Guest Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Title:	Shatter Me
Author:	Tahereh Mafi
Genre:	YA, Dystopian
Rating:	PG
Publisher:	HarperTEEN
Release Date:	November 15, 2011
Pages:	342
Source:	ARC from Publisher
My Rating:	4.5 Stars

 [Goodreads | Amazon]

Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days. The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette's touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don't fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war- and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she's exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

     "Their fear will work in your favour," he whispers in my ear.
     My humanity is lying in a million pieces on this carpeted floor.  "I never wanted them to be afraid of me."
     "You should."  He stops.  His eyes are calling me an idiot.  "If they don't fear you, they will hunt you."
     "People hunt things they fear all the time."
     "At least now they know what they're up against."  He resumes walking down the hall, but my feet are stitched into the ground.

Divergent, Delirium, The Hunger Games, and The Chaos Walking Trilogy are all great dystopian YA novels and all are equalled or surpassed by this debut novel by Tahereh Mafi. Mafi’s novel is a breathtaking work of art, her description on the fall of culture on page 60 left me in awe of this 23 year old writer's talent. (If you are hesitant to buy this novel after reading this review, flip to this page and bask in the eloquence… THEN buy the book.) 

The female protagonists in YA novels are often shy, awkward, and well…sappy. While Juliette starts off with all of these traits, Mafi introduces a new way to portray this. Juliette is censored (by herself) like this. As the book progresses, Juliette doubts herself less and less, and becomes a more confident and sexy woman. I doubt I am a part of the audience that Mafi intended her book for, but when I saw the synopsis compare it to the X-Men, well I couldn’t resist. 

Guys and Girls of all ages will enjoy this book, I’ve recommended it to others, and will continue to do so. Girls, if you enjoyed the previously mentioned novels, read this. Guys, if you enjoyed watching X-men as a kid, read this. This book was great, and the sequel will be SO FREAKING INSANE!!! Oh… also… on an amazingly awesome note the book has been optioned by 20th Century Fox.

P.S. You can read the first chapter on the Shatter Me Facebook page.

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I am a 24 yr old book lover. My room is a veritable library, albeit a messy one. I owe my love of literature to The Hardy Boys, though I quickly branched off into historical fiction which led to me currently reading just about anything. I attend Ryerson University and hate writing About Me blurbs. Also Neil Pasricha writer of The Book of Awesome says I'm awesome.

Peter James: How to Make a Career Out of Murder (Writing) Event!

I seriously have to say that I love twitter.  I have gotten more opportunities to attend events through twitter than by any other means.  Last week HarperCollinsCanada sent out an invite on twitter to attend an event at their Toronto HQ.  They were having author Peter James at their office where he would be talking about How to Make a Career Out of Murder (Writing).  Let me tell you, it was so much fun!

Peter James signing copies of his latest book Dead Man's Grip

Peter James, on top of being a supremely talented author, is absolutely hilarious.  He was dynamic and engaging and had all of us listening eagerly all night long.  He really comes across as the kind of writer you would like to take out for a drink and just talk to for hours on end.

While telling us some stories about things he has gotten up to all for the sake of research for his books, one of the attendees asked why he would do some of the things he has done to conduct research for his books?  His response is something that really hit home for me.  He told us that for one of his earlier novels he wrote purely from paper research and for him he felt like he was cheating his readers.  He decided from then on that he would experience the things that he was writing about first hand, as much as he possibly could, in order to be able to write them authentically.  Wow!  That is amazing.  To me it was simply fabulous to see that he such dedication and respect not only for his craft, but also for his audience that he was willing to go to such extreme lengths to make sure he got it right.

Everyone received a copy of Peter's latest book Dead Man's Grip and he graciously took the time to sign every last copy and then some.  Kudos to the HarperCollinsCanada staff for putting on such a great event and making everyone feel so welcome.  Thanks specifically to Shannon and Corey who were on hand to organize and participate.  

Look at Shannon's handy packaging skills!

His latest book making a home on my shelf!

*Side Note* Peter is nominated over at ITV3 for a People's Bestseller Dagger Award.  Click here to go and vote for him!  While you are at it, you should check out his books.  I mean seriously, who wouldn't read a book written by someone who used to write for Polk-a-Dot Door!  Canadians will know what I am talking about :)

Review: The Sixes

Title: The Sixes
Author: Kate White
Genre: Fiction & Literature
Rating: PG
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Pages: 384 pages
Source: ARC Courtesy of the Publisher
My Rating: 5*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

Kate White rises to the pinnacle of modern suspense with The Sixes, a page-turning stand-alone thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Hush, and the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine. With taught prose evocative of Laura Lippman’s Life Sentences and Dennis Lehane’s Moonlight Mile, White paints the sinister picture of a quiet Pennsylvania college town left shaken after a mysterious death precipitates a cascade of evil events on campus. When new teacher Phoebe Hall undertakes the dangerous quest of uncovering the truth behind the ghastly recent happenings, her investigation will send her into the clutches of a deadly secret society—the Sixes—and unearth the dark relics of her own long-buried past.


My Thoughts

This is the first book I have read written by Kate White.  I have to say, if they are all like this, then I need to read more of her work.

The Sixes, like The Twisted Thread by Charlotte Bacon, is a book about a murder and secret society of mean girls.  Actually girls aren't just mean, they are sociopath's.  Sociopath's with far, far too much time on their hands.

Phoebe Hall is a famous writer recently a part of plagiarism scandal.  As a way to lay low and recover from this scandal she is offered a place teaching a writing class at Lyle College by her long time friend who is now the head of the school.  Shortly after her arrival, a girl is found drowned in the river just off campus.  During the investigation into her death, the school administration gets wind of a secret society of girls that may be operating on campus.  Desperate to contain possible damage to the school, Phoebe is tasked with using her journalistic talents to investigate The Sixes.

Phoebe's investigation, predictably, stirs up a hornet's nest and makes her the target for this group of mean girls on crack.  It's actually scary the complete lack of respect for authority or personal safety that The Sixes show in their bid to intimidate Phoebe from finding out the truth about them.  In the course of investigating The Sixes, Phoebe unwittingly becomes involved in the investigation for the killer that appears to be haunting Lyle College, its students and Phoebe herself.

Kate White has done a phenomenal job in weaving all the different back stories together into one cohesive and dynamic thriller.  I guarantee that this is one ending that you won't see coming.

This review was done after reading an uncorrected ARC copy courtesy of HarperCollins New York. My priority is to you, and I honour that commitment by being honest! I don’t do reviews for payment, nor do I guarantee favourable reviews for any book/galley/ARC sent to me for review.  I promise to stay truthful with you and all opinions represented here are my own. If you are uncertain what this all means, I urge you to read my Review Policy for further clarification. You can also contact me at contact@nicoleabouttown.com.

Review: The Pact

Title: The Pact
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Fiction & Literature, Social Issues
Rating: PG
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication Date: September 1st 2006 (first published May 6th 1998)
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 496 pages
Source: Purchased Finished Copy
My Rating: 3*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.


So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.

Quotes

"I love you," he whispered, and that was the moment he knew what he was going to do. When you loved someone, you put their needs before your own. No matter how inconceivable those needs were; no matter how fucked up; no matter how much it made you feel like you were ripping yourself into pieces."

"Do you know what it's like to love someone so much, that you can't see yourself without picturing her? Or what it's like to touch someone, and feel like you've come home? What we had wasn't about sex, or about being with someone just to show off what you've got, the way it was for other kids our age. We were, well, meant to be together. Some people spend their whole lives looking for that one person. I was lucky enough to have her all along."

"He began to trace a pattern on the table with the nail of his thumb. "She kept saying she wanted to keep things exactly the way they were, and that she wished she could stop everything from changing. She got really nervous, like, talking about the future. She once told me that she could see herself now, and she could also see the kind of life she wanted to have - kids, husband, suburbs, you know - but she couldn't figure out how to get from point A to point B."

"Adults, light-years away from this, rolled their eyes and smirked and said, "this too shall pass" - as if adolescence was a disease like chicken pox, something everyone recalled as a mild nuisance, completely forgetting how painful it had been at the time."

"The mind is a remarkable thing. Just because you can’t see the wound doesn’t mean it isn’t hurting"

 My Thoughts

While I did like this book, it was not one of my favourite Jodi Picoult books.

There was just something about this book, and I still can't figure out what it is exactly, that I wasn't able to connect with.  The names drove me crazy.  I wasn't able to keep track of who was who and I had to keep going back to the beginning to remind myself who was who.  It also didn't help that there were these flashbacks that didn't really add to the story, in my opinion.

What I did love is that once again Jodi made me believe in a situation that was so far-fetched.  Do I think that a suicide pact is far-fetched?  No, I don't.  But the way that the one in this book plays out is.  Even after having read the book twice, I still don't know the reason it happened in the first place.  Not to mention, that Emily, who comes up with the idea never gives a reason for her wanting to commit suicide, not even to Chris who ends up being the surviving member of the pact.  Even though he is never given a reason a reason, Chris decides to end his life simply because he can't see his life being worth living without her in it.  To me, that isn't realistic at all and that is where Jodi Picoult's talent really comes in.  While I may not have believed in the circumstances, she did have me believing in the characters.

Review: The Devil Colony

Title: The Devil Colony (Sigma Series #7)
Author: James Rollins
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Fiction
Age Restriction: PG
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: June 21, 2011
Source: NetGalley on behalf of William Morrow an imprint of Harper Collins
My Rating: 5*

[Goodreads | Amazon]

Synopsis

Deep in the Rocky Mountains, a gruesome discovery — hundreds of mummified bodies — stir international attention and fervent controversy. Despite doubts to the bodies’ origins, the local Native American Heritage Commission lays claim to the prehistoric remains, along with the strange artifacts found in the same cavern: gold plates inscribed with an unfathomable script.


During a riot at the dig site, an anthropologist dies horribly: burned to ash in a fiery explosion in plain view of television cameras. All evidence points to a radical group of Native Americans, including one agitator, a teenage firebrand who escapes with a vital clue to the murder and calls on the one person who might help: her uncle, Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force.


To protect his niece and uncover the truth, Painter will ignite a war across the nation’s most powerful intelligence agencies. Yet, an even greater threat looms as events in the Rocky Mountains have set in motion a frightening chain reaction, a geological meltdown that threatens the entire western half of the U.S.


From the volcanic peaks of Iceland to the blistering deserts of the American Southwest, from the gold vaults of Fort Knox to the bubbling geysers of Yellowstone, Painter Crowe joins forces with Commander Gray Pierce to penetrate the shadowy heart of a dark cabal, one that has been manipulating American history since the founding of the thirteen colonies.


But can he discover the truth — one that could topple governments — before it destroys all he holds dear?

My Thoughts

Let me just start off by saying that I love books by James Rollins.  Specifically, I love the books in his Sigma Series.  Having said that, I think that this book is one of the best in his Sigma Series.  Over the course of the series, you are introduced to characters who have pretty much reappeared throughout every one of the seven books.  What I especially love, is that no one character is the main focus of the novel where he/she single-handedly solves the worlds problems and holds off the evil foe.  Each of the main character's in this series has their specialty and individual talents and they use them to form one hell of a team.

In the Devil Colony, James Rollins brings the Sigma team back to their home turf and as such the majority of the action takes place in the U.S.  In this novel, we get more of a look into the shadowy organization that has been a thorn in the side of Sigma and the U.S. intelligence community.  At the same time, Rollins provides a bit of history lesson on the founding of the U.S and ties a 200-year-old mystery to events happening in books modern setting.

There is plenty of action, and intrigue, and the suspense is enough to keep you flipping from page to page to see how it all plays out.  Plus, I love all the various explanations and lessons that happen in the course of the story unravelling.  As someone who works with engineers and physicists on a daily basis, I wish they would explain things as clearly to me as it's done in the book.  The concepts are fairly advanced, but the way they are explained makes them relatively easy to understand on a fundamental level.

One thing I was very pleased with is that the characters continue to develop and show hidden depths with each book in the series.  The way that Rollins' describes them and the situations that they are in, had me imagining that I was there as well watching everything unfold as it was happening.  I have yet to come across another series or author that combines action, adventure, suspense, mystery, history, and various other scientific concepts and principles in such a way that they are not leaving the reader either out of their depth or feeling like the author has dumbed down the concepts for them to understand.

All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a well thought out book with plenty of suspense and intrigue.

*This is number 7 in the Sigma Series of books.  While you can probably read them out-of-order, I wouldn't recommend it as there is a natural progression in both character development and overall series plot.*



Disclosure: This review was done after reading an uncorrected ARC copy courtesy of NetGalley and William Morrow, an imprint of Harper Collins. My priority is to you, and I honour that commitment by being honest! I don't do reviews for payment, nor do I guarantee favourable reviews for any book/galley/ARC sent to me for review.


I promise to stay truthful with you and all opinions represented here are my own. If you are uncertain what this all means, I urge you to read my Review Policy for further clarification. You can also contact me at contact@nicoleabouttown.com.