Days Like This by Alison Stewart

Title: Days Like This
Author: Alison Stewart

Release Date: 1st August 2011

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:
She has to escape.
But who else is out there?
And can anyone survive days like this?

I want to go back to the days when life made sense. The days before our parents became strange; before the warming ate away at all the living things in the world; before The Committee and their Blacktroopers. Before the Wall.

Lily is a prisoner in her own home. Forced to stay inside by The Committee and guarded by their increasingly distant parents, Lily and her brother Daniel are beginning to ask why. Then, when Daniel disappears just before his seventeenth birthday, Lily knows she is next.

In A Nutshell:
Stewart has cleverly woven together the hot topic of global warming with the escalating obsession of looking young and beautiful forever. A fast paced novel for dystopian fans.

My Review:
Days Like This is an exciting dystopian novel set in a futuristic Sydney. The world has changed as the effects of global warming have drastically altered the planet. The days are filled with blistering heat and water is in short supply. Rules and regulations are set by The Committee and enforced by the brutal Blacktroopers (I kept envisioning them as Stormtroopers!) who have built a wall (think the Berlin Wall) separating the affluent areas around the water and their inhabitants from those further inland. Children and teenagers are not allowed outside and have no interaction other than with their immediate family.

For Lily and her twin brother Daniel, the isolation has become increasingly difficult to cope with, especially since they remember the days before everything changed. No one will answer their questions and they virtually have no idea why their lives have changed so dramatically over the years. The love their parents once had for them seems to have mysteriously diminished and what on earth is meant by ‘harvesting’, a world mistakenly mentioned one day which peaks the twin’s interest. From what Lily and Daniel can figure out, it has something to do with why their parents are acting so strangly and why they are looking so much younger these days.

When I think about the characters, I like Lily and her strong desire to discover the truth, no matter the danger she ends up putting herself in with her impulsive decisions. I like Daniel’s willpower, Ingie’s strength and Kieran’s leadership and intuitiveness.

The novel is a standalone and jumps forward six months at the end. I felt the story ended too abruptly and I think the epilogue is probably why. While I know most people would be happy to know they don’t have to wait around for a sequel, I think a large part of the story is lost because of this. I want the story of how they got to where they are six months later, because given the situation they are put in, it couldn’t have all been smooth sailing! I'm also not a fan of the final pages concerning Lily, but maybe that's just me.

With echoes of the many other dystopian novels released over the past year, Days Like This makes its own mark with the exploration of global warming and the worlds growing desire to look young and beautiful.

Thankyou to Penguin Australia for this review copy.

Second Opinions
Words on Paper
Irresistible Reads
ALPHA Reader

Shadow Wave by Robert Muchamore

Title: Shadow Wave
Series: Cherub Book 12
Author: Robert Muchamore

Release Date: 1st September 2010

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
After a tsunami causes massive devastation to a tropical island, its governor sends in the bulldozers to knock down villages, replacing them with luxury hotels.

Guarding the corrupt governor’s family isn’t James Adams’ idea of the perfect mission, especially as it’s going to be his last as a CHERUB agent. And then retired colleague Kyle Blueman comes up with an unofficial and highly dangerous plan of his own.

James must choose between loyalty to CHERUB, and loyalty to his oldest friend.

In A Nutshell:
Shadow Wave highlights environmental issues, human rights and government corruption. A fitting and satisfying ending.

My Review:
Shadow Wave is the twelfth and final Cherub book featuring our hero James Adams. James is now seventeen and, after finishing up his undercover assignment with the Brigands M.C., he is looking at one last mission before retiring as a Cherub agent.

Just under a third of the book is dedicated to a mission James' friend and ex-agent Kyle worked on four years earlier, which provides us with all the background information as to why James will need to make a decision whether to meet up with Kyle and be part of an unauthorised mission, or keep his assigned final job.

Cherub is a guilty pleasure of mine and I feel that Shadow Wave was a terrific note to end on. Not only is the subject matter important for today's youth to be aware of, but it is also relevant to them as most would know of the tsunami that is being referred to. Shadow Wave highlights environmental issues, human rights and government corruption. A fitting ending.


About The Series:
For those of you unfamiliar with the Cherub series, author Robert Muchamore created the series after his nephew complained about there being nothing interesting to read. The series revolves around a secret branch of MI5 that trains children to become spies, as people never suspect children. After completing training, kids, from the age of 12 until they are 17, are sent on missions all over the world in an attempt to help bring down illegal operations.

James Adams is our main character and he is supported by his sister Lauren, girlfriend Kerry, best friend Kyle and a host of other agents and ex-cherub agents who now run the compound. We first meet an eleven year old James in The Recruit after he and Lauren are left homeless after the death of their mother. Each book in the series covers roughly 6 months or so in James life so while the first book is written with an eleven year old in mind, as James gets older, so does the content.