Review: Game Changer by Neal Shusterman

Game Changer
By Neal Shusterman
Publisher: Quill Tree Books
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Publication Date: February 9, 2021

To Sum It Up: Ash Bowman is a high school football player with a seemingly normal life until a hard hit during a game leaves him with the feeling that things aren’t quite right—and they aren’t. Ash, however, appears to be the only person who fully realizes that the world has changed, and not necessarily for the better. Whatever is happening around him also awakens Ash to the fact that he truly hasn’t been seeing what life is like for people who aren’t as privileged as he is. As the world continues to shift, Ash discovers that he may be able to bring about positive change, but even the smallest slip could create a new, bleak reality that is permanent.

Review: Neal Shusterman’s Arc of a Scythe trilogy blew me away with its unique premise and brilliant writing, and so I was thrilled to dive into his newest release, Game Changer. One of my favorite things about the Arc of a Scythe series was its deft, multilayered storytelling, and Shusterman doesn’t disappoint in that department here with Game Changer.

At first Game Changer appears to be a novel about an archetypal All-American high school football player named Ash Bowman. But when Ash takes a particularly hard hit on a play during a game, it literally shakes his entire world. Blue stop signs are now the norm. Ash knows something is amiss, but most of his family and friends do not. As he maneuvers this seemingly new world, Ash begins to discover that blue stop signs are the least alarming aspect.

Finding out the impact of that single event during the football game as Ash does makes for compelling reading. What exactly is going here to cause these shifts in the world? The answer involves a sci-fi twist that I thought was well done, and I’m not much of a sci-fi reader. This book reminded me a bit of David Levithan’s excellent Every Day. As he did with Arc of a Scythe, Shusterman is so great at immersing you in a world that, sometimes very eerily, isn’t too farfetched from what we know.

The heart of this book, though, lies in its timely exploration of some of the most pressing social issues we face, including racism, homophobia, and sexism. At the beginning of the novel, the extent of Ash’s social awareness is his diverse circle of friends. As he finds himself thrown into alternate universes, his white, heterosexual male privilege becomes more and more glaringly apparent to him.

While some readers may feel that the novel tries to take on too many weighty topics at once, and granted, each of them individually could absolutely be the subject of their own book, for me the takeaway here was the overall development of Ash’s realization of just how privileged and comfortable his life was back in his original world. And although his attempts to effect sweeping change and correct the injustices he can now see more clearly are sincere, they can come off seeming a bit of a simplistic approach to extremely complex problems. On the whole, though, this is a thought-provoking read that challenges how we often view the world only through the lens of our own experiences and demonstrates the need to continue the work of truly seeing and listening to the multitude of perspectives that exist.

All in All: This is the fourth Neal Shusterman book that I’ve read, and I love how he blends an impactful look at societal issues with a sci-fi/alternate universe twist. I find that his books leave me thinking about them for some time after I’ve read the last page, and Game Changer will definitely be staying with me for a while.

Review: The 5th Gender by G.L. Carriger

The 5th Gender (Tinkered Stars Mystery #1)
By G.L. Carriger
Publisher: Gail Carriger
Format: eARC
Source: Author

To Sum It Up: Tristol is a galoi, an alien species that mistrusts outsiders and has very little contact with them. Having made a life-altering choice that meant exile from his people, Tris lives on a space station among humans. There’s one human in particular whom Tris would absolutely love to get to know better, and when a galoi ship suddenly requires the help of space station personnel, Tris finds himself working alongside his longtime crush, Detective Drey Hastion, to solve a murder mystery.

Review: Gail Carriger forays into sci-fi romance with The 5th Gender, a deftly plotted and written novel that immediately drew me into life on board a space station.

Tristol, one of our MCs, is a galoi, a lavender alien with hair that almost functions like an appendage. His species is xenophobic, and Tris lives in exile, having chosen not to follow the course that other loga galoi like him are expected to on his home world. Although he has become invisible to his own people, Tris is very welcome among the denizens of the space station, where his effervescent, easygoing personality makes him impossible not to like. I especially loved his ongoing education in the nuances of human language and behavior and how seriously he took his responsibilities cat-sitting for some human friends.

Detective Drey Hastion is our other protagonist, and where Tris wears his happy heart on his sleeve, Drey is gruff and growly. He harbors a tender spot for Tris, though, and the feeling is very much mutual. When Tris’s cat-sitting charge gets into some mischief, Drey finds himself wrapped up in the feline drama. This provides the perfect opportunity for the sparks to ignite between the human security officer and our adorable galoi. Things get torrid between the two; if you like your romance scorching, you won’t be disappointed. It’s also very sweet—this pair truly complements each other, and their openness towards learning about their respective customs inspires many an “awww!”

The 5th Gender also features a murder mystery. A galoi ship suddenly contacts the space station in need of help to find whoever killed one of their crew. Drey is of course assigned to the case, with Tris accompanying him to assist in navigating the tricky communications with the galoi. The investigation develops into so much more—it’s a fascinating look inside galoi culture, which is hardly known to those outside of it. The search for the culprit becomes just as focused on the motive, as the galoi do not even have a word for murder. As Drey and Tris dig deeper and deeper for answers, the picture that emerges hits very close to home for Tris. It’s heartbreaking to fully realize what he went through in arriving at his decision to choose exile over conforming to the galoi’s expected gender roles. The truth that Tris and Drey finally uncover on board the galoi ship leaves shock and sadness in its wake, but from the tragedy there is also a glint of hope for change.

Overall, I loved how multi-layered the story was and how smoothly it shifted between humor and a more serious tone. I also loved the diverse cast of characters on board the space station and definitely hope to get to know them better in the future. This is a great start to a new series!

All in All: The 5th Gender delivers in so many ways: it’s sweet, it’s romantic, it’s funny, and most importantly, it tells a very impactful and very timely story.

Review: Defy the Worlds by Claudia Gray

Defy the Worlds (Constellation #2)
By Claudia Gray
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: Print ARC
Source: YALLFest

To Sum It Up: Noemi has returned to her home planet, but despite all that she’s done to try and defend Genesis as its battle with Earth continues, she hardly receives a heroine’s welcome. Instead she’s treated as an outcast for seeing so much more than a machine in Abel, the prized creation of the legendary scientist Burton Mansfield. Abel is still traveling the galaxy and has even assembled his own crew, but when Mansfield uses Noemi to lure Abel to fulfill his purpose, Abel doesn’t think twice about the sacrifice he will have to make to save Noemi.

Review: Defy the Stars was one of my favorite reads of 2017, so I was very, very much anticipating diving into the sequel, Defy the Worlds. The first book blew me away with the story of Noemi Vidal, a fighter pilot whose home planet, Genesis, is locked in a battle with Earth, and Abel, a mech whose programming is so sophisticated, sometimes it’s difficult to believe he’s not human. Mechs are a huge part of Earth’s strategy to defeat Genesis, and so Noemi’s first impression of Abel was less than favorable. Book one saw Noemi’s attitude toward Abel shift significantly, as they traveled from planet to planet trying to find a way to help Genesis.

The second book finds Noemi back on Genesis, where she’s become an outsider for seeing Abel as so much more than a mech. Abel, meanwhile, has assembled a tiny crew and is once again traversing the planets of the Loop, albeit with caution as he continues to try to evade his creator, Burton Mansfield. Mansfield built Abel for a sole purpose—to house the scientist’s brain after his death. With Mansfield ever closer to that point and desperate to find his “son,” Abel must always stay one step ahead of a man whose genius makes that task seemingly impossible.

Defy the Worlds wastes no time plunging Noemi and Abel into intense action. Earth deploys the deadly Cobweb virus, which Noemi survived in the previous book, against Genesis, and Noemi’s attempt to get help ends up in her capture—by Mansfield and his daughter, Dr. Gillian Shearer. They use Noemi as bait to draw Abel out, knowing that he’ll do anything to save her.

I happened to be watching the first season of HBO’s Westworld while reading Defy the Stars, and by another stroke of coincidence, I read Defy the Worlds during season 2 of Westworld. I’m fascinated by how both the books and the TV series examine how close a machine can come to being human and all of the ethical issues that question raises. Defy the Worlds takes mech tech even further, with Mansfield’s latest iteration offering potential immortality. That is, only to a very select few in comparison to the size of the galaxy’s population. I love how deep this series is, exploring the possibility that a mech might have more humanity than an actual human being.

Although I very much enjoyed reading about Noemi and Abel again, I did feel that this was slower paced than book one. Defy the Worlds was still an excellent read, though, with plenty to love, including some fantastic character development for our two protagonists. The book left off on a hell of a whopper, which makes me all the more eager to get my hands on book three.

All in All: Defy the Worlds was a very solid follow-up to Defy the Stars and definitely worth the wait. I didn’t find it as fast paced as the first book, but otherwise it was awesome to be back with Noemi and Abel once more.

Review: Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray

Defy the Stars (Defy the Stars #1)
By Claudia Gray
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley

To Sum It Up: Noemi Vidal is ready to die for her home world of Genesis in its ongoing war with Earth, but her path takes a different turn when she ends up on board a ship that was abandoned thirty years ago with only a robot mech named Abel left behind. Abel longs to reunite with his creator, the renowned genius Burton Mansfield, but Abel’s programming dictates that he must also follow Noemi’s orders, even if they aid Earth’s enemy. As Noemi and Abel traverse multiple planets together, what began as a machine obeying its instructions becomes far more complicated, as Abel discovers just how much he’s evolved over thirty years and Noemi cannot help but see him as more than a mech.

Review: FINALLY—my first 2017 read above 3 stars! I’ve been in a horrible reading slump since late 2016, really, and I’d started to worry that it would never end. Thank you, Defy the Stars for breaking me out of the slump at last!

I’m sure that I would’ve loved this book as much as I did based solely on its own numerous merits, but the way in which it reminded me of HBO’s Westworld, a show that completely blew my mind, just pushed Defy the Stars over the top. Abel, one of the novel’s two main characters, is a mech, a combination of organic parts and technology, modeled after his brilliant creator, Burton Mansfield. Mansfield’s genius is so acclaimed, he’s practically a mythical figure. I did feel that there were even a few parallels between Mansfield and Westworld’s own mastermind, Dr. Robert Ford.

I absolutely loved Abel and his story line. After Mansfield and the rest of the human crew on board the spaceship Daedalus abandon it, Abel is stranded in space, all alone for thirty years until the book’s other protagonist, Noemi, unintentionally finds both the Daedalus and Abel. Although Abel’s been programmed to protect Mansfield, the man whom Abel considers his father, Abel’s programming also directs him to follow the orders of the highest human authority on the ship. Noemi ends up being that human. On Genesis, Noemi’s home planet, mechs are seen as soulless killing machines; having to place her trust in a mech goes against every one of her beliefs and instincts. Abel, being as advanced in intelligence as he is, realizes that his rescue from isolation may be short-lived with his fate in Noemi’s hands.

Claudia Gray gives both of her protagonists so many layers to their characters and develops them wonderfully. Noemi is a fierce fighter, willing to do anything to save her planet from being destroyed by Earth. Although ensuring a future for Genesis remains close to Noemi’s heart throughout the book, traveling to other planets with Abel opens her eyes and mind to the possibility that Genesis’s strategy for ending the war with Earth might not be the only way. Abel and his evolving programming also challenge Noemi to question everything she’s ever believed about mechs, which she’s encountered in battle all too often. Abel, however, proves himself to be a different kind of mech. He is the only model of his type, programmed with the skills of the other mech models but possessing a continuously developing personality. Sometimes Abel himself pauses to wonder whether a new feeling he’s experiencing is merely a malfunction or part of Mansfield’s design. The line between man and machine becomes very, very fine, and Gray just nails this aspect of the book. One thousand percent. It is so, so, so easy to forget that Abel is not entirely made of flesh and blood. He’s even got some sass! Abel melted my heart, too, which is not an easy feat.

I’m kind of a reluctant sci-fi reader; previous sci-fi books that I’ve read were too heavy on the technical details of the world and/or contained lots of info dumps. Defy the Stars features the perfect amount of world-building, enough where I feel immersed in the world but without being overwhelmed by endless minute details. The best thing about the world-building here? It’s done through showing, not telling! My last few reads employed a lot of telling, and it was exhilarating to finally encounter some skillful showing.

I’m still thinking about how amazing this book was, which pretty much illustrates the amount of love I have for it. Defy the Stars is a thrilling sci-fi adventure that also stirs the heart and asks how human a machine can be. There are many facets to this book, and each one is highly compelling and engrossing to read about.

All in All: Defy the Stars was so damn good! Westworld fans should find this especially intriguing, but even if you’ve never watched the show, this is such a winning, thrilling sci-fi novel!

Review: The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid

The Diabolic (The Diabolic #1)
By S.J. Kincaid
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Format: eBook
Source: Jellybooks

To Sum It Up: Diabolics like Nemesis are bred to protect a single human—and to kill anyone who poses a threat to that individual. Nemesis must do whatever is necessary, including sacrifice herself, to keep Sidonia von Impyrean, the daughter of a galactic senator, safe. When Sidonia’s father angers the galactic emperor, the latter retaliates by summoning Sidonia to court. It’s Nemesis, however, who assumes Sidonia’s identity and goes in her place. At court, Nemesis must navigate potentially lethal politics in order to guard her secret and Sidonia’s life.

Review: Promotion for The Diabolic around its release date drew my attention to the book, so when the opportunity to read it popped up, I totally went for it. A cool cover and a protagonist named Nemesis? Sign me up!

Nemesis certainly lives up to her daunting name. She is a Diabolic, engineered to protect only Sidonia von Impyrean, the daughter of a galactic senator, at all costs. Nemesis is a born killer, and her unique skill set is on display several times throughout the book. Nemesis and Sidonia inhabit a futuristic world where scientific advancement is banned and the elite Grandiloquy, led by the galactic Emperor, wield all the power. Politics are brutal in this world, and gentle Sidonia, the heir to her father’s title, is not cut out for them. So when the Emperor orders Sidonia to the galactic court as punishment for her father’s misdeeds, it’s Nemesis who’s sent in her place. All of the preparations involved in pulling off the impersonation reminded me of the transformation the main character in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising must undergo to also infiltrate the upper echelon of society. Unfortunately, I ended up having some of the same issues with The Diabolic that I had with Red Rising.

I’d seen some other reviewers mention that The Diabolic got off to a slow start for them and then picked up. I definitely found the pacing slow at the beginning, but it never gained any momentum for me. I also found the world-building rather thin, with a heavy reliance on titles to differentiate social rank. The details of the world just scratched the surface of it; I never felt immersed in it.

Politics and intrigue at the galactic court, which often resembles the Roman Empire with all of the debauchery that goes on there, take up a lot of the book. That would have been fine if there also hadn’t been so much telling. I couldn’t find much investment in the plot or the characters. I kept reading, hoping that I’d finally discover some aspect of the novel that would spur me on to read, but alas, I slogged through to the end.

Something that I do think the book does well is examining Nemesis’s increasingly conflict thoughts on her increasingly human behavior. Sidonia has always treated Nemesis like a sister—like a human being. Nemesis has always drawn the line, fully aware that she was created by science to be a killer. The novel touches on the nature vs. nurture debate, and it’s rather thought-provoking. It’s too bad that the rest of the book spends so much time on the excesses and scheming at court because the gray area Nemesis finds herself in, between human and a product of science, provides a really solid plot foundation. Or maybe I’m just feeling this way because I’ve been binge watching Westworld.

All in All: The Diabolic turned out to be a very long read for me. I definitely wasn’t expecting the intensive focus on the day-to-day goings-on at the galactic court. I also wanted to know more about the history of this world than what was given. Telling rather than showing was the biggest issue for me, and I won’t be going further with the series.

Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund

For Darkness Shows the Stars (For Darkness Shows the Stars #1)
By Diana Peterfreund
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Elliot and Kai were born on the same day, but in vastly different spheres. Elliot is a Luddite, part of the wealthy landowning class that shunned technology and avoided the disastrous consequences of the Reduction, a catastrophic event that resulted from genetic over-experimentation. Kai is a Post, a laborer on Elliot’s family’s estate and seen as nothing more by the Luddites—except for Elliot. Over the years, Elliot and Kai’s friendship grows into something more, but when the two are older and Kai wants Elliot to leave the North estate with him, she chooses her responsibilities to the estate and its workers. A heartbroken Elliot never expects to see Kai again, so his reappearance a few years later, now as Captain Malakai Wentforth, stuns her. Not only does Kai still harbor all of his anger at her, but there’s something fundamentally different about him that makes him practically a stranger to Elliot.

Review: For Darkness Shows the Stars is a sci-fi-ish retelling of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which happens to be my favorite book EVER. I’m not usually drawn to alternate takes on Austen novels out of wariness that they just won’t measure up to the originals. The novelty of a YA story based on Persuasion, however, proved too difficult to resist, and my curiosity won out.

Even if Persuasion wasn’t so beloved to me, I think I’d still have the same issues with For Darkness Shows the Stars. While it’s evident that Jane Austen’s novel is held in high regard and her original work is rather successfully transplanted to a new setting, I just didn’t care for the new setting. The world gives the impression of being futuristic, yet some of the clothing descriptions hint at the past. I definitely needed more details about the history within this story. The explanation of the Reduction, the apocalyptic event that resulted in the Reduced, individuals with limited intelligence who’ve essentially become slave labor for the landowning Luddites, came in dragged out dribs and drabs. I still don’t feel that all of the blanks were filled in, and my struggle to totally understand how this world came to be put a big damper on my reading experience.

Science vs. religion factors heavily in this book. The Luddites believe that the Reduction was God’s punishment for science proponents pushing genetic experimentation too far. Because they rejected technology, the Luddites were spared. Although this is an interesting and thought-provoking debate, it’s not one that I’m personally passionate about or find page-turning to read about, and so there were stretches of the book that moved very slowly for me.

The main character, Elliot North, has a lot of internal monologues and the subjects became repetitive after a while. Elliot loves Kai, but he no longer loves her. Someone is going to find out about the genetically modified wheat that Elliot has created, which goes against the Luddite protocols meant to keep another Reduction from occurring. Elliot needs to protect the North estate’s workers, both the Reduced and the Posts (children of the Reduced born with normal reasoning abilities but still given the same social status as the Reduced). Elliot’s troubles are made very clear early on and don’t require all of the rehashing they receive throughout the book.

Unfortunately, the romance in For Darkness Shows the Stars did not work for me, either. Kai can’t forgive Elliot for choosing what she felt were her duties to the North estate over running away with him. I’ll give Kai some leeway for his broken heart, but I also feel that he often makes it his business to be cruel to Elliot. It got to the point where I just didn’t understand why she would want this guy back anyway. On top of that, I never sensed the chemistry between these two. They’re supposed to have been in love with each other for forever, and their letters to each other over the years are weaved throughout the novel (but not in chronological order). Even with this correspondence, I felt meh about Elliot and Kai as a couple.

What kept me invested in this book was finding nods to Persuasion, and I do think that For Darkness Shows the Stars does a solid job of telling its own story while still broadly following the main plot of the material on which it’s based. I just wish that the story and the characters here had been as compelling as their Austen counterparts and that the world-building had gone into greater detail.

All in All: I’d really, really hoped that this book would click with me, but sadly, it didn’t. I had too many unanswered questions about the world, and the love story, which I’d been looking to be swept away by, fell flat.

Review: Red Rising by Pierce Brown

Red Rising (Red Rising Trilogy #1)
By Pierce Brown
Publisher: Del Rey
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: Darrow is a Helldiver, a miner who digs deep beneath Mars for the element that will make the rest of the planet habitable. As a Red, the lowest social caste in a system that’s structured according to color, Darrow doesn’t expect to ever benefit from his labor. When a tragedy strikes, he’s ready to give up on life completely, but a rebel organization has other plans for him. Darrow is to become their secret weapon, sent on a mission to pose as a member of the highest ranking class, Gold, and to crush the oppressive social system from within.

Review: I seriously considered DNF’ing Red Rising about 100 pages in because it just wasn’t clicking with me. I put the book down for two days, hoping that maybe a little break from it would give me a fresh perspective on it. That turned out to be a no-go, and in retrospect, I should have listed to my Jedi instincts and DNF’ed this one.

I picked up Red Rising because—sci-fi/dystopia set on Mars! That sounded incredibly awesome, but unfortunately, so many things about this book fell short of my expectations. There’s been quite a bit of comparison between this and The Hunger Games, and Red Rising does center around a fight-to-the-death style competition. There’s even a Haymitch-like mentor figure. I do not, however, think this equal to The Hunger Games. My experience reading Red Rising actually reminded me of the issues I had with another mega-popular dystopian novel: Divergent. Shaky world-building, choppy prose, and a protagonist who didn’t exactly inspire enthusiasm were my stumbling blocks once again, but to a greater degree here.

Beyond the fact that a different color represents each class within the book’s social system, with Gold at the top and Red at the bottom, I couldn’t get a grasp on this world. There are further subdivisions among the Golds and titles, titles, titles (which of course belong to the ruling Golds). I couldn’t tell you the order of the leadership hierarchy other than that Octavia au Lune and Nero au Augustus are big cheeses in it. I felt like I was swimming in information throughout the book but without the development to make the world cohere. Instead, new info just kept getting thrown out there.

Slang usually doesn’t bother me, but here I found it distracting because it was used extensively. When it wasn’t “bloodydamn” this it was “gory” that, depending on whether it was a Red or a Gold who was speaking. I could not get a feel for the characters’ speech. At. All. Both the dialogue and the prose in general had an odd rhythm, which was a huge reason why it took me so long to finish this book.

And now on to the main character: Darrow. We didn’t get off to an auspicious start; I found him on the arrogant side from the beginning, a little too confident in his abilities as a Helldiver (basically, a miner). I did try—repeatedly—to move past my initial impression of him, but he made it tough for me to see him as hero material. Darrow is recruited by a rebel group called the Sons of Ares to literally be made over, most painfully might I add, into a Gold so he can enter the super elite, Golds-only Institute, rise up through the ranks, and then topple Gold rule from the inside. It’s all very “Chosen One,” and it doesn’t take Darrow long to very much start strutting around in that role. His narration becomes a string of “I, I , I” and “me, me, me” and “my, my, my.” Darrow’s ruminations on how much his followers adore him are occasionally broken up by the requisite reflection on how his wife, Eo, died so he could join a rebellion and bring down the Society. Even Eo knew Darrow was the Chosen One! Look, I’m all for rooting for the underdog, but I think our goodman (another overused slang term) Darrow here develops too fond a taste for the life of a Gold and is potentially on a path to learn the price of hubris.

Most of the other characters seemed flat to me, with the exception of Sevro and Pax, two of Darrow’s allies. Sevro’s brand of batshit crazy sort of amused me, and Pax had a “PAX SMASH” kind of thing going on that I found mildly entertaining. Otherwise, this book was one giant slog for me, and this series and I part ways here.

All in All: Sadly, nothing about Red Rising worked for me. The writing wasn’t my cup of tea, and Darrow wasn’t my type of hero. This novel has received a ton of glowing reviews elsewhere, though, so clearly I’m in the minority here.

Review: These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

These Broken Stars (Starbound #1)
By Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Publisher: Hyperion
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased

To Sum It Up: A chance encounter on board the spaceliner the Icarus puts military hero Tarver Merendsen in the path of Lilac LaRoux, the daughter of the ship’s builder and a man with wealth that Tarver can only dream of. Lilac, so accustomed to people trying to use her as a means to get to her father, makes it blatantly clear to Tarver that she wants nothing to do with someone like him. That’s unavoidable, however, when disaster strikes the Icarus and Tarver and Lilac’s escape pod crash lands on a planet with no apparent signs of other humans. Stranded for what may very well be the rest of their lives, Tarver and Lilac are forced to work together in order to survive on a planet where no one else seems to have been able to do so.

Review: Count These Broken Stars among the numerous books I decided to read because I’d seen it everywhere. I can’t help the curiosity that accompanies much buzzed about titles, and sometimes they work out. Sometimes they don’t, though, and I’m sorry to say that These Broken Stars falls into this category.

I feel like this book took forever to read. It would seem like I’d read a good number of pages, but when I checked, I’d discover that I hadn’t gotten very far at all. I kept waiting for the magic that had enthralled so many readers to kick in, but alas, I couldn’t find it.

These Broken Stars is told from the perspectives of its two main characters, Tarver and Lilac. He’s from humble roots and made a name for himself as a war hero; she’s known everywhere thanks to her incredibly rich and powerful father. So we have a guy and a girl from polar social classes who are passengers on a spaceship headed for catastrophe. I would have been all right with the very familiar ring of this story if only the book had not employed other tropes as well. First Tarver and Lilac barely tolerate each other, then they gradually warm up to each other, being the only two people on the planet and all. Normally I love slow-building relationships, but like so many other aspects of the novel, this one felt too formulaic. Just about everything that could have happened to characters in this disaster scenario happened to our two protagonists here and without really making me feel that their experience was unique.

Finding an investment in Tarver and Lilac as characters was also a struggle. There’s a lot of, “Someone like him/her doesn’t go for someone like me” and, “I wouldn’t be alive without you” followed by, “No, I wouldn’t be alive without you.” I will give Lilac credit for growing up significantly by the end of the book, though I wasn’t as enthusiastic about how she kept mentioning that her father would be apoplectic to find her with a commoner like Tarver. Tarver’s chapters echoed Lilac’s frequent thoughts about the class difference between them, and I became rather weary of hearing it from both of them.

The most attention grabbing element of this book for me was figuring out what was going on with the planet that Tarver and Lilac found themselves on. The mystery is subtle at first and builds at a nice pace as the novel moves along. The promise of learning about the planet’s secrets is what motivated me to hang in there with These Broken Stars; otherwise, seeing it through to the end would have been even more challenging.

Because the book is so focused on two characters and they didn’t stand out much for me, I never really got into this book. Plenty of other readers loved it immensely, however, so I encourage you to check it out for yourself.

All in All: I feel like I jumped too hastily on the hype train with this one, and I really can’t picture myself going on with the series.

ARC Review: Control by Lydia Kang

Control (Control #1)
By Lydia Kang
Publisher: Dial
Format: eBook
Source: Author’s Publicist/NetGalley
Publication Date: December 26, 2013

To Sum It Up: Following the sudden death of their father, sisters Zelia and Dylia Benten barely have a moment to grieve when they’re faced with more crushing news: they’re going to be placed in separate homes. Zelia fears for her sister when Dyl is basically abducted in front of her eyes to be brought to her new “family.” Meanwhile, Zelia is taken in by a mysterious acquaintance of her father’s and suddenly finds herself among a group of teens with unique traits. At Carus House, she learns that Dyl may possess a trait, too, and she’s in the hands of some dangerous people who are all too willing to use it for their own gain. Zelia doesn’t care whom she has to go up against, though; she’s prepared to take on anyone who stands in the way of getting her sister back.

Review: 2013 has been a very good year in dystopian reads for me. I read some really excellent ones this year, and I definitely count Control among them. It’s a smart mix of dystopia and sci-fi that can sometimes be dark in tone but also breaks out the humor occasionally.

I tend to steer clear of dystopians that are heavier on the sci-fi elements because I’m not especially keen on reading a whole bunch of scientific jargon. I’d say that Control is one of the more sci-fi-esque dystopians I’ve read, and while I couldn’t quite muster the same enthusiasm for lab work and genetic research that Zelia, the protagonist, displays, I thought anything technical was well explained. The novel also has a futuristic vibe to it with all of its intriguing gadgetry, and being a gadget geek, I loved how inventive this world was.

Where I think Control really shines is in building up the relationship between Zelia and her new “family.” Her life changes drastically in a very short span of time; first she and her younger sister, Dylia, are orphaned after their father dies in an accident, and then Dyl is forcibly taken away by strangers, supposedly to her new home. So Zelia isn’t exactly trusting when she’s given a place to live by a mysterious woman named Marka. Zelia quickly finds out upon setting foot in Carus House that its residents are extremely unique with personalities that don’t always mesh. That’s where the book’s humor makes itself known, in all of the snarky banter that gets exchanged around Carus. As the newest arrival, it takes Zelia some time to warm up to her housemates and vice versa, but it’s the development of a camaraderie between them that for me, forms the book’s heart. Yes, Zelia’s resolve to find Dyl is touching, too, but it’s Zelia’s gradual realization that she’s not so alone after all that struck the strongest emotional chord with me.

Control doesn’t shy away from venturing into dark territory, either. What goes on in Aureus House, Carus’s much less ethical counterpart, is downright disturbing. Its motives could not be more different from those of Carus, which tries to provide a haven for kids who possess special traits that are not allowed to exist in society. Aureus seeks to exploit these traits, and these are the people whom Zelia must tangle with in order to get her sister back. They’re formidable and ruthless, but Zelia is a determined heroine who’s willing to face impossible odds.

I expect a good amount of thrills and action from dystopian novels, and Control doesn’t disappoint in those areas. It also delivers on the plot twists; Zelia’s search for Dyl leads her to discover some unexpected things about her sister, their father, and even herself. Of course, you’re still left with more than enough to speculate about in future installments of the series, which I completely plan on reading.

All in All: This is a fine debut from Lydia Kang. I really loved how she gave the group at Carus House such individual personalities while at the same time conveying how close-knit they were. The dystopian/sci-fi elements were also well done, and I definitely recommend this if you’re into either or both of these genres.

Review: Partials by Dan Wells

Partials (Partials #1)
By Dan Wells
Publisher: Balzer + Bray

To Sum It Up: War with genetically engineered beings called Partials and a virus released by them to target humans have left humanity on the brink of extinction. No new babies are being born with immunity to the RM virus, and they die shortly after birth. Sixteen-year-old Kira Walker is training to be a medic and witnesses the dying newborns firsthand. She believes that the Partials, who are immune to the virus, hold the key to finding a cure. Kira devises a dangerous plan to enter Partial territory and bring one back to the lab to be studied. Her search for answers turns out to be more than Kira bargained for, though, when she discovers some shocking information not only about the Partials but about humans, too.

Review: I hadn’t read any reviews of Partials before borrowing it from the library, so I was a little surprised to find out that it was more of a pure science fiction novel than a dystopian one (though it also easily falls under the dystopian category). Science and I were never really pals in school; it never interested me as much as, say, English and history. Unfortunately, my lack of enthusiasm for all things scientific affected my enjoyment of Partials, which is an otherwise thrilling, intelligent story of humanity’s fight for survival.

I’m used to having to suspend my disbelief while reading fiction, but I thought that Partials asked me to accept a lot of things at face value. The Partials were created to fight for humans in the Isolation War with China, but the genetically engineered soldiers turned on their human makers, setting off the Partial War. An engineered virus called RM, attributed to the Partials, was released, killing most of the human population. The North American survivors are now clustered together on Long Island. Although the characters in the book discuss the Isolation War from time to time, I’m still in the dark about exactly what went on. The book plops you in the middle of a disaster scenario but doesn’t dwell on the details of how you arrived there. In this case, some additional background information on how this world came to exist would have been helpful, at least to me.

There’s even more going on in this story. The government has enacted a law called the Hope Act, which requires females eighteen years and older to be pregnant as often as possible in the hope that a baby with RM immunity will finally be born. A rebel group called the Voice vehemently opposes the Hope Act and creates all sorts of chaos to make its position known. The action in Partials is nonstop and very exciting, but sometimes I felt like I was experiencing information overload trying to keep up with the various plotlines, which apparently, I’m not very skilled at doing.

While I’m all for brainy, take-charge heroines in YA novels, which Kira completely is in Partials, I thought that she also suffered from a bit of a superhero complex. Her determination to save the human race is admirable, but there are times when she pursues her goal so doggedly that she loses sight of everything else, like how much she’s asking from her friends when she requests their help with her mission to find a Partial. On the one hand, I liked Kira’s fearless, can-do attitude, but on the other, her occasional tunnel vision irked me.

Along with the multiple plotlines, there is a host of supporting characters to keep track of. I was really intrigued by the Partial, Samm. The motives behind his actions are quite murky; I’d love to know what he’s thinking. I also liked Jayden and Xochi, two of Kira’s friends, but the rest of the characters sort of blurred together after a while, especially the government officials.

Getting past all of the science talk in Partials was a big hurdle for me, and I just couldn’t do it [hanging head in shame]. Readers who do love this type of thing should revel in the detailed descriptions of Kira’s RM studies. I also felt that the book had a lot of great ideas, but this abundance was also part of its problem. It tried to incorporate all of them, leaving some underdeveloped. Although Partials fell a little short for me, it’s sure to find plenty of fans among science fiction enthusiasts.

All in All: Anyone who likes dystopians which lean more towards sci-fi will probably enjoy this. I might read the sequel one day because I really liked Samm and would like to know what happens to him, but it’s one of those “I’ll get to it when I get to it” type of books.