Monday 27 February 2012

Summarized Version of First Chapter of Pandemonium By Lauren Oliver

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this!!! It all belongs to Lauren Oliver (I think), she has posted all of this on twitter already and this post is just for convenience sake so no raging please and Thank-You


Alex and I are lying together on a blanket in the backyard of 37 Brooks. The trees look larger and darker than usual. The leaves are almost black, knitted so tightly together they blot out the sky. “It probably wasn’t the best day for a picnic, Alex says, and just then I realize that yes, of course, we haven’t eaten any of the food we brought. There’s a basket at the foot of the blanket, filled with half-rotten fruit, swarmed by tiny black ants. “Why not?” I say. We are lying on our backs, staring at the web of leaves above us, thick as a wall.  “Because it’s snowing.” Alex laughs. And again I realize he’s right: it is snowing, thick flakes the color of ash swirling all around us. It’s freezing cold, too. My breath comes in clouds, and I press against him, trying to stay warm. “Give me your arm,” I say, but Alex doesn’t respond. I try and move into the space between his arm and his chest but his body is rigid, unyielding.  “Alex,” I say. “Come on, I’m cold.” “I’m cold,” he parrots, from lips that barely move. They are blue, and cracked. He is staring at the leaves without blinking. “Look at me,” I say, but he doesn’t turn his head, doesn’t blink, doesn’t move at all. A hysterical feeling is building inside me, a shrieking voice saying wrong, wrong, wrong, and I sit up, place my hand on Alex’s chest, as cold as ice. “Alex,” I say, and then, a short scream: “Alex!” “Lena Morgan Jones!” I snap into awareness, to a muted chorus of giggles. Mrs. Fierstein, the twelfth-grade science teacher at Quincy Edwards High School for Girls in Brooklyn, Section 5, District 17, is glaring at me. This is the third time I’ve fallen asleep in her class this week. “Since you seem to find the Creation of the Natural Order so exhausting,” she says, “might I suggest a trip to the principal’s office to wake you up?” “No!” I burst out, louder than I intended to, provoking a new round of giggles from the other girls in my class. I’ve been enrolled at Edwards since just after Winter Break—only a little over two months— and already I’ve been labeled the Number One Weirdo. People avoid me like I have a disease—  like I have the disease. If only they knew. “This is your final warning, Miss Jones,” Mrs. Fierstein says. “Do you understand?”  “It won’t happen again,” I say, trying to look obedient and contrite. I’m pushing aside the memory of my nightmare, pushing aside thoughts of Alex, pushing aside thoughts of Hana and my old school, push, push, push, like Raven taught me to do. The old life is dead. Mrs. Fierstein gives me a final stare—meant to intimidate me, I guess—and turns back to the board,  returning to her lecture on the divine energy of electrons. The old Lena would have been terrified of a teacher like Mrs. Fierstein. She’s old, and mean, and looks like a cross between a frog and a pit bull. She’s one of those people who makes the cure seem redundant—it’s impossible to imagine that she would ever be capable of loving, even without the procedure. But the old Lena is dead too. I buried her. I left her beyond a fence, behind a wall of smoke and flame.

Thursday 23 February 2012


Tahereh Mafi is coming to CANADA!!!!!!!!!!
Grab Your Books! Grab Your Mothers!
SHE`S ALMOST HERE!

Tahereh Mafi hits Chapters At Metrotown in Burnaby, March 10th, 2012
at 2:00pm. 


Don`t Be Late ;)






Swoon By Nina Malkin Book Review

                                                     
Available at Amazon.


Description:
Swoon, Connecticut, stands proudly on its heritage and the good behavior of its Lilly Pulitzer–clad inhabitants, so semi-psychic New York transplant Candice (Dice) sticks out like a sore thumb. On the autumnal equinox, Dice's sweet and gentle cousin Penelope suddenly changes into a dangerous vixen, and only Dice is able to see that she has been possessed. Dice knows she must exorcise Sinclair, the ghost of a handsome young man from the colonial era, but she has fallen deeply in love with the appropriately nicknamed Sin. Finally, Dice follows Sin’s directions for an exorcism, which frees Penelope from his hold and releases Sin into his own physical form. The golem-like Sin finally reveals his goal: to exact revenge on the descendants of those who unjustly hung him for the murder of his fiancĂ©e. Since Sin awakens the quaint town’s denizens to all of their suppressed urges, this steamy and suspenseful romance with a psychic slant and time-travel twist will pull mature teens. 

Calamity's Review:
       I had read this book around a year or two ago and I thought that it would be a "Sin" not to review this mysteriously wicked book. I hadn't read the synopsis of this book before reading it because I like surprises and I have noticed that once you read the description of the book, it doesn't seem to hold the thrill for me anymore. So I dove into the book blindsided and at first I was not pleased because I thought it was going to be like any other "highschool scene" and I was disappointed, until.... Sinclair was introduced...well not "physically" atleast....
Let's start with Dice (short of Candice) though, since she kind of is the Protagonist of the book. I reall enjoyed Dice's intelligence and I loved that she was quite inquisitive about everything and tried to not just look at situations through her eyes but also the opposing characters. I loved that she was soo independant and didn't really have to rely on anyone for much. Also, I loved that she was real, ya know? She was protrayed as someone that many people might be able to relate to.
As for Sin (short for Sinclair)... welllll....... I suppose he's not reeeaaaalllyyy the antagonist.. is he? Well he does seem to be causing "Chaos" wherever he goes and trying to take revenge on the innocents living in the town on Swoon. So we can technically call him the bad guy, per say. Anyway, he is introduced into the book through Pen (Penelope, Dice's Cousin). In a nutshell, he has possessed her body and tries to take revenge on the town of Swoon through her physical being. Trying to put Sin at rest, Dice attempts at letting him reach "the other side," which actually just turns into him regaining his flesh body. At first it seems like it might be fun but soon enough Sin takes it too far.
I rate this book a 4!
P.S.Sorry for the unorganized and chaotic writing (am still working on that)



Chaos' Review:
    Read this book multiple years back when it first released. As always, the cover is exceptionally enthralling, and my bad habit of "Judging a Book By Its Cover" always comes into play when scrolling around for a good read.
     The story of Dice, a normal teenager girl whom parties and sings, lives the typical normal life. However, there comes in the devious "entity" of Sinclair that toys around with everyone in this town filled with the rich. He seems to play the antagonist, yet situations tend to change as the story progresses and more is revealed. Moreover, the protagonist, Dice is more intelligent than the usual "Bella Swan" and doesn't seem to succumb to Sinclair's charm. As the story zooms on, it gets slightly boring, and predictable, as soon as Dice attempts to rid Sinclair's ghostly being out of her cousin Pen right at the beginning. After that the story is casually turning into a great "Calamity" with countless scenes of drama filled situations and predictability.
    The story in the end was slightly interesting and held potential if it was more easily thorough through out the pages. It easily played as an interesting time pass and I slightly wished that the story was much more chaotic in a sense. However, it won't stop me from picking up the sequel to Swoon, which is called Swear By Nina Malkin (Will be reviewed soon).
I rate this book a 3.
 

Monday 13 February 2012

Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins Review

Available At: Amazon or The Book Depository

Description

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place. 

 
Calamity's Review: 

     Right at the beginning, I had convinced myself that I did not want to read this book. I like books with an enticing beginning because I get distracted very easily and if the book does not capture my attention, I immediately put it down. This is exactly what happened with Hunger Games, I got a horrible vibe that this was going to be a sad book because of the mood and setting. Knowing me and of my habit, Chaos narrated the entire first chapter for me. I was thrown into shock and had to immediately continue on reading the book, from there one, I consumed the book and finished it immediately. Thanks Chaos.
      The Hunger Games is unlike any dystopian book I have read, it wasn't an emotional roller coaster, it was something that had me thinking a lot though. I thought about how amazing and strong we really are, as people. Katniss, the protagonist of the book, reminded me of Rose Hathaway from Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. She is strong-willed, takes crap from nobody, has a heart of gold and would do anything for her loved ones. The one difference I did find though was that Katniss was always "looking over her shoulder." She didn't trust anybody and always thought that someone was after her for something and everyone had ulterior motives. This trait of hers bothered me a lot.
       As for the male protagonists, Peeta and Gale, let's NOT do any of the "TEAM PEETA!!" or "TEAM GALE!!" nonsense. This isn't twilight people. I liked them and they both had personalities to show her. Peeta is the more kind, open hearted and smitten baker, while Gale is the more practical, tough love hunter. Liking either one depends completely on the type of person you are and in opposites like these two, there is no way to be one side or the other.
The book in itself, WAS FREAKING AMAZING!




Chaos' Review: 

    Yes, yes save the applause. It took me a year to bring Calamity into reading this book. I fell into desperation and verbally threw the first chapter at her, THEN did she pick up the book and finish it. Pssssht. People used to make jokes about me because they said "so boring" "not worth my time" YEA NOW WHAT!!! It's a movie releasing out on March 23,2012!!!! (Insert psycho laugh). Enough with me relishing in the "I told you so" phrase. 
    The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins was exceptionally mind blowing. Forever has it been one of my favourites. (<---Canadian Spelling for "favorite" so yes, my spelling is correct). The fact that the protagonist is so -human- is what increases my love for this book. Katniss is definitely Kick-Butt, yet the turning events in this book mentally disturbs her, which increases the -humanity- given within this character. Throughout this entire book, Katniss is moved by the passion of wanting to protect her family, now that she -must- put this trait into play, she enhances that passion into a rage to keep her going. In the end, it scars her mentally. 
    Here we go again with TEAM PEETA & TEAM GALE (In comments, post which team you ship XP).
Personally, as Calamity said, this isn't Twilight! Both these men have different roles in this book, both men have different personalities. We can't play this Jacob and Edward card here. Besides, Katniss' main goal isn't on which boy to chose, but her FAMILY. Family, is the key here, Katniss doesn't wish to play Bella here and have the men do the fighting, have others preserve -her- life. She depends on herself to protect her loved ones and won't stop until it HAPPENS! Lets face it.....It's too good.





Sunday 12 February 2012

Fallen By Lauren Kate Review

Available at: Amazon or The Book Depository
Description:
There’s something achingly familiar about Daniel Grigori.
Mysterious and aloof, he captures Luce Price’s attention from the moment she sees him on her first day at the Sword & Cross boarding school in sultry Savannah, Georgia. He’s the one bright spot in a place where cell phones are forbidden, the other students are all screw-ups, and security cameras watch every move.
Even though Daniel wants nothing to do with Luce–and goes out of his way to make that very clear–she can’t let it go. Drawn to him like a moth to a flame, she has to find out what Daniel is so desperate to keep secret . . . even if it kills her.




Chaos' Review: 
   After having gotten tired of the vampire and werewolf genre, I thought that I would give angels a try. Fallen By Lauren Kate is slow at first, since it is the introductory of the characters and the protagonist Lucy Price. She isn't a strong willed character and a bit easily distracted, however she makes for an interesting character because, she just -seems- so normal, except for the fact that she's attending a boarding school for misfits. 
    Then comes forth the antagonist, Cam. As the story drifts and changes over time to the point were Cam switches out of the villainous role and joins sides with the "good" because, everyone shares the same common enemy overall. I'ts interesting. After Daniel commits an entry into the story, then a noticeable romance is obviously aroused between Lucy and him. In the end this book is filled with love, envy, and tragedy. It gets a bit confusing, and is slow at many times, but it makes for a good time passing read. Interesting story overall. 
3 Stars.



Calamity was too cool to read this book.





Shatter Me By Tahereh Mafi


Available at: Amazon or The Book Depository 

Book Description: 

"You can't touch me," I whisper.
I'm lying, is what I don't tell him.
He can touch me, is what I'll never tell him.
But things happen when people touch me.
Strange things.
Bad things.
No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal, but The Reestablishment has plans for her. Plans to use her as a weapon.
But Juliette has plans of her own.
After a lifetime without freedom, she's finally discovering a strength to fight back for the very first time—and to find a future with the one boy she thought she'd lost forever




Calamity's Review:

      I had heard some pretty crazily unbelievable stuff about this book being intense and steamy!.. I thought that was a bunch of nonsense because how can something be "steamy" if the Protagonist can't even touch anybody? Well....Tahereh Mafi did it! She played with words in such a way that I couldn't help but get goosebumps.
     The protagonist Juliette was kind of a let down because she isnt as badass as her abililty lets her be. She defs has potential and you can tell that she has some sort of heat within her. Hopefully we'll see some of that in Unravel Me! The "so-called" antagonist, Warner, was actually my favourite character in the book because he's just soo conflicted. You feel furious at him but at the same time you feel bad, while you're laughing non-stop. He's evil but still wants to be loved. The book was predictable but still had me guessing what would happen. I recommend this to people who love dyanamic characters (Warner) and also not-so-dyanamic characters like Adam. Adam's supposed to be one of the main characters but honestly, I just wanted him to leave. He was just too typical for my liking and kind of boring.
     The story line for this book was pretty amazing though and there defs were a couple things that made me legit gasp. It's also ppreeettttyyy original and ideas were new. I rate this a 4!!




Chaos' Review: 

    What caught my attention, was the constant strike outs in the book, not only did Tahereh defy the mechanics within this books, it was completely -Original- her ideas were fresh and eye catching. I liked it.
    The protagonist, Juliette, was interesting personality wise, she may seem mentally disturbed due to years of isolation, but she wasn't as tough as I would have expected, because her powers allows her to destroy things so easily. I do have a strong liking to villains since they're the ones with the power.....I like power :) aka Warner....Tahereh took the villain and constructed him into a sexy being with a power lust. Yeaup. He's got my vote, yet, its so diverse that you can easily perceive him as one of the "good", therefore, I'm definitively expecting a twist in the next book, Unravel Me. 
   After cruising through his book in a matter of 2-3 days, I was craving for more, though this story had brought a fond deja vu matter with X-Men. It was still brilliant. I loved it. 4 stars






OMG Courtney Allison is giving away Pandemonium by bestselling author Lauren Oliver on her blog at http://courtney-allison.blogspot.com/
We have already entered, let's see who gets it! <333

Saturday 11 February 2012

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith - Book Review
Description:
Today should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in seat 18C. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it.

Calamity's Review:
            I was very excited to read this book because I really do believe in fate and this book pretty much revolves around that.The Statistical Probabilty of Love at First sight was amazingly depressing for me. I had talked to many people about it and they all said that it was very cute (which it definitely is) and that it's the perfect love story. When I read this book, I immediately wanted to cry. And its not because I'm upset over my own love life not being this perfect. It's actually because this book showed two completely different types of family dynamics and both of them were unfortunate in their own ways. It was very dejecting and I can't start to explain the emotions I was feeling.
            I felt terrible for Hadley because of how her relationship with her father was going and that it is the way it is because of the decision she made to stay distant from him. I felt horrible for Oliver.. well I don't really want to "spoil" the book for anyone. Anyway, this book was staggering because of all the emotions that were running wild within me while I was reading it. It was all I could think about after I finished the book. As for the romantic part.. it was kind of unbelievable...cute...but soooo unbelievable. The character were...interesting, to say the least. Hadely was like an open book, whereas Oliver really had me guessing. The great thing about the characters was that they were very dynamic. It was a surprise after a surprise. The Characters were not as clichĂ© as the book itself.  


 Three Stars!


BTW, Chaos is too awesome to read this book   

Friday 10 February 2012

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead - Series Review
 
Description:


      Two races of vampires walk our world. One, the Moroi, which are alive and wield elemental magic. The other, the Strigoi, whom are undead and evil beings--feeding on the innocent to survive. Rose Hathaway--a half-vampire with poor impulse control--is training to be a bodyguard for a Moroi princess. Learning to decapitate and stake is hard enough, but Rose's real danger may lie in an illicit romance with one of her instructors...


Calamity's Review:
         When I first read this book it was not the most popular book out there and I was nervous to read it because most of the books I read are bandwaggon jumping type of books. I kinda felt outta my element. It didn't help that the first couple pages were boring and the book just didn't capture my attention. So I read about 5 pages and put the book away because it just seemed so worn out and repetative. Yeah, I can tell that by just reading a few pages.
As the book gathered dust, I started to hear more things about it. It suddenly became something to talk about and I decided to give it another try. This time I skipped 10 pages and went onto where they're running away from someone...Dimitri... <3
       Dimitri is honestly my favourite male book character. He's the most beautiful creature! He's a badass god and always has this facade of control that Rose can always see through. Their relationship goes farther than a relationship because they both know what their mission in life is; "to protect them."
Rose, being the tough, no bullshit, type of girl she is, knows that too and it starts to sink in when this motto starts to directly effect her life majorly. Her goal in life has always been to protect her best friend Lissa and you know there's trouble when she starts to question that.
       This book has been driving me crazy, people actually started to question my sanity everytime I put the book down.Yes, I'm love with a fictional character in a book; Dimitri (just in case you didn't feel the awesomeness pouring off of his name).


Chaos' Review: 
        Lets get this out there, the cover isn't appealing at -all-. If it wasn't for Calamity my fingers wouldn't have touched this book. It's hideous........Yes I have an act for Judging A Book By Its Cover......bad habit. However! The story awaiting inside makes up for the image on the cover. Simply Fantastic and Mind Blowing, even if the beginning is a little slow, you have to PUSH THROUGH!
       Not only is Rose Hathaway a Kick-Ass character, but her confidence shines through! Enough with theses crying heroines in books, Rose knows what she's doing and how to get what she wants......This includes her Instructor.....Mr. Belikov ;) I have a weakness towards action packed books such as this.......