Abandon by: Meg Cabot

Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can’t help but feel at once a part of this world, and apart from it. Yet she’s never alone . . . because someone is always watching her. Escape from the realm of the dead is impossible when someone there wants you back.
But now she’s moved to a new town. Maybe at her new school, she can start fresh. Maybe she can stop feeling so afraid.
Only she can’t. Because even here, he finds her. That’s how desperately he wants her back. She knows he’s no guardian angel, and his dark world isn’t exactly heaven, yet she can’t stay away . . . especially since he always appears when she least expects it, but exactly when she needs him most.
But if she lets herself fall any further, she may just find herself back in the one place she most fears: the Underworld.

A very good story. The one thing that I hated and loved the most about this book was the writing style. The story is told in first person through the eyes of Pierce, our sweet-hearted protagonist. The best way that I can describe how the story is written is by comparing it to the ocean tide. It sweeps up on to the beach like when Pierce is thinking in present tense and then it wooshes back to the past. That’s what it’s like through the whole book, in the present but then suddenly in the past, every few pages Pierce ends up telling a story about something that’s happened to her, there are four major things that she retells.

The first story is when she first met John when she was seven. After her Grandfather’s funeral Pierce is left alone to wander around the cemetery when she comes across a bird with a broken wing. Her mother being a bird scientist or what not young Pierce thinks that if she can capture the bird she can have her mom help it. But instead helping the bird Pierce ends up killing it by startling the bird into taking flight and flying straight into a wall where it breaks it’s neck. John then appears and at Pierce’s request brings the bird back to life. End of story one.

Pierce lives the rest of her life without telling anyone about John, but then she dies at age fifteen. This is the second thing that happens to Pierce. After again trying to help a bird Pierce trips on her scarf and drowns in the pool where she then awakens in the Underworld. After some general confusion about where she is Pierce finds John and he takes her back to his castle/mansion (there’s not a lot description about it) and I’m pretty sure he tries to seduce her, especially with that diamond that’s suppose to protect her from Furies. Pierce is having none of it though and throws a cup of tea in his face and runs away, effectively coming back to life.

The third story is when a jeweler trie to steal the diamond that John gave to Pierce while she was in the Underworld. The jeweler claims that the diamond was stolen and was going to take it from Pierce. While in the process of practically choking Pierce with her chain John shows up and causes the jeweler to have a heart attack. John would have right out killed the man, but Pierce begged him not to.

The last story, which is the saddest, is after Pierce’s ex-best friend kills herself. Pierce is determined to find out why Hannah committed suicide and sets her suspicions on a teacher, Mr. Meuller. After putting herself in Mr. Meuller’s sights Pierce sets a trap to reveal that the teacher was sexually abusing his students. Pierce goes to a private tutoring session with Mr. Meullar, her evidence was going to be gathered by the camera she put in her back-pack to record him, and she epically fails. After Mr. Meuller turns out the classroom lights the camera becomes useless for lack of lighting. However as soon as the teacher is about to touch Pierce John shows up to save her… by breaking every bone in the teacher’s hand. He has anger issues and again Pierce has to talk him out of killing the teacher.

After the whole incident with the teacher is done with all of her peers end up bullying and harassing her because they’re all apparently stupid and blame not Mr. Meuller for the incident but Pierce. Her mother relocates herself and Pierce to Isle Heuros(or something, I’m terrible with spanish), where she grew up. Pierce is not very impressed with her new home, but makes do. Until John starts showing up again.

There is of course the usual high-school drama, and teen melodramatics. Everyone at Pierce’s new school is classified by what wing they’re in, A-wing is for rich kids, D-wing is for the basket cases, and I guess the B’s and C’s are just extras. Pierce is a D-wing, so of course she’s naturally outcast, except when the A-wingers find out that Pierce’s father is super rich and that she lives in a gated community. They want Pierce to let them use her garage so they can build a coffin for some school ritual and because she lives in a gated community the juniors won’t be able to get the coffin (It’s a weird tradition).

After a few hurricane warnings and deaths and a meeting with the cemetery care-taker Pierce is finally able to piece together everything that’s happening around her. Both the jeweler and the teacher were Furies, which is why they tried to hurt her, to hurt John, who they hate, because John’s in love with her (like that wasn’t obvious). And it also turns out that Pierce’s grandmother is also a Fury, and is the reason that she died. Having given her the scarf that she tripped over and having set everything up so that Pierce would drown. After this discovery John takes her back to the Underworld to protect her and the story ends. FML. The story was pretty epic, I just wished it had been longer and more fleshed out, it would have been a lot better that way.
I rate the book at 3.5/5, a little low I know, but there were somethings that I had serious issues with so I couldn’t just give it a four, but I really did love the story so I couldn’t just give it a three. And with that I got three and a half.
I’ll definitely be getting the second book, which I know is longer, Yay! Hopefully I’ll be able to give that book a four.

The Girl in the Steel Corset+The Strange Case of Finley Jayne by: Kady Cross

I finished this book Friday morning while I was at school, kinda depressing actually because then I had to go the entire school day without something to read because my school library has no budget ergo no books, bah what is this world coming to.

I really liked this book, even though the separation between Finley and her “Shadow-self” was never really that differentiated, the predator side of her would just mention in passing what she thought of herself while she had feelings.
The copy I was reading had the prequel to the book in the front, “The Strange Case of Finley Jayne,” I didn’t think it was that great, there were a few mentions towards Griff, but the story in general added nothing to the actual book, and the book added nothing to the prequel, it was just there and it was kind of awkward. Since the prequel was placed before the real story, after I finished it and started “The Girl in the Steel Corset” I kept expecting there to be bits of “The Strange Case of Finley Jayne” mentioned in it and there wasn’t. The two had absolutely nothing to do with each other.

The Girl in the Steel Corset, however was majorly better. I loved the mixing of Steampunk and Fantasy. Automatons and steam carriages, yay, and I’m not usually a steampunk fan.
The book starts off with Finley beating the shit out of her employer because he was trying to take her virtue *teehee* I just really wanted to say virtue. After running away she accidently jumps in front of Griffin’s “velocycle” (Cross did a really good job creating her own vocab.) Griffin feels responsible for Finley, as well he should because he ran her over, and takes her back to his mansion with his other group of misfit friends, Emily (tech/engineer genius who can talk to machines), Sam (Super strong with the ability to heal quickly and more than half machine), and Jasper (an American who’s quick with his guns and can move super fast).
The gang had been looking into a mysterious set of circumstances where automatons have been attacking and killing people, presumed to be because of a man they call The Machinist. Finley jumps right in, especially after learning that her own parents use to know Griff’s, and Griffin tries to help her balance herself with her darker nature side. Along the way, Griffin of course falls for Finley, but it wouldn’t be a YA without a love triangle, our third party being Jack Dandy, notorious criminal overlord, and of course Finley can’t choose which guy she likes, she’s definitely pulling an Elena Gilbert on this. (I’m rooting for Jack, he is way more awesome than Griffin).
Anyways, after a few ups and downs Finley gets her soul? balanced out and they all fight The Machinist, Griff bringing down a building and getting stabbed in the process. The Machinist’s body, though, is never recovered from the wreckage and is presumed dead, like anyone actually believes that.
At the very end of the novel, however, Jasper is taken in by two American policemen for murder and then cue giant cliffhanger.

I really did live the novel, Kady Cross did really well in weaving her world of gears and steam. I rate the book 4/5.

Invisibility by: Andrea Cremer & David Levithan

Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth.

I really liked this book, on Stephen’s the story played out a lot like Levithan’s ‘Every Day,’ but I didn’t like Elizabeth at all. In her POV the story is just really different, and I just generally didn’t like her outlook on things.

The whole SppellSeeker, CurseCaster world didn’t work for me. Yes, I’m a major Fantasy girl, I just love everything about it, but when you’re putting together a world like Cremer invented I kept getting flashes of the ‘Beautiful Creatures’ Castor World and that’s where I keep my standard for a world full of magic users. I know it’s a bit unfair because ‘Beautiful Creatures’ is like one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading and not a lot of books can hold up to that. However, despite my dislike of Cremer’s magical world I am glad that the story didn’t turn down Sci-fi lane because that honestly would have made the story cliché upon cliché and I wouldn’t have even bothered with finishing the book. As it is the plot was relatively interesting, it held my interest long enough for me to finish it in two days and the writing is decent. Levithan and Cremer manage to make Stephen’s and Elizabeth’s alternating POV’s distinct and recognizable, it’s one of the few things that I did like about the book.

I didn’t like Laurie, not even a wee little bit, his character was just peppy and involved with the group. Elizabeth and Stephan keeping the secret of his invisibility from Laurie would have made the story more interesting and would have added more character development for Elizabeth. It also really irked me when he helped Stephen push his grandfather off the roof, that should have been given solely to Stephen.
As it is I like all the other character’s, they all seemed pretty decent for background characters, Stephen’s father was a great character, not in the moral sense, but in the well-written/realistic sense, he was there then he wasn’t and his character played out exactly as you would expect him to from Stephen’s descriptions of him.

Everything else aside I give the book 3/5 stars, decent plot, decently written, a few good characters, but some bad characters, some things not written out well like the magic side of the world, and the story was just a tad bit predictable.

The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies #4) By: Pittacus Lore

I love this series, and the movie is pretty good to. I have been waiting for this book since the day I finished ‘The Rise of Nnie’ last year when it first came out. I was quite ecstatic when I spied on my Public Library’s book shelf in the YA section. Along with this book I picked up three other new books like ‘Icons’ by Margaret Stohl, ‘The Girl in the Steel Corset’ by Kady Cross, and Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan, which I can assure you will all be up here by the end of the week.

Now back to ‘The Fall of Five,’ the story jumps through different perspectives like it did in the last book, except instead of just John(4) and Seven talking Sam is also added into the mix. It was a bit confusing, they all talk pretty similarly and the only thing that was used to distinguish between these voices were the character fonts. I really wish the author had put their names up when it switched from each character, because John’s and Sam’s font styles were a lot alike.

Even though the it was hard to distinguish between voices I was really glad that Sam got one, instead of just being a background character he was thrown into the spotlight. It was a little depressing hearing about Sam’s torture even though from what was said about it, besides the burning goop it all seemed more psychological than physical and I wish that Sam had been portrayed more steelier, I guess, not just some alien space nerd who was only along for the ride because he met John. Even Sarah has a more hardcore character now, she’s no longer the prissy damsel in distress cheerleader that’s John’s Achilles heal, but instead a badass who’s adept with guns and can actually kill a mog. Sam is still just the wet blanket being carried around by the group and I just really wish had given some core strength. I am glad that Sam and Six seem to be gravitating towards each other though.

All the other characters were perfect, except for Five (obviously, because he’s insane). I love Ella and her crush on Nine, she is absolutely perfect and it honestly just gave me the complete creeps when John saw her as like the Queen or something in the vision.
Sarah and John make a cute couple, but I wish the time spent on them went elsewhere like Nine and Ella’s friendship, Marina and Eight’s relationship, maybe evolving Sam and his Dad’s bond, I mean they were both kidnapped and tortured, or perhaps letting Nine train Sam, so he’s no longer the gent in distress.
Eight and Marina were so cute together, *spoiler* when he died I got all misty eyed, Marina’s reaction is awesome, she fucking takes out Five’s eye and gains a new Legacy, practically freezing him to death.

The ending though had me flipping and screaming at the book, John lets the Mogs take Ella, sweet innocent little Ella, who’s now going to turn all evil and twisted under Setrakus Ra’s influence and torture, just to save Sam’s dad. Garrr! This pissed me off so much. I hope the next book is the finale, I don’t think I’ll be able to handle having to wait two years instead of one for a final conclusion. The title will definitely have to do something with Seven (Marina), The Wrath of Seven? or something with Ten (Ella)?
I rate the book 5/5 a definite good read despite the flaws.

The Almighty Johnsons 3×13 ‘The End of the World as we Know it’

I know that a lot of you guys who are following my blog will have no idea what The Almighty Johnsons is, but since the very last episode aired today, and it is a really great show, I felt like a mention of it should be put in.

The shows main premise is about four brothers and their grandfather who have all become the living incarnations of Norse gods. There’s Mike, the eldest brother, who’s Ullr, the god of games and the hunt, Anders, who’s the incarnation of Braggi, the god of poetry, Ty, the moody, serious brother, who’s Hoor, the god of all things dark and cold, and then there’s Axl who on his 21st birthday receives his godly powers, it turns out he’s suppose to be Odin and as Odin he’s suppose to find his beloved Frigg. There to help them for anything and give them in oracle advice is their grandfather Olaf, who’s actually Baldr.

A lot of things happen on the road to finding Frigg, sex, love, betrayal, Goddesses, God killers, more sex, lots of drugs and alcohol, Thor and his hammer, a magic stick that heals people and is used for pole dancing, sex changes, fucked up marriages, murders, heart break, mother’s who turn into trees, more sex, Maori gods, and a whole lot of other crazy shit.

This show is honestly one of the best I’ve ever watched, all the ups and downs that the boys went through had me on the edge of my seat the entire time, there wasn’t a single dull moment. When I realized that shot though didn’t mean putting a bullet through the brain I was quite ecstatic knowing that their father wasn’t dead, and when they find out that their mother was no longer a tree I was as stunned as the brothers (until it turned out their mother was a psychopath and was sentenced to be a tree again), I almost cried with Gaia when she admitted to Axl that she slept with his brother Anders. And I did cry when Dawn forgot all about her love for Ty after he had just died to be with her.
This show made me laugh, made me cry, made me never want to do drugs, and it will always hold a spot in my top favorite T.V. shows. If you haven’t seen or even heard of the show, just watch the Pilot and I can assure you that you will be hooked.
This is final farewell to The Almighty Johnsons, one of the best shows ever.

2 Episode Reviews

Sleepy Hollow 1×02 ‘Blood Moon’ & The Blacklist 1×01 ‘Pilot’

I liked the newest episode of Sleepy Hollow, ever since Supernatural season 8 ended I’ve been looking for a good paranormal filler and I have found just that with this show. There is plenty of action and suspense scenes, I like the special effects, and the plots hold my interest.
This episode was all about witches, Ichabod gets another warning from Katrina. My sister predicts that Katrina will actually be evil, but I do not agree. I found the beginning a bit funny, Ichabod learning how to work electrical and modern inventions, but I feel like some one really needs to get him a history book so he can catch up on the last 250 years, because a lot has happened since George Washington was a general.
Though the story played out okay, a few things did irk me a bit. One was the officer, Andy Brooks? I think his name was, and him coming back to life, don’t get me wrong his resurrection was pretty decent, but the more air time he seemed to get the creepier he got, all the way up to the point where he was following Abbie in the tunnels, but when she turned around no one was there ehhh, just creepy. The other thing was that from the promo last week I was assuming more from Abbie’s sister, more air time, better introduction, and just more, not the last two minutes, and then just cut.
Anyway the rest of the show was great, I liked the evil witch, her resurrection was cool (I did mention that I liked the special effects), her whole fiery thing going on and stealing peoples ashes, was awesome looking. I found her death to be pretty ironic, death by fire and then death by fire again. I wonder why it’s not mentioned that witches were also drowned in running water, that way their spirits would be trapped (sometimes that’s where their ashes were thrown too for that same purpose).
I find it humorous that Lieutenant Abigail had a boyfriend, there was definitely a cat fight about to go down between him and Ichabod.
Fun episode, loved the suspense, can’t wait for next week.

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This show was also pretty good, lots of drama. I’m almost 100% positive that Reddington is Lizzie’s father. Their either just making it obvious to try throw you off or their doing it like that just so they can whammy you with it as something else later that’ll be a complete shock.
I liked the premise, Red seems to be an obnoxious dick that I found completely hilarious, he’s like the coyote trickster. I liked how nice Lizzie was to the little girl, she has a nice strength about her, but I don’t like where the story is leading to with her husband.
A good thriller, I’ll definitely be tuning in next week for the second episode.

Haven 4×02 ‘Survivors’

I found that this episode was a little bit better then the season premiere. I like Jennifer, but she seems just a bit to trusting. And I’m almost positive that the guy helping Audrey/Lexi is actually Arlo, she had to have gone somewhere and helping Audrey remember herself so she can end the troubles would be very beneficial to her.
Jordan really just needs to get over herself, I honestly wouldn’t have minded if she had died in the season 3 finale.
Duke is awesome as always, I can’t wait for to start using his powers again, I wonder how Jennifer would react to that and his brother. Speaking of, I don’t like Duke’s brother, he’s to perfect and woe is me type. It would be super awkward if Duke’s brothers trouble got activated, I hope he leaves in the next episode or at the latest the one after that.
Audrey/Lexi is not the same and it pisses me off, even as Sarah Audrey had an independent, fiery attitude that’s just missing in Lexi. She’s not taking control of the situation like any of her past incarnations would have.
Nathan looks like a lost puppy. I don’t know if it’s the hair, but there is seriously something lacking in his character. He has the whole depressed, I don’t give a damn look about him. Maybe that’s just the way he’s suppose to be acting, but… I miss the old Nathan.
BTW I’m shipping Duke and Audrey, maybe after she kills Nathan they can live happily ever after.

Moonsong (The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters #2)

Evil never dies. . . .
After escaping the horrors of the Dark Dimension, Elena can′t wait to attend Dalcrest College, the beautiful ivy-covered campus where her parents met. Life with Stefan is better than ever, and even Damon seems genuinely changed and is getting along with everyone. But moving away from Fell′s Church doesn′t mean she and her friends are free from danger. When students start to disappear from campus, suddenly every new acquaintance is a potential enemy.
Then Elena uncovers a long-hidden secret, one that shocks her to the core, and realizes tragedy may be unavoidable.

Much better than the last one, even though I’m pissed that Damon is still hasn’t gotten the girl, whether the girl be his Dark Princess Elena or his Little Redbird Bonnie. I am honestly just so mad about this. And why is that Damon, a vampire, did the impossible and came back from being dead dead without any actual changes, Elena became an F*ing angel/Guardian thing and Damon is honestly just given nothing, but the ability to change into a crow.
Granted the story telling was much better and jumped from each character evenly and it was nice to see the kind side to Damon, but seriously where’s all the dark soul and badassness that Damon is suppose to be, instead he’s just a whipped vampire that Elena likes to twirl around her finger whenever she gets bored or lonely.
I am honestly just fed up with Bonnie, she loves Damon, but then says she just had crush on him. She loves Zander, but when he tells her that he’s a werewolf (which was so obvious) she runs away like a little bitch. I hate Zander, he will never fill the gap that Damon previously filled.
Now that I’ve finally finished ranting about all the injustices thrown toward Damon I think it’s time I mentioned something else. I love Klaus, literally I don’t remember much of him in the story because that was like six books ago, but in the t.v. show… OHGAWD I’m so glad the Originals are getting their own show this fall.

The Book of Lost Things By: John Connolly

This book was beautifully written, after reading a few of the other reviews and comments on Goodreads I know that some complained about the style of writing and all I have to say about it is that I found it wonderfully different, some complained of clichés, but there were few and far between in this book; it is most stunningly original.
I think that the problem was the age level at which you read the book at. I child would be captivated by the adventure, an experienced reader like myself who is also young would be able to discern the richly complex story telling and themes prominent through out the novel, but I think to a grown person the fairy tales would seem almost childish and wouldn’t be able to relate to the struggles that our twelve year old protagonist goes through, and would probably think the plot to self-indulged.

The truth that I found to the story is that it’s a different type of coming to age tale that’s full of monsters and sad people. I gave my deepest sympathies for David when he lost his mother, just a few pages in and I was already about to shed a few tears, and all the problems he has to face, mainly his own fears.

The Crooked Man was described as a dreadful being capable of terrible things, which you don’t really understand until Connolly gives you a tour of his tunnels and describes all of the horrific things down there.
I felt bad for Roland the most and was kind of upset when he didn’t join the Woodsmen with David and his deceased family at the end of the story. All that’s left of him was Scylla which could properly be stated as David’s horse now, so he was truly left out and didn’t really get the happy ending with Raphael that he deserved.
I feel like Jonathan Tulvey should have been given some form of redemption by Connolly, but instead he was portrayed as a selfish old man full of regrets and had probably died without knowing that Anna still loved him and had forgiven him for his atrocities against her.

Instead of focusing so greatly on his theme of Mortality I wished Connolly had taken a second (or a few pages) to give the other fairytale creatures a happy ending like the dwarves and snow white, the villagers, the harpies and trolls(not really a happy ending for them, but an idea of what had happened to them), the animal-people that the huntress created, but instead he only gave the lost children that became flowers a sort of happy ending.

But anyway, I found the story beautifully told and would definitely recommend it to anyone as a good read.