Review of Grimm Tales by Philip Pullman

Format: Paperback
Genres: Fairytales, Childrens, Short Stories,
Pages: 444
Publisher: Penguin
Release Date: 05/09/2013
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

In this beautiful book of classic fairy tales, award-winning author Philip Pullman has chosen his fifty favourite stories from the Brothers Grimm and presents them in a 'clear as water' retelling, in his unique and brilliant voice.
 
From the quests and romance of classics such as 'Rapunzel', 'Snow White' and 'Cinderella' to the danger and wit of such lesser-known tales as 'The Three Snake Leaves', 'Hans-my-Hedgehog' and 'Godfather Death', Pullman brings the heart of each timeless tale to the fore, following with a brief but fascinating commentary on the story's background and history. In his introduction, he discusses how these stories have lasted so long, and become part of our collective storytelling imagination.

These new versions show the adventures at their most lucid and engaging yet. Pullman's Grimm Tales of wicked wives, brave children and villainous kings will have you reading, reading aloud and rereading them for many years to come.

I literally grew up with fairy tales old and new, from the Grimm Brothers themselves to Enid Blyton and Beatrix Potter. I haven't read Grimm's Tales for many years now, and this book really brought me back to when I'd happily sit reading them over and over. This is an updated version of the tales but it's still the same tales we know and love, from the classics like Rapunzel to unusual ones like Thousandfurs.

It's not the prettiest edition, although I love the cover. There's no illustrations. The best edition in my opinion is The Annotated Classic Fairytales, but this book does it's job. Philip Pullman adds his own little notes at the end of each story and gives us a little information about the history of the story. He's clearly done a lot of research although he does ramble on a bit sometimes.

I picked up a few new favourites too, in particular Thousandfurs, the very strange tale of a Princess who runs away from her pedophilic father and becomes a poor maid in a castle. Then, in Grimm fashion, she wins the Princes heart by putting her jewellery in his soup and making it taste better. Another odd one that I loved is Hans-my-Hedgehog, about a half hedgehog man who lives and a tree and keeps pigs.

I often noticed the religious undertones, which I hasn't noticed as a child. In some stories, it's all about being faithful. I'm glad Philip kept that in, even though he didn't seem to agree with it. He also keeps the violence and weirdness that is Grimm - Rumpelstiltskin tearing himself into two, a sister so outraged she hangs herself - tales we would never see in a children's book nowadays.

Overall, I think this book is a great addition to my shelf and one I will keep for a long time - while I love the Annotated Tales, it's far too big for my shelf and only contains 26 of the tales, less than half than this book. I would love to see Pullman take on some other fairy tales like Charles Perrault's Bluebeard, that has always been a firm favourite of mine.

Stacking The Shelves (30/08/2014)

Hosted by Tynga's Reviews

This week has been one of the longest weeks ever, I swear. Our kitchen is nearly finished, with only small things like sealing the worktops to finish, thank goodness! We're getting our stuff back from storage on Monday, including our cooker. I am so excited about a cooked meal you have no idea.

We nearly ended up with orange paint. ORANGE.

(Here's all my excuses for the books I) Acquired This Week

My copy of Austenland finally arrived! I had to have a copy of this after seeing the movie and falling in love with JJ Feild. I've been waiting for it for about 3 weeks though. Asda got new books in and when they get new books, I buy them. How could anyone sniff at £4 for Trial By Fire a day earlier than it's release and Messenger of Fear for £6? Crazy people, that's who. I don't remember when I ordered Sever but I'm happy because it's the same size of the rest of my set - which is huge. I have no idea why these UK editions are so freaking big, they look ridiculous.

Read This Week (23rd Aug - 29th Aug)

I have magical reading powers and far too much time on my hands. Although I am starting to worry that people will think I'm lying about what I've read! My least favourite book this week was Walk Of The Spirits. A girl seeing ghosts sounds like my perfect read but this story just dragged on and on while the main character thought a lot about everything. Her whining put Bella to shame. My favourite reads were Killing Sound and Tandem, I honestly couldn't pick between them. Tandem was a multi-dimensional tale of princesses and forbidden love, while on the other hand, Killing Sound was a brutal, bloody read that will likely have me terrified of the London Underground for the rest of my life...

Vickie x

Review of Above by Isla Morley

Format: eBook
Genres: Adult, Mystery,
Pages: 384
Publisher: Gallery Books
Release Date: 04/03/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

I am a secret no one is able to tell.

Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an aban­doned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in—the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Deter­mined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for a myth that just might give mean­ing to their lives below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an event at once promis­ing and devastating. As Blythe’s dream of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate choice - between survival and freedom.

Above is the story of Blythe Hallowell, who was kidnapped at the age of sixteen by a man named Dobbs, and forced to live in an underground silo with him. Dobbs is crazy and believes that the end of the world is coming and that they should 'seed the new world', something that happens sooner than either of them expected.

Above covers the period of many years, which I found interesting. Obviously, being almost strictly a YA Book reader, I don't often read books over the period of years. We meet Blythe when she is sixteen through to about eighteen, then when she's in her twenties, then in her thirties. I really enjoyed Blythe's voice, as she grows older it changes, and it shows when she feels older than she is too.

Blythe is kind of crazy from the moment we meet her. When she was younger it was the violent crazy, although being violent towards a kidnapper is perfectly understandable she just came across as kind of deranged. Later it was a calmer crazy, staying in bed and not moving and then when she's older, she seems in denial about everything and doesn't want to think about anything other than Adam, who's starting to ask questions.

This story did bare strong resemblances to Emma Donoghue's Room, which I read a few years ago. I'm hoping this was accidental. We don't see much of Adam when he's Jack's age (the main character in Room) though. I didn't really like Adam, I could understand why he was the way he was but I found him very frustrating and he seemed to slow the whole plot down.

I love plot twists, when they work. I have read a lot of books though and the more I read the more I can guess exactly what will happen in the plot. I guessed what would happen in this before I'd even read a quarter of the book, so the rest was just spent waiting for it to happen. I was surprised by another smaller event later at least. 

The second half of the book is quite shaky and I was never sure where we would go. I did find myself wishing that some major things were different, and I think the story would have been better with them. This isn't my book though. The ending was pretty solid and didn't leave me wondering what else could happen or have any cliff hangers, as this appears to be a standalone story.

Review of Among The Hidden by Margaret P. Haddix

Format: eBook
Genres: Dystopia
Pages: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Release Date: 12/06/2002
Find The Author: Website 
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

Luke has never been to school. He's never had a birthday party, or gone to a friend's house for an overnight. In fact, Luke has never had a friend. 

Luke is one of the shadow children, a third child forbidden by the Population Police. He's lived his entire life in hiding, and now, with a new housing development replacing the woods next to his family's farm, he is no longer even allowed to go outside. 

Then, one day Luke sees a girl's face in the window of a house where he knows two other children already live. Finally, he's met a shadow child like himself. Jen is willing to risk everything to come out of the shadows - does Luke dare to become involved in her dangerous plan? Can he afford not to?

A shocking and riveting read, Among The Hidden is a perfect start to the seven book series Shadow Children. This book tells the tale of Luke, a third child in a world that only allows two children per family. Finding the spaces he's allowed to live in are becoming increasingly smaller, he makes a series of decisions that will change his life and the lives of those around him forever. 

I wasn't sure if I would like this book at first, I've never read a Dystopia that's less than 300 pages and this one is less than 200. This worked though, because Luke's world is so small. We spend a lot of the book inside the house and I was cheering Luke on when he showed signs of rebellion.

If I was going to judge this book by it's cover, I would quickly dismiss this as a juvenile read. However, this is easily up there with the big ones - Maze Runner, Hunger Games, Divergent. I especially recommend it for fans of The Maze Runner, who want to see a Dystopia from a guy's perspective. This isn't a cute read - one certain part of this book is brutal.

It's a very short, quick read that packs a lot of history, world building and action within it's pages without info dumps or ever feeling rushed. Its exactly the sort of Dystopia I've been looking for, it doesn't get bogged down by romantic sub-plots and leaves me wanting more at the end without writing in a massive cliffhanger. Highly recommended!

 

Review of Second Form At Malory Towers by Enid Blyton

Series: Malory Towers
Format: Paperback
Genres: School, Childrens, Humour,
Pages: 180
Publisher: Egmont
Release Date: 1947
Find The Author: Website 
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

Darrell and her friends grow together as they share their school days. There are new students to induct, sporting matches to be won, tempers to control and tricks to play on teachers. This work presents stories about life at boarding school as readers follow the girls' lives through 6 years at Malory Towers.

Darrell is back in school for her second year and there's plenty happening - new students, new pranks and new secrets to unveil. Two of the girls even find themselves in serious danger later down the line. This another cute, simple read from Enid Blyton that continues the Malory Towers series. 

I like Darrell, as we have similar tempers (explosive). However I was hoping we'd have a different main character this time. The other girls do get a say throughout the book but Darrell always comes across as the main character. We have new characters in this book, the studious Ellen and the rich Daphne, whose airs get on everyone's nerves.

The plot is always easy to guess and the writing is quite old fashioned of course, and not the best. However I always leave these books with a happy smile on my face, looking forward to the next installment! I'm glad I have the whole set so I can just grab the next book whenever I feel like.

Review of The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan

Format: Paperback
Genres: Paranormal, Vampires, Circus,
Pages: 169
Publisher: HarperCollins
Release Date: 30/05/2000
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

Darren Shan was just an ordinary schoolboy - until his visit to the Cirque Du Freak. Now, as he struggles with his new life as a Vampire's Assistant, he tries desperately to resist the one temptation that sickens him, the one thing that can keep him alive. But destiny is calling... the Wolf Man is waiting.

The Vampire's Assistant is book 2 of the Cirque Du Freak series, and this time we're actually part of the circus. Darren's struggling with both halves of himself - the human part that refuses to drink human blood and still wants to make friends with people, and the darker half of him that grows stronger every day. The circus is one of my favourite settings in books, so I enjoyed this one, but I do wish it had been a little longer, and more descriptive.

I mentioned in my review of Cirque Du Freak - I have read this series before but I couldn't remember a single thing that happened in this book. There's not much, Darren makes new friends, and a few enemies too. Most of the book concentrates on how Darren is adapting to Vampire life whilst at the end of the chapter irritating telling you something bad is going to happen.

Despite the irritations, I do believe that the writing has improved and I'm hoping this continues throughout the series. Mr Crepsley is as cool as ever, easily my favourite character. I do keep picturing him as Charles Dance though. I never finished this series, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it ends as I know a lot happens to Darren in the next few books!

Review of The Looking Glass by Jessica Arnold

Format: eBook
Genres: Paranormal, Ghosts, Romance,
Pages: 324
Publisher: Month9Books
Release Date: 15/05/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

Fifteen-year-old Alice Montgomery wakes up in the lobby of the B&B where she has been vacationing with her family to a startling discovery: no-one can see or hear her. The cheap desk lights have been replaced with gas lamps and the linoleum floor with hardwood and rich Oriental carpeting. Someone has replaced the artwork with eerie paintings of Elizabeth Blackwell, the insane actress and rumored witch who killed herself at the hotel in the 1880s. Alice watches from behind the looking glass where she is haunted by Elizabeth Blackwell. Trapped in the 19th-century version of the hotel, Alice must figure out a way to break Elizabeth's curse - with the help of Elizabeth's old diary and Tony, the son of a ghost hunter who is investigating the haunted B&B - before she becomes the inn's next victim.

The Looking Glass was an addictive, dreamy read. It is listed as a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, however other than the title (and the main character's name) there is no resemblance to the original book. Marketing tactic? This tale is about Alice, who decides that diving off of a swimming board was a great idea until she bashed her head on the bottom of the pool. Now in an epic bout of insta-karma, she's stuck in a dreamlike world watching her world go by through mirrors.

Alice and Tony are a great couple. I rooted for them the moment they met. Tony's Dad has spotted a pattern on the hotel, that every few years a girl has had some sort of accident, been in a coma and then died a few days later. Alice quickly realises she's running out of time and has to try and find her way into her world to try and fix the curse she has.

The curse idea was really clever, and we get glimpses of what had happened in the past through a diary that Alice finds in the mirror world. It's Elizabeth Blackwell's, a spoilt, vain girl dabbling in things she obviously doesn't understand. We hear a little about a sister she has that's always trying to catch her with spell books but she thinks she's got them well hidden.

This is a great, creepy read without being too scary. I do think you could read it at night time - as long as you cover up your mirrors first! The whole concept felt fresh and original, despite being linked to Alice in Wonderland. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the author comes up with next!

Discussion: Book Bloggers Should Review More Indie?

I was recently made aware of a post interestingly titled 'Why Book Reviewers Are Doing It Wrong' - strong words from a blog named WiseInk, who, from what I can see, have never actually written a book review or own a book blog. This was under a gigantic picture of grumpy cat, presumably summing up the author's feelings about us nasty book bloggers.

You should read the post. It's quite interesting.

"What’s the difference between a self-published author and traditionally published author making their way in the writing world? Online—nothing." 

Ha. I wish and wish that indie books were exactly the same but honestly, it's not. Traditionally published books benefit from an editor, who tightens the stories up and makes them much more readable. I've read a lot of indie, and most of the ones that have not paid for editing, they do not read well at all and are full of grammatical errors. Traditionally published books also benefit from a lot of money which means much nicer covers. I don't really want to see your cartoon dragon drawing cover on my blog, I'm sorry.

"The result: book reviewers are ignoring indie authors when they decide which books they decide to publicly review. Review policies on countless book review blogs often cite—on top in bold, conspicuous letters—“we do not accept self-published books.” 

 Yes, and for good reason. Go and look at my followers. It's not so many, is it, compared the bigger bloggers? I'm in the UK too and I think I'm a fairly obscure, unknown blogger. So I wouldn't receive that many indie requests right? I could consider them? Try one request a day. That's 7 books a week. 30 odd a month. I got swamped, and trying to work out which of these thirty books I could accept and squeeze in with the other books I actually wanted to read was just nightmare inducing. I ended up not accepting at all an only recently allowed some self pubs to contact me.

"Herein lines a golden opportunity for review bloggers: they have a chance to create hype supporting the indie author gems and track their influence in a way they wouldn’t be able to do for big traditional releases."
Hands up those bloggers who have reviewed an indie book and had 1 million+ views and created so much hype. Now raise your hands if you've reviewed an indie book and because the readers don't recognise it, or simply don't like the cover, it has less views than a traditionally published book? Raising my hand here. There seems to be a misconception that if we review a book it automatically gets tons of views and sales. We really don't hold THAT much power.

"By writing off self-published books, reviewers are obviously hurting indie authors. But more critically—bloggers are diminishing their own power... By bloggers saying “no” to self-published books in an effort to decrease their submission piles, they are unfairly and unintentionally maintaining the stigma that traditionally published books are of higher quality and will garner more traffic to their sites."
We may hurt indie authors but.. I'm going to go ahead and be the bad guy here. So. What. Why should I, or any other blogger, feel like they should review indie books? How are we 'diminishing our power'? I may be the only one but I didn't open a book blog to go on some crazy power trip, I just like reading books.

"We think that review bloggers are only hurting their own business by turning down possible gems from indie authors."
Who is this we? We the people? We a couple of people in a shed? When did book reviewing become a business? Why do you care so much about what we all are reading? Why am I asking so many questions?

But most importantly, what's in it for us?

Stacking The Shelves (23/08/2014)

Hosted by Tynga's Reviews

- I shamelessly begged my local bookstore on Twitter for a copy of Isla.
- I won £20 on a £1 scratchcard and went on a spree. (This spree)
- We got all the holes in the walls plastered. The kitchen looks like a mud hut, the whole thing was plastered.

- I hit my Goodreads goal - 100 books in a year!
- I sort of started accepting requests from self pubbed authors.
- The ones who have employed an editor anyway.
-Spotify conveniently lost all of my music. ALL OF IT. I emailed days ago but no reply.

Acquired This Week

Before you see what I bought this week... please don't judge me. Okay?

Killing Sound - Taste Of Darkness - Vanish - The Tea Rose - The Elementals

I received all of these in the mail. Most of these were purchased from abebooks, which I'm still completely addicted to. I never knew I could get books so cheap! Killing Sound is for review from Chicken House, one of my favourite pubs (Not the beer kind). I was excited about The Tea Rose until I saw the sheer size of it and now I'm just kind of scared.

Prince Of Shadows - Under The Never Sky - Through The Ever Night

Bought these in The Works (UK readers will have heard of it. Or are seriously missing out). These were 3 for £5, less than the cost of just one book. I'd recently seen Prince of Shadows and really wanted it, I've never read a (good) retelling of Romeo and Juliet before.

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire - Voices - The Dead - The Fear

Charity shop finds - I've always been seriously good at finding stuff in charity shops. I'm pretty dedicated to - if I go anywhere new I research where they are visit. It's an obsession. I want a new set of the original Harry Potter books, as cheap and as new looking as possible, so this was a great find for £2.25!

Anna - Lola - Isla - Lobsters - Panic

The first thing I did when I won £20 on a £5 scratchcard this Monday was run to my Waterstones and grab a copy of Isla. I think they'd just got it in that morning! I wasn't sold on the new covers at first but they are lovely, I have to admit. They didn't have Anna so I ordered it and picked it on on Wednesday. I can't wait to binge read these!

Read This Week (Sat 16th - Friday 22nd)

Of Scars And Stardust - The Looking Glass - The Vampire's Assistant - Second Form At Malory Towers - Among The Hidden - Above - Grimm Tales

I... didn't realise I'd read this much this week! Vampire's Assistant, Malory Towers and Among The Hidden were all quick reads so maybe that's something to do with it.

That's all from me this week!

Vickie x

Review of The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

Format: Hardback
Genres: Magic, Childrenss,
Pages: 201
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Release Date: 08/09/2009
Find The Author: Website

Find The Illustrator: Website
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

In a highly awaited new novel, Kate DiCamillo conjures a haunting fable about trusting the unexpected — and making the extraordinary come true.

What if? Why not? Could it be?

When a fortuneteller's tent appears in the market square of the city of Baltese, orphan Peter Augustus Duchene knows the questions that he needs to ask: Does his sister still live? And if so, how can he find her? The fortuneteller's mysterious answer (an elephant! An elephant will lead him there!) sets off a chain of events so remarkable, so impossible, that you will hardly dare to believe it’s true. 

With atmospheric illustrations by fine artist Yoko Tanaka, here is a dreamlike and captivating tale that could only be narrated by Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo. In this timeless fable, she evokes the largest of themes — hope and belonging, desire and compassion - with the lightness of a magician’s touch.

Peter Duchene spends the money given to him by his guardian on a Fortune Teller, which starts of a spiral of events - an elephant appears out of nowhere, dreams become prophetic, a couple gets the family they dreamed of. The Magician's Elephant is a whimsical tale that is almost certain to leave a smile on your face. 

The city of Baltese really came to life in these pages, particularly with the help of Yoko Tanaka's illustrations. Many citizens get some of their own stories told, like the magician, the magician's victim, even the elephant. The residents are an unusual bunch too, often repeating the same sentences again and again. I did picture Baltese as a Parisian style town throughout the book, despite never having been there.

The resonating message throughout this story is hope, all of the characters have wishes of something better, even the animals. Especially the animals! This is a magical tale, with the sort of magic you don't really find in teen books, that I always search for in children's books. Something that made me feel like I was a child again, believing in the impossible.

Just as good as The Tale of Despereaux, The Magician's Elephant is a magical tale of the city of Baltese, where anything can happen - elephants can appear, families can be reunited and new friendships made. It cleverly ties many different citizen's stories together throughout without making me confused about who was who. Highly recommend to anyone looking for something a bit different.

 

Review of Touch Of Power by Maria V. Snyder

Format: Paperback
Genres: Fantasy, Magic, Romance
Pages: 390
Publisher: Mira Ink
Release Date: 20/12/2011
Find The Author: Website
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads


Laying hands upon the injured and dying, Avry of Kazan assumes their wounds and diseases into herself. But rather than being honoured for her skills, she is hunted. Healers like Avry are accused of spreading the plague that has decimated the Territories, leaving the survivors in a state of chaos.

Stressed and tired from hiding, Avry is abducted by a band of rogues who, shockingly, value her gift above the golden bounty offered for her capture. Their leader an enigmatic captor-protector with powers of his own is unequivocal in his demands: Avry must heal a plague-stricken prince, the leader of a campaign against her people.

As they traverse the daunting Nine Mountains, beset by mercenaries and magical dangers, Avry must decide who is worth healing and what is worth dying for.

In a world similar to Ixia in Poison Study, Avry of Kazan has spent her last few years hiding from the world, and the people who want to kill any healer they meet. Finding herself stuck with a soldier named Kerrick, she unwillingly travels across the nine mountains to save a dying Prince, meeting friends, foes and people she thought were lost forever.

The world in this book is vast, very vast, and interesting too. Avry lives in a world of healers, who are being hunted down due to this whole plague thing. Hearing a child dying, she heals her and finds herself discovered and sentenced to death, which is where Kerrick comes in. He needs her to heal his Prince, who is locked in a stasis until Kerrick can find a healer to cure him.

There's a lot of travelling in this book. Hobbit style travelling. Caves and all. However, the slower moments seemed to always be an opportunity to teach me more about the 15 Realms (I think it was 15) and the long history of it. There's quite a lot of info-dumping from both the world and from Avry's life, that quickly grew tiresome.

I was, and I still am, I little unsure about Avry and Kerrick's relationship. It was pretty obvious he would be a love interest from the first few pages. Then there's the part when he bitch slaps her across the face. That was a bit awkward. On top of that, I have no clue if Avry genuinely likes him, she's quite a flighty character. However, they do go great together (weirdly) and those were times I enjoyed the book the most.

This was a good start to the series, but I thought that it could have been much stronger in places. A lot does happen in between all the travelling and info dumping and there's some great characters in here, as well as some really creepy plants. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens in the next books!

Review of This Is Shyness by Leanne Hall

Format: eBook
Genres: fantasy, romance,
Pages: 272
Publisher: Text Publishing
Release Date: 09/08/2010
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Goodreads
A guy who howls. A girl on a mission to forget.

In the suburb of Shyness, where the sun doesn’t rise and the border crackles with a strange energy, Wolfboy meets a stranger at the Diabetic Hotel. She tells him her name is Wildgirl, and she dares him to be her guide through the endless night.

But then they are mugged by the sugar-crazed Kidds. And what plays out is moving, reckless...dangerous. There are things that can only be said in the dark. And one long night is time enough to change your life.

This Is Shyness is an unusual read, told from the points of view of both WildGirl and Wolfboy. Wildgirl takes the first chapter and Wolfboy the last, and together they tell a story of an unusual world where the sun never rises and anything could happen. The kidds make their own rules and when they steal something precious of Wolfboy's, he and Wildgirl start the very strange journey to try and get it back.

It wasn't pie they stole. Just to clarify.

I connected with Wildgirl much more that Wolfboy, I'm not sure if this is because she took the first chapter of simply because Wolfboy is a much more closed off character than Wildgirl. I still cared about him a lot, and enjoyed reading his chapters. The chapters are numbered, not titled with the character's names and the switch between characters isn't a set thing so sometimes I had to try and work out who was speaking this time. 

I'm not exactly sure where this book is set, it could be set anywhere really. In my head I pictured it as being very similar to the place I saw in Misfits (Channel 4). I did get a strong Misfits/Skins vibe from this book and I think teenagers (or adults) who loved those shows would get along well with this book. It's an unusual world, but one that mirrors our own too.

I was left with a few unanswered questions at the end of this book, so I was glad to find that there is indeed a sequel, called Queen of the Night. This book is set 6 months later, which seems like a good time gap. I'm hoping we learn more about the kidds and Dr Gregory, as well as what on earth is going on with Wolfboy - howling, thick hair on his arms, what on earth is he?

Review of Pandemic by Yvonne Ventresca

Format: eBook
Genres: apocalyptic, survival,
Pages: 352
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Release Date: 06/05/2014
Find The Author: Website ¦ Twitter
Abe Books ¦ Book Depository ¦ Goodreads

Even under the most normal circumstances, high school can be a painful and confusing time. Unfortunately, Lilianna's circumstances are anything but normal. Only a few people know what caused her sudden change from model student to the withdrawn pessimist she has become, but her situation isn't about to get any better. When people begin coming down with a quick-spreading illness that doctors are unable to treat, Lil's worst fears are realized. With her parents called away on business before the contagious outbreak-her father in Delaware covering the early stages of the disease and her mother in Hong Kong and unable to get a flight back to New Jersey-Lil's town is hit by what soon becomes a widespread illness and fatal disaster. Now, she's more alone than she's been since the "incident" at her school months ago.

With friends and neighbors dying all around her, Lil does everything she can just to survive. But as the disease rages on, so does an unexpected tension as Lil is torn between an old ex and a new romantic interest. Just when it all seems too much, the cause of her original trauma shows up at her door. In this thrilling debut from author Yvonne Ventresca, Lil must find a way to survive not only the outbreak and its real-life consequences, but also her own personal demons.

 
Lil is someone I was classify as a 'difficult' character - she's completely torn up about something that happened to her and suffers with anxiety because of it, dealing with the stress by stockpiling food and saving alerts on her phone for various diseases. But nothing can prepare her for when the worst does actually happen and she's left at home alone to fend for herself while everyone around her is dying from the epidemic.

The pacing was done very well,everything is set up before getting to the main event but the author easily managed to keep me reading without getting bored, in fact I felt morbidly excited for when all of the epidemic stuff would start to happen. Being set just in a few streets at most, we don't have a huge cast of characters to keep up with which made it easier to connect with them and care about them.

The ante was upped towards the end and I was frantically flipping electronic pages to find out what would happen next and if my favourite characters would survive this epidemic that had ravaged most of the rest of the world. Lil finally told her secrets to the boy she fell in love with and I was left with a satisfying ending, no read-the-next-book cliffhanger, which I was very pleased with.

While I enjoyed this book immensely for the most part, sadly it's not a very memorable read for me. Part of this may be because I read this just after In The After, which I thought was incredible and the world was so much bigger. This is much simpler, set just in a few American streets. However, for readers who find want a taste of apocalyptic but find most too confusing, this simpler story would be perfect.