Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zombies. Show all posts

2012 Challenges

Friday, January 6, 2012
Along with a new year comes new...

CHALLENGES!


There are a few challenges I am signing up for this year, one being the 2012 100+ books in a year challenge. I didn't meet that goal last year, but I will be trying again this year.



Here are some other challenges I'm participating in:





Here are the links to the sign up for these challenges:

100+ Books in a Year

Zombie Challenge 2012

Speculative Romance Challenge 2012

The Dystopia 2012 Challenge

Get Steampunked! 2012


Are you participating in any challenges this year? If so, what are they? :)

Bad Taste in Boys - Carrie Harris

Sunday, September 4, 2011
Title: Bad Taste in Boys
Author: Carrie Harris
Pages: 201
Genre: Young Adult/Urban Fantasy
Publication Date: 7/12/2011

Someone's been a very bad zombie.

Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steroids are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe--not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate!

She's got to find an antidote--before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town. . . and stay hormonally human


Geeky girl. Crush-able guy. High school.

and... Zombies.

This was a fun, light read. At 201 pages, I finished it in one sitting. With all the dystopians with more serious tones (which I love) this was a nice change of pace for me. Kate is our main character in Bad Taste in Boys. She is an intelligent, quirky girl just trying to make through high school when something goes horribly wrong with the high school football team. The football players have managed to turn into zombies and now Kate has to figure out how to stop them.

There were quite a few moments when I laughed out loud. Even some of the more "gross" parts were funny. The good news is there isn't really a cliffhanger ending, which with all the series/trilogies I have started lately, is a pretty nice change.

Some parts were predictable and some parts caught me by surprise, but it was enjoyable. I look forward to the next book in the Kate Grable series.

What I give this book:

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The Dark and Hollow Places - Carrie Ryan

Friday, July 8, 2011
The Dark and Hollow Places
Carrie Ryan
374 Pages

There are many things that Annah would like to forget: the look on her sister's face before Annah left her behind in the Forest of Hands and Teeth, her first glimpse of the Horde as they swarmed the Dark City, the sear of the barbed wire that would scar her for life. But most of all, Annah would like to forget the morning Elias left her for the Recruiters.
Annah's world stopped that day, and she's been waiting for Elias to come home ever since. Somehow, without him, her life doesn't feel much different than the dead that roam the wasted city around her. Until she meets Catcher, and everything feels alive again.
But Catcher has his own secrets. Dark, terrifying truths that link him to a past Annah has longed to forget, and to a future too deadly to consider. And now it's up to Annah: can she continue to live in a world covered in the blood of the living? Or is death the only escape from the Return's destruction?


I liked The Forest of Hands and Teeth and The Dead Tossed Waves as well. I started reading this one a couple of months ago and put it down because I was getting bored with it. I finally picked it back up the other day and I'm sad to say it didn't get much better, in my opinion.

In the final book of The Forest of Hands and Teeth trilogy, we have Annah, the twin sister of Gabry/Abigail, who is waiting in the Dark City for Elias to return. At first I could kind of understand her coldness -- she lives with the guilt of leaving her sister alone in the Forest, she is alone in the city, she has these awful scars.

First, it seemed to me it went back and forth between her blaming herself for leaving Gabry, then it would go to it being Gabry's fault. Huh? Maybe it is just her age? With her being determined and very unlike Gabry, I would have expected for her feelings on it to not be so conflicted.

Introduce Elias back into the story. Annah hates that he loves Gabry and feels like the only reason he chose Gabry (mind you identical twins) is because she doesn't have the horrific scars that Annah does.

Now, bring in her scars... Annah makes a pretty big deal about her scars. At first, I was like, okay, maybe the story behind them is a part of her personality. It was a little, but it was more out of pure physical looks than how she actually got them, which was disappointing since I expected the reason to be something more than what it was. This aspect was just more vain than anything. She really did use them to push people away sometimes, but what got me the most was it didn't matter who she was talking to or what they were saying, sometimes she just went into auto-defense mode over the whole being scarred and ugly thing, which sometimes was irrelevant and unnecessary.

I will stop ranting now before it makes it seem like I hated this book, which I honestly didn't. I was just annoyed with Annah mostly. I still liked Gabry, Catcher and Elias, but unfortunately it wasn't told from any of their POVs.

What I give this book:

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Getting back at it...

Monday, May 16, 2011
5/16/2011
Monday

Recently I have tried to get back into reading. I used to devour books. What happened? I don't know that I can really say because I don't really know the answer myself. Either way, here it goes...


So, recently, I stumbled upon The Forest of Hands and Teeth series by Carrie Ryan. It was actually a book checked out from the library by my sister in law (while I was busy stuffing my bag with books for my three year old). A couple of days after our library trip, I stole it from her and started reading it. I'm not really sure what first drew me in. I was genuinely curious about what was going on, and of course not long after reading, that was figured out, so naturally I wanted more! The Forest, to me, is a must read. I loved every bit of it. I will warn though, it is a bit depressing. Here is the summary:

“In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?” - (barnesandnoble.com)

What I give this book:

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Now, the following book, The Dead Tossed Waves, isn't exactly a sequel. It continues with the Mary's daughter, Gabrielle. I had a harder time with it, only because I was fresh from the first book, and with it being a completely different character, it kind of threw me for a loop. After the first couple of chapters though, I was into it as much as the first. I don't want to give too much away with this one, or the next one because they really are all connected, and it really surprised me!

What I give this book:

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The Dark and Hollow Places, I am still working on. I am into it a little bit, but for some reason I felt like I needed a break from it, I don't know why I am having a harder time with this one. I will eventually finish it. This isn't the first time I have done this with a book.






So, to fill the spaces between, I have started Melissa Marr's series, Wicked Lovely. I started Wicked Lovely on Saturday and finished it yesterday. I wasn't sure how it was going to go because initially it started out kind of slow, in my opinion. It was like that for almost half the book. Something about it just kept me reading, however. I'm glad it did! I thought it was excellent, like I said, a little slow, but well done. One thing that really stuck out to me was that it went back and forth between characters, although it isn't written from the point of view of any of them, which is something I am not used to. Usually I read stuff from first person, but I still liked this. I also have not read books about faeries either, so it was exciting for me in that aspect. :)


“Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty—especially if they learn of her Sight—and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens.
Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.
Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer.
Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.
But it's too late. Keenan is the Summer King who has sought his queen for nine centuries. Without her, summer itself will perish. He is determined that Aislinn will become the Summer Queen at any cost—regardless of her plans or desires.
Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.” (barnesandnoble.com)

What I give this book:

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So, that's it for now. :)

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