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(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Although I haven’t read the first book in this series, I did really enjoy reading this. It was a children’s book, technically, but I thought it did still deal with some very real issues really well.
It was really good to see how Sam viewed her family and situation. I enjoyed seeing her relationship with her brother and sister… and how she worried and cared about her parents.
It was nice to see how Sam and John befriended Tracy. I enjoyed seeing the dogs… and I also felt really sad about Tracy’s relationship with her father. It was nice to see that Sam was really active, despite the difficulties Downs Syndrome did mean for her.
It was good to see Sam and her older sister, though I would have liked to see a bit more of their interactions. Some of John’s antics did make me smile and I felt that I could relate really well to Sam and her imagination… especially when it came to her thoughts about the fairies and the secret island.
I especially liked being able to get glimpses into Sam’s thoughts through her journal entries. I thought those offered a bit more insight into her personality and what she thought about her vacation.
I felt this book was short and fairly easy to read. It managed to draw me in especially well and I thought that the main characters were likable… even though John seemed very much more interested in Tracy’s game consoles than in being friends with her. At the same time, though, it was good to see that he did try to help out… and he was part of the friendship.
I did like the idea of the secret island. That was the sort of thing I’d personally enjoy finding… and the appearance of the squirrel did make me giggle. And, of course, putting food in a cardboard box wasn’t a good idea.
I did really like being able to learn more about what Sam liked doing and her different hobbies, as well as her more creative side with the drawing. I really did like the family aspects and it would have been nice to see more of Tracy and her father.
I would read the other book/s in this series in the future. I’d like to see more of Sam and her family.
(This review may contain spoilers).
I haven’t seen the original film this one is based on… I really only know one iconic scene from having seen it referenced elsewhere. So although I know this film isn’t an original idea, I can’t say how close it is to the first film.
I did feel that this movie drew me in right from the start. The extreme sports made this film really intense to watch for most of it… but I was disappointed that there was little time spent developing the friendships between the two main male characters. I would have liked the romance to be taken out, since I didn’t feel it added very much to the story.
The idea of the eight challenges of nature was a really interesting one. I was a bit disappointed that other members of the gang didn’t get a whole lot of character development. I felt that Utah and Bodhi were easy to understand, while I didn’t care so much about the rest of Bodhi’s friends.
I liked seeing Utah before he joined the FBI, but it would have been good to see a bit more of what happened in the ten years to cause him to try to seek out the thrills in a different way. I was a bit confused about how the other FBI agents fit into all of it… and how there was a budget for Utah to go undercover.
I did find myself on the edge of my seat for a lot of the movie. I found it really easy to understand the adrenaline rush the gang members got from completing the challenge… even though I was sitting there thinking there was no way I’d be able to do anything like that.
I recognised quite a few of the actors in this movie and even though I didn’t remember seeing the actor who played Utah before, I did think he did a good job… and I’ve enjoyed the work of the actor who played Bodhi in other things.
I probably will watch this movie again at some point in the future. I wouldn’t say it should have been a 12A, more like a 15, but it did draw me in and had some very tense scenes.
Genre: Young Adult, Dystopia
Rate: 4 out of 5 stars
Synopsis:
Sixteen-year-old Lyla lives in a bleak, controlling society where only the brightest and most favored students succeed. When she is caught buying cheats in an underground shadow market, she is tattooed—marked—as a criminal. Then she is offered redemption and she jumps at the chance . . . but it comes at a cost. Doing what is right means betraying the boy she has come to love, and, perhaps, losing even more than she thought possible. Graphic novel–style vignettes revealing the history of this world provide Lyla with guidance and clues to a possible way out of the double bind she finds herself in.
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I thought this book was a really intriguing read. It was interesting to see a society where criminals were actually marked to indicate they were criminals… and how those people were treated by others who weren’t marked.
I did find Lyla to be a really interesting character. Her love of the zines was something I found really easy to relate to. I thought it was really interesting to see the contrasts between what she was doing and the zines she enjoyed reading.
It was good to see the relationship between Lyla and Gill. I liked the opportunity to see the way they interacted and the fact that they’d known each other in the past added a different dynamic to their relationship.
It would have been good to see a bit more of the background to the world. Although there were bits and pieces of the history shown through the zines and the interactions between the characters, I was still left somewhat confused about exactly how and why the society had formed.
I liked the fact that neither side was good or bad. I did think that Red Fist had less moral members… but the end of the book, I felt similarly about the Bluecoats.
I thought the artwork was really good to see included in the book… both from the zines, but also in what Gill was drawing. I thought that was a fairly unique thing to include in the book.
I enjoyed seeing Lyla’s relationship with her sister and her parents, though I would have liked to see a bit more of her parents. I did like seeing Lyla’s interactions with the other characters and it was good to see that she did have goals and dreams.
I thought Spinner was an interesting character and one I would have liked to see and learn more of. I really didn’t like Jit… but I felt a lot of sympathy for Nose. It would have been good to see more of the history of the other members of Gill’s ‘crew’.
In a way, I did feel that the ending was a bit confusing… but I did like what it implied. I would like to read more books set in this world in the future.
Follow the Marked by Laura Williams McCaffrey Blog Tour and don’t miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.
I read, I write, I teach. I’ve published short stories in Cicada, YA Review Network, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Soundings Review. Clarion Books will release Marked, my YA dystopian fantasy, in February 2016. My other fantasy novels are WATER SHAPER and ALIA WAKING (both published by Clarion Books). For more information, it’s best to visit my website: http://www.laurawilliamsmccaffrey.com
Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’ve Got Henchmen, By Richard Roberts
Genre: young-adult, superhero, science-fiction
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Date of Release: February 8, 2016
Cover Artist: Ricky Gunawan
Find Online: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Goodreads
Description:
What would middle school be like if half your classmates had super powers? It’s time for Penny Akk to find out. Her latest (failed) attempt to become a superhero has inspired the rest of the kids in her school to reveal their own powers.
Now, all of her relationships are changing. She has a not-at-all-secret admirer, who wants to be Penny’s partner almost as much as she wants to be Penny’s rival. The meanest girl in school has gained super powers and lost her mind. Can Penny help her find a better one? Can she help an aging supervillain connect with his daughter, and mend the broken hearts of two of the most powerful people in the world? And in all this, where will she find time for her own supervillainous fun, or even more dangerous, to start dating?
It’s going to be a long, strange semester.
Excerpt
Chapter One
My career as a mild-mannered middle school student ended the usual way, with a quarterback turning into a shark.
Or maybe he was a forward receiver. Or made line drives. Penelope Akk, nerd supreme, had more important hobbies than Sport. What mattered to me was that one second a boy on our team was human, and the next he turned big and bulky and grey. His jersey ripped over his suddenly massive upper body, and it was a blessing to us all that he wore stretchy pants.
“♪We will / We will♪” chanted the girl next to me, before trailing off with everyone else.
Shark boy certainly rocked them. In a display of truly bone-headed bravery in the finest Sport traditions, the opposing team tried to tackle him. They bounced off his shoulders like trout thrown at a freight train. One actually kind of clever guy tackled Sharky’s stumpy legs, hoping to at least trip him up. No good. The poor brave sap got kicked all the way off the side of the field, and hopefully hadn’t gone from halfback to hunchback.
As fast and sinuous and unstoppable as a hippopotamus, Sharky stomped down to the opposite goal, waving the football over his head and ranting at the top of his lungs. “I’m sick of this! I’m sick of hiding my super powers, pretending to compete with you humans when I’m stronger than all of you put together! Who’s the Most Valuable Player now?!”
Actually, I was making up that part. Up in the stands, I couldn’t possibly make out what he was yelling. Just call it an educated guess.
When he crossed the finish line, Sharky threw down the football and began his victory waddle.
The girl next to me asked in squeaky bewilderment, “Can he do that?”
The girl next to her asked more heatedly, “Does that touchdown count?”
The boy on the other side of me recoiled back in his seat. “He’s heading for the other team again!”
That would be my cue. Standing, I pulled my goggles out of my pouch and buckled them ceremonially over my eyes. A careful twist of my wrists, and then a second careful twist when I didn’t get the first one exactly right, and the rotors on my forearms blew the sleeves of my loose sweater off all the way to the shoulders. My brown braided pigtails flapped behind me as I soared up off of the bleachers, dropping down to land in a crouch next to the cheerleaders.
The head cheerleader, Marcia, slapped me in the chest with the side of her baton. Bared teeth accompanied a hiss like an angry cat. “You are not taking this from me, Penny Akk!”
Wincing, I pointed past her. “We’re both too late.”
A girl with wildly spiky blue hair charged onto the field. Was that Cassie, from English class? What happened to her hair?
Brilliant blue arcs of electricity flew out of her body with every step, grounding in the ripped up turf. Well, that answered my question. A number of questions.
“No no no no no no no! You stupid, spotlight-hogging, neckless block of rancid fish oil!” Cassie screeched. She charged towards the shark boy, throwing out a double-armed blast of lightning bolts that fell into the ground yards short of their target. C- for mastery of her powers, but a solid A for villainous banter.
Instead of staying out of her range, the stupid, spotlight-hogging, neckless block of rancid fish oil lumbered up to meet her, yelling back, “What are you talking about?”
Lightning sprayed all around as Cassie waved her arms. Some of it hit the shark boy, but only made him shiver. Far more dangerous had to be the spit flying from her mouth as she screamed, “You clod! You heap of stinking chum! I had it all planned out! This was Lightning Wisp’s big debut, and you ruined it, Fish Guts Man.”
“Sharky,” he growled.
I gaped. So did Marcia. I’d been thinking of him as ‘Sharky’ as a joke. He was still sticking with that dumb name? Yes, he’d used it before in a spectacularly failed bid to come out as a supervillain, and Marcia and I had both made fun of him for it.
Lightning Wisp put her hand to her ear, and mocked, “Sorry, what was that? Did you say your name was Filet-O-Fool?”
“SHARKY!” he yelled, and finished his transformation.
I’d seen him do this before, but I’d forgotten how big he was. And ugly. So, so ugly. Baboon butt ugly. Naked mole-rat ugly. He was at least six feet tall, bulging with muscles where he shouldn’t have muscles, and his fanged mouth jutted out of a malformed, pointed face. Worse, instead of just on his neck, gill flaps opened and pulsed with glimpses of red meat all over his shoulders, arms, and the sides of his torso.
I screwed up my nose. I didn’t even want to look at that.
For once, Marcia was more professional than me. With no sign of having to restrain her lunch, she strolled out to meet the two bickering young super-villains. Every cartoon’s stereotype and every boy’s dream of a dishwater blonde cheerleader in a short skirt, she didn’t need powers to look more dangerous than both of them. She had poise and confidence, and they didn’t.
She waved her wand, flicking it first at him, then at her. “Put your powers away and go home. You both look like fools, and Charlie, you oaf, you just made us forfeit the game. Neither of you got what you wanted, but you haven’t broken any laws. Go home before a superhero gets here.”
They both glared at her, and Sharky gurgled, “Shut up, Marcia.”
Marcia twirled her baton, and sneered. “Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I meant go home, or I’ll make you.”
About The Author
Richard Roberts has fit into only one category in his entire life, and that is ‘writer’, but as a writer he’d throw himself out of his own books for being a cliche.
He’s had the classic wandering employment history – degree in entomology, worked in health care, been an administrator and labored for years in the front lines of fast food. He’s had the appropriate really weird jobs, like breeding tarantulas and translating English to English for Japanese television. He wears all black, all the time, is manic-depressive, and has a creepy laugh.
He’s also followed the classic writer’s path, the pink slips, the anthology submissions, the desperate scrounging to learn how an ever-changing system works. He’s been writing from childhood, and had the appropriate horrible relationships that damaged his self-confidence for years. Then out of nowhere Curiosity Quills Press demanded he give them his books, and here he is.
As for what he writes, Richard loves children and the gothic aesthetic. Most everything he writes will involve one or the other, and occasionally both. His fantasy is heavily influenced by folk tales, fairy tales, and mythology, and he likes to make the old new again. In particular, he loves to pull his readers into strange characters with strange lives, and his heroes are rarely heroic.
Find the author Online:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
About Curiosity Quills Press
Curiosity Quills Press (CQ) is a small hybrid publishing company specializing in genre fiction of the highest quality. With 150+ titles in our catalog already and approximately 6 new books coming out each month, there’s never a dull moment at CQ. We work with major retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible to ensure that you, the reader, can find whatever you are looking for at your convenience.
Founded in 2011 by Eugene Teplitsky and Lisa Gus, CQ was initially a resource portal for writing and publishing, created in an effort to help writers, like themselves, survive the publishing industry. After rapid success, CQ morphed into publishing press that over time has solidified its share in the market. Now we spend our days searching for the next great escape!
(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Although I’m not quite as knowledgeable about the DC universe as I am about the Marvel one, I have seen both of the rebooted Star Trek movies… so I felt that I at least knew one of the universes very well. And I felt that it was a really intriguing idea for a crossover.
I thought there was a good precedent for there to be parallel universes, considering the crew of the Enterprise and their relationship to the original versions of themselves.
I thought it was interesting to see the crew members of the Enterprise who were chosen by the rings to become Lanterns, though the ‘bad’ colours were a bit harder to engage with. Towards the end of the comic book, though, it was good to see how some of the enemies had to join forces to defeat the main bad guy.
I did like being able to see Spock and Kirk’s friendship and their interactions together. It was interesting to see that both groups had no idea about anything to do with the other… and I would have liked to see some more of how the two worlds differed to each other.
Although I did like the artwork mostly, I found some aspects of it to be a bit lifeless. When the characters were standing still, for instance, there was little in the way of body language… so I found their faces easier to read, rather than the positions they stood in.
I would have liked to see more of the personalities of the original Lanterns. It was good to see Hal and Kirk interacting together, but I would have liked to see something of Uhura and her counterpart.
I did think that there were some really creepy aspects to this comic book, like when the dead were brought back to life. There were a couple of surprises in the comic book… but there was one particular thing that I did see coming.
In the future, I would be interested in reading more comic books set in this universe. It would be good to see more of how the Lanterns have to work together and what future threats they might face.
(I received a free copy of this book, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
Although I know very little about Red Sonja, I am at least familiar with Conan the Barbarian… and I did find this comic book to be really interesting and engaging to read.
I liked the first scene in this comic book. I felt it did a good job of setting up the plot of the book, although I did find it a bit difficult to understand the motivations of who the apparent main bad guy was.
I really did like the interactions of Conan and Sonja, though I did feel that Sonja was a little like a female version of Conan. I would have liked to see a bit more of their interactions… though it was good to see that there was a lot of chemistry between Conan and Sonja.
I did think the artwork was really good. There were a lot of good scenes of tension… but I was confused about why Sonja was asking about what had happened at first. By the end of that scene, though, it did make sense… and I cringed when the random soldier tried to grab her.
There were a lot of really good fight scenes in this comic book, though the first scene where Conrad and Sonja fought the soldiers who were part of their allies seemed like a really bad tactic. After all, removing your own warriors from battle seems foolish in the extreme.
While I haven’t read any of the previous comic books involving Conan and Red Sonja, I still found this easy to follow, even though I would have liked to know a bit more of their previous experience with what turned out to be the main bad guy.
I would have liked a bit more details about the properties of the seeds… but seeing how just one was used and changed a person so completely was quite awful to see.
I would have liked to see more of the motives and goals of each of the characters… but it was nice to see Conan and Sonja fighting alongside each other. I wasn’t sure I felt all that sympathetic towards the soldier who was working for the bad guys, though.
I did find this comic book easy to read and I’m sure I would be interested in reading more comic books involving these characters in the future.
(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I do have some mixed feelings about this book. While I did think the blurb was a really intriguing one, I did actually feel that the book fell into some of the traps I tend to see with young adult books.
I wasn’t all that keen on the dual first person perspectives, though it was good to have the opportunity to see both sides of what was going on. And it did give me the opportunity to see what Trevor’s motives and history were.
I couldn’t get behind the relationship between Trevor and Chelsea. I didn’t really like the instant connection between them and I felt that they both became unhealthily obsessed with each other. I also really didn’t like the fact that Chelsea didn’t seem to care about leaving her family and friends. There weren’t any details about her talking to her family about not being around… which made me think that she clearly wasn’t close to her family; despite the fact that her sister’s appearance (and the way Chelsea referenced her) made it seem like they were quite close.
I found Valerie to be a fairly interesting character and it was good to see something about her motivations. I would have found her a more interesting character to see as a more central person to the plot.
Although I did like the concept of the teleporting, it would have been good to get more of an explanation as to why Chelsea was only able to teleport to those particular areas. I have to say, I did really go off Chelsea’s character by the end of the book. I felt that she was petty and didn’t care about anyone apart from Trevor and then herself.
I would have found some of the minor characters to be interesting, but there wasn’t enough time spent on many of them. By the end of the book, I found it really hard to keep a lot of the secondary characters straight in my head.
I did find the Link Pieces to be a really interesting idea and I would have liked a bit more information about them, as well as the whole war between Atlantis and Lemuria.
I’m not sure I will read the next book in this series. While the plot was intriguing, I found the romance was too unrealistic and that did spoil the book for me.
(This review may contain spoilers).
I remember seeing quite a few episodes of Dad’s Army… and that my dad really liked the series. So when a movie came out at the cinema, I was instantly eager to watch it with my Dad… and the rest of the family, too.
I don’t remember a lot about the series now, but I recognised quite a few of the actors from the original. It was good to see the rivalry between Wilson and Mannering… and I liked seeing hints of the relationships the members of the Home Guard had outside of their patrol.
It was fun to see the bumbling nature of the army and there were quite a few laugh out loud moments. While I can’t say there was much in the way of mystery (it was fairly obvious from the start who the bad guy was), it was amusing to see Mannering discovering the same.
It was good to see the women play quite a big part, especially towards the end. I liked seeing Godfrey’s sisters also play a big part… and that they were the ones who knew the truth first.
This film definitely didn’t have much in the way of historical accuracy (although there were some things that were accurate), but I did find this really entertaining to watch… and as well as the normal Dad’s Army actors, there were quite a few others that I recognised.
There were a few good elements of tension in this film, even though it was primarily a comedy. And it was good that the comedy came mostly from the characters… even though there were some instances of more slapstick comedy.
I’d say this is a good movie to watch if you enjoyed Dad’s Army… you probably don’t have to be familiar with the series to enjoy this, though there are some in-jokes. There are also a couple of bloopers in the end credits that it’s worth staying for.
(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
The time of the witch trials is definitely one of the darkest moments in history. I wouldn’t say this book was an easy read… but I felt the author did a good job of showing the effects of the mass hysteria.
I found it easy to connect emotionally with Fiona, but less so with the other characters, who I felt ranged from being ignorant to outright cruel. I also had a really strong dislike for Burnett… and I’m not sure he was supposed to be ignorant or if there was incomplete information in researching. (The story of Jonah was wrong, as an example).
I did find it hard to differentiate between many of the minor characters. Eilidh’s grandmother was one of the ones I did find it easy to understand, though… and most of the other members of the village as a whole seemed unwilling or unable to stand up for the right thing to do… but that is something that does happen nowadays. (You’d think people would have learned…)
There were some quite dark moments in this book and I did feel quite hopeless while reading it. I wasn’t entirely sure why Dawkins wasn’t living in the village… but I disliked him as a character as much as I did Burnett. And the others in authority who had the power to refute the accusations of witchcraft but didn’t.
This book did draw me in and made me feel angry and sad at turns. I wasn’t sure exactly what was causing the goings-on in the village, but I think that lack of knowledge does make the book that much more powerful to read.
I would have liked to see more of Trent and Samuel. While their actions towards the end of the book were good, I was a bit confused about why they in particular were acting… though I suppose it could have been because they were outsiders.
The book did do a good job of showing that a cycle of this kind snowballs… and although I’d hope people would learn from the horrors of the past, the horror of the present-day makes it quite clear that people haven’t learned.
Ink of Blood 