ARC Review: Fever by Lauren DeStefano

Goodreads summary:

Rhine and Gabriel have escaped the mansion, but danger is never far behind. 

Running away brings Rhine and Gabriel right into a trap, in the form of a twisted carnival whose ringmistress keeps watch over a menagerie of girls. Just as Rhine uncovers what plans await her, her fortune turns again. With Gabriel at her side, Rhine travels through an environment as grim as the one she left a year ago - surroundings that mirror her own feelings of fear and hopelessness. 

The two are determined to get to Manhattan, to relative safety with Rhine’s twin brother, Rowan. But the road there is long and perilous - and in a world where young women only live to age twenty and young men die at twenty-five, time is precious. Worse still, they can’t seem to elude Rhine’s father-in-law, Vaughn, who is determined to bring Rhine back to the mansion...by any means necessary. 

I came across an ARC of this book on display at the Simon & Schuster booth at the NCTE conference a few weeks ago. When I asked one of the reps if they had any more ARCs available to give away, she looked under a table, inside a box, and magically produced a copy of this much coveted sequel to Wither. I was so happy that I gave her a hug.

So I was sad to discover that I didn't love it nearly as much as Wither, which was such an amazing, vivid work of storytelling. The characters of Rhine and the sister wives in the first book were so real to me. They felt like people instead of characters. But for some reason, the characters in this book felt more like they were moving in slow motion rather than real time. Rhine and Gabriel didn't jump off the page the way they did in the first book, and the new, young character of Maddie was just completely out of my realm of ability to imagine. She was in the background even though she was an important character for the first half of the novel.

Fever felt more like a transitional novel, in the sense that you were waiting for something major to happen, only to realize that something major won't be till the next book.Which is not to say that nothing happens in this book. There are plenty of nail-biting moments. And yet, even with those moments, you're still waiting for that "THING" to reveal itself, which, in this book's case, doesn't happen until the very last page. 

And yet, that very last page will sure make you want to read the third book. So kudos to Lauren DeStefano. I might not have loved this book as much as the first, but she succeeded in getting me to want to read (and covet) the third book.

Fever by Lauren DeStefano
Series: Chemical Garden #2
Expected Publication: February 21, 2012 
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Dystopia
Audience: Young Adult
 

Audiobook Review: Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver

From Goodreads:

Liesl lives in a tiny attic bedroom, locked away by her cruel stepmother. Her only friends are the shadows and the mice—until one night a ghost appears from the darkness. It is Po, who comes from the Other Side. Both Liesl and Po are lonely, but together they are less alone. 

That same night, an alchemist's apprentice, Will, bungles an important delivery. He accidentally switches a box containing the most powerful magic in the world with one containing something decidedly less remarkable. 

Will's mistake has tremendous consequences for Liesl and Po, and it draws the three of them together on an extraordinary journey. 

Lauren Oliver can weave any story into gold with her hypnotizing prose. While I enjoy her YA books much more than I did this middle grade effort, I do think she can write anything and make it magical. This book had a Roald Dahl-esque feel to it, but, in my opinion, it was much better written. I was never a fan of Roald Dahl (I know, I'm like the only person on earth, right?) but Oliver has the benefit of her beautiful writing to keep readers interested and intrigued. I would compare her to Maggie Stiefvater that way. Even though I'm not always buying what's happening in the story, Maggie lures you in with her magical writing. Lauren Oliver is the exact same way.

The audiobook has the added benefit of being narrated by the one and only Jim Dale of Harry Potter fame. How can you go wrong there?

Liesl & Po by Lauren Oliver, narrated by Jim Dale
Published: October 4, 2011
Publisher: HarperCollins and Harper Audio
Pages: 307
Audiobook length: 5 hours, 55 minutes
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Middle Grade

ARC review: Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill

From Goodreads:

Maria is the younger daughter of an esteemed family on the island of Murano, the traditional home for Venetian glassmakers. Though she longs to be a glassblower herself, glassblowing is not for daughters—that is her brother's work. Maria has only one duty to perform for her family: before her father died, he insisted that she be married into the nobility, even though her older sister, Giovanna, should rightfully have that role. Not only is Giovanna older, she's prettier, more graceful, and everyone loves her.

Maria would like nothing more than to allow her beautiful sister, who is far more able and willing to attract a noble husband, to take over this role for her. But they cannot circumvent their father's wishes. And when a new young glassblower arrives to help the family business and Maria finds herself drawn to him, the web of conflicting emotions grows even more tangled.

This book was a complete surprise for me. I picked it up at NCTE on a whim, having never heard of it before nor any idea what it was about. When I got home and saw that it was about the daughters of Venetian glass blowers on the island of Murano, I was sold. I tend to be compelled to read any book that takes place in Europe since I lived and traveled there for over a year. 

But then seeing it was a novel in verse, and coming in at a petite 150 pages, it was actually the first ARC I read, even over some of the much coveted ones I've been dying to read for a long time now.

Novels in verse are always quick reads, but sometimes they can be frustrating because there is so much that you have to infer from all that is NOT said. As I read this story, I kept wondering to myself how different it would be if it were written in prose rather than verse. Would the added detail help the story or hurt it?

But then I allowed myself to stop wondering how it COULD be, and just let myself enjoy what it was, which is a lovely, quick read for lovers of novels in verse, and/or historical fiction.

The ending was a little TOO neat and happy for my liking, but at the same time, it's certainly one that will satisfy readers.

Sisters of Glass by Stephanie Hemphill
Expected Publication: March 27, 2012
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 150 (Goodreads is saying it will be 272, but my ARC is only 150 pages)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Audience: Young Adult

Book Lover's Holiday Giveaway Hop

This blog hop is being hosted by I Am A Reader, Not a Writer and Kid Lit Frenzy.

To warm your holiday season, I am offering a much-coveted ARC of Incarnate by Jodi Meadows:

Expected Publication: January 31, 2012
Publisher: HaperCollins
Pages: 384
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult

Summary from Goodreads:

NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

Jodi Meadows expertly weaves soul-deep romance, fantasy, and danger into an extraordinary tale of new life

Giveaway: Signed ARC of The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

While I was at the NCTE conference, I was lucky enough to get to meet Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. They signed my ARC of The Future of Us, and now I am giving it away here on my blog. Read my review here.

Published: November 21, 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 356
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Magical Realism
Audience: Young Adult


Goodreads Summary:

It's 1996, and less than half of all American high school students have ever used the Internet.

Emma just got her first computer and an America Online CD-ROM.

Josh is her best friend. They power up and log on--and discover themselves on Facebook, fifteen years in the future.

Everybody wonders what their Destiny will be. Josh and Emma are about to find out.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

The year is 1996. Emma and Josh have been best friends and next door neighbors their whole lives, though Josh wishes they were more than that. His attempt to move their friendship to the next level failed miserably. Now things are awkward between the two of them.

One day Emma receives her very first computer along with an America Online CD-ROM. But upon first signing onto AOL, she is immediately taken to a website called Facebook where she sees her life 15 years into the future - and she doesn't like what she sees. So she takes it upon herself to try to change her future.

Told in alternating chapters between Josh and Emma's perspectives, The Future of Us is a quick, fun read and even though the story takes place only fifteen years ago, it reads like historical fiction. The reason why it feels like historical fiction is because technology has moved so quickly in the past 15 years, that what was technologically advanced back then, is like a dinosaur now. In fact, I worry that the impact of this book will be obsolete in less than a year due to how quickly even Facebook changes.

I honestly think, despite the fact that this book is categorized as YA, people in their thirties who were in high school fifteen years ago, will identify with this book more than teenagers will. I even mentioned this to Jay and Carolyn when I met them at NCTE a couple weeks ago, and Jay gave a good, authorly response, which is that he thinks the book is for everyone. But then he mentioned that depending on what age you are, you will read the story differently. As someone who was in high school in 1996, I can tell you that lots of feelings of nostalgia bubbled up as I was reading. Teenagers will not have those overwhelming feelings when they read  "Crash into Me" and "Dave Matthews Band" in the same sentence.

I was, however, hoping this book would be more profound than it was. Instead, it was more of a fluff read. Still, sometimes fluff reads are just what you need. This book came to me at a time when I was in a reading funk and got me out of it. So while the depth of the story wasn't there, the motivation to keep reading was.

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Macker
Published: November 21, 2011 by Razorbill
Pages: 356
Genre: Realistic Fiction/Magical Realism
Audience: Young Adult

Check out my giveaway here

Recap of John Green's NCTE anti-censorship session and Giveaway: SIGNED chapter sampler of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

One of the highlights (i.e., THRILLS) of going to the NCTE conference was getting to meet John Green and hear him speak. He did a session on defending intellectual freedom and it was incredibly exciting and enlightening.

Some of the thoughts he shared from that session:

• The work of intellectual freedom is mostly done by teachers and librarians and very little with authors.
• When he wrote Looking for Alaska, he actually thought that critics were going to tear it apart for having too much of a naive Christian message. Which is why he was shocked when  people tried to ban it from schools, in particular because of one awkward sex scene that he wrote to juxtapose the contrast of empty physical encounters vs. emotional intimacy.
• Public schools shouldn’t exist for parents or even students. It’s for the benefit of the social order and a more educated work force (in response to the teachers who offered another reading option when they assigned LFA)
• When books are challenged, the easy thing for teachers and school boards to do is to just choose another book that won't cause uproar, but that is allowing ignorance to win. Teachers, librarians, and administrators need to keep fighting for intellectual freedom (which he recognizes is easier said than done).

Oh! And if you didn't already watch it, you can see me in the audience of his intellectual freedom session in one of his recent Vlogbrothers videos. I'm the one in the second row in the red sweater around the 0:11 mark.



Anyway, a little while after his session, John did a book signing at the Penguin booth and I got both of my books of his that I own signed (Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns), BUT they were also giving away chapter samplers of The Fault in Our Stars which he also signed one of those for me. 

I have read the chapter sampler and I can't even begin to describe how amazing this book is going to be. In the first two chapters, you immediately laugh, cry, and fall in love with the main character, Hazel. She is battling terminal thyroid cancer, which metastasized into her lungs, when she meets Augustus Waters at a cancer support group. What you expect to be a sad, downer of a narrative, has already managed to be hilarious and irreverent (as well as sad and tragic) in two short chapters. I already know this is going to be one of those books that makes me cry so hard I give myself a headache. I already managed to shed tears of sadness and laugh out loud in a mere two chapters.

With that, I bet you probably want to win my one and only signed copy of the chapter sampler of The Fault in Our Stars, right?

Just do the Rafflecopter thing and you are entered to win.