Me on Waiting on Wednesday (123)

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

Title: Shutdown
Author: Heather Anastasiu
Release Date: July 2, 2013
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

From Goodreads:

The battle is all but over, and hope seems to be lost. Zoe and her fellow Resistance fighters are on the run, having lost their home, their protection, and their leader. They are outnumbered and outmatched by the powerful corporation that controls the world, and the cruel Chancellor is inches away from completing a scheme that would kill most of humanity. Zoe's only remaining option is to chase the impossible dream of upending the Link system, freeing the world from the hardware that controls their thoughts and emotions, and hope it will trigger a revolution.

The plot requires a nearly impossible mission to infiltrate the dangerous Community, and it is a task that Zoe must unfortunately complete alone. With challenges and surprises at every turn, nothing goes according to plan. Adrien's visions of the future now show two possible outcomes: one in which they succeed, and one in which humanity falls. It all lies in Zoe's hands.

Full of romance, high-adrenaline action and shocking twists, Shutdown is a heart-pounding conclusion to an exciting sci-fi adventure trilogy for young adults.

This is a series I've really enjoyed over the past almost a year. It mixed a dystopian government and science fiction and paranormal/psychic abilities well, and nothing was ever easy for any of the characters. I'm looking forward to this last book to see how it all ends and who survives. :)

Me on Breath

Title: Breath
Author: Jackie Morse Kessler
Release Date: April 16, 2013
Publisher: Graphia (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt imprint)

Contrary to popular belief, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse aren't just harbingers of doom, they actually keep life in balance. But that happens when their leader and creator, Death, becomes suicidal? Before the first living thing drew breath, he was there. He has watched humanity for millennia. And he has finally decided that humanity is not worth the price he has paid time and time again. When Death himself gives up on life, a teenager named Xander is the world's only hope. But Xander bears a secret, one that may being about the end of everything.

Breath is an honest and intriguing look at life, death, love, and choices. When someone makes the decision to die, what happens? What if that person's death would being about the end of everything?

Throughout the series, Death has always been there, sometimes in the foreground, sometimes in the background, always with some kind of agenda or plan. But now he's smack in the middle of everything. He's the fearless leader that gets tired of life, tired of dealing with the living and the dead. Tired of everything. What will be the factor that keeps him going, if such a thing truly exists?

But there's also Xander, curious curious Xander, whose life flickers and beeps around him as he tries to talk Death off a balcony. What does Xander want out of life? And why is he so important? Why will he be the one who decides the fate of the world? There is a connection, certainly, between Xander and Death, and it left me still wondering about some things long after the book was over.

The exploration of the origin of the Four Horsemen was something I'd been looking forward to. They'd always been mysterious voices shrouded in pain and purpose, and this book served to answer some questions. The return to characters in previous books was also welcome.

What if the future you hope for isn't the one that ends up in front of you? Life is filled with possibilities, and hope exists in many forms. What we make of life, what we choose to do with the time we're given, is up to us, but sometimes we can't just stand around and wait. Sometimes we have to make the choice that will keep things moving forward.

As important as life and death are to this book, love is also important. Support, affection, care. Evidence that we are not alone, that someone is right there standing beside us, behind us, taking that next breath with us.

This book is the last in one of the most honest and heartfelt series about life, death, pain, and love that I've had the pleasure of reading. These books have had a way of making me remember all the pain and heartache of high school, but also the potential and the support. With this series, I realize that at no point during those dark teenage years was I ever alone.

(I acquired an advance copy at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on This Week's Book Week (46)

This Week's Book Week is like Stacking the Shelves hosted by Tynga's Reviews only with a different name and possibly more rambling about my week. ;)

So. It's April now. How strange. This week had issues. I kind of want to scrap it or replace with a different week or something. It wasn't that I got dumped on, there was just nothing spectacular. And I had some weird headaches this past week.

And I went to the bookstore this week. On new release Tuesday, no less. But there wasn't a lot there. I'm heading to the bookstore again next Tuesday (different one) so we'll see if I pick up any more books then. :)

I'm slowly starting to get author posts for the Canadian YA Lit Event. Is everyone else excited? :) It's going to be fun. I hope.

Obligatory plague finger update: no new news. I'm calling my doctor on Monday to see if I need to go in and talk about the scan from last week. Because currently, I'm waiting for a possible phone call about another test with a finger that's still infected and not getting better.

I've got a lot of books to give away. I'm a bit tempted to leave them in little piles all over the city. Anyone have any suggestions? It's a mix of ARCs of published books and finished copies.

Reviews this week will feature Breath by Jackie Morse Kessler (Tuesday) and Nobody's Secret by Michaela MacColl (Friday). :)

Bought:
Every Never After by Lesley Livingston (I picked up a finished copy. You can read my review here.)

Me on In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Title: In the Shadow of Blackbirds
Author: Cat Winters
Release Date: April 2, 2013
Publisher: Amulet (Abrams imprint)

In 1918, the world seems to be on the verge of an apocalypse. Americans roam the streets in gauze masks to ward off the deadly Spanish influenza, and the government ships young men off to the front lines of a brutal war, creating an atmosphere of fear and confusion. Sixteen-year-old Mary Shelley Black watches as desperate mourners flock to séances and spirit photographers for comfort, but she has never believed in ghosts. During her bleakest moment, however, she's forced to rethink her entire way of looking at life and death when her first love, a boy who died in battle, returns in spirit form. But what does he want from her.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds is rich with history and mystery, a curious tale of am intelligent girl searching through clues and struggling to survive in a dangerous time. This book draws on fear, fear of disease, war, and foreign spies, and combines them with the morbid curiosity of contacting the spirit world that arose in the early 20th century. An intriguing mystery, taking place in a time where concerns are not unlike those currently faced.

One thing historical novels do is introduce readers to the idea that, while certain events took place in the past, they're not so dissimilar from those they've personally seen or read about. In Mary Shelley's 1918, America is struggling to fight an overseas war, neighbours are suspicious of neighbours who have foreign-sounding names, and a disease that no one is sure how to cure is running rampant. I'm curious as to how many other readers will think back to other events of the past 100 years, most recently, the illnesses and overseas battles that populated the news and covered the western world in fear in the early 21st century.

Mary Shelley is an interesting girl, intelligent and perhaps a little eccentric. She strikes me as a girl who grew up in the early 1900's with a liberal father who taught her what most girls weren't taught. She has a rather analytical mind, she's constantly questioning and searching. Then, her practicality mixes with the spirit world when she encounters a familiar ghostly face.

The increased interest in the spirit world and departed loves ones is a curious thing. During a time where the world was in chaos, when everyone feared the worst was coming, some looked to the other side, to passed away loved ones for comfort. I'm curious as to what some were looking for. Perhaps a sense that they weren't alone, that their family was always with them. Perhaps they were looking for evidence of a sort of existence after death. Then again, perhaps it was something else entirely.

Interspersed between the chapters of this book are photographs from the early 20th century. A previously published example would be Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Unfortunately, the photographs didn't work for me here as they did with Riggs' book. The pictures, yes, draw on Mary Shelley's experiences and encounters, but I felt no personal connection to them, no direct connection to the scene or chapter as with Jacob and his encounters on the island. There was a consistency to those photographs that isn't present here, it feel more like these images were slipped in. (Of course, I am curious as to how the photographs will look in the finished copy, perhaps that will make a difference.)

This is an intriguing historical mystery, based on real events and worries, anchored by a very intelligent girl searching for the truth in a very dangerous year, but the addition of time period-accurate photographs felt unnecessary.

(I acquired an advance copy at ALA Midwinter.)

Me on Waiting on Wednesday (122)

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

Title: Tandem
Author: Anna Jarzab
Release Date: October 8, 2013
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers (Random House imprint)

From Goodreads:

Everything repeats.
You. Your best friend. Every person you know.
Many worlds. Many lives--infinite possibilities.
Welcome to the multiverse.

Sixteen-year-old Sasha Lawson has only ever known one small, ordinary life. When she was young, she loved her grandfather's stories of parallel worlds inhabited by girls who looked like her but led totally different lives. Sasha never believed such worlds were real--until now, when she finds herself thrust into one against her will.

To prevent imminent war, Sasha must slip into the life of an alternate version of herself, a princess who has vanished on the eve of her arranged marriage. If Sasha succeeds in fooling everyone, she will be returned home; if she fails, she'll be trapped in another girl's life forever. As time runs out, Sasha finds herself torn between two worlds, two lives, and two young men vying for her love--one who knows her secret, and one who thinks she's someone she's not.

The first book in the Many-Worlds Trilogy, Tandem is a riveting saga of love and betrayal set in parallel universes in which nothing--and no one--is what it seems.

Perhaps this is the new trend, parallel dimensions and alternate realities. The cover confuses me, I imagine the bird will make sense at some point. I'm also curious as to how the multiple dimensions idea will stretch across three books (since it says 'trilogy' right there on the cover).