The Serpent’s Shadow- Rick Riordan

The Serpent’s Shadow is the third book in Rick Riordan’s Kane Chronicles series. As I’m pretty sure I said in my review of the second book in this series, there’s not a lot to say about these books that hasn’t already been covered. This one is a continued story of Carter and Sadie Kane, brother and sister duo out to save the world from chaos with the help of Egyptian Gods. Basically if you pick up something from Riordan, you know what you’re getting.

That’s not a bad thing at all, though. The Serpent’s Shadow was entertaining, if a bit less engrossing than some of his others. I think my biggest problem with the Kane Chronicles is that they’re no Percy Jackson books, even though they’re trying really hard to be. It seemed like when I was reading those, I always could remember the supporting players and what happened in the previous books, even if I needed to look up a summary online it jogged my memory enough. With the Kane books, I have problems remembering who everyone is and what has already gone down in their version of the world, even when I look up a plot summary. Not a ringing endorsement, I suppose, but that being said, I did enjoy reading this last book in the series.

3- Good, not great. Not something I need to read again. Percy Jackson’s got this series beat, and judging by the fact that series is still going strong and this one has ended, I think Riordan knows it too.

City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1)- Cassandra Clare

Suddenly faced with an unexpected afternoon off, a pleasant day (in the shade!), and a library due date, today I finished City of Bones, which as of this morning I could not have been more than halfway through. Worth it.

City of Bones is a book not unlike many other YA series out at the moment, full of supernatural beings, heroes, villains, romance, and suspense. This particular one focuses on Clary Fray, who witnesses a murder at the beginning of the book and is suddenly wrapped up in the comings and goings of the Shadowhunters, humans that devote their lives to hunting demons and policing the part human, part demon citizens known as Downworlders (which is where the expected werewolves and vampires come in).

Admittedly, the book started slow. It took longer than I’d like to get into it, but it certainly finishes with a bang. This is another series I can see myself getting sucked into pretty easily. It’s not quite up to Harry Potter or Hunger Games level, and I would even say that I liked Divergent more, but I enjoyed it at least as much (if not more) than the Sookie Stackhouse books and Twilight. Definitely more than Matched. (enough YA ranking? I think so).

Another solid 4, thanks mostly to the ending. I’ve already put a hold on the sequel.

Crossed (Matched #2)- Ally Condie

Crossed, the second book in the Matched dystopian series, picks up where we left off, with Cassia off in search of Ky, Ky’s life in question in the Outer Providences, and with the beginnings of a rebellion against the dictatorial Society.

Like with Shades of Grey, one of the biggest issues is that I don’t buy into the main premise. Why would the Society force these things on people? None of it makes any sense. This shouldn’t surprise me though, because the Society is not the main plotline of the book. That is of course, the love triangle.  As with Matched, Crossed’s biggest focus is on the Ky-Xander-Cassia issue, instead of on the more interesting rebellion against the Society. This rubs me the wrong way, and is my biggest complaint about the series. It’s clearly geared towards the Twilight crowd, but with even less of an outside plot and not very interesting writing (Cassia and Ky love each other SO MUCH! But Cassia might also love Xander! But Ky and Cassia write and recite poems to each other! They love art! The Society doesn’t like it! These seem to be the things that the author most wants us to focus on). 

It is also really irritating how the author constantly refers to things that the reader doesn’t know about.  Instead of keeping me invested, like it does with most other books, it frustrates me. When half of the book keeps referring to “Xander’s secret” like it’s some life changing thing with the stupidest, most obvious explanation being a “big reveal,” I am not interested, I am annoyed.

Yet, here I am, finishing the book in mere days. I don’t understand how this happened.  

2- for some reason I still flew through this book, despite all the complaints. I still want to know where we’re going to end up in this series. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know. I think it’s because I am a sucker for any YA book about a dystopic future.  I’m still not in a hurry to read the next one though.  

The Power of Six continues the story of John Smith from I Am Number Four. I don’t feel like I can say a whole lot about this one without ruining I Am Number Four, but suffice it to say that I enjoyed it as much as the first one. Spoilers for I Am Number Four ahead!

This one was a little bit different than I Am Number Four, but then again, it has to be, since now John can no longer stay in one place as he’s been exposed for the alien that he is. Travelling from city to city, Four and Six train together with an eventual goal of taking on the Mogadorians, with Sam along for the ride.

Interspersed with Four and Six’s story is that of Seven, Marina, living in Santa Teresa with her guardian, who has given up on the Loric cause. Both stories are equally interesting, and the narrators of both did a very good job.  

All in all, this one was an extra good three as well. I’m really looking forward to the third book in the series coming out this summer!

I Am Number Four- Pittacus Lore

My latest audiobook, I Am Number Four is another one of those YA books that I am a sucker for. Intrigue, excitement, fantasy, I’m all in. Let’s be real here, any YA fantasy book series that is good enough to have a movie made out of it, I’m going to read. Or in this case, listen to.

I am Number Four is the story of John Smith, Loric alien, who is being hunted by the mortal enemies of the Loric (and Earth), the Mogadorians. Nine Loric guard made it off of the planet and to Earth before the Mogadorians took it over, and those nine are being hunted and killed. Through a protective charm on the nine guard, they can only be killed in order. Three are dead, and John is number four.  

This was a fun book, and I immediately downloaded the sequel once I finished it. It’s about what you’d expect for what it is, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s an excellent 3. 

Matched- Ally Condie

Matched is a young adult/borderline children’s book that wants very badly to be either The Giver or The Hunger Games. Set in a futuristic world remarkably similar to that of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, all of our free will as a human race has essentially vanished. Calories and food are predetermined, jobs are assigned based on relative strengths, and romantic relationships are determined by the appropriate match of personalities. Cassia is 17 and headed to her Matching Banquet, and to her delight, is matched with her best friend Xander, in a match that everyone classifies as perfect. But the next day, just for a split second while reviewing her “courtship guidelines” the face of another boy shows up, and she knows him too: Ky. So, the question becomes, somewhat predictably, does she go with what is planned and reliable: Xander, or what may actually be her perfect, but unauthorized Match, Ky?

First, let me say for the record that I liked Matched. I like the concept, I like the main character, I like the future world. I was annoyed by the love triangle. Where Divergent was clearly a Hunger Games wannabe and I could not have cared less, this one is more obviously trying to target the audiences of mainstream teen books with its teen love triangle. I wish the author had focused more on the world around the characters, the choices Cassia and her family do have to make that aren’t already predetermined, and the ethics of having a Society that makes your life easier but steals your free will. It’s an interesting concept. I wanted to know more about it.

All in all, a good book and a good use of my time overall. I’ll be reading the sequel eventually, I’m sure. This one was somewhere between a 3 and a 4 for me. But in order from favorite to least favorite of the recent dystopic fiction trilogies, my ranking would be: Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched.

Where She Went- Gayle Forman

Where She Went, the sequel to If I Stay, is my typical type of audio book. Not complex by any means, but a good and engaging story, something that I had no problem listening and paying attention to. Spoilers ahead for If I Stay, which is a YA book that I read several years ago.

Where She Went continues the story of If I Stay, picking up several years after the tragic accident that left Mia without an immediate family. This book is told from the point of view of Mia’s high school boyfriend, Adam, who, we discover fairly quickly, is not with Mia anymore, but is still pining away for her. He has made it big with his band, Shooting Star, but is unrecognizable as the character from If I Stay. Throughout the book, we find that he has become a shell of his former self without Mia, and has very little joy in life, until a chance encounter with her brings him back.

I liked this book, but it was really nothing special. It was interesting to see the fallout from the accident, of course, and to see the way that the characters of If I Stay were affected. It was a good amount of closure for the first book. Solid 3.

The Throne of Fire- Rick Riordan

Are you ready for another entry in the “Am I Too Old For This?” category? Because the answer to this one is yes, absolutely.

Any book by Rick Riordan is targeted at an age group below my reading level. However, I have read all of his books, with the possible exception of anything he contributed to the 39 clues series, which is where I draw the line. This book is the second in his series about Egyptian Gods, the Kane Chronicles. Between these books and the Percy Jackson (Greek Gods) series, everything Riordan writes is kind of a sneak attack mythology lesson. The Kanes are siblings with magical powers, who can channel the powers of the Egyptian Gods Isis and Horus. In this second book, they depart on a journey to find the scrolls of Ra, the sun God, and master of all of the rest of the Gods, with expected obstacles along the way.

In all honesty, I don’t have a lot to say about this one. The most interesting thing about it is the way it’s told, Riordan gives us an author's note at the beginning explaining that what we are about to read is his transcription of audio tapes recorded by Sadie and Carter Kane, the titular characters. The way that the narrative switches between the two of their voices, with occasional sidebars to make comments outside the events of the novel is a clever way of moving the story along. Apart from that, the plot isn’t anything really fantastic. It’s exactly what you’d expect after reading a summary, and to be honest, I liked the Percy Jackson books more than these. These aren’t bad books, but unlike books like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games, what you see is what you get. There’s not a lot to read into, and there isn’t a lot of suspense. Since the story is set up as tapes recorded after these events have happened, you know that both Carter and Sadie are going to end up ok, no matter what occurs.

I’d say this is a solid 3. I’m not going to read any of these books again, but they are entertaining, pure and simple.

Next up: Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese, which Amazon has listed as a recommendation for me since I read (and loved) The Help.

Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher

My mom suggested this book to me after hearing about and reading it at the middle school where she works.  I am a sucker for well written books that are targeted at age groups below mine and after reading the summary thought it sounded interesting, so after Wolf Hall bombed so badly, I thought my brain could use the break.

Well, as it turns out I didn’t get much of one. Thirteen Reasons Why has quite a morbid subject matter, and was fairly upsetting, but bear with me on this one.  If you trusted me with Room and its weirdness, you can trust me on a teen book about suicide. 

From the very beginning of the book we know that Hannah Baker killed herself.  After days have passed, Clay Jenson, who went to school with Hannah and had a crush on her, receives a brown package full of cassette tapes with no return address. On these tapes is Hannah’s voice, explaining thirteen reasons why she gave up, thirteen people who contributed actions and words to the snowball effect that eventually caused her to take her life.  Each of these thirteen people will receive the tapes and listen to them before passing them on.  The book chronicles Clay as he listens to each recording, following a map that was given with the tapes to the places where significant events occurred, providing us with Hannah’s running commentary interspersed with Clay’s reactions. This was not unlike an audio tour at a museum, which is where the author got the idea for this writing style.

Most of all I enjoyed the style of writing in this book, it was a genius idea from Asher to cut the present day thoughts Clay was having with Hannah’s discussions about life and high school.  In addition, although it was a serious and morose subject matter, at no point did Asher take it to a deeply psychological perspective, instead merely documenting the events that lead to Hannah’s depression.  It was a page turner for sure, and I think given more free time in the past couple of days I could have read it in a matter of hours. The book is written like a suspense novel, and there is lots of material for the reader to wonder about: How Clay fits into the tapes chief among them.

3- All in all, I found this to be an important book about the way that high schoolers, or people in general treat each other.  It certainly makes you think twice about the way that you interact with others. I don’t need to read it again, but I did find it an engrossing and worthwhile read.

Next up: The Tiger’s Wife, which is getting a lot of press for its author, who is ironically the same age as me, yet has already been named on the New Yorker’s 20 authors under 40 to watch.