Audiobook review: Starters by Lissa Price

Starters is about a time in the future where senior citizens can "rent" bodies of younger people so they can experience what it's like to be young again. While our young protagonist, Callie, has doubts about renting her body out, she knows how much the money will help her and her brother make a better life for themselves. Callie soon finds out, however, that her renter has something much more nefarious planned than just the typical banal partying and playing sports, and if she doesn't do something soon, she might find herself accused of murder. But in her attempts to stop her renter from killing someone, she unravels a much more macabre plot afoot from the very place that is renting out her body. 

This book was never on my radar so I'm happy Lissa offered me a review copy of both Starters and Enders. I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook much more than I expected to and I am looking forward to reading the sequel. If you're someone like me who isn't a huge fan of science fiction, this is a good book to get your feet wet so to speak. It's not overly science-y, and the plot has a few twists and turns along that way that keep it interesting and page-turning.

Rebecca Lowman is the narrator for the audiobook and is probably most well-known for narrating Eleanor and Park. Her voice is both soothing and provocative at the same time, as she hits just the right emotional highs and lows. I'm definitely going to be seeking out the audio of the sequel as well.


Starters by Lissa Price
Audiobook narrator: Rebecca Lowman
Published: March 13, 2012
Publisher: Delacorte and Listening Library
Pages: 352
Audiobook length: 10 hours, 19 minutes
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: Review copy provided by author, audiobook checked out from library

The Fellowship for Alien Detection by Kevin Emerson

Where is Juliette, Arizona? According to current maps, there is no such place. It doesn't exist. In fact, most people never even knew it once existed. But there are many missing things across America that can't currently be explained: missing people, missing time, and yes, a missing town.

Enter Haley and Dodger, two kids from completely different backgrounds, given the opportunity to try to figure out this strange missing time phenomenon that seems to be running rampant across the country. Both kids have their own theories and ways to try to solve the problem and were awarded a fellowship by a mysterious yet seemingly legit organization to do just that.

As Haley and Dodger join forces, they realize they must work quickly because what initially seemed to be rather banal, innocuous research on separate road trips with their parents has suddenly turned dangerous.  As Haley and Dodger get closer and closer to figuring out how and why Juliette disappeared, their lives fall further and further into peril. Will they figure out the mystery of the missing people, time, and town before it's too late?

The Fellowship for Alien Detection was a suspenseful, heart-pumping, read. As someone who generally shies away from science fiction, I wasn't expecting it to be as page-turning as it was, but Kevin Emerson did an amazing job creating an action-packed plot with likeable characters. As with any novel that has some sort of road trip element, the characters MUST be likeable, otherwise why would you torture yourself by going on a 200+ page journey with them? Speaking of science fiction and road trips, if you enjoyed The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex, this book might be a good read-alike for you, though Fellowship has more suspense than humor, which is what carries the plot of Smekday, they're both still good reading ladders for each other.

In reading a little bit about Kevin on his bio page, it says that he used to be an elementary science teacher and it definitely shows in this book. But as someone who generally dislikes science, that was the only part of the book that turned me off a little: because even though this book is for middle grade kids, I just couldn't wrap my brain around all the "sciencey" stuff. It's why I teach English really: because I can't wrap my brain around math and science. So that's why, when you have a science fiction novel and I start complaining about the sciencey stuff, I have things like great characters and plot pacing to fall back on when I don't want to know about the sciencey stuff. Have I been articulate and precise enough in my word choice for you in this paragraph? :)

 
The Fellowship for Alien Detection by Kevin Emerson
Published: February 26, 2013
Publisher: Walden Pond Press
Pages: 432
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Middle Grade
Disclosure: ARC received from publisher

The "Did Not Finish" Chronicles: Insignia by S.J. Kincaid

From Goodreads:
More than anything, Tom Raines wants to be important, though his shadowy life is anything but that. For years, Tom's drifted from casino to casino with his unlucky gambler of a dad, gaming for their survival. Keeping a roof over their heads depends on a careful combination of skill, luck, con artistry, and staying invisible.

Then one day, Tom stops being invisible. Someone's been watching his virtual-reality prowess, and he's offered the incredible--a place at the Pentagonal Spire, an elite military academy. There, Tom's instincts for combat will be put to the test and if he passes, he'll become a member of the Intrasolar Forces, helping to lead his country to victory in World War III. Finally, he'll be someone important: a superhuman war machine with the tech skills that every virtual-reality warrior dreams of. Life at the Spire holds everything that Tom's always wanted--friends, the possibility of a girlfriend, and a life where his every action matters--but what will it cost him?

Yes, once again I'm going to be THAT person. The one who couldn't get through a book that everyone else loved. I just couldn't get behind Tom as a protagonist and given how little I enjoy video games and war stories, the only "in" this book had for me was that everyone else was saying how amazing it was. I was counting on the main character to propel me through the parts of the plot that didn't interest me but alas, he could not do it.  

Despite my inability to get behind the main character, I am glad I still made the attempt to read this book. It is a book I know I can recommend to boys because, well duh, what boy doesn't like war and video games? Okay, okay. I know that is a totally stereotypical comment but as a teacher, I can't deny that preferences tend to align with gender. Does that mean I don't try to get kids to go beyond gender preferences? Definitely not. But I also know I will do whatever I can to get a kid to pick up a book so if I have to pander to gender preferences, I will.

Insignia by SJ Kincaid
Published: July 10, 2012
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Pages: 444
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Young Adult
Disclosure: Advance Reader Copy

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier

From Goodreads:

Gwyneth Shepherd's sophisticated, beautiful cousin Charlotte has been prepared her entire life for traveling through time. But unexpectedly, it is Gwyneth, who in the middle of class takes a sudden spin to a different era! Gwyneth must now unearth the mystery of why her mother would lie about her birth date to ward off suspicion about her ability, brush up on her history, and work with Gideon, the time traveler from a similarly gifted family that passes the gene through its male line, and whose presence becomes, in time, less insufferable and more essential. Together, Gwyneth and Gideon journey through time to discover who, in the 18th century and in contemporary London, they can trust.

When time travel is involved, you automatically assume that it will be an action-packed plot where the writing is constantly moving the story forward. Not so in Ruby Red. I found that, for a book about time travel, there wasn't enough actually happening in the story. I got a lot of family background information and explanations about chronographs that thoroughly confused me, but I had a really hard time envisioning Gwen and Gideon's travels through time and the purpose for their trips. 

I really struggled through this novel. I'd like to say that part of the issue was that it is a translated text, but I don't think the translation was the problem. I think there wasn't enough plot in the story or vivid, empathetic characters to keep me excited and interested. Gwen was a pleasant enough, but she didn't leap off the page. Gideon's character was supposed to be a love/hate relationship with Gwen, but I found him rather dull. I know a lot of people have read and loved this book but as for me, I'm still debating whether or not I want to continue with the series.

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier
Published: May 2011 by Henry Holt & Co.
Pages: 324
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi
Audience: Young Adult

*Book received for review

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex: Audiobook Review

 From Goodreads:  
Twelve-year-old Gratuity "Tip" Tucci is assigned to write five pages on "The True Meaning of Smekday" for the National Time Capsule contest, and she’s not sure where to begin: when her mom started telling everyone about the messages aliens were sending through a mole on the back of her neck? Maybe on Christmas Eve, when huge, bizarre spaceships descended to Earth, and aliens—called the Boov—abducted her mother? Or when the Boov declared Earth a colony, renamed it "Smekland" (in honor of glorious Captain Smek), and forced all Americans to relocate to Florida via rocketpod?

Gratuity’s story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo, a futile journey south to find Gratuity’s mother at the Happy Mouse Kingdom, a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious, and an outrageous plan to save Earth from yet another alien invasion.


The humor in this book is unreal.  I could not stop laughing the entire time.  Much of that had to do with the masterful audio narration of Bahni Turpin. There are some narrators that make the audiobook even more entertaining than just reading the book itself and Bahni Turnpin is one such narrator. Her voice of the alien Boov J. Lo was not only entertaining, but downright hilarious. She made him so amusing and endearing that you can't help but think to yourself, "I wish I had my own J. Lo. to travel around with."

And let's not forget about Adam Rex here.  There has to be a bit of madness for someone to have such a crazy sense of humor.  I mean, where does one come up with an idea to create an alien and name him J. Lo?  Or have a mother so crazy that she names her daughter Gratuity?

And the dialogue.  Oh where do I begin with the hilarity of the dialogue?  I was listening to this on my iPod and when I came to this particular exchange in the story, I literally spit out my iced tea I was laughing so hard.  Here Gratuity's mom was talking to her about J.Lo's behavior when J. Lo interjects:

"He doesn't take care of you, I do. If anything, I take care of him too. This morning I had to stop him drinking the water out of a car battery." 
"Is good that way. Tangy!"  

 Pair this exchange with Bahni Turpin's pitch-perfect narration and my iced tea never had a chance of making it to my esophagus.

Adam Rex, I hope you write more middle grade novels because if you do, I will be the first in line to read them.  I know most of the books you've done have been as an illustrator and not a writer, but please, I beg of you, bring that crazy sense of humor to more of your own stories.  As it is, I will be talking up this one like crazy in my classroom.  I may even play them snippets of the audiobook just to get them more intrigued. 

Now I'm off to the library to check out more of Rex's books and find more audiobooks narrated by Bahni Turpin...

The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
Audiobook narrator: Bahni Turpin
Published: October 2007
Publisher: Hyperion
Audiobook published:  April 2010 by Listening Library
Pages: 423
Audiobook length: 10 hours, 38 minutes
Genre: Science fiction
Audience: Middle grade
Disclosure: Library Copy

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone-one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship-tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.
Now Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming. - from Goodreads

I'm not going to write a formal review of this book because so many have done this already, and much more eloquently than I ever could.  I just want to add my two-cents to the discussion.

Revis describes this book as science fiction for people who don't like science fiction. I'd have to say that's a fair description because equally important to the story is the mystery that Amy and Elder must solve which is twofold: 1) who has been thawing out the frozen bodies and 2) What is Eldest (the leader of the ship) hiding?

This is a great book to use to talk about climax (with high school students anyway - this book is too mature for middle school) because the climax of this story is extremely obvious and perfectly paced. 

Another great thing Revis does in this book is make you feel that sense of claustrophobia it must have been like to be traveling hundreds of years on this ship without a planet in sight. If you don't get anything else from this book, I would say the one thing you will take away is a feeling of gratefulness to be living here on this planet, even with all of the problems and the injustices we face.

I will say this - if you've seen this book around and have chosen not to read it because you don't like science fiction, give it a try anyway, especially if you like mysteries. Yes, this is a science fiction, but the science part of it not as prominent as other science fiction novels. This book is more about the people than the science.


Across the Universe by Beth Revis
Published: January 2011 by Razorbill
Pages: 398
Genre: Science fiction/dystopia/mystery
Audience: YA 

Dystopian as Science Fiction: Help Me Understand

After reading Donalyn Miller's The Book Whisperer a few months ago, I have been inspired to model my classroom around hers and have students choose their own books but give them guidelines by making them read specific genres.

So at the beginning of the summer, I took all the books from my classroom library and labeled them by genre. Here's my frustration though: I need to understand why all dystopian fiction is considered science fiction. There are books where the science fiction label is obvious (Feed, Brave New World) but I look at books like The Hunger Games, and the classic 1984, which are clearly more political than scientific and wonder what it has to do with science (political SCIENCE? I don't consider that pure science. Should I?). I'm assuming because it fits within the "speculative fiction" label rather than the science label and those two descriptions get used interchangeably for this genre. Or maybe just because it deals with the FUTURE?

I guess the reason I'm having such frustration about this is because I have books in my library like The Hunger Games that I'm torn as whether to label them science fiction. Yes, they are clearly dystopian, but science? I'm not so sure.

What say you?

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Jenna Fox doesn't remember the accident. All she knows is that her family is keeping a very big secret from her and she's determined to reveal the truth.

This book delves into the world of bioethics and the lengths parents will go to save their child's life. It is gripping, page-turning, and full of questions humans today must answer in this brave new world of genetic engineering and biotechnology.

This is the best book I've "read" so far this year (I actually listened to it on audio CD) and think it would be a fabulous book to teach alongside Brave New World.

Equally fascinating is the interview with the author at the end of the audiobook where she talks about how the inspiration for this book came from her experience of dealing with both her daughters getting the same type of cancer and the questions she asked herself about the lengths she would go to save her children's lives.