Struck by Jennfer Bosworth

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth
 
Release Date: April 26th 2012
Pages: 373
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR
Buy It: Book Depository

Mia Price is a lightning addict. She's survived countless strikes, but her craving to connect to the energy in storms endangers her life and the lives of those around her. Los Angeles, where lightning rarely strikes, is one of the few places Mia feels safe from her addiction. But when an earthquake devastates the city, her haven is transformed into a minefield of chaos and danger. Two warring cults rise to power, and both see Mia as the key to their opposing doomsday prophecies. They believe she has a connection to the freak electrical storm that caused the quake, and to the far more devastating storm that is yet to come.

I'm conflicted over Struck, there were some parts I really enjoyed, but a few aspects that didn't quite work and left me wanting a little more from the novel as a whole. In particular, sometimes there is some absurd statements, like a really intense moment right near the climax and Mia is rushing to get somewhere, and she says "This was one instance when it would not do to arrive fashionably late for the party." and it just seemed so out of her voice and character, as well as the story context. This sort of thing happened a few times, like another part that quoted (without credit) the factually inaccurate The Dark Knight saying, "Fear not, for it is always darkest before the dawn. At this moment, things are very dark, in the world at large, but especially here, in the so-called City of Angels."

But even though there were moments that jarred me out of Bosworth's world, those moments when I was one hundred in it were far more frequent. Specifically, I loved the premise of this book, I love the reality that Bosworth has created, the creepiness of these cults and the world on the brink of destruction and the lightning that strikes through it all. Struck is the kind of book that simmers beneath the surface, and when everything finally explodes it is just wow.

As a main character, I really appreciated Mia. She has this physical manifestation of everything she's been through, she's covered in lightning scars, and it gives a unique and intriguing element to her personality. She's also just really strong, she feels an obligation to take care of her family– since her dad is dead and her mom is completely useless. There's a backstory to her mom that makes her actions more understandable but there were definitely still times I wanted to shake her and wake her up.... then again, I think Mia did too!

It took awhile for me to get involved in Bosworth's world, because the background to her story is extreme– definitely relies on some suspension of belief– and not instantly clear, but when I did I found myself in for a really exciting experience. I do wish that it had been more clearly set out from the start, and that some of the phrasing in the book had been rethought. However, ultimately, Struck is an incredibly unique and thrilling book with a strong but realistic main character and a premise that is unlike anything I had ever read before.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Release Date: June 19th 2012
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher / TLC Book Tours
Publisher: Random House
Buy It: Book Depository

On a seemingly ordinary Saturday in a California suburb, Julia and her family awake to discover, along with the rest of the world, that the rotation of the earth has suddenly begun to slow. The days and nights grow longer and longer, gravity is affected, the environment is thrown into disarray. Yet as she struggles to navigate an ever-shifting landscape, Julia is also coping with the normal disasters of everyday life—the fissures in her parents’ marriage, the loss of old friends, the hopeful anguish of first love, the bizarre behavior of her grandfather who, convinced of a government conspiracy, spends his days obsessively cataloging his possessions. As Julia adjusts to the new normal, the slowing inexorably continues.

What an incredible debut novel. Easily one of my favourite novels of 2012, The Age of Miracles captured my attention from the first paragraph. It begins:

"We didn’t notice right away. We couldn’t feel it.
We did not sense at first the extra time, bulging from the smooth edge of each day like a tumor blooming beneath skin."

This perfect simplicity, this beautiful description, is a staple of Walker's and though at first I was riveted by her words, they would have been nothing without a strong and dimensional cast of characters to back them up. At the center of the story is Julia, an adult reflected back on when everything changed, when the earth began to slow on its axis and time piled up, each day getting longer than the last. Even though Julia is twelve at the time of the story, The Age of Miracles isn't young adult because she has the adult perspective. At the same time, the clarity and ease of Walker's writing, as well as the content, means that like Vaclav and Lena by Haley Tanner this could definitely appeal to a younger audience too.

Despite all the natural disasters that occur, The Age of Miracles is not a traditional science fiction or post-apocalyptic story; it's really a coming of age novel. Even as the world around her falls apart, Julia still has to navigate the normal struggles of growing up: friendship, love, family. It is these struggles that allowed me to connect with her as a reader, and I found them realistic and heart-breaking. At its core, this is a story about Julia, and not the broken planet.

Still, as a science grad student myself I sometimes have a hard time suspending belief when reading novels where things happen without explanation (like The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe). While I'm not entirely sure why the slowing occurred, otherwise the vision of the future that Walker creates comes with the appropriate science to back it up. What I mean is that the events that follow have logic behind them– for example, as the days slow, certain plants can no longer survive in the extended darkness. Each disasters that follows has a similar reasoning behind it, so that as a reader I was never thrown out the story and left questioning but instead remained fully immersed in Walker's world.

Even though I enjoyed Walker's vision of the future, ultimately, it is the words not the world that made me fall in love with this novel. Combining a simple and eloquent voice, perfect moments of description, and genuine characters, Walker's debut novel The Age of Miracles was everything I hoped it would be from that first perfect sentence.

The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe

The Way We Fall (Fallen World #1) by Megan Crewe

Release Date: January 24th 2012
Pages: 309
Format: E-galley
Source: NetGalley/Publisher
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Buy It: Book Depository

When a deadly virus begins to sweep through sixteen-year-old Kaelyn’s community, the government quarantines her island—no one can leave, and no one can come back. Those still healthy must fight for dwindling supplies, or lose all chance of survival. As everything familiar comes crashing down, Kaelyn joins forces with a former rival and discovers a new love in the midst of heartbreak. When the virus starts to rob her of friends and family, she clings to the belief that there must be a way to save the people she holds dearest. Because how will she go on if there isn’t?

Admittedly a lot of this novel reminded me of Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life As We Knew It, and the fact that it is basically told in journal entries (technically she's writing somebody, but she's not sending the letters, so it might as well be a journal) probably doesn't help that cause. Although it's got a similar post-apocalyptic feeling to it, The Way We Fall has the distinction of being set entirely on one island, contained but separate, while Kaelyn doesn't really know what's going on in the rest of the world, though there are hints.

While there was a lot I loved about this island, like the fact that it was Canadian, and how much scarier it was that they were cut off from the world both literally and figuratively, I admit something left me perplexed. Apparently it was in Nova Scotia, which is awesome, but there are references to Halifax and Ottawa, but nowhere in between. It seems to imply that the island is located somewhere in the middle, while ignoring other cities like Montreal, that would certainly have been closer than Ottawa, if it was in fact Nova Scotia Crewe was writing about. So that's my Canadian geography confusion, left even more perplexed by the fact that the author is actually Canadian. I did read an advance copy, I wonder if anyone who picked up a finished edition noticed the same thing? Did I just misread the book / am I crazy?

Location ramble aside, something I really loved was that, despite being a book about a very deadly virus, many of the important deaths in The Way We Fall are not from infection. Instead, they are caused by consequences stemming from what the virus has done to people and society. It was really near to see how far the impact could spread, so that even those who were healthy weren't necessary safe.

I also enjoyed Kaelyn's unexpected love interest, I could really see how these two people came together in a tragic time, which felt believable. I liked the fact that Kaelyn was biracial– having lived in Nova Scotia for several years, I could appreciate that she would have been a minority, and in certain situations the fact that it made her stand out added an interesting dimension.

The scientific aspect of The Way We Fall was where I had a bigger issue, though I admit to being a grad student in biology which might make me both more informed, and more curious, about it than the average reader. One of my favourite recent films is Contagion, and likely because the novel is told from the perspective of a teenage girl, The Way We Fall lacked some of the detail I was hoping for. Still, I have definitely read other post-apocalyptic type YA books where a teenage narrator didn't prevent the author from giving a more thorough explanation of what was going on, for example the medical mystery in Prized by Caragh M. O'Brien.

The ending of The Way We Fall fell into the "meh" category for series, I didn't feel like I had quite enough answered, but I guess more is being saved for book #2, The Lives We Lost. I'm not entirely sure if this is a trilogy I'll be continuing but there was enough I enjoyed about The Way We Fall that, should the next novel catch my interest, I'll certainly give it a try.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

At first it may seem that, like its main character– a teenage girl named Saba on a search to find her twin brother Lugh in the lawless desert– Blood Red Road by Moira Young has a lot going against it: it's written in dialect, lacks quotation marks, and is over 450 pages long. Also like Saba, it takes a little while to find its footing, but once it gets accustomed to the odds stacked against it, itís unstoppable. Blood Red Road is an epic adventure, and once the reader gets used to the unfamiliar language and intentional misspelling, they become immersed in an incredibly powerful story.

It begins with a kidnapping and two murders. Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake with Lugh, her dad, and the little sister Emmi whose birth killed their mother. Saba doesn't ever expect to leave the wasteland she calls home, but when cloaked horsemen make off with Lugh, leaving two dead in their wake, she has no choice but to follow them into a world where corruption is the norm and power is maintained in horrific ways. On her journey, Saba meets an eclectic cast of people and each of them are memorable and unique in their own ways. However, one of the most notable characters is with Saba from day one and throughout the novel doesn't say a single world– her pet crow, Nero. Young turns an often-repulsive animal into a symbol of hope and friendship. Nero has a distinct personality that compliments Saba perfectly and left a lasting impact on me as a reader.

Although Blood Red Road falls more into the post-apocalyptic genre than dystopia, it is certain to be appreciated by fans of The Hunger Games for its strong (yet imperfect) heroine, quietly growing romance, and adventure-like feel. The writing style is unusual, but once the reader becomes immersed in the story the book is impossible to put down. Blood Red Road has a raw and searing feel to it, a fervent violence and just as fervent love. Saba may be the heroine of the story, but oftentimes she is not very nice, resenting her little sister for taking their mother away and continually wanting to leave Emmi behind when she travels to find Lugh. Saba is real and human and in an incredibly difficult situation in a world that, despite taking place in the future, is in some ways quite medieval.

Young doesn't go into much detail about how the world Saba inhabits came to be that way, but there is reference to leftover things from Wrecker times, a description which seems to say quite a bit on its own. That said, this is the first book in a trilogy and I am hopeful that the next two books will contain more backstory. Fortunately, this story works perfectly as a standalone as well, with the ending wrapping things up nicely but leaving room for further adventures.

The story of Blood Red Road by Moira Young is as blazing and intense as the desert heat. Its characters are passionate, unique and human, and although the language takes some getting used to, it's an effort you'll be glad you made.

Last Survivors Series by Susan Beth Pfeffer

I have decided to combine my reviews of the three novels so far in the Last Survivors Series by Susan Beth Pfeffer- Life As We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone, and This World We Live In- into one review. However I am vague enough that you are able to read the complete review without spoiling any of the novels.

Life As We Knew It is the perfect title for a book where the world ends. Well not quite, but a meteor does hit the moon and while everyone thinks it's not going to be a big deal, but that turns out to be far from the truth. The tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that follow are only the beginning, all chronicled in the diary of a teenage girl named Miranda who struggles for survival along with her mother and two brothers in the face of limited food and water and an increasingly destructive outside world.

Life As We Knew It is the kind of book that envelops the reader, taking you into a world that one instant looks exactly like your own before turning it on its head in an incredibly terrifying and breath-taking away. What made the novel so unique was how you get to see the damage unfold, making it different than many post-apocalyptic novels, like Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari, which usually begin long after the destruction has begun.

With Life As We Knew It Pfeffer tells a story that is both horrible and utterly human, about what good people will do under desperate circumstances- especially when it comes to family. Miranda, like most of her family, are less interesting as characters than they are as a mechanism for telling a riveting tale that will keep your heart pounding till the last page. However, in a way that works, because it is instantly clear to the reader that they could be anyone and that is what makes it scariest of all.

The incredibly intense feeling that Life As We Knew It left in me was why I was so excited to pick up its sequel, The Dead and the Gone, only to find out that the book is actually told over a similar period of time from a different perspective that doesn't involve Miranda and her family at all. Instead, it is the story of Alex, a Puerto Rican teenage Catholic boy living in New York City with his two young sisters and whose parents don't come home when the meteor hits. Forced to care for them under increasingly worse circumstances, Alex struggles for their survival as well as having to decide whether or not to leave the city- and risk never seeing his parents again- or stay, and risk all three of their lives.

Unlike its prequel, The Dead and the Gone is written in the third person and it's not a format I enjoyed as much. Possibly this has something to do with audiobook narrators, as I didn't particularly enjoy the reader for this book in the series, but mostly I think it is a result of the lack of tension felt from that perspective. With Miranda's story, I constantly felt on edge about what was going to happen next, but possibly because the reader already had a good idea about the environmental disasters going on from the first book, I just didn't feel the same excitement for this story.

The Dead and the Gone is also an incredibly religious story in comparison to its predecessor, and in a way I found that made it less accessible and universal. It also means that Alex faces some moral dilemmas not shared by Miranda and which I wasn't entirely convinced about; like breaking into the apartment of a tenant that has gone on holiday and is clearly not coming back, when you have no food to feed your family. Ultimately, Alex just isn't relateable in the same way that Miranda was and despite being so excited for The Dead and the Gone, I just wanted more from this book and unfortunately the longer I let it settle in and percolate, the more dissatisfied I feel with it.

The original Last Survivors Trilogy- which is now supposed to be expanded on- finishes with This World We Live In, a novel once again from Miranda's diary perspective, but which brings the characters from the first two books together when Alex is among a group of people who show up at Miranda's family's doorstep. Unfortunately, I found This World We Live In to be an incredibly disappointing finale in a way that left me regretting having read past Life As We Knew It, which ended quite satisfactorily, in the trilogy; although I must admit I am hopeful enough, and these books are quick enough reads, that I would likely pick up a future addition to the series.

Most of my issues with the novel would contain important spoilers, but basically Alex comes across as pretty unlikable which made me not particularly care how things turned out for him, and the majority of the characters seem to go a bit crazy by the end of the book. For a book where most of the time things seem to be getting better, it is like all of a sudden the author changed her mind and threw every negative event possible at the characters (Mockingjay anyone?) I was also pretty sick of this audiobook narrator by about halfway through, as well as getting impatient with the story, so I ended up finishing my hard copy of the novel. I was really hoping to end on the same kind of high note that Last Survivors began with, and though I did appreciate the return to the diary format, This World We Live In was just not the grand finale that a series beginning with as great a book as Life As We Knew It deserves.

Life As We Knew It:
Release Date: October 1st, 2006                                                              Pages: 360
Source: Audiobook and Review Copy From Publisher                             Buy the Book
The Dead and the Gone:
Release Date: June 1st, 2008                                                                   Pages: 321
Source: Audiobook and Review Copy  From Publisher                            Buy the Book
This World We Live In:
Release Date: April 1st, 2010                                                                   Pages: 239
Source: Audiobook and Review Copy  From Publisher                            Buy the Book 

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari

Ashes, Ashes by Jo Treggiari takes place in the near future when mother nature has gotten her revenge on the planet. Everything from tsunamis to drought to earthquakes to plague destroys the majority of the population. Left behind are the survivors, mostly kept safe from recent vaccinations either in childhood or old age, the mutated smallpox plague has wiped out most of the adults leaving behind the children and elderly. Sixteen-year-old Lucy is one of the lucky one percent left behind, and for the past year she has survived alone in the wilds of Central Park in the wreckage of New York City. However, a chance encounter with another teenager, Aidan, who saves her from a pack of hunting dogs, makes Lucy realize she can't always do everything on her own. Lucy joins Aidan and a band of other survivors, but the dangers, including Sweepers who rid the streets of plague victims and the ever present threat of mutation leading to another plague wave, are only beginning.

After reading so many dystopia novels in the last year, I really thought Ashes, Ashes would be quite similar. However, Treggiari has definitely delved into a different and unique niche with her post-apocalyptic fiction- in this book it is not the government that people have to worry about, but the world itself. The novel is jam-packed full of disasters of every kind imaginable, which makes for an intense and thrilling page-turner. Lucy makes a good main character and heroine because she is brave but not flawless, she has beaten incredible odds but she still sometimes trips or cuts herself by accident. In many ways, Lucy reminded me of Katniss from The Hunger Games for her strength and perseverance, refusing to give up even in tough situations. Treggiari also manages to include lots of little bits of interesting survival information that adds colour to the novel, everything from how to kill a turtle to using a hammer as a weapon.

I really enjoyed the pacing of Ashes, Ashes and I think it is definitely one of those good books for reluctant readers because of the amount of action and excitement in the book. However, because there is so much going on there were a few times when I wished for a little more description. I was also a bit let down by the resolution of the book, there were was just so much foreshadowing that even if it wasn't the sort of "twist" that I had guessed from almost the first chapter, I think it would have been hard not to get way before you reached the ending of the book. That said, the intended audience is definitely a little younger than me, and they have probably also seen a few less post-apocalyptic movies, so maybe it will satisfy them better. What I did find refreshing about how Ashes, Ashes ended was that it worked perfectly as a stand-alone novel, at a time when every book I pick up seems to be a part of a series, it was nice to get a complete story from Treggiari. There is potential for a sequel to follow Ashes, Ashes, and while I'd certainly enjoy another exciting novel with the stubborn but courageous Lucy, Treggiari has me hooked on her intense storytelling and I will definitely pick up whatever she publishes next.

Release Date: June 1st, 2011
Pages: 343
Source: Publisher 
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