Review of Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick

Title: Revolver
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Published: 2010 (?)
Pages: 211
My Rating: 4/5

1910. A cabin north of the Arctic Circle. Fifteen-year-old Sig Andersson is alone. Alone, except for the corpse of his father, who died earlier that day after falling through a weak spot on the ice-covered lake. His sister, Anna, and step-mother, Nadya, have gone to the local town for help. Then comes a knock at the door. It's a man, the flash of a revolver's butt at his hip, and a mean glare in his eyes. Sig has never seen him before but Wolff claims to have unfinished business with his father. As Sig gradually learns the awful truth about Wolff's connection to his father, Sig finds his thoughts drawn to a certain box hidden on a shelf in the storeroom, in which lies his father's prized possession - a revolver. When Anna returns alone, and Wolff begins to close in, Sigs choice is pulled into sharp focus. Should he use the gun, or not?


My Review: 


This was a lightning fast read. Barely 200 pages with large writing, I read it in a day! I'm really having a hard time to come up with anything to say for this review, it was just a perfect little read that was brilliantly written.


Set in the Arctic Wilderness in 1910. Sig discovers his father frozen to death and sits alone in his cabin with the corpse and his father's revolver. Not long after, a strange man named Wolff shows up claiming business with Sig's father which he now expects Sig to complete. 


Wolff was an extremely disturbing character. I felt for Sig as though I was sitting in the cabin with intimidating form myself. The current story was interspersed with chapters cleverly telling of Sig's family and father, and the events leading up to his death. The book also had very strong themes of hope, faith, choices, family and wealth all wrapped up into one. It was a very refreshing read, and like nothing else you'd find in the Young 
Adult genre.


I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick real written YA read!

On my wishlist (1)

On my wishlist is a weekly meme hosted by Book Chick City, where we share what books we are dying to buy and read!

It's my birthday tomorrow, so I'm planning on going on a book spree (in shops and Amazon) with some of the money that I get. Here are my top choices:

Candor by Pam Bachorz 

Iron King by Julie Kagawa 

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Across the Universe by Beth Revis 

Follow Friday/ Book Blogger Hop (2)

Follow Friday!

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee!

What embarrassing thing have you done on cold medicine?

My answer isn't very interesting here, as I honestly can't think of anything. Usually when I have a cold, I just lie on the sofa and sleep or watch TV, so I don't always take a lot of medicine if I can help it.

Book Blogger Hop!

Book Blogger Hop is a weekly meme hosted by Crazy-for-Books!

This weeks question is:

Who's your all time favorite Book Villain?

Mine is probably the most obvious you could pick, but it just has to be done:

Lord Voldemort. 

I don't think I really have to explain this much. He is the villain of my childhood. The one person who is known throughout our muggle world. Evil and awesome.

Waiting on Wednesday (1)

Title: The Dark Hollow Places
Author: Carrie Ryan
Date: 22nd March '11
Pages: 384


Annah knows she has a twin sister, but she forgot her long ago. Back when they went to play in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, she and Elias lost her, and after that there was no going back to the village. Life's been hard, but Elias has taken care of her, and living in the Dark City can help one to forget the horror of the Unconsecrated—if you try hard enough. But when Elias disappears, Annah's world crumbles. To her, life isn't worth much more than the walking dead who roam the wasted world she lives in. It's not until she meets Catcher that she cares to start living again. Yet Catcher has secrets. Dark, terrifying secrets that link him to a past she's longed to forget and to a future too deadly to consider. Annah must decide: Can she continue to live a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the answer to all her problems?

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine. This is the third in The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy. I loved the first book, but was a bit disappointed in the second. I'm still looking forward to reading this though.

Review of Feed

Title: Feed
Author: Mira Grant
Published: 2010
Pages: 608
My Rating: 3/5

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so, we created something new, something terrible, that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.


Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives - the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even it it kills them. 


My Review:


I stumbled upon this book randomly when searching for another book with the same name on Amazon. The cover caught my eye, and I was immediately interested as I love zombie books. I haven't read a huge number of books outside the YA gene, and thought this would be a nice change.

This book was not what I expected at all. First of all, when in came in the post, I was expecting a large relatively thin book, but instead it was a small very thick book of 600 pages. Of course that isn't really a problem, but just something that struck me.

It wasn't what I was expecting because the zombie story to it was merely background information. I was expecting a good old zombie action novel, when really there was minimal zombie action at all.  The focus of the book was more centered around the political terrorism conspiracy, and the main characters journalism as they follow the campaign. But I actually found that aspect very interesting, and didn't mind that the zombie story was pushed aside.  This future world that the author created was very well thought out and believable.

The factor that really let this book down was the fact that it didn't need to be 600 pages long. It was so overly drawn out in places. There was too much background information given almost constantly in pages at a time, drawing away from any real plot that was going on. Some of the information, although well thought out as I said, just wasn't needed. Some of it was actually very repetitive and I was having a hard time drilling through all the techno-babble at times. There were also a lot of unnecessary scenes and conversations between characters that drew it out even more.

But in saying this, there were parts of the book that I really liked. The characters for one thing. I really liked that it wasn't your predictable boy-meets-girl, or run-of-the-mill character pool, as I'm sadly used to. I found them all interesting and complex. I also liked how the story played out. It was believable with with great plot-twists, and some really exciting, dramatic scenes.

Overall, I did like this book. It was a very interesting to see journalism and zombies thrown together. The only thing letting it down was the length.

February Round-up!

Here, I'm just going to do a little roundup of all the books that I read in February. I would also put the books I brought, but I've lost count of when I brought what! So just the read books for now. I also linked them to my reviews:

1. The Enemy  by Charlie Higson
2. Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
3. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

I'm actually shocked that I've only read three books in February! Especially considering I read 9 during the course of January.

I started reading a book at the beginning of the month and couldn't get on with it and exchanged it for City of Bones, which is quite a long book. I'm also just about to finish Feed which is close to 600 pages! Now that's a lot for a slow reader like me.

I plan to read a lot more next month, especially with some long awaited books coming for my birthday, which is on Sunday!

Top Ten Tuesday!

This meme is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Today's Top Ten is:

Top Ten Books I just HAD to buy....but are still sitting on my shelf.

Now, before I start, I would just like to say that I don't have quite as many as ten in the fiction department as I like to read books I buy before getting any others to save money (this doesn't work so well though). I also have a few WW2 non-fiction related books as I am very interested in that area and went through a huge WW2 phase last summer. I have linked them all to their Shelfari pages if you are interested! 

1. World War Z by Max Brooks

I got this on my love of zombie books, and also part of a 3 for 2 offer, but just haven't gotten around to reading it.

2. Where the Hell have you been? by Tom Carver 

One of my many WW2 memoir related books that I got during last summer's WW2 fest and haven't read yet. 

3. The Shining by Stephen King

Surprisingly, I haven't actually read a Stephen King book yet, and thought that this would be a good start, as it's a classic. Still haven't read it yet though obviously. 

4. Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

This is one I got relatively recently, but I predict that it will be sitting on my bookshelf for a while as I have plenty of other books I'm a little more in a hurry to read.

5. Eragon  by Christopher Paolini 

I got this in a cheap book shop with the second book for something like £2.99, so I thought I might as well. It looked like a good book to have, but I 'm still in no hurry to read this.

6. Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Part of the first two books of the Inheritance Cycle as I said above.

7. Lament by Maggie Stiefyater

Again, this is another recent buy, and I actually hope to get around to this soon. 

Drop a comment and a link to your Top Ten Tuesday, I would love to see what everyone has!