Transitive Verve

Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) Summary:  These are the last two installments of the Shatter Me series, and therefore, this review will contain spoilers for the previous books. You can find my previous reviews here and here . Fracture Me  is a novella told from Adam's point of view, discussing what happened during the final battle in Unravel Me  when Juliette gets taken away. Whereas the novel followed her, this novella follows him in the immediate aftermath. Ignite Me  is the final novel of the trilogy. Omega Point has been completely destroyed, Juliette has died (and come back), and the core group of Omega (including Adam, Kenji, James, and Castle) are in hiding, barely scraping by. As Warner hides her at the base and helps her recover, Juliette starts to formulate a plan to take down the Supreme Commander once and for all - but she needs Warner and her friends to work together, and that means dealing with some major issues (which mainly involve he...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: These are the next two installments of the Shatter Me  series, and therefore, this review will contain spoilers of the first book. To read my review of the first book, please click here . Destroy Me  is a novella told from Warner's point of view, covering the approximate period of his being shot as well as the immediate aftermath. We are introduced to the Supreme Commander of the Reestablishment, his father, who is absolutely ruthless and who is upset (major understatement) at how his son has handled the entire Juliette situation - basically, it was a major FAIL that he ended up falling in love with her. Unravel Me  is the second full novel in the trilogy: Juliette, Adam, and his brother James are settling into life at Omega Point, the rebel movement consisting of many other "people with abilities" led by a man named Castle. Or rather, Juliette is having a difficult time settling in, and things get worse when...

Thoughts at a glance: **** (I really liked it) Summary: Juliette's touch is deadly - as she was growing up, everyone around her, including her parents, treated her as if she had some sort of disease, or as if she were a dangerous weapon about to explode. After a particularly tragic incident, she's been locked up in an asylum for the past three years, in solitary confinement. But still she dares to hope that she might someday be free, among people who will accept and maybe even love her. However, as she's been locked away, the world outside has slowly fallen into pieces under fascist rule - animals are dying off, plants are no longer growing, and citizens are struggling to survive. But one day, a handsome young man is mysteriously forced to share her cell with her, and this sets into motion a chain of events which take her to the leader of The Reestablishment, who plan to hone her into a weapon to use against dissidents.  Her only hope is a boy she once knew before she...

It's that time again! This is my second Owlcrate, and I was eagerly awaiting the possible items for their Dystopia themed box. Let's take a look: Every Owlcrate comes with a themed postcard. The front has some cool artwork, and the back details the items in the box.

Apparently today is National Siblings Day, and what better way to celebrate (beyond reaching out to my own sibling - Hi Khoa!) than to go over some of my favorite sibling groupings! 

This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) Summary:  In this society, flaws have not only been eliminated, but they've essentially been made illegal: individuals who lie, who make bad decisions, who dare to rebel, etc., are declared Flawed and branded according to their Flaw. Celestine, on the verge of turning eighteen, is living the perfect life: she has a loving family, she gets good grades, and she's dating an amazing guy (who happens to be the son of Judge Crevan, the head person responsible for doling out justice to the Flawed). However, after one terrible mistake, Celestine is thrown into a maelstrom, and she no longer knows whom to trust. People either want a piece of her, to use her for their cause, or they want to see her in pieces. All she knows is that more people are questioning the system than ever before, and that she is at the center of it.

This weekend I went with some friends to the Hunger Games  exhibition at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. It's basically a cool glimpse behind the scenes of the movies. It was AMAZING to see costumes, props, etc., up close and to check out what went into creating the world of Panem on-screen. If you're a HG fan and you're able to come visit, I highly recommend it - click the link to go to the official website. (There is also an exhibition in New York.) I took a TON of pictures, so this post will be pic-heavy.

This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thoughts at a glance: ** (It was okay) Summary:  Noelle lives in a world where the written word is obsolete - everyone is connected to a information network called Verity that is equally responsible for educating people as it is for monitoring them. The night before she is to undergo the societally-mandated brainwashing ritual, there is a glitch in the system, and her family discovers what she's been hiding her whole life - she inexplicably has the ability to read. Now she's on the run from the government, with an underground group of rebels... Thoughts:  Okay, so, that's about as far as I got, since I didn't finish the book. The premise is amazing ( Fahrenheit 451  is one of my favorite books, remember?), but there was something about the execution of it that just didn't work out well for me - I was either confused and struggling to picture what was going on, or I ju...

(Spoilers for the previous movies/books from here on out. But I am going to avoid spoilers for this one.) Links to all my writeups for the previous HG films available  here . So, if you truly understood the message of The Hunger Games  (I mean... some  CLEARLY .  Did .  Not ), you should not go into this movie expecting to be "entertained." I cannot with conscience give this a "Two thumbs up, fine family fun!" sort of review. Don't go into this expecting to have fun. Don't go into this expecting to be amused. Don't go into this expecting an escape from the very harsh realities of the world we live in today. Because that's what I feel this series is all about - The Hunger Games  is not about a teenage girl in a love triangle (which so many people mistakenly assume), it's about a corrupt government, it's about systemic inequality, and it's about war. It's about a nation that is fed up with seeing its children die, if not from v...

This copy was provided for free from Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) Seventeen-year-old Kai doesn't know much about her past. She has been living in the poorest district of the city of Ninurta with Reev, who found her at the river's edge when she was a kid and has raised her as if she were his sister ever since. All she knows is that she has the ability to manipulate time - and it's a dangerous secret to have, since no one in the entire city is supposed to have magic. Her daily life consists of making mail deliveries for the White Court (the palace ruled by the all-powerful Kahl Ninu), visiting her handsome friend Avan, and taking care of Reev. Then Reev disappears mysteriously one day, and her world gets turned upside-down as she and Avan go on a quest to find him. I actually have the digital galley for the second book in this series too, so I will be continuing on anyway :) If I didn't have to review...

Thoughts at a glance:  The Elite  - ** (It was okay) The One  - *** (I liked it) Okay, so I'm reviewing the two books together because I kind of marathoned through them one right after the other. I said in my review for The Selection  that the politics and history of Illea, the country where the story takes place, was more interesting than the Bachelor -esque story about Prince Maxon choosing his bride from 35 girls while the rest of the country looks on. Welp, still true. At the end of the first book, the field had been whittled down to 6. You'd think it'd have been over quickly after that, but it stretches on for two more books. Frankly, I got tired of America's back and forth of "I don't know if I want Maxon or if I want Aspen," followed by, "How can Maxon keep stringing me along like this???" Are we supposed to feel sympathy for her when she gets upset about Maxon's inability to commit when she behaves the same way? Well, Maxon ...

Thoughts at a glance: *** (I liked it) I kind of resisted reading this one for a while, based on the summary: 35 girls vying for the chance to be the prince's bride? It sounded like a YAF dystopian version of The Bachelor . I'm not a big fan of anything that furthers the societal notion that female relationships are fraught with contention and competition. I am not about that life, yo. But, I definitely wanted to see what the hype was about (since book #4 just came out recently), so I read it. I'm surprised that the Divergent  series gets so much flack for being too similar to The Hunger Games , when The Selection  is faaaaaar closer - it's set in a newly formed country sprung from the ashes of the USA, and instead of being divided into numbered districts, everyone is divided into numbered castes , with Ones being the royal family and Eights being the criminals and outcasts. The main story is that Prince Maxon has come of age, and the method for choosing a bride i...

This is my new book blog! How exciting! And what better way to kick off something new than to... dig up old stuff :) Because I want them tagged here, I'm going to link to my book-related reviews and things from my personal blog in this post, just so they can show up in my archives somehow. Because Blogger only lets me have 200 characters' worth of tags at a time, here is part 1 of 2 of my bookish archives, starting with my book reviews: Me effusing about Pride and Prejudice  for its 200th anniversary Thoughts on Vampire Academy  by Richelle Mead Thoughts on Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl  and Ransom Riggs' Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children Things I actually enjoyed about the Twilight  series And then a link list of Twilight  snark that I also enjoy :) Thoughts on the mangas based on Gail Carriger's first 3 Parasol Protectorate  books, and the first 4 books of JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood  books Thoughts on Gail Carriger's short st...