At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Sourcebooks Fire in exchange for an honest review.

For some reason I thought this was a zombie book but I was wrong. At the End of Everything is a book about a group of young offenders who get abandoned and forgotten once a deadly plague breaks out. They must fight for their own survival and navigate their new situation, which leads to a lot of drama and unpleasant situations.

If I'd known this was just a plague book and not a zombie book, I honestly wouldn't have requested it. This book hangs uncomfortably in the shadow of the pandemic and that made it a very difficult read. The deadly disease is a cough that kills people, and much of the book is just reading about teenagers slowly dying. There is not much outside of death and interpersonal struggles happening, and even the latter is a little sparse. There are a lot of narrating characters at first, and that made it difficult to get to grips with everyone. I understand that you need a lot of characters because most of them will die in a book like this, but I would have rather met them more slowly and had more time to get to grips with each one. The beginning was hard to get into for this reason.

Having said that, the characters are probably the strongest part of this book. I think the plot could have been more strongly emotion-driven as everything is a little distant, as unpleasant as the events which happen are. This is something I've experienced from this author before with previous books, so I guess it's more of a feature than a bug. I also wish we'd gotten a split narrative as one group goes out to try their luck in the outside world, and I think it would have been more interesting to see what happened to them as well rather than just the sad monotony of the institute.

Overall, I think if you enjoy other works by this author and like the sound of the premise, then you should give this a try. For me, there were too many factors which prevented me from enjoying it. It's a very bleak read and a potentially triggering one, so be aware of that too

Overall Rating:

Skin by Liam Brown

I received an ARC of this book thanks to Net Galley and publisher Legend Press in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy, if all sci-fi had as well-developed characters as this one, I would read a whole lot more of it. Skin initially caught my eye because of the striking cover and I thought the general premise sounding interesting enough. It is set in the near-future where a disease has broken out among humanity which makes them allergic to each other. The result of this is that people have to live in isolation, communicating with others only through screens and essentially never venturing outside (certainly never without a hazmat suit). The focus is on a single family and our main character is Angela, the mother of the household.

If you couldn't tell from my intro, my favourite thing by far about this book was the characters. Angela was a fantastic portrayal of a modern jaded woman-someone who doesn't have high expectations but gets on with things. She read so true to me and it added a lot of strength to the story. Her kids felt like people who had grown up in this world and they managed to be compelling characters without distracting from the plot. Her husband was maybe the weakest but even then, you got the impression of hidden depth that the story just wasn't exploring. Brown can definitely write three dimensional people.

The plot itself was fairly strong and it certainly lives up to the premise promised. It's more of a world-building based plot than anything else so be aware of that going in. My main issue was the ending of the book which (no spoilers) was very abrupt and didn't quite feel complete and satisfactory. This could have easily been a 4 star read had the ending had a little more meat to it.

Overall, this is a solid sci-fi book and definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre. It uses the concept to explore humanity and people's behaviour which, in my opinion, is the best kind of sci-fi book. It could have maybe done with a little more of a story in the second half but it does decently enough and I'm very happy I decided to read it.

Overall Rating:

.5

#Murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil

Now this was a pleasant surprise. I honestly didn't expect much from this book. The blurb is kind of insane-sounding and while I've enjoyed a previous book from Gretchen McNeil, I also found it pretty standard YA horror fare. There is nothing standard about #murdertrending and that's honestly why I kind of love it?

This book has one of the most unique plots I've ever seen. It takes place in a world where a reality star has become President *cough Trump dig cough* and has transformed the capital punishment system into entertainment for the masses. Now people convicted of serious crimes get put in a prison where they could be attacked by any one of eight professional murderers as they go about their daily business. Our main character Dee finds herself in this situation and is accidentally catapulted to fame when she kills one of the professional murderers in a trap meant to kill her. The rest of the book is about her trying to prove her innocence whilst escaping the clutches of the murderers.

The main reason I was so surprised by this book is that I find the blurb a little misleading. It doesn't really explain how the executions work, which is that prisoners live their daily lives and get randomly attacked/kidnapped by one of the murderers, each of which has their own niche theme. This is the most creative and fun aspect of the book (as weird as that sounds) and it's a shame it isn't pushed more on the blurb. They range from a murderous hipster, a cannibal, someone who dresses their victims up as princesses, someone who kills through crafting hobbies and several others. Almost all of them stand out in some way and it leads to some very gripping and humorous horror scenes. One of the main strengths of this book is that it handles its insane premise excellently, never becoming too serious but also not failing to bring some truly disturbing and engaging moments as well. It hits the perfect balance which is impressive considering how easily this could have become just a big joke or unaware of its own silliness.

There are some weak spots that prevent this from being perfect. The characters are entertaining enough but just shy of feeling like real people (maybe due to the insane situation they're in). The plot gets very convoluted at one point and there are some 'twists' which either fall flat or just confuse the story briefly. This all happens in the third quarter of the book, with the final quarter being the best part of all (in my opinion) so it's not enough to detract massively from the story.

Compared to the previous book I read by this author, #murdertrending is a big improvement. This is great for anyone who enjoys the camper side of horror but still appreciates that darkness and attention to detail that prevents it from being a 'so bad it's good' read. I know I'll remember this book even years from now thanks to its unique and creative tone, and I look forward to more from Gretchen McNeil in the future.

Overall Rating:

The Extinction Trials by S.M. Wilson

Ooh boy. So when I first saw this book, it was on Amazon and I presumed it was self-published. You see that little sticker on the cover that says 'The Hunger Games meets Jurassic Park'? Yeah, this book is literally a rip-off of the Hunger Games premise only stupider and now there are dinosaurs. Imagine my utter surprise when I walk into Waterstones and see this being promoted. It's a real book alright.

Of course I had to read it. The main character is called STORMCHASER KNOX. She has PURPLE EYES. There are DINOSAURS. So I picked up this book expecting a good laugh. I certainly got that but to my surprise, it was much better written than I was expecting.

There are many elements that make up a book. Let me be clear-the writing style of this book is actually pretty good. Everything else varies from just kind of silly to genuinely bad, but this got a much higher rating overall than I was expecting and so the author deserves some credit for that. They deserve absolutely no credit whatsoever for the nonsensical worldbuilding however. The plot of this book makes zero sense and it just goes downhill from there. So Stormchaser is our main character. She is a firm loner without a family and only one best friend to speak of. You remember how Katniss had to enter the Hunger Games to save her sister? Well, Stormchaser chooses to go to an island of dinosaurs entirely voluntarily. Her friends/competitors on the island all have better motivations than her, and yet she's still desperate to win and steal the prize from them. That sure is one likable protagonist!

This fictional world is so confusing as well. I think it's maybe meant to be set in the future but that makes no sense. Even being kind and assuming it takes place in an alternate timeline doesn't help much. In this universe, there are only two continents-one for people and one for dinosaurs. The people continent is running out of space so they want to conquer the dinosaur continent using the mystical power of...DNA. Apparently the only way to get DNA is to steal a dinosaur egg. Not a single character in this book goes into any detail about DNA and I can only assume the author has no idea what it is or how it works. Anyway, the whole premise of the Extinction Trials is that people volunteer to go to the dinosaur continent and then undergo some physical and mental tests to determine their suitability. The top 100 then go to the island, the majority die every year and then the survivors get free food for them and their families. That is the only incentive for applying, and while that is a good incentive if you have hundreds of siblings, it is not a good motivation for Stormchaser.

The ending is the dumbest part of all and I'm going to need to spoil some things.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So as mentioned, Stormchaser has no reason to enter beyond her desire to see the world of dinosaurs. Her surviving teammates on the island include her love interest who has a sick sister, and this other guy who has his own family to feed, plus the families of several dead teammates that he's promised to pretend are his own. When they return from the island, they are the only people with an egg (they actually have two which is important). The evil scientists in charge then change the prize so that all three of them can't win; instead, two of them must claim an egg and those two will get a prize. For some reason love interest claims both eggs, then Storm claims both eggs and then other guy claims one and says Storm got the other. To sort this out, they make everyone compete in further challenges (which are nowhere near as intense as the narrative implies they're going to be). Storm takes part in these and WINS. She voluntarily beats out two guys with legitimate reasons to win because...she wants to?

END OF SPOILERS

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Granted that isn't saying much given that my expectations were rock bottom, but it's enjoyable enough and I can see kids liking this quite a lot. If you want a genuinely good dystopian novel though you will have to look elsewhere. For a 'so good it's bad' read however, this could be great.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST & SECOND BOOKS.

At the point of writing this review, I have now finished the original Maze Runner trilogy. I'm trying really hard to not let my opinion of the third book affect my review of this one but yeah, it probably is going to. I also read this book in effectively one day so that may also affect things.

I think the thing with The Maze Runner series is that the plot of the first book is essentially completely separate from the plot of the other two. The Scorch Trials is a very different book from the first in terms of both actual story line and also tone. Instead of a contained story about teenagers trapped in a mysterious place trying to work out why they're there, you now get teenagers being given a quest to reach a location by a certain time to...work out why they're there. It still has elements of the first but one of the reasons this series throws me so much is that it does change plot so dramatically.

Anyway, I still really enjoyed The Scorch Trials despite it now kind of being a sci-fi series about zombies. This book continued with the same issues from the first only ramped up. The plot is even more disjointed and (what really bothers me more) you still don't get given answers in a clear way. You sort of find out why they're in the maze but it's such a stupid reason that it really doesn't help to not have it fully explained. Even worse, Teresa's supposed betrayal isn't given an explanation beyond her going 'well, they told me you'd die if I didn't do these exact things'. She behaves appallingly but then Thomas also hates her so instantaneously that it comes across as bad writing. Her character is completely assassinated in this and I'm not really sure why.

This brings me to the next point which is the bizarrely juvenile language. I know, I know-it's YA. But Thomas and Teresa are allowed to make out which is followed by declarations of...'best friendship'? And then at the end when she betrays him and kisses Aris, she loudly declares that he is her best friend now. It's such a weird thing to censor and it stands out like a sore thumb.

I know this is a largely negative review for a book I said I liked but I think my opinion of the third one is making me look back less favorably now. There are a lot of good elements, they're just outweighed heavily by the bizarre ones. Brenda is another character I don't get and don't particularly enjoy having around. The idea of Aris and there having been another maze all along is fantastic but it isn't executed particularly well. When you eventually meet the girls, nothing is actually explored with them. There are some nice dark elements in this and some of the stuff is really cool. It's just a shame that this series ends so badly with the next one.

Overall Rating:

.5

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I'm gonna be honest, I hadn't heard great things about The Maze Runner. It seemed to materialise near the tail end of the whole Hunger Games dystopian craze, and while it was popular enough for me to have heard of it and to warrant a movie series, I haven't actually met anyone who has seen or read it. That being said, reviewers I admire have not been kind to this book. I had heard it was dull and badly written. However, I was pleasantly surprised.

This is definitely nowhere near being a bad book. It's not brilliant granted but the writing, characters and plot are all decent enough. After finishing this first one I actually sped through the sequel and while I haven't yet read the third and final one, so far I am interested and immersed in this universe. The thing about The Maze Runner is that its biggest weakness might also be one of its strengths. The plot is pretty unique and weird, so much so that it isn't easy to see where it is going. It was refreshing to read a YA dystopian that doesn't info dump and isn't horribly predictable.

Having said that, this book does suffer from being a bit of a mess. The same applies to an even greater extent in its sequel but the plot constantly moves forward at a breakneck pace. You get thrown into the world at the start through the standard device of 'newcomer arrives in established place' but this is one of the most frantic and fast-paced examples I have ever seen. Thomas arrives, has no questions answered, girl arrives, immediately goes into coma for most of the book until she's needed and only then does the novel slow down a teensy bit for some world-building and explanation. Even then, all explanations are extremely limited. This doesn't exactly harm the book (it isn't difficult to follow what's going on for example due to a simplistic style) but it is very unusual compared to other books in a similar genre and it is a little relentless as a reader. You read eagerly to find out what's going on but instead of getting bits and pieces until the ending, you instead get bombs dropped on you which are promptly swept to one side to make room for more action. Maybe this is simply a feature of reading a YA book aimed specifically at boys but it was quite distracting at times.

One thing I did really enjoy were the characters. Dashner succeeded in making each boy feel fairly distinct, and you do become attached to all of them. A minor downside of this is that sometimes the author doesn't bother to explain what's happened to certain side characters (for example, Frypan who I really liked) so you are left wondering if they are okay for several pages until they show up in a scene again. Again, this is a flaw the sequel shares perhaps to an even greater extent because the danger is more frequent in that one.

Despite a few niggles, I still really enjoyed this book. It's easy to read, has a plot which is both unique and interesting and it is a far better series than some people give it credit for. I will definitely be finishing the original trilogy and I will probably even pick up the additional books which have been tacked on. I am keen to see where the story ends up.

Overall Rating:

.5

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I don't think I like this book.

I say 'think' because admittedly, I'm not entirely sure. I really wanted to like it, or maybe I felt like I should. Ultimately though I have to be honest and I feel Brave New World falls flat in what it's trying to do.

Okay, my first reason is probably the most 'controversial' but honestly, I don't see the future world as being all that bad. Obviously it is bad in comparison to the real world, I'm not an idiot. But in comparison to other dystopias? Everyone is happy and those who aren't get sent somewhere else to be with a whole bunch of other people like them. Not killed, not brainwashed or imprisoned. Just sent away to live their lives how they please. Again obviously, the constant drugging, biological manipulation of the lower classes and lack of art or science are all terrible things. I do not want to live in this world by any means but I think the sex part is what is supposed to be so awful about it and honestly, that makes the book come across as dated and diminishes its impact.

My second issue is with the characters. In the entire book, the only characters I kind of liked were Lenina, Linda and Helmholtz. Bernard was okay but I could not stand John at all. I think my dislike of John is one of the reasons I can't quite see this as a terrible world. He was so pretentious and utterly joyless that, when presented as the alternative, he doesn't make a very good argument for it. It also makes it harder for me to agree with any of his arguments, no matter how valid they are. His treatment of Lenina is appalling and I did not find him particularly sympathetic. The crush angle also seemed repetitive to me as Bernard's crush on Lenina and John's crush were pretty similar in terms of how they fit into the plot and both played the same purpose narratively.

However, the thing I disliked the most was how unsubtle this book was. Characters literally have long discussions about the theme of the book and it feels like the author is whacking you in the face with it. I do not like books which are purely a vessel for a certain message and while this book was too well-written and developed to be just that, it came dangerously close.

Honestly though, there were a lot of good things about this book. I think I like projecting my own interpretation of the story more than I like the actual story itself. Like John-the whole part where he pleads for the right to be unhappy feels like it should be really meaningful and in my head now, it is. But when I was reading it, I felt nothing but weariness. I think this book has a lot to say but its execution lets it down, which is weird because it is well-written. Something is missing but I'm not sure what. For the first time ever, I'm not going to rate this book because I honestly have no idea what to rate it on. My review probably sounds a lot more negative than I feel and this book will certainly stick with me if nothing else.

Only Ever Yours by Louse O'Neill

*MILD ENDING SPOILERS (NO REAL DETAILS)*

I first read this book almost in one sitting on one frenzied day during exam time. It was probably the worst time possible to be engulfed by a book but it was so compelling that I couldn't put it down. I promptly finished it and while I was desperate to share my thoughts on it, I was so emotionally-drained that I wasn't quite sure what those thoughts were. A couple of months later, I picked it up again and once more finished it in a day. It's that good.

Only Ever Yours is an emotional gut-punch of a book, in a similar way to how Some Girls Are was. To quickly sum up the plot, global warming has hit, resulting in a future where the only women who exist are 'eves'-perfect girls grown by scientists to serve men. There are three ways eves can accomplish this: companionship (a marriage of sorts), becoming a concubine (prostitute) or (the most dreaded third) remaining at their school to teach future generations as a chastity. The school is where eves live until the end of their 16th year and where they are taught important things like how to hate your body and how only men matter.

Obviously this book is an exaggeration of a modern-day issue, like many great sci-fi books. I can't even begin to describe how compelling I found this world which is surprising given how relatively simple it is. I think what I loved most is how gradually and quietly the horror seeps in. The protagonist casually tells us about how all companions are terminated when they turn 40, how female babies rot in the womb and how infertile companions willingly burn themselves alive so that their husband may choose a 'better' eve to replace her. It's very realistic in the way the main character doesn't realise the horror herself, having grown up in this world. Unlike some dystopian protagonists, she has no unlikely liberal views tainting her view of her world.

Speaking of the protagonist, Frieda is about as heartbreaking a character as they come. She is utterly broken by the world around her and yet is powerless to do anything about it, not that she would have the insight to do anything if she wasn't. The other characters are equally engaging-even evil Megan is vaguely sympathetic in that she is only doing what she has to in order to survive (not that that stops you hating her). By the time the ending comes, you feel as broken as poor Frieda in the best way. Again, this isn't a book I can say I 'enjoyed' reading but it's one I am eternally grateful I did.

Oh, and the ending. It crushed me completely both times and yet, what else did I expect? This isn't the sort of book which can have a happy ending and Frieda is not the sort of character who gets one. And in the end, who is really happy anyway? Not a single character gets what they want, or if they do then it turns out to be a hollow victory. The ending really hammers home the theme of the book, right down to the last bleak sentence.

In case you couldn't tell, I love this book. It's one of those I think everyone needs to experience and like Some Girls Are, it will haunt me forever. It carries an important message in a well-written and utterly compelling package. I strongly recommend you check it out

Overall Rating:

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

No matter how good a book might be, if it's the middle book of a trilogy then it is very likely that the whole thing will just feel like a setup for the exciting final. Now Insurgent manages to avoid this to some degree (or at least better than some series do). It has its own plot and while admittedly a lot of it is setting up for what seems like an inevitable war in the third book, enough happens that it isn't boring. Unfortunately it's not particularly memorable either. A lot happens but it isn't stuff which has a great impact on the overall story. The first third of the book is running away, the second third is trying to get something and the final third is the realisation they can't get something only for it to turn out to not matter anyway.

I had some problems with book Tris which I mentioned in my first review and sadly they only seem to grow more numerous with this book. Firstly, Tris is suffering from gun phobia after killing her best friend in the first book. This is perfectly understandable but it does mean that Tris becomes a teensy bit more useless in terms of things she can do. She also turns suicidal for a while which could work if it was handled better. Sadly all it does is make Tris seem whiny. And even more useless.

Okay, so one thing I did like about the first book was that it didn't have the dreaded love-triangle found in the majority of YA fiction. Is this still the case? Well...it's hard to tell. Technically there isn't a love triangle but there are a few hints towards Tris and Uriah (yes, I know he has a girlfriend but still) and they usually follow scenes where she's had some kind of dispute with Four.

Ah yes, Four...what happened to you? I'm not sure what it was but he seemed a lot flatter and less likable in this book. Aside from being far too harsh on Tris, he just seemed douchier in general. For me to root for him as a love interest, he's going to have to have some serious development occur in the third book.

Overall, Insurgent is basically the same as Divergent. It's an interesting enough story, not really amazing but probably worth it if you like this sort of thing. My only main problem was with the ending which was treated as some big twist despite the entire book building up to it and it basically already being revealed. I shall read the final book but only to see how it ends. So far I can't say I'm enamoured with the series.

Overall Score:

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Okay, I admit it-I'm a bad book blogger. I went to see Divergent before reading the book...and I'm very glad I did. The movie Divergent is a refreshing take on the YA genre with a female protagonist who isn't afraid to kick butt and a romance that takes a backseat to the far more pressing matters of mass extermination and the threat of war. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the book Divergent.

 Tris is a girl who has grown up living in a world where everyone gets neatly sorted into groups based on their key personality traits. Unlike everyone else though, Tris is divergent which means that the test which does the sorting doesn't work on her. Instead she gets to choose her faction and spend the rest of the series wondering if she made the right choice.

It may sound like your standard YA dystopian stuff and for the most part, I guess it is. While movie Tris was pretty badass and had better things to focus on than her lovelife, book Tris sadly does not. Instead we get page upon page of her fretting about Tobi-I mean Four, the cookie cutter brooding bad boy of this series.

Don't get me wrong, Divergent is not a bad book. It still has a fairly engaging plot (which admittedly drags a bit) and the heroine does have to make some tough choices which are a lot darker than those found in say, Twilight. It's just a disappointment after seeing a movie which was a breath of fresh air to then go and find out that the book is more of the same. I would definitely recommend the movie but if you want to know whether you should check out the book, really I'd say it's up to you. There is nothing particularly special here but if you like dystopias then I see no reason why this one is any worse than any of the other hundreds upon the shelf. At least it spares us the grief of a love triangl-

Oh wait. There's a sequel. What are the odds we'll escape it the second time?

Overall Score: