Genre: Dystopia – A Lovely Little Book Blog

Title: An Easy Death

Author: Charlaine Harris

Genre: Dystopia, Magic, Wild West-ish

Series: Gunnie Rose

Received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

In a new trilogy that presents a chilling alternate history of the United States where everyone believes in magic—but no one is sure whether they can trust it.

Gunnie Lizbeth Rose has been hired by a pair of Russian sorcerers as both their local guide and muscle through the small towns of East Texas as they search for a distant relative of an infamous sorcerer whose bloodline can help save their emperor-in-exile as an ever-increasing number of assassins tries to stop them.

After the assassination of FDR in the 1930s, the US collapses and is picked off by the UK, Canada, Mexico, and Russia. We find ourselves in the southwestern states now known as Texoma. It is here that the gunnie Lizbeth Rose tries to piece out a life, running security on runs from Texoma, across the border to Mexico where work and prospects are stronger. When two Russian magicians come looking for a man named Alex Karkarov, they hire Lizbeth to find him or his family, but there are problems: The man they’re looking for is dead, but he has a daughter they now need to find, as an ever-growing set of sorcerers and gunnies do not want them to succeed. It’s a good thing Lizbeth is a deadly gunfighter; too bad she hates sorcerers, even the ones she has to learn to rely on. Continue reading “ARC Review: An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris” →

Review: Paradise Girl by Phill Featherstone

May 5, 2017May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

paradise girl

Title: Paradise Girl

Author: Phill Featherstone

Genre: YA Dystopian

Warnings: Lots of death, attempted assault

Silver linings of warnings: Some of the best written suspenseful scenes I’ve read in a long while.

Overall Rating:

A highly infectious and incurable virus spreads worldwide. Seventeen-year-old Kerryl Shaw and her family live on a remote farm and think they will be safe, but the plague advances. Despite deaths around them, the Shaws survive. However, this changes when a stranger arrives, and it soon becomes apparent he has brought the infection to their door. One by one the family succumbs, leaving Kerryl alone.

Kerryl is sure it’s only a matter of time before she, too, dies. She decides to record what she thinks will be her final days in a diary. She realises that it will never be read, so she imagines a reader and calls him Adam. As loneliness and isolation affect the balance of her mind, Adam ceases to be an imaginary character and becomes real to her…

Continue reading “Review: Paradise Girl by Phill Featherstone” →

30 Day Challenges

Book Challenge Day 7

July 7, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

Day 07 – Most underrated book

This one might be one of those ones that I’m just completely missing the point. I only know one other person who has read the book and subsequently the series that I am about to mention.

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Maybe it’s just that I don’t know the right people but I feel like this book and the series behind it is extremely underrated.

Maybe it’s because in the young adult world dominated by Katniss’ and Tris’ there isn’t too much room for the Tally’s of the world. Maybe this book isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Maybe the fandom just isn’t as vocal but these books deserve more attention.

Book List 2014, Reviews

Review: The Girl in the Road

July 5, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

This wasn’t a book I was honestly sure I would like, because it’s not something that’s typically within my comfort zone. When it comes to dystopian novels I will admit I usually reach for a book that has a bit more of a familiar setting to me than the one found here in The Girl in the Road.

However with this book I found I was actually quite pleasantly surprised. The author has written the book so enriched with detail that if I tilted my head back and closed my eyes I could easily picture the setting without too many problems. The characters’ unfamiliarity with the setting only served to allow me to sink into this book further. It allowed me to empathize with these women, both of whom are strong in their own ways.

The good thing about these two characters as well, is despite the alternating chapters and the alternating timelines is that they are each written in a way that is distinctive and allows the reader to understand that they are now in the world of either Meena or Mariana. This was something I had worried about during the first few changes, as I tried to get a grasp on what was happening but was quickly able to identify each of them before their names were even mentioned.

The only thing that really took me out of the novel, which I quickly adapted to was the lack of quotation marks. However I respect the stylistic choice and by the end was not even phased by it as I whipped through the characters one by one.

This novel is recommended for anyone who likes a good dystopia with strong female characters, but also those who prefer to have their reading experience enriched by lush description of setting, characters and time line. In this novel Africa is a living, breathing character, as is India, with enough mysteries and action to keep even the least attentive reader enraptured.

Book List 2014

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

March 25, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Slight Spoilers

If the previous books were about the world’s obsession with looks, not being invisible and the need to be something you’re not in order to feel special than this book is about the obsession with reality TV and the need to expose everything of ourselves in the effort to get some attention.

New characters abound and while Aya’s naiveté was understood I often found myself annoyed with the way in which she acted, which I suspect was the intention. She cares more about being famous, than being trusted but there is a delightful evolution from the girl she is in the beginning of the book and who she comes by the end.

This is truly an interesting novel, and shows how the world can become corrupt even when there is a perceived freedom.

I really enjoyed this novel, despite what I felt was a slow beginning and the action and pacing of it toward the middle and end was what made it for me.

I would encourage almost everyone to read this series.

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Book List 2014

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

March 23, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was the one I had the hardest time getting into out of the series thus far but yet the end was fantastic. The development and growth of Tally after the degradation of yet another manipulation was supremely well done.

The thought of invisibility, and being unknown to those around you had me nodding my head in a few parts.

But it was in the thought of how brutality man can be that really had me frightened about the implications of a world like this, where people push into the wild to take what they want and take no prisoners while doing so. But the almost triumphant ending had me quite content.

The slang fell away slightly in this novel to some glorious descriptive explanations of what was going on that allowed me to close my eyes and really picture the world as it burned down around them.

It’s an interesting commentary on the direction the world is currently heading in and there are few characters with whom I could not sympathize with during this book.

Anyone who likes dystopian reflected in a way that is engrained with messages of where our current “Utopia” is heading this is definitely the book for you. It shows us the direction of lives and people who have not heeded the warning messages inherent in nature.

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Book List 2014

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld (Very Bubbly Making, short spoilers)

March 21, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is totally bubbly making.

And now that I’ve gotten my one, and hopefully only use of the slang out of this book…Here are my thoughts.

I don’t know what I expected to happen in this book but this was definitely not it and I’m not complaining about that. The thought of losing ones identity so much just to be what the world wants you to be is terrifying. But then to have it all come rushing back and realizing the circumstances behind you losing yourself are even worse.

The science behind these books is fascinating and I wish that it was explained a little more in depth though I’m certain it will be within the next couple of books.

Tally is still as interesting a character to me as she was in the first book, perhaps even more so because despite being pretty she inadvertently cures herself, most likely due to a placebo effect and believing that she was cured.

David wasn’t in this book a lot but when he was he ended up being as kind of a character as he could be given the circumstances.

This was a very solid second book in a series, and with the way it ended I’m actually quite excited to move onto the third.

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Book List 2014

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

March 19, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was not a book I looked forward to reading but one I felt I needed to have on my list. I’m not really sure why but when I opened it I did not expect what I got.

And what I got was beyond my wildest imagination.

The beauty in this book is in the details of the world around them in the beginning. The way everyone is watched, but especially it seems the “uglies” those who have unique features and faces and aren’t yet up to snuff in society.

The beauty in the continuation of the book is the realization in that there is nothing wrong with being unique, and nothing wrong with being who you are but knowing that sometimes masks have to be worn in order to survive and triumph over that pigeonhole society is trying to fit you into.

The characters in this are very human, in their concerns, in their want and need to be pretty, or their rejection of all that is considered beautiful by the mainstream.

It was a very fulfilling novel and I’m certain Pretties will be the same.

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Book List 2014

The Death Cure by James Dashner

March 18, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

The Death Cure by James Dashner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Slight Spoilers
This book was the hardest out of the three to read for me, largely because I was exhausted and this book which is so detail heavy was hard for me to focus on.

The most interesting part of this for me was the evolution of the characters, or in some cases the de-evolution.

Thomas has remained relatively steady, and staunch in his beliefs and unlike some I don’t believe he needed to regain his memories in order to be the person he needed to be in the end. In fact I think he needed to remain without them, keeping his main personality characteristics and building off an almost blank slate. It was great to see him struggle though considering how stuck he’s seemed in a certain mindset as he realizes that sometimes he needs to make sacrifices and that he really can’t save everyone.

This book wasn’t perfect, but the ending was what blew me away, and when a friend told me I just needed to make it to the end suddenly it was like I was motivated by curiosity to finish. I blew through the end of the book, watching conflict unfold with a growing sense of dread.

But the ending? It made so much sense to me. In fact it made perfect sense. All in all this book left me feeling very fulfilled.

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Book List 2014

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner (Spoilers Abound)

February 25, 2014May 27, 2018 Ashley LP

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was definitely not as encompassing for me as a reader as the first book was but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it at all. In fact I enjoyed it quite a bit, despite my needing to go back and re-read a few parts (I tended to read too fast then go back to see what I’d missed).

The detail of the world they are in is very vivid, and I found myself imagining it quite easily.

The ending was quite surprising for me yet not, because I had never been too sure of the nature of the Theresa character and now I’m certain I won’t trust her again at all. I did like how much emotion was put into Thomas’ reactions to her betrayal, and his realization shifting about what he needs to do to survive.

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