Gone

Gone by Micheal Grant

One of my favorite dystopian books. Which is about equal to one of my favorite books.

Imagine you are in class. And then your teacher disappears.

That is about the pace that the start of this book follows. Most of the character development is how they react to the situation and the action that is taking place. And I like that. It makes the characters seem more real, and less of a standard "tough guy" or "leader" or "smart person" character role. The events are gripping and quite often do not end up badly, and half of the people in the book are insane. And not just "crazy", but clinically insane.

Oh, and they have superpowers. The story explains this slowly throughout the overarching plot line that is carried out through all of the many books. If you didn't catch on, the basic back story is that everyone over 15 dissapears, and so the remaining kids have to take care of their small portion of the world. This includes dealing with differences between the older kids, babies requiring care, 10 year olds going around and looting all of the good food, which happens to be the stuff that goes bad last, and dealing with the fact that there is a group of cutthroat super powered teenagers set lose on the city.

The Testing

The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau

This is another one of the dystopian books that I just can't seem to get enough of. I hope you like those.

The Testing follows the adventures of Cia, who just graduated high school in the dystopian world of post-vague tragedy-centrally ruled-technologically setback in most places- struggling to survive America, called the United Commonwealth. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read The Hunger Games. Graduation is a big time in the colonies, because at that point, the best and brightest of that gradating class is chosen to go through the Commonwealth run Testing, which selects the best and brightest from the best and brightest. Those who pass go on to University,  become some of the leading minds of the nation, accomplishing high level tasks such as running the government and regrowing the scourged land that they live in. Those who fail, well, they surely just work in the capital where the tests take place. Surely. Right?

Spoiler: They don't.

After graduating, Cia goes on to do what is quite obvious because this is a book with a plot. She - surprise surprise - doesn't get into the testing. When I first read that, I was very confused. Was this book leading up to something new and different? Nope, just a train delay :). After the train arrives, she is selected for the Testing, and she quickly goes to the capital with some of her friends who have also been selected, expecting a paper test and maybe some projects or something.

Spoiler: That's not what happens.

From that point on, it gets interesting, but you'll have to read it for yourself. I really enjoyed this book, like I enjoy most dystopian fiction. It isn't the best book I have ever read, but it is a good book. It has an interesting plot and some points where it shows how people react in terrible situations, which I think is why I enjoy dystopian literature so much. Overall, a good book.

Hatchet

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

Happy New Year! This is a little late, and I haven't been posting in forever, and I'm sorry. But this will NOT be one of those blogs that is just an endless row of sorry posts! NO! I will be sorry, and then I will POST something! So here it is.

Brian is a thirteen year old who is flying in a bush plane (for those who don't know what a bush plane is, I can tell you that it is not a plane made of leaves. That's about it. Sorry) to see his father up in Canada. He has an uneventful flight, but when he arrives at his father's house, tragedy strikes. There is no pudding. No, it is nothing anywhere near as dramatic as that. Actually, most of the story happens on that plane flight. He is just cruising along, looking out the window, and the pilot's having a heart attack, you know, nothing much. So the pilot dies, and he crash lands in a lake.

From that point on, Brian must find food and shelter, before the cold of winter sets in. Also, before the moose comes home. He faces a number of challenges throughout the book, including one moose on his way home. It is a very good book, really makes you realize how lucky we are to be able to go down to the grocery store, grab a sandwich, and not be harassed by meese on the way there. Anyways, I recommend this book to you all, and all that stuff.

Oh, and apparently there are sequels! I will have to read those. If you want to read them, the second one is either The River  or The Return or Brian's Winter or Hatchet: Winter. Tell me which you read first, and I might not be as confused about it.

12/12/12 12:12

Happy 12 day! As you may have noticed from the title, today is the 12th day of the 12th month of the 2012th year. 12/12/12. Also, at that this posted, it was 12:12 on that day. But this is not any day in which the numbers are all the same. This is the LAST TIME that it will happen until 2101. That is a very long time. So celebrate it! Happy 12 day!

Looking Glass Wars

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

This is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, and I think retellings (apparently 'retellings' is not a word. Then what is the plural of retelling! retellingi?) are amazing. So read it.

The first book chronicles how the evil Redd takes over Wonderland, and how Alyss of Wonderland and Hatter Madigan adventure through London, ultimately making their way back to Wonderland to free it from the evil clutches of Redd Heart. I haven't read it in a while, so I can't quite remember how it happens, but there are cats that fight hats, and chesspieces. That I can assure you of. Especially the cat bit. In fact, there is but one cat, named: Cat. And there are a few giant caterpillars. It's a weird book. But a good one.

It has sequels, and I will review them eventually.

The Alchemyst

The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

I'm a little nervous about writing this, because it was the first book I ever reviewed. I wrote it for the school newspaper, which failed miserably. Instead of the official-looking news-packed bundle of paper we thought would make us all lots of money, we ended up with two badly printed pieces of paper that were handed out to the whole class ten minutes before school ended for the year. Ah well, we tried.

But back to the book. This is a good book. In fact, it is one of my favorites, along with the rest of the books on my expansive collection of shelves. However, it is one of the only series's (series? seriess's? Who knows.) that I have read more than twice. The only other two that I can think of are the Septimus Heap series (Very good, will be reviewed soon), and the Chronicles of Narnia. Narnia I read over and over because it's amazing, and the other two because I keep forgetting what happens. Which is why I have to get around to actually writing the review before I forget what happens.

This book is about two twins, Sophie and Josh Newman, who work across the street from each other. Sophie works for Perry Fleming in a tea shop, and Josh works for Nick Fleming in a book shop. Due to the occurrence of a "gas leak" the bookshop explodes, and everyone has "hallucinations" of "magic" and "mud people" walking across the "street" to the "bookshop" which "exploded." Oh no. I can't stop it, I'm about to go on a completely unrelated tangent and I will have to retype the entire review again. And now I'm discussing getting sidetracked. Anyways, the things that I was reminded of are A: a really funny bit from one of Dave Barry's book, can't remember which one, and B: this all sounds like Matrix doesn't it? Anyways, the "magic" and the "mud men" were all real.

And they have a big battle of magic and explosions and cool stuff, and then the evil guys (identified by black clothing) steal a book and run away, and manage to kidnap Perry too. After the battle Nick Fleming reveals that he is actually Nicholas Flamel, who (and you would know this if you read the front of the book) is both immortal, and has secrets. And he's an Alchemyst. Little does he know, that is not how you spell Alchemist! However, there is already a book called The Alchemist, so to avoid being sued by an auther with a computer, the immortal magician and alchmyst who has been defending the earth for over a hundred years needs to change the name of his entire occupation.

Also, the book that was stolen is the only thing keeping Nicholas and Perrenelle alive, and it has the key to destroying human life. And it is in the hands of EVIL. <insert dramatic music here>

All in all, it's a good book. The action is...um...ahh... actioney. It seems realistic. Well, as realistic as a magical duel can be. And the characters seem like real people with feelings, not bodies to imbue with magical powers so you can get good action scenes.

Reading that last paragraph again, there is one thing that has me thinking: what on earth does the phrase "all in all mean"?
Thank you Google, now I know that it originated in the 19th century and means "when everything is considered". Thanks to advertising I also know that if you want to lose weight you should never eat banana's that are infested with flies (why would eat those anyways?) and that there is a shirt in existence that is just one big picture of a cure dog face. Isn't the modern world wonderful?

Insurgent

Insurgent by Veronica Roth


This is the sequel to Divergent, another wonderful book.

This book is set shortly after Divergent, so if you haven't read it yet, you should probably wait to read this post.



As the war with Erudite gets more and more intense, the remaining Dauntless realize that they need allies. Amity proves to be useless in war for obvious reasons, Candor is only good for interrogating people, and Abnegation is pretty much dead. This leaves the Dauntless with only one choice: the Factionles. (Dramatic music). But the Dauntless keep getting killed, and Triss is locked in a struggle with her own feelings, leaving her almost useless. The Erudite have almost perfected the Simulations Serum to work on Divergent, and betrayal strangely doesn't occur to anyone. And history repeats itself with...

Another twist ending! Reminds me of a book called Maze Runner. Maybe I should review that, it was a good book. Or maybe you should just read it. And read Divergent, and Insurgent. I wonder what the next book will be called. My uncle had a few ideas: Detergent and Very Urgent. Any other words that rhyme with "insurgent" should go straight to the comments section.