Review | 'Tiger Lily'

Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was fantastic. But it was so, so depressing.

Just a disclaimer, this review WILL contain spoilers pertaining to the book, but I really don't want to hide the WHOLE review because of spoilers, because I just--I just--blech. No. Enjoy, and beware of spoilers!

I used to absolutely love the relationship between Wendy Darling and Peter Pan, but this book totally changed my outlook on the whole ordeal, and made me become so interested in the character of Tiger Lily, a character who--prior to reading this book--I'd never put much stock into. From the moment the relationship between Tiger Lily and Peter Pan was built, I knew there would be all these FEELS.

Okay, so let's analyze/examine some pros and cons from the story.

CONS:
>The beginning is a VERY slow start. I "started" the book in October, read the first chapter, and didn't pick it up again until November. I definitely think the author could have done a better job at catching the reader's attention. But once you get to Tiger Lily's first confrontation with Peter, things start to pick up a bit.

PROS:
>At first, I was going to put this as a con, but then I reconsidered. The amount of time we spend with Wendy is satisfactorily short. I was initially surprised at how late she entered the story, and how short her stay was, but looking back, I think it's a good thing. It provides this sense of realistic heartbreak for Tiger Lily; this English girl slipping in, attracting the likes of Peter and the lost boys, and then essentially ripping him right out of her life.

>Tiger Lily's character. Oh my gosh, Tiger Lily was fantastic. I love how quiet yet strong she is. She's got this brutality and innocence to her that is often hard to portray in YA fiction, but Jodi Lynn Anderson does a fantastic job of illustrating it in this book. I really loved Tiger Lily, and rooted for her the entire book through. My heart broke when hers did, which is a sign of a fantastic character.

>Tinker Bell's narration. I went into this book thinking that it would be narrated from Tiger Lily's perspective, but I was proven wrong right off the bat. At first, I didn't know how I would react to Tinker Bell creepily following Tiger Lily and Peter around, but I grew to like--and appreciate--it. She definitely provides this objective, unbiased, yet sensitive, look into their relationship. I love how she confesses to falling in love with Peter, and admitting to nothing ever happening between the two of them. I love her commentary on every person; her contempt for Wendy, and her eventual disappointment towards Tiger Lily's character change, especially.

>Peter's letter to Tiger Lily. This was just so--ugh. This letter seriously made me say, "THEN WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU STAY WITH TIGER LILY, YOU DOUCHE?" The letter made sense, though, and it provided some more sadness to Tinker Bell's visit to England and running into an aged version of Peter Pan (which was so depressing).

>The realism. Especially for a book of such crazy scenarios, Tiger Lily hits home in a way most YA fantasies don't do. So many authors could take a hint from Anderson.

Overall, Tiger Lily has a fantastic plot with groundbreaking characters, and I definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.

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Review | 'Starters'

Starters
Lissa Price
352 pg., U.S. hardcover
Delacorte
4 stars | B+



From Goodreads:

HER WORLD IS CHANGED FOREVER

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie's only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man.

He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie's head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator's grandson. It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations' plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .


To start off, this is definitely a book that people will either incredibly love or kind-of-like. I doubt that anyone would really hate the book, but I have yet to be proved wrong. You can bet this review will be spoiler-filled, so if you haven't read Starters, I strongly recommend doing something else that's as equally as entertaining as this review, or you know, actually reading the book. Kthnxbai.
WRITING: 

• PACING -- Lissa Price debuts with a quick-paced, strongly appealing story with a plot that works with the pacing. Very rarely is quick-pacing valued with a plot as fresh and needing-complexity as this one, but Lissa Price pulled it off very nicely. Pacing can, at times, become a distraction in some books, and while Starters isn't entirely an exception, it definitely avoids that stereotypes in many cases. The only issue I have with the fast-pacing is the infrequency of it. While the book is entirely-fast-paced, the speed does change a bit, meaning it goes from a mild level of quick, to this extreme-Sonic-speed that leaves the reader wondering how a writer can tell a 350-page story very strongly with such quick-pacing. I felt that she was dishing the exposition out so quickly that I wondered if there would be anything else. The ending did end up being 30-pages of recuperation, which was kind of annoying and unnecessary, but unsurprising. The final 100 pages were interesting, though, and well worth the wait, what with the whole Blake-being-the-Old Man, Sara being killed, etc.
• DIALOGUE -- The dialogue in this book definitely was not a stand-out to me; not even in the slightest. I don't really have a lot to say about it, for it wasn't a big thing in this book, for the story was more dependent on actions rather than words, which was totally fine, in my opinion. That's not to say I was disappointed in the dialogue, sure I wish there was more, but I was okay with what I was given.
• ORIGINALITY -- It's always difficult to analyze the originality of an author's originality when it comes to writing. Obviously you're going to draw similarities to other authors, and Lissa Price is no different. I don't really think I can pinpoint which specific authors I could draw connections to, but I definitely experienced flashes of 'Whoa, I've...I've seen this writing, RIGHT?' throughout the story.

STORY:

The story of this book is sort of difficult to grasp without reading the summary, so I'll try to play it out from what I understood/liked from it. Okay? Alright. So it takes place in this post-war America where teenagers sell their bodies (in a non-sexual way; sexual contact would cross into illegality) to elderly people who want to re-experience the fun that teenagers really can. I'm not saying that elderly people can't have fun, but they aren't physically able to do some things that younger, more fit, people can. Callie does so, and her body winds up in that of an assassin, which is where the story really picks up and gets interesting. The assassin is meant to kill the senator to get a point across to the body bank (if you're not following along, they're the people who are in charge of renting bodies; i.e., who gets the body, when, how, who the body is, etc.), and Callie starts to uncover, via very The Host-like internal conversations with her renter, that the Prime Destinations (body bank--run by the Old Man) is up to no good. She finds out that they plan to sell the bodies of attractive people, and this causes a whole ruckus for various reasons. She discovers that her sort-of-kind-of-maybe lover, Blake, is being rented for the Old Man, which is BLERSHKGFH. So, that's kind of it, in a nutshell. The plot and story are very, very original, except for those little glimpses of The Host, which were kind of annoying, yet very helpful to the main character. My favorite scenes and ideas from the plot were the ideas of revisiting a teenage body, and Callie's willingness to rent her body out. Just her luck, her renter is trying to assassinate the government. Had this not happened, and Callie was just living as another woman, the story would have been 5x more boring. The plot arc isn't very clear, actually. I didn't think that resolution of the book had anything to do with the reason Callie initially rented her body out, and obviously Callie did find another reason to keep the body around (whether she had a choice or not), but I feel like she lost sight of her initial motivation, and whether that's Lissa Price's fault or not, I'm not sure.


CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
Callie develops a ton in this story, mostly with the help of her renter, whose name escapes me, although I'm fairly sure it was Helena. We'll just say it's Helena. Sorry if it isn't, I don't actually own the book, so I'm just trying to remember. She starts out as a bold, protective friend and sister, and ends up still protective and bold, but more learned in the government doings and that truly affects her personality and character a bit throughout the story. Callie becomes a more heroic, love-hate character, which makes her all the more realistic in a rather unrealistic setting. Her brother and friend, who we only really see a few times, do not experience much development, and it's hard to know who else did, seeing as most characters were rented out, so we never knew their true personality, which is why it's such a blow to Callie when she first found out Blake was the Old Man's rentee. I quite liked Blake, but he certainly didn't develop, even with another person inside him. I liked the Enders, though, they were pretty interesting. So, I suppose that's all I've really got to say in the development wing of this review, sadly. At least the protagonist developed, though, which is the main desire.


Starters is the first in a duo, and the sequel, Enders, is set to be released December 11, 2012. 

Veronica Roth speculates the release date of 'Divergent' book three

Divergent author, Veronica Roth, semi-formally announced via her blog that the third book in the Divergent trilogy will be released in the Autumn of 2013, as opposed to the expected Spring of 2013. Veronica Roth states her reasoning as being able to "polish" the book, which does heighten our hopes for Detergent's outcome!

You guys DO know Detergent isn't the book's ACTUAL title, right?

The full post.

Review | 'Under the Never Sky'

Under the Never Sky
Veronica Rossi
374 pg., U.S. Hardcover
HarperCollins
4 stars | A-



From Goodreads:

 Since she'd been on the outside, she'd survived an Aether storm, she'd had a knife held to her throat, and she'd seen men murdered. This was worse.

Exiled from her home, the enclosed city of Reverie, Aria knows her chances of surviving in the outer wasteland - known as The Death Shop - are slim. If the cannibals don't get her, the violent, electrified energy storms will. She's been taught that the very air she breathes can kill her. Then Aria meets an Outsider named Perry. He's wild - a savage - and her only hope of staying alive.

A hunter for his tribe in a merciless landscape, Perry views Aria as sheltered and fragile - everything he would expect from a Dweller. But he needs Aria's help too; she alone holds the key to his redemption. Opposites in nearly every way, Aria and Perry must accept each other to survive. Their unlikely alliance forges a bond that will determine the fate of all who live under the never sky.


This book was totally different than I expected it would be. It was a very intense, unique, but sometimes dull novel. I was expecting a lot more darkness coming from Aria, since she was banished from Reverie. Sure, there was some darkness surrounding her, but I feel like she moved on a bit too quickly. I didn't understand hardly any of her motivations, and thought that the development of the story's MAIN character could definitely have been improved upon.
The pacing of this book was incredibly slow, it really bugged me. I was so annoyed by the way things were just so intricately described, it became so unrealistic and unnecessary. It was redundant and unneeded, and I was disappointed by that aspect.
Certain characters in this book wear electronic eyepatches (Smarteyes), and they reminded me of the Eye-drives from Doctor Who. So, really, I was picturing members of the Silence/Madame Kovarian herself walking around. Yeah. It was pretty creepy.
So basically the story is just about Aria looking for a way to return to Reverie, and a way to reach contact with her mother. Peregrine's plot revolves around looking for his nephew. I just thought there could have been a lot more insight on Aria's life in Reverie, and a lot more scenes that developed the relationship between the protagonists, if there was going to be one. Why would Veronica Rossi make a relationship and then just render it underdeveloped? 
Veronica Rossi's writing style was very nice, though. I liked the way that everything was nicely placed and structured finely, but, like I said, the pacing really needed to have been quickened.


This book's sequel, Through the Ever Night, is due out early next year.