Random House imprint)

From Goodreads:

Moving to a space station at the edge of the galaxy was always going to be the death of Hanna’s social life. Nobody said it might actually get her killed.

Hanna Donnelly is the station captain’s pampered daughter; Nik Malikov the reluctant member of a notorious crime family. But while the pair are struggling with the realities of life aboard the galaxy's most boring space station, little do they know that Kady Grant and the Hypatia are headed right toward Heimdall, carrying news of the Kerenza invasion. 

When an elite BeiTech strike team invades the station, Hanna and Nik are thrown together to defend their home. But alien predators are picking off the station residents one by one, and a malfunction in the station's wormhole means the space-time continuum might be ripped in two before dinner. Soon Hanna and Nik aren’t just fighting for their own survival; the fate of everyone on the Hypatia—and possibly the known universe—is in their hands.

But relax. They've totally got this. They hope.

How excited am I for this book?! I love how they've set up this 'series/trilogy' as each book holding the pieces of a bigger story. It just means that the ending will be massive and far-reaching. Similar to Amie's previous series with Meagan Spooner. And I love the blue of this cover, it'll contrast well with the reds and oranges of the Illuminae cover.

Me on Monstrous

Title: Monstrous
Author: MarcyKate Connolly
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books

The city of Bryre suffers under the magic of an evil wizard. Because of his curse, girls sicken and disappear without a trace, and Bryre's inhabitants live in fear. No one is allowed outside after dark. Yet night is the only time that Kymera can enter this dangerous city, for she must not be seen by humans. Her father says they would not understand her wings, the bolts in her neck, or her spiky tail—they would kill her. They would not understand that she was created for a purpose: to rescue the girls of Bryre. Despite her caution, a boy named Ren sees Kym and begins to leave a perfect red rose for her every evening. As they become friends, Kym learns that Ren knows about the missing girls, the wizard, and the evil magic that haunts Bryre. And what he knows will change Kym's life.

Monstrous is a sweet and fun, and as time goes on, rather sinister, story of magic and science. A tale of monsters and young girls, of good and evil and how they are told apart. A tale about finding our place in the world, whether we exist with a purpose in mind or we discover it along the way.

Kymera is unique. Clever and strong, inquisitive about the world around her because she only knows, only remembers, so much beyond what her father has told her. Because of that, she's filled with a sweet child-like innocence. What reason would she have to question her father? He's been nothing but kind, love. He brought her back to life so the two of them could save the young girls of Bryre. They just want to help. As the book goes on, her honest curiosity battles against her father's control over her. He tells her that no one would understand her, that people would be afraid of her. But she's not sure if that's true, so she's caught between the worlds that push her down and her thoughts of meeting new people. Perhaps making a friend.

But what is Kym, with her human brain and cat eyes and wings and a barbed tail? Is she still human or is she a monster? Can monsters with claws and wings be heroes, saving young girls from certain death? Can monsters grow roses? Is it what's on the inside or only what's on the outside? Kym looks dangerous, she looks like a terrible monster, so she must be dangerous, yes? What this book touches on is how we define who/what is a monster and who/what isn't and how problematic it is to judge people based on their appearances. What will help us determine the truth is knowledge, time, and our own instincts.

The world-building here is so much fun. It's a mixture of fairy tales, fables, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Magic and monsters and a girl brought back to life made up of parts that aren't originally hers. Kym navigates the world as the reader does, learning more and more about what evil plagues Bryre and what must be done in order to save it.

I found this to be a magical story, a sweet tale about a girl who isn't like other girls, one made up of good intentions and a strong need to help and protect others. We can't always be afraid of those who look like monsters, with scaly wings and sharp fangs and long tails, because they could be the bravest and most caring of all.

(I downloaded an e-galley of this title from Edelweiss through HarperCollins.)

Me on The Fourteenth Goldfish

Title: The Fourteenth Goldfish
Author: Jennifer L. Holm
Release Date: August 26, 2014
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Eleven-year-old Ellie has never liked change. She misses fifth grade. She misses her old best friend. She even misses her dearly departed goldfish. Then one day a strange boy shows up. He's bossy. He's cranky. And weirdly enough... he looks a lot like Ellie's grandfather, a scientist who's always been slightly obsessed with immortality. Could this pimply boy really be Grandpa Melvin? Has he finally found the secret to eternal youth?

The Fourteenth Goldfish is intriguing and thoughtful, a curious and clever look at change, at science, at family, and at possibility.

Ellie is a bright but somewhat lonely girl. She isn't the biggest fan of change, and change is happening all around her. And then her grandfather appears and looks pointedly younger than the last time she saw him. I like Ellie, she's curious about things. She wants to know reasons behind why things happen and change. And here comes science in the form of her bizarre, intelligent grandfather, opening the doors of possibility.

On the other side, away from science, are the clashes between her mother and her grandfather. Neither takes the other seriously. There's never any talk of compromise. Her grandfather thinks her mother is flighty, he doesn't see any merit or value in the arts, and he thinks she'd be better off as a scientist. Meanwhile, her mother sees a foolish man who's extremely inflexible and doesn't understand how the world works. Each one treats the other like a child. It's hard for Ellie, to be sure. Especially when she starts to show an interest in science. I got the feeling that every time that happened she was worried her mother would hate it. They're both different people, but very similar in the way they're both extremely stubborn.

I love how this book talks about science in terms of possibility. That anything is possible. That idea transcends science, art, math, geography, plumbing. But in terms of this book, in terms of science, it's great. It makes it seem so much more accessible. Away with the complicated formulas and tedious experiments. All you need to do is wonder, is observe, is question if it is possible, and go from there. Don't be afraid. Believe that it's possible and the world will open up in front of you.

I found this book fun and interesting and I had a hard time putting it down. It's a fun story, an honest story, and one that I would definitely recommend to anyone young or old.

(I borrowed an e-book copy of this title from the library.)