Sanctum

Sanctum

Madeline Roux

(Trigger Warnings: Pretty much everything. I'm not kidding, I tried to keep track of all of them, but this book hit almost all of the triggers I know. If you have any triggers, stay clear.)

Dan, Abby, and Jordan return to Brookline following a trail left by their previous enemy. Someone's been sending them photographs of a circus, with threatening notes scribbled on the backs. As they follow the clues, they find themselves deeper and deeper in the history of Brookline.

Haha I decided I had three sentences of patience. That's what happens. Okay, onto the review.

I seriously expected some second book syndrome. Even series I love with all my heart, I kind of roll my eyes (or glare, for the Son of Neptune). Plot twist! This book didn't have SBS! Or, in a mild enough form that I chose to ignore it. Either way, that's pretty good.

The characters stayed consistent. I mean, that's kind of like half of SBS. The characters get a wild makeover and suddenly they're just them by name. This makes it easier on me, because I can just redirect you to the first review for my feelings on the characters.

The main problem I had with this book was just the sheer overpowering Dan-ness. He did a lot, which is okay! Cool! That's the great part of a proactive protagonist! But at the same time, he did a lot. He really overshadowed the other two characters.

I loved all the plots/subplots. Horrific horror. (I'm going to admit- I don't read that much horror. It's up to someone else if it was really that scary. I thought it was.) Secret societies? Rad. They're ignored so often for things that aren't actually that scary, like zombies. I mean, secret societies really mess stuff up. And carnival horror, which have boomed for no apparent reason, since there hasn't been an actual carnival boom, totally worked.

One problem with the plot/subplots, though. I was sort of torn between it being a secret society horror or a carnival horror. Or an asylum horror (see paragraph under this one). They were all connected, yeah, but I felt like the connection to the carnival was kind of weak. Like it might simplify the novel a bit more if [Iiiii don't care if the world knows what my spoilers are] the hypnotist's stone [Goodbye, spoiler] had just been moved to a different setting and the carnival been cut off. Say, the [hello, spoilers, my only friend] hypnotist was passing through, sans carnival, and Daniel Crawford I saw him instead of going to the carnival [please wash hands of all spoilers]. I don't know. I might just be being fussy about plot matters.

Okay, I've grown and learned since I read Asylum, the first book. And I've realized something kind of great about this series. Most books relating to mental asylums portray the patients as 'evil, SCARY mentally ill ppl oh no bby so dangerous :'('. Honestly? Mentally ill people aren't scary. The wardens were terrifying. So, I'm really, really glad that there's an asylum horror that doesn't reduce the mentally ill to props. A book that's honest about the history of asylums.

Thanks

(I might as well just make the date for these things the 16th, huh. Also, short review because tttthhhhbbbbpppthbpppppp.)

~Corinne

On the Day I Died

On the Day I Died

 (Image via juniorlibraryguide.com)

Cadence Fleming

(Trigger Warnings (book and review): Death, fire, spiders, blood, the undead, murder- Okay, -almost anything that has the potential to kill you was in here. For the love of a Smiling God, do not read if you have basically any triggers.)

Mike is driving fast to get home before he almost hits a dripping wet girl with his car. He slams on the brakes, and, knowing he's already late and the girl is clearly miserable, offers her a ride home. Except her mother says she's dead, and her real home is White Cemetery. Michael's visit there, however, leaves him trapped by the ghosts that need to tell their stories.

I read this book the first time the same year it was published. I didn't have a blog at the time, and my tastes were kind of underdeveloped back then anyway. It became my favorite book. I read again recently and came to some frightening truths about younger me (Why did I feel the need to read about all these deaths? Why was I upset when a cat was mentioned to have died, but not when the narrator died?  What was wrong with me?). It now ranks as 'decent' on my book-o-meter. Let's find out why.

This book is the ultimate exercise of writing different voices. And it succeeded. The characters were all obviously individuals. Heck, it sounded like it could have been different writers writing, even, which I mean in the best way possible.

So, another part of this book is that they died in supernatural ways. A couple, though, went from 'ooooh spppoooookkkkyyyyyyy' to 'wait what'. And the first didn't really even go under the theme of supernatural. Unless there's something I missed there, which is totally possible.

The writing style, while it varied from story to story, was consistently interesting. Or, didn't leave me skipping over paragraphs out of boredom, even in the slowest-building stories. However, the descriptions weren't usually as detailed as I wanted. There was a lot left to the imagination.

An anthology of ten short stories usually means ten different settings. Or, it's in New York. But instead On the Day I Died is set in Chicago, and does that fine. It's not the same story over and over again, it's not even really the same setting over and over again. Way to milk your surroundings. Also in a good way.

Overall, good light reading for creep addicts.

(Sorry for the patheticness of this review, and the fact I missed the 15th...)

~Corinne

In the After

In the After

(image from naomibates.blogspot.com)

Demitria Lunetta

Three years ago, They came. Amy was watching TV while it happened, witnessing what looked like a spacecraft in the city center. Since then, They have attacked every human they find, and they attack to kill. Amy has managed to survive and rescue a toddler she named Baby. They both have to work to survive, staying in Amy's (luckily reinforced) house.

When they are captured and taken to a colony called New Hope, they believe they've reached safety.

But did they?

Sorry if this review is short or just weird, it was a while ago that I read it. By a while I mean like a week. Memory capabilities, amirite?

I'm surprised that I actually liked Baby. Usually small children in YA are used as an 'aww he's so cwute don't you wub dem' factor. Which I hate. They don't have a personality beyond being cute. However, Baby was interesting and individual. She was actually likeable, not just a prop. It's sad that's so exciting, but still.

Amy was very close to your typical YA heroine, but had an original streak enough to keep her interesting. She actually can express concern and do things! Wow! Why is this so hard to grasp in other books? Ms. Lunetta, thank you for allowing emotions and actions to coexist. That is important.

[Please properly dispose of all spoilered goods] Sadly, this is another book demonizing science. I hate this for two reasons- for the love of Athena, science is frickn' beneficial to society, and also the target for a lot of YA is girls. You wanna know what career field girls are being pushed out of? Science. Girls need to learn that science is cool and they can be part of it without being terrible plague-monsters. Girls could cure cancer and get us to Mars if we stopped acting like science was a boys-only club. THIS IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME I AM SCREAMING STOP DEMONIZING SCIENCE. [Spoilanger over]

 The pacing was good, though not much seemed immediately important until later in the book. The subtle details from the beginning being huge later was cool, but if the writing style hadn't immediately caught me I might have gotten bored with the lack of plot progression. As I just said, though- the writing style was (waitforitwaitforit) fan. (Okay, if you read the book you'd get it.)

The Florae (just referred to as They in the beginning) were an awesome example of a monster species. The had strengths and weaknesses, and the weaknesses weren't the usual Achilles heel sort of this. They couldn't hunt in the dark, which doesn't seem like it should be big and original, but it is. There's more, I just feel like discussing more would count as spoilers. Anyhow, great monsters.

The format later on with the flashes between the future and the present were cool. It could get a bit confusing with information revealed in the future and not mentioned in the past, but it wasn't what-is-going-on-why-am-I-in-this-dark-room-with-no-windows confusing.

[Spoilered milk] The ending was kind of... eh. I liked the idea of the Florae being alien or plant based. But the zombie thing? Meh. It just felt like a cop-out. No need for more zombie fiction, I swear. [Shh, it's over now... It's alright]

On the romance. It was kind of strange to me, like they weren't really being romantic but they also weren't in the sort-of-friends category? I kind of wish they were either slightly more romantic so it would feel like boyfriend/girlfriend, or slightly less so it was more close friends. 

(Yes, I know it's short)

~Corinne

Silver

Silver

(image from chriswooding.com)

Okay, I'm going to put the actual summary here, but I swear it's not because I'm lazy. You'll see why later.

Paul is the new kid at Mortingham Boarding Academy, and he has a dark secret.
Caitlyn admires Paul from afar and resents that he only has eyes for Erika.
Erika thinks that she and Caitlyn are best friends, but she's wrong.
Adam is a bully with a major chip on his shoulder.
Mark is outgrowing his old friends but doesn't know how to make new ones.

In a few short hours, none of this will matter. Without warning, a horrifying infection will spread across the school grounds, and a group of students with little in common will find themselves barricaded in a classroom, fighting for their lives. Some will live. Some will die. And then it will get even worse.

(Summary EBILLY taken from its amazon page)

Okay, this review has a lot of spoilers. You might as well ignore it if you don't want spoilers.

Silver is a book I'll have trouble describing. I desperately want to say it was good or bad, but it just... wasn't. It felt like it wasn't even there. However, I'll try my best to break it into parts.

The plot screamed "zombies!", but it wasn't a regular zombie book. It had a different take on zombies, making them something new and interesting. It also wasn't a robot-uprising book. Frankly, I hadn't ever thought the two could even come together, much less so well. Anyone know any other genre combining books like this? I'm really getting to like them.

The characters were distinct in their own ways, but I'm going to have to admit their voices didn't seem too different. That might have been just because the narrative was third person (making it, like, a yasreadyas first, I think). At the same time, it was just a little too hard to differentiate them. The boys were much better off than the girls in that respect. They had plenty of development and were active characters. Generally, they were just so much better than the girls. Caitlyn and Erika were nearly indistinguishable if you didn't pay attention to the opinions they were stating. 

Continuing on the last paragraph, I don't even think this book passed the Bechdel test. With two female main characters, I'm not certain if it passed the narrative Bechdel test, if that exists. Caitlyn's thoughts entirely revolve around Paul or being mad at Erika because Paul likes her. Just read the mini descriptions in the summary. The boys all get blurbs of their own. Caitlyn's is about Paul. Erika's is about Caitlyn, and it tracks back to Paul. I don't know, it just made me really uncomfortable how little Caitlyn and Erika acted on their own.

The boys, I'll restate, were really interesting. Paul was an extremely proactive character who's actions were great to follow. Mark was my personal hero, as the socially inept geek trying to look normal. And failing. Miserably. There are probably a few readers on here who can relate to that. Adam's backstory was blurry and a bit generic (bully who's only mean because of a bad home life, thus making them unaccountable for all actions), but his character, present tense, was strong and true.

The descriptions in this book were fantastic. How the Infected were shown was so interesting. It felt like you could really see them. Also, they were painfully creepy. So maybe you don't want to see them. However, if you enjoy being plagued by nightmares for what may be the rest of your natural life, this is your book!

Subtle mentions at the beginning of the book may become very important later on, just warning you. I liked how everything tied together that way.

Since the romance didn't quite exist outside of one-sidedly, I'll give you this mini-rant. Why is science always the bad guy in these books? Why? You are not helping anyone by making science evil. I mean...

(Before I forget, trigger warnings for the book- Suicide, death)

~Corinne

Asylum

Asylum

Madeline Roux

(Picture from r-moran.blogspot.com)

Daniel is a gifted student. Not in a paranormal sense, but a legitimately-smart way. He decides to go to New Hampshire College Prep, a five-week course for those wanting to enrich their educations. But NHCP harbors a dark secret, one that can only be found by going headlong into it.

I read this book in a day. This is saying something, because I'm usually a fairly slow reader and this wasn't exactly a magazine.

So, I'm sure you can assume from that that this was a good book. The main character, was fairly well developed and the plot was intricate and interesting. 

I like ghosts, so I'm going to have to say that this review might be a bit subjective. But otherwise I probably wouldn't have read the book, so that's how it goes with most of what I review. Sorry. 

You pretty much can't mess up ghosts for me. Actually, you can, but let's not delve into that since these ghosts were awesome and I don't want to get side-tracked. Yeah. Freaky messages, unexplainable notes and untrackable texts? Count me in. And I am so, so glad of this, Ms. Roux didn't go overboard with it. I know, ghost story, gotta be creepy, but when you put in too much writing on the walls? Nada. It's annoying, not suspenseful.

The characters I didn't like quite as much. The only one that really clicked with me was Dan, the narrator (which is kind of a shock because I usually hate the MC). Abby didn't seem to develop all that much, and Jordan finally confirmed the most bizarre trope I have ever seen in YA: The Camp Gay Sidekick Who Comes Out Really Early On Even Though it Doesn't Make Sense and Disappears Conveniently for the Romance to Take Hold. I'm not kidding. I have seen that way too many times. It doesn't even make sense. He comes out in the first minute he knows Dan. That's just wrong. And then he disappears when it gets lovey dovey. That's just odd.

Eh, enough about that, let's talk about the plot. As I said, it was intricate and well developed. I can't go too far describing it simply because I don't know how. It was good, okay? There. That's all I can say, that's all I care to say. I don't want to be too spoilerful. Spoilerriffic. Spoiled. Uh. Something. I don't know.

Okay, so, awesome. Let's get to the one thing that really, really bugged me, because something always does.

This book was extremely predictable.

I don't know if it's just me being a jaded little book emo or what, but I found it really predictable. I knew who the love interest would be as soon as we saw them (hint: it's not Jordan), I knew the antagonist and the antagonist incarnate.

I kind of blame Far, Far Away for the figuring out the physical antagonist, though. Yeah. I think otherwise that would have been a shock moment.

Overall: Good book, short review, kind of predictable, weird tropes with gays.

~Corinne