Music Monday ~ VITAMIN STRING QUARTET

If you've been reading my posts, you know I write creatively all the time. I can't write unless I'm able to completely zone out of the world around me. One of the main things that helps me do that is music, but I can't do music with lyrics. Imagine my happiness when I discovered The Vitamin String Quartet, an instrumental group that remakes pop music on the strings. Take a listen to something I never thought was possible, Poker Face by Lady Gaga on the violin.

THE GARDENER Review

Mason has never known his father, but longs to. All he has of him is a DVD of a man whose face is never seen, reading a children’s book. One day, on a whim, he plays the DVD for a group of comatose teens at the nursing home where his mother works. One of them, a beautiful girl, responds. Mason learns she is part of a horrible experiment intended to render teenagers into autotrophs—genetically engineered, self-sustaining life-forms who don’t need food or water to survive. And before he knows it, Mason is on the run with the girl, and wanted, dead or alive, by the mysterious mastermind of this gruesome plan, who is simply called the Gardener.

Will Mason be forced to destroy the thing he’s longed for most?
From goodreads.com

I will admit, the main reason I picked up this book was because I loved S.A. Bodeen's The Compound. You can read my review here if you wish. But yes, I picked up The Gardener already in love with S.A. Bodeen's writing style and the ultimate strength and speed of her novels.

So, once beginning, I found it hard to stop reading. Yes, the beginning of this book was a bit slower than the other, but, because I knew the pace at which Bodeen writes, I continued to read. And continuing was not in vain. Once the action began, it didn't let up.

The girl has to be my favorite character in this novel. Mason doesn't know her name, and neither does she, and neither of them know what exactly happened to her, but this mystery surrounds her and the story and quickly develops into something greater, the source of the action.

One thing that I loved in reading The Compound was the ethics issues it addressed. The same sort of things come up in The Gardener. Is it alright to experiment on children from birth if they will be capable of continuing the human race? Not only this, but it questions our own world. How long to we have until our food supply runs out and what are we willing to do about it?

These are the questions at the core of the novel, keeping me reading, making me want to finish the book quickly. One thing I have noticed between both of Bodeen's novel is the issue of family, or, rather, dysfunctional families. Both novels had families that didn't get along completely, or didn't function as a whole.

Again, the characters are real, with real fears and desires, faults and quirks. And the situation is believable, both of which are important to the structure of the story. If there is one thing I can complain about, it is the fast paced ending that happens too quickly to read, which isn't a complaint at all.

As with the first book I read from Bodeen, I loved the epilogue. The way the entire story was wrapped up so seamlessly can only be done by a master and I must agree that Bodeen is one. Great job and I look forward to more.

Rating: A

Things I've Learned Thursday

Trust your gut when it comes to things like leaders. Often times, the new leader can be far worse than the old. Keep your eyes open.

BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS ~ Review

Daelyn Rice is broken beyond repair, and after a string of botched suicide attempts, she's determined to get her death right. She starts visiting a website for "completers"- www.through-the-light.com.

While she's on the site, Daelyn blogs about her life, uncovering a history of bullying that goes back to kindergarten. When she's not on the Web, Daelyn's at her private school, where she's known as the freak who doesn't talk.

Then, a boy named Santana begins to sit with her after school while she's waiting to for her parents to pick her up. Even though she's made it clear that she wants to be left alone, Santana won't give up. And it's too late for Daelyn to be letting people into her life. Isn't it?

National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters shines a light on how bullying can push young people to the very edge.
From Goodreads.com

Though I dislike comparing one book to another book simply because of the reason that all books are different because they're written by a different author, but I believe I must compare this book to another, very successful, one. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.

Here's the thing. Both books deal closely with suicide based upon bullying, but the approaches are different. In Thirteen Reasons Why, the girl's story is told in the past, a voice of the already dead, speaking to another person who could have saved her if they had had the chance. In By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead, the girl, the one who is bullied, tells the story from her point of view, looking forward to the day she plans upon killing herself. Two different things, as readers of both will notice as they read the book.

Through Peters' novel, each chapter opens with how many days are left until the day the Daelyn will kill herself. Having attempted before, she no longer plans to fail and is trying to plan how to make this her final attempt.

But a monkey wrench is tossed into her plans when she meets a boy who appears at the place where she waits for her mother every day. Something about him intrigues her, and, suddenly, Daelyn has a friend she shouldn't. It is this tension that makes the story so heart wrenching.

The mere thought that this young girl wants so badly to kill herself was something that kept me awake and, more importantly, kept me reading. I wanted to reach into the book and grab her and explain how much good there was in the world if she would give it a chance, despite thinking that Daelyn wasn't one to listen to things like that. Because her character was crafted so well, I hurt for Daelyn and cringed at her memories, wishing I was there to offer a comforting arm.

The book moves forward at a steady pace, despite the events being small. I can't pin down what it was that propelled this book forward, but something kept pushing me, pushing the story, prompting me to finish it in a matter of two days.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this novel, despite the touchy topic, and look forward to reading more by this author. If you haven't noticed, this book is different from the science fiction, fantasy, dystopian I usually read, and I enjoyed it! A welcome change to the usual reading.

Rating: A

Teaser Tuesday ~ THE GARDENER

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


The Gardener by S.A. Bodeen
From page 48

My hands trembled so much it was difficult to open the door. The girl slid into the middle and I hopped in beside her and slammed the door.

Music Monday ~ Mat Kearney

LOVE THIS SONG. Mat Kearney, Closer to Love. I heard it for the first time in the CW's Vampire Diaries and loved it ever since. Take a listen.

STORM THIEF Review

Orokos is a city of chaos, lashed by probability storms that re-order the world wherever they strike. It covers every inch of the rocky island that it dominates. It has stood for so long that history has forgotten it, and its citizens no longer question what exists beyond its walls. Then three of its denizens discover a map that holds the key to the secret at the heart of Orokos. But there are others, such as the Chief of the Protectorate Secret Police who would do anything to get their hands on that power...anything at all...
From goodreads.com

To be honest, that summary up there tells nothing about what the book is actually about. It doesn't tell you about Rail and Moa, two thieves, who come across and odd artifact from long ago science that allows them to pass through walls without a problem. It doesn't tell you that Rail and Moa, despite being told to give everything they have to the thief mistress, steal this item in hopes that no one will notice it. It doesn't tell you that the item is quickly missed and it sends Rail and Moa on a journey of a lifetime, fighting against the probability storms that literally shift anything in Orokos.

To be brief, I don't know what made me pick up this book. The cover is interesting enough. The summary is alright. The author has written other praised books. But something drew to me this book. More likely than not, it was the idea of a terrible society, a common theme I come back to again and again.

The story begins instantly, and kept me reading. Despite the lack of explanation, everything seemed to make enough sense so that I wasn't scrambling to understand. Some scenes were a bit confusing, especially ones describing the horrors that exist in Orokos because of the probability storms, but, in the end, everything formed together well and I was able to understand.

One thing that I constantly mention in my reviews is character and character development. When it comes to Chris Wooding's Storm Thief, these are done beautifully. Despite characters in many YA novels who have no flaws and live perfect lives, both Rail and Moa are conflicted in one way or the other and have struggled for years to make it by. To me, reading about a character who has faced troubles in their life is a lot more interesting than one who has had everything handed to them on a silver spoon.

Speaking of the rich, the rich, surprisingly, also play a role in this face-paced novel, a roll that I rather enjoyed because of how out of place these people seemed in a city that could take your breath away as easily as it could give breath to something inanimate. The rich were not exempt from this worry which made them all the more realistic in comparison to novels in which the rich have perfect lifestyles.

Another thing I love in books is when the book consists of multiple main characters, all of whom have an interesting role to play and ultimately come together in the resolution. Wooding did an excellent job at crafting these different personalities that all managed to work together without disrupting the flow of the book.

Overall, Storm Thief was a quick-paced novel that will appeal to both male and female readers because both male and female characters create the main roles. Wooding is an author I would love to read more from.

Rating: A