Category Archives: Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic

Review: Shatter City by Scott Westerfeld

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Shatter City by Scott Westerfeld

Shatter City (Imposters #2)
Scott Westerfeld
Scholastic
Published September 17, 2019

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About Shatter City

When the world sees Frey, they think they see her twin sister Rafi. Frey was raised to be Rafi’s double, and now she’s taken on the role . . . without anyone else knowing.

Her goal? To destroy the forces that created her.

But with the world watching and a rebellion rising, Frey is forced into a detour. Suddenly she is stranded on her own in Paz, a city where many of the citizens attempt to regulate their emotions through an interface on their arms. Paz is an easy place to get lost . . . and also an easy place to lose yourself.

As the city comes under a catastrophic attack, Frey must leave the shadows and enter the chaos of warfare – because there is no other way for her to find her missing sister and have her revenge against her murderous father.

My Review

It’s been a long time since I’ve read anything by Scott Westerfeld, and SHATTER CITY made me realize how silly that is. I LOVE his books! It’s so easy to connect with the characters and the internal struggle that Frey faced in wanting to be herself but continually finding herself stuck impersonating her sister.

I also really enjoyed the references to the Uglies series, which I also loved reading. It felt like sharing inside knowledge with Frey. (You can read this series without ever reading UGLIES. The references aren’t critical to the story.)

One interesting element in the story happens when Frey visits a city called Paz. While she’s mistaken for her sister, she undergoes surgery to have “feels” installed. These are buttons on her inner forearm that trigger different emotions when she presses them.

At first, Frey thinks they’re weird and stupid and that she’d never use them. But as she experiences difficult and traumatic situations, her thoughts about the Feels experience a shift. When she finds herself again surrounded by people without the Feels, she experiences another shift. I found that process interesting. It reminded me of the way we tend to judge people– perhaps especially people with mental health issues who take medication– who make choices we can’t imagine making for ourselves. But then when we find ourselves in the same situation, we make the very choice that seemed to unimaginable before.

I don’t think the Feels are supposed to represent medication or be a metaphor for that, though the topic of Feels as a remedy for depression does come up in the story. It just made me think of the way we sometimes judge others who live a different way than we do.

I really liked this book, and definitely recommend it. I think fans of THE HUNGER GAMES and MATCHED by Ally Condie will love it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 12 up.

Representation
One minor character is nonbinary. Another minor character is gay.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.

Romance/Sexual Content
Brief kissing between boy and girl.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Situations of peril and some battle violence.

Drug Content
None.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of SHATTER CITY in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Girls with Razor Hearts by Suzanne Young

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Girls with Razor Hearts (Girls with Sharp Sticks #2)
Suzanne Young
Simon Pulse
Published March 17, 2020

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About Girls with Razor Hearts

It’s time to fight back in this second novel in a thrilling, subversive near future series from New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Young about a girls-only private high school that is far more than it appears to be.

Make me a girl with a razor heart…

It’s been weeks since Mena and the other girls of Innovations Academy escaped their elite boarding school. Although traumatized by the violence and experimentations that occurred there, Mena quickly discovers that the outside world can be just as unwelcoming and cruel. With no one else to turn to, the girls only have each other—and the revenge-fueled desire to shut down the corporation that imprisoned them.

The girls enroll in Stoneridge Prep, a private school with suspect connections to Innovations, to identify the son of an investor and take down the corporation from the inside. But with pressure from Leandra, who revealed herself to be a double-agent, and Winston Weeks, an academy investor gone rogue, Mena wonders if she and her friends are simply trading one form of control for another. Not to mention the woman who is quite literally invading Mena’s thoughts—a woman with extreme ideas that both frighten and intrigue Mena.

And as the girls fight for freedom from their past—and freedom for the girls still at Innovations—they must also face new questions about their existence…and what it means to be girls with razor hearts.

My Review

This book kind of blew me away. I’m honestly having trouble even figuring out how to structure my review, because I feel like I just want to babble about how many things I liked. So here I go…

First, the relationships. Mena remains always 100% committed to the girls she escaped with and the girls she left behind. She respects their autonomy, but isn’t afraid to challenge them when she thinks they’re wrong. She struggles with being open, not wanting to burden them with her worries and fears, but they challenge her in that and expect her to be as open with them as she wants them to be with her.

And then there’s Jackson. Faithful, loyal, protective, but not overbearing. He’s a good guy. I think it took me a long time to like him in the first book, but I really liked him by the end of this one.

In my review of GIRLS WITH SHARP STICKS, the first book in the series, I talked about some concern I felt that the story might embrace revenge, particularly on the men who ran Mena’s school.

Throughout this story, Mena continues to be faced with situations that force her to choose between revenge and justice. Sometimes the choice is whether to trust the system of society and government versus taking justice or revenge into her own hands. I loved how deeply she considers each choice and how she explores the problem of evil in her experience. I found it deep and thought-provoking.

One of the most mind-blowing things to me, though, was watching the way girls were treated through Mena’s eyes, as someone new to the broader world.

The story has a dystopian/sci-fi/not-so-distant-future feel to it, so it’s not trying to say that our culture matches what the characters experience at the hands of men right now. But those experiences are pretty ugly. And many of them DO happen to girls.

I was alarmed, shocked, and angry at the things some of the boys at school said to Mena, and yet, when I stopped to think about it, so many of those things have happened to me. And I’m not sure I ever felt permission to be angry (not that I needed permission from anyone but myself) about those experiences. It just felt like no one would listen, no one would really do anything except tell me to get over it and expect boys to continue to act that way.

In the books, the girls find a book of poems that make them “wake up” and realize that things that are happening to them are wrong. That they’re stronger than their captors want them to believe. And that they have greater value than they can imagine.

For me, GIRLS WITH RAZOR HEARTS, has been that poem, waking me up. Giving me permission to be angry and to expect better. For all of us.

Fans of WRECKED by Maria Padian and WATCH US RISE by Renee Watson and Ellen Hagen definitely need to add this series to their shelves.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Mena is white. Her best friend Sydney is black. Two of the girls she escaped with are lesbians.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.

Romance/Sexual Content – Trigger Warning
References to sex. In one scene, a boy assaults a girl, forcing her to pantomime a sexual act (both are fully clothed) in front of a cafeteria full of people. Some bullying and sexual bullying.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
See Sexual Content. The girls discover a man who has been murdered and later witness a woman being murdered by a sharp stake to her head.

Drug Content
One scene shows teens drinking alcohol. Mena pretends to drink.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of GIRLS WITH RAZOR HEARTS in exchange for my honest review.

Review: How We Became Wicked by Alexander Yates

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , ,

How We Became Wicked
Alexander Yates
Atheneum Books/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Published June 23, 2019

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A plague, called Wicked, is pulsing through the world; and in its wake, it’s dividing the population into thirds:

The WICKED: Already infected by the droves of Singers, the ultraviolet mosquito-like insects who carry the plague, the Wicked roam the world freely. They don’t want for much—only to maim and dismember you. But don’t worry: They always ask politely first.

The TRUE: The True live in contained, isolated communities. They’re the lucky ones; they found safety from the Singers. And while the threat of the Wicked may not be eliminated, for the True, the threat has certainly been contained…

The VEXED: The Vexed are the truly fortunate ones—they survived the sting of the Singers, leaving them immune. But they’re far from safe. The Vexed hold the key to a cure, and there are those who will do anything to get it.

My Review

This book is sooooo creepy! The Wicked say some really violent things but in this cheerful, artless, innocent way. The juxtaposition of those two things gave me chills in lots of scenes.

HOW WE BECAME WICKED is told in two different viewpoints, from characters in two different situations that don’t, at first, overlap. One section follows Astrid’s point-of-view.

Astrid isn’t a super girly heroine. She’s very smart and practical, and almost detached from her emotions. I liked her, but sometimes that detached feeling kind of kept me from feeling like I understood or empathized with her. Astrid is the town leader’s daughter. She’s got an Ariel complex– you know, wants to be part of someone else’s world. Mainly she wants to escape the walls of her town and go somewhere else, find other True survivors.

The other point-of-view is Natalie’s. She lives with her parents and Wicked grandfather on an island with a lighthouse, too far from the mainland to be a temptation for other Wicked. The only thing that keeps Natalie and her family safe from her grandfather is the fact that he’s imprisoned inside the lighthouse.

Natalie’s point-of-view was easier to connect with, for me. I liked her courage and her loyalty to her family as well as her quick thinking.

Despite the separate storylines, I found the plot of HOW WE BECAME WICKED to be really easy to follow (And mostly not too predictable. I did guess one major twist, but only shortly before it was revealed.) and nicely paced.

Because of the nature of the Wicked, the story does show some violence. I know I mentioned this already, but it’s very creepy the way they talk about and commit awful violence with this innocent childlike glee. They don’t understand what it is they’re doing, which is one of the things that makes them so dangerous.

If you liked THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH by Carrie Ryan, definitely check out HOW WE BECAME WICKED. (Also, if you like zombie or post-apocalyptic stories, go read THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH because it is awesome!)

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Main characters are white.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used not very frequently.

Romance/Sexual Content
A brief, unwelcome kiss from a boy to a girl (he immediately apologizes for misinterpreting the situation). Some references to past intimacy between Astrid and Hank (the only two teens in their settlement).

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
The Wicked turn violent and talk about the violent things they want to do. They don’t seem to have any grid for the awfulness of what they’re saying. Wicked characters try to murder others using a wrench, guns, knives, a tank, and other items. There are some violent descriptions. They’re usually fairly brief, and more horrible because of the horror of the True witnesses and the Wicked’s inability to understand what they’re doing.

Drug Content
The town plans a celebration which includes drinking champagne.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of HOW WE BECAME WICKED in exchange for my honest review.

Review: Girls with Sharp Sticks by Suzanne Young

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Girls with Sharp Sticks
Suzanne Young
Simon Pulse
Publishes March 19, 2019

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About GIRLS WITH SHARP STICKS

The Girls of Innovations Academy are beautiful and well-behaved—it says so on their report cards. Under the watchful gaze of their Guardians, the all-girl boarding school offers an array of studies and activities, from “Growing a Beautiful and Prosperous Garden” to “Art Appreciation” and “Interior Design.” The girls learn to be the best society has to offer. Absent is the difficult math coursework, or the unnecessary sciences or current events. They are obedient young ladies, free from arrogance or defiance. Until Mena starts to realize that their carefully controlled existence may not be quite as it appears.

As Mena and her friends begin to uncover the dark secrets of what’s actually happening there—and who they really are—the girls of Innovations will find out what they are truly capable of. Because some of the prettiest flowers have the sharpest thorns.

My Review

GIRLS WITH SHARP STICKS is the first book by Suzanne Young that I’ve ever read, and now I’m thinking that’s a mistake. I liked her storytelling and the way she gets us inside Mena’s head so much that I really want to read more of her books. I’ve heard great things about The Program series, but I’ve just never read them.

One of the brilliant things about GIRLS WITH SHARP STICKS has to be the way that at the beginning, Mena believes the staff of the academy are looking out for her, that any negative feelings she experiences are because she’s in the wrong. As the story progresses and her understanding changes, her interactions with teachers and staff morph into something sinister and sometimes cruel. The way it’s written makes it feel like Mena’s slowly waking up, slowly realizing things aren’t right. I loved that element.

The only thing that gave me any pause at all is a line from a poem Mena finds and which gives her courage and makes her feel empowered. I loved that it makes her feel empowered and talks about girls who were once oppressed taking ownership of themselves and rising up. But the poem ends with this part about the girls then taking boys hostage and basically doing to them what men had done to them as girls. Having revenge on the next generation.

The thing that bothered me is that revenge element. First, I don’t think revenge really solves anything or is right. But more than that, when I’ve talked to people who oppose the idea of feminism, most often it’s because this is what they perceive or fear the real feminist agenda is: taking revenge on men, oppressing men in some way to make up for the way women were oppressed in the past. (I know that’s not what true feminism is.) Anyway, I guess I worried that people would read just that far in the book and think, hey, this book is advocating for something ugly and wrong, and then walk away thinking this is evidence of the dark feminist agenda creeping into teen fiction. I don’t think the series is going for a revenge-positive message, though. At least, that’s not what I got from the set-up for and hints about the next book revealed in the final chapters of GIRLS WITH SHARP STICKS.

In the context of the story, the poem is kind of foreshadowing in a sense. When Mena first reads the poem, feels like she idolizes this idea of punishing men as a gender. Through the story, though– and I don’t want to spoil anything– it seems as though there are a lot more layers still to come. Let’s say that the academy aren’t the only ones who want to use the girls for an agenda. So I’m withholding my judgment about the poem until I see where the series goes with this idea. I’m pretty intrigued, to be honest. I love when a story explores an idea through a bunch of layers, and it seems like that may be just what we get with this one

GIRLS WITH SHARP STICKS is perfect for fans of GIRL PARTS by John Cusick or UGLIES by Scott Westerfeld.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Representation
Two of Mena’s friends (both girls) are in a relationship.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently. Most of the swearing comes from one character, and it’s mostly f-bombs.

Romance/Sexual Content
Mena wonders what it’s like to kiss a boy she likes. She wants to at one point. We see some tender exchanges between Marcella and Bryn, the two girls who are dating. Hand-holding, embracing, that sort of thing.

At one point, one of the girls buys a women’s magazine and they read an article in it about how to please men sexually. Most of the information remains pretty vague. They giggle and tease about whether a certain boy would like “number four” on the list and things like that. At one point, a girl makes a reference to oral sex. Another girl asks why the women’s magazine is about pleasing men instead of about women.

Some of the things the teachers or staff members say and do toward the girls become pretty creepy. They have so much power over the girls. Mena feels terrified at more than one point. Definitely a trigger warning for anyone who’s sensitive to that feeling of panicked helplessness.

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
Some of the staff members become increasingly rough with the girls. One altercation becomes fatal. It’s described in pretty graphic detail.

Drug Content
Staff members give the girls pills every night which they call vitamins. Mena quickly begins to suspect that they’re much more than that. One character poisons others with plants from the garden the girls care for.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links.

Review: Fallen Kingdom by Elizabeth May

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , ,

Fallen Kingdom (The Falconer #3)
Elizabeth May
Chronicle Books
Published on June 13, 2017

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About Fallen Kingdom
The long-awaited final book in the Falconer trilogy is an imaginative tour-de-force that will thrill fans of the series. Aileana Kameron, resurrected by ancient fae magic, returns to the world she once knew with no memory of her past and with dangerous powers she struggles to control. Desperate to break the curse that pits two factions of the fae against each other in a struggle that will decide the fate of the human and fae worlds, her only hope is hidden in an ancient book guarded by the legendary Morrigan, a faery of immense power and cruelty. To save the world and the people she loves, Aileana must learn to harness her dark new powers even as they are slowly destroying her. Packed with immersive detail, action, romance, and fae lore, and publishing simultaneously in the UK, The Fallen Kingdom brings the Falconer’s story to an epic and unforgettable conclusion.

My Review
Have you had the experience with a book where you get so invested in a certain outcome that you really might give up the book if a certain thing happens (or doesn’t happen)? I felt that way about this book. I felt like I’d been through so much with these characters, and I needed to know that at least one thing in particular was going to be okay. It didn’t happen the way I expected, but it did happen.

This is a pretty dark series, but this book is the darkest of the three. Kiaran’s Unseelie curse has returned, making him dependent on biting humans to survive. The world has begun to fracture, which can only be remedied by him or his sister being killed unless Aileana can find the ancient book in which the original curse pitting Seelie and Unseelie fae against each other was written. The story world is rich and dark, as it is in all three books in the series. The earlier books have a little more banter and fun between characters. In this one, things are very tense, though there’s still some banter.

I’m glad I finished the series—I really wanted to know how it all ended—but this wasn’t my favorite book of the three. There were some really satisfying moments where people get their due, and some heartbreaking moments where beloved characters breathed their last. I totally bought in and was hooked on the characters, especially Aileana, Kiaran, and his sister.


Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
Major characters are white or not physically described. One character reveals she’s a lesbian.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Infrequent use of extreme profanity.

Romance/Sexual Content
Intense kissing between man and woman. Some scenes show them having sex with brief descriptions.

Spiritual Content
Faeries have magic which they use to attack others. Aileana has the magic a dying faerie gave her, but using it will kill her eventually.

Violent Content
Aileana is caught in the middle of a fae war. She battles and kills fae enemies as well as some creepy undead things. Some fae must bite humans in order to survive (sort of like vampire faeries).

Drug Content
Once a human is bitten by a member of the fae, they’re addicted to the venom.


Review: Vanishing Throne by Elizabeth May

Book Review and Content, Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic, Fantasy, New Adult 18up, Romance, Young Adult/Teen 12-18, , , , , , , , ,

The Vanishing Throne (The Falconer #2)
Elizabeth May
Chronicle Books
Published on June 21, 2016

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About The Vanishing Throne
Everything she loved is gone.

Trapped. Aileana Kameron, the Falconer, disappeared through the fae portal she was trying to close forever. Now she wakes in an alien world of mirrors, magic, and deception—a prisoner of the evil fae Lonnrach, who has a desperate and deadly plan for his new captive.

Tortured. Time after agonizing time Lonnrach steals Aileana’s memories, searching for knowledge to save his world. Just when she’s about to lose all hope, Aileana is rescued by an unexpected ally and returns home, only to confront a terrifying truth. The city of Edinburgh is now an unrecognizable wasteland. And Aileana knows the devastation is all her fault.

Transformed. The few human survivors are living in an underground colony, in an uneasy truce with a remnant of the fae. It is a fragile alliance, but an even greater danger awaits: the human and fae worlds may disappear forever. Only Aileana can save both worlds, but in order to do so she must awaken her latent Falconer powers. And the price of doing so might be her life…

My Review
After I read the first book in The Falconer series, I couldn’t wait to read this one. Somehow it still took me like two years to do it, though. Oops.

What I loved: witty banter between characters, and one new character in particular. I loved Kiaran’s sister. She’s not at all like the stereotypical fae with the moodiness or aloofness. She has this open curiosity and goofy sense of humor but still feels like a member of the fae somehow. I liked her a lot. I also really enjoyed Aileana’s friend, a pixie named Derek. I’d forgotten all about him between books, but once he came back on the scene, I was hooked all over again.

The romance element remains strong and some very interesting plot twists place a lot of obstacles between Aileana and her happily-ever-after. Some of those twists took me completely by surprise, but they made so much sense looking back. I love when a story has a turning point like that, where it makes you go back and see all the earlier parts differently.

One thing that I kind of missed from The Falconer is that Aileana used to be much more concerned with propriety. She makes sure to have boundaries in her relationships with men. In this book, she has no thought for boundaries or her future. Some of that makes perfect sense, since the story has a much more post-apocalyptic feel, so it would be weird if her feelings about her future didn’t change. I guess there wasn’t really a point where she evaluated her beliefs and changed. She kind of just gets swept up in her relationship with Kiaran and never appears to think about any consequences to her actions. It wasn’t a huge deal in the story, but for anyone who read the first book thinking the series wouldn’t have any sex in it because of the time period it’s set in and Aileana’s personal beliefs, just know that isn’t true.

Reading Vanishing Throne made me super interested in reading the series finale, Fallen Kingdom. I love the strong heroine and the memorable characters, so I’m definitely eager for more. The series is a great pick for fans of Julie Kagawa.

Recommended for Ages 14 up.

Cultural Elements
The story is set in Scotland, so most characters are white and upper class.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very frequently. A few instances of stronger curses.

Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between man and woman. One scene shows them undressing and going to bed together. It’s obvious they have sex but not graphically described.

Spiritual Content
The story contains faeries and monsters who possess magic. Some humans have specialized abilities which allow them to sense faeries or resist their magic. Some fae have an alliance with humans and use magic to protect them.

If a human dies and comes back to life, they may return with the ability to see the Fae. It can also unlock other gifts.

Violent Content
Battle scenes with some descriptions of injuries. Aileana is captured by fae at one point and tortured. Mostly her torture is mental. For instance, eventually, the isolation becomes a huge burden and she becomes eager for her captor’s visits. He bites her repeatedly, and his venom causes some additional pain.

Drug Content
Fae bites inject a venom that humans find addicting. At one point, a small group sit together drinking whiskey.