lisaluvsliterature's Reviews (4.19k)

First, I have to say, WOW!! Why didn't I read this when I first got the ARC at the bookstore where I work back in October? How stupid am I? This book was sooooo good. I think I waited because at first I was trying to finish reading the review books for the 2012-2013 Gateway books. But I should have read this right away. I mean when I didn't pick it up, then it sat on my shelf, and I would pick it up, then say, eh, there's something else that sounds better, and put it back down. But boy was I wrong! All the hype about this book being good, well, they were right. Now I'm so eager to read the next book in the series.
Second, not sure how much I want to admit, but when I was younger, I used to write movies/books in my mind. I was very nerdy, boys didn't like me, but I read a lot. So I would create future worlds in my mind, whole stories. And some of this story reminds me of the stories I would create. The handsome, evil guy, that wanted me, and I was attracted, but knew he was bad. So right away I was drawn into the story with Warner. I love Adam though. Unlike some other teen books I've read lately, while he and the main character, Juliette, seem to fall in love quickly, they actually have a past that makes sense. That does remind me a bit of Peeta and Katniss in [bc:The Hunger Games|2767052|The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)|Suzanne Collins|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1326003698s/2767052.jpg|2792775]
I do see where the whole "X-men" thing comes in. And I love it! I can't wait to read more about the other people in this world. But I sitll want to know where these "powers" came from. Hopefully the author will go on in the next book and explain more, because it does seem like the Omega Point and Castle know what is going on.
Great book! If you haven't read it, do so soon!

First I want to thank Netgalley for letting me read the egalley of this book. This is the first book I've read by this author, although I know of her from seeing her books at the bookstore where I work. So the premise sounded good, and I'm glad I requested it, and now I will be looking to read more of the author's books.
First I want to say there are some spoilers in this review, so read on at your own risk. First I have to say the cover of this is something that might turn me away. The story sounds good, and knowing the story now that I've read it the picture works, but before it was a little too sci-fi for me. And I do like science fiction. But this is a dystopian, apocalyptic, zombie book all in one. With even a touch of the X-men. The book starts out in the past, but you don't necessarily know that. We meet Peyton, and learn about the nerdy guy who has a crush on her, Chris. But Peyton is friends with one of the most popular girls, and is dating a popular guy, so isn't interested in Chris. Her friend, while popular, does seem to be a nice person though, not a mean girl. Her boyfriend, is pretty much a jerk though. In this dystopia, due to AIDS becoming a huge problem, they have created a vaccine, and you must get a certificate saying you've had your vaccine before you're allowed to have sex. Peyton's father is something of a pariah/freak in the town. He is basically a conspiracy theorist, even went to jail for something like that. Now he's preparing for the end of the world that he says is coming soon. A good start to the book, got me hooked.
Then, the next chapter, all of a sudden we're 4 years in the future, the apocalypse has occurred and Peyton is getting ready to come out of the safe shelter her father created for her and her mother. And as I read that, I was like, WHOA!!! I want to know what happened that led up to that point! But I was not to be disappointed, it turned out that the author changed back and forth between each chapter so that we got the whole story up to the time when Peyton came out into the new world as we learned what Peyton had to go through to get to her father. Her father implanted her with razor claws, kind of Wolverine like. And she got eye implants that helped her to see things, had GPS, could see the heat signatures, which helped her to find zombies. She also had nanobots in her bloodstream that made her stronger. So basically she became a fighting machine. She is so happy to find Chris still alive, or as he now is called, Chase. Chase is happy, but still a little upset with her. See, Peyton never showed up on the day he and his brother, and a band of other students from school, decided to go to the mountains to try to live it out.
Peyton has to get to Disneyworld. The one thing her father told her before she went down in the shelter was that he and some other scientists were meeting there to start a new society. That it was a safe place they could have everything they needed there. Plus, Peyton's implants will begin to go downhill after 4 years, and she'll need her dad to fix them.
I loved the back and forth by chapter. It worked really well for this story. YOu only learned what you needed to answer questions in the chapter before. I liked that, spoiler alert, this is a stand alone story, there is a solution to the problem, and it can be fixed. I won't tell you how, I'll let you read that yourself.
My only complaint, I'm not sure I like the way Peyton and Chase kept having to hide their feelings from each other for the good of the other one. Then they'd share and get past that, but then something else would come up and they'd vow not to get close again. It happened several times in the book, and it just seems to me that two people would agree to not keep doing that. I know they're still kind of young, like 19, but still. When they read their destination there is a surpise I didn't see coming, and I like that I was able to be surprised and not figure it all out. One other tiny thing that bothered me. Chase/Chris name change. There were times Peyton called him both names. I think either stick with the old or the new.
Great characters, I liked the kids, reminded me a bit of [b:Monument 14|12753231|Monument 14|Emmy Laybourne|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1332165061s/12753231.jpg|17894351] in that way. I liked the living in Walmart too. I think if zombies come, I'm going to go live in a nearby Target. :-)

I had this sitting in my classroom since last October when our school had its bookfair and I was able to get a hard cover copy for only $8.99! But it's like I forgot it was there. I pulled it out about a month ago when I was doing some cleaning in my classroom, and picked it up to start reading. It got put aside once in a while for other books, but then I decided to finish it after my last book. While it's not quite the dystopian story exactly, it was good. Yes, it is set in the future, and people are struggling to survive after plagues and wars have destroyed society as we know it, but really the story doesn't actually spend as much time on that as it does the relationships. And that's okay. This is a book about how people can work together and overcome their obstacles, and even start over. We do get a short, but sweet update on how the world got to this point. But more of it is about how the people have dealt with this new world. The main character is Stephen. He was born after the last war, and has only known life as a salvager. They basically live on the road, looking for things to sell, in order to get what they need. There have been plagues, and Stephen's mother dies in childbirth, and so he's spent a lot of his life with just his father, and his grandfather. And his grandfather was not a nice guy. But we don't really get to spend time with him, as we begin the book with Stephen and his father burying him. As they try to figure out just what they want to do now they're not having to follow the grandfather's orders, Stephen's father gets hurt. And while Stephen is trying to figure out what he'll do and how he'll go without his father's help, a band of people find him, and take him and his father back to their community called Settler's Landing. In Settler's Landing they are trying to get back to "normal". Living in houses, farming, going to school, playing baseball. But things aren't exactly perfect there either. You've got the rich family that is in charge, and then you have other settlements that they often fight with, the slave traders, and other people in town, like Jenny. Jenny is Chinese, the country that was part of the big war against America. She was adopted by one of the families, the one that takes Stephen in, but she's never quite felt part of the group. And her rebelliousness actually draws Stephen in, and they have a kind of connection.
The relationships in this book were written very well, and I feel pretty realistically. I can see this as a big book with my students, I now just have to get them turned onto it next school year!

I have to say thanks to one of the authors, Nanette McLain, for sending me a copy of this book. I read it, and carried it around in my purse, the whole time I was in NYC. My review of the locations we were able to hit is here:

http://misclisa.blogspot.com/2012/06/sisters-guide-to-nyc-cupcakes-by.html

I hope to go to more places next time I'm there!

I was so excited when I saw that I could email the author and get a copy of this book for review. So I immediately did that, and very soon it came in the mail! So I put it on my next to read list since it had already been published. The reason I wanted to read this book is because I was first introduced to the writing of Nancy Holder from her Buffy the Vampire Slayer novelizations. And I always loved the ones that she had written. She has a way of capturing the characters' personalities and making it feel as if you are actually watching an episode of the show. And to be able to do this with such a well crafted show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, well, you know what a great author that makes her. Teen Wolf is one of my new favorite shows. While I still love the original movie, and the tv show departs quite a bit from that, I love the characters in the show. Especially Stiles. I actually like him much more on the tv show than I did in the movie. Nancy Holder did not disappoint with this tv show tie-in novel.
Now I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that as I watched Teen Wolf during the 1st season, I would often be playing on the computer, so I'm sure there are a few storylines I missed. But I think this was one of those stories that didn't actually happen on the show, something that could have happened during the times we didn't see. And I liked getting the back story. What the relationship between Derek and Allison's aunt Kate was before. More information about Jackson. And I even like towards the end when Derek's memories gave us a little glimpse into the lives of both Scott and Stiles when big events were occurring in their families.
I have been more careful about what books I give 5 stars to lately. But since I feel this book captures the essence of the tv show so well, like the Buffy books I read by this author, I had to give this a 5 as well. And I really hope there will be more tie-in novelizations, especially done by her!