Fever By Lauren DeStefano

Title: Fever

Author: Lauren DeStefano

Pages: 341

Level: Young Adult

Published: February 21, 2012

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but they’re still in danger. Outside, they find a world even more disquieting than the one they left behind. Determined to get to Manhattan and to find Rhine’s twin brother Rowan, the two press forward, amidst threats of being captured again . . . or worse.

The road they are on is long and perilous—and in a world where young women only live to age 20 and men die at age 25, time is precious. In this sequel to Lauren DeStefano’s harrowing Wither, Rhine must decide if freedom is worth the price—now that she has more to lose than ever.

Review:

This is the second installment of The Chemical Garden Trilogy. When I first started, probably 40 pages in, I hated it. It was not what I had imagined it to be. I did not like the plot line. It was kind of boring, and the "carnival" (you'll know what I'm talking about when you get to it) was so depressing, I was like "is this seriously going to be what the book is about?"

I guess I just wasn't open-minded to what other plots could be since I had already made up my own. WELL, I was wrong. This book was pretty dang fabulous. I LOVED the cover, you seriously have no idea. I want to go to Kinko's and make a giant life-sized copy of it to hang on my wall, yes, it's that wonderful.

I also liked the new characters, they were so fresh and I felt that if I was in the book, that I would be friends with them as well.

The plot line was so quick I had to keep reading to see what was going to happen. I mean Vaughn scared the hell out of me so I was freaking out for them.

The only complaint I have is the ending. I thought that she was trying to wrap the book up so quickly, I guess so that she could have the rest of the good stuff in the third, but to me anyway there could have been another hundred pages.

Otherwise... It was absolutely freakin' amazing.

Cover: 5/5

Character Rating: 4/5

Style: 5/5

Development: 4/5

Overall:

****

Just a thought...

Have you ever had one of those odd coincidences with books? You know, those ones where something in the main character's life just happened to you?

This happens to me all the time. When I was reading Perfect, part of the story was set in the Spring break/ Easter time frame. I couldn't help it, I got so excited!

The time setting isn't the only thing that coincidences are limited to for me. For example, if the main character says, " I jumped in the shower, threw on some clothes, and ran down the stairs..." I'm probably freaking out because I had taken a shower just five minutes ago. 

or...

If the characters went out for burgers or something, I will probably be flabbergasted because that's what I had for dinner or something. 

Anyways, has this ever happened to you? 

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Title: Perfect
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Pages: 622
Published: September 13, 2011

Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there. Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never have understood. Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?


Review: 
So I've been down in the book dumps lately, if you couldn't tell from a couple of my previous reviews. I haven't been able to get in to them as the writing was bad, or the plot wasn't able to hold my attention. You know, the usual. 
I've read all of Ellen Hopkins's books before Perfect and I love all of them. They aren't exactly light reads per say, but they are always very real, uncensored. 
I love Ellen Hopkins because she understands so many different types of teenagers so well. I often have to stop and wonder who this woman is and what she must have gone through. 


I have different views on poetry. Most of the poems that I will have to read in class, I won't understand until the teacher has gone over it. I won't catch the symbolism or theme or even what's going on. 
With Ellen Hopkins though, she makes poetry so easy to understand and simple to read between the lines to get what she is actually saying. 
The stories are so heartfelt and painful that it's almost as if you are inside the person's head. 


I think this book was exactly what I needed. I needed a book that I knew was going to be good no matter what. It's given me more confidence to pick up another dystopia novel and to try again even though the ones that I have read lately totally sucked. 
So yeah, I really loved this book. The characters were all so different so I wasn't bored. WITCHA, yesterday, asked me, "So, who are your favorite characters?" I couldn't really answer right away because they were all so interesting to read about. 


If you're thinking about reading this book, I definitely suggest reading Impluse by Ellen first. You get more background on Connor (a major part in Perfect). 

Cover: 5/5 (definitely my favorite out of all her book covers)

Character Rating(s): 5/5 (as always)

Style: 5/5

Development: 4/5

Overall:

****.5

Paranormalcy By Kiersten White

Title: Paranormalcy

Author: Kiersten White

Pages: 352

Level: Young Adult

Published: August 31, 2010

Sixteen-year-old Evie's job is bagging and tagging paranormals. Possessing the strange ability to see through their glamours, she works for the International Paranormal Containment Agency. But when someone—or something—starts taking out the vamps, werewolves, and other odd beasties she's worked hard to help become productive members of society, she's got to figure it out before they all disappear and the world becomes utterly normal.

Normal is so overrated.

Review:

I've read a lot of reviews on this book and they all thought the book was just absolutely magnificent. Well... I wouldn't go that far.

It was good, I'll admit that, but it certainly wasn't worth all the hype. I didn't find a lot of faults in the book. It was pretty good, the plot might have been a little slow, but it picked up somewhat after. I don't really know what to say, it didn't stand out. I mean, I'm not going to be jumping up and down to read the next one.

It's just so hard to write a review on a book that didn't stand out to me. Evie was a good character I liked that she was able to stand up for herself and wasn't one of those damsels in distress.

I guess that's really all to say, it seems like the last two books I have read (including this one) just haven't been that good to me because I'm holding them up to such high standards.

Maybe you'll like it better though.

Cover: 4/5 ( I really liked the dress)

Character Rating: 3/5

Style: 4/5

Development: 3/5

Overall:

***