Me on Zero Repeat Forever

Title: Zero Repeat Forever
Author: G.S. Prendergast
Release Date: August 29, 2017
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (Simon & Schuster imprint)

He has no voice, or name, only a rank, Eighth. He doesn't know the details of the mission, only the directives that hum in his mind. Dart the humans. Leave them where they fall. His job is to protect his Offside. Let her do the shooting. Until a human kills her. Sixteen year-old Raven is at summer camp when the terrifying armored Nahx invade, annihilating entire cities, taking control of the Earth. Isolated in the wilderness, Raven and her friends have only a fragment of instruction from the human resistance. Shelter in place. Which seems like good advice at first. Stay put. Await rescue. Raven doesn't like feeling helpless but what choice does she have? Then a Nahx kills her boyfriend. Thrown together in a violent, unfamiliar world, Eighth and Raven should feel only hate and fear. But when Raven is injured, and Eighth deserts his unit, their survival comes to depend on trusting each other

Zero Repeat Forever is haunting, a look at invasion and survival from two points of view. A look at what drives us forward, to protect, to survive, and what we'll do in order to stay alive. Who and what we'll listen to.

Eighth is lost and confused. Defective. Part of the sudden force that's overtaking parts of the planet and its population, he can't remember what came before. What he was before. All he knows is what the directives tell him. Dart the humans, leave them there, move on. But he can't shake the feeling that there's something else he should remember. His chapters are sparse and immediate. Almost lyrical. Like he's missing half of himself. He's lonely, searching for purpose. When he finds Raven, he thinks he's found it.

Raven is worried and determined, full of life and rage. She's focused, determined to stay alive and find her parents. She's furious, at herself and the choices she made before being sent away to the summer camp. At the Nahx for invading Earth, for killing her boyfriend. At the remaining humans who find a sick joy in posting videos of them killing the Nahx. At Eighth for finding her, saving her, following her. Her chapters are far more dense, more descriptive. She's human, she has all these human fears and worries, hopes and regrets. There's desperation running through her. She doesn't want to die.

There's something eerie and complicated about this book, about the story of Eighth and Raven. About the invasion of the Nahx and their purpose on Earth. At times this book reminded me of Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave and of Margaret Stohl's Icons with some Canadian attitudes and sensibilities. Of alien invasions and humanity not having any answers about reasons why, of secrets and survival. Considering how this ended, I'm so curious as to what the second book will hold, what might or might not be revealed. Who will still be around. I would recommend this to those looking for something different in their science fiction.

(I received an advance copy of this title to review from Simon & Schuster Canada.)

Me on Spill Zone

Title: Spill Zone
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Artist: Alex Puvilland
Colourist: Hilary Sycamore
Release Date: May 2, 2017
Publisher: FirstSecond (Macmillan imprint)

Three years ago an event destroyed the small city of Poughkeepsie, forever changing reality within its borders. Uncanny manifestations and lethal dangers now await anyone who enters the Spill Zone. The Spill claimed Addison's parents and scarred her little sister, Lexa, who hasn't spoken since. Addison provides for her sister by photographing the Zone's twisted attractions on illicit midnight rides. Art collectors pay top dollar for these bizarre images, but getting close enough for the perfect shot can mean death-or worse. When an eccentric collector makes a million-dollar offer, Addison breaks her own hard-learned rules of survival and ventures farther than she has ever dared. Within the Spill Zone, hell awaits-and it seems to be calling Addison's name.

Spill Zone is haunting and creepy, a look at the aftermath of a complicated and mysterious disaster. It's an introduction to the secret things that now exist in a space that used to be a city, an introduction to a girl who will do what she must.

Addison is gritty and tough, rather serious and determined. After the loss of their parents in the Spill, she becomes a kind of replacement parent to her sister, Lexa, who was also sort of in the Spill on that day but made it out. Knowing they need money, Addison becomes a sort of escape artist turned visual artist, riding her motorcycle into the Spill Zone in order to take photographs of what lives there now. The dead bodies and the hunting rats. The eerie floating sculptures. Given the chance at one last trip, one final drive so she'll never have to think about it again, Addison jumps at a mysterious offer, but is this job more than she's ready for?

The art adds depth to the story, another layer of darkness and mystery. The art style is rough, jagged, expressive. With this being a graphic novel, readers are able to see the Spill Zone, what Addison's city has become, and what it is is bizarre and impossible. Floating bodies and items, cars that have somehow melted into the roads. Monsters that don't exist in the real world. The curiousness that is Lexa's doll.

This is definitely the start of something eerie, something overwhelming. I can't help but wonder if something in the Spill Zone wants out, wants to explore. What the truth behind Lexa's doll Vespertine is. What the truth behind the Spill is. If anything else is going to come out of it, move beyond the town and into the still normal world. I'm interested to see where the story will go, what will happen next to Addison and the things that lurk in the Spill Zone.

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

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 (247)

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

Title: Bleeding Earth
Author: Kaitlin Ward
Release Date: February 9, 2016
Publisher: Adaptive Books

From Goodreads:

YA Highway blogger Kaitlin Ward's debut YA novel, Bleeding Earth.

Lea was in a cemetery when the earth started bleeding. Within twenty-four hours, the blood made international news. All over the world, blood appeared out of the ground, even through concrete, even in water. Then the earth started growing hair and bones.

Lea wants to ignore the blood. She wants to spend time with her new girlfriend, Aracely, in public, if only Aracely wasn't so afraid of her father. Lea wants to be a regular teen again, but the blood has made her a prisoner in her own home. Fear for her social life turns into fear for her sanity, and Lea must save herself and Aracely whatever way she can.

I've been waiting to read this for a while. Sometimes I wonder if I should've read the e-galley from Egmont before they went bankrupt, just to read the story, but I wanted to see if it would get picked up or self-published. I'm hoping it'll be good. It's not every day you come across an apocalyptic YA where the main character is a lesbian.

Me on The Island of Excess Love

Title: The Island of Excess Love
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Release Date: August 26, 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan imprint)

Pen has lost her parents. She’s lost her eye. But she has fought Kronen; she has won back her fragile friends and her beloved brother. Now Pen, Hex, Ash, Ez, and Venice are living in the pink house by the sea, getting by on hard work, companionship, and dreams. Until the day a foreboding ship appears in the harbor across from their home. As soon as the ship arrives, they all start having strange visions of destruction and violence. Trance-like, they head for the ship and their new battles begin.

The Island of Excess Love is a lyrical, magical, heart-breaking, impossible adventure.

This is certainly one of those books that I find hard to describe, where no words plucked from my head could do it justice. I had this problem once before with its predecessor. What is illusion? What is fate? What is love? The prose is lush and imaginative, painting a wondrous picture of magic and myth, but I was never really sure if I understood everything.

Perhaps if I'd read more of or about Virgil's Aeneid I would've understood the purpose of the journey more. From what I read, from what I understood, this story is about fate, about trials, about what it takes to become a hero. About love. What it is to love, to keep that love strong.

For all my potential misunderstandings, I hope that Pen's epic tale will continue as I'm curious as to what else was borne from the Earth Shaker.

(I received an e-galley of this title from Macmillan through Raincoast Books.)

Me on In a Handful of Dust

Title: In a Handful of Dust
Author: Mindy McGinnis
Release Date: September 23, 2014
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books (HarperCollins imprint)

Lucy's life by the pond has always been full. She has water and friends, laughter and the love of her adoptive mother, Lynn, who has made sure that Lucy's childhood was very different from her own. Yet it seems Lucy's future is settled already—a house, a man, children, and a water source—and anything beyond their life by the pond is beyond reach. When disease burns through their community, the once life-saving water of the pond might be the source of what's killing them now. Rumors of desalinization plants in California have lingered in Lynn's mind, and the prospect of a "normal" life for Lucy sets the two of them on an epic journey west to face new dangers: hunger, mountains, deserts, betrayal, and the perils of a world so vast that Lucy fears she could be lost forever.

In a Handful of Dust is a return to a dry future, a world where water is more valuable than gold. Instead of the glimpse of this rough world readers found previously, this is a journey across plains, rivers, and mountains, showing that danger is everywhere and few can be trusted.

Lucy, and of course Lynn, are older now, a good ten years or so older. They stayed in the house with the pond, living with a few close family members and friends. But then they leave. The discover what the world's become after the Shortage. What's beyond home, beyond the pond. What kind of people are out there and what their motives are. How hard it is to survive. Lynn is the same as she was, and I was glad for that. She's rough, she's practical, she rarely trusts strangers, and she often suspects the worst when she meets someone new. She's set in her ways, focused on survival. Lucy isn't. Her childhood was full of change and death but also love, love from Lynn and those around her. She isn't a carbon copy of Lynn, and so she thinks differently of people, sees friendship where Lynn sees weakness and possible betrayal. Lynn is the voice of reason while Lucy is hope and dreams of the future.

Nothing about this world is easy. Not the landscape, not the weather, not the people. You need to be strong to live in this world. Intelligent. Practical. Not unemotional but realistic. Good with a gun, preferably a rifle. All of the fluff and excess has been trimmed away until all that's left is survival, trust, and sacrifice.

After reading Not a Drop to Drink last year, I imagined this would be rather similar. And in certain ways is was. A harsh, brutal, hostile world, a story of strength and survival, of being pushed, of defending what is ours, who is ours, until our last breath. But in other ways it wasn't. The last book was Lynn's story, and this is Lucy's. Lucy sees the world differently, sees hope for the future, sees what could be beyond the dust and the death. For those who wanted more after reading the previous book, and for those looking for frighteningly realistic post-apocalyptic dystopian, I would definitely recommend this book.

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

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (150)

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

Title: The Worlds We Make
Author: Megan Crewe
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Publisher: Hyperion

From Goodreads:

The virus has taken away Kaelyn’s friends, her family, her home.

And now a deadly enemy threatens to take the one hope she has left: THE CURE.

When Kaelyn and her friends reached Toronto with a vaccine for the virus that has ravaged the population, they thought their journey was over. But now they're being tracked by the Wardens, a band of survivors as lethal as the virus who are intent on stealing the vaccine no matter what the cost.

Forced onto the road again, Kaelyn and her companions discover the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta is their best hope for finding scientists who can reproduce the vaccine. But with the virus already spreading among them, the Wardens hot on their trail, and hundreds of miles to cross, Kaelyn finds herself compromising her morals to keep her group alive. Her conscience seems a small price to pay if protects them and their precious cargo. Unless even that is not enough...

In the final installment in Megan Crewe’s captivating the Fallen World trilogy, Kaelyn is on the run from her biggest adversaries yet. While she continues to face horrific loss, her resolve is still strong. But to survive this shattered world, will she have to sacrifice all that's left of the girl she was?

I love that there's a Canadian series like this, one that doesn't push to be high-brow or literary or historical or hugely lesson-teaching. This series is one of the best I've read over the past few years, so dark and dangerous and so about people on a journey trying to make things right and save those close to them, and I'll be so sad when it ends.

Me on The Bone Season

Title: The Bone Season
Author: Samantha Shannon
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Publisher: Bloomsbury

It is the year 2059. Several major world cities are under the control of a security force called Scion. Paige Mahoney works in the criminal underworld of Scion London, part of a secret cell known as the Seven Seals. The work she does is unusual: scouting for information by breaking into others’ minds. Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare kind of clairvoyant, and in this world, the voyants commit treason simply by breathing. But when Paige is captured and arrested, she encounters a power more sinister even than Scion. The voyant prison is a separate city, Oxford, erased from the map two centuries ago and now controlled by a powerful, otherworldly race. These creatures, the Rephaim, value the voyants highly as soldiers in their army. Paige is chosen by a Rephaite keeper, Warden, who will be in charge of her care and training. He is her master. Her natural enemy. But if she wants to regain her freedom, Paige will have to learn something of his mind and his own mysterious motives.

The Bone Season is a dark and dangerous debut, a novel filled with intrigue, mystery, and paranormal curiosities. At times the danger is elusive, much like the aether itself, intangible but very present. It conceals secrets, that expose, could change a number of things in the world Paige inhabits. But at other times the danger is very clear, it pushes down on Paige like a weight, attempting to crush her, and she must find the will to push back and survive.

Paige is an unlikely heroine, not fearless but rather foolish, and more than a little stubborn. She is flawed, flawed in ways that shape her and make her stand out. Her ability to dreamwalk makes her a wild card, it intrigues those with hopes of power and control, but her fate will depend on how much she can control her ability. How far she can push her limits. She often dwells on the past, on what she learned about her ability, on those that protected her and taught her. And, in a sense, she fears the future. She's afraid of what she might be able to do. She's afraid of being a killer.

Paige has certain fingers in her life, in her past and the book's present, that have shaped her. Two are part of the crime group the Seven Seals. The third is Warden. All are men who have shaped her, taught her, cared for her in their own (depending on the character, sometimes genuine and sometimes twisted) ways. I found it curious that the three are all male characters. In a way they're like father figures to Paige, but in another way they aren't. There's no real strong female presence in Paige's life. There are those in the crime group, there is one in Oxford, but there is no female character that nurtures and instructs her. Perhaps there will be one in the next book.

The futuristic and fantastical world the author presents isn't necessarily richly described, it feels more and more like a dangerous and crumbling world than a thriving one, but it's rather present on each page. The re-working of historical events, the addition of the aether, the varying types of clairvoyants and their abilities. This is very much a world different from our own, one filled with spirit and shadow, with fear and rebellion.

Trust is important, it keeps Paige breathing. It keeps her alive. And she needs to stay alive if she's going to be of any use to anyone. But it's deciding who to trust that is the hardest for Paige. She knows what she knows, she sees what she sees, but the world she ends up in in Oxford has secrets, secrets that could change her mind about some of those in charge, and she will have to decide if she can put her trust in a few more people.

I feel bad for Samantha Shannon being called the next J.K. Rowling. It puts so much unneeded pressure on her to deliver a series as magical and powerful and emotional. Shannon is not the next Rowling, she's her own person, her own author. This is her story. Once something long-running ends, people are left adrift, searching for something as similar as possible to keep them going. Could this be what they're looking for? That's up to each individual reader to determine. Also, I certainly wouldn't recommend this series to children.

That being said, I found this to be thrilling, dangerous, and very intriguing. At times the story is rather dense, filled with backstory that exposes Paige's secrets and dreams, but my attention was always captured. I can see this interesting teenagers as well as adults, Paige's age of nineteen straddles the line. Her voice is young, untested, frightened, but she has spirit. Of course, considering what happens and what Paige uncovers, I am both curious and nervous as to where the author will take Paige over the course of seven books.

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

Me on Half Lives

Title: Half Lives
Author: Sara Grant
Release Date: July 9, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette Book Group imprint)

Seventeen-year-old Icie's parents have given her $10,000 in cash, a map of a top-secret bunker, and instructions to get there by any means necessary. They have news of an imminent viral attack and know that the bunker is Icie's only hope for survival. Along with three other teens, she lives locked away for months, not knowing what's happening in the outside world or who has survived. And are they safe in the bunker after all? Generations in the future, a mysterious cult worships the very mountain where Icie's secret bunker was built. They never leave the mountain, they're ruled by a teenager, and they have surprising ties to Icie.

Half Lives is a fast-paced and high-stakes glimpse into what the future could hold, into the strength of humanity. Two rather compelling stories unfold along each other, revealing both the end of the world as we know it as well as what it could become hundreds of years from now.

I found this to be a rather original idea. It wasn't just one girl's mission to stay safe, to stay alive, or one boy's task to keep his people safe, to continue their way of life. It was more of a reveal over time, a reveal of both their characters and their worlds. Both timelines are about survival and what it is to be human, what it is to live in a time and place uncertain and potentially dangerous.

Icie is on a journey to survive, to follow the path her parents set before her in order for her to survive what they know is coming. She has a purpose forced upon her, and it is to keep on living. Along the way she meets three other teens and her tale then includes discovery and the new 'world' they create. But how long is long enough? How long can you go on knowing the world around you is dangerous, is crumbling, and everything you once knew is gone? And how safe is the bunker Icie's parents sent her to?

Beckett doesn't necessarily start on a journey, but it turns into one. A journey to keep his people and their home safe from what lies out away from the mountain in the ruins of a civilization broken and filled with danger. A journey to keep the mountain safe, to follow the teachings of the one they worship and to keep on living. But not everything is as it seems. The mountain holds secrets. And there are lights in the distance. What is out there? What is coming? What is the truth hidden in the mountain?

Both timelines intertwine, alternating between Icie's trek into the desert and Beckett's mission to keep everyone safe. Questions are raised an answered over time, in both Icie's and Beckett's time. Words and phrases of Icie's live on in the future, clearly passed down through generations of survivors and human beings born after the event, but how were they influenced by her? And why? Where did she stop and they begin? The future is a curious place.

The human spirit is strong, it fights to survive, to adapt, to continue living when things are at their bleakest. Instead of giving up and wasting away we still go on, we still help others, still teach others how to live, how to read, how to survive. Names may be forgotten, worlds may take on different meanings, priorities may change, but the drive to live on will always be there.

I was tempted to first read Icie's chapters, to learn her story before going back to read about both her and Beckett at the same time, but I didn't. I think the reasoning behind books like this, books where chapters alternate between points of view and points in time, is that as different as the characters are they have their similarities, that they're tied together in ways they don't realize. They they will face obstacles, face danger, face death, and they must draw from inside themselves to keep on living not just for them but for those that depend on them. For the future.

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

Me on In the After

Title: In the After
Author: Demitria Lunetta
Release Date: June 25, 2013
Publisher: HarperTeen

Amy is watching TV when it happens, when the world is attacked by Them. These vile creatures are rapidly devouring mankind. Most of the population is overtaken, but Amy manages to escape and even rescue “Baby,” a toddler left behind in the chaos. Marooned in Amy’s house, the girls do everything they can to survive, and avoid Them at all costs. After years of hiding, they are miraculously rescued and taken to New Hope, a colony of survivors living in a former government research compound. While at first the colony seems like a dream with plenty of food, safety, and shelter, New Hope slowly reveals that it is far from ideal. And Amy soon realizes that unless things change, she’ll lose Baby, and much more.

In the After is an eerie post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller that hints at something more, something sinister just waiting to be discovered. Staying alive means staying silent, it means hiding in a world once thriving but now ravaged and ruined. There are survivors living on, but how long will they last? Can they last? Where did They come from?

The world After They arrived is sparse, silent, and dangerous. Before Amy is in the colony, her world is very clear, very simple. She knows what They are capable of and she knows how to hide from them. But after she and Baby are found, things aren't what Amy thought they were.

The Amy from Before and the Amy of After are like polar opposites. Before, she was foolish, selfish, and a smart-ass teenager, and After, she becomes an intelligent and silent protector of her and Baby's way of life. Three years can sometimes feel like a lifetime, and Amy's years of scrounging and searching have taken their toll on her.

There's a subtle and suspicious undertone in the colony of New Hope. Something is happening, something unknown to Amy in her years of silent survival. Something that could change the way she looks at everything. It affects her acclimation into this new home. Not everything works for her, not everything fits with what she's experienced. Not everyone is telling her the whole truth. So she goes searching.

Once I started this book, I found myself reading it rather quickly. It could be indicative of pacing, of how quickly the action moved, of the story and plot. It also could have something to do with Amy's voice, with the author's style of writing. I'm just not sure how I feel in regards to this speed and the book's 450+ page length.

Odds are readers will find similarities to other recent science fiction YA novels like Icons and The 5th Wave. All three are, in a sense, about survival, about secrets and lies, plots and plans, betrayal and hope, and the drive to continue living, but this book's surprising twist aims to set it apart from the others.

(I acquired an advance copy of this title at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on The 5th Wave

Title: The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Release Date: May 7, 2013
Publisher: Putnam Juvenile (Penguin imprint)

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one. Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie is on the run from Them, the beings who only look human and roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. Cassie believes she will only stay alive if she stays alone, until she meets someone. This person may be Cassie's only hope for rescuing her brother Sam, or saving herself, but she has to choose between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

The 5th Wave is a rather powerful and dangerous book, a look at what could happen to Earth and it's inhabitants if aliens do come with motives not so peaceful and pure. The world is shattered, millions are dead. The future for those left alive and on the run is bleak, but there are glimmers of hope. Some are still alive, still surviving, still fighting, still pushing to take back what was ripped from their hands.

It must be said that the summary of the book is misleading. It's not just about Cassie. Cassie's voice is crucial, vital, prominent, but it's not the one one. There are others who tell different sides of the same overarching story, others with different perspectives, different motives, different journeys. Different realizations. Different lessons. All the same story.

The human condition is a curious thing. We push and strive to survive, to stay on top. We don't seem to die away or stay down for long. We will fight for as long as we can, pushing through barriers, moving forward when it appears that all hope is lost.

Cassie is strong, she has immense courage and drive, but she is, in some ways, weak. Her love for her family, for her brother, both drives her and holds her back. Everything is for Sammy, but only as long as he's alive. His being alive is what fuels her.

I wonder if I've done this book any justice with this review. It's dark and twisted and complicated, dripping with death and secrets and lies. It's a very volatile and powerful book. It's not about the aliens, it's about the humans, it's about those who are still alive who have the strength to carry on fighting. They still have hopes for a future that doesn't smell like blood or fire or death. This book is about getting up and moving on, continuing that hard journey, and that kind of story transcends genre and connects with every single reader on a lever they never expected.

(I acquired an advance copy of this title at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (121)

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

Title: Half Lives
Author: Sara Grant
Release Date: July 9, 2013
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (Hachette imprint)

From Goodreads:

I learned that surviving isn't all it's cracked up to be. If you survive, you've got to live with the guilt, and that's more difficult than looking someone in the eye and pulling the trigger. Trust me. I've done both. Killing takes a twitch of the finger. Absolution takes several lifetimes.

Seventeen-year-old Icie's parents have given her $10,000 in cash, a map of a top-secret bunker, and instructions to get there by any means necessary. They have news of an imminent viral attack and know that the bunker is Icie's only hope for survival. Along with three other teens, she lives locked away for months, not knowing what's happening in the outside world or who has survived. And are they safe in the bunker after all?

Generations in the future, a mysterious cult worships the very mountain where Icie's secret bunker was built. They never leave the mountain, they're ruled by a teenager...and they have surprising ties to Icie.

This high-stakes, original, and thought-provoking adventure from Sara Grant follows two unlikely heroes, hundreds of years apart, as they fight to survive.

This sounds strange and weird and interesting and impossible and connected and complicated and I want to read it. It was at ALA Midwinter but by the time I saw it in the bags of other bloggers and librarians I knew it was too late.

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (120)

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

Title: Not a Drop to Drink
Author: Mindi McGinnis
Release Date: September 10, 2013
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins imprint)

From Goodreads:

Regret was for people with nothing to defend, people who had no water.

Lynn knows every threat to her pond: drought, a snowless winter, coyotes, and, most importantly, people looking for a drink. She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.

Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.

But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….

With evocative, spare language and incredible drama, danger, and romance, debut author Mindy McGinnis depicts one girl’s journey in a barren world not so different than our own.

This sounds so creepy and so brutal and so dangerous. I want to read this so bad. But it'll have to be in a brightly lit room, just in case someone shows up and tries to steal my glass of water.

Me on The Culling

Title: The Culling
Author: Steven dos Santos
Release Date: March 8, 2013
Publisher: Flux Books

Lucian "Lucky" Spark has been recruited for training by the totalitarian government known at the Establishment to join the ruthless Imposer task force. Each Recruit participates in increasingly difficult and violent military training for a chance to advance to the next level. Those who fail must choose an "Incentive," a family member to be brutally killed. If Lucky fails, he'll have to choose death for his only living relative, his four-year-old brother Cole. Lucky will do anything to keep his brother alive. What he isn't prepared for is the undeniable attraction to the handsome and rebellious Digory Tycho. While they train together, their relationship grows, but daring to care for another Recruit in a world where love is used as the ultimate weapon is dangerous. As Lucky soon learns, the consequences can be deadly.

The Culling is brutal and deadly, a dangerous world controlled by a murderous government hiding behind a mask of righteousness. Lucian will have to fight, fight with everything he is, fight for everything he has, and hope it's enough to keep those he loves alive at the end.

Everything Lucian does is for Cole. Everything. He's all he has left, and so every sacrifice must be made. He just never expected to make this sacrifice, to be forced to leave him and train in order to return and fight for both of their lives. Then comes Digory, igniting a spark between the two of them, Digory who helps Lucian as much as he can, and Lucian ends up a little torn between him and his brother. There's also Lucian's past friendship with Cassius, the new prefect for the city. Something happened between them, something in the past before the book started, and I'm very curious as to what it was.

In any dystopian, there will be secrets the ruling group is trying to hide. There will be threats of physical harm and death. There will be those who choose to rise up and fight back and those who crumble under the massive weight of the world. In order to connect with readers, there must be strength in the characters but also weakness. Lucian is battered and bruised, especially after going through what he has, but he still pushes on.

It's not every day that I come across a dystopian YA where the main character is gay, or where a different male character has a husband and all of the surprise stems from the fact that he's already married and not that his spouse is a man. It gives a different sort of glimpse into the world the author has crafted. Yes, it's brutal, lethal, and razor sharp at all the edges, but apparently it's a world where people can marry within their gender and not be discriminated against.

Now, this book is similar to The Hunger Games, rather similar, but that being said I found it different enough to be interesting, to hold my attention right to the end. So many questions are left unanswered at the end, and so now I'm left waiting for the next book.

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

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.)

Me on Rage Within

Title: Rage Within
Author: Jeyn Roberts
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Aries, Clementine, Mason, and Michael have survived the first wave of the apocalypse that wiped out most of the world's population and turned a fair amount of the rest into murderous Baggers. Now, they're hiding out in an abandoned house in Vancouver with a rag-tag group of teenage survivors, trying to figure out their next move. Aries is trying to lead but it's difficult when there are no easy answers and everything feels wrong. Clementine is still on a desperate search to find her brother. Michael is haunted by the memories of what happened to him on the road out to the west coast. But Mason is struggling with the worst problem: that he's a danger to his friends. As the Baggers begin to create a new world order, the four teens will have to rely and trust each other if they want to keep surviving.

Rage Within is just as powerful as its predecessor, dark, dangerous, and very deceptive. When the apocalypse hits and ruins the world, what happens next? This is the immediate after that will determine who will continue to survive, who will take charge, and who will have all the control. What also arises is the question of change. Is it possible to be the same person you were before the apocalypse hit? Can you change, can you do what you need to in order to survive, and still be the same person? This book highlights mankind's quest for survival, to live on through horror and despair, and to find a new way of life.

Now that all of the four main narrators are in Vancouver, now that they've all met, nothing is any easier. There is a common goal, but they all have their own missions, their own problems, and they need to come together so they can keep surviving. Or else the Baggers will win.

The Baggers are an interesting enemy/non-enemy. People but not people, people where the darkness has taken over, people without morals but with rules and actions and procedures. The idea that they're planning something is frightening, because it could spell the end for those normal people still struggling to survive.

Nothing. The ever-elusive, cryptic, frightening and all-knowing Nothing. Nothing is everywhere and nowhere. Nothing lives. But where? The reveal, while unsurprising, was perfect.

The group has to deal with a lot, the aftermath of the earthquake and the Baggers, but what if the people close to you are the ones you have to be wary of? As Nothing claims on page 202, "we all have a dark side." But we also have an innate desire to live, to survive. In the end, it all depends on which side is stronger.

(I purchased a copy of this book.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (87)

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

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

From Goodreads:

First, the virus took Kaelyn’s friends. Then, her family. Now it’s taken away her home.

But she can't look back—the life she once had is gone forever.

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, they encounter a world 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, when the search could either destroy those she loves or save the human race?

Megan Crewe's second volume in the Fallen World trilogy is an action-packed journey that explores the resilience of friendship, the ache of lost love, and Kaelyn’s enduring hope in the face of the sacrifices she must make to stay alive.

Yay for Canadian YA authors. I so enjoyed the first book in the series and I can't wait for the next one. It's all wonderfully creepy and mysterious and sad. :) So much of the first book was all about Kaelyn and her struggle to survive and keep those around her safe. I hope the second will be more of the same with a little more action and suspense. :) And I love the cover, it's big and bold and draws the eye (like the first with all of its bright yellow biohazard look).

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (84)

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

Title: Black City
Author: Elizabeth Richards
Release Date: November 13, 2012
Publisher: Penguin

From Goodreads:

A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war. In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable--they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash's long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they're caught, they'll be executed--but their feelings are too strong. When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

Who doesn't like it when flowers explode? ;) This book sounds dark and weird, and I think I want dark and weird right now. I also think I want a book that will wreck me the way Shatter Me and The Space Between wrecked me last year and how Above wrecked me this year.

Day 4 - Q&A with Megan Crewe

Day 4. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves so far. :) Today's the start of a bunch of Q&A's. Authors seem to like Q&A's, for some reason. Do they know how stressful it is to think up questions I hope they haven't been asked yet? So stressful. But I have to say, I do appreciate them taking the time to answer my questions about their books. :)

Today's Q&A features Megan Crewe, author of the semi-dystopic semi-post-apocalyptic survival disease YA thriller set on a small Canadian East Coast island The Way We Fall. Kaelyn lives on a small island, but when a deadly virus sweeps through, the government shuts it down, and the race for survival begins. You can find my review here. :) You can also find Megan at her website or on Twitter. The second book in the triliogy, The Lives We Lost, is set to come out in January 2013.

Q: The format of the book, the journal entries of Kaelyn's as letters to Leo, gives readers a sort of mix of second person and first person, when she talks to Leo and when she recounts what's happening on the island. It feels a little more personal, how Kaelyn tells Leo things she wouldn't dare tell Gav or Tessa. Why did you write it that way as opposed to just first person? Was it difficult?

A: One of the inspirations for THE WAY WE FALL was the idea of someone trapped in an apocalyptic situation, writing to someone far away to warn them and/or let them know what had happened.  I liked the idea of my main character having someone concrete who was outside the zone of the disaster, to focus on when hoping things were better elsewhere and when trying to explain how the situation was changing.  To some extent, Leo ended up symbolizing all the unknowns beyond the borders of the island.  I was hoping the format would make the narrative feel more real--that it would enhance the sense that readers are getting a glimpse inside a catastrophe that could almost be happening right now.

Including that element definitely made the writing more complicated.  I had to develop a character that the reader never actually "sees" other than through Kaelyn's memories and show why he's so important to Kaelyn.  It was also tricky handling the shift as Kaelyn writes more and more for herself and not so much for Leo anymore.  And simply writing in journal format in general requires a lot of care, because I wanted it to feel as believable as possible, so I had to take into account factors like where Kaelyn was when she was writing, and why she would be writing then and not earlier or later, which you don't have to consider in regular first person.  But I'm glad I put in the work, because I'm very happy with how it turned out!  :)

Q: Kaelyn seems like a regular teen girl at the beginning, then takes on more responsibilities and finds this inner strength to carry on through the hardest times. Was writing Kaelyn difficult, or did her voice come easily? Did you draw on any real-life experiences or people you know?

A: Kaelyn's voice is very similar to my own when I was her age, probably because our personalities are similar in many ways.  That was a little difficult for me to accept that at first--I felt like I should be giving her a more separate, distinctive voice--but when I tried, my critique partners told me it sounded artificial.  So I went back to writing her the way that felt more natural, which everyone liked better.

As I was writing, I thought a lot about the journals I kept as a teen, the sorts of things I'd record and the sorts of things I'd leave out.  And I'm very scared of viruses and epidemics, so I drew on my fears and the factors that I find most scary in portraying the outbreak and characters' responses to it.  Thankfully in real life neither I nor anyone I know has been sick with a mysterious deadly illness!

Q: How did you come up with the disease and its symptoms? It was rather interesting, starting with something innocuous like the itch and the cough, but then it gets worse. Did any of the research surprise you, make you look at some things differently?

A: I read several books on epidemics, viruses, and the immune system before coming up with my disease, because I wanted to make it as realistic as possible.  Many serious illnesses start with common flu-like symptoms like coughing and fever, because those are standard bodily responses to infection.  The coughing and sneezing also create an easy way for the virus to spread.  The more serious symptoms were inspired by parasites like the Cordyceps fungus, which can control insect behavior in order to spread itself, and Toxoplasma gondii, which causes rodents to be less afraid of cats (again, to help them spread the parasite from animal to animal) and may influence behavior in people as well.  I don't think there's anything scarier than knowing a disease will take over your brain and make you think and act in ways you can't control.

What surprised me the most from my research was how little scientists still know about many deadly illnesses and how to prevent them, and also how close we've come to having a serious outbreak in North America.  I'd say I'm even more nervous about epidemics than I used to be now!

Q: Why set The Way We Fall in Canada? How important was it to set it here than in another country?

A: Before I started writing THE WAY WE FALL, I'd been thinking of how few books, especially how few young adult books, are set here in my country.  I know when I was a teen, I would have loved to see familiar locations and cultural details in the novels I read more often.  But if even the young adult authors who live here aren't writing stories set here, how can we expect anyone else to?  So I decided that from now on, if I have a story for which a Canadian setting fits, I'll set it here.  And with THE WAY WE FALL, it fit perfectly.  There are many small island communities off the coast of the maritime provinces (though mine is made-up), and our winters would provide the perfect setting for some of the events in the sequel.

Q: The two covers for the book are striking in their own ways, the blueish one focusing on Kaelyn, her fear, her wide eyes, while the yellow one reminds me of a biohazard warning with Kaelyn alone on the street. What are your thoughts on the covers? Do you favour one over the other?

A: I love both the original cover that's on the ARCs (and the Australian edition) and the final cover that appears on the finished book.  The bluish cover captures the mood very well, but the concern was that it didn't suggest the apocalyptic situation in the book very clearly, which I can understand.  I was impressed when I saw the final cover, because it manages to combine that sense of isolation with the striking biohazard yellow.  It captures so much of what's important about the story.  And I think the color and typography also makes book stand out compared to many YA covers right now, whereas the bluish one might have blended in a little.  So while I do love both, I'm particularly fond of the final version.

Q: It was nice to read the first book in a series with an ending that wasn't a cliffhanger, an end that made sense, that leans towards something more in the next book. Is there anything you can share about The Lives We Lost? Will we meet Leo soon?

A: I'm glad you felt that way about the ending!  I find books that end leaving nothing resolved until the sequel very frustrating, so I've tried to make sure that even if certain plot points are left hanging, there's some sense of resolution at the end of each book in the trilogy.

I can tell you that THE LIVES WE LOST is still from Kaelyn's point of view, but it's in regular first person rather than journal format.  The reason for that is that there's quite a bit more action in this book, and I didn't feel I could tell it properly if I was relying only on what Kaelyn would be able to write down.  You will see all of the characters still alive at the end of THE WAY WE FALL again, and you will get to meet Leo right away (the book starts immediately after the end of THE WAY WE FALL, with Kaelyn meeting him as he comes off the ferry).  You'll find out what's been happening on the mainland all this time, and Kaelyn will make a surprising discovery that sets the events of the rest of the trilogy in motion.

Thanks so much to Megan for answering my questions, and thanks to Kaitlin at Hachette Book Group Canada for facilitating the Q&A. :)