Review: The Dark Hollow Places

Title: The Dark Hollow Places
Author: Carrie Ryan
Published: 2011
Pages: 384
Rating: 3.5/5

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?


This third book in the Forest of Hands and Teeth series follows the actions of the main character, Annah. The twin sister of Gabry (formally Abigail) who is the main character of the second book, The Dead-Tossed Waves, who's mother, Mary, was the lead in The Forest of Hands and Teeth. 


I wasn't sure what I was expecting from this third book to the trilogy(?). I loved the Forest of Hands and Teeth, but I didn't love The Dead Tossed Waves nearly as much. I would say that I enjoyed this one more than the second, but not as much as the first. 


As a stand-alone book, I really enjoyed this and thought it flowed well. But as the ending to a trilogy, I wasn't impressed. I felt as though the ending rounded things off for the one book well. But as a trilogy it didn't, as I felt like it should of gone back to some of it's old roots from the first book. 


The first two books proved that Ryan likes to put her lead characters through hell, and this book was no exception. Annah has had an even harder time physically than the previous leads, though I don't think she has as much weight on her conscience. I liked the strength in Annah. But overall I found her to be winy and surprisingly vain. There is not a chapter gone by where she doesn't talk about how much she hates the scars on her face or blames them for something. Even though it cannot be nice, there are far more things of colossal importance. I also hated how after one look at her sister, she spent the whole time moaning about how much more perfect than her she was, even though she knew nothing about her. But alas, she does develop well as the book goes along, and the vanity dies down. 


The plot-line of this book seemed to be split into three: the love square of the four main characters, the Unconsecrated and the Recruiters. This book was set in the Dark City, where Elias and Annah had been living since being broken up from Gabry in the Forest all those years ago. Our four leads go to the last possible resort to survive the Unconsecrated, and have no choice but to do what the cruel and evil Recruiters say. I also think that I liked the character Gabry in this book a lot more. Though that's probably because we weren't in her head this time.   


As I said before, I loved the story-line as a book alone. There was plenty of action, and Ryan really went into exploring how human's have degraded since the Return. And overall, I liked it, and thought the book came together well. My only problems were some of the traits of Annah and the fact that I didn't finish of the trilogy for me. If you were a fan of the previous books, however, I think you'll enjoy this.  

Teaser Tuesday (6)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by Should be Reading!

• 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!

'A figure stumbles toward me from the direction of the water and it takes me a moment to remember where I am. What I'm supposed to be doing.'

Review: Paper Towns

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Published: 2008
Pages: 306
My Rating: 4/5

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew. Printz medalist John Green returns with the brilliant wit and searing emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers. Enigmatic 
Margo is dramatically captured in a unique dual-cover treatment.


I have very recently fallen in love with John Green's writing, after only having read Looking for Alaska. So, as you can imagine, I jumped to start on Paper Towns. I was not in any way disappointed in Paper Towns. I actually quite enjoyed it. But I couldn't help comparing it to Looking for Alaska.


Paper Towns is set in three parts, the first named The Strings, the second The Grass, and the third The Vessel. The bulk of the story being in the second part, with the first and last being the starting event and climax respectively. I found that this book was actually more a thought-provoking mystery than anything else. And I also loved how the main character, Quentin's, view changed and developed as the book went along. By the third part, you can tell that he is a changed person willing to do a lot more than he would of to begin with.


Quentin was a good solid main character, very much so like Miles from Looking for Alaska. I also found that Margo, Quentin's and the book's focus character, bore some strong similarities to Alaska (from Looking for Alaska, obviously). But I found that I didn't like Margo nearly as much. I think this was because I was seeing her mainly through the thoughts of Quentin for a large majority of the book. 


Friends of Quentin's that are prominent throughout the book are Ben, Radar and Lacey. The four characters together had brilliant and believable chemistry, and was actually one of my favorite parts of the book! Surprisingly, even though he was a bit of an idiot, Ben was my favorite character! I found him and everything he did hilarious! I don't think I laughed so much at a book as I did during some of his highlight scenes. 


During the second part, I got a little bored and I found that solving the mystery didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I think this was to do with the fact that I was more interested in Ben and Radar than I was in Margo. But none the less, it was still very interesting. And the third part was by far my favorite! I loved the ending as it was completely unpredicted in my mind. The events leading up to the very end during the third part was my favorite part of the book!


Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was a quite light-hearted, but also very thought-provoking. With well set-up parts and laugh-out-loud parts. I shall be looking forward to reading John Green's next novel (most likely Will Grayson, Will Grayson). 

In My Mailbox (6)

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by The Story Siren, where we share what books we got during the week!

Books: 

The Iron King by Julie Kagawa

The Escape  by Robert Muchamore

Secret Army by Robert Muchamore

The Dark Hollow Places by Carrie Ryan

Follow Friday/ Book Blogger Hop (9)

Follow Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Parajunkee!

This week's question is:

What is currently on your playlist?

Interesting question. I actually do have a few playlists, because when I'm at work, I don't get a chance to stop every few minutes and change to a song I like. Therefore, I have loads of playlists of the songs/bands that I'm into at that time.

At the moment it consists mostly of:

Bon Iver

The Strokes

Frightened Rabbit

Queen

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

This week's question is:

If you find a book that you love, do you hunt down other books by that author?

Yes, most of the time. I don't necessarily rush into reading every book that the author has. As sometimes it might be more of the story or the concept that I loved the most. But I do definitely have a look at their other works to see if they interest me.

Interview: Peter Plasse author of Ravenwild

I am pleased to introduce Peter Plasse, the author of the new YA fantasy book, Ravenwild! I was lucky enough to be able to ask him a few questions regarding his new book, Ravenwild, published March 12th 2011.

I hope you enjoy this interview, and would like to thank Peter for participating! 

To get started, would you like to tell us five facts about yourself?
1) I am five foot, ten inches tall, and have brownish hair that is starting to grey a bit at the temples.
2) I work as an Emergency Room physician in a Native American hospital in the Southwest, and am blessed to still love what I do for a paycheck. Nothing in my world is more rewarding than giving someone their life back, who presents to the ER literally staring into the jaws of death, and with a few simple interventions (nothing I do is rocket science) is pointed in the right direction and on the road to recovery. And while this doesn't happen every day, it did last night. Honest. It was way cool.
3) My favorite recreational pursuits take place outside: SCUBA diving, fishing, boating, camping, those sorts of things. As far as inside stuff goes, I love to read, and write of course. I also compose music on the computer using music composition software, overtracking live guitar, piano, and voice. I try for an Elton John, Beatles sort of sound. My favorite compositions invariably feature french horns and the oboe with a large orchestral backdrop. 
4) I am a rabid NFL fan, with the New England Patriots being my favorite team. Or anybody who happens to beat the New York Jets. But I don't really take it all that seriously. It's just a lot of fun to follow the games and the standings, leading up to the superbowl.
5) It is my belief that honor is the most important principle by which a person needs to live his or her life, starting with honoring oneself to keep one's "loaner" body as fit as possible in order to be able to enjoy all that this life has to offer. After all, it's tough to have an absolutely fantastic day when it is spent in the confines of an I.C.U. 



What first sparked the idea to write Ravenwild?
Nothing more than the simple notion that hit me in the head one day that I would like to write a fantasy-
adventure story that my kids might someday enjoy reading.

Did you read any fantasy fiction or Young Adult books as research for Ravenwild? If so, any favorites?
I have been reading Sci/Fi fantasy, or just plain fantasy drama ever since I was in high school. But not for "research" purposes. It is just that I love to read, and Fantasy drama is the genre that appeals to me the most. Authors that immediately come to mind are: Asimov, Bradbury, Brookes, Goodkind, Herbert, Heinlein, Jordan, Lewis, Rowling, Tolkien, and Zelazny. It is 0300 as I write this, so I am sure I have left several out. If I had to name an all-time favorite it is without question Terry Goodkind. His "Sword of Truth" series is as good as fantasy writing gets. I have read every one of these, beginning with Wizard's First Rule, more than once, some of them three or four times. They are just magnificent. 



There are many different characters in Ravenwild. Are any based on real life people? If so, are they people you know personally, or historical figures? 
As for the Strong family, the names of the characters are based upon the names of the members of my own family, with the exception of Blake. The same applies to Ryan and Gracie, who truly were the best friends of Orie and Stephanie at the time I began writing Ravenwild. Since all the kids were actually much younger than the characters that are meant to  portray them in the book, I had to kind of extrapolate to come up with certain personality traits, and behavior patterns and such, so as to mold the characters into recognizable individuals, but that was  a lot of fun. A good example would be  Jacqueline. She really is an animal empath of sorts in real life, and were she to transport to a world where the animals really do talk to each other, she would be one of the ones doing the talking. I have no doubt. 
I was once told by a Navajo man that the universal language of the animal kingdom on Earth is Navajo. And if that is the case, Jacqueline, on Inam'Ra, would be fluent in the universal language of that world.

What was your favorite part of writing the book?
The challenges. There are so many. Coming up with a compelling storyline. Putting the characters in life-and-death situations and getting them out of it in a way that is, a) believable, and b, (hopefully) clever. An example of this is when Blake and Jessica are being transported as captives by the Gnomes to the Trolls to be handed over to them as foodstuff, Blake turns things around in a matter of an hour or so by operating on the Eye of Captain Pilrick, the Gnome Captain of their squad, saving not only his eye, but his life. So they become friends. And I have always secretly hoped that the astute reader might appreciate the irony of an ER physician saving his own life, and that of his wife even, by saving the life of one of his patients.

And what was the hardest part of writing it?
Wielding magic in a way that is, a) plausible, rational, almost, and, b) (somehow) not "hokey" or "Corny." Magic, it's origins, and the command of it by certain groups of the mythical characters of Inam'Ra was challenging. It might interest your readers to know that I will delve deeper into the origins of magic, and in particular how some of the characters go about the business of learning to command it, in the sequel.

Do you have any favorite books or authors?
I have listed some of my favorite authors in the Sci/Fi fantasy, fantasy drama. some of the  great books they have written would include: The Sword of Shannara series, Dune, Stranger in a Strange Land, Every Book Rowling Has Ever Written  The Lord of the Rings series, although I found his writing style cumbersome at best, and the Nine Princes in Amber series, just the first five. The sixth, with the replacement of the lead character with his nephew didn't work for me. But the first five were brilliant.

If you could sit down and have dinner with one person, any person dead or alive, who would it be?
Wow. A list of no less than 10 would have been a lot easier. But, this said, 
Steven Spielberg. 
That would be a night to remember.

Thanks for the great interview Peter! 

If you would like to learn more about Ravenwild visit here:

Author's Corner/Artist's Corner/About Ravenwild

Amazon /Goodreads

Review: Looking for Alaska

Title: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Published: 2005
Pages: 267
My Rating: 4.5/5

Miles "Pudge" Halter is abandoning his safe, boring life. Fascinated by the last words of famous people, Pudge leaves for boarding school to seek what a dying Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps." Pudge becomes encircled by friends whose lives are everything but safe and boring. Their nucleus is razor-sharp, sexy, and self-destructive Alaska, who has perfected the arts of pranking and evading school rules. Pudge falls in love with her. When tragedy strikes the close-knit group, though, it is only in coming face-to-face with his problems that Pudge discovers the value of living and loving unconditionally.




I've read a lot of fiction that is purely there for the story and entertainment purposes. I've also read fiction that addresses important themes and meanings in it's writing. But this is the first fiction book I've read that addresses such important, larger-than-life questions so directly. It probably would've made me cry if I wasn't sitting there thinking in bewilderment about the philosophical questions it brought up.


The main character, Miles 'Pudge', was a character that I think most teenagers who would read this book can relate to. All the characters were believable with no typical stereotyping thankfully. I loved Alaska. I could almost feel her spirit radiate from the pages. I really felt for all of them.  


The first half of the book, the 'before' is funny, witty, clever and highly entertaining. I laughed out loud at points, and cringed at others. The second half, the 'after' grows very somber. And although it's still entertaining and the pace doesn't lack, this is the point where it grows deep and addresses the important questions I mentioned earlier.


I've always been very interested in Philosophy, and I think way too much about issues, including, 'Why are we here?' and 'Where do we go when we die?'. This book addresses these questions head-on and I think that's why I loved it so much. It actually had me re-thinking some of my beliefs. It's definitely going to stay in my heart for a long time.


Here's a couple quotes from near the end that I wanted to share:


"I still think that sometimes, think that maybe 'the afterlife' is just something we made up to ease the pain of loss, to make our time in the labyrinth bearable."


"When adults say 'Teenager's think they are invincible', with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail."