Book Thoughts: Shadow and Bone

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: Grisha #1

After the first chapter of this one, I was reeling trying to keep track of all of the Russian-influenced words and place names. I’ll give it one more chapter, I told myself, and then I will put it down for the night.

The next time I bothered to check anything, I was several chapters and 53 pages into the book. I just had to know what would happen to Alina, what the Darkling’s secrets were, and whether they really could brave the Shadow Fold.

Leigh Bardugo creates in this series a fascinating world, obviously influenced by Russia but something entirely its own. And the Grisha are just a fantastic new twist on elemental magic. I thought I was going to be super confused trying to keep the details straight, but the writing makes it actually very easy to keep up. The story is unabashedly honest, dark, and twisty — and also beautiful. I put it down only to sleep. After the first chapter, I didn’t think I was going to like it, but keep going, because by the end of the book? I was turning pages hungrily and waiting desperately for the sequel.

Book Thoughts: Legend

Title: Legend
Author: Marie Lu
Series: Legend #1

I think I could read about Day and June forever. Very rarely can authors write a novel from two alternating first-person perspectives and actually sound like it’s two different people telling the story, but Marie Lu pulls it off brilliantly. Day and June are so different from each other but so strikingly similar, and they just sucked me in and I want to know what happens to them and ahhh I can’t wait for the third book. Okay moving on.

I loved the world-building in this. I was super confused at first as to exactly where the Republic and the Colonies were, but I always knew as much as I needed to in order to follow the story, and you only discover it slowly because it means nothing to Day and June — which only makes the dystopia that more chilling, but I’ll spare you my ramble about that. I loved (in a purely literary sense) the way the Republic was structured, I loved the way the characters interacted with the Republic, and I found myself far more emotionally invested than I ever meant to be.

I read — or maybe the better word is “devoured” — this one and the sequel, Prodigy, back to back over the span of three days, so I am super excited for the release of Champion. If you haven’t gotten your hands on this series yet, what are you still waiting for?! 

Book Thoughts: Code Name Verity

Title: Code Name Verity
Author: Elizabeth Wein
*Imported from tumblr*

Holy freaking cow. This book. I don’t know where to start.

Code Name Verity is one of those books that made me giggle and then tore my heart to shreds and now I want to share it with absolutely everybody, because it’s so beautiful and heartbreaking and real and ugh I’m about to cry again.

Code name “Verity" has been taken prisoner by the Gestapo. This book is her story — her story, and the story of her best friend Maddie. A spy and a pilot, two girls in an unlikely and heartbreaking situation during World War II, and the story of how they find, and re-find, each other.

The Nazis’ treatment of POWs is handled tactfully and without being overly gruesome while at the same time being hauntingly honest. And the realities of war become far too real in the pages of this book. But the girls’ friendship, and the kindness of strangers, and the often-forgotten humanity of even the enemy soldiers — those are equally powerful and real. And basically, you should DEFINITELY read this book.

Book Thoughts: The Demon King

Title: The Demon King
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Series: Seven Realms #1

I read this at the prompting of both my roommate and my brother and was not disappointed. It has the air of a typical fantasy novel: small villages and ornate palaces, swordfights (no gunpowder), and a mysterious history riddled with magic. And of course, there are evil wizards (and not-so-evil wizards).

I can't give this book a summary that does it justice (seriously, check out the Goodreads link), but I can tell you that I was sucked into both the lore and the story and very much drawn to the characters. Raisa is an awesome mix of kick-ass and the more typically feminine traits, and Han is a wonderful hero as well.

Fortunately, my brother has the second and third books in the series, so I'll be stealing borrowing those soon!

Book Thoughts: Slaughterhouse-Five

Title: Slaughterhouse-Five
Author: Kurt Vonnegut

I recently finished Slaughterhouse Five (by Kurt Vonnegut) for a school assignment. I chose it from a list for a few reasons: my father's been encouraging me to read it for ages, I've been meaning to read it for a while anyway, and, okay, it was at one point the nerdfighters' Blurbing Book Club book. 

It was so strange.

I enjoyed it, but it was very odd. It took basic chronology and totally messed it up. Also, there was an alien abduction. I can't decide whether it's historical or scifi or what.

I loved the way the author sort of tangled up his own story in Billy Pilgrim's. It made it kind of confusing at times, but I thought it was cool. I thought the set-up -- flashing between different moments in Billy's life -- was really confusing, until I got to the end, and then it sort of made more sense.

I did get really annoyed by the writing at times though. I felt like it had taken "show, don't tell" and turned it on its head to go with "tell, don't show." Sometimes it was amazingly difficult to just read. I felt like we only got to know Billy through how others saw him and not so much through who he was.

Have any of you guys read Slaughterhouse Five? If you have, please leave me a comment (or send me a message), I really want to know what other people think of this book!

Book Thoughts: Leviathan

Title: Leviathan
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Series: Leviathan #1

Would you rather oil your machines... or feed them?

This is the big question in this alternate-universe steampunk World War I. Leviathan follows Alek, son of the assassinated Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, and Deryn - aka Dylan - a girl disguised as a boy in the British air force.

The Germans, Austrians, Russians, etc. are referred to as "Clankers," because they rely on machinery - think the walkers from Star Wars. The British and French are the Darwinists, relying on the science of evolution to generate war machines that are actually alive. The Clankers and the Darwinists don't trust each other, never have, and war has long been brewing. This is the story of how it finally starts - and how Alek and Deryn are thrown together because of the enormous Darwinist airship Leviathan.

I really enjoyed the alternate history presented in this book. I'm a fan of steampunk, and the way the political history and world parallel ours but with different science is totally cool. And the characters are a lot of fun - even if I had hated the story (which I didn't), I would read the next book just for another couple hundred pages with Alek and Deryn.

Also, despite the fact that it's set against a backdrop of war, Leviathan really isn't a war book. The focus is a lot more on the characters and their small story than it is about the war they're caught up in.

I definitely plan to read book 2. Check this one out if you haven't :)