Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

I gave this a good try, I really did, but when I hit page 100, I realized I wasn't connecting with our heroine or her friends at all. The dystopian element was interesting (a world where people are separated in class by what language they speak) but it wasn't enough for me. I can forgive not connecting with a character or weak world building, but I can't do both. Maybe I'll give it another try in the future since it had the misfortune of following an amazing stretch of books.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

Choker is one of those novels I've been longing to read ever since reading the summary of it (and I absolutely love that cover, it's a gorgeous color scheme, with the ring of trees bearing down as if to choke the reader), and I was ecstatic when I finally noticed it (totally by accident!) at my library. It was the first of my picks to read, and I breezed through it in a day.

I was a tiny bit disappointed in the novel itself, but it's actually a pretty damn decent addition to the mystery/thriller area of YA fiction.

The novel focuses on Cara, who lives one of those awful teen lives as the butt of many jokes from the bitchy, popular girls. And honestly, she has nothing in her life that would make her stand out as a YA heroine. Yes, the story is about her, but there's so little to Cara as a person that we could have been reading about anyone else and the story would probably have progressed in the same manner. I wish there'd been a little bit more to her, that she could have stood up for herself once or twice. I did like that she slowly began to connect with school friends and developed a nice sort of budding romance with Ethan, her crush.

The addition of Zoe in Cara's life leads to a bit of a pick me up for Cara, but more importantly, Zoe added a bit of a kick to the plot. Once she was in the picture things took a turn for the interesting, and I spent half the time I was reading boggling at her crazy behavior and wondering if my own thoughts on whodunit were right.

(I was wrong, by the way. I can usually figure out the answer to the mystery before I'm done reading, but the reveal kicked me in the face and then laughed about it.)

In the end, Choker is a well done mystery with a character I would have liked a little more color from, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

As soon as I turned the final page on Under the Never Sky, I had the immediate thought that I've read this before. And, for once, it wasn't a bad thing. When you read enough of a certain genre (in this case, YA dystopian with a romance angle) you start to see the patterns and tropes that emerge. Most books take the tropes and work within them to produce something good.

Then there's something like Under the Never Sky. It doesn't quite break new ground, but it does so well with all the dystopian romance tropes I've seen in the past that I didn't mind them one bit. The books that work the same themes to their advantage are just as great and important as the books that break new ground in their genres.

And on top of all that, I really freaking enjoyed it.

The world building. Oh my god, the world building. In this post-apocalyptic future, humans have been driven into giant pod shelters by something called the aether, which has replaced the blue sky with an ever-changing, ever dangerous, constant electrical storm that could touch down and destroy what it touches at any moment. To keep humans from going insane in the confined spaces, they're able to live and play in virtual realities called Realms. Our heroine Aria is one of these sheltered humans, and it isn't until she's tossed out of the shelter and into the real world that her story truly begins.

Aria is the sort of heroine that can make or break this book for a reader. There were times I could see how easy it would be to tire of her, how hard it could be to like her. Eventually I fell hopelessly in like with her, and was glad to follow the enormous emotional journey and maturity she goes through.

Then there's Perry, who splits the POV of the novel with Aria, and I absolutely adored him. Peregrine (his full name) is a Savage in Aria's eyes, descended from the humans who ended up living outside the shelters. He's a hunter, a brother, an uncle, and a man determined to do whatever he can to fix what he's wronged. I found his and Aria's growing alliance a slow, lovely read, and I didn't mind one bit when the friendship that grew between them finally blossomed into romance. The slow build up is exactly the sort of thing I love, not the insta-love so many YA novels fall back on these days.

In the end, Under the Never Sky was a really enjoyable read. It's like [b:Blood Red Road|9917938|Blood Red Road (Dust Lands, #1)|Moira Young|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1293651959s/9917938.jpg|14692536] and [b:Divergent|8306857|Divergent (Divergent, #1)|Veronica Roth|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327873996s/8306857.jpg|13155899] had a not as bad-ass but still kind of awesome kid.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

Unearthly was my first review kicking off my blog, and I really enjoyed it. Cynthia Hand's intro into the paranormal YA world was a great one, a great take on angels and a romance (even love triangle, gasp!) I could truly get into. Hallowed follows up on all the things I loved about Unearthly, but it doesn't quite hit the same mark Unearthly did for me.

It's still a great second book in a series, don't get me wrong. We focus on Clara and her visions of her new purpose, a vision of a funeral. Someone she loves is going to die, and that sorrow she feels in her vision permeates the entire book. For that reason alone, I had to read this slowly; I couldn't take the constant sadness that Clara has to deal with. I loved her too much to read it in one go.

We do get a lot more information on the angels, which I really appreciated and enjoyed, as it picked up the book and gave it some of the energy it was missing in the first quarter. New characters were delightful, and the secret Clara and Jeffrey discover are pretty good.

As for the love triangle...I'm still not sure how I feel about it in this installment. I appreciated it in the first because there were reasons why Clara would fall for Tucker or Christian, and they're both really good guys. It felt like the love triangle was amped up a little in Hallowed, but it never went too over the top. It was still balanced and kept me invested in who Clara would end up with.

Hallowed does really well at what it set out to do. I might not have enjoyed it as much as I did Unearthly, but that doesn't mean it isn't a great book. I simply prefer not to cry into my pillow without trying to wake my boyfriend at one in the morning because the last 30 pages kept me in tears.

Can't believe I have to wait forever for the next book.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

Oh, that cover is so deceiving. Look at those pretty pinks and blues, against that calm grey background, as though saying "there's nothing bad between these covers, here, have a delicious pink frosted cookie, it'll be good for you."

And then you get about a third of the way in and you're punched in the face with ALL THE FEELINGS.

The story's not even about Jennifer being a popular girl faced with her unpopular past. It's about the incredibly deep bonds that are formed when you meet your soulmate -- and it doesn't have to be romantic. When you meet your best friend, that one person who knows you most, and still knows you even though you haven't seen them in nearly a decade and you've changed. Jennifer and Cameron are soulmates, and the ripples his return creates in Jennifer new, better life are huge and so interesting to read about.

This was my first Sara Zarr book, but it definitely won't be my last. It's a really great novel about friendship, knowing those you love and knowing yourself, above all.

Have decided to come back to this later. This book is way too depressing for me right now, man.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

This is one of those novels I knew was going to be rough going in, and when it met every one of my expectations...I'm not sure how to feel

Joy suffers from incredible emotional abuse from her boyfriend, and when she finally reaches the last straw, she believes running away (making it look like a kidnapping) is her only option. I appreciated that Holly Cupala managed to create such a suffocating life for Joy before her breaking point, that you could completely understand why she came to the choices she did.

From there on Don't Breathe a Word delves into the live of homeless teens as Joy learns to become a street kid. She meets Creed, a boy she believes understands her, and he and his friends become her new street family. Each one of them is equally messed up, doing whatever they can to survive, no matter what.

For all the careful attention to the reality of homeless kids on the street and the emotional intricacy, Don't Breathe a Word didn't sink its hooks into me. I felt bad for Joy and Creed and the others, and I truly appreciated the message Holly Cupala is trying to send, but I couldn't connect with all the characters as much as I wanted to. I wanted to connect to Joy so much more than I did. With everything she goes through, I wanted to be torn up with her, to cry for her or cheer her on as I read, but none of that really happened.

There is a good book here with a rare theme in YA these days, with a good look at emotional abuse and homesless teen life, but ultimately, I couldn't connect with the characters as much as I wanted.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

ZOMBIIIEEEEES!

I do a huge amount of my e-reading in bed at night while my boyfriend sleeps, which is the worst idea when reading something that involves zombies. As much as I love the zombie genre, I know how to terrify myself when it comes to the creatures, and This is Not a Test fit the bill.

However, This is Not a Test doesn't entirely focus on the zombies themselves. Most zombie fiction these days focuses on how the humans try to keep on living through the end of the world, and we follow Sloane, who doesn't want to live. Not really. She's stuck in a school with five other teenagers, who try to figure out how to survive - the only question is what surviving really means.

The book explores the relationships between each of the survivors, how they react to each other, how they begin to find themselves or crack under the pressure. Being stuck in a school with only each other, surrounded by the undead brings out the best and worst in them, and it's fascinating to read. Each of the characters seemed well thought out, and though I disliked one or two, I felt as though I was meant to -- and it's not as though they're entirely bad kids. They are what the apocalypse made them.

This is Not a Test is a fantastic, heartbreaking entry into the zombie genre, and I totally recommend it to anyone.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

I feel like the summary doesn't entirely encapsulate what really made this book work for me.

The letters are an important part of it, as they show the threads of Parker and her grandmother's relationship. Seeing the bond the two had anchors the novel before we begin to truly delve into who Parker is. She's a lonely, tired, going-with-the-motions woman on the verge of thirty, and she's hasn't got much to show for her life. Her grandmother is a wonderfully eccentric woman, but she's fallen ill to Alzheimer's (or something similar) and the struggle Parker goes through as she deals (and doesn't deal) with starting to lose the only person in her life who matters is agonizing and wonderful to read.

It was slow going at first, but I loved reading about Parker, from her initial denial to her depression to her slowly beginning to understand and deal with everything. She doesn't just deal with her grandmother's disease, she has her own mid-life crisis to deal with, and she's just -- she's a mess. I've never found myself wanting to walk into a book and hug the character more than I did with Parker.

Letters in Cardboard Boxes is a slow read going in, but it's so worth it for the character work alone. Parker isn't the liveliest or most interesting of people ever, but reading everything she goes through is just...fascinating.

Originally posted at The Wandering Fangirl.

Paranormalcy is one of those books that is just plain fun, with a cute, sassy heroine and a plot chockful of vampires, faires and weres, oh my! While it wasn't the best of the YA paranormal genre, there was enough fun and sass to keep things light.

Evie, our heroine, is a tiny, pink-loving paranormal sort-of-cop, raised without parents by an international agency that polices paranormal creatures. She's a wonderful, fun protagonist, and she's the life of the entire book. I really enjoyed reading about her, and felt for her the entire time. The other characters are pretty decent as well -- Lend is kind of adorable, through Evie's eyes. I loved her best friend Lish, the mermaid (selkie? I forget) and her mother figure, Raquel, the head of IPCA, the paranormal agency that raised her.

The integration of all the paranormal creatures was great, and I loved that the fae folk aren't entirely the best to work with. I love fiction that shows the fae as dangerous as they really are, and Paranormalcy totally delivered on that end.

It's a great little book with a larger than life main character in Evie, and I can't wait to get my hands on Supernaturally.