"One of Us Is Lying"

"One of Us is Lying"
Written by Karen M. McManus
Review written by Diana Iozzia


I read this book a couple of days ago, after finding a ruined, beat up copy with the red paint from the pages leaked out all over the cover. Needless to say, I wasn't bothered by the condition. I had heard some negative reviews of this book, and I was curious when I saw it severely inexpensive at a charity shop. 

"One of Us Is Lying" follows four characters who are investigated after their classmate is poisoned in the detention in which they were all in attendance. All are suspects. Simon was the outsider. Bronwyn is the smart, but secretive student. Nate is the bad boy. Cooper is the baseball star. Addy is the pretty princess of the school. Who killed Simon?

This is a very obvious cut and dry young adult mystery in all of the Breakfast Club-soaked stereotypes. There's lots of timely jokes and mentions of popular social media. Tumblr, 4chan, Reddit forums, Instagram, and Facebook are full of curious insiders and intrigue into the mystery. 

I read this in about three hours on an empty afternoon, and it didn't disappoint. There are some irritating bits about sexism and mental illness, but I got over them. You know, "Oh, the boys are more popular in the news, because people like boys more". Okay, whatever, sure. I guess the book has to appeal to some feminists too. 

The ending was more surprising than I figured, but I figured the ending out right about the time that I think everyone else did. Some people I've read reviews by mentioned that they figured it off right off the hat. I felt that when reading "Murder on the Orient Express" in December, my entire focus was solving the murder, rather than soaking up the mystery. With this book, I just enjoyed it and had suspicions towards the killer, but I wasn't too worried about solving it myself. The ending is good, surprising, and necessary. As I mentioned, there are lots of story elements that fit in with the social climate nowadays, lots of political correctness and tropes of the past years, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but it was just a good YA mystery.

"The Power"

"The night was filled with monsters now."

"The Power" was a very complicated and complex read for me. I read it just near the end of the holiday season, so naturally, my heart automatically wasn't invested in it. However, I have been able to invest myself in books during holiday seasons before, so perhaps it really was the book. "The Power" follows an almost exact replica of Earth as we know it, but if women suddenly found 'the power' to use electricity in their bodies to hurt other people. I have always believed that good science fiction should include a great premise, but the story also should follow every aspect of life as affected by this change. This book may be the exception to the rule.

We have Buzzfeed, we have Wikipedia, we have Fox News. You have Reddit-like forums for young adult men to speak about the movements. I didn't think about the thought of organ harvesting, since the neck skein that gives the girls power does not appear in males. 

We also have many different main characters to pay attention to. Our main characters are Allie, Roxy, and Tunde. Allie becomes Mother Eve, an almost false prophet for the women in this world. Roxy is the badass, troubled youth. Tunde is a nosy social media-addict turned photojournalist. We also follow Margot and Joselyn. "The Power" incorporates so much of the world, which I thought was great at first. Like I mentioned, I enjoy science fiction that shows how different the world is to ours, based on this scientific change. 

The power the women receive propel a whole world change. Women are empowered to become involved in politics, become less afraid of men, and become involved in religious groups. Allie, as Mother Eve, creates a religious movement turned dangerous cult, in which females rape and torture men for enjoyment. Allie / Eve is very reluctant to her power and tries to escape the religious group, but is too caught up in the geopolitics. I did enjoy the story line of Tatiana, but I won't reveal any more about it, in case of spoilers.

I think the way the story is told is a little strange. I'm not a fan of the depictions and drawings of the artifacts found, years after the events of this story. Also, the story is written by a strange narrator, in a meta format, in which he writes the story and delivers it to Naomi Alderman. I'm not sure if her other stories are like this, but it's strange. In addition, the pacing of the story is not to my liking. Ten years seems way too quick for the politics and world changes, perhaps 4 - 5 years would be a push. I wasn't really interested in the politics and religious aspects of this.

I did enjoy Roxy's perspective at the end and Allie's reluctant leader perspective, but I just don't think this book was for me. I had thought early on that this would be an interesting video game, due to the different perspectives and the action - drama - science fiction combination. It would have to be a very story driven game, like "The Last of Us" or "Heavy Rain", but I could picture it. I also enjoyed the "good versus evil" debate, because it changes repeatedly throughout the book. It can be difficult for someone to decide who are the people on the correct side. This is a great example of counter culture. If feminism and science fiction went horribly wrong. This can bring up the "Black Mirror" debate, in which people compare the book to the British television program "Black Mirror". The program follows science fiction and technology gone horribly wrong, so you do have the comparisons line up a little.

I do not want to get too political in my review, but I personally was interested in seeing the feminist side of this novel and where it would take us, but I'm not offended where the book went, since it is slightly anti-feministic.

In closing, I enjoyed this book, but there were many aspects and plot points I didn't enjoy. The storytelling elements sometimes came off as too much, as if it was biting off more than it could chew. This was a very ambitious novel, and I enjoyed it for what it was worth. Because I wasn't engaged and often had to fight to pick up the book, I can only give it a 3 out of 5 stars rating. I think this book is good, but it just wasn't for me. I think I'll be passing this book along.

"Bad Call"

"Bad Call"
Written by Stephen Wallenfels
Review written by Diana Iozzia

I was really excited to read this, but I think the anticipation had to do with the length of time I waited for my complementary copy to come. Not to be disparaging, but I think I built up a huge amount of excitement. When I do this, I do find myself becoming a little let down and disappointed. "Bad Call" let my twenty-two year old self down, but would have really impressed my 13 - 16 year old self. This is a book created by Disney's teen imprint, Hyperion, so it is really marketed at teens. I still read young adult / teen fiction, so I had thought that this would still be a relatively good read for that young adult side of my reading. This follows a group of five high school seniors, 4 boys and 1 girl, as they lose their way while camping in Yellowstone National Park.

Perhaps I was going into this thinking that it was going to be significantly creepier than it actually was. It sounded like a twisty Donner party reimagining, so I was hoping for some creeps and spooks. When I found out that this was an imprint of Disney, I was surprised to see cursing and foul language as well as bloody violence. However, this was slightly disappointing. I have always been a fan of "The Lord of the Flies" and other survival in the elements stories, but this turned out to be a little more frothy and sugarcoated than I expected. 

There are a quite a few complements that I have for this book, although I was relatively disappointed. Like I said, my younger self would have loved this book if it was written when I was younger, so I think I still resulted in liking it. Although there weren't people roasting others' limbs, it was still relatively creepy. It's weird to phrase this, but I liked that one of the characters, Grahame, was creepy in the sexual, awkward advances. He was very uncomfortable and eerie, and a perfect almost villain. I also thought that the language and dialogue was very realistic for teen fiction. Sometimes, I feel that some teen characters sound like adults, or they sound like caricatures of teens. Okay, save Grahame's weird fake Jamaican accent. Yes, we are supposed to think he is annoying and weird, but it seems like a step too far. I also enjoyed the map in the beginning of the book and the descriptions of Yellowstone National Park. The locations and scenery seemed very realistic and well-described. In the last few pages, we also receive a few newspaper clippings. I often enjoy extra additions to books like maps and newspaper articles.

I think my main complaint about "Bad Call" is the build-up to the action. About 150 pages before the characters even slightly seem to be in danger. There's a gigantic amount of backstory and perspectives that collide and are repetitive. I guess the backstory is in place to show how some of the characters could have secret agendas and aren't always the nicest people. Unfortunately, I felt this was a massively slow start. By the time it became interesting, it was great, but it took a while to get to the exciting point. 

Okay, I have one last funny gripe to make. Characters that don't understand references to Sir Isaac Newton? High school seniors don't have a clue who he is??? Characters that go viral and become popular on Jimmy Fallon's talk show because of a funny Q-Tip picture????

* I was sent a complementary finished copy for reviewing purposes. *

"Linger"

"Linger" 
Written by Maggie Stiefvater
Review written by Diana Iozzia


I was really excited for "Linger", because I enjoyed "Shiver" much more than I expected to. I thought it would be a rip off of "Twilight" or "Teen Wolf" or "The Vampire Diaries". If we go back into my review of "Shiver", I feel that many of my points still stand, but let's see if anything changed. Please don't read this unless you've read "Shiver".

Great. Thanks. Let's begin. "Linger" picks up a couple of weeks (I think???) after Sam is exposed to meningitis, which has seemed to cure him of his wolf transformations. Interestingly enough, it seems that Grace's wolf tendencies are finally catching up to her, and she is slowly changing into one. It's not a scene from "Teen Wolf" where she slowly finds herself with fur on her skin, or her ears pop out. She just knows something is wrong until the final few moments.

"Linger" follows a lot more of the present, than "Shiver" did, which is a pretty normal thing for sophomore books. Now that it's all set up in the first, the author can continue in the present with the current problems and plot at hand. Speaking of plot, is there one???? There's not really a central conflict, other than Grace's parents disapproving of Sam. We also meet a new wolf, a drug addict musician who just decides he wants to become a wolf, because it's a better option than suicide? It's funny. This guy is Cole, right? I like Cole, only when he's in the present tense. When he talks about his music career, his ex-girlfriend, his addiction, I feel my eyes glaze over. He's seemingly into Isabel, who I absolutely love. I think if I had to pick a favorite character from this series would be Isabel. I originally thought she would be similar to Jessica Stanley from Twilight, the snobby side character who is only there to seemingly piss off the main characters. Isabel is shockingly caring towards Sam and Grace, especially the latter. I really enjoy her as a character, but honestly, my involvement in the LGBT community makes me always read a little lesbian subtext about Isabel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Cole and the male gender alike do not really feel right for her. Anyway.

Sam's music career and songs still piss me off. I think they're awful. As I mentioned in my review of "Shiver", it's very similar to Archie Andrews from "Riverdale". No one caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaares. I think my fourteen year old self would be confused and scoff at me for saying this, but I am not reading this series for a high school guy who wants to be a musician. Grace's dialogue is still really cheesy and unbelievable. She gets caught nearly naked with her boyfriend, who has been sneaking into her room every night for a couple of months. Parents FINALLY care about her. Okay, I understand that Grace's parents are very absent, but did she really expect that her boyfriend could practically move into the house without her parents knowing? Her dialogue is very "But Mom, Dad, you don't understand! I love him!"

Ah yes, here, I had bookmarked this exact part I wanted to mention: "Mom! I am not like you. I am NOTHING like you. You have NO IDEA what goes on in my head, or how my brain works, or whether or not I am in love with Sam or vise versa. So don't even have this conversation with me. Don't even - ugh. You know what? I'm done". UGHHHHH MOOOOOM You don't understand! Calm down, Grace. Your "16 year old Disney princess thinking she knows exactly what life is about" is showing.

Let's see. As I mentioned earlier, what exactly is this plot? There's lots of cuddling and Isabel comforting Grace and new wolves emerging, but it seems like a solid half hour of plot, if we thought of this like a film. I had heard from a reputable source that the series does go a little downhill, but this quickly? I really liked the book, but I severely hope the plot picks up in the next. Pretty good, onto the next one.