The Rule of Thoughts (The Mortality Doctrine #2) by: James Dashner

“Michael completed the Path. What he found at the end turned everything he’d ever known about his life—and the world—completely upside down.
He barely survived. But it was the only way VirtNet Security knew to find the cyber-terrorist Kaine—and to make the Sleep safe for gamers once again. And, the truth Michael discovered about Kaine is more complex than they anticipated, and more terrifying than even the worst of their fears.
Kaine is a tangent, a computer program that has become sentient. And Michael’s completing the Path was the first stage in turning Kaine’s master plan, the Mortality Doctrine, into a reality.
The Mortality Doctrine will populate Earth entirely with human bodies harboring tangent minds. Any gamer who sinks into the VirtNet risks coming out with a tangent intelligence in control of their body. 
And the takeover has already begun.” -Goodreads

There were a lot of books in 2014 that I had high hopes for. Some came through others though fell flat. In my review of The Eye of Minds I basically summed down my experience as: it sucked, but the ending was worth it and that I would be looking forward to the second book. Now that I’ve read the second book I have to say it’s exactly the same.

I don’t know what is going on with Dashner, well I have a vague idea, but I’ll get to that later. I will admit that the Maze Runner series wasn’t perfect, but it was good, it held my interest and told an interesting story and the writing wasn’t bad. Is it wrong for me to compare this work with that one? I’m pretty sure it’s not. The Rule of Thoughts does have an interesting concept idea it’s just that Dashner’s execution is very much lacking. The writing style still has this feel like he’s a newbie debut writer which was exactly how I felt in the last book. The characters are flat, the locations are generic, and the plot is just plain boring.

I think Dashner’s problem is that maybe he’s writing a story about a topic that he might not know too well and is therefore very hesitant with it. Gaming and computer lingo are pretty instrumental if you want to give off the feel that you are writing about games and computers. This is where his shortcomings seem to be coming from. The only words that he uses are hack and code and I’m just like “Okay… what type of hacks, what types of code?” Surely Dashner wouldn’t find it too difficult to pick up a computer book and do a little bit of researching.

My thoughts are kind of going like this, what I want is Log Horizon what I’m getting is .Hack//Sign. Anyone else feeling the same way?

So, yeah, overall the story sucked just like the last book, BUT…. I still want the third one because of that ending. It’s just like he knows the book sucks so he’s just like “Yeah, I’ll hit them hard with that exciting cliffhanger so they’ll go read the next book.” I just kind of want to bang my head against the wall because unlike for this book I am having no expectations whatsoever for The Game of Lives. It’ll suck like the Rule of Thoughts and the Eye of Minds, but hopefully the ending will be somewhat decent like these two.

My final thoughts are that I wished I’d never started this series, but now I feel somewhat invested in it. I rate it 2/5 stars.

Eve & Adam by Michael Grant

In creative writing class today I had an assignment that was to create a poem that was also a review. The review could be of anything from past relationships to movies, but I immediately went to book review and I decided to do a little bit of cheating, so instead of doing an actual book review I’m just going to put up this poem.

~

Review of a book

Eve&Adam by Micael Grant

I  found this while searching the library nook

Now listen to this poem turn to a rant

This book failed on all levels

I hated the writing, I hated the plot

Was this even written by Michael Grant or some devils

I saw his name and I thought, “This is going to be top notch!”

But instead I read through and through

And only felt a sense of disappointment

It read like a crappy debut

I didn’t find an ounce of enjoyment

A girl is asked to create a perfect guy

While a bunch of other unrealistic bullshit goes on

There was a love square, my brain hurts, I want to die

This book didn’t have any good points like Gone.

Don’t be tricked by the name

The book was a complete dive

Even though the Gone series went to fame

This book, I rate a two out of five.

~

The Finisher by David Baldacci (Vega Jane #1)

Book Review of The Finisher by David Baldacci. YA-MG. Published 2014. Action, Fantasy.

“Welcome to Wormwood: a place where curiosity is discouraged and no one has ever left.

Until one girl, Vega Jane, discovers a map that suggests a mysterious world beyond the walls. A world with possibilities and creatures beyond her imagining.

But she will be forced to fight for her freedom. And unravelling the truth may cost Vega her life.” -Goodreads

Most YA books you read that are told from a girl’s perspective (and this is a large majority) the girls in question are either whiny, annoying little twits who need everyone to help them achieve their goals or they are in the complete opposite of the spectrum and are a powerhouse of energy that is so completely unbelievable it’s stupidly unrealistic. And of course, since we’re talking YA here there’s always a boy which the previously stated powerhouse will fall in love and become completely useless without said boy, the whiny girl on the other hand won’t have a boy, she’ll have boys because love triangles are so popular and are an actual thing in real life. In The Finisher the main character Vega Jane is neither of these, kind of.

In the beginning Vega is very average considering her situation. And I can actually say this with complete honesty. She is average. She is not some whiny girl wanting to rise up against the government, she’s not some completely unrealistic powerhouse who is actually plotting to achieve something. She’s a girl who’s taking care of her little brother in their parent’s absence, she’s going to work at a factory as a finisher (Ha, look it’s the title), but wait, what is this her best friend is a guy, oh no!, but not really, because if you can imagine it for a YA she’s not in love with him! OMG, I think the world just broke.

Now you’d think that with all of this normal, realistic stuff going on she would be boring, but you’d be wrong. Vega Jane is actually pretty interesting and I have to hand this Baldacci, he did an excellent job at creating a character that is both realistic and awesome. Vega’s got some spunk and she’s not afraid to throw down with the men if they insult her or her friends. My only beef with her is that she’s actually pretty naive and trusting with the people she knows are lying to her. Her council people persons, them, yeah, you know what I mean. She know’s that they’re lying about some things but then she still believes and trusts everything they say and I’m just like “Are you a complete moron?” but then I just kept reminding myself that she has only had schooling till she was like thirteen and she’s grown up admiring these councilmen so why would she not trust them? It still annoyed me though when it seemed like Baldacci was purposefully dumbing her down. But by the end she wisens up and kind of becomes one of those aforementioned powerhouses (it has yet to be seen if this will actually come to pass)

Speaking of Baldacci, the writing in this book was pretty awesome, okay scratch that, what he’s writing about is pretty awesome. The setting and storyline that he invented is completely wow. The creativity and imagination he used for this fantasy novel really rendered it well. However, his actual writing style, that was confusing as fuck. Listen, if you have to have a glossary in the back of the book then you’re doing something wrong. If you’re glossary isn’t actually helpful in anyway you’re definitely doing something wrong. Trying to decipher this guy’s made up and (I think) british lingo was super taxing. It was like trying to translate Gavin speak except an entire books worth. (Gavin Free from Achievement Hunter for those who don’t get the reference.) But despite that I still enjoyed his writing, Wormwood was so vividly described I can imagine it and it’s inhabitants to the tee, and the impressions are definitely long lasting (considering I’m doing this review half a year after I read it) I can still remember all of the character and places, albeit not exactly the names… This book was really well done.

However, that ending filled me with a certain sense of foreboding. Dare I say it, there might be a love triangle on the horizon. Uh! But Baldacci might continue to amaze me and not do that at all, I’ll just have to wait and see. Overall this story was really good. The plot was interesting and held my interest pretty well. The book is actually intended for MG so I think the author did a good job making it enjoyable for people who are not in MG. The writing, a bit confusing, but worth it to read about the unique characters, creatures, and places that Baldacci describes with first class imagery. The book left me, while at a cliffhanger, not about to weep or throw the book against the wall, but still excited and anticipating the next book. That’s a good way to end a book.

Final Verdict: 4/5

The Three Musketeers by: Alexandre Dumas

“The Three Musketeers tell the story of the early adventures of the young Gascon gentleman d’Artagnan & his three friends from the regiment of the King’s Musketeers – Athos, Porthos & Aramis. Under the watchful eye of their patron M. de Treville, the four defend the honour of the regiment against the guards of the Cardinal Richelieu, & the honor of the queen against the machinations of the Cardinal himself as the power struggles of 17th-century France are vividly played out in the background. But their most dangerous encounter is with the Cardinal’s spy: Milady, one of literature’s most memorable female villains.” -Goodreads
This story had me enraptured from the first page. From cover to cover it was witty, funny, and exciting. Dumas kept me engaged and on the edge of my seat and despite his characters being more than a hundred years old I still felt a strong attachment them. This speaks volumes of the strength of Dumas’ writing prowess. At some points I could hardly sit still in my seat, I was laughing out loud while reading about d’Artagnan and his fateful encounter with each musketeer in turn and all their misfit adventures. At times I found myself holding my breath and gripping the book tightly as I read about our heroes daring fights, near death experiences, the betrayals they experienced, and the pains they all went through. The story starts fast-paced and doesn’t slow down until the last page and Dumas’ third person point of view allows the reader to really view the action from all sides. This book can only be described as one of a kind. I truly loved reading this story and would recommend it for anyone who is interested in a classic.
This book had excellent and engaging characters, the writing was above superb, and the plot was exciting and fast paced. Given the chance I will gladly read the sequel and the triquel. I rate this book five out of five.

Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles #2) By: Marissa Meyer

The second book in the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. This is the retelling of Little Red Riding Hood in a new and inventive way. With twists, betrayal, and attitude to match it all Meyer brings this story out as the new fantasy/sci-fi adventure series to read.

With Cress just coming out I thought it prudent to final get myself caught up on this series and read Scarlet. This book was okay. I rated it a four out of five stars on Goodreads.
The plot had a lot of ups and downs for me- it had a lot of action which I liked, but it also had a few boring and repetitive bits.

Most of what I remember from Cinder was her mooning over prince Kai and complaining about her stepmom, but not a lot of stuff was actually going on, it was more like the all of the story arcs were being set up, which Meyer did work pretty well, but it was still just a bit lacking. In Scarlet we finally get to see the results to those story arcs and they were exciting.

In Scarlet the main thing that I didn’t like was Scarlet. The whole book would have been way better off if all of her bits had just been cut out. She walks into a bar to deliver some vegetables to the owner and boom it was practically insta-love at first sight with her and Wolf, it made me want to grind my teeth together. Her character has practically no personality, all she ever goes on about is her missing grandmother. And she’s always angry, if she’s not ranting over some small injustice then she’s just throwing stuff. On the very first page she’s throwing tomatoes at a wall and ranting about the police, second page she’s yelling at a bunch of bar patrons and starting a bar fight, and her character grows not an ounce through the entire story. She was just a limp piece of lettuce through the entire novel.

What I did like about the story, though, was everything else. Everything else was perfect. Cinder escapes from prison and on her way out picks up Captain Thorne. Captain Thorne is awesome. I love Captain Thorne. Captain Thorne should get his own book… err maybe not, but he was my favorite character in the entire novel and I can’t wait to see him in Cress.
Getting a POV from Kai was really good too. I liked the way he thought about things; his confused feelings towards Cinder, his hatred toward Queen Levana, and the love he has for his country. They’re all jumbled up in his head as he tries to do what’s best for everyone.
Cinder gets a definite upgrade (and I’m not just talking about her new arm and leg) her character is on the move and not slowing down for anyone. Instead of going to Dr. Erland in Africa she heads to Europe to find Ms. Benoit, Scarlet’s grandmother, to get some answers about her forgotten years. The answers that Cinder finds are quite honestly, pretty weird and alot sad.
The ending to Scarlet had me thrown pretty hard. We get a POV from Queen Levana and it left me just plain confused, but also very very intrigued.

This is definitely a series to read. It has just about anything a person could ask for in a book series: good characters (mostly), interesting plot, and most of all excellent writing. If you haven’t read the Lunar Chronicles yet you should definitely pick it up now.

http://www.marissameyer.com/book/book-two/

Winter’s Tale (Book + Movie review)

The book was probably the most amazing thing I’ve ever read or ever will read. I found that Winter’s Tale is a book not trying to tell a story, but instead convey a message; The world is completely predictable as it is absolutely unpredictable. I know that’s not the only message in there, but it’s the one I like the most.
This was the most complex book that I have ever read and I know that no other book will compare to it.
If I were to describe this book in a few simple words I would describe it like this: Cloud Atlas and John Dies at the End had a baby, but then Cloud Atlas got a divorce and remarried to A Hundred Years of Solitude.
While the story it self seems simple;
“New York City is subsumed in arctic winds, dark nights, and white lights, its life unfolds, for it is an extraordinary hive of the imagination, the greatest house ever built, and nothing exists that can check its vitality. One night in winter, Peter Lake, orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side. Though he thinks the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between Peter Lake, a middle-aged Irish burglar, and Beverly Penn, a young girl, who is dying. Peter Lake, a simple, uneducated man, because of a love that, at first he does not fully understand, is driven to stop time and bring back the dead. His great struggle, in a city ever alight with its own energy and besieged by unprecedented winters, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.”
That summary literally only covers two-hundred pages of the novel out of around 800.

The Table of Contents

Peter Lake and Beverly are only together in three Chapters, they meet in “A Goddess in the Bath” and then they’re together in “Lake of Coheeries,” but in “Aceldama” they both die (sort of).

The rest of the chapters are about the different characters, Virginia Gamely, Hardesty Marratta, Asbury, Christiana, Harry Penn, Craig Binky, the Ermine Mayor, Cecil Mature, Praeger. This book is filled to the brim with different stories and lives that to say it’s about Peter Lake and Beverly would be completely and utterly wrong. There’s so much more than a simple love story here- there’s a mayor election, a bridge being built, a great fire. All of these are crucial bits that make up the overall tale.
While the book can be confusing and very very round about it eventually gets to its point and what a stunning point it is.
I had my sister read one chapter, “Nothing is Random” and she said it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever read.
I rate the book 5/5, this is a book everyone needs to read once in their life time.

The movie, though, is a completely different story and I mean that literally. As I was predicting they took all of the characters out and rewrote the story so nothing but its bones were left.
Even though it was a good movie I was sorely disappointed by it. They changed everything about it, even the small simple things that were vitally important in the book.
The first thing that they changed that really pissed me off (it was really the only thing) was that they said that the stars were people who had died. When Beverly narrated that on the screen I nearly threw a hissy fit and that was in the first two minutes. They kept a lot of other things that made me happy, though, Peter running from the Short Tails, his meeting with Isaac Penn… and that’s about all they kept the same.
The angels and demon fight, didn’t bode over well with me. In the book it’s hinted that Athansor and Jackson Mead are angels, as is Cecil and MootFowl, but in the book the magic is very subtle and not mentioned by anyone. I liked that Athansor had wings, but again it’s suppose to be subtle not displayed like they’re all in a giant circus.
In the movie, however, they did make a few passes at things that happened in the book. Peter mentions that he used to live with two girls when he was little and would sing and dance for money and it was really small things like that that made me happy.
The movie was a great movie, but it wasn’t the book and if that’s what the book fans want they are going to be a little more than frustrated.
I rate the movie 3/5
My advice for anyone and everyone is to watch the movie first and then read the book. You’ll get a basic introduction into the story and won’t be disappointed like I was if you read the book first.

The Lunatic’s Curse (Tales from the Sinister City #4) by: F.E. Higgins

The town of Opum Oppidulum is home to the freezing Lake Beluarum and its rumored monster. On an island at the center of the lake is an asylum; no one has ever escaped it. So how will Rex, whose father, Ambrose Grammaticus, has been imprisoned there under false pretenses, prove that Ambrose is not insane? And if Rex can free his father, will his evil stepmother drive them both to madness?

After finishing this book my first thought was, “What the hell?” Usually Higgins books are actually mystery novels, not guess the entire plot in the first five pages.
I know this book is for little kids, like twelve year olds, but that is no excuse to write such a terrible book.

Through the entire plot Rex keeps moaning on and on about how he doesn’t understand what happened to his father or what the Society of Andrew Faye is and it honestly pissed me off. Half way through the book I just wanted to shut it and then possibly throw it at Higgins face.

Quite obviously Rex’s father Ambrose was poisoned, I don’t even understand why that was a mystery. For Rex supposedly being a genius he sure was moron through the entire book, all he did was just fumble around while Hildred did all the real investigative work. And he was to stupid to even realize that his best friend was actually deaf.
What would have been a real plot twist is if it was discovered that Hildred’s father, who was put into the asylum, turned out to be one of the characters who was working there.

The whole cannibalism theme in the novel was so overrated; I think Higgins expected this to completely “wow” and “gross out” her readers so much that they would overlook the stupidity of everything else going on in the story, but it was just too obvious. Even before they started kidnapping homeless people I knew that Acantha and her “friends” were cannibals. This book was just infuriating throughout. Whoever thinks that these were dramatic plot twists and didn’t see them coming at all is an idiot.

I rate the book 0/5 stars which is completely pitiful. To me this book doesn’t even deserve one star and it might have ruined all of the other Sinister City books that I did love and have rated at fours and fives. This book shouldn’t have even been made, it was completely terrible. My advice for anyone possibly interested in this series, feel free to read the first three, but leave The Lunatic’s Curse on the bookshelf.

This Book is Full of Spiders,… (John Dies at the End #2) by: David Wong

This book series is the most complex book series I have ever read so far in my life. I know some people can’t get pass the jokes of penis’s and other lewd stuff, but these books are fantastic. They are littered with pop culture references and it’s almost impossible to follow the story line (I find that a good thing) the ending is always a surprise. I love the John Dies at the End series, the stories are always very original and creative, and they always make me laugh until the very last page.

This book started off with David and John pissing off the top of the water tower when they see a convoy of trucks coming past. One of the trucks veers off and crashes while the rest leave it behind. I laughed when I read that that the trucks were full of life-size GI-Joe dolls in the place of humans, and like a true John Dies at the End book, we don’t learn why that is until the very end, nor do we learn what’s in the case that they picked up from the truck. Everything is done in the usual manner of David and John, mainly they bumble around, get wasted, kill some monsters, try to save people (and the world). The whole zombie/spider apocalypse made me smile and I think they got it pretty head on as to how people would react if this stuff actually did happen.

This book had a continuos countdown in it, from the Outbreak, to the Massacre, and to the Bombing, and then the book was broken up into different parts. It made the story seem even more complex. It also made me sit at the edge of my seat the whole time, making me wondering how this or that was going to happen and then cringing when it does.

I liked being able to read the parts with Amy and John without David being there, because in the last book it was solely just David. We got to learn a bit more about Marconi too (he’s such a MorganFreeman). The way that the Author manages to write how each characters’ actions affected the others always had me guessing as to what was going to happen next. Like when Amy is trying to get to David and ends up creating the Massacre at the hospital, I completely did not expect that.

The whole book is just a slopping pile of complicated twists and turns that will leave you guessing and chasing your own tail until the very end when everything is finally played out. I always hate books that I end up figuring out who the bad guy is or how it’s going to end, which is why this series is so good, they are always unpredictable.

I rate this book a 5/5, a very high praise. Definitely for anyone who can stomach the inappropriate jokes about anything and everything that can be considered inappropriate.

Allegiant (Divergent #3) Veronica Roth

Divergent became the most popular and most anticipated book series along with Legend, Mortal Instruments, and Heroes of Olympus. I loved this book series it made me cry, laugh, and actually think about moral issues and about “doing the right thing.” Not many books can hold that kind of sway over a reader, but Veronica Roth delivers a trilogy that is so touching that you have to put real thought into it. This series has taken me through a real journey and I’m glad to see where it’s finally landed. It’s not the best ending ever created, but it’s not the worst either, it’s an ending that you’ll remember.

The story basically starts off where it ended in the last book, Insurgent. Tris and her friends are in a jail cell awaiting their trials after having shown the video of Tris’s ancestor telling everyone about why the city was created and what the Divergent are there for. Truth be told, I didn’t actually remember half of the characters or what the video actually said because of the long wait in between reading the two books. However, even though I never actually re-remembered the characters, the message was repeated over in the story and had many mentions and recalls.

I think what made this book so awesome was that we got duel perspectives; one POV was from Tris like in all of the other books and the other was from Tobias/Four. We got more details about Tobias’s mother and father and how growing up with them was like and how it made him into the person he was currently. I liked all of the back information we got about his life and family.

The book takes into detail about the conflict between the Faction believers (or also known as the Allegiant) and the FactionLess. The FactionLess want to stay inside of the safety of the fence and leave the outside world alone, the Allegiant want to leave the Town and try to help the people outside. Tris and Tobias end up joining the Allegiant and leaving the Town to see what is actually outside of the fence.

But then *major plot twist* the whole thing is just a ruse by the government in the outside world (I really never saw that one coming). It turns out the people who live past the fence built the town into what it was and they created the factions to try and create desirable genes… or the Divergent.

After that everything seems to fall into a familiar pattern, except this time we get to learn about it through Tobias’s eyes as well. Tris and her friends learn about how these government had betrayed them and are going to wipe the memories of all of the town’s people so they can reset the program. So after Tris and Tobias start having couple’s issues, a revolution fails, people die, and Tris gets put on a council or something they all decide that instead of letting the government erase the memories of all their friends and families they’re going to erase the memories of the people working for the government. That one seemed very stretched to me, instead of releasing the memory serum on the government people I don’t know why they just didn’t decide to inoculate everyone in the town, that sounds way more reasonable.

In the end though that’s what they do, erase everyone’s memories, but in the process of that Tris dies. I was in the middle of my French class when I got to that part and I just started crying, it was terrible. I’d hate to say that the ending was terrible, but in a situation like this I wish Roth had done something different. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t really like it either, but I can see why it was done like that it. It gave a final and resolute end to a great series. I’m glad to have read this book and been able to learn so much from it.
I rate the book 4/5

P.S.
I’m excited for the movie set to come out this year, I hope it’s fantastic and really portrays that books as it should.

Champion (Legend #3) By: Marie Lu

Finally we can all breathe, the series is over and Day is not dead. After the last book every Legend Fangirl just about started crying, I was one of them.

As soon as I opened the first page I knew I was going to be in for one hell of a ride, what I didn’t expect was for the ride to be kind of flat. Yeah, the novel got a bit fast paced, but at one point I almost fell asleep and there were no major plot-twist, nothing memorable anyway. Day and his little brother are now living in a rich sector with a nanny. June is off doing her own thing with Anden as one of his princeps-elect.

The only part of this WHOLE book that was absolutely perfect was Eden. Day’s little brother is the most cutest, stubbornest, and most brilliant character in this book- sorry Day.
Day and his tumor, though, almost gave me a tumor, every time he would start doing his running and jumping, and generally being awesome, all I could think was “Should you really be doing that, you’re honestly just going to end up breaking something.” and he did end up breaking something, June’s HEART! jerk.

I don’t like June, I never really liked June, she was always sort of just a wet blanket that got thrown on the party who obsessively counted things. In this book she’s kind of stupid, she actually still trust the government after everything that has happened.

Basically the entire plot goes like this, there’s a virus. Eden might be the cure to that virus. If the virus doesn’t get cured the Colonies won’t sign the peace treaty with the Republic. That creepy military chick that ordered Mathias’s death escapes prison. June goes to the Antarctic. Day gets hospitalized for about five minutes. Eden volunteers to be a lab rat. The Colonies attack and finally something interesting happens. The Patriots come back along with Tess, I don’t know why Lu didn’t think of creating some sort of relationship between her and Eden. Anyway, the capital gets bombed and Day is out back in action with the Patriots again. Then Tess gets infected and it turns out June is the cure for the plague, not Eden (I think that was suppose to be the big major plot twist). And then everything is going along fine, the cure is being made everybody is getting better and then the Colonies attack again and Day gets shot by that Commander Jameson. Goddammit!
Then we reach the conclusion, Day gets the tumor removed, falls into a coma and when he wakes up he doesn’t remember June.

Seriously, this had to be the biggest copout since the movie Copout came out. You know what would have been awesome, June dying, so I didn’t have to read about her life twenty years in the future without Day and then one night have them walk right up to each and create the instalove. GIANT COPOUT.

That ending lacked all sparks and awesomeness that we got from Legend and Progidy, I was super disappointed.
I’m stopping right there and rating this book 3.5/5