Review: Across The Universe by Beth Revis

Title: Across the Universe
Author: Beth Revis
Published: 11th January 2011
Publisher: Razorbill
Series: Across the Universe #1
Source: Kindle Copy

Seventeen-year-old Amy joins her parents as frozen cargo aboard the vast spaceship Godspeed and expects to awaken on a new planet, three hundred years in the future. Never could she have known that her frozen slumber would come to an end fifty years too soon and that she would be thrust into the brave new world of a spaceship that lives by its own rules.

Amy quickly realizes that her awakening was no mere computer malfunction. Someone - one of the few thousand inhabitants of the spaceship - tried to kill her. And if Amy doesn't do something soon, her parents will be next.

Now, Amy must race to unlock Godspeed's hidden secrets. But out of her list of murder suspects, there's only one who matters: Elder, the future leader of the ship and the love she could never have seen coming. - From Goodreads

In my experience it tends to be a bit hit and miss with sci-fi books. I either love them or I hate them and give up halfway through the book because I am totally lost. I love a bit of sci-fi when it is done well and I have always had a bit of a fascination with space, so I was hoping that this book would tick all the boxes for me. It did! It was definitely a sci-fi book, being set on a spacecraft, but it did not push reality too far.

Amy and her family are being frozen as cargo on the Spaceship Godspeed. The plan is to awaken in 300 years when they land on a new planet. A problem comes when Amy wakes with 50 years left on her journey. Soon Amy begins to realise that it was no mistake she woke early and things are not as they seem on the ship Godspeed.

I really liked all the main characters in this book, including doc. I was clear to see that Amy was struggling to hold herself together in this new life, but that she was a strong character and really enjoyable to read. I thought all of the other characters such as Harley and Orion were interesting to read and kept me on my toes.

Beth Revis created an amazing world on board the Godspeed. This amazing world was described enough to give me a very clear picture of what was going on in my head as I read. This story kept me reading. I found it really hard to put this book down to eat or go to the bathroom because I had to know what was going to happen next. This was a whole new society built into a spaceship which means that there are new rules and new ways to get things done. This is something I really enjoy and paired with all the twists and turns Amy encountered, this made for a great book.

This is the first in a trilogy, if the next two books manage to keep up the wonder and suspense then I am sure I will speed through them.

Review: Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Title: Beauty Queens
Author: Libba Bray
Publisher: Scholastic Pres
Published: 24th May 2011
Source: Own Copy

The fifty contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner.

What's a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program--or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan--or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?

Welcome to the heart of non-exfoliated darkness. Your tour guide? None other than Libba Bray, the hilarious, sensational, Printz Award-winning author of A Great and Terrible Beauty and Going Bovine. The result is a novel that will make you laugh, make you think, and make you never see beauty the same way again. - From Goodreads

So I wanted to read this book for a couple of reasons, firstly I absolutely love the cover and secondly I thought the story sounded great.

I remember at school Lord of the Flies was the first book we read in class that I could not get enough of. The premise of  a group of strangers being stranded on a desert island and having to fend for themselves is one of my favorites. There are so many different stories which can be explored with on top of this base storyline. What will they do for food? Is the island hostile? Will they all get along or will there be tension within the survivors? Will they be the only humans on the island? Do they have the knowledge to get everything they need to survive? Will any of them go crazy due to the situation? I could continue asking questions on and on and on... I am an absolutely massive Survivor fan.

I was expecting that Beauty Queens would feel a bit like reading Lord of the Flies, but I found that this was not the case. I felt that there was a lot more menace to the whole story with a weird alt-reality government and a wannabe president who wants to do deals with a psycho dictator who likes to dress as Elvis. All in all it seemed far more like Lost than Lord of the Flies. I had no problem with this and I think the alt-reality lent itself to some unexpected story twists.

So the deal with the alt-reality is that there seems to be a single overseeing body called The Corporation who are kind of like a national puppet master. They seem to have control over most things including pharmaceuticals, beauty products, clothes, weaponry etc... The story is interrupted every so often with "Commercials", which often made me laugh out loud, for products, programming or facts about the surviving Beauty Queens. I also got the impression that within this society there was massive pressure for women to conform to what is perceived as beautiful and that men could do as they liked.

I really enjoyed this book and by about halfway through some of the characters which had annoyed me to begin with had grown on me and I was rooting for them all. For me the real enjoyment in this book was the details, like the boy band song titles, or some of the male characters who were introduced later on in the story, however at times this could slow the flow of the story. My experience of this book may have been helped by the fact that I read most of this book on holiday lying on the beach.

Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Published: 1st September 2009
Series: The Hunger Games #2
Source: Own Kindle Copy

WARNING - DESCRIPTION AND REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR HUNGER GAMES

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the annual competition described in Hunger Games, but the aftermath leaves these victors with no sense of triumph. Instead, they have become the poster boys for a rebellion that they never planned to lead. That new, unwanted status puts them in the bull's-eye for merciless revenge by The Capitol. Catching Fire maintains the adrenaline rush of Suzanne Collins's series launch. - From Goodreads

My love of Hunger Games saw me transitioning straight from one book right into the next. I absolutely adored the Hunger Games and wanted to clap my hands at the end of the book when Katniss and Peeta won!! Woo Hoo, those two deserved it, they worked hard to survive against the odds and it turns out that their triumph was the spark needed to cause unrest within the Districts.

This book had a slightly different feel to Hunger Games. We already know from the first book what the Hunger Games are about and the power wielded by The Capitol to keep the Districts in line. I thought that the start of Catching Fire felt a little unsettled, almost like it did not know where it was going, however I think we are supposed to feel this way.

Katniss and Peeta are back from the Hunger Games and as you would expect, after surviving against the odds, they are feeling like they don't know their place within the society they have returned to. Quickly though the story returns to the Hunger Games and the environment we are familiar with, not failing to deliver on the suspense we found in the first book.

I can't rave about this series enough and will be forcing my Mum read these as soon as she has the time, along with anyone else who will listen to me about how good they are!! I can't wait for the film to come out!

Review: Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Title: Hourglass
Author: Myra McEntire
Publisher: Egmont USA
Published: 14th June 2011
Series: Hourglass #1
Source: Own Copy

One hour to rewrite the past . . .

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.
So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?
Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut. - From Goodreads

This book begins with a beautiful cover and then the writing and the story pulls you in and walks you along right to the end. In my mind this was a short book due to the fact that I could not put it down so it took me just over a day to read.

Emerson Cole lives with her older brother and his wife after returning from boarding school and, before that, a stint in a psychiatric hospital. Emerson has a special gift, which is what landed her in hospital in the first place, she can see visions of people from the past. Enter the dashing Michael!!

Michael is from the Hourglass organisation. I feel in this book we only touch on Hourglass and what it is but we are given enough to keep us gagging for more. More details, more Em, more Michael, more Hourglass!! I think that the writing in this book is very graceful. It does not feel like you get bogged down in anything. All the characters are well written and rounded and you quickly get a feel for what the characters are all about.

I loved this book. A wonderful debut from Myra McEntire and I am looking forward to the next in the series.