{NIN} Books I’ve Read but Couldn’t Figure out What to Say About

I’ve read a ton of YA Lit recently that I simply could not put pen to paper and write a full and thoughtful review for. So rather than not cover any at all, I thought I would provide bursts of thoughts on each book.

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher
Finn is one of the main characters in the book trapped in Incarceron, a gigantic prison. He can’t remember his past but he has a strong feeling that he came from Outside (of the prison) – an impossible thought. Or is it? Claudia, a girl on the Outside, may have the answers to his questions.

Reads like a cross between the following movies: The Matrix, Moses, Men in Black, and Man in the Iron Mask. {Ja} says that the only thing all those have in common is that they begin with the letter “M.” But somehow Catherine Fisher managed to mush them all together into one story. Did it work? The ending was like totally YOWZAS. And it was intriguing enough that I’ll read the follow-up book (Sapphique) when it comes out in December.

Didn’t Suffer Too Terribly


Fallen by Lauren Kate
The story of a Fallen Angel Daniel Grigori and a mortal girl Luce who keep falling in love over and over and over for the last century or so. And apparently, his kiss is fatal to her. Will these silly mortals never learn?

It was somewhat intriguing, the idea of fallen angels and such. Got some love angst going on. Eh...I read it awhile ago. I'll read the rest of the series when it comes out too though.

Didn’t Suffer Too Terribly


Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Clumsy supernatural half-witch girl Sophie Mercer gets sent to a paranormal reform school and learns the truth about her father, her ancestors, and herself. There is also the requisite mysterious and unattainable hot guy Archer with awesome powers to angst the heck out of Sophie.

I Digs


The Line by Teri Hall
This book kind of reminded me of The Hunger Games. There was some kind of war in the past, and now there is a scary central government running the show…communist-like. There is also some kind of invisible force field (called The Line) that borders the entire north side of the country because the government wants to keep the undesirables from The Away (on the other side of the force field) out. I giggled at this because I was thinking that The Away was Canada.

I Digs


Graceling by Kristin Cashore
I really liked this book. And then I got to the ending. And I wanted to punch Katsa. But it had a good mystery for most of the book. And I loved Po, even though that’s a panda’s name.

I Digs


Fire by Kristin Cashore
So much better than Graceling! Katsa annoyed me towards the end (just marry Po already, dagnabbit!) but Fire was just a cool and collected cucumber…except when it came to Brigan. Les sigh. I {heart} Brigan! I love how he was mean and gruff to her at the beginning but slowly warmed up to her, showing her small kindness and ways that he was starting to care about her (protective of her, concerned if she was unwell, etc). I loved watching their relationship unfold. The romantic aspect of the story is always the highlight of any book for me! Graceling had a better mystery, but Fire was a better complete story. A supporting character, Archer, was kind of a butthead but his fate is…chilling. And wow, talk about messed up family ties.

Awesome


Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Interesting how the author laid the story out. Each chapter alternated between the perspectives of Grace and Sam, whom I guess you can call star-crossed lovers. It took me a bit to get into but I was more interested by the end of the book.

I Digs


The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
A faery series…the main character, Meghan Chase, annoyed me. I think she’s kind of really irritating at times. I’m only reading it for Prince Ash: tall, dark, handsome, and deadly. I’m currently reading the 2nd book in the series, The Iron Daughter, so I might actually write a review for it if I can find my prose.

Didn’t Suffer Too Terribly


Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers
Really mess-you-up-in-the-head kind of book. Depressing. Kind of creepy too. But I guess it’s an unusual and brave kind of story to write. But I really prefer my fairytale happy endings.

Didn’t Suffer Too Terribly


Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Really, really good book that inspired me to be a better person. It was hard to write a review without giving too much of the story away. It was just good. But also slightly depressing because...well, because... I was actually quite devastated in the end.

Awesome


The Dark Divine by Bree Despain
Grace and Daniel have a past, people are trying to keep them apart…and Daniel has a secret. Mildly entertaining. The back story was rather interesting.

Didn’t Suffer Too Terribly


Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
I actually really liked this book but I was never in the mood to write a full review about it. Unpopular Kate’s life has taken a turn for the worse: she’s been dumped by her ex-best friend who went from overweight outcast to gorgeous supermodel cheerleader and is forced to work at her financially irresponsible father’s vitamin stand in the mall. She strikes up an unlikely relationship with cutie popular classmate Will, who also works at the mall. How does she make peace with all this in the end?

I Digs


Wow, so are you noticing a trend? YA books like to use a lot of the same names: Ash, Grace, Sam, Daniel, Finn, Archer, Will… what is it about these names, I wonder?

Anyhoo, so those are just my quick thoughts on all these books that I’ve read but couldn’t find much to say about.

MOCKINGJAY

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mockingjay is released tomorrow!!! I'm so at Costco during lunch tomorrow to pick up my copy!! I CAN'T WAIT!!

The epic battle will be resolved! And I am not talking about the Capitol vs the Rebels! I'm talking Team Peeta (pocket) vs. Team Gale('s a girl's name)!!

Yee-freakin'-haw!!

{NIN} Review: Into the Wild Nerd Yonder

I read this book solely on the recommendation of {Ja}. She said it was freakin’ hilarious and I thought, after all those somewhat mentally mess-you-up and frenemy-filled Elizabeth Scott books (which I never posted reviews for), I could use some light-hearted reading.

After reading the first few chapters of the book, I could instantly see why {Ja} loved this book. The main character, Jessie, talks exactly like how {Ja} does, snarky comments and all. For example: (in reference to her friend) "Actually, she looks pretty crappy (and I'm not just saying that because she sucks)." Jessie's speech throughout the book is also peppered with {Ja}-esque terms, such as "sucky" and "besty." Can’t you just hear all this stuff coming out of {Ja}’s mouth? I felt like I was inside {Ja}’s head. Scary. I mean, I live there half the time (we share a brain) and that freaks us both out enough already.

Apart from the snarky {Ja}-like comments, there was Jessie’s obsession with audiobooks. She’s constantly listening to them and getting lost in their world, bawling her eyes out as she walks home from school. Sound like someone’s obsession with fanfic? I think so! Ref: Dramione. I don't know if {Ja} has ever bawled her eyes out over a fanfic, but I do know instances where she has gushed endlessly to me about it. And she stays up to ungodly hours on school nights to finish reading them, even if they are terribly written. Obsessed, no?

AND FINALLY, in my “Jessie = {Ja} Theory”, Jessie has some rather violent thoughts. Like:

Sometimes I envision myself in situations, usually after someone has obnoxiously knocked my books out of my arms or stepped on a brand-new pair of shoes, where I execute a brilliant roundhouse kick and totally take some pudhole down. (p.99)

And I really have to include this one:

I'm having a particularly vivid and violent fantasy where I throw Bizza through one of the courtyard windows and scream, "How's your haircut now, b*tch?"... (p. 100)

{Ja} is all about kicking ass and blowing sh*t up, as evidenced by the types of movies that she favors. Although she hasn’t actualized any ass kicking and explosions in real life (that I know of), I’m pretty sure that she’s doing this all the time in Jamie-Land. QED.

Anyways, the real purpose of this post is to dissect the book right? However, the similarities between Jessie and {Ja} were so GLARING that I had to devote some time to it. And infinitely more entertaining to write about than a book review.

As for my thoughts on the book? I thought it was pretty funny (obviously, since I’m friends with {Ja}, a character similar to her ought to amuse me, right?). There is still the frenemy aspect in the book, but it's not the emotionally draining and depressing kind. Jessie’s endeavor to find a new group of friends is pretty entertaining, as well as her handling of her former "besties" who left her behind in the punk scene dust.

I did think, as {Ja} did, that she spent way too much time agonizing over whether she was turning into a nerd or not. Newsflash, Jessie, you are a nerd. (1) You are in all the smart classes. (2) You sew your own skirts, with strange fabric patterns, no less, and apparently categorize them by theme (Valentine's series? Circus collection? Really?). (3) You are particularly adept at mental math and make pre-calc flash cards. I don’t know anyone that ever did that. After awhile, her nerdy agonizing started to annoy me.

Overall, I found the book pretty funny and a nice change from the mentally screwy YA books.

Battle of the Ninjas: The Unwritten Rule

So, this is not really a "battle" per se; rather a lively discussion on Brianna the potential evil Frenemy in The Unwritten Rule. Here the NinJa’s try to flesh out whether Brianna was truly underhanded and evil or if it was unintentional and an unfortunate product of her upbringing.

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Nin: Oh! I finished The Unwritten Rule. Boy. I don't even know what to say. I mean, I think the author wants you to see that Brianna was so attached to Sarah b/c she knew that Sarah was highly dependent on her and knew that Sarah would always back her up or act as her echo when she wanted to re-emphasize her opinion to someone else. And Sarah had the parents that Brianna wanted, Brianna always discarded people so she could be the one leaving them and not the other way around like how her parents ditched her. What was interesting was that she was not the all-powerful popular girl who could influence the other students into hating Sarah & Ryan a la Anna of Some Girls Are. And also, how other ppl who hung out with Brianna for awhile but then ditched her saw how mean & catty her remarks were. Sarah was the only one who put up with her for so long b/c it was like she felt like she owed it to Brianna for saving her. Sarah really needed a spine sooner. What did you think? I'm still kind of digesting.

Ja: See I'm a little conflicted about Brianna. But mostly I don't think I'd put her in the same category as Anna. Like I don’t think Brianna was as intentionally mean as Anna was. Like she doesn't rule w/ an iron fist or is all caught up in mind games. I think all her backhanded compliments & put downs were more... unintentional. Whereas Anna, I think Anna was fully aware of how much she'd hurt so and so by saying or doing stuff (and she liked it). I think Brianna really didn’t know how to function as a normal person b/c of her mother. Its like abuse begets abuse.

Though then part of me thinks that Brianna was aware she's being insulting or a part of her wants to keep Sarah down but that's b/c Brianna herself has such low self-esteem (which if you grew up w/ that mother, you'd have issues...). Add to it what you said, about Brianna wanting Sarah's parents too. She's not only insecure about herself but she's jealous of what Sarah has (and probably wonders, b/c I think she thinks she's better than Sarah, why does Sarah have such great parents if I'm better than her and have such awful parents).

Do you think Brianna knew that Sarah liked Ryan? Cause I'm still trying to figure that out, too. Its like, did Brianna go after Ryan b/c he was kind of attractive and she knew he was possibly interested in Sarah. And she's so jealous of Sarah, she wouldn’t want Sarah to become successful in love/relationships. B/c its like the one thing that Brianna had over Sarah, namely the boys. I kinda don’t think so. I think it was more Brianna only really thinks about herself and it doesn’t really penetrate her universe that Sarah might like Ryan or how Sarah would feel if she started going out w/ Ryan.

Oh and I think Ryan was the one who needed to get a spine. None of it would have happened if he wasn’t such a dumbass. Its like yeah Brianna probably wasn’t the bestest friend for Sarah, but if he had been straight up and more insistent about pursuing Sarah and not falling into a relationship w/ Brianna then he could've not cost Sarah her besty. Stupid boy.

I thought both Sarah & Ryan needed to get spines. It was so annoying to me that Sarah just couldn't say no and she just kept on putting herself in situations that were torture to her.

I think you're right though. I think Brianna was just so self-absorbed she never thought Sarah had any chance with any guys so even if Sarah liked someone, what did it matter b/c the guys would just like Brianna. She was used to that role of guys liking her over Sarah that she just couldn't fathom any other possibility. I also think you're rt that this was the one thing over Sarah that she had so she had to keep making sure that Greg didn't like Sarah and such. And I guess she was so obsessed with Ryan b/c he didn't really like Brianna anyways, so she didn't have a hold over him like she normally has with other guys.

But yeah, Brianna wasn't like Anna but she was still pretty mean with her words. It's like she didn't think her words were hurtful b/c there was one instance where Sarah told her she was hurt by what she said and she was surprised. I don't think she was fake-surprised either, but genuinely surprised.

But yeah, it's unfortunate that a stupid boy got in the way of their friendship. But in a way, it was necessary b/c then otherwise Sarah would never have started to be more confident and stand up for herself. So...esh. It's not an easy story to figure out what should've happened to make it all turn out okay.

Yeah...what should've happen is Ryan shouldn't have been a dumb boy in the first place and gone out w/ Brianna. Idiot.

But yes I totally agree. I think Brianna knew Ryan was just not that into her and she was freaking out and it made her want him (but not necessarily like him) more.

Though honestly, would you really want to date a guy who liked you but ended up going out w/ your besty? I don’t think I would. Well but then again she liked him for years. But if that was the case then I still think Brianna should've known that. Added to that, there was the time where she kinda hit on that one guy that went to the dance w/ Sarah. Which makes me think maybe she did know (that Sarah dug him) and she decided to pursue Ryan anyway b/c she just couldn't handle it if Sarah got into a good relationship.

But I dunno...I really don’t see Brianna as an evil, conniving witch like that, maybe just an unintentional, self-absorbed, insecure witch? And yeah, I agree that Brianna was genuinely surprised when Sarah told her she was hurt. So I guess she does the backhanded compliments & cutdowns unintentionally? It’s like second nature or something and Sarah's too much of a wuss to point that out.

Ooh yes...you're right. Sarah needed to grow a backbone and tell her from the beginning before Brianna & Ryan hooked up that she liked him and what the hell are you doing. But I wonder if Brianna would've backed off (if she was any kind of good besty obviously she would've, but that's questionable...).

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So the NinJas are at an impasse. Is Brianna a poacher? And evil, manipulative witch? Or is she completely unaware of her mean girl tendencies? She probably lies somewhere in the middle. But we concluded one thing, Ryan was a stupid boy and Sarah needed to grow a backbone sooner.

Read it! And tell us what you think. Because we obviously can't figure it out.