Book Review: Override (Glitch #2)

Book being reviewed: Override

Author: Heather Anastasiu

I give this book:

4 out of 5 owls.

Override

Zoe is free. She has escaped the enslavement of the Community, disconnected from the hardware that had controlled her every thought and emotion, and evaded capture by the Chancellor intent on killing her. She is finally free, but she is far from safe.

Zoe and Adrien hide themselves from detection at the Foundation, an academy that trains teen glitchers to fight in the Resistance movement. Together, Zoe and her new team of superhuman fighters must risk their lives to rescue other glitchers and humans from the Chancellor's control. Challenges abound at every turn, and Adrien, who has become silent, distant, and tormented by his visions of the future, only adds to the growing certainty of defeat. But worst of all, as Zoe's team fights against impossible odds, distrust and betrayal leads to the terrible discovery that their greatest threat could already be lurking behind the safe walls of the Foundation.

Full of high-adrenaline action and shocking twists, Heather Anastasiu's Override is an exciting continuation of this popular young adult trilogy.

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  I was pleasantly surprised with this one!  After having read Glitch and not liking it as much as I had hoped,  Override made up for everything that the first book was lacking.  

The story did start off a little slow, but eventually picked up after awhile and I couldn't put the book down.  One part of the book I really liked is Zoe's character and the role that she plays.  She's such a strong female, even in the times when she think thinks of herself as weak.  She lives through half of the book thinking that she can't live up to the image of this heroine that every sees her as being, mostly because she had no control over her telekinesis powers because they terrified her.  Finally, halfway through the book, she learns to control her telek powers by reigning in her fear.  I really enjoyed reading that part of the book where Zoe is mentally challenging herself to gain control over her power and let go of the fear that has control over her. 

One aspect I could never quite understand is how with all the amazing technology that's been developed, how could Chancellor Bright never exactly pinpoint the location of the Foundation?  I understand that anyone who has visited the place could never remember anything about it due to Simin's unintentional power of making people forget everything when they're around him, but it seemed like there could have been a way outside of the Foundation.  With all the immense technology and endless amenities that the Chancellor had control over, it seemed like she could have found a way to locate the Foundation and ultimately Zoe.  Maybe it's just me, but I felt that because there was so much intrigue detail to all the technology, there could possibly have been a lot room for gaps within the story.  And Zoe being Linked when she went to sleep every night, wouldn't that have been a way to track her down?  That question might have been addressed in Glitch and I just don't remember, but it's something I asked myself often while reading Override.  This is probably just me being critical and looking too deep into it.  I've always been the person who constantly looks for holes in the story and questions the what-if's and whatnot, but that didn't make me enjoy the book any less!

The part when Max switches himself with Adrien after the task force's first mission, I wouldn't exactly call it predictable, but I knew immediately Max was using his power to pretend to be Adrien the night of their date.  I could tell by Max-pretending-to-be-Adrien's reaction (wow, isn't that a mouthful?) that his conscience was weighing on him.  He couldn't bring himself to do anything sexually with Zoe because he knew it was wrong.  This is the point where I actually do believe Max when he told Zoe he was truly sorry for what he had done.  As Zoe always wanted to believe in the good in Max during the first part of the book, I will continue to believe in that good now.  Zoe has every right to be angry with Max's betrayal, but I believe that if Max were truly evil he wouldn't have stopped Zoe and would have continued doing "the deed".  I really do think that Max loves Zoe, and I also believe he's going to play a bigger and better part in the next book.  I hope, anyways.

I think I've covered all the points I wanted to bring up in my review.  I will say that I am now excited for Shutdown, the third book in the series.  And I would recommend this series to any dystopian fan who enjoys a little sci-fi kick thrown in the mix.

Until next time,

happy reading, fellow book nerds,

Book Review: Incarnate

Book being reviewed: Incarnate

Author: Jodi Meadows

I give this book:

4 out of 5 owls.

New soul 

Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why. 

No soul  

Even Ana's own mother thinks she's a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she'll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame? 

Heart 

Sam believes Ana's new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana's enemies--human and creature alike--let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else's life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all? 

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life.

So first of all, I feel like I have some 'splaining to do.  I haven't been around much lately due to the craziness of life.  I actually finished this book review a while ago, but because of of spring cleaning, family coming for a visit, and a sickness that could only be compared to as a plague of sorts traveling around my family, I haven't had much time to even power up the laptop.  And what about reading? This must be a record or something because it took me well over 2 weeks to finish just one book.  And it's quite a short novel, might I add.  But I did finish it yesterday, and I'm hoping to write up the review in the next coming days.  I'd like to get back into a bloggy routine again.

Anyhoozle, bookworms, thanks for lending an ear to my mental chatter!  Now let’s get on with my review, shall we?

I truly, truly enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Granted, there were a few parts that were a little fuzzy because I only wanted the story to “get on with it already.”  But even so, the book was great.  I commend Ana on being such a strong person after all that she’s went through in the past and all that she goes through throughout the book.  The poor girl just never seemed to catch a break!

There happened to be a few aspects of Ana’s character that didn’t sit well with me.  The first being how she was always trying to convince the reader and herself that she was so sure of how strong she was, how she was on a mission and no one would interfere with that mission.  Yet, Ana seemed to always completely contradict herself shortly after when she’d second guess herself.  I know this seems like a harsh judgement when you consider all that she’s been through, but this flip-flopping happened A LOT throughout the book.  It became very redundant and unnecessary.

Another thing, Ana wanted to hear straight from Sam’s mouth how he felt about her, how he meant to kiss her when they finally did kiss. And when he voiced this, she shot it down by saying it was hard to believe. The girl could never make up her mind. She wanted one thing, then would completely act another way.  Once again with the flip-flopping -- it was absurd.

As for Sam, he seemed to be one of the very few people who genuinely cared for Ana the moment he met her, and didn’t try to punish her for being a newsoul.  He was always sweet and considerate towards Ana and her feelings.  The only oddity about him that I noticed?  He had a tendency to be somewhat feminine.  I guess when you consider his past lives as a female, this does make sense. It was only odd to me since I don’t think I have ever read a book that had the lead male character living past lives as a female.

What I really liked about that book was how it seemed to be based off of the realities of our world. There was some who believed in the higher power Janan, but there were also others who didn’t, or even some were not sure if Janan was truly there.  There was also the issue of discrimination against Ana because she was different. Some people chose to see past her being a newsould and became her friend, others couldn’t because they were either scared of the “nosoul” or they just simply hated what she was.

In the end, I would definitely recommend this book to any of my friends. I enjoyed it thoroughly and can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Happy reading, my fellow book lovers, 

Book Review: Pure

Book being reviewed: Pure

Author: Julianna Baggott

I give this book: 

4 out of 5 owls.

We know you are here, our brothers and sisters . . .
Pressia barely remembers the Detonations or much about life during the Before. In her sleeping cabinet behind the rubble of an old barbershop where she lives with her grandfather, she thinks about what is lost-how the world went from amusement parks, movie theaters, birthday parties, fathers and mothers . . . to ash and dust, scars, permanent burns, and fused, damaged bodies. And now, at an age when everyone is required to turn themselves over to the militia to either be trained as a soldier or, if they are too damaged and weak, to be used as live targets, Pressia can no longer pretend to be small. Pressia is on the run. 

Burn a Pure and Breathe the Ash . . .
There are those who escaped the apocalypse unmarked. Pures. They are tucked safely inside the Dome that protects their healthy, superior bodies. Yet Partridge, whose father is one of the most influential men in the Dome, feels isolated and lonely. Different. He thinks about loss-maybe just because his family is broken; his father is emotionally distant; his brother killed himself; and his mother never made it inside their shelter. Or maybe it's his claustrophobia: his feeling that this Dome has become a swaddling of intensely rigid order. So when a slipped phrase suggests his mother might still be alive, Partridge risks his life to leave the Dome to find her.

When Pressia meets Partridge, their worlds shatter all over again.

Within the pages of Pure, there's a post-apocolyptic world that has left many fused and disfigured people suffering after the Detonations, while the Pure's live under the Dome's protective roof.  The wretches, as the people in the Dome call those on the outside, believe those within the Dome must live a perfect life where no one dies from breathing in the ash that cakes everything, or dies from starvation or suffering.  Which isn't entirely true.  Many who live in the Dome do believe themselves to be lucky, but  every aspect of their lives is controlled, including the way they think; especially the men.  Pure is a book filled with nightmarish creatures and scary situations that one would never want to encounter or endure.

To be fair, I was on the fence over the rating for this book.  I was originally going with 3 owls but decided to go with 4 instead.  I figured that the creativity alone made this book worth the read, because Julianna Baggott's characters are an amazingly brilliant concept.  Everyone alive now who was outside the Dome when the blast occurred is fused with something, or even someone.  This definitely causes your imagination to run wild.  The main heroine, Pressia, has a hand that was fused with a doll's head when the Detonations went off.  The doll has become a part of her body, so much so that she feels when the head is touched, as if she has nerve endings beneath the plastic.

Another example is Bradwell, Pressia's love interest in the book who was fused with birds in his back. The birds are still alive, so their wings tend to flap and flutter underneath whatever shirt he's wearing depending on the mood he's in at the time.  It seems to be a little unsettling to most until they get to know him, but this is basically the same for most of the characters that are fused with some oddity.

You also get to know a few Pure's who've lived under the Dome their whole life.  Their skin is unmarked, they've been able to breathe clean, filtered air, nor have they ever had to go hungry for lack of food since they take pills to satiate their hunger and the pill also gives them the nutrients they need to survive.  They've also been afforded an education, which is not something that happens on the outside of the Dome.

We meet Partridge, he is a Pure who has grown up inside the Dome because his dad is the head-honcho in charge of everything.  We read part of the book in his account of how certain things happen. He has always believed his mother to be dead, but because of a few small instances, Partridge begins to wonder if his mother is, in fact, actually dead.  This leads him to break out of the cozy confinements of the Dome and head on a potentially deadly wild goose chase.

Pure is one of the stranger dystopian novels I've read.  But because of this, it made for one interesting read.  It's filled with suspense and heartbreak, so I'd recommend for you criers out there to at least have some tissues handy if you ever want to pick up this book.  All in all, I'd definitely recommend this book  if you're itchin' for a little something different.

Happy reading, bookworms,