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Interesting idea (3 more)
Well-written
Good characters
Exciting
Good idea
I enjoyed this book, not sure if it is YA or sci-fi. Sometimes the story felt more basic and others it was quite gory. I love the premise and the overall dystopia story. Flicking between the different people is good and builds tension. Overall worth a read - im not sure there is enough for me to read the next books.
Kyera (8 KP) rated Zodiac (Zodiac, #1) in Books
Feb 1, 2018
Every time you think you have something figured out in this book, the author throws you a curveball. I never knew what to expect when reading this book but enjoyed it overall. The world building was good, but I hope it is developed more in subsequent books. It could be so rich and immersive if that happens. Some of the scenes were weak and made the pacing drag. The main character is relatable despite her unexpected change in station and dramatic odyssey. As seems typical in recent YA fiction there is an element of a love triangle. I don't find it entirely believable, so it pulls me out of the narrative at times. Some of the scenes were weak and made the pacing drag. Overall, it's an enjoyable read and I will be reading the subsequent books in the series. Definitely recommend reading this book if you like YA fiction about space, technology, bad guys, adventure or romance.
Erika (17788 KP) rated The Ten Thousand Doors of January in Books
Jan 11, 2020
I have NO IDEA as to why I thought this YA book may be different from all of the other recent ones I've read, and subsequently sworn off.
There was way too much about race in this, it was so distracting. The main character, vanilla-boring January's physical appearance was mentioned at least every few pages. It's just bizarre to me, this book needed an edit.
The description promises a fantasy, well, there was a lot of fantasy that was talked about, but none that I saw. Show me, don't tell me.
Then, there was the introduction of a story within a story. I stopped reading, then thought to myself, wow, this is pretty crappy, but I'll keep on. After ten minutes, I officially returned the digital copy to the library.
This book was not magical, it was boring, and there was too much exposition. I am NEVER reading another YA book, unless it's a Star Wars one. I've learned my lesson, yet again.
There was way too much about race in this, it was so distracting. The main character, vanilla-boring January's physical appearance was mentioned at least every few pages. It's just bizarre to me, this book needed an edit.
The description promises a fantasy, well, there was a lot of fantasy that was talked about, but none that I saw. Show me, don't tell me.
Then, there was the introduction of a story within a story. I stopped reading, then thought to myself, wow, this is pretty crappy, but I'll keep on. After ten minutes, I officially returned the digital copy to the library.
This book was not magical, it was boring, and there was too much exposition. I am NEVER reading another YA book, unless it's a Star Wars one. I've learned my lesson, yet again.
A Bibliophagist (113 KP) rated Warcross in Books
Jan 27, 2020
Decent characters (2 more)
Plot
Pacing
YA formula (2 more)
Predictable
Not enough of the game
YA VR fun
I really enjoyed this book, as VR stories are some of my favorite types and rarely done well. This one was done well enough but suffered the large YA pitfall of there would be no story had people actually communicated with each other.
The story follows Emika, a scrappy teen living in the slums of (I think New York). As YA books tend to do, she is a normal, poor, orphan girl, who happens to be able to afford to dye her hair rainbow, and oh, I forgot to mention, very good at hacking. The world is fully submerged into the Nuerolink, which are AR/VR glasses almost everyone has, that handle the internet, gaming worlds, infrastructure etc etc. The most popular aspect is a game on the Nuerolink called Warcross, a rather simple Team vs Team capture the flag with power-ups and battling. Football move over, Warcross is where it's at. Because the nuerolink is so ingrained into society, a seedy underbelly of gambling and dark web has cropped up, and Emika makes her pennies as a bounty hunter for people who gamble in Warcross games. On the eve of the Opening of the biggest Warcross Tournament of the year (which takes up like... 6 months of the year...) Emika is being threatened with eviction, failed to get a bounty that would have fixed her situation. So as far as YA tropes go we can check off "ordinary, but special girl of poor circumstances".
Emika and her roommate, even though they are facing a looming eviction, log into the neurolink to experience the opening day ceremony. This is where Lu really introduces the ability of the nuerolink and where we can underline the "special" aspect of our tropey lead, as she somehow hacks herself into the opening game ceremony, revealing herself to the world. This is probably a good place to point out that hacking in this book is pretty much just Emika saying "I hacked into this thing" and little more than that. She runs a program here and there, that always does what she wants. Honestly as the story progresses I forget that she hacks, but the book doesn't let you forget that she's "super good at it".
Now fearing more than just eviction, but fearing for her freedom as she just did something very illegal, Emika is surprised when her world is turned upside down and she's spirited away by the Nuerolink creator to Tokyo. The creator being hot boy Hideo, whom she has been just ever so obsessed with since she was a kid, and much to her fantasies, he thinks she is special and needs her hacker expertise to track down someone that's been messing with the code in the game. BUT she needs to do it from within the game. So now she's going to be in the big game of the year as a player, a spy, and a hacker. Somehow juggling the investigation and playing a game professionally that she's the only kind of dabbled in (as far as we know, YA spoiler alert, she's super good at it).
I know I sound snarky, and like I didn't like the book, but I did. once you just accept the YA formula and that this book will be full of it, you can just lean back an enjoy the ride. Emika finds herself in a deep plot that involves other players, the dark web, and the ghosts of Hideo's past. Of course because YA Hideo is just smitten with Emika from the get go. She's great at the game, everyone acknowledges how special she is, but the big YA factor I struggled with over looking was the utter lack of communication. This whole book could've ended in a few chapters had the characters just communicated with each other. But there was always some kind of personal justification for why they couldn't just talk to each other.
I found the game world to be well thought out and interesting, just unfortunately it didn't get nearly as much page time as I'd like. I get that the story is about the scheme around the game, and not the game, but Lu introduced her as a player so I wanted more. I wanted more intereaction with her teammates, more development. She never felt like she was part of the group to me, which made it harder to believe in the second book when they all go out of their way to help her. The romance with Hideo was heavy-handed but cute, so I didn't mind it. But I kept finding myself wanting more gameplay. It's called Warcross for goodness sake.
One thing I have to commend Lu on is that it has a decent number of legitimate twists. Twists that made me actually gasp once or twice. That kept me intrigued and made me read it in a day. But unfortunately, while a fun little romp, the story's reliance on bad communication and YA tropes to advance the plot made the book lack a soul that really could take the story to the next level. I didn't care too much about anyone. I just wanted answers more than anything. But instead, we get a mysterious bad guy being cryptic, even though if he wasn't cryptic we could have avoided a lot and Emika always winning cause she's special. Though most of the information she gets is freely given to her and had nothing to do with her skills as a hacker.
When my boyfriend asked me if I liked it, I shrugged and said "yea it was fun, can we go get the second book". But I didn't have the overwhelming desire to tell him the plot or anything else as I do with books that truly resonate with me. To be fair when I did attempt to describe it the soap opera YA aspect seemed glaring and he just rolled his eyes.
Absolutely worth a read, especially if you enjoy this genre. But just don't go in expecting it to be special, it follows the YA formula to a T.
The story follows Emika, a scrappy teen living in the slums of (I think New York). As YA books tend to do, she is a normal, poor, orphan girl, who happens to be able to afford to dye her hair rainbow, and oh, I forgot to mention, very good at hacking. The world is fully submerged into the Nuerolink, which are AR/VR glasses almost everyone has, that handle the internet, gaming worlds, infrastructure etc etc. The most popular aspect is a game on the Nuerolink called Warcross, a rather simple Team vs Team capture the flag with power-ups and battling. Football move over, Warcross is where it's at. Because the nuerolink is so ingrained into society, a seedy underbelly of gambling and dark web has cropped up, and Emika makes her pennies as a bounty hunter for people who gamble in Warcross games. On the eve of the Opening of the biggest Warcross Tournament of the year (which takes up like... 6 months of the year...) Emika is being threatened with eviction, failed to get a bounty that would have fixed her situation. So as far as YA tropes go we can check off "ordinary, but special girl of poor circumstances".
Emika and her roommate, even though they are facing a looming eviction, log into the neurolink to experience the opening day ceremony. This is where Lu really introduces the ability of the nuerolink and where we can underline the "special" aspect of our tropey lead, as she somehow hacks herself into the opening game ceremony, revealing herself to the world. This is probably a good place to point out that hacking in this book is pretty much just Emika saying "I hacked into this thing" and little more than that. She runs a program here and there, that always does what she wants. Honestly as the story progresses I forget that she hacks, but the book doesn't let you forget that she's "super good at it".
Now fearing more than just eviction, but fearing for her freedom as she just did something very illegal, Emika is surprised when her world is turned upside down and she's spirited away by the Nuerolink creator to Tokyo. The creator being hot boy Hideo, whom she has been just ever so obsessed with since she was a kid, and much to her fantasies, he thinks she is special and needs her hacker expertise to track down someone that's been messing with the code in the game. BUT she needs to do it from within the game. So now she's going to be in the big game of the year as a player, a spy, and a hacker. Somehow juggling the investigation and playing a game professionally that she's the only kind of dabbled in (as far as we know, YA spoiler alert, she's super good at it).
I know I sound snarky, and like I didn't like the book, but I did. once you just accept the YA formula and that this book will be full of it, you can just lean back an enjoy the ride. Emika finds herself in a deep plot that involves other players, the dark web, and the ghosts of Hideo's past. Of course because YA Hideo is just smitten with Emika from the get go. She's great at the game, everyone acknowledges how special she is, but the big YA factor I struggled with over looking was the utter lack of communication. This whole book could've ended in a few chapters had the characters just communicated with each other. But there was always some kind of personal justification for why they couldn't just talk to each other.
I found the game world to be well thought out and interesting, just unfortunately it didn't get nearly as much page time as I'd like. I get that the story is about the scheme around the game, and not the game, but Lu introduced her as a player so I wanted more. I wanted more intereaction with her teammates, more development. She never felt like she was part of the group to me, which made it harder to believe in the second book when they all go out of their way to help her. The romance with Hideo was heavy-handed but cute, so I didn't mind it. But I kept finding myself wanting more gameplay. It's called Warcross for goodness sake.
One thing I have to commend Lu on is that it has a decent number of legitimate twists. Twists that made me actually gasp once or twice. That kept me intrigued and made me read it in a day. But unfortunately, while a fun little romp, the story's reliance on bad communication and YA tropes to advance the plot made the book lack a soul that really could take the story to the next level. I didn't care too much about anyone. I just wanted answers more than anything. But instead, we get a mysterious bad guy being cryptic, even though if he wasn't cryptic we could have avoided a lot and Emika always winning cause she's special. Though most of the information she gets is freely given to her and had nothing to do with her skills as a hacker.
When my boyfriend asked me if I liked it, I shrugged and said "yea it was fun, can we go get the second book". But I didn't have the overwhelming desire to tell him the plot or anything else as I do with books that truly resonate with me. To be fair when I did attempt to describe it the soap opera YA aspect seemed glaring and he just rolled his eyes.
Absolutely worth a read, especially if you enjoy this genre. But just don't go in expecting it to be special, it follows the YA formula to a T.
Book Divas (227 KP) rated Mama Graciela's Secret in Books
Dec 12, 2017
This is a perfect short read for bedtime. A fun story about Mama Graciela, her bacalaitos fritos (codfish fritters which everyone should eat as we here at home love to make them) and her many cats. The story is enthusiastic and I loved the illustrations. -YA/NA Book Divas
{I requested a copy for reviewing purposes and made no guarantee of a favorable review. The opinions expressed here are unbiased and my own.}
{I requested a copy for reviewing purposes and made no guarantee of a favorable review. The opinions expressed here are unbiased and my own.}
Chris Hooker (419 KP) rated This is How I Find Her in Books
Jan 12, 2018
[This is How I Find Her] by [Sara Polsky] was a different take on dealing with mental illness for YA. Instead of the teen struggling with her own mental illness she is struggling with her mom who suffers from it. [Polsky] does a good job showing the struggles of those who love someone who has a mental illness in all different ways. I will be adding this book to my classroom library.
Booksnthreads (19 KP) rated Uglies (Uglies, #1) in Books
Jun 6, 2018
I really enjoyed this novel and am still a bit surprised that it still hasn't been made into a movie. I thought the concept was pretty creative, and this first novel in particular was well told.
On the other hand, I do feel that the series drops off a bit in the subsequent books. They all connect seamlessly, and the stories are all satisfying, just not as engaging as some of its contemporary YA novels.
On the other hand, I do feel that the series drops off a bit in the subsequent books. They all connect seamlessly, and the stories are all satisfying, just not as engaging as some of its contemporary YA novels.
Chris Hooker (419 KP) rated Girl Games in Books
Jul 1, 2018
Archer does a great job of making being a nerd cool. She is a master of creating a sweet love story between girls you would think would be total social opposites. This book, like others I have read by Archer, is YA/teen friendly so it can be suggested to those young girls just coming out. In fact both main characters deal with questions about their sexuality throughout most of the book.
Sarah Betts (103 KP) rated American Royals (American Royals, #1) in Books
Dec 31, 2019
I received a copy of American Royals from Random House Books for Young Readers through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I thought this book had a great premise but was a little disappointed at the lack of history. All we got is that in this verse it is a faux pas to drink tea.
Okayyyy.
The characters are great but there's that lack of communication trope so present in ya novels.
I thought this book had a great premise but was a little disappointed at the lack of history. All we got is that in this verse it is a faux pas to drink tea.
Okayyyy.
The characters are great but there's that lack of communication trope so present in ya novels.
