christianreader | Kiwiria's October Opuses

Beneath the Sugar Sky - Seanan McGuire, 5/5, 157 pages
The sequel to "Every Heart a Doorway" (there's a book #2 as well, but as far as I understand, that's more a companion novel or a prequel than a sequel) and every bit as good as the first one. I love the idea of having doors open between worlds in a sort of structured manner, and being able to place these worlds on a compass appeals to my geeky side.

Where EHaD mostly takes place in our world, this time we get to visit other worlds and see how they function. Must admit, I don't think I'd feel particularly at east in either, but they're fun to visit through writing :-)

Awesome, surreal books that definitely need to be part of my physical library at some point.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - Jesse Andrews, 3/5, 246 pages
I had high hopes for this one, as comparisons to John Green's "The Fault in Our Stars" (which I loved) were inevitable. Unfortunately it fell very, very short. I liked the writing style, I liked that there was no too-obvious romance, but the ending fell flat. Among other things, it really bothered me that Greg's and Rachel's mums never realized how seriously they abused Greg's trust in Rachel.

So why still three stars? I enjoyed it while reading it. My complaints with it didn't register until after I had finished. Objectively speaking it probably doesn't deserve more than 2 stars, but my immediate response was to say 3, so I'm going to leave it at that.

Mosquitoland - David Arnold, 3.5/5, 345 pages
I liked it, but didn't love it. I enjoyed the writing style and really liked the friendship Mim struck up with Walt and Beck, but taken as a whole, the book was far too depressing for me to fall in love with it. At one point I thought the book took a crazy, twisted turn (you'll know if it you've read it) and was ready to toss it across the room, but unfortunately that turned out not to be the case. The ending was better than I had expected, and I'm glad Mim realized that Kathy wasn't all bad... but I still wish it hadn't been quite that open.

Dragon-Kin: Alonia & Trift - Shae Geary & Audrey Faye, 4/5, 208 pages
A bit slow to start, but once it took off, I really liked it. I loved the idea that Alonia and Trift could do magic through their bond, and was thrilled to see how the dragons of old intervened. But it's heartbreaking to see that Kellan still doesn't have a dragon (and won't get one in the next one either, if I'm reading the title right!)

Last Chance - Sarah Dessen, 3.5/5, 246 pages
Very stereotypical YA except that it for once focused more about starting to accept and love yourself rather than finding romance (although of course that featured to). I wasn't blown away by it, but liked it well enough.

The 30-Day Prayer Challenge for Women - Nicole O'Dell, 4/5, 192 pages
Prayer journals are always risky, because you never know ahead of time whether it is one that will speak to your soul or not. But I ended up really appreciating this 30-Day Prayer Challenge. Each daily reading included a scripture, a devotion, questions for introspection and prayers for morning, noon and night. The readings were very specific, which I enjoyed (often they tend to be very generic), but of course that also meant that some were more relevant or applicable than others - no matter, those days I just read two! :-)

I'd definitely recommend it for women who'd like to give their prayer life a bit of a boost, or who are just on the lookout for a new prayer journal or devotional. At 30 days it's a very manageable commitment.

Illuminae - Amie Kaufmann & Jay Kristoff, 4.5/5, 599 pages
Full disclosure: I was predisposed to like this book for not just one but TWO reasons. First of all, because I absolutely LOVE books that play with the media, and I've seldom seen books that do it as well as this one. Secondly because I'm a huge fan of epistolary novels, and this one came close enough to count.

Fortunately the plot lived up to it as well. It took me a little while to get into it properly, as you're literally thrown into the middle of the action (... much like "Sleeping Giants" actually - another book with much the same writing style), but once I did, I couldn't put it down. I really liked both Kady and Ezra and was thoroughly tricked by some of the twists the book threw at me. Though the first in a series, it's got a good ending, but I'm still keen on reading the next in the series.

Gemina - Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff, 4.5/5, 500 pages
Soooooo, I may have read this book in a day :-D Well, it IS a quick read, thanks to its unique writing style, and now that I knew what I was in for, I didn't have the same issues getting into the book as I had with the first one. I really liked both Hanna and Nik, and didn't miss Kady and Ezra as much as I had expected to (although I'm really looking forward to seeing them all together in the next and final book in the series). Once again, there were twists and turns I hadn't expected, and though I'm not sure I really got all of the pseudo-science behind some of them, I don't care :-P My favourite part of Gemina were Hanna's journal entries. Great addition to the chat / radio logs and surveillance cameras.

Can't wait to pick up the last book and see how everything works out.

The Boy on the Bridge - M.R. Carey, 3/5, Audiobook ~12hrs
Good, but nowhere near as good as "The Girl With All the Gifts". I would recommend having read that one first though (even though this is a prequel), or you'll miss out on some things near the ending.

I don't remember the plot moving as slowly in TGWATG as it did in this one. I do realize that part of that might have been because I listened to this as an audiobook and read the other one, but it still seemed like M.R. Carey was still setting the stage by the time the book was almost over. Possibly simply because I expected more or a climax than what I got. It's definitely more character-driven than plot-driven... and apart from Khan, I found myself pretty indifferent to most of the characters.

I did still enjoy it though, and never really considered giving up on it.

The Ordinary Princess - M.M. Kaye*, 4.5/5, 123 pages
Mixi reminded me of this one and made me want to reread it. It was first read aloud to me when we were in France in 1986 and my dad would translate from English to Danish 'on the fly' while reading. But even without the nostalgic element, it is still a sweet fairy-tale, and one where it is a huge shame that so few people know it.

Book of the Month: Either Beneath the Sugar Sky or Illuminae. I loved them both, and they're too different to really compare.
Biggest disappointment: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. I had expected to like it so much more than I did.