ACID by Emma Pass

Title: ACID

Author: Emma Pass

Release Date: 25th April 2013

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

2113. In Jenna Strong’s world, ACID – the most brutal, controlling police force in history – rule supreme. No throwaway comment or muttered dissent goes unnoticed – or unpunished. And it was ACID agents who locked Jenna away for life, for a bloody crime she struggles to remember.

The only female inmate in a violent high-security prison, Jenna has learned to survive by any means necessary. And when a mysterious rebel group breaks her out, she must use her strength, speed and skill to stay one step ahead of ACID – and to uncover the truth about what really happened on that dark night two years ago.

In A Nutshell:
Set in a futuristic UK, ACID explores themes of science and technology, government regimes and human rights. ACID is fast-paced with a feisty heroine in Jenna Strong. Dystopian fans will want to read it all in one sitting as the secrets of Jenna’s life are uncovered as she fights for freedom in an isolated, police-run nation.

My Review:
ACID is a dystopian novel following the pitfalls that sabotage and shape the life of Jenna Strong. The story covers seven different periods of Jenna’s life, beginning with her time in prison and her subsequent escape, aided by an unknown group. It is impossible to outline the story without spoilers but I will say she has the opportunity to start her life afresh a number of times, meets a variety of people, some earnest and trustworthy, others manipulative, psychologically scarred and harbouring ulterior motives. She spends a lot of time on the run and is subjected to multiple brainwashing techniques, with and without her consent, as the secrets of her complicated life begin to reveal themselves to Jenna and the reader. To say Jenna endures a lot in a very short space of time (8 months!) would be quite the understatement.

I really enjoyed the majority of the book however there was a lull in the story for about 50 pages (out of 400+). While this was frustrating, it was also necessary for the story arc to be pieced together. I liked that there was no cliff-hanger ending and that the story was wrapped up, even if it was a little abrupt for me.

For the most part, I was on edge with the pace of the novel, desperate to find out how Jenna would get out of the situations she found herself in. It’s the kind of novel you have to sit down and read all at once because you just want to know how it ends and make sure the bad guys get their comeuppance. ACID explored themes of science and technology, government regimes and human rights. Set in a futuristic UK, this is definitely one for dystopian fans.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Title: Divergent
Author: Veronica Roth

Release Date: 1st May 2011

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

In Beatrice Prior′s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue-Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is-she can′t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are-and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she′s chosen. But Tris also has a secret: one she′s kept hidden from everyone, because she′s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her.

My Review:
I LOVE THIS BOOK!

When I picked Divergent up, I was unaware of all the hype circulating the blogosphere and was unsure of what I was getting myself into. I like going into reading a novel without a biased opinion and allowing the book to have a clean slate. It wasn't until I finished reading it that I discovered I was not alone in my love for it.

It is so easy to become completely absorbed in the pages of Divergent as Tris struggles with the choices she has made, how they affect her in her new faction, and her feelings towards the family she has left behind.

While I didn't connect with all the characters (when tragedy strikes some of them I didn't feel a great loss, just like Tris didn't), I did really like the slowly evolving friendship and relationship between Tris and Four. I liked his whole 'tortured soul, mysterious background' deal and was glad to not have to face ANOTHER love triangle. The relationship is a secondary storyline and I really liked that it wasn't the main focus. There were some fantastic surprises that I really loved, including revelations about her family and the discovery of a long-lost faction member.

I love Tris's spirit, her courage and trains of thought. I love her innocence but also how she feels when she lets go and becomes the person she is, rather than who she has been told to be, no matter the consequences. She is her own person, who is stronger than she, or anyone else, would have believed.

Think The Hunger Games meets Matched. I was a little worried that it would be more like Matched when I first started reading it but the more I got into it, the more I grew to really love Divergent. While I know I probably shouldn't compare books to each other, trust me, dystopian fans will not be disappointed. Beware, like some scenes in The Hunger Games, Divergent can get quite brutal at times.

I can't praise debut author Roth more. Fantastic!

A Little Wanting Song by Cath Crowley

Title: A Little Wanting Song (also published under Chasing Charlie Duskin)
Author: Cath Crowley

Release Date: 1st April 2005

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Charlie Duskin loves music, and she knows she’s good at it. But she only sings when she’s alone, on the moonlit porch or in the back room at Old Gus’s Secondhand Record Store. Charlie’s mom and grandmother have both died, and this summer she’s visiting her grandpa in the country, surrounded by ghosts and serving burgers to the local kids at the milk bar. She’s got her iPod, her guitar, and all her recording equipment, but she wants more: A friend. A dad who notices her. The chance to show Dave Robbie that she’s not entirely unspectacular.

Rose Butler lives next door to Charlie’s grandfather and spends her days watching cars pass on the freeway and hanging out with her troublemaker boyfriend. She loves Luke, but can’t wait to leave their small country town. And she’s figured out a way: She’s won a scholarship to a science school in the city, and now she has to convince her parents to let her go. This is where Charlie comes in. Charlie, who lives in the city, and whom Rose has ignored for years. Charlie, who just might be Rose’s ticket out.

My Review:

What can I say except WOW. I was completely absorbed from the first page (well actually the quotes on the back got me first) and read it in one sitting. Cath Crowleys' words flow so well, they are like a warm blanket wrapped around you in the middle of winter. They are comfort. This is a funny, beautifully written novel that will leave you desperate for anything else this fantastic author has written.

"There was this beat under my skin, a little disco weaving through me. That's how it is when I'm alone and playing the guitar, but that's never how it is in a crowd."

Rose and Charlie are both wonderful, real characters. They have hopes, fears and big hearts but their personalities are very different. Rose is trying not to suffocate in the small town she has grown up in and she will do anything to escape. Half the time she is rebelling, the other half she is the perfect student.

Charlie is a quiet, music-loving girl who is yet to come out of her shell. All she needs is a little confidence and friends who won't laugh at and ignore her. Her father no longer notices her and is a shadow of his former self. She talks to both her mother and grandmother in her head, taking advice from those she knows loved her. She spends her time writing songs and playing her guitar for no one but herself, scared of the rejection that she is sure will follow. As an added bonus for us readers, Crowley includes the lyrics that Charlie writes throughout the book.

Charlie and Rose's friendship develops slowly but is one where each girl realises the other is not how they always perceived them and they find they have someone they can really talk to.

Charlie's relationship with Dave should also be mentioned. For years, both watched the other from afar. Dave is caring and loyal and he never shared the same views towards Charlie that Rose and Luke had. This summer, they actually make small, embarrassed efforts towards asking the other out and they really are so sweet together. It's really cute watching them dance around each other until one of them actually finds some courage.

Go and find this book. Now.

Graffiti Moon is Cath Crowley's latest release and you can read my review here. It, of course, rocks. :)

Matched by Ally Condie

Title: Matched
Series: Book 1 in the Matched trilogy
Author: Ally Condie

Release Date: 2nd December 2010

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:
Watched by society.
Trapped by rules.
Freed by love?

On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he's not. In Cassia's society, officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die.

But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. And that's when her whole world begins to unravel.

My Review:
Cassia is the kind of girl who has always followed the rules, always done whatever society has deemed best for her. But all that changes when she starts to rebel and question parts of her life. While this is a story set in a dystopian society where someone has decided to go against the rules, this is not an action based story (although I can't speak for the sequels). Rather, it focuses on one girl and her moral/internal battle that she has over what she has always believed is right, and what happens when she starts to question it and think for herself. It is the kind of story that you get caught up in and you find yourself feeling so angry at the society on behalf of the characters. They are so oppressed and I found myself hoping for more and more instances of rebellion but it just didn't really happen. I think I wanted Cassia to take more action rather than her just worrying about it. I think the ending has set up the sequel for more aggressive action but I'll just have to wait and see.

Obviously the main focus of the story is Cassia's relationship between her match, her best friend Xander, and Ky, the quiet outsider. Unfortunately, I couldn't get into either of the relationships. I felt Xander's feelings for Cassia but her feelings towards him didn't feel real. Neither did Ky and Cassia's feelings towards each other. They just kind of suddenly decide they are in love. There wasn't really an in-between and it didn't feel real enough.

I do like each of the characters individually; Cassia's parents, her grandfather, her younger brother Bram, her friend Em and, once separated from their romantic entanglements, Xander and Ky. There is a lot of potential for her family in the sequel because, as you will find, their lives take some dramatic turns as well.

In some ways this story is reminiscent of The Hunger Games but only on a small level. I don't feel Matched will appeal to boys. It is a love story, a story of secret rebellion but without much action. I am very interested to see what Condie does with the sequel, but I guess I now have quite a while to wait.

Grace by Morris Gleitzman

Title: Grace
Author: Morris Gleitzman

Release Date: 1st August 2009

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:
Eleven-year-old Grace only knows one world - the world of her mum and dad and twin brothers, and the strict religious community they belong to. But when her dad is thrown out of the church for asking questions, Grace is torn. How can she stay in the church and keep her family together?

My Review:
Eleven-year-old Grace has been brought up in a very strict religious community where questions and individual thinking are not allowed. This has become a problem for Grace as she is starting to grow up and be curious about life. She is also stubborn and independent and this is absolutely frowned upon by the Elders in her community.

This book is not anti-religion but deals with themes such as tolerance, family, authority, closed-mindedness and freedom. It will provoke discussion about prejudice and how we treat those who are different to us.

I believe children will be able to relate to Grace, not from her up bringing but from the frustration of having grown ups ignore them or not listen to their view or opinions. I would not recommend this for those under eleven unless they have quite a broad view of the world, otherwise, be prepared for a lot of 'why' questions.

I grew up reading Gleitzman, from Blabbermouth and Two Weeks With the Queen to Worry Warts. He has such a brilliant writing style and has the amazing ability of being able to write about tough subjects and current affairs in a way that reaches out to children (for example, Toad Rage, Boy Overboard and Once). Grace was released this time last year, and while the topic was not something I would have usually chosen to read, I picked it up anyway because Gleitzman had written it. Because of the subject matter, this book will not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is a damn good book!