Loved by P.C & Kristin Cast

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

I cannot believe there is a new House of Night book in 2020. When I saw this was on NetGalley, I was HYPED. I read every single one of these books back in the day in all of their glorious insanity. This series is the absolute definition of guilty pleasure and I didn't realise how much I missed being baffled by it.

So Loved is the first in a new trilogy, set one year after the first 12 books. Zoey is now turning 18 (that's right, everything happened to her before she was 18!) and things are not quite right with the universe. EITHER universe.

Oh yes that's right, there are parallel worlds in this. And zombies! And a whole bunch of other insane plot elements I wouldn't dare spoil. All of the expected characters are here and even a few unexpected ones. If you enjoyed the previous House of Night books then this is much of the same and it continues the story well. It was a very entertaining read and I couldn't put it down. Do I think these books are great examples of quality writing? Honestly no. But I'm never bored reading them and that's worth something.

Sadly it would not be fair to mention some of the explicit negatives. Pop culture references are toned down massively from the first series but there are 5 on the very first page which is a LOT in quick succession. There is also a fair amount of questionable content, both in terms of jokes and actual patterns that show up. The black girl must keep talking about how sassy and black she is (I am not black myself but this stood out as a yikes to me), calling herself 'brown sugar'. Two lesbians discuss about magically making straight girls lesbians and it's implied they took advantage of that. Damien is a gay guy who is revealed later to have depression and, presumably as a result, he cries. A lot. Like every time he shows up. Male characters crying is 100% fine but when the gay guy is the only one who cries, this has unfortunate implications attached.

All in all, this is a solid continuation of the series. Is it perfect? No, but none of them were ever perfect. Did I enjoy reading it? Absolutely. For better or for worse, these books hold a morbid fascination for me and I will definitely be carrying on with this new series.

Overall Rating:

.5

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