Bookworm Blogger #YA: undead

Showing posts with label undead. Show all posts

Review: Tomorrow Land by Mari Mancusi

My Rating: 3 out of 5
THANK YOU TO NET GALLEY AND NLA DIGITAL FOR ALLOWING ME TO REVIEW THIS BOOK AND GIVE MY HONEST OPINION

Published March 8th 2012 by NLA Digital

Synopsis:
Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice--between her family--and Chris Parker, the boy she'd given her heart. Now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he's the only thing on her mind.

All Chris "Chase" Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed--breaking his heart without ever telling him why.

Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones to a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk...and feed. As they begin their pilgrimage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost--all while attempting to save what's left of the human race?

Review:
Dystopia and Zombies are the new hit for 2012 and Vampires are soooo 2011. So I jumped at the chance to read Tomorrow Land, a futuristic post apocalyptic story about a girl being the last hope for mankind.

What threw me instantly was the third person narrative. For a book that gives points of view for one character and then jumps to the next character I could see that if it was a first person narrative I might have been engaged in the story more. For me the feel of the writing held me at arms length and didn't quite let me get closer to the characters as I would have liked.

That being said, I did like the way the story went back and forth. The dramatism worked as we uncover more lies and secrets from nowadays and the past, and we eventually begin Chase and Peytons journey. There are moments that felt a little unoriginal and other moments that seemed too 2012. The future Sim games (apparently every teenager is going to be involved and fully immersed in video games), and nanotechnology for example. Yet four years prior to the main story Peyton was still catching the bus to school and visiting the market to buy fresh veggies for her mother. Its supposed to be 2030-something. If a world was that advanced then I would presume ALL aspects of life would have changed not just the techie bits.

The story was nice. Peyton finds Chase and gets drawn into staying with the 8 remaining kids who haven't died from the superflu virus but while she's around Chase's older brother gets snacked on by a zombie (who was an ex friend). Peyton must get to Disneyworld and rendezvous with her father so in the end Peyton, Chase and all the kids go. Along the way they encounter Zombies, major problems, and even add an addition to their small party. But once they reach their destination all is not as it seems.

So this is why I only gave it 3 out of 5 stars. The romance was way too heavy and full-on nearly all the time, so much that it slowed the story down and got boring. If the world building had taken up a little more space and some of the romance was cut out it would have felt like a different book. Don't get me wrong - I love romance in a book. Sometimes a book only holds my interest when a hunky guy comes along. But even from the beginning Chris/Chase has no other thoughts in his head except Peyton and his feelings for her. They face one of the most grueling challenges, and they are possibly the only humans left for hundreds of miles around yet all they can think of is 'does she like me? i think she likes me' mixed with 'i'm an idiot, why did I say/do that'. Peyton isn't much better. She's spent four years in a fallout shelter, her mother has just committed suicide/euthanasia. She's supposed to be super-bionic yet the whole first night was moodiness and angst. You're 19 years old, not 14 any more! I must say that it put a real dampner on the whole story. Romance is best when its subtle or with a hint of.

Tomorrow Land IS a good, likeable book and if post-apocalyptic zombie stories are your thing then read it.

-CB

You can reach Mari Mancusi here:

Web Twitter Blog Facebook Goodreads

Review: Life Eternal (Dead Beautiful #2) by Yvonne Woon

My rating: 3 out of 5

Synopsis:
Renée Winters has changed. When she looks in the mirror, a beautiful girl with an older, sadder face stares back. Her condition has doctors mystified, but Renée can never reveal the truth: she died last May, and was brought back to life by the kiss of her Undead soul mate, Dante Berlin.
Now, her separation from Dante becomes almost unbearable. His second life is close to an end, and each passing day means one less that she will spend with the boy who shares her soul.
Just when Renée has almost given up hope, she learns of the Nine Sisters--brilliant scholars who, according to legend, found a way to cheat death. She can't shake the feeling that they are somehow connected to her dreams, strange visions that hint at a discovery so powerful, and so dangerous, that some will stop at nothing to protect it.
Renée thought she knew the truth about life and death. But there is a secret woven through history that holds the only hope for Dante and Renée. Unless they find answers soon, their time together is doomed to be cut short.

Review:
I can't remember the last time I read a sequel and was so underwhelmed. Which is a shame because I loved Dead Beautiful and the prospect of reading more about Renee and Dante made me buy this book as soon as it was out.
Firstly, it isn't until a good way into the book that Renee really figures out that she must find out the secret of the Nine Sisters and hopefully find a cure for Dante.
Now, Renee and Dante have both changed a great deal since the last book. If you remember, Renee saved Dante and gave back his soul. Then he kissed Renee and returned it back. This must explain (although its never confirmed) Renee no longer tastes food, has no sense of smell, and constantly has the window open. As far as Dante is concerned he's aged, but is still recognised as Undead. So my only opinion is that they have both experienced and changed due to both being a little bit Undead but have also both grown up due to the passing on of Renees live soul. Hmm. Quite complicated.
The writing of this book is as good as the first with the descriptions of the new school and Montreal really making you feel like you are there.. A new history is told to us about the beginnings and reasons why Montreal became as it is.
Apart from that Renees narration is just average and full of 'woe is me' moments, even when it comes to Dante (who doesn't feature much in the book anyway). She has no spark, and felt like she was just going through the motions rather than eagerly grasp this new chance for Dante and her to be together.
We have a new third wheel, Noah, but I didn't really feel a great deal of chemistry between him and Renee either.
When the treasure hunt started I really hoped the book would pick up a bit, but such random places were implanted into the story such as the house with all the undead children, that it gave the story a not-so-real element.
The only character I really would have wanted to learn more from was Anya, Renee's new Russian school friend, who has a few secrets of her own.
All in all, I felt that a lot of the story was ground work for the next installment, there was only a flicker about the Liberum so I'm sure we'll get more from them in book 3.
And the ending? Much too fast and over with loose ends left hanging...

You can reach Yvonne Woon here:

Web

Twitter
Email

Facebook: Profile
Dead Beautiful UK Facebook Page

Goodreads

Review: Dead Beautiful by Yvonne Woon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis:
On the morning of her sixteenth birthday, Renée Winters was still an ordinary girl. She spent her summers at the beach, had the perfect best friend, and had just started dating the cutest guy at school. No one she'd ever known had died. But all that changes when she finds her parents dead in the Redwood Forest, in what appears to be a strange double murder.

After the funeral Renée’s wealthy grandfather sends her to Gottfried Academy, a remote and mysterious boarding school in Maine, where she finds herself studying subjects like Philosophy, Latin, and the “Crude Sciences.”

It’s there that she meets Dante Berlin, a handsome and elusive boy to whom she feels inexplicably drawn. As they grow closer, unexplainable things begin to happen, but Renée can’t stop herself from falling in love. It’s only when she discovers a dark tragedy in Gottfried’s past that she begins to wonder if the Academy is everything it seems.

Little does she know, Dante is the one hiding a dangerous secret, one that has him fearing for her life.

Dead Beautiful is both a compelling romance and thought-provoking read, bringing shocking new meaning to life, death, love, and the nature of the soul.

Review:
Forbidden love, what a dangerous thing! I've literally just finished this which left me in a world of 'Nooooooooooo'. I can't believe the ending was so sad, I thought at least they'd be able to be together.

Rewind! So, this is a story about Renee, who lives a nice average life in California. She goes to school, hangs our with her friend Annie, and has two loving parents. But tragedy strikes and on the way home from a day by the sea she finds her parents car on the roadside. After a search she then finds her parents. Both dead, with gauze and coins around them.

Renee is taken in by her grandfather but not before she almost implodes with the shock and pain of her loss. The writing absolutely captures her want to remain in the minute or the hour and not move forward. She wants her parents back and everything to be normal again. But from that point on, nothing is ever normal again.

Her grandfather came over as a really creepy guy. Someone who, at sixteen, would make me certainly scared of. He tries to set rules and knock out the carefree-ness of her but to little effect. And then the final blow. He sends her to Gottfried Academy, in Maine, and tells her to wave her old life goodbye.

When Dante Berlin comes into the picture she feels an enlightening, a meeting of minds and a joining of hearts. Although no-one in the school really knows him, he is revered by all. The enigma. The one with no friends but the one everyone looks for. Eleanor, Renees new room-mate fills in the blanks, but it is Renees strong will and character that worms its way into Dante's heart.

Dante and Renee begin meeting and soon there are more questions than answers going on in her head. Why are his hands always cold? Why does she feel sometimes like he's reading her mind? Why will he not kiss her?

With a mixture of philosophy, history, the dead language of latin, and odd subjects like crude science and horticulture Renee begins to put the pieces together of how students have been dying from heart attacks. Exactly the same way her parents died. And the truth isn't at all what she expected.

This isn't a ghost story, or a story about Zombies. It's the space inbetween that makes Dead Beautiful such an amazing part of the Paranormal genre.

The next installment, Life Eternal, came out on 24th January and I'm going to bag me a copy right now!