The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson

Date Started: December 2010
Date Finished: December 31, 2011

Summary: Sophie Hunter is an average young 15 year living in the 1930's Scotland. She goes to boarding school, but comes home on the weekend to live with her Great Aunt Tabitha. Sophie gets a rather startling message from a medium that has come to her great aunt's house. When this medium winds up dead, Sophie and her friend, Mikael, decide to conduct their own investigation that leads them into the dark political works of an alternate history Europe.

Likes: This novel is similar to taking a Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray and combined it with the dieselpunk nature of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, yet it thrives as it's own story. I like the alternate history aspect of the story. What if... is always the greatest question a writer can ask and this story definitely answers the author's question of what would happen if the England had actually lost at Waterloo. The world would be a very different landscape and I like the author's reimaging of the world. I also like that the world wasn't an info dump either. The world starts off like an other world, but as a reader you realize that something is not quite right. Finally you learn what makes this world different. I always liked that the worldbuilding was done in a classroom where characters can discuss and critique some of the aspects of their world.

Sophie's character was well-written and very like 15 year old girl. Sometimes she wondered why she was being treated like a five year old when she sometimes acted like a child. She hated being teased, threw fits, got depressed, but she also fought against the constraints of society. When she realized her feelings for a certain character, I thought it was hilarious and I'm curious to know what becomes of their relationship in the other books.

Some of the paranormal aspects were crazy cool, I like the idea of the Dictaphone and typewriter being used as spiritual items that contained thoughts of the dead on a different wavelength. The spiritual photography was pretty awesome too.

Dislikes: The paranormal aspects felt a little like plot devices at some points and I think the remedy for that would have been for Sophie not to always get it right. These aspects made it a little too easy for Sophie to succeed and I can't imagine that they'd be that easy, even for her. Granted the story is already long enough as it is, it's just something I noticed. I'm curious to see what role it plays in the subsequent books.

Overall: Like Matched, the story reads like the first a series. It has to set up the rules of the world. It's not what I thought it was going to be. It's not a steampunk and it's not Victorian. It's a genre bender mixing in paranormal elements with dieselpunk but ultimately it's an alternate history. I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Recommended by: I was looking for a steampunk reading challenge and failed to find one, but I found some intriguing websites. Finding Wonderland had a steampunk week and recommended this book. . This book was highly recommended, so I decided I had to check it out. I'm glad that I did.

Matched by Ally Condie

Date Started: December 24, 2010

Date Finished: December 25, 2010

Summary: Cassia lives a pretty normal life. She works as a data sorter, goes to second school, and has recently been Matched to her best friend, Xander. When she goes to look at her Match's profile on her card, the screen shows someone else, Ky Markham, an adopted boy from the Outer Provinces. Cassia now must decide to follow along with The Society's wishes or fight for the one she truly loves.

Likes: I love the worldbuilding. It's one of the things that attracts me to dystopian literature in the first place. I like the idea of a society trying to be a utopia, but cracking at the seems. This novel reminds me of bits and pieces of The Giver and The Hunger Games, but has it's own uniqueness. It's a bit like reading Hunger Games from the point of view of another district. I also like that most of the book deals with the aesthetic side of what a utopia/dystopia decides to keep. How can someone narrow it down to just 100 of everything? How do they choose? It definitely raises a lot of more thought provoking questions as far as The Society is concerned.

The story is more about having the power to choose more so than love itself, though it centered around a romantic relationship, it is interesting how the overall fight is just to have the power to choose something small to something large. I like the overall theme of decisions and choices. The twist at the end was something I didn't see coming. I also like that her family tried to find ways to help Cassia within the constraints of their world. I also thought Cassia's grandfather was awesome and I wish more old people would show up in YA (only if they're as awesome as this grandfather who basically set the whole story in motion, though it would have been nice to have Cassia take some more agency with this decision as well).

Dislikes: For most of the book, to me, it seems like there's a lack of urgency. It picks up in the last fourth of the book. I think the book could have benefited from showing more of the contrast between Cassia's love interests, Ky and Xander. I wanted to see the tension between the two lives, because she is essentially living a double life. I never got the sense of just how hard it was for Cassia to choose between the two of them. The guys didn't really seem to become fully realized as characters and perhaps they would have been if there was a tension between Cassia's life.

Overall: I'm excited to see where this series is going. (not Mockingjay excited, but still) I want to know what happens to Cassia and Ky and the Society. There were still some minor glitches in the story and it still reads a bit like a debut, but it's obvious that this series is going to take us somewhere awesome and I'm curious to see what happens to these characters. .

Recommended by: I saw reviews floating around the internet about this and was unsure. I've been let down by books before in the past. I saw one negative review and was a little less skeptical about the hype and was able to seriously consider reading it. My friend T (who really needs to get a book blog) recommended it to me because it was dystopian. It's not exactly what I want our dystopian to be like in terms of story, but it definitely gives some good ideas for worldbuilding. 

 

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Date Started: December 22, 2010

Date Finished: December 24, 2010

Summary: Anna is shipped off to a boarding school at 17 away from her friends and her family. On top of that she's in a foreign country, granted that it's Paris, but she still doesn't speak the language. Anna settles into things and makes friends and meets Etienne St. Clair, who is hot and British, and has a girlfriend. She can't help but feel attracted to him, even if he's technically off limits.

Likes: I loved this book. I'm surprised I did, because when reading the summary, it doesn't sound like a book I would ever read. I mean boarding school stories aren't really my thing, reading about teenagers in other countries makes me a bit jealous (even though I went to London for a week when I was 15, that hardly counts, but it's more than a lot of people), and romantic relationships? Ugh... not for me. But when I read the book, I was pleasantly surprised.

I really liked Anna's character and how accessible and easy to relate her character was. I could understand her frustration at being shipped off to boarding school. I think I connect to this story so much because when I was 17, I started college and I was on my own. Granted it was my choice, but still I felt the apprehension and trepidation Anna felt when she was alone for the first time.

The romance, though cheesy (see warning below) was probably one of the best in terms of natural progression. It starts off slowly, as friends, then good friends, then so and so forth. It doesn't start with mind blowing OMG I'm totally in love type of things that has saturated YA in recent years and turned me off from that aspect in general. The voice is fresh which saves it from being melodramatic when dramatic things happen.

Dislikes: The story starts off kind of slow, but it takes off when the big event happens. I thought it was going to go one way, but it took another direction. I mean, when I figured out where it was going, it was still predictable after that point and the romance was a little cheesy at times (but that's coming from someone who doesn't like romance that much anyway, so your mileage will vary), but it's bearable. Maybe it was just me rushing to find out what happened in the end, but I felt like some parts were rushed and/or glossed over. It didn't hurt the book, but it still would have been interesting to read (or at least humorous).

Overall: I didn't really think I'd enjoy this book as much as I did. I mean, Anna and the French Kiss... ugh... what can I expect from a book title like that? But I was pleasantly surprised. This book reminded me why I love reading YA. I love getting nostalgic about the good times and the bad times of high school. When I think about it, I had a lot of good times in high school. It's not nearly as bad as I make it out to seem. At any rate, this book was just adorable.

Recommended by: John Green! (and a bunch of people on the internet, but mainly him) How could I dismiss a book who has been endorsed by John Green? It really is like if he and Maureen Johnson had a book baby with John Green's voice and Maureen Johnson's style.