Book: Butter by Erin Jade Lange

Published September 2012 by Bloomsbury|296 pages

Where I Got It: I borrowed the e-book from the library

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

What It’s About:

A lonely obese boy everyone calls “Butter” is about to make history. He is going to eat himself to death-live on the Internet-and everyone is invited to watch. When he first makes the announcement online to his classmates, Butter expects pity, insults, and possibly sheer indifference. What he gets are morbid cheerleaders rallying around his deadly plan. Yet as their dark encouragement grows, it begins to feel a lot like popularity. And that feels good. But what happens when Butter reaches his suicide deadline? Can he live with the fallout if he doesn’t go through with his plans? 

With a deft hand, E.J. Lange allows readers to identify with both the bullies and the bullied in this all-consuming look at one teen’s battle with himself.

What I Thought: 

I was really intrigued by the idea of Butter- death by eating and everything that goes with announcing it online is definitely different- but overall, I feel really indifferent about the book.

I do think it’s an important read.  Butter- I can’t remember if his actual name is mentioned or not- has to deal with a family that seems pretty dysfunctional, and classmates that don’t think he’s really going to go through with it, until they realize he is.

It was really frustrating to see that his classmates never said anything (well, until the end).  I get they didn’t take it seriously, but it was even more frustrating to see them pay attention to him because of it.  His classmates even take bets on it, and it’s no wonder Butter feels like he has to go through with it.

I felt like Butter doesn’t really go into depth on any of the issues in the book.  There’s cyber-bullying, which comes up in the form of comments on Butter’s website, and while mentioned (we do see some comments and his mom brings it up, but at that point it’s glossed over and way too late), obesity and body image, and family issues, but all of it seemed glossed over and it doesn’t really go into any of those things.  And it’s not that there are too many issues in the book, because there really aren’t, but nothing really got the attention it deserved.

It’s interesting that Butter really isn’t bullied until he posts about his last meal.  I don’t know why but I assumed he’d be bullied a lot more than what we see in the book.  Don’t get me wrong, the comments people make are horrible and not okay, but I expected there to be more to it.

What I did like was that it’s about a boy who’s morbidly obese, and has a lot of health issues related to his weight.  I kind of wish it went a little bit more into how he sees himself, because it’s a nice change from all of the books out there that feature a teenage girl dealing with anorexia or bulimia.  There’s nothing wrong with books that deal with that, of course, but it is nice to see something different.

As for Butter’s actually suicide attempt and it’s aftermath…the book felt like it lost steam at that point.  He tries to kill himself by eating strawberries (which he’s allergic to), eating thousands upon thousands of calories and gives himself insulin, and ends up in the hospital, yet his primary doctor just wishes that Butter won’t put him in that position again (as Butter got the idea from his doctor by asking a few questions), his mom is magically going to change the family’s eating habits, Butter is making plans for his future, and who knows what his dad thinks because his dad seems to be there physically but not mentally or emotionally.  You don’t see any consequences for what happened in the book- maybe they happens after the book ends?  Still, after his attempt, everything else seemed really weak to me.

I get why there’s closure, but there is a part of me that wishes it ended with either his attempt or maybe a different chapter or two after that.  It’s what the book was building up to, and it did seem like a good ending point to me.

My Rating:

2 stars.  It does seem like I don’t like the book, and that I initially said I was indifferent but I just don’t care enough to actually dislike it.  I really like some of the issues that come up in the book, especially since it focuses on a teenage boy who’s struggling with his weight, and it’s definitely relevant and important.

Book: Prudence by Gail Carriger

Published March 2015 by Orbit|296 pages

Where I Got It: I own the hardcover (signed) and the e-book

Series: Custard Protocol #1

Genre: Adult Steampunk/Paranormal

What It’s About:

When Prudence Alessandra Maccon Akeldama (Rue to her friends) is given an unexpected dirigible, she does what any sensible female would under similar circumstances – names it the Spotted Custard and floats to India in pursuit of the perfect cup of tea. But India has more than just tea on offer. Rue stumbles upon a plot involving local dissidents, a kidnapped brigadier’s wife, and some awfully familiar Scottish werewolves. Faced with a dire crisis and an embarrassing lack of bloomers, what else is a young lady of good breeding to do but turn metanatural and find out everyone’s secrets, even thousand-year-old fuzzy ones?

What I Thought:

I really liked Prudence!  Which wasn’t that surprising, because Carriger’s books are so much fun but I do admit to taking my time with it because I wanted to make sure I was enjoying the book and actually able to focus on it, instead of just speeding through just to get through it.

This series focuses on Alexia’s daughter Rue, who seems to get into as much trouble as her mom, and it was fun seeing Rue grown-up and off to India and have her own adventures.

Especially in her own dirigible named The Spotted Custard that looks like a ladybug!  I can picture it really well, but I also wish it were illustrated, because that would be pretty awesome.  I also really liked that we saw a paranormal world beyond England (and even Egypt), because you only see England, and Egypt doesn’t come until the end of the Parasol Protectorate.  So it was nice to see what it’s like for the paranormal set in India and how different it is than England.  I’m hoping we see more of the paranormal world outside of England, because now I’m all curious about it!

In a lot of ways, I was reminded of Soulless, and while I like Carriger’s Finishing School series, Prudence had a lot of the fun and charm that Soulless had.  Even though you don’t need to read the Parasol Protectorate or Finishing School to know what’s going on in Prudence, there was a part of me that wished I had re-read both. And there was a part of me that wished I had listened to it, but that was mostly at the end of the book.

I definitely didn’t fall in love with it, but I always really like the first book but the subsequent books always make me fall in love with the series.

Rue is definitely different than her mom- I think partly because of Dama, and maybe part rebellion?  And I love that she and Prim are best friends, the way their moms are best friends.  And I really liked seeing random characters from her other books make appearances throughout the book.  It makes me wonder who we’ll see next!  I’m glad that they only make the odd appearance, because it is Rue’s story, and I liked that we got to see more of Rue and what she was up to.

My Rating: 

4 Stars.  I really liked it, because it was fun and I really liked Rue’s story and the adventures that she had.  I can’t wait to read the next book!

Book: Falling Into Place by Amy Zhang

Published September 2014 by HarperCollins|226 pages

Where I Got It: I own the e-book

Series: None

Genre: YA Contemporary

What It’s About:

On the day Liz Emerson tries to die, they had reviewed Newton’s laws of motion in physics class. Then, after school, she put them into practice by running her Mercedes off the road.

Why? Why did Liz Emerson decide that the world would be better off without her? Why did she give up? Vividly told by an unexpected and surprising narrator, this heartbreaking and nonlinear novel pieces together the short and devastating life of Meridian High’s most popular junior girl. Mass, acceleration, momentum, force—Liz didn’t understand it in physics, and even as her Mercedes hurtles toward the tree, she doesn’t understand it now. How do we impact one another? How do our actions reverberate? What does it mean to be a friend? To love someone? To be a daughter? Or a mother? Is life truly more than cause and effect? Amy Zhang’s haunting and universal story will appeal to fans of Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, and Jay Asher.

What I Thought:

I have mixed feelings about Falling Into Place.  It is different than your usual book about a character who is depressed and suicidal and actually tries to kill herself.  But there were also things I didn’t like about it.

A suicide disguised as a car accident, and what happened in the months leading up to the car crash and what happened after she crashed…it’s definitely a different way of telling the story.  I was expecting so much more about depression, and was really surprised that Falling Into Place didn’t really delve into that.  I mean, you do get all of these memories and flashbacks and how Liz regrets the things she’s done, and while suicidal and depressed characters are characters I relate to and connect with a lot, I had a hard time connecting with Liz. And you see that people do need Liz, even if they don’t realize it until there’s the possibility that she won’t be around anymore.

I liked that you got glimpses of the different characters and how everything slowly came together.  I’m still having some trouble figuring out who the narrator is- Liz’s childhood imaginary friend?  Her younger self?  I have no idea.  And you do spend the entire book wondering if she does die or not- it would be interesting to go back and re-read it knowing how it all ends.

The shifting timeline is interesting and I liked it fine, but maybe that’s why I had such a hard time connecting with Liz.  But…even though I didn’t feel for Liz the way I thought I would, and even though I read it and felt sort of “meh” about it, there is something about the writing that pulls you in.  And the actual writing itself isn’t something I normally pay attention to but the sentences are  very well put together and it felt like every word was carefully thought out.

My Rating:

3 stars.  I liked it, and the way it was told is very different but I couldn’t completely connect with Liz.

Book: The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings

Published June 2014 by HarperCollins|275 pages

Where I Got It: Own the e-book

Series: The Murder Complex #1

Genre: YA Dystopic

What It’s About:

An action-packed, blood-soaked, futuristic debut thriller set in a world where the murder rate is higher than the birthrate. For fans of Moira Young’s Dust Lands series, La Femme Nikita, and the movie Hanna.

Meadow Woodson, a fifteen-year-old girl who has been trained by her father to fight, to kill, and to survive in any situation, lives with her family on a houseboat in Florida. The state is controlled by The Murder Complex, an organization that tracks the population with precision.

The plot starts to thicken when Meadow meets Zephyr James, who is—although he doesn’t know it—one of the MC’s programmed assassins. Is their meeting a coincidence? Destiny? Or part of a terrifying strategy? And will Zephyr keep Meadow from discovering the haunting truth about her family?

Action-packed, blood-soaked, and chilling, this is a dark and compelling debut novel by Lindsay Cummings.

What I Thought:

I was super-excited about this book when I first heard about it, but I didn’t like it!  I honestly thought it was really confusing, and it didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

The actual Murder Complex isn’t explained until later in the book, and everything is so convoluted and complicated that I really couldn’t tell you at what point it’s mentioned, much less actually explained.

There’s just no context for what anything means, because nothing is explained.  You see terminology like The Dark Times and the Silent Hour and Creds, and none of it makes sense because (or very little sense) because there isn’t any context for it. There’s no history, and as far I can remember, there’s no explanation for why they’re in a walled city, and why the murder rate is so high, and why there are programmed assassins.

I have no sense of where this particular place is, how they got to this point, and the characters are forgettable- they both sounded the same to me, especially in the beginning.  It seems like survival is really important, and considering the fact that Meadow was trained by her dad to kill and survive, and yet she seems really naive to have survived so long in this world.

It definitely seems like Cummings really know the world of the Murder Complex, and while I am intrigued by the idea, I just felt like nothing was really explained.  It was just a lot different than what I expected, based on the summary, and it wasn’t until the end of the book when we got a hint of the book I was expecting.  At that point, though, I just didn’t care, and it was a little too late.

My Rating: 

2 stars.  While I didn’t like the book overall, the idea does have promise, but was more complicated than it needed to be.

Book: Dance Of Shadows by Yelena Black

Published June 2014 by Bloomsbury Children USA|369 pages

Where I Got It: I own the paperback

Series: Dance Of Shadows #1

Genre: YA Contemporary/Thriller with a hint of Urban Fantasy

What It’s About:

Vanessa has just enrolled in the world-renowned New York Ballet Academy—the same school from which her sister, Margaret, mysteriously disappeared.

Three years later, Vanessa follows in Margaret’s footsteps to find out what happened to her. But when Vanessa lands the role most girls at NYBA would kill for, she ends up trapped in a sinister spiral of secrets that go beyond the dance world. Because someone—or something—wants to use Vanessa for more than her talent. Is she doomed to relive her sister’s strange fate?

Riveting and sexy, Dance of Shadows is a psychological thriller you won’t be able to resist.

What I Thought:

I’m not sure what to think about Dance Of Shadows.  I was definitely intrigued by a girl going to the same school her older sister Margaret disappeared from, but it wasn’t as much as a thriller as I thought it would be.

I know going to NYBA sets in motion the entire book, but I’m still surprised her parents would let her go after her sister left the school mysteriously.  Her dad seems fine with it, while her mom doesn’t, but…I’m sorry, if I were a parent (which I’m not, to be clear), I don’t think I’d let my 2nd daughter go to that school.  I know we know why Margaret disappeared, and the parents don’t, and that Margaret and Vanessa are 2 different people, and that just because Margaret left doesn’t mean Vanessa will, but I’d still be really hesitant to let my daughter go to that school.

The mystery is unexpected, and I liked it, and how Vanessa and her friends try to figure it out.  While I liked the mystery, it didn’t really have the suspense I was hoping for, nor was it as creepy as I was expecting, considering how it ended.

I didn’t like her relationship with Zep at all- it felt really forced, and while I sort of (but not really) understand why, it felt really fake. And while she needs to ignore Justin’s warnings for things to happen, it was still irritating!  You’d think she’d be more cautious after what happened with Margaret, but apparently not.  The characters didn’t really stand out to me, and even though I finished it a couple of days ago,  I couldn’t even tell you their names, or anything about them (other than their love of ballet, but that’s to be expected).

I did like how the one dance was described, and it was described so well that it makes me wonder if Black was ever a ballerina. It really made me want to see that particular dance, because it stands out so much.

My Rating: 

2 stars.  Dance Of Shadows was okay, and I do think it would work well as a stand-alone.  I liked the paranormal elements, but it wasn’t as creepy as I was expecting.

Book: Hungry by H.A. Swain

Published April 2014 by Feiwel & Friends|372 pages

Where I Got It: I own the hardcover!

Series: None

Genre: YA Dystopic/Sci-Fi

What It’s About:

In the future, food is no longer necessary—until Thalia begins to feel something unfamiliar and uncomfortable. She’s hungry.

In Thalia’s world, there is no need for food—everyone takes medication (or “inocs”) to ward off hunger. It should mean there is no more famine, no more obesity, no more food-related illnesses, and no more war. At least that’s what her parents, who work for the company that developed the inocs, say. But when Thalia meets a boy who is part of an underground movement to bring food back, she realizes that most people live a life much different from hers. Worse, Thalia is starting to feel hunger, and so is he—the inocs aren’t working. Together they set out to find the only thing that will quell their hunger: real food.

What I Thought:

When I saw what Hungry was about, I was immediately intrigued.  It’s a world where people have synthetic food that gives you all the nutrients you need, and it’s a really interesting world.  It’s never said outright why or how the world got to the point where everyone had medication that warded off hunger, but based on conversations throughout the book, it was implied that the world was overpopulated, and it led to food shortages, which then led to Thalia’s parents creating the inocs.

It was definitely created with good intentions, but it causes a mutation that causes people to feel hunger- and that’s definitely seen as a bad thing, since there are rehab centers all over the place for it, and Thalia’s really resistant to the idea of being treated for it.

There is something very hi-tech about this world, and while I had a little trouble picturing things at first, I did start picturing things really well.  And while it’s not full-on dystopic, it’s dystopic enough that I would have no problem whatsoever categorizing it there. And that brings me to how everything ended.  It was a pretty slow build-up, and towards the end, it seemed like things started happening really fast, because ending a little bit abruptly.  It appears that this book is a stand-alone, since I can’t find anything about a possible sequel, and yet with how the book ended, it seems like a sequel is very possible.

I don’t how I feel about the possibility of a sequel- it will be interesting to see where things would go if a sequel were to happen, but if it’s a stand-alone, it is pretty open-ended, so if that’s not your thing, keep that in mind if you’re considering this book.

Still, I really like that this a world that I can easily imagine- food becoming more and more scarce as the world’s population increases, and synthetic formulas becoming normal.  It felt pretty realistic, as does the technology.  And the marketing groups and how Thalia’s best friend likes the stuff that’s marketed to her, because why wouldn’t she like them- it makes you think a lot, which is pretty awesome.

Thalia was pretty clueless, and she is pretty sheltered, which means she’s really naive at times (but there are times where she seems to be the only person who’s questioning things).  I think  there are people who while be really annoyed with that, and find it frustrating, but it didn’t bother me because I’m pretty sure I’d react the same way if I were in her shoes.

My Rating: 

3 stars.  I liked it, it makes you think, and it’s an interesting concept, but I didn’t love it.

Book: Dear Mr Knightley by Katherine Reay

Published November 2013 by Nelson, Thomas, Inc

Source/Format: own the e-book

Series: None

Genre: Adult Fiction/Chick Lit/Christian/Inspirational

What It’s About: 

Samantha Moore has always hidden behind the words of others namely, her favorite characters in literature. Now, she will learn to write her own story by giving that story to a complete stranger.

Sam is, to say the least, bookish. An English major of the highest order, her diet has always been Austen, Dickens, and Shakespeare. The problem is, both her prose and conversation tend to be more Elizabeth Bennet than Samantha Moore.

But life for the twenty-three-year-old orphan is about to get stranger than fiction. An anonymous, Dickensian benefactor (calling himself Mr. Knightley) offers to put Sam through Northwestern University s prestigious Medill School of Journalism. There is only one catch: Sam must write frequent letters to the mysterious donor, detailing her progress.

As Sam’s dark memory mingles with that of eligible novelist Alex Powell, her letters to Mr. Knightley become increasingly confessional. While Alex draws Sam into a world of warmth and literature that feels like it’s straight out of a book, old secrets are drawn to light. And as Sam learns to love and trust Alex and herself, she learns once again how quickly trust can be broken.

Reminding us all that our own true character is not meant to be hidden, Reay’s debut novel follows one young woman’s journey as she sheds her protective persona and embraces the person she was meant to become.

What I Thought:

If I could use one phrase to describe Dear Mr Knightley, it would be this:

I don’t care.

I really don’t.  I don’t care enough about Sam or Merrill or Alex or the letters to actually care.  And I definitely don’t care enough about what happened to actually dislike the book.

I disliked Sam so much!  I understand why she clung to books but at the same time, I felt like she hid behind them.  As much as I understand why she had so many walls up, it was irritating, because the only thing I feel like I know about her is that she’s judgmental and sees people as a character in one of her books.  She doesn’t seem to care about relating or interacting with anyone around her, and she came across as feeling like she’s better than everyone around her because she quotes Jane Austen all the time.  And I love Jane Austen, but even this was too much.  She really wanted her life to be a Jane Austen novel.

I would say that it falls into the Christian lit/Inspirational category.  I felt like it was there, but Reay was trying too hard to make it not seem like it was.  And I was definitely surprised by it, because it came out of nowhere…but I also feel like I shouldn’t have been surprised because she’s an orphan who has this mysterious benefactor.  I don’t think it would have made a difference in how I feel about the book, but keep that in mind if you decide to pick up this book.

Rating:

2 stars.  I don’t care enough to like Dear Mr Knightley, and I felt like it was really bland with no personality.